Langston Hughes

1. Langston , Hughes

The Weary Blues

1. Langston , Hughes

The Weary Blues

A celebration of music from beginning to end, The Weary Blues is the debut poetry collection by the foremost Harlem Renaissance poet, Langston Hughes.Droning a drowsy syncopated tune, / Rocking back and forth to a mellow croon, / I heard a Negro play. / Down on Lenox Avenue the other night / By the pale dull pallor of an old gas light / He did a lazy sway. . .With these first lines, Hughes invites the reader into an experimental playground that tells the story of a Black man's life in America. Featuring poems such as, "Dream Variations," "The Negro Speaks of Rivers," and "Our Land," Hughes weaves in and out of verse, highlighting the lows of struggle in the face of segregation and racism, but also the highs of creation from the time when, "the Negroes were in vogue."Now considered to be an American classic, The Weary Blues embodies the feel of the rhythm, improvisation, and soul of Black classical music, pioneered the genre of "jazz poetry," and left an irreplaceable mark in the African-American literary canon.Since our inception in 2020, Mint Editions has kept sustainability and innovation at the forefront of our mission. Each and every Mint Edition title gets a fresh, professionally typeset manuscript and a dazzling new cover, all while maintaining the integrity of the original book. With thousands of titles in our collection, we aim to spotlight diverse public domain works to help them find modern audiences. Mint Editions celebrates a breadth of literary works, curated from both canonical and overlooked classics from writers around the globe.

1. Langston , Hughes

The Weary Blues

"The Weary Blues" is the powerful and ground-breaking collection of poetry by American author Langston Hughes. An important contribution to the growing Harlem Renaissance art movement, "The Weary Blues" was Hughes' first poetry collection and was published in 1926 when the author was only 24, though some of the poems had appeared earlier in magazines. An immediate critical success, Hughes created a new form of poetry, called jazz or blues poetry, with his evocative and lyrical descriptions of the sounds and sights of a blues musician playing live. Hughes addresses the pressing social issues of racism, inequality, and political oppression while also capturing and celebrating the beauty and uniqueness of the African-American community in Harlem. In addition to the titular poem, "The Weary Blues" includes enduring classics of American poetry such as "The Negro Speaks of Rivers" and Hughes' inspiring call for equality that begins "I, too, sing America". These poems, as well as the shorter and more exuberant works, remain as relevant and powerful as when they were first written. This deeply personal, sensitive, and often melancholy collection established Hughes as one of the most important writers of the twentieth-century and continues to be celebrated and enjoyed by readers the world over. This edition is printed on premium acid-free paper.