Author: Mitchell, Burroughs. (d. 1979). Editor-in-Chief at Charles Scribner's Sons.
Title: Supportive Typed Rejection Letter to Author John Hyde Preston Signed by Burroughs Mitchell, Editor-in-Chief of Charles Scribner's Sons.
Description: New York: July 10, 1952. 1952. - Typed letter filling one side of an approximately 11-inch high by 8-12 inch wide sheet of Charles Scribner's Sons letterhead. Signed "Burroughs Mitchell". The top left corner is creased & there is some very light staining to the blank space below the letter. Folded 5 times for mailing. Very good.

Mitchell writes a respectful and considerate letter to historical fiction author John Hyde Preston, rejecting his novel "The Stations of Power": "This letter will bring you a very grave disappointment. It is a hard letter for me to write..Four editors besides myself had familiarized themselves with your novel..You know that I was impressed by 'The Stations of Power". I should try to tell you, I think, in what way my colleagues found it less impressive. For them, by and large, the characters were stated, written about, rather than realized. The characters did not become immediate and vivid and so the narrative was not absorbing."

Burroughs Mitchell [d. 1979] began his career as as a pulp magazine editor. After serving in the navy in World War II, he decided he wanted to work in a more serious literary field. Since Charles Scribner's had published a book by his father, edited by the legendary Max Perkins, Mitchell went to see Perkins who hired him in 1946. He remained at Scribner's until his retirement in 1977, working with such authors as James Jones, C. P. Snow, Pamela Hansford Johnson and Robert Creeley. This excellent letter illustrates Mitchell's sustaining faith in the writers he worked with and his vision of the editor's role: "Editorial work does require imagination--the imagination to see the contours of a book with something close to the author's vision. The capacity to do that makes the editor a valuable ally for any writer. Very good .

Keywords: PUBLISHING; AMERICAN EDITOR; CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS; BURROUGHS MITCHELL; TYPED LETTER SIGNED; TLS; T.L. S; SIGNATURE; AUTOGRAPH; REJECTION LETTER TO JOHN HYDE PRESTON.

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