Kansas City Star Photograph,
Courtesy Harry S. Truman Library
Harry S. Truman maintained close ties with his mother,
Martha, and sister, Mary Jane, during his senatorial, vice
presidential and presidential career. He frequently wrote
letters to both in which he provided news, opinions and
advice. Here, Truman poses with his mother and sister,
probably at the farm near Grandview, sometime during his
senatorial years.
"Dear Mamma":
The Family Letters
of Harry S. Truman
BY GLENDA RILEY*
Although the papers and letters of Harry S. Truman have been
assiduously collected and published during recent decades, most of the
resulting books and articles have focused on Truman as a political
leader rather than a private individual. Consequently, numerous public-
oriented characteristics spring to mind when his letters or other writings
are mentioned: plain talk, tough decisions, World War II, the dropping
of the atomic bomb and struggles with cabinet members. The vast
*Glenda Riley is professor of history at the University of Northern Iowa. Her most
recent book is The Female Frontier: A Comparative View of Women on the Prairie and
the Plains (1988). The author would like to thank the staff of the Harry S. Truman
Library for their assistance as well as Alonzo L. Hamby for his critical review of an early
draft of the manuscript. This research was supported by a grant from the Harry S.
Truman Library Institute.
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