Sarah Orne Jewett Letters of 1880
John Greenleaf Whittier to Mary Bucklin Claflin
Oak Knoll Danvers
4 February 1880
I met E.S.P.* and Sarah Jewett at the Holmes Breakfast.*
Notes
E.S.P.: Elizabeth Stuart Phelps. See Key to Correspondents.
Holmes Breakfast: In Sarah Orne Jewett, Paula Blanchard says that in December 1879, Atlantic Monthly held a breakfast to honor Oliver Wendell Holmes on his 70th birthday (p. 114). Blanchard notes that this was the first occasion on which the magazine invited women authors to join in such a celebration.
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 sentence appears in John B. Pickard, The Letters of John Greenleaf Whittier v. 3, p. 416. Notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Theophilus Parsons
South Berwick 13 February 1880
Dear Prof. Parsons
It isn't because I do not think of you that I do not write, but I have not been at all well since I saw you last. I came home very tired from Boston, and have had the uncommon attack of rheumatism! I was tired before I left home for I wrote altogether too much last year, and my gayeties were too much for me! However I am beginning to feel like myself again and to think a good deal about my next visits. The doctor forbade my reading or writing much, if at all, so the grand plans I made about my new book had to be given up for the time being. I think it is just as well on many accounts, but for some reasons I am sorry for I wished to write the book as soon as possible. Every year alters the point of view from which one sees life and I do not wish to look at girlhood entirely from the outside. I think that was the reason why people liked Deephaven -- it was a book written by a girl, which is perhaps a rarer thing than seems possible at first thought. I am beginning to like it myself in a curious sort of way, for I am not the one who wrote it any longer and in this last year since my father's death, though I have learned many new things I have outgrown a good deal else -- and I suppose this will always be the fashion of life!
It is always very unsatisfactory when I try to write to you -- for I think how much better it would be if I were sitting in the sunshine in your pleasant study and we were talking together. It is listening to you that I like best. But I send you this sheet of paper because it will tell you that I think of you often and often and that I am always your grateful and affectionate
Sarah O. Jewett
Note
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.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Lillian May Munger
[ February 16, 1880 ]*
My dear Lily
I have been wishing I could write you but I have been sick most of the time since Christmas and have had to give up writing just as much as possible. I shall answer your nice long letter as soon as I can for there are a good many things I wish
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to talk about. [Deleted word] And I must thank you for the Valentine which was an exquisitely pretty thing. I think such little remembrances are so pleasant. Keep well dear and write me just as often and as fully as you can for I like to know about you.
Yours always and affly
S.O.J.
South Berwick 16 Feb. 1880.
Notes
February 16, 1880: The envelope associated with this letter is addressed to Tileston Normal School in Wilmington, NC.
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 Henry Mills Alden
South Berwick, Maine
February 19, 1880
My dear Mr. Alden:
I am going to do something which I never did before and which if I had thought about it at all I should have said I could not do, but I wish you would print that sketch.* Of course in a general way an author is always supposed to be in an anxious state to have such a thing happen but I beg you will not believe that I am sensitively confident
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of my rights, -- or that I am begging for the moneyit^my work^ will bring. For I have money enough and I suppose I could get the sketch printed elsewhere -- in fact I am very sure of that. But it is just here: I wish to keep the two together: they have always belonged to each other -- which feeling I am sure you will understand, and I read them at two clubs which united them still more closely -- and though one club was in Portsmouth -- which dear old town is not distinguished as
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being literary! [ deletion, possibly and ] I found to my surprise that almost everybody liked the horse sketch best, people whom I thought (to tell the truth) I might be boring with it. And I don't believe it would be out of place in Harper's -- I have been brought up to read Harper's, and I wouldn't have sent it to you in that case. Though I hesitated at first from knowing that you already had two of my sketches, & though I meant ^at first^ to ask you to send me back The Jacqueminot Rose" and take this instead because it ^is^ so much better -- I dont
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believe I have the usual authorly feeling about what I write. I think* about my sketches very much as I do about other people's. And I wish you would change your mind, for I am pretty sure you would not be sorry for it. I know that at least a hundred people told me how much they liked it, or told others so -- and I think they were a fair sample of your readers. I am glad you like it yourself -- and I thank you for your letter which was very kind -- And I hope I am not annoying you now, but I couldn't help speaking as I have because I believe it so heartily --
Yours sincerely,
Sarah O. Jewett
Notes
1880: It is not clear who underlined the date. Added to the top of page 1 are these notes:
Top right in another hand, "Jewett, Sarah O."
Top left in a hand identified by Cary as Alden's, "I ask to reconsider" followed by initials Cary reads as "HMA." Probably Cary is correct, but the initials are difficult to make out.
sketch: Cary identifies the sketch as "An October Ride," which Jewett later refers to as "the horse sketch." He says:
She had evidently submitted two prose sketches, "The Jacqueminot Rose" and "Miss Daniel Gunn." Alden presently sent the "Rose" back and Miss Jewett seems never to have succeeded in getting it published. When she received the rejected manuscript, she sent Alden a third sketch entitled "An October Ride." This too he declined but printed the "Gunn" story under the title "An Autumn Holiday," Harper's, LXI (October 1880), 683-691; collected in Country By-Ways. Manuscript copies of "The Jacqueminot Rose" are in Harvard's Houghton Library Collection: Sarah Orne Jewett compositions and other papers, MS Am 1743.22, item 52.think: Jewett has superimposed two words here. I am fairly sure they are "think" and "feel." I believe Cary is correct to read her final intention as "think."
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Colby College Special Collections, Waterville, ME: JEWE.1. Richard Cary included his transcription in Sarah Orne Jewett Letters.
New transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Henry Mills Alden
South Berwick, Maine
23 February 1880
Dear Mr. Alden
I send you the sketch,* though I have been thinking that it would be better not, and I must say that you are very good to take so much trouble about it. . . I have been reading it over for I thought I might not remember it exactly, and seeing it now might change the old impression of it. But I must say honestly that I like it still! and I think in some ways it is one of the very best bits of writing I have ever done. There
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is more in it to remember & though there are no 'characters,' it has the spirit of this part of the country. = But the question is, I can see, whether it will give pleasure to a sufficiently large proportion of the people who ^would^ read it.
There is one point in its favour which I never thought of before: and that is, a sketch which has something to say about a girl's "rough-riding" is a little of a novelty in magazine literature. This has at least the virtue of being true, of my horse, the 'farm' and the old parsonage -- which is more than I can
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say for my sketches usually. Isn't it a curious thing that most people who read the two would probably call this made-up, and the one which you already have, drawn from life?
I am afraid I said some odd things in my first letter about my two small audiences, but I meant that I was not trusting ^alone^ to my highly critical friends in Boston -- because what many ofofthose would like would be pretty sure not to be 'popular' -- but the second time I read the sketch, my friends were mostly* people who like to be entertained better than
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to be puzzled -- and I thought both together would be a fair example to judge by -- And I couldn't be 'taken in' by the polite speeches which anybody tried to make to me out of kindness alone! -- But I have made my 'last appearance on any stage' unlike my New York namesake* --
I hope to be in New York for a day or two either just before or just after Easter -- And I should be very glad indeed to see you -- and I hope nothing will happen to prevent it -- I am glad just now that we never have met, for I should be sorry if I ever thought that any personal feeling hindered the sway of justice (which ought to have been
[ Up the left margin and across the top margin of page 1 ]
written with a very big J!) Yours sincerely, S. O. Jewett --
Indeed my heart will not break this time and you must not think of that at any rate!*
[ Page 5 ]*I am so glad that Mrs. Alden likes my stories! I am always forgetting that anyone reads them except the people I know, and it is always a delight and surprise to find a new friend. I hope you will pardon this postscript to my long and unbusiness-like letter --
Notes
sketch: Jewett's "An October Ride" was not published in a magazine; it first appeared in her book, Country By-Ways (1881).
mostly: There is an apparently random mark above the "y" in this word.
namesake: Richard Cary notes:
Sara Jewett (1847-1899 ) was the leading lady of Augustin Daly's Union Square Theatre company. Miss Jewett of South Berwick recounts drolly that upon several occasions during her travels she was mistaken for Miss Jewett of New York, then considered one of the most beautiful women in America. In an ironic extension of the parallel, illness and enforced retirement became the lot of both thespian and literary Jewett. Sara Jewett's last appearance as an actress took place in the spring of 1883.any rate: Cary notes:
Alden's editorial judgment was not swayed by Miss Jewett's eloquence. Although they met soon after the date of this letter and became friends -- he was one of the group that saw her off on her first trip to Europe in the spring of 1882 -- he accepted no more of her sketches for nearly five years. He printed five of her poems, but no prose until "Farmer Finch" in January 1885.Page 5: This note appears alone on a quarter sheet in the Colby College folder of letters to Alden. While it could belong with Jewett's letter of 19 February, Cary places it with this 23 February letter, presumably because it probably is a response to Alden's reply to the 19 February letter.
Also in the same Colby folder with the Alden letters is another note on a separate partial sheet:
Mr. Alden
was right in his first opinion about "Country Byways."
Emphatically, JWH
This note presents several mysteries. "Mr. Alden" may have been written in a different hand from the rest of the note. Transcription of the initials "JWH" is uncertain. If it is correct, who is this person? Of Jewett's correspondents, the one person with these initials is Julia Ward Howe. Because the note is not dated and it lacks context, there is as yet little one can say about its significance. It refers to Jewett's book, not necessarily to "An October Ride"; for this reason it would seem to have only a distant connection with the Jewett-Alden dialogue about "An October Ride."
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Colby College Special Collections, Waterville, ME: JEWE.1. Richard Cary included his transcription in Sarah Orne Jewett Letters.
New transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Mary Bucklin Davenport Claflin
South Berwick*
29 February 1880
Dears Mrs. Claflin
I was so glad to get your letter and I wish to tell you that I fully appreciated your writing such a long one in the long "week before Lent"* -- I am gaining very fast now and begin to feel pretty well again, but it was
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discouraging to be so forlorn for so many weeks and I got almost out of patience. I dont write or read much yet, but I take long drives every pleasant day and that uses up a good deal of time!
I meant to go to Philadelphia this month, but of course I could not, and now it will be getting so
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hot there that I am going to put off my visits until autumn. I hate Philadelphia in Spring.
I am so glad you have had such a pleasant winter. I think my wishes came true! I have thought of you all so many times and I shall be so glad to see you again and to hear 'the particulars' -- I saw that Mrs. Ellis* was with you by the Saturday Evg Gazette* and that
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must have been so pleasant for her and for you -- I am afraid little Mary Davenport* will put on a few airs after so successful a season, but I would n't be long taking them out of her, if I had the opportunity & you might tell her those particulars! Mary* sends you her love and so do I. I am going to Boston as soon as I am well enough -- to stay three or four weeks (or more!) until it is settled weather here. Mrs. Fields* wanted me to spend last week there but I didn't. I saw that you and Mrs. Goddard had been
[ Down from the left margin of page 1 ]
to see Mrs Hayes* together, and I hope you had a pretty time. I am so fond of Mrs. Goddard [deleted word?] Do you think you shall come home early this year? You dont know how much I wish I could see you.
Yours always lovingly
Little Sarah
Notes
South Berwick: all of the pages of this letter are black bordered.
lent: In 1880, Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent in the Christian liturgical calendar, fell on February 11.
Mrs. Ellis: Emma Harding Claflin Ellis. See Key to Correspondents.
Evg Gazette: Which newspaper Jewett was reading for social news about the Claflins is as yet unknown.
Mary Davenport: Possibly the daughter of Emma Ellis and step-granddaughter of Mrs. Claflin, sixteen-year-old Mary Agnes Ellis has been enjoying the legislative term in Washington, DC. See Emma Ellis in Key to Correspondents.
Mary: Mary Rice Jewett. See Key to Correspondents.
Mrs. Fields: Annie Adams Fields. See Key to Correspondents.
This may be the first time Jewett had an invitation to stay with Mrs. Fields.
Mrs. Goddard: Martha LeBaron Goddard (1829-1888) was the compiler, along with Harriet Preston Waters, of Sea and Shore: A Collection of Poems (1874).
Mrs. Hayes: Rutherford B. Hayes (1822-1893) was President of the United States 1877-1881. His wife was Lucy Webb (1831-1889). During his presidency, William Claflin served in the House of Representatives from Massachusetts.
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 Lillian May Munger
Boston 14 Mar 1880*My dear Lily
I am so sorry not to have written you sooner for I have wished so many times to send you a letter. I hope you are better for I am better now, though not well yet, and I am beginning to see the end of my long illness which has certainly been very hard to bear -- I wish very
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much to hear from you again dear child. I hope it is almost time for you to come North. I am to be here a fortnight longer at 34 Union Park.* I have thought of you and of your last letter a great deal and I hope it will not be long before we can have a nice long talk together
Yours alwaysNotes
Sarah
1880: The envelope associated with this letter is cancelled on March 14. The envelope is addressed to Tileston Normal School in Wilmington, NC.
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. 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 Thomas Bailey Aldrich
9 E. 38th St. New York
Thursday -- [ April 1880 ]*
Dear Mr. Aldrich
I enclose the bit of verse -- If you dont like it, will you send it to me at 85 Chase St. Baltimore next week? -- but I may have frozen to death in the meantime; if this weather lasts!
Yours sincerely,
Sarah O. Jewett
Notes
April 1880: This guess is based upon Jewett addressing the letter to Mr. Aldrich, as opposed to the more intimate addresses of later letters, and upon the supposition that Aldrich did like and publish her poem. In a letter of 13 February 1880, Jewett tells Theophilus Parsons that she expects to be in New York just after Easter, which fell on 28 March in 1880.
1880 was the first of only two years during Aldrich's tenure as Atlantic editor, when any of Jewett's poems appeared in Atlantic Monthly. If this supposition is correct, then the poem probably was "Verses for a Letter," published in April. Her poem, "A Caged Bird" appeared in June 1887.
But, of course, if Aldrich did not accept this poem and publish it immediately, this letter could be from any year between 1880 and 1890.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. Thomas Baily Aldrich Papers, 119 letters of Thomas Bailey and Lilian Woodman Aldrich, 1837-1926. MS Am 1429 (117). Transcribed and annotated by Terry Heller, Coe College.
At the bottom left of page one, in another hand, is a circled number: 2689.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Emma Harding Claflin Ellis
34 Union Park*
Wednesday
[In another hand Apr 15, 1880 (or 1885)]*
Dear Mrs. Ellis
I had a letter from Mrs. Claflin* this morning asking me to make her a little visit on & after the 26th and I have just been thinking what I should say! I write [unreadable faint script] to see her, and yet I am not by any means well yet and I am afraid I
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will take very small part in the festivities she suggests.
[Perhaps an unreadable word] I can only promise myself the pleasure conditionally and I am going to do that. If I feel as well on Friday as I do now, I think I shall go out in the train to see you for an hour or two. If you are to be in town that day or especially busy would you please send me a
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line here? I should probably go out early in the afternoon.
Yours always lovingly
Sarah
You wouldn't let my coming interfere with whatever you were going to do you know!
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. See Key to Correspondents.
or 1885: In 1880, April 15 fell on a Thursday. With this letter is an envelope addressed to Mrs. Ellis that was cancelled on April 15, but no year appears in the cancellation. It seems unlikely that Jewett would date her letter a day later than she mailed it. Therefore, this 1880 date is uncertain. The closest year to 1880 on which April 15 falls on Wednesday is 1885. Therefore this letter is placed in both years.
Mrs. Claflin. Mary Bucklin Davenport Claflin. 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 Mr. Parker*
South-Berwick Maine
10 June 1880
Dear Mr Parker
Thank you very much for your note which did not reach me for a day or two, as I stopped at Exeter on my way home from town.
I am much interested in the boat, though I am conscious that a less
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expensive one would "do" --
When I go to Boston again I shall be delighted to confer with you and to [ deleted word ] go adventuring to South Boston --
Yours sincerely
Sarah O. Jewett
Notes
Parker: Mr. Parker has not yet been identified.
The manuscript of this letter is held by Milne Special Collections and Archives, University of New Hampshire Library, Durham, NH, USA: Sarah Orne Jewett Papers, 1849-1909 Series 1: Correspondence, MC 128b1f1.
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Henry Oscar Houghton
South Berwick 12 June
[ 1880 ]*
Dear Mr. Houghton
Mr. Osgood* told me one day when I saw him for a few minutes that some firm in London was going to re-publish Playdays{.}* Will you tell me what firm it is? I meant to ask him more but I forgot it -- I was sorry not to see you the day I went to your office -- I have been ill for a long time
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and hardly went out at all during my long stay in Boston. Will you please tell Mrs. Houghton that I was sorry not to be able to see her that rainy day -- and that I should certainly have returned her kind visit if I had been able to visit at all before I left -- I am still far from strong, but I am getting better at last, and mean to be very quiet and lazy all summer --
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Will you please have a copy of Deephaven and one of Old Friends and New* sent to the enclosed address & charged on my account?
Yours sincerely Sarah O. Jewett
___________________
The Revd P. Hately Waddell*
Glasgow -- Scotland
___________________
Notes
1880: This date is supported by Jewett mentioning two books currently available for her to send to Rev. Waddell. See notes below. As other letters from spring and summer of 1880 indicate, Jewett suffered a long spell of illness that year.
At the top right of page 1, under the return address and date, in blue ink and another hand: "Sarah O. Jewett". To the left of this note are letters in the same hand and ink, perhaps "cas".
Page 3 is rotated 90 degrees left. The following note is written in 3 lines up the margin, bottom left, apparently in the same hand and ink as the notes on page 1: "Sent June 15 -- chg'd -- Miss J. W. H. S." W.H.S. has not yet been identified.
Mr. Osgood: James Ripley Osgood. See Key to Correspondents.
Playdays: Play Days (1878) was Jewett's collection of stories for younger children. According to WorldCat, the book was published in London by W. Mack. This publication apparently was not dated, but it must have been no earlier than 1880.
Deephaven ... Old Friends and New: Jewett's novel, Deephaven (1878) and her first collection of stories for adult readers, Old Friends and New (near the end of 1879).
P. Hately Waddell: Peter Hately Waddell (1817 - 1891) was a Scottish cleric and author. How Jewett made a connection with him is not yet known.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library of Harvard University in Houghton Mifflin Company correspondence and records, 1832-1944, Jewett, Sarah Orne, 1849-1909. 68 letters from; 1870-1907 and [n.d.]. MS Am 1925 (962). Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Lillian May Munger
South Berwick
9 August, 1880*
My dear Lily
I wished to answer your letter sooner, but when it came there were several people staying here and I had just come home myself, from staying three weeks at Rye and the Isles of the Shoals. I am so glad to [tell corrected] you that I am really a good deal better now, though I do not believe I shall be very strong until summer is over. It was not exactly rheumatism that was the matter with me; I was
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entirely used up and at first the trouble was in my head mostly, but afterward it seemed to affect all my joints and I suffered perfect torment of pain and was very stiff and lame. The doctors in Boston said it was all caused by the weakness of the nerves and that the circulation was affected and that I needed entire change and rest &c and I should grow better as I got stronger which proved to be the case. I was really very ill at times, and it has been a pretty long stretch from December
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until now, though sometimes I have been better for awhile. I wish the air at the Shoals was nearer you so could go there for awhile for it is so peculiarly [bracing ?]. I was there with my friend Mrs. Rice* with whom I stayed so long in Boston last winter and we were very happy together. There were a great many Boston people whom I knew, and it was very pleasant.
I hoped, until I knew it was too late that I should see you on your way home{.} I have been anxious about
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you for a good while, and I am so sorry you have been ill for so long. It is certainly an awful trick of New England girls to get used up! I resent it very much however when people say I have written too much, for I believe Miss Alcott* told me the truth the other day when she said "It is not writing: it is trying to write and to do everything else beside!" She has been through a three years siege of it, and I imagine she suffered a good deal. Now Lily dear, let's learn a lesson! We, neither of us are strong; we work
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'on our nerves' much more than with that strength, and people always get shipwrecked who do that. We will let [ something's so written] be crowded out and we shall do the rest our work and play all the better. I grow more and more sure that it is not doing many things, but doing things well; not doing much service but good service. I know it is hard to carry out this theory in every day life,butfor in such lives as yours and mine one sees so many
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things to be done. But one must learn to leave them alone dear -- and I believe it is after all better toberest in one's work than to rest from it! I think it is the feeling of hurry and worry that takes most out of us --
My dear little girl I was very sorry when you told me you wrote me a long letter and then tore it up. Your talks about yourself never bore me and I know what a comfort
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it is to tell some one who is not a looker on about ones troubles, and discouragements -- I am always glad to get your letters, and they are never too long, or too personal. I think I must have told you this before, but you never will forget it after this will you? I pray God to bless you and give you strength in body and soul -- to bless you and make you a blessing, a help and a comfort and
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a pleasure wherever you are -- Please give my love to your mother and remember me to Annie and Daisy* & dont forget that I am your fond and true friend
Sarah O. Jewett
Notes
1880: The envelope associated with this letter is addressed to Kent's Hill, Old Orchard Maine. It appears that "Kent's Hill" has been struck out. Further, the envelope is black bordered, which usually signaled that the writer was in mourning. However, there is as yet no known reason for Jewett using this envelope.
Mrs. Rice: Cora Clark Rice. See Key to Correspondents.
Miss Alcott: American author, Louisa May Alcott (1832-1888). In Sarah Orne Jewett, Paula Blanchard notes that Jewett met Alcott on the Isles of the Shoals, off Portsmouth, NH, in 1880 (pp. 66-7).
Annie and Daisy: Anna and Daisy are Munger's older sisters. 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. The envelope associated with this letter was cancelled on 10 August 1880. In another hand, this date is written on the front: Aug 9, 1880. It is addressed:Kent's Hill, Old Orchard Maine.
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Anna Laurens Dawes
28 Aug 1880My dear Anna
I meant to answer your letter at once though I don’t think “yer desarved it being a wretch,” but I am getting more and more lazy about writing, and since I know the less I do of it the better I have a good excuse for my laziness. I am by no means well yet -- that is I do not feel at all strong and I have to be very careful. I always think that if I could write stories I should amuse myself and get on very well with being ill -- but, as it is! --
I have been out at the Shoals* this summer, and next time you are tired out you must go there. I never had stayed for any length of time before, and the air is magnificent and you feel so sleepy and good natured all the time: that is, I did, and it was a great pleasure! I was at Rye, had a week also with my aunt -- and now I am going to be by the sea again for two or three weeks, and I am glad enough of it.
We had a most charming visit last week (from Wednesday until Saturday) from Mrs. Claflin and Mary Davenport.* I was very glad to see them and particularly glad to see Mary and hear all the news -- which she was delightfully ready to tell. Mrs. C. said you are to be there in September (I think) and if so I hope I shall see you. Thank you very much dear Anna for your kind invitation but I am afraid it will be impossible for me to visit you this fall, though I wish I could see you in your home and on your own ground. I drive a good deal when it is cool enough, but I have not been ready for riding all summer, yet I hope to have some scurries by and bye. Write me when you can -- you made me very jealous when you told me of all you were doing.
Yours most affly
Dont you think one day lately Elinor Norcross* turned up in Berwick and came to dine with me. She was on her way to Mt. Desert with a Miss Pitman, whose grandmother was here. It was very nice to see her again. Please give my kind remembrances to your father and mother.
Notes
Shoals: The Isles of the Shoals, off the coast of New Hampshire, near Portsmouth.
Mrs. Claflin and Mary Davenport: For Mary Bucklin Davenport Claflin, see Key to Correspondents. 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 likely that Jewett refers to Mrs. Ellis's daughter, Mary Agnes, by this name, to distinguish her from her step-grandmother, Mrs. Claflin.
Elinor Norcross: Almost certainly, Jewett refers to the American painter Eleanor Norcross (1854-1923). Wikipedia says "Ella Augusta Norcross, ... studied under William Merritt Chase and Alfred Stevens. She lived the majority of her adult life in Paris, France as an artist and collector and spent the summers in her hometown of Fitchburg, Massachusetts. Norcross painted Impressionist portraits and still lifes, and is better known for her paintings of genteel interiors." She founded the Fitchburg Art Museum and, in her will, made Sophia Lord Pitman (1855-1943) a trustee of the museum.
This letter was transcribed 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. Annotation by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Annie Adams Fields
Little Compton R. I.*
8th September 1880
Dear Mrs. Fields
I have been wishing to tell you how much I like to think about the days I spent with you and how much I missed you after I came away, but this is not a land where it is easy to write letters. I cant help being idle -- except in thought -- and I think I
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never knew so quiet a country; it is all like the places one goes to on the way to sleep! There aren't any ^high^ hills but you look over the fields which are so like the moors, and you look and look and there is nothing you have to stop and wonder about. The big round-headed windmills are all still and today is a gray day which cant make up its mind to take the trouble to rain,
[ Page 3 ]
and here we are sitting by the fireplace and I was busy watching the smoke until I thought I would write a letter or two. And whether I drive or sail I am the most placid and serene of all your friends, and I forget that I ever was a girl who couldn't get to sleep at night.
There are a great many things I wish to tell you. One is that you are going to see your Gosport church in
[ Page 4 ]
Harpers* one of these days. I think Mr. Alden* was good natured to take it, for this makes four articles he has on hand already! I feel that you and I are partners in those verses ----
I shall be here until Saturday or Monday. I hate to think of going away -- and then I am going over to Newport, as I suppose I told you, to stay with Ellen Mason* a little while. Cora and I send a great deal of love to you, and to Mr Fields and Eva.* Wont you give my affectionate regards to the handkerchief doll
[ Up the left margin and across the top of page 1 ]and be careful that nobody treads on the little teapot. There are great opportunities for making tea pots here. Eva wants one I made yesterday. It was a tall and slender one... You see I left a bit of my heart behind me in Manchester by the Sea!
[ Up the left margin of page 2 ]
I did not mean to write all around the corners of my
[ Up the left margin of page 3 ]
letter. Good-bye and I will not do it next time and
[ Up the left margin of page 4 ]
I will always be your sincere & affectionate friend
[ Sarah Orne Jewett ? ]
Notes
Little Compton: Why Jewett was staying in this Rhode Island resort village is unclear, though it appears she was with Cora Clark Rice.
Stamped in the upper left of page 1 is a letterhead with the initials SOJ superimposed.
windmills: There are several traditional windmills remaining in Rhode Island, two at Little Compton.
your Gosport church in Harpers: Jewett refers to her poem, "On Star Island," which appeared in Harper's Magazine in September 1881, almost a year after the date of this letter. Jewett and Fields had explored Gosport on Star Island in the Isles of the Shoals together in July 1880.
Mr. Alden: Henry Mills Alden. See Key to Correspondents. After the date of this letter, Jewett's next story to appear in Harpers was "An Autumn Holiday" (October 1880). This was followed by three poems: "Two Mornings" (December 1880), "Sheltered," August 1881), and "On Star Island."
Ellen Mason: Ellen Francis Mason. See Key to Correspondents.
Cora: Cora Clark Rice. See Key to Correspondents.
Mr Fields and Eva: For James T. Fields, see Annie Adams Fields in Key to Correspondents. Eva may be Eva von Blomberg, but this is not certain. See Key to Correspondents.
The manuscript of this letter appears in Jewett, Sarah Orne, 1849-1909. Annie Fields (Adams) 1834-1915, recipient. 194 letters; 1877-1909 & [n.d.] Sarah Orne Jewett correspondence, 1861-1930. MS Am 1743 (255). Houghton Library, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Annie Adams Fields transcription of a portion of the above letter in Letters of Sarah Orne Jewett (1911).
Little Compton, R. I., 8 September, 1880.
Dear Mrs. Fields, -- This is not a land where it is easy to write letters. I can't help being idle, except in thought, and I think I never knew so quiet a country. It is all like the places one goes to on the way to sleep. There aren't any high hills, but you look over the fields which are so like moors, and you look and look, and there is nothing you have to stop and wonder about, the big round-headed windmills are all still, and today is a grey day which can't make up its mind to take the trouble to rain, and here we are sitting by the fireplace, and I was busy watching the smoke until I thought I would write a letter or two. And whether I drive or sail I am the most placid and serene of all your friends, and I forget that I ever was a girl who couldn't go to sleep at night.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Mary Bucklin Davenport Claflin
Sunday afternoonDear Mrs. Claflin
[ Late summer or Fall 1880 ]*
Thank you so much for your letter. I am ready to go any day, but I wrote Mr. Whittier* that I thought of Tuesday (you know we spoke of that day at the reception?)* If he does not want us then, we will take Friday. I would just as soon have a few days longer in town, and if you dont wish to go
[ Page 2 ]
Tuesday on account of getting back for your "meetin'" on Wednesday will you please telegraph me -- and I will then speak of Friday to Mr Whittier. I think very likely you have to be in town early on Wednesday and you would have to leave Bradford at break of day in that case -- Your time is much more important than mine so I shall
[ Page 3 ]
leave it all to you.
I have been to Concord but I didn't come in until last night so I got your letter too late to go to [Newton ?]. Mr. Rice* would have driven me over today but it is too cold -- I wish I could have seen Mrs. Stowe* again and you know how much I always wish to see you -- You must not say anything about the Plymouth day*-- for I had such a good time
[ Page 4 ]
and wished you were there -- I am just as likely to be tired when I have been as carefree as possible -- and I might as well have a good time !! I begin to dread the winter awfully, and at present I think I shall go to Bermuda! I have given up Louisiana -- ("uncertain, coy, and hard to please")*
Please give my love to Mrs. Stowe if she is still with you, and to all the rest.
Yours always most lovingly
Little Sarah.
Notes
1880: This date is speculative, but is supported by a letter to Fields of 23 November 1880, in which Jewett speaks of traveling to Bermuda. In fact, she never made this trip.
Mr. Whittier: John Greenleaf Whittier. See Key to Correspondents. Whittier's home in Haverford, MA, is across the Merrimack River from Bradford, MA.
Mr. Rice: John Hamilton and Cora Clark Rice. See Key to Correspondents.
Mrs. Stowe: Harriet Beecher Stowe. See Key to Correspondents.
the Plymouth day: This reference is not yet known. It would seem likely to refer to a day spent in Plymouth, MA.
"uncertain, coy, and hard to please": This line is quoted from Sir Walter Scott's "Marmion"(1808), Canto VI, Stanza 30:
O, Woman! in our hours of ease,
Uncertain, coy, and hard to please,
And variable as the shade
By the light quivering aspen made;
When pain and anguish wring the brow,
A ministering angel thou! --
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 Alexander Wilson Drake
[ Near the upper left corner of page 1 is a letterhead stamp, consisting of the initials SOJ superimposed. The address and date appear to the right of this stamp. ]*
South-Berwick
2 October 1880
Dear Mr. Drake
I write to thank you for your kindness in sending me that pass to the mountains, and for your thoughtfulness in giving us the letters and taking so much trouble for the sake of our pleasure. -- I am only sorry that you and Mr. Rice* could not
[ Page 2 ]
have carried out the plan we made first and I have already begun to look forward to next September at Rangeley* -- -- We had a most charming week at the mountains however and I should like to see you this very day to talk it over -- I [ must blotted ] tell you though, how greatly I was startled and impressed by the
[ Page 3 ]
the Old man of the Mountain* -- I think it is the grandest thing in America! and it is hard for me to believe that so distinct a personality is only the result of seeing the ledges from a certain angle -- I think it is very solemn as it looks across the country from that height = I was glad when a cloud covered
[ Page 4 ]
it -- and I can easily imagine that people could make a god of it --
-- I am hoping to see your book* before very long, and I wish for it and for it and for yourself all manner of good fortune -- and I hope too, that it will not be very long before I see you --
Yours always sincerely
Sarah O. Jewett
Notes
stamp: In the upper left of page 1 appears this penciled note in another hand: "Pointed Firs".
Mr. Rice: Almost certainly John Hamilton Rice, spouse of Jewett's friend, Cora Clark Rice. See Key to Correspondents.
Rangeley: Rangeley Lake was a resort area north of Augusta, ME.
Old man of the Mountain: The Old Man of the Mountain, also known as the Great Stone Face, was a monumental rock formation in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. When viewed from the north, it produced the appearance of the profile of a masculine face. It collapsed in 2003.
your book: Drake is not known to have published a book near the time of this letter, though he did publish poetry, prose and fiction in magazines.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Susan Minot Lane
34 Union Park -- Wednesday
[27 October 1880 ]
Dear Miss Lane
I saw a young cousin of mine to day whom I wrote you about last winter. She wishes to take lessons in figure drawing, and she has started out at the Art Museum which seems to me a great piece of foolishness. This is like taking a whole college course to learn one thing and I would rather go to a studio. I thought you might be able to tell her
[ Page 2 ]
about it a little and I should take it as a very great kindness to me if you would. I told her to write and ask if she could see you.
I do wish very much to see you. I have been in this region & in Little Compton and Newport making visits for some weeks [but corrected] I have not been in Boston (except for one night). I am only
[ Page 3 ]
here for a day or two now, (at Mrs. Rice's* where I saw you last spring --) I am not well yet and I dread the winter a good deal -- in fact I think I must go away soon after Christmas and I hate to think of it. I [would corrected] so much rather stay at home. I shall try to see you before I go home --
Yours always most affly
Sarah O. Jewett
[ Page 4 ]
later
I just thought that I didn't send my love to Miss Baker but I always feel as if I were writing to you both.! -- I wonder if you saw An Autumn Holiday in the October Harper? I hope [deleted word] you will like it -- it was one of the last things I wrote last year --
Notes
1880: An envelope accompanying the manuscript is postmarked October 28; the letter probably was composed the day before on Wednesday 27 October. The year is indicated by Jewett's reference to her newly published story, "An Autumn Holiday."
Mrs. Rice's: Cora Clark Rice. See Key to Correspondents.
Miss Baker: Charlotte Alice Baker. See Key to Correspondents.
An Autumn Holiday: "An Autumn Holiday" first appeared in Harper's Magazine, October 1880,
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 Eben Norton Horsford
South Berwick
15 Nov 1880
Dear Prof. Horsford
I was so very glad to get your kind letter today -- only it makes me wish so much to see you and your household that I am quite homesick! I did get your letter from Loch Katrine and I asked Lilian for your address, but she was wicked and never sent it to me, so I never wrote to you -- but I thought of you and Kate and Cornelia*
[ Page 2 ]
often enough, if I did not say so! I have not got well yet, but I have been better the last week or two than for a good while before and so I have great hopes of myself! and I shall be the happiest girl in the world if I can write again by and by and go back to my old tracks. I was so miserable all summer that I hate to think of myself and indeed I am not very strong yet. I was
[ Page 3 ]
in Belmont and Newport and Roxbury, and I also made Mrs. Claflin a little visit in September, but I spent a good deal of time on the sofa and could not go about much, or I should certainly have seen Mrs. Horsford and Lilian --
I am so glad you had such a pleasant journey -- (I only wish I had been with you!) and I shall hope to hear all about it this winter, beside seeing the pictures! Please give my love to all [ the family written over something ] and thank you so much for writing to me --
Yours sincerely S. O. J.
Notes
Loch Katrine ... Lilian ... Kate and Cornelia: John W. Willoughby notes that this letter follows a trans-Atlantic trip by part of the Horsford family.
He identifies the members of the Horsford family: first wife, Mary L'Hommedieu Gardiner, and four daughters: "Mary Leila ("Lilian," 1848-1928, who married the renowned biologist William G. Farlow in 1900), Mary Katherine ("Kate," 1850-1926, who did not marry), Gertrude Hubbard ("Trudie," 1852-1920, who married Andrew Fiske in 1878), and Mary Gardiner ("Mamie," 1855-1893, who married Benjamin Robbins Curtis, son of the Supreme Court Justice, in 1877)." With his second wife, Phoebe, Professor Horsford had another daughter: "Cornelia Conway Felton (1861-1944), who did not marry."
Loch Katrine is a popular scenic attraction in the south-western highlands of Scotland.
Belmont and Newport and Roxbury, ... Mrs. Claflin: Rather than attending the Belmont Stakes in June, when she probably was too ill, Jewett probably means that she has visited William Dean Howells at Redtop in Belmont, MA. Newport, RI was a popular resort town in the Gilded Age. It is not yet known why she would visit in Roxbury, MA.
Mary Claflin was married to the former Massachusetts governor, William Claflin. In 1880, he was representing Massachusetts in Congress. Their home was in Newtonville, MA. See Key to Correspondents.
The manuscript of the letter is held by the Fales Library and Special Collections, Elmer Holmes Bobst Library, New York University. Sylvester Manor Archive 1649-1996, MSS.208, IV: Horsford Family, Box 63: Folder 41. Jewett, Sarah Orne: Maine & Massachusetts.
This letter was published in John W. Willoughby, "Sarah Orne Jewett and Her Shelter Island: Letters of Sarah Orne Jewett and Annie Fields to Eben Norton Horsford," Confrontation (Long Island University) 8 (1974): 72-86. New slightly revised transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Celia Thaxter to Annie Adams Fields
[ 16 November 1880 ]*
My dearest: I cannot tell you with what joy I read & read your precious letter last night, & heard that Lily* was with you, & all you had to tell of your book* & Aldrich* &c. Is the book fairly launched? How I long to see it! I am sorry if the cover isn't all you wish, but I dare say you may like it better eventually.*
17th So busy, so busy, Annie! John* goes to town tomorrow & will take this. The days are flying away & I shall soon see your dear beautiful face, I hope. I have got more than enough work to fill to the brim every moment between now & the 30th. I am so very anxious to get at my painting, when all is done.
Dear, I'm so glad you heard Mr. Brooks!* I'm sure it was good.
I hear from Mina with Miss Howes.* She seems to think she is in the Arabian nights* -- You dont know how miserably Mrs De Normandie* is -- I am very anxious about her -- her head is in such a desperate condition -- She went to N.Y. last week to consult with some physician who makes her trouble a specialty, but he could do nothing for her. -- I had a dear letter from Sarah Jewett* today.
I send Lowes Dickinson's* nice letter. I had told him in my note wh. he acknowledges in this, that I hoped to be at least part of the Winter, with you. How glad I am his wife is better! I know you are too, dearest heart.
I send my everlasting love & I am
your
S.P.*
Notes
16 November 1880: The date Nov. 16, '81, in another hand, appears in the upper right of page 1. However, the letter almost certainly anticipates Fields's Under the Olive, which appeared late in 1880. Unless the person supplying this date had access to external evidence for the approximate date of this letter, it would seem to belong in 1880.
Lily: Fields and Thaxter share several acquaintances name Lily. Possibly this is Lily Bowditch. Dr. Henry Ingersoll Bowditch (1808-1892), owned a cottage on Appledore; his wife, Olivia Jane Yardley (1816 - 10 December 1890), regularly spent part of her summer there.
your book: In Annie Adams Fields (2002), Rita Gollin notes that Fields's Under the Olive (Copyright 1881) appeared in November of 1880 (p. 202).
Aldrich: Thomas Bailey Aldrich. See Key to Correspondents.
eventually: The opening paragraph is in pencil. The remainder of the manuscript is in ink.
John: Thaxter's son. See Key to Correspondents.
Brooks: Phillips Brooks. See Key to Correspondents.
Mina with Miss Howes: Mina may be Thaxter's friend, Mina Berntsen, who is mentioned often in Letters of Celia Thaxter (1895). See also Norma Mandel, Beyond the Garden Gate pp. 80-3.
Howes families in the Boston area were prominent in the late 19th century, appearing in the social register and in newspapers. Osborne Howes of Brookline was a well-known journalist during this period. The identity of this Miss Howes has not been discovered.
the Arabian nights: One Thousand and One Nights is a collection of Middle Eastern folk tales, first published in English in the early 18th century.
Mrs De Normandie: For many years, 47 State Street Portsmouth, NH was the winter residence of Oscar Laighton, his sister Celia and her son Karl Thaxter. Laighton purchased the house from Emily. F. de Normandie (1836-1924) in April 1887. Her husband was a Unitarian minister, James de Normandie (1836-1924). See Men of Progress p. 360.
Sarah Jewett: Sarah Orne Jewett. See Key to Correspondents.
Lowes Dickinson's: It seems likely that Thaxter refers to the British portrait painter, Lowes Cato Dickinson (1819-1908). His wife was Margaret Ellen Williams. According to Martha Shannon in Boston Days of William Morris Hunt (1923), Dickinson visited the Fields's home in Boston during 1875, and became interested in the work of American painter, William Morris Hunt (1824-1879), friend and mentor of Celia Thaxter (pp. 112-15).
S.P. This transcription is uncertain, but probably Thaxter refers to a nickname she uses in her correspondence with Jewett and Fields, Sandpiper. See Key to Correspondents.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Boston Public Library, Rare Books Department, Celia Thaxter correspondence with Annie Fields, 1869-1893,
MS C.1.38 Box 2 Folder 1 (148-173) https://ark.digitalcommonwealth.org/ark:/50959/qb98p105g
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
John Greenleaf Whittier to Annie Adams Fields
Oak Knoll 11th - 19th - 1880
Dear Mrs Fields
I am reading "Under the Olive"* with a mingled feeling of [ admiration corrected ] & surprise. The book is steeped in the sweet, solemn atmosphere of the days of the Greek gods, but of that lovely old phase of Spiritualism which found a life in all forms & forces of Nature. The old myths come from thy hands clothed in chrystal purity -- in the "white samite" of Tennyson's heroines.* I like especially "Persephone", "Aphrodite of Melos," "The Lantern of Sestos"
[ Page 2 ]
"Artemis," & "Theocritus{.}"
I see occasional defects -- I don't always like the great regularity of the versification -- but a genuine poetic feeling pervades all. We, old versifiers, can do no less than welcome thee to our guild, and stand uncovered in thy presence. I predict for thy book [ very ? ] great success. Nothing can add to the love and respect of those who have the great privilege of thy friendship, but we shall have one more reason for our pride in thee.
Always & very heartily
thy frd
John G. Whittier
Notes
"Under the Olive": Fields's first collection of poems, published in 1881.
In the poems Whittier mentions, he has shortened the title of "The Return of Persephone."
"white samite" of Tennyson's heroines: See British poet, Alfred, Lord Tennyson's (1809-1892) "Morte d'Arthur," where Arthur recalls receiving his sword, Excalibur, from an arm that
Rose up from out the bosom of the lake,The manuscript of this letter is held by the Huntington Library, San Marino, CA, in the James T. Fields collection: mss FI 70-4754. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Clothed in white samite, mystic, wonderful,
Holding the sword....
Dear Mrs. FieldsSarah Orne Jewett to Annie Adams Fields
23 November 1880
South Berwick
I think your book* is the dearest book I ever saw! I don't know that it is polite to speak of the cover first, but it is so pretty! And inside I am so glad to find again "the flight of gold through hollow woodlands driven"* -- which has always had a great charm for me. When could I have seen Theocritus?* -- but I remember now -- in a newspaper and afterward in the book where it belonged, -- a no name book, wasn't it -- I find so many things as I look through pages, that I linger over and wish I were not in a hurry to write you -- so I might read in peace! I shall be very fond of the little book for its own sake and also for yours, and many a line will seem as if it were spoken and not written me, and bring back other things -- that you have said and I like to remember. And I do think you were very good to send me Under the Olive -- I know how many friends you have, -- but I take it, as I know you will let me, as a sign of something that is between us, and twice we have hold of each others hands we will not let them go.
Indeed I should hate the idea of going to Bermuda all alone and I do not mean to do that doleful thing, and now that I seem to be better I can stay longer in this region -- It will not be only a necessity but a great pleasure to be where it is warmer in the early spring -- and so I shall make up my mind to go away at any rate. But before that I do hope to be in Boston again and I should like dearly to make you a little visit though I am afraid I could not carry out the kind and thoughtful plan which you make for the whole month. And we will play with each other whenever we have a chance, and talk about the rose tea set, and find time every day for one handkerchief doll at least.
With kindest regards to Mr. Fields
Yours most affectionately
Sarah O. Jewett
Notes
book: Fields's first collection of poems, Under the Olive. (1881), became available near the end of 1880.
Image of cover from Hathi Trust.
"the flight of gold ...": The line is from Fields's poem, "Theocritus" in Under the Olive.
Theocritus: An early Greek poet who flourished in the third century BCE, best remembered for his poems about country life.
to Bermuda: Though Jewett speculates about traveling to Bermuda in other letters of this time, she never made the trip.
handkerchief doll: A handkerchief doll may be handcrafted from a handkerchief.
This transcription appears in Nancy Ellen Carlock's 1939 Boston University thesis, S.O.J. A Biography of Sarah Orne Jewett. The manuscript is held by The Morgan Library and Museum: Record ID: 193456. Accession number: MA 3943.
Notes by Terry Heller, Coe College
A partial transcription from The Gentle Americans (1965) by Helen Howe.
I think your book is the dearest book I ever saw! I don’t know that it is polite to speak of the cover first, but it is so pretty! ... I do think you were very good to send me Under the Olive-- I know how many friends you have, -- but I take it, as I know you will let me, as a sign of something that is between us, and since we have hold of each other’s hands we will not let them go--
… I shall be very fond of the little book for its own sake, and also for yours, and many a line will seem as if it were spoken and not written to me, and bring back other things -- that you have said and I like to remember…. I do hope to be in Boston again and I should like dearly to make you a little visit. And we will play with each other whenever we have a chance, and talk about the rose teaset -- and find time every day for one handkerchief doll at least.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Lyman Abbott
[ 1880 - 1881 ]*
Dear Dr Abbott,
I send some verses* which I think you may be ^able to^* use in your young peoples department. Can I have an answer at once at Mrs. Claflin's,* Newtonville.
Yours sincerelyThis manuscript of this letter is held by Archives and Special Collections, Amherst College Library, in the Miscellaneous Manuscripts Collection. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah O. Jewett
Notes
1880 - 1881: As indicated below, nearly all of Jewett's known publications in The Christian Union appeared in 1880-1881. As these include no poems addressed to children, however, it is not yet possible to date this letter more precisely. A letter to Mrs. Claflin tentatively dated Friday Afternoon 1878 suggests that Jewett may have met Mr. Abbott as early as 1878.
verses: No Jewett poems for young people are known to have appeared in The Christian Union, where Abbott was editor. The magazine did publish two Jewett poems, both of which were "love" poems: "A Night in June" (July 1880) and "A Day's Secret" (January 1881). Jewett placed one other piece with Abbott, "The Quiet Scholar" (August 1881).
able to: This insertion appears to have been added in pencil, and it may not be in Jewett's hand.
Mrs. Claflin's: Mary Bucklin Davenport Claflin. See Key to Correspondents.
Edited by Terry Heller, Coe College.
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