The mood is upon me (December 1966).
Martinez, Elizabeth "Betita" Sutherland
The mood is upon me, something happened after about eight years of
working my conscientious ass off, I have revolted. I watch television or
potsy around or sleep until noon and then grubble into the office. What
ruined my discipline was that Yevtushenko was in town. I arranged for
him to come and hear Stokely speak and afterward went up to Harlem and
drank champagne until 7 a.m. Now that is pretty funny, we went to a very
crummy bar where nobody could have ordered champagne since Dillinger was
there or something.
It was lovely, I hadn't really expected Yevtushenko to
remember me, although we had done the same thing one night in Moscow
five years ago. But all those women in between, my god. He did remember,
though, and he really is a great guy if you get him alone where he
doesn't pull his movie-star routine, and we had a fine time
disappearing for three days with the State Dept. and the Russian Embassy
going wild. We had lunch with Stokely on his last afternoon in New York,
then ran for the plane to Moscow with nineteen pieces of baggage in one
taxi and seven screaming people in another taxi, streaking out to
Queens. Of course we got lost, and then we got to the airport late and
be had to pay $1,200 for overweight on that baggage, jeezus.
As he dashed on to the plane, he stuffed some money in my coat
pocket which I tried to give back but couldn't. And when I got home
and looked, it was two $100 bills. I promptly lost one of them in a
grocery store, out of pure shock. The whole thing was just so carefree
and expensive and Great Gatsby, very good for my pinched soul.
* The Russian poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko arrived in New York on
November 7, 1966, for a six-week tour starting with a reading of
"Babi Yar" at Queens College. Elizabeth had met him in Russia
in 1962. In this unpublished letter, she vividly describes what happened
in New York.
