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4819 W. 139th Street Hawthorne, Calif. 90250 December 8, 1970 Dear Mr. Conroy,

You are a rare, extraordinary person. One who answers letters, and one who writes so vividly. 

Thank you for your good suggestions. I did an interesting experiment with Josephine Herbst prose. I taped two hours of The Rope of Gold and played it back. I hoped to learn why her character never got off the page. I believe one reason is that her prose style was entirely unsuited to her story line. In that book, indeed in all her books, her people are sterile and defeated. somehow the reader does not believe they will shape a better social order. Jonathan couldn't write anymore. Victoria couldn't bear a living child. Neither of then could love. Out of death they try to create a decent world. No Way! In your novel The Disinherited the characters are so alive they jump our of the pages. Perhaps Miss Herbst's portrait of you as Barney Evans