Transcription:
Mr John Muir 4 p 4. I am wasting my illegible time, as I can do nothing while travelling. We will talk over plans for
the book when we meet. I hope to have it beautifully printed - Notes are necessary; Dante cannot be understood without them:
yet I take no interest in them. If or when, I get the partie? illegible problem solved, I can take up? the notes as task-work.
I sometimes think of publishing without notes, as there are many, many editions with good notes, to which any one really interested
can refer. But probably the omission of notes would deprive me of many readers; and, after all, I am doing this for my countrymen
and don't want to furnish them with an excuse for not buying my book. Yours with reverent affection, Melville B. Anderson