HOWARD NEMEROV - TYPED LETTER SIGNED 12/08/1975 - HFSID 185885

THE FUTURE U.S. POET LAUREATE THANKS A WOMAN WHO HAS SUGGESTED SUBMITTING HIS NAME FOR A NOBEL PRIZE
 
HOWARD NEMEROV. TLS: "Howard Nemerov", 1p, 6¾x10¼. St. Louis, Missouri, 1975 December 8. On his personal imprinted stationery to "Dear Mrs Beam". In full: "Thank you so much for your kindly letter; also for your happy thought of putting my name before the Nobel Institute. It's most unlikely, though, that I'd be at all in consideration as a novelist. For I wrote only three novels, and those many years ago. If I were to be considered at all, it'd most likely be for my poetry, as you may see from the enclosed bibliography; though now I think of it, the award is probably given for one's whole work over a lifetime, without distinction of kind. But I'm most grateful to you, and of course delighted that my work has given you pleasure. As for copying out a passage by hand, alas, I work so exclusively on the typewriter that my handwriting has become all but illegible; I hope this letter may do instead. With all best wishes". Bibliography not present. American poet, novelist and critic Howard Nemerov (1920-1991) won the 1978 Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award and the Bollingen Prize for The Collected Poems of Howard Nemerov. Nemerov, who was known for his witty, often gloomy works, published novels, short stories, essays and plays as well as numerous volumes of poetry, and he was poetry consultant to the Library of Congress from 1963-1964 and Poet Laureate of the U.S. from 1988-1990. Nemerov had been a former pilot during WWII and a teacher before becoming a writer. Lightly creased with folds, not at signature. Fine condition.