"Criticism in the New York Times has always
seemed to me to be negligible. I had not
realized before the publication of Professor
Matthiessen's piece that whether what the Times
prints is negligible or not it makes a great deal
of difference that the Times prints it. Moreover,
I had not realized before I saw your clippings that
the idea there was anything queer about writing
poetry and being in business at the same time
was anything more than an American attitude..."

Wallace Stevens
To Barbara Church
Hartford, Conn.
July 17, 1947.