TRAPP, MARIA AUGUSTA VON. (1905-1987). Matriarch of the Austrian family of singers immortalized in the Rodgers & Hammerstein musical The Sound of Music. TLS. (“M. v. Trapp”). 1p. 4to. Stowe, August 22, 1944. On Trapp Family Music Camp stationery to the Trapp Family’s publicist ALIX WILLIAMSON (1916-2001).

“Concerning the maple syrup I really have to defend myself. I never promised you anything. You simply wrote me a letter one day suggesting that it might be a good idea to send a can to each one of the two addresses, – that was all. I didn’t feel so absolutely obliged to do it right away. I will do it now but I do it for you, because I feel that somebody who makes my husband a German submarine commander deserves vinigar [sic] in his maple syrup. Anyway tomorrow morning the two gallons will be mailed.

The idea of having the Columbia people for the weekend is a very good idea indeed and I feel proud to say I really had it myself and discussed it with Mr. Coppicus, but it might be wiser to wait until we can hire a bus to bring them up and down.

Mr. Lycett is coming this week and I can talk to him more unofficially and find out about their feeling about a private representative. I will let you know immediately.

We received five boxes with vases, eight in each box, forty altogether, most of them broken. They came from Iselin, New Jersey, and on badly written labels it said something like American Patterns or Potteries. That is all we could make out.

I hope the heat is not quite as bad any more. Even here it was hot, but at night always woolen blankets.

Mr. Lewis’ pictures have not arrived yet.

Best regards from everybody…”

The Sound of Music tells the story of a young nun, Maria, hired as a tutor for the motherless von Trapp children, who eventually marries their father, a retired, highly successful Austrian submarine commander named Baron von Trapp (whose first father-in-law invented the Whitehead torpedo). However, that is only the story’s beginning. In 1938, following Hitler’s invasion of Austria, the von Trapps fled their native land, leaving everything behind. Penniless refugees, they were forced to make their living by singing. Eventually they brought their music to the U.S. settling on a farm in Stowe, Vermont, which reminded them of their homeland and where they made maple syrup. The farm later became a music camp run by Maria and then a lodge, still operating today and still producing maple syrup. The family continued to tour, including their annual holiday concert at New York’s Town Hall performance venue, for a total of 20 years and their success was such that they were Columbia Artists Management’s most successful choral group. It was Williamson, the family’s publicist, who recommended that Maria chronicle her life story in a book. In 1949, Maria’s The Story of the Trapp Family Singers was published, inspiring Rodgers & Hammerstein’s popular The Sound of Music, which debuted on Broadway ten years later.

Our letter mentions Francis Charles Coppicus (1880-1966), founder of the Metropolitan Music Bureau, which merged with several other small concert bureaus to become Columbia Artists Management. He became the manager for Enrico Caruso, Feodor Chaliapin and Maria Jeritza as well as the general secretary of the Metropolitan Opera.

Our letter was written at the height of World War II, making a pointed reference to Baron von Trapp’s former service in the “German” military (as opposed to Austrian) appear negative, at least to an Austrian.

Folded and browned with paper loss along the right edge not affecting the text. In fair condition.