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#0698: Willa Cather to H. L. Mencken, [September 1923]

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⬩W⬩S⬩C⬩ Dear Mr. Mencken1:

I’m greatly excited about the “Mercury”3, and I hope sometime to appear in it, but you can’t count on me for the first number, I’m afraid. I’m here, in the home of women gastronomically gone wrong, being boiled every day for neuritis in my right arm. It has bothered me a lot, and has given me a good excuse for loafing. I’ve scarcely picked up a pen, all summer long. I have lhree three rather smart short stories ready to write—but I’m too lazy to write them. This indolent sort of life seems to agree with me for the present. I expect to be industrious when I get home4, however, and that will be sometime in November. If I miss your first number, I’ll hope to come plodding along in one of the later ones. I wouldn’t stay indoors at a desk now to write anything that was ever writ. If you’ve never been in High Savoie5 in the Autumn, you don’t know how fine this world can be!

With great expectations as to the new review6,

Sincerely Willa Cather