Letter from Else Meidner to J.P. Hodin

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[Transcription/translation]

9 November 1969

Dear Dr Hodin,

I don’t own the telephone, just a line to the telephone downstairs, where anyone can listen in to what I’m saying!!! That’s why I can’t speak as freely as I should like, certainly not about sales. For that I’d have to go all the way down there. Remember that I live in furnished accommodation and that I really don’t have a home to speak of. This can hardly be of any interest, but I’m just explaining my situation. Does Dr Maass never ask after me? In a letter with stamps enclosed I asked you to send me back my ‘Conversation about Love’ or a transcript of it, because what I sent you was the original. The characters in that essay are Else and Peter. I also sent you a love poem from 1959, of which I have a duplicate. Aside from that I am now ready to start sending you my biographical sketches. And I will enjoy doing so if they are addressed to you and sent off straight away. Planning for the long-term future makes no sense for me. What’s become of your book? You didn’t say anything about it. I’d be interested to know. I knew about everything else already of course. Never again will I exhibit unframed drawings. Ludwig and I often talked about how badly people treat works of art. No-one seems to realise that paper is fragile. And canvasses also need to be handled with care. Ludwig and I always did so, otherwise there’d be no paintings left. Most people have no idea how to handle drawings and paintings. I feel hopeless, hopeless! ‘None is of freedom or of life deserving unless he daily conquers it anew.’

Sincerely yours,

Else Meidner

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