Three Of My Literary Heroes

Three Of My Literary Heroes

            I have always found African American Literature amazing.  It has inspired me in many ways to continue to develop as a poet, playwright, and essayist.  Over the years, I have read the works of many great writers such as Langston Hughes, Paul Laurence Dunbar, and Countee Cullen.  These authors did not only achieved fame but they have left a legacy of greatness for other writers to follow.  These great men have raised the bar of excellence as authors but more importantly they did these great works against all odds.  For many reasons, these authors have inspired me not only to write but to carry on my life's calling which is using my talents as a writer to glorify God. 

            As for these writers, I have found their lives and their work to be very fascinating.  Their lives and works has compelled me to envision myself not only as a author but as a man.  I know no one is perfect but everyone has people that they admire and these men I greatly admire for many different reasons.  As a student of literature, I have learned that for someone to be considered a part of literature, is that the authors work has to last the test of time.  Each of these authors' works have been chosen and have stood the test of time.  This makes them without a doubt literature, as each one of these fine individuals, as literary heroes, has left an impact on me in many various ways. 

            For it was Langston Hughes, his longevity as do it all writer, whose career went into epic proportions as he continued have his work published up until his death in 1967.  As for Paul Laurence Dunbar, he was not the first African American writer, but he was the first African American writer to be accepted by African Americans and Whites.  Despite the odds, Dunbar succeeded and inspired the hearts and souls of many younger African American authors to follow.  When it comes to Countee Cullen, what stands out to me beyond his great writing is that he had a very high standard of moral conduct.  He was considered by many in his generation as the first African American Christian writer.  Cullen set a standard for writing about his beliefs and in his actions in the way he lived his life as a man.  It was each of these fine men and in their own unique ways that helps me to continue to believe and achieve my goals as a writer and as a man.

            Langston Hughes was born in 1902 and died in 1967.  He was a poet, playwright, essayist, novelist, and journalist and contributed to many genres of literature as a writer.  He was a do it all writer, who still today is primarily known as a poet.  Although, Hughes poems were very famous, he enjoyed success as a novelist, and a playwright.  His novels, Not Without Laughter and Tambourines To Glory were very well regarded as great works.  Hughes also was a accomplished journalist and he went all over world reporting news and working for many magazines and newspaper companies.  As a matter of a fact, Hughes went to Europe, to cover the African American soldiers that fought in World War II for Ebony magazine.  As a playwright, he was just as successful as he was as a novelist and poet.  His plays such as, Mulatto and Black Nativity were huge hits on the theater scene.  As a matter of a fact, the play Black Nativity was just recently turned into movie about four years ago.  This shows Hughes' legacy as a man and a writer is a legacy that only continues to thrive.  Hughes survived The Harlem Renaissance, the literary period in which he became famous.  After this great literary era was over, he was still producing great material in many different genres of literature.  It was this man's great work ethic that led to his longevity that I will forever remember and learn from and with the most highest regards for Langston Hughes as one my literary heroes.  In his poem, Justice, I must quote, “ That Justice is a blind goddess is a thing to which we black are wise.  Her bandage hides festering sores that once perhaps were eyes.”  This poem is very short but very powerful and yet it shows Hughes' creative skills and also his passion for justice and racial equality for African Americans.  It is through this man's work ethic and longevity that only continues to compels me to express my passion and live my dreams.

            Paul Laurence Dunbar was a legend for me and also many other people.  He was born in 1872 and died in 1906.  At the time of his untimely death, he was only 33 years old.  He left a powerful body of works as a poet, playwright and novelist.  He was born in Dayton, Ohio and was the son of former slaves.  His first book of poems was called Oak And Ivy, and was the book that would lead him to a life of fame.  After the publication of Oak and Ivy, Dunbar traveled to the World's Fair which was in Detroit, Michigan and that year it was there that Dunbar met Fredrick Douglass.  Douglass was a famous abolitionist and he later became the United States ambassador to Haiti.  Douglas was so impressed with Dunbar that he hired Dunbar to work for him as a clerk.  Douglass became Dunbar's mentor and helped him excel as a writer.  As a poet, Dunbar was highly skilled at dialect poems and humor poems.  He also was a master when it came to Shakespearean sonnets.  In his short life time, Dunbar carried the weight and burdens of many as he was considered and well respected as the first professional African American writer.  Although, Dunbar was not the first African American writer, he was the first African American writer that was accepted by both races.  As his legendary status grew, he would be critiqued by many major literary critics during his time.  Literary critic Dean William Howells, reviewed Dunbar's second book of poetry, called Majors And Minors.  Howells criticized Dunbar as he only praised Dunbar's dialect poems.  However, Howells thought that Dunbar was limited as a poet.  Yet, Howells over looked Dunbar's Shakespearean Sonnets that where wrote in standard English verse.  This hurt Dunbar completely because people in those times, would only go on to notice his talents when it came to dialect poems.  Dunbar was ahead of his time when he wrote his dialect poems because he set the stage for many other famous African American writers to later emerge.  It was the life and soul of Paul Laurence Dunbar a man, myth, and a legend who gave birth to idea that an African American could have a professional career as a writer.  It was through this man's art, heart, and soul that has not only inspired and influenced me as writer but also so many more to follow. 

            Dunbar was a man who understood his position and rare opportunity with great importance.  He expressed this is in his poem titled,  A Prayer he wrote, “ O Lord, the hard-won miles Have worn my stumbling feet: Oh, soothe me with thy smiles, And make my life complete.  The thorns were thick and keen Where' er I trembling trod; The way was long between My wounded feet and God.  Where healing waters flow Do thou my footsteps lead.  My heart is aching so; Thy gracious balm I need.”  His poem A Prayer, shows the pain and suffering that he experienced in his life time, yet he was never afraid to bare his soul in his writing.  This shows me that I can only grow and continue to dream because Mr. Paul Laurence Dunbar paved the way for me and others so we could write and dream. 

            When it comes to a writer having a high sense of moral dedication and religious beliefs, combined with creative skill and honesty, I think of Countee Cullen.  Cullen was a adopted  child and was raised in Harlem, New York.  He was supposedly born in 1902 and died in 1946.  Cullen was a star poet, novelist, playwright, and essayist from an early age.  His adopted father was a very prominent Methodist minister that saw Cullen's potential at very young age.  By the time he was 22, he was the most famous and celebrated African American poet of his time.  He was a huge figure in the Harlem Renaissance, as he was a contemporary of Langston Hughes, Wallace Thurman, Claude McKay, and James Weldon Johnson.  Cullen, was a child's protege in which he peaked as a poet very early in life.  Academically, Cullen was just as accomplished and he received his bachelor's from New York University and his Masters' from Harvard University.  As poet, Cullen's work reflected on pious beliefs of being a Christian.  As he excelled as a writer, Cullen would be later considered in literary history as the first proclaimed Christian African American writer.  Since he was adopted, he would later become united with his biological mother and he would take care of her for the rest of her life.  This

great man would die at age of 42, leaving a great legacy as man whose work professed his beliefs in Christ.  Like Hughes and Dunbar, Cullen was a man who was very proud of his African American heritage and he always wanted to inspire people.  His moral dedication as a Christian, was shown in his poem called, A Thorn Forever In The Breast.  As Cullen wrote “  This is the certain end his dream achieves: He sweats his blood and prayers while others sleep, And shoulders his own coffin up a steep Immortal mountain, there to meet his doom Between two wretched dying men, of whom One doubts, and one for pity's sake believes.”  This shows Cullen's religious beliefs and that he was never ashamed to not only write about them but to profess them boldly.  The life, work and the high moral beliefs of Countee Cullen, have taught and shaped me not only as a poet but as a man and as a Christian.  It is a man like Countee Cullen that inspires me to keep on striving for God and my dreams.

            African American Literature will always inspire, educate, and motivate me to continue to follow my dreams.  It is through learning about different periods of history that I am informed about culture and society in America.  The lives and the works of these fine individuals Langston Hughes, Paul Laurence Dunbar, and Countee Cullen have impacted so many as their works remain timeless.  These issues that these men wrote about in their time's still are very relative today.  If I didn't have these great examples to look toward, I may have been reluctant to become a writer myself.  It is the very essence of life that literature captures with words in the form of imagery.  Sometimes, the words are not as pretty or seem to be kind of awkward but as long as they are real they define the human spirit of life.  This is what I find when I read and study my Literary Heroes.