The Authors League Fund

"My husband suffers from chronic schizophrenia. He has been a violent, mentally sick man since 1973. Our daughter, now 22, cannot remember her father as a well man ...

"I was happily getting my writing career back when I was diagnosed a year ago with early Parkinson's. Last August I tripped over some rotted linoleum in this apartment, fell and wasn't found for 18 hours. I had a month in the hospital. Doctors said I wouldn't walk again: an injured spine, back and neck. My left hand was injured. I have learned to type with one finger.

"I have to pay someone to shop for me ... To clean ... I can only sit comfortably in an armchair ... and I haven't got one ... The portable commode cost $275 ..."

"When one year was up after I had received a loan from you, I started to write you since I had inched my Sisyphus stone up my life hill to a much more acceptable and happier level and felt I was in no danger of it rolling back down. Then I found out that the house I had been living in for twenty years was being sold and I had less than a month to find elsewheres to live.

"I am staying with a friend in a two-bedroom apartment. She has twin ten-year-old sons. Space is non-existent.

"I want to get a place to live forever. I want my own toilet, my own kitchen. These places seem like Nirvanas or heavens, if they happen to be your own. I might be near the end of a long journey. I want to sprout roots from the feet."

"Please consider this an application form for a $100 loan.

"I am indigent, and 65 almost and pressed for time. It is now or never as regards the loan.

"Donald Hall, poet and critic has called me one of the premier poets in the South.

"I have no car, no bank account, no clothes but on my back. My 14th book of poems will be out in November.

"I request a loan of only $100.00 and ask if you find it possible to do this you do it as swiftly as you can. I do hope that you understand, with your long history of literary support, what prompts this candid letter."

"Over New Year's Eve, my husband destroyed everything in my home: walls, furniture, computer. He took everything we had in the bank and cancelled all credit cards. My six-year-old son had to have major dental work this morning, which took all the funds I had left.

"I have always had excellent credit and will repay within the next 2-3 months, once I receive my advance."

"Someone at the Fund was very kind about calling me a year or so ago to see if I needed money. (You knew I had lost the sight of one eye.) ... I am, as you know, 82, and that plus the vision problem slows me way down. My ophthalmologist is delaying removing the cataract in my "good" eye as long as possible, just in case the laser doesn't work - then I would have two blind eyes instead of one.

"I don't mean this to sound like a tale of woe. Except for a severe arthritic back problem that keeps me at home, and the usual angina (now under control), I am basically okay, [but] I am beginning to realize I won't make it. Our landlord jumpted the rent $80 a month all at once, which was a blow. Also the power company and the water company got permission to make big jumps. I would be extremely grateful if I could borrow enough to see me through. Perhaps $2,000?

"If the committee says 'no more,' I shall not be surprised. They have been so good to me in the past, and I know many writers must be hurting for money. Thank you so much for all your past help."