Lot 285: CARVER, GEORGE WASHINGTON

CARVER, GEORGE WASHINGTON An interesting collection of 6 autograph letters signed by Carver, various places, dates, lengths, and correspondents, as detailed below; various, generally very good condition. Housed in four various folding-cases and portfolios.

Autograph retained draft, in pencil, 8 pages (on the versos of mimeographed scrap papers), 2 July 1923, to W. E. B. Dubois, declining to write about himself, but providing instead "a few striking extracts from letters and Newspapers," including the conclusion of a writer for the Atlanta Constitution that "Prof. George W. Carver ... convinced all of those who saw him demonstrate the possibilities of potatoes, peanuts and pecans and their by-products for food and commercial value, that there is no color line in analytical chemistry." — Autograph letter signed ("Geo. W. Carver), 25 January 1924, 6 pages (one two full leaves [one defective] and a half sheet), to Jim Hadwick, describing his hectic schedule and many demands on his time: "People from the N. S. E. and W. are coming for information, one man representing the Great Coosa River Power Co. ... Rowick Chocolate Co has also a multiplicity of problems they have submitted. ... Another man [came] to see if he could not purchase my services in connection with their immense plant in which they make ... and size cloth of various kinds on a gigantic scale. They say just name your price, money is no object to us we want your services. I could not do it because I do not think God wants me to sell out in that way."—Autograph note signed ("Geo. W. Carver"), 1 page, 6 December 1926, to Miss Caudill, covering a typed-carbon copy signed of Carver's answers to various questions about spirituality. — Autograph letter signed ("G. W. Carver"), 3 pages on 2 sheets of Tuskegee Institute letterhead, 3 December 1933, to Harry W. Ittner, mentioning various projects (including planning cultivation, menus, and recipes for the Navajo people in New Mexico), and offering encouragment, "Keep in mind in all your creative thinking the filling of empty dinner pails, putting people to work and changing their thought life, from its present chaotic conditions to the Golden Rule way of living so that there may be peace on earth and good will toward al me." — Autograph letter signed ("G. W. Carver") in pencil (possibly a draft), 3 pages, 27 March 1937, to Mrs. Max Alder, extolling the example of her brother, Julius Rosenwald, "Your visit here with your distinguished brother and my sainted friend instructed and inspired me to go on and develop the work which seemed to render the greatest service to the 'man farthest down.'" — Autograph letter signed ("Geo. W. Carver") in pencil (possibly a draft), 3 pages, 23 March 1942, "To the greatest of all living prophets, Mr. Henry Ford," thanking him for his visit and revealing that the sandwiches they ate for dinner were made from ground curled dock leaves, wild onion, chick weed, plantain leaves, pepper leaves, bed straw tops, dandelion, wild lettuce, and rabbit tobacco.