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[Mrs. Leon Kolb] [1814 Pacific Avenue] [San Francisco, CA 94109]
July 25, 1989.
Dear Eleanor:
Enclosed is the copy of my letter to Isaac Stern. I did not send it to Carnegy Hall as yet. Rather wait whether I get a reply. He may be out of town.
If I do not hear in about a month then I will take your advice.
Wish us both luck. This is my last try. I do not know who I can approach beside Jimmy and Stern.
Thanks for your help.
Much love
Hilde
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Mrs. Leon Kolb 1814 Pacific Avenue San Francisco, CA 94109
July 25, 1989.
Dear Mr. Stern:
This is mainly to thank you for the wonderful work you have done, establishing the award in the name of our mutual friend Marian Anderson.
Great as this is for her to see and be present at it's inauguration, I still feel a biography, something written down, would be very important for posterity.
For several years now I had been urging her every week to speak into her recorder when-ever she remembers interesting incidents during her long and interesting years.
I also found an editor (retired as such from the university in Berkeley) willing to do the work and urged her nephew, Jimmy de Preist, to do something about it. He is her executor, but so busy with his own career that he can not spare a minute.
Yet time is running out for her as well as for me. I hope you do not feel it presumptuous on my part to appeal to you. I realize how busy you are. But it is usual people like you, who care, can find the time always for important things.
If you could interest a publisher in the East and have one of his editors take on this vital job. Marian was the trailblazer for her people. But she also served this country well.
Eisenhower sent her to the Orient as an abassador of good-will at a time when it was badly needed. She also served a term at the United Nations.
I am sure you know all this and, I hope, you feel the importance that this be done, as I do.
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Mrs. Leon Kolb 1814 Pacific Avenue San Francisco, CA 94109
Many years from now - even when the book will be out of print - it can be re-printed if it becomes necessary.
There are no children to keep her memory alive and this would be the only documentation for future generations to learn what a great human being existed in our life time, in spite of the humiliations and handicaps she had to overcome.
I am sure you are as worried, as we all are, about Israel right now.
I feel ashamed to burden you with my plea at this time. This would be an additional Mizwah to your many, many others.
With apologies, great respect and best regards, I remain Sincerely yours, [Handwritten signature, faint] Mrs. Leon Kolb
Kindly excuse my poor typing