The Weary Blues (poetry) 1926
Fine Clothes to the Jew (poetry) 1927
Not Without Laughter (novel) 1930
Dear Lovely Death (poetry) 1931
The Negro Mother and Other Dramatic Recitations (poetry) 1931
The Dream Keeper and Other Poems (poetry) 1932
Scottsboro Limited: Four Poems and a Play in Verse (poetry and drama) 1932
Popo and Fifina: Children of Haiti [with Arna Bontemps] (juvenilia) 1932
A Negro Looks at Soviet Central Asia (nonfiction) 1934
The Ways of White Folks (short stories) 1934
Mulatto (drama) 1935
Little Ham (drama) 1936
When the Jack Hollers [with Arna Bontemps] (drama) 1936
Don't You Want to Be Free? (drama) 1938
A New Song (poetry) 1938
The Big Sea: An Autobiography (autobiography) 1940
Shakespeare in Harlem [with Robert Glenn] (poetry) 1942
Freedom's Plow (poetry) 1943
Jim Crow's Last Stand (poetry) 1943
Lament for Dark Peoples and Other Poems (poetry) 1944
Fields of Wonder (poetry) 1947
One-Way Ticket (poetry) 1949
Troubled Island (libretto) 1949
Simple Speaks His Mind (short stories) 1950
Montage of a Dream Deferred (poetry) 1951
Laughing to Keep from Crying (short stories) 1952
The First Book of Negroes (juvenilia) 1952
Simple Takes a Wife (short stories) 1953
The Glory Round His Head (libretto) 1953
Famous American Negroes (juvenilia) 1954
The First Book of Rhythms (juvenilia) 1954
The First Book of Jazz (juvenilia) 1955
The Sweet Flypaper of Life [with Roy DeCarava] (nonfiction) 1955
The First Book of the West Indies (juvenilia) 1956
I Wonder As I Wander: An Autobiographical Journey (autobiography) 1956
A Pictorial History of the Negro in America [with Milton Meltzer] (nonfiction) 1956
Simple Stakes a Claim (short stories) 1957
Simply Heavenly (drama) 1957
Famous Negro Heroes of America (juvenilia) 1958
Tambourines to Glory (novel) 1958
Selected Poems of Langston Hughes (poetry) 1959
The First Book of Africa (juvenilia) 1960
The Best of Simple (short stories) 1961
Ask Your Mama: 12 Moods for Jazz (poetry) 1961
The Ballad of Brown King (libretto) 1961
Fight for Freedom: The Story of the NAACP (nonfiction) 1962
Something in Common and Other Stories (short stories) 1963
Tambourines to Glory (drama) 1963
The Prodigal Son (drama) 1965
Simple's Uncle Sam (short stories) 1965
The Panther and the Lash: Poems of Our Times (poetry) 1967
Black Magic: A Pictorial History of the Negro in American Entertainment [with Milton Meltzer] (nonfiction) 1967
Black Misery (nonfiction) 1969
Good Morning Revolution: Uncollected Social Protest Writings by Langston Hughes (nonfiction) 1973
The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes (poetry) 1994
The Sweet and Sour Animal Book (juvenilia) 1994