Title

Letters of a nation : a collection of extraordinary American letters.

Description

Collection of over two hundred letters on a variety of subjects by Americans from all walks of life, spanning more than 350 years of American culture and history.

Identifier

2500183

1568361963

Contributor

Carroll, Andrew

Source

Brian Lamb Booknotes Collection

Gift of Brian Lamb, 2011.

Catalog record

Language

eng

Date

1997

Program air date: July 5, 1998

Publisher

Kodansha International

George Mason University. Libraries. Special Collections & Archives

Subject

"American letters."

Relation

Original Booknotes interview

Rights

This work may be protected by copyright laws and is provided for educational and research purposes only. Any infringing use may be subject to disciplinary action and/or civil or criminal liability as provided by law. If you believe that you are the rights-holder and object to Mason’s use of this image, please contact speccoll@gmu.edu.

Creator

Carroll. Andrew (ed.)

Text

Transcription of Annotations

Notes on front endpapers: Why did you ask Marian Wright Edelman to write the introduction. 196 letters+ Did anyone refuse to give you permission to reprint a letter. How many did you pick from. What is American Poetry and Literary Society. Your most obedient servant p 121. Thurs 2-3 May 21. 1. Birmingham Jail p 210; +2. Clinton Draft letter p 169 (19 Pages); 3. Jefferson to Madison p 75 (1787 from Paris); 4. Abigail to John A. p 58--males as tyrannical; 5. John A. to Abigail p 63; 6. Adams to Tim Pickering p 61 Why Jefferson was picked to write Declaration; X7. Merriwether Lewis to William Clark p 12 (7 pages); 8. Elvis letter to Nixon p 266; 9. Helen Keller to Eugene V. Debs p 139; X10. Frederick Douglass to his master p 93 (9 pages)' X11. Wallace Stenger to David E. Pesonen (8 pages) environmentalist; 12. Bill Lederer to Admiral David MacDonald p 412--Christmas sailor; *13. James Baldwin to his nephew p 344 (5 pages). By some of the letters listed on the contents pages Lamb has written and circled the number of pages in the letters. Notes: “Inspired to write letters,” “private and sacred,” “Joe Fogg,” “1st time,” “Vietnam 24 yrs old,” “spark of poetry,” “Edger Allan Poe,” “Ben Franklin,” “Scott Carpenter May 1962,” “Malcolm X,” “Ayn Rand,” “John Steinbeck,” “Henrietta Lee personal contempt,” “William Faulkner, Ronald Reagan,” “Brezhnev,” “Thomas Merton,” “Henry Miller,” “Richard Nixon,” “Elvis,” “Mary Ewald to Saddam Hussein,” “Robert E. Lee,” “Thomas Jefferson,” “Rachel Carson to Dorothy Freeman,” “religious freedom,” “earthquake Jamaica,” “1700 missing,” “money,” “John Downe an Englishman, a weaver in America,” “like America,” “7 pages,” “Aug 4, 1804,” chief of 17 great nation,” “red people of America,” “St. Louis,” “advice on traveling West,” “Indians,” “husband shot dead,” “Shoshone Indian Washakie 1878,” “Potato famine 1/2 million came to America, 1880 to Belfast,” “Walt Whitman,” “Irma Czerner to Eleanor R. 1941,” “mother killed at Treblinka,” “Blacks should go anywhere,” “the novel in 20th century,” “Marion Carpenter Scott's Dad May 1962, God,” “all men would be tyrants,” “Virginia to head everything,” “King a tyrant,” “The people will have power,” “never a good war or bad peace,” “Deborah Sampson Garnett got her pension,” “A. Hamilton to G.W.,” “Letter to Ham. from G.W.,” “T.J. to Madison,” “do not like; no Bill of Rights,” “term limits necessary,” “energetic govt. oppressive,” “agriculture principal object,” “large cities,” “Jeff on blacks,” “To Thomas Jefferson from Benjamin Banneker,” “Rush loathed G.W.,” “WASH over the Whigs,” “judgment day,” “Dec 17, 1832 Jackson to Cass.,” “Douglass to his former master,” “personal freedom keeps us from South,” “my sisters. . .can't read and write,” “Auld and Douglass reconciled,” “Douglass to H. Tubman,” “Lee to Mary . . .Lee on slavery,” “John Brown 4 days before death,” “Jeff Davis to Frank Pierce 1861,” “He died in battle,” “Love letter,” “save the Union,” “Nellie escaped,” “blacks in Union Army,” “Douglass' sons survived,” “36,000 blacks died for Union,” “Black mother,” “Lincoln to Hooker,” “from Lincoln,” “Hunter of weak women etc.,” “Pickett,” “women,” “Atlanta mayor,” “Lee's message to his troops,” “Grant to Julia,” “Frances Watkins Harper--Black abolitionist Lincoln's assassination,” “from Adrian Edwards (dies) WWI,” “[Helen Keller] to Eugene V. Debs,” “from ambulance driver Joe Fogg,” “Bergen Belsen,” “from Harry Truman about the bomb,” “Clinton letter,” “to L. Brezhnev,” “at end of WWII,” “lifting grain embargo,” “Brezhnev replies,” “taken to Baghdad,” “Hussein released Ewald Sept 14, 1990.” “from William Faulkner,” “1956 14 mil Negroes,” “cowards, mobs,” “19 pages, 8 clergymen, margins of a newspaper,” “negotiations,” “Freedom, 'wait',” “lunch counters,” “swimming pools,” “motels,” “nigger boy,” “unjust laws,” “arrested Friday,” “Hitler legal; Hungarians illegal,” “white moderates,” “too great a hurry,” “nonviolent efforts extreme,” “white moderates,” “disappointed the white church,” “church weak,” “police ugly and inhuman treatment,” “real heroes,” “long letter,” “1964 Summer project,” “from Jim--a civil rights student worker, Oxford, MS,” “from Cesar Chavez,” “Birmingham jail,” “militant, non-violent,” “bankrupt farmer . . .trustee of bankruptcy,” “from Margie Brauer,” “glasses, teeth,” “Indians to W and Mary,” “Mrs. Orville Browning,” “over size,” “too fat, no teeth,” “from Hemingway,” “Edna St. Vincent Millay,” “do everything for you,” “Fred Allen,” “from Harry Truman 34 yr old Hume,” “Purple Heart Korea,” “Hog raising for gov check,” “Elvis. . .help the country out,” “cat food for husband's dinner,” “Ben Franklin,” “old vs. younger,” “Nathaniel Hawthorne,” “Sophia to Nat Hawthorne,” “Edger Allen Poe to Annie Richmond married,” “died of alcohol Oct 3, 1849,” “from Herman Melville,” “Emily D. to Susan Gilbert 1852,” “1884 Mormon $800 4 years prison Salt Lake,” “pardoned by Cleveland,” “from A. Einstein 1900,” “married 1903, divorced 1919,” “from Edith Wharton to Morton Fullerton,” “1919 from Agnes (the nurse),” “1919 Zelda to F. Scott,” “Ogden Nash married in 1931,” “from Ogden Nash, 1929,” “Wolf from Aline Bernsein,” “1934 from Gertrude Stein,” “Marion Ohio Harding, Dayton Wright Brothers, Toledo,” “from Ansel Adams (35),” “1940 from Charles Drew,” “from Kerouac 1943,” “Sampas died,” “[Charles Lindbergh] from wife Anne letter 1944,” “altruism-evil; independence--good,” “From Ayn Rand to a fan” “spiritual parasite, a selfless nonentity,” “Merton to Henry Miller,” “Henry Miller to Brenda Venus,” “Spencer the mule,” “Helen Keller,” “from James Baldwin,” “white people,” “1804 Aaron Burr,” “T.J. widower at 39, 5 of 6 children died,” “Thoreau's brother; RWE's son Waldo,” “death,” “John Brown raid, executed Dec 16, 1859,” “McCullough,” “[Eugene O'Neill] about his father's death, Aug 10, 1920,” “[Archibald MacLeish] about his brother Kenny's death,” “[Amelia Earhart] death letter to be opened,” “[John Boettiger]committed suicide 1950,” “Rachel Carson to Dorothy Freeman . . .angina,” “AIDS,” “queer mess,” “Importance of good works,” “Choctaw Indians compassion,” “[Flannery O'Connor] about losing his faith,” “Ugly American,” “Trip to France Christmas,” “Carol Denise McNair's father,” “Mecca,” “Feb 21, 1965 gunned down,” “weapons.” Underlings: Carroll's selection, details of letters, context. Within the letters, Lamb underscores pithy quotes, ironic or poignant passages, observations, justifications, beliefs. Within the index and on the back flysheet, Lamb recorded/tallied the number of letters received and sent. "373--receive and send: Abe Lincoln 4, Mark Twain 3, Ben Franklin 4, John Adams 4.