Wrestling Jacob, Jacob, day is a-breaking,
Wrestling Jacob, Jacob, I will not let you go… (Sundquist, 525)
Transcript
June 4, 1938
My dear Carrie:
I always get hot under the collar when anybody uses that quotation of mine from the SOULS
OF BLACK FOLK because it is almost always wrong since somebody wishes to correct my English. The correct quotation will be found in Chapter twelve. Of Alexander Crummell, p. 226,227 and it is as follows: “And herein lies the tragedy of the age, not that men are poor, – all men know something of poverty, -not that men are wicked, – who is good? not that men are ignorant, – what is Truth? Nay, but that men know so little of men.” If you find anybody changing that last line, please kill them for me!
Very sincerely yours,
[no signature]
Mrs. Caroline B. Day
Southeast House
301 G Street Southeast
Washington, D. C.
Du Bois, W. E. B. (William Edward Burghardt), 1868-1963. Letter from W. E. B. Du Bois to Caroline B. Day, June 4, 1938. W. E. B. Du Bois Papers (MS 312). Special Collections and University Archives, University of Massachusetts Amherst Libraries. https://credo.library.umass.edu/view/full/mums312-b085-i070.