Digital Collections @ St. Lawrence University

Your first letter from California arrived...

Overview

Creator: 
Kent, Rockwell, 1882-1971
Source: 
Original letter: ink on paper, 1 p.
Date Original: 
1940, February 28
Language: 
English

Transcript

Ausable Forks
New York
February 28, 1940

 

My Darling:--
Your first letter from California arrived yesterday afternoon just after my return from Schenectady (I had gone there to appear on television)  This is to be a hasty answer to it to go by this morning’s mail.  If I only knew your address in Las Vegas I’d send the letter and a wire there to be there when you arrived.  Darling—it is only to tell you that there is so much of all our past continually welling up in me that I have to rigidly stop thinking.  And I will not write it.  Only know that I recall such continuous loveliness and devotion as makes me in the light of what is happening [only] either crazy or a fool.  The reasons — and of course there are reasons why what we are doing is right – are my own short-comings.  Oh darling:  I know what you have always been to me.  And I know that you will always be that.
I will never let Sally know what goes on in my thoughts about you and me.  She is so good, so [unswayingly] sweet.  And she does love me and [us] more as the days go by.  Thank you, darling, for your goodness to her.  Please write to her.  She now sends her love and says shall write soon.
Please please, my darling, keep good thoughts of me and let us only grow closer and closer.  I want to cry on your shoulder.
Yes:  your plans sound good.  Why the James’s haven’t written I don’t know.  It’s probably because they’ve first tried to get in touch with their friends.
I’ll send money by my next letter.  Write me often and tell me all you can of your life in Las Vegas.  What can I send you?
And now I close.  All that I feel and want to say I’ve left unsaid.  I must.  Do me at least that honor in your thoughts:  I know your greatness and your loveliness.  I do; and always will.
Yours,
Rockwell

Rights

Rights Management: 
Original materials may be protected by the Copyright Law of the United States (more information).

Technical

Digitization Specifications: 
Scanned at 600ppi on Epson 1000XL scanner as 48-bit RGB uncompressed TIFF images. Images resized to 2000 pixels wide, 150 dpi, and saved as JPEG (level 10) in Photoshop CS5 with Unsharp Mask of 60:1.
Date Digital: 
October 12, 2012
Format: 
image/jpeg
Type: 
Text

Location

Series: 
1
Box: 
1
Folder: 
10