Letter typed on the letterhead of the University of Iowa, Program in Creative Writing, Department of English.
Commenting on the questionnaire saying "I think my main hangup is that five years seems a terribly short time for making judgments like this. Then too, though I have an old and staunch affection for Esquire, I don't think I've ever quite approved of the way it sometimes seems to encourage the playing of the old In-and-Out game with literary reputations -- and that's what I fear I'm contributing to. But even as I write this I can hear Harold Hayes saying "Oh, what the hell; nobody should take it that seriously. So what the hell;" naming William Styron as the writer whose prose style you most admire; naming Brian Moore as the writer whose execution of character is strongest and "The Confessions of Nat Turner" as his favorite novel of the past five years.