In Dear Bob, Dear Betty: Love and MarriageDuring the Great Depression, the love letters of Robert Llewellyn Wrightand Betty Bryan Kehler chronicle an innocent and enchanting fidelity thatblossomed during the Great Depression years of 1932-’33. Among the highlightsof these missives are the similar hardships facing a young couple during theDepression of the early 1930s and our contemporary recession, as well as thefact that Wright, known as “Bob” in the letters, was the youngest son of FrankLloyd Wright and grew up suffering through the public scandals that surroundedhis father’s personal life.
The letters andtheir replies archive Bob and Betty’s maturing relationship and detail thecouple’s endeavors as Betty searches for a career in a new city, they strive to maintain a long-distance relationship between Milwaukee and Chicagoand they grind out plans for a wedding. The local landscape that serves as theletters’ background provides a sense of familiarity and insight into theaforementioned cities during the early half of the 20th century. This poignantview of the lives of two intelligent Midwesterners embracing life during anarduous time in our history is both a living relic from days of yore and anengaging peek into Milwaukee’spast as seen through the eyes of Betty and Bob.
The correspondencesin Dear Bob, Dear Betty werecollected by the couple’s daughter Elizabeth Catherine Wright, a scholar ofFrench literature and professor emeritus, after she found the letters organizedand carefully filed away in her mother’s house in 2003. In addition to many ofthe transcribed letters, the book also contains photographs, copies of originalhandwritten notes, and an enlightening forward and introduction that providecontext for the romance described therein. This compilation and its ingeniouscreation will be shared by Elizabeth Catherine Wright at Milwaukee Public Library’s Centennial Hall on July 15 at 7 p.m., inan event sponsored by Boswell Book Co.
