Found 5 collections related to Bontemps, Arna, 1902-1973

C. L. R. James was a West Indian scholar, political activist, and writer. Born in Trinidad in 1901, James began his career as a writer and sports journalist. He migrated to Great Britain in 1932, where he published his first major work, The Black Jacobins, in 1938. He became acquainted with Marxism and Trotskyism in 1934, meeting with Leon Trotsky in Mexico in 1938. In New York during the 1940s, he led a small faction of left-wing Communists opposed to the policies of the Communist Party-USA, as well as to some of the main tenets of Marxism-Leninism and Trotskyism. Following his expulsion from the United States in 1953, during the Cold War, James relocated to London, residing at times in Trinidad, where he launched an opposition party against the government of Eric Williams, and in the United States, where he lectured periodically. James died in 1989. The C. L. R. James letters consist mainly of letters written by James to his former wife and political associate, Constance Webb. James's letters discuss a wide variety of subjects including love, politics (especially Marxism), art, history, sports, literature, and popular culture. Also included are miscellaneous letters and organizational materials documenting James's political activities in the United States, 1938-1953; and letters written to Webb, regarding her writings on Richard Wright, from Arna Bontemps, Lawrence Reddick, and Ellen Wright. Numerous letters also discuss the Johnson-Forest Tendency, a faction led by C. L. R. James, under the pseudonym of J. R. Johnson, and Raya Dunayevskaya (also known as Freddie Forest) within the Socialist Workers Party, which later evolved into the group Facing Reality. The letters are voluminous, averaging 20 pages on loose leaf paper; handwritten; undated; and either signed with a majuscule N (first letter of his nickname and political pseudonym Nello) or unsigned. They were transcribed and annotated by Webb. less

This collection consists of typescripts of novels, biographies, essays, and poems on historical, sociological, and educational issues, and conference papers. Some of the typescripts appear as final drafts, others as working drafts with author's annotations and corrections. Manuscripts included are "A Talk to Teachers: The Negro Child, His Self Image" by James Baldwin; "Slavery and Capitalism" by Eric Williams; "Life in a Haitian Valley" by Melville J. Herskovits; "American Dilemma" by Gunnar Myrdal; and poems by Waring Cuney, among others. Other authors represented are Arna Bontemps, Horace Mann Bond, Lloyd Brown, Helen Buckler, Henrietta Buckmaster, John H. Clark, Benjamin Davis, Ralph Ellison, Arthur Huff Fauset, and E. Franklin Frazier. Conference material includes Melville J. Herskovits and the Future of Africana Studies (Schomburg Center, May 1988); Marcus Garvey Centennial Conference (Jamaica, November 1987); and the Second World Black and African Festival of Arts and Culture (Nigeria, 1977). less

Born in Topeka, Kansas in 1898, Aaron Douglas became the most celebrated artist-illustrator to emerge from the Harlem Renaissance. He attended the University of Nebraska (F.B.A.), Columbia University Teachers College (M.A.) and l'Academie Scandinave in Paris. Douglas' career spanned sixty years of painting, drawing and illustrating. He created numerous murals, usually of allegorical scenes on the historical life or cultural background of African Americans. In 1937 Douglas became a professor of art and chairman of the Art Department at Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee, where he remained until 1966, when he retired as professor emeritus. Fisk University bestowed an Honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts upon him in 1973. Douglas died in Nashville, Tennessee, in 1979. The Aaron Douglas papers consist of personal correspondence, letters of introduction, invitations, programs, and printed material. Of particular interest are the eighty-three undated letters, which make up the bulk of the collection, that Douglas wrote to his future wife, Alta Sawyer. Most of the letters were written during an approximate two-year period while she was still married to her first husband and before she and Douglas were married in 1926. Douglas wrote Sawyer endearing letters that were also philosophical in tone and discussed his artwork, aspirations, and the social scene in Harlem. Included are two letters to Douglas from writer Arna Bontemps and an open letter from Douglas on the letterhead of the short-lived magazine "Fire!!.". less