With two typed letters signed to Miss Fishman with instructions and clarifications regarding his responses to the questionnaire; both letters are on his personal stationery printed "68 Tamalpais Road, Berkeley, California 94708;" the first letter is dated April 11, 1970 and the second letter June 6, 1970.
Responding to a questionnaire concerning American writers and the work they produced in the past five years; naming "Herzog" (Bellow) and "Armies of the Night" (Mailer) as two novels written in the past five years that he feels altered the course of fiction and "The Swimmer" (Cheever) and "Lost in the Fun House" (Barth) as short stories written in the last five years that altered the course of fiction; naming Saul Bellow as the writer whose prose style he most admires and Bellow as the writer to whose work he feels the deepest emotional response; naming James Dickey as the writer whose narrative power is strongest and Malamud as the writer whose execution of character is strongest; citing "Deliverance" (Dickey) as his favorite novel of the past five years and "Report" (Barthelme) as his favorite short story of the past five years.