Letter from Sinclair Lewis to Marcella Powers, February 17, 1946

              E        I  M*  SINCLAIR     LEWI S  2601    EAST   SECOND    ST.  DULUTH   5,  MINNESOTA  Sunday feb seventeen  and four and a half weeks from now I'll be starting-  East with Ace by car and take a prelim look at Mass  and then to New York for birthdays, birthdays, darling  golden girls, whoosh *—.«.  if I sound slightly drunk itss because for couple  weeks now Ifve been all in a satisfying intexication  of work — going out almost zero at all — planning  book — there are now 64 single-spaced pages of plan,  which will be developed into some sweei; young thing of  maybe 130 pages of plan, plus the also-finished 20  pages of notes on characters, and then, maybe 1*11 be  ready to start actual writing of X$.  If I get this  plan all done before leaving for East, I111 be well  satisfied — 1*11 have it so fixed that I can leave  It, and there811 be toothing at all to do to the book  except merely writing it ——  I write, make mangy little notes, transfer notes,  write, have dinner with your mother and pn portentous  discussions of what bums Mrs. Malick, Mrs. Nolan, Mrs.  Banning, Mrs* Almost-anybody, are, dash up here,  work a little, play game of chess with Marvin, read  HBridehead Revisited,11 go to bed, scratch, get up,  make mangy little notes, transfer notes, write ■*-—  Itss an ideal existence, for maybe six months*  Then  you and 1 are going to Paris.  Patthecat is shedding more and more. Not for anything  would I let you have him in your flat.  There is (and  I mean it literally) hair in the meat, hair on my typewriter, hair lavish on every dark suit. We're going  to send him back to the vet, to see if there is anything he can do. Ee is darling, but a menace.  I wonder  in a cowlike and contemplative manner MMM just how much  white hair we are breathing and easing. Neither practice recommended.  But you are, darling Fihrerin of the S.S.S.    TO PAGE 2