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BEAUFORD DELANEY: SO SPLENDID A JOURNEY,

the first full-length documentary about Beauford.


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Saturday, September 20, 2014

Beauford Delaney Letter Archived by Smithsonian

A letter written by Beauford to Al Hirschfeld was recently entered into the Smithsonian Archives of American Art:

Image from Smithsonian Archives of American Art

It is dated September 3, 1940. The return address is 181 Greene Street, New York City.

Beauford in his Greene Street studio, New York City, 1944
© Estate of Beauford Delaney, by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire, Court Appointed Administrator

Among the things that Beauford expresses in this letter are listening to recordings by the blues guitarist Blind Boy Fuller (Fulton Allen [1908-1941]) and his desire to take Hirschfeld to a place "where there are happy feet and Weary Blues also Barbecued ribs."

He signed his name "De Laney," which his biographer, David A. Leeming, indicates was "the more dignified spelling of his surname - one favored by his mother."

Al Hirschfeld's papers are also held by the Archives of American Art at the Smithsonian.

Listen to Blind Boy Fuller sing "Truckin' Little Baby" by clicking below.




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