Signed Letter Regarding the National Council on the Arts Meeting

Unusual Typed Letter Signed by the important author. Sept. 22, 1976. 1 page, on her Jackson, Mississippi letterhead, addressed to Luna Diamond, secretary for the National Council on the Arts, regarding her travel expenses from an Atlanta meeting of the Council and noting that Diamond, who developed close and lifelong friendships with many Council members, "had the the Fairmont Colony Square in the palm of your hand!" 6 x 6.75 inches. Some light staining, overall in fine condition. 
Welty received numerous awards, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the Order of the South, and a Pulitzer Prize (for her novel The Optimist's Daughter.) She was the first living author to have her works published by the Library of America.

From the collection of Luna Diamond, former secretary to the National Council on the Arts who enjoyed a 43-year career in government. Mrs. Diamond, once described by actor James Earl Jones as "the council's own Jewish mother," worked for the arts agency for 15 years. She became assistant to Roger Stevens at the newly formed National Endowment for the Arts in 1965. She later served as congressional liaison under chairman Nancy Hanks until retiring in 1980.  She previously had been a secretary to Clinton P. Anderson (D-N.M.), beginning in 1941 when he was a congressman, through his term as secretary of agriculture in the Truman administration, and into several of his terms as a senator. She was a community volunteer throughout her life, at one point serving on 18 community boards, and was included in the book "Women of Achievement in Maryland History" (2002). She was a recipient of the Elliot Niles award from the B'nai B'rith and the Woman of Valor award in 1995. (21514)

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