FPK to W. F. Bigelow, February 10, 1924
Dublin Core
Title
FPK to W. F. Bigelow, February 10, 1924
Description
2 paged letter from FPK to W. F. Bigelow, the editor of Good Housekeeping.
Creator
FPK
Source
From the collection of Frances Parkinson Keyes Papers, Special Collections, University of Vermont Library.
Date
1924-02-10
Contributor
Digitized, transcribed, and encoded by Natalie Faulstich
Format
Carbon copy of typewritten letter.
Type
Document
Identifier
Box 3, Folder 22
Coverage
To New York City
Document Item Type Metadata
Text
(first page)
February 10, 1924.
Mr. W. F. Bigelow,
119 W. 40th St.,
New York City.
My dear Mr. Bigelow:
I am rather sorry that you decided against coming to Washington on Thursday as I should like to have a talk with you myself before you go away for so long a time. However, as it is not absolutely essential I didn’t like to urge you, knowing how busy you must be and I will do my best to cover the points which I wish to take up with you, and which as you will see are all about travelling, in a letter.
I think it will be necessary to decide very shortly whether you wish to have me spend my entire spring in Washington or whether you wish to have me leave it for one reason or another. The Y. W. C. A. Biennial Convention comes in New York from the 30th of April to the 6th of May and all hotel reservations must be made “early in February”. You may remember that I told you some time ago that the National Board was very anxious to have me represent Good Housekeeping as I am a member of the World Service Council and they felt rather sorry -- though I did not -- that when the last Biennial came at the same time with the Pan American Conference in Baltimore, you sent me to that and Miss Toombs to the Y. W. I do not personally dare at all about going so I shall not be disappointed if you decide against it.
I am enclosing a letter which came to me a few days ago from Mrs. Read. I do not care any more about going to the meeting of the General Federation of Women’s Clubs than I care about going to the Y. W. Biennial but I am perfectly willing to go if you wish to have me. If I did so, however, it would prevent me from attending the Republican National Convention as the dates conflict and I ought to cancel the tentative hotel reservation I have made for that in Cleveland at once. Of the two I feel the latter far the more important but you may not agree with me and, of course, the decision rests with you.
I am also enclosing a letter from Governor Towner. He has been in Washington for several weeks on leave of absence and I have had several opportunities to talk with him which make me feel more strongly that ever that we should take advantage of the opportunity for a story about Porto Rico which is at our command, though this letter does not bring out at all the reasons which make me feel this to be the case. If I went I would be the
(second page)
-2-
Towners’ guest at the Palace throughout my entire stay so that the only expense connected with the trip would be that of going there and back. They would take me all over the island in their motor and I would see it in a very unusual and interesting way. Mrs. Towner, who was very active in Washington as you know, has been equally active in her new position and from all accounts is providing a remarkably successful official hostess; not only in a social sense -- though she is doing a great deal in that line -- but also women’s club work, child welfare work, and so on. As the Towners would not do for any other magazine representative what they would for me, we would have an absolutely exclusive story and one that I think would be quite as good as any that I was able to get in Europe.
Mrs. Towner is coming to Washington about the middle of May to be gone about six weeks. My own calendar is so full now that I could not leave here before the 19th of April but if you do not care about my missing the Y. W. Convention, I could squeeze in a trip then or, if you prefer, I could probably arrange to take it in July, though this would be less convenient for me.
Not a single woman who has spoken to me on the subject -- and there have been hundreds -- has failed to say to me that much as she liked Washington letters she liked the ones about Europe better and that she hoped the future would hold more that were based on travel. This fact, combined with the one that I wrung not only all I hoped to out of the European trip but a good deal more, has strengthened my belief that much valuable material outside of Washington but unobtainable for anyone not connected to Official Washington is ours for the taking. Mrs. Parkhurst who spent as much money on herself in Europe in three months as I did on Henry and myself in five, and got two articles out of the trip to my seven is being sent back there this spring by a thoroughly satisfied magazine. I should like in time to attempt to do in every one of our own possessions -- Porto Rico, Alaska, Hawaii, Philippines -- what I did in Europe and I think I could succeed and once I got as far as the Philippines -- well, I probably should be tempted to try and see what I could get out of Asia. You told me recently that you had almost never known Mrs. Champenoix to make “an error in judgment”. So if you have less confidence in mine it may interest you to know that I spoke to her about this idea when she was here and she thought it excellent as have also many influential persons to whom I have spoken about it as a possibility offering all kinds of cooperation. Please keep all this in the back of your mind. I shall not be free to leave home for any length of time or to go any distance at present. But I could go to Porto Rico and that is the first link in the chain which I hope to forge in time into a complete and beautiful circle.
February 10, 1924.
Mr. W. F. Bigelow,
119 W. 40th St.,
New York City.
My dear Mr. Bigelow:
I am rather sorry that you decided against coming to Washington on Thursday as I should like to have a talk with you myself before you go away for so long a time. However, as it is not absolutely essential I didn’t like to urge you, knowing how busy you must be and I will do my best to cover the points which I wish to take up with you, and which as you will see are all about travelling, in a letter.
I think it will be necessary to decide very shortly whether you wish to have me spend my entire spring in Washington or whether you wish to have me leave it for one reason or another. The Y. W. C. A. Biennial Convention comes in New York from the 30th of April to the 6th of May and all hotel reservations must be made “early in February”. You may remember that I told you some time ago that the National Board was very anxious to have me represent Good Housekeeping as I am a member of the World Service Council and they felt rather sorry -- though I did not -- that when the last Biennial came at the same time with the Pan American Conference in Baltimore, you sent me to that and Miss Toombs to the Y. W. I do not personally dare at all about going so I shall not be disappointed if you decide against it.
I am enclosing a letter which came to me a few days ago from Mrs. Read. I do not care any more about going to the meeting of the General Federation of Women’s Clubs than I care about going to the Y. W. Biennial but I am perfectly willing to go if you wish to have me. If I did so, however, it would prevent me from attending the Republican National Convention as the dates conflict and I ought to cancel the tentative hotel reservation I have made for that in Cleveland at once. Of the two I feel the latter far the more important but you may not agree with me and, of course, the decision rests with you.
I am also enclosing a letter from Governor Towner. He has been in Washington for several weeks on leave of absence and I have had several opportunities to talk with him which make me feel more strongly that ever that we should take advantage of the opportunity for a story about Porto Rico which is at our command, though this letter does not bring out at all the reasons which make me feel this to be the case. If I went I would be the
(second page)
-2-
Towners’ guest at the Palace throughout my entire stay so that the only expense connected with the trip would be that of going there and back. They would take me all over the island in their motor and I would see it in a very unusual and interesting way. Mrs. Towner, who was very active in Washington as you know, has been equally active in her new position and from all accounts is providing a remarkably successful official hostess; not only in a social sense -- though she is doing a great deal in that line -- but also women’s club work, child welfare work, and so on. As the Towners would not do for any other magazine representative what they would for me, we would have an absolutely exclusive story and one that I think would be quite as good as any that I was able to get in Europe.
Mrs. Towner is coming to Washington about the middle of May to be gone about six weeks. My own calendar is so full now that I could not leave here before the 19th of April but if you do not care about my missing the Y. W. Convention, I could squeeze in a trip then or, if you prefer, I could probably arrange to take it in July, though this would be less convenient for me.
Not a single woman who has spoken to me on the subject -- and there have been hundreds -- has failed to say to me that much as she liked Washington letters she liked the ones about Europe better and that she hoped the future would hold more that were based on travel. This fact, combined with the one that I wrung not only all I hoped to out of the European trip but a good deal more, has strengthened my belief that much valuable material outside of Washington but unobtainable for anyone not connected to Official Washington is ours for the taking. Mrs. Parkhurst who spent as much money on herself in Europe in three months as I did on Henry and myself in five, and got two articles out of the trip to my seven is being sent back there this spring by a thoroughly satisfied magazine. I should like in time to attempt to do in every one of our own possessions -- Porto Rico, Alaska, Hawaii, Philippines -- what I did in Europe and I think I could succeed and once I got as far as the Philippines -- well, I probably should be tempted to try and see what I could get out of Asia. You told me recently that you had almost never known Mrs. Champenoix to make “an error in judgment”. So if you have less confidence in mine it may interest you to know that I spoke to her about this idea when she was here and she thought it excellent as have also many influential persons to whom I have spoken about it as a possibility offering all kinds of cooperation. Please keep all this in the back of your mind. I shall not be free to leave home for any length of time or to go any distance at present. But I could go to Porto Rico and that is the first link in the chain which I hope to forge in time into a complete and beautiful circle.