SIGNED LETTER AND OTHER RELATED LETTERS AND EPHEMERA REGARDING INDIAN JOURNALIST HITINDRA MALIK

1944-1961. Original typed letter from Eleanor Roosevelt on headed notepaper dated March 8, 1961, signed in blue ink to the foot, to Adlai Stevenson regarding the visit of the Indian journalist Hitindra Malik to the USA. 18 x 15cm. WITH: A TLS from Pierre Salinger, Press Secretary to President Kennedy, to Malik on White House headed notepaper, dated January 24, 1961, regarding a meeting between the pair; two TLS from Sir George Cunningham, Governor of North West Frontier Province, India, to Malik on headed notepaper, providing a letter of recommendation; an Indian government permit to send messages from government telegraph offices in India to 'Newsweek', New York, with charges paid by the recipient; and a newspaper clipping regarding Malik's marriage to an American woman - Hope Spingarn of Amenia, NY - in Bombay in 1957. The Roosevelt letter with a horizontal mailing crease to the centre and a diagonal crease just below the signature is otherwise in very good order. The other items are similarly in very good condition. An interesting collection of items regarding the relationship of an Indian journalist, Hitindra Malik, with progressive politics in the USA, including a signed letter from Eleanor Roosevelt to her close friend Adlai Stevenson, attempting to arrange a meeting between the pair.

Hitindra Malik was born in Abbottabad, North-West Frontier Province (now Pakistan). The son of a prominent lawyer, well-known for his work regarding civil-liberties, Malik studied in Lahore, before becoming the editor of the Indian newspaper the Near and Far East News. He certainly appears to have been a high-flyer, as indicated by Governor Cunningham's letter of recommendation in the present collection ("Intellectually, he is very much above the average of the young men of this Province, and if he fulfils the promise which he now shows he ought to do very well indeed").

In 1957, Malik married the American journalist and political activist Hope Spingarn in Bombay. Born in 1907, Spingarn had travelled extensively in her youth, studying at Sweet Briar College, the Sorbonne and the University of Grenoble, subsequently working in Bombay as a public relations consultant to the Family Planning Association of India, where she met Malik. A political progressive, Spingarn was a supporter of Franklin D. Roosevelt as well as being active within the civil rights movement. Indeed, her father, Joel Elias Spingarn, the literary critic and professor at Columbia University, had served as the second president of the NAACP, and was one of its first Jewish leaders.

Two of the letters in the present group, from Eleanor Roosevelt and Pierre Salinger (press secretary to President John F. Kennedy), dated 1961, relate to a visit by Malik to the U.S., with the apparent purpose of learning more about the new administration (Salinger's letter is actually dated just four days after Kennedy took office). Likely through the influence of his wife, Malik appears to have had close access to those at the top of progressive politics in the U.S., with the likes of Roosevelt, Salinger, and Adlai Stevenson - one of Roosevelt's most intimate friends and political allies, now ambassador to the U.N. under Kennedy - warmly agreeing to host him and answer his questions.

As Roosevelt writes: "Dear Adlai: Mr. Hitindra Malik is married to an American and is here from India and doing an article on the philosophy of the new administration. He is leaving the U.S. on April 7th, and is most anxious to see you sometime soon. I have no idea if you have the time to see Mr. Malik but if you have, I know he would be deeply appreciative. With my good wishes, Affectionately, Eleanor Roosevelt".

A fascinating insight into the lives of a politically-active husband and wife - one from India, the other from New York State - and their involvement in progressive politics and journalism.

(Hope Spingarn's diaries are now held by the Beinecke Library, Yale University).