effectively conveyed through a series of brief sketches (ultimately collected in five volumes), in which he traded opinions with a somewhat stuffy and respectable acquaintance, who served as a foil for Simple's much more unguarded and unconventional views. Both characters were drawn from aspects of Hughes's own personality. The inspiration for Simple had originally come to Hughes through a conversation with a defense-plant worker in January 1943. The first Simple sketch, intended to serve as pro-war propaganda, appeared a month later in Hughes's regular column in the Chicago Defender, a black newspaper with a national readership. From the beginning, Simple was a great hit with Hughes's readers--although, as so often with his work, the sketches drew objections from more "respectable" types--and has remained one of the most enduring aspects of his achievement....
