New Opinion of the New Negro

LITERATURE
CRITICISM
POETRY AND DRAMA
ART AND CARICATURE
SATIRE

THE MESSENGER

FOUNDED 1917

2311 SEVENTH AVENUE
NEW YORK CITY

Official Organ of The Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters

LABOR
BUSINESS
ECONOMICS
ATHLETICS
SOCIOLOGY

February 27th. 1927.

Mr. Langston Hughes,
Lincoln University
Pennsylvania.

My dear Langston:

My address is now 254 West 154th. Street, apartment 20.

Now of course I am not writing to you just to let you know where I live. I have something up my sleeve. But first let me say what I think about your new book, the gift of which I appreciate immensely. I think it is quite as good as your first one; perhaps I ought to say it is better for it seems to me to show better technique and it is more original. Still I like the Weary Blues because I like it. I don't claim my preference is based on merit.

Now here is the ax I have to grind. I have an itching to bust out as an author myself. I have completed the first part of a contemplated four part story. The next time you are in town would you mind showing what I have finished to your pal Van? If he likes it perhaps he can put me in touch with some publisher or get it entered in the Boni contest. If you are not going to be in town soon can you write and ask him if I may bring or mail it to him? I feel that if I had some definite incentive I could speed up and work faster. As the story is not an "art" story I believe there ought to be some money in it for a publisher. Since it will contain a fight, a horse race, a murder, a riot, a political campaign, a bawdy house, a re-

Published every month. Twenty Cents a copy; One Dollar and Seventy-Five Cents a year. *Editors*, A. PHILIP RANDOLPH and CHANDLER OWEN; *Managing Editor*, GEORGE S. SCHUYLER; *Assistant Editor*, ABRAM S. HARRIS; *Contributors*, ALICE DUNBAR NELSON, J. A. ROGERS, THEOPHILUS LEWIS, DR. EDWIN B. HENDERSON, EUGENE GORDON; *Artists*, WILBERT HOLLOWAY, TED CARROLL and FAUSTINA TRIMBLE; *Business Manager*, ROY LANCASTER.
Net Circulation 10,000.

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New Opinion of the New Negro

THE MESSENGER

FOUNDED 1917

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vival, two seductions and a suicide, it ought to make a good movie and give the publisher a chance to cash in on the first big screen colored screen spectacle. Perhaps it may accidentally be good literature.

Will you write me as soon as convenient and let me know what you think about this. If you have too many of your own irons in the fire don't be backward about letting me know. Competition is pretty stiff in this world and a fellow must look out for himself first.

My quarters here are pretty comfortable for a poor man in New York and if my health holds out I ought to be able to work faster than I have ever been able to do in the past. We still have dinner at six and there is usually an extra pork chop or something around.

I can't disguise it, I'm waiting to hear from you with bated breath.

Yours,

Theophilus Lewis.

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Another thing. Do you happen to know some lad who might make a few pennies a week selling the TATTLER on the campus and in the town? We are trying to make connections in all the schools on the business side while, on the editorial side, we are trying to make it more civilized and sophisticated. Do you read Brass Tacks? Damn it. Since you won't come to see me write me a letter and let me know what you think of the TATTLER.

Say, what are you writing now? Anything up your sleeve? Let me hear from you. Make it snappy in time and at least two pages in length.

The circulation man says your copies were mailed to you but he will mail you other copies of the issues you missed right now. In fact, he has already done so.