Langston Hughes wrote several children's books

Langston Hughes wrote a foundational text for the Harlem Renaissance

Although the 1920s artistic movement lacked formal leaders, Hughes' 1926 essay "The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain" established him as one of its figureheads. Hughes' piece argues that Black artists should not be ashamed of their race; instead, they should embrace it, while simultaneously pursuing their own individual artistic visions.

Read Langston Hughes’ most famous poems

The writer is considered one of the most important voices in American verse, noted for his use of authentic vernacular, vivid imagery, and jazz-inspired rhythm in poems such as “Harlem,” “I, Too,” and “The Weary Blues.

Hughes wrote for and about everyday Black Americans

Early in his career, Hughes was often disregarded by prominent white literary critics and criticized by Black intellectuals for his sometimes negative portrayal of Black life. Hughes, though, was unconcerned, saying that he wrote for the “workers, roustabouts, and singers, and job hunters” of New York, Washington, Chicago, and other Black hubs.

'The Negro Speaks of Rivers’ introduced a teenage Hughes to the literary world

While traveling to Mexico to visit his father, Hughes began scrawling “The Negro Speaks of Rivers” as he crossed the Mississippi River, using the river as a metaphor for the Black experience. The poem was published in 1921 in the Crisis, an NAACP magazine edited by WEB DuBois, kickstarting Hughes’ literary career.

Hughes once taught creative writing to junior high and high school students

In 1949, Hughes accepted an eight-week contract at the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools to teach creative work, along with seminars on jazz and the “negro theme” in American poetry. He enjoyed his time at the school, but never returned to the classroom, noting that the early mornings and teaching load left little time for his writing.

Langston Hughes solicited ghost stories from his readers

Hughes had a column in the Chicago Defender newspaper for two decades. In 1951, he asked readers to send him their ghost stories, promising that he'd reward them with autographed copies of his books. He spent the next several months dedicating the column to the stories he received.

Hughes' 'Black Nativity' reworked the Christmas story through jazz improvisation

Although he’s primarily known as a poet, Langston Hughes was also a popular playwright. One of his most inventive works is the 1961 stage show “Black Nativity,” which told the story of Christ’s birth with an all-Black cast. Hughes’ original script encourages improvisation, calling on his love of jazz, and includes 27 songs.

Hughes’ ‘Harlem’ inspired Lorraine Hansberry’s ‘A Raisin in the Sun’

Hughes' 11-line poem from “Montage of a Dream Deferred” is one of the most recognizable verses in American literature. Part of that is due to its legacy as the inspiration for the title of Lorraine Hansberry’s landmark 1959 play “A Raisin in the Sun,” the first show written by a Black woman to appear on Broadway.

Langston Hughes performed with Muddy Waters at the Newport Jazz Fest

Hughes became involved with the Rhode Island music festival in 1956, sensing an opportunity to introduce the predominantly white audience to Black culture. In 1960, he helped book Muddy Waters for a blues session that featured the music alongside Hughes' poetic explanation of its history. The final song of the set, "Goodbye Newport Blues," found Waters' pianist singing lyrics Hughes had written earlier that day.

Stephen Hawking's children's books help make science fun and accessible for kids

Stephen Hawking co-wrote "George’s Secret Key to the Universe" with his daughter, Lucy, to introduce young readers to big questions about the cosmos. In the first book, the protagonist rides a comet and discovers that black holes aren’t black.

Jazz provided a soundtrack for the Civil Rights Movement

Songs like Billie Holiday's "Strange Fruit," which portrayed the grim brutality of lynching, and John Coltrane's "Alabama," which was modeled on the rhythm of a speech by Martin Luther King Jr., were the backbeat of the movement.

Mid-century modern graphic designers like Milton Glaser and Eric Carle found success with children's books

Glaser was famous for creating the "I Heart NY" logo, the DC Comics logo, and an iconic Bob Dylan poster for CBS Records, but he naturally transitioned to illustrating children's books like "The Smallest Elephant in the World" and "If Apples had Teeth." Carle, author of "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" and "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?," began his career in advertising. Scholars say mid-century modern's preference for clean lines and bold colors was a natural fit for kids' books.

Billboard's early music charts were racially segregated

In 1942, the publication introduced the Harlem Hit Parade chart, listing the top 10 records sold at select record stores in the majority-Black borough of New York. In 1945, it changed the chart’s name to Most Played Juke Box Race Records, using the music industry term (“race record”) that identified recordings by Black artists, even if they played music markedly similar to the white artists on the other charts.

Mid-century modern graphic designers, known for their bright colors and bold lines in advertising, also found success with children's books.

Analyzing why Dickinson was briefly marketed as a children's poet

In an effort to promote the posthumously published volumes of Dickinson's poetry, her editors positioned the work as children's literature, sometimes even amending the rhyme schemes to be more elementary. This brief look at the misguided marketing tries to understand why it seemed like such a good idea.

Ginsberg debuted 'Howl' at San Francisco's Six Gallery in 1955

The performance impressed Lawrence Ferlinghetti, owner of City Lights Books and City Lights Publishers. He eventually published "Howl and Other Poems." It would inspire a national movement that included Gregory Corso, LeRoi Jones (later known as Amiri Baraka), Bob Kaufman, Diane di Prima, Gary Snyder, Anne Waldman, and others.

The history behind the country's first Black-owned bookstore

In 1834, the first Black-owned book store was opened in New York City by abolitionist David Ruggles. Ruggles founded an antislavery newspaper and was an organizer for what eventually became the Underground Railroad. His bookstore was dedicated to abolitionist literature but was also a meeting place and lending library for Black people, including those who had escaped slavery.

'Huckleberry Finn' has a long history of book bans

Twain’s most famous novel was first banned in March 1885. Librarians in Concord, Massachusetts, called it “suitable only for the slums.” Since then, it’s been banned many more times, mostly because of how it deals with race. In recent decades, its use of the N-word, has led to its removal.

Watch a 1934 short film starring jazz legend Cab Calloway, a major figure in the Harlem Renaissance's music scene

'Harry Potter’ became the first kids' book to top the New York Times list since 1952

After its 1998 US release, "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone" reached No. 1 on The New York Times Best Seller list—the first children’s book to do so since "Charlotte’s Web." By September 1999, the first three books held the top three spots on the list.

The 'Problem We All Live With' was based on Ruby Bridges

The 1964 painting was based on Ruby Bridges, the first Black student to integrate an all-white school in Louisiana. Rockwell used Anita Gunn, the granddaughter of one of his friends, as the model, offering to pay for her violin lessons for her assistance.

Five books edited by Toni Morrison

Early in her literary career, Toni Morrison was an editor for Random House, where she acquired titles and worked with their writers to fine-tune their manuscripts. In 1983, Morrison left to focus on her own books, but she still managed to work on several excellent books. This list of five of those titles helpfully offers some context to highlight the ways Morrison acquired and assisted the writers through publication.

King once shelved his own book

“Rage” was one of King’s earliest novels and the first to be published under the pseudonym Richard Bachman. After several school shootings mirrored the book’s plot, in which a troubled student murders several of his teachers, King asked his publisher to discontinue the title, fearing it might have inspired the assailants.

Dr. Seuss was likely the first to use the word 'nerd' in print

The word appeared in 1950's "If I Ran the Zoo," but there are theories that the word (or forms of it) were already part of popular slang before the book was published.

Mort Sahl released the first stand-up album

There were comedy records that came before “The Future Lies Ahead,” but Sahl’s 1958 album, released by jazz imprint Verve, was the first official recording that captured a complete stand-up set.

By the mid-1980s, rappers began developing complex techniques

Early hip-hop featured straightforward meter and rhyme, with rappers generally following the beat and using rhyming couplets in the style of nursery rhymes. MCs like Rakim, though, began pushing the limits of the form through varied stresses and dynamic, multisyllabic slant rhymes.

Kendrick Lamar's "DAMN." was the first hip-hop album to win a Pulitzer

Kendrick Lamar’s 2017 Pulitzer win for his album "DAMN." made history as the first hip-hop artist ever to receive the award. The Pulitzer Prize for Music is usually awarded to classical and jazz compositions, making Lamar's win even more unexpected.

The 19th-century painters of the Hudson River School were among the first American romantics, with portraits that displayed the natural beauty of the young country.

English mathematician Ada Lovelace wrote the first computer algorithm a century before computers existed and hypothesized that computing devices would one day be able to compose music—foreseeing the generative AI systems of today.

American short story writer Flannery O'Connor raised 40 peacocks, which became potent symbols for her fiction's elegant violence

The Ramones' 'Pet Sematary,' the theme song for the Stephen King novel of the same name, was written while the band was admiring the writer's collection of horror memorabilia.

The tragic Pulitzer Prize-winning image 'The Vulture and the Little Girl' (1993) generated controversy, raised concerns about ethics in photography, and eventually led to the photographer's death.

Quincy Jones' 'Big Band Bossa Nova' helped introduce bossa nova—a jazz-influenced Brazilian genre—to the US

Browse a detailed visual analysis of over 200,000 similes—comparisons that often use 'like' or 'as'—from popular fiction to see how frequently writers the same idiomatic expressions.

In 1939, baseball star Lou Gehrig delivered his inspirational 'Luckiest Man' speech after retiring due to the health condition that now bears his name.

How the most famous Ebola book, The Hot Zone, which sold 3.5 million copies and was translated into 30 languages, got aspects of the disease so wrong.

A small portion of The Winstons' 'Amen, Brother,' an obscure '60s gospel record, is the basis for thousands of hip-hop tracks, making it one of the most sampled records ever that's informally known as 'the Amen break.'

Mark Twain spent decades feuding with the US Postal Service, convinced its costs and regulations were bureaucratic overreach.

A century of Billboard issues documenting the evolution of popular music.

The Brothers Grimm were lawyers before they were storytellers, but became interested in fairy tales as they began investigating how rules and customs had been passed down through cultures.

Explore a list of the 100 best novels of all time, compiled by some of the world's best living writers, including Salman Rushdie, Stephen King, and Jennifer Egan.

The first line of 'immortal' human cells, which can divide indefinitely and are used in scientific research, was nonconsensually taken from a Black woman.

American dance legend Martha Graham, sometimes called 'the Picasso of dance,' refused to perform at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin and conceived the piece 'Chronicle' in response to the experience.

In recent years a child anxiety expert has created and tested a novel phobia and anxiety treatment approach for children, focused on changing how parents respond to the fears.

Existentialist writer Jean-Paul Sartre coined the famous phrase 'Hell is—other people' in his play 'No Exit'

Apollo astronauts left items in the moon's 'toss zone,' including golf balls, family photos, and bags of human waste, to make room for lunar rocks.

The first image of a black hole was captured by creating an Earth-sized virtual observatory from a network of eight radio telescopes.

Many legends about George Washington, including his supposed wooden teeth and the story of cutting down the cherry tree, lack evidence.

Play the role of a student in a game where you try to navigate college and remain debt-free, selecting different income levels, high school experience, race, ethnicity, and more.

See a ranking of the best (and worst) Federal Reserve Chairs since 1914 out of the 16 men and women who have held the office since.