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

— And now I am even further in your debt! It was like you to do that, and very dear of you! It's a beautiful pillow, and since it is done in the colors of the University of Missouri, I will take it to my office and use it, not only for comfort, but as a reminder that I have a good friend, a dear friend, in Albany, Oregon. I thank you from my heart.

This was a busy summer for me. An old student of mine, Stanley Smith, who edits a paper in Western Nebraska, had planned for a long while that he and I should follow the Oregon Trail and note all important points along the way. We did that this summer, getting as far as Green River. We spent some time in South Pass City, Wyoming. South Pass, you know, was the great gateway through the Continental Divide into the Far West. The great migration fr from the 1840's onward went through the Pass. We lived over the old days in fond imagination.

South Pass City is a ghost town. Mr. and Mrs. Woodring lived there as children; and several years ago they actually bought what was left of the town, and there they live among the ghosts! They have a small boarding house, a bar, and a little store. Some people do drop in during the summer. It frosted hard there on July 15th when we were there. They always celebrate Xmas on July 25th because the snow is s so deep in December!

I loved the place, and want to go back — and will, too, if I live.

My University work this coming year is all by television, and I am now perfecting my programs — 30 of them. I just came back from Nebraska where I did work on a TV series for the National Educational Television Center in New York. It was a tough job, but we got through in good shape.

How are you Edna? And how is my old pal, John ? And how is Mr. Skilling? I do think good thoughts of you all. Maybe I'll get back there again during the Xmas holidays. I'd like to do that.

Write me and tell me things.

Give my affectionate thoughts to old John and your husband. And be sure I have affectionate thoughts for you.

Thanks, thanks for the beautiful pillow!