LETTER: Typed letter signed, to Martha Gellhorn.
Roosevelt to Gellhorn
On Writing
Roosevelt, Eleanor. Typed letter signed, “Eleanor Roosevelt,” to Martha Gellhorn, n.d. but ca. 1936?; two leaves of Val-Kill stationery; two pages; lightly emended in ink.
Roosevelt writes to thank Gellhorn for a book – very likely the copy of The Trouble I’ve Seen that Gellhorn inscribed to her “with gratitude and devotion.” Gellhorn and Roosevelt became lifelong friends through Gellhorn’s work on that book, a “report” in the form of four short stories that Gellhorn wrote for the Federal Emergency Relief Administration. Roosevelt also discussed writing, as well as a recent visit with Gellhorn’s mother and Roosevelt’s impending travels to Europe and the Middle East. She begins,
You will forgive me if I have not read every word of your book. Some of it I could not go on with but most of it I have read. It is not that you have not written well. It is because you have written too well that in spots I could not go on. If only enough people could read what you have written it may be one of the things which will help to save mankind.
I am getting pretty desperate about the success of the written or spoken word unless we
can use the medias of mass communication.
She writes then of a visit to Gellhorn’s mother in St. Louis – “what a wonderful person she is!” – and invites Gellhorn and her husband and “Sandy” to dine with the Roosevelts (including “Nina Roosevelt, my granddaughter, and two young cousins, Barbara and Forbes Morgan”) one night in London. “Mrs. Morgan, their mother, will be with me and I could let her take all the children off if you would rather be alone with me, or I could come to you if you prefer.” She concludes,
I am going out to see Anna in Iran for a week … going from Iran to Israel for a week. I am taking my granddaughter, Nina, with me and we will spend a few days in Paris before reaching London. My secretary, Maureen Corr, will joining me there, so I won’t be worrying about getting a column written which is more of a burden to me when I am alone than it would be to you! Much love and I hope for the chance of seeing you.
(#12695)
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