823 Royal St.
New Orleans.

April 27, 1936.

Dear Red:

Enclosed find manuscript with suggested changes.

I have simply cut the first paragraph out to get rid of the description but the conclusion is entirely rewritten or rather rearranged and condensed. It seems to me clearly an improvement.

In any case there's no question that you were entirely right, particularly about the end. Let me know if you don't think it stands up now.

Maybe we'll see you all in a few weeks. Certainly before I go north - it looks now as though I'd have/take summer school work in "education" if I'm to get a job. It sounds grossesque, but maybe its only the proper punishment to fit the crime.

Thanks for looking over those stories of Florence Rhein's.

I liked The Party myself.

P.S. Isn't <u>Wm. Crane</u> better for the title than <u>William Crane</u> if I can't think of anything else?

M.

Toms River

New Jersey.

July 2,1936.

Dear Red:

Enclosed find manuscript of Wm.Crane complete
with ending. Or so it is intended. It seems to me to con-
clude the story(at least),but use the other if you prefer
it. I have done,agreeing with you (tardily perhaps) about
self-indulgence.

After a solid week of no sun over this Jersey gra-
vel and pine, I am beginning to appreciate New Orleans more;
though, it must be admitted, Philadelphia was almost a little
gay the week the Democrats bust loose. But it is a poor re-
flection of a city and no mistake. Note for Albert: No South-
ern Review to be got in town. It would be a charity if he would
remedy that.

The pedagogical orgy scheduled for this summer final-
ly collapsed under its own weight, not without relief on my part.
Consequently, I am hung here in New Jersey for the time. It would
another charity on Albert's part (not literally - I hope) if
he would send me summer issue and bill it to this address.

Remember me to Cinnia and write allittle when you get
a chance. I am hoping to see you all sooner, perhaps, than I ex-
pected when I left the South.

129 East 10th St.
New York.

Jan. 26, 1937.

Dear Red:

The small spect of your handwriting that arrived
in the mail this morning was reassuring, and a comfort to
know that the St.Charles yet flourishes. Louisiana and New
Orleans and the St.Charles seem very distant, if perfect,
cheer, perched three floors above this city and then another
one of undistributed furniture and unopened packing boxes
(Fortitudo mea in puritate - PASTENE OLIVE OIL - Societa
oclearia ligureah - Porto maurizio, from the importer who
used to sit on the steps of his one-room warehouse a few
doors down the street from Alberta). As soon as we get this
place cleaned up and a place to sleep we may have time to
get a breath and consider why we so suddenly left Toms River.
Rose says that she has to be here to get any jacket work
and I have been assured that jobs are at last not so im-
possible to find. It may be so.

We haven't seen anybody here but afterine Wilds
and Harold Cash. He said that she saw you Christmas in Rich-
mond amid much festivity. I suppose Allen related the details
of the magazine debacle. He knows a good deal more about it
than I do, being difficult to see the whole on this end not
so much for the trees as the underbrush or rather, perhaps,
just good black miry swamp. You've seen the first issue? Ap-
parently they are going to continue. The last I heard Smith
was, several weeks ago, cogitating new overtures to Nashville
and how to set about it. When Herbert gets back and if he
takes hold again - and I don't see how he can help himself -
he ought to be able to do something. But with the present
set up, it's going to be difficult. I would have been content
enough to stay with them for a job if there had been any way
of patching up the break. But once the proposal of a New York
magazine had been breached the enthusiasm was impossible to
deal with. Except Herbert, and about him I know nothing. His
actions are simply mysterious. I don't believe that he envi-
saged the possibility of the present situation and, as Allen
says, merely assumed that the Agrarians would come to heel
once more. But it's difficult to say.

For my part I'm relieved that the matter is, at
least, settled. I've been working intermittently on a half
dozen stories and had thought to have sent you some months
ago. And I will soon. The Lord knows when we will get back
to New Orleans again; when we will have the fare, I mean.
We have a huge room here with bedding for everybody and we're
hoping to see you all sooner than we're likely to get loose.
Won't you be having dealings with publishers up this way soon?
Love to Innia and Rose swears she is writing.

Nov. 6, 1937

Mr. Manson Bedford
129 E. 10th St.
New York City

Dear Manson:

This is not going to be the letter which I have been planning to write
you for months but a mere note. We have been hoping for some time to have
some stories from you, but since you haven't let us see any, we are going
to try to persuade you to do a review for us. Would you be interested in
doing about 1500 to 2000 words on Evelyn Scott's *Bread and a Sword*? She
apparently sets a lot of store by the book and has an introduction concern-
ing her "philosophy." If you should get really interested in the thing and
feel that you should like to do a longer piece on her work, or if you feel
that the present book for any reason demands a fuller treatment than we have
indicated, please let us know.

We have recently seen Katherine Anne Porter, and, of course, Duncan
Ferguson, both of whom bring us some news of you all. We are hungry for
more news and should like a long letter. There is little enough to report
here. Things are going on much the same way, dealing with the same things.
Cleanth is almost through with a book of essays in which Scribner's is
interested, and, I imagine, will probably publish. We are in the last re-
vision now of our Holt book. We will send you a copy when it comes out in
the winter. Cinina and I had a very pleasant summer in California. Both of
us got a lot of work done. I did not finish the novel, in fact, have not
crossed the half way mark, but I did some 80,000 words. I won't see light
on the thing until late spring.

You have heard, of course, all about Ransom and the Vanderbilt develop-
ments. Pipkin, who has recently been to Ohio to see Ransom, reports that he
is very happily settled. Mrs. Ransom's father died very recently, and her
mother will come to live with them.

Do let us hear from you and do send us some fiction. Give our best love
to Rose and tell her that we hope to hear soon that her painting is going
forward briskly.

As ever,

29 Bethune Street

New York City

November 16, 1937.

Dear Red:

It was good to hear from you again. We saw
Duncan for a hectic half hour and shouted questions
at him about all Louisiana. We didn't get much in-
formation but a lot of cheerful grins and assurances
of everything's being just the same. I suppose we
were as vague.

I'd be glad to do the Scott. She's a strange
and wonderful woman. And apparently has a very con-
sierable reputation here. Am I confused or has she
another book after Bread and a Sword. I have a vague
notion that I saw some reference to it. Memoirs of
Clarksville or something like that?

You've doubtless heard the tragic news of
Catherine Wilds. It's knocked us all pretty much off
our feet. She opened the gas jets in her kitchenette
at five o'clock last Friday morning. When the super-
intendent broke in at eight it was too late for any-
thing to do be done. Her mother came up from Wash-
ington and left with the body for Guthrie on Sat-
day afternoon. Harold has been in very bad shape. We've
hardly had time to collect ourselves yet but the whole
thing becomes increasingly mysterious and terrible.
I can't make very much of it.

Give our love to Cinnia and to Katherine
Anne when you see her. She suddenly dissappeared with
a large slice of New York. We're still optomistic about
Cleanth's writing some time. Remember us to Albert and
remind him that I told him he ought to have done some-
thing about that pretty little Dallas girl.

29 Bethune Street

New York City

January 22, 1938

Dear Red:

I don't know where I got the notion that there was no hurry about the Scott. I ought to have had it down to you a month ago. She's a difficult person to comment on since she's as close to unreadable as any novelist I know. Yet she does seem to be read and M. Van Doren can say that *Calendar of Sin* is "one of the fullest experiences that American fiction can give". That no doubt represents an off moment but the point might be taken provided that one can get at the experience. That would be the greatest difficulty in doing a longer piece on her work which in a sense she deserves. For me at least the violence and exacerbation of her prose sets up a kind of narcosis, almost physical so that it's difficult to see the page. Some one ought to take her with the rest of the hard-headed pre-war liberals, Drieser and Anderson etc. She's really a hangover. Let me know is there's anything wrong with the length or anything else.

I don't know when we'll be seeing you all again. Won't you and Cinnia be coming up East any time soon? We're still unsettled and pushing around but we have a nice big basement this year. It was a terrible thing about Catherine Wilds. I don't understand much of it. I suppose we never do.

Rose joins me in love to you and Cinnia.