Sinclair Lewis received this letter from a lawyer in a Midwestern city:
Dear Lewis:
Have read a few of your works and would like to ask a few favors. Please send me a list of your stories, your autograph, picture, and a letter describing your life. How many children have you and their names.
Thanking you, I am
Yours very truly,
J.J. Jones, Esq.
He responded:
My Dear Jim:
There was only one thing about your nice letter that I didn’t like. It was so sort of formal. True, we have never met, and somehow I feel we aren’t likely to, but, isn’t this a democratic country? So let me call you Jim, and you call me Fatty, or any other friendly name.
Now Jim, I haven’t got a photograph of me here, but I’ll go right down to the junction and have one taken. I’m preparing a letter about my life, but it’s been a pretty long one and a bad one, and that will take me several weeks.
But in the meantime, Jim, I’m awfully interested in lawyers. Kindly send me your picture, picture of your home and office, a list of your assets and liabilities, average income per month, list of the books you have read since 1914, if any. Kindly inform me whether you have ever defended a bootlegger and why. Should be glad to have any other interesting personal information for use in a story. How do you get along with your wife? Kindly explain this in detail.
Thanking you in advance, I remain,
Yours affectionately,
Sinclair Lewis
I love this, but part of me wonders if it’s true... every mention I find of it on the web contains the same information about the sender.
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By: April Henry,
on 4/25/2012
Blog: So many books, so little time (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
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By: April Henry,
on 4/12/2011
Blog: So many books, so little time (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
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By: April Henry,
on 4/25/2012
Blog: So many books, so little time (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: fans, fantasies, Add a tag
By: April Henry,
on 4/12/2011
Blog: So many books, so little time (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: fantasies, Add a tag
It’s hard not to remember the people who, somewhere along the way, crushed your spirit. Author Chris Bohjalian was given the chance to make things even and instead he took the high road.
