6, Av. des Marronniers
Fontenay s/s Bois
(Seine), France

July 21, 1953.

Dear Langston;

As Anne writes you, one of the first books we fell on
two weeks ago when we finally opened the crates of books that had
been shipped with the remnants of our belongings (we lost pretty
nearly all of the contents of that lovely apartment we had when we
decided to stay over), was your First Reader. A month before our
friend at Random House, Belle Becker, had sent us a copy of your
latest "Simple Takes A Wife). The girls have read it avidly, and
the whole family roars with laughter as we read to each other the
story of the baby that wouldn't be born down south. As a matter
of fact each of the children will, on the slightest provocation,
pick up the book and read some particularly choice passage to
us or to friends. It's a good book and I'm sorry we didn't read
the first book of Simple. We're writing Belle to see if she will
help correct that gap.

By the way, did either of these books get translated
into French yet? If not, and if you have no arrangements in the
works, would you want to charge us with trying to find an editor,
and either translating it or finding a good translator? Any comment
or suggestions?

Of course it's wonderful to be back. The French are
still generally the same intelligent, sensitive, humanistic people
we knew before the war. It was of course very hard at first, for
we had made no plans to stay, and the decision had to be made at
the last minute, with only our travelling clothing in our possession,
so we lost a lot in the process, and were, besides, in debt in order
to make the trip. But bit by bit we have managed to hold on, and
get back the essentials, thanks to the fact that Ione's family took
care of the children near Brussels while we sought work here. I'm
working with a pre-war colleague from the UP who has started his own
public relations and advertising firm over here, and we're managing
just about to keep our heads above water, and gradually to build a
business which holds considerable promise.

Ione made a big effort to find a place before the end
of school term and we finally located a furnished house for rent out
on the eastern edge of town, between the Bois de Vincennes and the
Marne river, owned by a doctor who knew Ione's father. Rent much
lower than New York, and the same as what we had been paying in
temporary quarters for a three room, six-storey walk-up over in
Auteuil all winter and spring. This is a big house, with plenty
of rooms, and a large garden with lawn, trees and shrubs. We fetched
the children down on July 4th. week-end and they took to their new
home at once. They've matured terrifically in this year, in every way,
and they have not only acquired a real European understanding of things,
but the French language in the bargain - including 8-year old David.
Of course Ione is delighted, and so am I. We wish we could look forward
to your visit, but we know that isn't likely in the immediate future in
these parlous times. Keep on with the writing, you're going great!
And the children add: do some more of Jesse Semple!

December 15, 1953

Dear Peter,

I meant to enclose this in my Xmas card to you-all, but it got sealed up and posted before I caught it— my current helper being zealous! Anyhow, re the business of translating Simple, nothings happened, so far as I know in France, only England, Prague, and Scandinavia. I would, of course, be delighted. (If you didn't get the first book, SIMPLER SPEAKS HIS MIND, let me know and I'll send it. I'd also like to see my play MULATTO done in Paris. It's opera version, THE BARRIOR, has already been taped for the Dutch Radio Hilversum, sounds fine with full symphony orchestra and opera singers, and will be broadcast after the New Year, date I don't know. The play, MULATTO, has been running in Italy for two years off and on in repertoire, done in Brazil, and will open the coming season in Buenos Aires at their leading theatre. So it's getting around. Know any theatre in Paris that might do it? I can send you a script.

But concerning all of this, you should first check with the Paris representative of my New York agents: Harold Ober Associates, 40 East 49th Street, New York 17. In Paris their person is: Mlle. Suzanne Hotimsky, 7 rue Murillo, Paffs 8e.

How much she has explored either of these possibilities, I don't know. Only thing I heard about was been Damas wishing to translate my poems for Pierre Seghers last year. Since then, nary word. So anything you might do would, on my part, be appreciated. Business end, I am sure, could be worked out, in case Mlle. has nothing moving.....So now, back for me to addressing 500 Xmas I'm trying to get off before 1954!.....I so much appreciated the letters and the news of the family and the kids' letter, very sweet, tell them.

Sincerely,

6, Av. des Marronniers
Fontenay-sous-Bois
Seine -France
January 30, 1954.

Dear Lagston;

Thanks for the many books. We've now had from the pub-
lishers, with author's compliments, SIMPLE SPEAKS HIS MIND, SIMPLE
FIND A WIFE, and LAUGHING TO KEEP FROM CRYING; and most recently
from England, Gollancz's forthcoming edition of SIMPLE SPEAKS HIS
MIND. I wish I could also tell you that the French edition was on
the ways, and the translation started, but that would be premature.
However, I think a start has been made, and I'll do my best to push
until the three novels are scheduled.

I visited Mme. Hotimsky, unfortunately alone because
Ione has been ill for some time, and here's a summary report:

She has run the books around to the top French publishers,
Gallimard, Albin Michel, Plon, Presses de la Cite, etc. without
success. Gallimard and a few others were interested, but thought
the translation was such a hard nut to crack that it endangered succ-
ess. Fact is, if poorly translated the first book would be a flop,
and the others would never get into print. May I therefore suggest
that your first step is to let your agent know, so he'll let Mme.
Hotimsky know, so she'll be able to give this as a guarantee to the
publisher, that you're willing to allow the French translator in on
a slight percentage of royalty, in addition to whatever flat fee
they pay translators (it's lousy, and the work is often as bad!);
also that you'd like to see a test chapter or two before the trans-
lator go ahead. The reason is you have three swell books, and a
good translator should think of them, as will the eventual publisher,
as a series. The very first should therefore be excellently trans-
lated to ensure success for each as it appears.

I asked Mme. Hotimsky had she not thought of selecting
a few of the best, or rather most humorous, chapters, having them
translated and using these to interest a publisher by: a.) having
something to give in French which would really convey the tone
and flavor of the books; b.) Getting some good literary magazines
to run them, to arouse popular reader and editorial interest.
She said she usually (as any literary agent would) waited until
after the book was published before giving reprint magazine rights
out, in order not to give publishers a good excuse to reject and
in order not to complicate the copyright situation. I told her I
knew Sartre well, was seeing him shortly, and if she had no objection
was going to propose to him to run two or three chapters in Les
Temps Modernes. She agreed. I know this would interest readers
and whet the appetites of publishers, and of course Sartre would
certainly agree in writing not to claim copyright, and to pay the
usual fee. I'll let you know how this goes.

Further I told Mme. Hotimsky that we would look for
a good potential translator (believe me, this will be hard to find,
but we will not only control choice of translator, but I've offered
to sit with translator on difficult argot passages), and that in
the meantime I'd try to get Ione started on a couple to speed the
possibility of having some French texts to show with the books.
We had a long discussion, and I believed I jazzed her up to the
point where I've got her decided to push the books again with the

6, Av. des Marronniers
Fontenay-sous-Bois
Seine-France

30 janvier 1954

Mme. Suzanne Hotimsky
7 rue Murrillo
Paris 8e.

Chere Madame;

J'aimerais vous ecrire en français, mais je n'écris pas avec la même facilité que je parle (ou que j'ai l'illusion de parler français). Donc, toutes mes excuses de vous adresser en français à ma façon, c'est a dire, en anglais!

I was most grateful for the time you gave me to discuss Langston Hughes' work, and to explore with you what more could be done to win for him the audience he deserves in France, particularly with his three recent books. I written to assure him that you were stirring the publishers again, and that we would try to help you find someone who could translate at least a few test chapters to show any interested publisher in French, so he could understand the humor and falor of the books. May I add, knowing something of publishing, that the most important selling point is that here are three finished books, all published in a number of countries where they have been proven successes. Publishers have a hard time introducing new authors, and when they can get an author with an already existing reputation (Langston is quite well known in literary circles in France for his poetry and some short stories) and three proven good books, they have every opportunity of building their sales over the three and coming up with a good money maker for themselves. There is no reason why, once they read some of these books, they should not grasp how universal an appeal the contents are, and know they can sell here.

As I promised, I will talk to Sartre about thinking of publishing two or three chapters selected for reader appeal, just so this point may go across. I'm sure he would agree to pay the usual rates, and also that he will sign an engagement leaving no doubts in publishers' minds about the copyright. He may also have a useful word or two to say to some publisher. I'll also speak to Vercors about it, and see what he may suggest; also about MULLATTO, should he have any suggestions for a producer or director who could possibly be interested in putting it on. Meanwhile I do most urgently recommend that you submit the script to the TNP and see if this is not of interest to them, at least as a repertory play for their out of town performances. If it's a hit they'll know whether it could draw an audience to the Palais de Chaillot.

Would you also see your friends at the Radiodiffusion Française and ask them to contact Hilversum and find out if they can listen to the tape recording of The Barrier. By the way, if it has not yet been played on Radio Hilversum and you learn the day and time it will be on the air, please let us know, because we'd like so much to hear it again. The dramatic quality of this opera, and the music, make it a most gripping performance, and I have no doubt the RDF will want it if they once hear it. By the way, the composer is Meyrowitz; I don't know the voices on this taped recording, but when it was

performed in New York, Lawrence Tibbett of the Metropolitan Opera
Company and other leading American singers took the lead roles.

And since the information Langston sent me could be of
use to you in placing his material, I send you these pertinent
excerpts from his letter, knowing a brief reading could not all
be remembered:

"re the business of translating Simple, nothing happened,
so far as I know in France, only England, Prague and Scandinavia.
I would, of course, be delighted. (If you didn't get the first book,
SIMPLE SPEAKS HIS MIND, let me know and I'll send it. I'd also like
to see my play MULATTO done in Paris. It's opera version, THE BARRIER,
has already been taped for the Dutch Radio Hilversum, sounds fine
with full symphony orchestra and opera singers, and will be broad-
cast after the New Year, date I don't know. The play, MULATTO, has
been running in Italy for two years off and on in repertoire, done
in Brazil, and will open the coming season in Buenos Aires at their
leading theatre. So it's getting around. Know any theatre in Paris
that might do it? I can send you a script.

"But concerning all of this, you should first check with
the Paris representative of my New York agents: Harold Ober Associates,
40 East 49 Street, New York 17. In Paris their person is: Mlle.
Suzanne Hotimsky - 7 rue Murillo - Paris 8e - Tel. CARNOT 08-86.
How much she has explored either of these possibilities, I don't know.
Only thing I heard about was Leon Damas wishing to translate my
poems for Pierre Seghers last year. Since then, nary word. So any-
thing you might do would, on my part, be appreciated..."

Please let me know if you make any progress, and I hope
we have an opportunity to meet again in the not too distant future.

February 5, 1954

Dear Peter:

Thank you very much indeed for your kind letter, and the
enclosures relative to my books. I am on the verge of
leaving for a New York History Week lecture tour of the
South, so I am simply dropping you this line, to let you
know that I have written my New York literary representa-
tive: Mr. Harold von Auw. Jr., Harold Ober Associatés.
40 East 49th Street, New York 17, New York, USA, asking
them to let me. Hotimsky know that I am quite willing
to cut a translator in on the royalties, that I would
be delighted to have chapters from the book published
in magazines beforehand, and, also, that I would be
pleased to have her handle my poetry in Paris, and
that if she has none of it there, we will see that she
receives some.... I have not heard from Damas since he
left New York about a year ago, so perhaps he has given
up the idea of translating my poems himself. He does
not have a very adequate understanding of English, anyway.
And I would just as leave have someone else.... I am so
sory that Ione and the children are ill and I certainly
hope they will be back to normal again soon.... I would,
of course, like to have TNP see my play, MUBATTO. They
might also be interested in the play about Dessalines,
Emperor of Haiti, which was done in the opera version
under the title of 'TROUBLED ISLAND,' with score by William
Grant Still, at the New York City Center, by their opera
company about five years ago.... I hope you will be able
to hear the BARRITOR on February 17, and that Radio
Hilversum will release the tapes if Paris desires to
do it there. I think one would simply contact the di-
rector of the radio station in Holland for this. I did
not arrange this so I do not know the names of the of-
ficials there. If I get any further information, I will
let you know.... My continued good wishes to you, as ever.

Seine - France

May 1, 1954.

Dear Langston:

Happy May Day! If we were close we'd have you in tomorrow with a big group of friends, and the children would pick you a nice bouquet of forget-me-nots or lily-of-the-valley, both of which grow profusely in our large garden woodland plot. The "lawn" we leave wild, and the spring has convinced us how sound this decision was, for after a sparkling quilt of primroses of all hues, now it is a field of misty blue forget-me-nots, and we are wondering what crop of flowers comes next. Anyway, consider yourself the recipient of a big boquet, even though we'll have to wait some time to give it to you.

Boquets also for the recent announcement that "Simple Takes a Wife" has won one of this year's Anisfield-Wolf awards. If the African problem were not of such growing and compelling importance, we'd have said the judges had a nerve not giving the award wholly and exclusively to you for creating such a fine and warm person as yourself and your many compatriots who take form in Simple. I guess you reluctantly have to agree that any award that will help Americans understand a little better about Africa and perhaps avoid for the future some of the damn foolery of Asia has its relative importance too, though we have no idea how well Bartlett did this. I'm passing the Saturday Review page you sent to Miss Hotimsky, to see if she can make any use of it in the French literary publications.

We've meant to write for many weeks, now growing into months, but they have been terribly busy ones for us, so forgive the delay. It doesn't mean we weren't active. On the contrary. Hotimsky, as you may have heard, got your poetry, and placed it in the hands of Seghers, who was, on last report, seriously seeking a possible translator and considering adding this volume to his collection of modern poets. Hope it works. The Dutch broadcast of "The Barrier" had mixed reactions; the majority we were able to cull being that the music did not ring with enough distinction. Content for most of the people we heard from was an unknown quantity which may have prejudiced their reaction, for most did not know Dutch, and not having seen the opera they could only follow through the music. All of us, including the children, were enchanted by the opera, despite language, and followed every scene clearly because of our distinct memories of seeing it in Brooklyn and New York. Dutch friends of American friends of ours were most critical, for they said the translation was poor and had been hastily done, and they added the problem posed sounded strange and unknown to them. I gather they were a bohemian lot and so perhaps their interest in American history was not great, and they did not feel misgenation was a fit subject for drama. How wrong! Anyway, we owed you a frank and honest summary the opinion we received, and that is it. Miss Hotimsky, on the other hand, succeeded in having some of the French Radio people hear it, and they were interested. They have asked her to find out from you whether the broadcast a few years ago of "Troubled Island" was taped, and if so, whether they can get a copy. I am also to ask a friend here who was on the VoA at the time if he knows if a tape is around anywhere. I understand it was beamed to France, but don't know whether in English or actually in French. You never did have a tape made of "The Barrier" when it was in rehearsal or finally on the boards, did you? If the music is extant anywhere,

- 2 -

even if only portions, including some of the arias and other key
scenes, I believe the French radio would seriously try to carry it.

Miss Hotimsky also assures me that she has gained new fire
about Simple and is pushing the publishers hard now. She has agreed
that unless she can find a good translator who will do a sample
chapter or two her chances of convincing them to publish may remain
slim. Let's hope we have more promising news than this for you soon.

As for myself, no writing except of an advertising and public-
ity nature for months now. Work has been particularly intense, and we
are gradually working our way out of the terrible hole we went into
during the last half of last year, and new prospects loom every week
which dangle the hope of a real payoff not too far ahead. I'm working
intensely right now on a big Paris American community fund raising job,
and although I wasn't fired by the subject, gradually as you get deep
into a job like this the technical stimulus of forging a group into
action, the feeling of accomplishment that comes from building some-
thing, anthing, out of what was originally pure blue sky you put into
concrete words before translating them to concrete and stone, has been
getting me. And I suppose the fact that in the end something will be
built instead of destroyed, community life served instead of split,
makes it feel a lot more constructive than it would be under other
circumstances. Of course, it would be better if were building some-
thing in which I believed with a deeper fervor. But it ain't, and I
guess I'd better be satisfied that it's in a generally constructive
direction, even if only a church and community center.

We continue to receive your books, and the children part-
icularly thank you for the one from Dodd, Mead on great American
Negroes. Douglass was quite a fellow. What's a good definitive book
on his life? And what would you wish me to do with these books? I
will of course see whether Miss Hotimsky also has them for her work, but
if she has them all, as I believe she has, don't you agree I turn them
over, with your compliments, to the American Library of Paris? They
have next to nothing of yours, and we ought to build up that gap and
let some of the other members of the American colony, and the many
French readers who call have a chance at them, instead of keeping them
in our own shelves only for a small circle of friends. If we don't
hear to the contrary that's what we will do. I'll also make sure to
get in touch with Hotimsky again within the next ten days and see if
there is anything new. She wants to write directly to you, but then
hesitates and feels that her duty is to go through channels to Ober.
I can't advise her otherwise, for after all, your publication will work
only if it is pushed on a literary agent and publishing level. And I
have neither the standing nor the time to do that, except by pressuring
her. If she doesn't get to first base in a few months it will be time
to think of a change.

Write when you get a chance. How was your lecture tour?
What are you doing now? Is Simple speaking again, and are you earning
his words? I think it's the best idiom you've caught to date, and it
is our hope we shall read more.

Sincerely,

Thanks for your letter. Hotimsky reports Sogers has agreed to print a
book of your poetry. Don't know when. Simon not yet placed, but she
assures us she is trying. Also 6, Av. des Marronniers
with Mulatto and Barrier at Radio. Fontay-Sous-Bois

Seine - France

Dear Langston;

December 20, 1954

Please excuse us for using a round-robin letter again
for keeping in touch, but you'll understand that we are so busy
most of the time this is the only way to be sure we don't let you
forget us!

The weather this summer in Europe was awful, although
in early September, just as school starts, it has gotten better.
Nevertheless, we didn't mind it, because we went through to com-
plete the next big job we had set ourselves when we came over to
be with Ione's family - we helped rebuild the family villa at
Coxyde, on the Belgian Coast. It was a hard job, for an old house
(it was built in 1910, just before Ione was born, and also bears
her name, the Villa Ione) which has twice been destroyed by war
can be quite a mess. After the first World War war reparations
enabled the house to be rebuilt exactly as it had been, and every-
thing stolen was replaced. This time, since it was decided that
it would be very dangerous to have the Germans pay for all the
damage they did, there were no reparations, and the Belgian govern-
ment was pretty tight about how much it would allow for compensat-
ion. After endless complications which last ten years, from 1945
to this spring, Ione's mother was offered about 10 percent of the
rebuilding cost, and a low-interest loan, on condition that she
rebuilt the same house - otherwise nothing.

So everyone pitched in. Charles, now a strapping man of
24 and an active architect, agreed to do the rebuilding plans with-
out cost, Jean-Pierre, his brother who works in the Ministry of
Economic Affairs, continued his job of putting through all the paper
formalities, and we offered to help the workers and to do the
painting. We didn't know what we were in for! When we arrived
the first day of Peter's two-week vacation it was pouring, the
general concrete and brick repair and the floors had been replaced,
and the wind roared through the shell of the old house. We must
explain that all that remained of the house at the end of the war
was the shell of the old brick walls, and the tile roof, full of
holes. Every piece of wood, even the window frames, had been
removed to build German air-raid shelters at Hamburg, and to
provide firewood for the local garrison on the coast. Well, it
was still a mess. The plasters had not started, and the blistered,
rotten, pulpy plaster, soaked with years of rain, hung in leprous
strips from the ceilings and walls. There was no running water,
no gas, no electricity. Instead of a painting job, everything
except the heavy masonry remained to be done. And we had a summer
renter ready to move in August 15th, if we were finished. That
gave us just a month, and we decided it was our duty to ride herd
on the mason, the carpenter, the plasterer, the electrician, the
water spout man, and the host of others involved. We also under-
stood, having been through the same deal rebuilding our home in
Amenia in 1946, that unless we did the dirty work to prepare the
way for each of these craftsmen, they would continue to stall.

- 2 -

So we arranged with friends in the village to put us up, found a lovely couple whose parents had supplied the food to Ione's grandparents when they first built to feed us one wonderful hot meal each night, and for the rest we camped out at the villa from dawn to dark, working like beavers, all of us, and picnicing over a small alcohol stove for our other meals. Ione rode the workers like a cowboy, and they soon got off their other jobs and made ours their priority summer work. From a wreck in two weeks when Peter went back to work in Paris the house began to take shape. Every week-end he came up for two days and three nights, and we pushed ahead. The last 24 hours we painted all the walls in the big house - 110 pounds of paint in one day! - sewed and hung the curtains, bought and installed the furniture and turned over the keys to the vacationing family, just in time.

Do you understand how good it feels, ten years after the last war, to finally have removed the last scars from the wreckage? We do, because the nearest city (15 miles away) is Dunkerque, and Peter went back and forth by train to there, so we all had a good look. Dunkerque is a shambles, and although new buildings are going up everywhere to demonstrate the resurgence of life, you can hardly notice the new for the wreckage. Working with zeal and energy it will still take the people of Dunkerque another ten years before the wreckage of 1940 and 1945 (They went through the two worst sieges of the war) is finally cleared away and they can rest from their toil to live again - that is if the world doesn't go mad again before then, for they are right on the key invasion route to France and Britain. The day after we finished we drove liesurely back and visited Dunkerque from top to bottom and then down through the part of France that was overrun by the Panzers in 1940 and Patton and Montgomery's tanks in 1944. Abbeville, Amiens, Calais, Boulogne, Beauvais! Wreckage and gutted homes, buildings, stations and churches. The beautiful Cathedral at Beauvais, the miracle church of the war, with twenty square blocks all around it absolutely flattened, and the fine lacework granite and limestone carved in the middle-ages still standing in all their beauty, despite the scars and gashes of flying shrapnel and bomb splinters. If you want an explanation why the French finally did not vote the CED this is what you must remember. The ruins of war still lie all around them, and no one, least of all the Germans, are doing anything to help them rebuild the devastation friends and enemies wreaked on them. Politics, like life, can also be emotional.

The one real note of sadness as we stood in front of the rebuilt home with Ione's mother was that Bonne-maman, grandma, who had pushed all of us to go ahead and restore the house, was no longer there to see it done. She had passed on last Christmas, mature, bright, eager and youthful as ever in her 94th year! It was a loss we are constantly reminded of, because she had the energy of any of us, including the children, and she had help and advice always for everyone. What was her last comment about the villa? Rebuild? Of course you must. She had personally seen the invasions of 1870, 1914 and 1940. Of course you rebuild. The only answer to destruction and war is life and peace. And you impose them both!

- 3 -

Don't get the impression we've had a hard summer, without lots of fun. Although it was cold, windy and rainy, the children were in swimming at least every other day. We visited the lovely Flanders towns constantly in the course of our work, we lived in them, with their people, and we saw and learned about them and their long past, right back to the 16th century, first hand. And then, since we had hired a car so we could get around to push the workers, we had a lot of chargeable mileage stored up when we came back to Paris after August 15th. Peter had a special assignment which he could only do week-ends, to research Pasteur and prepare a photo-reportage on his personal life. So we all drove down to Dijon, Dole, Arbois, Salins, Besançon to visit Pasteur's home, his birthplace, his school, the lycees where he had first taught, his laboratories, outdoors and indoors. And since we were that far we decided to push on to Switzerland to visit Gene Sheffer, who was staying with friends on Lake Leman. Once there, why not push up into the Alps to see Ione's mother who was staying with friends at Les Diablerets? We went, up among the peaks which have been covered with snow all this summer, and where the clouds drifting by showed the soft powder of the snowfall of that very day. We covered a lot of ground, and it was a long trip, but in one-week-end we covered more than 1,000 miles and saw many things the children had never seen before, but now will want to see up closer and for longer when the next opportunity comes.

Gene was relaxing on the shores of Lake Leman with his Swiss friends, the Jean-Louis Perrot's on their vineyard farm. He looked bronzed and rested and he naturally wants to stay on for a while. This spring he was with us for several months, until we had to go to Belgium and he went on to Switzerland. It's a little too far, but we are sorely tempted to run down to the French Alps and visit Kit and Ned Belches, who got away from the Riviera while the summer tourists flocked in. Apart from the time, we also do not have our own car, and for such distances a rented drive-yourself car can be expensive. But we have learned patience. In time we'll get to do a lot of things we want to do.

Anne is going up to Belgium for several weeks to stay with Ione's brother Jean-Pierre and to attend the Decroly school where she used to go to be with her old classmates and friends. She'll stay until her own school opens here at the end of the month, so you see what a glutton for punishment she is! The fact is she likes to study very much now, and finds it's fun, not work. She also wants to make some more progress in catching up on her math. where she was so far behind when we first got here. Alice and David are also doing some work in preparation for school. And since you can't start fixing things without it becoming very contagious, we've finally convinced the old doctor who owns the house we live in to let us start painting the verandah and some of the other necessary jobs required for an old building. Yes, we're busy, but we're also happy.

Ione has been doing some work helping to arrange trans-
lations of several books, and in trying to find some American
publishers to get interested in some of the better French children's
books and games. But there are few results to date. Peter has been
nailed down for the past six months with a fund-raising campaign in
Paris - ten times more hard than in New York - and he'll be tied
with it until the end of the year. Meanwhile he manages to sand-
wich in work on a number of other accounts, both public relations
and advertizing, and to do a little writing when asked. Nothing
creative yet, it's too soon to expect and he's still too busy and
tired to get very far if he did start. But this summer a number
of strange coincidences have thrown him into touch with a number
of people, French and even American, who were present in the Versors
during the war. That is the site of a novel he had started years
ago, and still has not finished. More and more it seems to be
imposing itself and rounding itself out in his mind. And since
he has always sworn he can never go back there until it is down
on paper, and yet the urge to go grows stronger every day, maybe
this will also impose its own imperative compulsion and he will
simply have to settle down and write at least the full first draft.
After which some publisher can make up his mind if he should pur-
sue the project.

This is dreaming, obviously, but we've got to have some
of that too. It's like the children's book built around Amenia,
which lies there accusingly, half done. But as the world seems
to be rocking itself back onto a more even keel, and with it life
in general, the time is approaching, we tell ourselves, where
many of these things can be finished too. The need for construct-
ive work is in the ascendency, we'd like to be part of the accom-
plishment. You too, without doubt.

Now that you see how we are settling down to our new
life in Europe don't get the impression we have lost sight of home,
of what is going on, of what our family and friends are hoping,
dreaming, doing. This is still very close to us, and we only feel
guilty because we haven't kept closer touch. Forgive us if we
haven't answered your letters sooner, and if you failed to answer
ours we forgive you too. But now, sometime before the end of the
year we'd like to hear from you. We don't expect it to be as long
and rambling as our own effort, but do give us some of the news
and much of yourselves. It will feel good to feel your presence.

Write soon and pass on our affectionate greetings,
from all of us,

David, Anne, Alice, Ione and Peter

It's almost Thanksgiving day, and that is almost reason enough to be writing you again. But this letter, long-overdue, was planned a long time ago, right after we returned from our vacation late in September. You'll have to accept the fact that we've been very busy getting settled in again, to work, to school to home. That's our only explanation for the fact that this family round-robin - to which each member of the clan has added a description of two - centers pretty much around this vacation.

For us it was a memorable trip. We rented a car for the three weeks available, and we decided to really see France. We covered most of the area that the children had never seen before, and which Ione and me had not been back to for getting close to 20 years - 17 to be exact -, in the center, the southwest and the Mediterranean west of the Rhone. Then we hit ground where Peter had last trod - ridden would be the better word - at the southern landing into France in 1944. There we retraced the route north - with its stirring memories, and its endless memorials to the dead. For they were everywhere, the ruins of villages on high mountain plateaux where whole villages had been ravaged, with the rusted hulks of German gliders crumpled in the fields where they had alighted in the July sun 16 years ago to slaughter every living creature - from 6 months to 93 years old! - in sight, the simple plaques where teen-age boys had fallen trying to block Nazi reinforcements getting back to Normandy. This was part of the tale of war that has never been told...but we relived it. And we saw the roads and bridges back, the towns and cities rebuilt; and the amazing, the remarkable dams that the French have built since then, and which are the signature of a stirring recovery that also is largely unknown except to those who have been there. Even French friends did not know of the many things we saw, so we felt we should put some of this down for our friends in America who are so far removed they could not know unless someone they knew and believed could tell it to them. Here are our letters: -

Here's how David (now 10, a birthday celebrated enroute), saw it: "For my vacation I went to the south of France. I'm going to tell you all I did during my vacations. I left Paris towards the valley of the Loire, then into the Massif Centrale. In the mountains of the center I saw many old volcanos. I visited the highest of them, the Puy de Dome. It's a volcano, I went into the crater. Then I went to Vichy, where there are many mineral springs. We visited the prehistoric caves of les Fyzies. In one of them I broke of a stalactite and a stalagmite, which I brought back to Paris.

"We visited a lot of caves, in each of them it was cold and damp. There were many drawings on the walls, drawings of animals which were made by men there from 20,000 to 50,000 years ago.

"Then we went to the Pyrenees. We travelled in a car, it was a Trianon Vedette. Then we went to the Vermillion Coast, on the Mediterranean near the Pyrenees. We stayed for five days at Collioure. We visited Port-Vendres. We saw a diver, who was

- 2 -

working in the bottom of the harbor. We went on a short visit into Spain for a few hours, and we bought a pair of castanettes.

"Then we left for Nice, and we visited several gasoline cracking plants. We stopped in the Camargue, and saw the horses and their riders. We visited the harbor of Marseille, where they were still rebuilding the buildings and docks destroyed during the war. We went on to Toulon, where we slept one night, and saw the French fleet and then went on to Cagnes-sur-Mer. We stayed for four days at Cagnes-sur-Mer.

"We went up over the mountains towards Grenoble, then to Lyons, then the Loire again, and Fontainebleau and Paris. We drove over 4,000 kilometers through France. I show you where we went on the map of France I drew. Dear Pierre (this was to David's cousin), are you sure you want to be an artist? I'm still sure I want to fly, because I'm fond of that. Has Martin (another cousin) finished building his electric motor, and does it run well? Which of your studies do you like best, geography, mathematics or French? I like best geography, mathematics, reading and I like French a little. I want to know a lot of languages. Best to everyone. Hugs and kisses - David."

And now here's Alice (14 in July): -

"Please excuse me for not writing for such a long time, but since my first day at school I have been having a lot of work and I didn't find the time to write to anyone.

"We were lucky this year because we had 3 months of summer vacation (we only went back to school on the first of October). At the end of the month of August we saw Virginia, Arthur and Laurie Silber and their parents. We had a lot of fun together, but now that they are gone it seems almost like a dream.

"At the beginning of the month of September, since Daddy had his vacation, we decided to rent a car and take a trip to the south of France. We left Paris on Sunday the 4th. That day we headed towards the Loire Valley. There we visited two beautiful old churches and saw some chateaux. Then after taking a swim in the Loire, we headed up the river, but it got dark and we stopped in a little village before getting to Moulins. The next morning we started off early fpr Vichy. On the way we saw an old little village, with its castle in ruins. And guess what the name of the town was - Billy! When we reached Vichy we stopped to taste some of the famous Vichy water (used for clearing liver ailments, etc.). We tasted it all right ! Just coming out of one of the hot sulphur springs, and did we all feel sick after that ! Well, after tasting the horrid Vichy water we left and headed towards the volcano country. We drove up one of the dead volcanos. The road first went up through the woods of pine, and then as we got higher the woods stopped and there was less vegetation. When we got to the top (over 4,400 feet high), we picknicked in the grass. It was fun and there was a lot of wind.

"When we finished eating, Anne, David, Daddy and me decided to walk from this volcano to another, which was a few miles away, while Mommy drove the car around to a road on the other side and climbed up to meet us. It was a lot of fun. On the hills we

- 3 -

crossed there were many sheep with bells around their necks. There
was grass all over and many pretty mountain flowers. After a while
we arrived at the foot of the second volcano. This side of it was
very steep and we were pretty tired when we got up. This volcano
wasn't like the other one, because in the middle of it was a per-
fect round and huge crater, very deep, and it was impressive to see.
When Mommy came we decided to go back to the car, our whole walk
tookover two hours. That evening we arrived at a huge modern dam
on the Dordogne river, which flows from those volcano mountains
which are called the Massif Central. It was built right near a
village called Bort-les-Orgues, because there was a high palisades
cliff on one side that looked like a huge organ in stone. We
decided to stay there for the night.

"The next day we visited the power plant right under the dam. It is very modern and huge. We went into an enormous room with two big turbines in it. That day we visited a line of dams going down the Dordogne. Our trip down lasted two days more and during that time we visited caves where prehistoric men had done drawings. The drawings looked almost as if they had been done a few years ago and they were beautiful. We also saw the Pyrenees mountains and we passed by Perpignan.

"On the fifth day of the trip we arrived at a little fishing village, Collioure, on the Mediterranean. We stayed there for a while and we had lots of fun. We went swimming a lot in the sea that was usually calm and transparent blue. Also, we took a walk up into the mountains, up through vineyards that come right down to the coast. At night in Collioure the people would dance the "Sardano" and it was lots of fund to watch them and hear the band (composed of the village barber, etc.). We also went for a few hours into Spain.

"Well, after about 5 days at Collioure, we decided to go towards Nice. On the way we went through the Camargue country. It is marshland country in the delta of the Rhone where horses run wild and where there are big flocks of red flamencos in the salt marshes. We also visited the biggest port of France, Marseille. After three days we arrived at a little village on the coast, near Nice. We stayed there a while and visited Nice, Vence and some of the villages up in the mountains. We had lots of fun on the sea-side and once we went swimming in a clear, cold mountain stream (a little like Bash-Bish Falls, but colder).

"We were a little sad when we had to leave this country of sunshine to go back to Paris. But we had to, so we headed back, passing through the mountains. On the way we saw Grenoble, a city surrounded by mountains. Then we went up into the Vercors. The Vercors is a big plateau high up in the mountains. During the second World War the French used the Vercors as a self-made fortress. The Americans parachuted them a few arms and said they would probably come back and land. A few days later some planes landed and the French ran, cheering, towards them, .but, instead of Americans it was Germans who came out. They killed all the people they could and burned down the villages. When we went to the Vercors

- 4 -

we saw the villages, which had just been rebuilt a year ago. There were graveyards with loads of people killed by the Germans. There were whole villages who had been killed, from babies to old people in their nineties. But most of them were young men in the resistance, between 18 and 24 years old. You can understand, after seeing this, why the French people will never forgive the Germans for what they did. After seeing the Vercors we went back through Lyon and the Loire to pick up one of my teachers and brought her back to Paris with us. We have been in Paris more than two years now. I like my school here. We study four languages: French, Latin, English and Spanish. - Love, Alice. "

And Anne (16 1/2 and quite a tall young lady now): -

"On the very first day of school we got our weekly program and began to work immediately. We already have loads of homework. This year I'm in a girl's school 5 stops away by train towards the country. I don't like being in a girls' school, but it was the only one that was not overcrowded and not too far away. I go to school from 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Saturday and all morning on Thursday and Friday. We have two hours of gym per week and two hours of sports every two weeks. The sports we have are swimming, basketball, volleyball, ping-pong and rowing (racing skulls). Speaking of sports, what about the Dodgers? We're just raving because they won the series !

"Our trip through France this summer was really a thrilling one. It took us five days driving to get down to the beautifulCATALAN village of Collioure on the Spanish border. The first day we went through the Chateaux country of the Loire and went swimming. It was very swift at that part because we weren't too far from the source. After Vichy we stopped at Clermont Ferrand. After this city begins the "Puy", or dead volcano region which forms the central part of France. We went up by car to one of the highest ones, the Puy de Dôme, with no crater, and had a wonderful view from the top, where there was a meteorology station. From there we took a pretty long walk to another smaller one which had a tremendous crater in the middle. It was really very impressive. That evening we had gotten out of the volcano country and into the Dordogne valley. The Dordogne is a river which runs through sharply cut, rocky mountains. Many years ago, because of it being a swift running and an ideal power plant river, a dam project was planned, for this is rather a long river. Well, now all the dams are built and most of them have just been finished very recently. So the next day we visited the whole valley. The dams were really beautiful, all of the modern ones were about 350 feet high. They had massive steep white walls which even had elevators for the workers to use to get down from the top of the dam to the power plants below. These dams produce more power than most of all the other dams in Europe put together.

"That evening we were in a new country and this region was rolling country (Perigord country), with small cliffs along the rivers, ideal for prehistoric dwellings. This was the most densely populated country of prehistoric caves. We had gotten into a warmer region,

- 5 -

the sky was much bluer than in the north, and the fields were full of tobacco and warmer climate crops. That evening we visited the most extraordinary caves of all, called the Lascaux caverns. They were found about 15 years ago filled with paintings 15,000 to 25,000 years old. Prehistoric men had drawn them for their religion, which was a cult for the gods so that they would be able to catch much wild game. Well, on the walls of the caves were bulls, horses, door, mamouths and other wild animals. The paintings are perfectly preserved and the colors are really marvellous, dark reds, brown, black and yellow. All of them are practically perfectly preserved. And as for the sizes of the animals, most of them were drawn as if they were real.

"The next day we visited many other caves in the region, some of which were dwellings and others temples, such as the one we had visited the day before. But the other paintings and carved animals we saw were ruined by the humidity in the caves and the stalactites and stalagmites which had been formed ever since the work had been done. That evening we got to Toulouse, one of France's biggest cities.

"The next morning, the fifth day since we'd left Paris, we got to Carcassonne, an old town surrounded by an immense fortress. This fortress is formed by three walls and there are 52 towers all around. Although old it is all in perfect shape. Late that afternoon we got into the Pyrenees. They are very wild and arid mountains and there are deep torrential ravines everywhere. The population in this region is not very dense. The crops raised in this country are especially grapes, olive trees and corn trees, because of the poor soil. Lots of mountain peaks have old ruined forts or castles upon them. The people in this country have a delicious rich southern accent and wonderful characters, even with their hard life.

"That night we stopped at Perpignan. And Friday morning we got our first glimpse of the beautiful Mediterranean Sea. Towards noon we got to Collioure. Here we had both the deep Mediterranean Sea and the colorful fishing port with its blue, red, green, yellow and white fishing boats and quite a few Carrasins towers in the village. Then, just behind Collioure on the lower slopes there were vineyards and abandoned farms everywhere. And a little further very high mountains which had, from a distance, because of their ragged, clear-cut ridges and Carrasins towers here and there on the peaks, the aspect of the Great Wall of China.

"Then 15 miles toward the south was Spain. One of our 6 days down there we crossed the frontier, and stayed in Spain for a couple of hours, just long enough to eat supper. The people looked so miserable and for foreigners were so nice. Things for outsiders were so inexpensive, but the Spanish themselves earn very little and as we bought a couple of things I tried out my Spanish and succeeded pretty well.

"After 6 days at Collioure we decided that being down south we would see all of the French Mediterranean coast. So we left the Pyrenees and Catalan country and went up the coast, which seemed rather flat the first days after being in such mountainous

6

country. We saw sea salt factories, many fishing ports, and of course
vineyards everywhere and gnarled pine trees. Here the coast was
sandy, instead of being rocky like near the Spanish border. That
evening we were at the city of Montpellier and the next morning,
September 15th, it was hot, as usual, and sunnys That day we
visited the marsh country of the Rhone delta. First we saw an old
town surrounded by a beautiful fortress (Aigues Mortes), similar
to the one we'd seen at Carcassone. The flat delta countryside is
not very densely populated. The crop in this country is rice.
They raise horses and bulls for bull fights, and make salt. Also
there and there in the region you can see the small white thatched
huts surmounted by little crosses, where the people of the delta
live. There are also herds of wild horses in this region and
thousands of mosquitos everywhere. That evening, after leaving
the delta country and before arriving at Marseilles, we saw several
tremendous oil cracking plants. These steel structures, with
orange flames coming out of the steel chimney stacks were really
very breath-taking. That Sunday, all morning long we visited
Marseille port and saw some friends. We left at about five that
afternoon. After Marseille all the towns on the coast seemed
terribly touristy. We were getting into mountainous country again.
That night we stopped at the French naval base, very much destroyed
during the war, Toulon. The next day we saw some really beautiful
country between Toulon and Cagnes (the town before Nice). We
went through the red and rock Estereol cliffs. We saw many beautiful
fishing villages and the Maritime Alps. We even went by the village
where Picasso lives and works, and no wonder !

"That evening we got to Cagnes and stayed at the house
of a lady we know. During our four day stay in the region we
visited beautiful Nice. And the mountain villages behind us, not
far from the coast. Many of these villages clutch upon rocks and
are very beautiful. We saw some friends living in one of the towns,
Vence, where many artists such as Matisse and Chagall chose to live.
They've even decorated small chapels, which are beautiful.

"Finally, Friday morning of our third week we just had
to leave so that daddy could get back in time to work Monday morn-
ing in Paris. And we left the sunny, warm Mediterranean and head-
ed up into the Alps, which were sunny, but not very warm. You
know how beautiful the Alps are so I need not tell you because my
words would be too poor for their splendor. We saw some beautiful
clear green mountain lakes and again several dams. That night we
got to a coal mining town which we visited the next morning after
seeing friends there. The next day we visited the beautiful city
of Grenoble, surrounded on every side by Alpine peaks and on one
side could be seen the sharp cliffs, towering high, which surround
the Vercors plateau. On this plateau shortly before the liberat-
ion in 1944 the Germans succeeded by sending down planes to beat
the thousands of résistants fighting up there. But if you only
know how ! They burned out entire villages, killing everyone
there, from tiny babies to old people, no one was spared. As for
the résistants who had come up to fight there, among whom there
were also girls, so many of these young people, mostly 16 to 24

- 7 -

years of age, were killed by the barbarous Nazis.

"That evening (Saturday), we slept in France's second largest city, Lyon on the Rhone and Saone rivers. Up to this day we'd been having lovely weather. But the next evening, upon reaching Paris, it began pouring and it was cold. We really had a terrific trip, and honestly, I don't know what I preferred the most. - Love and kisses - Anne."

And now a few words from Ione: -

"As for the five of us, everything goes well. Peter is very busy at the office, and now has the added problem of finding capable personnel to add to staff to handle all the new work. At home, no more children: Anno and Alice are now grown young ladies, David a big boy. "If you don't hurry up and have this second little brother that we've been wanting for so long, we're the ones that will be bringing you our own children....." And doubtless they are right. How time passes! Anno is going to a girl's college at Varennes on our railroad line and only 25 minutes from home. Since the age of 15 1/2 she has an admiror, a faithful one of 17, blond as ripened wheat, handsome as a god, who is in Paris only infrequently (perhaps that's best, for it will give them the time to grow up and get to understand each other better) because he is studying in another corner of France..... This deep friendship (may one hazard it?) is reciprocal... And watching the conquests of our unaffected Alice... we say to ourselves... that's the way the flowers open, that's the way the world turns and turns... As for David, the interplanetary spaces draw him, artificial earth satellites, trips to the moon or Mars, the world of aviation, are all subjects where he feels perfectly "at home".

"In September the entire Rhodes family had a lovely trip, which you've already read in this long collective missive. We went from the Vermillion Coast to the Blue Coast...and there we often thought of dear Maman and also of brave Papa who knew and loved this country so well. How many precious minutes spent there with her did I retrace for Peter and the children. For Peter and me, she helped us to rediscover even more profoundly this lovely land, and it helped the children to understand it intensely from the first moment on.

"Has Maman given you the good news of the villa "Ione" at Coxydo, which we helped rebuild, yes just a year ago? Already everyone is fighting to get in. This summer it was rented to enthusiasts in July, August and September, and already one family has reserved it for next August. And now in the off-season mother makes numerous trips there with different members of the family... I can't count how many have already been down to the coast to stay with her in this lovely autumn weather. We ourselves are awaiting the return of DeForest (now in England with his little "Four Horseman") to make a visit in turn. Of course you can understand how happy that makes us ! One more effort that was not useless ! I can't go on, because already this letter is getting too long, but it's a shame to miss telling you about the delightful plays we saw

- 8 -

during the extraordinary International Theatre Festival held here in June and July, the concerts, expositions, theatre and lectures we've all managed to attend. Not to mention also the trips to the skating rink, and the guitar lessons of Anne and Alice, the visits to the swimming pools of David and his daddy, usually with some young friend (David adores swimming since our trip south, and the mask and snorkel he bought then are such a part of him that all you of him when he's in the water is this bobbing pariscope zipping about in the water). It's been a magnificent year, with the kind of weather we always remembered from before the war, but had not seen since our return until this year. Too many other things to write when one writes so infrequently. Affectionate greetings from all five of us - Ione."

And now that you've travelled up and down the country with us (repeatedly, we regret, for that's what each of the children wanted most to talk about and we had to let them have their say!) how about a little news from you?

Life is getting organized properly now. Our house is cozier, and friends who visit say it gets a warmer feeling the more we stay. We managed to get a second-hand refrigerator from friends, and after a two-and-a-half year wait they've just installed our telephone. We no longer have to run to the station to make connections with friends, to get messages back and forth between ourselves, or rely only on telegrams and pneumatic letters for urgent problems. So we're celebrating with a series of little parties those week-ends with all our friends in Paris.

By far the highlight of our relaxation entertainment was the visit of the Chinese Ballet Company during the Theater Festival. Single acts or ballets, many of them over 1,000 years old, gripped us with their smooth action and vivid pantomime speech. It was a revelation to see how the ballet dance forms of the East had retained their scope of movement without any classic restrictions, so that six men on a stage could re-enact vividly the seige and conquest of a walled city; whereas in song the crippling limitations of a uniform falsotto was imposed on all artists, from bass to soprano, whenever they sang (it was difficult to appreciate, though one admired the doxterity), with which the actors and actresses slipped from normal voice in speech to falsotto in song. In the West, one realizes, we did just the opposite. We put our ballet in a straight-jacket, and gave free rein to our voices. Perhaps here is a realm of the arts where both East and West would profit immensely by liberating themselves from the restraining classical limits we each have imposed. At least one way to speak to each other again. The Picasso exhibit this summer, on which Peter worked handling public relations for the Louvre, was also exciting, and an enormous attraction for Parisians and tourists. From all the above, you'll see if you come to France we will have much of interest to suggest you do!

All our best, and may we hear from you soon -The Rhodes

Peter C. Rhodes

Ione Rhodes Boulenger

6, Avenue des Marronniers - Fontenay-sous-Bois, Seine - France - Tél. TREmbly 50-70

Dear Langston;

September 28, 1958

Just to show you how wonderfully varied life is today, while Frenchmen were out voting, we went to visit friends in the country, had lunch and spent a fine afternoon with W.E. DuBois and his wife. They were just about to leave on a much longer trip, far to the east, that I'm sure you'd like to take too one day. We talked of you and many other friends at home, what you were doing, managing to write and get printed and all the rest. It was good to hear of you, to know you were holding up and getting along so well.

And then two days ago I had Olie Harrington in for some advertising art work for a client and he told me of his forthcoming book, which I understand you helped him to get placed, and didn't you write some of the articles that carried it along? I've liked Olie since the day over a year ago when we met, and have tried to help with the little work we have, for he's been having a pretty tough time to make ends meet. But he's happy and enjoying every minute of it over here.

But most important of these incidents to bring you back close to us Saturday I had a letter from the French translator we tried to interest several years ago in finding a publisher and getting some of your produced over here. He is René de Jouve, his address: 6, rue de Mezieres - Paris 6e. Here's a translation of his note so you get the whole story: "In the midst of the historico-anthological work that I have undertaken on American literature, I was naturally led to read again the work of Langston Hughes and to become interested in it. I would now like to translate certain of his poems and certain of the chapters from "Simple", for my anthology and also for an article in *Les Lettres Francaises*, where the subject could not be better represented than by Hughes.

"I naturally recalled that you were the one who first introduced me to the two first volumes of Hughes and I thought that perhaps you could be my friend in court with him on this subject.

"The problem is as follows. You know that American authors generally ask for rights which sometimes appear exaggerated to us because of our limited means, and that often prevents us from getting their work published. I know that *Les Lettres Francaises* run into much difficulty on this problem, and this summer were not even able to publish a text from Wolfe which I translated because they could not get the publication rights on it from his estate.

"Would you please get in touch with Hughes to see if he would give his authorization for the publication of certain poems and extracts from "Simple" in *Les Lettres Francaises* on one hand, and in the review "Europe", on the other. Thanks, etc"

I've written this directly to you, rather than go through your agent Mme. Hotimsky, but I guess you should follow up on it through her. I would like to know your decision, however, so I can let de Jouve know. My personal advice is to give him this permission, because it is the only way now to arouse interest and perhaps stimulate some publisher to go on and do the book - at which point of course the rights would have to be maintained. Perhaps the way to do this is to insist on nominal rights for this permission, reserving the permission for these single insertions. Anyway, do what you wish. I understand in your own recent anthology of work you left out Mulatto? Did the publisher put the screws on or what?

Everyone is fine, now the holidays are over, although the girls are very

March 7, 1962

Please excuse us for writing a second round-robin letter so shortly after
our year-end letter. But spring is almost here, time marches on, children grown, and
the inevitable happens.

This letter therefore announces a big event in our lives, Anne was married
last Saturday to a fine young fellow-student at the Sorbonne, Jacques Dufaux. He is
a physicist, now working on his nuclear physics thesis and teaching at the same time.
He is going on to 24 (our age when we were married), Anne, 23. Of course she still
has a long road ahead with her medical studies, and they both may have a hard time
managing to go all the way together with their separate studies, but in any case Anne
already has her nursing degree, works on the side for special nursing jobs and they
have all the confidence of youth that they can manage to make ends meet.

Better still, they have a friend leaving shortly to do his military service
who will leave them his apartment; meanwhile they are living with Jacques parents.
His father is in the Paris municipal service, his mother in education. They are a
fine Piccardy family (from the very village where "Roses of Piccardy" was written
during World War I) near Amiens, but of course now living in Paris.

Jacques is a very tall lad, handsome, very modest, intelligent, and a hard
worker. They've been going together for some time, our families and children Jacques
has a sister of David's age, 16, and a brother of 12 who gets on famously with our boy
hit it off well, and we are all happy. The other superlatives regarding Jacques we'd
have to leave to Anne.

The incident which precipitated the marriage was a decision that next year
the University of Angers, which is attached for the moment to Paris University, would
be placed under the jurisdiction of Nantes; making it impossible thereafter for Anne
to transfer back to the Sorbonne. Rather than wait, she had herself transferred back
to Paris, and then they both decided that despite the years of study ahead it would
be better if they married now, and since both are earning their way through school to
pool their resources and make a home. When one considers that graduate studies today
bring young people to 28-30 before they finish, we could only agree that it made sense.
And then, when we considered that at 24 when we married we also were starting with
nothing but it has worked out not too badly, we could advise that it could be as much
fun as it would be work; and when shared probably a lot better all around.

Saturday we had a big family dinner, with grandmothers from both families
present, and uncles and aunts, parents and children, and everyone was gay. In the
evening Jacques and Anne had a large number of their student friends in and the party
took a more youthful tone, and went on into the night. A happy day all around. We
thought you'd like to know the news. We'd be happy to transmit any greetings to
the bride and groom.

Greetings from the 4 Rhodes and the Dufaux families.

December 30, 1960.

As this most busy year ends, and as we have all been so very tied that
correspondence has been sparse all year, we thought it well to give you a
wee summary of some of the outstanding activities of the five Rhodes in 1960.

Alice passed her second Baccalaureate exams last year, started a special science course with the goal of going into biological research; moved ahead so rapidly that she decided to double her activities by skipping vacations and studying, and passed the tough entrance exams for the Paris Faculty of Medicine in October, shortly after her nineteenth birthday. She plunged at once into the very tough grind of first year medicine at the Sorbonne, a month later underwent an appendectomy which had been looming for some time, and somehow got back to her courses with ten days. The schedule is very stiff 3/4 as the French system is to allow anyone who can pass stiff entrance exams to start medicine, and then by plunging them at once into surgery and hospital wards, long hours (courses run as late as midnight each week), the usual stiff memory requirements for anatomy and related subjects, to kill off 60% in the first year, 40% of the remainder in the second, and then reduce the loss rate to 5% for the remaining five years of required study before internship. There are many merits to this system, for each student has no illusions of the blood and guts part of medicine, nor the terrific physical strains involved, and if they can't take it they just quit. Alice seems to be taking it, and medical friends have lent her old skeletons, a skull, voluminous books, and some of the needed paraphernalia, which we've completed with occasional, but most expensive books and instruments. She loves it, and even seems tempted to possibly go into medicine rather than to use this as background to her original goal of biological research. Right now she is in the mountains having a much needed vacation (which at her age means slamming down the hills on skis from sunup to sundown!).

Anne, now 21, having completed her nursing studies last year, and having made up her mind that she was not going to be bossed around all her life by MD's for all the dirty jobs of hospital service, also is headed for medicine. She is now completing her last year of pre-med studies, having gained her second Baccalaureate last spring, and will be following Alice in her Sorbonne courses sometime in 1961. They back each other in all their work, and much of their play. Both are enamored with mountain climbing, belong to the French Alpine Club and its related youth groups, and manage practically every week end to go out with groups of student friends to practice on the granite cliffs and rocks of the nearby Fontainbleau forest. Summers they usually get in a few weeks of real high climbing under expert supervision working along the French Alps at altitudes of 16,000 to 12,000 feet - not more than a few hundred of course as sheer precipice beneath their feet.

Alice got in her climbing this summer as a short break from studies, but Anne arranged with a student friend for a trip to Greece; where fine Friends in Athens gave her a home base between trips. She covered most of the islands, including Rhodes of course, and some of the coastal and mountain area, and came back enraptured with the country and urging us all to go. In turn we help make a home for a daughter in the family of our Greek friends who has come to Paris to study kineotherapy, so the girls all have common interests.