Groundsite Image Gallery
Sculpture of Langston Hughes
Artist: Hughes, Langston
Height: 0.000"
Width: 0.000"
Watkins Community Museum of History, formerly Watkins Bank, 1047 Massachusetts St., second floor (1888)
James Patti created this life-size sculpture of Langston Hughes as a paperboy. In The Big Sea, Hughes remembers delivering the Saturday Evening Post, daily newspapers, and the Appeal to Reason. John Taylor, a boyhood friend of Hughes, helped Patti with details of dress.
Taylor maintained a life-long friendship and correspondence with the great writer. In 1974 he told a news reporter that Hughes sent him a copy of each new book. He remembered Hughes “was beyond most children in school and didn’t need to study much.” He also remembered Hughes had a sunny disposition most of the time: “He loved people, lots of people and had a ready smile. He frowned very little, but when he did, had a reason. His theory was that it took more muscles to frown than to smile.” In this depiction, the young poet does smile, but he seems reflective as well.