153.
1931:
Cummings Bridge, Ont. February 2,
1931
My dear A.L.P.,
Getting ready to start work on vol. II of the Search for
America ( also, for a title that expresses America Found),
I am clearing my drawers and stack up the various Mss.
I find of Abe Spalding 2 complete handwritten drafts; 3
complete typewritten versions which I am burning in the fire-place;
2 more typed Ms which are both marked "final version"; but
they differ greatly: these I set aside to be shipped to you
if you want them. They are superceded, much changed, by the
Ms. which I sent you last Saturday - I want to set that down
here because I have never made sure. So that what at present
figures as the final version (and I believe it is) is #8.
If find also that I have burned 6 complete novels and am
burning 2 more - which leaves me half a dozen unburned. The
hand-written copies of Abe Spalding I give to my wife; also
the first hand-written draft of "Our Daily Bread, of "Adolescence" I
have nothing left but the printed text it seems [Of 'Over
Prairie Trails", my wife has the first hand-written draft
(i.e. the second, or third, a clean copy)] of the Turn of
the Year, nothing exists, it seems, but the printed text.
Of Settlers of the Marsh, nothing but 2/3 of the original
3 vol. text, in 2 copies, one of which you'll get one day
if you care for it.
Having dismissed Abe Spalding from my mind, I feel lost
and homesick: There I have lived for 5 years and am now an
exile.
That's why I am taking stock, searching for a spot to settle
down on again: I believe it will be in my own past for awhile:
going east has uprooted me without helping me. Mr. Bennett
has been asked for a post for me: as light-house keeper or
lockmaster: he has said that he cannot interfere with patronage:
so then homesickness is both literal and metaphorical. We
don't know yet what we are going to do. So far, I continue
doing a little work for Graphic, not much.
However, have you read the review of "The Yoke" in the Jan.
Dalhousie Review? A fine piece of work.
I am much tempted to answer the review in the Can. Forum,
but I think I shall refrain.
We are all reasonably well though the help questions has
been acute: we have had a trained nurse for a week to relieve
my wife for a nerve strain. We had 3 girls first week of
Jan., one had lice (yes, L-I-C-E); one got homesick within
20 hours and walked out; and never mind nothing.
Hope you are all well?
As ever,
F.P.G.
