a perhaps not altogether legal way that would have worried me if I had been at all involved. I did not like to recommend this one.

Let me specify, for the record, that I know of no instance of Alfred Kinsey's ever having recommended a lawyer to anyone. I would not have wanted him to...

Question:— If I had telephoned your office, not in the middle of the night but in office hours, could you have referred me to anyone, an associate or a respected colleague?

This is not a devious inquiry, indeed you might call it academic. For my part I do not seem inclined to be very imprudent about anything; or perhaps I should say, more exactly, I am not timorous... But, come to think of it — and the telephone ringing in the middle of the night makes one think — I have one good young friend who does run definite risks, in the way of impropriety, not real immorality; and I wish I knew what to say to him in the event of his ever having to consult me.

I shall warmly appreciate your answering my question, if you please. But no hurry — and I should find a conventional or reticent communication quite understandable.

Yours sincerely,

Stone-blossom

September 18, 1956

Dearest Bill,

In haste — I like being waked up by my
dear ones telephoning me, and as a rule I
fall back to sleep the better for it, less lone-
some. But our theme of last night is a real
bother, and the enclosed is what I came up with,
for our future reference, if and if. My good
dead for the day — and stitch in time.

A.C.K. used to complain of Ernst a little —
because he always want to make a big production
of everything. Miss Pilpel not so conceited and
quixotic...

It did not occur to me to suggest your
asking Laidlaw. I wonder... My Lowell some-
times spoke of this kind of problem — in one
instance he gave affidavit that the offender

2.

was just a little ill, not at all wicked, and
I think undertook to give him some therapy.

Did I ever tell you about my dear Hugh?
With aptitude and endowment and plenty of op-
portunity for pleasure, nevertheless, at parties
etc, with drink taken, his silly fit would come
on him and away he would hasten to some semi-
public place and make a little scandal. He
got apprehended and the matter was reported to
his father, who entrusted him to an analyst;
nevertheless in due course he did it again...
But seemingly the analysis, or something, did
him good. After the second mishap he went boldly
out West to teach in a university, and there
(he tells me) has romances, enjoys life, does
good work, is liked...

All this used to be the bailiwick of that
more or less Quaker rehabilitation center, so-
called, right? Do you remember A.C.K.'s
bitterness(against affluent homosexuals by im-
plication, though of course not explicitly) when
it had to close for lack of $10.000?

2.

q perhaps not altogether legal way that would have worried me if I
had been at all involved. I did not like to recommend this one.

Yours sincerely,

Stone-blossom, Hampton, New Jersey

March 7, 1957

Dear Mr Ernst, dear friend,

Thank you for your reassuring note of March 4, which came out
here when I was in town, on my way to see you.

Poor John's appearance in court took only an instant. The matter
put off now until May 3. — With his contrition and anxiety, he thinks
that the suspense is going to destroy him. No, it won't, but perhaps
I'll have to get him some Miltown or something.

Meanwhile his lady legal light is going to take a little vacation
in Florida. I hope she gets a copy of the charges etc. before she goes.
I think J. must not complain to her on the telephone too frequently.
Perhaps in a few days I will telephone you (or Richard M. Ader) to as-
certain whether or not she has been sufficiently cooperative.

Thank you also for see my distinguished artist friend yesterday.
I greatly hope that you will undertake to represent him — he also
hopes that you will, now that he has seen you and *MIMIK* listened.
That was very impressive humaneness and indeed therapy, as well as
great lawyership.

I had extraordinary meetings with him, before and after, and with
another distinguished artist who is his close friend. All that is a
story that I have always intended to write (a kind of story that will
present a problem to you or your people if and when that time comes, if
you are responsible for libel problems at Harper & Brothers') — I
don't mean just the present misfortune, a ghostly visitation from
the past, but the circumstances of the creation itself at that time;
a kind of love-story.

2.

By the way, I gave him fifty dollars to carry in his pocket
retaining
to be whipped out and given to you by way of a compensation fee the instant
took,
you consent to be retained. That was the first form his panic, and the
way he expressed his extreme reproachfulness toward me: he cannot
afford a lawyer. I told him that I would bear all that part of the
burden; only just. — He is particularly anxious not to involve his
wonderful eccentric controversial brother-in-law, to whom I made
reference.

Would it be proper for you to send me your statement or state-
ments beyond the above-mentioned retainer? I didn't question you
about the amount of money it might entail, because in view of the several
poignant human interests, and the importance and character of one or
two books that I shall have to publish in due course, I suppose
it will be worth whatever it costs. As it happened I ran into debt a
little last year, and I am concerned not to worry my brother by borrowing
a large sum. — I specify all this for clarity, not for you to be
troubled. If need be, I will ask Harper's to make the payment to your
office for me, and draw up some sort of new contract with them to
cover it.

Perhaps, before the month of May comes round, I myself ought to
a legal representative, just in case... Certainly I will feel that
I must put up a fight for my poor friend if I can do so in
any way. Perhaps you'd like me to talk to Mr Ader, so that he can
judge my feeling of responsibility in his objective way, and
report to you.

Yours truly, and appreciatively,

April 11, 1957

Dear Mr Ernst, dear friend,

Your letter of March 26th troubled me profoundly. Meanwhile I have
been trying to conceive how to handle my problem — my friend's problem as
it vitally concerns me — without having to ask you to talk to me again.

I feel compelled to ask it now. I feel too much dismayed and too igno-
rant as the matter stands. Even in your letter there is a mystery.

I promise not to try to persuade you to undertake something that you
spoke of doing, but have decided against. In so far as the situation now
seems unpredictable I shall not expect advice. But I need to be enlightened
a little more. I must talk to my friend in such a way as to prop up his
morale, and this ought to be according to the reality, not with perhaps
another of my mistakes or misconceptions.

Perhaps I failed to give you a sufficient impression of my sense of
responsibility, my self-reproach — not indeed concerning that misbehavior
which my friend has admitted and been penalized for, but as to this further
problem of the objectionable material taken from his apartment, and as
to the ability and reliability of the lady lawyer suggested by me.

Even before I consulted you I sympathized with his diminishment of
confidence in her. I wonder if she has now decided that she does not be-
lieve in some part of his account of the original situation, without raising
the issue with him. I have not made any point of this in my conversations
with him. You warned me of the risks of any disagreement between them at
this point.

But now I begin to get the impression that a miscarriage of justice
is not only possible but perhaps somehow intended and on record in the

2.

papers that you have seen.

Certainly the lady has not told her unhappy client what this & second charge against him amounts to. He went to see her (with a little further payment due her) just before she departed to Florida, and then questioned her very anxiously. All she would say was that she had talked to you and forwarded the papers to your office, and that presumably you would communicate something about it to him, through me.

Even that gave him hope, though I commented unpromisingly. If the situation is as grievous as your letter seems to me to suggest, I must disillusion him again, without demoralizing him. This is the alternation of optimism and pessimism that you spoke of, is it not?

I have questioned him as tactfully and intently as I know how.

I have pondered the two points of the law in connection with this kind of seized material, as you explained them to me. Given the circumstances of his arrest I cannot see what evidence can be brought, unless someone testifies falsely.

I am extremely anxious, even frightened. As it is an unaccustomed feeling perhaps I do not evaluate it properly. A part of it is selfish. To exculpate himself in the one particular --- as to his having bought or sold the material --- he could only call upon me to speak for him, which certainly he intends not to do. He is entirely loyal and affectate. But he has a kind of childish spontaneity and frankness, and a lack of imagination about others' ill will. If he is suddenly confronted with unexpected and unfair accusations, they may rattle him badly. If he is to be questioned at length about any sort of secret or half-truth, I think he ought to be advised and guided about it; which his lawyer has not done, and which I have not know how to do.

3.

Also I must write to my artist friend, who has gone to Vermont.

Someday, dear friend, when this particular trouble is out of the way, for better or worse, will you let me question you for an hour about principles of law, perhaps I should say philosophy? It has shocked me to realize my lack of knowledge not just of the detail of the statutes but of processes of justice...

I told you, did I not, that I composed a letter to you last autumn, when someone I do not know personally, the friend of a friend, got in some such trouble. It was hoped that I could recommend a lawyer, and I could not... Someone else then recommended Mrs G., and I let it pass and did not mailed the letter and let the question slip my mind alas. I have found it in my letter-file, clipped to my scribble first draft, and I enclose it, as a little token of the way things happen.

I will telephone your office early in the week, and if you can find time to see me, I will present myself, no matter when.

I note the adverb at the end of your letter: affectionately.

You do not use words carelessly, I think, certainl not in a communication of this kind. I thank you.

With my admiration and affection, yours,

Dear Mr Ernst, dear friend,

Your letter of March 26 has troubled me profoundly. A 11 week
I have been trying to conceive how to handle my problem — my friend's
problem as it vitally concerns me — without having to asking you to
talk to me again.

But I must ask it, as I do ask it, feel that I must ask it, I
do ask it. I find myself too dismayed and too ignorant as the matter
now stands. Even in your letter there is a mystery.

I promise not to try to persuade you to do something that you
have decided against. I shall not even expect advice, but surely you
can easily enlighten me, as to the elements of your decision.
certain some of the realities general and in general and in particular.

I shall have to talk must talk to my unfortunate friend in
such a way as to prop up his moralae, and it ought to be according
to the reality, not with perhaps another of my mistakes or miscon-
ceptions.

first

When I came to see you the first time, and the second when I
the artist anxious artist,
came back with my artist friend, I was really anxious not to show any
selfish lack of courage. So perhaps I did not give you a sufficient
impression of my sense of responsibility, sense of duty, —
that I sufferend from in the matter — not indeed as to
my friend's that first misbehavior which my friend has already
not indeed about my
my friend's first misbehavior already admitted and penalized, but
as to the which my friend has already admitted and been
penalized for, but as to this problem of the objectionable material
taken from his apartment, and perhaps even also and as to the
reliability of the lady lawyer suggested by me.

Do you see what I mean by
You see what I mean by ignorance and my very mystery and
ignorance. I have pondered. I have questioned my friendl
as intet intently as I know how — I have know as I must have
told you, I have known he has been a close friend for @ five years —
and I have pondered the two points of accountability in my connection
with the things items as you explained the law with respect
to the seized objectional material taken from
his apartment which you explained to me, and I cannot do not
see how either what evidence in the cir

giv
in the circumstances of his arrest I do not see how what evidence
there can be unless someone testifies falsely. untruly.

his the question of whether or not how he came by
the matter of illegal buying or selling

It has to do not only with is not only the matter of my careless
ness about the materials items properly objectionable
material which the officers taken from his apartment, but
more particularly my being having suggested my advice and
recommended his the lawyer lawyer found out the name
named this mentioned suggested this particular his
mysterious lawyer et seq.

but before no less serious
for my seemingly greater mistake of
in sending him I recommending Mrs G.

Even the plea any sort of to plead guilty without feeling guilty, to or to plead not guilty with an a bad conscience, would demoralize me..

Has authorship made a freakish kind of man of me made me
a freakish kind of man? I believe in telling the truth; that is,
I disbelieve in not telling it. I am afraid of the untruth. The
untruth frightens me. And Untrue telling frightens me. , even
Any sort of untrue plea of guilty when one does not feel guilty, the
plea of non-guilty when one has a with a bad conscience, frighten
me. Does this perhaps set me against some of our proc esses of
justice. And the truth for me, So my mind, is the happening,
just a happening, a story, even,in a sense — in literature as in
and in life alike — a confession... Does this Perhaps this
, in the way my mind works, operates,
sets me against some of the processes of our justice... Someday,
in the way my psychology operates, somewhat against certain
dear Morris, when this trouble is out of the way for better or worse,
let us talk about that.

I have made extremely hard and inept work of this letter
because too much of it is abstract and argumentative, in the future
or the subjunctive tense. I think that it would I feel tempted
to try to write it all rather tempted I have felt tempted to
write it all I wish I could write it instead in absolute
and veritable narrative form for everyone to read to be read
by everyone, everyone...

I note the advert at the end of your letter: affectionately. You
do not use words carelessly, I think, certainly not in a communication
of this kind. I thank you.

With my sincere admiration and affection, yours

LAWRENCE S. GREENBAUM (1915-1951)

EDWARD S. GREENBAUM

HERBERT A. WOLFF

MORRIS L. ERNST

LEO ROSEN

HARRIET F. PILPEL

WILLIAM F. WOLFF, JR

WIRTH H. KOENIG

MAURICE C. GREENBAUM

HERBERT A. WOLFF, JR

CASSRELL GREENBERG

ALAN L. ROSENBLUM

PLATT V. KETCHAM

JOHN A. WIENER

CHARLES E. HEMING

JULIA PERLES

FREDERIC S. NATHAN

BARRY LEE COHEN

RICHARD M. ADER

MIMI OBSTLER

NATHANIEL H. JANES

BARRY H. SINGER

NANCY F. WECHSLER

GREENBAUM, WOLFF & ERNST

285 MADISON AVENUE

NEW YORK 17, N. Y.

TELEPHONE MURRAY HILL 5-1582

CABLE ADDRESSES:
GREWOLFERN, NEW YORK
MORERNST, NEW YORK

March 26, 1957

My dear Glenway:

I received the papers from Miss Gottlieb and have conferred with her. I have concluded that I cannot benefit either the defendant or your artist friend by injecting our office into this situation. I know that your concern is in no way personal and therefor I doubly respect your interest in the situation. One lawyer is bad enough but two in this present affair would spell chaos.

If as matters develop you do want to chat with me further don't hesitate to do so, although I am quite persuaded that I would not have the heart to take any fee for getting into this situation as an additional advisor for a client who could never be named.

Mr. Glenway Wescott
Stone-blossom
Hampton, New Jersey

GREENBAUM, WOLFF & ERNST

TELEPHONE MURRAY HILL 5-1582

EDWARD S. GREENBAUM
HERBERT A. WOLFF
MORRIS L. ERNST
LEO ROSEN
HARRIET F. PILPEL
WILLIAM F. WOLFF, JR.
WIRTH H. KOENIG
MAURICE C. GREENBAUM
HERBERT A. WOLFF, JR.

CASSRELL GREENBERG
ALAN L. ROSENBLUM
PLATT V. KETCHAM
JOHN A. WIENER
CHARLES E. HEMING
JULIA PERLES
FREDERIC S. NATHAN
BARRY LEE COHEN
RICHARD M. ADER
BARRY H. SINGER
NANCY F. WECHSLER
MORTON DAVID GOLDBERG

May 1, 1957

Mr. Glenway Westcott
Stone-Blossom
Hampton, N. J.

Dear Glenway:

I have confirmed to Sol Gelb that the check is in
hand and that his fee will be paid by our firm check
to his order. I have also written Mr. Costabell con-
firming the understanding that his firm's check for
$3,000 will cover our fees and those of Mr. Gelb. If
Mr. Gelb should incur any substantial out-of-pocket
disbursements, he might be disposed to bill additionally
and separately for them.

All the best.

LR:JJ

Enc.

GREENBAUM, WOLFF & ERNST

TELEPHONE MURRAY HILL 5-1582

EDWARD S. GREENBAUM

HERBERT A. WOLFF

MORRIS L. ERNST

LEO ROSEN

HARRIET F. PILPEL

WILLIAM F. WOLFF, JR.

WIRTH H. KOENIG

MAURICE C. GREENBAUM

HERBERT A. WOLFF, JR.

CASSRELL GREENBERG

ALAN L. ROSENBLUM

PLATT V. KETCHAM

JOHN A. WIENER

CHARLES E. HEMING

JULIA PERLES

FREDERIC S. NATHAN

BARRY LEE COHEN

RICHARD M. ADER

MIMI OBSTLER

NATHANIEL H. JANES

BARRY H. SINGER

NANCY F. WECHSLER

CABLE ADDRESSES:

GREWOLFERN, NEW YORK

MORERNST, NEW YORK

May 1, 1957

Charles J. Costabell, Esq.

Messrs. Mumma, Crane, Costabell,
Cloutman & Savarese

61 Broadway
New York, N. Y.

Dear Mr. Costabell:

This will acknowledge receipt of your letter dated
May 1st and check to our order in the amount of
$3,000. This will confirm your understanding that
this check is in payment of our fees and those of
Sol Gelb, Esq. for representing Mr. John Connolly
in a legal matter which has been entrusted to us.

By
Leo Rosen

LR:JJ

cc: Mr. Glenway Westcott

Stone-blossom, Hampton, N.J.

Clinton (N.J.) 1868

May 1, 1957

Dear Mr. Rubino, dear Counselor,

Thank you for your counsel.

I remember that I came away without giving the young lady in your outer office my address, as above. Will you let me know what my monetary indebtedness amounts to, or ask her to do so?

I am sending you a couple of books, tokens of the more personal appreciation. My two real success stories were long ago, and one of them is out of print. I have THE GRANDMOTHERS in a sort of college edition. As that would make too modest a gift by itself, I am adding something just pleasing to Frasconi's Aesop woodcuts with a little prose by me, $250 worth to be exact, written to order after he made them.

One effect of Mr. Gelb's intervention is going to be that
Harper & Bros. (or a rival firm) will be given opportunity to put me
under contract or contracts, so that I can take some advance royalties
and lend them to my unfortunate friend. His earning power is adequate
and his credit is good; but it will take him some time.

Yours appreciatively,

Stone-blossom, Hampton, N.J.

Clinton (N.J.) 186R

May 1, 1957

Dear Mr Rubino, dear Counselor,

Thank you for your counsel.

I am sending you a couple of books, tokens of the more personal appreciation. My two real successes were long ago, and one of them is out of print. I have THE GRANDMOTHERS in a sort of college edition. As that would make too modest a gift by itself, I am adding something just pleasing: Frasconi's Aesop woodcuts with a little prose by me, $250 worth to be exact, written to order after he made them.

One effect of Mr Gelb's intervention is going to be that Harper & Bros. (or a rival firm) will be given opportunity to put me under contract or contracts, so that I can take some advance royalties and lend them to my unforseen friend. His earning power is adequate and his credit is good; but it will take him some time.

Yours appreciatively,

May 14, 1957

Dear Leo,

I am sending to you by this same poetry CALENDAR OF SAINTS (ob-
jected to by the diocese in Boston in its day) — which I think may
make you laugh or smile; which in any case will ornament a bookshelf,
as it is now a rarity in the bibliophilic way.

To which I have added another publication by the same little de
luxe publishing "company" of the twenties in Paris. It consisted of
Monroe Wheeler, now the director of exhibitions and publications of the
Museum of Modern Art, and EMM Barbara Harrison, now my brother's wife.
We translated this famous novelette (better as an opera than in Merimee's
text, in my opinion) in tripartite collaboration; I dictated in English
from the French, M.W. wrote it down, and quibbled and challenged and
emended non-stop, and Barbara wielded the dictionaries, etc.

As I think I told when you telephoned the other, The Holliday
Bookshop regretfully informed me that my main volumes were not in
stock — and I instructed them to procure some, and you shall have them.
Meanwhile I am sending the schoolbook GRANDMOTHERS and the Dell omnibus
which, by the company I keep in it, flatters me more than anything else
in my half-baked career.

Thank you for telephoning, with the reassuring or optimism-inspiring
word from Mr Gelb. Now I can concentrate on my New Yorker stories, and
John can take his vacation with his sweet virtuous little mother, etc,
with our fingers crossed, and all under better control. I can't tell
you how highly I think of your intervention in that muddle.

Yours faithfully,