Langston Hughes query...

March 12, 2005 1:32 PM

Does anyone have some good info on writer Langston Hughes, aside from obvious Google sources? Any information gotten off the beaten path? I'd love to get some relatively unknown info on him, if anyone has it, or some particulary good access sites/books. Writing a paper and am tired of following everyone elses footsteps with information access.
posted by codeofconduct to writing & language (15 comments total)

What kind of information? Biographical? Literary criticism? Structural analysis? What are you looking for - what's your paper about?
posted by Dr. Wu at 1:59 PM on March 12, 2005

How about going to primary sources? Go back to google, find names of people who know him, contact them, ask them questions...
posted by grumblebee at 2:42 PM on March 12, 2005

Do you have access to the MLA Bibliography? That's the best place to go for literary criticism.
posted by gnat at 2:59 PM on March 12, 2005

JSTOR and onefile are good database search engines for lit papers.
posted by moooshy at 4:24 PM on March 12, 2005

Dr. Wu, all of the above. grumblebee, that's a touch more effort than I wanted to put into it.;>....Kinda why I am using AMF.....skip a few steps, if I can.
posted by codeofconduct at 8:05 PM on March 12, 2005

Sorry, but yours is a poorly phrased question designed to help you slack off on an assignment. I think/hope you won't get much help here. You get points for honesty, I guess, but you certainly rubbed me the wrong way. Go do your own damn research like everyone else.
posted by Dr. Wu at 9:18 PM on March 12, 2005

Talk to your librarian, d00d. This is exactly what they go to work every day to do.
posted by Hildago at 10:12 PM on March 12, 2005

tired of following everyone elses footsteps with information access.

Where do you think we got *our* information? I followed a bunch of footsteps to David Levering Lewis' When Harlem Was in Vogue, a great read with detailed context for many Harlem Rennaissance writers. As for "off the beaten path," Hughes created quite a few odd works, including some very cool recordings. Happy hunting; he's really one of the American greats.
posted by mediareport at 11:34 PM on March 12, 2005

mediareport, thanks! I actually had already checked those recordings out, very cool, indeed (gotta love Verve!).

My question was poorly worded, I admit. I'm most definately not slacking off on the assignment. While I don't plan on tracking down people who knew him, my purpose was to get a hold of some gem of information that was outside the norm. I have already done extensive research in the way of literature/journals/critical analysis/Google/etc...and am trying to add something a little different, if possible.

Librarian? Depends on which one you talk to, I suppose.

Dr. Wu--unbunch.
posted by codeofconduct at 1:30 AM on March 13, 2005

His testimony before Sen. McCarthy's Senate committee is a gem. Featuring none other than Roy Cohn!
posted by tommunation at 2:09 AM on March 13, 2005

Excellent, tommunation! Thanks!
posted by codeofconduct at 8:20 AM on March 13, 2005

Dude, I teach at the college level. Your research methods make me cringe.
posted by Dr. Wu at 9:18 AM on March 13, 2005

Jesus, we get it already, Dr. Wu. But your AskMe methods make *me* cringe. Is there something about "Please limit comments to answers or help in finding an answer" that's hard for a college-level teacher to understand?
posted by mediareport at 10:39 AM on March 13, 2005

Try googling langston and lawrence kansas where he spent a lot of his early life. A few interesting factoids come up and they may lead elsewhere.
posted by johngumbo at 4:58 PM on March 13, 2005

heh - When I was in college, Lawrence had an annual Langston Hughes day. Usually this consisted of government proclamations and posters, but one year there was a marathon reading of his work near City Hall. One of the readers was William S. Burroughs, a local resident. It was a little surreal to see Mr. Surreal read a poem about being black in America.
posted by stevis at 11:02 PM on March 13, 2005