1971-1976. In 1976, just prior to the publication of The Great Santini, Conroy submits an autobiography to his publisher in the form of an autograph letter signed, for use in promoting the book. Over the course of four densely written legal-sized pages, Conroy blends fiction (“Men with camels and shepherds with their flocks wended their way toward the Naval Air Station”) with fact (such as listing the many places he grew up) and reflection (“I am sentimental about roots because I never had any”). He talks of taking a playwriting class in San Francisco where he wrote the play that became the basis for The Great Santini, as well as taking a class from James Dickey after he wrote The Water is Wide “because of a growing awareness that I did not know how to write.” He notes that at the Citadel he is remembered as a “good athlete, a fair student, and a lousy cadet.” He relays some of his basketball statistics and adds that he later became “one of the worst coaches in the history of organized athletics.” He discloses having had his first book, The Boo, published by a vanity press (“I thought all authors had to pay to have their books printed”) and confesses an early embarrassment about the book that has since turned into pride “not because of its content or style but because of its spirit.” He mentions that The Water is Wide won the Anisfield-Wolf Award (for contributions to the understanding of racism), and he offers a long paragraph on his sister, Carol, the better writer in the family. Conroy ends with a list of fictitious hobbies, and he signs off “Yours in service to the language, Pat Conroy.” Five years earlier, prior to the publication of The Water is Wide, Conroy submitted an author questionnaire in which he covered much of this same ground, but in it he also explains when and how he became a writer and his writing habits (“Completely erratic. I enjoy blaming my wife, family, and friends for my inability to write on certain days...”), as well as listing his writing influences. He lists his hobbies and names the difficulties (“depression, ennui, laziness”) that made the writing difficult. This questionnaire is present in photocopy form, including a signed note on the cover page apologizing for its late submission. Included with Conroy's autobiographical letter and questionnaire are an autograph postcard signed from MacKinley Kantor and a typed note signed from Ernest K. Gann, each explaining they don't at the moment have the time to read the book (The Great Santini), as well as a 1980 publicity photo of Conroy. Several instances of publisher's markings to the documents; the letter is folded in uneven fourths. The lot is near fine. A humorous, self-deprecating mini-autobiography, as might be expected from the author of The Boo and The Great Santini. [#036685] $2,500