Typed Letter, signed ("Kate") to New York editor David G. Hartwell, 8 April 1986, requesting his editorial opinion on copyright infringement of her novel Oh Susannah! by the film Desperately Seeking Susan and the novelization of the screenplay

One page, dot-matrix output, 35 lines, signed in ink at bottom. 2 vols. 8vo. Choice letter from American Kate Wilhelm (1928-2008), author of Hugo award winning novel Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang (1976), to New York science fiction editor David G. Hartwell. Wilhelms gives news of recent science fiction events and then sounds him out as a prospective expert witness for litigation concerning possible copyright infringement of her novel Oh Susannah! (1982) by the film Desperately Seeking Susan (1985), which was pop star MAdonna's screen debut, and the novelization. "Right now we're interested in having you comment on the novelization and my novel . I guess what I really need is to know if you as an editor had published my novel, is there a point where you would reject the novelization of the movie on the grounds that it's too similar? Plus, of course, anything else you care to comment on." The letter is annotated with points of comparison, includign name, amnesia, story/plot topics, prody of middle class consumerism, "Susan/Roberta as 'split' for Susannah/ Jane Doe" Wilhelm, who later wrote Death Qualified, a Mystery of Chaos (1991) and was named to the Science Fiction Hall of Fame in 2003, pursued an action against the film's prdocuers and writers in 1987. With fine copies of the two books in question: Wilhelm's Oh Susannah! (Houghton Mifflin, 1980), and Desperately Seeking Susan The Novel by Susan Dworkin based on a screenplay by Leora Barish (harmony Books, 1985). Old fold, annotated on verso with 9 points of comparison, minor toning, fine. Books fine One page, dot-matrix output, 35 lines, signed in ink at bottom. 2 vols. 8vo. …