London, 11.XI. 53.

Dear Mr. Van Vechten,

Somewhat aghast at my temerity I write to tell you that I
am hoping to write a biography of Gertrude Stein. This has
happened to me, for I did not contemplate such a book; I was
trying to write about her work. Then my agent, David Higham,
said he could not place a literary study but could he thought
sell a life of Gertrude Stein. My feeling was that her life
was in her books for all to read so why write it, but now I
have come to think he is right when he says that at present
only a few will read enough of her work to know about her, but
many more would like to be told some facts. So in the
end I said if Alice Toklas would like me to write a biography
and if Carl Van Vechten has no objection I will try. And I
went to Paris and Alice was wonderfully pleased. I shall never
forget her warmth about the project; it was wonderful. And
now I am writing to you.

I never met Gertrude Stein which is a grief to me, but at
least no one can say I fell under her spell. Of course I did,
twentyfive years or more ago, but they can't say it. A bit
under your spell too. How exciting those days were waiting
for the new books of the writers one admired. Why isn't it
like that now?

How I am to do this job worthily I don't know, but really
it is all there in Gertrude Stein's books, so my work will mainly be to collect and select and compose. I
mean to write it chiefly in Paris, if I can arrange to have
all her books there, so as to be near Alice, for the book's
sake, for my sake, and a bit I think for her own. I also
hope to cross the Atlantic for the first time since before
the war.

I believe you have moved lately. May I wish you very
well.

HIRE THE HANDICAPPEL
ITS GOOD BUSINESS
THOMAS JETER, N.Y.
180 - 1924
3 CENTS

Mr. Carl Van Vechten,
146 Central Park West,
New York 23.

C/O
DOROTHY SANDS
HOTEL SCHUYLER
57 WEST 45TH STREET
NEW YORK CITY 36

18 October 1954

Dear Mr. Van Vechten,

I do hope I may have the pleasure of seeing you one day this week or next, before I go to Yale and immerse myself in the Gertrude Stein collection. Rosamond Gilder tells me she is hoping to arrange a meeting, so this note is only to say how happy this will make me.

I hear from Alice that her holiday near Grasse was altogether wonderful although shadowed by the anticipation of the horrors of another Paris winter. Indeed I dread this for her too.

With kind regards,

Dear Miss Sprigge, Your Stein book was most belated in reaching me and
came only last week (from Donald Gallup) with my wife ill and myself
involved in work of the most pressing nature. As a result I only succeed
in completing my reading of it today and I hasten to write you at
once to inform you that your references to ME and your quotations from
letters of Miss Stein to me are not harmful and I certainly do
not object to them. You do not ask me for my opinion of the book and, if
any case I could not give it fairly, as the ms is in such a conduction
that it is not easily readable and I was constantly being interrupted
while I was reading it. Some of your statements might be regarded
as controversial in certain quarters and I discovered an actual error:
You speak of Maurice Stearn as Mabel Luhan's first husband. He
was actually her THIRD. Her first was Karl Evens, father of her son,
John Evans. Her second was Edwin Dodge, the Boston architect. Vide
Mabel Dodge Luhan's European Experiences, Harcourt Brace, 1935. When will
the book be out?

sincerely,

You have given me no further instructions regarding the ms. Please d
indicate to me where I shall deposit it.

May 30, 1956