Letter from Sinclair Lewis to Marcella Powers, August 5, 1945

              SI N C LAIR     LEWIS  2601    EAST   SECOND    ST.  DULUTH   5,   MINNESOTA  Sunday, August 5  Oh, poor dearest baby, and not very big, with  twisted cheek and endless MSS to bore you, phones  to Irritate youj I think sailing off the Scotch  coast, with ancient monastery-crowned Islands,  and kippering around the Riviera in the January  sun would be somewhat better than that. And write  the MSS instead of read 'em. I have a sad tenderness in my heart when I think of you crawling under  a novel, tucking a One-Shot under your head and a  Sheaf of Lyrics over your sun^scraped nose, and  sobbing yourself to sleep, while Si the Tutrle  — I meant Turtle but I rather like that — moves  uneasily as he listens to the unhappy sound.  But I shall be seeing you in a month — maybe less  — and you shall hear my soothing, ""There, ther,  the, the «.,-»-*, poo8 darling.'H  Damn it, I don't KNOW the splendors of Darryl  Austin, do It  Pat is of a slick, musing, ice-cream smooth loveliness, sitting meditatively on a green cushion,  looking at me. He plays too hard — the iodine  bottle is always in $UKk# use —mbut quickly settles  to the most resounding purr, and goes at night  rejoicingly to his basket. The bell on the collar  your mother sent wasn't loud enough to be of any  use, but anyway, so far, he hasn't chased the  birds.  I had another fine, long, four-day motor hike with  Ace, possibly my last before I return to NY (which  is one way of spelling Silly Marcella). We went  down to Sauk Centre, very earnest with old friends  and getting the hell out of there as soon as polite,  then up to the Minn country I find most beautlfuls  the lakes and hills and mmmm  secret valleys around  Fergus Falls.  If some day I live on Cape Cod or  a New Jersey farm, I shall have such riches of  knowledge and memories of this land with me.....*  which reminds me that in a brief post card, John  Gunther incredibly announces that he has Done most  of the US and will be in Minnesota in abt three  weeks.  You spoke of Margatet Carson, in yr letter-before-  last, as a tricky lil Something. I've always imagined that she would be Darling, there's no  sense working too hard. Learn to skim a little.  So much love    Mr. F.M.R*