Signed and Inscribed Langston Hughes Not Without Laughter First Edition, 1930

1930. [African American] [Literature] Hughes, Langston. Not Without Laughter. This 1930 novel established Hughes as a major prose writer of the Harlem Renaissance. The novel explores Black working-class life in Kansas during the early twentieth century. Published at a moment when African American writers were reaching greater national visibility through institutions such as the NAACP and urban publishing networks in New York, the book addresses such complicated topics as race, class, religion, and generational tension within a Midwestern setting. Drawing upon Hughes's own upbringing in Lawrence, Kansas, the novel traces the coming of age of Sandy Rogersm, a young Black boy growing up in a multigenerational Black family in Kansas. The book is dedicated to J. E. Spingarn and Amy Spingarn, white patrons of the Harlem Renaissance who materially supported Black artists during the 1920s and early 1930s. As Hughes's only novel, it occupies a singular position in his bibliography and in the prose canon of the Harlem Renaissance.

Hughes, Langston. Not Without Laughter. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1930. Signed by the author on the front free endpaper: "For Estelle Pemberton, Sincerely, Langston Hughes." First edition. As stated on the copyright page: "First and Second Printing Before Publication - July, 1930." 8vo. Single volume. 326 pages. Original tan cloth stamped in dark brown and green with decorative border design. No dust jacket.

Issued between the publication of Hughes's early poetry collections and the economic disruptions of the Great Depression, Not Without Laughter is a singular fictional exploration of Black Midwestern domestic life in the early 20th century. The novel's engagement with colorism, labor, and the constraints imposed by Jim Crow-era social structures are groundbreaking within the American literary canon. Moderate wear to covers, including rubbing at extremities; no dust jacket; light toning to edges; interior pages clean; binding sound. Overall good condition. Signed first edition of Hughes's only novel, a cornerstone text of twentieth-century African American literature.