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Roberts Denies Movies Bought "Lydia Bailey"

NORFOLK, Va.-AP- Author Kenneth Roberts denied reports that he has sold the motion picture rights to "Lydia Bailey," the book on which he has been working for five years.

Roberts, author of "Northwest Passage" and other novels of colonial times and the American revolution, writing from his home in Kennebunkport, Maine, to Jay Lewis, literary editor of the Norfolk Ledger-Dispatch, confirmed an announcement that "Lydia Bailey" had been selected by the Literary Guild, but denied sale of the movie rights.

"Guild, yes" Roberts wrote. "Movies, no. I absolutely refused to sell it. Told them that after the way N.W.P. (Northwest Passage) had been "handled, I'll only lease, year by year, with entire property rights reverting if anything went wrong."

"Haven't seen a movie man, or consented to anything, or signed anything. x x x I've denied the story until I am black in the face but that makes no difference. These movie guys beat me." �