JEREMY INGALLS American woman poet letter to James Meadows 5 pages by hand, 1945

[JEREMY INGALLS, AMERICAN WOMAN POET, 5-PAGE HANDWRITEN LETTER/ALS 1945] JEREMY INGALLS, WOMAN POET, 5-page handwritten letter, 8-1/2" x 11"/about 950 words, dated Chicago, Illinois, November 14, 1945, to "Dear Jimmy" (author James R. Mellow, see below), Mellow wrote to Ingalls after gaining confidence in receiving a high-school award for something he wrote asking her to comment on and critique a group of sonnets he had written, Ingalls replies generously that they are "part of the record of your adolescence" having more personal than lasting or literary value, but which evidence good writing skills and talent, her lengthy letter involves literary critique, psychological observation, perspective, and encouragement, reading in part, "Your manuscript and letter arrive this morning…this particular group of sonnets should not be revised…You yourself recognize the Millay lines…and you probably recognize also the Wordsworth, Byron and Keats and other echoes…you probably recognize also the sequence represents an artificial world…remarkably coherent within its premises…For a young man of your age you show remarkable control of your medium…[your letter with its objectivity] shows a mind which is likely to escape such vanity [as evidenced by many young writers, and which they do not grow out of]…Since you are in Madison [presumably Wisconsin]…If you should ever feel like coming to see me [in Chicago]…I will be very glad to autograph your copy of 'Tahl' [published 1945] when it arrives…"; signed letter and signature authenticated by seller with lifetime guarantee, RARE signed letter by poet Jeremy Ingalls, one-of-a-kind item; NOTES: JEREMY INGALLS: 1911-2000, American woman poet and scholar of Chinese literature…In 1943, she received a Guggenheim Fellowship to work on her major poem, The Thunder Saga of Tahi, which was published in 1945 by Alfred Knopf…She grew up in Gloucester, Massachusetts [James R. Mellow's home town]…She graduated from Tufts College, where she also received a master's degree, and studied Chinese at the University of Chicago. (wikipedia); JAMES R. MELLOW: 1926-97, born in Gloucester, MA…art critic, book reviewer, and biographer of Gertrude Stein, Nathaniel Hawthorn, F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, and Hemingway…homes in Rockport, MA, and Clinton, CT (online sources); PROVENANCE: letter acquired at an estate sale of James Mellow's possessions in Clinton, CT /// CONDITION: well-preserved, limited edgewear of light creases, handwriting easily legible.