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Lucky Reader Finds an Alexander Woollcott Letter, Tangentially Related to Snails
Filed under: Letters & Challenges Tagged: Alexander Woollcott, Daniel Zalewski, dictionaries, letters
Some months ago, an Emdashes reader in Grand Rapids, Mich., named Michael Zalewski (who isn’t related to editor Daniel, as far as he knows) wrote me this fascinating letter. I know at least one person who will find this very relevant indeed!
While on Cape Cod recently, I bought 1934 edition (second printing) of Alexander Woollcott’s While Rome Burns. Upon opening the book there were several New Yorker cartoons of Woollcott pasted to the inside of the book.
In addition, I found an envelope postmarked 4:30 p.m. 1933 Grand Cent. Annex N.Y. 14, addressed to John Stewart Mosher, Esq. of Philadelphia, Pa.
Inside the envelope was a letter on Alexander Woollcott stationery (more like memo pad—with address Four Hundred and Fifty East Fifty Second Street).
The letter is dated Oct. 3, 1933.
In type is following:
My dear Mr. Mosher:
I remember our meeting in the Cour Joffre.
I have just looked up “aestivating”. Thanks so much.
And it is signed in ink: A. Woollcott.
I am intrigued. Does this have any significance?
Sincere thanks.
Note: While the OED has no entry for “aestivating,” there is this definition for “æstivate, v.”: 1626 COCKERAM, Aestiuate, to summer in a place. 1742 BAILEY, Æstivate, to sojourn or lodge in a Place in Summertime. 1854 WOODWARD Mollusca (1856) 49 The mollusca..æ stivate, or fall into a summer sleep, when the heat is great. 1882 Pall Mall G. 1 Feb. 5 The snails of the equatorial region, though they do not hibernate, yet æstivate (if we may coin a word).” Update: I shared Zalewski’s letter with OED editor Jesse Sheidlower, who replied: “Oh, thanks for calling my attention to this. We do have evidence for (a)estivating now, and will likely add this when we revise the entry. What a great find, the letter!” I agree.
Comments
That is awesome. So I was aestivating in Austria, was I? (The comment box is tut-tutting me on “aestivating” — eat it, comment box!)
I find it hard to believe that A. Woollcott needed to look up the word “aestivating.” Is this letter supposed to be attributed to him at around the age of 12? Tsk, tsk. I really do give Mr. Woollcott more credit than that!
:)
That is a cool find. Two things that strike me:
The letter was sent from his apartment that Dorothy Parker nicknamed “Wit’s End” at 450 E. 52nd Street. She lived across the street for a time. Woollcott moved there after he moved out on Harold Ross and Jane Grant’s at 412 W. 47th St.
Second, the reference to “Cour Joffre” sounds like a street in France. Maybe this is related to Aleck’s service in the AEF?
How come all the used books I buy only have movie stubs and parking tickets?
Good thinking, Kevin! Thanks for the excellent details. And see the updated note on this word’s rosy future in the OED.
Of interest to those of us who love finding such ephemerata:
http://www.foundmagazine.com/
John Stewart Mosher was my grandfather. The letter no doubt came from his house in North Chatham, where he and his wife, Rebecca Williams Mosher lived from the late 1940’s until their deaths in 1963.
My grandfather was born in China, and traveled extensively during his lifetime; meeting my grandmother while both were involved in theater in Paris in the early 1920’s.
I am not at all surprised by the content of the letter, and while I cannot say whether it might have been a serious discourse or a more playful one; I suspect, knowing his wry humor and his sense of fun that it represents an inside joke between the two men which we will never know the details. The cartoons inside the book may lend some clues.
Lovely to read this. :)
P.S.
To give you an idea of the man, he had a color print of the famous 1944 George Price cartoon “Is It
Anyone We Know?” hanging over the kitchen table…
You can see a copy of it here:
http://www.pbase.com/csw62/image/49439240
As a child I spent many happy rainy days on the Cape reading the numerous New Yorker Cartoon hardcover books in his collection.
By the way, I’d completely forgotten that I corresponded with Jesse Sheidlower, the OED’s principal North American editor, about that elusive word when this post first went up. Here’s what he wrote then (in Sept. 2007):
I agree. Thanks again for sending it in, Michael!
I’m Becky’s brother and I actually LIVE in Paris and work near the place our grandfather mentions in his letter. A Princetonian, John Stewart Mosher was an avid latinist and wrote to several friends letters in vernacular Latin. “Aestivating” obivously with its latin root is a relatively common word in French (les “estivants” means “those spending the summer” and would indeed be a handy word in Chatham even more today than in 1933). My grandfather corresponded with many authors and knew both the classics and modern literature well. Rebecca forgets that at the time of the letter granddad was actually a young married guy living in New Jersey (not Cape Cod, that was later) and looking for work in Philadelphia after losing his job in the consulate of Beijing (he spoke fluent Mandarin) where my then 4 year old mother and her mother were waiting to be “repatriated”. He ended up taking a post at the State Department that led him into the Navy intelligence service. He served in China again in the mid 30s and then in the Pacific for 5 years under MacArthur and RETIRED to Cape Cod after a heart attack in 1945. Wollcott and Twain were his favorites.
A very engaging mini-biography of your family is forming! Thanks to both of you for these excellent stories.
Ah, the days when you could spend “the summer” somewhere…
This is great! I am the great-granddaughter of Capt. John Steward Mosher and have enjoyed reading the above facts written by my aunt and uncle (both of whom I adore). I also might add that this same interesting ancestor also painted a funny picture in the doll house my sister and I inherited…and I remember hearing about Wollcott…..