"Looking Back Will Still Keep Us Looking Forward": A Letter from Arthur Corbin to Soia Mentschikoff upon the Death of Karl Llewellyn William Twining* Arthur Linton Corbin (1874-1967), Karl N. Llewellyn (1893-1962), and Soia Mentschikoff (Llewellyn's third wife, 1913-1984)1 are three important figures in the history of law in the United States in the twentieth century. They are striking not only for their contributions to contracts, commercial law, and jurisprudence, but also as distinctive personalities. Here, published for the first time, is a letter that poignantly and vividly throws light on their personal and professional relationships. Karl Llewellyn died unexpectedly on February 13, 1962. The document that is reproduced and transcribed below, dated the day after Llewellyn's death, is a letter of condolence from Corbin to Mentschikoff, written immediately on hearing the news. It was discovered in April 2012 among Mentschikoff s papers, when the bulk of her papers were being prepared for transfer from the University of Miami to the Special Collections at the University of Chicago, where they joined the Karl Llewellyn Papers and an earlier collection of Mentschikoff Papers. 2 * Quain Professor of Jurisprudence Emeritus, Faculty of Laws, University College London. I am grateful to Barbara Black, Dean Robert Post and the Editors of this Journal for invaluable assistance with this Introduction. 1. Professor (later Dean) Mentschikoff retained her birth name in her professional life, but preferred to be called Mrs. Llewellyn, or just Soia, in her social and personal relations. In the more personal parts of this Introduction, I shall refer to Karl and Soia. 2. Some letters from Corbin to Llewellyn are in the Karl Llewellyn Papers in Chicago, including two long handwritten discussions of Llewellyn's THE COMMON LAW TRADITION (1960) (on file with author). In a very informative article, Professor Joseph Perillo published some letters from Corbin to Professor Robert Braucher from the Braucher Papers at Harvard. Joseph M. Perillo, Twelve Letters from Arthur L. Corbin to Robert Braucher, 50 WASH. & LEE L. REV. 755 (1995). The article refers to some other extant letters from Corbin. Unfortunately most of Llewellyn's letters to Corbin were destroyed in a fire at Corbin's home in Hamden, Connecticut in January 1959. See Arthur L. Corbin, An Account by Arthur L. Corbin of His Association with Karl N. Llewellyn (unpublished typescript) (Sept. 26, 1965) (on file with author). I have not been able to trace any significant repository of Corbin's professional papers.