The American pianist writes to Inez Koutzen (wife of violinist-composer Boris Koutzen) to tell her about the demands of the Juilliard Summer School: the number of people enrolled to study with me in one way or another is 117! Needless to say, I am not giving individual lessons to all these people…some only subscribed for my course on the Applied Techniques of the Pianist on Monday, Wednesday and Friday of each week; but the rest of my time with the exception of Saturday and Sunday is entirely taken up by half hour lessons that leave me pretty exhausted at the end of the day. Despite the strenuous character of this work I find the experience stimulating and even exciting.

A sweet letter with a very nice example of Samaroff's signature.

Lucy Mary Agnes Hickenlooper was born in San Antonio Texas and enjoyed a remarkable career after changing her name to Olga Samaroff: in 1905 she became the first woman to self-produce her own debut at Carnegie Hall, hiring an orchestra and Walter Damrosch to accompany her in Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1; she was the second pianist ever, after Hans von Bülow, to perform all of Beethoven's sonatas in public; and she held a prominent position in the Philadelphia Art Alliance. Her fabulous group of friends included George Gershwin, Irving Berlin, Dorothy Parker, and Cary Grant. She was also known to be an extremely generous professor, having secured food, clothing, and housing for her students during the Great Depression.