Autograph letter signed : place not specified, to H.P. Collins, [1946?].

Concerning his writing and his personal life; saying "My news is nil : so much happens that I now let it slide past me. Family crises; memory overstrain " writing 12-14 hours a day for 9-10 months : nearly blind - & now about to return alone to Devon to wander & meditate, with white hair & a septuagenarian appearance, without the venerability. Yes, I wrote a book about the old days of 1921 with fairly full detail & I suppose it will get around to interested readers. Its curious how the little first book, "The Beautiful Years", remains the most liked & read! Its the dew & bloom experience & sublimation, I suppose. Its now reached the 100,000 mark. All the other books are reappearing, too : Faber's doing them, one rewritten, in batches of 10,000 at a time. All this 'success' comes with the near-complete ruin of family life & Zola-like conflicts - all due to my own fault. So I'm making a Tolstoi-gesture & leaving, on a rusty bicycle & a crust & pen in my pocket;" discussing "The Sun in the Sands" and "A Straw in the Wind" and saying of the latter "the wind being the whirlwind of our middle age;" adding that he sees "J.M.M. on his communal farm - do you see The Adelphi? I'm told he's taking a crack at me in the forthcoming number. He's only just read "Pathway". Forgive all this selfish stuff!;" asking, in a postscript, if he has "read "Grapes of Wrath" by Steinbeck? It a great book in every sense."