Dear Miss Addams:
I should be very eager to read Mrs. Bowen's chapters in the hope that they may fit The Survey Graphic. Thank you so much for thinking of us. Won't you ask her to send them on?
But I am not sure that we should be solely interested in the chapters describing her early philanthropic efforts -- or that we would be mostly interested in them. Her title, "Growing Up With Chicago," is a wonderful one -- the best by far she has ever written to -- and suggests a story of civic struggle and growth that will knock at the imagination of people.
If Mrs. Bowen has no other plans, let us read more than the two or three chapters you mentioned. We have been going through the galleys of Beatrice Webb's reminiscences, and if we had to decide sheerly on the basis of those sections dealing with philanthropic activities, we should be in a hole. Yet her more general chapters are filled with social meaning -- and are also essentially "for us."
If we get a favorable answer by cable to our offer, the Webb chapters, by the way, will run through the winter and probably into April. When is Mrs. Bowen's book to come out as a book? I hope not until this spring, for one series of reminiscences is about all we could swing at the time. On the other hand, Chicago and London might offer interesting comparisons. And the Webb plan may go by the board. In any event, I am eager to see Mrs. Bowen's chapters. And thank you again.
Sometimes your function as a contributing editor of The Survey seems tucked away on some high shelf; but here you are bringing it down, dusting it off, and offering a winning suggestion that makes up for months of silence.
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