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The Seabury Press
October 1, 1968
Julian Bond 162 Euhnlee Street Atlanta, Georgia 30314
Dear Mr. Bond:
At the suggestion of Jan Stembridge, we are pleased to send you a complimentary copy of her first collection of poems -- I PLAY FLUTE -- a record of impressions written in the field during the early days of the Student Non Violent Coordinating Committee in Mississippi.
When the collection was privately printed, it sold almost 1500 copies, with no fanfare, no announcements - simply by word-of-mouth recommendations. Because we feel that I PLAY FLUTE is as important a record of those early years in the civil rights movement as any newspaper account, we wanted to make it available to an even wider audience.
I do hope you can help us by making the book's publication known to your friends and colleagues, who also are involved in the field of human rights.
And, needless to say, we would be most grateful if you could spare the time to jot down your reactions to I PLAY FLUTE, and send them along for possible use in later publicity.
Best to you - and good reading.
Sincerely, [signature] Alda Lee Boyd Publicity Director
Enc.
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Dear .......:
First let me thank you - and Jane - for sending me a copy of I Play Flute.
I had a copy of the private edition, but lost it or lent it and have often wondered whether it would ever be replaced.
Reading these poems bring back the sorts of memories one wants to remember and repress together; remember, for they recall a cleaner, more exact moment of movement, when good and evil stood opposed; forget for those were dream days, and we dreamt through them half asleep, dreading awakening.
It was partly the "awful apparatus" Jane Stembridge writes of in "The Flute" that woke us up from our dream. Those who lived even on the edge of the movement at that time will remember it and long for it as a time, as Jane writes, "when people didn't fuss at each other and so many of them loved flowers."
We never found the flute.
Sincerely,