Autograph and typed letters signed (8) : New York, to Edward Wagenknecht, [n.d.] and 1947-[1977].

Thanking him for the section on his work in Wagenknecht's forthcoming Cavalcade of the American Novel (1952); promising to have a copy of his new book, The Innocent Eve (1951), sent to Wagenknecht, and calling it "a little less friendly. But I feel less friendly--at my age, and after two wars, and Hollywood"; speculating on cosmic questions of faith, divinity, and universal principles; granting permission for him to publish "The Puppet Theater" in an anthology; thanking him for reviews; mentioning [James Branch] Cabell ("I know nowadays just how he felt as he grew old, and found himself more and more overlooked, and forgotten"); lamenting commercialism in contemporary publishing, and "the complete collapse of the world I knew and grew up in: the end of form, of beauty, of harmony in the arts--the end, even--of meaning! ... the end of the dignity and the pride of publishing; the rush to noise, the acclamation of the shoddy, and sales (of shoddy) in the multi-millions"; agreeing thatThe Megaswas his best book but regretting that nobody read it; and (at age 84) sending a clipping of his recent poem "The World that now ... ," reproduced alongside an essay by92-year old Will Durant, and saying, "Apple-cheeked Will Durant is lighter-spirited than I am."