Catalog 116, Letters, L-R
473. LISH, Gordon. Typed Note Signed. July 7 (no year). On two sides of Esquire notepaper. In part, "Me and Harold, we'd do it in a minute, but that Dickey feller would never respect us not ever again." Lish closes with "I caress your earlobes." Near fine.
474. LISH, Gordon. Autograph Note Signed. Undated. On Esquire notepaper. "Lucky you! Yeah, his King Kong business was falling-down funny. Love, Gordon." Folded once, paperclip imprint; else fine.
475. LORDE, Audre. Autograph Letter Signed. Undated, written to Diane DiPrima. Two sides of a page, all of it detailed instructions for the removal of an evil spirit associated with a stone: "...take it now carefully when the sun is high...to the nearest natural water...Someone must follow you behind, sprinkling clear water...wash the place where it rested and your doorstep with clear ammonia & water. Hereafter, at the head of your sleeping mat, & the childrens', keep a glass half full of water, preferably with 8 small bits of cocoa butter... If you call the stone to mind ever with uneasiness again, burn myrrh alone on your altar..." An interesting literary association and also an interesting glimpse of this African-American writer's worldview, and the particular mix of cultures it embodied. DiPrima was one of the poets most closely associated with the Beat movement and the counterculture -- one of the few women writers to make her mark in that arena. Lorde was one of the most prominent African-American poets of the 1960s and '70s; her collection From a Land Where Other People Live was a National Book Award finalist in 1974. Folded in sixths; else fine.
476. LORDE, Audre. Autograph Postcard Signed. (Sept. 1977). A warm, personal note to poet Diane DiPrima: "Dear Precious Person - You would love the lake country in Minnesota - the North Woods. I thought of you a lot there and wondered if the place was printed on some story of yours. Or were you calling me?" Lorde, a prominent African-American, feminist, lesbian poet in the 1970s and 1980s, died at a young age of cancer, a struggle that she recounted in her final volumes of poetry. A nice association between two important poets. Fine.
477. MARTIN, Steve. Typed Note Signed and Electronic Letter Unsigned. June and July, 1989. Written to an editor at Art & Antiques magazine. In the earlier, electronically transmitted letter, Martin says he is "extremely flattered and impressed with myself that I appear on your 100 collectors list. However, being on the list has caused me nothing but grief and I would prefer to slink back into the lower profile I had 'pre-List'..." The second note: "You're right about HG. That was the first worst mistake I ever made in my life." Martin's film credits include The Jerk, All of Me, Three Amigos, Roxanne, Father of the Bride, and others; he is frequently either the screenwriter or the executive producer as well as the star. Both letters capture, albeit briefly, an articulate and courteous grace, even mid-complaint. Folded; else fine, with envelopes.
478. McINERNEY, Jay. Autograph Note Signed. August 27, 1985. Written on hotel stationery. McInerney declines to write a piece on the Bronze Works for Art & Antiques, claiming a lack of time caused by moving and because "Random House has booked Sept. & October almost solid..." (His book Ransom was published by Vintage in September.) Folded in thirds for mailing; else fine, with envelope.
479. McMURTRY, Larry. Autograph Notecard Signed. October, 1983. McMurtry declines to write a piece for Art & Antiques magazine: "Alas, no, I'll pass on Waterford, I always detested it but no point in saying so in print." Written on a notecard from Booked Up, McMurtry's Washington, D.C. antiquarian bookstore. Postal marks; else fine.
480. McPHEE, John. Autograph Note Signed. Undated. One sentence, handwritten on an index card: "This is super." Signed "J." Together with a few pencilled notes, in McPhee's hand, on FSG stationery, drafting an acknowledgement for the counsel of William Shawn. These words are crossed through in red editorial pencil. Both items bear paperclip imprints and are otherwise fine.
481. MENCKEN, H.L. Typed Note Signed. February 24, no year. Typed on half-sheet stationery with a Hollins St. address; 8 1/2" x 5 1/2". Folded in thirds for mailing; else fine. One emphatic paragraph, in part: "That you should suspect me of lying! Ach, Gott! Mon dieu!...I'll bring you a flask of absolutely genuine pre-war alcohol - - far better than anything on sale in Cuba." A short note, but exhibiting Mencken's characteristic sardonic humor. Initialed by Mencken.
482. MILLER, Henry. Autograph Note Signed. Undated. A 5" x 3" card: "June -/ Tell me what/ you have read/ and I'll know/ better what to/ send!"/ Henry." A short but nice sentiment, not only linking Miller with June, his muse, but also with the literary dimension of their lives together. Near fine.
483. O'BRIEN, Tim. Autograph Letter Signed. February 12, 1981. One sheet, 5 1/2" x 8 1/2", two paragraphs informing an author that he has not yet read the received novel because of "reading a zillion things for the Pen/Faulkner Award." The salutation "Dear" is smudged; else fine and signed in full by O'Brien.
484. OFFUT, Chris. Typed Note Signed. July 5, 1999. Several short paragraphs in which Offut agrees to sign a book and thanks his correspondent for writing: "I appreciate knowing that these stories are able to reach someone whose background and experience in life are different from my own." He goes on to say he's moving, "...leaving Kentucky again forever. This is the sixth departure of my adult life. Fodder for the next book I suppose." Signed by the author. Folded for mailing; fine, with envelope.
485. OZICK, Cynthia. Typed Letters Signed. June 16, 1972, 2 A.M.; June 19, 1972; and October 5, 1972. All addressed to an editor at Holt Rinehart Winston and concerning the publication of the book The Breast by Philip Roth. In the earliest letter: "Hooray for Philip Roth, Unexpected Feminist! And (consider Claire's visits) Gay Liberator for Lesbians! -- I nearly fell out of bed (I was reading in bed; no book ever demanded more to be read in bed)...One knows when one is reading something that will enter the culture." She writes again two days later in a continued fit of enthusiasm: "...the book ought to be kept out of the hands of every writer in America...with that sort of brain around, why bother? I predict that after its publication there will be a great desert of non-novel writing...everyone will dry up, there will be mass suicides..." The third letter appears to have been written following a publication party, "The Greatest Party of All Time (Including Eternity)," afterwhich "Paradise will be all anti-climax." She apologizes for not eating the meal and passes along Roth's comment that "they coulda put the price of your meal into an ad." The blurb eventually used for publicity was an amalgalm of sentences from these letters. The letters are folded in sixths for mailing; else fine.
486. OZICK, Cynthia. Typed Letters Signed. March 14 and June 4, 1991. The first letter recounts several "months of upheaval" following her husband's injury in an accident: "I have not been able to write a word since November 20th... and am fairly suffocated by unfulfilled commitments and the guilt pertaining thereto." The second, longer letter (computer printout) talks of Israel, where the recipient is headed and where her daughter already is. In part: "The phrase 'Arab-Israeli conflict' is a misnomer that's led to the world's current Big Lie. It's not a 'conflict' when one party is tirelessly aiming to destroy the other, and there can be no equation (the word 'conflict' certainly suggests an equation) between would-be destroyers and defenders..." Both letters are folded for mailing; else fine, with envelopes.
487. PATON, Alan. Typed Letter Signed. July 30th, 1968. One page, written to Joel Wells, editor of The Critic, a Catholic literary quarterly. Paton, the South African author of the classic Cry, the Beloved Country, responds to Wells's request that he consider writing an article for The Critic on race relations. This correspondence took place during the "long hot summer" of 1968, when most of America's cities were torn by race riots following the assassinations of Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy. Wells writes to Paton, in part: "our own racial sins are very much on our minds and in the streets." Paton replies, "We have similar problems to your own in South Africa, and no one can really offer clear-cut solutions; the most that one can do in South Africa in these days is to re-affirm what one believes, and that is all I can hope to do in such an article." A thoughtful and revealing letter by an important author. An aerogramme, creased from folding, with a 1" vertical tear along the crease at the middle of the bottom edge, not affecting any text. Together with the retained carbons of four of Wells's letters to Paton, three before his letter and one after, spanning the period from February to August, 1968. Autograph material by Paton, whose bestselling novel comprises one of the most powerful statements on race relations published in this century, is quite scarce.
488. PELECANOS, George. Typed Note Signed. May 29, 1995. A dot-matrix note, agreeing to sign books, and relating that he has "recently completed a manuscript for a novel set in the 1940's, about Greek immigrants and their sons in D.C. I myself am a Spartan on both sides..." The book he refers to is undoubtedly The Big Blowdown. Signed by the author. Folded for mailing; fine, with envelope.
489. POUND, Ezra. Typed Letter Signed. February 9, 1927. An extremely encouraging and revealing rejection letter, in which Pound rejects a poem yet requests a manuscript, and in so doing offers glimpses of his own editorial philosophy. Typed on letterhead; folded in eighths; bearing a couple faint smudges; boldly initialed by Pound. Near fine.
490. PRICE, Vincent. Autograph Letter Signed and Autograph Postcard Signed. July and August, 1985. Each written to the editor of Art & Antiques and each discussing the possibility of his writing a piece on collecting Indian art. Price's screen credits number near, if not over, one hundred films and include House of Usher, Diary of a Madman, The Ten Commandments, The Fly, and Edward Scissorhands. The letter is folded for mailing, with envelope included; both pieces fine.
491. ROBINSON, Marilynne. Autograph Letter Signed. Undated (1988). Written from England, where she was working on her second book, Mother Country, about the nuclear industry there and, by extension, elsewhere. The letter is a portrait of the pubs and the inhabitants: "...cosy little places with the plastic flowers in the fireplace & the technicolor picture of the Royal Wedding over the bar and the lampstands which are porcelain spaniels rampant with barometers in their bellies... The proles...have terrified the establishment by acquiring VCR's at a rate unapproached in the world and giving themselves over to the contemplation of 'nasties'... Maybe it's all true, but I think it's largely guilty fear... fear compounded by prejudice... Ordinary people here have...no highly developed fault except docility; but their docility in combination with the fecklessness of their 'elite' is appalling in its consequences." A single sheet, written on both sides, with good content. One corner chip, not affecting text; else fine. Folded for mailing, with envelope included.