4270 NORTH MERIDIAN STREET
INDIANAPOLIS

January 10th, 1939

My dear Mr. Lewis:

A member of the staff of the
Indianapolis News has this morning telephoned to
us here, mentioning amiable sentiments you had
expressed; and that leads to some apprehension that
you might at least wonder a little why no effort at
hospitality had been made on the part of a native
Hoosier who is your colleague in following the
profession of letters.

My long-ago experiences in the theatre are not
so forgotten that I do not recall the pressure for
time put upon a playwright traveling with a company
during the formative processes of a play, and when
the playwirht is also enacting a principal role
every intrusion upon him, I realize, must be an
excessive burden. Moreover, on my own part, I'm an
invalid subject to ailments peculiarly compelling and
of a type that don't permit me to know during any
one hour whether or not I shall be in bed during the
next.

Your preoccupation and my physical uncertainties
seem, thus, unfortunately for myself, to constitute
a double negative productive of the one affirmation
that I thank you for the amiable sentiments reported
and wish for you and your play a long and happy
continuance.

With congratulations, too, upon the vigor that
adds this new adventuring to your experience, I am

SEAWOOD
KENNEBUNKPORT, MAINE.

July 9th, 1940

Dear Mr. Lewis:

Since I've been appointed Chairman of the Howells Medal Committee and informed that you have been asked to serve as a member of this Committee, I am writing to ask if you will send me names (or a name) that you'd like to propose as a recipient of the Medal, which is given "every fifth year in recognition of the most distinguished work of American fiction published during that period."

According to Article V of the Academy's By-laws, the duty of our Committee is merely to report the names of one or more eligible candidates to the Board of Directors -- "the Directors shall then vote as to whether these names shall be placed upon a ballot and sent to each member of the Academy and they may add to the list the names of any other persons who in their opinion are eligible..."

Apparently, thus, our duty is not onerous or laden overwhelmingly with responsibility. I take it, however, that we'll find it appropriate to select the names of writers whose work would not be repugnant to Mr. Howells.

Mr. Sinclair Lewis
Hotel Lombardy
New York

SEAWOOD
KENNEBUNKPORT, MAINE.

June 1st, 1945

Dear Mr. Lewis:

I've just had forwarded to me what you wrote of me to be repeated by Dr. Damrosch in the citation accompanying the recent conferring of the Howells Medal. Naturally I'm hurrying to thank you; but this speed doesn't mean haste to finish off an obligation, nor does it imply that an instantly acknowledged kindness can as rapidly be forgotten.

This kindness of yours, in fact, won't be forgotten at all, either by myself or by Mrs. Tarkington who went to New York to receive the medal for me and sat in a condition of glowing pride and pleasure while the words you'd written were spoken.

The pride and pleasure just mentioned included something more, later imparted to me, first by her description, and now by my present reading of what you wrote; and this added element, the "something more", is of course a cherishing appreciation of your generous and indulgent explanation of the award.

That award, and the medal itself, to our minds will henceforth naturally be of a piece with what you said, not to be thought of apart from yourself, and so I am indeed

Yours always gratefully