Letter from Lillian Gish, Atlantic City, to Edward Wagenknecht, 1931 March 9 : autograph manuscript signed.

Expressing her appreciation for the Christmas card he sent her and mentioning the difficulty she has had in locating the (Edward) Steichen photograph on account of Steichen's illness; writing that her mother, her mother's nurse, and she herself have had the flu and she has been sent here (i.e. Atlantic City) for some rest, writing that her sister Dorothy is opening in a revival of George Bernard Shaw's play "Getting married", and that she herself has been working with (Albert Bigelow) Paine "almost daily" on "he book and "studying for the control of my voice. It must obey me perfectly if I am to paint pictures with it."; writing that she has been offered many plays but has not "felt the urge for the theatre", and that Constance Collier had wanted her to take her former role in "Peter Ibbetson", but she is too tired at present; stating that she seldom sees the "talkies" and listing some she has seen and liked, mentioning that she has never seen Helen Twelvetrees, and that she has seen Marlene Dietrich "twice in the theatre in Berlin, once in a Shaw play, giving an excellent imitation of Garbo, and in a revue", and adding that "The Blue Angel" disappointed me when I saw it in Munich. She, like the other legitimate ones that come to us from out there, has the importance that training and background gives."; noting that his subjects for future work sound interesting, and hoping that he has the "time, health, and strength" to complete them.