Langston Hughes: Life Makes Poems

What a pleasure to find this excellent introductory biography of the poet Langston Hughes. Shull's language, too, is poetic as she explores Hughes, his writings, his work for civil rights and justice for his fellow blacks, and the era of the Harlem Renaissance. Well-designed graphics and info-packed sidebars add depth to a young reader's understanding of both the man and the times. Long an admirer, I've done some Langston research myself; turns out that although rumor and innuendo abound, there is no proof of his homosexuality. (May we soon come of age, realizing how irrelevant such speculation is.) What does matter and what Shull makes clear is how much this great man achieved in both literature and life. The work of others--in this case Hughes--is copyrighted, so what Shull offers is tempting snippets. This fine biography for the school/library market will leave readers "tasted up" for more of Hughes's soaring poetry and fresh, important ideas.

Langston Hughes, by Jodie Shull is a beautifully crafted and well researched biography. In this biography readers both young and old will learn about Hughes's unsettled childhood, his difficult adolescent years and his blossoming into a poet during the Harlem Renaissance. Also included and well done are stories of the racism that Mr. Hughes faced as a boy and later as a poet. The book's pictrues and highlighted pull outs support the text well. Ms. Shull goes to great length to provide the reader anecdotes that make Hughes come alive. One gets a good sense of who he was, and of the times he lived. This book would be an excellent source for students to use for a class assignment biography of Mr. Hughes. And I highly reccomend it for anyone who wishes to know more about Langston Hughes.