Search

Start Over Collection Langston Hughes Collection 1925-1956

Langston Hughes Collection 1925-1956

[Unable to write an article for the Tuskegee Messenger because "my novel and earning a living have kept me bowed down for the last three years"; says his next novel, Not Without Laughter, will be published in August and "it's not about Harlem"; encloses poem "Alabama Earth (At Booker Washington's grave)".]

  1. University of Virginia, Special Collections Dept.

Langston Hughes, New York, New York (colorized postcard "On the Beach at Rockaway Beach"), to Henry Lee Moon, Tuskegee Institute, Alabama, 1930

[Thanks Moon for sending copies of the Tuskegee Messenger; mentions Zora Neale Hurston and his mother [ Carrie Langston Hughes]; says " New York's full of down home teachers at school" and hopes "the novel [ Not Without Laughter?] don't bore you."]

  1. University of Virginia, Special Collections Dept.
  2. Langston Hughes Collection 1925-1956
  3. Letters

Langston Hughes, New York, New York (on personalized stationery, with envelope), to Mollyand Henry Lee Moon, 1955

[Invites the Moons to his home on December 10 to meet "the distinguished South African writer of colour, Peter Abrahams. . . I find Mr. Abrahams a charming fellow and a most interesting conversationalist"; in a handwritten postscript (green ink) Hughes adds, "Not a party--just a salon!"]

  1. University of Virginia, Special Collections Dept.
  2. Langston Hughes Collection 1925-1956
  3. Letters

Langston Hughes, New York, (on personalized stationery, with envelope), to Henry Lee Moon, 1956

[Advance copies of I Wonder As I Wanderare "due at any moment" and Moon will receive a copy from the publisher; Pictorial History of The Negro In Americawill appear November 18 "and we're all delighted Mollie [Moon's wife Molly] is helping on it. Crown [Publishers]finds her charming."]

  1. University of Virginia, Special Collections Dept.
  2. Langston Hughes Collection 1925-1956
  3. Letters

Langston Hughes, "On tour/Columbia, N[orth] C[arolina] (on stylized personal stationery "LH")," to [Henry Lee] Moon, 1931

[lengthy and detailed recounting of his speaking at Chapel Hill, social arrangements in segregated North Carolina("Refreshments later at a white soda fountain. . . . Nothing happened. It was just like New York."); mentions Contempomagazine, describes his reading before a large audience whom he expected would be hostile but were not (a policeman stood guard outside the building) after controversy surrounding his "Nigger Christ" poem ("Christ In Alabama", which commented on the Scottsboro case and was published in Contempo); Hughes quotes a local sheriff as saying "he doesn't mind Christ being a bastard, but don't call him a nigger!". In a lengthy section marked "Not For Publication" Hughes describes two parties given in his honor (one hosted by Andrew Mellon's nephew) for after the reading where "Southern ladies present, too . . . gallons of home-brew were consumed" and adds that the tour is going well and plans to visit Birmingham. ]

  1. University of Virginia, Special Collections Dept.
  2. Langston Hughes Collection 1925-1956
  3. Letters

Content Warning

ARVAS is an aggregator of archival resources. ARVAS does not have control of the descriptive language used in our members’ finding aids.

Finding aids may contain historical terms and phrases, reflecting the shared attitudes and values of the community from which they were collected, but are offensive to modern readers. These include demeaning and dehumanizing references to race, ethnicity, and nationality; enslaved or free status; physical or mental ability; religion; sex; and sexual orientation and gender identity.

Many institutions and organizations are in the process of reviewing and revising their descriptive language, with the intent to describe materials in more humanizing, inclusive, and harm-reductive ways. As members revise their descriptive language, their changes will eventually be reflected in their ARVAS finding aids.

Limit your search

  • Langston Hughes Collection 1925-1956 15