Reasoning and Emotional Tone
💨 1. Weather-Related Delays and Concern
Edwin mentions a hurricane passing nearby, which—despite minimal impact—caused worry. His tone is caring and protective, anxious about Melvin’s safe and timely arrival. The letter serves as both a practical update and an emotional reassurance in the face of unpredictable travel disruptions.
🧳 2. Arrival Logistics and Contingency Planning
The body of the letter carefully outlines plans involving:
- Meeting at the airport.
- Leaving a message at the Information Desk.
- Backup instructions in case Melvin needs to call Ordnance or locate Edwin in Bunk 89A, Barracks C.
This level of detail reflects:
- Military and post-war travel uncertainty.
- Edwin’s effort to make Melvin feel welcomed and safe upon arrival.
- A reflection of how lovers and close friends in wartime often had to coordinate with military formality.
💞 3. Emotional Undercurrent of Longing and Excitement
Despite the military precision, Edwin’s joy is palpable. He jokes that it will be “so easy to argue with you about it”—a charming intimacy suggesting emotional comfort and anticipation. He can’t wait to be reunited, even if it means playful bickering.
🕊️ 4. Reassurance and Support
The letter ends with a plea: that Melvin stay calm and collected, despite all he’s managing. Edwin admits that he himself struggles to stay composed when thinking about their reunion. This shared vulnerability adds emotional depth.
🖋️ Full Transcription
In the Office
Saturday Evening
Dear Melvin,
For the past two days we have had everything around here tied down while a hurricane went by. Luckily it passed about a hundred miles from here and we have only had a little stormy weather; but it has me very worried because I am afraid that it might delay you in getting here. Please let me know if everything is all right, and how soon you can make it.
I am going to the YMCA tomorrow, and if I cannot make temporary arrangements there will check the hotels. Since the Y is in the heart of town, I think it would be very nice for a temporary stop. However, just to be on the safe side, if I cannot possibly get off to meet you at the Airport, I will leave a message for you at the Information Desk (or whatever kind of desk it has) at the airport, telling you where to go, how soon I can be with you, or telling you to come here. God, I just have to get off tho, because I doubt if it would be safe for me to see you here for the first time. If anything goes wrong tho, call the CG Base and ask for Ordnance; I will probably answer the phone. If it is at night ask for the Barracks; I am in Bunk 89A, Barracks C, after you get ahold of the barracks.
This all must sound mad to you, but I am rushing through it as it is almost 10 PM now and I have to get it in the mail for tomorrow. I have been here in the office all evening studying my Spanish and I feel that I have accomplished quite a lot. It is going to be so easy tho when I can argue with you about it. I can hardly wait.
Melvin, Please try to stay calm and collected, tho I don’t know how you can possibly manage it with all the details you are taking care of now. I admit that every time I think of the near future I am not very collected myself. Please take time out to drop me a note in the meantime, or if necessary, send a wire giving me the good news of the arrival time (and date if it is changed).
Looking forward with all the gladness in the world.
As ever,
Edwin
Context and Reasoning – Letter Dated 7 August 1945
This impassioned letter, written by Edwin to his beloved, is set against the final days of World War II. It’s filled with anticipation, romance, logistical coordination, and a whirlwind of final arrangements before a long-awaited reunion scheduled for Sunday, August 12, 1945.
🧠 Emotional & Situational Reasoning
💌 1. Overflowing Anticipation of Reunion
The letter is brimming with barely-contained excitement and love. Edwin has:
- Received two letters from his beloved (dated earlier).
- Made detailed travel plans including a flight to Miami and then to Puerto Rico.
- Scheduled their arrival to coincide with their eighteenth anniversary, symbolizing renewal and continuity.
The anticipation is so intense that Edwin can hardly focus or make sense—he is “too excited about being with you this Sunday.”
📅 2. Countdown to a New Life
This isn’t just a reunion—it is the beginning of a life together. Edwin’s references to:
- “the first eighteen of twenty-five more to come”
- “together… for always”
suggest a strong emotional and perhaps spiritual commitment.
The stakes are high: the airport meeting is portrayed with such urgency that if missed, Edwin says he’ll “practically die if I have to see you for the first time down there at the Basel.”
🎨 3. Creative & Logistical Busyness
Despite the emotional intensity, Edwin is handling:
- Art supplies and studio closure
- Wrapping up work with people like Eric and Leon
- Hanging his paintings, packing, saying goodbyes, and final errands
Even through the chaos, he finds time to muse about his love and what their future holds.
✈️ 4. Travel Instructions and Backups
Meticulous travel plans include:
- Arrival at the Pan American Line in Miami
- Requesting the recipient to meet at 10:05 AM on Sunday
- Leaving a message at the Information Desk or meeting at the “Y” or hotel if all else fails
This level of care shows how precious the meeting is to Edwin—he’s willing to leave breadcrumbs just to ensure their paths cross.
🖋️ Full Transcription of the Letter (7 August 1945)
7 August 1945
Oh my own precious, admired, sublime snookey-baby,
Last night, upon my farewell tour of the Adelbergers, I came into town and suddenly felt extremely excited, as though something wonderful was about to happen to me, and I went to the studio and something wonderful did happen—I found TWO letters from you, my darling! Funny that the airmail special, dated two days earlier than the other one, should have arrived at the same time. Precious, your suggestions are perfect if you are not at the airport in person when I arrive Sunday morning. I shall inquire at the information desk for a message from you; but, beloved, PLEASE manage somehow to meet me! I arrive at 10:05 Sunday morning—our eighteenth anniversary, and the first eighteen of twenty-five more to come, which will find us together… and then twenty-five more, and then fifty more after that, and so on thru all our lives… always the two of us together…
Yesterday I picked up my reservation on the Atlantic Coast Line to Miami; I leave Washington Thursday evening and get to Miami about 6:30 Friday evening. I shall check thru my luggage on the Pan American at once and then scout about for a hotel for the night. I frankly don’t know how I shall survive the excitement till I have you in my arms again. All week, I have been in a perfect sweat, catching up on last minute details, seeing people to say au revoir, checking facts and figures, confirming reports and promises, shopping, etc., etc., till my head is in a twirl. I have had literally pages of items to check off, things that must be taken care of before leaving town, and every day a few more things find themselves added, almost miraculously, to the list.
Last Friday I took Aunt Rae downtown to lunch and a movie and then we met Uncle Dan at the studio (both he and Aunt Rae were on vacation last week) and he gave me a very much needed lift in his car, helping me to clear the studio(s) of books, paintings, frames, bedding, etc. Eric wanted me to store my canvases at his place, so that he can hang various ones at different times, so Saturday afternoon he met me at the studio and we took most of the smaller paintings out to his house. I rather like the idea of the paintings being kept out on the wall and appreciated, instead of reposing in the cellar at 617. Leon went absolutely mad about the quick study I did of Dougie—he even went so far as to say it is the most remarkable sketch he has ever seen, for what it is intended to represent! Leon and Ida got annoyed that I had taken all my hangable small things out to Eric’s and made me promise to salvage at least one for them to hang in their apartment. I was with the Adelbergers Saturday, Sunday and Monday afternoons, in order to finish the portrait of them before leaving town. It has come along excellently. Before I left there last night, Eric had already hung a great mess of my things, so that their house looks like a gallery of the Bucknerians.
The rest of this week is all taken up with luncheon and dinner dates with odd souls who want a last crack at me! David, Charles Stoller, Walter, the Berkowitzes, Dad, etc. Maybe it’ll help bring back some of the 8–10 lbs I lost in the hospital—I hope!… Yesterday afternoon I dropped in on Elmer Keyser, the dean at art school, and finagled from him a letter of introduction to one of the big shots at the U. of Puerto Rico. He also gave me the names of three flossy figures in the island’s current list of well-placed benefactors: Rexford Tugwell, the governor; Adrian Dornbush, who heads the native arts and crafts cooperative under Tugwell, and someone else who works for Adrian (the name is under a friend that someone in this friend’s office is from a very wealthy family in Puerto Rico and would like to have a look at me). If when I arrive there I find the time I get there I shall have entrée to several desirable sets—not that I particularly want to use them—still it doesn’t hurt to have an “in” with the right people.
All I want in Puerto Rico (as all I want anywhere) is YOU, my marvelous snookey-baby! I swear, darling, I’m so excited about being with you this Sunday that I can hardly function as a normal human being these days. I can’t sit still long enough to make sense, no matter whom I’m with, and my mind is with you incessantly. God, Edwin, in a few more days we shall be together again—for always! I’m sure that lying in my sleepless bed last night I figured out many more things to mention to you than will appear in this letter, but you see the condition I’m in—now that I’m at the typewriter I can scarcely remember a thing…
I’ve loaded up on art supplies so that I shall be able to plunge right into a profitable painting spree, and so long as I can keep my luggage weight down to about 55 lbs., I’ll be O.K. The “Y” sounds like an elegant idea—cheap and perfectly adequate. But an inexpensive hotel will be all right for a few days also.
Don’t forget, darlin’, to be at the airport at ten in the morning this Sunday, or leave a detailed message for me at the desk. And again I ask: PLEASE be there to meet me, or meet me at the “Y” or hotel as close to ten o’clock as you can possibly make it. I’ll practically die if I have to see you for the first time down there at the Basel. I love you, my baby—love and adore and worship you… and shall be with you on Sunday.
Forever thru life
your own
Melvin