Letter to Dorothea Lange, from John Steinbeck
July 3, 1965
John Steinbeck
Correspondence (Ink on paper)
Gift of Paul S. Taylor
12.5 in x 8 in
A67.137.97606
Additional Information
Handwritten Letter from John Steinbeck to Dorothea Lange written three months before Lange’s death. Dated July 3, 1965: "Dear Dorothea: Thank you for sending the picture. Nothing was ever taken that so illust
Handwritten Letter from John Steinbeck to Dorothea Lange written three months before Lange’s death. Dated July 3, 1965: "Dear Dorothea: Thank you for sending the picture. Nothing was ever taken that so illustrated that time, a strange time but surely no more paradoxical than the present. We have lived in the greatest of all periods. If the question were asked, if you could choose out of all times, when would you elect to have lived. I would surely say -- the Present. Of course we don't know how it comes out. No one ever does. The story ends only in fiction and I have made sure that it never ends in my fiction. There have been great ones in my time and I have been privileged to know some of them and surely you are among the giants. And if I, who am not religious, offer my prayers for you, it is because God did not beget prayers -- prayers created the Gods -- and kept them in their places too. Bless you! And thank you again for remembering. Affectionately John Steinbeck How I wish I may do it as gallantly as you."
