Two Women Writing Penny-Wise Letters
Jane Austen in 1800 and my mother in 1942
In the early 1800's Jane Austen could write a letter in the morning and have it delivered in London for something like a three-penny charge, collected upon delivery. Mail was carried throughout the day, so she might receive a reply by evening.
The fee was based on the number of sheets of paper: Single Letter, Double Letter, Triple Letter, or 1 Oz. An envelope counted as a second sheet of paper, so the writer would simply fold the letter and seal it with wax. To save money, writing on every inch of the paper became a skill. I think reading it must have been one, too.
The head of the household usually received the mail, with coins ready to pay the fee.
I’ve mentioned before in Postcards that as a child I glimpsed in my parents some of the effects of the Depression. My mother regularly typed long letters to her family, using carbon paper for copies that she kept as a diary. The single-spaced lines go from top to bottom on both sides of inexpensive copy paper.
I don’t know how postage fit in her household budget, but sharing everyday news with distant family was a priority.
My father was an artist and in 1942 my parents lived in New Hope, Pennsylvania. In the letter above on March 4th my mother writes,
Dick [went] out to get another sketch[pad] and some canvas - home to fix stretchers and to start in on a fascinating subject - a mass of houses - presents an interesting problem …
They also ran an antiques shop in their home on Mechanic Street. On March 7th she writes,
Lunch with still no customers - about one [o’clock] - no, must have been about three - who bursts in but Stuart Davis! … Joins us in the studio … and there is a criticism and appreciation for Dick’s FIVE New Hope Scenes.
I think now that this New Hope painting above might have been the artist’s ‘interesting problem’, the “mass of houses” that my mother wrote about three days before Stuart Davis visited the studio.
Letters tell stories!
And your stories are so interesting! Thanks.
Looks like Stuart Davis was kind of a big deal. His art is crazy bold though. I like your dad's art a lot better!