ONE OF THE FINEST JOHN STEINBECK LETTERS IN EXISTENCE !
Unpublished and very personal letter to the author Dennis Murphy, son of his long-time friend John Murphy
John Steinbeck. Autograph letter signed (“John”) to “Dennis” [Murphy]. N.p., December 16, 1957.
4 pages, folio (12 1/2 by 8 3/4 inches). Written in pencil on two lined sheets of yellow legal paper; quarter morocco folding case.
FABULOUS UNPUBLISHED AND PERSONAL AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED BY STEINBECK TO FAMILY FRIEND AND AUTHOR, DENNIS MURPHY, ABOUT WRITING, FAME AND SELF REFLECTION.
The lengthy letter, written just before the publication of Murphy’s The Sergeant, contains thoughtful – and timely – advice for the young author: “Don’t worry about not changing the ending of The Sergeant. If you had, there would be something else would wish you had changed. It’s always that way. It’s not yours anymore. Only the one you are writing is yours, so always be writing one.” He also correctly predicts the popularity and acclaim of the forthcoming book: “This book is not only going to cause a stir but is also going to make a pot of money – perhaps a sizable pot…” He writes of fame as well: “One thing you must know – you are now translated out of Salinas. That doesn’t mean Salinas won’t keep some hold on you. It will even hate you a little – people always hate those who escape. Salinas will never like me until I am safely in a pine box. Then they will love me…” He muses on his own writing: “I am doing no writing whatever this year and it’s the hardest thing I’ve ever done. It’s like stopping breathing. But it is necessary. I require a complete re birth and the only way to get it is to allow a time for parturition. But I am reading – my god how I am reading in the field I want to work in. On my shelves are about three hundred titles read and maybe four hundred still to read before I will be ready. And if I’m not ready I won’t do it…” He ends with more advice: “I’m glad you have gone to work again and this quickly. And meanwhile don’t fail to enjoy your success – only keep it in drawing because the people who adore you today will you murder you tomorrow and you must be able to take both…” and self-reflection: “Again a long letter full of perhaps fortuitous advice but after all I have been through it. It’s a wonderful and terrifying experience. Write when you feel like it and never from a sense that you should. Revealing things are so often in what is not said.”
Dennis Murphy (1932-2005) was an author and screenwriter best known for his book, The Sergeant, published in 1958. He also wrote the screenplay for the film adaptation, released in 1969. Murphy was the son of Steinbeck’s childhood friend, John Murphy, and the grandson of the physician who delivered Steinbeck. In a letter to John Murphy, Steinbeck wrote of Dennis: “I shudder to tell you what I have strongly suspected – that you have a writer in the family… And Dennis is not only a writer but I am dreadfully afraid a very good one.”
References: Not in Steinbeck: A Life in Letters (edited by Elaine Steinbeck and Robert Wallsten, 1976), and apparently unpublished.
Provenance: Dennis Murphy (recipient); acquired from Heritage Book Shop, Inc., Los Angeles, in 1999. From the William A. Strutz Library.
