.MTYyMQ.MTQyODQ3

February 10, 1974 Dear Mr. Conroy,

   Thank you so much for your time and thought in reading my manuscript and writing to me.  This is a generous thing to do even for a close friend, let alone a stranger.   I would like to meet you sometime on one of my visits home to Ill. (Fairfield).
  underlined:  Blackberry Summer was true of course.  Dorothy is my older half-sister.  My mother died when I was seven and she was 29.  My sainted grandmother was my salvation.  Anyway, the story has been with a N.Y. firm since July & they have said "they'll work out something."  Maybe it will be hand carved in stone tablets (more nostalgia).
   I will send for your latest book.  I've had the Bontemps in the school lib. forever.  You should have had top billing.
   underlined:  Ruffles & Drums did well with ex-WACs who knew of it