Charles Eames' Love Letter to Ray, Before They Tied the Knot

Charles Eames Love Letter To Ray
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"I love you very much and would like to marry you very soon," Charles Eames, who would have turned 106 yesterday, once scrawled across a piece of Cranbrook Academy stationery. It was on a Tuesday that he confessed his love for Ray Kaiser, fellow Cranbrook student, future wife, and visionary counterpart.

2013-06-18-eamesloveletter.jpeg
via Library of Congress

Because Ray decided to take a chance with Charles, an admittedly "broke" 34-year-old man in a bit of an apparent hurry ("*soon means very soon," the footnotes read), the two ultimately became a pair of names that resonate as a singular, legendary entity. Their collaborative body of work came to reflect all the modernist qualities of Charles's straightforward prose: purity, efficiency, and grace. Architects today could stand to take a note or two.

Text reads:
Dear Miss Kaiser,
I am 34 (almost) years old, singel (again) and broke. I love you very much and would like to marry you very very soon.* I cannot promise to support us very well. -- but if given the chance I'll shure in hell try -
*soon means very soon.
What is the size of this finger??
as soon as I get to that hospital I will write "neams" well little ones.
love xxxxxxxxxx
Charlie

[Thanks, Brain Pickings!]

-Janelle Zara, BLOUIN ARTINFO

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