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Langston Hughes(1902-1967)One of many talented poets ofthe Harlem Renaissance of the1920s — in the company of JamesWeldon Johnson, Claude McKay,Countee Cullen, and others — wasLangston Hughes. He embraced African-Americanjazz rhythms andwas one of the first black writersto attempt to make a profitable careerout of his writing. Hughesincorporated blues, spirituals, colloquialspeech, and folkways in hispoetry.An influential cultural organizer,Hughes published numerous blackanthologies and began black theatergroups in Los Angeles andChicago, as well as New York City.He also wrote effective journalism,creating the character Jesse B.Semple (“simple”) to expresssocial commentary. One of hismost beloved poems, “The NegroSpeaks of Rivers” (1921, 1925),embraces his African — and universal— heritage in a grand epiccatalogue. The poem suggests that,like the great rivers of the world,African culture will endure anddeepen:I’ve known rivers:I’ve known rivers ancient as theworld and older than theflow of human blood inhuman veins.My soul has grown deep like therivers.I bathed in the Euphrates whenF. SCOTT FITZGERALDPhoto courtesyCulver Pictures, Inc.dawns were young.I built my hut near the Congoand it lulled me to sleep.I looked upon the Nile andraised the pyramids above it.I heard the singing of theMississippi when Abe Lincolnwent down to New Orleans,and I’ve seen its muddybosom turn all golden in thesunsetI’ve known riversAncient, dusky rivers.My soul has grown deep likethe rivers.PROSE WRITING, 1914-1945:AMERICAN REALISMAlthough American prose betweenthe wars experimentedwith viewpoint and form,Americans wrote more realistically,on the whole, than did Europeans.Novelist Ernest Hemingway wroteof war, hunting, and other masculinepursuits in a stripped, plain style;William Faulkner set his powerfulsouthern novels spanning generationsand cultures firmly in Mississippiheat and dust; and SinclairLewis delineated bourgeois liveswith ironic clarity.The importance of facing realitybecame a dominant theme in the1920s and 1930s: Writers such as F.Scott Fitzgerald and the playwrightEugene O’Neill repeatedly portrayedthe tragedy awaiting thosewho live in flimsy dreams.69