Wilma Frances Minor letters

[Rob Wick]

Don Fehrenbacher also wrote about the Minor affair in an essay which appeared in his book Lincoln in Text and Context.

What I find interesting about the whole thing is that it didn't keep Angle from wanting to work with Sandburg on their Mary Lincoln biography. While Oliver Barrett needled Sandburg about it, Angle wrote Sandburg a heartfelt letter on December 6, 1928.

Dear Carl,

I presume that it was you who sent me the clipping from the N.Y. Times of December 5. Anyone can go wrong, but it takes a man to admit it. And when the admission is coupled with such handsome praise I, for one, feel meek and humble.
But on the question of [Atlantic Monthly editor Ellery] Sedgwick's integrity I must reserve judgment for awhile. Frankly, somebody is lying brazenly in this thing. Barton writes that he never asserted to Sedgwick or anyone else that these letters were genuine, but on the contrary, warned him that they did not look good to him. And -- this in strictest confidence -- Miss Tarbell writes that she and Sedgwick spent "several afternoons" over them,. that she was "tremendously interested" and that she "urged him to go ahead with his efforts to prove whether they were genuine or not." She says she went no further than that. When it comes to Barton's word against Sedgwick it's an easy thing for me, but -- well, I can't imagine Miss Tarbell making a false statement.
Anyhow, it's been lots of fun. You're still coming to Springfield this winter, aren't you? Give my best to Mr. Harcourt."

Sincerely
Paul

This could have very easily ruined Sandburg in the eyes of Lincoln scholars and biographers, putting him in the same category as Hertz. Indeed, I get the feeling that one of the reasons The War Years was better received by many than The Prairie Years is because in the back of his mind lurked the ghost of Wilma Minor. Somewhere in my files I have a letter that, if I remember correctly, Sandburg sent to Sedgwick where he mentions that he tried to see Wilma Minor but was unable to find her. It would have been interesting to hear what he might have said to her.

Best
Rob