A tiny walking stick on a pink evening primrose flower

Steve Schwartzman

Apr 28

From April 17th on a pink evening primrose flower (Oenothera speciosa) in my part of Austin
comes this tiny walking stick whose body was only about half an inch long (13mm).

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The other day I came across a reference to Austin in a 1955 letter that Marilyn Monroe possessed when she died in 1962. In the letter author John Steinbeck asked Marilyn for an autographed photo of her that he could give to his wife's nephew, Jon Atkinson, a teenager living in Austin who idolized her. You're welcome to read the letter.

In 2021, Michael Alberty investigated the matter and wrote the article "Unraveling the mystery of John Steinbeck's letter to Marilyn Monroe." There's no doubt Marilyn Monroe had the letter, but was it really from Steinbeck? Steinbeck almost always hand-wrote his letters in pencil, yet this letter was typed, and the signature at the end didn't look like Steinbeck's. On the other hand, the initials of the typist, mf, appeared at the bottom of the letter, so maybe the typist signed for Steinbeck.

Michael Alberty did what apparently no one else had done: he tracked down Steinbeck's nephew, Jon Atkinson. You can read Alberty's article and learn what he found out.