EDWARD EVERETT HALE - AUTOGRAPH LETTER DOUBLE SIGNED 08/06/1885 - HFSID 35877

EDWARD EVERETT HALE
Edward Everett Hale wrote this letter on his personalized stationery in 1885 to ask someone to lend a hand spreading the word about the magazine Lend a Hand, which he edited.
Autograph letter signed "E E Hale." in closing and "E E Hale" in postscript in blue and black ink. 2 pages, 5¼x7¾, 1 sheet, front and verso, on Hale's personalized stationery. Aug. 6, 1885. In full: "Dear Mr. Bixby:- I send you within the pro-spectus [not included] of our new magazine - I have consented to become the Editor-in-Chief from a sincere sense of the need of the thing . It is very hard to get and careful discussion of the real points of Charity or Social Reform into the ordinary monthlies. You will guess that we want your help in every way. If in your local press, - and in Society you can turn public attention to the plan, pray do so. If you have a good canvasser who would like to get subscribed for us,- pray let me know. And whenever you have anything which we shall want to print, send it. I hope the magazine may become the organ of the principal Charities and State Institutions. Who is there in parts, whom we should send this prospectus? Always yours". Postscript: "P.S. [illegible] 2. This has been [illegible] in secret [illegible] you and [illegible]". This letter is probably in reference to the magazine Lend a Hand, which began publication in 1886. "Lend a Hand" was one of four mottoes that Hale included in Ten Times One Is Ten, which was published in 1870 in Old and New, another magazine edited by Hale. This article spawned a number of charitable clubs that joined under the name of the Ten Times One Corporation in 1892 and the Lend a Hand Society in 1898. Hale (1822-1909, born in Boston, Massachusetts) was Pastor of the South Congregational Church in Boston (1856-1901) and Chaplain of the U.S. Senate from 1903 to his death. Hale, a prolific author of both history and popular fiction, is best remember today for his patriotic tale Man Without a Country (1863). Lightly toned, stained and creased. Show-through touches body of letter, but not signatures. Postscript touches body of letter. Tape residue at right edge of page 2 (no show-through). Folded in half horizontally and once vertically and unfolded. Otherwise in fine condition.