The Collection of Victor Niederhoffer part II (1640) September 19, 2019 EDT, Main Floor Gallery Lot 74

Estimate: $1000 - $1500 (plus Buyer's Premium) [Sports] [Baseball] Paige, (Leroy) Satchell Typed Letter, signed Kansas City, "April 29th. 48." 1p. 4to (10 15/16 x 8 1/2 inches; 280 x 215mm.); light creasing along old folds. Strong, clear ink signature. On his "Leroy 'Satchell' Paige/Tourist Home" letterhead. To Dan Burley (spelling, capitalization, and punctuation retained]: Dear Sir. Just a few line to let you hear from me. listen Dan I am writing you trying to get a club in New York and I would like to know what do you think of it. Dan I can put a winning ball club in New York if I can get the franchise from Simlar. Mr. Wilkinson told me to write you and see what you think about a ball club their since the black yankee are not there any more Dan I am redy to come in this year or next year so pal see just what you can do for me because I have a club this year it is call the Satchell Paige All Stars. Dan I have a New Bus made in to a sleeper and I have a good ball club but it can be better. and Dan if I can get in New York I will have the best ball club New York have ever saw and that is saying a lot. So Dan please write me and tell me just what you think about it from your pal Satchell Paige. Like the effects of Paige's richly audacious variety of pitches, to read this letter is to catch something of the richness of African American culture at a moment of transition. In the two months following this letter, Satchell Paige became not only the oldest [still effective] rookie in the history of the established Major Leagues, but also the first not to shy away from practicing that masterful artfulness of play that he (and others) developed in the Negro leagues.

Further testifying to the richness of African American cultural life is the career of its recipient, Dan Burley (1907-1962). A seemingly tireless journalist and editor, Burley served as managing editor of the Amsterdam News from 1940 to 1952; editor of , Ebony, Jet, and Duke magazines; sports editor of the Daily Defender; wrote a syndicated column carried by the and other publications; and although not a member of the Nation of Islam, he established press exposure for it, editing Mohammad Speaks, and writing for Elijah Mohammad. Credited with coining the word "" for the avant-garde jazz emerging in the 1940s, he also compiled in book form the commercially successful Dan Burley's Original Handbook of Harlem Jive (1941). Even against this background, Burley understood himself to be above all a musician. A boogie- woogie pianist in his youth, his musical maturity came as a jazz pianist and composer. He wrote for and ; founded Dan Burley and His Skiffle Boys in 1946; performed with , Cab Calloway, , Lionel Hampton, , , and others; recorded with , and Tiny Grimes.

The above letter brings to life the rich confluence of African American culture as it encountered and changed the whole of American life in the aftermath of WWII.