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'I didn't dare to look at your book ["The Scar"] till I finished a rather long thing which I was writing.[...] I have not been disappointed.There is power to begin with, and a great charm of style, a soberness of presentation which appeals to me extremely, [...] for as you can imagine I am not writing this after one reading only.' Hence follow nine lines of further praise.
'I have read the MS. I have read it twice.' Hence follow 20 lines of quite strong but constructive criticism.
'And now more thanks for the book [" Le Nègre aux Etats-Unis"]. You have a most attractive French style--and very French it is too and yet with something individual-- and even racial--glowing through it and adding to the fascination of the perfectly simple diction.'
'If the novel at which he [Warrington Dawson] is working now and of which he read me the first four chapters is, as a whole, up to that sample then it is distinctly stuff that can be handled.'
'The novel --Good! Très fort!! As Pinker could not have done much with it before Easter I held it up here for a second reading.'
'I am sending today the "Grand Elixir" to London.[...] That the story is clever, that the writing is in many respects admirable there can be no doubt.' Hence follow 12 lines of constructive criticism.
'The story you sent me (I'm glad to have it) I remembered of course very well. It isn't the sort of thing that is ever forgotten.'
'Now I have absorbed it I send you my thanks for "The Gift of Paul Clermont". It is a very charming and touching performance which one likes more the deeper one gets into it.' [Hence follow nine lines of praise.]