Part of a collection of letters from John Steinbeck to Alicia Patterson Guggenheim, written during his travels in Vietnam in 1967. Alicia Patterson Guggenheim was the editor and publisher of Newsday from 1940 until her death in 1963 and Steinbeck addressed his letter "not....to someone who is dead, but rather to a living mind and a huge curiosity" (see MA 2519.39). Steinbeck wrote the letters in this series as a weekly column for Newsday. Letters in the collection have been cataloged individually; see collection-level record for more information.
Place and date of writing inferred from its placement within the collection; Steinbeck has indicated that this is letter #9; letter #10 was published in Newsday on January 7, 1967.
The first page is a carbon copy of the original letter and is on yellow legal pad paper; in a letter from Harry Guggenheim's secretary, Dorothy J. Holdsworth, dated February 1, 1967, to Elizabeth Otis of McIntosh & Otis, Inc., Steinbeck's literary agent, she says that "Mr. Steinbeck has sent us the carbon copies of the two letters, numbers 8 and 9, that were apparently lost in the mail;" however, pages 2, 3 and 4 are original autograph letter pages on yellow legal pad paper.
Relating his preparations for his flight to Pleiku; telling how long it took him to get dressed in his fatigues and boots; saying that in the "bottom of the boot is a plastic insole with the texture of a nutmeg grater. I'm sure it serves some purpose. Mine rolled up and crippled me until I took them out and shot them;" adding that he "said a quick warrior's farewell to my weeping wife, brushed a tear aside and strode like Hector down the marble steps of the Caravelle to the lobby.... the glass front doors were locked. The curfew wasn't over. I couldn't even get out in the street. Hector grounded his spear and collapsed on his shield and waited for somebody to open the door;" relating details of the flight in a C-130 to Pleiku.