How History Unfolds on Paper: Choice Selections from the Eric C. Caren Collection, Part IX

GODKIN, Edwin Lawrence (1831-1902). Autograph Letter Signed. [Cambridge, MA [?], ca. 1860s-1880s]. Addressed to Charles Eliot, President of Harvard University (1834-1926), “Dear Mr. Eliot”. On plain light-blue paper. Two small 8vo pages on one folded 8vo leaf. Each page approximately 174 x 110 mm; leaf approximately 174 x 221 mm. Leaf sunned, one horizontal and one vertical crease. In this letter, Godkin asks Eliot if he may visit that afternoon, and bring Martha Carey Thomas (1857-1935; suffragette and president of Bryn Mawr College) with him, “Miss Thomas… is in great perplexity about the filling of a vacant chair there, in the Biological department, I think. I have said to her that I thought it not unlikely you might be able to help her with suggestions or information.” Godkin was an accomplished journalist and editor; he founded The Nation in 1865, where he was editor. In 1881, he sold The Nation to the New York Evening Post, and became their editor until 1899.