.MTM3NQ.MTE2OTUw

201 West Pennsylvania Urbana, Illinois Jan 21, 61

Dear Fred, Thank you for your welcome letter, the Wrone carbon, and the Nafken letter. I respond at once. I did plan to come to Chicago and had indicated to Chuck D. that I would. However, I was quite sick -- flu and fever --and actually lost a week of work.

I had a strong reason to come and see you for there is some good news on my Wob lore project.  I'll try to put it in sequence. About a year ago Phil Taft urged me to visit Dick Brazier in N.Y.C. When Joe Glazer put out his recent book he sent a copy to Brazier and they corresponded. Joe suggested that I see Dick. I went East to Philly for an Am Folklore Society meeting Dec 27-29. From Philly I went up to NY and met Brazier at the Tamiment Inst (old Rand School). We chose this site so I could show Dick my microfilm of Neuhaus songbooks. It was the first time he had seen some of his own songs since 1917 when the Feds raided his gear. 

We met on Friday and talked. We returned on Saturday when it was quiet and made a 3 hr tape. I tried to concentrate on the early days in Spokane. Also I tried to explore the problem of