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"...I have seen the jacket for my novel. On an evil red-lavender background, the hero, F. M. Tarwater, in a black wool hat, peers through some clay-colored corn. It is not as bad as it sounds but it looks like the harder I try to escape the School of Southern Degeneracy, the flatter I fall into it..."

Scope and Contents "In such a place you have to expect them all to sleep around. This is not a sin but Experience [sic], and if you do not sleep with the opposite sex, it is assumed that you sleep with your own. This was in pre-beatnik days but I presume it is all about the same... From what you ask me I see that you do not have any real imaginative vision of what the Church is. I don't take this to be your fault--Catholic education being what it is--but it is time you were learning what it is that...

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"...Your whole letter gives the impression of some one [sic] who has been hag-ridden by idiot priests, continually swamped by gnats and in general sorely tired in the sensitive parts of the intellect, and believe me I don't doubt it a bit. I respect you for following your conscience out of the Church as I would respect you for following it in..."

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"Well the book came. The title page is a real mess. They try to be fancy and just create confusion. I haven't read it for misprints because I don't have the courage, but you will soon see..."

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:"...I wish the book were better but I am glad it is not another WB.[sic] You can't repeat yourself and I do prefer to go where few choose to follow..."

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"...I hope you are not tearing up stuff you write because it is not up to a par that really does not fit its particular nature. There is a danger here that you will forsake your instinct for general critical principles..."

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"Yep, youre [sic] right, it can be done but it's like the woman preaching and the dog standing on its hind legs. I wouldn't want nobody to have to strain hisself [sic]..."

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"A am on my bed of affliction recovering from what they give you to get rid of a virus with, but I wanted to pass this on..."

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"...I don't know what to advise you about this offer but all I can tell you is if it were min, I'd turn it down. I wouldn't have them telling me what stories I was going to include or rewrite..."

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"I have been in the hospital in Atlanta for the scientist to find out what is responsible for my feet swelling. He found out everything that was not responsible for their swelling so I figure we have accomplished something anyway..."