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SIDNEY HOWARD
157 EAST 82ND STREET
NEW YORK
May 28th, 1934.
My dear Mrs. Lazear,
On my return from Europe I find your letter waiting
for me. I have the story of the episode of Dean's infection
from several sources, all of which agree on it. You can read
it in detail in Dr. Agramonte's pamphlet called, as I remember,
"The Inside Story of a Great Medical Experiment." I have that
pamphlet in photostat copy and will be glad to send it to you
if I can find it and if you care to see it, though I am sure
you can see it in any good medical library. The only liberty
I took with the scene was to add Dr. Finlay to it. The play is to be published on or about the first of
June and I shall have a copy sent to you. You may well find it
a most unsympathetic piece of work, because I have not made any
attempt at drawing portraits of the originals insofar as their
personal characteristics, appearance or habits of speech are
concerned. If you will reflect you will realize that I should
have failed had I attempted to do so. No one can tell an
outsider what any individual whom the outsider has not known
was really like. It is a problem which has not come up before
in the writing of historical plays because I do not know another
historical play of which it can be said that the characters of
the play and their friends and relatives both lived on into the
time of the play's production. I suppose that your letter has reference to some
notices of which I have heard (I sailed from New York immediately
after the production and am therefore out of touch with most of
what has been written about the play) but I can assure you that
the play and the characters, notably your husband, made a very
profound impression upon a great number of people. Robert Keith,
who played Dr. Lazear on the stage, brought to his playing the
finest reverence and enthusiasm I have ever seen in an actor. Faithfully yours,
Sidney Howard
. Mrs. Jesse W. Lazear.
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