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Correspondence from Frances Brewer to Philip Kaplan
The Detroit Public Library 5201 Woodward Avenue Detroit 2 Michigan Fairmont 1-0370
Phillip Kaplan 47 - 17 39th Avenue Long Island City 4, New York
August 24, 1961
Dear Mr. Kaplan:
We are sorry to have delayed our answer to your letter of July 1, 1961, in which you offer $20.00 for the Crowley item as described in my letter to you.
We have little time in our crowded schedule to transact business and this is why the matter was not taken care of sooner.
Upon receiving the book and typescript we are sure you will find that some of the material is original and worth more than you anticipated. If you feel that it is worth more than $20.00 we will be glad to accept a larger amount. Personally I know little about prices for Crowley material, and since I am a librarian and not a dealer, I have to trust your judgment in this matter. Upon receipt of the book, which will be shipped to you next week, please send your check to: The Friends of the Detroit Public Library, Inc. and address the envelope to me.
We do hope that you will find the book interesting. By the way, did you see the Crowley article by Francis Dickie in The American Book Collector, vol. 11, no. 9, May 1961, in which Dickie tells bout his encounter with Crowley in Paris? His statements, which must have been published before were contradicted years ago in a book by H. W. Schwartz—This Book Collecting Racket, Chicago, 1937, p. 91, in which Schwartz doubts the truthfulness of Dickie's statements on Crowley. I meant to write to one or both of them, since I read both statements by coincidence in close succession and since it seems strange to find an accusation as to the truth in a book published twenty-four years before publication of a paper, but I did not do anything about it.
We do hope that you are pleased with your purchase.
Sincerely yours,
(Mrs.) Frances J. Brewer, Chief Gifts and Rare Books Division
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