“Seth material” search engine (Jane Roberts)

(I was painting in my studio, took a break, and went down to our front mailbox and picked up the mail. Upon reading the card I felt it out of the ordinary, more than a mere acknowledgment. I went back to work. From my studio I could look down at Jane and the others, but I did not tell her the mail had arrived. I did not do so because I remembered a dream Jane had had recently, in which I had picked up the mail, then teased her about an optimistic letter from a publisher, concerning the dream book. The thought had crossed my mind that by deliberately waving the card at her from my second-floor studio window, I could almost make that part of that dream come true.

(Jane was sunning herself in the backyard when the mail arrived at about 2:40 PM, and from her position could not see the mailman come or go. She of course knows that our mail usually arrives around 3 PM. She was in the company of two young women, one of whom lives in the apartment beneath us.

(We estimate Parker had the book script in hand on Monday, June 23. Their card was written and mailed on June 27, Thursday, giving someone there three days to read the script, perhaps make some sort of evaluation, etc. Note that their response gave both of us the feeling that something unusual was involved. A little later, handling the card perhaps half an hour after giving the impressions, Jane said she got nothing unusual from it; it seemed like ordinary mail, that is.

[...] Your mail will grow heavier, particularly if people cannot reach you by phone. If you have an unlisted number, then your only contact with the people will be by mail. [...] Particularly if your phone is unlisted, the mail should be acknowledged at least.

[...] I suggest now, however, that you have an unlisted number—but also follow the recommendations concerning mail.

[...] I worked on mail. [...]

[...] Mail. [...]

[...] I worked with mail, and suggested to Jane that she have a session before the parade into 330 began, to check her vitals.)

(Going through the mail was rewarding, though — for in various letters I found checks adding up to more than $375. [...] Now when a batch of mail arrives I have to open the letters at once to see if money has been sent. [...]

(I’d just gotten yesterday’s mail sorted out this morning when another, lesser batch arrived today, both from Prentice-Hall and independently.

(“Our sales have increased but our mail has dropped off quite a bit. [...] I’m wondering whether there’s any connection, or whether the mail thing has taken place for other reasons.”)

[...] Seth’s news about the reasons for the slackening mail fit in with some of our own speculations. I suggested to Jane that we try an experiment: we’d start concentrating on more mail reaching us, as we are doing now on her physical condition and increased sales, and see what happens.

For one thing, Ruburt sent out messages that he had enough mail for a while. [...]

[...] A package was mailed to F. Fell on February 10. [...] Also, the tape was mailed to F. Fell on February 10 in a separate package.

[...] I was seeing however the January 25 letter Ruburt wrote, and was trying to get across the idea of a book to be mailed out. There was some small discussion, if you recall, when it was mailed, as to whether or not twine should be used.

[...] This took place not on January 25, however, but on February 10, when the manuscript on the Seth material and the poetry book were mailed together. But Jane wrote letter #4, concerning the Seth material, on January 25. [...] This was also mailed February 10. [...]

[...] I worked on Dreams this morning, and mailed our letters to Maude Cardwell on my way to the hospital this noon. [...]

[...] I worked on mail.

[...] She had another cigarette while I did mail. [...]

(“I believe the item came through the mail, or is connected with mail.” [...] The item being a postcard and coming to us through the mail on July 12,1966.

I believe the item came through the mail, or is connected with mail. [...]

[...] At first glance it might be taken either for June or July, but from other records we keep we were able to verify to our satisfaction that Barbara mailed the card to us in July 1966.

(A note: I haven’t answered fan mail since bringing Jane home from the hospital on March 28, and already it is beginning to pile up. [...] Since returning to the house, though, I’ve had absolutely no time at all for the mail, and have stopped answering it except for business and an occasional exceptional letter, or a request for a visit, etc. [...] Now the mail has retreated way into the background, even though I don’t forget what it means, that we get such a response from what we do, and that each of those writers is sincere, and in my opinion deserving of an answer. [...]

(Sue Watkins has offered to help with the mail, but I don’t know what to do —guess I’m afraid that once it’s out of our house and hands the situation would turn into a mess. [...] One option we’ve considered is having a temporary postcard printed up referring to our hassles with Jane’s illness, that we can’t answer mail at this time except to say thanks, and that later we may be able to. [...]

[...] I’d forgotten to stick new mail in my envelope to work on this afternoon, though I did find a couple of other letters I’d forgotten. “If I didn’t live so far from the hospital, [three miles] I’d go back and get some mail,” I said in frustration. [...]

[...] This morning I worked on Christmas mail and finished marking Chapter 5 of Dreams for the printer.

(Note that Seth didn’t continue with his material on the mail, which he began in answer to my question on July 26. [...] In that last session I meant to add the thought that we may have to dispense with answering much of the mail. [...] The mail would have to go, at least until she’d resolved such an issue. [...] She’s been very rigorous in answering the mail for a number of years, and my thought at the moment at least is that it—the mail—might be more of a time bomb than we realized in that respect.

[...] One of the topics was the mail. [...]

(However, I told her we might have to dispense with answering the mail if no other relief is obtained—anything to cut down on the feeling of responsibility. [...]

(Pause.) Your mail presents you with glimpses of the people who read our books, from all walks of life, in all circumstances. [...]

(One of Jane’s chores Tuesday, not on the list but performed along with the listed items, was to mail a package to Sarah Bernard, who along with her husband visited us from North Carolina over last weekend. [...] Jane had made her own list of errands to run Tuesday, and this included a visit to the post office to buy stamps, as well as mail the package. [...]

[...] One item of similarity showing up on both lists is the “cash check" data, referring to a check I had received for a painting recently….The mail package data on Jane’s list refers to the errand package discussed on page 195 under the Florida data. [...]

[...] This is referred to on Jane’s list under the mail package data; Jane did this on the same trip downtown during which she ran the errands listed on my list, used as envelope objects.

[...] She finished at 2:55 while I answered some mail.

[...] I did mail. [...]

[...] More head and shoulder motions, side to side; mail. [...]

Your ideas about mail are excellent, and could not come until each of you had some faith in others, for before you would not trust mail to class.

[...] She dozed or napped several times while I sat beside her, working with mail. [...]

[...] I worked on mail. [...]

[...] I answered some mail, and told Jane I’d have a session any time she wanted one. [...]

(I also told Jane that in a batch of fan mail that had been temporarily lost, I found a note from my dentist’s secretary and nurse, Babs, changing the date of my appointment from Feb. [...]

[...] I told Jane that if she’d had her regular session yesterday in 330, so that I was busy typing it last night, I wouldn’t have found Babs’s note, because I wouldn’t have had the extra time after supper to go through fan mail, clean out the paper bag I carry to the hospital each day, and so on. [...]

[...] I tried to do some mail, but didn’t get far. [...]

[...] I’d tried to counter the worries while working this morning, and had succeeded at times, but the concerns bugged me; each day I look for word in the mail, but it never comes. [...]

[...] I worked on mail. [...]

(The time went fast as I worked with the mail. [...]

(I worked on answering Christmas cards for half an hour after breakfast, and will have to adopt some sort of system like that to get caught up on the fan mail. [...]

[...] I looked at mail but didn’t accomplish anything.)

(Jane can’t know it yet, but in the mail tonight was another letter from Maude Cardwell, containing some $620 in checks for her hospital fund. [...]

[...] The object is a card, blank on the reverse side, written to Jane by Caroline Keck, conservator of the Brooklyn Museum; it was mailed to Jane in early August, along with a copy of the book, Is Your Contemporary Painting More Temporary Than You Think? [...]

(The equalization, Jane believes, refers to the book by Louis Pomerantz, that along with the object and the mimeographed list were mailed to her by Caroline Keck from Brooklyn, NY, in August 1964. [...]

[...] It is a card, but is not stamped; instead of being mailed alone it was enclosed in a small package or envelope with Louis Pomerantz’s book and the mimeographed list described earlier; and all addressed to Jane.