Thursday, March 11, 2010

Treasure Chest Thursday -- Letter to Grandma

Today I bring to you another shoebox memento. This is a four page typewritten letter dated Jan. 27, 1973 from my great-uncle Ezra to his sister (grandma Smedley) concerning the publication and promotion of his book "Behold The Sun Rises"








You can click on the images and read the letter with no problem, but I wanted to transcribe a couple of paragraphs that touched me.
I greatly appreciate, your love and loyalty, Grace, particularly in my long, arduous struggle in the most difficult of all professions. In any other profession you can start at the bottom and work up. In writing, you are merely a screwball, or perhaps even worse, a bum, in your own locality until someone a long way off begins to take notice of you. I am still relatively unknown, and I like it that way. It must be an awful nuiscence to be unable to go out on the street without being accosted by a mob, friendly or otherwise. Still, I do have the inner satisfaction of knowing that millions of people have read something somewhere I have written. And I know of nothing among my published material for which I have regrets.

Though I have never mentioned it before to anyone, I am mentioning it to you now that all my life I have felt mother has been close to me and watching over me. At times she has seemed so close I felt as I should be able to reach out and touch her. I am sure she has protected me from danger more than once; and somehow has been associated with those spiritual forces that directed me, often against my will.


On page 1 he mentions helping to promote a book by Bonnie. Well of course I had to google this and here is where I found her book.

Included with the letter was this promo page:
You can learn more about Ezra James Poulsen at the tribute page on my website.


1 comment:

  1. I love old letters that are sentimental and tell a bit of the times and a bit of the person's character. Thanks for sharing.
    Kathleen, a3genealogy

    ReplyDelete

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