BLACKWELL FAMILY ALICE STONE BLACKWELL GENERAL CORRESPONDENCE [*SO*]HANCOCK 2944 Alfred Baker Lewis District Secretary District Office SOCIALIST PARTY, NEW ENGLAND DISTRICT Affiliated with the Socialist Party of America 21 Essex Street Boston, Mass. 5-9-'28 Dear Comrade Blackwell: We invited you to serve on the committee despite the fact that we know you are not a party member. So we think it is appropriate for you to serve on the committee. If you dont of course, we must bow to your decision, but we strongly hope that you will consent to serve. The New Bedford Textile Council is the regular union which called & is conducting the strike against the 10% wage cut. It is worthy of your support. It has not heretofore been affiliated with the A. F. of L. but has now voted to affiliate. It is a good deal more progressive a union than most of those in the country but is nonetheless being fought by the Communists. You will also be glad to know that about 60% of its mem- bership are women. Fraternally, Alfred Baker Lewis Sec'y. 2 Printed on Union-Made Paper. Look for the water The Socialist Party National Office 2653 Washington Blvd., Chicago, Ill. National Executive Committee Victor L. Berger, Wisconsin James D. Graham, Montana Morris Hillquit, New York James ONeal, New York Joseph W. Sharts, Ohio W. R. Snow, Illinois Dr. Wm J. Van Essen, Pennsylvania Eugene V. Debs, National Chairman, Terre Haute, Ind. Morris Hillquit, International Secretary, 19 W. 44th St., New York, N. Y. Aarne J. Parker, National Director Young People's Department 23 Townsend St., Fitchburg, Mass. August 23, 1927 Alice Stone Blackwell, Martha's Vinyard Chilmark, Mass. Dear Comrade: Your letter with $1.50 to pay for copy of the new Debs book, "Walls and Bars," and a $10.00 contribution has been received. The book has been mailed under separate cover, and receipts for your money are enclosed. We certainly appreciate your excellent co-operation. If all Socialists were as consistent in their efforts as you are, there would be a wonderfully strong movement in this country now. I am sure you will always be found in the forefront doing your part. With kindest regards, I am Fraternally yours Wm. H. Henry Executive Secretary WHH:HK Alfred Baker Lewis Socialist Party176 Naples Road Brookline, Massachusetts January 10 1931 Dear Miss Blackwell: Today I received a package from Little Brown and Co containing your book "Lucy Stone" Many, many thanks for the gift -- After dinner I went into my own little sanctuary and sat down to read it. It is now 10:30 and as I am a rapid reader I have gone through nearly half of it -- of course the story is interesting The present generation does not know what it meant to be a woman seventy or eighty years ago. When I was a little girl, something like 35 years ago, my father who was a man in a million in Spain used to say to me. I shall take you to the United States to be educated there because it seems to be the only country in the world which gives a fairer deal to women. My only regret is that he did not live to see the greater progress of today and that his daughters in a way, limited by their own power, had taken advantage of the opportunities that he and the U. S. furnished them. Sunday -- I finished the book and my opinion is strengthened. It is very fine and your mother in some other world in the universe where she is going on with her work of progress must be proud of you if it is given to those who go from here to another planet or star to know what their dear ones do. 2 Going back to book talk. Have you ever read anything by Hugo Wast the Argentine novelist? I have just finished "Desierto de Piedra" and it is worth reading if only to see what some women with courage and initiative have to go through when placed against hard conditions. I know that the story is a true description of certain parts of Argentine. How do I know it? My mother is Argentine from Córdoba and her family hada big estancia in the sierras de Cordoba where the story takes place not in el Gran Chaco as the notes mistakenly say. El Chaco is a tropical jungle and swamp. Our house was a big comfortable ranch house, but there were other families in the district that were descending the social scale and had as hard a time as Marcela By the way Hugo Wast, whose real name is Gustavo Martinez Zuviria and I are second cousins. Our grandmothers were sisters. I thought you help interesting but even the best story may lose appeal if poorly told and there is where your part comes in. You have done a mighty fine piece of work not only in the unfolding of your narrative but also in the vivid style and the fine descriptive power of the book. I thought I would stop reading for a short while and write you a few lines of appreciation. All of us women of this earth owe your mother and you an enormous debt might be interested in these details as you are such an authority in Spanish American literature. Again with thanks for the book and "la dedicatoria" and with congratulations for the very good piece of work. I am Cordially and gratefully yours Maria A. Solano SOLIDARIDAD (Antes "La Nueva Solidaridad") 1001 West Madison Street Chicago, Illinois June 19, 1921 Max Eastman, Editor, THE LIBERATOR, 138 West 13th Street, New York. Dear Comrade Eastman: Am noting with delight the "Song of the General Strike" by Maria Bravo of Argentina, and translated from the Spanish by Alice Stone Blackwell, appearing in your June issue, page 7, and as am very much desirous of obtaining the original words in Spanish for possible use in SOLIDARIDAD, am writing you to please put me in touch with Alice Stone Blackwell's address, if you will, please. Thanking you beforehand for the favor, and congratulating you on the last LIBERATOR, Yours in the Struggle, [?] Guscetti P.S. -- am placing THE LIBERATOR on exchange list to receive SOLIDARIDAD; am already receiving your magazine, with pleasure. Should be glad to place Alice Stone Blackwell on our exchange list also. To save you trouble, you might just forward her this little letter, with my best regards. [?] Guscetti Rcd Jun 22 1920About Song of the Gen StrikeHelen Stuart Sondheim Five Arlington Street Wednesday. My dear Miss Blackwell. I was in Boston for one day but was too rushed to make any calls, except upon the Noble family who unfortunately were not home. I have written to them about the plans of which we spoke. I understand the house they live in is their own and if true they are not so unfortunate. This news comes to me through an unofficial source and we must stand by them until sure that it is true I found some temporarily work here and Sidney comes three to four days each week on business thus I shall not return permanently to Boston until the end of April. By that time Mr and Mrs Noble will have had time to fully consider what they wish to do and the "pros and cons." I hope you have had a pleasant Easter and that you are enjoying good health. With very best of wishes I am most sincerely Helen S. SondheimHelen S. Sondheim 90. Brook Green, London. W. Jan. 8th Dear Miss Blackwell Your letter to my husband and the two little books have just arrived. My husband is at present in Russia, having gone out as Russian correspondent to the new English Liberal paper "The Tribune." "Free Russia" is for the present suspended. I believe indefinitely.Any information on the subject would be given to you by T. R. Green, Esq, MC Outer Temple, Strand. My husband would have been most interested in your translations, and I am looking forward to reading them with great pleasure. Things in Russia have indeed taken an unexpected and dismal turn. My husband wrote to me this morning from St. Petersburg that reaction was at present at its height. He expects it to continue in that way untilthe spring, when new uprisings will probably commence. It is a dreary outlook. The Tribune will appear on the 15th of this month, and all in Russian news will come from my husband, if only he is allowed to continue unmolested. Believe me Yours very truly Juliet Soskice.Mrs. Soskice152 Leavitt Street Hingham, Massachusetts Dear Miss Blackwell: Thank you for your Easter message of hope and cheer. Though my acquaintance with you springs largely from our mutual vice of writing letters to the editor on behalf of unpopular causes, I have always admired you as one of the valiant and liberal minority. We seem at present to be passing through a hysterical period of intolerance. I asked a blind friend with whom I was talking the other day what made people want to be intolerant, to which he replied, "It's the price of self-preservation. The tolerant suffer too much. And yet in the end it is the tolerant who win, though at the time they seem to lose." I hope you are enjoying this sweet-smelling Spring day. My husband and I join in wishing you a pleasant Easter. Very sincerely, Margaret Lee Southard (Mrs. Henry C.) P.S. I liked our poem read at the Memorial Service for Mrs. Evans. Wasn't she a splendid person? Margaret Lee Southwark