OPPORTUNITY

Journal of Negro Life

Published by the National Urban League

127 East 23d Street, New York City

January 15,
1927.

Office of
CHARLES S. JOHNSON
EDITOR

My dear Mr. McKay:

Much to my regret, it has never been my good fortune to have a personal meeting with you, and it even seemed that I was destined not to have any correspondence with you, for a letter which I sent you as soon as I assumed this position on OPPORTUNITY, was returned to me from Nice where I had directed it, saying that you had gone from there; and no one seemed to know your address, until a few days ago when I was informed of your whereabouts by Mr. Johnson.

First of all, I should like to let you know how thoroughly I have enjoyed your poetry from the time I first heard you read some five or six years ago. That incipient pleasure has continued with the years, as I have continued to read your much too infrequent songs.

Mr. Johnson, I believe, has already told you of my desire to assemble an anthology of verse by Negro poets to be issued probably in the fall. I understand from him, and I am more than delighted at the intelligence, that you are willing to allow me to represent you in this anthology. I very well appreciate your desire to be represented by those things which you think are your best work, and I am quite willing to be guided in this matter by your own decision. The following are the poems which I should like to include: "Desolate", "My House", "Russian Cathedral", "Flame-Heart", "The Wild Goat", "When I Have Passed Away", "O Word I Love To Sing", and "Absence".

Kindly let me know if these selections are in accord with your own. If not, let me know by just what poems you would care to be represented.

I am asking every person represented in the anthology to supply me with about 500 words of biographical material, written by himself and about himself in either an impersonal or personal way. This, I hope, will lift the biographical notes out of that rut of dry fact, in which they are caught. I should like the biographical information to consist of birth, and birth place, education, travel, literary interest, published works, and any other information which you feel would be of biographical interest.

- 2 -

If for any reason you would care to have me use poems other than these, I should be happy to do so. May I not hear from you by return mail. I should deeply appreciate this courtesy.

I am asking those who are to be represented in the anthology to aid me in the matter of biographical information, by writing their own biographical notices in about five hundred words. I am not one who feels that an author's life should be an open book for the public to read. Therefore, the only specific information I am asking for, are items of birth, and birthplace, education, and published works. The rest I am leaving to the author himself to give me just those things he feels that the public ought to know about him.

If you will favor me with this information, along with your consent to use your poems, I shall be deeply indebted to you. May I close with a word of sincere appreciation for your work, which I have long admired, and read with ever increasing enthusiasm. I think your "Desolate" is one of the best poems I have read in a long time.

With all best wishes, I am

Yours sincerely,

Countee Cullen
Assistant Editor

CC/HT

OPPORTUNITY
JOURNAL OF NEGRO LIFE

Published by The National Urban League
127 EAST 23rd STREET, NEW YORK CITY
CHARLES S. JOHNSON
Editor

COUNTEE CULLEN
Assistant Editor

April 16,
1927.

Mr. Claude McKay,
Post Restante,
Antibes (C.A.),
France.

Dear Mr. McKay:

It was quite worth the delay to receive the interest-
ing and deeply appreciated letter that you sent me.
I am deeply grateful for your permission to use your
poems in my Anthology. I am enclosing in this letter
a copy of "Russian Cathedral", as I have seen it print-
ed. I should be very happy to abide by whatever cor-
rections you may make in it. I have substituted in
my selection from your poems "America" and "Exhortation"
for "O Word I love to Sing" and "When I have Passed
Away".

The biographical material you sent me was exactly the
sort of thing I wanted. It is an intimate, actual
manner of communication which I feel is totally ab-
sent from the usual cut and dried biographies, much
to their detriment, and if you have no objection I
intend using the biographical sketch just as you have
passed it along to me.

I am sorry that you have not yet seen a copy of "Color"
as your reaction to it is one which I should value
greatly. However, I think I can soon find a means of
of eliciting that reaction.

April
20th
1928

My dear Mr. McKay:

Thank you for your recent note and for the pleasant information that it was due to you that I received a complimentary copy of *Home To Harlem*. I am delighted with the success with which it is being received. Only the other day I picked up a copy which showed me that the book was in its fifth edition. I am delighted at your good fortune.

I am coming to Paris probably in July, and there is the prospect that our common friend Harold Jackman will accompany me. We shall both make it our business to get to Marseille to see you if you are there.

With best wishes, I am

CSJ/ME
Mr. Claude McKay
Chez Thomas Cook & Files
67 La Canebiere, Marseille
B-du-Rhone, France