Mr. Langston Hughes

634 St. Nicholas Street
New York City

Yaddo SARATOGA SPRINGS, NEW YORK. TO AID CREATIVE WORK IN ARTS AND LETTERS

SPENCER AND KATRINA TRASK, *Founders*. GEORGE FOSTER PEABODY, *Associate*

Officers

Marjorie Peabody Waite, President

Acosta Nichols, Vice President and Treasurer

John A. Slade, Vice President and Secretary

C. Everett Bacon, Assistant Treasurer

Allena Gilbert Pardee, Honorary Chairman

Elizabeth Ames, Executive Director

Directors

Kathryn H. Starbuck

William H. Hill

Tertius van Dyke

R. Dana Chase

Iphigene Ochs Sulzberger

Newton Arvin

Quincy Porter

Richard Donovan

Members

Frederica Mitchell

Simon Moselsio

Acosta Nichols, Jr.

Morton Dauwen Zabel

June 13, 1942

Dear Mr. Hughes,

You are expected at Yaddo on August first to remain until
September tenth. If there is an opening earlier, we will let
you know at once. If you come from New York City, please, for
your convenience and ours, take the train leaving before eleven
oclock. Please let us know at least twenty four hours in advance
the exact time of your arrival. If you must be delayed a few
days, we should be informed at the earliest possible moment.

The taxi fare to Yaddo should not be more than fifty cents.
It would be well to arrange it before leaving the station.

Please bring with you any sugar you have, for your own table
use, and be sure to bring your Sugar Rationing book.

Please read carefully the attached information and keep it
for reference here.

We look forward with pleasure to your coming and we hope that
your visit will be of the greatest profit and pleasure.

Enc.
EA:CA

Mr. Langston Hughes
634 St. Nicholas Avenue
New York City

INFORMATION

We ask each person to pay one dollar a week as a courtesy to
employees. The secretary will inform you about payment when
you arrive.

Please come prepared to go out in rainy weather. Many studios
are at some distance from the Mansion.

Painters should bring their supplies for the duration of their
visits. Local stores do not sell supplies.

There is a tennis court. Please bring your racquet if you
wish to play.

Laundry is done at a reasonable rate. We will deliver and
return laundry for those who have laundry bags. Tags bearing
your name will be provided upon request.

Yaddo is first of all for work. Please do not go to another's
studio unless invited, and please do not walk in the vicinity
of the studios during the working day.

There is a central radio. Please do not bring one with you
except by special arrangement with us. They have been
invariably a nuisance.

8

Since it is so hard to get lunch on the train, we will have
a box for you on your arrival.

You are expected at Yaddo. July 2.

Please, for your convenience and ours, take the train
leaving around nine o'clock A. M. if you come from New York.
This will bring you to Saratoga soon after lunch. If you must
be delayed in arriving, please let us know as soon as possible.
When possible, we will have you met by a taxi-man who will
bring you to Yaddo for fifty cents. If he can meet you, he will
look for you under the clock in the waiting room. If he is not
there, you will be wise to arrange the fare in advance with another
taxi. Ask to be brought to the rear of the Mansion at Yaddo.

Please mail your ration books to us the day before
your departure. Bring with you coffee sufficient for the time
left before the next coupon is cashed. DO NOT FAIL TO DO THIS.

Painters are asked to bring with them all their needed
supplies including easels. Yaddo furnishes nothing.

Yaddo is being opened and made available to artists
this year under the greatest difficulties. Everyone will be ex-
pected to co-operate in caring for his rooms and in easing house-
hold problems in general. Promptness at meals is very necessary.

Please come prepared to go back and forth from your
studio in rainy weather.

Please provide your own toilet soap.

If you will provide a laundry bag, we will deliver
your washing to a hand laundry, which does it at reasonable
rates.

We look forward with pleasure to your coming.

ELIZABETH AMES
Executive Director.

ano. 6/15/43
Suggest Tuesday
July 6 instead,
9 o'clock train.

SARATOGA SPRINGS
New York

13

Yaδδo

SARATOGA SPRINGS

New York

18 January

Dear Langston:

I still hope you will come up for a week or two
any time between now and the middle of February when I may go
away for a vacation.

Suit your own convenience. This must be
a hurried and brief note, for I have been ill and have every thing
to attend to now that I am up again.

Up to about the 27th Kenneth and Nan will be here.
Everyone else has gone.

My bestto you,

YADDO

SARATOGA SPRINGS

NEW YORK

22 March 1943

Dear Langston:

The chief indoor sport when Kenneth was here was for him and me to sit around speculating on what could have happened to you. Nothing but good things, I hope, that have kept you busy. I wonder now if you have anyone especially to recommend to us? On the list you left last summer were Bontemps, Bonds, White and Gatlett, and Ellison. I wonder whether some of the men on this list are now in the army?

We are getting ready for the season, so do write when you can. It will be much smaller, of course, but we shall be ready for those who ought to come. What are your immediate plans?

My best toyou,

UNITED STATES POSTAGE

19

Elizabeth Ames
Yaddo
SARATOGA SPRINGS
New York

Mr. Langston Hughes
634 St. Nicholas Avenue
New York City(30)
New York

SARATOGA SPRINGS
New York

Yaδδo

SARATOGA SPRINGS
New York

Private Post Card

<table><tr><td>CLASS OF SERVICE</td></tr><tr><td>This is a full-rate Telegram or Cable-gram unless its deferred character is indicated by a suitable symbol above or preceding the address.</td></tr></table>

WESTERN
UNION

A. N. WILLIAMS
PRESIDENT

NEWCOMB CARLTON
CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD

FIRST VICE-CHAIRMAN

1201

<table><tr><td colspan="2">SYMBOLS</td></tr><tr><td>DL</td><td>= Day Letter</td></tr><tr><td>NL</td><td>= Night Letter</td></tr><tr><td>LC</td><td>= Deferred Cable</td></tr><tr><td>NLT</td><td>= Cable Night Letter</td></tr><tr><td>Ship Radiogram</td><td></td></tr></table>

The filing time shown in the date line on telegrams and day letters is STANDARD TIME at point of origin. Time of receipt is STANDARD TIME at point of destination.

N136 13=SARATOGASPRINGS NY 26 333P
=LANGSTON HUGHES

=634 ST NICHOLAS AVE:

=PLEASE DO PLAN TO STOP OFF RETURNING FROM MONTREAL AND LET ME KNOW=

ELIZABETH.

THE COMPANY WILL APPRECIATE SUGGESTIONS FROM ITS PATRONS CONCERNING ITS SERVICE

28

Yaδδo

SARATOGA SPRINGS, NEW YORK

2 August 1944

Dear Langston, It was good to have your letter and to hear something about you. When I wrote you early in June, I had hoped you could come up rather soon. Now Marjorie is very much worse, and for two or three weeks I am slowing every thing down in case she does not survive this month.

Perhaps in September we can arrange for you to come up; or if there seems to be a chance later this month, I'll let you know.

Carson who has been here has just returned to Georgia, called there by her Father's death. Agnes has been away a week, but comes back soon.

My best to you, Langston,

31

31 July 1945

Dear Langston:

I'm sorry to have been so long in thanking you for the book of records of your own work which is a very lovely surprise and something for us to cherish at Yaddo. The day the book came I was having a Yaddo party and some of the records were put on and enjoyed by all....For many months I haven't been too well and not very strong, but now I am picking up again and I'm beginning to think I shall be once more the person I was before dear Marjorie entered her tragic illness.

If you can get up to Saratoga so many of us will be happy to see you. I wish I might ask you to stay at Yaddo, but until early September we shall be pretty full, and like everyone we have the struggle for food and service.

We are having a very pleasant summer for a group of ten or twelve. Carson and Agnes are here. Others you may know also. Leonard just out of the army has taken over part of Katherine Anne's farm and is settling himself to get to work again.

Do let me hear from you as to when you may come up or whether you might make a trip in the early part of September and stay here.

April 6, 1946

Dear Elizabeth:

I understand that two friends of mine, of whose
ability I think highly, have made application for resi-
dence at Yaddo this summer. One is Horace Cayton, co-
author of the recently published book, *Black Metropolis*,
which, as you no doubt know, had excellent reviews and
is being widely read. Mr. Cayton is a very intelligent,
well-informed and hard working writer in journalistic
and research materials. I think he would put his time
to good use at Yaddo and would profit by his sojourn
there.

The other person, whom I met almost fifteen years
ago now in Shanghai, is Mrs. Yang Kang who, at this
time already had a reputation as a writer and literary
critic. She seems highly regarded by the intellectuals
of Shanghai, and I find her a serious and sincere woman.
I am enclosing for you, under separate cover, a piece of
hers that appeared some months ago in Asia. If financial
status is to be taken into consideration, since the in-
come of Chinese writers is as low as anywhere in the
world, I am sure that a few weeks at Yaddo would be of
very great help to this Chinese woman writer.

I am hard at work on the lyrics for the forthcoming
musical version of Elmer Rice's old play, *Street Scene*,
for which Kurt Weill is doing the score. This will keep
me busy well into the summer, but I do hope that some
week-end, when it is convenient to you, I may run up to
Yaddo and say hello to you, since I have not seen you
for such a long time. Almost the whole of the winter I
was out of New York on a cross-country lecture tour which
took me from California to Seattle to Mississippi and
even to Boston.

All good wishes to you.

Sincerely yours,

Mrs. Elizabeth Ames
Yaddo
Saratoga Springs, New York

33

Mr. Langston Hughes
634 St Nicholas Avenue
New York City

34

Yaδδo SARATOGA SPRINGS, NEW YORK

12 April 1946

Dear Langston:

It was awfully nice to have your letter after not hearing from you for so long. Do come up some week-end for three or four days. The latter part of May would be a little more convenient for me, probably after the 20th. By then are season will have opened up, at first the smaller group which will gradually expand.

And thanks for your notes on Miss Yang Kang. She does seem very important. You will be glad to know that many colored people are on our list and that since at least three or four are doing excellent work that many are likely to be invited. Invitations have already gone to Mr. Cayton and a young composer whom several of our directors are interested in, Kaye, by name.

Write me soon Langston.

March 6, 1947

Mrs. Elizabeth Ames
Yaddo
Saratoga Springs
New York

Dear Elizabeth:

I am sending you my new book of poems today. Many of the poems
were written there at Yaddo. As I turned the pages of the first
copy that came to me, happy memories of my two summers there
came back to me.

I was so sorry not to have been able to come up to see you for an
afternoon or so last summer, but "Street Scene" kept me so busy
that I was not able to do anything else that I wanted to do.

On the way to Plattsburg last fall, I saw you from the window of
the train as we were pulling out of the station at Saratoga.
Evidently you had come down to meet someone - a short little
lady. I knocked on the window and called but could not make any
of you hear, so I simply waved at the back of your head as you
walked away.

I am down here at Atlanta University teaching Creative Writing
until June, but I do hope that I will get a chance to see you
this summer. I hope, too, that you will see "Street Scene" when
you come to New York.

I came near forgetting to tell you that I heard recently that
William Haygood of the Rosenwald Fund in Chicago has applied to
come to Yaddo this summer. He is very southern - like Carson -
in the finer sense of the word. I do not know anything about
his ability as a writer but I find him a likeable person. I
understand, however, from people who have read some of his work
that he has ability as a writer, too.

Please give my best regards to Agnes, Leonard, and any other of
my friends who may be there now. With all good wishes to you.

LH:wmb

38

Yaddo SARATOGA SPRINGS, NEW YORK. TO AID CREATIVE WORK IN ARTS AND LETTERS
SPENCER AND KATRINA TRASK, Founders. GEORGE FOSTER PEABODY, Associate

OFFICERS

JOHN A. SLADE, President
QUINCY PORTER, Vice President
C. EVERETT BACON, Treasurer
KATHRYN H. STARBUCK, Secretary
ALLENA GILBERT PARDEE, Honorary Chairman

ELIZABETH AMES, Executive Director

DIRECTORS

NEWTON ARVIN
RICHARD DONOVAN
GRANVILLE HICKS
SIMON MOELSIO
BERNARD KARFIOL
ACOSTA NICHOLS, JR.
EVERETT V. STONEQUIST

MEMBERS

TERTIUS VAN DYKE
WILLIAM H. HILL
FREDERICA MITOHELL
KATHERINE ANNE PORTER
IPHIGENE OCHS SULZBERGER
MORTON DAUWEN ZABEL
MALCOLM COWLEY
LOUIS KRONENBERGER

March 17th, 1947

Dear Langston,

Thanks very much for your two letters with their careful comments on the men who would like to be included on our guest list for this summer. Mr. Haygood has never returned the blanks sent to him which, I suppose, means that he has changed his mind about wishing to come. Concerning Owen Dodson, I now have a good deal of important material which will, of course, be turned over to the Committee on Admissions.

I am interested in hearing what you say about your reactions to the South and the University. Having spent so much time in Georgia myself, I can well understand your not wanting to remain there too long. Do let me know when you are reaching New York. As soon thereafter as is convenient for both of us, I would like you to come up for a visit and be my guest at Pine Garde.

Agnes, who is at the moment in Boston, will be glad to hear from you and about you when she returns in a few days. Leonard has not been here since September; he has been in New York since then and, I think, will be there indefinitely. Some time, when I see him, I'll give him your message.

Mr. Langston Hughes
Dept. of English
Atlanta University
Atlanta, Georgia

39

Yaδδo

SARATOGA SPRINGS
NEW YORK

Mr. Langston Hughes
Atlanta University
Atlanta, Georgia

Mr. Langston Hughes

Case of A. and K.nopf, published in New York.
501 Madison Avenue
New York City

Please forward 6791

GRAND CENTRAL STATION

42

ELIZABETH AMES
YADDO
SARATOGA SPRINGS, NEW YORK

16 January 1949

Dear Langston:

I have enjoyed so much my copy of One-Way Ticket, and many thanks for remembering me with it. I have enjoyed its rich and real variety. How fortunate Negro people are in having so distinguished a spokesman, that is the ones for whom you wish and need to speak.

It was so good to have you here last summer if even briefly, and do come again. Seven or eight people are here now working hard and making life pleasant for each other.

And you know I'd be so glad to have suggestions from you about Negroes for Yaddo. Both you and Arna could do so much for us there, letting us know who deserve to come, and who might better stay away. Do think about this.

Warm greetings to you, and do come up.

Yours,
Rabbi

4

What we are concerned with, and most urgently, is the very grave political accusations that were arrived at overnight, and hurled at Mrs. Ames in an atmosphere strangely comparable to that of a purge trial. We wish to insist on the gravity of the charge. It was of the deliberate complicity of Mrs. Ames in a Communist plot of a kind detrimental to national security, and for which over a long period she was said to have used the facilities of Yaddo. However, during the hours of questioning at the meeting no shred of substantial evidence was produced to support this charge, which had been arrived at, in Miss Hardwick's words, by "intuition." The material mentioned in support of it included the names of Stalinists who at some time had been guests at Yaddo; a story of a group of guests having once served a drink referred to as a Molotov cocktail; names of two or three political suspects with whom no one present was acquainted, but who had been mentioned by the FBI as having been connected with Agnes Smedley years earlier. Mainly the case was made to rest on vague personality factors; Mrs. Ames was said to have been "evasive" at one moment, "nervous" at another, and so on.

No mention was made of the fact that many prominent anti-Stalinists have also been guests at Yaddo, as well as a very large number of artists of no political pursuasion. In the minds of the prosecutors it was of no importance that 1) the Army had withdrawn its charges against Miss Smedley; 2) Mrs. Ames was on record as not having sympathized with many of Miss Smedley's agitative activities in Saratoga; 3) Mrs. Ames had finally asked Miss Smedley to leave Yaddo.

On the basis of the record, we consider the whole procedure to have been a perfect example of the use of innuendo and personal disparagement in lieu of evidence. Those responsible for it have made it clear, and have stated privately, that they do not care what happens to Yaddo in the future. Their sole appetite and concern seems to be to create a tabloid case. We regard their action as a thoroughly foolish and nasty performance, dangerous to the extent that it weakens any sober fight against Communism.

The charges are to be repeated at a Director's meeting in New York next Saturday, March 20th. We are therefore asking you to sign the enclosed statement immediately, and return it to us by return-mail at the following address: c/o Kazin, 415 Central Park West, New York 25. If there is not time for us to receive your signature by mail, please telegraph your approval of the statement.

March 21, 1949

STATEMENT TO THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF YADDO

We, the undersigned former guests of Yaddo, wish to express to the Board of Directors our appreciation of Yaddo as we have known it under the administration of Elizabeth Ames. During recent years the world of arts and letters has been subject to extraordinary political pressures, which have threatened the very existence of many philanthropic organizations. We consider it a rare achievement on the part of the Foundation and its Executive Director that Yaddo has been spared such dissensions; and that at no time has there been any political patisanship in the selection and treatment of guests.

Specifically, we reject as prepostrous the political charge now being brought against Elizabeth Ames. We reject any insinuation that at any time she deliberately used the facilities of Yaddo for any other purpose than the furthering of the arts in America. Above all, it is a violation of elementary justice that such a charge and such insinuations should be deliberately confused with grievances of a purely personal nature, which cannot fairly be dealt with in an atmosphere of political tension.

All of us have often gone on record as opposing the Communist Party. All of us have at one time or another, some of us for long periods, benefited from Elizabeth Ames' administration of Yaddo. We are anti-Stalinists. We feel that the charge currently being brought arises from a frame of mind that represents a grave danger both to civil liberties and to the freedom necessary for the arts. We feel this charge involves a cynical assault not only on Elizabeth Ames' personal integrity, but also on the whole future of Yaddo.

We have lived at Yaddo; we have worked there; we want others to have the same opportunity. We are outraged, first, to see that opportunity jeopardized; and secondly, to see the human and political values we hold being debased through the use of a smear-technique that has so far not been honored in this country.

Signed:

Langston Hughes
20 East 127th Street
New York City 35

ELIZABETH AMES

YADDO

SARATOGA SPRINGS, NEW YORK

15 June 1950

Dear Langston,

I'm ashamed to have been so long thanking you for generously remembering me with a copy of that fine book Simple Speaks His mind. I read it with delight and have lent it to others who have shared my experience. It is an important document charmingly written. You must have been gratified with its reception.

How are you, Langston? It seems a long time since I've seen you. Yaddo goes very happily again after the disaster that overtook it in March of 1949. What a strange celebration that was of my 25th anniversary. I hoped Arna would get up as he had planned, for a stay in the spring. I hope he is all right. I rather hoped to hear from him again, but no letter came.

And you know that Agnes died in England last month, full of bitterness and disappointment at many things, so those informed tell me. Well, as she herself said she was at her best on a battlefront.

Do let me hear from you, Langston.

With warm regard,

Greenwood Lake, N. Y.,

June 26, 1950

Dear Elizabeth,

How nice to have your note! I've been awfully busy
with TWO shows this spring and a book! My opera, THE
BARRIER recently played a week at the Ann Arbor Drama
Festival and I had to go out there to work on further
revisions before it goes to Woodstock Labor Day weekend.
And a lighter musical, JUST AROUND THE CORNER, on which
I am still working opens at Olgonquit, Maine, July 31.
So it looks as if I will have a busy summer. But maybe
sometime during it, I can stop by and saw hello to you.

I was deeply grieved about Agnes..... And of course
upset about the 1949 doings but most gratified, as I am
sure you were, by the way Kappo and others rallied to
the defense. How absurd it was! But the strangest
things are happening these days.

I saw Katherine Anne at the American Academy ceremonies a few weeks ago. And last winter saw Carson's play which I thought wonderful.

All the best to you, as ever,

Sincerely,

P.S. Arna has been
deep in two books
this spring trying
to make a dealine, which

Yaado

SARATOGA SPRINGS
NEW YORK

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

54

14 April 1954

Dear Langston:

Thank you very much for your
careful recommendation of William
Worthy. I'm very sorry he didn't
return his application and get his
work to us until some weeks after
the admissions committee had met
and made up our new guest list.

Our admissions committee won't
consider applications again until
the late summer or early fall, so
it will be some months before Mr.
Worthy will have their decision.
The members of the committee will
be very glad to have your letter
about him. We'll do what we can
for him.

It's very nice to hear from you
and to know how well things go
with you.

All best wishes to you,

August 20, 1956

Dear Elizabeth;

I have just received a note from Russell Atkins of Cleveland
telling me that he has applied for admission to Yaddo and
asking that I write you regarding him.

I have known Russell Atkins for about twenty years, since I
once lived in Cleveland. During these years, to my knowledge,
he has consistently devoted himself to poetry and has written a
great deal, some of it published in various little magazines and
much that is still in manuscript. I have seen many of his
manuscripts and feel that the bulk of his work is good - although
being rather an esoteric poet - he has not found it easy to
achieve publication. Some of his poems are included in my
Doubleday Anthology, "POETRY OF THE NEGRO". Other poets whom
I know also seem to think well of his work. So it is my feeling
that he is distinctly worth encouraging and, being a serious
craftsman, I believe that he would benefit by residence at Yaddo.

I send you all my good wishes as ever and hope that I will have
the pleasure of seeing you again in the not too distant future.

Mrs. Elizabeth Ames
Executive Director
Yaddo
Saratoga Springs, N. Y.

LH/g

August 20, 1956

Dear Elizabeth:

LH/g

March 14, 1958

Mrs. Elizabeth Ames,
Yaddo,
Saratoga Springs, N. Y.

Dear Elizabeth:

I have been meaning to write you this note for some time, but revisions and preparations for the London rehearsals of my play, SIMPLY HEAVENLY, have taken up just about every waking hour for the past few weeks. But now that the composer and actors have flown away to England last night, I can turn to my letters.

Sam Allen (whose book of poems was published in Germany under the name of Paul Vesey) is, to my mind, a good poet, whose work is steadily developing. He is an intelligent, serious, and quiet young man who would, I believe, profit by a few weeks at Yaddo. Certainly, he has my recommendation.

I hope all goes well with you and---remembering my own pleasant days at Yaddo---I think of you often. At the end of March I am off to the West Coast for a few weeks, but maybe when I come back, in the summer I can run up to Saratoga and say hello to you again.

Meanwhile, all my best to you,

92

Yaδδo
SARATOGA SPRINGS
NEW YORK

THE AMERICAN WOMAN

CIVIC AFFAIRS

U.S. POSTAGE

ARTS-INDUSTRY

4¢

19

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

3

Yaδδo

SARATOGA SPRINGS
NEW YORK

Yaδόο

SARATOGA SPRINGS
NEW YORK

6 May 1964

Dear Langston :

George Bass

at Yaddo, has listed you as a sponsor.

Please answer the following questions. (Use both sides of this sheet, if necessary.) Any information you give us we will, of course, consider absolutely confidential.

1. In your opinion is this person self-sufficient and adaptable enough to be able to work well and to live harmoniously with others?

Please comment:

(a) on personality

(b) any known or suspected reasons for uncertainty

(c) any acquaintance with past disturbance or instability

2. What is your opinion of the work this person has done and now proposes to do?

Please sign, date and return this as soon as possible to:

Mrs. Elizabeth Ames, Executive Director
YADDO
Saratoga Springs, New York

SARATOGA SPRINGS, NEW YORK

5 October

Dear Langston:

Here is the twenty dollars
which is what I told you the little club
at Skidmore would have provided if you had
spoken at the College under these arrangements.
I wish I could make this much more in
appreciation of what it meant to Yaddo to
have you do this. We have, though, no Fund
available for these uses, so I have had to
gather up a little here and a little there from
margins on my budget. But I do thank you
for myself and for Yaddo for having created this
memorable occasion.

Faithfully,