Sarah Orne Jewett Letters of 1900
Katharine Prescott Wormeley to Sarah Orne Jewett
January 1. 1900
My dear Mifs Jewett,
This is only a [ line ? ] just to say Happy new year to you, and to send you a line from a friend (Mifs Anna Davies of Portland)* which pleased me because I think it so true of your last delightful book,* and of you.
I dont know where you are, but I suppose this note
if directed to South Berwick will reach you. The last I heard of you, you had gone abroad.* I went myself last summer and only returned late in October. Since then I have ^been^ so occupied in [ mind and time ? ] with a defense I am making of Balzac* against a crew of degenerate [ deleted word may be proud ] men, that I have literally had no time to myself.
I hope you are well and good and consequently happy, Dear soul! You deserve to be
if anybody is. Your art in itself must be happiness and peace -- one of its greatest charms is the sense of peace it conveys.
Adieu, for the present. I hope I shall see you next summer -- Last summer everybody was away from these regions -- Merrimans, Fitz -- Wings -- self, and tutti quanti.*
Katharine P Wormeley.
Notes
Anna Davies of Portland: This transcription is uncertain, and this person has not yet been identified.
book: Jewett's The Queen's Twin appeared in 1899.
abroad: It appears that Wormeley may not have had news of Jewett for more than year. As of January 1900, Jewett's most recent journey abroad was to Europe, mainly France, in April through September 1898.
Balzac: Wormeley was an important translator of the many works of French author Honoré Balzac (1799-1850). The controversy she speaks of here has not yet been discovered, nor is it known whether her defense was published, unless this was her A Memoir of Balzac (1902). See Wormeley to Jewett of 9 January 1900.
Merrimans, Fitz -- Wings -- self, and tutti quanti: "Tutti quanti" is Italian: just everybody.
For Helen Bigelow Merriman, see Key to Correspondents.
The transcriptions of the other names are uncertain, and these people have not been identified.
Mrs. Fitz appears in several of Wormeley's letters as a close friend and traveling companion. She may be Henrietta Goddard Wigglesworth Fitz (1847-1929).
Gamble of Intervale: Harriet Douglas Whetten (Mrs. Gamble) (1831-1907) of Intervale, NH, worked with Wormeley as a Sanitary Commission nurse in the Civil War. See the Wisconsin Magazine of History 48:2 (Winter 1964-1965), pp. 132-151.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library of Harvard University in Sarah Orne Jewett, Correspondence, MS Am 1743, Item 245, Wormeley, Katherine Prescott, 1830-1908. 7 letters. This transcription is from a photocopy held by the Maine Women Writers Collection, The Burton Trafton Papers, Box 2, Folder 98. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Mary Augusta (Mrs. Humphry) Ward to Annie Adams Fields
TRING.
My dear Mrs Fields*
How good of you to send me your charming little book on Hawthorne! I read it with a most pleasant review of old memories -- of young days when Hawthorne's "American Notebooks," & Ruskin's Stones of Venice & Uncle Matt's Essays, & Ecce Homo,* were to me almost equally books of
magic influence. Within your limits you have told the story most attractively with all the advantage of intimate and personal knowledge. Best thanks!
You & Mifs Jewett* must please send me criticisms of "Eleanor". I
Puritan democracy which is the essence of her, lives for me at the very root of two or three of my American friends -- of course under exterior aspects far more subtle & cosmopolitan. I feel it whenever I talk to them, and I have tried to make it typical in her, so as to contrast her better with the old Europe -- I do think & hope you will be interested in the story presently
Mary A ward
Notes
1900: The Huntington Library has assigned this year, which is supported by its discussion of Fields's Fields's 1899 Nathaniel Hawthorne, about the American author, Hawthorne (1804-1864) and Ward's 1900 novel, Eleanor. That it was written in January is a guess. It seems clear that Ward had completed Eleanor for serialization and that she anticipated working with proofs for the book publication. According to the Ward bibliography in Victorian Fiction Research Guides, the serialization ran January through December 1900 in Harper's magazine. Ward would need some time to revise after receiving the commentary she requests from Jewett & Fields. The first American and British editions probably appeared by 1 December, to coincide with the final serial installment and in time for the Christmas market. Almost certainly, Ward would have to have the desired comments by 1 October. At the end of the letter, she seems to imply that Jewett and Fields are not likely to have begun reading the serial yet, expressing the hope that they will be "interested in the story presently." This suggests that Ward may have composed this letter as early as December 1899, or at least very early in the serialization. Finally, it seems likely that Fields may have sent her newly published 1899 book on Hawthorne as an 1899 Christmas gift.
Fields: In the top margin left of page 1 appears the penciled note: "Private." This probably is not in Ward's hand.
Passages from the American Notebooks by Hawthorne was published by his wife, Sophia, in 1868.
British public intellectual, John Ruskin (1819-1900) published The Stones of Venice in 3 volumes, 1851-1853.
Also a British public intellectual as well as a poet, Matthew Arnold (1822-1888) published two series of Essays in Criticism in 1865 and 1888. Presumably, Ward refers to the first volume.
"Ecce homo," (Latin: Behold the man) refers to the Bible, John 19:5, when Pontius Pilate shows the thorn-crowned Jesus to a hostile crowd that then calls for his crucifixion. Almost certainly, Ward refers to the book by British historian and essayist, John Robert Seeley (1834-1895 ), Ecce Homo: A Survey in the Life and Work of Jesus Christ.
Jewett: Sarah Orne Jewett. See Key to Correspondents.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Huntington Library, San Marino, CA, in the James T. Fields Papers and Addenda: mss FI 5637, Box 64, Ward, Mary Augusta (Arnold), 14 pieces. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
John T. Perry* to Mary Rice Jewett
Many thanks for your pleasant letter. It really was not convenient to me to be away at the time when Theo's* invitation came. I want to see more of him in the future for he is certainly a really manly boy in the best sense of the word, and I have found him very agreeable in the few short interviews I have had with him.
We are quiet here in Exeter, the only ripple on the civic waters being the opening of our new P.O., and the starting of free delivery* Jan 1, in the midst of a snow storm. The P.O. is really a great improvement over the old one,
Frances is, I suppose, in Cambridge.
She went there to the Haskins Parkers yesterday a.m. to attend Mrs. Bailey's party in honor of Helen [ Furber ? ],* given at the Col. ^[ unrecognized word ]^ Club to 500 invitees, of whom I suppose you are [ unrecognized word some ? ].
I had a letter from Mr. Bancroft* in N.Y. this morning. He said he had been visiting his relations in Boston and was saddened by his disappointment in not meeting Mrs Tyler,* whom he had been hoping to see{.} He added that he had received no particulars as to her death, & seemed to want to know more. Can you write me a letter, in which you can embody some such facts as he would wish to know that I can send to him. You need not [ hesitate ? ] to say that I asked you for them, or, if you prefer, put them incidentally with other matter. He thought much of Mrs Tyler -- who you know introduced me to him -- and I know he would be grateful for any thing you write.
If you would rather do so, you
can write direct to him C. C Bancroft, care H. W. Peabody & Co. 17 State St. New York, but I should like myself to know the circumstances of Mrs T's death, for I have always been grateful for her kindnesses.
I am a sympathizer with the Boers,* for though I am sorry for the many English families that have lost relations, I feel that the war is a willed one -- a parallel to Ahab's proceedings regarding Naboth when he wanted his vineyard.* What would the people of Maine say if England demanded that the right of [ unrecognized words ] should be given to some thousands of French Canadian immigrants, who had no intention of being naturalized?
J.T.P.
Notes
Perry: See Sarah Chandler Perry in Key to Correspondents.
Theo's: Theodore Jewett Eastman. See Key to Correspondents.
free delivery: Beginning in the 1890s, the U.S. Post Office gradually shifted from requiring people to go to the local post office or pay for individual delivery to free delivery, mainly to rural homes, but eventually to all homes.
deprecated: Perry's penmanship is very challenging at this point, making it unclear exactly how his postal box rental differs from that of people who live outside the boundary of Exeter. Perhaps he means that he pays $0.52 / quarter, while those further away pay $25 / quarter?
Frances ...Haskins Parkers ... Mrs. Bailey's party in honor of Helen Furber: Frances probably is Frances Perry Dudley, daughter of Lucretia Morse Fiske Perry. See Key to Correspondents.
The transcriptions of all the other names are uncertain. As yet, the identities of these people and information about the party Frances attends have not been discovered.
Mr. Bancroft: C. C. Bancroft may have been Cornelius C. Bancroft (1831-1920), born in Boston, but residing in New York City. He was at some time in the import/export business, the head of C. C. Bancroft & Co. In the 1870s, he was American consul in Calcutta, India.
Henry W. Peabody & Company was an import/export company with offices in Boston and in New York.
Mrs Tyler: Augusta Maria Denny Tyler (1825 - 15 December 1899). See Key to Correspondents.
Boers: The Second Boer War (October 1899-May 1902) between Great Britain and two independent Boer states in South Africa. Though complex in its origins, a main occasion for this conflict was the discovery of gold and diamonds in the Boer states.
Ahab's: In the Christian Bible (Kings 16), King Ahab arranges for the execution of Naboth, so that he may gain possession of Naboth's vineyard.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the University of New England Maine Women Writers Collection, Sarah Orne Jewett Correspondence Box 3 Folder 209. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Charles Dudley Warner to Sarah Orne Jewett
Jan 5, 1900
My Dear Friend,
It seems by your postal, [ unrecognized word ], that we found on the 2nd, when we returned from the holidays* in Norfolk, Va, where one of us left a throat irritation, which he is fast picking up again here, that you sent or tried to send a book to me to be forwarded to Miss Slosson.* No such book has come. Your Twin* did come to me, and we are both very thankful
for it, since we not only love you very much -- holidays and other times -- but we think you the best of all New England writers of fiction living now, and [ we ? ] put you beside the best that are gone.
Our Miss Annie T. Slosson went with Dr. Prime* to the South, presumably direct to Florida, last year on the 27th of December. They intend to winter at the Hotel Royal Palm, Miami, and expect to be there as soon as it
Dear me, it seems as if I now should [ see ? ] you and Mrs Fields.* I should have gone to Boston to see Mr Mifflin,* if he was not down with typhoid. I [ chose almost ?] again to go to Willoughby Cottage on the 29th of Jany. But I have had to back out of that, for the public
[ Page 4 ]
meeting of The National Institute of Arts and Letters, at which I am to preside, is [ unrecognized word ] for the 30th in New York.
We are [ formally ?] pretty well, but my throat is always congested here and I cannot safely stay long. We mean to go to So. California early in February.
yours ever
Chas. Dudley Warner
Notes
holidays: See Warner to Jewett of 26 December 1899.
Though this is not so evident here as with some of Warner's letters, his handwriting is quite challenging. Many of the words I believe I recognize are guesswork. Anyone working with this material should examine the manuscript.
Slosson: American author and entomologist, Annie Trumbull Slosson (1838-1926). Wikipedia.
Twin: Jewett's new collection at the end of 1899 was The Queen's Twin.
Prime: Probably this transcription is correct, and the reference is to American author and attorney, William Cowper Prime (1825-1905), who was Slosson's brother-in-law.
Fields: Annie Adams Fields. Key to Correspondents.
Mifflin: George Harrison Mifflin. Key to Correspondents.
National Institute of Arts and Letters: The New York Times of 3 February 1900 (p. BR4) reports that Warner, President, due to ill health, failed to address the first public meeting of the Institute in New York City. His address was read for him by Hamilton W. Mabie. The Institute eventually became the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Wikipedia.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library of Harvard University, Cambridge, MA. bMS Am 1743 Box 5, Item 230.
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Saturday afternoon
Dear Mary:
A beautiful little kitty has just arrived -- quite wild at the new place and surroundings, but she is a welcome visitor and we thank you most particularly.
Sarah* has gone to the play and I am entertaining a few scattering ladies who drop in from time to time.
Here, being interrupted I will simply add that soon after Sarah's return you must come again for a few days, before and after the New York expedition.
yours
Annie Fields
Notes
7 January 1900: The rationale for this date is not known. It may have been added in Mary Jewett's hand.
Sarah: Sarah Orne Jewett. See Key to Correspondents.
The manuscript of this letter is held by Historic New England in Letters from Annie Fields to Mary Rice Jewett, Jewett Family Papers: MS014.01.04. Transcribed and annotated by Terry Heller. Coe College.
Dear Mary:
I am sending you one of six lots of papers sent to me by Mme Blanc.*
It is quite possible that your aunt* will like to turn them over to the schools or charities of Portland who will be glad to send reports on their advanced [ work perhaps ? ] to Paris. Th.B's* address you have.
Please give my affectionate
I am very well if I take care! and Sarah* also. She has enjoyed her week with dear Mrs. Cabot,* who is giving away her personal possessions to her nearest friends as if she felt the
We are again on
the outlook for a pretty and a skilful
person! Do not take any trouble but if you meet one in
the street please pick it up for me. Express paid
this end !!!
I know you have felt
our Isabel's* going away [ is ? ] such a
sad event. A second telegram yesterday
just before she left said "more comfortable. Come"
So I think they must really need her. Indeed if he
must die now her brother will be entirely dependent upon
the companionship of this only child -- Good bye dear
Mary. Come soon to Boston again.
Yours affectionately
Annie Fields.
Notes
your aunt: Almost certainly Mrs. Helen Williams Gilman. See Key to Correspondents.
Sarah: Sarah Orne Jewett. See Key to Correspondents.
Mrs. Cabot: Susan Burley Cabot. See Key to Correspondents.
Isabel: It seems clear that Isabel is a Fields employee, but no further information has been located.
The manuscript of this letter is held by Historic New England in Letters from Annie Fields to Mary Rice Jewett, Jewett Family Papers: MS014.03.02. Transcribed and annotated by Terry Heller. Coe College.
Katharine Prescott Wormeley to Sarah Orne Jewett
Jan 9. 1900.
My dear Mifs Jewett,
I am so grateful to you for sending me that dear book. I never can believe that your tales are tales; and I dont think I ever could in my inner consciousness be persuaded that they are. Some, of course, there are that I see you have made -- but others -- like the "Queen's Twin" and the "Pointed Firs" and "Deephaven"* I know are all
true stories of true people that you are telling. I am with them -- not with you.
It is a great gift; it must make you happy -- your face shows it; and it certainly makes others so.
I hope you are well and all things are bright around you. You have Mrs Merriman* within hail this winter. She sent me her book "Religio Pictoris" -- and I have not yet been able to look into it. I am doing something
which, with proofs and revises, take me ten hours a day steady work -- besides which it is a great pull on my feelings -- so that when I lie off an hour or two my mind is too tired to read such a book as hers, which I want to study.
I expect to be "through" with my present work -- which is, boldly, a defense* of Balzac ^on my part^ but at the same time, in the book itself, the revelation of a great struggle, a great mental tragedy. I'll send you the book when out, and I hope you will feel a just interest in my "defense"
I have had two or three letters from Harry James (excuse an old habit from boyhood) lately. In one of these he said W. James* was living quietly in his, H.J's, house in de Vere Gardens;* but he spoke [ rather ? ] discouragingly of his health. I suspect that is only because dear H J. with his [ range's ? ], conventional ways, doesn't understand W J's [ erraticism so written ].
Adieu, and [ adieu ? ] not always
Katharine P Wormeley.
Notes
"Queen'sTwin" and the "Pointed Firs" and "Deephaven": Jewett's fiction, "The Queen's Twin" (1899), The Country of the Pointed Firs (1896) and Deephaven (1877).
Mrs Merriman: Helen Bigelow Merriman. See Key to Correspondents. Wikipedia says: "Religio Pictoris (1899) ... explores the relationship between art and religion and attempts to demonstrate a fundamental unity between the material and spiritual dimensions of life."
defense: Wormeley's script is not clear; she may have written "defence" in each instance in this letter.
Harry James ... W. James: Henry and William James. See Key to Correspondents. Henry James lived at 34 De Vere Gardens in Kensington, London, between 1886 and 1898, and he retained the lease until 1902.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library of Harvard University in Sarah Orne Jewett, Correspondence, MS Am 1743, Item 245, Wormeley, Katherine Prescott, 1830-1908. 7 letters. This transcription is from a photocopy held by the Maine Women Writers Collection, The Burton Trafton Papers, Box 2, Folder 98. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Wyman Whitman to Sarah Orne Jewett
And yet never spoke of the motto for the [ two unrecognized words, title wreath ? ]!* at which I [ lament ? ], feeling an absence of conviction as to how it is [ bestest ? ] to put it. Perhaps just a Browning word like "Roses roses all the way"* -- and "ever a flying point of bliss remote," or a hundred others.
But you must say darling.
I want to have a long talk before the Ashfield* time!
So you must be ready
Notes
18 January 1900: The envelope associated with this letter was cancelled on 18 January 1900 and addressed to Jewett in South Berwick.
title wreath: This transcription is uncertain. If it is correct, it seems possible that Jewett has asked Whitman to design the cover for her novel, The Tory Lover, that was to appear in book form in 1901. However, that would seem rather a distant prospect.
all the way: British poet Robert Browning's (1812-1889), "The Patriot: An Old Story" opens "It was roses, roses, all the way, / With myrtle mixed in my path like mad...."
bliss: In "Nature’s Influence: God in Nature," from Paracelsus, Browning writes:
With still a flying point of bliss remote,
A happiness in store afar, a sphere
Of distant glory in full view; thus climbs
Pleasure its heights forever and forever.
Ashfield: A town in the Berkshire mountains of western Massachusetts, where the Charles Eliot Norton family had a summer cottage. See Sara Norton in Key to Correspondents.
S. St. P.: Sarah de St. Prix Wyman Whitman. See Key to Correspondents.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library of Harvard University. Whitman, Sarah (Wyman) 1842-1904. 92 letters; [ 1884 ]-[ 1903 ] & [ n.d. ] Jewett, Sarah Orne, 1849-1909. Sarah Orne Jewett additional correspondence, 1868-1930. MS Am 1743.1 -107. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Dorothy Ward
South Berwick, Maine, January 20, 1900.
My dear Dorothy, -- How good of you to send me this photograph by Sally, who came to bring it one day before I came away from Town! It made me wish to see you the least bit too much, and made me fall at once to thinking how long it is since I saw you in the summer weather at Stocks.* But one must look at it often in these sad conditions, and finally gather a good bit of companionship out of a photograph, it being all that one can get! If somebody would only invent a little speaking-attachment to such pictures, a nicer sort of phonograph, -- it would really be very nice; you might mentions this to your Aunt Ethel with my love.* Speaking-likenesses have not really been put into an eager market yet, in spite of the phrase being so old.
I have been wishing to say these many days with what delight we have read the first number of the new story which opened in such a masterful way, and with such large promise. I am hoping for the same windfall which I had when "Sir George" was printing -- of some numbers ahead, -- but who knows if such luck will happen to me again? I think the American girl a very living person, the art and the sympathy that went to her writing are most wonderful. I am full of expectation and so is Mrs. Fields; we can hardly say to each other how much we liked that first number and count upon the second, and I have heard many another person say the same. It seems to me like a great success already, but I confess with wistfulness that every time a door opened, I hoped that it was Marcella* coming in. Do not speak coldly to me of the resources of a great novelist now that you have seen my heart!
Have I owed you a letter for a
very long time, dear Dorothy, or is it you who have
thought that Sally would give me news and messages? This
she has done, but I should so like a letter to myself
from Stocks, with something about everybody, and even a
word about the pony who brought us safe home, though
such an unwilling person on the road. I hope that your
Mother is just as well as the story sounds, -- and you
must give her my dear love and true thanks. You will
both like to know that Sally is looking very well this
winter -- . . . dear child! I have not seen her half as
much as I wish, for I have been much in the country, and
it takes good bit more time to live in two places than
in one. Mrs. Fields and I were much tempted in the
autumn to go to Egypt with a friend* who asked us, but I
do not like to think of being so far away from my
sister, who would be very lonely. My nephew is still in
Harvard,* and we three are all the house now, so that I
have not the heart to take this one away, and leave but
one in the old place. It is a delightful winter here as
to weather, and yet the shadows and sorrows of war make
it dark enough. The questions of our difficult
Philippines are half forgotten -- it is almost strange
to say so -- in the anxiety about South Africa;* but I
like to take comfort from this, and other signs, and
remember how much closer Old England and New England
have come together in the last two years. That is good,
at any rate. I had a most delightful proof of it in the
way that many quite unexpected persons felt about a
sketch I wrote (and meant to send to you!) called "The
Queen's Twin." It was most touching to see how everybody
approves it, and told little tales to prove that it
might be true -- and was at any rate right in its
sentiment!* But I must not write longer -- only to say
that I thank you, dear, and that you must not forget to
give my love to Jan.
Notes
Sally: Almost certainly, Sally is Sara Norton. See Key to Correspondents.
Stocks: The home of Mrs. Humphry Ward and her
daughter, Dorothy, in Albury, Hertfordshire, England.
Aunt Ethel: Ethel M. Arnold (1965-1930)
was the sister of Mrs. Humphry Ward and grand-daughter
of Thomas Arnold, headmaster of Rugby School. She
became a noted journalist and lecturer on literary and
other topics. See Phyllis E. Wachter, "Ethel M.
Arnold (1865-1930): New Woman Journalist," Victorian
Periodicals Review 20: 3 (Fall, 1987), pp.
107-111.
new story ... "Sir George" ... Marcella: Mary Augusta Ward (1851-1920), a niece of Matthew Arnold, was a British novelist. Mrs. Humphry Ward's Marcella appeared in 1894, Sir George Tressady in 1896. Her novel, Eleanor, was serialized in Harper's New Monthly 1900-1901. Dorothy Ward acted as her mother's secretary from the age of 16. See Key to Correspondents.
Egypt with a friend: See Sarah Orne Jewett
to Rose Lamb, February 5, 1901.
nephew ... Harvard: Theodore Eastman
completed his A.B. at Harvard in 1901. See Key
to
Correspondents.
questions of our difficult Philippines ... the
anxiety about South Africa: The Grolier
Multimedia Encyclopedia says "In the 1880s the
writings of Jose Rizal (1861-96) helped spur Filipino
demands for reform. Rizal's execution made him a
national hero and sparked an unsuccessful revolution led
by Emilio Aguinaldo. On June 12, 1898, after the
outbreak of the Spanish-American War, Aguinaldo declared
the Philippines independent in the mistaken belief that
the United States supported his struggle. Instead, Spain
ceded the Philippines to the United States. From 1899 to
1901, Aguinaldo led a war against his country's new
colonial rulers."
The South African or Boer War took
place in 1899-1902, between Britain and Afrikaner
settlers.
Compare this letter by Jewett's
close friend, Thomas Bailey Aldrich, to R. W. Gilder.
|
Hôtel de France et Choiseul, Paris, April 27, 1899 My Dear Gilder, -- Yours sincerely,
TBA Greenslet, The Life of Thomas Bailey Aldrich, p. 204. |
This letter appears in Annie Fields, Letters of Sarah Orne Jewett (1911), Transcribed by Annie Adams Fields, with notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Abbie S. Beede
Could you come to see me at 148 Charles St. Boston -- Toward six o'clock Tuesday or before ten on Wednesday to speak about some typewriting? In haste
Notes
1900: This postcard is addressed to Mifs Beede at 5 Shepard Street, Cambridge, and cancelled in Boston, on 22 January 1900.
In 1900, 22 January fell on a Monday.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the University of New England Maine Women Writers Collection, item MWWC0186.
Transcription by Kelsey Squire, Ohio Dominican University; edited and with notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Louise Imogen Guiney to Annie Adams Fields
Dearest Mrs. Fields:
You saw how it was, didn't you? and I hope you forgave me and my comedy of errors. It [ came corrected ] about thus: You asked both me and Mr. Burgess* to dine. Just previously, I had named that evening, in a note to him as a time when we two might hold our postponed session, here; and not having heard from him, I felt I must
Unless you had an insight into this Secret History, you must have thought me whimsical, to say the least. Love to you, and the same to Miss Jewett.* I thought the College Club* boresome for once, didn't you? That week I was 'out' two evenings, but have been Quaker-like* enough ever since. I continue to thrive at the Library.* and there to a 'perform with joy my long moon-silvered role.'* (May the shade or Mr. Arnold overlook that perversion!)
Louise I. Guiney.
Notes
Mr. Burgess: Probably artist and author Gelett Burgess (1866-1961), with whom Guiney was well acquainted.
Charles St.: Fields's Boston address.
Miss Jewett: Sarah Orne Jewett. See Key to Correspondents.
College Club: Boston's Association of Collegiate Alumnae (founded in 1882) was the predecessor organization of the American Association of University Women. In 1895, it was called the College Club and had a meeting room on Beacon St. in Boston. Wikipedia.
Quaker-like: Members of the Religious Society of Friends, among other beliefs and practices, profess a preference for simple living.
Library: At this time, Guiney worked at the Boston Public Library.
moon-silvered role: Guiney paraphrases from "Self-Dependence," a poem by British author, Matthew Arnold (1822-1888),
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Huntington Library, San Marino, CA, in the James T. Fields collection Box 26: mss FI 1627 . Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Annie Adams Fields to Lilian and Thomas Bailey Aldrich
Tuesday --
Please, we don't know where you are! But if on the planet still would you be so good as to come to luncheon at one o'clock next Sunday to meet Madame Modjeska? We are not to have other company, therefore we more particularly hope you will come.
Please send a small "yes" flying in a dove's wing of a note for the pleasure it will give us --
Sadie* joins me in hoping you will come back in time.
Notes
1900: This date is a guess with a little support. Madame Helena Modjeska (1840-1909) the internationally famous Shakespearean actor became a United States citizen in 1883 and, thereafter lived, performed, and toured in the United States. In The History of the Boston Theatre, 1854-1901 (1908), Eugene Tompkins and Quincy Kilby report that Modjeska performed Lady Macbeth in Boston in January 1890 (p. 320), December-January 1895-6 (p. 433), and January 1900 (p. 473). This letter likely was composed near the time of one of those Boston appearances. I have chosen 1900 because Fields places a letter from Jewett to Sarah Norton that mentions a Modjeska performance in about this year.
Sadie: A nickname for Sarah Orne Jewett used by the Aldriches, Jewett and Fields, a reference to the American actress Sadie Martinot. See Key to Correspondents.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library of Harvard University: MS Am 1429, Box 6, Items 1446-1538. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Natalie Lord Rice Clark to Sarah Orne Jewett
Feb. 1900
My dear Miss Jewett:
For several years I have been
wishing that I might some way thank you for the real
men & women in your stories -- not because I thought it
would so much matter to you what one of a multitude of
readers thought, since you must already know what the
multitude as a mass thought! -- but simply because
gratitude
is an uncomfortable possession to keep to oneself. But since "the Queen's Twin"* came out, I have been deciding that I must take a moment of your time to thank you, very sincerely & earnestly, for the realities in that book.
I think that wholly apart from the
literary quality of the work, and inherently there, there is
something that appeals to women -- perhaps especially to
younger women -- in a way that calls out their belief in the
goodness of life, -- in the possibilities of life
that may grow richer, even if the outward & material
things grow poorer -- What I want to thank you for, &
yet express so poorly, is that there is no poverty of soul
in any outward poverty of which you write, -- but that such
women as yours take their place as real souls in the
world, and are of an infinite encouragement to other women,
either in just such or wholly different surroundings -- It
is this New England faith that I deeply thank you
for -- I could say a good deal more, but after all
this is the real kernel
of my gratitude, and I will leave it right here --
Very sincerely yours
Natalie L. Rice --
The"inevitable" postscript!
--
---
I think that your women especially help
younger women because they hold up a wholly unworldly ideal
for them, -- give grace & strength to the life
that may be daily renewing its strength or beauty of soul,
where its bodily weakness is daily more apparent.
And if younger women can just begin to believe this
fact, & live it out, there is never a chance of their
having that sort of unlovely age that not a few writers have
been content to show in its unloveliness, without
any bit of cheer or encouragement in their work. But your
women -- and men
too -- have set astir in the world an actual force of encouragement -- of patience & cheer & hope. --
I have taken more than the minute of time, -- and it almost seems grotesque for me to have written this out, since you know yourself what you tried to do, -- and you must have known long ago that you had not failed. Yet it is a comfort to me to have once said out to you what I have been so long grateful for. --
NLR.
Notes
The Queen's Twin: Jewett's final story
collection, The Queen's Twin (1899).
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton
Library of Harvard University, Cambridge, MA. bMS Am
1743 Box 1, Item 40 I. Letters to Sarah Orne Jewett.
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller,
Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Abbie S. Beede
Thursday.
[ 1900 ]*
Dear Miss Beede
Here is the report that I spoke of, and much work it has cost, first and last!
Will you please make seven copies of it and let me have them here? I shall be at home until Thursday, but if you cannot do so many owing to other affairs please send them to me at 148 Charles Street Boston --
I was very glad to see you on Saturday!
S. O. Jewett
Notes
January 1900: An envelope associated with this note is addressed to Mifs A. S. Beede, North Berwick, ME, and cancelled in South Berwick, MA on 15 June 1903.
Though ink on the envelope and in the note appear to match, this envelope probably does not really belong with this note. 15 June 1903 fell on a Monday. Almost certainly this item was composed before September 1902, when Jewett was actively writing for publication and when her handwriting remained usually steady and easily readable.
I have assigned a date of 1900 because early that year, Jewett completed the report of her work as chair of the Subcommittee on Books for the Boston Public Library. Probably, this is the report that Jewett asks Beede to type.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the University of New England Maine Women Writers Collection, item MWWC0174.
Transcription by Kelsey Squire, Ohio Dominican University; edited and with notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Sara Norton
South Berwick, Maine.
[ January-February 1900 ]*
My dear Sally, -- It was too bad about your missing Lady Macbeth. I wished much for you, and indeed Madame Modjeska was unexpectedly fine, quite nobly beautiful.* She did two or three things which I must put among the very best I have ever seen on the stage. One felt true greatness in her playing. I used to think of her as quite charming and most intelligent and often vigorous, but she went far beyond all these that night. You would have cared very much for her, but alas, one must miss such pleasures. I don't like to think of your losing a day now and then, dear, except that there must come a "break" and a Sunday, somehow! I don't know what we should do if we were not stopped by force now and then, -- the scheme of our life is built on unending activity, or else an active New England conscience falls to upbraiding us.
I have been busy enough since I
came home, chiefly here at the old desk. There are a great
many birds already, robins and song-sparrows have all come,
but there are some old snow-drifts sitting round on the
hills to keep watch.
Notes
1900: Annie Fields groups this letter with others of the 1898-99 period. On this slim basis, I have dated this letter to follow Modjeska's January 1900 tour performances in Boston. See note below.Lady Macbeth. ... Madame Modjeska: William Shakespeare's (1564-1616) tragedy of Macbeth was first performed in about 1606. Madame Helena Modjeska (1840-1909) the internationally famous Shakespearean actor became a United States citizen in 1883 and, thereafter lived, performed, and toured in the United States. Her roles often included Lady Macbeth. After becoming a U.S. citizen, she began years of touring the country with her acting company. In The History of the Boston Theatre, 1854-1901 (1908), Eugene Tompkins and Quincy Kilby report that Modjeska performed Lady Macbeth in Boston in January 1890 (p. 320), December-January 1895-6 (p. 433), and January 1900 (p. 473).
This letter appears in Annie Fields, Letters of Sarah Orne Jewett (1911), Transcribed by Annie Adams Fields, with notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Helena Modjeska to Sarah Orne Jewett
1900
Buffalo
BONUM AD IPISCI ]*
It is more than kind of you and Mrs. Fields* to send me such flattering souvenir. I am most anxious to see the wreath and the fact that it is composed by the beautiful Mrs. Whitman adds another [ element ? ] to its value.
Please do not send it before the 15th of February. We are for the next three weeks, "on the road" and it would certainly be miscarried. But on the 15th of February we shall be in New York for another three weeks and if you [ adress so spelled ] it c/o the Fifth Avenue theater, it will reach me safely.
Will you, pray, tell Mrs. Fields that I have read Nathaniel Hawthorne's biography* and it has given me more delight than I can express. What a beautiful work she is doing!
Your book has been just brought to me by Mr. [ Artajowski ? ]* and I am going to have [ much corrected ] joy in making the acquaintance of the Queen's twin -- etc. --
[ Page 4 ]
Life is beautiful at times. I am living now in a happy anticipation of your visit to California. Mrs. Fields told me that she, yourself and Madame Blanc probably will visit the country of ^the^ yellow poppies --- and I pray everyday that this idea should be realized.
and admiration
yours
Notes
IPISCI: Google translate does not know what to make of this word. Separating it into "i pisci," mixing Latin and "pigeon" Italian could yield "good for fish." The Latin letterhead means "good for" something, but for what is not yet known.
Fields: Annie Adams Fields. Key to Correspondents.
Whitman: Sarah Wyman Whitman. Key to Correspondents.
Nathaniel Hawthorne's biography: Fields's Nathaniel Hawthorne (1899).
Artajowski: This transcription is very uncertain, and the person has not yet been identified.
Jewett has sent Modjeska a copy of her 1899 book, The Queen's Twin.
Blanc: Marie Thérèse de Solms Blanc. Key to Correspondents.
Modjeska: In the Houghton folder with this letter is a card, with a colorized pasture scene of a small herd of cattle. Modjeska has written "Happy New Year" across the top, and signed it at the bottom.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library of Harvard University, Cambridge, MA. Sarah Orne Jewett Correspondence, bMS Am 1743 Box 4, Item 156. I. Letters to Sarah Orne Jewett.
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Sarah Warner Hills Brooks
3 February [ 1900 ]*
I am indeed willing that you should use any sentence in my letter if it will serve you, or still better, as I do not exactly remember that letter say that
"I find ^the stories in^ Poverty Knob* full of delightful glimpses of the Maine coast" -- and add my name -- I thank
you for sending me the volume of poems -- I am sorry not to be able to speak of it -- but though it reached me in good season at 34 Beacon Street* I have been ill since [ then corrected ], and* being able to write very little even yet I must ask your pardon for my delay and for this very halting note. Yours with sincere thanks for both books
1900: This date is based upon the supposition that Brooks has requested aid in advertising her new book, Poverty Knob, which appeared in 1900. Also appearing in 1900 was The Search of Ceres, and Other Poems.
34 Beacon Street: The Boston address of Jewett's friend, Susan Burley Cabot. See Key to Correspondents.
and: In this letter, Jewett abbreviates "and" to an "a" with a long tail. I have rendered these as "and."
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Mary Rice Jewett
Thursday morning
[ February 1900 ]*
Dear Mary
When I came in last evening toward six there was dear old Stubby* and I was so glad to see him! He had every lofty particular of the flood,* and when he spoke of the Junction bridge* having gone down stream, I began to double all my feelings of being left out of every pleasure. He stayed to dinner [ -- ] he had not reached his laboratory work & Cambridge until toward noon the train being so late & then came back to town. I think he went away about nine.
I was glad to hear both by his words & your letters that Mary Woods* is better. Perhaps it is the grippe, though I hope not it is so much longer getting over itself! -- but I hear of people who are having that form of it just as they did the first winter it arrived. After Katy’s funeral* yesterday I went to see a few people like dear old Mrs. Morse* who has been sick again -- and a nice little old maid of hers came to the door and told me that Mrs. Morse wasn’t seeing any one and then seeing who I was she said “Missis Morse said she’[ d ] see you any time of day or night if you’d happen to come. Poor old lady think of her giving it out in that large way. I hated to think I had been so delayed but we are great friends as you know and quite of an age! I got to see Mrs. Tyson* too and had a nice dear call. She said that Elise had just written that Isaac* was taken very sick & feverish & they had Dr. Emerson.* I also went to see Georgie Perry* who was very nice, though I came right upon the scene, and I thought I would go to see Cora* but to my delight she was out at luncheon at the Dumaresq’s!* Isn’t that a field! Jane* was there for a week going home yesterday. Ellen* had been sick & she looked so well and bright & was so nice & steady. Annie* told me that Mrs. Rice* was getting a place for her on Newbury St. with an old lady & gentleman, but it didn’t seem very definite.
I stopped a minute at Alice Howe’s* & now all this is done. ---
A. F.* has just been in and with a great broad letty from Brother Robert,* coming next Wednesday I think it is: to stay until Monday. She wrote him he must come before Sunday as there wouldn’t be opportunities for his staying after. She said “Tell dear Mary she must come. I shouldn’t know how to get along without her!” The dress is here thank you so much, & now I can take it right with me this morning when I go to Mrs. Pierce’s.* Goodby with much love
Sarah
& Love to Becca*
Notes
February 1900: Though there is much evidence
to support this composition date, there remains considerable
uncertainty. If "Katy" is Katherine Coolidge, who died
in February 1900 and if Jewett refers to the flooding of the
Merrimack River in 1900, then this date is correct.
That Theodore Eastman clearly is studying at Harvard places
the letter between 1898 and 1905.
Stubby: Theodore Jewett Eastman. See Key to Correspondents.
the flood ... Junction bridge: In February 1900, the
Merrimack River in Massachusetts experienced major
flooding. The Junction bridge has not been identified,
though it is possible Jewett refers to Lowell Junction south Andover, MA, on
the Boston and Maine Railroad line. The Junction
bridge might then cross the Merrimack River near Lawrence,
MA.
Mary Woods: This person has not been identified.
Katy's funeral: This is likely to be the funeral of Katherine Scollay Coolidge (1858 - 12 February 1900). She was the daughter of Francis Parkman and author of a volume of poems, Voices (1899), and, posthumously, of selections from her diaries and letters -- Selections (1901).
Mrs. Morse: It seems likely that this is Harriet Jackson Lee (Mrs. Samuel Tapley) Morse. See Frances Morse in Key to Correspondents.
Mrs. Tyson: Emily Tyson. See Key to Correspondents.
Elise ... Isaac: Elise is Elizabeth Russell
Tyson. See Emily Davis Tyson in Key to Correspondents.
In The Placenames of South Berwick,
Wendy Pirsig says that Isaac J. Gilliland (d. 1945) and his
wife Annie, after immigrating from Ireland, entered the
employ of Emily Tyson and then her daughter, Elise, helping
to maintain the Hamilton House property. Isaac was a
teamster, and Annie was a cook (pp. 58-9).
Dr. Emerson: The Jewett-Fields circle of
acquaintance included the physician Edward Waldo Emerson (1844-1930) of
Concord, MA, son of Ralph Waldo Emerson. However, it seems
odd that he would travel to South Berwick to treat a Tyson
employee.
Georgie Perry: Melissa Homestead of the
University of Nebraska, Lincoln, has identified Charles French Perry and his wife Georgiana West Graves. "Charles
Perry was a distant cousin of the Jewett sisters, on their
mother's side." Georgie Perry was a socially active resident
of Cambridge, MA in the 1890s.
Cora: Probably Cora Clark Rice. See Key to Correspondents.
Dumaresq's: The Dumaresq family has long history in
Boston. It is not known, however, with which member
Cora was lunching.
Jane ... Ellen: These women remain
unidentified. That they are referred to by first name
suggests that they are either employees or very close
friends. That they seem to be visiting socially among
Jewett's friends suggests that they are friends.
Jewett had several reasonably close friends with both names.
Could she be referring to Jane Mifflin, wife of her
publisher? and to Ralph Waldo Emerson's daughter, Ellen Tucker Emerson (1839-1909)?
Annie ... Mrs. Rice: Mrs. Rice may be
Cora Clark Rice's mother. Annie appears to be a woman
seeking domestic employment; her identity is not yet known.
Alice Howe's: Alice Greenwood (Mrs. George Dudley) Howe. See Key to Correspondents.
A. F.: Annie Adams Fields. See Key to Correspondents.
Brother Robert: Dr. Robert Collyer. See Key to Correspondents.
Mrs. Pierce: A favorite dressmaker, mentioned
in other letters of 1900.
Becca: Rebecca Young. See Key to Correspondents.
This text is from transcriptions from mixed repositories in
the Maine Women Writer's Collection, University of New
England, Letters from Sarah Orne Jewett, 1875-1890, Folder
74, Burton Trafton Jewett Research Collection. For more
information about the individual transcription, contact the
Maine Women Writers Collection. Preparation by Linda
Heller. Notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Mary Augusta Ward to Sarah Orne Jewett
[ Feb 6, 1900 ? ]*
TRING.
My dear Mifs Jewett
I am so desperately ashamed of myself to have let all these weeks pass since your delightful book came without answer & warm thanks. I know that your kind heart would forgive me, if you saw the strain of writing which every day just now brings with it,
but that doesn't make me forgive myself. I thought "The Queen's Twin" full of enchanting work, and I was particularly struck with the vividness & force of the Irish stories. They contrast excellently with the [ pure ? ] New England tales, -- and I put down the book full of envy and admiration! How are you able to get as near the fact as that? -- I can't ! --
Still I am cheered by the passage in your letter to Dorothy which [ shews ? ] that you like my Lucy Foster,* and are so far hopeful about my Harpers tale. I need not say that I am [ deletion ] most uncomfortably nervous about it. And yet I cannot help believing that what I am now writing at any rate, must & will interest the American public --one must believe that, mustn't one, to carry on? -- even if it ^be^ illusion in the end. A Professor writes
[ Page 4 ]
[ Cross written in the top margin of page 1 ]
that even the Chicago professor will soon be less annoyed with her!
I will certainly send you some numbers in advance before long, and shall be very glad indeed of your criticism on them. But
at present I hardly know how to get through each day's [ lack ? ] of [ writing ? ]. It is the Brontë prefaces* that have [ thrown ? ] me so late. And then the war* how it distracts & overshadows all one's thoughts -- and one must read the papers!
your affectionate & grateful
Mary A. Ward
Notes
1900: Ward's date is obscured by cross-writing, but the notes below support this transcription.
Queen's Twin: Jewett's collection, The Queen's Twin and Other Stories, appeared in 1899.
Lucy Foster: Foster is a character in Ward's 1900 novel, Eleanor. It appeared first as a serial in Harper's Magazine.
Brontë prefaces: Ward introduced a 7-volume set, The Life and Work of the Sisters Brontë (1899-1900). Wikipedia.
war: Presumably, Ward refers to the Second Boer War (October 1899-May 1902) between Great Britain and two independent Boer states in South Africa.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library of Harvard University: Sarah Orne Jewett Correspondence I, Letters to Sarah Orne Jewett.
Ward, Mary Augusta (Arnold) 1851-1920. 7 letters; 1893-1904 & [n.d.]. bMS Am 1743 (228).
This transcription is from a photocopy held by the Maine Women Writer's Collection, University of New England, Letters from Sarah Orne Jewett, 1875-1890, Box 2, Folder 97, Burton Trafton Jewett Research Collection.
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Abbie S. Beede
Dear Mifs Beede
I hoped to have some work* ready this week but I have been ill with a bad cold, and so it is much delayed. I hope now to be ready by Thursday, and I wish that you would save some time for me -- I think that it may be about [ nine written over another word ] thousand words.
I was very glad to have the other so promptly. Thank you very much
S. O. Jewett
I shall be ready on Thursday noon unless you hear from [ me ? ].
Notes
1900: This postcard is addressed to Miss Beede at 5 Shepard Street, Cambridge, and cancelled in Boston, on 10 February 1900.
some work: Jewett published two short stories in 1900. "The Stage Tavern," in the 12 April Youth's Companion, was about 4200 words; "The Foreigner" in the August Atlantic Monthly was about 10,700 words.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the University of New England Maine Women Writers Collection, item MWWC0183.
Transcription by Kelsey Squire, Ohio Dominican University; edited and with notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Louise Imogen Guiney to Annie Adams Fields
Dearest Mrs. Fields:
Thank you, once over! and be sure I should like nothing better. But I am afraid I cannot be in time for dinner on Friday; there are such big new chores to take my "leisure': whereof I must tell you. However, may I come when I can? I think it would be about half-past seven, or even nearly eight, when I could break away; like the small child for its reward and moral encouragement. I might be brought in for dessert! (If I can arrive before you leave the table, I shall not be ashamed to do so, on the minute.) I am glad I am to see Miss Adams, and I hope for a sight also of Miss Jewett.*
Louise.
Notes
1900: The Huntington Library has suggested this date. I have accepted it, though there is no clear rationale. Given that Jewett is known to have been staying with Fields at this time and that Guiney's residence then was at Pinckney St., this is a possible date.
Miss Adams ... Miss Jewett: Sarah Orne Jewett.
If the letter is dated correctly, Fields's only living and unmarried sister was the author and translator, Sarah Holland Adams. See Fields and Jewett in Key to Correspondents.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Huntington Library, San Marino, CA, in the James T. Fields collection Box 26: mss FI 1553. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Thomas Wentworth Higginson
Boston 13th February [ 1900 ]
Dear Colonel Higginson
I thank you for your very kind note about the matter of Mrs. Fields's* and my own membership of the Author's Club* -- I need not say that we thought about it seriously but this winter at any rate, our way did not look very clear. I am often in the country, and we count our evenings in what may seem a miserly way. Mrs. Fields is apt to be busy with her works and ways* on the Charities* in the
I must confess to you that I do not see, as I
one sees so much less than one wishes of the people one likes and admires most -- I cant quite bear the idea of seven or eight Authors dinners in a winter. Letting alone the selfish side of what I might get, I cannot see that it would be in my power to give much in this way. I believe heartily in an alliance like a Copyright League* which has a practical end, but the Social End looks a little impossible
Mrs. Fields sends her very kind regards with mine to you and to Mrs. Higginson -- I am hoping to see our friend Madame Blanc-Bentzon* while we are gone and she will be asking me eagerly for news from you.
Believe me always
S. O. Jewett
Mrs. Fields's: Annie Adams Fields. See Key to Correspondents.
Author's Club: The Boston Authors Club was founded in 1899, with Julia Ward Howe as a founding member. Jewett and Fields declined membership three times between 1899 and 1902.
works and ways: In her letters, Jewett several times repeats this phrase, sometimes within quotation marks. The actual phrase does not appear, as one might expect, in the King James Bible, though it is suggested in several places: Psalms 145:17, Daniel 4:37, and Revelations 15:3. In each of these passages, the biblical author refers to the works and ways of God. Jewett may be quoting from another source or from commentary on these passages, which tends to emphasize that while God's ways are mysterious, they also are to be accepted humbly by humanity.
Charities: Annie Fields was a leading figure in the Associated Charities of Boston. See Key to Correspondents.
sailing for Naples: Jewett and Fields traveled to Italy, Greece, and France in the winter and spring of 1900.
Copyright League: Jewett supported activities of the American Copyright League in the 1880s.
https://ark.digitalcommonwealth.org/ark:/50959/5712nt26d
Sarah Orne Jewett to Abbie S. Beede
I shall be ready now, anytime that you find it convenient to come for the manuscript when you are in town. I do not quite like to trust it to the mail. In haste sincerely
148 Charles Street.
Notes
1900: This postcard is addressed to Mifs Beede at 5 Shepard St. Cambridge, and cancelled in Boston, on 13 February 1900.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the University of New England Maine Women Writers Collection, item MWWC0184.
Transcription by Kelsey Squire, Ohio Dominican University; edited and with notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Marie Thérèse de Solms Blanc to Sarah Orne Jewett OR Annie Adams Fields
Dear, my dear friend, I envy Mme de Régnier* who will put this little book* in your hand. Stella is really a true story that I wrote or at least threw on the paper
long ago, but only published after the deaths of those who might have known themselves,
if they had chanced to read it. The little story of the Fox happened to
precisely drawn after nature. It is a poor little volume after all, but such as it is I give -- it [ so it appears ] to you with all my heart.
Th
Notes
1900: This date is confirmed by the publication date of the book Blanc mentions and by the year Henry de Régnier lectured in the U.S. See notes below.
The recipient of this letter is not certain, but almost certainly either Jewett or Fields.
Régnier: French novelist and poet, Marie de Régnier (1875 -1963), also known by her maiden name, Marie de Heredia, and her pen-name, Gérard d'Houville. Her husband was the symbolist poet, Henri-François-Joseph de Régnier (1864-1936). Wikipedia.
In late winter and spring of 1900, Henri de Régnier made a United States lecture tour, beginning in late February at Harvard University. Harvard Crimson 21 February 1900.
book: Blanc has sent a copy of her collection, Malentendus / Misunderstandings (1900), containing these stories: "Stella, Conte de Noël / Stella, a Christmas Story," "Le Renard de Montcorbin / The Fox of Montcorbin," and "Un Enlèvement (An Abduction)."
This letter is held by the Houghton Library of Harvard University, Cambridge, MA: b MS Am 1743, Sarah Orne Jewett Correspondence I, Letters to Sarah Orne Jewett, Blanc, Thérèse (de Solms) 1840-1907. 10 letters; 1892-1906 & [ n.d. ], 1892-1906, Identifier: (23). Transcription, translation and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College, with essential assistance from Jeannine Hammond, Professor of French, Emerita, at Coe College.
Louise Imogen Guiney to Annie Adams Fields
Dearest Mrs. Fields:
Unless you say, having better things in mind, that I may not do so, I will run in early either next Tuesday or next Wednesday evening. It is distressing to me that I cannot see Miss Jewett* before [ deleted word ] she goes: please tell her so. I am bound down to finish fifty more pages of the Temple Classics Vaughan* (which I am editing, on top of Everything Else!) and although I love it, I find it most exacting; for we are trying to get ^ready by March 1st^ the first perfect text H.V. has ever been clothed in. It is such a fit thing for you to be flying home to Hellas, that I can only congratulate you, and try not to miss you.
L. I. G.
16 Pinckney St. 17 Feb.
Notes
1900: This date is supported by Guiney mentioning at the end of the letter that Fields is planning a trip to Greece. By mid March 1900 Fields and Jewett were in Naples and on their way to Greece.
Miss Jewett: Sarah Orne Jewett. See Key to Correspondents.
With Gwenllian Morgan, Guiney prepared materials for an edition and biography of the seventeenth-century Welsh poet Henry Vaughan. Neither Guiney nor Morgan lived to complete the project, however, and their research was used by F. E. Hutchinson for his 1947 biography Henry Vaughan.However, in 1900 appeared, in the Temple Classics series, Vaughan's Silex Scintillans: or, Sacred Poems and Private Ejaculations. Though Guiney to Fields of 1 March 1900 indicates that she was working on this text, it appears she received no credit for her contributions.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Huntington Library, San Marino, CA, in the James T. Fields collection Box 26: mss FI 1554. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Marie Thérèse de Solms Blanc to Annie Adams Fields
This letter was composed in French; a transcription follows the translation.
My dear Annie,
I was in need of the joy your letter brings in the hope of seeing you again – however short that visit might be, because I have been very sick with influenza [ unrecognized word ] a case of bronchitis in
both lungs. I don’t know what I will do, where I will be sent. Right now, Paris is a center of infections: typhoid fever, smallpox, etc., and it is worse on the left bank of the Seine than on the right.
will avoid this bad season in town. -- I hope that M. de Régnier* will leave with you the packages sent with him. Please leave orders in case you are absent. He brings two beautiful flowers from the hand of Mme. de Beaulaincourt.*
I gave many letters to M. de Régnier and his wife. Yes, I
I don't [ unrecognized words ] Henry James* thinks of this delicious volume of Sarah's. It is one of her best.
Thank you for the brochure. When mailing to France, never put brochures in the
envelope with a letter, but rather send them separately, without a wrapper.
Where do you disembark?
Have a good voyage dear
friends, and a thousand tender thoughts...
Th
[ Eg or Gg ? ] Scholl* explained that it was not [ unrecognized word ] that the journal had published this apart from the article on the author that was supposed to appear with it. All of this will be corrected. Mrs. Van Vorst,* who took the trouble of much tedious labor, should write the story for Miss Gilder.* I leave it to her because it will be
a trenchant article that must not [ unrecognized word ].
Notes
1900: This date is supported by the facts that Fields and Jewett began their trip to Europe that year in February and that Henri de Régnier spoke in Boston during that February. See notes below.
M. de Régnier: French symbolist poet, Henri-François-Joseph de Régnier (1864-1936). Wikipedia. In late winter and spring of 1900, Henri de Régnier made a United States lecture tour, beginning in late February at Harvard University. Harvard Crimson 21 February 1900.
de Beaulaincourt: Sophie de Beaulaincourt. See Key to Correspondents.
See de Beaulaincourt to Fields and Jewett of 25 May 1900.
Sarah: Sarah Orne Jewett. See Key to Correspondents.
Helen Keller: Helen Keller (1880-1968) was an American author and activist, who lost her vision and hearing in infancy. Wikipedia
Dr. Howe: Samuel Gridley Howe (1801-1876) was an American physician and activist, the first director of the Perkins Institution for the education of the blind. His wife was American activist and author, Julia Ward Howe (1819-1910), author of "The Battle Hymn of the Republic." Wikipedia.
Scholl: This person has not yet been identified.
Van Vorst: Bessie McGinnis Van Vorst (1873-1928) and her sister-in-law, Marie Louise Van Vorst (1867-1938), co-authored a number of books and articles, including The Woman Who Toils: Being the Experiences of Two Ladies as Factory Girls (1903). For that book, according to Wikipedia, the two "went undercover at a pickle factory in Pittsburgh; a textile mill outside Buffalo, New York; a variety of sweat shops in Chicago; a shoe factory in Lynn, Massachusetts; and a Southern cotton mill, to learn about working women's lives." Theodore Roosevelt wrote the introduction.
If Blanc's title (Mrs.) is precise, then she refers to Marie Louise Van Vorst.
Gilder: American journalist and critic, Jeannette L. Gilder (1849-1916), sister of the poet Richard Watson Gilder. See Key to Correspondents.
This letter is held by the Houghton Library of Harvard University, Cambridge, MA: b MS Am 1743.1, Sarah Orne Jewett Additional Correspondence III. Letters to Sarah Orne Jewett.
Blanc, Thérèse (de Solms) 1840-1907. 4 letters; [ n.d. ] Identifier: (9) Box 1. Transcription, translation and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College, with essential assistance from Jeannine Hammond, Professor of French, Emerita, at Coe College.
Transcription
Blanc sometimes abbreviates "pour" to "pr" and "vous" to "vs." Such instances in this letter are rendered as "pour" and "vous."
Bien chère Annie
J'avais besoin
de la joie que
m'apporte votre
lettre avec l'espérance
d'un revoir --
si court qu'il
puisse être, car
je viens d'être
très malade
L'influenza [ unrecognized word ]
la bronchite
[ casi des deux ? ]
poumons prise.
Je ne sais ce que
je vais faire, où
l'on va m'envoyer{.}
Paris est en ce
moment un
foyer d'infection
fièvre typhoïde, variole
etc. et la rive
gauche est plus
maltraitée que la
rive droite.
ce pas votre itinéraire afin
que mes lettres puissent
vous suivre, car ce
voyage sera si rapide
que je ne voudrais pas
perdre votre piste. Je suis
ravie que vous preniez ce temps
de repos et que vous
évitiez la mauvaise
saison en ville. -- J'espère
que M. de Régnier laisserez
chez vous les paquets
dont il est chargé. Donnez
je vous prie des ordres pour
votre absence. Il emporte
deux belles fleurs de la
fabrique Beaulaincourt,
votre nom
n'y est pas
et que la
désignation ne
m'apprend rien.
Je vous l'ai retourné.
J'ai donné
beaucoup de
lettres à M. de
Régnier et à sa
femme. Oui, je
vous ne les [ voyez ? ]
ne ferait rien
si l'on ne savait
[ rénoncer ? ], à ceci
ou cela.
Je ne [ unrecognized word ]
pas lu [ bien ? ] que
pense M. Henry James
de ce délicieux
volume de Sarah.
C'est un de ses
meilleurs.
eut faites depuis
sa maladie et
un livre pour
Sarah et une
lettre pour vous
renfermant un
papier de la poste
que je venais de
recevoir et qui
doit concerner
l'objet égaré dans
grand service en
m'apportant une
biographie de Helen
Keller avec quelques
dètails sur l'oeuvre
du Dr Howe pour les
aveugles. Je me
permets de vous le
[ dire ? ] parce que vous
me le demandez.
Merci pour la
brochure. Ne mettez
jamais pour la France
les brochures dans
[ Cross-written on page 8 ]
l'enveloppe d'une lettre
mais sans bande, séparément
Où débarquerez-vous?
Bon voyage, chères
Amies, et mille tendresses
[ Eg or Gg ? ] Scholl a expliqué que s'était
pas [ écrire ? ] que le [ unrecognized word ] avait publié
cette adaptation en dehors d'un article
sur l'auteur qui devait y être
joint {.} Tout cela sera réparé.
Mrs Van Vorst qui a pris la
peine de beaucoup de demarches
ennuyeuses doit en écrire
le récit pour Miss Gilder.
Je le lui laisse, car ce sera
un article [ piquant ? ] qu'il
ne faut pas [ unrecognized word ]
Jewett and Annie Adams Fields Travel to Europe
28 February - about 1 June
13 February -- Jewett wrote to Thomas Wentworth Higginson, announcing a departure date of 28 February and plans to return in May.
14 March -- Mme. Blanc wrote to Fields expressing sorrow over the death of Katherine Coolidge, which took place on 12 February
18 March -- Jewett wrote to Sara Norton and to Blanc from Naples.
Jewett told both that the crossing had been hard and had worn her out, but she was beginning to feel better and reported activities in Italy for the previous 3-4 days. She spoke of plans to depart for Athens on 21 March.
New York to Liverpool in 1900 was about 6 days in good weather, according to the Geography of Transport Systems, but sailing to Rome would easily double that. If the group sailed from Boston to Rome or Naples, the journey could easily have been 12-15 days.
27 March -- Jewett wrote to Sarah Wyman Whitman from Athens.
31 March -- Jewett wrote to Alice Dunlap Gilman from Athens.
10 April -- Fields wrote to Louisa Adams Beal from Nauplia.
15 April -- Jewett wrote to Sarah Wyman Whitman from Megalopolis. There she projected part of their future itinerary.
- visit Olympia and Delphi
- 22 April. Return to Athens
- Sail to Constantinople
- from Turkey, 7 days of sailing to Venice.
18 April -- Blanc wrote to Fields, noting her impressions of Marathon.
Louise Imogen Guiney wrote to Fields, thanking her for a photograph of the Parthenon and sending her a requested copy of Keats's "Ode on a Grecian Urn."
23 April -- Jewett wrote to "Billy" from Athens.
30 April -- Jewett wrote to Whitman from Constantinople.
4 May -- Jewett wrote to Elizabeth C. Field from Constantinople
25 May -- The Countess de Beaulaincourt wrote Jewett, during what she says was a too brief stay in Paris.
17 June -- Jewett wrote to Mme. Blanc from Maine, saying she "came ashore" two weeks earlier.
Louise Imogen Guiney to Annie Adams Fields
Boston.
Dearest Mrs. Fields:
My patient sat up for the first time yesterday, and this morning I ran over to your door, not, indeed so rash as to hope to find you, but with the notion of hearing just when you left, and how well you were then, and whether the same old address would serve. And so I write at once, to thank you most affectionately for your fine gift of nine Symphony concerts-to-be, which I appreciate with all my heart. I thought, too, that you might like to hear my Library news: that I am urged, both by the Librarian and the Chief of my own department, Mr. Hunt (quem amo),* to join the regular staff at $15.00 a week; and that I have decided to do so, though I do not see how I possibly can! With my four days' work there now, I find my 'leisure' packed to bursting, nor do I ever go to see a friend any
more, ^or exercise,^ or read a page of anything, or so much as think of my ancient trade of scribbling; and now it will be with six days cataloguing and a', I do not know. Not long since, moreover, I agreed (because I had not the moral force to resist such a tempting delight) to edit Vaughan's Silex Scintillans for Mr. Dent's Temple Classics Series.* You will know those
particular edition which I cannot get anywhere else.
Mother is getting along well, I think, despite the gloomy and uninspiring weather. It is her very first illness in two years. My Aunt and I are very tired, for we have been up day and night, that is, far into the night, and alternately between midnight and dawn, for the eleven days; and as I put the invalid into my own room, up three flights of stairs, because her own room was draughty, you may believe we traveled like Jacob's angels* on the ladder, and are now glad to move on a level again. Well, this is a PIG letter, all about the woes of the undersigned. You must forget it at once, in your southern sunshine. My best love ever to Miss Jewett.* I pray you both remember that I am here to do you any sort of service I can, and should rejoice to be trusted with any sort of commission for immigrants dear to
Notes
1900: At the top center of page 1 is "am," seemingly in another ink and perhaps another hand.
Mr. Hunt (quem amo): Chief of Cataloguing at the Boston Public Library in 1900 was Edward Browne Hunt (1855-1906). See Library Journal 31 (1906) p. 189. The Latin "quem amo" translates: whom I love.
Vaughan's Silex Scintillans ... Dent's Temple Classics Series: In 1900 appeared in the Temple Classics series, Vaughan's Silex Scintillans: or, Sacred Poems and Private Ejaculations. If this is the text Guiney worked on, it appears she received no credit for her contribution.
Joseph Malaby Dent (1849-1926) was a British book publisher who produced the Temple Classics Series of high quality reprints of British classic writers.
the Bodleian ... British Museum: The Bodleian Library is the main research library of Oxford University. The British Museum in London is one of the largest museums in the world. In 1900, it included the British Library, the national library of Great Britain.
Orinda's Poems: Guiney refers to a book by Katherine Philips (1631/2 -1664), an Anglo-Welsh poet and translator. This book almost certainly was Poems by the Most Deservedly Admired Mrs. Katherine Philips, the Matchless Orinda (1665, 1710). It appears that at the time of this letter, only the two editions of this title, 1665 and 1710, were available. Presumably, then, Fields owned one of these.
Guiney later published Katherine Philips, 'The Matchless Orinda': Selected Poems (1904).
Jacob's angels: See the Bible, Genesis 28, for the dream of Jacob, son of Isaac, in which he saw a ladder from earth to heaven upon which angels ascended and descended.
Miss Jewett: Sarah Orne Jewett. See Key to Correspondents.
Guiney's reference to "immigrants" indicates her knowledge that Fields and Jewett have left for Europe.
Marie Thérèse de Solms Blanc to Annie Adams Fields
This letter was composed in French; a transcription follows the translation.
I am much pained by your letter, which brought news of the death of that angelic Mrs. Coolidge.* I remember her as so interesting, when I saw her more than once at your house, and also at her own home one evening, among her pretty little daughters,* whose scarlet dresses brought out her waxen pallor. I hate her husband -- he is to blame.*
The book* you are so kind to praise owes all its merit to the sources of my research. But they could have remained unknown in France. That is why I collected the documents, showing where one could obtain more complete information. Did Mrs. Howe* not receive the letter I sent for her to 148 Charles St.? The American magazines really were
still defend the magazine. If Miss Gilder* does not pursue redress legally or financially, then I will broadcast the two misadventures in my relations with The Living Age. I need to know if the magazine is dealing with René Bazin in the same way in their current serialization of La Terre que Meurt. Just as I was feeling a little better, I've had a relapse of flu; this time caused not by this light-minded human race, but by the church.
The damp caught me after a short walk in the sun. This is to say that I am quite weak and that I need only the slightest of excuses to fall. I totally agree with you on the uselessness of sacrificing one's health to satisfy the demands of society. Whether it is useless to sacrifice oneself for duty to God is a more serious consideration; still, I will not attend Mass today, despite the beautiful frost everywhere, like powdered sugar on my blossoming violets.
Mme. de Beaulaincourt* is upset that her camellias blossom too late. We're going to beautify Acosta with violets sent from La Ferté. She claims that none are better.
Old Belloni* still lives. Mme. de Rochefort,* whom I believe you met, is sometimes a very valuable neighbor.
to respond in person to trite condolences, such as “She was a martyr here below”; “her little soul is delivered”, and “May God be praised”.
But now my son's health,* after his exhausting journeys, worries me a lot.
I don't want to darken your blue skies. Think about me in better times.
And pardon this ugly, moldy paper at La Ferté. I can't find anything else.
then what appears to be a postscript up the right half of the page. ]
With deepest affection
La Ferté, 14 March
Greetings from Marie and Louise; you know I no longer have Charles.* He and his wife have found good jobs together. M. Blanc* employed him until he found what he needed.
Notes
1900: This date is confirmed by Blanc mentioning the death of Katherine Coolidge, as well as by other events noted in the letter. See notes below.
Mrs. Coolidge: Katherine Scollay Parkman Coolidge (1858- 12 February 1900), See Key to Correspondents. She died from septicemia at the premature birth and death of her sixth child, Flora G. Coolidge. Family Search: "Massachusetts, Town Clerk, Vital and Town Records, 1626-2001."
daughters: "Petite fille" usually means "granddaughter." However, Mrs. Coolidge had no granddaughters at the time Blanc would have met them in the United States, between 1893 and 1897. And in 1897, Mrs. Coolidge's four daughters would have ranged in age from about 2 to 16. Later in the letter, when Blanc reports the death of her "petite fille," she almost certainly refers not to her literal granddaughter, Christine, who died in 1981, but to her grandniece, Alice, whose death year is otherwise unknown, but who is known to have had serious health issues.
to blame: Blanc says John Templeman Coolidge is "un bourreau," an executioner. We're unsure how to translate this. It seems clear that Blanc blames him for impregnating his wife at a relatively advanced age, but whether this indicated any intentional cruelty on his part is unclear.
the book: It is not yet known to which book Blanc refers. In 1900, her most recent book fitting this description was Nouvelle-France et Nouvelle-Angleterre: Notes de Voyage (1899).
Mrs. Howe: Almost certainly Julia Ward Howe. See Key to Correspondents.
148 Charles St. was Fields's Boston address.
"Misunderstandings": Blanc's collection of three short stories, "Malentendus," was published in Paris by Calmann-Lévy. It began serialization in The Living Age v. 224, on 3 March 1900. Under the title At Cross Purposes, the book was serialized in three issues of The Critic, beginning in April 1900.
Miss Gilder: American journalist and critic, Jeannette L. Gilder (1849-1916), sister of the poet Richard Watson Gilder. The Whitman Encyclopedia says "... in 1881 she and her brother Joseph founded the Critic (1881-1906), a highly influential literary magazine. The Critic is best known for its reviews of literature, music, and drama; its notices, many written by Gilder, were incisive, high-toned, and conservative and demonstrated a bias toward American authors."
René Bazin: Bazin (1853-1932) was the author of La Terre qui Meurt (1899), published in English as Autumn Glory: The Toilers of the Field. Bazin's novel was serialized in translation in The Living Age as The Perishing Land (1899-1900). Wikipedia.
Beaulaincourt: Sophie de Castellane, Marquise de Contades, then Beaulaincourt, Countess Marles (1818- 25 December 1904), was a writer and kept a salon. See Key to Correspondents
Old Belloni: In a diary of an 1898 tour of France that included Fields, Blanc and Jewett, Fields gives several pages to describing a visit with Gaëtano Belloni, who had once been private secretary to Hungarian composer and musician, Franz Liszt (1811-1886). See Alan Walker, Franz Liszt: The Virtuoso Years, 1811-1847 (1987).
Mme. de Rochefort: This person has not yet been identified.
Mme. Rod: Presumably, the wife of French-Swiss novelist, Édouard Rod (1857-1910). Wikipedia.
disabled girl: Though Blanc's term "petite fille" would ordinarily refer to a granddaughter, almost certainly, this is Blanc's grandniece, Alice de Solms, daughter of her nephew, Frédéric Louis de Solms. See Blanc in Key to Correspondents and Blanc to Fields of 27 January 1898, where Blanc reports that Alice has lost an eye.
son's health: Édouard Blanc was a travel writer who often visited in Russia. See Blanc in Key to Correspondents.
Abbé Casgrain: Henri-Raymond Casgrain (1831-1904). Key to Correspondents. Though the title "Abbé" usually denotes as abbot, head of an abbey or monastery, in this case it indicates that Casgrain was a "secular priest," serving in a capacity other than being in charge of a parish church. French Wikipedia.
Marie ... Louise ... Charles: Louise was Blanc's maid for many years. Presumably, the other two also were her employees.
M. Blanc: Blanc's estranged husband. See Blanc in Key to Correspondents.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Huntington Library, San Marino, CA, in the James T. Fields Papers and Addenda mss FI 1-5637, Box 5. Transcription, translation and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College, with essential assistance from Jeannine Hammond, Professor of French, Emerita, at Coe College.
Blanc sometimes abbreviates "pour" to "pr" and "vous" to "vs." Such instances in this letter are rendered as "pour" and "vous."
Votre lettre qui m'apportait
la nouvelle de la mort
de cette angélique Mrs Coolidge
m'a faire une peine
extrême. Elle m'est restée
dans l'esprit si intéressante,
telle que je l'ai vue plus
d'une fois chez vous et
aussi chez elle un soir
au milieu de ses jolies petites
filles dont les robes d'écarlate
faisaient ressortir sa pâleur
de cire. Je hais ce mari, --
un bourreau. -----
bien me faire compliment
doit tout son mérite aux
sources où je suis allée
le chercher. Mais on eut
pu continuer à les ignorer
en France. C'est pourquoi
j'ai rassemblé les
documents, tout en
indiquant où on doit
aller les prendre plus
complets. Est-ce que Mrs
Howe n'a pas reçu une lettre que je vous avais
envoyée pour elle, 148 Charles St ?
Les magazines américains
ont montré vraiment
pour "Malentendus". Tandis
que The Critic, ayant payé
des droits à Calmann
Lévy en préparait une
traduction soignée, ^faite sous mes yeux,^ The
Living Age en publiait
une autre à la hâte,
sans avoir crié gare
sur de ce que je lui
répondrais! Vous êtes
témoin plus que personne
de la mauvaise foi et
j'espère que vous ne
[ Page 4 ]
le défendrez plus maintenant
[ s'il ? ] ne désintéresse pas
matériellement Miss Gilder
je le ferai certes, puis je
donnerai une vaste
publicité aux deux aventures
qui ont marqué mes
relations avec The Living Age.
Il faudra que je sache
s'il traite de même René
Bazin dont il exploite
en ce moment La Terre qui
Meurt -- J'ai eu au moment
où j'allais un peu mieux une
rechute de la grippe; cette fois ce
n'est pas this light minded
human race, mais l'église
m'a saisie après une courte
promenade au soleil. C'est
vous dire que je suis très
faible et qu'il ne me faut
que des prétextes pour tomber{.}
Mais je suis tout à fait
de votre avis sur l'inutilité
de se sacrifier au monde.
L'inutilité du sacrifice
à Dieu serait plus grave
[ deletion ] cependant je n'irai
pas aujourd'hui à la messe
malgré une belle gelée répandue
comme du sucre en poudre
sur mes violettes en fleur.
Mme de Beaulaincourt s'afflige
que ses camélias arrivent trop
tard. On va garnir Acosta des
violettes envoyées de La Ferté.
ne vaut aussi bon.
Le vieux Belloni vit encore{.}
Mme de Rochefort que vous avez
entrevue je crois, est pour moi
un très précieux voisinage à
l'occasion{.}
aimiez cette petite sotte de
Mme Rod. Il n'y a pas
de femme qui me
déplaise davantage.
J'ai toujours beaucoup
de peine à lui faire
bonne mine et j'ai
peur qu'elle ne le sente!
Je ne sais si vous avez eu ma
dernière lettre.
Je vous ai écrit,
n'est-ce pas, la mort
de ma petite fille
infirme? Je ne suis
pas fâchée l'être loin
de Paris pour n'avoir
voix à des condoléances
absurdes. Elle eut été
une martyre en ce monde,
la petite âme est délivrée
que Dieu soit loué!
Mais en ce moment
la santé de mon fils,
après d'épuisants voyages,
me préoccupe beaucoup.
Je ne veux pas envoyer
de noir dans votre ciel
bleu. Pensez un peu à
moi aux beaux moments
correspondance avec
l'Abbé Casgrain (de plus
en plus aveugle) à propos
de mes jeunes émigrants
qui après tout ressemblent
fort aux premiers
colonisateurs du Canada.
Je me demande seulement
comme ce sont de très
jolis garçons appartenant à de bonnes
familles, s'ils ne seront
pas épousés au passage.
et pardonnez ce vilain papier
moisi à La Ferté. Je n'en trouvre plus d'autre{.}
then what appears to be a postscript up the right half of the page. ]
Mille tendresses.
Th B
La Ferté, 14 Mars
vous savez que je n'ai plus Charles.
Il est très bien placé avec sa
femme. M. Blanc l'a gardé
Sarah Orne Jewett to Sara Norton
Hotel Bristol, Naples, 18 March, 1900.
I tell you but short tales of our very stormy and difficult voyage and of water deep in our staterooms and boats going away in the gale, and a beating about in one's berth that I have hardly got over yet, but will go on to say that we have had some good days in Naples and have just come back from two nights at my beloved La Cava with its pigeon towers and reminders of Sir Walter on his last journey.* I have been to Pæstum again, which joy I never expected, and we also had some hours on Friday at Pompeii.* We were going up to Ravello for a night at least, but it is quite bitter cold weather just now and has turned to pouring rain, so that this Sunday morning we hurried back to our most comfortable quarters here. We still have until Wednesday, when we start for Brindisi and Patras. We have had the best of chances to see the Museum here. There is nothing so beautiful as this Orpheus and Eurydice, and I fairly ran to find a certain little Pompeiian picture of the girl who turns back to gather flowers! I wonder if you remember it? It is one of the perfectly un-copyable things. The spring in Italy seems very cold and late; there aren't green leaves enough, and everything has a sort of bony look that makes the really unlovely things almost unbearable. I caught myself thinking yesterday as I passed one of the poorer and newer villages that it was ugly, and that I could prefer the sight of one of our own little manufacturing towns with its quaint rows of sharp gables and even its apparent danger of blowing away! But the grey fig trees are beginning to show little green silk tufts, and the olives are quite dark and splendid on the hills back of Salerno,-- as thick and warm and tufted as one of my own hills of pines. You see what a New England -- I may say State of Maine -- person now holds the pen! These olives are so much richer than the olives in Provence where I saw them last: I can't say how beautiful they were yesterday.
It is a wonderful old Italy though
I accuse it so cheaply of cold and bleakness. Right in front
of me is a flower of asphodel which we brought from Pæstum
yesterday, but the pink cyclamen were not yet in bloom and
very few daffodils.
Notes
La Cava with its pigeon towers and reminders of Sir
Walter on his last journey: John G. Lockhart in
volume 5 of his Memoirs of the Life of Sir Walter Scott
(1902 edition, pp. 401-403) recounts Scott's visit to the
Benedictine Monastery of La Trinità della Cava near Naples.
He says Scott enjoyed this more than any other site during
his last visit to Italy in 1832. Lockhart also explains that
the pigeon-towers were "blinds" from which to shoot pigeons.
Pæstum ... Pompeii .. Ravello: Wikipedia
says: Paestum was a major ancient Greek city on the coast of
the Tyrrhenian Sea in Magna Graecia (southern Italy). The
ruins of Paestum are famous for their three ancient Greek
temples in the Doric order, dating from about 600 to 450
BC...."
"Pompeii
was an ancient Roman town-city near modern Naples, in the
Campania region of Italy, in the territory of the comune
of Pompeii, along with Herculaneum and many villas in
the surrounding area, was mostly destroyed and buried under
4 to 6 m (13 to 20 ft) of volcanic ash and pumice in the
eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD 79."
"Ravello
is a town and comune situated above the Amalfi Coast in the
province of Salerno, Campania, southern Italy, with
approximately 2,500 inhabitants. Its scenic beauty makes it
a popular tourist destination...."
Brindisi and Patras: Wikipedia
says: "Brindisi ... is a city in the region of Apulia in
southern Italy, the capital of the province of Brindisi, off
the coast of the Adriatic Sea. Historically, the city has
played an important role in trade and culture, due to its
strategic position on the Italian Peninsula and its natural
port on the Adriatic Sea."
"Patras ...
is Greece's third largest city and the regional capital of
Western Greece, in northern Peloponnese, 215 km (134 mi)
west of Athens. The city is built at the foothills of Mount
Panachaikon, overlooking the Gulf of Patras."
Orpheus, Eurydice and Hermes.
Relief. Roman copy of the Augustan age from a Greek original of the second half of 5th cent. BCE by Alcamenes, disciple of Phidias.
Marble.
Inv. 6727.
Naples, National Archaeological Museum
a certain little Pompeiian picture of the girl who turns back to gather flowers: It is probable that Jewett refers to a fresco now thought to represent Flora, which is in the second case at the National Museum of Naples, according to Baedeker (1908).
This letter appears in Annie Fields, Letters of Sarah Orne Jewett (1911), Transcribed by Annie Adams Fields, with notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Marie Thérèse de Solms Blanc
Naples
18 March [ 1900 ]*
Dear friend
It was such a joy to know
that you are again in La Ferté and that Marie and Louise* are
looking after you there! I have been so sadly worried about
you all these weeks. I am sure that you will be better now,
but I know too well how long one must be in shaking off the
fetters of weakness and depression after the influenza. I have
hardly even yet got free from my attack of last year. You must
not try to push yourself to write, or to go much where people are talking -- I long to see you now, and* I hope that the weeks will fly fast away until I can get to Paris. I wonder if you will not be at La Ferté? Cannot I come for a night there? Only a few days before your letter came I was wishing that I could go there some day of our short stay, and take again that lovely drive to Jouarre. I cannot think of anything so delightful
as to do just that. But first you will go to Parays,* and I hope that the change will be of great benefit.
We had a very hard voyage. I was
quite used up by it but I begin now to feel like myself again.
We have had very cold weather here but Annie and Miss Garrett*
and I are getting on well on the whole. We have just spent one
day at Pompeii and another at Paestum and today we are taking
a quiet Sunday. We
leave here for Athens on Wednesday where you might be good
enough to write us at the Hôtel Grande Bretagne.
It is late and I must not write any
more, but send this letter half-written and only filled with
love. Pray give my kindest remembrance to Monsieur et Madame
Delzant if you are already with them. I am so glad to hear
that Madame Delzant is better.
Yours most affectionately,
Sarah.
Pray give my best messages to Monsieur Blanc!*
Notes
Marie and Louise: Louise was Blanc's maid for many years. Presumably, Marie also was an employee.
and: In this letter, Jewett sometimes writes "a" with a long tail to signify "and." I have rendered these as "and."
Parays: The village of Paraÿs near Toulouse was the home of Blanc's close friend, Gabrielle Delzant. Alidor (1848-1905) and Gabrielle Delzant (1854-1903) resided in Paris and at Paraÿs (Lot-et-Garonne). He was a lawyer, a bibliophile, editor, and author and wrote, among other works, a biography of the brothers Goncourt.
Annie and Miss Garrett: Annie Adams Fields and Mary Elizabeth Garrett. Key to Correspondents.
Monsieur Blanc: Madame Blanc's husband. See Key to Correspondents.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Colby College Special Collections, Waterville, ME: JEWE.1. Richard Cary included his transcription in Sarah Orne Jewett Letters.New transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Wyman Whitman to Sarah Orne Jewett
March 23, 1900. Studio.
. . . You have been gone 1000 years,
and though to you it is as one day,* do not forget the
American standpoint, as you drink the wine of Attica or sip
the honey of Hymettus.* Remember the difference between the
active, transitive, and the neuter verb; remember that in
Europe you do what you expect to do, in America that which is
expected of you; and give thanks that you are not as other men
are!* I can't even remember when you went away; it is so
long, counting by the sense of loss, and by the humbled
remembrance of human demand which has been in a state of
turbulent activity. Radcliffe has been exacting because of
changes in the Board and questions of development, the Museum
School* has questions to meet, there is to be an Artists'
Festival and preparations therefor, and every stranger on
earth has decided to visit Boston. Everyone, even my unworthy
self, has had grippe more or less* so that the city record may
be reported as 150,000 cases for the year!
But I must tell you, friend, that
after a little visit from Georgy Schuyler,* (she came back in
a week to see me,) in which she had a taste of all that Boston
can boast of Art, Literature, and Religion; then there
appeared Dr. Weir Mitchell to have his Portrait painted and be
entertained by the Tavern Club.* It is a terrible thing to
have your delightful sitter staying under your roof! To be
pouring coffee and urging repose for the very person whose
canvas is waiting in Boylston Street is one of the tests of
character,* and I will not say how much mine has lost or
gained under this fire. But at all events the portrait has
made a reasonable good beginning, in spite of 'dining and
wining,' and the fact that the Edinboro' gown* is an artistic
solecism being of a red-and-blue as if one were wrapped in the
American Flag. The Tavern dinner was really brilliant with
Norton, Holmes, Wister, and Münsterberg and all the rest.*
Owen made a gay beginning to a very serious and eloquent
speech, by telling what his associations were with the Club as
a founder, when they were young and ignorant. "I return after
many years," he said, "to find it changed into a Den of Lions,
and what am I but a little Daniel in the midst of them!"* I
record here my belief that Owen is going on, and that his
moral force is potentially very large.
But this is only written to send
love, and to complain that there is no message in the stars,
and one is only keeping content when one consults the Calendar
and not the Heart, and sees that the days are too few for
report though not for expectation.
Greeting to the August Ladies* who
are in your company, from S. W.
Notes
day: Whitman alludes to the Bible, 2 Peter 3:8:
"... one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a
thousand years as one day."
wine of Attica: Also known as "retsina," a resinated
wine, legendary in Greek history. Research: Gabe Heller.
honey of Hymettus: Honey gathered by the ancient
bee-keepers of Athens, famous for its sweetness and legendary
powers. Research: Gabe Heller.
give thanks that you are not as other men are: See
Luke 18:11.
Radcliffe has been exacting: Whitman was chair of the
House Committee at Radcliffe.
Museum School has questions: It is likely Whitman
refers to the school of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, but
this has not been confirmed.
grippe: French, a cold.
Georgy Schuyler ... Dr. Weir Mitchell: Georgina
Schuyler (1841-1923) lived with her sister Louisa Lee Schuyler
(1837-1926) on Park Avenue in New York City. Wikipedia
says: "Louisa Schuyler ... was an early American leader in
charitable work, particularly noted for founding the first
nursing school in the United States." Georgina was her
partner in her philanthropic work. The New York Times
(May 6, 1903, p. 9) reports that Georgina Schuyler donated the
bronze plaque with the sonnet, "The New Colossus," by her
friend Emma Lazarus, that appears at the Statue of Liberty in
New York City.
Silas
Weir Mitchell (1829-1914) was one of the best-known
American physicians of the nineteenth century, famed for his
"rest cure" for nervous diseases such as neurasthenia. He was
the author of a pair of historical novels as well as of poetry
and biography.
Tavern Club: The "Tavern
Club" was a Boston men's eating club, founded in 1884 on
Park Square in Boston. It remains a venue for dinners and
gatherings after Harvard symposia. (Research: Gabe Heller).
Boylston Street: A principal street in Boston, running between Boston Common and the Back Bay Fens. Erica Hirschler, in A Studio of Her Own (2001) pp. 39, 199) points out that Whitman's Lily Glassworks Studio was at 184 Boylston St. after 1887.
Edinboro' gown: According to Wikipedia,
Silas Weir Mitchell studied at the University of Pennsylvania
and earned his MD at Jefferson Medical College in 1850.
He received honorary LL.D. (Doctor of Laws) degrees from
Harvard and from the University of Edinburgh, Scotland. Wikipedia
says that the official LL.D. gown of the University of
Edinburgh is "Black cloth, with appended cape, lined and faced
with blue silk." Therefore, Whitman's choice of
red-and-blue is for artistic reasons rather than for
historical accuracy.
It is likely that the portrait below is
Whitman's, though this is not certain, as the colorful gown is
not apparent in this reproduction. It is available
courtesy of U.
S.
National
Library of Medicine, where it appears without
attribution in "Dr. S. Weir Mitchell's Literary Career" (2003)
by Margaret Kaiser.
Norton, Holmes, Wister, and Münsterberg: Wikipedia
says: "Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. (1841-1935) was an American
jurist who served as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court
of the United States from 1902 to 1932, ..." Charles
Eliot
Norton (1827-1908) was co-editor of the North
American Review (1863-1868) and then professor of
literature and art at Harvard University. He was the author of
James Russell Lowell (1893) and the editor of a number
of Lowell's works. Owen Wister
(1860-1938), an American writer, is best remembered for The
Virginian (1902). Probably Whitman refers to Hugo
Munsterberg (1863-1916), a psychological researcher at
Harvard beginning in the 1890s.
Den of Lions ... Daniel: See the Bible, Daniel 6.
August Ladies: Jewett traveled to Europe with Annie Fields and Mary Garrett. See Key to Correspondents.
This transcription appears in Letters, Sarah Wyman
Whitman. Cambridge, MA: Riverside Press, 1907,
"Letters to Sarah Orne Jewett: 1882-1903," pp. 61-109.
Notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Sarah Wyman Whitman
1900*
Just after I sent off a dull note to you
from Naples I got your most dear letter written on the way to
New Haven, and I cant' stop to tell you what a joy it was:
just as large as that letter was long! -- And then we had two
or three days longer in Naples and Isabel Mac Dougall came all
the way down from Florence for a short (but very dear) visit
because I felt that we must not go home without seeing her and
our way home ^through Italy^* seemed so very uncertain.
The singer was very silent, poor child! -- She has come to the
sad reaction and uncertainly which you and I know so well
after the high uplift that comes at first with a
[ Page 2 ]
great sorrow, and I think that her mother's plans are for the
moment most uncertain. She was full of thought of her
American friends -- I could see that her early winter weeks
shone very bright as she looked back at them through the
shadows. She spoke of letters from you and from Alice
Howe* with great feeling -- --
Then we came to Brindisi, [ an corrected ] all-day
journey through green [ valleys corrected ] and
between great ranges of the Apennines all topped with snow,
and took the steamer which got to Corfu* next day and to
Greece the next and then we were all day again in the trains
going along the southern
[ Page 3 ]
shore of the Gulf of Corinth and at sunset we saw the [ light
corrected ] on the Acropolis and all the great pillars
of the Parthenon high against the sky --* And pretty near
every waking hour since then I have wished for you at least
once.
-- There is nothing for it but to go to
the Museum every morning and to the Acropolis every afternoon
and today we had Richard Norton* for companion -- Did you ever
know any thing quite so nice as our finding him on the Greek
steamer coming over to Athens, with ten or a dozen of
his Roman School? You can believe that we are as
[ Page 4 ]
much together as possible. He seems very delicate to me
I am sorry to say and coughs now and then in a poor sort of
way, but he is gravely cheerful, and full of pleasure in his
work and so nice with his students! We make many plots
together for the next few weeks. To go to Megara, for
instance, to see the Easter Dances.*
But oh, how I wish for you! It is
quite true that there is nothing so beautiful as Athens -- the
Parthenon and the marbles in the Museum!* I don't suppose that
you have been waiting for me to assure you of this fact but
when I think what you would say, and feel at the sight
[ Page 5 ]
of this spring landscape and the wintry sky of such
astonishing blue with its blinding light -- like one of our
winter mornings after a snowstorm -- and the colour of the
mountain ranges and the sea, dazzling and far
rimmed by far off islands and mountains to the south; as one
looks from the Acropolis and all the spring fields below, and
the old columns and the little near-by flowers, poppies and
daisies: -- Oh, when I see all this and think that you can't
see it, too this very minute I dont know what to
do. And then when I remember what
[ Page 6 ]
my feelings have been toward the Orpheus & Eurydice and
the Bacchic Dance* [ deleted word ] [ and corrected
] then see these wonderful marbles here, row upon row, it is
quite too much for a plain heart to bear. I have come to the
place where I can get quickly through the rooms, but I must
look at a ^certain^* nine every time and spend all the
time (at present) that I can get before a special one (or
two). If the special one were not [ near or
next ] that which has the young man with his dog and the old
father and the
[ Page 7 ]
little weeping slave-boy,* I should have to divide the
aforesaid time into two.
It isn't the least bit of use to try to write about those marbles but they are simply the most human and affecting and beautiful things in the world. The partings, the promises, are immortal and sacred, they are Life and not only [ Lives capital L written over lower-case l ]; and yet the character in them is almost more than the art to me, being a plain story-writer but full of hopes and dreams.
This was a little flower for you
that grew on
[ Page 8 ]
the Hill today* -- -- I feel as if this letter were
too dry and crumpled to send, just as the flower is, with none
of the life of the things it tries to stand for ------ Dont
mind it and dont be afraid of getting others that are worse,
but DO write as often as you can darling -- a letter
from you is [ such corrected ] a delight to my heart.
--- We are all three getting on well and getting on well
together. Presently we shall leave our traps in Athens and go
off by short rails and long carriage drives as far as Sparta
taking {in} many things on the way.
Yours always (tout à vous)*
S. O. J.
Notes
1900: The date is smeared in the manuscript.
Isabel Mac Dougall: Isabel MacDougall was a
famous mezzo-soprano, the daughter and only child of the Reverend John Richardson MacDougall
(1831-1900). In The Golden Road (1918), Lilan
Whiting says that had MacDougall's religious background
allowed her to perform professionally, she would have achieved
greater fame. Still she was well-known as an "amateur"
performer, distinguished by her facility with languages and
her literary scholarship. Though she resided with her
family in Florence, Italy, she visited Boston in 1900, where
she stayed with Annie Fields and performed locally.
However, she had to return home abruptly upon news of her
father's illness. He died on 12 January 1900. As
the family's home in Florence was church property, mother and
daughter had to find another residence after her father's
death (124-6).
through Italy: This insertion may be in another hand,
possibly that of Annie Adams Fields.
Alice Howe: Alice Greenwood Howe. See Key to Correspondents.
Brindisi .... Corfu: Wikipedia says: "Brindisi ... is a city in the region of Apulia in southern Italy, the capital of the province of Brindisi, off the coast of the Adriatic Sea. Historically, the city has played an important role in trade and culture, due to its strategic position on the Italian Peninsula and its natural port on the Adriatic Sea.""Corfu ... is a Greek island in the Ionian Sea. It is the second largest of the Ionian Islands, and, including its small satellite islands, forms the northwestern-most part of Greece"
Athens, the capital of Greece, contains a number of ancient buildings and artifacts. "The Parthenon ... is a former temple on the Athenian Acropolis, Greece, dedicated to the goddess Athena, whom the people of Athens considered their patron. Construction began in 447 BC when the Athenian Empire was at the peak of its power. It was completed in 438 BC although decoration of the building continued until 432 BC."
Richard Norton: Richard Norton (1872-1918) was the youngest son of Charles Eliot Norton (See Key to Correspondents). After years of teaching and scholarship, he organized a volunteer ambulance corps in England and then served as a civilian employee of the U.S. Navy during World War I.
Megara ... Easter Dances: Megara is a town in east central Greece, famed for the biennial Easter dances of the women, which attract visitors from Athens, according to Baedeker's Greece: Handbook for Travellers, 2nd Revised Edition, 1894. In 1900, Easter in Greece fell on 22 April, 15 April in the Christian West.
the Museum: This is the Acropolis Museum.
Orpheus and Eurydice ...Bacchic Dance ... wonderful marbles ... the special one ... next that which has the young man with his dog, and the old father, and the little weeping slave-boy: These works are in the National Archaeological Museum in Athens. They impressed Jewett so much that she remembers them vividly when she later writes to Louisa Loring during Louisa's visit to Athens (November 3, 1904). Karl Baedeker's Greece: Handbook for Travellers includes a quotation from Goethe about the mourning sculptures that shows him similarly impressed (103).
certain: This word may have been inserted by Annie Adams Fields.
the Hill: The Acropolis.
tout à vous: French: all yours.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library of Harvard University, Cambridge. MA: Whitman, Sarah (Wyman) 1842-1904, recipient. 25 letters; 1892-[ 1900 ] & [ n.d. ]. Sarah Orne Jewett additional correspondence, 1868-1930. MS Am 1743.1 (126). Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Annie Fields Transcription
Annie Fields included part of this letter in Letters of Sarah Orne Jewett (1911). Her transcription follows.
Then we came to Brindisi, an all-day journey through green valleys and between great ranges of the Apennines, all topped with snow, and took the steamer which got to Corfu next day and to Greece the next, and then we were all day again in the trains going along the southern shore of the Gulf of Corinth, and at sunset we saw the light on the Acropolis and all the great pillars of the Parthenon high against the sky. And pretty near every waking hour since then I have wished for you at least once. There is nothing for it but to go to the Museum every morning, and to the Acropolis every afternoon.
We make many plots for the next few weeks. To go to Megara, for instance, to see the Easter Dances. But oh, how I wish for you! It is quite true that there is nothing so beautiful as Athens, the Parthenon and the marbles in the Museum. I don't suppose that you have been waiting for me to assure you of this fact; but when I think what you would say, and feel, at the sight of this spring landscape and the wintry sky, of such astonishing blue, with its blinding light, like one of our winter mornings after a snow-storm and the colors of the mountain ranges and the sea, dazzling and rimmed by far-off islands and mountains to the south; as one looks from the Acropolis and all the spring fields below and the old columns and the little near-by flowers, poppies and daisies, -- Oh, when I see all this and think that you can't see it, too! And then, when I remember what my feelings have been toward the Orpheus and Eurydice and the Bacchic Dance, and then see these wonderful marbles here, row upon row, it is quite too much for a plain heart to bear. I have come to the place where I can get quickly through the rooms, but I must look at a certain nine every time and spend all the time (at present) that I can get before a special one (or two). If the special one were not next that which has the young man with his dog, and the old father, and the little weeping slave-boy, I should have to divide the aforesaid time into two. It isn't the least bit of use to try to write about those marbles, but they are simply the most human and affecting and beautiful things in the world. The partings, the promises, are immortal and sacred, they are Life and not only Lives; and yet the character in them is almost more than the art to me, being a plain story-writer, but full of hopes and dreams.
This was a little flower for you that grew on the Hill today. I feel as if this letter were too dry and crumpled to send, just as the flower is, with none of the life of the things it tries to stand for.Sarah Orne Jewett to Alice Dunlap Gilman
South Berwick, Maine
[ End deleted letterhead ]
Dearest Cousin Alice
The two names of
places at the head of this paper seem strangely put together,
but here I am, strange as it seems to me and I have so often
thought of you in the ten days since I came and wished to
answer your most kind letter which reached me in Naples in my
first mail from home. You were so kind to ask me to come to
Brunswick and* I should have been delighted to do so had I
been at home. I was very much interested about my works being
dramatized!* and it gave me more pleasure than I can say to
think that Brunswick was going
to do them so much honor. I am sure that dear little Mary*
would do great honor to the heroine of "Mr. Teaby." She seems
small for the part except in the size of her heart, and I may
say young, but I don't doubt that she could make up in costume
--
I am only away for a short time ^(I
shall be at home the last of May)^, I am glad to say, for
though I enjoy travelling quite as much if not more than most
people, I hate the feeling of being so far away from home, and
I often have to pinch hard to keep myself from
giving way to homesickness in spite of every possible
satisfaction and pleasure. It is delightful to find how
much more beautiful Greece is than anybody
ever gave me the idea. One must see the old marbles and the hill of the Parthenon for oneself, and nobody can write anything like the charm and the astonishing beauty of these old sights. Day before yesterday we drove to Marathon (twenty-five miles) and saw the famous plain with its great mound of earth that has stood so many centuries over the Athenian soldiers, and the bright sea in front of it and the dark mountains behind -- You would have loved the gay [ deletion ] wild-flowers almost best of all -- they really made a brilliant carpet for the ground.
-- There were little marigolds and big scarlet and purple
anemones much larger than our pale ones, and two kinds of
poppies and big blue forget-me-nots and tall stalks of
asphodel and all sorts of things, and pale purple gillyflowers
all along the beach with our familiar beach peas -- And the
old olive trees are most beautiful: they seem as old as the
mountains and plains themselves. I must put in some leaves for
you so you can imagine how silvery the trees look when the
wind blows them. Give my love to Cousin Charles and to the
girls and to David and Charlie.* I do hope that Cousin Charles
[ is nicely ? ] now as spring comes on. I shall
certainly hope to see you all this summer either in Brunswick
or Berwick or still better in both.
[ From the top left margin of page 1 ]
I thank you again for your letter
which was a double pleasure so far away. Yours, with constant
affection,
Sarah --
I am sure Mrs. Fields* would send
you and Cousin Charles a message but she has gone to sleep
just now. She is very well indeed and enjoys everything so
much.
Notes
and: Jewett sometimes wrote "a" with a long tail for
"and." I have rendered these as "and."
dramatized: Richard Cary writes: "At the Pythian
Hall on March 24, the Saturday Club, a local organization
addicted to periodic "dramatic presentations," offered to the
public its versions of Miss Jewett's short stories 'The Quest
of Mr. Teaby' and 'The Guests of Mrs. Timms'."
Mary: Richard Cary says "Mary Gilman, 34, played the
role of 'elderly,' procrastinating Hannah Jane Pinkham in this
lyric of autumnal love, 'The Quest of Mr. Teaby'." For
more on members of the Gilman family, Cousin Charles and their
children, see Key to Correspondents.
The manuscript of this letter is held by Sarah Orne Jewett
Papers, George J. Mitchell Department of Special Collections
and Archives, Bowdoin College Library. Transcription and notes
by Richard Cary, with additions by Terry Heller, Coe
College. This transcription appeared originally in
"Jewett's Cousins Charles and Charlie." Colby
Library Quarterly 5 (1959): 48-58. It was
reprinted in Richard Cary, Sarah Orne Jewett Letters.
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Annie Adams Fields to Louisa Adams Beal
yet in English (^or^ at least translated) giving a further story of the ancient Greeks. The theatre at E. is one of the finest things we have seen yet. It is built against a noble hillside and the seats are well preserved{.} It was built to hold fifteen thousand persons and on the top seats whither we climbed yesterday, we could understand what our excellent guide or dragoman said to us standing in the orchestra at the bottom of the height. The silence, the warm still sunshine and the flowers in every cranny of the broken marbles were in strange contrast to the picture in our minds, of the restless crowds which once thronged the spot. It is not a hard journey if one could come direct from Athens as they came in the [ deleted word ] old days, only two hours or less by water, generally smooth, and a climb of three when not on foot, to reach the sacred place. The foundations of the temples are all clearly to be seen, also of baths, gymnasium{,} wonderful open air seats [ of marble ? ] and a huge house which must
have been some wonderful kind of hotel in which the rich people dwelt. In the centre of all these there is a wonderful little temple with six walls in the [ black ? ] underground centre [ in ? ] which sacrifices and sacred unknown rites were performed. All the glories above ground have fallen but the land around and the museums at Athens
In Athens Mr. & Mrs Hardy were very polite to us, inviting us twice to dine and twice to afternoon tea. We saw them last in the procession when the King and queen went to the Cathedral on the day of Independence
(the anniversary of their freedom from Turkey in 1824){.}* It was a fine sight. Mr. & Mrs Hardy took their places in the pageant of course. He seems very well established with his new wife and except that they do not speak modern Greek he is of course an acceptable representative. It is my opinion however that no man can be a really good minister or consul to a foreign country who does not understand the language of the country. However we are so far from that good end as yet, that this is no criticism of Mr. Hardy in particular, but I hope we shall hasten to educate our men for the diplomatic service as they do in England.
The Hardy's [ so punctuated ] have a very handsome house and do their part with dignity and acceptance. They are expecting Mr. Choate and his wife* from England presently. It is of course their great pleasure to see friends from home. They are obliged to receive persons almost every day in many of whom they can find no especial personal interest for
themselves, therefore they rejoice doubly in seeing those who are nearer to them{.} They have had
The procession was very pretty from our hotel windows. There was one large company of men in the [ deleted word ] Albanian dress, a short white petticoat or "fustinella" & white sleeves, also there was an escort of men in the white fustanella [ so spelled ] which was very effective keeping guard at the palace door.
I must away now. We are bound for Mycenae and Argos today -- tomorrow for Sparta. Miss Garrett* found it well to have a dragoman for this part of the world -- a Greek of Athens who speaks English perfectly. He is a great comfort -- a most admirable man. We never saw a better. He is everything -- valet guide cook on occasion [ deleted word ] quite perfect in his way. We are most fortunate because he is greatly sought for being the best of all{.}
Annie --
Love to each one.
Notes
Judy: It seems that "Judy" is a nickname for Annie Fields's sister, Louisa. This could be problematic in part because living with Louisa Beal for much of her life was her unmarried step-daughter, Judith Beal, who is mentioned in the opening of this letter.
Epidaurus: Fields may have written "Epidauros" or "Epidavros," the latter being the modern name of the ancient Greek city, noted for its remains of ancient buildings.
Aeculapius: This transcription is uncertain, but clearly Fields refers to the sanctuary of Asclepius or Asklepios, a Greek hero and god of medicine. The sanctuary was a busy place of pilgrimage for the ill in ancient Greece.
Pelopenesis: While it is not clear what Fields wrote, she refers to the southern Greek peninsula, Peloponnese or Peloponnesus.
Mr. and Mrs Hardy: Wikipedia says: Arthur Sherburne Hardy (1847-1930) "was an American engineer, educator, editor, diplomat, novelist, and poet." He served as U.S. Minister to Greece (1899-1901). He was married to Grace Aspinwall Bowen (1850-1940) in Athens, Greece on 9 March 1898. It appears he had two children from a previous marriage to Katherine Wood (1845 - ), which ended in divorce in 1898. See Stephen Hopkins: Descendants and Family Trees of Merrimack, NH III.
freedom from Turkey: In 1900, the King of Greece was George I (1845-1913); the Queen was Olga (1851-1926). Greek Independence Day is 25 March, celebrating the success of the war of independence against the Ottoman Empire.
Mr. Choate and his wife: Though there were several possible members of the prominent Massachusetts Choate family who might have visited the Hardys from London, the most likely would be Joseph Hodges Choate (1832-1917), who was U. S. Ambassador to the United Kingdom (1899-1905). His wife was Caroline Dutcher Sterling (1837-1929).
niece ... Mr. Sears: The Hardy niece has not been identified. The young Mr. Sears probably was Joshua Montgomery Sears, Jr. (1879-1908), the son of the artist Sarah C. Choate Sears and Boston real estate magnate, Joshua Montgomery Sears. A student at Harvard and probably a classmate of Jewett's nephew, Theodore Jewett Eastman, he was at the American School in Athens as a classics scholar, 1899-1901. He would be a relative of Ambassador Choate, whose visit is anticipated.
Miss Garrett: Mary Garrett. See Key to Correspondents.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Massachusetts Historical Society in Annie Fields papers, 1847-1912, MS. N-1221, "Loose Letters, 1852-1916." This transcription is from a microfilm, available courtesy of the University of Kansas Libraries, Lawrence Kansas: Annie Adams Fields Papers 1852-1912. Folio PS 1669.F5 Z462 1986, Reel 3.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Sarah Wyman Whitman
15 April [ 1900 ]
Megalopolis*
This is a small town in Arcadia in
the middle of a green plain, to which we came over the
mountains yesterday, driving for the third, fourth [ written
between
lines, but not clearly inserted: fifth or sixth! ] day
on our journey from the east coast to the west: by Nauplia
& Mycenæ and [ Epidaurus corrected ] to
Tripolitza and Sparta! As I write these names I cannot
help thinking how lately they were nothing but names and now
each stands for a place unlike any other, -- and each makes a
great landscape rise before one of mountain and plain, and
great white columns against
[ Page 2 ]
Here in this muddy noisy little
place, we are opposite the old church with its bell tower and
single tall cypress, and it is the Greek Palm ^Sunday^ [ Just
written over Sunday ] a week earlier
^later^ than [ ours corrected ].* And all the flocks
go tinkling by and all the little boys are playing games and
squabbling like sparrows over in the churchyard. But at home I
think of the Class at Easter, and Katy not there and I not
there, and I keep wondering about you and if Coolidge* will
[ Page 3 ]
have come, and I should like to have a flower in a letter so
as to know you thought of me.
I got your dear last letter this week and
heard about Dr. Mitchell and Owen Wister* and all those
flowering days of mid-March, and I wish I could pass judgment
right now on the portrait! It begins to feel as if we
had really come away for a short time and as if I should be at
home again in six weeks if all goes well, but up to this day I
have had a queer sense of being off in space, with months
before me -- of wandering in the East, with dragomen* and
[ Page 4 ]
cooks and all our bags and [ shawlstraps ? ] to be taken out of the carriage and opened at night and rolled up and shut again and loaded in the morning, with a huge new -- old stone theatre to see in a hill-side and the snow mountains looking over the tops of the purple ones in every quarter of Greece! How you would love the handsome, sturdy people and the clear-eyed children! Such colours to paint and such glimpses of history in every shepherd on the hills and every hoplite* that stalks along the endless roads in his white kilt and stockings, and his red cap. Greece is most archaic still to the casual looker on.
We are just bound down to
[ Page 5 ]
the coast this afternoon where we shall take a steamer to
the neighborhood of Olympia, and then if we can get time
enough we go to [ Delphi corrected ] before getting
back to Athens on the 22nd -- Then we
mean to go on eastward for a single week in Constantinople
even if it costs us the sight of Thessaly but whether we do
the one or the other is uncertain to me in this present
moment, for sometimes we think of things we might see in six
days to be spent at sea getting back to Venice! But I keep
thinking
[ Page 6 ]
that I shall never be, so to speak, so handy to
Constantinople again and I should like to have the means of
making the Arabian Nights come true* -- And we shall really
have seen so much of Greece.
A.F.* has just waked up from an
after-luncheon nap, and Mary Garrett* stirs in the [ next corrected
] room and they send messages -- A.F. says 'Tell her how much
we are thinking of her today --{'}
[ Page 7 ]
Darling, I send you much love and
many a thought, and I wish that I could put half the things
into this letter that you would like to read and I to write.
But you must take this leaf of bay instead,* and call it Palm
Sunday or Easter -- just as you like.
Yours always S. O. J.
A. F. saw a window at the American School and thought it was like home
Notes
Megalopolis: Wikipedia
says: "Megalopoli is a town in the southwestern part of
the regional unit of Arcadia, southern Greece. It is located
in the same site as ancient Megalopolis."
Greek Palm Sunday, just a week later than ours:
In 1900, Easter for Western Christians fell on 15 April, but
for Orthodox Greeks on 22 April.
Class at Easter, and Katy not there ... Coolidge: In
his notes for Sarah Orne Jewett to Henry Green, January
28,
[
1900
], Richard Cary says that S. W. Whitman conducted an
adult Bible class at Trinity Church in Boston. See also
Rita Gollin, Annie Fields (p. 254). Presumably, Jewett
is referring to this class. Coolidge almost certainly is
Susan Coolidge, pen name of Sarah
Chauncey
Woolsey (1835-1905), author of the What Katy Did
stories and many other books. (See Cary, Sarah Orne Jewett
Letters, p. 77, and also Sarah
Chauncey Woolsey (Susan Coolidge).
Katy may be Katherine Scollay
Coolidge (1858 - 12 February 1900), a friend who died shortly
before Jewett departed on this trip to Europe. Katherine
Coolidge was the daughter of Francis Parkman and author of a
volume of poems, Voices (1899), and, posthumously, of
selections from her diaries and letters -- Selections
(1901).
Dr. Mitchell and Owen Wister: Silas Weir
Mitchell (1829-1914) was one of the best-known American
physicians of the nineteenth century, famed for his "rest
cure" for nervous diseases such as neurasthenia. He was the
author of a pair of historical novels as well as of poetry and
biography. In Whitman's letter to Jewett of March 23,
1900, to which this letter responds, Whitman tells of Mitchell
sitting for his portrait.
Owen Wister (1860-1938), an American
writer best remembered for The Virginian (1902), also
is mentioned in that letter.
dragomen: A dragoman is Arabic for an interpreter and/or guide.
hoplite: A heavily armed ancient Greek infantry soldier.
Arabian nights: Arabian Nights' Entertainments
or The
Thousand
and
One
Nights. This collection of middle-eastern and
south Asian stories originally written in Arabic became
popular in Europe in the 17th Century. The collection is
framed by the story of a king who kills each of his wives the
morning after their wedding night. His latest wife,
Scheherazade saves her life by telling exciting stories and
stopping each night before the end, so the king must spare her
until the next night to hear the end of that story and the
beginning of another.
A. F.: Annie Adams Fields. See Key to Correspondents.
Mary Garrett: See Key to Correspondents.
leaf of bay: in this case, a literal leaf of laurel, a leaf used for flavoring soups and sauces and medicinally for indigestion, headache, and rheumatism; but also used in wreaths to honor poets in ancient Greece.The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library of Harvard University, Cambridge. MA: Whitman, Sarah (Wyman) 1842-1904, recipient. 25 letters; 1892-[ 1900 ] & [ n.d. ]. Sarah Orne Jewett additional correspondence, 1868-1930. MS Am 1743.1 (126). Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Annie Fields Transcription
Annie Fields included part of this letter in Letters of Sarah Orne Jewett (1911). Her transcription follows.
This is a small town in Arcadia in the middle of a green plain, to which we came over the mountains yesterday, driving for the third, fourth, fifth or sixth day on our journey from the east coast to the west, by Nauplia and Mycenæ and Epidaurus to Tripolitza and Sparta. As I write these names, I cannot help thinking how lately they were nothing but names; and now each stands for a place unlike any other, and each makes a great landscape rise before one of mountain and plain and great white columns against the blue sky and blinding light, and all the Greek flowers bloom again, asphodels here, and poppies there.
Here in this muddy, noisy little place, we are opposite the old church with its bell-tower and single tall cypress, and it is the Greek Palm Sunday, just a week later than ours.* And all the flocks go tinkling by, and all the little boys are playing games and squabbling like sparrows over in the church-yard. But at home I think of the Class at Easter, and Katy not there and I not there, and I keep wondering about you, and if Coolidge* will have come, and I should like to have a flower in a letter so as to know you thought of me. I got your dear last letter this week, and heard about Dr. Mitchell and Owen Wister,* and all those flowering days of mid-March, and I wish I could pass judgment right now on the portrait. It begins to feel as if we had really come away for a short time, and as if I should be at home again in six weeks if all goes well, but up to this day I have had a queer sense of being off in space, with months before me; of wandering in the East, with dragomen* and cooks, and all our bags and shawl-straps to be taken out of the carriage and opened at night, and rolled up and shut again and loaded in the mornings, with a huge new-old stone theatre to see in a hill-side, and the snow mountains looking over the tops of the purple ones in every quarter of Greece. How you would love the handsome sturdy people and the clear-eyed children. Such colors to paint and such glimpses of history in every shepherd on the hills and every hoplite* that stalks along the endless roads in his white kilt and stockings and his red cap. Greece is most archaic still to the casual looker-on.
We are just bound down to the coast this afternoon, where we shall take a steamer to the neighborhood of Olympia, and then, if we can get time enough, we go to Delphi before getting back to Athens on the 22d. Then we mean to go on eastward for a single week in Constantinople, even if it costs us the sight of Thessaly; but whether we do the one or the other is uncertain to me in this present moment, for sometimes we think of things we might see in six days to be spent at sea getting back to Venice! But I keep thinking that I shall never be, so to speak, so handy to Constantinople again, and I should like to have the means of making the Arabian Nights come true.* And we shall really have seen so much of Greece.
I send you much love and many a thought, and I wish that I could put half the things into this letter that you would like to read and I to write. But you must take this leaf of Bay instead,* and call it Palm Sunday or Easter, just as you like.Louise Imogen Guiney to Annie Adams Fields
Boston.
Dearest Mrs. Fields:
Here is the immortal verse, and a great pleasure it was for me to copy it. Thanks to you for the best of letters, and the exquisite tiny photograph of
All that is gone of the Parthenon:*
All that is left, ah me!"
I wish you had also slipped in the little Parthenon flower: I am as curious about it as may be! You will get sight somewhere, I hope, of wild cyclamen. It must be like a field of butterflies, a Psyche field.*
Our neighbor F. Day* sailed from New York for the cloudy part of London last week, with boxes and portfolios beyond number. I shall miss him, for he will stay away at least a year. Mother is quite radiantly well, and desires me to send her love with mine. The Grippe and I have had, ever since I wrote you, a horrid squabble. I made out to return to the Library* yesterday, but cannot eat yet, and present a wobbling spectacle upon the street, which must bring pain to those good souls who subscribe to societies for the conversion of inebriate leddies. But my head is clear, nevertheless. Live well, and live forever!* as they said in your ancient and new-visited Fatherland. With all affection, I am your and Miss Jewett's* faithful
Thou foster-child of silence and slow Time,
Sylvan historian, who canst thus express
A flowery tale more sweetly than our rhyme!
What leaf-fringed legend haunts about thy shape
Of deities, or mortals, or of both
In Tempe or the dales of Arcady?
What men or gods are these? What maidens loath?
What mad pursuit? What struggle to escape?
What pipes and timbrels? What wild ecstasy?
Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard
Are sweeter: therefore, ye soft pipes, play on;
Not to the sensual ear, but, more endeared,
Pipe to the spirit ditties of no tone.
Fair youth beneath the trees! thou canst not leave
Thy song, nor ever can those trees be bare;
Bold lover, never, never canst thou kiss,
Though winning near the goal; yet do not grieve:
She cannot fade, though thou hast not thy bliss;
For ever wilt thou love, and she be fair.
Ah, happy, happy boughs, that cannot shed
Your leaves, nor ever bid the Spring adieu!
And, happy melodist, unwearied,
For ever piping songs for ever new!
More happy love! more happy, happy love
For ever warm and still to be enjoyed,
For ever panting, and for ever young,
All breathing human passion far above,
That leaves a heart high-sorrowful and cloyed,
A burning forehead and a parching tongue.
Who are these coming to the sacrifice?
To what green altar, O mysterious priest!
Lead'st thou that heifer lowing at the skies,
And all her silken flanks with garlands dressed?
What little town by river or sea-shore,
Or mountain-built, with peaceful citadel,
Is emptied of its folk, this pious morn?
Ah, little town! thy streets for evermore
Will silent be; and not a soul, to tell
Why thou art desolate, can e'er return.
O Attic shape, fair attitude, with brede
Of marble men and maidens overwrought,
With forest branches and the trodden weed!
Thou, silent form, dost tease out of thought,
As doth eternity: Cold Pastoral!
When old age shall this generation waste,
Thou shalt remain (in midst of other woe
Than ours,) a friend to man, to whom thou say'st:
'Beauty is Truth, Truth Beauty: that is all
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.'
Notes
the Parthenon: The ancient Greek temple on the Acropolis in Athens, the Parthenon, over the centuries since its completion in the fifth century B.C., has been stripped of many of its features, yet it remains a major achievement of ancient architecture.
Guiney's quotation has not yet been identified.
Psyche field: Psyche was an ancient Greek goddess of the soul. Some artists have identified her with the butterfly, giving her butterfly wings.
F. Day: Frederick Holland Day. See Key to Correspondents.
Library: At this time, Guiney worked at the Boston Public Library.
live forever: While this good wish appears in this form in various religious and secular writings, its ancient origins are not clear.
Miss Jewett's: Sarah Orne Jewett. See Key to Correspondents.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Huntington Library, San Marino, CA, in the James T. Fields collection Box 26: mss FI 1654 . Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Marie Thérèse de Solms Blanc to Annie Adams Fields
This letter was composed in French; a transcription follows the translation.
Parays* par Astaffort
Lot et Garonne -- 18 April
Dear Annie, my letter for Sarah* had just left when I received your note full of impressions of Marathon. Thank you for remembering me when you are so occupied and where everything must distract you from corresponding. You didn't answer two or three of my questions, but we will come back to them when we meet. For now, leaving aside the Congress, the Exhibition* and the rest, I only want
to tell you how happy I am to be with the intelligent and kind people you know in this country of Gascony, which is so delicious in the spring. I never tire of the view devoted to whiteness in fields that remain bare, where blackthorns in bloom are like snow as far as one can see, wherever hyacinths do not bloom in sheets of blue, and the double narcissus and wild yellow tulips. Also in bloom are the Japanese cherries and the plums; summer has
We attended Holy Week services in the church at Astaffort, this large town gloomy as a fortified city. On Good Friday, everyone in town dons deep Spanish mourning. Usually, the women wear bright colored shawls, and the men wear rose-colored shirts and red sashes, like Don Quixote,* and so many of the women are beautiful and as bright as butterflies. I envy my friends for having their roots among these gentle people, who do not know envy and do not care for politics. Folks here call our undistinguished president "lou Milou" or little Emile, and find much amusement in his name, Loubet,* which they pronounce Loubette, of course, which in their dialect means "wolf puppy."
Th. B
M. and Mme. Delzant send their warm remembrances.
[ Cross-written up the right side of page 5 ]
Notes
1900: Fields and Jewett traveled in Greece in the spring of 1900. As the opening of this letter indicates, Fields has recently written to Blanc from Marathon in Greece.
Parays: This village near Toulouse was the home of Blanc's close friend, Gabrielle Delzant. Alidor (1848-1905) and Gabrielle Delzant (1854-1903) resided in Paris and at Parays (Lot-et-Garonne). He was a lawyer, a bibliophile, editor, and author and wrote, among other works, a biography of the brothers Goncourt.
Sarah: Sarah Orne Jewett. See Key to Correspondents.
Congress ... Exhibition: Blanc refers to the Paris Exposition Universelle of 1900, 14 April - 12 November 1900. What the "Congress" was and whether it was a part of the Exposition is not yet known.
Tanagra statuettes: Greek molded terracotta figures, known especially for the naturalistic drapery of their clothing. Blanc could have seen examples in the Louvre Museum.
Don Quixote: The main character in the novel, Don Quixote, (1605, 1615) by Spanish author, Miguel de Cervantes (1547-1616).
Loubet: Émile François Loubet (1838-1929) was President of France from 1899 to 1906.
M. Blanc: Blanc's estranged husband. See Blanc in Key to Correspondents.
Marquise de Viti ... M. Manuel: Probably the Marquise is the American-born Italian activist Harriet Lathrop Dunham (1864-1939), who married the Italian economist and politician, Marquis Antonio de Viti de Marco.
M. Manuel has not yet been identified.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Huntington Library, San Marino, CA, in the James T. Fields Papers and Addenda mss FI 1-5637, Box 5. Transcription, translation and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College, with essential assistance from Jeannine Hammond, Professor of French, Emerita, at Coe College.
Transcription
Blanc sometimes abbreviates "pour" to "pr", "nous" to "ns," and "vous" to "vs." Such instances in this letter are rendered as "pour," "nous" and "vous."
Parays par Astaffort
Lot et Garonne -- 18 Avril
Chère Annie, ma lettre pour
Sarah venait de partir
quand j'ai reçu votre billet
tout plein des impressions
de Marathon. Merci de
penser à moi dans une
vie si bien remplie et où
tout doit vous détourner
de la correspondance.
Vous ne répondiez pas à
deux ou trois questions
que je vous avais posées,
mais nous y reviendrons
de vive voix. Pour le
moment, laissant de
côté le Congrès, l'Exposition
et le reste, je ne veux
que vous dire le plaisir
que j'ai à me trouver auprès
des êtres intelligents et bons
que vous connaissez
dans ce pays de Gascogne
si délicieux au printemps.
Je ne me lasse pas de
regarder l'aspect voué au
blanc de ces champs ^encore dénudés^ [ deletion ] où
les haies de prunelliers
en fleur jettent comme
une neige à perte de vue
partout où ne fleurissent
pas en nappes, les jacinthes
bleues, les narcisses doubles
et les jaunes tulipes sauvages.
C'est en outre une floraison
toute japonaise de cerisiers
et de pruniers; l'été n'a
pas encore tari les ruisseaux
que je vois bondir pour
la première fois, et le Gers
ordinairement avare, roule
une cascade, mais ce qui est
charmant surtout c'est
la fine ossature de ces
collines basses sur un
ciel éclatant. A peine
recouvertes d'une verdure
pâle elles font penser à
ces statuettes de Tanagra dont
la ligne apparaît suivie
docilement part la draperie
mouillée. Les lilas, les lauriers
embaument, les rossignols
s'égosillent. Tout ce qui
m'entoure est humble et
attachant.
Nous allions pendant la Semaine
Sainte à ^l'église^ Astaffort, ce grand village
sombre comme une ville forte.
Le Vendredi Saint la population
tout entière était en grand
deuil à l'espagnole. D'ordinaire
ce ne sont que mouchoirs de
couleur éclatante, chemises
roses, ceintures rouges, les [ types ? ]
de don quichotte pour les
hommes, et combien de
beauté parmi les femmes
vives comme des papillons!
J'envie à mes amis d'avoir
leurs racines au milieu de
cette gentille population qui
ne connait pas l'envie et
ne fait point de politique.
Les gens appellent le président
peu décoratif de notre République
lou Milou le petit Emile,
et s'amusent beaucoup
de son nom, Loubet, qu'ils
prononcent Loubette bien
entendu, et qui dans leur langage
veut dire petit chien loup.
M. Blanc m'a écrit de
Monaco que dans cette partie
du midi comme dans
la nôtre le temps était
froid, malgré le brillant
[ perfide ? ] du soleil.
Je me rendrai à la fin
de la semaine prochaine
chez Madame de [ Sège ? ] dans
le Bordelais, puis je rentrerai
à Paris pour vous y
attendre, chères amies.
Je vous envoie tous mes
voeux pour que jusqu'au
bout tout favorise votre
voyage et je me rejouis
tant de vous revoir!
M. et Mme Delzant me chargent
de leurs souvenirs empressés.
temps que vous et m'ont priée de leur indiquer une
[ Cross-written up the right side of page 5 ]
maison de campagne --- Je ne leur ai
pas dit que vous étiez si près. Vous vous révélerez
à eux si bon vous semble.
J'ai eu le grand plaisir de
recevoir avant de quitter
Paris la visite de mon
vieil ami, Hamilton Aïdé
arrivant d'Italie. Nous avons
fait ensemble le déjeuner
le plus agréable. Il m'a
beaucoup parlé de Vernon Lee
qu'il avait vu à loisir
pendant un long séjour.
J'ai eu d'excellentes nouvelles
de la [ Mise for Marquise ? ] de Viti par un autre
de mes amis M. Manuel que
je lui avais adressé. [ Looks like Tei or Fir ? ]
nous lisons beaucoup, nous
nous promenons autant
que le permettent [ lces maux l'étiez ? ]
[ santés ? ]. Ma santé est toujours
assez pécaire. Je tousse
et les rhumatismes me
parcourent des pieds à la tête.
Page 6: We are unsure whether this is a postscript or a page that should precede page 5.
Harriet Jackson Lee Morse* to Sarah Orne Jewett
[ 1900 ]*
Dear Sarah,
I have heard of you in Rome befriending Mary Blake,* and I hope you have both kept well, and enjoyed without too much fatigue, that wonderful city. My children, Harry* and his wife, had a fine voyage and she has written twice already -- they are both enjoying everything, and have been in Florence and Venice, reaching Vienna last night we suppose.
With love to Mrs Fields* & much to your dear self, affy yours
Notes
Morse: See Frances (Fanny) Rollins Morse in Key to Correspondents.
1900: Traveling with Annie Fields in Europe in 1900, Jewett spent some time in Rome during March. Also, in that year, the Massachusetts holiday, Fast Day, fell on 16 April. See note below.
Mary Blake: Irish-American poet Mary Elizabeth McGrath Blake (1840-1907). Wikipedia.
Harry: Dr. Henry Lee Morse (1852-1929). He married Jessie Frances Lizzie Scott (1860-1909).
Vaughan: Anna Harriet Goodwin (1838-1919) was daughter of Henry R. and Mary A. Goodwin of Brunswick, ME, where her father was a professor of languages. She married Benjamin Vaughan (1837-1912) and moved to Cambridge, MA, where she was a member of the Associated Charities of Cambridge and an originator of the District Nursing Association. See also "Find a Grave" and the Cambridge Tribune, Volume XLII, Number 34, 18 October 1919, p. 8.
Fast day: Wikipedia says that between 1670 and 1991, Fast Day was a holiday, observed in Massachusetts on the third Monday in April.
The Baldpate Inn, now the Mighill Mansion, is in Georgetown, MA, about 30miles north of Boston.
Spofford: Harriet Prescott Spofford. Key to Correspondents.
Fields: Annie Adams Fields. Key to Correspondents.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library of Harvard University, Cambridge, MA. bMS Am 1743 (159) Box 4, I. Letters to Sarah Orne Jewett.
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to "Billy."
Dearest Billy,*
I have wished so many times to write you ın this last month, but I have been much hampered by a bad eye which has been gifted with [ plagueing so spelled ] its owner in the past and had to take this inconvenient time of much sıghtseeing for its own! I have been tied up in a green silk handkerchief and decked with black spectacles and when I came in I was obliged to have the guide books read aloud -- I have managed to get my letters written to Mary,* but little else.
And Oh, how I wish that I could write all of you about this most wonderful country -- especially about Athens itself where we had two weeks and saw the Acropolis every time we looked out of our windows or up from the streets, and have gone many times to the great museums which I must wait to tell you about, and not try to write about the old marbles in a common letter. Then we went down into the Peloponnesus and drove most of the time for a fortnight or took small coasting steamers, and saw Mycenae and Epidauros and Sparta and Olympia and many other places.
While we were here we went to Marathon and Sunion which was the [ lovliest so spelled ] day of any with its long drive at the tops of the cliffs overlooking the brightest blue sea and at last you see a hill with the ruins of a white marble temple high up against the sky. There were the most wonderful flowers all up the slopes, white and red and blue and yellow -- I never saw anything like it -- it was such a silent place with this temple on the high headland in the sun and behind you a great row of dark mountains.
I am sorry at every turn because I knew so little about Greece before I came -- but now will be the time to-read and to have every book about Greece that I ever did know at all suddenly seem to come alive.
We are going to Constantinople now for a few days and them come back in the steamer to Venice, and then, after two days there, to Paris and in about a month I shall be home again. I hope! Out of our three months we shall have had one month at sea with all of these comings and goings. | am obliged to a kind cousin every time I look into my bag and see the delightful little case. I filled it up and have been much [ staged intended stayed ? ] in perilous moments by the contents! That is such a good little medicine in the capsules! And I brought a provision of taffy along and saved it for treats so well that I have still got a nubbin left. It seems only the other day that we were together in Berwick -- Give my love to Tabby and to John and Mary* if they are there, but I send many messages that the letter can’t hold, and wish I could tell you much more than I have been able to of this beautiful journey. Miss Fields* sends her very best remembrances to you and Tabby.
I must not forget to say that I have stood upon Mars Hill, but there was no photographer at hand unfortunately!! But not to joke about it, you don’t know how much more real The Book of Acts* seems when you have seen Corinth and the Hill and other places.
Notes
1900: Jewett and Fields traveled to Greece in the spring of 1900.
Billy: Billy and Tabby are mentioned as South Berwick residents in several other Jewett letters, but they remain unidentified.
John and Mary: Presumably John Tucker and Mary Rice Jewett. See Key to Correspondents.
Book of Acts: In the Bible, The Acts of the Apostles.
A printed transcription of this letter is held by the George J. Mitchell Department of Special Collections & Archives, Hawthorne-Longfellow Library, Brunswick, ME, Sarah Orne Jewett Papers, Series 1 (M238.1): Correspondence, 1877-1905, n.d. Not copyrighted, the printing is #32 of 50 copies published for "Friends of Pharos Books," 15 August 1984.
Notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Harriet Jackson Lee Morse* [ Fragment ]
[ 1900 ]*
I thought that I should send you a good long letter as soon as I reached here, but so far I have spent so much time out of doors that I have hardly got any letters written. I picked these little flowers on purpose for you at Marathon yesterday and I only wish that they might always look as bright as they did then, and* that I could send a tall stalk of asphodel with them such as I saw growing all along the [ road corrected ] sides as we came and went. And there were such crowds of purple anemones and then such
crowds of red ones, and pink ones and white ones, and gorse and daisies and little and great [ scarlet corrected ] poppies and small calendulas and every sort of flower of our early and late summer, and all blooming at once. Even on the beach at Marathon there were lovely lilac gillyflowers!
-- We were gone from seven in the morning to seven at night and it was such a day! -- with two or three hours on the great plain with the blue sea before us and all the mountains standing in a solemn row behind. It made me think of Paestrum* though there are no temples or even 'ruins' for a wonder: only a high mound of earth which was piled
over the dead Athenians -- I have grown quite used now to speaking of them as the hoplites.
As for Athens itself and the Acropolis and the [ museum corrected ]; nobody can ever say what they are: one has to come and see for oneself. The beauty and pathos and charm of the faces on the old marbles (the funeral tablets) are beyond anything I ever dreamed: you cannot find much of them in [ photographs corrected ] or even casts. We all go morning after morning to see them and we hate to miss [ accidental marks ? ] a single afternoon at the acropolis: but we are
full of plans for excursions -- to Eleusis ^& Corinth^ and Delphi and even to Sparta -- and Olympia of course and these [ take corrected ] us away from Athens a good [ many corrected ] days together --
I shall not spend much time over telling you that we had a very hard voyage over and that I was not good for much in Naples and have been getting round with the help of a good stout stick here, for that is all past and I feel much better. Mrs. Fields is very well too and you and Fanny can imagine how much she enjoys everything here. Even Miss Garrett* who is an incomparably good sailor was quite tired out -- but such
Notes
Morse: See Frances (Fanny) Rollins Morse in Key to Correspondents.
1900: In the winter of 1900, Jewett and Annie Adams Fields traveled in the Mediterranean area. Key to Correspondents.
and: Sometimes in this letter, Jewett writes an "a" with a long tail for "and." I render these as "and."
Paestrum: An ancient Greek and then Roman town in southern Italy, known for its ruins.
Garrett: Mary Elizabeth Garrett. Key to Correspondents.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library of Harvard University, Cambridge, MA. bMS Am 1743.1 (123) Box 4, II. Letters from Sarah Orne Jewett.
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Sarah Wyman Whitman
[ 1900 ]*
I have had a siege with my game eye in these last weeks ^pretty bad today^ and* so I never write to you, and all the days since I wrote you from a high town in Arcadia I have wished to write and have had no end of things to say. I now speak to Queen Elizabeth:* I am most eager to know whether she is taking any royal progresses this summer & of which she
spoke once and now gives no hint.
I have just had a most touching letter from Nelly Prince* which [ was corrected ] mislaid in reaching me in this far country of boats and overland mails by way of Vienna -- I shall try to get an hour or two -- Amboise if I can possibly manage it while we are in Paris
for one week & a day -- This letter was written on the 18th and only came this morning.
Are you well dear, and shall you be there in the Studio when I get to Boston, as I hope now, on the 2nd of June? I shall begin to tell you stories from the Arabian Nights* at once: if we cant go to Ashfield lets go to Stonehurst the same day that Helen moves there from Cambridge! I
have a sense of shame in sending this note, I who have seen Sparta & Olympia and the Isles of Greece & Smyrna bazaars! since I wrote before but you will see by it how difficult it is to write one-eyed letters in a foreign land.
love
A.F.* sends love: We are just running to see a procession pass the window -- whose band is playing God save the Queen. You
are no more certain of things in Constantinople than this: the Kaleidoscope is always turning !! We have been playing a great deal with a fellow traveller{.}
Mr. Francis Bartlett* by name!
Notes
1900: Jewett wrote while traveling mainly in Greece and elsewhere in Europe during the spring of 1900.
Associated with this letter is an envelope addressed to Whitman at 77 Mount Vernon Street in Boston, on stationary from the Pera-Palace Hotel in Constantinople. Though the date portion is barely readable, the cancellation is fairly clearly on 30 April, and there appear to be two zeros representing the year.
and: Jewett often writes "a" with a long tail for "and." I render these as "and."
Queen Elizabeth: The reference seems obscure. Presumably Jewett identifies Whitman with a queen Elizabeth, but this is not certain.
Arabian Nights: One Thousand and One Nights is collection of Middle Eastern folktales, called Arabian Nights in its first English translation in the early 18th century. Wikipedia.
Ashfield ... Stonehurst: The summer home of Sara Norton's family was in Ashfield, MA. Stonehurst in Intervale, NH, was the summer home of Helen Bigelow Merriman. Key to Correspondents.
A.F.: Annie Adams Fields. Key to Correspondents.
Francis Bartlett: This person has not yet been identified. A person of this name is mentioned by Jewett in a 21 July 1907 letter to Katharine Loring.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library of Harvard University, Cambridge, MA. bMS Am 1743 Box 6, Item 277.
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Elizabeth C. Field
Constantinople
4 May -- 1900
My dear friend (and Betty Leicester's!)*
You did not think
when you wrote such a kind little letter that it would have to
go so far to find me, and I am so sorry that it happened so,
because if I had been at home I should have written very soon
to thank you and your mother for a great pleasure. I am very
glad that you both like my stories, and I hope that I may see
you both some day to say better than I can now, how much I
liked your letters. I shall not forget that you cared about
Betty and Mary Beck, because while I was
writing about them I grew very fond of them myself, and of Tideshead which I tried to
I wish that you were here with me,
looking out of this window that seems to open right into the
Arabian Nights!* I can see all sorts of turbans and men with
trays of sweetmeats and women with funny veils over their
faces, and I can see tops of mosques and minarets, and
beautiful horses, and the queer wild dogs that live in
Constantinople as if it were all their own. They don't belong
to anybody but themselves, and they go about in funny little
companies hunting for something to eat, though they don't look
thin or troubled with anxieties of any sort, and when they are
sleepy they take naps on the sidewalk or in the street and
everybody turns out for them and steps over them carefully.
Someday if you see them you must remember that I wrote about
them and liked to see them too, but that I thought they barked
a good deal
every night! -----
I am writing you a long letter, but
I suppose that it is because I feel sure we should find many
things to say if we were together. I hope that I shall see you
someday, and I hope that I shall see your mother, and I send
you both my love and thanks now, and when we do meet we must
be a little like old friends, mustn't we? -- as if we had
known each other a great while.
Yours most affectionately, dear
little Elizabeth.
Notes
Leicester's: Jewett's Betty
Leicester (1890). Later she mentions her favorite
chapter, which was Chapter 10.
and: Sometimes Jewett writes "a" with a long tail for "and." I render these as "and."
Arabian nights: Arabian Nights' Entertainments or The Thousand and One Nights. This collection of middle-eastern and south Asian stories originally written in Arabic became popular in Europe in the 17th Century. The collection is framed by the story of a king who kills each of his wives the morning after their wedding night. His latest wife, Scheherazade saves her life by telling exciting stories and stopping each night before the end, so the king must spare her until the next night to hear the end of that story and the beginning of another. Wikipedia.See also Sarah Orne Jewett to Sarah Wyman Whitman 15 April [ 1900 ].
Sophie de Beaulaincourt to Annie Adams Fields and Sarah Orne Jewett
This letter was composed in French; a transcription follows the translation.
Paris 25 May [ 1900 ]*
Dear ladies, I am very sorry to see you leave without my being able to enjoy your time here, it pains me not to have been able to come to you! but I am much too weak to go out, and your stay in Paris was too brief! how I would have loved to receive you at my old Acosta!* Here are
2 roses from my garden {--} you will find in Boston the camellias that I sent with Mme. de Régnier{.}* I am afraid they have lost their freshness !!
Goodbye .. I pray that both you dear ladies will believe in my sincere and affectionate feelings
S. C. de Beaulaincourt
the red rose ( mounted to wear on the bodice), is for Miss Jewett
Notes
1900: While Jewett and Fields were in France in 1898, where they first met Mme. de Beaulaincourt, they were not in Paris during May of that year. However, they did visit Paris in May during their trip of 1900.
With this manuscript is an envelope addressed:
Madame Fields
Hotel de France et de Choiseul
rue St Honoré
(près la rue Castiglione)
Paris
Without postage, it seems to be meant to go by servant or messenger along with the roses the countess mentions in her note.
Mme. de Régnier: French novelist and poet, Marie de Régnier (1875-1963), also known by her maiden name, Marie de Heredia, and her pen-name, Gérard d'Houville. Her husband was the symbolist poet, Henri-François-Joseph de Régnier (1864-1936). Wikipedia.
In late winter and spring of 1900, Henri de Régnier made a United States lecture tour, beginning in late February at Harvard University. Harvard Crimson 21 February 1900.
See Marie Thérèse de Solms Blanc to Annie Adams Fields of 17 February 1900.
This letter is held by the Houghton Library of Harvard University, Cambridge, MA: b MS Am 1743, Sarah Orne Jewett Correspondence III, Letters to Annie Adams Fields, Beaulaincourt-Marles, Ruth Charlotte Sophie de (Castellane) comtesse de. 1 letter; [ n.d. ] Box 7 (285). Transcription, translation and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College, with essential assistance from Jeannine Hammond, Professor of French, Emerita, at Coe College.
Transcription
Paris ce 25. Mai
du regret de vous voir partir
sans que j'aie pu jouir de
votre présence, il est
pénible pour moi de
n'avoir pas pu aller vous
voir! mais je suis trop
faible pour sortir, vous
êtes restées trop peu de
temps à Paris! que j'aurais
aimé à vous recevoir dans
mon [ vieux ? ] [ unrecognized word ]{.} Voici
2. roses de mon jardin
vous trouverez à Boston
des camélias que je vous
ai envoyés par Mme
de Régnier je crains qu'il
n'aient perdu leur
fraicheur !!
Au revoir .. je vous
prie toutes les deux
chères mesdames, de
croire à mes très sincères
et affectiueux sentiments
S. C. de Beaulaincourt
Madame Fields
la rose, rose (montée pour
le corsage), est pour
Miss Jewett
William G. Perry to Sarah Orne Jewett
My dear Sarah,
I am glad to know that you are safe on shore & have escaped the perils of the sea, though I have nothing to say of the perils of South Berwick, account of which see papers of late date. I had or Frances* had a nice letter from Mary* last Friday and she was patiently waiting in Boston for your appearance. I thank you very much for the nice letter you wrote me from Constantinople. I should have answered it if I had felt sure you
would have received it. What a fine trip you must have had. Mary has kindly sent up some of your letters for us to read, so [ we corrected ] have kept along with you. You did not seem to have any drawbacks, else you did not mention them. You have now explored Europe pretty well. Russia remains for you to visit, which perhaps sometime you may undertake. They say it is gorgeous in some particulars.
I was in Boston last Thursday and it was pretty warm but not so hot as it was Friday. The last time before that when in
Boston, I went out to Cambridge with Georgia Perry and called on Theodore and her son Gardner,* who rooms in the same building. The boys* are fitted up much more luxurious than in my day, when a carpet on the floor was the rarest of the rare. I was glad to find them so pleasantly located, and happy, for if they do not know it they are passing their pleasantest days. After seeing them we went to the Museum to see the glass flowers.* We also drove out to Jamaica Plain, and I called
on William Brown* but he unfortunately had gone to Barnstable, so I did not see him. I have not had that pleasure for many years. We are all as well as usual, nothing new here, dullness prevails. The children are well, the baby is very healthy and bright and full of life. You must come up & see her as well as the rest of us. This is [ not corrected ] much of a letter but I wanted to greet you and tell you how glad we all are that you are safely home. I send this to Berwick supposing you have reached there. With much love to yourself & Mary
Wm G. Perry
Notes
Frances: Almost certainly Frances Fisk Perry Dudley. See Lucretia Morse Fisk Perry in Key to Correspondents.
Mary: Mary Rice Jewett. See Key to Correspondents.
Georgia Perry ... Theodore ... Gardner: For Theodore Jewett Eastman see Key to Correspondents.
Perry also refers to Georgianna West Graves Perry (1852-1934), spouse of a Perry relative, Charles French Perry, and mother of Gardner Browne Perry (1882-1964).
boys: Perry seems to have written "boy s."
Museum ... glass flowers: Probably Perry refers to a collection of glass flowers at the Harvard University Museum of Natural History, made by German glass artists Leopold Blaschka (1822-1895) and his son Rudolf Blaschka (1857-1939). Wikipedia.
William Brown: This person has not yet been identified. A candidate could be historian William Garrott Brown (1868-1913), who in 1900 was an administrator at Harvard University.
The manuscript of the letter is held by the University of New England Maine Women Writers Collection, MWWC0196_02_00_031_01. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Marie Thérèse de Solms Blanc
17 June [ 1900 ]*
Dearest friend I am so sorry that two weeks have passed since
I came ashore and yet I have not sent you a single word. But
my eye was still strained and I have had to be careful with it
-- and I have been as busy as I could be going once to Boston
and to Manchester the day Annie moved down and hurrying with
some proofs & writing affairs that kept me from using my
eyes for other things -- So this
is the first foreign letter to get itself begun, when I have others to write you may be sure! And I have had your card from La Ferté and been so sorry for your anxiety about your son.* It seems such a pity after his good journey. I am thinking so often about your work* -- and hoping that it is already finished and quite to your mind. -- I cannot say how eager I am to see it. Annie's copy of the Revue is not yet in hand. She thinks that the subscription ran out while we were away but we shall soon get hold of it.
They are urging me almost irresistibly just now to give a long story* to the Atlantic for next year, and I cannot yet dare to promise. I am so fixed in the habit of making short stories that I am not sure of being able to do the sort of thing I wish to do, of another sort -- -- you must say what you think!
---- I cannot help being glad that
you got my note from Cherbourg though I often thought with
shame of that much fumbled envelope which I discovered in a
corner of my bag -- in some useful capacity! It was such
a joy to have that beautiful glimpse of Acosta.* I feel so
disappointed at having seen dear Madame de Beaulaincourt so
very little, but after all I have seen her
again -- -- And I have seen you dear, thank Heaven! Oh, do
keep it always in mind that you are coming again next year.
Theodore* came home from college
last night -- a great event in the family, -- for his long
vacation -- He was heard loudly demanding 'where this
beautiful new silver dish came from??" -- Mary* thanks you
many times for her share, and I thank you all over again -- it
is lovely with green oak leaves and
green leaves and white flowers. I love it very much. Good
night -- do write as often as you can -- to your most loving
S. O. J.
Notes
1900: Jewett and Annie Adams Fields traveled to Europe in the spring of 1900, returning home on about 1 June.
and: In this letter, Jewett sometimes writes "a" with a long tail to signify "and." I have rendered these as "and."
work: Richard Cary points to Blanc's Tchelovek, a novel in four installments in the Revue des Deux Mondes from June 1 through July 15, 1900.
son: For Edouard Blanc, see Madame Blanc in Key to Correspondents.
long story: Jewett's final novel, The Tory Lover, began to appear in Atlantic in November 1900, and continued through August 1901.
Acosta: Cary notes that the Chateau d'Acosta was Ruth Charlotte Sophie de Beaulaincourt's country residence "situated at St. Gratien, some ten miles north of Paris." See Key to Correspondents.
Theodore: Theodore Jewett Eastman. Key to Correspondents.
Mary: Mary Rice Jewett. Key to Correspondents.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Colby College Special Collections, Waterville, ME: JEWE.1. Richard Cary included his transcription in Sarah Orne Jewett Letters.
New transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Wyman Whitman to Sarah Orne Jewett
[ 21 June 1900 ]
This is to testify, -- be it in train, which is dusty and unworthy of high discourse --, or in perfumed parlors. -- this is to testify: that it was the most dear, restful and altogether rich and wonderful long visit ever made to Berwick. Let Tom, Willy, Timmy and Dick bear witness. Which it is me beginning the sworn statement.
| June 21 1900 |
SW | her X mark |
Notes
Tom, Willy, Timmy and Dick: While these names may be randomly chosen, Timmy, at least, was the name of one of Jewett's pet dogs.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library of Harvard University. Whitman, Sarah (Wyman) 1842-1904. 92 letters; [ 1884 ]-[ 1903 ] & [ n.d. ] Jewett, Sarah Orne, 1849-1909. Sarah Orne Jewett additional correspondence, 1868-1930. MS Am 1743.1 -107. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Lilian Woodman Aldrich
[ Begin letterhead ]
South Berwick, Maine.
[ End letterhead ]
Thank you so much for your most kind and dear letter. I do so heartily wish that Mary* and I could come to the Crags;* I can think of few things that would be so pleasant, but I cannot get away from my writing here until early next month and then I must go to dear A.F.* whom I have hardly seen as she will have
told you -- all summer, and Mary is promised to our old Aunties at Little Boars Head* for all the time that she can be away from home -- with two other brief visits -- until the autumn.
-- I am not sure that I can stay as long at Manchester as we have planned for I have a great plot of writing on hand and I must get through with the first spin " of it* just as fast as I can. I know you will understand all about this
and how short the summer seems and how dim everything else seems by comparison until I can get my story done. I have been working so long over short things that I feel very uncertain whether I can make this quite respectable but you and T.B.* must give me a good wish.
Mary and I both send you our love and thanks -- I wish that we could think you would find time for a little visit here as you go to town.
S. O. J.
Notes
June-July 1900: The year appears in another hand at the top of page 1. This probably is correct, and the month probably is in early summer. Jewett indicates that she is hard at work on a long piece of fiction. It is possible this could be The Country of the Pointed Firs (1896), but it is more likely The Tory Lover, which began serialization in November 1900. A reason for this choice is that Jewett indicates her sister Mary will soon make a visit to their aunts in Little Boars Head, NH; a letter of 6 August 1900 indicates that Mary did make such a visit that summer, though such visits probably were relatively frequent.
Mary: Mary Rice Jewett. See Key to Correspondents.
the Crags: The Aldrich's summer cottage in Tenants Harbor, ME. Jewett and Fields first stayed in Tenants Harbor in September 1895.
A.F.: Annie Adams Fields. See Key to Correspondents.
Little Boars Head: Richard Cary characterizes Little Boar's Head: "A showplace of southeastern New Hampshire about half a mile from Rye, where Miss Jewett's maternal aunts had a summer home."
" of it: It is not clear why Jewett has placed the quotation mark here. Perhaps she meant to write "spin"?
T.B.: Thomas Bailey Aldrich. See Key to Correspondents.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. Thomas Bailey Aldrich Papers, 119 letters of Thomas Bailey and Lilian Woodman Aldrich, 1837-1926. MS Am 1429 (117). Transcribed and annotated by Terry Heller, Coe College.
At the bottom left of page one, in another hand, is a circled number: 2760.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Mary Rice Jewett
[ 10 July 1900 ]*
Dear Mary
We had a good little journey though it was pretty warm until we got to Five Islands and there we [ found corrected from wind? ] the saltest of sea winds. Theodore* says to tell you that he was able to eat some supper, and* so was I, though I cant say it was up to Katy's!* Still the place is so clean and the supper was quite good enough and we got such a welcome from nice little Mrs. Durrell and "Jim,” and Mr. Peck, the twisted little
man who is some kin to Cousin Alice* & whom I told you about last year. I was so sorry after I got started that I didn't just make you come for though the attractions aren't of the first order it makes a change and I think you would like it better than you think! And we could always have a nice time together, couldn't we?
I didn't want to start off a bit, but I believe it was a great thing to do and I shall take two days to sit out in
the woods &c and then if I want to come home & write I can! Mr. Peck goes sailing every afternoon and there are two pleasant looking fellows from Plainfield N. J. who go sailing too, Mrs. Durrell* says and little Stubby heard with high approval. He seems so contented that it ought to satisfy us! and has got the other corner room seaward just opposite mine. I wish you would come down now and s'prise us and then we could go home together by way of a call at Brunswick or Portland. It is so easy { -- }
you wait until one in Portland and then take the Rockland car or a car in that train to Brunswick where you change to the little Bath train & then a hack to the wharf -- check things to Bath. It is a beautiful still night, and I am going to bed early, so good night. I hear Stubby down on the piazza talking with Mr. Peck -- With ever so much love
Notes
10 July 1900: The envelope associated with this letter was cancelled at Mouse Island, ME on 11 July 1900. On the back is this note: "We met Mrs. Dexter in Portland --"
Almost certainly, this is Josephine Anna Moore (1846-1937), who was the second wife of Chicago lawyer Wirt Dexter (1832-1890). She returned to her Boston home after her husband's death, where she died, though she was buried with him in Chicago.
Theodore: Theodore Jewett Eastman. See Key to Correspondents. Later in the letter, he is mentioned by his nickname, Stubby. Though Jewett refers to him as "little," he was at this time a 21-year-old Harvard student.
and: In this letter, Jewett sometimes indicates "and" with a long-tailed "a."
Katy's: Probably Katy Galvin, a Jewett family employee. See Key to Correspondents.
Mrs. Durrell and "Jim”: In 1900, J. C. Durrell was manager of the Samoset House Hotel on Mouse Island, Boothbay, ME. Lizzie M. Durrell was the Mouse Island postmaster. Probably these are James C. Durrell (? - 1920) and his wife Lizzie M. Durrell ( ? - 1916). See also, Victorian Augusta (2008) by Earle G. Shettleworth, p. 104.
Mr. Peck ... Cousin Alice: Cousin Alice is Alice Dunlap Gilman. See Key to Correspondents.
Mr. Peck has not yet been identified.
The manuscript of the letter is held by the University of New England Maine Women Writers Collection, item MWWC0196_02_00_078_01. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Mary Rice Jewett
[ 11 July 1900 ]*
Dear Mary
This has been a good day and we have had company to dinner, and a grand sail. Mr. Stubby* is in that solemn state where conversation serves no end, and has got on his white shoes and the [ lopping or topping ] white hat. And is addressed by Cap'n Free* as Mr Mate! We parted company after breakfast and I went over into the woods and* found a little stick I had been whittling last summer which could not help making
a person feel at home. I sat in idleness -- reading a little some times and thinking what a 'singing hour' it was for birds, and poor little Mr. Peck* arrived having taken steps to hunt up a companion, as the old admiral isn't here this year, & then Stubby, this being after twelve. I had told him to look for Annie Young and Carrie* when the Monhegan boat came in, and he found them & brought them over as I hoped to have dinner here where they could take the boat just as well. They had their friend
Miss Sylvester* with them. I never saw either Annie or Carrie looking so well, and you might tell Becca* that I thought so -- they seemed to have had a perfect time at Monhegan. I am divided between wishing to go out, and being perfectly contented to stay right here. The girls were looking for Becca in Boston. [ I corrected ] was glad to see them & looking so well. We have had a long sail out past [ Outer corrected ] Heron island and only hurried in because we thought that [ there corrected ] was going to be a great thunder shower which has now blown over -- I got your kind
box of candy and the papers from H. & Mifflin* but no letters came -- perhaps these were sent last night -- It is going to be another lovely evening. Stubby has had views of going out to Monhegan to spend August!! "Brick Edwards"* was this morning discovered in charge of the "sled" that runs to Monhegan, and has offered a hitch to Wiscasset where his boat runs three times a [ week corrected ]. And
Notes
11 July 1900: The envelope associated with this letter was cancelled at Mouse Island, ME on 12 July 1900.
Stubby: Theodore Jewett Eastman.See Key to Correspondents.
Cap'n Free: Probably this is Captain Free McKown, known in the Mouse Island area at the turn of the twentieth century for his clambakes and for providing transportation in his boat, Edith. Though little has been discovered about him, he is mentioned in The Boy Patrol Around the Council Fire (1913) by Edward Sylvester Ellis (Chapter 17) and The Latchstring to Maine Woods and Waters (1916) by Walter Crane Emerson (p. 123).
and: In this letter, Jewett sometimes indicates "and" with a long-tailed "a."
Mr. Peck: See Sarah Orne Jewett to Mary Rice Jewett of 10 June 1900. Mr. Peck has not yet been identified.
Annie Young and Carrie: Presumably, these are relatives of Rebecca Young, her sister Anna R. Young (1863-1943), and her niece, Caroline Young Wentworth (1864-1960).
Miss Sylvester: Miss Sylvester has not yet been identified.
Becca: Rebecca O. Young. See Key to Correspondents.
H. & Mifflin: Houghton & Mifflin, Jewett's publisher. At this time, she was working on the serialization of her novel, The Tory Lover (1901).
"Brick Edwards": This person has not yet been identified.
Uphams: The Uphams have not yet been identified.
The manuscript of the letter is held by the University of New England Maine Women Writers Collection, item MWWC0196_02_00_079_01. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Lilian Woodman Aldrich
[ Begin letterhead ]
South Berwick, Maine.
[ End letterhead ]
I am so sorry to have missed seeing you at Manchester, and indeed I thought and hoped, as Mrs. Fields* did, that you and T.B.* were going to make a good visit there. I have never got over my disappointment about your coming to Athens* when we were there, for I thought we should all have such a nice time
home quite freshened up by my very few days away. A.F. enjoyed seeing you so much, and I was so glad to think that you were there again. ----- I dont feel very sure of getting through with the piece of writing I have in hand: it is so hard to keep steadily at work at this time of the year, not only by reason of weather but there seem to be so many things to do beside ones writing! I am perfectly thankful to hear a rumor of some new stories* of dear T.B.'s! -----
= You will find a friend of mine in the Smith's house at Tenants Harbor -- Mrs. Pierce* -- who is not only the best of dressmakers but such a good and kind heart. I have grown very much attached to her and I know you will like her too, so please "speak her friendly"* for my sake!
I wsih that I could see you instead of writing a dull letter, but I hope the letter will not lose out any messages by the way, and that I shall really see you soon
S. O. J.
Notes
1900: Someone, perhaps an archivist, has assigned this letter the date of 1900; this likely is correct. It seems to follow upon another letter probably of June-July 1900 to Lilian Aldrich, where Jewett also mentions her need to make progress on a long writing project, probably The Tory Lover, which began serialization in November 1900.
Mrs. Fields: Annie Adams Fields, also called A.F. in this letter. See Key to Correspondents.
T.B.: Thomas Bailey Aldrich. See Key to Correspondents.
Athens: Earlier in 1900, Jewett and Fields had travelled to Greece together.
Mrs. Richardson ... Seawoods: According to George Carey's "The Rise and Fall of Elmore," The William Richardsons at Seawoods and the Aldriches at the Crags were neighbors during summers at Tenants Harbor, ME. See Key to Correspondents.
new stories: Aldrich's next collection of short stories was A Sea Turn and Other Matters (1902).
Smith's house at Tenants Harbor -- Mrs. Pierce: Mrs. Pierce, the dressmaker, has not been identified. Likewise, nothing is yet known about the Smith house.
friendly": Jewett places the end quotation mark in subscript position.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. Thomas Bailey Aldrich Papers, 119 letters of Thomas Bailey and Lilian Woodman Aldrich, 1837-1926. MS Am 1429 (117). Transcribed and annotated by Terry Heller, Coe College.
At the bottom left of page one, in another hand, is a circled number: 2761.
John White Chadwick to Sarah Orne Jewett
HILLTOP,
CHESTERFIELD, MASS.
July 15, 1900
My dear Mifs Jewett --
Every summer we have a new book of
yours to read on the hills. We read them out of doors: Mrs.
Chadwick reads them to me as we drive about the country, so
shortening the long steep hills. "The Queen's Twin"* was
bought last x'mas &
saved till now when it has given great delight. We have both laughed & cried over the stories, especially over "Where's Nora?" and "Martha's Lady." Your dear Mrs. Todd I see continually in the image of a dear Mrs. Dodd who was my childhood's friend & whom I always go to see when I return to Marblehead -- a [ proper? ] but comfortable soul!
I have often meant
[ Page 3 ]
to write & thank you for the pleasure
you have given us, tho' I can well imagine that our more added
to the multitude of such testimonies will hardly be
appreciated as of any worth. It seems to me that few in our
generation have a right to be happier than you. You have given
so much sweet & wholesome pleasure & without
moralizing you have done so much good. For I do not see how it
is possible for so
[ Page 4 ]
many to read your -- stories & not a few be bettered by ^the^ inspirations of kindliness [ wch for which? ] they afford or consoled by the companionship of [ of repeated ] those beings that live & breathe along your genial page. Thank you & bless you!
Very truly Yours
John W. Chadwick
To
Mifs Sarah Orne Jewett.
Notes
Queen's Twin: Jewett's story collection, The Queen's Twin, appeared in 1899.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library of Harvard University, Cambridge, MA. bMS Am 1743 Box 1, Item 39 I. Letters to Sarah Orne Jewett.Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Ella Dexter to Sarah Orne Jewett
416 Marlborough St.,
Boston, Mass.
[ End letterhead ]
Dear Miss Jewett
I am so glad that the prescription had such a good effect. Blessings on modern chemistry that makes so many new remedies possible!
Our bicycle trip was a great success, and both Fraülein Stolle* and I
fell heartily in love with the region about [ Lainekin's intended Linekin's ? ] Bay. We dream of having a cottage there, and spending the summer months in learning that part of the coast, and the islands by heart. We saw Mouse Island* from the deck of the steamer to Bath, and were very sorry not to have the time to stop there then. But that is a pleasure
in reserve, and in fact one of the most delightful things about our trip is that it has given us so much to think of for the future. Curiously enough, you were in Brunswick on your way to Mouse Island on the 14th, the day we reached there on our wheels from Bath, and we wished we could go back again, instead of on to Boston.
Notes
1900: Beneath the superscript "th" there appear 2 dots. Dexter uses the same convention when she later mentions the 14th.
With this letter is a receipt dated 1 July 1900, in which Dr. Dexter acknowledges receiving from Jewett payment of $18 for 6 visits to her office.
Fraülein Stolle: Backbay Houses ( 7 Gloucester ) says that in 1896-7, "Dr. Dexter had moved to an apartment at 416 Marlborough, where she made her home with Miss Antonie Stolle, an art historian and lecturer." Wikipedia's page on "missing women" indicates that Stolle (1850-1926) was born in Germany.
Mouse Island: The bicycle tour Dexter describes was in the area of Mt. Desert on the coast of eastern Maine. Jewett stayed at Mouse Island, in Boothbay Harbor, several times between 1889 and 1906.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library of Harvard University: Sarah Orne Jewett Correspondence I, Letters to Sarah Orne Jewett.
Dexter, Ella L. 1 letter; 1900, bMS Am 1743 (45).
This transcription is from a photocopy held by the Maine Women Writer's Collection, University of New England, Letters from Sarah Orne Jewett, 1875-1890, Box 2, Folder 99, Burton Trafton Jewett Research Collection.
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Ellen Francis Mason to Sarah Orne Jewett
Dear Sarah,
How are you after your delightful trip abroad? I want to hear all about it and to see you. Could you not give us a few days sometime between July 30 & Aug 8th ? Ida* is to be away then, and will be so sorry if she loses you, but this is the only possible way of seeing you here, as we have no spare room -- Kate & I will be so glad if you can come.
Ellen Mason
Harvard
Mass
July 27
Notes
1900: This year appears in another hand in the upper right of page 1. It is likely to be correct, for 1900 was the only year in which Jewett traveled to Europe and returned home in early June.
A short note (about 17 words), apparently in another hand, probably in pencil, appears on what would normally be page 4, written vertical to page 1 in the lower left corner. I am not able to read this in the photocopy, making out only a few words.
Ida: Mason' sister. See Key to Correspondents.
Kate has not yet been identified.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library of Harvard University: Sarah Orne Jewett Correspondence I, Letters to Sarah Orne Jewett.
Mason, Ellen Francis, 1846-1930. 4 letters; [1900 & n.d.]. bMS Am 1743 (148).
This transcription is from a photocopy held by the Maine Women Writer's Collection, University of New England, Letters from Sarah Orne Jewett, 1875-1890, Box 2, Folder 97, Burton Trafton Jewett Research Collection.
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Wyman Whitman to Sarah Orne Jewett
7 A. M. July 27, 1900
Stocks, Tring, England.*
The doves and all the other sweet sounds of this English summer are making a sort of symphony in the air, and I am a-preparing to return early, for late breakfast, in short, after tea in this idyllic garden and an evening of large hospitality and happiness. . . . I had a real talk with Mrs. Ward under the trees; and all this has been a lasting pleasure. . . . So from out this shelter (a word which takes on such inexplicable perfume as life grows longer) and on this lyric morning, I have this one word with you. I think it is because you love me that I am here; and that is sweet. Heaven bless you!
Notes
Stocks, Tring, England: The home of British novelist,
Mrs. Humphry Ward and her daughter, Dorothy, in Albury,
Hertfordshire, England. See Key
to
Correspondents.
This transcription appears in Letters, Sarah Wyman
Whitman. Cambridge, MA: Riverside Press, 1907,
"Letters to Sarah Orne Jewett: 1882-1903," pp. 61-109.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Annie Adams Fields
[ Summer 1900-2 ]*
Dearest Annie
A tea-party of Emily Tyson & Mrs. Parkman Blake* has now departed, & Miss Ward has gone to bed and now Mary & I have come up -- -- This is the first day when I have had any sense of beginning to get rested. I found myself sitting in perfect idleness on the back hall-doorstep late this afternoon [ watching corrected ] the sun in the garden elms, and I dont know exactly how long I had been there! But it was so quiet a{nd} a sense of
-- I was much vexed in the morning by not seeing my way through many plans, & after I had written to dear Ellen* that I couldn't come I was more than half sorry . . I do so want to see you and Jessie,* that is the main point, and I wonder how it will be -- whether she still thinks she can come here.
-- If she can stay till the 20th perhaps the best will be for her to come over with you ( -- with us ) on the fifteenth -- or if she must go sooner, what should
Notes
Summer 1900-2: This date range is supported by Jewett's reporting that there are visitors at Hamilton House, which became well able to receive guests in about 1900. That she is keeping so strenuous a summer schedule in South Berwick indicates that this letter was written before her September 1902 carriage accident.
It is possible that this fragment is connected to another fragment: Jewett to Fields, July/August 1900-1901.
Emily Tyson & Mrs. Parkman Blake ... Miss Ward ... Mary: See Key to Correspondents for
Emily Davis Tyson;
Miss Ward, who probably is Susan Hayes Ward;
Mary Rice Jewett.
Mrs. Parkman Blake may be Mary (Molly) Lee Higginson Blake (1838-1923), wife of Samuel Parkman Blake (1835-1904), a prominent Bostonian. She also was the sister of Henry Lee Higginson (1834-1919), founder of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. She was a benefactor of Boston's Museum of Fine Art and of Harvard University.
Ellen: Possibly, this is Ellen Francis Mason. See Key to Correspondents.
Jessie: Jessie Cochrane. See Key to Correspondents.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Huntington Library, San Marino, CA, in the James T. Fields papers: mss FL 5560. This manuscript has been damaged by water, making parts of the transcription less than normally certain. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Annie Adams Fields
[ Opening pages missing ]
stayed in the house since. It has been a soft, showery day. Theodore walked to H. House with Timmy* this afternoon but it was a dry hour or two and they had strayed out some where. They are hoping so much for you and Jessie* to be here later.
Mrs. Robinson is there: Mr. R. could not come! Good night dear dear Fuffy* I long to get your letter tomorrow, and to hear that you have been resting.
Monday. Good morning dear, and oh what a good morning it is! I feel much better myself and I hope to get many things done. I wish you were here to go out a-picking flowers. The garden is still very fine = it is the height of the marigold season.
July/August 1900-1901: This date range is supported by Jewett's reporting that there are visitors at Hamilton House, which became well able to receive guests in about 1900, and that her nephew Theodore is home for the summer, as he was while an undergraduate at Harvard University (1897-1901) and during the summer after his graduating.
It is possible that this fragment is connected to another fragment: Jewett to Fields, Summer 1900-1902.
Theodore ... H. House ... Timmy: Theodore is Theodore Jewett Eastman. For Hamilton House see Emily Davis Tyson. See Key to Correspondents .
Timmy was one of the Jewett family dogs. He appears so far in letters from 1897 to 1903.
Jessie: Jessie Cochrane. See Key to Correspondents.
Mrs. Robinson: Among the Robinsons with whom Fields and Jewett were likely acquainted were Edward Robinson (1858-1931), an American writer and art scholar, who was curator of classical antiquities at the Boston Museum of Fine Art and later director of New York's Metropolitan Museum, and his wife, Elizabeth Hebard Gould (1859-1952). However, it is not certain that these are the Robinsons Jewett mentions.
Fuffy: Fuffy is a nickname for Fields. See Key to Correspondents.
Pinny: Pinny Lawson, a nickname for Jewett. See Key to Correspondents.
Sarah Wyman Whitman to Sarah Orne Jewett
August, 1900.
I found my escape in going straight
to the Cathedral of Chartres* yesterday morning. . . . For as
I sojourned there from the morning early, till long after
sunset, I was able to know something of the Symphony of colour
which is daily played there, and anything more matchless
cannot be, in this world.
Notes
Cathedral of Chartres: The cathedral church of Notre Dame in Chartres in north central France is known especially for its stained-glass windows. Whitman refers to visits to Chartres in several of her other letters in the Riverside collection.
This transcription appears in Letters, Sarah Wyman
Whitman. Cambridge, MA: Riverside Press, 1907,
"Letters to Sarah Orne Jewett: 1882-1903," pp. 61-109.
Charles Dudley Warner to Sarah Orne Jewett
[ Summer 1900 ]
From Mrs. James T. Fields, Charles Dudley Warner, 1904
Notes
Summer 1900: While Warner could not have read a publication of The Tory Lover until it began appearing as an Atlantic Monthly serial in November 1900, Jewett writes to Horace E. Scudder on July 12, 1901, that Warner had read some of her early chapters in the the previous summer. Therefore, Warner's comments on the novel seem likely to have been written during the summer of 1900.
Evelyn: Evelyn is a young woman in Warner's novel, That Fortune (1899). This information indicates that the earliest composition date for the second quotation would be 1899.
Edited and annotated by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Mary Rice Jewett
Wednesday morning
Dear Mary
It is before breakfast and Mr. Stubby* is splashing at his bath. I don't know what high enterprise may be on foot to judge by this early start. Yesterday afternoon he went down to Hamilton House* and returned at supper time with great tales. Elise* had just come in the afternoon train and Mrs. Varney* was calling and they were all in the garden, and one of Isaac's children* appeared with a mangled chicken just after they had gone into the house and C. V. * had gone. The chicken's drumstick, as Theodore naturally expressed it had been hurt (they have had more skunks and Isaac had actually shot one! ) and they got the “Rebecca box”* of remedies and Theodore sewed up the wound. Emily* didn't know what she should have done, and the chicken ate oat meal biscuit and water at once and when water gave out they tried it with ginger ale on the crackers. I wish you had heard the gleeful account.
I think the surgeon might have still been in attendance but he had to return for fear of rain as the other house windows were open and he had the keys, and when I went out in the afternoon I saw the funniest string of things airing on the clothes-line from the skins of coons to his red blankets. One of Katy's* washes was tame enough in comparison. He said that Mrs. Tyson was feeling quite rested and very well. Elise had been at the house in town and said that 'the man' had finished and was tearing up cheese cloth to cover the things, etc. Harry Thompson* solaced the evening for our nephew. I heard him departing in a great shower of rain just after ten. His wife and [ sons? ] are down at the farm in York. Thiddy said in a funny tone that he wasn't changed a bit. I heard his own voice steady at the game of making a good visit but whether it seemed a little long on a warm evening -- I think not on the whole!! Katy says tell her everything is all right and going splendid. I haven't seen Mrs. Dodge* yet but she may be having her breakfast. Mrs. Pairkins* brought 2 chickens and isn't coming again this week for which the Lord may well be thanked. I got out to the garden yesterday and it was almost lovelier than ever. I missed you and wished for Aunts to sit wuth [ with? ] us. Perhaps they could drive over again before frost. This is no day for a drive, it behaves as it if were going to be southerly and warm. I send you dear old Katharine's niece-es??* I would so like to see her! A. F.* said that Brother Robert* came at 11:45 and she had J. D. and Miss Grace Howe* to dine with him, and they sat out in the lovely evening and Katharine and Wells* came riding up the hill on horseback and it was very pretty. Love to all
S.
Were you in Dan's stables at Exeter?* to see the pattern of his wagon?
Notes
1900: Though the letter is brimming with information that could narrow its composition date still more, it is not yet sufficient to be very specific. It almost certainly is after the date when Katy Galvin first came to work for the Jewetts in early 1899 and probably after the Tysons began spending summers at Hamilton House in South Berwick in 1900 and while Theodore Eastman, who was a Harvard undergraduate in 1897-1901, was still summering at home. I have placed it tentatively in 1900.
Mr. Stubby: Theodore Jewett Eastman. See Key to Correspondents. In this letter he is referred to as Thiddy, Theodore, and "our nephew."
Hamilton House: The 18th-century house built by Jonathan Hamilton in South Berwick. See Emily Davis Tyson in Key to Correspondents.
Elise: Elizabeth Russell Tyson. See Emily Davis Tyson in Key to Correspondents.
Mrs. Varney: This may be Carrie (Mrs. Charles) Varney (d. 1910) of South Berwick. See Pirsig, The Placenames of South Berwick, p. 22.
Isaac's children: In The Placenames of South Berwick, Wendy Pirsig says that Isaac J. Gilliland (d. 1945) and his wife Annie, after immigrating from Ireland, entered the employ of Emily Tyson and then her daughter, Elise, helping to maintain the Hamilton House property. Isaac was a teamster, and Annie was a cook (pp. 58-9).
C. V. : Carrie Varney? See above.
“Rebecca box”: This may refer to Rebecca Young (1847-1927). See Key to Correspondents.
Emily: Emily Davis Tyson. See Key to Correspondents.
Katy: Katherine Galvin. See Key to Correspondents.
Harry Thompson: Theodore's married friend has not been identified.
Mrs. Dodge: Probably Mary Mapes Dodge is visiting South Berwick. See Key to Correspondents.
Mrs. Pairkins: Jewett probably is rendering Katy's pronunciation of "Perkins." However, the identity of this local supplier of chickens is unknown.
Katharine's niece-es: The identities of Katharine and her nieces are uncertain. Jewett seems to be including a letter from them. As she does not differentiate this Katharine from the guest of Annie Fields she mentions later in the letter, it is possible she refers to Katharine Wormeley, who had a married sister living in the Baltimore, MD. Mary Elizabeth Wormeley Latimer (1822-1904) had at least two children, Caroline (1859-1933) and Ralph (1862-1903). This would be just one niece, however. while the letter seems to imply there are two. There was another Wormeley sister, Ariana Randolph Wormeley Curtis (1834-1922), living in Venice, Italy, who had two sons Ralph Wormeley and Osborne Sargent. These sons both married and between them had three daughters, Katharine's grand-nieces. See The Harvard Graduates' Magazine, Volume 17 (1908), pp. 319-20.
While this information is tantalizing, it does not satisfactorily identify Katharine or her nieces.
A. F. ... Brother Robert: Annie Adams Fields and Dr. Robert Collyer. See Key to Correspondents.
J. D. and Miss Grace Howe: The identity of J.D. is not yet known. Though Jewett corresponded with Julia Dorr ( See Key to Correspondents), she typically called her "Mrs. Dorr."
Grace Howe (b. 1879) was the daughter of the Philadelphia businessman and physician, Dr. Herbert Marshall Howe (1844-1916) and Mary Wilson Fell (b. 1848), and the grand-daughter of Mark Antony DeWolfe and Elizabeth (Marshall) Howe, his second wife. Mark Antony DeWolfe Howe (1808-1895) was the first Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Central Pennsylvania. By his third wife, Eliza Whitney (1826-1909), Howe was the father of Mark Antony DeWolfe Howe (1864-1960), thus half brother of Herbert, who became the editor of Annie Fields's diaries in Memories of a Hostess and who assisted Fields in editing Letters of Sarah Orne Jewett.
Katharine and Wells: One of Fields's guests may have been Katherine Prescott Wormeley, whose first name often was spelled "Katharine." See Key to Correspondents. In a letter of 20 October 1908 to David Douglas, Jewett describes Katharine Wormeley as "one of my dearest older friends."
The other guest may have been Ida B. Wells (1862-1931), "an African-American journalist, newspaper editor, suffragist, sociologist, feminist, ...and an early leader in the Civil Rights Movement. She was one of the founders of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909." However, there is as yet no supporting evidence for this speculation. Wikipedia.
Dan's stables at Exeter: This business has not yet been identified.
This text is from transcriptions from mixed repositories in the Maine Women Writer's Collection, University of New England, Letters from Sarah Orne Jewett, 1875-1890, Undated Letters, Folder 75, Burton Trafton Jewett Research Collection. For more information about the individual transcription, contact the Maine Women Writers Collection. Notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Annie Adams Fields to Mary Rice Jewett
[ Summer 1900 ]*
Dear Mary:
Your beautiful bounty reached us in perfect condition last evening. We had just been talking of our pleasure in having you here when the [ unrecognized word peonies ? ] came in the gloaming.
We parted with our dear brother Robert* under the glorious light and shadow of the Shaw Memorial --.* He was not in a mood to say goodbye so we parted as easily as we could but we hated to see him go --
It is a wonder that the flowers came through the intense heat in such perfect freshness.
Goodbye dear -- love to Theodore.* I think his "rush" did something.
A. F.
Notes
brother Robert: Robert Collyer. See Key to Correspondents.
Shaw Memorial: The Robert Gould Shaw Memorial by Augustus Saint-Gaudens on the Boston Common commemorates Shaw's leading a "colored" Union regiment in the Civil War.
Theodore: Theodore Jewett Eastman. See Key to Correspondents.
At this time, Eastman was an undergraduate at Harvard University. The cryptic reference to his "rush" may connect with a college activity.
The manuscript of this letter is held by Historic New England in Letters from Annie Fields to Mary Rice Jewett, Jewett Family Papers: MS014.01.04. Transcribed and annotated by Terry Heller. Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Annie Adams Fields
Monday Morning [ 6 August 1900 ]*
Dearest Annie
Here we are in the dog days again, but with clear bright weather of last week to look back to. Stubby* is setting forth for Marblehead* with a boy [ cruising ? ]. The boy has a good skipper (or rather the boat has!) so that all is well. He is going to "Russells"* the last week in August, so I encouraged him that if nothing happened you would kindly let him come
the week before that ^or the third week^ -- when I shall be there of course & Mary* at Little Boars Head -- It makes complication, but a dear one, trying to make that young man's plans fit in with ours. He seems to be dreadful lonesome if he is at home and we are both away ----- You never saw anything so pretty as the return of the two young people -- Theodore & Elise* from a long morning [ spent corrected ] in search of flowers; they had the wagon
crammed full -- quantities of pond lilies which were the chief object but also "lop-lilies" great blue pickerel weeds -- nine large sods of pitcher plants out of a quaking bog* and nobody knows what else! Elise gave a happy sigh and said, "Oh this is what I call a good time!" They were so funny and happy and dirty and had encountered pleasing adventures of many sorts.
Yesterday I didn't go to church but read and kept [ quiet ? ]. It was not a very good day but
I really keep on feeling quite mended up. I have to tell a dear Fuff* so in every letter. How are you darling Fuff, and did the great luncheon party go off charmingly. I'm sure it did. A Duke and Duchess and a Baron* were a splendid sight. Mrs. Cabot has begun to write about my coming. I suggested Tuesday next, but she clung to Monday -- well; it makes no difference{.} I suppose we shall have Sunday together you and I and then I shall go back to you.. I have been interrupted all the way in this letter. The last
[ a letter or number in a circle, in another hand, bottom left corner of page 3 ]
was a man about the breakfast room clock .... Goodbye with best love from your Pinny*
Notes
Stubby ... Marblehead: Stubby is Theodore Jewett Eastman. See Key to Correspondents.
"Russells": Probably, this is Russell Hubbard Greeley (1878-1956), a classmate of Theodore Eastman at Harvard College. The Third Catalog of the Signet (1903) shows that Greeley was living in Boston soon after his 1901 graduation, where he was studying painting, and notes that while at Harvard, he was editor of the Lampoon (p. 79). He studied at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston School, where he won two student prizes in 1905. He is listed among the members of the Tavern Club of Boston in 1904.
Mary ... Little Boars Head: Mary Rice Jewett. See Key to Correspondents. Richard Cary characterizes Little Boar's Head: "A showplace of southeastern New Hampshire about half a mile from Rye, where Miss Jewett's maternal aunts had a summer home."
Elise: Daughter of Emily Tyson. See Key to Correspondents.
pond lilies .. "lop-lilies" ... blue pickerel weeds -- pitcher plants ... quaking bog: Pond lilies (Nuphar) are usually called common water lilies in North America.
What Jewett means by "lop-lilies" has not been determined. Perhaps she means this as a local name for Pickerelweed?
Pickerelweed (Pontederia cordata) is a purple blooming aquatic plant.
"Pitcher plants are several different carnivorous plants which have modified leaves known as pitfall traps—a prey-trapping mechanism featuring a deep cavity filled with digestive fluid liquid. ... The North American genus Sarracenia are the trumpet pitchers." Wikipedia.
"A quaking bog ... is a form of bog occurring in wetter parts of valley bogs and raised bogs, and sometimes around the edges of acidic lakes. The bog vegetation, mostly sphagnum moss anchored by sedges ... forms a mat approximately half a metre thick, floating over water or very wet peat. White spruces are also common .... Walking on the surface causes it to move -- larger movements may cause visible ripples on the surface, or they may even make trees sway. In the absence of disturbance from waves, the bog mat may eventually cover entire bays, or even entire small lakes." Wikipedia.
Fuff: One of Annie Fields' nicknames. Her summer home in Manchester, MA, stands on Thunderbolt Hill.
A Duke and Duchess and a Baron: Thomas Bailey Adlrich and his wife, Lilian, were nicknamed the Duke and Duchess of Ponkapog. It is likely Jewett refers to them, and perhaps to one of their sons, but the identify of the Baron remains uncertain.
Mrs. Cabot: Susan Burley Cabot. See Key to Correspondents.
Pinny: P.L. or Pinny Lawson, one of Jewett's nicknames.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. Jewett, Sarah Orne, 1849-1909. 40 letters to Annie (Adams) Fields (no date). Sarah Orne Jewett additional correspondence, 1868-1930. MS Am 1743.1 (117). Transcribed and annotated by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Robert Underwood Johnson
MANCHESTER-BY-THE-SEA
[ End letterhead ]
Thank you* for speaking about the next year's story. I shall certainly keep it in mind and you may mark me down for one (with all the qualifications mentioned), but I cannot promise it until after the first of the year -- I wish that I could put it right into your hand now, but I am busy with something that takes all my
I am glad to think that you and "mistress Katharine"* are in York again, and sorry that I am not near enough to see you, before you go back.
S. O. Jewett
Notes
1900: At the top left of page 1 appears this penciled note:
For R.W.G.R.W.G. is Richard Watson Gilder. See Key to Correspondents.
[ deleted initials CGR ? ] Put her on the list
& file this letter.
RUJ.
and: In this letter, Jewett often writes an "a" with a long tail for "and." I render all of these as "and."
Mrs. Todd: Jewett refers to her story, "The Foreigner," which features the character Almira Todd, who first appeared in The Country of the Pointed Firs in 1896. Presumably Johnson has wished he could have published the story in Century; it was in the August 1900 Atlantic.
As things turned out, Jewett did not publish again in Century.
Thank you: A penciled vertical line appears in the left margin next to this paragraph, on pages 2 and 3.
ink: Jewett's final novel, The Tory Lover, began serialization in Atlantic Monthly in November 1900.
"Mistress Katharine": Johnson's wife, Katharine Mahon Johnson. See Key to Correspondents.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Princeton University Library, Princeton, NJ: Robert H. Taylor Collection of English and American Literature RTC01, Box 10, Folder 12. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Abbie S. Beede
[ Begin letterhead ]
Manchester-by-the-Sea
[ End letterhead ]
Dear Mifs Beede,
I did not answer your note because I have kept thinking that I should have some copying +c that I could ask you to help me about, but it still delays. I should like to know when you leave North Berwick and where I can find you then in case of some work in the autumn.
I have all my papers in hand but I can't turn them over to anyone else just yet. I hope that you are having a good summer!*
S. O. Jewett
I had a delightful journey in the spring and reached home in early June. The best of traveling is to come home and see the old things with ones eyes freshened!
Notes
The manuscript of this letter is held by the University of New England Maine Women Writers Collection, item MWWC0166
Transcription by Kelsey Squire, Ohio Dominican University; edited and with notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Robert Underwood Johnson
[ 1900 ]*
Dear Mr. Underwood Johnson!
This sketch came in my mail this morning and I laughed at it and* liked it enough to wish to send it to you. I dont suppose you are editing the Century in your vacation but I am to make a postscript to my hurried letter of yesterday --
Mr. Speed* is one of the Keats-Speed ^families^
of Kentucky, and has a charming bit of a gift -- perhaps something more -- at writing -- I thought that this would make one of the Lighter Vein papers at the end of the magazine.
Just send it back to me here if you dont think so!
[ two long horizontal and parallel lines ] Mr. Warner* came last night: I had not seen him since his illness and at first
he looked so changed that it gave one's heart a great pang. But this morning he seems more like himself, but pretty much an invalid still. I cannot tell how much he is equal to doing -- we must wait and see! If you have already seen him you will quite understand this part of the postscript.
And I did not tell you in the first letter how much
S. Orne! Jewett
Notes
1900: This date is confirmed by Jewett mentioning her recently completed trip to Europe with Annie Fields, which included a visit with Madame Blanc in Paris. Also this was the year in which the saga of James B. Speed's story began. See notes below.
and: In this letter, Jewett several times writes an "a" with a tail for "and." I've rendered these as "and."
Speed: The saga of "Mandy's 'Cubatah'" by James Breckenridge Speed (1844-1912) became quite complicated. See the notes for Sarah Orne Jewett to Robert Underwood Johnson of 4 October 1900. Wikipedia.
Warner: Charles Dudley Warner. See Key to Correspondents.
Blanc: Marie Thérèse de Solms Blanc. See Key to Correspondents.
Agnes: The Johnsons's daughter, Agnes McMahon Johnson Holden (1880-1968).
This manuscript is held by the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, University of Texas at Austin. MS Johnson, RU Recip. Jewett, Sarah Orne, 4 ALS to Robert Underwood Johnson. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Mary Rice Jewett
Saturday
MANCHESTER-BY-THE-SEA
[ End letterhead ]
Dear Mary
We had a pretty party last night of Mr. Howells and Josie Dexter.* I dont know when she has seemed so like her old self of years ago. She sent her love to you and was very full of tales about old days with Mr. Warner* who was so fond of "Wirt{"} as you remember. Mr. Howells was bright and well and* altogether it was very pleasant. Theodore* wanted to see Dick Dana* so
that when Mr. Howells went away after eight to catch his train Stubby went with him, and found Dick at home and they had a great parley, which is arranged to be continued here at ten a.m.! You may not have heard the great news that Dicky is going! I think that Stubby cares more and more about it. Bass fishing will be in season, and one mercy seems to follow another. ------ [ We corrected ] went down to see Abba* late yesterday afternoon & a ball game down
in the Masconomo field* but a great shower came up and we quickly came trotting home. We are looking for Mr. & Mrs. Perry today (The Atlantic one).*
How nice it sounds about Cousin Fanny's visit!* I felt just as you did about her when I saw her at Brunswick. I hope she said that she could come by and by, -- but I dare say she will not start again very soon.
Mr. Howells was so funny about Annisquam -- it is so hot for all
the bay is to the North of them and so they get no salt breezes. [ Miss ? ] Phelps and Herbert Ward* have been thinking of buying a piece of land over that way & wanted him to share it and A. F. who had heard much of the project when they were here lately inquired about his plans, and he said that he went over surreptitious-like to see it and found that it joined a new burying-ground that appertains to Gloucester (I think) and we had such a laugh. I wonder that Elizabeth Stuart thought it an improvement on her present estate, but perhaps she thought it would be a quieter neighborhood.
Love to all and
I hope you will have a pleasant Sunday. Two weeks from tomorrow there will be pretty preaching! Yours with love
Sarah
Mr. Warner is talking a good deal about wishing to go to Berwick again, it seems to be much on his mind but I shall not stir if I can help it just yet. He is restless I think but
each day he has talked about it -- Theodore has gone down to the hotel to telephone Mr. Perry for us or he would send his messages, I'm sure.
Notes
11 August 1900: The envelope associated with this letter was cancelled at Rockport & Bos. 11 August 1900. It is addressed Care of Mrs. C. N. Bell (Mary Elizabeth Gray Bell) at Little Boars Head, NH. See Key to Correspondents.
In the manuscript, it is not clear whether Jewett wrote the "11" in "11 August." The number appears to have been added in pencil.
Mr. Howells and Josie Dexter: William Dean Howells. See Key to Correspondents.
Josephine Anna Moore (1846-1937) was the second wife of Chicago lawyer Wirt Dexter (1832-1890). She returned to her Boston home after her husband's death, where she died, though she was buried with him in Chicago.
Mr. Warner: Charles Dudley Warner. See Key to Correspondents.
and: In this letter, Jewett sometimes indicates "and" with a long-tailed "a."
Theodore: Theodore Jewett Eastman. See Key to Correspondents. Later in this letter, he is mentioned by his nickname, Stubby.
Dick Dana: Dick Dana is Richard Henry Dana IV. Wikipedia says: "Richard Henry Dana III (January 3, 1851 - December 16, 1931) was an American lawyer and civil service reformer... [ H ]e married in 1878, Edith Longfellow (1853-1915), the daughter of poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. They had four sons, Richard Henry Dana IV and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Dana, Edmund Trowbridge Dana III, and another." His father was "Richard Henry Dana Jr. (1815-1882), an American lawyer and politician from Massachusetts, a descendant of an eminent colonial family, who gained renown as the author of the American classic memoir, Two Years Before the Mast. Both as a writer and as a lawyer, he was a champion of the downtrodden, from seamen to fugitive slaves and freedmen."
Abba: The following is speculation. There was a Jewett relative known as Abba, however, she did not survive until 1900. This was Abigail (Mrs. Frank) Fiske. Richard Cary says that Jewett's grandmother, Lucretia M Fisk/Fiske, had a brother Francis Allen Fiske (1819-1887), who married Abigail Gilman Perry (1824-1868) and then Abby Blake Parker.
See Fiske and Fisk Family (1896) by Frederick Clifton Pierce, p. 328.
Abby Parker Fiske (1846-1925) resided in Cambridge, MA.
Among the children of Francis Allen and Abigail Gilman Perry were William Perry Fiske (1853-1914), who is mentioned in other letters, and Abby Gilman Fiske (1862-1947). Abby Gilman Fiske seems to have resided in Concord, NH.
From this information, then, emerge two candidates for the Abba mentioned here, Abby Blake Parker and Abby Gilman Fiske. The former probably is the stronger candidate as she actually resided in the Boston / Manchester MA area. On the other hand, Abba may be some other person altogether.
Masconomo field: In Masconomo Park in Manchester-by-the-Sea.
Mr. & Mrs. Perry: Atlantic Monthly editor, Bliss Perry. See Key to Correspondents.
Cousin Fanny's: Cousin Fanny (sometimes Fannie) may be Frances F. Perry (1861-1953), Jewett's mother's niece, the daughter of Dr. William G. Perry and Lucretia M. Fisk. See William Gilman Perry and Lucretia Morse Fisk Perry in Key to Correspondents.
Phelps and Herbert Ward: Elizabeth Stuart Phelps and her husband. See Key to Correspondents.
A.F.: Annie Adams Fields. See Key to Correspondents.
The manuscript of the letter is held by the University of New England Maine Women Writers Collection, item MWWC0196_02_00_080_01. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Mary Rice Jewett
Tuesday morning
[ 14 August 1900 ]*
Dear Mary
I thought you would speak of its being hot! but we are all cool [ enough corrected ] now thank Heaven! I waked up that hottest Saturday morning of all times with a great sore throat and proceeded to have a cold, as if it were January, but it has already turned after demanding every handkerchief, and though I am too heavy headed to get much out of myself today I hope to be
Mr. Warner* has just set
sail by the nine eleven train to see that great prelate at East Gloucester and afterward to spend the day with Mr. Howells at Annisquam.* I heard A. F.* calling after him to tell Brother Robert that she should be glad to see him before the 24th! Russell came hurrying up here last night having just got home from Marlborough. Stubby* will be sorry to miss him, and he was much disappointed. Mr. Warner read us a charming little paper that he had written lately about a new dog by name
of Sam which he seems to quite belove. I ought to write myself about Tosy,* oughtn’t I? Mrs. Fields sends love and looks forward to your coming. I got nine letters by the last mail each needing an immediate answer which with arrears make me feel busy. One is from the Colonial Dames of Maine* to address them the coming fall; but the one that pleased my heart most is a dear letter from Margie about the Foreigner.* I am so glad that dear Aunt Mary likes to wear that little pin and you must give her my
love and tell her so -- and* give my love to Aunt Bell and Aunt Gilman and Herring every time I write whether I say so or not because I always mean to send it.
Sarah
Notes
14 August 1900: The envelope associated with this letter was canceled in Rockport & Bos. on 14 August 1900. It is addressed to Mifs Jewett, Care of Mrs. C. H. Bell, Little Boars Head, New Hampshire. Mrs. Bell is Mary Elizabeth Gray Bell, the Aunt Bell, to whom Jewett asks her sister to convey her love at the end of this letter. See Key to Correspondents.
Brother Robert: Robert Collyer. Probably he is the "great prelate" whom Warner plans to visit. See Key to Correspondents.
Warner: Charles Dudley Warner. See Key to Correspondents. His article, "The Education of Sam," appeared in The Century 61 (November 1900), pp. 56-9.
Howells at Annisquam: William Dean Howells. See Key to Correspondents. Annisquam, like East Gloucester, is a part of Gloucester, MA.
A.F.: Annie Adams Fields. See Key to Correspondents.
Russell ... Stubby: Stubby is Theodore Jewett Eastman. See Key to Correspondents. His friend, presumably Russell Ball, is mentioned in other letters, but he has not yet been identified further.
Tosy: A Jewett family dog, sometime spelled "Tosey," somewhat notorious for getting into trouble. See Sarah Orne Jewett to Mary Rice Jewett of July 8 and 9, 1901.
Colonial Dames of Maine: The Colonial Dames of America was founded in 1890, accepting as members "women who are descended from an ancestor who lived in British America from 1607–1775, and was of service to the colonies by either holding public office, being in the military, or serving the Colonies in some other 'eligible' way."
It is not yet known whether Jewett actually addressed the Maine chapter in 1901.
Margie ...the Foreigner: Margie has not yet been identified.
Jewett's story, "The Foreigner," appeared in Atlantic Monthly in August 1900.
Aunt Mary ... Aunt Bell and Aunt Gilman and Herring: Aunt Mary almost certainly is Mary Olivia Gilman Long. See Mary Elizabeth Gray Bell in Key to Correspondents.
Aunt Gilman is Mrs. Helen Williams Gilman. See Key to Correspondents.
Herring has not yet been identified, though this may be a nickname for Helen Bell Fowler, one of Jewett's cousins. See Jewett's humorous poem in an 1875 letter to Mellen Chamberlain.
and: To indicate "and," Jewett has written an "a" with a long tail.
The manuscript of the letter is held by the University of New England Maine Women Writers Collection, item MWWC0196_02_00_089_01. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Jacob Woodward Manning to Sarah Orne Jewett
Horticultural Expert and Purchasing Agent
Room 1150, Tremont Building
BOSTON, MASS.
Tel. 1652-2 Haymarket
Miss S. O. Jewett,
So. Berwick, Me.
Dear Madam: --
Allow me to call your attention to the fact that the Fall planting season is at hand and that I would be very glad of the opportunity to give you quotations on any of your requirements. My special facilities for purchasing from the best sources are of great advantage to my clients and effect a large saving in the cost of goods where purchased through me.
The principal Fall planting operations are about as follows:I shall be pleased to give you any information in reference to any stock that you may require.
Rhododendrons and Laurels .... Sept. 1st to oct.* 1st
Strawberries, Pot Plants .... Aug. 15th to Oct. 1st
Layer Plants .... Oct. 14th to Nov. 16th
Evergreens (Pines, Spruces & Firs) .... Aug. 15th to Sep. 30th
Bulbs of all kinds .... Sep. 15th and later
Deciduous Trees & Shrubs .... Oct. 15th and later
Hardy Fruits ............................ " " " "
Herbaceous Perennials (Paeonies &c) .... Sept. 1st and later
[ Signature is eccentric, may be JMManning ]
Notes
oct: I have given Manning's few typographical oddities as they appear. I have not attempted here to duplicate his approximate right justifying of lines in the products list.
The typescript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library of Harvard University, Cambridge, MA. bMS Am 1743 Box 3, Item 144 I. Letters to Sarah Orne Jewett.
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Mary Rice Jewett
[ 23 August 1900 ]*
Please put this letter into the postoffice for Stubby* after you address it{.}
Dear Mary
If you can put your hand on it -- and not else! -- will you bring me a green book of the Academy dedication with Dr. Lord’s speech?* If it isn't right in the parlour closet, I can write to Ella Ricker,* and indeed I have other things to say to her. This is a lovely day again with a nice little touch of north
or north east wind. We have had no more intimations [ from corrected ] Brother Robert,* and whether he is coming today or not who can say? I am glad you had such a good time with Sadie --* I dreaded one of those long dishes of wrongs as if I had got to hear it too!
When you come tonight just ask for Mr. Boyle's* carriage. I shall speak to him to be there or a boy.'
Sarah
The company went off in beautiful spirits just after luncheon ----
Letters have arrived for Brother Robert but none from him this morning. Thank you for Stubby's letter. I can send mine to him right off --
Notes
23 August 1900: The envelope associated with this letter was canceled in Rockport & Bos. on 23 August 1900, which fell on a Thursday that year. It is addressed to South Berwick.
Stubby: Theodore Jewett Eastman. See Key to Correspondents.
Academy dedication ... Dr. Lord’s speech: Jewett refers to A Memorial of the One Hundredth Anniversary of the Founding of Berwick Academy, South Berwick, Maine (1891). This volume of 118 pages includes contributions by the school's most illustrious graduates: a "Preface" by Jewett, "The Historical Address" by the Reverend John Lord, and "The Oration" by Reverend William Hayes Ward.
Google Books: https://books.google.com/books?id=xmdCAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false
Ella Ricker: Two of Jewett's South Berwick neighbors were Maria Louisa deRochemont (Mrs. Shipley/Shepley Wilson) Ricker (1838-1921) and her daughter, Ella Wilson Ricker (1856- ). Mr. Ricker (1827-1905) operated a fancy goods store in South Berwick.
Brother Robert: Robert Collyer. See Key to Correspondents..
Sadie: This may be Sarah (Sadie) Jane McHenry Howell. See Key to Correspondents.
Mr. Boyle's: Presumably, this is Patrick Boyle, who seems to have operated a stable in Manchester by the Sea, MA. No further information has yet been located.
The manuscript of the letter is held by the University of New England Maine Women Writers Collection, item MWWC0196_02_00_091_01. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
A. F. Anderson to Sarah Orne Jewett
Miss Jewett may be interested in seeing the above notice of the ( or a) "Queen's Twin" --
Aug. 25. 1900
[ Attached to this card, upper left, is a small newspaper clipping. Penciled in the upper right corner of the clipping is a word that may be "Jewetts." ]
Notes
"Queen's Twin": Anderson refers to Jewett's story, "The Queen's Twin," which appeared in Atlantic Monthly in February 1899 and was collected the same year in The Queen's Twin and Other Stories.
Haggerty: Further information about Anderson and Haggerty has not yet been found.
The manuscript of this card is held by the Houghton Library of Harvard University, Cambridge, MA. bMS Am 1743 Box 1, Item 8 I. Letters to Sarah Orne Jewett.
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Annie Adams Fields
[ Summer 1900 ]*
Only a word today because I hope to see you tomorrow! I shall come to the house only for a minute on my way to Mrs. Pierce's* at 11.15 -- and so if you are to be only in the morning dont think of me until we meet at luncheon time -- ) Yesterday I had a poor lingering headache so that I came home early from the other house* -- after first
[ Page 2 ]
[ Page 3 ]
oddly enough was full of talks about the Fairchilds -- and of Charley.* -- It was odd that this letter should have come the very next day. Goodbye dear little Fuff* -- I hope it will be a good day for a conference{.} "Grace Gordon & Mr. Walden" are coming up from Portsmouth to spend the day which happens just right as my head is still a little out of the way! and I shouldn't be writing. I suppose all this pays for
[ Page 4 ]
last week when I had such a splendid boom -- for I have felt rather down ever since now that I think of it! The next boom must be carried straight through when it once begins: but we have heard this before. Goodby
-- Oh with so much love and hoping to see you tomorrow.
Mary sends ever so much love --
Notes
Summer 1900: This letter almost certainly was composed after the death of Carrie Jewett Eastman in 1897 and before Jewett's 1902 carriage accident. It appears that Emily Tyson may not yet have taken up residence at Hamilton House at the time of this letter, making 1900 the latest likely date, but that she has become a regular visitor to South Berwick. While 1898, 1899 and 1900 all are possible dates, I have arbitrarily placed the letter in 1900.
Parenthesis marks in this manuscript were penciled by Fields. In addition, Fields has deleted "Annie" in the greeting, and perhaps also deleted the end parenthesis mark after the greeting.
Mrs. Pierce's: Anne Longfellow (1810-1901), sister of American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, married George W. Pierce, described by the poet as "brother-in-law and dearest friend."
other house: Before 1887, Jewett would be referring to the house on the corner -- now the Sarah Orne Jewett House --, where she and Mary Rice Jewett moved after the death of their Uncle William in 1887. However, as this letter seems to come from after 1897, it is not clear what the other house would be. Perhaps the "doctor's" house next door, which had been the residence of Carrie Jewett and Edward Eastman? See Key to Correspondents.
If the 1900 date is correct, Jewett would likely have been working on The Tory Lover, which began to appear serially in November of 1900.
Mary & Theodore: Mary Rice Jewett and Theodore Jewett Eastman.. See Key to Correspondents.
Mrs. Tyson and Eva: Emily Davis Tyson and Baroness Eva von Blomberg. See Key to Correspondents.
here :): Fields appears to have penciled the colon as well as the end parenthesis.
Fairchilds ... Charley: See Sally Fairchild in Key to Correspondents. Presumably Charley is Charles Fairchild (1838-1910).
Fuff: Nickname for Annie Adams Fields. See Key to Correspondents.
"Grace Gordon & Mr. Walden": See Grace Gordon Treadwell Walden in Key to Correspondents. Why Jewett uses quotation marks here is not yet known.
Pinny: Pinny Lawson (Pinny / Pin) was an affectionate nickname for Jewett, used by her and Annie Fields. See Key to Correspondents.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library of Harvard University. Jewett, Sarah Orne, 1849-1909. Annie Fields (Adams) 1834-1915, recipient. 194 letters; 1877-1909 & [ n.d. ] Sarah Orne Jewett correspondence, 1861-1930. MS Am 1743 (255). Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Louise Imogen Guiney to Annie Adams Fields
Dearest Mrs. Fields:
Your praise would hearten one, if anything could. But even my rhymes are worlds away from me. You were very generous to say you liked the poor Tree of 1896.* It was a real one, cut at Auburndale!
My 'folks' have been in a bad way: Aunty threatened with blindness; and my mother so ill and worried that she came up from Maine to be nursed, and was violently sick for a while, but is now much, much better, as is my other patient, who is more of a Spartan* by nature. It is witheringly hot, as I hope you have no occasion to know. Would I might alight on your [ western corrected ] piazza,* then fly for five minutes to Magnolia, to say goodbye to my dear Mrs. Russell,* who goes
abroad with the children, next month! You know, when I took my nine days' vacation, I stayed over night in Portland, and from there took the train to Shelburne N.H., in order to have it out with Miss Whitney.* To my very great joy, I have brought her to believe with me, that I cannot think of liberty and 'the littery life' at present; I mean, that my plain duty seems dead against it, while there are so many grave cares upon me. So we adjourned sine die.* She was, and is, infinitely nice about it; and I shall always love her.
I have been wondering whether you liked Mr. Gilbert Murray's 'Andromache'?* Miss MacGuffy* told me you had had it. My love to S.O.J.,* be she with you or not.
Louis I. Guiney
St., Boston. Aug. 26.
Notes
1900: This date is likely to be correct. As the notes below indicate, this letter was composed while Guiney was employed at the Boston Public Library, before she traveled to England in 1901 and before the death of her Aunt Elizabeth Doyle in 1902. Since Murray's Andromache appeared in 1900, the letter could not be from earlier than that year.
Tree of 1896: Probably Guiney refers to one of her poems, but to which one is not yet known. She is not known to have published a volume of poetry in 1896.
Spartan: The stereotype of Sparta, a city state in ancient Greece, characterizes its residents as rugged and stoic.
piazza: Guiney writes to Fields at her summer home in Manchester-by-the-Sea, MA.
Magnolia ... Mrs. Russell: Magnolia was the home of Massachusetts politician William Eustis Russell (1857- 16 July 1896). His wife was Margaret Manning Swan (1862-1930). She remarried Michael George Foster in 1905. See Cambridge Tribune 19:20 of 18 July 1896. At the time of William E. Russell's death, he had three young children, two sons and a daughter. See also Guiney to Fields of 5 August 1896.
Miss Whitney: American sculptor Anne Whitney (1821-1915)
sine die: Latin, indicating that no future meeting date has been set.
Mr. Gilbert Murray's 'Andromache': British Australian classical scholar, translator and author, George Gilbert Aimé Murray (1866-1957). His Andromache was published in 1900. Probably Fields has borrowed it from the library.
Miss MacGuffy: Almost certainly this is Margaret Drake McGuffey (1870-1927), librarian at the Boston Public Library (1895-1904).
Her father and uncle were the originators of the McGuffey Readers.
S.O.J.: Sarah Orne Jewett. See Key to Correspondents.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Abbie S. Beede
Can you do a piece of type writing* for me next week? 8 or 9000 words perhaps? Please let me have a word from you here, care of Mrs. J. T. Fields* -- and if you are at leisure my sister will carry you the manuscript on Tuesday
S. O. Jewett
Notes
1900: This postcard is addressed to Mifs Abbie S. Beede, North Berwick and cancelled in Manchester, MA, on 31 August 1900.
writing: Most likely Jewett was working on the opening installments of The Tory Lover, which began to appear in Atlantic Monthly at the end of October, in the November issue.
Mrs. Fields: Annie Adams Fields. See Key to Correspondents.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the University of New England Maine Women Writers Collection, item MWWC0185.
Transcription by Kelsey Squire, Ohio Dominican University; edited and with notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Alice Brown to Sarah Orne Jewett
[ 1900 ]*
Dear Miss Jewett: --
The barn is my workshop here, and clearing up my papers there, to go away, what do I find but the accompanying letter to you,
written as its date faithfully declares, snugly sealed, and concealed among rubbish! I am so sorry, because I wanted to say at once that you were good to me. Summer's over! And I'm glad. I have to work.
AB
Notes
1900: Though the Houghton catalog labels this letter as from "M. J. Bradbury," it almost certainly is from Alice Brown. The signature seems clearly to be her initials. Further, it refers to an enclosed letter, which almost certainly is the letter, in the same handwriting, that follows in the Houghton catalog and which follows below.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library of Harvard University: Sarah Orne Jewett Correspondence I, Letters to Sarah Orne Jewett.
Bradbury, M.J. 1 letter; 1892, bMS Am 1743 (27).
This transcription is from a photocopy held by the Maine Women Writer's Collection, University of New England, Letters from Sarah Orne Jewett, 1875-1890, Box 2, Folder 99, Burton Trafton Jewett Research Collection.
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Alice Brown to Sarah Orne Jewett
This letter appears to have been enclosed in the one above, dated 3 September 1900.
Newburyport
I was very lucky, dear Miss Jewett, in having your beautiful letter just when I was undergoing a mysterious attack of toothache, which has only now left me -- not at the instigation of the dentist, but, I
fancy, of the Immortal Gods. For nobody could find the cause, and it "came and went" like the young woman in the poem.* I had been telling Mr. Perry* that I was inclined to quarrel with him for putting my fustian beside your wearing ( this is not speechifying) for
I believe I have never loved Mrs. Todd more than in this last chapter. But I won't talk about that, for this is not the time. I will only tell you how incalculably you help me when you can praise. I had never believed that
anything so good
I have made a discovery. Henry James!* I have been unlucky enough to read only his most involved and tortuous stories, but coming on Roderick Hudson, I am enchanted.
Gratefully and warmly yours,
August 22
Notes
1900: Almost certainly Brown refers in this letter to the August 1900 publication of Jewett's story, "The Foreigner." See notes below.
In another hand, in the left margin of p. 4: "Found among fragments of the Tory Lover."
the poem: American poet, James Russell Lowell, "She Came and Went." See Key to Correspondents.
Mr. Perry: Atlantic editor, Bliss Perry. See Key to Correspondents.
In the August 1900 issue of Atlantic Monthly, Jewett's story featuring Almira Todd, "The Foreigner," appeared along with Alice Brown's story, "A Sea Change."
"Fustian beside your wearing" almost certainly is an allusion, but the reference has not yet been identified.
Henry James: See Key to Correspondents. His novel, Roderick Hudson, was published in 1875.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library of Harvard University: Sarah Orne Jewett Correspondence I, Letters to Sarah Orne Jewett.
Brown, Alice, 1857-1948. 4 letters; [1901 ?], bMS Am 1743 (28).
This transcription is from a photocopy held by the Maine Women Writer's Collection, University of New England, Letters from Sarah Orne Jewett, 1875-1890, Box 2, Folder 99, Burton Trafton Jewett Research Collection.
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Mary Rice Jewett
[ 5 September 1900 ]*
[ End letterhead ]
Dear Mary
It is a beautiful morning and* for some reason (I think the change of the wind!) I have waked up quite rested -- Mr. Murchie* came down last night before tea, and was very nice indeed & sorry to have missed seeing you. He had come from the Adirondacks the night before & was pretty tired we thought, so we all sat quietly on the front piazza with the least tick of an East wind to keep us cool & a lovely moonlight. "The little girls"
[ Page 2 ]
as Mabel* always [ used corrected ] to call them, said how much they missed you -- I am going to copy a little while and then get my trunk ready for the Great Visit. I dont just know where to begin to pack but I think that I shall not try to pack for here & to go home too, as I thought at first, but come back here for a night or so, & leave part of my best goods & come home with a smaller trunk. But anybody [ must corrected ] take their fine things to Mrs. Cabots* mustn't they, Mary [ ? corrected ]I hope you weren't too distressed
[ Page 3 ]
with the heat. Mr. [ Murchie corrected ] said his cars were very hot.Will you look in the Bank and see how much money I have got? I meant to ask you, and to ask you to thank Becca* for her nice birthday letter. I must not write any more now, as "morning's are short" as Mother used to say --
love always
5 September 1900: The associated envelope seems to have been canceled on 6 September 1900, but 5 September fell on a Wednesday.
and: In this letter Jewett sometimes writes "a" with a long tail, meaning "and." I have rendered these as "and."
Mr. Murchie: Guy Murchie, Sr. (1872-1958), "was a graduate of Harvard Law School, a ... member of Theodore Roosevelt's Rough Riders, a U.S. Marshall, and a prominent Boston attorney who at one time served as attorney to Winston Churchill. Sitting President Theodore Roosevelt and his wife attended Guy Jr.'s christening." He married "Ethel A. Murchie -- who designed the interior of a seaplane for Sikorksy Aircraft." Their multi-talented son, Guy Murchie, Jr. (January 1907-1997), became a well-known journalist for the Chicago Tribune and a writer about the Bahá'í Faith.
Mabel: Probably Mabel Lowell Burnett. She died in 1898. See Key to Correspondents.
Mrs Cabots: Susan Burley Cabot. See Key to Correspondents.
Becca: Rebecca Young. See Key to Correspondents. Jewett's birthday was 3 September.
The manuscript of this letter is at the University of New England, Maine Women Writers Collection, Jewett Collection, MWWC 0196_02_00_073_01. New transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Mary Rice Jewett
Wednesday night
[ 5 September 1900 ]*
[ Begin letterhead ]
Pride's Crossing.
[ End letterhead ]
Dear Mary
I
shall
send
such
a
short
letter
that
it isn't worth sending! -- but you will like to have the news
of my arrival and finding Mrs. Cabot* pretty well -- We have
had a great* evening, all the candles in the parlor
but one were promptly snuffed right out after supper and* we
were arranged convenient for hearing in our chairs and set
in!! It is
now ten --
I went to Boston with Mrs.
Fields* by the 1:40 & we came back on the 4,30{.} My foot
is really all well and I went to the corner bookstore* to do
an errand and that was about all. The hour and a half went by
quickly. I think we were pretty late getting to town, but I
dont know why: we seemed to speed right allong
but
it was ten minutes of three
when we got there I believe.
-- I am glad you like the story* -- the
first stretch is a little heavy yet, but it has to tell
certain things and get them done with. [ There corrected
] are no more long pulls of history like that -- Dicky
Dana* was reported to have returned and the girls were going
over there to supper tonight. So I suppose they will have a
nice time -- Mrs. Cabot is going to ask them & A. F. here to lunch on Friday -- A. F. was saying about you today, how dear and sweet you were, and perhaps you would come again so as to go to Judy's* -- but I told her I didn't believe we should get there this year. Good night with best love from Sarah --
How dear of Mrs. Tyson* to come and to bring the flowers!
Notes
5 September 1900: With this letter is an
envelope addressed to Mary R. Jewett in South Berwick, dated
from Pride’s Crossing, Mass., September 6, 1900. The
reference to Jewett’s work on The Tory Lover confirms
this date. However, the letter was written on Wednesday
September 5, in the evening, and mailed the next day.
Mrs. Cabot: Susan Burley Cabot. See Key to Correspondents.
great: This word is underlined twice.
and: In this letter, Jewett sometimes indicates "and" with a long-tailed "a."
Mrs. Fields ... A. F.: Annie Adams Fields See Key
to
Correspondents.
corner bookstore: In Literary Shrines: the Haunts of some Famous American Authors (1895), Theodore Frelinghuysen Wolfe writes:
like the story: Given the description of the story as containing a good deal of history, almost certainly Jewett refers to The Tory Lover, which began appearing in serial in November 1900.Prominent among the literary landmarks is the "Corner Book-store" ... at School and Washington Streets [ in Boston ], which, like Murray's in London, has long been the rendezvous of the littérateurs. Here appeared the first American edition of "The Opium Eater" and of Tennyson's poems. Here was the early home of the "Atlantic," then edited by James T. Fields, who was the literary partner of the firm and the presiding genius of the old store. (87)
Dicky Dana: Wikipedia says: "Richard Henry Dana III (January 3, 1851 - December 16, 1931) was an American lawyer and civil service reformer... [ H ]e married in 1878, Edith Longfellow (1853-1915), the daughter of poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. They had four sons, Richard Henry Dana IV and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Dana, Edmund Trowbridge Dana III, and another." His father was "Richard Henry Dana Jr. (August 1, 1815 - January 6, 1882), an American lawyer and politician from Massachusetts, a descendant of an eminent colonial family, who gained renown as the author of the American classic, the memoir Two Years Before the Mast. Both as a writer and as a lawyer, he was a champion of the downtrodden, from seamen to fugitive slaves and freedmen."
Judy: While this has not been confirmed, it seems likely that this is Judith Drew Beal, stepdaughter of Annie Fields's sister, Louisa Adams Beal. See Annie Fields in Key to Correspondents.
Mrs. Tyson: Emily Davis Tyson. See Key to Correspondents. She had two homes, summering at Pride's Crossing, north of Boston, and wintering in Boston. With encouragement from Jewett, she and her step-daughter, Elizabeth (Elise) purchased the 18th-century Hamilton House in South Berwick in 1898 and undertook a restoration project.
See So Fine a Prospect: Historic New England Gardens (1997) by Alan Emmet.
The manuscript of the letter is held by the University of New England Maine Women Writers Collection, item MWWC0196_02_00_092_01. Transcription and notes by Terry & Linda Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Mary Rice Jewett
[ 6 September 1900 ]*
Pride's Crossing.
[ End letterhead ]
Dear Mary
It is half-past ten, and all* candles were put out tonight and every thing was spoken of with complete frankness.
-- It has been a very warm day under the lee of the Brimmer woods & Mrs. Gardner’s hill.* I didn't go to drive or set foot out of the door except that Mrs. Cabot* and I sat on the piazza this afternoon before tea, she in
her Bath chair -- no I dont mean Bath chair, but the Scheveningen kind* for piazzas!! ---- I got my work along pretty well, but I had to give out before twelve -- it was such a hot morning & got close I suppose in 'the garden room'-- I read the new Lane Allen* story of the hemp fields this afternoon and liked it much better than the Choir Invisible. Tomorrow Mrs. Cabot has asked Mrs. Fields* and the girls to luncheon. Oh dear how I wish that I could be at home
to hear Stubby's* tales! I dont suppose that he ever can tell them all over, but I am so much obliged for this last one which I read with deep and lasting pleasure, and now I must share it with a Friend who showed a great interest so that it is promised for tomorrow. How nice it was to go to Quebec! I look eagerly for news from the Abbé.* --- My eye will be no better if I write long by this blowing candle so good night with best love from
Aunt Annie asked me to give her love to Theodore and say how she had enjoyed his letters & how sorry she was he couldn't come, and the girls Esther & Lois said the same -- I long to hear more about the medicine woman.
Notes
6 September 1900: The envelope associated with this letter was canceled in Pride's Crossing, MA on 7 September 1900.
all: This word is underlined twice.
Brimmer woods & Mrs. Gardner’s hill: Probably the Brimmer woods were part of the grounds of the Martin Brimmer house in Beverly, MA. Brimmer (1829-1896) was an American politician who became the first president of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.
Isabella Stewart Gardner and her husband spent the late summer months at Beach Hill, "a cottage in Pride's Crossing on the North Shore of Beverly, [ MA ]." See Key to Correspondents.
Mrs. Cabot: Susan Burley Cabot. See Key to Correspondents.
Scheveningen kind: Scheveningen is a seaside resort in the Netherlands, a district of The Hague. Distinctive beach chairs often seen there in the 19th century were high-backed, half-domed cane chairs that offered shelter from the sun and wind. Modern versions typically are made of canvas, though the Wikipedia article shows a photo that includes both a canvas and a cane version.
Lane Allen: American fiction-writer James Lane Allen (1849-1925) authored The Choir Invisible (1897) and The Reign of Law; A Tale of the Kentucky Hemp Fields (1900).
Mrs. Fields: Annie Adams Fields. In the postscript, she is named as Aunt Annie. See Key to Correspondents. "The girls" have not yet been identified. Perhaps they are the two women mentioned in the postscript, Esther and Lois, but nothing more is yet known about them.
Stubby: Theodore Jewett Eastman. See Key to Correspondents.
Abbé: In the summer of 1897, Jewett, with her sister, Mary, and Theodore, traveled to Quebec with Marie Thérèse de Solms Blanc. There they met Abbé Henri-Raymond Casgrain, a secular priest and historian. See Key to Correspondents and Casgrain to Jewett of 15 June 1897.
The manuscript of the letter is held by the University of New England Maine Women Writers Collection, item MWWC0196_02_00_072_01. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Mary Rice Jewett
[ September 9, 1900 ]*
Sunday night
[ Begin letterhead ]
Pride's Crossing
[ End letterhead ]
Dear Mary
The chapters and their copy arrived in good season and I immediately made up my mind to shorten the first one a good piece. It appears like a young minister's first sermon with a little about everything into it. But I expected to have to deal with it considerably. ------
I
am
so sorry that Mrs Tyson* isn't well -- I
tried to call upon her yesterday, but without avail.
-- Mrs. Dexter* came this afternoon while I was out -- and I
[ was corrected from am ? ] sorry to
miss her, but great particulars were afforded of affairs along
the shore which were distinctly and severally imparted again
to me when I came back. I went down to carry some things to be
done up and then A. F. and I went over to the Howe's. Miss
Katy Nicholas has gone and Helen Howe has come back. Mrs.
Gardner came while we were there and we were all very cheerful
but I thought it was a poor day with both Mr. Howe and*
Alice. It was a most lovely afternoon with little very white
sail-boats on a light grey sea. Mr. Johnson Morton* was
spending Sunday on the hill* and A. F. had indulged the little
girls in having a crony come down from Cambridge -- I do so
enjoy a Sunday when I am so busy all the week and now I shall
be as fresh as can
be again to-morrow in this cool weather.[ Miss corrected from Mrs ] Tarbell ^editor^ of McClure's is coming to luncheon to-morrow ^at A. F.'s ^, and I shall go down to see her -- Miss Downes isn't coming back until Thursday Mary, so I am afraid I shall be away when Eva* comes!!!!!!
-- Goodnight with much love to you and [ Stubby corrected ] from a sister. I long to see the things from Desbarets.*
Sarah
I have just written to Grace for her birthday. I hope she
will get it tomorrow afternoon{.}
September 9, 1900: That this letter is from Pride’s Crossing and also refers to The Tory Lover suggests that its date is near, but probably after, the September 6, 1900 letter from Sarah to Mary. That she probably has sent Grace Gordon Walden a birthday note (see below) places the letter the day before Monday 10 September.
Mrs. Tyson: Emily Tyson. See Key to Correspondents.
Mrs. Dexter ... A. F. ... the Howe's .... Miss
Katy Nicholas ... Helen Howe .... Mrs. Gardner ... Mr. Howe
and Alice ... Mr. Johnson Morton: Josephine Anna Moore (1846-1937) was the
second wife of Chicago lawyer Wirt Dexter (1832-1890). She returned to
her Boston home after her husband's death, where she died,
though she was buried with him in Chicago.
A. F. is Annie Adams Fields.
The Howe's, George Dudley and Alice
Greenwood Howe. Back Bay
Houses notes: "By the 1904-1905 winter season, 59
Commonwealth was the home of Mrs. Alice (Greenwood) Howe, the
widow of George Dudley Howe. Her husband had died in March of
1903; prior to his death, they had lived at 179 Commonwealth.
Alice Howe was a close friend of the author, Sarah Orne
Jewett, who dedicated her book, The Country of the Pointed
Firs, to her. Alice Howe also maintained a summer
home in Manchester, the Cliffs, built in 1878, the first
residence designed by architect Arthur Little. Mrs. Howe
continued to live at 59 Commonwealth in 1913, but had moved to
265 Commonwealth by 1914."
It is possible that Jewett also refers as
well to Mark Antony De Wolfe Howe (1864-1960) and his wife
Fanny Huntington Quincy (1870-1933).
It is not clear, though, who Helen Howe
is. Mark Antony and Fanny's daughter, Helen Huntington
Howe (1905-1975), the monologuist and novelist who married
Reginald Allen, was not yet born in 1900.
Likewise, Miss Katy Nicholas has not been identified.
Mrs. Gardner is very likely Isabella
Stewart
Gardner (April 14, 1840 - July 17, 1924), "the founder
of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, ... a
leading American art collector, philanthropist, and patron of
the arts." Wikipedia.
Johnson Morton (c. 1862-1922) was an author
and editor, from the Harvard class of 1886. He served as
editor of the Youth's
Companion (1893-1907).
and: In this letter, Jewett usually indicates "and" with a long-tailed "a."
the hill: Fields's Manchester home was located on Thunderbolt Hill.Miss Tarbell ... of McClure's: According to Wikipedia,
"Ida Minerva Tarbell (November 5, 1857 - January 6, 1944) was
an American teacher, author and journalist. She was one of the
leading 'muckrakers' of the progressive era of the late 19th
and early 20th centuries and is thought to have pioneered
investigative journalism. She is best known for her 1904 book,
The History of the Standard Oil Company .... It was
first serialized in McClure's Magazine from 1902 to
1904. She was an editor at McClures for many years."
Miss Downes ...Eva: Miss Downes has not been identified. Eva probably is Baroness Eva von Blomberg. See Key to Correspondents.
the things from Desbarets: This reference remains
obscure. The name -- with different spellings -- is
connected with Canada in a couple ways, the small community of
Desbarats, Ontario, and a Quebec printing business. Perhaps
Theodore Eastman, who has been to Quebec, has obtained
something connected with one of these.
Grace for her birthday: Jewett likely refers to
a friend from her youth, Grace Gordon, who became the second
wife the Protestant Episcopal clergyman Jacob Treadwell Walden
(1830-1918) in 1885. Her birthday of 10 September fits the
probable date of the letter. The following biographical
sketch of Walden appears in the blog, Cow New Hampshire (posted 27 May
2006 by Janice Brown):
See also Key to Correspondents.(Jacob) Treadwell Walden, son of Jacob Treadwell & Beulah Hoffman (Willet) Walden, Episcopal clergyman, among the leading pulpit orators of the Episcopal Church in America, author of Sunday-School Prayer Book; Our English Bible and Its Ancestors, and the Great Meaning of Metanoia; b. 25 April 1830 Walden, Orange Co., NY, and died 21 May 1918 in Boston MA; he m. 15/17 September 1858 at Christ Church in Norwich CT to Elizabeth Leighton Law, dau of Hon. Wm. Henry & Mary (Lee) Law (they were married by Rev. A. Lee of Delaware). She was born Norwich Conn. 7 Nov 1829. [ Mary Lee, b. 15 Dec 1805 Cambridge MA, d. 26 Oct 1839 Huntington PA, m. 17 Feb 1829 William Henry Law, son of Lyman and Elizabeth (Learned) Law. Her brother Bishop Lee, was Episcopal Bishop of Delaware ]. Treadwell married 2nd, 11 June 1885 in Boston MA to Grace Gordon, daughter of George W. & Kate/Katherine P. (Sleeper) Gordon. She was born 10 Sep 1842 in Boston MA, and died 1 April 1918 in Boston MA. Rev. Treadwell Walden was early an assistant at Trinity Church, Newark NJ. He then became Rector of an Episcopal Church at Norwich Conn, living there for several years, until 1863, leaving to take charge of St. Clement’s Church in Philadelphia. He remained here until 1869; St. Pauls Church, Indianapolis from 1869-1872, and afterwards was Rector of a church at Fishkill and also in of St. Paul’s Cathedral in Boston until 1877. Later living at Cambridge, Mass, employing himself mostly in literary work of a theological nature. In 1890 residing 11 Lambert Avenue in Boston MA. 1898 Protestant Church Directory shows Treadwell Walden, became deacon 1854, born Walden NY, residing in Portsmouth NH. In May 1898 Rev. Treadwell Walden gave a lecture on “William the Conqueror” at St. John’s Chapel on State Street in Portsmouth NH.
The manuscript of the letter is held by the University of New England Maine Women Writers Collection, item MWWC0196_02_00_087_01. Transcription and notes by Terry & Linda Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Mary Rice Jewett
Pride's Crossing.
[ End letterhead ]
Dear Mary
Give my love to Eva* and tell her I am coming soon and mean to take some days vacation in honor of her visit. I write this with a deep sense of pleasure. I was more than usual busy the whole morning and suddenly heard the clocks strike two and then Loulie Dresel* came to luncheon all dressed up, and* I had forgotten all about her coming, hook and line! and so then I ran upstairs and
changed my dress, [ & ? ] lunch isn't till quarter past two, so that I was in with the first! Afterward Loulie had her horse come down and took me a nice drive and then I came home and laid me down awhile to rest, and there are those who felt over well today, so after supper we sat and spoke together and found it was twenty minutes to eleven to our great surprise, and so to bed. I am sorry to say
that only a little bit of rain came to this part of the world this morning and off the coast road which is watered it is deep with dust except in the thickest woods and not [ very corrected ] good driving. I am so glad Mrs. Tyson* is better but I am sorry she is going away -- The sea is making a great roaring tonight and the crickets seem to be taking a night's rest, so there may be a change of weather. I am glad to hear that the voting*
went off well. ---- My mind is upon my two plum trees and I desire to know even before I come if either of them are turning. Mrs. Fields* was awfully pleased with the kindly fruits of the earth and I ate excellent [ tomatoes corrected ] yesterday when I was there at lunch. Good night, I must go right to bed I am so sleepy, else I shall sit down in a chair and stop half way! With much love
Notes
11 September 1900: The envelope associated with this letter was canceled in Pride's Crossing, MA on 12 September 1900.
Eva: Baroness Eva von Blomberg. See Key to Correspondents.
Loulie Dresel: Louisa Dresel. See Key to Correspondents.
and: In this letter, Jewett sometimes indicates "and" with a long-tailed "a."
Mrs. Tyson: Emily Tyson. See Key to Correspondents.
voting: There was no national election in September of 1900. Presumably, Jewett refers to a local election, perhaps not for political office.
Mrs. Fields: Annie Adams Fields. See Key to Correspondents.
The manuscript of the letter is held by the University of New England Maine Women Writers Collection, item MWWC0196_02_00_072_01. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Mary Rice Jewett
Thursday
[ 13 September 1900 ]*
Dear Mary
I shall come tomorrow at six.
S.O.J.
Notes
1900: The envelope associated with this letter, addressed to Mfs Mary R. Jewett, South Berwick, Maine is cancelled on Friday 14 September 1900.
The manuscript of the letter is held by the University of New England Maine Women Writers Collection, item MWWC0196_02_00_118_01. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to John Hays Gardiner
13th September
1900
[ Begin letterhead ]
Pride's Crossing.
[ End letterhead ]
You must have thought me entirely unmindful of a very delightful compliment to my work as a story writer, and to your kindness in sending me months ago, a wholly delightful and* interesting book!* I wish to say now that I did not return from Greece until nearly midsummer, and then by some
[ Page 2 ]
unlucky chance your book was put away -- being a
book -- with some other things apart from the common heap of
mail matter that it was not thought best to forward.
So that weeks and weeks have
gone by before I really got your kind present into my hand!
But I do thank you most
sincerely for the pleasure I have had, and [ am corrected
] going to have in such a book. I find it most useful and full
of
[
Page 3 ]
suggestion
--
only
those
who
have long been busy with writing can appreciate the thought
and ^good^ judgment of it, but you have always succeeded in
being so readable and somehow so inviting toward literature
that I believe you will guide many a younger reader &
student in a way for which he will be increasingly grateful --
-- I mean by these bungling praises to say that you seem to me
to have succeeded in doing a most
[
Page 4 ]
difficult
thing
--
I
wish
that I might see you to say better than I can here, how deeply
I care for your wishing to use my story and to speak of the
work I have done, in this way --
If
you
are
with Mr and Mrs Richards*
when this finds you please give them my very affectionate
regard and believe me always
Your most truly
Sarah O. Jewett*
Notes
and: In this letter, Jewett sometimes writes "a"
with a tail to signify "and." I have rendered all of these as
"and."
book: Gardiner published The Forms of Prose
Literature in 1900. It was "A supplementary book to
English composition, by Professor Barrett Wendell." He
included in this collection of examples for writing students
Jewett's "Fame's Little Day" (1895). In his introduction
to the story he wrote:
I have asked permission to reprint this little story here because it is an example of the best kind of realism, of the realism which turns for its material to the homely events of everyday life and brings out the essential soundness and sweetness of that every-day life. It is not the easiest kind of realism: there is a morbid streak in human nature which makes the sordidness and brutality of Mr. Thomas Hardy's later people more interesting and perhaps convincing to a great many readers; a satisfying portrayal of such people is therefore, other things being equal, an easier task than the portrayal of people who, as in this story, are also commonplace but not weak or evil-minded. The story shows, moreover, how unnecessary it is to go far afield for material when the world is as full as it is of all the varieties of human nature.
Richards: See Laura Elizabeth Howe Richards in Key to Correspondents.
Jewett: A note at the bottom of the final page reads
in part: "Harvard College Library, March 12 1935, Estate of
John Hays Gardiner through Mrs. Alice Gardiner Davis."
The manuscript of the letter is held by the Houghton Library
of Harvard University: Box: 6 Identifier: MS Am 1743, (256),
Sarah Orne Jewett correspondence II. Letters from Sarah
Orne Jewett. Gardiner, John Hays, 1863-1913, recipient. 2
letters; 1899-1900., 1899-1900. Transcription and
annotation by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Sarah Wyman Whitman
[ September 1900 ]*
South Berwick, Maine
My very dear Friend I did not like to come away from the shore without seeing you again, but I did not think upon a 'white night{'},* last night, and today with all the heat, and the hurry of moving and a general sense of being at the end of a hard-pushed fortnight I thought I had better keep the little of me that was left, right square at home! But I have been thinking of you with deep
[ Page 2 ]
love in these last days. It would have been easier not to speak but I must tell you as if it were the first time how much I love you dear. It breaks my heart to see you so tired ----- sometimes when we are together it seems as if we only played at friendship with the old Great players [ masks ? ] held over our faces, but in my heart there is something that [ deleted word ] can never dull nor tire nor ever come to the end of [ deleted word? ]
[ Page 3 ]
in this [ weary ? ] world. I was filled with sudden relief and joy when I heard you say that you were going away for those days in Newport, but I could not help wishing that I* could have you -- that was the second thought that made me wish to run away and cry. I don't mind confessing!-- Dear A.F.* is here, sound asleep long ago, and tomorrow we go to Intervale to stay until Monday. I have dared to look into the Tennyson Life ^late as it is^ and I believe that I have
[ Page 4 ]
read the greater part of it making believe that I was only cutting the leaves. "The longer I live," he says once, "the more I [ value corrected ] kindness and simplicity among the sons and daughters of men."* I think the book makes him live
again: it was a wonderful face, and ^he was^ far and away the
greatest man I have ever seen. There was a kindness and
simplicity -- oh, most beautiful! but a separateness*
as if he had come from another world.*
There was a dear note from Mrs.
[ Page 5 ]
Lawrence* tonight. I shall show it to you. And I
saw Sally Norton today which was a great pleasure -- dear
child.
But how the days fly by as if one were riding the horse of Fate and could only look this way and that as one rides and flies across the world. Oh, if we did not look back and try to change the lost days! if we can only keep
[ Page 6 ]
our faces toward the light and remember that whatever happens or has happened, we must hold fast to hope! It is the one thing that is forever ours after all, but how many things we throw to right and left as we hurry on! It seems as if I were shutting the pages of this long summer as I write you darling, but always with new love in my heart and I beg you to have patience
[ Page 7 ]
with one who loves you very much, as I have often and often
begged you before [ begin a passage with different ink
] to have patience. Good night. I pray heaven to
bless you [ end of passage in different ink ]* --
darling I never forget the great window.* I long for you to
feel a new strength and peace every day as you work at it -- a
new love and longing. The light from Heaven must already shine
through it into your heart.
[ The letter has no signature ]
Notes
late: This word is written in different ink and
perhaps in a different hand, possibly that of Annie Fields.
There are several alterations in this letter, in addition to
the marks Fields typically used to prepare portions of letters
for inclusion in Letters of Sarah Orne Jewett
(1911). Jewett uses blue ink for most of the letter, but
there are additions in black ink, and it is not clear which if
any are by Jewett and which by Fields. A passage in
black ink on page 7 seems almost certainly to be Jewett's
writing, and this suggests that the other black ink additions
also are hers.
September 1900: This date is based upon Jewett
indicating that she writes in late summer and that she is
reading a new biography of Tennyson that appeared in 1900.
white night: Jewett may refer to a phenomenon
that occurs in high latitudes in summer, when the night never
is fully dark, but as she writes from Boston, it is more
likely that she means she has just had a sleepless night.
I: The word is underlined twice,
apparently in different ink and, therefore, perhaps by Fields
rather than Jewett.
A.F.: Annie Adams Fields. See Key
to
Correspondents.
late as it is: This insertion is in a black ink.
men: The letter's quotation from Alfred, Lord
Tennyson appears in Robert Forman Horton, Alfred
Tennyson:
a
Saintly
Life (1900), p. 307.
separateness: Jewett underlined this word in
blue ink; it is underlined a second time in black ink.
world: Fields placed eight "x's" after this word
and underlined them.
Mrs. Lawrence: One possibility for Mrs. Lawrence's
identity is Julia Lawrence. "William Lawrence
(1850-1941) was elected as the 7th Bishop of the Episcopal
Diocese of Massachusetts (1893-1927). Lawrence was the son of
the notable textile industrialist Amos Adams Lawrence and a
member of the influential Boston family, founded by his
great-grandfather and American revolutionary, Samuel Lawrence.
His grandfather was the famed philanthropist Amos
Lawrence" (Wikipedia).
He
and
his
wife,
Julia
(1853?-1900),
summered
in
York, ME.
Another possibility is Elizabeth Chapman
Lawrence (1825-1905), the second wife of Timothy Bigelow
Lawrence. See notes for Sarah Orne Jewett to Sara
Norton, September 16, 1908, and E.L., the Bread Box
Papers: The High Life of a Dazzling Victorian Lady: a
Biography of Elizabeth Chapman Lawrence (1983) by Helen
Hartman Gemmill. Daughter of Henry Chapman (1804-1891),
a Pennsylvania congressman, she was a popular and cosmopolitan
woman who, after her marriage, moved in the same circles as
Annie Fields and Jewett and corresponded with Sarah Wyman
Whitman.
Sally Norton: Sara Norton. See Key
to
Correspondents.
Given that Jewett is reading a 1900 biography of Tennyson, it seems likely that she refers to Whitman's "Honor and Peace" window in Harvard's Annenberg Hall, also completed in 1900. The Office for the Arts at Harvard says this window was funded by the Harvard Class of 1865: "This window commemorates those who surrendered their lives in the War of the Rebellion; [ it ] ... shows left, 'Honor' sending forth an armed warrior to battle. On the right is 'Peace' welcoming him in his civilian clothes with a wreath. There is no commemorative inscription; however, the two halves most likely refer to the members of the class who went to war (honor) and then returned home (peace)."
Judith Roman points out that Annie Fields published an essay on Whitman's glass work, "Notes on Glass Decoration," in the Atlantic in June 1899 (807-811).
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library of Harvard University, Cambridge. MA: Whitman, Sarah (Wyman) 1842-1904, recipient. 25 letters; 1892-[ 1900 ] & [ n.d. ]. Sarah Orne Jewett additional correspondence, 1868-1930. MS Am 1743.1 (126). Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Annie Fields Transcription
Annie Fields included part of this letter in Letters of Sarah Orne Jewett (1911). Her transcription follows.
My very dear Friend, -- I have dared to look into the Tennyson Life, late as it is, and I believe that I have read the greater part of it, making believe that I was only cutting the leaves. "The longer I live," he says once, "the more I value kindness and simplicity among the sons and daughters of men."
I think the book makes him live again; it was a wonderful face, and he was far and away the greatest man I have ever seen. There was a kindness and simplicity -- oh, most beautiful! but a separateness as if he had come from another world.
But how the days fly by, as if one were riding the horse of Fate and could only look this way and that, as one rides and flies across the world. Oh, if we did not look back and try to change the lost days! if we can only keep our faces toward the light and remember that whatever happens or has happened, we must hold fast to hope! I never forget the great window. I long for you to feel a new strength and peace every day as you work at it, a new love and longing. The light from heaven must already shine through it into your heart.Sarah Orne Jewett to Robert Underwood Johnson
[ 1900 ]*
MANCHESTER-BY-THE-SEA
[ End letterhead ]
I have received your note in regard to the story -- but it isn't true that my Great Work* is done though prospectuses may think so! It is pretty well written out but having all ones cloth doesn't mean that the coat is done. And so I must hold to my original promise about the short story. You can speak of it as Captain Legg -- [ deleted word ]
I was very sorry not to get to York to see you and* Mrs. Johnson [ but corrected ] with my best efforts I only got there a week or ten days ago -- I am not sure that I should have succeeded then if I had not wished to look after a friend who was ill -- I have really been very busy and instead of long holiday weeks here as
I remember as I write that Mr. Gilder* was to have that paper in Negro dialect ^The 'Cubator^ from Mr. Speed* in Kentucky -- and that if you could not use it it was to come back to me -- And I was waiting to hear before I wrote again to the author, and now so many weeks have passed that my author's heart
Forgive my writing in such haste. I do hope that you will like The Tory Lover which starts in November Atlantic but the second number, I can really promise to be more lively than the first -----
S. O. Jewett
1900: Jewett's final novel, The Tory Lover, began serialization in Atlantic Monthly in November 1900.
Jewett published no stories in Century after "The Coon Dog" in 1898, nor did she publish any story entitled "Captain Legg." However, Harvard University's Houghton Library holds a manuscript entitled "Captain Legg."
and: In this letter, Jewett often writes an "a" with a long tail for "and." I render all of these as "and."
Mrs. Fields: Annie Adams Fields. See Key to Correspondents.
Mr. Gilder. Richard Watson Gilder. See Key to Correspondents.
Mr. Speed: "Mandy's 'Cubatah'" by James Speed appeared in Century 70:5, September 1905. This may be Louisville, Kentucky businessman and philanthropist, James Breckenridge Speed (1844-1912). He had a summer home in Rockland, ME. However, there were several contemporaries named "James" in the Speed family, and it is not yet clear exactly which of them authored the story to which Jewett refers.
Letters by James Speed are held in Century Company Records, Manuscripts and Archives Division, The New York Public Library, MssCol 504. A letter to R. W. Gilder, dated 17 February 1886, concerning another topic, is on letterhead from The Law Offices of James Speed and Thomas & John Speed in Louisville, KY. A typed letter addressed to Robert Underwood Johnson, from Elk Creek, KY of 8 October 1900, concerns music for publication, and includes this paragraph:
I can not understand your reference to Mandy's 'Cubatah, unless Miss Sarah Orne Jewett has sent it to you. Some time ago I sent it to her to read and pass her judgement on as I have just commenced [ to typed over each other ] write a little. I am very glad indeed to hear that it has been accepted by the foremost magazine in the country.Another typed letter from Bloomington, Illinois, of 20 September 1905 is addressed to Editor Lighter Vein and includes these paragraphs:
In the September number of [ Centurey so spelled ] in Lighter Vein I find you have at last published a little story which I sold the Century Co a good long time ago.See Records and Memorials of the Speed Family (1892) by Thomas Speed.
Is there any demand at all for negro dialect stories along this line. The reason I ask is that I have noted that most of the magazines have stopped using them. Have three or four which I wrote at the time I submitted Mandy's 'Cubatah. These have a number of old negro melodies which I have never seen in print.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Princeton University Library, Princeton, NJ: Robert H. Taylor Collection of English and American Literature RTC01, Box 10, Folder 12. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Mary Augusta Ward to Sarah Orne Jewett
TRING.
My dear Mifs Jewett
Your letter gave me such great pleasure & also a prick of regret that the proofs of Eleanor were not long ago in your hands & that I have not had the help of your criticism and Mrs Fields* before the sheets finally passed away from me. But alas the
[ the ? ] writing* in July and August took too long. I could not bear to send the book to you [ till ? ] it was in what I considered its best form, and I went on adding & polishing &, as I hope, improving -- [ till ? ] the last possible moment. But I have instructed Harper to send you & Mrs Fields two of the earliest copies, & I shall indeed be happy if the book pleases &
touches you.
All that you tell me of your present work* interests me immensely. I can well imagine that you will find it difficult at first to think in the longer form, -- just as writing a short story is to me like composing in another language -- full of technical difficulty from first to last. But you will master it & I look eagerly for the result. Don't you think that the secret of long things
or one of the secrets, is the courage sometimes to be dull? I have been struck with that in Wilhelm Meister, which I have just re-read. Perhaps only a Goethe can be allowed to be as dull as he often is! -- but I am sure that the quiet passages enormously heighten the "moments", when they come. By the way we have just been to Weimar & [ Frankfurt ? ] & I have been [ plunged ? ] in Goethe. Oh! what a great, great man!
I wish I could have seen more of dear Sally* this summer to whom [ send ? ] love, if you are with her, or [ near ? ] her.
You can't think how anxious we are about Eleanor in America & how grateful I shall
be for any good news you can give me! She comes out on Nov 1.
Mary A. Ward
Notes
Eleanor: Ward's 1900 novel, Eleanor appeared first as a serial in Harper's Magazine.
Fields: Annie Adams Fields. See Key to Correspondents.
writing: Ward sometimes seems to write "g" for "ing." I render these as "ing."
present work: Jewett was composing her final novel, The Tory Lover (1901).
Wilhelm Meister: German author Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749- 1832) published Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship in 1795-6.
Sally: Sara Norton. See Key to Correspondents.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library of Harvard University: Sarah Orne Jewett Correspondence I, Letters to Sarah Orne Jewett.
Ward, Mary Augusta (Arnold) 1851-1920. 7 letters; 1893-1904 & [n.d.].bMS Am 1743 (228).
This transcription is from a photocopy held by the Maine Women Writer's Collection, University of New England, Letters from Sarah Orne Jewett, 1875-1890, Box 2, Folder 97, Burton Trafton Jewett Research Collection.
Associated with this letter is an envelope addressed to Jewett in South Berwick, ME and forwarded to Manchester-by-the-Sea, MA.
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Mary Rice Jewett
[ Oct 13, 1900 ]*
Dear Mary
I had Mrs. True Goodwin* for companion to Boston and Mr. T. G. came to bring her to the train so that I had a good chance to talk about Mrs. Dexter.* They both took it very reasonably and he thanked me for trying to do something about it in such a nice way. I thought they seemed much more cheerful and contented than last summer.
[ no signature ]
Notes
A transcriber's note with this letter reads: [ Manchester, Mass., Oct. 13 to MRJ, SB ]
1900: The earliest mention of Mrs. Dexter in Jewett letters appears to be in 1900, the latest in 1907. I have tentatively placed this letter in the summer of 1900.
True Goodwin: In Pirsig's The Placenames of South Berwick is a photograph of True E. Goodwin (1850-1918) and his family at Hamilton House (p. 38). Other sources indicate that he served at various times as a South Berwick selectman and as supervisor of schools. He married Clara Jane Garland (b. 1856) on 25 May 1896.
Mrs. Dexter: Josephine Anna Moore (1846-1937) was the second wife of Chicago lawyer Wirt Dexter (1832-1890). She returned to her Boston home after her husband's death, where she died, though she was buried with him in Chicago.
It is possible, however, that the letter refers to Mrs. Fred Dexter, an acquaintance of Emily Tyson mentioned in other letters. This may be Susan Chapman Dexter (1843-1917), wife of Frederic Dexter (1841-1895), a Boston cotton merchant. Both are buried at Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge. Mrs Dexter lived at Beverly Farms as well as in Boston's Back Bay area, and so might easily have been known to Fields and Jewett.
This text is from transcriptions from mixed repositories in the Maine Women Writer's Collection, University of New England, Letters from Sarah Orne Jewett, 1875-1890, Undated Letters, Folder 75, Burton Trafton Jewett Research Collection. For more information about the individual transcription, contact the Maine Women Writers Collection. Notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Mary Rice Jewett
I had a great blow yesterday as I waited at the postoffice in seeing that the town woods by the Great Works river were going to be cut.* It would spoil one of our loveliest places and that little view down over the slope it seems ever since as if I could hardly bear it. I wish you would ask about it: how much there is etc. just for satisfaction: Jimmy* would know. Please dont forget it and tell me.
Mary sends love to you and all affectionate messages, and I
hope to see you SOON! Oh it will be so nice to get
home. I dont want to stay a bit longer!
Notes
Thurs. a.m. October 1900: Jewett's letter
to Mary Rice Jewett of 15 October 1900 seems to respond to
what Mary had to say about the price of the town woods
mentioned in this letter. Handwritten notes with this
text read: [ to Mary ] [ Thurs. a.m. ].
the town woods by the Great Works river: See Sarah Orne Jewett to Mary Rice Jewett of 15 October 1900.
Jimmy: This person's identity is not yet
known.
Mary: Which Mary this may be from among Jewett's
acquaintance is not yet known.
This text is from transcriptions from mixed repositories in
the Maine Women Writer's Collection, University of New
England, Letters from Sarah Orne Jewett, 1875-1890, Folder 74,
Burton Trafton Jewett Research Collection. For more
information about the individual transcription, contact the
Maine Women Writers Collection. Preparation by Linda
Heller. Notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Mary Rice Jewett
[ Tuesday Morning ]
[ Autumn 1900 - 1901 ]*
I have been thinking about your other lace dress, and I think on the whole, that I should get it made. Mrs. Pierce* told me when I asked her, that such lace was in high style this winter and you might just as well take the climbing wave! I should bring up the lace any way, but if you do use it be sure to have the dress very light and then you could use it in summer (except the very mid-summer) when you couldn’t use your satin, I should think. I send you Zip’s note and old Helen’s:* Both very pleasant. I shall try to get to old Helen’s tomorrow as she has now set Wednesday for her day. I grudge these lovely days away when we might be going to places. I do hope that you and an illustrious not to say welcome guest are making the most of them! I perfectly ache when I think of not getting up Agamenticus* this year but we may fetch it yet November is the month in which I have fullest confidence. A.F.’s* cold is almost gone. She was going to fly all abroad in every direction yesterday, but a young man came to sit with her who is writing a life of Govr Andrew.* I must now leave you with much love
Sarah
Notes
1900: This date is a guess, based mainly on the
fact that Jewett mentions Mrs. Pierce the dressmaker here and
in a letter to Lilian Aldrich of 15 July 1900. It is
about as likely that Jewett wrote in 1901, but it probably was
not written later than 1904, and because Jewett was quite ill
from September 1902 through 1903, it seems unlikely that she
wrote in either of those years.
Handwritten notes with this text read: [ to
Mary ] [ Tuesday Morning ].
Mrs. Pierce: In a July 15, 1900 letter to Lilian
Aldrich, Jewett mentions a favorite dressmaker and friend who
will be staying part of the summer in Tenants Harbor, ME.
Zip’s note and old Helen's: Zip is so far unknown. Richard Cary identifies "Old Helen" as Helen Bigelow Merriman. See Key to Correspondents.
Agamenticus: The three hills of Agamenticus rise northeast of South
Berwick, between the town and the Atlantic coast. The
highest is Mount Agamenticus, at 692 feet.
A.F.: Annie Adams Fields. See Key to Correspondents.
a young man ... a life of Govr Andrew: John Albion Andrew, Republican, was
governor of Massachusetts during the Civil War,
1861-1866. The young man probably was Henry Greenleaf
Pearson, whose The Life of John A. Andrew
appeared in 1904.
This text is from transcriptions from mixed repositories in
the Maine Women Writer's Collection, University of New
England, Letters from Sarah Orne Jewett, 1875-1890, Folder 74,
Burton Trafton Jewett Research Collection. For more
information about the individual transcription, contact the
Maine Women Writers Collection. Preparation by Linda
Heller. Notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Francis Whiting Halsey to Sarah Orne Jewett
The New York Times
SATURDAY REVIEW.
Miss Jewett,
Boston, Mass
Dear Madame:
I beg this day to send you in another wrapper the latest issue of the New York Times Saturday Review, in which will be found something* not altogether uninteresting to you.
And may I add that, if at any time, you should desire to have any items of general interest to the public printed in The Saturday Review concerning your work, or your interest in literary matters, they would be received with pleasure.
[ Signature by hand. ] Francis W. Halsey.
Notes
1900: The underlined portion of this date was typed into the letterhead.
something: Presumably Halsey refers to the "Books in Boston" column that appeared in the Times on 13 October 1900 announcing, among other things, the beginning of the serial publication of Jewett's The Tory Lover in Atlantic Monthly. The notice reads:
The November Atlantic is to bring forward Miss Jewett as a historical novelist, with the fortunes of the New England loyalists for her subject. Her story, "The Tory Lover," will be continued through six numbers, and when complete will partly fill the gap between the little group of Wentworth novels and poems and the modern fiction of Dr. Holmes and Mr. Aldrich. The Piscataqua has been a lucky river in being celebrated by writers of eminence, but not a tithe of its legends is yet preempted, and Miss Jewett's tale of "The Ranger" and her exploits on foreign shores will be quite new.The typescript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library of Harvard University: Sarah Orne Jewett Correspondence I, Letters to Sarah Orne Jewett.
Halsey, Francis Whiting, 1851-1919. letter; 1900. (89).
This transcription is from a photocopy held by the Maine Women Writer's Collection, University of New England, Letters from Sarah Orne Jewett, 1875-1890, Box 2, Folder 99, Burton Trafton Jewett Research Collection.
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Mary Rice Jewett
[ Oct. 15, 1900 ]*
Dear Mary
…………..I thank you for telling me about the woods.* I thought it might be a smaller sum than that -- so hope it is over! It ought to make us sorry. We hardly know how much our love for Berwick rests upon such things, and that we can lose the things that make it really beautiful.
Notes
1900: A transcriber's note with this text reads: [ Oct. 15, 1900 Sarah Orne Jewett to MRJ ?omus Merriman, Stonehurst. ] No rationale for this date is given, but this note suggests there was an envelope with this letter. Stonehurst in North Conway, NH was the home of Jewett's friend, Helen Bigelow Merriman. See Key to Correspondents.
The line of points presumably indicates an omission from the manuscript.
the woods: What issue concerning woods has been settled is not yet known.
This text is from transcriptions from mixed repositories in the Maine Women Writer's Collection, University of New England, Letters from Sarah Orne Jewett, 1875-1890, Undated Letters, Folder 75, Burton Trafton Jewett Research Collection. For more information about the individual transcription, contact the Maine Women Writers Collection. Notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Jeannette Leonard Gilder to Sarah Orne Jewett
| Jeannette L. Gilder Joseph B. Gilder } Editors ----- ESTABLISHED 1881 |
The Critic An illustrated Monthly Review of Literature, Art & Life |
Published for THE CRITIC COMPANY -- G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS 27 and 29 West 23d Street,New York. |
Dear Miss Jewett,
I have just read a note about your new novel, The Tory Lover,* and it sounds to me as though there was a play in it. Have you control of the dramatic rights? If you have and will [ have them made ? ] over to me I will see that you get the very best terms & the very best dramatization. I have just gone into partnership with Miss Elisabeth Marbury* in the placing of book plays. She has To Have & to Hold, The Little Minister, David
[ also on letterhead ]
Harum, Caleb West, Janice Meredith* & all the big things. What we do is to see the managers and make the best terms. We get a payment down & good percentages and we ask eight percent of the author [ deletion ] receipts, that is if you get $500. a week we get forty dollars. For this we also attend to all the business of collecting royalties, making contracts &c &c. Please let me know the situation.
Jeannette L. Gilder
Notes
Tory Lover: Jewett's novel, The Tory Lover (1901), began to appear in serial in Atlantic Monthly in November of 1900. Gilder probably had not yet seen the first installment when she wrote this letter.
Marbury: Elisabeth Marbury (1856-1933) was an American theatrical and literary agent and producer. Wikipedia. The titles Gilder mentions are:
To Have & to Hold (1899), a novel by American author Mary Johnston.
The Little Minister (1891), a novel by Scottish author, J. M. Barrie.
David Harum: A Story of American Life (1899), a novel by American author, Edward Noyes Westcott.
Caleb West, Master Driver (1898), a novel by American author and Jewett correspondent, Francis Hopkinson Smith.
Janice Meredith (1899), a novel by American author, Paul Leicester Ford.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library of Harvard University: Sarah Orne Jewett Correspondence I, Letters to Sarah Orne Jewett.
Gilder, Jeannette Leonard, 1849-1916. 4 letters; 1895-1900., 1895-1900. (79).
This transcription is from a photocopy held by the Maine Women Writer's Collection, University of New England, Letters from Sarah Orne Jewett, 1875-1890, Box 2, Folder 99, Burton Trafton Jewett Research Collection.
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Annie Adams Fields
[ Autumn 1900 ]*
I hope you had the good of such a lovely day as yesterday. I didn't go far and wide myself, but it was lovely in and about the house like summer only much { more } pleasant from an Autumn loving Pinnys* point of view. On Saturday we had a lovely drive and in the beginning of it, stopped at the station to see Bryan* who was going through on the train to Portland.
[ Page 3 ]
[ Page 4 ]
Did I tell you of a big monkey [ which ? ] has been at large? He escaped from the amusement park down the river and appeared to Emily Tyson* in the garden. She fed him and tried to do for him! but he swam the river and again appeared at the Does* and [ stayed about ? ] for days before he was caught. You couldn't help expecting him to call at any time!
it -- and Jane* probably thought that was all that was needed! But good bye darling -- from your P.L.
Notes
Autumn 1900: This date is supported by Jewett's reference to William Jennings Bryan's presidential campaign; he ran for President of the United States in 1896 and 1900. This letter is more likely from 1900, after Emily Tyson took up residence at Hamilton House during parts of each year. This manuscript is fragmentary; the sheet containing pages 3 and 4 has been torn away at the top.
Pinnys: Pinny Lawson, a nickname for Jewett. See Key to Correspondents.
Bryan: William Jennings Bryan (1860-1925) opposed and lost to William McKinley (1843-1901) in the United States Presidential elections of 1896 and 1900.
Mary ... Elizabeth Perry's: Mary Rice Jewett. See Key to Correspondents.
Elizabeth Perry has not yet been identified. Presumably, she is a Jewett relative.
Emily Tyson: Emily Davis Tyson, whose Hamilton House residence in South Berwick was on the Piscataqua River. See Key to Correspondents.
Does: Edith Bell Haven Doe, who lived in nearby Rollinsford, NH, on the Piscataqua River. See Key to Correspondents.
Jane: A Fields employee.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Huntington Library, San Marino, CA, in the James T. Fields papers: mss FL 5561. This manuscript has been damaged by water, making parts of the transcription less than normally certain. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Johnson Morton to Sarah Orne Jewett
EDITORIAL ROOMS OF THE YOUTH'S COMPANION,
BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS.
Dear Mifs Jewett
It pleases me very much to have the Book straight from the hands of the Friend and I should have told you so before this very late day -- but, you see, I have waited until I read the story for, curiously enough though I had [ bought or brought ] [ first ? ] one "Tory Lover"* and then another -- both now wrested from me by eager kindred before I had a chance even to skim the contents. Now that the Tale is read and [ mastered ? ] and learned -- I'm going to tell you what I think of it! In the first
place of all the thanks of a grateful people should be yours for showing us that the book of popular favor on the adventure theme can be written in noble, beautiful, impeccable English that is a delight & a relief as well -- to those of us -- and these are many -- who love [ our Mullin=thyme ?]* in their purity. Then you have treated historical facts so legitimately and reverently that your novel has new value on this score -- You see I've read your Berwick article* in the New England Magazine & the Life of Paul Jones* as
well! In the modern habit of slap-dash mingling of fact and fancy this is, dear [ me ? ], a most important matter for the modern historical story is so misleading, I am sure, as were those strangely interesting marbleback tales that they used to hold us back from in the seventies. --. I like your characterizations too -- especially [ deletion ] those of your women -- Mary Hamilton is a triumph for she really lives and changes & grows & develops and Madame Wallingford is almost as good in her
way -- a way more familiar to those [ persons ? ] who know you and your work. Your Paul Jones is alive, but a bit elusive now and then, as I doubt not you wanted him to be, and I wish there was more of him; but I can see your point of view for, after all, he is a means to an end, a sort of [ Deus ? ], isn't he? Your Hero I am not so sure about -- you make him likeable personally but you are from time to time giving the im=
Someone came in and this stopped & since then more than a week has gone and I have seen you and yesterday's mail brought me such a beautiful note from you that my heart has been [ warm ? ] & gay ever since. Nothing that I could do would be nicer than spending Thanksgiving with you and a day ago I should have said "Yes" unreservedly -- but only to-day I heard from my poor, little Aunt who is sad
and quite as lonely as I, and [ in the letter ? ] she spoke of Thanksgiving so hopelessly that I wrote her that I'd do just what she'd like on that dread day. I've not heard from her yet and it may be that I can do nothing for her, but will you let me wait & answer you in a few days? In case I stay here on Thursday -- could I come to Berwick on Friday afternoon for the Saturday & the Sunday? I thank Mifs Mary* & you very much -- I don't believe that you can quite know what it means
to [ me ? ] to be wanted -- I feel so empty=handed and useless these days. My love to you both and my grateful thanks. I am happy and proud to know that you are my friends -- and I am
Morton Johnson.
This ends the interlude, -- "And* this sometimes makes us [ regret ? ] that he is not quite [ good enough ? ] for the girl! Nevertheless he is as Master Sullivan says -- "A country gentleman"
and, to my mind he'll prove a better husband than lover! I wonder if you'll agree with this? And now let me tell you that I think Master Sullivan is delicious -- drawn in quite the great manner -- with a delightful mystery about him that whets a reader's curiosity. The most beautiful chapter in the book is "The Soul that Sees" -- a real masterpiece of accomplishment and suggestion -- in it you are at your best; and I like very much the subtle picture of Bristol that you give, it makes a
very real impression by a few careful strokes. How do you do it? I'd give my [ deletion ] boots for this power, but I don't quite understand it save that I recognize that something which for want of a better word we call the "artistic touch," just as soon as I see it! -- This is a rambling screed, dear friend, with a big hiatus in its middle but I am not going to copy it for I prefer that it should come to you just as it comes from me -- my own
[ Page 10 ]
simple impressions set forth in my Doric way. It seems to me that you have [ here ? ] the very fruit of modern writers to dignify the story of adventure with the crown of your Art -- There is in the "Tory Lover" an example and a lesson quite as much for those who write as for those who read: the former may [ show us ? ] in the future
[ Page 11 ]
that they have taken it to heart; and may the latter buy, even to the hundreds of thousands -- at once! -- So I thank you-- dear friend, -- again for the book and your constant kindness and your friendship ----.
1900: Morton's date is unclear. He may have written "October 21" or even "October 2d."
On the blank page facing page 9 is a note penciled in another hand, down the right margin: "Comments on Tory Lover by Johnston Morton." Morton's first name is so spelled.
"Tory Lover": Jewett's The Tory Lover (1901). Main characters include heroine Mary Hamilton, Madame Wallingford, John Paul Jones, Master Sullivan, and, the hero, Roger Wallingford.
Mullin=thyme: This transcription is uncertain, though it is clear that Morton has used "=" as a hyphen. Probably he refers to an herbal remedy, perhaps mullein-leaf and thyme tea.
Berwick article: Jewett's "The Old Town of Berwick" appeared in the New England Magazine of July 1894.
Life of Paul Jones: It is not known which life of Jones Morton may have read. In 1901, the most recent biography was Paul Jones, Founder of the American Navy (1900) by Augustus Buell, a book upon which Jewett drew and which, in the years after her novel, proved to be largely fictional.
Miss Mary: Mary Rice Jewett. Key to Correspondents.
"and: While Morton has written what appears to be a quotation mark here, this may be a graphic signal connecting this to the lines written over the letterhead at the top of page 5.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library of Harvard University, Cambridge, MA. Sarah Orne Jewett Correspondence, bMS Am 1743 Box 4, Item 160. I. Letters to Sarah Orne Jewett.
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Jeannette Leonard Gilder to Sarah Orne Jewett
| Jeannette L. Gilder Joseph B. Gilder } Editors ----- ESTABLISHED 1881 |
The Critic An illustrated Monthly Review of Literature, Art & Life |
Published for THE CRITIC COMPANY -- G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS 27 and 29 West 23d Street,New York. |
South Berwick, Maine
Dear Miss Jewett
I wrote you several days ago at Manchester-by-the-Sea in regard to the dramatic rights in The Tory Lover*. I want 'em. I don't insist upon
Jeannette L. Gilder
Notes
Tory Lover: Jewett's novel, The Tory Lover (1901), began to appear in serial in Atlantic Monthly in November of 1900. Gilder probably had not yet seen the first installment when she wrote this letter.
Marbury: Elisabeth Marbury (1856-1933) was an American theatrical and literary agent and producer. Wikipedia.
Johnston: To Have & to Hold (1899), a novel by American author Mary Johnston (1870-1936). Wikipedia.
The typescript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library of Harvard University: Sarah Orne Jewett Correspondence I, Letters to Sarah Orne Jewett.
Gilder, Jeannette Leonard, 1849-1916. 4 letters; 1895-1900., 1895-1900. (79).
This transcription is from a photocopy held by the Maine Women Writer's Collection, University of New England, Letters from Sarah Orne Jewett, 1875-1890, Box 2, Folder 99, Burton Trafton Jewett Research Collection.
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Francis Jackson Garrison to Sarah Orne Jewett
[ Graphic of hand, index finger pointing right ] All letters, to ensure prompt attention, must be addressed to the Firm.
__________________________________________________
| CHICAGO OFFICE 378-358 WABASH AVENUE. |
BOSTON OFFICE, 4 PARK STREET. |
NEW YORK OFFICE,
11 E. 17TH STREET. |
HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN & COMPANY, Publishers.
Miss S. O. Jewett,
South Berwick, Maine.
Dear Miss Jewett:
In reply to your favor of the 23d inst. about the matter of the dramatization, we would say that we have had quite an experience recently in this direction, and should be glad to have a personal talk with you about the ins and outs of it. There is unquestionably an unusual interest on the part of theatrical managers in the successful novels of the day, and they are looking more and more to them for possible stage materials, but it is advisable to be very cautious about committing one's self to any definite arrangement until several very important elements have been carefully considered and provided for or against. The best course of procedure seems to be to avail one's self of the dramatic agencies which exist, and two of the most successful of which are managed by women, namely, Miss Elisabeth Marbury and Miss Alice Kauser,* both of New York City. Miss Marbury has a very excellent reputation and standing, and has been very successful in her business operations. Her business is to discover promise in a work of fiction, to find the best playwright, to negotiate for the production on the stage of the play, and to collect the royalties or share of the box receipts, which may be payable under the business arrangement with the manager. An author who has a literary reputation to guard needs among other things to make careful provision that the dramatization shall not violate his or her feelings, and shall be subject to her veto if unsatisfactory or offensive. Should you care to have us serve you in connection with the business and other arrangements for the dramatization of "The Tory Lover",* we shall be happy
to do so, or if you shall prefer to deal directly with Miss Marbury or any other agent and negotiate at first hand, we shall be entirely content, but we should advise for the present reserving all rights, and making no definite arrangement until you had had longer opportunity to ascertain what eagerness or competition there may be on the part of the theatrical managers to take hold of such a play; for it is a matter in which hasty action is likely to be regretted, and with the book publication so many months away, there is ample time for deliberation in the matter.
Houghton, Mifflin & Co.
[ Initials handwritten F. J. G. ]
Notes
Miss Elisabeth Marbury and Miss Alice Kauser: Elisabeth Marbury (1856-1933) was an American theatrical and literary agent and producer. Wikipedia.
Alice Kauser (c. 1872-1945) was a play broker and literary agent in New York City. NY Times obituary, 10 September 1945, p. 19.
The Tory Lover: Jewett's novel began serialization in 1900 and appeared as a book in 1901.
The typescript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library of Harvard University: Sarah Orne Jewett Correspondence I, Letters to Sarah Orne Jewett.
Houghton, Mifflin & Co., firm, publishers, Boston. 6 letters; 1891-1904.. (101).
This transcription is from a photocopy held by the Maine Women Writer's Collection, University of New England, Letters from Sarah Orne Jewett, 1875-1890, Box 2, Folder 99, Burton Trafton Jewett Research Collection.
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Augustus Buell to Sarah Orne Jewett
October 27 1900 *
1913 Judson Place.
Philadelphia.
My dear Miss Jewett:
I have just read the beginning of your story in the November Atlantic.* It bids fair to prove of surpassing interest.
In your letter you say that I make Dr. Green hail from Philadelphia. If you take another glance at the roster of the Ranger you will see that he hails from Portsmouth*
I have seen the pamphlet -- or one
pamphlet -- by Dr. Benjamin Green. It dealt, however, entirely
with the history of the Ranger from after
her return from France in the fall of 1778. Henry Gardner in
his narrative speaks of the Dr. Ezra Green in the Ranger's
European cruise as "Nelson."
Your introduction of "Roger Wallingford" to your readers is finely dramatic, and it would be a pity to spoil such a charming -- nay even thrilling -- romance, for the sake of commonplace history. As a matter of fact I am sure that Wallingford had made one cruise in the West Indies, with Nicholas Biddle during the winter 1775-76 and that Jones had with him in the Providence during the summer of 1776 a man named Richard Wallingford, hailing from Philadelphia -- at that time anyhow -- whatever may have been his proper port of hail.
The records I have are, of course, meager, but there is nothing in any of the extant records of his shipmates or contemporaries -- so far as I have had opportunity of seeing them -- to indicate the Wallingford of the Ranger was a Tory at heart.
He may have been inclined that way in the fall of 1775, and such a dramatic incident as you portray may have occurred then. But from any records that are extant the conclusion must be drawn that the man whose name has been officially handed down to us as "Richard Wallingford" junior lieutenant of the Ranger, had already seen at least a year and a half of good service in our infant navy when he sailed from Portsmouth with Paul Jones on what proved to be his last cruise. I could not get access to all my references on this score without going to the National Library at Washington. But to the best of my recollection, Wallingford's first appearance in the Continental Navy was in the fall of 1775, as a volunteer in a small ship commanded by Captain Abraham Whipple, sailing from either Portsmouth or Newburyport, that early in 1776 -- say the end of January -- having put into the Delaware, he was transferred to the Andrea Doria, under Nicholas Biddle; from which ship he went to the Alfred when the squadron returned to Newport in the Spring; and thence, with others, from that ship to the Providence when the Alfred's crew was broken up. The only alternative theory is that there were two Wallingfords -- though there is no doubt that the Ranger's Wallingford of history came from the region of Portsmouth, N.H.
Very truly,
Augustus C. Buell
Notes
This letter was written on letterhead, so the address is
printed, but the date and text are added.
The occasion of Buell writing to Jewett is
the publication, first in serial and then as a book, of The
Tory
Lover (1900-1901). Buell's biography of John
Paul Jones appeared while Jewett was composing and revising
her novel, and she drew upon his work for facts incorporated
into the novel. Fortunately, she was somewhat restrained
in her use of the biography, for subsequent scholarship, as
indicated in Wikipedia,
established that Buell fabricated much of the material in his
book. As a result, factual information in his letters is
unreliable.
November Atlantic: Jewett's The Tory Lover
(1901) began appearing as a serial in Atlantic Monthly
in November 1900.
hails from Portsmouth: According to Elizabeth
Emerson Dorr, Dr. Green was in practice in Dover, NH, when the
American revolution broke out. See The
Granite
Monthly 38 (1906) pp. 107-14. The accuracy
of the information Buell provides about Wallingford has not
been determined. In a later letter below, Buell claims to find
information verifying Wallingford's "Tory" sentiments.
The ms. of this letter is held by the Houghton Library,
Harvard University: bMS Am 1743 (31); transcription and notes
by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Wyman Whitman to Sarah Orne Jewett
[ 29 October 1900 ]*
O darling: I have this moment finished the first installment:* and I will just tell you that I think it is splendid. Its all the things I want it to be so rich, so full of quality, with color and characterization, and that indefinable other great thing
[ Page 2 ]
Sunday night.
_SW_
Notes
29 October 1900: The envelope associated with this letter was cancelled on 29 October 1900 and addressed to Jewett in South Berwick.
installment: Whitman is reading Jewett's The Tory Lover, which began its serial appearance in Atlantic Monthly in November 1900.
Schuylers: Georgina Schuyler (1841-1923) lived with her sister Louisa Lee Schuyler (1837-1926) on Park Avenue in New York City. Wikipedia says: "Louisa Schuyler ... was an early American leader in charitable work, particularly noted for founding the first nursing school in the United States." Georgina was her partner in her philanthropic work. The New York Times (May 6, 1903, p. 9) reports that Georgina Schuyler donated the bronze plaque with the sonnet, "The New Colossus," by her friend Emma Lazarus, that appears at the Statue of Liberty in New York City.
Which rehearsal Whitman refers to is not known.
A.F.: Annie Adams Fields. See Key to Correspondents.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library of Harvard University. Whitman, Sarah (Wyman) 1842-1904. 92 letters; [ 1884 ]-[ 1903 ] & [ n.d. ] Jewett, Sarah Orne, 1849-1909. Sarah Orne Jewett additional correspondence, 1868-1930. MS Am 1743.1 -107. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Annie Adams Fields
[ 29 October 1900 ] *
[ Begin letterhead ]
South Berwick, Maine
[ End letterhead ]
("There aint many that you can feel towards as you feel towards Mrs. Fields .. I have been homesick after her all day long." ----- This was Katy's* utterance as I came through the Kitchen late this afternoon, and I need not say how my heart echoed her* wistful words! -- ) I came right home after I left you in the train and went to my work with a nice fire blazing in my fireplace -- but for a while [ deleted letter ]
[ Page 2 ]
things went very hard and I took some papers and stretched myself on the bed a while -- Then I "buckled to" and got over the harbor bar into open sea and went on very well, working a while after dinner to make up for so short a morning. Then Mary* and I drove over to Dover to the greenhouses, and Mary sent you a flower or two with great affection. We came pelting home with a tall pink Chrysanthemum in the front of the open buggy which must have felt as if the wind blew hard out of the northwest
[ Page 3 ]
instead of the gentle south -- for S. [ Fancy ? ] would pelt along the road and I got tired of holding her in and at last began to boldly encourage her -- especially up the long hills!
I do hope that you didn't get
cold and didn't get tired and that the club behaved well, and,
most of all that you have got Lily* to keep you company.
Do give my love to her if she is there, and say how much we
look forward to seeing her.)
I got a great pile of letters this morning, ^besides^ a whole handful that John* had put away carefully the day
[ Page 4 ]
we were at Little Boars Head and that Mary found
in her desk today! Dear S.W.* wrote one that was perfectly
delightful about the Tory Lover* -- I think it was mainly what
set me going again this hard morning! -- and among others
there was one from Mr. Buell* the author of Paul Jones's life
who thinks the story is of "surpassing interest"!! But he is
going to find me werry* freehanded as to the facts, I fear!
when you make ^up^ two or three central figgers, you have
to be free with your facts!!
(S.W. wanted me to come to luncheon on Friday, and Theodore* sent an invitation to Mary and me to)
[ manuscript breaks off; no signature ]
Notes
29 October 1900: Fields penciled " Oct. [ 1901 corrected from 1900 ]" in the upper right of page 1. She actually was correct in the first instance. As the notes below confirm, she almost certainly wrote this letter on the Monday following August Buell's letter to her.
She also penciled a deletion of "Annie" in the greeting and the parenthesis marks on this page and drew a line down left to right between the two parenthesis marks.
Other parenthesis marks in this letter also are by Fields in pencil.
Katy's: Katy/Kate (Katherine) Galvin. See Key to Correspondents.
echoed her: There seems to be a penciled mark above each of these two words.
Mary: Mary Rice Jewett. See Key to Correspondents.
Lily: Probably this is Elizabeth Nelson Fairchild. See Sally Fairchild in Key to Correspondents.
John: John Tucker. See Key to Correspondents.
S.W.: Sarah Wyman Whitman. See Key to Correspondents.
Tory Lover: Jewett's The Tory Lover appeared as a serial in Atlantic Monthly from November 1900 through August 1901, before being released as a book.
Mr. Buell: Augustus Buell (See Key to Correspondents) made this statement in a letter of 27 October 1900, after the first installment of the serial publication of The Tory Lover.
werry: Jewett works in dialect, as she does with "figgers."
Theodore: Theodore Jewett Eastman. See Key to Correspondents.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library of Harvard University. Jewett, Sarah Orne, 1849-1909. Annie Fields (Adams) 1834-1915, recipient. 194 letters; 1877-1909 & [ n.d. ] Sarah Orne Jewett correspondence, 1861-1930. MS Am 1743 (255). Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Mark Antony DeWolfe
Howe
Dear Mr Howe
Thank you for your kind note of last week which by accident did not* reach me until today. I was much interested in the Prospectus -- (:* which ( not being carefully put away [ by corrected ] our man during a day's absence on my part) came in good season. I hope
that the Green Bonnet* will keep as near the fashion as it can, and be all right for another spring. No more Green Bonnets for me, or short sketches which are soon written -- I am still hard at work on the story which begins in the November Atlantic and there is a long stretch of hard work ahead, before I can put it out of mind. I feel just now as if I had all the cloth without
having my coat made! -- I have written most of the chapters, but every one must be written at least once again and put into a shape. -----
I hoped long ago either to see you and Mrs. Howe or to write to you, for I was not contented with sending messages by Mrs. Fields;* I wished to tell you how happy your riches and happiness in the possession of a son* made this very sincere friend. Indeed I have thought of you as three with very great
pleasure -- and I feel as if I had a new hold upon a happy future.
-- When I get to town I shall hope to see this new friend, so that by and by we may have a long and happy past to talk over!
Please give my love to your dear wife and do not forget how sincerely I am always
Sarah O. Jewett
Notes
1900: This date is based upon Jewett indicating that she is anxiously preparing for the beginning of the serialization of her final novel, The Tory Lover, in the November 1900 Atlantic Monthly.
did not: Jewett has written one word over another, and it is not clear whether she finally intended "did not" or "didn't."
(:: Jewett's intention with these marks is not clear. Perhaps she meant to delete a colon?
Green Bonnet: Jewett apparently has completed her story, "The Green Bonnet," though it did not appear until April of 1901 in Youth's Companion.
The Prospectus of which Jewett writes is likely an advertising page from the Youth's Companion (see the 18 October 1900 issue, p. 503) announcing fiction for the coming year. Howe seems to be holding the story until the following Easter, because it is a holiday themed story.
Mrs. Fields: Annie Adams Fields. See Key to Correspondents.
a son: The Howes' first son, Quincy (1900-1977), became a writer.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library of Harvard University in Mark Antony De Wolfe Howe additional papers, 1880-1959. MS Am 1524 (774). Jewett, Sarah Orne, 1849-1909. 16 letters from; 1891-1903. Transcribed and annotated by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Thomas Russell Sullivan to Sarah Orne Jewett
[ End letterhead ]
My dear Miss Jewett,
I should be a very crabbed little twig of the old tree, if your glowing tributes to its parent stem in the first number of the Tory Lover* had not given me pleasure. They lit up our hearthstone in the most delightful way, as I read the chapters aloud last night, until we felt that your spell had summoned these good household spirits for our own benefit. The world was shut out, and you were writing of old times just for two,
who wanted more, and who wait for it impatiently. This must be my excuse for adding one more letter to your heap, merely to tell you what you would have guessed without the telling. But grateful reading was ever the result of grateful writing. And if you uncork the jar and let the genius out, how can you escape the awful consequences?
T. R. Sullivan
Tory Lover: The Tory Lover, Jewett's final novel, began to appear in an Atlantic Monthly serial in November 1900.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Miller Library, Special Collections, Colby College, Waterville, ME: JEWE.1.
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Augustus Buell to Sarah Orne Jewett
October 31, 1900.
1913 Judson Place.
Philadelphia.
My dear Miss Jewett:
I have just received your most charming letter of the 29th. After writing my last letter to you it occurred to me that, in the earlier stages of research anent Paul Jones, I had made a cursory study of Wallingford and had prepared a summary thereof, to be used as a footnote. However, in casting the book, both limitations of space and tenor of the work secured to dictate its exclusion. The fact is that, having laid behind me Paul Jones and all his belongings after Scribners undertook to print it; and being currently absorbed in my daily avocation of "hardworking mechanic" at Cramp's Shipyard, I had temporarily forgotten this incident. But, on second thought, recalling the Wallingford affairs I made a new search of my "rejected mss." and at last found it. I find great pleasure in sending to you a typewritten copy of it. It at least traverses the statement of my former letter that there was no record of Toryism on Wallingford's part. I send it to you by way of the amende honorable,* and also to assure you that, in your pretty conception of a romantic theme, you have come nearer the truth of history than is common in that class of literature.
---
My son, Ralph Polk Buell, who responded for me to your letter, asks me to offer you his most profound compliments. I must tell you about him. He will be 21 in time to vote next Tuesday.* He is, like me and like all his ancestors on both sides a Democrat; but of the faith of Jefferson and Jackson -- not of Bryan.
Entering Princeton in 1896 (Class of 1900) at the age of 16, he graduated last June, "cum laude," fifth in a class of nearly 300. In April 1898 he took advantage of my absence in Russia on business for Cramp's Shipyard to run away from College and enlist for the Spanish war. He was in the fighting around Santiago and has the medal from that campaign. Returning to this country with his regiment in November 1898 he was mustered out and resumed his course at Princeton after the Thanksgiving Holiday in the Junior Class as if nothing had happened. He was one of two men in his regiment whose names did not appear on the "sick list" during their whole period of service.
On my side he may I think be considered a worthy descendant of Henry [ Eastman? Easdren? ] of the Bon Homme Richard and Simon Buell of the Second New York Line (Van Courtland's Regiment.)
On his mother's side -- whence he gets his middle name of Polk -- his chief ancestor was Colonel Thomas Polk of North Carolina, one of the signers of the [ Mecklenburg? ] Declaration in 1775. His great grandfather on the Polk side was Charles Polk, Major in command of a battalion of Coffee's Tennessee Riflemen under "Old Jack" at New Orleans. President Polk was his mother's great uncle as was also Colonel William Polk who commanded the Tennessee Regiment at [ Contremos? ], El Molino del Rey, [ Chambusco? ] and Chepultepec. His own grandfather on that side was Colonel John Walker Polk, a soldier in the Mexican war and for some time Chief of Staff to Generals Holmes, Kirby Smith and Richard Taylor in the Confederate Army. Colonel John Walker Polk was also one of the "Argonauts of '49;" going to California after the Mexican War.
I might add that he gets his first name "Ralph" from his sixth ancestor; Ralphe -- or as it was usually spelled then -- "Rulf" Buell, born in Somersetshire, England, in 1616; a Trooper in [ Justan's? ] Regiment of Horse -- the Ironsides -- through the wars of English Liberation; one of the soldiers detailed to form the hollow square around the Block whence fell the head of Charles I; then, upon the Stuart Restoration, proscribed and a price set upon his head. Then taking refuge on these shores in the same ships that brought [ Goffe? ] the "Regicide Judge;" settling in what was their own "Far West" of Litchfield, Connecticut -- whence, since 1664 the history of the Buell race in the country may be easily traced.
But all this, though interesting to me is tedious to you. If I have bored you about my boy -- my only child -- you may [ deletion ] I think, blame yourself for it, because of the flattering way in which you acknowledged the letter he wrote to you on [ deletion ] my behalf. And by way of convincing you that I do not "idly dote on offspring not worthy those who gave him birth and name," etc I send to you by this mail under a separate cover his picture taken just after his Regiment -- the old Washington Light Infantry, officially known as the 1st District of Columbia Volunteers, had returned to Washington for muster out in November, 1898. You will see the Santiago Medal on his coat.
As I have made this already too long, I might as well claim the privilege of an old man and get garrulous.
I wish to mingle congratulations
with you on what seems to be a renaissance of interest in our
own Revolutionary history among the plain people. We seem to
be at the beginning of one of those periods when men and
women, surfeited with trash and [ prurience? ], turn
longingly to the traditions of their heroic lore. I think the
literary tastes of nations rise and fall as waves; and that
just now we are nearing the crest of a great billow whose top
will soon "comb over" in an almost bewildering spray of the
classic grandeur and the white purity of that epoch which
brought our nation forth -- our war for Independence. In such
a literary epoch it will be seen that Paul Jones is to the
Americans what Horatio Nelson is to the English -- the
embodiment of their pride and the incarnation of their
ambitions on the sea. I have contributed a little to this in
history. You are helping it along in fiction -- or romance. It
is a good work.
Yours,
Augustus C. Buell
Notes
This letter was written on letterhead, so the address is
printed, but the date and text are added. Jewett speaks
of this letter in particular by the author of John
Paul
Jones (1900) in her letter to Fields of November
1900. The accompanying "note" with this letter has not
been located.
Jewett and Buell exchanged a number of
letters in late 1900 about The
Tory
Lover (1900-1901), then appearing in serial.
As the notes for Buell's first, 27 October letter to Jewett
indicate, factual information in his letters is not to be
trusted without independent verification.
amende honorable: Wikipeida
says: "Amende honorable was originally a mode of punishment in
France which required the offender, barefoot and stripped to
his shirt, and led into a church or auditory with a torch in
his hand and a rope round his neck held by the public
executioner, to beg pardon on his knees of his God, his king,
and his country; now used to denote a satisfactory apology or
reparation."
As notes for later letters, below,
indicate, Buell almost certainly created his typewritten text
rather than copying it from his research notes.
vote next Tuesday: Ralph
Polk
Buell (Dec. 21, 1878 - May 18, 1946) would have turned
21 in December 1899. Except for changing his son's age
(actually starting at Princeton when 17), the rest of the
account is generally accurate, though not every detail has
been verified. Ralph was a Princeton graduate,
completing a law degree in 1903, and a decorated veteran of
the Spanish American War.
None of the remaining information Buell
provides about his and his wife's ancestors (Magdalen Tasker
Polk (1858-1902) has been verified.
In 1900, the United States general election
took place on 6 November. In the Presidential race,
William McKinley defeated William Jennings Bryan. Wikipedia.
Paul Jones ... Horatio Nelson: Wikipedia
says: "John Paul Jones (born John Paul; July 6, 1747 - July
18, 1792) was a Scottish American sailor and the United
States' first well-known naval fighter in the American
Revolutionary War."
"Horatio
Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson, 1st Duke of Bronté KB (29
September 1758 - 21 October 1805) was a British flag officer
in the Royal Navy. He was noted for his inspirational
leadership, superb grasp of strategy, and unconventional
tactics, all of which resulted in a number of decisive naval
victories, particularly during the Napoleonic Wars."
The ms. of this letter is held by the Houghton Library,
Harvard University: bMS Am 1743 (31); transcription and notes
by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Augustus Buell to Sarah Orne Jewett
The Wm. Cramp & Sons Ship & Engine Building Co. *
Office, Beach and Ball Sts.
Philadelphia,
Nov. 1, 1900.
My dear Miss Jewett.
In my letter of yesterday I forgot to note your references to "Mr. Warner." I suppose of course you mean Charles Dudley;* because people usually particularize by a first name when they wish to speak of any other Warner.
My first meeting with him was at the [ unreadable ] house or "farm" of the late William Walter Phelps at [ unrecognized name ] Conn. The other guests present were General John Hawley, Sam Bowles (Old Sam), Jake [ Brawley? ] and Mark Twain.* It was in 1875. I never had such a time in my life. Mr. Phelps got out his hay wagon and drove us up to the top of Talcott's Mountain, where we lunched on a big rock overlooking the Connecticut valley.* You can imagine what an occasion it was. Mr. Warner knew the history of my famly in Connecticut better than I did. The next day we went to [ Simsbury? ] where he showed me a tombstone which said that
"John Buell. Roy. Prov'l Regt. *
Aet. 22 yrs 1 mo.
1708."
I afterwards met him in Washington several times.
Very truly
Augustus C. Buell.
This letter was written on letterhead, so the address is
printed, but the date and text are added.
Jewett and Buell exchanged a number of
letters in late 1900 about The
Tory
Lover (1900-1901), then appearing in serial.
As the notes for Buell's first, October 27, 1900 letter to
Jewett indicate, factual information in his letters is not to
be trusted without independent verification.
Charles Dudley Warner: See Key to Correspondents.
William Walter Phelps: Wikipedia
says "William Walter Phelps (August 24, 1839 - June 17, 1894)
was a United States Congressman [ from New Jersey ] and
diplomat who served as United States Ambassador to Germany and
Austria-Hungary.... After the birth of his two sons, he bought
a summer home in Bergen County [ New Jersey ] an old-fashioned
Dutch farmhouse on the "Teaneck Ridge," an area of Teaneck now
adjacent to Route 4 that had been the Garret-Brinkerhoff House
in Revolutionary War days. Phelps extensively renovated the
old homestead, converting it into one of the most beautiful
and celebrated mansions of its time." Buell may be
incorrect, then, about the location of the Phelps farm.
General John Hawley, Sam Bowles (Old Sam), Jake [ Brawley?
] and Mark Twain: General John Hawley may
be John Baldwin Hawley (February 9, 1831 - May 24, 1895)
who, according to Wikipedia,
was a U.S. Representative from Illinois. "Born in
Hawleyville, Connecticut, Hawley moved with his parents to
Carthage, Illinois, in 1833. He attended the public schools
and Jacksonville College, Jacksonville, Illinois. He studied
law. He was admitted to the bar in 1854 and commenced practice
at Rock Island, Illinois.... Hawley was elected State's
attorney in 1856 and served four years. Enlisted in the Union
Army during the Civil War and served as captain of Company H,
Forty-fifth Regiment, Illinois Volunteer Infantry."
"Samuel
Bowles
III (February 9, 1826 – January 16, 1878) was an
American journalist born in Springfield, Massachusetts.
Beginning in 1844 he was the publisher and editor of the
Springfield Republican, a position he held until his
death in 1878." He is particularly remembered as a
friend and correspondent of the American poet, Emily Dickinson
(December 10, 1830 - May 15, 1886).
Jake Brawley, if the name is correct, has
not been identified.
Of Mark Twain, Wikipedia
says: "Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 - April 21,
1910), better known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an
American author and humorist. Among his writings are The
Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876) and its sequel, Adventures
of
Huckleberry Finn (1885)...." In the 1870s, his
family lived in Hartford, CT, where they were friends and
neighbors of Charles Dudley Warner.
Talcott's Mountain: Talcott Mountain in Talcott
Mountain State Park is about 9 miles west from Hartford, CT.,
and about 120 miles from Teaneck, NJ.
Simsbury ... John Buell: Simsbury, CT is about
12 miles northwest from Hartford. The History
of
the
Buell
Family
in
England:
From
the Remotest Times Ascertainable from Our Ancient
Histories, and in America, from Town, Parish, Church and
Family Records. Illustrated with Portraits and Coat
Armorial (1881) records no John Buell who served
in a Royal Provincial Regiment and died in 1708.
The ms. of this letter is held by the Houghton Library,
Harvard University: bMS Am 1743 (31); transcription and notes
by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Thomas Bailey Aldrich
Maine.
[ End letterhead ]
Dear T.B.
Thank you for this charming green book. I have read your exquisite preface with more delight and admiration than I read it the first time -- and I love to know that you remember me. (I am counting on seeing you and Lilian* before very long: I look forward to going to town with as much
eagerness as when I used to go only once a year!) I should like to speak fittingly of the rest of the book, but I should like better to talk with Robert Herrick* about his beautiful new preface! -- I am in a great hurry to have your new stories printed;* one wishes the months away when certain persons are going to have things in the magazines --
S. O. J.
I meant to pass a day with you & L. at Ponkapog when A.F.* and I were moving up from Manchester but Mr. Bartlett* told me that you were both away on a visit. I have been so drowned in my story* that I have had very few holidays of late. I do so hope that you will like it as it goes on.
Notes
1900: November 4 fell on a Sunday in 1900. As the notes below indicate, other factors support this date, notably the publication that year of Aldrich's edition of Robert Herrick.
Lilian: Lillian Woodman Aldrich. See Key to Correspondents.
Robert Herrick: Thomas Bailey Aldrich's edition of Poems of Robert Herrick: A Selection from Hesperides and Noble Numbers, appeared in 1900. Robert Herrick (1591-1674) was a British lyric poet.
new stories printed: Two collections of Aldrich's short stories appeared around the time of this letter:a new 1901 edition of Marjorie Daw and Other People (1873) and A Sea Turn and Other Matters (1902).
A. F.: Annie Adams Fields. See Key to Correspondents.
Mr. Bartlett: This may be one of Jewett's correspondents, Edward (Ned) Jarvis Bartlett. See Key to Correspondents.
my story: If the dating of this letter is correct, Jewett's current major project would have been The Tory Lover (1901), which was serialized in Atlantic Monthly November 1900 through August 1901.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. Thomas Baily Aldrich Papers, 119 letters of Thomas Bailey and Lilian Woodman Aldrich, 1837-1926. MS Am 1429 (117). Transcribed and annotated by Terry Heller, Coe College.
At the bottom left of page one, in another hand, is a circled number: 2723*.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Annie Adams Fields
Monday. [ November 1900 ]*
*Yesterday I took up an old volume of Scott's "Lives of the Novelists,"* and read the brief sketches of Horace Walpole and Dr. Johnson and Goldsmith with great delight.* He did them so lightly with such ease and good sense. How one admires that great man more and more! I must tell you that in a book of short essays of Edmund Gosse's that Louise Guiney* gave me last Christmas, I found a very nice paper about Edward Fitzgerald. I always love that bit about his having been reading and lazily sitting in his garden idly to watch things grow, "for which I think I shall be damned!" as he complacently adds.*
Notes
November 1901: In Fields's collection, this paragraph appears at the end of the other November 1900 letter to Fields in which she discusses Augustus Buell's "revelation" about Lieutenant Wallingford. Fields combined these two letters, but they are separated here. With only one clue about its actual composition date, that it probably came after 1896, the letter is placed as Fields did, with other letters of 1900.
Scott's "Lives of the Novelists" ... Horace Walpole and
Dr. Johnson and Goldsmith: Sir Walter Scott's Lives
of the Novelists (1821-24). Horace Walpole (1717-1797)
is best known for inventing the Gothic novel in The Castle
of Otranto (1764).
For Louise Imogen Guiney (1861-1920), American poet, see Key to Correspondents.
This letter appears in Annie Fields, Letters of Sarah Orne Jewett (1911), Transcribed by Annie Adams Fields, with notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Annie Adams Fields
[ 5 November 1900 ]
Dearest Annie
(Mr. Lewis* wasn't well and there was no "meeting" yesterday, and I took such a day of rest that I am more tired than normal & quite dull this morning!)
-- I wish to tell you one thing: that I knew Lieutenant Wallingford was killed; none better, but how could I write about him unless I kept him alive?* ------- There is something so strange now, that I can hardly believe it myself.
--I thought about him and his house
[ Page 2 ]
and the members of the family whom I have known, and made him a Tory and had Mary W_ challenge him to his duty all out of my own imagination and on Saturday I got a package of notes from Mr. Buell in which it is proved that Wallingford was a Tory and his lady love declined to marry him for that reason: at last he took her challenge & went to sea. He confessed to Paul Jones that he had
[ Page 3 ]
come for a lady's sake & not from his
principles.* Part of this is told almost in my words of the
story as you shall see! Now how could I have guessed,
at his character and what was likely to happen any better?
Imagination is the only true thing in the
world!! (We had a dear visit from "Georgie"*
and she seemed to enjoy it too. It is so
strange to see her beginning
[ Page 4 ]
life for herself -- and [ most lovely ?
] & interesting. She has real nobility and sweetness --
and is always to be trusted in the best way.
---- I hate to write at such
a gallop & I have much else to say but I must run to the
post office on some business with the telephone!
(With dearest love, and I do
hope that Sally Norton* could come.
Pinny*
November 1900: Fields penciled 1897 in the upper right
of page 1, but this letter clearly refers to a 1900
exchange of letters between Jewett and now notorious historian
Augustus Buell. Probably it was composed the Monday
after receiving Buell's earlier letters. See notes below.
As the notes for Buell's
first, October 27, 1900 letter to Jewett indicate, factual
information in his letters is not to be trusted without
independent verification.
(Mr. Lewis: George Lothrop Lewis. See Key
to
Correspondents. As Mr. Lewis was pastor at Jewett's
South Berwick church, there was no morning worship service on
the preceding Sunday.
Parenthesis marks in this letter have been
penciled by Fields.
Lieutenant Wallingford ... Mary W.: Characters in Jewett's novel, The Tory Lover (1901). Roger Wallingford, her hero, is based on the historical character, Samuel Wallingford, who had actually been killed at sea during the American Revolution. Mary Hamilton -- eventually Wallingford -- is the heroine.
Mr. Buell ... confessed to Paul Jones: The Buell
letter to which Jewett refers confirms Jewett's conception of
the relationship she imagined between Wallingford and Mary
Hamilton in The Tory Lover. According to Walter
Green, son of the ship's doctor on the Ranger, Samuel
Wallingford -- upon whom Roger was based -- was a Lieutenant
of Marines, and he left an infant son at his death, George
Washington Wallingford, who was born at Somersworth, N.H. and
became a distinguished lawyer (Preble and Green, Diary of
Ezra Green, 1875). Samuel Wallingford was married
for at least some time before joining Jones's crew in 1777,
and, therefore, almost certainly was not required by his wife
as a condition of their marriage to fight in the war for
American independence.
It is, then, a sad and interesting
irony that Buell probably based his inventions upon Jewett's
imagination, rather than Jewett intuiting a truth about the
past. Evidence in The Tory Lover further
suggests that Jewett read Buell's new biography of John Paul
Jones before finishing her novel and accepted as truth (as did
many readers for years after its publication) the elaborate
and
romantic fictions Buell constructed. See my edition of The
Tory Lover, "Selections from Augustus Buell."
"Georgie": Georgina Halliburton. See Key
to
Correspondents. Halliburton never married; she resided
with her mother, who died on 9 April 1898.
Sally Norton: Sara Norton. See Key to Correspondents.
Pinny: Pinny Lawson (Pinny / Pin) was an
affectionate nickname for Jewett, used by her and Annie
Fields. See Key
to
Correspondents.
Annie Fields Transcription
Fields includes a passage from this letter in Letters of Sarah Orne Jewett (1911), p. 209.
I wish to tell you one thing, dear, that I knew Lieutenant Wallingford was killed, none better, but how could I write about him unless I kept him alive? -- There is something so strange now, that I can hardly believe it myself. I thought about him and his house and the members of the family whom I have known, and made him a Tory and had Mary W. -- challenge him to his duty, all out of my own imagination; and on Saturday I got a package of notes from Mr. Buell in which it is proved that Wallingford was a Tory and his lady love declined to marry him for that reason; at last he took her challenge and went to sea. He confessed to Paul Jones that he had come for a lady's sake and not from his principles. Part of this is told almost in my words of the story, as you shall see. Now how could I have guessed, at his character, and what was likely to happen, and better? Imagination is the only true thing in the world!!
N. P. Macomber* to Sarah Orne Jewett
| CHICAGO OFFICE 378-358 WABASH AVENUE. |
BOSTON OFFICE, 4 PARK STREET. |
NEW YORK OFFICE,
11 E. 17TH STREET. |
Nov. 8, 1901.*
Dear Miss Jewett, --
We thank you very much for the notices. We have acted on your suggestion and the enclosed advertisement appears in the "Transcript"* to-night and in the "New York Evening Post" on next Monday, as we agreed with you that, on Saturday, single [ deletion ] advertisements are apt to be buried in the midst of the large amount of advertising printed then. We have been advertising "The Tory Lover" right along, at least, once a week.
The fifth printing which was ordered Nov. 1st was for 2000 copies, making 12,000 in all; the sales to Oct. 1st were over 9000 and some re-orders are now coming in.
We regret to say that we do not know who wrote the review in the "St. Paul Globe".
We enclose the notice from the "Chicago Inter-Ocean" and will ask you to return it to us when you are through with it.
Your letters would have had an earlier answer but the writer was away from the office for the first part of the week.
Notes
Macomber: This person has not yet been identified.
1901: The date was typed in.
Transcript: The Boston Evening Transcript.
"St. Paul Globe" ... "Chicago Inter-Ocean": Snippets from the Globe review appeared in a Houghton Mifflin brochure that accompanied the publication of The Tory Lover, soon after August 1901:
The difference between the average historical novel and this work of Miss Jewett's is the difference between the vital and the spectacular elements in literature and life. Where others have laid hold of the surface facts merely, she has grasped the inner meaning....The same brochure included a snippet from the Chicago Inter-Ocean:
Perhaps the thing the reader will be most thankful for is the splendid picture of John Paul Jones, which Miss Jewett has given us. Within the past few years a dozen "lives" of this masterly "sea-wolf" have appeared. None of them has set forth the character of Jones with such life-like reality, with such flesh and blood "humanness" as does this story.
That exquisite spirit pervades it, - a reflection of Miss Jewett's own loveliness of feeling, - a spirited beauty with which she has unconsciously invested her heroine, Mary Hamilton. Miss Jewett's painting of Berwick (her home in Maine) has the touch of unerring sincerity.The typescript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library of Harvard University: Sarah Orne Jewett Correspondence I, Letters to Sarah Orne Jewett.
Gilder, Richard Watson, 1844-1909. 1 letter; 1897. (80).
This transcription is from a photocopy held by the Maine Women Writer's Collection, University of New England, Letters from Sarah Orne Jewett, 1875-1890, Box 2, Folder 99, Burton Trafton Jewett Research Collection.
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Louise Imogen Guiney to Annie Adams Fields
Dearest Mrs. Fields:
What a beautiful gift! I am so particularly glad to have the Orpheus* from you (with its noble frontispiece and choice type) because I have been bold enough to feel a sort of sponsorial interest in it, ever since you read the greater part of it to me at Manchester, years and years ago. Its touching beauty, -- how well it wears! as we say of coarser things. My thanks to you, and my love: mere 'renewals of vows.'*
L.I.G.
8th Nov., 1900.
10 Yarmouth St., Boston
Notes
Orpheus: Fields published Orpheus, a Masque in 1900.
vows: Guiney's use of quotation marks indicates an allusion, but the phrase is too common to allow a guess as to her source.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Huntington Library, San Marino, CA, in the James T. Fields collection Box 26: mss FI 1629. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Augustus Buell to Sarah Orne Jewett
November 8, 1900*
1913 Judson Place.
Philadelphia.
My dear Miss Jewett,
I have received your interesting letter of the 7th; also the magazine with your delightful story of Old Berwick. A single phrase in it, if there were nothing else, would make it charming to one like me, a descendant of several generations of Nantucket and New Bedford sailors.* It is the phrase (p. 607) "the cords which were fastened at one end to the Landing wharves seemd to wind all about the other side of the world!"*
That is the prettiest bit of the "poetry of ocean's commerce" I have ever seen. Poetry and commerce do not coalesce in our time but they did in those old days of Argosies and Argonauts. Steam and steel have changed all that now, but we still have left to us the classic memories you so sweetly invoke.
You need not return the Wallingford note. I sent it to you to keep.
The legend* is referred to in a footnote to the Diary of Dr. Ezra Green, (p. 25) of the reprint of 1875, by his son Walter Cooper Green; in the papers of Commodore [ George? ] Henry Preble; in Willis's Sketch of George W. Wallingford (Lawyer of Maine, p. 253) -- as well as I can remember without having the book before me; in the Narrative of Henry Gardner (New Bedford, 1826) and besides these printed references, it was related to me personally several years ago by an old Maine Sea Captain, named Hamilton [ Grant? ] -- whose name you will find in the Ranger's roster among those hailing from Portsmouth.*
The name of the young Lady I cannot
distinctly recollect, but it is given in Willis's sketch of
George W. Wallingford. My impression is that she was a Gilman,
but it would not be safe to assume that my own impression on a
subject that has been long "snowed under in memory" is
correct. I am sure that she was closely related to Major
Jeremiah Gilman of the First New Hampshire Line, because I
distinctly recollect Captain Hamilton [ Grant? ]* tell
using the two names together in his story; but whether she was
his daughter or niece of another name, I cannot now say. You
notice that I said in the note "she shall be nameless here." I
would have given her name had I been sure of it. I have [ in
/
a? ] copy, from the original mss.
Very truly,
Augustus C. Buell.
Notes
1900: This letter was written on letterhead, so
the address is printed, but the date and text are added.
Jewett and Buell exchanged a number of
letters in late 1900 about The
Tory
Lover (1900-1901), then appearing in serial.
As the notes for Buell's first, October 27, 1900 letter to
Jewett indicate, factual information in his letters is not to
be trusted without independent verification.
other side of the world: Buell quotes from
Jewett's "The
Old
Town
of Berwick" (1894).
Nantucket and New Bedford sailors: The History
of
the
Buell
Family
in
England:
From
the Remotest Times Ascertainable from Our Ancient
Histories, and in America, from Town, Parish, Church and
Family Records. Illustrated with Portraits and Coat
Armorial (1881) does not confirm Buell's assertion
of Nantucket and New Bedford sailors among his ancestors.
the legend: Buell refers to the story he
confirmed for Jewett, in a fiction of his own invention, that
she had intuited correctly that Samuel Wallingford, the person
on whom she based her character, Roger Wallingford, in The
Tory Lover (1901) was a Tory and had to be persuaded by
his sweetheard to fight for American independence despite his
beliefs before she would marry him.
Ezra Green (1746-1847) was "surgeon on
board the continental ship-of-war 'Ranger,' under John Paul
Jones, from November 1, 1777 to September 27, 1778." Not
surprisingly, there is no footnote in Ezra Green's diary
confirming this legend.
Wikipedia says: "George
Henry
Preble (February 25, 1816 - March 1, 1885) was an
American naval officer and writer, notable for his history of
the flag of the United States and for taking the first
photograph of the Fort McHenry flag that inspired "The
Star-Spangled Banner." He assisted in the publication of
Ezra Green's diary. No record has been discovered of his
knowing more about Samuel Wallingford than what appears in the
diary.
Whether such information appears in
"Narrative of Henry Gardner" is doubtful, but this has not
been established.
In A History of the Law, the Courts,
and the Lawyers of Maine: From Its First Colonization to the
Early Part of the Present Century (1863), William Willis
sketches the life of "George Washington Wallingford," and
includes a lengthy account of his father's actions with John
Paul Jones. Contrary to Buell's memory, Willis does not
name George's mother, Lydia Baker (1759-1828). Whether
Lydia Baker is related to the Gilman family has not been
ascertained. Jewett, however, was connected with
the Gilman family.
Hamilton Grant: Though an Ephram Grant is listed
on the roster for the Ranger, there is no "Hamilton
Grant." See in my edition of The Tory Lover,
"The Crew of the Ranger in The Tory Lover."
The ms. of this letter is held by the Houghton Library, Harvard University: bMS Am 1743 (31); transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Louise Imogen Guiney to Sarah Orne Jewett
Dearest Miss Jewett:
I have just returned to the Library,* after a little absence of not quite a week, and I am told that I missed a call from you, alas; and I am told that you were told I was in hospital! which I hasten to contradict. On Sat. afternoon, for the only time in my career, I sprained my ankle, but not at all seriously. It merely provided me with some enforced elegant leisure ^at home^ and much maternal coddling (an article I do relish!) and
L. I. G.
10 Yarmouth St.
Nov. 15th, 1900.
Notes
Library: At this time, Guiney was employed at the Boston Public Library.
Dr. Bapst Blake: Surgeon, John Bapst Blake (1866-1943).
Fields: Annie Adams Fields. See Key to Correspondents
'A Tory Lover': Jewett's novel, A Tory Lover (1901) began to appear serialized in Atlantic Monthly in November 1900.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library of Harvard University: Sarah Orne Jewett Correspondence I, Letters to Sarah Orne Jewett.
Gilder, Richard Watson, 1844-1909. 1 letter; 1897. (80).
This transcription is from a photocopy held by the Maine Women Writer's Collection, University of New England, Letters from Sarah Orne Jewett, 1875-1890, Box 2, Folder 99, Burton Trafton Jewett Research Collection.
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
William Nathaniel Harben to Sarah Orne Jewett
New York N. Y.
Nov 17, 1900
I have asked my publisher to send you a copy of my short stores, taken from the Century & other magazines, entitled "Northern Georgia Sketches."* I know this is a bold thing to do, but I love your own work so much that I want to have, at least, a ^bare^ chance of gaining the inspiration that would come from your approval{.} Begging your pardon, I am
Will N. Harben
Sketches: Northern Georgia Sketches (1900) was Harben's most successful book.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library of Harvard University: Sarah Orne Jewett Correspondence I, Letters to Sarah Orne Jewett.
Harben, William Nathaniel, 1858-1919. 1 letter; 1900. (90).
This transcription is from a photocopy held by the Maine Women Writer's Collection, University of New England, Letters from Sarah Orne Jewett, 1875-1890, Box 2, Folder 99, Burton Trafton Jewett Research Collection.
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Bliss Perry
South Berwick.
Maine.
Dear Mr. Perry
I send you a last paragraph for the January number.* I found that I must keep well within the limits of the little chapter and not try to begin another --. (the next chapter would not lend its first page with any profit!) This gives the idea that [ some intended something ? ]
I can see when the proof comes -- but you know how easy
it is to fail of striking the same key?
In haste
Notes
1900: While this is not certain, Jewett seems to be corresponding about the serialization of The Tory Lover, which began in 1900 and continued through August 1901.
Page 2: In the bottom right corner of page one is penciled, in another hand, the ms number, 294.
January number: Almost certainly, Jewett is writing about The Tory Lover, part 3 of which was scheduled to appear in the January 1901 issue of Atlantic. That part ends with these two paragraphs:
At this moment there was a strange lull; the wind fell, and the Ranger stopped rolling, and then staggered as if she balked at some unexpected danger. One of the elder seamen gave an odd warning cry. A monstrous hammer seemed to strike the side, and a great wave swept over as if to bury them forever in the sea. The water came pouring down and flooded the forecastle knee-deep. There was an outcry on deck, and an instant later three loud knocks on the scuttle.The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. Jewett, Sarah Orne, 1849-1909. 8 letters to Bliss Perry; undated. Perry, Bliss, 1860-1954, recipient. Bliss Perry letters from various correspondents, 1869-1942. MS Am 1343 (290-297).
"All the larboard watch ahoy!" bawled John Dougall. "Hear the news, can't ye? All hands up! All hands on deck!"
Jeannette Leonard Gilder to Sarah Orne Jewett
| Jeannette L. Gilder Joseph B. Gilder } Editors ----- ESTABLISHED 1881 |
The Critic An illustrated Monthly Review of Literature, Art & Life |
Published for THE CRITIC COMPANY -- G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS 27 and 29 West 23d Street,New York. |
Miss Sarah Orne Jewett
South Berwick, Maine
My dear Miss Jewett
I am so glad that you have decided to put the business of the dramatic rights of your story* into our hands. Miss Marbury* is great as you will see if you have personal relations with her. As to the dramatization,* it is time enough to talk of that when the book is finished, that is when the ms. is out of your hands. It might as well be all settled early in the spring for the sooner these matters are arranged the better. I would advise you not to give the dramatizing of the story to any one, but let us suggest a dramatizer to you when the time comes. The wrong dramatist often prevents the production of a play. I know of a case just now where a well known author, in the kindness of his heart, gave a young woman the right to dramatize a certain story. There are two leading managers who would take the play but they will not take her version and she will not change ti, even at the request of the author,* whose property is therefore tied up and useless to him or anyone.
If any one asks you for the right turn them over to us and we will soon tell you whether they can do it or not.
I hope that there is plenty of patriotism and love in your story. It is those elements that have made the suc-
cess of Janice Meredith* as a play.
With the best wishes for The Tory Lover and its author,* I am
Jeannette L. Gilder
How happy you ought to be that you can do your work in the peace and quiet of the country.
Notes
story: Jewett's novel, The Tory Lover (1901), began to appear in serial in Atlantic Monthly in November of 1900. Gilder could have read the first installment when she wrote this letter.
Marbury: Elisabeth Marbury (1856-1933) was an American theatrical and literary agent and producer. Wikipedia.
dramatization: The comma after this word has been added in pen.
author: The comma after this word has been added in pen.
Janice Meredith: This drama set during the American Revolution opened in 1900. It was based on the 1899 novel by American author, Paul Leicester Ford (1865-1902). The play was adapted to a silent film in 1924. Wikipedia.
its author: The comma after this word has been added in pen.
The typescript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library of Harvard University: Sarah Orne Jewett Correspondence I, Letters to Sarah Orne Jewett.
Gilder, Richard Watson, 1844-1909. 1 letter; 1897. (80).
This transcription is from a photocopy held by the Maine Women Writer's Collection, University of New England, Letters from Sarah Orne Jewett, 1875-1890, Box 2, Folder 99, Burton Trafton Jewett Research Collection.
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Harold Goddard Rugg
South Berwick,
Maine
My dear Mr Rugg
Your very kind and interesting letter has just reached me through Messrs. Houghton Mifflin & Co. and I am sorry that you were disappointed about receiving an answer to your first letter when I was in Greece in the spring. I am glad to know that you like The Tory Lover* as far as it has gone; one is always anxious about a new story
I find your list of studies very interesting. It must give you plenty of hard work and liking it is one of the best things in the world. I am sure that you must like yours, or you wouldn't
have written me just such a letter as this. I send you my best thanks and kindest good wishes, and beg you to believe me
Sarah Orne Jewett
The Tory Lover: Jewett's novel was serialized in Atlantic Monthly, November 1900 - August 1901. Rugg may have been able to read the first two installments by the time her wrote to Jewett.
This transcription is from a typescript held by the Maine Women Writer's Collection, University of New England, Letters from Sarah Orne Jewett, 1875-1890, Box 4, Folder 159, Burton Trafton Jewett Research Collection. Trafton's notes indicate that the manuscript is held by the Rauner Special Collections Library at Dartmouth College, the Harold Rugg Papers.
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Wyman Whitman to Sarah Orne Jewett
[ 5 December 1900 ]*
Darling,this hilt is beautiful, and makes me feel the sword in my hand.
It also gives me the same [ surprise ? ] of feeling, as if you had [ unrecognized word ] remembered my days and [ unrecognized word ] [ before ? ] ! So for all these emotions, and for it, and then, ---- ah then -- for you -- [ every ? ] abiding love and gratitude.
Notes
5 December 1900: The envelope associated with this letter was cancelled on 6 December 1900 and addressed to Jewett in South Berwick.
5 December is Whitman's birthday. What gift Whitman has received from Jewett is not yet known.
S. St. P.: Sarah de St. Prix Wyman Whitman. See Key to Correspondents.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library of Harvard University. Whitman, Sarah (Wyman) 1842-1904. 92 letters; [ 1884 ]-[ 1903 ] & [ n.d. ] Jewett, Sarah Orne, 1849-1909. Sarah Orne Jewett additional correspondence, 1868-1930. MS Am 1743.1 -107. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Thomas Bailey Aldrich
South Berwick.
Maine.
[ End letterhead ]
[ December 1900 ]
You and I are such timid young authors that I can now afford distinct reassurance, and ^say^ with deep pleasure how much I like your two new stories! You spoke slightingly of Shaw's Folly,* but that was the Folly of T. B. It is done with such freedom of hand and brightness of touch that I liked it most uncommonly well, and the only shadow
of dissatisfaction that a fond
and is as deep as one can go in Life, and kindness must have a sound tap-root. We are trying to speak of model lodgings rather than of literature that
of being art. -- "All of which is respectfully submitted". as they say in State papers.
The brilliant tale touches ones imagination in the quickest way -- I find that it keeps coming to my mind as the Two Boys in Black has kept coming these many long years -- It puzzles one as if it were ones own experience. And that touch about the handkerchief on the face keeps insisting that the lady ---- what did she do if she didn't die ??? But this is getting to be a painful one-sided talk instead of a letter and I must end it.
I wonder if
you are all as happy as you were the other morning? I feel as if I had looked in at the window and seen you all by accident, and as if I mustn't even think about it myself! There is only one word more: please to keep writing!!
Notes
"Shaw's Folly" ... "Two Boys in Black": Thomas Bailey Aldrich's story, "Shaw's Folly," appeared in Harper's in December 1900 and was collected in A Sea Turn and Other Matters (1902). "Two Boys in Black" has not been identified, but it is possible Jewett refers to a sketch by British author William Makepeace Thackeray (1811-1863), "On Two Children in Black," which first appeared in Harper's Magazine (v. 20, p. 671) in 1860. The piece was collected in Thackeray's Roundabout Papers (1878).
A. F.: Annie Fields (1834-1915). See Key to Correspondents.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. Thomas Bailey Aldrich Papers, 119 letters of Thomas Bailey and Lilian Woodman Aldrich, 1837-1926. MS Am 1429 (117). Transcribed and annotated by Terry Heller, Coe College.
At the bottom left of page one, in another hand, is a circled number: 2735.
Annie Fields transcription
This appears in Annie Fields, Letters of Sarah Orne Jewett (1911), p. 78-80.
You and I are such timid young authors that I can now afford distinct reassurance, and say with deep pleasure how much I like your two new stories! You spoke slightingly of "Shaw's Folly,"* but that was the folly of T. B. It is done with such freedom of hand and brightness of touch that I liked it most uncommonly well, and the only shadow of dissatisfaction that a fond reader can find, is that the writer didn't say what the cure might have been for such a sad failure! I suppose it is the old story, that we can't trust sentimentality to build houses, or rather to keep them running on business principles. The distinction between sentiment and sentimentality is a question of character, and is as deep as one can go in life, and kindness must have a sound tap-root. We are trying to speak of model lodgings, rather than of literature that depicted Mr. Shaw! We must go right to A. F. to get straightened out!* But I love the way that you have written that story. There's realism seen from the humorous point of view: the trouble with most realism is that it isn't seen from any point of view at all, and so its shadows fall in every direction and it fails of being art. "All of which is respectfully submitted," as they say in state papers.
The brilliant tale touches one's
imagination the quickest way. I find that it keeps coming to
my mind as the "Two Boys in Black" has kept coming these many
long years. It puzzles one as if it were one's own experience,
and that touch about the handkerchief, on the face, keeps
insisting that the lady what did she do if she didn't die? But
this is getting to be a painful one-sided talk instead of a
letter, and I must end it. I wonder if you are all as happy as
you were the other morning? I feel as if I had looked in at
the window and seen you all by accident, and as if I mustn't
even think about it myself! There is only one word more:
please keep on writing!
Sarah Orne Jewett to Abbie S. Beede
Dear Miss Beede -- please send the manuscript type copy by mail as it is so cold I shall not try to drive up -- and please mark how much I owe you for this and the last --
Notes
1900: This postcard is addressed to Mifs Abbie S. Beede, North Berwick, ME and cancelled in South Berwick, ME on 10 December 1900.
Almost certainly, Beede was typing installments of The Tory Lover, two of which had appeared in Atlantic Monthly at the time of this card.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the University of New England Maine Women Writers Collection, item MWWC0187.
Transcription by Kelsey Squire, Ohio Dominican University; edited and with notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Abbie S. Beede
11 December
[ 1900 or 1901 ]*
Dear Mifs Beede
Thank you very much for the copy -- so promptly sent and so beautifully done. The pages where there was no connection had missed one page, or part of one, in between, through my carelessness, but luckily I can find the two and write them in tomorrow. I enclose a cheque, and many thanks for your kind words
S. O. Jewett
Notes
1900 or 1901: Almost certainly this letter is from one of those years, during the three-year period when Beede was typing for Jewett. Jewett was not actively writing or even very able to write this letter in 1902, after her September carriage accident.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the University of New England Maine Women Writers Collection, item MWWC0177.
Transcription by Kelsey Squire, Ohio Dominican University; edited and with notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Annie Adams Fields
[ December 1900 ]*
Why not the Huxley together"? especially as Mr. Clarkson (Knowlton's)* was very doubtful about getting my stone polished in time for Christmas! Or you send it == and I'll send some honey* !! a great thought! [ we corrected ] have had some that was delicious from a farmer nearby. I dont know that I can think of a thing for
[ Page 2 ]
[ Page 3 ]
and I got some work done and then worked hard on Christmas things until dark, and then I went for a lovely walk; I asked Mary* but she advised my going alone! We really got ahead with our bungles* and mean to keep on today when I shall have done all I can here.
I cant help worrying because you directed some letters with a pencil yesterday, which usually designates that poor little Fuffs* have colds! but I hope it was only that she had made a nest or had a pencil by her !! On such things hang our happiness! and
[ Page 4 ]
I have thought of it with distress more than once -- ----- no, I wont think about Mouse Island* at present -- except that I did up [ intending pick up ? ] a book from old Mrs. Murray* yesterday! -- I shall come tomorrow afternoon dear, I suppose you may see me at half past four, but I may not get off until the next train which would get me there at about seven -- It depends upon little bungles as much as anything.
Pinny.*
Notes
December 1900: This date is a guess, based upon the tenuous hint that Jewett and Fields intend to give a book by or on Thomas H. Huxley as a Christmas gift. Their 1898 visit with his son's family in England and the publication of his life and letters in 1900 would have drawn them to this book as a gift. Another hint is the thought of revisiting Mouse Island. See notes below.
Huxley together" ... Mr. Clarkson (Knowlton's): Jewett seems to be speaking of a book to be given to someone, perhaps Mr. Beal, as a gift for Christmas. Probably, the subject is English biologist Thomas H. Huxley (1825-1895), perhaps best remembered as an ardent defender of the work of Charles Darwin (1809-1882) on evolution. Near the probable composition date of this letter, a number of books of his writing appeared, including several volumes of essays and memoirs.
There also were books about him, notably Life and Letters of Thomas Henry Huxley (1900) by his son, Leonard Huxley (1860-1933). This seems likely to be the title to which Jewett refers.
In 1898, while in England, Jewett and Fields spent several days with the Leonard Huxleys. See the Annie Fields diary entries that follow Jewett to Annie Adams Fields 22 August 1898.
The quotation mark suggests that Jewett intended "together," but this is not certain. Presumably, she means that they could give this book in both of their names.
The polisher of Jewett's stone probably is the William J. Knowlton Company, dealer in gems, on Boston's Tremont St. Mr. Clarkson has not been identified with certainty. E. H. Clarkson succeeded Knowlton (1846-1896) as operator of the business, but whether this is the amateur botanist Edward Hale Clarkson (1866-1934) is not yet known.
honey: Jewett's story, "The Honey Tree," appeared in Harper's Magazine in December 1901.
Mr. Beal: James H. Beal married Annie Fields's sister, Louisa Jane Adams. See Annie Adams Fields in Key to Correspondents.
Life of Lord Lawrence ... book about Burmah ... Mr. Powell Mason: H. Bosworth Smith's Life of Lord Lawrence appeared in 1883.
British colonial rule was established in Burma in 1886, but the wars leading to this point spanned 1824-1885. A book about this that seems to fit Jewett's description is: Photographic Illustrations, with Description of Mandalay & Upper Burmah Expeditionary Force, 1886-87, by Robert Blackall Graham, published in 1887.
Probably Jewett refers to William Powell Mason, Jr. (1835-1901), a Boston attorney.
Mary: Mary Rice Jewett. See Key to Correspondents.
bungles: Jewett fairly often uses this neologism to mean Christmas bundles or presents.
Fuffs: Nickname for Annie Adams Fields. See Key to Correspondents.
Mouse Island: A small resort island east of Southport and south of Boothbay, ME. Jewett is first known to have stayed there in 1889. One of its attractions was that their friend Alice Longfellow summered there.
old Mrs. Murray: Mrs. Murray has not been identified. Jewett mentions "old Mrs. Murray" in a letter to Louisa Dresel of "Monday afternoon," Summer 1907, saying that she had not seen her for 6 years. Mrs. Murray is associated with Mouse Island, someone Jewett knows from her stays in the area.
Pinny: Pinny Lawson (Pinny / Pin) was an affectionate nickname for Jewett, used by her and Annie Fields. See Key to Correspondents.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library of Harvard University. Jewett, Sarah Orne, 1849-1909. Annie Fields (Adams) 1834-1915, recipient. 194 letters; 1877-1909 & [ n.d. ] Sarah Orne Jewett correspondence, 1861-1930. MS Am 1743 (255). Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Katharine Wormeley to Sarah Orne Jewett
KPW ]
A happy Christmas to you,and I know you have it. Sarah Woolsey* tells me she saw you, and that your book* had had a most brilliant success and the chrism of a letter from Kipling* I am delighted -- but dont be led away from your own walk in life, which is yours, and no one's but yours.* There is nothing that compares with it.
This is only just a
word of greeting to you and your sister* if she is with you. I shall see you early in March when I shall be a few days in Boston with Fitz* on my way home.
Adieu, my dear, remember me cordially to Mrs Fields* and believe me,
Newport. RI.
Dec 23. 1900.
Notes
Sarah Woolsey: Sarah Chauncey Woolsey. See Key to Correspondents.
book: What book this may be is something of a puzzle. Jewett's most recent completed book was The Queen's Twin and Other Stories (1899). Her current book, The Tory Lover, at Christmas 1900 had just begun in serial, the second installment appearing in the December Atlantic Monthly
Kipling: Rudyard Kipling. See Key to Correspondents. In The Letters of Rudyard Kipling v. 3, pp. 78-9. University of Iowa Press, 1996, appears a letter to Jewett from Kipling that is dated 25 November 1901, in which he says of The Tory Lover, "I think it's the biggest thing you've done yet and also I think that you've pulled it off." This letter, however, as the date indicates, came after she had completed the serial and after it had appeared as a book. Still, it may convey something of what Kipling may have said to her in 1900.
Wormeley's praise seems somewhat more restrained, suggesting that Jewett in her current work may have responded to the market demand for historical fiction more than to her own muse. Though Henry James and later critics have deprecated this novel as not Jewett's best mode, Jewett expressed great affection for it, mainly because into it she put so much of her knowledge of and affection for her home town. See Henry James to Jewett of 5 October 1901.
yours: This word is underlined twice.
sister: Mary Rice Jewett. See Key to Correspondents.
Fitz: Mrs. Fitz appears in several of Wormeley's letters as a close friend and traveling companion. She may be Henrietta Goddard Wigglesworth Fitz (1847-1929).
Fields: Annie Adams Fields. See Key to Correspondents.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library of Harvard University in Sarah Orne Jewett, Correspondence, MS Am 1743, Item 245, Wormeley, Katherine Prescott, 1830-1908. 7 letters. This transcription is from a photocopy held by the Maine Women Writers Collection, The Burton Trafton Papers, Box 2, Folder 98. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Julia Marlowe to Sarah Orne Jewett
Beacon Street, Boston.
- HARVEY & WOOD -
[ End letterhead ]
Dear Miss Jewett:
I loved my flowers! I shall see you soon to tell you how much! My greetings to dear Mrs. Fields please{.}
Faithfully yours
Merrie Christmas!
Cineri: Latin, "Keep the promise made to the ashes of your forefathers."
Marlowe: Marlowe has extended her "J" into underlining her signature.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Miller Library, Special Collections, Colby College, Waterville, ME: JEWE.1.
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
David Douglas to Annie Adams Fields
Underlined portion filled in by hand. ]
PUBLISHER
Edinburgh Dec 24 1900
Dear Mrs Fields
Let me tender our Christmas greetings to you & Miss Jewett* (should she be with you) {.} We often think of you both at Drummond Place where things go on in their [ quaint ? ]{,} the old folks enjoying the blessings of health, though the eye is dimmer & the ear duller than they were fifty years ago --
but I am very thankful these organs are so useful at 78 -- My daughter reads to me regularly -- morning and evening, so in this way I get not only the early news but a good deal of what is worth knowing in our older literature. Forgive this egotism & now let me ask for your own health & have [ your home news ? ] since I last heard from you. Someone told me you had been
3
at the Paris Exhibition --* It must have been a wonderful sight -- We did not go, preferring a great sojourn in Badenoch and the rushing river Spey,* where we have now gone for half a dozen successive years.
I read last night a paper in the Cornhill Magazine [ of ? ] George Smith [ on ? ] "the birth" of the magazine. It interested me so much that I thought you might also like it{.} I have therefore "mailed" you a copy
I know if I had the same opportunities as we had in the fifties I would make a better use of him -- With kindest regards in which my wife & daughter join-- I am [ yours very faithfully ? ]
Miss Jewett: Sarah Orne Jewett. See Key to Correspondents.
Paris Exhibition: The Exposition Universelle or Paris World's Fair of 1900. Following travels in Italy and Greece, Fields and Jewett visited Paris during May of 1900.
Spey: The Spey is a river in the Badnoch area of northeastern Scotland.
Cornhill ... George Smith: George Murray Smith (1824-1901) founded the Cornhill Magazine in London in 1859. Its first editor was the British author, William Makepeace Thackeray (1811-1863).
Apparently, Douglas mailed Fields a copy of "Our Birth and Parentage" by George M. Smith, Cornhill (January 1901), pp. 4-17.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Huntington Library, San Marino, CA, in the James T. Fields Papers and Addenda, Box 16: mss FI 5637. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Charles Eliot Norton* to Sarah Orne Jewett
My dear Miss Jewett: --
I hope that you are having a happy Christmas, and I wish for you a happy new century.
You have made my Christmas the happier by your little and precious gift. Your gifts have a charm beyond all others.
I meant to send one
to you ^in good season^, but I could not get it copied in time, and here it comes lagging along. I wish that it [ might corrected ] touch your fancy. Joan of Arc* was nine years dead; the long war was languishing; Henry VI.* was nineteen years old; Harfleur, which Nym, Bardolph & Pistol and Fluellen had taken twenty-five years ago, and which the French had retaken in the year of Joan of Arc's death, was now besieged again by the English.
"Once more into the breach, dear friends, once more", -- and here is a little bit of parchment which has floated down from that time,and which bears the names of some of the Englishmen who were at the siege.
Work, work your thoughts, and therein see a siege;-----*
Behold the ordnance on their carriages,
With fatal mouths gaping on girded Harfleur."
Affectionately Yours
Notes
Norton: See Sara Norton in Key to Correspondents.
Joan of Arc: Jeanne d'Arc (c. 1412-1431) is a patron saint of France, having fought as a military leader in defense of France against English in the Hundred Years War. Wikipedia.
Bardolph and Pistol appear in two history plays by British playwright, William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Henry IV, parts 1 and 2.
Corporal Nym appears in other Shakespeare plays: The Merry Wives of Windsor and Henry V.
Captain Fluellen appears only in Henry V.
King Henry VI of England (1421-1471) turned 19 in 1440. He appears in a set of three Shakespeare plays.
Wikipedia.
Harfleur: Norton presents two quotations from Shakespeare's Henry V.
The first is from Act III, Scene 1. The second is from the prologue.
The line after this quotation is slanted up to the right, apparently meant to divide the quotation from the signature lines.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library of Harvard University, Cambridge, MA. Sarah Orne Jewett Correspondence, bMS Am 1743 Box 4, Item 166. I. Letters to Sarah Orne Jewett.
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Annie Adams Fields
-- early evening.
[ 1900 ]*
[ Begin letterhead ]
South Berwick, Maine
[ End letterhead ]
I had a quiet little journey home and found John* waiting on the other side of the bridge -- Then Mary and Theodore* and I fell upon our presents, and then upon our dinner and Katy's* Turkey which was the biggest and best of its kind -- and then I meant to go to work but I was too tired and sleepy so I put me down on my bed, and had a great sleep!
[ Page 2 ]
The presents here were charming -- just as we thought them prettier than usual in town -- Mary & Theodore
[ Page 3 ]
both were delighted with your lovely things -- Theodore especially with the Wordsworth* -- and the lamp and* the Indian Child!* and Mary with her top knot -- which seemed the top of everything!
Dear little Fuff* what a lovely Christmas we had together! It shines and shines -- I think [ Josie's ? ] and Eva's* letters made a lovely part of it -- I hope you had a good feast -- I thought of the little party and wish I could have
[ Page 4 ]
stayed there & come home too. I must go now to the notes!
Pinny*
Notes
1900: This tentative date is supported by the likelihood that Jewett is reporting on the serialization of her novel, The Tory Lover, which appeared in Atlantic Monthly from November 1900 to August 1901. That her nephew Theodore is spending Christmas with her indicates that the letter was composed after his mother's death in 1897.
An unknown person has penciled notes at the top of page 1. Inside a half circle upper left: "J.K L"; upper right: "sometime before 1901".
John: John Tucker. See Key to Correspondents.
Mary & Theodore: Mary Rice Jewett and Theodore Jewett Eastman. See Key to Correspondents.
Katy's: Katy Galvin. See Key to Correspondents.
proofs: Probably Jewett is working on The Tory Lover (1901). She speaks of completing proofs for February and says she also has notes to complete. It would seem that she is working on a serial. Of her serialized novels, only The Tory Lover could be said to have "notes," both research notes for historical parts of the novel and the quotations she places at the beginning of each chapter. The quotations, however, do not appear in the serialization, only in the printed novel.
Wordsworth: British poet William Wordsworth (1770-1850).
and: Jewett has underlined this word 3 times.
Indian Child: This may be a book. For example, a book for juvenile readers appeared in 1899: Indian Child Life by Therese and Edwin Deming. Whether the 20-year-old Theodore would have appreciated this particular title, however, is open to question.
Fuff: Nickname for Annie Adams Fields. See Key to Correspondents.
Eva's: Probably Baroness Eva von Blomberg. See Key to Correspondents.
If the previous name is Josie, then Jewett probably means Josephine Anna Moore (1846-1937), the second wife of Chicago lawyer Wirt Dexter (1832-1890). She returned to her Boston home after her husband's death, where she died, though she was buried with him in Chicago.
Pinny: Pinny Lawson (Pinny / Pin) was an affectionate nickname for Jewett, used by her and Annie Fields. See Key to Correspondents.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library of Harvard University. Jewett, Sarah Orne, 1849-1909. Annie Fields (Adams) 1834-1915, recipient. 194 letters; 1877-1909 & [ n.d. ] Sarah Orne Jewett correspondence, 1861-1930. MS Am 1743 (255). Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Susan Hayes Ward
[ 1900 ]*
Maine
[ End letterhead ]
Dear Susy
I feel as if you must have noticed my anxious and often fruitless searches after stray rubber strips* on my [ desk ? ] when you were here in October! At any rate you have succoured me now for a long time to come, and* I am about to put this dreadful looking little shop in order because
such a [ new ? ] companion to the old worn tools is coming. Thank you dear with my Christmas love. The remembrance of your visit is a constant pleasure. I grudge you to Newark as I never have before, I believe!
When wireless telegraphy is all running, then you and your brother and Hetta* must all come and live in Berwick, and attend to the Independent and other
yours always
1900: This date is almost purely speculative, based upon the slight possibility that Ward has promised to send Jewett a paper stapler for Christmas and that such a device became available at about this time. Further, it seems likely that the letter was composed no earlier than 1894, when wireless telegraphy became possible.
rubber strips: One may speculate that Jewett refers to a type of rubber band, for use in holding together papers or other objects. Further, it is not clear what gift Jewett anticipates, but one may speculate again that it was an early form of paper stapler. This sort of device in several forms came into use around 1900, though the modern stapler was invented in about 1941.
and: In this letter, Jewett often writes an "a" with a long tail for "and." I have rendered these as "and."
wireless telegraphy: Wikipedia says that wireless telegraphy first became practical in 1894-5, when Guglielmo Marconi invented the radio transmitter and receiver. From then until World War I, only Morse Code was transmitted by radio.
brother and Hetta: For Ward's siblings, William and Hetta, see William Hayes Ward in the Key to Correspondents.
This manuscript is held by the Newark Public Library, Special Collections, Autograph Collection: MG 6. The manuscript was a gift of Mrs. W. A. Rice, 1937. The transcription is from a photocopy held by the Maine Women Writer's Collection, University of New England, Letters from Sarah Orne Jewett, 1875-1890, the Burton Trafton Jewett Research Collection.
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Julia Bradford Gaskell to Sarah Orne Jewett
My sister* would have written (and then you would have had a more adequate letter of appreciation) but she has such a fearfully bad rheumatism in her right hand
[ Its so spelled ] an awful trial to her, first giving up music and now most things but she is so infinitely patient and we hope for the sun doing wonders -- we've not seen it for weeks! --
When are you coming over again, we so badly want to see you -- ? Also will you remember that if any of your friends are coming near here if we can do anything for them we shall
be quite delighted. I dare not [ dwell ? ] on the great sorrow that hangs over us now, so many of our friends are out in South Africa and one can only long and pray for a speedy peace -- our love and best wishes to you both from us both -- with
renewed cordial and grateful thanks
Affectionately
Julia Gaskell.
Notes
1900-1902: This date range for the letter was determined by the period when British troops were most actively engaged in the Second Boer War in South Africa, to which Gaskell refers. Jewett and Annie Fields had visited the Gaskell sisters during their 1898 travels in Europe.
Gaskell: Margaret Emily Gaskell (1837-1913) and Julia Bradford Gaskell (1846 - 24 October 1908) were daughters of the British novelist, Elizabeth Gaskell (1810-1865). Wikipedia.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library of Harvard University: Sarah Orne Jewett Correspondence I, Letters to Sarah Orne Jewett.
Gaskell, Julia 1 letter; [n.d.] (77).
This transcription is from a photocopy held by the Maine Women Writer's Collection, University of New England, Letters from Sarah Orne Jewett, 1875-1890, Box 2, Folder 99, Burton Trafton Jewett Research Collection.
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Edited by Terry Heller, Coe College.
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