File contains seven letters (three typed and four hand-written), written between 1972 and 1973, by David B. Lord (from Jacksonville, FL). Five of the letters are addressed to Kenneth Leslie, while one is addressed to his wife, Nora, and another addressed to Kurt Anderson (New York, NY), with Kenneth Leslie and George Bilankian carbon-copied.
The first letter, dated March 25, 1972, addresses Lord's appreciation of Leslie's poetry, discusses the passing of Lord's acquaintance Harold Cohn and a misdeed the Cohn had done to Lord, as well as a request for more copies of the previous issue of New Man.
The following two letters are dated June 12, 1972. The first, addressed to Nora, expresses his closeness to her despite Lord's not having met her, having heard good things from a mutual friend in California. The other letter, addressed to Kenneth but undated (same stationery and ink), expresses Lord's regret at taking so long to answer the previous message. Lord expresses his disgust with "the shame of Vietnam" and of "Tricky Dick [...] claiming to be a Quaker, with Billy Graham as his co-pilot" as being a "good example of religion at its lowest", but expressing admiration of the "young, protesting with their bodies, but [that] the sadistic pigs are having their field day."
The fourth letter, dated December 10, 1972 and addressed to Kurt Anderson, responds to Anderson's article "From life to money to body counts" which appeared in the October 1972 issue of The Churchman. It includes excerpts from Kenneth Leslie's and George Bilankian's responses to the same article.
The fifth is a postcard sent from France, dated January 12, 1973, expressing the view that "America has failed the world."
The sixth is a handwritten four-page letter of the same date, from Foix, Languedoc, draws comparisons between the present destruction of Vietnam with the past "attempted destruction" of the "Albigensian civilization", addressing how one should address to the "hopeless disaster" while living in a country that now seems "resigned to its fate". Lord also is reminded of an article he wrote for The Protestant "more than thirty years ago" entitled 'The spirit of crucified Spain'.
In the final letter, dated March 10, 1973, Lord expresses his pleasure at having returned from France to an awaiting copy of 'O'Malley to the Reds', recounts his visit with George Bilankian in London, and remarks on the "history of dissent" found while following his family trail through genealogical work. He mentions being "indebted to Rev. James B. Leslie, M.A. Rector of Kilsaran" for directing Lord's research efforts in the right direction.
