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File:Drawing of yellow flowers with stalks of wheat

July 19, 1963 Dear Mr. Conroy,

      I want you to know how much I appreciate your giving me an autographed copy of your great proletarian novel, underlined:  The Disinherited.  It was so absorbing that I read it in three sittings - necessarily three because of the time pressure;  otherwise I would have read it in one.   I particularly liked the specifics you wove into your story.  Some writers have the insight into steel mills of college lads on a vacation look in the pay office.
     I could tell of its genuine authenticity, for I spent enough quarters in steel mills to build up a minimum in social security.  Also my father was a coal miner and