North. In a 1942 letter, Bontempsnwrites of a Chicago literary party: “Onlyntwo Negroes . . . We didn’t get our invitationsntill nearly the last day. S. Evans,ntop man under Marshall Field, strucknthe colored names off the list and had tonbe pressured by the head man to replacenthem . . . .”niNI either Hughes nor Bontemps permittednthe segregated society in whichnthey were so often forced to live to segregatentheir minds. The contemporary notionsnof “black power” and “black identity”nwould probably have meant little tonthem. They were literary men writingnfrom their own experience and background,nbut seeking the universal. Discussingnthe just-published book of CarsonnMcCuUers, a white Southerner,nBontemps states, “What a mad geniusnthat gal is!” Speaking of the mainncharacter in Ballad of the Sad Cafe, henwrites, “I never quite knew whether tonlaugh or cry about that hunchback. I intendnto call the attention of all thenbudding campus writers to the story.” OfnArthur Koestler, Bontemps writes; “Henhappens to be one of my favorite prosenwriters, at his best.” Hughes, who becamena friend of Koestler’s, recalled thatnKoestler once referred to him as “Thatngreat Negro poet I met in Russia, a membernof the Party as was I, LangstonnHughes, who is now dead . . . .” He recalls:n”When he saw me backstage afterward,nyou should have seen him! Thenbest laugh of the year.”nMany blacks criticized Hughes’s JessenSimple as a character who would embarrassnthem. Bontemps disagrees: “He isnthe only new humorous creation in blacknflesh in a very long time. He catches thenwisdom of the Harlem folk as no one elsenhas done. And he is funny … He is thenvery hipped, race-conscious, fightingback,ncity-bred great-grandson of UnclenRemus.” Of Ralph Ellison and his yearsnof work on the novel, The Invisible Man,nBontemps writes to Hughes: “The differencenbetween your situation andnRalph’s is that Ralph is evidently makingnthis one novel his life’s work . . . Whenn34inChronicles of Culturenone is producing such a book, the idea isnnot to finish it till one is tired of livingn.. . .” Autobiographies, as Hughesnbelieves, often provide the reader with andistorted picture of the life of the author:n”The kind of intense condensationnthat, of course, keeps an autobiographynfrom being entirely true, in that nobody’snlife is pure essence withoutnpulp …” Of the so-called “beat generation”nof writers, Bontemps expressednthis view: “… the beatnik vocabulary isnobviously right out of Negroana. Theynhave scarcely added an inflection. Theynare not a very talented group as a whole,nin my opinion. Bohemians without thencreative ability that is the traditionalnand classical justification for bohemianism.”nA rna Bontemps and LangstonnHughes rebelled against the lightskinnednblack middle class into whichnthey were born. They did not dedicatentheir lives to rejecting black culture andnart but, instead, to cultivating it, to re­nIn the Mailncording it, to creating a literature tonbuild upon. But they were not black public-relationsnmen, attempting to paint anpicture without blemishes. They told thenwhole story which they saw aroundnthem, and many white liberals and blacknleaders, such as those within thenNAACP, criticized them harshly for it.nProfessor Nichols sums it all up:n”… what both Hughes and Bontempsnbequeathed us is their capacity to experimentnwith a variety of literary forms,ntheir use of the common rhythms andnspeech of Afro-Americans, their use ofnspirituals, blues and jazz in complex andnoriginal forms. To be sure the blacknidiom may be seen and heard in Americannwriters like Mark Twain, JoelnChandler Harris, Du Bose Haywood andnEugene O’Neill. But it is especially innthe ‘Beat Generation’… that the daringnsearch for new forms took shape… Thisnmood, this language, this psychologicalntransformation of desperation into transcendencenwas in the rhythm and soundnof the black man’s life …” •nReagan and the Courtshy Charles E. Rice; Washington Legal Foundation; Washington,nD.C. Prospects for various judicial reforms under a Reagan administration.nDomestic Oil: The Hidden Solution by Milton R. Copulos; The Heritage Foundation;nWashington, D.C. New possibilities for tapping American oil reserves.nDividing the Wealth by Howard E. Kershner; Devin-Adair; Old Greenwich, Connecticut.nA classic study of how our economic system works (or doesn’t work) and hownpolitics affect it.nMetric Madness by J. W, Batchelder; Devin-Adair; Old Greenwrich, Connecticut.n150 reasons for not converting the United States to the metric system.nThe Family, Feminism and the Therapeutic State by Onalee McGra-w; The HeritagenFoundation; Washington, D.C. Dr. McGraw analyzes and challenges the assumptionsnof family “professionals” and examines some of the negative effects of government intrusionnupon families.nNicholas Perrar of Little Gidding by A. L. Maycock; Wm. B. Eerdmans PublishingnCo.; Grand Rapids, Michigan. A biography of Ferrar and the religious community henfounded.nBeckett & the Voice of Species by Eric P. Levy; Gill and Macmillan, Barnes & NoblenBooks; Totowa, New Jersey. An analysis of the novels of Samuel Beckett.nSigns of Our Times by George S. Heyer; Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.; GrandnRapids, Michigan. A collection of theological essays on art in the 20th century.nnn