1222 Kearny Street, N.E.,
Washington, D.C.,
September 19, 1935.

Dear Langston Hughes:

I am editing for _The New Republic_ an anthol-
ogy of poems by Negro poets, similar to their anthol-
ogies of Southern poets, proletarian poets, and New
England poets. I am writing to ask you to submit
one or two unpublished poems (8 to 25 lines) that
you believe might suit such an anthology. The poems
are to be paid for at the rate of 35¢ per line.

With my school work starting here, I am anxious
to prepare this anthology as soon as possible, and
should be grateful for as early a reply as is conven-
nient.

P.S. From my complete failure as a correspondent I don't deserve any reply to this. Mrs. Hurman told me of seeing you in Mexico and your understandable/chapin at my failure to respond to your request. I have no decent excuse - I guess I just can't keep at this grind here and do anything else worth doing - I'm sorry. I need not tell you that I admire a great deal the work you are doing. Good luck.

1222 Kearny Street, N. E.
Washington, D. C.

October 23, 1935.

Dear Langston:

According to the editors of _The New Republic_ only unpublished poems, i.e. unpublished anywhere, can go in. I thought you would be familiar with the "anthologies" the New Republic has been publishing. They have been generally regional, (New England, Southern, Midwestern, etc.); the last one was a group of eight women poets. This is really magazine publication by groups, and the editors want new work. It is not of the _Caroling Dusk_ book anthology type.

By all means send something along.
What you sent I liked, but cannot use, as it has
been published already. I know how unwise it is to
ask for work to order - but I wish you would try to
get one or two done. The anthology is, of course,
unthinkable without you. And from your point of
view, the audience is as worth reaching now as it
was for your first-rate ballad to Roosevelt, Come
across with another swell poem.

Hollow Hills Farm,
Monterey, California,
May 5, 1941.

Dear Sterling,

Of course, I would be delighted to cooperate in any way
possible in the preparation of your anthology of Negro
writing. With three such splendid editors, I know it is
bound to be an excellent book.

Re the POEMS: Make your own choice, of course, but two
that I offer for consideration areLET AMERICA BE AMERICA
AGAIN from the I.W.O. booklet, "A New Song", and KU KLUX
from my forthcoming book, SHAKESPEARE IN HARLEM, (Knopf,
August 18). Latter enclosed. Or if you want humor, the
SEVEN MOMENTS OF LOVE from the same collection.

Re SHORT STORIES: The best one I ever did, DON THE ROAD
(Esquire) has not yet appeared in book form nor in any
anthology. And a most timely story is ONE FRIDAY MORNING
scheduled to appear in THE CRISIS shortly. I offer these
as suggestions.

Do you intend to print all of DON'T YOU WANT TO BE FREE?
If so, I have somewhere a revised version with slight changes
for the better in so far as acting goes, in the light of the
various productions of the play I've seen. In any case, if
you use the magazine version, there is quite a serious error
of repetition somewhere toward the end that must be corrected.
So lemme know.

I thought it was about time for another and newer Negro an-
thology. In fact, I seem to have heard tell of another one
in preparation somewhere, but have forgotten just where.

I am happy to grant you my personal permission to reprint any
of my material that you wish. In the case of other copyright
owners such as Knopf, I.W.O., etc., permission must be gotten
directly from them. For DON'T YOU WANT TO BE FREE and all other
work not yet published in book form, write my agent, MÁxim Heiber,
545 Fifth Avenue, New York, who handles all my work for me, ar-
ranges for transfer of copyrights from magazines, etc., and will,
I am sure, be happy to collaborate with you in the preparation
of the anthology, having edited various collections himself in
the past.

With all good wishes to you for a knock-out book,