Autobiographies of Langston Hughes by Langston Hughes
"Autobiographies of Langston Hughes" consists of two significant works by the renowned African American writer, Langston Hughes: "The Big Sea" and "I Wonder as I Wander." In "The Big Sea," Hughes chronicles the first twenty-seven years of his life, detailing his journey as a poet during the Harlem Renaissance and reflecting on his experiences, relationships, and cultural identity. The narrative is largely impersonal, featuring selective personal anecdotes that reveal his struggles with faith, familial ties, and mentorship. This autobiography is celebrated for its portrayal of the Harlem Renaissance and Hughes's deep connection to his racial heritage, despite his inner doubts.
Conversely, "I Wonder as I Wander" covers Hughes's life from 1929 to 1950 and emphasizes his travels across Haiti, Spain, and the Soviet Union. While it offers insights into Hughes's experiences during significant historical moments, such as the Spanish Civil War, it is noted for its political commentary rather than personal reflection. Critics have described it as less engaging than "The Big Sea," highlighting a more detached tone. Overall, Hughes’s autobiographies provide valuable perspectives on his literary journey and the cultural landscape of his time, making them essential reads for those interested in African American literature and history.
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Autobiographies of Langston Hughes by Langston Hughes
First published:The Big Sea, 1940; I Wonder as I Wander, 1956
The Work
In the opening of Langston Hughes’s first autobiography, The Big Sea, the author recalls how he heaved his books overboard at the start of his first journey to Africa in 1923. The gesture may be seen as adolescent and anti-intellectual, but it suggests the commencement of Hughes’s role as a Renaissance man in Black American letters. The book chronicles the first twenty-seven years of Hughes’s life, from the 1920’s, when he explored the idiom and jazz rhythms of African Americans in his poetry, to the shift to his bitter prose of the 1930’s.
The autobiography is written typically as a confession, but it remains comparatively impersonal. Only three guarded personal accounts appear in the text of The Big Sea. The first concerns a religious revival Hughes attended at age thirteen at which he waited in vain for Jesus. The second describes the morning in Mexico when he realized that he hated his father. The third, at the book’s end, details the break with his patron and mentor, Charlotte Mason. He ties the latter experience to the other two: “The light went out with a sudden crash in the dark, and everything became like that night in Kansas when I had failed to see Jesus and had lied about it afterwards. Or that morning in Mexico when I suddenly hated my father.”
Other than these specific episodes, controversy rarely enters the book. Instead, Hughes presents himself as a man who loves his race and is optimistic about his people. He nevertheless carries doubts and fears within himself. The book, furthermore, is peopled by Hughes’ many friends, including Jean Toomer, Zora Neale Hurston, and others involved with the Harlem Renaissance. Hughes’s publisher, Blanche Knopf, thought that the references were excessive, but Hughes convinced her to retain them. Consequently, The Big Sea is perhaps the best chronicle of the Harlem Renaissance.
The second autobiography, I Wonder as I Wander, received less favor than its predecessor, although Hughes thought that his second autobiography was more important to his future as a writer. Knopf rejected the book, claiming it was “pretty weighted . . . and not a book.” Covering his life from 1929 to 1950, it includes his travels to Haiti, Spain, and Russia. More than half of the collection explores his 1932 trip to the Soviet Union, and a second long section covers his excursion to Spain during its civil war. The book seems less a literary life than a political commentary on his travels.
One of the criticisms directed at I Wonder as I Wander was its detachment from the personal and reflective. The Big Sea contains few enough personal reflections, but those that it contains are balanced between pain and joy. I Wonder as I Wander shows a Hughes who is more secure in his world and who is suffering less, despite his poverty (which fame did little to diminish). I Wonder as I Wander is a mature recollection, written without radicalism or prejudice.
Bibliography
Bloom, Harold, ed. Langston Hughes. New York: Chelsea House, 1989.
Miller, R. Baxter. The Art and Imagination of Langston Hughes. Lexington: University of Kentucky Press, 1989.
Rampersad, Arnold. The Life of Langston Hughes: 1902-1941. Vol. 1. New York: Oxford University Press, 1986.
Rampersad, Arnold. The Life of Langston Hughes: 1941-1967. Vol. 2. New York: Oxford University Press, 1988.