Collected humorous stories from the iconic American writer’s newspaper column, featuring his most memorable and spirited fictional character.

In 1940, Langston Hughes introduced Jesse B. Semple, or “Simple,” to readers in his Chicago Defender column, “From Here to Yonder.” From his familiar perch in a fictional Harlem bar, Simple held forth on a variety of subjects—low wages, interracial marriage, birth control, race riots, the police—then central to black life in urban America. More than fifty years later, Simple’s concerns are, startlingly, still ours, and his voice, ringing with poetic wisdom and humor, reminds us of the rich African American folk tradition Langston Hughes helped to revive. This brilliantly edited collection by Akiba Sullivan Harper brings together the best stories from a number of Simple volumes long out of print and a few never before published. Its feel is so contemporary and relevant to American life one must marvel at Hughes’s ability to pass through the barrier of time.

Praise for The Return of Simple

“A glorious revelation . . . a chance for fairweather Hughes fans to acquaint themselves with something other than his poems and plays. This is the author as loquacious unleashed social commentator, who—prompted by ‘just one more beer, my friend’—holds up a mirror and shows us the world, which hasn’t changed very much, not in all this time.” —Boston Globe

“Hughes’s slices of urban black life belong also to the larger continuum of great American humor, from Mark Twain to Armistead Maupin. Quite simply, an indispensable part of our cultural heritage.” —Kirkus Reviews