Works of Annie Fields
Diary and Commonplace Book, 1907 - 1912
Annie Fields
Selections
A selection of entries from this collection dealing directly or indirectly with Sarah Orne Jewett.
Fields's "Diary and Commonplace Book" 1907-1912 is held by the Massachusetts Historical Society: Annie Fields papers, 1847-1912, MS. N-1221. This transcription was made mainly from a microfilm copy, available courtesy of the University of Kansas Libraries, Lawrence Kansas: Annie Adams Fields Papers 1852-1912. Folio PS 1669.F5 Z462, 1986, Reel 2. As noted, parts of the transcription are by Sabina Beauchard of the Massachusetts Historical Society, working from the original manuscript.
Editorial Choices
This is not a transcription of the entire diary, but only of those pages where Fields seems clearly to be writing about Sarah Orne Jewett, particularly where she reflects upon her loss after Jewett's stroke and death. Though the diary begins with entries from 1907, Fields does not write about Jewett until January of 1909, upon the death of their friend, Ellen Tucker Emerson, daughter of Ralph Waldo Emerson.
Fields does not number her pages in the diary. I have chosen to number the pages of this transcription, to make clear to readers where Fields's pages begin and to provide readers with references points for their own work. But the numbers correspond to the diary pages only in that they are in the same, chronological order.
I have divided the diary into sections, each with its own notes. The main sections group together phases of the diary: before Jewett's stroke, after the stroke, the year after Jewett's death, etc. Fields has included a few letters; these are presented and annotated individually.
How I handle Fields's writing conventions.
She
- often does not indent where she appears to begin a new paragraph. I have added indentation where it seems clear she intended a new paragraph.
- rarely uses apostrophes in possessives. I have presented her possessives as she does.
- often uses = for hyphen. I've regularized all of these.
- often writes "Mifs" for "Miss." I have regularized that spelling.
- occasionally places quotation marks in subscript at the beginnings of quoted words and phrases. I have regularized these according to contemporary American usage.
- often gives dates such as 29th and French titles such as Mme with the underlined letters in superscript. I have retained her underlining when she uses it, but not the superscript.
- usually begins her entries on the same lines as her dates. I have chosen to separate out the dates on their own lines, to make the diary easier to scan for dates and entries.
- uses "x x x" of varying numbers to indicate ellipses. I have changed these to currently standard ellipses.
{ } = editorial clarifications.
[ ] = editorial information and commentary.
[ * * * ] = I have omitted material before or after what I have transcribed from a particular page.
[ From the opening of the diary ]
A brief record of life and its interests from the first date as below.
Mary R. Jewett
to Annie Fields
August 1907 continued through the year of dear Sarahs going 1909
[ Edith Emerson Forbes to Annie Adams Fields ]
January fourteenth
1909*
[ Begin letterhead ]
MILTON HILL
[ End Letterhead ]
Dear Mrs Fields
My dear Ellen* died this morning at daybreak -- and we are rejoicing that she is released. In spite of every chance that she could not fail to suffer, the skill of her doctors and nurses and her own [ buoyant corrected ] happy temperament have carried her safely
[ Page 2 ]
through with no pain and great comfort and enjoyment -- triumphing over all ills with little heed of them and her clear mind and glad interest in every one else's pleasures have made her last two months beautiful to witness.
It is only six days since she began to lose speech and memory but not affection and her dear smile was quick to respond to a word
[ Page 3 ]
or a touch from us -- whom she knew till Tuesday when she lost all consciousness. They assure me there was no suffering -- she talked of recovery as long as she could speak -- On Friday or Saturday she told the doctors she had passed the two months of descent and was now beginning the ascent -- too true!
Please give my love to Miss Jewett and tell her if she is well enough to care to be with us -- the service will be Sunday in Concord at the Unitarian Church on the
[ Page 4 ]
arrival of the 1.10 train on the Fitchburg division & the return will be on the Lowell
road after four. I have not the minutes in my mind --
Affectionately yours
Edith E. Forbes
It has been a pleasant work to arrange a service with Edward* that shall describe my dear Ellen’s character in the language of the Bible she loves- -
Notes
1909: Fields began her diary entry for 4 February, and then slipped in three letters from the previous month. Parts of these letters are pasted to the diary pages, making reading them very difficult. Sabina Beauchard of the Massachusetts Historical Society carefully worked with these materials in 2018 and provided transcriptions of items that are not fully visible in the microfilm of the diary.
Ellen: The three letters from Edith Emerson Forbes (1841-1929) concern the death and funeral of Ellen Tucker Emerson (1839-1909), who died 14 January. Edith and Ellen were sisters, the daughters of American poet and essayist, Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) and Lydia Jackson (1802-1892).
Edward: Edward Waldo Emerson (1844-1940), brother to Edith and Ellen Emerson, then an anatomy instructor at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.
Page 4 of this letter was transcribed by Sabina Beauchard of the Massachusetts Historical Society.
[ Edith Emerson Forbes to Annie Adams Fields ]
January twentiethS.O.J and I were unable to go to the funeral because the weather was very bad, but there was a large church full, her father's beautiful passages written after the death of his first wife Ellen Tucker were read and her favorite hymns were sung, very beautiful altogether. We were very sorry not to have been there.
1909*
[ Begin letterhead ]
MILTON HILL
[ End Letterhead ]
Dear Mrs Fields
Thank you for the laurel wreath which we liked very much and were glad to have in the church for dear Ellen’s last Sunday there. We think she would have taken great delight in the thought of being borne shoulder-high by five nephews
[ Page 2 ]
two nephews in law and a cousin nearly as dear – for I never introduce him without beginning to say nephew, and then remember I must make it cousin. The church was full all but a few seats of those who loved her truly – Her own pew was empty closed with a purple ribbon and a gift of white carnations and mignonette which Eleanor Whiteside* sent to me. Edward and I pre-
[ Page 3 ]
pared a service which we felt suited Ellen’s life and character. It is easy to describe her in Biblical language. We know how Concord will miss her with us – But poor Miss Legate* will suffer more than any one else – it seems to break up life for her after twenty years together – They are all urging me to go away for a rest -
[ Page 4 ]
I cannot yet – and have prevailed, I think, in my wish to wait till February fourteenth. Even then I shall go reluctant for I have much to do that will be a burden to me in the spring when my garden is wanting me.
Waldo* will take me away to Florida probably – I hope I can see you before I go – Affectionately
Edith E. Forbes
[ A note by Annie Fields, appended to this letter. ]*
Notes
1909: This letter was transcribed by Sabina Beauchard of the Massachusetts Historical Society.
Eleanor Whiteside: Probably this is Eleanor Anne Shattuck Whiteside (1842-1918), who resided on Beacon Street in Boston, with her son, Alexander Whiteside, Jr., who was a lawyer.
Miss Legate: Helen Legate (1858-1945) was an educator and a close friend of the Emerson siblings: Edward, Ellen and Edith.
Waldo: This is somewhat confusing. Her brother is Edward Waldo; I am aware of no other close living relatives with this name.
Fields's note: Fields appears to have written the note on the final page, turning the page upside-down and writing around Mrs. Forbes's signature.
[ Edith Emerson Forbes to Sarah Orne Jewett ]
January twentiethDear Miss Jewett
1909
[ Begin letterhead ]
MILTON HILL.
[ End letterhead ]
I loved your daffodils and they were arrayed on one side of the pulpit with other spring flowers pansies, hyacinths violets and tulips and looked so cheerful and gay -- The other side of the pulpit had red roses and ^red^ carnations and ^the^ pulpit [was corrected ] all covered
[ Page 3 ]
with flowers callas and lilies in the centre with white and pale pink shading to the spring flower side and deep pink to pale on the red rose side -- It was beautiful and so were the flowers that covered Ellen -- The snowy day too pleased me -- but I am very sorry it prevented you and Mrs Fields from being with us. I am going back on Sunday when Mr Macdonald* has
[ Page 4 ]
a Memorial Service --
Thank you for your letter and the flowers --
Your loving friend,Note
Edith E. Forbes
We had your glass basket of the last birthday full of pink camellias in the study with dear Ellen who looked like a holy saint.
Mr Macdonald: Loren B. Macdonald (1857-1924) was pastor of the First Parish Unitarian Church in Concord, MA. He was the author of Life in the Making: An Approach to Religion Through the Method of Modern Pragmatism (1911).
Sarah Orne Jewett suffered a stroke on Sunday, 31 January 1909.
[ Page 5 ]
Feb. 4th 1909
My dear S.O.J. was stricken down early Sunday morning{,} a small blood vessel giving way in the brain. They think she is recovering today though we have had anxious days and nights. This was four days ago -- Jessie Cochrane is due & her sister Mary,* two nurses ( they^nurses^ [ does intended do ] not sleep in the house or I could with difficulty manage it){,} Theodore* her medical nephew and the Dr coming from time to time. It appears a strange moment to start in for a little diary, but it is a great pleasure to note down the attentions of friends. The house is full of flowers ----
[ Page 6 ]
Feb. 10 --
She still lies half asleep half conscious as she has done from the first. The doctor comes infrequently because until this stupor is thrown off we can know and do nothing. She takes
[ Page 7 ]
a little food each day --
Friends are doing all in their power to alleviate the situation for us. Jessie went yesterday to hear the rehearsal of The Hymn of Praise by Mendelssohn exquisitely given under Mr. Lang -- prepared for the Centennial of Lincoln which is close at hand* -- Mary went to carry some of the [ burden or garden ? ] to [ Mrs ? ] Fitz & Mrs Grew -- *
[ * * * ]
[ Page 8 ]
[ * * * ]
Feb 10th
Willa Cather* came from New York on purpose to ask after dear S. O. J. and to see me. She stayed an hour in the P.M. and took tea -- Mary sat with us awhile but getting tired perhaps went upstairs for a time and Jessie C. came in; the latter had been hearing the Rehearsal of Mendelssohn's Hymn of Praise gloriously sung in preparation for Lincoln's birthday on the 12th{.} It is sung by picked singers from all the church choirs of this city. Also she had been to see Alice Howe* still a great invalid, etc.
Feb 11th
We cannot see the way before us. Our dear invalid still lies sleeping and half-waking by turns -- She is often very amusing & told the nurse last night that she wanted John to buy a five cent mousetrap* this morning to catch me with! We are anxious to keep her quiet, so I go very seldom into her room
[ Page 9 ]
Feby 12th
Abraham Lincoln's birthday ---- S.O.J. still lies sometimes in sleep sometimes restless.
[ Page 10 ]
March 10th
Every day seems to bring some good reason why I should not write any personal record on these pages -- Perhaps some record of our friends is still better worth having and this shall not altogether stop, at least -- Conditions in this house are much the same as they have been since Feby 1st except that our friend Jessie Cochrane has gone away from us to Washington & Louisville and Miss M. Jewett stays on. Two nurses still in attendance and my friend still in a low state. Though reviving a little from time to time. The bed begins to be very wearing and the inability to move. Who can know what the end will be?
A constant fall of flowers would quite cover her if they were left in her room and the messages of love from her friends of which these blossoms are the emblem give her a large & continuing pleasure --
[ Page 11 ]
April 22d
Came Sarah's first letter written as she was recovering and written the morning after he return so South Berwick --
[ Attached to the page after the above note is Jewett's note ]
Mary had already ordered it. Good bye darling with my heart's love{.} Your Pinny.*
Notes
Jessie Cochrane: Cochrane was a gifted amateur pianist from Louisville, Kentucky, who became something of a protégée of Mrs. Fields. After long and frequent trips to Europe, she would visit Mrs. Fields at 148 Charles Street and Gambrel Cottage in Manchester-by-the-Sea (see Warner's letter about his luncheon with Miss Cochrane, Dr. Holmes, and Mr. Howells, in Fields's Charles Dudley Warner, 165). Miss Cochrane attempted some writing but apparently did not achieve publication. One of her photographs hangs above the bureau in Miss Jewett's bedroom in the Memorial House at South Berwick. (Richard Cary)
Mary Rice Jewett (1847-1930) was Jewett's older sister.
Theodore: Theodore Eastman (1879 - 1931) was the son of Caroline (Carrie) Jewett (1855-1897) and Edwin (Ned) Eastman (1849 - 1892). He graduated from Harvard University (A.B. 1901, M.D. 1905) and became a physician.
Willa Cather: American novelist, Willa Cather (1873-1947) befriended Jewett and Fields in 1908, before she began publishing her major novels.
The Hymn of Praise by Mendelssohn ... Mr. Lang ... Centennial of Lincoln: Wikipedia says: "Lobgesang (Hymn of Praise), Op. 52 (MWV A 18[1]), is 'A Symphony-Cantata on Words of the Holy Bible, for Soloists, Chorus and Orchestra' by [German composer] Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847). After the composer's death it also was published as his Symphony No. 2 in B-flat major, a naming and numbering that is not Mendelssohn's."
Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865), the 16th President of the United States, was born on 12 February.
Wikipedia says: Benjamin Johnson Lang (1837-1909) "was an American conductor, pianist, organist, teacher and composer." Though he often conducted and performed with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, he never became its conductor, but instead served a organist of King's Chapel in Boston. "His last appearance as a conductor was on February 12, 1909, when he conducted the BSO and a chorus for a commemoration of the centenary of the birth of Abraham Lincoln. He presented Mendelssohn’s Lobgesang ("Hymn of Praise"), which he had also conducted at the Emancipation Jubilee concert in 1862." Of his three musical children, his elder daughter, Margaret Ruthven Lang (1867-1972), became a noted composer.
Mrs Fitz & Mrs Grew: While there were people named Fitz who may have been neighbors of Fields, this person has not been identified.
Among Fields's neighbors were people named Grew, such as Edward Wigglesworth Grew (1867-1945) and Ruth Dexter Grew (1874-1956). Edward Grew's mother was Jane Wigglesworth Grew (1836-1920). Yet another possible acquaintance would have been the Boston banker, Edward Sturgis Grew (1842-1916) and his wife, Annie Crawford Clark (1843-1924). Whether any of these is the "Mrs. Grew" mentioned here is not known.
Alice Howe: Alice Lloyd Greenwood (Mrs. George Dudley) Howe (1835 - 924), a friend of long standing both at Boston and Manchester. Miss Jewett dedicated The Country of the Pointed Firs "To Alice Greenwood Howe." Mr. Howe (1829-1903) was a Boston merchant. Her parents were Rev. Francis William Pitt Greenwood and Maria Greenwood . Her siblings were: Francis William Greenwood; Charles Ridgely Greenwood; Mary Langdon Lodge, and Augustus Goodwin Greenwood. (Cary)
mousetrap: Mouse is one of the affectionate nicknames Jewett gave to Fields.
Pinny: One of the affectionate nicknames for Jewett used by her and Fields. Jewett's handwriting in this note is difficult, and it is not absolutely certain that her signature is correctly transcribed.
Sarah Orne Jewett's Death
24 June 1909
[ Page 12 ]
[ At the top of this page, Fields has attached a clipped copy of Jewett's poem, "Boat Song." The source is unknown. it follows a poem by Deine Gretchen that ends "for me." Fields altered one word in the first line. ]
Now restyour^the^ oars and let me drift
While all the stars come out to see.
The birds are talking in their sleep
As we go by so silently.
The idle winds are in the pines,
The ripples touch against the shore,
Oh rest your oars and let me drift,
And let me dream forevermore.
The sweet wild roses hear and wake,
And send their fragrance through the air;
The hills are hiding in the dark,
There is no hurry anywhere,
The shadows close around the boat,
Ah, why should we go back to shore?
So rest your oars and we will float
Without a care forevermore.
Oh little waves that plash and call,
How fast you lead us out of sight!
And we must follow where you go
This strange and sweet midsummer night;
The quiet river reaches far--
The darkness covers all the shore,
With idle oars we downward drift
In starlight dim forevermore.
July 1st
One week ago tonight -- June 24th* in calm so great they scarcely knew when her spirit finally took its flight she went away from us -- On Sunday ^27th^ many friends went to her body's burial on the green hillside at South Berwick.
-------------------------I waked up this morning with such a happy
"They loved her so!"
[ Page 13 ]
senseremembrance that dear Mrs. Bell* was coming back to town yesterday. It is so much in faint-hearted times to remember that she is in the world! and some others that we have been happy enough to know. -- There is no need of casting the pearls of friendship before swine* or overdoing the "old Olive" business either ^in trying to be just to people{.}^ Everything fails if we dont keep some sense of values -- it means the belittling of character -- We have got to get along with all [ unrecognized word at the bottom of the page on its own line.]
[ Page 14 ]
grades, but we needn'tcheapenmake believe that third rate is as good as first rate {--} it flatters the cheap side of things and [pulls corrected ] down the only real standards{.}
Notes
June 24th: It is not clear whether Fields meant to underline both of these words.
Mrs. Bell: Helen Olcott (Choate) Bell (1830-1918). Daughter of the prominent Boston lawyer and orator, Rufus Choate, Mrs. Bell was a literary intellectual, known for her conversation and her sharp wit. Her husband was Joseph Mills Bell, a Boston lawyer, abolitionist and politician, who served in the Massachusetts Senate. Mr. Bell was law partner to her father, Rufus Choate (1799-1859). According to Famous Families of Massachusetts (1870), "Mrs. Bell was liberally endowed with the Choate wit and her penetrating bon mots were the delight of all her friends... She hated the country and asked a friend, departing for the woods and fields, to 'kick a tree for her!'" (pp. 280-1).
swine: Matthew 7:6 in the Bible.
"old Olive" business: The allusion here is not perfectly clear. Fields may be referring to the long tradition in Western culture in which offering an olive branch signifies proposing to end a conflict.
[ Page 15 ]
July 15th
It would be a pleasant thing if I could make a note here of the many beautiful letters which have been sent me in memory of my Sarah. Some I should love to preserve, but time to reply to them is far more important since grief is common and the responsesof^to^ friends who have written out of their own knowledge of sorrow for your consolation is by far the most important matter; any record of our own, save to them must be abandoned -- She has left a fragment of memory. "The actions of the just smell sweet and blossom in the dust."*
[ Page 16 ]August 20th 1909
[ *** ]
Robert Collyer and Mary Jewett* come to me today for one week{.} He will preach here on Sunday again in spite of his great age.
We have had strange vicissitudes of weather this summer{.} Heat almost unprecedented for two or three days and just lately a week of rain and storms and late autumn cold.
I think on my dear Sarah in her new estate, of her release, of the happy presence which she spreads around us, of her dear beautiful helpful generous self who will not come back, no, no, no! We do not ask it, nor wish it indeed --
Friends have been so kind that I am seldom alone{.}
[ Page 17 ]
If I could have my pleasure
And do my will aright,
I'd heap a bowl full measure
With flowers red and white
Lady! for your delight.
Others must send the flowers! --
This tile of glass is planned
To save from dewy showers
The table where they stand,
Fair to your eye and hand.
This is the time of showing
The heart without a fear;
Of giving and of knowing
The humblest gift is dear
And part of Christmas cheer.
Though words are nowise needing
To bring to-day's good will
Your friends are not unheeding
The place they cannot fill --
--The dearest voice is still.
Christmas, 1909
[ Ls. F. ?]*
[ Page 18 ]
Midsummer, 1909
S. O.J.
_________________
New England! weep thy child that is no more,
For well she loved the, well she knew to praise
They fir-clad rocks, they country fields and ways
And all they treasury of sea and shore.
Nor these alone: the tender, inmost core
Of thy folk-heart lay bare to her deep gaze.
The love that warms, the homely wit that plays
Within thy rugged, chill exterior.
All this she saw and set for us to read
In words that shall not perish with the years,
So long as truth can save or beauty plead
Her own continuance in the world's dull ears;
Yet to a child of thine the dearest meed,
New England! is the tribute of thy tears.
[ In darker ink and probably another hand ]
by L. F.
Mrs [ Fairchild corrected ]*
Notes
the dust: James Shirley (1596-1666), British playwright, wrote The Grateful Servant (1629), with the subtitle: "Only the actions of the just smell sweet and blossom in the dust."
Collyer ... Jewett: Dr. Robert Collyer (1823 - 1912) was an English-born Unitarian clergyman of New York City. He wrote extensively on theological subjects, as well as verse, and biographies of Hawthorne, Whittier, Thoreau, Lamb, and Burns. He had a long correspondence with Jewett, and came annually for a stay at Annie Fields' Gambrel Cottage. He was a popular author of sermon collections, including Nature and Life (1867) and The Life That Now Is (1871). He also wrote biographies of popular ministers of the period. Wikipedia
Mary Rice Jewett (1847 - 1930) was Jewett's older sister.
Ls. F.: This transcription is uncertain. See next note.
Mrs Fairchild:
In her Christmas 1909 entry, below, Fields indicates that both poems arrived along with a gift from "Lily Fairchild."
The artist and poet Elizabeth (Lily) Nelson Fairchild (1845-1924) wrote under the name of C. A. Price. Mrs. Fairchild had an artistic salon in Boston. Her husband was the banker Charles Fairchild (1838-1910), and one of their daughters, Lucia Fairchild Fuller (1872-1924), became a painter of note.
[ Page 19 ]
Fragments from Miss Jewett's [well-written? ] diary ^written in [on scraps of paper ? ]^ [ deleted words, perhaps published ] copied into no book --
"Even if we are not equipped with that love for our housemates that makes things easy there are certain civilities that when observed make life easier and more respectable for everyone"
[Fields inserts two short parallel dividing lines before beginning several of the following entries]
------- "one of those persons ^we^ [deleted word ] can do anything for but love.
-------
You can't push 3d rate people up by pulling first rate people down --
Want of openness is such a fatal thing --- cowardly in people of a decent upbringing.
------- a beautiful openness of nature --- no sense of hidden places
-------
She was full of pretty fancies: she'd always rest herself with something to read; but you couldn't make
[ Page 20 ]
[ A faded sentence appears to be penciled into the top margin. It may read: Some mistake here belongs to something else. ]
no talk with him; he had a mind like a chine of pork sort of thick and satisfied and everything you said seemed to drop on the ground all round him --
Economy was his watch word even if it did come out ofotherssomebody else!
----- She was like a bright river running in the sun, but full of deep still places and not to be bridged by most people's thoughts: a river that shone and sparkled and [ unrecognized word raised ? ] its gay voice but it was always full of unsuspected power ....
She has passed too quickly {--} we can only see a rough and stormy way where such beauty and brightness were in our sight so long.
Two half truths never make a whole one -----
[ Page 21 ]
S.O.J. continued. --
Sometimes genius comes to the light of day as a living spring starts out of a rocky hillside, self existent and self dependent. Often it is like a broad stream fed by many tributaries drawn to its single channel by {a} mysterious power of life and determination.
Everything depends upon whether we are trying to [ range or gauge ? ] ourselves with the high ideals, or are satisfied with the low ones. We must not drop to these for the sake of complimenting those who are satisfied so because it is easier; -- neither for their sakes nor our own.
S.O.J.
She quotes from Marmontel: C'est ce touchant désir de plaire qui avoue le besoin d'être aimé --* and again of writers: Greedy little writers about other people's work who always seem to write with green ink ---
[ Page 22 ]
Sarah says of one of her characters; "She belonged to a sect so strenuous about the value of its rites as almost to put God under obligations and throw the debt on that side{.}"
[ Page 23 ]
By the Trolley Car.*
--------------------------------
The making of the Trolley road had been a question of great importance to the towns of Byfleet and [ Epsom ? ]. The objection had been not without bitterness and prejudice and the promoters not without insolence; but by the time I took my first journey the fact of its existence was already quietly accepted; one of the most prejudiced opposers had frankly stated that "she wish she [had corrected ] the money back" ....x x x x
[ A page seems to be attached at this point, about half way down.
It appears to fold out, making a single long page ]
[ deleted mark ]
butthe end seems almost to justify the means in rustic neighbourhoods. I had already seen timid faces ^re^appear agaiin the village church{,} women who lived in lonely farmhouses half way from town to town whom time and ^family^ changes had been isolating more and more until they were living like hermits. The [ deleted word ] ^power^ of visiting ones neighbours or being punctual in ones* place in a church three miles away is true luxury brought within easy reach by these rural railways; they are very civilizing. Damage to the country road, unnecessary at any rate if the [ deleted word ] builders take a little care, is more than overset by this charming ease of transportation. I was about to have an excellent illustration in the delight of the old traveller by my side.
[ Page 24 ]
This [old ? ] friend looked up pleasantly and called me by a childish name that I supposed everybody had forgotten{.} She gave me back my youth with it -- the days when I used to wait in the green little yard of her farm-house for my father to come out from his visit to some sick person.
x x x x x x *to see her. Yes -- I heard 'em say he told her he'd got to return by next train -- an' she thought the time was short for reflection but he said three quarters of an hour ought to do for anybody. They was married in just a week. She was a good appearing woman but I guess she's had all the time she wanted to think it over."
One^Another^ old woman gets in apparently from a lair among some alders, -- but a homely scent of camphor followed her progress into the car. [ deleted mark ] They were old acquaintances, hadn't met since eleven years ago when Elder [ Joseph ? ] Wilkin's [ so written ] wife died -- talk him all over and his second venture. [ Quotation mark ? ] He offered to everybody he had bowing acquaintance with but there was nobody wanted to marry him just to save him from hired help -- he heard of a lady up to Dover and went
[ Page 25 ]
"I wisht I could take off my flannel petticoat" commented the traveller in a moment of confidence {--} "feels 's if there was a fire somewhere's [ so written ] but I dont see no opportunity for it."
"Aint it considable like flying {?}" she exclaimed, admiringly: "My sakes alive we're up to [ Parcher's ? ] place already! and there's their barn they've been [ puttin' ? ] forty foot on -- and its all for show -- They ain't got
[ Page 26 ]
the very wust hay farm on this road but next thing to it."
The Conductor disappeared quickly. There was a long delay so that one of the two men who were our only fellow [ passengers corrected ] looked round impatiently. With great care the young official was helping an unwieldy old person to her seat. The motor man looked round to see [ deleted word ] John Caswell had not given the signal to start and then leaned back comfortably against the fender to watch the proceeding. The new comer was so lame and so broad that she had to be ended along like a barrel. I saw that there were designs of getting her to the middle of the car and when I rose to help wondering how the old courageous
[ Page 27 ]traveller had ever taken the high step to the car platform{.} I saw [ we or she ? ] had left a good straight-backed kitchen chair by the roadside as we slowly moved on. There we^re^ two or three spectators{,} some elderly men and an anxious looking woman with a brown gingham handkerchief over her head. [ one seemingly not capitalized ] of the men pushed the [ deleted word bag ? ] ^chair^ aside into the bushes and then stood looking after the car.
{"}Now aint that nice{,"} said the conductor sympathetically to me. "They can visit each other by the way." The two old women were shaking hands with great [deleted word satisfaction ? ] enthusiasm; their unexpected meeting filled them with instant satisfaction. They did not let go of each others hand [ possibly corrected from other and ] but
[ Page 28 ]
but [ repeated ] bend toward each other keeping fast hold and talking eagerly both at the same time.
"Know ye! Well I guess I did{,"} said the new comer. {"}I was asking my nieces [ folks corrected ] about ye only yesterday and they said they didn't know as you [ was written over were ? ] able to git out any now. My mind was led to make this trip, I though I might see you setting to the winder or out to the door even this pleasant day as I rode by. But [ lor ? ] there ye be{";} and they pressed each others hands again with beaming joy.
The first pleasant Sunday after the trolley car had begun to run was the Day of general resurrection.*
[ Page 29 ]
Everybody turned out along the road to go to meeting{.} The minister not settled very long, his first funeral was old [ "Lijah intending 'Lijah ] Carstairs and I see* 'Lijah's old twin brother come up the aisle that had been spending the winter to Lowell with his daughter and wasn't to the funeral. You couldn't tell him & 'Lijah apart and when the minister see him coming in, his eyes got round as a calf's and his mouth fell right open. x x x x x *
The country about Dunnet Landing has a way of waiting quietly all round you{,} surrounding you with superior forces until you suddenly find that you have become only a piece of it instead of a foreign substance flung into it by chance. And if you
[ Page 30 ]
keep to one place to go to and sit in, this feeling comes faster and little things keep happening without troubling you that you can watch. This is the difference between [ outdoor or outdoors ? ] and in a house! Something always happens to amuse you: an ant with a crumb, a bird going up & down at tree or a little bit of a tree that stands in front of you until it seems like a quiet person.
Sit until you do see it!* (The beauty{,} the presence of something)
O my darling! this is all I can find to save and I am tearing up the bits of paper on which you used to write things whichcome^came^ into your head while you were restingduring
[ Page 31 ]
in those many sad and to you unfruitful years. They were not unfruitful for we were allloving^learning^ to know and understand you better and better and now we can seem to follow and love you better for the way in which you endured those days and found them [ sweet ? ] for your friends' sake often time.
Octr 20th
This day last year was warmer but beautiful as today and we were preparing to go to Boston together.* I had been very ill for a month and she had nursed and companioned me until life seemed like a rose which had opened into full beauty in this exquisite place --
Today I make ready to go to Boston and our home there without her, but
[ Page 32
inserted at this point on black-bordered paper
is the following ]
O what is Heaven but the fellowship
of minds that each can stand {'}gainst the world
By its own meek but incorruptible will.
O what is Heaven but the fellowship*
A verse of Emerson which he commonly copied when called upon for his autograph --
[ Page 33 ]
My loving servants are doing all they can and her spirit pervades the place. The afternoon is glorious and less cold than of late for it has been icy and my heart was cold but she seems to be with me again today.
Decr 30th
Last week William Morris's daughter, May, passed the week with me{,} staying over Christmas Day. She is an excellent and admirable woman{.} I should soon learn to love her. I hope she will return [frequently or presently ].
Today Miss Grace King of New Orleans sends me the Professor of Botany from Tulane University New Orleans Reginald Somers Cocks,* an Englishman and a good simple living thinking man I thought.
[ Page 34 ]
And so this old year is slipping rapidly away from us --
Christmas was rich in the remembrance of friends, but the days recall her now very vividly and I miss her living presence. I am trying to write to friends who have been kind in sending me flowers & Christmas gifts -- also reading Emerson's Journal{,}* Mrs Meynell's "Ceres Runaway."* (exquisite) Poems of Gilder* just sunk below our horizon{,} Young Cabot Lodge* and other presents -- notably poems of G. E. Woodberry.*
[ Page 35, seemingly out of chronological order ]*
Christmas -- 1909 --
Have been very ill but all is well again{.} Miss May Morris has been with me a week -- we had a happy little Christmas dinner -- Thomas Whittemore* came. Wonderful flowers also -- a huge box full from Mr. Morgan. I was able to send him some papers of his grandfather, John Pierpont.* I think he liked having some thing to add to his collection of his grandfathers letters. Lily Fairchild* sent the enclosed verses of her own with a pretty gift.
Notes
aimé: Wikipedia says: Jean-François Marmontel (1723 -1799) "was a French historian and writer, a member of the Encyclopédistes movement." The quotation is from his address to the French Academy of 22 December 1763 in Œuvres Complètes de Marmontel, Volume 7, p. 23. English translation, with assistance of Jeannine Hammond, Coe College: It is this touching desire to please that avows the need to be loved.
Car: This transcription of a Jewett manuscript presents problems that presumably remain unsolvable, if Fields did indeed destroy the original, as she indicates below that she did.. A particularly difficult problem is knowing how exactly Fields has copied Jewett. Are the corrections and potential revisions copied from Jewett? Or does Fields correct her own transcription errors and edit Jewett's prose?
Presumably this sketch was written soon after the opening of the South Berwick branch of local trolley service. Richard Cary notes that the electric trolley lines of the Portsmouth, Dover and York Street Railway were extended to South Berwick during the spring of 1903.
x x x x x x: Fields usually uses "x's" to indicate ellipses, but in copying this sketch she seems to intend dividing sections of the narrative, so I have rendered them as she did, and not as ellipses. Whether Jewett so divided her manuscript is not known.
ones: The paper is damaged at this point. Fields clearly has written more than "one," probably "ones."
general resurrection: Easter 1903 fell on 12 April. Jewett's joking reference to the "Day of general resurrection" could refer to this holiday.
I see: The narrator shifts into dialect here, as if she intended another character to narrate this incident.
x x x x x: Though Fields offers no other signal, the "Trolley" sketch seems to end here, followed by a fragment connected with Jewett's "Dunnet Landing" stories, The Country of the Pointed Firs (1896) and four related tales.
do see it: "do" is underlined twice.
Boston together: Jewett wrote to David Douglas from Fields's summer home at Manchester-by-the-Sea on 20 October 1908.
fellowship: See the Delphi Complete Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson.
William Morris's daughter, May: Wikipedia says that William Morris (1834 - 1896) was "an English textile designer, poet, novelist, translator, and socialist activist ...[a]ssociated with the British Arts and Crafts Movement." He married Jane Burden; their second daughter was Mary "May" Morris (1862-1938), whom Wikipedia describes as "an English artisan, embroidery designer, jeweller, socialist, and editor."
Grace King of New Orleans: Wikipedia says that Grace Elizabeth King (1851 - 1932) "was an American author of Louisiana stories, history, and biography, and a leader in historical and literary activities."
Reginald Somers Cocks: Reginald Woodhuse Somers Cocks (1863-1926), a native of Worcestershire, England, became Ida A. Richardson Chair of Botany at Tulane University in New Orleans in 1908.
Emerson's Journal: Wikipedia says that Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803 - 1882) "was an American essayist, lecturer, philosopher, and poet who led the transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century." His selected journals appeared in two volumes, one for 1820 - 1842, and another for 1841 - 1877.
Mrs Meynell's "Ceres Runaway": Alice Christiana Gertrude Thompson Meynell (1847- 1922) "was an English writer, editor, critic, and suffragist, now remembered mainly as a poet." Mrs. Meynell visited the United States, meeting Jewett and Fields, in March 1902. Her Ceres' Runaway and Other Essays appeared in 1909. Wikipedia
Poems of Gilder: Richard Watson Gilder (1844 - 19 November 1909) was an American poet and editor of Scribner's Monthly. He married Helena de Kay (1846–1916), a painter and a founder of the Art Students League and Society of American Artists.. Wikipedia
Young Cabot Lodge: The transcription of "Young" is uncertain. It seems likely that she would be reading the American poet George Cabot "Bay" Lodge (1873 - August 21, 1909). She may refer to him as "young" because he died comparatively young. His new book in 1909 would have been The Soul's Inheritance, and other Poems from Houghton Mifflin.
G. E. Woodberry: George Edward Woodberry (1855 - 1930) was an American literary critic and poet. He was a frequent contributor of essays and poetry to The Nation, Atlantic Monthly, and other magazines. His collected poems appeared in 1903. Wikipedia
Thomas Whittemore: Wikipedia says that Thomas Whittemore (1871 - 1950) "was an American scholar and archaeologist who founded the Byzantine Institute of America."
Mr. Morgan .. John Pierpont: Wikipedia says that John Pierpont Morgan Sr. (1837 - 1913 "was an American financier and banker who dominated corporate finance and industrial consolidation in the United States of America in the late 19th and early 20th centuries." His mother was Juliet Pierpont (1816-1884). Her father was John Pierpont (1785-1846) an American poet, Unitarian minister and abolitionist. It seems likely that Fields was acquainted with him through his poetry and his association with Boston abolitionists.
Lily Fairchild: The artist and poet Elizabeth (Lily) Nelson Fairchild (1845-1924) wrote under the name of C. A. Price. Mrs. Fairchild had an artistic salon in Boston. Her husband was the banker Charles Fairchild (1838-1910), and one of their daughters, Lucia Fairchild Fuller (1872-1924), became a painter of note.
See above for copies of the two poems.
[ 1910 ]
[ Page 36 ]
[ *** ]
Feb - again 1910
Just one year ago our beloved Sarah was stricken unto death and after five [ angering ? ] months sank away from this earth.
[ Page 37 ]
Love is all and suffering but its incident -- Phillips Brooks*
[ * * * ]
[ Page 38 ]
March 8th 1910 --
The season spins on apace -- without her!
and yet her sweet presence{,} her loving care are not really absent. Every morning and every day and reaching out to me from every sideand^I^ feel her -- and there again the empty place.
[ * * * ]
May 8th*
My thoughts are busied with Sarah's dear letters -- There never were any so sweet! Mary* has seen more of them yet. This time last year she was weary and longing -- now she is free.
_______________________
If such [ greatness ? ] live [mid ? ] men
Bring me it!
I shall know them.
She has come from heaven [up the right margin ] again -- Thomas [Jordan ? ]*
[ * * * ]
[ Page 39 ]
1910
Sunday March 20th
Easter* is coming again. She is not here! but I look to her every day and feel she is not far away.
April 21st --
A year ago today dear Sarah was carried to her South Berwick house from her Charles St. house. We did not speak again together after the morning. She needed all her steadiness and so did I -- She understood and wrote me afterward that she loved it so --
[ * * * ]
memory seemed to hold in its grasp things old and new which had been said and sung by others and they came again at her call for the benefit of sufferers --[ Page 40 ]
May 12th
[ After reporting on recent reading ]
Dear S. O. J's Letters are getting into shape steadily, when Mary has passed upon them they will be ready.
June 17. Manchester[ * * * ]
[ Page 41 ]
[ * * * ]
I have been here since the first of the month and Jessie C. has come -- come indeed on the 6th remembering that birthday business!,* but it was very sweet and comforting. Sarah is near us in these days I feel. It was on the 24th of last year she went{,} Jessie has been much with Duse* who has been in the deepest distress since she parted from that wretch D'Annunzio who ---- but this tale is too sad and dark -- Duse's weakness and entire lack
[ Page 42 ]
of moral standards [ infected ? ] them -- indeed the words sound like foolishness in respect to either of them { -- } though Duse lives in her affections, he in the lowest deeps of human depravity.
July 16th Manchester -- no 17th Sunday.
The bells of the Unitarian church are ringing and the morning being cool after a week of unusual heat ending in a beneficent quick rain yesterday, everybody who can go afoot is glad to do so. We miss the dear [Mrs ? ] Mary Bartlett.* Jessie is at the piano [preparing her powers ? ] in order to play to Alice Howe presently & her cousin who have elected to [ come over ? ].
[ Page 43 ]
Dear Sarah is always present to my thought. I feel her near. Dear Ida Higginson and her husband are most caring and close to us in spirit. They came last Sunday Eveg -- when Jessie played to us as we sat on the piazza. I am trying to get H.M. & Co. to print H. L. Higginson's paper about Alexander Agassiz -- They stick on the money question -- I will see what may be done.
Sept 23d
Autumn is here! We gave up publishing now the paper on A.Agassiz given by H. Higginson to the [ Cambridge ? ] students early in July, but we shall remember it for a later season. Mr. Higginson himself did not care to have it published just now -- Yes indeed autumn has come and I begin to think of going to town as soon as the elevator is finished which Sarah Wheelwright* has been so
[ Page 44 ]
generous as to put put into my house in Charles St.
[ * * * ]
This is the second autumn since my Sarah died. Life goes on strangely; I feel as if it were stopping and yet it continues. I hope that continuance means advance but I am as a child who knows nothing -- In the letters of John Stuart Blackie he says the young acquire & achieve{;} the old enjoy & endure.*
[ * * * ]
[ Page 45 ]
[ * * * ]
Nov. 28th
Six weeks have gone in the difficulties of cleaning & rearranging this house after the building of the elevator wh. Mrs Wheelwright was so kind and generous as to give me{.}
[ Page 46 ]
Also the hours have gone with the kind friends who come every afternoon and the evening is a difficult time partly because of eyes although writing is much less bad than reading for them. The solitary hours are often clogged also by a great sense of fatigue because "failing strength" is distinctly a factor to be reckoned with.
But dear Helen's visits come bringing great refreshment and pleasure once or twice a week{.} There is no one else in the world like her -- "There is none like her none"* because it is no endearment of youth, but what belongs to [ her ? ] beyond any other creature I have ever known{.} The real stimulus of a swift darting mind [ mixed ? ] with constant reading and the study of other minds, brought into the service
[ Page 47 ]
of her friends by a heart* which is always longing to serve others and to make the passing of the days more beautiful to those who are more or less dwelling in shadow.
To begin to write about her fills me with a sense of incapacity. A more modest truth-telling person about herself I have never seen; full of reserves so deep that very few can know her; yet wishing to hide nothing except her own sufferings. She said once to my dear S.O.J. that her idea of heaven was a place where she could cry all she wanted to, and nobody ^else^ would be made sorry. Her last trial now is that her niece with whom she has lived since her sister died, has suddenly
[ Page 48 ]
married and she is left unexpectedly to live alone and to keep [ house ? ] for herself{,} a thing most difficult and I may say detestable{,} especially to one who has never been obliged to keep house at all except for a brief time during her own early married life. Her husband dying early{,} she went to live afterward in her sister's family ---------*
She has told me of a new book by Ezra Pound -- Essays{.}*
Meantime she has lent me the Letters of Alice Smith{,}* a really beautiful book, which is not at present published but I trust one day it will be. In it I find the birthday of dear Mrs Higginson August Ninth*
The letters of Alice Weston Smith to those who are in trouble are remarkable indeed. How
[ Page 49 ]
She says "Those who love, even Death itself cannot separate and in all the loneliness andthe longinganguish in which you are left you will surely feel the larger life into wh. he has entered pulsing in yours.
So let her wait God's instant men call years.
She is looking at her dead bird
Fare thee well companion dear,
Fare forever well nor fear
Tiny though thou art to stray
Down the uncompanioned way
Speaking of Mrs Whitman* after her death she says;
[ Page 50 ]"If life is to be measured by the amount of love in the human soul, as Tauler says, hers was a very wonderful one. She bore witness of the light.{"} "And they that turn many to righteousness as the stars forever and ever" and again -- "Life, I repeat is energy of love" and how gladly she spent and was spent for us!
"We were weary, and we
Fearful, and we in our march
Fain to drop down to die:
Still thou turnedst, and still
Gavest the weary thy hand."*
Arnold.
[ Page 51 ]
Christmas-tide 1910
Again without my darling --
Many interesting things come to me which I should love to write down here but I have no strength for writing now and the notes of every day take more than I have to do them properly.
Henry James* has been here in one of the "let-ups" of his long illness and sadness. He is living with William's family in Cambridge. His affectionate nature, his eager interest in his friends, his life in his affections now not centered solely in his [brothers' so written ] children but quickened by that as it were into a larger life for all who have ever been his, all these things make him [inexpressably so written ] soothing yet stimulating as a companion{.}
[ Page 52 ]
I have seldom enjoyed an hour more than the one spent in the light of his fine sympathy -- He asked about Sarah's letters -- said he should like to see them -- that he wished to write a few words in introduction or what I might call "éclairecissement"* of her gift.
I hear he continues to be fairly well in health & is writing, so I trust he is at work with her papers and [her ? ] memory first before entering upon the larger & more fatiguing work of William's life which I hear the H.M & Co* publishers have asked him to do.
Beautiful things have come to me in these sacred days. Helen Bell, dear Helen -- full of the sorrow* which has befallen Alice's new husband Mr. Burr & [unrecognized word or words ] Alice in the dying of a noble son of typhoid
[ Page 53 ]
which has absorbed them night & day for nearly three months only to end in death a few days before the Christmas season {--} spent herself for them in every way, and with an exquisite tact which belongs to her. The result is that they love her and depend upon her as they could never have learned to do save by this experience of sorrow -- Christmas day she sent me the enclosed which was more than all else could have been writteninside^on the back of^ a sealed envelope.
Love, love, love --
Love -- love -- love
Helen
* * *
Notes
Brooks: Wikipedia says that Phillips Brooks (1835 - 1893) "was an American Episcopal clergyman and author, long the Rector of Boston's Trinity Church and briefly Bishop of Massachusetts, and particularly remembered as lyricist of the Christmas hymn, 'O Little Town of Bethlehem'."
The source of the quotation is not known. Fields often heard him preach, and she may remember this from a conversation or sermon.
May 8th: This entry appears to have been added out of order, though possibly Fields has written the wrong date, or perhaps the transcription is not correct. She may have abbreviated March -- adding a second entry for 8 March -- though it seems clear she wrote "May."
Easter: In 1910, Easter was celebrated on 27 March.
Sarah's dear letters ... Mary: Annie Fields's collection, Letters of Sarah Orne Jewett, appeared in 1911. Here she is obtaining approval of her selection from Jewett's sister, Mary Rice Jewett.
Jordan: The transcription of this name is uncertain. It is possible, Fields refers to Thomas Jordan (c. 1612-1685) an English poet and playwright. However, the two quotations she presents have not been located.
Jessie C: Jessie Cochrane was a gifted amateur pianist from Louisville, Kentucky, who became something of a protégée of Mrs. Fields. After long and frequent trips to Europe, she would visit Mrs. Fields at 148 Charles Street and Gambrel Cottage in Manchester-by-the-Sea (see Warner's letter about his luncheon with Miss Cochrane, Dr. Holmes, and Mr. Howells, in Fields's Charles Dudley Warner, 165). Miss Cochrane attempted some writing but apparently did not achieve publication. One of her photographs hangs above the bureau in Miss Jewett's bedroom in the Memorial House at South Berwick. (Richard Cary)
birthday business: Fields's birthday is June 6.
Duse: Wikipedia says that Eleonora Duse (1858 -1924) "was an Italian actress, often known simply as Duse.... In 1895 she met [Italian playwright] Gabriele d'Annunzio [1863-1938] ...and the two became involved romantically as well as collaborating professionally. Gabriele d'Annunzio wrote four plays for her.... When d'Annunzio gave the lead for the premiere of the play La Città Morta [1898] to Sarah Bernhardt instead of Duse, there was a furious fight, and Duse ended her affair with him."
Mary Bartlett: Which Mary Bartlett Fields refers to is difficult to know. One likely candidate is Mary Agnes Pomeroy Bartlett (1841 - 16 February 1909), deceased a few months before Jewett. Residing in Pittsfield, MA, she was the widow of the Civil War Union major-general William Francis Bartlett (1840-1876).
Another candidate is Boston/Cambridge neighbor, Mary Eliza Meads Bartlett (1826 - 21 January 1909), widow of Matthew Bartlett (1817-1880).
Yet another, perhaps less likely candidate, is the niece of American sculptor Daniel Chester French, Mary Bradford Bartlett Davis. Bartlett having married in 1905, it is at least conceivable that Fields would call her by her maiden name. Bartlett Davis is on this list of possibilities mainly because her family is known to be acquainted with Fields and Jewett.
Ida Higginson: Ida Agassiz Higginson (1837 - 1935) was the daughter of Jean Louis Agassiz, the naturalist. Primarily interested in education and music, she was associated with her stepmother, Elizabeth Cabot Agassiz (1822 - 1907), in the establishment and development of Radcliffe College, and with her husband, Henry Lee Higginson, founder-patron of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Miss Jewett enjoyed the hospitality of the Higginsons at their summer home, Sunset Hill, in West Manchester, Massachusetts, and often sailed with them off Cape Ann. (Richard Cary)
Their son was Alexander Emmanuel Rodolphe Agassiz (1835 - March 27, 1910), an American zoologist and engineer. Whether Higginson's paper on Agassiz was published by Houghton, Mifflin and Company or another publisher is not yet known.
Sarah Wheelwright: Sarah Perkins Cabot Wheelwright (1835 - 1917) was a Boston socialite and philanthropist, the wife of Andrew Cunningham Wheelwright (1824 or possibly 1827 - 15 June 1908), an attorney and real estate dealer.
John Stuart Blackie: Wikipedia says that John Stuart Blackie (1809 - 1895) "was a Scottish scholar and man of letters." In The Letters of John Stuart Blackie to his Wife (1909), he writes in October 1894, "The watchwords of age are to Endure and Enjoy, the watchwords of youth are Believe and Achieve" ( p. 398).
Helen's visits: Helen Olcott (Choate) Bell (1830-1918). Daughter of the prominent Boston lawyer and orator, Rufus Choate, Mrs. Bell was a literary intellectual, known for her conversation and her sharp wit. Her husband was Joseph Mills Bell (1824 - 1868), a Boston lawyer, abolitionist and politician, who served in the Massachusetts Senate. Bell was law partner to her father, Rufus Choate (1799 - 1859). According to Famous Families of Massachusetts (1870), "Mrs. Bell was liberally endowed with the Choate wit and her penetrating bon mots were the delight of all her friends... She hated the country and asked a friend, departing for the woods and fields, to 'kick a tree for her!'" (pp. 280-1). See also Find-a-Grave.
Presumably, the sister with whom she lived after her husband died, was Sarah Blake Choate (1831-1875).
Her niece was Alice Ellerton Pratt Burr (1866-1945), daughter of her sister Miriam Foster Choate (1835-1906) and Edward Ellerton Pratt (1830-1900). Alice Pratt married her first husband, Philip D. Wheatland (1865-1937) in 1887. Wheatland is believed to have deserted her and moved to California, where, according to the San Francisco Call (15 November 1910, p. 8), his drug addiction led him into a life of crime.
In 1910, she became the second wife of the prominent Boston lawyer, Heman Merrick Burr (1856-1933).
"None like her" comes from British poet Alfred Lord Tennyson's "Maud" XVIII, which repeats the refrain "None like her, none." Part 18 opens:
I have led her home, my love, my only friend.
There is none like her, none.
And never yet so warmly ran my blood
And sweetly, on and on
Calming itself to the long-wish’d-for end,
Full to the banks, close on the promised good.
heart: Fields may have underlined this word.
Ezra Pound -- Essays: Wikipedia says that Ezra Weston Loomis Pound (1885 - 1972) "was an expatriate American poet and critic, and a major figure in the early modernist poetry movement." His first volume of essays was The Spirit of Romance (1910).
Letters of Alice Smith: Alice Weston Smith (1868-1908), of the Boston area, was the author of Letters to Her Friends and Selections from Her Notebooks (1909). WorldCat lists the first Boston publication in 1909, so it is not clear why Fields says it is not yet published in 1910. The introduction to this printing offers a brief biographical sketch.
The passage on Death not separating those who love appears on p. 385.
Smith's address to her dead bird appears on p. 389.
Mrs Higginson August Ninth: The first three words are underlined twice.
Mrs Whitman: Sarah Wyman Whitman (1842 - June 25, 1904) was one of the Charles Street coterie of talented women which included Celia Thaxter, Lilian Aldrich, Alice Howe, Helen Bell, Miriam Pratt, Rose Lamb, and Mary Lodge. Mrs. Whitman was a professional designer of stained glass windows, a painter, and an illustrator of books. See Wikipedia.
Smith's passage on Whitman appears on p. 399. In the original it reads:
If "Life is to be measured by the amount of love inWikipedia says that Johannes Tauler (c. 1300 - 1361) "was a German mystic, a Catholic preacher and a theologian." The source of the quotation from Tauler has not been located.
the human soul," as Tauler says, hers was a very won-
derful one. She bore witness of the light. "And they
that turn many to righteousness as the stars forever
and ever."
The final line comes from the Bible, Daniel 12:3: "And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever."
thy hand: British poet Matthew Arnold (1822-1888) wrote "Rugby Chapel" in memory of his father, Thomas Arnold (1795-1842), Headmaster of Rugby School. Stanza 8 ends:
We were weary, and weHenry James ... William's family: A friend of Fields and Jewett, Henry James (1843-1916) was the brother of the philosopher and psychologist, William James who died on 26 August 1910.
Fearful, and we in our march
Fain to drop down and to die.
Still thou turnedst, and still
Beckonedst the trembler, and still
Gavest the weary thy hand.
éclairecissement: clarification, in the sense of shedding light upon something thought mysterious.
H. M. & Co: Houghton, Mifflin and Company
sorrow: According to the New York Times (14 April 1933 p. 20), Heman Burr's younger son from his first marriage was Francis H. Burr (b. 1886); he had been captain of Harvard University's football team in 1908, and he died of typhoid fever on 4 December 1910. See also Francis Hardon Burr.
[ 1911 ]
[ Page 54 ]
March 7th
Have just given dear Sarah's Letters to the printer though the book will not appear until mid-summer. Henry James is still unfit to write. He means to return to England and feels that he can write better there{.} He gave himself, as a labor of love{,} this little task of writing an appreciation of Sarah's work and he clings manfully to the idea, though I can see he is in no condition to [deleted letter] use his head for writing. I presume also that he would like to look over William's papers & letters.*
* * *Notes
[ The next pages in the microfilm copy of this diary contain an inserted letter from Jewett -- in her hand -- to Fields, which seems likely to be from 1895. The letter appears to be unsigned, but photographed with the first page of the 3 pages of the letter is a note, probably in pencil, that could be the signature, possibly from the fourth page of the letter. The material is presented here as if it is one letter, though this may not be the case ]
[ Page 55 ]
[ Late spring 1895? ]
Dear Fuffy I wish you would read this very badly written form for the little circular and see if you do not think it would be more appealing! If you approve and will return it to me ^right away^ I will copy a lot of them and send to you on Friday -- I dont feel like doing any other writing
[ Page 56 ]
and I would rather do them for you than not -- My dear darling how I do miss you!
To-morrow I am going to help plant the garden for it has been too cold altogether before now and isn't warm enough today -- Pinny to
[ Page 57 ]
be good? You forgot to tell her. ----
Sheila is so handsome and Roger is getting out of his winter coat as fast as he can --
[ Page 58 ]
Dear dear darling Fuffy I love you --
Savoring of balsam-breath and salt sea airs,
[ Page 59 ]
[ Following the above letter, Fields has written a page of notes on recent reading, and on the next page, she has inserted two clippings. The second of these concerns a memorial for Sarah Orne Jewett. ]
In Memory of Miss Jewett*
----
About a year ago there occurred one of the last occasions when many persons together enjoyed the gracious presence of Miss Sarah Orne Jewett in North Hall, the largest living house of Simmons College. Miss Jewett dined with the one hundred and fifty students in residence, and after dinner read to them her story, "The Hilton's Holiday."* The delight of the students in her charming friendliness, and their appreciation of her perfect rendering of the character of little Katy, secretly longing for an education, and caring for the better things of life, all read as only a real New Englander could have read it, will long be remembered by those who looked into the faces grouped about her as she read. Miss Jewett's own frank pleasure was also well worth remembering. Her audience crowded about her afterward, wishing to speak to her and thank her, pushing forward "the girls from Maine," as she had said that she must know them all.
In memory of that evening, Mrs. Fields has given to North Hall a photograph of Miss Jewett and an autograph poem, which are to be hung upon the wall near which Miss Jewett sat. Some of her friends, wishing that they might give expression, both to their love for Miss Jewett and their appreciation of her fine understanding of the best and tenderest elements in the Native New Englander, have begun to collect money toward a scholarship to be held by Simmons College as the "Sarah Orne Jewett Scholarship" for students who need aid in order to take a college course, the preference to be given to those who come from Maine. It is hoped that about three thousand dollars may be collected.
This letter is written to the Transcript in order that the opportunity may be made known to all who would like to join in the proposed plan by giving a large or a small sum in loving memory of Miss Jewett. Contributions may be sent to Miss Francis R. Morse, 12 Marlboro street, Mrs. Edward Cunningham, Westwood, Mass., or Miss Hester Cunningham, Simmons College, The Fenway. Acknowledgment will be made privately.
H. C.
Boston.
[ At the bottom of the page, below the above clipping appears this poem. It does not appear to be in Fields's hand, nor does the note that precedes it. The title is underlined 3 times. ]
Offered for
the Atlantic Monthly
Sarah Orne Jewett's Letters
by John Russell Hayes*
And sweet with scents from dreamy gardens old,
They tell of happy years and friendships deep,
They show a loving soul, a heart of gold.
William's papers & letters: A friend of Fields and Jewett, Henry James (1843-1916) was the brother of the philosopher and psychologist, William James who died on 26 August 1910. Henry James did not, in fact, contribute an appreciation to Field's collection, Letters of Sarah Orne Jewett (1911).
Fuffy: Jewett's private affectionate name for Fields.
circular: Jewett mentions a circular that Fields seems to be distributing in another letter to Fields from late spring of 1895. As the other circumstances of this letter indicate it was written in late spring, it is somewhat likely that Jewett is speaking of the same circular in this letter. What the circular is about, however, remains unknown.
Pinny: Fields's private affectionate name for Jewett.
Sheila ... Roger: Sheila was Jewett's horse, purchased in 1877. Roger was a Jewett family dog, who also would have been quite old in 1895. That they are mentioned here casts doubt upon the 1895 date.
In Memory of Miss Jewett: Presumably this clipping appeared in the Boston Evening Transcript during the spring of 1910, but this has not been confirmed.
Jewett could not have read at Simmons College in the previous year, as the stroke that eventually led to her death occurred on 1 February 1909. The date of the event described in this letter remains unknown, there being no record of it in the Simmons College archives.
The Sarah Orne Jewett Scholarship at Simmons College, a new Boston women's college, was established with an initial fund of $3000 by June 1910, according to Professor A. B. Nichols, writing in The Simmons Quarterly 1:1 (June 1910), 1-2.
The author, H. C., is Hester Cunningham (1866-1937) of Milton, MA. Jason Wood, Simmons College Library Archivist, has provided information about her, including her obituary from the Boston Herald, 20 October 1937. She was the daughter of Edward and Frances Cary Cunningham. A graduate of Radcliffe College, she served as the original faculty secretary and as an instructor of English at Simmons College (1901-1911) and was instrumental in founding the college. In 1910, she acted for the Committee on the Sarah Orne Jewett Scholarship, receiving contributions for the fund. Her obituary also indicates that, though she never married, she adopted two children: Ivy and William Watson.
Hester Cunningham was connected with a close friend of Jewett and Fields, Edith Forbes Perkins, (1843-1925) of Westwood, MA and Burlington, IA, wife of Charles Elliott Perkins (1840-1907), president of the Chicago, Burlington, and Quincy Railroad. Their daughter, Edith Perkins (1873-1961), married Edward Cunningham, Jr. (1869-1917), Hester's Cunningham's brother. Presumably, Edith Cunningham is the Mrs. Edward Cunningham to whom contributions could be sent.
See also Milton: A Compendium, by Anthony Mitchell Sammarco, Chapter 7, Ward Family Genealogy (1910, pp. 292. 386) and Biographical Dictionary of Iowa.
John Russell Hayes: John Russell Hayes (1866-1945) "was a Quaker educator, poet and librarian.... Most of Hayes' poetry was regional in subject, picturing the local landscape of his Quaker upbringing."
[ 1911-12 ]
[ Page 60 ]
[ 11 October 1911 ]The summer has again passed. Sarah's letters* have just appeared and now I go again to town without her. Her love does not let me go and I wonder sometimes when I may join again those I love. There are many still here who are very dear and I can still thank God [ above ? ] for strength to wait until His will says this too is finished.
[ * * * ]
[ * * * ]
[ Page 61 ]
Feb. 15th 1912
Have just finished the "Herakles" of George Cabot Lodge* -- a noble poetic legacy -- a book to read and to ponder over and to [ share or show ? ] light from.
My eyes have been [ strangely ? ] veiled this month -- Two years ago at this time dear Sarah's dying came -- began -- but I have been stronger & better than before and with [ less ? ] constant thought of those past days. Willa Cather* has been [ here or very ? ] poorly. She is better & has now gone homewards -----
"So long as we love we serve{;} so long as we are loved by others, I would almost say that we are indispensable; and no one is useless while he has a friend."
R. L. S.*
[ Page 62 ]
[ * * * ]
Manchester June 27th 1912
Mary Jewett has been here staying with A. Howe* ^but she [came down unrecognized word ] ^. She stayed over the 24th{.} That day [ when ? ] dear Sarah left us but it was the day of her deliverance and we must look upon it so. On the 25th G. E. Woodberry came to luncheon{,} also Mr. Updike* to see me about finding more room for the artist [ begin a very faded passage, highly speculative transcription ] Bruce ^ Rogers ?^ -- a strange difficult person -- Shall I go home? Sometimes I think of her. Woodberry will come again.
Bruce Rogers* [End faded passage ]
* * *
[ Page 63
undated, presumably from 1912 ]*
Tomorrow Sunday 26 I look for Mrs. Howe (Alice) at half past one o'clock and for Mrs. Aldrich* and Mrs. George [Smalley or Smedley ?] at half past six for supper & talk -- The days go on cheerfully{.} I have just read Mark Twain's life,* the life of a man who had greatness in him. I am now reading his Joan of Arc -- I hope to wait as cheerfully as he did for the trumpet call and as usefully, but I am ready{.}
[ Page 64
undated, presumably from 1912 ]
I have no remembrance from whom Miss Jewett gathered the following lovely reminiscence of Thackeray but she evidently wrote it down after an interview [deleted word ]{.} Ah! I think it was Mrs Ritchie [ deleted word ] now Lady Ritchie* as I now gather in re-reading{.}
father [not capitalized] was reading "Frasers"andNo! it may have been Tait's, a magazine before that -- and from a delightful notice of Vanity Fair and he was off in a moment not waiting for anybody else to read, to Mrs. Carmichael-Smith. It was the first real thing, it all came afterward, the recognition --------------------*
[ Page 65 ]
I found S. O. J. had copied the following from the headings ofachapters in Red Pottage{,}* a story we both enjoyed reading together --
"To every coward* [ deleted word probably misspelled safety] ^safety^ and afterward his evil hour."
I heard him speak* to me in anger, I turned toward him with such shame, that it comes over me again as I but think of it.
Canto XXVII
-- Wherein due fee is paid to those who, sowing discord, gather guilt.*
Notes
Sarah's letters: Annie Fields's collection, Letters of Sarah Orne Jewett, appeared in 1911. Here she is obtaining approval of her selection from Jewett's sister, Mary Rice Jewett.
George Cabot Lodge: The American poet George Cabot "Bay" Lodge (1873 - August 21, 1909). His verse drama, Herakles, appeared in 1909.
Willa Cather: American novelist, Willa Cather (1873-1947) befriended Jewett and Fields in 1908, before she began publishing her major novels.
R.L.S.: The quotation is from Scottish author, Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894), "Lay Morals" Ch. 4, in Lay Morals and Other Essays (1911). Fields has slightly altered it: "So long as we love we serve; so long as we are loved by others, I would almost say that we are indispensable; and no man is useless while he has a friend."
Mary Jewett ... A. Howe: Mary Rice Jewett (1847 - 1930) was Jewett's older sister.
Alice Lloyd Greenwood (Mrs. George Dudley) Howe (1835 - 1924) was a friend of long standing both at Boston and Manchester. Miss Jewett dedicated The Country of the Pointed Firs "To Alice Greenwood Howe." Mr. Howe (1829-1903) was a Boston merchant.
Woodberry ... Updike: G. E. Woodberry: George Edward Woodberry (1855 - 1930) was an American literary critic and poet. He was a frequent contributor of essays and poetry to The Nation, Atlantic Monthly, and other magazines. His collected poems appeared in 1903. Wikipedia
It seems likely that Mr. Updike is Daniel Berkeley Updike (1860 - 1941), an American printer associated with the Riverside Press, Houghton, Mifflin & Company, and Merrymount Press, all of which published Jewett, notably the Merrymount Press printing of Jewett's poems, Verses 1916.
Bruce Rogers: Probably this refers to Bruce Rogers (1870-1957), an American typographer who, at this time, was working for Riverside Press in Boston.
1912: Dating this entry is problematic because the only Sunday in 1912 to fall on the 26th was in May, meaning this entry would precede what appears to be an earlier entry for 27 June. However, Fields was sometimes inaccurate about dates. Perhaps she wrote in October, when the 27th fell on Sunday.
Mrs. Aldrich: Lilian Woodman Aldrich (d. 1927) married American author and editor,Thomas Bailey Aldrich (1836 - 1907) She is the author of Crowding Memories (1920), a memoir of her married life.
The transcription of Smalley or Smedley is uncertain; in neither case has this person been identified.
However, Fields was acquainted with New York Times journalist George Washburn Smalley (1833-1916) and his wife Phoebe Garnaut (1838-1923).
Mark Twain's life ... Joan of Arc: American author Samuel Langhorne Clemens (1835-1910), who wrote under his pen name, Mark Twain, published his novel about the life of Joan of Arc, Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc, in 1896.
It seems likely Fields has been reading Albert Bigelow Paine's Mark Twain (1911-12).
Thackeray ... Lady Ritchie: Wikipedia says that Anne Isabella, Lady Ritchie ...(1837 - 1919), an English writer, was the eldest daughter of novelist William Makepeace Thackeray (1811-1863). Thackeray's best-known novel is Vanity Fair (1847-8).
"Frasers" ...Tait's: Fraser's Magazine for Town and Country was published in London from 1830 to 1882. Tait's Edinburgh Magazine was published 1832 to 1861. Both were monthly literary magazines.
Mrs. Carmichael-Smith: Ann Becher, William Makepeace Thackeray's widowed mother, took as her second husband, Henry Carmichael-Smyth in 1817, the year her son turned six.
recognition: The line "all came afterward, the recognition --------------------", which appears to complete the anecdote, appears before the text of the story begins, upside down in the space above "father was reading ...."
Red Pottage: Wikipedia says that Mary Cholmondeley (1859 - 1925) "was an English novelist. Her best-selling novel, Red Pottage, satirized religious hypocrisy and the narrowness of country life."
"To every coward ..." is the head note for Chapter 38.
Though Fields seems to imply that the other two quotations may be found in Red Pottage, this is not the case. These two quotations appear on a separate page apparently attached to the diary page, and they may be in Jewett's hand. However, as Fields has not recopied them, we cannot be certain that these are among those she says Jewett copied from the novel.
coward: If this quotation has an origin prior to Red Pottage, it has not yet been discovered. The sentence has often been repeated since.
speak: This quotation is from Canto 30 of Dante's Inferno in the John Carlyle translation of The Divine Comedy.
guilt: This quotation also is from Dante's Inferno, Canto 27 as the text indicates.
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College, with assistance from Sabina Beauchard of the Massachusetts Historical Society. October 2018.
Works of Annie Fields