AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED by the English Author, Travel Writer and Illustrator ETHEL BRILLIANA TWEEDIE Suggesting a New Theme for a Lecture Tour.

Chicago, November 10, circa [1901]., [1901].. Fine. - Over 50 words penned on 2 attached 6-3/8 inch high by 5 inch wide "5141 Kimbark Avenue" stationery. Writing to the American lecture manager Major James B. Pond, Ethel Brilliana Tweedie informs him that "I have simply been buried here - by all the papers & numerous clubs". She goes on to say that she's refused to speak as "I am thinking of returning on a lecturing tour" suggesting a new subject "Is Marriage a profession?" She closes by saying she's leaving "for Mexico on Thursday". Signed "E. Alec-Tweedie". Major Pond has stamped the word "Book" in blue at the top of the first page indicating that he has sent her a copy of his book "Eccentricities of Genius". Folded for mailing. Near fine. <p>The English author, travel writer, journalist and illustrator Ethel Brilliana Tweedie (1862-1940) also wrote as Ethel B. Harley and Mrs. Alec Tweedie, sometimes hyphenating the latter. At her father's suggestion, she kept a journal when visiting Iceland in 1886 and subsequently published her account as "A Girl's Ride in Iceland". A few years after marrying Alexander Tweedie, she and her sister traveled to Norway to see her brother who was seriously ill. After returning a second time, she published "A Winter Jaunt to Norway: with Accounts of Nansen, Ibsen, Bjornson, Brandes, and Many Others". Her husband's tragic early death followed by that of her father who had who had lost his moneys when the marine insurance syndicate failed, left her penniless. She turned to writing to support herself and her children, publishing books about her journeys and writing for the popular press in London. She photographed landscapes and people and also painted and illustrated scenes based on sketches she had made during her travels. Soon after the end of the First World War, Tweedie took an extended tour of the Near East. Starting in Europe, she traveled through Turkey, Syria, Palestine, Egypt, India, and Southern Sudan. Her travels were subsequently described in "Mainly East". Tweedie was an early advocate of women's rights and suffrage and she felt strongly that both boys and girls should be equally educated and provided for. "Both boys and girls should be treated exactly alike", she wrote.