Sarah Orne Jewett to Theophilus Parsons
South Berwick
7 Jan. 1877
Dear Prof. Parsons:
I have not much that's new to tell
you, but I feel like writing to you. I am getting on very well
with my book though I have been sick since I wrote you last, and
am getting tired. I hope to get through sometime next week and I
shall be delighted. I have been in Deephaven* altogether lately,
and not in Berwick! If it had not been for my taking such a
horrid cold it would have been easier -- still I believe it was
a great deal better that I had to stop for a little while -- and
I really am not so tired now as I was before. I like
what I know of Mr. Osgood* very much indeed and am quite
contented which is a good thing. As for the new writing: I have
one chapter about the widow Jim Patton -- who was a factotum of
Miss Brandon's -- "Kate's" aunt who owned the house -- for I
thought there ought to be one old woman gossip -- as I have so
many old sailors and 'longshore men. Then I have a new beginning
and a new last chapter -- and ever so many bits to put in all
the way along. As I told you, I am going to Boston to see Mr.
Osgood myself and attend to whatever business there is. I think
the 'copy' will make two hundred pages of the size we had in
mind -- and I am glad, for Mr. Osgood at first thought there
might be hardly enough. I am going to make a point of having
pretty covers. I did not know when I wrote you before how near I
might have been to a worse complication about the publisher. I
wrote to Houghton and Co. for permission to use the printed
sketches in the Atlantic thinking it a mere formality --
and while they gave permission most cheerfully and wished me
good luck -- they said they had intended to republish Deephaven
themselves but had no wish to keep me waiting for it was
uncertain as to time! It would be a pity if the book should be a
failure. But I never have expected it to be 'popular'; it is not
that kind of book. If my friends like it and Mr. Osgood loses no
money I shall be very glad -- and of course I should like it to
be a pleasant success. I do not think I am sensitive about my
work. I can understand those sketches being dull to a great many
people who like a plot rather than a plan -- and more of a
'story'. When I am in Boston in February I hope I shall see you
more than once. I am looking forward to my visits with the
greatest pleasure. Goodbye Yours with love
Sarah
I hope Mrs. Parsons has no return of
her last winter's illness.
Notes
Deephaven: Jewett's first novel, Deephaven,
was published by James R. Osgood & Co. in 1877.
Mr. Osgood: James Ripley Osgood. See
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.
Lilian May Munger to Sarah Orne Jewett
Farmington Me.
Jan. 11, 1877
Dear Sarah:
When I feel so tired as I do tonight I always
wish for you, and then it is such a comfort to read one of
your letters. I very often think when wishing for you, that
I could have no letters if I were right there with you all the
time. You can never tell, Sarah, unless you have experienced
[at the intending that ? ] same feeling at some
period of your life, when you were groping between light and dark,
what a peace and happiness always comes to me with one of your
letters. A sweet assurance that
[ Page 2 ]
one for whom I care very much feels an interest in me, and
no thought in the world is so exquisitely direct. Then, too, such
an [assuagement ?] as I always get. I have been
wondering this week if mother can see any difference in
me. I want to see the fruit. That little
discovery of Leslie's "Perhaps all may not be learned"*
went to my heart with a peculiar force. It seemed to me that
I could appreciate the feeling of joy not unalloyed, however, with
doubt, with which she hailed the thought. There are many
sweet thoughts all through, but as you say, one cannot take it all
in at a first reading. Don't you think Leslie was rather too
[ Page 3 ]
good for one just beginning to think, and didn't [ she ? ]
Lin Laxard* change rather suddenly? I mean didn't
she ^was not her entire^ forget^fulness^ of herself in
her care for the others, rather to be wondered at, as with most
people, is it that easy to do what is right? I think
"Delight" is lonely. To me, the hardest thing that Leslie
did (and the most heroic) was to formally sever herself from her
own friends although conscious that this cause was not wholly
approved {by} them, and in order to promote the happiness of
others less favored than herself. I am going to read the
book again in vacation. It does me lots of good every time I
take it up. But my conscience, and
[ Page 4 ]
my maternal relative point to the clock, and I fear I must
yield. I think I might succeed in guiding the former but the
latter remains obdurate and for my tomorrow's credit I
acquiesce. Just let me say that your last letter was heavenly
-- only I was so sorry to hear that you had been sick. I
hope you didn't take cold by going fishing in a snow storm!
For your own welfare, please let me remind you of the very
excellent advice you have given me, on being careful of
myself. Then I am so glad you are getting along so nicely
with Deephaven.* What a pretty name that is. I should
think it would be very taking. Love to all and
[ Up the right margin of page 4 ]
many many thanks too [ Yours last with love ? ]*
[ Upper left margin of p. 1, written down
from left margin ]
Ellen
[ Unrecognized name, possibly Willamena ]
[ Lucia ? ]*
Notes
Leslie: Munger refers to A Summer in Leslie Goldthwaite's Life (1866),
by Adeline Dutton Train Whitney (1824-1906).
[ she ? ]: This part of the letter is
quite puzzling. Munger seems fairly clearly to write "Lin
Laxard," or "Laxand," where I have placed "she," which seems to be
the word called for by the context. There is no character in
Whitney's novel with such a name, and it would seem odd for Munger
to shift attention to another character while reflecting on
Leslie.
"Delight": Cousin Delight is a character in A
Summer in Leslie Goldthwaite's Life .
love ? : The letter appears to be unsigned, though
there may be an initial "L" at the end of this line.
Lucia ?: The meaning of this seeming list of names
is not known, nor is it clear that it is in Munger's hand.
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 Theophilus Parsons
South Berwick
7 February 1877
Dear Prof. Parsons --
I wish I could have gone out to see
you week before last when I went to Boston with the
book,* but I was so tired and sick that I came home in a few
days without finishing my visits. I overworked myself, and have
just begun to feel like myself again, though I am not yet
strong. I did not know how very tired I was until the book was
done. Everything seems to be going on nicely, and I like Mr.
Osgood* very much. I have never repented of my choice though
perhaps you will say that it is rather early to know the
practical result of it, and that I shall be surer of my
publisher when l know how the book sells (not that he will be to
blame for its failure!) It is to be out before long: in March
probably. I have had two packages of proofs, and the book is to
be two hundred and forty pages long -- the name is to be simply
Deephaven. I called it at first Deephaven Cronies as I
told you I should, and I still have a lingering fondness for the
name though perhaps it is not quite so 'high-toned', as they say
in Philadelphia! I am going to Boston to see Mr. Osgood, (if I
am well enough) next week and afterward to Concord for a little
visit and then I shall be in Boston again for a few days. I
shall hope to see you -- there is so much I wish to ask and to
tell you. It seems a great while since I saw you and it was for
only a few minutes anyway -- in October. I hope that your eyes
do not trouble you as you said they did when I last heard from
you. I think it the hardest thing to be patient about, at least
it is harder for me -- not to be able even to read!
I have a great deal to tell you about
my book, and I wish so much that I were talking with you! I have
thought so often of your telling me to be careful, and to make
it just as good as possible in every way. Truly, I have done my
work as well as I possibly could and if it is not lucky I shall
be sorry of course, but not half so sorry for myself as for my
friends who have been so kind and taken so much interest in me
and what I am trying to do. I think you know just how I feel
about it.
I should like to write longer, but it
is growing late and I am tired and stupid. It is an odd thing to
happen to me but I find it takes a great effort to write at all
lately. I begin with so much to say, and think I will cover
three or four sheets but I can only say there is more affection
than letter! With love yours sincerely
Sarah
Notes
the book: Jewett's first novel, Deephaven,
was published by James R. Osgood & Co. in 1877.
Mr. Osgood: James Ripley Osgood. See
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 and annotations by Terry
Heller, Coe College.
Caroline Augusta Jewett to Sarah Orne Jewett
Friday morning
[
Late winter 1877 ]*
write often
Dear Sarah:
I send you a letter from Seeger* that came
yesterday. I should like to know how many letters I have
sent you in the last week. This week of dissipation is
nearly at an end, & I am not sorry, for I do not think so
much unsteadiness agrees with me! It is a gray morning
but I hope it will clear in time for the "Pound Party."*
We are going to meet at the [entry
?], and then [
unrecognized
word ] in upon the unhappy victims, about the time we
usually go to Bible class. I am going to take a pound of
writing paper, and I believe Carrie intends taking some coffee
but am not sure. I shall be thankful when it is all
over. Last night we went to the Baptist Fair,* & had
a very nice time. The place was crowded full of people,
and they seemed to be selling off their things very
[ Page 2 ]
fast. Becca Youngs* class had the prettiest table.
And all the most expensive things on it sold at once.
Carrie* & I tried to get one or two things, but found they
were already engaged. Poor Miss Lizzie Parks* looked
tired out, and so did Sister Bailey* & several [
deleted
word ] of the hard workers. Miss Lizzie told me
that they sold 415 tickets so you may imagine there was
something of a crowd.
Tonight
she Mr. Malloy*
and a lot of the Salmon Falls ne'er do wells have invited that
miserable Sam Downing* (whose mother was burned up last
winter) to give a lecture over ^here^ in the hall & have
engaged the band to escort him over! Carrie says there
is a poster down the street with words a foot long, setting
forth the glories that may be expected. I should think
those men might be better employed but you can't help laughing
at them{.}
[ Page 3 ]
Carrie is going to Brunswick* Monday I
believe, but I have no idea when she means to come home.
Your Ma is in the full tide of happiness
over a plate of cake I brought from the Fair! I saw lots
of old Baptists last night that I have not seen for
years. Sarah Hayman went! George Tompsons small
boy* broke his leg, sliding, and is likely to prove a
discipline and a dispensation of Providence* to your Pa, by
reason of his peculiarities of temper. John* is
assistant surgeon to his great delight. The sleighing
has departed very fast, but we still scratch round in sleighs
because the drifts ^out of town^ are still too bad for a
wagon. I saw Mary Esther go by to her school in a buggy
this morning, which does not promise very well for our plan of
going over to Geo Wentworths* in a sleigh{.}
[ Page 4 ]
I wish [that
corrected] owl never had been heard of,
for I have been over there three times without finding Geo
Wentworth at home and the two women over there do not seem to
have wit enough to ask him about the owls so that I can know
about them. Father had a letter from Uncle John*
yesterday but there was no news in it that I can remember.
Mary* has gone in [pursuit
?] of your Pa to give him a
telegram from Exeter to see a Mrs [Babbit
?]* whom he
went to see day before yesterday and there is very little time
before the cars leave so [
three unrecognized words
] to send the letters off. I hope you are enjoying yourself
and wont get tired or take cold{.} glad to learn you are
[rested
?] and hope you will come home quickly
with love from your Mother
Notes
Late winter 1877: This letter could have been
composed in almost any year from about 1875, when John Tucker
came to the Jewetts, through 1878, when Jewett's father died
in September. I have chosen 1877 because by then,
Jewett's sister Carrie at age 22 was not yet married, but was
old enough to travel on her own to Brunswick, and because
Jewett was away from home in Boston during part of March that
year. However, in February of 1878, she was in
Washington, DC. While this would be early for the Maine
weather Mrs. Jewett describes, it would not be impossible for
the snow to disappear in February.
Seeger: C. Carroll Hollis says that Seeger probably is
Harriet Foot Seeger (b. 1843?), a schoolteacher friend of the
Jewetts from Boston. She may be the daughter of
Adonijah and Clarissa (Woodworth) Foot.
"Pound Party": A pound party typically would be
given for newlyweds or as a welcome to new neighbors.
Participants each would bring one pound of some useful item,
such as writing paper.
Carrie: Jewett's sister, Caroline, who later
married Ned Eastman. See
Key
to Correspondents.
Baptist Fair: A church organized event usually to
raise funds for the church or some other cause.
Becca Youngs: Rebecca Young. See
Key
to Correspondents.
Miss Lizzie Parks: Probably
Elizabeth Cutts Parks (1831-1918),
mentioned in
The Placenames of South Berwick, pp. 72,
82, a near Jewett neighbor. According to this account,
her family helped to found the First Baptist Church of South
Berwick in the early 19th century.
Sister Bailey: Sarah Orne Jewett refers to a
Hattie Bailey in a letter of 1874. However, neither
Hattie nor Sister Bailey has yet been identified.
Mr. Malloy ... Sam Downing: Possibly Mrs. Jewett
refers to Charles Malloy, owner of a Boots and Shoes shop in
the business block of South Berwick. A resident of
nearby Rollinsford, NH, He married Ellen Jane Wentworth (b.
1836), his second wife, in 1853. In 1858, he was
secretary of the Masons Granite Lodge No. 65 at Salmon Falls,
NH. If he is the right "Mr. Malloy," then the meeting he
arranged may have been held in either of two meeting halls,
recently constructed after the 1870 fire that destroyed much
of the South Berwick business block: the Masonic Hall or the
Newichawannock Hall. See
The Placenames of South
Berwick, p. 96.
Sam Downing has not been identified, though
he may be a local politician, Samuel Downing, who, for a
number of years, served in the New Hampshire house of
representatives from New Durham. Given Mrs. Jewett's amusement
at the group, it may be that the meeting was about temperance
and the
Maine Law of 1851.
Brunswick: Presumably Brunswick, ME, where
she could visit with Jewett relatives, the Charles Gilman
family. See
Key
to Correspondents.
Sarah Hayman ... George Tompsons small boy: Probably
this is Sarah Hayman (c. 1814-1895), wife or sister
of Edward Hayman (c. 1813 - 1871). The
identity of George Thompson remains unknown. A person of that name who died in 1892 was
buried in South Berwick.
a discipline and a dispensation of Providence: In
Christian religious discourse, a dispensation of Providence is a
choice made by God regarding a human's fate. Mrs. Jewett
speculates, perhaps humorously, that the injured boy will test Dr.
Jewett in a spiritual way.
John: This may be John Tucker, a long-time Jewett
family employee. See Key
to Correspondents.
Mary Esther ... Geo Wentworths: Mary Esther Cushing
(b. 1831) was sister and assistant to Olive Raynes, who for more than 50 years
taught elementary students at her private school in South
Berwick.
The Wentworths, like the Lords, were a very
large and complex family in the South Berwick area. Which
George Wentworth Mrs. Jewett refers to is not yet known.
Mary: Mary Rice Jewett. See Key
to Correspondents.
Uncle John: John Taylor Gilman Perry, Mrs. Jewett's
brother. See Dr. William Gilman Perry in Key
to Correspondents.
Exeter ... Mrs [Babbit ?]: The
identity of Mrs. Babbit, if this is the correct transcription,
remains unknown.
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.
Mary Rice Jewett to Sarah Orne Jewett
Wednesday
[ 28 February 1877 ]*
Dear Sarah:
I have just sent a letter to Carrie,* and
suppose you will like to hear the particulars too. Did you
get the letter I sent to Concord Monday morning? I was
afraid it would not reach there until after you left, but did not
know where else to send it. It must be lovely in Boston this
-- [ so punctuated ] morning & I would like to be
there myself.
It is hard work to tell whether to go out in a
wagon or sleigh here for some roads are all bare, and others full
of drifts. Yesterday afternoon John* took me down to Mrs
Goodwins,* and
[ Page 2 ]
then I walked over to the Yeatons* where he called for me.
Mary Yeaton looks as if she would not live three months but more
likely she will live to be sixty as her mother did. I
shouted at Carrie* until I made my throat ache, and I felt as if I
had been working hard all day, and yet she was not as deaf as
usual. Mr. Lewis* was very sick Monday night with a severe
chill and aching all over, but yesterday he was nicely
again. I must go and inquire for his riverence [so
written] today. Lucia and Annie Barker* spent most of
the afternoon here yesterday, and were very pleasant. Mr
Potter* lectured here last
[ Page 3 ]
evening, but I did not feel moved to go. Mr. Eastman* made
us a call and announced with a face as long as a yardstick that he
missed Carrie dreadfully. His expression was very funny{;}
he was so solemn over it. Augusta* concluded the other night
at the Fair, that Freddy Neally and his adored Jennie* had had a
misunderstanding for he was sitting at one table with Maria Lord*
eating oysters and she at another with some other small boy;
Mary Nealley* has been pecking at me for three or four days
because she did not know about the party at Mr Lewis's until Aunt
[ Ben ? ] told her Tuesday{.}
[ Page 4 ]
Evidently she does not think three days notice sufficient.
She said it was a onesider [so written] affair for only
half the people knew about it! She found out her mistake
when she got there! I have only seen Mrs. Knight* once since
she came. For a wonder she has not been in, though she is
out nearly every day. I am going up to Great Falls bye &
by to match some worsted, and for John to collect some [ties ?]
{.} We went week before last on the latter errand and [had corrected
] great luck. I hear the Baptists made $150. do
from their fair last week. I am so glad they succeeded [so written
over to] well. I have not seen Miss Lizzie Parks
since.* Mrs [Potter ?] and
[ Page 5 ]
two of her children have been here since last Thursday, & I
suppose Mr. Potter came yesterday so she must be very busy --
Did I tell you that Mr. Kneeland* was
is to join the church next Sunday? I believe the Methodists
have a revival preacher down there this week, but have not heard
anything ^more^ about it.
Mr William* is coming to dinner to day.
He was asking for you with uncommon interest Sunday. Carrie
sent a postal card yesterday to announce her safe arrival and I
hope we will have a letter to day. You must have had a
delightful visit in Concord and I know your Boston one will be no
less pleasant. Have you heard anything of Aunt Longs*
intentions? Did she mention
[ Page 6 ]
a week, or am I mistaken? Your Cousin Freelands* letter lies
before me still unanswered. I must take heart of grace and write
the poor child today.
Give a great deal of love to all my friends. Where are you?
Yours affly, M.R.J.
Notes
28 February 1877: The Columbia identification page
indicates that the envelope was cancelled on 28 February,
addressed to 5 Walnut St. in Boston, the address of Grace Gordon.
See Key
to Correspondents.
The year is inferred from a related letter of
10 March 1877, in which MRJ reports on the delay of Mr. Kneeland
joining the church.
Carrie: Carrie Jewett Eastman, though in 1877, she
had not yet married Edwin Eastman. See Key
to Correspondents.
John: John Tucker. See Key
to Correspondents.
Mrs Goodwins: Probably this is Sophia Elizabeth Hayes
Goodwin, who lived in Oldfields, at some distance from the Jewett
house, near the Hamilton House. See Pirsig, The
Placenames of South Berwick, p. 28 map and pp. 31-2.
Yeatons ... Mary Yeaton ... Carrie: The Yeaton family
was prominent in South Berwick. Pirsig's maps, pp. 21 and 28, show
the location of Mrs. Goodwin's house and show Yeatons living
nearby, near the Oldfields cemetery and the Yeaton Mills. Isaac P. Yeaton (1805-1886) operated the
mills during Jewett's lifetime. His wife was Caroline M.
Yeaton (1828-1912), who may be the deaf "Carrie" Jewett refers
to. However, Mary remains unidentified.
Mr. Lewis: George Lothrop Lewis. See Key
to Correspondents.
Lucia and Annie Barker: Lucia may be Lucia Nason, who
is mentioned in a letter to Sarah Orne Jewett of 10 May
1900. Annie Barker is known to have been a neighbor.
Whether she is connected with a South Berwick choir director,
Elizabeth Ann Barker, born c. 1805, is not known.
Mr. Potter: While this cannot be certain, it seems
possible that Jewett refers to the Reverend James H. Potter, D.D. (1828-1903), who seems
sometimes to have presented temperance lectures. His wife
was Sybil Ann Stevens (1831-1917).
Mr. Eastman: Edwin Eastman. See Key
to Correspondents.
Augusta: This may be Augusta Maria Denny Tyler, but
the use of her first name suggests that this is a friend younger
than the Jewett sisters. See Key
to Correspondents. Other women named Augusta and
living in South Berwick in 1877 include: Augusta A. Goodwin (1846-1932), Augusta
Wadleigh, and Augusta Ferguson.
Freddy Neally ...his adored Jennie ... Maria Lord ... Mary
Nealley ... Aunt [ Ben ? ]: MRJ seems
to vary spelling between Neally and Nealley. Freddy is
likely to be Fred Thomas Nealley (1855-1892). If this is
the right person, then he did not marry "Jennie," who remains
unidentified. He married Addie Estelle Mitchell (1861-1912). It
is likely that Mary Nealley is his mother, a Jewett cousin, Mary Elizabeth Jewett.
The Lord family is so extensive that
identifying any individual with certainty usually is quite
difficult. "A. Maria Lord" is listed as a pupil of the
Berwick Academy with the class of 1851.
Aunt Ben has not been identified. Whether
she is a Nealley aunt, a Jewett aunt, or both, is not known.
Mrs. Knight: Probably, Jewett refers to Helen Caroline Cross Knight
(1814-1906) of Portsmouth, NH. See Life and Light for Woman 37 (January
1907, pp. 33-4). Her sister, Charlotte Tilton Cross (1819-1903),
was the second wife of Elisha H. Jewett (1816-1883), who was first
cousin to Jewett's father, Theodore Herman Jewett.
Lizzie Parks: This South Berwick friend of Jewett is
mentioned in her 1869 diary, but nothing else is known about
her. An Elizabeth C. Parks is listed in the Berwick Academy
class of 1841. She may be Elizabeth Cutts Parks (1831-1918).
Note however, that she is listed for the year in which she was 10
years old.
Mr. Kneeland: Possibly Dr. Wellington E. Kneeland
(1858-1903). He married Ella M. Proal (1862-1951).
Mr William: This person is not yet identified, though it is
possible Mary Jewett refers to her maternal uncle, William
Perry. See Key
to Correspondents.
Aunt Longs: Mary Olivia Gilman Long. See Key
to Correspondents.
Cousin Freeland: A Jewett uncle on their father's
side, Dr. Charles Cogswell Jewett, (1831-1884)
married Annie Freeland (1841-1874). Their only known
child was Freeland Jewett (1865-1937). He would have
been 12 in 1877. Perhaps he is Cousin Freeland, though this
has not yet been confirmed.
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.
Mary Rice Jewett to Sarah Orne Jewett
[ Yesterday
? ] in the fore
part of the day
[
10 March 1877 ]*
Dear Sarah:
Your letter last night was very pleasant
and you may imagine we were glad to get it. Your Ma has
not yet returned and I do not know whether she is imminent
today or not. She got Carrie to write to see if Father
could come down to spend Sunday which he promptly declined
doing as he had to go to New Market* this morning and several
patients [
A line is faded nearly to invisibility; it may
read: are in various states of
unknown word.
] I do not think his mind is drawn toward Brunswick* at
this time of year any way. I hope Mother will stay over
Sunday, for she has hardly had a pleasant day since she
went. I think Minnie* will stay here over Sunday, for
[
Page 2; an exceedingly faded page,
and so a largely tentative transcription ]
which I am very glad. Frances* and I met in the
street [
unreadable words ] in the rain, which [
unreadable
words ] sounds very like the beginning of a game of
Consequences,* and she asked me if I was at [
unreadable
words ] Wednesday night & I told [
unreadable
words ] whereupon she informed me that they were
favored with a little prayer & demanded the makers
name and was told Ella Ricker!* She said she stood
bolt upright and put her hand over her eyes, and held
forth. I told Mary Esther,* said Frances [
unreadable
words ] speaking in meeting even [
unreadable
words ] to! I do not know but what it is very
[
unreadable words ] to tell all this, but you
know my mind on that subject of old, [
unreadable
words ] of the Rickers -- I send [
unreadable
words ] a copy of the new paper which
[
Page 3, a partly faded
page, with much tentative transcription ]
has a poem by Madame R__.* Father was disgusted
with me for thinking of sending it, but I thought it
would amuse you to see the town gossip [
unreadable
words ] have managed to pick up which you ever
look upon [it. Bailey* is
?] a literary man.
I did write to Georgie* the first
of the week, and received a lovely note for reply the
other day. Did I ever tell you that we saw Dr
Chase's* death in the paper the other day [
two
lines of mostly unreadable words
]. I might have known had I stopped to
think. Emma's* clock came last night all night
and is very satisfactory. You need not send
those stockings for Father will not need them until
you come. I think three pairs will be enough.
[ Page 4; a
partly faded page, with much tentative
transcription ]
I am going to send for [
unrecognized name or word
] this very day if I can get that Club list from Mrs
Doe* this morning. At any rate if I cannot get
the back numbers we can borrow them from Mrs
Doe. Mrs Knight* told me the other day that it
was [ Mrs Gordon's
? ]* birthday. Was it
really? Somehow since it has seemed to me that
Mrs K must have made a mistake. Did I tell you
that Mr. Kneeland* was to join the church last Sunday
but it was so stormy that the Communion was put off
until tomorrow?
There [
unreadable words ]
done I believe and I must go and inspect it some time
today or Mrs Griffin* will think we are not showing a
proper respect to the corpse.
I think you and Augusta* ought to
give me the credit of bearing my cross of letter
writing bravely, to say the least. Love to all
at Ella's & Walnut St.* and to all others in
authority.
[fro ? ] MRJ
The Columbia identification page indicates that the envelope was
cancelled on 10 March. Though the year of 1877 is a guess,
it has some foundation in that this letter seems to work rather
well as the one to which Sarah Orne Jewett responds in her 15
March 1877 letter to Mary.
This letter appears to have been written in
pencil, which shows very poorly in microfilm. As a result
much of the transcription is guess-work.
New Market: Newmarket is a New Hampshire town about 14
miles south of South Berwick. That Dr. Jewett's practice
took him this far from home suggests he served a large area.
Brunswick: Mrs. Jewett is presumably making a stay with her
Gilman family relatives. See Charles Jervis Gilman in Key
to Correspondents.
Minnie: Mary Walker Fisk. See Key
to Correspondents.
Frances: The identity of this person remains undiscovered.
game of Consequences: The parlor game of Consequences requires constructing a
narrative based upon a list of circumstances generated by the
players, each of whom chooses one item independent of the other
players.
Ella Ricker: Two of Jewett's South Berwick neighbors
were Maria Louisa deRochemont (Mrs. Shipley/Shepley
Wilson) Ricker (1838-1921) and her daughter, Ella Wilson
Ricker (1856- ). Mr. Ricker (1827-1905) operated a fancy
goods store in South Berwick.
Mary Esther: In a letter of 20 June 1882 (from
London) Jewett mentions learning of the death of Mary
Esther. However, her identity remains unknown.
Madame R__: Mary Rice Jewett seems to refer to a
gossipy poem in a local newspaper. Given the French name, it may
be that MRJ refers to Ella Ricker's mother, Maria Louisa
deRochemont (Mrs. Shipley/Shepley Wilson) Ricker. But thus
far, there is no confirmation of this speculation.
Bailey: This person remains unidentified. Was he
connected with a newspaper?
Georgie: Georgina Halliburton. See Key
to Correspondents.
Dr. Chase's death: This may be Dr. Charles Chase (1792-1877), a retired
U.S. Navy surgeon, who died 2 March 1877 and was buried in New
York City. He was born in Kittery, York County, Maine, and,
therefore, may have been a Jewett family acquaintance. He married
Ann Maria Rice (1793-1865), also born in
Maine, daughter of Alexander and Sarah Adams Rice, who may
have been Jewett relatives. See also: Brooklyn Daily Eagle, 8 March 1877, p. 4.
Emma's clock: The "Emma" most often referenced in
Jewett letters is Emma Harding Claflin, see Mary Bucklin
Davenport Claflin in Key
to Correspondents. there is no evidence in this letter
to suggest that Emma Claflin is staying in South Berwick at the
time of this letter, it is possible that she has sent the family a
clock. Other letters mentioning this Emma date from as early
as 1877.
Club list ... Mrs Doe: Jewett may refer to the Berwick
Women's Club. 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."
Mrs. Knight: Probably, Jewett refers to Helen Caroline Cross Knight
(1814-1906) of Portsmouth, NH. See Life and Light for Woman 37 (January
1907, pp. 33-4). Her sister, Charlotte Tilton Cross (1819-1903),
was the second wife of Elisha H. Jewett (1816-1883), who was first
cousin to Jewett's father, Theodore Herman Jewett.
Mrs Gordon: Jewett is likely visiting Grace Gordon in
Boston, at 5 Walnut Street, and it seems possible, if the
transcription is correct, that Mary Jewett is wondering about the
birthday of Grace Gordon's mother, Katherine Parker Gordon (19
March, 1804 - 22 November 1899), wife of the merchant, George
William Gordon (1801-1877), who served as Boston postmaster and
U.S. Consul at Rio de Janeiro.
Mr. Kneeland: Possibly Dr. Wellington E. Kneeland
(1858-1903). He married Ella M. Proal (1862-1951).
Mrs Griffin: This person remains unidentified. There
was a Griffin Machine Works in neighboring Rollinsford, NH.
Augusta: This may be Augusta Maria Denny Tyler, but
the use of her first name suggests that this is a friend younger
than the Jewett sisters. See Key
to Correspondents.
Ella's & Walnut St.: Probably Ella Maria
Walworth (Mrs. George Britton) Little and, at Walnut St., the
Gordon household. 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 Mary Rice Jewett
Thursday
night
15 March 1877
Dear Mary,
I was delighted to get your
letter today and delighted Mrs. Gordon’s* heart with it -- I do
think you write the best letters I know of -- I have only time
to write a few lines, but I thought you would like to
know I saw the object of your affections today -- dear Mrs.
Ellis.* She was lovely as ever and I had a very nice time. There
were several other people there at lunch but I saw a good deal
of Mrs. Claflin* & Mrs. Ellis both. Mr. Whittier* was there
but he is not well and after he talked to me a few minutes after
lunch he went up stairs. Mrs. Ellis has had a real hard time.
Addie* has not been out yet and Mary & Annie* have both been
sick too. She
[ Page 2]
talked a [ considerble so spelled]
about enjoying your visit and mentioned those two lubberly boys
what sat round so she did not get good of her company! I called
on “Kitty”* and went to see Nelly Whitehead* a few minutes --
and then went to see Miss Preston* whom I had not seen for
a week but alas she had gone out of town and at the Gordons I
found a beautiful letter from her to say goodbye. Grace and I
have not heard anything about Mrs. Burroughs* yet but we had our
doubts, and may have a letter in the morning. I should like to
have another day --
[ Incomplete ]
Notes
Mrs. Gordon’s … Grace: Grace
Gordon, who will marry Rev. Treadwell Walden, and her mother,
Katherine. See
Correspondents.
Mrs. Ellis … Addie … Mary & Annie: For Emma
Harding Claflin Ellis & her daughters, Mary and Annie, see
Correspondents.
In a letter of 6 July 1879, Jewett indicates
that this Addie may be male, which suggests this may be a nickname
for Mary Claflin's son and Mrs. Ellis's half-brother, Adams
Davenport Claflin (1862-1910).
Mrs. Claflin: Mary Bucklin Davenport
Claflin. See
Correspondents.
Mr. Whittier: John Greenleaf
Whittier. See
Correspondents.
“Kitty”: The identity of this person is not
certain. In her 1869 diary, Jewett writes about enjoying
the company of Kitty Richmond in Little Falls, New York.
She also mentions Mrs Allan Richmond, who may Kitty's
mother. Jewett writes of Kitty again in her January 1872
diary, noting that she saw her in Boston at Christmas in
1871.
Nelly Whitehead: Jewett in her diary mentions
visiting Ellen Whitehead in South Berwick on 22 June 1869.
It is possible that she is a daughter of the South Berwick
tailor, Charles
E. Whitehead (1817-1878) and Mary B. Whitehead
(1826-1908).
Miss Preston: Harriet Waters Preston. See
Correspondents.
Mrs. Burroughs: This may be Sarah Tilden
Burroughs (1817-1906), spouse of Rev. Dr. Henry Burroughs (1815-1884),
Rector of Christ Church, Boston in 1874.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton
Library of Harvard University in Jewett, Sarah Orne,
1849-1909. Mary Rice Jewett 1847-1930, recipient, 40
letters; 1877-1892 & n.d. Sarah Orne Jewett
Correspondence, 1861-1930. MS Am 1743 (255).
Transcription and annotation by Terry Heller, Coe College, with
assistance from Tanner Brossart and Linda Heller.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Ellen Mason*
[
March 1876 ]*
Dear Ellen
Thank you for your letter which was a
god-send the evening it came, as I had been very sorry all day
thinking about my stories and wishing I were well -- I have had
another bad attack of rheumatism which is very discouraging, as
I was feeling better and hoped to do a great deal this week.
However, it is nearly over with now, and I am 'taking heart'
once more -- You don't know how much better I was for having
your letter for there was something about it which at once made
things seem easier -- I was reading somewhere -- in some
[ Page 2 ]
journal of
Father's I think: that there was some theory of a Color-cure* --
based upon the well known fact that color influences many people
very strongly -- an exhilaration ^coming^ from bright scarlet
and depression & that sort of thing from certain shades of
blue -- I believed it has been experimented
upon -- [ by written over but ] putting patients in
suitably colored little rooms! -- I have been thinking why some
one doesn't suggest a 'treatment' for mental afflictions which
could be called the 'friend cure{.}' One might spend so many
hours a day with a friend who kept one quiet and solemn
[ Manuscript ends. No signature. ]
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.
March 1876:
This date is speculative, but there is support for it. In her
correspondence of 1876, Jewett reports to Mason and others two
severe and extended attacks of rheumatism, in January and again
in March. This letter likely was written after the second.
Color-cure:
Jewett anonymously published a short piece on this topic, "A
Color Cure," in the March 1882 Atlantic, Contributors'
Club column.
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
6 April 1877
Dear Anna
I am sorry to have been so neglectful of your
letter which I was so glad to receive while I was in Concord. I
have been meaning to write to you but when I tell you that on my
return Tuesday afternoon I had more than twenty letters to write
you will see that I have for some reason been obliged to neglect
other friends as well as yourself! You see
[ Page 2 ]
that in the first place I have not been at all well since I saw
you in January and during the first four weeks of my seven weeks
absence I was working harder than I ought on my proofs and other
of the book's affairs* -- and I could not attempt to do
much else in the way of writing ----
But I am feeling somewhat better now, and I wish that you were
here ^so^ that I could have a long talk with you -- I should like
to tell you of my visits in Concord and in Boston and in Exeter.
So
[ Page 3 ]
2
many pleasant things happened to me and I met so many delightful
people and everybody was so kind! While I was at Ella's I saw your
Mrs. Barnard and your niece Miss Ruth* -- which was very pleasant.
I had not seen Mrs. Barnard except at ^since^
Ella's wedding. I am so glad you said what you did to me about
Alice:* I had [ some corrected from so much ]
very nice talks with the child and I never have been half so much
interested in her before -- but I think it is such a pity that Mr.
Walworth objects to her
[ Page 4 ]
being an Episcopalian -- I think that is a question that one ought
to be allowed to decide for oneself, do not you? and the
atmosphere of Trinity church would do so much more for Alice than
the atmosphere of Dr. Webb's church.* Besides, Ella's &
Sallie's* going there will make a great difference -- I said very
little because of course it was not my business -- and yet I am
sometimes sorry and wish I had said something --- Isn't it
wonderful the difference it makes in a girl's life like Alice's --
this having ever so faraway and small an understanding of the
[ Page 5 ]
3
better life in Christ, and ever so little knowledge of his
companionship? I think she is wonderfully changed and I never
cared half so much for her, did you? And as for Wallace* whom I
never really knew before -- I am so fond of him Anna! I am
very glad to have known him. Mr. Brooks* said such pleasant things
about him to me -- and he seems to take a great deal of interest
in him.
I enjoyed my visit at Ella's very much -- and I wish you and I
could have been together there. I really was not well enough to
stay longer when
[ Page 6 ]
I was there with you. I had dreadfully overtired and strained
myself and it surprises me to count up now the immense amount of
work I did without knowing it ---- Would you like to know
something about the book? It will be out in a week or two and you
will know all about it for yourself, what kind of cover it has and
what it looks like, outside and in. I hope you will like it, and
may I ask you for one thing -- you see a good many papers, and if
you find any notices good or bad
[ Page 7 ]
4
will not you cut them out and send them to me?
I do want to tell you about my visits! First I was in Concord
working hard, and very unenergetic as to health and enjoying the
delightful people to my hearts content. I saw a good deal of the
Emersons particularly Miss Ellen* ^for^ whom I care more than
ever, and of all the older people -- this visit was more [ in ?
] the houses whereas my others are associated with out-of-door
Concord and the picnics &c -- and the younger
[ Page 8 ]
people -- there were some theatricals and a good many tea parties
& I was there two weeks: then I went to Grace Gordon's* and
that weeks visit and my visit at Ella's & at the Kempton*
&c took up nearly three weeks. Then Grace Gordon and I came
down to Exeter together to make my aunt Mrs. Long* a visit, and we
had such a good time! [ And ? ] afterward I went to my
grandfather* for ten days or so -- But wouldn't I tell you all the
particulars if I saw you. I must say good-bye -- because it is
dinner time. Mary* would send no end of love to you if she were
here -- What are you reading?
Yrs.
sincerely
S.O.J.
Notes
1 Grace Gordon was a Boston friend of the same
social set as Ellen Mason and Ella Walworth. Sarah stayed
frequently at the Gordon home when she was in Boston during
these years. Grace Gordon later married Rev. Treadwell Walden,
rector of the Episcopal cathedral in Boston and friend of the
Jewetts.
2 Of this person, Frost writes (op. cit., 35):
"Sarah Orne Jewett once said that she grew up with her
grand-aunts and grand-uncles as playmates. Mary Olivia Gilman
Long -- Aunt Mary Long -- was the grande dame of the family.
She was the recent widow of a naval commodore, and was
childless. She knew all of the family history, and had made
her share of it."
3 Sarah's maternal grandfather, Dr. William Perry,
was a favorite relation. He is described in Frost, op. cit.,
36, and in Cary, op. cit., 47-48.
Additional Notes
book's affairs: Jewett's first novel, Deephaven,
was published by James R. Osgood & Co. in 1877.
your Mrs. Barnard and your niece Miss Ruth: Mrs.
Barnard has not be identified.
Anna Dawes is unlikely to have had a literal
niece. Her brother, Chester Mitchell (1855-1917) did not
marry until 1880. Her youngest brother, Henry Laurens
(1863-1928) was just 14 in 1877.
Though this has not been
confirmed, a strong candidate for "Mrs. Barnard" is Helen M.
Barnard, like Dawes, active in women's suffrage. Helen
Barnard worked as a journalist for the New York
Herald,
and served the U. S. government in various capacities. The
Washington Times of 22 July 1914
(p. 7) says that she was one of the first two female reporters
allowed to attend and cover the United States Senate: "Later
Mrs. Barnard, under Grant's Administration, was sent to
Liverpool as immigration commissioner. She visited England,
Ireland, and Scotland. She returned on the steerage of an ocean
liner and gave one of the most interesting and useful reports
made on the subject of immigration." The
Los Angeles Herald of 27 May 1888 (p. 6)
says: "Helen M. Barnard was, and is, a regal woman, earnest,
thoughtful and profound. Her forte was politics, in which she
displayed extraordinary sagacity. She is now a staid married
woman, resides in New York City, and is editing a special
monthly journal." The description of a
letter of introduction by James A.
Garfield, then an Ohio congressman, presenting her to E. B.
Washburne, then U. S. Minister at Paris, France, says: "Barnard
was a government clerk, journalist, and an original member of
the Universal Franchise Association, and an associate of Susan
B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton."
Alice: Alice Drummond Walworth. See Ella
Walworth Little in
Correspondents.
Dr. Webb's church: In 1877,
Rev. Edwin Bonaparte Webb, D.D.
(1820-1901) was pastor of the Shawmut Congregational Church in
Boston, where Caleb Clark Walworth was a member. See
The Missionary Herald 97 (1901), p.
275, and
Officers and Members of the Shawmut
Congregational Church, Boston, January 1, 1881, p. 29.
One might note that Alice Walworth turned 20
in 1877. In 1881, her father was the sole family member
listed among the Shawmut membership.
Sallie: Hollis identifies this person as Sallie
French Bartlett. This is
Sarah Flagg French Bartlett (1846-1883),
sister of the American sculptor,
Daniel Chester French. (1850-1931), who
sculpted the Lincoln statue at the Lincoln Memorial in
Washington, D.C. She married
Edward Jarvis Bartlett (1842-1914).
Wallace: Wallace Lincoln Pierce, who married Ella's
sister, Stella in 1876. See Ella Walworth Little in
Correspondents.
Mr. Brooks:
Wikipedia says: Phillips Brooks
(1835-1893) "was an American Episcopal clergyman and author,
long the Rector of Boston's Trinity Church and briefly Bishop of
Massachusetts, and particularly remembered as lyricist of the
Christmas hymn, "O Little Town of Bethlehem."
the Emersons, particularly Miss Ellen:
American writer, Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) lived in
Concord, MA, with his second wife, Lidian (Lydia) Jackson and
their daughter, Ellen Tucker Emerson (1839-1909).
the Kempton: This reference remains a mystery.
Mary: Mary Rice Jewett. See
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 James Ripley Osgood
South Berwick
[ 10
or 19
? ] April 1877
My dear Mr. Osgood --
I think Deephaven*
is very pretty -- a great deal prettier than I had thought it was
going to be! Don't you like it? I [ like corrected
] especially the little 'die' on the back* which I had not seen
before --
I send you a notice which came from the
Christian Union and the longer one from the N. Y. Herald. At least
I suppose it came from that, for it is exactly the same type
&c. Someone sent
2
it to me in a letter -- Will you be good enough to keep it for me
with the other notices, for I should like to save them -- I think
it would be a good plan to send an advance copy to the Cincinnati
Gazette, to Mr. Perry* who is my uncle, and who
ought to speak a good word for Deephaven, indeed I'm
pretty sure he will! The paper has a large circulation in that
part of the country. I find I appreciate my relationship to an
Editor, in a marked degree just now! Was not a copy to be sent to
the Advertiser early?* or to Miss Preston?* I
know
[ Page 3 ]
you told me that Mr. Whitney* spoke of some plan. I never have
asked Miss Preston to write a notice -- but I know her very well
and if nothing has been arranged I will send her one of my copies
and will ask [ her corrected ] ----- I should like
the 25 copies very much and will you please have them sent by
Goodwin's Ex.* 10 Court Square.
Yours sincerely,
Sarah O. Jewett.
Notes
Deephaven: Jewett's first novel, 1877.
back: Richard Cary points out that this was "a triad
of cat-tails in gilt on the spine of the first edition between her
name and the publisher's device."
Perry: John Taylor Perry. See Sarah Chandler Perry in
Correspondents.
Advertiser: Presumably, Jewett refers to the Boston Daily Advertiser.
Preston: Harriet Waters Preston. See
Correspondents.
Mr. Whitney: Mr. Whitney's identity remains
unknown It appears he was employed at James R. Osgood &
Co.
Goodwin's Ex.: Goodwin Express, a New England
delivery service founded by American War of 1812 veteran, Colonel
William Goodwin (d. 1885). See The Maine Historical and Genealogical Recorder,
Volume 9 (1898), pp. 323-4.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Princeton University
Library, Princeton, NJ: Robert H. Taylor Collection of English and
American Literature RTC01, Box 10, Folder 12. Transcription and
notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
The letter was previously transcribed and
annotated by Richard Cary for inclusion in Sarah Orne Jewett
Letters. Cary regularized punctuation, re-paragraphed and
reformatted the letter to conform with the presentation in his
collection. He read Jewett's date as "April 9," but her
handwriting seems to show one date written over another, with the
numbers 10 and 19 visible. This does not mean that Cary is
wrong; perhaps she wrote 10 over 9 or 9 over 10.
William Dean Howells to Sarah Orne Jewett
[ Begin letterhead ]
EDITORIAL OFFICE OF
THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY.
-----
The Riverside Press
CAMBRIDGE, MASS.
[ End letterhead ]
April 11, 1877
Dear Miss Jewett:
I have read Lady Ferry,* but though she was in
many ways exquisite, I found her as indefensibly too long as she
was too old. You have made too much of her, and I shouldn’t
^know^ how to suggest a reduction.
Yours sincerely
W. D. Howells
Notes
Lady Ferry: Jewett's story "Lady Ferry" never
appeared in a magazine. Jewett included it in her 1879
collection, Old Friends and New.
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
24 April 1877
My dear Prof. Parsons
Thank you for your kind note which I
meant to answer before. I am very glad you like the book and I
hope some time that you will tell me a great deal more about it.
I should like so much to have a long talk with you this morning.
I suppose you must have seen some of the many great compliments
which have been paid Deephaven.* I am more and more astonished
at them and I am pleased -- in a way -- yet I must confess to
you that I find it very hard to realize that this praise belongs
to me and it all seems very vague when I try to 'take it in'. It
seems almost a little sorrowful sometimes, when I think how I
used to build castles in Spain about this very thing and now
that I find the 'castles' in finer array even than [then] I had
expected. I don't seem to care so very much for them after all!
I beg you not to think that I am ungrateful, but the pleasure is
such a different pleasure. I have been very busy since I came
home and not at all strong. I find that I do not get rested much
and the spring weather takes away the little bit of energy I had
left. I wish I could see you. You do not know how much I enjoyed
my long call upon you that rainy day -- or how much I learned. I
wonder if you are to be anywhere in this region in the summer? I
wonder if Miss Sabra* has read Deephaven and if she
likes it at all? I was so sorry not to see more of her. Will you
please give my love to her? I am going to read more this spring
for I have had so little time this winter -- and just now I am
reading again some translations of the Greek tragedies --
Eschylus and Sophocles. I have always liked Antigone* and that
was the only one I knew much.
2 May -- I would not
have believed that this letter would be so many days unfinished
and it does not look as if I had been thinking of you a great
deal every day -- which I have! I am either very busy or very
lazy nowadays and I am quite distracted when I think of all the
letters I wish to write. I wonder if you noticed in Deephaven
the additions to the chapter called "In Shadow" -- Perhaps you
remember that it was shortened in the Atlantic and I was sorry
about it. I rewrote it for the book. I don't know that my chief
thought in Deephaven is very evident -- but I think I tried most
to show the truth of what 'Kate' says on page 244 -- that
success and happiness are not things of chance but of choice --
and they might so easily have had a dull summer. It was
certainly not at all the kind of place that most young ladies
would enjoy for their summer's campaign -- but didn't
they have a good time! And there is another thing. I wished to
show how interested they became in the town's people, and how
interesting these people were. I am so sorry for girls who are
shut up in their own set of society. I should be so glad if
anybody had a better time in the country this summer because she
had read Deephaven! I wonder which chapters you like best? There
is something -- to change the subject abruptly -- which I wish
to ask you -- and that is what it means about Elisha and the
children who called him names and the bears who devoured them.*
It was the Sunday school lesson a while ago, and it was very
hard to understand. I never had thought of it before -- but the
punishment seemed out of proportion to the offence [so
spelled]. I have been meaning to ask you about it. I am
always wishing I could ask you what the Sunday school lesson
means! I wonder if I have told you lately about my class? I am
more and more interested in it and lately I have had some new
scholars whom I like and wish to help very much. I get
frightened at the thought of my attempting to teach those girls,
but I do the best I can. They're about twenty years old (or in
that region) and they are very bright -- and all girls who have
a good deal of influence here. I wish I could write longer but
it is time to take my letter to the post. I always have so much
to tell you and more to ask you. I wish I could see you.
Goodbye, from your aff. and grateful
S. O. J.
I suppose you had a note from Ellen
herself,* but I believe I never have told you how delighted she
was at your remembrance of her and your sending your book to
her. --
Notes
Deephaven: Jewett's first novel, Deephaven,
was published by James R. Osgood & Co. in 1877.
Miss Sabra: Ancestry.com lists Mary Sabra Parsons as a
daughter of Theophilus Greenleaf Parsons and Catherine Amory
Chandler, born on 6 August 1842 in Taunton, MA.
Findagrave.com dates her death as October 16, 1910. She is
buried at Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, MA.
Eschylus and Sophocles ... Antigone: Wikipedia
says: "Aeschylus ... (c. 525/524 – c. 456/455 BC) was an ancient
Greek tragedian." The Persians and the Oresteia
trilogy.
Wikipedia also 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.
Elisha ... children ... the bears:
This story is found in 2 Kings 2: 23-25.
Ellen herself: It is likely this is Jewett's close
friend, Ellen Frances Mason. See
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 and annotations by Terry
Heller, Coe College.
John Taylor Perry* to Sarah Orne Jewett
[ Begin letterhead, underlined
portions handwritten ]
Gazette Editorial Rooms.
Cincinnati, May 2. 1877.*
[ End letterhead ]
Dear Sally --
I have looked into all the [ papers
?
] that I see, & have asked the men to cut out from the
exchanges they read, all the notices they find of Deephaven.*
They haven't kept their promises very well or the papers are
rather slow in their publication of reviews. Most of those I
include you doubtless have seen, but duplicates won't hurt you.
That of the N.Y. Times is the only ill-tempered one of the lot
-- I think you are succeeding well, better than a [ young
corrected ] author known mainly by the Boston circle
could expect. Though not better than you deserve.
[ Yours in best Regards to all
So it appears
]
J.T.P.
[ Up the left margin ]
You will no doubt find a lot of criticism in the papers sent to
Osgood* & I will try to see that more are collected here than
have been.
Notes
Perry: See Sarah Chandler Perry in Key to
Correspondents.
1877: Perry has written the final 7 over a 6 in the
letterhead.
Associated with this letter is an envelope
addressed to Jewett in South Berwick, ME, on Cincinnati Gazette
stationery, canceled on 2 May.
Deephaven: Jewett's first novel, which had recently
appeared at the time of this letter.
Osgood: The Boston publisher of Deephaven.
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 177. I. Letters to
Sarah Orne Jewett.
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe
College
Sarah Orne Jewett to Harriet Waters Preston ( fragments )*
South Berwick
5 May 1877
Dear Miss Preston
I dont know whether you
think it is respectful of me to write you on half-sheets but this
is my pet paper and I am bankrupt on [ whole corrected ]
sheets of it --
[ Page 2 ]
6
and it is about Deephaven.* Perhaps it will be better to
wait until I see you, but I hope you will tell me the faults of
it. I think it is beautiful to be praised and it helps one of
course. I know you said in your first letter to me that perhaps
your belief ^in me^ would help [ deletion ] me, and you do
not know how wonderfully true that has been, dear Miss Preston.
But honest criticism helps one so very much, and do not ever be
afraid to scold at me [ or corrected ] to say anything you
please. I love you so much and I cant get over that dear feeling
that I belong to you, and wont you talk to me and teach me and
tell me where I am wrong? ---- I am finding out as I grow older,
that I am very young about many things --
[ Page 3 ]
and in spite of this I am used to taking [ care corrected
] of myself and all that sort of thing and putting those two
things together sometimes brings an unhappy result. I dont
believe in analyzing myself too much and I have found out that
[ Breaks off. ]
[ Page 4 ]
and I am going to begin the grammar and try with humble diligence
to remember it and really know something this time. I am getting
so much interested in that memoir of Kingsley* which you [ wrote corrected
] me about -- not that I am reading yet
[ Breaks off. ]
Notes
fragments: Though these pages do not present a full
sequence, all are written in the same blue ink on half sheets and,
therefore, seem likely to be from unsent drafts of the same
letter. There is some evidence in the notes below that all
the parts were written in 1877.
Deephaven: Jewett's first novel appeared in 1877.
Kingsley: Probably refers to British clergyman,
educator and author, Charles Kingsley (1819-1875). His
widow, Frances Eliza Grenfell, published a biography soon after
his death, Charles Kingsley, his Letters and Memories of his
Life (1877).
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library of
Harvard University, Cambridge, MA. bMS Am 1743 Box 6, Item
274.
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe
College.
Helen D. Sewall to Sarah Orne Jewett
6 Chester Sq.
May 8, 1877.
My dear Miss Jewett:
As I am not a writer for that public
organ known as the Press, and can not spread your praises
abroad by [ forestalling ? ] public opinion in
that way, allow me to have the satisfaction of whispering
in your ear how much I enjoyed your Deephaven* sketches
[ Page 2 ]
and admired the kindly, sympathetic spirit with which their
author views the world. It is all just as
real as can
be, and [ helps one
? ] toward that perfection of
living, the "finding"
good in everything,* which, I
trust, may always in large measure be yours.
Truly Yours
Helen D. Sewall.
Notes
Deephaven: Jewett's first novel appeared in 1877.
everything: Sewall's marks are ambiguous at this
point. She appears to have written a period after
"everything" and after it a small mark above the base line
that may be accidental. It appears that she intended a comma,
and this is how I have rendered her punctuation.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the University of New
England Maine Women Writers Collection, Sarah Orne Jewett
Correspondence Box 1 Folder 044
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Charles Ashburton Gilman
South Berwick
9 May 1877
My dear Charlie
I have just come home
from a very pleasant day in Portsmouth with Miss Halliburton,* who
told me to tell you with her kind regards how very sorry she was
to miss your call yesterday. I am so sorry too that you did not
see her, for I know
[ Page 2 ]
you would have had a pleasant call -- and have certainly found her
very glad to see you.
We went to Newcastle today and had such a
jolly time, I wish you had been with us -- It is not nice weather
for a picnic, but we went to a house which Mr. Haven* owns
and
had
a big fire
[ Page 3 ]
in a fireplace and a very good time -- with a walk along the
rocks and beach after dinner --
I hope you had a good time in Boston and
you must tell me about it. I received your postal card and should
have answered, but I have been busy and there was not very much
news -- I have
[ Page 4 ]
nearly finished the survey of the Sunday-school books: the new
ones have been very entertaining for we have had them here in the
dining-room for a week or two -- I gave Susy Jewett* your good-bye
message, and she was sorry not to have seen you again, & said
many pleasant things about you. Carrie* is better but not nearly
well yet. We all enjoyed your visit and you don't know how much I
missed you Charlie!*
With love to Cousin Fanny.*
Yours always sincerely & affly,
Sarah.
Notes
Miss Halliburton: Georgina Halliburton. See Key to
Correspondents.
Haven: George Wallis Haven. See Key to Correspondents.
Susy Jewett: Richard Cary identifies her as Susan
Jameson Jewett of South Berwick, the daughter of Elisha Hanson
Jewett .
Carrie: Caroline Augusta Jewett. See Key to
Correspondents.
Charlie: Richard Cary notes:
The next day Miss Jewett wrote to Anna Laurens
Dawes about her cousin: "He's such a nice fellow, and we are
great friends. I used not to like him, and it is delightful to
find him so nice as he grows up. He would not thank me for
giving you the impression that he is young. It falls very sweet
upon his ear to be called Mr. Gilman and I never shall tell that
he is at home an underrated younger brother and only 'Charley.'
" And on October 11: "I made a little visit down at Brunswick
and had a lovely time with my young cousin Charley -- dear
little fellow (or big fellow!). He has grown so this summer and
he is trying very hard to be a good man." (Manuscript Division,
Library of Congress)
Cousin Fanny: Frances F. Perry. See Key to
Correspondents.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the George J. Mitchell
Department of Special Collections & Archives,
Hawthorne-Longfellow Library, Brunswick, ME, Sarah Orne Jewett
Papers, Series 1 (M238.1): Correspondence, 1877-1905, n.d.
Richard Cary's transcription is in Letters of Sarah Orne
Jewett.
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe
College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Anna Laurens Dawes
South Berwick
10 May 1877
My dear Anna
I have enjoyed your letter
very much and have wished to answer it but you will not ask for
any apologies I'm sure and so I will save all the room they would
take -- I only wish I could see you today -- It is a lovely Sunday
afternoon and we would walk a while and sit down in the first
acceptable and lonely place we reached. I think I should [ take written
over talk ? ] you to the top of the hill which is
not a great climb and where you would be happy because of the
view, as I always am. I truly wish I could see you -- I am
beginning at last to feel as if I were in my right mind, though I
am not wholly rested yet. My younger sister* has been very ill,
and we have
[ Page 2 ]
had visitors and Deephaven* gives me a good deal of work
in one way or another --- What a busy world this is, Dawes-y! and
you see I began by making it a lazy world with no need for hurry.
In the first place I am very glad you like Deephaven. I
should have been very sorry if you had not liked it. It amazes me
to find out how much the reviews have praised it and it goes
straight to my heart to have succeeded in pleasing my dear
friends. I should say a great deal about this if you were here,
and tell you that the very success has frightened me and humbled
me and made me feel very inadequate, and how hard it is even not
to be cowardly. It has not been [ wholly corrected ]
pleasure, this success which I seem to have -- though there is so
much pleasure -- It is very hard
[ Page 3 ]
for me 'to take it in' that all the praise is meant for me --
indeed I believe I am somehow hindered from taking it in -- except
in the very vaguest way. Sometimes I have been very sorry because
I do not feel more pleased and set up -- Can you
understand that feeling? I should not have dared tell it you
otherwise. But dear, isn't it a tremendous thing to be put into
one's hands and can a girl help feeling that she is living a more
conspicuous sort of life, and that is frightful to think what a
little bad influence will do. --
Ah well! does not one grow more and more thankful that there is a
strength that never fails and a wisdom that never is found wanting
[ Page 3 ]
and a Love that is always ours; and that the Best Friend* may be
your own friend and mine --
And just now I caught myself thinking of Alice* and how true and
sensible your idea of her is -- I will write to her certainly -- I
hope she is on the right road and I liked very much the way she
spoke of better things. I have had no time to write her lately. I
have been terribly in debt for letters and I cannot yet write long
at a time. Sometimes it seems to me that taking care of my letters
is enough for one girl and I am sorry when I have to neglect them
-- You see I have much more to take up my time in town and home
affairs than I did at one
[ Page 4 ]
time -- Then my friendships and out-of-town interests were almost
everything. I am as much interested in my Sunday School class as
you can imagine. I have six girls of about twenty -- and they are
very bright, and girls who have and will always have a good deal
of influence among their different sets of friends -- I enjoy them
very much and since I long with all my heart to help them and to
do them good I can't believe I shall wholly fail. I wish very much
to read that life of Kingsley.* Miss Preston is Mrs.Goddard's
friend* & she wrote me about it much as Mrs. Goddard did you.
I met Mrs.
[ Page 5 ]
Goddard once this winter for a few minutes and like her so much. I
do hope I shall see her again sometime or other. Miss Preston says
a great deal about her. I have hardly read at all lately except a
great many Sunday School books, for I have been recataloguing and
adding to the Sunday School library -- I have been at work off and
on for three weeks and today it was all in order. I am quite proud
of it for though I have had some help, I have really managed
everything -- It has been a good deal of work and I am glad to be
nearly done for nothing is left now but to see to some
[ Page 6 ]
printing -- One day this week I have spent with [ Georgie corrected
] Halliburton* and she was in town the week before -- We have had
visitors off and on and I do a little of everything -- I am
enjoying my friendship with Miss Preston more and more -- I must
tell you a great deal about her sometime. She has such a generous
way of looking at things, and she has come to me just the right
time as all my friends have -- I will certainly tell you of my
Concord visit some day; it seems a year ago now, that I was there
-- I had a very nice time but I was miserably tired and used up,
as I have told you.
I must say good bye dear. I have promised to go for a walk with
[ Page 7 ]
a young cousin* who is staying with us and he has waited so
uncomplainingly that I must start soon -- He's such a nice fellow
-- and we are great friends. I used not to like him, and it is
delightful to find him so nice as he grows up. He would not thank
me for giving you the impression that he is young -- It falls very
sweet upon his ear to be called Mr. Gilman* and I never shall tell
that he is at home an underrated younger brother and only
'Charley' -- Don't be afraid, your letters are never too long dear
Dawes-y.
Think of how much we should say if we were
together and how short the longest letter is compared with that!
And I am always so glad to hear from you. Mary* sends no end of
love and says she looks
[ Up the left margin and across the top
margin of page 4 ]
upon the length of your letters with longing eyes. Thank you for
your friendship which is very much beloved and thought of! and I
say God bless you and help you most heartily -- and am your fond
friend --
S.O.J.
[ Up the left margin and across the top
margin of page 1]
Thank you for the extracts which I passed on to Ellen Mason* --
for I knew she would like them. I dont mean I lightly gave away
those you gave me!
Hollis's Notes
1 Charles Kingsley (1819-1875) was well known in
America, and the book recommended to both Sarah and Anna was
undoubtedly Charles Kingsley, His Letters and Memories of
His Life. Ed. by his wife. Abridged from the London ed.,
New York, 1877.
2 Charles A. Gilman lived at Exeter but visited
Berwick regularly. He was a favorite cousin with whom Sarah
subsequently went on a trip to Brunswick, cf., letter of October
11, 1877, below. Cf., also: Richard Cary, "Jewett's Cousins
Charles and Charlie," Colby Library Quarterly V,
(September 1959), 48-58.
Additional Notes
younger sister: Carrie Jewett Eastman. See Key
to Correspondents.
Deephaven: Jewett's first novel, Deephaven,
was published by James R. Osgood & Co. in 1877.
Best Friend: Jewett's capitalization indicates that
she refers to God or to Jesus.
Alice: Almost certainly, Alice Drummond
Walworth. See Ella Walworth Little in Key to Correspondents.
Miss Preston is Mrs. Goddard's friend: Harriet Waters
Preston. See Key to Correspondents.
Martha LeBaron Goddard (1829-1888) was the
compiler, along with Harriet Preston Waters, of Sea and Shore: A Collection of Poems
(1874).
Georgie Halliburton: See Key to Correspondents.
Mary: Mary Rice Jewett. See Key to Correspondents.
Ellen Mason: 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.
Helen Bell* to Sarah Orne Jewett
London -- May 19th 1877 --
My dear Sarah --
I was very glad to hear from
you last week -- & to see the notices of your book.* I am sure
nothing could be more satisfactory, & I congratulate you most
heartily on your success -- I wish I could see the book, but it
will be only a short time now before I shall be at home, &
that will be the first thing I read -- It is hard for me to
realize that I have little more than six weeks left before we sail
-- it will go all too soon -- & I have much to see & do --
It is nearly three weeks since we came to
[ Page 2 ]
London, & we have been so busy! Every day we have [ done ?
] something & we go to bed at night, exhausted yet happy -- I
do like this wonderful old city, more & more -- It is great
fun to ramble off not knowing where you will "fetch up" -- We have
seen almost everything in the city itself but there are several
excursions to make -- It has rained more than a week -- except one
day & that has interfered with all our arrangements -- It gets
so fearfully muddy in a short time, that walking is out of the
question -- But the Hansome cabs are my delight, & we are sure
of riding in one, every day. Our visit to the Tower* was among the
most interesting things we have done -- The officers or [ guides ?
]
[ Page 3 ]
are the celebrated "beefeaters"* -- in the costume of the time of
Henry the Eighth* -- it is very curious -- we saw the [ window ?
] of the room where the little Princes were murdered, & the
place under the [ stone ? ] where their bodies were found
-- Then we went into the dark cell where Sir Walter Raleigh* was
imprisoned -- There is a fine collection of armor both ancient and
modern -- the crown jewels are kept in the Tower, but they were
not by any means equal to those we saw in Vienna* -- There are
some fine paintings in the National Gallery -- some beautiful
Gainsboroughs -- & some very good Sir Joshuas' -- one
room is entirely filled with Turners* works -- & some of them
are the most singular things you ever beheld -- they look as
[ Page 4 ]
{if} he had spread great patches of all [ colors corrected
] on the canvas, & then taken a brush & mixed them all
together -- Some of the Landseers* pictures are fine{.} I like him
better than I expected -- one room filled with paintings ^of^ of
the Dutch School, is delightful -- of course there are the usual
amount of the early efforts in Italy, the Netherlands, etc -- I
find one or two interesting, the rest are wearisome -- We went to
see Miss Thompson's pictures one day -- all are battle pieces -- [
Inkermann so it appears ] Quatre Bras. Balaclava,
etc -- Painful subjects, but most faithfully executed -- There are
lovely water colors in one or two collections -- Mrs Bell* wants
me to be sure to tell you that in one of the collections
[ Page 5 ]
of china here, she has seen Elijah & the ravens, & the
widow* -- I have been twice to the British museum -- I find the
autographs, & the intaglios in the gem room best of anything.
Oh, we went to Madame Tussauds* one day -- & it was too funny
-- I did not find the wax figures so deceptive as I expected --
they all looked waxy -- we ought to have gone in the
evening, but we heard that it was always lighted by gas, [ only ?
] in night, so we went in the afternoon -- I liked it, because it
gave some [ idea ? ] of the ancient Kings & Queens at
any rate, their costumes -- Henry the Eighth, surrounded by his
six unhappy consorts, formed one group -- He was a jolly [ king ?
] evidently -- Louis 16th, Marie Antoinette,
etc. Mary of Scotland
[ Page 6 ]
[ unrecognized name ], etc -- All the Kings from William
the Conqueror down to the present day -- & many of the Queens
were there -- we went into the Chamber of Horrors -- it is all
sham -- I never shook in my shoes once -- I examined the real
guillotine closely, & stood over the effigy of Marat in his
bath, covered with blood -- Napoleon the Third, lies in state
^after death^ in one room -- a woman near us remarked that "that
was the most lifelike of them all" --- She was evidently an [
Irish ? ] woman{.} We went out to the Crystal Palace* one
day -- it was hardly up to our expectations -- some of the Courts
were very fine -- the Alhambra was specially rich. We went over
the Houses of Parliament one day -- & Westminster Abbey --
that is everything we could possibly ask for -- I want
[ Page 7 ]
to go again -- We attempted to hear Dean Stanley* preach there
Ascension Day - but the crowd was immense, & our seats were
too far for us to hear anything, except the music -- Last Sunday,
Persis* & I want to St. Andrews* -- a very High Church
-- the music was lovely, & so it was at the old Temple Church
-- that comes next in interest to Westminster, I think -- I like
St Pauls very much too -- We mean to go to Hampton Court the first
fine day -- & to Windsor -- the Queen* having just left it for
Scotland -- Tuesday week, we leave London for Leamington, spending
a day or so at Oxford on the way -- We shall make that our
headquarters for a fortnight, & then go to Scotland. After
that we take the Lakes* before going to
[ Page 8 ]
Liverpool -- We have not seen many nice people here -- I mean
Americans -- the house is filled with them, only one English
person here -- but they are not all we could desire -- Alas my
countrymen, why will you disgrace yourselves so utterly?
Persis & I went to a Five o'clock Tea, with some English
friends near us -- it was great fun -- I am so sorry that Carrie*
has been so ill -- I hope she is much better now -- I wish she
might recover so speedily as Persis did, from that fearful disease
-- Give her my warmest love, please -- Oh, have you heard yet that
our dear Leo is really engaged to Eugenia Radcliff? Is it not
perfectly splendid -- we are almost as happy over it, as they are
-- It was so [ lovely ? ] to see them -- Do please write
to the last, anything sent before the 18th of
June, will reach us -- My love to your mother & Mary,* &
regards to your Father --
[ Up the left margin and across the top
margin of page 1 ]
[ We all ]* send much love to you as usual -- always very
affectionately
Hennig --
I am looking forward to the Beach next summer, when we shall all
be together again -- What larks!* You must all get very strong
& well for that time --
Notes
Helen Bell: Though the signature on this letter appears to
read "Hennig" or perhaps "Heming," or even "Jennie," its author
almost certainly is Jewett's cousin, Helen / Nellie Bell,
step-daughter of Mary Elizabeth Gray Bell (see Key to
Correspondents). Mentioned in this letter is her sister, Mary
Persis Bell, called Persis. This family is complicated.
- Helen and Persis's father was married twice, and
they are children of his first marriage.
- His second marriage was to Mary E. G. Bell.
- Mary E. G. Bell also married twice, and among the
children of her first marriage was Edward H. Gilman, and one of
his children was Jennie Lois Crosby Gilman.
A main piece of supporting evidence for Helen
Bell's authorship is her passport application of May 1876,
co-signed by her aunt, Mary O. Long (see Key to
Correspondents). The application expresses her intention of
traveling to Europe. This may be viewed at FamilySearch. A
problem with this speculation is that she refers to her
step-mother as Mrs. Bell rather than as "Mother."
That the signature may be read as "Jennie"
could point to another possible author, Jennie Lois Crosby Gilman.
However, she turned 16 in 1877, and would have to have been quite
precocious to author this letter. Furthermore, one would
expect her to refer to Mary E. G. Bell as "Grandmother."
Associated with this letter is an envelope
addressed to Jewett, c/o Dr. Jewett in South Berwick, postmarked
in London on 21 May.
book: Jewett's first novel, Deephaven (1877).
tower: The Tower of London.
"beefeaters": The popular name for the Yeoman Warders,
ceremonial guards at the Tower of London. Wikipedia.
Henry the Eighth: King Henry VIII of England (1491-1547).
He is remembered in part for marrying six women in succession,
striving unsuccessfully to produce a male heir.
Princes ... Sir Walter Raleigh: The famous princes
were, Edward and Richard, the two sons of King Edward IV of
England. According to Wikipedia, their fate is not known,
but it is presumed that they were murdered in the Tower of London
in 1483 by their uncle, King Richard III (1452-1485), as depicted
in William Shakespeare's play, Richard III.
Sir Walter Raleigh (1552-1618) was an English
statesman, soldier, explorer and writer. Wikipedia says that
Queen Elizabeth I briefly imprisoned him and his wife in the Tower
of London after they married without her permission.
jewels ... Vienna: The English Crown jewels remain on
display in the Tower of London, where they are kept except when in
use for royal ceremonial occasions. The Austrian Crown
jewels are in the Imperial Treasury at the Hofburg Palace in
Vienna. In 1877, they would have been used for ceremonial
occasions involving the Emperor of Austria. See Wikipedia.
Gainsboroughs ... Sir Joshuas' ... Turners: The letter
refers to three major English painters: Thomas Gainsborough
(1727-1788), Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723-1792), Joseph Mallord
William Turner (1775-1851). See Wikipedia.
Landseers: English painter and sculptor, Sir Edwin
Henry Landseer (1802-1873).
Miss Thompson's pictures: Elizabeth Southerden Thompson
(1846-1933) was an English painter who specialized in depicting
famous British military scenes. Among these were: "The 28th
Regiment at Quatre Bras (1875), "Balaclava" (1876), "The
Return from Inkerman" (1877). Wikipedia.
Mrs Bell: Probably this is Mary Elizabeth Gray Bell (see
Key to Correspondents).
Elijah: Elijah was a Hebrew prophet portrayed in the
Bible, Books of Kings. In that account, as traditionally
understood, Elijah when in hiding and hungry is miraculously fed
by ravens. After this event he is sheltered by the Widow of
Zarephath, where he has occasion to raise her son from the dead (1
Kings 17).
Tussauds: Madame Tussauds wax museum in London, a
famous tourist attraction, featured life-sized wax sculptures of
famous people from history and fiction. It was founded in 1835.
Wikipedia says that one of the main attractions of the museum was
the Chamber of Horrors, showing victims of the French Revolution
as well as murderers and other notorious criminals.
Among the victims of the French Revolution were
King Louis XVI of France (1754-1793) and his wife, Marie
Antoinette. Jean-Paul Marat (1743-1793) also died during the
revolution, assassinated rather than executed.
Mary, Queen of Scots (1542-1587) was executed
for treason.
Other sculptures the author notes are of
William the Conqueror, King William I of England (1028-1087), and
the former Emperor of France, Napoleon III (1808-1873), who was
deposed in 1870.
Crystal Palace: The Crystal Palace was built in 1851 to
house the Great Exhibition of that year. It stood in Hyde
Park until 1936, when it burned. Wikipedia.
Dean Stanley ... Ascension Day: Arthur Penrhyn Stanley
(1815-1881) was an English Anglican priest and historian. He
achieved fame as a preacher as well as for his work in theology
and ecclesiastic history. He became Dean of Westminster Abbey in
1863.
The Feast of the Ascension celebrates the
ascension of Christ into Heaven after his resurrection. It is
officially dated as the 40th day after Easter, but often is
observed the following Sunday. Wikipedia. In 1877, Ascension Day
was Thursday 10 May.
Persis: Persis and Helen Bell were sisters. See Key
to Correspondents, Mary Elizabeth Gray Bell.
St. Andrews ... Temple Church ... St. Pauls: Churches
in London. See Wikipedia for Temple and St. Paul's.
Wikipedia lists more than a dozen St. Andrew's churches in London,
though not all are Anglican. It would seem likely that
Americans would be interested in St. Andrew's, Croydon, formerly
the Church of St. Andrew.
Hampton ... Windsor ... the Queen: In 1877, Queen Victoria
(1819-1901) occupied the English Throne. Among the royal
residences she used were Windsor Castle in Berkshire and Hampton
Court Palace in Richmond, near London. Wikipedia.
Carrie: Caroline Jewett, later Eastman, Sarah Orne Jewett's
younger sister. See Key to Correspondents.
Leo ... Eugenia Radcliff: These persons have not
yet been identified.
Mary: Mary Rice Jewett. See Key to Correspondents.
What larks!: Probably the writer alludes to Great
Expectations (1861) a novel by English author, Charles
Dickens (1812-1870). Joe Gargary, one of the main characters,
often repeats this phrase.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library of
Harvard University: Sarah Orne Jewett Correspondence I, Letters to
Sarah Orne Jewett.
Hennig [?] 1 letter; 1877. (92).
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 Harriet Waters Preston (fragment)
South Berwick
23 May 1877
Dear Miss Preston I have been having such a good time today with
the drollest old woman, an old patient of father's from Eliot who
hasn't been to see us for some time before -- Father was away and
she stayed to dinner and I have just conveyed her and her bundles
down to the bank -- Such toggery as she wore! I regret to
say that she is too stingy [ to corrected ] to buy herself
a 'front'* and she had a grass green veil round her head under a
cap which was brave with bright purple ribbons. She prides herself
on having 'means' and being beholden to nobody, and I just wish
you could have heard her
[ Page 2 ]
edifying conversation -- The first thing she said after we sat
down this morning was Have there been many deaths [ in ? ]
the place lately -- And then she gave full particulars [ of her corrected
] being in Portsmouth and she always likes to go early ^to the
depot^ because sometimes the cars come along before you expect
them -- and she met a Second Advent* woman. She never had seen one
before but she appeared as well as anyone she ever see! -- We had
a great conversation on the subject of herb teas -- which diverted
Carrie* beyond measure. At dinner-time she was asking Mother about
our matrimonial prospects and you would have been pleased when you
heard
[ Page 3 ]
me solemnly say I thought it was a great risk -- and she
responded that she thought so too --
[ Breaks off. No signature. ]*
Notes
'front': Probably, Jewett refers to a hairpiece
designed to disguise a receding hairline. See Jewett's short
story, "The Dulham Ladies" (1886).
Second Advent: Belief that Jesus Christ will return to
Earth at some future date, after his resurrection and ascension to
Heaven not long after his death, is common to nearly all Christian
denominations. It is, therefore, somewhat difficult to know to
which denomination Jewett's visitor refers. In the late 19th
century, three denominations in particular gave particular
emphasis to the the imminence second advent: the Latter Day
Saints, Seventh-day Adventists, and Jehovah's Witnesses.
Carrie: Jewett's younger sister, Carrie Jewett
Eastman, who at the time of this letter was not yet married.
Key to Correspondents.
No signature: That Jewett apparently did not send
this letter is suggestive. The piece shows Jewett collecting a
character, and it is possible that she wanted to reserve this
material for later use in her own fiction. However, she very
rarely says anything in her correspondence that might be
considered ungenerous. Perhaps she kept this letter back out
of concern that this old friend might somehow see it someday and
feel hurt.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library of
Harvard University, Cambridge, MA. bMS Am 1743 Box 6, Item
274.
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe
College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to James Ripley Osgood
South Berwick
31 May 1877*
Dear Mr. Osgood
Thank you for the little
book and the notices which came all right. I am glad to find
that the newspapers are so good-natured. Some day when you are
not busy (though perhaps that day never comes!) would you
please tell me if
the Deephaven* is selling
well? I think these 'puffs' must
have had some effect -- I suppose it is time now to know
something about the success of it -- or is it too soon? I saw
in one or two papers that it reached a second edition* within
a fortnight. Was that true? I am not [ and
or in
?
] the way of knowing much about it here, you see -- and I
should be very glad if you would tell me -- some day when you
can as well as not.
Your sincerely
Sarah O. Jewett.
Notes
1877: Penciled notes appear at the top of page
1.
Top left corner, inside a "box" with a
bottom and right line: Mentions "Deephaven"
Right margin between South Berwick and the
date: Maine
Above the salutation: Sara Orne Jewett
Deephaven: Jewett's first novel,
Deephaven, was published by James R. Osgood & Co.
in 1877.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Princeton University
Library, Princeton, NJ: Robert H. Taylor Collection of English and
American Literature RTC01, Box 10, Folder 12. Transcription and
notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Ida Agassiz Higginson to Sarah Orne Jewett
Newport. May 31st
[ 1877 ]*
My dear Mifs Jewett --
I have been wanting to write you & thank
you for your delicious little book -- if I can say enough -- for
it is [ to me
? ] a wonderful little volume* -- It
reminds me slightly of "Cranford"
[
Page 2 ]
but I think is very superior to it -- for so
much is made out of such slight material -- One sees &
smells the ocean -- & the dear old fishermen! -- for of
course every one with a heart loves a sailor -- I enjoyed
the descript-
[ Page 3 ]
tion of the old church more than almost any
thing, for it took one back so to an old inland church I
used to go to -- & have longed for years to describe --
you give the Yankee talk wonderfully well -- not the least
exaggeration & with so much
[ Page 4 ]
ease -- & an ever [ present ?] respect with
which one seldom sees in sketching yankees. Dr. Holmes* for
instance [ just as well ? ] treats them as you do -- And
the old [ farmers ? ] & old [ women ? ] &
all are perfection{.} Perhaps I have worried you with
praise -- if so for-
[ Across the top margin of page 1 ]
give me -- Perhaps you will write me a line -- Col. H. enjoyed
your book very much --
Yrs Sincerely
Mrs. I. Higginson
[ Cross-written up the left half of page
4 ]
I felt very much the exquisite prose of [ it also ?
] -- [ unrecognized words ] in their American [ unrecognized
word ]{.}
Notes
1877: Jewett responds to this letter in hers to Higginson,
dated 2 June 1877.
volume: Higginson refers to Jewett's first novel, Deephaven
(1877).
She compares it to another novel, Cranford
(1851-53), by British author, Elizabeth Gaskell (1810-1865).
Wikipedia.
Holmes: Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. Key to
Correspondents.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library of
Harvard University, Cambridge, MA. bMS Am 1743 Box 2, Item
94 I. Letters to Sarah Orne Jewett.
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe
College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Ida Agassiz Higginson*
South Berwick, Maine
2 June 1877
My dear Mrs. Higginson
You have not the least
idea how much pleasure your letter has given me. Thank you
with all my heart for your kindness in writing to me. I hoped
you would like little Deephaven,* but I do not know
what to say when you give it such high praise. -- I am very
glad to have
You said one thing in your letter which made me
very glad; that you thought I had not made country people
ridiculous. I should have been so sorry if I had done that, for I
have always
[
Page 3 ]
liked my out-door life best, and in driving
about ever since I can remember with my father, who is a
doctor, I have grown more and more fond of the old-fashioned
country-folks. I have always known their ways and I like to be
with them. Deephaven is not the result of
careful study during one "summer's vacation," as some persons
have thought, but I could write it because it is the fashion
of life with which I have always been familiar. I think no
part of New England can possibly have kept more
[
Page 4 ]
of the last century's way of [ thinking
damaged page corner ] and speaking than this -- Berwick
itself is growing and flourishing in a way that breaks my
heart, but out from the village among the hills and near the
sea there are still the quietest farms -- where I see little
change from one year to another -- and the people would
delight your heart. ----- And as for the sailors; I have
always known them. Nobody know how I love the sea, and many of
my friends have been and are sailors in either the navy or
[ Page 5 ]
the merchant service and until a few years ago we had much to
do with ships. When I was a child the captains used to come to
see my grandfather* and I thought if I could go off on a
voyage I should be perfectly happy --
Deephaven seems as real to me as Berwick or
Newport. I know all the roads and all the houses there, and I
believe I could answer all the questions about it that
[ Page 6 ]
anyone could ask --
I beg your pardon for this letter dear Mrs.
Higginson, because it is altogether too long. I wished to
write you at once -- and I think of so many things to say. I
have always remembered my two calls with the greatest
pleasure. Please let me thank you again for your
kindness and interest -- and believe that I am always yours
sincerely
Sarah O. Jewett.
Higginson: Richard Cary notes that the Higginson letter to
which Jewett responds here is held by the Houghton Library at
Harvard University: "Mrs. Higginson enjoyed particularly the
description of the old church in this 'delicious little book'
which reminded her of Mrs. Gaskell's Cranford, except that
she considered Deephaven 'very superior to it.'"
Deephaven: Jewett's first novel, published in 1877.
grandfather: Cary writes,
Theodore Furber Jewett, "a citizen of the whole
geography," led a life of affairs and hazards which appealed to
Miss Jewett's early romantic drift. Bound out as a boy, he ran
away and shipped aboard a whaler. With only two companions, he
was left for over eight months on an uninhabited island in the
Pacific Ocean to guard stores and secure seals. He returned to
New England, became a sea captain, ran a vessel to the West
Indies at the height of the Embargo, was captured by the British
and confined on the infamous Dartmoor Prison Ship. He turned to
the less turbulent occupation of shipbuilding, married four
times, and finally retired as a merchant. In his declining years
he maintained the "W. I. Store" on Main Street in South Berwick,
a multifarious general store replete with potbelly stove and
cracker barrel. Here gathered daily the Captain's cronies,
veterans of the seven seas, to spin the prodigious yarns which
the child Sarah absorbed with undiminishing wonder.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Princeton University
Library, Princeton, NJ: Robert H. Taylor Collection of English and
American Literature RTC01, Box 10, Folder 12. Photocopies are held
by Colby College Special Collections,
Waterville, ME: JEWE.1 and the Maine Women Writers Collection.
With this manuscript is another page that is
presumably associated with the letter, folded, with a water stain
on each page. The left leaf has the following in pencil: 1500
sytf 736. The right leaf has this in pencil: "Miss Jewett
"Deephaven." One could speculate that this sheet contained
the letter when it was offered for sale.
The letter has been transcribed previously by
Richard Cary for inclusion in Sarah Orne Jewett Letters,
and by Burton Trafton, for inclusion in the Maine Women Writers
Collection, Burton Trafton Research Collection of transcriptions
from mixed repositories, letters from Sarah Orne Jewett,
1875-1890, folder 63. These and the new transcription here vary in
details of punctuation and in some readings of individual words.
New transcription and notes by Terry Heller,
Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to W. L. Sawyer*
South Berwick
6 June 1877
Dear Sir
I have received your note relating to a new
magazine -- I am not writing much this summer and, from not having
been well am already behindhand with some work which I wish to
finish. So I am afraid I cannot promise you anything for the first
number -- Perhaps I can do something for you later.
As for my terms [ extended space with a
mark in the middle, ' ] St. Nicholas
[ Page 2 ]
and the Independent pay me at the rate of five dollars a '
page* -- the Atlantic more than that --
I hardly know what kind of [ sketches corrected
] or stories you wish for; perhaps you have a prospectus or
something of the sort which you will send me. I do not send away a
great deal of work, and when I have any thing which I wish to
publish I send it to one of the magazines which I have mentioned.
But I have no doubt I shall write more and I may have some
articles by and by which you could use -- if you liked them
-- I wish
[ Page 3 ]
you great success and am sincerely yrs.
Sarah O. Jewett.
Mr. W. L. Sawyer.
Notes
Sawyer: In The Nation 25 (1877) p. 32 -- and
elsewhere in 1877 -- appeared an advertisement announcing a new
magazine, Once a Month, managed by W. L. Sawyer in
Portland, ME. Among its contributors, Jewett is listed. The
Independent (2 August 1877), p. 10, describes the first
issue and promises a serial by Elizabeth Stuart Phelps to begin in
the next issue. However, no issues are listed in WorldCat, and it
is not known whether the magazine continued after the first issue.
He may also have edited the short-lived Portland
Saturday
Evening Gazette, DeCreny & Sawyer publishers. Further
information about his identity remains unknown.
page: Twice in this letter, Jewett seems clearly to have
placed a mark like an apostrophe within a line. In neither
case is it clear what she meant to convey.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Yale Collection of
American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library,
Yale University. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe
College.
John Taylor Perry* to Sarah Orne Jewett
Cinti. June 6. 1877
Dear Sally --
I have only time to write a word & [
inclose so spelled ] a little extract which comes from the
N. Y. Ev'g Post of which Bryant* is the (nominal) editor. The
papers have got through with D.H.* by the people who read it, and
who all "get through" reading it, are emphatic in its praises. I
bought three copies to lend & give away reserving one for
myself & the chief book club here has it on its list & I
have circulated the office copy through the families of the
Gazette Co, & it ought to run through the rest. I have heard
of more than one instance [ where ? ] those who have read
have told others to do likewise -- So whether you get much money
or not you have got a very fair start in the road to fame -- If
the rich ( & virtuous) Bostonian offers himself to you as a
celebrity you may get a voyage to Europe & a fine
establishment as additional pay for your enterprise. Does this
^counsel^ savor of W.P.'s* counsels! If it looks selfish &
mercenary dont follow it -- At all events dont sell your happiness
for cash, though if love and cash form
[ Page 2 ]
a partnership I can't say nay --
The Linn St. mansion has been sold at last. It didn't turn out a
good investment, though it was regarded as such when I bought,
& had I sold before the panic ^of '73^* as I ought, I should
have got my money back. Still, allowing for the decline of gold
from 125 to 106 I have done well. I have really lost not much over
$1000 which is not more than the shrinkage of all values apart
from and extra to that of gold. I should have gained nothing by
waiting. The street is "[ dis-improving ? ]"! The [
purchaser ? ] is a fat German, who has made $30.000 in
keeping a liquor shop & is drinking so much that his friends
have persuaded him to sell out & retire. He paid all cash
& assumed a [ years taxe say so it appears ] $120
which I was legally bound to pay. Everyone thinks I have done a
good thing. I have hired a house on Mt. Auburn, on Summit St. The
highest ground in the county is splendid and resplendent, &
surrounded by a great many of Sarah's best friends. [ Yet ?
] it is like a N. E. village, & nearly all the nice people are
getting on the hills except Doctors, & those whose business or
investments tie them down. It takes only a few minutes longer to
get to M.A. than to Linn St. The house is good, not [ deletion
of often or after ] { a } very fine one, with more
room than we have in Linn St especially for storage, & is only
$1500 a year, which is cheaper than owning. I have leased for a
year with privilege of renewal. I hope you will get personally
acquainted with the [ house corrected ] & its [
resplendence ? ]. We shall move week after next waiting a
week that Dr. Wm* may not find us up in arms when he
gets here.
With regards to all &
[ Up the right margin of page 2 ]
yrs J. T. P.
Notes
Perry: See Sarah Chandler Perry in Key to
Correspondents.
Bryant: American poet and journalist, William Cullen
Bryant (1794-1878). Wikipedia.
D.H.: Deephaven, Jewett's first novel, had
appeared in April.
W.P.'s: Probably Jewett's grandfather, Dr. William
Perry, but possibly his son, Dr. William Gilman Perry. Key
to Correspondents.
'73: Wikipedia says the 1873 financial crisis in
Europe and North America, lasted until about 1877 in the U.S.
Dr. Wm: Probably Dr. William Gilman
Perry, but possibly his father, Dr. William Perry. Key to
Correspondents.
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 177. I. Letters to
Sarah Orne Jewett.
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe
College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Theophilus Parsons
South Berwick 8 June 1877
Dear Prof. Parsons
I have been a long time in answering
your letter which I was so glad to have -- but I found at first
little time for letters, from one reason or another, and lately
I have been ill -- and am just beginning to crawl out again like
an old fly in the spring. I just said this to someone else, and
it told my story so well that I repeat it to you: I am so glad
that you told me some of the faults you found with Deephaven* --
for as you say honest criticism helps one after all more than
praise. I think it would have been better to have put in a
little more 'moralizing' and I should do it if I wrote another
book of this kind. For myself, I like best to have the moral in
the story -- to make the character as apparent as I can,
as one feels instinctively* the character of the people one
meets. I always feel as if when I say anything directly as if it
were awkward and that if the story itself doesn't say it, it is
no use to put it in afterward. I think this is a mistake with me
often times. I should be sorry to miss doing good because I
carried out my fancy and pleased myself in the fashion of my
writing. I hoped Deephaven might do two things -- the first to
help people to look at 'commonplace' lives from the inside
instead of the outside -- to see that there is so deep and true
a sentiment and loyalty and tenderness and courtesy and patience
-- where at first sight there is only roughness and coarseness
and something to be ridiculed. And beside this it seems to me
that such a life as I told about in Deephaven is so much
pleasanter and more real, than what one calls 'society life'. I
think so many girls I know care so little for out-door life, and
its pleasures and see so few of its beauties. And do you know I
made 'Kate' say that she can see how easily they might have had
a dull summer -- only they chose not to have it? -- I meant to
teach that if I could. I should like to write more -- but I
cannot to-day. I did not wish to leave your kind letter any
longer unanswered, and I wished to thank you for it and for all
your interest and kindness always. Yours sincerely and affly
Sarah O. Jewett
Notes
Deephaven: Jewett's first novel, Deephaven,
was published by James R. Osgood & Co. in 1877.
instinctively: In his transcription of this
letter, Scott F. Stoddart reads this word as "distinctively."
See Selected letters of Sarah Orne Jewett: A critical
edition with commentary. Ph.D. Dissertation.
University of Illinois, 1988, p. 123.
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 W. L. Sawyer
South Berwick
15 June 1877
My dear Mr. Sawyer*
I am sorry to say that I
cannot send anything in time for your first number -- I do not
wish to seem disobliging, but I have nothing ready -- and I
have been ill lately and ought not to write -- I have to be
away part of next week too -- and I am anxious to finish some
[ Page 2 ]
copying before then ^if I do anything^ -- I should not wish
to send you an article written in a hurry and when I did not feel
like it -- for your credit as well as my own -- If I had any thing
I was willing to print all ready that would make a difference
-- Thank you for the compliment you pay me -- and believe
that I send hearty good wishes for the success of the magazine.
Yrs sincerely
Sarah O. Jewett
[
back of page 1 ]
Please do not forget to send me the prospectus
for I should like very much to see it -- and to know more
about the magazine [ and ? ] which I am much
interested.
I suppose, like all editors, you have more verses than you
want? --
Notes
Sawyer: See also Jewett to Sawyer of 6 June
1877. In The Nation 25 (1877) p. 32 -- and
elsewhere in 1877 -- appeared an advertisement announcing a new
magazine, Once a Month, managed by W. L. Sawyer in
Portland, ME. Among its contributors, Jewett is listed. The
Independent (2 August 1877), p. 10, describes the first
issue and promises a serial by Elizabeth Stuart Phelps to begin in
the next issue. However, no issues are listed in WorldCat, and it
is not known whether the magazine continued after the first issue.
He may also have edited the short-lived Portland
Saturday
Evening Gazette, DeCreny & Sawyer publishers. Further
information about his identity remains unknown.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Rubinstein Library,
Small Manuscripts Collection, Duke University. Sec. A Box 174
Folder 1. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Harriet Waters Preston (
fragment* )
[ Summer 1877 ]*
[
Page 1 ]
young girlhood! I somehow have a great wish
that you could have been in Wells with me and that you could
have seen this girl in particular. There are glorious sunsets
there -- over beyond the great marshes -- and in the light the
boats that ride and sway and sink out at the moorings get such
a beautiful color and everything grows so rich and then fades
back into gray and brown and the stars come out and we watch
for the Boon Island light --
[
Page 2; not certain this follows from
1 ]
Hervé Rice* and I meant [ to ?
] [ unrecognized word ] it all but what can one do
in such hopeless laziness! My friend was there with me, (not
Grace* for she goes to Portsmouth before she comes to me)
and I sat on the rocks most of the time and sometimes went
to walk with her a little way -- This was Miss Seeger* and I
have not been good to her at all -- I didn't feel like
talking and I have been tired and cross, and I have had a
horridly lame shoulder which I made worse trying to throw
stones farther out to sea that some other little boys could
-- I wish I felt better Miss Preston! I am
[
Page 3 ]
getting so cross about it -- and if
staying awhile longer at Wells doesn't make me feel good
for something, I shall be miserable. I am not contented to
wait for October; there is so much I wish to do -- It was
so salt at Wells that I thought I was forty times better
and I am not after all. And I wish I had been nicer to H
-- though I suppose she understood and she is a dear
fellow --
And what can I say about my being so glad you like [
lap-lilies ? ] and the red soldiers that have to
be stationed for sentinels all through the [ deletion,
possibly fields ] pastures to keep the other plants
in order
[ Page 4 ]
[ Breaks off. No signature ]
Notes
fragment: It is not clear that page 2 follows from page
1.
1877: This date is completely speculative. All of the
other currently known correspondence from Jewett to Preston is
from 1877. In Sarah Orne Jewett (1994), Paula
Blanchard says that the Preston-Jewett correspondence began in
1877 and continued for a short time until Preston apparently took
offense at something Jewett said or did and became markedly
distant (pp. 108-9).
Hervé Rice: This transcription is uncertain and
this person or item has not yet been identified.
Grace: Jewett could refer to either of two of her
correspondents, Grace Norton and Grace Gordon, later Walden.
Key to Correspondents.
Miss Seeger: Probably this is Harriet Seeger (d.
1921), referred to later as H. She was the niece of Jewett
correspondent Eliza Seeger.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library of
Harvard University, Cambridge, MA. bMS Am 1743 Box 6, Item
274.
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe
College.
John Greenleaf Whittier to Sarah Orne Jewett
Oak Knoll
Danvers
24th 7th mo 1877
Dear Friend
I must thank thee for thy admirable book
"Deephaven."* I have given several copies to friends, all of whom
appreciate it highly, & I have just been reading it over for
the third time. I know of nothing ^better^ in our literature of
the kind
[ Page 2 ]
though it recalls Mifs Mitford's "Our Village" and the Chronicles
of Carlingford.*
I heartily congratulate ^thee^ on thy complete
succefs and am very truly thy frd.
John G. Whittier
Notes
Deephaven: Jewett's first novel appeared in 1877.
Mitford ... Carlingford: Mary Russell Mitford (1787-1855), Our
Village (1856-1857), and Margaret Oliphant (1828-1897), Chronicles
of Carlingford (9 volumes, 1863-66).
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library of
Harvard University. Sarah Orne Jewett Correspondence.
Letters from John Greenleaf Whittier, MS Am 1743 (235).
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
This letter has been transcribed previously by
Pickard, Letters of John Greenleaf Whittier. v. 3.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Anna Laurens Dawes
South Berwick
25 July 1877
Dear Anna
I am so sorry but I don’t
believe I can possibly make you a visit this summer -- In the
first place I am not feeling well at all and when I get away from
home I want to go close by the sea and until it is a good deal
cooler I never ^should not^ dare to go far
inland -- Whenever I have done so I have always have had to pay
for it -- And we are
[ Page 2 ]
looking for a good many visitors during the next two months, which
fact bars* the way at once -- I do want to see you very much
indeed and I wish you could come to me, for a little while
at any rate --
It is very provoking to me not to have felt better this summer for
I wished to do a great many things -- I have had to give up the
plan into which I entered so heartily at first, of getting
[ Page 3 ]
ready a volume of children's stories for Mr. Osgood* to publish in
October for the Christmas market. He is very good about it, indeed
he thinks it better perhaps to wait awhile -- though he says it
shall be published whenever I choose. But I hate to give up
anything and I should have chosen to do the work now if I had felt
like writing all through August --
I am very lazy indeed -- and I haven't anything in the way of news
to tell you{.}
[ Page 4 ]
I have been staying by the sea with my sister Carrie* who is not
well yet -- and one day I went over to Exeter to see my aunt and
cousins, the Gilmans and Bells* who to my heart's delight have
just come home from abroad. Miss Preston* is coming to York the
tenth of August, and when I can [ caught so written ] a
chance I am going down --York is only a dozen miles from us --
shall not I be happy to have Miss Preston to myself as much as I
can there! I wish you were ^to be^ there -- I hope you will never
have a
[ Page 5 ]
suspicion that I am not awfully sorry I cant go to you for a visit
now! I have always wanted to go to the Berkshire region again,
even if I did not wish so much to see you, and did not know what
good times we could have together -- I have had to refuse and put
off other visits beside lately, and I get so sorry over it!
-- I have been so much interested lately in a girl here* who is
younger by some years
[ Page 6 ]
than I am, and who has seemed to be very fond of me -- I have
always fancied her very much and hoped some day I could 'get at'
her and lately it came about. She is trying very hard to grow
better, and there is something very touching in her way of talking
about it. She is a wild out-doors sort of girl very fond of horses
and all that sort of thing, and I have been [ surprised corrected
] more [ and corrected ]
[ Page 7 ]
more to find how much tenderness and loneliness she has covered up
by her careless wild ways. Not that she is rough or rude exactly,
but untamed! I am getting very fond of her, and I must
have told you that it is my great ambition to have younger
girl-friends as I grow older, and to do them good and help them --
so you will understand the happiness her liking for me gives me.
She is so sincerely trying to be a Christian -- she has
[ Page 8 ]
rather a lonely home which I hope to help her make pleasanter for
herself and the rest -- There is a pathos about her ^of^ which I
always am conscious and lately she has been ill --
-- I always find so much to say to you dear Dawes-y but I must
just now unwillingly say good-bye. I am sorry your arm is lame
-- so is mine { -- } that is to say, my chest & shoulder* --
and I think we had better learn to write with our left hands. I
can already a little, can you?
Yours with much love
Sarah O. Jewett
Notes
bars: This manuscript sheet has a hole torn in it,
removing some words, e.g. "the" after "bars." It appears
that Hollis may have seen the undamaged manuscript; I draw on
his transcription to fill in blanks.
Mr. Osgood: James Ripley Osgood. See Key to
Correspondents. Jewett's Play Days was published the
following year.
Carrie: Carrie Augusta Jewett. See Key to
Correspondents.
Gilmans and Bells: For members of the Gilman and Bell
families, see Key to Correspondents.
Miss Preston: Harriet Waters Preston. See Key
to Correspondents.
a girl here: The identity of this person is as yet
unknown.
shoulder: Hollis says Jewett "'had sprained her
shoulder fairly badly swimming at Wells' earlier that summer,
according to F. O. Matthiessen, Sarah Orne Jewett (Boston,
1929), 57."
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 John Greenleaf Whittier
South Berwick
July 27, 1877
My dear Mr. Whittier:
Thank you with all my heart for your
letter which came last night. I think you were so kind to write
to me, and I cannot tell you how glad I am that you like my
book.1 I hoped you would like it a little, but I
never thought you would care so much for it, and I am so glad
and so proud. I have read your poems over and over ever since I
was a little girl, and because I have had so much pleasure and
have learned so much from what you have written, it makes me
very happy to have pleased you by anything I have done.
I remember that you told me last
winter that you had been here and in Rollinsford.2 I
wish you would come again and would stay with us, and give us
the very great pleasure of driving you about the country
wherever you care to go and of doing everything we can to make
it pleasant for you. I think it never was so beautiful about
Berwick as it is now, -- though it is always new to me -- and
there is a great deal to interest one here and in York and up
and down the river. My father3 wishes me to ask you
if some time you will not care to come.
Please let me thank you again for your
kindness to me, for your letter will always be one of my great
treasures and because you praised my works I shall try harder
than I ever have before to make it better.
Yours most sincerely,
Sarah O. Jewett
Notes
1 Whittier's comments on Miss Jewett's first book
contain several superlatives. "I must thank thee for thy
admirable book Deephaven. ... I know of nothing better in our
literature of the kind. ...I heartily congratulate thee on thy
complete success" (Francis Otto Matthiessen, Sarah Orne
Jewett [Boston, 1929]. p. 56.) Two years later he assured
her "I have read Deephaven over half a dozen times, and always
with gratitude to thee for such a book -- so simple, pure, and
so true to nature." (Samuel T. Pickard, Life and Letters of
John Greenleaf Whittier [Boston, 1895], II, 654.)
2 The family of Whittier's mother, Abigail Hussey,
lived in Rollinsford. Although across the border in New
Hampshire, Rollinsford is only one mile from South Berwick,
Maine. Miss Jewett and her sisters often walked there to the
house of their friend Edith Haven, who had married the Honorable
Charles Doe, Chief Justice of the New Hampshire Supreme Court.
3 Miss Jewett adored her father, Dr. Theodore Herman
Jewett (1815-1878), "the best and wisest man I ever knew."
During her childhood he took her with him on his daily rounds of
farm and shore patients. He instilled in her a love of nature
and of people, and constantly admonished her to put them down on
paper "just as they are."
This letter was transcribed and annotated by Richard Cary, and
first published in "'Yours Always Lovingly': Sarah
Orne
Jewett
to John Greenleaf Whittier," Essex Institute
Historical Collections 107 (1971): 412-50. This article was
reprinted at the Sarah Orne Jewett Text Project by permission of
the library of the American Antiquarian Society and the Phillips
Library at the Peabody Essex Museum.
Mary M. Porter* to Sarah Orne Jewett
Newport, R. I.
July 27th 1877
My dear Mifs Jewett.
I am afraid you will think me the most
ungrateful creature in the world to have left your charming letter
so long unanswered. I quite agree with you that explanations
should be done away with, when they are on your side
however, not on mine. And I must tell you that it was a long
illness of my sister -- during the intervals of which I had to
take charge of the Southern Education Society* that put a complete
stop to any other correspondence. The attempt
[ Page 2 ]
to do a little of my own work late at night, soon got my eyes [
once ? ] over strong, into such a state that any further
use was out of the question. Now we are both at Newport, where
Sister is quite well again and whence one of the first uses of my
eyes is to write this long stupid explanation to you. I
cannot tell you how much I have enjoyed Deep Haven* -- No wonder
you are fond of descriptive writing when you [ were in the so ?
] -- I was quite delighted in reading it, for apart from the
interest and merit of the book, I had a strong personal feeling as
if I were really making your acquaintance, perhaps even more than
if I met you, for
[ Page 3 ]
you know when people meet in the world, they have to say pretty
much the same things. And it takes a long or a familiar
acquaintance to get beneath the surface -- But I feel now as if I
had known you and "Kate" for a long while -- & have even gone
so far as to speculate what I should have done and said had I
accompanied you on some of your expeditions, for I am sure they
all really took place. Is there no chance of your coming to
Newport this summer. Kate Birckhead* says she is hoping very
much for a visit from you -- and Ellen* spoke as if there were
really some likelihood of its taking place. So I am constantly
hoping
[ Page 4 ]
that I may really meet you before I go back to the South. I
enclose you the little paper on our part of the Country, that we
spoke of so long ago -- and which my sister's illness prevented
her writing before. If they care for it in the Independent she
will write a series of them --
It is so cool and lovely here this summer, such a contrast to the
heat of last year -- I find it charming in every respect -- people
do complain I believe of its not being as gay as usual, but then
they have not been passing their winter in the backwoods of
Louisiana -- My little story is laid by for a while and I have no
doubt the rest will be as beneficial to its health as to mine --
With kindest remembrances
[ Cross-written in the top margin of page
1 ]
from my Sister, believe me my dear Mifs Jewett
yours very sincerely
Mary M. Porter
Notes
Porter: Little has been learned about Mary Porter and
her sister, who probably was Annie Porter. Miss Mary Porter was
the author of "Aunt Betsey's Funeral Sermon," a story appearing in
The Independent of 11 January 1878, p. 3. Annie
Porter's series of sketches entitled "My Village in the South,"
began in January 1879 in Lippincott's Magazine. These
sketches, set in Louisiana, were at least partly fictional.
Family Search provides several records of a
likely Porter family. While they are not perfectly
consistent with the information in this letter, there are strong
correspondences.
The 1860 census places this family in Newport,
RI.
Mother: Mary Porter, age 34, born in Tennessee
Daughter: Annie, age 16, born in Louisiana
Son: Alexander, age 14, born in Louisiana
Daughter: Mary, age 13, born in Pennsylvania
In this census, they are listed as having real
estate valued at $900K and personal wealth of $100K..
In the 1870 census, mother and daughters were
in Ward Three, St. Mary, Louisiana, on the coast roughly 90 miles
southwest of New Orleans. Annie is listed as age 25 and Mary as
22, close to but not the same compared to 1860. Mother Mary is
listed as a planter with real estate of $200K and personal wealth
of $5K.
Southern Education Society: Probably she refers to a
Louisiana chapter of the Freedman's Aid and Southern Education
Society. The society's purpose was the education of former
slaves.
Haven: Deephaven (1877).
Kate Birckhead: Key to Correspondents.
Ellen: Ellen Mason. Key to Correspondents.
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 180. I. Letters to
Sarah Orne Jewett.
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe
College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Theophilus Parsons
South Berwick
28 July 1877
Dear Prof. Parsons
Thank you so much for your last
letter. I have wished to write to you but somehow I keep putting
off writing letters this summer, day after day. I have not felt
at all well most of the time and I am lazier than ever! When
your letter came I was staying down at Wells where I first knew
you and I meant to write you from there at once because I had
been thinking about you so much. It always carries me back at
once to those days, when I go to Wells -- and I wished I could
see you -- again and again. But how much there must be to enjoy
in Nantucket! I want to go there and to Marblehead more than any
places I can think of -- and I hope to make the two journeys in
the course of time, neither being very long!
Didn't I tell you that I had promised
Mr. Osgood* to get ready a book of children's stories? I have
given up the idea for the present, for I did not feel a bit like
working over it all through August -- as I should have had to
do. Mr. Osgood thinks it is just as well to put it off though he
says the book shall be published whenever I say. I am in such a
hurry to have September come for then I shall feel well and go
to work again. I am so hopelessly tired and lazy all this summer
and my lame shoulder and chest have troubled me more than usual.
I think I hurt it while I was at Wells for the last day I was in
swimming I got dreadfully used up before I knew it and I think I
worked too hard on that occasion which will be a most profitable
lesson to me! I am to have a jolly long time by the sea this
year if everything goes right. Next week I am to spend with my
aunt and cousins the Gilmans and Bells at Little Boar's Head in
Rye* -- They have just come from abroad and I have only been
with them part of a day, so I shall have such a good time. Both
my sisters are to be there too. After that some of my friends
are to be here and about the middle of August or perhaps earlier
I am going to York to stay with Miss Preston* two weeks at
least. You don't know how very fond of her I have grown or how
very kind she is to me. I am still having a great deal of
pleasure from Deephaven and I don't know when I have
been so proud and so glad about anything as I was of getting a
letter from Mr. Whittier a few days ago.* Wasn't he kind to take
the trouble to write to me and to say that he had read my book
three times and that he thought there was nothing better in our
literature of the kind and that he thought it a complete success
-- and things of that sort? I don't think a letter could have
been pleasanter and I have enjoyed what he has written so much
ever since I was a little girl, that I am delighted to know that
anything I could do has pleased him. I have had some new notices
in Magazines which were very kind. I wish you would look at one
in the June Eclectic if you ever come across that
number* -- for it was such high praise -- and praise that went
to my heart -- and will make me try to come up to the high-water
mark which the writer seems to think I have reached, and which I
certainly think I have not. For I must tell you and all my
friends -- again and again that I never wished to work so hard
over my writing or saw the need of it so clearly as I do now. It
seems to me that I never felt so entirely that I am just
beginning and have no end of things to learn and to do. And I
see that I must try harder than ever to be better myself if I
want my stories to be really good. I am always remembering what
I have often spoken to you about -- the bit from a notice of one
of Miss Thackeray's books* "In short, the tenderness of a loving
womanly heart pervades the whole story. It is Miss Thackeray
herself in Old Kensington that makes it so delightful a
book" ----. You do not know how much that taught me -- and I
want to tell you again because you have helped me so much --
that I am more than ever glad of the help, and I beg you to
teach me and to scold me and to show me my way, because alone I
am always going wrong though I do wish to go right. How much I
wish I could have a long talk with you! Good-bye -- Yours
sincerely and lovingly
Sarah
Please give my love to Mrs. Parsons
and Miss Sabra --*
Notes
Mr. Osgood: James Ripley Osgood. See
Correspondents.
Gilmans and Bells: For members of the Gilman and
Bell families, see
Correspondents.
Miss Preston: Harriet Waters Preston. See
Correspondents.
a letter from Mr. Whittier: John Greenleaf Whittier, see
Correspondents. For Whittier's letter, see above, Whittier
to Jewett of 24 July.
June Eclectic: This review appeared in The
Eclectic in June 1877.
from a notice of one of Miss Thackeray's books: Miss
Thackeray is William M. Thackeray's daughter, also a novelist,
Anne Isabella Thackeray, Lady Ritchie (1837-1919). Old
Kensington appeared in 1873. Richard Cary notes that
in his review, Henry Mills Alden wrote: "It is Miss Thackeray in
Old Kensington which makes it so delightful a story" in
"Editor's Literary Record," Harper's, XLVII (June 1873),
p. 131.
Miss Sabra: Mary Sabra Parsons. See Theophilus Parsons
in
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 Mrs. Haskins*
My dear Mrs. Haskins
Mother
wishes me to tell you that she was very glad to have your note
and to know you are so near. She has been ill for some days but
as soon as she is
well enough she means to drive down to see you -- She sends
much love to you and hopes you will come up to Berwick if you can
--
In haste yours sincerely
Sarah O. Jewett
Haskins: The recipient of this letter has not yet been
identified. It is possible that Jewett wrote "Hoskins."
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 4, Folder 159, Burton Trafton Jewett
Research Collection. Trafton's notes indicate the the manuscript
is held by the Massachusetts Historical Society.
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe
College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Mrs. Haskins*
South Berwick
30 July 1877
My dear Mrs. Haskins
Mother wishes me to tell
you that she was very glad to have your note and to know you are
so near. She has been ill for some days but as soon as she is
[ Page 2 ]
well enough she means to drive down to see you -- She
sends much love to you and hopes you will come up to Berwick if
you can --
In haste yours sincerely
Sarah O. Jewett
Notes
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 4, Folder 159, Burton Trafton
Jewett Research Collection. Trafton's notes indicate the the
manuscript is held by the Massachusetts Historical Society.
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe
College.
William Dean Howells to Sarah Orne Jewett
[
Begin letterhead, underlined
portions added by hand ]
EDITORIAL OFFICE OF
the Atlantic Monthly,
_____
The Riverside Press
Cambridge, Mass.
[
End letterhead, with date to the
right ]
Aug. 12, 1877.
Dear Miss Jewett:
Don't be too proud, now your book* has
succeeded so splendidly to send some stories and sketches to
Your good old friend,
The Atlantic Monthly
Notes
book: Presumably, Howells refers to Jewett's first
novel, Deephaven (1877).
Lacking his signature makes it uncertain that
Howells penned this note, but the tone and the handwriting are
at least similar to those of letters he signed.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Miller Library,
Special Collections, Colby College, Waterville, ME: JEWE.1.
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
John Greenleaf Whittier to Sarah Orne Jewett
'Oak Knoll'
Danvers 14th -- 8 Mo.
1877*
My dear frd.
Thanks for thy exceedingly kind invitation to
South Berwick -- and "Deephaven."* I wish I could accept it,
but the dog-days compel ^me^ to keep quiet at home. Did I
answer thy letter before this? -- I half suspect I did, but in the
multiplicity of my correspondence, I am
[ Page 2 ]
not quite sure, and so write now. I hear thy little book
everywhere praised. and The hotels &
boarding houses of "Old York" ought to give thee & thy friends
free rooms, from this time henceforth, for there will be half thy
readers going to "Deephaven{.}" My friend Miss Preston[,]*
whom thee know I suppose, is there now at the "Harbor."*
[ Page 3 ]
I hope I may sometime, avail myself of thy
invitation.
I saw our good friend Mrs. Ellis at
Newtonville* the other day.
Always & truly thy frd.
John G. Whittier
Notes
14th 8 Mo. 1877: Whittier uses the Quaker
dating system, giving the day and the number of the month.
Deephaven: Jewett's first novel appeared in the
spring of 1877. Whittier seems to be thinking of "Old York"
as a model for the fictional the town of Deephaven that is the
setting of Jewett's novel.
Miss Preston: Harriet Waters Preston (1836-1911), a
writer and translator, was one of those from whom Jewett sought
advice early in her career. See Blanchard, Sarah Orne Jewett,
pp. 108-9.
the "Harbor": This is likely to be the York Harbor Inn, in York Harbor Maine.
Mrs. Ellis at Newtonville: Emma Harding Claflin
Ellis. See Key
to Correspondents. She was a member of the Claflin
family of Newtonville, MA.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the South Berwick Public
Library, South Berwick, ME. Transcription by John
Richardson. Annotated by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to James Ripley Osgood
South Berwick, Maine
16 Aug 1877
Dear Sir
Cannot I have the rest of the notices of
Deephaven* now if you are done using them?
There are a great many that I have not
seen and I shall thank you very much if you will take the trouble
to send them. Yours sincerely
Sarah O. Jewett
Notes
Deephaven: Jewett's first novel, Deephaven,
was published by James R. Osgood & Co. in 1877.
The manuscript of this letter is held by Colby College Special
Collections, Waterville, ME: JEWE.1. Richard Cary included his
transcription in Sarah Orne Jewett Letters.
New transcription and notes by Terry Heller,
Coe College.
William Hayes Ward to Sarah Orne Jewett
[
Begin letterhead,
handwritten
date in underlined space ]
The Independent.
Editorial Rooms, 251 Broadway}
Post-Office Box 2787.
New York,
Aug 30 1877.
[ End letterhead ]
My dear Miss Jewett
The trouble with this is not that it is
badly written, but that there is not enough substance to
it -- It is rather thin in story, or plot, or what not.
Yet I like it, but not well enough to print it -- The
other* might suit me better. There is no "folk lore" about
it. But thanks to you. You will not offend me by any
[ Page 2 ]
such kindness to your friends.
very sincerely
Mr Hayes Ward
Deputy ed
Notes
other: Jewett's next story to appear in
The
Independent was "Patty's Long Vacation" in May 1878.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the University of New
England Maine Women Writers Collection, Sarah Orne Jewett
Correspondence Box 1 Folder 43. Transcription and notes by Terry
Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Anna Laurens Dawes
10 Sept 1877
Dear Dawes-y my dear friend!
I have thought of you fondly if I have not written. The hindrance
was a combination of visitors and my lame shoulder and two, long,
delicious, and lazy weeks at York Harbor. I came home from there
Saturday night via Portsmouth and I must confess that I am a
little homesick for the sound of the sea -- the charming out-door
life and the dear old and new friends from whom I had to part.
Most of them had either left already or came away when I did, and
yet there are some who will stay until October. I mean to drive
down for the day the first morning I think it will be decent to
suggest it to my family. Do you always feel a little unsettled and
ill at ease when you first get home or rather when you first get
back! It always is a little uninteresting to me for a day or
two. I am not ready to write or to do anything sensible. I think
one is half a guest, don’t you? and doesn't take one's proper
place at the beginning. At least I don’t, and I remember that
while I was growing up and afterward I used to get very blue and
lonely and miss my friends awfully for two weeks at least. But my
writing has had a great influence over that naughtiness. I can
always throw myself heart and soul into that. I am thinking a good
deal of late about my winter's work -- and I wish I could begin
upon it at once. My shoulder (or rather the lame place in my chest
which I call my shoulder 'for short') has been troubling me
dreadfully this summer -- and I know I had better let writing
alone. I wish I could talk over with you a plan of which I have
thought a good deal -- and perhaps I can some day before I carry
it out. I shall start writing very soon, for I have so much to do.
Mr. Howells* has been writing to me for some stories and I wish I
had them done. I have thought a great deal about my scribbling
this summer -- and I never was so much interested in it. We have
some visitors coming a little later and after that my time will be
mostly my own -- which speech you need not criticise because I see
its inefficiency and naughtiness as well as you!
Miss Preston* meant to come from York with me
for a little visit, but was obliged to go elsewhere first. It all
came out right though I was so sorry about it at first, for Mother
is sick today.
How much better I should like talking with you
than writing! We would go for a walk Dawes-y for there is an
exquisite sunset shining in at the window through the trees. I
feel exactly like a talk with you -- and I half think you are
thinking of me too, just now. Do you ever feel certain of such
things? I wish you were to be here for the next few days. We would
stay out doors all the time and spend all our afternoons down
river, for the tide is high of an afternoon just now and I should
like to pull you down two miles and then stop in the shade and
read and gossip until it is time to come home to supper.
Thank you for your interest in my younger
girl friend and I am glad to tell you that she is growing stronger
and happier in every way. I think you would like her dearly, and
isn't it a great thing to be used in helping somebody, and to have
people associate you with their pleasures and blessings? We will
try to be good tools and to keep ourselves always ready for God's
use, wont we dear? I wish we could talk more about these things,
but we have talked haven't we? -- and we are sure of each other's
sympathy, which is a very great thing.
It is growing dark and I must say good
night to you -- though there is so much else I wish to tell you.
How pleasant it has been to know Miss Preston more and to love her
better -- and about the new friend I made at York -- and how nice
it was when somebody would tell me they had liked my little
Deephaven -- and thank me for pleasure I had given "unbeknownst"
--
Good-bye -- I have your litany put away in its
letter wh. I can't get at tonight, but I will send it to you
shortly. I beg your pardon for keeping it -- but I quite forgot it
-- God bless you and fare you well.
Notes
Mr. Howells: William Dean Howells. See
Correspondents.
Miss Preston: Harriet Waters Preston. See
Correspondents.
Deephaven: Jewett's first novel, Deephaven,
was published by James R. Osgood & Co. in 1877.
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 Laurens Dawes Papers in the
Manuscript Division of the Library of Congress.
Sarah Orne Jewett to James Ripley Osgood
South Berwick
11 Sept 1877
Dear Mr. Osgood
Some day will you please have those childrens
stories* sent to me. There's no hurry only I am going to
finish a scrap-book I am making of my 'works' and I want to put
them in some rainy morning or other --
Is Deephaven* still getting on well? And
have you
[ Page 2 ]
any idea how many more have been sold? I have proud thoughts
of buying myself a most gallant new horse* for riding -- and
though I don't care for a cheque at all until your usual time of
sending it, I wish I could have some idea of how well the book has
done -- or how ill!
I have just been down at
[ Page 3 ]
York Harbor for a fortnight and I wish I were back again.
This does not show decent civility to ones family I fear! --
If this is a busy time with you I beg you will not answer my
letter until you find it quite convenient --
Yours most sincerely
Sarah O. Jewett.
Notes
childrens stories: It is uncertain which stories
Jewett means, but presumably she means those published in Riverside
Magazine, where a number of her children's stories had
appeared. Though she speaks here of making a scrap book, it
seems likely that she also is looking forward to Play Days,
which Houghton, Osgood & Co. published in 1878.
Deephaven: Jewett is inquiring about sales of her first
book, published earlier in 1877.
horse: Within a month, Jewett had chosen her horse.
See her letters of October 10 and 11.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Yale Collection of
American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library,
Yale University. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe
College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Theophilus Parsons
South Berwick
17 Sept. 1877
My dear Prof. Parsons
I have just come home from York Harbor
where I have been staying for two long, delicious lazy weeks --
and I wish I were back again. Isn't that a lack of decent
civility to my family! But I miss the sound of the sea and the
out of door life and I miss my friends with whom I have been.
The sorrow is never in getting home but in getting back
-- which not very plain sentence, I think you will understand. I
wrote you some time [sometime] ago and sent the letter to
Nantucket where I hope you had a pleasant vacation. I wish I
could go there. It is one of the places I most wish to see. I
shall ask you ever so many questions about it when I see you
again. I hope I shall be in Boston a good deal this winter --
but I hope that every year without my visits growing much
longer. If I am only well I shall do a great deal of writing but
my shoulder has troubled me more than usual through the summer
and it tires me dreadfully to write more than half an hour or
so. I stopped just after I wrote that and imagined your telling
me there is a purpose in all this hindrance -- and I am already
very sure that it is sometimes better for one's work to be
hindered. But don't you think it is very hard to have to be
idle, when one wishes to be busy? I have had a pleasant summer
all except not feeling well. I have been by the sea a great
deal, and I have seen a great many old friends and have made
some charming new ones. It has made me very happy to find that I
have been making friends 'unbeknownst' through Deephaven*
and I am so glad people like it, and yet I am more sober than
ever when I think of it. But I have told you that in every
letter! -- never mind! I should say a great deal about what I
mean to try to do, if I were with you and a bit of it will get
written down, whether or no.
I must tell you of something which has
made me very happy, -- My friendship with two younger girls. I
think I have spoken to you of one whom I have known for a year,
but the other I have only had to do with this summer and I am so
glad that I have 'helped' her to help herself. I think I have no
greater wish or ambition than to be a good friend to younger
girls and I hope to be of more and more use in this way as I
grow older. I don't feel as if I were ready for it yet -- but I
have already learned that God can do good works with
very dull tools. I wish I could have a long talk with you. I do
so often wish for that.
I have been enjoying one of my newer
friends so much this summer. I wonder if you know much of her?
Miss Preston.* I know I have spoken of my fondness for her to
you but I have been with her lately and I was very happy. I am
very fond of her books, and to know her is a thousand times
better than reading those. I am very glad to have such a friend,
indeed I think there never was a girl so lucky in her
friendships as I have been. You know I mean a great deal when I
say 'lucky'!
I am thinking a good deal nowadays
about that old plan of mine for writing a book for girls.* If I
were feeling better I believe I would begin it at once. I am
sure of the truth of what you said once -- that perhaps I could
do it better now than if I waited until later -- when I am older
and may have forgotten what troubles and helps a girl. I wish I
could talk with you about it. I am very glad I did not try to do
this bit of work three years ago when I was thinking so much
about it.
I believe Deephaven is still
getting on well. I have had so much real pleasure from it, and I
am so glad to have done anything my friends like, -- they have
been so good to me. I want to do a great deal better next time
-- but I don't wish to get that restless ambition that drives
and puzzles and discontents and disappoints one. And I don't
wish to get so fierce a liking for my pen and ink that all my
other work will seem stupid and not worth while! There are so
many things to say to you -- but good-bye! Yours lovingly and
sincerely and in the hope of growing good and useful
S. O. J.
Notes
Deephaven: Jewett's first novel, Deephaven,
was published by James R. Osgood & Co. in 1877.
Miss Preston: Harriet Waters Preston. See
Correspondents.
book for girls: Jewett published two books "for
girls," but more than a decade after this letter: Betty
Leicester. A Story for Girls (1890) and its short
sequel, Betty Leicester's English Xmas: A New Chapter of an
Old Story (1894).
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 William Dean Howells
South Berwick,
18 Sept. 1877.
Dear Mr. Howells
Thank you for your funny, kind little note
which I received just before I went to York for a while. I
should like very much to send you some sketches* that were good
enough for you to keep for 'the poor old friend' [!] and I
hope I can go to work soon. I have not been well this summer
and have written almost nothing. Perhaps I can send you two
or three short papers about country people etc. for next year, for
I have planned so many.
Has not everyone been very kind about that small book of
mine?* I have had a thousand times more pleasure from it
than I ever dreamed of, and I thank you so much for telling me to
get it ready -- because I certainly should have given up the idea
if it hadn't been for you. It hardly seems real now, that
people have liked it so much. My friends have been so very
good to me that I am glad enough to have done something that
pleased them. I hope Mrs. Howells is well and dear Pilla,*
and that you have all had a most charming summer. Please
give my love to them and believe me your[s] sincerely with most
hearty thanks for your kindness.
Sarah O.
Jewett
Notes
sketches: It is not yet clear to which sketches
Jewett refers. Nothing of hers appeared in Atlantic
until March of 1878, "A Lost Lover." Several anonymous
pieces possibly by her appeared later in 1878 in the Contributors'
Club column.
small book of mine: Jewett refers to Deephaven
(1877).
Mrs. Howells ... Pilla: Elinor and Mildred
Howells. See William Dean Howells in Key to Correspondents.
A note on this transcription indicates that the original is in the
Bowdoin Collection. However, Bowdoin College's on-line
catalog of the Sarah Orne Jewett Papers (M238) lists no letter
from Jewett to Howells. 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.
Version 2 of the body of this Typescript
This is from the Houghton Library of Harvard
University, Cambridge, MA. bMS Am 1743.1 Sarah
Orne Jewett Additional Correspondence II. Letters from Sarah
Orne Jewett, Box 4 (122). The few differences are in
punctuation.
The Houghton also holds a 3rd
typescript in this folder. It varies slightly in
punctuation from the other two.
Thank you for your funny, kind little note
which I received just before I went to York for a while. I
should like very much to send you some sketches* that were good
enough for you to keep for 'the poor old friend' (!) and I
hope I can go to work soon. I have not been well this summer
and have written almost nothing. Perhaps I can send you two
or three short papers about country people etc. for next year for
I have planned so many.
Has not everyone been very kind about that small book of
mine?* I have had a thousand times more pleasure from it
than I ever dreamed of, and I thank you so much for telling me to
get it ready, because I certainly should have given up the idea if
it hadn't been for you. It hardly seems real now, that
people have liked it so much. My friends have been so very
good to me that I am glad enough to have done something that
pleased them. I hope Mrs. Howells is well and dear Pilla*
and that you have all had a most charming summer.
Please give my love to them and believe
me yours sincerely with most hearty thanks for your kindness.
Ellen Tucker Emerson to Sarah Orne Jewett
Concord Sept 28th 1877
Dear Miss Jewett,
I have the book safely back, and thank you
very much for your good letter with its very pleasant account by
your class,* which you may be sure rejoiced my heart.
Ellen T. Emerson
Notes
your class: Jewett speaks of her Sunday school
class for "grown-up girls" in her letters to Theophilus Parsons
of 12 April 1877 and to Anna Laurens Dawes of 11 October 1877.
The manuscript of this letter is held by Columbia University
Library (New York) Special Collections -- Jewett.
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Charlotte Alice Baker
South Berwick
28 Sept. 1877
Dear Miss Baker
I am going to
write you this morning, for two reasons -- first because
I feel [ like corrected ] it -- and also because
I am afraid I should not have a good chance later, as I
am going to be away next week -- Thank you so much for
your letter which came last night and I wish I could
answer it in a talk instead of having to write -- It has
made me care
a great deal more for you and I do truly hope I shall not make
you sorry that you care for me -- But I believe in taking ones
friends for better and for worse, as people promise when they
marry, and I am too glad to have your friendship and Miss
Lane's* to try to persuade you out of liking me by telling over
all the reasons why you might not! I think you are quite likely
to find them out for yourselves! and all I have to say is that I
want to be good and I mean to be good -- and I am in more of a
hurry
[ Page 3 ]
about it, than anybody else -- sometimes! ----- but isn't
it easy to forget? I like so much all you said
about my writing and you do not know how much I shall thank you
if you will [ always
corrected ] talk to me in just that
way -- Indeed I think I am more likely to write too little than
too much if I go on feeling as I do now about it -- And it seems
often now as if the power of writing managed me instead of my
controlling it -- Isnt that the difference between the Orchards
Grandmother* and some of the
[
Page 4 ]
work I have done later? I have been thinking
about it a good deal since I read your letter. I get so
possessed by my stories and wake up after [ a
corrected
from all ] while and wonder about them, and how they
came, as if they were dreams -- but for all that I work more
slowly than I used and more heartily -- As for that little
story you read; it isn't like any of my other stories --
that I [ wrote
corrected ] then -- seven years ago
-- It is a funny contrast to them in some ways. Mother
never liked it -- but I do -- with all its faults and it is
for the 'associations' I have with it more than anything
----- It was not half so boyish as my stories usually were
-- I think you
[ Page 5 ]
2
will know what I mean by 'boyish.' And not for knowing what
one can do, and being conceited, somehow all that is very
vague to me and when I try to think about myself it is like
finding myself facing a high wall, where I
had started for a walk! I wonder if you will not laugh when
I tell you that it used to seem once in a while as if I had
^not had^ half my rightful share of pleasure out of little
Deephaven* because I [
deletion possibly
couldn't ] faced much difficulty in 'realizing' it -- I
always laugh a little when I use that word! My grandmother
died when I was five years old and I remember clearly the
[ Page 6 ]
solemn parade of the funeral and a great congregation of old
ladies in black. (I dare say there were not so very
many.) and one of these old ladies bent over me after the
procession came back. I remember I was standing in front of
the fender and [
deletion she
or the ] just
how tall the andirons looked there ---- 'Aren't you sorry
poor grandma is dead? Dont you miss her?' I suppose I didn't
seem sympathetic -- "Poor child. She doesn't realize it" --
and for weeks after this I used to wonder and wonder
when
I should 'realize' it and what it would
feel like --
[ Page 7 ]
3
I think I have often felt so since then
about one thing or another. But the older I grow the less
I believe in getting puzzled and miserable about myself
and the more I believe [ in corrected ] doing my
work lovingly and heartily -- whatever it is. And as for
conceit -- if that means being satisfied with oneself, God
knows I am not that! though I might make some confessions
to you 'under this head' -- if I hadn't said I should not
[ at corrected ] the beginning of this letter --
And here comes in one favorite quotation -- "Though"
---
-- Isn't it provoking to be a
housekeeper when a fellow wants to write a letter! I wish
I could
[ Page 8 ]
have had you and Miss Lane for my guests while I have been
captain of this craft this week! Father and Mother have been
up at the mountains and my sister Mary* is in Boston or
Newton, or somewhere in that region -- I never realized the
expense of maintaining a family before, for I never kept
house more than a day or two at a time -- One of our girls
is away too, and I have found treasures of knowledge in my
dear head that I never knew about before -- If you please, I
think we have lived a little finer
[ Page 9 ]
than usual! and they needn't poke fun at me for being
'feckless' anymore --
I am in a great fidget about my horse for it hasn't come yet
and that man in Boston was ____ enough to send me a long
story about a white horse that had been
driven by a
lady and would stop for you to put on the wheel of [ the
corrected
] carryall and weighted 850 and was a "perfect [
coset so
spelled ]" -- And all this when I neither want a white
horse or [
deletion an
? ] a driving horse
-- or any of your meek little creatures. I know just
what kind of a gait it would have -- a feeble little
[ Page 10 ]
trot! I don't like a trot but a good swing of a "lope" --
However I have heard of some gallant steeds at North Conway
-- and let us hope!
-- I hope next week will be very pleasant
to you -- and that there will be no snarls and worries. I
think as you say that it grows more and more solemn to begin
ones work -- but I do not think you ought to be afraid --
you and Miss Lane -- God bless you both you dear friends of
mine! -----
I have found out something about the pewter -- It belonged
to the first Church in Lebanon, but it is only sixty years
old. Though sixty years is a long while after all -- and we
will not
[ Page 11 ]
4
be disappointed, will we? ---- I also have polished mine
though I dare say yours is shinier -- and I am very fond of
it -- [
deletion ] It makes me think of you two
people always and I'm so glad yours makes [ you
corrected
] think of me --
That It is so beautiful
that you said about it in your letter. I had thought all
those things -- or part of them -- and so do not the old
cups still have a use. I am glad they fell into our hands
are not you? ----- Good bye. good bye! --- but I cant help [
thinking
corrected ] of the unwritten
[ Page 12 ]
histories [ in
corrected ] which those old cups
played such a part -- I care so much more for country-life
every year -- have not I told you so -- for the very
limitedness and the way womens lives have been [ shut
?
] in -- so [ housed
? ]; and there has been such a
dullness and such bright flickers of sunshine and such
unflinching patience, and I love it all more and more. I
wish I could have a talk with you -- you would like the fire
in the fireplace this gray day -- and it would blaze up
gallantly when I [
deletion throug ] threw this
letter in and walked up for the two kisses apiece --
good-bye again and God bless you always
Sarah O. J.
:
Susan Minot Lane (1832-1893).
Orchards Grandmother: Jewett's "The Orchard's
Grandmother" first appeared in
Merry's Museum
(59:88-89), February 1871.
Deephaven: Jewett's first novel,
Deephaven
(1877).
Mary: Mary Rice Jewett. See
Key to Correspondents.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Princeton
University Library, Princeton, NJ: Robert H. Taylor Collection
of English and American Literature RTC01, Box 10, Folder 12.
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
With this manuscript is a damaged envelope
addressed to Miss C. A. Baker, 5 Charles St. Boston, cancelled
on 28 September in South Berwick. On the back, vertically up the
left edge are penciled notes reading: xx pewter
writing L. P.
Clara Sidney Potter Davidge Taylor to Sarah Orne Jewett
Grace Church Rectory
October 3d
[ 1877 ]*
My dear Sarah -- It was a very great happiness to receive your
letter, and such a surprise and pleasure to have you send me
"Deephaven" -- I had meant to read it straight off, and now I
have it with
[ Page 2 ]
your name and mine in it; and coming from you, makes it indeed a
treasure -- And I am enjoying it so much -- And I wonder how I
could have been on such free and easy terms and so little
reverential to you, when you have made such a beautiful
book. You know
[ Page 3 ]
how [ thouroughly
so it appears ] I must enjoy it
because I should delight in such a life and such dear people
(without your power of expression) almost as much as you would.
I am so glad I did not read Deephaven until after I knew you.
Now I can watch in the magazines for what
[ Page 4 ]
your write and I shall watch indeed -- Miss Mary* was rather
blue I think after the cooperative broke up, we went out sailing
she and I alone, a day or two before I left Newport, and though
we could not find L.M
cD. & had to take the
"Marion" instead of
[ Page 5 ]
"The Osprey"* -- still we had a lovely time & settled for
little mackerel getting frightfully excited when we caught
anything -- I am so busy and the town is so hot, that the memory
of long out-door days is very dear, and I wonder how they have
borne ^it^ these poor people who have been here
[ Page 6 ]
all summer long. They look very bleached and tired -- I was
grieved not to be able to say goodby to you and I wrote you a
goodby note which got torn up instead of being sent. I wanted to
ask you for the verses you promised and a verse of the Irish
song* about not
[ Page 7 ]
depositing one's hopes in the top of one tree. Will you write
them for me? That day in Bristol was so charming that I
wish you could have been with me{.} I had such a good time
tramping over a beautiful stock farm, seeing prize cows with Dr.
Horne* who owned
[ Page 8 ]
them. You will let me know please, as soon as you get to New
York, when you come here for a visit and I am so glad to think
that I can be pretty sure of seeing you again.
Yours very sincerely
Clara Sydney Potter
Notes
1877: This year is probable because Jewett has sent
Potter a copy of her 1877 novel,
Deephaven.
Mary: Probably this is Taylor's sister, Mary Boyer
Potter, who eventually married the portrait painter, William
Henry Hyde.
L.McD. ... "Marion" ... "The Osprey":
Presumably these are two sailboats and perhaps their
owner-renter in Newport, RI. No more information has yet
been discovered.
Irish song: This song has not yet been identified.
Dr. Horne: Dr. Horne has not yet been identified.
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 181. I. Letters to
Sarah Orne Jewett.
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe
College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to J. R. Osgood & Co.
Brunswick, Me.*
9 Oct. 1877
Messrs. J. R. Osgood & Co --
Please send me three copies of
Deephaven*
in gray bindings -- and charge them to my account --
Sarah O Jewett
South Berwick, Me.
: Parts of the top of the page are
torn away. It appears Jewett has written "Me." after
Brunswick, but this is uncertain. It also appears that the
location and date have been crossed out by someone.
Deephaven: Jewett's first novel appeared in
1877. In
A Bibliography of the Published Writings of
Sarah Orne Jewett (1949), Clara Carter and Carl J.
Weber describe two 1877 bindings for the novel, cloth covers of
grass green or copper. Jewett's letter suggests that there
was a third binding.
Noted at the bottom of the page in another hand: "Sent Oct 10/77
p. 15c."
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library of
Harvard University in Houghton Mifflin Company correspondence
and records, 1832-1944, Jewett, Sarah Orne, 1849-1909. 68
letters from; 1870-1907 and [n.d.]. MS Am 1925 (962).
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
South Berwick, Maine
October 10, 1877
Dear Cousin Alice:
Isn't it a good day for the fair?* and
don't I wish I were there! --- I reached home all right but
in the midst of a pouring rain -- Mary* was to have been here at
three, but she did not show herself, so we are looking for her
this morning. Father and mother are very well but I think they
have been rather lonely and we sat up late last night talking for
I had so much to tell about my visit. You don't know how much I
enjoyed
[ Page 2 ]
it or how much I thank you and all the rest for your very great
kindness to me -- I shall have so many pleasant things to
remember, and I hope you will all come here [ deletion ]
before very long, and that I can do something for you.
As for the horse -- in which I take it for granted you have some
interest; I am sorry to say he is not here yet so I have to wait
another day -- It is not much matter because it is so muddy today,
but I want to see how he looks.
[ Page 3 ]
Father is away today and I think I shall
give the horses a little exercise after I unpack my trunk. I wish
Charlie* was here for I owe him some splendid drives and I
shouldn't mind paying up at all. Tell Liddy* that I
have lost some valuable time this morning because I had to sit
right down and read the Mother's magazine --* I
had a lot of letters to read last night and one [ was corrected
] from the editor of a new mag a zine.* asking me to write for it,
so I dont believe I am likely to want business this winter with
all the rest I have to do!
[ Page 4 ]
Tell Aunty that she shall have the poem in a few days.
I keep thinking of the fair and wishing I could go. I am so glad
it doesn't rain, --and I shall look anxiously for the Telegraph.
Mother says the receipt for the "pepper-tomato" is to take the
tomatoes and put them in hot water a little while so they will
peel very easily and then put them in a kettle without any water
and the proportion is three pounds of sugar to four pounds of
fruit. Boil them until they get dark and thick (almost all day I
guess) and put in cayenne pepper as strong as you like it. Mother
is in the midst of grape jelly
[ Up the left side of page 1 ]
& there are some things for me to do for her, so I must say
goodby with ever and ever so much love to you and all the family.
From your sincere and aff --,
Sarah
Notes
fair: Richard Cary says this was the annual Sagadahoc
County Fair at Topsham, Maine.
Cary's annotated transcription of this letter
appears in his Sarah Orne Jewett Letters.
Mary: Mary Rice Jewett. See Key
to Correspondents.
Charlie: Charles Ashburton Gilman. See Key to
Correspondents.
Liddy: Elizabeth Gilman, Alice Gilman's daughter. See Key
to Correspondents.
Mother's magazine: Richard Cary identifies this magazine,
published in New York from 1833 to 1888. "It was at this time
edited by a minister and bore heavily upon the Sabbath and
scripture. Although it printed periodical reports of the Maternal
Association, it was 'not for mothers any more than for women in
general,' and was widely read for its stories, poems, and special
features."
mag a zine: Jewett seems to have carefully separated
the syllables.
Cary says this new magazine was Sunday
Afternoon, "published in Springfield, Massachusetts, and
edited in its first year by Washington Gladden." Her first
contribution appeared in January 1878, "A Late Supper."
The manuscript of this letter is held by the George J. Mitchell
Department of Special Collections & Archives,
Hawthorne-Longfellow Library, Brunswick, ME, Sarah Orne Jewett
Papers, Series 1 (M238.1): Correspondence, 1877-1905, n.d.Richard
Cary's transcription is in Letters of Sarah Orne Jewett.
New transcription and notes by Terry Heller,
Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Mary Ellis*
[ On stationery with the SOJ initials superimposed over each
other. ]
South Berwick
10 October
[1877 - 1885]*
Dear Mary Ellis
I hope you have not forgotten your promise to
spend a Sunday with me, and I should like dearly to have you come
this very next Friday afternoon. I have
[ Page 2 ]
just written Abby,* and I hope nothing will prevent my seeing you
both. I have told her that I hope you can come in the early
afternoon train for then I can go to meet you. Mary* sends
[ Page 3 ]
you her love. And she and my mother and I are all looking
forward to "the company" with great pleasure.
Yours always affectionately
Sarah O. Jewett
Notes
1877 - 1885: The tone of this letter suggests that
the recipient is fairly young, though this is by no means
certain. Jewett's correspondence with the Claflin family
seems to begin in 1877, when Mary Claflin's step-granddaughter,
Mary, was about 13. It seems unlikely that this letter was
composed after Mary was 21, but as there is no yet discovered
record of her marriage, it is possible that this letter is from a
later year.
Mary Ellis: A daughter of Emma Harding Claflin
Ellis. See Key
to Correspondents.
Abby: The identity of Abby is unknown. Perhaps
this is a nickname for Mary Ellis's sister, Annie Claflin Ellis.
Mary: Mary Rice Jewett. See Key
to Correspondents.
The manuscript of this letter is held by Rutherford B. Hayes
Presidential Center in the Governor William and Mary Claflin
Papers, GA-9, Box 4, Miscellaneous Folder J, Ac 950.
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Eliza Seeger to Sarah Orne Jewett
Northampton. Oct. 10th
[ 1877 ]*
My dear young Friend --
After you left us, a few weeks since, we
received a very nice letter from you, & it was
particularly gratifying to find that you had enjoyed our
beautiful country, & our pleasant little home so much.
Yesterday came another charming note from you, accompanied by
the nice rolls of "Birch-bark" for which I am greatly
indebted, how shall I return your kindness? if the "Maiden
Hair roots" do not live, you must let me know, & if there
is any thing that I can get for you here, or at the top of [
"Mt -- Tom"
? ]* how glad I shall be to send it, for
your Fernery. Augusta* as
[ Page 2 ]
well as myself really feel under great obligations to you
& your family, for your kindness to Hattie & wish we
might return it in some measure if it is possible{.} Perhaps
your parents, or sisters might like to look upon our lovely
& peaceful valley ( Sometimes called "Sleepy Hollow")* if
so we should [ rejoyce
so it appears ] to show off our
beautiful drive, & walks. Northampton is looking [
glorious
corrected ] in its Autumn grandeur, such
lovely tints of gold & purple old Mt-- Tom* has put on
lately, I wish you could see it as it has been the last few
days. I sit at the parlor window, & look -- off my work
every few minutes, to see sunshine & the shadows pass
across the mountain but I must stop to tell you I am doing
some very [ fascinating
? ] work, upon the brown [
chair cush --
? ]*
[ Page 3 ]
the leaves that are woven in the cloth, I work over with the
brightest worsteds I can find, & each square that is woven
round each leaf, I [ surround
? ] with [ narrow ]
black [ velvet
? ], this makes a handsome chair cover
for seat & back -- I think this is [ next to painting
?
], for we must have some artistic taste to arrange the colors
to [ harmonize
? ]{.} The "Birch Bark" is very [
nice
? ], I think I shall paint some colored leaves on
some little fancy things for our fair -- I hope you did not
take a
great deal of trouble to get it for me, if so,
I shall not dare to ask for more -- when you come across any,
you may save
it it for me if you like. I was
at the [ Brewers
? ] the other [ eve
or even
?
] & Hannah* read me your note, & seemed delighted. I
think [ Miss K --
? ] peculiarities will be much
[ Page 4 ]
more effective than ever, with the addition of the "new
Orgin".* But I must stop now, for I think you will have enough
from me to last awhile. I shall always be glad to hear from
you & yours. I hope to see you another summer. Hattie
writes that she is
very well now. I only hope she may
continue so -- with much love from A-- & from myself.
Believe me yours affly
Eliza Seeger
Notes
1877: While this date is arbitrarily chosen, it should
not be very far from correct. This would be the last
autumn in which both of Jewett's parents were living, so this
letter must have been composed in 1877 or earlier.
Mt-- Tom:
Mt. Tom is about 10 miles south of
Northampton, MA.
Augusta: Augusta and Hattie are members of
Seeger's family. See
Key to Correspondents.
Sleepy Hollow: Possibly an allusion to "The
Legend of Sleepy Hollow," a short story by American author,
Washington Irving (1783-1859).
chair cush: This transcription is uncertain, but it
seems clear later that Seeger is working on some sort of chair
cover.
Hannah: This transcription is uncertain.
Jewett was acquainted with
Eliza Hannah Brewer (1829-1904), a
sister of her correspondent, George Ichabod Goodwin. It
seems unlikely, but not impossible, that this is the right
person. See
Key to Correspondents.
Miss K ... orgin: This transcription is
uncertain; perhaps what looks like K is really an H, and
she refers again to Hannah. It appears that a church somewhere
may have a new organ, though this also is not certain.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the University of New
England Maine Women Writers Collection, Sarah Orne Jewett
Correspondence Box 1 Folder 045
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Anna Laurens Dawes
11 Oct 1877
Dear Dawes-y,
She "thought to break a country heart For pastimes ere she went to
town"!* -- I suppose I ought to congratulate you on going to
Washington, but to tell the truth I am grieved that you are not to
be in this region this winter. I hoped I should see you in Boston
and that I should see you here. But joy go with you! and you can
enlighten the mind of your provincial friend -- can't you? and won't
you? I am not sure, but I don't believe I should like to be in
society. I am getting to have a very old-maidenly liking for being
quiet. I suppose my writing makes me dislike a 'racket' more and
more, and yet no girl likes to see new people or enjoy her old
friends more or better than I. I suppose it behoves [ so
spelled ] me to acknowledge your 'bit of a complimment'["]
as the Irish say -- before I mention anything else. I am very much
obliged and if I did make it up myself dear Dawes-y, I never
should be fool enough to tell yez! I should have thrashed you if I
had been there, for that! I should have shaken you well and made a
few remarks to you that would not have been soon forgotten. None
of your jokes at poor young authoresses if you please. But it was
truly a sweet speech and I felt proud and am grateful to you for
passing it on. It seems very foolish to say my stories are like
Hawthorne's* and I wonder why people do! They don't seem a bit
alike to me. I wish I were with you and we could have a talk --
there is so much I wish I could say about this very matter of
praise. It is all very pleasant -- but is such a different
pleasure from what I supposed it would be when I used to build
castles in Spain a great while ago. It is a great puzzle to me to
know myself -- and other people aren't half so much a puzzle
somehow. But I don't believe in thinking much about myself. I
believe I take life more and more simply, at least I try to -- for
I am sure it is the better way. -- I must confess to you that I
have been feeling rather dull and blue lately -- for I do not grow
strong as I very much wish I could. My lame shoulder and chest
hinder me some days from even writing a letter and I hoped to be
hard at work by this time. I shall soon come to the conclusion
that I had better not write any more just now -- and try to give
it up good naturedly. But I have made ever so many plans and I am
so interested in writing! I have been doing a little at a story
during the last few days -- it is rather out of my line and I am
very much interested to see how it is coming out. I wish I could
work five hours a day right straight along, which is a senseless
wish enough, because I should only be happy as long as I held out
and then I should go down in sight of land as I did last winter.
See here, dear girl -- you think me a great
deal gooder and better than I am and I don’t feel comfortable and
happy! I feel as if I were taking you in and I hate every kind of
deceit. Wouldn't it be nice if one never said more than one meant
-- if we could in every way be perfectly true? I suppose it is a
thing one must try for always in this world and never reach. I'll
tell you what I ask for myself every morning and night when I say
my prayers -- that I may pray and fight to become a brave good
woman -- that I may be a Christian through and through, and that I
may be tireless in trying to do right. I wonder why we dont try
harder and care more about being good. We 'go into' almost
everything so much more heartily -- it seems to me sometimes --
and yet isn't it a comfort that the growth isn't all in our own
heads, that there is a spiritual growth outside our own
consciousness, that God takes care of. But don’t you 'forget' hour
after hour and day after day, and doesn't it seem as if there were
more winter than summer? There is something in Fenelon* that is
always a great consolation to me when I think about my faults and
troubles and carelessness -- that when we walk in the dark the
roughness of the country does not trouble us -- but the higher the
sun goes up in the sky the more plainly we see -- and the more we
see Gods brightness, the worse we seem to ourselves. I get so
ashamed of myself here at home -- and isn't it harder to be good
at home than anywhere else -- and did you ever think that while we
get most of our discipline from our own families, there is
compensation because we really love them better than we do anybody
else!
I was thinking about Sunday school awhile ago,
and I wonder if you took a class in Washington? I wish you could
have a class of grown-up girls as I have. It would help you and it
would help them -- as a younger class cannot. I think it is very
seldom one sees a girl so well fitted to help other girls, as you
are. You know so well society-life and you carry under all this so
strong a consciousness of better things. I think so often of that
line "some earnest word amid the idle talk"* -- and do let us try
to remember it. I have often been sorry that I was afraid to speak
gravely -- but never sorry when I have spoken. All the same, I
dont believe in forcing such things upon one's friends -- there is
always an instinct which teaches one -- do not you find it so. And
after all God's object in putting us into this world is to let us
know him and have his goodness and wisdom and happiness. We are
put here for love's sake, and God helps us all he can -- but we
must take his help in freedom. He does not force us. Now
everything that makes people remember this real object of life
must be a good thing -- and when we are with people who are living
for anything and everything else, and we know it and can remind
them and help them, for God's sake let us try! -- And let us pray
oftener at any rate, because we are always forgetting what a power
that is.
1It made me very glad, what you said about Miss Barnard,* and I
wish you would give my love to her. Isn't it wonderful how one's
life reaches out? -- beyond one's own knowledge -- and how it
frightens one sometimes. I think of it so much when I think about
my book and my stories and how many people have read them. Well --
I must say good-bye -- I dont know when I have written so long a
letter. I must tell you that I was in Boston for a day or two
lately but I didn't see Ella* -- and before that I had made a
little visit down at Brunswick and had a lovely time with my young
cousin Charley* -- dear little fellow (or big fellow!) He has
grown so this summer and he is trying very hard to be a good man.
And I know you will be interested when I tell you that in Boston I
bought myself a lovable saddle-horse -- a chestnut thoroughbred
that goes like the wind, and is so far satisfactory in every way.
I call her Sheila for the Princess of Thule* -- is not that a good
name? I have no end to tell you about my dear Miss Preston whom I
like and love more and more -- but I have no time, and my arm
really gave out some pages back! Mary sends a heap of love to you
and wishes she ever could see you. Do you know how the Alice
Walworth match* comes on? Mary* has been out at Mrs. Claflin's
& Mrs. Ellis's & has had a lovely time.1 She
and Mrs. Ellis are great friends you know. Good bye from your fond
and true
Hollis's note
1 Mrs. William Claflin and Mrs. Emma Claflin Ellis
were friends of the Jewetts. Mrs. Claflin, whose husband had
been Governor of Massachusetts from 1869 to 1871, was especially
fond of Sarah, and through her friendship Sarah made the
acquaintance of many literary personages of New England. This
was before the intimacy with Annie Fields and the acquaintance
with the literary coterie at Charles Street.
Additional notes
went to town: These lines are from the first stanza
of Alfred Lord Tennyson's "Lady Clara Vere de
Vere." See The Complete Works of Alfred Tennyson
(1887), p. 26.
Hawthorne's: Wikipedia
says: "Nathaniel Hawthorne ... (July 4, 1804 - May 19, 1864)
was an American novelist, Dark Romantic, and short story writer."
Fenelon: Wikipedia
says: "François de Salignac de la Mothe-Fénelon ..., more commonly
known as François Fénelon (6 August 1651 - 7 January 1715), was a
French Roman Catholic archbishop, theologian, poet and
writer." 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.
"some earnest word amid the idle talk": This line is
from Coventry Patmore (1823-1896),
"Parting." The poem appeared in a number of 19th-century
verse anthologies and was widely reprinted in various
publications.
PARTING.
If thou dost bid thy friend farewell,
But for one night though that farewell may be,
Press thou his hand in thine.
How canst thou tell how far from thee
Fate or caprice may lead his steps ere that to-morrow comes?
Men have been known to lightly turn the corner of a street,
And days have grown to months, and months to lagging years,
Ere they have looked in loving eyes again.
Parting, at best, is underlaid
With tears and pain.
Therefore, lest sudden death should come between.
Or time, or distance, clasp with pressure firm
The hand of him who goeth forth;
Unseen, Fate goeth too.
Yes, find thou always time to say some earnest word
Between the idle talk,
Lest with thee henceforth,
Night and day, regret should walk.
Miss Barnard: Whether this is the Mrs. Barnard
mentioned in other letters is not clear. In either case, her
identity remains unknown.
Though this has not been confirmed, a strong
candidate for "Mrs. Barnard" is Helen M. Barnard, like Dawes,
active in women's suffrage. Helen Barnard worked as a
journalist for the New York Herald, and served the U. S.
government in various capacities. The Washington Times of 22 July 1914 (p.
7) says that she was one of the first two female journalists
allowed to attend and cover the United States Senate: "Later Mrs.
Barnard, under [President Ulysses S.] Grant's
Administration, was sent to Liverpool as immigration commissioner.
She visited England, Ireland, and Scotland. She returned in the
steerage of an ocean liner and gave one of the most interesting
and useful reports made on the subject of immigration." The
Los Angeles Herald of 27 May 1888 (p. 6)
says: "Helen M. Barnard was, and is, a regal woman, earnest,
thoughtful and profound. Her forte was politics, in which she
displayed extraordinary sagacity. She is now a staid married
woman, resides in New York City, and is editing a special monthly
journal." The description of a letter of introduction by James A. Garfield,
then an Ohio congressman, presenting her to E. B. Washburne, then
U. S. Minister at Paris, France, says: "Barnard was a government
clerk, journalist, and an original member of the Universal
Franchise Association, and an associate of Susan B. Anthony and
Elizabeth Cady Stanton."
Ella: See Ella Walworth Little in Key
to Correspondents.
cousin Charley: Charles Ashburton Gilman. See Key
to Correspondents.
Sheila for the Princess of Thule: A Princess of Thule,
is a novel by the Scots author, William Black.
Miss Preston: Harriet Waters Preston. See Key
to Correspondents.
Mary: Mary Rice Jewett. See Key
to Correspondents.
Alice Walworth: See Ella Walworth Little in Key
to Correspondents.
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 Laurens Dawes Papers in the
Manuscript Division of the Library of Congress. Additional
notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Charles Ashburton Gilman
South Berwick
16 October 1877
Dear Charlie
I have been meaning to write to
you ever since I came home but I have not found time. I went
to Boston the second morning after I left Brunswick and bought the
chestnut horse* which I like very much. Mary* says she likes
it better than the others she saw, and so far, every thing seems
right about it . I dont know that I ever saw a prettier creature
-- she's a thoroughbred and it was a great piece of good-luck that
Mr. Chamberlain* happened to get her -- I found out
[ Page 2 ]
all about her, and who had owned her &c -- She knows me
already and follows me all [ deletion ] round after apples
and sugar -- I just wish you were here and would go out to see her
for yourself. I think I shall enjoy her ever so much. --
I did have such a good time in Boston -- I went
to see Mr. Osgood,* and did some other errands and then went up to
the Gordons, where I found that Ellen Mason* and several other
friends of mine were in town from Newport and were all at Ellen's
-- You can guess that I whisked in and that I was persuaded to
[
Page 3 ]
send a telegram home and to say over night --
I stayed with Grace but I spent the evening with the other
girls and we had a jolly time -- I wish you had been with us!
We went to see Heller the Magician and you [ never corrected
] saw such things as he did! I hurried home the next day at
noon for I thought that Miss Preston* was coming but I found
she was obliged to put it of until a week or so later, and
that neither Mrs. Ellis nor Mrs. Furber* could come so soon as
[ we corrected ] had planned, and that even the
dressmaker was belated! So we are alone
[ Page 4 ]
this week after all, but I find a good deal to do --
Yesterday I went to York with John* to get the
old chair I told you about, and I had a very nice time. We took
our dinner and went over on cape Neddick exploring the pastures
and in one place we drove over a stone wall! We had General in the
little open buggy, and the wall had fallen down considerably just
there! I should like to take you where we went, someday. It was
not quite so wild as Orr's Island but it was wild enough -- York
is such
[ Page 5 ]
a nice old place -- I mean to go down again for the day, before
cold weather -- I hope you will ‘happen along’ soon --
It was too bad there was so much rainy weather in 'fair time’ but
I hope it didn't hinder all the pleasure and that you had no end
of fun. I thought of you ever so much while I was in Boston. I
long to see the Telegraph to hear about the premiums* -- I did
have such a nice time in Brunswick. I remember it every day, and
especially Orr's Island -- and you will not be surprised to hear
that I have been reading
[ Page 6 ]
"the Pearl"* over again to refresh my memory. By the way Charlie
did you ever read a book called "Tom Brown at Rugby"?* It is one
of the books I like best -- and I think you would -- Perhaps you
wont like the first chapter very well, but you get Tom started at
school, and see if you dont read all the rest! I dont know a
jollier or a better book. I wish I could spend this afternoon at
your house. Do give my love to all the family{.} I suppose Cousin
Alice* got my letter but I want to say again what a good time I
had and how kind you all were -- Now write to me as soon as you
can and remember you are coming to see us.
yours lovingly Sarah.
[ Up the left margin and across the top
margin of page 1 ]
I just had a letter from Mrs. Claflin asking me to make her a
visit with Miss Phelps* the authoress. Wouldn’t it be nice? but I
cant very well accept, and my friends want me again to come down
to Newport -- which would also be very great fun if I could
leave home.
I send these patterns of a dress I got to your mother not
to you!
Notes
chestnut horse: Jewett further describes this horse
in the final paragraph of her letter to Anna Dawes of 11 October
1877.
Mary: Mary Rice Jewett. See Key to
Correspondents.
Mr. Chamberlain: Mellen Chamberlain. See Key to
Correspondents.
An earlier transcription by Richard Cary,
appeared in "Jewett's Cousins Charles and Charlie." Colby
Library Quarterly 5 (1959): 48-58. It was reprinted in
Cary's Sarah Orne Jewett Letters. In his notes, Cary
says, "That Jewett went to Boston to purchase her horse from Mr.
Chamberlain suggests the possibility that the seller was her
friend and early literary adviser, Judge Mellen Chamberlain of
Boston."
Osgood: James Ripley Osgood. See Key to Correspondents.
Gordons ... Ellen Mason: Grace Gordon Treadwell Walden and
Ellen Mason. See Key to Correspondents.
Heller the Magician: Robert Heller (1826 -1878), a German
immigrant, was a popular touring magician. Wikipedia.
Preston: Harriet Waters Preston. See Key to Correspondents.
Ellis ... Furber: Emma Harding Claflin Ellis and Cynthia
Elvira Irwin Furber. See Key to Correspondents.
John: John Tucker. See Key to Correspondents.
premiums: Prizes offered at a county fair for contests in
categories of produce, baking, livestock, etc. Cary notes:
In point of fact the opening day of the Sagadahoc
County Fair at Topsham was postponed on account of inclement
weather, and attendance on the following morning was
disappointingly slim. Gilman took high pride in excelling at
local fairs. Miss Jewett's eagerness to read about "the
premiums" ... was to be thoroughly rewarded. At the annual
Sagadahoc County Fair, held the week previous, Charles Jervis
exhibited in most of the major classes, winning two first prizes
in the cow and heifer contests, a first and second prize for
full-blooded sheep, and a second prize in poultry for his
Plymouth Rock (Brunswick Telegraph, October 19, 1877).
"the Pearl": The Pearl of Orr's Island (1862), by
American author, Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811-1896). Wikipedia.
"Tom Brown at Rugby": Original title, Tom Brown's
Schooldays (1857), by British author, Thomas Hughes
(1822-1896). Wikipedia.
Alice: Alice Dunlap Gilman. See Key to Correspondents.
Claflin ... Phelps: Mary Bucklin Davenport Claflin and
Elizabeth Stuart Phelps Ward. See Key to Correspondents.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the George J. Mitchell
Department of Special Collections & Archives,
Hawthorne-Longfellow Library, Brunswick, ME, Sarah Orne Jewett
Papers, Series 1 (M238.1): Correspondence, 1877-1905, n.d.
New transcription and notes by Terry Heller,
Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Lilian Munger
[ 4 November 1877 ]
Admonition: “The great purpose of our lives is to know more of
God." Sarah’s horse is named Sheila for the Princess of
Thule; she is black chestnut with a white star in her forehead
“and goes like the wind.”
Note
This selection is from a letter addressed to Lily Munger in
Farmington, ME. Presumably only the parts within quotation marks
are Jewett's words. The transcription appears in the Trafton
Collection of Sarah Orne Jewett materials, 1856-1990 in the Maine
Women Writers Collection. The original is held in the
Barrett Collection at the University of Virginia. Terry
Heller, Coe College.
[ 7 November 1877 ]*
Washington Gladden to Sarah Orne Jewett
The Late Supper is early enough. I have [ unrecognized word
], but I want some more. Send the little story.
Washington Gladden
Springfield, Nov. 7.
Notes
1877: This postcard was addressed to Jewett in South
Berwick. ME, and canceled in Springfield, MA on 7 November.
Though no year is given, the note clearly refers to Jewett's
story, "A Late Supper," which appeared in Sunday Afternoon
(1:55-64), January 1878, and was collected in Old Friends and
New, 1879.
It appears that Jewett has another story in
hand and has mentioned it to him. Probably this is "Beyond
the Toll-Gate," which appeared in Sunday Afternoon in
March 1878.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library of
Harvard University: Sarah Orne Jewett Correspondence I, Letters to
Sarah Orne Jewett.
Gladden, Washington, 1836-1918. 2
letters; 1897 & [n.d.]. (82).
This transcription is from a photocopy
held by the Maine Women Writer's Collection, University of New
England, Letters from Sarah Orne Jewett, 1875-1890, Box 2, Folder
99, Burton Trafton Jewett Research Collection.
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe
College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Annie Adams Fields
South Berwick
4 Dec 1877
Is not this a beautiful day and I wonder
if you were as disheartened by the little snow-storm as I
was! I am always so sorry to see the snow, and it shuts one
in so in the country. I don’t like to keep to the roads
always when I go for a walk -- I have thought ever so many times
about writing a sketch and calling it Between the Roads -- People
usually know nothing of the land that lies between the long
country roads, except of course the people who own it, and I know
such pretty places
[ Page 2 ]
where there are deserted farms with traces of the house and garden
perhaps, and one can find new brooks, and little hills and
hollows. There is a favorite track of mine that I haven’t followed
this fall. I waited till the swamps froze, and then other things
prevented.
Did you have a good time Thanksgiving
Day? It was certainly not a pleasant day out of doors.
Grandfather* stayed until the morning and then I drove him over to
the station, and left him in a very chipper frame of mind. I
wonder if I shall live to be eighty-nine and be as young then as
he is! I was very much tangled up in my theology
[ Page 3 ]
the other day after I read that Methusaleh* wasn’t really so very
old after all{,} that the years in those days were only a month or
so long! Did you know it{?} I never did before, and do you believe
it!
I have been reading Avis and it
interested me very much as Miss Phelps's books* always do, but I
think it wont do the good she fancied and I am afraid it will do
harm. Avis is far too exceptional a character -- one can hardly
say that Phelps's characters are untrue, but they seem to me like
what I know of Turner’s pictures,* beyond more peoples
comprehension or without their observation at any rate. I think it
is better
[ Page 4 ]
not to take the perfect type of a class when one wishes to write
such a book as that! So few girls can possibly be so devoted, as
Avis was to her art.
Notes
Grandfather: Jewett's grandfather, Dr. William Perry
(20 December 1788 - 11 January 1887). See Key
to Correspondents.
Methusaleh: Methuselah
(usually so spelled) is named in the Bible, Genesis 5:21-27, as
the longest lived person in Hebrew history, dying at the age of
969. Biblical scholars continue to disagree upon the meaning
of this number, whether it is to be read literally or in some
other way. Jewett later published a story, "The New
Methuselah" in Scribner's Magazine (7:514-524), April
1890.
Avis ... Phelps books: Wikipedia
says: "Elizabeth Stuart Phelps Ward (1844 -1911) was an early
feminist American author and intellectual who challenged
traditional Christian beliefs of the afterlife, challenged women's
traditional roles in marriage and family, and advocated clothing
reform for women.... In 1877 she published a novel, The Story
of Avis, that was ahead of its time. The work focuses on
many of the early feminist issues of her era. In it she portrayed
a woman's struggle to balance her married life and associated
domestic responsibilities with her passion to become a painter."
Turner's pictures: Wikipedia
says: "Joseph Mallord William Turner, RA (baptised 14 May
1775 - 19 December 1851) was an English Romanticist landscape
painter. Turner was considered a controversial figure in his day,
but is now regarded as the artist who elevated landscape painting
to an eminence rivaling history painting."
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library,
Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. Sarah Orne Jewett
Correspondence Sarah Orne Jewett to Annie Fields, MS AM 1743
(255). Transcribed and annotated by Terry Heller, with
assistance of Tanner Brossart, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Anna Laurens Dawes
5 Dec 1877
Dear Anna
I have just finished a long stretch of copying and it is not quite
time for dinner, so I am going to begin a letter to you. I have
been wishing of late to answer your last letter but my time has
been very much broken of late. First my cousin Minnie1
died and I went to her funeral and then the next day I went to
Boston to stay for two or three days with Grace Gordon* whose
father had just died. I caught cold while I was away and came home
sick -- and as soon as I felt well enough I had to hurry into some
writing.
As usual I wish I could talk to you instead of
writing. I want to see you very much -- and I have been hoping
that we might meet in Boston as Ella* said you would probably be
there later. But I doubt if I go before January now, unless
something turns up. I saw Mrs. Goddard* and she praised you most
heartily for which I liked her the more. I never have seen her for
a very long time until lately and I do like her so much. Indeed I
have grown very fond of her. I hoped to see Miss Preston* whom she
expected two days while I was there, but the rain prevented her
coming in from Danvers.
It is after dinner now, and in the meantime I
have had a letter from Miss Preston in which she says she may
possibly come for two or three days next week. Would it not be
very pleasant for me? but I am so sorry we were disappointed about
her coming earlier in the season -- everything conspired against
it then and now it is so dreary. But I want to see her awfully.
Dear Dawes-y I have viewed Mr. May -- and I
don’t think him so black as he's been painted to me in past times.
And neither do the family it seems to me. He is very much of a
gentleman and the wonder is to me that he should be satisfied with
Alice -- if there is any wonder at all in the case! I could not
see anything undesirable about him in the evening I was with him
at Mrs. Walworth's -- but Wallace is my favorite of the
sons-in-law.* Give us your views.
Do you know that I have under consideration a
plan which would involve my holding considerable sweet counsel
with you? Mrs. Claflin2 has asked me for the third time
to visit her -- bless her kind heart! and this time it is
Washington late in January. I said at once that I shouldn't go,
but the family persuaded me not to send an out and out refusal --
the truth is I like so dearly to be quietly at home and at work at
my desk and to take my walks abroad to Boston by and by -- and
then it would be such a piece of work to get ready and the end
would be that my whole winter would be broken up, for I should
have to stop to make at least three decent little visits in
Philadelphia. I suppose I should enjoy Washington, and there are
quite a number of people there this winter whom I know, and it
would be great fun to have you there. Wouldn't we have a neat
little lark once in a while? -- I own that the great drawback is
bothering my head about more new clothes. I'm very respectable for
staying at home -- I have a gallant new black silk and velvet gown
for the house -- and a brown out-door dress that seems to 'fill
the eye' of all my friends, but shouldn't I be unhappy without a
light silk? and though I don't like big parties I should be Mrs.
Claflin's guest and if she wanted me to go to one very much I
should you know, dear Dawesy -- friend of my heart. To tell the
truth I dont know whether I want to go or not -- I suppose it
would be a “great advantage” to me don't you!!
I have done a great deal of writing since
I wrote you and I begin to feel a little tired. There is going to
be a story of mine in the first number of Sunday Afternoon3
the new magazine which I hope you let your eyes rest upon. I have
a great deal to say to you but I must wait until next time. I have
felt my cousin's death very much -- I think you must have heard me
speak of her -- Minnie Fiske (not Ella's cousin!) Her death seemed
very sudden to me; we were about the same age and were together a
great deal when we were children. Good-bye dear and do write to me
soon. I have thought much of you though I have not said so in a
letter. Yours sincerely and fondly
I've been reading Miss Phelps's Avis,4 but withhold my
views at present!
Hollis's Notes
1 Minnie Fiske of Exeter is the person meant,
although this was not a blood relationship. Cf., Cary Sarah
Orne Jewett Letters, 26-27.
2 William Claflin, former governor of Massachusetts,
served in the U. S. House of Representatives from 1877 to
1881. See Mary Bucklin Davenport Claflin in Key
to Correspondents.
3 "A Late Supper," Sunday Afternoon, I
(January 1878), 55-64.
4 Elizabeth Stuart Phelps Ward's The Story of
Avis (1877), a novel about a woman’s ambition for an
artist’s career. The parallels with Sarah's career are slight,
but sufficient to arouse mild curiosity as to the withheld
views.
Additional Notes
Grace Gordon: Grace Gordon Treadwell Walden. Her
father died in November. See Key
to Correspondents.
Ella: See Ella Walworth Little in Key
to Correspondents.
Mrs. Goddard: Martha LeBaron Goddard (1829-1888)
was the compiler, along with Harriet Preston Waters, of Sea and Shore: A Collection of Poems
(1874).
Miss Preston: Harriet Waters Preston, translator, critic
and novelist, who roused Miss Jewett's interest in the poetry of
Matthew Arnold. See Key
to Correspondents.
Mr. May... Alice... Mrs. Walworth's ... Wallace:
All of these people are identified in the entry on Ella Walworth
Little in Key
to Correspondents.
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 Laurens Dawes Papers in the
Manuscript Division of the Library of Congress. Additional
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." ]
Dec. 7, 1877.
Dear Miss Jewett:
I find I've but one practicable photograph
left, and that belongs to Mrs Howells; but the next time I go to
Boston I'll get two and send them.
I'm glad to know that you'll soon show me a
story. I don't ^know^ why I don't think these lines* will
quite do.
Yours sincerely
W. D. Howells.
Notes
these lines: It would appear that Howells has
rejected a Jewett poem. Her next story to appear in Atlantic
was "A Lost Lover" (March 1878).
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.
Helen Augusta Williams Gilman to Theodore Herman Jewett
Portland, Dec 12. 77
My dear Dr.
Dr. G. rec'd your kind letter duly, and
intended to answer it -- this m'g ere he left for Augusta
where a meeting at the Asylum* is to ^be^ held tomorrow, but
he was too busy, and requested me to be sure and do it for
him. He is delighted & relieved to know that you will
attend the meeting here on Tuesday night, and especially glad
that ^you^ can come on Monday and you
must not fail to
come directly to our house -- Also that your message to Dr.
Weeks* had been passed to him as you desired -- I am just home
again after an
[ Page 2 ]
[ Page 3 ]
appalled, and [ have ? ] not yet recovered from the stunning blow
-- Sometime when it is all right I should be glad for Mrs B. to
know that Dr. G. & I feel the greatest sympathy for her --
Through you I shall be glad to learn of the last days of [ Mr. J.
N. Jordan ? ] & Minnie Fiske,* as I was in Cam. when
they [ died corrected ], and know nothing beyond the fact
-- Please give my warmest love to all your family, and if any of
them can come with you we shall be delighted to see them -- If I
was in my best estate I should ask for Sarah to come with you, in
compensation for her not stopping here on her return from
Brunswick in Oct.
[
Page 4 ]
but I really feel it would be more to
her
to come at some other time -- I do not mean this as derogatory
to the other members of [ your
corrected ] family I
assure you, only for ^an^ [ authoress
? ] [
possibly
an unrecognized word only
? ] a body, like my
humble self, wishes to be
moderately [ bright. &
?
] my heart* is all right, and I can bestow as warm a welcome
as I ever did, on any of the dear ones you may like to bring
with you -- Excuse this long letter, but talking with
Harry at the same time has not been conducive to condensed
sentences or a properly written letter -- indeed I am quite
ashamed of it -- with warmest [
unrecognized word ]
love for you all, am yrs truly,
Helen A. Gilman
Asylum: The Maine State Insane Asylum in Augusta, ME, is
now known as Riverview Psychiatric Center.
Dr. Weeks: Stephen Holmes Weeks (1836-1909) was a
surgeon at the Maine General Hospital, and a professor of surgery
and anatomy at Bowdoin, Medical School of Maine, and
Brunswick-Portland.
Harry: Probably, this is Gilman's grandson, Henry A. Nichols (1869-1935).
Mr. Burleigh's: John Holmes Burleigh (1822 - 5 December
1877) was a Member of Congress from 1873 to 1877. In Berwick the
Burleighs were a well known family who ran a woolen mill.
According to the Old Berwick Historical Society, Burleigh died in
a carriage accident. His wife was Matilda
Buffum Burleigh (1823-1911).
Sarah: Sarah Orne Jewett. See Key to Correspondents.
Mr. J. N. Jordan & Minnie Fiske: The transcription of
Mr. Jordan is uncertain, and he remains unidentified.
Minnie Fiske of Exeter, NH, died unexpectedly
in December of 1877. In her letter to Anna Loring of 5
December 1877, Jewett refers to her as a cousin, though Richard
Cary says they were not literally related. She may be Ruth Anna Fisk (1865-1877), the daughter of
Ezra Fisk (1811-1887) and Isabella Fisk (1820-1886). She is
buried near Exeter, in East Kingston, NH.
heart: The transcription of this passage is
uncertain, as is Gilman's intent. Perhaps she means to say that if
Sarah Orne Jewett, now author of a well-received novel, is to
visit, she would like her home to be better prepared than she can
currently manage.
This manuscript of this letter is held by Historic New England,
Jewett Family Papers, Correspondence: individual recipients; Other
correspondence; Other correspondence, unidentified, undated;
includes fragments, Box 13, Folder 62. Transcription and
notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Charles Ashburton Gilman
South Berwick,
Maine
23 Dec. 1877
Dear Charlie:
I send you this little letter-case
hoping you will find it as useful ^as^ I have found one just like
it -- Mine is nearly worn-out now -- I was very glad to get your
letter and wish I could send you a long one in reply but I must
put off writing of anything but a note, for I
have several notes to write
[ Page 2 ]
today and not much time.
I hope you will have a "Merrie Christmas"
and a most happy one too, dear Charlie -- and that you will try to
make it a pleasant day for somebody else. I am very sure you will
do this, for I think you do not forget other people. I should like
to see you and to hear all about what you are doing, your lessons
and your friends and what is going on. I was very glad to get your
letter -- and I wish
[ Page 3 ]
you could write oftener, but I know it is hard to find time
for letters.
We were very sorry to hear of David's*
accident and hope he is gaining very fast -- Mother and Carrie*
have been in Exeter this week but returned yesterday -- Thursday
was Grandpa's* eighty-ninth birthday --
Please give my love and good wishes to all the family and with a
great deal of love for yourself I am always yours sincerely and
affectionately
Sarah O. Jewett
Notes
David's: An earlier transcription appeared in Richard Cary,
Sarah Orne Jewett Letters.
Cary identified David Dunlap Gilman
(1854-1914), Charles's elder brother, who was a paymaster at the
Cabot mill.
Mother and Carrie: Caroline Frances Perry (Jewett)
and Caroline Augusta Jewett (Eastman).
See Key to Correspondents.
Grandpa's: Dr. William Perry. See Key to
Correspondents.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the George J. Mitchell
Department of Special Collections & Archives,
Hawthorne-Longfellow Library, Brunswick, ME, Sarah Orne Jewett
Papers, Series 1 (M238.1): Correspondence, 1877-1905, n.d.
New transcription and notes by Terry Heller,
Coe College.
Grace Gordon (Walden) to Sarah Orne Jewett
5 Walnut St. Boston.
December 24 -- 1877.
Dear Sarah --
I had hoped to be able to write to you
before this -- but I find it very hard to write, when I have
so very little time. I know you will understand.
I want to thank you for that lovely poem -- "He who died at
Azim."* It is
so beautiful -- &
so
true -- Mamma,
all of us, were so pleased with
it --
I send you just a little trifle
[ Page 2 ]
[ Small item
? ] -- with many best wishes for this
Christmas & a happy New Year --
With love & best wishes for all
Grace --
Notes
Azim: "He Who Died at Azim," is an Arabic poem,
translated by Sir Edwin Arnold (1832-1904). Its
subject is life after death, as this passage illustrates:
Farewell, friends! But not farewell;
Where I am, ye too shall dwell.
I am gone before your face,
A moment’s worth, a little space.
When ye come where I have stepped,
Ye will wonder why ye wept;
Ye will know, by true love taught,
That here is all, and there is naught.
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.
Georgina Halliburton to Sarah Orne Jewett
130 Hicks*
December 27 [
1877]*
My dear Sarah
I am sure I shall enjoy [
unrecognized
name ] greatly since you [ like it
? ] and
your friend [
unrecognized word ] it and I thank
you ever so much for sending it to me! With your dear
[ Page 2 ]
Christmas wishes wh. I am sure helped to make my Christmas a
more bright & blessed one. It didn't seem much
like Christmas with no snow and a day like spring.
Only think of it the [
two unrecognized words ] is
[out
?] in bloom.
[ Page 3 ]
I hope you will go to Washington. I think you would
enjoy it
so much, and it would be such a pleasant
season. The first winter of the
Hayes
Administration. I think it would be so nice for you.
Poor Grace writes in very low
spirits. She feels her father's death deeply{.}
I think [
unrecognized word ] that George* will
conduct things well. do [
so written ] you
believe
[ Page 4 ]
he can. I am surprised Mr. G did not cut him
off. I supposed he would. And yet there is a great
deal of nobility I think in his not doing so.
I hope I shall get home soon. Somehow when I am
here I [ do not ? two unrecognized words]
to propose a return fearing the family may not like it, but I am often
real homesick. And this is one of my days.
Good bye my dear{.} I thought of
you when I [just ?] saw
[Down from the left margin at the top if
page 1 ]
the Christmas dawn & wished you the best of wishes.
Yours
Georgina
Tell Mary* I have just finished "Agatha's Husband{"}* and
liked it very much.
Notes
130 Hicks: This is a Brooklyn Heights, NY
address. Halliburton's home was Portsmouth, NH.
1877: This date is probable because Christmas of this
year fell during the first winter of the Hayes
administration. See notes below.
Washington ... Hayes Administration: Rutherford B. Hayes (1822-1893) was the
nineteenth President of the United States (1877-1881).
Jewett visited in Washington DC during February 1878.
Grace ... George: Grace Gordon (Walden) and her
brother, George Gordon. See Key
to Correspondents. Their father, George W. Gordon,
died on 19 November 1877.
Mary: Mary Rice Jewett. See Key
to Correspondents.
"Agatha's Husband": Dinah
Maria Mulock Craik (1826-1887), a British novelist and poet,
published her novel, Agatha's Husband, in 1853.
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 Hayes Ward to Sarah Orne Jewett
[ Begin letterhead ]
The Independent.
Editorial Rooms, 251 Broadway
Post-Office Box
2787.
New
York,
[ End letterhead ] Dec 28 1877.
Miss Sarah O Jewett,
My dear Miss J.
I like those Negro pictures* much
-- But I do not believe there is any thing Aryan about those
fox ^rabbit^ stories. They are pure Negro, I am
very sure. Such folk lore is not characteristically Aryan,*
as even Japan is full of it.
I will publish [them ?]
Respectfully
Wm Hayes Ward
Ed.
Notes
Negro pictures: In The Independent for April 11,
1878, pp. 27-8, appeared a set of 3 "Negro Stories" by Anna Porter, featuring
Bear, Fox and Rabbit. These may be the "pictures" to which
Ward refers. They were similar to the folktales adapted by
American author Joel Chandler Harris (1846-1908) for his
"Uncle Remus" stories, which began to appear in 1876.
It appears that Jewett has acted as an
intermediary between Anna Porter and Ward, but this is far from
certain. Porter has not been further identified, and Jewett's
connection with her is not yet known. One may wonder whether Anna
Porter is Lydia Ann Emerson Porter (1816-1898), a
second cousin of Ralph Waldo Emerson, was a New England educator
and author who published under several names.
Aryan: Especially since Adolf Hitler's rise to power in
Germany, the term Aryan
has been suspect, its very use associated with belief in white
supremacy. In the 1870s, among anthropologists and
linguists, there was disagreement about whether there was such a
thing as an Aryan race and how to define it if it did exist, and
in popular thought, there was confusion about the term's
meaning. The context of this letter suggests that Jewett has
wondered if Porter's stories are "pure Negro," that is, collected
folklore, or if they have been modified by white (Aryan)
re-telling.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library,
Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. Jewett, Sarah Orne,
1849-1909. Sarah Orne Jewett additional correspondence, 1868-1930.
bMS Am 1743 (229). Transcribed and annotated by Terry Heller, Coe
College.
Edited by Terry Heller, Coe College.
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