| Among the letters and papers entrusted into my care by Dr. Du Bois in 1961, shortly before his departure for Ghana, is an aged brown manila envelope such as one uses to mail booklets. Printed in its left-hand corner is a request to the postmaster to return the envelope to Atlanta University in Georgia, "should this pamphlet miscarry or remain uncalled for 10 days." |
| On the face of the envelope an addressee's name had been crossed out and above it, and again to its right, is the word, "Prayers," in Du Bois's handwriting. Below this, also in his hand and in pencil, is his signature. Within are scraps of paper of varying sizes; on each scrap Du Bois wrote a prayermost are in pencil, a few in ink. Ten, numbered by him in pencil, are typed; these appear toward the close of this book, retaining the numbers as in the originals. In most cases, the Biblical source or inspiration is noted by Du Bois at the conclusion of his text; these are retained. |
| The titles as given here were written in pencil on a separate sheet, again in his own hand. In the envelope, he wrote in pencil a list of subjects; a few were treated or touched upon in the prayers that followed but most were not. This list is reproduced here, following the title page. |
| The date of this manuscript as a whole may be placed, with considerable confidence, as extending from early 1909 until the spring of 1910. The second prayer, devoted to "the curse of drunkenness," refers to a poet afflicted with this "curse" who had been born "100 years ago this night''; Edgar Allan Poe was born January 19, 1809. Another of the prayers, found on page 19as stated in a footnotebore on its reverse side a notation, in Du Bois's handwriting, "May 3, 1910." Since |
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