Meltzer expresses his themes in the form of a three-fold journey, as he follows Hughes's life through the inner landscape of artistic and personal development, through the outer landscape of much of the northern hemisphere, and across the chronological landscape of the first seven decades of the twentieth century. The three paths of Hughes's journey constantly intertwine, his goals as an artist and as a man draw him across continents and oceans and to many of the major historic events in America's emergence as a world power. Underlying the entire process is the inescapable issue of racial identity. In the course of his journey Hughes meets or works with many of the outstanding black American writers of his era, and is introduced to many less prominent teachers or social exemplars whose determination and decency contribute to the gradual progress of black Americans toward the relative equality...