Dear Comrade:

It was good to hear from you as always. You must have had a very interesting time in New York. Meeting Broun and Dorothy Parker was worth while--especially Broun. Something vital oozed out of the late lamented New York World when he was expelled from its staff.

When you, of all people, complain of weariness, I know that the weariness is real and deep. I've wondered, not intending to be nosey, if you could not cash your life insurance, now that you have no dependents, retire and live the golden life of an advanced student. Surely the idea is not foolish.

It is wise, I'm sure, to change the Magazine to a quarterly and make the standard higher yet.

As for us here, everything goes well indeed, except that Enid and Sigurd would be happier if employed. We are not yet hit by the depression, and I can see a year ahead easily without lowering our standard of living. Also, Mr. Pulitzer will create a Sunday department for me in October if at all possible. "I want your name in the paper again," he writes. It is not cheaper to live here, as we live, than it would be in a city, except for the rent. Prices are higher here than necessary, and we have all the overhead for "modern improvements", in additon to having an Auburn, a motorboat, and a riding horse. I tell you these things only by way of making the picture of our affairs clearer to you. For myself, the MESSIAH would be more than sufficient for hope and a reasonable happiness. The poem is developing steadily, and surely whatever it is that has helped me in the past is more than ever on the job. Good and beautiful stuff comes through pretty regularly. The thing should be completed by this time next year. Then I will proceed with Jed Smith. Before the age of sixty I should be through with my life job.

You understand that the MESSIAH was originally planned as a part of the WARS. When the two appear together as a single work, it will be clear that the complete work is not merely an "Indian epic". It is essentially the human story, utilizing the compact history of a race peculiarly well placed in time, as a medium for representing the whole trajectory of the human spirit through this world.

With endless love,

Jno.
JGN:EN