Scarce TLS, one page, 5 x 6.5, Doctors Hospital letterhead, May 30, 1932. Letter to Frances Herford of the Bankers Trust Company, in full: “Not having had the pleasure of meeting you myself, I presume this is a rather weird proceeding, but May Preston assures me that you will overlook its unconventionality. My former playmates in Paris have apparently died of drink or been sent away to take the cure, so I have to appeal to my friends’ friends in a crisis. The crisis referred to is Dr. John Boland, bearer and, I know, beneficiary of this note. He is a stranger in a strange land and needful of advice and comfort. May says you are the one to give him these, and if you can spare him an hour, I will be eternally your debtor. (‘Eternal debtor’ is my favorite role).” In fine condition. Accompanied by the original mailing envelope. An uncommon signed letter from Lardner, whose influence on American writing was arguably greater than that of any 20th-century American writer subsequent to the arrival of Ernest Hemingway, who, as a sports writer for his high school paper, chose the name 'Ring Lardner, Jr.' as his pseudonym.
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