{"value"=>"<p> <span class=\"title\">WRITINGS, 1951-1984 (6.2 lin. ft.)</span></p> <p>The Writings series is divided into the following categories: <span class=\"title\">Novels, Short Stories, Ghana and Guyana Manuscripts, Play Scripts, Radio Scripts, Screenplays, Articles and Essays, Conferences and Speeches,</span>and <span class=\"title\">Other Authors.</span>Materials within each subseries are arranged chronologically. Mayfield's writings prior to 1966, published and unpublished, are for the most part not present this collection. The manuscripts for his first two novels, the plays and essays he wrote in the 1950s, his articles published in Puerto Rico and Ghana were reputedly destroyed during the Ghana coup.</p> <p>The <span class=\"title\">Novels</span>subseries begins with separate files of correspondence and reviews for Mayfield's first two published works, <span class=\"title\">The Hit</span>and <span class=\"title\">The Long Night.</span>A complete typescript of <span class=\"title\">The Grand Parade,</span>with editorial suggestions and author's corrections and additions, is included here. The author's novel of Broadway and Harlem life completed in 1963 was first entitled \"Those Were the Days\" and later \"Look Pretty for the People.\" Typescripts of both versions are present in this series. \"Death at Karamu,\" an unpublished detective novel begun in Ghana and completed in Spain, includes the author's handwritten first draft in a spiral notebook, a second draft with author's corrections and additions and the complete version of a third draft sent to his agent. The manuscript for the author's latter novels of suspense and college life are for the most part present in the collection. Included in these files are synopses and drafts, revisions and outlines, and correspondence.</p> <p>Mayfield's <span class=\"title\">Short Stories</span>are filed together alphabetically, except where multiple drafts or correspondence and other attachments justify an individual folder. The oldest short story in the collection, \"The Last Days of Duncan Street\" was rejected by the <span class=\"title\">New Yorker</span>magazine but was published in Spanish in the Cuban literary magazine <span class=\"title\">Calle de Revolucion.</span>This is followed by several files of story ideas, notes, book projects and fragments, some dating from the last months of the author's life. The \"Black Abolitionists\" folder includes detailed outlines of a juvenile history trilogy on the anti-slavery movement and a 47-page treatment of a volume on \"Black Men in the Civil War.\"</p> <p>The <span class=\"title\">Ghana and Guyana Manuscripts</span>begin with \"The Living Ghana,\" a joint unfinished project for a reader on modern Ghana. A detailed outline of that work and what appear to be several completed chapters on agriculture, labor, infrastructure, politics, and foreign policy are located here. The Correspondence file for Mayfield's next Ghana project. \"The Lonely Warrior\" includes letters to and from John Henrik Clarke, St. Clair Drake, and the publisher Angus Cameron. A first and second draft of this manuscript, along with comments, revisions and additions are filed here, as well as the complete text of the author's latter rewrite of the book under the title \"When Ghana Was Ghana.\" The \"Tales of the Lido\" manuscript is complemented by detailed grant proposals submitted in 1981 to the Guggenheim Memorial Fund and the Ford Foundation. These files offer further biographical details on the author's life. The <span class=\"title\">Burnham Biography</span>includes several corrected drafts and the final manuscript submitted to Howard University Press. There are also several letters in these files to Forbes Burnham, one of them outlining the book project and raising several questions for the Prime Minister to answer later in a face to face interview. The surviving chapters of Mayfield's autobiography are also located here.</p> <p>The <span class=\"title\">Play Scripts</span>subseries includes the one-act play &<span class=\"title\">The Other Foot,</span> <span class=\"title\">Alberta,</span> a comedy in three acts written by Mayfield in 1952, and a mimeographed copy of the one-act play <span class=\"title\">417.</span> There are several drafts of <span class=\"title\">Fount of the Nation,</span> complete with author's notes, revisions, correspondence, and reviews. This section is complemented by several unfinished scripts, including a projected prose drama based on the life of David Walker and <span class=\"title\">Ballet of the Reconstruction,</span> a program of gospel music and dance. Also included are several radio scripts, among them \"Black Men at War\" written for the Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee Story Hour (1975); and \"News Talks,\" a sample of the radio commentaries Mayfield wrote for Ghanaian radio in 1963.</p> <p>The <span class=\"title\">Screenplays</span>subseries includes works for both movies and television. The <span class=\"title\">Uptight</span> files consist of a first draft entitled \"Betrayal\" prepared by Jules Dassin; the second draft written by Mayfield, Dassin and Ruby Dee; correspondence between Mayfield's agent Lily Veidt, Dassin and Paramount Pictures; and publicity materials. <span class=\"title\">Child of Anger,</span> otherwise entitled <span class=\"title\">Mr. Vance</span> or <span class=\"title\">The Bradley Arms</span> is an unfinished screenplay written in 1968 on growing up black in Harlem. The <span class=\"title\">Christophe</span> files comprise annotated drafts, revisions and additions, research notes, plot development materials, correspondence with William and Sylvia Marshall, and an earlier adaptation by Marshall and Sylvia Gussin. Mayfield's screenplay <span class=\"title\">The Long Night</span> based on his novel by the same title and Ron Milner's adaptation of <span class=\"title\">The Hit</span>can also be found here. <span class=\"title\">Jessie Mae,</span> Mayfield's last finished screenplay was completed during his residency in Germany. His television work comprises \"Black Drama,\" a narrative on the Harlem Renaissance he wrote for the CBS-TV \"Black Heritage\" series, and several scripts prepared for Educational Audio Visual Inc. between 1969 and 1982.</p> <p>Mayfield's <span class=\"title\">Articles and Essays</span>are grouped together in an A-Z file, except where the bulk or the number of attachments warranted an individual file. Book reviews and related correspondence are filed separately. The A-Z file includes the author's major essay \"On Revolutionary Nationalism\" written in 1968, a mimeographed copy of \"You Touch My Black Aesthetic and I'll Touch Yours,\" \"And Then Came Baldwin\" published in the Spring 1963 issue of <span class=\"title\">Freedomways,</span>an article on African-American involvement in the Congo published in <span class=\"title\">Muhammad Speaks</span>(1965), an unfinished essay entitled \"A United States of Africa, Pipe Dream or Possible,\" and photocopies of articles published in Ghana and Guyana. The author's <span class=\"title\">Speaking Engagements</span>are represented with handwritten notes, correspondence, printed matter and several drafts of a conference paper, \"The Great Disturber of the Peace: DuBois as Progenitor of Negritude\" (1980). Other lecture notes are located in the Academic series.</p> <p>Also located in the Writings series are manuscripts and correspondence from authors whose works are published in the anthology of short stories edited by Mayfield in 1971. The <span class=\"title\">Ten Times Black</span>correspondence file includes writers Hank Gay, Etheridge Knight, Sam Greenlee, and editors at Bantam Books. Works by <span class=\"title\">Other Authors</span>include Hank Gay's novel <span class=\"title\">The Well</span> and Gloria Joseph's <span class=\"title\">Black Challenge to the White Campus: the Black Student's Handbook.</span> Also included are various drafts of Joan Cambridge's autobiographical novel, <span class=\"title\">Show Me the Way to Stay Home.</span></p>"}