BIB_ID
318090
Accession number
MA 2519.12
Creator
Steinbeck, John, 1902-1968.
Display Date
[1965-1967].
Credit line
Gift of John Steinbeck, 1966.
Description
1 item (3 p.) ; 33.7 cm
Notes
Part of a collection of letters from John Steinbeck to Alicia Patterson Guggenheim, written from New York and during his travels in Ireland, England, Israel in 1965-1966. Alicia Patterson Guggenheim was the editor and publisher of Newsday from 1940 until her death in 1963 and Steinbeck addressed his letter "not....to someone who is dead, but rather to a living mind and a huge curiosity" (see MA 2519.39). Steinbeck wrote the letters in this series as a weekly column for Newsday. Letters in the collection have been cataloged individually; see collection-level record for more information.
Written on yellow legal pad paper.
Year of writing from range of letters in this collection; the first "Dear Alicia" letter was published November 20, 1965 and the final letter was published May 20, 1967; this letter was not published in Newsday.
Written on yellow legal pad paper.
Year of writing from range of letters in this collection; the first "Dear Alicia" letter was published November 20, 1965 and the final letter was published May 20, 1967; this letter was not published in Newsday.
Provenance
Gift of John Steinbeck in 1966.
Summary
Discussing the influence of political columnists on the opinions of the average citizen; saying that "it is little wonder that the citizen, no matter how perceptive and informed, emerges from the daily papers a little battered and confused. It's not the news which puzzles him. That he might digest and even understand. It's the clattering dissonance of the evaluators that causes so many people to report 'I don't know' when they are polled;" discussing the role of Congress in treating laws which have been made but are unenforceable, specifically the laws that relate to the punishment of draft card burners.
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