EDWIN GINN - TYPED LETTER SIGNED 11/01/1910 - HFSID 222699
Sale Price $250.00
Reg. $320.00
EDWIN GINN
He signs a content-rich typed 1910 letter on his publishing company
letterhead, to a friend and former classmate at Tufts College, discussing other
alumni; his family, health and business; and his hopes to create a School of
International Peace.
Typed Letter signed: "Edwin Ginn", 4 pages, 8x10. Boston,
Massachusetts, 1910 November 1. On letterhead of Ginn and Company publishers
to "My dear classmate, [Albion] Thorne". In full: "Your
letter of October fourth with its pleasant memories brought to my mind afresh
college days. Yes, Whittemore presented a strong, sweet personality - the
wittiest man in the whole class, always a smile on his face. Those deep wrinkles
around his eyes when lighted up gave an impression that was lasting. I have
known for some time that he was not in the best of health. He had varicose veins
and I suppose that was what shortened his life. I am sorry to hear that you are
suffering from a stomach trouble. That ailment is common to many of our age I
think. I have all my life had more or less discomfort from indigestion, but
during the last few months I have apparently been able to overcome it. My regime
may be worth something to you. I have always been very temperate in my habits. I
never drink any spirituous liquors. I never use tobacco, never indulge in
anything that I feel would interfere with my health, am very careful in my
exercise, eat very sparingly, and chew my food regularly, am regular in all my
doings. This I think accounts in large measure for my being able to overcome the
weaknesses of the body. I eat a great deal of fruit - apples and grapes, no
desserts, very little meat. Cereals, cream and nuts form a large part of my
menu. I hope you will let me hear from you every month or two. Just a few lines
would be most welcome. I won't ask you to write such a good long letter every
time because, as you say, it takes a good deal of food to grind out a letter
like the one I have just received. As the circle grows smaller it brings those
of us who are left closer together and we ought to keep in close touch with each
other. I think I knew that your son had died, but I am not quite sure. My heart
goes out in sympathy to you afresh. How many children have you left and what are
you doing these days? I am glad to tell you that my life has been blessed in so
many ways. My two wives have been most beautiful help-meets of high moral
development. By my first wife I had three children, by my second wife, two -
Edwin, Jr., a boy of fourteen who is now at the Middlesex School, Concord, doing
very well indeed, and my little girl twelve who is attending a private school in
Brookline. I take her in town in my automobile every morning. They are both
promising children. My oldest daughter is forty. She has adopted an infant and
lives in Springfield, Massachusetts. She loves that child as if it were her own
and no mother could watch over her child more tenderly than she cares for this
little motherless child. My other daughter who lives near San Francisco has also
adopted one. Neither are married or likely to be. My oldest son is in California
with his wife and one child - a very beautiful little girl. He tried orange
raising but did not succeed very well. Now he has gone into the chicken business
on a large scale. Our publishing business is very prosperous. I give less and
less time to its details, however, as younger men in whom I have the utmost
confidence are taking a large part of the responsibility of its conduct. As
perhaps you know, I am trying to solve a very difficult problem. I think I
have sent you the plan I outlined for a School of International Peace. Last
summer we organized and this month I hope to perfect the organization and start
the thing going in a really businesslike way. I have secured a half dozen very
good men as directors, have a large board of trustees and an advisory council of
about sixty men and women. I hear from Hanson very seldom and from Bisbee
only occasionally. President Hamilton seems to be doing well. They have about
five hundred students at Tufts. The memories of college days are sweet to revert
to and I often think of them as perhaps the pleasantest we shall ever know in
this life. The friendships formed in those early days are never to be
forgotten and can never be equaled in after years. I hope you will come east
some day and visit me. Don't you think a complete change would do you good? I
should enjoy very much introducing you to my family and taking you about in my
automobile. You speak of Cook. He died some ten years ago. He was very
successful in school work, Superintendent of Schools in Rochester, New York, for
several years. I hear from Philo Hersey occasionally. He lives with his son in
San Jose and is a very successful business man. He is the same congenial,
splendid fellow he always was. I see the Picketts occasionally - Wyman and
George. They are both old men like ourselves. Wyman is in very poor health. I
should not be surprised to hear of his death any day. He has been out of school
work for some time. George is cashier of a savings bank at Georgetown,
Massachusetts. All the other Picketts that we used to know at Westbrook are dead
I think. I visited the old Seminary last summer and it revived many pleasant
memories. This is a long letter but I hope it won't tire you. Coolidge is still
alive. I see Hammond very often. He is one of the judges of the Supreme Court in
Massachusetts. I believe both the Eastmans are dead. Lawson died about ten years
ago in Oldtown. Don't forget that you are to write me at least once in two
months. Affectionately, your friend and classmate". Edwin Ginn
(1838-1914) rose from an impoverished Maine childhood to become a
successful publisher of textbooks and a principal benefactor of the
international peace movement. After graduating from the Westbrook
Seminary (mentioned in this letter), run by the Universalist Church, Ginn
attended Tufts College in Medford, Massachusetts, graduating in the Class of
1862. There he met Albion Thorne, later a school superintendent and
district attorney in South Dakota, and the other Tufts alumni mentioned in this
letter. Having made his fortune in the publishing business, Ginn devoted much of
his wealth and later years to the international peace movement. Ginn was no
pacifist; he simply believed that war was irrational and that sound education
would lead to its replacement by diplomacy and arbitration. In 1910, as
promised in this letter, he founded in Boston a School of International Peace,
which soon became the World Peace Foundation. Tufts College has become
Tufts University, with 8,500 male and female students. Fittingly, the
library of the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts (in cooperation
with Harvard University) is the Edwin Ginn Library. A new biography by
Robert Rotberg, A Leadership for Peace: How Edwin Ginn Tried to Change the
World, was published in 2007. Normal mailing fold creases. Paperclip crease
at upper left margin. Lightly toned and creased. Otherwise, fine
condition.
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