Albany - 6:15

7:15 for you

And I wonder are you at supper -- and are you alright --

It has been much excitement for you the past
36 hours or so. I wonder how you survive it

The train was very hot -- we talked -- When we arrived
here we walked up and down the platform a bit --

Then Henwar drove away. I am standing
writing at the marble topped radiator in one end of the station.
I'm going to eat a bit and get on the train as soon as I can --
Always I'll be wondering about you

Tell Miss Wilson again I am so
glad she came -- My greetings to all --

And do be careful of your little self -- It is
cool here -- A quiet kiss to you

I'll be wondering all about you --

CHICAGO

AUG 10, 1928

9:20
your time

At the breakfast table. I don't know where we are -- the country
looks the same any way and having driven over it as many times I
know it pretty well. The conductor says we are near Gory, Ind.

I did not sleep very well -- Read the Va. Wolf article --
She is quite a girl isn't she -- sp keen

It is a grey morning only a very pale sun out for a few
moments. In the cars it is cool and lovely but on the platforms
in between it feels very hot

Early this morning -- I half awaks -- as I seemed to be
alright I thought I heard you call me -- Just my name -- It startaed
me -- naturally

I feel very good this morning -- arm and all -- Wish
I could look in on you. Tell Margaret or Miss Wilson to put everything
from the top of my desk in a box and on the top shelf of my closet.
There is nothing there but a lot of little nothings and no reason
why she shouldn't use it

Greetings to all of you

But something very special for you.

I had breakfast on the train and arrived in Chicago 8:25 -- 10:25 your time -- It was cool and comfortable on the train but when I got off the train it was like all those hot grey days we had at the Lake.

I mailed you a letter and went and had my head washed -- That was hot too -- however no hotter than doing anything else -- The Dearborne Station is very dirty and dingy. I walked around and around. Saw nothing of interest but a beautiful colored girl and an older colored woman with a wonderful hat.

I am on the Santa Fe train out now waiting for it to start.

It was so cold I had to put my wrap on when I first came in the car --

I had some orange juice at the counter in the station. Will eat my lunch when we start from here. I'll be cool now till we get there at 2:15 tomorrow afternoon I suppose

Be good to yourself

I wonder so often

8 P.M.

I would go to bed but I am going to stay up and take a walk when
we stop at Kansas City at 9:30

I've slept and read and had a nice dull day. The air
conditioning was so cold that I hunted up the only car where it wasn't
working --- Everybody else had left it because it was hot so
I sat in the most elegant room till I got warm then sat there in
the dark till now

Very sleepy

There is nothing to write

This is just goodnight to you

Thursday - 10:40

Standard time

Maybe you are getting ready for breakfast. That seems queer as I have been up since six. The only passenger out for the early morning stop to walk a few steps at Syracuse. We have just now left Raton -- the highest point on the R.R. through here --

Well -- I like it as much as ever as I see it out of the window. Since early morning I have liked it. There has been rain and it is cool -- At Raton I wanted my coat

Last night in Kansas City was roasting hot at 9:30 when I got out for the last walk -- The night was pretty good -- I feeling very good -- Ate two eggs for breakfast --

I wish you could sit here and look out the window with me -- it is so big and wide

I kiss you softly -

Good morning !

I'm sitting out in nowhere back of my house -- my back
to the sun --- Early morning sun -- Just sitting on the ground -- No
tree -- no rock -- to be under or sit on. I was up at dawn -- the
moon white in the bright blue early sky -- then some lovely pink clouds
and finally the sun hit the far away hills -- cliffs or what you
will and crept slowly across the long green lines of the plains to
the west --- When it was well up I went in and to bed again for
about an hour --

I stopped here on the way from town and left
my bags and Andrews two boxes -- then drove over to the main house
-- That very nice Chicago family, the Hardings, are here and Mr.
Bennet. We had supper outdoors on a new screened porch -- Arthur
and Phoebe very glad to see me -- She very pregnant -- The moon came
up through wonderful long black clouds -- I came home early and went
to bed -

As I sit here and look about it seems queer that I have
been away --

The long big colorful cliff was all white in the moonlight
last night

Everything as usual only I in a bit of a daze

I had your first letter--- Read it
when I got into bed. It made me a bit sad

However I am glad I am here --

9 A.M. Saturday

I've had the best nights sleep that I've had in ages. Didn't do
anything yesterday but get my place in order and walk out to the
cliffs in the late afternoon -- But I slept nearly ten hours--
no pills or anything -- waked a time or two and went to sleep
again --

I had much sun yesterday -- Sat and lay out in it a long
time --

Have already this morning been lying out for over half an
hour -- The dry heat makes me forget my arm --

I've come to the conclusion that even trees are
very apt to change like people

I guess inaccessible rocks like this cliff back
here are the only things that remain untouched -- Slabs will fall
off but the whole thing is so big I wont know it --

Must seal this to get it off -- It is a quiet
sunny day -- I'll stay out as long as I can stand it--

Three letter from you yesterday --
Thank you -- I'm still in a bit of a daze --

Later Saturday morning

The mail came and I have just read your letter -- I must say that I am surprised at their taking you on a 60 mile ride -- I would have thought ten miles enough -- or none at all after the excitement of my getting away -- Henwar being there and their coming -- It makes me feel a bit as if some one has scratched one of my paintings --

And you are always so dumb -- you go ahead and do such things.

I hope you are going to try to have a little sense -- overdoing and over talking can take weeks of improvement away from you

I guess I feel a kind of pulse in you that hasn't anything to do with the wrist.

You had a pretty quiet time when I was there -- even if they do all call me names for inviting no one for meals -- It was quiet --

I realize that you are going to have more changes of people coming and going and you have got to try to protect yourself as best you can. Eat in your little room alone if you are disturbed -- Don't wait till you are really upset -- Take care of yourself before you get upset -- Try to keep as even as you can no matter who comes or goes. That is your summer job.

You seem so helpless --

You had better oil yourself mornings before you dress -- at night you will be too tired

And here I sit in the sun

I'm going to get out my colors now

--- A very quiet little kiss to you.

Mr. Stieglitz -- Sunday night

I am returning your clipping.

I rather think it is my subject matter that interests
the boys-- one likes barns -- another flowers -- so those are the
best paintings.

By the way. My painting of the white flower is
out in Womans Home Companion -- or whatever the magazine is for
this month. I only saw it hastily in a bad light.

Will you send me that little rag of a sweater -
black - that I left somewhere about the house.

I have had a lovely day today. Drove sixty
miles up over a part of the Cumberas Pass -- 125 miles in all --
so many lovely flowers and the big green high mountain spaces
made me feel very good -- I felt like going somewhere so I went
-- Arthurs secretary drove me. It was a bit cloudy then when the
sun came out I cooked myself in the sun up in a high meadow. It
was lovely.

I dressed up in my black and white dress with the
deer leaping all over it for supper.

And if you ask me how my arm is feeling I must say to you
that it seems to be feeling much better -- It surprises me. I
really begin to be a bit hopeful about it --

A good night kiss to you

I wonder how you spent the day --

Will you send enclosed note to Andrew.

I didn't know how to be sure he would receive it.

Tuesday morning -- about 8 I think

I've had breakfast -- and am sitting out on the porch
in the sun -- my hat on and this paper on my knee in the shade
of a post. It is so still and warm --

You will laugh at what I did yesterday -- Mike
Harding came over befor eight with his little Lika and we went over
to a hill and tree I like and photographed a few shots. Mike
is about 17 -- He seems to know something about you -- We were so
busy with our tree and hill I forgot to ask him what he knew about
you -- A nice funny kid --

Then I came back here and lay on the roof
in the sun -- while I was up there Mr. and Mrs. Harding came along
and asked me if I wanted to go over the Cumberas Pass again. Of
course I wanted to go so off we went -- driving up to and through
the high mountains again all day --

Of course both the photographing
and going over the pass were my ideas -- started the night befor
but we all had a lovely day -- quiet and easy -- Lunch -- very good
lunch on the mountain in the sun --

I went to bed early -- read some on the Lawrence
book you gave me.

The two days keeping my arm perfectly quiet seem
to have been good for it -- I could actually lie on it in bed
this morning.

I'll go up to the roof now -- I take the sun early
because I can lie in it longer then --

A morning greeting to you
and through such a clear still sky --

SANTA FE, N.M.

AUG. 18, 1938

Good Morning Mr. Stieglitz -

Thursday

It is a good morning -- I didn't write yesterday. Went out to paint right after breakfast -- thinking I would write in the afternoon before mail time -- 6 P.M.

Well Mike and one of the cooks - a boy about 20 who goes to college in the winter -- caught a young coyote and brought it over here and put it in a pen just at my back door -- late in the afternoon -- I was painting when they came and after their excitement went back to painting and the writing didn't happen.

While I was at supper the girl who lives here got sorry for the coyote and let it out --

When the boys came over with a cate they had made for it she told them it smelled so badly she couldn't stand it
--- Of course it didn't smell. She was just sorry for it -

The boys didn't say a word when she told them. Then just got into the car and drove off -- And I'll bet the young coyotes in the hills will be chased in fine style today.

My painting is a good start -- It is small -- 7 x 12 -- Another red hill. Well -- I'd like to get a red hill that would really satisfy me.

I read in the Lawrence book last night -- Thank you -- I enjoy it and kiss you for that and many other things.

Sunday -- 8 A.M.

Well I was up at dawn this morning -- three nights
sleeping out under the stars --- it was wonderful. Seems good
for my nose. Maybe I will try to fix it to sleep out here.

We spent the night about 20 miles from the ranch
because it was so nice out there! I'd rather sleep out than come
back here and sleep in.

I heard of a Navajo dance that I hadn't seen and started
for it unexpectedly --

Well -- we missed the dance but had a very
good trip anyway --- High mountains where it was cold and green
-- big trees and fertile valleys --
deserts -- and fantastic rocks --
and those vast deathlike

About 700 miles in all --- Eating
and sleeping out -- Had only one meal indoors --- It was very good
altogether -- puts me in a sort of daze and makes me wonder where
I am -- what time of year it is-- etc -----

Going from cold
and green to hot and dry and back to green one gets all mixed up.

I must get this off with Orvill --- He is going to his
home down near the Post office -- There were two letters here
from you ------ Thank you --- and a morning kiss

It is all still
and sunny here --

Think I'll go out and paint --

SANTA FE, N. M.

AUG. 20, 1938

[22]

I waked this morning --- Monday --- early --- wondering how
you are ---

It seems a bit out of joint that I am not near
enough to see how you are

I got up ate breakfast and put on my hat --- my
bit beautiful black hat and started to town -- driving myself
down the 40 miles to Maries--- Spent only a few moments with
her then Paul Jones drove on to Santa Fe with me --

I got some
things I wanted then we went to Vernon Hunters for lunch --
He spent the day with me up at the ranch yesterday --

He was so
anxious that I see his baby --

I am sitting in the Santa Fe Plaza
-- Walter Goodwin just went by -- talked a bit -- Becks husband
came by too --

And since the above line I've seen Rebecca --
looks very well

Must mail this

I am on my way back to the Ranch

Well Mr. Stieglitz -- how long since you think you can call me
Mrs. Stieglitz --

I rather feel at the moment that I do not look
the part -- my hair is a sight from the three days camping. I've
been riding and look like the hired man in my blue jeans and a
cheap blue shirt to match -- the boots are off -- they are terribly
hot -- cow boy boots -- your foot stays in the stirrup so much
better but they are queer feeling things --

I didn't paint yesterday -- by the time I lay in
the sun as long as I could -- then scrubbed myself it was nearly
lunch time -- Don't remember what I did after lunch but I rode at
about 4:30 -- It was hot but I like it -- I was out in the car
painting all morning today and sat there with nothing on but my
drawers -- and liked it

It is such dry heat that it makes me feel
good. After lunch today I scrubbed the stone porch all around more
than half the patio with the aid of a Mexican girl a broom and a
hose -- When we were through I said -- isn't it nice?" -- Her
answer was "Yes -- so fresh"

Today I wasn't a bit stiff from riding yesterday
but tomorrow I'll probably know that I did something today --

My arm
seems to tag along after a fashion -- its not too good but it
doesn't bother much -- Being hot seems to help -

My hands are so
rough they hurt --

The sweater I wanted is my old mended one with
a little paint on it -- It is somewhere around the house -- It is
just a rag but I like it.

Good night -- I'm tired -- as you can probably tell

Little Mr. Stieglitz:

The little grey sweater came and I could cry
that you send it to me -- it is so soft and nice. I will take
very good care of it and not wear it unless I am really very
cold --- It is warmer than mine --- It is so nice and soft I like
to think of you having it so I am going to keep it for you. If
I do wear it I will think of it as your sweater and that I only
borrow it because I really need it.

I was out painting this morning -- The same little
painting -- Am through with that -- not bad -- no great flight
either --

This afternoon I went to Espanola -- Mr. Packs secretary
drove -- We did some ranch errands-- I had my head washed and
the car greased and fixed up -- The sun set as we came back was
wonderful -- such wonderful blues in a great dark cloud with a
shining white rim in the beautiful blue sky -- It was really
wonderful blues ----- and I have been thinking blues lately in
a jumbled uncertain way.

Had a telegram from Cady Wells saying he is coming
up tomorrow and a letter from Loren Mozley saying he is coming
from Taos with his wife -- A big day.

Had a letter from Vernon Hunter.

Am enclosing to you the catalogue of his show. I think the article
rather interesting.

There are three men here drilling for gold -- It
has been tried before -- We have a lot of fun laughing about it --
they laugh too -- It would really be a laugh if they found any.

I am glad Ross is with you and that it is quiet
-- I do hope it remains quiet. In a way I feel I should have stayed
there to guard you --

But I love it here -- I love the heat when

2

it is dry -- I like the hot dry wind --- the dry earth --
being
out doors almost all day. I'm going to try sleeping out in the
patio --

There was much commotion just now -- they killed a big
rattle snake out in the back yard --

Well -- I'll not sleep out
unless I sleep on a cot or on the roof or in my wagon or something
like that -- Someplace that a snake can't get to --

I thought
sleeping out might be good for my nose.

I've just looked at Mikes photographs -- I think
they would amuse you --- lizards, snakes in all sorts of positions
-- with shadows -- sometimes moved -- little Lika prints -- just
a little boys play -- He is only 17 but what a time he has--
sometimes the whole animal -- sometimes only a part -- a head or
a tail or hind legs and tail -- He is a great kid -- asks me every
night where I've been and what I've done -- misses nothing --

Good night Sir -- I'll bathe and to bed -- And thank
you again for the sweater -- It seems to touch my heart -- so soft
I liked your having it -- A good night kiss to you.

*Section of Mural "The Last Frontier"*
*Painted for Public Works of Art*
*Reproduction Courtesy of Survey Graphic*

## Introduction
by Paul Horgan

VERNON HUNTER GREW UP IN TEXICO, NEW Mexico, which is a little town on the very border of Texas. Long ago of course there was nothing there but vast flat lands, iron-red when the rain came and ran into mud; but most of the time, ochre yellow and wafted by distance into fading veils of color. Where the white sky met the earth, there was barely a line to make the horizon. When the railroad came, and when state and county lines were thought of and, being thought of, came to have influence over more visible facts, like the boundless plains, little clusters of buildings grew out of the town idea. Those needs of habitation which can be seen and which endure weather created that combination of man and earth which, taken in its essence, stands for amenity; for environment. Some of the buildings were tall and narrow, made of rosy brick. Others were of wood, slats against the dazzling bars of plains light. Others were of waved iron ready to rust gorgeously under the swipes of the rain and the vast stand of the sunlight. Chief of useful graces that men brought were windmills, and ditches where water ran, and isolated trees that broke the pale yellow earthline at the sky.

The railroad went past, drawing from the distance toward the town and receding in another perspective that met at infinity, like the fact of vision and the fancy of imagination.

Nearby was a larger town, full of railroad shops and stores and newspaper office and cafés. (In the Southwest, the word is

always café; rarely restaurant.) That was Clovis, a crossroads of the great world.

A gifted youngster growing up in a place like that lived intimately with the big country, and knew without any doubt that on a spacious land the simplest forms of protection and cultivation for social life, and the life of the spirit, were things to be respected and nurtured. Evidently there was always allowance made at home for the talent of this painter, as in the littlest communities there is actually a kind of respect for such an exotic as someone with a talent. Slightly larger places feel that they have to conform more wholly to an urban misconception, and the difficulty of adjustment for extraordinary human material often drives it quite away from home.

Hunter left home, when the time came, with his images of life deeply affected by some grand simplicities: illimitable land; precious habitation there; sympathy for whatever feeling and delight in life is expressed by people in a lonely place, to whom the smallest diversion is dear. . . a street carnival, a revival meeting, a famous man passing through on the train which would pause for nine minutes at the water tower at dawn while the shaded windows of the private car could be looked at speculatively by those who know what man is like *here*, and who wonder what he is like *there*, where the tracks finally end in the turreted cities by the ocean. . .

Yes, the little human event on the tremendous plains made drama for anyone who lived to know it in its season.

Though I know the country I have been describing (as a means of becoming acquainted with this painter), I have learned much about it from looking at his paintings, which means that what he sees there has been truly put on the canvas. Men get along together by telling each other the news of what they have seen. Some go far afield for it. Others discover it in the back yard, and report the strange wonderful doings to those who live next door, but who don't happen to see. In all fine

2

painting there is news of life, and Hunter's version of it comes through in terms of the grand simplicities. His nature and his association with the Southwestern scene have combined to produce pictures in which the subject matter has been simplified almost to abstraction at times. But this strikes me not as an arbitrary paring down to a few symbols; rather it strikes me as a direct reflection of that early vision in his youth which daily looked out over flat land where distance itself, and the weathers conforming to the plains, made things *look* that way.

The advantage of this to Hunter's work is that almost from the beginning he was able to achieve that sense of the abstract which lies behind even the most factual of good pictures. This sense is present in all of his work, and the selective fancy in his kind of "news" makes of the subject matter often something exotic and startling, simply because the abstract and the pictorial come so very close to one another. In such a picture as that of the white hotel at Muleshoe, Texas, for instance the handling of the perspective, the horizon, the sky, the shadows cast by the great brash sunlight, illustrates what I mean. The design is as frankly abstract as that of a wooden block lighted from one source. But the pictorial news is perfectly laid over this pattern, and with the craft of color, and the memory of many days on the plains and many roads starting from *here* and vanishing just out of sight, *there*, where the white sky comes down, all the familiar news is given that turn of strangeness that helps to make it live once again as if for the first time.

And of course this is because of how Hunter sees all the familiar things he paints. He doesn't see them as quaint, or tortured, or dismal, as many painters of American trash-heaps do. He finds a kind of grave respectability in even the shabbiest windmill, or the remotest string of railroad cars on a mountain siding. He allows them their life, and adds to them the colorful pleasure of his imagination. He sees them all first as forms for design. But after he has a design, he does not kid it or

3

worm it up with furies more interesting in literature than in
painting. There is a severity about his compositions and about
his drawing that is saved from bleakness by his color. No range
of color, or juxtaposition, could be implausible or disallowed
to a painter whose first impressions of color came from the
wanton play of light in the skies over the plains.

He paints with economy, rarely thickening his surfaces or
wadding the pigment to make it perform some of the function
of drawing. He draws scrupulously, with a kind of mildness
that is far from weak. All his work has delicacy, and none
more so than those interesting pictures that translate forms
into associative images, such as the one in which the canvas
barrier at the circus carnival is lifted by the wind into a vehicle
for light and movement. It is in this function of dream-like
plausibility that another characteristic of Hunter's style is fre-
quently shown. . . the color, the light, the shape, of the real
world: and the feeling, the memory, the oddness of the inner
world where personal associations occur, and meanings come
to life.

Now there is of course a whole canon of modern painting,
with many little schisms of apostasy and zeal, that draws upon
the world of the unconscious more deliberately than ever before
in the study of art. The movement has achieved a certain chic,
and it reflects legitimately in terms of art the attempt of mo-
dern man to bring the subconscious mind into the scheme of
growth in life. In his studies and in his years of teaching in
New York and Los Angeles, Hunter must have found corrob-
oration for his own painter's nature in this psychological in-
terest. But the material of his conscious world, his inheritance
of the objects of sight in Texico, New Mexico, has retained
the strongest power to release the delights of inner sight that
so beautifully come to expression in his work.

So in his paintings we find a curious and interesting blend of
the sophisticated and the folkish. The *treatment* could not be

4

more knowing and more honestly stylized. The *material* could
not be more elementary, so to speak; the barest evidence of
human concern upon endless land. I believe this to be proof of
Vernon Hunter's genuineness and honesty as an artist. He uses
*all* he has learned to celebrate the life he loves. After all, only
two kinds of people get and appreciate the *simple* nature: those
who know nothing else at all, or know any questions to ask;
and those who know so much that they respect the humble
and undiluted source of life because it answers the questions
which a life of passion and trial has taught them how to ask.

Paul Horgan

5

Paintings

1922-1938

1. Galisteo People

2. Penitente Night

3. Trouble

4. Rain at Chimayo

5. Cyclamen

6. Calla

7. Santa and Calla

8. Girl and Red Lily

9. Sleep

10. Awakened

11. Laguna

12. Spring

13. Morning

14. Pomegranite Blossom
*loaned by Raymond Jonson*

15. At the Sea

16. After the Contest

17. Barber Shop at the
Morning Star Hotel

18. Bull Pasture
*loaned by Josef G. Bakos*

19. Cowboy at His Bath

20. Dahlias

21. Rainbow at Evening

22. Watering Place
*loaned by Paul Horgan*

23. Horizontal Life

24. Angel of Doom

25. Virginia

26. Flower Garden on
the Homestead

27. Workin' in Town

28. Muleshoe Hotel

29. American Mural No. 1

30. Sunday, after Dinner

31. Out-house
*loaned by Eleanor Bedell*

32. Capulin Crater No. 1

33. Capulin Crater No. 2

34. Railroad at San Felipe

35. After the Dust Storm,
Puerto de Luna Valley
*loaned by Paul Horgan*

36. Panhandle Town

37. Helen's Bouquet

38. Entre Act in the
Afternoon

39. End of the Drought

40. Horse Chestnuts

41. Black Tulip

42. La Flor Exquisita

43. Flowers

44. American Mural No. 2

45. Cotton Carnival
at Sundown, Roswell

Thursday morning --

I didn't write last night -- was tired -- In the morning did
all my little odds and ends of mending -- visitors -- had written
they were coming so I didn't want to start anything -- darned a
little sewed on hooks and eyes and snaps and mended torn button
holes and stockings -- All important little nothings.

When a little after eleven Loren and his wife came -- both looking very fit -- she is really beautiful -- and I think as fine as he is and I count him as one of the best people I know. He has a better job this year starting the Art department with Ward Lockwood at the University of Texas --

He has the University of New Mexico class
in Taos for the summer -- Is having a very good lively life with
his work and the outdoors and a most surprising old automobile --
and the beautiful little slip of a girl who seems very tough and
able to blow with the wind.

At about 12 Cady Wells drove up looking
very spick and elegant in an open touring car -- a new one - and
a white embroidered looking straw hat and plum colored shorts
-- He didn't know Loren was coming -- We took lunch out to the
most shady spot I knew of then after we had eaten went up to
a higher point and sat under a small tree where we could look
around a bit -- Loren left at about a quarter to 5 then Cady came
to the house with me and showed me six or eight paintings that he
brought along. I thought them a step ahead -- there was one
water color in the old manner but so much freer -- and the others
seemed to say something just with their color. I was quite
surprised.

He is driving to his home in the East on Sunday. I told

2

him to stop and visit you for an hour or so. He may not do it but
I think he will.

Mike and I talked till nearly 10:30 last night
--- He is a great kid -- a real artist type but so lively and curious
and busy -------- always has so much to do but as he says doesn't
get a great deal of it done because it is difficult for him to
do it till he feels like it.

He brought his own phonograph records
out here and plays some almost every night after supper.

The gold
mining boy ate supper with me then came to play the records too
--- It is beautiful to see the way they love it and the way they
love the country too

I'll start my day --

A morning kiss to you -- It is very still -- Last
evening from rain far away we had a particularly high double
rainbow.

Friday Afternoon --

Nice warm days -- and my arm gets better with
the warmth --

Yesterday afternoon was cloudy and I rode late with
a man from Dallas, Texas--- named Mr. Green -- A queer duck and
a wonderful ride we had -- It was cool comfortable -- very good --

And I wish you could just once see the queer hills and
valleys -- always I discover new places so near by. I'll never
get over it all -- I had a letter from Adams asking for my
plans -- I wrote him that I would start out on Labor day so he
can meet me the day after. Dave always writes me as if I am going
to Los Angeles with him and Godfrey and I always tell him I am
not. I am going directly to Yosemite from here. Adams offered
to meet me at Mercede so I'll change at Barstow and miss the
big towns.

This morning after breakfast that I have a little
after seven -- I walked a bit over the first hill and lay in
the sun for almost an hour -- then drove over to the house --
A letter from you . .

Saturday morning -- out under the shade of a tree --
little tree -- the red hills -- nearby and far away right out in
front of me -- Waiting for Orvill to get me home gas -- I ran
out right at the front door

Yesterday morning Mike and I drove a long way
out over the eastern part of the ranch -- I had only been there
once before and then not in all the places we went to -- We
followed two roads to the end of them. At the end of the second
one we found the only house for many miles around. I had heard
that the woman had painted her walls with color out of the earth

2

here. Well she had but the best color -- really a surprising green
came out of Copper canyon at a place practically impossible to get
to six years ago and now probably really impossible -- It is
the vivid green of coroded copper --

The house is more than half
under ground -- and they feel a bit crowded now that there are
people living here. Before that they had the world to themselves.
-- the man is half indian -- Well we had a good morning --

In the afternoon I struggled with stretchers and at
five went riding with Mr. Green again for a couple of hours -- The
evening out in the hills and bad lands is always surprising to me
-- I had a lovely time -- felt so good -- then for some unaccountable
reason didn't sleep well ------ maybe the bath too hot.

This morning walked out into the red hills
again -- hot and red and I like it

Must go

A kiss

over the red hills --

7:30 P.M. Tuesday

And I am tired --

This morning I went out to my red hills with a
canvas in the car -- Spent most of the morning out there and have
nothing on the canvas -- Walked and climbed and walked some more.
When I'm up on the top I feel pretty high. Finally gave up and
drove over to the ranch house to see if I had any mail -- your
letter about Mrs. Bennet being operated on -- and Miss Wilson
forwarded from Lanny -- It is always nice to have your letters --
yes very nice. I talked with Arthur and Phoebe for an hour or
so -- Phoebe having her baby next month -- Arthur wanted to tell
me his plans for things around here --

At lunch Mike and his sister Ann and the gold mining boy
-- an awfully nice kid said they were going hunting for an old
ruin up on top of the cliffs right after lunch -- didn't I want
to go -- Of course I wanted to go -- seven of us went -- horse
back -- I've been up there several times befor -- very beautiful
-- as rough riding as I want -- very steep twisty trails -- narrow
rocky paths -- high rocky walls -- very high -- then when we
got on the top the search -- up stream beds -- through the brush
-- up more very steep hills where there are no trails -- some
places so steep we had to walk down -- it was pretty rough -- but
I enjoyed it -- everyone enjoyed it -- of course we found no ruin -

------ It is an enormous area with almost no paths ------ High
meadows - small ones here and there -- but something very dry
and forbidding about it all -- So high and rocky man can do
nothing to it -- We even look all out of place in the landscape
-- Even the trees seem dark and dry -- They have found their
best gold vein up there they think -- It was really found long
ago but almost impossible to mine it -- Too hard to get up and down

2

8-31-38

Through the crack where we went up we could see the straight
lines of the plains far below -- really miles away

Then after we came down a mad sort of storm
all off in the distance making queer lights and shadows --

I lay
down for half an hour then took a bath and went to supper --

I'm going to bed right now --

A mad day really

And I feel like the bed --

A good night kiss to you -- I wish I could see you --

-- I'm half asleep

Wednesday morning

12 hours in my bed and I'm feeling first rate. No stiffness at all -- It is a lovely still sunny morning -- My arm continues to improve. I can do more and more with it --

About that sweater -- Maybe I left it at Jenks -- It is old -- darned at the elbows -- a little paint on it -- Really no loss except that my oldest things always seem my best. Will you phone him and ask -- ?

I intend to write him shortly

Your grey sweater is really too lovely. Paul Jones persuaded me to buy a black and white checked jacket in town -- It looks just like one of my bed blankets -- very nice -- I would not have thought of buying it if I'd been alone. Sort of belongs to me.

I must get out into the sun -- I'll be quiet today even if I do feel good.

A morning kiss to you -- I send it through the
blue sky --

Wednesday P.M.

Mr. Stieglitz --

I have a fairly good start on a painting today
-- even more than that --

I quite like my start -- It is the
cliffs out in my back yard again --

Mike and Ann left today -- Mikes parting gifts
to me were his walking stick -- a wonderful knotty thing he picked
up in the bushes and had used all summer because it was wonderful
-- and in spite of its being too short for him -- He thinks it
fits me better and the other gift is a piece of a humen thigh
bone -- the top part -- very white and dry looking. He is going
to a boys school some 70 miles from here this winter -- way up
in a high wonderful place -- made me promise very seriously to
visit him when he gets there late in September -- He is a
wonderful kid. Very tall and lean and funny looking -- big grey
eyes -- a bit of fuzz on his upper lip --

Vernon returned from camp at the same school --
Las Alamos -- this afternoon -- all brown and a bit taller and
stronger looking -- he is only 13 -- a very lively little boy --

No one left here now but Mr. Bennet and the three gold
miners and myself --

I plan to get off Monday afternoon -- so after Friday
send mail to
c/o Ansel Adams

Yosemite National Park
California

It began to blow and rain a bit at four today while I was out
painting so I had to come in --

Packed my stuff to go -- most of it --
Between Adams and Dave they have made my getting to Yosemite as

2

9-1-38

easy as they could with out coming to get me -- Adams sent me
definite instructions today about meeting me etc. I will wire you
when I leave here Monday afternoon and when I get there on Tuesday
-- I'll be alright --

I feel surprisingly good today considering
what I did yesterday.

If that sweater isn't at Jenks just don't
bother any more -- it was only a rag anyway.

A good night kiss to you.

I am glad you are writing your stories down

-- Hope

Lil isn't deviling you --

And I wonder about your itches - ?

Thursday morning

Isn't this gay --

Can you bear to read it --

There was rain in the night -------- just
a little ------ this morning grey ---- beautiful -- a drop or two
once in a while --

Sun can't quite come out --

How are you?

Why don't you write to Hunter and tell
him you like the catalogue?

Just Santa Fe will get him I think -

Friday morning --- I note
that it is September second -- which surprises me -- I never knew
about dates --

It rained a little off and on all night for two
nights and all day yesterday -- It drips constantly in the
patio from the roof -- sounds very wet --
and everything outside
looks soggy and wet with clouds on the tops of the cliffs and often
hiding that flat topped mountain off to the south that is out my
front door --

I painted indoors --- I think it is another fairly
good start -- but what nonsense -- I'll work on it again today --
it will be too wet to go out even if the sun shines which it
probably won't.

-- Out here when any one wants to move -- go some
where -- get away -- they say he has itchy feet -- It makes me
laugh --

The young gold miner -- Dick ate supper with me last
night --- The two older men announced that he had "gone slumming"
He is a very bright youngster -- 19 -- I think -- for the early
part of the summer went to some sort of camp in Maryland where
they learn about examining guns and shells and war machines of
any sort --

It seems they only take 120 a year from various
technical schools ----- Then with work that they get at school
they are supposed to be fitted for certain technical work in case
of war -- he said to me -- "You see -- of course there is going
to be a war so I'm going to fix myself so I won't have to go out
and get shot -- and I'm going to get married and have lots of
children!" I laughed -- and he laughed -- then went on telling

2

me how the whole underlying idea of their training seemed to be
a defensive idea --- and how all industry is listed and organized
for what it could do in case of war --- His brightness - and
accuracy -- telling about how shells are put together -- never
occurs to him to try to stop war ------ only how to take care of
his own skin as best he can --

--- I came home and to bed right after supper ---

--- A morning greeting to you if it can get through
the rain and thick clouds and I think it probably can --

I am feeling first rate -- My arm slowly better --
I can lie on that side in the night without thinking about it -- it
is doing pretty well -- the certain movements are still very
painful -- However it is much better

A kiss to you --

Mr. Stieglitz --

I have a fire tonight too. Fire in the fire place
-- cedar and pinon and it smells so good -- Rain all day again
and it felt chilly

I painted all day --

It is doing very well --
looks very well on these walls and that is saying a great deal for
anything

-- Saturday morning -- still grey so I have a fire again
-- and I'll get at my painting --

I am glad you have felt well enough
to print but please remember -- you always should _do a little less_
than you _feel able to do_ -- I believe that the most important
thing for you. Wish I could see the prints.

Orvill came over yesterday and tied my sleeping bag
and canvas into a neat bundle so I can check it like a suit case
-- Arthur advised me to take my own bed as I have it --

Well -- I'll be getting to work

-- I hope to be through with this painting by tonight

A Saturday morning kiss to you --

Sunday Morning --

Sitting out back of the house sunning myself -- I
lay down in the sun till I couldn't stand it any more -- now in
a hair with the sun to my back -- Sun in and out -- the clouds
haven't really rolled away -- Will probably rain again this
afternoon

I am through with the painting -- It is a pretty good
one -

The one of the cliffs I haven't gone back to on account of
the rain -- It isn't that so much rain comes down -- It is that
what does come down changes the color and makes the ground so soft
I'm afraid of getting stuck in the mud if I go off the road --

Coronet came yesterday -- I haven't read as I was working
all day and tired at night -- It seems that publicity always has
to be pretty cheap -- As I remember the article I thought it
pretty good -- but they may have changed it

Robert Marks address is

"Tempo" -- 303 W 42 - N.Y.

I think Andrew has the portfolio for Katts friends-- I
believe that is the hardest earned $20.00 we ever got --

I must straighten up my things here so everything is
in order when I leave.

Wonder how you are -- I hope that no
matter what happens you don't let them upset you.

I'll write Miss Wilson a note.

Wish I could look you over and see how you are --

Monday morning -- 9 --

I am ready to go waiting till the mail comes to tie up my head
and get off

2

The clouds were down on the world early -- at six -- but are rising
-- a pale sun -- and wonderful patches of beautiful - tender
looking bright light blue shining through fleecy white and very
soft grey clouds

Last night ate a supper with Cyrus McCormic and his wife --
they here for just a couple of days -- she bright but he ------

It seems funny to be going to California this way when
I have put it off for so long -- doesn't really feel as if I'm
going anywhere -- except that my room and every thing is so neat
-- I will like to come back to it all neat like this -- -- even
the floor scrubbed --

Really seems as if I'm just going off on one
of our usual country trips from here and I guess I am

I'll get my stuff in the car now ------

last night

-- A soft little kiss to you --

Leaving Albuquerque -- I just sent you a wire -- Getting on the train and starting in this direction seems not quite like being on the train --- It is a soft sunny -- not very clear afternoon --- 4:45

Wednesday A M - 5

Six here -- time changed in the night --

We are crossing the real desert -- no grass at all -- Sharp long lines of bare mountains on either side -- I was out and had a few minutes walk -- Palm trees and hydrangras in bloom where there is a little water at stations --
certainly mad world I am glad to be seeing it

I'll be looking --

A morning kiss to you

Had a long evening talking to quite a remarkable fat old woman last night -- a great girl -- her husband a cousin of Emily Reeves --

Wednesday morning -- Yosemite -- 10:25

I am sitting in Adams open car out in front of his
house -- under a big tall cedar tree -- a vast wall of grey granite
rising up in front of me -- splotches of green on it here and there
and one thin line of a veil like waterfall dropping from the top
about two thirds of the way down -- then it is lost -- The rock
wall is so vast one scarcely notices the waterfall -- The water
drops a bit reluctantly -- as if reaching back - trying not to fall
-- The sun is warm and lovely -- I am in the shade --

It is really
a grand place -- The drive in last night was wonderful from the
flat land with rich perfect looking fig and peach orchards-- yellow
fields where grain had been cut -- other yellow fields of a
native yellow grass that makes all the soil seem golden up through
the foothills and even into the high mountains until there is no
more soil -- just walls of grey and white granite -- As we drive
from the flat land the golden hills become higher and higher --
bushes become trees -- enormously tall trees here -- with a
beautiful variety of foliage and green

-- The moon was big and white -- the evening sun at
our backs so that all shapes stood out so brightly and warmly till
the sun was gone and it was night -- white moonlight on the vast
granite walls -- darkness under the trees -- The car an open car --
We seemed so small that only the vast place existed --

Then Adams little home -- all very simple - neat -
clean - children very nice -- He so lively keeping one looking
and talking -- our supper -- Mrs. Adams away for a couple of days -
back tomorrow -- This morning as soon as my breakfast was down

2

he had me out again riding me about in the daylight

--- I am glad I came -- even if only for this--

It is
entirely different than New Mexico and Arizona -- More like
Colorado -- but not like that either -- This morning it seems very
paintable but maybe that is just my first excitement -- I wish
you could see it. I had your telegram and three letters --

I think
you would like this better than New Mexico -- I love it there as
you know -- but I love this too -- it is really very exciting to
me --

-- Dave and outfit come tomorrow -- Adams plans that we start
off on the mountain trip on Sunday. He also plans "functions" -
"evenings" - here and in San Francisco and drives and what not
before and after the horse back trip -- so I guess there will
not be many spare moments -- It is so lovely

A kiss -- a kiss -- and a beautiful morning to you

Barstow for almost an hour - 7:45 to 8:40 - A town that looks
like one of Gods accidents -- something made of any strange hill
or huge piece of rock with any strange sort of little house or
bridge thrown in to make it look like a town -

Nive warm sunny
morning -- probably terribly hot by noon --

This country makes the place I go to look like the Garden
of Eden in full bloom -

I wonder how you are this morning

I didn't sleep well -- had to sit up and look
out at the moonlit country every little while -- Guess I was

Thursday morning -- Adams front porch Writing in the shade
of my hat -- My bum shoulder bare in the sun -- A lovely morning
-- Fairly quiet yesterday -- drove around some - took me to the
big hotel where I had my head washed -- It is a vast affair --
The hotel that Phyllis Ackerman did some of the decoration for --
She has put the most beautiful rugs on the floor that I have ever
seen on the floor -- They seem much more fit to hang on the wall --

They are laid on a very thick carpet so the wear and tear
will be as little as possible -- It is a magnificent vast sort
of place with huge windows opening on these vast high walls
of granite and very tall trees -- The really big trees are not
here

We drive to them tomorrow but these are the tallest I have
ever seen --

It is a quiet day -- I got cleaned up a bit -- walked
some -- you just get exhausted looking at the high things --

Well Adams just drove up with Dave -
Godfrey - Godfreys wife - Adams wife -

He went off last night to
meet them -- at 5 this morning -- and they just got here --

Bags
and baggage -- Guess I'd better go talk a bit

A morning kiss to you -

YOSEMITE PARK

SEPT. 9, 1938

Good Morning Sir !

Another sunny still morning on Adams porch --
Well ---- yesterday was a day -- I've been taking the diathermy
on my arm -- after we put them in the hotel yesterday morning I
went and had my arm treated then we took Adams car and drove
slowly about through the park -- sun quite hot -- shadows cool --
the bears and deer are very tame -- come right up to you -- the
horns of the deer are all soft and velvety now -- very pretty --
after driving I went to the hotel with Dave and Godfrey for
lunch -- wasn't hungry but ate a bit any way -- then came back
here and lay down a while -- We had planned to ride at about four
-- My stomach was very queer -- but I went anyway -- It was a
lovely ride through very tall trees ----- the walls of the valley
like a veil through the trees on either side-- a little stream a
bit below us -- We went about six miles -- the sun pretty well
gone when we got back and my stomach feeling very strange --
Dave a bit upset too and something in his eye besides -- He went
to the doctor for his eye --

I went home and to bed -- a bit upset
-- strangely upset in my stomach -- Well - I slept - slept very
well and feel alright this morning --

I think it was the diathermy
-- My arm feels better -- It upset me in N.Y. when I first took
it --

Anyway I am alright this morning

When we leave here for the high places I am leaving word
for Mrs. Adams to open any telegrams and she can send after me to
come down and then say I can get down in a day from any place
we are going to be --

Also I want to say to you that you can get Xray for your

Saturday afternoon --

Sitting by the camp fire -- Dave and the three
cow boys standing around -- Adams was here but he disappeared some
where a little while ago -- just this moment returned--

We are
just sitting about with a greyish sky -- thunder near by --
thinking that it may rain --

the clouds have been gathering for
three days-- Everything is covered -- prepared for rain -- a big
canvas stretched as a roof for us to get under if it does rain
-- it is also over the kitchen outfit,

I will go back to when I wrote you last -- That letter
was mailed by a man we sent down to the valley yesterday -- 15
miles horse back -- to get meat and some things we needed. You
were probably surprised to get it -

The afternoon of the day I wrote last I sat about till
after four then we all went for a ride about four miles to a very
handsome view of Cathedral Lake -- far off -- about 2 miles
below us in the evening light -- it was lovely -- the ride lovely
too -- All this rocky country seems to have so many different
aspects -- That evening there was about a mile of open meadow
with a stream - winding through it held in with long low ridges
of white rock like snow drifts -- The high rocky cliffs --
mountains - rising up all about it. -- It was a short ride --
getting back for supper and a big fire at dusk

The next morning the others decided to walk the 12 miles
across country --

I rode with Al -- the guide - a pack mule for
cameras and the four empty saddled mules -- We had a very good

2

day -- beautiful woods and views -- good trail all but about a
mile where we cut across from one trail to another -- up and down
a hill so bad I decided I'd rather walk or fall down it than go
slipping and sliding with the mules through the brush -- so I
walked the worst part -- My mule Alice has been a lead mule for the
pack train -- the boys call her the "Cow Boys Sweetheart" because
she is so smooth -- I rode ahead all the way -- except the cross
country cut --

It was a very good day -- there was nearly a mile
toward the end along a river that tore down a granite river bed
with all sorts of startling little falls and one big spread of
a fall -- wide and thin over the rock -- all a clean -- so clean

Al and I were the first in camp -- had a few
saddles off when the pack train came in -- the men the color of
the road with dust from the long string of mules -- You never
saw anything faster than the unpacking and setting up camp ---
just as it was about settled Adams came in very gay -- the other
three limping and almost staggering with exhaustion -- It was
funny --

He is like a goat in the mountains and he had given them a
very mad day -- they are very funny when they talk about it -- and
were all a bit envious of my quiet nine mile ride --

I have a bed
under a tree up on a rocky space-- big lumps of rock almost
making a room for me -- Godfrey and Helen about 40 feet behind me
-- It is all rock way up into the sky -- camp is down in the trees
by the river --

Yesterday all of us but Adams took a 15 mile ride up
over a high pass -- such a magnificent view of high rocky peaks --

3

-- a little lake on a shelf of the highest one -- almost all bare rock with patches of snow -- and the lush little valley with its little river below -- there were two lakes -- one most beautiful on the rocky shelf --

and way up almost at the top of the pass was a lake that seemed almost white from the white granite and snow all around it -- then we dropped down the rocky side -- across the soft green meadow then through the woods down and down way up high above a tumbling river -- often the river crossed wide spaces of the clean granite --

It was another day --

This morning Adams danced about till he got me started up the rock past my home tree to what he said was as fine or finer than any he knew -- Every one else followed -- we climbed and climbed and crawled up the bare grey granite till we got to it and it was such a big fantastic thing I could hardly think of it as a tree -- It was enormous and so handsome in color -- that reddish brown bark -- bare grey or yellow wood and the yellow green moss in spots -- We spent the morning crawling around the slanting rock at the foot of it -- It was twisted and torne into all sorts of shapes --

then the long climb down -- I could spend the summer up there -- I forgot to say that before we went up to the tree we all did our laundry -- a funny sight --

Well -- since I started this the mail came letters from you - the boy who went down yesterday brought it -- So you went to town -- I wonder how your itch is now -- I hope better --

And it has rained -- I got into one of the two tents -- finished reading your letters and writing this --

The forest ranger will take it down in the morning --

It has rained and hailed --

Adams brought me a cup of hot tea with
a little whiskey in it

I'll go out now and look at the wetness

-- Most of your kisses come to me in a little ten during
the rain -- I'll go out and send you one through the big trees
-- and maybe take a walk --

I am feeling fine -- my arm much
better

All having a wonderful time --

Good Morning !

Saturday -- -- a little way up in the woods back
of Adams house -- my shirt off -- taking the sun -- We start
into the high places tomorrow morning - a deer and two little ones
are just behind me nibbling leaves --

Yesterday we drove up to the big trees -- about 30 miles --
to get out of the valley you go through a long tunnel -- electrically
lighted -- blasted through solid granite - not fair to the rocks
I think --

The drive up was through tall beautiful forest but when
you get to the first group of tall trees it is quite beyond my
imagination

I came to the house to get some ink and have your
telegram -- You thinking that we get off today -- Thank you -- I'll
go wire you as soon as I've written this -- The sun here is very
warm -- the shadows cool --

Well -- for the big trees --our first
view was on a down hill bit of road -- and there they were -- three
or four of them -- the enormous very straight trunks -- a very
warm light brown -- almost red -- dwarfing the trees about them
that are much larger than any trees I have ever seen -- The
redish brown color made hotter by a light grey - yellow green
moss that grows very thick the full length of many trees - just
on one side -- sometimes it is only on the branches making them
strange velvety sort of reaching down fingers -- It was an
astonishing sight -- We just sat and looked -- I hadn't thought
what color they would -- We went on past more and more of them --
sprinkled about through the woods -- Finally when we came to
the largest one -- 26 feet across at the base -- a big limb way
up that they said was six feet across -- we got out and stayed

2

a while --

It just leaves you with nothing to say -- we had lunch at a little hotel - cafeteria -- outdoors and walked again - just walking around wondering -- the neck a bit tired from looking up --

After lunch we drove on to Glacier Point -- that Adams says is the most spectacular view around here -- We got there at about 5 and left -- nearly ten at night --

It was hundreds of miles of grey granite with a few green spots of trees sprinkled over it and one tall waterfall that roared up to us -- It was a pretty bleak sight -- Dave was funny -- I think he was almost ready to give up the camping trip and go home -- I believe it scared him -- We watched the evening light go and the moon come up big and round and white -- It was a vast cold sight -- Then they built a very hot looking fire out on the highest most open point

Godfrey and Helen walked home down the trail - Dave and Adams and I climbed down through the trees and rocks some 400 feet and at nine the fire was shoved off -- tumbling down past us as if the top of the mountain were spitting fire -- It is a performance they have evern night -- one of the sights of the valley -- we saw it from nearby --

Then the walk back through the tall trees and big rocks in the bright moonlight -- very slowly - was beautiful -- such big sharp lights and shadows --

And the 35 or 40 miles down the mountain -- beautiful road -- trees so very tall in the moonlight and the walk of the valley so very high and grand as we came through the tunnel and dropped down into it -- the highest side in white moonlight -- the other side seeming even higher because it was in shadow --

3

Got to bed at 11:30 -- It had been quite a day --

------ Well I'll put my shirt on and mail

this

I am glad I came - The place seems almost black and white -
No color like the ghost - its hardness is wonderful - the shapes
very grand - We all get on very well together - It is really
good

A morning kiss to you -----

YOSEMITE, CALIF.

SEPT. 15, 1938

Sept. 15

Good Morning Mr. Stieglitz -- I feel so fine -- and it is all so perfect here I don't know where to begin -- I sit in the shade of a big dead tree stump -- my left arm out in the sun -- a most comfortable chair -- Godfrey is shaving -- his mirror in the top of a little scrub pine tree -- his huge body with his great big black shoes and a very small pair of white drawers -- looking very like the huge rocks up behind him -- He is very sunburned -- wish I could paint it -- but it would take mightily swell painting to do it to make both the man and rocks look very big -- the trees little -- hardly counting at all -- it could be grand and funny at the same time ---

Dave comes down in a pair of tan shorts -- is lacing his shoes -- and Godfrey begins to wash his shirt -- he never hurries-- but he gets there --

We are camped at a little lake about 10,000 feet above sea level -- a little patch of green around it then the rocks rise up on every side -- one fantastic sharp peak right across the lake very nearby -- then another long ridge with a less fantastic peak -- and the rest is just very large rocks piling up -- very big rocks -- the whole rock formation is a light grey granite -- seeming almost white white when you walk over it and a few trees weathered and blown and scarred crop out and grown very big in spots -- however our little green valley and lake is surrounded with a whitish granite wall -- half a dozen magnificent trees here near camp - Godfrey continues with his laundry slowly - methodically --

I'll begin with Sunday --

2

We rode away at 12 instead of ten -- 22 animals -- all mules except 3 horses ridden by the men who have to chase the mules -- I have a wonderful mule -- very smooth riding -- and very willing -- they are all big and strong and very sure footed --

We were almost all the first day climbing up and up -- zigzaging out of Yosemite valley -- very good trails -- very steep -- and very handsome as we seemed to get up on the level with some of the good rocky spaces on the other side of the valley -- the valley is very narrow you know --

We had lunch among very big trees by a little stream that rushed over the granite rocks -- making them seem so very clean and smooth -- I saw a bear -- a great big one -- he was galloping through the bushes before I saw him -- We lunched at about two - and such very good lunches -- best I ever had -- everyone seemed to think the same --

When we got to camp that night the pack outfit that had gone ahead was already there and camp all set up -- We all thought it the most elegant we had ever seen -- a table to eat on -- chairs and camp stools - piles of blankets -- everything arranged as neatly as possible -- supper all ready -- steak -- string beans -- boiled potatoes - salad and fruit -- a little while lying around the fire then to bed before eight -- I slept very well -- got up feeling fine -- not a bit stiff -- and we rode off again by 8 or 8:30 -- breakfast at 6:30 -- We rode till about 4:30 when we got here -- Mostly uphill - granite everywhere --

3

-- the trail through woods often but always the granite nearby --
and often rising up into all sorts of grand things -- any day
I would say that if I had only come for that day it would be good.
I have never seen anything like it --

Yesterday - Tuesday -- was a big day -- We camp here for
three days -- so yesterday morning by eight we rode off -- up
a very steep place where there is no trail -- then down into
another valley and lake -- with sharper rocky peaks rising up all
round. They were going to climb -- I thought I would just go a little
way then come back and stay around the lake that was lovely -- Well
we climbed and climbed -- at the next little lake over the next
hump Ellen and I had a bath beside a snow drift -- The sun on
the rocks quite hot to dry us -- and such lovely little flowers
here and there -- The water icy -- it melted right out of that big
snow slide -- then we walked on -- climbed and climbed till one
got a bit mad at the rocks -- or I did anyway -- Adams and I
had rubber soled shoes -- The others had hob nails -- Finally
when I got to the top -- the slowest but for Godfrey -- he always
seems to be the last -- makes one feel very safe knowing he
will come along

It was pretty exciting to suddenly see the very vast
range with much snow splotched on it stretching all around --
what we had come up from and seen before seemed rather meager --
I lay down in the shade of a bush -- almost went to sleep -- got
up and lay in the sun -- It was one of those things one is glad
to see -- glad to know about -- but it's no use to look at it

4

long -- after a few crackers, raisins and an orange and about
an hour and a half resting we went on up over a queer ridge -- the
top of it called the Cocks Comb -- and the top that we got to up
there is one of the best things I have ever seen -- bare -- two
or three great trees quite flat to the ground. More rocks rising
sheer out of it -- grand curving slopes between the rocks sweeping
down and away -- One of those places where there is a large
amount of nothing that I seem to particularly like --

The day was getting on so we thought we must start
down fairly soon -- and getting down was something -- through
cracks - along edges -- twice across snow -- a very lush little
meadow -- a little climb over big boulders and finally down an
almost impossible corner of rock -- long slanting rocks to the
little meadow by the lake -- Helen and Dave and I took a bath
again -- it felt fine after all the sweating -- then around the
little lake again to the mules -- some tomato juice -- over and
down the last steep ridge -- mule back to the little lake here
-- and camp --- It was a wonderful day -- and the funny thing
is one doesn't get hungry or tired --

I ate my supper and got into
bed before dark -- Had a very good night -- waked and sat up when
the moon was high -- All the valley and white granite in the
moonlight seemed more colorful than in the day light -- I am a little
bit stiff this morning but am feeling fine -- Am staying home
today -- the others are off -- I notice Dave and Godfrey didn't
get off till nearly eleven

5

I have wahsed my pet shirt and drawers and a couple of other
things -- took a sunbath way up on the rocks -- had a wonderful
lunch of vegetable soup -- scrambled eggs, tomatoes, spinach and
one slice of your yellow canned peaches -

--- I hope you do not worry -- my arm is so much better it
is a bit ridiculous-- It pulled me up over rocks yesterday as if
there were nothing the matter with it --

A kiss goes to you out over the high
white granite ridge --

This country seems almost just black and
white

Guess I'll just sit --

I have a big blanket up against a
tree leaning trunk as I sit on a rounded piece of rock -- my bare
feet in the sun -- the rest of me in the shade --

Adams is having a wonderful time showing his
country --

Give the Yosemite booklet I sent you to little Frank --
will you please.

Monday -- sun going down -- We have a new camp -- moved today --
9 or 10 miles riding up very steep places -- down very steep places
-- up and down again -- some wonderful views -- one from way up
high down into the little lake that we walked to yesterday -- it
lay there a little black thing -- not black but a very dark shiney
brownish green -- the cold grey granite sliding down from the high
ragged mountain tops with splotches of snow and a little green that
doesn't seem to count -- making a very big basin for the very little
lake in the bottom of it and right on the edge near me was one of
those enormous junipers - hot colored trunk -- so magnificently
twisted and so big --

Thursday --

The days get by -- We start doing things --
walking or riding so early in the morning and are so tired when we
get back to camp -- I don't get in much writing -- We go to bed
between seven and eight -- everyone in bed by eight -- and we have
breakfast at six in the morning - then start right off somewhere --
I get behind on the writing -- today I do nothing -- no one else is
doing anything either -- except washing and mending and shaving
-- or something like that -- Godfrey zened his shoes -- that was
funny -

Tuesday -- Adams and Godfrey and Helen started for the
high peaks on foot --

Dave and I for a ledge half way up where
there were many little lakes -- We had a lovely day -- it was
crystal clear -- seemed you could just put out your hand and take
hold of a mountain top or anything --

We climbed and climbed --
it was about 3 times as far as I intended to go -- slowly --
stopping to talk and look around -- he with his everlasting camera

2

It was beautiful up at the lakes -- the granite peaks bare but
for spots of snow rising right up -- an ever present stream with
waterfalls -- one place where we had to cross the snow to get
around the largest lake the snow quite pink and so dazzling that
all the world was a different color for a few minutes when we had
crossed it -- beautiful bare dead trees - some so twisted and
some burned --others in sheltered corners tall and straight --
not many trees - just a few -- little spots of lush green and a
few flowers in the basins around the lakes -- There are no trails
as people don't often get up there --

It was a particularly clear
beautiful day -- Dave sort of slow -- telling me about himself and
his plans -- It was a long climb for me and I was much too tired
to write -- however my legs didn't get stiff like after the other
long climb -- I sweated all day -- the sun is hot -- shadows cold
but there aren't many shadows

Yesterday - Wednesday -- all on our
mules we rode some 18 miles to the widest view I have ever seen --
so little color in it that it is surprising -- a wicked kind of
bareness - near ridges - for ridges cold <u>cold</u> wind in spots --
on the top we all got down into a little crack in the rocks for
lunch -- ate a great deal -- the food is wonderful all along --
and we all eat a ridiculous amount -- There is something wickedly
cold about these hundreds of miles of bleak bare whitish granite
-- sometimes blackish spots -- a very little red -- mostly a cold
light grey -- spotted with snow -- and the trails zigzagging up
the sides of places that seem quite impossible -- miles don't seem
to mind -- I don't mind going up but sometimes coming down wonder
why I was so foolish as to go up --

3

Today is a bit cloudy in spots -- may rain --

I have brushed
my hair and washed my face -- that is all I'll do for myself --

I worry a bit about your going to town if Margaret
can not go with you. I will send a wire by the first man down on
Saturday - We expect to be down in the Yosemite valley again then
-- I am going to San Francisco for a day - a day along the coast
to Carmel -- a day down to Beverly Hills - a day there with Peggie
and plan to be back at the ranch a week from Sunday --- This time
in these mountains will seem like a dream when I get away I think -
It has been wonderful -- cold and bare and bleak -- Made as com-
fortable as possible with Adams arranging -- very good men as
guide -- cook -- and packers -- it all goes very smoothly --
every one knows his job well --

A kiss to you -- I sit out here on a flat rock
where the sun warms me when it shines -- always the sound of a
mountain stream flowing down into the meadow -- a few trees on
the edge of the meadow -- camp right at the rivers edge -- with the
meadow seeming very small and the mountains rising up very big and
cold --

Not much sun -- I'll go back to the fire --

A surprise kiss to you --

YOSEMITE SEP. 26, 1938

Saturday night -- We got down from the mountains yesterday --
a wonderful day -- I rode up as far as you can ride on Half Dome
-- a beautiful ride up through big trees -- Godfrey -- Dave -- the
guide and I -- Helen got boils and came home with the pack trains
-- After the men had walked up the mountains we had lunch then down
to the valley -- far far down -- I forgot to say that the day
before we moved camp some 18 miles down from our high meadow camp
-- through Little Yosemite -- It has been a very good trip

Every day was wonderful -- it was all quite perfect
-- no rain -- and all through such wonderful country -- When we
returned to the valley it seemed as good as anything we had seen
--- Last night was supper time when I had washed up -- all of us at
the hotel -- and we all looked so funny and burned --

Today I packed -- This afternoon Adams took us up
another wall of the valley -- It seems funny to ride in a car
after two weeks on a mule -- seems almost too easy -- They had a
party here tonight and I am too sleepy to see

We start for Carmel in the morning

I am sorry about your cold

It is a shame you have had such cold and rain

-- Here it has been lovely

A good night kiss to you -- I'm just too sleepy
I am bothered about your going to town -- your skin and sinus

CARMÉL

SEPT. 27, 1938

Tuesday -- 6:30 A.M.

Good Morning on the Pacific -- It is rolling in slowly on the rocks out in front -- we in a little three room cottage way above it in the trees -- Adams drove us all down out of the valley -- It was a beautiful drive out of the high grey rocks -- through the golden hills -- then the valley with big peach-fig plum orchards -- a long way to more golden hills covered sparsely with dark live oak trees -- of the coast range -- we drove through that a long time then out of it to the ocean -- We got to the hotel here in time for one of the prettiest sun sets I ever saw -- soft quiet and pretty -- changing and changing for a long time -- Godfrey and I walked down as near to the ocean as we could -- it was really a beautiful evening --

I so excited over the way things grow and all the things I never saw growing before -- sort of a combination of lushness and dryness -- but the geraniums growing up to the second story looked pretty gay all in bloom

We visited Weston last night -- Really very nice -- his little girl a real person -- photographs very good -- I'll tell you later -- It was a good evening -- very quiet -- simple -- you would have liked it --

Along the coast today is our intention -- San Francisco late this afternoon

It is a jump and run trip but we see a lot -- and it is truly beautiful

A morning kiss to you

When I waked in the night I thought of you -- going to town today --

I hope not too excited about it all -- Do be careful

Thursday 9:30

Good Morning !

I am on the train going down the coast to Los
Angeles -- It has been a mad two days along the coast -- three
days -- Really very beautiful --

Carmel - Point - Lobus - Monterey
-- beautiful golden hills spotted with the dark green live oak
trees -- The Monterey cypress -- and the tall dark red wood
forest sometimes

The sea always on the other side

Then our two nights and days in San Francisco --
it is a beautiful city --- the two beautiful bridges -- hills and
hills of city streets so steep I would hate to try to drive
them -- The two museums -- we drove about from one thing to
another all day -- even to flower stores -- Such wonderful flowers
-- It is truly a different world out here -- More arranged for
living than our world

Last night a party in San Francisco -- The head of
that Hawaiian Pineapple Company and his wife were there -- Will
see them in N.Y. in November -- Dorothy Lieber -- head of the
decorative arts at the San Francisco World's Fair -- was there --
Is going to have a room built around a painting of mine -- is
going to borrow one if I will not loan one -- will pay all
expenses -- insurance - shipping etc. -- wants bones for a desert
room -- No commission charged if sold -- I think we had better
send one but will wait till we talk -

2

Covarubias and wife were there -- a very nice architect whose wife worked on that big hotel with Phillis Ackerman -- head of the City Museum -- A Dr. Moreley

I think my coming out here has been good -- and I have loved what I have seen -- Dave has been very nice he is really rare in his quiet funny way -- Helen and Godfrey too -- We got along very well together and Adams certainly made much possible that we could not have done without him -- It has been quite a perfect trip -- A day and a half with Peggie then I start for the Ranch Saturday noon -- Arrive there Sunday morning --

It all has been a bit like a good and mad dream -- always with your whereabouts and doings in my mind too

I'm going to sit quiet all day and look out the window -- a quiet kiss to you -- and do be careful and save yourself a bit -- I am glad you think the place looks nice -- the paint good

A kiss to you

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.

OCT. 2, 1978

Saturday morning

back at the Ranch --

Good Morning - !

I wonder how you are --

Thursday I spent on the train riding along the coast down to Los Angelos -- sometimes along the water -- sometimes through the mountains -- first the soft rounded San Francisco hills -- then higher hills -- more bare -- till the last hour when the mountains quite changed character -- sharper and harder -- rockier --

It was nearly dark when Peggie and Gerald met me. We drove a long way through what seems like very attractive - never ending suburbs -- into the hills -- hills on either side to a white house -- lighted that seemed the end of the road - A house so open to the outdoors with much glass extending from ceiling to floor --

There was no sight seeing thank God -- except the walk up the hill back of the house in the moonlight and in the morning light

-------

The mountains back of the palm trees as we go along here are wonderful -- sharp and rigid and lined with maybe roads maybe washes -- I don't know

It is a wonderful country out here -- the only place I have ever seen that I think you would really like better than what you know

It all looks a bit dusty along the railroad -

The talking and sleeping and light quiet house were lovely -- Peggie so lovely -- Gerald so sparkling -- so Irish -- I was there a day and a half -- feel much improved -- quiet and am

on the way.

I now look forward to mail at the ranch -- news of
you -- has Margaret come to town ?

to work -

Where are you etc? and getting

The weather has been perfect all the way -- the whole
trip seems to have gone off without a hitch -- I have seen much
that I had always heard about -- It is better than I expected even
-- a beautiful new world -- I wish you could see it too --

I am going to eat my lunch -- then maybe get into bed
if out the window isn't too interesting by then

A kiss to you -- and I wonder --- wonder --
so much about you --

You see I am back at the ranch -- Sunday 5:10

I arrived in time for lunch -- Orvill met me with my
station wagon at 9:52 A.M. We drove right out here --

All the
country looks different after California -- a bit small and dry
and far away -- The colored cliffs not so high but I love them any
way. And the feeling that I can sit down and be still and dont
have to go to see something I've never seen and can only see today
-- is grand. I've seen enough for quite a long time -- I'm glad to
be here away from it all with things I know -- Even though they
seem altered in scale I love them -- No one here but me and the
Gold Miners -- four of them --

Right after lunch I read all your letters -- I keep
wondering how you are getting on in the town - I was with Peggie
a day and a half -- it was lovely -- the light house -- relaxed
and quiet -- Gerald there -- looking so well -- so alive with
his sparkling Irish way and his beard that he twists till there
is a knot in the end of it.

I have looked at my paintings -- 2½ -- They look fairly
good -- and I've been out to see what I do with the other half of
the other half in the morning

There are the gathering clouds -- all kinds --
that mean rain soon -- today or in a few days -- but big spaces
and spots of the blue sky. I am glad to be back -- Am going to
bed right after supper so I can start tomorrow early. I am
sleeping at the main house. Will keep everything for work over
at the other place. Here I am in the middle of what is left of
the flower garden -- different blues - pinks and yellow.

I did not tell you ahead what I was going to do on that
trip because I didn't know ---

-2-

Any way -- it was a very good trip -- Dave said he would
call you and go in to see you very soon --

I am writing Margaret a note that you must give
her as I am not sure that she would recieve it if I mailed it to
her.

A kiss to you -- and do be careful of yourself --

It is really good to be back here and still --

A very good night -- was out painting this morning -- on one that
I started befor I went away -- After lunch lay in the sun on the
roof -- then a big cloud and thunder came -- and I came in -- I
had three -- no four letters from you this morning -- thanks for
the clipping -- Those keys were mailed from Yosemite -- am sorry
for the trouble caused because they didn't get to you on time --

Your letters dont sound very strong. I hope you are in
our place by now -- when you feel like it you had better go
home and get into bed -- I probably couldn't do anything for you
if I were there --

Do be careful

The rain has only been a sprinkle

However it is grey and I'm not going out -- I
have plenty to do indoors --

Wish I could *see* how you are.

Thanks for the Lippman clipping in your letter today and the pieces
of newspaper yesterday

--
-- Today has been such a beautiful warm almost
windstill day -- I worked on my big painting again -- It begins
to look a sort of fair -- will probably seem strange to people who
haven't been here -- but it is difficult -- I was glad to have
such a nice quiet warm day -- got it out on the back of the car
and could stand up to work -- that is a help--

Late this afternoon Connie and I walked --
or I should say that I walked and she went along --

You never
saw anything like theplaces one can walk and climb here -- the
sun was low and we went along my favorite ridge -- toward a big
red cliff -- pink and purple hills tumbling away in their own
order or disorder off at each side -- the very wide basin like
plain stretching out beyond with that flat topped mountain
rising from the edge of it some 15 miles away --- and off a bit
to the right those long -- long terrace like plains with their
long mountain beyond ------- The whole country is a sort of
scramble of strangely beautiful shapes and colors -- It is
always a wonder to me in its variety -- I feel I haven't begun
to see it

When we got back to the ranch we cooked supper and ate
it in the pantry -- the cook had the afternoon off

Arthur and Phoebe fly down from Denver tomorrow
morning with the baby and nurse -- It will not be so quiet then
-- and I can't eat in the pantry any more -- Great preparation
have been made for their return -- the baby is a boy -- so there
is a great stir.

I had a long letter from Mrs. Harding wanting to know all about my seeing Mike and she was so pleased that we went to see him And so it goes --

It has been a very quiet - homely sort of two weeks --
not much of anything but the weather --

Connie looked across the
table when we were eating tonight and remarked that I looked so
rested -- said I looked like quite a different person --
there
is really nothing better than living along with people who are working
with nobody else around -- They are quieter -- it is all simpler -

Good night -- the light will be out in a few
moments

Good Evening Sir -- 8:20 P.M.

And again I am tired but tonight there seems to be
some sense to being tired -- I was up early and worked till 11:30
-- on that big painting -- only 30 x 26 or 40 but it seems very
big for me and very difficult -- I worked on it all day yesterday
till I was all cramped and cold when it was too dark to work
any more --

Today it looks better -- maybe it will not be too bad
-- at 11:30 I came in and washed my head -- sat in the sun to dry
it -- it stuck out madly in all directions so after lunch La Verne
came and fixed it for me and we sat in the sun again -- walked
about a little -- picked flowers in the garden -- the last flowers
that survive -- the first frosts always seem particularly strong
and gay --

Then a little before three Connie and I went riding
-- out across the bad lands -- up those long terrace like plains
-- down and around one of the big experiments in erosion control
-- back past the place I call my house -- about eight miles I guess
-- It was lovely and warm -- a bit windy -- when I saw warm
I should add that I had my leather jacket fastened to the neck
most of the way -- it is the sun is warm -- and I'm ready to sleep

A good night to you -- will you ask Margaret to water
my hedge

Oh ------

there isn't any news when one works except that one
gets tired -

I sorted my clothes from my trip - before supper
yesterday - My camping things pretty dirty -

And right after
supper I went to bed - coyotes howling on the hills in the
night a weird sound - I like it -

I was up a little after six - the first time I felt
like getting up in some days - out and at work right after
breakfast - took my lunch so I'd not have to come in - By
2:30 I figured that I needed to move - too cramped in every way -

I haven't had the mail - went out too early - It
is a nice day - quiet - sunny - Thunder and clouds over the
cliff that didn't come my way -

And always I am wondering about you ---

I'll go get the mail ---

A soft little kiss to you -----

Later - Have your Sunday letter
It is Tuesday today - I'll go out again ---

Mr. Stieglitz -- I am pleased to say to you that I think I'm
through with that big painting -- and ready to throw it in the
ditch --

It looks quite good to me. It is so big it is a bit hard
to manage to carry it about in the car and not ruin it -- I really
quite liked it when I quit tonight and it was a bit dark -- I've
been standing on the ground working on the back of the wagon that
drops down like a shelf --

considerable dirt in my shoes and not
much smooth skin on my hands and dust in my hair --

I finally emptied the wagon after lunch -- took everything
out -- seat -- floor -- rubbers and all -- got out the hose that
had been put away for the winter and washed all the inside of the
car -- to get rid of as much dust as I could -- everything wiped
off with a damp cloth or swept out with the whisk broom -- It is
too clean to drive -- inside --

Then I worked indoors on the big painting till dark
letting the wagon dry

I was up early this morning -- took a Mexican girl
over to wipe up the floor of my house -- while she did that I
packed summer dresses I'll not wear any more -- She had just
finished when we heard an air plane -- I ran out to the landing
field -- and then came slowly down and up the run way -- Arthur -
Phoebe -- the baby and nurse -- 8:45 they arrived -- two hours
from Denver -- they hadn't had any breakfast --

It is a tiny
little baby -- not six pounds yet -- but it is here

After supper tonight Connie and I walked out to close
the gate - it is about a quarter of a mile -- bright star light --
the road quite white

I took forward to the morning to see how the

painting looks

Arthur remarks on how well I look -- much better than
early in the summer -- guess it is my tan -- or did I tell you
that I gained five pounds in California -- I don't know how I did
it except that doing so much I got very hungry

Good night sir

I'll be getting to bed

It's almost 8:30 -- that probably seems funny to you -- but
I get up at 6:30 and the day is pretty full

Thanks for clippings

And a good night kiss to you.

Saturday night 8:45

We have supper at six -- and after supper Connie --
Arthurs secretary -- and I plan a sort of checker game with
the gold miners --- It is always very funny because we are all so
tired we can barely see -- and it is rather early to go to bed --
after each game some one wants to go to bed and is persuaded by
the others to plan another game -- no one wants to go to bed
because we all hate to get up and leave the fire and walk off to
our separate houses -- It is really funny.

I have been over at the
other house all day painting something out of my head --and it is
no good -- I worked till dark -- on my failure. It was a rainy
day so I built a fire and stayed indoors --

Yesterday was rainy
too - so Connie and I went to visit Mike at Los Alamos school
-- I am told that it is the most expensive boys school in
America -- It is nice but poor little Mike who is about six feet
tall didn't look very happy -- He made us promise before he went
away from here that we would visit him -- then wrote reminding
us -- Such a nice kid -- The school is way up on a high plateau
in the National Forest -- a beautiful view --

After that I left
my car to be serviced and went to see Marie for a couple of hours
-- Then we did the Ranch shopping and went to see Ted the carpenter
about something for the Ranch --

It rained off and on all day --
was raining when we started back up here so we went to a little
restaurant in Espanola to have our supper before starting to
drive up here -- Paul Jones was there and sat with us -- So
altogether we did quite a bit with the rainy day -

3

This all must seem nonsense to you

Maybe it is

If my painting today were good -- it would be good
-- but it isn't --

I'll do it over tomorrow if it rains -- I
think it is a sort of a new turn --

Good night sir

I am so sleepy

Tell Margaret I was so glad to have her wire yesterday

Good night to you

Sunday night

Finally this afternoon the sky cleared a bit --

The light went out -- so now Monday morning 7:30 - We
have all had breakfast -- I sitting in the sun on the porch --
a perfectly windstill morning after the first heavy frost --
There is snow on all the far away mountains -- my car as well
as all the ground was white with frost -- The sky perfectly clear
-- a bright moonlast night -- The rain is over for the present
-- that pleases me

Yesterday afternoon Connie and I went down to
see the gold miners operations. You would have laughed at the
intensity of interest that one felt in all the figures working
down at the edge of the river as we saw it when we drove up
beside their car on the bank above --

They showed us and explained
the principal of their machine -- a new invention for their
particular kind of work -- then they showed us how they pan
the fine sand with the gold in it -- black sand -- as they circle
and circle the water over the sand finally the bits of gold pop
up -- very small pieces but sometimes many of them -- the soft
pure yellow gold color -- Even the indians working for them had
an intense interest in it --

I can understand getting a sort of
mania about it so that one would hardly be able to give it up.

They go today taking all their samples to Denver to have
them assayed to see if the region is worth working -- They have
been a funny pair -- caused much interest

And after supper we played that near checker
game --

Well such different kinds of people -- all so tired --

2

Before supper we all sat about and drank a little white wine
-- the cook -- a big red headed part Indian woman -- and all -- some
times in the kitchen -- sometimes in the pantry -- sometimes in
the living room when some one -- usually one of the fat miners --
a man who is in the automobile business in Boston -- was too tired
to sit up --

It has been different than any other time I've been
here -- Beginning today I will be the only person here besides
the people who work here and it will be different again

I dreamed I was talking with Lee last night -- waked
hearing the coyotes howling and wailing on the hills -- wondered
and wondered about you in my half sleep

The stillness and warm sun this morning are
wonderful

Turkeys and ducks making their various noises

The car that will take this just drove up

A soft morning kiss to you --

It seems strange to be sending it from here to
the city

Must go -

Sunday night

I had no letter from you yesterday -- that was bad --
and I feel as if I've had two ragged days -- I painted yesterday
so queerly -- didn't do what I intended to do and as I hadn't
expected to do it I hadn't planned anything about it -- and that
annoyed me a bit because what I planned to do is still to be done

At night after supper for a couple of hours Connie
and I went down to the gardeners house and played that game we
seem to play somewhere every night

--- This morning I went riding right after breakfast
-- that was good -- I believe I took a walk before supper last
night -- Was out a little over two hours this morning

At lunch Arthur had me about six miles of new road
they are building that we could get over to see where the new
road is to be -- so I had to go look at that -- Then I stopped
and watched the palinumus horses -- a lot of them pale yellow --
one quite ivory colored beside the road in a very green alfalfa
field -- they are just the right color for this place -- and as
I went about half a mile farther down the road I passed the
antelope -- two fawns -- a little half grown one and the buck
-- I had to sit and watch that -- only painting about 2½ hours --
I feel ragged -- as if I'm looking for a rut like that painting
gave me.

I'll get into bed -- bath first -- I'm filthy -- It has
been a windy afternoon

I hope you are alright --

A kiss to you -

## Monday night --

I had two letters from you this A.M. The mail comes at 9 in the morning -- They were written on Thursday and Friday and you had received no letter in three days. I don't remember letting three days go by -- I have a notion that the mail just does queer things sometimes --

Well -- I do queer things too -- I certainly did queer things and went strange places today and mailed my letter to you in Taos -- It was a perfect day and I went places -- Went up over a place I often have talked about being stuck in the mud for hours in the night a couple of years ago -- I've always wanted to see it in the daylight -- It was all there -- twisting road -- river below -- steep rocky walls but in the daylight not so bad --

However -- the country this side of it was as beautiful as anything I have ever seen -- covered for miles with a soft silvery little plant that looked like pale silver green snow -- one had a sense of being up high -- a long solid range of mountains in front -- sort of autumn colored -- snow on the top -- more bare rock than in summer -- and off in other directions single smaller nearer mountains with long beautiful lines to the slopes -- something impossibly beautiful and unreal about it -- all the mountains far away -- everything near by so wide and empty --

In Taos I saw no one -- went through Recks house -- she wasn't home -- Brett wasn't home -- didn't know where Friedas new house was -- all the trees a beautiful golden yellow -- we had been over many high winding mountain roads getting there -- I was not a bit sorry to see no one --

Came back on an out of the way road too -- to stop