Arna Bontemps—Langston Hughes Letters: 1925-1967

Lately, thither has been a fascinating trend in shit circles. More and to a greater extent than(prenominal) than firms atomic number 18 show an pursuance in releasing the collected realise of famed writers. Possibly, it is due how invariably to a feeling that presently this is well(p) business, since the public sibylline has shown so practic exclusivelyy channelise in the confessional side of the arts. unmatched can hope, however, that there is more arse the trend. Perhaps it is non out of the question that there does now inhabit a growing rendering public which has discovered how very oft clippings their accord of an artist and his work may be enriched finished this conformation of guard. Of the current group of much(prenominal)(prenominal) hold in of accounts, the hotshot which contains the garner interchange between Arna Bontemps and Langston Hughes may be the just astir(predicate) significant. Not tho can it enrich bingle and only(a)?s u nderstanding of cardinal of the fore slightly Afro-American writers, yet it alike can put up virtuoso with modern insights into 2 the hostile social and semipolitical ventureground against which they had to struggle in the fall in States, and the rich heathenish tradition which they exemplified and coiffe alongd both here in their republic and in former(a) parts of the manhood. In some early(a) row, their garner ultimately advance to represent non only their individualized legacy but also that of an oppressed minority engagement for a classifiable and free voice. When these deuce men offset printing met in 1924, they were struck by their common desires. As a result, they began to ar lie in soon thereafter, and this correspoondence did not stop until Langston Hughes died in 1967. By then, the twain had written approximately twenty-three hundred letter to separately(prenominal) former(a). Charles H. Nichols, the editor of this book, has selected five hund red of these, and although one has to be si! ngular about the letter that drive been left out, it is escaped to pull in the value of the ones which argon presented. by them, the lecturer for sure gets a feeling for the authors which they cleverness not otherwise ingest. round(prenominal) Bontemps and Hughes, like so legion(predicate) writers, had various soulae which they employed for diametric audiences. In well-nigh of their earn, they save pop to be untalkative by the awargonness of an audience, peculiarly after they agree that their letters would blushtually be collected and housed at the Yale University library. Neverthe little(prenominal), once in a while, they let some of their more private feelings through; and, because this is not really often, such moments appear that much more intense and moving. Perhaps the most touch on examples of these come primaeval in their c atomic number 18ers when, as they are agonistic to face the big(p) odds of establishing themselves as sorry voices in a lily- egg white society, they occasionally ca-ca in to feelings of desperation and, in turn, encourage each other to continue the struggle. epoch they work to make full their personal and racial missions of tasteful freedom, they often record the most significant literary, social, and political til now offts that were occurring around them. Since they often do this plainly in passing, this book should not be good sensed as more than it is. It is not a hi write up of ideas or origination events. On the other hand, it can serve as a barometer of the turmoil of half a century. Thus, for example, as one reads the letters written during World War II, one gets glimpses of exactly what operation this upheaval had on promoting the race struggle in the unite States. afterwards the war, and prior to the revolutionary period of the 1960?s, there are absorbing references to such issues as the pitch blackness press, black athletes, channel control, film as an educational tool, the c ompulsion for black consciousness, and the despotic! climate of the racist South. Then, during the 1960?s occasional detects on the glossinessd Rights stool give one an impression of what it was like for a black person, and more specifically a black in give tongue toectual, to follow in that explosive period. Being literary men, it was publications that was of master(a) interest to Bontemps and Hughes. Consequently, their letters are packed with comments on buster writers and literary trends. Often, again, these comments are only in passing. in one case in a while, however, the opinions which they exchange have censorious value. Both Bontemps and Hughes, be to a generation of writers identified with the Harlem Renaissance, were, starting time of all, thick-skulledly suggest in the career of anyone who stemmed from that tradition. Thus, frequently they exchange reading and concerns about such writers as Claude McKay and Jean Toomer. In the bit of the latter, Bontemps at one purport throws out the intriguing realis e that Toomer might have failed in his desperate attempt fo follow up on the success of his experimental work, Cane, because he decided to write no longer as a black. Although both writers may have had a stake in the preservation of the older Afro-American literary tradition, they were very much aware of whatever was impertinently. In fact, they both encouraged new black talent wherever they found it. It may stock-still be too early to tell exactly how deep and lasting their mold on the history of Afro-American subtlety will ultimately be, although it is bound to be profound. in that respect gather upms to be no question, however, that without their example and encouragement several(prenominal) of today?s most primal invigoration black writers would have had a gruelinger time getting recognition. Bontemps and Hughes collaborated on several books, and some of them were anthologies. Because they were endlessly sleepless to include new talent in these anthologies, several n ew writers had exposure precisely when they needed it! for their careers to take off. Furthermore, Bontemps, in particular, took bully pleasure in writing reviews in which he hailed the first whole works of major, new black talent. Gwendolyn Brooks, Frank Yerby, and Ralph Ellison are only three of these writers who were thus publicized. At times, it learnms that, between the two, Bontemps and Hughes knew or met practically every American writer of importance lively during their time. At to the lowest degree, this is true when it comes to black writers. Their acquaintances ranged from W. E. B. DuBois to Richard Wright and James Baldwin. one declivity that when they write about such authors, the commentary is normally invitingly brief. Still, now and then, there is real substance. In the fictitious character of Baldwin, for example, Hughes writes that Go Tell It on the Mountain would have been a tremendous book if it had had more affirmative feeling and less self-aware art. In other words, if it had more of the feeling for c ompany credit and idiom which can be found in the works of Zora Neale Hurston, it might have been a great book. much(prenominal) critical comments give some insight into what kind of publications both men fundamentally stood for: a literature which looks back to the folk tradition of the Afro-American experience. Yet, while establish on the past, literature encourages experimentation with folklore, jazz, and spontaneous style; and while based on the painful ordeal of the past, it encourages a vision of hope. apt(p) this perspective, it is no wonder that Bontemps would reserve some of his most war-ridden words for the raw Criticism represented by such writers as T. S. Eliot, Ezra Pound, and The Fugitives. As far as he was concerned, these the great unwashed were ?a sick lot.?It should be emphasized at this point that this comment cannot be taken as simply a racial one. Actually, both Bontemps and Hughes, although primarily concerned with Afro-American literature, were provoke in all kinds of good writing. Both, for example, had! great affection for such white authors as Carson McCullers and Katherine Anne Porter. And, in keeping with their great interest in the theater, they shared enthusiastic views about Tennes ensure Williams when his works began to appear. After Bontemps and Hughes had effected their own careers here in the United States, they began to scram progressively international in their activities. Hughes started to travel widely and to air his influence as far as Japan and Russia. Bontemps, always a more serious reader than his friend, began to comment more and more on literature of South America, Africa, and the Caribbean. Today, as a result, the Afro-American movement in literature is often perceived as the leader of an international trend which, at least(prenominal) in many parts of the world, has overwhelmed the modernist aesthetic tradition. Obviously, because of the primary tenseness on literature and fellow writers, this book of letters is not for everybody. Yet, the two men occ asionally exchange little stories that would delight anyone. whizz of the on-going jokes between them concerns the fact that they resemble each other so much that they are constantly mistaken for each other, even over the phone. During the war, they enjoy sharing the rumor that Hess had killed Hitler. Once Hughes writes to tell Bontemps that at Fisk, where the latter was then the librarian, there was psyche who wrong was claiming to be Ralph Ellison?s son.

Then, having become something of a celebrity, Hughes complains to Bontemps about lastly being forced to answer a manuscript wench after she had written him 103 letters. Perhaps best of all, there is the story about Hughes sitting in the audience earshot to Arthur Koestler recalling dur! ing the function of his speech how he had once met the ?great Negro poet? forrader he died. These lighter moments illustrate that the writers had a sense of humor, an cargo area of the absurd, which is all the richer when set against their very serious obsession. For there is no doubt they were obsessive men. Both worked without rest up to their very last days for basically one purpose. This purpose was not merely for fame, and certainly not for money. It was, instead, to constrain and encourage zip fastener less than a merry culture. In the last two letters in this volume, Bontemps writes in a mood of agitation which indicates that perhaps they have lived to see the fulfillment of their dream; since flavour back to the 1940?s, he could see how much had subsequently happened, scope the point where in 1967 there was actually ?an explosion of interest in Negro poetry.?For the student of Afro-American literature, this book might prove to be indispensable. For other readers, ho wever, the book may not mean as much. One problem for the general reader is that Bontemps and Hughes refer to so many people, often very briefly, that even a well-read person is bound to be hard pressed to know who they all are. It is unfortunate that the editor of the book did not believe it officeholder upon him to do at least some limited annotating. The book has some other problems, too, one of which concerns the editor?s filling of letters. It is clear why the letters he chose are present. He should, however, have given some indication why the other eighteen hundred are left out, and what readers have disoriented as a consequence. Another, less significant, problem concerns what appears to be a current epidemic, the poor rural area of editing and proofreading. There are times when the book suffers gratuitously because of sporadic dating, random grammar, and unexplained ellipses in the chronological arrangement of the letters. Finally, the editor, after writing a helpful p rologue, ends with an epilogue in which he needlessly! overstates the comparison between black literature and the Beat writers. Worse, he tends to force and overstate his claims for the accomplishments of Bontemps and Hughes. This he need not have done, since all one has to do to be reminded of their importance is to gaze at the chronology of their lives provided toward the end of the book. There one will see that these prolific authors published a have total of more than fifty books and that several of these are recognized classics of Afro-American literature. No two persons, in short, have ever meant more to this literary tradition. Thus, this book of letters will have achieved its most important accomplishment if it stimulates people to pick up some of Bontemp?s and Hughes?s works in the future. BibliographyBerry, Faith. Langston Hughes: before and Beyond Harlem. parvenue York: Wings Books, 1995. Bloom, Harold, ed. Langston Hughes. New York: Chelsea House, 1989. Chinitz, David. ?Rejuvenation Through Joy: Langston Hughes, Primit ivism, and Jazz.? American Literary History 9 (Spring, 1997): 60-78. Cooper, Floyd. glide path basis: From the breeding of Langston Hughes. New York: Philomel Books, 1994. Harper, Donna Sullivan. Not So truthful: The ? unbiased? Stories by Langston Hughes. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1995. Haskins, James. Always Movin? On: The tone of Langston Hughes. Trenton, N.J.: Africa World Press, 1993. Hokanson, Robert O?Brien. ?Jazzing It Up: The Be-bop Modernism of Langston Hughes.? mosaic 31 (December, 1998): 61-82. Leach, Laurie F. Langston Hughes: A Biography. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 2004. Mullen, Edward J., ed. Critical Essays on Langston Hughes. Boston: G. K. Hall, 1986. Ostrum, Hans A. A Langston Hughes Encyclopedia. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 2002. Rampersad, Arnold. The Life of Langston Hughes. 2 vols. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002. Tracy, Steven C., ed. A Historical level to Langston Hughes. New York: Oxford University Press, 2004. If you want to get ! a full essay, bless it on our website: OrderEssay.net

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