Jon Bouman to the Bouman Family

Jon Bouman to the Bouman Family

Bouman, Jon Anthony, 1873-1958

WWP23034

1919 April 27

Letter from Jon Bouman to his family.

Gift of William C. and Evelina Suhler

Correspondence

Paris Peace Conference (1919-1920)

Rachel Dark

Denise Montgomery

Austin Shifflett

English

Evelina Suhler is the granddaughter of Jon Anthony Bouman and inherited the family collection of his letters from the years of World War I. She and her husband gave the letters to the Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library & Museum in 2013.

Dearest;

    In one terrific spurt I finished the story of my trip, in the wee sma’ hours of this morning. I started it with great enthusiasm, to have a record of it in the family archives, but it got much longer than I thought, and it became somewhat of a labor, as it took so much more time than I had anticipated.

    However, there it is; it makes no reference to literary style but is just intended as a story for family reading; if you think any good friends are interested and would appreciate reading it, you can lend it out, but see you get it back.

    I have a map to go with it, but am not sending it. After all it has been something of an experience ; for me at least, but nowadays regular excursions are run to Reims and other places, so very soon there will be few people in Paris who haven’t seen something of the old battlefields. My visit has certainly left a tremendous impression on me, and, as I said, I started on the story with much zest, but had to complete it quickly lest the impressions should become blurred in the deadly rush of work, and I had only taken very few notes at the end of each day.

    I should have liked to go to Verdun and Alsace Lorraine, also to have seen the ground around Ypres, but shudder to think what a job it would be to place that on record, especially as it has no commercial value and is only interesting to my own folks. I must now go ahead with writing mail stuff for the A.P. – The New York Herald printed a little story of mine on the front page the other day, which is very encouraging to see!

    I sent your cheque yesterday & hope you will have received it by now.

    It is pouring again as I write, and very cold. Dear love to you all; hugs to yourself and the bairns.

Getting plumper? Aha! oho! me too, I think!

Letter

Bouman Family