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Chicago, October 25, 1970 Dear Jack:

  Thank you for your letter of Oct. 22 and the generous clippings, and for the time it must have taken to cut them out and ready them.   I will be sending some of the clippings to my son, who lives in a county of southern California whose police are knee-deep in Birchism - Orange County - where Truman Capote spent a cuppla days in the crate for not revealing his source of information.
 I trust that you and your family are reasonably well, as I am, and was sorry to hear about the death of the ex-railroader relative of your wife.  In my childhood I used to be with old country Irish relatives a fair amount, and I recall their references to the good death - wherein a person doesn't suffer for long, just dies in his/her sleep or is taken suddenly in a heart attack.  Jack Sheridan died suddenly, though his symptoms (high blood pressure for one)  pointed to death at least five years beforehand, as I saw it.  I spoke of this as one  of the non-religious speakers at his funeral.  A Polish-American attendant at the funeral home asked me why no preacher was present.  I told him that this was an aggregation of freethinkers, but there wasn't a bomb in the crowd.
 Though I never write on books (having a feeling of worship for them), I couldn't resist making a notation re. the Clancy Sigal review in the Listener, a review no doubt prompted by Terkel.  Sigal referred to Amos & Andy as having been negro-baiting, I believe.  I can well remember how even negroes enjoyed those radio and later television programs, though the latter weren't up to the radio ones.   Amos & Andy had been known as Sam 'n Henry up to their departure from radio station W-G-N in 1928.  I remember going to see them at the Senate Theater, note in right margin: 1924 a really nice movie palace, located at Madison & Kedzie, where they appeared in person.