Sarah Orne Jewett Letters of 1876
Sarah Orne Jewett to Anna Laurens Dawes
South Berwick
7 Jan. 1876Dear Anna --
I was delighted to get your letter and I meant to answer it before now -- for I do enjoy a talk with you particularly but I -- "haven't had any time"! I think there are at least fifteen letters patiently waiting on the back of my desk -- and I should like to go into bankruptcy -- if the answers were not all to be sent to the nicest people in the world. I like to write letters and I like to get them and it is only when I owe more than fifteen that my heart grows faint within me, for I have all my other writing to do -- and not half
[ Page 2 ]time enough for that! I don't know what becomes of one's time, but I have been struggling with a little sewing which was put off until 'after Christmas -- {'}
Oh, I think you must have received a circular of the Study Club by this time as I directed an envelope to you and asked Ellen* to put one into it & send it along -- She might not have thought to send it to me for ever so long and I concluded this was the safest way! She's [ usually corrected ] in a hurry when she writes to me -- dear [ Soul corrected ] ! -- I am hard at work on a third 'Deephaven paper'* -- This is much like the 'cronies' and is to be called D. Excursions if ever it is finished -- and gets safely to Mr. Howells.* I was outdone
[ Page 3 ]this afternoon -- for I had just begun writing and everything was spread out and I had all sails set for a solemn afternoon's work when some one called ^ to^ me to say that a [ friend corrected ] was coming a little later for me to go out and make parish calls! Wasn't it hard? But I knew I had to go some time and might as well make the best of it, then and there. I had a pretty good time -- one sister informed us as we left that she'd about given up hope of seeing anybody -- she'd been here five years and had only had one or two calls! Doesn't that show an unsocial spirit? You needn't hold me accountable,
[ Page 3 ][ I belongs so written ] to St. John's* Episcopal Church in Portsmouth! These were ^mostly^ a lot of new people who have lately come into town. They get dreadfully mad if you don't call at once; then they never return the calls and still condemn you as stuck-up. I dare say you have had similar acquaintances in Pittsfield and can sympathize. Do tell Mrs. Burleigh* when you see her that I spent an afternoon in making parish calls and that Shoetown* and the landing have been properly attended to -- and the committees have faithfully done their work this year. She'll laugh I know -- Yes, I do like Mrs. Burleigh ever so much
[ Page 4 ]and I miss her -- I didn't see her to say good bye -- She's very kind, and I don't know anybody who is more useful here in the village -- I don't see her very much for I am not great on calls -- and then we're both away a great deal.
I wish you were here -- I can think of ever so many things I should like to chatter about, but there's no use in trying to put them into one letter, and if I did, I couldn't know what you would say, which would be the best part -- a letter is only half, at any
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rate -- I suppose you grow busier and busier -- I should think there would be a great many pleasant things about such a winter in Washington as you will have -- and no end of advantages, but, as you said in your letter one's own particular pursuits have to be crowded out very often -- I am afraid I shouldn’t like it, for I am not used to a grand whirl of society, except for at most a few weeks at a time when I am away visiting and I should be cross of having to give up my fashion of
[ Page 6 ][ living corrected ] -- I always think I am going to have a magnificent time being 'gay' -- when I am in Philadelphia or other places, but I get tired to death of parties before the first week, and I settle down into an unambitious round of lunches and dinner parties and very small 'Evenings'-- I like my friends one or two at a time so much better than in [ deletion or blot ] a crowd -- and as for the strangers -- why I do like to know new people but one never has much satisfaction with them even at a party -- Oh well! I'm a most unmistakeable country girl -- that explains it at once, doesn't it my
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dear? ---- I wonder what I have been doing since I wrote you that will bear telling about -- Skating for one thing; just as nice as ever, too -- and reading a little, and the writing which I have told you of, already -- I must say good bye -- this letter has already been delayed [ two corrected ] days -- and I [ wish corrected from with ? ] to be sure of its going by the next post -- Thank you for your letter -- we are new friends to be sure but I am certain that we are very good friends and I wish I could see more of you, most heartily -- With best wishes for your new year (minus a week!).
Your sincerely & affly
S.O.J.
[ Up the left margin of page 4 ]Mary sends love to you -- She has been ill for
[ Up the left margin of page 5 ]several days, which [ seems corrected ] strange for she so rarely 'gives in'
[ Up the left margin of page 6 ]to such things, though she's not at all strong.
Notes
Study Club ... Ellen: For Ellen Mason, see Key to Correspondents. Jewett refers to the
Society to Encourage Studies at Home founded by Anna Eliot Ticknor (1823-1896) in 1873. The organization offered correspondence college courses for women. Wikipedia.
Deephaven paper: "Deephaven Excursions", along with the sketches "The Shore House" and "Deephaven Cronies" appeared in Atlantic Monthly 1873-1876, before she revised them into her first novel, Deephaven (1877).
Howells: William Dean Howells, editor at Atlantic. See Key to Correspondents.
St. John's: Hollis notes that Sarah and Mary Jewett became members of St. John's Church on November 27, 1870. They also continued active in South Berwick's Congregational Church.
Shoetown: This is the area around the Cummings Shoe Factory, built in 1871 in South Berwick. Though the factory closed in 1993, the area still contains a number of lower-cost homes built in the years after the factory opened. Wikipedia.
Mrs. Burleigh: Almost certainly this is Matilda Buffum Burleigh (1823-1911), wife of John H. Burleigh (1822-1878), the Maine congressman from South Berwick, who was serving in the United States House of Representatives in 1876. Wikipedia.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Library of Congress, in the Henry L. Dawes papers, 1833-1933. BOX 10, Dawes, Anna Laurens, her correspondence and other papers, 1850-1925. An annotated transcription appears in C. Carroll Hollis, "Letters of Sarah Orne Jewett to Anna Laurens Dawes," Colby Library Quarterly No. 3 (1968): 97-138.
New transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Georgina Halliburton to Sarah Orne Jewett
Brooklyn Jan. 11 [ 1876 ]*
My dear Sarah
I enjoyed did I tell you? the "Dull Christmas"* so much{--} it is a beautiful story -- & [ two unrecognized words ] reminded of Miss [ unrecognized name ] all through it. did you think of her when you wrote it?
I did not go to N.Y. on the second Sunday as I had planned to do -- & I am very glad -- because Mr [ unrecognized name ] -- didnt preach {.} I
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heard through Grace that he preaches in Boston. I shall try to go over next Sunday. [ A ? ] Mr. Knight passed yesterday with me and he went over to hear Dr. John Hall.* I always find him interesting and his new church [ is ? ] superb in such [ several unrecognized words ]. My screen is one of the big folding ones. & I am very happy to have suggestions. Pray how do you [ two unrecognized words ] [ starch paste ? ] ? I should think it would be [ two unrecognized words ] than flour. I have not yet begun. [ two unrecognized words ] the screen
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has not been sent yet from the [ two unrecognized words ] but I have a number of pictures ready.
Have just read the "Chance Acquaintance"* [ several unrecognized words ] much, but did they [ make it up & marry ? ]. I wish you would ask Mr. Howells. -- it quite worries me. I suppose you heard some [ only a few recognizable words in the remaining 3 lines of this paragraph: of this. ]
I passed a day & night at Mrs [ unrecognized name ] in New York where Ella* is visiting. I had a very pleasant time. I
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love to watch Ella {--} she is so pretty & life is so fresh & new to her{.} I hope her life proves a bright & blessed one. I think Deephaven [ excursions ? ]* will be delightful. How I wish we could [ three unrecognized words ] to Newcastle in [ unrecognized word ] which we have [ never had ? ] [ unrecognized line of perhaps 7 words ] delightful. A big good idea putting in [ two unrecognized words ] the story of the people in the cliff [ perhaps 4 unrecognized words ] touching and lonesome.*
I have met Mr. [ unrecognized name ] {--} he speaks of knowing you {--}
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somehow he does not seem to know the right [ three unrecognized words ]. All this of course is imaginary.
I [ love ? ] your idea so much with your Sunday scholars. I wish you would include me in your class{.} I read [ unrecognized word ] your little expositions{.} I shall value them highly [ unrecognized word ] {.} Sometime I will [ unrecognized word ] the same when I find a [ unrecognized word ] that impresses me & helps me especially.
Where is the [ perhaps two unrecognized words ]
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[ to say that ? ].
I have heard a fine sermon from Mr. Beecher* since I [ unrecognized word ] { -- } how wonderful he is.
I long to hear from you & do enjoy your letters so much.
I wish I could have another good hour with you. Somehow when your day comes I have so many interruptions.
Good bye dear Sarah
Your loving
Georgie.
Notes
1876: This date is based upon the recent publication of Jewett's story, "Patty's Dull Christmas." See note below.
Dull Christmas: "Patty's Dull Christmas" first appeared in The Independent (27:25-27) on December 23, 1875.
Dr. John Hall: " Reverend John Hall, D.D., L.L.D. (1829-1898) was Pastor of the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church, New York City, from 1867 until his death." His new church was completed in 1875.
Mr. Knight has not yet been identified.
Chance Acquaintance: William Dean Howells' A Chance Acquaintance (1873). See Key to Correspondents.
Ella: It is possible, but not yet certain that Halliburton refers to Ella Maria Walworth (Mrs. George Britton) Little. See Key to Correspondents.
Deephaven: Halliburton probably has written "Deephaven excursions." Jewett's story appeared in Atlantic Monthly in September 1876. It seems clear that Halliburton has read the story before it was published.
cliff ... lonesome: This seems to be a reference to the first excursion in "Deephaven Excursions."
Mr. Beecher: Henry Ward Beecher (1813-1887) was an American Congregationalist clergyman, abolitionist, and social reformer.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Columbia University (New York) Library in Special Collections, Jewett. Transcription from a microfilm copy and annotation by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Theophilus Parsons
South Berwick 25 Jan. 1876Dear Prof. Parsons.
I meant to thank you for your kind note the very next morning after it came but I have put it off from one day to another, though I can't tell how many times I have thought of it. It is such a delight to me to have given you pleasure, and it was so kind of you to have sent that little letter. -- I think "Patty"* was a nice girl, and I wish I could be as thoughtful always myself, but it is so much easier to put good people into a story than it is to be good oneself! I am always conscious of some edifying remarks father made once, when I had written a story about a little girl who was orderly and who always finished whatever she began. He mentioned the fact that guide-posts never travel over the roads which they point out etc. -- and it was such an appropriate fact to mention at that time! I wish I had something to tell you. I have finished the Deephaven Excursions* after a good deal of hard work for I foolishly hurried toward the end of my copying. I have sent it to Mr. Howells and am waiting his decision. I shall be sorry of course if he doesn't like it as well as he did the other, but still, I have had a great deal of pleasure in writing it, and I don't expect to have all my stories prove successful. -- I only wonder I have had so many printed. I send you a copy of some verses of mine which were in this month's "St. Nicholas".* Father took a fancy to them and we have had fun over the idea of there being so much moral for so little buttercup! I haven't been out much lately, and couldn't improve the last of the good skating for I have had the rheumatism, and I don't like to be out much in the cold because if I get a great pain in my shoulder it hurts me to write and to breathe and I get everlastingly cross! But for a person of my age -- old and rheumatic -- I have been in a remarkably good state of health this winter and have enjoyed life astonishingly.
The last two or three days I have been reading with all my might. I have had little time for it during the last two months. I have read three jolly novels and two books of poetry and the Duke of Argyle's essays on Primeval Man and a pile of old Atlantics and a bit of some other things* -- lately, and I have felt lazy and had a very good time indeed. The rheumatism has been a good excuse for not doing anything, and then I had a sense of conscious rectitude after my story went off.
Father is very well, and would be delighted to send you some message if he were here, I'm sure but he is down at Saco today. I hope Mrs. Parsons is better -- please give her my love. I wish I could go to see you today instead of sending this letter. I am beginning to wish awfully that I were in Boston -- though I never have been so contented in Berwick in winter-time before. Oh, I was reading a book called "Una and her Paupers" the other day and I found something at the end of it about Miss Emily and what she did in the hospitals.* I always wish I knew more about her work there. I think I couldn't have helped going if I had been older -- but I never could have done such splendid, useful work as Miss Emily did though I would have done the best I could 'under orders'. Goodby with ever so much love
Sarah.
NotesPatty: "Patty's Dull Christmas," first appeared in The Independent (27:25-27) on December 23, 1875 and was collected in Play Days in 1878.
Deephaven Excursions: "Deephaven Excursions" appeared in Atlantic Monthly (38:277-290), September 1876.
some verses of mine which were in this month's "St. Nicholas": "Discontent" first appeared in St. Nicholas (3:247) February 1876. The February issue would have appeared in January.
Duke of Argyle's essays on Primeval Man: George Douglas Campbell, Duke of Argyll's Primeval Man: An Examination of Some Recent Speculations appeared in 1869 (London). The collection of essays were critiques of Charles Darwin's evolutionary theory. (Research: Julia Hollins).
"Una and her Paupers" ... Miss Emily: Parsons's daughter, Emily Elizabeth (1824-1880), was a nurse during the Civil War and founded the Cambridge Hospital. After her death, her father gathered a collection of her letters about her work to benefit the Cambridge hospital: Memoir of Emily Elizabeth Parsons (1880). "Una and her Paupers:" Memorials of Agnes Elizabeth Jones by J. Jones, Florence Nightingale, and L. P. Brockett was published in 1872.
The manuscript of this letter is held by Special Collections at Colby College. It was transcribed by the owner of the manuscripts before they were given to Colby College, Henry Ellicott Magill (b. 1902) of Pasadena, CA, who also may have made handwritten corrections to the transcriptions. Further corrections, notes and annotations by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Charles C. Hoyt* to Sarah Orne Jewett
strike at their weaknesses and sins.
Boston, Feb'y 22 / 76
Dear Miss Jewett:
Possibly you did not imagine that I should have the temerity to send you a word of the 'lecter,'* or my thanks without recourse to Ella.* But I shall not be satisfied with a fragment of Mrs. G. B. L's letter and am so unreasonable as to desire a whole sheet and envelope all to myself.
Can you pardon such selfishness, even though it
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be at the cost of wearying your patience?
Indeed, I am only too happy of an opportunity to send you my best thanks, not only for your valuable suggestions but for the -- to me -- delightful talk of Mr. Whittier.*
Without your kind interest, there were, I am sure many peculiarly pleasant features about Mr. Whittier's verse, which would have altogether escaped my untrained eyes. Chief of all, however, and outside of my attempt to write of him, I am indebted to you, for somehow stimulating in me,
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a sympathy with the true and gentle manhood, that shines out in all of the poems of our New England poet.
Amy Wentworth* has been running in my head ever since we looked it over, and it seems to grow in beauty as it increases in familiarity. You know how aptly, Oliver Wendell Holmes, compares a poem to an old violin,* how they both must be kept and used until they are stained through and through with a secondary tint, which they derive from our own imaginations and aspirations & how like minds
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I look over what was written in ^my^ criticism, and it seems sadly mixed up, and very fruitful of errors, which I lacked the time and knowledge to correct.
Still I have a curiosity to know if there are any redeeming features about it and am sorely tempted to submit it to your good judgment for a verdict.
Mais, -- as there were several ideas, that struggled hard to get in and others that jostled about for more elbow room
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which was denied, for fear of boring the audience, for the same reason it will undoubtedly be the wisest course to leave the whole thing out here. I will conclude with a sincere hope that you may not be wearied by a letter, so unnecessarily full of that unworthy subject.
Yours very truly,
Charles Hoyt
Notes
Charles C. Hoyt: Nothing is yet known with certainty about this correspondent. Possibly he is the Boston businessman, Charles Chase Hoyt (1855- ). In 1897, he became vice-president of Walworth Manufacturing, the company founded by Ella Walworth Britton's father. See Key to Correspondents.
lecter,': Humorous spelling of "lecture?"
Ella: Ella Maria Walworth (Mrs. George Britton) Little. See Key to Correspondents.
Mrs. G. B. L's letter: Ella is Mrs. George Britton Little. See Key to Correspondents.
Mr. Whittier: John Greenleaf Whittier. See Key to Correspondents.
Amy Wentworth: Whittier's "Amy Wentworth" appeared in Ballads of New England (1870).
Oliver Wendell Holmes: See Key to Correspondents. Holmes makes the comparison between a poem and a violin in The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table (1858), pp. 103 ff.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Columbia University (New York) Library in Special Collections, Jewett. Transcription from a microfilm copy and annotation by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Theophilus Parsons
[ March - May 1876? ]*
Sunday morning
Dear Prof. Parsons --
I have been thinking I would write to you for ever so many days, but the days all seemed to be in inch pieces and I don't like to write letters I care for, in a hurry. I had a very bad cold that first week after I got home, and this last week I have been writing a little, working hard (and that is the best thing for me). Yesterday I got a little tangled up, and went off horseback riding in spite of the mud. I found two or three strips of dry sandy road where I could have a 'hurry' -- and finally after careful avoidance of mud puddles for an hour or so I pulled up my long skirt and splashed home delightfully 'through thick and thin'. The Berwick roads are not models of smoothness at the best, but Major and I didn't mind! And today I am a marvel of good temper and general amiability. I thought of you so much in church this morning. We have a new minister in the Congregational church where I go, and I like him so much.* You see I am pretty sure he reads new church books* very diligently, for he never could hit on so many of the ideas by accident. But I don't say a word of course -- only some day when I have a good chance I am going to try and find out from him. This morning he preached a very fine sermon from the text "The law was a schoolmaster to bring us to Christ" -- and said a great deal about God's using the children of Israel to teach the rest of the world. I had read it all and understood it before, of course -- and it seemed so odd to hear the people get so excited over the sermon and say how fine it was. Even Father was quite excited and came up the pew before the benediction was quite through with, to ask me if it wasn't very able! He usually is apt to be rather critical on the poor parsons that fall to our lot in the country -- though he never makes fun of people and is always very 'kindly disposed' as you know. But it wasn't Mr. Lewis's sermon so much as its just being the simple truth, and as you said the other day, it always interests people.*
I had a charming letter from Ellen Mason* last week. She has been down to Newport for a few days and is busier than ever now. She told me such a touching story of one of her hospital acquaintances. I am so glad you liked her and that she cares so much about you. She says when I come up this Spring we must go out again to Cambridge -- but I am a little afraid I must say "if I come". It would be so nice though! She says "I am so glad to hear whatever you can repeat to me of what he said about my mother" -- and I am so sorry that I do not remember all of it. It is so strange that you should have known that about Ellen -- her intense love for her mother and her reference to her and the influence. I have known her a good while and I never thought much about it though I did recognize it and know it in an indefinite sort of way. Now it seems as if I knew her a great deal better and had the key to so many things. I have to thank you for it. I never can understand how people can think Ellen cold and indifferent for I know what a dear brave warm heart she has. I have been with her in hospitals and among poor people and she is so sweet and kind. I don't see how I am going to be of any use to Ellen. You know you said that you thought we were good friends for each other. And yet in this last letter she told me she thought she had a great deal to learn from me and that she was thankful she had known me -- wasn't that splendid! thought [ intending though? ] I can't understand it in the very least. I don't believe any girl ever had such nice friends as I have. Only I wish I could see more of them. I read the paper you sent me and I don't wonder it had such a sale. I wish there were more semi-preachers as Mr. Giles.* Thank you ever so much for it, and now I must stop chattering. Won't you please tell Miss Sabra* and Mrs. Parsons that I was so sorry I didn't see them. -- Good-bye -- (Aren't you glad spring is coming?) With ever so much love
Sarah
Please tell me what "loaves and fishes" mean in the miracle, sometime. "The five loaves and two fishes"*
To-gether*
I wonder if you really send
These dreams of you that come and go --
I like to say, "She thought of me,
And I have known it." Is it so?
Though other friends walk by your side
Yet sometimes it must surely be,
They wonder where your thoughts have gone
Because I have you here with me.
And when the busy day is done
When work is ended; voices cease;
When every one has said goodnight
In fading firelight then, in peace
I idly rest; you come to me,
Your dear love holds me close to you
If I could see you face to face
It would not be more sweet and true.
I do not hear the words you speak
Nor touch your hands nor see your eyes:
Yet far away the flowers may grow,
From whence to me the fragrance flies.
And so, across the empty miles
Light from a star shines, Is it, dear,
You never really went away.
I said farewell and -- kept you here.
Notes
1876: This letter refers to Jewett's father enjoying the sermon by Pastor Lewis; hence she must have written it before his death. And the poem she enclosed, as noted below, was published in May 1875. However, George Lewis did not become pastor of First Parish Church until 1876.
new church books: Wikipedia says: "The New Church (or Swedenborgianism) is the name for several historically related Christian denominations that developed as a new religious movement, informed by the writings of Swedish scientist and theologian Emanuel Swedenborg (1688–1772)."
Mr. Lewis: Pastor George Lewis. See Key to Correspondents. Lewis drew upon an idea much repeated in his time and later: "The law was a schoolmaster to bring us to Christ." This quotation appears, for example, in Living Questions of the Age Discussed by James B. Walker (1877), p. 33.
Ellen Mason: See Key to Correspondents.
Mr. Giles: It is likely this is Chauncey Giles (1813-1893) author of fiction and New Church literature. See The Life of Chauncey Giles: As Told in His Diary and Correspondence. What paper Parsons may refer to in this letter is difficult to determine. That Jewett describes him as a semi-preacher and mentions that the "paper" sold well suggests that it may have been fiction rather than a tract or book on doctrine. Giles's book collections of fiction included: The Magic Shoes and Other Stories (1870) and The Wonderful Pocket and Other Stories (1864).
Miss Sabra: Mary Sabra Parsons. See Theophilus Parsons in Key to Correspondents.
loaves and fishes: See Matthew 14.
The manuscript of this letter is held by Special Collections at Colby College. It was transcribed by the owner of the manuscripts before they were given to Colby College, Henry Ellicott Magill (b. 1902) of Pasadena, CA, who also may have made handwritten corrections to the transcriptions. Further corrections, notes and annotations by Terry Heller, Coe College.
To-gether: "Together" first appeared in Atlantic Monthly (35:590) May 1875
Theophilus Parsons to Sarah Orne Jewett (Fragment)[ Spring 1876 ]*
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If you think so, you may say, I am willing to make the effort, but how shall I do it? -- I can go but a little way with the answer, for one of the things you have to do, is to find this out for yourself.
I can however say as much as this. Try in earnest & persistently, “with labour & intent study”* to learn what they do not know and will be the better ^for knowing^. Gladly would God give to men such gifts through you. But this can only be if you persist in tilling the fields he leads you to, -- patient when the clouds come, for come they will, resisting discouragement for that too will whisper its words of despair -- doing what seems to be your duty, & leaving the result to Him.
There is a verse in one of the Psalms I wish might be your constant prayer -- “Lord, cause me to know the way I should walk, for I
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lift up my Soul to thee."*
---------------------------------
I have just read over what I have written, and I dare not go further. I know very well I shall not offend you, because you know how much I love you. But I may hurt & trouble you.
Let me offer the only excuse I can. I am so old, that although my health is good as ever, I constantly feel like what they
youused to call “a minute man”, --ifas if every letter I write you may be my last: & I should be glad, so glad, if I could help you even a little. No man lives to be 78 without wondering what the Lord keeps him in this world for. But if one of the things is that I may be of some assistance to you in finding your way through the labyrinth of life, let me stay & do the best I can.Good bye dear Sarah. You know I am faithfully y’s
Theophilus Parsons.
Notes1876: Parsons, who is 78 when he composes this letter, was born on 17 May 1797. This letter was likely written between 1875 and 17 May 1876. It is placed in Spring 1876 because at this time Jewett and Parsons were discussing by letter her attempts to produce morally influential fiction.
“with labour & intent study”: Parsons quotes from English poet John Milton (1608-1674), introduction to Book 2 of The Reason of Church Government.
I began this farre to assent both to them and divers of my friends here at home, and not lesse to an inward prompting which now grew daily upon me, that by labour and intent study (which I take to be my portion in this life) joyn'd with the strong propensity of nature, I might perhaps leave something so written to aftertimes, as they should not willingly let it die.
I lift up my Soul to thee: Psalms 143:8.
The manuscript of the letter is held by the University of New England Maine Women Writers Collection MWWC0196_02_00_028_01. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Theophilus Parsons to Sarah Orne Jewett
Cambridge -- March 23, 1876
My dear Sarah --
Here is my book.* -- Don't I wish it were better worth your reading.
But I believe that it will be of some use, & therefore is worth publishing -- and that it is about as good as I can make. All the rest is no concern of mine.
I cannot write your name in it, because the post office laws say I must not.
Most truly y's
Theophilus Parsons
Notes
my book: Probably Parsons has given Jewett his new book, Outlines of the Religion and Philosophy of Swedenborg (1876).
The ms. of this letter is held by the Houghton Library of Harvard University: bMS Am 1743 (174). Transcription and annotation by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Theophilus Parsons
South Berwick 27 March 1876
Dear Prof. Parsons
I have just come home from Portsmouth where I have been spending a few days, and I find your book* and note lying on my desk. Thank you ever so much, for I am sure I shall enjoy the book and shall learn a great deal from it. I have been meaning to write to you but I have been sick for a month -- first with a horrid sore throat and afterwards with the most outrageous attack of rheumatism, which I began to think would never be well out of the way. I have done almost nothing, and it is a great disappointment for I hoped to have finished two stories by this time. I suppose it's all right and I shall not fret about it any more than I can help. I feel ever so much better for my visit, but I am not good for anything yet, and I may have the rheumatism again any day! I feel six months older than Methuselah ever did,* and it seems a year since I was in Boston. I have been reading a great deal since I have been staying in the house, and one book has interested me particularly for it was almost entirely new. It is the Royal Commentaries of the Yncas, and was written by a descendant of the Yncas themselves -- who died early in the seventeenth century -- and who lived in Cuzco* until he was twenty or thirty years old. I was most interested in the account of the government and the religious ideas, and I don't know when I have taken more pleasure in any book. There are two large volumes and I have not quite finished them yet. I should like so much to talk with you about them. I suppose Mr. Prescott's book was taken partly from this.* I have been reading Miss Martineau's "Eastern Life" over again and I find I like it better every time.* Oh dear! I have so many things to ask you and to say to you, and I wish I could see you this afternoon and have a long talk. I am so glad to have the new book -- that will be something like having a talk with you! How is Mrs. Parsons now? I hope to hear she is quite well again, and won't you please give my love to her and Miss Sabra.* I must say goodbye -- not having written anything worth writing, I know, but you will forgive it. Yours always sincerely
Sarah
Notes
your book: Assuming this was Parsons's latest book, it probably was Outlines of the Religion and Philosophy of Swedenborg (1876). See Parsons to Jewett of 23 March 1876.
older than Methuselah: According to Genesis 5:25-26, Methuselah lived more than nine hundred years.
Royal Commentaries of the Yncas … Cuzco …Mr. Prescott's book: Garcilaso de la Vega (1539-1616) published his First Part of the Royal commentaries of the Yncas in Lisbon, Portugal in 1609. Cuzco is in Peru. Wikipedia says: "William Hickling Prescott (May 4, 1796 - January 28, 1859) was an American historian and Hispanist, who is widely recognized by historiographers to have been the first American scientific historian." Among his major works was A History of the Conquest of Peru (1847).
Mrs. Martineau's "Eastern Life": Harriet Martineau (1802-1876), English religious writer and reformer, who repudiated her faith and produced radical writing later in her career. Her travel book Eastern life, Present and Past appeared in 1848.
Miss Sabra: For Mary Sabra Parsons, see Theophilus Parsons in Key to Correspondents.
The manuscript of this letter is held by Special Collections at Colby College. It was transcribed by the owner of the manuscripts before they were given to Colby College, Henry Ellicott Magill (b. 1902) of Pasadena, CA, who also may have made handwritten corrections to the transcriptions. Further corrections, notes and annotations by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Theophilus Parsons [ Fragment ]
South Berwick 3 Apr. 1876
Dear Prof. Parsons
I have been meaning to write you every day for a week, but there have been so many things to prevent and now at last I have a little time for a talk. I wish so much it could really be a talk, because I have so much to say that I never could get it all into a letter. I like the new book* more and more and I have learned a great deal from it as I knew I should. I find that I understand it without much trouble, at least it seems as if I did, though I always have a suspicion that a great deal may escape the wisdom I bring to the reading! But then, it is pleasant that one leaves something for the next time, isn't it?
Last night I was thinking about that first time I ever knew you at Wells, and I tried to remember the first time you ever spoke to me and suddenly it flashed into my head that we were on the piazza at the side of the house looking toward the marshes and 'the point' and we [ we repeated ] were looking at a yacht, or a ship out at sea and you gave me your spyglass and pointed it and we talked a little while. It was very odd that that should have been the beginning, for I believe that ever since you have been helping me to know more and see more than I should if I had been left to myself. This has been one of the times when I have liked reading your books, and so many things have come to me. I suppose it is with me as with everyone else: I can't read such things some times -- and I never try to 'make myself'.' -- I want to say a great deal about this last book and I could 'say' it if we were talking, but I think it is hard to write it. It seems to me there must be a great many people ready to learn and longing to learn just what they
[ end of this typescript ]
Notes
new book: Parsons apparently gave Jewett his new book, Outlines of the Religion and Philosophy of Swedenborg (1876), which she has been reading.
The manuscript of this letter is held by Special Collections at Colby College. It was transcribed by the owner of the manuscripts before they were given to Colby College, Henry Ellicott Magill (b. 1902) of Pasadena, CA, who also may have made handwritten corrections to the transcriptions. Further corrections, notes and annotations by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Elvira Irwin Furber to Sarah Orne Jewett
[ Letterhead made of the letters "E," "I" and "F" superimposed. ]
New York
April 24th, 1876
Dear [ Piffy ? ]*
Your letter was [ several ? ] in one [ unrecognized word ] & now while alone, will try & answer. I must [ unrecognized word ] to the [ unrecognized word or words ] of this great [ unrecognized word ]. Harry* left this evening [ for ? ] Albany, intends returning to-morrow eve. Charlie & [ Josh ? ]* will soon
[ Page 2 ]serious as the last, although she has suffered intensely with it. [ Unrecognized name ] is [ unrecognized word ] [ a new ? ] [ unrecognized word ] treatment from a new physician. [ Harry when ? ] in chronic difficulties, has been very successful. He feels confident of success in her case, & already, she writes she feels the good effects. [ Jennie ? ] is staying there while [ Libbie ? ] is unable to use her arm. [ Unrecognized name, Emmie ? ] has the care of my two little ones, all are usually well at home, [ and ? ] Mother* [ faded word ] our troubling her very
appear; they call daily. Josh came last night, with a [ car-coupler ? ], hoping to be able to introduce it on Eastern [ roads ? ], but soon after arriving in New York, made arrangements with Harry to remain in his employ. He is well, & in good spirits. Poor [ Libbie ? ] has had the misfortune of falling & breaking more bones. The same arm as before, the fracture is on the under part of the arm, about half way between the wrist & elbow. 'Tis not as
[ Page 3 ]
[ Page 4 ]
much. [ Aunt M.A. ? ]* is still in Kenosha* at the [ unrecognized name ] not receiving water treatment, she is in a perfectly prostrated condition [ faded word ] last Saturday, for nearly four weeks, she has been confined to her bed, & been able to be moved, without fainting. We felt very anxious about her. Her physician says, the cause of her excessive weakness is "The pressure of blood at the base of the brain [ gives ? ] way." & her recovery will be slow but sure, she has been very depressed, but is now encouraged. Hattie* is with
[ Down the top margin of page 1, from the left side ]
her & will remain as long as [ necessary ? ]. [ Hollie ? ] too is there. Harry did not like the idea of his going [ there ? ] to board, but it was just where I have long wanted. [ Two unrecognized words ] without his having an idea, [ two unrecognized words ] for treatment.
[ Page 4 ]
They are so systematic in everything & as he writes to have such jolly times. It is a hotel on a quiet scale, & very nice people board there, & Willie* is quite a [ unrecognized word ]. This [ December ? ] he had taken the responsibility of having Willie remain, [ as his leaving ? unrecognized word ] would have [ unrecognized word ] effects ^upon^ [ several unrecognized words ] he is, having the best kind of a time, & I am very glad. Harry is having a yacht built in Chicago,* to be completed by July 15th, "Waubun" by name. It is 80. ft in length, & is to be perfection
[ Page 6 ]
in every respect. He intend{s} cruising around in it for two months & is anticipating great times. However I will not attempt to enter into particulars, or expatiate upon it, as you will doubtless see him before that time & he will be more eloquent on the subject than I possibly could be. Do you & [ Mrs Patton or Mr Parsons ? ] still correspond? [ Unrecognized name ] says Henry* is not so devoted as he once was. I see but little of him, while at home. I did wish you would happen in last week. Abbie Robinson* visited me
[ Page 7 ]
& I am so anxious to have you two meet; & she quite as anxious to make your acquaintance. We had a [ very ? ] good time, not gay in the least. The poor thing has a very heavy heart, yet keeps [ life ? ] wonderfully. Has recently lost her father, not a month since, & while here, she saw a notice in the morning paper of an assignment of "Ballou & Sons," her father's & brothers mills in Woonsocket,* by which they lose everything. There were 4 [ mills ? ] & one estate valued at [ $2,000,000 ? ]. So much sorrow all at once, seems hard to [ unrecognized word or words, endure ? ], More not heard, since [ faded word her ? ] return to Woonsocket.
[ Page 8 ]
When are you coming to the Centennial?* [ Unrecognized name Elisa___ ? ] is very anxious to come & I hope will, later in the season. [ Mrs. or Miss ] Stockton's* father died recently & she was obliged to remain at home, for the present; all depends upon him{.} [ She ? ] misses him very much. I fear by this their matrimonial arrangements may be interfered with for some time. Have you heard of [ faded word ] [ Gaville's ? ] death? She will be very much missed in G.B.* [ Faded sentence ] She had many friends. Death seemed so foreign to her. [ Oh! ? ] I could tell you of Green Bay people, all [ night if only an opportunity offered. ? ]
[ Page 9 ]
I would like to see you Piffy & if you enjoy fine paintings & pictures generally, & elegant books &c. would like you to look over our collections. Though not extensive, are very fine "so say we all of us."* We have the Dresden, Stafford & Turner Galleries Illuminated Scrapbook* [ & various ? ] others, all of which [ I am ? ] sure you would enjoy. I have about concluded to remain in our present [ position ? ] till July. [ have ? ] so many things difficult to move & not worth while moving twice within so short a time. A home of our own* I almost despair of. You will think this an egotistical [ lecture, but ? ] present company
[ Page 10 ]
has interrupted several times & I fear my letter will read like "The pathetic stories in [ Webster's "unabridged ? ]". Write me soon, & tell me of each & all of you, & that your pastimes [ really ? ] are doing fine. Love to all, & accept much for yourself. 'Tis late & I will [ out of compassion ? ] for you [ bid ? ] you good night.
[ Ever ? ] with love.
Your friend
E. I. Furber.
Notes
Piffy: This transcription is uncertain. This appears to be a variation of the nickname, Pfby, by which Sarah Orne Jewett's sister, Caroline, addresses her in a few letters.
Harry ... Charlie ... Josh: Harry almost certainly is the writer's husband, Henry Jewett Furber, Sr. Charlie and Josh (if the name is correctly transcribed) have not been identified. It is possible that Charlie is Henry Jewett's brother, Charles William Furber (1835-), and that Josh is Joshua Whitney, husband of Mr. Furber's sister, Elizabeth Francis Irwin (1830-1909). However, Mrs. Furber's sister, Maria Jane (1828-1912) was married to Charles Wheelock. Whatever their identities, the two men seem to be business associates of Henry Furber.
Libbie ... Jennie ... Emmie ... Mother: Libbie may be Mrs. Furber's sister, Elizabeth. If the transcription of Emmie is correct, then she may be another of Mrs Furber's sisters, Emilie Virginia Irwin (1847-1919). The transcriptions of Jennie is uncertain, and she remains unidentified.
Kenosha: The Pennoyer Sanitarium in Kenosha, Wisconsin was among a number of institutions in the United States where one could receive hydrotherapy, known as "the water cure," in the 19th-century.
Aunt M.A.: If this transcription is correct, Mrs. Furber may refer to her maternal aunt, MaryAnn Smith (1822-1908).
Hattie ... Hollie: Hattie is likely to be another of Mrs. Furber's sisters, Harriette Brown Irwin (1839-1928). The transcription of Hollie is uncertain, and she remains unidentified.
Willie: Almost certainly the Furbers' oldest son, William Ebert Furber.
yacht built in Chicago: The Inter Ocean from (Chicago) of 18 July 1876 (p. 7) reports that H. J. Furber has launched his new yacht, built in Chicago by William W. Bates. The story says that the $12,000 steam yacht's name, Waubun, "in the tongue of the red man, signifies early light or morning light." It appears that the Furbers had sold the yacht by 1883, but it continues to appear in news stories about sailing on the Great Lakes until at least 1900.
[ Mrs Patton or Mr Parsons ? ]: While Mrs. Furber appears to have written "Mrs Patton," Jewett is not known to have corresponded with anyone of that name, while, in fact, Theophilus Parsons was a prominent and frequent correspondent at this time. See Key to Correspondents.
Henry: Probably this is the Furber's second son, Henry Jewett Furber, Jr. He would be about 11 years old at this time.
Abbie Robinson: Abigail Colburn "Abbie" Ballou Robinson (1828-1893). See notes below.
Woonsocket: In the 19th century, a Rhode Island mill town. Mrs. Furber refers to George Colburn Ballou (1798 - 25 March 1876) and Dexter Ballou (1789-1849), mill owners in Woonsocket, RI. George Ballou married Ruth Elizabeth Aldrich (1801-1873). Their children included Abigail Colburn Ballou.
Centennial: The Centennial Exposition of 1876 in Philadelphia, PA, was held from 10 May until 10 November 1876. Jewett attended in June-July, and reported the "heat was awful." See Jewett's story, "The Flight of Betsey Lane," in A Native of Winby.
[ Mrs. or Miss ] Stockton's* father died recently: These persons have not been identified.
[ Gaville's ? ] death ... G.B.: The transcription is uncertain, and this Green Bay citizen who seems to have died in 1876 has not been identified.
all of us: Mrs. Furber may be quoting from the popular song, "For he's a jolly good fellow."
Illuminated Scrapbook: Mrs. Furber seems to refer to a specific book, but this is not listed in WorldCat. The Dresden Gallery in Germany owns a large collection of classic European painting. The Stafford Gallery may be the former Shire Hall art gallery in Stafford, England. The transcription of "Turner" is uncertain. If it is correct, then which gallery Mrs. Furber means still is uncertain, as the best-known separate collections of the paintings of J. W. M. Turner, in Cardiff, Wales and at the Tate Gallery in London, were established after 1876.
home of our own: Henry Furber purchased a lot in New York City in November of 1876. In May 1879, he moved the family permanently to Chicago.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Columbia University (New York) Library in Special Collections, Jewett. Transcription from a microfilm copy and annotation by Terry Heller, Coe College. The microfilm copy of this manuscript is quite difficult to transcribe, yet still Mrs. Furber's composition, as she suggests, contains a number of omissions and, perhaps, some unintended substitutions. This transcription probably can be improved by using the original manuscript.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Anna Laurens Dawes
South Berwick
27 April 1876Dear Anna
I haven't been at all prompt in [ answering corrected ] your two valued letters, which I received at a time [ stray mark ? ] when my spirits were low on account of two severe attacks of rheumatism in rapid succession. Words cannot express my appreciation of your sympathetic words and cheerful discussion of interesting topics. I forgot the infirmities of age and wished I were with you to go on with the conversation. What a sweet thing friendship is!
[ Page 2 ]
and now -- to speak seriously -- I have been miserable most of the time since I wrote you last and am just beginning to feel like my self again -- I am terribly hard at work on my stories, and am getting on capitally at last, though it worries me to think I had to break up all my plans and promises. I am trying to finish some of my work before the first of May but I think it a forlorn hope -- It was pleasant to hear of your Washington life and the people you see -- and I had a
[ Page 3 ]good laugh over Mr. Bancroft's literary friend!* He must have considered it an [ inestimable corrected ] privilege to meet her! --
2nd May -- I have not been able to finish my letter before, though I have thought of it every day. I have a friend visiting me, and every thing seems to have come together. I don't see how I can possibly have anything to do all summer after this. I don't see [ what corrected ] will be left! We have a church fair coming off on Thursday for one item: and you probably know what that means, in a small town? I am hurrying to finish some copying and when I go over to 'the old house' to my work my friend
[ Page 4 ]goes with me, and reads and takes naps and otherwise kindly entertains herself -- I hope she is having a good time, poor thing! but I have serious doubts. However there's nothing else to be done, & she seems reasonably cheerful. I had such a nice letter from Ella* last night. Instead of losing her on account of her being married, I think she has grown nicer and I truly never enjoyed her more. I may go to town next week and then I shall see her -- for a call at least -- I have to do some shopping for I begin to [ realize corrected ] that the middle of June (the time set for my Phila. visit)* is
[ Page 5 ]not so very far off. I want to go on some accounts and rather dread it on others, as it will be sure to be hot weather -- and hot weather in Philadelphia goes beyond any other hot weather in the world in point of making you feel good for nothing --
I don't see how you ever get time for reading! I have read less this spring than I ever have before I think -- While* I had the rheumatism I devoted myself somewhat to literature -- I had some very nice books about Ancient Peru which I found very interesting. Do get the "Royal Commentaries of the Yncas" published by the 'Hakluyt Society,'* -- some day -- for I know
[ Page 6 ]you would be highly entertained. I had Prescott* afterward and it really seemed dull. I feel it my duty to read a sufficient amount of the history of my own country: this being the Centennial year! I haven't begun ye t-- and I must say I don't get up much enthusiasm over it --
Miss Seeger* wishes me to give you her kindest regards -- I believe I didn't tell you that it is she who is staying with me, and Mary* wishes to mention that she is tempted to get another wedding ^herself^ for the sake of meeting you and having another improving occasion like that in November which will never fade from her memory! Good bye and forgive me for this stupid letter which I have had to write at odd times.
Yrs. Sincerely
Sarah Jewett
Notes
Mr. Bancroft's literary friend: Though this can only be speculative, it seems possible that Jewett refers to George Bancroft (1800-1891), the Massachusetts-born historian and statesman. He apparently was living in Washington, DC after 1874. The identity of his literary friend is not known. Wikipedia.
Ella: Ella Walworth Little. See Key to Correspondents.
Philadelphia: Jewett attended the Centennial International Exposition of 1876 in Philadelphia, PA. Wikipedia.
While: This word may be underlined.
Royal Commentaries of the Yncas published by the Hakluyt Society ... Prescott: Garcilaso de la Vega (1539-1616) published his First Part of the Royal commentaries of the Yncas in Lisbon, Portugal in 1609. Wikipedia says: "William Hickling Prescott (May 4, 1796 - January 28, 1859) was an American historian and Hispanist, who is widely recognized by historiographers to have been the first American scientific historian." Among his major works was A History of the Conquest of Peru (1847).
Mary: Mary Rice Jewett. See Key to Correspondents.
Miss Seeger: See Eliza Seeger in Key to Correspondents.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Library of Congress, in the Henry L. Dawes papers, 1833-1933. BOX 10, Dawes, Anna Laurens, her correspondence and other papers, 1850-1925. An annotated transcription appears in C. Carroll Hollis, "Letters of Sarah Orne Jewett to Anna Laurens Dawes," Colby Library Quarterly No. 3 (1968): 97-138.
New transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Theophilus Parsons
South Berwick
3 May 1876
Dear Prof. Parsons
I haven't much to tell you only I felt like writing. -- I have been working like a beaver, trying to get my stories done and now things begin to look a little more hopeful. Mr. Howells* thinks I had better not try to have the book come out until next spring, and, though I am disappointed in one way, still it is a great relief. Having been sick has of course hindered me very much and used up the time I supposed should have been for work -- and I should have had to write a good deal in the hottest weather, if the book had come out in September or October -- as I thought it would at first. I can make it better I think by having this summer's experiences to put into the list of "Deephaven" affairs. Just now I have a friend visiting me and I do not work quite so steadily [ steadilly in the original ] though she goes over to the old house with me almost every day and sleeps or reads while I write awhile, and then we go out for a walk together.* This is just the Mayflower season and we are both very fond of them. We had such a lovely walk down the river bank yesterday!
Since I wrote you I have grown very much interested in another friend -- a girl several years younger than I. She is the daughter of a Methodist minister who has been stationed here -- and I knew her a little in the winter -- but she lived in another part of the village and I never saw much of her -- but after a while I found out that they have had such a pitiful time -- for they are very much nicer people than their parishioners, who took a dislike to Lily's* father and have had "no end of a row" all the time he has been here. I heard of it of course, but I didn't take much interest in it until this spring, and then I felt so sorry and so ashamed that I hadn't been on the look-out for so plain a chance of giving people pleasure and making them have a better time. Other people felt so too, and I think the last of their stay was really much pleasanter. 'The Minister' is a scholarly man who is sensitive and morbid and never had the handling of such a parish as 'the Landing parish' before -- and he didn't understand the people any better than they did him I suppose. I liked Lily when I first saw her, and lately I have seen her almost every day -- and she is such a nice girl. I have tried ever so hard to help her, and it seemed like going over my own nineteenth year again -- for she has been going through with very much the same things I did then and she gets very forlorn often times -- which I understand perfectly. It is so pleasant to have her care about me. It is the first time I have had a girl so much younger than I for a crony, and I am so glad to be older than she, and to be where I could make things easier. It almost frightened me to find how much she cares for what I say, for I am always getting into snares myself. She went away yesterday and she seemed so sorry to say goodbye and I'm sure I was. But they're going to one of the nicest parishes in the state (Farmington) and she is going to school again, or will go on with some studies at least -- for that is pretty much all she delights in -- beside her music. You don't know how much I am interested in her, and I am sure she will make a fine woman by and by. I only hope she will be like her mother, and I think she will. She is just waking up now to what life means, and it has been hard -- but she seems a great deal happier. I hope you aren't tired with all this long story -- but I wanted to tell you. It has done me good being with her -- and I realize more than I ever did before that the best thing in the world is to be helpful. I must end my letter in a hurry. I believe I don't do anything more than five minutes at a time (except sleeping) for we are to have a fair at the church and there is 'company' at the house -- and I am running errands and scribbling at odd minutes. Please give my love to Mrs. Parsons -- and to Miss Sabra.* I think I may go to Boston within a fortnight just for a day or two and I shall go out to Cambridge if I possibly can.
Yours, sincerely
Sarah
Notes
Mr. Howells ... the book: William Dean Howells. See Key to Correspondents. Jewett's first novel, Deephaven, was published by James R. Osgood & Co. in the spring of 1877.
the old house: In May 1876, Jewett was living in what later became the Jewett-Eastman House and the South Berwick Public Library. It appears that she sometimes went next door to write, at the Jewett homestead.
Lily: Lillian Munger. See Key to Correspondents.
Miss Sabra: For Mary Sabra Parsons, see Theophilus Parsons in Key to Correspondents.
The manuscript of this letter is held by Special Collections at Colby College. It was transcribed by the owner of the manuscripts before they were given to Colby College, Henry Ellicott Magill (b. 1902) of Pasadena, CA, who also may have made handwritten corrections to the transcriptions. Further corrections, notes and annotations by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Ellen Mason to Sarah Orne Jewett
Boston
May 15th [ 1876 ]*
My dear Sarah,
I had no intention of letting so long a time pass in silence, and the reason for my having done so is not that I have not thought of you, for that I have very often. I suppose you have by this time returned from your Exeter visit. I do hope you are getting back
[ Page 2 ]
your strength, for it must be a hard discipline to "stand and wait"* when one is impatient to begin. I can well understand your feelings, for you know I am very impatient by nature, and find waiting the hardest thing in the world to do. Kate* seems to be rather wretched just now and I dread the hot weather for her. You know she hates a city so when it is warm, and feels as if she could not live in it. It was just so
[ Page 3 ]
two years ago when she was here, and of course N. Y. is worse. Her plan is to go with her Mother to Orange this week, and stay thereabouts until the middle of June, when I think she will come to Newport. Miss Birckhead is anxious for her to try Mt Desert, and if we hear of a pleasant party there I may get Kate to go, so as to escape the heat of August. I could take her there myself, and stay a week perhaps --
I am glad you like Fénélon.* I knew you would. Keep it as long as you like, for it is a book
[ Page 4 ]
not to be read in a hurry. I do not know if I told you about the "Récit d'une Soeur" by Mrs Craven,* which I have been taking great delight in lately. I am beginning now Eugénie de Guérin's Journal* again. It is interesting to reread a book after a space of some years. I find that I take much more interest in both these books than I did before, and I think it is partly because as one gets older one cares more for truth & reality, and does not care so much for fictitious excitements{.} Both these books are quiet and take their interest from
[ Page 5 ]
the pictures of inner life that they represent, and that is just what one cares most for the longer one lives. I have just got a delightful book, which I hope you will see some day. It is the "Life of Mother Margaret," an English Sister of Charity (Roman Catholic). I am going to the drawing class I told you about, I think, and enjoy it exceedingly. The teacher is such a good one, that I have learnt a good deal, and hope to sketch a little from nature this summer. When are you coming to town?
[ Page 6 ]
It seems to me that you said you were coming in May. The country is beginning to look beautiful now. Ida* & I drove out of town the other day and got some lovely violets. I have been getting flowers seeds for Newport, and writing to our gardener about them. It is a pity to lose this lovely season in which everything in nature is born. I envy now everyone who lives in the country. I wish you would write me soon and tell me how you are.
Affly yours
Ellen Mason
Notes
1876: Penciled in the upper right corner of page 1 is "1870 --"
An envelope associated with this letter was canceled on 14 April, no year given. In the upper left corner of front of the envelope is penciled: "A gentlewoman of Boston in 1870."
The envelope could not have contained this letter if Mason's date is correct. Rather this letter belongs with others from Mason to Jewett that are tentatively dated to 1876. Each of these mentions loaning Jewett a copy of a Fénélon title, and shares other elements of content.
"stand and wait": Mason refers to the sonnet "When I consider how my light is spent," by British poet John Milton (1608-1674). The final line is "They also serve who only stand and wait."
Kate: This person has not yet been identified. Typically, when Jewett and her friends refer to "Kate" without a surname, readers assume the person is Kate Birckhead, who is mentioned later in this letter as a person with whom Kate might travel at a later date. Therefore, this cannot be Birckhead. Among their other mutual acquaintances was Katherine Loring, but there is as yet no evidence to confirm that this is the right "Kate." See Key to Correspondents.
Miss Birckhead: Kate Birckhead. See Key to Correspondents.Fénélon: François de Salignac de la Mothe Fénelon (1651-1715) was a French writer, theologian, and bishop. Having served as tutor to Louis XIV's grandson, the Duke of Burgundy, Fénelon was intimately connected with the French court, even after he fell out of favor with the king. He submitted to the Church's condemnation in 1699 of his Maxims of the Saints, and continued as Archbishop of Cambrai (1695-1715) -- in exile from the court -- until his death. He is well-remembered in part for his great acts of charity during the War of the Spanish Succession. (Sources: "Life of Fénelon," by Lamartine, in Fénelon, Adventures of Telemachus. O. W. White, editor, 1886; and Voltaire, The Age of Louis XIV, Ch. 38).
Paula Blanchard believes they shared Selections from the Writings of Fénélon (1829), translated and edited by Eliza Cabot Follen (Sarah Orne Jewett, p. 87).
To date, the earliest known references to Fénelon in Jewett occur in two letters from 1876, to Theophilus Parsons on 24 August and to Anna Dawes on 8 October.
Mrs Craven: Wikipedia says: "Pauline Marie Armande Aglaé Craven (née Ferron de La Ferronnays; 12 April 1808 - 1 April 1891) was a French author." She married Augustus Craven in 1834. Her memoir, Récit d'une Soeur: Souvenirs de Famille was published in Paris in 1866; an English translation, A Sister's Story, by Emily Bowles appeared in 1868.
Eugénie de Guérin's Journal: Eugénie de Guérin (1804-1858) lived a solitary, retiring life in a château near Albi in southern France, near the Spanish border. The Journal of Eugénie de Guérin first appeared in French posthumously, in 1855. There was an English translation available by 1865 and other editions followed. The 1855 French publication also included writings grouped under the title Reliquiae that are notable for their spiritual, melancholy quality. During the years 1832-34, she kept her Journal intime (personal journal) for her absent brother, Maurice, the famous poet who later died tragically young of tuberculosis while under her care. (Research assistance: Carla Zecher)
"Life of Mother Margaret": The Life of Mother Margaret Mary Hallahan: foundress of the English congregation of St. Catherine of Siena of the third order of St. Dominic by Augusta Theodosia Drane, was published in 1869. Wikipedia confirms: Margaret Hallahan (1803-1868) "was an English Catholic nun, foundress of the Dominican Congregation of St. Catherine of Siena (third order);"
Ida: Ellen Mason's sister. See Mason in Key to Correspondents.
The manuscript of the letter is held by the University of New England Maine Women Writers Collection MWWC0196_02_00_016_01. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Anna Laurens Dawes to Sarah Orne Jewett
[ Letterhead design with AD ]
Washington, D.C.
May 26, 1876My Dear Sara [ so spelled ]
Wouldn't it be nice if one could sit down and answer a letter just when they got it, or at the very moment when the mood seized them. You would get much "larger pieces" of my lining and less ugly patchwork in that case -- to quote ideas if not words from Mrs. Whitney.*
[ Page 2 ]
Have you read that last book of hers Lights and Insights* or don't you worship at that shrine? I have been for a long time -- and grow each year more vociferous -- one of those who cry "Great is Allah and Mrs. Whitney is his prophet." It is true that I can't understand everything in her books, but I don't believe she can either! so I don't care for that.
So you have been writing and writing and a child stretches her
[ Page 3 ]
writing, which being translated, means enjoying yourself. I might be more inclined to be envious if a friend of mine hadn't written
“The world might all go wrong
With one too many daisies --”*Do you know that sweet, fresh little daisy poem did me a world of good. It made me think of a pen & ink sketch you once made Ella,* wherein a child stretches her abbreviated neck
[ Page 4 ]
unavailingly toward a knot hole in the fence. And it gave me a sense of companionship firstly, and it said a world of things to me secondly -- fifteenthly. If I had any ability I should illuminate it & hang it up in my apartment!
So Lulie and Wallace are about to marry, and then, having their cake, are going to eat it in Europe. To all appearances the raisins are
[ Page 5
a letterhead page, with text written through the design ]almost too thick therein. Still I am too much pleased for them to be very envious. Are you going down to the wedding?* I greatly regret that I can't be there to disturb the ^morning^ slumbers of the guests, but I expect to spend that portion of my existence improving my mind at the expense of my body in Philadelphia.* Don't fail to write me full particulars.
[ Page 6 ]
We leave here the 5th of June, and stay in Philadelphia a few days. I don't suppose either
health^strength^ or purses will allow more than that. Then we shall be at home for a brief season I hope. Only they who board half their lives* know what home means. I will not descend to vulgar particulars, but if ever you need a
[ Page 7 ]
feeling description of that method of existence, I shall be only too happy to supply at a moderate price!
I'm almost through, and I haven't told you that I've been to New York! Nearly four weeks I spent in and around that pivot of earth. Very good times I had too, and delightful
[ Page 8 ]
acquaintances I made to say nothing of old friendships revamped.
I really must close for I have a thousand things to do. Please give my love to your sister, and write very soon to
Your beloving friend
Anna L. Dawes
Notes
Mrs. Whitney: American poet, Adeline Dutton Train Whitney (1824-1906). Wikipedia.
daisies: From Jewett's poem, "Discontent," which appeared in St. Nicholas 3 (February 1876), 247, and was reprinted often thereafter. The quotation varies from printed versions.
Lights and Insights: Though in some sources, Whitney's 1876 book is listed under the title of Lights and Insights, the actual title was Sights and Insights: Patience Strong's Story of Over the Way.
Ella: Ella Walworth Little. See Key to Correspondents.
Philadelphia: Jewett attended the Centennial International Exposition of 1876 in Philadelphia, PA.
wedding: Hollis says, "Neither Sarah nor Anna attended the wedding of Julie Walworth and Wallace Pierce, although both took a proprietary interest in this as in so many of the Walworth household affairs"
As Hollis's note indicates, he transcribed the word I read as "Lulie" as "Julie." Lacking access to the now comparatively easy-to-obtain details about the Walworth family, Hollis did not discover that Stella Louise Walworth married Wallace Pierce in June 1876. Presumably, Lulie, based on her middle name, was a nickname for Stella. See Ella Walworth Little in Key to Correspondents.board half their lives: As the daughter of a United States Senator, Dawes resided about half of each year in Washington, DC. See her entry in Key to Correspondents.
This letter was originally transcribed and annotated by C. Carroll Hollis. It appeared in "Letters of Sarah Orne Jewett to Anna Laurens Dawes," Colby Library Quarterly No. 3 (1968): 97-138. The manuscript is held by the Columbia University Library. New transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Anna Laurens Dawes
South Berwick
29 May 1876Dear Anna
I was delighted to get your letter just now and though there are fifty other things I ought to do instead, I am going to give myself the pleasure of having a little talk with you -- I came home from Portsmouth half an hour ago, where I have been spending Sunday with Georgie Halliburton.* It was a very pleasant Sunday for my younger
[ Page 2 ]sister* was also there (with another friend) and she was confirmed last evening -- Of course I was very glad for her sake -- and then it brought back my own confirmation most vividly, and it came over me how much happiness and how many good things have come to me since that day and how many things have 'come true' and are realities which used to be only dreams and wishes -- It was one of [ the corrected ] times when one stops to look back = you know exactly how I felt, I'm sure,
[ Page 3 ]and isn't it funny that I should be 'sure' and should be writing in this way to you? It is very nice to be sure of people; I'm certain of that and somehow it seems as if I had already had the nice long quiet talks with you which I am sure I shall have some day --
I am so glad you like Mrs. Whitney* for I do, dearly, and I think no book ever did me more good than that blessed "Leslie Goldthwaite{.}" I did not realize how much
[ Page 4 ]I learned from it until within a year or two -- I read it first when I was [ fifteen corrected ] or sixteen and just at the right time -- and the older I grow the more I find in it -- and it seems to me it strikes the key note of all her other books. I think Mrs. Whitney has done [ an corrected ] immense deal of good, and I know you 'lots' better since I know you like her -- I haven't read the last book yet --
I have been so busy! Since
[ Page 5 ]
2
I wrote you I have been in Boston a few days shopping & spent a night with [ Ella corrected ]* who is nicer than ever I think -- and since I came home I have been sewing and we have had visitors most of the time. There [ stray mark ? ] are old schoolmates of Mary's here now -- I'm going to N. Y. & Phila* in [ about ? ] ten days and I expect to die of the heat. We three girls are going together
[ Page 6 ]and what father & mother will do I'm sure I can't tell -- I wish I could see you. We are to be at the Windsor in N. Y. until the 20th of June and after that in Phila -- until after the fourth -- At the Windsor we are to be with Mrs. H. J. Furber* and if you don't go straight through do be good and let me know -- though I understand only too well how hard it is to make
[ Page 7 ]appointments at such times and I shall understand perfectly if you tell me afterward you were in the city a week!!
I'm so glad that you like the daisy,* dear, and it was so good of you to tell me -- I have some new little scraps and if I were not writing with all my might and with the guiltiest conscience I would send you one or two -- I can't be at the
[ Page 8 ]wedding. I'm very sorry but it is impossible for us to get [ ready corrected ] to go ^to N. Y.^ at the time we are invited and we are having to hurry. And I know I shall be tired out anyway -- so I shall not try -- We hope to get off by the fifth -- With love to you [ in ? ] which Mary would heartily join.
Yours sincerely and fondly
Sarah --
Beg pardon for not “staying written to”! ------
Notes
Halliburton: Georgina Halliburton. See Key to Correspondents.
sister: Jewett's younger sister was Caroline. Her older sister, also mentioned here was Mary. See Key to Correspondents.
Hollis notes: "That Caroline Augusta Jewett was confirmed in Portsmouth, NH suggests that she, like Sarah, was not confirmed in the South Berwick First Parish Congregational church that her family attended at home, but at St. John's Episcopalian Church in Portsmouth."Whitney: American author, Adeline Dutton Train Whitney (1824-1906) was the author of A Summer in Leslie Goldthwaite’s Life (1866). Her "last book" mentioned here as well was Sights and Insights: Patience Strong's Story of Over the Way (1876).
Ella: Ella Walworth Little. See Key to Correspondents.
Phila: Jewett attended the Centennial International Exposition of 1876 in Philadelphia, PA.
Mrs. H. J. Furber: Elvira Irwin Furber. See Key to Correspondents.
the daisy: Jewett refers to her poem, "Discontent," which first appeared in St. Nicholas (3:247) February 1876.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Library of Congress, in the Henry L. Dawes papers, 1833-1933. BOX 10, Dawes, Anna Laurens, her correspondence and other papers, 1850-1925. An annotated transcription appears in C. Carroll Hollis, "Letters of Sarah Orne Jewett to Anna Laurens Dawes," Colby Library Quarterly No. 3 (1968): 97-138.
New transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Theophilus ParsonsSouth Berwick
31 May 1876
Dear Prof. Parsons
I have been meaning and hoping to write you ever since I came home but I have been so busy with visitors and sewing and getting ready for my N.Y. and Philadelphia visits that I have been in a continual hurry. I am to leave for New York the eighth I believe, but I must confess I am not enthusiastic -- for it is so pleasant here, and I dread the hot weather. Both my sisters are going with me and I dare say we shall have a jolly time after all, and I think it is very naughty to dislike going, especially when so many people I know wish to go to the Centennial and cannot! --*
I liked that novel "The Three Feathers" ever so much and I was glad I did not read it when we had it in Littell for it was so nice to have it week before last, one day when I was tired and felt exactly like reading it.* I will send it back to you soon. I wish I could have stayed longer that day when I went to see you, but I was an hour late at Ellen's* as it was! I had a very nice talk with her that afternoon only I wished to stay longer there too. I hate having to hurry about as I did while I was in Boston! There are ever so many things I wish to tell you, but the stories are too long and I must say goodbye. I wish I could see you this beautiful day! Yours ever lovingly
Sarah
Notes
the centennial: During May through November 1876 an International Centennial Exhibition took place in Philadelphia to commemorate the signing of the United States Declaration of Independence in 1776. See Jewett's story, "The Flight of Betsey Lane," in A Native of Winby.
that novel "The Three Feathers" ... Littell: Three feathers: a Novel by William Black (1841-1898), appeared in 1875. The novel was serialized in Littell's Living Age beginning in April 1875. Black authored a Jewett favorite, The Princess of Thule (1874).
Ellen's: Ellen Francis Mason. See Key to Correspondents.
The manuscript of this letter is held by Special Collections at Colby College. It was transcribed by the owner of the manuscripts before they were given to Colby College, Henry Ellicott Magill (b. 1902) of Pasadena, CA, who also may have made handwritten corrections to the transcriptions. Further corrections, notes and annotations by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Theophilus Parsons to Sarah Orne Jewett
Cambridge June 3./76
My dear Sarah --
I cannot let you run away to the great Exposition,* without a bit of an answer to your note, or rather notes. I should
nothave written you before; but for some weeks a pressure of work has lain upon me which more than exhausted the little capacity of labour which remains either to my brain or my fingers. And now I have taken a half sheet, because when I begin writing to you, I never leave off until I have filled the sheet, & so I set this limit to my wandering.I read with interest all you write me, -- and with especial interest what you have to say of your work & study. I expect your new book, I had almost said anxiously. You can do so much good. I want to see you doing at least
[ Page 2 ]
some of it. Your faculty of suggesting truth and good is one I hope to see ^you^ cultivate & exercise, as much for your own good as for that of your readers. And you may be sure, that the more of this you do, in your own way, the more readers you will have. So in your conversation. You are perfectly right in abstaining from intruding any of the new truths you have learned upon unwilling hearers. But then we never can know who are unwilling. You will do the best thing you can I believe, by never either obtruding or avoiding the avowal of your beliefs, when the avowal lies in your way. The time has gone by when such an avowal was risky. Of nothing am I more certain, than that, generally, among such persons as you would make friends of, there would be a reception, -- an interested hearing if not
adistinct welcome, -- to anything you could say of this sort. Try this, & find out if I am not right. And [ hear so spelled ] my scrap must end.faithfully y's T. P.
Notes
great Exposition: "The Centennial International Exhibition of 1876, the first official World's Fair in the United States, was held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, from May 10 to November 10, 1876, to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia." Wikipedia
The manuscript of the letter is held by the University of New England Maine Women Writers CollectionMWWC0196_02_00_027_01. Transcription and notes by Terry & Linda Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Anna Laurens Dawes
The Windsor, N. Y.
9 June 1876Dear Anna
I will certainly meet you if I possibly can. The only thing which would hinder me is that my friends may possibly make some plan for me and if I only know of your coming in season [ stray mark ? ] I will take care of that. I do wish to see you ever so much -- and I was so glad to find your note
[ Page 2 ]
waiting when I reached here at eleven last night. I think we should keep up a majestic correspondence if we acted upon our impulses -- for I should like to send you a long letter this morning!
I shall probably be here until the 20th if I live so long in this heat -- You mustn't think it will be any trouble to me to meet you for we are very
[ Page 3 ]
near the station here -- and I can easily go over -- and if it is in the evening I can have the man for company I think -----
Aren't you glad you are going home? I don't mean by this that I am homesick myself; but the country is so lovely, and it is so nice to be in one's own quarters -- I thought of Ella yesterday, and of the bride,* but I had
[ Page 4 ]
no time to do anything but 'think.' If you were only here! I have ever so many things on my tongue's end to say -- If you have more than an hour or two, why cant you come here? Good bye dear and Mary's* love to you.
Yours sincerely, Sarah
Notes
Ella ... the bride: Ella Walworth Little and Stella Louise Walworth Pierce. See Key to Correspondents.
Mary's: Mary Rice Jewett. See Key to Correspondents.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Library of Congress, in the Henry L. Dawes papers, 1833-1933. BOX 10, Dawes, Anna Laurens, her correspondence and other papers, 1850-1925. An annotated transcription appears in C. Carroll Hollis, "Letters of Sarah Orne Jewett to Anna Laurens Dawes," Colby Library Quarterly No. 3 (1968): 97-138.
New transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
William Dean Howells to Sarah Orne Jewett
[ Begin letterhead ]
EDITORIAL OFFICE OF
THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY.
-----
The Riverside Press
CAMBRIDGE, MASS.
[ End letterhead ]
June 10, 1876
Dear Miss Jewett:
I am sorry to find that you were right in your misgivings about this story. It's very brightly written -- that is to say, you wrote it -- but there is no climax beyond the éclairissment of [ Tom ? ]* which somehow isn't a climax and ^then^ it appears to one impossible that you should do successfully what you've undertaken ^in^ it, assume a young man's character in the
[ Page 2 ]
supposed narrator. It seems possible for fictionists to create characters of the opposite sex -- though I suspect that men's women and women's men are a good deal alike -- but when it comes to casting the whole autobiographical ^being^ in a character of the alien sex, the line is drawn distinctly.
I think your proposed Deephaven* finish is capital, and I shall look forward to reading it with great pleasure.
[ Page 3 ]
I'm sorry you distress yourself about what you said of your [ Mrs L. ? ] for Mrs Howells and I both understand, and never attributed unkindness to you. -- We are just on the eve of going into the country, that is, we're going next Wednesday and York [ seems ? ] a great way off to everything but our longing. The fact is we spent all our money in the Centennial,* and we're expecting to [ "push" ? ] for months to come. But we feel grateful to you all the same, and Mrs. Howells wishes to be cordially remembered to your sister
[ Page 4 ]
and yourself.
Yours truly
W. D. Howells. --
Notes
Tom: Whether Jewett has submitted a story she later revised and published is not yet known. She published two stories for adults over the next six years that included main characters named Tom: "Hallowell's Pretty Sister" (1880) and "Tom's Husband" (1882), though in neither is "Tom" the narrator.
Deephaven: Jewett's final "Deephaven" sketch, "Deephaven Excursions" appeared in Atlantic Monthly (38:277-290), September 1876.
Centennial: The Centennial International Exhibition of 1876 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, May 10 to November 10, celebrated the 100th anniversary of the signing of the U.S. Declaration of Independence.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Columbia University (New York) Library in Special Collections, Jewett. Transcription from a microfilm copy and annotation by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Anna Laurens Dawes
The Windsor – Tuesday
13 June 1876*
I am afraid that I cannot meet you tomorrow, for there is a plan for me going up to West Point, made at my own suggestion. It seems to be the only day which suits every body else, and of course I can't stay at home and I should be sorry to miss the trip too -- as I never have been up the Hudson except at night by rail -- I told Mrs. F.*
[ Page 2 ]
days ago how much I should like to see the river from the boat and how disappointed I had been every time I have had to take the train and the result was that we made a plan to go all together and I'm so sorry they have chosen tomorrow! You will understand I know dear -- I am so sorry to miss you for I have thought about it a great deal -- and hoped we should have a nice talk.
[ Page 3 ]
----- I have just come home from a tremendous journey to Brooklyn and “Greenwood"* and I am so tired, and stupid as an owl. Thank you so much for your letter which I have been reading -- It brings me very near you, and I understand you so well. No, it doesn't take years to be sure of ones friends as you say. I wonder if you know and like as I do a little poem of H.H.'s*
[ Page 4 ]
in which she says:
"That newest friend is oldest friend in this:
That, waiting him, we longest grieved to miss
One thing we sought" -----I wish you were here just now for I have the library all to myself -- and we would take the two biggest chairs and pull them close together -- I'm pretty tired -- but I don't believe I should be cross! -- I am having such a good time. I think I never enjoyed New York half so much before and I like this careless
[ Page 5 ]
jolly life just now, for I had been working hard and have not been very well, and I need just such a "vacation" though perhaps it is impertinent in me to think I "need" one. My friends are angels of kindness and Mrs. F. puts her carriages at your service and racks her dear brain to find out what amuses you and where you wish to go -- and The Windsor is lovely and I have been hungry as a bear ever
[ Page 6 ]
since I came and -- there are such good things to eat, and I am happy!! I am glad your experience of the Centennial* has been so pleasant. And I wish we could have been there together -- I saw such a jolly play last night -- “Pique"* though by “jolly” I mean only that I liked it -- and to tell the truth it is tragic for the most part -- I like to be “harrowed up”
[ Page 6 ]don't you?
I think if this ink were black I might write longer, but there is some^thing^ discouraging about it today -- I use it in my work, but I hate it for letters, somehow -- It is growing dark in the room and I suppose I might as well get ready for dinner and stretch out on the sofa to rest myself, for I believe I am to go somewhere this evening --
I know you will understand
[ Page 8 ]
about my not meeting you and believe me when I say I am very much disappointed{.} I do hope I shall see you before very long -- I wish I could have changed the plans and arranged to be here -- but don't you [ know corrected ] when one is with half a dozen people one can't do exactly as one pleases. I hope you will have a lovely summer -- God bless you dear and help you to keep close to Him, and give you His peace and His strength always.
Yours sincerely Sarah.
Notes
1876: Hollis notes that "there is no salutation for this message. Indeed this would seem to be a letter carried from one hotel to another in New York City by a servant or messenger. In days before telephones, perhaps regular dispatches between major hotels was standard practice."
Mrs. F: Elvira Irwin Furber. See Key to Correspondents.
West Point, NY, was then, as now, the location of the United States Military Academy. Wikipedia.
Greenwood: Hollis notes that "Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn was something of a tourist attraction during the middle years of the nineteenth century." Wikipedia.
centennial: The Centennial International Exhibition of 1876 in Philadelphia. Wikipedia.
not collected: The quotation is from American poet Helen Hunt Jackson (1830-1885), "My New Friend," which appears in Verses (1892), p. 111. Wikipedia.
Pique: American playwright, John Augustin Daly (1838-1899) adapted Pique (1875) from Her Lord and Master (1871), a novel by British author Florence Marryat (1833-1899). Wikipedia. Hollis notes that the play also made use of "the public excitement caused by the kidnapping of Charley Ross,” G.C.D. Odell, Annals of the New York Stage (New York, 1938), X, 16."
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Library of Congress, in the Henry L. Dawes papers, 1833-1933. BOX 10, Dawes, Anna Laurens, her correspondence and other papers, 1850-1925. An annotated transcription appears in C. Carroll Hollis, "Letters of Sarah Orne Jewett to Anna Laurens Dawes," Colby Library Quarterly No. 3 (1968): 97-138.
New transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Ellen Francis Mason to Sarah Orne Jewett
Newport
June 19 [ 1876 ]*
My dear Sarah
I want you to keep Fénélon,* for I have found another copy for myself, and I would like you to have that one. I am so glad you like it as Kate & I do.* Kate is with me now, and will remain a good part of the summer I
[ Page 2 ]
hope. Since her return from Orange she has seemed really better -- She has not once had the horrid dream feeling, and is able to do more than she could a year ago. For instance this morning she got up atbefore7 l/2, and walked with me down on the beach, and yesterday we went and sat several hours on the rocks in the middle of the
[ Page 3 ]
day. She seems to feel more confidence in herself, and I think she has more self-control. Of course we must expect that if the weather gets hot, she will be less well, and doubtless she will have her ups & downs, but I do think that she is improved -- She has been through a great deal lately, before coming back, which pulled her down and made
[ Page 4 ]
her rather thin -- The last few weeks in N. Y. were very hard to bear, and she seems to have been forlorn at Orange, so the delight of getting home is greater by contrast. Miss Birckhead* is going to Mt. Desert next month probably, and Kate talks of joining her there, but I do not believe will do so -- She came here on the 10th, and I came on the 14th --
[ Page 5 ]
Before that, I passed a few days at Cohasset with the drawing class I have been enjoying so much this Spring. We sketched all the time, very badly of course, but it was extremely amusing, and somewhat profitable I think. I expect Mme Bragin* our teacher in August when she will have a class for sketching which of course I shall
[ Page 6 ]
join. My sister Mrs Winthrop* is at Lenox this summer, much to our regret. It seems hard to lose so much of our little nephew's babyhood. Ida* is staying there now, and as Father is also away for a few days, Kate & I are keeping house together. We are reading very diligently, and intend drawing out a plan of how much to do every
[ Page 7 ]
day, so as to be very systematic. Today we began directly after breakfast, she with German, I with Greek, and worked for about two hours. Then we read aloud for another couple of hours or more -- a very nice book by Tyrwhitt -- "Christian Art & Symbolism." We have also on hand a new book by Stephens with the high sounding title of "Liberty Equality
[ Page 8 ]
Fraternity," Palgrave's "Travels in Eastern Arabia" & Taine's "English Notes,"* not to speak of sundry novels waiting to be read. Does not that sound industrious for a summer in this dolce far niente* Newport? I want to hear all about you, and hope you will let me hear from you very soon -- That "Mother Margaret"* I spoke to you about, I got
[ Up the left and across the top margin of page 1 ]at Patrick Donahoe's* in Boston. It is a ponderous volume, and I do not know if you would care enough about it to own it. If you like I will lend you mine when I have finished it.
With love,
Yrs affly
Ellen Mason
Notes
1876: While this date is a guess, it should be close. This letter is connected with another from Mason to Jewett of 14 April, tentatively dated in 1876, in which Mason says she has loaned Jewett her copy of a Fénélon title. This letter adds some support to the 1876 date, mentioning Mason's infant nephew, Robert Mason Winthrop, born in 1873. She also mentions two books that were published in 1874, by Tyrwhitt and by Stephen. See notes below.
Kate: This person has not yet been identified. Typically, when Jewett and her friends refer to "Kate" without a surname, readers assume the person is Kate Birckhead, who is mentioned later in this letter as a person with whom Kate might travel at a later date. Therefore, this cannot be Birckhead. Among their other mutual acquaintances was Katherine Loring, but there is as yet no evidence to confirm that this is the right "Kate." See Key to Correspondents.
Fénélon: François de Salignac de la Mothe Fénelon (1651-1715) was a French writer, theologian, and bishop. Having served as tutor to Louis XIV's grandson, the Duke of Burgundy, Fénelon was intimately connected with the French court, even after he was fell out of favor with the king. He submitted to the Church's condemnation in 1699 of his Maxims of the Saints, and continued as Archbishop of Cambrai (1695-1715) -- in exile from the court -- until his death. He is well-remembered in part for his great acts of charity during the War of the Spanish Succession. (Sources: "Life of Fénelon," by Lamartine, in Fénelon, Adventures of Telemachus. O. W. White, editor, 1886; and Voltaire, The Age of Louis XIV, Ch. 38).
Paula Blanchard believes Mason and Jewett shared Selections from the Writings of Fénélon (1829), translated and edited by Eliza Cabot Follen (Sarah Orne Jewett, p. 87).
Miss Birckhead: Kate Birckhead. See Key to Correspondents.
Mme Bragin: This transcription is uncertain, and this person has not yet been identified.
Mrs Winthrop: Ellen Mason's sister, Elizabeth. See Mason in Key to Correspondents.
Ida: Ellen Mason's sister. See Mason in Key to Correspondents.
Tyrwhitt -- "Christian Art & Symbolism" ... Stephens ... "Liberty Equality Fraternity," Palgrave's "Travels in Eastern Arabia" ... Taine's "English Notes": Richard St John Tyrwhitt (1827-1895) was an English cleric and author, writing often about art. Christian Art and Symbolism appeared in 1874.
Sir James Fitzjames Stephen (1829-1894) was an English jurist and author. His Liberty, Equality, Fraternity (1873-1874) presented an argument against John Stuart Mill's On Liberty (1859).
William Gifford Palgrave (1826-1888) was an English cleric, traveler, and author. His Narrative of a Year's Journey through Central and Eastern Arabia : 1862-63 appeared in two volumes in 1865.
Hippolyte Adolphe Taine (1828-1893) was a French historian. His Notes on England appeared French and in English in 1872.
dolce far niente: An Italian phrase adopted into English -- pleasant idleness.
"Mother Margaret": The Life of Mother Margaret Mary Hallahan: foundress of the English congregation of St. Catherine of Siena of the third order of St. Dominic by Augusta Theodosia Drane, was published in 1869. Wikipedia affirms: Margaret Hallahan (1803-1868) "was an English Catholic nun, foundress of the Dominican Congregation of St. Catherine of Siena (third order);"
Patrick Donahoe's: Patrick Donahoe (1811-1901) was an Irish-American journalist and publisher in Boston, specializing in Roman Catholic literature.
The manuscript of the letter is held by the University of New England Maine Women Writers Collection MWWC0196_02_00_017_01. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Charles C. Hoyt* to Sarah Orne Jewett
Boston, Juy 1st, 1876
Dear Miss Jewett; --
You finished your very welcome and pleasant letter with "Write me again when you feel like it." The spirit moved as soon as the sentence was read and several times since have I felt the desire, but remembering
[ Page 2 ]all the work that [ deleted word you ? ] you wrote me about,anddelayed that you might not think me to importunate.
It is not in the conventional way at all, but very heartily that I would like to thank you for your letter and the interest you took in the essay.
I wish I knew the secret that you have of making your letters
[ Page 3 ]
so much unlike letters generally, and yet so like what you would speak that, I verily believed I could hear the words spoken.
The more highly that I esteemed your judgment ^in^uponliterary matters, the less chance I felt there was of your seeing anything but a very commonplace attempt in my trying to write something of Whittier,* as
[ Page 4 ]
he appeared to me.
That you should find enough of truth in it, to give a 'good idea of him' made me quite happy. What you say of 'writing more' is very encouraging. Still it seems that my failure can never be so shaped as to admit of anything in a literary way except upon similar occasions, before the few who either
[ Page 5; there appears to be a number at the top of this page: 2. ]
have not the knowledge to be critical or the desire. At the same time, it is true that there is no work or occupation which has a greater charm or more invitation in it than that of the writer.
Circumstances so presented themselves that my desire for a collegiate course was nipped [ 'i so this appears ] the bud -- probably for the best, although it does seem a great
[ Page 6 ]
advantage in a literary career.
The truth is, I strongly suspect, that Charley* has just enough of the imagination in his character to militate against any success in the practical way of business, but still not enough to accomplish anything in the higher field of the pen. Pass we him by for the present.
[ Page 7 ]
You will think he intrudes his personality too much now, I fear.
Perhaps I spoke to you of the Debating and Literary Club we were trying to organize for next winter. It looks as though it will be a success.
The Constitution has been prepared and adopted; there are twenty-five names down; the officers have been
[ Page 8 ]
elected, and the appointments for the first regular meeting to be held the last of September made. The other two members of the Executive Committee have illegally used their majority to appoint me to 'orate.'
What do you think of some such subject as "Men of Genius" or "William Prince of Orange"* or "Duty?" You want something that you can get
[ Page 9 ]
rather enthusiastic upon, don't you?
The day has been very warm with us, but while I have been writing, a very sudden and violent thunder-storm has begun and finished its brief reign: (No joke intended){.} Do not you enjoy the sight of a storm? They rouse all the [ combattive so spelled ] spirit that is in me. I always wish that I might
[ Page 10 ]
be out in them and fight my way against the fierce wind and feel that rain driving against my cheek.
"When one has an idea in one's head of being a general one doesn't like doing the uninteresting work of a private [ possibly a deleted question mark ] -- but after all that is the surest way."* I think so most decidedly. Success in the lower walk prefigures and leads to
[ Page 11 ]
success in the higher one, and failure in the one is failure in the other.
And is there not more still in the figure{?} The general, who leads his troops conquering and to conquer is "no figurehead.{"} He must do work that many a private "would shrink from.{"} Napoleon's* sleepless night with the incessant works of the great brain that weighed all the chances and planned the campaign; Wellington*
[ Page 12 ]looking after the smallest details of his army -- the shoes for the soldiers and their bread, were no holiday officers. I believe the sooner a man realizes that success in anything comes only from honest and hard work; the sooner he sees the duty of it, so much the nearer he is to gaining the coveted prize, which foolish idlers wait for in vain, and attribute the distribution of prizes to a blind goddess.* Can
[ Page 13 ]
you tell me what it is in our natures that deadens our energies and keeps us from that road that we know by experience, is the only safe one to attain whatever object we have in view -- the road of hard work? Of course, I shall like to hear from you very much, but do not take time that you need for more important things.
I am
very truly yours
Chas. C. Hoyt
Notes
Charles C. Hoyt: Nothing is yet known with certainty about this correspondent. Possibly he is the Boston businessman, Charles Chase Hoyt (1855- ). In 1897, he became vice-president of Walworth Manufacturing, the company founded by Ella Walworth Britton's father. See Key to Correspondents.
Whittier: John Greenleaf Whittier. See Key to Correspondents.
William Prince of Orange: William III (1650-1702), prince of the Dutch Republic, was widely known as William of Orange. He became king of England in 1688 in the "Glorious Revolution."
Charley: It seems clear that the writer refers to himself in the third person.
the surest way: Hoyt's quotation marks suggest that he is quoting someone in this sentence, but a source has not been located.
Napoleon: "Napoléon Bonaparte (15 August 1769 - 5 May 1821) was a French statesman and military leader who rose to prominence during the French Revolution and led several successful campaigns during the French Revolutionary Wars. As Napoleon, he was Emperor of the French from 1804 until 1814, and again briefly in 1815 ...." Wikipedia.
Wellington: Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington (1769-1852), "was an Anglo-Irish soldier and statesman who was one of the leading military and political figures of 19th-century Britain. His defeat of Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815 put him in the first rank of Britain's military heroes." Wikipedia.
blind goddess: The classical goddess Fortuna (Roman) or Tyche (Greek) has sometimes been represented as blind to suggest life's seeming capriciousness.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Columbia University (New York) Library in Special Collections, Jewett. Transcription from a microfilm copy and annotation by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Theophilus Parsons
South Berwick
12 July 1876
Dear Prof. Parsons.
Did you ever know such hot weather? I am very glad to have seen the Centennial,* but the heat was awful and if I had had to stay two or three weeks longer I think I should have hated the Centennial and Philadelphia with an undying hatred and never wished to go back there again! This is not very sensible I know, but every time I go out of reach of the sea in summer I solemnly declare I never will again. -- But I don't wish all this to make you think that I didn't have a good time and enjoy a great deal. My visit in New York was charming. There were six girls visiting my friend at once, at the Windsor Hotel and we were as jolly as any six girls you ever saw!* I was there two weeks and then in Philadelphia between two and three. I learned a great deal at 'the Centennial' and saw it as carefully and faithfully as possible. I wish I were with you and could chatter about the sights. When I try to tell you what I liked best it is very hard, because I liked so many things 'best'! There was a big bronze vase in the Japanese department with its handles made of cluster of swallows snarled together as only a Japanese could snarl them. -- I think this comes first but how can I forget a picture called "Betty" and another picture of a donkey out in a snowstorm and a Japanese picture of a triumphal procession of grasshoppers and a bust of Helen of Troy, and some Norwegian wax figures and a lovely Florentine mosaic and some old Peruvian pottery and then there was a bewitching machine over in Machinery Hall which made peppermints all day long. I could go on with this list all day* -- and I may as well stop here. I shall have no end of things to tell you when I see you again. I meant to write you and thought of it almost every day but I was so busy and so tired that I hardly found [ fround in the original ] time even for writing shabby little notes home. I haven't much to tell you beside this (which I fear is hardly worth telling). We are having visitors constantly now and I am stupid and lazy since I came home and have not touched some copying I meant to finish as soon as I got back. I am hoping to go to the sea shore for two or three weeks by and by. My aunt and cousins whom I have visited at Little Boar's Head* in July for several summers, are all abroad -- and so I am waiting longer than usual and I miss the sea. Yesterday some of us went out to the Shoals and that was delicious.*
I have not said a word about your letter which came just before I left, and which I carried with me, and thank you for most heartily. I wish I knew some better way to thank you for it than by writing a few words on a sheet of paper.
I am hoping to see one of my Deephaven sketches* in the Aug. Atlantic which is due in a few days now. It is one I wrote in the winter and I think I told you about it. I wonder if you are to be anywhere near here this summer? Good by Yours lovingly and sincerely.
Sarah
Notes
Windsor Hotel … New York: Wikipedia says: "The Windsor Hotel was located at 575 Fifth Avenue (at the corner of East 47th Street) in Manhattan, New York. The seven-story hotel opened in 1873, at a time when hotel residency was becoming popular with the wealthy, and was advertised as "the most comfortable and homelike hotel in New York. It burned down in 1899 with great loss of life.
the Philadelphia centennial: Jewett provides a number of details that impressed her at the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. For further information about the exposition see Wikipedia.Little Boar's Head: The Gilman family. See Mrs. Alice Dunlap Gilman in Key to Correspondents.
the Shoals: Isles of the Shoals off the coast of Portsmouth, NH.
Deephaven sketches: "Deephaven Excursions" actually appeared in Atlantic Monthly (38:277-290), September 1876, though the issue would have been available in late August. See Howells to Sarah Orne Jewett of 24 July 1876.
The manuscript of this letter is held by Special Collections at Colby College. It was transcribed by the owner of the manuscripts before they were given to Colby College, Henry Ellicott Magill (b. 1902) of Pasadena, CA, who also may have made handwritten corrections to the transcriptions. Further corrections, notes and annotations by Terry Heller, Coe College.
William Dean Howells to Sarah Orne Jewett
[ 24 July 1876 ]*
D. E. will be in the Sept. number.
W. D. Howells
Notes
1876: This postal card addressed to Jewett in South Berwick, ME was canceled 24 July. The 1876 date is implied by Howells's reference to D.E., or "Deephaven Excursions," which appeared in Atlantic Monthly in September 1876.
The manuscript of the letter is held by the Houghton Library of Harvard University. Howells, William Dean, 1837-1920. 16 letters to Sarah Orne Jewett; 1875-1908. Sarah Orne Jewett correspondence, 1861-1930. MS Am 1743 (105). Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Elizabeth B. Orne* to Sarah Orne Jewett
---- Bryn Mawr
---- July 24. 1876.
My Dear Sarah
Although I reached home safely on Friday, this is the first opportunity* I have had to write to you.
Mr. Abbott met me in Boston & we went to the Tremont House* for dinner, then took a walk on the Common & left at half past four o'clock for Fall River. We had a charming trip & reach{ed} New York, then
[ Page 2 ]
Phila, & finally Bryn Mawr in safety, where I received a warm welcome from all hands. Mamma declared I shall never go away again as she missed me so very much.
Mr. Abbott came all the way here with me stayed over night, went to town for a short time on Saturday & then came out & remained over Sunday.
This place is just lovely not a fault to find of any description & the weather so cool that thick dresses & shawls are required to make one feel comfortable.
[ Page 3 ]
Have you had a sea turn yet & is it cool in Berwick?
I did have such a lovely time there, everybody was so kind & did all they could for my enjoyment & I thank you all for your attention & hope to reciprocate it sometime in the future.
Please thank your parents, sisters, Mr. Eastman,* & your friends not forgetting yourself for all the pleasures & good times I had whilst in Berwick & tell them I heartily appreciate all this kindness.
[ Page 4 ]
Did Sadie* arrive safely! I asked Mr. Abbott if he saw her & he said that he wrote to Will Howell asking if he should meet Sadie in Boston & let him know. He did not hear a word from him (W. H.) so did not know whether Sadie had come on or not. He went to the Depôt but found the train had already arrived & was quite worried to know what had become of her ^but was^ very much relieved, however, when he heard from me that Eddie* was coming with her. Do write
[ Cross written up the left side of page 4 ]
real soon & tell me all you are doing & how you are enjoying Sadie's visit!
With love for all of you & kind regards to Mr. Eastman & your other friends
I am ever your loving cousin
Lizzie B. Orne
Notes
Elizabeth B. Orne: The identify of this Jewett cousin remains unknown.
first opportunity: July 24 fell on a Monday in 1876.
1876: The Columbia University identification of this letter notes that with it is an envelope cancelled at Bryn Mawr, PA, 24 July 1876.
Mr. Abbott: It seems possible that this is William G. Abbott of Philadelphia, who married an Elizabeth B. Orne. Their daughter, Elizabeth Abbott, was born and died in 1872. They appear in the 1905 Philadelphia Social Register with Caroline M., William G. Jr., and Edward Abbott.
Tremont House ... the Common: The Tremont House Hotel (1829), like Boston Common, a public park, were landmarks of Boston in 1876.
Mr. Eastman: Edwin Eastman. See Key to Correspondents.
Sadie: Sarah Jane McHenry Howell. Her husband was William Howell. See Key to Correspondents.
The manuscript of this letter is held by Columbia University Libraries Special Collections in the Sarah Orne Jewett letters, Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College, from a Columbia University Libraries microfilm copy of the manuscript.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Anna Laurens Dawes
South Berwick
26 July 1876
Poor dear Dawes-y! did she think her friend meant to go back on her? I am afraid you [ will corrected ] find me a bad correspondent, but we will not say anything about it, and I know you will consider this delay, only an accident, and accept the apologies which I offer -- I have been so busy and so tired since I came home and we have had three of our Philadelphia cousins with us beside other friends, and there have been two voyages
[ Page 2 ]to the Isles of Shoals and a picnic at the seashore and numberless long drives, and mornings and afternoons ^spent in^ boating down river. I am getting rested since the cooler weather, and it is lovely here now: I think Berwick is new to me every year and never was half so pleasant as it is this summer. I wish I could have you here to see it for yourself, but I know it is no use asking you. Sometime you will come and see me wont you?
Oh I do wish I could
[ Page 3 ]write this letter all in one piece -- but there is no use trying for people walk in and out and I have to stop on account of a caller -- and 'lots of things' happen -- Just now I went upstairs and saw an inviting chunk of candy on my table so I had to stop to eat that -- I was sorry too that I couldn't go to visit you. I should have liked it dearly. I know I have told you this before, but it is a comfort to me to say it again so you needn't mention [ it's so written ] being a repetition -- I must say over again also that I
[ Page 4 ]wish I knew your Mother!
I like so much what you said about those two novels (You see I go from one thing to another but this was another interruption) I have not read [ either corrected ] of the stories but I know exactly what they both are -- I began Mr. James's story* but I can't remember it now -- Mr. Howells* told me (or Mrs. H.) that this was better than anything he had written and unusually free from his usual faults. I am going to read it by and by -- But I wish I were with you to talk about the two stories -- I wonder if
[ Page 5 ]
2
you detected the connection between the two parts of your letter which I did! It was this question of the stories, and your not having seen any of the Centennial* show cases! I think
for^between^ a person who doesn't see show cases in this world, and a person who does there lies a wide difference. And this world seems a very different world and the people very different people. I don’t know whether you see any connection now -- but I was thinking of
[ Page 6 ]your having looked at the goods inside and not noticed the outside things and the decorations which after all did not make the buttons or the tacks or the carvings and jewelry one bit better. I suppose we are all more or less influenced by people's position in the "worlds fair"
andthe houses they live in and the company they keep -- but I thank the Lord that you and I have some slight capacity at any rate, for liking people for
[ Page 7 ]themselves -- what they are -- and not what they have. I dont like Mr. James's characters -- that is I shouldn't like real people who acted and thought after his fashions but I think he writes [ cleverly corrected ] about them and makes them more or less interesting -- And I think as you [ do written over did ? ] that the moral of ^the^ thing is not good. But I must not write any more about this -- I am thinking of going out for a call with my cousins and I wish to finish this before I start -- I wish
[ Page 8 ]I could express my satisfaction at the cooler weather -- Have you had a wood-fire in the parlor fireplace and the thermometer at 54° one morning? I am beginning to lose my dragged out Centennial feeling and to feel some interest
ingin what I [ do written over did ? ] beside sleep, and be on the sofa reading. I am afraid I have been cross and stupid since I have been here -- and it [ worries corrected ] me to think how little I tried to do for one of my friends who has gone away -- Every thing seems so discouraging
[ Page 9 ]when I am tired and not feeling strong -- but it is so much satisfaction if one can do right and be good-natured under such circumstances.
Fair-weather sailing isn't half ^the^ satisfaction -- These remarks are made wistfully, and in the spirit of great humility, for I forget so easily and am so careless about trying hard. Life seems very different as I grow older, but always pleasanter, and more "worth while" -- in spite of the troubles that come -- I have
[ Page 10 ]had singular few 'troubles' except with myself -- but those have not been easy to carry by any means --
Well, good night dear. I wonder if you know how often I think of [ you, and corrected ] if you will not care a little when I say that I have somehow grown fond of you and think of you as one of my real friends -- I do believe with you that sometimes one may "get acquainted" more easily
[ Page 11 ]through letters than by being together. So much of my 'friendship' with nearly all my cronies has been carried on with pen and ink, that it seems natural -- I am really very little with some of my best friends -- But I am none the less fond of seeing the girls, though I have not the usual contempt for letters -- Mary's* love to you and she says she should even be willing to be pounced upon early in the morning for the sake of seeing you.
Yours sincerely
S.O.J.
Mr. Howells: William Dean Howells (1837-1920) was editor of Atlantic Monthly from 1871-1881, after serving 5 years as a subeditor. Jewett's first Atlantic publication was "Mr. Bruce," published under the pen name of A. C. Eliot in December 1869. It was collected in Old Friends and New in 1879.Notes
story: Hollis believes Jewett refers, "either to Roderick Hudson, James's first novel, which had just been published but had appeared in serial form in the Atlantic from January to December 1875, or to The American, which had just started in the Atlantic for June 1876 and was to continue until May1877." For Henry James, See Key to Correspondents.
Mr. Howells ... (or Mrs. H.): William Dean Howells and Elinor Mead Howells. See Key to Correspondents.
Centennial: "The Centennial International Exhibition of 1876, the first official World's Fair in the United States, was held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, from May 10 to November 10, 1876, to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia." Wikipedia
Mary's: Mary Rice Jewett. See Key to Correspondents.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Library of Congress, in the Henry L. Dawes papers, 1833-1933. BOX 10, Dawes, Anna Laurens, her correspondence and other papers, 1850-1925. An annotated transcription appears in C. Carroll Hollis, "Letters of Sarah Orne Jewett to Anna Laurens Dawes," Colby Library Quarterly No. 3 (1968): 97-138.
New transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Theophilus Parsons
South Berwick
24th August 1876
Dear Prof. Parsons
Your letter was a God-send, as I believe your letters always are -- and since it came I have been thinking a great deal. It is exactly what I wish to do, this being in earnest about my work and being helpful through the stories I send away to be printed -- and those stories of mine which I like best are the ones you speak of in saying that "in some" I am "on the way". And I hope with all my heart (I believe, too) that I can go on learning faster and faster and may have more and more that grand gift of using my knowledge and the good I get -- to help other people. And besides this I hold on fast to one sentence in your letter 'The best we can do is the thing we ought to do'. -- Through the times of carelessness and indifference, I do try never to lose sight of my work and what I wish to make it. I am not contented with anything short of the best, and I can see how you are discontented with those Deephaven sketches.* I wish I could always write things that would do people good and that I could always have a meaning underlie everything else as I did in Miss Sydney and the Dull Christmas,* but those successes seem to come rarely and you may be sure I take fast hold of plans like them. I want to say a word about Deephaven though, and particularly this one you have just read. The first sketch I know has nothing in it beyond mere entertainment -- but I felt a much deeper interest in the others -- they are both 'true' and I know you would have felt better satisfied with the 'funeral sketch' if the authorities had not left out a few paragraphs which I wrote carefully and which held for me the meaning of that pathetic breaking-up of a pitiful family.* I don't remember it very accurately now, but I know I said something about our lives having two sides and although we might be apparent failures in this world still there was a chance that life had been a grand success. And I said how few in this world poor or rich touched satisfaction, and how this man's hopes and wishes might all have been realized in a decent sort of farm and a thousand or two dollars in the bank, -- and I said that when his wife died his world had come to an end, as it were, and he was bewildered and discouraged and could not fight so hard and so useless a battle as life seemed to him. There was something, too, (which followed the man's saying that he had 'gone' -- when the funeral had left the house -- ) about the invisible world's being so near -- but I can't remember that at all. I was very sorry when I found these things had been left out, for (to me) they gave more character to the sketch. In writing the sketch of Miss Sally Cutts* the most touching thing to me was her perfect faith in God, and her being so uncomplaining when (to 'worldly' eyes at least), she had lost everything. I do like writing such stories as these of real lives -- and I think there is no reading which interests me so much. I learn from a life more than from preaching and you don't know the lessons I get every week from the country people whom I see and talk with. -- It seems to me if I lived in a city, all the time with the same set of people, I should like knowing the way people felt and thought out of my set and particularly country people and simple people who are a great deal out of doors and know nothing about 'society'. -- I suppose it is because I feel this so strongly that I have enjoyed 'Deephaven' -- And yet the pleasure of making a study of life, does not compare with the consciousness that one has known a life well enough to see where one may help to unravel a snarl, or to make it interesting and worth while, where it seemed dull before; -- and to bring more purpose, and the thought of God oftener -- to help the life to be a more Christian life. --
When I try to think about myself it frightens me to think how likely I am to fail in doing this. So many days seem to be lost in careless drifting, and even in doing the best work I often do not have the best motive for I like to please my friends and not to disappoint them, and there is a great deal of pride which would let me worry and be sorry if I failed, even though I had done the best I could and God did not mean for me to succeed. Sometimes I wonder why I do not know myself better, when I find it so easy to know other people. If I try to "think myself over" there is almost always something which stops me -- and I can go no farther. There is one thing; I am sure I don't get discouraged as I used with myself, and I understand better now that I am here to learn lessons, for one thing. I came across something in Fénélon the other day that I liked very much* -- 'We ought not to be discouraged because the harder we try to be good the more wickedness we discover in ourselves. It is because the sun is coming up and we see clearly all the things that were indistinct or hidden while we were still in the dark'. -- I do care to be loved and I have a great deal to make me happy as you say in your letter, but I have had a great deal that is hard, and the hardest has been myself -- to fight against, and yet duty does not seem so much of a cloud as you think it does -- and it seems less of a cloud every year. I do long to be better and my being able to write gives me such a chance for being helpful -- but it seems often as if I tried to be generous to people when my purse was empty. Getting closer to God: that is the great thing, and I don't think of Him half enough -- I am always forgetting Him and what I am trying to do -- and the more I realize that He is our Best Friend the less it seems to me I know how to gain a way of living that will let me understand better and be more filled with love for Him, and more earnest in doing His work. It is always 'through a glass, darkly', with me *-- and I suppose it must always seem so for He is so great and there will be so much beyond us. But nothing makes life seem better and more worth while than to think we are always to spend it in finding out more of the love of God and more of his wisdom.
You never will know how much I thank you for taking so much interest in my work and in me -- and for helping me as you have, ever since I have known you. You do not know how much you have done for me, or how much you have helped me to do for myself. I have written a long letter but I wish I could burn it and have a long talk with you. I have read your letter over and over and there is more in it every time than I saw before -- I am sure that in heaven I shall find some new words -- for there are some things now, I can never say for lack of them. Goodbye and God bless you
Sarah
Notes
Deephaven sketches: By the time this letter was composed, Jewett had published all three of the sketches from which she developed her first novel, Deephaven (1877). "The Shore House" appeared in Atlantic in September 1873, "Deephaven Cronies" in September 1875, and "Deephaven Excursions" in September 1876, which would have just appeared at about the time of this letter.
Miss Sydney and the Dull Christmas: "Miss Sydney's Flowers" first appeared in The Independent (26:1-4) for July 16, 1874, and then was collected in Old Friends and New in 1879. "Patty's Dull Christmas" first appeared in The Independent (27:25-27) on December 23, 1875 and was collected in Play Days in 1878.
the 'funeral sketch" … breaking-up of a pitiful family: See "In Shadow," in Deephaven. To that chapter of the novel, Jewett added a paragraph that includes the material that was removed from "Deephaven Excursions."
To Kate and me there came a sudden consciousness of the mystery and inevitableness of death; it was not fear, thank God! but a thought of how certain it was that some day it would be a mystery to us no longer. And there was a thought, too, of the limitation of this present life; we were waiting there, in company with the people, the great sea, and the rocks and fields themselves, on this side the boundary. We knew just then how close to this familiar, every-day world might be the other, which at times before had seemed so far away, out of reach of even our thoughts, beyond the distant stars.
Miss Sally Cutts: Paula Blanchard points out that a number of Jewett's characters in Deephaven were based on people she knew in and around South Berwick. Miss Chauncey is based upon Sally Cutts of Kittery, ME. See Sarah Orne Jewett (1994), p. 86. For an account of Cutts, see Chapter 10 of Nooks and Corners of the New England Coast (1875) by Samuel Adams Drake.
Fénélon: François de Salignac de la Mothe Fénelon (1651-1715) was a French writer, theologian, and bishop. Having served as tutor to Louis XIV's grandson, the Duke of Burgundy, Fénelon was intimately connected with the French court, even after he was fell out of favor with the king. He submitted to the Church's condemnation in 1699 of his Maxims of the Saints, and continued as Archbishop of Cambrai (1695-1715) - in exile from the court - until his death. He is well-remembered in part for his great acts of charity during the War of the Spanish Succession. (Sources: "Life of Fénelon," by Lamartine, in Fénelon, Adventures of Telemachus. O. W. White, editor, 1886; and Voltaire, The Age of Louis XIV, Ch. 38).
The passage to which Jewett refers may be from Letter VII, "Not to be troubled about unintentional omissions in confession" of March 21, 1690, in Spiritual Letters (1877), pp. 28-30.'through a glass, darkly' : Corinthians 13:12.
The manuscript of this letter is held by Special Collections at Colby College. It was transcribed by the owner of the manuscripts before they were given to Colby College, Henry Ellicott Magill (b. 1902) of Pasadena, CA, who also may have made handwritten corrections to the transcriptions. Further corrections and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Theophilus Parsons
26 Aug. 1876
Dear Prof. Parsons
Have you any idea whether they keep the manuscripts of the magazine stories? I find I have not any copy of that part of the sketch which was left out, for some of it I wrote 'out of my head' when I was copying. I should like to get it, and yet I don't like to bother Mr. Howells* and find fault with him, since he is so kind and has taken so much trouble for me. I was very sorry that the sketch had to be shortened but I thought that Mr. H -- knew I was wishing it would be published, and it was too long, and those passages would be less missed than any of the narrative. I wish he had told me for I could have easily shortened the article five or ten pages and not have done it so much harm. I know they keep some of the articles in Manuscript and perhaps I could write to the Riverside Press and get mine. Do you think so? Indeed I wish to know what you have to tell me about it, and I am counting upon seeing you. I probably shall not see Boston until late in the month, -- I can't tell exactly. I am to visit a friend in Concord and I wait her summons. I am to be at the sea-shore for awhile first -- and I can't make any definite plans until I hear from my friend. I am not to stay in Boston for a visit I think -- but I shall see you. Yours sincerely
Sarah
The reason I want the ms. is if I put the stories together in a book I should like to have the whole of this.*
Notes
whole of this: Whether Jewett actually recovered the excised material from "Deephaven Excursions," which appeared in Atlantic in September 1876, is not yet known. When she worked this sketch into her novel, Deephaven (1877), she added a paragraph near the end of "In Shadow," the chapter on the funeral:
To Kate and me there came a sudden consciousness of the mystery and inevitableness of death; it was not fear, thank God! but a thought of how certain it was that some day it would be a mystery to us no longer. And there was a thought, too, of the limitation of this present life; we were waiting there, in company with the people, the great sea, and the rocks and fields themselves, on this side the boundary. We knew just then how close to this familiar, every-day world might be the other, which at times before had seemed so far away, out of reach of even our thoughts, beyond the distant stars.
The manuscript of this letter is held by Special Collections at Colby College. It was transcribed by the owner of the manuscripts before they were given to Colby College, Henry Ellicott Magill (b. 1902) of Pasadena, CA, who also may have made handwritten corrections to the transcriptions. Further corrections, notes and annotations by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Horace Elisha Scudder
South Berwick, Maine
14 Sept. 1876
My dear Mr. Scudder
My name is Sarah Orne Jewett, if you please; and when you are arranging [ the corrected from this ] index, can you credit a story to me which was called Mr. Bruce* and printed in the Atlantic for December 1869? -----
So much for business which properly ought to come before my saying how much pleasure
[ Page 2 ]
it has given me to hear from you again and to know something about you. Indeed I do wish very much to see you sometime in Cambridge and I hope to manage it this [ autumn ? corrected ] certainly, but hitherto I have just gone out from Boston with not half enough time for what I had to do -- and I have been meaning to make certain calls and have unfailingly put them off, for a long time -- I was not in town last winter except for very short visits --
[ Page 3 ]Shirley* must be very pleasant, but what do you do in that small room of yours when you are tired with writing and [ wish corrected ] to stretch your arms, or don't you appreciate the satisfaction of that? -- I am sorry your little girl has been so ill, and I hope she is already a great deal better.
No. I haven't dug a clam all summer, for what with the Centennial* and a visit to N. Y. in June, and the house filled with visitors ever since we came home in July, I have only been down to the Shore half a dozen
[ Page 4 ]
times and only for the day, which doesn't count with me. But I am going down directly to spend a week -- and then I know where to go for those clams and where to get an old dory with as many leaks as a basket -- and I know where the cunners hold county conferences out in the harbour -- where two other little boys and I caught a hundred and thirty in just no time at all one day last summer -- This is all in York which reminds me of my dear Deephaven
[ Page 5 ]
though that was 'made up' before I had ever stayed overnight in York, or knew and loved it as I do now -- Since the Shore House* was written I have identified Deephaven with it more and more -- Still I don't like to have people say that I mean York when I say Deephaven -- I should like to see you and have a long talk and I hope I shall one of these days -- I am having such a good time just now out of doors: this
[ Page 6 ]
morning I have been rowing down river; yesterday I went up Agamenticus* and could see seventy miles of sea-coast and all the White Hills, and two days ago I went to the Cliff* which is a place you ought to see -- Please give my regards to Mrs. Scudder whom I am hoping to know --
Yours sincerelyNotes
Sarah O. Jewett.
Mr. Bruce: Richard Cary, who produced a transcription of this letter for Sarah Orne Jewett Letters, notes the occasion of this letter: "The Atlantic Monthly Index, 1857-1876 was being prepared and Miss Jewett, having outgrown her passion for pseudonyms, wished to set the record straight." "Mr. Bruce" appeared in Atlantic (24:701-710), December 1869, and was collected in Old Friends and New, 1879.
Shirley: Cary also explains that Shirley was "near Fitchburg, Massachusetts, where Mrs. Scudder spent the summer in a house owned by the Shakers. Scudder joined her from time to time as work would allow."
Centennial: The Centennial Exposition of 1876 in Philadelphia, PA.
Shore House: Jewett's story, "The Shore House," appeared in Atlantic Monthly in September 1873. It became part of her first novel, Deephaven (1877).Agamenticus: Mount Agamenticus is the highest point in York County, ME. Jewett's "White Hills" are now better known as the White Mountains of New Hampshire. Cary identifies "the Cliff" as Bald Head Cliff in Ogunquit, ME.
The manuscript of this letter is held by Colby College Special Collections, Waterville, Maine. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Grace Gordon Treadwell Walden to Sarah Orne Jewett (fragment)
[ September 1876 ]*
2.*
I wish you had heard it. Kate Birck head* did not come up to Beth* after all. I wish she had ---- I shall tell Georgie* how much in love with her you are -- is not she lovely? ---- what a pity that you did not go to Mr. March’s* you would have enjoyed it so much, & I should have liked you to have seen it ---- it's so lovely there. One thing I must tell you about & that is about Dalton where we stopped to dine in one
[ Page 2 ]
of our wanderings.
I shall not tell you any thing about the perfect view we had from Mt. Washington* & how fortunate we were in having such a pleasant day -- [ or corrected ] of the wheel's coming off the engine when we were about half way up, & how we & the car [ were corrected ] left to our fates -- to slide down the mountain or stay [ where corrected ] we were & broil in the hot [ sun corrected and deleted ] ^sun^ till the other engine came up for us -- or how we did the latter for about three quarters of an hour -- nor anything about the grand drive down the Mt. on the Glen side* -- nor how much
[ Page 3 ]
more beautiful the drive was to me than even the view from the top, nor how there were frightful chasms & depths & magnificent precipices all the way down on either one side of the carriage road or the other, nor how Kitty* & I rode on the seat with the driver & enjoyed & appreciated it all fully, nor how my head ached all the time I was up there till I got down to a rational atmosphere -- nor how I took my hatdown^off^ & the jolting of the wagon shook all my hair down & I drove down looking like a raving maniac & enjoying everything all the [ more corrected ] nor how some ladies in a wagon we met asked if I'd lost my hat, thinking I suppose
[ Page 4 ]
that it blew such guns up there that it was impossible to keep one's hat on -- & I shan’t tell you how we stayed all night at the Glen nor how I’ve always longed to go there nor how I want to go again ---- nor how we left there the next morning at about nine & drove thirty-seven miles back to Beth -- by the way of Jefferson -- through a most romantic [ road corrected ] & beautiful scenery. Nor how we dined there & got back to Bethlehem about night -- And I shall not tell you how we remained quiet for a few days & then started off again for Lancaster & Dalton, nor how unexpected it was, & how Papa came into the parlor Wednesday [ ming meaning morning ] at about ten & asked us what we should say to
[ Page 5 ]
3. --
such an excursion, nor how we all said "yes" & rushed up stairs, changed dresses, locked bureaus trunks & doors & packed travelling bags & in a half an hour ^found ourselves^ flying over the hills to Lancaster -- nor how we did [ fairly ? ] fly. Then Papa at last began to expostulate with the driver who of course was most good natured & said he certainly wished to do as would be most agreeable to us & then cracked his whip & whistled to his horses & away we [ went ? ] faster than ever, even faster than my pen is going at this present time ---- nor how this little conversation was carried on at intervals all the way to Lancaster, with as little
[ Page 6 ]success on our part & as much good nature & seeming desire to oblige on the part of the driver -- ^nor how^ we arrived in Lancaster all out of breath, all but Mamma, who declared that she never enjoyed
beea drive so much in all her life ---- nor how I never was so glad to get out of a wagon in all my life, feeling as if I were shaken to atoms -- nor how the mystery of the fast driving was soon made clear by our finding out that there was a horse race there, which our driver evidently took quite an interest in -- nor how he after dinner asked leave to go to it, nor how we ^not only^ indulged
[ Page 7 ]
but accompanied him ---- & had a jolly time, nor how we stayed there all night, Kitty & the Children & I in one big room so big that we were obliged to take opera glasses & speaking trumpets to bed with us, that we might see each other & converse in the [ morning abbreviated ], nor how the children [ surprised ? ] us by waking us up at an hour earlier than was [ necessary corrected ] -- nor how we did not find it out till we were dressed -- nor how lucky [ it corrected ] was, for it took us much longer to dress in that room every thing being so much further apart
[ Page 8 ]
& the [ joshing ? ] we had to take in consequence -- I shall not, I say, tell you any thing about all that, nor about something else that I forgot to tell you [ & ? ] I should not tell you & that was about Kitty, Helen, the children & I all going over to Crawfords -- the Notch*-- & spending the day ^the day before we went to Lancaster^ nor how we all enjoyed it, nor what a charming drive home we had by moon light ---- well all that I shall not write you any thing about, as I said before, but I shall & must tell you about Dalton -- we went there from Lancaster where, I suppose I shall be obliged to tell you, we went
[ Page 9 ]
from Bethlehem, but that's all I shall say about it --- well, we went to Dalton -- & the drive there is perfect, through woods & all most all the way by the Connecticut river, a most beautiful view & every thing was lovely ---- but the House there was what took my heart -- & I wish to go there next summer & spend three of four weeks. The House is quite large though nothing like the Glen House -- but it is so prettily furnished & in so home like a manner -- I know if I stayed there I should feel all the time as if I were visiting, it
[ Page 10 ]
might be inconvenient if I allowed that impression to take such a hold of me that I should be inclined to go away with out paying ---- But Mamma said she felt as if she were visiting an English nobleman. Mr. Sumner who owned the house, but does not keep it, is a fine looking old gentleman -- & quite agreeable -- As you enter there is a large ^square^ hall right through the house, a very handsome oak stair case, after the same style at Auntie's -- lovely little parlors & a library filled with [ charming abbreviated ] books for the use of the guests -- besides the [ large or larger ] parlors which is also delightful. -- then up stairs the
[ Page 11 ]bed rooms are elegant, all furnished most lovely ly {--} some of the beds having muslin curtains looped up with ribbons -- & lounges in all the rooms, french windows opening on balconies, & another little
6 =
letbookcase up stairs ---- the river runs at the back of the house & from the back piazza there is a [ charming abbreviated ] walk through an avenue of pines & a lovely arbor down to the banks [ random mark ] of the river which are wooded ---- it is perfect there & do you wonder that I longed to stay there -- Then I must tell you about the table --
[ Page 12 ]
every thing was so delicious & served so beautifully, the dinner set all had an orange colored border & the dessert set a green border & we did not have to have a barricade of those horrid little oval dishes with one spoonful of vegetables in them, all round our plates -- but they were civilized & had good sized vegetable dishes with enough in them for our whole party. While we were there we went across the ferry, a real, bonafide, old fashioned ferry -- to Lunenburg* -- which is in Vermont & quite high & from which there is a lovely view -- I hated to leave
[ Up the left margin of page 11 ]
Dalton -- Should not you think* I would have?
[ Down the right margin of page 12 ]
but we did ---- drove home by way of Littleton
[ Down the left margin of page 12 ]
all the way by the river ---- but we left it there & [ climed so spelled ] up to Bethelehem -- where we arrived soon after 8 --
[ Up the left margin of page 4 ]
Love to Mary,* how is she? ---- Love to your
[ Up the right margin of page 4 and across the top margin ]
Ma & your Pa ---- Good night & love to your self ----
[ Up the left margin of page 5 ]
Hope I shall see you when I am in "P ----"
[ Up the right margin of page 5 ]
Love to Aunty* -- I've gained eight pounds --
[ Up the left margin of page 6 ]
is not that splendid & weigh more than
[ Up the right margin of page 6 ]
I ever did --
[ Up the left margin of page 7 ]
Now don't say I never wrote you
[ Up the right margin of page 7 ]
a letter. I did read yours at one sitting.
[ Up the left margin of page 8 ]
I wonder if you will this. Perhaps Aunty
[ Up the right margin of page 8 ]
would like to hear it unless Mamma has told her everything ----
[ Up the left margin of page 8 ]
Love to Mary, how is she? Love to your Ma & your Pa.
[ Up the left margin of page 9 ]
Why don't you tell me the name of your
[ Up the right margin of page 9 ]
story?* ---- are you writing another --
[ Up the left margin of page 10 ]
Excuse the half sheets, but I must get rid of them
[ Up the right margin of page 10 ]
some way. & seem to have quite a stack on hand --
[ Cross-written at the bottom of page 12 ]
I've had a birthday too, & I'm older than you are & you ought to condole with me. You is nothing but an infant{.} I'm going on 40 by & by ----
[ No signature ]
Notes
1876: Though speculative, this date must be close. Information in the text indicates that it was composed soon after the early September birthdays of Gordon Walden and Jewett. Walden's father, present and vigorous, died in November 1877. Walden indicates that she is approaching her 40th birthday. Born in 1842, that birthday would arrive in 1882. Given her statement, however facetious, one would expect her to be 35 or older, so perhaps she wrote it as late as 1877. Other details in the notes below suggest a composition date as early as 1873.
Associated with this letter is an envelope, addressed to Jewett in care of her father, and postmarked in Boston on 27 May, no year given. Though the envelope has penciled on it the same line that appears at the top of the first page, about Grace Gordon visiting the mountains, it seems unlikely that the envelope is correctly matched with the letter, which almost certainly was composed in September.
2: Penciled at the top of this page, in a different hand: "Grace visits the mountains --" A pair of lines beneath this line either underlines it or deletes the first line on the page.
Birck head: Walden seems deliberately to have separated the two syllables of Kate Birckhead's surname. See Key to Correspondents.
Beth: The rest of this name is inserted in pencil by another hand: Bethlehem (in New Hampshire).
Georgie: Georgina Halliburton. See Key to Correspondents.
Mr. March: This person has not yet been identified.
Mt. Washington: Mt. Washington is the highest peak in the White Mountains of New England. The Mount Washington Cog Railway on the western slope was the world's first cog railway, beginning operation in 1869. At the time of this letter, the railway's specialized steam engine was a relatively new invention.
the Glen side: Refers to the Glen House, a resort hotel northeast of Mt. Washington, at the end of the road the Gordon party took down the mountain.
Kitty: Possibly Walden's sister, Kate Gordon Hoffendahl. See Grace Gordon Treadwell Walden in Key to Correspondents. The children in this party remain unidentified. Kate Hoffendahl is the only one of the Gordon children known to be married at the time of this letter, and she was married in 1856. Whether she had children is not known; it seems not very likely, though not impossible, that she would have had very young children at the time of this letter.
Helen: Probably Walden's sister, Helen Gordon. See Grace Gordon Treadwell Walden in Key to Correspondents.
Crawford's ... Notch: Crawford Notch is a major pass through the White Mountains.
the House: The Sumner House in Dalton, NH, was a major resort hotel, built by lumber baron James Breckenridge Sumner (1788-1874). Presumably, at the time of this letter, his son, James Breckenridge Sumner (1843- ) was the owner. However, he was not an "old gentleman" at the probable time of this letter, being a year younger than Walden. See Descendants of William Sumner, p. 142.
Lunenburg: Gordon Walden seems to have written "Lunnenberg," but she has cross-written this part of the page, and the transcription is uncertain.
think: Walden appears to have written "thing" rather than "think," but the transcription is uncertain.
story: That Walden mentions a new story that Jewett seems not to have named and another on the way creates uncertainty about dating the letter. In 1875, Jewett published two stories in September, "Deephaven Cronies" and "Woodchucks," both of which Walden could have seen by the time of this letter, and another in December, "Patty's Dull Christmas." In 1876, she published no stories after "Deephaven Excursions" in September. In 1877, she published no stories at all, completing her first novel Deephaven, which appeared in the spring, but "A Late Supper" appeared in January 1878, with others to follow in March. This makes 1875 and 1877 the more likely years for this letter, with 1877 the stronger candidate.
The manuscript of the letter is held by the University of New England Maine Women Writers Collection MWWC0196_02_00_021_01. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Susan Hayes Ward
South Berwick
15 Sept. 1876
Dear Miss Susy
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - We all enjoyed your visit, only it was heart-breaking to have you go away so soon. I am going down to York tomorrow if it is fair weather, and I shall be so glad to renew my last summer's intimacy with the "Bar'l girls".*
Please give my love to Hetta and my regards to Dr. Ward and Mr. Herbert Ward.*
Yrs sincerely
Sarah
Notes
"Bar'l girls": Elizabeth Barrell (c. 1799 - November 12, 1883) and Mary Barrell (c. 1804 - June 6, 1889).
Hetta ... Dr. Ward and Mr. Herbert Ward: Richard Cary says: "Hetta Lord Hayes Ward (1842-1921), sister of Susan and William, reported on architecture, exhibitions of painting, the applied and domestic arts for the Independent, as well as publishing delightful stories and verses for children." William Hayes Ward's son was Herbert Dickinson Ward (1861-1932) an American author who married another Jewett friend, Elizabeth Stuart Phelps. See Key to Correspondents.
A note on this transcription indicates that the original is in the Sophia Smith Collection of the Smith College Library [ 7-298-9 ]. This text is from transcriptions from mixed repositories, Letters from Sarah Orne Jewett, 1875-1890, folder 63, 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 Ellen Mason*
South Berwick
5 Oct. 1876
My dear Ellen
I [ wish blotted ] I could talk with you about this story for it would be so much better than writing -- I have been very much interested in it, but I am afraid there may be troubles about getting it published in a children's magazine -- I think it is very clever and bright, but I'll tell you just the difficulty: one has to make a distinction between writing for children and writing about children. The story gives one charming
[ Page 2 ]
pictures of real child-life, but, I am [ afraid corrected ], not in a way which children themselves would like best. Don't you see that the story is written from a grown-person's standpoint? ^(The motif is really 'Papa's' annoyance)^ Children cannot have the amusement we do in these bright speeches and funny blunders [ and corrected ] trickeries, in short, they dont often appreciate what one might call 'other ([ childrens' so written ] [ childishness corrected ' ] -- they are not apt to notice at all what older persons find quaint and original and in every way delightful, and laugh at
[ Page 3 ]
and remember -- In writing stories for children one must try to look at life through their eyes and from their standpoint and try hard to remember one's own old thoughts and impression of things -- else one preaches ' [ over corrected ] the heads' of the hearers -- This story is pleasant reading for you and me and yet, cant you see that there is much in it which a little girl would lose entirely. 'Papa's' disgust at hearing so much of Mr. Jones [ is corrected ] very funny and yet most children would find
[ Page 4 ]
him as fascinating as Bessie did and think Papa unappreciative and cross -- And I am afraid the writer is getting on dangerous ground where [ that corrected ] pretty young lady with the Tyrolese hat is introduced, and [ 'Papa' corrected ] is evidently much edified -- for that will not do in such a story as this: it is really a bit which would be in place in a story for another sort of magazine than St. Nicholas -- I wish you could tell me the whole plan of the story. I could tell much better whether it would do for St. Nicholas{.}
[ Up the left margin and across the top of page 1 ]
It was [ not possibly deleted ] those sketches in the Excursions I asked you about -- which you like best Do you know? -- the funeral, Mrs. Bonny or Miss Chauncey?*
Notes
Mason: Almost certainly, this letter is addressed to Ellen Mason. See Key to Correspondents.
As the Houghton catalog information below indicates, this is among a number of Jewett letters for whom the recipient has been thought to be American author, Mary Ellen Chase (1887-1973), who, according to Chase's introduction to The Country of the Pointed Firs (Norton), first met Jewett in 1900. See Chase in Key to Correspondents.
Chauncey: This postscript is confusing enough that I am not sure how to render it. Jewett refers to three parts of "Deephaven Excursions," published in the September 1876 Atlantic.
The manuscript of the letter is held by the Houghton Library of Harvard University: Box: 5 Identifier: MS Am 1743, (250), Sarah Orne Jewett correspondence II. Letters from Sarah Orne Jewett. Chase, Ellen, recipient. 3 letters; 1876 & [ n.d. ], 1876. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Anna Laurens Dawes
South Berwick
8 October 1876Dear Anna
I have been wishing to answer your letter; but (to make my excuse at length) when it came we had some people staying here and I went in a few days to stay at the seashore taking one of my friends with me, and after I came home and she went away, I spent Sunday in quietness and repose and started on Monday morning for Philadelphia with my Father, who seemed to have such a pathetic desire that I should keep him company that I could not refuse though I was
[ Page 2 ]
not enthusiastic about it. ^It is needless to say I wished to go with him in spite of not caring for more of the Centennial!*^ However I had a charming visit, much pleasanter than that of last summer -- I enjoyed seeing the Centennial again, and also of seeing my friends. I have two beloved cousins Alex and Ned*
and(they make me wish for brothers more than anyone else I know!) and [ I corrected ] was driving with them and boating up the Schuylkill and always having some good time or other -- We took the new way of going on to Phila -- as we went by steamer from Portland to N. Y. and had a grand storm, which I am glad to have experienced though it was not so pleasant at the time -- I could hardly keep in my berth and the chairs in
[ Page 3 ]
the cabin banged against stateroom doors, first one side and then the other -- and some barrels got loose on deck and bumped about industriously -- However I went fast asleep after a while and after we got around Cape Cod we had better weather{.} It was the best thing of all to see the crowd of schooners come out of Vineyard Haven when the sun [ shone written over came ? ] out in the morning after the storm --. There were hundreds of them, and all that day we were sailing along over the pleasantest sea catching glimpses of New Bedford & Newport and the towns along shore and finally got into N. Y. early next day -- and I was sorry the voyage
[ Page 4 ]
was over with.
The night ^after^ I went away Ella* went to [ Conway corrected ] to meet her father and drive home with him -- She meant to have spent the day with me but some friends came to see her & she had to take a later train. So it all happened right as I had to leave in the morning myself for Portland & {I} could not have seen her but a few minutes -- Carrie* saw her ^at the train^ and said she looked so bright and pretty. I believe she is to go to Phila soon but I hope to see her on my way to Concord this week -- I am dreadfully disappointed not to have had a visit from her this summer.
I am delighted with what you
[ Page 5 ]
2
said of Daniel Deronda* -- and yet you will laugh at me when I tell you I have never read the book except a few pages here and there. Of course I know more or less about it, since everyone talks so much about it -- but at first I waited until it should be finished and lately I have waited again wishing to be quiet and to feel exactly 'like it' --- I never expect however to like any book of G. Eliot's so much as I do Adam Bede and I know this will have the same defect to me that Middlemarch has -- that of seeming unsatisfactory and unfinished. And there is always something lacking in George Eliot's books because however
[ Page 6 ]
high her standards of morality and however grand her ideas of life one misses the least suggestion of one having a true and real friendship with God, and ^that^ our success must depend upon this after all -- Perhaps you say this is inferred -- many people do -- but it does not seem to me so -- and I have the same feeling in reading Middlemarch that I do in reading -- Antigone perhaps; or any of those tragedies of Sophocles* -- it is fate, it is hopelessness, we are working helplessly against resistless and unchangeable forces, or if we are lucky enough to hit upon some line of action which
[ Page 7 ]
leads us to apparent success, then we are none the wiser and none the surer -- These books are grand books and I do not see how anyone can help learning a great deal from them and being lifted up out ^of^ the ruts and the petty ways of living into which we get so easily -- Yet I am sure we learn more what to avoid than we do what to copy -- even when we are expected to copy oftenest. It is all true, what you say of the characters working out the problem of life each after his own fashion -- but do not you think there is only one way in which this becomes possible for us? I have no [ wish corrected ] to put a Sunday-school strain
[ Page 8 ]
of conversation into such books as these, but though we may supply the missing thoughts from our own experiences and see how, and how only our lives may grow grand and useful, don't you see that many [ people corrected ] must read Daniel Deronda without a knowledge of this kind, and that it is almost a heathen book after all? Perhaps you are thinking that I try to speak with great authority [ after corrected ] my confessing that I have not read the book -- but I [ suppose corrected ] that I know almost as much about it as I shall after I have read it in course -- Did you ever happen to see a book by Principal Shairp called Studies in Poetry and
[ Page 9 ]
3
Philosophy?* There is an essay at the end called "The Moral Motive Power" which has always seemed to me wonderfully good. Mr. Shairp reviews the different ways men have followed [ and corrected ] shows plainly at the end that nothing but our own Christian religion gives the help or is the 'motive power' toward a perfect life -- This is no very new idea but the essay helps one to understand some puzzles, and to give one a great deal of confidence -- I think that you are finding more and more, as I am thankful that I can say I am, that it is only this friendship with Christ and our following him and keeping
[ Page 10 ]
close to Him which is the real thing and the true life. Things are not sent to us bad or good. God plans the event and we are to choose whether it helps or hinders us -- sometimes by conscious choice but oftenest [ unconsciously corrected ] and according to our education -- I am sure this belief must underlie every thing -- we are in the world for our spiritual education and every thing is planned for that isn't it? -- and success is not a thing of chance but a thing of choice with us -- There is something of Fenelon's* which I must have quoted to you since it is my [ great corrected ] delight --
[ Page 11 ]
"God never makes us feel our weakness except to lead us to seek strength from him" --* George Eliot [ may corrected ] write grand books and may go never so deep in her knowledge of human nature and of these problems of life but no book will ever seem perfect or finished, as no life will, that does not recognize the great truth of all [ truths corrected ] -- It is having Christ in us which is the hope of glory after all; one must always come back to this. -------
I have written longer than I intended but I do not apologize to you -- and I find it very pleasant to talk with you even in a letter -- which is
[ Page 12 ]
so much less pleasant than having a friend face to face with me -- I hope we shall meet this [ winter corrected ]. I certainly shall hope to see you if you are in Boston late in the fall -- I am going to Concord on Tuesday and shall probably be in town a day or two after my week's visit there is ended. I am a scalliwag to go away again at all but this is a visit which I must make and wish to make to an old friend who has already let me put it off four or five times. I am in torment whenever I think of my neglected work, but I mean to make up for lost time when I [ once corrected ] begin -- I believe you asked me about Miss Sally Chauncey:* the story is true* and I really made
[ Up the left margin of and across the top of page 9 ]
the call and will tell you more if you care to know.* Will you think it displays conceit if I tell you that one of the big English reviews gave me a stunning compliment* for the Excursions. I was nearly taken off my feet!
[ Up the left margin of page 10 ]
Do write me soon for I enjoy your letters so much
[ Up the left margin of page 11 ]
and I am getting dreadfully fond of you. Mary* is away
[ Up the left margin of page 12 ]
or she would send you an equally affectionate message --
Yours Sincerely
S.O.J.
Notes
the Centennial: Jewett attended the Centennial International Exposition of 1876 in Philadelphia, PA., during the summer and now again with her father.
Alex and Ned: Hollis says that these are the Orne brothers, from the large family of cousins with whom the Jewetts stayed when in Philadelphia.
Ella: Ella Walworth Little. See Key to Correspondents.
Carrie: Carrie Jewett Eastman. See Key to Correspondents.
Daniel Deronda: Wikipedia says: Mary Ann Evans (1819 - 1880;) "known by her pen name George Eliot, was an English novelist, poet, journalist, translator and one of the leading writers of the Victorian era. She is the author of seven novels, including Adam Bede (1859), The Mill on the Floss (1860), Silas Marner (1861), Felix Holt, the Radical (1866), Middlemarch (1871–72), and Daniel Deronda (1876), most of which are set in provincial England and known for their realism and psychological insight."
Antigone ... Sophocles: Wikipedia says: "Sophocles ... is one of three ancient Greek tragedians whose plays have survived. His first plays were written later than those of Aeschylus, and earlier than or contemporary with those of Euripides. Sophocles wrote 120 plays during the course of his life, but only seven have survived in a complete form," including Antigone, which is one of a group of plays concerning the family of Oedipus.
Principal Shairp: Scottish author and critic. John Campbell Shairp (1819-1885). Wikipedia. Hollis says "His important literary criticism is collected in various volumes; the one that Sarah speaks of here was published in Edinburgh in 1868 and re-published here in 1872. "The Moral Motive Power" is the American title given to the concluding essay."
Fenelon's ... "God never makes us feel our weakness except to lead us to seek strength from him": It seems likely that Jewett has been reading François de Salignac de la Mothe Fénelon (1651-1715), Spiritual Letters: Letters to Women, a text in which this idea appears repeatedly, though this exact quotation seems not to be present. It does appear in Selections from the Writings of Fenelon: With a Memoir of His Life (1859), p. 154. Jewett's quotation, however, is not exactly the same as in this translation: "God never makes us feel our weakness but that we may be led to seek strength from him."
Sally Chauncey: This character appears in "Deephaven Excursions," which appeared in Atlantic Monthly (38:277-290), September 1876. Paula Blanchard points out that a number of Jewett's characters in Deephaven were based on people she knew in and around South Berwick. Miss Chauncey is based upon Sally Cutts of Kittery, ME. See Sarah Orne Jewett (1994), p. 86.
Mary: Mary Rice Jewett. See Key to Correspondents.
compliment: While this is not certain, Jewett may refer to Notes and Queries (London) 6 (14 October 1876), p. 377, where "C. J." writes:To have been noticed at all in this British publication so early in her career may have seemed "stunning" to Jewett.At the close of this communication a quotation may appropriately be made from the September number of the Atlantic Monthly. In "Deephaven Excursions" occurs a lone funeral by the sea; and one of the neighbours of the dead man, present at the ceremony, says : --
"He faded right out, and didn't know anything the last time I see him; and he died Sunday momin', when the tide began to ebb."
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Library of Congress, in the Henry L. Dawes papers, 1833-1933. BOX 10, Dawes, Anna Laurens, her correspondence and other papers, 1850-1925. An annotated transcription appears in C. Carroll Hollis, "Letters of Sarah Orne Jewett to Anna Laurens Dawes," Colby Library Quarterly No. 3 (1968): 97-138.
New transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Caroline Jewett [ Eastman ] to Sarah Orne Jewett
Friday morning.
[ 13 October 1876 ]*
Dear Pfby*
Your letter came last night and the family are glad you are having such a nice time.
Grandpa* came down the day you went away I believe. He walked to the depot in Exeter and then from Salmon Falls over here and is as bright as can be for he didn't come
[ Page 2 ]
till the day after you went.
He and father tried poison on frogs yesterday with success. Mr. Tucker* got the frogs for them.
I washed and brought the [ iris ? ] in the other day and got a horrid cold. Ned and I went to Dover yesterday morning. I got one of those collars and cuffs bound with red, and when I went out by the stores in the afternoon found them in nearly every window in town! Mary* is
[ Page 3 ]
coming home tonight I suppose, so she wrote the other day. [ Lucia ? ] and Mr. [ Browne ? ]* made a long call here last night, and Annie Barker* was in yesterday afternoon but I didn't see her.
I am glad you got your trunk all right, but am sorry I didn't know you wanted your seal* back in time to put it in.
Mama sends love, and
[ Page 4 ]
wants you to wrap yourself up well when you go to ride.
Did you know Mrs. [ Tuck ? ]* in Exeter is dead?
This letter came for you from the "Barrell girls"* yesterday and poor Pa felt he must see the contents so made me open it. I told him you wouldn't like it.
Isn't it just the loveliest letter and the quaintest you ever read. [ so punctuated ] When you write anything more, do send it
[ Cross-written at the top of page 1 ]
to them. I will send the envelope for I think it is so funny when they put the 'of' in between care & doctor.
Ever so much love
from Carrie.
Notes
13 October 1876: The Columbia identification page indicates that the envelope was cancelled on 13 October. As the notes below show, Carrie Jewett probably refers to the death of Mrs. Catherine Tuck on 10 October 1876.
Pfby: Caroline Jewett uses this address in at least two letters. Other family members sometime address her as Piffy. What it means has not yet been determined.
Grandpa: Dr. William Perry. See Key to Correspondents.
[ Lucia ? ] and Mr. [ Browne ? ]: The transcription is uncertain, and these people have not been identified. Lucia may be Lucia Nason, who is mentioned in a letter to Sarah Orne Jewett of 10 May 1900.
Annie Barker: Paula Blanchard in Sarah Orne Jewett (2002) identifies Barker as a Jewett friend and neighbor (p. 45). She is mentioned frequently in Jewett's 1869 diary.
your seal: This may refer to a seal-skin coat.
Mr. Tucker: John Tucker. See Key to Correspondents.
Ned: Caroline Jewett married Edwin (Ned) Eastman in October 1878.
Mrs. Tuck in Exeter: This probably is Catherine P. Townsend Tuck (1815- 10 October 1876), the second wife of Amos Tuck (1810-1879), a prominent political activist and a founder of the New Hampshire Republican Party. She was remembered as a woman of culture, active in her community.
"Barrell girls": Elizabeth Barrell (c. 1799 - November 12, 1883) and Mary Barrell (c. 1804 - June 6, 1889).
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Columbia University (New York) Library in Special Collections, Jewett. Transcription from a microfilm copy and annotation by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Caroline Jewett [ Eastman ] to Sarah Orne Jewett
Monday morning.
[ 16 October 1876 ]*
Dear Pfby*
I suppose you will expect to hear from me, but there is nothing to tell.
It was awfully cold Friday. Ned* started the morning at eight-oclock. Cousin Elisha* came home last Friday and Sue and her mother start today as Cousin Elisha had to stay at home to keep house.
[ Page 2 ]
A freight train ran off the track down on the Conway track by the Barkers.*
And half the town was down seeing them fixed again. No one was hurt as they saw the switch was wrong, so jumped off. I was in Abby [ Colunds ? ]* to tea Saturday and had a real good time.
Judge Doe* & Mr [ deleted letters ] [ unrecognized name ] called here last Friday.
Grandpa* went home Saturday. He and Papa had great times
[ Page 3 ]
trying poison on frogs, and John* and I just after the frogs! When you get my stockings perhaps you can get one pair with white and the other with yellow clocks on them. But I don't mean for you to hunt all round, only if you happen to see them, and please don't [ unrecognized word ] [ all out doors ? ] for them. I have been all the morning thinking you must be upstairs and wondered
[ Page 4 ]
if it wasn't time for you to come down. Mary* says she is going to write you very soon. She seems to have had a real nice time in Concord, and looks so much better. I am sorry there isn't anything more interesting to tell you.
Ever so much love from
Carrie.
Notes
16 October 1876: The Columbia identification page indicates that the envelope was cancelled on 16 October. This and Carrie Jewett's letter of 13 October seem closely associated and, almost certainly, both were composed in October 1876.
Pfby: Caroline Jewett uses this address in at least two letters. Other family members sometime address her as Piffy. What it means has not yet been determined.
Ned: Caroline Jewett married Edwin (Ned) Eastman in October 1878.
Cousin Elisha: Elisha Hanson Jewett (1816-1883), who had married Sarah Orne Jewett (1820-1864). They were the parents of another Sarah Orne Jewett, who died in infancy, and of Susan Jameson Jewett (1857-1954 ), who lived unmarried in South Berwick ME.
the Barkers: Paula Blanchard in Sarah Orne Jewett (2002) identifies Annie Barker as a Jewett friend and neighbor (p. 45). She is mentioned frequently in Jewett's 1869 diary.
Abby [ Colunds ? ]: The transcription is uncertain, and this person has not been identified.
Judge Doe: Richard Cary says: "The Honorable Charles Doe (1830-1896), appointed associate justice of the Supreme Court of New Hampshire at 29, retained his rustic clothes and manners during sessions. A raconteur of uncommon facility, he punctuated his stories with earth-born phrases and laconic flashes of philosophic insight. Behind his rugged humors lay a vast kindliness and tolerance.
"His wife, Edith Haven Doe (1840-1922), formerly of Portsmouth, was the daughter of Mr. George Wallis Haven, and the stepsister of Georgia Halliburton. Of superior intelligence and engaging personality, she was renowned as a helpmeet and hostess. The Doe home at Rollinsford NH, a frequent anchorage for the Jewett sisters, was about a mile from their own."
Grandpa: Dr. William Perry. See Key to Correspondents.
John: John Tucker. See Key to Correspondents.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Columbia University (New York) Library in Special Collections, Jewett. Transcription from a microfilm copy and annotation by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Theophilus Parsons
South Berwick
25 Oct. 1876
Dear Prof. Parsons
I went to see Mr. Osgood and Mr. Niles and found them both very kind.* I had a long talk with them both and they both were ready to take the sketches if I chose to get them ready. I think your note and Mr. Howells's* did the business and it was plain to see that they wondered why they never had heard of such a shining light before! I am very much puzzled to decide between the two. For some reasons I incline toward Mr. Osgood but there are equally strong arguments for going to Roberts Bros. They both said they would give ten per cent on the copy- -- after the expenses had been paid -- Mr. Osgood said; and Mr. Niles said after the first edition, but if the book were sure of a sale they sometimes gave new writers the percentage from the first, as they did the old writers. Mr. Osgood talked rather more fully than Mr. Niles did with me -- and seemed to take a great interest in the thing -- though I told him I was not going to decide at all at present and that I was going to see Roberts. He told me I was quite right in getting settled to my mind and that Roberts would be as safe as anyone could be. I am to write him in a week or two -- and in the meantime Mr. Niles is to look over the sketches and tell me what he thinks. He said something about it being safer usually to begin with a new book, which I know very well, still my point is to publish the Deephaven book and I mean to make it longer and better than it is now. I suppose in a business way Roberts is more flourishing and more go-ahead. I have the greatest confidence in your opinion of him but I only wish you and Mr. Howells had settled upon the same publisher. Mr. Howells has always spoken of Mr. Osgood and it is natural that he should advise me to go to him since they are good friends and Mr. Howells's [ Howells ] books have been so successful and so well managed. I like the company at Mr. Osgood's [ Osgoods ], but one must not sacrifice too much to that -- and certainly the Roberts have never published any but the nicest books -- and I am sure that whichever I take I shall be in good hands, and cannot regret much. You see I am more undecided than ever! The great point is whether Osgood is going down and Roberts going up and whether Mr. Niles is so sure and permanent a person in his firm as Mr. Osgood in his. If Mr. Niles should go away, the Roberts's would be a very different firm. I could not write you before for I stopped on the way and did not get home until yesterday. My father is away until tomorrow and I can't talk with him. It is not much in his line at any rate! Do you think Mr. Howells would mind my not taking his advice? He has been so very kind to me, you know -- and I should be sorry to do anything wrong. I don't believe you will find what I say at all satisfactory. I seem to be waiting for something to turn up! Perhaps Mr. Roberts or rather Mr. Niles will not want the sketches after all when he reads them over and thinks about it. I wish I could have stayed longer the other day -- but I am glad to have seen you for even that time. It was dark as a pocket when I got back to Jamaica Plain, and it was lucky I did not stay longer for I was staying with a most punctual family -- and it would have been mortifying if I had been late to dinner you know! Good-bye Yours always
Sarah
Notes
Mr. Osgood and Mr. Niles … Roberts Bros … Roberts: Wikipedia says: "James R. Osgood (1836-1892) was an American publisher probably best known for his partnership with Mark Twain and his involvement with the publishing company that would become Houghton Mifflin." Wikipedia also says: "Roberts Brothers (1857-1898) were bookbinders and publishers in 19th-century Boston, Massachusetts. Established in 1857 by Austin J. Roberts, John F. Roberts, and Lewis A. Roberts, the firm began publishing around the early 1860s." Wikipedia reports that Thomas Niles joined the firm in 1863 and eventually became a partner. See Blanchard's account of Jewett's dealings with publishers for Deephaven (80-81). Jewett finally chose Osgood to publish her first novel, Deephaven (1877).
Mr. Howells: William Dean Howells. See Key to Correspondents.The manuscript of this letter is held by Special Collections at Colby College.It was transcribed by the owner of the manuscripts before they were given to Colby College, Henry Ellicott Magill (b. 1902) of Pasadena, CA, who also may have made handwritten corrections to the transcriptions. Further corrections, notes and annotations by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Grace Gordon (Walden) to Sarah Orne Jewett
5 Walnut St. Boston
October 28th 1876
Will you forgive me if I write to you on half sheets Dear Sarah? as I seem to have more of these than of whole --
The money arrived safely. Only think how many dollars I might get out of you, after your promise, if I only cared to say it did not arrive -- We were so sorry to miss your Mother's & Father's call. George* was at home & would have insisted upon their coming in had he known it was they. But Katy unfortunately did not go to the door -- our new cook did -- & of course she did not know -- Mama & I started out the next mning [ so written ] to hunt them up, but in vain we drove first to the Revere* thinking your Father might have gone there as you liked it so much when you were here last, then to the Tremont & then to [ Perkin's ? ], but no Dr. & Mrs. Jewett were to be found. It was a shame we should have missed them so -- How did they enjoy the [ deleted word ] "Shaughraun --" ?*
[ Page 2 ]
Is it spelled rightly? --
I went with Papa before I went to Philda.* I never enjoyed anything so in my life! --
We missed you & Helen* very much -- have had two letters from Helen.
My cough is worse than [ unrecognized word ] & I am in despair.
You will have to take Roberts* after all -- poor Sary O' -- I pity you.
Marie* & I went to see the [ fleas ? ]* the other day -- I was charmed with them & their old man --
Write to me soon.
"My love to Mary"--*
Grace --
Do not fail to write on your final decision.
[ Added at right angle to above text, bottom right of page 2 ]
I have a stack of these dreadful envelopes and paper to match, so I shall put these half sheets into one --
Excuse the incongruity.
Notes
George ... Katy: George is likely to be Gordon's older brother. See Key to Correspondents.
Katy probably is a domestic employee.
Philda: The Centennial Exposition of 1876 in Philadelphia, PA, was held from 10 May until 10 November 1876. Jewett attended in June-July, and reported the "heat was awful." See Jewett's story, "The Flight of Betsey Lane," in A Native of Winby.
Revere ... the Tremont ... Perkin's: The first two are well-known Boston hotels: Revere House and The Tremont House. The transcription of "Perkin's," however, is uncertain, and as yet nothing has been learned about such a hotel or boarding house in 19th-century Boston.
"Shaughraun --" This transcription is uncertain. However The Shaughraun (1874) is a play by Irish-American playwright Dion Boucicault (c. 1820 - 1890). According to The History of the Boston Theatre 1854-1901, Boucicault acted in a Boston production during the month of October 1876 (p. 234).
Helen: Which of Jewett's acquaintances this Helen is remains unknown.
Roberts: As Gordon is speaking of coughs, suggesting that Jewett has reported a troublesome cough of her own, she may refer to a popular 19th-century remedy, "Dr. Roberts Cough Syrup."
Marie: This person has not yet been identified.
fleas ... old man: This transcription is uncertain. Is Gordon saying that she attended a flea circus? Such performances, according to Wikipedia, began as early as the 16th century and continue into the 21st. Whether there was a flea circus in Boston in 1876 remains unknown.
Mary: Mary Rice Jewett. See Key to Correspondents.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Columbia University (New York) Library in Special Collections, Jewett. Transcription from a microfilm copy and annotation by Terry Heller, Coe College.
William Dean Howells to Sarah Orne Jewett
[ Begin letterhead ]
EDITORIAL OFFICE OF
THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY
__.__
THE RIVERSIDE PRESS,
CAMBRIDGE, MASS.
[ End letterhead ]
[ Date appears to the right of "Cambridge, Mass." ]
Nov. 1, 1876
Dear Miss Jewett:
I'm very sorry, but they wont either of them quite do. Wont you try something also for our musicians?* The [ barcarole ? ] sings, but it hasn't somehow strong enough [ statements corrected ] in it for a successful song -- it's too [ purely ? ] suggestive.
Mrs. Howells is perfectly fascinated with your gift,
[ Page 2 ]
and wonders how you had the heroism to give such an exquisite thing away. [ Elinor ? ]* is neuralgic [ unrecognized word ] she bids me say that [ deleted word ] she hopes soon to be well ^enough^ to write and thank you as you should be thanked.
-- You have been too successful with your book.* If Osgood said he would takethem^it^ -- or thought he would -- you ought (oughtn't you?) to have had his decision before going to Mr. Niles. Suppose they should both accept the book? However, I'm de
[ Page 3, text at right angle to other pages ]
lighted at your good fortune with this, and I should never think less of the sketches if [ twenty ? ] publishers brought them out.
Mrs. Howells sends her love, and wants to say that the [ next time ? ] you dine with us{--} we will have [ three ? ] small [ mackerel ? ]. Could the mystic number of [ those ? ] fish have ^had^ anything ^[ serious ? ]^ to do with your two publishers, I wonder.
Yours sincerely
W. D. Howells.
[ Up the left margin of page 2 ]
Pilla now wishes to know if Tilden* can go to heaven?
Notes
musicians: It seems likely that Jewett has submitted a pair of poems to be considered for the Atlantic Monthly. Jewett's next published poem to deal with music was "Two Musicians," in The American (5 February 1881). In Atlantic, Jewett had published "Together" in May 1875. Her next poem in Atlantic was "Flowers in the Dark" (March 1880).
The barcarole probably was Jewett's "The Boat Song." John Austin Parker, "Sarah Orne Jewett's 'Boat Song,'" American Literature 23 (1951), according to Nagel and Nagel's Sarah Orne Jewett: A Reference Guide, writes: "Among the uncataloged materials of the Library of Congress is a copy of 'Boat Song,' words by Miss Sarah O. Jewett. Music by Richd. Hoffman. New York: G. Schirmer, c. 1879."
Elinor: Howells's wife, Elinor Mead. At the end of the letter, he mentions his daughter, Mildred / Pilla.
book: Jewett submitted Deephaven (1877), her first book, to two publishers simultaneously. Her letters to Theophilus Parsons, Howells and others from autumn 1876 explain this error. For James R. Osgood (1836-1892), see Key to Correspondents. Thomas Niles represented Roberts Brothers.
See also Paula Blanchard's account of Jewett's dealings with publishers for Deephaven in Sarah Orne Jewett (80-81).
Tilden: Presumably, Howells's daughter, Pilla, (see Key to Correspondents) refers to the U.S. presidential election of 1876, when Democrat Samuel Jones Tilden (1814-1886) became the first candidate to win a majority of the popular vote and still lose the election. The bargain that gave the presidency to Republican Rutherford B. Hayes, brought an end to Reconstruction, opening the way for the development of legal racial segregation and nearly a century of American apartheid.
The manuscript of the letter is held by the Houghton Library of Harvard University. Howells, William Dean, 1837-1920. 16 letters to Sarah Orne Jewett; 1875-1908. Sarah Orne Jewett correspondence, 1861-1930. MS Am 1743 (105). Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Another transcription appears in Life in Letters of William Dean Howells, edited by Mildred Howells. New York: Doubleday, 1928.
James Lyman Whitney* to Sarah Orne JewettThe manuscript of this letter is held by the University of New England Maine Women Writers Collection, Sarah Orne Jewett Correspondence Box 1 Folder 042
Concord, Mass.
Novr, 1876
My dear Miss Jewett
I shall be very glad if I can be of any service to you in deciding in regard to your publisher. Most likely when you have read what I shall write you will be as much puzzled as ever. In your talk with the two probably you did not get so far as to settle on what the amount to come to you would be, and I go on the supposition that there is a certain fixed sum ^(per copy?)^* always paid. That matter you have talked with Mr. Howells* about, or intend so doing. Supposing the offer of both the same, you would want to take into consideration several things: 1. what publisher would be likely to reach the largest public,
[ Page 2 ]
2. which would take the most interest in the book to advertise it and "push" it, as the phrase is. 3. who is the most responsible financially, so that you will have no fear of losing what should justly come to you. I have talked with several persons on these points, and shall ask others as I meet them. I do not learn that there is much to choose between the two. The first point might perhaps be decided in favor of Osgood,* his firm having great prestige from its past business. You speak as if some thought that popularity less now than it has been. That may be, as the firm has
[ Page 3 ]
taken up outside things as heliotyping, publishing art & illustrated papers, etc. It may be that it is from their having sold the plates and copyright of so many of their books within a year or so. It is true they have a smaller list. Much of what was sold was rather dead stock ^, however,^ and much of it works that other publishers also published in this country, such as [ Scott ? ], Dickens, &c. But they have kept most of the choice books by the best authors, Longfellow, Lowell, Emerson, Holmes, etc. into whose circle it would be pleasant
[ Page 4 ]
to enter. I should think that Osgood in that way would be better, yet I am not sure. He must have business connections with most of the booksellers of the country. Roberts stands well in the trade; with some booksellers he is more popular than Osgood who has been rather more independent in the past having made his position which Roberts [ had or has ] not done. As to the second point, I have been told that Roberts looks after his books perhaps more carefully in advertising them and keeping them alive. That is [ the opinion written over something ] of one person who has had considerable to do with both firms. On the other hand Miss Preston* has spoken with considerable severity (for her that is) of Roberts's treatment of her books. I would talk with her and get her opinion.
[ Page 5 ]
2
She is to publish a book soon which I suppose Osgood will publish, yet I am not sure of that.
In regard to the third point I have not yet been able to make inquiries of the persons who would know. A year or more ago when there were heavy failures in the book trade Osgood lost a great deal and was crippled. He sold the Atlantic Monthly for a good sum and $100.000 worth of [ unrecognized word ] plates & stock and I have supposed he was strong again. I should think his heliotyping business must pay well as it is a patented thing. He has some 80 men at work at this. ^I presume that Roberts is stronger financially.^
You will talk with Mr Howells as to your best arrangements with the publishers, for your own security.
[ Page 6 ]
This experience would be of great value to you.
I think that many of the complaints of [ authors corrected ] against publishers are unreasonable and they are a much better set of folks than they are generally considered. It costs a great deal to start a book, printing, stereotyping, binding, advertising, editors' [ offices ? ], &c, and unless a book meets with a good circulation there can be but little to come back to the author. After the [ sale written over something ] reaches 1000 or so, those expenses are paid and the rest is clear profits.
Now this doesn't help you much to decide. It may put you in the way of asking questions of your other friends that will help more. I should think that your book would do well enough with either Osgood or Roberts.
[ Page 7 ]
I wonder whether you mean to put anything else in it besides the Deephaven articles.
This letter fairly bristles with business as you would wish to have it and but little room is left to tell you what we are doing. But [ this Mrs ? ] Bartlett* tells you of in her letters. Ned & I have dragged our boats up on land for the winter and after it came these golden days when we would fain pull them back again. But pull them back we will when May comes and you perhaps have come to Concord again to see how we look in the summer time. If I should tell you that I had not been in my boat since July 4 you would look with contempt upon me, I am sure. Only there have been good reasons for it this
[ Page 8 ]
year.
I have been writing while six young folks down stairs have been playing charades. They have finished and have gone to the singing club at Mifs Wheeldon's.* I have half a mind to follow them.
We are quite enthusiastic [ politically ? ] as to Hoar vs Butler* and are to have a meeting Saturday night, which we mean to have a large one. I am a delegate to the convention that meets here on Friday. Ned & his wife poke fun at me and think it the funniest thing going. Why shouldn't I, I want to know?
Your friendBe pleased in future to regard yourself in that light!
JL Whitney
I have a funny way of getting to sleep sometimes. I try to think of all the friends I happen to have and I always go to work at it geographically ^beginning at New England,^ saying "Maine [ deleted mark ] -- well I haven't any friends in Maine," but now I have just written "Your friend" so I shall have to tally one next time! Did you ever think to yourself before as a soporific?
[ Up the right margin of age 8 ]
Notes
Whitney: James Lyman Whitney (1835-1900). At the time he wrote this letter, he was still involved in the bookselling business. It seems likely that Jewett was connected with him by her acquaintance with Edward Jarvis Bartlett.
The following is edited from a sketch that appears in Family: Whitney, Josiah Dwight (1786-1869) - WRG
Son of Josiah Dwight and Clarissa (James) Whitney, James Lyman Whitney, b. 28 Nov 1835, Northampton, MA; d. 25 Sep 1900, Cambridge, MA,...; unmarried. He graduated at Yale college in 1856, where he remained from 1856 to 1857 as Berkeley scholar of the house. While in college he was librarian of the Brothers in Unity library. From 1858 to 1868 he was a bookseller in Springfield, MA, in which business he retained an interest until 1887. In 1868 he was an assistant librarian of the Cincinnati public library. In 1869 he entered the service of the Boston public library, where he still remains. He is in charge of the catalogue department of the library, and is the editor of many of the catalogues and other publications of the library. Mr. Whitney was chairman of the school committee of Concord, MA, from 1879 to 1887; has been secretary of the library committee of the free public library of Concord; chairman of the book committee of the Bostonian society, and treasurer of the American library association and chairman of its finance committee. He is appreciatively known for his valuable work in the library circles of the country.
per copy: This parenthetical insertion seems to have been written over perhaps the same words, but in darker ink. It is not perfectly clear who added this and when.
Howells: William Dean Howells. See Key to Correspondents.
Osgood: James R. Osgood. See Key to Correspondents. Roberts Brothers (1857–1898) were bookbinders and publishers in 19th-century Boston. See Paula Blanchard's account of Jewett's dealings with publishers for Deephaven (80-81). Jewett finally chose Osgood to publish her first novel, Deephaven (1877).
Miss Preston: Harriet Waters Preston. See Key to Correspondents. By 1879, Preston had not changed her American publisher.
Mrs. Bartlett: See Edward Jarvis Bartlett in Key to Correspondents. He was married to Sarah Flagg French, sister of Jewett's childhood friend, the American sculptor Daniel Chester French.
Mifs Wheeldon's: The Concord Choral Club flourished during the 19th century, regularly performing at public ceremonies. The transcription of "Wheeldon" is uncertain, and she remains unidentified.
Hoar vs Butler: Ebenezer R. Hoar (1816-1895) was an American lawyer and politician from Massachusetts. Benjamin Franklin Butler (1818-1893) also was a Massachusetts politician and lawyer. Their political rivalry was intense during the 1870s. Butler, a Democrat turned Republican, a supporter of woman suffrage and a "colorful character," angered the more conservative Republican Party leadership, which included Hoar.
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
William G. Abbott* to Sarah Orne Jewett
Phila Novr 18th 76
Dear Miss Jewett
I have called on personal friends of mine engaged here in the publishing business and submit you below what I have gleaned from their remarks as to the various merits etc. of the two concerns you inquired about.
Messrs Osgood & Co would no doubt do the book* full justice but it is somewhat out of their line.
The Messrs Roberts Bros. do not stand as to credit so high as Messrs Osgoods [ do ? ].
As regards introducing a work such as yours Mess. R. Bros. would be far preferable they having made a speciality and at the same time
[ Page 2 ]
a decided success of such literature.
I might go into greater details as to what else I learn but so far as I can advise you from pure hearsay "R. Bros" are without doubt the best firm for you and so trust this information with what you already know may be of some assistance in deciding you on such a matter.
My journey home was made without anything of particular interest taking place. One portion of my trip will be looked back upon with a great deal of pleasure and that is my visit to your house.
Can I again thank you for your hospitality and I sincerely hope to reciprocate the kindness
[ Page 3 ]
extended me when you again come south.
Lizzie I know would wish you many kind messages were she aware of my writing today and with my respects to your family I am etc.
Yours sincerely
W. G. Abbott
Notes
Abbott: Almost certainly this letter is from William G. Abbott of Philadelphia, who married Elizabeth B. Orne. Their daughter, Elizabeth Abbott, was born and died in 1872. They appear in the 1905 Philadelphia Social Register with Caroline M., William G. Jr., and Edward Abbott.
See Elizabeth B. Orne to Jewett of 24 July 1876.
the book: Jewett has asked Abbott for advice about choosing one of the two publishers interested in her first book, Deephaven (1877).
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library of Harvard University, Cambridge, MA. bMS Am 1743 Box 1, I. Letters to Sarah Orne Jewett.
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
William Dean Howells to Sarah Orne Jewett
[ Begin letterhead ]
EDITORIAL OFFICE OF
THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY
__.__
THE RIVERSIDE PRESS,
CAMBRIDGE, MASS.
[ End letterhead ]
[ Date appears to the right of "Cambridge, Mass." ]
Nov. 20, 1876.
Dear Miss Jewett:
You analyze your two publishers with a skill worthy of George Eliot,* and if I were you I should go to Osgood, but I have no right to have any wish in the matter and I explicitly refuse to influence your decision. They are both excellent houses.
I've not yet read
[ Page 2 ]
your MS, but you'll believe it isn't from want of interest in it. -- Please ask your friend to send me her friend's play, but don't you commit me even to kindness. Justice with her eyes open and her fists shut is the [ unrecognized word ] duty of this [ office corrected ].
-- Pilla* has me send a book mark which she says she promised Miss Jewett and wh. she worked today with her own funny little fingers.
Yours truly
W. D. Howells.
A letter from Miss Howells included.
Notes
George Eliot: British novelist, Mary Ann Evans (1819-1880).
Pilla: Howells's daughter. See Key to Correspondents.
The manuscript of the letter is held by the Houghton Library of Harvard University. Howells, William Dean, 1837-1920. 16 letters to Sarah Orne Jewett; 1875-1908. Sarah Orne Jewett correspondence, 1861-1930. MS Am 1743 (105). Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Theophilus Parsons
South Berwick 21 Nov. 1876
Dear Prof. Parsons
I would have written you before if I could. I know you will believe me when I tell you that. I have decided to go to Mr. Osgood with 'Deephaven Cronies' (I hope you will like that title?)* for it seemed best to do so after I had thought of it, until I was tired and had tried to find out everything I possibly could about both firms. I found that Mr. Osgood's* standing was as high as a publisher and that the firm financially was all right, and that there was nothing to fear. Several people told me as you did that Mr. Niles* was best in helping a book along, and that I should probably be surer of the book's becoming popular if I let him have it. But I finally have come to look at it in this way. The book will not be a very popular book anyway, and it must be decently successful if either firm has the management of it for they both have the best facilities for publishing. Mr. Howells was the cause of its being published at all -- and he has always inclined toward his friend Mr. Osgood. I think it is right and kind for me to do what will please him most and since I have found that out beyond a question, and I know he has no fears of my being unlucky, I think I shall carry out the old plan. I do not think Mr. Howells wishes me to be so much influenced by his preference -- and I know he wishes me to decide for myself without regard to him, but that doesn't alter the case, and so I shall trust the book to Mr. Osgood and my own 'good luck'. The Atlantic is after all the mainsail of my craft, and Mr. Howells has always been the kindest of friends to me and it seems the best way to decide as I have done. I do not believe I am running any risk either. I found Mr. Osgood very pleasant and kind that day I saw him and I think it is safe to trust Mr. Howells's [ Howells ] opinion of him as a publisher -- though I realize the truth of what you have told me about Mr. Niles. I have such confidence in your opinion of such things that it has been very hard to go against it -- Still you said in your last letter that you rather inclined toward Mr. Osgood, and that was a great encouragement. I think the sorrow of saying no to Mr. Niles takes away a great deal from my pleasure in saying yes to Mr. Osgood! I have had the kindest letters from them both. I hope your eyes are well again. I was so sorry to find they were troubling you. I cannot write more now as I fear I am already late for the mail. I will tell you just as soon as I can whatever else there is to tell and what my plan is for the book. Please don't tell Mr. Howells that I was guided so much by him -- though it was silly in me to think I need caution you!! Yours with much love
Sarah
Notes
that title: Jewett final title of Jewett's first novel was Deephaven (1877).
Mr. Osgood's: James Ripley Osgood. See Key to Correspondents.
Mr. Niles: Wikipedia says: "Roberts Brothers (1857–1898) were bookbinders and publishers in 19th-century Boston, Massachusetts. Established in 1857 by Austin J. Roberts, John F. Roberts, and Lewis A. Roberts, the firm began publishing around the early 1860s." Thomas Niles joined the firm in 1863 and eventually became a partner. See Blanchard's account of Jewett's dealings with publishers for Deephaven (80-81).
The manuscript of this letter is held by Special Collections at Colby College. It was transcribed by the owner of the manuscripts before they were given to Colby College, Henry Ellicott Magill (b. 1902) of Pasadena, CA, who also may have made handwritten corrections to the transcriptions. Further corrections, notes and annotations by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Anna Laurens Dawes
25 Nov. 1876Dear Anna
I go on Arthur Helps1 principle that it is (as it ought to be) needless for friends to make apologies to each other -- that the friendship once given ought to be trusted. So I am not going to make apologies to you! I wonder if I haven't spoken of that essay before? It is very sensible and it always amused me too -- for it seems as if Sir Arthur was a bad correspondent and his essay was an apology in itself. He says that almost all letters between friends begin with excuses for not having written before -- and isn't that true?
I enjoyed your letter very much and it made me wish most heartily that I could see you and have a nice long talk. That is the worst of a very nice letter, to me. It is like beginning a talk and seeing a friend for a few minutes & and then having her whisk away again. There was one thing you said which has been the greatest help to me, and I thank you for it very much -- our looking for Christ, and saying this is only the carpenter's son -- as we go about our every day work. I have thought of it so many times, and told my girls of it at Sunday School, and really I don't know when anything has struck me so forcibly or been of more practical use, for it has kept coming into my head again and again.
Do you know, I have not read Daniel Deronda yet! In the first place, I have not had time to read it at my leisure, which I should like to do best. I have been very much amused with H. James's critique of it in the Atlantic2 -- it gives both sides certainly and there are some capital hits. Mr. Howells* told me a little about it before it was printed and I was particularly gratified with the young man's answer when one of the girls professes to have known some clever and charming Jews -- “Clever but not charming.” I think it is such a good 'hit with words.' I wonder if it is not a very shabby thing to have this contempt for that race? With me it is not a prejudice against their belief and history -- It is the looks of the Jews!! which is not a high-minded view of things at all.
Well, do you want me to relate some particulars about my own affairs? I am writing with all my might, and have been ever since I came from Boston and Concord where I had a most charming visit. I never had been there to stay very long but now I feel as if I knew Concord by heart -- and the people there are perfectly delightful, and were so kind to me. That was four or five weeks ago and it was delightful weather, so that we were outdoors a great deal boating and walking and driving. I made some very pleasant new friends, one was Miss Preston3 who wrote Love in the Nineteenth Century* -- and I do like her dearly. I hope you will meet her some time. She had some idea of going to Washington this winter with the Frenches.4 If you are in W. this winter I hope you will see them. Judge French* is ass't secretary of the Treasury I believe. Mrs. F. is bright as a lark and their son Dan, who is a rising young sculptor, I am sure you will like as much as I do. He is an uncommonly interesting young fellow -- so very pleasant in every way. He is an old playmate of mine -- and it is his sister Mrs. Bartlett whom I visit in Concord. They used to live in Exeter and I used to be there a great deal at Grandmamma's and Dan and I and Sallie were great cronies.
I have embarked upon a great piece of business in downright earnest -- making the Deephaven Sketches into a story and a book, which Mr. Osgood is to publish in the spring.5 I have lately sent Mr. Howells the last paper -- which is longer than the rest and gave me enough to do -- and now I am trying to get some other stories done so that I shall have my time clear after the first week in Dec. I gave up this idea wholly, but Mr. Howells was anxious for me to carry out the old plan, and so I have embarked. Do wish me good luck! I had great trouble of mind in deciding on a publisher, for Roberts Bros. & Mr. Osgood both wished for the book,* and I was greatly puzzled to know which to decide upon, since both offered great advantages. I don't advise you to write stories dear Dawes-y -- it's not a path of roses -- yes it is; but they scratch you! Good bye -- I think of you every day -- truly -- and I wish I could see you this minute. We would go down river and stay all the afternoon -- wouldn't we?
Sincerely your fond friend
Hollis's Notes
1 Sir Arthur Helps (1813-1879) published among other popular works a collection of short essays, Brevia, in 1871.
2 Henry James, "Daniel Deronda: A Conversation," Atlantic Monthly, XXXVIII (December 1876), 684-694, was not explicit book criticism but an imaginary conversation of supposed readers of the new [ George ] Eliot novel. Sarah's somewhat embarrassed comments about Jews seem typical of the period rather than reflections of any personal prejudice. Some years later Anna Dawes vigorously opposed the anti-semitism of the day and was successful in awakening Sarah to the injustice of the contemporary attitudes. Cf., letters of January 8 and February 5, 1888.
3 This is the Harriet Waters Preston whose brief friendship with Sarah is treated in Frost, op. cit., 53-54, and Cary, op. cit., 34.
4 The French family were quite as lively and interesting as this paragraph indicates. Sallie French Bartlett wrote long gossipy letters to another brother then residing in Chicago. These letters, which tell of the family parties, picnics, and goings-on, are now in the Manuscript Division of the Library of Congress. The "rising young sculptor" is Daniel Chester French, famous for the Lincoln Memorial.
5 Deephaven did come out in April 1877.
Mr. Howells: William Dean Howells. See Key to Correspondents.
Additional Notes
Love in the Nineteenth Century: According to Encyclopedia.com, Love in the Nineteenth Century [ 1873 ] is an "essay novel" that "presents Preston's commonsensical program for establishing a workable love relationship. Liberally interspersed throughout ... are Preston's astute critical evaluations of numerous authors and her ideas on national types, tradition, "modern" music, marriage, and feminism. The ... novel also includes a long discussion on the deficiencies of male writers' fictional portraits of women and a prediction that when women writers finally "dare" to speak their minds freely, a 'new order of things in fiction' will result."
Judge French: Henry Flagg French (1813 - 1885) was an agriculturist, inventor, lawyer, judge, postmaster, assistant district attorney, and assistant Secretary of the United States Treasury.
for the book: James Ripley Osgood (see Key to Correspondents) and "Roberts Brothers (1857–1898) both accepted Jewett's proposal to publish Deephaven (1877). See Blanchard's account of Jewett's dealings with the publishers in Sarah Orne Jewett (2002), pp. 80-1.
This letter was transcribed and annotated by C. Carroll Hollis. It appeared in "Letters of Sarah Orne Jewett to Anna Laurens Dawes," Colby Library Quarterly No. 3 (1968): 97-138. It is in the Henry L. Dawes papers, 1833-1933. BOX 10, Dawes, Anna Laurens, her correspondence and other papers, 1850-1925.
Additional notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
I have re-transcribed several of the letters appearing in Hollis's article. In his transcriptions Hollis makes more changes than I would, particularly to punctuation, but sometimes to the text. If quoting this letter is crucial to establishing a point and certainty is desired, I recommend consulting the manuscript, just as one would with any transcription.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Anna Laurens Dawes [ fragment ]
South Berwick
11 Dec 1876
Dear Anna
I am very naughty to begin a letter to you this morning: your 'friend the authoress' has other duties (not alone of a literary nature either!) but I think I am very conscientious of late, and since I have taken business before pleasure so many days -- I will do as I please now -- I have enjoyed your letter very much and it gave me an immense wish to see you. Do you realize how little we have really seen of each other, after all? ---- but who shall say that we are not 'getting acquainted'!
I was glad for a minute when I saw that your letter was postmarked Pittsfield* -- for I have been thinking
[ Page 2 ]
that you were in Boston. Ella* wrote me that she expected you soon after Thanksgiving and wished that I would come up if only for a day or two. I could not possibly go away just now, and I have been so sorry to think that I was missing you -- and that it was my last chance, for you would go to W.* later. But it seems that my fears were needless, and I am so glad, because I may have a chance of seeing you after all. I am a very lucky girl about seeing people again -- but sometimes I think it is very hard that I cannot be with my cronies more. I used to mourn over it sadly when I was growing up but now that I am older I can see how much better it has been for me. to have lived just the life I have --
[ Page 3 ]
I can understand exactly how you [ you repeated ] are both sorry and glad not to go to Washington. I should like so much to go there and see and know something of the political life -- for I never have had a chance of that sort of thing. I envy you your having been in the midst of it so much. There is certainly something in this settling of great questions, which makes one think and see farther -- than if one is under the necessity of deciding upon little things always. I think village life makes one very narrow if one is not careful. You get to thinking these trivial things the all important points in the world's history. I dont mean by this, that I am not fond of Berwick: there never was such a place in the world! ---- And are you also
[ Page 4 ]
of the same mind about Pittsfield? ^I don't mean to call Pittsfield a village!^ I know you must be fond of your home. I think too that it makes any [ place corrected ] pleasant when one cares a great deal about the way in which one lives; it is not where, but how, I think, as one grows older -- And there is no need of one's growing narrow any where if one tries to find the meaning and purpose -- and after it is certain what the work is which may be done, life cannot fail to be satisfactory -- But how one grumbles and misses things and complains, over and over again. I know I do. It seems to me that things are not apt to be grand and glorious while one is in the midst of them -- They [ get corrected ] to be familiar, and one only thinks of them in the most practical way, with little reverence. I wonder if it is not so about life
[ Page 5 ]
2
in Washington? ---- The best meaning of the action comes afterward. We seem to be always hindered from giving ourselves up wholly to admiration or to any sentiment. When one goes to the mountains, there must be unpacking and rigging oneself and all manner of smaller interests to come into the thrill and the lifting up of one's whole heart -- But when one goes away the mountains alone are remembered -- and this makes me think of something which I am always glad to remember -- a sermon of Mr. Brooks's.* Perhaps I have already told you about it? ---The text was 'And there was no room for them in the inn'* -- When the poor carpenter and his wife came to that inn at Bethlehem everybody told them that it was full. Mr. Brooks said we could not help noticing how that has been followed out ever since
[ Page 6 ]down through all the hundreds of years. No room for Christ! We find room for everything else and every body else in the busy inn of our hearts -- The Jewish farmer was [ probably corrected ] there with his money bags -- come to pay his tax. The consequential Rabbi -- the proud Roman soldiers -- and now they are all forgotten; we do not know anything about one of them except that they kept Christ out. It is just so with things we make room for! really so worthless after all and to be completely forgotten. So we cramp our souls and the doors are too low for any but little stooping thoughts to enter and the rooms ^get^ filled with rubbish, when God meant us to make them ^a^ fit temple for himself. If the people in the inn had known who was to ^be^ born how eagerly they would have made ready the best room -- If they had known it was the Lord of Lords and the
[ Page 7 ]
King of Kings, the best friend and the Saviour of us all, what a difference it would have made -- And all are too busy or too idle. We let friend after friend come into our hearts and dwell there, but it is hard to find a place for Him. I wish you could have heard that sermon Anna! I don't know that it was so powerful as some others, but it was beautiful. Have we even said to each other that we like Mr. Brooks? I like him more and more -- and I realize more how much good his preaching has done me and friends of mine -- I like him out of church, too.
So you are not 'flush' this winter any more than I! I suppose it is good for us to feel a little poor, and do you know 'Dawes-y' I would much rather not have quite enough than more than enough -- I am pretty sure we enjoy life more -- I
[ Page 8 ]think the worst thing is to have people persist that you are rolling in riches and expect you to be generous when you are giving up things you want horridly. I daresay I have more than other girls, but I don't believe there is another person in town who wants more things that she cant have, than I do! I am [ either corrected ] on the top wave of prosperity or in extreme squalor -- and whereas I shall probably get high pay in January or February for one or two stories, I haven't just now a cent to bless my self with of my own, and I know father's finances cant be [ particularly corrected ] flourishing either. Did [ anybody corrected ] ever know such hard times?* but ah, those harder times, which make one shiver, though one cannot begin to realize the horror of them! There are almost no very poor people here -- at least I do not know of any
[ Page 9 ]*
who really suffer. Shoetown* takes one class & the other factories the French -- and Indians, I was going to say! but I mean Irish -- and though there has been some cutting down and shutting down, they are not in want. When I am in Boston this winter I mean to make a point of going among poor people and to hospitals. My friend Ellen Mason* is much interested in that sort of thing -- and I have been with her some times. I should like to know more of the city poor -- and I have a great liking for hospitals.
I have been so busy since I wrote you before -- working a great deal more steadily than I ought -- for I find I cant write more than five hours a day or so long as that
[ Missing material ]*
[ Page 10 ? ]
Smiths Life by Lady Holland.* I daresay you know it -- and isn't it nice -- such an earnest purposeful life -- and so much gossip and fun beside. I never had read it before, though its not a new book by any means. By the way, I have somewhere some flowers which Fanny Kemble gave Mr. Howells* and he gave me -- would you like a dried blossom with the additional luster of having come through the hands of the illustrious [ author corrected ] of The Boy with one Shoe -- The Orchard's Grandmother and Half Done Polly?* It is two o'clock and I must say good by -- and go to work -- Do let me know when you are to be in Boston. I cant promise myself that I will be there then -- but I should like it dearly{.} I think I never wished to go to Boston more. I hope you will have a lovely visit in Worcester -- Aren't you tired?
[ Probably marginal writing ]*I don't know exactly why I ask you that. God bless you dear! and don't forget that I am
Your loving friend
Mary* sends a heap of love to you and says don't you wish Ella would have another wedding!
[ Up the left margin and across the top margin of page 5 ]I have not wished you a merry Christmas and a happy New Year. I [ meant or mean I have not told you that I send you my good wishes for those days and all your other days. Some how I dont feel as if I had half answered your letter. I can’t thank you enough for it. I have enjoyed it so much, and have learned from it too, a great deal. But I wish we could have a talk!
[ Up the left margin and part way across the top margin of page 6 ]
I hope you are minding the second division of the philosophical poem, "When it is cold you must not scold!" Isn't that funny?
Notes
Pittsfield: Pittsfields, MA, was the home of the Dawes family, but at this time, when her father was in Congress, they resided in Washington, DC during legislative sessions.
Ella: Ella Walworth Little. See Key to Correspondents.
W: Washington, DC.
Brooks's: Phillips Brooks. See Key to Correspondents.
"And there was no room for them in the inn": Phillips Brooks published this sermon for Christmas Eve in Sermons for the Principal Festivals and Fasts of the Church Year (1895), pp. 72-84.
hard times: Jewett refers to what has come to be called "The Long Depression," a world-wide price and economic recession that lasted from 1873 until at least 1879.
Page 9: This page is missing from the Library of Congress manuscript. The transcription of this page is by C. Carroll Hollis, from his article. See below.
Shoetown: This is the area around the Cummings Shoe Factory, built in 1871 in South Berwick.
Ellen Mason: See Key to Correspondents.
missing material: It seems clear that part of this letter is missing. Hollis did not find it when he worked with this manuscript.
Holland: A Memoir of the Reverend Sidney Smith. By His Daughter, Lady Holland. Two Volumes. London, 1855. Identified by Hollis.
Fanny Kemble gave Mr. Howells: For William Dean Howells, see Key to Correspondents.
Wikipedia says: Frances Anne "Fanny" Kemble (1809 - 1893) "was a notable British actress from a theatre family in the early and mid-19th century. She was a well-known and popular writer, whose published works included plays, poetry, eleven volumes of memoirs, travel writing and works about the theatre." Kemble married an American cotton planter in 1834 and separated from him in 1847. She returned to England in 1877.
The Boy with one Shoe -- The Orchard's Grandmother and Half Done Polly: "The Boy with One Shoe" appeared in The Independent in October 1871. "The Orchard's Grandmother" was in Merry's Museum, May 1871. "Half-Done Polly" appeared in The Independent in October 1871 and was colleced in Play Days (1878).
marginal writing: Hollis saw this when he transcribed this letter, but this material now is missing. Probably it was in the margin of the missing page 9.
Mary: Mary Rice Jewett. See Key to Correspondents.
"When it is cold you must not scold!": This "philosophical" poem was published anonymously in several newspapers in 1876 (and perhaps earlier). Sometimes attributed to James Whitcomb Riley (1849-1916), the verse has been anthologized frequently in collections for children.
WeatherThe last two lines often vary to read: "Be thankful together, whatever the weather."
If the weather is wet we must not fret.
If the weather is dry we must not cry.
If the weather is warm, we must not storm.
If the weather is cold, we must not scold.
Whatever the weather, we are friends together.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Library of Congress, in the Henry L. Dawes papers, 1833-1933. BOX 10, Dawes, Anna Laurens, her correspondence and other papers, 1850-1925. An annotated transcription appears in C. Carroll Hollis, "Letters of Sarah Orne Jewett to Anna Laurens Dawes," Colby Library Quarterly No. 3 (1968): 97-138.
New transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Mary S. Fuller to Sarah Orne Jewett
Concord, N. H. Dec. 12 [ 1876 ]*
My dear Sarah
I am determined that the year shant come to a close & find your lovely letter of so long [ ago ? ] still unanswered. I have been meaning to write you [ unrecognized words ] ever since you disappointed me so by not [ coming ? ] to Concord. It really was a great trial to my soul to have you not only go to visit Sallie* the minute I had left but then when my hopes were
[ Page 2 ]
raised & I was depending upon seeing you here, to have that pleasure elude my grasp. Do, dear Sarah, plan to come sometime within the next six months while I am here. Will you not? A good long talk with you would be such a pleasant thing! Isn't it funny to think ^I am^ here in Concord -- & I am enjoying it ever so much, too. I have a very nice little class [ unrecognized words ] me in the mornings & then I take German & French lessons, one or the other every day except Saturday. That keeps me quite busy, but aside from those, I am dipping into skating & sleigh riding driving [ so this appears ] & [ unrecognized word ] having a
[ Page 3 ]
a [ two unrecognized words ] jolly time. -- I see your friends [ several unrecognized words ] ^[ Walter ? ]^ & Miss Fiske* very often. They come here every Monday night to a series of readings we are having of the old English poets. Coz. Annie* has invited a number of young ladies to come -- We are reading Chaucer at present & enjoying it.
What about your Deephaven Stories?* Are they really to be published in a book? How delightful, & when will it be out? Then what else have you been writing? Please, if you have written any more little poems send me a copy of them -- You don't know how much pleasure I have had myself, & have given to others by the little
[ Page 4 ]
verse on the "Buttercup & Daisy", & "Together" --* And I want to be sure to know if you have written any others --
I had a letter this morning from my friend Fannie Bates of Westfield* whom I wish you might know & like -- & I thought that one of the really hard things in life to bear is the necessary separation from many of the friends we love best -- They are scattered about in so many, many places & at most we can only have them at long intervals for a little time -- How it is one of the very lovely parts of another life, that we shan't be separated by space from those we love!
Do you expect to go to Boston anywhere about Xmastide? If so, we must meet. My plan is to go to Boston next week Friday to remain over
[ Written in the margins and across p. 1, starting at the bottom of the left margin ]
New Year's -- & I want to see everything I can of my friends then -- How lovely it would be if among the very new things to happen, seeing you could be among them! With all good wishes for you dear, always believe me most aff'ly yr friend
Mary S. Fuller
[ Apparently a post script, cross-written on the lower left portion of page 1 ]Notes
Do forgive my sending you so hurried a letter. It is too bad, but I really just have enough time to write [ this ! ? ]
I hope you wont be quite so [ hurrying ? ] as I have [ been ? ] --
Concord, N. H. Dec. 12: On the microfilm, this information is very difficult to read, especially as Fuller has cross-written the first page. This information is supplied on the catalog page for this letter. As Fuller speaks of the expected publication of Jewett's Deephaven, which was in the spring of 1877, this letter almost certainly was composed in December of 1876.
Sallie: This person has not yet been identified.
Walter ... Miss Fiske: Walter has not yet been identified. Miss Fiske almost certainly is Mary Walker Fisk. See Key to Correspondents.
Coz. Annie: This person has not yet been identified.
Chaucer: British poet Geoffrey Chaucer (c. 1343-1400), author of The Canterbury Tales.
Deephaven Stories: Jewett's novel, Deephaven appeared in 1877.
"Buttercup & Daisy", & "Together": The "buttercup and daisy" poem is "Discontent," which first appeared in St. Nicholas (3:247) February 1876. "Together" first appeared in Atlantic Monthly (35:590) May 1875.
Fannie Bates of Westfield: This person remains unidentified. Westfield is a common town name in New England, as Fannie Bates is a common woman's name. Were Mary Fuller's identity known with certainty, more of her friends and family could be identified.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Columbia University (New York) Library in Special Collections, Jewett. Transcription from a microfilm copy and annotation by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to James R. OsgoodSouth Berwick, Me.
15 Dec. 1876
My dear Mr. Osgood
Cannot you write me within a few days about my book? -- I cannot make my plans for my writing unless I know yours, and I am putting off some other work on account of this. I do not even know if you care to publish Deephaven Cronies,* and if you do not, I ought to make an arrangement with someone else if it is to come out in
[ Page 2 ]
the early spring -- I wish to know very much if you approved the plan of which I told you -- that is if you care for the book -- and -- but I will not repeat my questions. I beg your pardon for any annoyance that I give you; but I am getting hindered in my work, because I don't know what I am to do, and nothings seems to be settled --
Perhaps you have been waiting to see the last sketches? If you have not found time to look them over yet, I can tell you now, frankly, that they are neither better nor worse than
[ Page 3 ]
the first 'Cronies' & the 'Excursions',* and if you are satisfied with those,* with my idea of rearranging them -- I think you will be with these.
yrs sincerely,
Sarah O. Jewett
Mr. Osgood --
Notes
Deephaven Cronies: Jewett's first novel, Deephaven, appeared in 1877, published by James R. Osgood.
'Cronies' & the 'Excursions': Jewett's "Deephaven Cronies"appeared in Atlantic in September 1875; "Deephaven Excursions" appeared in September 1876, also in Atlantic.
This manuscript of this letter is held by Archives and Special Collections, Amherst College Library, in the Miscellaneous Manuscripts Collection. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
James Ripley Osgood to Sarah Orne Jewett
[ Begin letterhead, underlined portions handwritten ]
Cathedral Building,
Washing Square, Boston.
[Graphic design
elements]*
Entrance 220 Devonshire St.,
and 213 Franklin St.
Boston, Dec 16 1876
[ End letterhead ]
Dear Miss Jewett
Pardon my delay in writing you, and set it down to the "busy season".
We accept your book* and will publish it in the spring. Let us have the copy as soon as you can after January 1st.
Very truly yours
J R Osgood
Notes
Letterhead: This letterhead has an elaborate design. Within a horizontally oriented oval at top center are grouped two piles of books, in front a pile of 4 visible volumes, the top titled "JAMES R OSGOOD & CO PUBLISHERS BOSTON"; beneath this pile are certificates, the visible one with the words "ART EDUCATION." Behind this pile is a row of six volumes. Below the oval is a banner within which is this text: "Late Ticknor & Fields and Fields, Osgood &Co".
book: Jewett's first novel, Deephaven (1877).
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 170. I. Letters to Sarah Orne Jewett.
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Theophilus ParsonsSouth Berwick
22 De. 1876
Dear Prof. Parsons
The reason I have not written you is that I have had to work very hard all the time. Mr. Osgood wants the book 'copy' to be ready as early in January as possible and I did not suppose that I should have to send it before the middle of February. I find it hard work, for I was tired when I began, and this rearranging and rewriting bothers me a great deal more because I am not used to it. However, everything is going on very pleasantly and Mr. Osgood is very kind, and I am contented. I don't do much except write, as you may imagine -- and I shall be glad to take a little vacation by and by -- for I have never worked so [ to ] steadily for so long. I shall take the copy to Mr. Osgood myself when it is ready, for I think it will be a much better way than to arrange the business by endless letter-writing. I am going to try to have some pretty covers on the book -- and to have it nice looking -- for I think it makes a great difference with many people. I am trying my best to make the inside of the book good -- you may be sure! I have been writing some other stories since I wrote you last -- one for the Independent called Patty's Long Vacation -- which is about the same "Patty" who had a "Dull Christmas" last year -- and another is called Lady Fery [ story title is "Lady Ferry" ] -- which Mr. Howells is looking at now. It completely fascinated me, but I am not at all sure that the story is a success. I have begun some other things but I had to leave them just where they were when I found how I must hurry with the Deephaven Cronies.
It was a great satisfaction to me to know that you approved my deciding to go to Mr.Osgood. I ought to have written at once to thank you for your letter and I meant to do so. Just at that time I had to be pretty careful for my eyes were not strong, and I have been neglecting my letters at any rate, for one can put those off until 'tomorrow' always. But if I did not tell you so, you may be sure I am none the less grateful.
I am getting rather low spirited about the book. I dare say it is because I am so tired of it myself that I am perfectly sure it will seem as dull to everybody else as to me. One needs to be very fresh and to feel very 'jolly' to do such work as this, do not you think so? I wish it were in October and that I had just come home from York. I am out of the spirit of Deephaven life -- though I am more interested and it seems more real to me than it did a week ago. I'm going down to Portsmouth to spend a day with Georgie Halliburton!* I think that will be a great time. I suppose I shall be in Boston to see Mr. Osgood about the fifteenth of January -- but it will be only for a day and night, and I am afraid I shall not get out to Cambridge -- the days are so short. But I am to make some visits in Boston and one in Concord in February and I shall hope to see you then certainly.
I hope your eyes are better, indeed I hope they are quite well. Will you please tell Miss Sabra* that I hear once in a while from Mrs. Coale and that she and Miss Julia* seem as delighted as ever with their travels. Mrs. Coale is always so enthusiastic about Rome -- which seems to be her heart's delight. I wish you a merry Christmas and the happiest of New Years. With love, yours always sincerely
Sarah
NotesMr. Osgood: James Ripley Osgood. See Key to Correspondents. The book is Deephaven (1877), though Jewett refers to it in this letter by her working title, Deephaven Cronies.
Mr. Howells: William Dean Howells. See Key to Correspondents.
"Patty's Long Vacation" …"Lady Ferry": "Patty's Long Vacation" appeared in The Independent (28:25) on May 23, 1878. "Lady Ferry" first appeared in Old Friends and New (1879).
Georgie Halliburton: Georgina Halliburton. See Key to Correspondents.
Mrs. Coale … Miss Julia: The identities of these people are not known. Jewett mentions them again in a letter to Susan Manning Haven of 30 May 1892, where she gives Julia's surname as Bell. Both appear on a list of Bostonian subscribers to the Massachusetts Infant Asylum in 1868: Annual Report of the Directors of the Massachusetts Infant Asylum. There it appears that Miss Bell may be related to a Mrs. Joseph Bell.
Miss Sabra: For Mary Sabra Parsons, see Theophilus Parsons in Key to Correspondents.The manuscript of this letter is held by Special Collections at Colby College. It was transcribed by the owner of the manuscripts before they were given to Colby College, Henry Ellicott Magill (b. 1902) of Pasadena, CA, who also may have made handwritten corrections to the transcriptions. Further corrections, notes and annotations by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Francis Jackson Garrison to Sarah Orne Jewett
[ Begin letterhead ]
H. O. HOUGHTON AND COMPANY'S PERIODICALS.
The Atlantic Monthly and Portrait of Longfellow or Bryant..... $5 a year. The Atlantic Monthly ..... 4.00 "
U. S. Official Postal Guide, quarterly.....
1.50 "
American Law Times and Reports, monthly .....
6.00 '
America Naturalist, monthly .....
4.00 "
Boston Medical and Surgical Journal, weekly .....
5.00 "
Hurd and Houghton
12 Astor Place,
New York.
H. O. Houghton and Company
cor. Beacon Someset sts.
Boston
The Riverside Press,
CAMBRIDGE, MASS.
Dec. 27 1876*
[ End letterhead ]
Miss Sarah O. Jewett
South Berwick, Me.
Dear Madam: We have been contemplating the issue of a series of Atlantic stories in handy & popular form, & had we decided on them before now, your Deephaven sketches* would have been among those papers which we should have selected for reprinting. We may still carry out our idea, but have no wish to keep you waiting on an uncertainty, & so cheerfully give our consent to your reproducing them in book form as proposed, through Msfrs. Osgood & Co. We remain, with best wishes for its success,
Yours very truly,
H. O. Houghton & Co.
F. J. G.
Notes
1876: The underlined portions of the letterhead were written in by hand.
Deephaven sketches: Jewett's first novel, Deephaven (1877) was built out of sketches that had appeared in Atlantic.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library of Harvard University: Sarah Orne Jewett Correspondence I, Letters to Sarah Orne Jewett.
Houghton & Co., H.O. 1 letter; 1876. (100).
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 James R. Osgood
South Berwick
29 Dec. 1876
Dear Mr. Osgood:
I have a letter from Messrs Houghton & Co* telling me that they have been thinking of reprinting some of the Atlantic stories and should have chosen the Deephaven sketches* for one of the little books. But they have no wish to keep me waiting since there is uncertainty about the time and "cheerfully give their consent to my reproducing them in book-form as proposed through Messrs Osgood & Co -- " with their best wishes for my success. I am very
[ Page 2 ]
glad I wrote to them, since with this plan of theirs, they would have thought me very rude!
I wish to tell you too, that I must be later than the tenth of January with my 'copy' for I have been sick :and have lost some of my time. I hope not much later however.
Mr. Howells* thinks I had better not try to have the last chapters I wrote published first in the Atlantic. He says they will not do so well for a magazine as the others did -- standing by themselves, but he praises them most kindly for the book. I was afraid myself
[ Page 3 ]
that they would not do -- and that it would make a great deal of trouble for I have only one good copy of the chapters and [ that would corrected ] be wanted at both places! Mr. Howells says beside, that it is much better to have the book partly new, which seems to me very sensible -- for the people who have it all in the Atlantic would not be particularly eager to buy it -- Would you rather see these chapters [ for corrected ] yourself? I should not like for you to be dissatisfied with having accepted the book. Or if you were to think of it when you see Mr. Howells he would tell you -- Though I am sure he would have told me if he thought they had
[ Page 4 ]
better be re-written -- for he knows, I think, that I wish to do my work just as well as I can --
Yours sincerely
Sarah O. Jewett.
Notes
Houghton & Co: Later named Houghton, Mifflin & Company, this publisher printed the rest of Jewett's books after the James R. Osgood Co. published her first.
Deephaven sketches: Jewett published three sketches set in the fictional town of Deephaven, Maine in Atlantic Monthly between September 1873 and September 1876. These were collected with extensive additions and revisions in her first novel, Deephaven 1877.
Mr. Howells: William Dean Howells. See Key to Correspondents.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Haverford College Library in the Roberts Collection. It has been transcribed previously by David Bonnell Green in "Two Letters of Sarah Orne Jewett." Notes and Queries 5 (1958): 361-362. New transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Edited by Terry Heller, Coe College.
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