GEORGE MILBURN - TYPED LETTER SIGNED 04/25/1935 - HFSID 283925

GEORGE MILBURN
Typed Letter signed in 1935, rich in content about the practical concerns of a professional writer
Typed Letter signed: "George Milburn", 1p. 8½x11. Medford, Oklahoma, 1935 April 25. To "Dear Charlie" [Miles, of the University of Oklahoma]. In full: "By this time you're probably thinking that I've forgotten that MSS deal, but I haven't. Today I started digging through my papers and found the two manuscripts enclosed. [Items not included.] 'Heel, Toe, & 1, 2, 3, 4' is one of my best stories, and has been published in Holland, Russia and Yugoslavia besides this country. I enclose my copy of it, apparently the only one extant. The other story is a first draft of one recently accepted by Collier's - unfortunately the first page got crumpled. I had to rescue it from the waste paper basket. I hope this doesn't alter its value. I am writing to the Mercury and Harper's, asking them to let me have back my old manuscripts, if they have not been destroyed. I thought I could lay my hands on a whole bunch, but they seem to me rarer than I thought when I talked to you. Anyway I'll let you have any others that I find, and if I can't get any back from the magazines I'll send those to you too. Also I'll send all future ones to you. I hope to get down to Norman to see you before long. Now what kind of a deal can we fix up on the typewriter? This one, as you see, does good work, but I need that exalted feeling a brand new machine always gives me. Can you get me a Corona Sterling, pica type, list price $60, and if so, how much is it going to cost me? Let me know how much allowance you're going to make for the speech, and whether I could trade the rest out with manuscripts. I'll bring this machine along when I come down next time, but I'm so far behind with my work, after that trip down there and the Louisiana junket, I don't know just how soon that will be. Of course you can't tell how much you can allow for this machine until you see it. I'd really like to have the new machine sent up before I make the trip, if it could be arranged. But maybe I'd better wait until I can come down there. I'd like to examine that Corona Silent, too, but I'm in some doubt about it. How about the Oxford Dictionary, two volumes? Did it come in? If it did, I wish you'd send it up to me, and bill me. There are a number of books I'd like to get from you, and I'll bring a list when I come down next time. I'll let you know when I'm coming. By the way, why don't you order say 25 copies of 'No More Trumpets' from Harcourt at the best price you can get (but not remainders, because that cuts me out of my two-bit royalty) and I'll sign them for you and you can put them back on a gamble. I wish I knew how many copies of that first edition are left - not many I'll vow. I'd like to see somebody order more than they've got on hand, thus throwing the book into a second edition. That would make the first even more valuable, I believe. Anyway, I've got a short novel on the pan now, if I can just get it finished, that ought to knock their eyes out. Best wishes, Charlie, Yours" His handwritten postscript in left margin: "If I meet you in Oklahoma City, why couldn't we go to the Corona agency & examine the machines they have in stock?" George Milburn (1916-1966) dropped out of college in 1925, drawn to the road and living for a time in Chicago and New Orleans and working at a variety of jobs. In 1929 he enrolled at the University of Oklahoma, married soon after, and published The Hobo's Hornbook (1930), a collection of hobo ballads and lore picked up on the road. Soon called "the Hobo Poet," he drew praise from H. L. Mencken and others, and was soon publishing stories in The New Yorker, The Saturday Evening Post and Harper's, and many other magazines. Two volumes of short stories followed: Oklahoma Town (1931) and No More Trumpets (1933). These books contained often unflattering images of the Oklahoma of his youth. His first novel, Catalogue followed in 1936, his last Julie, in 1956. In the 1940s he wrote scripts for films and radio. Normal mailing fold creases. Lightly toned. Right edges nicked at folds. Otherwise, fine condition.