West, Nathanael

Two typed letters signed ("Pep" in pencil) to fellow writer (and his brother-in-law) S. J. Perelman and one unsigned typed letter (incomplete?) to his sister Laura West Perelman, together 7 pages, 4to,  Hollywood, Erwinna, Pa., and  New York, [summer 1935 to fall 1938]; typed on five sheets (two pages are on versos), mostly double-spaced, one letter with a six-word holograph marginal note by West, another with fold creases and a few tiny marginal staple holes.

Two typed letters signed ("Pep" in pencil) to fellow writer (and his brother-in-law) S. J. Perelman and one unsigned typed letter (incomplete?) to his sister Laura West Perelman, together 7 pages, 4to, Hollywood, Erwinna, Pa., and New York, [summer 1935 to fall 1938]; typed on five sheets (two pages are on versos), mostly double-spaced, one letter with a six-word holograph marginal note by West, another with fold creases and a few tiny marginal staple holes.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
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"My new book will be a failure." At the time of the first letter (summer 1935, to S. J. Perelman), West was living in an apartment hotel just above Hollywood Boulevard. As his biographer Jay Martin notes: "...[West was] increasingly desperate, impoverished, and bewildered ... For all his personal suffering there, this scene was to be crucial to his work, since it provided the model for Tod's hotel in The Day of the Locust...the emotions he experienced there went into the inception and black heart of that novel" (Nathanael West: The Art of His Life, NY, 1970, p. 266).  West begins the letter with an account of how a band of thieves conned him out of his shoes, then complains about his miserable health (an enlarged prostate, plus a dose of gonorrhea), and continues: "What bothers me terribly is that I can't work during the day; I can't sit in a chair for more than ten minutes at a time, and at night I can't sleep. The Doc gives me morphine, but it gives me headaches and I lie awake all night in a half doze waiting for it to get light. I spend my time thinking about how much money I owe you [West was being supported by Perelman while trying to find a Hollywood job] ... My new book will be a failure. I can't possibly get a job. I have deteriated [sic] mentally. I have nothing to say, and no tallent [sic] for writing, then I get up and take two more tablets of morphine ... I fall asleep for half an hour then wake up and find myself laughing quietly. My patter changes. Crowds follow me wherever I go. When I come into a restaurant, all the customers stand up and sing some beautiful song of praise and welcome. Young girls throw flowers at me. The air is full of incense, my hair a nest of singing birds, my heart a lotus flower alive with bees. I'm lively as a flea, as keen as a serpent's tooth, as fat as butter, and I've got a million dollars in nickel and dimes. By then, it is light and I feel nauseous and my headache comes back. I get up and wait for the morning paper ..."

Most of the second letter to Perelman (written ca. mid-August to September 1938 from the farm in Erwinna, Bucks County, that they jointly owned, to his brother-in-law in Hollywood) is a report on landscaping on the 83-acre property that West has supervised. In the last quarter of the letter West mentions his new novel and talks about Good Hunting, an anti-war play he has written: "The rest of the time I've spent doing a little work on my book [The Day of the Locust, published May 1939] and waiting for a final decision. It looks now that the play will absolutely go on. The Fulton has been  contracted for, the money put up and the equity bond being arranged for ... Rehearsals are supposed to start the twelfth and I expect to move to a Broadway hotel about the tenth ... Although I was fed up with the damn thing and almost ready to leave anyway, I'm glad now because I would have hated to return to Hollywood  and tried to alibi what happened that the play didn't go on. Moreover, everyone agrees that the late events in Europe, especially the English double cross [i.e., the Munich Agreement], should help its chance to make money as Laura wrote. According to Variety...all war movies, including revivals, are doing top business, and the movie companies are announcing new war pictures. If we open quick maybe we can sell the play ..."  Good Hunting opened on Broadway on 21 November to mediocre reviews and closed after two performances.

West's unsigned chatty letter (incomplete?)  to his sister Laura ("Darling Baby"), who was with Perelman in Hollywood, was written from New York, ca. mid-September to the first half  of November 1938. It is two pages, single-spaced, on a sheet of Hotel Lincoln stationery (the verso page typed upside-down), and deals with Good Hunting, The Day of the Locust, another West writing project, and the Broadway theatre in general: "Well, we've finally changed the title of the show. I was sitting in a barroom with Mayer the producer when Dick Watts [a New York theatre reviewer] came up to me and said 'For Christ's sake change the title, Pep, etc.' ... It's now Good Hunting. I like it better than 'Blow, Bugle, Blow' which is too much 'Sing, Baby, Sing,' 'Run, Sheep, Run,' and 'Ford, Maddox [sic], Ford,' but not that good. I tried it out on Dotty Parker and she liked it ... After a week of rehearsals it's harder than ever to tell. It all seems a jumble and those parts that are understandable seem awfully thin and foolish and none of the jokes funny. How could they be after all this mulling and moiling ... [Bennett] Cerf gets back from Europe ... next week. I'm to see Saxe Cummins Tuesday about binding, publication date, etc. etc. [for The Day of the Locust] ... and also about the final changes I have made. Cummins seems sure it'll sell and maybe it will. I'm going to be rather short if the show is a complete flop although I feel pretty sure I can work in some studio, somewhere ..."

West letters are rare, with only a short ALS in the Maurice F. Neville sale (Part II, Sotheby's, 16 November 2004, lot 445) having sold at auction since the mid-1970s.  Except for a portion of the first letter quoted in Martin's biography, the letters appear to be unpublished.