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Royall Tyler to Mildred Barnes Bliss, May 19, 1908

55 Rue de Verneuil

19–V–08

Dear Mildred.

Please forgive me for not answering before.Correspondence from Royall Tyler to Mildred Barnes Bliss concerning her marriage to Robert Woods Bliss on April 14, 1908, which brought about the cancellation of her plans to tour Spain with Tyler, has not been preserved. But it is clear from this letter that Tyler wrote or cabled her about sending “Bog Wan” as a wedding present. I have been away in the South of France. I can’t come to BrusselsMildred Barnes Bliss and Robert Woods Bliss were in Brussels, where he was secretary of the U.S. legation. now. I wish I could, but I have too much to do, and think it would perhaps be a mistake to plunge into Flemish things at a moment when I am trying to keep my mind on Spanish. I don’t yet know when I shall start for Spain. Do you spend all the summer at Brussels? I have even abandoned the idea of my yearly journey to London. I may go in the autumn, but I would rather wait until my book is in the hands of the printer.

I met here the other day a woman by the name of Schelling,Lucie Schelling (1871–1938), the wife of the composer Ernest Schelling. I think, who lives in my God Mother’s (Mrs. Sears’)Mrs. Joshua Montgomery (Sarah Choate) Sears (1858–1935), an artist, portrait photographer, and art collector. See Robert S. Nelson, Hagia Sophia, 1850–1950, Holy Wisdom Modern Monument (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004), 161. flat. Is she not the wife of the musicianErnest Henry Schelling (1876–1939), an American pianist, composer, conductor, and good friend of Mildred Barnes Bliss. you have so often told me of? I shall go to see her on the chance of it.

My publisher has just been here, and I fear I have been [sic] and impressed him, which is very dangerous before I have done any real work for him. Your warnings against tyranizing [sic] were well founded; it will wreck me if I don’t watch it.

Bog WanRoyall Tyler’s references to “Bog Wan” (sometimes “Bogwan”) are unclear, but it would appear to be an object—possibly an Asian sculpture—that he displayed hanging against a piece of brocade, that received a “house” from Mildred Barnes Bliss, and that was given to the Blisses by Royall Tyler as a wedding gift. See also letters of February 16, 1905; June 4, 1905; April 11, 1906; and October 26, 1908. is coming soon—when I can get a box to pack him in.

Yours sincerely

Royall Tyler

Why don’t you come to Paris?

 
Associated People: Grant Richards