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The Ways of White Folks

Stories

Part of Vintage Classics

Author Langston Hughes
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Paperback
$17.00 US
Knopf | Vintage
5.11"W x 7.96"H x 0.57"D  
On sale Sep 12, 1990 | 272 Pages | 978-0-679-72817-7
| Grades 6-12 + AP/IB
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Like his most famous poems, Langston Hughes’s stories are messages from that “other” America, sharply etched vignettes of its daily life, cruelly accurate portrayals of black people colliding—sometimes humorously, more often tragically—with whites. Filled with mordant wit and human detail, whether his character is a poor black musician or wealthy whites who collect Negroes, The Ways of White Folks is unmistakably the work of not only a great poet, but also a shrewd and compelling storyteller.

“Within the range of these stories there is humor, pathos, terror, and satire. I suspect that Langston Hughes is revealing here that mysterious quality in writing that we call genius.”—Horace Gregory

Table of Contents
Cora Unashamed
Slave on the Block
Home
Passing
A Good Job Done
Rejuventation Through Joy
The Blues I'm Playing
Red-Headed Baby
Poor Little Black Fellow
Little Dog
Berry
Mother and Child
One Christmas Eve
Father and Son
Langston Hughes (1902–1967), a central figure of the Harlem Renaissance and one of the most influential and esteemed writers of the twentieth century, was born in Joplin, Missouri, and spent much of his childhood in Kansas before moving to Harlem. His first book of poetry, The Weary Blues, was published in 1926; its success helped him to win a scholarship to Lincoln University, in Pennsylvania, from which he received his B.A. in 1929 and an honorary Litt.D. in 1943. Among his other awards and honors were a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Rosenwald Fellowship, and a grant from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Hughes published more than thirty-five books, including works of poetry, short stories, novels, an autobiography, musicals, essays, and plays.

Angela Flournoy (introduction) was a finalist for the National Book Award for her debut novel, The Turner House. Her fiction has appeared in The Paris Review, and she has written for The New York Times, The New Republic, and the Los Angeles Times. A graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop, Flournoy was raised by a mother from Los Angeles and a father from Detroit and now lives in Brooklyn. View titles by Langston Hughes
1   Cora Unashamed
2   Slave on the Block
3   Home
4   Passing
5   A Good Job Gone
6   Rejuvenation Through Joy
7   The Blues I'm Playing
8   Red-Headed Baby
9   Poor Little Black Fellow
10 Little Dog
11 Berry
12 Mother and Child
13 One Christmas Eve
14 Father and Son
“Some of the best stories that have appeared in this country in years.” – Herschel Brickell, North American Review

“Powerful, polemical pieces.” – David Herbert Donald, The New York Times

About

Like his most famous poems, Langston Hughes’s stories are messages from that “other” America, sharply etched vignettes of its daily life, cruelly accurate portrayals of black people colliding—sometimes humorously, more often tragically—with whites. Filled with mordant wit and human detail, whether his character is a poor black musician or wealthy whites who collect Negroes, The Ways of White Folks is unmistakably the work of not only a great poet, but also a shrewd and compelling storyteller.

“Within the range of these stories there is humor, pathos, terror, and satire. I suspect that Langston Hughes is revealing here that mysterious quality in writing that we call genius.”—Horace Gregory

Table of Contents
Cora Unashamed
Slave on the Block
Home
Passing
A Good Job Done
Rejuventation Through Joy
The Blues I'm Playing
Red-Headed Baby
Poor Little Black Fellow
Little Dog
Berry
Mother and Child
One Christmas Eve
Father and Son

Author

Langston Hughes (1902–1967), a central figure of the Harlem Renaissance and one of the most influential and esteemed writers of the twentieth century, was born in Joplin, Missouri, and spent much of his childhood in Kansas before moving to Harlem. His first book of poetry, The Weary Blues, was published in 1926; its success helped him to win a scholarship to Lincoln University, in Pennsylvania, from which he received his B.A. in 1929 and an honorary Litt.D. in 1943. Among his other awards and honors were a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Rosenwald Fellowship, and a grant from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Hughes published more than thirty-five books, including works of poetry, short stories, novels, an autobiography, musicals, essays, and plays.

Angela Flournoy (introduction) was a finalist for the National Book Award for her debut novel, The Turner House. Her fiction has appeared in The Paris Review, and she has written for The New York Times, The New Republic, and the Los Angeles Times. A graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop, Flournoy was raised by a mother from Los Angeles and a father from Detroit and now lives in Brooklyn. View titles by Langston Hughes

Table of Contents

1   Cora Unashamed
2   Slave on the Block
3   Home
4   Passing
5   A Good Job Gone
6   Rejuvenation Through Joy
7   The Blues I'm Playing
8   Red-Headed Baby
9   Poor Little Black Fellow
10 Little Dog
11 Berry
12 Mother and Child
13 One Christmas Eve
14 Father and Son

Praise

“Some of the best stories that have appeared in this country in years.” – Herschel Brickell, North American Review

“Powerful, polemical pieces.” – David Herbert Donald, The New York Times

Additional formats

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