UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS
DEPARTMENT OF SPEECH
AND THEATRE

Urbana, Illinois

31 January 1961

Mr. Langston Hughes
20 East 127th Street
New York 35, N. Y.

Dear Mr. Hughes:

First, let me apologize for taking so long to answer your last letter. I have been caught up in getting a production of a new play under way, preparing a new course for next semester, and getting finals and term papers read (and my wife chose to get sick just at that time). Things are now back to normal.

Mr. Perry has not written me since I last wrote you. I am quite sure I notified him that TAMBOURINES TO GLORY would be available for the book, but I do not find a copy of the letter in my file, and perhaps my memory is faulty. In any event, I shall send him a note today or tomorrow.

Your anthology has been on my mind, and in imaginatively putting your plays into a book, I have been wondering about balance--perhaps proportion is a better word. I don't think I should make any decisions about what Mr. Perry should present to his faculty committee without your full agreement. I think that a volume containing MULATTO, LITTLE HAM, THE SUN DO MOVE, SIMPLY HEAVENLY, and TAMBOURINES TO GLORY (although I have not read it), plus SOUL GONE HOME and (perhaps) THE GOLD PIECE would be well balanced and would, in my opinion, include your best dramatic work. This is the essential minimum. I find EMPEROR OF HAITI moving, but, because it is structured elliptically, I suspect it is more effective in its operatic version, TROUBLED ISLAND. JOY TO MY SOUL has insight and is, at the same time, funny. However, as you indicated earlier, it is a bit dated and is not quite up to your other two comedies (this last is my opinion, of course). But I should like to know what you think. After all, it will be a collection of your plays.

Also, I should like to thank you for writing to one of my students, Merriel Pruit. I don't think she ever made the connection between poetry and life until I suggested that she read your poetry, and she was really thrilled to have a letter from you. She reads beautifully. I only wish she did as well academically. It is the same problem with so many Negro students--they have not had the proper basic work in high school and surviving the first year of college is a real problem.

Well, let me know what you think. Again, my apologies for taking so much time.

25

February 7, 1961

Dear Mr. Smalley:

your letter comes just as I am about to take off for a month's lecture tour starting this week at Berea College in Kentucky and going on to Mills and UCLA in California.

I think the five full length plays:

MULATTO

LITTLE BAR

THE SUN DO MOVE

SIMPLY HEAVENLY

TAMBOURINES TO GLORY

and, if you wish, the two one-actors, SOUL GONE HOME and THE COLD PIECE for children, would make an interesting anthology. Agreeable to me, certainly.

I don't believe I sent you TAMBOURINES TO GLORY, so am posting a copy now. If I sent it before, you may return one at your leisure. The Guild is now thinking of an early fall production---if they can get a name star by then. Seems there's a possibility.

I'll be back in New York by mid-March. Hope the snow---of which we have MOUNTAINS--- is melted by then.

Cordial regards,

Langston Hughes

March 21, 1961

Dear Mr. Smalley:

I am just back from my lecture tour and a couple of weeks of California sunshine I hated to leave—to find a note from Bernard Perry saying Indiana University Press will do the plays. Merci a vous!

I trust you will edit them and write the Foreword or Introduction. Perry says they are ready to draw up the contracts.

All of my work contract-wise is handled by:

Mr. Ivan von Auw, Jr.,
Harold Ober Associates,
40 East 49th Street,
New York 17, N. Y.

It is an excellent office and very nice folks. Would you care to have Mr. von Auw also present you regarding the contract? It would then be all of "a package" and probably simpler. Certainly, the Ober office is very careful about protecting one's rights on the moon, and so on.

At the moment, its likely Eartha Kitt may be the star for TANBOURINES for fall. The Guild awaits Lawrence Langner's return from Europe at the moment to make up its mind.

awaiting word from you, I remain,

THE UNIVERSITY THEATRE

at the UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS

23 March 1961

LINCOLN HALL THEATRE
URBANA, ILLINOIS

Dear Mr. Hughes:

I got your letter this morning and am delighted that Perry
has finally agreed to publish the plays. I was on the verge
of writing you to see if you thought we should try another
publisher.

As I told you before, I shall be most happy to do the editing
and the Foreword or Introduction. Also, I have written Mr.
von Auw to ask him to represent me. I agree that it would
simplify everything to have everything handled by him. In
addition, the reputation of Harold Ober is good, and I appreciate
the opportunity of being associated with this agency. (Perhaps
he might now read the play I hope to have finished at the end
of summer. I won't even let my wife read the first draft.)

I shall write Perry today to ask what he would like me to do
first. I think the biggest problem in editing will be making
the change from the acting versions in the MSS to a more
simplified version for the general reader who is unfamiliar
with theatre. For the most part, these are few and minor.

The next point we should discuss is what should go into the
Foreword, Preface, Introduction, etc. I think whatever few
paragraphs I write should probably be called "Introduction."
Would you like to write anything to precede the texts of the
plays? Anything you would like to write would be interesting
and informative, I am sure. I shall leave this decision to
you, since it should be your option.

Sons of Man, which I decided not to inflict on you, did not go
too well. I thought the play had interesting possibilities, but
the playwright had one character get on a soap-box in Act I, and
I couldn't convince him she should get off. Moreover, when the
playwright arrived here, I discovered he understood the problems
of integration only superficially. The play was on the side of
the angels, but I'm afraid it did the cause small good, if any.

Before I close, I should remind you that I have not seen *The
Gold Piece*. Do you want it in the collection? If so, perhaps
I should read it pretty soon. I have the dates of all the plays.
Anything else you think I should have, you might forward to me.
Naturally, I will return anything you want me to.

March 28, 1961

Mr. Webster Smalley,
University Theatre,
University of Illinois,
Urbana, Illinois.

Dear Mr. Smalley:

The mail that brings your letter today also brings a note from Bernard Perry saying he is getting in touch with Mr. von Auw in regard to our plays. He also asks if any of the plays have been published elsewhere lately other than SOUL GONE HOME and SIMPLY HEAVENLY in the LANGSTON HUGHES READER. None has, as I am letting him know.

SOUL GONE HOME originally appeared in the 30's in THE ONE ACT PLAY MAGAZINE. And SIMPLY HEAVENLY is, of course, in the Dramatists Play Service acting edition.

There are plans brewing for an-off Broadway production of EMPEROR OF HAITI which may or may not come to fruition. One never knows. And perhaps I told you, Karamu Theatre in Cleveland has SHAKESPEARE IN HARLEM in rehearsal.

If you are determined to be a playwright, the easiest and simpiest way to get one's plays on is to put them on oneself. Otherwise, it is a long, hard row to hoe.

You can probably get into your INTRODUCTION all that need be said about the plays, using as many paragraphs as you choose, and I'll send you any, additional information you might need, if any you should need. I don't believe I need add any notes.

THE GOLD PIECE I'll send you soon as I can make it down to the basement again. Spent all of last Saturday down there with the man who's doing his Ph.D. on my short stories, and the other man who has a grant to compile my bibliography---on only two weeks leave from his college at the moment. He just turned around a few times in the basement and threw up his hands, because he's used up one week already upstairs in my studio; and there's 500 times as much stuff in the basement! And he still has to go to Yale where there are 5000 times as many more items! After all, I've been published since I was a baby.

I'm sending you a French piece on my work that may have something in it of interest to you for the Intro, by Jean Wagner whose doctorate at Strassbourge is on American Negro poets---this being, I reckon, a section of it. Kindly return the magazine to me. Did you reae the portions in my autobiographies, THE BIG SEA and I WONDER AS I WANDER relative to my plays? Do you need to see any of the reviews of the plays? Or photographs? The PLAY OF THE WEEK folks lost all the wonderful photographs of LITTLE HAM I lent them. But maybe Karamu kept a set.

Urbana, Illinois

30 May 1961

Dear Mr. Hughes:

Now that the pressure is off a bit, I realize how very long it
has been since I have written. I have not even thanked you for your
great generosity regarding the contract terms. As a matter of fact,
I have kept expecting the contract to be signed, sealed, and so forth,
but I guess those things take more time than one expects--especially
if there is anything a little different, such as production rights,
to be squared away. Anyhow, thanks so much for your thoughtfulness.

I must say I am utterly charmed by your new little playlet for
children, "Carmelita and the Cockatoo." My impulse was to try to get
it done at once. The problem is that it is so short it would have to
be a part of something longer. There are two possibilities, at least--
we have a few actors who are interested in dance as well as acting.
If I can interest the dance people--and one of the local composers
(we have some excellent people here as you may know)--would you be
interested? It certainly needs color, and I think it would be
enhanced by music and dance. Well--an idea. If you ever feel the
need to write a longer play for children, I am sure you know that
there is a crying need for scripts. Both Sam'l French and the Childrens
Theatre Press of Anchorage, Kentucky, are in dire need of good scripts
for children's theatre. But I only suggest this in case you feel in-
spired in that direction.

My last class meets tomorrow, and, although I shall be directing
a production of Marcel Ayme's Clerambard to open July 14, my working
days will be clear since I am not teaching. I hope everything is
settled by then. You will forgive me for not doing too much on the
project before everything is settled. Actually, I had planned to
drive to Bloomington and talk to Perry during the third week in
April, but it did not seem politic since von Auw was still negotiating.
However, there will be the advantage of my being able to concentrate
on just this project without having to think of teaching, student
conferences and plays, etc.

I shall be in New York during the latter part of August. I
surely hope you will be there and I have the opportunity of meeting
you then. By the way, friends and a good number of my students
call me Web. I have never become used to Dr. or Prof. Smalley.
If you prefer informality, I should be honored if you called me by
the shortened first name.

Hope things get settled soon and I can see Perry and get things
moving fast. With best regards,