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On May 13, 1939, publication of "Bow Wow." The New Yorker, Pal Joey. Files on Parade.

Pal Joey is in Chicago. He writes to Friend Ted:

"Well this is the first time I wrote since I bo't Skippy that name of my dog and it is wonderful what they can do. They give you the courage to continue when things look bad."
....
"I never had any interest in dogs and never considered owning one and thought they were a nusaince especially in towns. But I saw this mouse standing there bent over and talking to one of the dogs in the window of the shop. She was about twenty and I didn't care if she had a face out of the Zoo but spring was in the air and this mouse had a shape that you don't see only on the second Tuesday of every week and when you so see a shape like that you have to do something about it. So I stopped and feined an interest in the dog kingdom and cased the mouse and got a look at her kisser. Well it fitted in with the rest of the body. Not pretty but cute."
....
Her sister and bro. in-law are going away after the week-end after next and we will have the ap't all to ourselves. It's about time but I had to be patient as she said she wanted to be sure first, but a man with such a love and affection for dogs was a man you could trust."
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On May 13, 1962 John O'Hara's mother, Katherine Delaney O'Hara died at age eight-three. The familty buried her in Pottsville, and that was John O'Hara's next to last visit to his home town.
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On May 13, 1970 Random House held a memorial for John O'Hara. Bennett Cerf described him as the "most generally unappreciated author in American literary history," and ranked him with Hemingway, Fitzgerald and Faulkner. From Matthew Bruccoli, The O'Hara Concern, page 339.



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