Dear John, Dear Ursula (Cambridge and LSE, 1935). Eighty-eight Letters Unearthed

This paper examines the correspondence between John Hicks and Ursula Webb. The 88 letters cover the three months preceding their wedding, which took place in London, on December 17, 1935. It is a daily exchange, with just the odd interruption marking the days when they would visit each other (mostly at weekends) either in Cambridge or in London. It is a portrait of a marriage in the making, a picture of an academic milieu and a glimpse into British society of the 1930s. The sheer richness of this correspondence, greatly enhancing our knowledge of the Cambridge and LSE environment of the period, has helped us—as indeed we hope it will help our readers—to overcome the feeling of a breach of privacy, of intimacy violated. It confirms the importance of primary sources in dealing with historical matters and therefore of the invaluable worth of personal archives. They should be preserved and made public, to record the past and to foster knowledge, as best as we possibly can.