mad in pursuit: letters from james & orpha, summer of '26

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James is clearly still caught up in his Bohemian vision of a cozy but impoverished future. The idea of starting on their very own house galvanizes him.

Postmarked Tuesday 7.13.26, from James in Lynbrook NY

A picture (idealized) and floor plans of the Regent are enclosed. What do you quote, by which I mean pipe up now or forever hold your peace, by which I mean that if you react favorably, and the transaction goes through next Friday, I’ll order the plans for the Regent and get Sidney Lily (a colored gent) and his team of horses scooping out the cellar. Let me know at once (1) if you want a house, bearing in animus the privations you will undergo, not only clothes, shows, and terpsichorean revelry, but even a cutting down on the weekly marcel and barber shop treatment – (2) if you do – do you like the Regent, and are you willing to live in it with soap boxes for chairs and floor lamps that hang from the ceiling?

...pipe up now or forever hold your peace...

There’s too much to discuss with you to even begin by this medium, so I’ll let things wait until you come.

Tell me you are coming soon – each day I don’t see how I can live away from you for twelve more hours, and when the twelve hours are up I don’t see how I have lived through them.

Come soon, Orpha-song.

James

 

NOTES

In spite of their saving everything, the plans for the Regent model of his proposed house are nowhere to be found.

 

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