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caused a delay in
reading your book, while
my own feeling for Scott
made me fear it a little.

And now, in my journey
up the East Coast it has
been mine and I do not
know how to thank you
for all you have given
me in it, of Scott, of
literature, of yourself.

Scott is more mine than
ever, more humanly mine.
Your style, judicial atti-
tude, references, critical
study of Scott's separate
writings & of his place &
value as a whole, your
innumerable touches
that cannot be defined, all
give me happiness now &
a knowledge that there will
still be - when I have settled
into their ghastly state called
retirement - all the increasing
joy of literature to go on with
in life.

My hope is to do some work
on Scott as a critic, a subject
I have been interested in
for many years.

Whatever I may do, your
work on Scott will be a help,
a joy, an inspiration. You
have done very much for us
all in writing this book.

I shall get a copy for my-
self to keep by me for all
the things it means to me,
not the least of which is
a greater knowledge of the self you