15、September 25,1950

                        14 East 94th St.
                        September 25, 1950

he has a first edition of Newman’s
University for six bucks, do i want it, he
asks innocently.
Dear Frank:
    Yes, I want it. I won’t be fit to live
with myself. I’ve never cared about first
editions per se, but a first edition of
THAT book—!
    oh my.
    i can just see it.
    Send the Oxford Verse, too, please.
Never wonder if I’ve found something
somewhere else, I don’t look anywhere
else any more. Why should I run all the
way down to 17th St. to buy dirty, badly
made books when I can buy clean, beautiful
ones from you without leaving the
typewriter? From where I sit, London’s a
lot closer than 17th Street.
    Enclosed please God please find $8.
Did I tell you about Brian’s lawsuit? He
buys physics tomes from a technical
bookshop in London, he’s not sloppy and
haphazard like me, he bought an expensive
set and went down to Rockefeller Plaza
and stood in line and got a money order
and cabled it or whatever you do with it,
he’s a businessman, he does things right.
     the money order got lost in transit.
          Up His Majesty’s Postal Service!

                                HH

am sending very small parcel to celebrate
first edition, Overseas Associates finally
sent me my own catalogue.

注释：
be fit to do 适合于
per se 本身，本质上
St. (=Street)街道
Rockefeller Plaza 洛克菲勒广场
Overseas Associates 海外邮购公司

“the money order got lost in transit.” 哈哈哈，Helene幸灾乐祸实锤了！（刚开始Frank还叫她用邮政汇款的方式来付钱，但Helene懒得跑那么远的路就专门为了汇款，就一直使用邮寄的方式。）