HENDRIK WILLEM VAN LOON - TYPED LETTER SIGNED 02/21/1919 - HFSID 27266
Price: $800.00
HENDRIK WILLEM van LOON. TLS: "Hendrik Willem van Loon", 1p, 8½x11.
New York City, 1919 February 21. On letterhead of The Nation to unknown recipient. In
full: "Forget poor Nelly and her nickelish Fate..... NEVER. But what is the use? I am a
hundred years old and I have had too much war and I am utterly and hopelessly disgusted
with the arrangement-for-making-a-living, commonly called 'business' (for the National is
merely an intellectual passtime (sic) and I write this grossly engaged in the very
uncomfortable Export and Import Business) and I wisht (sic) as that I could write for the
Movies and be rich and wear a golden coat and do all the things which in my
Spinoza-esque existence I was trying to forget. But honest Injun, I had a very pleasant
time and I hope that you were not bored and then I felt that the Curtain went down and I
returned to my histories. It is a pleasant discovery indeed, to find that I was mistaken
(inverted sentence showing Dutch origin) and if you have nothing to do next Tuesday
preferred Thrusday (sic) or Friday night I will call for you with the Subway or the
streetcar (ever ride in one?) and I shall take you to a place where Godelpus, they will
give you food and liker (sic, liquor) and I am, with the sincere expression of my profound
admiration (influence of Spanish great-grandfather) most sincerely yours." Two words
(bolded) in van Loon's hand. At the lower margin, van Loon has drawn a pen-and-ink
sketch. 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. Although he never became the rich movie screenwriter that he
envisions in this letter, van Loon's The Story of Mankind was filmed in 1957 (Charles
Bennett was the screenwriter). Folds, light vertical fold touches the "m" of Willem. Pencil
notes (unknown hand) on verso. Fine condition.
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