Research Catalog

Details

Additional authors

1. Feelings, Tom
2. Angelou, Maya
3. Clarke, John Henrik, 1915-1998
4. King, Woodie, Jr., 1937-
5. Nelson, Truman John, 1912-
6. Marshall, William, 1924-
7. Joseph, Gloria I.
8. Gibson, Richard, 1931-
9. Forman, James, 1928-2005
10. Dee, Ruby
11. Davis, Ossie
12. Dassin, Jules, 1911-2008
13. Windom, Alice
14. Sinnette, Calvin
15. Sinnette, Elinor Des Verney
16. King, Preston T., 1936-
17. Du Bois, David Graham
18. Branch, William B.
19. Boone, Sylvia Ardyn
20. Bailey, Herman Kofi
21. O'Brien, Conor Cruise, 1917-
22. Cordero, Ana Livia
23. Guy, Rosa
24. Williams, Robert F. (Robert Franklin), 1925-1996
25. Cambridge, Joan

Description

1. 14.4 lin. ft.

Summary

1. The collection documents Julian Mayfield's career as a writer, educator, and actor, and his activities as a political expatriate in West Africa and Guyana. Significant correspondents include fellow African-American expatriates and friends Maya Angelou, Herman Kofi Bailey, Sylvia Boone, William Branch, Tom Feelings, David DuBois, Preston King, Jim Lacy, Calvin and Elinor Sinnette, and Alice Windom. Other correspondents are John Henrik Clarke, Jules Dassin, Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee, James Forman, Richard Gibson, Gloria Joseph, Woodie King, Paul Mann, William Marshall, Truman Nelson, and Conor Cruise O'Brien.
2. The Writings series consists of correspondence and manuscripts for the following works, both published and unpublished: "Death at Karamu," "Look Pretty for the People," "The Gang in Suite 16" (novels); "The Lonely Warrior" and "Burnham of Guyana" (biographies); "Tales of the Lido" (short stories); "Ten Times Black" (anthology); "The Other Foot," "417," "Fount of the Nation" and "Black Hands" (playscripts); "Uptight," "Christophe," "The Long Night" and "Jessie Mae" (screenplays). Also included are lecture notes and drafts of Mayfield's articles and essays. The Academic series consists of course outlines and syllabi, lecture notes, correspondence, administrative documents and student papers. Mayfield's extensive correspondence and other materials related to his Senior Fulbright Fellowship in Germany are also part of this series. The Guyana files are divided into personal papers, correspondence with the Minister of Information and Culture and the office of the Prime Minister, writings, projects and printed matter. The Ghana material consists for the most part of printed matter on the 1966 military overthrow of the Nkrumah government. Included are a selection of articles on Ghana written by Mayfield, speeches and miscellaneous writings by Nkrumah, and clipping files from Ghanaian newspapers and from publications in the United States.

Donor/Sponsor

1. Schomburg NEH Archival Resources for the Study of the Post-Civil Rights Movements Project.

Subject

1. Nkrumah, Kwame, 1909-1972
2. Motion picture plays
3. Burnham, Forbes, 1923-1985
4. African Americans in literature
5. Black power > United States
6. Civil rights > North Carolina > Monroe
7. Haiti > History > Revolution, 1791-1804 > Drama
8. Guyana > Politics and government > 1966-
9. Ghana > History > Coup d'état, 1966
10. African American novelists
11. Black Arts Movement
12. Heads of state > Caribbean Area > Biography
13. Mallory, Mae
14. Ghana > Politics and government > 1957-1979
15. Cuba
16. Howard University
17. Nkrumah, Kwame, 1909-1972 > Drama
18. Du Bois, W. E. B (William Edward Burghardt), 1868-1963 > Criticism and interpretation
19. Fulbright scholars
20. African Americans > North Carolina > Monroe
21. African American motion picture actors and actresses
22. African Americans > Political activity
23. Heads of state > Africa > Biography
24. African American dramatists
25. African Americans > Intellectual life
26. Manuscripts
27. Guyana > Ministry of Information and Culture
28. Heads of state > Guyana > Biography
29. Heads of state > Ghana > Biography
30. American literature > African American authors
31. Henri Christophe, King of Haiti, 1767-1820 > Drama
32. African Americans in the performing arts
33. Course outlines
34. African American authors
35. Radio scripts

Genre/Form

1. Manuscripts.
2. Radio scripts.
3. Course outlines.
4. Motion picture plays.

Call number

1. Sc MG 339

Note

1. Photographs transferred to Photographs and Prints Division.

Source (note)

1. Mayfield, Joan Cambridge

Biography (note)

1. Julian Mayfield lived a varied career as a novelist, playwright, actor, journalist and critic, aide to two heads of state, an educator and writer-in-residence at several colleges and universities. He wrote, produced and directed several off-Broadway and summer stock productions between 1949 and 1954. He played the juvenile lead role of Absalom Kumalo in the Kurt Weill-Maxwell Anderson musical "Lost in the Stars," and directed Ossie Davis's first play, "Alice in Wonder," in 1952. Two of Mayfield's plays, "Fire" and "417," were produced off-Broadway and in summer stock. "Fire" was produced in 1949 by the Group 20 Players.
2. Mayfield's first three novels, "The Hit" (1951), "The Long Night" (1958) and "The Grand Parade" (1961), were published by Vanguard Press. He went to live in Ghana in 1961 where he worked as a writer in the office of President Kwame Nkrumah and as a journalist and editor of "African Review", an international magazine of political and economic affairs. He was host to Malcolm X in Ghana during the latter's trip to West Africa, and helped organize the first international branch of the Organization of Afro-American Unity in 1964. Mayfield left Ghana in 1965 and lived briefly in Spain before returning to the United States. Between 1967 and 1971, he taught at Cornell and New York Universities, lectured broadly, and starred in Jules Dassin's film "Uptight." The author lived in Guyana between 1971 and 1974, serving as an adviser to the minister of information and culture and to the prime minister, Forbes Burnham. He helped design the country's National Service, a compulsory development program for Guyanese youth. Mayfield was awarded a Senior Fulbright-Hays Fellowship to teach American studies in Germany for the academic year 1976-1977. For the remainder of his life, he worked as lecturer and writer-in-residence at the University of Maryland at College Park and at Howard University.

Processing action (note)

1. Accessioned
2. Processed
3. Catalogued

Author

1. Mayfield, Julian, 1928-1984.

Title

1. Julian Mayfield papers, 1949-1984.

Biography

1. Julian Mayfield lived a varied career as a novelist, playwright, actor, journalist and critic, aide to two heads of state, an educator and writer-in-residence at several colleges and universities. He wrote, produced and directed several off-Broadway and summer stock productions between 1949 and 1954. He played the juvenile lead role of Absalom Kumalo in the Kurt Weill-Maxwell Anderson musical "Lost in the Stars," and directed Ossie Davis's first play, "Alice in Wonder," in 1952. Two of Mayfield's plays, "Fire" and "417," were produced off-Broadway and in summer stock. "Fire" was produced in 1949 by the Group 20 Players.
2. Mayfield's first three novels, "The Hit" (1951), "The Long Night" (1958) and "The Grand Parade" (1961), were published by Vanguard Press. He went to live in Ghana in 1961 where he worked as a writer in the office of President Kwame Nkrumah and as a journalist and editor of "African Review", an international magazine of political and economic affairs. He was host to Malcolm X in Ghana during the latter's trip to West Africa, and helped organize the first international branch of the Organization of Afro-American Unity in 1964. Mayfield left Ghana in 1965 and lived briefly in Spain before returning to the United States. Between 1967 and 1971, he taught at Cornell and New York Universities, lectured broadly, and starred in Jules Dassin's film "Uptight." The author lived in Guyana between 1971 and 1974, serving as an adviser to the minister of information and culture and to the prime minister, Forbes Burnham. He helped design the country's National Service, a compulsory development program for Guyanese youth. Mayfield was awarded a Senior Fulbright-Hays Fellowship to teach American studies in Germany for the academic year 1976-1977. For the remainder of his life, he worked as lecturer and writer-in-residence at the University of Maryland at College Park and at Howard University.

Connect to:

1. Finding Aid

Added author

1. Feelings, Tom.
2. Angelou, Maya.
3. Clarke, John Henrik, 1915-1998.
4. King, Woodie, Jr., 1937-
5. Nelson, Truman John, 1912-
6. Marshall, William, 1924-
7. Joseph, Gloria I.
8. Gibson, Richard, 1931-
9. Forman, James, 1928-2005.
10. Dee, Ruby.
11. Davis, Ossie.
12. Dassin, Jules, 1911-2008.
13. Windom, Alice.
14. Sinnette, Calvin.
15. Sinnette, Elinor Des Verney.
16. King, Preston T., 1936-
17. Du Bois, David Graham.
18. Branch, William B.
19. Boone, Sylvia Ardyn.
20. Bailey, Herman Kofi.
21. O'Brien, Conor Cruise, 1917-
22. Cordero, Ana Livia.
23. Guy, Rosa.
24. Williams, Robert F. (Robert Franklin), 1925-1996
25. Cambridge, Joan.

Research call number

1. Sc MG 339