Typed Note Signed / Typed Manuscript Signed

This newspaper journalist turned novelist and magazine writer authored "Almanzar" (1918), "The Chinese Label" (1920) and "The Road to San Jacinto" (1936) before becoming director of the Texas Writer's Project of the federal Works Project Administration during the Depression, in which capacity he largely authored the 1940 "Texas: A Guide to the Lone Star State"; not to be confused with other Texas writers whose names begin with "J. Frank" (Dobie, Norfleet, Norris). Two items: First, a TNS, 1p, 7¼" X 10½", San Antonio, Texas, 1923 January 9. Addressed to Albert Johannsen (1871-1962), a University of Chicago geology professor who authored "The House of Beadle and Adams and Its Dime and Nickel Novels" (1950), the definitive reference work on the subject. Fine. In response to a request for a working manuscript page, Davis notes: "The short story whose first page it is was scheduled, the last I heard, for publication in Hearst's International in the February number, which will be out about the twentieth of this month....." Boldly signed. Second, a TMS, 1p, 8½" X 11", San Antonio, Texas, 1923 January. Near fine. Titled "Daniel Five Times," this neat double spaced typescript opens with, "Colonel Rebel Lee Singleton, whose name places his birth as not later than Reconstruction Days, came out through the main doorway of the Federal Building to face across the palm-ornamented expanse of Alamo Plaza, and paused on the upper step as he observed a haphazard meeting of friends on the sidewalk below him and not ten yards away...." Several small minor pencilled corrections. Across the top, he has inscribed and signed boldly in black fountain pen: "For Mr. Albert Johannsen, with the good wishes of J. Frank Davis," along with place and date. An attractive and unusual pair. Accompanied by Johannsen's original 8½" X 11" file folder, bearing a printed "Collection of Albert Johannsen" label (partly filled in by Johannsen).