Posterity (38 page)

Wilder, Laura Ingalls, to Rose, February 5, 1937: Collections of the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library. Published by permission of Little House Heritage Trust, its copyright owner.

Williams, William Carlos, to William, September 25, 1942: John C. Thirlwall, ed.
The Selected Letters of William Carlos Williams
(New York: McDowell, Obolensky, 1957), 201–203. Published by permission of New Directions Publishing Corp.

Wilson, Woodrow, to Jessie, October 15, 1914; Arthur S. Link, ed.
The Papers of Woodrow wWilson, Volume 38: August 7–November 19, 1916
(Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1982), 688–89. Published by permission of Princeton University Press.

Wyeth, N. C., to Ann and John, November 4, 1935; Peter and Henriette, August 27, 1939; Nat and Caroline, October 19, 1943; Andrew, February 16, 1944: Betsy James Wyeth, ed.
The Wyeths: The Letters of N. C. Wyeth 1901–1945
(Boston: Gambit, 1971), 750–51, 794–96, p. 828, 833–36. Published by permission of The Wyeth Foundation of American Art.

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CKNOWLEDGMENTS

My first gratitude is to those families, individuals, executors, archives, libraries, and publishing houses that granted me permission to publish these personal family correspondences. There would be no collection of this kind without their generosity.

The book could not have happened as it did without the imaginative and enthusiastic help of Mike Hill, who traveled the country, was driven after letters like a bloodhound in pursuit, provided valuable suggestions, made terrific finds, photocopied almost more than is humanly possible, and encouraged me all the while. He worked tirelessly on this project and always with genuine good cheer and sustaining humor.

For their assistance and suggestions I am particularly indebted to the following archivists, librarians, and specialists: Mary Wolfskill; Len Bruno; Alice Birney; Mark Horowitz; Bruce Kirby; Gerard Gawalt; David Wigdor; Barbara Bair; Adrienne Cannon; Staley Hitchcock; Fred Bauman; and especially to the patient and resourceful “archivist extraodinaire,” Jeffrey Flannery, Library of Congress; Laura Kells, Library of Congress; Peter Drummey; Celeste Walker; William Fowler, Jr.; Nicholas Graham and Beth Krimmel, Massachusetts Historical Society; my old friend Elizabeth Safley, Harry S Truman Library; Brian Sullivan, Harvard University Archives; Michael Plunkett, University of Virginia Special Collections; John Gable, Theodore Roosevelt Association; Nora Guthrie, Felicia Katz, and Jorge Arevalo, Woody Guthrie Archives; Bob Clark and Mark Renovich, Franklin D. Roosevelt Library; JoEllen Dickie, Newberry Library; Wallace Dailey, Houghton Library, Harvard University; Laura Kissell and Dr. Raimund Goerler, Richard Byrd Archives, Ohio State University; Anne Marie Menta, Beineke Library, Yale University; Edward Skipworth and Erika Gorder, Rutgers University; Jaqueline McKiernan, Harriet Beecher Stowe Center; Lynn A. Smith, Herbert Hoover Presidential Library; John Hooper, National John Steinbeck Center; Jean Becker, Office of George Bush; Marc Rothenberg, Joseph Henry Papers Project; Linda Seelke, Lyndon Baines Johnson Library; and Dr. Charles Beveridge, Frederick Law Olmsted Papers Project.

A number of people to whom I am grateful provided letters or helped to track down correspondence: Louisa Thomas, Jack Bales, David Rae Morris, Roger Lawson, Emily Morison Beck, Ann Marshall, John Powell, Anne Adams Helms, Joan Howard Maurer, Gloria Owens Hemphill, Kate Healy, Ian Schoenherr, and Wylie O'Hara Doughty.

My thanks also go to Barbara Shuster, for her translation of the Einstein letters; my sister, Melissa McCullough McDonald, for her meticulous proofreading of typescripts against original letters; Linda Konkel for typescripts; and Bentley Davis for her enormous help with requests for letters, tracking permissions, typing, and errands of all kinds. For suggestions, encouragement, advice, and help in a variety of capacities, I am grateful to Bob Wilson; Geoffrey McCullough; Melissa McDonald; Alice Hammerstein Mathias; Tim Newman; Phil Zeidman; Caitlin McDonald; Jim and Marty Carter; Margot Goodwin; David McCullough, Jr.; William McCullough; Shannon Gregory; Ed Adler; Susan Simpson Gallagher; David Alden; Jane Acton; Michael Beschloss; Martina Gonsalves; Melissa Marchetti; Kendra Harpster; Laura MacCarty; Molly Will; and Susan Peck.

My agent, Luke Janklow, and his father, Morton Janklow, with their immediate enthusiasm for the idea gave me confidence to get right to work. Luke's quick mind, sensitivity to tone and content, and terrific humor put me at ease throughout the project, knowing I have been in nothing but the best of hands. Bill Thomas of Doubleday and Katie Hall have provided me with terrific suggestions and valuable improvements to the manuscript.

I thank my husband, Tim, for his endless enthusiasm and help with everything, from making it possible for me to work on the book in the evenings and on Saturdays, to his experienced understanding and encouragement of creativity. My children, Ingram, Nathaniel, and Luke (who only made his presence known as the work neared its end), kept me hopping and by their energetic presence constantly reminded me of why this book was a worthwhile undertaking. Perhaps most importantly for the work, they made it possible for me to understand the letters from the perspective of a parent.

To my own parents, Rosalee and David McCullough, all of the gratitude in the world is not enough. Their encouragement, good sense, advice, judgment, and experience have guided me in everything. In working on this book I came to appreciate and respect, more fully than ever, all they know, all they have done, and all they do.

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REDITS

Chapter 1: Continuity

William Henry Seward to William Henry Seward, Jr.: Rare Book and Special Collections, Rush Rhees Library, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY

Chapter 2: The Developing Mind

Alexander Graham Bell and family: Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

Lincoln Steffens and son Pete, ca. 1931. Photograph by Edward Weston. © 1981, Center for Creative Photography, Arizona Board of Regents. Tucson, AZ

Chapter 3: Love

Alfred Thayer Mahan to Helen Evans Mahan: Naval War College, Newport, RI

Chapter 4: Good Work

Eugene O'Neill and Eugene O'Neill, Jr.: Charles E. Shain Library, Special Collections, Connecticut College, New London, CT

Laura Ingalls Wilder: Herbert Hoover Presidential Library, West Branch, IA

John D. Rockefeller and John D. Rockefeller, Jr.: Photograph by George Bain, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

Chapter 5: Struggle

Woody Guthrie and family: Woody Guthrie Foundation and Archives, New York, NY

General John J. Pershing and Warren: Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

John Steinbeck, John Steinbeck IV, and President Lyndon B. Johnson: Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library, Austin, TX

Chapter 6: Strength of Character

Yolanda DuBois: W. E. B. DuBois Library, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA

Theodore Roosevelt: Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

John O'Hara and Wylie O'Hara: Collection of Wylie O'Hara Doughty

Chapter 7: The Pleasures of Life

William James and daughter Margaret: Houghton Library, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA

Mark Twain and family: Mark Twain House, Hartford, CT

Chapter 8: Brace-Up

F. Scott Fitzgerald and daughter Scottie: Courtesy Matthew J. Bruccoli

Jack London and daughter Joan: JLP 458, Album 20, #08445, Jack London Collection, Huntington Library, San Marino, CA. Published with permission

Thomas Edison and Thomas Edison, Jr.: Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

Chapter 9: A Place in Time

Harry S. Truman to Margaret Truman: Harry S. Truman Presidential Library, Independence, MO

Chapter 10: Loss

Rosetta Douglass: Frederick Douglass National Historic Site, Washington, D.C.

Woodrow Wilson and family: Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

Chapter 11: Aging

Frederick Law Olmsted: Frederick Law Olmsted National Historic Site, Brookline, MA

Frederick Law Olmsted to John Olmsted: Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

Chapter 12: Rules to Live By

Anne Bradstreet to Simon Bradstreet:
Works of Anne Bradstreet,
John Howard Ellis, ed. Peter Smith Publisher, Gloucester, MA, 1962

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Posterity : letters of great Americans to their children /
Dorie McCullough Lawson.—1st ed.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
1. United States—History—Sources.         2. United States—Civilization—Sources.         3. United States—Biography.         4. American letters.         I. Lawson, Dorie McCullough.

E173.P77 2004
973—dc22
2003055494

Copyright © 2004 by Dorie McCullough Lawson
All Rights Reserved

eISBN: 978-0-385-51263-3

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