Truman: I Gave Them an Earful

An uncovered cache of letters to Bess reveals Harry at his best

Ever since he beheld her curly head in an Independence, Mo., Sunday school one morning in 1890, when he was six and she was five, Harry Truman remained devoted to his beloved Bess. As a young dirt farmer in nearby Grandview, he courted her by mail, weaving words of affection amid tales of work. Over the years his work changed, but the love letters remained a constant, spinning a chronicle of changing times and undying values.

Almost 1,300 such letters have been discovered in the old Truman house in Independence....

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