TLS: Tuesday, January 21, 1919

West Point Pleasant, N.J.
January 21, 1919.

My dear Mr. Madden:

Your letter of the 20th reached me this morning. I am enclosing herewith the Lewis and Gordon agreement for the four plays which they took over from the Washington Square Players. You will see that it is the famous iron-clad W.S.P. contract for which I believe you told me you were responsible. Eddy Goodman, as you will notice, in a fit of absent-mindedness signed my name to the agreement instead of his own; of course, this is immaterial as an appeal to Eddy could always clear this up. I never noticed it until recently when I was looking it over.

As for Mr. Weil, I merely sent him four plays which he was to consider, but he has not definitely stated he would take any of them. I haven't heard from him in three weeks or so. His scheme appeared to me to be very much in the dream stage and I only shipped him the plays on the slight chance that there might be something in it. He claimed to have Arnold Daly and Mme. Agulia, the Sicilian actress, for his stars in the undertaking but has since acknowledged that Daly slipped though his fingers. In the meantime, he said, the project will have to hang fire until he grabs another male star of like magnitude with Daly. It all sounds fishy. The plays I sent him were: "Bound East For Cardiff" which the Greenwich Village Theatre forfeited through failure to produce in the time specified in my agreement with them; "Before Breakfast", my own property; "Where The Cross Is Made", a new play produced by the P.P. on their opening bill this fall; and "The Long Voyage Home", one of the plays mentioned in the W.S.P. - L and G contract but never produced.

You do not mention Williams in your letter. Did you manage to get to see him? He is a hard man to connect with, my experience has taught me. His time to decide is growing short, isn't it? I haven't got back a copy of "Beyond The Horizon" yet although I have written asking for its return. If Williams lets the play slip he will have to hand over his copy to you, will he not?

With very best regards,

Very sincerely yours,

Eugene G. O'Neill.