Cassette Tape 30 Side A -- Old Files/Rita Smith Letters -- 30 minutes and 47 seconds Sullivan's Label: 30a Old Files Rita Letters [MC298-5-1-037a] July 30, 1952. To Carson and Reeves. [Sullivan -- About Carson's mother. A two page letter it would seem. It talks about [Cereline?] and Jerome". Then] Dan submitted a story in the California Quarterly, a new and very good magazine two months ago and finally heard from them saying that they wanted to buy it and it was first place the editors had unanimously agreed on a story. They asked for a couple of small changes, but Dan has been working so hard on this construction job that I don't know when he will be able to work on the story. When he does I will send you a copy as I know you will both like it. Reeves, I am sending you the envelope I got from the Nyack Hospital. The check wasn't signed. Dan says he can figure everything out if you will send him an itemized list of everything you have spent so far. He has kept his cancelled checks of what we have spent. Lamar has been sending money regularly and we have a record of that, too. We don't know if this is a total of the hospital bill or if you paid any doctors' bills so when we hear from you we can sent both you and Lamar a statement of who owes who what. I want to finish up now so I can get home and see Mother and Helena off. It is so terribly kind of Helena and just like her to want Mother to be with her for a visit. It isn't as if she didn't know the care involved and I know she will give it to Mother. You can always write Mother in care of me, and I guess that might be the best as I do not know how long Mother plans to stay. Dan and I are giving Mother a check. Although her visit with Helena is not a business arrangement, we think Mother should more than pay her part. My own doctor, Dr. Bauman, came by to check her and said her heart, blood pressure and lungs were normal so it's just a matter of being patient. Rita July 21, 1952. Dear Carson, here's a letter that Mother wrote you. We thought perhaps it would be better for her not to come right now. She's still recuperating and she's worried that she would not be any help to you at this time. We have a good lady that takes care of her during the day and Mother's getting better every day. Lamar and Virginia want her to come down there and perhaps that would be the best until she and Aunt T get together. However she will be staying with us at least until she hears more news from you. If things work out for you, and Reeves gets better soon, then perhaps a trip to Paris will still be possible. Mother and Dan had a long talk over the weekend and Dan explained to her that she did not have the strength or the money to be chasing around and when she decides to leave us she should go where she can stay long enough to get better. He also told her that for six months at least she would have to get used to acting like an 85 year old woman, that she was sick a long time before she had her attack and that in order for her to get back, not to where she was before the attack but back to the healthy active woman of her age, she had to take care of herself. Do keep Mama posted. She will stay with me until you let her know definitely what you think will be the best for her. It may very well be that she could enjoy this trip to Paris so much more several months from now when she can get around better. This check from Double Day reached me through a very circuitous route and I am sending it to you. Take care of yourself and write Mama when you can. We are taking the best care of her possible. Rita P.S. - Thank Dot for letters for all of us for writing. January 14, 1953. [[Sullivan - Here's the other half of the letter from Ira Morris. The first half I had already seen. Page 2. Same typing and the same parentheses.] [Processor's note - Sullivan read the first part of this letter on Tape 14 Side B.] I'm sure I don't know why [the sum?] of North Africa for all of Ira's homos. The town is full of beautiful boys who wear roses behind their ears and gaze at one dreamily with their soft eyes. It is also, alas, full of that lesser type and breed of homos, non-Arab, known by the French by the colorful appellation "pederast de plein aire." The p.de p.a. are the sporting type, wearing a velvet jacket and a foulard scarf, given to horseback riding in the hills with Arab friends, swimming in the piscine in nothing but a pache-fixe, hiking and so forth. The drawing room variety do not seem to come to Marakeesh. Perhaps they realize that the young Arab boys cannot be introduced into drawing rooms. [paragraph] Apart from the pederasts of various ilks, Marakeesh has another specialty -- story-tellers. There are about a dozen of them in the central marketplace, each telling a wonderful story to an enchanted audience stationed in a circle around him, some squatting, some standing, some sitting on little stools brought specially for the occasion. The stories are mostly out of the Arabian Nights, I am told, and I would give anything to understand their recital but just looking at these marvelous story-tellers is a joy. They wave their arms, make wonderful dramatic gestures with their long, delicate fingers, contort their faces into grimaces depicting the whole gamut of emotions from A to B. This goes on for an hour, perhaps two hours. The story-teller getting better all the time. The audience shrieks with laughter, a moment later expressions of wonder creep into their faces. A little later they are gripped with horror as he recounts some gruesome episode which, if it took place at all, took place about 3,000 years ago and you can see the whole show for 20 francs, for which you can't even ride on the Metro in Paris. Do let us hear from you and give us the latest scandals from the Oise district. The [rose en brie?] address will always reach us. Letters are forwarded from there as promptly as anything is done in France. We shall be back there probably in April, passing through Rome, Paris and London on the way. Not the most direct route, of course, but we want to see [Arbans?] who, since January 1st, has been working in his specialized Japanese language job at the Foreign Office. He's very happy in the work and I think it is just up his alley. Love to both of you, Ira February 15, [1963] To Rita. It's a long time between letters and a long time between visits but it doesn't mean I don't love you. You and Carson were so good to send all that heavenly candy to us at Christmas. Heard through Toppy that you had left Mademoiselle. I know the new job is a better one and I'm sure the new surroundings will be pleasanter. Please let us know something. Where is it? What are you doing? Somehow we have lost contact with you and would like the following information -- office address and telephone number, home address and telephone number. We may be in New York in March and would like to call you. All is well here and hope it's the same with you and Carson. Isn't Kennedy delightful? We are elated that a bright young man is in the White House and Jackie is charming, too. Lovingly, Edwin [Peacock] October 28, 1953. To Carson. Dear Heart, the fashion in the 20s, unlike today, was for long strings of beads, so that I was able to have Mother's chalcedony re-strung as two necklaces, one for you and one for Mary. I hope you will both like them and wear them as a token of my love for you and as a memento of a very great event in the life of the American theater Wednesday night. I shall be thinking of you, wishing that you could be there in person, and hoping for the great success you so much deserve. I love you both a bushel and a peck with all my heart, Boots [Processor - Jordan Massee] May 3, 1966. To Carson. From Wade Allen Rogers III at the Phi Delta Zeta fraternity at Auburn University, Auburn Alabama . Dear Carson, first of all let me introduce myself. I am Wade Allen Rodgers III. Lavinia Gentry Rodgers is my mother. Secondly I hope that it is not too presumptuous of me to call you Carson. I am a student at Auburn University majoring in advertising design. This last quarter [Harvey?] designed a book jacket for Reflections and Ballad. Today it occurred to him for no other reason that the fact that we are cousins that you might be willing to write me a letter giving me a brief personal statement on each of these books. [Sullivan- "on down"] As you might recall, Mother wrote you this summer when I was working at a resort at Lennox, Massachusetts. I was sorry I didn't get to see you, but I only had one day off each week and I worked on the night clerk on the date. . . that your books have meant a great deal to me. As far as I know I have read every thing that you have had published. The chance fact that you are related has no influence upon my strong admiration of your work and the professor of design said too he's one of your admirers and seems to feel my style of illustration is reminiscent of your literary style in some weird way which I don't comprehend. Thank you, Carson, for any type of letter which you consider appropriate for my particular situation. Mother, Aunt Zelda and Aunt Baby send their regards . Very truly, Wade Rodgers May 11, 1966 [Sullivan - There is an answer.] Dear Mr. Rodgers, as I am very ill I would like to ask that you write to my publisher Houghton Mifflin in Boston. You can also get information from Who's Who. Regret that I cannot be of more help but I am working very hard and this illness has taken quite a lot out of me. Love to the relatives in Tuskegee . I remember them with so much affection. Kind regards. Sincerely, Carson [Inside that note from Boots of October 28, 1953 is this note in pencil and pen. No one says when it was written or who wrote it.] Dear Floria, Jack said - what do you think? Probably the income from play after taxes $65,000 less studies $10,000, less fence $2,000, less dog $150 leaves -- $42,150 to invest. If invested capital just under $200,000, probably income $10,00 to $12,000 a year or $1,000 a month or $250 per week. Mary's share about $11,000. Does not include foreign sales, road company or movie sales. Monday, October 20. To Marguerite Smith. On Mademoiselle stationary. Dearest Mama, Jeannie, Budge and Little Bit, it was good to get your letter today. Don't know what I'd do without hearing from you. Dan is sick. He has a delayed reaction to the penicillin the doctor gave him when we had those awful colds. He is covered all over from the top of his head to the bottom of his feet with a terrible red rash. If he scratches he has welts pop out. One eye closed while I was feeding him breakfast. It is terribly painful but I don't thinks it's serious and he takes a sedative every hour. Barbara is in town. You know how excited and happy that makes me. I haven't seen her but we'll see her right after work. I had wanted her to stay with us but probably it will be better for her to be in a hotel at least tonight until Dan is a little better which I am sure will be soon from what I have heard about reactions others have had. Wish this check were bigger. Danny [Stivie?] still hasn't been paid however I hope to send a little more this month just as soon as I find out where we stand when the electric bill, bank and such have been paid. Played poker Saturday night. It went on from 4 Saturday afternoon until Sunday AM at 7 and I lost 49 cents. Would you like a sketch of me that Margaret has done? Or did I ask you this before? She is working on the portrait of me but she doesn't need me to model. She is working from a drawing. Am thinking of going in with Tina [Bougeolee?] and making fruit cake this Christmas. Not any big ones, just a few doll-sized ones for Christmas presents, but even so it seems like a big expensive undertaking. Mama, how did you ever bake those huge ones you used to make? My peach jam isn't very good but it's a balm to my soul anyway. The peas were delicious and the rice very [similar?]. Love to all of you, Bone March 13, 1950. To Carson. From the Taylor Buick Company in Tuskegee, Alabama. Dear Carson, for the last 2 and 1/2 months I have wanted to write and congratulate you on the wonderful success your play is making. We have all been keeping up with it through the New York Times and the very nice write-up it has had in Life Magazine. In fact, I have not seen one unfavorable report on it. I know that you must be, and rightfully so, very proud of yourself. All the Gentry family certainly admire you I know that you must have worked hard to have achieved the heights that you have attained. Uncle Bill and Aunt Gertrude spent a few days with me last month. They said that Bill and Pat enjoyed A Member of the Wedding very much and also seeing Rita. We haven't heard from any of you directly in so long so of course we are delighted to know that you are well. Linda Lee is quite a grown young lady now. She bought her first set of clothes last week and it was like seeing a side show to see her trying to put them on. She does hate to grow up and really begged the other girls in her crowd not to start wearing hose. I think she felt her last vestige of childhood was gone. Vince's two little boys are in school and Baby has one of the smartest little boys you've ever seen . Mama is well and as sweet and pretty as ever. I spent a week with the Detroit folks this summer and they all have lovely homes and seem happy and contented. Give my love to Aunt Marguerite and Rita. With all my love to you, Felba P.S. - Hope you don't mind the type-written letter. It's much easier thus. [Sullivan - When Rita wrote Mrs. Smith in Columbus she wrote her at 61 Forest Side Drive, MR3, Columbus, Georgia.] February 23 1966. To Carson. From Virginia Smith in Perry, Florida. [Sullivan - First, included with these is a letter written 8/2/65 Monday and it was from Cousin Mary Louise in Tuskegee. In the letter from '66 one letter is from Virginia and Lamar.] She said, Dear Carson, we haven't heard from you in such a long time. Hope you are much better. Hope you enjoy the warm sunny days [and then describes it and says] the three of us are a perpetual infirmary since Thanksgiving. Thought Lamar, Jr. had glandular fever so they tested him out for that. [Then she make a comment that they are enjoying their Christmas presents, says they're still eating on them, hoarding them.[ Sorry that ours didn't reach you until after Christmas. Mailed it early enough we thought but it was late arriving. Does Mary like the fish roe, too? [Sullivan - It was mailed to Rita and Carson together. Enclosed in that letter was family gossip.] Hope your house is fully restored since the fire. We were so glad that you were with Mary when it happened. We were so glad it didn't damage it any worse. Even a small fire is more than enough, isn't it? Give Mary our love, Ida too, we love you. Take care of yourself, Ginny [Processor -- Mrs. Lamar Smith] February 13, 1966. To Carson. All the tests on Lamar for mononucleosis are negative. Just a note to let you know that we think of you often and pray every night that you will get stronger. You know that Ginny works part-time in the hospital now. She is a relief X-ray technician. Seems to have done her a lot of good except since Christmas she has been ill and she doesn't know how to take it easy. Lamar has been sick for the last two weeks [Sullivan - and so forth]. No cold weather except for the last week. I think I like living in Florida now and more the longer I live here. I teach Sunday school to the older teenagers That really keeps me on my toes. I have to spend at least six hours a week preparing for the class. It is really a lot of fun. I am learning more biblical history and more mythology than I ever thought I could. I do love you, Carson. Love, Lamar November 7, 1960. From Robert Lantz. Re: Houghton Mifflin/Clock without Hands. Dearest Carson. The following deal was set between Mr. Mosely and myself in a metting this morning. Preparing contracts on this basis. You will receive an advance of $15,000 payable in installments to be determined and will receive a straight royalty of 15%. They will have no other rights except the customary publishing rights in U.S. and Canada. We will retain all foreign rights and make our own deals for them. We will retain the first serial rights. There will be no more options. They will guarantee you substantial publicity allocations; specifically a full page ad in the New York Times Book Review, prior to publication, and full pages in the Times and Tribune book reviews after publication, with quotes. They will give you 15 free copies and give me 10 free copies and we shall be able to buy any amount of copies at a 40% discount. You will have approval of the jacket and they will submit to you a list of artists to indicate your preference. Before they have the right to remainder the book you shall have the right to buy back the plates at cost and go elsewhere. Any paperback book deal shall be subject to your approval. You shall have the right to limit annual income to an amount to be fixed. You shall share 50/50 in any major book club deal. They will contractually guarantee you that every one of your previous books will be back in print in hard cover prior to the publication of the new book and that the first full page ad for the new book will also list the separate titles and price of each book. Mr. Mosely will return to Boston this afternoon to be able to vote tomorrow. I shall get word to him to call your from there, as you were not able to make an appointment to see him tomorrow. I think this is a very good deal, clearly reflecting their enthusiasm for the work. January 3, 1961. To Carson. The revised manuscript of Clock arrived on Friday. I took it home to read over the week-end. I cannot remember when I have been so deeply moved by a novel. It is a triumph, both of writing and in the technical sense of understanding. It is a work of great perception and great courage. I remember that you wrote me years ago that you believed that this would be your best book. There is no question that it is. This will be our leading novel for 1961, and I am sure Hargrave has told you. Paul Brooks "Comments on Fashion" by Carson McCullers for Union Award. [Sullivan - Five pages of type-script. There is a note in the margin, "written to earn $100," signed M.] I don't think people should follow fashion, they should wear what is comfortable and graceful for them. I love my clothes and I buy very few of them. I love the ones I own and wear them forever, or as forever as I can. An Irish tweed suite in my wardrobe is at least 20 years old. That's the truth. I let out or take up hems when really necessary. I abhor fashion and especially the fashion people, the people who change fashion. As everybody knows they are only there to make money for the garment industry. When I was writing The Heart is a Lonely Hunter I had no thoughts for clothes so that when the long, almost ankle-length dress was changed to a knee-length dress, I did not notice until the book was finished. Then I had to concede to fashion and thank goodness I had the money for that concession. My favorite dress is 200 years old. Of course, I didn't buy it despite of what my enemies say. It is a Chinese Mandarin robe, robin's egg blue and lined with the palest pink with deep, richly embroidered cuffs and borders. I shudder to think how long it took to embroider. It was a family heirloom, used only for court visits to the dowager empress. I wear it only on first nights to the theater. After the harsh, cruel winter, especially this last one, the green spring is so refreshing, and with the spring, the light pastel colors. And after the air-conditioned summer, if you have air-conditioning, the russet and yellow and reds of fall so naturally reflect our feelings. One fine evening a very dear and very intelligent friend of mine came to dinner in a sack dress. Do you remember sack dresses? My housekeeper, who knew her well, called me into the kitchen and nudged me. "See what she's wearing? That's a sack dress." I didn't need to be nudged. Her dinner companion was wearing a lovely classical dress she had probably worn for years, and it was so natural, so beautiful that my housekeeper didn't have to call me in and nudge me. My criteria for clothes are naturalness and grace. . . . March 30, 1952. Receipt and bill for 9 days at the American Hospital of Paris, 63 Boulevard Victor Hugo, Neuilly-sur-Seine, from May 22 through May 30. The total bill was 61,811 francs total. Phone calls every day, they even charged for soap, pads, kleenez, phone calls of course, Cognac even one day. She was in room 11. Settlement for her hospital bill of 1,811 francs]. July, 1952. [Sullivan - Also one cable sent. Here's another portion of a bill. The cable was sent July 12, 1952. The bill here says July 12, 13, 14. There were many phone calls this time, too. The balance was 19,930 francs.] [Sullivan - I see here a dozen or so tickets for the drawing Next Seed for Education for the drawing number 1967 for the New York Lottery. I counted 13, there may be more or less.] August 14, 1966. From 30 Johnson Street, Mrs. V. Stephens, Spring Valley, New York, in answer to an ad in the Journal News, Nyack, New York Box 140. Dear Sir, I would be interested in the position [Sullivan - obviously being a companion to elderly people of some sort. I don't know what the ad might have said. Letter written August 13.] May 27, 1963. From Mary Mercer to Mr. John Kilby, Kilby and Lake, Nyack. Dear Mr. Kilby, Mrs. McCullers has asked me to send you the enclosed appraisal of personal property made by Tippy O'Neil, Yonder Hill Dwellers, Palisades, New York. Would you please send the endorsement of this personal property floater directly to Mrs.McCullers. The appraisal, too, should be returned to her. Sincerely, Mary E. Mercer, MD October 26, 1961. From Francine's, 10 West Street, Boston. Under separate cover we are shipping you mink coat. Jacob Klaff, Francine's Furs August 10, 1966. Another person answers the ad from 105 Washington Avenue. [Surfern?] New York. Catherine Dooby is her name. May 17, 1961. To Carson. From Robert E. Carrol, Columbia Presbyterian, 184 Washington Avenue. We have made arrangements for you to enter this hospital as a private patient [low price premium?] the Harkness Pavilion on Sunday, June 18. January 22, 1954. From Carol T. Clothes, 257 North Broadway, Nyack. Dear Mrs. McCullers. Hope the knee socks were the right shade and size. Do try and get up here while the suits and dress are on sale. You mentioned on the phone that you were interested in the wool frontier pants which come in khaki also and the sweaters. We also have the Haymaker man tailored shirts in stripe and solid colors, separate jackets and skirts, the English flannel tweed suits and Scotch tweeds are on sale now for $30. They were $50, so it may be worth your while, if it is convenient, to get up here or call and tell me what you'd like and I will bring it down for you to see. Carol Gross September 20, 1952. [Sullivan -- Here's some more with the American Hospital in Paris. July 25, 1952. They are sending her the reimbursement for the deposit. This is re: her hospitalization from 7/12 to 7/14, 1952. So there was another hospitalization. Here we find a bill on the 4 of September brought forward and that bill was for 8,000,438 francs. [Processor's note -- This is the amount Sullivan read, but I suspect that it was for 8,438 francs.] Payment made on the 20th of September, 1952. Something from Turner and [Chiachemino?] Liquor Store. A little flower advertisement. 83 South Broadway, Nyack. "Free delivery." February 26, 1966. From Carson. To Doris Farquahar. Dear Miss Farquahar, [Processor's note -- Miss Farquahar had been nurse/companion to the English author Edith Sitwell.] Your letter brought much joy to me. However, despite the overtones of sadness iIt must be realized that even after dear Edith's death her soaring spirit will live forever. I am so very pleased that you expect to come to America next month and hope you will include a visit to me in my home in Nyack, New York. As I am in need of a person much like yourself who might live with me, I thought perhaps you might consider staying with me. I can offer a complete and private apartment consisting of a suite including a large living room, bedroom, kitchen and bathroom. My house is large, beautiful and comfortable, enjoying the atmosphere of serenity and interesting people who frequently visit me from lands far and near. Nyack is less than thirty miles from New York City so that it is quite accessible to New York City. I am indeed fortunate in having the services of a very devoted and absolutely faithful housekeeper, Ida, who is also a superb cook and manages my household beautifully. She has been in the family for years and is now my Rock of Gibraltar and is assisted whenever necessary by another person. However, I really am in need of a companion/nurse such as yourself, whom it is certain supported and comforted dear Edith so infinitely well. My friend Marielle Bancou, who had luncheon with us in London on that memorable day, just had dinner with me and wishes to send her most loving greetings to you. As she works part of the year in Paris she might telephone you from there this month. I hope you can write to me as soon as possible as I do look forward to seeing you soon, the sooner the better. This carries much loving remembrances. March 2, 1966. To Carson. From Doris Farquahar at 22 Hilltop Road, Oxford. Dear Mrs. McCullers, I have just received your letter. I would be delighted to look after you. Yesterday I was at the embassy in London and I have passed everything medical and am eligible for license in New York but have to wait for working permit. I have written the embassy and told them that I will accept offer from you to be companion/nurse and will sit the New York examinations when I come over. I wish that I had have got in touch with you sooner. I often thought of writing to you as I knew how fond you and Edith were of each other and I was dying to come to America, not just for a visit. We await the Bureau of Labor man (American) through their consent to give me a visa and I can come at the drop of a hat. It must be lovely out where you live, much nicer than being bang in New York. Love, Doris Farquahar P.S. -- What book have I back that I have read the book about you? [Sic] On the phone, Lantz. PLa7-5076 212-TR4-2110. [March 3,1966.] To Carson. From Doris Farquahar. Dear Mrs. McCullers, I replied to your letter by return yesterday and forgot to airmail it. I was at the embassy on Monday and passed the medical [Sullivan - and so forth. Just a review of what she said before. She also wants to bring her two cats "who are perfect gentlemen" as she says here.] It would be very nice to come out and stay with you and she will work to get her license as a nurse. It will be fun . Love to Marielle. I can honestly write that I am so excited at the prospect of actually seeing you again and coming to Nyack. In haste, Doris There's a long form here dated January 12, 1954. In reply refer to 3072 8 bc xc 40470 706 . To Carson. Reference inquire relative of McCullers, James R, Jr. about the veteran's benefits. . . [end of tape] Cassette Tape 30 Side B -- Old Files, Rita Smith, Org, Rev of Tennessee Williams -- 30 minutes and 52 seconds Sullivan's Label: 30b Old Files, RS, Org Rev of TW in BSC[?] September 28, 1953. Letter on Mademoiselle stationary. To Mrs. John Brown, c/o John Brown, USIS, American Embassy. Dear Mrs. Brown, Carson has asked me to write for her inasmuch as Rita is ill from a bad throat out in Nyack. She is most concerned about the following matters and would be so grateful if you could see about them. She would like for a professional packer to be engaged to pack her things and for a careful list to be made. If an export license is required for them to be shipped, could that be arranged with the American Express? She is also very anxious about her books and music, and would appreciate it if you'd remind Reeves of this and ask him to get them to her right away. She would also like to be sure that the andirons and fireplace set is set to her. Carson has asked that I be sure to tell you how much she appreciates your taking care of these things for her and she sends her love. Sincerely yours, Jane Waters Paris, November 19, 1952. American Express receipt for household goods sent to Paris from New York to Reeves at Bachivillers. February 7, 1953. From Bachivillers. Dear Francoise, [Sullivan -- this person's last name is Charpentier in antiquities in [Salneloi?]] We're sorry we cannot meet with you in Paris at Monique's house. I do hope all is well with you and you are settled there. If you remember when we were last there, we brought back some candlesticks for an American friend. They are not the pattern he wanted and this week he is returning them to Monique who will send them on to you. This friend has been in Italy for some time and this is the reason they were not returned sooner. We may be leaving for America in four or five weeks, and before we leave, we would like very much to install that mantelpiece of stone. I'm not able to commission a truck here to pick it up. I wonder if you could have someone there in Cuisery crate it up and send it to Beauvais by train. That seems the only way we will be able to get it. Would it be too much trouble to drop me a note when it leaves there and could you please attach a note to the crate asking the station manager at Beauvais to notify me of its arrival? Also when we were there we paid for two footstools. I think they're called tabourets in French. Were you ever able to do anything about that? Please let me know what the crating and other costs are and I will send you a check. Carson is thinking of doing the dramatization for the American Theater of the book by Ann Frank, Diary of a Young Girl. Perhaps you have read it. [La general d'entre?] It is a very moving story and will make a good play. We will be in America several months, then return here. Do hope we see each other soon. Carson and Reeves October 5, 1953. Here's a letter on Mademoiselle stationary. Carson, here's the copies of the letters for you. I sent copies of the letters to Tonya Tolstoy and the Browns, to Mr. Porter. 131 South Broadway, Nyack, New York. To Mr. Russell Porter, rue du Monceau, Paris. Dear Mr. Porter, I want to get my things from France and I am having difficulties. The silver all was bought in America and transported to France. I bought the sideboard silver from Tonya Tolstoy who was a tenant in our Nyack house. Later she returned to France and is now living at 7 bis Montespan, Paris 16. I have written her asking her to make a sworn statement at the American Embassy that she sold it to me at Nyack, New York several years ago. My flat silver was taken to France by the John Browns. I have also asked John Brown to make a similar statement. Copies of both letters are enclosed. None of my silver was bought in France. I am most anxious to get this settled so things can be sent. Would you please advise if this is not sufficient information for you. About the Ford automobile, Reeves said he had a wreck but he promised to have it repaired with the insurance money and turn the papers over to you to sell the car. I need the money very much so please press Reeves about it. Re: the house in Bachivillers. I would appreciate your arranging for a sale. Do you have any ideas what it would sell for? I understand you have seen it. My sincerest gratitude, most cordially, Carson McCullers. (dictated but not read. jw) 131 South Broadway, Nyack, Dear Simone and John, I am asking Tonya Tolstoy to make a sworn statement at the American Embassy that the sideboard silver she sold me several years ago was sold in Nyack and later sent to France. John, if you will testify that you saw it in use in our home in Nyack, I will be most grateful. Also the flat silver that you took over. If you will get in touch with Mr. Porter at 64 bis ue Monceau, Paris you may be able to work this out. I would be eternally grateful and send my dearest love. October 5, 1953. To Mrs. Tonya Tolstoy, 7 bis Montespan, Paris 16, France. Tonya dear, will you please call Mr. Porter at this address - 64 bis rue du Monceau, Paris. I am having such difficulties in getting my things from France. Will you go to the American Embassy and sign a sworn statement that you sold the silver here in Nyack and give an approximate date of the sale. Mother is here with me and is well. We both send our dearest love to you and Madeline. I miss you so much. I can't tell you how much I would appreciate your seeing about this right away. Again, my love and many, many thanks. Carson McCullers (dictating the above) February 16, 1954. From American Express. To/For: Mrs. Carson McCullers. Re: 2 trunks, 2 footlockers, 1 case personal effects and chinaware. Charges in the statement and their refund for the estimated charges on personal effects and chinaware. Estimated total charges, $49.82. Deposit made, $53.00. This is a new work, a review written by Carson of Tennessee William's The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone. [Sullivan -- This is from the Rita Smith inventory.] Many reviewers, at least it seems to me, have missed the real significance and distinction of Tennessee William's new novel. A serious writer like Tennessee Williams should be accorded the most serious consideration. This is a complex and iridescent short novel. Two themes of equal value dominate the Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone and, as in a two part Bach invention, each subject brings a curious illumination on the other, and the result, is a composition of profundity and of beauty. One of these themes is concerned with innocence and conflict with evil. This subject is as old as Genesis. Henry James was obsessed by this consideration and it furnished the motif of many of his short stories and long novels. Daisy Miller is also the story of the destruction of an ingenuous American amid the corrupt mores of European society. Mrs. Stone, Tennessee Williams' protagonist in this book, has not the shining innocence of Daisy Miller. A woman of 50, her innocence has long since been tarnished and there remains only that strange innocence of the ruthless and the unaware. But is not half innocence even more vulnerable than purity? And is not the destruction of an ailing spirit a valid premise for tragedy? "Three events of great importance and impact had occurred within a year of each other in Mrs. Stone's life. They were the abandonment of her profession and her husband's death and that interval of a woman' life when an ovarian cycle is cut off." The alternate theme in Roman Spring is the tragic revolt against mortality, in particular the sexual death that occurs after the middle years. Medically Mrs. Stone was probably suffering from involutional melancholy, obsessed by a sense of "the void" and "the drift." She finds herself desperately clinging to the wreckage of sexual life. Death in Venice is concerned with a similar theme. Herr Aschenbach experiences, in the same phase of life, the resurrection of latent homosexuality toward the 13 year old Polish boy and is destroyed by a love that he himself so deeply fears and distrusts. The arrogant Mrs. Stone debases herself before a Roman gigolo. The treachery of the sexes leads her into the abyss. This book is an intensely serious and truthful book and therefore a work of authentic moral value. Tennessee Williams has written here a radiant and sinister tragedy of love and spiritual death. The imagery in this short novel is dazzling, the cadence measured as a poet's. Roman Spring gives me the sense of complete satisfaction that is the hallmark of a masterpiece. [Sullivan -- and that's crossed out "a masterpiece" and instead "the hallmark of classic writing" is penciled in, not in Carson's hand. [Sullivan -- This is for the Brooklyn [several inaudible words.] Brooklyn is quiet. Whatever else Manhattan has to offer, quietness is not one of its virtues. No matter where you hide out in Manhattan, the vibration of the city is always there. The vibration and the tension cut out [few words inaudible]. Some of us can't stand it for long. Tension begins to fret within us so that after a time you begin to feel like those dazed and wretched little mice who are put down on wheels of chance at country fairs and spun around until they find the black or the red exit to peace. Every afternoon swarms of people leave Manhattan for some quieter and more homelike place. Some go to the country, others commute to the suburbs but the country is too far away for most of us and the suburbs are costly places when everything is taken into account. Brooklyn, on the other hand, is both an accessible and an inexpensive place to live. Of the five boroughs of New York, Brooklyn is certainly the most bourgeois. Comparing it to Manhattan is like comparing a comfortable and complacent duenna with her more brilliant and neurotic sister. Brooklyn is a friendly place and is much more stable than most cities. Many people out here live in [cutout?]. It is nothing unusual for people out here to live a life-time in the same house and Brooklyn is more homogeneous than other parts of New York. There were some slums and [Sullivan "End page" and she resumes in mid-sentence after a gap.] . . . it was several years later, last summer to be exact, before I visited this borough of Greater New York again. I went out with the wariness of an explorer, expecting to prowl around for hours before finding the place I was headed for. It was a pleasant shock to me when I reached my destination only half an hour from Times Square and Brooklyn itself was a surprise also. Within a month I had come out here to live. Brooklyn is quiet. I live in Brooklyn. [Sullivan - Title] My first impression of Brooklyn was one of dreary confusion. Once when I was 17 and working in an office in Manhattan I was sent out to the ends of Brooklyn to deliver a sheaf of papers to some lawyer. On my way out, I took the wrong subway and after two hours of riding and shuttling back and forth I was hopelessly lost. Worse still, the legal papers were lost also and I spent the rest of the afternoon moseying around in the snow, eating chocolates and wondering what to do. When I got back to the office, I was fired. I remembered Brooklyn then as a cold wilderness of unpredictable subways, windy streets and a homeless feeling in the pit of my stomach. So [Sullivan - Page] some opulence but the contrast is not so severe as in Manhattan. Most Brooklyn people are moderately comfortable. [Sullivan -- that's crossed out.] Although Brooklyn is mostly middle-class it is not at all dull. For one thing, there is a feeling here of the past. There is a nineteenth-century atmosphere of leisure and tradition. The street-cars still function here and most people prefer them, for moderately short trips, to the subways. Trees line many of the sidewalks so that when the seasons change we know it in other ways besides whether you are hot or cold or whether the shops are showing things for Thanksgiving or for Easter. It had never occurred to me that in the city of New York I would ever have the home-like feeling of living in real neighborhood. But that is what I found in Brooklyn. The street where I live is very short, only a few blocks long. At the end there are a few old houses, faded, gracious and comfortable houses with iron grill-work at the windows and pleasant back yards in the rear. [Sullivan -- Page.] Many of the names of the streets in Brooklyn are old names, preserved since the 17th century, the names of the early settlers who bought the land from the Indians. Such name as [Sullivan - end of the five pages here.] [Sullivan -- pages 24 to 88 of the Ballad, to the end of the Ballad, with corrections written in here. This is possibly in Mary Lou Aswell (crossed out, George Davis, mainly Carson's hand writing. Certainly much of it does look like Carson's handwriting and this may be the final bit of Carson's manuscript for [inaudible]. I'll give the insertions and try to give the last words before that.] [Processor's note -- I did not transcribe Sullivan's reading of the very extensive corrections of manuscript of the Ballad, which occupy the rest of the tape.]