Gertrude Stein writing to Sherwood Anderson

"It happened that your envelope having just come was lying on the table and Balthus, perhaps one of the most interesting of the young painters and who is also passing winters and summers not far from us had bicycled over, and he said, what a nice handwriting. It is Sherwood Anderson I said, well said Balthus meditatively he is the one I like and admire most of all the American writers, he is the only one that has the real America in him, I have read them all and perhaps I like Many Marriages best, and so we talked about you a long time and he hopes to meet you, you probably have heard of him."

~~ from a letter from Gertrude Stein to Sherwood Anderson a few months before Anderson passed on

Dear [Gertrude Stein]

Dear Friend--

I am roaming about the country lecturing--getting money to pay for my farm and build a house on it.

Mrs. A[nderson] came to Cincinnati and told me your book had come. I'm glad. Wish I were at home. Will write you when I do get there.

At Pittsburgh yesterday I heard of a young instructor who almost lost his job because he cares for your books.

My new novel is selling. We are coming to Paris next fall--sure.

Every place I go someone corners me and says--"For God sake explain Gertrude Stein." I grin and back away.

Love to Hemingways,

Sherwood Anderson.

~~ from Sherwood Anderson / Gertrude Stein: Correspondence and Personal Essays
     (edited by Ray Lewis White)