Felix Frankfurter Letters to his sister Estelle

The collection of approximately 750 items begins with letters written in 1933 when Frankfurter was a faculty member at the Harvard Law School, covers the 23 years he sat on the Supreme Court, and concludes with a card he wrote in 1964, the year before he died. The letters are addressed to his sister Estelle and are, unless otherwise noted, written in his own hand and signed "Filly" (for Felix). They relate to the everyday activities and occurrences in Frankfurter's life, such as seeing mutual friends; books he and his wife Marion were reading and plays they had seen; his attendance at professional meetings or award ceremonies; his travels and his summer vacations in New Hampshire and New York State; and his observations on the political scene here and abroad. Many letters enclose photographs, newspaper clippings, and copies of letters that Frankfurter had both sent and received. Throughout the correspondence, he discusses the challenges and frustrations that Estelle faced in her professional career in government service and social work. The letters show that Justice Frankfurter was much concerned with the happenings and problems in the lives of his siblings, especially Estelle.

Of special interest are the letters Frankfurter wrote while he was the George Eastman Visiting Professor at Oxford University during the academic year 1933-1934. His brief visits to Palestine and Egypt during this period reinforced his interest in Zionism and in the establishment of the state of Israel; these topics are discussed in many of the letters.

The tone of Frankfurter's letters is warm and affectionate, and makes it clear that his relationship with Estelle was an unusually close one. He remembered her birthday and their mother's, and references in his letters indicate that Estelle always wrote to him on the anniversary of his appointment to the Supreme Court (20 January 1939). The fact that Estelle kept all of these letters, most with their corresponding envelopes, indicates that she considered them treasured possessions.

There are only five letters known to be extant that Estelle wrote to Felix; they are in the contingent of Frankfurter papers housed at the Library of Congress.

Unless otherwise noted, all letters are written by Felix Frankfurter to his sister, Estelle. The main terms and abbreviations used in this inventory are the following:

A.: autograph

D.: document[s]

env.: envelope; in the description of a letter. This indicates that the original envelope has been preserved.

L.: letter[s], used thus: A.L.s.: autograph letter[s] signed T.L.s.: typed letter[s] signed The same terms and usages apply to documents.

ms.: manuscript

mss.: manuscripts

p.: pages of material written by F.F., NOT the number of separate pieces of paper contained in an envelope or clipped together

s.: signed; i.e., with autograph signature

s.: preceded by a number, in a collection of letters and unbound mss. sheet[s], the number of separate pieces of paper, of whatever size, including envelopes