by Shaun Usher
This is not meant at all to be a rancorous account and I think Delmore enjoys himself. I have been accused of cruelty and a woman named Ruth Hershberger keeps writing Elizabeth Pollet, telling her to take the cat away from me, but Delmore contributes a dynamic to all our relationships. People who dislike me go directly to his side and he is, thus, a peace-maker. He loves to play with toilet paper. He does not like catnip mice. He does not kill song birds. In the spring the rabbits chase him around the lawn but they leave after the lettuce has been eaten and he has the terrace pretty much to himself. He is very fat these days and his step, Carl Sandberg not withstanding, sounds more like that of a barefoot middle-aged man on his way to the toilet than the settling in of a winter fog but he has his role and we all respect it and here endeth my report on Delmore the cat.
I hope all is well with you. Mary teaches, I write, the children go to various schools and all is well.
Best,
John
PERMISSION CREDITS
Every effort has been made to trace copyright holders and obtain their permission for the use of copyright material. The publisher apologises for any errors or omissions and would be grateful if notified of any corrections that should be incorporated in future reprints or editions of this book.
LETTER 2 Always, Rachel: The Letters of Rachel Carson and Dorothy Freeman 1952–1964. Copyright © 1995 by Roger Allen Christie. Reprinted by permission of Frances Collin, Trustee.
LETTER 3 Jack LemmonTM used with permission by the Lemmon Family Trust.
LETTER 5 reprinted with kind permission of The Estate of Sylvia Townsend Warner. Reply reprinted by kind permission of United Agents on behalf of the Executor of the Estate of David Garnett.
LETTER 6 reprinted by kind permission of Erik Reece.
LETTER 8 excerpt(s) from The Diary of a Young Girl: The Definitive Edition by Anne Frank, edited by Otto H. Frank and Mirjam Pressler, translated by Susan Massotty, translation copyright © 1995 by Penguin Random House LLC. Used by permission of Doubleday, an imprint of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC. All rights reserved / 264 words from The Diary of a Young Girl: The Definitive Edition by Anne Frank, edited by Otto H Frank and Mirjam Pressler, translated by Susan Massotty. English translation copyright © Doubleday a division of Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group Inc, 1995 / Copyright © Anne Frank Tagebuch. Einzig autorisierte und ergänzte Fassung Otto H. Frank und Mirjam Pressler. © 1991 by ANNE FRANK-Fonds, Basel. Alle Rechte vorbehalten S. Fischer Verlag GmbH, Frankfurt am Main.
LETTER 10 From The Letters of T.S. Eliot by T.S. Eliot, reprinted by permission of Faber and Faber Ltd / copyright © 2011 Yale University Press all rights reserved. From The Letters of T.S. Eliot by T.S. Eliot.
LETTER 11 reprinted by permission of House of Taylor.
LETTER 17 letter by Jack Kerouac’s mother by Ms. Kerouac. Copyright © 1960, The Estate of Jack Kerouac, used by permission of The Wylie Agency (UK) Limited.
LETTER 20 Ayn Rand letter from Letters of Ayn Rand. Reprinted with kind permission of Ayn Rand Archives of the Ayn Rand Institute.
LETTER 22 from Selected Letters of Raymond Chandler. Published by Dell Publishing, 1987. Copyright © Raymond Chandler. Reproduced by permission of the author c/o Rogers, Coleridge & White Ltd., 20 Powis Mews, London W11 1JN.
LETTER 23 letter to cats of Ester Krumbachová was published in The First Book of Ester (Primus, Prague, 1994). From the online Ester Krumbachová Archive (esterkrumbachova.org). Translation: Marta Nedvědická, Guy Tabachnick Courtesy: Ivo Paik and Are | are-events.org
LETTER 24 copyright © The Estate of Katherine Mansfield 1996 from The Collected Letters of Katherine Mansfield Volume IV: 1920–1921 by Katherine Mansfield. Reproduced with permission of the Oxford Publishing Limited through PLSclear.
LETTER 27 From The Letters of John Cheever edited by Benjamin Cheever. Copyright © 1988 by Benjamin Cheever. Reprinted with the permission of Touchstone, a division of Simon & Schuster, Inc. All rights reserved / From The Letters of John Cheever by John Cheever. Published by Jonathan Cape. Reprinted by permission of The Random House Group Limited. © 1989 / Copyright © Benjamin Cheever, 1988, used by permission of The Wylie Agency (UK) Limited.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
It requires a dedicated team of incredibly patient people to bring the Letters of Note books to life, and this page serves as a heartfelt thank you to every single one of them, beginning with my wife, Karina – not just for kickstarting my obsession with letters all those years ago, but for working with me as Permissions Editor, a vital and complex role. Special mention, also, to my excellent editor at Canongate Books, Hannah Knowles, who has somehow managed to stay focused despite the problems I have continued to throw her way.
Equally sincere thanks to all of the following: the one and only Jamie Byng, whose vision and enthusiasm for this series has proven invaluable; all at Canongate Books, including but not limited to Rafi Romaya, Kate Gibb, Vicki Rutherford and Leila Cruickshank; my dear family at Letters Live: Jamie, Adam Ackland, Benedict Cumberbatch, Aimie Sullivan, Amelia Richards and Nick Allott; my agent, Caroline Michel, and everyone else at Peters, Fraser & Dunlop; the many illustrators who have worked on the beautiful covers in this series; the talented performers who have lent their stunning voices not just to Letters Live, but also to the Letters of Note audiobooks; Patti Pirooz; every single archivist and librarian in the world; everyone at Unbound; the team at the Wylie Agency for their assistance and understanding; my foreign publishers for their continued support; and, crucially, my family, for putting up with me during this process.
Finally, and most importantly, thank you to all of the letter writers whose words feature in these books.
Compulsive collections of the world’s most entertaining, inspiring and powerful letters, curated by the founder of the global phenomenon lettersofnote.com
