Letter from John G. Neihardt to Julius T. House, April 1929

Title: Letter from John G. Neihardt to Julius T. House, April 1929
Date: April, 1929
Author(s): Neihardt, John Gneisenau, 1881-1973
Recipient: House, Julius T. (Julius Temple)
TEI XML: nei.j4c.13.44-45.xml

Neihardt
After Five Days, Return to
[ST?] .LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
N.E. Corner Twelfth Blvd. and Olive St.
ST. LOUIS, MO. SAINT LOUIS, MO. 5 APR [?] 1130AM 1929

Tuesday. Dear Comrade:

Of course I want you to do the thing you outline! There is nothing whatever to the fear that I might not approve. You need not submit the manuscript to me either. Say what you believe as you are moved to say it, and that will be something worth saying.

I am mighty glad to hear that Mrs. House is in better shape than you thought, and I do hope her health will be better and better from now on. Give her my kindest thoughts.

Yes, I rather think things will work out within a reasonable length of time. I wrote President Brett a letter last Saturday, s practically asking for a showdown from Macmillans. Doctor, there has been something queer there. So much belief in my work, and yet a curious disinclination to get behind me. I hate to say it, even to you, but it does seem, somehow, that the Robinson coterie was involved. If I can't get something more than flattery out of Macmillans, I'll bolt. It would be

Don't let yourself feel conscious of me when you are writing - I mean don't wonder how I'll take this or that. Be yourself.

a pity, since there is a broad foundation laid already. I doubt if Macmillans will like the idea of my bolting. They do believe and they are pleased with the steady, if relatively small, sale of my stuff. I think that if I should get cantankerous in earnest they'd move a bit. It has really been absurd, Comrade. Three things like Glass, the Friends and the Wars in succession! What would any of the young, go-getting publishers have done with the stuff! I'm really beginning to get sore.

I'm so glad you're alive, Doctor! We all feel in our house that yours is the finest example of friendship we know everything about. There can be nothing behind this statement but conviction, for I am not trying to get anything out of you - not in any way making use of your feeling for me. It's just the way we feel about you, all of us. Frequently we speak of it.

Endless love, Jno