Slave on the Block | Langston Hughes: The Blues I'm Playing
In the following excerpt from a longer essay, Bruck provides a social, literary, and historical perspective on Hughes’s short fiction, concentrating on the collection The Ways of White Folks.
Langston Hughes (1902-1967), according to many critics ‘‘poet laureate of Harlem’’ and ‘‘Dean of American Negro Writers,’’ began his literary career by winning a poetry contest sponsored by the black magazine Opportunity in 1925. ‘‘The Weary Blues’’ was noted by Carl Van Vechten, through whose sponsorship Hughes was able to get his first contract with the noted publisher Alfred Knopf. Van Vechten, who acted as a main ambassadorial advisor and patron of black literature to white publishing firms during the 1920's, not only paved the way for Hughes' literary...
[The entire page is 791 words long]
Join eNotes
The above is a free excerpt. Get total access to this content with the:
Summary and Analysis – Themes – Characters – And much more...
Join eNotes
Over 3,500 study guides, question and answer forums, literature criticism, reference content, and much more!
Navigate
Related Topics
Tell a friend about Slave on the Block at eNotes.
