Catalog 116, Letters, A-E
432. AUSTER, Paul. Autograph Note Signed. February 7, 1984. Auster transmits a proposal for an article (the proposal is not present) which "seems more and more exciting to me the more I think about it." He also proposes a "politic" fee for the piece, "something less than the maximum" as it his is first piece for them, and he thanks the recipient for dinner. Folded in thirds for mailing, else fine, with hand-addressed envelope.
433. AUSTER, Paul. Autograph Letter Signed and Autograph Postcard Signed. September 1987. In the letter, Auster converses about a Blakeloch piece already written: "I wanted to say more about Blakeloch, but space restrictions hemmed me in, and much was cut from the article (so that I can barely recognize myself in what was finally printed.)" He seems willing to learn and write more about Blakeloch and speculates "I'm immersed in another book right now, but perhaps when it's done (in about six months or so), I can do something for you..." Auster also announces the recent arrival of his daughter, Sophie. The postcard thanks the recipient for sending him an article on Blakeloch. The letter is folded for mailing, otherwise both items are fine.
434. AUSTER, Paul. Autograph Postcard Signed and Autograph Note Signed. June 1989 and May 1991. Both items thank the recipient for sending copies of his magazine, "which will enliven my visits to the throne room for months to come!" The postcard is written on a publicity card for the French edition of The Invention of Solitude. The note is folded in half vertically; the envelope is present. Both the postcard and the note are fine.
435. BERGÉ, Carol. Typed Letter Signed. [March 1988]. Bergé, a longtime poet and novelist who was associated with the New York poetry avant-garde of the 1960s, introduces herself to the recipient, the editor of Art & Antiques magazine, as both a writer and an antiques dealer. The letter is a sales pitch for a scarab ring in her possession and includes a drawing: "To me, it looks like either a Scarab beetle (stylized in form), or/and some sort of old inkwell with plumes extending from it. That suits the idea that I'm into Scarabs and I'm also a novelist and writer." Signed by the author. Folded in thirds for mailing, with a resumé and mailing envelope included. Fine.
436. BERGÉ, Carol. Typed Letter Signed. June 22, 1988. Two pages promising to send an article which will apparently deal with the parallels between American Indian and Japanese ways of living, the life of Maria Sanchez, and "life lived as an entity, all of a piece. The artist as not a soul divided..." Folded in thirds for mailing; holograph corrections. A nice letter, with good content. Signed by the author. Fine. With envelope.
437. BERRIAULT, Gina. Correspondence. (1981-1982). One autograph letter signed, two typed letters signed, and Berriault's photocopied "Statement of Plans." In April of 1981, Berriault thanks her correspondent, another writer, for having first suggested that she apply for the Guggenheim that she ultimately received: "After I finish my novel...then I will try again to form again some short stories. In the past, when I wrote stories, each one seemed to quicken an idea for another, and that potential always waiting in the wings quickened the life in me, too. It was a beautiful illusion, in a way, like believing you were to be young forever. And now if I can experience that again because of the honor, you are the one most deserving of my gratefulness for the transformation." In July of '81, she again writes the recipient, this time with praise for his latest book. In 1982, at the request of North Point Press, the recipient writes a promotional blurb for Berriault's The Infinite Passion of Expectation and Berriault responds with a handwritten letter, on notepaper, thanking him and inquiring whether she can use his name again to apply for a second Guggenheim Award and another year of "freedom." Included here are two retained copies of letters to Berriault during this period and the correspondent's second recommendation to the Guggenheim Award committee. Attached to that recommendation, and stamped "Please Destroy," is Berriault's "A Statement of Plans," detailing how she would use the additional fellowship year to begin another novel. A nice glimpse behind the scenes at the efforts of a critically acclaimed literary writer to find the funding to continue her work. Berriault's collection of stories Women in Their Beds won the National Book Critics Circle Award for fiction for 1996. Each of the letters is near fine or better. For all:
438. BERRIAULT, Gina. Autograph Note Signed. April 14, 1997. A note agreeing to sign a copy of her book Women in Their Beds. Signed by the author. Folded in thirds for mailing; fine, with envelope. Autograph material by Berriault is somewhat uncommon.
439. BOYD, William. Correspondence. 1985. Two typed notes signed and one typed letter signed. In the first note, Boyd agrees in principle to write an unspecified article and discusses his trepidation about the reception of his book Stars and Bars in the U.S. In the second note, he proposes that the article be about a recent, disastrous Parisian publicity tour. In the letter, with the tour article ruled out, he proposes reviewing a gallery show and tells the recipient he is "breathing a tiny bit easier" about Stars and Bars. Stars and Bars was Boyd's third novel; his first, A Good Man in Africa, had won the Whitbread Prize and the Somerset Maugham Award; his second, An Ice Cream War, was winner of the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize and was short-listed for the Booker Prize. Each letter is folded for mailing; the second has a small spot, not affecting text; else fine, with envelopes.
440. BOYD, William. Correspondence. 1985. One autograph letter signed dated June 11, proposing an article on James Boswell and his Grand Tour and then postponing the article until autumn as he is "trying to keep decks cleared to give me time to write my next novel." Together with an autograph note signed canceling the offer: "The reason is that time has moved on and I've now started my new novel and have declared a moratorium on journalism! This is just to allow me to clear the decks and get well into the new book with no distractions." Both letters are folded in fourths for mailing, else fine, with envelopes, although only one bears evidence of having been mailed.
441. BOYD, William. Correspondence. 1988. One autograph letter signed thanking the recipient for his comments on Stars and Bars and discussing the response to the film version. Boyd agrees to write an article but states that he's busy at the moment with the film version of Mario Vargas Llosa's Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter and with promoting The New Confessions. Folded in fourths for mailing; else fine, with envelope. Together with an autograph postcard signed thanking the recipient for his comments on The New Confessions and describing the U.S. response to the book as well as his appearance on breakfast television in Cleveland promoting it. Written on the full back, so mailed in an envelope, which is present. Fine.
442. BRUCHAC, Joseph. Typed Postcard Signed. December 31, 1975. Written to Diane DiPrima, regarding a requested copy of the anthology Come to Power. Typed on the back of Poetry Postcard No. 28, Birdfoot's Grampa by Bruchac (Austin: Cold Mountain Press, 1975.) 5" x 6 1/2". Two tack holes and small spot on printed side; near fine.
443. BUKOWSKI, Charles. Autograph Letter Signed. May 2, 1985. To S. Clay Wilson, reporting on the payment status of a Hustler story and another in Oui. Also, he compliments Wilson: "You make my stories look good. We are a hell of a team." And finally: "Well, the Derby, man, that's just one race. I need thousands of them." Signed, with self-caricature. Folded for mailing; fine, with envelope.
444. BUKOWSKI, Charles. Typed Note Signed. April 6, 1986. To S. Clay Wilson, granting permission, perhaps belatedly, to reprint a letter, the delay due to drinking. "Sober today, but with beastly hangover..." He closes: "Thanks for the dog from hell." Signed, with self-caricature. Folded for mailing; fine, with envelope.
445. BURKE, James Lee. Autograph Postcard Signed. 1999. A card declining to sign books sent to him on the grounds that they are often lost. The postcard depicts the Prairie Crab Apple. Fine.
446. CAEN, Herb. Correspondence. April 1991 - January 1994. One autograph note signed and four typed notes signed, all on San Francisco Chronicle stationery, 5 1/2" x 7" (the ANS is 4" x 6"). Caen was the longtime columnist for the Chronicle, whose columns both reflected and helped define the city's ambience and culture. The TNS's are folded for mailing; two are a bit wrinkled and near fine; the other three are fine. For all:
447. CONDON, Richard. Typed Note Signed. April 18, 1986. Written to the editor of Art & Antiques, declining to write an article and invoking "Sad Rule One: the more exalted, lavishly handsome the purpose of a magazine, the less it pays contributors." Signed "R." Folded once vertically for mailing; else fine, with envelope. A short note very much in keeping with the wry spirit of much of Condon's fiction.
448. CONNELL, Evan S. Typed Notes Signed. 1988. Two typed notes signed. The first, from May, comments on having been to South America but not to Paracas. The second, from June, again takes up the subject of Paracas and his correspondent's "remark about Theroux's piece on the color blue." Connell also mentions working on "this alchymy book [The Alchymist's Journal]." The second note has a couple faint spots; otherwise both are folded for mailing and fine, with envelopes.
449. CONNELL, Evan S. Typed Note Signed. April 8, [no year]. Connell declines to write an article as he is trying to "get back to work on another book, The Alchemist's Journal." The spelling of the title was later changed. Signed by the author. Folded for mailing; else fine, lacking the envelope.
450. CONROY, Frank. Autograph Letter Signed. Undated [circa 1981]. 6" x 7". A short letter to another writer, thanking him for his note, and reporting on his health. He then comments on D.M. Thomas's The White Hotel: "Yes its [sic] odd how many people were fooled by the clever surface of White Hotel. I guess it shows how eager we all are for good stuff, stuff that seems fresh and daring. We all wanted it to be good, so much so that we didn't really see what it was. A scam!" After a sarcastic comment on Thomas' handling of the publicity, he closes, signing the letter "All best, Frank." Fine.
451. DOCTOROW, E.L. Typed Note Signed. November 5, 1996. A brief note agreeing to sign a book. Signed by the author. Folded for mailing; fine, with envelope.
452. DUNNING, John. Typed Note Signed. June 29, 1998. A polite note agreeing to sign a book and thanking his correspondent "for making an old writer's day." Signed by the author. Folded for mailing; fine, with envelope.
453. DUNNING, John. Autograph Note Signed. Undated [1998]. Written on the verso of an Old Algonquin Bookstore bookmark, explaining that as the recipient had not specified a signature or an inscription (in a book), "I will go with current wisdom and sign only." He then offers the bookmark as "personal regards, in gratitude." Signed by the author. Small scuff on verso, else fine.
454. ELKIN, Stanley. Typed Note Signed. October 24, 1990. Elkin effusively thanks the recipient for comments on his recent article and apparently for having sent him soap, a subject that had come up in the article: "...thank you most of all for those wonderful wrapped emulsifiers and alkali-reamed fats, those delicious sodium and potassium salts and acids. Man, if I had your job I'd have been World Soap Czar by now!" Signed by the author. Folded for mailing; else fine, with hand-addressed mailing envelope.
455. EPSTEIN, Leslie. Correspondence. 1983-1986. Three typed letters signed and two typed notes signed from Epstein, novelist and Director of the Graduate Creative Writing Program at Boston University, to another writer. Epstein commiserates with the recipient after his novel is unjustly reviewed by a "feminist communist, or historian of feminists or communists or whatever, but what connection has she to literature?" He tries to coax his correspondent into teaching a workshop at B.U. In the later letters, he submits to him his curriculum vita (Rhodes, Fullbright, Guggenheim, NEA...Married, three children, condo in Brookline, Subaru wagon) and his recommendations for the Swados Prize. Frank, personal and literary. All on Boston University stationery; fine. For the five: