ALLEN DRURY - TYPED LETTER SIGNED 06/07/1980 - HFSID 264469

ALLEN DRURY
The author responds to a request for an endorsement of an upcoming novel by Erika Holzer
TLS: "Allen Drury", 1p, 7½x9½. Tiburon, California, 1980 June 7. On his personal letterhead to L. Ellen Shanan, Stratford Press, Inc., Beverly Hills, California. In full: "I'm sorry I have been away, so that Mrs. Holzer's manuscript has had to cross the continent with resultant delays. However, it has given me time to read it and be impressed. You may use the following if you like: 'Erika Holzer has written a thoroughly researched, highly dramatic study of the Soviet slave state and what it means [word crossed out] in terms of [word crossed out] human anguish, ingenuity and terror, to break away from it. DOUBLE CROSSING is a novel all thoughtful Americans should read in this period when the menace to the United States of the system it describes is daily becoming more intense and more open. Her people and her thesis come vividly alive: a warning to the West that only the deliberately obtuse and close-minded will be able to dismiss lightly.' - Allen Drury. Incidentally, even veteran novelists appreciate having their names spelled correctly! A small thing, but mine own.*". Typed postscript: "P.S. You realize, of course, that in addition to your own burdens from the major critics, you are hereby taking on all of mine as well. However, best of luck---the book deserves many readers." Beneath the postscript, Drury has written: "* She spelled it 'Alan.' You were correct, of course." Two cross outs, two corrections, the asterisk in the text of the letter and an arrow to his P.S. in Drury's hand. ALLEN DRURY (1918-1998), a veteran journalist who covered the U.S. Senate for "The New York Times", published 18 novels, including Advise and Consent, which won the 1960 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, and Decision (1983), a novel set in the Supreme Court, and five nonfiction books. Lawyer turned author ERIKA HOLZER wrote two novels, Double Crossing (1983), a human rights espionage drama, and Eye for an Eye (1994), which was filmed in 1996. She sought endorsements for her 1983 novel from prominent writers of the day. Drury wrote this endorsement while the novel was still in its manuscript stage. Lightly creased with folds, not at signature or writing.