HUGHES LANGSTON Ballad of the Seven Songs A Poem for Emancip

Sale 2105 - Lot 240

Price Realized: $ 1,140

?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price

Estimate: $ 1,500 - $ 2,500

HUGHES, LANGSTON. Ballad of the Seven Songs, A Poem for Emancipation Day. Typed Ribbon Copy, signed and inscribed, 14 pages on rectos only; some light wear at the margins, paper very lightly toned. Together with a one page Typed Letter Signed on Hughes's letterhead to Olive McLin in St. Petersburg. Florida, 21 April 1948-49

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The Ballad bears a long presentation: "A radio poem written especially for the NAACP Emancipation Day program, January 1, 1949. Not to be performed before that date. But something your young folks might like to do thereafter--perhaps for Negro History Week. LH."
The Ballad, Hughes explains, is about Fredom, a seven letter word that "capture[s] segments of it history," with "seven names: Cudjoe, Sojourner Truth, Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass, Booker T. Washington, Dr. Carver, Jackie."
In the letter, Hughes begins by thanking Miss McLin for a box of oranges saying it "was just like sunshine from the sunny South . . ." He goes on to discuss various theatre works (Troubled Island, 1949) he is involved with as well as working on "someone's as-told-to biography, which I'm way behind on . . ." He continues, "My Negro History week tour this season carried me as far South as Dillard so I got to see Mardi Gras at New Orleans for the first time . . ."