J. Powers - Suitable Accommodations - An Autobiographical Story of Family Life - The Letters of J. F. Powers, 1942-1963

BETTY WAHL

150 Summit Avenue

February 1, 1946

My dear Betty,

I love you. Your letter of today was very good. The best I’ve had in some time. There were two things I especially liked, that we could live on $40 a month (whether true or not, I liked it) and that we could put shutters up when we go to Ireland. Because we are going to Ireland sooner or later, if only for a month, and I would prefer to go with you willingly. I went over to see Fr Egan immediately. He agrees that the farm we had in mind is out if it’s the way you say it is. […] Now about the other two spots. I wish you would draw a map of them. […] You say nothing about how much you would expect would be wanted. If they are together and could be bought as a unit, Fr Egan would be interested and would have some cash. […] I am interested. It would seem you have the well-known business sense . Now try to answer all these questions like a good girl.

A good letter from Sr Eugene Marie today with many memories of Fr Kelly. My story about them, I think, will be the best thing I’ve done. It will be as long as Fr Burner, I believe. I guess that’s all I have to say tonight. It’s seven-thirty Friday evening, February 1, 1946, the year I married my wife, Elizabeth Alice. […]

I loves youse.

Jim

BETTY WAHL

150 Summit Avenue

February 5, 1946

Dear Betty,

[…] I am going to sign with Doubleday for two books, the stories and a novel. I will get a “small” advance on the stories and monthly payments on the novel. That is not so bad, is it? […]

I love you.

Jim

BETTY WAHL

150 Summit Avenue

February 6, 1946

Dear Betty,

Wednesday, 11:00 a.m. […]

I was talking with Mother St Ignatius the other day about her nephew and Evie, having mentioned that I was interested in a five-hour night and that I was marrying a St Cloud author (you). Then we talked about a conversion, or rather reconversion, she made with one of the boys working at the hospital, a colleague of mine. He turned Jehovah’s Witness during the war, only, as Ig explained, it was a woman that led him astray. She evidently believes most bad things happen through the offices of women. I agreed with her. I said, however, that you were different and very spiritual and that we didn’t even expect to have carnal intercourse as it’s so carnal we think and mostly live by the spirit. She said that was fine and that she didn’t have time for much c.i. herself. I refer to her as Ig because Fr Kelly used to do so (he is my source and justification).

Well, Keefe4 is in Robbinsdale today. He and Fr Garrelts were erstwhile friends and enemies. He is from Quincy too. We all played on the Quincy College Academy teams — the Little Hawks we were called. That is because the college was the Hawks proper, but we were bigger than the Hawks, us Little Hawks. So you are marrying a Little Hawk, please tell everybody. You must send me your old girdle, now that you have a new one. I will venerate it as a first-class relic. […] Now I must end this. I love you, Betty, and expect to love you more in a couple of weeks. Right now I have 18 or 19 projects knocking around in my head. Send me a kiss the next time. You have never done that. I don’t just want an x either.

Jim

CHARLES SHATTUCK

February 1946

Dear Chuck,

The lid is off on the parole business. I am free to starve again. The state is losing its memory. I am shedding my number and assuming a name again. I expect to be in Chicago next week, where good government combines with good living, and it may be that I will make a pilgrimage to Urbana, my literary birthplace. […]

I am coming back to St Paul about the 21st and am going to finish some stories. Just write. I have already made arrangements to quit the job, perhaps effective tomorrow night or at the latest Saturday.

Naturally, I feel pretty good about all this. […]

Pax,

Jim

Betty Wahl to Sister Mariella Gable, February 14, 1946

I was, of course, shocked when I heard that he had quit his job. After I said no once, he just didn’t mention it again. Perhaps it is best that he did. We will get this period over before we get married. It will give him about three months’ time. If he really can work, and can work in big enough quantities to bring in about 80 dollars a month, there is no point in his going back to work. If he fails, he agrees to get a job of some kind. There is no danger of starving immediately. Father Egan is being his patron. (I don’t know if he told you, or even if he wants you to know, but you should know.) I’m not too afraid of being indebted to F. Egan, because we spent (Jim and I, I mean) about three hours thoroughly hashing out all the questions about the Detachers and I am satisfied.

April 22, 1946: (left to right) Zella, Art, Money, John Haskins, Pat Wahl, Betty, Jim, Jim

After quitting his job at the hospital, Jim paid a week’s visit to his parents in Chicago. Living with them were Michael, the dog, Jim’s grandmother Tilda, and his brother, Dick, who was something of a rogue at the time.

BETTY WAHL

4453 North Paulina Street, Chicago, the I Will City

St Valentine’s Day, February 14, 1946

Dear Valentine,

I am at home, sitting in our living room. It is a wonderful room, very dear to me, scene of many a long night and early morning of writing. My books are all here. The phonograph. My family. My dog, Michael, who is sitting in the window now watching the janitor shovel snow away from the Fourteenth Church of Christ Scientist. It snowed like hell for the last miles into Chicago and must have been going here quite a while. I […] sat in the smoker for most of trip as the windows open better to the country. Very memory provoking, looking at the Wisconsin hills, the frozen streams, the farmhouses, with each it seemed sporting a dog who would break into a run when we went by, but at a great distance so that it was like an old print. I wish that you had been with me, except that you would have been tired. I read a paper edition of The Grapes of Wrath . And smoked until the pipe got bad-tasting. A letter from Shattuck waiting for me. He expects to see the crime wave rise now that I am free. […] My folks were disappointed that you didn’t come. I have promised you to them now. So keep that in your head. And this in your heart: I love you.

Your

Jim

CHARLES SHATTUCK

4453 North Paulina Street, Chicago

February 14, 1946

Dear Chuck,

I’m in Chicago now and have your note. Evidently, you are looking for the new Bluebeard in me. I think I’ll disappoint you. I am a simple citizen only, made in the image and likeness of Harry Truman, which is plenty for me, and if you weren’t one of them stuck up professors, it would be plenty for you. You may count on me Monday next. I’ll take the 9:05 a.m. out of Chicago. It will be a nice alibi as, if everything works out right, my draft board will perish mysteriously that afternoon. I may bring George Barnett with me. He is returning to Chicago to eke out. He has been in New York doing basal metabolism. He wants to outlaw the atomic bomb. I know a priest who wants to popularize it; he says look what small arms did for Ireland. Pax. How is Falstaff these days?

Jim

BETTY WAHL

4453 North Paulina Street, Chicago

February 20, 1946

Dear Betty,

Here I am still in Chicago. Wednesday afternoon. I am leaving either tonight or tomorrow. I am staying by special request of my folks. I am anxious to be back in St Paul, to read letters I expect to find there from you and to begin writing. Sunday night — to give you an account of my stewardship — I met Nelson Algren, whose two novels I like very much but which are probably too rough for someone as nice as you. Then Monday morning I went to Urbana and stayed with the Shattucks. That meant a lot of beer, more beer than good conversation, as a matter of fact. Some of the erstwhile editors of Accent , back from the wars, came over, and I met them for the first time — the Carrs and Hills. […] I am loving you.