Langston Hughes was one of the most important American writers of his generation, and one of the most versatile, producing poetry, fiction, drama, and autobiography. In this innovative study, R. Baxter Miller explores Hughes's life and art to enlarge our appreciation of his contribution to American letters. Arguing that readers often miss the complexity of Hughes's work because of its seeming accessibility, Miller begins with a discussion of the writer's auto-biography, an important yet hitherto neglected key to his imagination. Moving on to consider the subtle resonances of his life in the varied genres over which his imagination "wandered," Miller finds a constant symbiotic bond between the historical and the lyrical. The range of Hughes's artistic vision is revealed in his depiction of Black women, his political stance, his lyric and tragi-comic modes. This is one of the first studies to apply recent methods of literary analysis, including formalist, structuralist, and semiotic criticism, to the work of a Black American writer. Miller not only affirms in Hughes's work the peculiar qualities of Black American culture but provides a unifying conception of his art and identifies the primary metaphors lying at its heart. Here is a fresh and coherent reading of the work of one of the twentieth century's greatest voices, a reinterpretation that renews our appreciation not only of Black American text and heritage but of the literary imagination itself.

The first volume of the series, on "The Stability of the Differentiated State" received many favorable reviews from the scientific community. Many readers seem to agree with us that publication of topical volumes is a worthwhile alternative to periodic compilations of rather unrelated, though up-to-date reviews. Production of topical volumes is however, plagued with one great difficulty, that of "author synchronization." This difficulty explains the lag between volumes 1 and 2 of the series. Nevertheless we hope that the present volume will be appreciated as a valuable source of information on its central topic: How do cell organelles originate, and what mechanisms assure their continuity? Tubingen, Berlin, Zurich, \V. BEERMANN, J. REINERT, H. URSPRUNG, Heidelberg H. -W. HA GENS Contents Assembly, Continuity, and Exchanges in Certain Cytoplasmic Membrane Systems by W. GORDON WHALEY, MARIANNE DAUWALDER, aud ]OYCE E. KEPHART 1 I. The Nature of the Membrane. . . . . . H. The Assembly of Membranes . . . . . . 5 III. The Growth and Transfer of Membranes. 6 A. The Nuclear Envelopc . . . 6 B. The Endoplasmic Reticulum 13 C. The Golgi Apparatus . 17 D. The Plasma Membrane 28 E. Vacuoles and Vesicles 31 IV. Concluding Remarks 37 References . . . . . 38 Origin and Continuity of Mitochondria by ROBERT BAXTER 1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 H. Mitochondrial Biogenesis: thc Machincry 46 III. Limitations of Mitochondrial Autonomy 50 IV. The Replication of Mitochondria 53 V. Discussion and Conclusion 58 Referenccs . . . . . . . . . 59 Origin and Continuity of Plastids by \VILFRIED STUBBE 1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65 II. Arguments for the Continuity of Plastids ."

At the turn of the century, a definitive history of the Suez Canal by Charles-Roux, L' I sthme et le Canal de Suez, listed in its bibliogra phy 1499 items on this major interoceanic waterway. A conservative estimate would probably set at double, treble, or quadruple this number the notes and studies on the Suez Canal which have been published since 1901. A word of explanation about a further work on the Canal may therefore be called for. its history the Suez Canal has been the focus of con Throughout troversy and conflict, arising out of attempts to control this crucial point on the sea passage linking Europe with the east coast of Africa, India, the Far East and Australasia. Much of this troubled history yields more readily to political than to legal analysis. The most important single legal question about the Canal concerns the dimen sions of the right of free passage. That question has become of grave concern to the entire world community only with the war between the Arab States and Israel and the short-lived conflict of 1956-57 between France, Great Britain, and Israel on the one hand and Egypt on the other."

For Black writers, what is tradition? What does it mean to them that Western humanism has excluded Black culture? Seven noted Black writers and critics take up these and other questions in this collection of original essays, attempting to redefine humanism from a Black perspective, to free it from ethnocentrism, and to enlarge its cultural base. Contributors: Richard K. Barksdale, Alice Childress, Chester J. Fontenot, Michael S. Harper, Trudier Harris, George E. Kent, R. Baxter Miller

Written by a lifelong champion of civil rights, this is the story of Kenneth Harper, a young black physician who, after having studied in the North in the early part of the twentieth century, returns to his hometown of Central City in South Georgia to practice medicine. Believing the days of oppression for blacks in the South were waning, Harper finds all too soon that the roots of intolerance grow deep. As he becomes increasingly aware of the ways in which the black community remains enslaved, Harper helps local sharecroppers organize a cooperative society to share in the economic freedom traditionally reserved for white landowners. The Ku Klux Klan is quickly rallied into action, and Harper finds himself in a violent and vengeful battle with the Klan. Amid the story's tragedy and violence, Walter White reflects the complex nuances of humanity within white and black communities in conflict.