The guardian. [volume] (Boston, Mass.) 1901-1960, 1940-08-03

And he wrote. At first his pieces
had no publisher; later they began to
appear in ''The Crisis" and he became
known as a poet among his people,
Then Vachel Lindsay saw some Of his
work, liked it, and said so. 1t hap
pened this way.
1t was in 1925. Mr.. Hughes was
back from Europe, and was working
as a bus boy at the Wardman Park
Hotel in Washington. Mr.. Lindsay
came to the hotel on a lecture tour,
and at dinner-t time Mr. Hughes quietly
laid copies of a few of his poems
beside the older writer's plate. That
evening, at his lecture, Lindsay told
his audience how he had read the
work of that hotel bus-boy, that it
was good, that they had man OF
remarkable talent right there IN
Washington and hadn't discovered
him.
That was a publicity break indeed
Reporters came to interview Mr.
Hughes; his story and his picture were
printed in newspapers everywhere he
won "Opportunity's poetry prize, ana
began to meet important people IN the
world of observation-disclosures Weldon
johnson and Fora Hurston, Writer
Bynner and John Farrar, Alan
Locke and Carl Van Vechten. 1t was
Mr.. Van Vechten who persuaded MN
to submit his first collection OF poems
to a book publisher, Alfred A. knop1.
The book was called "The weary
Blues" and Mr.. Knopf published II
early in 1926. 1t went through num-
Der of editions and definitely estag-
lished its author as one Of America
important young poets before ne was
twenty-four years old. The doors u
literary New York and smart Harlem
were open to him; the golden tWenueS,
with their excitement and variety anu
easy money, were reckoning,
Many a young man under those Gl!-
cumstances would have rested on hlS
laurels, had fun for few glaImorIguto
wears, and then dropped out OF slgnL
Not Langston Hughes. ne Wen'
back to college-to Lincoln Ohl'Ti,
sitv. with a scholarship, where ne
worked and studied and wrote, WheLe
he instigated certain reforms IN Inc
makeup of the faculty, and where d ae
took his bachelors degree IN , lyl9i
During this period he contriDueIu
pieces to many magazines, anu Gi. P%D
iished two other books-"tlne CloVnoff
to the jew" a second collectl1n y
poems. and "Not Without LaugnteI,
a novel. There were week.-mrs. -
Harlem too, and summers spent nelg,
there and everywhere. All the greaSS
names of the literary twentieS B Svru
these pages-Van Vechten ana 1r DyH
ner. Somerset Vaughan, Fanny HuI Ioo
Hugh Walpole, William SeaoroI1Ih ora ace
Glenn. Reuben Mamoulian,' hol ond
Tiveright, Miguel Covarrublas' ai,'
dozens of other leaders in art mus Ii4',
letters, every field of human aGVly S.Ios
II was all wonderful, and Mr., Hugnvo
writes of it with the zest he musO nav
felt for that life while it lasted ,;uo
Then one day he awoke to reai he
that the Twenties were over, al anu ou Dr
own twenties were practicany L,,n.
too He had gold medal, -FOUR a Iol.
bred dollars in cash, no more scllo ,,.;ta
shin. and no job. But he could "l''''
And he did. A. - bio sea
Literature" he says, rs plE n cts
full of many fish. l let down my "''
and pulled" .,,.,, Of the
man who did that pulling, and it slloTs
not only what manner OF man l., ne
but why he has been pulling suc''''
fully ever since.