Sarah Orne Jewett to Mary Bucklin Davenport Claflin
South Berwick
8 Jan. 1878
My dear Mrs. Claflin
I am very glad that I can say nothing seems to stand in the way of my going to Washington.* And if it is still convenient for you to have me visit you I think I shall be ready at any time the last of
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the month. So will you tell me please by and by about it! --
I have been in Boston for a few days and Mary* and I saw Mrs. Ellis.* One day she came to town to meet us, and one day Mary was out at Newtonville. I do not know when Mrs. Ellis has
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seemed so bright and well and we had a great frolic in town, in spite of the snow storm ..... I wish so much that you could have heard one of the sermons Mr. Brooks* preached Sunday for you would have liked it. I hope I shall not have forgotten some things he said so I can tell you by and by. It was a
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wonderfully beautiful sermon.
I was at Mrs. Goddard's* [yesterday ?] and Mrs. William Davenport* came in, and sent her love to you when she found ^that^ I was sure to see you. So here it is! Do not you think that Mrs. Goddard's parlor is a very charming place? I always find it so hard to come away, for I am very fond of her ----
Mary sends her love to you and I am always yours sincerely and affly{,} Sarah Orne Jewett.
Notes
Washington: During the presidency of Rutherford B. Hayes (1877-1881), William Claflin served in the House of Representatives from Massachusetts.
Mary: Mary Rice Jewett. See Key to Correspondents.
Mrs. Ellis: Emma Harding Claflin Ellis. See Key to Correspondents.
Mr. Brooks: Phillips Brooks (1835-1893) was rector of Trinity Church (Episcopalian) in 1878. Which sermon he preached on Sunday 6 January of that year is not yet known.
Mrs. Goddard's: Martha LeBaron Goddard (1829-1888) was the compiler, along with Harriet Waters Preston, of Sea and Shore: A Collection of Poems (1874). She was married to the journalist Delano Alexander Goddard (1831-1882), and they had no children.
Mrs. William Davenport: Though the name "William Davenport" was and remains fairly common, it seems likely that this would be Elizabeth Hewitt Davenport (1847-1912), wife of Mrs Claflin's brother, William Freeland Davenport (1833-1887)..
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. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Emma Harding Claflin Ellis
1824 [L ?] St.Dear Mrs. Ellis
Washington Feb 6th
1878
I began a letter to you Sunday and its in my letter case now! I have been wishing to write you every day, but what can a fellow do who is having such a good time & who is on the wing from morning till night, but think of people with great affection. There isn't a minute for writing but there isn't a day I haven't wished with all my heart that you were here. I'll tell you about yesterday for its an excellent specimen of our days. Addie* and I went to the market on a lark in the morning and when I got back after a call on the way
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I found Mrs. Claflin* just starting unexpectedly for Richmond. ^ -- She went down with a party for Miss Thursby's concert* and | comes back tonight.^ I had been asked to go and declined and for a few minutes I was pretty sorry, but afterwards I was glad Icoulddidn't go for I had such a good time here. Mary and Miss Cushing* and I felt very grand -- you see it was Tuesday and we had to receive and we had ninety calls and entertained the nobility and gentry and behaved just was well as we could. Then we scurried off when there was a pause just after five, and went to a grand reception ^at the Lincolns*^ and spent an hour there and met ever so many people we knew. Then we came home to dinner, and Gov. Claflin had somebody to drive. Then we rigged for the President's reception and had such a good time there. I wouldn't have missed it for anything, and
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we came home in the watches of the night, and wasn't that a day!
I wished so much that you were with us one day when we went to a reception at the Carlile Pattersons at "Brentwood"* ^out in the country^ such a lovely old place where everything was in the old Southern fashion -- very 'swell' indeed! and there were family portraits, and little darkies in livery, and big punch bowls and general magnificence to your heart's content -- It was so different from anything I had ever seen. And I think it must be like the way Southerners lived before the war. The house was queerly arranged and very pleasant -- great wood fires and a round ahll or reception room lighted from the top -- with the other rooms opening from it.
Dear me. I set sail upon a long letter and here is Monroe* to mention that lunch is ready{.}
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& we have to go out calling afterward.
I must tell you how happy I am here and how charmingly kind everybody is to me. And [ as corrected ] for your father and mother! why words fail me when I think how good and how thoughtful and how lovely they are. I think I never have been happier in my life, and I have found such a dear new friend in Mary. We have such nice times together, for I share her room and it's so much pleasanter. Isn't she a nice girl! I like Miss Cushing so much, too. Addie and I are great cronies and he irreverently and kindly has bestowed the title of 'The Tomboy' upon me, so you see he doesn't quite consider me a
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society-girl yet, though I certainly feel entirely like one at times! I never supposed I should be a used-up society-girl but Mary Davenport and I both confessed to it this morning we were so sleepy. We don't hear the alarm clock anymore, and we dont know what we shall do!
It's dreadfully hard to say good by when I wish to tell you so much.
Addie & Mary and Miss Cushing all send their love and so do I. Mrs. Pollak* (that little French lady who is so fascinating) and I had a talk about you yesterday at the reception and I wish you could have heard the things she said and the way she said them -- I shall take at least the second train for Newtonville* when
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{I} get back to Boston, for I shall have so much to tell you. Though I'm going to write you again if I may? Only I hope it will not be such a helter skelter letter as this. I must tell you that the pink bonnet is highly approved by my hostess -- likewise the white brocade -- so take the credit which I always give to you. I feel more at home in the pink bonnet than I believed possible when it first was all my own.
Good by -- yours lovingly --
Sarah
Notes
Addie: Adams Davenport Claflin. See Key to Correspondents.
Mrs. Claflin: Mary Bucklin Davenport Claflin. See Key to Correspondents.
Richmond ... Miss Thursby's concert: Miss Emma C. Thursby (1845-1931), a renowned soprano, gave two "Grand Farewell Concerts" in Richmond, VA on Tuesday and Wednesday February 5 and 6, before beginning a European tour. According to an ad in the Richmond Daily Dispatch of 29 January 1878, page 1, the Mozart Hall concert also was to include: Mr. W. T. Carleton, baritone, Miss Matilda Toedt, violin, Alfred H. Pease, pianist and composer, and George W. Colby, musical director and accompanist. See also The Life of Emma Thursby, 1845-1931, by Richard McCandless Gipson.
Mary and Miss Cushing: For Mary Davenport, see Emma Ellis in Key to Correspondents. In the absence of any other known "Mary Davenport" connected with the Claflin and Ellis families, it seems possible that Jewett refers to Mrs. Ellis's daughter by this name, to distinguish her from her step-grandmother. Hollis, in his notes for Jewett to Dawes of 14 May 1878, speculates that Mary Davenport is a niece to Mrs. Claflin, but no niece of that name has yet been discovered.
The identity of Miss Cushing is uncertain. Probably, she is Alice Kirke Cushing (1859-1918), daughter of Henry Kirke Cushing and Elizabeth/Betsey Maria Williams. Her brother was the famous neurosurgeon, Harvey Williams Cushing (1869-1939). Alice Cushing never married and continued living with her parents. However, Alice Cushing's parents were living at 786 Prospect Street in 1903; whether they resided at the Walnut Street address earlier has not been confirmed. Miss Cushing is described as "shy and somewhat austere, [with]... an active mind." She read widely in history and literature and became an authority on English church architecture. See also Harvey Cushing: A Biography (1946) by John F. Fulton.
the Lincolns ... the President's reception: Jewett's description of her day in Washington, DC, that includes attending two receptions the same evening would seem to indicate that a special event such as an inauguration was taking place, but this would not occur in 1878. In fact, the Washington social season in February and March during the Hayes administration was replete with such activities. Linda McShannock of the Minnesota Historical Society presents this account:
Thomas Corwin Donaldson, a personal friend of Hayes, noted in his memoirs a communication from the White House doorkeeper, Thomas F. Pendel, that the "receptions and parties they [the Hayeses] gave were the most expensive and costly ever given in the White House."
These social engagements are also noted in the diary entries of Lucy Scott West, cousin of Mrs. Hayes, who spent the social season of 1878 in Washington. Her diary is full of almost daily receptions, weekly State Dinners and balls in February and March of 1878. Lucy Scott described one such event on February 16th 1878 that the Japanese minister also attended:
“Thursday night I attended Secretary Evarts Reception & Mrs. Jeffrey’s Ball; both most elegant entertainments but “Oh ye Gods & little fishes” what a crush. Upon my word we were half an hour getting up the steps to the dressing room (at Sec. Evarts) & down again. Every body [sic] & his wife was there & the rooms presented the strange appearance of a dense mass of human beings struggling about helplessly in the most inextricable confusion. Two thousand invitations had been issued. The house is lovely & large enough for airy[any] seasonable festivity. The library, supper room & saloon parlors were thrown open on the first floor & there were two or three lovely little apartments up stairs where you could take yr ease & sip coffee, chocolate, or tea. A great many celebrities were present among others the Japanese minister. . .”
The week before, on Feb 7, 1878, Florence LeDuc wrote to her friend Minnie:
“After all I did not enjoy the President’s reception. There was such a great crowd. Papa does not like crowds but must say go as soon as we have spoken to President & Mrs. Hayes. On Monday night we were invited to the Japanese Minister’s – Papa, Mamma, Minnie went. I did not go.”
Robert Gale in A Sarah Orne Jewett Companion (p. 49), says that in 1878 Jewett attended a reception hosted by Robert Todd Lincoln (1843-1926), President Abraham Lincoln's only surviving son. However, in 1878, R. T. Lincoln was practicing law in Chicago; he first moved to Washington as an adult in 1881, as President James A. Garfield's Secretary of War. Though it has not yet been confirmed that he hosted a February 1878 reception in Washington, D.C., no other Lincoln family is currently known to have given receptions in Washington at this time.
Carlile Pattersons at "Brentwood: Carlile Pollock Patterson (1816 - August 15, 1881) was the fourth superintendent of the United States Coast Survey. Wikipedia says: "Patterson married Elizabeth Pearson (daughter of Congressman Joseph Pearson of North Carolina) in 1837.... From 1861 ..., the Pattersons occupied the Brentwood Mansion, designed by Benjamin Latrobe and inherited by Patterson's wife, in Brentwood, Washington, D.C., (since demolished), and it became a social center during the administration of President Grant."
Monroe: This may be a Claflin household employee, but this is not certain.
Mrs. Pollak ...that little French lady: The identity of this person remains unknown.
Newtonville: Newtonville, MA is the home of the Claflin and Ellis families.
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. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Washington Gladden to Sarah Orne Jewett
[ Begin Letterhead ]
SUNDAY AFTERNOON.
---------------------
EDITORIAL ROOMS
SPRINGFIELD, MASS.
[ End Letterhead ]
"Beyond the Toll-gate"*
Feb. 14.* 1878.
My dear Miss Jewett:
This is not a valentine. The check had gone to South Berwick before your letter arrived. The magazine has been sent to Washington. I like Barbara almost as well as you do, -- one can't of course like other [ folks's so written ] children quite so well as one's own. I doubt whether the story will be as popular as some you have written, -- but it ought to be.
I should have written before now to ask for another story, but I had last week a letter from Whittier* in which he said something that rather discouraged me. It was this: "I am glad to see that the author of 'Deephaven,' [ one ? ] of the most charming books which has been published during the last decade,
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has a place in it." I have been somewhat troubled to decide whether I ought to encourage a young woman of whom such things are said to write any more, -- whether she will not be puffed up and spoiled, if she keeps on in this way. But on the whole I've concluded to risk it, and won't you, please, send me another story, pretty soon!
Please remember me kindly to Mrs. Claflin,* with whom I once had the honor of a short but very pleasant interview.
Yours very truly
Washington Gladden.
Miss Jewett.
Notes
"Beyond the Toll-Gate": Jewett's story, featuring Barbara, first appeared in Sunday Afternoon (1:265-270) in March 1878, and then was collected in Play Days. Jewett's next publication in this magazine was "Verses," a poem, in June 1878. Her next story was "Paper Roses," in February 1879.
14: This number appears to have been written over "15."
Whittier: John Greenleaf Whittier. See Key to Correspondents. Jewett's first novel, Deephaven, appeared in 1877.
Claflin: Mary Bucklin Davenport Claflin. See Key to Correspondents.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library of Harvard University: Sarah Orne Jewett Correspondence I, Letters to Sarah Orne Jewett.
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.
John Greenleaf Whittier to Mary Bucklin Claflin
Oak Knoll Danvers
20 February 1878
And so you have Miss Jewett with you.* She is writing charmingly in "Sunday Afternoon."* I hope she will give us another book as good as "Deephaven."*
Notes
with you: As shown in Jewett's 6 February letter to Emma Harding Claflin Ellis, Jewett was visiting Mrs. Claflin in Washtington, D.C., while Mr. Claflin was serving in the House of Representatives.
Sunday Afternoon: At the time of this letter, Whittier would have read Jewett's "A Late Supper" in Sunday Afternoon (1:55-64), January 1878. The March issue would include her "Beyond the Toll-Gate" (1:265-270).
Deephaven: Jewett's first novel, Deephaven, appeared in 1877. Whittier praised the book in a letter to Jewett of 24 July 1877.
The manuscript of this letter is held by Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Center in the Governor William and Mary Claflin Papers. The transcription of this selection appears in John B. Pickard, The Letters of John Greenleaf Whittier v. 3, p. 388. Notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to James Ripley Osgood
1937 Chestnut St.Philadelphia 20 ^March^
[ 1878 ]*
My dear Mr. Osgood
I want some money for something very particular and I should like to draw on the Deephaven bank, if you have no objection -- Will you please tell me how much I could have now, though I may want more and may want less! -- I don't suppose that the book has been sold much since the holidays -- has it? --- But I take heart in
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remembering that Mr. Ticknor* told me it did very well then. I'm going home pretty soon to begin a new one but I shall hope to see you on my way –
Yours sincerely
Sarah O. Jewett.
Notes
1878: The year 1878 is penciled in another hand in this position on page 1. However, the letter offers little evidence for this date, only that Jewett suggests she is at work on her second book, following her 1877 publication of Deephaven. In that case, she would be counting on the first Christmas holiday sales of the book to supply her "Deephaven bank." Later in 1878, she published a collection of children's stories, Play Days.
Like most Jewett letters, this is written on a folded sheet, the pages consisting of half-sheets. On the back of page 2 appears this penciled text in another hand: "(Philadelphia) Sarah Orne Jewett".
In the folder with this letter is an illustration probably cut from a newspaper and pasted on another page; it shows the Jewett house in South Berwick. In 1878, Jewett did not reside in this house, but in the neighboring Jewett-Eastman House, now home to the Sarah Orne Jewett Museum of Historic New England.
Kelsey Squire observes that on the reverse side of this page is the text "From a pho", and evidence of another illustration that was removed. Why this page appears with this letter is not yet known.
Mr. Ticknor: At the time of this letter, Osgood's partners at Houghton, Osgood & Company were Thomas and Benjamin Ticknor, sons of the Ticknor and Fields founder, William Ticknor (1810-1864).
The manuscript of this letter is held by the University of New England Maine Women Writers Collection, Sarah Orne Jewett Collection, item MWWC0131
Transcription by Kelsey Squire, Ohio Dominican University; edited and with notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
William Durham Jewett to Sarah Orne Jewett
South Berwick April 2. 1878
My dear Sarah
I have yours of March 30 and [ enclose you so written ] Cashiers Check on Boston payable to your order for $40. as you desired.
I am glad to hear you are enjoying yourself so finely and what you have seen will doubtlefs be of advantage to you in after time. The snow is nearly gone and the roads are drying up and it looks as if we may have an early spring.
I remain
Your affte Uncle
W D Jewett
Notes
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library of Harvard University: Sarah Orne Jewett Correspondence I, Letters to Sarah Orne Jewett.
Jewett, William Durham, 1813-1887. 1 letter; 1878. (116).
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.
Georgina Halliburton to Sarah Orne Jewett
Brooklyn April [ 21, 1878 ? ]*
My dear Sarah:
Your Easter letter was so welcome{.} I am so glad you passed so happy a day. I attended my church all day. [Two unrecognized words ] in evening. I heard Mr. [ A. ? ] Brooks* on Good Friday
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which was a treat. I like his sermons so much.
I leave for home a week from Monday, with Minnie Phillips* [ unrecognized word ] [ escort ? ] {.} We look forward to our journey. I hope Mr. Brooks will preach here Sunday, or the next one. You know he generally leaves Boston [ after ? ] Easter. I shall be so glad if he should. Tomorrow I am going to the country [ two unrecognized words ]. I hope I may [two unrecognized words ]. I was Godmother for Carrie [ unrecognized name] baby. Such a pretty child.* I have a great deal to [tell ?]. [ Three unrecognized words ] liked these.
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Remember [two unrecognized words, a name? ] and come to see me as soon as possible [ unrecognized word ] month you know we are to at least pass a day together.
Will you tell Mary* I really have not had a chance to write but she shall have a letter when I do. I have [ one or two unrecognized words ]
[ Down lower right margin of page 3 ]
Best Easter wishes for you dear
[ Left to right down top margin of page 1 ]
back with redoubled [zest ?] into my words. Dont you copy your candy! [So this appears.]
Hoping [ two unrecognized words ] you.
Georgie
When will Carrie be married.* I dreamed of her last night.
Notes
April 21, 1878: While the month is clear in the manuscript, the day is not. Easter, the Christian celebration of the resurrection of Jesus, was 21 April in 1878. This almost certainly is the correct year, because Halliburton asks for the marriage date of Carrie Jewett, which was in the autumn of 1878.
Brooks: Almost certainly, Halliburton refers to Phillips Brooks. See Key to Correspondents.
Minnie Phillips: This person has not yet been identified.
Carrie ... pretty child: Without a last name, this Carrie is not yet identified.
Mary: Mary Rice Jewett. See Key to Correspondents.
Carrie ... married: Carrie Jewett married Edwin Eastman in October 1878. 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 Harriet Waters Preston (Fragment)
South Berwick
29 April 1878
Dear Miss Preston
I am so sorry I could not see you again but the rain fell so fast Friday that I did my errands over at town and put into harbor again as soon as I could -- I'm afraid the man who drove me is at present lying low with pneumonia and I'm very sorry for him! ---- I came home Friday stopping in Exeter a few hours on my way to see Aunt Mary*
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and grandfather -- and I reached here in the evening -- I never was half so glad to get home in all my life and they had planned so many little surprises and seemed so glad to see me that I felt like crying more than once -- I still feel like a guest and as if there were nothing in particular to do but I hope to get settled down soon and go on with my stories and sew up the holes in my frocks, and go riding on Sheila* of an afternoon as soon as the mud is no longer dangerous -- This dreary
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weather is very good weather to get rested in --
I hope you had a good time at Danvers -- and that you are satisfied with the portrait -- I dont think the family are at all enthusiastic over mine. Still they dont dislike it or make any opposition to its hanging in the parlor
[ Text ends about 2/3 down the page.
No signature.
Not known whether this letter was sent. ]
Notes
Aunt Mary: Mary Olivia Gilman Long. Also living in Exeter, NH, was Jewett's maternal grandfather, Dr. William Perry. See Key to Correspondents.
Sheila: Jewett's horse.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library of Harvard University: Sarah Orne Jewett Additional Correspondence I, Letters to Sarah Orne Jewett.
Preston, Harriet Waters, 1836-1911, recipient. 1 letter; 1878. 1743.1 (125).
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to James Ripley Osgood
South Berwick
29 April 1878
My dear Mr. Osgood
The other day Mr. Howells* suggested to me that I should put my grown-up stories together now and make a book of them. He thought it would be more likely to succeed well than
[ Breaks off. No signature. ]
Notes
Howells: William Dean Howells. Key to Correspondents.
Jewett's first collection of stories for adults was Old Friends and New (1879).
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library of Harvard University, Cambridge, MA. bMS Am 1743 Box 6, Item 271.
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Mary Bucklin Davenport Claflin
South Berwick
3 May 1878
Dear Mrs. Claflin
I forgot to tell you in my last letter to Mary* that the 'Psalm-book' was here when I came home, though I told Estes and Lauriat* to send it to Washington -- I shall keep it for you, for I'm sure you will not wish for anything else to pack up! ---- It begins to seem like [ like repeated ] Washington weather here and I am glad of it, for it seemed dreary at first to come back to such
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very early Spring and the trees so like winter -- the first week I was here it rained hard all the time and was very cold and I had the rheumatism promptly, and thought of Washington with a sigh! We have just had a little visit from my Uncle John Gilman and Aunt Helen* and she was so glad to hear about Mrs. Parker and the rest of the family* and you may imagine how much I had to tell about them and my whole delightful
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visit which seems to me an increasing pleasure. You dont know how much I enjoyed it Mrs. Claflin, or how much it has given me to think of.
I was so glad to hear of you the other day through Ellen Mason* who wrote me that she had ^just^ met you. It was very stupid in me not to ask her where she was going to stay in Washington, for I should have asked you or Mary if you would be kind enough to call on her. But though I saw her
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two or three times before she went we were always in such a hurry that I wonder I remembered anything -- But as you happened to meet, it was no very great matter. I think Ellen is looking so well this spring and we did have such a good time together -- by fits and snatches --
You dont know how much I wish I could see you all{ -- } I have really missed you more since I have been quietly at home -- for while I was going from one place to another there was not much time to think. I wish you [were blotted] here this minute and
[ Page 5 ]
I could take you for a drive and tell you about my other visits and hear what you have been doing. I know so little about you though I dont mean to say by this that I have wondered May* didn't write. I know too well that there is no time for that in [ in repeated ] the midst of such a busy life and while entertaining so many guests.
I am looking forward to Mary's visit here with so much pleasure, and I only wish dear Mrs. Claflin that we could have a visit from you sometime this summer. Do you think it is entirely out of the question? I hope nothing
[ Page 6 ]
will prevent Mrs. Ellis's* coming. Wasn't it too bad that I should have only had such a glimpse ^of^withher the other day, when I had set my heart on a long afternoon talk, and had been saving up "particulars" until I could not hold another one and should have had to tell it to the first person I met! ---- I thought of Miss Johnson as I came though Bradford,* and I wished she had happened to be in sight. I mean to stopofover a train to see her when I go to Boston again. I did like her
[ Page 7 ]
so much. I wonder if she will be at York again this summer? --- It is growing dark and I must leave my desk, but I must tell you first how completely I lost my heart to Mrs. Fairchild* -- I have heard a great deal about her, but I feel now like asking why nobody ever told me how lovely she is! I went to a charming little dinner there one evening ---
Please give my love to Gov. Claflin* and to Mary and dont forget that I am always your sincere and loving friend
Sarah O. Jewett.
[ Note on page 8 in another hand ]
Given by R. B. Claflin*
March 12, 1914
Notes
Mary: The identity of this Mary remains uncertain, but it seems likely that she is, Mary Agnes, the daughter of Emma Harding Claflin Ellis. Jewett seems to call her Mary Davenport, when writing about her to people other than her mother and grandmother. Hollis, in his notes for Jewett to Dawes of 14 May 1878, speculates that Mary Davenport is a niece to Mrs. Claflin, but no niece of that name has yet been discovered. See Key to Correspondents.
Estes and Lauriat: A 19th-century Boston publisher and bookstore.
Uncle John Gilman and Aunt Helen: See Mrs. Helen Williams Gilman in Key to Correspondents.
Mrs. Parker and the rest of the family: In her memoir, Under the Old Elms (1895) Mrs. Claflin mentions, among visitors to her home, Dr. Peter Parker (1804-1888), an eminent physician and Presbyterian missionary to China, among his many accomplishments (p. 90). In 1878, he was living in Washington, DC, with his wife, Harriet Colby Webster, and their son, Peter, Jr. (b. 1859). Parker was a regent for the Smithsonian Institution. It is not certain, however, that this is the Parker family to which Jewett refers.
Ellen Mason: See Key to Correspondents.
May: Perhaps Jewett meant to write "Mary"?
Mrs. Ellis: Emma Harding Claflin Ellis. See Key to Correspondents.
Miss Johnson ...Bradford: Bradford, Massachusetts is across the Merrimack River from Haverhill, the home of the poet, John Greenleaf Whittier. See Key to Correspondents.
Richard Cary says: "Annie Elizabeth Johnson (1826-1894), Maine-born daughter of the Reverend Samuel and Hannah (Whittier) Johnson, was principal of Bradford Academy (now a college) from 1875 until her death. Miss Johnson was a close friend of Miss Jewett's sister Mary and her cousin Abba Fisk."
Mrs. Fairchild: Probably Elizabeth Nelson Fairchild (1845-1924), a poet and friend of Jewett.
Gov. Claflin: Mary Claflin's husband. See Key to Correspondents.
R. B. Claflin: This person has not yet been identified.
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. Transcription and annotation by Terry Heller, Coe College, with assistance from Nan Card of the R. B. Hayes Presidential Center.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Charles Ashburton Gilman
South Berwick, Maine
14 May 1878
My dear Charley:
I hope you do not think I have forgotten I owe you for that nice letter which I received [ just corrected ] after I went to Washington -- I was so glad to hear from you and I have meant to answer it a good many times but as you will imagine, I have had very little chance for writing while I was away and since I came home I have been very busy.
You do not know what splendid times I have had. All my visits
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were very pleasant, but I enjoyed so much being in Washington. There is so much to interest anybody and I was going all the time from morning until night and pretty late at night too! I was there nearly two months and I would not have missed it for anything. How much I shall enjoy telling you of my frolics when I see you which I hope will not be a great while hence. Aunt Helen* was here the other day and I told her of the plan we made to meet in Portland
[ Page 3 ]
at the time of the Poultry Show. She laughed and said she hoped we would sometime. I wonder if you really went and if you had a good time?
You don't know how glad I was to get home again, and I believe home never seemed so pleasant. My horse* goes splendidly and I have had some splendid long rides after I finish writing in the afternoon. I went to work again as soon as I could and have already done a good deal of writing, though the first week I was at home it was so cold and
[ Page 4 ]
damp that it played the mischief with me and I had [ the corrected ] rheumatism, which seemed very natural indeed! ---
I have so much to tell about and I am not nearly talked out yet either.*
Please tell your mother how sorry I am not to have been at home when she made her visit, for all the family enjoyed it so much. Carrie has been writing Lizzie* and I suppose she told all the news. Do write soon, and with love to Lizzie and Dave, believe me your loving cousin
Sarah
Have you heard any news from Orr's Island,* and how is Miss Ballard?* Please give her my love.
NotesHelen: Helen Williams Gilman. See Key to Correspondents.
horse: An earlier transcription of this letter appears in Richard Cary, Sarah Orne Jewett Letters. In his notes, he writes:
On the same day Miss Jewett wrote to Anna Laurens Dawes: "You don't know how much I enjoy 'Sheila' who is better than ever -- and high as a kite. I began to think she had gone back to her colthood and must be disciplined and broken anew. But I am luckily very strong and Sheila knows I mean to be captain." (Manuscript Division, Library of Congress).Carrie: Caroline Jewett Eastman, Elizabeth J. Gilman, David Dunlap Gilman. See Key to Correspondents.
Orr's Island: Orr's Island is in Maine's Casco Bay. Jewett says that American author Harriet Beecher Stowe's novel, set on Orr's Island -- The Pearl of Orr's Island (1862) -- inspired her to write about her own region. Wikipedia.
Miss Ballard: It is probable but not certain that this is Sarah J. Ballard of Brunswick, ME. She was the only surviving daughter of Sarah Ludlow Morris (1806-1847) and Rev. Edward Ballard (1806-1870), who was the rector of St. Paul's Episcopalian Church in Brunswick (1858-1870).
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 Anna Laurens Dawes
14 May 1878Dear Anna
That note of yours was most crushing -- but as it is getting near June I venture to address you again and to state that I would not disdain a letter from Washington -- on the contrary nothing would please me better. Washington is a sad place to leave, for none of your friends have any time to write to you. I think it is so forlorn to be in the midst of things as I was, and then come away and be entirely shut off and cut off from knowing what becomes of everybody afterward. I wish I could see you or Mary Davenport1 and ask forty questions at once! but I hope I shall see Mary before long for I have to go to Boston in about a fortnight and then I suppose she will be at home. I hope I don’t seem like a person who scolds her friends for not writing -- I know too well how many demands there are on ones time and how hard it is to keep up with ones letters. I am owing Hattie Bailey and Linda Lawrence myself, and I ought not to fail in giving Julia Stout* credit for her letters which I get often and enjoy very much -- but she doesn't often speak of what goes on outside her own family.
I do wish most awfully that you were here this minute, Anna Dawes! I think we should indulge in a most satisfactory talk -- I do want to see you ever so much -- I tell you I wouldn't fall asleep while you were talking this time. Do you remember how tired and sleepy I was that night I stayed with you? I was awfully tired the time I was in Philadelphia and I came home at last pretty well fagged out, and it was so cold and wet I had the rheumatism and was rather melancholy than otherwise. Since then however I have been very well and have done a great deal of writing. I never enjoyed it more -- and just now I am taking a day or two vacation for I worked both morning and afternoon the last three days of last week and of course have to pay for it. I have a story nearly ready to copy for Mr. Howells,* and I have promised Mr. Gladden one right away for Sunday Afternoon.* I should like to talk over my plan for that with you. Next week or the week after I am going on a little journey with my grandfather2 which we planned last fall. It seems hardly decent to leave home again so soon doesn't it? -- but I never would say no to the frisky young fellow. He is only ninety his next birthday but he seems at least fifteen years younger. I have a summons from Mr. Osgood* and I wish to see Mary Davenport and some other people so I shall stay over a day or two in Boston. I spent two nights with Mr. & Mrs. Little while I was in Boston on my way home -- and I had a very nice time with Ella. Wallace* was very miserable it seemed to me -- but I believe he is a good deal better. I think the poor fellow is very delicate (Dont mention it!) -- I am fond indeed of Wallace. The family were in their usual state of mind and all asked a great deal about you.
You do not know how much pleasure it gives me to think over my Washington experience. It has all come true, what you told me of it -- I have learned a great deal from my visit there, beside having had such an immense amount of pleasure. There is a great deal I could say to you if I were talking instead of writing, and if I were to go to Washington again I should do some things differently perhaps. Still there is after all less to grieve over and regret than there might have been. I would not have missed the experience for anything. It is an education, as you most truly said.
The Claflins I suppose will be at home this week or at any rate some time soon. Hatty Bailey said in her letter that she was to have a visit from Mary3 of a week or two after the first of May while Mrs. Claflin was at the Parkers.* What a time of it they must have had packing up -- I don’t suppose they will rest much after they get home for they always have so many visitors. Mary has promised to make me a visit early in the summer and I do hope nothing will prevent it.
I think I never was so glad to get home as I was this time. Sometimes after I have been away I have been very lonely and like a fish out of water for awhile, but I have been very happy -- and it was delightful to have people seem so glad to see me and give me such a welcome. And here in the house they had planned so many little surprises for me and I didn't suppose they had missed me half so much. I am so glad I live in a small town instead of a great one -- and I mean to do everything I can to make the people here glad that I do live here and am one of them. Of course one misses a great many things in living in such a place as Berwick but I am away a great deal -- and see a different sort of life just as much as is good for me -- and there are the greatest compensations. I love country life with all my heart. You dont know how much I enjoy “Sheila”* who is better than ever -- and high as a kite. I began to think she had gone back to her colthood and must be disciplined and broken anew. But I am luckily very strong and Sheila knows I mean to be captain. I have had some perfectly lovely rides -- I wish you had been with me an afternoon or two ago when I went all alone through some lovely woods by the cart-path and across some wide pastures and at last I came out on the river bank at a place which I long to show you some day. The air was so fresh and still that afternoon and all the wood thrushes were singing and Sheila went poking along over the pine leaves and turf. Once I scared up a big brown rabbit and he went leaping off for dear life as if Sheila and I were a couple of fiery dragons. -- Well goodbye my dear girl. Mary* sends lots of love to you -- and will you please give my love to your mother and father -- and write soon as you can to
your sincere and aff. friend
I spent a night with the Horsfords4 and enjoyed it very much -- we talked ever so much about you and how much we liked you! I forgot to tell you too what a nice time I had in Phila and Brooklyn. Three weeks in one and two in the other place and then I was two days in Springfield and six in Boston. I have been at home a little over two weeks.
Hollis's Notes
1 William Claflin married twice; his second marriage in 1845 was to Mary Bucklin Davenport, the Mrs. Claflin who was Sarah's hostess in Washington earlier in the year. The Mary Davenport referred to here seems to have been Mrs. Claflin's niece. She was also a guest of the Claflins for this Washington visit and a friend of Anna's as well. See Key to Correspondents.
2 Dr. William Perry, Sarah's maternal grandfather, remained active until his death in 1887. See Key to Correspondents.
3 This is not Sarah's sister Mary but Mary Davenport mentioned earlier in this letter.
4 Cornelia and Lilian Horsford lived in Cambridge, and Sarah was a frequent guest at their home in the 1870s. Cf., Frost, op .cit.59. See Key to Correspondents.
Additional Notes
Hattie Bailey ... Linda Lawrence ... Julia Stout: These people remain unidentified and It is possible that Julia Stout is Juliett Louisa "Julia" Stout Conklin (1853-1948), author of The Young People's History of Indiana.
story ... Mr. Howells: William Dean Howells, editor of Atlantic Monthly; See Key to Correspondents. Which story Jewett is copying for Howells is not certain. She did not publish a new story in Atlantic until more than a year after this letter, "A Bit of Shore Life" in August of 1879. In the meanwhile, two pieces probably by Jewett appeared anonymously in the "Contributor's Club" column of Atlantic: "Th. Bentzon" (December 1878) and "Domestic Touches in Fiction" (March 1879).
Mr. Gladden ... Sunday Afternoon: Wikipedia says: "Washington Gladden (February 11, 1836 - July 2, 1918) was a leading American Congregational pastor and early leader in the Social Gospel movement. He was a leading member of the Progressive Movement, serving for two years as a member of the Columbus, Ohio city council and campaigning against Boss Tweed as religious editor of the New York Independent. Gladden was probably the first leading U.S. religious figure to support unionization of the workforce; he also opposed racial segregation. He was a prolific writer of hundreds of poems, hymns, articles, editorials, and books.... In 1875, Gladden became pastor of the North Congregational Church in Springfield, MA for seven years. During this pastorate, Gladden also worked as editor of Sunday Afternoon (1878-1880). Sunday Afternoon described itself as “A Monthly Magazine for the Household.”
Jewett did not publish a story in Sunday Afternoon after this letter until "Paper Roses" appeared in February 1879. However, her poem, "Verses," appeared there in June 1878.
Mr. Osgood: James Ripley Osgood. See Key to Correspondents.
Mr. & Mrs. Little ... Wallace: The Littles are Ella Walworth and George Britton Little. Wallace Lincoln Pierce was the husband of Mrs. Walworth's sister, Stella. See Key to Correspondents.
Mrs. Claflin was at the Parkers: In her memoir, Under the Old Elms (1895) Mrs. Claflin mentions, among visitors to her home, Dr. Peter Parker (1804-1888), an eminent physician and Presbyterian missionary to China, among his many accomplishments (p. 90). However, it is not clear that he is one of the Parkers to whom Jewett refers.
Mary: Mary Rice Jewett. See 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 Harriet Elizabeth Prescott Spofford* (fragment)
South Berwick
15 May 1878
My dear Harriet
I was delighted to get your letter and to hear about the birthday, and the [ unrecognized word ] and your getting home -- Sometimes*
Notes
Spofford: Houghton Library archivists believe the recipient probably was Spofford. That her birthday was 3 April presents some supporting evidence. There are no other known correspondents named Harriet with whom Jewett may have been on a first-name basis with birthdays close to 15 May, assuming of course, that Jewett refers to the recipient's birthday. However, Jewett was well acquainted with Harriet Seeger, niece of her correspondent Eliza Seeger. Key to Correspondents.
Sometimes: The letter breaks off here, and then Jewett has signed it 5 times, as if trying out her pen or perhaps different versions of her signature, though there is little difference among them. The first signature is preceded by "Yours S"; the third by "Yours sincerely"; and the fourth by what probably is "S".
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library of Harvard University, Cambridge, MA. bMS Am 1743 Box 6, Item 275.
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Edward Fiske Merriam to Sarah Orne Jewett
Springfield, Mass
May 16 1878
Notes
Miss Sarah O. Jewett,
Dear Madam: --
Please find herewith a check for $10.00 in payment for your "Verses," for which allow me to express thanks.
Be kind enough to acknowledge the check, and oblige
Yours respectfully
E. F. Merriam
"Verses": Jewett's poem appeared in Sunday Afternoon, June 1878.:
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library of Harvard University, Cambridge, MA. bMS Am 1743 Box 3, Item 149 I. Letters to Sarah Orne Jewett.
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Lilian May Munger
South Berwickmay we both get closer to the same true love and faithful help of our father in heaven -- Yours always with much love Sarah
9 June 1878
My dear Lily
I have been away again -- this time on a little journey with my grandfather and though I enjoyed it very much still I felt afraid all the time that something might happen to him -- he is so old and feeble. So I was glad when I got home and the journey was safely over. And then I have been away so much that home seems the most delightful place in the world.
I have been thinking about you very often since your last letter came. I am so sorry that life
[ Page 2 ]
seems hard and unsatisfactory. But believe me dear little girl, if you only 'hold on fast by God'* and keep on trying everything will come right and by and bye the clouds will break away and you will know that the sun has been shining all the time -- I cant help you-- it is your own praying and working and steadfast faith in God's love for you that will bring you to the place where you wish to stand. Dont forget that verse which is always a comfort to me: "God hath not tempted you above that you are able to bear, but
[ Page 3 ]
with the temptation hath made a way to escape that ye may be able to bear it."* I wish you could get more help from the Bible. I know it was a long time before I felt sure that it was written to me, but now I often find a verse which comes with a strange sweet power as if it were a message (as I believe it is) from someone I love. Don't lose courage, but remember that however it seems to you God really loves you and will really help you and will really seem near to you one day -- And as for your fear of being too good -- I think you will by and by see that as one
[ Page 4 ]
loves God more one is the more ready to serve him in any way he seems to ask. I did not laugh at you -- I have been too worried and bewildered and sad myself and too much puzzled [not corrected] to have a great sympathy for a girl younger than I who is going through the same thing. But you will come out right dear child. You are better than you used to be -- your very sorrow shows that, and your discontent with yourself proves that you are on the way to better living and greater usefulness. Write to me and tell me all you can. I think it helps one to do that -- and I am so glad of your love and confidence -- And
[ Up the left margin of page 1 ]
Notes
by God: Elsewhere, Jewett locates this verse in Psalms, but these exact words do not appear in the King James Psalms. The idea appears in Psalms 119:31-2: "Thou hast commanded us to keep thy precepts diligently. O that my ways were directed to keep thy statutes! Then shall I not be ashamed, when I have respect unto all thy commandments. I will praise thee with uprightness of heart, when I shall have learned thy righteous judgments. I will keep thy statutes." Somewhat closer to the actual words is 1 Thessalonians 5:21: "Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." It seems likely that Jewett is quoting from a sermon rather than from the Bible.
bear it: Jewett presents her own version of 1 Corinthians 10:13, which in the King James version reads: "There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it."
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Small Library, University of Virginia, Special Collections MSS 6218, Sarah Orne Jewett Papers. The envelope associated with this letter is addressed to Munger at Farmington, ME. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Anna Laurens Dawes
Wells Maine
7 July 78Dear Anna
I was very glad indeed to get your letter and I am going to surprise you by answering it soon. I am the more glad to have a chance this morning because I am afraid I shall not get much time for letters during the next few weeks. I have been here by the sea for a week and have enjoyed the last two or three days immensely. Before that the weather was too frightfully hot and I felt tired and sick and beside that I had -- or thought I had -- to keep on with my writing. It was duty that made me keep to it then, now that the weather is cool and a salt wind blows straight in from the sea I do it for sheer pleasure. I wish you were here this Sunday morning and we would have such a good time together, wouldn't we? I love the sea with all my heart -- and I pray heaven it may never be my sad fortune to have to go to live out of possible reach and sound of it. I have always had a sense of its neighborhood in Berwick and there is always the possibility of driving down for an hour or two though sometimes there are weeks together that I never do it. Carrie is here with me; and Mrs. Seeger*, and Miss Brown,* rather an elderly woman whom I am growing to like dearly, who came on Miss Seeger's recommendation. I knew what manner of person she is at first sight -- good as gold; and a woman who has had a hard busy life with much care of other people. She has been a teacher of little children in one of the Boston public schools and will not be promoted because she thinks she knows the work and can do it where she is better than another might -- Isn't that good? She was fairly worn out when I first saw her, and now she begins to be fresh and bright again and ten years younger at least than I thought her at first. I have had some very pleasant talks with her.
I must tell you what Carrie and I did yesterday. It was a very great delight to me. There is one of the fishermen whom I like dearly and we got up before four o'clock and went out with him about four miles to see him set and draw his trawls. I wish you had been with us -- after we were a little way out from land, the sun showed itself just above the water -- pale red in a soft gray cloud and as we went farther and farther out, the sea was growing silver colored with pink tops to every little wave. It was like a fairy story or like The Princess of Thule* and the voyages one may go in a fishing boat out of 'Borva' or 'Stowoway'* -- I didn't think of Sheila* yesterday morning either, which was strange! I rowed most of the way out though part of the time we had the sail up to catch the little breeze and I tended that. It was a delicious morning -- and it was such fun to see the trawls. We put out about half a mile of lines and waited half an hour and pulled it up and found fish of all sorts and kinds -- some I never had seen or heard of before. I'll tell you who our fisherman is -- the man whom I call "Danny" in Deephaven.* He told me several summers ago about his having a pussy cat on board a schooner and I enlarged upon it at my own sweet will! It is romance about his loneliness: he has a wife and a young boy whom I like -- a quiet pleasant fellow like his father, though he's not lame and doesn't wear a red shirt, as yet! He has been making me a little fishing boat with all the rigging complete which you shall see some day -- and he rejoices that his father is going to take him one of these days to Kennebunk to see the ship yards.* Last year when I was here his mother was living somewhere else and I always thought that she was dead. He seemed such a lonely little fellow and he used to go out after lobsters in the darkest nights all alone. I have grown intimate with Mrs. Hatch this year but I have known "Danny" or George, that's his real name, for a long time.1
We have found a little field of strawberries on a point of land near the sea, and we go there after we eat our suppers, and I lie in the grass and pick all I can find within arm's length. The air is deliciously fresh and I feel so very much better than I did when I came down. I condole with you for the loss of your horse for two months. But aren't you glad that since it had to come it was for July rather than September and October. I can get on very well without riding now, but when it grows cooler it will break my heart if anything happens to Sheila. I ride after tea when it is cool or else put her in the phaeton or light wagon, for she goes very decently in harness now -- in any light carriage. Indeed I might say that she spins over the road in a way that gratifies her mistress very much. I didn't bring her here with me, for the green-headed flies are holding court -- and she would soon be murdered or else murder me jumping about because they bite her. -- It is so pleasant to hear what you write of John Burleigh --2 I hope
[page missing]
Hollis's Notes
1 George Hatch and part of the incident described here contribute to "A Bit of Shore Life," Atlantic Monthly XLIV (August 1879), 200-211. There is also an account of him in Frost, op. cit., 59.
2 John H. Burleigh (1822-1878), the Maine congressman from South Berwick, had died a year earlier, and I imagine the reference here is to a son who perhaps had remained in Washington. A later reference, in the letter of September 1, 1879, indicates that young Burleigh had some personal difficulty ....
Additional notes
Carrie ... Mrs. Seeger: Caroline Jewett (soon to be Mrs. Eastman). See Key to Correspondents.
C. Carroll Hollis says that Mrs. Seeger probably is Harriet / Hatty Woodworth Seeger (b. 1843?), a schoolteacher and Jewett friend from Boston. If this identification is correct, then her parents were Harriet Woodworth Foot (1814-1843) and Dr. Edwin Seeger (1811-1866). It seems likely, therefore, that there is a transcription error in this letter, and that "Mrs. Seeger" should read "Miss Seeger."
Miss Brown: This "teacher of little children in one of the Boston public schools" has not been identified.
The Princess of Thule: A Princess of Thule (1873) is a novel by William Black (1841-1898)..
'Borva' or 'Stowoway': Borva is a location in Black's A Princess of Thule. However neither "Stowoway" or "Stowaway" appear in an electronic search of the novel's text.
Sheila: Jewett's first horse.
"Danny" in Deephaven: Part six of Jewett's first novel, Deephaven (1877) is entitled "Danny." However, the incident Jewett recounts here occurs in the section entitled "Cunner Fishing." The intent of Hollis's note on George Hatch is somewhat confusing. While George Hatch does indeed appear as a character in "A Bit of Shore Life" (1879), Jewett clearly refers here to an incident and character in Deephaven.
Kennebunk ... ship yards: Wikipedia says that Kennebunk, ME developed as a center for ship-building.
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 Emma Harding Claflin Ellis
[ 1878 ]*
Dear Mrs. Ellis
I wish to tell you how sorry I am to have missed you today. I had to go to take a Turkish bath, and I came back down after you were here. I am out of the house so little and always for things like that which the Dr. makes me do! I am going to drive
[ Page 2 ]
often now however and I shall hope to get out to see you. Mrs. Rice* was out for a few minutes or she would have seen you and told you. I do wish to see you dreadfully for just think of the particulars! and I wish to see you if there never had been a particular in the world! I shall be here sometime
[ Page 3 ]
longer, and I shall see you someday. I am really beginning to feel as if I were going to be myself again!
Yours always lovingly34 Union Park*
Sarah
Thursday
Notes
Mrs. Rice: John Hamilton and Cora Clark Rice. See Key to Correspondents.
34 Union Park: In Boston's South End (2004), Anthony Mitchell Sammarco notes that Alexander Hamilton Rice was at one time a resident at 34 Union Park in Boston. Alexander Rice was the father of John Rice, who married Jewett's close friend Cora Clark Rice. 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. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Emma Harding Claflin Ellis
[ Letterhead made of initials SOJ]
34 Union Park*
Sunday -- [ 1878 ]
Dear Mrs. Ellis
I should certainly have gone out to see you, but the weather has been so bad that I have been in the house most of the time until yesterday when I had some engagements
[ Page 2 ]
and errands that took all my time. Mrs. Rice* and I were going on to New York on Wednesday but we had word to wait as Mr. [Losters ? ] was ill{.} I think we shall go this week sometime but probably not until Thursday at any rate --
[ Page 3 ]
It was provoking to see you in the way I did, and it make me wish to have a long gossip with you all the more. I begin to think that dinner parties ought to have been prescribed earlier in my case, for I have been to several [shinners ?] and seem to flourish in them, and
[ Page 4 ]
a breakfast beside at the L. Club,* which was very nice. It has been like a fortnight in Washington.* I hope I shall see you soon & wont Mrs. Claflin & Little Mary be here before long now? With ever so much love
Sarah
Notes
34 Union Park: In Boston's South End (2004), Anthony Mitchell Sammarco notes that Alexander Hamilton Rice was at one time a resident at 34 Union Park in Boston. Alexander Rice was the father of John Rice, who married Jewett's close friend Cora Clark Rice. See Key to Correspondents.
Mrs. Rice: John Hamilton and Cora Clark Rice. See Key to Correspondents.
Mr. [Losters ? ]: This transcription is uncertain and the person remains unidentified.
L. Club: The identity of this club, presumably in Boston, is not yet known.
fortnight in Washington: Jewett spent 2 months Washington, DC, was in the early spring of 1878 as the guest of Mary Bucklin Davenport Claflin.
Mrs. Claflin & Little Mary: Mary Bucklin Davenport Claflin and Mrs. Ellis's daughter, Mary. 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.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Mary Bucklin Davenport Claflin
Friday afternoon
[ 1878 ]*
Dear Mrs. Claflin
I wish to tell you that we reached home all right after a very pleasant drive. It was certainly a most beautiful evening, and we did not miss our way after all. I was a little tired but I did not get up until
[ Page 2 ]
so late this morning that I must have repaired all damages! and truly wish I could take the same drive again though I should like better to be going toward your house instead of away from it -- I have been writing Mary* just now and hope I have
[ Page 3 ]
persuaded her to come to Boston for I tried very hard! I told her you spoke of her coming out Tuesday night, but if you should not happen to have room for another guest there, will you send me a note here and she could just as well go out on Wednesday.
I am so glad to
[ Page 2 ]
have seen you again, and it was a great pleasure to meet Mr. and Mrs. Abbott,* and will you not please remember {me} to them if they are still with you.
Mrs. Rice* enjoyed her call very much and sends you her very kind regards.
With much love for yourself and Mary & Mrs. Ellis --*
Yours always
Sarah
Notes
1878: This letter seems to have been written from Boston at a time when Jewett could invite her sister to town for a visit. And she appears to be staying with Cora Clark Rice. On this tenuous evidence, I have grouped this letter with others of 1878.
Mary: Mary Rice Jewett. See Key to Correspondents.
Mr. and Mrs. Abbott: This may be Lyman and Abby Abbot. See Key to Correspondents.
Mrs. Rice: John Hamilton and Cora Clark Rice. See Key to Correspondents.
Mary & Mrs. Ellis: Emma Harding Claflin Ellis and her daughter, Mary. 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.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Anna Laurens Dawes
Wednesday morning (Aug., 1878)Dear Anna
I returned from Boston last night after a very pleasant little visit. Mrs. Stowe1 was very nice and her daughter too, and Margaret Bailey and her mother* were also there which was very pleasant for me. Mrs. Claflin* gave a lovely lunch party Monday so I stayed over until yesterday. Mary* sent her love to you and was so glad to hear about you. I went to see Mr. Houghton but he was not there for which I was sorry -- Mr. Osgood* had come the day before from Europe and I missed him too. 2
I shall try and drive one day soon -- and will bring your gloves and your paragraphs which you left here.3 Father came home just after I did on Saturday feeling wretchedly and looking worse, so that I was worried to death at going away -- and made Mary promise to telegraph me Monday morning early -- but he is better now & I believe he and mother are going soon to the mountains. Julia came home with me.*
Give my love to Miss Lane and Miss Baker* and I hope you are growing stronger every day & I'm your loving friend --
Hollis's Notes
1 The relationship between Sarah and Harriet Beecher Stowe is summarized by Richard Cary, Sarah One Jewett Letters 85, note 4. The date of this letter is supplied by Anna in the parenthesis that is added to the heading.
2 These were her publishers
3 My assumption is that Anna had been visiting the Jewetts on her way to a recuperative vacation period at one of the Maine resorts near enough to Berwick that Sarah could drive over to return these items. The letter of October 14, 1878, indicates that at least some of Anna's time in the region was spent at York.
Additional Notes
Margaret Bailey and her mother: Probably this Margaret Bailey (1849- ) the daughter of the American poet, Margaret Lucy Shands Bailey (1812-1888), who along with her husband. Dr. Gameliel Bailey, (1807-1859), became acquainted with Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811-1896) when she was living in Cincinnati, OH, sharing her passion for the abolition of slavery. Dr. Bailey helped to finance and then published Uncle Tom's Cabin as a serial in The National Era.
Mrs. Claflin: Mary Bucklin Davenport Claflin. See Key to Correspondents.
Mary: Probably refers to Mary Ellis, daughter of Emma Harding Claflin Ellis. See Key to Correspondents.
Mr. Houghton ... Mr. Osgood: Henry Oscar Houghton and James Ripley Osgood. See Key to Correspondents.
Mary ... Julia: For Mary Rice Jewett see Key to Correspondents. It is possible that Julia is Juliett Louisa "Julia" Stout Conklin (1853-1948), author of The Young People's History of Indiana.
Miss Lane and Miss Baker: While this remains uncertain, it is probable that Jewett refers to the American landscape and genre painter, Susan Minot Lane (1832-1893) and American historian, Charlotte Alice Baker (1833-1909). In Sarah Orne Jewett (2002) Paula Blanchard describes the association of Jewett, Baker and photographer Emma Lewis Coleman: "the three summered at York [ME] together. In 1883-86 Jewett and the others collaborated in staging a series of photographs in the [François] Millet style: local models, or sometimes Miss Baker, would dress up in period costume and Coleman would photograph them at everyday rural tasks. Reconstructing historic conditions as accurately as possible, the group also followed Millet in creating images intended to express the beauty and dignity of rural life. The results were obviously staged and entirely lacked the heroic aura of Millet's peasants, but Jewett was pleased with them." (225-6). See "Guide to the Papers of Charlotte Alice Baker." of the Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association. Historic New England holds an example of one of the Coleman photographs: "C. Alice Baker in costume as a woman dragging a calf, Deerfield, Mass., 1880s."
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 Mary Bucklin Davenport Claflin
South Berwick
17 Sept 1878
My dear Mrs. Claflin
I have begun two letters but I had bad luck about finishing them! Since I came home I have been on the fly and the days have gone so fast, but there has not been a day when I haveelnot thought of you and of what a lovely little visit I had last week. You dont know how much I enjoyed it.
[ Page 2 ]
or how much I thank you for giving me so much pleasure. Both the guest chambers have been filled ever since I came, and there has been a good deal going on in a quiet way. And to my horror they began sending the proofs of my book all over again from the Riverside Press!* when I thought I was quite done with them -- such bundles as came, too!
Your housekeeper now [unrecognized word ] bear off my honors
[ Page 3 ]
with great dignity and renown. Father and Mother and Uncle William and Mary* ^have^ all gone to the mountains for a little while, to the Glen* first and then across the mountains to Franconia &c. Father has been very miserable* since I came home and though he is really a great deal better he looks pale and gets tired so easily. I think this journey will do him a great deal of good. Tell Mrs. Ellis* that her message amused
[ Page 4 ]
him immensely -- and he wishes me to assure her that it was her going away that had broken his heart.
I have Julia Stout* here for a little visit and she seems to enjoy it very much and is delighted with the drives so I entertain her in that way to the best of my ability. We were going off for a whole days pilgrimage today, but I couldn't be gone so long (being house keeper!) I am so glad she happened to be
[ Page 5 ]
so her spirits were a little low.
I am going to the Houghtons* Saturday and to the Fairchilds* Monday and after that to Newport for two or three days -- I hope I shall see you when I'm at Belmont.* Please give my love to all the family. Julia sends her kindest remembrances to you and Mary.*
Always yours lovingly
Sarah --
Notes
my book from Riverside Press: Jewett refers to Play Days (1878).
Uncle William and Mary: William Durham Jewett and Mary Rice Jewett. See Key to Correspondents.
the Glen: Wikipedia says: "Glen House was the name of a series of grand resorts, between 1852 and 1893, in Pinkham Notch very near Mount Washington in the White Mountains of New Hampshire, USA."
Father has been miserable: Jewett's father, Theodore Herman Jewett, died of a heart attack three days after this letter was composed, while he was at Crawford Notch, NH.
Mrs. Ellis: Emma Harding Claflin Ellis. See Key to Correspondents.
Julia Stout: It is possible that Julia Stout is Juliett Louisa "Julia" Stout Conklin (1853-1948), author of The Young People's History of Indiana, but this has not been established.
Houghtons: Jewett may mean the offices of the publisher of Play Days, or she may mean she will be staying with the family of Henry Oscar Houghton, a director of Houghton, Osgood, her publisher. See Key to Correspondents.
Fairchilds: This is probably the family of Charles and Elizabeth "Lilly" Nelson of Boston and their children Sally (1869-1960), Gordon and Neil. The Brookline Historial (Massachusetts) Society provides this suggestive sketch of the Sally and her family:
Belmont: While there are several possibilities for this location, a more probable one is Belmont, MA, where William Dean Howells (See Key to Correspondents) resided 1877-1882.Her father was a wealthy stock broker and banker and her parents were frequent hosts of prominent artists and writers. She never married and often lived with her younger brother, Gordon: at St Paul’s School where he ran the Upper School; in the Philippines; in Japan; and, when he returned to Boston around 1930, at his house at 391 Beacon St., Boston. After he died at sea in 1932 she moved to 241 Beacon St.
She made quite an impression on some very famous people of that era. There are descriptions of her by George Bernard Shaw, Bertrand Russell, George Santayana, the Fabian leader Beatrice Webb, and the Shakespearean actress Ellen Terry. Shaw took several photographs of her and corresponded with her for many years. She also gave a young Ethel Barrymore a letter of introduction to Shaw. Here is a description from Gertrude Kittredge Eaton, in her Reminiscences Of St. Paul's School: "Mrs. Fairchild had at one time what might be called a salon, in Boston. She knew all the interesting people of the day. She was one of the first to appreciate Walt Whitman. John Singer Sargent was a great friend, and painted many pictures of Sally, who had lovely red hair. Red hair fascinated Sargent. She was an early admirer of Robert Louis Stevenson. When her husband went abroad one year, she told him to look up young Stevenson and have Sargent paint his portrait, which he did. Stevenson stayed with the Fairchilds in Boston, and Gordon remembered sitting on the foot of his bed while Stevenson told him stories. There are many letters to the Fairchilds in the collected letters of Stevenson. "
Mary: Mary Ellis, a daughter of Emma Ellis and step-granddaughter of Mrs. Claflin. See Emma Ellis in 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. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Friday, September 20, 1878.
Death of Theodore Herman Jewett (1815-1878)
Sarah Orne Jewett's father.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Theophilus Parsons [21 September, 1878]South Berwick
Saturday*
Dear Prof. Parsons
My dear Father died suddenly yesterday at the mountains. It is an awful blow to me. I know you will ask God to help me bear it. I do not know how I can live without him. It is so hard for us.
Yours lovingly
Sarah
Notes
Saturday: Jewett's father, Theodore Herman Jewett, died on Friday, September 20, 1878.
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, with assistance as noted.
Charlotte Alice Baker and Susan Minot Lane to Sarah Orne Jewett
[ 22 September 1878 ]*
My dear dear girl.
We are here -- and so full of sorrow and sympathy for you -- Do not feel obliged to see us -- We only wanted you to know that our hearts are with you in this saw hour, and would assure you of our true and steadfast love for you -- Words cannot
[ Page 2 ]
help you. -- but are all that earthly friends can do for you now --
Dear dear child may you be comforted --
We know what he was to you personally -- not what he was but what he is & will be, though passed beyond the reach of your loving embrace -- God comfort you.
C. A. B.
[ Up the right margin of page 2 ]
& S. M. L.
Notes
1878: Almost certainly, this letter and the accompanying note were written within days after the death of Jewett's father, Theodore Herman Jewett, on 20 September 1878. See Theodore Herman Jewett in Key to Correspondents. Jewett's letter to Baker of 23 September indicates that Baker came to the funeral and that Baker probably hurriedly wrote her note at that time and left it before she departed. The handwriting in this note appears hurried.
Items in the folder with this letter include the following.
1. a printed card, with the name Miss Susan M. Lane.
Penciled on the card above this name: Miss Sarah Jewett.
Penciled on the card below the printed name: + C A B.
2. an envelope with this text penciled: Mifs Sarah -- O. Jewett.
3. A page with the following text.
[ Dear ? ] Sarah
Miss Mary Barrell wanted us to say "all that would express to you their sympathy for you" and Mrs. Dwight wished her name added.
Item 1 seems pretty clearly connected with the letter, identifying the authors who have signed the note with initials. For Lane, see Baker in Key to Correspondents.
The envelope may or may not be associated with the other items, but it seems likely it belongs with the Baker and Lane note.
The additional page is unsigned, though it probably it comes from Elizabeth Barrell, and also refers to the death of Theodore Herman Jewett, expressing sympathy on behalf of the Barrell sisters and Mrs. Dwight. For Elizabeth and Mary Barrell, see Key to Correspondents. Mrs. Dwight has not yet been identified.
These manuscript materials are held by the Houghton Library of Harvard University, MS Am 1743.1, Sarah Orne Jewett additional correspondence I, Letters to Sarah Orne Jewett, Identifier: (6) Box 1. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Charlotte Alice Baker
Monday
[ 23 September 1878 ]
Dear Miss Baker*
I just want to say a word to you -- for I was so sorry I did not ask you to come right here to the house or to stay at the old house and get rested and make yourself comfortable. You could have done so while we were gone to the burying ground if you had not
[ Page 2 ]
cared to stay later. But I know you will forgive any thoughtlessness on my part yesterday. We were all so touched by your coming to us yesterday and Mother especially and it was a great comfort to all to see you, for you were so kind and so sorry -- There is so much to make me glad and proud and
[ Page 3 ]
happy when I think of my dear father and we are no less together now he has gone out of my sight --
Yours affly Sarah.
Notes
1878: Almost certainly this letter was composed the Monday after Theodore Herman Jewett's death on 20 September 1878.
Baker: That this is Charlotte Alice Baker is not absolutely certain, but she is the only Jewett acquaintance named "Baker" with whom Jewett seems likely to have corresponded in the 1870s.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Small Library, University of Virginia, Special Collections MSS 6218, Sarah Orne Jewett Papers. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Edwin Eastman to Abby O. Eastman
So. Berwick Monday morn.Notes
[ September 23, 1878 ]
Dear Mother,
This morning brings us back to real life again. For the past three days I have passed through the hardest, saddest experience I have ever met for it seemed as if I was doing for a father, for the doctor has been so kind and interested in us ever since we have been here, even before I became at all connected with the family. They are all pretty well this morning. Mrs. Jewett has met her affliction very bravely. You can sympathize with her, mother, for you to [ so spelled ] have had a similar; and I can realize
[ Page 2 ]
your's [ so spelled ] more fully than ever before, how great it was.
And the poor girls, how I pity them, and, in my experience, I have never known a family which so worshiped their father as they did. They too have been very brave and thoughtful. With all your good opinion of them, you cannot appreciate them ^fully^ until you know them better. I have a treasure in Carrie, she is so kind and affectionate. I do not know what arrangements the family will make, but I think we shall be married pretty soon. It will be very quiet, only the family. I have not time to write more this morning but will write you again right away. with all love
from Ed.
1878: The Columbia identification page gives this date, which agrees with the content concerning the recent death of Dr. Theodore Herman Jewett on 20 September 1878. In that year, 23 September fell on a Monday.
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 George Lothrop Lewis
Tuesday [ evening or morning ? ]
[ 24 September 1878 ]*
[ Begin letterhead ]
South Berwick.
Maine.
[ End letterhead ]
Dear Dr Lewis
I remembered two things after you were here! -- My father was surgeon of the Board of [ Enrolment so spelled ] for the First District -- and also he was for some time President of the State Medical Society.
I do not know (upon reflection) whether these details should fall to you or to Professor
[ Page 2 ]
Chapman, but you can decide the matter.
And pray believe that I do not lay stress upon any of my suggestions, but trust entirely to your saying the right and best thing when the moment comes -- my father's delightful sense of humour as we remember it, would forbid our being anxious in such a case!
In haste
yours always affectionately
S. O. Jewett
Notes
1878: Various notes have been penciled in another hand at the top of page 1, identifying Rev. Lewis and speculating about the date. "the Board of Enrolment" is underlined in pencil as well.
This letter seems fairly clearly to concern funeral arrangements for Jewett's father, Theodore Herman Jewett, who died on Friday 20 September 1878. It is highly probable that this letter was composed the following Tuesday.
Professor Chapman: Henry Leland Chapman (1845-1913) taught Latin, Rhetoric, and English Literature at Bowdoin College, Brunswick, ME.
The manuscript of this letter held by the Miller Library Special Collections at Colby College, Waterville, ME. JEWE.1. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Harriet Waters Preston to Sarah Orne Jewett
2395 Washington St Roxbury
Oct 3d 1878
Your letter has just come, dear, and I sit down with it still open in my hand to write you one word of love just as I wd speak if you were here.
How well I know what you mean when you say -- "it was hard to begin writing, and it is hard to stop." And the feeling of sacred reluctance gains on one. It is growing very hard now for me to speak
[ Page 2 ]
of my dear love, but to you, in your sorrow* I can still do it.
Yes -- the words of praise are sweet ever so many who never praised them in life say of those who are gone away, -- but they are bitter too --- sweet sad, ineffectual words, like [ wan ? ] flower-petals falling on the [ ground ? ]. I know just how they are showering about you now, for your dear father had the privilege
[ Page 4 ]
of ministering to so many whose hearts must now be pierced by their late gratitude. Do you know I cannot myself help thinking of him as a personal friend? I saw him only twice for a few minutes, but his very beautiful face seemed wholly familiar to me. I understand as if from early association the bright, brave, [ humorous ? ] tender soul -- I knew that we shd quickly have known each other {.} Perhaps it may yet be. Oh how can
[ Page 5 ]
one think of the society of the departed without a throb of almost intolerable longing --
I can see plainly -- how in some respects your loss falls much more heavily than mine. I was both awed and soothed in the beginning by the feeling that it was nature's own tranquil and gracious end to wh my dear one came -- Great, sad, pagan words especially those of Marcus Aurelius* came oftenest to my mind -- "Depart then
[ Page 3 ]
satisfied -- for he also who releases thee is satisfied" -- Gently -- and yet powerfully they constrained me to acquiescence.
But you must remember sometimes how even I had so many more years of the love [ whi or like ] nothing can replace, than you and then, with your mothers illness, I can see that unguessed cares will fall upon you
[ Page 4 ]
and daily life will be complicated and made hard and weariful.
But after all it is good, and seems a work of Divine grace to him, that your father shd have gone at the time of his great climacteric, when decay was yet a long way off -- before the leaves had begun to wither or the shadows perceptibly to lengthen -- in [ some still ? ] fresh, vernal semblance of early Autumn as now transfigures all the outer world.
God bless you, my love, and sustain you. I will certainly give your message to Mrs Goddard,* and write as today, when my heart is full, and that will not be seldom{.} Always yours
H W. P.
Notes
sorrow: Jewett's father, Theodore Herman Jewett died on 20 September 1878.
Aurelius: Roman emperor and stoic philosopher, Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (121-180). Preston quotes from his Meditations 12.36.
Goddard: Martha LeBaron Goddard (1829-1888) was the compiler, along with Harriet Waters Preston, of Sea and Shore: A Collection of Poems (1874).
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 184. I. Letters to Sarah Orne Jewett.
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Katherine de Costa Birckhead to Sarah Orne Jewett
Newport. Oct 8th 1878.*
My dear Sally --
Thank you for yr. letter -- but you must not think of answering mine. Unless you feel like talking to me -- I know how hard it is -- & I shall not expect it -- but will write you, as you say you like to hear fr. me --
[ Page 2 ]
Yes, Alice* told me all the sad story -- & I am so glad you saw her -- I too know well what a comforter she is -- what a fearful shock -- I cannot dwell on it -- May strength be given you and to all ys. poor little sister -- it will be pitiful indeed! How strange it seems
[ Page 3 ]
[ she ? ] shld have put it off till now! But -- God knows best ----
Dear Sarah -- I am very sure this great sorrow will be blessed to you for I see that God is very near you through it all -- & what comforts like that?
If you were here
[ Page 4 ]
today we wd. go [ unrecognized word ] by the sea & you wd. tell me all that is in yr. heart, & I too wd. perhaps be lifted up, & my faith be strengthened -- [ Yes ? ], let us pray for each other dear Sally -- that we may both be "good" -- but I need the asking far more than you -- [ Good by ? ]
[ Up the left margin of page 1 ]
now -- & again thank you
[ Up the left margin of page 2 ]
for sending me that sweet
[ Up the right margin of page 2 ]letter -- yrs affecly Kate B --
Notes
1878: Almost certainly, the occasion of this letter is the death of Jewett's father on 20 September 1878. While the signature is not definitive, almost certainly this letter's author is Birckhead, the Kate B. from Newport best known to Jewett in the 1870s.
Alice: This could be Alice Drummond Walworth, sister of Jewett's close friend, Ella Walworth Little, but that is far from certain. See Key to Correspondents.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library of Harvard University: Sarah Orne Jewett Correspondence I, Letters to Sarah Orne Jewett. bMS Am 1743 (7).
This transcription is from a photocopy held by the Maine Women Writer's Collection, University of New England Box 2, Folder 99, Burton Trafton Jewett Research Collection.
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Anna Laurens Dawes
14 Oct 1878Dear Anna
I send with this your pin which I am afraid you must have needed but it was put away in my desk and quite forgotten. I was very glad to see your father the other day at Parker's* and to hear that you were feeling better. I knew the air at York and the rest would do you good.
Thank you so much for your kind note of sympathy. Father's death was indeed a most terrible shock to me and I feel the effect of it more now than I have at all. My sister Carrie is to be married next Monday1 and that gives us a good deal to do and to think of which is perhaps the best thing. I will write you when I can but somehow today I am not in the mood -- but I wanted to thank you for your kindness if I couldn't do any more.
Yours always affly
Hollis's Note
1 Caroline Jewett married Edwin C. Eastman of Berwick as indicated.
Additional Notes
Parker's: In her memoir, Under the Old Elms (1895) Mrs. Claflin mentions, among visitors to her home, Dr. Peter Parker (1804-1888), an eminent Physician and Presbyterian missionary to China, among his many accomplishments (p. 90). In 1878, he was living in Washington, DC, with his wife, Harriet Colby Webster, and their son, Peter, Jr. (b. 1859). Parker was a regent for the Smithsonian Institution. It is not certain, however, that this is the Parker family to which Jewett refers.
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.
21 October 1878
Marriage of Caroline Augusta Jewett to Edwin Eastman
South Berwick, Maine
Sarah Orne Jewett to John Greenleaf Whittier
November 4, 1878My dear Mr. Whittier:
I send you a copy of my new book -- Play Days and I hope you will like it a little. Some of the stories were written a long time ago.1 You were so kind in liking Deephaven and I have never forgotten the pleasure you gave me.
I have had a great sorrow lately in the death of my father,2 and as I write to you I cannot help remembering how I hoped always that you could come to us for a little visit, for I was so sure you would like driving about Berwick and father would have been so happy to have you here. And I know you would have enjoyed him, for everyone did who knew him. I miss him terribly, and most of all when I think of going on with my writing by and by.3
Yours sincerely,
Sarah O. Jewett
Notes
1. Play Days, published by Houghton, Osgood & Co. in 1878, comprised one poem and fifteen short stories for children, collected mostly from St. Nicholas and the Independent from as far back as 1871. [ Her novel, Deephaven, appeared in 1877. ]
2. Dr. Jewett died on September 20, 1878. He secured his M.D. at Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia. A graduate of Bowdoin College, he served for a time as professor of obstetrics there.
3. The first two poems in Miss Jewett’s Verses, printed posthumously in 1916, are addressed to her father, poignant recollections of his footfall breaking the silence of “the quiet house,” and the sharper loneliness of a new spring now that he was no longer here. She was slow in recovering from grief. She published nothing in 1878 after June and only five items in 1879, far below the average of her subsequent output.
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.
Elizabeth (Lily )Nelson Fairchild to Sarah Orne Jewett
Belmont, Oct. 26
[ 1878 ]*
My dear Friend,
Charles has just brought home a couple of "Play-days" and I don't want to let an hour pafs without writing to tell you how much pleasure I have in pofsessing it, and how much I anticipate for the children when it ^shall be^ given to them by and by. We oldsters keep the book stingily at first, and then when the children have it in [ their ? ] keep
[ Page 2 ]
borrowing it of them!
Many of the stories, -- no, some of the stories, I have already read in magazines. I am so glad to see them again and to make the new friends too. As for the "Water Dolly" how glad I am that she leads the van! She is the dearest dolly ever child had. And I must say a word about the cover, which I know you designed. Ah, dear Mifs Jewett! I think, with
[ Page 3 ]
a sigh of envy -- I cannot help it -- of your many gifts. Nature has been more than prodigal to you.
But, dear child, your little book has been a sad sight to me when I remember that the eyes you would most want to have rest on it are closed,* and the dear voice of praise and sympathy silent now. I think I know how empty the rest must sound to you. I care enough about you to know.
[ Page 4 ]
We are going in town next Tuesday. Will you not come to see us there when you are in Boston and have an hour to spare? -- and will you not now and then write me a little letter and let me feel a part -- a very little part! -- of the brightness and beauty I admire so much? --
affectionately yrs.Notes
[ Lily N. ? ] Fairchild
1878: Jewett's collection of stories for children, Play Days, appeared in 1878.
For information about Fairchild, see Sally Fairchild in Key to Correspondents.
With this letter is an envelope addressed to "Mifs" Sarah O. Jewett, in South Berwick Me, cancelled on 28 October in Belmont, MA.
closed: Fairchild refers to the recent death of Jewett's father, Theodore Herman Jewett, on 20 September 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.
Fairchild, [Mrs. Charles] 1 letter; [n.d.]. (63).
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 Theophilus Parsons
South Berwick
12 Nov. 1878
Dear Prof. Parsons
I was very glad to get your letter and to hear what you had to say about the book. And I certainly agree with you when you say I ought to do something better. If all goes right this winter I shall write a new book and I mean it shall be the very best I can do. I think I can write a story for girls that may help a good many who have thought and felt as I have in the last few years.* I don't say this with too much self-confidence or boastfulness -- it is only that I am sure I ought to do such a thing -- if I can.
As for Playdays* -- Mr. Osgood* wished to bring out something of mine this fall and I hesitated between a collection of grown-up stories and this. People have always seemed to like these and I have been urged a great many times to put them together. At any rate I think -- though they don't take any high flights of fancy or eloquence -- they have nothing in them to do children harm. I meant there should not be and I tried to make them stories of everyday life and possible things! Some of them I wrote years ago and all of them have been printed before. I have always remembered with so much pleasure that you liked one of them: "Patty's dull Christmas."*
I sometimes dread the winter here very much -- not only from the loneliness which I suppose I should feel just the same everywhere -- but because I am so apt to be ill in winter. I do not mean to leave home for any length of time if I can help it. My youngest sister has just been married* and that leaves only three of us at home now. I wish I could see you and talk about my plans for writing, but I think I may be in town in December. You do not know how glad I am to hear anything you will say to me. You have taught me so much already. I think of you very often and I am always yours most gratefully and affectionately
Sarah O. Jewett
Notes
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).
Playdays: Play Days, Jewett's collection of children's fiction, appeared in 1878.
Mr. Osgood: James Ripley Osgood. See Key to Correspondents.
"Patty's dull Christmas": This story appeared in The Independent (27:25-27), December 23, 1875.
married: Caroline Jewett became Mrs. Edwin Eastman on 21 October, 1878.
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 Jewett Eastman to Abbey O. Eastman
[ 17 November1878 ]*
Sunday afternoon
Dear Mrs. Eastman
It was so kind of you to write me such a beautiful letter. You don't know how very much I appreciate it. Edwin said he wrote you about our Thanksgiving.
I told him I hate to refuse again your invitation for I am afraid you will think we don't want to go.
But I suppose he told you, we had already
[ Page 2 ]
planned for mother to come up here* -- for it would be so very hard for her to stay at home, and then Edwin seems very anxious for you to come to his house!
We want you to see our house, for we are very proud of it and hope you will like it. I have a good many things more to do, but am going to take my time about them.
[ Page 3 ]We are both very well indeed and I think house-keeping agrees with both of us!
We went to church this morning, and are going down to Mothers to tea as we do every Sunday night.
They all seem to enjoy coming up to see me, and I am sure I do to have them. Friday, Mother & Grandpa* took dinner with us. It seemed so queer for me to be at the head
[ Page 4 ]
of a house and have Grandpa come to see me. I am not going to tell much about the house, but let you wait & see how you like it yourself, for you will certainly come down and make us a visit, won't you?
[Ned ?] sends ever so much love. And please keep a good share
from your daughter
Carrie
Notes
1878: The Columbia identification page indicates that an envelope with this letter carries a November 18 cancellation. As Caroline says nothing about her son, this letter must have been written in the November following her marriage to Edwin (Ned) Eastman. November 18 fell on a Monday that year, making 17 November the probable composition date.
up here: In Sarah Orne Jewett, Paula Blanchard reports that the Eastmans took their first residence a few doors away from the Jewett-Eastman house, where the family lived until William Durham Jewett's death in 1887, when Mary Rice and Sarah Orne Jewett moved into the Jewett house with their mother, and Caroline's family moved into the Jewett-Eastman house.
Grandpa: Dr. William Perry. 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 Daniel Sharp Ford* "Perry Mason"
South Berwick Maine
Nov. 27 1878
My dear Sir
Thank you for your kind letter which I received this morning -- I should like to be numbered among your contributors and I am quite willing you should use my name in that way --
And I will send you some sketches by and bye, though I have to confess that I have not always kept my promise so well as I meant to keep it -- about stories -- I haven't written a great deal lately --
-- However I think just now
[ Page 2 ]
I thinkof a sketch that I wrote not long ago of sea-shore life. It was to be one of several for a magazine article, and I think it possible that you may find it of use -- I will look for it [ deleted words ] ^within a day or two^, and send it to you.
[ As corrected ] for the pay for anything of mine which you print = I would rather you should arrange all that --
I suppose it is a little unnecessary to send one's good wishes to the Companion [ since corrected ] it has, and deserves, so many friends, but I do so most heartily -- And I am yrs sincerely
Sarah O. Jewett
Mr. Mason --
Notes
Ford: Encyclopedia.com indicates that in 1857 Daniel Sharp Ford (1822-1899) became part owner of The Youth's Companion. His obituary (New York Times 24 December 1899) summarizes his career as an ambitious but modest editor and publisher of religious newspapers, mainly the Companion. The Times also recounts his invention of the name Perry Mason for his publishing firm, the name by which he was known to its readers. His Find a Grave Memorial includes an extended biographical sketch.
Jewett did not place any known writing with the Companion until "The News from Petersham" in April 1884. She published "A Bit of Shore Life" in Atlantic Monthly in 1879; though this fits the description she gives, it is not certain that this is the sketch to which she refers.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the University of New England Maine Women Writers Collection, Sarah Orne Jewett Correspondence Box 2 Folder 132
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to "Aunty" (fragment)
South Berwick
4 Dec. 1878*
My Dear Aunty
I am dreadfully sorry to see the snow today! I am just beginning to feel like taking some long walks and rides and I am afraid this will put an end to both.
[ Unfinished; no signature ]
Notes
1878: This small fragment of the beginning of a letter was not completed or mailed. After the text, Jewett has made a number of doodles, but the last half of the page is blank. Which aunt she addresses is not yet known.
The manuscript of this fragment is held by the Houghton Library of Harvard University, Cambridge, MA. bMS Am 1743 Box 7, Item 279.
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Lillian Munger
[Dec. 8, 1878]*
"I think that in the beginning of one's Christian life the question of one's personal salvation from sin is apt to be the whole of religion, but as we go on we care more for the people we are with and are more and more sorry for them if they seem to be wasting their lives and going wrong. Life is best when we lose sight of ourselves in trying to help others..." " ...to tell the truth I puzzle myself very little about things that trouble me and that I dont understand. I think one is sure to grow up to them sooner or later."
"I have felt very sad lately -- life is very different with me from what it used to be for I miss Father* so much and the home seems so changed. I find it very hard sometimes to keep myself from growing very dismal, but I do not mean to be that. I am glad that I am better than I was a month ago for I am busy writing now and that makes me much more contented. My life has been singularly free from care and sorrow but I remember when I left Washington last spring I had a strange feeling that I had done with that merry life, and as if my girlhood, which had lasted late, was all over with."
[Pinny]
Notes
1878: This transcription contains a note: [Dec. 8, 1878. SOJ, South Berwick, to Lilian Munger, Sidney, Me. Admonition]. The text seems to be selections from a longer letter, which would seem to account for the quotation marks and ellipses. The signature raises questions because this is the only time Jewett's nickname, "Pinny," appears outside of the personal correspondence between Jewett and Annie Adams Fields.
Father: Jewett's father, Theodore Herman Jewett, died on 20 September 1878. See Key to Correspondents.
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.
Edited by Terry Heller, Coe College.
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