This is a letter that changed my life and rescued me from despair, and beyond that, it’s a classic Roger Angell letter to an author—the faint embarrassment that they rejected a story and maybe they were wrong (“I don’t know”), the booming praise of the story they accepted (“just about perfect in every way”), the modest suggestion (“If it’s all right with you”) of a few minor changes, and the hope that this is only the beginning. I sat down on the front step of our rented house at 222 30th Avenue North and thought, “Now my life is not entirely wasted.” Roger was a generous letter writer, and I think of him sitting at a typewriter and banging out long, elegant, encouraging letters to far-flung authors. It gave you a big charge to get one.