Typed letter signed : New York, to Edward Wagenknecht, 1940 Feb. 4.

Thanking him for his review of his novel Mrs. Morton of Mexico (1939), and explaining his purpose in writing it: "the hope of presenting Mexico to the American reader as a land inhabited by human beings, some of whom he might possibly like very much if he would just come off his high horse and look them in the eyes. I know little or nothing about political Mexico, and I am no expert on the oil controversy--but I do know that it would be a wicked outrage if selfish interests should be able to embroil us with the Mexican nation on any pretext whatsoever. You and I, as men of good will, must do what little we can to prevent that tragedy."