Langston Hughes' Simple Stakes a Claim First Edition, 1957

Langston HUGHES

First Edition

[African American][Literature] Hughes, Langston. Simple Stakes a Claim. New York: Rinehart & Company, 1957. First edition. 8vo. 190 pages. Beige cloth board in green pictorial dust jacket. First edition of Hughes’s third installment in his “Simple” series, centering beloved Harlem every-man Jesse B. Semple, a Black working-class urban philosopher. Building on the popularity of the previous works in this series, Simple Speaks His Mind (1950) and Simple Takes a Wife (1953), this collection continues Hughes’s deft blend of satire, social commentary, and vernacular Black wit. The title character, Jesse B. Semple, better known as “Simple,” navigates postwar Harlem with a voice that resonates with insight and indignation. In this volume, Simple offers sharp perspectives on race, labor, housing discrimination, and interracial marriage, while maintaining his trademark wry humor. In one passage, Simple reflects on American double standards: “In Russia they say, ‘We the people.’ In America, the people say, ‘We the rich.’” First published as a newspaper column in the Chicago Defender, the “Simple” stories are deeply rooted in Hughes’s commitment to political engagement through accessible prose. As noted by scholar R. Baxter Miller, Hughes’s Simple stories “blended the oral Black tradition with incisive social critique, making Black urban life legible to a broad audience.” Dust jacket is chipped with loss to spine extremities, and rubbing throughout. Pages show some toning, otherwise internally clean and sound. Overall very good condition in fair dust jacket protected by mylar. Simple Stakes a Claim remains an essential record of midcentury African American life, wit, and resistance.

Item #22621

Price: $200.00