.MTU1OA.MTM2NjQ2

(Typed copy of my long hand letter of Mr. 7, 1929, to Sherwood Anderson - Burton Emmett)

Dear Sherwood A -- I am glad you had the two weeks rest. Hope it pulled you back to normal. It was fine of you, too, to put across the year of freedom for the young artist, a really fine, big thing to do. It is wonderful that Bob is able to relieve you from the load of the papers. How thrilling and satisfying for him and what a bully experience. "Carrying the load" is what brings out the real stuff that a fellow has in him. I am so glad you hope to be able to get at something big and creative again. I can imagine the kick you will get out of settling down again to another major effort. The Mrs. and I will surely be looking forward to talking all this over as you suggest. Now about shipping up the box of Mss. -- I don't know. It's true that after nearly a year and a half my collection is a long, long way from what I was counting on roughly as regards S. A. manuscript material. In my, perhaps, over-anxiety to keep the whole deal on some idealistic basis (similar- in a remote way; please dont misunderstand- to your desire to help this young artist), I scorned to ask for a list of the many dazzling things you referred to during our ride out to my place in the country -- and so possibly I was mistakenly expecting too much. What I got into my head was (a) all of your book scripts except two, because I recall that you said the "Winesburg" Ms. was lost and that one other you had given to a brother-in-law; (b) various inscribed or presentation copies of books from other authors -- I am pretty hazy on this and seem to remember only Dreiser by name; (c) miscellany, unfinished things, etc. . . . I have no specific recollection on this. And, as I say, I may now be wrong on all three, a, b & c. This is no effort to tie things down to any "rights" in the matter -- I don't want it that way. It is all leading up to my thought about shipping up the box, etc., etc., and I meant to say earlier that I thoroughly agree with you about the difficulty under the circumstances of having sorted over the contents of this box before. I have been delighted and grateful for the various foreign editions of your books and the one presentation copy (the Joel Chandler Harris book). For a while I was thrilled, too, with the various Ms. of current material for Vanity Fair, etc., etc. In this cooped-up town, however, these latter items are making me very conscious of over-pouring desk drawers and other space limitations. Also, I have recently had an insurance appraisal made by Drake's (dealers and experts) and find that it is only the Mss. for your important, well-known items that have a material value financially. Of course, the financial side I have kept, and still want to keep, in decidedly secondary importance. What I am getting at, however, (at last!) is that these various considerations lead me to doubt the wisdom of shipping the box to N. Y. The only things I would now be anxious to have from the box are the Mss. of your other published books and short stories (the Mss. of "Dark Laughter," "Many Marriages," and "Tar," also the unpublished "Talcot Williams" being the only book Mss. so far received). In other words, shipping up the box to hunt for other unpublished or unfinished work would be going further than we need to. Besides Mrs. E and I hope to sail for England, March 30, for three months -- so I couldn't help in the sorting. I could have said all of this in a half page, I suppose, except for feeling as if I were on delicate ground and apt to be misunderstood. Please

This refers to my loan of $5000.00 to S.A. to help him buy the two Marion, Va., newspapers and to S.A's promise of MS. material, etc. in return for the unclear loan. B.E.