Letter from John G. Neihardt to Julius T. House, January 17, 1931
If you want to start with Arthur Upson, write Dr. Richard Burton (see Who's Who for present address, stating that I urged this, being an Upson fan, & that I said he knows & understands more about Upson as poet and man than any other. Get him to do you an article. I think you can land this. Burton wrote a really beautiful poem on Upson's death, a copy of which in a de luxe limited edition he gave me & which I still have. That could be reproduced with Burton's permission. I have also the Collected Poems of Upson in 2 vols which I got from his mother. If Edmund D. Brooks of Minneapolis is still living, he would help gladly & what he would give would have distinction. Brooks is, or was, a real person & published some exquisite things. Also, write to Arthur J. Russell, c/o the Minneapolis Journal, saying what you are doing and asking for help. Say I told you to do it. If Russell not dead, he should be able & eager to tell you how to get at good Upson stuff. He himself can — or could — write with real power & beauty, being a fine spirit — very fine indeed!
Do you want to borrow the Collected Poems of Upson & the Burton threnody?
As to the coming smash, I know clearly only that it is inevitable. My hope is based on the wiping out of great urban populations through gas, diseases, & scientific efficiency generallly. Killing the exaggerated urban view of life with most of the populations that perforce hold it would be a godsend to the remnant of the human race that may survive the self-destruction of the machine-industrial-profit system.
Only an intensely urban consciousness could believe that the human race as a whole will be wiped out! Good God! Think of the empty country on this planet & the sparsely populated areas which will not be touched by war! Reduce our excess population to something like the normal for an agricultural regime, & all major social problems will be solved.