MR. BOK'S OFFICE
My dear Miss Addams:
I am very anxious to stir up the woman whom I constantly hear say, when she reaches fifty, that she is too old to do any social service or civic work. Probably you know the type even better than I do. With our increasing prosperity there is a growing number of such women who have the means and the intelligence to do effective work if they could be aroused to do it and get away from the notion that after a woman turns fifty she can't do that work as well as before.
Will you help me in this effort by writing a brief twenty-five-hundred-word article, say, [page 2] answering the question "Need a Woman Feel Old at Fifty!"? Of course, such an article should show that a woman reaches her prime at that age and that with her background of experience and her riper judgment she can do the most effective work of her life. Then I should like it very much, for the personal guidance of these women, if you would tell in such an article the management of your personal life, so as not only to interject the personal note, which, you know, is so valuable in an article of this kind, but by your example and method of living to show these women how they can live along sensible lines and plan their days so as to make them effective. Don't you feel that you could write this article for me? I hope so. [page 3]
With every good wish that the year ahead may be the best you have ever had, believe me,
Very sincerely yours,
Edward Bok [signed]
Miss Jane Addams
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