# My Dear Boy: Carrie Hughes's Letters to Langston Hughes, 1926-1938 - Hardcover

by **Carmaletta M. Williams** (Editor), **John Edgar Tidwell** (Editor)

_My Dear Boy_ brings a largely unexplored dimension of Langston Hughes to light. Carmaletta Williams and John Edgar Tidwell explain that scholars have neglected the vital role that correspondence between Carrie Hughes and her son Langston--Harlem Renaissance icon, renowned poet, playwright, fiction writer, autobiographer, and essayist--played in his work.

The more than 120 heretofore unexamined letters presented here are a veritable treasure trove of insights into the relationship between mother Carrie and her renowned son Langston. Until now, a scholarly consensus had begun to emerge, accepting the idea of their lives and his art as simple and transparent. But as Williams and Tidwell argue, this correspondence is precisely where scholars should start in order to understand the underlying complexity in Carrie and Langston's relationship. By employing Family Systems Theory for the first time in Hughes scholarship, they demonstrate that it is an essential heuristic for analyzing the Hughes family and its influence on his work. The study takes the critical truism about Langston's reticence to reveal his inner self and shows how his responses to Carrie were usually not in return letters but, instead, in his created art. Thus _My Dear Boy_ reveals the difficult negotiations between family and art that Langston engaged in as he attempted to sustain an elusive but enduring artistic reputation.

### Author Biography

**Carmaletta M. Williams (Editor)**  
CARMALETTA M. WILLIAMS, professor of English and African American studies at Johnson County Community College, is the author of _Langston Hughes in the Classroom: "Do Nothin' till You Hear from Me"_ and _Of Two Spirits: American Indian and African American Oral Histories_.

**John Edgar Tidwell (Editor)**  
JOHN EDGAR TIDWELL is a professor of English at the University of Kansas. His previous books include _Montage of a Dream: The Art and Life of Langston Hughes_, _After Winter: The Art and Life of Sterling A. Brown_, and _Writings of Frank Marshall Davis: A Voice of the Black Press_.

**Number of Pages:** 240

**Dimensions:** 0.89 x 9.32 x 6.34 IN

**Illustrated:** Yes

**Publication Date:** October 01, 2013

## Details

- **Price:** 71.21 USD
- **Vendor:** Books by splitShops
- **Type:** Books
- **Tags:** Books by splitShops, Shopify Collective

## Variants

| Variant | Price | Available |
|---------|-------|-----------|
| Default Title | 71.21 USD | In stock |

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- My Dear Boy: Carrie Hughes's Letters to Langston Hughes, 1926-1938 - Hardcover

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