July 1977 (?)

Dear Linda,

Happy birthday—you are really the best thing that ever happened to me. Mainly that is because you get better all of the time. I liked you so much when we went to that Christmas dance together; I loved you more during our first year of marriage; I love you and need you even more now as we reach our respective primes. Please continue to provide that whole new dimension to my life by continuing to grow apace with me.

I missed having you on this trip and really want to travel more with you. That is why I look forward so much to the idea of our trip to England or wherever. I see that as an opportunity to share with you the kind of life we had at Hayden Hall. Moreover, it will provide us with a chance to keep developing into more interesting people.

I really want to keep our lives and interests reasonably close so that we can both work as a team. I want to be able to help you do your work just as you can help me do mine. I respect and need your judgment, style and exciting spirit. I hope I can give you the benefit of some of my experiences and ideas as well in your writing, organizing and selling. I enjoy editing your writing and hope I can help you in other ways—probably mostly with the kids. You have done such a good job with them that you deserve some better help from me.

I hope that as we grow older we will get into more things that we can do together so that this tremendous growth in our love and respect for each other can continue until we die.

Love,

Jack

Below appears to be Jack’s rough draft of the note above:

I have been struck this trip by the way I like to share experiences, judgments and plans with you. I really want to keep our lives and interests close so that we can both work as a team. I would hate to see us develop our separate interests in such a way that as we grow older we need each other less. This is because I really feel that I need your judgment, style, and exciting spirit to counteract my rationalism and steadiness.

At the same time that I need you, I want to see you continue to develop in your own right and really become an equal partner in what we are doing. You are so intelligent and able that I would really like to see you recognized (and paid) more in your own right. I hope that you don’t feel that I am just trying to get you to work harder. I recognize the pressures you are under and recognize that I don’t help enough with the children. We both put pressure on each other and therefore we will both have to work harder at helping each other.

I am very proud of how good a job you have done with the children. I think that they will be really fine people when they grow up. I don’t want to do anything that will cause you to get too stern with them, however.

I would like to take you with me on the next trip because I would like to share the traveling experiences with you. I really look forward to taking a sabbatical for the same reason. There is no question that I like to travel in an urban setting with you.