September 22, 1954

Mr. S. I. Hayakawa,
1356 Hyde Park Blvd.,
Chicago 15, Illinois.

Dear Hayakawa,

I loved that piece about HOW TO BE SANE THOUGH NEGRO, particularly that part about the "minimum expectation" business. However, at the moment, look at some of the young kids who've expected more than they get, and are taking it out in "juvenile delinquency" patterns, etc., some of them. Anyhow, it's a good piece, with as much truth in it as Hayakawa's Law relative to North-South songs! Thanks a lot for sending it to me.

Here's hoping I see you in Chicago or New York this winter.

Tuesday, January 25th, 8:15 P.M.

To learn-

# How Gospel Song Was Born
—A CHICAGO STORY—

Lecture-Recital by S. I. HAYAKAWA

Featuring MAHALIA JACKSON

also Thomas Dorsey, Gospel-song Composer; Mama Yancey, Traditional Blues

Singer; Ernest ("Big") Crawford, String Bass; Mildred Falls, Piano, and others.

Sponsored by Inter Club Council, University of Chicago for benefit of Scholarship Fund of Cooperative Nursery School, Inc.

Mandel Hall, 57th and University

Admission $1.25

Tickets at Door. Also at Hyde Park Co-op, 5535 S. Harper Ave., and at Werner's Books, 338 S. Michigan Ave.

ETC. - CHANGE OF ADDRESS

Effective immediately, manuscripts, books for review, ex-
change journals, and other editorial communications to ETC.
(formerly 1356 Hyde Park Blvd., Chicago 15, Ill.), should
be sent to:
HOME: 225 Eldridge Avenue,
Mill Valley, Calif.

S. I. Hayakawa, Editor

ETC.: A Review of General Semantics

San Francisco State College

San Francisco 27, California

Subscriptions to ETC., ISGS memberships, and book sales
will continue to be handled at:

International Society for General Semantics
400 West North Avenue
Chicago 10, Illinois

7

225 ELDRIDGE AVENUE, MILL VALLEY, CALIFORNIA

July 12, 1958

Dear Langston:

The address I have for you is from 1954, so I am sending a carbon
of this letter to you via Knopf (as you instruct in your WHO'S WHO
entry) so that you will be sure to get it.

In the madhouse of Newport, I forgot (if you told me) when you
are coming to San Francisco -- I believe once this summer, and then
again in November. You wanted me to see whom I could find to work
with you on a jazz-and-poetry presentation in SF, and I said I would
try to get in touch with Earl Hines for you. Please give me the
dates of your visits, and I'll call him right away on receipt of word
from you.

We would also be more than delighted to have you stay with us
in Mill Valley -- which is 35 min. (the realtors say 25 min.) from
downtown SF -- and where we have large and comfortable quarters.
After all these years of friendly acquaintance, it's time we got
together for a conversation with fewer than 50 people milling around.

It was wonderful seeing you. It will be even more wonderful
to be able to see you soon again.

Yrs, etc.

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

August 9, 1958

Dear Don:

I have just had a note from Arna telling me about his
very pleasant visit with you and what a lovely house you
have. Certainly I think it gracious of you to invite me
to spend a night or two with you when I am out that way.

I am still awaiting definite confirmation on two or three
remaining dates for lectures pending in the L. A. area
toward the end of October than I must return East for
lectures here in November. The following engagements are
definite:

December 3 British Columbia
" 5 Poetry Center, San Francisco
" 10 UC, Berkeley
" 11 -Monterey Peninsula College

These have been arranged through Miss Diamant and Ida Hodes
of the Petry Center. San Francisco State College, 1600
Holloway Avenue, San Francisco 27, Calif. It would seem
best now to contemplate adding some poetry-tbg-jazz programs
after these engagements are over, say from December 12th
through the 20th if any dates can be arranged during that
time. Perhaps you would be willing to act as the narrator.
We could either give a full evening's program or do a 20 min.
to half hour night club spot twice during an evening. Cer-
tainly I would be delighted to work with Earl Hines if he
found it agreeable. Perhaps he will remember me from our
meetings at the old Grand Terrace on South Parkway and later
at Martin's on the West Side of Chicago.

I am enclosing one of the Stratford reviews and will send
copies of the others when they have been photostated. I have
already sent you my new MGM record which has been getting
good reviews here in New York.

I shall be delighted to see you again in the fall and thanks
for your kind efforts in behalf of poetry-to-jazz.

HOW TO GET TO THE HAYAKAWA'S

FROM SAN FRANCISCO:

CROSS GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE (U.S. 101).

GO 4M. TO FOOT OF LONG GRADE.

LEAVE U.S. 101 STAYING ON STATE 1.

AT NEXT LARGE INTERSECTION WHERE

STATE 1 GOES LEFT, TURN RIGHT.

IN 1M. YOU WILL SEE HIGH SCHOOL AND
SAFEWAY STORE. NOW FOLLOW MAP:

FROM NORTH:

TURN RIGHT OFF U.S. 101 AT
ALTO JUNCTION (3RD TURN-OFF
SOUTH OF SAN RAFAEL), MARKED
"TO MILL VALLEY." SIGNS WILL
PUT YOU ON EAST BLITHEDALE
AVENUE. NOW FOLLOW MAP:

Mr. Langston Hughes

20 E. 127th St.

New York 35, N.Y.

## THE POETRY CENTER

Ruth Witt-Diamant, *Director*
Ida Hodes, *Assistant Director*

The Poetry Center for the fifth year offers a diversified program in poetry, geared to many different aspects of local interest in this art, and continues to stimulate new work through its scheduled readings and workshops. It has established its place in the cultural life of the Bay Area, with such organizations as the San Francisco Museum of Art, San Francisco Public Library, the Telegraph Hill Neighborhood Assn., San Francisco Arts Festival, the Actor's Workshop, the Interplayers, and the Playhouse cooperating in the presentation of its programs. The Poetry Center acts as a clearing-house for readings of poetry at many of the universities on the West Coast, and is nationally recognized as a dynamic factor on the literary scene.

For the coming year, guest poets include Babette Deutsch, Langston Hughes, Gil Orlovitz, May Swenson (Fall); Leonie Adams and Stephen Spender (Spring). Local audiences will have further opportunity to explore the variety of contemporary verse.

### Calendar of Events — 1958-59

Note: Events are presented at various places in the City as indicated in each listing.

### OCTOBER

#### 5 Sunday 8:30

MAY SWENSON, reading from her poetry. Telegraph Hill Neighborhood Assn., 555 Chestnut Street. Admission 50¢ — students 25¢.

#### 6 Monday 12 Noon

MAY SWENSON, at San Francisco State College, Little Theater. Co-sponsored by the Associated Students. Admission students 25¢ — general 50¢.

#### 24 Friday 8:30

BABETTE DEUTSCH, reading and commenting on her poetry. San Francisco Museum of Art, Civic Center. Admission $1.00 — students 50¢.

#### 27 Monday 12 Noon

BABETTE DEUTSCH, at San Francisco State College, Little Theater. Co-sponsored by the Associated Students. Admission students 25¢ — general 50¢.

#### 27 Monday 3:00

Miss Deutsch will meet students informally in the Activities Room, Administration Bldg., 162, San Francisco State College. Refreshments will be served.

### NOVEMBER

#### 6 Thursday 8:30

GIL ORLOVITZ, reading from his poetry. San Francisco Museum of Art, Civic Center. Admission $1.00 — students 50¢.

#### 7 Friday 12 Noon

GIL ORLOVITZ, reading from his poetry. At San Francisco State College, AI Bldg., Room 109. Co-sponsored by the Associated Students. Student admission 25¢ — general 50¢.

#### 23 Sunday 8:30

PHILIP LEVINE and GARY SNYDER, reading from their poetry. Telegraph Hill Neighborhood Assn., 555 Chestnut Street. Admission 50¢ — students 25¢

#### 24 Monday 12 Noon

PHILIP LEVINE and GARY SNYDER, at San Francisco State College, Room 109, AI Bldg. Student admission 25¢ — general 50¢.

### DECEMBER

#### 5 Friday 8:30

LANGSTON HUGHES, reading from his poetry. San Francisco Museum of Art, Civic Center. Admission $1.00 — students 50¢.

#### 10 Wednesday 12 Noon

STUDENT DISCOVERY PROGRAM, under the direction of Mark Linenthal and Stanley Anderson. San Francisco State College, Room 109, AI Bldg. Free admission.

This is great!

September 25, 1958

Dear Don:

How nice to have your letter, card, and the programs from
Mexico City. I have always loved Mexico and I envy your
being there.

Certainly I would be delighted to do some programs with Earl
Hines and I have asked MGM to send him my record, THE WEARY
BLUES WITH LANGSTON HUGHES. I won't be in San Francisco
before the 6th of December as you can see from the enclosed
itinerary. From the 12th until December 22nd, I could do
some poetry-to-jazz programs on whatever dates you secure,
either single or for a week or so in a club or coffee house.
And if you will act as narrator, I think we will have a lot
of fun together.

Although I will be on the Coast at the end of October for a
brief period in the Los Angeles area, I will not be coming up
to San Francisco then as I have dates back East in November.

I appreciate immensely your kind invitation to be your house
guest and I will be happy to accept after the 11th but it
would seem more convenient for me to be right in the city
until the lectures there and in the surrounding areas are over.
Usually I stay at the Fairmont when I am in San Francisco.

At the moment I am busy arranging for a recording of my gospel
songs from my new novel and play, TAMBOURINES TO GLORY, so
this is written hastily to give you the needed information.

With cordial regards and all good wishes, I am

Sincerely,

Langston Hughes

Mr. S. I. Hayakawa
225 Eldrige Avenue
Mill Valley, Calif.

S. I. HAYAKAWA, SAN FRANCISCO STATE COLLEGE, SAN FRANCISCO 27

17

Dear Mr. Hughes:

This is to acknowledge with thanks the receipt
of tear sheets from *The Providence Journal*, et al.
concerning the Newport Jazz Festival. Dr. Hayakawa
is at present in Hawaii as visiting professor at
the University of Hawaii summer session. I shall
be happy to call his attention to this material when
he returns to Mill

Valley.

Editorial Assistant

July 14, 1961

Mr. S. I. Hayakawa,
225 Eldridge Avenue,
Mill Valley, Calif.

Dear Dons

A pleasant surprise to get from you what I'll bet is a great disc---and your Liner Notes are FINE---but, man, they must have dropped a gold brick or something on it in the mail coach because it arrived all smashed up on one side---into small bits. First time I've known a plastic disc to arrive broken, and I've received lots of LPs in the mail. So sorry! But thanks, anyhow, and I'll keep the jacket just for the notes.

I didn't go to Newport this summer---since I'm no longer an official, so don't get a free ride. But I was invited to narrate the Blues Evening at the Boston Arts Festival, M.C.ed by Father O'Connor, with Brownie and Sonny, Jimmy Rushing--- with an audience of 20,000 people in the Boston Common---my biggest crowd ever. Fine reviews the next day, and it was fun. And I've been asked to do a Blues segment on a TV show in three parts---music, painting, and words---coming up in New York this fall. But until then, no more speaking. I've been away so much since I came back from Africa in the fall that I'm WAY behind on all my book contracts, so have to stick real close to my type-writer this summer.

My new book of poetry Knopf is bringing out in the fall was written especially to read to jazz: ASK YOUR MAMA! 12 Moods For Jazz. As a semanticist, you'll no doubt be interested in it, as for the first time so far as I know, it incorporates the "dozens" into poetry. But don't tell anybody yet. Let's see if the critics of culture know what they're reading. If not, you can break it to them gently, in case you review it or something.

A little part of it is coming out in POETRY beforehand, and in JAZZ DAY, the new mag Archie Moore is backing here in New York. They had a fine cocktail party to announce it at the Village Gate with music by Horace Parlan and drinks galore! I were there.

Hope your family is well. Give them all my best regards, and tell them I remember my stay at your house so pleasantly. Next time I come to the Coast, hope I may see you all again.

Cordial regards,

P.S. I'll have a second book in the fall, too, THE BEST OF SIMPLE, coming out in a single volume all
volume all 3 books.

Sincerely,

November 3, 1961

Dear Don:

I have asked Alfred A. Knopf to send you a copy of my new book of poems, *ASK YOUR MAMA: 12 Moods For Jazz*, since I thought it might be of especial interest to one working in your field. So far as I know, in *ASK YOUR MAMA* the Dozens are used for the first time in formal poetry. John Dollard wrote a much discussed article, as you may recall, back in 1939 on this peculiarly Negro game as a form of release involving racial tensions, and William Elton commented on it later in *American Speech*. Otherwise I know of little having been written about the Dozens. Perhaps it might interest you to comment upon the poetic use of the Dozens in my book, and to permit what you say to be quoted. In any case, I'd be delighted to receive any comments you might care to make on *ASK YOUR MAMA*.

With cordial regards,

20

Published by the International Society for General Semantics

editor
S. I. HAYAKAWA
225 Eldridge Avenue
Mill Valley, California

managing editor
BONNIE BURGON

ETC.
A REVIEW OF GENERAL SEMANTICS

July 1, 1963

Mr. Langston Hughes
20 East 127th Street
New York 35, New York

Dear Langston:

It was a real pleasure to hear from you and to
get your poem, "Go Slow," and your column, "Bugged."
These came just as I was putting the July issue of ETC.
to bed. At one point I found a blank page between two
articles, so I put your "Go Slow" in there. So it will
be published in ETC. whether you like it or not. I hope
you will forgive my taking this liberty. Especially
since we don't pay our contributors.

The word "bug" has many fascinating uses. See
Wentworth and Flexner's *Dictionary of American Slang*.
I think the present use of the word "bugged" in the sense
of being severely annoyed derives in part from the old
expression "to have a bug up one's ass (nose)" and perhaps
also in part from the prison usage "to be bugged," meaning
to be examined by the prison psychologist for possible
insanity.

When are you coming this way again? I have
added quite a few items to my collection of African
sculptures, and I think you would enjoy seeing them.
You know you are welcome at our house whenever you are
out this way. The last time I was in New York I tried to
call your home, but a man answered the phone and told me
that you were in Africa. Or somewhere. This was about a
year ago, I guess.

With all good wishes,

Yrs, etc.,

S. I. Hayakawa

SIH:bb
associate editors
ANATOL RAPOPORT
WALTER E. STUERMANN
RICHARD DETTERING

University of Michigan
University of Tulsa
San Francisco State College

Ann Arbor, Michigan
Tulsa 4, Oklahoma
San Francisco 27

A

YOU ARE CORDIALLY INVITED TO
A PARTY CELEBRATING
20 YEARS OF TIME-BINDING

A PARTY COMMEMORATING THE 20th ANNIVERSARY
OF THE PUBLICATION OF ETC. AND . . . . .

The definition of man as time-binder is essentially a definition of man as a co-operative class of life; the more men co-operate, the more do they manifest and realize their humanness. The preference that the general semanticist shows for cultures that permit more rather than less time-binding is therefore a preference for the more human rather than the less human cultures.

Consequently, the student of general semantics, as a citizen, will tend to support ideals of international and cultural co-operation such as are held by people of good will, of many different faiths and nationalities, all over the world. He will tend to support such ideals as those of the United Nations, which hopes to transcend the limited time-binding of separate and sovereign nations with fuller time-binding on an international scale: the pooling of the material, technical, and intellectual resources of all the nations of the world for the purpose of solving problems wherever they may arise. He will tend to oppose political thought-control wherever it may arise, for thought-control is the antithesis of time-binding. He will oppose racial and religious discrimination, not solely out of democratic sentiment, but also out of a conviction that fullest time-binding necessitates the freest cultural interchange between all races and creeds and classes. He will support freedom of speech, press, and assembly not solely because he is culturally conditioned to value these freedoms (although this no doubt will be a large part of his reason), but also because he holds that restrictions of these freedoms are denials of the cultural process.

S. I. HAYAKAWA

Summer Issue, 1959, ETC.

HOW TO GET TO THE HAYAKAWAS'

FROM SAN FRANCISCO:

FROM NORTH:

REMEMBER:
This map is not the territory.
This map is not all the
territory.
Etc. etc. etc.

TAMALPAIS HIGH SCHOOL

SAFEWAY
SUPERMART

COUNTY HI-WAY

E

TO STATE HI-WAY 1

S

THROCKMORTON

BUS
STATION

FIRE
DEPT.

■

EAST

MILLER AVENUE

BLITHEDALE AVENUE

POST OFFICE

N

BLITHEDALE
AVENUE

REDWOOD
TREES
AT
INTERSECTION

THIS IS IT!

WEST

E

E N U E

COTTAGE
E

E LDR

KING

Telephone:

DUnlap 8-4776

TO U.S.
HI-WAY
101

Hayakawa, 5-1 to L. Hosne3