• Title: Letter from John G. Neihardt to Joseph G. Masters, August 13, 1925
  • Date: August 13, 1925
  • Author(s): Neihardt, John Gneisenau, 1881-1973
  • Recipient: Masters, Joseph G.
  • TEI XML: nei.j4c.10.25-27.xml
Branson, August 13, '25.
Dear Mr. Masters:-

Your bully letter has just arrived.

There isn't much to tell about the two new books. The prose book will be called "MORE TRUTH THAN POETRY". It is simply my lectures prepared for the University of Nebraska. My purpose is to show, in a way that the intelligent commonsense man is bound to respect, why poetic values are real values in the strictest practical sense, and what happens in a society as a result of the fact that only the lower range in the scale of values of the fact that only the lower range in the scale of values is actually treated as real. I try to show by what mechanism within the personality of men it is possible to arrive at a synthetic realism, embracing the reality of the commonsense man and also the values of the artist, all being real and integral in the scale of human values. I had thought of calling the book "HOW SHALL WE BE HUMAN?" This possible title will give you a line on what I'm after. The point is that our society is trying to live in a fragment of the real world. There is a vast amount of analysis now, but little synthesis. We can't be human as a society so long as our values are automatically limited to the lower range of the scale. You will know, of course, that when I refer to "poetic" values, I am thinking about something far more important than a literary form. The two lectures are called COMMONSENSE and THE CREATIVE DREAM.

The COLLECTED POEMS will contain all my poetry, lyric, drama, epic. There will be 750 pages of it. (over)

The "More Truth" book will appear late in October, the Collected Poems in February.

Thirty thousand words in the "More Truth" book.

I think I shall write to the man you mention. That sort of propoganda is what counts.

Great doings in Wayne the day you lecture at McGregor. You will hear about it later. I will not be there. Don't want to appear to enjoy the experience of being Exhibit A!

So glad you and Mrs. Masters will be at McGregor. Bully!

Kind thoughts!

Jno. N.

What Wayne is doing thrills me - one of the finest things that have happened to me. But I shudder at the thought of being present.