FORM LETTER SENT TO:

20 East 127th Street,
New York 35, New York,
November 22, 1948.

Mr. Claire L. Lennon,
Allen High School,
Ashville, N. C.

My dear Mr. Lennon,

Langston Hughes, poet and lecturer, expects to be in
North Carolina during Negro History Week, 1949, having just confirmed
two Sunday afternoon engagements in the state, one at the beginning and
one at the close of the week, with a tentative midweek engagement pending.

While in North Carolina, Mr. Hughes would be happy to
give a program of his own POEMS OF NEGRO LIFE (incorporating various as-
pects of our history) at your institution, should you care to present him
to your students and community. His fee for a single appearance is $150.00.
He would appreciate knowing your choice of a date as soon as you have made
a decision, in case you wish to include him on your Negro History Week pro-
gram. Mr. Hughes has just returned to New York from Book Week appearances at
Hampton, Orangeburg A. &. M. College, Claflin, Allen, and in Charleston,
South Carolina. In addition, he has asked me to let you know that his next journey
South will be in February. You may address Langston Hughes or myself at
the above address.

20 East 127th Street
New York 35, New York

December 10, 1948

Mrs. Claire Lennon
Allen High School
331 College Street
Asheville, North Carolina

Dear Mrs. Lennon:

Thank you for your recent letter. I shall be delighted
to come to Asheville during Negro History Week. Since I am reading
my poems for the Horton Branch Library in Winston-Salem on Sunday,
February 6th, and it seems that it is none too easy to get from there
to Asheville quickly, I think we had better settle on Tuesday for your
date.

I like very much to read my poems for young people and
so would be very happy to do a high school program in the afternoon,
and another program for the general public in the evening. Both
could come within the same fee, $150.00, since very often my sponsors
arrange school appearances during the day anyhow, so there would be no
extra charge for the school assembly.

Under separate cover I have posted you photographs, publi-
city material, and some of my songs. There may be music both before and
after my portion of the program if you so desire, although my own songs
need not be used unless you wish to have them on the program.

Usually my publishers send a dozen or so of my books ahead
of me as there are generally people at the program who wish to secure an
autographed copy. If you like, the box of books may be opened before my
arrival for display and sale. By Negro History Week, my new book of poems,
ONE-WAY TICKET, Knopf, and the anthology which I co-edited with Arna Bon-
temps, THE POETRY OF THE NEGRO, Doubleday, will have been publishes, as
both appear in early January.

All my good wishes to you,

LH/nvw

March 29

1949

Dear Mrs. Bennon:

Perhaps I told you when I was in Asheville that I was to be poet in residence at the Laboratory School of the University of Chicago this semester. A few days after I returned to New York from my Southern tour I left for the Middle West and have just come back to New York for the rehearsals of TROUBLED ISLAND to find your letters awaiting me. My secretary tells me that he has sent you my prepared statements concerning the poem, "Goodbye Christ." Today, I am sending the enclosed letter to the editor of the newspaper, but it is perhaps very late now for me to make a comment on the controversy. I am sorry if it has caused you or the school any embarrassment.

TROUBLED ISLAND looks quite good in rehearsal and has a very dramatic and melodic score. The cast is interracial, so I would not be surprised if someone red baits the opera, too -- since it seems that always where interracial efforts are involved, such as your school and this opera, somebody raises the cry of "Communism." The music of the opera is by William Grant Still, who happens to be a Catholic, so there is hardly any Communism involved in his music.

Please forgive my very late answer, but since I was so busy in Chicago the first few weeks that I was there, I had asked my secretary to take care of all my correspondence for me here in New York until I returned for the rehearsals of the opera, and only to forward telegrams or very urgent messages.

Please give my very best regards to your husband and to Miss Titus, and to my other friends at Allen High. All my very best wishes to you.

Mrs. Cleire Lennon, Supt.
Allen High School
331 College Street
Asheville, North Carolina

LH:HHS

April 22, 1949

Dear Mrs. Lennon:

This is to acknowledge your letter of April 18th along with its
enclosure, the clipping from the ASHEVILLE CITIZEN-TIMES, to Mr.
Hughes. Miss Eloise Rhode at the Y.W.C.A. there in Asheville had
also been kind enough to send the reprint of Mr. Hughes' letter.

At present Mr. Hughes is out of the city. He is at the University
of Chicago where he is conducting a seminar in creative writing in
the Laboratory School. He will not be home until the Spring Session
ends.

The opera, TROUBLED ISLAND, had its world premiere at the New York
City Center on March 31st. It was a very colorful and beautiful pro-
duction and I know that everyone connected with the opera was well pleased
with the results.

For Mr. Hughes, thank you for your thoughtfulness in sending the clipping
and the letter.

P.S. Leeds Music Corporation, RKO Building, Rockefeller Center, New York, New York have published the libretto of the opera. It costs fifty cents.