Manuscripts
Mary Austin letter to Max Farrand
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Mary Austin letters
Manuscripts
These seven letters are to members of the Watterson family of Inyo County, California, including one letter to Mark Q. Watterson, Inyo County Bank owner. He and his brother, Wilfred, got caught up in the California Water Wars. They were both financial and civic leaders who had opposed the Los Angeles Aqueduct and in 1927 their bank collapsed and they were indicted for embezzlement, later tried, and convicted on thirty-six counts. The other six letters are to Mark's sister Elsie Watterson. The letters deal with the water issue, Owens Valley, Inyo Valley, the aqueduct, Boulder Dam, and Mark and Wilfred's incarceration at San Quentin. Mary Austin is offering to help the Watterson family in any way she can and offers to write something about the situation. She also talks about writing her autobiography. There are also two postcards with images of Mary Austin's house.
mssHM 79044-79050
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Mary Austin letters
Manuscripts
Nine letters by Mary Austin consisting of six letters to John Northern Hilliard, dated [October 1913?] (41072); [September-October 1915] (HM 41073); March 16, 1916 (HM 41074); [Spring 1916] (HM 41075); May 24 [1920?] (HM 41076); and undated (HM 41077); one letter to Ida Louise Harrison Hilliard, dated December 5, 1916 (HM 41071); one letter to Grace (Sartwell) Mason, dated December 22, 1915 (HM 41078); and one letter to James "Redfern" Mason, dated May 16, 1915 (HM 41079). The letters primarily discuss mutual friends and Austin's writing projects and activities. The letters to John Northern Hilliard mention Austin's work and frustration with the Western Drama Society and its treatment of Vernon Kellogg, Austin's work with the Panama Pacific International Exposition, a missing part of a manuscript, and the Forest Theatre, as well as an undated note that accompanied a gun that Austin gave Hilliard.
mssHM 41071-41079
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Mary Austin manuscripts and letters to Louis Untermeyer
Manuscripts
This collection contains five letters to Louis Untermeyer from Mary Austin and typewritten carbon copies of "Hymns of the Penitentes," an essay about the Indian Penitente group of New Mexico and their chants and hymns (HM 41060), and "Rimas Infantiles of New Mexico," an essay on the cradle songs of New Mexico (HM 41061), with corrections in ink by the author. The letters, dated June 24, 1930 (HM 41062); July 18, 1930 (HM 41063); September 10, 1930 (HM 41064); October 19, 1930 (HM 41065); and November 12, 1930 (HM 41066), primarily discuss Native American and Southwest poetry and songs, prompted by Untermeyer's work on a projected anthology of Indian verse.
mssHM 41060-41066
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William Lawrence Austin letter to Joseph Burn Austin
Manuscripts
William Lawrence Austin wrote this letter to his father, Joseph Burn Austin, in the midst of the Leadville silver boom. Leadville had been founded only two years earlier, but not all is well. Lawrie writes to his father in South America from a smelting works in Leadville, Colorado, seeking financial help. "My dear Papa, Can't you borrow the money to keep Cecil at Yale under a guarantee from me to pay it back with interest? It is really too bad for me to be taking all these chances...I am overworked, under paid, & tied up in such a way, than a human being can't be expected to stand it." One of his co-workers, Abarci, left some time ago and two more are going to leave the smelting works soon. He suggests, "Now I'll give you the boys' plan & you can see what a temptation it is to me. They intend to start an assay office up town, then add on a store, to consist of simply miner supplies, then do a general professional business besides. We will be working for ourselves..." He is confident that "...we will make the strongest team in the country." Lawrie is in despair because he must endure the dangers of the smelting works and shortchange his own future by attending to his brother's needs first, a brother who spends his time reading novels and his money on "pleasure seeking." He states, "You don't know how interesting life has been becoming for me, & I must stay in the poisonous fumes of furnaces, & give up every thing...I have to look far enough into the future, anyhow, in order to see a blue sky, but to think that I must give up my Leadville, & start again at some future day, possibly in some camp, & certainly without one cent to back me is very hard Papa." He concludes, "You must pay some attention to my case, as well at Cecil's. You could not keep one man in a hundred as you are keeping me, & there will be a final blow up, if you keep on, & that I want to avoid if possible." The letter is simply signed "Lawrie."
mssHM 80808
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Mary Austin letter to Joseph Noel
Manuscripts
A letter written on a card that is apologizing for taking longer than expected to write her contribution to Joseph Noel's publication; with a stamped, addressed envelope.
mssHM 83795
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Mary Austin letters to Dorothea Lummis Moore
Manuscripts
These three letters are written from Mary Austin in Santa Fe, New Mexico, to Dorothea (Rhodes) Lummis Moore. The letters discuss mutual friends, Austin's writing, and reading, and are dated September 23, 1930 (HM 45149); November 28, 1932 (HM 45150); and December 12, 1932 (HM 45151). Among the topics mentioned are D.H. Lawrence, Ida Tarbell's list of fifty famous women, Austin's autobiography, and Austin's effort to get a Guggenheim fellowship to work on an Indian art book.
mssHM 45149-45151