KZBlog

Copied from Harvard’s Central-Eurasia-L – Announcement List

Available for order from Kyrgyzstan: A reprint of Langston Hughes’ memoirs of traveling in Central Asia.

Description and ordering info behind the cut, although I have to say that I contacted the editor and haven’t heard back from him since, so I don’t know how reliable he is. Maybe he just got busy, as I did–hence not following it up.

A Negro Looks at Soviet Central Asia, by Langston Hughes, edited by David Mikosz

Al Salam Printhouse, Bishkek, 2006, 66 pp., $5 or 200 Kyrgyz sum + shipping
ISBN: 9967-23-555-1

Number of pages: 66
Cover: Softback, ISBN: 9967-23-555-1
To order: david.mikosz@gmail.com

This is the first reprint of a book that was published once in 1934 in the Soviet Union. 1,500 copies were printed and sold at a price of 60 kopeks. The material came from a trip to Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan by Langston Hughes in 1931. The original printed version has been scanned and typeset as close as possible to the original text (as found in the Leningrad State Library). Based on documents available at Yale University, Langston Hughes seems to have wished for large changes to be made to the text these were not made and the book was published as it is re-printed. However, Hughes’ corrections have been annotated in the text by the editor as endnotes so that the reader can also see what sections Hughes wished to change.

This work represents an interesting example of the optimism by American liberals for the Soviet Union that was abruptly cancelled as the Stalinist purges gradually gained strength. After several years of searching various libraries in Central Asia, the editor was unable to find the book in Central Asia and the only copy thus far located is in the Leningrad Library. This book is being republished with no commentary and in the interest of making this document more widely known.

David Mikosz, the editor, is a long time resident of Central Asia who has worked on a variety of development projects.

For information on how to receive this book, please write to: david.mikosz@gmail.com