Skip to main contentResource added ![201, rue de Vaugirard, A7
75015 Paris
FRANCE
6 November 1981
Professor John Hope Franklin
c/o University of Illinois Press
54 East Gregory Drive
POB 5081, Station A
Champaign, Illinois 61820
U.S.A.
Dear Professor Franklin:
I have long remembered, with belated appreciation,
the day you invited me as a freshman into your office
at Howard University and showed me the opening para—
graph of what was to become From Slavery to Freedom.
Remembering your kindness that day-- and recalling some—
thing you wrote (perhaps in Soon, One Morning or another
anthology not now at hand) concerning your trials as a
Black historian in American libraries, etc.--I wrote the
enclosed poem, "Little Old Black Historian." Arnold
Rampersad, while visiting me last month to ask questions
about Langston Hughes for a biography he is writing,
saw this poem. When I told him that I had been thinking
of you while composing it, he replied, "Why don't you
dedicate it to hom?" So I did.
Since you might take some interest in what I have
been doing since that day long ago at Howard, I also
enclose the cover from my latest book (1980) and a pub—
licity sheet that gives a good idea of my activities in
poetry. This year, my fourth consecutive year abroad
(I return to the City College of the City University of
New York next fall), I completed a book that the Jay B.
Hubbell Center for American Literary Historiography at
Duke University asked me for several years ago. I en-
titled it [*in typescript only*]
Snowf1akes and Steel: My Life as a Poet, 1971-
1980. Since It analytically covers the background and
composition of each poem in my last two volumes, with
travelogue and well over fifty photographs-415 pages of
text and 43of photos—-it might be a first of its kind.
Although I swore off writing prose several years
ago, to concentrate on poetry, I'm now writing a book
for Regent's Press, a reader for "Level 4" learners of
English. I agreed to do it because it is entirely about
my poetry. Like Snowflakes..., it will have drafts of
some of the poems, as well as some photos.
I hope that you and those closest to you are well
and that, if you are still teaching, your classtime is
pleasant.
Sincerely yours,
James A. Emanuel
Encl: as noted](https://cuny.manifoldapp.org/system/resource/e/b/0/eb0d483d-3ef5-4847-a4ea-f94464e7ac91/attachment/24f26c8685b22de99ed6ceb179ba6e01.jpg)
![201, rue de Vaugirard, A7
75015 Paris
FRANCE
6 November 1981
Professor John Hope Franklin
c/o University of Illinois Press
54 East Gregory Drive
POB 5081, Station A
Champaign, Illinois 61820
U.S.A.
Dear Professor Franklin:
I have long remembered, with belated appreciation,
the day you invited me as a freshman into your office
at Howard University and showed me the opening para—
graph of what was to become From Slavery to Freedom.
Remembering your kindness that day-- and recalling some—
thing you wrote (perhaps in Soon, One Morning or another
anthology not now at hand) concerning your trials as a
Black historian in American libraries, etc.--I wrote the
enclosed poem, "Little Old Black Historian." Arnold
Rampersad, while visiting me last month to ask questions
about Langston Hughes for a biography he is writing,
saw this poem. When I told him that I had been thinking
of you while composing it, he replied, "Why don't you
dedicate it to hom?" So I did.
Since you might take some interest in what I have
been doing since that day long ago at Howard, I also
enclose the cover from my latest book (1980) and a pub—
licity sheet that gives a good idea of my activities in
poetry. This year, my fourth consecutive year abroad
(I return to the City College of the City University of
New York next fall), I completed a book that the Jay B.
Hubbell Center for American Literary Historiography at
Duke University asked me for several years ago. I en-
titled it [*in typescript only*]
Snowf1akes and Steel: My Life as a Poet, 1971-
1980. Since It analytically covers the background and
composition of each poem in my last two volumes, with
travelogue and well over fifty photographs-415 pages of
text and 43of photos—-it might be a first of its kind.
Although I swore off writing prose several years
ago, to concentrate on poetry, I'm now writing a book
for Regent's Press, a reader for "Level 4" learners of
English. I agreed to do it because it is entirely about
my poetry. Like Snowflakes..., it will have drafts of
some of the poems, as well as some photos.
I hope that you and those closest to you are well
and that, if you are still teaching, your classtime is
pleasant.
Sincerely yours,
James A. Emanuel
Encl: as noted](https://cuny.manifoldapp.org/system/resource/e/b/0/eb0d483d-3ef5-4847-a4ea-f94464e7ac91/attachment/medium-407ed37eb61dc27bad7ea03f13f1d08a.jpg)
Letter to John Hope Franklin
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Typed letter to John Hope Franklin from James Emanuel, dated November 6, 1981. Emanuel provides updates on his literary endeavors to Franklin, his former professor.
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- typeImage
- created on
- file formatjpg
- file size6 MB
- container titleJames A. Emanuel Papers
- creatorJames A. Emanuel
- issueBox 1 Folder 30
- rightsJames A. Emanuel Estate
- rights holderJames A. Emanuel Estate
- version6-Nov-81