The Correspondent
Mr. George Lucas
℅ LucasFilm Ltd.
Letterman Digital Arts Center
Dear Mr. Lucas,
I hope this letter finds you in good health.
Typically when writing a letter to a celebrity I have a great deal to say, but in this case I find myself at a bit of a disadvantage because I have never seen the Star Wars movies.
I feel foolish here, knowing they are an American institution, it’s just that I rarely watch television and I don’t enjoy science fiction, but I’m sure your work is very, very good to have rendered you so extremely successful.
I am crossing my fingers that your staff has passed along this message in a bottle I am rather chucking into the Pacific.
I am an old woman and I find myself in a strange situation of hosting a high school-aged boy at my house for a few months.
This child is extremely intelligent, but he is deeply sad.
He is not my grandson, but you might assume he was if you saw us together.
He has come to stay with me in order to convalesce from a suicide attempt (I hope you will keep this sensitive information in confidence), but he is VERY clever.
He’s been accepted to Stanford, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard, and maybe someplace else, and these acceptances are to do with his comprehension in mathematics, I believe.
Getting to my reason for writing: Over the past few years Harry has been working on a book.
As a matter of fact, I think it’s more like he’s been working on creating a world—there are notebooks upon notebooks of information.
He has begun to weave it all together into a story and just this week the boy passed me about 140 pages of material.
I was astounded. I knew he wrote stories, but I didn’t have any idea the scope of the endeavor.
It’s very good, remarkably creative, and with a powerful quality of intrigue really from the first page.
Tremendous. Not being a creative myself, I have nothing to contribute, but I thought of you.
I read an interview you gave several years ago and you seemed lovely, just a regular man talking about raising your children.
I’ve always remembered that, and so I thought I would reach out and see if you might simply write to Harry.
He idolizes your work. Give him a bit of encouragement to keep on with it, you know.
It would be wonderful if you would do that for him (without, of course, it goes without saying, mentioning that I told you he tried to kill himself).
Harry (Landy is his surname) will be here with me until summer, or you can write to him at his home:
98 Dumbarton St. NW
Washington, DC 20007
Thank you very much for your consideration, and with warm regards I write,
Sybil Van Antwerp