February 17, 1935My dear Miss Turner,
A note from Charlotte Haywood has been chasing me around the country, first to San Gabriel, California, then to Columbus and it has finally reached me here in time to tell me that you have a birthday on February the twenty-first. I am so glad it reached me in time, for I can join the others in wishing you a very happy one. If the good wishes and loving regards of your friends and past associates in the department can help make your birthday a happy day, it should be, with a looking backward as well as looking forward, which is one of your fine characteristics.
I did not know o
df Dr. Clapp's death until Charlotte mentioned. Of course, I was saddened in knowing that that gay and gallant soul is with us no longer. I always hopedthtthat I would see her some time again. There are three teachers I call my inspirations, she was one; you are another, if I may tell you so, and Dr. Landacre was the third. You all had that that [sic] quality of being thrilled and excited by what you learned in biology and by your experiences of various kinds that I imagine was what made the early teachers and workers in biology so inspiring. Their students just never got over it, and so we have never lost quite a certain curiosity and desire to know things, even though some of us have never done much.I am sorry to hear that you have had the flu. It was rather miserable this year. So many of the girls here at the Y.W.C.A. where I live have had it. I had it, of course, as I never fail to get anything respiratory and missed about two weeks altogether. At the American Medical Association they do not tolerate absences as at some places, and so I was rather anxious about losing my job.. [sic] We have our pay deducted for absences over five days. It seems queer to be working in a concern which is more or less run for profit, that is, in which the financial side is more stressed than in a university, but I enjoy the work as yet. I still have so much to learn that it is not yet dull.
One learns something too, in reading the papers which are sent in for publication, in the course of going over them several times for editing. Most doctors are not literary too. And the A.M.A. has its own style which follows Funk-Wagnalls dictionary, so that the best wriiten [sic] papers have to be al
etered a little, tables and illustrations made to fit the style of the Archives or The Journal.I have read some of your articles of recent years, but do not recall now whether they were published by the A.M.A. or by some other journal, not being partivularly [sic] interested at the time in the name of the journal. I think the Archives of Internal Medcine [sic] might use some studies such as you might have the opportunity to make.
Fate has been very kind to me, in that there is a fine new"Y" [sic] right near the American Medical Association which houses about five hundred girls. That makes living conditions good, and it is nice not to have to take the elevated or streetcar.
Do you still have your apartment at the Faculty house? There are many things about Mount Holyoke that I should find changed which is, of course, what we want, but I am sure that there [are] enough familiar faces and places around to make a visit back something to look forward to. And if I ever get back, I'll most look forward to seeing you. I'll want to see Miss Stokey too, for I liked her so much.
Perhaps, some day an association meeting may be in Chicago which you will want to attend, and you will get this far westward. Then I'll hope to see you.
With love and the best of wishes for a happy brithday [sic] and years to follow,
Mary Oliver