If the mail clerks had more understanding I would address you "Sterling, Yosemite Valley" — but they wouldn't trouble, & so I've got to aim this so that it will ricochet & find you. I can't exaggerate my faith in the stuff you will do on that subject. It's your kind of material, & you'll land something riffing. I rejoiced when I received your card, for I knew that you were incubating something big again. Go to it!
The Macmillan Company has accepted "The Song of Hugh Glass" for Fall publication. They offered "heartiest congratulations on what seems to us a distinct achievement". They might have been very stiff, you know. They will issue my Selected Poems later, it seems.
I knew you'd help me be glad about my "Song" & so I'm telling you. Write me, won't you? I think of you more than of any other man. And no one places you higher than I do.
Jno
There are 3,066 lines in the "Song" — two years of work.
