Friends of the Land letter to members on Malabar Farm

Letter from Jonathan Forman, M.D., then-President of Friends of the Land, to its membership, dated November 14, 1957. The letter details the organization's purchase of popular novelist and demonstration farmer Louis Bromfield's Malabar Farm in Lucas, Ohio, and notes the organization's efforts to re-purchase a tract of timber woods sold by Bromfield shortly before his death. The letter solicits support from the membership. The Friends of the Land Collection (1930-1960) contains the papers of the Friends of the Land (1940-1959), a prominent national soil conservation education organization headquartered in Columbus, Ohio. FOTL produced an international literary arts quarterly, THE LAND (edited by New Deal agriculture writer Russell Lord) in addition to several members' only publications (LAND LETTER) and informational pamphlets. They also hosted annual conferences; ran conservation tours, teacher training labs, and workshops; and operated as a national clearinghouse for conservation information. Ohio farmer and novelist Louis Bromfield was active in the organization. Much of the collection reflects the career and interests of FOTL Executive Secretary Ollie Fink, who was a prominent conservation education pioneer in Ohio