Scottsboro Limited

by Langston Hughes, Prentiss Taylor (Illustrator)

Hardcover

Published January 1, 1932

About the author

Through poetry, prose, and drama, American writer James Langston Hughes made important contributions to the Harlem renaissance; his best-known works include Weary Blues (1926) and The Ways of White Folks (1934).

People best know this social activist, novelist, playwright, and columnist James Mercer Langston Hughes, one of the earliest innovators of the then-new literary art form jazz poetry, for his famous written work about the period, when "Harlem was in vogue."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Langsto...

Reviews

[YJ]

A very quick read and, overall, a strong collection. Hughes is clearly an exceptional mind with a unique command of rhythm, but it is the imagery that stands out most. That said, since the work was published in 1932, I do not hold it to the same standard as a contemporary text. Even so, there is a somewhat unsettling glorification of communism. I understand why the movement may have been compelling at the time, particularly as it challenged entrenched systems that perpetuated inequality, but with what I know now, it is difficult to fully set aside my own cultural context while reading.

On further reflection, the inclusion of communism feels underdeveloped and less cohesive within the context of the play. It is introduced in the fourth poem, and everything the audience knows about it is simply told to us. This lack of demonstration makes it difficult to accept the communists as saviors; as presented, they seem to be all rhetoric with little substance. Moreover, the message becomes so overt that some conventions of craft are set aside. While craft is not always paramount, greater attention to it here could have smoothed the integration of this theme.

Still, the work is exceptionally written, and I particularly appreciated the discussion of what it means to speak poetically, which effectively bookends the play.