TLS, one page, 7 x 9, personal letterhead, March 7, 1922. Wilson writes to close friend and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Edward W. Bok. In part: “I learn with great interest of the series of biographies of Great Hollanders which you are to edit, but am sorry to say that I can’t undertake any book at all. I am at present engaged in the very slow work of regaining health, and know what limitations I must put upon myself. I am sure you will understand and sympathize. I promise myself the pleasure of some day owning the books you are projecting, and shall hope to learn from them much more than I have ever known of Hugo Grotius.” In fine condition.
Serving as its editor, Edward Bok (1863-1930) made the Ladies' Home Journal a leading American magazine for women, introducing serious articles and crusades to a medium previously restricted to light entertainment. Of the books he wrote, his autobiographical Americanization of Edward Bok was the most popular and won a Pulitzer Prize. He engaged in various philanthropic activities, including the erection of the Bok Singing Tower, and, to honor his longtime friend, the endowment of the Woodrow Wilson Professorship of Literature at Princeton.
When Wilson suffered his debilitating stroke in 1919, Bok had sent him a copy of Rudyard Kipling’s poem “If,” as encouragement during his recovery. Bok would continue his attempts to engage and encourage Wilson, including the offer proposed in this very letter. Pre-certified John Reznikoff/PSA/DNA and RRAuction COA.
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