Plan your visit. 225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street, New York, NY 10016.

Plan your visit. 225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street, New York, NY 10016.

Letter from Wallace Thurman promoting the magazine Fire!!: spirit duplication of a typescript.

Accession number
PML 198725
Creator
Thurman, Wallace, 1902-1934.
Published
New York, [1926 or 1927].
Credit line
Purchased on the Edwin V. Erbe, Jr. Acquisitions Fund, 2021.
Notes
The magazine's Board of Editors listed on the stationery comprises Wallace Thurman (Editor-in-Chief), Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, Aaron Douglas, Gwendolyn Bennett, John Davis, and Richard Bruce.
Letterhead designed and illustrated by Aaron Douglas.
Address on letterhead: 267 West 136th Street, New York.
Description
1 item (1 page) ; 28 x 22 cm
Inscriptions/Markings
The word 'way' has been added in ink in the first sentence of the text.
Provenance
Swann Galleries, sale no. 2562 (25 Mar 2021), lot 266.
Summary
A typed circular letter on the magazine's letterhead, reproduced on a spirit duplicating machine, addressed "Dear Friend," and signed "Very truly yours, Wallace Thurman" (his signature likely provided by a secretary). The letter solicits subscriptions and support for Fire!!: A quarterly devoted to the younger Negro artists. Thurman speaks on the significance of Fire!!: "FIRE was and is a literary experiment. . . . You have no doubt seen the first issue, and have been either flabbergasted, shocked, surprised, or pleased. At any rate you have been provoked to some emotion. . . . Now won't you do your share and send us either a subscription or a patron's check?."
Classification
Department