DARKY LULLABY [Sheet Music accompanied by Letter from Composer to Illustrator]

New York: Robbins Music Corporation, 1934. Two items that together demonstrate successful collaboration between a songwriter and a graphic artist: 1) Original sheet music for "Darky Lullaby," standard edition published in 1934 by Robbins Music Corporation in New York City. Music by Jacques Wolfe and words by Irwin Rowan. 6 pages. 4to (12 inches by 9 inches). The sheet music is in near-fine condition. 2) Original letter (TLS) from Jacques Wolfe to J. J. Lankes, dated March 12, 1934 and SIGNED by Wolfe. Accompanied by Wolfe's typed sheet containing lyrics for "Darky Lullaby" and the original postal cover (signed by Wolfe) in which the 2 sheets were mailed. The the letter is lightly toned, otherwise in near-fine condition. The lyric sheet has 2 lightly tanned crossed lines (offsetting from the glue in the postal cover), otherwise very good condition. The postal cover has tanned lines (also from the glue), but still is in very good condition. In his letter Wolfe explains the parameters for the woodcut that Lankes has agreed to provide (i.e. the dimensions of the sheet music) and that he is including the lyrics to "offer you some help in doing the cover." Although he obviously is wary of trying to dictate anything to Lankes, Wolfe does make a carefully worded suggestion: "I might mention that I like very much the technique and color scheme of the jacket design which you made for Roark Bradford's "John Henry". I think that such a treatment would be very fine for the cover of "Darky Lullaby." So it is no accident that Lankes' woodcut, while quite different in subject matter, does indeed have much in common with the image he designed for the dust jacket of the first edition of John Henry. On the sheet containing the lyrics Lankes has written in pencil, "like John Henry cover" and "words by Irwin Rowan." On the verso of the letter, Lankes has sketched a rectangle, and on the front of the postal cover a pencilled triangle. That was typical for Lankes, who--like many visual artists--was wont to plan with a pencil on materials at hand. Jacques Wolfe (1896-1973) was a Brooklyn-based Rumanian-American songwriter who drew his inspiration from African-American spirituals and work songs. A favorite of Paul Robeson, Wolfe is best known as the composer of the vaudeville blackface song "Short'nin' Bread," "De Glory Road" (a collaboration with poet Clement Wood that Wolfe dedicated to Robeson), and "Sad Song in de Air" (a collaboration with Langston Hughes). He also composed the music in collaboration with Roark Bradford for the Broadway musical John Henry, based on Bradford's novel and featuring Paul Robeson in the title role. J. J. [Julius John] Lankes (1884-1960) was a woodcut artist based in Virginia and New York, who is known for his prolific work (more than 1300 woodcuts) as well as for his successful collaborations with Robert Frost and American watercolor artist Charles Ephraim Burchfield. Lankes' biographer W. D. Taylor summarizes the artist's importance this way: "J. J. Lankes has been described as 'one of America’s foremost graphic artists.' Not only was he 'arguably the first genuine woodcut artist this country produced', he was the close friend of such poets and writers as Robert Frost and Sherwood Anderson, and author of A Woodcut Manual, the first reliable and comprehensive book on woodcutting published in North America. . . .". SIGNED. First Edition. Paper. Collectible-Very Good+. Illus. by J. J. Lankes. 4to - over 9¾" - 12" tall. Manuscript.