June 9/80.
My Dear Howells:
Some time ago, I told Orion to sit down & write his autobiography—& do it in a plain, simple, truthful way, suppressing none of the disagreeables—& said that in order to be able to really accomplish this, he must use genuine names & genuine dates & localities—& that when the thing was finished he could then lay his history in some other State, change the real dates & names to fictitious ones, use a feigned name for himself, & nobody would ever know who wrote it.
He started in—& I think the result is killingly entertaining; in parts absolutely delicious. I’m going to mail you 100 pages or so of the MS. Read it; keep his secret; & tell me, if, after surplusage has been weeded out, & I ring into the MS here & there a characteristic letter of his, you’ll buy the stuff for the Atlantic at the ordinary rates for anonymous matter from unknown writers.
Ys Ever
Mark.
Source text(s):Previous publication:
MTHL, 1:312–13.
Provenance:See Howells Letters in Description of Provenance.
