Anderson, Jervis. This Was Harlem. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1981.

A lively account of life in Harlem during the Renaissance era, focusing on the black entertainment scene.

Hughes, Langston. The Big Sea: An Autobiography. New York: Hill and Wang, 1940.

Hughes's autobiographical account of his life as a young writer, up until shortly before the time he wrote The Ways of White Folks.

Lewis, David Levering. When Harlem Was in Vogue. New York: Oxford University Press, 1981.

A thorough and readable analysis of the historical and cultural factors behind the Harlem Renaissance.

Ostrom, Hans. Langston Hughes: A Study of the Short Fiction. New York: Twayne, 1993.

Provides a clear and in-depth critical interpretation of Hughes's short stories and also reprints a series of contemporaneous reviews of this material.