Spencer Heath Archive

Item 2296

Letter to Heath from Max Eastman, Chilmark, Massachusetts

September 18, 1945

 

Dear Mr. Heath:

 

     I am sorry your manuscript has stayed here so long. I was away when it came. I also regret to say that I am too busy to examine it with care at the present time. From a brief examination of it, however, I have a very strong im­pression which I will convey to you for what it may be worth. The impression is that you are presenting whatever idea you have in a grandiose instead of a humble and simple manner, and this will alienate your readers. I doubt very much whether you are founding a new science, and this doubt springs mainly perhaps from your excessive efforts to assure me that you are. To put it in another way, the approaches to your book seem rather to be the proper work of the publicity agent rather than the author. I feel a little the same way about the language you use.

I must repeat that this is no criticism of your book. I simply have not time to read it in the coming months, when my mind is to be engaged with a totally different subject. I merely hope that this superficial impression may be of some conceivable value to you.

 

I am sorry I can’t do or say more in return for the trouble you took and the compliment you paid me in sending me the manuscript.