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Elizabeth McCausland 50 COMMERCE STREET, NEW YORK 14, N.Y. December 31, 1957 Miss Tay Hohoff Editor, New York Office J.B. Lippincott Company 521 Fifth Avenue New York 17, N.Y. Dear Tay: Your letter of the 26th came as a surprise. [[strikethrough]] Its import, if it was not so silly, would be very funny. [[/strikethrough]] I don't need to tell you that mutilations or defacements, if they exist, [[strikethrough]] would [[/strikethrough]] were not made at my instance. Nothing is more abhorrent to the professional historical conscience of the scholar than to interfere with the truth, whether in the physical corpus of documents or in the use of them by quotation, direct or indirect. Usually, unfortunately, when source materials like the Henri have been bowdlerized, it is at the hands of family or friends, from well-meaning if misguided motives. The markings which you inform me Violet Organ described to her letter you were not noticeable when I used the files. [[strikethrough]] How they could have occurred, if they did, is a mystery to me.[[/strikethrough]] However, with Violet's knowledge and consent, I did edit and annotate the typescript which she originally submitted to Lippincott. Could the reference be to this? As for missing pages from the diaries, I have check my files very thoroughly [[strikethrough]] again [[/strikethrough]] and [[strikethrough]] have [[/strikethrough]] find nothing to do with the Henri book except some notes of my own and correspondence. In a few cases, when it was possible to ascribe dates, I penciled them in lightly with a soft pencil, in square brackets [ ], as is standard bibliographical practice. I am at a loss to understand how anything could have happened to the materials; but I assure you that if it did happen, it is none of my doing. With best wishes for 1958 and affectionate regards, Sincerely yours Elizabeth [[stamped]] McCAUSLAND Archives of American Art [[/stamped]] Watkins 4-3122
