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Dear friend,
18 June 1909, Vienna, IX. Berggasse 19
Your being invited to America is the best thing that has happened to us since Salzburg; it gives me enormous pleasure for the most selfish reasons, though also, to be sure, because it shows what prestige you have already gained at your age. Such a beginning will take you far, and a certain amount of favour on the part of men and fate is a very good thing for one who aspires to perform great deeds.
Of course your joy is now beginning to be clouded by the same concerns as mine, culminating in the question: What am I to say to those people? On this score I have a saving idea, which I shall not keep secret from you. Here it is: we can think about it on shipboard, on our long walks round the deck. Otherwise I can only refer you to the astute observation with which you yourself recently allayed my misgivings: that the invitation is the main thing, that the audience is now at our mercy, under obligation to applaud whatever we bring them.
A most gratifying detail is that you too are sailing on the G. Washington. We shall both be very nice to Ferenczi.
About Marcinowski I can set your mind at rest. He is a good, sincere man, his letters to me (which I may also enclose) are not lacking in warmth. If parts of his letter to you sound wooden, I think it is because the letter was dictated; his other communications give off a fine metallic ring. Perhaps he is a bit of a loner, which is explained by his difficult beginnings. In the matter he raises I don't disagree with him; long analyses like that of Little Hans or of Binswanger's Irma1 can easily become boring and lead the reader to resist their impact by not reading them. Essentially, after all, the Jahrbuch is not only by us but also for us, for our mutual edification. Short papers dispersed meander-like among all manner of publications in many different places can really exert a good deal of influence on outsiders. I am sure M. will not decline to contribute to the Jahrbuch w