Beschreibung:

STEINBECK, JOHN. Autograph letter signed ("John Steinbeck") to W.G. Erne, book representative for the Los Angeles News Company, Los Gatos, California, n.d., envelope postmarked 29 June 1938. 1 page, 4to, a trifle wrinkled, with the original stamped envelope addressed by Steinbeck and the recipient's letter to the author . STEINBECK ON HEMINGWAY: "PROBABLY THE FINEST WRITER OF OUR TIME" Steinbeck responds to a request to autograph a copy of The Long Valley , his new collection of short stories, when it is published: "Surely I will sign a book for you...I am afraid there won't be much response to this volume, first because it is short stories and second because I understand a volume of Hemingway's stories [ The Fifth Column and the First Forty-Nine Stories ] is coming at the same time. And Hemingway is probably the finest writer of our time. I know very well that if I were faced with my stories or Hemingway's, there would be no question whose I bought..." Erne had also inquired after Steinbeck's pamphlet Their Blood Is Strong , about the labor and economic situation of the migrant farm workers in the Imperial Valley. Steinbeck writes: "The pamphlet you mention was printed by the Simon Lubin Society, 25 California St., S.F...The price is 25 cents and the proceeds go to help migrants -- clothes -- medicine, etc..." Not in Steinbeck: A Life in Letters, ed. E. Steinbeck and R. Wallsten, and presumably unpublished.