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KATHERINE LEE BATES T.L.S.

Currency:USD Category:Everything Else / Other Start Price:NA Estimated At:400.00 - 600.00 USD
KATHERINE LEE BATES T.L.S.
<b>428. KATHERINE LEE BATES </b>(1859 - 1929)<b> </b>American author who penned our national hymn "America the Beautiful". Rare, fine content T.L.S. "<i>Katharine Lee Bates</i>" on her Wellesley College letterhead, 3pp. 8vo., Wellesley, Sep. 13, 1916 to "<i>Dear Poet</i>". In small part: "<i>...I have sometimes disputed as to whether the fundamental note of life was joy or grief. I believe that the spirit gravitates toward joy. One of the wonderful things to see at the close of this terrible war, which has so gashed the meadows and blasted the forests, will be the quiet certainty with which Nature goes about her work of healing and of restoration. The cold weather will be putting us all to work again very soon, and bringing back our friends from their wanderings...I hope we may have a long talk before my study fire...</i>". She then tells a rather charming story of a young girl being terrified when about to take her examinations, inevitably graduating magna cum laude. Fine condition. Bates' predictions were a bit premature - on April 6, 1917 the U.S. entered the war, which would grind on until June, 1919.<b> $400-600</b>