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Autobiography: I Wonder as I Wander (The Collected Works of Langston Hughes #14)

by Langston Hughes , Joseph McLaren (Editor)

4.25 of 5 stars 4.25 · rating details · 438 ratings · 38 reviews

I Wonder As I Wander (1956), Hughes's second volume of autobiography, is a continuation from The Big Sea, detailing his global travels to such areas as Cuba, Haiti, Paris, the Soviet Union, and the Far East. It culminates in his 1937 coverage for the Baltimore Afro-American of the Spanish Civil War. The travelogue highlights the beginning of Hughes's career as a journalist I Wonder As I Wander (1956), Hughes's second volume of autobiography, is a continuation from The Big Sea, detailing his global travels to such areas as Cuba, Haiti, Paris, the Soviet Union, and the Far East. It culminates in his 1937 coverage for the Baltimore Afro-American of the Spanish Civil War. The travelogue highlights the beginning of Hughes's career as a journalist, a further realization of his goal to live as a professional writer. Furthermore, it shows the influence of legendary black educator Mary McLeod Bethune, who inspired Hughes to travel through the South giving readings of his poetry. His recollections of American journeys place him as well in Carmel, California, and the San Francisco area, where he was befriended by Noël Sullivan and was among the set of Hollywood personalities sometimes including James Cagney, Greta Garbo, Jean Harlow, as well as Indian mystic J. Krishnamurti. Hughes also shows readers the lighter side of his adventures in the Caribbean, where he experienced the rhythms of Afro-Cuban music and the wonders of such sights as the Citadel in Haiti.

In 1932, having traveled with a group of African Americans to the Soviet Union to make a film about southern black steelworkers and domestic laborers, Hughes became familiar not only with Moscow's theatrical life but also with "colored" minorities in the new republics of Soviet Central Asia. As a wanderer, he carried with him a record player and a collection of jazz recordings and became an informal participant in "cultural exchange." For Hughes, the lack of appreciation of jazz by Russian ideologues was a major flaw in the system. In Tokyo and Shanghai, he learned about Asian global politics and tough street life, and in Paris he reacquainted himself with its nightlife and such personalities as Ada "Bricktop" Smith and Josephine Baker.

Throughout his journey, he observed the presence of blacks, whether as entertainers in major capitals or as soldiers on the battlefront in Barcelona and Madrid. His coverage of the Spanish Civil War is a serious report of the tragedy of conscripted North African Moors and the heroic efforts of the International Brigades and such African Americans as Milton Herndon in their fight against fascism. Spain is also a window into flamenco musical culture, where singers such as Pastora Pavón offer their own form of the blues.

In rare moments, Hughes reveals aspects of his personal romantic encounters. Also of great interest are his recollections of writers Arthur Koestler, Nicolás Guillén, Pablo Neruda, and Ernest Hemingway. I Wonder As I Wander shows how Hughes maintained a Harlem-derived black consciousness, while expanding it through global wandering. ...more

Hardcover , 448 pages

Published February 1st 2003 by University of Missouri (first published January 1st 1964)

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Jul 29, 2013 Rowena rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: african-american , autobiography , langston-hughes , favorites

This was an incredibly enjoyable autobiography of one of my favourite poets, Langston Hughes. In the preface, Margaret Walker says about Hughes, “Langston Hughes loved life and all people, and at the same time worked diligently at his craft and art of writing and was one of the most prolific writers in this (20th) Century. His influence on Black world literature is immense.”

The autobiography focused on Hughes’ thoughts and experiences while travelling around the world during the 1930s, and how This was an incredibly enjoyable autobiography of one of my favourite poets, Langston Hughes. In the preface, Margaret Walker says about Hughes, “Langston Hughes loved life and all people, and at the same time worked diligently at his craft and art of writing and was one of the most prolific writers in this (20th) Century. His influence on Black world literature is immense.”

The autobiography focused on Hughes’ thoughts and experiences while travelling around the world during the 1930s, and how his travels shaped his craft and personal philosophy. Some of the places he visited were Haiti, Cuba, the former Soviet Union, and Japan. His insights were really fascinating and thought-provoking. His experiences as a black man were even more so as race did play a part in his travels. He showed that the world was a lot more diverse than many thought, even back then. I learned some fascinating information about the world and also about Hughes, the most interesting was perhaps that he was quite good friends with Alfred Koestler, whom he travelled with.

I couldn’t help thinking how difficult travelling was back then. Nowadays our biggest problems seem to be whether we can get a wi-fi connection but in those days even finding a good quality pencil to write with was a challenge for Hughes!

His experiences in the former Soviet Union were the most illuminating for me. He met the most interesting people there and also considered the parallels between the blacks in the racist American South and the Uzbeks who were downtrodden members of the Soviet Union. He realized art can be therapeutic in those cases: “To me as a writer, it was especially interesting to observe how art of all sorts – writing, painting, the theatre- was being utilized as a weapon against the evils of the past.”

Hughes was definitely a funny guy. He never failed to see the humour or irony in situations: “In El Paso it was strange to find that just by stepping across an invisible line into Mexico, a Negro could buy a beer in any bar, sit anywhere in the movies, or eat in any restaurant, so suddenly did Jim Crow disappear, and Americans who would not drink beside a Negro in Texas, did so in Mexico. Funny people, Southerners.”

A great read, one that I will gladly read again.
...more

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Feb 07, 2011 Robin rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: biography , cultural-studies , history-us , history-world , politics

Langston Hughes’ autobiography from the years 1931 through New Year’s Day 1938 covers his early years as a professional writer during the Great Depression, in which he travels extensively and observes practices and politics as well as the status of black people throughout the world. He crafts his stories with compassion and humor, and writes in an entertaining and easy-to-read style. From disentangling from an amorous, married Muscovite actress on the Trans-Siberian Express, to touring Japan’s g Langston Hughes’ autobiography from the years 1931 through New Year’s Day 1938 covers his early years as a professional writer during the Great Depression, in which he travels extensively and observes practices and politics as well as the status of black people throughout the world. He crafts his stories with compassion and humor, and writes in an entertaining and easy-to-read style. From disentangling from an amorous, married Muscovite actress on the Trans-Siberian Express, to touring Japan’s geisha houses and prostitution districts with two Australian men, to writing “Mailbox for the Dead” as his father (unbeknownst to him) was dying, to learning the social customs of Uzbek lovemaking, his stories never fail to entertain.

He begins with a short chapter about travels in Cuba and Haiti, where he goes to recover from confusion and sadness after being abandoned by his former patroness. He observes race and class lines, and enjoys friendships, balmy weather and native music. Through his friend’s mishaps, he returns to Daytona with no funds to get home. Mrs. Bethune, leader of a black junior college and former cotton field worker, helps by providing a car and accompanying him and his friend, stopping at her friends’ homes for food and shelter.

Following Mrs. Bethune’s advice, Langston embarks on a book tour of the US south, reading his poetry and selling books at black colleges and churches. As an educated northerner, he is surprised and sad to experience segregation and racial hatred. He cannot use public restrooms, stay in hotels, or approach any whites during his tour. He stays in private homes. His hosts are duly impressed with his writing and invite friends and neighbors to parties in his honor, and as pleased and cordial as he is, he longs for an occasional night of rest and quiet in a rented private room—off limits to a black man at that time.

Next, Hughes tours the USSR with a group of blacks hired to make a movie that is a Communist spin on race relations in the US. Written by an Austrian, the script is flawed and will not make a plausible movie, and the northern-educated actors have little interest in enacting in the “Negro spiritual” musical score, little talent in singing and dancing, and indeed little acting experience. As the project falls apart, the actors stay in five-star hotels and are treated respectfully as “comrades” who have been oppressed. They travel freely and enjoy theater, music, and other cultural experiences without limits, as they cannot do in the US. Despite the movie project being canceled, the actors are paid and offered a complimentary tour of the USSR. The actors insist upon going to the newly-Communist Asiatic part of the USSR (to meet other people of darker skin), which the Soviets are reluctant to oblige. Eventually, Hughes spends quite a bit of time in Uzbekistan and its surrounds, and writes a fascinating account of his friends and cultures of various ethnic groups in this region. His USSR-sponsored visit to a dangerous frontier town Permetyab is a frightful highlight.

Hughes then tours Japan and China, and experiences a polite but firm interrogation by the Japanese police. He lauds Japan’s respect for people of all colors. However, he firmly states his belief that no country should hold colonies, and as Japan is colonizing China, he is considered an enemy of the state and asked to leave. His account of the final days before his ship leaves, tailed by Japanese men charged with keeping an eye on him, is quite humorous.

In another chapter Hughes sequesters himself in a friend’s cabin in Carmel to write. He is interrupted by the death of his father and his aunt’s insistence (verbal and financial) that he travel to Mexico to hear the will read. Although disinherited, Hughes loves Mexico and delays his return to the US and his writing while enjoying Mexican culture and characters, most notably the three distinctly different sisters who were his father’s servants and “adopt” Hughes during his stay.

The last chapter is about Hughes’ experiences as war correspondent during the Spanish Civil War. He details most graphically the middle year of the siege of Madrid: the artillery barrages, the scarcity of food, the Americans volunteering for the Republic, the hospitals, and the residents who carry on with their lives. In the end, safe in Paris, Hughes contemplates war and peace, life and death on the brink of WWII.

I highly recommend this book. It’s a fascinating slice of history, plainly, intelligently and humorously written.
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Apr 18, 2014 Marti rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: travel-and-food , biography-memoir

This is actually a follow up to the author's first volume of autobiographical writings entitled "The Big Sea" (which I now want to read as well). The story picks up near the start of the Great Depression with the author casting about for ways to continue to earn a living by writing. A friend and mentor suggests that he could get paid to read his poems at black colleges and churches across the deep South. The tour was wildly successful in terms of generating both income and more importantly, publ This is actually a follow up to the author's first volume of autobiographical writings entitled "The Big Sea" (which I now want to read as well). The story picks up near the start of the Great Depression with the author casting about for ways to continue to earn a living by writing. A friend and mentor suggests that he could get paid to read his poems at black colleges and churches across the deep South. The tour was wildly successful in terms of generating both income and more importantly, publicity (in spite of the ever present danger of being black during Jim Crow). Suddenly free from immediate financial worry, Hughes then decides to travel and write about places like Cuba, Haiti, Mexico, The U.S.S.R., Central Asia, China and Japan (and a stint covering the Spanish Civil War).

My favorite part was the section on his travels in Russia where he, along with a group unknowns from Harlem with absolutely no acting or movie experience, is recruited as a script doctor for a Russian film about the exploitation of blacks in America (a job he could never get in Hollywood because there were no black writers at the time). The project gets stalled for weeks on end but the group gets paid well to hang out at a first-class hotel in Moscow, being wined and dined by the Socialist Intelligentsia for anti-Capitalist propaganda purposes. What it most reminded me of was a book by Truman Capote called "The Muses Are Heard," where he accompanied a production of Porgy and Bess to the USSR in the 50's. The difference was that Hughes actually found his treatment to be an improvement over what he would have gotten at home.

However, I thought the entire book was filled with great anecdotes about people in the places he visited, most of which were in a state of upheaval.

...more

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Apr 25, 2012 The Scrivener's Quill rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: memoir-autobiography , philosophy , poetry , political-modern-culture , self-help , southern-literature , biographical

I did not know much about Langston Hughes, but this autobiography helped fill some of that gap. I found it to be a humorous and insightful book. He provides a human touch to Russia, a few of the Soviet states, Haiti, Spain and the United States. It was a fascinating time in the US and his books gives the history some interesting spice.

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May 01, 2014 Bob Schnell rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: food-and-travel , read-in-2014

Though Langston Hughes is best known for his Harlem Renaissance poetry and fiction, this memoir of his travels in Asia, Mexico and Spain deserves just as much recognition. If you enjoyed Mark Twain's travelogues or even "Blue Highways", this should appeal to you as well. Hughes spends significant time in post-revolution Russia, China and Japan often living hand-to-mouth but always running across fellow Americans, from bohemians to celebrities. It seems he is always among friends, new and old and ...more

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Apr 30, 2015 Frank rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is an unexpectedly dense book, compared to Hughes's fast-paced first autobiography The Big Sea . That earlier book covers Hughes' childhood to early adulthood; this one details his travels around the world and between the wars, from 1931 to New Years' Day 1938. Freshly spurned by his erstwhile patron Charlotte Mason, Hughes takes $400 he earned from his first novel and heads to the sunny Caribbean where he notes the existence of color prejudice not only in American-controlled Cuba but also i This is an unexpectedly dense book, compared to Hughes's fast-paced first autobiography The Big Sea . That earlier book covers Hughes' childhood to early adulthood; this one details his travels around the world and between the wars, from 1931 to New Years' Day 1938. Freshly spurned by his erstwhile patron Charlotte Mason, Hughes takes $400 he earned from his first novel and heads to the sunny Caribbean where he notes the existence of color prejudice not only in American-controlled Cuba but also in Haiti, renowned as the place where black people had thrown off their slavemasters. Coming back to the States, Hughes finds himself short of cash and, encouraged by Mary McLeod Bethune, embarks on on nationwide poetry-reading tour of black colleges, culminating in San Francisco. There, he receives an invitation to help write a film in the USSR, and he travels with a large group of African Americans to Moscow to await the beginning of the project. It eventually gets lost in Soviet bureaucracy and abandoned, but Hughes remains in the Soviet Union for more than a year, traveling to Uzbekistan, where he rooms with Arthur Koestler for a time and writes journalistic reports from this region transformed by the Communist revolution. Koestler becomes increasingly disillusioned with Communism (and later would go on to write Darkness at Noon and other scathing portraits of Communist totalitarianism). Hughes notes the shortcomings and even the crimes of the new regime, yet his experience as a Negro in Jim Crow America gives him a more immediate appreciation for the praiseworthy aspects of the new ideology:

Koestler and Grasdani both had told me that the jails of Tashkent were full of political prisoners. I, myself, had seen the long lines of relatives outside the OGPU prison, waiting with food for their loved ones on visiting days. Perhaps, as Grasdani claimed, many there were unjustly imprisoned. But some behind bars, I felt sure, were those who had not wished to see the Jim Crow signs go down—both whites and Asiatics who would prefer that the old freewheeling days of plunder and power came back, when the strongest lived in luxury and devil take the hindmost, when a rich man might have a hundred wives and a poor man no wife at all, when a kid like Tajaiv could never dream of the building of a dam to light his world. Life in Tashkent was far from comfortable and perfect, and the near approximation to comfort was only in the upper-echelon hotels or the homes of the very top commissars, engineers, writers, or dancers. But I could not bring myself to believe, as Grasdani did, that life was not better for most people now than it had been in the days of the Volga boatmen, the Asiatic serfs and the Jim Crow signs.

The Uzbekistan section, at times a bit tedious, in retrospect is the emotional heart of the book—the part in which Hughes comes face to face with the best that Communism has to offer as well as its ultimate limitations. Hughes returns to Moscow, thence to Japan and China, and back to San Francisco. When his father dies in Mexico, Hughes must travel there to attend to his estate, and he concludes his narrative with a description of his months in Spain during the Civil War, living in cities besieged by the Fascist forces of Franco and listening to the stories of American blacks who have traveled to this foreign land to fight against oppression.

This book is a fascinating historical document, firsthand testimony from one of our most humane literary voices. Hughes saw the world at a unique point in human history—with Communism at its most promising, Fascism on the rise, Imperialism reaching its tentacles everywhere, and Jim Crow clicking along apparently unimpeded. Amid these huge socio-political forces, Hughes manages to find personal connections to the people he meets, to find humor and pleasure and friendship no matter where he is. This is not a quick read, but it's a rewarding one.

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Oct 06, 2012 Megan rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites

Wonderful.

I probably picked this book up because of my own wandering and wondering tendencies. I'd never heard of it or considered reading it until I found it on the "new arrivals" shelf in the audio book section of the library. I'd never read more than a few poems by Langston Hughes. I had no idea what to expect.

Since then, I have fallen in love. Langston Hughes is thoughtful and observant, endlessly good-humored and kind. He describes his life as he lives and travels in the Jim Crow south, to ...more

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Apr 25, 2014 Jodi rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: audiobook , 2014-audiobooks

This autobiography of a section of poet. Langston Hughes's life was both fascinating and tedious to listen to. The reader was great. I forgot I wasn't listening to Hughes, although I have no idea if they sounded anything alike, but Hughes had a delightful interest in life and the narrator made that clear. Hughes spoke a lot about the color line in the U.S. Where Jim Crow laws are alive and well. But in Europe there is no color line. He was treated like any other person and he liked that. He spen ...more

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Apr 07, 2009 Bob rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Probably one of my most favorite books. It goes through a good portion of Langston's life going through the South and then heading off to Russia and through Asia and too California and Mexico and it ends up around the Spanish Civil War which is always interesting. If you like really good autobiographies then this is right up your alley and if you are interested in the soviet union and how black people were treated there as well as other places around the world this is also up your alley. He was ...more

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Jul 16, 2015 Carol rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A delightful book. This sequel to Langston Hughes's 1st autobiography, "The Big Sea," opens "in the midst of a depression," following the crash of Wall Street & of his near-family closeness with a wealthy patron. He's just begun to make a living as a writer. Now he takes off for Haiti (by way of Cuba), a reading tour of the American South, Paris, the Soviet Union, Japan, China, & the Spanish Civil War, among other adventures. As biographer Arnold Rampersad observes in his introduction, H ...more

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Apr 04, 2014 Debbie rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Great book. I listened on CD while I worked around the house, something that has been working well for me. You travel with Langston Hughes, the writer and social activist [and a great companion], through 1930's U.S., Caribbean, Europe, and Asia. His eyes were wide open, he is a keen observer of people, places, politics, culture, race,and shares his fascinating adventures and insightful reflections from the Spanish Civil War, Soviet Moscow and Soviet hinterlands, increasingly imperialist Japan, e ...more

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Dec 29, 2014 Adelaide rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: zinn-recommendations

First of all, I knew next-to-nothing about Langston Hughes when I picked up this book, so I was surprised at the volume of international travel it contained. As it turns out, if I wanted to learn about Hughes' time in Harlem, I should have picked up his first autobiography that covers the earlier part of his life. However, I actually enjoy travel narratives quite a bit, so this was great!

Hughes picks his way through Cuba, the USSR, Japan, China, Mexico, France, and Spain among other places, com First of all, I knew next-to-nothing about Langston Hughes when I picked up this book, so I was surprised at the volume of international travel it contained. As it turns out, if I wanted to learn about Hughes' time in Harlem, I should have picked up his first autobiography that covers the earlier part of his life. However, I actually enjoy travel narratives quite a bit, so this was great!

Hughes picks his way through Cuba, the USSR, Japan, China, Mexico, France, and Spain among other places, commenting on local customs and race relations. The book gave me a totally new perspective on the Soviet experiment. Hughes travels to the far eastern portions of the USSR and emphasizes the racial improvements that have occurred. Education for all, desegregation of street cars, greater political representation for traditionally marginalized groups, etc. In other countries, he very quickly learned the racial/ethnic hierarchy, critiqued it, and (very often) made some people uncomfortable by pushing back against it.

This racial critique could not have contrasted more with Zora Neale Hurston's autobiography, which I read immediately prior. Like Hughes, she traveled the Caribbean and the American South but without one bad thing to say about segregation or discrimination. Hughes has no qualms about calling out injustice, and I appreciated that. Some commentary on Hurston's autobiography indicated that she kept more controversial statements out to make her book acceptable to publishers. How, I wonder, did Hughes' work pass the editorial desk unscathed?

Hughes' coverage of the Spanish civil war was also fascinating to read. Instead of focusing on military maneuvers (guaranteed to make my eyes glaze over), he focused on civilian life in besieged Madrid. I found myself much more interested in this period of his life than I expected! ...more

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Jul 05, 2015 Cat. rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: nonfiction , history , travel , biography

I don't think I even realized Hughes wrote anything besides poetry. I had no idea how itinerant he was, either. This was a revelation to me on many levels.

The main reason I picked it up was Ian mentioning that Hughes traveled around Tashkent/Samarkand in the 1930s (what was then, and when I was there in the 1980s, Soviet Central Asia). He didn't only travel around there: he lived in Moscow for awhile, also Mexico--he spoke fluent Spanish!--France, Carmel-by-the-Sea (California), and visited Spai I don't think I even realized Hughes wrote anything besides poetry. I had no idea how itinerant he was, either. This was a revelation to me on many levels.

The main reason I picked it up was Ian mentioning that Hughes traveled around Tashkent/Samarkand in the 1930s (what was then, and when I was there in the 1980s, Soviet Central Asia). He didn't only travel around there: he lived in Moscow for awhile, also Mexico--he spoke fluent Spanish!--France, Carmel-by-the-Sea (California), and visited Spain for several months during the war there.

Staying with Central Asia for a moment, I really had to stop and think about all the changes that came about in the 50 years between his visit and mine. Those years forcibly brought a very 'backward' area of the world up to the 20th century in a very quick manner. I suspect the last 15 has perhaps meant quite a lot of backward movement, but the descriptions of the people, the mores, the practical problems of the area struck home.

His time in Spain was similarly poignant. Even at the time, he seemed to see that the war in Spain was just a tryout for the Big War coming up next. The machinery of war, that financed by Germany anyway, changed regularly, where the defense had to make do with the same options. It's no surprise that Franco won, really. One incisive comment I remember clearly is how people fighting against Franco were primarily NOT communists. In fact, he says, he saw almost no Russians during the entire time he was there.

There is a longish bit about traveling in the South reciting poetry to black audiences, bringing them face-to-face with the possibility of change. This was during the Scottsboro Trial, where everyone in the South--blacks and whites--knew the men on trial were innocent. Most people elsewhere knew so too. And yet... Yes, and yet. Hughes' observations on racial issues are primarily dry asides in the face of outrageous unfairness. Perhaps this is why he travelled so much; he had fewer problems and was treated more like a human everywhere he went outside the United States.

This is also, of course, a first-rate travelogue complete with fleas, starvation, fine food, political tightrope-walking, weird sexual practices, and lots of long, boring train trips. Some things haven't changed at all.

I, too, sing America.

I am the darker brother.
They send me
To eat in the kitchen
When company comes,
But I laugh,
and eat well,
And grow strong.

Tomorrow
I'll sit at the table
When company comes.
Nobody'll dare
Say to me,
"Eat in the kitchen,"
Then.

Besides,
They'll see
How beautiful I am
And be ashamed.

I, too, am America.

Many things haven't changed. Hughes' writing stands the test of time. The man simply knew how to put a picture on paper with words, whether poetic or prose. ...more

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Feb 02, 2014 Kathleen Hagen added it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2013-audio

I Wonder as I Wander, an Autobiographical Journey, by Langston Hughes, Narrated by Eric Hoffman, Produced by Recorded Books, Downloaded from audible.com.

This is a fascinating journal-like book of Langston Hughes in his travels through the 1930’s: through the American south, Cuba, the USSR, China, Japan, and Spain during the Civil War in 1936 and 1937. I couldn’t put it down, and the narrator did the book justice. We meet, through Hughes, many of the famous writers of the 1930’s.

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Aug 26, 2012 David Buhler rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: biography-or-memoir , travel

Langston Hughes,(February 1, 1902 – May 22, 1967), a most affable, intelligent, cosmopolitain, stubborn, prolific writer and persistent traveler chronicles in this book several years (beginning in 1929)of his young manhood traveling, first to Haiti (where he spent a winter) via Cuba, then all over southern and western USA reading his poetry, then to Russia for a year (to work on a film that was never got off the ground)and traveling much in that large country before returning home via Japan and ...more

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Feb 08, 2012 Tina rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I fell in love with Langston Hughes reading this book and have been obsessed with his life since. This is a compelling story that begins with his struggles with the racism of the south in the 1930's, coupled with a travelogue of his episodes as a journalist traveling around the world at a time when there were many interesting and poignant moments in history occurring; the Japanese invasion of China(when he is in Shanghai), the Spanish civil war (which he reports on as a journalist), and the earl ...more

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Jun 19, 2015 Dennis Greene rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

An amazing autobiography in terms of the unique and incredible experiences that Hughes speaks on. For example, he travels across the Soviet Union in the early 1930's.

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Apr 02, 2012 Sarah rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: audio-books , history

while i enjoy Langston Hughes' poetry, I am at a loss for how to feel about this. there were bits and pieces that were historically interesting, but even more of it seemed indulgent and annoying. He was halfway through his journey in the USSR and all I could think was get on with it. how many more towns can you visit. noting the exact same thing about each, food was horrible, people were unoppressed but strictly controlled at the same time. the red tape of the government, blah blah blah.. I real ...more

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Nov 05, 2013 Nina rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Langston Hughes is a likeable character. Likeable bordering on loveable. I am now considering reading his other autobiography. Does this book really evoke emotion? Not really. There were quite a few times I laughed like HA! but to LOL level. I felt a little sad a couple times but no tears either.

In this book, Hughes' focus is clearly racial segregation, throughout the entire book, as he travels all over the world. Would I have liked for him to share some thoughts on other topics that he encount ...more

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Jan 08, 2014 Joyce rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I listened to the audio version, and felt as if I was fortunate enough to be sitting at a dinner party (one I would never really be invited to) listening to the guest of honor relate stories of his travels. I felt this way because the tone of the book is so natural, the voice of a born story-teller, gently humorous and insightful. The book bogs down a bit in the last part, in Spain, but other than that, I loved it from start to finish.

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Sep 29, 2013 Spider rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Fairly well read, some interesting bits- but I didn't really care for it. Maybe because his perspective precluded his publishing things I'd have found more interesting. It seems to me that he may have been a bit lazy about note taking & deadlines, thus producing reams about mundane events, like how cold or hot or how little food or money, & gratuitous name dropping.

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Apr 15, 2010 Matthew Kunnari rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

before this book i knew about segregation in the south, but this book made me see it a new, it became real. hughes does a ton of traveling all over the world and his stories are very interesting. probably one of the best books i've read that looks at race and how racism differs depending on one's surroundings.

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Feb 20, 2013 Hannibal rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: bios

i LOVED "the big sea", was really excited to read it but i don't even remember if i finished this.
it was a little dull to me, his travels to all these foreign lands and what not. it didn't grab me like "big sea". BUT i'll give it another attempt at some point.

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Jan 06, 2008 Pia rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The autobiography of one of America's most prolific and important writers, Langston Hughes captures his travels to Russia, Cuba, and other far-off places. This book is a tribute to Hughes' life as an artist and a chronicle of his political commitments.

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Jul 10, 2008 Maria Elena rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is one of my favorite books of all time. Langston Hughes had a remarkable life, and reading about it in his own unmistakeable prose is truly a treat for the soul. Pick this up and his other autobiographical masterpiece, The Big Sea.

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Dec 22, 2011 David rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Here Langston Hughes continues telling the story of his colorful life that was filled with wanderlust. He traveled all over the world--Paris, Senegal, Spain,Russia, and the Asiatic Soviet Republics.

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Jul 22, 2008 Amanda LeDixon rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Almost as wonderful as The Big Sea but I wouldn't read it right afterwards because you can't appreciate it after having just read The Big Sea. Still, as glorious as glory.

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Nov 02, 2007 Suzann rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommends it for: history geeks and storytellers

Hughes cleverly uses humor to gloss over his more revolutionary periods, yet his engaging travels to middle Russia and beyond still make for a fine tale.

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Jan 19, 2008 Age rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A prolific writer & a world traveler. It is easy to understand why he such a profound writer when you read of his exploits around the world.

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Apr 23, 2008 Consuelo rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I first read this book in college as part of an International Studies capstone. I have since read it two more times.

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About Langston Hughes

Langston Hughes was an American poet, social activist, novelist, playwright, short story writer, and columnist. He was one of the earliest innovators of the then-new literary art form jazz poetry. Hughes is best known for his work during the Harlem Renaissance. He famously wrote about the period that "Harlem was in vogue."

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“Books -where if people suffered, they suffered in beautiful language, not in monosyllables, as we did in Kansas” — 3 likes

“Even to an outsider like myself, not only in the theatre was such disunity evident, but in much else in government Spain. Alvarez del Vayo, Socialist Minister of Foreign Affairs, once asked, "Why is it Spain's people are so great, but her leaders so small?” — 2 likes

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