430. JAMES JONES (1921-1977) American author of From Here to Eternity and The Thin Red Line. Fine content grouping of three T.L.S.'s, two signed in full, one as "Jim", with holograph corrections, 5pp. 4to., Fort Meyers, Feb. 9-26, 1951 to Lafayette Young of The Book Center in San Diego. In the same year he would publish From Here to Eternity, Jones covers a number of topics, including much personal detail. In small part: "...Somebody said somewhere that 'writers don't write for the public,' but that is not strictly true...[they] say that because they were afraid the public wouldn't like what they wrote, but still can't help writing...writers write for anybody...I have been laboring along on this new book...I was just finishing reading 'The Disenchanted', which didn't help my depression. I was wondering my god is that all there is to it? You write a book, it sells, people write you nice letters...you make money, you write another one...the movies might even buy it, there you are. Well, that isn't what I wanted. And wasn't what I wanted. That's not why I tried to write...I might as well have been a good honest sales clerk...[I'd have] got more ass that way...Thanks to my mother, I've never been able to stomach Christianity...I can't believe it in the belly...the religion I needed...I had put all onto writing...[Depression] you keep in the dark of the bedroom of your mind...I don't want to be another Hemingway, and end up like that. I don't want to be another Fitzgerald and end up like that...I don't know what I want to be...I'm not still in the Army. Discharged 1944...Psycho-neurotic...Flip the coin. Life is the only art...I cut the fucks in 'Eternity' from 287 down to about 111, the shits from 150 to about 80. I also rewrote at least six scenes and toned them down for the obscenity lawyer...[Every writer] has his weakness that kills him: Tolstoy: Religion; Fitzgerald: the Twenties; Hemingway: womendrinkfucking; Faulkner: Faulkner; Steinbeck: Proletarianism; Wolfe: 8 lbs. Steaks and rhetoric...Mine is my cock, my whanger...the longer you can live, the more you can savor your masochism..." Much more superb content! First page trimmed, else very good. Sold with an unrelated letter from Lowney Handy to Young mentioning Jones, and a typed copy of The Atlantic's March, 1951 flattering review of From Here to Eternity, apparently typed by Jones and sent to Young. A superlative, insightful archive into this complex author's mind. $500-700