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3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
Not Without Laughter

Not Without Laughter

Paperback

Series: Herald Classics

Classic FictionGeneral Fiction

Publisher Price: $14.99

ISBN10: 1454964790
ISBN13: 9781454964797
Publisher: Union Square & Co.
Published: Feb 3 2026
Pages: 272
Weight: 0.90
Height: 0.90 Width: 5.40 Depth: 8.20
Language: English
Langston Hughes's debut novel, a moving portrait of African American family life in 1930s Kansas, newly reissued for Union Square & Co.'s Herald Classics line.

Originally published in 1930, Not Without Laughter follows Sandy Rogers as a boy living in rural Kansas to his arrival in Chicago as a young man, set against a backdrop of poverty, racial segregation, and the onset of World War I. Orbiting Sandy are a host of vividly realized family members, including his mother Annjee, a housekeeper for a wealthy white family; his irresponsible father Jimboy, who plays guitar and is constantly in search of work; his aunts, blues-singing Aunt Harriet and social-climbing Aunt Tempy; and his pious, strong-willed grandmother Hager, who holds the generations together.

Partly inspired by Langston Hughes's early life in the Midwest, Not Without Laughter is the debut novel of the literary giant, a sweeping and elegiac family drama that traces Black life in the early twentieth century, an important setting in the history of a racially divided America.

15 different editions

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Hughes, Langston

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Classic Fiction