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

That was rather a lovely letter, coming from a mere biographer!

I'm back, as you can infer from the above, if you are as clever as I think you are. I refer to the fact that I was in Lincoln 10 days, doing very important things remarkably well!! For instance, we completed the TV series of three programs on The Heritage of the Plains for the National Educational Television Center of N. Y.. It was quite a chore. I think people will like the series. It's quite original. I was host. They doubled my pay and said it wasn't enough but all they had — I get $300 and all expenses. It's a non-profit affair, you know, and the series cost $15,000 to produce. On the 29th I'm to talk on Black Elk for the annual dinner of the State Historical Society in Lincoln. ($250 and all expenses) Thus I shall be able to buy some groceries for my little dog, Jacquot, and my big dog, Lassie. They are such sweethearts, and I wish I were really as good as they are. They both nearly ate the Gak alive when he returned! Jacquot is all trimmed like a sissie. He feels sheepish, and so do I.do I He is so lovely when in full hair!

I don't think a beer-drinking lady should object to a gentleman dog's occasional cussing, and I don't believe dear, sweet Perky would be so unkind.

No, Babbitt did not influence my conception of genius. Myers did, by formulating my guesses into a clear pattern. Yes, I suppose the "one and the many" idea was at least emphasized and made usable for me by Babbitt. I doubt that he originated it. In any case, I agree with you that he needs to be read now. I owe him much, I am proud to say.

This is the same lovely letter continued on from another page because the other page was not big enough to hold all of it and so the rest of it had to be on a page different from the one it was on at first, if you get the idea, as I think you can if you only concentrate hard enough, but don't injure yourself by over-concentration on how this can be the same lovely letter as the one on the other page was. (Breathing spell here)

So you're digging up more letters. I wonder who was was the lucky recipient of those letters you mention. And I'm glad Hamlin Garland cared enough about my opinion to paste a letter of mine in one of his books. I suspect it may be about his Son of the Middle Border. The Upton Sinclair letters should be more or less interesting, as I recall. Anyway, he called me wrote me "with love".

You must know that Introduction to Hugh Glass. The last line of it rhymed with the first line of Hugh Glass. Surely you can find find it in the files of House's magazine in Montgomery, West V Virginia. Write about it to Dr. R. H. Vining, West Va. Institute of Technology, Montgomery. Vining was House's close friend in those days, and he is mine too. It's a corking good thing, & will add add a lot to your arsenal. It works out, by suggestion, my view of what was happening to our values.

Lady, have you found any utterance of mine, printed or spoken, that could possibly justify Harriet Monroe's savage assault on my poetry? There is nothing whatever. You must know my Minneapolis Journal articles.

While in Lincoln, I was entertained considerably G Gave two programs, one to the large and influential Altrusa Club of women administrators, and one to a houseful of teachers. The latter held me until one o'clock a. m. Both were wows, really. Whatever I have in the way of "power" semms to have grown & be still growing.

I'm working like a slave on my TV series next semester It's a big job.

I tol

You told me that I would "burble" in Lincoln when the time came. By golly, I really did!

Last Sunday [a?] group of us drove over to Red Cloud (140 miles) to look over Willa Cather country.

There really isn't much more this time, except to say that I still don't like you, as always, do I? And I answer I do too— the very idea!! And I wish I could look at you, dear Lady.

P. S.

The really important contribution in my reviews & critical essays is this. In book after book after book, in all fields of thought, I traced the centirifuga centrifugal, anarchic tendency at work over a period of nearly a quarter of a century. This is unique. No other critical writer did anything of the sort. It was this that made [Old[?]?] say: " "Neihardt, you've been sitting on a hilltop".