The Palette Archive

A collection of 60 letters and notes mostly sent between 1952 and 1961 by well-known authors, artists, politicians, and academics to G. Scott Wright, Jr., the editor of *The Palette*, a short-run magazine published by the Connecticut Arts Association. The letters, most of which are Signed, are in response to requests from Wright, a teacher at Weston High School in Weston, Connecticut, for voluntary contributions to his modest and perpetually underfunded periodical. Highlights of this collection include contributions from: - Buckminster Fuller - three page Typed Letter Signed, accepting Wright's request and providing an unpublished feature-length article on Isamu Nogouchi (not present), accompanied by a rare copy of *The Palette* in which it appeared. - John F. Kennedy -one-page unsigned Typed Manuscript statement from then Senator Kennedy, with a note from a Democratic National Committee member dated just days before the 1960 Presidential Election, and accompanied by a rare copy of *The Palette* in which the statement appeared. - Arthur Compton - one-page Typed Letter Signed by the Nobel Prize-winning physicist with a 14-page address he gave at Washington University in September 1953 ("Atoms, Electricity and The Quest for the Best") that appeared in excerpted form in *The Palette*. The majority of the letters in this collection relate directly to Wright's requests for contributions to *The Palette*, which was short-lived and produced in a limited run of only a handful of issues between late 1959 and early 1961. Many of the correspondents contacted express their interest and approval of the project but regret not having sufficient time or material to contribute to his noble pursuit of expanding the perspective of young minds. They include: Edward E. Murrow, Ralph Bunche, Thomas Benton, John Hersey, William Steig, Alastair Cooke, Adlai Stevenson, Eliot Noyes, Ben Shahn, Bruce Catton, Norman Cousins, Russell Lynes, and Eero Saarinen. Other notable, but later correspondents from the 1970s to early 80s present are: Aaron Copeland, Mario Cuomo, Richard Nixon, George MacDonald Fraser, and Arthur Koestler, among others. A nice collection of letters of well-known signatories. A list is available upon request.…