Possibly the most influential black American writer of the twentieth century, Langston Hughes set an example of self-determination and artistic integrity. Beginning in the Harlem Renaissance during the early 1920s, his career extended to the Black Arts Movement of the late 1960s. In his early twenties Hughes mingled with such different writers and artists as Countee Cullen, Zora Neale Hurston, Aaron Douglass, and Josephine Baker; during his forties he helped to inspire the young writers Margaret Walker and Gwendolyn Brooks. Finally, he encouraged writers of a third generation, including Ted Joans, Alice Walker, and Mari Evans.

During the forty-six years between 1921 and 1967, Hughes became well known and loved. Even before he helped to open the doors of the major periodicals and publishing houses to young black writers, he worked to free American literature from the plantation tradition, infusing his technically accomplished writings with self-assurance and racial pride and...