ANTHOLOGIES, FIRST EDITIONS, Etc.

2256 East 86th Street,
Cleveland, Ohio,
November 15, 1936.

Dear Mr. Birss,

I am very sorry to be so long in answering your letter, but it
was mostly because I had hoped to find time to look up the in-
formation you desired that I kept putting it off. Now with a
new play in rehearsal here and another to be re-written immediately
for production elsewhere, and having no secretary to help me, I've
about given up doing much research on my past work. Almost all
the anthologies which I possess in which my poems appeared are in
storage in New Jersey, but from memory, I believe that in the
following there are poems not in any book, or else first appeared
in the anthology:

BRAITHWAITE'S ANTHOLOGY (Two or three editions
of various years contain poems of mine, some
of which are in none of my books)

NEGRO POETS AND THEIR POEMS, Kerlin, Associated Pubs.

NEGRO POETS, Pamphlet Poet Series, Edited by Alain Leroy
Locke.

Lincoln University Poets, pub. by Lincoln University, Pa.

BOOK OF AMERICAN NEGRO POETRY, Johnson, (Second Edition)

NEGRO, Nancy Cunard, Wishart & Co., London, England, 1934

MAN ANSWERS DEATH, (Corliss Lamont) Putnam, 1936

New Republic ANTHOLOGY, Dodge Pub. Co, 1936

365 DAYS (or whatever the new Kay Boyle Short Story An-
thology is) contains an hitherto unpublished story.

Dorothy Brewster's forthcoming anthology of contemporary
stories now in press. called "A Book of Contemporary
Short Stories."

KANSAS ANTHOLOGY now in press at Kansas State College,
Manhattan, Kansas, contains poem not yet in bookform.

There are other anthologies designed mainly for school and college
use that contain poems of mine I believe some of which are in now
books, but I cannot recall the names of these anthologies just now.
One was published a year or so ago by two rather well known poets at
a Los Angeles university; another by two Negro professors at Howard-

2.

Abroad I have had poems in the following anthologies that I recall:

AFRIKA SINET, pub. in Vienna (a collection of Negro poems in German, about 1927.

The Jolas Anthology (in French) of American poetry, one poem that had appeared previously, I believe, in a book here.

GOOD MORNING, REVOLUTION, (In Russian) a book of my poems translated into Russian by Julian Amissimov, and published in Moscow by NOGIZ, 1933.

..........(an Anthology of Negro poetry, also in Russian, whose title I cannot remember, containing several poems of mine not in any book, about 1934.

NEGRO POETRY (Anthology in Russian of Negro poetry) edited by R. Magidoff, published in New York, 1934. (NEW MASSES or some New York Russian newspapers could probably give you information on this.)

ANTOLOGIA DE LA POESIA NEGRA AMERICACA, edited by Ildefonso pereda Valdez, Editiones Ercilla, Santiago de Chile, 1936.

My novel, NOT WITHOUT LAUGHTER, as published in Paris appeared under the title of ENADEX SANDY; and in Moscow under the title of LAUGHTER THROUGH TEARS.

I have written forewords for A BOOK OF CENTRAL HIGH SCHOOL VERSE, date and further information could be gotten from Miss Ethel Weiner, Central High School, Cleveland, Ohio; the Russian edition of Lawrence Gelsem's collection of NEGRO SONGS OF PROTEST; and for the Negro section of HUNGER AND REVOLT, car-toons by Jacob Burke, New York, about 1934-5; have an essay on books and Negro children in one of the Am. Library Ass. Year Books, about 1933-34; a paper in the book of the First American Writers' Congress;

Anthology of Proletarian Poetry, New York, several poems.

Workers Song Book, (forget which number) poem with music.

And there are several more things that I can't think of at the moment, since I have neither the books nor any kind of a list of such publications. I've never kept a list, and moving about as I do, books get left everywhere......I have no NEW NEGRO here so I can't answer your questions regarding that.....I hope the enclosed information will be of use to you, and again let me express my regret for being so long getting it to you.

Sincerely yours,

Langston Hughes

The New York Public Library
Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations

CIRCULATION DEPARTMENT

135TH STREET BRANCH AU 3-1250

SCHOMBURG COLLECTION
104 WEST 136TH STREET
NEW YORK 30, N. Y.

New York, December 29, 1948

Mr. Langston Hughes
645 St. Nicholas Avenue
New York, New York

Dear Langston:

I would like to preside at the meeting on the seventh because I won't talk much and will give Bontemps a chance to talk about the anthology *Poetry of the Negro* and read some of the selections which are his favorites or are typical of different trends and times.

Shall we depend upon you to read from *One Way Ticket* and inter-
sperse comments upon your experiences in working with Arna Bontemps and Ben
Carruthers? We have a number of would-be authors among our public who would
be greatly pleased as well as benefited if you would find space during the
evening to give some advice from your experience (1) in living the life of a
poet and (2) in getting books published. Even non-writers are interested in
such experiences, you know.

I have written Ben Carruthers asking him to talk about Guillen,
read a little and introduce Eusebia Cosmé. Would you and Bontemps meet with
Ben, Eusebia, and me for dinner before the meeting? How about six-thirty or
seven at the Gilt Edge Tea Room, across the street from the Library?

It sounds like a wonderful poetry fiesta - if only your cold,
Cosmé's kidney and Ben's grief will heal a bit! I wonder how Bontemps is
feeling.

JB:n

THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY
CIRCULATION DEPARTMENT

SCHOMBURG COLLECTION
135TH STREET BRANCH
104 West 136th Street
New York 30, N. Y.

BRONX CENTRAL STATION

Mr. Langston Hughes
20 East 127th St.
New York 35, N.Y.

Mr. Langston Hughes
20 East 127 Street
New York, New York

The New York Public Library

CIRCULATION DEPARTMENT
135TH STREET BRANCH
SCHOMBURG COLLECTION
104 WEST 136TH STREET
NEW YORK 30, N. Y.

New York, July 15, 1949

Dear Langston:

Thanks very much for the copy of U'High Midway showing the creative out-
pouring inspired by you while you were Poet in Residence at the University of
Chicago. We are always pleased to be remembered by you.

I am particularly pleased to hear from you at this time because I am plan-
ning to ask for your help in the celebration of the Twenty-fifth Anniversary
of the Schomburg Collection in February, 1950. Just yesterday, Miss Javitz of
the Picture Collection, New York Public Library, and I were speculating as to
whether you would be willing to help with captions for a big exhibition to be
held in the 42nd Street Library in honor of our Twenty-fifth Anniversary.

JB:mhb

Enclosure

New York, December 7, 1949

Dear Langston:

As I explained briefly to you over the phone, we are planning to celebrate the twenty-fifth anniversary with a large exhibition in the corridors and exhibit rooms of the 42nd Street Library during the month of May, 1950. Since this will be the first time Negro material has been displayed to any great extent in that building, we are hoping to prepare an exhibition which will be artistically perfect as well as historically accurate.

Miss Romana Javitz is working with me on plans for this event and she feels that it would be greatly to our advantage if you would write a script for this exhibition. The script should be illustrated by items drawn from the Schomburg Collection, and if it is written by a poet such as yourself, it will probably also be suitable for radio programs in conjunction with the anniversary. We are in the process of forming a committee to help with the staging of this show, but I wanted to write you a note to clarify our abrupt telephone conversation.

Our idea is that the history of the Schomburg Collection parallels an important phase of the history of the Negro in America. So far as we know, it was the first Negro collection to be made available to the public, springing into being as it did during the Renaissance period. It has grown concurrently with the Negro's interest in his own background and the broader interest of other peoples of the world in the history and future of the Negro people. Do these ideas seem sound to you or do you have suggestions for a different approach? We also want to have some evening entertainments during the first week of the exhibition. We have thought in terms of a lecture and a musical.

Incidentally, Miss Marquess of the Harlem Library at 124 Street wants me to tell you that she has had so many calls for your "Freedom Train" that it was very annoying of you to omit it from your recently published volumes. Sammy Heyward promised us a copy of the song so we will have that and we have

January 16, 1950

Proposed: That the 25th anniversary of the opening of the SCHOMBURG COLLECTION of the NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY be marked by a major exhibition.

THE HERITAGE of the NEGRO as a LIVING FORCE

General scope

To give a survey of the rich past and the tremendous present
development of the Negro people.

With emphasis on the role of the Library in documenting this
story and activating its use for research, creative work and
education.

The widely accepted, stereotyped success of the Negro in the
fields of music, sport and the dance, should be played down to
bring greater light on other facets of their contribution and
history; for example, documentation of their art tradition and
their struggle for civil rights.

Place
The exhibition would be in the Central Building, main foyer
small exhibit room, north corridor on the first floor.

Content
The exhibition would be limited to the holdings of the New York
Public Library. That both scholar and general public be interested,
the rare and unique, the book just off the press and the manuscript
would be included; the photograph and the broadside; original masks
and sculpture to catch the public eye and give visual beauty to the
display.

Plan
Content and handling would be carefully integrated, so that the
observer would find sequence in this story of the Negro people as
told through the Library's resources, and learn how the library
organizes the record of the past for use in the present and the
future.

Captions and legends would follow a script professionally pre-
pared to assure continuity. The color scheme and general layout,
the poster and decorative symbol for the show would be unified and
designed by an outstanding artist.

MATERIALS TO BE SHOWN IN SCHOMBURG ANNIVERSARY EXHIBITION

(A preliminary listing)

1. Verse by Juan Latino (1573 and 1576, Granada, Spain)

2. HISTORY AND DESCRIPTION OF AFRICA by Leo Africanus (ca. 1492-1552) (1600 ed. and 1896 ed. in English.)

3. Frobenius' works on African culture.

4. NEGROES OF AFRICA, etc. by Delafosse in French and English.

5. THE NEGRO IN ANCIENT HISTORY (1869) by Blyden.

6. CHRISTIANITY, ISLAM AND THE NEGRO RACE (1887-8) by Blyden.

7. Papers of the American Colonization Society, and relate to church movements.

8. Masks and fetishes from West Africa.

9. Blondiau-Theatre Arts Collection of Primitive African Art (collected by Alain Locke.)

10. Eric de Kolb Collection of African Arms.

11. AFRICA AND WORLD PEACE by Padmore.

12. Mbadiwe and others on colonial struggle.

13. Ethiopian illuminated manuscripts (42nd St.)

14. Modern Publications, mostly British, showing colonial development.