5.

Imperial Institute, London.

Europe.

Have you been to Prague, and to Budapest? The latter
is my favorite place in all the world. Prague is my second
bet. Though there is certainly a great deal for me to see
yet. But these two places do something to your spirit,-
sort of turn you inside out, shake you out, and hang you
up to dry. When I thought my world had come to an end
two years ago, I went back to Budapest, in sheer desperation,
and just being there made me see and feel what a
fool I was, and started me right back up the ladder. Now
I know that I shall never be down again, no matter what
happens to me. Its that kind of place.

How I do run on. Salute Paris for me, and sip a
liqueor for me at the Dome. Tell the tables I'll be back.

3.

Houses of Parliament, London.

or hard feelings. There isn't even any unpleasantness.
In fact, Paul is now reading my play, with a view to acting
the leading role. Isnt life funny?

My infant is everything I would have him be, and more.
I do feel very thankful, and very very lucky. I have Mama
to look after him for me, so that I can gad about to the
ends of the earth when I feel I must. We have a splendid
governess, so she doesn't really have the work of looking
after Pauli.

My plans are uncertain at the moment. I may be off
to Africa at the end of October. I may go down to Porto
fino to finish my second play. I may go to Paris to in-
dulge my adventurous spirit, -if you know what I mean. I
may even go to New York, and have several dances with you,
several cnats with you, and study my theatre and film

4.

field at close range. As things stand now, the most probable trip is the African one, which I am desperately keen on, and the least probable one is New York, which I am not keen on at all. If I do reach Harlem, it will be very pressing business which brings me.

So much for me. Now tell me about yourself. I don't even know where you live. How can I send you a line in New York? Be sure to send me your address. How is Countee and how is his work going? I have his "One Way to Heaven", our mutual publishers sent it to me, and I shall be reading it next week. I have been so busy with my own work, I haven't had time to read the accumulation of recent books, which have been piling up since the spring.

I wish it were true that the Theatre Guild was going to produce my play. Hanen Swaffer knew that they had read it, and liked it, and had asked me for any other work which I had ready, -but they have never done plays with music, and mine has music. I was so encouraged by their opinion, that I plunged right into a second play, which will be finished, I hope, by winter. Wouldnt it be thrilling to have a play produced on Broadway, by one of the old gang? Well, here's hoping.

I hope you have a smooth trip over, and that New York will look good to you when you pull into the Bay. I would like to have a peek at the old sky line myself. Give the Statue my greetings, please.

You might write me on the boat, and tell me all your news. Alright, I'll have a run down to Naples, and Corfu and Athens some time soon. But first I shall see Portofino which everybody reports is the most charming spot in

Westminster Abbey, London.

19 Buckingham Street,
Adelphi, London, August 30.

My dear Harold:

I was delighted with your letter, and for two cents would have hopped in a plane and run over to Paris to have a word with you. But alas, I have an appointment on Thursday afternoon, which may be of very great importance, and I dare not miss it. What is so infuriating is, that it may not amount to a damned thing, after all. Its business, and business is like that.

No, I'm not mad. I really would have liked very much to have seen you. To be perfectly honest, for

2.

I would have bored you to death with millions of ques-
tions about the New York theatre, and American films.
Of course I have loads of news about them, but all my
news is from white friends, and is therefore not quite
what I want. I feel I could talk to you about what I
have in mind, and you would be able to speak my language,
and give me the kind of news I want.

Well, never mind, - another time. You are sailing
on Friday, so that settles that.

Your summer sounds as though it has been heavenly.
Marseilles, yachting, Athens, Naples. Lucky devil.

I was in Paris for a month beginning the end of
May. Although I have been there six or seven times, this
was the first time I actually enjoyed myself there, and
really liked the town. Nothing has ever been wrong with
Paris, but a great deal has been wrong with me. But I'm
getting myself all cleared up now, and arranging my life.
Its grand fun. To be free, and young enough still to use
that freedom. I can't make any more mistakes, -I've already
made 'em all. I'm thoroly disillusioned, and as a result
-an unexpected one- find that I am essentially a gay per-
son. I used to think I was serious, and I was, -too serious
but no more.

I am working like the devil, and enjoying it all
very much. Everything seems fun, especially work, and
people.

Paul and I are great friends, and I think we like
each other much better now than we ever did. That's a
comfort, for I am too happy to be bothered with any re-

Cocktail Parties Taboo,
Actress Says They Kill
Friends' Aesthetic Sense

Fania Marinoff's Dinner Table Now Flows with
Conversation, Not Gin, and “Crashes” No
Longer Sniff Out Her Affairs.

"HOME, and so to bed without a hangover" is the Pepysian comment on her days that Fania Marinoff can put in her diary every night, she says, since she foreswore the Great American Cocktail Party a year ago. Today-just back from Paris-Miss Marinoff, who is also Mrs. Carl Van Vechten and the popular actress who portrays women of many,

nations on the New York stage, said
that her twelve months of emanci-
pation from "speaks" and "parties"
had been perfect and that it is to
be continued indefinitely.

"Except for formal dinners when
a cocktail and a little wine are only
decent gestures toward your guests

and your menu,
to bring out the
charm of both,
I am through
with things to
drink," said Miss
Marinoff. "Will
you have an
orangeade? It is
my favorite con-
vivial tipple.

for one blessed

most disorderly affairs you can get drawn into. Never again!"

Miss Marinoff and her husband
both adore people, and gatherings
that used to be called "parties" be-
fore prohibition cast an alcoholic
aroma over the word, she said. All
the world is a theatre to her and a
novel to him, but they like to make
their observations subconsciously and
happily.

They have found plenty of their
friends as heartily sick of "tearing
around" as they are, and dinner
tables flowing with interesting con-
versation instead of gin have been
part of the last year's rewards, Miss
Marinoff said.

Mr Harold Jackman
444 Manhattan Ave
New York City
U.S.A.

4

The premiere of our new film is
April 2 nd in London, and we open
in Stevedore about May 7 th.

19 Buckingham Street,
Adelphi, London, March 9.

My dear Harold:

Hello, there. I've been so busy going places,
and doing things, I haven't had time for letters as of old.

My professor, the head of the department of
Anthropology at London University, and the Consultant in
Great Britain for all Colonial Policy, is coming to America to
lecture in Chicago University, and at Madison, Wisconsin. He
arrives in the Manhattan March 21st, and has ten days in New
York. He is dying to see something of Negro life, and of
Negroes, not as a sightseer, but as someone deeply interested.
He is an authority on Africa, and has just returned from making
a survey there. He wants now to learn something about Negroes
in other parts of the world.

He is one of the most distinguished living anthro
pologists, and is most famous for his books: Argonauts of the
Western Pacific, Myth in Primitve Religion, Sexual Life of
Savages, Sex and Repression in Savage Society, Crime and Custom
in Savage Society, and so on. He was first trained as a chemist,
then went over to Anthropology, and did his first field work
in the Trobriand Islands, in New Guinea. He is in the early
forties, has a grand sense of humour, and is a real human being.
I think you will like him, and find him very interesting. Paul
and I have spent many interesting evenings at his home, and he
at ours.

If you can manage it, do see him and talk with
him, and if you like him, then take him round to the Savoy and
let him dance with a dark hostess, and soak in the noise and
colour and movement there. Take him to Green Pastures, if he has
not already seen it. And take him for a walk through Harlem.
If there's a party on, and you can do so, take him. He's a grand
mixer, and you'll probably have to untie him from some gal
when you're ready to take him home.

He will send you a note from me, when he arrives.
If you're free, and want to, look him up.

Greetings from us both,

19, BUCKINGHAM STREET,
ADELPHI, LONDON...

July 23.

My dear Harold:

I was delighted with your long and interesting letter. Prof. Malinowski raved about you, and thanked me over and over for the letter of introduction, and we are still trying to find time for me to dine with him, so he can give me his happy impressions of Harlem, and the South Side in Chicago. Thank you so much. I rarely give introductory letters, because I hate being saddled with people myself. When I do give them, it is with the earnest hope that the resulting acquaintance (if any) will be mutually interesting and agreeable.

Yes, I did receive "Challenge", read it, and found it interesting, and promising. I am sending you, herewith, a copy of what will some day be a book, when I get time to finish it. But meanwhile, if you like it, and if you think it suitable, you might run it as a serial, the *beginning* introduction and the first pen portrait as the first installment, and then a sketch an issue. Perhaps by the time you come to the end of this lot, I will have finished the other four portraits. I found the last four hard going; so I covered myself by saying, in the introduction, that "I interviewed the following people".

Now for heavens sake, if you don't like this stuff, I don't think it suitable, send it back to me, and no hard feelings. I'm too grown up for that! But above all, I must reserve my rights, or copyright, or whatever it is, if you should publish it in your magazine, as I really mean it for a book, when I have it all finished and polished up. So arrange for that, will you, like a lamb, if you use it?

I have in mind to do portraits of interesting Negroes wherever we go, and when I have a goodly number from all over the world, do the whole lot in a book. The one I'm doing now is Dr. Martin, the Abyssinian Ambassador to London!

I have been working like hell for months, and perhaps

Mr. Harold Jacman
444 Manhattan Avenue
New York City, N.Y.

Mr Harold Jackman
50 Morningside Ave morningide
New York City, N.Y.

Via 88 "Normandie"

Admittance: 75 cents. With this two cocktail coupons.
alternative admittance: i dollar 75 cents, giving
subserinption to Challenge and all cocktails desired.
also a copy of the new issue. gratis.

third alternative. buy a copy of Challenge and you get
two more cocktails.

I. with seventy five cents addmittance you get two slips
marked "One cocktail".

2. with $1. 75. admission you get a "membership" card, which entitles you to cocktails at any time.

3. magazines will be on sale. With each copy bought you get two more cocktail slips. Suggested, a booth with copies on sale of current issue and limited backnumbers. A notice should be placed prominently to the effect that Challenge costs 25 cents a copy, that subscriptions can be taken out (get subscription blanks) and backnumbers might be piled and listed with cost.

Entertainers: Alma Smith, Carol, Jimmie Daniels,
Billie Heywood, Billie Halliday, McKanes, Bobby Evans,
Bert Linden, Alberta Prime

2 St.Albans Villas,
Highgate Road, London, N.W.5.

August 12, 1939.

My dear Harold:

Thanks so much for your letter. I'm glad you got the blazer safely. I fully expected to see it in Paul's luggage when he came back, or to hear him fuss about putting someone else's coat in his bags!! This, in spite of the most minute instructions as to whose it was, how to get it to you, and all the rest. But Paul, ---well, he's just Paul, so one expects what one gets!!!

Thanks for the clippings. Yes, we will both be in New York in the autumn, for "John Henry". I am looking forward with mixed feelings to housekeeping in the old home town, after 11 years away. Its an undertaking! We expect to be there for several months, or longer, if the play runs. Then the film of the play, then back here.

Pauli will remain here in our little house with Mama, and attend his school as usual. It is just five minutes from here. He loves it, and is so happy there, that I can't bear to change him, unless it is absolutely necessary. So,

I have made no plans at all for our return. I think I'll just decide what to do when we get there, according to conditions as I meet them. I know there have been such great changes since I have lived