HELEN VAN LOON - TYPED LETTER SIGNED 12/06/1945 - HFSID 293764

[HENDRIK van LOON]; HELEN van LOON
Long chatty letter from the historian's widow, discussing their family life, visits to the White House, and war matters, written to a convalescent soldier shortly after World War II
Typed Letter signed: "Helen van Loon", 2 pages, 7¼x10½, affixed to an 8½x11 page (2 surfaces). Nieuw Veere, Old Greenwich, Connecticut, 1945 December 6. On personal letterhead to Captain Ralph E. Ward, Walter Reed Hospital, Washington, D.C. In full: "My husband died (heart attack, which if you follow the obits in the daily press seems to happen to most brain-workers between 50 and 65. He was 63.) on March 11, 1944. The news got around in the queerest, spottiest way imaginable. Nobody in Brooklyn seems to have heard of it yet, but his youngest son, Captain Gerard van Loon, saw it headlined in a London newspaper before he got my cable and a young Italian I know (steward on a boat) got it over Tunisian radio immediately. The little city of Veere on Walcheren Island, although under German occupation at the time, got it within a few hours by clandestine short-wave and despite the Krauts in the town (800 pop.) the whole 'city' went into mourning for their friend. (They used to call Hendrik 'the King of Veere'). We call our place here on L. I. Sound Nieuw Veere because the seascape is about the same. The above sketch on our house paper shows the old Veere, with our four sky-scrapers, the mill, which was just opposite our house, the "Big Church' (1360), the Town Hall with the bells (have you read VAN LOON'S LIVES?) and the Campveersche Tor, the local inn, the only tower left now of the medieval walls. I also got cables from newspaper friends in North Africa the following day. If you do as good a job [handwritten addition: on yourself] as your late Commander-in-Chief did, it won't hold you up very much. I knew him well and frequently stayed at the White House. He was the only man on earth who could get me to smoke a Camel cigarette - nasty things. My vice is Lucky Strikes. Meanwhile, I can well understand that you are very bored. I am sending you under separate cover two photographs - one of my husband with his pup (Mungo, who finally grew up and at 200 lbs. became a mascot of a Liberator in England) and one of Hendrik's hands. Also here is a Kodak picture of his grave in Old Greenwich and the only signature I can find - an -old check to the Algonquin Hotel in New York City, where we always lived when in town. [Items not included.] I envy the peace and quiet you must be having at the Walter Reed. Due to the housing shortage here, I have had to take in Hendrik's elder son, plus wife and four children - three wild boys 12, 10 and 7, and baby Jane - about 9 months and too young yet to be much of a nuisance, but give her time! Hendrik's younger son is in Munich, controlling the German theater, as far as I can make out. He did his OCS at Sill with the Field Artillery but a wise government decided, after he got his didy pins, that he would be less of a menace to our side behind a typewriter than behind a gun, and that is where he has been ever since - in London and now in Munich. Having been educated in Switzerland and Paris, his French and German are perfect. This is Thursday - the cook's day out. Dirk (7) has the mumps. The tide is extra high and threatening to flood all the roads on Lucas Point, plus our cellar. (We are about 10 yards away from salt water.) The village has run out of soap flakes and paper napkins. This letter has been written between interruptions and I doubt whether it makes much sense. However, you are probably bored enough to read anything. I have just spent a month in bed myself with a torn hip tendon acquired by skidding on a neighbor's freshly waxed floor. It is all right again now. Good luck to you and I hope these things help along your collection a little. Very sincerely yours". Dutch-born American author, journalist and illustrator HENDRIK WILLEM VAN LOON (1884-1944) is best known for The Story of Mankind (1921), a children's guide to world history that he wrote and illustrated, for which he received the first Newbery Medal in 1922. Van Loon, who lectured at Cornell University on European history and was Professor of Social Sciences at Antioch College, also wrote a number of other works, including The Story of the Bible (1923), Tolerance (1925) and America (1927), Ships & How They Sailed the Seven Seas (1935), The Arts of Mankind (1937), Van Loon's Lives (1942) and a fictional biography of Rembrandt van Rijn (1930). An Associate Editor of the "Baltimore Sun" from 1923-1924, van Loon was also known for his radio talks, broadcast in the U.S. and to Holland, and lectures. HELEN (CRISWELL) VAN LOON was Hendrik's second wife (1920-1926), and he returned to her after his third divorce, living with her for the rest of his life. Helen often typed her husband's manuscripts, and he would then make editorial changes from her drafts. His son Gerard, mentioned in this letter as belonging behind a typewriter, would later write a biography of his father, The Story of Hendrik van Loon (1972). From the collection Ralph Errington Ward (1926-2009) a fighter pilot and squadron commander in the China-Burma-India Theater of World War II. Ward became President and CEO of Cheseborough-Ponds, Inc., transforming the cosmetics firm into a major home product conglomerate. Multiple mailing folds. Affixed at bottom edge with adhesive. Otherwise, fine condition.