WRIGHT, SARAH E.
Sarah E. Wright papers > Writings > Other writings by Wright

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Subseries 2.2
Other writings by Wright, circa 1953-2008
Boxes 19-22 and OP 36-48

Scope and Content Note

The subseries consists of other writings by Wright from 1953-2008, including materials relating to Give Me a Child, a volume of poetry coauthored with Lucy E. Smith that was published in 1955. Wright also collected poems for a poetry anthology to be published by the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). These materials, most of which have a thematic focus on race relations and the Civil Rights Movement, include poems by Langston Hughes, Walter Lowenfels, and Lucy E. Smith. The SNCC Poetry Anthology, which Wright began compiling in 1966, was never published. The subseries also contains uncollected poetry and a few lyrics by Wright.

Wright also wrote two children's books, a biography entitled A. Phillip Randolph: Integration in the Workplace (1990) and an untitled picture book. In addition, she authored several short stories and a few dramatic works. Of particular interest is "The Hidden Years" (1953), a dramatic work about African American history sponsored by the Civil Rights Congress, which was written by Wright, Lucy E. Smith, and John Staples and choreographed by Elfriede Mahler. Also of note is "Play on a Witch," a poem by Wright that was also accompanied by choreography by Mahler. The subseries also contains essays, reviews, and speeches by Wright.

Arrangement Note

Arranged by creator, then in alphabetical order.

Collected poetry
Box Folder Content
19 1 Give Me a Child, artwork by Charles Smith, circa 1955 Charles Smith, circa 1955
OP36 - Give Me a Child, artwork by Charles Smith, circa 1955
19 2 Give Me a Child, "Black and Lilac", no date "Black and Lilac", no date
19 3 Give Me a Child, "Conversation with My Daughter about a Star", no date "Conversation with My Daughter about a Star", no date
19 4 Give Me a Child, "Conversation with My Son about Flowers" no date "Conversation with My Son about Flowers" no date
OP37 - Give Me a Child, cover design, circa 1955
19 5 Give Me a Child, Lucy E. Smith, "Case History of a Man Whom a Job Has", no date Lucy E. Smith, "Case History of a Man Whom a Job Has", no date
19 6 Give Me a Child, Lucy E. Smith, "Death of a Matron", no date Lucy E. Smith, "Death of a Matron", no date
19 7 Give Me a Child, Lucy E. Smith, "The Face of Poverty", no date Lucy E. Smith, "The Face of Poverty", no date
19 8 Give Me a Child, Lucy E. Smith, "Give Me a Child", no date Lucy E. Smith, "Give Me a Child", no date
19 9 Give Me a Child, Lucy E. Smith, "Home Is a Warrior", no date Lucy E. Smith, "Home Is a Warrior", no date
19 10 Give Me a Child, Lucy E. Smith, "No Man an Island", no date Lucy E. Smith, "No Man an Island", no date
19 11 Give Me a Child, Lucy E. Smith, "Speaking of Lines", no date Lucy E. Smith, "Speaking of Lines", no date
19 12 Give Me a Child, Lucy E. Smith, "Spring Is Not Always Gay", no date Lucy E. Smith, "Spring Is Not Always Gay", no date
19 13 Give Me a Child, Lucy E. Smith, "Spring Is a Small Boy" [variant title: "A Small Boy Called Spring"], no date Lucy E. Smith, "Spring Is a Small Boy" [variant title: "A Small Boy Called Spring"], no date
OP38 - Give Me a Child, mock-up designed by Charles Smith, circa 1955 [1 of 9]
OP39 - Give Me a Child, mock-up designed by Charles Smith, circa 1955 [2 of 9]
OP40 - Give Me a Child, mock-up designed by Charles Smith, circa 1955 [3 of 9]
OP41 - Give Me a Child, mock-up designed by Charles Smith, circa 1955 [4 of 9]
OP42 - Give Me a Child, mock-up designed by Charles Smith, circa 1955 [5 of 9]
OP43 - Give Me a Child, mock-up designed by Charles Smith, circa 1955 [6 of 9]
OP44 - Give Me a Child, mock-up designed by Charles Smith, circa 1955 [7 of 9]
OP45 - Give Me a Child, mock-up designed by Charles Smith, circa 1955 [8 of 9]
OP46 - Give Me a Child, mock-up designed by Charles Smith, circa 1955 [9 of 9]
19 14 Give Me a Child, permission from Lucy Smith for republication, 1991
19 15 Give Me a Child, "Remember that Night?" no date "Remember that Night?" no date
19 16 Give Me a Child, "To Some Millions Who Survive Joseph E. Mander, Sr.", no date "To Some Millions Who Survive Joseph E. Mander, Sr.", no date
19 17 Give Me a Child, "Urgency", no date "Urgency", no date
19 18 Give Me a Child, "Window Pictures", no date "Window Pictures", no date
19 19 SNCC Poetry Anthology, Calvin C. Hernton [2 poems], circa 1966 Calvin C. Hernton [2 poems], circa 1966
19 20 SNCC Poetry Anthology, Clarence Major, circa 1966 Clarence Major, circa 1966
19 21 SNCC Poetry Anthology, correspondence, 1966-1992
19 22 SNCC Poetry Anthology, Dudley Randall [7 poems], circa 1966 Dudley Randall [7 poems], circa 1966
19 23 SNCC Poetry Anthology, Eve Merriam [5 poems], circa 1966 Eve Merriam [5 poems], circa 1966
19 24 SNCC Poetry Anthology, G.T. Farnum [3 poems], circa 1966 G.T. Farnum [3 poems], circa 1966
19 25 SNCC Poetry Anthology, James A. Emanuel [10 poems], circa 1966 James A. Emanuel [10 poems], circa 1966
19 26 SNCC Poetry Anthology, Kristin Hunter [7 poems], circa 1966 Kristin Hunter [7 poems], circa 1966
19 27 SNCC Poetry Anthology, Langston Hughes [5 poems], circa 1966 Langston Hughes [5 poems], circa 1966
19 28 SNCC Poetry Anthology, Lucy E. Smith [2 poems], circa 1966 Lucy E. Smith [2 poems], circa 1966
19 29 SNCC Poetry Anthology, Margaret Dunner [2 poems], circa 1966
19 30 SNCC Poetry Anthology, meeting agenda, 1966
19 31 SNCC Poetry Anthology, Michael Wright, circa 1966 Michael Wright, circa 1966
19 32 SNCC Poetry Anthology, Naomi Grimes [3 poems], circa 1966 Naomi Grimes [3 poems], circa 1966
19 33 SNCC Poetry Anthology, Raymond R. Patterson [2 poems], circa 1966 Raymond R. Patterson [2 poems], circa 1966
19 34 SNCC Poetry Anthology, Sarah E. Wright, circa 1966 Sarah E. Wright, circa 1966
19 35 SNCC Poetry Anthology, Sarah Webster Fabio [5 poems], circa 1966 Sarah Webster Fabio [5 poems], circa 1966
19 36 SNCC Poetry Anthology, table of contents, circa 1966
19 37 SNCC Poetry Anthology, Ted Joans [4 poems], circa 1966 Ted Joans [4 poems], circa 1966
19 38 SNCC Poetry Anthology, Walter Lowenfels [5 poems], circa 1966 Walter Lowenfels [5 poems], circa 1966
19 39 SNCC Poetry Anthology, Zack Gilbert [4 poems], circa 1966 Zack Gilbert [4 poems], circa 1966
Uncollected poetry and lyrics
19 40 Lyrics, no date
19 41 "And a City Grew," no date
19 41 "At Bushkill Falls, Pennsylvania," no date
19 41 "At the Everyday Taken for Granted Magic of Spring," no date
19 41 "The Baby," no date
19 41 "A Blowing," no date
19 41 "Bursting Out," no date
19 41 "Come and Be I," no date
19 41 "Corner Drug Store," no date
19 41 "Example," no date
19 41 "From My House to Your House," no date
19 41 "From Prisons Free," no date
19 41 "Giving Spring," no date
19 41 "I Have Known Death," no date
19 41 "I Made Out All Right," no date
19 41 "I Went for a Job" [variant title: "Bookkeeper Wanted?"], circa 1953
19 41 "Ice Cream," no date
19 41 "If I Should Die Before I Live," no date
19 41 "It Had Been Night All Day," no date
19 41 "It Is After-Death: For Ethel and Julius Rosenburg" [variant title: "Post-Mortem for Ethel and Julius Rosenburg"], no date
19 41 "Lament of a Harlem Mother," no date
19 41 "Let Me Speak," no date
19 41 "Letter to a Vacationing Friend," no date
19 41 "Look Away," no date
19 41 "A Message to My Son, Mike," no date
19 41 "Modern Youth," no date
19 41 "The Morn Called Easter," no date
19 41 "The Morning After," no date
19 41 "The Most Costly Poem I Ever Wrote Thus Far," no date
19 41 "Mother to Son," no date
19 41 "Mothers' Day Greeting," no date
19 41 "My City," no date
19 42 "Night," no date
19 42 "Non-Stop," no date
19 42 "Ode to Brown Women" [variant title: "To Brown Women"], no date
19 42 "Of Men and Street Cars," no date
19 42 "Robbed," no date
19 42 "Spring Is Not Always Gay," no date
19 42 "Swamp and Seashore," no date
19 42 "Tempo-Clock--I Love America," no date
19 42 "The Terror of Loneliness," no date
19 42 "To a Man I Know," no date
19 42 "To Frank London Brown," no date
19 42 "To Liza on Being Born," no date
19 42 "To Mrs. Ilma Upshur," 1956
19 42 "To One City and Another," no date
19 42 "To Pearl S. Buck," no date
19 42 "To Us Ordinary People," no date
19 42 "To Wish You All the Contents of Peace In 1966," 1966
19 42 "Two Poems of the Ghetto," no date
19 42 "Until They Have Stopped," no date
19 42 "Update," no date [also includes "Spring Forward and Backward"]
19 42 "When Life Is at Stake," no date
19 42 "Without Music" [variant title: "Music in the Making"], 1972
19 43 Uncollected poetry, fragments, no date
19 44 Untitled poems, no date
Children's books
20 1 A. Philip Randolph: Integration in the Workplace, chapter 1 draft, no date
20 2 A. Philip Randolph: Integration in the Workplace, chapter outlines, circa 1989-1990
20 3 A. Philip Randolph: Integration in the Workplace, contract, 1989
20 4 A. Philip Randolph: Integration in the Workplace, editorial correspondence, 1989-1990
20 5 A. Philip Randolph: Integration in the Workplace, manuscript and typescript draft, no date
20 6 A. Philip Randolph: Integration in the Workplace, manuscript draft, no date
20 7 A. Philip Randolph: Integration in the Workplace, notes, no date
20 8 A. Philip Randolph: Integration in the Workplace, typescript draft, final, no date
20 9 Untitled children's picture book with drawings [by Charles Smith?], no date
Short stories and drama
20 10 Christmas, play script, no date
OP47 - "The Hidden Years," play script by Lucy Smith, Sarah Wright, and John Staples, choreographed by Elfriede Mahler, sponsored by the Civil Rights Congress, 1953
20 11 "The Meek and the Minor," short story, no date
20 12 "Mr. and Mrs. Thank You Have a Party," play script, no date
20 13 "No Strangers Here," play script, no date
20 14 "Play on a Witch," poem by Sarah Wright and choreographed by Elfriede Mahler, 1955
20 15 "The Pledge," play script, 1975
OP48 - "The Star Jazzer," play script, adaptation of the story by Sean O'Casey, no date
20 16 Untitled play, no date
Essays, reviews, and speeches
21 1 "Alice Childress: This Little Light of Mine, I'm Gonna Let It Shine," essay, circa 1994
21 2 "The Alice Childress Woodard Memorial," essay, circa 1994
21 3 "An Australian Aborigine Mother Gives Us Another Literary First," review of We Are Going: Poems by Kath Walker, circa 1964
21 4 "Authors Guild Freedom of Expression Committee Statement on Censorship," essay [includes correspondence], circa 1987
21 5 "Career as Creative Writer," essay, no date
21 6 "A Credo," speech fragment, no date
21 7 "Cuba," essay, no date
21 8 "The Culture and Politics of Black Literature: John Oliver Killens and the Harlem Writers' Guild," speech, panel discussion on "John Oliver Killens: Writer and Activist," Medgar Evers College, March 27, 2004
21 9 "De-Facto Censorship: Its Effects on Black Literary Consumption and Production in the 1970s," speech, no date
21 10 "An Essay on My Life Experience as Creative Writer and Teacher," essay, no date
21 11 Eulogy and obituary for Willis Charles Wright, Sr., 1982
21 12 Eulogy for Lybrant Milton Wright [includes program], 1962
21 13 "An Exploration of Freedom and/or Security as Motivational Forces in Four Women Characters in Short Fiction," college essay, 1976
21 14 "The Finger of God," review of The Prisoners by Walter Lowenfels, circa 1954
21 15 "Hands, Head, Heart," speech about Harriet Tubman, February 2008
21 16 "The Harlem-Cuban Bond," essay, circa 1992
21 17 "The Harlem Writers' Guild and the 'Black Arts Movement,'" essay, 2005
21 18 "I'm So Tangled Up in Living," review of The Sweet Flypaper of Life by Roy DeCarava and Langston Hughes, circa 1955
21 19 "In Search of the Easy Way Out (for Women Who Must Work)," essay [includes notes], circa 1955
21 20 "Keep Your Hands on the Blow--Hold On!" welcome remarks at the Pen and Brush commemoration and celebration of Black History Month, February 20, 2005
21 21 "Lorraine Hansberry: A Tribute, 1930-1965," essay, no date
21 22 "Lorraine Hansberry: Black Artist and Polemicist," essay [includes notes], no date
21 23 "The Lower East Side: A Rebirth of World Vision," essay, no date
21 24 "Mind, Memory and the Imagination," speech, Zora Neale Hurston Society of Morgan State University, no date
21 25 "My Life on the Lower East Side of New York," speech at the Henry Street Settlement for Norma Rogers's Cultural Dimensions organization, no date
21 26 "The Nature of Fiction," speech, "Yari-Yari: Black Women Writers and the Future" conference, New York University, October 1997
21 27 "The Negro Woman in American Literature," introductory speech at "The Negro Writer's Vision of America" Conference, New School for Social Research, May 1965
21 28 "Opportunities for the Development of Negro Writers," essay, no date
21 29 "Organize Tenants for Improved Conditions in Public Housing," speech, unidentified conference, no date
21 30 "Peace and Quiet," essay, no date
21 31 "Poetry as a Torch," no date
21 32 Preface for Missing in Action and Presumed Dead by Rashidah Ismaili, circa 1992
21 33 Remarks, Ethical Culture Society, February 16, 2003
21 34 Remarks, James Baldwin Conference, Baltimore, Maryland, 1989
21 35 "The Responsibility of the Artist," essay, no date
21 36 "The Responsibility of the Writer as Participant in the World Community," speech, Zora Neal Hurston Society of Morgan State University, no date
21 37 Review of Bird at My Window by Rosa Guy, 2001
21 38 Review of Blight by D.H. Melham, circa 1995
21 39 Review of Day-O! The Autobiography of Irving Burgie, circa 2007
21 40 Review of Freeman by Phillip Hayes Dean, 1973
21 41 Review of On the Road by Jack Kerouac, college essay, no date
21 42 Review of Poetry as Healer: Mending the Troubled Mind, edited by Jack J. Leedy, circa 1985
21 43 Review of Requiem for a Black American Capitalist by Billy Williams-Forde, 1975
21 44 Review of Shadow Self and Other Tales by Helen Duberstein, circa 1997
21 45 Review of The Heinemann Book of African Women's Poetry edited by Stella and Frank Chipasula, circa 1995
21 46 Review of The Soul Murder Case by Robert Deanne Pharr, 1975
21 47 "The Role of the Black Writer and Artist in the Field of Education (A Personal View)," essay, no date
21 48 "Six Major African-American Writers and Their Autobiographical Writings," speech, PEN American Center, May 14, 1984?
21 49 "Sojourner Truth," speech, Pen and Brush Commemoration and celebration of Black History Month, February 25, 2007
21 50 Speech about Sterling A. Brown, no date
22 1 "Superstition, Magic, and the Occult in Afro-American Literature," speech, the Middle-Atlantic Writers Association Conference, October 21, 1988
22 2 "Toward the Liberation of Human Life," essay, no date
22 3 Tribute to Willis Charles Wright, Sr. and Mary Amelia Wright [includes correspondence], circa 1974
22 4 "An Uncompromising Cry for Life," review of The Sun, the Sea, a Touch of the Wind by Rosa Guy, circa 1996
22 5 Untitled autobiographical writings [includes notes], no date
22 6 Untitled essay about Anita F. Hill, 1991
22 7 Untitled essay about black women, circa 1999
22 8 Untitled essay about John Oliver Killens, no date
22 9 Untitled essay about the Martin Luther King, Jr. Center, no date
22 10 Unidentified essay fragments, no date
22 11 Untitled essay from Reality Prime, no date
22 12 Untitled speech, no date
22 13 "What are the Limits of a Writer's Responsibility," no date
22 14 "What It Feels Like to Live in a Liberal White Neighborhood--1965," essay fragment, circa 1965
22 15 "Woman Viewed as Property and Subject of Man in Some Literature of Drama," college essay, circa 1976
22 16 "A Word about Give Me a Child," with Lucy E. Smith, no date
22 17 "The Writer's Responsibility," essay, 1993
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