COVE

Dearest friend,

As we approach 1925, I’ve found myself rediscovering an old favorite book I’ve had for a while and found that it would be best to send it on so intellectual readers such as yourself can enjoy it. Amelia Woodward Truesdell is known for publishing excellent books and is a well known female academic, which is a title we need more women to share!

When the earthquake hit San Francisco hit all those years ago, I found myself searching for a purpose, for community. I needed to see beyond the rubble that surrounded my city.

That’s where The Soul’s Rubáiyát comes in. I found it at a book sale. At first I didn’t see it — the small size of the book made it blend in with the other leather bound books. But I still found it after browsing through a stack of periodicals that were nearby.  I still remember how it felt to read the lines in stanza 4: “From midst the ashes of dead hopes” as I watched construction workers rebuild the appartement building across the street from mine.

I have vague memories of my father reading to me a poem called The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám. I feel as if the connection formed from that poem has led me to The Soul’s Rubáiyát.

I hope that you’ll read this poem as much I have and be enchanted by the drawings much as I have. The ones on the very first page are simple, but beautiful. I apologize about the torn cover, I had it in my book bag and it unfortunately got crushed by other books and papers that I was carrying at the time. I also apologize about the faded pages, I was reading this at night and spilled some of the water I was drinking and it affected the whole book

Hopefully we will meet again in the Californian countryside and can talk about F. Scott Fitzgerald’s most recent novel, it was so engaging and I can’t wait to hear your opinions, I know you have many!

For now, I leave you with a quote from the first verse of the second part (it reminded me of a common thread I have been seeing recently )

“Go find us life; this chaos strangles me”

Best regards,

Evelyn Curtis