AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED (ALS) TO HIS DAUGHTER

New York, 8 Dec. 1938. Letter. Normal creases from folding, about Fine. Superb and touching one-page letter in Kent's minuscule hand to his 25-year-old daughter Clara expressing his disappointment that she will not be spending Christmas with him. In full: "It was about 12 years ago when, out of consideration for your mother, I gave up claiming my family for Christmas Day and set New Years Day as our day for Christmas celebration. That this gave you children two Christmases we hoped was doubly nice for you; and that it gave us Christmas--though a week later--with my children was a happiness that we planned for and looked forward to. Only the absence far from home of Frances [his second wife whom he would divorce in 1939] or me or both of us has made a New Years' pass uncelebrated as the family Christmas. All this you know. And that, knowing it, you pass up your father's Christmas for a New Year at a friend's is something that I will not forget nor easily forgive. That Frances is deeply hurt at your 'previous engagement' when after two years of enforced absence she is at last home again and eager to make a Christmas for us all, is something I have read in her face as she read your letter. That is all I know about it. I will now wish you both a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year." SIGNED "Affectionately Father." The mixture of sadness and restrained anger is quite evident in this scarce and very personal autograph letter by one of the most famous American artists of the twentieth century. The bulk of Kent's papers were donated to the Smithsonian.