July 27, 1942

Mr. Harvey Breit
c/o Morris
47 E. 80th St., New York

Dear Mr. Breit:

Williams wrote to me and did his best. Since he likes the idea,
it is embarrassing for me to say that I don't and particularly to say why I don't.
It has nothing to do with either you or him, or even ~~Harper's Bazaar;~~ I just
don't like personal publicity.

Perhaps one of these days some one will come along and make me
forget the only experience of that sort that I have ever had, but that was enough
for the present.

In order that you shall not miss the opportunity that Harper's has
given you, let me make a suggestion: Edgar Lee Masters is, or was, a lawyer. He
lives in New York, at The Chelsea, I believe, on West 23d Street, between Seventh
and Eighth. Masters is far better known than I am. Of course, I don't know
whether Bill Williams would want to pair off with him, but he might.

After all, what is there odd about being a lawyer and being or doing
something else at the same time? I am sorry not to be willing to go along with you;
there are a good many reasons that I am not taking the trouble to speak of.

Let's look forward to a meeting one of these days.

Very truly yours,

cc. to Mr. Williams

P.S. Archibald MacLeish xxx is a lawyer.

If Bacon was Shakespears, then, since Bacon was Lord Chief Justice, what
better instance could you want?

HOME OFFICE, HARTFORD, CONNECTICUT

PAUL RUTHERFORD, PRESIDENT

Hartford Accident and Indemnity Company

July 22, 1944

Dr. W. C. Williams
9 Ridge Road
Rutherford, N.J.

Dear Bill:

I am not sure whether I have ever called you Bill before, but I don't see how I can do otherwise in the face of such a very decent note.

You used to pass through Hartford on your vacations years ago. If you still do, drop in and tell me your troubles. The last time I was in New York I really felt that I never wanted to go there again. It was so hot and dull and the two long cool drinks that I allowed myself were fakes.

Thanks and good luck.

Very truly yours,

BUY WAR BONDS AND STAMPS—KEEP 'EM FLYING

PAUL RUTHERFORD, PRESIDENT

HOME OFFICE - HARTFORD 15, CONNECTICUT

April 26, 1948.

Mr. William Carlos Williams
Ridge Road
Rutherford, N.J.

Dear Bill:

Things seem to be going pretty well with you recently. I should like to throw my own bouquet at the foot of the statue, particularly since I am not going to be at the ceremonial on May 21st.

When I went to Cambridge Russell Loines was living in the attic of the house in which I was to live. This house was an old-fashioned dwelling. It was owned by three old maid daughters of Theophilus Parsons who in his day was a professor at the Law School. Loines had come to Harvard after leaving Columbia principally in order to become a member of Charles Eliot Norton's class on Dante. In those days Loines was very much of a poet, not that he wrote a great deal of poetry, but he was intensely interested in it and thought about it constantly. His room was lighted by the long slanting trap window in the roof. There was only one other window. It was heated by a little Franklin stove. It required about all the time of an old colored man to keep that and the other stoves and numerous grates in the house going. That room meant everything to Loines. I am not sure whether he remained in Cambridge to go to the Law School. In any event, the following spring he gave up his room and I took it. I kept it only a single year. Then I took a room below it on the second floor because there was more space and because it was more convenient.

Loines spent three or four years in London studying admiralty law. His father was a partner in Johnson & Higgins. On his return to New York he went into the office of Johnson & Higgins handling admiralty losses. Occasionally, he would find some way of showing his extraordinarily friendly spirit. I remember being invited to dinner once and getting there an hour too early. As it happened I saw him shortly before his death when we were both on a train on the way from Washington to New York. At that time he was living on Staten Island. As a boy he had lived on Columbia Heights, where Marianne Moore lives now.

It all comes to this: that when you receive the Loines Award you are receiving something that comes to you in the name of a sincere

YEAR IN AND YEAR OUT YOU'LL DO WELL WITH THE HARTFORD

PAUL RUTHERFORD, PRESIDENT

HOME OFFICE — HARTFORD 15, CONNECTICUT

WALLACE STEVENS
VICE-PRESIDENT

29th April, 1948.

Mr. W. C. Williams,
9 Ridge Road,
RUTHERFORD,
New Jersey.

Dear Bill,

You should wear what you usually wear every day.

Yes: Creekmore sent Paterson II which is full of your clean, clear hand. I did not comment on it for him because I want to keep out of that sort of thing.

Loines was not a man who wanted to be, but was not. He was carried along into other things, but never forgot poetry. So that whatever others might see in the award, I wanted you to see the man back of it and to realize how happy he would have been in seeing this honor done to you in his name. He was not an outsider with money; he was an insider, and sincerely devoted, as you yourself are, - and Marianne Moore herself could not say more.

WS:RA.

PAUL RUTHERFORD, PRESIDENT

Hartford Accident and Indemnity Company
HOME OFFICE - HARTFORD 15. CONNECTICUT

December 20, 1949.

W. C. Williams, M.D.
9 Ridge Road
Rutherford, N.J.

Dear Bill:

Your note was followed almost immediately by a copy of the new part of Patterson. I am going to settle down to a careful reading of this part, probably over the Christmas week-end, but have not yet had time to do more than glance at it.

Nothing would make me happier than a good long talk with you in New York one of these days. However, I go there less and less often and usually with a shopping list which takes up all the slack. Moreover, it has become very troublesome to find a place to stay. I was down last week and paid $12.60 for nothing. the sixty cents were, no doubt, the last preceding guests' telephone charges. This is a regular feature of hotel life in New York. On the last trip before that there was a long distance telephone call on my bill, probably a charge against some woman who had called up her husband to say that she was coming home on the 4:20. This led to quite an argument.

As it happens, before long there may be some things of mine in Botteghe Oscure. I have no idea who M. Caetani is. I am interested in your statement that she was a Biddle. So far as I had any impression at all, it was that she was from Chicago. But then I know nothing about her.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you and best wishes,
always,

Hartford 15, Connecticut