» » 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 Iht stun/iuij) new nevel kiisej on iht restart!) T and writing af attlatmeJ atiikar Al.IX H U I V 7Xe "O M O t I H I M O S T I X t I I I M . N i f t l LS Studio 14 Hair Design O t T H k Y fc A R . Fk «XH1 <4 M.ubsu C.J W j II u »’» ( mm i I4x< k trw.u« mJIuHoitr I IA NN H IN It IN / 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. y <