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image of typewriter Dorland Mountain Colony Temecula, California 5517 Crestwood Drive, Kansas City, MO 64110

13 Feb 1988 in pencil Ray, David

Dear Jack,

 we have been saddened to hear about your stroke, but it was good to learn from Doug Wixson that you are recovering.

We often think of you, and simply wanted to take Valentine's Day as an appropriate time to tell you that we love you, and we treasure the works you have so generously inscribed in the past. Sapphina also delights in looking back at your books, particularly The Fast Sooner Hound, underlined and the playful drawings and tender wishes for her happiness - she has taken those words seriously, and benefited greatly from them.

 But the main thing is just to say we love you!!
 Doug has been in touch about your papers, and there is certainly no need to worry about them - I am sure Doug will

find an appropriate place and one that you can give your blessing to. You should not be too selfless in this, of course, as this would be an appropriate source of income to pay for your medical expenses. Whatever some institution gives you, it won't be a fraction of what your fantastic collection of literary treasures is worth. Over the years I was playing with the notion of coming up with some thousands to offer you, with the idea of merging these works with my collection, but I think Doug is pursuing the right course, which is to bestow them outright and create a Jack Conroy room where scholars will devote themselves to an understanding of your immense contribution to our literature. By the way, I have found them well aware of that contribution both in India and in New Zealand and in Australia.

 I am still playing with The Disinherited underlined as a screenplay, and feel more confident about finishing it sometime

since I have now completed another full-length screenplay - one about the Underground Railroad days in 1855. When you are feeling