107.
1926:
Rapid City, Man. November 4,
1926
Dear A.L.,
Well, thank the Lord, I'm back in my bed at R.C. As I expected,
the Brandon adventure resulted in nothing but setting me
back that much. However, there's one thing gained. The x-ray
plates definitively settle, for me, all the nonsensical talk
of the Drs. about lumbago. There is an old injury of the
spine, embedded in semi-tissue from which the trouble started.
I had Drs. Edmison, Mattheson, Sharpe, and Elliot in. They
professed that they could not do anything for me as far as
the spine is concerned. To make up for that they proposed
to have my tonsils out - which have never given me the slightest
trouble in my life. I refused. And so I came back. Total
costs, is $100 of which I paid $40 at once. Edmison charges
$25 for a single consultation here at R.C.
The Miller affair is quite a joke. Please don't mention
to anyone that I have approached him. The reasons some day
where I can tell you orally. The point is, W.H. (who especially
asks me to tell nobody, above all, not you, the he has figured
in this says, if I had offered Miller a book, any book, when
he first mentioned a "live publicity" to me, Miller would
have taken it sight unseen; but by now he can have "the pick
of the best books in Canada" and he's become very particular.
So things are doubtful. They show above all that a books
which I am willing to release for publication is not necessarily
considered to be among the best works in Canada . However.
By the way, have you " Our Daily Bread :, copy sent to Ryerson?
If so, could you let me have it? I'd like to look it over.
Possibly also Adolescence ?
Meanwhile Mrs. G. has laboriously typed another article
for the tribune - "Camping in Manitoba ". I hope they'll
print it and that would pay that much more of my doctor-bills.
W.A.D. sent me another book to review. This time he picked
the worst inept thing Knopf ever picked for his Borsoi Books - and
they swarm with ineptitudes. However, I'll try to keep the
knocks in my sleeves. But from his covering letter I take
it that D. expects me to "like" the book. I hope he does
not mean by that to "praise" it.
Well, that's all the news -
No, Mrs. G. tells me you seemed to be worried about all
sort of material difficulties here. The furnace works. Mrs.
G. her good soft coal for the winter, paid for at that. Etc.
etc. So everything material is "fine and dandy" except my
book. And its treatment I am determined to take into my own
hands now.
Bye-bye,
F.P.G.
