MAN, let's remember the form of this letter. Hell, this DUDEK ain't gonna do nothing to get HIS anthology together but just SELECT---oh, what a SOFT touch! Nate.

c/o Marthe Larsen
236 MacArthur Blvd.
Oakland 10, Calif.

April 20, 1949

Dear Kangston Hughes,

I am preparing an anthology of Modern American Poetry, 1930-1950. The selection of material is being limited in the initial gathering to the work of poets born since 1900. This is a request for your assistance, and may I first offer apologies for its having to come as a duplicated letter.

In order to shorten the necessary pre-editorial gathering of material and information, your cooperation in these matters would be very much appreciated:

Will you, if agreeable to submitting work for inclusion in such an anthology, send a typescript (legible carbons would be adequate) of as many as 2 singlespaced typewritten pages, 8 1½" x 11", approximately fifty lines to a page. Please select the poems you send on the basis of your own opinion as to what constitutes your best or most representative work.

Write on each poem the name of both the book and the magazine in which it has been published.

Include information as to who holds anthology rights. If rights are held by someone other than yourself, it is very essential that you send the name of the person or publisher holding them.

Apart from the specific information about the poems which you select to send, please let me know the dates of publication and the names of the publishers of your books; whether the books are in print; or where they might be obtained. And, finally, send the most comprehensive biographical data possible. It would be very helpful, too, if you would include any critical opinions regarding your work, your aims and means, poetry in general, which might be of use.

One other request: I am very anxious to have all the material on hand in order to begin the actual editing and compiling immediately upon my return from Europe this spring, and it will much facilitate the work if you will send the typescript, biography, and publication information at your earliest convenience to Marthe Larsen, 236 MacArthur Blvd., Oakland 10, California. My thanks for your assistance in the work on such an anthology.