GEORGE MILBURN - TYPED LETTER SIGNED 06/08/1935 - HFSID 283924

GEORGE MILBURN
Typed Letter signed in 1935, with his handwritten additions and postscript, admitting that he's having serious money troubles brought on by construction of his new home, and asking his agent to send him an advance, a typewriter and a good dictionary
Typed Letter signed: "George", 1p. 8½x11. Pineville, Missouri, 1935 June 8. To "Dear Charlie" [Charles Miles], in full: "Five manuscripts have just come in from HARPER'S. Some of my best work is here, 'Sugar Be Sweet,' 'A Student in Economics' (which has been reprinted in five college textbooks at $25 a throw), 'The Uneasy Payments' and 'The Catalogues', both of which are parts of my novel in progress, and 'The Statesmanship of John Nance Garner', my interview with the vice-president. I am getting those off to you right away. Pineville isn't on the railroad and has no express office, so we'll have to drive over to Lanagan about 6 miles away, and it may be Monday before I can get the parcel started - if we don't go this afternoon. Anyway I'm mailing this to save time, because my need for a little cash is so urgent. Now two of these MSS are already paid for. You sent me $100 and I sent you eight, leaving two to come. If you could send me $50 for these now, I could make up the other two later when I get the MSS from Collier's, Saturday Evening Post, Vanity Fair and New Yorker. Just as you like about this: $30 will make us even; $50 would be a great help and I can make it up later. But either way will you please get rush a check to me just as soon as you get this? This place has soaked up money like a sponge does water, and at this writing I have only $1.03 in the bank. We had to have a lot of bookshelves built in; also some cabins wrecked, and the carpentry cost more than I'd figured on. I haven't been able to get much writing done for the past two or three weeks, what with the moving and getting settled over here. But I have a story almost ready to send out now. (I have a story in Collier's this week - have you seen it? All I need is just enough to tide us over this spell of getting settled until I sell a story. It has rained to beat hell over here since we came and Big Sugar Creek has been way out of its banks. It's still running high, but if it will just stop raining for awhile I'll be able to show you the most beautiful stream you ever laid eyes on. Remember that we are counting on you two coming over here for a weekend party some time this Summer. George Leighton, an editor on Harper's is coming out in about two weeks. What about the typewriter? I'm certainly beginning to need it. Parcel Post is delivered to our RFD box, so would be more convenient than express. Also the 2 vol. Oxford dictionary. I'll pay whatever difference there is just as soon as I get another magazine check. And don't forget to send me some book catalogues, stating discount. By the way, the next time you see Joe Brant, will you tell him that I've just had so damned much to do I haven't had a chance to write to him but will soon? Yours". His handwritten postscript in left margin: " P.S. President Bizzell was enthusiastic about the Corona article & might be interested in the original MSS." 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. This letter provides a revealing glimpse of Milburn's life in the mid-1930s, struggling to stay ahead of the bill collectors despite his literary success. Normal mailing fold creases. Lightly toned. Ink slightly smudged at signature. Otherwise, fine condition.