{"id":46872,"date":"2025-01-31T10:46:51","date_gmt":"2025-01-31T15:46:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/?p=46872"},"modified":"2025-02-11T16:51:45","modified_gmt":"2025-02-11T21:51:45","slug":"love-letters-willard-straight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/love-letters-willard-straight\/","title":{"rendered":"Love Letters: How Willard Straight Wooed his \u2018Princesse\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
For Valentine\u2019s Day, we revisit the epistolary romance between the future student union namesake and the woman he adored<\/p>\n\n\n\n
By Joe Wilensky<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Willard Straight 1901 met his future bride\u2014socialite and heiress Dorothy Payne Whitney\u2014at a 1909 dinner party on Long Island, where he was staying with family friends between overseas postings. The friendship turned romantic when she and her traveling party visited Beijing later that year, and Willard\u2014a diplomat then on his way to becoming U.S. consul general in China\u2014served as host and tour guide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Their courtship would play out as a globetrotting romance, set amid steamer ships crossing the Atlantic and railroad cars winding through Europe and Asia, with telegrams and lengthy letters deepening their bond during their many months apart.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think I realized what a sad break our departure was going to be until I stood on the wall with you yesterday morning and said goodbye to the great city and the distant hills\u2014and hardest of all to you,\u201d Dorothy wrote to Willard after leaving China.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhen we stood on the station platform and the whistle suddenly blew and we all said goodbye, I had a lump in my throat that was very hard to smile away, for the veil was being drawn then over two of the happiest weeks I have ever known.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>Library of Congress<\/figcaption>Dorothy as the picture of fashion in 1915.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
Willard replied in kind, praising her \u201cbonny laugh\u201d and noting that the city \u201cwill be very different now. Dearer because you have been here\u2014and more lonely because you have gone.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He signed off with his affectionate nickname for her: \u201cIt is not goodbye\u2014is it Princesse?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The couple were mostly apart over the next two years, with brief visits when their travel schedules allowed; Willard once journeyed two days each way just to spend a precious 12 hours with Dorothy in Milan.<\/p>\n\n\n
\nA letter Willard sent Dorothy when she was sailing on the RMS Lusitania<\/em>, \u201cto be delivered on board.\u201d<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
But it was the steady stream of letters and telegrams that sustained them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As a friend later wrote in a biography of Willard: \u201cOnly by constantly communicating with her could he soothe his aching heart and render their separation tolerable.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Willard proposed in summer 1911, and the couple married that September. They ultimately settled in NYC and had three children before World War I separated them again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The couple\u2019s honeymoon scrapbook includes newspaper clippings and Willard’s artistic embellishments.<\/figcaption><\/figure>
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After volunteering for service and being commissioned as a major, Willard headed to France to direct the Bureau of War Risk Insurance. As the war was ending in late 1918, Willard stayed in Paris to assist with peace negotiations and arrange the arrival of the American mission.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Tragically, he contracted influenza and died\u2014aged just 38\u2014before he and Dorothy were reunited.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
(She would eventually channel her grief into a project in his memory: a stately building at his alma mater, devoted to the nonacademic pursuits that enrich student life.)<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
During his final year, Willard wrote lengthy letters to his family back home. Many read like diary entries as he recounted his progress and challenges with the ongoing negotiations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But his most passionate entries were reserved for the soulmate whom he often addressed as \u201cBest Beloved\u201d and \u201cSweetheart Dorothy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe days, the weeks, the months are barren and meagre without you,\u201d he wrote. \u201cBut in spirit we are closer than ever before. I think we both know as we never have before what we have\u2014what has been given to us. To me, it is a constant marvel\u2014that you, my Wonder Wife, should care\u2014that I should be blessed with your love.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\nAt work for the U.S. Army in 1917, looking weary from the weight of wartime business.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\n
In his last letter to her\u2014sent just days before he fell ill\u2014he asked if she and the children would soon travel to him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cDear Beloved, are you coming? This is all I\u2019m thinking of\u2014I love you everywhere. Your Willard.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Scroll down for a (lightly edited) sampling of Willard\u2019s courtship letters to Dorothy\u2014artifacts of a more romantic era<\/em>\u2014from Cornell’s Rare and Manuscript Collections.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\n
Beijing (then Peking), April 1910:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cPerhaps if you read twixt the lines here, you\u2019ll see that I am none too cheerful, for I\u2019m rather achy and overtrained\u2014and my one glimmer is the thought of getting away. For the one thing I care about Princesse is to see you again\u2014as soon as ever I can\u2014as soon as ever I can.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n
\nWillard typically addressed Dorothy as \u201cPrincesse\u201d in hundreds of letters over the years.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
En route to Milan, spring 1910:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI am crossing half the world to see you, Princesse. I want you more than I want anything else\u2014I know I am right and hence have no smiting conscience.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Moscow, May 1910:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cPrincesse, there\u2019s much more to say to you, but paper and pen are poor things at best\u2014and soon I hope I shall see you. \u2026 I am glad\u2014so very glad, to think that now it cannot be very long\u2014though sometimes, the last days of waiting are harder than all the rest.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\nWillard\u2014a talented artist\u2014included drawings in many of his letters, often depicting himself in odd situations.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\n
Paris, May 1910:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cYou are speeding now through the mountains on the way to Turin and I follow you and wish that I were by your side as yesterday. \u2026 The whole world seems brighter with the great hope that I have that you may care\u2014that you will tell me that you love me\u2014that we shall be together always, in body and spirit. Dear Heart, sweetness, if ever I had any, has been for you, but today somehow, with you filling my every thought, with the thought of these last precious moments to cherish\u2014to help me\u2014to give me hope.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n
The whole world seems brighter with the great hope that I have that you may care\u2014that you will tell me that you love me\u2014that we shall be together always, in body and spirit.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
\u2026 You have asked me to wait. Do you know how hard it is? Do you know that I can\u2019t wait long\u2014and that at any moment I am apt\u2014very apt, Princesse\u2014to let the spirit of the Moyen Age<\/em> sweep me away\u2014to ride for you and swing you on the saddle before me. I shall be quite terrible then\u2014on a very big horse\u2014and all in tin clothes. Are you not afraid?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Thank you again and again for these hours that we have spent together. They are the most precious I have known \u2026 Someday I hope that we shall always be together on the platform, going or coming, but never saying au revoir<\/em>, and that train we take together shall be for life. Princesse dear, with all my heart and soul and mind\u2014that all are yours\u2014I love you.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n
\n\u201cGod bless you, dear\u2014and bring us\u2014grant us the miracle,\u201d Willard wrote in 1910, hinting at an upcoming marriage proposal.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
London, May 1910:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cSo Princesse dear\u2014you have brought me this great love for you\u2014and I thank you, because it fills me and makes me hope more and dare more\u2014and I pray, be more for you\u2014and with it all too, there somehow seems to be a greater sympathy and understanding for others\u2014and at the same time the feeling that I can give them but little, for all is for you. Isn\u2019t that strange and paradoxical?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Sent with flowers to Paris, May 1910:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cYou may shake you may scatter \/ Your boy if you will \/ But the scent of his roses \/ Will cling round you still!\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Paris & Li\u00e8ge, Belgium, June 1910:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Oh Princesse mine\u2014for you are mine, my Princesse. Your voice still sings\u2014always\u2014in my ears\u2014and your smile lingers in my eyes. \u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You and I seem so much closer, somehow\u2014as if we know each so much better\u2014and I feel that our lives have merged, and become more one than ever before. \u2026 You are indeed the Wonder of the World.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>In uniform during World War I.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
Surrey, England, June 1910:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cPrincesse dearest\u2014You must never think that I would \u2018try to kiss you.\u2019 Don\u2019t you know that you are far too sacred and holy to me\u2014to let me dream of such a thing? When you can give this, I shall be happy. I can\u2019t take it\u2014dear\u2014it must come from you. God grant that it may come soon.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n
Someday I hope that we shall always be together on the platform, going or coming, but never saying au revoir<\/em>, and that train we take together shall be for life.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
Herkimer County, NY, August 1910:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI watch Mrs. Teddy [Roosevelt] with her youngsters \u2026 and they are so sweet. \u2026 Teddy mixes cocktails, and she comes down to dinner with an infant on her arm\u2014a radiant mother\u2014and I think of you coming in like that and how proud I\u2019d be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
With their first child, Whitney.<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\n
It\u2019s the greatest wish in the world\u2014Dorothy dear\u2014and it is love that passeth all understanding.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
New York, NY, September 1910:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI ache for you. I want you to stroke my brow dear\u2014and to press you very close.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
From Moscow heading east, October 1910:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cHere tonight I am starting out across Siberia, and you are four thousand miles away\u2014even though you say the miracle has not yet been granted\u2014there is that bond between us\u2014the bond that makes me wake with thoughts of you\u2014that gives you my last waking thought, and weaves you through my dreams.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\n
Top: Willard and Dorothy Straight as newlyweds in 1911; photo illustration by Caitlin Cook \/ Cornell University. All images from Rare and Manuscript Collections, unless otherwise indicated.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Published January 31, 2025<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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