Spencer Heath Archive

Item 1811

Penned letter by Heath to Spencer MacCallum at Berkeley, California.

December 7, 1959

 

 

Dear Spencer  —

 

     Sure was nice to get your December 4^th letter. Please apologize to Mr. and Mrs. Routsong for our disturbing them so late at night. I’ll call before 10 P.M. next time, whether I send advance notice or not. Better get down what you think of from time to time so you will be ready to talk without notice. Hope that half-time job at the University Museum will do you good money-wise and other-wise, which latter I should think likely. But what about time out from the thesis work? However, I guess a bit of variety in your work will be good for you. That new kind of card indexing is mighty interesting — if the mechanics of it don’t distract too much from subject-matter, as it might for me. I will surely be glad to see portions of your “paper” as you get along with it. From what I have seen, you surely have a talent for effective writing. You state your thought directly and also by insinuation and employ style and terminology customary with and familiar to your predecessors in the field without going into any highly technical jargon. … Mrs. Manning looks in at this point to say I shall tell you that your black cat is fine and she’s typing up a schedule of my acts and contacts here for possible inclusion in some Foundation meeting minutes. The president of the Chamber of Commerce here and associates are very cordial and hospitable to me and my special or peculiar ideas, as you may see by the enclosed “tribute to /Glenn W./ Martin” clipping. And Mr. Clay Miller, feature writer, who did this picture and article urged me to let him do a half-page article about me and my past and present doings.

 

     Hooray for the “Crawfish!” I hope to see a copy of that Journal of Applied Physics and find out if I can understand the article he co-authored.

 

     The Dorothy Thompson quotes are indeed good. /Architectural Forum, November 1954, page 156/ It is high time for some good publicists to worry less about the ethics of capitalism and have some experience in the esthetics of it. So also would our libertarian economists do well to look beyond the mere mechanics of free enterprise and get excited about the creative and thus spiritual or esthetic quality of it. Dorothy Thompson stresses the beauty in the creations of free men much more than in the processes and relationships themselves whereby things of use and beauty are wrought. I am filing the Dorothy Thompson quotes with your letter of December 4. Likely you kept a carbon — or I can send this copy to you.

 

      How about those “bull session” points you have been thinking about? I need some stimulations along the growing edge and I’d surely like to explore along it personally with you, but meantime you might give me a hint or two of what the fingers of your mind are toying with.

 

     If you go east, how about making it via Santa Ana? I’d love to see you and perhaps have you see some of the leading people. They are right free and easy — non pompous — much like Bill and Janet /Matchette?/ in New York and surely would take to you, speech or no speech. If you go to Baltimore, you should see Bartlett, Poe and Claggett about Foundation tax exemption. You might give them more data than I could about the kind and amount of work that has been carried on, maybe a lot about the Suez solution as written up in the minutes of meetings and other matters yet to be written up.

 

     I get a good kick out of your feeling “left Out” that I didn’t come up to see you this fall. If I had known or thought you would feel that way I’d almost certainly have come up there some time last month. Age is often inverse to mobility but there are too many other factors to be considered for us to stand on protocol, but I do often wish there were more of a single center for me and those who “take after” me in either sense of the word. If you come by here I hope you can stay for a few days at least. Mrs. Manning says the same.

 

Affectionately,

 

     P.D.