The Life of Langston Hughes

Arnold Rampersad (born 1941) is a Trinidadian-American biographer and literary critic renowned for his definitive biographies of major African American figures, including the two-volume The Life of Langston Hughes (1986-1988, Pulitzer finalist), Ralph Ellison: A Biography (2007, National Book Award finalist), and works on W.E.B. Du Bois and Jackie Robinson. His major achievements include a MacArthur "Genius Grant" (1991-1996), the National Humanities Medal (2010), and election to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.