April 27-1925

My dear Lewis Mumford:

I want you to know how delighted I am with your few pages on
Rosenfeld in the Dial. Positively refreshing. Generous & true-
delightful.

- I am beginning to feel a little more like a human again.
I've had a mean time of it.- It was an awful lapse on my part
to break down during the Show- but I was glad the breakdown
didn't happen before I saw your enjoyment of what was on the
Walls

- I know it was a very great show.- I fear McBride did not get
its spirit nor anything else in those rooms.- I'm sorry- maybe-
for McBride.

- Will you tell your wife I received the photographs promptly
& also her kind wishes.

I wish you both everything that is beautiful-

O'Keeffe joins me in greetings-

Alfred Stieglitz

PRESERVATION PHOTOCOPY: ORIGINAL MATERIAL RESTRICTED

Lake George

July 6-1925

My dear Lewis Mumford:

Under separate cover I am sending you eleven photographs of O'Keeffe's work. There are no others up here. These I hope will do. Use them as you see fit. And return the photographs some time in the autumn.-

As for my own work I haven't a print up here. I hate to have any of my own work near me.- That is up here.- I am sorry.-

-O'Keeffe has been laid up for a month- results of vaccination. Nothing more serious than keeping her from work!- But both of us are rounding to. It was a miserable beginning.-

You undoubtedly have your hands & head more than full- with the trip in view- & the baby due almost any day.- I hope the prospective mother is in great shape.-

If I had been half well this Spring I would have asked to have her sit for me- to give me a chance. But my camera has been idle since last October.

- Wishing you & her & the baby all sorts of good things-

Yours, etc.-

Stieglitz
Lake George, N.Y.

Lake George

Sept.10-25

My dear Lewis Mumford:

I do not remember exactly what O'Keeffes I sent you- but I'm
sending you under separate cover a few more prints which were
recently "salavaged". May be you'd prefer one of those. You'll
have to make your own selection.- It is difficult to say which
are the "important" O'Keeffes- particularly when translated into
black & white. As for my own photographs I feel that they would
miscarry in reproduction unless there were quite a few. May be
I'm mistaken. But that's my feeling- based on experience. I be-
lieve. Of course I am delighted that you feel about our "work"
as you do & that we are to be mentioned in your article in
"Form"- I am glad you let our friends on the other side under-
stand that America aesthetically is not entirely non-productive.
I know the German's attitude- & not only the German's- but the
others' of Europe- I can imagine your delight in getting home
to wife & baby - You are certainly a live trio- It is not
difficult to see the three of you.-

- O'Keeffe & I are working at last. It has been a queer summer-
not as productive as most other summers. There has been so
much illness. The Fall is usually "our" time- so we are hoping.-
Our affectionate greetings to the Lady, the young master &
yourself-

Stieglitz

Rosenfeld sends greetings

Lake George

Nov.9-25

Dear Lewis Mumford:

I have just had Rosenfeld read your Criticism of "Emotion in Art". aloud to O'Keeffe & me. I had read it yesterday.- It is splendidly clear & apropos. I wish all those supposedly interested in pictures in this Land of Ours could have a chance to read this simple statement.-

- Did you ever get the photographs of O'Keeffe's I sent you a few weeks ago?- We are working hard. And I believe you & the Lady will enjoy some of the results. I hope the young man is thriving & the Mother feeling very fit.- I am taking for granted that all goes well with you.

- We'll be in town in about ten days- We don't enjoy the idea of the swap- this for that. Still we'll be very glad to see a few friends. And you are amongst those.

Our greetings to you & the Lady- & to the Young Man-

Alfred Stieglitz

Dec.2-1926

My dear Lewis Mumford:

The Marins become more wonderful everyday. Too wonderful to believe that they really exist.- I can't tell you what a privilege it is to live with them as I do.- And during some hours when they & I are alone together I have taken up your book "The Golden Day"- & read. I have read it twice. It is very beautiful. It fits into this room as the Marins do.- I want you to know that it lives with me in the spirit that the Marins do. My love to you & to the Lady & Child.

Alfred Stieglitz

4112 Gosman Avenue
Long Island City

6 December 1926

Dear Alfred Stieglitz:

Your letter has made me very humble;
I admire the Marins too heartily to put
the Golden Day alongside of them; but for
that reason, I value all the more highly
your words.

I have tried to write about the Marins
for the New Republic; and all my many fumbling
paragraphs have been reduced to one. I feel
with Whitman: the best can not be said: the
best is that which must be left unsaid.
Yours is the intimate gallery in a deep sense:
what goes on there cannot be lightly drawn to
the surface, and exhibited to others. In
that sense, the Marins will wait long for
another home.

We three begin to thrive again---and send
our affection greetings to O'Keefe and you.

The Intimate Gallery, Room 303
Anderson Galleries Building
489 Park Avenue, New York City

My dear Mumford

I've been wanting to write to you ever since I ran into the New Republic of March 2. But somehow or other it has been impossible. The pace has been terrific. But I dare not let you wait any longer.

You have certainly taken our breath away. Not only mine but Georgia's and the men's. There is but one voice about what you've done. It's a magnificent essay. Clear and new. You have touched something that has not before been said not only of Georgia but of America. It is an invaluable contribution. The title in itself is a master stroke. Brilliant. I wonder could you come in and see me for a few moments as soon as possible. I have something I'd like to show you. I know it will interest you. So come as soon as you can, will you.

With our affectionate greetings to you and your wife and
the young lord,

Alfred Stieglitz

3 March 1927

Alfred Strieglitz, Esq.
Room 303
Anderson Galleries Bldg.
489 Park Avenue
New York, N.Y.

4112 GOSMAN AVENUE
LONG ISLAND CITY, NEW YORK

26 May 1927

Dear Alfred Stieglitz:

Forgive me for being so tardy in handing you
over the essay on O'Keefe, with the all too slight
correction and amplification. I had loaned the
clipping to a friend of mine; and I couldn't
at once lay hands on it. It is a poor enough
tribute as it stands; but if it pleased O'Keefe
and you, I guess I shall have to be satisfied
with it---since at the moment my energies are too
feeble to let me add another honest stroke to it.

We are moving into a house next week—and
you know what that means; and by the middle of
June I trust that Sophie and Geddes and I will all
be in Martha's Vineyard for the summer, with a
little chance to get back our vigor and to think
happy thoughts. We both would like to see you
before we go; and if there's anything left of us
after the moving, we will.

Lake George

Sept.13-27

My dear Lewis Mumford:

I have been wanting to send you, the Lady, & the Child O'Keeffe's
& my greetings for weeks. But somehow the weeks have slipped
away- mostly weeks none too pleasant- much like the weather-
and the pen remained idle.- But this morning I feel I must tell
you that you have been with us very much- in many ways- Then
too I have been reading The American Caravan carefully. And I
have been thinking of all the work put into it- by you & P.R.
& Rosenfeld- I'm assuming Brooks was not well enough to do much
active work- altho' I am delighted that his name appears as
Editor- or as one of the Editors- And I feel it is work well
done. In fact very well done.- The book is splendidly put
together- & I feel it is alive from cover to cover. Some of it
is grand. Much is good. Nothing is really poor.- My congrat-
ulations.- The Lady too did her share I understand. To her too
my congratulations.- But what I'm wondering about were you in
Europe. And have you been at your own work. I hope so.-
"Golden Days" is very vividly in my mind always. And the thought
of it is always pleasurable- even more than that.- I hope it
is going well.-

O'Keeffe read your article on her the other day again. And
said: "It's very, very beautiful."- She hasn't been well. Had
to be in Mt. Sinai a couple of weeks & is now only gradually
getting back to work.- So the summer has not been as productive
as past summers as far as she is concerned. But still there is
something to show. And I too have done relatively little.- So
much illness near me- & I always physically tortured in one
way or another. Then too the weather tries the nerves of one
photographing in the manner I do. Yet, I too will come back
not entirely empty handed.-

I have no programme for The Room - but I hear Marin is "ready".
So is Oscar Bluemner. And there are others. Whether the
"Season" will be as magnificently perfect as last year remains
to be seen. It will be difficult to maintain the Marin- O'Keeffe-
Lachaise average.- At any rate the Spirit at least will be
maintained. And after all as far as I'm concerned that's the
chief thing. And my job above all others.-

Well, Mumford, I do hope that you & yours have remained well-
& will keep so.- The rest I know will take care of itself- Our
affectionate greetings to you & yours-

Stieglitz

4002 Locust Street

20 September 1927

Dear Alfred Stieglitz:

Your letters are timed by the kindest of provisions: your last one reached us the day I returned from Martha's Vineyard; and I could ask for no warmer welcome to the city. We had the sea and the sky with us all summer; and naturally, we thought of you often too: the fog was a little tiresome at times; but there were plenty of long, sun-drenched days, too; so on the whole our summer was a good one; and I did more work than I've ever done before in such a short time, whilst Sophie got back some of the serenity and poise that had retreated in the face of all the difficulties we encountered last winter. As for little Geddes, he flourishes mightily: he is an imp: and his sense of humor is irresistible. I wish that the summer had been kinder to you both; but I am eager to work that, in spite of bad stars and cross winds, you squeezed out of it: one waits for the opening of the Room in autumn, as one waits for the flowers in spring. I find that Paul is discouraged by the reception the American Caravan has gotten at the hands of the newspaper reviewers: but I don't share his feelings. A collective work like this is bound to rouse a lot of jealousy and antagonism; it would have no purpose if it did not, among other things, stir people up; and the very faults that the reviewers find---that there are too many unknown names in our roster, that not every effort is a finished and perfected work, or (and they say this at the same time) that we have included too many established reputations---all these criticisms show that we are partly fulfilled the purpose we set out with. I don't expect a newspaper reviewer to understand this, however; for it would require a little magnanimity and imagination; and those qualities don't go very far in the wasp's battle of journalism. Your own words are very heartening; and for me they outweigh the yearly product of Romeke's clipping bureau. Have you written Paul to the same effect? Paul perhaps doesn't realize what a lot of help one can get from one's enemies: a little hostility will, I think, help the Caravan more than praise.

Both of us join in very warm greetings to you and O'Keefe---whose words about my criticism I shan't soon forget: May we greet each other soon:

Lake George

July 7-28

My dear Lewis Mumford:

It was good of you to write. Curiously enough day before yesterday I sat down to send you a "Hello & Best Wishes"- but was interrupted. Your letter comes a response to my thought of you & yours- And you are in my thoughts frequently even tho' I may not be thinking of writing. It's good to hear you are deep in & full of Melville. I am looking forward to the books. Altho' at my age & in my condition it is not "wise" to look forward- I have been much harrassed by a battery of ailments- nothing very serious- but just trying- very trying. Disconcerting. I had hoped all spring to have the summer for my "Omn" work- photography. But there are four weeks gone & the cameras stilled pack.- Still a few old (?) prints have been mounted-completed.- I am finally going to let the Metropolitan Museum have about 20 prints as a starter.- The Museum has been after me for years.- So Photography is to be recognized- the doors opened- by the august body.- I'm much amused at the body- but even more at myself. It's really all so silly-

My eyes have been on a rampage too- so I have done no reading.- Several books are due- a Joyce- a Lawrence amongst them.- Do you know quite a bit of pressure has been brought to bear upon me to give Lawrence a Show in The Room. He has done a lot of painting. But the paintings are large & the 1928-1929 "season" is filled up with Marin- Dove- Hartley- O'Keeffe- Strand- & it looks as if it would be our last year of The Room- & Lawrence seems to be in need of money. He is ill.- Illness & money- Why haven't I a decent place that I could do the work that I feel I am ready to do- that I know no else the world over can do. Work worth while if anything is worth while. But I suppose one of my ailments is "no place"- Fortunately I can smile- It's part of one's disciplining.

- O'Keeffe is feeling fine. She has painted a bit but has been busy primarily with plumbers- & painters & carpenters- & cleaning house.- All quite a job. I'm useless.-

Our affectionate greetings to you & yours-

Ever your old

Stieglitz

Excuse scrawl- my middle finger is in a splint- tore a tendon in pulling off underdrawers! Can you beat that for idiocy-?

March 10/29

Dear L.M.!

The Book came a few days ago. And I've been having an extra-ordinarily wonderful time reading it. The Fates have been kind- but few visitors in the mornings- so I have been reading & so thoroughly enjoying- undisturbed. Georgia's paintings never looked quite so beautiful. Your spirit & hers- your craftsmanship & hers- they fit so perfectly. Thanks for the rare treat & for the thought of us.

Our love to you & yours-

The book is solid- beautiful. And well printed.- For this latter favor I'm always particularly grateful.-

March 17/29

Dear L.M.:

I have finished Melville. I usually read very fast—somehow I preferred to read this book very slowly. It's truly a grand & beautiful gift you have given the world—& more particularly me. So once more a thousand thanks. And what a glorious "review" I have just read. Pan's Sister—befitting this Grand Sunday morning.

— The O'Keeffe's come down this evening. The last few days have been the most incredible in my life. "Miracle" upon "miracle" coming to pass. There is truly a real America. I know it more surely than ever. Your work is one of the proofs. Our love to you all.

S.

AMENIA
NEW YORK

27 August 1929

Dear Alfred Stieglitz:

I have had a queer broken summer, partly exacer-
bating, partly restful and recuperative; and I have
been tempted many times before to write you;
but have always been a little afraid that the gritty
taste might get into my letters: and I didn't want
that. I am better now, thank you: and I trust that
you are well, too. A few weeks ago I spent a week
in Geneva lecturing; and in my final lecture, on
Europe and America, I succeeded in stirring up all
sorts of interesting discussion, not a little of which
would have warmed your soul, I think, had you been
there. In the midst of it, a Czech student got up and
said: "How is it that we don't see any American art in
Europe? You have painters like Dickinson and Georgia
O'Keefe and Marin who ought to be known in every gallery
of Europe, and yet we never hear about them." Heaven
makes such opportunities: so I told them about 291 and
you, and how you felt that it was much more important
that Americans should matter to America than that they
should matter to Europe; and before I was through
they had a somewhat different impression from their
original one, of a nation of esthetic parvenus, eagerly
bidding for an invitation to the "courts" of Europe.
It was all very amusing and very exciting: the American
students acquired a little self-respect in the course
of it; and the European students were a little bewildered:

We are all well now; and we'd be grateful for even
a stray word of you and O'Keefe.

2. Aug.28/29

Lewis Mumford

autumn & winter will be kind to you-- I said to someone
the other day all I'd like from life is thirty days of peace.
And I'd be willing to go on the 29th day!!-

O'Keeffe joins me in heartiest greetings to you & yours-

Stieglitz

When I get back to town you are to have a couple of Equivalents
of mine.-

LEWIS MUMFORD
4002 LOCUST STREET
LONG ISLAND CITY, N. Y.

23 October 1929

Dear Alfred Stieglitz:

The letter you wrote me at the end of August has been feeding me with pleasure ever since. I have been looking forward eagerly to your return to the city, and have postponed answering it, partly because I thought I might do it in person. This winter I shall try to get in hand and to work over various papers on the arts that I have written during the last five years: and one of the things I am very eager to do, if it will not cause you too much trouble, is to refresh my memory of your photographs. My book will deal only with the plastic and graphic arts; and it will be philosophical, I think, rather than descriptive or historical. Of course, what it actually will be, no one knows, not even I, until the words find themselves on paper: but this is what it looks like at present. We are well, thriving, happy again; and we trust you and O'Keefe are, too.

Lake George

Oct.1/30

Dear Humford:

I had two great treats this day.-- A letter from Solignann
telling me Santayana had written him most generously about his
"Fire-Bird" - I wonder did you ever see the little volume.
And your article in the N.R. Oct.1- the fine appreciation of
Kennerley. It's good in times like these to remind the world
of some fine things.- I haven't seen six magazines for, months.
Just happened to see a N.R. on the newsstand & your name on the
cover. So I bought & looked- & read eagerly while walking home
from the P.O.-

I hope all is well with you & that you are at work.- These are
difficult times in most ways. Probably all times have been
difficult. I'm looking forward to the place. I want to make
the season a memorable one. I have been far from well- heart
& rheumatism & teeth raising Merry hell- & at times I felt pretty
well down. But there is still some fight left in me- physical
torture or not. I'm amused to see myself repeatedly referred
to in connection with art dealers. Ye gods. Of course I don't
mind- & yet - yet - !!

Georgia is fine. And will have some real things to show.- I
have not done much- couldn't - still there are a few prints in
spite of all handicaps.- Georgia joins me in sending heartiest
greetings to you & Sophie.-

Ever your old

Stieglitz

Amenia, New York

10 October 1930

Dear Stieglitz: You don't know how often I have been
on the point of writing you: your letter, welcome though
it was, did not hasten the writing of this one by so
much as an hour. I had no impulse earlier in the
summer because I was still plowing through a mess of
illnesses, and I wanted to write to you, in particular,
out of some extra bounty of soul: but since August I have
been improving steadily: the various infections have
disappeared and finally I had my tonsils taken out a
few weeks ago, just to put a finishing touch on the process:
so for the last week Sophie and I have been enjoying all
the heady beauties of autumn, with a delight which would
have been wild and outrageous enough were we both twenty,
and which ten or fifteen years extra, plus our share
of mishaps and sorrows, somehow makes even a little keener.
The country has never been lovelier. Sophie's
trip to Europe proved awfully good for both of us; for
she returned quite rejuvenated, with her old confidence,
assurance, youth, elan; and, despite various small fatalities,
I had managed to wring something valuable out of
my soldiety: so, taking it all in all, we broke our round
of bad luck—or so at the moment we feel, although we
tremble at the thought of a winter in New York and wish
we had some assurance beforehand that the curse was definitely
off. I am grieved to learn of your own handicaps;
but the good news about O'Keefe takes away a little of the
sting, and I trust it will, in the curious unconscious
reciprocity of marriage, bring you an extra measure of
health, too: it will be great fun to see what you both
have done. My own work has languished this summer: the
first draft of my book is still incomplete; but somehow
this doesn't matter at the moment, since the rest of life
is momentarily so right—and my philosophy of art, to give
it the most pretentious title possible, will doubtless
not be harmed by another winter of reflection. We return
in ten days or so; and we both look forward to seeing
you and Georgia soon.

Warmly yours,

April 23/32

Dear Lewis Mauford:

You have become a European by this time- And here we are struggling along in An American Place! One of the Berlin Museum Directors was here a few days ago quite drunk with what he saw in the Place.- He is coming again.

Catherine has her picture & seems to love it. If you will make out a check for $17.50 to Arthur G. Dove & send it to me at your convenience it will be all right. There is no special hurry.- I wonder what Berlin looks like. My old home!- 1882- 1890- The finest years of my life were spent there.- And then-

O'Keeffe joins me in cordial greetings- so does The Place.

Amenis, New York: 20 July 1933

Dear Alfred Stieglitz: It is not only when I look at Camera Work that I think of you. The back of our house looks over a meadow and a low even mountain: above us is a wide circle of sky, and almost every evening I lie back in a steamer chair or on the dry hot grass itself—all sadly burnt away by the drought—and look at the clouds: and you are often with me during that quiet hour. Some of that sky goes every day into what I write: it will be no wonder if the book covers a lot of ground! My feeling for history and my instinct for the past have always been fairly adequate; but for the first time I begin to have some certainty as to what is germinating and what may come: an anticipation in many ways quite different from that which I had when I began my examination of the machine and my criticism of the part that it has played in work and life and consciousness. At first I was aware only of the way in which we had removed ourselves from the organic and replaced it by the mechanical: now I can see and definitely trace out that return to the organic, of which your whole work, and O'Keeffe's best paintings, and so much of Marin, are the potent symbols and harbingers! I begin to detect the equivalents of these works of art in industry and technics, and in back of that is the promise of a mighty revolution, to which all our brilliant analysis and mechanical exploit is merely the preliminary and in no way the end. So my book goes on: my pace, bet een three and four thousand words a day, ix would be a wearing one but for the fact that I am in fine fettle, what with swimming and gardening and making odds and ends of furniture. Our most affectionate greetings to you both.

P.S. I need not say how thankful I'd be for any extra copies of Camera Work you may have: here are my present ones, noted on the separate slip

Lake George

Sept.30/34

Dear Mumford:

Miracles still happen. I'm sure you must be delighted beyond
words in spite of your misgivings. Nothing could be more
timely than what's happened. Did Dorothy let you know what
Van Doren wrote me? Get her to do so. Or I'd better give it
to you here!

Sept.27/34

Dear Mr. Stieglitz:

I must tell you how much I have enjoyed reading the editors
call a collective portrait of you but what is quite as truly
a unified portrait of the generation which has been, and
continues to be, so deeply indebted to you. The book at once
clarifies & elevates the whole issue of art in America. Here
is a record such as the subject of the record deserves.

I have never met Van Doren. At least not to my knowledge.
What naturally interests me most is his saying "the book at
once clarifies & elevates the whole issue of Art in America"
And to me Art & Life are inseparable.

- Without politics or wire pulling without intention the Craven
book is answered. - There is a terrific time ahead & I am ready. -
I hope the clouds are clearing a bit for you. With love to
you & your family

Amenia, New York: 19 July 1935

Dear Alfred Stieglitz: I learned with concern the other day, from Van Wyck Brooks, that you had not been feeling well this summer: I trust that by now you are in better shape. When I went to Syracuse a fortnight ago I had vague hopes of running up to Lake George and spending an hour with you: but the weather and the prolonged absence from the family only a couple of weeks before made me come back here as quickly as possible. So far we have all been in fine fettle: the new baby is a charm, active but placid and even on the hottest day not really fretful; this is my first opportunity to find out what a woman is like in her early stages of development, and I am learning much, and shall learn more. . . . My work at Syracuse consisted of three lectures and a seminar; and out of very boredom, merely to keep myself amused in the thick of the heat, I made a good job of it. The lectures were on the Post war Mood and its challenge, in which I distinguished between the Hemingways, who were defeated by the defeat, and those who turned that defeat into a tragic defiance, on the Modern Concept of the Personality, and on the "Religion" and Modern Society. I want to put the last two lectures on paper; but meanwhile my next book is waiting to be written and I am at last buckling down to the task, feeling as fresh and renovated this summer as I was stale and harassed and tired last summer. Fortunately, my New Yorker piece will appear only every other week this coming winter: so if all goes well I hope to get a lot of work done at the points where it matters most. I have not heard a word from Paul since leaving the city: so I have had no news, even remotely, about you. Don't bother to write if you are burdened: just remember that we think of youx affectionately here. Remember us, too, to O'Keeffe.

Ever yours
Allison

Oct.15/35

Dear Mumford:

Camera Work has gone off to you in 4 packages by parcel post
special handling.- As for the missing Plates they were not
torn out of the books but were never put into those copies.
You see many of the gravures were tipped in by hand (by me)
after the Numbers had been printed & bound. And I only
completed the Number of copies as were subscribed for. The
edition was always 1000 except 49-50- that was 350. When I
destroyed about 10000 copies of Camera Work- they smothering
me- I destroyed virtually all the Plates that had not been
used. That's why I can't complete your incomplete copies.

My bestest to you all.

Stieglitz

Marin has not kept his promise. His framed pictures were to
be at the Place to-day. He will be a week late. And we'll
open officially on Oct.27. There will be watercolors- oils-
& drawings- all never before shown.

MUMFORD
AMENIA, NEW YORK

28 February 1937

Dear Stieglitz: It was good to get your letter, and I have put off answering it only because, on my last two trips to town, I have been hoping to do so in person: wanting also to have another look at the O'Keeffe show. But it has been impossible for me to manage it; and lest I fail once more, I am writing this while I have a moment. The winter, as you can guess, has been a heavy burden for me: the dragging in and out of New York would have been had enough by itself, but it was made worse by the fact that I have been standing by, week after week, a very dear friend who has been close to suicide and in need of every spark of energy and confidence I possess. Coming after a spring last year that was equally harrowing for much the same reason---perhaps you know about Eva Goldbeck's death---I have found myself often at the bottom of my resources, and but for Sophy's steady kindliness and brave good sense and magnanimity I might easily have gone under myself. That all these things combined to make me give up the New Yorker job, after this season is ended, is perhaps the one positive benefit that the experience has brought: for if I stay most of my time up here and live simply I should be able to weather a couple of years without the distraction of earning my daily bread except in the most incidental way: which means leisure for work. I trust O'Keeffe is better by now. Please tell her that I would have written

about her show had I had the energy to write anything fresh:
but I couldn't bear to print the *tired* tribute I had written,
for it said so little I had not said better before, and as a
parting word in the "new Yorker" it would have been a standing
reproach to me. Meanwhile my book grows, because like a baby
once started it keeps on no matter what its parents health
may be: and I trust that spring will bring a brighter world for
all of us. Our warmest greetings to you both

Vernon

MUMFORD
AMENIA, NEW YORK

5 October 1937

Dear Stieglitz: This last summer was the first in many years
during which we have not exchanged even one letter; and I have
been eager for newsof you, but was too deeply immersed in my
book, a complicated and exacting task, to lift my head long
enough to write anything but the most trivial of notes to chiefly
unimportant people. You know how that is. And I am afraid
this letter will be little better; but I had come to the city
so infrequently, and have to work so hard on the remaining
parts of my task, like the checking of facts, and the arrangement
of illustrations, that a few weeks may yet pass by before I will
actually see you in the flesh. In the meanwhile, I wanted to
let you know how thirsty I am for the sight of you, and how
eager my ears are to hear your voice. Except for the fact that
I have had, this summer, to exclude every vestige of life except
that which connected itself directly with my thoughts and my
writing; except for that it was a good and fruitful summer.

That is: the book is written, or at all events, enough of the
manuscript is in final shape to permit me to entrust all of it
to the printer, so as to acquire one final breathing spell before
I put on the last touches. I am fairly satisfied with the results;
although the nature of what I was doing kept me from giving the
material that warm immediate sense of life that I somehow was
able to put into my essay on the Metropolis in the book about you.

(Looking back on it, that seems one of the high points of my
writing.) How have you been and what are you doing? Don't

Oct.9/37

My dear Humford:

So the book is virtually completed. Good, Splendid. I'm
sure it's a grand piece of work.- And may be I'll live long
enough to see a copy of it.-

- You were in my mind very often since I saw you last- I
didn't write. Harely wrote to any one except to O'Keeffe &
Dorothy. O'Keeffe is still in the Southwest. My heart has
not permitted me to do any photography so this year I have
come back empty-handed. The first time that.-

Still I'm well in a sense & hope to keep on the job at the
Place.- it becomes more & more difficult to solve the constant
problems presenting themselves. Chiefly the problem of keeping
the Place alive in spirit- true to the tradition I have
established.

- And I'm in your book.- I'm honestly always surprised when
I find I'm still amongst the "living".-

It was good of you to drop me a line- Of course I had under-
stood the silence as I hope you understood mine.

My greetings to the family.- And of course that includes you!

Your old

Stieglitz

MUMFORD
AMENIA, NEW YORK

30 May 1938

Dear Stieglitz:

Just before going back to the country last week I learned from Dorothy that you were, for the moment, confined to bed: I can imagine well how that kind of inaction must have chafed you and I trust that by now you are on your feet again. During the very worst points of the last two winters I resorted to the xxx practice of going to bed for a whole day at a time as a way out of an inextricable tangle; and it proved so successful that I feel like recommending it as a general measure for maintaining health, sanity, and balance.

What prompts me to write at the moment is the letter I am enclosing, which I think sufficiently explains itself. Since the sinner who repents is, on good authority, to be valued more than the naturally virtuous, I would add my own very earnest plea to Newhall's desire to make amends. A single photograph by you as the frontispiece of the revised volume would have an eloquence and an authority that would put the emphasis of the volume exactly where it ought to be. And it would be a handsome contribution to the true history of our time.

The other night it was warm enough for the first time to sit out in the open as the sun was going down; and the domonic sky that night made me think, as I have so often thought in that same quiet spot, under those same influences, of you. The new cloud picture that I saw for the first time last week---that of the parallel vertical clouds on the intense background---seemed to me a miraculous consummation of

consummations. Those deep contrasts seemed to symbolize pretty much all that you have done and been.

This has been a spring of consummations for me, too: for the first time perhaps---I am now forty-two:---I have the sense of having come into possession of all my powers simultaneously, without the usual necessity of sacrificing one to the others. Princeton and Harvard have both been making bids for me; and though my answer has been no, since I don't want to commit myself too quickly, the bids were reassuring. In a fortnight, I shall start off on a pilgrimage to the East: my first stop is Honolulu. If I don't see you before I leave, here is to a summer of renewed health and activity for you.

P.S. Georgia's recognition by Williamsburg gave me great satisfaction: proof as it was that America can recognize and honor her own.

Our warm greetings to her, too.

["4 July 1938", "Dear Stieglitz: for the life of me, I can't remember whether I actually wrote you a letter from Hawaii, or whether I merely meant to so hard that the intention registered in my mind instead of the deed: but I have been thinking of you constantly through all these busy and lonely days of travel; and if I now record that fact for the second time, at least no harm is done. In a curiously detached way, I have been having a grand time: Honolulu turned out to be far more genuine, far gayer, far xxx more friendly than I had imagined, despite all manner of filth and poverty, which I took in x_x_ along with all its loveliness; and my breakfasts in the morning, alone under the palm trees, on a xxxxx terrace by Waikiki, with the waves swishing against the sea-wall and imudent little sparrows hopping along the bamboo railing, begging for bread, will permanently remain in memory, as a vision of sheer delight: for the outlines of the old volcanic mountains, jagged, irregular, are very exciting, and the contrast between the lush foreground and the stark, threatening background, between the rich blue sea and the lean grey green hills, all very fine. My xxx lectures at the educational conference there were a great success: I had somehow caught the spirit and the tempo of the old Hawaiian life there, and what I said pleased some of the old natives, as much as it secretly irritated x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x_x

civilized by the Polynesian and Asiatic peoples with whom they have mingled. They have even asked me back to give some advice about parks and housing; and if Sophy can manage to transport the children for such a distance, I may go back with the whole family in August. I can't describe the rest of the trip in any detail: it is giving me much, and yet I know that the deepest satisfaction of all will not come from it till I cross the threshold of my own home, and have a chance to go over, to sort out, to remodel in memory, all that I have seen and heard and felt. At all events it is a real break: my first since 1932, and my one that I have badly needed.

I was glad to hear from Dorothy Norman that you were feeling better again, and I trust that you are climbing back steadily to your old vigor. I can guess how much of that vigor has always depended upon sheer invincible will: in the long run, that is one's best asset.

The reparation that Newhall and the Modern Museum finally made, in their new edition of the Photography Show catalog pleased me a great deal: it was mere justice, but both of us have lived long enough to appreciate what a rare business mere justice is: Don't bother to answer this letter, even by proxy: when I get back east again I will take the first opportunity to see you, whether it be in Lake George or in New York.

With warm greetings to O'Keeffe,

Ever affectionately yours

J. Lewis

Feb.5/39

My dear Munford!

A copy of "Man Must Act" has come. Many thanks for it & your kind inscription. I look forward to reading the book at the first opening I have. The Place keeps me madly busy. O'Keeffe shows always do. She is on the Pacific bound for Honolulu.

My cordial greetings to you & yours.

Waldo read me what you had written him about his novel, I'm glad he finally has found a publisher in this country.

The Place

Dec.31/39

Dear Hunford:

How good of you to remind me that I mean something very real to you & in times like those.- How good too of you to remember that to-morrow is my birthday. I believe it is rather indecent for one to tarry so long.- Really I believe that You know I always claimed every man with any sense of decency would shuffle along at 65! I still feel that way. Overstaying one's time doesn't seem quite right from an esthetic point of view.- That is from the point of view of the beautiful.- Well I'm still here.- My best wishes to you & your family.- May 1940 have good health & so much happiness in store for you all

MUMFORD AMENIA NEW YORK

23 March 1940

Dear Stieglitz:

It was good to get your letter, just before running
up here for ten days, for a glimpse of the white
hills and the clouds and the moonlight on the snow:
sights whose very loss I had almost forgotten during
the winter. But I was almost ashamed to hear from
you before I had a chance to write you about O'Keeffe's
exhibition: for seeing it the other day was like
renewing one's feeling about spring; and I felt that
in some of the Hawaiian pictures she had captured,
with remarkable purity and intensity, what one feels
about the miraculous islands. No 18, the Waterfalls
and the mist, seemed to me worthy to put beside her
greatest pictures; and I liked particularly, but with
a different reference, No. 20, of the trees and hills,
and no 10, of the Pineapple, while still another, on
the North wall of the big room, of the red flowered
stalk against blue sky and sea, had a lot of the
people in it, too. Altogether, it was a fine exhibition,
and I only hope that others felt half as keenly about
it as I did, and do. Please give O'Keeffe my warmest
greetings and congratulations: I shall be waiting for
more of Hawaii from her, and only wish I had the means
to appropriate it more intimately and directly.

As for me, the only reason I wasn't around long before
the other day was, fortunately, not illness but the
reverse: my book has seized me and it's going
from nine in the morning, when I reach the library till
three or later in the afternoon when, without bothering
to lunch, I leave it. By that time, too much of me is
spent for pictures, add I walk back home, meditating
on what Ixx I have been reading or what is happening
to the world. The two recently have been close

together, because I have been studying the dissolution
of Rome and the deepening of the darkness that
followed. It will require a miracle, if we do not
follow the same path!

I trust that the spring will bring renewed tides of
energy for both of you. Sohy joins me in
affectionate greetings.

LEWIS MUMFORD

AMENIA

NEW YORK

31 December 1940

Dear Alfred Stieglitz:

Tomorrow is your birthday; and I am writing you, not
so much to congratulate you over that event as to
congratulate the United States, in whose name I now
speak to you. You cannot imagine what strength and
courage and clean decision your very existence gives
to those of us who know you. It is not just that we
value you for your work and influence, for your bold,
powerful efforts to promote that life which lives in,
through, and out of art. That work is great and will
remain great. But we value you for being: we value
you for the faith without which your works would be
non-existent. Only those who are close to you have
felt, in any degree, your full influence; but the waves
you have set in motion will continue to spread in widen-
ing circles and will in the long future touch far
distant shores. Let the thought of that, let the
thought of America's still unspoken love for you,
be your birthday present tomorrow.

LEWIS MUMFORD

AMENIA

NEW YORK

8 June 1942

Dear Alfred Stieglitz:

Each time I come back here in spring my greatest pleasure is to sit out in the open behind the house at sunset, watching the shifts as they dart and swoop through the sky and following the changing movements of the clouds. Always when I do this I feel close to you; always I want to say something to you; always I feel as if we both were aware of a truth that brought us together and yet needed no further words to express it. Sometimes I write you, and sometimes I don't; but always I think of you, and always I will continue to do that and attempt to pass on to others the things you have expressed in your own life and helped me to find in mine. This sense of closeness has come upon me during the last fortnight here, not merely because this is the last summer I may be spending in the East for a year or two, perhaps longer, but because I have undertaken to be a teacher of the young at Stanford, as you may have heard, and early in

September, Sophy and Alison and I will be pulling up our roots and at empting to transplant ourselves thither. Meanwhile, I am working on the third volume of my series, AX with the same intensity that I worked a few years ago on Faith for Living. And you? Don't feel burdened by the necessity of an answer...

XXXXXXXXXX; for I shall find out from Dorothy or Paul how you have been on the outside; and I trust to sympathy and friendship to tell me whatever else there is to know. But take good care of yourself in the meanwhile, and if you are in the city in September, when I start off, you will be my only visit.

Αλεξανδρος σερημας

καιρος

STANFORD UNIVERSITY

SCHOOL OF HUMANITIES

STANFORD UNIVERSITY, CALIFORNIA

27 December 1942

Dear Stieglitz:

I will be thinking about you on your birthday---as often at other times during the last six months---even though, with themails so slow these days, this letter may not arrive before the first itself. Though I came out here hoping to lay the foundations for the world after the war, that hope has already proved to be an illusion: if that world has foundations, it will be those that we have started to lay long before: what can be done in a few months or a few years even will not avail, while what was started, like a seed dropping between the rocks, long ago will surely come to fruition in good time, though one may have to wait for the soil itself to gather them before the seed can germinate. Your own work has been of this solid nature: slow-growing, in seeming obscurity, but destined because of that very fact to tower and spread in the days to come. I would like to say to you, as I failed to say in time to Patrick Geddes, that I will always bear witness to the life that you passed on to me and will endeavor to make it mean as much to the

next generation as it has meant to me. Many things
will not survive the present catastrophe; many things
will not deserve to survive: but your thought, your
feeling, your experience, your work, and above all
your example are destined to have a long life.

I wish I could have been present at the opening of your
exhibition; and I wish I could shake your hand and look
into your eyes this coming New Year's day. But perhaps
there is no need for either: even in silence and
absence, I trust, you will be conscious of my respect
and my love.

An American Place

M'ch 30-43

Dear Mumford!

Your more than kind letter came on January 1st. Of course
I was very glad to have it. And my intention was to write to
you soon.-

- And here 3 months have slipped by & I haven't written.
Horrible. I offer no excuses. It is not neglect. As a
matter of fact every morning I'd say to myself: to-day I
must write to Mumford.- Yes every day- that. And yet 3
whole months have slipped by & not a line written.- I lie
here in the Place. I lie at home.- The Dove Show was grand.
So was the Marin. The O'Keeffe is now up. It is very
lovely.- Severe & lovely.-

- The Place is visited by but few. It has a tomblike feeling
to me. As if all were peace in the world!- A queer feeling
when perfectly aware of what is going on which is all but
peaceful.

- I do hope you are getting on with your book & that your
work is congenial. And above all that the family is well.

My love to you all.

Stieblitz

Amenia, New York: 15 November 1945

Dear Alfred Stieglitz:

These words of greeting are so long delayed, they have been
written so often in the air, that I am almost ashamed to utter
them: but long before this, I had planned to see you, and only,
my long uphill pull on my book has prevented me from
this fall. I am doubly ashamed to write, because I am approaching
you now with a request. My present book, which is called
The Condition of Man, has sixteen plates in it; most of them
contain from three to five small illustrations. All of them are
chosen except the final plate: one which is to symbolize the life
springing out of the dark world through which we move today. Only
you have the photograph that would symbolize this: the Lake George
skyline and clouds in America and Alfred Stieglitz's represents
exactly what I need---unless you have some other in mind, which I
have not seen, which would come even nearer. For many reasons, all
of which you must know, I would like that photograph to be the final
one in the book,---and incidentally, the only photograph, for the
rest, range from Van Eyck and Tintoretto to van Gogh. If you
are loath to have it reproduced and feel you must deny me, I
will be the first to understand. Please don't bother to write:
I shall drop in on Friday for your yes or your no.

With affectionate greetings,

Feb.25/44

Dear Mumford:

It is so good of you to have sent me a rough proof of the
illustrations for your coming book.- It's a great setup-
beautifully conceived.- So much in so compact form.- My
photograph seems to function.- I'm glad to see how you
have used it.- Came as a surprise to me.-

And the book won't be out till August. Well I hope I'll
live to see it.-

Too bad you can't see the new O'Keeffes. They are an
extraordinary lot. A new note. Very uplifting.- A new
world- So it is felt by nearly all who come. And so far
about 2000 have come.

- I hope you are having none too trying days. It's good to know you are on the job. Living.- And I hope your family is OK.- With love

Stieglitz

An American Place

May 3-1944

Dear Mumford:

I have been reading your latest.- I can't begin to give you
any idea what joy I have found in its pages. Joy & real
illumination. It is a great contribution. May it have many
readers- intelligent ones.- Intelligence with a heart.-

I hope all is well with you & yours.

The Place is still like a sepulchre. The Doves are a
profound lot. Of to-day so ahead of the "times".- They are
ignored. Still a few rare folks, mostly foreigners, do see
them. So they dwell not only in my imagination. What a
trio: Dove, O'Keeffe, Marin.- And you.- I think of you as
living here.-

Thanks for the book.- Yes it gives me joy. You have done a
grand job. My love.

An American Place

December 29-44

Dear Mumford:

I have your letter.- Your son.- Yes he is here as he is
with you.- Those are not words.- That is the reality. For
me at least.- And when I say me & say you- ever there is the
Mother.- And ever the Glory of Life- in all its manifestations.-

- I look forward to the proofs you say are to come. I know
they will be most welcome for they will be good.- What
"message" does it carry? One of Light I'm sure.- Light
through all the Darkness.- I'm still reading your last book.
Very slowly.- All of me reading.-

- Thanks for your birthday greetings. It is indecent for one
like me to have lived 81 years. A frightening idea. Really-

My love to you Mumford & to your wife & daughter.-

Your old

Stieglitz

An American Place

May 2- 1945

Dear Mumford!

It was so good to see you. To hear you.- Good to see what
the O'Keeffe gave you.-

- And after you had left I opened the book but was too ill to read. I was glad to have the volume.- As soon as I felt a bit better- some days later I began reading. I have read the book twice. It's a solid contribution. To get its full import it must be read very carefully. At least so it seems to me.-

- Of course I have read about myself.- I wonder am I actually what you say I am. Am I that worthy?- Am I?-

- I hope so. It has been a long & constant fight.- And so it will continue to be until the release comes.- I enjoy your writing. There is a nobility about it.- And is so clear.-

Georgia left yesterday.- She showed me your letter to her. It made us both happy.-

My love to you & yours Mumford.

Alfred Sleglik, Esq.
509 Madison Ave
New York
N.Y.

May 16/46

Dear Mumford:

It was very good to have had your letter. More than very
good, I had understood your silence. I believe I know
the state you are in. How often I think of you. Look into
the pages of your books here. And always enjoy what I find.

- And your new book came this morning. Many thanks. I have read it. Read much several times. I acquired a copy several weeks ago. I shall loan that copy to several people I know might enjoy the reading.

And you are flying to England. I wonder what your experiences
will be. Much sadness. Much strength. How much hope. That
queer word those times.

- If you can find a moment drop in at the Museum of Modern Art & see the O'Keeffe's. I think it would be a revelation to you the feel of it all. Sweeney has done a grand job. I have had nothing to do with it.

- The Place is very quiet. A tomblike stillness much of the time.

Yes you are often in my mind- "mind"-

Love to you.-