O'KEEFFE/STIEGLITZ LETTERS O'Keeffe, GeoRgiA 1940, May-Oct. Box 1 Folder 15 LATE MAY 1940 [*Late May /40*] Henwar! It has been grey and rainy here for a week ~ I hope the sun is shining on you. ~ -- And that you are getting something you like ~ I am still here --- the war seems so stupefying ~ along with Alfred seeming a bit shaky ~ I have not moved. I'm going to the country quite often -- that is all. --I've even gone out in the rain this week [Meet? * ***] fair one day in **** **** too ~ But everything seems like a strange dream I suppose that is because my idea of reality has always been a bit odd ~ I think so often of you and what you are doing. G. Monday Just had a lovely letter from Peggie ~ a very nice letter ~ JUNE 1940 [*early June /40*] Henwar: I was so interested to see the film and what you have been doing - I would wish that landscape shots could be unmistakably the South and no other place - I loved the little girl writing - drawing - making the little frieze on the blackboard - also a pair of bare feet crossed down in the right hand side It is unfortunate that the wooden interiors showing the grain of wood seem so handsome when I know you intended them to seem shabby - My mind seems to have been twisted in every possible direction lately - Tomorrow - Monday afternoon I start West. It is very difficult to go. If I am not very glad to be there when I [?] I will return - I go to Wisconsin first - Alfred seems pretty well - I hate to leave him - Dr is difficult I am driving - really look forward vaguely to being on the road again - ~ only vaguely - When you come to town come and live in my place if you would like - I am not making any effort to sublet it. You can get your telephone calls from the telephone Co. now you know - Alfred [c?] on going away around the 20th. of this month - I know it is an inconvenient part of town - but it is nice - particularly in the summer - -If you write me write [?] - it will be forwarded - Sagas telephone number is St 4-5213 You have to leave a message for her -its not her phone - If Alfred has gone when you come call her and arrange to get in and for anything you want. My love to you and I hope for a beautiful picture -it must be beautiful - it will be G. JUNE 1940 Henwar ! So good to hear you are out of jail -- I love writing that. Alfred sent me a clipping about it from the Daily Worker. I am at the Ghost Ranch and I've bought the house we were in when you were here -- $3000 -- I haven't told Alfred -- Tell me do you think it weird? -- It was the only way I could live in it and I am tired of always going to a new sort of roost -- I like it here so here I am. Will you visit me if you ever come this way again It is really wonderful -- And one is certainly quiet and alone -- I can hardly believe it -- I have a very good girl so I'm not really alone in the house - Alfred is still in N.Y. and I don't know when he is leaving. There is another couch bed that the superintendent of the building has put away for me. Why don't you and Peggie move in with Alfred. I really think he might like it -- as he may have gone by the time you get there --I would like nothing better than to have you use the place. I am writing Peggie with this mail too. Get in touch with Saga - telephone ST 4-5213 and leave a message for her to call you as she has no telephone - her address is 4855 Forty Sixth, Nordsi[?] [Woodside?] Long Island -- That is if Alfred has one -- I really think he would like having you if he is still there and if he is gone you just move right in -- I would love it -- I am f[ine?] H[*****?] Georgia July 1940 I should keep it but much has happened since then - I am so pleased to be here - am feeling very good and really liking being here - even liking being alone - and all by myself ~ with no one to talk to I am very pleased that I have bought the house - I drove out at five this morning ~ one star still twinkling over in the East - and watched the light and the sun [come?] ~ thinking of Alfred getting himself on the train and away to the country. I will feel better when I know him safely there ~ ~ also thinking how you would like to sit out here and watch the light and the sun [come?] - I had a letter from Peggie today saying she will not stop on her way home -- I didn't think she would with you at one end of the road and the children at the other. I am sorry ~ I would have liked so much to see her ~ to see her here ~ I would like to ask her to bring all the children again but I have a notion she would not want to do that either and I haven't beds enough ~ as a matter of fact Henwar - Ive heard a bit of what Alfred and Peggie are thinking about you -- just a little -- There are so many things I would like to know about that I am not going to ask about any of them -- I will hear in time -- but I would like to hear if you move into 405 because if you are not going to be there I want to arrange a few little things with the superintendent. If you are there I assume that you will have Saga and that either you or she will water the hedge. I want to suggest that if you close the windows and pull down the shades where the sun will be coming in you will find it much cooler -- And will you think to close the windows and doors when no one is there because such a lot of dirt comes in - -- I hope you move in and arrange what will be convenient for you with Saga. It is bad that you must be staying in the town but I wasnt really uncomfortable there last summer. I haven't decided whether to give up that place or not -- Alfred said in the spring that I only have two besides ones that [?a] sleeps in - I don't think there will be many visitors - We all think you must rush when we start to go places so I expect everyone to rush past me - I've been working a little at little things - Up on the mountain back of the Pedernal I got a large bunch of all sorts of wild flowers last Sunday - I've been strugling with them - Have been having the roof fixed - all the edges - It will be better when the three Mexicans get through - much as I enjoy having them about - in a way - they have a kind od gentleness that always surprises me. I saw Marie - a little thin but otherwise quite as usual - It is nice to write to you even if I can not speak with you. - I wonder if you have any hopes of going West this summer - and if you will stop - I wish that you would but I will understand very well if you do not. I wonder so much about the picture. As always G. Aug. 1940 [*Aug/40*] Henwar - Your letter is so nice - It makes me very happy to have you use that place - I like to think of you there - particularly on summer nights - the city is so beautiful then - Tell me. I am so far away - I see almost no one - I read Time - that is about all - the world seems to be moving so very fast - I must either renew that lease or let it go - it costs me a year almost as much as I've paid for this house - And with the way the world seems to be going I cant imaging that Art is going to be more than a very vague interest to any one - I know that during the last War artists had a hard time - There is another reason too - I would like to go to Hawaii again about in January if the Pacific isn't too dangerous - It seems to me that every thing is dangerous What I am getting at is - have you any feeling in the top of your hat that you dont wear - about whether I have any chance to make my rent another year or not -- It is simply that if no one is spending money I will not make any -- And out here I can have no feeling about it at all -- I do not feel a need for the place as I did -- I am quite free of it Hawaii may seem a mad idea to you -- -- but every thing seems so mad these days -- a little more or less[doesn't] doesn't seem to matter -- The idea of going back to New York seems very odd to me I feel so indifferent about the lease -- one way. of the other -- I'd about as soon flip a penny -- heads renew it -- tails let it go. But if I keep it I can't go to Hawaii too -- that is quite definite -- It is an absurd yen that I have to go back there again Only tell me -- does this city feel as if I had better be saving all my pennies -- or do I dare spend a few I love it here -- and I love you too --G. Oct. 1940 Henwar! Good Morning! I'm sitting out near the mail box ready to work but I'll speak with you first -- The autumn has been lovely -- one perfect day after the other -- really lovely and I've loved it and wonder if it is time that I intend to be leaving around the middle of November -- It doesn't seem possible -- The aspens and the cotton woods along the rivers have been -- Its just too much -- maybe most beautiful now than the silver of Gara branches in Siena -- warm -- warm silver -- with the warmer yellow Yesterday I went down to visit Marie -- not at home -- gone to California for a week -- then to see Carral -- I love her you know -- her rich embroidery of life and the country -- Those Grey blue eyes in her leathery skin -- arm in a sling from neuritis -- but the same old Carral -- I hadn't seen her last time I was out -- she came up and I went down but we missed Then stopped to see Paul - he has sold his house and is moving out to the Bosses for the winter - Has bought some thing new -- an old house not fit to live in in Santa Cruze -- I got your chilli - very bright and handsome - came home and cut some sage and cedar down beyond Navajo Canyon and tied up the box - Orviel sent it for me this morning -- 6 620 Fifth Ave. =- as I hadn't your other address - I hope it gets to you bright red -- it may spoil - maybe it needs this dry air to cure it -- maybe I should have sent a dry string -- but I thought you wanted it bright - So its on the way Good morning and my love to you both - I must get to work I often think of how you would be loving the days here - - G. Transcribed and reviewed by contributors participating in the By The People project at crowd.loc.gov.