Letter from Walter de la Mare, Twickenham, to Edward Wagenknecht, 1948 December 13 : typescript with autograph manuscript postscript.

Saying that the letter "was dictated, the only chance of such a facility I have had since my present session here" though he feels he has improved on the typewriter despite not recently using one; responding to and making suggestions to stories such as 'The Turtle' and remembering "Newbolt saying to me years ago that 'The Turn of the Screw should have never been written'--or was it, 'published'; commenting on horror in general; liking 'The Hourglass' best for selection; asking forgiveness for making suggestions and saying not to bother if he does not agree; explaining the motivation to go on with this kind of work: "It's the old controversy: characters taken from the life within or from the life without; life raw or (charming disguise) 'processed'; flies in the actual air or in amber?"; adding in postscript that he believes "you'll find tale-telling a really refresing and engrossing [?] addition to your academic obligations" and "it always seems like coming home, to me."