Margaret Woodrow Wilson to Eleanor Randolph Wilson McAdoo

Title

Margaret Woodrow Wilson to Eleanor Randolph Wilson McAdoo

Creator

Wilson, Margaret Woodrow, 1886-1944

Identifier

WWP19645

Date

[1936-1940] July 27

Description

Margaret A. Wilson writes Eleanor Wilson McAdoo with news from the Aurobindo ashram in India.

Source

Eleanor Wilson McAdoo Papers, University of California, Santa Barbara

Publisher

Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library & Museum

Subject

Wilson family

Language

English

Text

Nell

     Precious darling- I can hardly believe that it was back in June that I wrote you but Im afraid I'll have to for it is so-- is it not? I wonder what kind of a summer you have been having. Oh how I hope that it has been peaceful and that our little one is becoming a little steadier about the other sex-- bless her heart It may have something to do this excitement of hers with her internal condition, but don't you think it is largely or at least partly due to the idealising and romanticising tendency that every poetic nature has? The other night when I was looking at the moon I was so happy because at last its sheer beauty could come to me directly without being deflected by one single association of ideas. It was as if I saw it for the first time. (Oh dear I was not looking and did not notice what the typewriter was doing, or rather what I was doing with it) They say that Toscanini can look at a new piece of music without remembering any other music he has ever heard so that the impression it makes on him is its own, not the result of comparing and weighing it in the scales of judgment, based on preconceived ideas. As direct vision and direct hearing is the gift par excellence of the mature poet, even of the young one when he is not being romantic. I bet anything that some day Faithie will wake up and look at things directly read as Lawrence says what there is on the face of nature without thinking of her own silly little self-- just being her own true self. The other day when I was sitting up in bed looking out over the roofs of houses to waving banana trees and up to sky banked up with mountainous clouds I thought how fond Faithie got of the little glimpses and familiar sounds that came to her in her bedroom, how she saw every detail and kept the impressions to give them forth again in poetic phrases. That power may be her touch with Reality, the thing that will help her to unfold her true Self. All this that she is expressing now is nothing but veneer- isn't it?

     But I do hope she will not have to go through hard experiences with men. If you feel at any time that the problem has really got too much for you and that she is in danger of a searing experience of some kind would you like me to ask the Mother here to help you? She has the power to protect and help where there is faith enough to give her an opening. If you ever should send me a good photograph of yourself- a recent one- if you have only snap shots have one enlarged. I have a sanp shot of Faithie that she sent me with the. Of course I could ask her to help only if I felt the situation was serious and beyond your handling. I don't feel that now, for I think that this is just a very temporary phase of Faithie's. Her unselfishness and instinctive purity will be her protection. Her unselfishness will save her from hurting you as Ellen did, and so indirectly saving her self and her purity will make her fastidious-- Dont you think so?

     Ellen thinks Princeton would be the place to take her-- she is delighted with it herself. But how about you-- Can you be happy there, I wonder. Mrs. Alderman thinks you would be better off near a city.

     Well darling this is just a note to break the silence and to tell you that my heart is full to overflowing with love for my beautiful sister and her lovely Faithie.

     My days outwardly are about the same but to go on the street is still an adventure, so fascinating are these people, and my inner adventure while not dramatic is intensely interesting.

LOVE LOVE LOVE

Your adoring,

Margaret

PS - Evading Ellie about Princeton.

Original Format

Letter

To

McAdoo, Eleanor Wilson, 1889-1967

Files

http://resources.presidentwilson.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/D70065.pdf

Tags

Citation

Wilson, Margaret Woodrow, 1886-1944, “Margaret Woodrow Wilson to Eleanor Randolph Wilson McAdoo,” [1936-1940] July 27, WWP19645, Eleanor Wilson McAdoo Collection at the University of California-Santa Barbara, Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library & Museum, Staunton, Virginia.