/ to William Carlos Williams /<br > 24 West Ninth Street<br > New York， N.Y.<br > [July] 1920<br >My dear Dr. Williams，1<br >Your article was forwarded to me from Earley [Massachusetts]. My<br >family， immediately authority-stamp[ing] John as a maniac， made a<br >concerted effort to back up authority with the result that all com-<br >munication between John and myself has been cut off. The medical<br >director at Matteawan in numerous letters has assured me that John<br >is decidedly insane and of marked criminal tendencies. -So it was<br >good to know that you feel what I feel for him， and that you have<br >tried as I have tried， to make the word he wishes to say articulate.<br > Write to John. Tell him， as well as you can in a letter which will<br >be read by various people before it reaches him， that because of<br >the thing he knows endurance can become the long reality. Tell him<br >that there are sources undiscovered and not yet spilled out.<br > And see him， Dr. Williams. I work， and cannot for some weeks.<br >Write him in any case.<br > When you hear from him remember that I have not heard.<br > Very truly yours，<br > Louise Bogan<br >1. LB was a month away from her twenty-third birthday when she wrote to the<br >poet and physician William Carlos Williams. Under discussion is John Coffey， a<br >young Irishman who， so he claimed， thought to call attention to the needs of the<br >poor by shoplifting (his specialty was furs) and then， in court， with attendant pub-<br >lieity， testi~ing to their plight. The plan went awry: having told the police of his<br >long-term， sueeesshil thefts， he was sent not to court but to Matteawan， an insane<br >asylum. With typical generosity， Williams wrote a somewhat opaque article for The<br >Freeman in support of Coffey， and a poem， "An Early Martyr，" not published until<br >1935.<br >/ to Harriet Monroe /<br > 155 Lake Avenue<br > Worcester， Massachusetts<br > July 23， 1921<br >My dear Harriet Monroe，1<br >Beginning and End，2 is， I think， the title for the group you suggest，<br >