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November 17, 1971

Dear Ref:

I'm glad you liked the Douglass print. Its powerful, rough quality is a result of an accident, really. I had traced the drawing on the linoleum to cut, and then realized I had not reversed it. I decided to cut it anyway, to get an idea of what kinds of cuts might be effective, As a result, I went at it completely without fear. I retraced the drawing and reversed it and cut it again so it would be the final, correctly cut block. This time I was careful, in fact timid, and as a result the print was not good and I destroyed the block. Therein lies a lesson. I used the rough-hewn first version. Margrit Pittman wrote asking for prints, and I told her I'd sned a photograph of the Douglass print so they could reproduce it. I have a copy of it with the quotation and name already printed in type. So you keep your copy and I'll send her another. It might help if you suggested they use it on the cover, though. Your opinion would have weight.

About the Rivera letters; I don't really know how valuable they would be to the understanding of Trotskyism. Also, I don't know whether it's necessary to send the originals, or whether copies would do. I'll send copies with this letter, so you can judge how interesting the contents might be to such a conference. There is also a letter my father wrote after a long conversation with Diego about his fight with Trotsky. This letter is in the Bancroft Library at the University of California, but I assume I could get a copy of it if they want it.

The letter to Dubinsky is not the one with the most interesting content. The one to Jay Lovestone has more relevant content, but the one to Emily (Mrs. Sydney Joseph) has the most specific statement about the war. Of course, Diego had already quarrelled with Trotsky by that time, but was still sympathetic to the 4th International and violently anti-CPUSA, CPUSSR (though primarily anti-Stalin). But unless his statement about helping Hitler defeat Stalin in WWII is repeated in other Trotskite literature of the time, it might be said that this was only Rivera's hare-brained opinion. The other relevant letter is the one to me just after Pearl Harbor, when Rivera applauds the Russians fighting Hitler and regrets that he (Diego) is too old to fight. This was the beginning of the change back to joining the CPM.

Pele and I are both too impoverished, we decided, to fly to Mexico this Christmas.

love,
Emmy Lou