Life of Langston Hughes, 1902-1941: I, Too, Sing America

February 1, 2002 marks the hundredth anniversary of Langston Hughes's birth. To commemorate this occasion, Arnold Rampersad has contributed new Afterwords to both volumes of his highly-praised biography of this most extraordinary American writer.

Poet, playwright, novelist, and grand figure in the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s, Langston Hughes strove to be the first black to earn his living from his pen, and he ultimately became one of the most important and prolific American writers of thi…