A Debutante's Passion, A Coach's Erotica

Dr. Ronald A. Smith, a well-know sport historian and emeritus professor at Penn State University, has published several books including the most cited Sports and Freedom: The Rise of Big-Time College Athletics and an edited diary belonging to the subject of these love letters, Big-Time Football at Harvard, 1905: The Diary of Coach Bill Reid. Bill Reid had another side to his life, however—a passionate one in which he and Christine, his girlfriend, fiancé, and wife, exchanged intimate love letters for well over a decade. The revealed sexual nature of their letters during the late Victorian period and early twentieth century from when they first met, through their engagement, and especially after their marriage and the first three children, are rare and distinguish them from other collections. The explicit love letters of upper-middle and upper class individuals are an exceptional find, and they broach issues between couples that are almost universal, often appearing timeless. The love letters of Bill and Christine not only illuminate aspects of life in the early twentieth century, but also make us reflect on our own lives.