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#2580: Willa Cather to Alfred A. Knopf, [October 19, 1927]

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⬩W⬩S⬩C⬩ B Dear Mr. Knopf1;

Here is3 Van Vechten's4 letter. If he doesn't mind your quoting from it, I certainly don't!

I've been waiting for an ad5 in the Boston Transcript6, as it's the only paper I see. There was one last week, but I thought the text dull and dreary. I pin it7 beside this statement—now isn't it dull?

I've manufactured a substitute, for your approval. Don't you think it is more interesting? The tone of the book8 really is not "placid",—and, after all, why knock a book in an ad? Tell the man who wrote this ad that he's mistaken.

Here, in this ad I've patched up9, are two reviewers who did get a thrill out of the book—why not let them state their experience?

These remarks, of course, are for the man who wrote a dull ad in the only paper I see—perhaps those in New York10 papers were more interesting.

I'm writing Blanche11 by this mail, and I'll be in New York in ten or twelve days from now.

Too bad we can't use the Catholic reviews12. Perhaps Adler13 could get Von Schmidt14 to make another drawing for the Christmas ads. Surely, the jacket15 is one of the best I've ever seen on any book.

Faithfully yours Willa Cather