In 1902, Langston Hughes was born in Joplin, Missouri. He grew up in many different places such as Kansas, Illinois, and Ohio. His birth given name was James Mercer Langston Hughes. Later he dropped the first two names. Mary Patterson Leary Carrie Mercer Langston Hughes, Langston's mother, was a schoolteacher. Langston's father, James Nathaniel Langston Hughes, was never around. Langston mainly lived with his mother. When Langston was very young his parents separated, and his grandmother took care of him. Langston wrote his first poem in eighth-grade. Some of his influences included Vachel Lindsay, Paul Dunbar, Walt Whitman, and Carl Sandburg. He combined their dialects to create his own unique style. His first poem was read at his grammar school graduation. Langston went to New York in 1921 to attend Columbia University. He stayed for only one year. Then he left to see the world. When he left New York Harbor, he threw all his books, which he had been studying, overboard. Langston went to Europe and Africa. "His exposure to blues and jazz in Europe and Africa provided him with a rich source of material that he used over the next decades of his writing"(Magill, Frank, 1428). Langston has influenced American literature.
             From 1919-1929 there was a movement called the Harlem Renaissance. "Langston's best known literary exponents were during the Harlem Renaissance"(Rollock, Barbara, 295). During the Second World War Langston was a member of The Music War Board, The Theatre Wing of the New York Stage Door Canteen, and The Writers War Board. In 1952, he published a collection of twenty-four short stories called "Laughing to Keep from Crying". " His writings were spontaneous art which stood or fell by the sureness of his intuition, and his mother's wit"(Kunitz, Stanley, 467).
             "Most of Langston's writings were largely concerned with the depicting of Negro life in America"(Kunitz, 467). Langston was v
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