Influential American author (1871–1945) of such classics as Sister Carrie and An American Tragedy. ALS, three pages on two adjoining sheets, 5.25 x 8.5, personal blind-embossed letterhead, September 10, 1919. Dreiser writes to Mr. Gould regarding Gould’s criticism of Dreiser’s controversial play The Hand of the Potter. In part: “The mss of the play was submitted to six or eight Jews before it was set up…. No one of them remarked on either the incorrect spelling of mezuze or Tck. The point you make as to the probability of Isadore assaulting Hogar Elkas occurred to me & was raised by one American writer—Frederick Booth. To meet my own thought in the matter I revised the proof so as to have a noise (or the fear of someone approaching) deter him. On examining the book now I find that my correction was not made right & I must have it revised. Even now … I am not sure that a noise would not deter him or that, left to himself, a reaction might not take place. Psychologically and especially after all that had befallen him and the condition which surrounded him, I am not absolutely sure that he might not desist. My desire was to have something occur which would cause him to stop….” Dreiser’s 1918 play The Hand of the Potter, whose main plot point was the sex slaying of a little girl by a young Jew, incited much controversy at the time of its appearance and added fuel to the charges of anti-Semitism that dogged the writer throughout his career. Pinhole to blank margin of one page, tiny marginal edge separations at mailing folds, and a hint of mild soiling, otherwise fine condition. R&R COA.
