Letter 1

Letter from Morley Callaghan to Raymond Knister, August 2

Black and white photo of a small bungalow with a triangular roof, and a porch. There's a child sitting at the top of the steps.

Knister home in Northwood, 1927.

Photo of a small red brick bungalow, with a small lawn and bushes surrounding its outer walls.

Knister home in Northwood, 1980s

35 Woolfrey Ave

Toronto, August 2nd.

Dear Raymond,

Thanks for your letter. No, I didn’t get the copy of TRANSITION back from Macmillan’s but wish I could. Sorry you didn’t see the stories in Scribner’s. Another one is in the August issue. The book will be out in a couple of weeks.

What on earth are you doing in Northwood. I thought you had highly resolved not to linger there again. And if you aren’t doing any work then it is a total loss. it is Yarrow revisited, or something like that. However, maybe you’re having a good time.

I have an exam to write in a few weeks and have to start studying for it, and after that I’ll go to New York for a few weeks if I can raise the price. Will you bet that my book sells, two thousand, or twenty thousand. No sign here of the Canadian short story anthology. Maybe they are saving it for later on in the Fall. O’Brien is going to reprint my COUNTRY PASSION from Transition this year. I’d really like to know why he didn’t print something before, or is he simply waiting for the bell to ring. Are you writing any short stories. Tom Murtha did a pretty good one that he ought to get printed some place. I just finished a short novel and haven’t the faintest idea right now whether it’s any good or not. I should think you’d be anxious to get back to the city, or maybe I’m looking at it from my point of view. But why not go on working. What about the novel you were doing.

Yours always,

Morley