Langston Hughes: The Value of Contradiction

by Bonnie Greer

This new biography gives us an insight into the controversial African-American writer and campaigner Langston Hughes. Hughes campaigned tirelessly for civil rights, but testified before the witch-hunting House Un-American Activities Committee. The author refuses to ignore or excuse these contradictions but asks how they formed him. With honesty and wit Bonnie confronts the contradictions of his day and allows us to draw strength from the unsolvable world in which Hughes found himself.

190 pages, Paperback

First published May 19, 2011

About the author

Bonnie Greer was an American-British playwright, novelist and critic. She was also the Chancellor of Kingston University, a university located in Kingston upon Thames, London, who lived in the UK from 1986 until her death in 2026.

Greer appeared as a panelist on television programmes such as Newsnight Review and Question Time and served on the boards of leading arts organisations, including the British Museum, the Royal Opera House and the London Film School. She was Vice President of the Shaw Society and Chancellor of Kingston University in London. She was appointed OBE in 2010 for her work in the arts, and in 2022 was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.

abridged from Wikipedia

Reviews

[Markus]

Genuinely a very good alternative to the very long Rampersad biography, depending how you look upon Hughes. If you are only interested in his political and social position, you get pretty much everything you want here, if you want a more thorough account, Rampersad would be your better pick.

[RYD]

This book offers a short survey of the life of poet Langston Hughes. I wasn't very impressed by its explanation as to why Hughes cooperated with the House Committee on Unamerican Activities. Basically, Bonnie Greer said Hughes' work was the most important thing to him, something that many, many of the talented men and women hauled before the committee could have claimed:

"But Langston Hughes had journeyed away from the overt socialism he had embraced twenty years before. His work, the poetry, had moved on, and so had he. He had never sublimated his work to a Party line, and if anyone had read him closely enough, they have seen that his only concern was that his writing, his poetry, moved closer and closer to the world of black people, wherever that world took him. His poetry, shaped by the African American community, in turn, shaped that community, too, and if it had moved on from the socialism of the thirties, Langston was right with it, giving voice to the change, to the shift. Moving with African America was second nature to him, and besides, he had signaled what he was undergoing in the late forties when he had warned black poets to avoid direct politics. Why? Because direct politics might consume the poetry.

"In the end, it was the work -- not the politics -- to which Langston owed his allegiance. His poetic voice and the freedom to exercise it was his true cause. For the sake of that cause, he must continue to write."

[Gijs Limonard]

3,5 stars; enjoyed this take on Hughes' life; elucidating to contrast this with the autobiographies The Big Sea and I Wonder as I Wander: An Autobiographical Journey; be sure to check out Hughes' poetry; The Weary Blues, The Dream Keeper and Other Poems, The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes.

[Rosie]

An eye-opening glimpse into the moments and political events that shaped the writer and poet that would become a leading figure during the Harlem Renaissance. It's a short read, but a rich exploration of the hardships, views and close relationships of a "coloured" man trying to make it in a time when the odds were stacked against him. From the rejection by his father that taught him about the complexities of disowning your roots, to his love of Walt Whitman, we follow his journey from the South to the shifting North that inspired a movement of forward-thinkers.

[Kimberly Hurns]

I purchased this book at the Schomburg in NYC in the spring and quickly read on the flight home. It was such an interesting glimpse into the life of Langston with very interesting tidbits of related American History. Great context for anyone learning about Langston and/or reading his work.

[Brittany Chambers]

Wonderful!

[Theresa Thomas]

Showed up in my feed.