It really needed an editor. The amount of inconsequential and trivial detail that is packed in here is astounding, including accounting to the penny of his receipts of royalties from various book sales and even his income tax situation. It really shows his ego that he felt that this kind of information was historically important enough that he needed such a thorough accounting of everything he ever did. It is readily apparent that he had moved on from actually typing manuscripts at this point and was using a secretary to transcribe his copious ramblings.
That being said, it is also chocked full of fascinating insider stories and anecdotes about the literary and publishing heavyweights of his days. He has countless unbelievably amazing stories about going to speakeasies and quaffing bootleg hooch at parties with literary luminaries like F. Scott Fitzgerald, Willa Cather, Theodore Dreiser, etc. It's no wonder that he required this manuscript to be kept locked up until many years after his death--he has a lot of hilarious and potentially embarrassing inside dirt on a lot of folks and he pulls no punches.
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Night_owl_blunt
It really needed an editor. The amount of inconsequential and trivial detail that is packed in here is astounding, including accounting to the penny of his receipts of royalties from various book sales and even his income tax situation. It really shows his ego that he felt that this kind of information was historically important enough that he needed such a thorough accounting of everything he ever did. It is readily apparent that he had moved on from actually typing manuscripts at this point and was using a secretary to transcribe his copious ramblings. That being said, it is also chocked full of fascinating insider stories and anecdotes about the literary and publishing heavyweights of his days. He has countless unbelievably amazing stories about going to speakeasies and quaffing bootleg hooch at parties with literary luminaries like F. Scott Fitzgerald, Willa Cather, Theodore Dreiser, etc. It's no wonder that he required this manuscript to be kept locked up until many years after his death--he has a lot of hilarious and potentially embarrassing inside dirt on a lot of folks and he pulls no punches.
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