While it is well
known that Will Durant was a prolific writer, penning
over 6 million words for The Story of Civilization
alone, what is less known is that he also was a
prolific letter writer. His fan mail was extensive
and every week would see him taking time out from his
professional obligations to answer letters from
friends, fans and colleagues.
We encourage
visitors to Will Durant On-Line who may have some
correspondence from Dr. Durant to share them with us
by sending a copy to John Little’s attention via
our e-mail address, along with some information on
the background of the letter. Each month, Will Durant
On-Line will feature a new installment of "Dear
Will Durant" which will highlight some of his
more interesting correspondence, from "letters
to the editor" sections of newspapers, to
answering general queries from fans, to acknowledging
missives from Presidents and old friends.
-- J.L.
January 9, 1946
Dear
Durant,
If you ever feel like it, I
wish you would send me a more or less particular
account of the Dreiser funeral. I'd like to know, for
example, what sort of religious service, if any, was
held, and where the poor old boy is buried. You speak
of the ceremony as "weary," so I assume
that some gentleman of God had a hand in it. Were
there any speeches?
My
apologies for bothering you, but I am curious to know
more about the last act in what to me was an almost
lifelong drama.
Sincerely
yours,
H.
L. Mencken
WILL
DURANT REPLIES:
January
21, 1946
Dear
Mencken,
Your
letter of the 9th has just reached me here in
Spokane, where I am peddling philosophy.
I
knew Dreiser only in the last two years of his life.
He lived in comfort, and usually, so far as I could
see, in good spirits. His new wife took fond care of
him; he had many friends; and his childlike faith in
Russia as the realization of the brotherhood of man
held him up in the face of the imperfections of our
life. I had him in my home on several occasions, and
found him a friendly old bear, whose gruff ways never
succeeded in concealing his almost sentimental
tenderness.
He was buried in Forest Lawn
Cemetery, Los Angeles, on the afternoon of January
third, after services in the Chapel of the Recession
there. The body had lain in state that morning, but
no attempt had been made to secure a procession of
sightseers. Some 200 persons attended, and some fifty
of those followed him to the grave. The services were
conducted by a Rev. Hunter, a Congregational minister
and friend of the Dreisers. He introduced John Howard
Lawson, also a friend of Dreiser's, who spoke with a
quiet eloquence for some thirty minutes, chiefly in
praise of Dreiser's recent enlistment in the
Communist Party. He was followed by Charles Chaplin,
who read with his usual skill the poem
"Drums" from Dreiser's book called Moods.
Then the clergyman spoke for perhaps half an hour;
not theologically, but chiefly in reminiscence of
Dreiser's career, and ... suggesting with polite
vagueness that, after all, Dreiser had been an
essentially religious soul, a creative fragment of
some Great Spirit.
The
spectators then filed past the coffin. Dreiser looked
handsomer in death than in life; his face expressed a
repose and an acceptance which his pugnacious
idealism had seldom permitted him before. The
pallbearers (Dudley Nichols, Chaplin, myself, and
five others, whose names have escaped me -- chiefly
Dreiser's relatives and friends) carried the coffin
to the hearse. Some twenty cars followed this to
almost the highest hill in the picturesque cemetery,
overlooking many miles of Los Angeles. We carried the
body from hearse to grave, and stood aside while the
minister read the usual funeral services of the
Congregational Church.... As we walked back down the
hill the body was lowered into the grave, and the
covering earth was completely overlaid with flowers.
You,
who helped him to recognition, should have been the
one to pronounce his final eulogy. We missed you
keenly.
Sincerely
Yours,
Will
Durant
The novelist Theodore Dreiser (Sister
Carrie) died on December 28, 1945. Dreiser had
been a friend of Will Durant, and Durant had served
as pallbearer at his funeral. After the funeral
Durant had sent a brief note to journalist and
literary critic H.L. Mencken, whose enthusiastic
reviews of Dreiser’s work had lent a hand in
allowing Dreiser to fame. Mencken wrote to Durant
from Baltimore the following reply: