Jewett Texts

Sarah Orne Jewett Letters of 1879

Sarah Orne Jewett to Mr. Squires

South Berwick, Maine

4 Jan. 1879

My Dear Mr. Squires:*

I beg your pardon for any delay in answering your note. I have been away from home and [ as corrected ] I ^was^ expected to return every day, my letters were not forwarded to me.

I am very glad little Deephaven* has found friends in your club, and I thank you heartily for the kind interest which led you to ask me for a bit of my writing to put with the book.

Yours sincerely

Sarah O. Jewett

Notes

Squires: The recipient of this letter has not been identified.

Deephaven: Jewett's first novel, published in 1877.

With this letter, Jewett enclosed a handwritten and signed copy of her poem, "Missing," which later appeared in Harper's Magazine (64: 499) in March 1882. This text varies in punctuation from the published text. Pallmen are pall bearers.

Missing

You walked beside me quick and free
With lingering touch you grasped my hand.
Your eyes looked laughingly in mine,
And now – I can not understand!

I long for you, I mourn for you,
Through all the dark and lonely hours.
Heavy the weight the pallmen lift,
And cover silently with flowers.

Sarah Orne Jewett

These manuscripts are held by the Chicago Historical Museum, Small Manuscripts collections: MSS Alpha Jewett.

Sarah Orne Jewett to William Perry (fragment)

South Berwick

13 February 1879

Dear Grandpa

I should have written you sooner but I have been afflicted with rheumatism since I came home, and yesterday was the first day I felt much like writing and then I went to work on a story -- I got [ deletion ] from Uncle John,* the other day and I was so much interested in the articles which he spoke about in his letter to you! It shows a wonderful amount of research and I think it is a great pity he shouldn't rewrite it or rather rearrange it for some magazine of course{.}

[ Ends here. No signature. ]

Notes

Uncle John: John T. Perry. See Sarah Chandler Perry, Key to Correspondents.

The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library of Harvard University, Cambridge, MA. bMS Am 1743 Box 6, Item 273.
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.

Sarah Orne Jewett to Charlotte Alice Baker

3 March 1879

Dear Miss Baker

Thank you so much for the flowers which perfectly delighted me. I wish you could have seen the roses in a vase which I think was made for them -- They were all so lovely, and I enjoyed handling them, and looking at them, and smelling them, and having them more than I can tell you. And they were all flowers that I like

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dearly. It was very kind of you -- I have been off for a long drive today [up corrected ] into the Agamenticus region* and round into the upper part of York & home across the hills which you will remember. I dont know that I ever had a better 'sleigh ride' only for one thing: "The General"* kicked up a bit of ice which struck

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me in the eye and I find it doesn't feel very well this evening -- I got your note and the paper* [in written over by ?] the seven o'clock mail, and it would have been better if I had answered it then but I was in the midst of a book I wanted to finish, and now my eye seems to be finished too! so I shall have to say goodnight.

I had a very long letter

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from A. Dawes* lately but I haven't had a chance to answer it, though she will be at home at once now -- I suppose -- I wish you & Miss Lane* had been here tonight. My mother and I have just finished our little late supper of ale & biscuits, and the moon shines in & the fire isnt out in the fire place though it is late. We are alone now as my sisters are away --

Good night again & God bless you.

Yours most affly

S.O.J.

Notes

Baker: That this is Charlotte Alice Baker is not certain, though she seems to be the only person named "Baker" with whom Jewett corresponded in the 1870s. The mention of "Miss Lane" (Susan Minot Lane) supports this speculation.

Agamenticus region: The town of South Berwick, ME stands near Mt. Agamenticus, the highest point in York County, ME.

"The General": Jewett seems to have put this name in quotation marks, but this is not certain. This is a Jewett family horse, but no further information as yet known about this animal.

the paper: While there is no clear evidence to identify this paper, it is the case that in 1879, Baker published “Historical Sketch of Christina Otis” in History and Proceedings of the Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association, Volume 1, pp. 445-467.

A. Dawes: Anna Dawes. See Key to Correspondents.

Miss Lane: Susan Minot Lane. See Charlotte Alice Baker in Key to Correspondents.

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.

Sarah Orne Jewett to Lillian May Munger

8 March 1879

My dear Lily

I wrote, after some time had passed, to Miss Rounds* and I told her something of what I have learned myself about writing. When I see you I'll tell you more about it ^ (what I said --)^. Her chief fault is that she is young! -- I remember I used to feel very much injured if any body said that to me, but I see now plainly enough that one must have more personal experience of the world than [we ?] can have at sixteen, before one can do much that is really good in the way of writing -- [But corrected ] it is

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none the less dependent upon hard work and patience, though one has a "gift" for it -- I was glad to get your last letter and meant to answer it soon, but you must take the will for the deed. I have written more or less this winter and I have been away once for three weeks ^at Exeter^ & once for a shorter time at Portsmouth. I have had a good many letters to write as you may imagine, and I have tried very [deleted word] hard to keep well so I could stay here through the winter -- One of my friends in Washington* will not give me up and keeps insisting that

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I must come there! -- and I should like it very much on some accounts. I am glad that I gave up going to Florida though I would have enjoyed it very much. They seem glad to have me at home and I have been glad to be here -- I am going to Boston for a little while soon but I think there is no doubt that I shall be here when you come this way. And I shall be so glad to see you dear -- You must spend part of your time with me, you know -- I will only send you a note today -- and it will be "more love than letter" at that! Give my kindest regards to your mother and to Annie* & all --

Yours always S. O. J.

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Write to me soon, wont you dear?

Notes

Miss Rounds: This person has not been identified.

friends in Washington: Among Jewett's friends sometimes in Washington, D.C. were Mary Bucklin Davenport Claflin and Anna Laurens Dawes. Jewett spent part of early 1878 in the capital. See Key to Correspondents.

Annie: Munger's older sister. See Munger in Key to Correspondents.

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 Millbury, MA. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.

Sarah Orne Jewett to Lillian May Munger

South Berwick
1 May 1879

My dear Lily

I was very glad to get your letter and as I read it I wondered if you knew how different you are from the girl I first knew you! [so written] It is just the change I hoped and believed would come in time, but my dear child do not you find that the horizon widens as you go on and that there are troubles and temptations as great and even greater than ever? It is God's law of growth -- we cannot get beyond these perplexities and disappointments

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and anxieties ----- We climb higher, and we see more joys, and more miseries -- -- -- This is all very general on my part, and now I wish to be very particular. In the first place, dear, I beg you to remember your promise to me, not to overtax your self and not to forget that you must "hasten slowly" -- It would be very hard for you just now to have to take some long months of enforced idleness, and you know you are not strong, and you have been steadily at work for a long time. So these

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new cares and interests will take the greater hold on you -- when you work very hard now you are using your capital and that one always has to feel the loss of most keenly in the end. I know it to my cost and so do you. And with your mother so delicate, you must remember that you ought to take great care not to go home nervous and [ sick ? ] to worry her. You may think I am speaking far too strongly to you but I could see that you were very tired in Boston and that you felt the

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reaction a good deal. Won't you try, dear, to rest all you can and to take things easily, and to remember that even before gaining a good record as a teacher you ought to make sure of keeping as well as you can.

I am very happy when I think of you with your scholars, and of your new, sweet, helpful interest in them -- of your wish to come close to them -- and I look ahead to your useful loving life, for you know what it is to fight hard with self and will have the [instruction ?]

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sympathy and tenderness, for those who make mistakes and who are in the dark and who need real friendship so much, which I think every teacher ought to have.

As for your going to Wilmington I should advise you decidedly no! There is to some people a certain glory in going far from home -- but I fear you would find the climate anything but invigorating and your own position not half so pleasant as it would be in New England. And you would not find such friends

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there as you will find here. I do not think you would be able to do so much for others, or that others would help you so much in any way as here. You dont know how great a difference there is between North and South. And if I were you I should like to keep somewhere near my mother -- Wilmington is a good way off. -- And then if you were dissatisfied after a time and wished to return to this part of the country you would

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have to begin all over again here -- dont you see? -----

Now don't be discouraged at the sight of so much good advice. I do truly give it from my heart and from the best knowledge I have -- I am so anxious that nothing may come your way to hinder you . -- ---

I have been at home a day or two over a week and the last of my visit in Boston was very pleasant -- but I caught cold and have been sick since I came back. I am beginning

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to feel better however and as soon as it is less damp I shall be all right. I have a good deal of work planned out this summer -- in the way of writing. -- I had a sweet little note from your Annie* acknowledging a little Easter card that I sent her. Give my love to her and to your mother when you write --

Goodbye dear and God bless you always -- and your work, and and [repeated] your play, and I hope you will take all you can of that!

Yrs. sincerely affly

S.O.J.

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I hope you liked Mr. Brooks* at Easter. I heard of you then through Mrs. Halliburton,* but I failed to see you myself. --

Notes

Annie: Munger's older sister. See Munger in Key to Correspondents.

Mr. Brooks: Phillips Brooks. See Key to Correspondents.

Mrs. Halliburton: Georgina Halliburton. See Key to Correspondents.

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.

Sarah Orne Jewett to Adams Davenport Claflin

South Berwick
10 May 1879

My dear Adams

I did not answer your letter sooner because every day I have been expecting these photographs to come from Boston and I wished to send you one. I hope you will like it. I think people usually think them good. I am glad to have some at last, for I have been promising to many of my friends for so long. I have not got all the pictures yet. The trouble about going to the fashionable photographer

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is that he keeps you waiting.

I was so glad to get your nice long letter and to hear something about you my dear fellow, but I am so sorry you have not been well. I wish indeed that I could have been with you in Florida. I often thought of you and when I see you I shall ask you no end of questions. I certainly hope to see you here this summer if all goes right, but I cant promise you much in the way of hunting. Poor Mr. Eastman* is usually doomed

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to disappointment, but he takes it very kindly for he likes to be off in the woods ^if he doesnt shoot much^. I had a capital ride yesterday, about fifteen miles, and at least ten were through the woods. I took John,* our man, with me and we explored cart paths to my hearts content and waded brooks to "Sheila's"* heart's sorrow -- The season is very late with us. The buds are just starting on the trees and we are in the midst of the mayflower season. While I suppose you are far on your way to the golden rods and

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asters! Wont you be glad to get home again! I wish you had been there while I was in Boston. I was in Cambridge and Newport and Boston a month or more and I had a very nice time. I think I never enjoyed being with my friends more. Do tell me a little about your mother and Mary Davenport.* I haven't heard a word from them all winter, and if it weren't for the newspapers I should be in a great puzzle. I happened to take up a Sunday Herald a while ago which gave Mary great compliments. I meant to send her those particulars but I didn't. I am

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going out now and must say good bye to you. Thank you so much for your letter. I think of you so often Addie and you know I am always yours most lovingly

Sarah

Mary* wishes to be remembered to you.

Notes

Mr. Eastman: Edwin Eastman, husband of Jewett's sister Caroline Augusta Jewett. See Key to Correspondents.

John: John Tucker. See Key to Correspondents.

Sheila: Jewett's horse.

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, Mary Agnes, by this name, to distinguish her from her step-grandmother. Presumably something has appeared in the Boston Sunday Herald about Mary Davenport, but this article has not been located.

Mary: Mary Rice Jewett. See Key to Correspondents.

The manuscript of this letter is held by Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Center in the Governor William and Mary Claflin Papers, GA-9, Box 4, Miscellaneous Folder J. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.

Carrie: Carrie Jewett Eastman. She was due to give birth to her son, Theodore, on 4 August. See Key to Correspondents.

Mary: The identity of this Mary remains uncertain, but seems likely that she is Mary Davenport, the daughter of Emma Harding Claflin Ellis. See Key to Correspondents.

Addie: Mary Claflin's son and Mrs. Ellis's half-brother, Adams Davenport Claflin (1862-1910).

Freeland: Almost certainly this is Freeland Jewett (1865-1937). See Annie Freeland Jewett in Key to Correspondents

I beg pardon for not having answered your letter sooner, but I have written very few letters as I had to be busy with some stories & we have had people staying here and I have been on the fly a good deal of the time. And first I must tell you that I am afraid I cannot go to you this fall -- much as I would like it -- there are one or two short visits I must make before cold weather but I shall be away from home as little as possible -- both because I think I ought to be here and because I wish to write. You know how it is: if I go to you, I must make a dozen other visits, and then the next three months will be gone before I know it. I think I shall go to Newport again for a few days this month for I shall not see my friend whom I am to visit for a very long time if I do not -- as she lives very far south.* I promised her a little visit early in the summer -- and I hate to refuse when my friends ask me to come to them -- in the first place I am too selfish to be willing to give up the good times and then I am sorry to disappoint people whom I am fond of. And I have been away so often that I really at one time fell into a confirmed habit of visiting!

I should like to have you here now to go out riding with me. I enjoy my horse more and more and I have ridden more this summer than ever before. I had her down at York for a week this last month and it was great fun -- I used to go off by myself almost every evening for two hours or so; the York roads are much better for riding than these in Berwick. Do you still like your horse? I got a new phaeton this summer for Sheila* -- a light little gig which she whisks along joyfully. I dont like to make her pull anything heavy for I think it is bad for a saddle horse. I am so glad you liked the stories. I have some new ones almost ready and I am to begin my proofs in a week or two. The other day I found I had written eighty-five pages -- letters and all -- and I came down stairs as late as usual in the morning and did ever so many things beside. Most of it was first writing of course, for I copy much more slowly than that. I believe I have never enjoyed writing more, and after this month I shall have a good deal more time for it. I think there must be twenty or thirty people coming here before cold weather. I tried to count up yesterday and keep thinking of one and another. We had very few here through July and August or rather through July -- on my sister's account. Did you know that I have a nephew?¹ He is a very fine baby but I suppose I shall not be so disinclined to touch him when he is a year older. I like him very much however -- & he is named for my father.

I wonder if you are going to W. this winter?* I don't know whether I should like another glimpse of it or not -- though I always like to think of my winter there or rather my two months. I saw a good deal of Maidie Devens at York* this summer and I have a greater fancy for her than ever. It seems to me there was some one else -- no matter! I had the nicest letter a while ago from Ella Walworth that I ever had in my life (and it ought to be answered too!). Isn't it funny that she and Mrs. Goddard should have been boarding down at Nantucket together? Mrs. Goddard spoke so kindly of Ella and seemed to be delighted with her. I haven't heard from the Horsfords for some time. I promised to go down to Shelter Island but when Lilian wrote me about coming I had to give it up though I hope I shall see them before winter -- I grow fonder and fonder of them all.

I believe John Burleigh goes on worse and worse -- I did honestly try to help that fellow -- but it seemed to be no use at all. -- There are so many things I wish I could say to you -- I hope all goes well with you. I suppose you are as busy as I with visitors and with your 'own affairs' though I wonder when we draw the line between our only & other peoples! It is a puzzle sometimes to me -- but I grow more certain that I cannot write so much as I do and do everything that other girls do beside. Write to me when you can, and I always say from my heart God bless you!