Lot 120
Steinbeck, John -- 1948 ALS With Advice: "The best and truest criticisms come from good literary agents and publishers." (1902-1968) Nobel Prize and Pulitzer Prize winning American author who authored 33 books and is considered one of the greatest novelists of the 20th Century. Some of his best-known works are "The Grapes of Wrath", "Tortilla Flats", "Cannery Row", "Of Mice and Men" and "East of Eden."
Autograph letter written and signed in steel point fountain pen, black ink, one page, 14 x 8½", October 1948. Also signed on return address of envelope. To Zena Holman, wife of Wilfred Rensselar Holman of the historic Holman's Department Store in Pacific Grove, CA, who had sent Mr. Steinbeck a manuscript she had written for his "input". Steinbeck originally sent her a three-page letter as to why it is inappropriate for an author to give criticism to an unpublished work, most especially a freshman effort. In this second letter, sent almost a month later, he lets Holman know he is about to travel to Mexico for a month and to please "advise credit department not to worry about my account". He then actually gives criticism based on the brief glance he gave to her work: "It has to my mind the stiffness of sentence structure and the lack of ease that is the result of too little practice. Also the dialogue is not very convincing. However, dialogue is probably the most difficult writing of all. If you set down exactly what people say, it does not sound like talk at all. It is translating it into something that sounds like something people might say that is hard. The best and truest criticisms come from good literary agents and publishers." Fine condition. Estimated Value $1,500 - UP
The W. R. Holman Collection, Pacific Grove.
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| Realized $1,380 |
