I found this letter on a few different blogs. It’s a response from Edgar Rice Burroughs to a fan letter written to him by Forrest Ackerman (who, if you are unfamiliar, was a film historian, sci-fi fan extraordinaire, and founder of ‘Famous Monsters of Filmland’ magazine).

Mr. Burroughs provides a wonderfully concise statement of the philosophy of the working writer. It is one that anyone who aspires to the craft would do well to consider carefully.

As yet I have read two of Mr. Burrough’s books: A Princess of Mars and Tarzan of the Apes, and I found both of them to be, as he said, good, clean literature with probably more real wisdom and uplifting values than half the ‘important’ novels ever written.