Letter from John Dos Passos, Provincetown, Massachusetts, to Harry Hansen, 1937 July 7 : typescript signed with autograph corrections and additions.

Concerning some recent remarks in his "Book marks" column which, Dos Passos believes, "thoroughly misrepresented what I was trying to say in my article in this month's issue [of Common sense]", insisting that "it's the same song that I've always sung whenever I have tried to put abstract political and social ideas down on paper. ... It's not fair to use the word subversive in this connection without saying subversive of what. In this case I'm perfectly glad to admit that I am for anything that is subversive of monopoly capitalism, which seems to me to be the greatest threat to American liberties since the country was founded.", pointing out that the current political climate is confusing and mercurial, and further emphasizing that "In most of the world a man's politics are a shooting matter. Fortunately we're not at that point in this country yet. But we have come to the point when the distortion of any man's rather painfully arrived at conclusions, on the basis of heresay [sic] rather than his own written statements, is a crime against the many people who read the papers in the hope of getting hold of a few facts that they can rely on and form their own opinion on."