Not Without Laughter

326, [10] pp. 8vo. Color illustrated endpapers, color frontispiece. A limited edition of the work originally published in 1930 by the American poet and social activist. This was his first novel. "Our greatest African American poet's award-winning first novel, about a black boy's coming-of-age in a largely white Kansas town. When first published in 1930, Not Without Laughter established Langston Hughes as not only a brilliant poet and leading light of the Harlem Renaissance but also a gifted novelist. In telling the story of Sandy Rogers, a young African American boy in small-town Kansas, and of his family - his mother, Annjee, a housekeeper for a wealthy white family; his irresponsible father, Jimboy, who plays the guitar and travels the country in search of employment; his strong-willed grandmother Hager, who clings to her faith; his Aunt Tempy, who marries a rich man; and his Aunt Harriet, who struggles to make it as a blues singer - Hughes gives the longings and lineaments of black life in the early twentieth century an important place in the history of racially divided America."