393 walnut street
brookline
massachusetts

October 18, 1946

Mr. Paul Brooks
Houghton Mifflin Company
2 Park Street
Boston, Massachusetts

Dear Paul:

Here is the manuscript, and also the signed contract. I'm off to New York on Sunday, so am short of time today and am sending this by messenger.

I've made my changes and would like your comments. I have added several paragraphs referring to Fabia, in White Fawn and to Charlotte in Now, Voyager, for those readers who have read the earlier books and will be inter-
ested. I do not think they are out of place in this story, but tell me what you think.

The most radical changes are in the last three chapters. I wish you'd read them. I have tried to make clearer what Murray's object was, which wasn't just to be himself but to prove to himself he possessed courage. I have introduced the Whitman poem into the script by which device I plant the suggestion that Murray does not come back in person, being killed in the war, but that never-
theless his object is won. If Victor Ship is not used as a title this all can be omitted of course.

There is no reference to "Time" and my hasty and utterly unsuccessful attempt (how I agree!) to imitate Time's style is entirely eliminated.

MS Am 2105 (210), Houghton Mifflin Publishing Co. archive, Houghton Library, Harvard University