Mar 29, 2018 - Sale 2471

Sale 2471 - Lot 249

Price Realized: $ 406
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 400 - $ 600
(LITERATURE.) Hughes, Langston. Letter to the wife of Yale's librarian, who had recently employed Hughes for a small project. Autograph Letter Signed to Mary Knollenberg (here "Nollenberg") of New Haven, CT. 2 pages on one sheet, 11 x 8 1/2 inches; mailing folds; with original postmarked envelope in the hand of Hughes. New York, 4 July 1942

Additional Details

In May 1942, Hughes spent a few days at Yale University, transcribing the lyrics from their recently acquired collection of blues recordings for $10 per day, and staying at the home of Yale's head librarian Bernard Knollenberg (see Rampersad, Life of Langston Hughes, pages I:44-45). Here he writes a friendly letter to Knollenberg's wife. "I enjoyed the few days spent with you and your husband. I found New Haven and your flowering trees delightful, really the only breath of 'natural' springtime I've had this year. You remember I made a phone call to New York one evening? The toll was an even dollar. I forgot to leave it. . . . It's enclosed. Forgive me. Kindly remember me to the Piersons, the Donaldsons, and the Marshall Stearns." Jazz critic Marshall Stearns was a Yale graduate student at this time.