Arnold Rampersad, et al., eds. The Collected Works of Langston Hughes.

Columbia: U of Missouri P, 2001-.

Surely the general reader of African American literature has never been better served than by the monumental edition of The Collected Works of Langston Hughes in eighteen projected volumes, of which eleven have appeared. The chair of the editorial board is the dean of Hughes studies, Arnold Rampersad, but other leading scholars edit, and provide introductions to, separate volumes: Dolan Hubbard, Leslie Catherine Sanders (with Nancy Johnston), Donna Akiba Sullivan Harper, Christopher C. De Santis, Steven C. Tracy, and R. Baxter Miller. Rampersad's useful chronology is reprinted in each volume. Naturally most readers of African American Review already have Hughes on their shelves, but not in such abundance. In addition to the poetry, the plays, the novels, and the Simple stories, the Missouri edition contains much that is less familiar. The hefty volume nine, Essays on Art, Race, Politics, and World Affairs, contains 646 pages; volume ten is Fight for Freedom and Other Writings on Civil Rights; and volume twelve collects Works for Children and Young Adults. Thus, one can fill in gaps without purchasing the entire set and still have all of Hughes. Physically the volumes are easy to hold and the type is clear and large enough. Everyone involved in this monumental set deserves our gratitude, and the University of Missouri Press is to be warmly congratulated.