Los Angeles: 1968.
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Unbound. Original typescripts and typescript carbons. Various sized sheets with five loose and eight stapled or bradbound. All fine but for a light vertical crease from being mailed. A collection of poetry from Ellen Brown, a member of the Watts Writers Workshop founded in 1965 by screenwriter Budd Schulberg as a way to help the Watts neighborhood of South Los Angeles after nearly a week of rioting following an altercation with police. The program garnered national television coverage, including the publication of the anthology *From the Ashes: Voices of Watts*, and appearances in the literary journal *The Antioch Review*, where Brown's poem "Like It Is" appeared. Schulberg referenced her in his introduction by saying "her essay 'Indictment' was a near-miss in our first collection" and how she has "shown marked improvement since coming to Douglass House sessions." The 11 poems here reflect the anger and unrest that dominated the times with themes of inequality, poverty, and prejudice, with titles that include "How to integrate in '68" and "Aftermath of April 4, 1968." Among the collection are two versions of "Like It Is." One, largely as published, aside from a few lines that were omitted, describes the desperation of unemployment, while the other is a visceral revelation on society's sheen of truth and underbelly of lies:
Truths are lies.
Politicians lie - "If I am elected..."
Governments lie.
Honey on the outhouse.
Commerce lies, and lies, and lies...
with the hard sell. Sign here sucker...
read the fine print later
Buy... buy... buy...our products. It's
Super Super Super."
Our research could not locate any other of Brown's work subsequently published but curiously the poems came housed in an envelope address to Estelle Hemsely, the African-American stage and screen actress who appeared in *Edge of the City* with Sidney Poitier, *Green Mansion* with Audrey Hepburn, and *Baby the Rain Must Fall* with Steve McQueen.
A compelling collection from this aspiring poet who expressed first-hand the injustices of her time.
Item #448017
