Gilbert Moses Letter to RPW 6/4
Gilbert Moses discusses his corrections to the transcripts and provides information about sponsorship of the Free Southern Theater.
The letter is dated June 4th, but no year appears. The interview with Moses was dated February 1964, but it is unclear when Warren sent the transcripts, so the long delay in returning them (which Moses mentions in the letter) could suggest a date in either 1964 or 1965.
Gilbert Moses Letter to RPW 6/4 Searchable Text
Collapse[Free Southern Theater Letterhead]
June 4th,
Mr. Robert Penn Warren
2495 Redding Road
Fairfield, Conn.
Dear Mr. Warren,
I regret that I have delayed so long the return of the transcript of our conversation. It arrived when I was out of town. When I finally did receive it, my duties here were so hectic and frantic that I could not find time to edit the transcript.
Frankly, I did not know how to approach it. I suspected it would take a great deal of time to re-write such an exhaustive and confused interview. I do want so much to make what I think clear, and I was flabbergasted by the total confusion I presented to you.
Now, some of it I have re-written. It, of course, has lost the casual and conversational tone, but I thought it necessary to give you a more clear statement of how I thought. It is odd that a great deal of what I’ve re-written is obstensibly [ostensibly] devorced [divorced] from my work in the South.
I am also enclosing information about the theater with a request for you to sponsor the project. We have postponed our opening until September 6th. Please read the enclosed information and I will send you the final plans within two weeks.
Sponsorship of the Free Southern Theater means that you (your secretary) make up a list of at least twenty people to whom you write over your own signature about the project asking them to contribute. If you agree to sponsor this program, your list should be sent to Mrs. Carol Feinman, 780 Riverside Dr. Apt 3A, New York, New York. She will type all the letters and send them back to you plus the necessary enclosures to sign. You then will mail the letters.
I certainly hope you will be able to aid us in this manner.
Again, I’m very sorry about the tardy transcript, and I hope you can see what I have written, even though it is not a great deal. By the way, I no longer work for the Free Press but am working full time on the theater.
Respectfully,
[Signed]
Gilbert Moses
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