Lot 231
Fascinating & Enormous Archive Documenting Journalist Arthur Ruhl’s Amazing Career, 1898-1934
An enormous archive documenting journalist Arthur Ruhl’s amazing career, 1000 pages ranging in content from early aviation with the Wright Brothers through WW I and Pre-WW II politics both Domestic and International. Ruhl was a remarkable journalist. Immediately after graduating from Harvard University, he became a reporter with the New York Evening Sun. Over the next three decades, he wrote many important stories about the events of his times, from the Wright Brothers’ early flights to World War I and the Russian Revolution. Known for his integrity and powers of description, he introduced American readers of newspapers and magazines to South American republics, turbulence in Haiti, an interracial boxing match in Reno, Nevada, and the execution of four young men convicted of murder in New York City. He corresponded with presidents, senators, ambassadors, publishers, and ordinary people. Among some of the most fascinating letters in this archive filled with them are his letters to his mother from various European cities in the early 1920s.
[AMERICAN JOURNALISM] Archive of approximately 350 documents related to Arthur Ruhl’s career as an international journalist, 1898-1934. Most of the archive consists of handwritten or typewritten letters, but also includes copies of several of Ruhl’s reports from contemporary newspapers and magazines, as well as clippings about Ruhl and his father. Most documents are in English, but the archive contains a few documents in foreign languages, including French (4), Spanish (1), and Russian (1). Approximately 950 pp. Some edge damage or slight tears to a few documents, and a few have significant tears on folds. Most very good.
Arthur Brown Ruhl (1876-1935) was born in Rockford, Illinois, and graduated from Harvard University in 1899. While at Harvard, he wrote for The Advocate and Lampoon, and ran on the track team. After he graduated, the New York Evening Sun employed him as a reporter, and he was soon published in Century Magazine, Harper’s Magazine, and Collier’s Weekly. He traveled widely and wrote on a wide variety of topics, from sports to theatre to politics. He wrote about Latin-American affairs and was an authority on international relations. He wrote about a Mexican revolution, a volcano erupting in South America, the German and Turkish lines at Gallipoli, the world heavyweight boxing match in Reno, theatres in Moscow, a George Gershwin concert, the Wright Brothers’ experiments with flight, and many other topics. He died in Queens from pneumonia, contracted ten days earlier. In 1926, Ruhl married Zinaida Yakovnchikoff (1904-1952), who was born in Russia and spoke German, in Berlin, Germany. They had one son, Arthur Paul Ruhl (1929-1997).
Extent of Archive
Other correspondents include author Josephine Daskom Bacon (1876-1961), playwright Edward Sheldon (1886-1946), playwright A. E. Thomas (1872-1947), newspaperman Frank Ward O’Malley (1875-1932), playwright Avery Hopwood (1882-1928), novelist Steward Edward White (1873-1946), journalist and biographer Ray Stannard Baker (1870-1946), journalist and writer Paul T. Gilbert (1876-1953), ichthyologist and president of Stanford University David Starr Jordan (1851-1931), editor and writer Lawrence Fraser Abbott (1859-1933), explorer and war correspondent Caspar Whitney (1864-1929), French ambassador to the United States Jean Jules Jusserand (1855-1932), newspaper editor Van Buren Thorne (1871-1935), Harvard economics professor and president of the New York Evening Post Edwin F. Gay (1867-1946), Kansas governor Henry Justin Allen (1868-1950), Emporia Gazette publisher William A. White (1868-1944), Canadian-born author and playwright Harvey J. O’Higgins (1876-1929), Senator William E. Borah of Idaho (1865-1940), British Daily Herald editor Hamilton Fyfe (1869-1951), Governor Paul M. Pearson (1871-1938) of the Virgin Islands, Pulitzer-prize winning cartoonist Jay Norwood “Ding” Darling (1876-1962), muckraking journalist Jacob Riis (1849-1914), and newspaperman Joseph M. Patterson (1879-1946), among many others.
Particularly interesting are a series of both handwritten and typed letters from Ruhl to his mother and father, written during the early 1920s from many European places, including London, Berlin, Moscow, Stockholm, Copenhagen, Warsaw, Riga, Reval (Tallinn), and other cities. His observations, both serious and humorous, bring these places alive for his parents, as his articles did for his many readers.
Published articles by Ruhl in this archive include “History at Kill Devil Hill,” Collier’s, May 30, 1908; “The Queen of the Sawdust Ring,” Collier’s, September 12, 1908; “Up in the Air with Orville,” Collier’s, July 2, 1910; “American Islands in France,” Collier’s, September 14, 1918; “American Islands in France II,” Collier’s, September 21, 1918; “The C. O. Goes to School,” Collier’s, November 9, 1918; “Back to Old Russia as Pioneers,” New York Times Magazine, April 29, 1923; “From the Jury Box,” Collier’s, May 26, 1923; “Education Under the Bolsheviks,” The Outlook, July 11, 1923; “The Last Empress,” The Literary Review, March 22, 1924; “At the Capitol’s Vaudeville,” Collier’s, April 19, 1924; “Tolstoy’s Home and the Russian Revolution,” The Outlook, June 11, 1924; “Seven Million Dollars Worth of Peace,” The Survey, October 1, 1924; “Thoughts on a Haystack,” The Independent, October 25, 1924; “They Know Their Job,” New York Herald Tribune, February 5, 1925; “The Spirit of the A.R.A.,” A.R.A. Association Review, ca. 1925; and “Idylls of 149th Street,” n.p., n.d.
Excerpts
Irving B. Dudley to Arthur Ruhl, September 28, 1906, Lima, Peru:
“I heard it said when I was in the Argentine and Chile two or three years ago that, by watching the chances, courriers were able in the winter to dodge from tambo to tambo in the cordillera and thus pass the mail from one country to the other despite the enforced suspension of ordinary travel; but I never heard of passage across the summit being made during ‘the closed season,’ least of all on foot, by any ordinary white man. Evidently, you are not an ordinary white man.”
Irving B. Dudley (1861-1911) served as U.S. minister to Peru (1897-1906) and as U.S. ambassador to Brazil (1906-1911).
Antes S. Ruhl to Arthur Ruhl, ca. October 1, 1906?, Rockford, Illinois:
“None of us can realize the years you are old[.] I wish daily we had you back at the beginning & could live it all over again. I wish we were back again in the little house with you & Robert raising chickens & gathering eggs for a consideration. I wish I could again see you going to the high school & realize again that you were growing older & I wish I could have the pleasure of sending you again to Harvard & the gratifying sense that it was possible to do so. I wish I could live every day over again & this is perhaps the greatest compliment I can pay you for it shows that you brought no sorrow to me....”
Antes S. Ruhl (1851-1942) was Arthur Ruhl’s father. Antes S. Ruhl married Nellie Brown (1856-1932) in 1875 in Winnebago County, Illinois. Antes Ruhl was secretary-treasurer for the Nelson Knitting Company, until 1914, when he became president of the company after 34 years of service with it.
Lloyd C. Griscom to Arthur Ruhl, January 4, 1907, RMSP Aragon:
“I have heard a number of men sitting about discussing your articles and the consensus of opinion was that not only are they delightful but they are also true to nature, and should give people a better idea of South America than any thing else that has ever been written in English.... You have no idea how hard it is in the diplomatic business to transplant one’s mind from post to post. It is easy enough to move the baggage and the family but the mind as you know is entirely beyond control in such matters. I have observed in my diplomatic experience that my mind remains on at the last post for about six months after the physical translation has taken place.”
Lloyd C. Griscom (1872-1959) was an American diplomat, who served in Persia (1901-1902), Japan (1902-1906), Brazil (1906-1907), and Italy (1907-1909). He wrote this letter aboard the Royal Mail Steamer Packet Aragon en route to Paris and then Italy.
Jesse Lynch Williams to Arthur Ruhl, February 28, 1908, New York City:
“I like your last South America article in Scribner’s so much that this time I am going to thank you for it, instead of merely intending to, as is the case of certain of your play reviews—notably one which was just what I would have said! if I had been reviewing and could have said it that way. (This does not refer to your kind words and excellent judgment about The Stolen Story).... I’ve followed your career with interest ever since the day you first came to see me at Scribner’s and listened patiently while I told you how to do it. And here’s where I throw bouquets at myself, for I certainly must have told you right. I don’t know any one in the business doing your special lines who can beat you at any of them.”
Jesse Lynch Williams (1871-1929) was an American author and dramatist. Among his plays was The Stolen Story, which was performed in 1906.
Charles H. Shinn to Arthur Ruhl, August 22, 1908, Northfork, California:
“You write with extreme brilliancy, but you are not growing into the real fighting strength & leadership which still lie dormant within you. You are lapt in luxury & art & color & the joy of life. Yes! Yes! Gather it in! But as my heart goes out to you, I seem to want most of all an Arthur Ruhl of ten years hence as an athlete of journalism, hard as oil-tempered steel, fighting with his Roman short-sword, against the barbarians. Whether in criticism, or in politics, or in creative work, dig deeper; go down to the granite of human nature, and build up to the stars of human aspiration. I think you need a wife, all fire and dew, all courage and high-mindedness, to translate yourself into this larger world of things Homeric.”
Charles H. Shinn (1852-1924) was a journalist and environmentalist who joined the Forest Reserve Service in 1901, and served as supervisor of the Sierra National Forest until his retirement in 1911. He was best known for his books and articles on nature, mining, and mining camp law, and was a charter member of the Sierra Club.
Walter Adolf Roberts to Arthur Ruhl, February 10, 1909, San Francisco, California:
“Your article on Haiti in Collier’s of Feb. 6th interested me very much. That part of the world was my stamping ground about four years ago and I have written extensively about Haiti and the West Indies generally. Your descriptions of the island and of conditions there impress me as being the best I have seen in print and I look forward with pleasure to reading the two articles which are yet to appear.”
Walter Adolf Roberts (1886-1962) was born in Jamaica and in 1904 immigrated to the United States, where he became a historian, poet, and journalist. He supported the creation of an independent Jamaica, which was not achieved until 1962.
Clyde Fitch to Arthur Ruhl, ca. 1909, Lorraine:
“I’ve just finished reading yr immensely interesting book “The Other Americans” which I brought on board with me for that purpose, & I think I’ll write & tell you how very much I have enjoyed it. You make a man quite feel as if he had gone along, & waking up from that, wish he had!”
Clyde Fitch (1865-1909) was an American dramatist and the most popular writer for the Broadway stage from 1890 to 1909.
C. P. Connolly to Arthur Ruhl, n.d. (ca. July 1910), Chicago, Illinois:
“I think it worth while to congratulate you on that splendid piece of work about your trip in the air with Wright. It seemed to me it was balanced, restrained, and, in every way, not only most interesting, but, as a bit of artistic craftsmanship, about perfect. It isn’t so often we get a chance to really count—and so I think we ought to be a little more free with our good wishes when we do. I was enthusiastic when I laid down the article, and that feeling has lasted some days now.”
C. P. Connolly (1863-1935) was an investigative journalist and muckraker associated with Collier’s Weekly.
Winthrop Ames to Arthur Ruhl, n.d. (ca. July 1910), New York City:
“Please let me say ‘thank you’ for the extraordinary “Up in the Air with Orville” It was a corking piece of writing—made me feel scrunchy in the intestines merely reading it. Hope you don’t mind people saying they like things you do: if you do you’re unique, so I risk it.”
Winthrop Ames (1870-1937) was a theater director and producer and an important force on Broadway.
Robert Welles Ritchie to Arthur Ruhl, April 15, [1914], Richmond, Virginia:
“It is a rare thing for a man many years out of the strict letter of the newspaper game to ‘come back’ in so masterful a style; rarer still for one of the craft to write so remarkable a story. Your story had power and simplicity and a tragedy in tone that was very unique, particularly in one whose nerves had just been shaken by a most revolting spectacle. It was a questionable assignment: nine chances to fail and one to make good. You rose to the tenth chance. You made me envious.”
Robert Welles Ritchie (1879-1942) was a newspaper reporter for the New York Sun from 1906 to 1913 and for the New York Evening World from 1913 to 1918. The story for which Ritchie commended Ruhl was of the execution of four young men convicted of murder.
David R. Francis to Whom It May Concern, September 16, 1916, Petrograd, Russia (also a version in Russian):
“I, the undersigned, Ambassador of the United States of America at Petrograd, hereby request all whom it may concern to permit Mr. Arthur Ruhl, a special messenger bearing despatches from this Embassy to the Legation of the United States of America at Bucharest, safely and freely to pass in fulfillment of his mission on this occasion and in case of need to give him all lawful aid and protection.”
William Phillips to Arthur Ruhl, April 26, 1917, Washington, D.C.:
“I am confident that it would be of the greatest possible help to have you on the Commission to Russia, but the President himself is handling the personnel and I can do nothing more than submit your name to the White House, which I shall be most happy to do.”
William Phillips (1878-1968) was Assistant Secretary of State from 1917 to 1920 and again from 1922 to 1924.
Joseph P. Tumulty to Arthur Ruhl, May 1, 1917, Washington, D.C.:
“I had pleasure in bringing your letter of April 28th to the attention of the President, who asks me to thank you for your generous and patriotic offer of your services, and to say that the suggestion did not come to him until after the appointments had been determined upon.”
Joseph P. Tumulty (1879-1954) served as private secretary to President Woodrow Wilson from 1911 to 1921.
Raymond Robins to Nicolai Lenin, and Raymond Robins to Leon Trotsky, both dated April 29, 1919, Chicago, Illinois:
“This letter will introduce Mr. Arthur Ruhl of America, a friend of mine. Mr Ruhl is a writer of integrity ability and high reputation. He represents Colliers magazine a very influential publication. This is his third visit to Russia & he is now planning to write a series of articles upon your Soviet Republic. You can rely upon his desire and power to write the truth.”
Raymond Robins (1873-1954) was an American economist and writer who advocated diplomatic relations between the United States and the Soviet Union. In 1917, he headed the American Red Cross expedition to Russia.
Arthur Ruhl to Nellie Brown Ruhl, October 22, [1919?], Reval [Tallinn], Estonia:
“I am just in from the Petrograd front—the sudden advance of the Russians changed all our plans—but it is too soon to know whether they are going to take the place or not. At any rate it will take longer than we thought at first—the first idea was that it was going to be taken in a few days, and we—that is the food relief people and two correspondents—rushed up on trucks loaded with food. We got within sight of Petrograd, and then the Bolsheviks, who are fighting hard, held strong.”
Arthur Ruhl to Nellie Brown Ruhl, June 6, 1920, Reval [Tallinn], Estonia:
“I was told by the local Bolshevik representatives that I was at last free to go. I plan to leave Tuesday next, when the next Bolshevik courier goes to Moscow, and the trip, as I understand it, will be direct from here to Moscow with only a few hours wait at Petrograd. It should take about two days. I shall stick to the tails of the courier and it ought to be comparatively easy. I am taking about 25 pounds of food of various sorts, chocolate, sugar, hard biscuit, dried prunes, tea and some smoked sausage.... I have about four pounds of Lean Curtis’s chocolate still, and if I ever get them all the way to Moscow, hope to gladden the hearts and stomachs of one or two old friends, at any rate, if they are still there. I am tremendously excited at the prospect of actually going into Moscow again, after these three years and all that has happened, and been written and said. My permission is good for only two weeks…but I hope tot have that length extended.... I am going instead of my associate, Tobenkin, who speaks Russian and is from the proletariat himself, because I look like a complete outsider, with no special knowledge or prejudice, or apparently that’s it. Russian correspondents, with more or less socialistic or Bolshevik tendencies, are continually being refused.... To avoid arousing suspicion one must not, apparently, be too curious or critical, and yet one must show, somehow, that one has a serious interest in what is going on. It is all very queer and complicated, and all the usual rules go by the board.”
Arthur Ruhl to Nellie Brown Ruhl, June 12, 1920, Reval [Tallinn], Estonia:
“Rotten news! I expected to start for Moscow last evening. Had food, 15,000 roubles, etc., etc. when Bolsheviks here said second telegram had come cancelling first permission! No explanation—simply a shrug of the shoulders, and take it or leave it. It is, of course, maddening, but there is nothing to do with these birds but smile and hope for a different wind. I plan now to go down to Riga, and from there to Kovno, probably leaving here tonight, and see some more of Latvia & Lithuania.... up to the present I can’t say that any time has actually been wasted, and if I can get permission again after I get back all will yet be well. Just to get to Moscow now, to put my hand on the Kremlin wall and say ‘There-I have done it.’ would satisfy me now.”
Arthur Ruhl to Nellie Brown Ruhl, June 20, 1920, Kovno [Kaunas], Lithuania:
“I have been just a week in Kovno now and hope to pull out tomorrow morning for Riga again. It has been a busy time, interviewing everybody in sight in the endeavor to get some sort of clear understanding of what has been happening here in the last few years. The country is so small that you might think that this would not be so difficult, but when you recall that nearly all the questioning must be carried out in some foreign language; that the little country itself is inextricably tangled up between three races, Lithuanians, Poles and Jews, and that all hate each other and deny each other’s statements and figures; that Russians, Germans, & Bolsheviks have all held most of it at various times since the war, when you consider these things as a starter, you can see that it [is] not as clear as a plate-glass window, by any means. The most interesting thing I have come across are the returned Lithuanian-Americans…now come back to help get their country on its feet. They are encouraging to one both as an American and as a believer in the natural capacities of human beings generally-provided they get anything like a real chance.”
Arthur Ruhl to Nellie Brown Ruhl, July 7, 1920, Riga, Latvia:
“I have ‘finished’ with Lithuania and Latvia now, and am trying to get back to Reval. ‘Trying’ because in addition to the usual difficulties, there is a railroad strike and none but military trains are running. One must get permission to be on the military train, and then take a chance that at some country station a committee of strikers will not go through the train & take off all civilians.”
Arthur Ruhl to Nellie Brown Ruhl, October 28, [1920?], Warsaw, Poland:
“Just a line to say that I shall probably be starting back about the 15th of November, from here via Danzig and England. I ought to get back to New York early in December. The Post has at last consented to my wish to come back—they wanted me to do half of Europe, apparently, but I must stay here for two or three weeks and get a fairly good notion of things in Poland.”
Arthur Ruhl to Nellie Brown Ruhl, June 29, 1922, Orenburg, Russia:
“I am writing from Orenburg, my ‘furthest East’ of last year, and going to put it in the ordinary mail to see if ever gets home. The A.R.A. were just closing their house as I arrived, and I have been staying with my Quaker friends, four of us in the same room, two on the floor and two in beds.”
Richard Lloyd Jones to Arthur Ruhl, April 10, 1923, Minneapolis, Minnesota:
“I have for some time been believing that Lenin’s first passion for Communism was the very natural extreme swing of the pendulum of a studiously cultivated protest against a regime which had hurled that pendulum to the other extreme by its great cruelty. All life is a compromise,- we compromise in the family, we compromise with friends, we compromise in business and in our political relations, so will Russia’s pendulum compromise between the two far swings and settle somewhere near normal, and be not unlike our own scheme of democracy. But, of course, my notion is the notion of one who has had to observe through observers. I have used your eyes and other eyes.”
Richard Lloyd Jones (1873-1963) was the editor and publisher of several newspapers, including the Tulsa Tribune, and was known for his ultra-racist views on political issues.
Arthur Ruhl to Nellie Brown Ruhl, August 23, 1923, Moscow, Russia:
“I have been enjoying myself hugely the past week. My new job is just enough to give me something regular to do each morning without being burdensome and I have a lady come in and read the papers for an hour and then send a short cable if there is anything worth sending and later go out and round up the various other sources of news.... I don’t see why I shouldn’t stay in Moscow forever.... Nearly every day there is something novel or exciting happening, so that with our little American island to live on, we sail about, so to speak, in exotic waters as if we were on a ship."
O. Sherina to Arthur Ruhl, September 8, 1923, Orenburg, Russia:
“Some days ago I received the packet you had sent through Mennonites for me. I cannot express the pleasure I felt on receiving your present. For years I did not see such a nice thing. [Ruhl inserted: “A pair of the Rockford silk stockings”].... I spoke with our peasants here and they say that the crop will be enough for this winter, if they are not to give part of it to the government. I work, as before, in the library, but don’t like this work. Maybe soon I shall change it for the railroad office.” [Ruhl wrote on the top margin: “From Orenburg, on the edge of Siberia!”]
Emanuel Aronsberg to Arthur Ruhl, August 30, 1924, New York City:
“I believe I grasp your viewpoint quite clearly, and, as I said before, can see no harm, but no practical good, either, in maintaining some kind of representative in Russia today. But I do object to official recognition, because it is going to be presented to the Russian people by the press of the Soviet Government as another ‘international triumph’ for Bolshevism, thereby discouraging those Russians at home who are fighting for a greater freedom and more democracy. And it will make it unnecessary for the Soviet regime to evolutionize further in the direction of more democracy and better legislation. In short, official recognition will not weaken, but strengthen Bolshevism, and to this I object. While we are at it, let me broach the subject of a general, bona fide amnesty. From your intimate acquaintance with the powers-that-be in Moscow, do you think you can see any hope for such an act.... the Soviet Government would be doing the right thing politically to solemnly assure us of our right to life and liberty, thus making it possible for us to return, and then shoot us as occasion may require. This would remove our opposition to the Soviet plans in the countries of our exile, and the Internationale could breathe more freely.”
Emanuel Aronsberg (1886-1935) was born in Russia and served with the Jewish Telegraphic Agency in the United States and London before joining the American diplomatic service. When the United States recognized Soviet Russia in 1934, Aronsberg was slated for a diplomatic post in Russia but died while a member of the legation in Riga, Latvia. He was fluent in more than a dozen languages and translated many works into English.
Arthur Ruhl to Nellie Brown Ruhl, July 28, 1925, London, England:
“After a week’s wrangling with the Bolos, I got my visa this morning and set out tonight for Berlin. I arrive there tomorrow evening and shall stop long enough to get some laundry done and learn a little about the ropes before starting for Moscow.... I took a two-hour row on the Thames one day at Richmond and shocked all the Britishers by taking off my shirt. They were punting and loafing along the shore under the trees in their ‘punts’ with their best girls, reading novels or taking tea, and the sight of a stranger in his undershirt ploughing up the stream was terrifying.”
Nellie Brown Ruhl wrote on the verso, “It makes me sigh as I think of Arthur getting in to that horrible Russia again, but he will be more content when he has accomplished it. We can only hope all will be well. this letter is no very interesting. what rare opportunities he has had he would be a numb skull if he didn’t know a good deal. I am glad he had the discipline of formal dress while in England. wish it could sink in so he would care a little more about his clothes.”
Paul Eldridge to Arthur Ruhl, September 21, 1925, Norman, Oklahoma:
“What is your advice to the 25-year-old teacher of English who aspires to be a writer?... You represent my ideal of a writing success and I have thought your advice would be expert.”
Paul Eldridge (1900-1973) taught at the University of Oklahoma from 1925 to 1943, when he joined the Navy. In 1945, he joined the faculty at the University of Nevada, and retired from there in 1963.
William Morris Houghton to Arthur Ruhl, November 30, 1925, New York City:
“I envy you the beer in Berlin but not much else. Here on Judge we have been sailing along very well. The post office department forbade the mails to our Parisian Number, as I mentioned above, but quite without justification and the result and publicity, I think, has done us much more good than harm. The Hodgson suit was settled out of court for seven or eight hundred dollars, being much less than Hodgson had to pay his lawyers for the privilege of suing us.”
[Ruhl wrote in pencil, “My libel suit! What an absurdity—but suppose it was cheaper to pay than to carry through the suit & win it.”]
William Morris Houghton (1882-1960) was one of the editors of Judge, a weekly satirical magazine, begun in 1881 by a secession of artists from rival Puck and published until 1947.
Arthur S. Draper to Arthur Ruhl, January 14, 1926, New York City:
“I hope that you will want to continue there some time longer. It seems to me that as you are now in full stride and going along so well, you would be foolish to return at this time. The increased experience and prestige are worth while. I know your fear that you will become alienated and be compelled to readjust yourself. You have an enviable position at the moment and the problem of getting back into New York life is not going to be difficult.”
[On verso: Arthur Ruhl to Nellie Brown Ruhl:] “My own point of view, as I wrote Draper, is that while I am in no distress to leave Berlin, I see nothing here to make up for what one loses in leaving one’s own people and country. If one were ‘getting a book out of it’ or having some peculiarly exciting or improving time, it would be different; or if one were ambitious to be a resident foreign correspondent (which I am not) or were married & were mainly interested in a solid job, where it might be, it would also be different. But Germany, on the whole, leaves me cold (not that it’s Germany’s fault) and I see no reason for staying her very much longer than our original arrangements called for.”
Arthur S. Draper (1882-1963) was an assistant editor of the New York Herald Tribune from 1926 to 1933.
On June 11, 1926, Ruhl married Zinaida Yakovnchikoff, a Russian émigré since the Russian Revolution, at the Russian Church in Berlin.
Francis Drake Ballard to Arthur Ruhl, November 5, 1927, New York City:
“I want to tell you how very much I enjoyed your review of Mae West in this mornings Herald-Tribune. It is my contention that dramatic writing should be informative rather than funny at any cost. However when the writer steps to the background and lets the piece under observation supply the humor, as you did (to my mind) in this review, and so provides a delicious bit of reading, I feel like declaring a holiday.”
Francis Drake Ballard (1899-1960) was a songwriter, producer, music editor, and author.
Moisés Sáenz to Arthur Ruhl, May 9, 1928, Mexico City, Mexico:
“I have been reading with great interest your articles about Mexico on the NEW YORK HERALD TRIBUNE. You show a fine inside into our things and one senses a sympathetic, understanding attitude in your writings.... I have been showing your articles to Dr. Puig who enjoys them as much as I do. I understand that he has brought them to the attention of the President.”
Moisés Sáenz (1888-1941) was an educational reformer who served as Sub-Secretary of Public Education under Secretary José Manuel Puig Casauranc from 1924-1928 and briefly succeeded him as Secretary in 1928, under President Plutarco Elías Calles.
Ruth Hanna McCormick to Arthur Ruhl, November 5, 1928, Chicago, Illinois:
“It was great fun having you at the farm, and I am sorry I missed seeing your wife. Please accept my thanks for the book, and you will hear from me again on the subject of the book and Central American policies after I have had enough sleep to enable me to think again.”
Ruth Hanna McCormick (1880-1944) was active in the women’s suffrage movement. The day after she wrote this letter, she won election to Congress from Illinois.
Ashley L. Totten to Arthur Ruhl, June 2, 1931, New York City:
“The articles written by you on the Virgin Islands have won for you the admiration of so many natives resident in New York that I have been requested to ask you to accept an invitation to address the group known as the Virgin Island Civic and Industrial Association.... I am the president of this organization and a native of the Virgin Islands.”
Ashley L. Totten (1884-1963) was also the General Secretary Treasurer of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, under the presidency of A. Philip Randolph.
Cordell Hull to Arthur Ruhl, February 12, 1934, Washington, D.C.:
“Thank you very much for your courteous letter of the 7th instant with enclosed article of yours relating to our visit to Lima. It was kind indeed of you thus to oblige me. I find your article highly interesting. Mrs. Hull and I both speak of you and of the genuine satisfaction and pleasure we experienced in having you with us. May I say that the personality of no one in the entire party impressed us more, if quite as much.”
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International shipments: In order to comply with our insurance provider, all international shipments will be sent via Fed Ex and customs paperwork will show a value of $1.00. International buyers should contact our office directly with any questions regarding this policy.
Third Party Shipping Option: If a third party shipper is preferred, the buyer is responsible for contacting them directly to make shipping arrangements. For your convenience, we have provided some recommended shippers. For your protection, we will require a signed release from you, confirming your authorization for us to release your lots to your specified third party Please copy and paste this following link into your browser: http://universityarchives.com/UserFiles/ShippingInfo.pdf. At that point, our responsibility and insurance coverage for your item(s) ceases. Items picked up by third party shippers are required to pay Connecticut sales tax. Items requiring third party shipping due to being oversized, fragile or bulky will be denoted in the item description.
Please see our full terms and conditions for names of suggested third party shippers.
After payment has been made in full, University Archives will ship your purchase within 5 business days following receipt of full payment for item.
Please remember that the buyer is responsible for all shipping costs from University Archives' offices in Westport, CT to the buyer's door. Please see full Terms and Conditions of Sale.
University Archives
You agree to pay a buyer's premium of up to 25% and any applicable taxes and shipping.
View full terms and conditions
| From: | To: | Increments: |
|---|---|---|
| $0 | $99 | $10 |
| $100 | $299 | $20 |
| $300 | $499 | $25 |
| $500 | $999 | $50 |
| $1,000 | $1,999 | $100 |
| $2,000 | $2,999 | $200 |
| $3,000 | $4,999 | $250 |
| $5,000 | $9,999 | $500 |
| $10,000 | $19,999 | $1,000 |
| $20,000 | $49,999 | $2,500 |
| $50,000 + | $5,000 |