Handwritten, from Malcolm MacKay, August 25, 1926, Doubleday will reimburse $6000 for damage to "Jerked Down"; they will fix and sell it.

[1] Aug 25th 26 My dear Mrs. Russell- After considerable wrangling, Doubleday Page Co. have consented to reimburse me $6000 for the damage they did to “Jerked Down” but they in turn proposed to fix ^it^ up and resell it – Now the question I am putting up to you is – Am I foolish to let “Jerked Down” get out of my hands even if it has to be rebacked and pasted and probably repainted a bit by Charlie – to my mind it is one or Charlies masterpieces – in some ways I like it better than some [2] of Charlies late works where he has used a somewhat free-er brush – the canvas has no holes through it but has four bad cracks right through the middle like this [drawn lines] ----- The original canvas seems of poor quality, that is it is thin dry and brittle – but if it is rebacked and fixed up by experts and touched up a bit by Charlie it will be pretty good – On the other hand if you think Charlie can create another picture with as much action and as much beauty of detail and possibly a better one (not necce necessarily a copy, in fact I would rather have it an entirely new subject) why of course I would prefer it- what is your honest to goodness opinion? Hope Charlie is doing fine – Do wish you all could slip down to Columbus and come up to the ranch for a while before we leave on the 7th Sincerely [signed] Malcolm S. MacKay

[Transcribed by Lauren B. Gerfen, 2012-08-22]

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