Typed letters signed (4) : New York, to Harry Hansen of The World-Telegram, 1931 Apr. 25 (item 1), May 20 (item 2), June 1 (item 4), and June 10 (item 6).

Asking him to sit on a review committee which will evaluate the film version of An American Tragedy to decide whether or not "it sufficiently carries out the ideology of the book as to hold me free from any person[al] or artistic harm before the world." In this long and angry letter, Dreiser makes the case that the "talking picture" by Paramount Publix misrepresents his novel, presenting a skewed and diminished portrait of the main character, Clyde Griffiths. He worries that "the millions and millions who have never read the book and who may or may not have heard of me will, by this process, be offered a distorted as well as a belittling interpretation of a work which is entitled, on its face, to a far more intelligible and broadening conception of the inscrutable ways of life and chance." Dreiser goes on: "As I read the script..., I feel that it might as well have been deliberately calculated to misinterpret not only my character and powers as a novelist, but my mental and artistic approach to life itself. I resent this, and...*no such corruption of this work, under my reading of the contract, can be offered to the public." In the latter three letters Dreiser thanks Hansen for agreeing to serve on the review committee and giving him information on the details of the screening