Documents associated with: Kennedy, David A.
Record 15 of 33
System Number: 09724
Date: [25 March 1896][1]
Author: JW
Place: London
Recipient: Edward Guthrie Kennedy[2]
Place: New York
Repository: New York Public Library
Call Number: E. G. Kennedy I/59
Credit Line: Edward Guthrie Kennedy Papers / Manuscripts and Archives Division / The New York Public Library / Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations
Document Type: ALS
OK! my dear friend O K!
I just send you a hurried line to tell you, what you will be so pleased to hear I know, & that is that we are doing better!! - My wife[3] I am happy to say is now really better! -
We scarcely dare to whisper it yet among ourselves! - but still after reading your nice kind letter just received (Saturday - March) I cannot keep from you this knowledge of our good [p. 2] hopes! -
Yes! We are slowly answering to the continued call made upon us to live! - and the Doctor is at last able to trust his patient with one visit a day only! - For weeks he has been here morning and night, every day! - and never is the dear sick lady alone! - Every moment is watched - every hope is recorded from hour to hour - and at last we think we are turning the long corner and looking again upon life with the interest that had seemed to have gone from us forever! -
I am going to send you a little drawing I did the other day - This is for you - for the Lady has said you are to have it! -
"La belle dame convalescente[4]" - -
It is perhaps not a bad lithograph - but I shall send others as we go on getting stronger every day! -
I shall write you more more fully by next mail -
Am glad to know "the Firewheel[5]" dispatched - and suppose shall hear of its arrival immediately! - My very best thanks for the [p. 3] promptness and care you have taken in this as in all things for me -
With our kindest regards to yourself & to your brother[6] of whose safe arrival I was glad to hear,
Always O K
[butterfly signature]
The address I have given you,
36. Tite Street, is the permanent one for London - as our hotels we are continually changing - We have now been here at The Savoy for the last month - It is perfect - but madly expensive! But[7] I don't see how you can help liking some of the things I have done out of the windows overlooking the river! - And indeed all other hotels come to very nearly the same in the end only they are meaner and more miserable in their methods of robbing you!
This document is protected by copyright.
Envelope:
'March 25 - 1896[8] - '
ToE. G. Kennedy. Esq
Messrs Wunderlich & Co
868. Broadway -
New York -
U. S. A.
[stamp:] POSTAGE & REVENUE / 2 1/2d
[postmark:] LONDON [...] W [...] / 10.P.M / MR 2[5?] / 96
[postmark on verso:] P.O.N.Y. / PAID ALL / 4 - 1 - 96 / [8?]
[on verso:] SAVOY HOTEL,
VICTORIA EMBANKMENT,
LONDON.
Notes:
1. 25 March 1896
Dated from the postmark and the date written in another hand on the envelope; see also Kennedy' s commentary on this letter, #11514. and his reply, 3 April 1896, #07277.
2. Edward Guthrie Kennedy
Edward Guthrie Kennedy (1849-1932), dealer with H. Wunderlich and Co., New York [more]. JW called him O'K.
3. wife
Beatrix Whistler (1857-1896), née Beatrice Philip, artist [more]. She was, in fact, dying of cancer.
4. La belle dame convalescente
Probably The Siesta (C.159), although JW drew a second lithograph of his wife at the Savoy, By the Balcony (C.160).
5. the Firewheel
Nocturne: Black and Gold - The Fire Wheel (YMSM 169).
6. brother
David A. Kennedy, New York dealer, brother of E. G. Kennedy [more].
7. But
'But I don't ... you!' is written in the left margin of p. 1 at right angles to the main text. 'Written March 25th 1896 from Savoy Hotel' is added in another hand at the left of p. 3.
8. March 25 - 1896
Written in another hand; the address below has been crossed out with a big X.