GERTRUDE ELY
BRYN MAWR, PENNSYLVANIA

April 3, 1960

Oh dearest Elsie,

At last, and I am sorry--perhaps because much of my mail was mis-forewarded during the time I was in Africa and before I got home, I have your letter, and hadn't fully understood your long list of actual tragedies in connection with your body, and my first reaction is, on reading this last letter, that you have been magnificently determined and patient and successful in overcoming great odds. How splendid the book is having such a good reception, and can't wait to have a copy. Be sure to let me know when it is actually out, and let me send you a copy to be properly autographed.

I'm so thankful the eye healed quickly. I have a bad one myself. About seeing you, I cannot be in New York on the eighth, unfortunately cannot tell now when I can go to New York before April 25, when I take off for London and Paris with the young MacVeagh girl and her husband, Rodney Clurman. He has been commissioned by NBC to organize a TV show of Princess Margaret's wedding and the Summit Conference. What fun and interest there will be for me. I get back the first week in June to be at the 75th year commencement for Bryn Mawr College, when they are actually giving me a citation, to my utter amazement and chagrin because I am certainly not an alumna. But citations are being given to former Bryn Mawr

students for various categories.

I hope you don't mind my sending your letter to Frances Hand. She is fond of you and perhaps you have not written her at length. I have also been nominated as a delegate to the Democratic Convention!

My love to you always,

August 27, 1963

Dearest Elsie,

... How can I ever get caught up with you?
I think of you often in many directions --
for instance with Oliver LaFarge, with
Secretary Udall and with what hideous things
are being done to the Indians in Alaska and
with people who have been to Santa Fe,
sometimes bringing tales which are sad.
What fun it might be to go out there with
you. Please write and tell me how you are
and how the Frost book is going.

I am busy -- too busy -- with many
things because of an inquiring mind perhaps.
The Bryn Mawr Boys Club I started some time
ago has developed into something recognized
by the community at last and I am hoping to
make a model of it for people interested in
delinquency. It is an extraordinarily
revealing experience from the standpoint of
what kind of towns people we have, strangely
limited and unimaginative and quite often
non-Christian! Bryn Mawr College sent a young
woman to interview me about the Club and lo
I have just had a copy of the Alumnae Bulletin
containing a photograph and story not too
badly done. Perhaps you get it but I shall
send you a copy to make sure that I get a com-
ment from you. You will notice the Club is
integrated which not always happens in Boys
Clubs.

I have been home all summer and am
actually trying to arrange to go to Europe
for two or three weeks about the middle of
September. Is there anyone I should see
for you over there?

-2-

The new dormitory is in the process
of going up just beyond Wyndham which
will undoubtedly mean a restricted view
and some trees cut down. I do wish that
small colleges did not have to be
enlarged.

May I have just one card from you --
nothing more, and I hope it will bring
news of good health. I am increasingly
thankful for people like you and experiences
like the mud house in my life.

Much love.

GERTRUDE ELY
BRYN MAWR. PENNSYLVANIA

December 8, 1964

Dearest Elsie,

What a wide variety of happy memories
and sympathy for you went through my mind
while I was sitting with you at the Club
and I want to assure you that one of the
deepest ones was my admiration for you
and your hold on yourself and life with-
out the terrible realization that perhaps
you sometimes have, as I do, that you
hope and pray you will not become useless.
You gave me a fine impression of not
only having a good memory and your same
fine sense of values and appreciation of
them but your confidence that you are
going on to write. You did me good, so
let's meet every now and then at the
Club.

The enclosed is a Christmas present
to be used probably for transportation
wherever you would like most to go. If
it falls short of the required amount
you need, do call me collect or write
me that I am too tight with my money!

Do send me a book.

Much love,