{"product_id":"9780826213426","title":"The Novels: Not without Laughter and Tambourines to Glory (The Collected Works of Langston Hughes)","description":"\u003cp\u003eAlthough best known as a poet, Langston Hughes was also the author of two novels that richly evoke the black experience in America. First published in 1930 and 1958, respectively, \u003ci\u003eNot without Laughter\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eTambourines to Glory\u003c\/i\u003e reflect the early and late vision of one of the twentieth century's most distinguished men of letters. In his introduction to this combined edition of both novels, Dolan Hubbard addresses Hughes's growing influence on American letters and reveals how a black aesthetic tradition shaped his art and his imagination.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eHughes shows us how the discourse of black America informs and alters our understanding of cultural history and of aesthetic values. In \u003ci\u003eNot without Laughter,\u003c\/i\u003e he movingly tells the story of a black boy growing into manhood in a small Kansas town during the early twentieth century and his experiences with race, family, school, work, music, and religion. His grandmother, a humble religious woman, struggles to keep her family (living with her are two of her three daughters, one son-in-law, and her grandson) together, on the meager income she earns by taking in washing.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eSet in Harlem, the center of Hughes's spiritual universe, \u003ci\u003eTambourines to Glory\u003c\/i\u003e is an urban folk melodrama based on the black fusion of Christian hymns and spirituals with the blues. This comic novel captures the spirit of newly transplanted southern blacks who bend the alien rhythms of the city to the gospel sound.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis volume of \u003ci\u003eThe Collected Works of Langston Hughes\u003c\/i\u003e is a testament to a man whose life and writings have had a profound influence on world literature and is proof that Hughes's immense talent embraced not only poetry, but fiction as well.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"University of Missouri Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47011839377648,"sku":"9780826213426","price":45.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9780826213426_p0.jpg?v=1763755638","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9780826213426","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}