Before & Beyond Harlem: Biography of Langston Hughes [Hardcover]

Faith Berry (Author)

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Langston Hughes is best known as a poet, a key figure in the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s and '30s, and one of the first literary artists to realistically portray black American life. Hughes's immense talent, literary output, and social influence, however, extend far beyond the limited stereotype of him as "the bard of Harlem." In this meticulously researched volume, Faith Berry treats Hughes in the context of his time--as "one of the most prolific and versatile American writers of his generation" and a true man of letters. Concentrating on Hughes's development before he moved to Harlem in the 1940s, Berry focuses on the major influences that shaped his life and career--from his rootless childhood and early "addiction" to reading to his world travels (including journeys to Africa, Europe, and the Soviet Union) and relationships with other prominent American intellectuals. A portrait emerges of a shy, self-effacing man who, despite considerable hardship, never lost his determination or his vision of a more just world, and who overcame the racism of his day to become a poet, playwright, translator, librettist, author, and social activist of international stature.

Hughes was an intensely private man, and his own autobiographical works omit many personal facts that Berry discusses here. The volume also reprints more than 60 poems that are not widely anthologized, discussing them in their biographical context. In an appendix to this edition, Berry takes issue with Hughes's "official biographer," whom she believes presents a distorted, sensationalized version of the poet's life. "Truth in biography does not mean everything we ever wanted to know but were afraid to ask," she says, and in her own work she steps back, avoids intrusive psychoanalytic interpretation, and presents a balanced, thoughtful, and often moving look at her subject's remarkable life. --Uma Kukathas

Product Details

• Hardcover: 394 pages
• Publisher: Random House Value Publishing; First Edition edition (November 22, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0517147696
• ISBN-13: 978-0517147696
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.3 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #898,288 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Not Without Faults, But of Quality!!!, June 30, 2005

By 

T. Kelley (houston, texas United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Langston Hughes - Before and B (Paperback)

The distinguishing feature of Faith Berry's LANGSTON HUGHES: BEFORE AND BEYOND HARLEM is the brevity of the text when compared to the extremely detailed biographies of THE LIFE OF LANGSTON HUGHES 1&2 by Arnold Rampersad.

It should be noted that Ms. Berry was not given full access to the Hughes Papers on deposit at Yale. Rather, she was given permission to only view those pages specifically asked for from the executors under the tutelage of the late George Bass. As a result and under sometimes trying circumstances, Berry labored with more difficulty to put together a biography that is as definitive as Rampersad's, but doesn't come close to being rich in the prized details that show Hughes as being the complicated man that he was barring the lonliness and unimpeachable black pride that accompanied him to the end of his life. Rampersad's two biographies of Hughes surpasses Berry's because he had full access to the Hughes Papers. This access allowed him to offert the read a three diminsional picture of Hughes revealing a man who had his faults in character along with his triumphs in
character. Berry doesn't quite manage to break the exterior of Hughes as good as Rampersad.

The real fulcrum on which Berry's biography hangs is its unbridled absence of prejudice in acknowledging Hughes being an understandably closeted black gay man. Not the first to do this, Berry offers the more likely true conjecture that the significant romantic relationship in Hughes' life (the F.S. dedication of one of Hughes' poems) was Ferdinand Smith of Jamaica, a merchant sailor who encouraged Hughes to go to sea which led to his famous travels. Hughes corresponded with Smith up until 1961 when Smith died in Jamaica. Of course, this information Berry mentions in her notes rather than include it in
the text of her biography. To her discredit, she chooses to mention and then deny a rumor that Hughes and silent film actor Ramon Novarro were lovers in the body of the biography. Novarro was unjustly and inaccurately linked to every man he knew after his tragic death--to the dismay of his biographers. To her credit, she does reveal that the Caribbian traveling companion of Hughes, Zell Ingram, was a gay man who married and divorced later in his life. Rampersad does not even identify Ingram as gay and is to dismissive of other black gay men in Hughes's life. Rampersad, to his credit, does not engage in rumors. Moreover, Rampersad's more detailed research led him to the astonishing and often ignored admission that Hughes preferred black men, especially those of dark complexion. As evidence by his life and body of work, Hughes showed little interest in white men as objects of desire ( the complete polar opposite of Richard Bruce Nugent who was "somewhat" openly gay, even while married, and showed a patent interest in white men in his life and work excluding SMOKE, LILLIES, AND JADE). Critics of Rampersad have failed to note this contradiction in Rampersad's Vol.2 where he sums up of Hughes' life and work. Rampersad doesn't escape showing prejudiced text, but does make startling admissions that show the unfairness of the label "homophobic" being applied to him. In fairness to Berry, she does give Rampesad some praise for Vol. 2 of his biography of Hughes.

(Both Berry and Rampersad fail to take into consideration the "down low" culture which existed among black gay married men who knew Hughes in his day and the vested interest of these men in wanting to make Hughes appear as straight. Rampersad indirectly acknowledges this fact in his Afterword at the same time of unknowingly intimating that he may have ignored and suppressed much evidence in Hughes's association other black gay men.)

Berry's biography of Hughes isn't without its faults. But fortunately, these faults don't take away from the text as a whole.

7 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The real Langston, December 17, 1999

By 

Monica Freeman (Miami, Florida USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Langston Hughes - Before and B (Paperback)

This a a book that has works by Langston Hughes that perhaps your pat Black History month or American Literature classes never mentioned. Excellent work by a brilliant author.