Reading Order
Simple Speaks His Mind Reading Order
Simple Speaks His Mind (1950) by Langston Hughes is the first collection of the Jesse B. Semple ('Simple') stories — the comic dialogues and monologues featuring Harlem everyman Jesse B. Semple that Hughes had been publishing in the Chicago Defender newspaper since 1943. Simple is a working-class Black man from Virginia who has come North and is now living in Harlem; in the stories, he converses with an unnamed narrator in a Harlem bar or on the street, commenting on everything from Jim Crow and racism to women, landlords, and beer. Simple appears to be simple, but he is actually very wise — his vernacular observations about American racial life are both comic and penetrating. The Simple stories are Hughes's most popular and most characteristic prose work, and Simple Speaks His Mind was followed by four more volumes: Simple Takes a Wife (1953), Simple Stakes a Claim (1957), The Best of Simple (1961), and Simple's Uncle Sam (1965). The Simple character was so popular that Hughes also adapted him for a Broadway musical, Simply Heavenly (1957). Simple is the heir to the tradition of the vernacular trickster figure in African American literature — related to the figures in Hurston's Mules and Men and the folk tradition she documented — and he is one of the great comic characters in American fiction. The Simple stories are the best entry point to Hughes's prose for readers who do not know his work.
Where to start
The Simple stories are the best entry point to Hughes's prose. Start with Simple Speaks His Mind (1950) or The Best of Simple (1961), which is the omnibus selection. Any Hill and Wang paperback.
Complete Simple Speaks His Mind Book List
- 1Buy
Simple Speaks His Mind
Langston Hughes·1950·The first Simple collection — Jesse B. Semple's Harlem dialogues; the comic wisdom about American racial life; the vernacular voice; the heir to the African American trickster tradition; the best entry point to Hughes's prose. - 2Buy
The Best of Simple
Langston Hughes·1961·The omnibus selection — the best stories from all five Simple volumes; the ideal entry point for readers who want the range of the character across the full arc of the stories from 1943 to the 1960s. - 3Buy
Not Without Laughter
Langston Hughes·1930·Hughes's first novel — the companion in his prose fiction; the rural Kansas setting and the folk tradition of Not Without Laughter are the background for the urban Harlem vernacular of the Simple stories. - 4Buy
Mules and Men
Zora Neale Hurston·1935·Hurston's folklore collection — the companion in African American vernacular tradition; the folk tales and vernacular voices that Hurston documents are the same tradition that Simple embodies and extends in Hughes's urban Harlem setting. - 5Buy
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Mark Twain·1884·Twain's masterpiece — the American predecessor in vernacular fiction; the tradition of the wise, apparently naive vernacular narrator that Simple belongs to runs from Huck Finn through the African American tradition. - 6Buy
Tambourines to Glory
Langston Hughes·1958·Hughes's second novel — the companion fiction; written in the same vernacular mode as the Simple stories and best understood in relation to them. - 7Buy
Their Eyes Were Watching God
Zora Neale Hurston·1937·Hurston's masterpiece — the companion in African American vernacular fiction; Janie's voice in Hurston's novel is the feminine counterpart to Simple's masculine vernacular voice in Hughes's stories. - 8Buy
The Invisible Man
Ralph Ellison·1952·Ellison's masterpiece — the companion in African American fiction; where Ellison's narrator is educated and aspiring and is destroyed by his aspiration, Simple is vernacular and working-class and survives by his wit; they are companion portraits of Black masculinity in mid-century America.
Simple Speaks His Mind — Frequently Asked Questions
Who is Jesse B. Semple?
Jesse B. Semple, nicknamed 'Simple' (with the pun that he is not simple at all), is a working-class Black man from Virginia who has come North to Harlem, where he works a menial job, has complicated relationships with women, drinks beer in a Harlem bar, and converses with the unnamed narrator about everything from race and politics to landlords and the price of food. He was born in the stories published in the Chicago Defender in 1943, and by the time of his final appearance in the 1960s he has become one of the most beloved characters in American comic fiction. Simple's name contains the whole argument about him: he appears simple — uneducated, vernacular, working-class — but he is deeply wise about the realities of American racial life, and his apparently simple observations often cut to the heart of things that the educated narrator misses.
What are the Simple stories about?
The Simple stories are comic dialogues, usually between Simple and the unnamed narrator, ranging widely over the subjects of everyday Black life in Harlem: racism and Jim Crow, the contradictions of American democracy, women (Simple has a complicated romantic history and an ex-wife named Isabel), landlords, beer, work, religion, and whatever is in the news. The comedy comes from the contrast between Simple's vernacular directness and the narrator's more educated, often more cautious perspective — Simple often arrives at a sharper and truer conclusion through vernacular common sense than the narrator does through book knowledge. The stories are also topical: they respond to specific events in American racial history, from World War II (where Black soldiers fought for a democracy that didn't include them) through the civil rights movement.
Why are the Simple stories called that?
The stories are called the Simple stories after their protagonist Jesse B. Semple, whose nickname 'Simple' is an ironic one — he is called Simple by the people around him because he is working-class, vernacular, and apparently unsophisticated, but the joke of the stories is that Simple is actually very wise. Hughes is working in the African American tradition of the trickster figure — the figure who is underestimated because of his apparent simplicity or foolishness but who is actually the wisest person in the room. Simple is a Harlem version of this tradition, and his 'simple' vernacular observations about American racial life are often more penetrating than the formal analyses of educated commentators.
How did Hughes develop the Simple character?
Hughes has said that Simple was based on a real man he encountered in Harlem during World War II — a working-class man who spoke with great vernacular wisdom about his experiences. Hughes began publishing Simple stories in the Chicago Defender, one of the most important Black newspapers in America, in 1943, and they became enormously popular with African American readers who recognized the character and his voice. Hughes published Simple stories in the Defender for more than twenty years, and the five book collections span from 1950 to 1965. Simple also appeared on Broadway in Simply Heavenly (1957), a musical adaptation written by Hughes with music by David Martin.
What should I read after Simple Speaks His Mind?
After Simple Speaks His Mind, The Best of Simple (1961) is the omnibus selection with stories from all five volumes. Not Without Laughter (1930) is Hughes's novel. Tambourines to Glory (1958) is his second novel, written in a similar vernacular mode. For the companion in African American vernacular fiction, Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God and Mules and Men are essential. For the major African American comic novel of the following generation, Ishmael Reed's Mumbo Jumbo is the most important companion.
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