PRESERVATION PHOTOCOPY: ORIGINAL MATERIAL RESTRICTED

February 16, 1928.

Mr. Thornton Wilder,
Davis House,
Lawrenceville, N. J.

Dear Mr. Wilder:

I am sorry that I had to leave so unceremoniously
last evening, but I had visions of the motorman ignoring our frantic
signals.

I had a delightful visit with you, and I am more en-
thusastic than ever now that I have met you over the possibilities
of your success on the lecture platform. I believe the future holds
great things in store for you, and I hope the experiences I have gained
in this business may enable me to be of real service to you in your
lecture work.

It was simply splendid of you to offer to do your best
to get Gene Tunney for me. He could do an immense amount of good on
the lecture platform, especially speaking on some such subject as "Devel-
oping The Mind And Body". Undoubtedly, you could help him with the first
half of this subject, inasmuch as Dempsey has helped him with the latter
part.

Thanking you most sincerely for the contract, and the
pleasant time you gave me, I remain, with assurance of my high regard
and esteem.

Very sincerely yours,

February 24, 1928.

Dear Mr. Wilder:

I am very sorry about the clerical errors as well as the errors of fact that occurred in the rough copy of the circular, that I sent you. I had retained the original draft handed to me by my press man, and had a copy sent to you. I am now enclosing a revised draft, which please return to me, as I have not made a duplicate. I trust you may find it more satisfactory.

I quite understand your feeling in regard to high prices, and I am agreeable to arranging a sliding scale to favor educational institutions. The plan which we discussed, of having you appear at smaller educational institutions first in order to get the proper amount of practice, still seems to me to be the best method of procedure, and for this reason I would advise against accepting the invitation from the League for Political Education.

Reporters from all New York newspapers will be present at that affair, and should you speak they would report prominently your remarks and would also comment upon your delivery. In other words, appearing for them would, from the public standpoint, be equivalent to a public lecture. I think we can get better results by booking some lectures out of New York and gradually working up to a metropolitan appearance. We can both afford to wait awhile yet for that.

I don't want to appear arbitrary in the matter, and if you think I am wrong, let me know.

Cordially yours,

March 9th, 1928.

Dear Mr. Wilder:-

How do you like the finished product?

If I recall correctly, you told me during
our conference that you had a speaking engagement in the near future
in the vicinity of New York. If you will be good enough to give me
the necessary information I shall be glad to hear you; also, I
should like to know when you are speaking at Yale.

Very sincerely yours,

May 7th, 1928.

Thornton Wilder, Esq.,
Davis House,
Lawrenceville, N. J.

Dear Mr. Wilder:

As you will recall, at the time I visited you we decided upon April and May 1929 as the months that I might book lectures for you.

Some of the lecture courses that close the latter part of March are anxious to have you appear upon their program, and I am wondering if by any chance you can lengthen the time you will be available to include part of March if not all of the month.

I am terribly sorry that I missed hearing you at New Haven.

Cordially yours,

May 14, 1928.

Dear Mr. Wilder:

I was exceedingly pleased to learn
during our telephonic conversation today that it is
agreeable to you to change the period that you had set
aside for lecturing next season to the months of March
and April.

In accordance with your request, I
shall book you for four lectures per week except occas-
ionally when we may add a fifth to accomodate an organ-
ization at a nearby point.

I wish to add my congratulations to
the thousands you must have already received on your
well deserved success in winning the Pulitzer award for
the best American novel published in 1927.

With my kindest regards, I remain,

Very sincerely yours,

May 15th, 1928.

Dear Mr. Wilder:-

Since receiving your letter this morning
I have viewed, in an entirely different manner, the statement that
Leigh Emerick have made.

If you do not object, I think it advisable
for me to drop them a line, calling attention to their error.

Do you wish me to return the letters which
you enclosed, or may I keep them? Of course, I shall respect your
wishes and not quote from them.

I am leaving for Europe tonight, but I
shall return within five weeks. During my absence Mr. W. C. Glass,
the booking manager, will be in charge of the office.

Very sincerely yours,

January 2, 1929.

Thornton Wilder, Esq.,
c/o Brown, Shipley Co.,
123 Pall Mall,
London, England.

Dear Mr. Wilder:

Thanks for your holiday Greetings.

I am pleased to note that you are
working on your lectures, and are not overlooking the
importance of rehearsals. So many lecturers neglect
this important part of the work beforehand, and are
only at their best after they have delivered several
lectures.

The American people are tremendously
interested in hearing you, and I feel confident you are
going to have a unique and enjoyable experience on the
lecture platform. You are probably anxious to know just
what the commitments are to date, so I am enclosing a
schedule.

I have not forgotten your request to
work in a lecture at Wheaton College, Norton, Mass., for
your sister gratis. I shall work in this lecture on one
of the open dates that will best fit our plans.

I have had to refuse many invitations
because I could not fit the dates into the schedule owing
to geographical difficulties. It seems that this year all
the organizations want dates at the same time. However,
we have done our best to make the schedule as easy as possible.
I hope that it pleases you.

With all good wishes, believe me,

Cordially yours,

February 20, 1929.

Mr. Thornton Wilder,
75 Mansfield Street,
New Haven, Conn.

Dear Mr. Wilder:

Louis Carrier, publisher, has charge of arrangements
for your Montreal lecture. I quote the following from a letter just
received from him,

"The Montreal branch of the International P.E.N. Club has asked me to extend to Mr. Wilder an invitation for an informal reception and supper after the lecture, to be held at the Mount Royal Club, which, as you possibly know, is the most exclusive of Montreal clubs. There are some thirty members of the P.E.N. Club and there would be present just that number of people. Mr. Wilder would find the members particularly interesting and the reception more enjoyable than the usual function of this nature.

The Montreal branch of the Canadian Authors' Association has also expressed a desire to entertain Mr. Wilder at a reception. Mr. Kennedy, the President, tells me that he has already written you and Mr. Wilder to this effect. The Montreal branch of the Canadian Authors' Association has approximately two hundred members and I imagine that a very great proportion of them would turn out, with additional guests, to meet Mr. Wilder. From my experience with visiting authors, I imagine that Mr. Wilder would be rather reluctant to face a reception with such a crowd. I might add that the P.E.N. Club invitation was issued before that of the Canadian Authors' Association. I did not transmit it at the time as I knew that Mr. Wilder had not yet arrived from Europe.

I can realize that you would personally prefer not to be concerned with
any social arrangements planned for Mr. Wilder. I am writing you, how-
ever, with the double purpose of informing you of the situation and of
allowing you to transmit to Mr. Wilder whatever part of this information
you may care."

If you feel that you can accept any social engagements,
I really think it would be a good plan to leave the social program in Mr.
Carrier's hands. His address is c/o Louis Carrier & Co., At the Mercury,
In Beaver Hall Square, Montreal, Canada.

I also enclose a telegram which arrived today from Mr.
Kennedy. This invitation is mentioned in Mr. Carrier's letter as you will
note.

Cordially yours,

1228A

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1929 April 8

COLUMBUS OHIO

THORNTON WILDER

CARE LEE KEEDICK 475 FIFTH AVE. NEW YORK N Y

Will you have dinner with me and Columbus Yale men of somewhere near your vintage next Thursday before Crichton Club lecture Stop Or with entire Yale Club of Columbus Stop Or with ladies included Stop
Please wire me your acceptance and preference of above alternatives

JOHN M. VORYS

THE QUICKEST, SUREST AND SAFEST WAY TO SEND MONEY IS BY TELEGRAPH OR CABLE

April 23, 1929.

Thornton Wilder, Esq.,
Hotel Jefferson,
Iowa City, Iowa.

Dear Mr. Wilder:-

Many thanks for your good letter of April 19th.

I am glad that on the whole the engagements we
have booked have proven satisfactory.

I realize that the Jewish centers have so many
activities going on in the same building that it does handicap a
lecturer severely, but we do not do business with many of these centers.

The schools and universities in the Middle West that
were anxious to have you early in the season now find it impossible,
owing to their depleted exchequers, but we can round them all up for
next season, so our loss is only temporarily.

I shall let you hear as soon as we get any comment
from the Kansas City committee.

I want to take this opportunity of telling you
what a great pleasure it has been to manage your lectures. The
committees have been more than satisfied. Practically all of them
have stated that your lecture was most unusual, stimulating and satis-
fying. One chairman wrote that your lecture was as good as your book,
"The Bridge of San Luis Rey." There could be no greater praise.

Cordially yours,

March 11, 1930

Mr. Thornton Wilder
75 Mansfield Street
New Haven, Conn.

Dear Mr. Wilder:

Your lectures at Evanston and Oak Park were great successes as evidenced by letters received, copies of which I am enclosing.

I am especially glad that the Evanston women's fears of a reduced attendance owing to the fact that you were delivering the same lecture the previous day in Chicago, were unfounded.

This new lecture on "The Enthusiasms and Disappointments of Play-
going" seems to have an unusually strong public appeal.

I am sorry that I missed seeing you when you called at the office just before you left for Chicago.

It was exceedingly kind of you to autograph the book "The Woman of Andros" for me. I appreciate it very much.

When convenient, send me your expense account and I shall render a statement for this season's lecturing.

The debates as well as the lectures went exceedingly well this year and I hope that you are happy over the outcome.

Brooklyn reports the debates as one of the outstanding events in the whole history of the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences.

Cordially yours,

March 22, 1929.

Dear Mr. Wilder:-

I am indeed sorry to hear that you have an attack of laryngitis. You did exactly the right thing to go under the care of a physician.

While it was a great disappointment to Montclair and Philadelphia not to hear you tonight and tomorrow night, your health is the all important thing.

Your sister thought that you would be sufficiently recovered to keep the Monday evening engagement in Philadelphia. If you are not well enough let us know.

Cordially yours,

March 23, 1929.

Dear Mr. Wilder:-

I am more sorry than I can tell you that you and
your sister should have been put to so much annoyance and worry through
the thoughtlessness and uncompromising attitude of the women of the
Philomusian Club of the city of brotherly love. Let us hope that they
are not descendants of William Penn.

Immediately upon receipt of the news of your illness
we telephoned them all the facts, expressed our deep regret and offered
to have you speak for them next week, or in May. They replied that they
must have a speaker for this afternoon and we then offered them all
available speakers on our list, which they emphatically refused. They
suggested certain people in New York who would be acceptable, and we
telephoned them. They were all out of the city. When we made our re-
port again by telephone they demanded your address, intimating strongly
that they did not accept our word. We were therefore forced into the
awkward position of being compelled, on account of both our reputations,
to supply them with the information.

Immediately upon receipt of Miss Isobel Wilder's
telegram I wired them as follows:

"Mr. Wilder will speak for you in May without charge."

I think it would be an extremely bad policy to accept
one cent from them, either in the way of a fee, or on account of the ex-
penses. Whatever your expenses may be in fulfilling the engagement I am
willing to allow as tour expenses; but we are justified in offering them
a May date after your meeting with Professor Copeland on May 11th, as I
wish to book some engagements in the Middle West immediately after May 1st.

The Upper Montclair club was very sympathetic and accepted Dr. Woolley in substitution for last evening's. I mention this as proof that all women's clubs are not the same.

Trusting that you are improving, notwithstanding un-
necessary annoyances, and thanking your sister for her communications, I
remain,

Cordially yours,

THE STATE UNIVERSITY OF IOWA

IOWA CITY

DEPARTMENT OF POLITICAL SCIENCE

BENJ. F. SHAMBAUGH, PROFESSOR

FRANK E. HORACK, PROFESSOR

KIRK H. PORTER, PROFESSOR

J. VAN DER ZEE, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR

JOHN E. BRIGGS, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR

IVAN L. POLLOCK, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR

GEO. F. ROBESON ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR

SUDHINDRA BOSE, LECTURER

HERMAN H. TRACHSEL, ASSOCIATE

DOROTHY SCHAFFTER INSTRUCTOR

ROY E. BROWN ASSISTANT

May 2, 1929

Dear Keedick:

Mr. Thornton Wilder has come and gone. We expected much of the author of *The Bridge of San Luis Rey*, and we were not in any way disappointed. On the contrary, I venture to say that his visit will be remembered by us as one of the very high points in the history of our University Lectures -- and we have had some of the world's greatest lecturers on our campus in the last fifteen years,

At the lecture on Monday evening Mr. Wilder was greeted by a crowded house. He held the audience in rapt attention for over an hour. Every one was pleased. Many were inspired. We are grateful to you for sending him to us. Should you discover any more Thornton Wilders, please advise us.

Enclosed is a University warrant for five hundred dollars.

Mr. Lee Keedick
475 Fifth Avenue
New York City

December 14, 1929.

Dear Mr. Wilder:

I received a letter from Gene Tunney this morning, which has made me so happy that I am enclosing a copy for your inspection, knowing that you will be greatly interested. To me this looks encouraging.

I should like to manage a lecture tour for Mr. Tunney not only for the prestige it would give me but because I sincerely believe that he has a message for the youth of today that would inspire thousands of them to strive to be temperate, physically fit, and to make the most of their opportunities.

It is very evident that Mr. Tunney has a world of confidence in you, and if you can persuade him to give his message to the public, you will have my everlasting gratitude.

Cordially yours,