细节
MALCOLM X (original name Malcolm Little). Autograph letter signed ("Malcolm") to Miss Johnny Mae Harton in Lansing, Michigan; Roxbury, Mass., "Saturday" [1941?]. 4 pages, 8vo, on blue stationery, two-inch tear repaired with tape, with original unstamped envelope addressed by Malcolm. [With] An ALS to Malcolm X (addressed as "Milky") from his younger brother Reggie, Lansing, Michigan, postmarked 22 May 1941, 2 pages, 8vo, with original stamped envelope. (2)
THE TEENAGE MALCOLM X WRITES HOME
After finishing eighth grade in East Lansing, the future Malcolm X dropped out of school and moved in with a half-sister in Boston. In spite of the intense poverty in which he and his six siblings had been raised and the gradual disintegration of his family--when Malcolm was six his father had died, possibly by suicide, and by the time he was thirteen his mother was committed to the state mental hospital--he had excelled in school. His bitterness toward white society for his family's destitution and the fate of his parents was reinforced by the callousness of even his favorite teachers, one of whom, as he describes in his autobiography, hearing of Malcolm's ambitions to become a lawyer, advised him to be "realistic" and consider carpentry as a profession. This letter to an old school friend was written before Malcolm became heavily involved in crime--which was to lead to the Charlestown jail in 1946, where he discovered Black Islam, and it conveys the headiness of the sixteen-year-old's first encounter with the world of black music, bars and dancing, and the freedom to travel. MALCOLM X LETTERS ARE RARE.
"...I hope you will be able to read this letter but its 3:30 and I just got in so my writting will be poor & spelling wrong. How's everything in Lansing. Who won the Central-Eastern football game. Boston is really 'jumpin.' Count Basie is here Thanksgiving nite, and Cab Calloway is here the following day...After new years I'm going out to Georgia & Florida and some time in February I'm going to California. I know you don't believe me so I will send you a card from each state I am in, How is 'Jug' Have they started any basketball games in Lincoln School Gym yet. Have you seen Phil lately He writes about as often as I do---every other month. Tell Phil I'm going to New York for two weeks some time after the 1st of Dec. I probably be back through Michigan sometime during February but I wont be staying for long. Tell Dona Doesey that I cannot write to her with out her address...".
(2)
THE TEENAGE MALCOLM X WRITES HOME
After finishing eighth grade in East Lansing, the future Malcolm X dropped out of school and moved in with a half-sister in Boston. In spite of the intense poverty in which he and his six siblings had been raised and the gradual disintegration of his family--when Malcolm was six his father had died, possibly by suicide, and by the time he was thirteen his mother was committed to the state mental hospital--he had excelled in school. His bitterness toward white society for his family's destitution and the fate of his parents was reinforced by the callousness of even his favorite teachers, one of whom, as he describes in his autobiography, hearing of Malcolm's ambitions to become a lawyer, advised him to be "realistic" and consider carpentry as a profession. This letter to an old school friend was written before Malcolm became heavily involved in crime--which was to lead to the Charlestown jail in 1946, where he discovered Black Islam, and it conveys the headiness of the sixteen-year-old's first encounter with the world of black music, bars and dancing, and the freedom to travel. MALCOLM X LETTERS ARE RARE.
"...I hope you will be able to read this letter but its 3:30 and I just got in so my writting will be poor & spelling wrong. How's everything in Lansing. Who won the Central-Eastern football game. Boston is really 'jumpin.' Count Basie is here Thanksgiving nite, and Cab Calloway is here the following day...After new years I'm going out to Georgia & Florida and some time in February I'm going to California. I know you don't believe me so I will send you a card from each state I am in, How is 'Jug' Have they started any basketball games in Lincoln School Gym yet. Have you seen Phil lately He writes about as often as I do---every other month. Tell Phil I'm going to New York for two weeks some time after the 1st of Dec. I probably be back through Michigan sometime during February but I wont be staying for long. Tell Dona Doesey that I cannot write to her with out her address...".
(2)