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29th March 1935
17 Manor Way Beckenham Kent
Dear Sir
May I - as an ardent follower of your adventurous writings congratulate you on your recent appointment. All those of us who have been led to follow your acts in Parliament by our attraction to Dick Hannay's creator will have only one regret - that the gallant general's inevitable demise should have come so soon.
Before however you sail right out of the ken of the rank & file of your followerswill you please help me. I thought "A Prince of the Captivity" one of greatest books I have ever read - but did you
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mean it? The reason I ask is because in your review in the "Times" of January 11th of F.S. Oliver's "Endless Adventure" you back, against the idealist, the professional politician - the man who is in the game for what he can get out of it.
Such a man surely is the direct antithesis of Adam Melfort.
What a young solicitor thinks does not matter a great deal, I know - but if his unknown opinion counts for anything please tell me whether Adam was really meant to inspire us to do things or
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whether you really set the "practical" politican over the "impractical" and "visionary" idealist who, so you taught us in the "Prince" is the only true realist.
I know this letter is cheek. I know I have no right to ask - but even before you received your present honour - you were more than a popular novelist - and some us took you deadly seriously. Were we young prigs for 30 days when the book was only fiction of the moment?
Yours truly,
Frank L. Harris
