Near the ground, on a shelf filled mostly with copies of Ampersand magazine and photos from past Roadworks events, stand eight unassuming hard-backed folders – the kind that hold loose-leaf papers if you want to actually make sure that they stay safe. They are titled ambiguously:
- Paul
- Ted
- Our Family Travels (two volumes)
- Lisa (two volumes)
- Celia Said
- Our Family Matters
These titles are handwritten & stuck on labels on the folders’ spines, but carefully gold-pressed on their covers.
I’m sure you’re wondering (as I did) what could possibly be enclosed within these folders? Get ready for this: literally thousands of painstakingly hand-set letters – it seems, in fact, to be every single letter that one Irving Weinberg ever received in his entire life. They range from advice on how to get married to descriptions of a family trip in Austria to letters his mother sent him whole he was at camp to letters his daughter sent him while she was at camp.
A short taste:
Jul. 16, 1960
Dear Mommy and Dad,
I am saying my prayers every night.
I miss you very much and hope you miss me too.
I like Mom’s pictures and wish to see more.
I hope you have a good time.
I have a rock collection and it is growing.
We played ball. I made a homer.
By Love, Lisa
I don’t pretend to understand what made Irving save all of these letters (to say nothing of typesetting and printing each one) but I absolutely love this strange, sincere collection.
Please visit the library at the San Francisco Center for the Book and discover them yourself.