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TLS, signed in pencil, one page, 8.5 x 11, June 2, 1933. Letter to Alice Steinlein of the Greenwood Book Shop, Wilmington, Delaware, commenting on his ongoing work on the manuscript for Of Time and the River, which would be published in 1935. In part: "I am sincerely grateful for what you say to me about my work and appreciate it all the more because it comes from one who has had experience in selling books as well as in reading them. I am working as usual, and this time I hope with the end—one end—in sight—on the manuscript of a very long book which, if I ever complete it, will be more of a trilogy of long books than a single book, yet all belonging to a single theme. No part of it, I am glad to say, will be called K-19, which was never more than a minor section in it and which I mistakenly allowed a publicity man in Scribners to publicize about a year ago. Anyway I hope that it will be worth reading and that I will be able to feel some happiness for having written it. I see very few people and lead a very solitary life but I want you to know that it is a sincere satisfaction for me to know that there are some people who believe in what I write as you do." In fine condition. Accompanied by the original mailing envelope.
Written while Thomas Wolfe was laboring on the sprawling manuscript that would become Of Time and the River (1935), the letter captures the author at a pivotal moment in the book's development. Wolfe explains that the work is shaping into "more of a trilogy of long books than a single book," and rejects the title "K-19," insisting that it was "never more than a minor section" of the larger project and had been overemphasized by a Scribner's publicity campaign. The remarks offer a rare firsthand glimpse into Wolfe's evolving conception of one of the major novels of 20th-century American literature, written as he struggled to define the scope and structure of the work that editor Maxwell Perkins would later help shape into its final published form, not without considerable disagreement from the author himself.
From the personal collection of a lifelong collector, teacher, and traveler with a passion for world history. His collecting years ranged from the 1970s to the present day, meaning that several of the premier pieces have not been on the market in decades.
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