Letter to James Emanuel from John Hope FranklinCloseImageViewView image “Letter to James Emanuel from John Hope Franklin”Letter to James Emanuel from John Hope FranklinUploaded September, 2024Tags listtagsjohn hope franklinacademia
Letter to John Hope FranklinCloseImageViewView image “Letter to John Hope Franklin”Letter to John Hope FranklinUploaded September, 2024Tags listtagsjohn hope franklinacademia
Little Old Black Historian (For John Hope Franklin)CloseImageViewView image “Little Old Black Historian (For John Hope Franklin)”Little Old Black Historian (For John Hope Franklin)Uploaded August, 2024Tags listtagsliteracymemoryjohn hope franklin
![NATIONAL HUMANITIES CENTER
P. O. Box 12256
RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, NORTH CAROLINA 27709
January 4, 1982
Mr. James A. Emanuel
201, rue de Vaugirard, A7
75015 Paris, FRANCE
Dear Mr. Emanuel:
Thanks so much for your letter and for the poem
that you so generously dedicated to me. I must say
that I was very moved by its contents as well as your
expression of regard.
A great deal indeed has happened since 1947. Ob-
viosly you have had an exciting and rewarding career.
I have had one exciting experience after another; life
has certainly not been dull. I am now on leave from
the University of Chicago where I have served, since
1969, as the John Matthews Manly Distinguished Service
Professor of History. Meanwhile, I am a Senior Fellow
here at the National Humanities Center completing my
book on George Washington Williams.
When you return to the States next year I hope
I will have the opportunity to see you again. Since
you have some connection with the J. Hubbell Center at
Duke, perhaps you will even be coming down at some
time. In any event I wish for you a very good New
Year and continued success in your work. Again, thanks
and best wishes.
Sincerely yours,
[signature]
John Hope Franklin
JHF:mf
Telephone 919-549-0661](https://nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/manifold-cuny-api-store/store/resource/6/b/4/6b446dfa-0c72-4fe6-b337-333e9f18b2a6/attachment/01249fd732166ec75f9967c768f8719b.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://nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/manifold-cuny-api-store/store/resource/e/b/0/eb0d483d-3ef5-4847-a4ea-f94464e7ac91/attachment/24f26c8685b22de99ed6ceb179ba6e01.jpg)
