BLANCHE TRASK TO CHARLES LUMMIS:
Letter of January 9, 1900
compiled by
Robert Roy van de Hoek
December 2000
Avalon
January 9, 1900
My Dear Mr. Lummis
I have just
Out in the wondrous
You need not reply - it is
Very truely,
Santa Catalina Island
California
been reading "My friend
Bill" (last winter at the
hospital I promised my-
self the delight of a first
reading of your books but
found I could not read
these since an out-door
life takes of necessity
all my time). You have
told me as much. I wish-
ed to ask in your other
works - but it seems
to me - perhaps - you never
wrote - but this one article
My Friend Bill!
reflected sunset sky which
hangs so tenderly once our
evening sea. I see the
tale clear wish [?] a tone
which mingles with both sea
& sky - for it seems one
with what they, too, have
learned.
only because i must say a word
to you.
Blanche Trask
Blanche Trask, poet-explorer-naturalist,
did most of her California wild nature exploration and writing on the Channel
Islands of Southern California. She was a resident of Avalon on Santa Catalina
Island in Los Angeles County, California from 1895 to 1915 (20 Years).
Her winter home was located next to the Tuna Club in Avalon, but she also
had a summer home at the Isthmus where the Institute of Environmental Studies
of USC is currently located. She corresponded with professors and scientists
at UC Berkeley, Harvard University, the Smithsonian, and at the California
Academy of Sciences in San Franciso. She also corresponded with Charles
Lummis, editor of the Land of Sunshine, a literary magazine.
Blanche Trask wrote this letter on January 9, 1900, and it is after several of her poems and prose articles had already been published by Charles Lummis. The above narrative and letter was written and compiled by Robert Roy van de Hoek for educational
purposes in recognition of the 100th year anniversary of this letter being written.
The original letter is on file at the Southwest Museum of Los Angeles in the Charles Lummis Manuscript Collection (MS.1) under the correspondence:
Blanche Trask, 1899-1905, Folder Number MS.1.1.4366. I thank the Southwest Museum for their assistance in archiving the letters and for help in finding the
letters.