Collection of Correspondence Sent to a Woman Studying at Spelman University, Including Letters from Several Vietnam War Soldiers, and by Men Studying at HBCUs
Various Places: 1964 to 1967. A collection of 24 letters sent to Joan Gaillard, a young African American woman studying at Spelman College in Atlanta, together with two photos, an invitation, and a postcard. Overall in very good condition, with slight mothball odor to letters. The letters date between 1964 and 1967, and are generally between one and two pages long, with a few longer letters present as well. 22 of the letters are by various men, including college students, boyfriends, suitors, and relatives; there are also eleven letters from African American soldiers stationed in Vietnam, Asia, and the United States.
Among the latter are five letters from Lieutenant Corporal Willie A. Cobb while stationed in Okinawa and Vietnam, asking for Joan’s photo, and day dreaming about partying together back home. Three other letters are from “Bob” at Little Rock Air Force Base, in which he discourages Joan from joining the military: “So your secret ambition is your Uncle Sam’s fighting forces, huh? Don’t—repeat—don’t. You don’t know what you’re getting into. Take it from me. I know. You’d better stick to strictly feminine traits, you’ll progress more.” He also writes about his own patriotism in the face of going to Vietnam: “Now don’t start to thinking about the bad aspects of the place…So I may get shot, what the heck! But I will have died fighting for my country, & you too, of course.” Two other soldier letters reveal how they used Joan’s letters and photos to boost morale; in one letter, Andrew Moss writes from Vietnam that “The war is still the same. We live and we die…I let the boys…read your letter. Now everybody wants to write you from here to Chu-Lai…Look now you tell the girls…that you have a cousin that about 6’ 1” weighs between 180 + 190 smoother than James Bond and lives the life of danger.” Meanwhile, “Steve” writes from Camp Lejuene, NC that “I want a picture of you within the week. Send me a picture or some pictures of your class mates…The corps is bad, Brown, Pushia and myself are about the baddest thing that ever came into the corps.”
Many other letters were sent by a variety of male college students. These include several current or former Morehouse students, representative of the tradition of dating between students of the two Atlanta colleges. For example, there are three flirtatious letters from Samuel Bowens of Morehouse, in which he pines after Joan (“Joan, do you really hate me? Is it really impossible for you to be mine? What must I do to win your favor?”) and makes references to her virginity (“White doesn’t have to have any significance to you because you won’t have to be a virgin.”). Two letters from “Kenneth”, a beau and Howard University student, discuss his jealousy at Joan’s dating life: “As for you having friends at Morehouse, if you do I don’t think it could work out between us because I have no girls here because I love you too much. You’ll have to be different from other ‘Spelman girls to keep your Howard man.’” However, by the second letter, he has acquiesced to Joan’s dating other men, while revealing his poverty and asking her for a loan: “But now I think that you really and truly love me and I am not reluctant to give you my heart…I have no money and I’ve been eating donuts and milk for the past three days. Why don’t you loan me $5.00….” Another interesting letter is from Jonny Bryant Jr., another Howard University student. He writes about a risqué novel he wrote called “The Spirit of the Flesh,” noting that “My landlady’s granddaughter has been dying to read it. I let her read some sections of the book, but that is all. She is just simply too young to understand certain things.” He also adds details about his coursework at Howard: “I hope Art is easier at Spelman than at Howard. English is something else. We have so much reading, and I despise the Education courses. Most of the teachers in Education are old and you disagree with them if you dare; you’ll have the devil to pay. They make you read so many books in addition to the text work.”
Other male correspondents include: “Allen,” a former student now living in New York, noting that he is “gainfully unemployed” and that “The draft board has given me until Dec to get into some school”; a letter from “Alfred,” describing his life as an English teacher in Gabon, Africa: “I am here teaching English to 120 students in a secondary school in French. Can you imagine that? I never realized that English was so difficult to teach (in French)”; two letters from “Victor” in Jamaica, on the letterhead of the “Jamaica Citrus Growers Ltd,” expressing fond memories of their time together in Atlanta; and letters from men in Memphis, Tn, Montgomery, Al, Macon, Ga, and Thailand.
Finally, the collection includes two letters by women. The first is by Joan’s roommate Karen, writing about dating a young man—going on a “Kappa Boat Ride” together, followed by a trip to a carnival, after which she adds “we’ve had two dates since then so I’ll probably never see him again.” She also quotes a poem she wrote that begins “Dear infant son who can never be”. The second letter is from Mrs. J.L. Moffitt Jr. in Nashville, regarding her upcoming wedding. A wide ranging collection of correspondence by African Americans, covering dating, college life, and the war in Vietnam. Item #12387
Price: $1,000.00