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Sale 82
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Lot 971
Steinbeck, John. Autograph letter signed ("John"), 3pp in pencil on yellow, legal paper, 12½ x 8 in. (Sag Harbor, NY), July 21, 1963. With an autograph note signed ("J.S."), on half of a yellow legal page. Both are written to Robert Wallsten. The note is marked "Private" and says, "Dear Robert: It's good to be able to tell most of the truth. You will recognize in the following letter - my attempt to let you tell me more of the truth than you have. Love to you and Cyn." In the letter, Steinbeck gives a long explanation about an operation on his retina which has prevented him from being sociable, then goes on to discuss the manuscript of Dame Judith Anderson's autobiography, which Wallsten was ghost-writing.
In part: "It is a remarkable piece of work - all the more so for being a first draft. I have read my quota of theatric biographies and autobiographies but none like this in which you have been able to set down a life in its time….I like the way you have switched from self narrative to third person reporting without which you would have no proportion….I have neither reason nor business to go into slight technical details…which you as a real professional will already have undertaken….I would not think of letting a non professional read one of my first drafts. Rather I would dwell on what you and Judy have concocted. No reader gives a good god dam[n] about Dame Judith Anderson unless he is made to. When she goes on stage she has to take them over. And in this book you have to do the same thing and I think you have done it. Too may people believe they can be press-agented into immortality….Readers are not stupid….They won't believe the great things if they don't believe the small….you have made Judy believable, and that is a nice balance….I like the book very much. It is a good book and a true book….But I must tell you one thing I do not like and no re-writing will make me like it and that is the ending. I hate that. Out of the imperfect and flawed material of the human, you have given a glimpse of that elusive greatness of spirit which everyone recognizes and no one understands. Who the hell cares what happens to her body or mine or yours. I saw the bulldozers push sand over three thousand beautiful broken young men at Red Beach, Salerno. They simply went back to earth. - A huge and simple sadness. If Judy had eight toes she might get billing in a jar on a lab shelf. Let her do what she wants with the crate but let her not mention it. Otherwise - do you know what it sounds like? Medea with a broken finger nail. And who gives a shit? In this good book it is not true even if it happens…." Fine.
Robert Wallsten ghost-wrote Dame Judith Anderson's autobiography, which was never published. Wallsten, an actor and writer, was married to actress Cynthia Rogers who was involved with the University Players (Falmouth, Mass). Wallsten and Rogers were family friends of the Steinbecks and Wallsten, with Elaine Steinbeck, edited the edition of Steinbeck’s letters.
Dame Judith's autobiography was never published. In 1989, Robert Wallsten and Elaine Steinbeck published Steinbeck: A Life in Letters.
Estimated Value $3,000 - 4,000.
Mel Smith Collection, ex Herman Darvick auction, 1975.
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| Realized $1,845 |
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