Pulitzer Prize winning playwright. Lot of three letters, two ALS and one TLS, all to political activist Peggy Tucker. First is a six page ALS, signed ”Love, Elmer,” six pages, dated April 23, 1925. In part, “You who know Paris, will understand that one wanders about finding at every turn something charming or quaint or amusing. I love it. Especially the streets. Something comes out to me from them, that I don’t get in New York...France is dead...formalized and traditionalized...I feel no spring, no creative impulse...There’s something in the crudeness, the almost hysterical shouting and excitement in America...I don’t like French plays and I’m fed up with the theatre anyhow.” Second letter is a seven page ALS, signed “Elmer,” dated June 4, 1925. Letter reads, in part, “I should return to NY in the Fall for the production of The Subway...But I’m not eager to come...It’s amazing how little I miss the American scene...America means little to me...I’ve left my native land...Paris is no place for work though...There’s no spur, no goad. I’m not alone in thinking that other workers in the arts have had the same reaction.” Third letter is a two page TLS, signed “Elmer,” written from Sweden and dated August 12, 1925. In part, “What a contrast to Paris though! This is a vegetarian, pacifist, teetotaling, God-fearing community. Need I say more?...I’ve done no work at all since I left America. It’s impossible to work in Paris...I think now and then of my friends in America - you among them - but the land itself troubles my thoughts not at all. I’m afraid I’m not a patriot.” In fine overall condition. R&R COA.
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