30 November 2002

Dear S,

Thanks for sending the sketch you wrote about N. Enjoyable to read and just a few suggestions:

On page 15 you mention that N. was not a good father, and that he was only interested in his work. This is much too complicated, of course, to write about in a paragraph. However, my impression was that he was a very good father. He corresponded regularly with L. and visited L. when in town and they played tennis. There was a great deal of witty word play and intellectual and current events kinds of discussion among them. In those years L. had a good relationship with C. also, there was genuine friendship and respect for one another, and at the time that L. and I were married C. was gracious and doting and we had fun while together and corresponded by letter and talked by telephone. We went out to eat together and visited with their friends and my family while they were in town, and early in our marriage we visited them.

Page 16: Writing that “P. somehow managed to be a good mother, at least in A.’s opinion” hints that others may have thought she was not. L. has many stories about his mother, all of them expressing the deepest confidence in her as a wise and loving parent. L. and his mother were very close. L. was also close to his grandmother and she was extremely fond of both him and of N., and L. visited her in Kansas many times. L. also was and continues to be on good terms with B. and his family, and remembers D. and her family with fondness, as well as two of his mother’s aunts in St. Louis—K. and F.

You mention A. as having severe dyslexia (p. 16). What is of interest here is not so much the degree of dyslexia (how does one measure and to what purpose) but that P. worked both tirelessly and effectively with A. to help him overcome this. So please leave out the word ’severe.’ If you are going to mention the dyslexia you should work to balance the picture you are making. The sentence would give a truer picture if it were reworked to say something like this:

As did so many of T.’s descendants, N. included, N. and P.’s son A. displayed signs of dyslexia. P. diagnosed this early on and worked tirelessly to offset it by helping her son develop the strategies and confidence he would need in order to mediate the effects of the dyslexia on his schooling and intellectual development. Today A. credits his mother for her dedication in the matter.

Otherwise seems fine. Nice work!