University to reclaim stolen Faulkner note Portland collector bought letter on eBay

PORTLAND – A William Faulkner letter that was purchased over the Internet last month for $1,200 by a Portland collector turned out to have been stolen from Southeast Missouri State University.

To Seth Berner, the short, typewritten note was a remarkable find: One of America’s greatest literary masters was commending producer Lamar Trotti on his most recent work, the 1943 film classic “The Ox-Bow Incident,” starring Henry Fonda.

Portland police Detective Richard Swift notified Berner on Wednesday that the letter had been reported stolen from the university’s collection, where it was kept in a seldom-visited rare-book room that has an alarm.

Berner turned the letter over to police, who plan to return it to the university.

The letter had appeared on eBay, the Internet auction site. The school was alerted to the sale by a dealer who knew it was part of the university collection.

“Had I had any clue whatsoever it might have been stolen, I would have not gotten involved with it,” Berner said. It was the first time he ever bought an item that turned out to have been stolen, he said. He hopes to recover some of his money from the dealer he bought the letter from, who guaranteed it.

According to information provided Portland police, the only people to view the collection outside the curator and library director were a scholar from Japan and a traveling salesman who signed in as

R. Smith when he viewed the collection Sept. 27. The library does not suspect the Japanese scholar.

The dealer selling the letter said he acquired it from a grocery clerk who said he inherited it from his grandmother’s estate, police said.

Berner, who has a business that specializes in rare and collectible books and writings, was thrilled to add the letter to his collection, which he keeps in a safe-deposit box.

The signed letter says in part: “I have just seen the Oxbow Incident. It is a good, sound, solid, job, but the dignity of the result, the picture itself, should be enough reward for yours and Mr. Wellman’s and Mr. Fonda’s taste and restraint, without encomiums and gratulations from outside.”

“Faulkner was commenting on the relationship between an artist and his art. That’s always interesting coming from someone who is himself an artist,” Berner said, noting that few of the author’s letters become available to collectors.

“It’s a really shining statement about what art means, made by somebody who made as striking a contribution to literary art as anyone in American letters,” he said.