Typed Letter Signed to Helen Hackett

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Unbound. Quarto. One page Typed Letter Signed to Mrs. Helen Hackett dated 15 November 1949 on stationary of The Playwright's Company in New York City. Old folds from mailing, very good. Four time Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Sherwood writes to Hackett about a painting by a family member at the Babcock Gallery, arranging to see it and meet Hackett there. He also conveys some family information, mostly about the talented women artists in his family, especially Ellen Emmet Rand, his mother's first cousin, who did the White House portrait of her friend Franklin D. Roosevelt: "My mother's maiden name was Rosina Emmet. Hers was and is a remarkable family in many ways including the fact that there was at least one artist in every one of five generations and all of them were women. Ellen Emmet Rand was my mother's first cousin. She had a sister who was also named Rosina Emmet. My mother was a professional painter, so were two of her sisters... I believe that Mrs. Rand knew Franklin Roosevelt for most of her life. Many members of the Emmet family were friends of his and one of them Grenville Emmet, was his partner in the law firm of Emmet, Marvin & Roosevelt. It was my understanding that it was the late President himself who selected Mrs. Rand to do the White House portrait of him." A nice letter shedding light on the women painters of the Sherwood family.

Item #426024

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Item #426024 Typed Letter Signed to Helen Hackett. Robert Emmet SHERWOOD.