WCP3531

[1]

Old Orchard,

Broadstone,

Wimborne.

July 10th 1911

Upton Sinclair¹ Esq,

Dear Sir

I have only recently found time to read your new book — "Love's Pilgrimage"² — which you say cannot be issued in England "on account of the Police". I am not at all surprised at it. The first 20-30 pages would cause wary people to throw the book down. And some, who went on, when they came to that horribly [2] detailed description of an excessively long & painful child-birth, would probably burn the book, while others would actually be made ill by it. And the long, drawn out, mental and physical suffering of the young, enthusiastic genius, is almost as painful. Yet the book is full of true & beautiful writing — you have such power, such true poetic [[3] feeling & poetic genius that I regret to see it devoted to such a mass of repulsion and misleading details. For the 30 hours "labour" is wholly unnatural, wholly the product of civilisation! The "confinements" of the natural & truly healthy woman, are rapid and comparatively painless. The ordinary Indian woman often brings her child into the world "on the trail" — She goes aside, sends word to the Chief, who calls a halt — a woman friend [4] goes with her, & often in half an hour, the birth is over, and she resumes her march carrying her child with her! You put before the readers a horrible travesty of the natural "birth" — & leave them to conclude that it is normal, that it is the penalty of sex!

To do this is, in my opinion to degrade & debase art, which should elevate ^and refine, be restful and enjoyable. Would you like to see what you describe, realistically painted and exhibited in our public galleries, for our wives & daughters to gaze upon?

Yours with regret | Alfred R. Wallace [signature]

Mark Twain’s description of Eve's first labour, — and that in the "Blue Lagoon" are nearer to nature than yours!³