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June 28, 2000
* (The ^InrtUxuò (Observer
Trading Twelves:
In Print
Edited by A lbert M u rra y and Jo h n F. C allahan
When two jazz musicians trade twelves with each
other, one musician begins by riffing o ff twelve bars
o f music, the other musician throws the twelve bars
back through his instrument, and so on, back and
forth, in an ecstatic exchange o f ideas and emotions.
So it is with these letters, the joyful music created by
the exchanges between two old, dear friends. Ellison
and Murray spill it all to each other - their struggles,
frustrations, ambitions, fears, literary gossip, opinions
on jazz, and photography - as they correspond.
The two men first crossed paths briefly in 1935, when
they overlapped as undergraduates at the Tuskegee
Institute, Alabama. The younger M urraylater writes
Ellison that he found his name (usually the only one)
in the back o f almost every book he checked out o f the
university library. They were kindred spirits, destined
to be introduced in person by a mutual friend in New
York in 1942. Thus began one o f the great literary
friendships, sustained over the next twenty years
Page 7
The Selected Letters of Ralph Ellison and Albert Murray
through frequent letters and occasional meetings.
The period covered by the letters collected in Trading
Twelves is the decade from 1950 to 1960. The written
correspondence between Ellison and Murray ended
when it did due to long-distance personal phone calls
becoming cheaper and more routine, likewise commercial
air travel. When Murray retired to New York City in
1962, the two friends were able to meet and make
regular local phone calls until Ellison’s death in 1994.
Ralph Ellison was bom in Oklahoma in 1914. He was
the author o f the novel Invisible Man (1952) as well as
numerous essays and short stories. He died in New York
City in 1994. Random House published his novel
Juneteenth posthumously in 1999. (Juneleenth is
scheduled to be published in paperback by Vintage on
June 19,2000.) Albert Murray was bom in Alabama in
1916. A cultural critic, biographer, essayist, and novelist,
he has taught at several colleges, including Tuskegee
and Columbia, and his works include Train Whistle
Guitar, The Blue Devils o f Nada, and The Seven League
Boots. Murray lives in New York City.
The Black Rose
By T an an ariv e Due
B a lla n tin e B ooks H a rd c o v e r;
2000
At the time o f his death in 1992,
Alex Haley had amassed thousands
o f pages o f research and writing for
a major new novel in the tradition o f
Roots - the story o f Madam C.J.
Walker, the legendary first black
female millionaire whose image
graced a commemorative postage
stamp in 1998. Critically acclaimed
n o v e list T a n a n a riv e D ue has
brought Alex H aley’s vision to
inspiration fruition in a compelling,
richly textured narrative, The Black
Rose.
Long b efo re th ere w as m edia
entrepreneur and millionaire Oprah,
there was Madam C.J. Walker. Bom
to former slaves on a Louisiana
plantation in 1867, she rose from
poverty and indignity to become
the head o f a hugely successful
co m p a n y
an d
a
le a d in g
philanthropist in African American
causes. She accomplished all this
with virtually no education or role
m odels at a tim e o f ram pant
lynchings and race riots, when the
vast majority o f African Americans
languished in poverty.
“I got myselfa start by giving myself
a start,” Madam C.J. was fond o f
sa y in g as sh e re c o u n te d h er
transformation from the uneducated
laundress Sarah Breedlove to a
woman o f w ealth, culture, and
celebrity. Madam C.J. was nearing
forty and married to a maverick
Denver newspaperman when the
wonder-working hair care method
she discovered changed her life.
Seemingly overnight, she built a
marketing empire that enlisted more
than twenty thousand bright young
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A fric a n A m erican w om en to
demonstrate and sell her products
door to door. As Alex Haley wrote,
“In an era o f inhumanity, she dared
to give black women beauty and
pride; she showed the world that
nothing is more beautiful than a
black rose.”
By the time she died in 1919, Madam
C.J. W alker had constructed her
own factory from the ground up,
established a training school, and
built a thirty-room m ansion at
Irvington-on-Hudson, called Villa
Lawaro.
A dynam ic, brilliantly creative
businesswoman, Madam C.J. also
became a tireless activist in the fight
against racial oppression and a key
fig u re in the a n ti-ly n c h in g
m ovem ent. A sta lw a rt “ race
woman,” she worked with black
leaders like Booker T. Washington,
and her legacy inspired poets like
Langston Hughes. Yet she paid a
steep emotional price for her worldly
triumphs. Betrayed by her husband,
plagued by rumors o f her beloved
daughter’s scandalous behavior,
Madam C.J. suffered the private
pain and disappointment all too
familiar to many successful women.
In the tradition o f Alex Haley’s
Roots, Tanarive Due interweaves
documented history, vivid dialogue,
and sweeping fictionalized narrative
into a spellbinding portrait o f this
passionate and tenacious pioneer
and the unforgettable era in which
she lived.
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