STEINBECK, JOHN. Autograph letter signed ("John") to Dennis Murphy, n.p. [New York], 16 December 1957. 4 pages, folio, in pencil on two lined yellow legal-pad sheets, some slight soiling; with typed transcript . "A CREATIVE MAN IS A BOMB" "...This book [ The Sergeant , soon to be published] is not only going to cause a stir but is going to make a pot of money...Handling fame or notoriety is the harder thing. Don't try to live up to it nor down from it. I spent an evening with Jim Jones [James Jones, author of From Here to Eternity ] recently and he is doing both -- proclaiming at once that he is a precious literary artist and a mug. Some where in between, Jim Jones has got lost...I think I was fighting a virtuous father. I guess every one fights something even when he isn't being attacked. It may be that anger is a necessary and a creative emotion...One thing you must know -- you are now translated out of Salinas. That doesn't mean Salinas won't keep some hold on you. It will even hate you a little -- people always hate those who escape. Salinas will never like me until I am safely in a pine box. Then they will love me. A creative man is a bomb. The non creative can never trust him and properly so because he might move them or expose them to themselves. And even if he doesn't want to they can never trust him. There is no reason for anger here. It's just a matter of understanding it. It took me a long time and lots of pain..." Steinbeck talks about his plans for the coming year: "...In June I have to go back to England for more research [for his book about King Arthur]. I am doing no writing whatever this year and it's the hardest thing I've ever done. It's like stopping breathing. But it is necessary. I require a complete re-birth and the only way to get it is to allow a time for parturition. But I am reading -- my God how I am reading in the field I want to work in. On my shelves are about three hundred titles read and maybe four hundred -- still to read before I will be ready...I am old enough so to indulge myself. Expectancy narrows down. I know now that I will never do what I had hoped to do...This is not said sadly. I would like the next work to be good and I'm doing what I can to make it so...Again a long letter full of perhaps fortuitous advice but after all I have been through it. It's a wonderful and terrifying experience..."
STEINBECK, JOHN. Autograph letter signed ("John") to Dennis Murphy, n.p. [New York], 16 December 1957. 4 pages, folio, in pencil on two lined yellow legal-pad sheets, some slight soiling; with typed transcript . "A CREATIVE MAN IS A BOMB" "...This book [ The Sergeant , soon to be published] is not only going to cause a stir but is going to make a pot of money...Handling fame or notoriety is the harder thing. Don't try to live up to it nor down from it. I spent an evening with Jim Jones [James Jones, author of From Here to Eternity ] recently and he is doing both -- proclaiming at once that he is a precious literary artist and a mug. Some where in between, Jim Jones has got lost...I think I was fighting a virtuous father. I guess every one fights something even when he isn't being attacked. It may be that anger is a necessary and a creative emotion...One thing you must know -- you are now translated out of Salinas. That doesn't mean Salinas won't keep some hold on you. It will even hate you a little -- people always hate those who escape. Salinas will never like me until I am safely in a pine box. Then they will love me. A creative man is a bomb. The non creative can never trust him and properly so because he might move them or expose them to themselves. And even if he doesn't want to they can never trust him. There is no reason for anger here. It's just a matter of understanding it. It took me a long time and lots of pain..." Steinbeck talks about his plans for the coming year: "...In June I have to go back to England for more research [for his book about King Arthur]. I am doing no writing whatever this year and it's the hardest thing I've ever done. It's like stopping breathing. But it is necessary. I require a complete re-birth and the only way to get it is to allow a time for parturition. But I am reading -- my God how I am reading in the field I want to work in. On my shelves are about three hundred titles read and maybe four hundred -- still to read before I will be ready...I am old enough so to indulge myself. Expectancy narrows down. I know now that I will never do what I had hoped to do...This is not said sadly. I would like the next work to be good and I'm doing what I can to make it so...Again a long letter full of perhaps fortuitous advice but after all I have been through it. It's a wonderful and terrifying experience..."
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