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in pencil in top margin Field, Ben

Feb. 23, 1980 7:45 A.M. Dear Jack,

   In your letter of November 20, which has as its opening chord, (from The Disinherited) the crack about the non-constipated bum, you wrote:  It looks as though Burt Franklin is about to issue the Jack Conroy Reader.  You add:  I look for a maximum sale of 236 copies

Poor red Jack: - why cut yourself down to 236? Why not 2360? Or better 23,600! I am afraid, my dear fellow, you are constipated. Jack it up! Jack it up! Of course I am referring to the sales, not to anything private. As if, I'd dare!

   During your W.P.A. days, you were connected with the Illinois Writers' Project.  What has become of John Frederick?   I met his family, wife, boys, and father.  The old man ran a large farm, acreage about 1200, in