165 Broadway 
                                New York 6
 
                                               June 6, 1946
 
Dear Mr. Koons:
 
       Confirming our telephone conversation of today, t should 
like very much to get an early decision from the executors about 
the project which I have in mind of octopi!ring and editing the 
final volumes of the Public Papers and Addresses of the late 
President Roosevelt.
 
       The reason I request an early decision is that the man 
who assisted me in preparing some of the previous volumes has 
Just recently been discharged from the Army, and is going to be 
free until he goes hack to teaching in the fall. I think that the 
bulk of the work might be dons, therefore, during this summer.
 
       As I stated to you, I have come to the conclusion that no 
press conferences should be included in the next volumes. The 
reason for this conclusion is that it would be
difficult to follow President Roosevelt's custom in the
past with respect to these conferences. Shortly before the
date of publication, the late President had all the press
conferences which were to be included mimeographed and
distributed to the White House correspondents. In this way,
the White House reporters had all the press conferences
before they were actually publised. I think it would be too
complicated to attempt to do that with the next volumes
because the question would arise as to whether the Estate
of Franklin D. Roosevelt or some agency of the Federal
Government should take such action. Omitting the press
conferences would simplify matters and would not affect the
continuity too much, since only a very small number were
ever included in any of the volumes.
 
       All the other Presidential documents which I intend to have 
published are already in the pubic domain.
 
       The introductions and explanatory notes would of course be 
my own work. Care would be taken to indicate on the cover and on 
the inside of the volumes that the introductions and explanatory 
notes were by me rather than by the late President Roosevelt.
 
       I should like to use the same format as in the past merely 
in order to have continuity of design and make the complete set of 
Public Papers uniform. I think that the copyright does not cover 
the format but that the Macmillan Company, if it decided to do the 
publishing, would be entitled to use the same format as it did in 
the last four volumes. At any rate it is not essential that the 
format be the same, even though it would be preferable.
 
      Of course if the Estate plans to do this work itself, 
should not wish to undertake to do it in competition.
However, if the Estate