Letter from Langston Hughes (1901–1967) to Joel Spingarn (1875–1939)

Already an award-winning poet and leader of the Harlem Renaissance, Langston Hughes published his debut novel, Not Without Laughter, at the age of 29. The book centers on a young Black man’s coming of age in rural Kansas, and explores themes that appear throughout Hughes’s writing: social and racial inequality, the importance of music, the beauty of language. With this letter, Hughes asks to dedicate the novel to Joel Spingarn and his wife, Amy, noting his “deep appreciation for what you have done for the Negro peoples, and my happiness in the friendship of you both.” Spingarn was a fellow writer and activist, and a founder of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).