Newberry Library - Blake, James, (letters from prison to Conroy and Algren), Jack Conroy incoming correspondence, n. d., 1946-1959

Blake, James, (letters from prison to Conroy and Algren), Jack Conroy incoming correspondence, n. d., 1946-1959

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Open book Blake, James, (letters from prison to Conroy and Algren), Jack Conroy incoming correspondence, n. d., 1946-1959

Title Blake, James, (letters from prison to Conroy and Algren), Jack Conroy incoming correspondence, n. d., 1946-1959

Creator Conroy, Jack, 1898-1990

Date n. d., 1946-1959

Place United States

Language English

Subjects Authors, American, Bohemianism, New Left, Radicalism in literature, Writers' Program of the Work Projects Administration in the State of Illinois

Format Correspondence

User-Contributed Transcription Blake ?603-E32 Dec. 2.54all I said was some thing about "A Loaf, a Door". and this is what I get back. O Tempora! O Mores!Dear Lorraine, The note of wistful nostalgia in your last letter touched and distressed me. For some reason, (and it has always been thus) my own mild and chronic unease bothers me less than the thought that you should be unhappy. You've always been, at least to me, a person of vast reserve and taciturnity, and if you ever chose to show any degree of emotion, it always seemed to me a studied parody of what you were really feeling - only when you were gay did the mood seem to ring true, it would have been impossible to simulate the bubbling delight you felt. Perhaps it seemed so rich because it was so rare. So much of you has always been in a minor key. So much careful darkness that the flashes of light were revelations - ah well, as always when I try to say what I deeply feel, I flounder. Besides, I was never permitted truly to know you, and the accrued curiosity has become mountainous. Some day perhaps I shall be allowed to prospect your psyche, sinking shafts to see what I can strike in that fabulous field. But before I get utterly lost in the Outer Imponderables, I want to say that I too have occasionally thought back to those purple days and crimson nights in Chicago - not with nostalgia, but with a sense of awe and wonder that it didn't kill us all. Law, such excesses, and blind fevered excursions into nowhere. Many laughs, but it was bitter, doomed laughter, and I might have enjoyed every

Transcription Status Needs review

Transcription Note This document was transcribed by volunteers as part of the Newberry Transcribe crowdsourcing initiative.

Archival Collection Title Jack Conroy papers

Link to Catalog View finding aid | View record

Call Number Midwest MS Conroy Box 3 Folder 130

BibID 992006198805867

Projects Tag IMLS Cares 2020

Rights Status Copyright Not Evaluated

Contributing Institution Newberry Library

Newberry Open Access Policy The Newberry makes its collections available for any lawful purpose, commercial or non-commercial, without licensing or permission fees to the library, subject to these terms and conditions.

IIIF Resource Type Canvas

Size 4199px × 5376px 129.20 MB

Filename 992006198805867_midwest_ms_conroy_box_00003_fl_00130_000024.tif

Unique Identifier NL119YCZ

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