220

Rinehart
& COMPANY • INCORPORATED

Publishers

232 MADISON AVENUE • NEW YORK 16 • N. Y.

20 February 1958

Langston Hughes, Esq.
20 East 127th Street
New York, N. Y.

Dear Langston:

O dear - I blush with shame, for I meant to
drop you a line shortly after I returned from
vacation in Haiti - and that was months ago!
But the office was in such a state of flux
when I returned that it has been impossible to
get down to just plain friendly notes ever
since.

We have just learned that you are going to
appear at the Village Vanguard starting March 2
and both Pat Newell and I are enthusiastic about
coming to see you. We have sent them some photos
of you and jackets of I WONDER AS I WANDER and
SIMPLE STAKES A CLAIM with a suggestion that
they contact us if they're interested in selling
books.

I am looking forward eagerly to seeing you again
and lending an ear to your poetry reading, as
well as to tell you that I visited your friend
Mme. Jaques Romain in Port-au-Prince, etc.

CT:

7.S. Martha Macgregor reports her plant is thriving!

February 26, 1958

221

Dear Carol:

How very nice to have your note and to know that you saw Mrs. Roumain in Haiti. I had been wondering if she were there or in Paris.

I hope the Jazz Poetry program at the Vanguard will be interesting. I am booked to do some more of them in other places, including one at the Stratford Festival in Canada during the summer.

Concerning the selling of books, I don't imagine that would be feasible since the Vanguard is such a tiny place. There is hardly room for the patrons let alone a book table. However, since I shall be doing two or three other such Sunday evenings there, perhaps if there is a book shop in the immediate area, you could get them to display some of my books in the window with a Vanguard announcement.

I have been busy lately writing new songs especially for the London production of "Simply Heavenly", slanted to suit English comprehension. Jack Hytton and Laurence Harvey are producing the show over there this spring.

Regards to you and Pat.

Miss Carol Thirer
Rinehart and Company, Inc.
232 Madison Avenue
New York 16, N. Y.

September 15, 1958

Miss Marguerite J. Reese,
Rinehart & Company,
New York City.

Dear Miss Reese:

The manuscript, corrected proofs, etc., of
my book (as you ask in your recent letter)
SIMPLE STAKES A CLAIM should go to:

Mr. Donald Gallup,
American Literature Division,
Yale University Library,
New Haven, Conn.

which is where all my manuscripts go for
the James Weldon Johnson Memorial Collection.
Also my letters---of which they must have a
million by now. Pity poor posterity getting
a Ph. D. in American Negro Poetry after
1902! (Year I was born).

Thanks! And best regards,

March 31, 1959

Dear Ted:

I notice it says on the title
page of SIMPLE STAKES A CLAIM:

Rinehart & Company, Inc.,
New York	Toronto

So would you kindly advise your Toronto
office that I am giving a program of my
Poetry-to-Jazz there at the Museum Theatre
on the evening of Wednesday, April 8th, and
am also doing a radio interview or two, in
case some of the bookshops might wish to
stock our books, or perhaps arrange to have
a book table at the program itself—where
I could autograph copies afterwards for
buyers.

Also the same thing might be done
for Bermuda where, during the week of May
17th, I am giving two programs under the
direction of Mrs. Eloise Furbert, the
Berkeley Institute, Pembrooke West, Bermuda,
one for the general public and another for
the students.

Bob Marshall's Bookshop in Ann
Arbor is selling tickets for my Poetry-to-
Jazz program there with Tony Scott on April
11th, so perhaps your sales department might
contact him relative to having some of our
books on hand.

With cordial regards,

April 23, 1959

Dear Ted:

Since they will be invited to the productions, it might not be
a bad idea if they were armed with a copy of our SIMPLE STAKES A
CLAIM beforehand preparation for the Washington and Cleveland
productions of SIMPLY HEAVENLY. So would you kindly ask your
publicity folks to send (billing to me, if need be) one copy of
the book to:

Drama Editor,
Washington STAR,
Washington, D. C.

Drama Editor,
Washington POST,
Washington, D. C.

Drama Editor,
Cleveland PLAIN DEALER,
Cleveland, Ohio.

Drama Editor,
Cleveland PRESS,
Cleveland, Ohio.

Perhaps a little note to the effect that SIMPLY HEAVENLY is partly
derived from SIMPLE STAKES A CLAIM and is opening at Howard University
in Washington on Thursday, April 30, and at the Karamu Arexna Theatre
in Cleveland on Tuesday, May 5, might not do any harm. I will be
present at both openings. Perhaps the book editors of the above
papers might also be informed of the play.

in 1925

Incidentally, it was the Washington STAR/that gave me my very first
newspaper interview when I lived there, worked at the Wardman Park
Hotel, and was "discovered" as a bus-boy poet by Vachell Lindsay, as
related in THE BIG SEA. Maybe the STAR might like to interview me
again, now that I've survived some 30 years of authorship. I'll be
Washington on the 4, 5, and 6, as I'll be recording my poems for the
Library of Congress on Friday after the opening of the show, and I
can be reached through the Drama Department of Howard University.

Karamu tells me it intends to sell SIMPLE STAKES A CLAIM in the lobby
during the run of the play, which will be about a month. I've asked
Howard if they can arrange to do the same for their 5 day run.

With cordial regards,

Sincerely,