AIR MAIL

January 15, 1947.

Mr. James Laughlin
Alta Lodge
Sandy
Utah

Dear J:

Thank you for your further recollections about Flores.

I am pleased with Albert Einstein's comment on my book. As you say, it is a little windy, but I am sure he and others giving comments would not object to a little editing in order to make the statements more concise. I will send the last set of proofs to E. B. White as you suggest.

With regard to the request from London for permission to print Pound's poems, I am writing to tell your correspondent that Dorothy has been appointed to represent her husband because of his mental condition, and, at the same time, I am sending the letter on to her so that she can grant the permission if she so desires.

Now that Dorothy's appointment has been completed, it would be well for you to enter into an agreement with her for the publication of PERSONAL. If you will let me know what terms you think you should ask I would be glad to prepare a contract. If you want me to use your customary form I presume I could get one from the office.

I enclose check for $5. as a contribution to the Olympic Ski Team Fund although I am not particularly interested in competitive skiing. I would much rather help to establish a chain of huts from which I can derive some benefit in my old age. I hope you will get the deed before something happens to Tagert. I cannot understand why such a simple matter should be delayed so long although there may be some difficulty about describing the property.

Sincerely yours,

JC.CW

NATIONAL SKI ASSOCIATION
OF AMERICA

ORGANIZED FEBRUARY 21, 1904

AFFILIATED WITH

SKI UNION OF THE AMERICAS

AMATEUR ATHLETIC UNION OF THE UNITED STATES

THE UNITED STATES OLYMPIC ASSOCIATION

FEDERATION INTERNATIONALE DE SKI

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
OFFICERS AND

ALEXANDER H. BRIGHT
84 STATE STREET
BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS

DOUGLAS M. BURCKETT
89 WASHINGTON AVENUE
CAMBRIDGE 40, MASSACHUSETTS

ALLAN GRANSTROM
2707 QUEEN ANNE AVENUE
SEATTLE, WASHINGTON

JAMES LAUGHLIN
ALTA, UTAH

FRED H. MCNEIL
OREGON JOURNAL
PORTLAND, OREGON

G. F. WIDMER
410 SOUTH 9TH STREET
BOZEMAN, MONTANA

Sandy, Utah
January 18th

ROGER LANGLEY
PRESIDENT
BARRE, MASSACHUSETTS

FRED C. BELLMAR
1ST VICE-PRESIDENT
ROOM 300, GAS & ELECTRIC BLDG.
DENVER, COLORADO

ALBERT SIGAL
2ND VICE-PRESIDENT
86 FREDERICK AVENUE
MENLO PARK, CALIFORNIA

JOHN HOSTVEDT
TREASURER
1250 FOURTH STREET
WISCONSIN RAPIDS, WISCONSIN

ARTHUR J. BARTH
SECRETARY
3742 WEST GALENA STREET
MILWAUKEE 8, WISCONSIN

Dear Julien -

Thanks terribly much for your contribution to the Olympic Ski Team Fund. I shall send along your button when the buttons come. Martin can wear it to school along with his Stassen button.

Some bird blew in to the New York office asking that copies of Celine's books be sent to Denmark to "help with the trial." Now we have no way of getting these books. They are rare. I had to advertise for two years to locate my copies and paid ten dollars for them. I can't let mine go because I have to set the new editions from them.

Just today the deed came through from Aspen. Is it OK? It looks OK to me. Please return and I'll send it to Langley. This means we can start to work fixing up that hut. Shall we go there this Spring? I believe we could persuade Friedl or Chuck Bishop to look after the summer work on it. A local carpenter could go up there in a jeep for a week and make it habitable. I hope. Please advise.

Yes, let's make a contract with Dorothy now for PERSONAE. I enclose a form, but a lot of this doesn't apply in this case. Perhaps you would rather make one up yourself. I'd like to make it for fifteen years if we can. Make the royalty a straight 15%, with accounts payable annually in March. On anthology permission fees, radio fees etc better divide 75% to EP, 25% to ND. We hardly deserve the usual 50% cut since we took no original risk. On the other hand, we do deserve something because we keep the stuff in print and police it, going after people who try to use stuff without paying for it etc..

Can monies be paid to Dorothy now? I have paid no royalties on any of Ezra's books for about six years. While the sum is not huge it should be straightened out soon. I have all the necessary records to do this asx soon as payments can be made.

Today at Alta was really heavenly. A brilliant sun, making it
warm to the one sweater stage, though cold enough to keep the snow dry. I skied
the upper lift all day - since it was Saturday with the biggest crowd I have
ever seen in the canyon on a Saturday, it must have been a thousand dollar day
on the lifts - and felt it change from deep untracked powder in the morning to
hardbeaten but still delightful snow by the end of the afternoon.

Best wishes,

Yes, you're right about the need for the chain of huts. I hope to
keep plugging at this in the next few decades, but if I go the chair for
murdering a critic before it's accomplished I'd like to leave funds to put it
through. You might be thinking about how this should be set up. I want to make
a new will one of these days, both for this, and to take care of my illegitimate
children in Australia, Italy and the Bronx.

AIR MAIL

January 27, 1947.

Mr. James Laughlin
Alta Lodge
Sandy, Utah

Dear J:

I have just tottered back to the office after a session with the FLU and am cheered by your letter and the deed from Tagert returned herewith. I know nothing of Colorado law and my opinion is practically worthless, but one does not have to be a lawyer to see that the description of the property is most inexact. The precise location of the cabins is not given and the acre of ground could lie in any direction from the cabin so long as it includes them both. It may be that the mining claim mentioned is sufficiently small so that the acre of ground would be pretty much pinned down. It may be also that since mineral rights are the important thing in the West, the conveyance of surface land is frequently as haphazard as this. However, I think it would be money well spent if you would ask a Colorado lawyer to prepare a more accurate description.

In order not to create any hard feelings I suggest that you do not relax your grasp on the tail feathers of the bird by asking that a new deed be prepared, but if you can get a more accurate description quickly you could insert it in the deed before it is recorded. If it takes some time, you could record this deed and then later on ask Mr. Tagert for a corrected deed containing a more ample description.

I am afraid that the present description is so vague that it might be held to convey no property at all. If you do not want to spend the money to employ a lawyer the deed could probably be corrected even in layman's fashion by precisely locating the cabins with reference to landmarks shown on the mining maps and then bounding the acre of ground, for instance, centering it on one of the cabins and giving the directions of the boundaries.

My final suggestion would be that you accept and record the deed without waiting to send it to Roger Landley which will involve further delay. If something should happen to Tagert I do not know whether Colorado law would uphold the conveyance if the deed had not been recorded. As an officer of the Association you have already accepted delivery of the deed, I presume,

* But then it is free, which evens things up.

-2-

and it would be proper for you to record it, and when it
comes back from the Record Office, send it to the President.

I see that you have an article in the American Ski Annual
which arrived today, as have I. For once, yours is serious
and mine in the lighter vein.

I will take care of the contract for PERSONAE when I feel
up to it. At present I am trying to acknowledge the letters
on my desk and that is all.

No funds can be paid to Ezra or to Dorothy as his representa-
tive under present restrictions. In fact no transfers of
any kind can be made in money which belongs to him. However,
it is proper, I believe, for you to act as his agent where
under contracts you are so authorized, since the money will
not become his until you divide and determine his royalties.
I hope this situation will not last much longer. Sooner or
later the folks in Washington will decide that the war is
over.

I am going down to Washington tomorrow night to try to get
Ezra out of hock. I fear it will be a long struggle and
might even involve appeals to the higher courts, but then
again, it could be a push-over, depending largely on the
government's attitude. The best we can hope for at the
present is to get him into a private sanatorium, where
he can have as much freedom as doctors will allow and can
visit freely with his family. I do not see any hope imme-
lately for having him released from medical supervision or
permitted to leave the United States.

Since the National Ski Association is incorporated there is
no difficulty about leaving funds to it for any appropriate
purpose. Shouldn't there be a Bequest Committee of the
Association to persuade its elderly and its more reckless
members to think of the Association in their wills? If
you think you fit into one category or the other, I should
be glad to help you carry out such a desire. Seriously,
when you write to Roger Langley, why don't you suggest a
bequest program which in the long run may be of very sub-
stantial benefit to the Association.

I feel the need of a vacation. School is out for a week
the latter part of February. I will probably take the
children up to New England if any real skiing develops
which seems very unlikely at the present moment. I am

* Since read your views on racing rules - no question
about it - skiing officialdom needs some of your
earthy wisdom. Also liked your graphic story of the
Eastern races - best thing in the book.

AIR MAIL

February 10, 1947.

Mr. James Laughlin
Alta Lodge
Sandy Utah.

Dear J:

You will be interested to know the outcome of my application for Ezra's release to a private hospital. Dr. Overholser was summoned to court and testified that Ezra would be benefited by removal from Howard Hall where he is much restricted in his privileges and surrounded by criminally insane, but he said that he needed further hospitalization and could be as well cared for in St. Elizabeths as anywhere else. Accordingly, we agreed upon a compromise under which the Judge and the Attorney General have consented to have Ezra removed to a more comfortable part of St. Elizabeths, thereby relieving Dr. Overholser from a responsibility which he would not have otherwise assumed. It is an inflexible rule of the hospital to keep patients under indictment in Howard Hall which is the only completely guarded building. The enclosed letter from Dorothy indicates that she and Ezra are both happy over the new arrangement.

I am dictating this from my bed - my supposed case of Flu having turned out to be Jaundice which will keep me in bed for several weeks. I feel perfectly well except that I have little energy and spend most of my time sleeping or reading. I guess I need a vacation and my thoughtshave been turning westward. When would you like to go on a trip?

Best regards

P.S. You will be amused by the enclosed clipping. Our friend's unpopularity seems to be spreading.

JC.CW
Enclos.