[T?]HE LIBRARY OF CONGR[ESS?] JUN 18 1941 SECRETARY'S OFFICE THE LIBRARIAN 6/20/41 [?]WC
Mr. Archibald MacLeish, Washington, D. C.
Dear Mr. MacLeish:

Mr. Dewey Short wrote you during the winter regarding my desire to get into some sort of defense work, and I saw your gracious reply. In accordance with your suggestion, I wrote to Mr. Mellett who expressed interest and stated that if an opportunity arose, he would write me again. The respect I feel for you and the nature of your reply to Mr. Short make me bold enough to appeal to you directly in the hope that you may be willing and able to help me.

In April I finished The Song of Jed Smith, which completes my Cycle of the West upon which I've been working since 1912. Macmillans are enthusiastic about the book. It will be out in the Fall. I'm booked by Lloyd Mitchell of Hollywood to lecture in the Coast states from September to April next, but I'd gladly cancel engagements if I could get into this great process that is now working. I'd take anything I could do by way of being a part of it all, and surely my abilities are not limited to speaking and writing. Now that I've completed a life pattern that I set myself years ago, I feel free to go anywhere or do anything.

Can you help me?

With kind thoughts,

Jno. Neihardt
John G. Neihardt.
JGN/M