Kaderli collection of letters about death, 1961-1966

Collection

Identifier: MS 0052

Staff Only

Finding aid note: Stored onsite at the Woodson Research Center.

Scope and Contents

This is a collection of twenty-seven letters, mostly handwritten and accompanied by their original envelopes. Each letter addresses the subject posed by Mrs. Kaderli when she asked for guidance in explaining death to her small daughter. A few of the letters are photocopies which replace lost originals. She wrote a series of letters to leaders in the fields of art, music, literature, science, religion, medicine and other fields, and the responses to her letters make up the content of this collection. Famous figures such as Sir Julian Huxley, Aldous Huxley, C.S. Lewis, Eleanor Roosevelt and Carl Sandburg replied.

Dates

Creation: 1961-1966

Creator

Kaderli, Elizabeth Land (Person)

Access Restrictions

This material is open for research.

Stored onsite at the Woodson Research Center.

Restrictions on Use

Permission to publish material from the Kaderli Collection of Letters About Death, 1961-1966 must be obtained from the Woodson Research Center, Fondren Library.

Biographical Note

Elizabeth Land Kaderli was born in 1921 in Dallas, Texas. She attended Lamar High School and was a graduate of the Rice Institute in 1943. She married Robert Kaderli, Jr. after World War II. In 1954, she moved with her husband and daughter to Midland, Texas. She began writing adventure fiction for magazines (often under the name Land Kaderli), published "Twenty seconds to live" (1959), and "A girl and five brave horses" (1961) under the name Elizabeth Land. She worked as a producer for public televsion, working on "Face to Face," a weekly program on KLRN-TV in Austin, Texas. After the death of her husband in 1971, she moved to Houston, where she produced "The Greenroom," a weekly special for KUHT-TV highlighting art venues and activities throughout the city. After retiring from television in 1985, she moved to San Diego to be near her family. She returned to Houston in 1998 and lived in Houston until her death in 2017.

In the early 1960s she wrote a series of letters to leaders in the fields of art, music, literature, science, religion, medicine and other fields examining the subject of death. Responses to her letters make up the content of this collection.