12 hand-written pages, plus envelope
Media: type
Media: black ink
You have been making remarkable progress, as usual! I'm always being pleasantly surprised by your successful hunting. It's good news that you had a pleasant and profitable visit with Mary House (Ryskind). I'm so glad you could see her, and I realize how far it is from Eugene to Beverly Hills.
I have no memory of having written the verses on old Doc Bixby (known affectionately as "Bix"). I must have written them when he came to Bancroft to recite his verses (to a small and unresponsive audience, as I recall). "Bix" was one of the first daily columnists (after Gene Field) who did
mere yearling neighing bravo to the old war horse! "Bix" had a Santa Claus belly and a very red face, as the verses indicate. Looked like a hard
The tripe, and so intended, I suspect.
About Greek: I did not read Xenophon in English. I do have an English version of the Memorabilia in my library. I did not read Plato in Greek — did not read him at all in the earlier days. Both Plato and F. W. H. Myers expressed clearly for me what my own experience had suggested long before — the Dionysian conception of poetry. I always felt that poetry came from somewhere else! Of course, from the age of 12 onward I was
The Poetic Values lectures: I forget just when I gave them — in the Fall, I think. Originally, I did plan 3 lectures, and the opening paragraphs of the third must be among my papers in the MSS Room of the University. The two given (as published) seemed about all a general university audience could stand. In those days the auditorium at the U. of Neb. was filled when I came. They were draped over the balcony when I gave Poetic
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Values. I'm sure only a relative few knew what I was talking about, but they did seem to be listening. Dr. Hartley Burr Alexander, Head of Philosophy and Pres. of the American Philosophical Society at the time, said as much to me. He was a whale in various seas of learning, and I've seen specialists run for cover when he turned loose and discussed their specialties! He was my friend — wanted me to take an independent "Chair of Poetics" in his department. When I
Dr. Alexander and Dr. Sherman (Head of the English Dept. and a distinguished Shakespeare scholar) were enjoying a bitter feud of long standing. Both were my friends. Sherman wanted me in his department, and Alexander wanted me to go there, as he didn't care where I chose to go if I just came
stronger currents of the journalistic world. The Post-Dispatch had made a most inviting offer, and there I went. But I gave the two lectures at the U. of Neb. as Hon. Prof. of Poetry. (I was free to make the professorship active at any time).
Before this Carleton College made
stood ready (as they told Chancellor Avery of Neb.) to pay me $3500 for half a year, leaving me free to lecture over the country (as Carleton's man) the remainder of the year. A dollar then was equal to $2.50 or $3.00 now! feel something like a great tide flowing; and it seems enough just to be and say — or even just to be. (I mean something by these words, as I know you will know.)
Here's another suggestion: For several months I worked on the Sioux City Tribune. I think this was just after the Blade adventure, but I'm not sure. It was during the first four or five years of the 20th century — and
For instance, that Keats lecture! Where
Who cared to save it? I remember only that I gave it in a church for a woman's club. I remember the ladies were kind. I remember flowers and flowers. (I was scared and the flowers helped. Bless those ladies' hearts!) I have a feeling that the lecture was a bit stilted, or at least stiff — maybe a bit prissy — maybe even "literary". Was it? An incident occurred in Sioux City that I must tell you about some time.
Mona and I feel that you have been "sent" to do this work.