By the way, I'd like to see what you could do in more unsimple meters than the ones that you handle so well. The wish came to me the other day in reading Lanier's "The Marshes of Glynn" and some of his other work. Lanier did not often equal his master, Swinburne, in getting the most out of the method, but he did well in the poem mentioned. Maybe you could manage the dangerous thing. It would be worth doing and is, therefore, worth trying. Thank you for the Moody book, which I will return. He pleaseth me greatly and I could already fill pages with analyses of him for the reasons therefore. But for you to say that he has _you_ "skinned"--that is magnanimity. An excellent thing in poets, I grant you, and a rare one. There is something about him and his book in the current "Atlantic," by May Sinclair, who, I dare say, has never heard of _you_. Unlike you, she thinks his dramatic work the best of what he does. I've not seen that. To be the best it must be mighty good. Yes, poor White's poetry is all you say--and worse, but, faith! he "had it in him." What struck me was his candid apotheosis of piracy on the high seas. I'd hate the fellow who hadn't some sneaking sympathy with that--as Goethe confessed to some sympathy with every vice. Nobody'll ever hear of White, but (pray observe, ambitious bard!) he isn't caring. How wise are the dead! * * * * * My friend Howes, of Galveston, has, I think, nearly finished compiling his book of essaylets from my stuff. Neale has definitely decided to bring out "The Monk and the Hangman's Daughter." He has the plates of my two luckless Putnam books, and is figuring on my "complete works," to be published by subscription. I doubt if he will undertake it right away. _Au reste_, I'm in good health and am growing old not altogether disgracefully. Sincerely yours, AMBROSE BIERCE. [The Army and Navy Club, Washington, October 30, 1906.] DEAR GEORGE, I'm pained by your comments on my book. I always feel that way when praised--"just plunged in a gulf of dark despair" to think that I took no more trouble to make the commendation truer. I shall try harder with the Howes book. * * * * * I can't supply the missing link between pages 101 and 102 of the "Word Book," having destroyed the copy and proofs. Supply it yourself. You err: the book is getting me a little glory, but that will be all--it will have no sale, for it has no slang, no "dialect" and no grinning through a horse-collar. By the, way, please send me any "notices" of it that you may chance to see out there. * * * * * I've done a ghost story for the January "Cosmopolitan," which I think pretty well of. That's all I've done for more than two months. I return your poem and the Moody book. Sincerely yours, AMBROSE BIERCE. [The Army and Navy Club, Washington, December 5, 1906.] DEAR GEORGE,