BIB_ID
380796
Accession number
MA 5026.64
Creator
Cheever, John.
Display Date
"Sunday" [1942 Sept. 6].
Credit line
Gift of the Family of Carter Burden, 1998.
Description
1 item (5 p.) ; 22.9 cm + envelope
Notes
Addressed to "Mrs. John Cheever / 19 East 8th Street / New York City, N.Y." Return address is Pvt. John Cheever, U.S. Army / Co. "E" 22nd Infantry / Camp Gordon, Georgia."
Envelope with postmark; date is from postmark.
On Camp Gordon letterhead.
Part of a large collection of letters from John Cheever to his wife, Mary Cheever. Letters are described in individual records; see MA 5026 for details.
Envelope with postmark; date is from postmark.
On Camp Gordon letterhead.
Part of a large collection of letters from John Cheever to his wife, Mary Cheever. Letters are described in individual records; see MA 5026 for details.
Provenance
The Carter Burden Collection of American Literature.
Summary
Telling her that their long phone conversation made him feel like she is "not so far away"; complaining that he has nothing to do on Sundays; remarking that movies about war look like propaganda; observing that in these movies, the characters "either get killed or decorated in three weeks. There is none of the monotony, the interminable waiting, etc. that is all the men around here know about war"; describing his conversation with Charlie Baxter; mentioning that he saw people "picking the cotton ... and they wear the clothes and sing the songs that they wear and sing when they pick cotton in the movies. Seeing the South seems to be nothing but seeing greater degrees and varieties of poverty"; commenting on radio programs that advertise "a cure for something called malarial fever"; remarking that "the Calvinists in New England are bad but they're not as bad as the Baptists in Georgia and the Carolinas."
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