Lot 138: LOUIS V LEDOUX - Poet

Louis V. Ledoux (1880-1948) was an American poet and author whose works include George Edward Woodberry: a Study of his Poetry (1917), The Story of Eleusis: a Lyrical Drama (1916), and An Essay on Japanese Prints (1938). He was a recognized authority on Japanese prints. Ledoux was also a businessman - president of Ledoux & Company, his family's mining exploration and assaying firm in New York, and a collector of manuscripts. OFFERED HERE: Autograph letter signed, 3 pages, approx. 6 x 4 in. Very good condition, to Mrs. Spaulding, Oct. 4, 1916, tipped along the back left edge by a thin strip of brown paper tape to a thin piece album page. The handwriting is unique & hard to read but mostly decipherable upon study. RE: Le Doux is responding to a request for a donation of some of his books for a Bazaar {the name of which I can't decipher]. "I may be able to get for you one or two things by others and could readily furnish a long list of names and addresses for I happen to be in touch with most of the verse writers in the country. A better way to handle the thing, however, would be this: get your committee to write the leading publishers asking them to release a certain number without charge. The authors would be delighted to sign these but some would be . by the necessity of buying their own books as literary men are proverbially poor and the publishers get often up to 90% percent of the profit on sales. Some of course would give gladly to the . . and these could be gotten - especially the ones you don't want by publishing an appeal in the Transcript, the Chicago Post, the N.Y. Times Book Revue and the Poetry Review, 12 Chauncey St.Cambridge. You see I am thinking chiefly of the poets, popular novelists and illustrators. their signatures would have a greater commercial value. The authors club tried the scheme for some cause last year and did not make very much. Only genuine celebrities really comma nd a good price. All this sounds very pessimistic but there are a few people I could write to if you would like to have me do so.."

VG