West is west / by Eugene Manlove Rhodes ; illustrated by Harvey Dunn.

Author's inscription in ink starting on front flyleaf, continuing on preliminary page, and concluding on frontispiece verso: Dear Lummis: Am sending you this, hoping you might enjoy the Peñalosa chapter -- page 77. All best wishes to you. I get your chili-con-carnage column sometimes, Self, I am raising grub for Uncle Sam. Before me lies an old letter of yours, wherein you earnestly state that you didn't assist and guide me when I began writing. Your error. I was like the famous French gentleman who was surprised to find that he had been talking prose all his life: and just a little foolish and indiscriminate praise at that time would (I think) have had a very baleful effect. I cannot at this moment refrain from entering my conviction that -- as to meat and matter -- not at all as to manner -- Mary Johnson's "'The Witch", Ernest Poole's "The Harbor", and "A Man's World" by -- Edwards -- are the best books of my generation. Porque? Because they state the problem correctly and confess the failure to solve. Wishing you the same Gamaliel -- yours, [signed] E.M. Rhodes.