STEINBECK JOHN (1902-1968).

Lot 176
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4500 - 5000 EUR
STEINBECK JOHN (1902-1968).
Signed autograph letter, signed « John », [Salerno] « Good Friday » [20 April 1962], to Robert WALLSTON in New York ; 5 pages in-fol., on yellow ruled legal paper, envelope; in English. Long, literary letter to Robert Wallston in New York, addressed to Robert “and Little Muddy” written the year Steinbeck won the Nobel Prize in Literature. Steinbeck writes “[...] arrived by boat from Capri [...] the whole family is famished for Lotuses or is it Loti. Seems to be a good lotus crop here complete with Bongo drums [...] Tonight [...] they are going to bless the boats, the tourists and next year’s budget and maybe a little will splash off on us. Robert, I thought, told you [...] never to show unfinished mss [manuscripts] to an amateur. Everyone is a writer and all will help. The less they know the more they will help [...].” He gives an example of his attorney saying that he would not have begun Steinbeck’s “Sea of Cortez” the way Steinbeck did. Steinbeck writes in quotes his retort to his lawyer: “‘You stupid son of a bitch [...] don’t tell you how to try a case [...]”. He continues, “Your little Queen of the May [...] hereafter known as G. M. [...] If she wanted fiction she should have employed Dick Nixon’s ghost writer [...]”. He continues to give advice and offers a retort that his correspondent could say to “Dame G. M.” “Dahling - the most wonderful thing has happened and it’s all due to your greatness. The Library of Congress has asked for all those tapes and I have deposited them there [...] They are now the property of the nation [...].” He goes on for a long paragraph ending with the comment, “That is your speech [...] my observation is [...] she hasn’t any idea what she said on those tapes [...]”. He devises another speech for his correspondent to deliver to the woman and moves onto a new paragraph. “Now that is your first bomb. The second is a kind of mutual germ warfare. Little Muddy can p
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