JOHN HERSEY - AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED 03/13/1953 - HFSID 280299

JOHN HERSEY
The Pulitzer Prize winning author wrote this letter in 1953, saying that, though he wanted to attend a memorial meeting, he didn't want to make any speeches: "it is a primary rule of my life as a writer not to make speeches or even the sort of public appearance involved in the introduction you propose."
Autograph letter signed "John Hersey" in blue ink. 1 page, 7x10½, on stationery from Hull's Farm Road in Southport, Connecticut. March 13, 1953, date stamped "Mar 16 1953" in black ink. In full: "Dear Mr. Schatz: I am glad to hear that planes have progressed so well for your memorial meeting. While I appreciate very readily your zeal in trying to make the best possible showing at the meeting, I'm sorry to have to repeat what I wrote earlier - that it is a primary rule of my life as a writer not to make speeches or even the sort of public appearance involved in the introduction you propose. Rather than be ungracious, therefore, perhaps it would be just a[s] well for me not to come - and in any case I have found that I'm going to have to be in upper New York State for a week or so in April, though which part of April I don't know yet. Could we leave it this way - that I might come at the last minute as a spectator or participant, but that if I do come it would be on that basis alone? I really would like to attend if I can. At any rate, best wishes for the meeting. Sincerely yours". A former war correspondent in the Pacific and Europe for Time magazine (1939-1945), Hersey (1914-1993) brought vivid accounts of war to readers in such books as Men on Bataan (1942), Hiroshima (1946), a graphic report on the bombing of the Japanese city, and The Wall (1950). His 1944 book, A Bell for Adano, the story of the Allied occupation of Italy, won the 1945 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. Lightly toned, soiled and creased. Show-through from ink stains on verso touches handwriting but not signature. Folded twice and unfolded. Otherwise, fine condition.