Langston Hughes’s Correspondence with “International Literature”

Abstract

The article examines an episode in the correspondence between the African American poet Langston Hughes and “The International Literature” magazine: 1934-7 letters to Hughes from Walt Carmon, an American editor of the journal in 1933–1936, and Sergey Dinamov, Editor-in-chief in 1933–1937. An epistolary relationship with a literary institution (a journal affiliated first with an international and then a Soviet writers' organization) rather than individual private correspondents offers a new perspective on Hughes’ extensive epistolary corpus, so far published only in selected volumes, and his relations with the USSR.

Keywords

• langston hughes
• ussr
• “international literature”
• walt carmon
• sergey dinamov
• correspondence
• soviet-american literary contacts