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TLS, one page, 8.5 x 11, personal letterhead, August 16, 1947. Letter to his literary agent H. N. Swanson, in full: "I am enclosing some letters from Innes Rose in connection with the proposed Penguin edition to be brought out by Hamish Hamilton in England. There is another letter, dated August 5, in which Rose asked me to cable him my consent to go ahead with the deal on the basis outlined in his letter of June 27. On August 9, I cabled him my consent. His letter of August 11 suggests he had not yet received the cable. I ought to have referred this to you, but he sounded so urgent that I did not want to wait. I am writing Rose today to take these things up with you in the future.
In your letter of August 11, you say 'in the past three weeks Dozier has twice given me the level eye and asked when the work was going to be finished.' Dozier ought to get together with his producer, who does not seem to be in any hurry at all, nor has it ever been said to me that if the script isn't going to be delivered soon its worth to them will be less. You also say, 'If I know Dozier, he will try to get every cent of his money back.' If you refer to the down payment of $10,000, the contract makes it impossible for them to get the money back because it was specifically stated that the $10,000 was for rights to a certain story idea, and as you know, these rights were assigned. The fact that the story I am now writing has very little to do with that story has no bearing. Furthermore, I feel quite sure that if I did not complete this present story by the deadline and they exercised their right to cancel out the contract, they would acquire nothing of what I am now doing.
As to your idea that this job is 'painting a barn' and that I am trying to do it with a camel's-hair brush, the fact is I am trying very hard not to do it with a camel's-hair brush. However, I would point out to you that when I was writing for the pulps, I wrote with a camel's-hair brush, and if you don't think it paid off in the long run, look around for some of the boys who painted barns.
You say, 'Whenever you decide you want to notify any parties that are paying monies rightfully due Sanders that they should hereafter be paid to us, we will be glad to see that he gets everything that is rightfully due him.' I should like to do this right away, so far as I have the power to do it. Somebody will have to decide to whom, and in what form, such notices should be given. I shall be only too happy to sign them.
Many thanks for sending me the script of 'Johnny O'Clock.' I did not want the original story. Am I to return these or keep them?" In fine condition.
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