Lillian Smith Record Collection: Play For a Young Girl

When we found the records in a closet, the first one we put on the turntable didn’t have a label. As the needle dropped into the groove, a laugh appeared through the speakers. A woman, in a ghastly, devilish voice cackled, “The wind blows hard. There is not light. A cold wind blows.” The woman said this a couple of times, and then she stopped and laughter arose from others in the room. At first, we thought this was Lillian and others testing the recorder, just messing around and having fun. However, after a trip to the Hargrett Special Collections Library at UGA to examine Lillian Smith’s papers, we discovered that the recording was part of a larger piece, a play without a title. Only “1940” appears at the top of the page, but after digging deeper, we discovered that this recording, and others that we have digitized, are recordings of “A Play for a Young Girl.” 

The play arose during the summer of 1940 at Laurel Falls Camp. That season, the campers and counselors felt the gathering storm clouds of war. They enjoyed the normal camp activities, but during their talks, they discussed the impending war. Writing to Glenn Rainey in September 1940, Lillian Smith said of the campers that summer, “They were less tolerant of the Negro this summer . . . more inclined to defend the South . . . America . . . to hate Hitler and Germans.” The play arose from these conversations. It arose from the fears the campers felt at the time surrounding the encroaching war.

When they read the play, some of the counselors disapproved because they viewed it as “unpatriotic.” They thought the campers should not hear about such things. Smith decided to stop production on the play for that summer; however, one night things changed. As she detailed to Rainey, “I gathered my children up one night and we went to the library and Esther read it to them. . . . The children were deeply touched and profoundly impressed. A few counselors straggled in—I had invited none of them—and some told me afterward that they regretted we had given up the idea of producing the pay . . . But that was Esther’s and they did not really believe what thy said.”
 

It is important to thing about “A Play for a Young Girl” in relation to other plays from Laurel Falls Camps, specifically “Drums.” As well, it is important to think about how this play connects with Smith’s pacifism and her views on war, views she expressed when she wrote to her father from China in 1925. Seeing the violent clashes on warlords around her, she told him, “Personally I’ll go to prison before I’ll help in any way fighting another war.”

You can find Smith's letter to Rainey on the left-hand column. 

Possible Activities

1. Have students research America’s reactions to the war, starting as far back as the Nazis’ rise to power in 1933. One could also choose other moments such as the Nuremberg Laws or Italy’s invasion of Ethiopia in 1935, the Spanish Civil War in 1936, Japan’s invasion of China in 1937, Germany’s annexation of Austria In 1938, or Germany’s invasion of Poland in 1939. 
2. Have students think about other current or historical news events and have students research the events then write a play about their views of the event.
3. What are some novels, short stories, plays, or other texts that depict this period in American history and the nation’s thoughts on war? Have students read a text or texts and discuss how “A Play for a Young Girl” relates to other texts from the same period.

Questions

1. Smith and the campers write “A Play for a Young Girl” a year before the United States entered World War II following the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor. What insight does the play give you to some of the ways American’s thought about the war during this period?
2. Listening to “A Play for a Young Girl,” how does it appear similar or different from other plays that the campers wrote at Laurel Falls Camp? Specifically, look at “Drums” and “The Girl.”
3. Some of the counselors called “A Play for a Young Girl” “unpatriotic.” Listening to the parts of the play from the recordings, would you agree with them? Why or why not?
4. “A Play for a Young Girl” ends with the chorus saying in unison, “Turn the radio down—it makes so much noise. I hate war news!” What do these last lines mean? How do they relate to the girl’s journey throughout the play?