DRAFT ON SELLING WRITING

Even to sell <u>bad</u> writing you have to be good. There was a time when,
if you were colored, you might sell passably bad writing a little easier than
if you were white. But no more. The days of the Negro writer, purely because
of his "Negritude," is past. Even pure Africans find it hard to get published
in the U. S. A. You have to be Nadine Gordimer or an Alan Paton. For the
general public, "the blacker the berry the sweeter the juice" may be true in
jazz, but not in prose. These days I would hate to be a Negro writer depending
on race to get somewhere.

To sell writing you have to be consistent, professional, a continuing
writer--not just a one-article or a one-story or a one-book man. Those expert
vendors, the literary agents, do not like to be bothered with a one-shot writer.
No money in them. Agents like to help build a career, not just light a flash
in the pan. With one-shot writers, literary hucksters cannot pay their income
taxes. Nor can publishers get their money back on what they lost on the first
book. Even if you are a bad writer, but consistent, you may get somewhere.
Even if you are a good writer, and _not_ consistent, you probably will not get
far. Color has nothing to do with writing as such. So I would say, don't be
a _colored_ writer--even when dealing in racial material. Be a _writer_ first.
Like an egg--first _egg_, then an Easter egg. The color you apply.

To write about yourself, you should first be outside yourself--
objective. To write well about Negroes, it might be wise to look at them with
white eyes--then the better will you see how distinctive we are. Sometimes I

DRAFT ON SELLEING WRITING-2-

think whites are more appreciative of our *uniqueness* than we are ourselves. Who
wrote the most famous "Negro" (in quotes) music? George Gershwin--who looked
at Harlem from a downtown penthouse. Who wrote the bestselling--in quotes--
"Negro"--end of quotes--plays and novels--and thereby made money's mammy? White
Eugene O'Neil, white Paul Green, white Lillian Smith, and Marc Conneley and Dubose
Heyward--Emperor Jones, *In Abraham's Bosom*, *Strange Fruit*, *Green Pastures*, *Porgy*.
Who originated the longest running Negro radio and TV show? The various white
authors of the original AMOS AND ANDY, not us. Who wrote all those Negro and
interracial pictures that have swept across the Hollywood screen from HALLELUJIAN
to ANNA LUCASTA, PINKY to PORGY AND BESS? Not us. Not you, not me, not any
colored-body here. Our eyes are not white enough to look at Negroes clearly in
terms of popular commercial marketing. Not even white enough to see as Faulkner
sees--through dark Mississippi Nobel Prize winning Broadway eyes--in his play,
"Requiem For A Nun," his dope taking whore of a mammy, Nancy Manningoe who raises
the curtain with three, "Yas, Lawd's" and who, when asked, "What would a person
like you be doing in heaven?" replies, "Ah kin work." "Porgy's" immoral Bess,
Mamba's immoral daughter, Anna Lucasta, whorish Carmen Jones. Lawd, let me be
a Member of the Wedding. "Ah, kin work! Yas Lawd!" Broadway...

You've taken my blues and gone--
You sing 'em on Broadway
And you sing 'em in Hollywood Bowl,
And you mixed 'em up with sumphonies
And you fixed 'em
So they don't sound like me.
Yes, you done taken my blues and gone.

DRAFT ON SELLING WRITING-3-

You also took my spirituals and gave.
You put me in Macbeth and Carmen Jones.
And all kinds of Swing Mikados
And in everything but what's about me--
But someday somebody'll
Stand up and talk about me,
And write about me--
Black and beautiful--
And sing about me,
And put on plays about me!

I reckon it'll be
Me myself!
Yes, it'll be me.

Negro writing—even when commercial—need not be in terms of the
stereotype. The interminable crap game at the beginning of PORGY AND BESS is
just because the author could not see beyond the surface of Negro color. But
the author did see, with his white eye, wonderful, human qualities in the
inhabitants of Cat Fish Row that make them come alive in a book, on the stage,
and I am sure on the screen. DuBose Heyward was a writer first, white second.
Which you have got to be too, writer first, colored second, to market well.
That means losing nothing of your racial identity. It is just that—in the
great sense of the word, anytime any place-art transcends land, race, or
nationality, and color drops away. If you are a good writer, neither blackness
nor whiteness makes any difference.

Greek the writer of Edipus, might have been, but Edipus shakes Booker
T. Washington High School. Irish was Shaw, but he rocks Fisk University. Scotch

DRAFT ON SELLING WRITING-5-

how _not_ to be Beat. So don't worry about it. Instead, watch your talent bloom!
You are mired in manure? Manure fertilizes. To make fine flowers grow, there
must always be plenty of fertilizer. Of course, to be really successful in a
white world—commercially successful, in writing or anything else, you really
should _be_ white. But until you get white, _write_.

2.

---end of quotes---

In quotes---"Negro" plays and novels---and thereby made money? White
Eugene O'Neil, Paul Green, Lil lian Smith, Marc Connelley, and DuBose Heyward---
Emperor Jones, Abraham Lincoln, Strange Fruit, Green Pastures, Porgy---not us!
Who wrote the longest running, colored radio and TV show? The
various white authors of AMOS AND ANDY, not use. Who wrote all those
Negro and interracial pictures that have swep across the Hollywood
screen from HALLELUJAH to ANNA LUCASTA, PINKY to PORGY AND BESS?
Not us. Not you, not me, not any colored-body here. Our eyes are
not white enough to look at Negroes clearly in terms of big time

Negro writing - even when commercial -
And it need not be in terms of the stereotype. The interminable
scrap game at the beginning of PORGY AND BESS is just because the author
could not see beyond the surface of Negro color. But the author did see,
with his white eye, wonderful, mm human qualities in the inhabitants
of Cat Fish Row that make them come alive in a book, on a state, and
I am sure on the screen. DuBose Heyward was a writer first, white
writer first, colored second,
second. Which you have got to be too, / to market well. And that
means losing nothing of your racial identity. It is just that art
in the great sense of the word, anytime any place, transcends land,
race, or nationality,
and color drops away. If you are
a good writer, neither blackness
nor whiteness makes any
Greek MM might have been, but Edipus shakes Booker T. Washington
High School, Irish was Shaw, but he rocks Fisk University,
Scotch was Bobby Burns, but kids like him at Tuskegee. But sometimes,
to transcend, the more international an art is in its origins, the more
universal it becomes in the end. What could be more Spanish than
DON QUIXOTE, yet what is more universal? What more Italian than Dante?
Or more English than Shakespeare? Advice to Negro writers: Step
outside yourself and look back---then you will see how human yet
beautiful and
how black you are. How very black, even though you are integrated.
As to marketing, send your work out yourself, m magazine after magazine
first
publisher after publisher, and see how many rejection slips you

1-28-59

DRAFT ON SELLING WRITING

Even to sell <u>bad</u> writing you have to be good. There was a time when, if you were colored, you might sell passably bad writing a little easier than if you were white. But no more. The days of the Negro writer, purely because of his "Negritude," is past. Even <u>pure</u> Africans find it hard to get published in the U. S. A. You have to be Nadine Gordimer or <u>an</u> Alan Paton. For the general public, "the blacker the berry the sweeter the juice" may be true in jazz, but not in <u>prose</u>. I would hate to be a Negro writer depending on race to get <u>some</u> <u>these</u> <u>days</u>.

To sell writing you have to be consistent, professional, <u>a</u> continuing writer—not just a one-article or a one-story or a one-book man. Those expert vendors, <u>the</u> literary agents, do not like to be bothered with a one-shot writer. No money in them. Agents like to help build a career, not just light a flash in the pan. With one-shot writers, literary hucksters cannot pay their income taxes. Nor can publishers get their money back on what they lost on the first book. Even if you are a bad writer, but consistent, you may get somewhere. Even if you are a good writer, and <u>not</u> consistent, you probably will not get far. Color has nothing to do with writing as such. So I would say, don't be a <u>colored</u> writer—even when dealing in racial material. Be a <u>writer</u> first. Like an egg—first <u>egg</u>, then an Easter egg. The color <u>should</u> <u>you</u> <u>apply</u>.

To write about yourself, you <u>must</u> first be outside yourself—objective. To write well about Negroes, it might be wise to look at them with white eyes—then <u>the</u> <u>you</u> better will <u>see</u> how distinctive we are. Sometimes <u>we</u> <u>think</u> whites are more appreciative of our <u>uniqueness</u> than we are ourselves. Who wrote the most famous "Negro" music? George Gershwin—who looked at Harlem from a downtown <u>penthouse</u>. Who wrote the bestselling

DRAFT ON SELLING WRITING

To sell writing you have to be consistent, professional, a continuing
writer--not just a one-article or a one-story or a one-book man. Those expert
vendors, the literary agents, do not like to be bothered with a one-shot writer.
No money in them. Agents like to help build a career, not just light a flash
in the pan. With one-shot writers, literary hucksters cannot pay their income
taxes. Nor can publishers get their money back on what they lost on the first
book. Even if you are a bad writer, but consistent, you may get somewhere.
Even if you are a good writer, and _not_ consistent, you probably will not get
far. Color has nothing to do with writing as such. So I would say, don't be
a _colored_ writer--even when dealing in racial material. Be a _writer_ first.
Like an egg--first _egg_, then an Easter egg.--The color <u>was</u> applied.

DRAFT ON SELLING WRITING-2

think whites are more appreciative of our uniqueness than we are ourselves. Who wrote the most famous "Negro" (in quotes) music? George Gershwin—who looked *-while Duke Ellington stopped the train.* at Harlem from a downtown penthouse. Who wrote the bestselling—in quotes—"Negro"—end of quotes—plays and novels—and thereby made money's mammy? White Eugene O'Neil, white Paul Green, white Lillian Smith, and Marc Conneley and Dubose Heyward—Emperor Jones, In Abraham's Bosom, Strange Fruit, Green Pastures, Porgy. Who originated the longest running Negro radio and TV show? The various white authors of the original AMOS AND ANDY, not us. Who wrote all those Negro and interracial pictures that have swept across the Hollywood screen from HALLELUJIAH to ANNA LUCASTA, PINKY to PORGY AND BESS? Not us. Not you, not me, not any colored-body here. Our eyes are not white enough to look at Negroes clearly in terms of popular commercial marketing. Not even white enough to see as Faulkner sees—through *dark* Mississippi Nobel Prize winning Broadway eyes*# in his play, "Requiem For A Nun," his dope taking whore of a mammy, Nancy Manning, who raises the curtain with three, "Yas, Lawd's" And who, when asked, "What would a person like you be doing in heaven?" replies, "Ah kin work." "Porgy's" immoral Bess, Mamba's immoral daughter, Anna Lucasta, whorish Carmen Jones. Lawd, let me be a Member of the Wedding.

*White folks, Ah, kin work! Yas Lawd!*

You've taken my blues and gone—
You sing 'em on Broadway
And you sing 'em in Hollywood Bowl,
And you mixed 'em up with symphonies
And you fixed 'em
So they don't sound like me.
 Yep, you done taken my blues and gone.

DRAFT ON SELLING WRITING-4-

was Bobby Burns, but kids like him at Tuskegee. To transcend regionalism, the
more reginal or national an art is in its origins, ~~sometim~~e the more universal
~~sometim~~e it becomes in the end. What could be more Spanish than DON QUIXOTE, yet what
is more universal? What more Italian than Dante? Or more English than
Shakespeare? Advice to Negro writers: Step ~~outside yourself~~ and look back--
then you will see how human yet how beautiful and black you are. How very black,
when~~ what~~ even though you are integrated.

4-A

As to marketing, blackness seen through black eyes may be too
black for wide white consumption---unless coupled with greatness.
What should a Negro writer do then in a land where we have no black
literary magazines, no black publishers, no black investors able to
corral 7 million dollars to finance a movie? Sell what writing you
can, get a job teaching, and give the rest away. Or else try becoming
a good _bad_ writer, or a black _white_ writer, in which case you might,
with luck, do as well as white _black_ writers do. If you are good
enough in a bad way, or colored enough in a good way, you _MAYBE_ stand
a chance to become even commercially successful. At any rate, I would
say, keep writing. Practice will do you no harm.

Second, be not dismayed! Keep sending your work out, magazine after

As to marketing, first send your work out yourself, magazine after magazine, publisher after publisher, and see how many rejection slips you garner. Collect rejection slips as some people collect stamps. When you achieve a publication or two, try to get a literary agent—who will seek to collect checks for you instead of rejection slips. See along the way how many editors or agents will ask what color you are, physically, if you have something good to sell. I would say very few, or NONE. They do not care about race, if what you write is readable, new, different, exciting, coming alive on the printed page. Almost nobody knows Frank Yerby is colored. Few think about Willard Motley's complexion.

If you want a job as a free lance writer in Hollywood, on radio, or in TV, that, too, is now possible—in contrast to the before the War years. But in the entertainment field **staff jobs** are still not too easy to come by if you are colored. Positions, as such, are valuable in the U. S. A., so our current commercial white culture would rather allow **writers** rather than give a colored man a book than a job, even fame, than an ordinary decent dependable living. But if you are so constituted as to wish a dependable living, with luck you might possibly nowadays achieve that, as a writer, too, **purely** because I hope so.

> **Starving** writers are stereotypes. And a stereotype is the last thing a Negro wants to be. But you can't be a member of the Beat Generation—the fashionable word at the moment in marketing—**unless** you starve a little. But yet who wants to be Beat? Not Negroes. That is what this conference is all about—

Although how you treat the materials of race may limit your marketing, I do not believe your actual race will. Publishers want only so many Chinese books a year. The same is true of Negro books.

DRAFT ON SELLING WRITING-5-

how **not** to be Beat. So don't worry about it. Instead, watch your talent bloom!
You are nired in manure? Manure fertilizes. To make fine flowers grow, there
must always be plenty of fertilizer. Of course, to be really successful in a
white world—commercially successful, in writing or anything else, you really
should **be** white. But until you get white, **write**.

beatness. That is easy
to come by.

As to marketing, blackness seen through black eyes may be too black
---unless coupled with greatness.
for wide white consumption. What to do then in a land where we have
no black literary magazines, no black publishers, no black investors able
to move a movie? Writing is not enough.
to corral 7 million dollars. Sell what you can, get a job teaching, and
MMH give the rest away. Or else try being a good bad writer, or a black
white writer, in which case you might, with luck, do as well as the
white black MAMMAL writers do. I would say, at least, keep writing. Practice will do
you no harm. Second, keep sending your work out, magazine after

DRAFT ON SELLING WRITING

There was a time when, if you were colored, you might sell
passably bad writing a little easier than if you were white. But, no
more. The days of the Negro writer, purely because of his "Negritude,"
is past. Even pure Africans find it hard to get published in the U. S. A.
You have to be a Nadine Gordimer or an Alan Paton. For the general public,
"the blacker the berry the sweeter the juice" may be true in jazz, but not
in prose. These days I would hate to be a Negro writer depending on race
to get somewhere.

To sell writing you have to be consistent, professional, a
continuing writer—not just a one-article or a one-story or a one-book
man. Those expert vendors, the literary agents, do not like to be
bothered with a one-shot writer. No money in them. Agents like to help
build a career, not just light a flash in the pan. With one-shot writers,
literary hucksters cannot pay their income taxes. Nor can publishers get
their money back on what they lost on the first book. Even if you are a
bad writer, but consistent, you may get somewhere. Even if you are a good
writer, and _not_ consistent, you probably will not get far. Color has
nothing to do with writing as such. So I would say, don't be a _colored_
writer—even when dealing in racial material. Be a _writer_ first. Like an
egg—first _egg_, then an Easter egg—the color _in_ applied.

DRAFT ON SELLING WRITING'2-

To write about yourself, you should first be outside yourself--
objective. To write well about Negroes, it might be wise, occasionally at
least, to look at them with white eyes--then the better will you see how
distinctive we are. Sometimes I think whites are more appreciative of our
<u>uniqueness</u> than we are ourselves. The white "black" writers--dealing in
Negro material--have certainly been financially more successful than any
of us have ever been. Who wrote the most famous "Negro" (in quotes) music?
Jewish George Gershwin--who looked at Harlem from a downtown penthouse--
while Duke Ellington rode the A train. Who wrote the best selling--in
quotes--"Negro"--end of quotes--plays and novels--and thereby made money's
mammy? White Eugene O'Neil, white Paul Green, white Lillian Smith, and
Marc Conneley and Du Bose Heyward--<u>Emperor Jones, In Abraham's Bosom,
Strange Fruit, Green Pastures, Porgy.</u> Who originated the longest running
Negro radio and TV show? The various white authors of the original AMOS
AND ANDY, not us. Who wrote all those Negro and interracial pictures that
have swept across the Hollywood screen from HALLELUJIAH to ANNA LUCASTA,
PINKY to PORGY AND BESS? Not us. Not you, not me, not any colored-body
here. Our eyes are not white enough to look at Negroes clearly in terms
of popular commercial marketing. Not even white enough to see as Faulkner
sees--through Mississippi Nobel Prize winning Broadway eyes in his play
"Requiem for a Nun"--his dope taking whore of a mammy, Nancy Manningoe,
cullud, who raises the curtain with three, "Yas, Lawd's." And, who,
when asked "What would a person like you be doing in heaven?", replies
"Ah kin work!" "Porgy's immoral Bess, Mamba's immoral daughter, Anna
Lucasta, whorish Carmen Jones. Lawd, let me be a member of the wedding!
"White folks, Ah kin work! Yas, Lawd!" In fact, I have to work because--

DRAFT ON SELLING WRITING-4-

Yet, Negro writing—even when commercial—need not be in terms of stereotypes. The interminable crap game at the beginning of PORGY AND BESS is just because the authors could not see beyond the *surface* of Negro color. But the author of the original novel did see, with his white eyes, wonderful, human qualities in the inhabitants of Cat Fish Row that made them come alive in a book, half alive on the stage, and I am sure, bigger than life on the screen. Du Bose Heyward was a *writer* first, white second, which you have got to be, too, *writer* first, *colored* second, to market well. That means losing nothing of your racial identity. It is just that—in the great sense of the word, anytime, any place—art transcends land, race, or nationality, and color drops away. If you are a good writer, in the end neither blackness nor whiteness makes any difference to readers.

Greek the writer of *Oedipus* might have been, but *Oedipus* shakes Booker T. Washington High School. Irish was Shaw, but he rocks Fish University. Scotch was Bobby Burns, but kids like him at Tuskegee. To transcend regionalism, the more regional or national an art is in its origins, the more universal it sometimes becomes in the end. What could be more Spanish than DON QUIXOTE, yet what is more universal? What more Italian than Dante? Or more English than Shakespeare? Advice to Negro writers: Step *outside yourself* and look back—then you will see how human yet how beautiful and black you are. How very black, even when you are integrated.

As to marketing, blackness seen through black eyes may be too black for wide white consumption—unless coupled with greatness. What should a Negro writer do then in a land where we have no black literary magazines, no black publishers, no black investors able to corral 7 million dollars to finance a movie? Sell what writing you can, get a

DRAFT ON SELLING WRITING-5-

job teaching, and give the rest away. Or else try becoming a good bad writer, or a black white writer, in which case you might, with luck, do as well as white black writers do. If you are good enough in a bad way, or colored enough in a good way, you stand a chance perhaps maybe to become even commercially successful. At any rate, I would say, keep writing.
Practice will do you no harm.

Second, be not dismayed! Keep sending your work out, magazine after magazine, publisher after publisher, and see how many rejection slips you garner. Collect rejection slips as some people collect stamps. When you achieve a publication or two, try to get a literary agent—who will seek to collect checks for you instead of rejection slips. See along the way how many editors or agents will ask what color you are physically if you have something good to sell. I would say very few, or NONE. They do not care about race, if what you write is readable, new, different, exciting, coming alive on the printed page. Almost nobody knows Frank Yerby is colored. Few think about Willard Motley's complexion. Although how you treat the materials of race may limit your market, I do not believe your actual race will. Publishers want only so many Chinese books a year. The same is true of Negro books.

If you want a job as a free lance writer in Hollywood, on radio, or in TV, that, too, is now possible—in contrast to the before the War years. But in the entertainment field staff jobs are still not too easy to come by if you are colored. Positions, as such, are valuable in the U. S. A., so commercial white culture would rather allow a colored writer a book than a job, even fame rather than an ordinary decent dependable living. But if you are so constituted as to wish a dependable living, with

DRAFT ON SELLING WRITING-6-

luck you might possibly nowadays achieve that, too, purely as a writer.
I hope so--because **starving** writers are stereotypes. And a stereotype is
the last thing a Negro wants to be. But you can't be a member of the Beat
Generation—the fashionable word at the moment in marketing—unless
you starve a little. Yet who wants to be Beat? Not Negroes. That is what
this conference is all about—how not to be Beat. So don't worry about
Beatness. That is easy to come by. Instead, watch your talent bloom!
You say you are mired in manure? Manure fertilizes. To make fine
flowers grow, there must always be plenty of fertilizer. Of course, to
be really successful in a white world—commercially successful—in writing
or anything else, you really should **be** white. But until you get white,
**write**.

DRAFT ON SELLING WRITING*2-

To write about yourself, you should first be outside yourself-- objective. To write well about Negroes, it might be wise, (occasionally at least) to look at them with white eyes--then the better will you see how distinctive we are. Sometimes I think whites are more appreciative of our uniqueness than we are ourselves. The white "black" writers--dealing in Negro material--have certainly been financially more successful than any of us real negroes of us have ever been. Who wrote the most famous "Negro" (in quotes) music? George Gershwin--who looked at Harlem from a downtown penthouse-- while Duke Ellington rode the A train. Who wrote the best selling--in quotes--"Negro"--end of quotes--plays and novels--and thereby made money's mammy? White Eugene O'Neil, white Paul Green, white Lillian Smith, and white Marc Conneley, and Du Bose Heyward--Emperor Jones, In Abraham's Bosom, Strange Fruit, Green Pastures, Porgy. Who originated the longest running Negro radio and TV show? The various white authors of the original AMOS AND ANDY scripts, not us. Who wrote all those Negro and interracial pictures that have swept across the Hollywood screen from HALLELUJIAH to ANNA LUCASTA, PINKY to PORGY AND BESS? Not us. Not you, not me, not any colored-body here. Our eyes are not white enough to look at Negroes clearly in terms of popular commercial marketing. Not even white enough to see as Faulkner sees--through Mississippi-Nobel-Prize-winning-Broadway eyes in his play "Requiem for a Nun" his dope taking whoe of a mammy, Nancy Manningoe, cullud, who raises the curtain with three, "Yas, Lawd's." And, who, when asked "What would a person like you be doing in heaven?", replies "Ah kin work!" Porgy's immoral Bess, Mamba's immoral daughter, Anna Lucaста, whorish Carmen Jones, Lawd, let me be a member of the wedding! "White folks, Ah.kin work! Yas, Lawd!" In fact, I have to work because--

*there his" nigger dope-friend whoe"
*Traditional, hunch
*streetwalking
*"nigger dope-friend" money!

since Faulkner calls Nancy "a "nigger dope-friend" whoe," all can add is she is a aging bitch-- because the last thing a Negro thinks of doing in heaven is working.

DRAFT ON SELLING WRITING-5-

job teaching, and give the rest away. Or else try becoming a good _bad_ writer, or a black _white_ writer, in which case you might, with luck, do as well as white _black_ writers do. If you are good enough in a _bad_ way, or colored enough in a _good_ way, you stand a chance perhaps, maybe, to become even _commercially successful_. At any rate, I would say, keep writing.
Practice will do you no harm.

Second, be not dismayed! Keep sending your work out, magazine after magazine, publisher after publisher, and see how many rejection slips you garner. Collect rejection slips as some people collect stamps. When you achieve a publication or two, try to get a literary agent--who will seek to collect checks for you instead of rejection slips. See along the way how many editors or agents will ask what color you are physically if you have something good to sell. I would say very few, or NONE. They do not care about race, if what you write is readable, new, different, exciting, coming alive on the printed page. Almost nobody knows Frank Yerby is colored. Few think about Willard Motley's complexion. Although how you treat the materials of race may limit your market, I do not believe your actual race will narrow potential marketing limitations. Publishers want only so many Chinese books a year.
The same is true of Negro books.

However, if you want a job as a free lance writer in Hollywood, on radio, or in TV, that, too, is now possible--in contrast to the Before-the-War years. But in the entertainment field _staff jobs_ are still not too easy to come by if you are colored. Positions, as such, are valuable in the U. S. A., so commercial white culture would rather allow a colored writer a book than a job, even fame rather than an ordinary decent dependable living. But if you are so constituted as to wish a dependable living, with

DRAFT ON SELLING WRITING-6-

luck you might possibly nowadays achieve that, too, purely as a writer.
I hope so--because **starving** writers are stereotypes. And a stereotype is
the last thing a Negro wants to be. But you can't be a member of the Beat
Generation--the fashionable word at the moment in marketing--**unless**
you starve a little. Yet who wants to be Beat? Not Negroes. That is what
this conference is all about--how **not** to be Beat. So don't worry about
 Beatness. That is easy to come by. Instead, watch your talent bloom!
You say you are mired in manure? Manure fertilizes. To make fine
flowers grow, there must always be plenty of fertilizer. Of course, to
be really successful in a white world--commercially successful--in writing
or anything else, you really should be white. But until you get white,
write.

as the old saying goes, "Where the
finest roses bloom, there
is always a lot of manure
around."

["3.", "in heaven?", humbly replies, \"Ah kin work.\" Since Faulkner repeatedly calls\nNancy, a nigger dope-fiend whores,\" all I can add is she is also a llying\nbitch--because the last thing a Negro thinks of doing in heaven is working.", "Porgy's immoral Bess, Mamba's immoral daughter, streetwalking Anna\nLucasta, whorish Carmen Jones, nigger dope-fiend Nancy! Lawd, let me be a\nmember of the wedding! \"White folks, Ah kin work!\" In fact, yas, Lawd, I\nhave to work because--", "You've done taken my blues and gone--\nSure have! You sing 'em on Broadway,\nYou sing 'em in Hollywood Bowl,\nYou mixed 'em up with symphonies\nAnd you fixed 'em so they don't sound like me.\nYes, you done taken my blues and gone!\nYou also took my spirituals and gone.\nYou put me in Macbeth\nAnd Carmen Jones and Anna Lucasta,\nAnd all kinds of Swing Mikados\nAnd in everything but what's about me--\nBut someday somebody'll\nStand up and talk about me,\nAnd write about me--\nBlack and beautiful--\nAnd sing about me,\nAnd put on plays about me!\nI reckon it'll be Me myself!\nYes, it'll be me.", "Of course, it will be a long time before we finance big Broadway\nshows, or a seven million dollar movie like PORGY AND BESS--on which, so far\nas I know, not a single Negro writer was employed. The Encyclopedia Brittanica"]

SPEECH ON SELLING WRITING

by

Dr. Langston Hughes

Even to sell bad writing you have to be good.

There was a time when, if you were colored, you might sell bad
writing a little easier than if you were white. But, no more. The days
of the Negro passing as a writer, and getting by purely because of his
"Negritude," are past.

Even pure Africans find it hard to get published in the U. S. A.
You have to be a Nadine Gordimer or an Alan Paton. For the general public,
"the blacker the berry the sweeter the juice" may be true in jazz, but not
in prose. These days I would hate to be a Negro writer depending on race
to get somewhere.

To create a market for your writing you have to be consistent,
professional—a continuing writer—not just a one-article or a one-story
or a one-book man. Those expert vendors, the literary agents, do not like
to be bothered with a one-shot writer. No money in them. Agents like to
help build a career, not just light a flash in the pan. With one-shot
writers, literary hucksters cannot pay their income taxes. Nor can
publishers get their money back on what they lose on the first book. Even
if you are a good writer, and _not_ consistent, you probably will not get
far. Color has nothing to do with writing as such. So I would say, in your
mind don't be a _colored_ writer—even when dealing in racial material. Be
a _writer_ first. Like an egg—first egg, then as Easter egg—the color applied.

2.

To write about yourself, you should first be outside yourself—
objective. To write well about Negroes, it might be wise (occasionally at
least) to look at them with white eyes—then the better will you see how
distinctive we are. Sometimes I think whites are more appreciative of our
<u>uniqueness</u> than we are ourselves. The white "black" artists—dealing in
Negro material—have certainly been financially more successful than any
of us real Negroes have ever been. Who wrote the most famous "Negro" (in
quotes) music? George Gershwin—who looked at Harlem from a downtown
penthouse—while Duke Ellington still rode the A train. Who wrote the best
selling—in quotes—"Negro"—end of quotes—plays and novels—and thereby
made money's mammy? White Eugene O'Neil, white Paul Green, white Lillian
Smith, white Marc Connelay, and Du Bose Heyward—<u>Emperor Jones, In Abraham's
Bosom, Strange Fruit, Green Pastures, Porgy</u>. Who originated the longest
running Negro radio and TV show? The various white authors of the original
AMOS AND ANDY scripts, not us. Who wrote all those Negro and interracial
pictures that have swept across the Hollywood screen from HALLELUJIAN to
ANNA LUGASTA, PINKY to PORGY AND BESS? Not us. Not you, not me, not any
colored-body here.

Our eyes are not white enough to look at Negroes clearly in terms
of popular commercial marketing. Not even white enough to see as Faulkner
sees—through Mississippi-Nobel-Prize-winning-Broadway eyes in his play
"Requiem for a Nun." There his "nigger dope-fiend whores" of a mammy, Nancy
Manningoe, oullud, raises the curtain with three traditional, "Yas, Lawd's."
And, when asked later by a white actor, "What would a person like you be doing
IN XAMMY'S BARBER SHOP, IF YOU WERE A MAMMY, AND THE BOSS WAS A WHITE
IMMORAL DAUGHTER, STREAWALKING A MAMMY DOWN THE ISLE OF THE OCEAN?"

3.
in heaven?," humbly replies, "Ah kin work." Since Faulkner repeatedly calls
Nancy, "a nigger dope-fiend whores," all I can add is she is also a lying
bitch--because the last thing a Negro thinks of doing in heaven is working.
Nancy knows better, even if Faulkner doesn't.

Nigger dope-fiend Nancy, Porgy's immoral Bess, Mamba's immoral daughter,
streetwalking Anna Lucasta, whorish Carmen Jones! Lawd, let me be a member of
the wedding! "White folks, Ah kin work!" In fact, yas, Lawd, I have to
work because--

You've done taken my blues and gone--
Sure have! You sing 'em on Broadway,
And you sing 'em in Hollywood Bowl.
You mixed 'em up with symphonies,
And you fixed 'em so they don't sound like me.
 Yep, you done taken my blues and gone!
You also took my spirituals and gone.
Now you've rocked-and-rolled 'em to death!
You put me in Macbeth,
In Carmen Jones, and Anna Lucasta,
And all kinds of Swing Mikados
And in everything but what's about me--
But someday somebody'll
Stand up and talk about me,
And write about me--
Black and beautiful--
And sing about me,
And put on plays about me!
I reckon it'll be me myself!
Yes, it'll be me.

Of course, it will be a long time before we finance big Broadway shows,
or a seven million dollar movie like PORGY AND BESS--on which, so far as I know,
not a single Negro writer was employed. The Encyclopedia Brittanica

4.

terms PORGY AND BESS "the greatest American musical drama ever written."
The Encyclopedia Brittanica is white. White is right. So shoot the 7
million! 7 come 11! Dice, gin, razors, knives, dope, watermelon, whores--
7-11-come 7!

Yet, surely Negro writing—even when commercial—need not be in
terms of stereotypes. The interminable crap game at the beginning of PORGY
AND BESS is just because its authors could not see beyond the *surface* of
Negro color. But the author of the original novel did see, with his white
eyes, wonderful, poetic human qualities in the inhabitants of Cat Fish Row
that made them come alive in his book, half alive on the stage, and I am sure,
bigger than life on the screen. Du Bose Heyward was a *writer* first, white
second, which you have got to be, too, *writer* first, *colored* second. That
means losing nothing of your racial identity. It is just that—in the great
sense of the word, anytime, any place—good art transcends land, race, or
nationality, and color drops away. If you are a good writer, in the end
neither blackness nor whiteness makes difference to readers.

Greek the writer of *Oedipus* might have been, but *Oedipus* shakes
Booker, T. Washington High School. Irish was Shaw, but he rocks Fisk
University. Scotch was Bobby Burns, but kids like him at Tuskegee. To
transcend regionalism, the more regional or national an art is in its origins,
the more universal it may become in the end. What could be more Spanish
than DON QUIXOTE, yet what is more universal? What more Italian than Dante?
Or more English than Shakespeare? Advice to Negro writers: Step *outside
yourself*, then look back—then you will see how human, yet how beautiful and
black you are. How very black—even when you're integrated.

As to marketing however, blackness seen through black eyes may be
too black for wide white consumption—unless coupled with greatness or its
approximation. What should a Negro writer do then in a land where we have

5.

no black literary magazines, no black publishers, no black producers, no black investors able to corral 7 million dollars to finance a movie? Sell what writing you can, get a job teaching, and give the rest of your talent away. Or else try becoming a good _bad_ writer, or a black _white_ writer, in which case you might, with luck, do as well as white _black_ writers do. If you are good enough in a _bad_ way, or colored enough in a _good_ way, you stand a chance perhaps, maybe, to become _even_ commercially successful. At any rate, I would say, keep writing. Practice will do you no harm.

Second, be not dismayed! Keep sending your work out, magazine after magazine, publisher after publisher. Collect rejection slips as some people collect stamps. When you achieve a publication or two, try to get a literary agent—who will seek to collect checks for you instead of rejection slips. See long the way how few editors or agents will ask what color you are physically if you have something good to sell. I would say very few, or NONE. Basically they do not care about race, if what you write is readable, new, different, exciting, alive on the printed page. Almost nobody knows Frank Yerby is colored. Few think about Willard Motley's complexion. Although how you treat the materials of race may narrow your market. I do not believe your actual race will. But, certainly racial or regional subject matter has its marketing limitations. Publishers want only so many Chinese books a year. The same is true of Negro books.

However, if you want a job as a free lance writer in Hollywood, on radio, or in TV, that now is sometimes possible—in contrast to the before-the-War years. But in the entertainment field regular full-time _staff jobs_ are still not too easy to come by if you are colored. Positions are valuable in the U. S. A., so commercial white culture would rather allow a colored writer a book than a job, even fame rather than an ordinary decent dependable

6.

living. But if you are so constituted as to wish a dependable living, with
luck you might possibly nowadays achieve that, too, purely as a writer. I
hope so--because **starving** writers are stereotypes. And a stereotype is
the last thing a Negro wants to be.

But you can't be a member of the Beat Generation--the fashionable
word at the moment in marketing--unless you starve a little. Yet who wants
to be Beat? Not Negroes. That is what this conference is all about--how
not to be Beat. So don't worry about Beatness. That is easy enough to come
by. Instead, let your talent bloom! You say you are mired in manure? Manure
fertilizes. As the old saying goes, "Where the finest roses bloom, there is
always a lot of manure around."

Of course, to be highly successful in a white world--commercially
successful—in writing or anything else, you really should **be** white. But
until you get white, **write**.

NEWSLETTER
A
M
A
C

Published by

the American Society of African Culture
15 East 40th Street
New York 16, New York

January 30, 1959

Vol. 1, No. 4

## Plans for Writers Conference Announced

The AMSAC sponsored Conference of Negro Writers will be held February 28th and March 1st at the Henry Hudson Hotel, New York City.

Scheduled for the first day of the Conference is the keynote address to be delivered by Saunders Redding on the theme, "The Negro Writer and His Relationship to His Roots." This address will be followed by panel discussion. The first panel, chaired by Loften Mitchell, will be on "Materials Used by Negro Writers." Panel members will be Alice Childress and John H. Clarke. Panel two, "The Problem of Social Responsibility and the Role of Protest in Writings of Negro Authors" will be chaired by Julian Mayfield and will have James Baldwin and Arthur P. Davis as panelists. "Marketing the Products of Negro Authorship" will be the third panel, which will include Robert Lucas and Langston Hughes as panelists and William Branch as chairman. The fourth panel will be chaired by Sarah E. Wright on "Opportunities for Development of Negro Talent" and will include three panelists: John O. Killens, Arna Bontemps and George Norford.

All AMSAC members are invited to the open session on Sunday, March 1st. It is hoped that this session will be attended by representatives of the press, publishing houses, radio, TV, and film companies. A reception will conclude the Conference that evening.

## African Dancers Here

Les Ballets Africains de Kéita Fodéba begin their American tour in Philadelphia February 2. They will open in Boston on February 9 and on Broadway, February 16. The group will then go to Washington, D.C. and Chicago.

AMSAC will be host to a reception in honor of the troupe immediately after the Broadway opening.

## Translators Needed

The AMSAC Library collection of African Culture now includes several exciting volumes which the Society would like to have translated from the French for possible publication in this country.

AMSAC requests that members knowing persons experienced in both translation and writing contact this office.

## Exhibitions To Feature AMSAC Works

During the AMSAC Conference of Negro Writers February 28 and March 1, and as a feature of the AMSAC exhibition during the 2nd Congress of Negro Writers and Artists in Rome, March 25 to April 2, the Society will place on exhibition copies of the publications of members of AMSAC. During the Rome Conference, it is planned to exhibit painting, sculpture and other works of art.

In order that the exhibitions may be truly representative, we ask you to SEND AT LEAST ONE COPY OF EACH OF YOUR PUBLICATIONS TO THE NEW YORK OFFICE BEFORE FEBRUARY 20. We will be happy to assume the cost of publication and mailing. IT IS MOST IMPORTANT TO THE SUCCESS OF THIS PROGRAM THAT ALL OF OUR MEMBERS COOPERATE IN THIS REQUEST.

## AMSAC NOTES

### Members

* Dr. J. Reuben Scheeler of Texas Southern University leaves in February on a three month tour as a cultural envoy sponsored by the State Department. Dr. Scheeler, who is head of the department of history and geography at TSU, will lecture and hold consultations on "The Negro in American Culture" in Pakistan, Denmark, Norway and Sweden.

* Dr. Mary Huff Diggs of Hunter College is now a member of the newly-organized New York City Youth Board. She was one of four persons sworn in this month by Mayor Robert Wagner at ceremonies at Gracie Mansion.

* AMSAC extends congratulations to M. Edouard Glissant, Martinican novelist, whose novel, *La Lézarde*, has been awarded the important Prix Renaudot. M. Glissant is one of the most influential members of the Society of African Culture.

* Mr. Donald Wyatt has recently been appointed Staff Associate with the African-American Institute's New York Office. Mr. Wyatt, formerly with the World Affairs Center, will be mainly responsible for the Institute's educational and information program.

* A seminar on Representative Government and National Progress, sponsored by the Congress for Cultural Freedom and University College, Ibadan, will be held at Ibadan (Nigeria) from March 16-23. Chairman of the seminar will be Professor K. Onwuka Dike, Vice Principal, University College. Among AMSAC members invited to participate are Dr. St. Clair Drake and Dr. Mercer Cook.

* Mr. James T. Harris, Jr., Ass't Executive Director of AMSAC, will spend the first part of February visiting the West Coast in order to increase organizational contacts and affiliations in that part of the country.

* Mr. George McCray of Chicago is currently teaching on the staff of the ICFTU African Labor College, Kampala, Uganda.

* Dr. John A. Davis and Mr. James T. Harris, Jr. represented the Society and the Council on Race and Caste in World Affairs at the 3rd National Conference on Exchange of Persons. The Conference was sponsored by the IIE and held in Washington January 28-31.

* The second meeting of the AMSAC Program Committee was held in the New York office January 17th. Members of the Committee present were: Mr. Samuel Allen, Dr. Gray Cowan, Mr. Elton Fax, Mr. James T. Harris, Jr., Dr. J. Newton Hill, Dr. Lawrence Howard, Mr. Harold Isaacs, Dr. Ruth Schachter, Dr. Hugh Smythe, Dr. Mabel Smythe, Mr. C. Sumner Stone, and Dr. John A. Davis, Chairman.

* The delegation which will represent AMSAC at the 2nd Congress of Negro Writers and Artists in Rome, March 25 to April 2, will include: Dr. John A. Davis, Chairman; Mr. James T. Harris, Jr.; Dr. Mercer Cook; Mr. James W. Ivy; Dr. Horace Mann Bond; Dr. William T. Fontaine; Mr. Saunders Redding; Mr. Samuel Allen; Mr. Robert Carter; Mr. Elton Fax; Mrs. Etta Moten Barnett, and Dr. Adelaide Cromwell Hill.

### Something New

#### Subscription Policy

Members who pay the $10.00 annual dues (Sept. '58-'59) will receive a subscription to AFRICA TODAY and AFRICA WEEKLY. The Society hopes to introduce its members to the leading American periodicals on Africa through its subscription policy.

#### Newsletter Supplement

This Newsletter includes AMSAC's first supplement, "A Voyage to Contrasts" by Gloria Gaston, who is a member of AMSAC. From time to time we hope to bring to the attention of our members, articles of special interest through the Newsletter supplements.

SPEECH ON SELLING WRITING

by
Dr. Langston Hughes

To create a market for your writing you have to be consistent,
professional—a continuing writer—not just a one-article or a one-story
or a one-book man. Those expert vendors, the literary agents, do not like
to be bothered with a one-shot writer. No money in them. Agents like to
help build a career, not light a flash in the pan. With one-shot
writers, literary hucksters cannot pay their income taxes. Nor can
publishers get their money back on what they lose on the first book. Even
if you are a good writer, and not consistent, you probably will not get
far. Color has nothing to do with writing as such. So I would say, in your
mind don't be a <u>colored</u> writer—even when dealing in racial material. Be
a <u>writer</u> first. Like an egg—first egg, then as Easter egg—the color applied.

26

To write about yourself, you should first be out-of-side yourself-- objective. To write well about Negroes, it might be wise (occasionally at least) to look at them with white eyes--then the better will you see how distinctive we are. Sometimes I think whites are more appreciative of our uniqueness than we are ourselves. The white "black" artists--dealing in Negro material--have certainly been financially more successful than any of us real Negroes have ever been. Who wrote the most famous "Negro" (in quotes) music? George Gershwin--who looked at Harlem from a downtown penthouse--while Duke Ellington still rode the A train. Who wrote the best selling--in quotes--"Negro"--end of quotes--plays and novels--and thereby made money's mammy? White Eugene O'Neil, white Paul Green, white Lillian Smith, white Marc Connelay, and Du Bose Heyward--Emperor Jones, In Abraham's Bosom, Strange Fruit, Green Pastures, Porgy. Who originated the longest running Negro radio and TV show? The various white authors of the original AMOS AND ANDY scripts, not us. Who wrote all those Negro and interracial pictures that have swept across the Hollywood screen from HALLELUJIAH to ANNA LUCASTA, PINKY to PORGY AND BESS? Not us. Not you, not me, not any colored-body here.

Our eyes are not white enough to look at Negroes clearly in terms of popular commercial marketing. Not even white enough to see as Faulkner sees--through Mississippi-Nobel-Prize-winning-Broadway eyes in his play "Requiem for a Nun." There his "nigger dope-fiend whose" of a mammy, Nancy Manningee, cullud, raises the curtain with three traditional, "Yas, Lawd's." And, when asked later by a white actor, "What would a person like you be doing?

3.
in heaven?," humbly replies, "Ah kin work." Since Faulkner repeatedly calls
Nancy, "a nigger dope-fiend where," all I can add is she is also a lying
bitch--because the last thing a Negro thinks of doing in heaven is working.
Nancy knows better, even if Faulkner doesn't.

Nigger dope-fiend Nancy, Porcy's immoral Bess, Mamba's immoral daughter,
streetwalking Anna Lucasta, whorish Carmen Jones! Lawd, let me be a member of
the wedding! "White folks, Ah kin work!" In fact, yas, Lawd, I have to
work because--

You've done taken my blues and gone--
Sure have! You sing 'em on Broadway,
And you sing 'em in Hollywood Bowl.
You mixed 'em up with symphonies,
And you fixed 'em so they don't sound like me.
Yes, you done taken my blues and gone!
You also took my spirituals and gone.
Now you've rocked-and-rolled 'em to death!
You put me in Macbeth,
In Carmen Jones, and Anna Lucasta,
And all kinds of Swing Mikados
And in everything but what's about me--
But someday somebody'll
Stand up and talk about me,
And write about me--
Black and beautiful--
And sing about me,
And put on plays about me!
I reckon it'll be me myself!
Yes, it'll be me.

5.

Second, be not dismayed! Keep sending your work out, magazine
after magazine, publisher after publisher. Collect rejection slips as some
people collect stamps. When you achieve a publication or two, try to get a
literary agent--who will seek to collect checks for you instead of rejection
slips. See long the way how few editors or agents will ask what color you
are physically if you have something good to sell. I would say very few, or
NONE. Basically they do not care about race, if what you write is readable,
new, different, exciting, alive on the printed page. Almost nobody knows
Frank Yerby is colored. Few think about Willard Motley's complexion.
Although how you treat the materials of race may narrow your market. I do
not believe your actual race will. But, certainly racial or regional subject
matter has its marketing limitations. Publishers want only so many Chinese
books a year. The same is true of Negro books.

However, if you want a job as a free lance writer in Hollywood, on
radio, or in TV, that now is sometimes possible--in contrast to the before-
the-War years. But in the entertainment field regular full-time _staff jobs_
are still not too easy to come by if you are colored. Positions are valuable
in the U. S. A., so commercial white culture would rather allow a colored
writer a book than a job, even fame rather than an ordinary decent dependable

6.

But you can't be a member of the Beat Generation--the fashionable
word at the moment in marketing--**unless** you starve a little. Yet who wants
to be Beat? Not Negroes. That is what this conference is all about--how
**not** to be Beat. So don't worry about Beatness. That is easy enough to come
by. Instead, let your talent bloom! You say you are mired in manure? Manure
fertilizes. As the old saying goes, "Where the finest roses bloom, there is
always a lot of manure around."

Of course, to be highly successful in a white world--commercially
successful--in writing or anything else, you really should **be white**. But
until you get white, **write**.

SPEECH ON SELLING WRITING

by

Dr. Langston Hughes

40

To write about yourself, you should first be outside yourself-- objective. To write well about Negroes, it might be wise (occasionally at least) to look at them with white eyes--then the better will you see how distinctive we are. Sometimes I think whites are more appreciative of our uniqueness than we are ourselves. The white "black" artists--dealing in Negro material--have certainly been financially more successful than any of us real Negroes have ever been. Who wrote the most famous "Negro" (in quotes) music? George Gershwin--who looked at Harlem from a downtown penthouse--while Duke Ellington still rode the A train. Who wrote the best selling--in quotes--"Negro"--end of quotes--plays and novels--and thereby made money's mammy? White Eugene O'Neil, white Paul Green, white Lillian Smith, white Marc Connelay, and Du Bose Heyward--Emperor Jones, In Abraham's Bosom, Strange Fruit, Green Pastures, Porgy. Who originated the longest running Negro radio and TV show? The various white authors of the original AMOS AND ANDY scripts, not us. Who wrote all those Negro and interracial pictures that have swept across the Hollywood screen from HALLELUJIAH to ANNA LUCASTA, PINKY to PORGY AND BESS? Not us. Not you, not me, not any colored-body here.

Our eyes are not white enough to look at Negroes clearly in terms of popular commercial marketing. Not even white enough to see as Faulkner sees--through Mississippi-Nobel-Prize-winning-Broadway eyes in his play "Requiem for a Nun." There his "nigger dope-fiend whores" of a mammy, Nancy Mannings, cullud, raises the curtain with three traditional, "Yas, Lawd's." And, when asked later by a white actor, "What would a person like you be doing?

3.

in heaven?,” humbly replies, “Ah kin work.” Since Faulkner repeatedly calls
Nancy, “a nigger dope-fiend whores,” all I can add is she is also a lying
bitch—because the _last_ thing a Negro thinks of doing in heaven is working.
Nancy knows better, even if Faulkner doesn’t.

Nigger dope-fiend Nancy, Porgy's immoral Bess, Mamba's immoral daughter,
streetwalking Anna Lucasta, whorish Carmen Jones! Lawd, let me be a member of
the wedding! “White folks, Ah kin work!” In fact, yas, Lawd, I have to
work because—

You've done taken my blues and gone—
Sure have! You sing 'em on Broadway,
And you sing 'em in Hollywood Bowl.
You mixed 'em up with symphonies,
And you fixed 'em so they don't sound like me.
Yes, you done taken my blues and gone!
You also took my spirituals and gone.
Now you've rocked-and-rolled 'em to death!
You put me in Macbeth,
In Carmen Jones, and Anna Lucasta,
And all kinds of Swing Mikados
And in everything but what's about me—
But someday somebody'll
Stand up and talk about me,
And write about me—
Black and beautiful—
And sing about me,
And put on plays about me!
I reckon it'll be me myself!
Yes, it'll be me.

Of course, it will be a long time before we finance big Broadway shows,
or a seven million dollar movie like PORGY AND BESS--on which, so far as I know,
not a single Negro writer was employed. The Encyclopedia Britannica

5.

Second, be not dismayed! Keep sending your work out, magazine after magazine, publisher after publisher. Collect rejection slips as some people collect stamps. When you achieve a publication or two, try to get a literary agent--who will seek to collect checks for you instead of rejection slips. See long the way how few editors or agents will ask what color you are physically if you have something good to sell. I would say very few, or NONE. Basically they do not care about race, if what you write is readable, new, different, exciting, alive on the printed page. Almost nobody knows Frank Yerby is colored. Few think about Willard Metley's complexion. Although how you treat the materials of race may narrow your market, I do not believe your actual race will. But, certainly racial or regional subject matter has its marketing limitations. Publishers want only so many Chinese books a year. The same is true of Negro books.

However, if you want a job as a free lance writer in Hollywood, on radio, or in TV, that now is sometimes possible--in contrast to the before-the-War years. But in the entertainment field regular full-time _staff jobs_ are still not too easy to come by if you are colored. Positions are valuable in the U. S. A., so commercial white culture would rather allow a colored writer a book than a job, even fame rather than an ordinary decent dependable

6.

Of course, to be highly successful in a white world--commercially
successful--in writing or anything else, you really should **be** white. But
until you get white, **write**.