CARL VAN VECHTEN

150 WEST FIFTY-FIFTH STREET

Dear Mr. Johnson,

Thank you for your long and charming letter. Of
course there never has been a time when I believed
that lynching had anything to do with rape. The
phrase was used merely as a quick literary effect.
Adele Astaire told me the other night that she had
received a delightful letter from Mrs. Johnson. She
was also full of enthusiasm for The Biography of an
Ex-Coloured Man, which she had borrowed from some
friend. She is trying to get it back for me to read.
I shall be grateful for the songs you have promised
to find me. Marinoff returned from Florida yesterday
and you know that there are few places we would
rather dine than chez vous.

very sincerely,

March 3, 1925

Mr. James Weldon Johnson,
187 West 135th Street
Manhattan

CARL VAN VECHTEN

150 WEST FIFTY-FIFTH STREET

Dear Mr. Johnson,

I read through The Autobiography of an Ex-Coloured Man at one sitting, and Marinoff is engaged in reading it now. I shall, of course, return Mr. Marinoff's copy to you, but remember that I am looking for a copy for myself and that if you run into one you can do no better than present it to me! It is a remarkable book in more ways than one, but in no way more so than in the gentle icony which informs the pages from beginning to end. You have said everything there was to say and said it without passion. The book lacks, I think, sufficient narrative interest; the hero might have had more personal experiences, but after all you were chiefly concerned with presenting facts about Negro life in an agreeable form, through the eyes of a witness who had no reason personally to be particularly disturbed.

I was particularly interested to discover that you were apparently the first to sense the musical possibilities of ragtime and to predict for it a future as an art-form. In reviewing Woolcott's book about Irving Berlin for the New York Tribune I have found the opportunity to give you credit for this.

I have not been the same person since you told me about Hayti. I have discovered a passage about Christophe in H.G. Wells's The Research Magnificent. He refers to a book called Where Black Rules White, by Hesketh Pritchard. Have you seen this? I have ordered it, but it seems to be out of print. You have not yet sent me the magazine article you referred to. I hope you won't forget this.

We shall see you Friday evening. In the meantime, will you and Mrs. Johnson, in the Victorian manner, please accept our compliments!

March 23, 1925

HOWARD O. EDMONDS

56 SOUTH LA SALLE STREET
CHICAGO

Continental and Commercial National Bank
OF CHICAGO
RECEIVED

NOV 13 1925

Dear Ralph:

The other day I saw a review of a...
new "Book of American Spirituels", edited by
James Weldon Johnson. Of course, I knew at once
that it was the negro melodies that the Fisk Jubile
lee Singers and others use so effectively, and I
bought a copy. I was much interested to find the
musical arrangement of some of them dedicated to
Carl. I was brought up on this sort of thing,
partly because we come of slave owning stock in my
family, and the last generation was raised by niggers.
Naturally the book appealed to me especially. Quite
independently of anything Carl has written along this
line, I have had the idea that these spirituels form
the groundwork or motives for any original contributions to great music that this country is likely to
produce. Occasionally I have caught myself trying
to treat one of them as one would a theme if he were
engaged in composing a symphony.

The sight of Carl's name in the book
made me think of you and regret that we meet so seldom,
which I realize is my fault. As an earnest of good
intentions, however, I am writing you now to say I
shall look you up very soon. Perhaps I can persuade
you to slip off to lunch some day at the Chicago Club,
especially by promising not to talk business.

Mr. Ralph Van Vechten,
Chicago, Illinois.
November 12, 1925.

CARL VAN VECHTEN

150 WEST FIFTY-FIFTH STREET

Dear Grace and James,

A thousand thanks for your message of sympathy. I hope we shall see you soon.

January 11, 1926

The first copies of Langston's book came in today. It is published on January 23rd.

Mr. James Weldon Johnson
69 Fifth Avenue
City