Langston’s Train Ride

While Langston Hughes is on the way to a party in Harlem to celebrate the publication of his first book of poems, he recalls a train ride down to Mexico. As the train crosses the Mississippi River, eighteen-year-old Langston imagines the importance of rivers to his ancestors. Then, on the back of an envelope, he scrawls out the first line of what would become one of his most well-known poems: "I’ve known rivers." Author’s note. Full-color art.