564 Oakwood Boul.
Chicago, Illinois

May 23, 1938.

Mr. Langston Hughes
634 St. Nicholas
New York City, N. Y.

Dear Langston:

Thanks greatly for the review of Don't You Want To Be Free. It confirms what we thought of it here. But I am particularly glad because it removes the last shred of doubt from the minds of those of our group who were reluctant to use the play as our first production...but I guess you saw for yourself how diversified our group is from the standpoint of shades of opinion. I hope to see it done here this fall.

By the way, Fannie McConnell informs me that she wrote you for a copy of the play, and that your secretary referred her to your agent. I thought it wise that your secretary did so, especially since it gave me an opportunity to emphasize the fact that the group should not begin exploiting its writers, but should pay for the use of material regardless of whose product it is. It is my idea that if the group is to fulfill its purpose of encouraging the creative abilities of race artists, it can only do so by making it materially profitable to them to produce.

I think we shall be financially able to do several plays this fall, since I have succeeded in getting a backer enabling our group to sponsor a four day run of Big White Fog on the Southside, May 27, 28, 29, 30, at Du Sable High-School. Thus far, things are shaping up splendidly. We have gotten a great deal of publicity, and are hoping to make not less than three hundred dollars for our end of the proceeds. By the use of a sound-truck for several days, this week, and a parade, in which we hope to get the Garveyites to participate, we should be able to pack them in. But of this, more later.

Alice Evans tells me that you gave Big White Fog a big local send-off, when it was read in Harlem. Thanks deeply. Perhaps the day may come when I can do something comparable for you, in one way or another. However that, I hope you will never hesitate to let me know if ever you see an opportunity where I can be of service.

Mrs. Jelliffe, of Cleveland, tells me that she discussed the play with you. It is her opinion that if I will re-write it she will produce it. This seems to be the opinion of almost everyone, but I can't see it. I think I have treated the material in the only manner in which it might have been treated; and though it may seem immodest, I believe I know more about the drama than most of my critics who are bound by conventional attitudines.

August 29, 1939

Dear Langston:

Here is a copy of the sort of blues
circumstances are compelling me to sing
now-a-days; and it maybe you can use
them for something more than the intel-
ligence they convey. Then too, they may
be able to put you in a proper frame of
mind to digest the other points of this
letter, which I am on point of conveying--
So perhaps, you'd better pause to read
them now!

Good! Then I can be abrupt. The
lights have been cut off and we are
about to be evicted! That's all of it
in one line.

There is a bill of $5.14 due on the
lights. I took the liberty of opening
it, when I found the lights cut off.
A Red-card notice which the agent gave
me yesterday, states the rent is $30.
in arrears, and serves notice that if
that amount is not paid by noon today,
the 29th, notice of dispossession will
be served Wednesday.

I explained to the agent that it
would be impossible you for you or Artis
to take action by Wednesday, as you were
in California, and Artis in Summer camp,
and that the latter would not be in the
city before next Tuesday. He said that
he would take the matter up with his of-
fice, as you had always been prompt here-
tofore.

Immediately, I sent the notice to
Artis, but of course have had no time
to hear from him as yet.

As you probably know, Kit is in
town. He said that he had left his
clothes in Atlantic City, and was ex-
pecting to hear from Philadelphia, to
which city he evidently intends to re-
turn.

One more bit of news. Dick got
married. The new hasn't broken yet,
but I expect a very hubbub when it does,
as his wife is a white woman, a seemingly
very fine person whose name is Dhimah,
and who is an internationally known
Dancer. I like her personally, and I
think Dick is going to be happy, as
she seems unusually intelligent and
good natured.

I myself am under fire at present
owning to an affair with Mary Sangigi-
han, which was in a sense forced upon
me, in that it was no sooner known that
she was interested in me, than pressure
was brought to bear by Harry and his
friends to break it up. The pretext
being that Mary by this action had proved
herself guilty of being an unscrupulous
political careerist, on the one hand;
while, on the other, a ny union between
us was bound to create unfavorable re-
action among Negro women, thus hurt-
ing the p rogressive movement. It is
a mess, I tell you. Thus far, Mary
has lost her job as a result of it, and
Harry has informed her that he is going
to run her out of the movement in Harlem--
this said in my presence. I maintained
that if her work has heretofore been
satisfactory in Harlem, any step taken
by Harry in such a direction would amount
to political persecution for personal
reasons. Tonight, I believe, there is

to be a meeting at which her fate is to
be decided. That there is some chance
of her being unfairly dealt with is
shown by the fact that Berry revealed
to me a certain contempt for what she
has been doing with the Suitcase Theatre;
while I understand that Tommy Richardson
asked her outright to resign in order to
give some Negro woman a chance to function--
This previous to the present affair.
George on the other hand seems to think
that her work has been very satisfactory.
Withal, I suppose this means that I am
now being regarded as a coming artist
who needs to be saved from the toils of
a member of the unscrupulous majority'.
I wonder what they're going to say when
they hear about Dick'

Let me know if there is
anything I should do.

Yours sincerely,

Theodore Ward

and
66 St Nicholas Pl.
New York, New York.

5

Langston Hughes, Esquire
Holly Hills Farm
Monterey, California

475 W. 152d Street
New York, New York

December 9th, 1939

Dear Langston:

I am glad to be able to inform you that Zell can now get in at 66, for though I hate to leave the number--it's been so much like home-- Mary and I have taken the basement Apt at the above address, and will be en-scounced there along about Monday or Tuesday. I think I had better not try to tell you how much I appreciate the lift you gave me by taking me in as you did. But I do want you to know that if ever the time comes that I can be of the least service to you in any way whatsoever, you have only to intimate it and regard it as done.

The production I told you about, has not yet materialized, but we are to learn something definite along about Wednesday, when I hope we'll get the news of a Broadway opening. It is a good bill, and the play I'm in is highly theatrical. From the standpoint of slant, it represents a departure from the usual treatment of the lynching theme and will be liked by Harlemites. I don't personally like the psychological treatment of the Negro characters, but have been able to induce the author to improve them a bit. I think he represents me bitterly for the help I gave him, but I don't mind that, feeling repaid by the changes

he consented to make. In gist, the plot deals
with a crooked sheriff, who has raped a white
girl and captured the Negro who is being hunted
for the crime. But several Negroes overpower him,
take the prisoner away from him, and then try him
for the rape and murder. Goodness on the part of
the former innocent man, who as judge refused to
sentence the sheriff, gives the plot a twist,
so that all the Negroes leave the Sheriff hanging
from a raft with his feet on a chair. As Fidgets,
I come out and frighten him into falling to his
death, bringing poetic justice as the mob arrives.

We have a young fellow with Broadway experience,
JP Sidney, who is doing a swell job as leader of
the Negroes.

So much for Broadway and me. I'm sending you my
review of Swinging the Dream, which is in my
judgment a collosal flop. By the way. The whole
theatre page is mine now, since my promotion to
Theatrical Editor. I'm trying to run a series
of articles which I hope will prove to be clarifying
in the muddled atmosphere surrounding the
movement for A Negro People's Theatre. When you
return, I should appreciate it very much if you
gave me an article along the same line.

I close with congratulations on your latest effort. It should prove a real contribution, if my judgment can be taken without salt. (Dick's book is still the mystery of the publisher's hour. All we know definitely is that it was selected as a dual book of the month. I don't think Harpers could tell you anything more. I'd follow your suit about making a living, were it not that I am convinced plays can be made to pay.

MADISON ST
STAT.

Langston Hughes, Esquire
C/o Mrs. T. Harper
634 St Nicholas Ave
New York City, N.Y.

81

T. W. N.
OAKWOOD MANOR HOTEL

562-64 E. OAKWOOD BLVD.
CHICAGO, ILL.

621 East 63rd Street
Chicago, Illinois

January 24, 1944

Dear Langston:

Thanks very much for the batch of clippings, particularly
the ones about South Pacific. I had heard that it had
failed, but had not been able to determine what the
critics felt about it structurally. Perhaps what Heyward
and Rigsby failed to comprehend is our underlying faith
in democracy despite our battered experience living Jim
Crow. At least that seems to be the crux of the matter,
despecially when it is linked with the prospects of the
race owing to the nature of the war and the inevitability
of the expansion of freedom as a result of it. That may
sound a bit like Mumbo Jumbo. But I feel very keenly
that it will be accepted as valid when you see the play
I'm working on, where I shall have had opportunity to
make clear exactly what I mean. Your Freedom's Plow
contains what I consider the emotional intelligence
of the sort I mean. It is this spiritual insight which
permits the Negro to trust as well as fight without in
the least sense being naive. (Is that the way you spell
it...sic) However that, to be more lucid about my aims.
This play is being proposed as an完整 part of a joint
project to the Rosenwald Fund. The other, is the build-
ing of a Negro community theatre--in connection with the
South Side Community Art Center, which is turning over
itsx Barn as a site. I've been made Acting Director,
and I'm asking the Rosenwald for a grant of $2,000 to
provide salary for a year as well as subsidize the writ-
ing of the play. As you're my stanchest friend and sup-
porter, I've given them your name as a reference--so do
what you can for me, won't you? The play, for your
information, really deals with the struggle of the Negro
for full integration in American life and attacks the
moral decay or rather moral insanity which stands in the
way of our accommodation as full fledged citizens. With
a minimum of emphasis upon the device, I'm using an
American court where a Negro is on trial for murder
and projecting the play in flashbacks. In outline it is
exciting as hell--due to my ingenuity of course! But
you'll be surprised--I hope! A bit more. The defendant
is a former Negro officer who has been decorated with
the distinguished Service Medal and his witnesses are
former white soldiers who had been accidently forced
under his command in the wilds of New Guinea. I'm ex-
cited about it because for the first time I really feel
that my own creative impulse matches in a very complete
sense my idea of what the Negro audience wants as well
as what is politically desirable. In Big White Fog I
could only approximate that, and in general I've felt
that my work ran counter to what would provoke immediacy
of audience response. In this sense I'm grateful for the

new line projected by the Party. I say this, though if
you know me, you're aware that the change is accompanied
with some bitterness. But that is emotional for I'm al-
ready convinced that intellectually Browder is right and
I'll support his report without reservation. That is but
perhaps another way of saying that while I believe the
old pattern of anarchy will remain dominant among the
capitalists, I'll work for cooperation as long as the
Party believes it can be realized. That may be just a
matter of faith, but I know of no other world leaders
so capable of following the shifting course of human
affairs, or charting politically the steps to be taken
if the hopes of honest men are ever to be realized.

You'll be interested to know that the kid that works for
me says that his teacher used your article of last week
to lecture his class. As a friend I hope you won't mind
too much my saying that I thought both it and the sub-
sequent article this week are largely seeming--that is,
that if you examine them you might agree that hidden
be beneath your desire to strike at an obvious cultural
fault is a bad bad psychology. I think it deplores
what the system is responsible for, and that if such
phenomena is to be effectively dealt with it can only be
by going to the roots of the matter and placing responsibil-
ity where it rightfully belongs. I remember once a group of
Evanston Negroes wrote a letter to the papers deploring
the attack upon a white woman by an ignorant, nay moronic
Negro brick wielder. They didn't stop to think long enough
about it to charge those who made that Negro what he was.
We've got to do what we can to get rid of the sort of
thing you describe, but that you can wield a broader axe.
I forgive me if I'm always trying to lecture you who've taught
me so much, but remember that I'm so constituted that if
it were possible I'd have something to say about the short-
comings of God, because I expect more of him.

Margaret Walker was out here last week, and boy what a
revelation she gave me. We spent the whole night together
until seven o'clock in the morning. Wright I'm convinced
misled me, and I'm inclined to believe that he is a ruth-
lessoglomaniac, utterly unscrupulous in his bent for ex-
ploiting others. He reminds me of God's Angry Man without
the latter's grasp and fidelity of the ideal. I don't know,
but I hope I'm being honest when I conclude: May history
prove me wrong in my present judgment of him! But like it
stands, I've got to admit I despise him.

May 22, 1947

Mr. Theodore Ward
717 Monroe Street
Brooklyn 21, New York

Dear Ted:

I was delighted to receive your letter. It
made me very happy to learn from both you
and different weekly newspapers about the
fall production of your play. As you know,
I have long had very great faith in your talent
and have hoped always that it would have a chance
for reaching a wider public.

What I meant by that additional "d" was, as you
divine, not in relation to dialect but in relation
to rounding out their democracy and making this
land completely ours. I would be very happy to
have as many reviews of your play as you can
conveniently send me because I am just about to
begin a rather comprehensive piece on the Negro
in the American theater for a new anthology to be
published in the fall and of course I want to write
about you in this piece. If you mail them here,
please do so as soon as you can as I leave for
Chicago on June 2 and may not be in New York for
several weeks.

Give my best regards to Mary and my continued good
wishes to you.

LH: wmb

717 Monroevue st.
Brooklyn 21, N.Y.

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THEODORE WARD

717 Monroe Street, Brooklyn 21, New York

January 3, 1948

Dear Langston:

Thanks for your letter with the copy of Mrs. Jelliffe's request. I had some correspondence with her years ago and also met her once, so I can agree she does strike one as being a very fine person.

The play, however, is not yet available for little theatre or community groups. The producers are hanging on - their professional rights still have several months to go -, and my agent is confident that professional possibilities have not been exhausted. Perhaps they are whistling in the dark, I don't know. Anyway, I understand they have written Mrs. Jelliffe to that effect.

How did you like your trip to Jamaica? You seem to regret having to return. Incidentally, I would like to talk to you about Romain's book, which is certainly a beautiful piece of work. I don't know the language, but I can hardly see how it could be more beautiful than in your translation. Perhaps when you return from the Coast, you might be interested discussing the possibility of our doing an adaptation--Or have you decided on doing one yourself? In any event, I think it would be a contribution to the Negro theatre.

With best wishes from us both for the New Year and your continued success.

CHURCH STREET
STATION
3 CENTS 3

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

THEODORE WARD

717 MONROE ST.
BROOKLYN 21, N. Y.

May 22nd, 1950

Dear Langston:

It was like you to send us the autographed copy of "Simple" and the release on Gwen Brooks with its pleasing reference to myself. Mary and I have read both, and send you our warm congratulations, particularly with regard to "Simple." He is very much alive and rich with the hard sharp vision of the man on the corner, and if there is anything short about him it does not appear to be self-imposed. And yet, one could wish he were a little more alert in the area of the social vistas which an aroused nationalist consciousness such as his would, it seems to me, force him to apprehend. I think his lack in this respect is the source of the dissatisfaction of those who charge him as being a hater of all white folks, rather than a hater of the evils of oppression.

I am a bit confused with reference to the value of the Pulitzer Prize in these times, though I am proud of Gwen. These white folks are so clever nowadays, danger lurks everywhere and I dread almost every commitment. But you are right about her herself. She is a jewel in the crown of Ethiopia.

As you will have learned, the big boys from Broadway walked in on John Brown with muddy boots. Yet, I think he will survive, since audience reaction remains on a very high level of approval--in fact, were it not that we're running into the hot months, we could have great hope for an extended run--Axiom: Never open a play in late spring.

When are you coming down to see the play? As you must know, you've a standing invitation and I hope you will use it. Just mention that you're my guest when you go to the box-office, or call me and say when.

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

DEAR LANGSTON:

I have read Kaufman Jr.'s EVERYTHING WILL BE FINE, and think he just misses having a really great play. There are moments of horror that equal some of the best in Professor Mamlock-- the one in the last act where Ilse informs the family's friends of the role she is destined to play being at once the most shocking description of the brutalizing effect of Nazism upon a fine spirited, sensitive girl, and the utter futility of the German middle-class Jew and his idealistic approach to the problem.

It is this negativeness of Kaufman's people that is fundamentally wrong with the play, that robs it of the essential note and quality of struggle needed for a genuinely realistic play. Only the Nazis know what they want and employ a technique to get it. The Meyers are passive and isolated. From the outset, they are shown to be unaware of the major forces effecting them, as a result they may hardly be said to contend. Nazism is shown to be a result of a lack of political vigilance on the part of the class they represent (Middle-class Jews), who, owing to economic distress following the World War and Versailles, and because of their faith in the power of German Kultur, allowed Hitler and his brigands to sweep into power on a wave of Anti-Semitism and popular disillusionment and unrest. As a phenomenon Nazism is shown to be merely an expression of envy and jealousy, rather than an instrumentality of the most reactionary section of finance capital seeking the maintenance of its rule in the midsts of its decay and the maturing conditions of world revolution. The presence and influence of the Communists are omitted -- not rejected, as would have given emphasis to the Meyer's isolation and strengthened the picture of their futility.

But it is not only as a distorted picture of German historic reality that the play fails to be realistic. The dialogue is unnatural, at least from the aesthetic point of view. It needs to be broken up, and the principle of extention applied more frequently. Here is an example of what I mean, chosen at random (page 9):

RICHARD: I'm not speaking in terms of patriotism--or at least, not the kind of patriotism which they tie around a man's eyes like a bandage, whey they send him to be shot! (A REMARKABLE LINE IS IT NOT, AND ONE THAT SHOULD NOT BE LOST, EH?. TED)

TONI: (SITTING UP ABRUPTLY) Ha!---But what is this meaning?

RICHARD: We'll have to create it.

Toni: You are deep, Herr Ricky.

RICHARD: (POINTEDLY) You've seen men die! Many for no reason at all. But a lot of them--and especially towards the last--died for a dream; for the kind of a Germany that they were beginning to think ought to be created----

ANNA: Yes; go on.

2

RICHARD: Well, it's the responsibility of the living, the duty of all of us who have the chance, to justify their deaths.

TONI: But how?

RICHARD: I don't know. I'm not, God knows, a political thinker. But it's our job to do it. (ANNA LOOKS AT HIM WITH LOVING, PROUD EYES) And I'm glad that I'm alive to share in it.

TONI: (BANTERINLY) The mantle of Hegel has descended upon his shoulders! Herr philosopher, I greet you!

That does not have much of the principle of extention, but it should serve to illustrate what I meant.

Again, I think the reformation of Klauss improbable, and that it perhaps distorts the impression that Nazism tends to brutalize the individual cohort through the repetition of just such crimes as the one perpetuated upon Anna.

If I were to suggest anything, it would be that he work over the opening scenes introducing the idea that Myer is opposed to political affiliation with the progressives. Later it might be indicated that the progressives are responsible for the growing tendency to resist the Nazis, with Meyer and Kurt still out of relation to the masses; so that at the end of the play, Myer's resolution to fight will have strength and be more in keeping with actuality. His life would then have meaning, and the act a result of positive development on his own part. The Greeks held man to be at the mercy of Fate. To-day he is recognized as being determined, and in turn determining, the forces that are potentially as dramatic, even though they are material.

Thanks for letting me read the play.