<DIV><p style="line-height: 150%">Volume 2 includes the books <i>Shakespeare in Harlem</i> (1942), <i>Jim Crow's Last Stand</i> (1943), <i>Fields of Wonder</i> (1947), and <i>One-Way Ticket</i> (1949). Starting around 1940, Hughes turned away from radical socialism toward strong support for the national war effort; as a poet, he resumed his experimentation in the blues, as <i>Shakespeare in Harlem</i> brilliantly demonstrates. With this change in political emphasis came a renewed commitment to the achievement of civil rights for blacks, which <i>Jim Crow's Last Stand</i> vigorously asserts. In contrast, <i>Fields of Wonder</i> was Hughes's only book devoted almost entirely to lyric verse; but the next volume, <i>One-Way Ticket,</i> restored the balance that was essential to his creative expression as a poet.</p></DIV>