The Story of June and Art

We have 180 letters that tell the story of the courtship of June Virginia Anderson and Arthur Werner Price. The story told in these letters begins on October 1, 1949, and – as far as this blog is concerned – ends on Sept. 1, 1951.

From October 1949 through May 1950, June and Art’s love letters fly back and forth between New York City (where June was attending school) and Southampton, Long Island (where Art was working in a grocery store while attending local art classes). We plan to blog these letters real time, minus 61 years.

From June 1950 to August 1951, June and Art’s letter writing significantly decreased. Months go by without a letter. Our plan is to condense these few remaining letters into our three months of June, July, and August, and conclude the blog on September 1, 2011.

We are very fortunate in not only having the letters – which vividly recall a New York City and a Long Island that no longer exist – but also their artwork. And June and Art were very talented artists (see gallery on the right for a sample).

Five days from now, on October 1, we’ll begin blogging the letters real time. But before that, we’ll fill in a little of the unfolding story of June and Art in the summer before the letters began, particularly their first meeting on Memorial Day, May 30, 1949.

(On Monday, Helen Darby’s party on Memorial Day…)

Countdown:  Correspondence begins in 6 days.

© 2010 Lee Price