Across the Spectrum:The Interdisciplinary Life and Letters of John G. Neihardt (‘Flaming Rainbow’)

This is not a letter, and you must not hold it against me that I seem to be writing out of turn! This is only a note. I want to tell you something before I forget. (You and I must be awfully careful about such things).

Well — about stories & poems from 1901 to 1914 not collected in books:
Around 1906-07 the Outing Magazine published stories of mine with illustrations by Schoonover, [Jay Hambidge?], etc. Have you looked those up? I recall The Epic Minded Scot, The Dead Man's Dog, The Brutal Fact, the latter being a first telling of the [?] shooting incident. You will want to look up the Outing stories. Caspar Whitney was editor then — a great editor of his day. He sent me down the Missouri River to write eight articles on the trip. (This is The River and I.)

Then do you know To a Hat Pin, published in Truth (a high-class magazine) along about 1902? (Lucile, this one is a lark!! It was all about the girl with the long golden hair who lived across the street — Edith Perdel! We used to go on skating parties. Bitter cold nights. big fires!)

And have you seen The Tiger's Lust, a long short story published in the old Philadelphia Ledger about 1902-03? If you haven't seen that one, Lucile, you aint seen nuttin' yet." (It bought my mother's false teeth — her first.)

There was an obscure but hopeful little magazine along about 1903-04-05 that published a sketch of mine, called The Hot Wind, a memory of my experience in Kansas when I was five and six. I can't remember the name of the magazine, or even where it was published. And do you know The Wind God's Wooing? This was printed in colors on our Bancroft Blade press. Spenserian stanzas, I remember — wow!!

I enclose the letter from old Rex's nephew! The high prairie wind, the dust, the shattering rain and the coffin being lowered!! O Lucile, dear friend, in the short view it's a most pathetic business, isn't it?

Rex was delighted over his correspondence with you.