Langston Hughes, always a Vintage Black Glamour favorite, was born 111 years ago today in Joplin, Missouri. This 1932 photograph was taken by his good friend, Carl Van Vechten and was eventually given as a gift by another friend, the illustrator Prentiss Taylor, to the National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution.
I am currently reading “The Life of Langston Hughes, Volume 1: 1902-1941” by Arnold Rampersad so, especially as I work on the Vintage Black Glamour book, Langston Hughes is often on my mind. In this photo by Nickolas Muray taken in 1923, Mr. Hughes was about 21 years old.
Langston Hughes and Dorothy West, on their way to Russia in 1933, photographed by Carl Van Vechten.
Countee Cullen in Central Park, 1941
photo by Carl Van Vechten
Poet Countee Cullen, photographed in Central Park in 1941 by Carl Van Vechten.
(via backtothefiveanddime)
Zora Neale Hurston was born on this day in 1891. Here, she was photographed by Carl Van Vechten in Chicago on November 9, 1934.
Author Jean Toomer, best known as the author of “Cane,” in 1934.
Alene Lee, a Beat Generation writer best known as Jack Kerouac’s girlfriend (and the inspiration for “Mardou Fox” in The Subterraneans), with William S. Burroughs at Allen Ginsberg’s apartment around 1953. Read her story “Sisters” here.
Langston Hughes in the 1920s.
Mary Elizabeth Vroman on the cover of Jet, October 13, 1952. Her short story, “See How They Run” was published in the June 1952 issue of Ladies Home Journal and adapted into the 1953 film, “Bright Road” which starred Dorothy Dandridge and Harry Belafonte.
Dorothy Dandridge with actor Philip Hepburn in the 1953 film, “Bright Road.” The script was based on the story, “See How They Run” by black author Mary Elizabeth Vroman after it was published in the June 1951 issue of Ladies Home Journal. Harry Belafonte was the star of the film.
Prince and Nikki Giovanni were born on Gwendolyn Brooks birthday. The original caption from this May 2, 1950 photo: A 32-year-old housewife and part time secretary has won the Pulitzer Prize in Poetry for “Annie Allen,” a ballad of Chicago Negro life. The first woman to capture one of the famed awards, she is the mother of a 9-year-old boy and the wife of Henry Blakely, partner in an auto repair shop.
Happy Birthday Nikki Giovanni!
