MDD/CAW/271

WAR DEPARTMENT

THE ADJUTANT GENERAL'S OFFICE

IN REPLY
REFER TO
A. G. 291.21 (2-28-27)

Exec.

WASHINGTON

March 11, 1927.

Mr. Harold Denzil Jackman,
7 West 134th Street,
New York, N. Y.

Dear Sir:

In response to your letter of recent data, in which you request to be advised whether there is any pamphlet or booklet dealing with the enlistment, service or war record of negro soldiers of the World War, I am directed by the Secretary of War to advise you as follows:

No attempt has ever been made in the War Department to compile, for publication purposes, data relating exclusively to the participation of negro soldiers in the United States Army during any period whatsoever. The Department is therefore not in a position to furnish an official document or publication concerning the part played solely by colored soldiers during the World War.

According to the most reliable relevant statistics available, 403,581 colored individuals, of whom 1,333 were commissioned officers and 402,248 were enlisted men, served in the Army of the United States during the World War. Of the total number of these colored troops, 843 officers and 194,459 enlisted men served in the American Expeditionary Forces. These figures are still subject to revision, but it is believed that no material change will be made.

Deaths from all causes among the total number of colored troops during the period of the World War approximate 9,800. In a recent compilation of World War battle casualty statistics, it appears that in the 92nd and 93rd Divisions there were 773 either killed in action or died of wounds received in action, and that 4,408 others were wounded, not mortally. These figures include, however, 40 deaths and 184 woundings, respectively, among commissioned officers, both white and colored. Separate statistics according to color are not yet available in this connection.

You would doubtless be interested in an unofficial publication which contains a variety of information on the general subject of negro participation in the War, entitled "The American Negro in the World War", by Dr. Emmett J. Scott, Secretary, Howard University, Washington, D. C.

HAROLD DENZIL JACKMAN
7 WEST 134TH STREET
NEW YORK CITY

8 - APRIL 1927

Clau. Mr. Kay, 5 sq.

Place de la Madeleine Poste Restante

Paris, France.

Antibes AM

Cleg

Thomas Crotts et filo

Chez Thomas Cook & fils
11 bis rue Noailles
Marseille (B-du-Rhone)

April 28, 1927

My dear Jackman

I thank you very much for your letter and the information.
It was just those skeleton facts that I wanted. Scott's book would
be of very little use to me, thanks. The American administration
is welcome to it. Have you heard anything of a book or pamphlet
called: Two colored women with the A. E. F. I think it was written
by one Hunton.

I have seen no copies of Ulysses in the book stores here
at Nice. I came down specially to see. But I did see some at Mar-
seille. And as I am going back there in a few days I shall no
doubt manage to get one for you. The price in France is 50 francs,
about two dollars just. I would buy it myself but I am living a
very precarious existence in the pecuniary sense. I have found a
publisher and am on the point of signing a contract. But the
agent who managed it has not yet touched any money for me. You
will have to tell me how to get the book past the customs. It is
big and bulky and I am sure it will be opened.

I was very ill when I wrote that poem "Desolate". And as
the essence of good writing is to put over your thoughts and feel-
ings in a vivid way, I suppose "Desolate" must be well-written in-
deed. I am glad you like it. Countee Cullen writes that he likes
it too. But it was written in 1924. When you wrote to me on your
trip over here I was very much better. And I am still looking as

well as when you saw me in New York, except that I don't feel
physically so fit and I have periodical fits of depression. But
some money and a little change of air and that will disappear
in a short while! When are you coming back over again? Please
thank Service Bell and tell him that I hope to drink his
health some day with bootleg. And you too. You have been so
splendid about this matter. You shall have one of the first
copies of the novel, but I am afraid it won't be signed as I
am away over here. Are you thinking of travelling again soon?

I did not get Fire. Yes, I sent Opportunity a story and a
poem. But I have no faith in competitions. It all depends on
one doing something more spectacular than inherently fine. Also
the humor of the judges decides much. No harm trying, however.
I hope your mother is better. By the way, forgive my asking,
are you Southern or Northern or West Indian or a mixture of all?
How is Locke and Hughes and Van Vechten and his Nigger Heaven
and the group of Young Negro Intellectuals? Wont you give me
some news? I should have written to Langston and I must soon. He
sent me both his books and he is a charming correspondent, but I
have been too inquiet of late to write....... Why did Jessie
Fauset leave the Crisis and what has become of Jean Toomer? And
is Gwendolyn Bennett pretty? Amazing questions, but all of the
hours thoughts. Thanks again for your kindness

Chez Thomas Cook & fils

67 rue Cannebiere

Marseille (Bouches-du-Rhone)

France.... June 4, 1927

My dear Jackman

I hope you got my letter. I am
now in Marseille and have finished my novel
and sent it to New York. You will get a copy,
of course, as soon as it is out. There are a
few other things I want to ask you, which I can
straighten out in proofs. Namely: What univer-
sities and colleges graduate doctors in New
York and New England. And, please find out from
Bell if he could give exact information on what
company, or regiment, the colored boys who steve-
dored at Brest during the war belonged to. Also,
if the big building at the foot of the rue Siam
overlooking the bridge and the port was a Y. M.
C. A. canteen or some other organisation. How
were the colored boys treated at the Y.M.C.A.
recreation rooms etc. Ask Bell why the Col.
Young Post was abandoned and if colored legionn-

aires are invited to the annual conventions of
the American Legion, And anything else of import
ance you might think of will be welcome. These
facts are not fundamental issues, but I want to
be sure before I even hint at them.

I never got "Fire". Yes, I tried Opportun-
ity again with a story and a poem but I don't
think I won this time, either. Of course, I
do not take the results of literary competitions
seriously -- intellectually they never mean
much -- but I think a great deal of the money
awards. That is my only object for entering.
If I do get a chance this time of putting my
novel over, then I would be free to continue
writing for my publisher only and leave com-
petitions to those who have not yet had their
chance.

Hoping you will write to me soon and
not keep me waiting so long this time as
I have only a month before the book must be
placed in the hands of the publisher.

Ever Sincerely Yours
Claude M. Kay

PARIS -
NUMERO-
DISSEMENT

-POUR PARIS-
-METTRE LE NUMERO-
DE L'ARRONDISSEMENT

DE L'AR

Mr Harold D. Jackman
441 Manhattan Avenue
New York City, N.Y.

aug 1 1917

Etats-Unis

441 Manhattan Avenue,
New York, N. Y.

Aug. 12, 1927.

My dear Mc Kay:

This summer finds me in this city studying psychology. God,
I'll be glad when I can take the things that I want to; not that the
course I am taking isn't interesting, but I am just tired of work-
ing for degrees. Really if my mother weren't so ill I should have
chucked the whole thing and come to Europe some way or other. I don't
know but I have missed going away this year. You see I had planned
all last year to go abroad this year, but every thing just went wrong
that's all.

Did you get the facts which I sent you some time ago? I have
been wondering whether they reached you in time. I hope they did. The
reason I took such a long time in answering your letter was I was
getting ready to move and you know what that's like, then I had a
difficult time getting the information that you wanted. A man by the
name of Boutte, whom I thought would have been able to help me was of
no use at all. That made me sore because he was supposed to know so
much since he was the only colored member on Pershing's staff.

Quite a number of colored people from the states are abroad
this year. Have you met any of them, or don't they come as far as Mar-
seillie? Dr. Locke is over this summer, have you seen him? .........
I hope I can finish this because there is such a racket outside called
music -- some lady of color is interpreting a song called "Shake that
Thing" ...I wish you could hear her; she is really bearing down on

"Shake that Thing"........

Cullen has a new book out which is beautiful. It is called "Copper Sun". I am enclosing a clipping about books about Negroes which are to be published some time this year or early next year. I am very anxious to see your book. I suppose you know that Walter White and his family are in France now. I have got to run out now, I have to make that confounded class at Columbia. Next time I am going to write you a very chatty letter which will not be as choppy and dull as this one.

One other thing before I stop, have you succeeded in getting "Ulysses" yet? Send it as soon as you can will you? because I'll have some free time in a week or so so that I may devote to books I have been intending to read for a long time.

Write me soon and tell me what you are writing.

Mr. Claude McKay

Chez Thomas Cook et Fils

67 rue Cannebière
Marseille ( Bouches-du-Rhone )
FRANCE

HAROLD DENZIL JACKMAN
7 WEST 104TH STREET
NEW YORK CITY
[Signature]

Chez Thomas Cook & fils

67 rue Cannebière

Marseille, (B-du-Rhone) France

November 29, 1927

My dear Harold

Thank you so much for sending me your photograph. It is a well-made photograph, but I think it makes you look rather fierce. On the other hand the reproduction of Reiss' portrait which I have before me also, makes you excessively, but I prefer it as it brings out character or personality, which the photograph does not. None of them has the faintest touch of charm, which as I remember from our slight acquaintance, was the outstanding trait of your features, but that is something very difficult for photographer or painter to get. You ought to get Maurice Sterne to paint you, but he has grown rich and famous since the time I knew him and I don't think he runs now with the old crowd of Greenwich Village rebels. He used to do charming things of Eastern people, chiefly Indians and Malays I think, and as you run something to those types, I think he would make a real picture of you. I don't think American artists are good at doing colored people, and I believe that that is due to the popular American idea of non-white peoples. Artists are often influenced by the vulgar popular mind without realizing it. Those reproductions of the German artist on the covers of "Opportunity" could not be better. And I have seen little amusing caricatures of colored types in French journals that make attempts in "Life" and "Judge" and like publications, look banal and cheap.

I wish you had also dropped me a line about yourself and

Knopf's.

I hear Paul Robeson is in Paris. I did not hear anything of Toomer. We met once, but we have never been friends nor corresponded. When I was on the "Liberator" I think I wrote to him once or twice. Funny Robeson didn't play in "Pergy." No, I have never read the book. Would like to. Was shocked to hear of Florence Mills' death. What has become of Gilpin? I am sending you a couple of photographs that I too for Harpers. Not very good, for they are cheap. You remember you sent me one of Gwen Bennett's, so you can give her one and thank her for hers.

I didn't have much of a summer. I bathed a little, a couple of weeks with an Ecole Normalien who came down from Paris, but otherwise it was nothing but hard work. I am doing a book on Marseille. Its a tough, picturesque old city and I should love to show it to you some day. There are many Negro leisure seamen from all over the world here and I spend my time among them in their haunts.

know that he wrote a series of articles, but have never heard of
their being published in book form.

I shall send you your copy of "Home To Harlem"  
some  
from here. Soon as I get there the first one I sign shall be  
yours. I wish you would write to me oftener. I get only business  
letters from America. So I am cut off from all sources of news,  
general or Negroid. I believe you are the only friend I have over  
there now, at any rate you are the only one that does write, and  
so I cannot help thinking so, as the proof of the contrary is al-  
ways lacking. Do tell Langston, when you see him that I should  
appreciate a line from him. I liked his "I thought it was Tan-  
giers" It is certainly the best poem of his, in my opinion, and  
the most beautiful fusing of atmosphere and feeling that I have  
felt for a long time,---Could you also get me Eric Walrond's  
present address?

I am still here at Marseille. It has been very
cold and I have been rather uncomfortable. I have good fun how-
ever meeting the seamen arriving here, especially the colored
American and West Indian chaps. If it wasn't for them, life
would be rather drab here.

With my best regards

P.S. Please also ask Mr. Saxton to send me twelve more copies
of "Home To Harlem", which will make twenty-four as I have al-
ready asked him to send me twelve. Try to remember this and let
hear from you about it as I shall not write to Saxton personally
about it.
--C. McK.

441 Manhattan Avenue
New York City, U. S. A.

21 February, 1928.

Dear Claude:

This is going to be brief as I have to hurry down-town to The
New School of Social Research where I am taking a lecture course
in individual psychology under Dr. Alfred Adler of Vienna.Every-
thing that he has to say is so important that I can't afford to
miss any of it. So to the point and answer your questions.

There is no Negro Clipping Bureau. I will try to send you the
reviews of the Negro press as soon as I see them, so you needn't
worry about that.

In a travel book by Aldous Huxley called *Jesting Pilate*, published
in 1926 by Doran, there is a section on India and Burma; the other
parts deal with Malaya, the Pacific and America. I suppose this is
the book you mean. I couldn't find any other which answered your
question.

Didn't I tell you in my last letter That Eric Walrond was given
some sort of scholarship known as the Zona Gale Scholarship? Well,
he is now at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, Wisconsin. If
you write him there I think he will receive the letter.

Saw Mr. Saxton of Harpers yesterday afternoon. He is a very affable
person. By the way in which he spoke *Home to Harlem* will have a bang
of a send-off. Sixty copies have already been distributed to various

people and review copies have also been sent out. The publication
date is March first. He told me that he would welcome any sugges-
tions from me in the way of publicity or otherwise. So you see a
great deal of interest is being shown. Of course I realize that
it means a lot to them also but it is very rare, I think, that a
publishing house, especially one as old and established as the house
of Harper, asks or wants to follow the ideas of an outsider. About
the other twelve books, Mr. Saxton told me that he would see that
they were sent to you right away. And you will receive the clippings
of the book. Saxton presented me with a copy of the book. The format
is very good looking .... I am terribly eager to get in the inside.
I shall do so presently and write you what I think of the whole affair
in detail. At present this damn psychology keeps me so busy that I
hardly have time for anything else. However by the end of the week
I hope to have completed your opus.

Oh, by the way, did you ever have a book or pamphlet of *dalect*
poems printed in Jamaica? Do you know where I could get hold of a
copy?

Good luck for you success.

Very sincerely yours,

Chez Thomas Cook et fils

67 La Canebière

Marseille (B-du-Rhone)

France..., March 10, 1928

My dear Harold

It was so charming of you to put that
little gift in your letter of Feb. 2. It was
one of those little gestures that are very big
to me because they always remain to convince one
in moments of bitter reflection that there is a
kind of friendship that is more than an empty
name. What you did, after my letter, is so beau-
tiful, that I am constrained, ( in spite of my
pecuniary state and the fact of my poetic inabil-
ity, although I am by no means spendthrift, to
keep any money in my hands) to practise a little
self-denial and feel a little finer for it, by
using the order to procure "Ulysses" for you.

Herewith the covers and I do hope that
as I have sent it
Joyce's splendid heavyweight will reach you eam-
oflaged under the light-weight protection of Mon-
sieur Paul Morand whose facile cleverness may be
innocuous enough to make his name acceptable to

American puritan imbecility.

I regret to hear you are not well, but if I may be allowed to say it, you should not take little ailments over seriously. Just go on living healthily as much as you are physically and psychologically able and don't worry. I have had so many real illnesses that I would be a perfect ruin I think if it were not for the vigorous optimistic state of my mind that just holds my body strong the easiest together. So much for advice that is unessential of all things to give!

When I published "Harlem Shadows" I did have a letter from a Negro Clipping business, somewhere out Chicago way asking me to subscribe, but it may have gone out of existence since. You might find out from some official of the N.A.A.C. P. By that way too, I have recently had a cordial letter from Weldon Johnson inviting me to come back home and enjoy some of the benefits that Negro artists are obtaining through the general public interest awakened now to the Negro Literary Renaissance. You also hint at something of that in mentioning the Harmon Awards. I have no objection in the world

to receiving money, which I can always use.
But I cannot write to please a body of charitably
disposed people. My work must be judged as it is
written and if I am awarded something other than
public favour for it, all the better, but personally,
I could not lift a finger to further
my own cause along those lines. About going
back, I should love to look in on the States again.
All these laws and rulings since the war,
are very irritating to the vagabond soul, especially
an outlaw soul, that cannot reconcile itself
to the fact of limitation to any one country, or
allegiance to any one nation. But maybe those are
the factual forces, irksome though they may be,
that help to make an artist of a vagabond.

I am much obliged for the two songs,
"Shake That Thing" is fine. Is it popular in the
cabarets? I had the two last verses and have already
written a riotous thing about it. It won't
be necessary to remove anything but only to add
something. Why don't you shift your machine to
give the black type? Do you like the red? I
hate it.

And you know, I don't like the idea of
your showing my private letters to your acquaint-
ances, Thurman, in a nice clever, smart-alecky
letter to me, said you showed him two! Now what
have you, my dear friend, to say about that? Of
course, I'm not dietating what you should do with
my correspondence, but if I mention any small thing
personally to you (like my note on Cullen,
for example) and you show it to the Harlem gents,
eventually and inevitably it will be all over
Nigger Heaven as Mr Carl Van Vechten might say,
or Nigger Hell as Gin Head Susy would say! And
by this to remember Young Thurman, please tell
him that I shall most surely write to him, but
just now I am flooded with more correspondence
than ever since the last five years and, as I
shall have to invent a special key in replying to
the style of his ultra-sophisticated professional
handshake across the pond, he must give me a little
time. But tell him however that he must be careful
when he gets his aching critical flaws into "Home
To Harlem", as he hopes, that they are not pain-
fully broken off in it!

I had a few copies of "Home To Harlem" the same time I had your last letter. It is a neatly made book. Saxton wrote me he sent out copies to all the names I gave him and as you have yours I shall not send another. You must wait until we get together and can sign it. I wish you could come over this summer. I shall have finished my new novel by then and we could swim and poke around the low quarters of this town together, if you care about those things. I know Langston does. He has sent me a fine cable about "Home To Harlem."

There are a few mistakes to correct in the book, but there is one very important that must be made right away. And I want you to help me again. I cannot find the correct thing in the library here, but I feel sure you will in New York. It's in Chapter 10 p. 135, 1st par. referring to the Kings of Africa. Behanzin of Benin is wrong. Behanzin was the big fighting king of Dahomey that the French defeated and deported. Whatx I want is the names ofm the King of Benin, (there were two outstanding ones in the fifteenth and sixteenth

centuries when the Portugese traded with West Africa). And there is another very important one when the British conquered the country in eighteen forties. You will find the information in two or three books on Benin in the Forty-second Street library -- one a massive thing with reproductions of sculpture and ivory earvings written by an Englishman. If you send me the names in order of their importance with a little note on each, I shall choose the one I want and forward the correction to Mr. Saxton. I hope this job won't be too troublesome to you as you tell me you are working so hard at your new lecture course.

I am happy to hear about the creative activity of Negroes in New York. I have never once doubted that recognition and monetary reward would come for the Negro as soon as he produced work of merit and the public was aware of it. I did not take a pessimistic race-conscious view of "Home To Harlem" because it did not sell. Poetry in general is never a selling thing. There are exceptions -- like leap years!

About Cullen's note on me I must say that

"vituperative" has nothing to do with "raillery".
In the peasant atmosphere in which I was born and
reared our stock of words were strong words,
direct and meaningful. As a boy I loved literature
because it spoke the words of life and all my best
friends wit h whom I have loved literature love it
with me above all for the realness of words. And
I have always been identified with those people
who hate looseness in literature, holding that
words should mean what they say! Any cub reporter
knows that "vituperative" is abuse," Go down to
the night court where it is called abusive lan-
guage! If Mr Cullen doesn't know the common mean-
ing of the word it shows an amazing ignorance.
And as a worker in words, I must tell you frankly
that I have no love nor sympathy for loose milk-
and-water meaningless use of words either in prose
or in poetry. Personally I have the friendliest
feelings towards the young man, but I am one mean
bastard who does not think of personal or racial
considerations when I am dealing with artistie
wares. Please write soon and give me some news
and -- gossip! Thanking you again for everything,
Yours "vituperatively"

441 Manhattan Avenue
New York City, U.S.A.
30 March, 1928.

Dear Claude:

I am sorry I am forced to use this red type, but the black type has
been used so much that it can't be used any longer, and I haven't
had time to buy another ribbon.....so you'll have to bear with it
and with me.

Thanks for sending "Ulysses". It was very fine of you to send it;
I wasn't in a hurry for it you know, and I wouldn't have had you deny
yourself to buy the book. I was very happy to receive a copy all the
same. Again many thanks.

Lord, but more prizes, awards, scholarships, fellowships, etc. are
given in this country than in any other I believe......Eric Walrond
and Countee Cullen have just received Guggenheim fellowships for
one year. They carry a stipend of $2,500 for the year.Walrond is to
go to the West Indies to gather material for stories, and Cullen is
coming to Paris to work on a libretto for an opera, and to do a group
of narrative poems. Walter White got one of these fellowships last
year. Do you hear from him ? He is now in France somewhere. About
some of these awards, I don't think you have "to write to please"
anybody and I don't think any artist should write to please anybody
but himself. But I don't see why you can't try for some of these things
as well as these other people. If the judges don't like your work ,
shrug your shoulders and don't give a damn.

I am terribly sorry you didn't send me a copy of your book. I was so
sure that you were going to send one that I gave away the one Saxton

gave me. About "Home to Harlem", I hear that it is in its second edition.
There is always a lot of vague talk here in Harlem about your not be-
ing able to get back to these United States. I have been intending to
ask you about it, but each time I write I forget to mention it. You
youself speak of "laws and rulings since the war". The whole thing is
so improbable to me that I can hardly believe it to be true. Of course
I know so little about government regulations that...well, "what's
it all about?" to use the New Yorkese of the day? I wish you would ex-
plain it all to me.

Evidently you haven't read about the collection of books on the Negro
which the 135th Street library has accumulated. All the books about
Negroes have been transferred from the 42nd Street library to the third
floor of the Harlem branch which has been turned over to a Negro Depart-
ment. In addition, the library has bought Arthur Schomburg's valuable
books. This was quite an acquisition as Schomburg had some important
books, many of which were very hard to get. It is through Mrs. Catherine
Latimer of this department that I have been able to get much of
the material for which you have asked. I wish you would write Mrs. Latimer
and thank her, because she has really done a great deal of searching
for you. You see, so many of the books are badly organized, without
indices, chapter headings, etc., and it means that if you want anything,
you usually have to guess where it will be. Sometimes the only clue you
have is the title of the book. Mrs. Latimer has been patient enough to
help me go through many of these books and pamphlets.

Again I tried to find out about a Negro clipping bureau but no one I
have asked (these people are newspaper people too) knows of any. I'll
get as many notices as I can and send them to you.

"Shake That Thing" is out of date now. It was very popular when it first
came out; it was sung everywhere. That's some time ago now. You know how
long most of those songs last, for a few months. The only blues song

* 103 Wad-135th Street-

which has remained, and which is still played (I think it is the classic
of them all) is the "St. Louis Blues".

At the time I showed Thurman the letters I never thought of any consequence. It just happened that your name came up and I said that I happened to have a couple of letters from you with me; it was the time when I was looking up some data for you and I travelled around with them to recall what you wanted. That's all. As a rule I don't do that sort of thing. I still wish you wouldn't feel the way you do about the comment in "Caroling Dusk". We won't agree about it I know.

Cullen is marrying Du Bois' daughter the day after Easter. Langston is one of the ushers and I am to be best man.

Say, did you ever write a book called "Color Scheme"? Such a book is
listed under your name in Locke's "New Negro".

I am sending you some more reviews. What do you think of those I sent?

Another novel on the Negro is on the market. It just came out to-day.

It is called "Quicksand" and is written by a colored woman, Nella Larsen Imes. I haven't read it yet.

Shall write again soon.

with the black man feeling a stiffx urge when he sees an attract-
ive white woman anymore than with the cracker getting the same big
thing for a juicy black gal. On the other hand there is much to
say for this: Crackers may run after black and mulatto wenches be
cause they have a contempt for sexuality and feel that they might
just as well get the burdensome dirty thing off on the colored an-
imals. I know that a great body of white people, especially Nor-
dic males, are neurotic about sex! And Negroes who make white wo-
men feel, I am sure, that they have achieved something wonderful
by getting even with the race that holds them down and calls itself
superior — just as a vain-thinking man of any race feels that he
can revenge himself on another that he holds a grievance against
by seducing his wife! The white man knows this too, even if it is
unconscious in his mind and not thought out clearly, and that is why
you find the white race everywhere, covertly or overtly objecting
to colored men having white women, until it develops into lynch-
ing in the Southern states, where the contact and competition be-
tween the two races are more acute than anywhere else in the world,
except, perhaps, South Africa. For there can be no doubt that
many of the lynchings have their roots in sex complications,

To cite comparisons, you know the Irish hating the
English did not prevent mixed mating between the two peoples,
And many of the Indian nationalists have English wives. And
some of these English wives of Indians are the most bitter
haters of England and British rule in India. The same thing
holds in Egypt. You seem lacking in perception to me when you con-
fuse a very objective and logical attitude with the most primitive
and illogical of human emotions. I think too that there may be in

5

Oh yes, without any exaggeration, I feel the primitive
carnal African rhythm in me very strongly and distinct from the
rhythmthat white people communicate to me. Good dancing always
gets me in an ecstasy that I would call religious, because I
never have any practical sex feeling when I am dancing, but many
Negroes tell me that they are sexually aroused -- and many whites
too. What I feel most when dancing is the desire for a perfect
unity of movement with my partner. If you have never been in-
toxicated by music I am sorry for you. Maybe it is due to the in-
fusion of cold Nordic blood. However, so many white people feel
the same intoxication. I had a Jewish friend who could swoon a-
just
way under syncopated music as he could under a composition of
Chopin. If white people didn't have it too, they could not appre-
ciate it in Negroes. I think, however, that white people are hav-
ing so much of natural rhythm lifted out of them by civilized ways
of living that they turn to Negroes, <u>whwhwhhhy?!</u> who they feel,
quite rightly, have more of primitive rhythm than they.

Tell Thurman I am hoping he will answer my letter.
The first one was a real pleasure. If the producers set his play
back, perhaps they have done it for reasons that might be remuner-
atively beneficial to him. I was worrying about my novel too be-
cause it did not come out last fall. But Harpers were holding it
for the most auspicious time. They were right I think. The white
man knows the business end of any artistic work better than the
Negro artist who is just breaking in, so if I were you, I would
advise Thurman, if he will listen, to be patient and diplomatic.

Say, you musn't write me another letter that calls for
until
so much to answer after I have finished my book. But I want you
to write often all the same and give me all the news! That

will either make you mad or smile.

Were there no other notices in the Negro papers?
What about the Age and News and Baltimore American and Chicago
Defender? Did they have anything? Those you sent were amusing.
But the Amsterdam News thing was remarkably good. The analysis of
the characters is the best of any review. Rogers came to see me
at Antibes when he was going to Paris last year. I have never
liked him. He is a mulatto bounder, dull, heavy and over-in-
formed like that encyclopedical Hubert Harrison and having the
same nasty, shitty attitude towards sex. I sent him a copy of
my book. He had always tried to get intimate with me from my Lib-
erator days. And I shall always remember his saying at a meet-
ing that is to me privately that all a radical woman wanted was
a stiff dick..., However, he sent me thirteen dollars in '26 when
I was broke, for which I was grateful, without liking him any
better.

I sent that cablegram because you have been such a
disinterested fine friend and correspondent that I hated the thought
of causing you the slightest disappointment. A letter would have
taken too long. The cable did not cost much -- just a dollar. X
Yours is the only copy of the book I have sent back to America.
There is a white woman who gave me five hundred dollars once and
I merely asked Saxton to send her a copy. I am so busy with my
new book, but it is a pleasure to stop and talk with you never-
theless. Many of my old correspondents who dropped me when I was
in eclipse are coming back again. But I am a busy dog that never
goes back to his vomit.

Oh thanks for the Benin stuff. And won't you thank
Mrs Latimer for me? Add anything you think best that will do in

JOHN LARKIN
ALEXANDER S. ANDREWS
GLEN N. W. MCNAUGHTON

TELEPHONE JOHN 5220
CABLE ADDRESS LAHL

LARKIN, ANDREWS & MCNAUGHTON

COUNSELORS AT LAW

MUTUAL LIFE BUILDING
32 LIBERTY STREET, NEW YORK

May 17th 1929.

Mr. Harold Jackman
447 Manhattan Avenue
New York City.

Dear Sir:

We represent Harper & Brothers the publishers, who, as you may know, have recently published a book called "Banjo" written by Claude McKay. It appears that in that book the author quoted a few lines from a song "Shake That Thing" and Harper & Brothers have recently been advised by a firm of music publishers in New York called Shapiro, Bernstein & Co. that those published lines violate their copyright on that song. Harper & Brothers communicated about the matter with the author Claude McKay who is now in France and he has referred Harners to you, saying that you supplied the typewritten copy and advised him that the copy was one of many current versions.

The purpose of this letter is to see if we can have a talk with you some time in a place convenient to you and ascertain the facts of the matter, especially whether your typewritten version has some basis other than the copyrighted song.

We will be much obliged if you will let us hear from you at your early convenience. We tried to telephone you at Monument 8718 today but were unable to get any response there.

ASA-H

Mr Harold Jackman
442 Manhattan Avenue
New York City

15

June 15

256 West 135
N. Y. City

Dear Harold

Thanks for your note. You can
always get me at the above address by leaving
a note there or with Schomburg as usual, who
will get in touch with me right away.

I am often at 256 where I do
a little typeing and other work.

You ask where I live. No place in
particular. I live all over Harlem, often
sleeping in accidental beds. Where I am supp-
osed to stay does not matter and won't be of any
use to you because I am rarely there.

Will try to get in touch with Zora

Hurston.

16

<table><tr><td>THIS SIDE OF CARD IS FOR ADDRESS</td></tr></table>

Mr Harold Jackman
442 Manhattan Ave
New York City

July 2

1935

Dear Harold

Look at your envelope with
apt. 33 on it. Just got your letter
yesterday (Monday) exactly a week after
it was written. There was also another
and I would have taken up the matter
with the post office, but I recently
had to put them on the spot over a
special. And as you did put the wrong
apartment number, I can't do it. It is
a mystery where the two letters were,
probably in someone's box. The Super.
cannot account for it. Wonders if some
one is tampering with my mail.

Am getting out of this damned
God-forsaken hole upon the Hudson any
way. Sorry I missed Aldington. Also
I did not see Duranty's article, but
would like to. Why don't you drop by
if passing this way?

C. MCK.

210 West 63

Apt. 39

Look here! I asked a few friends to drop in and it
is most asinine of you to break an engagement at the
last moment after voluntarily coming here and inter-
rupting my work to make an appointment a week in ad-
vance. Mr Gorer might have come without you, although
you seem to have cast yourself in the enviable role
of cicerone for all things and all people. From now
on just hold your ineffectual, stuffed mannikin self
from any contact with me and do not try to use a man
for your futile social contacts and introductions.
You might do better trying to concentrate upon just
one thing that was worthwhile to justify your empty
existence, instead of chasing around all the time
like a brainless ape after people of talent.

C. McK.

Sept 22

1936

55 West 129th St
New York City

Dear Harold Jackman

I am sending you herewith
4dollars, the balance of that 5 you loaned me
and also two books (I gave about three, I think
to Dorothy West by your request) and I regret the
delay in returning all items.

Thanking You

217 West 126th Street
New York City
October 23, 1937

Dear Friend and Confrere

For some weeks a number of creative writers and journalists have been meeting informally in round table conversations pertaining to closer contact between Negro writers. From these conversations there developed one clear and definite idea: we agreed that the time was ripe for Negro writers to draw closer together in mutual fellowship. We felt that as members of a distinct group, we specifically could make a special contribution in the interest of the works and lives of our intellectuals. We thought that the achievements of our writers of the past should receive more appreciation from a social and historical as well as literary perspective, precisely as other groups of people measure their cultural development by the achievements of their talented members.

We agreed that a democratic association of Negro writers was needed. We thought that such an association, properly founded and directed, would be beneficial to all our writers and especially to those younger and potential ones who may look to the older for inspiration.

To the timid and the obstreperous among us who are frightened by the bugbear of segregation and isolation, whenever a matter of special group organization is under consideration, we desire to say that we are not thinking in terms of narrow sectarianism, but rather in the universal aspects of group culture. We think that it is possible to establish intellectual fellowship something like a living counterpart of the unparalleled Schomburg Collection of Negro books in the domain of scholarship.

In our conversations we agreed that the Negro's authentic talent in literature and art should be encouraged more, and nurtured and developed, within the group. Friends and sympathizers of other groups may do much to help by way of material encouragement and constructive criticism, but they cannot generate in Negroes that energy which produces real creative expression. Negroes themselves must produce that.

As a result of our conversations it was suggested that I should communicate with the talented creative writers and journalists of our group for the purpose of forming an association. Thereupon I approached a few of our writers, including James Weldon Johnson. Mr Johnson, who has been aptly called the "dean of Negro letters", was very sympathetic to the idea of an association of the Negro literati and also willing to lend his prestige as a writer and his experience in organizational work to the plan.

I am therefore, inviting you to preliminary meeting which will be held at the above address on Monday, November 1, 1937, at 8 p. m.

Mr Harold Jackman
50 Morningside Avenue
New York City

40 East 49th Street, New York 17, N. Y.

East and West

JACKMAN
50 Morningside Avenue
New York City 26

Mr. Claude McKay
Catholic Youth Organization
31 East Congress Street
Chicago 5, Illinois

contemporary people and things in general.

Don't be despairing about "Ulysses". You will get it some
day. I regard it as my first obligation to settle when I make a
raise. I don't know when my book will be out, some time next year
I think. I have not had the proofs yet. Of course, I should like
to see it out, simply because it would perhaps help in some way,
direct or indirect, to solve my desperate pecuniary problems and
give me a chance to concentrate on creative work. Indigence or
the fear of it sterilizes all creative activity.

Thanks for sending me Stoddard's ravings. They are at
least amusing, yet without spice because Stoddard's Freshman
rhetoric is so superannuated. The Nordic cause is in a bad way
indeed if it can not produce a more competent and discriminating
apologist. If I find my white critics amusing, I cannot say the
same of my colored ones. They are often inept to the point of
downright pettiness. I do hope that the Voice of the Negro in
artistis and literary expression will carry farther and be saved
from the brayings of the Negro apologists. I have had the disting-
uished attachee of the Boston Transcript up and at me in the "Cri-
sis" and the Honourable Oxonion, Doctor Locke, and now comes your
friend, Mr Cullen, who in the Anthology of Negro Poets cannot
find anything more appropriate than the journalistic word "vitup-
erative", synonym of the police court term "abusive," to expres
his opinion of my *haryay* hortatory poems. Even the worst of my
white critics, the Stoddards and Dixons, have never used such a
contemptible word as "vituperative" to show their disapproval of
such of my poetry in which a race cries out against murder and

suppression. I have always felt a certain hostility on the part
of the Afro-American intellectuals toward me. I don't know why.
Maybe it is because when I write, I express the things that they
feel so deeply and yet are forced from social and economic reasons
to damn up in themselves. Yet I think they might extend to me a
certain facial indulgence as I am so far outside of their field.
Somehow I am glad I am not in on any of the groups, so that I can
see them all from a detached standpoint. I want to see Negro art-
ists express themselves to the limit. They should exclude noth-
ing, limit themselves to nothing. They should make their voices
as strong, sweet, broad, strange, sad, happy and varied as all
Negro life itself is. I don't think they should tie themselves D
 tendacious
up in movements and groups with their petty artistic quarrels.
Negro life has always been an "open-shop" life and Negro art to
be worth-while will have to reflect that, from sweet cabin-door
psalmody through irregular rhythms of modern cities to rebel
shouts.

I am not expecting any servile praise from any of my
critics. I welcome straight, clean criticism at any old time.
But I am disappointed in Mr Cullen's adjective. It speaks vol-
umes and it is interesting and illuminating that it should come
from the author of "Heritage."

Of course, I write to you as a friend, giving my personal
reaction. If you have any of the writings of Wallace Thurman and
can spare them, I wish you would send them to me. I liked his
story in "Fire" and his criticism of "Nigger Heaven". I should
also like to have any magazines outside of the "Crisis", "New
Masses" and "Opportunity" which I get regularly. If you see
Langston, ask him if he got the letter I sent to him through

Dear Harold:

Here is a draft or rather three of circular for
the Ways and Means Committee to work by. I think it should
be printed, but I am going to leave it to you as Secretary
to get the group together to plan something right now. Mrs
Henriques (whom I saw last night and was sorry you were not
there) is in an undetermined state of mind, whether she wants
to stay here or go back to Jamaica to settle this year! And
whatever we are doing should be done NOW. I know if she can
see it worthwhile to act as social sponsor of the group, she
will stay, at least for a time. But she is shrewd and suspi-
cious and she is right after all, considering what hogs
people are about money and social striving, and she has been
through a lot getting what little she has. So I beg you
please start the ball a-rolling right away. Call her up to-
night and see if she will meet you some place. I am enclosing
a list of people to approach.

And where did you go Saturday night. A fine way
to desert a friend and keep him waiting and for such a typs!
What a cat you are! And where is my change? I need it . I
am working hard upon a report and right after I must do an x
article, so I hope now you will go straight ahead and relieve
me of the routine work for the magazine, without letting it
hinder your work. And as soon as I get out from under this
junk of work I shall jump in and help.

page 84 of Vol.III of the unabridged German edition
of Marx-Engels Correspondence: after mentioning the
"judische Nigger Lassalle" in a preceding paragraph:

"It is fully obvious to me now - and the form of his
head as well as XX his hair prove it - that he is a descendant
of the Negroes who joined Moses's exodus from Egypt (unless
his mother or his grand-mother on his father's side mated
with a nigger. Well, this connection WA of Jewish and German
traits with the basic Negro substance must needs bring forth
a queer product. The importunity (Zudringlichkeit) of the
fellow is also nigger-like."

Well

The book which you spoke about, that is written by an Englishman, is "Antique Works of Art from Benin" Collected by Lieutenant-General Pitts-Rivers. Printed Privately in London, 1900. The only king of Benin mentioned in this book is "King Duboar, late King of Benin".

I did get some information from a book called "The Curse of Obo".
A Tradgedy of Benin---by John Wyndham.It is a legend in poetic
form. Duckworth, Publisher---3 Henrietta Street, London, W.C. 1926
The notes in the back of this book were the best I could find.

"Ewári, the great warrior-king of Benin reigned about A.D. 1400."

"Ewári was the seventeenth king of the thirty-two from Ewéka to
Overami who was deported in 1897. It seems probable he reigned about
the end of the fourteenth century. There were other kings, but they
reigned for short periods; and I think they left no altars -- even
if everyone knows their names."

"Ewári was the great warrior-king of Benin, and is said to have captured two hundred and one towns. His invariable method was to encircle his objective with his nine armies. At the end of his reign he set a curse on any of his successors who might try to equal his number of victories."

"Ozolwa, a 15th century king of Benin."

"Ozolwa (Ewari's son) took two hundred towns; risked his father's
curse, and was killed in the assault on his 201st town (Ishan)."

Esigye (son of Ozolwa). While Esigye was still young, the first white man arrived at Benin."

"The history and customs of Benin passed orally from father to son; but after the Portuguese visited King Esigye at the end of the fifteenth century the kings began to have their deeds and rites recorded in bronze."

"Akenbuda, king of Benin (reigned about A.D. 1750)."