ALFRED STIEGLITZ - TYPED LETTER SIGNED 04/23/1917 - HFSID 131628

ALFRED STIEGLITZ
Alfred Stieglitz sends a typed letter about World War I.
TLS: "cordially & affectionately/Yours/Stieglitz," 1p, 8½x11. New York, 1917 April 23. Seventeen days after the United States entered WWI, the great American photographer writes to Horace Traubel. In full: "I have been wanting to write to you. But I haven't been able to. I have been wanting to respond to May First, but I have not been able to. Many things have happened within the last few weeks to crush me and my family. Things which I saw coming for years but over which I had no control. I spoke but was not heard. The inevitable has simply been hastened a little owing to the war fever which seems to be endemic the world over. Your kind note of this morning together with the MS which I return, so that you can send it to Gable, reminded me that I must write. I want you to know that it is one of the hardest things not to be able to do what one's nature insists on wishing to do. I do hope that some of your friends are in a more fortunate position just at present so that May First will see you relieved of a burden which should not be yours." 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, two months after 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. Repair at upper right corner, else in fine condition.