The Associated Negro Press Inc.

National News Service
3507 SOUTH PARKWAY
CHICAGO

## EXECUTIVE STAFF

CLAUDE A. BARNETT
DIRECTOR

FRANK M. DAVIS
FEATURE EDITOR

ALBERT G. BARNETT
NEWS EDITOR

WILLIAM PICKENS
CONTRIBUTING EDITOR

A. E. WHITE
WASHINGTON, D. C.

JESSE O. THOMAS
ATLANTA, GA.

ROBERT C. CRUMP
DETROIT, MICH.

JOSE H. SHERWOOD
ST. PAUL, MINN.

E. W. CLARK
BOSTON, MASS

FRITZ CANSLER
DALLAS, TEXAS

O. B. TAYLOR
KNOXVILLE, TENN.

R. C. FISHER
ST. LOUIS, MO.

FRANK CANTY
ATLANTIC CITY, N. J.

ALVIN MOSES
SPORTS, NEW YORK CITY

G. JAMES FLEMING
PHILADELPHIA, PENN.

HARRY LEVETTE
LOS ANGELES, CALIF.

REGINALD PIERREPOINTE
WEST INDIES

IRVINE I. TURNER
NEWARK, N. J.

EFFIE M. GOODE
MOBILE, ALA.

CHATWOOD HALL
MOSCOW, RUSSIA

IVA GEREAU
VIRGIN ISLANDS

C. G. WHITTINGHAM
CHRISTOBAL, CANAL ZONE

RUDOLPH DUNBAR
LONDON, ENGLAND

JAMESON G. COKA
JOHANNESBURG, S. AFRICA

NANCY CUNARD
PARIS, FRANCE

A. L. HOLSEY
BUSINESS

CHARLES E. LOEB
CLEVELAND, OHIO

HAZEL L. GRIGGS
FASHIONS

CARL DITON
MUSIC

ARDEN H. DUANE
HOME ARTS

HAROLD JOVIEN,
RADIO

PHONE OAKLAND 6400

WASHINGTON BUREAU

2000 11TH STREET, N. W.

WASHINGTON, D. C.

MICHIGAN 6400

April 15, 1941

Dear Langston:

I purposely waited before answering your last letter in order to have a clipping or so to send along. Of course you may keep the enclosures.

It affords us great pleasure to be able to release your poetry and we are deeply appreciative of the opportunity. Incidentally, I am enthused over the work in this group. It seems that you have caught the old spark again that made your poetry so outstanding. Frankly, it seemed to me much of your recent poetry had been more propaganda than art, but in these verses your art is foremost and your social consciousness more subtle. Richard Wright was in town last week and I showed him the mss. He was quite enthused. The same goes for Jack Conroy who happened to visit the office and saw your verse. Of course you know you have my sincerest wishes for all the success in the world with SHAKESPEARE IN HARLEM. And may it be commercial as well as artistic!

I suppose you'll be going to the writers' congress in New York in June. If so and you stop off in Chicago, be sure to pay me a visit. I still have that record collection.

Meanwhile, very best personal wishes.

## Ballad of the Sinner

(By Langston Hughes for ANP)

I went down the road,
Dressed to kill—
Straight down the road
That leads to hell.

Mother warned me,
Warned me true,
Father warned me,
And Sister, too.

But I was bold,

Headstrong and wild.
I did not act like
My mother's child.

She begged me, please,
Stay on the right track.
But I was drinking licker,
Jitterbugging back,

G ing down that road,
All dressed to kill—
The road that leads
Right striaght to hell.
Pray for me, Mama!

2

National News Service

3507 SOUTH PARKWAY

CHICAGO

(15)

EXECUTIVE STAFF

CLAUDE A. BARNETT
DIRECTOR

FRANK MARSHALL DAVIS
EXECUTIVE EDITOR

I. ROLAND
SECRETARY

GORDON B. HANCOCK
CONTRIBUTING EDITOR

ALVIN MOSES
SPORTS

ALVIN E. WHITE
GLADYS GRAHAM
NEW YORK CITY

G. JAMES FLEMING
MARK HYMAN
PHILADELPHIA, PENN.

JOHN H. MCCRAY
COLUMBIA, S.C.

R. C. FISHER
ST. LOUIS, MO.

LUCILE BLUFORD
KANSAS CITY, MO.

WILLIAM FOWLKES
ATLANTA, GA.

O. B. TAYLOR
KNOXVILLE, TENN.

A. L. HOLSEY
BUSINESS

F. T. LANE
FEATURES

CARL DITON
MUSIC

HAROLD JOVIEN
RADIO

HARRY LEVETTE
LOS. ANGELES, CALIF.

WILLIAM BARBEE DURHAM
COLUMBUS, O.

LAWRENCE C. BURR
MADRAS, INDIA

MASON ROBERSON
SAN FRANCISCO, CALIF.

CHATWOOD HALL
ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA

C. G. WHITTINGHAM
ERNEST J. JAMIESON
CHRISTOBAL, CANAL ZONE

GEORGE C. GREAVES
PORT OF SPAIN, TRINIDAD

ADOLPH GEREAU
ST. THOMAS, VIRGIN ISLANDS

HUBERT H. WHITE
HONOLULU, HAWAII

JACOB BROWNE
MONROVIA, LIBERIA

WILBERT E. HEMMING
KINGSTON, JAMAICA

NNAMDI AZIKIWE
M. A. O. WILLIAMS
LAGOS, NIGERIA

THOMAS DECKER
FREETOWN, SIERRA LEONE, W. A.

HENRY B. COLE
ACCRA, GOLD COAST,
WEST AFRICA

PHONE OAKLAND 6400

WASHINGTON BUREAU

1915 14TH STREET, N.W.
WASHINGTON, D.C.
MICHIGAN 6400

CABLE ADDRESS:
NEGROPRESS, CHICAGO

March 4, 1949

Dear Lang:

Got time to listen to a couple of gripes? One
is about the selection from my material for
the anthology. I mean, I'm supposed to be a
progressive and socially conscious poet, but
you couldn't tell it from the examples. You'd
almost think I resided in an ivory tower!
The other gripe has to do with the fact that
at least one poet got paid (how much, I don't
know) and another was given the chance to buy
copies at a special rate. Nothing of either
sort has come my way. Not that I'm more than
ordinarily mercenary, but I would like to
know, what gives? But outside of that, as
I mentioned on my card which I hope you got,
both you and Arna should be proud of the
anthology; I am.

It looks as if we will remain in Hawaii. It's
really a wonderful place. And in many ways the
task for progressives is more challenging here than
in Chicago.

I hope all is well with you personally. I saw
mention of the poet's event in Washington and of
your Negro History Week engagements.

Mail will reach me at the address given below.

3

March 25, 1949

Mr. Frank Marshall Davis
1830 Waiola, Apt 1
Honolulu, Hawaii

Dear Frank:

I found your letter awaiting me when I returned to New York for a few days to attend to some business in connection with the opening of my opera, TROUBLED ISLAND (music by William Grant Still). It premieres on Thursday, March 31, at the New York City Center. It was good to hear from you and I am glad you are enjoying the Hawaiian atmosphere so much.

About the anthology, you should have received a complimentary copy sometime ago as Doubleday informed me that each of the contributors have been sent a copy. Regarding payment, had you requested it at the time of granting your permissions, I am sure you would have gotten it. The Doubleday office handled all of the permissions and payments on the anthology and Arna and I had only to do with the selections of the poetry. Waring Cuney, Margaret Walker and several of the poets I know who requested a fee for their poems were paid on publications. Usually the publishers of one's books always charge a permissions fee which is generally divided with the author.

Doubleday also grants the poets in the anthology a fifty percent discount on any copies of the book which they might wish to purchase for their own personal use.

As I think I wrote you from Chicago, I am Poet In Residence at the University of Chicago's Laboratory School for the Spring quarter and am enjoying my stay there very much. I wish that you and your wife were in town so that I could hear some of your fine records and also so you could come out and talk to a small group of students interested in the finer points of jazz. Also we shall miss you at the evening which Hall Branch Library is holding in honor of the anthology on March 28th. Gwendolyn Brooks, Charles Wheeler and possibly Myron O'Higgins will be there.

All my best regards to your wife.

LH/nwv

AIR MAIL

April 20, 1949

Dear Lang:

Thanks for your card and letter. Congratulations also on the opening of TROUBLED ISLAND and upon your selection as Poet In Residence at U. of C. As a matter of fact, you do so damned much that I always have to start a letter or note congratulating you on another achievement. I sincerely wish I had your energy.

I'm happy to know Arna got a Guggenheim. Congratulate him for me. I missed out, but then it seems the policy to grant only one Negro writer per year a fellowship.

We have decided to stay out this way, so if your journeys carry you this far you'll know where to stop after next August. We will also bring out our records so maybe you can listen to a few of them at long last. We've bought a lot some 1,300 feet up on Mount Tantalus back of Honolulu in a tall eucalyptus grove. The air is fresh and cool and fragrant and some nights we'll even be able to use a fireplace. We can look down on the city in one direction and Pearl Harbor in the other. We're having an architect draw up plans and we hope to have our home built by August when we expect an arrival in the family. You can see that we must like Hawaii far more than even Chicago to want to stay out here. We love it. You really ought to spend some time here. The people are amazing. Also the same basic struggle goes on here as in Chicago or New York, but the outward manifestations are different and the inter-group relationships are much more complex. Our biggest kick - other than the insistent objection inherent in our economy -- is the lack of live jazz. Very little here. However, Trummy Young has trained some young Orientals who are marvelous on be-bop and could hold down jobs anywhere on the Mainland.

Best of everything, Langston. And when you have a few minutes to spare, drop me a line and keep me posted on your next moves.

June 22, 1949

Dear Lang:

As you can tell from the address, we've moved since I last
wrote you. We're now living in the country some 29 miles
from Honolulu in a beach house just some 25 or 30 feet
from the ocean in high tide. Inside the coral reef
people wade out and fish for what they call baby squid,
although they are really baby octopii. They are supposedly
a great delicacy, although I have developed as yet neither
a taste for them or for poi. Beyond the reef are lobsters
and many kinds of tasty fish. Some people swim in the
area where we live, although it is not advised unless
you are expert because of the coral. Two outrigger canoes
go with the cottage, although I can't use them as yet.
There is a nice lawn with palms and across on the
other side are mountains. Most of the time I'm clothed
only in a pair of shorts. If you like peaceful surroundings,
this is a great place in which to write. We'll probably
stay out here until our house gets built. Incidentally,
there will be a small Davis due to arrive late in August.

Currently there is a longshore strike which has cut off
shipping. The employers have refused to make a decent wage
offer or to arbitrate. Everybody who openly sides with
the ILWU is a "Communist." Naturally, I have been so
labelled since I write a column for the local progressive
weekly and side with those whom I think are getting a
dirty deal. The pattern in general is like that of the
Mainland except the struggle between contending forces
is sharper and more open since the economy is tighter
because the community is smaller.

I know you had a most interesting time as "Poet in
Residence..." Are you again dashing hither and yon or
are you staying put this summer?

July 2

1949

Mr. Frank Marshall Davis
Hamula Post Office
Oahu, Hawaii

Dear Frank:

I was hoping that you had received my letter asking if you could submit a few of your poems for consideration for the special Negro issue of VOICES, which goes to press in the early Fall. However, thinking back I guess you didn't, since the letter was sent to your old address. Nevertheless, if you possibly can I hope you will send me something soon, since I would like to look over some of your material for this publication.

Your letter intrigued me. It must be wonderful out there in Hawaii and maybe one of these days I, too, will be able to "wade out and fish for what they call baby squid"! Just to read the things you say about that "Paradise of the Pacific" makes me yearn and how I would love to have a cottage with "nice lawns and palms and across on the other side...mountains." It really must be heaven.

Congratulations to the Davises upon the forthcoming late August event. I know you are both happy anticipating.

I am still loaded with work and see no rest in the very near future. Oh well, I can hope and dream of Hawaii and take consolation from the fact that my friends are deriving pleasure from its pleasant surroundings.

With all good wishes, as ever.

LH:HHS

July 6, 1949

Dear Lang:

Your other letter about Voices was forwarded and reached me
about four days ago, with the most recent letter arriving
yesterday. The enclosures are recent unpublished poems which
you might care to use.

Hawaii is a beautiful place and lives up to its press notices
-- for charm. We have been intending to build a house but
recent developments are making us change our minds. As you may
have heard, there is now a longshore strike in its third
month, called by the ILWU when the employers refused to make
a decent wage offer or arbitrate. Out here the economy is
tightly controlled by the "Big Five" which has colonial
attitudes. The Big Five would like to break the union and has
used propaganda which wouldn't dare be used by management on
the Mainland. Anybody who dares to speak out openly against
Big Five policies faces economic reprisals. He may lose his
job or, if he is in business, he may not be able to purchase
necessities. Almost everything coming into the Territory,
which produces little other than sugar and pineapple, is handled
by the Big Five. Since I can't keep quiet when I see injustice,
I have been writing a regular column for the local progressive
weekly and am active in the Hawaii Civil Liberties Committee
which has recently been placed on Tom Clark's "subversive"
list. I intend to start a small business after the strike
ends. Since I don't know how great the opposition will be
from the Big Five, we have decided it will be more sensible
to save our cash. Then, if things go well, we can build
later. Otherwise, if the Big Five made things tough and we
have to leave for economic reasons, we would be handicapped
because of the house. That's the picture. Hawaii is beautiful
on top -- but underneath it's rottem.

What's the name of the musical you're working on? Is the book
for Smzz Simon and Shuster poetry or prose? Feed me more
details. And keep up the fight. I wish I had your creative
drive.

April 17, 1950

Mr. Frank Marshall Davis
Haula Post Office
Oahu, Hawaii

Dear Frank:

The current issue of the HARLEM QUARTERLY, Spring, 1950, (Box
910, General Post Office, New York 1, New York. $0.50) carries
a review of the Negro Poets Issue of VOICES in which there is the
following delightful paragraph about your work:

"Among the established poets, Georgia Douglas Johnson
and Frank Marshall Davis alone enhance their reputations.
Miss Johnson's new lyrics emphasize her mastery of traditional
forms, while Mr. Davis, with his penetrating character sketches,
carries forward better than any other American poet the work of
Edgar Lee Masters."

Alain Locke also reviewed VOICES as well as THE POETRY OF THE NEGRO
in the current First Quarter, 1950 issue of PHYLON.

My new book, SIMPLE SPEAKS HIS MIND, came out last weekend, but I haven't seen any reviews of it as yet. However, I have asked the publishers to send a review copy to you. On the same day my new record by the Striders of a song of mine, COOL SATRUDAY NIGHT, Apollo Records, came out.

Lots of good wishes to you and your wife.

LH/nwv

1/2

July 12, 1950

Dear Lang:

Awfully belated, but nevertheless a reply to yours of April 17
as well as acknowledgement of your new book, SIMPLE SPEAKS HIS
MIND.

Since Feb. 1, I have been in the paper business. I stock and
sell printing and mimeograph paper to printers and offices and
churches. To put this new venture on a paying basis takes plenty
of time. Furthermore, my office is located an even 35 miles from
my home, which means around 2½ hours of driving daily between
work and house. In addition, we bought a house on February 1 and
I'm still trying to do quite a bit of the necessary changing
myself, such as painting and making built-ins. I put up shelves
for books and records. On top of this, žmžzžž there has been
increasing anti-Negro police brutality and I have found myself
in the position of trying to help left the opposition and correct
this unwholesome situation in the "Paradise of the Pacific"
which boasts so loudly about its democracy. Consequently I have
had to do much more stepping than one has a right to expect in
this lazy land. As a result, my correspondence has fallen far
behind -- undoubtedly to the disgust of all my friends.

I want to say right off that "Simple Speaks His Mind" is the best
book of its type yet published. It packs a Joe Louis wallop. You
have gotten down into what the average city Negro (if there is
such) actually thinks and brought it out. I shall look forward to
seeing many more editions as years go by, with Simple discussing
contemporary events as they occur. It's the earthy, bitter humor
that I particularly like. ANP had a number of articles on the
book and so I thought there would be no reception among
dusky dusky editors if I also wrote comment. Incidentally, several
copies have found their way over here and have been read by both
whites and Orientals to my knowledge.

Thanks for taking the trouble to send me the comment on my work
in VOICES, as carried in the Harlem Quarterly. Out here we see
EBONY, OUR WORLD, NEGRO DIGEST and COLOR. They're sold on the
news stands. Anything else you luck upon.

Best personal wishes. And when you can find time, drop me a note.

14

On that first Christmas in Hawaii back in 1948, there were only two Davises. Now it looks as if this little island is spillling Davises into the Pacific . . . First there was Bonnie, a blue Persian cat who got into the family in March, 1949, at the age of six weeks and who therefore has certain seniority rights . . . Then on Aug. 15, 1949, along came Lynn Makaleka who surveys the planet with the wisdom attained in nearly 17 months of worldly experience . . . Any outstanding production virtually demands a sequel. In order not to disappoint the eager public, all necessary work was completed leading to the unveiling on Nov. 9, 1950, of Mark Kaleokualoha. With some seven weeks behind him on Christmas Day, he is taking this world of mountain and ocean, palm tree and sandy shore in stride . . . And so there are now five Davises to back up a wish for a really Merry Christmas and a most successful 1951.

From

Mark Kaleokualoha ** Lynn Makaleka ** Bonnie

Helen C. and Frank Marshall Davis

'MONTAGE OF A DREAM DEFERRED' IS LANGSTON HUGHES' FINEST
VOLUME OF POETRY

Reviewed by Frank Marshall Davis
(For ANP)

For a quarter of a century, Langston Hughes has been
in the forefront of contemporary poetry. And now, with a world reputation
that is almost legendary, he has authored a new book that is easily
his finest among a series of fine volumes of poetry.

"Montage of a Dream Deferred," published Feb. 19 by Henry Holt, is the title. It borrows liberally from the terms and feeling of contemporary hot jazz and hop to create a movingly realistic picture of Harlem as it is, with its joys and its dreams deferred.

As was the case with "Simple Speaks His Mind," this is primarily a book for Negroes. That, to me, is a good thing for the tendency too often is to write about Harlem primarily for the white reader.

Like other of Hughes' work, the style is disarmingly simple -- so simple that often the brilliant artistry may be overlooked. Yet this conversational simplicity makes for the charm and readability that produces a wide audience. It is only rarely that one encounters the obscurement that too often hangs like a heavy cloud over the work of certain other highly regarded poets.

It seems to me that any poetry woven out of the daily lives of people should be written to be read by the people instead of by a small closed corps of intellectual snobs. Apparently this is also Langston Hughes' belief, for I have yet to see anything from his pen that could not be read and understood by those whose formal education ended in the lower grades.

Consider, for instance, this in "Children's Rhymes:"

"By what sends
the white aids
I ain't sent:
I know I can't

17

be President."

Hughes has his ear attuned to give talk and uses it for sharp portraits, as in the conclusion of "Dead In There," describing the burial of a sharp cat:

"Squares
Who couldn't dig him,
Plant him now --
Out where it makes
No diff' no how."

The volume also contains "Freedom Train" as well as a number of other widely-known poems not previously available in book form. The book is so uniformly excellent that it should bring one of the year's top literary awards to Langston Hughes -- if such awards are to be made on pure merit without any other considerations.

February 18, 1951

Dear Lang:

This is a poor carbon copy but I think you can make out what I had to say in my review gotten off today for the Associated Negro Press. I sincerely think this your finest poetry out of a long career of creating fine poetry. Accept my sincerest congratulations.

As for myself, I am now busily engaged in (1) raising a family (2) writing a local column for a publication which has incurred the wrath of the un-American committee to such a great extent that John Wood et al have issued a 12 page pamphlet denouncing the paper and (3) trying to make a living as a paper merchant. I sell printing, writing, duplicating paper and supplies. I warehouse the stuff, sell it and deliver it. Most of my customers are Oriental who seem genuinely interested in my making a real success and thus breaking the monopoly so long exercised by the Big Business paper companies.

Very best personal wishes. I've been working on a long poem on Hawaii, but haven't the slightest idea when it will be finished.

18

July 30, 1952

Mr. Frank Marshall Davis
Hauula Post Office
Oahu, Hawaii

Dear Frank,

For the new German anthology of American Negro Poetry:

Miss Eva Hesse
bei Koniger
Romerstrasse 6/iii
Munchen 23, Germany

wishes to use your poem FOUR GLIMPSES OF NIGHT. She
tells me there is a small payment. I imagine when
German marks are translated into dollars, it won't be
much. But it might speed up matters if you would write
write her granting her permission to use your poem, to
the address above, since she has sent the total listing
of the anthology to me. It looks good, and I think
you'll be happy to be in it. She is, so Germans assure
me, an excellent translator, and highly thought of in
literary circles in the Western Zone. She has trans-
lated a great deal of American poetry for magazines
there.

Lots of good wishes to you, as ever,

Sincerely,

Langston Hughes

20

August 25, 1952

Dear Lang:

Thanks for the note. I have sent authorization for use of the poem
to Miss Eva Hesse in Germany.

I thought you might like to see how the older of the two Davis
offspring look. I say "older" advisedly. We had a third on
June 21, a girl named Beth Tiare Konane Davis. The second name is
Tahitian and the third is Hawaiian. I may not be doing much
creative writing but it seems as if I'm doing a lot of creating
-- with the help of my wife.

Did you receive, some weeks ago, a copy of the Honolulu Record
in which I wrote a review of your latest book? I have been doing
what I can out this way to spread the gospel according to
St. Langston.

We do miss many things on the Mainland, such as life jazz and
cultural activity. But this place has so many other compensations
that we much prefer Hawaii. And I do get quite a kick out of being
in business for myself.

Very best personal wishes.