Some of Harlem's Remarkable Authors
James Merced Langston Hughes was a poet, social activist, novelist, playwright and a columnist. He was born February 1, 1902 in Joplin, Missouri. His parents divorced when he was young, leading to his father moving to Mexico and getting raised by his grandmother until the age of 13. He then went on to move with his mother and her now husband in Lincoln, Illinois. There later on settled in Cleveland, Ohio but it was in Lincoln when he first started writing. In 1924, Langston moved to Washington D.C to get his publish first poetry book, The Weary Blues, published by Alfred A. Knopf in 1926. Langston continued and finished his college education at Lincoln University and proceeded to move on to a university in Pennsylvania. Three years after doing so, in 1930, his first novel "Not Without Laughter" won the Harmon gold medal for literature. Hughes wrote 11 plays and countless works of prose. Langston passed away on May 22, 1967 at the age of 65. He was a wonderful poet and inspired so many people along his journey, his work still speaks to people now in days
Like Langston, Zora Neal Hurtson was a writer but she was also a floklorist, and anthropologist. She was born on January 7, 1891 in Nostasulga, Alabama. Hurtson was a child of, at the time, 2 former slaves. Her father was a baptist preacher, tenant farmer, and carpenter, and her mother was a school teacher. At 3 years old, her family moved to Eatonville, Florida. She used this location as her backdrop for her stories. a year later her mother passed away and her father remarried soon after. Hurtson attended Morgan College, the highschool dividion, in 1917. She graduated from Morgan Satate University high school in 1918. In that same year she began studying at Howard University. After graduating, Hurtson spent 2 years as a graduate student in anthropology at Colombia. In addition to her continuing literary career, she served on faculty of North Carolina College for Negroes.