The Correspondence of, and to, Charles Hoy Fort

Fort to Dreiser

27 August 1916

N.Y. Aug. 27. ‘16.

High-sprinter of Raciness:

I asked you for advice, and you gave me silence. This is the only sound philosophy Hereafter I am going to publish only silences, myself. Only nothingness can be Truth.

A great longing was upon me. I asked you - what should I do to be lewd? There can be no literary excellence if one be not obscene.

But:

We can desire only that which at the time of desiring. We already have.

And your clipping came to me just as I was beginning the Kaspar Hauser chapters of "Y."

I was mentioning his legs. You know I make a point of his inability to walk. On pages 412 - 414 - 418 - 419 - 421 - 423 - 427 - 429 I have mentioned legs.

But I have not called them "limbs."

And I too am of the elect.

C.F.

Courtesy of the Theodore Dreiser Papers, Rare Book & Manuscript Library, University of Pennsylvania.

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