122.
1928:
Kitchener, Ont. March 27,
1928
My dears,
I have a day off and, therefore, time to trop lines all
around. Had quite a triumph here yesterday, spoke twice:
almost as good as Ottawa - with a smaller audience, of course.
150 women or so. 60 men.
I shall speak in Toronto on April 2 (twice). Next Sarnia.
Then back to Ottawa and up to Chapleau. Then home.
I have written "Catherine" to meet me, either at W'peg or
Pt. Arthur - leaving the decision to a later date when I
know whether a meeting can be arranged for at Sault St. Marie
or not. If at Pt. Arthur, we'll stay a day or so and then
proceed to W'peg. She needs a holiday; and I have been pushing
through my engagements, speaking 2 and sometimes 3 times
a day, (when I finish, I shall have visited 26 to 28 cities.)
in order to finish up before Easter. In Winnipeg I want to
get another suit made.
Miller, so far, has sold 575 copies of the
Search. I have sold 1485 and should have sold more if it
were not out of print.
However, unless Miller goes bankrupt, there will be a new
edition (slightly better-looking than the old one) within
a month or so.
Have sold my English rights (Jonathan Cape); and accepted
by wire, yesterday, U.S.A. Contract: 10% first 5000; 12 ½ %
next 5000; 15% thereafter. I believe that I wrote before
this that I had, on the advice of Mr. Phillips, envoy extraordinary
etc. etc, taken advantage of an opening given by Conrad-McCann
to cancel our contract. I am speaking only in the most frivolous
way. This thing costs on an average $50 a day. Mrs. G. & I
live on that for a month. But then we don't, as a rule, roll
in money as I do here.
Well, that's that. Things seem to have broken at last.
At Toronto, second visit, I stayed with Pratt for 1 ½ days.
Dr. Alexander called and had me for dinner. He said that
for several years he had said that "beside Grove the rest
of Can. Writers are pigmies". He mentioned that he had read "Over
Prairie Trails" soon after it appeared - and that "for sheer
literary power" that little book had dwarfed all other Can.
Fiction even then. It seemed to me that you had said he did
know me or my work last summer. I did not like to ask. Perhaps
it was merely a misunderstanding.
Fairley (I don't know if I have the name right. Prof. of
German in Toronto U.) said to me, at Alexander's, that mine
was one of the few "significant voices in the English-speaking
world today". I felt overwhelmed. In fact, I don't know what
to say about it all.
Last night, in commenting on my talk, a rev. gentleman said
that he had been ironically curious about my subject. But
he felt that they, the club, stood "in the presence of a
Great Canadian ". It was, he added, an honor to have had
the opportunity of shaking my hand.
Well, I can only laugh and shrug my shoulders. If they knew
how I have to pump, pump, pump!
Bye-bye. Mrs. G. will let you know when she gets to or passes
through W'peg? Will you, Arthur, lend her a hand?
So long -
F.P.G.
