Letter 15

OPPORTUNITY-Journal of Negro Life

Published by the National Urban League, 

1133 Broadway, Room 826

 New York City

August Fifth 1936

My dear Mr. Christian: 

Thank you very much for your letter. I am going to send your poem ['Men on Horseback'] over to W.C. Handy and see what he can do with it.

I will have Handy get in touch with you directly. If he does not compose the music himself he is acquainted with a great number of composers who, I am sure, could do justice to it.

Very sincerely yours,

Elmer Anderson Carter, Editor

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William Christopher Handy (1876-1958) Born in a log cabin near the banks of the Tennessee River in Florence, Alabama. The future composer of "St. Louis Blues" and "Beale Street Blues" spent his childhood in the post-slavery South of the late 19th century. As both the son and grandson of African Methodist Episcopal ministers, Handy's first exposure to music occurred in his family's church, Greater St. Paul AME.

Handy's most famous composition "St. Louis Blues," was published in 1914. He later created the "Yellow Dog Blues," "Joe Turner Blues" and "Beale Street Blues." In all, the composer wrote some 40 songs which he personally classified as "blues."

In his later years, even after the gradual, devastating loss of his eyesight, Handy continued to write, perform, arrange and publish secular and sacred numbers that are now considered cornerstones of pure American music. He also wrote or compiled three books related to the blues - "Blues Anthology" (1926), "Treasury of the Blues" (1949) and his autobiography, "Father of the Blues" (1941).

W.C. Handy died in New York City on March 28, 1958. For the past 19 years, his beloved hometown of Florence has paid tribute to the immortal "Father of the Blues" with the week-long W.C. Handy Music Festival.