Research Catalog

Title

Julian Mayfield papers, 1949-1984.

Author

Mayfield, Julian, 1928-1984

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Additional Authors

• Feelings, Tom
• Angelou, Maya
• Clarke, John Henrik, 1915-1998
• King, Woodie, Jr., 1937-
• Nelson, Truman John, 1912-
• Marshall, William, 1924-
• Joseph, Gloria I.
• Gibson, Richard, 1931-
• Forman, James, 1928-2005
• Dee, Ruby
• Davis, Ossie
• Dassin, Jules, 1911-2008
• Windom, Alice
• Sinnette, Calvin
• Sinnette, Elinor Des Verney
• King, Preston T., 1936-
• Du Bois, David Graham
• Branch, William B.
• Boone, Sylvia Ardyn
• Bailey, Herman Kofi
• O'Brien, Conor Cruise, 1917-
• Cordero, Ana Livia
• Guy, Rosa
• Williams, Robert F. (Robert Franklin), 1925-1996
• Cambridge, Joan

Donor/Sponsor

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

Subject

• Henri Christophe, King of Haiti, 1767-1820 > Drama
• Mallory, Mae
• Nkrumah, Kwame, 1909-1972
• Nkrumah, Kwame, 1909-1972 > Drama
• Du Bois, W. E. B. (William Edward Burghardt), 1868-1963 > Criticism and interpretation
• Burnham, Forbes, 1923-1985
• Howard University
• Guyana. Ministry of Information and Culture
• African Americans > Political activity
• African Americans > North Carolina > Monroe
• African Americans in literature
• African American authors
• African Americans in the performing arts
• African American motion picture actors and actresses
• African American dramatists
• African American novelists
• African Americans > Intellectual life
• Civil rights > North Carolina > Monroe
• American literature > African American authors
• Heads of state > Ghana > Biography
• Heads of state > Guyana > Biography
• Heads of state > Caribbean Area > Biography
• Heads of state > Africa > Biography
• Fulbright scholars
• Black Arts Movement
• Black power > United States
• Cuba
• Haiti > History > Revolution, 1791-1804 > Drama
• Ghana > Politics and government > 1957-1979
• Ghana > History > Coup d'état, 1966
• Guyana > Politics and government > 1966-

Genre/Form

• Manuscripts.
• Radio scripts.
• Course outlines.
• Motion picture plays.

Note

• Photographs transferred to Photographs and Prints Division.

Source (note)

• Mayfield, Joan Cambridge

Biography (note)

• 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.
• 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)

• Accessioned
• Processed
• Catalogued

Call Number

Sc MG 339

OCLC

NYPW89-A147

Author

Mayfield, Julian, 1928-1984.

Title

Julian Mayfield papers, 1949-1984.

Description

14.4 lin. ft.

I. Personal papers; II. Correspondence, 1953-1984; III. Writings; IV. Academic; V. Guyana; VI. Ghana.

Summary

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.

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.

Biography

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.

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:

Finding Aid

Added Author

Feelings, Tom.

Angelou, Maya.

Clarke, John Henrik, 1915-1998.

King, Woodie, Jr., 1937-

Nelson, Truman John, 1912-

Marshall, William, 1924-

Joseph, Gloria I.

Gibson, Richard, 1931-

Forman, James, 1928-2005.

Dee, Ruby.

Davis, Ossie.

Dassin, Jules, 1911-2008.

Windom, Alice.

Sinnette, Calvin.

Sinnette, Elinor Des Verney.

King, Preston T., 1936-

Du Bois, David Graham.

Branch, William B.

Boone, Sylvia Ardyn.

Bailey, Herman Kofi.

O'Brien, Conor Cruise, 1917-

Cordero, Ana Livia.

Guy, Rosa.

Williams, Robert F. (Robert Franklin), 1925-1996.

Cambridge, Joan.

Research Call Number

Sc MG 339