De-Attributing A Poem by Langston Hughes: Durward Collins’s “The Jesus,” 1960

ABSTRACT The poem “The Jesus” appears in the 1994 Collected Poems of Langston Hughes, listed there as having first been published in the magazine Chelsea (no. 8, October 1960), “under the pseudonym Durwood Collins.” The poem has attracted little scholarly or critical attention, perhaps because it is neologistic and obscurely referential, and for that reason, for many readers, un-Hughesian. In fact, the poem is not by Langston Hughes. It was written by Durward (rather than Durwood) Collins (1937–1987). This article de-attributes “The Jesus” and re-attributes it to Collins, mobilizing archival materials and contemporary correspondence, and reflecting on authorship, style, and attribution.