Manuscript Letter from Evangeline Bruce to Rowland and Kay Evans on her Georgetown Personal Letterhead

Washington. Very Good. c. 1978. Letter. Autograph; 2 pages; Manuscript Letter from Evangeline Bruce to Rowland and Kay Evans on her Georgetown Personal Letterhead for 1405 Thirty-Fourth Street / Washington, D.C. 20007. (5.5" X 7") "Wednesday / Dear Rowly, dear Kay, it's too / boring to get back letters / thanking you for thanking, but / both were so welcome, and mentioned / the Met piece about David. // Of course dashes are [] acceptable Kay -- as in this/ instance -- but we don't agree with Mumsey do we: that using ardent / punctuation is in some way / rather childish? // Vinnie doted on you both. She / is at present (or presently as our pals would say) buried under a ton of / snow in Boston, thus evading, I hope, the / children of that grungy-sounding Prof. / Please tell me how to pronounce above. [arrow to 'grungy'] / She & Michael join me next week for / the service in London, clip attached. // Thank you for thanking me / Love Vangie" (5.5" X 7") In this letter to Rowland and Kay evans, Evangeline Bruce mentions Vinnie [Lavinia Currier] and Michael [Currier], who are two of David K.E. Bruce's grandchildren from the daughter of his first marriage Audrey Bruce Currier and her husband philanthropist and civil rights activist Stephen Currier. Lavinia Currier is a noted film director, screen writer, producer and environmentalist with diverse interests in the interplay of the arts and ecology. Evangeline Bruce (née Bell) (1914 –1995) was an American society hostess and writer. In 1942, during World War II, she was recruited and moved to London to work for the American Office of Strategic Services, the predecessor of the Central Intelligence Agency, where she met her husband, who was appointed the head of the London headquarters by General William J. Donovan. Her husband David Bruce worked for every U.S. President from Harry S. Truman to Gerald R. Ford in various capacities, including as the U.S. Ambassador to France, the Ambassador to the Federal Republic of Germany in Bonn, and the Ambassador to the United Kingdom. PROVENANCE: Rowland Evans was a provocative newspaper columnist, commentator and author who antagonized liberal politicians and championed conservative causes. He left Yale and enlisted in the Marine Corps in 1942 during World War II and was discharged in 1944 because of malaria. In 1963, Mr. Evans and Mr. Novak began writing ''Inside Report,'' an insider's view of politics that was published four times a week until Mr. Evans retired in 1993. Mr. Evans and Robert Novak began their work as columnists in the early 1960's, a time when newspaper columnists wielded outsize influence in national politics. The pair pioneered in transferring that influence to the medium of cable television with the political discussion program ''Evans & Novak'' -- carried on CNN from that cable network's beginning. Rowland Evans and his wife Kay (Katherine Winton Evans), also a respected writer and editor, were mainstays on the Washington social scene, hosting many memorable gatherings in their handsome Georgetown house -- to which flocked influential and remarkable people drawn from journalism, politics and general society over the decades from the 1960s to the 2000s. Both Evans and Novak became more predictably conservative over the years, particularly during the Reagan years. Reportedly, both columnists voted for JFK in 1960 and for Lyndon Johnson in 1964. Evans earned a place on Richard Nixon's infamous "Enemies List." Novak reported that Evans had JFK as a guest for the first dinner party the latter attended as President Elect. Kay and Rowland Evans has a particularly close friendship with Robert F. Kennedy, his wife Ethel and their family. .