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    The Weary Blues
    The Weary Blues
    The Weary Blues
    Ebook92 pages29 minutes

    The Weary Blues

    By Langston Hughes

    4.5/5

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    About this ebook

    “The Weary Blues” is the powerful and ground-breaking collection of poetry by American author Langston Hughes. An important contribution to the growing Harlem Renaissance art movement, “The Weary Blues” was Hughes’ first poetry collection and was published in 1926 when the author was only 24, though some of the poems had appeared earlier in magazines. An immediate critical success, Hughes created a new form of poetry, called jazz or blues poetry, with his evocative and lyrical descriptions of the sounds and sights of a blues musician playing live. Hughes addresses the pressing social issues of racism, inequality, and political oppression while also capturing and celebrating the beauty and uniqueness of the African-American community in Harlem. In addition to the titular poem, “The Weary Blues” includes enduring classics of American poetry such as “The Negro Speaks of Rivers” and Hughes’ inspiring call for equality that begins “I, too, sing America”. These poems, as well as the shorter and more exuberant works, remain as relevant and powerful as when they were first written. This deeply personal, sensitive, and often melancholy collection established Hughes as one of the most important writers of the twentieth-century and continues to be celebrated and enjoyed by readers the world over.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherDigireads.com Publishing
    Release dateFeb 1, 2022
    ISBN9781420980905
    Author

    Langston Hughes

    Best known for his vivid and astute portrayals of Black life across the written page, Langston Hughes—born James Mercer Langston Hughes—(1901—1967) was a poet, playwright, writer and key figure of the Harlem Renaissance who founded jazz poetry. Raised mostly by his grandmother, Hughes was instilled with a lasting sense of racial pride and a love of books from a young age and though not supported by his father in his pursuit of writing, Hughes would attend Columbia with his father’s aid in 1921, before leaving the very next year due to racial prejudice and a desire to focus on his poetry. Hughes first introduced his voice to the world in a 1921 issue of The Crisis where he published, “The Negro Speaks of Rivers.” The poem would come to be known as his signature piece and five years later was included in his debut poetry collection, The Weary Blues. Establishing himself as a key player of the Harlem Renaissance, Hughes would be one of a small group of Black intellectuals and artists of the movement who called themselves the Niggerati. Going on to write their manifesto, “The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain,” Hughes’ use of the literary medium differed heavily from the artistic aspirations of the Black middle class in that he desired to focus on highlighting the lives of working-class Black people and addressing divisions and prejudices that existed within the Black community itself. In a career spanning over four decades, Hughes would publish an award-winning novel (Not Without Laughter), multiple plays—some in collaboration with Zora Neale Hurston—(Mule Bone and Black Nativity), children’s literature (Popo and Fifina) and even an autobiography (The Big Sea); among others in a large volume of work. In his personal life, Hughes maintained lifetime friendships with members of the movement and also is believed to have had private romantic and sexual relationships with men. While Hughes’ emphasis on racial pride had begun to fall out of favor with new and coming movements of the younger generation, his contributions to the African-American literary canon and American literature at all could not be denied and as such at the time of his death was—and continues to be—one of the most talented and respected voices of a generation.

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    Reviews for The Weary Blues

    4.5/5

    26 ratings4 reviews

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    • 4/5
      An absolutely gorgeous edition of Langston Hughes' debut poetry collection. Printed as first published in 1926, it contains not only his wonderful poetry but a closing essay by him expressing his thoughts on the politics of poetry for the Black man during the Harlem Renaissance. A fascinating collection for anyone who loves poetry or history.
    • 5/5
      4.5 stars for Langston Hughes' poems. 3.0 stars for the books production. The date given for the book is the original date of 1926. Nowhere is there any reference to when Mint Editions published the book. It is also interesting that the "introduction" that I mention below is signed 1925. That leads one to believe the introduction was written as Hughes was writing and was meant to accompany the original poems. If that is the case, it would have been nice to have it explained. There is also no indication of where Mint Editions is located. I suspect that this production is being done by younger people who feel that as long as you have an electronic address (an email, website, facebook, etc) that is all that is necessary. It isn't the proper way to publish, even though the book itself is lovely. It's a sweet edition even if it is in paperback. I appreciate Mint Editions efforts to put out classics in a new format, but I feel that classics especially should be offered, when possible, in hardcover. Paperbacks don't hold up over the years. This edition is nicely laid out with one poem per page. It would have been nice to have the font perhaps one point higher for older eyes. Included is a two-part introduction to Hughes. The first part being biographical and appreciated. The second part, however, begins to be interpretive which I dislike, believing the reader should be the interpreter. The introduction is short, so it wasn't a big issue. As an aside, it is easy to see Langston Hughes' influence in the poems by Frederick Ward such as the collection in Riverlisp.
    • 4/5
      I am a great fan of Langston Hughes' poetry, and this compilation did not disappoint. Divided into 7 sections by "narrative" (The Weary Blues, Dream Variation, The Negro Speaks of Rivers, Black Pierrot, Water-Front Streets, Shadows in the Sun, and Our Land), the poems in each section match to the titles. Hughes' poetry has such a rhythm to it that I found myself reading most of them out loud!
    • 5/5
      I love that the preserved the original cover, and the forward by Kevin Young is helpful providing context for Mr Hughes. 'I, too, sing America', indeed.

    Book preview

    The Weary Blues - Langston Hughes

    cover.jpg

    THE WEARY BLUES

    By LANGSTON HUGHES

    With an introduction by CARL VAN VECHTEN

    The Weary Blues

    By Langston Hughes

    With and introduction by Carl Van Vechten

    Print ISBN 13: 978-1-4209-8077-6

    eBook ISBN 13: 978-1-4209-8090-5

    This edition copyright © 2022. Digireads.com Publishing.

    All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

    Cover Image: a detail of Study for Negro Boy Dancing: The Banjo Player, by Thomas Cowperthwait Eakins, c. 1877 / Bridgeman Images.

    Please visit www.digireads.com

    CONTENTS

    INTRODUCING LANGSTON HUGHES TO THE READER

    PROEM

    THE WEARY BLUES

    THE WEARY BLUES

    JAZZONIA

    NEGRO DANCERS

    THE CAT AND THE SAXOPHONE (2 A. M.)

    YOUNG SINGER

    CABARET

    TO MIDNIGHT NAN AT LEROY’S

    TO A LITTLE LOVER-LASS, DEAD

    HARLEM NIGHT CLUB

    NUDE YOUNG DANCER

    YOUNG PROSTITUTE

    TO A BLACK DANCER IN THE LITTLE SAVOY

    SONG FOR A BANJO DANCE

    BLUES FANTASY

    LENOX AVENUE: MIDNIGHT

    DREAM VARIATIONS

    DREAM VARIATION

    WINTER MOON

    POÈME D’AUTOMNE

    FANTASY IN PURPLE

    MARCH MOON

    JOY

    THE NEGRO SPEAKS OF RIVERS

    THE NEGRO SPEAKS OF RIVERS (TO W. E. B. DUBOIS)

    CROSS

    THE JESTER

    THE SOUTH

    AS I GREW OLDER

    AUNT SUE’S STORIES

    POEM

    BLACK PIERROT

    A BLACK PIERROT

    HARLEM NIGHT SONG

    SONGS TO THE DARK VIRGIN

    ARDELLA

    POEM

    WHEN SUE WEARS RED

    PIERROT

    WATER-FRONT STREETS

    WATER-FRONT STREETS

    A FAREWELL

    LONG TRIP

    PORT TOWN

    SEA CALM

    CARIBBEAN SUNSET

    YOUNG SAILOR

    SEASCAPE

    NATCHA

    SEA CHARM

    DEATH OF AN OLD SEAMAN

    SHADOWS IN THE SUN

    BEGGAR BOY

    TROUBLED WOMAN

    SUICIDE’S NOTE

    SICK ROOM

    SOLEDAD

    TO THE DARK

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