BALDWIN, James . Three Letters, Signed. 1955-1959. One-page autograph letter, signed, and two typed letters, signed, to Edwin Parone, dated 1955 to 1959. Three pages, octavo, on Howard University letterhead and plain paper; approximately 500 words; unpublished. Director of LeRoi Jones’s (Amiri Baraka) riveting off-Broadway play The Dutchman, Parone also worked as an editor at Dell Publishing and as a theatrical agent at the William Morris Agency during the 1950s. Parone was well acquainted with Baldwin and managed over the years to assist the financially embarrased writer by placing his work discreetely in well-paying anthologies. Mentioned in the correspondance is Amen Corner, which Baldwin implored his friend to "hold." "Anyone who wants to read it must read it at your house. Incidentally, Howard U. is presenting it from May 10 to May 19. Want to drop down and look at it with me?" According to Parone, "it was only natural that when Jimmy wrote Amen Corner I should find myself involved -- as a friend, as an agent -- he was a procrastinator and as the time drew dangerously close to rehersal [under playwright Owen Dodson] I literally locked him in his apartment until the work was done." A moving series of letters, with mention of his "awful financial situation" and of his intimate friend Lucien Happersberger, the dedicatee of Giovanni’s Room. Very good

Nice early Baldwin letters

• Category: Manuscripts
• Keywords: african american · Exile Literature · expatriate · gay · Manuscripts · theater
• Language: Englisch
• Inventory number: 5641LB

Our price: USD 4,500.00