Lot 4450
Steinbeck, John (1902-68) American author. Autograph Manuscript, unsigned and untitled, of the article "The Mail I've Seen," published in the Saturday Review (volume 39, number 31), 4+ pages, stapled together, written in ink on yellow legal paper, with numerous corrections. The humorous essay categorizes the mail he receives, including fan mail, denunciations, requests for autographs, for money, for collaborations, etc.
In part: "A writer's mail is very interesting. But gradually the letters fall into categories. The most common is the fan letter, written simply because the writer after reading something of mine has felt the urge to communicate. These letters usually begin - I have never written a fan letter before. Then there is the letter which starts out with praise and then gets to work on my morals and choice of subject….A third kind of letter is the honest out and out denunciation. A great many of these utilize four letter words….Then come the requests for autographs and pictures, some of them naive and some quite professional. These latter usually list signatures they already have, usually including Thomas Mann and G.B. Shaw. The implication is that I will be in good company if I send it and a schnook if I don't….The requests for money are fairly constant reaching their peak a few months after each book is published…. [A woman] who wrote often for a while said that Joan Crawford was her mother and Bing Crosby her father and they wouldn't give her any money so she appealed to me, her uncle, to ask them to send her 50,000 dollars. " One of Steinbeck's favorite offers was from a saloon owner who wrote that he had a million stories and that Steinbeck should come out and write them down. "I'll stake you to grub and liquor. If you have a wife, she can tend bar while we write. It was hard to refuse that one…."
Estimated Value $5,500 - 6,500.
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| Realized $6,325 |
