Newberry Library - Light, James (Jim), (includes photographs), Jack Conroy incoming correspondence, n.d., 1956-1989

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Open book Light, James (Jim), (includes photographs), Jack Conroy incoming correspondence, n.d., 1956-1989

Title Light, James (Jim), (includes photographs), Jack Conroy incoming correspondence, n.d., 1956-1989

Creator Conroy, Jack, 1898-1990

Date n.d., 1956-1989

Language English

Subjects New Left

Format Correspondence

User-Contributed Transcription April 26, 1964
Dear Jack and Gladys:
I have been getting a kick out of the human parade, as Harry Hansen would say, but I left terribly embittered when I got your last letter. The reason is that we are leaving perfidious Albion on June 30 and so can't walk down Picadilly with you, or even worship at Dove Cottage by your side. Damn. The more damn since I decided to leave England early because I expected I'd be needed at Indiana State — and I now suspect they could get along quite pleasantly without me. Damn. The more damn since I quit smoking a week ago, + though my lungs are now pure lily-white and my tongue is tasting things I hadn't tasted in years and my nose is less stuffed-up than in decades — I'm all on edge. Damn, damn, damn!
You're right to want to see the Lake Country. It has the most beautiful natural scenery I've ever seen in my life — so much so that even I begin to talk in meters. And if you do get to the Lake Country, you should keep on going until you hit Edinburgh — which I enjoyed vastly because I felt I got to know the town in the week or so I spend there. It's a town worth knowing, too, for it has the feel of history about it. The Castle overlooking Princes Street is an unforgettable sight. What is more, the food is better in Scotland than in England, + living is cheaper there too.
I haven't done anything worthy of reporting since I got to England. I've travelled a bit, talked a bit up and down this little isle, + read + taught a bit. In my reading I've tried to catch up on some of the contemporary writers, but I can't find anyone that excites me very much. Have you any hot tips? Better yet, do you know any work of scholarship the world is panting for? I finished the De Forest in December — though the editor, Sylvia Bowman, still hasn't read it — + have been trying to dream up something worth doing. Everything seems flat, stale, + unprofitable though — or worse yet, unpublishable.
What else? I turned down half a dozen jobs since I got here. I got a raise at ISC; I did like your Dreiser piece — even to the photograph; and I shall, of course, use The Disinherited when I get back to ISC — that is, if I'm still teaching the Novel course at any time. (I'm not during the Fall term, I do know that, for I'm stuck with something called The American Renaissance instead.) The reason I'd teach The Disinherited is that it's worth teaching, not that you wrote it; it should be taught — though it would seem a little strange to me to have it mixed in with Sophocles + Aristotle.
Love, Jim

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 17 Folder 901

BibID nan

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.

Size 3223px × 3930px 72.51 MB

File Created 10/19/2021

Filename 992006198805867_midwest_ms_conroy_box_00017_fl_00901_000082.tif

Unique Identifier NL1BZFF

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