Letters here from Maxine Elliott! Black, rather wild writing, straggling over the pages, written with a soft, thick pen, and very “decided” ink. This one was written soon after Jill was born. Maxine Elliott is her godmother, hence the enquiries:
Dear Harry Esmond,
What is Miss Esmond’s Christian name? You didn’t tell me, and I have a little souvenir for her that I want to get marked. How proud you and Eva must be, and how secret you were! I almost believe you bought her at the Lowther Arcade! (once the Home of dolls).
Another letter from her begins: “Dear Harry Esmond,—Philadelphia the frigid, Philadelphia the unappreciative, has received us well, even at this inauspicious time to open, and I am full of hope and confidence in New York.”
Here is a third from the same source; this, I think, was written when Harry first agreed to write a play for her, which when completed was called Under the Greenwood Tree:
I am longing to hear the new play, and full of excitement over it, and what an angel you are to write it for me! I sail April 4th, and that means London—Blessed London—about the 11th.... I am doing the biggest business of my life this year, which is the only satisfaction to be derived from this laborious, monotonous, treadmill sort of grind that it is in this country of vast distances (America). I shall retire (ha! ha!) after we finish with the big play you are writing for me, you nice Harry Esmond!
My best love to you all.
Yours very sincerely,
Maxine Elliott Goodwin.
Letters from busy men and women, how much they mean! Not the formal typewritten affair, but written with their own hands, and meaning moments snatched from the rush of work that they always have before them. This one from Mr. Robert Courtneidge, for instance, written from his office to Harry after The Law Divine was produced. And the sidelight that it gives to the character of the man who wrote it! Listen: