Langston Hughes began writing in high school, and even at this early age was developing the voice that made him famous. Hughes was born in Joplin, Missouri, but lived with his grandmother in Lawrence, Kansas until he was thirteen and then with his mother
First Black female author to address the problems African-American women face as they struggle to cope with life in the inner city. Her novel, The Street, published in 1946, was the first book by an African-American woman to sell over 1,000,000 copies.
Born in 1753 in Africa, Phillis Wheatley was kidnapped and sold at a slave auction at age seven to a prosperous Boston family who educated her and treated her as a family member. Rescued from an otherwise hopeless situation by the sympathies of the Wheatl
Langston Hughes was born in Joplin, Missouri, in 1902. His father, who had studied to become a lawyer, left for Mexico shortly after the baby was born. When Langston was seven or eight he went to live with his grandmother, who told him wonderful stories a
Novelist, anthropologist, folklorist - Zora Neale Hurston's work in a range of fields contributed greatly to the preservation of African-American folk traditions, as well as to American literature.
Novelist, short story writer, editor, and journalist Dorothy West died August 16, 1998, at the age of 91. Her death was mourned by many as the passing of the last living member of the Harlem Renaissance, but that extraordinary outburst of African-American
Her first collection of stories, poems, and essays, Violets, and Other Tales, was published in 1895. Shortly afterward, the author and her family moved to Massachusetts. She later moved to New York, where she taught and helped establish the White Rose Mis
The American writer Ralph Waldo Ellison, b. Oklahoma City, Okla., Mar. 1, 1914, achieved international fame with his first novel, Invisible Man (1952). He was influenced early by the myth of the frontier, viewing the United States as a land of "infin
