GEORGE MILBURN - TYPED LETTER SIGNED 05/16/1935 - HFSID 283923

GEORGE MILBURN
Signed typed letter (1935), stressing his need for money as he and his wife relocate to a new home in the Ozarks. He hopes some of his manuscripts corrected by H. L. Mencken himself will prove valuable.
Typed Letter signed: "George", 2 pages, 8½x11. Medford, Oklahoma, 1935 May 16. To "Dear Charlie" [Charles Miles of the University of Oklahoma]. In full: "Did you get my letter last month with the two manuscripts for which you paid me enclosed? I caught a ride to Norman soon after that, April 26, but when I got there I called and learned that you were in New York. It appears now that I won't be able to visit Norman for some time to come. We are panning to move over to the Ozarks soon, and the awful task of moving and getting settled is going to prevent my paying any more visits for some time to come. I have managed to get seven of my early manuscripts back from the American Mercury. All these had gone to H. L. Mencken direct, instead of through the usual outer office channels, and they bear numerous corrections in Mencken's handwriting. They are complete with page-proofs with my corrections marked in and they look pretty impressive. I wonder if these will not fetch a little more than the manuscripts that have only the ordinary copy-reader's markings? At any rate I'll sign them and send them on down to you. These manuscripts are proving a little more difficult to run down that I had supposed the would, because some have been removed from the files and no one seems to know what has become of them. I was fortunate enough to get these back from Mencken. I am trying now to secure those at Harper's, Scribner's, the Saturday Evening Post, and Collier's. So you can count on a monopoly so far as I am concerned. Were the ones I sent you all right? If not I'll replace them with others. And I'll make sure that you get all I produce in the future. Moving expenses, a down-payment on a small piece of land over in Missouri (a few miles from the Oklahoma line), insurance, and various other outlays attached to this attempt of ours to establish a home are leaving me hard-pressed for cash, and if possible I'd like to get a $100 advance from you on this manuscript account. Let me know whether it can be worked. It seems that the manuscripts with H. L. Mencken's notations should be worth a little more than those that have only my markings, but I'll gladly accept whatever you think fair. I am anxious to know how much I can raise, because I am in greater need of cash right now than I am likely to be for some time to come. I have a couple of stories out now, but I won't be able to write during this period of moving and getting settled. Now about the typewriter. We have decided to keep this machine I amusing now for Vivien's use; it seems a little too good a machine to trade in even though it is worn and it sometimes does throw me off work a day or so while I am having a repair made. I am in real need of a new machine. Will it be possible for you to send me a new Corona Sterling; give me the best discount you can, apply whatever you think right for the speech, and let me know what the balance will be. I can promise that it will be paid eventually. Now can this be done without my coming down there? Of course if my getting a new typewriter depends on it I would make a special trip, but that would throw us into difficulties here with moving (I'm trying to get all the work out I can before we go, inasmuch as there is this period ahead during which I won't have a chance to write.) Did the Oxford English Dictionary (2 volumes) I ordered ever come? If so, can you send that up too, by mail or express? And put in with it those copies of Oklahoma Town you offered me. I'm really sorry now I didn't take those along with me, because I find its being out of print makes it an unusually appropriate gift from time to time. Charlie, I have been buying books all along, more perhaps than I should, paying the full price. It has occurred to me that maybe I could get them through you at a little better price than I have been paying, and that perhaps you could have them sent direct from publisher to me. Let me know whether this can be done, whether you can make me any discount from the list price, and if so, how much. And if you have any duplicate remainder lists, or any extra Modern Library, Blue Ribbon, Everyman catalogues, let me have them, to be returned if you wish. We are getting a beautiful little place over in the Missouri Ozarks, right on the banks of a stream known as Big Sugar Creek. As soon as we get established over there and get things to running smoothly, we're going to expect you and Velma over for a visit - and if you like to fish you can sit right out in our back yard and do it. It's going to be a tough struggle for us to swing this place - we haven't much cash to work with, -- but I believe that with a little extra hard work we'll make it, especially if this novel, which I expect to finish this summer, has the success I believe it will have. The movies are already nibbling for it. Of course that's all in the future, and money that's held dangling in the future is almost as bad (if not worse) than no money at all. I'll appreciate anything you can do about helping me raise cash, and I'll do my best to see that full value is returned. I'll be anxious to hear from you about this. Would you prefer having these manuscripts come to you at Norman? I'll have to send them by express, as they take first-class postage and that would run into money. I'll start them just as soon as I hear from you; I believe you're going to be delighted with them, because, as I say, they really have an impressive look to them. With best wishes". 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, as well as the magazines he mentions in this letter. 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. Razor type slices (3") at center right section. Otherwise, fine condition.