Tambourines to glory
Subtitle: a novel
By: by Langston Hughes.
Contributors: Smythe, Hugh H. 1913-1977, former owner.; Smythe, Mabel M. donor.
Publisher: John Day
Published: 1958
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 188
Description: Laura Reed and Essie Belle Johnson, two attractive Harlem tenement women with time on their hands and no jobs, decide to start their own gospel church on a street corner. Laura wishes to make money; Essie honestly desires to help people. "Money! I sure wish I had some. Say, Essie, why don't you and me start a church like Mother Bradley's? We ain't doing nothing else useful, and it would beat Home Relief. You sing good. I'll preach. We'll both take up collection and split it." "What denomination we gonna' be?" asked Essie, amused at the idea. "Start our own denomination, then we won't be beholding to nobody else." Laura and Essie are successful beyond their fondest dreams. They are joined by Birdie Lee, the little old lady trap drummer who can work the congregation to a feverish pitch, and by Deacon Grow-For-Day, impassioned confessor. In no time they have moved to a converted theater with a thousand seats and their names in lights on the marquee. Then, to tempt Laura, the serpent appears in the form of Big-Eyed Buddy, handsome front man for a numbers ring with designs on the temple, and the serenity of this Garden of Eden is shaken until Sister Essie and Birdie Lee return it to the Rock of Comfort. The author says, "Tambourines to Glory is an urban folk tale set against a background of colorful independent, unorthodox churches which have sprung up all over Harlem in the last decade. It is in no sense an attack on organized religion, or on cults as such, but is a fictional exposé of certain ways in which religion is misused in large city communities today by various types of unscrupulous leaders who might be called 'gospel racketeers,' preying upon the gullibility of simple people."--Dust jacket.
Notes: Dickinson, D.C.  Hughes, 34