GUTZON BORGLUM - AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED 04/01 - HFSID 172166

GUTZON BORGLUM
Borglum handwrote this letter from New York about the beauties of spring... and how he hasn't seen any of it because "it has rained - all - day".
Autograph letter signed "Gutzon Borglum". B/w, 2 pages, 5x6½, 1 sheet folded, front and verso. Written in "New York", dated "April 1st". In full: "My dear Miss Eaton: What has come open the dream of your spirit? Here is spring, as spring is here smelling the shoots of every kind in our beautiful land, popping the bud of every twig that ventures its above ground - and you have not sung a note = it has rained - all - day - Its [sic] more than that. Space has changed its condition and all is so wet and weepy and why? you must know - Have you noticed The bronze sheen The near lying hills have thrown over their silver. be wakeful and you'll see natur [sic] sample herself in arrays of pretty print garments and then in a night drow over her-self full [illegible] colour = but I for get [sic] this is not california [sic] = and its [sic] near lunch time - and I hunger when will spring awake your song. Ever in haste". Borglum (1867-1941, born John Gutzon de la Mothe Borglum in St. Charles, Idaho), already famous for creating the great head of Lincoln in the U.S. Capitol rotunda, was commissioned to begin work on a "shrine of democracy" in 1927. After selecting Mount Rushmore as its site, he began work on 60-foot-high heads of Presidents George Washington (unveiled in 1930), Thomas Jefferson (1936), Abraham Lincoln (1937) and Theodore Roosevelt (1939), chosen to represent epic symbols of America. Borglum, who developed innovative stone-working methods to accomplish the massive project, died in 1941, leaving his son Lincoln to complete the finishing details. Lightly toned and creased. Folded once and unfolded. Lightly torn on right edge along fold. Otherwise in fine condition.