Works by
Langston Hughes
(Writer)
[1920 - 1967]

Children

• Popo and Fifina (1932) with Arna Bontemps

• The First Book of the Negroes (1952)

• The First Book of Jazz (1954)

• The First Book of Rhythms (1954)

• The First Book of the West Indies (1956)

• First Book of Africa (1964)

Fiction

• The Best of Simple by Langston Hughes (1961)
  Photograph courtesy of Yale University Collection of American Literature

• Not Without Laughter  (1930)

• The Ways of White Folks (1934)

• Simple Speaks His Mind (1950)

• Laughing to Keep from Crying (1952)

• Simple Takes a Wife (1953)

• Sweet Flypaper of Life (1955) with Roy DeCarava, Photographer

• Simple Stakes a Claim (1957)

• Tambourines to Glory (1958)

• The Best of Simple (1961)

• Simple's Uncle Sam (1965)

• Something in Common and Other Stories (1963)

• Short Stories of Langston Hughes (1996)

Non-fiction

• The Big Sea. New York (1940)

• Famous American Negroes (1954)

• Marian Anderson: Famous Concert Singer (1954)

• I Wonder as I Wander (1956)

• A Pictorial History of the Negro in America (1956) with Milton Meltzer

• Famous Negro Heroes of America (1958)

• Fight for Freedom: The Story of the NAACP (1962)

Plays

• Mule Bone: A Comedy of Negro Life in Three Acts (1931) with Zora Neale Hurston
  Mule Bone is the only collaboration between Zora Neale Hurston and Langston Hughes, two stars of the Harlem Renaissance, and it holds an unparalleled place in the annals of African-American theater. Set in Eatonville, Florida--Hurston's hometown and the inspiration for much of her fiction--this energetic and often farcical play centers on Jim and Dave, a two-man song-and-dance team, and Daisy, the woman who comes between them. Overcome by jealousy, Jim hits Dave with a mule bone and hilarity follows chaos as the town splits into two factions: the Methodists, who want to pardon Jim; and the Baptists, who wish to banish him for his crime.
  
  Included in this edition is the fascinating account of the Mule Bone copyright dispute between Hurston and Hughes that ended their friendship and prevented the play from being performed until its debut production at the Lincoln Center Theater in New York City in 1991--sixty years after it was written. Also included is "The Bone of Contention," Hurston's short story on which the play was based; personal and often heated correspondence between the authors; and critical essays that illuminate the play and the dazzling period that came to be known as the Harlem Renaissance.

• Mulatto (1935)
  Renamed The Barrier in 1950

• Troubled Island (1936) with William Grant Still

• Little Ham (1936)

• Emperor of Haiti (1936)

• Don't You Want to be Free? (1938)
  Performed for his Harlem Suitcase Theatre in Harlem.

• Street Scene (1947)
  Contributed lyrics

• Tambourines to Glory (1956)

• Simply Heavenly (1957)

• Black Nativity (1961)

• Five Plays by Langston Hughes (1963)

• Jericho-Jim Crow (1964)

Poetry

• The Weary Blues (1926)

• Fine Clothes to the Jew (1927)

• The Negro Mother and Other Dramatic Recitations (1931)

• Dear Lovely Death (1931)

• The Dream Keeper and Other Poems (1932)

• Scottsboro Limited: Four Poems and a Play (1932)

• Shakespeare in Harlem (1942)

• Freedom's Plow (1943)

• Fields of Wonder (1947)

• One-Way Ticket (1949)

• Montage of a Dream Deferred (1951)

• Selected Poems of Langston Hughes (1958)

• Ask Your Mama: 12 Moods for Jazz. Hill & Wang (1961)

• The Panther and the Lash: Poems of Our Times (1967)

• The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes (1994)

• Let America be America Again (2004)

Other

• The Langston Hughes Reader (1958)

• Good Morning Revolution: Uncollected Social Protest Writings by Langston Hughes (1973)

• The Collected Works of Langston Hughes (2001)

• Black Voices (2001), Abraham Chapman, ed.
  Featuring poetry, fiction, autobiography and literary criticism, this is a comprehensive and vital collection featuring the work of the major black voices of a century. An unparalleled important classic anthology with timeless appeal.
  
  Includes works by Arna Bontemps, Gwendolyn Brooks, James Baldwin, Langston Hughes, Leroi Jones,  Malcolm X, Ralph Ellison, Richard Wright, and W. E. B. Du Bois.