WHAT ABOUT THE ENVELOPES?
SIR,—If one may judge by subsequent correspond- ence and references elsewhere, my light-hearted notes in your July 20 issue on the sale of manuscripts to American universities have been a good deal mis- interpreted. Alas, it is a sorry thing to have to explain a joke and tends to deter one from making another, thus diminishing still further the public stock of harmless pleasure. May I have an inch or so of Your space to say that there is not in real life any appreciable industry to 'manufacture' literary treasure, and if there were the universities of America Would not be interested? It is true that large quanti- ties of literary and other papers are gathered by these universities, but they are not papers of the come to tea on Thursday' order. The intention is to preserve such material as throws a light on contem- P°rarY literary and social- history, and I confess I never dreamed that anyone would think otherwise. I his intention, excellently conceived, isbeing•admir- a,bly executed, and historians a century hence will have cause to be grateful to such colledtors as _Chancellor Harry H. Ransom, of the University of Texas (if I may name one to represent many).
KENNETH HOPKINS
7'4'0 Trees, Nettlestone, Seaview, Isle of Wight
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