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Autobiography: The Big Sea (The Collected Works of Langston Hughes #13)

by Langston Hughes , Joseph McLaren (Editor)

4.14 of 5 stars 4.14 · rating details · 835 ratings · 71 reviews

Langston Hughes was among the Harlem Renaissance authors who traveled widely during the 1920s. In the first volume of his autobiography, The Big Sea, covering the years through 1931, Hughes offers recollections of his childhood in Kansas, his high school years in Cleveland, his sojourn with his father in Mexico, and his initial reactions to New York City and Harlem.

Comment Langston Hughes was among the Harlem Renaissance authors who traveled widely during the 1920s. In the first volume of his autobiography, The Big Sea, covering the years through 1931, Hughes offers recollections of his childhood in Kansas, his high school years in Cleveland, his sojourn with his father in Mexico, and his initial reactions to New York City and Harlem.

Commentaries on the "Black Renaissance" in Harlem and Washington, D.C., are intertwined with recollections of his student years at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania, his travels through the South, and his association as a "younger generation" poet with the New York and Harlem literary establishment represented by the magazines Crisis and Opportunity. Personal memories of Jessie Fauset, Countee Cullen, Jean Toomer, W. E. B. Du Bois, Wallace Thurman, Alain Locke, Carter G. Woodson, Vachel Lindsay, A'Lelia Walker, and others are augmented by allusions to such celebrities as Duke Ellington, Florence Mills, Eubie Blake, Florence Embry, Josephine Baker, Bert Williams, Theodore Dreiser, Ethel Barrymore, and Bessie Smith.

Hughes addresses such controversial issues as his literary and personal disagreements with Zora Neale Hurston over their play Mule Bone, Carl Van Vechten's problematic novel Nigger Heaven, racial matters at Lincoln University, the Jim Crow laws in the South, and the failures of white patronage. Furthermore, Hughes refers to the sources of a blues poetry aesthetic, his visit to Cuba, and the struggle to complete his first novel, Not without Laughter. A rare autobiographical presentation of the Harlem Renaissance from the perspective of an insider, The Big Sea is a veritable catalog of notables. In addition, it offers a "black perspective" on the expatriate life in Europe during the Jazz Age. ...more

Hardcover , 288 pages

Published September 16th 2002 by University of Missouri (first published 1940)

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Jul 24, 2015 Cheryl rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: memoirs , afro-american-flavor , narrative-nonfiction , american-lit

For my best poems were all written when I felt the worst.

Recall the boom of the 1920s, the one we think about when we remember the splash of Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby . Now think of how those years affected the Harlem Renaissance, an era which brought with it important contributions to American literature, an era we don't hear about too often. Alongside Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Stein, and others, were: Hughes, Thurman, Fauset, Locke, Hurston, Toomer, McKay, and others. Some were African Am ...more

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Aug 23, 2015 Betsy rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Quick and fabulously readable memoir-introduction to Langston Hughes' journey as a writer and his life as it unfolded through the 1920's and the Harlem Renaissance. What a brave, honest and talented human! Favorite quote: "I always do as I want, preferring to kill myself in my own way rather than die of boredom trying to live according to somebody else's 'good advice'."

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May 05, 2009 Lanier rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

4-8-09
Finally decided to do my final essay for my Masters on the man I've idolized since I was 13. I don't know what took me so long.

Anyway, just like his "Jesse B. Semple" short articles that showed the word the simplistic injustices through an "everyman's" everyman, Hughes writes his autobiography in the plainest of terms, yet, like Simple, extremely poignant, funny and painful.

I've only just begun my journeys through the halls of another writer trying to find place and identity within and wit 4-8-09
Finally decided to do my final essay for my Masters on the man I've idolized since I was 13. I don't know what took me so long.

Anyway, just like his "Jesse B. Semple" short articles that showed the word the simplistic injustices through an "everyman's" everyman, Hughes writes his autobiography in the plainest of terms, yet, like Simple, extremely poignant, funny and painful.

I've only just begun my journeys through the halls of another writer trying to find place and identity within and without America. The most painful line so far, and there are a myriad of them to choose from is: The Africans looked at me and would like believe that I was a Negro (page 11). This, after feeling abandoned by a wayward father and a selfish mother, having graduated from college and on a merchant ship to feel "at home" for once in the old country, only to be once again, "left out in the cold" from "Empty House" in Simple's Uncle Sam .

There is so much out there left to be seen, some of it can be learned from Hughes because there hasn't been anyone to come along like him in more than 40 years.

May 5
Finished earlier this weekend, some awesome insights into "black"lash when some major black critics of his day panned his second book of poems, New Clothes For the Jew , which he admitted was inappropriately mis-titled, but appropos to the downtrodden pawning their clothing to get money for food. They were equally as upset as the Jews, about Hughes's honest portrayal of black living conditions. These critics believed he was "Uncle Tom"ming the black race with his honesty, not revealing the better side of the race. However, we are all good, bad and indifferent. I do understand their anger and their concerns, knowing only through literature and films what they were dealing with, yet, Hughes was all about celebrating truth and love, no matter how sad, depressing or "ugly" it may be. ...more

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Sep 27, 2011 Angela rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I am not sure how I feel about this book or Langston Hughes. There were many times during the book where I really did not like him. I have wanted to learn more about him after reading a short story he wrote during his time in Paris. This is a man who was not the average African American. He had a lot of opportunities most did not have--his father being wealthy and living in Mexico. When he turned down his dad's offer to go to Switzerland and learn languages, I thought he was crazy. He was not ve ...more

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Sep 21, 2007 Jahi "Providence" rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommends it for: historians

From the time I was a little boy I knew of Langston Hughes. He was respected...he was almost 'revered'.
I didn't really know a lot about Langston, just that he was big during the Harlem Renaissance.
I remember reading a poem of his 'A Dream Deferred' as a child. It really stuck to me. I remember grabbing a piece of notebook paper and copying it down. Of course I had to add my non-artistic drawings to it in color, including clouds and trees and stars...I wish I had that piece of paper still.
When I ...more

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Aug 17, 2009 Damien rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

His life seemed pretty interesting but it bored me to read the way he wrote about it. Especially when he started name dropping during the Harlem Renaissance. It seems that he can give me no idea what was so good about it. I've always wondered what the story behind the rift between him and Zora Neale Hurston was, and still, I feel like he was evading the issue with vagueness and subtle misogyny. Actually, he was pretty vague on just about everything in his life. One of his reviewers wrote: "Langs ...more

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Oct 30, 2011 Michelle rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I don't want this autobiography to end. I wish I could write like Langston Hughes. This autobiography tells of his earlier years and his far travels. it is especially wonderful in how it talks about the cities he has lived in and the people he met. It makes the black world of the 1920s come alive. I feel like it was a travelogue of where to stay and what to do of that time. An absolutely dazzling book!

Quotes:
From the last page:
"Literature is a big sea full of many fish. I let down my nets and p ...more

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Jun 06, 2015 Kenya Wright rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This was an amazing story of his life! I love him even more now.

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Aug 14, 2015 Kevin added it · review of another edition

Very interesting and pleasant to read.

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Aug 23, 2015 Rick rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction

This is a very fine memoir, among the finest one can read by a 20th century American. It is crisp, observant, thoughtful, unique and beautifully written. It belongs in the neighborhood of A Moveable Feast , though with less spite or regretful nostalgia, and perhaps not quite as finely written but very close.

The memoir covers a relatively short period of Hughes’s life, primarily as a high school and college student to the point he establishes himself as a poet and journalist in the mid-1930s. (The This is a very fine memoir, among the finest one can read by a 20th century American. It is crisp, observant, thoughtful, unique and beautifully written. It belongs in the neighborhood of A Moveable Feast , though with less spite or regretful nostalgia, and perhaps not quite as finely written but very close.

The memoir covers a relatively short period of Hughes’s life, primarily as a high school and college student to the point he establishes himself as a poet and journalist in the mid-1930s. (The book was published in 1940.) There are also flashbacks to earlier years in his growing up, including time spent in Mexico with a domineering but aloof father. Perhaps best of all The Big Sea is also an interrupted sea story for Hughes, like O’Neill and Melville before him, went to sea as Ishmael did, to work his passage to places he wanted to see and to avoid falling into that mood that Melville’s protagonist noted where he was tempted to go about knocking people’s hats off their offending heads.

Beyond oceans and continents, Hughes also managed to travel across various lines of caste and cause. He worked as a busboy and sea cook but was well, if incompletely, educated and through his poetry had access to the educated black elite and, eventually, to America’s literary mansion, the black wing with some adjoining rooms to non-hyphenated rooms. His poems were appearing in The Crisis, the organ of the NAACP, and in noticed anthologies, so he could be at fancy dinners in D.C. or New York, but then disappear on a tramp steamer bound for Africa and then Paris. In Paris he could be penniless and get a job in a jazz club kitchen doing dishes but connect with musicians and writers and visiting African American notables. Significant figures such as Walter White, Alain Locke, James Weldon Johnson, Zora Neale Hurston, Carl Van Vechten, Jean Toomer, Vachel Lindsay, Paul Robeson and others make significant appearances. He attends parties where Jimmy Walker, the O’Neills, Ethel Waters, Louis Armstrong, Josephine Baker, and others are among the guests.

He had benefactors and patrons, black and white, but long moments of personal struggle and private difficulty. He had a problematic relationship with his father and a not very close one with his mother. The book is filled with wonderful descriptions of people, places, music, conflicts, life at sea, and writing. It has a memorable beginning, Hughes departing New York as a cook on a freighter dumping a sack of books into the harbor, signifying the end of one form of education and the beginning of another, and concludes with chapters on the rise and fall of the Harlem Renaissance. It’s brilliant. ...more

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Sep 23, 2015 Mary rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is Langston Hughes's autobiography, up to about the age of thirty or so, and ends at the time that he is an established writer. I read this as part of a university book club, which was reading it because it is the "freshman read" for this year, and I think it is a good choice - a lot of discussion and thought about questions of race that are coming up again today in light of the Confederate flag controversies, and also by analogy, of gay marriage and acceptance of transgender persons.
What ...more

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Mar 28, 2014 Lane Willson rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: autobiography , non-fiction

It seems rather odd for a writer to end his autobiography with the declaration that he has decided to become a writer. Of course for a 28 year old to write his autobiography is also not a usual occurrence. Since very little about Langston Hughes could be described as usual, his story in no way seemed out of place.

I came to Langston Hughes via William Styron and James Baldwin, and their interest and stories were enough for me to read on. I’m not much of a poetry man, as poetry does not usually c ...more

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Sep 23, 2014 Marc Kohlman rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Amazing autobiography full of the passions, triumphs and struggles of one of the Harlem Renaissance's greatest literary artists. I read this book for a course I am currently taking on Langston Hughes and it was interesting to learn more about him as a person. His prose is simple but beautiful, it also is direct that it is genuinely American. What I really was able to relate to in this book was Hughes devotion and faith in himself, especially as a writer. Complete community and obligation to his Amazing autobiography full of the passions, triumphs and struggles of one of the Harlem Renaissance's greatest literary artists. I read this book for a course I am currently taking on Langston Hughes and it was interesting to learn more about him as a person. His prose is simple but beautiful, it also is direct that it is genuinely American. What I really was able to relate to in this book was Hughes devotion and faith in himself, especially as a writer. Complete community and obligation to his audience and craft. Hughes had many hidden chambers of sadness internally, yet emphasized joy. Much of his sense of social oppression he used to write a lot of his poetry, which was incredible to me. The aesthetic side of Hughes life interestingly was in exploring African American life in the USA, which captivated me - especially as a mulatto much like Hughes himself. He had an integrated personality which only piques your curiosity to know more about how he feels. Based on the poems I read so far by him, music was a central element of them, which he definitely drew from the Blues culture of his childhood. Throughout the course of this book I became immersed in the moving within Hughes mind as he travels around the world. One of the most striking parts of the book to me was when he threw his books into the water. He was literally throwing all of his troubles away, the reminders of what he is trying to escape. Ironically, he witnesses society's prejudice even in trying to escape it. Hughes parents were by NO means supportive! Both were selfish and contradicted each other. Honestly, I had hardly any sympathy for them. The messages about race from the parents were both direct and not very outspoken. It is clear they do not appreciate Caucasian people. Hughes however judges people based on their character and is not stereotypical. The only admirable member of Hughes family was his grandmother, Mary Patterson Langston. She was a very independent woman in the very essence of the word. Full of pride, highly self-reliant and a true guiding force in Hughes childhood. She reminded me a lot of my own grandmother who raised me and instilled within me pride for my African heritage. Hughes early inheritances definitely were major influences which I have found in many of his poems. From the opportunities he had to see the world, his views of different cultures through actions and a respect for peoples morals after his "Divine Abandonment." his drive for intellectual pursuit after God 'abandoned" him was inspiring and a reminder for me to keep moving forward. He stepped toward saving himself, which I have had to do in my own life many times over. One thing that can truly be said about Hughes is that he loved the atmosphere of Harlem and the African American culture there. He had a bone-deep connection with the place and the cultural flourishing there during the time. H e really appreciated the Harlem Renaissance culture and totally fitted in there more than anywhere else he had been to in his life. Even though many reviews of his work were brutal, Hughes still continued to write. This book drew even closer to me as I started to understand Hughes more. He was way ahead of his time on self-hatred of being a mulatto. The internalized racism he combated with stuck out to me and reminded me of my own inner conflict of being a mulatto, not knowing where I fit in. The book's tone was nonchalant. While I gained a sense of Hughes personality, he still remained an enigma. There is a mask to him. Hughes is open throughout the book but he is aggressive, simple and guarded about it. He keeps the profound truths hidden but blocks emotional blows eloquently. He really does not want and/or have to reveal much about himself. One moment he is serious and the next he is sarcastic. Hughes certainly was a straightforward man who could turn on a dime. He talks about emotions without letting them run through, artfully covering everything up with a smile. It is total stoicism! Detached from feeling and able to disregard certain things. Hughes just says it and then leaves it. Even everyday experiences are all the norm to him beyond feeling emotion in certain situations. Part II of the book was more a story of other people and not Hughes at first, yet returns to tell his story. The account of history from his perspective was really interesting too. This book is more of a story about exploring the world, social justice and finding ones own place. It is called "The Big Sea" because Hughes was alone in the world with many possibilities and an ongoing adventure. The connection to other cultures I also related to, I always liked learning about different civilizations around the globe. Hughes life story is a good example of how you can steer on your own path in life sometimes. The notes he made on the class systems of different countries interested me as well, especially attitudes toward him for his race. The knowledge he acquired in each of his travels is evident in much of his poetry. In Italy he was an object, in Africa he was considered to be Caucasian and in the USA he hardly had any rights. When he does not feel accepted anywhere, he always goes back out onto the big sea. A feeling I know intimately well. I admire him for challenging social conventions despite being constantly subverted. Part III was the decline of the world Hughes spent most of his life searching for. The briefness of the Harlem Renaissance left a major impact on his life. It was a shame it ended so quickly including Hughes breakup with Ms. mason and his falling out with Zora N. Hurston. Hughes Lincoln university paper on bringing about change was very significant and his message to fellow African American writers to write more independently and not appeal to Caucasian audiences. This is a book everyone, especially young African Americans should read. Reading Hughes own indelible words help in getting to know the msn behind the great literary works. Anyone curious about who Langston Hughes, what inspired a lot of his work, and how he was personally; will really enjoy this. ...more

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Nov 07, 2011 Supineny rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I picked this up because I was curious what he had to report about Paris and Harlem in the 1920s. I really enjoyed this book. Of course its quite a bit more about Langston Hughes himself than about Paris or New York. Part of the pleasure is Hughes prose style here, which is by turns, economical, understated, frank and humorous. While he clearly has a quiet studious side (early on he gets a job on a ship anchored in the middle of the Hudson River where, isolated, he read books for months), his li ...more

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Jul 30, 2012 Rachel Jones rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Quite the simple and elegant autobiography, you might never guess Langston Hughes was The Harlem Renaissance poet if he hadn't included a few of his poems in this volume.

The value of Langston Hughes' work is clear in his views of the world- growing up a poor black man during the height of the Jim Crow days, he has strong opinions and observations of the way the world works and the value of a human being. He is not radical or militant in his beliefs, though, and seems to glide through some of Am ...more

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Feb 11, 2014 Rosie rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites , biographies-memoirs

So interesting! Of course a poet is the perfect author for an autobiography, although much of his storytelling isn't quite as whimsical as one might expect...and neither is his poetry for that matter. No, he's more of a social and, you might even say, politically minded fellow.
It's moving the deep love he had for his culture and race and the pride he feels in frequently referring to himself and others as "Negroes". The pieces of his life included in this book reflect a bit on the hardships of h ...more

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Nov 16, 2013 Carolynne rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: autobiography

As an autobiography, I think this book failed. I think I am likely to learn more about who Hughes was and why his writing was important by reading someone else's accounting of his life.

Hughes put a good deal of attention to the early years of his life - at least his many disappointments with his parents and how they failed him - but he jumped back and forth in time with a frequency that frustrated me and made the story difficult to follow.

He put much more attention and clarity to describing his As an autobiography, I think this book failed. I think I am likely to learn more about who Hughes was and why his writing was important by reading someone else's accounting of his life.

Hughes put a good deal of attention to the early years of his life - at least his many disappointments with his parents and how they failed him - but he jumped back and forth in time with a frequency that frustrated me and made the story difficult to follow.

He put much more attention and clarity to describing his years as a young poet, trying to survive by working as a ship's mess boy, a bus boy or a dishwasher. Yet, somehow, he seemed to be hiding behind the writing. He recounted the misdeeds and poor behavior of other men, and yet let the reader imagine he lived the life of a choir boy.

Suddenly, he's back in the US as a Lincoln University undergrad, and while he spends considerable time discussing those years, it is mostly frat boy pranks and namedropping. At this point, I became anxious for the book to end.

For the last part of the book, Hughes discusses a complicated relationship with a white sponsor, but again, rather than speaking about his impressions, his life, and how he was living and writing, he wasted paragraph after paragraph disparaging the inconsistencies of white and black upper crust Society and hiding behind these descriptions. He spends precious little time discussing himself; how he was living, what he was doing, writing, or feeling.

This book left me very dissatisfied. I don't feel that I learned much about who Langston Hughes was, except that when he is very angry, he somaticizes terrible stomach distress.
...more

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Aug 05, 2015 Don rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I picked up a copy of The Big Sea at the annual CWRU sale. It was a terrific read. Not only could Hughes turn a phrase but his life included many interesting jobs placed which he presented in the context of race in the 1920's. I now want to read more works of Langston including I Wonder as I Wander. In retirement I am pushing myself to read more and varied works. This book met that criteria. Wonderful read!

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Feb 08, 2009 Robin rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: biography , adventure , cultural-studies

Langston Hughes' autobiography from youth through his first successes as a writer. One of my favorite books. Told in first person in a conversational and unassuming manner, Hughes recounts how his early adult experiences shape his view of the world. He comes to terms with his clinging mother and his businessman father, who lives in Mexico and hates his own race. He works on a ship, experiencing casual racism and traveling to Europe and Africa. Finally, he settles in Harlem during the so-called H ...more

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Jul 07, 2015 R.K. Johnson rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

What an amazing journey! I feel like I sailed the big sea of Langston Hughes' life and again, all I can say is: What an amazing journey! I cannot believe I never read this before. Surely it must have been required at some point along my literary and historic journey?? How did I miss this? I am so happy to be 'fully' discovering the canon of Great and Supreme African-American authors. What a delicious treat!!! I love you Langston Poo :)

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Aug 15, 2015 Lynna rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: books-for-school

Freshman summer reading book. I expected to be bored, but it was actually very interesting! I learned a lot more about the lives of African Americans and the Harlem Renaissance than I ever did in history class. Langston Hughes' writing is poetic and interesting, and brings to lights many of the racial discriminations of the time. I enjoyed the time I spent reading about the ups and downs of his life and all the experiences that he had.

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Feb 01, 2015 Rich Hancuff rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The writing style of course is first rate. I was sometimes confused by the chronological order of events, especially toward the end, because Hughes follows one thread and then goes back to follow another (as it turns out) concurrent thread. What emerges from each telling, though, is a vibrant image of the writer and his life. I am looking forward to reading his continuation in I Wonder As I Wander.

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Apr 18, 2012 Eleanor rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

All I knew about Langston Hughes before I picked this up was that he was a noted early 20th C black author and poet, but I'd never read any of his work.

This book is his memoir from childhood through his early adult life, and follows him from his high school in Kansas to his father's ranch in Mexico, to Harlem in New York, then a period as a merchant marine travelling across the Atlantic, then to Paris in the '30s, and finally back to New York. He speaks three languages fluently, and brings a bri ...more

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May 05, 2014 Bonnie rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Although Hughes gives away very little of his personality or emotional reactions to his adventures, he certainly had adventures aplenty, and does provide a view into an era of history and social issues that I hadn't previously had much information on.

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

An excellent companion piece to "I Wonder As I Wander" in providing a sense of the life of an outstanding and committed African American poet.

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

Shelves: owned , bios

it's been like 4 years since i read this so some details are foggy to me. but i know it was a good autobiography and basically him telling the reader about his rise to the legend he has become.
there was some pretty scandalous stuff in here, but he kept it really light and fun and it made it easier to read.
i did read (or started to read) the follow up "wonder as i wander", and from what i remember it was basically about his travels abroad. i didn't like that one as much as this one. don't know ...more

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

Shelves: favorites

Most people know Langston Hughes as a famous poet. While he does shows his poetic side in this autobiography through vivid sensory detail and poems, he also shows other sides to himself. He travels to Mexico, Africa, Italy, and Spain to work and soak in the culture. He revels and participates in the Harlem Renaissance in New York. Most importantly, he takes pride in his race and fights for its voice while appreciating other cultures, despite the prejudice and racism he endures in America and abr ...more

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Aug 11, 2014 Larry rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Interesting history regarding a poet black mans life in the 1930's and how segregation continued in the US. Written in 1940.

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Aug 02, 2013 Andrew rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommends it for: everyone

I liked this book because Langston Hughes was writing about his life as a young man. Langston discusses in detail the problems he had with his father when he went to visit him in Mexico. Langston also discusses traveling to Europe and Africa and being a sailor.

However, the part of Langston's life which he completely ignores is love life in his memoir. Langston doesn't write about being a black gay man which I found disappointing. Yes, I know in the early twentieth century there was a lot of homo ...more

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Nov 30, 2014 Laura rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

LOVE HUGHES! "Melodramatic maybe, it seems to me now [...] You see, book had been happening to me."

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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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Other Books in the Series

The Collected Works of Langston Hughes (1 - 10 of 16 books)

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