October 18,1938. Mr. James B. Rankin 423 West 118th St. New York, N.Y. Dear Mr. Rankin: Thank you very much for your letter of May 12th and the kind thoughts you expressed therein. I am looking forward with a great deal of pleasure to getting a copy of your book and I would appreciate having you send me one fresh off the press, inscribed to me, if you will be so good. I do appreciate your giving my name to persons who have Russell material for sale, even though much of the material I find is beyond my means. I believe I wrote you some time ago that I had bought two water colors from Mrs. F.M.N. Russell – one rather large water color is entitled “Return of the Warriors” and one small water color sketch is of the Mexican mounted bandit, or “Rurale”[sic]. The character in this latter is similar to the characters in the grey tone water color in my original six from the Strahorn collection. Another picture I obtained is called “Cowboy Sport – Roping a Wolf.” The size of this painting is 22 x 31, done in oils in black and white treatment only. This picture is one of the very earliest Russell paintings and was done about 40 years ago while he was working on a ranch in Montana for Mr. J.J. Ellis. I believe this picture brings you up to date on all that I have; viz: 6 from the Strahorn collection, 2 water colors from Mrs. Russell and this oil. I will be glad to keep in touch with you and advise you if I am fortunate enough to secure any addtioanl Russell material. In the meantime, I will call Mr. Phipps as you request in your letter and do anything, I can to assist you in gathering the data on the collections of Mrs. Will Rogers and Mrs. E.H.Doheny. Very truly yours, [Transcribed by Lauren B. Gerfen, 2011-10-31]