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August 12, 1975 Dear Mr. Conroy,

 I've always intended to drop you a line, but something always comes up. I'm Dorothy Hopkin's son-in-law. 

Now that I've started this letter, I don't know what to say. Perhaps, something very literary. It just seemed that since you were so close at hand - after a fashion - I shouldn't miss the chance to introduce myself.

 Usually, I read on lunch hour, but this book on writing suggests letters - lots of letters - to improve one's skills

in writing. Well anyway, I read awhile back in the Daily World that you were publishing a collection from the Anvil. That's great! I haven't read it yet, but I intend to get a copy, whenever. Lydia, my wife, went through the New Masses Anthology in one afternoon. It was some of the first fiction I've enjoyed since college.

 Funny thing, I used to read lots of fiction when I was in the service. My college English courses made novels and

short stories so uninteresting that I came out feeling that I was wasting valuable reading time whenever I read novels or short stories.

 Well, that's something else.   We live in New Orleans. My wife