Jan. 11. 1954

Dear Sam :

Happy New Year, baby.

This is just a note to let you know that I haven't dropped
the idea of that primer. Have begun making the notes and - most
important - have put myself in correspondence with my baby brother ,
now in the Army , whose letters will be the back-bone of the whole
thing. The letters themselves may or not appear - probably not -
but they will , we hope , raise interesting questions and provide
springboards, etc, etc. And it really is being written to David ,
which is a good discipline for me , since it means that I will
have to avoid - like the plague it is - being literary or affected,
and will never be able to be vague. For it's very important to
remember , whether for good or for ill , and whether or not I
like it , that my position is not quite the position of the -
let us say - day to day Negro. I haven't lived in America for five
years, I don't have a job there; one forgets nothing so quickly as
the onerous details. Little David's letters are meant to at once
foam my memory - not that I've really forgotten anything - and to
keep me on the ground.

There is , of course , another complication , which is Knopf's
attitude about this , which I am beginning to sound out now. It would
help , of course , if I had my second novel done - but I don't. I've
started working on it again and it may be that I will have to turn
in the novel to Knopf before I can hand over the primer to you. We
will see.