1973 - 1983 E.B. White Archive
GUEST: In 1973, I was an unconventional college student living out in rural Iowa. And, uh, my college lit teacher gave me a essay, uh, entitled "Spring." And I was so moved by it that I sat down and wrote E.B. White a letter. And I sent it to him in care of his publisher, and he wrote back. He did write in one of his letters to me that he didn't usually correspond with fans.
APPRAISER: Yeah.
GUEST: But there was something about my letters to him that made him write back.
APPRAISER: You have got 14 typed letters signed, and you can see some of them here, this being the earliest one.
GUEST: Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER: This one's interesting because here he's talking about farm animals...
GUEST: Yes.
APPRAISER:...which, of course, many people know him for Charlotte's Web...
GUEST: Right.
APPRAISER:...which was published in '52.
GUEST: Right.
APPRAISER: So he's talking about his love of animals and the animals he had on his farm. And then he even recommends to you down here...
GUEST: (laughs) I know!
APPRAISER: ...he says to you, which is funny, He goes, "You might enjoy Charlotte's Web if you haven't encountered it."
GUEST: Y-yes.
APPRAISER: I mean, I just love that. (chuckles)
GUEST: I know.
APPRAISER: He had that simple style
GUEST: I know.
APPRAISER: But he-- very, uh, unassuming.
GUEST: Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER: Did you ever get to meet him before he passed?
GUEST: Well, I wanted to.
APPRAISER: Mm-hmm.
GUEST: I asked him if I could, and he answered in one of his letters that it's better that we not meet.
APPRAISER: Wow. Wow.
GUEST: But after he died, um, His secretary sent me a letter and I was able to meet her. She took me to his farm.
APPRAISER: Whoa...
GUEST: Uh, I also got a tour of the farm.
APPRAISER: Wow, so you got to the farm.
GUEST: Um, yes, I did.
APPRAISER: Wow. So you wrote this letter?
GUEST: Yes.
APPRAISER: And then it was published in your paper here or...?
GUEST: Well, through the years, I always received letters and Christmas cards from him. Uh, I always used to send him a note for his birthday. And when he died, I really felt compelled to put my thoughts and feelings on paper. And I sent it to The Des Moines Register and they published it.
APPRAISER: They published this. That's fantastic.
GUEST: And, uh, got picked up by A.P., and um, was published in newspapers all over the United States.
APPRAISER: Wow. So we have, uh, 14 letters and about five cards. And you also had a, um, a book inscribed to one of his later books.
GUEST: Mm-hm.
APPRAISER: Many of them are signed Andy, which a lot of people don't know. E.B. is Elwyn Brooks White.
GUEST: Right.
APPRAISER: But to people that he was associated with, the-- he was known as Andy; he picked that up in, uh, Cornell, where he went to Cornell, but it was reserved for his closest friends.
GUEST: Mm-hm.
APPRAISER: Well, I want to talk to you about the value. Like I said, they don't come up much, um, when you look in the records, uh, and they're usually short. Uh, so they can be in the $500, $700 range per letter. These are much lengthier and you have 14 of them. And I'm kind of conservatively thinking as an estimate, as an archive, you'd be in the $6,000 to $10,000 range at auction. That would be an estimate. If you were going to insure them, I would think you're probably looking at somewhere around $12,000 to, uh, $15,000 insurance. That could end up being conservative, because this many do not come up. And so it's a very special archive.
GUEST: Well, it's good to know.
APPRAISER: Yeah. Yeah.
GUEST: Uh, and I'm getting at the age where I need to decide what to do with them.
APPRAISER: This is very special.
GUEST: Great writer.
APPRAISER: Yes, indeed.
GUEST: Some writer. (chuckles)
APPRAISER: Yeah.
$6,000 Auction
$15,000 Insurance
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Understanding Our Appraisals
Executive producer Marsha Bemko shares her tips for getting the most out of ANTIQUES ROADSHOW.
Value can change: The value of an item is dependent upon many things, including the condition of the object itself, trends in the market for that kind of object, and the location where the item will be sold. These are just some of the reasons why the answer to the question "What's it worth?" is so often "It depends."
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