Letter from Sinclair Lewis to Marcella Powers, July 17, 1943

              /frO*  CHHTEJTO fflHRmOOT  8221 SUNSET BOULEVARD  HOLLYWOOD, LOS ANGELES , CALIFORNIA  Saturday,  July 17  fee  I'm a successful writer, ain't I? I earn $2500.00 a/week,  which means, on a five-day working week, |500 a day/and""  And I have just had a nice lil breakfast, served by the  amiable colored man. And I am apparently being successful  in turning out screen treatment — 101 pages of it in two  weeks of dictation, and I should think 101 words pf that  as good as the average of the lesa-successful paragraphs in  that book Gideon Planish that you inflicted on an isn't-  there-enough-evil-in-the-world-without-writing-about-it  public.  Abd from the window beside which I write I see  a white castle far up on a sharp peak above me. And I  have two very beautiful girls no older than you, you rat,  so crazy about me that they are willing to go to dinner with  me provided they haven't a date with (l) a producer, (2)  a director, or (3) any dough-faced young man in any kind  of uniform, including that of the street-cleaners pr the  Calpro Pest Gpntrol and Termite Extermination Service —  yes, two: Timmy Sabor, as before advertised, and Ctoris-  topha (not Christopher) Slmms, the tall, beautiful,, radiant, and pretty damn dumb young lady so truthfully chronicled by Louella in the enclosed red-llneii reading notice.  So with all these signs anc| demonstrations of wealth and  worthy progress, I oughtCa£jLeasj^ to""~~IlJle HollywoodVas  well as Stony Greek. But the fact is that the three and  a half weeks I have been away from you seem like three  slow-dragging months, and the only thing I have really been  aDle to think of since yesterday afternoonm when I came  home and found the day's mail, is that I HAVE INCREDIBLY  AND GLORIOUSLY HAD THREE LETTERS FROM YOU THIS PAST WEEK,  whiBh is my idea of paradise. Do go on giving me paradiseI  And they are such swell lettersjt! You are distinctly writing  better and better, especially &hen you use the typewriter  ■— more vigor, sharper and more amusing and more original  phrases, more detailed and keener observation. Hal's son's  wife who ""stinks of mediocrity"" -- that's magnificent writing.  I am as high-up and flying now from having three letters from you in one week as I was low-down and damp and  mole-wise a week ago from having only one in 2 l/2.  I had already planned to return Ration Books 1 and 2 to you  before you suggested it, and I'll mail them today — directly  to your mother, in my care at IT. Tell her to look for them,   afew