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TARKINGTON, BOOTH MAR 9, 1919
Mar 9. '19
Dear Mrs. Sewall:
I'm ? February did not show a ? of your improvement: it was a depressing month over the world. I believe.
I have thought that the Bobbs Merrill Co. might be the best people to try your book upon. If they offer to publish it, you can estimate the value of what they would be willing to odo ofor the book, and decide. They understand that I will write an introduction if they conclude their examination with an offer. It is a slow business - slower, of course, than ever, on account of the long delay in obtaining a stenographer; and the latter's own sloweness was added.
Mrs. Tarkington is unable to regain her health completely, in this smoke, and we shall brobably go south in a few days, for a fortnight. I look for a decision by the Bobbs
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Merrill people upon our return.
I should have tried Harpers first, but my friend in that house died during the winter, and my relations with the firm are "not [propitiatory?]" since then.
No one will take the [?] for the sake of my preface, of course. The agreement to write one has a little weight, no doubt; but I take it that a publisher, attracted by the [?] would like to give his advice upon the question of what sort of introduction would be most useful.
With best wishes, Yours faithfully, N.B. Tarkington