Charles E. Burchfield (1893-1967)

April 11, 1958     

Dear John:

Thanks for the birthday greeting. It’s not so bad being 65, for now I have another $600 exemption – ha!

Laurence Schmeckebier of the Syracuse University is still insisting they want to get one of my watercolors for the University collection – so I think they mean business. But he’s going at it at the wrong end. First he wanted to come up here and see what I had at the studio – Bertha quashed that, and then he called on the phone & I was unable to talk since I was coughing – goodness knows I am in no position to discourage a prospective buyer, nor do I want to, but I do think people ought to figure out why an artist has a dealer.

Now I have a letter from him wondering if Bertha could pick out 4 or 5 to send down to the University! So I have written him telling him that I cannot receive buyers in the studio (which is literally true to date) and accordingly I have sent all my finished work to you. I told him I would pass on his re-