stefansson-wrangel-09-16-012-001

C O P Y

161 West 75th Street,
New York.

Nov. 5th, 1925.

Dear Stefansson:

I was pleased to know that you liked my review of the
Wrangel book for I worked it out very carefully. The original inform-
ation on Noice was from his notes and MS which he let me take to read.
I made some notes at the time but I am not sure that I kept them. If
I have, I can probably dig them out of the mess we are in just now.

I may have been wrong about his removing the pages at
the time he sat down with his back to the body but it is my impression
that he did. The sitting down to read the diary at all under the cir-
cumstances struck me as being very peculiar.

Noice was terribly distressed after your book appeared
but when I saw him last he had recovered his balance, at least on the
surface. He was emphatic in declaring that he had done no wrong
intentionally.

Part of the material he let me take was a MS which he
had prepared for publication but I think he has not yet found a pub-
lisher. It was a very interesting story of his journey to the
Island, his impressions on arriving, etc. He also had extracts from
Canadian papers with letters of the captain, who failed to get through,
defending himself and taking a shot at you in return.

It may be that Noice told me in one of our conver-
sations that he sat down with his back to the body and read the diary
but I am not positive about his taking the pages out at that time.
He probably did not actually read the diary at the time he found it but
sat down and skimmed it over, so his saying that he did not read it
till he was on the ship fits in all right. He seems to have been in
a decidedly upset condition and there is no doubt that the finding of
Knight dead rather knocked him out. So he would not be very clear as
to just when he removed the pages. It seems likely that he removed
them on the ship between Wrangel and Nome, but you have information
that it was between Nome and Seattle, so perhaps it was. I will go
over the matter and see if I can clear up my own statement as to the
removal of the pages at Wrangel and write you again later.

Perhaps he will let me have the same material again.

Sincerely yours.

(Signed) F. S. DELLENBAUGH