|
"Something Very Real" -- |
"Something Very Real" -- Langston Hughes and Richmond, Virginia Special Collections and Archives James Branch Cabell Library Langston Hughes, born on February 1, 1902 in Joplin, Missouri, spent much of his life traveling the world. His travels have been well documented in his autobiography, The Big Sea, and the exhaustive two volume biography, The Life of Langston Hughes by Arnold Rampersad.  There is one trip, however, that has rated only a scant mention
in passing - Hughes gave a reading in the chapel on the campus of the historically
black college, Virginia
Union University, in Richmond, Virginia on Friday evening, November
19, 1926. The events of the evening were recounted in Arnold Rampersad's The Life of Langston Hughes: "And on Friday, November 19, marking his first reading in the South and also the first of innumerable times his fraternity, Omega Psi Phi, would sponsor him, Hughes read in the chapel at black Virginia Union University in Richmond, Virginia. 
Making the visit even more remarkable was a small party in his honor
given by a group of whites,
including a young woman,
led by Hunter Stagg, a literary editor and friend of Carl Van Vechten's. Stagg reduced the tension with
"Hard Daddy" cocktails (named after one of Langston's blues)
of whiskey, lemon juice, maple syrup and ice." [From Rampersard's biography of Hughes, page 138, Vol. one.]
The party was held Thursday evening, November 18th, the night before Hughes' reading at Virginia Union, at Hunter Stagg's apartment, 2301 Park Avenue, corner of Strawberry Street and Park Avenue. Stagg shared the building with other family members. The entrance to Stagg's apartment was on the Strawberry Street side of the building. After the
party Hughes was brought back to the Virginia Union campus Thursday night.
On Saturday, November 20th, Hughes left Richmond for Columbus, Ohio where he
had a speaking engagement with Countee Cullen, a young African American poet and novelist.
"Of course I can't say how much he liked or enjoyed us, since he would probably have conducted himself agreeably whether or not. So I only hope he liked us half as much as we liked him.... They all, separately and collectively, have raved about Langston to me ever since, and we only regret he wasn't here long to see him several times. He read a lot of poetry, and was altogether charming. I do think he's fine and hope he liked me."Hughes was finally able to respond to Stagg about the evening in Richmond in a letter typed on FIRE letterhead stationery dated December 1, 1926 and reads in part: "Surely I enjoyed that evening with you and your friends. It was a perfectly delightful little party, very New Yorkish, and jolly.... Richmond was certainly kind to me. And I discovered not all Southerners are as vile as Mr. Mencken [H.L. Mencken] of Baltimore and the Negro press make them out to be." 
Hughes thought enough of Stagg to send two issues of FIRE, one for him and one for Louise Johnston, the young woman who attended the party. Hughes mentions in the letter dated December 1, 1926 that Zora Neale Hurston's "Sweat" is about the best thing in it, I believe." Stagg responds enthusiastically to the literary magazine in an undated letter probably sent in December of 1926: "Thanks for "Fire!" I read it with great interest and some astonishment and have every inclination of keeping up with it. For what it here and there lacks, in ways you know of as well as I, it full makes up in rigor and life. Zorah's story is mostly awfully good, and that I particularly liked your poems goes without saying. I enjoyed more of your work (re-enjoyed, I should say remembering your reading here)..."For more details of Hughes trip to Richmond, see this online exhibit's section on Carl Van Vechten. In this letter below to Stagg from Hughes, postmarked Feb. 10, 1927, Hughes refers in the letter to his recently published book Fine Cloathes To The Jew. Four days after the letter was postmarked, Stagg would go on to write favorably of the book in his literary column, "Galley Sheets in the Wind". Dear Hunter Stagg,Stagg reviewed Fine Clothes to the Jew, in his literary column, "Galley Sheets in the Wind" March 21, 1927 that ran shortly after he began work as the literary editor of the Richmond News Leader. The comments read in part: "Reading this new volume, we conclude that if it is to be called a little less fiery than its predecessor, it is at the same time a good deal more considered, more thoughtful - in short, it is better art." He also wrote that Hughes' work should be recognized "as the authentic artistic expression of something in human nature, we are not quite prepared to say what, only that we are sure it is something very real."  The Hunter T. Stagg Papers housed in Special Collections and Archives contain two letters from Langston Hughes - one handwritten, one typewritten; book jackets from The Weary Blues and Fine Clothes to the Jew in addition to inscribed copies of the books; one "Galley Sheets in the Wind" column; and approximately a decade's worth of correspondence with Carl Van Vechten. Photocopies of additional letters Stagg wrote to Van Vechten have been obtained from the Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University and added to the Stagg Papers at VCU by Edgar MacDonald in the late 1970s. Photocopies of two letters from Stagg to Hughes were located at the Beinecke in 2002 and are now part of the Stagg Papers at VCU. |
Virginia Black History Archives | VCU Libraries Online Exhibits
Special Collections and Archives
http://www.library.vcu.edu/jbc/speccoll/stagg/stagg01.html