American novelist and playwright (1884-1933) best known for creating the fictional Chinese-American detective Charlie Chan. TLS signed "Biggers," one onionskin page, 8.25 x 7, December 26, 1913. Letter regarding a poor review of a play, in part: "It was very pleasant to get your letter and find you admitting that you yourself recognized the injustice of your statements as to Baldpate's business. I felt from the first that your review could not possibly have been written after the play's first wee. You must have attended the first Wednesday matinee! I was especially peeved because of the riot which your utterances seemed to rouse in Cohan and Harris's offices. Preparations for the Chicago opening of the second company were going along enthusiastically—and then your review arrived and for a time it seemed they were to be abandoned entirely. I have assured Mr. Harris that you did not mean to let Chicago infer that he was bringing a number 2 company of a New York failure out there, and he seems calmer. You would be surprised to find how seriously the critic is taken in offices where the opposite impression is outwardly conveyed." Biggers makes a single handwritten correction. In fine condition, with faint intersecting folds and creasing, and a trimmed bottom edge.
The reference to "Baldpate's business" is doubtlessly related to the theater production of Biggers' 1913 novel Seven Keys to Baldpate, which was adapted to the stage by George M. Cohan and produced by Sam Harris, both of whom are mentioned in this letter. The work has been adapted several times for film, radio and TV, including a 1917 silent film that starred Cohan.
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