ALFRED STIEGLITZ - AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED 12/19/1917 - HFSID 154719

ALFRED STIEGLITZ. Autograph Letter signed: "Alfred/Stieglitz," 1p, 8x3¾. No place, 1917 December 19. To "Traubel Birthday Committee". Print from an Eli Nadelman Exhibition on verso (marked over for use as envelope). Pencil address (unknown hand): "Horace Traubel".In full: "There seems to be some strange fatality that seems bent on keeping me from Traubel's birthday parties. Until this last moment I had hoped to be able to arrange participating to-night. To be with you all. - With him. Particularly this year. But it was not to be. Even free souls at moments seem to be slaves! All hail to Traubel & those who love him = and those who do not." ALFRED STIEGLITZ (1864-1946), who is known as "the father of American photography", fought for recognition of photography as a major art form. He was the first to have a major museum stage (New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art) stage an exhibit of his work In 1924 he married the important modernist painter Georgia O'Keeffe, who was also the subject of many of his photos. Poet HORACE TRAUBEL (1858-1919), a long-time friend of the photographer, was best known as the author of With Walt Whitman in Camden, a nine-volume biography covering Whitman's final four years. Traubel had also founded, edited and published "The Conservator", a journal dedicated to keeping Whitman's works alive, and helped publish "The Artsman" (1903-1907), a publication dealing with the Arts & Crafts movement, in which he was involved. In June 1917, six months before Stieglitz wrote this letter, Traubel suffered a heart attack while attending his daughter Gertrude's wedding in New York. He died on September 3, 1919. Slightly soiled. Vertical fold touches "A" in signature. Otherwise, fine condition.