Saturday V-28-60 at 600 AM CDT.
Dear Joshua:
1) The October 1958 issue of the Proceedings National Academy of Sciences happens to contain the last article, by H.O.L Fisher -- who was the eldest son of Emil Fisher. (It is an issue I wish to keep.)  Emily F/you will recall had something to do with making you a NOTORIOUS young American.  But I hasten to add you are so by merit -- and the fact that you selected your parents etc carefully.
I will get you another copy -- to fill the hole -- if it is wanted.  A card is enclosed.
2) H.O.L. Fischer was already known to have a liver ailment when I wrote for his 70th birthday anniversary volume.  Arch for Biochem. etc Dec 1958 issue.  Look it up.  It represents my "sober" mood -- melancholy under wraps.  Whilst I had the assignment for this task since April 1958 -- I did not write till Oct 28-'58 when I had the pulmonary hemorrhage that caused me to lay-up for a while.  (Remember by then you and Esther were celebrities.)  I do not have any reprints of this
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due to a butch in the front office of Biochemistry.  C.A.E. had trained The Barker (Miss Terrio) to be efficient only on his matters.  The galley on this was read by me at Lakeview.  In this past March the terminal stages of the dis-arranged liver cell growth -- brought on H.O.L's death in Los Angeles.  Fortunately I had written him a long letter -- before the drugs took over.
I met H.O.L. Fisher in 1926-27 in Berlin where I was a kind of "academic bum."  And so my last Link with Classical Sugar Chemistry is gone.
Im [sic] sure will approve of a recent decision.  I gave my last lecture on this Campus on IV-29-60 in our S.M.A. building -- Medical School Field Day.*  [* Jim Craw was a captive in the audience.  He had come in the SMA lecture hall to speak on DNA -- RNA -- etc having forgotten that on Medical School Field Day there are no classes.]  Carbohydrate Chemistry and Biochemistry Seminars by K.P. Link are now to be no more.  I should have quit that attempt at teaching in 1948 for the stream had already gone by me by then -- as you know.
I propose to stay here -- if I can make a satisfactory deal with The Regents.  If I cant [sic] I will resign -- and devote the last 10 (Im [sic] 59 + 6 months) as a consultant to various industrys [sic].  As you know there is a right time to get off the stage so that one does not do permanent damage to the new generation.
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I feel right good again physically.
In the next 10 years I will also try to knock out "The Memoirs of K.P.L"
I have an open-end contract with a publisher.
The Memoirs were started at Lakeview early in Dec '58.
I am not writing for posterity -- but just to amuse myself.
By virtue of my familys [sic] code -- my father you might recall was a Lutheran Pastor, who had to quit saving souls when he was 42 -- for he acquired a "Preachers Voice" -- that is hoarseness.  He then entered politics after a brief stay as Warden of the Indiana State Prison.  He became Clerk of La Parte Co. Circuit Court -- where I served as a "Scribe" from 1908 - 1914.
My father's seat (he died in 1912) was taken over by our second eldest brother -- Alfred John -- a lawyer by training (U of Chicago).  Subsequently A.J. Link sat as Judge of that Court for 18 years.
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My father was "against the sin -- but for the sinner" and in his court nothing was recorded into the "Big Books" against a dead man -- unless it would be clearly and firmly established.
So in My Memoirs it will be "Sweet Reasonable-ness" on all with whom I might have clashed.
Whilst this code takes much lightning and thunder out of My Memoirs -- I still have aplenty to write about.
I already have the rough preface on my relations with one Joshua Lederberg.  I wrote it in Feb 59 at the san.
All the great men here you left behind have become greater in these fast moving days to [ . . . ].  Sarles, Brink, C.G.E, E.B. Fred, Charlie Walker, Bob Burris, etc etc.  The salt still are salt.  Twas ever so.  [see the Book of Koheleth]
Our boys John at Cal Tech, Thomas at Reed and little Paul (he also conquered at Morningside for Children) are doing right well.  Ditto for Mrs Link.
With best wishes and all good cheer -- as usual for you and Esther,  K.P.L