Letter from Spartanburg, S.C., to 'Dear Amy,' June 16, 1940 — meditation on old age as an alibi (page 1)

Single sheet, numbered “1” at top centre, written in dark blue-black fountain-pen ink on lined cream paper. Datelined “Spartanburg, S.C. / June 16, 1940.” Opens “Dear Amy,” — the recipient is Amy FitzSimons (Mrs. James Pickens Walker), the album compiler, who in 1940 was living in Spartanburg with her husband James Pickens Walker Sr. (the writer’s location-line is Spartanburg also, suggesting the writer was in the same town and may have been a near neighbour rather than a long-distance correspondent — or used Spartanburg stationery while visiting). The body is a wry meditation on aging and white hair as an all-purpose excuse, ending with a self-aware “plea to —” that continues onto a missing second sheet. The signature is not preserved on this leaf, and pages 537–542 are a separate letter (Henry C. Hammond’s 12 Oct 1940 “funeral” letter to Ellen). The strike-through on the “excuse” line: the writer wrote “an adequate excuse” and then struck through “excuse” with a long horizontal pen-line before continuing “for almost any shortcoming” (i.e., he changed his mind about repeating the word “excuse” once already started); the strike applies to the word “excuse” itself.

The letter breaks off at the foot of this sheet; the continuation is not preserved with this album page (pp 537–542 are a different letter from Judge Henry C. Hammond to Ellen FitzSimons of 12 October 1940). Without the closing leaf the writer’s signature is lost. The Spartanburg dateline and “Dear Amy” address point to a member of the Spartanburg-resident extended family or a near neighbour of Amy and J. Pickens Walker Sr., who were living in Spartanburg in 1940.