FARRAR & RINEHART

INCORPORATED
PUBLISHERS

232 MADISON AVENUE
CABLES · FARRINE · NEWYORK

10th September 1941

Dudley Poore, Esq.,
R. D. 2,
Marietta, New York.

Dear Dudley:

I wonder if you
could come down to town next Thursday,
the 18th, for lunch? John Peale Bishop
is very anxious to have the three of
us get together that day. We'd be
glad to pay your expenses to town, and I
hope you'll let me know that you can
make it.

With good wishes,

John Farrar.

JF:MR

Sorry I won't be here to sign this.

FARRAR & RINEHART

INCORPORATED
PUBLISHERS

232 MADISON AVENUE
CABLES · FARRINE · NEW YORK

January 8, 1942

Dudley Poore, Esq.
Skaneateles
New York

Dear Mr. Poore:

Thank you for the two
sections of Book III of the Gilbert which
have come in. When you send along the
last section of Book III, will you put a
note on it so I'll know it's the end of
that part? Then Mr. Rinehart can read it
that far.

I haven't read the first
two books yet, but Mr. Gordon is enthusiastic about it and about the translation.

jc

9 May 1944

Skaneateles, N.Y.

Dear Miss Sherer:

Many thanks for the copy of *Enriqueta* and I.

I don't know how the idea arose that I didn't wish to be
bothered with proofs. If I ever said such a thing I'm willing to
eat my words. I have never seen proofs on which there was no work
at all to be done. There is no trouble I am not willing to take to
get a perfect text.

The carbon of my letter asking to see the proofs of *The Bonfire* is dated April 8th 1943 and Mr. Farrar's reply, the 9th. I also find a copy of my letter of June 30th 1942 to Miss Crawford asking to see those of *Our Daily Bread*. That letter must have been overlooked for it received no answer.

Perhaps it was feared I might wish to waste time altering
words or even constructions. That is not the case. I have read the
carbon of *The Bonfire* and find, as I expected, nothing that I would
wish to change in the wording or in the sentences.

The middle section, Book III, however, was done first for use in
*Redbook* and contained a place-name which differed from the form
used for the same place elsewhere in the book. I wrote Miss Crawford concerning this point on June 29th 1942, saying, "Will you be so kind as to change the place-name of *Beco* to *Beco de Lucca* on p.3-1-1, line 1, and again on p.3-1-4, line 47?" This may seem a small point, and so it is. But it is the very sort of detail on which a certain kind of reviewer loves to pounce. Perhaps the alteration was made in accordance with my request. If so, all is well.

I felt it very important to check all proper names in the
same way, with a view to perfect uniformity. If the book is not
actually on press I could still make this check in a very short
time without causing more than a few days' delay. Otherwise I suppose there is nothing to be done. Let us hope all will be well, or
well enough to escape notice.

With kindest regards,

Miss Adelaide A. Sherer
Farrar & Rinehart Inc.
232 Madison Avenue
New York, N.Y.

232 MADISON AVENUE
CABLES · FARRINE · NEW YORK 16

14th April 1944

Dudley Poore, Esq.,
Skaneateles,
New York.

Dear Mr. Poore:

I am distressed by your last letter, because of the fact that THE BONFIRE is even now on press, if not actually off. I have asked around for evidence as to why we didn't send you proofs, and there seems to have been a profound conviction, including a note on the production record, that you had said long ago that you didn't want to be bothered with them. Well, I'm afraid you will just have to forgive us, and when we have books I trust you will find that all is well.

With good wishes,

AAS:MR

10 April 1944

Skaneateles, New York

Dear Miss Sherer:

Many thanks for your note of April 5th. Strange to say I did
not know John Farrar was with the OWI.

As to the BONFIRE, I will read my carbon through at once for a
final check on corrections.

In our DAILY BREAD there are a few misprint s which I could
have spotted had I seen the proofs. I wrote Mr.Farrar a year ago,
t herefore, offering to read the proofs of THE BONFIRE when it should
be printed,to which he replied approving the suggestion.

I hope this plan may st ill hold. Has the book been set up yet?

Miss Adelaide A. Sherer
Farrar and Rinehart Inc.
232 Madison Avenue
New York,N.Y.

31 March 1944

Skaneateles, New York

Dear John Farrar:

I hope you were pleased with the reviews of OUR DAILY BREAD. I take some credit for them, for I believe the translation is a better book than the original. Excellent reports of it are still reaching me through the State Department.

Is there any activity at the moment in your Latin-American branch? If so, I should be glad to have a hand in it.

Is anybody regularly acting as your reader or consultant in regard to books in Spanish and Portuguese?

All best wishes

Faithfully,

John Ferrar Esq.
232 Madison Avenue
New York, N.Y.

16

27th A ugust 1943.

Dudley Poore, Esq.,
Marietta, New York.

Dear Mr. Poore:

Thank you for your letter of
August twenty-sixth which I am acknowledging
in the absence of Miss Sherer on vacation.

We would be most grateful if
you would send us a list of any typographical
or other errors which you may have found in
OUR DAILY BREAD. We'd like to keep them on
file, and then in the event of another printing,
they could be corrected.

A copy of OUR DAILY BREAD was
sent to Mr. David Loth at the same time that your
copies were sent to you. He should have it by
this time, and I hope that he will include some-
thing about the book in Mr. Flores' pamphlet.

With good wishes,

MJR:R

26 August 1943

Marietta, New York

Dear Miss Sherer:

The copies of OUR DAILY BREAD arrived safely. Many thanks for them and for your note of the 12th.

I have been more than pleased, needless to say, by the reviews. I hope the book will sell.

As you know, I did not see the proofs and some misprints have crept in. Few but myself would notice them, perhaps; still, they are here and should be removed before another printing.

Mr. David Loth, Chief of Publications in the Coordinator's Office, had not received a copy of the book when I was in Washington early this month. He charged me to ask Mr. Farrar if he might have one. He wishes to include some mention of the book in a pamphlet which Mr. Flores prepared for _Missxofx_ distribution through his office and in which no mention of OUR DAILY BREAD had as yet been included. Intended as a readers' guide for North Americans, the pamphlet was designed to include an account of all translations of Latin American books now available to readers in this country. It would be a pity if the Latin American book which has had a greater artistic success than any so far translated - not excepting Broad and Alien is the World - should fail to appear in Mr. Flores' pamphlet. It should not only appear there: it should have the kind of mention its merit deserves.

With all good wishes,

Miss Adelaide A. Sherer
Managing Editor
Farrar and Rinehart Inc.
232 Madison Avenue
New York, N.Y.

FARRAR & RINEHART

INCORPORATED
PUBLISHERS

232 MADISON AVENUE
CABLES·FARRINE·NEWYORK 16

12 August 1943.

Dear Mr. Poore:

I am distressed to hear that you
have never received copies of OUR DAILY
BREAD. I don't know how the oversight
occurred, and I hope you'll forgive us and
put the blame on summer vacations.

Under separate cover I am sending
you three copies and hope they will reach
you safely.

I am sure you are as pleased as
we are at the fine reviews that the book
has been getting.

Sincerely yours,

AAS:MR

FARRAR & RINEHART

INCORPORATED
PUBLISHERS

4 February 1943.

Dear Mr. Poore:

I am enclosing our check for
$640.39 in payment of your fee for trans-
lating THE BONFIRE by Cecilio J. Carneiro.
This is based on your count of 106,733 words.

The book is now scheduled for
late May publication.

WMS
Enclosure.

3 December 1942

Skaneateles, New York

Dear Mr. Rinehart:

The translation of THE BONFIRE is completely revised.

Part III, as you know, is already in your office. The rest I will
send as fast as I can type it.

Let us leave the fee at six dollars a thousand words. I will
forward the agreement tonight when I have read it through.

Mr. Stanley M. Rinehart, Jr.
Farrar and Rinehart Inc.
232 Madison Avenue
New York, N.Y.

1 December 1942.

Dear Dudley Poore:

As I haven't had any reply to my
suggestion that we make the translation agree-
ment for THE BONFIRE on the basis of $6.00 a
thousand words, I am assuming that this is all
right with you. I have, therefore, drawn up
an agreement in duplicate. If this is in order,
will you please sign and return a copy for our
files?

I hope we are going to see some
more of the translation soon. Can you tell us
at this point when the next batch will be along,
and when you expect to finish the whole job?

SMR:wms
Enclosures.

FARRAR & RINEHART

INCORPORATED

PUBLISHERS

1 December 1942.

Dear Mr. Poore:

This letter will serve as a memorandum of agreement between you
and Farrar & Rinehart, Inc., for the translation into English of A FOGUEIRA
(THE BONFIRE) by Cecilio J. Carneiro.

We agree to pay you for your translation an outright fee of
Six Dollars ($6.00) for each and every thousand (1,000) words of text, pay-
ment to be made on delivery of the complete translation. This payment covers
all rights in the translation.

It is understood and agreed that you will deliver to us a manu-
script complete and ready for the press. Should we find that the manuscript
needs any editing, we reserve the right to do this.

Since corrections made in proofs are very costly, and since
there is no Author's account in the case of a translation against which ex-
cessive proof corrections could be charged, you agree to make no corrections
or changes in the proofs other than those which are absolutely necessary, such
as typographical and printer's errors, or misstatements of fact. If it should
seem desirable to make changes other than these, it is agreed that we are to
have the final decision in the matter after obtaining careful estimates of the
cost of making such changes.

If this is in accordance with your understanding of the arrange-
ment, will you please sign and return one copy of this letter, which is submitted
in duplicate, for our files?

Very truly yours,
FARRAR & RINEHART, INC.

Stanley M. Rinehart, Jr.
President

Agreed:

SMR:vms

FARRAR & RINEHART

INCORPORATED
PUBLISHERS

21 October 1942.

Dear Mr. Poore:

I was rather startled to have
your letter about the translation rate for
THE BONFIRE, as the other book was figured
at $5.00 a thousand words and our natural
assumption was that you were doing them both
at that rate. I would have been a little more
receptive for an increase in the rate if the
translation hadn't been pushed around so much.
In fact, you have had the two books since the
early summer of 1941. Considering all the cir-
cumstances, I think $6.00 a thousand is a fair
compromise.

SMR:wms

19 October 1942

Marietta, New York

Dear Mr. Sladen:

The 36,000 words of THE BONFIRE now in your office come
to just under 100 pages of the original Brazilian text. The total
of that is 372 pages. Figuring from that the total words of the
translation would work out to something under 135,000, would they
not? Or am I way off? It seems a terrific figure.

The final revision of Book One I finished last week. Book
Two will be done the end of this. In these I have cut out the re-
dundancies and the useless repetitions of the author even more
rigorously than I did in Part Three. It may well be, therefore,
that the ratio of the translation to the manuscript may be con-
siderably less in these two books, as also in the remaining two.

Yours very sincerely,

Mr. William M. Sladen
Farrar and Rinehart Inc.
232 Madison Avenue
New York, N.Y.

9 October 1942.

Dear Mr. Poore:

It is urgent that we complete publi-
cation of the books from the first Latin
American contest as early as possible, because
the manuscripts from the second contest will
be coming in before very long.

Can't you hurry along the translation
of THE BONFIRE? We are anxious to show this to
Redbook and get it scheduled for book publication.

SMR:wms

12 October 1942

Marietta, New York

Dear Mr. Rinehart:

Thank you for your note of the 9th. I am giving all my time
to the final revision of The Bonfire and will continue to do so
till the remaining portion is finished. Another section of fifteen
chapters will be done this week.

Book Three, the part already in your office - running to
36,080 words - contains the sequence I thought most suitable to
publication alone; indeed the only part which, it seems to me, can
be detached from the rest. With it I enclosed a brief summary of
preceding chapters which, if needed, would provide the material for
a synopsis in the magazine.

I trust $7.50 a thousand words is your idea, as it is mine,
of a suitable rate for this translation. Though it is less than
I have been getting, it is the rate which Mrs. de Onis and Mr.
Angel Flores demanded and received for the work they did for me
when I was editing Fiesta in November.

With all good wishes

Sincerely,

Mr. Stanley M. Rinehart, Jr.
232 Madison Avenue
New York, N.Y.

30 September 1942

Marietta, New York

Dear Miss Crawford:

I enclose six chapters of the Bonfire, numbers 3 - 13 to
3 - 18 inclusive, amounting to 11,552 words. This completes Book
III and brings the score, so far, to 36,080 words.

Miss Jean Crawford
Farrar and Rinehart, Inc.
232 Madison Avenue
New York, N.Y.

25 July 1942

Marietta, New York

Dear Miss Crawford:

Here are the parts of Book III which were not required for the
novelette. They consist of Chapters 3, 6, and 7 entire and the remaining por-
tions of Chapters 11 and 12. Will you kindly insert them in their proper
places? The page numbers tally with those of the MS you already have.

The portions of Chapters 11 and 12 here enclosed follow what pre-
cedes without a break.

The brackets in pencil, showing what passages were unnecessary for
the novelette, should be removed when these chapters are inserted in their
proper places.

These chapters come to 7280 words and bring to total score so far
up to 24,528 words.

With best wishes

Sincerely yours,

30 June 1942

Marietta, New York

Dear Miss Crawford:

In case you need it, I am enclosing a brief synopsis of the
earlier portion of The Bonfire for use with the Red Book novelette. It
may, of course, be altered in any way necessary, or made the basis of
something different

I heard only a few days ago that a portion of Our Daily Bread
had appeared in Red Book. Do you happen to recall what month it was? I
should like to write in for a copy.

I hope I may be allowed to correct the galley proofs of Our
Daily Bread before the book is published. I never saw Book Two after it
was typed from my much-corrected copy and I should like much to make sure
that no errors crept in. Moreover, in everything that followed Part One I
used a somewhat more formal style of dialogue. It is possible that a few
too colloquial phrases in Part One ought to be altered or toned down so
as to make them perfectly in keeping with what follows.

Sincerely yours,

THE BONFIRE

Elias Guerra, the son of simple village folk in Syria, contrives by native intelligence and will, to lift himself from his humble situation. He escapes first to Tripoli and then, still unsatisfied with his narrow lot, still dreaming of a larger life, he goes to Brazil.

There, in Sao Paulo, he prospers modestly, and by his integrity and rough good sense, wins the respect of the community in which he lives. Still unsatisfied, he bides his time while awaiting some new opportunity. At length seizing a moment when the price of coffee has temporarily fallen, he speaketh audaciously and wins a fortune.

Even now his ambition is not satisfied. He dreams of becoming a landowner, of developing a vast coffee plantation. Instead of resting on his oars, he buys an enormous tract of uncleared land in the interior of the State of Sao Paulo. The enterprise he has undertaken is full of difficulties much greater than he knows, but not too great for his will, his imagination, or his thirst for action; and he sets out to occupy his new estate, accompanied by his wife and a flock of small daughters, in the spirit of a Conquistador setting out to win an unknown empire.

He has not, however, risen thus high in the world without exciting envy in some hearts; notably in that of his own cousin, Saladino Guerra, who has accompanied him to Brazil. Saladino, in a vain, ineffectual, unbalanced character, has always considered himself the intelligent member of the Guerra family. Failing to make any place for himself in the New World, his envy of Elias turns to hatred and then to active malice.

The following chapters tell how the hero, Elias, meets this unforeseen danger; how he tames an uncontrollable river which threatens to destroy his lands; how he saves his plantation and carves a new world out of the wilderness.

29 June 1942

Marietta, New York

Dear Miss Crawford:

I don't think any of the Carneiro chapters have gone astray. (I have one carbon, in any case). Those I have sent, all from Book Three, form a continuous narrative - the only detachable sequence in the book - and can be printed in novelette form, if Mr. Farrar chooses to pass them on to the Red Book for that purpose. The numbering of chapters and pages is that of the original MS and shows just where each page belongs in the complete book.

A page numbered 3 - 10 - 4, for instance, would mean Book Three, Chapter Ten, page four. Thus, when I send the missing portions, which deal with other threads of the narrative, you will know just where they belong.

When the chapters now in your hands go to Red Book, they should be numbered consecutively. I have indicated, with brackets in pencil and also in a note at the end of the chapters where they occur, several very short passages which are not relevant to the novelette and should be dropped in the Red Book copy. They should remain where they are in the novel.

Will you be so kind as to change the place-name O Beco to Beco de Lucca on 3 - 1 - 1, line 1, and again on 3 - 1 - 4, line 4? This form will be more understandable to North American readers.

The portions I have sent you are Chapters 1, 2, 4, 5, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, (the last two only in part) and amount to 17,248 words in all, more than enough, I should think, for novelette purposes. The portion of Alegria's book used in Red Book ran to about ten thousand words, didn't it?

At the moment, then, I have been translating out of order, but not actually cutting any whole sections. What cutting I have done is in the narrative itself. The style in this book is not only extremely plain - as you will have noticed - but extremely prolix, and where Mr. Carneiro says the same thing three or four times over on the same page I have usually assumed that once is enough for U.S. readers and shall go ahead on that plan. I'm sure everybody will be the happier.

Sincerely,

P.S. Please note that I am back at Marietta, New York. Letters addressed to Skaneateles, N.Y. will still reach me, but with a day's delay.

7 May 1942

Skaneateles, New York

Dear Miss Crawford:

The sentences enclosed in brackets on pages 6 and 12 of this chapter should be omitted when this portion of The Bonfire is used in nevelette form.

Sincerely,

4 February 1942

Skaneateles, New York

Dear Miss Crawfords

Here is the end of Book III, the point at which Mr DOD Passos feels - as I do - that the book should end. The various motifs sounded in Book I are sounded again in a series of striking scenes just before the close; and in the last words Captain Sandoval, the hero of Book II, rides out of the picture.

Part IV, a series of workers meetings and night club scenes in Guayaquil, is not very relevant to what has gone before and is very inferior in interest. It consists, as Mr Pos Passos puts it, of scattered notes for a novel Mr. Gilbert hasn't yet written.

Would you care to have me correct the typed copy of Book II, or has that already been done?

Your note gave me more pleasure than I can say. I was very happy to hear that Mr. Gordon thought well of Books I and II. At the end of Part III there are several scenes - the death of the Indian, Aucapina, for instance - as striking, I think, as anything in the book.

Sincerely

FARRAR & RINEHART

INCORPORATED
PUBLISHERS

31st December 1941

Dear Dudley:

Isn't it more than time that we
were getting more of the translation of OUR
DAILY BREAD? We won't be able to publish at
all this spring if you don't hurry up.

This isn't exactly a "Happy"
New Year greeting to you, but truly it is impor-
tant for us to get on with this book.

All best wishes,

JF:hh

FARRAR & RINEHART

INCORPORATED
PUBLISHERS

4th December 1941

Dudley Poore, Esq.
Skaneateles, New York

Dear Dudley:

I think it will probably save us all the trouble if we have the manuscript typed by one of the girls here. She will have to do it outside office hours and will have to be paid for it, but we will assume the cost. All of your endeavors now should be turned to getting the rest of the translation to us and getting under way with the next one.

Thanks for your good words about BROAD AND ALIEN IS THE WORLD. Its appearance seems to have pleased everyone.

With all good wishes, and let's have some more of the book soon, please,

JF:hh

(Sorry, I won't be here to sign this)

FARRAR & RINEHART

INCORPORATED
PUBLISHERS

27th November 1941

Dear Dudley:

The translation of OUR DAILY BREAD
seems to be coming along nicely and I hope
it is not going to be much longer before we
see the rest of it.

There is one definite problem,
aside from the main problem of getting the
complete manuscript, which must be settled
before we go on. Your corrections on the
manuscript which we now have are perfectly
legible, but no editor or printer can be
expected to work from a manuscript so inter-
lined. It will, therefore, be absolutely
necessary to have the manuscript retyped.
Shall we go ahead and have it done here and
charge it against your account or what?

JF:HH

FARRAR & RINEHART

INCORPORATED

PUBLISHERS

232 MADISON AVENUE

CABLES · FARRINE · NEW YORK

6th November 1941

Dudley Poore, Esq.
R. D. #2
Marietta, New York

Dear Mr. Poore:

I am disappointed that there has been no answer from you to my letter of October twenty-ninth. This situation is really getting more serious every minute.

In order to publish OUR DAILY BREAD in February, the manuscript would have to go to the printer on November fifteenth. Obviously this is now impossible, since the manuscript will have to be read by several people and styled for the printer before it can actually be set.

Postponing this book beyond February is a very serious complication in our program for the publication of the Latin-American prize winning novels. We had hoped to do OUR DAILY BREAD in January and THE BONFIRE in February. Then we had to postpone OUR DAILY BREAD to February, because you didn't deliver the manuscript, this all in addition to our production problems which I explained in my last letter.

It is also important, of course, for you to have the piece of THE BONFIRE for *Redbook* and both manuscripts completed as fast as possible. It has been four months, after all, since we have had a scrap of manuscript from you. You must give us a schedule, and I shall expect an answer from you by return mail.

SMR:hh

10 November 1941

Skaneateles, New York

Dear Mr. Rinehart:

I have sent in six sections of Our Daily Bread, fully
corrected during the last few days, and will continue to send in
the typed manuscript, a portion each day, as fast as I can cor-
rect it. From that it should be possible, in a few days, for me to
calculate how fast I am going and how long the whole will re-
quire.

Your letter of the 6th was forwarded to me today from
Marietta and I found it, you may be sure, pretty disturbing. I
think I have been asked to do more different things than, in the
given time, I could possibly do without sinking under water. I
certainly feel today as if I were a very long way under. For in-
instance, the project concerning Latin American classics which I
was called to New York to consult upon, and which required a
large amount of time, reading, and correspondence, was represented
to me as one of the utmost urgency, one necessary to be carried
through with all possible speed. At that time I certainly gained
the impression - perfectly incorrect, I see - that the trans-
lation was the less urgent and that the classics were the things
to which I was supposed to be devoting what time I had to give.
In any case, on my return to Marietta I gave to them many hours
of work which I had no desire to do and could not well afford
to do just then; and I was happy to receive from the office a
note of thanks which seemed to recognize the time and trouble I
had taken. I see well enough now that I should have said I could
have nothing to do with the enterprise at the time; but I wished
to be helpful so far as I could; and in view of the fact that I
had been asked to take time for the other project, it never for
a moment crossed my mind that the office could wish for the cor-
rected version of Our Daily Bread to complete on October 27th. or
indeed anywhere near that date.

I know that to some people such difficulties as these
are stimulating. I gather that they are so to Mr. Churchill, for
example, but I was never more sure than I am just now that I am
not Mr. Churchill.

Sincerely yours,

29 November 1941

Skaneateles, New York

Dear John:

Of course I see, now that you mention it, that no printer
could work from a manuscript so interlined as that I sent you.
I imagined I was saving time, because I did not think of myself
as a rapid typist and because I wished to cover as much ground
as possible. But the method proved to be a laborious one and
quite possibly I could have made a typed copy in a space of time
not much greater. Do send it back and I will endeavor to make
a fair copy while holding up the rest of the work as little as
possible. I can't suggest that you have typed at my expense
because I have already paid to have three fourths of it typed
and because the extremely modest sum I asked for the work in
the beginning barely covers my own expenditures on it.

All the same, the work has been a labor of love, though one
of immense technical difficulty. I feel sure it will delight
you, especially all the part I have just sent in, as much as it
has delighted me, even while it has caused me to sweat blood.
Perhaps I have taken too much pains. I shall not think so if the
translation has the depth and richness of texture I have tried
to give it; the kind of texture which Latin American literature
does not itself have; and if, as I believe it to be, the transla-
tion is, in several ways, a better book than the original.

Even though the manuscript on my desk is screaming at me
for attention, I must not break off before I have told you how
much I am impressed by Broad and Alien is the World, by the
beautiful form in which you have presented it, and the amazing
felicity of the translation by Harriet Onis. I shall tell you
all this again at greater length at some moment of less pressure.

Sincerly,

Mr. John Farrar
232 Madison Avenue
New York, N.Y.

FARRAR & RINEHART

INCORPORATED
PUBLISHERS

16

5th April 1944

Dear Mr. Poore:

I am answering your letter of March thirty-first, because apparently you haven't heard that John Farrar is Overseas with the OWI and has been since early last Fall.

Yes, indeed, we were pleased with the reviews of OUR DAILY BREAD.

I am sure you will be pleased to hear that THE BONFIRE is finally on its way to publication. We plan to bring it out sometime in the Summer.

At the moment there isn't much activity on our Latin American front, but we are glad to know that you are standing by in case we need your advice on any item.

With all good wishes,

AAS:MR

8 November 1941

Skaneateles, New York

Dear Miss Crawford:

Will you please note my change of address and remove
the old one from your files? Mail addressed to Marietta will
reach me, but not without some delay. I have had to change my
hearth and home to this place at a moment when I could very ill
afford to spend the time; but here I am at least nearer the
world.

I am sorry the manuscript is not absolutely fair copy
but I wished to get it on its way to you in the shortest time.
When I began to prepare this part of Our Daily Bread for you I
gave the first four episodes of Book Two what amounts to a com-
plete rewriting. Those episodes form what is certainly the most
remarkable section of the book - the most remarkable writing I
have seen by any Latin American past or present - and I felt it
important to give them the very best rendering I could. This I
have done to my own satisfaction.

But to what remains I will not give any such extensive
reworking and my corrections will consist of about what you will
see on the manuscript of Chapter Two. The first part of Chapter
Two will go to you Monday. I will see how fast I can feed the ma-
terial in during the first few days of the week and from that it
should be possible to estimate how long the whole of it will re-
quire.

I do not find it at all easy to shift from one project
to another. Indeed experience proves that for me it is an im-
possibility. The project concerning Latin American classics which
I was called to New York to consult upon and which required a
great amount of time, reading, and correspondence was represented
to me as one of the utmost urgency, one necessary to be carried
through with all possible speed, and I received from your office,
concerning it, letters almost as urgent as those I have lately re-
ceived from you. It is true that you asked me for copy, but it was
impossible to do the two things at once, and I certainly gained
the impression that the classics were the things to which I
should be devoting myself. I certainly devoted myself very atten-
tively to that task on my return to Marietta and was happy to re-
ceive from the office a note of thanks for the trouble I had ta-
ken. I see well enough now that I should have said I could have
nothing to do with the enterprise at the time; but it really
never crossed my mind that the office would wish for the correc-
ted version of Our Daily Bread on October 27th or indeed anywhere
near that date. To another person none of this, I suppose, would

2

present any difficulty whatever; and I hope I may, if I do not die of heart failure first, become one of those to whom the handling of a complicated program is easy.

All the same, I hope that until Our Dail Bread is all in your office no one will ask me to stop it to work one something still more urgent.

Sincerely yours,

3 November 1941

Skaneateles, New York

Dear Mr, Rinehart:

I have counted the words in ten pages of the typed
manuscript of Our Daily Bread and find that they range from 245
words a page for the passages of most solid transcription to 140
words a page for the passages which are mostly dialogue. The
average seems to be about 225 words to a page. The number of pages
in the three parts amounts to 269. There were, I believe, 102 pages
in Part One.

The corrected pages which I have mailed to Miss Craw-
ford will enable you to make sure whether the figures above are
approximately correct. I am sending her another section on Mon-
day, and will have another large chunk ready the middle of the
week. Those pages contain some of the most brilliant passages
in the book; the best, in fact, I have seen by any modern Latin
American. I feel sure they will give people a very good opinion
of Equadorian writing.

Sincerely,

Stanley N. Rinehart, Jr.
232 Madison Avenue
New York, N.Y.

20 October 1941

Marietta, New York

Dear Miss Crawford:

The parts of Our Daily Bread as typed out now

run as follows: Part 1. 102 pages
2. 91"
3. 119"
4. 59"

This totals 371 pages. Part 4. is, as I pointed out in the beginning, much inferior to the rest. The trouble is not the kind that revision or rewriting could remedy. It is simply that the novel ends with the disappearance of its central figure at the end of Part 3. Part 4. is really just a series of unorganized notes for the beginning of another novel not yet written, and if printed with the rest will greatly detract from the first three parts. It ought simply to be left off altogether for the sake of the book as well as the author's future reputation. Though I arrived at this conclusion independently, I have discussed the matter at length with Mr. Dos Passos who is strongly of the same opinion and has given me permission to quote him to this effect. Mr. Gilbert was himself told our opinion.

In the office you will of course judge for yourself when you see the whole. But I cannot urge too strongly that the feeble fourth part be omitted from the book when it is printed. Is it enough for me to say this here, or shall I write Mr. Farrar saying it to him directly?

There is a great deal of work to do on the Carneiro book; and, as I wrote you, I cannot do the research necessary on it till I have the means of being in the city. But I will put the Gilbert in final shape for you just as fast as I can write it out and will give it every moment of my time.

Sincerely,

10th October 1941

Dudley Poore, Esq.
Marietta, New York

Dear Mr. Poore:

Thanks for your list
of titles for the suggested South
American project. I know it
represents a great deal of read-
ing on your part, and we are
awfully glad to have your judge-
ment.

John and I are going
to have a discussion shortly on
the whole business, and you will
doubtless be hearing from us
again soon.

JKG:HH

13 October 1941

Marietta, New York

Dear Miss Crawford:

I can't send in any of the Carneiro from here as there
is research necessary on it which can only be done in town. I
can send you some Gilbert copy from here, however, if that is
what you wish. That is what I should much prefer to be doing, for
that only requires final writing out; but I wouldn't want to be
asked suddenly for Carneiro copy in the meantime.

Will you let me know?

Sincerely,

4 October 0041

Marietta, New York

Dear Mr. Gordon:

Out of the eleven titles listed I have given below the six that seem to me most promising. FACUNDO is substantial and an undoubtedly "classic"; though, as you know, the author devotes much space to telling his readers that, while the Atlantic Ocean is on one side of South America, the Pacific is on the other. Properly cut and translated in a flexible style with a 20th century vocabulary it offers possibilities. Payro's style has more vitality and is closer to that of our time. Bolivar is historically a very important figure and material about him in English is very scarce indeed. His letters and speeches, if made available in translation, would become, I should think, required reading in every course in South American history in every school.

I have not given you here my reasons for excluding certain items from this preliminary list. I should be glad to do so if you wish them. MEMORIAS DE MAMA BLANCA, for instance, is a gentle picture of Venezuelan family life in the 19th century by a gentle, well-bred authoress. It is not a novel, rather a series of sketches. I should never think of calling it absorbing or a fine psychological study. Its psychology is rudimentary. It has a gracious, mild old-fashioned charm. It would please a certain audience and might well be done later.

Sincerely,

1. Machado de Assis: DON CASMURRO

2. Ricardo Palma: TRADICIONES PERUANAS

3. ROBERTO PAYRONDIVERTIDAS AVENTURAS DEL NIETO DE JUAN MOREIRA

6. Sarmiento: FACUNDO

7. Bolivar: SELECTIONS

FARRAR & RINEHART

INCORPORATED
PUBLISHERS

1st October 1941

Dear Mr. Poore:

How is the South American
chore proceeding? We are anxious
to get ahead with it.

John Bishop sent along a
letter from someone which suggested
the advisability of bringing out the
FACUNDO by Sarmiento. I don't
know whether this was included on
your list. Junioir: it was.

With very kind regards,

JKG:hh

10 September 1941

Marietta, New York

Dear John:

I have received your lists of South American classics
And will phone you concerning them the first time I am in
town. In the meanwhile, if there is anything you would like
to know concerning them, will you send me word, or ask Miss
Crawford to do so, at Marietta, New York?

The country is delicious and the cool days excellent
for accomplishing vast amounts of work.

COPY FOR MR. POORE

Después de prolija lectura de todas ellas, y en ejercicio
de la facultad contenida en la láusula octava de las
"Bases del Concurso", nuestra opinión se contrae a determin
como la mejor novela entre las concursantes a NUESTRO PAN,
suscrita por Enrique Gil Gilbert. Esta novela es una
pieza de alta y compleja literatura, nutrida de un fino y
penetrante aliento de poesía y, a la par, saturada de un
auténtico realismo. Y particularmente aparece como su
sentido vital la influencia telúrica de la selva ecuato-
riana en los protagonistas y la extraordinaria descripción
del trópico. Es difícil seguir la línea de acción do los
protaganistas, porque en todo episodio y en todo instante,
la presencia de la naturaleza es envolvente, y diríase
acaso que los hombres en la novela son simples cifras
cosmicas y cifras también de la indolencia de su destino.
El diálogo usado es sobrio, pertinente, aunque a veces el
autor lo mutila para sugerirlo todo con la fuerza dramá-
tica del silencio. Amor, hambre, maternidad y muerte se
ciernen en el conflicto planteado, sin que jamás el autor
dramatice con ellos, y antes bien, se mantenga siempre
dentro de la frontera de la proporción ye de la medida.

From the Ecuadorian judges.

COPY FOR MR. POORE

A FOGUEIRA - Eis o que nos pareceu o caso de um autor com decidida vocação para o romance. E' pena que sue livro esteja escrito tão desalinhadamente, dando a impressão de que foi feito numa língua estrnaha e traduzido para o português por algum tradutor pouco hábil. Encerra excelentes tipos: @ de Alexandre Arbe, o sírio, que no Brasil se tornour Elias Guerra, o de Júlia, o do Dr. Frôis, o médico anatoliano, o do menino músico, o das filhas e genros de Elias, etc. a

Sugerimos que se faça ao autor de FOGUEIRA uma recomendação especial, no sentido de rever com cuidado, ou mandar fazê-lo por pessoa idônea, os originais do seu romance.

Nossa opinião é que este último - A FOGUEIRA - pelas verdadeiras qualidades que revela, embora sempre prejudicial por um estilo muito defeituoso, é que deve ser indicado para representar o Brasil no júri final do Concurso de Romances Latino-Americanos, de Redbook Magazine, Farrar & Rinehart, Inc. e Nicholson & Watson.

From Brazilian judges

FARRAR & RINEHART

INCORPORATED
PUBLISHERS

26th June 1941

Dudley Poore, Esq.,
c/o Hale Walker,
146 East 54th Street,
New York City.

Dear Dudley Poore:

Many thanks for your
note of June twenty-fourth.

I'm grateful for your
efforts on behalf of our search for a
Spanish play. I thought you might just
happen to have run across one at some time
or other; if you have to go to the library
and have time to take a look, fine - but
don't make a special trip for it.

With best wishes,

JF:MR

PUBLISHERS

5 April 1941.

Dudley Poore, Esq.,
c/o Heller,
146 East 54th Street,
New York, N. Y.

Dear Mr. Poore:

This letter will serve as a memorandum of agreement between you and Farrar & Rinehart, Inc., for the translation into English of NUESTRO PAN by E. Gil Gilbert, winner of an honorable mention award in the 1940 Latin American Prize Novel Competition.

We agree to pay you for your translation an outright fee of Five Dollars ($5.00) for each and every thousand (1,000) words of text, but in no event shall the payment to you be less than Three Hundred Dollars ($300.00). Payments to you shall be made at the rate of Twenty-Five Dollars ($25.00) a week, beginning on signing of this agreement and continuing until the minimum payment of Three Hundred Dollars ($300.00) has been completed. Any additional sums which may become due for your work in this connection shall be payable on delivery of the complete translation. This payment covers all rights in the translation.

It is understood and agreed that you will deliver to us a manuscript complete and ready for the press. Should we find that the manuscript needs any editing, we reserve the right to do this.

Since corrections made in proofs are very costly, and since there is no Author's account in the case of a translation against which excessive proof corrections could be charged, you agree to make no corrections or changes in the proofs other than those which are absolutely necessary, such as typographical and printer's errors, or misstatements of fact. If it should seem desirable to make changes other than these, it is agreed that we are to have the final decision in the matter after obtaining careful estimates of the cost of making such changes.

It is our understanding that you will undertake this work at once, and that you will deliver the complete translation to us on or before June 30, 1941.

If this is in accordance with your understanding of the arrangement, will you please sign and return one copy of this letter, which is submitted in duplicate, for our files?

Agreed:

146 E 54th Street
c/o Hale Walker
New York, N.Y.

June 24, 1941

Dear John Farrar:

I wish I could name, off hand, such a play as you have in mind I hope it exists. It is certain that nobody, so far, has been able to discover it. Latin American work, as you know, is rarely if ever "sophisticated, but not too sophisticated." It is either naive or else pseudo-sophisticated. Neither of these is what the Scarborough School needs.

All the same, I shall make a trip to the Library the first evening I am free and will try to track down something which might do.

Mr, John Farrar
232 Madison Ave.
New York, N.Y.

FARRAR & RINEHART

INCORPORATED
PUBLISHERS

17th June 1941

Dudley Poore, Esq.,
c/o Heller,
146 East 54th Street,
New York City.

Dear Dudley Poore:

We are planning a Spanish-American Institute at the Scarborough School this summer, and our Drama section, which is a very good one, is eager to do a Spanish-American play.

Is there any one play that comes immediately to your mind? It can be sophisticated, but perhaps it shouldn't be too sophisticated. We are a little bit limited in our budget for scenery and so on.

I would be most grateful if you would let me have your reactions to this fairly quickly.

With good wishes,

JF:MR

FARRAR & RINEHART

INCORPORATED
PUBLISHERS

16 June 1941.

Dear Mr. Poore:

I am enclosing our check for $25.00, the regular weekly payment under the agreement for the translation of NUESTRO PAN. It was the impression of the people in the editorial department that you intended to deliver the translation in installments, as completed. The question comes up at the moment because they have a typist free, now that the Alegria translation has been finished, and they would like her to get started on the extra copies of the Gilbert needed for the magazine.

Will you send in what you have ready? The balance can then follow in installments.

WMS
Enclosure.

146 E 54th Street
Care of Hale Walker
New York, N.Y.

21 May 1941

Dear Miss Overton:

I have been trying to get in touch
with Mr. Gilbert to consult him in connection
with the jacket of "Nuestro Pan", but he re-
mains elusive.

I do feel strongly that the jacket
should be pure design and lettering rather than
illustrative. An authentic Ecuadorian motif
would be appropriate and would chime well
with the use of a Peruvian motif for the Alegria
novel. There was a show of old Ecuadorian ma-
terial at the Newark Museum just lately; in-
deed it may be on view still; in any case the
Museum must have photographs of the exhibits.

"Nuestro Pan", as you probably know,
is concerned with the labouring population in
the coastal regions of Ecuador, particularly
those engaged in growing rice; a population of
mixed negro, Indian, and Spanish blood. The rice
plantation described in the book is on a tropi-
cal river. The flora and fauna are junglish:
lianas, mangroves, spiderlilies, parakeets, alli-
gators. This, to my thinking, would not make an
indigenous Ecuadorian motif any the less appro-
priate.

Let me know whenever I can be of use.

8 April 1941.

Dear Mr. Poore:

I am enclosing our check for $25.00, the first payment due under our agreement for the translation of NUESTRO PAN by E. Gil Gilbert. These payments will be made on Monday of each week until completed.

WMS
Enclosure.

FARRAR & RINEHART

INCORPORATED

PUBLISHERS

6 May, 1941

Dudley Poore, Esq.
c/o Heller
146 East 54th Street
New York, New York

Dear Mr. Poore:

We are looking ahead to the design of the whole fall
list and are wondering if you have any suggestions for the
jackets on OUR DAILY BREAD and THE BONFIRE. We would like to
unify the four novels by using some sort of distinguishing
colophon to signify the prize contest.

All of us here feel that the jackets should be pure
design and lettering rather than illustrative. Do you agree?
Mrs. de Onis has suggested the possible use of Peruvian motifs
in the design of the Alegria novel. Is there anything in particular about the Gilbert that could be stressed in the general
design?

I am sorry to bother you with all of this, but I would
appreciate very much any suggestions you might have since we are
anxious to get ahead with the design of the four novels.

BTO:PS