... received a scholarship to Lincoln University in Pennsylvania. In 1929, he received his B.A. degree. In 1930 his first novel, "Not Without Laughter", won the Harmon gold medal for literature. Hughes's poems, short plays, essays and short stories appeared in the NAACP publication Crisis Magazine and in Opportunity Magazine. They have also appeared in other publications. He experimented with virtually every form ... of literature that there is. Langston wrote 16 books of poems, two novels, 3 collections of short stories, 4 volumes of "editorial" and "documentary" fiction, 20 plays, children...

• Word Count: 1126
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

... James Langston Hughes, was born in Joplin, Missouri. At the age of 17, while on a train ride to Mexico, Hughes wrote the infamous poem, "The Negro Speaks of Rivers". In Mexico, Langston visited is multi-racial father who didn't think he would be able to make a living at writing. Therefore, to prove his father wrong, Langston traveled around the world and wrote several novels, poems, plays ... , essays, and children's books. Nevertheless, while on the train, Hughes saw the ever flowing Mississippi River. "The muddy Mississippi ... made Hughes think of the roles in human history played by ...

• Word Count: 970
• Approx Pages: 4
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School