Second Letter from Douglas Watson (page 1 of 3)

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Oklahoma Baptist University ABU January 1, 1982 James A. Emanuel 201, rue de Vaugirard, A7 75015 Paris FRANCE Dear Professor Emanuel It is New Year's Day here, a particularly appropriate time for me to have just finished reading your Snowflakes and Steel manuscript (or rather a copy of it made possible by the assistance of Erma Whittington at the Jay B. Hubbel Center and of my university dean, who agreed to see that the university would absorb the costs of copying and handling). It is a fascinating autobiography. Along with your general responses to my original questions, its pages should certainly suffice for purposes of informing my discussion of your life and work in the essay for the Dictionary of Literary Biography volume. But aside from the immediate utility of the work, I have found Snowflakes and Steel a deeply moving, often compelling account of an artist struggling to wring beauty from the sometimes exuberant, sometimes delightful, sometimes bitter, and sometimes ugly bits of experience that comprise his life (and, I think, each and every life). With the help of Naomi Long Madgett, I have been able to secure copies of Black Man Abroad and Chisel in the Dark (it was she who also gave me your address). The judgements and comments about the poems in these volumes which you mention in the autobiography seem to me generally accurate: they do reflect giant strikes forward toward the integration of complex sets of experience and perception into carefully hones, technically adept verses. Such a judgement shall be central in my essay. Yet, I am unwilling to consider the poems of Treehouse and Panther Man of only lesser significance. It seems particularly appropriate that Chisel begins with some of these early poems, for their presence in the volume measures, I think, your own poetic growth and also an important movement in Black American poetry generally away from mere race conscious- ness and racial protest toward the incorporation of those feelings and experiences into images of more universal reference. Though I believe that this is a direction that you would desire for your poetry, I am less certain about the general desire of Black poets to move in this direction. That your own work has moved toward broader themes while maintaining an acute perception of the racial elements which they incorporate, I find a pleasant certainty; that this effect has been accomplished by way of an at-least-psychological expatriation from the United States is a sign of the tragedy of American racism. Department of English (405) 245-2850 Shawnee, OK 74801

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Typed letter from Douglas Watson to James Emanuel, dated January 1, 1982. Watson writes that he enjoyed Emanuel's autobiography and claims that his poetry is revolutionary for the whole of Black writing. Watson also asks clarifying questions for his essay on Emanuel. (Page 1)

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  • type
    Image
  • created on
  • file format
    jpg
  • file size
    13 MB
  • container title
    James A. Emanuel Papers
  • creator
    Douglas Watson
  • issue
    Box 4 Folder 7, Watson, Douglas, 1981-1993
  • rights
    James A. Emanuel Estate
  • rights holder
    James A. Emanuel Estate
  • version
    1-Jan-82