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Three pages total. Both letters folded for mailing else fine, housed in a custom black cloth clamshell case with a black morocco label stamped in gilt. Two letters written by Farrell to a New Jersey bookseller (with whom we are acquainted, but who is not us!) about the bookseller's research into the disclaimer in Farrell s novel *Bernard Clare* which provides interesting, if already documented background to the legal wrangling that followed the novel s publication (Farrell's numerous misspellings here corrected in brackets for the sake of clarity): "It seems to me that the bibliographical research that you ve done with regard to the disclaimer in *Bernard Clare* must have been very superficial. *Bernard Clare* was the subject of a well-known libel suit in 1946, the charge of negligence being based on a mere coincidence of names. It came up in the F[e]deral Courts in Minneapolis, and an entire issue of the Minnesota Law Review was devoted [to] the case. The court totally sustained the position of the defendants, the Vanguard Press and myself, and dismissed the charges. The disclaimer was put in after this decision was rendered. And inasmuch as *Bernard Clare* was the first volume of a planned trilogy, my lawyers. advised me that I had fair notice that the plaintiff, Bernard Clare, didn t want his name used, and suggested that I change the name. I did so. calling the character Bernard Carr in the subsequent volumes of the trilogy, and in a paperback reprint of the novel, which was published by the New American Library. The decision on this case was, I believe, the first one in this country to break a precedent in English Common Law, namely that a coincidence of names in a work of literature is grounds of negligence, and therefore, grounds for court action." The second letter, written almost three months later, finds Farrell in a testy mood: "I confess to the fact that I am starting to get very cranky, and that this is a prelude to nastiness with regards to questions. The flow of letters with requests for questions to be answered, and interviews to be granted it [sic] mounting, and threatens to eat into my time, and at my energy." After reiterating some of his earlier points about the *Bernard Clare* case, Farrell remarks unsympathetically on the subject of the tribulations of the rare bookseller: "I suppose that there are trials and headaches in the rare book business. I remain untouched that there are, and in a most material sense and manner. My books, that cost me a lot, become the subject of other peoples speculations and investments, and publishers, who wouldn t reissue them have the [remarkable] lack of tact to write me letters of co[n]gratulation at the prices for which my books sell second hand." A must for the aspiring bookseller who wants to make friends with authors.
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