MUSETTE PUBLISHERS, INC.

STEINWAY HALL • 113 WEST 57TH STREET, N. Y. C.
CIRCLE 6-2492

ARTHUR ZINKIN, PRESIDENT

August 17th, 1942.

Mr. Langston Hughes,
Yaddo, Saratoga Springs, N.Y.

Dear Langston Hughes:--

I have your good letter of August 14th, and thank
you for your several suggestions. The orchestration for Freedom Road will
be ready shortly, and will be distributed to the various places as soon as
it is off the press.

I am sending you some more professional copies.

Best of luck.

MUSETTE PUBLISHERS, INC.

August 29th, 1942.

ARTHUR ZINKIN, PRESIDENT

Dear Langsto Hughes:—

Under separate cover, I am mailing you six orchestration copies of Freedom Road.

We will have a colored cover for them next week but I do not wish to delay sending them to you, since they will serve your immediate purpose in their present form. Mr Harper was in this morning and I gave him a dozen copies. All the lists have been attended to and more besides. The 372nd Regt. Band will play it this Sunday evening at the Harlem U.S.O. Let's plug away.

All good wishes.

MUSETTE PUBLISHERS, INC.

September 8th, 1942.

ARTHUR ZINKIN, PRESIDENT

Dear Langston:—

What do you think of dedicating
That Eagle to President Roosevelt, the champion
of Freedom? If this be in accordance with the
protokol. I would suggest that you write a
dedicatory statement and send it on to him,
together with all the lyrics and the music.

Yours……

MUSETTE PUBLISHERS

ARTHUR ZINKIN

30 ROCKEFELLER PLAZA, N. Y.

CIRCLE 6-2492

September 8th, 1942.

Mr. Langston Hughes,
Yodda, Saratoga Springs, N.Y.

Dear Langston:—

For the past week I was sick with cold, but upon
my return here this morning I find that all your suggestions have
been attended to. Last Saturday night I saw Ed. Mathews at the Cafe
Society, Up Town. He promised to sing Freedom Road this week and
thereafter. He has a magnificent voice. He knows the song, and he
assures me he will do justice to it. I sent the orchestration to
The Hillman Bros. as you requested. All the other lists have been
taken care of. As for THAT EAGLE, I expect to have it in print as
soon as Mr. Shaw returns from his vacation, by the end of the week.
We are plugging Freedom Road up to the limit, and some time in the
near future we will have a double-spread in a National publication,
featuring you and Marc Warnow and an extensive write-up. It is very
important to get this song well on its way before diverting public
attention to another song by you, especially when it is of a similar
nature. At any rate, be assured we are doing all we possibly can to
exploit your song to the utmost. When do you mean to return here?
Is Kingsley working on your folio of "Blues"? Two of the largest
music sheets distributors have taken several hundred copies of
Freedom Road, and very soon music stores will have it displayed.
I expect to make a recording as soon as I find the singer.

MUSETTE PUBLISHERS, INC.

ARTHUR ZINKIN, PRESIDENT

STEINWAY BUILDING
113 WEST 57TH STREET, N. Y.
CIRCLE 6-2492

October 17th 1942.

Dear Langston:—

I have yours of the 14th inst. with enclosed
list. In accordance with your request everything has been
attended to. We are exploiting every source we can think of,
and hope for results.

Your statement 'Please let me know when it comes out
in the song sheet', is not clear to me.

Freedom Road is being played on the air quite a
little, I am told. I will keep you informed.

20 March 1944

Mr. Arthur Zinkin
Musette Publishers, Inc.
113 West 57th Street
New York City, N. Y.

Dear Zinkin:

Kindly send me addressed to LANGSTON HUGHES, c/o Miss Minnette Long, 1830 North Fifth Avenue, Tucson, Arizona, the following books:

50 FREEDOM'S PLOW

Please include a half dozen professional copies of my songs.

Also please 25 copies of FREEDOM'S PLOW to Mr. Crosby Ramey of Shaker Heights High School, Shaker Heights, Cleveland, Ohio, at the customary book-store discount, billing to Mr. Ramey, for sale through the canteen to the students there.

LH/ej

On tour,
Phoenix, Arizona,

April 10, 1944.

Mr. Arthur Zinkin,
Musette Publishers, Inc.,
113 West 57th Street,
New York City, N. Y.

Dear Zinkin,

I was sorry to learn that the enitre stock of FREEDOM'S PLOW
had been exhausted. My orders had been completely selling out
at every engagement. I am headed for the Coast now for a couple
of weeks. Returning across country, I have a dozen appearances,
including Salt Lake, Grinnell College, Chicago, Detroit, and
Scranton. At these engagements I am sure I could sell at least
two or three thousand more, so if you are reprinting it within
the next three weeks kindly let me know, writing me at Hollow
Hills Farm, Monterey, California, before April 22. I will wire
you my orders.

Detroit is building its entire program around the poem, and
calling it FREEDOM'S PLOW, with a big chorus singing the background
music. So I would especially like to have copies for that date.
I am appearing there at the Art Institute on the evening of Friday,
May 5. So if the new edition is ready by then, please send me

500 copies to:
Langston Hughes,
c/o Mrs. Beulah Whitby,
358 Josephine Avenue,
Detroit, Michigan.

At any rate, send me there a half dozen copies of our songs, ROAD
and WIND, with a couple of ROAD orchestrations. I shall be in
New York again May 15th and will drop by the office and give you
my check for orders now due.

I hope you have completely recovered from your illness. Why not
try a little of this Arizona sunshine?

P.S. Should you any copies of FREEDOM'S PLOW in stock, whatever
the number, few though it be, kindly send to me at the above
Detroit address.

MUSETTE PUBLISHERS, INC.

ARTHUR ZINKIN, PRESIDENT

April 13, 1944.

Mr. Langston Hughes,
Hollow Hills Farm,
Monterey, California.

Dear Langston:

I was very happy to hear from you and with the swell orders you are sending in for FREEDOM'S PLOW. I have been fortunate in procuring an additional 5,000 which will be completed tomorrow, and the present orders you mention in your letter of April 10th will be dispatched immediately.

We also have some back orders from you (see enclosed list) which we were unable to fill on account of depletion of stock. Please let me know at once if you wish us to fill these orders now.

There is one hitch however, and that is the price. Due to the scarcity of material and shortage of labor we find it next to impossible to sell it wholesale at 6¢. I will have to charge 15¢, less the trade discount of 40%, which is 9¢ and none too much for an item of this kind. The dealer can charge 15¢. Will you please inform all such from whom you receive orders of this change in price. We shall also confirm by our invoices to you.

You are doing a wonderful job and I hope to hear from you very often.

Well, now I'm back again in the harness and things are beginning to hum again.

With kindest personal regards,

via airmail

P.S. I had occasion to meet Ben Davis on the train. He's a swell guy. I'm going to send him a copy of FREEDOM'S PLOW and ask him to do something about it. He wants to be remembered to you.

January 6, 1945

Mr. Arthur Zinkin
Musette Publishers
113 West 57 Street
New York, N. Y.

Dear Zinkin:

Kindly send ten (10) copies of
FREEDOM'S PLOW to:

Mr. Maurice H. Terry
National Conference of
Christians and Jews, Inc.
759 N. Milwaukee Street
Milwaukee, 2, Wisconsin

And also a half dozen mimeographed
announcements of this booklet. Kindly bill
them to me

Also kindly have wrapped one hundred
(100) copies for me, personally, and I will send
a young man down to the office for them on Monday,
as I am speaking at Radcliffe College in Boston on
Tuesday and wish to take them with me.

LH:deh

January 20, 1945

Dear Mr. Zinkin:

I am about to go on a month's lecture tour to the Middle
West and South. I would like to have you send me, accord-
ing to the enclosed sheet,

50 of "Freedom's Flow" to Eau Claire
200 " " to Kalamazoo
400 " " to Milwaukee

I shall be in this latter place a weak doing high schools
and colleges.

To all the other addresses on the list kindly send 20
copies to each, as these are large institutions and I do
not wish to attempt to sell copies there myself. I will
use the few you do send me simply as presents and for
publicity purposes. My suggestion is, however, that you
write directly to these colleges, possibly to the Dean,
and see if arrangements cannot be made to have the col-
lege bookshop or some other outlet on the campus handle
the sale of "Freedom's Flow" during my engagement there.
Perhaps also arrangements could be made to have them
sell our music as well.

In April I am doing about twenty or thirty colleges and
schools in Louisiana and Georgia, but I shall send you
this list later. At the moment, I must go see "The
Rainbow" as it closes tonight and I have not seen it
yet.

With best regards to you,

Mr. Arthur Zinkin
MUSETTE PUBLISHERS
113 West 57th Street
New York City

P. S. In each book
order, please put
couple "Wind" and
"Road" professionals.

LH

This letter was dictated January 19.

Musette Publishers,
113 West 57th Street.

Please give bearer 100 copies of booklet, FREEDOM'S PLOW,
the smaller size if there are any such left, billing to me.
I trust you received check I mailed you the other day.

COPY OF LETTER

Rose S. Fromkin
Roosevelt Jr. High
800 West Walnut Street
Milwaukee 5, Wisconsin

Mr. Arthur Zinkin
Musette Publishers
113 West 57th Street
New York 19, N. Y.

Dear Mr. Zinkin:

My sincere thanks to you for your beautiful response of April 4th to my letter of April 2nd. It is my fervent wish along with yours that "Freedom's Flow" may reach every school in the land.

Will you kindly send to me at my school address twelve copies of "Freedom's Flow", billing same to my account? I would like to have these copies to send as greeting gifts to several of my friends. In the event that the poem is printed in a more attractive edition, I would prefer it and be glad to pay the price such an edition would demand.

Since the loss of the greatest humanitarian in our time, our beloved President, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the thought has come to me that there should be an edition of "Freedom's Flow" dedicated to his memory. The poem so clearly states what President Roosevelt stood for, lived by, and died for. Such an edition printed in time to meet the Christmas sales would be a lovely tribute to our great President.

Thank you again for your graciousness,

Dated April 16, 1945