The Stories Behind Dear Mister Ward

I'll be using this substack to share my findings as I explore the stories behind the collection of letters that make up the book Dear Mister Ward.

Dear Mister Ward is a collection of complaint letters sent to the St Paul, Minnesota office of Montgomery Ward between 1932-1942.  They were saved by my grandma and I published them as a book in 2021.

Hilarious, weird, and occasionally heartbreaking, the letters reveal the integral role Montgomery Ward played in the lives of those who wrote them.

Touching on topics that include fashion, relationships, technology, loneliness, debt, and toilet paper, they provide a glimpse at the daily lives and preoccupations of rural Americans from the peak of the Great Depression into the early days of World War II.

I am continuing the project by researching the people who sent the letters and the places they came from, while following any other path where the research takes me.