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4309 Eighth Avenue Brooklyn, New York January 8, 1929 Dear Mr. Anderson, It is something to fret me, having to introduce myself by letter. What happens is that I get confused, the wrong words tumble out, the right ones I cannot find. It is really awkward. How difficult it is when you are Sherwood Anderson. And I, of course, a mere nobody who admires and respects genius in art, especially in the difficult art of word-slinging But that is not why I am writing this, to babble praises of your writing. You have heard enough of that sort of thing from people with greater pretensions. The point is that I like your writing so much that I go out of my head when I think of it, and when I read it - the devil - it's like a near dear friend whose face wrests me out of my apathetic existence. What I mean to get at after all this prelude, is this. I should like to translate Winesburg, Ohio into Jewish, those clean cut gems of stories. The translation, of course, to reach the Jews of this and other countries who have heretofore been fed on a literature even more insipid than the American literature before you and Bierce and Dresier started things boiling. I am a student at Columbia College with literary inclinations and a real affection for your writings. I am so enthusiastic about your work that I should like to spread it to the Jews. Something evangelic, you might say, something to stir them up, to make them think, to make them aware of the dynamic force in a modern literature, yourself. My uncle, who is to help me with the translation, is a fervent admirer of your work. We both have stories to tell but we have not found words to tell them. We hope that turning your work into Jewish will loosen up the word stream in us. Naturally, when both of us appreciate so much your word mastery, it goes without saying that we shall do our best. What do you think of this notion? The Jewish people will welcome the translation, and we shall enjoy doing it. May I then dare to ask you if we have your tentative permission? Whatever your reply to this letter, even if you do not reply, I shall never lose one atom of my respect and appreciation for your emotion depictions and your word-mastery. Yours respectfully, Hyman Goldstein