A Guide to the Langston Hughes Collection
A Collection in the
Clifton Waller Barrett Library of American Literature
Accession number 8870-e
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University of Virginia Library
Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections LibraryUniversity of Virginia
Charlottesville, Virginia 22904-4110
USA
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© 1997 By the Rector and Visitors of the University of Virginia. All rights reserved.
Funded in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Processed by: Special Collections Department Staff
Administrative Information
Access Restrictions
Collection is open to research.
Use Restrictions
See the University of Virginia Library’s use policy.
Preferred Citation
Langston Hughes Collection, Accession 8870-e, Special Collections Department, University of Virginia Library
Acquisition Information
Purchase 1992 September 2
Funding Note
Funded in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities
Significant Persons Associated With the Collection
- Alain Locke
- Carrie Langston Hughes
- Etta Motten
- Langston Hughes
- Molly
- Peter Abrahams
- Zora Neale Hurston
- [Henry Lee] Moon
Significant Places Associated With the Collection
- Birmingham
- Chapel Hill
- Harlem
- New York
- North Carolina
Item Listing
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Langston Hughes , Westfield, New Jersey, to [Henry Lee] Moon[1930] May 1ALS, 1 p.
[Unable to write an article for the Tuskegee Messenger because "my novel and earning a living have kept me bowed down for the last three years"; says his next novel, Not Without Laughter , will be published in August and "it's not about Harlem "; encloses poem "Alabama Earth (At Booker Washington's grave)".]
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Langston Hughes, Washington, D. C. (postcard of colorized photograph of the Lincoln Memorial), to Henry Lee Moon, Tuskegee Institute, Alabama1930 June 8APCS
[Advises Moon to leave the poem ("Alabama Earth") "as is, please, sir!"; mutual friends Alain Locke and Zora Neale Hurston are mentioned.]
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Langston Hughes, New York, New York (colorized postcard "On the Beach at Rockaway Beach"), to Henry Lee Moon, Tuskegee Institute, Alabama1930 July 18APCS
[Thanks Moon for sending copies of the Tuskegee Messenger; mentions Zora Neale Hurston and his mother [ Carrie Langston Hughes ]; says " New York 's full of down home teachers at school" and hopes "the novel [ Not Without Laughter ?] don't bore you."]
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Langston Hughes, "On tour/Columbia, N[orth] C[arolina] (on stylized personal stationery "LH")," to [Henry Lee] Moon1931 Nov 21ALS, 2 p.
[lengthy and detailed recounting of his speaking at Chapel Hill , social arrangements in segregated North Carolina ("Refreshments later at a white soda fountain. . . . Nothing happened. It was just like New York."); mentions Contempo magazine, describes his reading before a large audience whom he expected would be hostile but were not (a policeman stood guard outside the building) after controversy surrounding his "Nigger Christ" poem ("Christ In Alabama", which commented on the Scottsboro case and was published in Contempo ); Hughes quotes a local sheriff as saying "he doesn't mind Christ being a bastard, but don't call him a nigger!". In a lengthy section marked "Not For Publication" Hughes describes two parties given in his honor (one hosted by Andrew Mellon's nephew) for after the reading where "Southern ladies present, too . . . gallons of home-brew were consumed" and adds that the tour is going well and plans to visit Birmingham . ]
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Langston Hughes, Cleveland, Ohio, to [Henry Lee] Moon1936 March 25ALS, 1 p.
[World premiere of his play Little Ham , which Hughes missed due to illness; thanks Moon for sending some papers and asks, "How come you can't buy an Amsterdam News nowhere in this town?" Also mentions illness of his mother.]
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Langston Hughes, Cleveland, to Henry Lee Moon, New York, New York1936 July 22TLS, 1 p.
[Sends a clipping [not present] and says " Etta Motten 's description of Rio makes me want to go down there right away. Cleveland is just the same as ever, but I am glad to be back home and back to work again."]
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Langston Hughes, New York, New York (on personalized stationery, with envelope), to Molly and Henry Lee Moon1955 Nov 28TLS, 1 p.
[Invites the Moons to his home on December 10 to meet "the distinguished South African writer of colour, Peter Abrahams . . . I find Mr. Abrahams a charming fellow and a most interesting conversationalist"; in a handwritten postscript (green ink) Hughes adds, "Not a party--just a salon!"]
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Langston Hughes, New York, (on personalized stationery, with envelope), to Henry Lee Moon1956 Oct 20TLS, 1 p.
[Advance copies of I Wonder As I Wander are "due at any moment" and Moon will receive a copy from the publisher; Pictorial History of The Negro In America will appear November 18 "and we're all delighted Mollie [Moon's wife Molly] is helping on it. Crown [Publishers] finds her charming."]
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Langston Hughes poem "Alabama Earth (At Booker Washington's grave)"[1930 May 1]Tmss, 1 p.
[This signed copy was originally enclosed with a Hughes letter to Henry Lee Moon, May 1, 1930.]
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Langston Hughes poem "Cross", 12 lines[1925]Amss, 1 p.
[Describes the emotions of the child of a white father and a black mother; at the bottom of the page Hughes has written, "On this poem my play Mulatto is based."]
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Sheet music, Checkin' On The Freedom Train , lyrics by Langston Hughes and music by Sammy Heyward, published by Handy Brothers Music Co., Inc., Broadway, New York1947Printed, 12 p.
[Based on Hughes' 1947 poem Ballad of The Freedom Train , published in The New Republic (September 1947): 27.]