<p><em>The Big Sea</em> (1940) is a novel by American poet Langston Hughes. It chronicles Hughes&#8217;s life as a young adult in Harlem and Paris in the 1920s. In Paris, he was a cook and waiter in nightclubs. In Harlem, he was a rising young poet at the center of the Harlem Renaissance.</p> The Big Sea (1940) is a novel by American poet Langston Hughes. It chronicles Hughes's life as a young adult in Harlem and Paris in the 1920s. In Paris, he was a cook and waiter in nightclubs. In Harlem, he was a rising young poet at the center of the Harlem Renaissance.