Inscribed by Langston Hughes ‘Happy Holidays’ in green ink to a printed presentation label tipped-in to the inside cover above the elegant book label of the British poet and radio producer Douglas Geoffrey Bridson (1910-1980).
Langston Hughes had met Bridson in a bar in Hell’s Kitchen in late 1943 and their shared politics and love of poetry and jazz sparked a strong and lasting friendship. Bridson would later describe Hughes as ‘among the most stimulating companions I have ever known, and I never found myself in New York without spending at least one evening with him in his beloved Harlem … The world would not have been so good as it is for anyone if Langston Hughes had never been a part of it’ (Bridson, Prospero and Ariel).
In 1944 they produced together one of the most extraordinary Anglo-American collaborations in broadcast history, The Man who went to War, a ballad opera telling the story of a family in the Blitz, in which all the parts were played by African-Americans and the music included spirituals and blues. Hughes and Bridson kept in touch, and met up when Bridson was in New York during the 50s. They would not collaborate again until the early 60s, when Bridson recorded a series of interviews with Hughes in his New York apartment, which culminated in 1964 in an epic 19-part series for the BBC’s Third Programme, The Negro in America.
DeCarava’s intimate portraits of daily life in Harlem were produced under a Guggenheim fellowship (he was the first black photographer to receive the grant); from 500 images, Hughes had free reign to select, and he carved a touching and entirely fictional narrative, the musings of a Harlem grandmother. ‘It is one of the most successful collaborations between a great writer and a great photographer ever published’ (Roth, 138). There was also a hardback issue, but the more fragile paperback issue was both more radical in design (the text flowing from front cover directly onto p.1 ) and more influential.
An unusually well preserved copy of a fragile publication, edges very slightly rubbed.
