Scope and Content Note
The papers of James A. Emanuel (1921-2018) span the years 1922-1995, with the bulk of the items concentrated in the period between 1960 and 2012. The collection, which focuses on Emanuel's work as a poet and educator, consists of six series: General Correspondence , Writings , Subject File , 2016 Addition , 2024 Addition, and Oversize . Included in the papers are appointment calendars, autobiographical writings, biographical material, correspondence, poems, transcripts of interviews, material relating to poetry festivals and readings, poetry anthologies and collections, subject files, teaching material, textbooks, and writings by others. The collection contains notes in shorthand as well as material in French. Additional papers may be found at the Jay B. Hubbell Center for American Literary Historiography at Duke University, Durham, North Carolina.
The General Correspondence series consists primarily of letters received and sent from poets, writers, editors, and publishers, most of whom were active in the promotion of African-American literature and culture in the second half of the twentieth century. Correspondents include Houston A. Baker Jr., Robert Bone, Arna Bontemps, Paul Breman Jr., Gwendolyn Brooks, Ralph Ellison, Michel Fabre, Hoyt Fuller, Addison Gayle Jr., Theodore L. Gross, Theodore R. Hudson, Huki R. Madhubuti, Naomi Long Madgett, Robert Mane, Beatrice M. Murphy, Therman B. O'Daniel, Dudley Randall, Anthony Suter, Doug Watson, Joseph Weixlmann, and John A. Williams. Publishing houses and poetry journals are represented by Black World, CLA Journal, Free Press, Lotus Press, Midwest Quarterly, Negro Digest, and Phylon. Other prominent African-American correspondents include Benjamin O. Davis, Ossie Davis, W. E. B. DuBois, and John Hope Franklin. Additional correspondence with publishers, translators, illustrators, and individuals arranging poetry readings, including Keith O. Anderson, Nicole Lamotte, Naomi Long Madgett, and Jean Migrenne, may be found in the Writings series.
The Writings series includes writings by Emanuel and those by others. A poetry section among Emanuel's writings contains anthologies, collections, individuals' poems, material relating to poetry festivals and readings, and textbooks on writing poetry. Emanuel's first major editorial project, the publication of a collection of poetry by his mentor, Langston Hughes, is represented by only a small amount of correspondence following the theft of a trunk during the 1970s. Poetry collections by Emanuel represented in the series include Black Man Abroad: The Toulouse Poems; Chisel in the Dark: Poems Selected and New; Panther Man; and Whole Grain: Collected Poems, 1958-1989. A subsection containing individual poems reflects Emanuel's attention to detail. Multiple drafts of a given poem frequently reveal not only the creative process through alterations and corrections but also indicate the day, time, and location of composition as well as sources of inspiration, such as newspaper articles, opera tickets, photographs, and restaurant receipts. A subsection of material related to poetry festivals reflects Emanuel's involvement in these events. The poetry readings file chronicles his recitals in the United States and abroad. During his teaching stints overseas, Emanuel frequently served as a cultural ambassador for the United States to various European countries, particularly those in Eastern Europe behind the “Iron Curtain.” The subsection on textbooks documents Emanuel's efforts to teach the craft of writing poetry.
The prose section in the Writings series consists primarily of an anthology, autobiographies, and transcripts of interviews by and with Emanuel. The collaborative work of Emanuel and Theodore L. Gross documented in files labeled Dark Symphony: Negro Literature in America represents one of the first major anthologies of African-American prose. Emanuel's personal and creative life is revealed in material relating to his two autobiographical writings, A Force in the Field and “Snowflakes and Steel: My Life As a Poet, 1971-1980.” Files documenting individual interviews by Emanuel with Gwendolyn Brooks, Nikki Giovanni, Langston Hughes, and Sonia Sanchez as well as those with him by Haki R. Madhubuti and Jean P. McIver provide insightful exchanges between one African-American poet and another. The section also contains material relating to articles, book reviews, speeches, and writings by others
The Subject File includes appointment calendars, biographical material, newspaper and magazine clippings, travel material, and files on African-American poets and writers. Emanuel's tenure as confidential secretary to General Benjamin O. Davis and as staff sergeant in the United States Army during World War II are documented in a military service file. His unsuccessful election campaign in 1966 for a seat on the Board of Education in Mount Vernon, New York, in 1966 is covered in a file by that name containing letters to Robert F. Kennedy revealing Emanuel's suspicions of covert racial harassment and telephone wiretapping during the campaign. Letters in the General Correspondence series to neighbor Ossie Davis in New Rochelle, New York, relate Emanuel's experience as an African American seeking election in a mostly white neighborhood during the mid-1960s. Material relating to teaching chronicles his career at the City College of the City University of New York as well as in Poland and France. Following his first Fulbright professorship in 1968-1969 at the University of Grenoble, Emanuel held two more teaching professorships in France and made numerous extended visits, eventually moving there permanently upon his retirement in 1984.
The 2016 Addition spans the years 1938-2013, and is arranged into three groups: general correspondence, writings, and subject file. The majority of the Addition consists of general correspondence with friends, fellow poets and publishers. It also includes photographs and medals he received recognizing his work in the Civilian Conservation Corps, the Tannie Award for lifetime achievement, and other accomplishments.
The 2024 Addition contains documents received from or about James A. Emanuel that belonged to illustrator Nicole Lamotte and French translator Jean Migrenne. The material chronicles Emanuel's work and activities as well as his collaborations and friendships with Lamotte and Migrenne during the last decades of his life. The papers are grouped by name of donor. The Nicole Lamotte section spans the years 1987-2009 and contains letters and notes from Emanuel, reproductions of her illustrations for Deadly James and Other Poems(1987), as well as other material pertaining to that publication, and photocopies of photographs of Emanuel, Lamotte, and Migrenne at various gatherings. Much of the material is in French. The Jean Migrenne section, spanning the years 1986-2018, is larger and includes Migrenne's translations of Emanuel's poems, including "The Ballad of Abu-Jamal" and a series of jazz-themed haiku, as well as Emanuel's responses to Migrenne's questions and his comments on the translations. Emanuel's letters to Migrenne discuss the publications Whole Grain: Collected Poems, 1958-1989 (1991), De la rage au coeur (1992), Reaching for Mumia: 16 Haiku (1995), and JAZZ from the Haiku King (2001), and recount his involvement in poetry readings and other events, including those in support of the incarcerated political activist Mumia Abu-Jamal. Also included are printouts of email from writer Dan Schneider, who published an extensive interview with Emanuel on his literary website in 2007. With the exception of Migrenne's translations, most of the material in this section is in English. Miscellany files contain information about the careers of Lamotte and Migrenne.