given a full scholarship to Lincoln University and completed his bachelors and
published his poetry in Crisis (1923-24) and in Alain Locke's anthology The New
Negro (1925). His major early influences were Walt Whitman, Carl Sandburg, as
well as the black
poets Paul Laurence Dunbar, a master of both dialect and verse, and Claude
McKay,
a radical socialist who also wrote in lyric poetry.Hughes' first volume of poetry was The Weary Blues. The Harlem Renaissance was in effect and Hughes became one of the celebrated young talents who flourished it . There was some type of controversy that accompanied him with his new found fame, in part it was some Black-Americans who did not agree with his “extravagant dialect and personal interpretation” in his work. He faced harsh criticism, up to and including the bad impression that he was not in fact a great poet, but a “low-budget” writer in Harlem.
As
Hughes completed his years at Lincoln University in 1929, he also completed his
first novel, Not Without Laughter. At this time, coming out of school, he was
receiving financial assistance from Charlotte Mason, the patron he shared with
Zora Neale Hurston and Alain Locke. He also accepted her advice regarding thecontents and tone of the novel. He expressed disappointment with the completed novel, but the text remains in print, retaining uplifting representations of the diverse populations within the black community. He continued with his writing and eventually became a columnist for the evening journal.