Sarah Orne Jewett Letters of 1884
John Greenleaf Whittier to Sarah Orne Jewett
1)
Danvers
1st Mo 18, 1884
My dear Friend
Sarah Jewett.
I wonder if thee are still with dear Annie Fields.* I hope so, for the country now is unridable and unwalkable. I have just got back from Amesbury where with the glass below zero I felt the lack of a furnace, though
2
we kept [ four ? ] fires burning all the time and sometimes five. While there I re-read thy "Mate of the Daylight [ ' intending "]* one bitter day out of doors, and enjoyed it greatly. It seems like having thee in company. I am glad thee think of writing a longer story.
Thy visit to thy grandfather Dr. Perry*
3
must have been full of interest. "Age" says Ossian* "is dark and unlovely." It is not so in Dr P.s case.
My friends everywhere seem to remember me at Christmas & New Year -- there was rather too much of a good thing in the way of letters. My Florida friends have kept me well supplied with delicious, selected oranges{.}
4)
I should have been in Boston by this time but for the continued illness of [ Mr or Mrs ? ] Claflin* {.} I may be there in the course of next week, but it will depend upon the weather & my health. Just now I am suffering somewhat from a cold. With a great love for dear A.F. I am affectionately thy friend
John G. Whittier
Notes
Annie Fields: Annie Adams Fields / A.F. See Key to Correspondents.
Mate of the Daylight: Jewett's story, "The Mate of the Daylight" originally appeared in Atlantic Monthly (50:82-93) in July 1882, and was collected in The Mate of the Daylight, and Friends Ashore (1884).
In 1884, Jewett was completing a "longer story," A Country Doctor, which began to receive reviews in June.
Dr. Perry: Dr. William Perry. See Key to Correspondents.
Ossian: Ossian (1760) is the "narrator and purported author of a cycle of epic poems" by Scottish poet James Macpherson (1736-1796).
For the quotation on age, see "Carthon" in The Poems of Ossian (1792), p. 122.
Claflin: Whittier maintained a friendship with Mary Bucklin Davenport Claflin (see Key to Correspondents) and her husband, William Claflin, a prominent Republican politician. In his letter to Annie Adams Fields of 31 December 1883, Whittier notes that Mrs. Claflin has been seriously ill.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Huntington Library, San Marino, CA, in the James T. Fields collection: mss FI 1-4794. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
John Greenleaf Whittier to Annie Adams Fields
Oak Knoll
1st Mo 24 1884*
My dear Friend
I have just seen thy delicate & beautiful paper on Emerson* in the Harper's. I have seen no article upon him since his death which gives one so life-like a picture of the man & author. All who love and revere Emerson will thank thee for {it.}
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I am still here at Oak Knoll, but hope to visit Boston soon.
Did thee see the remarkable account of the vision of Dr. Mackie of Philade. at the precise time of the death of his friend Dr. Sims of N.Y.? He [ started ? ] up & left his bed, telling his wife that ^he^ should not be down again, for he had a dream or vision terribly real. He saw his friend Dr Sims, (whom he used to call "James the Fourth' because there were three other
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Jameses"* in the family,) stand by his bed pale as death & heard him say, "James the 4th is dead!" He went to his office & spent the rest of the night there where a telegram reached him announcing the death of his friend.
I enclose a little verse* of mine, and a clipping from the N. Y. Evening Post for Sarah Jewett,* to whom I send much love, and am ever affectionately thy [ old ? ] friend
John G. Whittier
Notes
1884: This manuscript has a penciled "7" at the top center of page 1, and a penciled "X" appears before the opening sentence.
paper on Emerson: Fields's article "Glimpses of Emerson" appeared in Harper's in February 1884.
Dr Mackie ... Dr Sims: Dr. James Marion Sims (1813- 13 November 1883) was a well-known and eventually controversial physician, specializing in gynecology. In Medical Record (12 January 1884) p. A46, is an article entitled "The Late Dr. Sims and an Alleged Instance of "Transferred Impression," reprinted from the Philadelphia Medical and Surgical Register:
"The daily papers tell us that at three o'clock one morning Dr. Mackey (a prominent physician of Washington) rose suddenly from his bed and began pacing the floor, which disturbing his wife she asked what ailed him. He answered that he had such a horrible and vivid dream that he could not rest after it. He had dreamed that his friend, Dr. J. Marion Sims, of New York, appeared to him, with a face like that of a corpse, and said to him: 'James the Fourth is dead.' Dr. Mackey said to his wife that the dream so depressed him that he would not go back to bed again, so he went down to his office and sat there at work until after daylight. Before breakfast a telegram was brought him announcing Dr. Sims' death at 3 a.m., exactly the hour when Dr. Mackey, rousing from his dream, had looked at his clock. Looking at it again he found that it had stopped at three o'clock. Dr. Sims was in the habit of calling himself James the Fourth, as he was the fourth of the same name in his family." The editor of the Reporter accepts the above as true. This may be so, but even if so, one must remember the very great possibility of coincidence. Millions of people dream that some friend is dead. In a few cases they seem to hit it. Besides, in the present case, Dr. Sims did not die at 3 o'clock A.M. but at 3:15.Versions of this story were widely circulated in the United States and Great Britain. This may account for details of Whittier's account varying from the one above.
Dr. Mackey of Washington has not yet been identified. It may be relevant that Dr. Sims was a close friend of author and judge, Thomas Jefferson Mackey (1832-1906), who seems to have resided in Washington DC after about 1882. Mackey authored an introduction for Sims's autobiography, The Story of My Life (1884). He may have been related to Dr. Sims's mother, Mahala Mackey. See Transactions of the Annual Meeting by the South Carolina Bar Association (1914), pp. 95-6; and "Mackey's Morphine Madness" Charleston County Public Library.
Jameses": Whittier's intentions with quotation marks are not clear in this passage. I have rendered the marks as they appear.
verse: It is not yet known which poem Whittier may have sent to Fields.
Sarah Jewett: Sarah Orne Jewett. See Key to Correspondents.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Huntington Library, San Marino, CA, in the James T. Fields collection: mss FI 71-4791. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
John Greenleaf Whittier to Annie Adams Fields
Oak Knoll
Danvers
2nd Mo, 1, 1884*
My dear friend.
I thank thee for thy kind invitation but I ^have^ not been well enough for the past week to accept it. -- I hold that I have no right ^to^ "dismalize" (to use [ N P. so written ] Rogers'* phrase,) my friends with my aches and ails; and I do not feel like meeting thy visitors & callers, & dinner guests
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when it is impossible for me to
I ^am^ thankful that February has come, & that the sun is getting high in his northern journey. The past month has been trying to flesh & spirit. My niece Mrs Pickard* & her kindred are going to N. Carolina and if I could travel without suffering, I would
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go with them. As it is, I shall stay and wait and make the best of the many things I have reason to be thankful for here.
I am afraid my letter has a complaining
Mrs Washburn* has sent me a little vol. of poems "Voices of a Busy Life" written by her husband the late lamented [ dear? ] Dr Washburn of N.Y. I used to know him when he preached in Newburyport. I find his verse strong & manly & sweet withal. I am assured by his disposal of the High Church craze.* It is the whole truth in a nutshell.
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Oxford Tracts.
O mediaeval Sexton, thou
Who would'st in decent grave-clothes dress
The modern century, that now
Exults in savage nakedness!
Whether to choose, perplexing case!
The sans-culotte who shameless stands,
Or mummy, with his yellow face,
Wrapt in a hundred swathing bands?
Thou fool! that thinkest truth is cant,
And piety is gown and stole;
What the irreverent times most want
Is not a surplice, but a soul!
_____
There are two grey squirrels playing in my
room. Phebe calls them "Dear Josiah" and his wife "Philury,"
after Rose Terry Cooke's* story of the minister's "Week of
Works," in the place of a "break of prayer{.}"* Give my love
to dear Sarah.* I enclose a screed for her: and am thy
affectionate friend
John G. Whittier
Notes
1884: This manuscript has a penciled "2" at the top center of page 1, and a penciled "X" appears in the left margins of page 3 where Dr. Washburn is named and of page 4, next to the 3rd stanza of "Oxford Tracts."
Part of this letter is quoted in Fields's "Whittier: Notes of his Life and Friendships," in Authors and Friends (1896).
Rogers: Whittier's friend, Nathaniel Peabody Rogers (1794-1846) was a prominent New England abolitionist. When Rogers used the word "dismalize" is not yet known.
Mrs Pickard: Richard Cary says that Elizabeth Hussey (1843-1909) was the daughter of Whittier's brother Matthew and namesake of his sister. She assumed the other "Lizzie's" place in Whittier's household from 1864 to 1876, the year she married Samuel T. Pickard, editor of the Portland Transcript and, later, biographer of Whittier.
Mrs Washburn: Episcopal clergyman, Edward Abiel Washburn's (1819-1881). Voices from a Busy Life (1883) contains his poem "Oxford Tracts." He married Frances Hall Lindsly (1829-1892).
High Church craze: Whittier refers to the mid-19th-century Oxford Movement of a group of clergy and academics centered at Oxford University in Great Britain, who sought to shift the Anglican (and American Episcopal) church away from modern theological and liturgical liberalism back toward practices more closely associated with Roman Catholicism. Whittier approves of Rev. Washburn's skepticism toward such ideas.
Rose Terry Cooke's: A popular short story by American author Rose Terry Cooke (1827-1892), "The Deacon's Week," featuring Deacon Josiah Emmons and Philury, was collected in The Sphinxs Children and Other People (1886).
break of prayer: This transcription is uncertain; Whittier may have written "book of prayer." A break of prayer would then have meant being interrupted, forced to stop in the midst of praying.
Sarah: Sarah Orne Jewett. See Key to Correspondents.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Huntington Library, San Marino, CA, in the James T. Fields collection: mss FI 71-4788. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
John Greenleaf Whittier to Annie Adams Fields
Oak Knoll
2nd 2nd Mo 1884*
2nd 2nd Mo 1884*
My dear Annie Fields
When we were trying to raise a sum for Lucy Larcom's* benefit, as Mr Childs* had expressed a readiness to help any literary friend who might need assistance, I wrote him, & told him what ^we^ were doing. I recd no answer and the matter had been well nigh forgotten. As soon as I got thy letter I wrote to Mr C.
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thanking him for his kind offer, through Mrs C, but telling him that we had secured a sum sufficient to give Mifs L an annuity of $100{.}
Judge of my surprise when yesterday I had a letter from Mr C's business agent saying: "Mr. Childs requests me to send you the enclosed Check for $100 for Lucy Larcom, and desires me further to state that he will willingly give the
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lady a like sum each year during her life"* I was overjoyed, and wished thee was present that we might congratulate each other on the happy result of the mislaid letter. This will go far to make Lucy comfortable, and a women of "means." It solves a problem which has sorely puzzled us. It was very noble and generous in Mr Childs and if thee have occasion to write Mrs C pray let her know that it is appreciated{.}
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It has been snowing all this bitter Candlemas Day,* for the benefit of Boston's Canadian visitors. I fancy thee and Sarah* are sitting like sensible people at the parlor fire. I am reading the Psychical Research Reports sent me by Mr. James, with great interest. Mrs Thaxter has sent me the photo of the Hindoo missionary Mohini. The face is a very fine one -- but not strong. He looks as if he might be cheated by Madam Blavatsky.*
Good night, dear friend. I am glad this luck for Lucy comes through thy hands, as so many other good things have done. With love
[ Up the left margin of page 4 ]
to that dear adopted daughter of mine. I am thy affectionate friend. John G Whittier
Notes
1884: Whittier's handwriting makes the final digit of his date look like "9." However, it seems more likely this letter is from 1884, a few months after Whittier and Fields established an annuity for the ailing Lucy Larcom. See notes below.
Lucy Larcom's: Lucy Larcom (1824-1893) was a popular American author and teacher, a close friend of Whittier & Fields. For an account of the Larcom-Fields friendship and of establishing an annuity for her, see Rita Gollin, Annie Adams Fields, pp. 106-113.
Mr Childs: Wikipedia says "George William Childs (1829-1894) was an American publisher who co-owned the Philadelphia Public Ledger newspaper with financier Anthony Joseph Drexel [1826-1893, founder of Drexel University in Philadelphia, PA].... Childs was widely known for his public spirit and philanthropy. In 1884, for example, he loaned $500 to poet Walt Whitman to help him purchase his home in Camden, New Jersey."
Whittier seems sometimes to underline superscripts. I have chosen to underline all of them to indicate when he uses them.
life": Whittier seems clearly to have placed the end quotation mark at this point, but where he intended to open the quotation is not clear.
Candlemas Day: February 2 in the Christian liturgical calendar, traditionally marking the end of the Christmas season. Whether Whittier has any particular Canadian visitors in mind is not yet known. As the holiday is not made much of in the United States, Whittier may be thinking of French Canadians, who provided much immigrant labor in New England at this time and who were Roman Catholics, who did celebrate Candlemas.
Sarah: Sarah Orne Jewett, whom he identifies as his adopted daughter at the end of the letter.
Psychical Research Reports ...Mr. James .... Mrs Thaxter ... Mohini.... Madam Blavatsky:
American philosopher and psychologist William James (1842-1910) was a founder of the American Society for Psychical Research, which began in 1884, with the purpose of scientifically investigating "psychical phenomena," such as communication with the dead.
Mrs. Thaxter is Celia Thaxter. See Key to Correspondents.
Mohini Mohun Chatterji (1858-1936) was a Bengali attorney and scholar who became a prominent representative of Theosophy during the 1880s, taking his message to England and Ireland. The Theosophical Society had been founded in 1875 in the United States and later established an international headquarters in India. Among the acquaintances of Whittier, Fields and Jewett, Celia Thaxter showed a good deal of interest in "Mohini." See Key to Correspondents.
The photo of which Whittier speaks probably is the one that appears in the Wikipedia article.
Helena Petrovna Blavatsky (1831-1891) was a Russian "occultist, philosopher, and author who co-founded the Theosophical Society in 1875." Whittier would seem to be among those who were skeptical of her views, and particularly of her work as a spirit medium.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Huntington Library, San Marino, CA, in the James T. Fields collection: mss FI 72-4840. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Emily Marshall Otis Eliot
148 Charles Street
Boston 2nd February [ 1884 ]*
Boston 2nd February [ 1884 ]*
My dear Mrs. Eliot
Mrs. Fields* asks me to say that Mr. Wood, the English naturalist will read one of his illustrated lectures to us on Thursday afternoon at half-past three o'clock, and she hopes that you and Miss Eliot can come and share the pleasure with us.
Yours sincerely
Sarah O. Jewett
Dear Mrs. Eliot: I must add a line to say that
I hope Dr. Eliot will come also.*Sarah O. Jewett
Notes
1884: This date is based upon J. G. Wood being present in Boston that spring to present the Lowell Lectures.
Mrs. Fields: Annie Adams Fields. See Key to Correspondents.
Mr. Wood: Almost certainly this is Rev. John George Wood (1827 - 3 March 1889). He became a popular writer and lecturer on natural history, in addition to his Anglican church work. In 1883-4, he presented the Lowell Lectures in Boston.
also: Carlock notes that the post script is in the hand of Annie Adams Fields. Dr. Eliot is Mrs. Eliot's husband, Samuel Eliot; their daughter also is Emily. See Key to Correspondents.
This transcription appears in Nancy Ellen Carlock's 1939 Boston University thesis, S.O.J. A Biography of Sarah Orne Jewett. Carlock says that the manuscript of this letter is held by the Boston Athenaeum, and, in fact, the Athenaeum catalog indicates that the letter is in the Emily Marshall Otis Papers: L140. Notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Ellen Tucker Emerson to Annie Adams Fields
Concord, 12 Feb. 1884
Dear Mrs Fields,
Mother and I have been reading the account of Father which you were so kind as to send us in Harper's Magazine.* It is very pleasant to us to hear any reminiscences of him, and of course we remember many of these works and words and occasions which you write of. There you write very truly
Mother and I have been reading the account of Father which you were so kind as to send us in Harper's Magazine.* It is very pleasant to us to hear any reminiscences of him, and of course we remember many of these works and words and occasions which you write of. There you write very truly
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almost all the way, which makes the story delightful. Where you have anything wrong I can't help wishing to tell you and do you mind if I do? I take your consent for granted and will proceed. The story about Mr James's conversation has got twisted. Mr Alcott* was having a conversation here, and Mr James, whose boys were here at school, had been asked to stay over to this conversation when he came to visit them. He did, and not understanding that Mr Alcott's conversations were for Mr
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NotesAlcott alone to speak in, began naturally to
answer him, and feeling himself in his element and the company
all interested did the talking himself. He was using words, as
he always did, in his own way, saying religion for dogmatism
or ecclesiasticism or something that he was down upon,
and Aunt Mary ^(Father's Aunt, not sister, he had no
sisters.)^ was scandalized and immediately attacked him. ^She
had never seen him till then^ It was a glorious occasion for
those who love a battle of words, and Mr James seemed fully to
appreciate Aunt Mary, and gave
some sentences of it ^may have been^ written then, but the main work was done long before and it was enlarged twice afterwards. [ Then corrected ] his brother Edward* of whom he wrote the poem you mention was younger not older than he.
You recall the sad Phi Beta day of 1867. The trouble that day was that for the first time his eyes refused to serve him, he could not see, and therefore could hardly get along. His work had been on the whole satisfactory to him, and if he could have read it straight all would have been happy instead of miserable.
The story of Aunt Mary was Amita, the Latin for Aunt, not Anita.
There, these and one or two smaller things perhaps not worth mentioning are all that I have to correct. Mother and I have to thank you for vividly recalling to us many pleasant occasions in the past, many words and little particulars some of which had been forgotten, and Mr Cabot,* as well as we, enjoyed reading it all. My mother sends her love to you. I am sorry I have been so slow in writing, I have
had a steady will towards it however.
[ Inserted in the lower right margin
]
Also she only moved into the chair on the
other side of the fire from Mr James so as to be face to
face with him. She didn't come near to him.
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Father and all of us great satisfaction
by his subsequent remarks upon her. That was all.
Father was never shocked by anything that Mr James said,
^and never had discussions, he always listened,^ and
Aunt did not defend or supersede him in the matter. I
can think of things that Father might have said about it
which led you to suppose that. If I see you I can show
you; 'tis too long to write. There I see that you
suppose the chapter on Immortality* to have been the
address at Mr Thoreau's funeral.* Most of its framework
was written ten ^seven or eight^ years
earlier and delivered in Sept. 1855. Some parts of it he
may have used at Mr Thoreau's funeral, and
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some sentences of it ^may have been^ written then, but the main work was done long before and it was enlarged twice afterwards. [ Then corrected ] his brother Edward* of whom he wrote the poem you mention was younger not older than he.
You recall the sad Phi Beta day of 1867. The trouble that day was that for the first time his eyes refused to serve him, he could not see, and therefore could hardly get along. His work had been on the whole satisfactory to him, and if he could have read it straight all would have been happy instead of miserable.
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The story of Aunt Mary was Amita, the Latin for Aunt, not Anita.
There, these and one or two smaller things perhaps not worth mentioning are all that I have to correct. Mother and I have to thank you for vividly recalling to us many pleasant occasions in the past, many words and little particulars some of which had been forgotten, and Mr Cabot,* as well as we, enjoyed reading it all. My mother sends her love to you. I am sorry I have been so slow in writing, I have
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had a steady will towards it however.
Yours truly
Ellen T. Emerson.
Harper's Magazine: Fields's article "Glimpses of Emerson" appeared in Harper's in February 1884.
James's ... Mr Alcott: Emerson refers to American theologian Henry James, Sr. (1811-1882), the father of philosopher William James and author Henry James. For these sons, see Key to Correspondents.
Amos Bronson Alcott (1799-1888) was an American educator, author, and reformer, the father of author Louisa May Alcott.
Edward: Ralph Waldo Emerson's younger brother, Edward Bliss Emerson (1805-1834). R. W. Emerson's poem for his brother was "In Memoriam, E. B. E."
Immortality: R. W. Emerson's essay, "Immortality," was composed and revised over a number of years.
Mr Thoreau's funeral: American author and naturalist, Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862). R. W. Emerson presented Thoreau's funeral eulogy in May 1862.
Mr. Cabot: Probably this is American philosopher, James Elliot Cabot (1821-1903).
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Huntington Library, San Marino, CA, in the James T. Fields Papers and Addenda, Box 16: mss FI 5637. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Mr. Holland*
[18 February 1884]
Dear Mr Holland
I was sorry not to see you the other evening -- but I was compelled to have a session of one -- with closed doors. I have been very busy indeed of late and as the spring comes on I find it harder to get through with my regular work -- So I do not believe I can promise anything for
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the Wheelman* for the present, though I have been thinking about
it in these days and hoping that I could send a different answer
-- I liked the magazine very much when I saw a copy or two of it
last summer -- and I will certainly keep it in mind -- Thank you
so much for the kind invitation you[ Page 3 ]
brought ------
Will you please give my love to Mrs. Holland and say that I hoped to see her long before this, but until within a short time I have been going to and fro between Berwick and Boston and somehow never had an hour to myself in either
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place. I just begin to make sure that it is winter!
Yours sincerely
Sarah O. Jewett
Sarah O. Jewett
148 Charles St.
18 February, 1884
Notes
Holland: The publisher of the Wheelman was W. B. Holland of Albany, NY. Whether this person is Jewett's correspondent is not yet known, nor has any definite information about him been located.
Wheelman: Later renamed Outing, Wheelman began publication in 1882 as a bicycling magazine. By 1884, it had broadened its scope to other sports and outdoor literature, with the name Outing and the Wheelman, under the editorship of Samuel McClure.
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.
John Fiske to Sarah Orne Jewett
[ Begin letterhead
with a crest design upper left ]
with a crest design upper left ]
22 Berkeley Street,
Cambridge.
Cambridge.
[ End letterhead ]
Feb. 28, 1884.
My dear Miss Jewett:
It is very kind indeed of Mrs. Fields* to think of me. It is many years since I have seen Mr. Booth* upon the stage, and I accept with pleasure the invitation for Saturday evening. I have but just received your letter, or should have replied yesterday.
Yours sincerely,
John Fiske.
John Fiske.
Notes
Mrs. Fields: Annie Adams Fields. See Key to Correspondents.
Mr. Booth: Edwin Booth (1833-1893) was a founding member of the New York Players Club in 1888. Booth was an internationally famous American-born Shakespearean actor, a member of the circle of friends in which Jewett moved. His brother, John Wilkes Booth (1835-1865), assassinated President Abraham Lincoln.
It is likely that Fields and Jewett have invited Professor Fiske to the Saturday 1 March performance of Edward Bulwer-Lytton's play, Richelieu (1839); this was a benefit performance at the Globe Theater for the Associated Charities of Boston. See Arthur W. Bloom, Edwin Booth: A Biography and Performance History (2013), p. 275.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Huntington Library, San Marino, CA, in the James T. Fields Collection: mss FI 1310.
John Greenleaf Whittier to Annie Adams Fields
63 Mt Vernon St*
3rd Mo 3.
[ 1884 ]*
My dear Friend3rd Mo 3.
[ 1884 ]*
I return the book I borrowed of Sarah Jewett. I have read it with loving interest -- some of the stories have the genuine "Elise"* flavor. I meant to have brought it myself, but am embargoed by the rheumatism to-day. I hope S.J. will be with thee
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[ thee repeated ] to night, none the worse for her trip to South Berwick. I would say give her my love, but she knows she has it already. Ever with grateful affection thy friend
John G. Whittier
Notes
63 Mt Vernon St: This was the home of former Massachusetts governor, William Claflin. See Mary Bucklin Davenport Claflin in Key to Correspondents.
1884: This date is speculative. Huntington Library archivists have suggested this date, but without a published rationale.
"Elise": Whittier's reference to the book he is returning remains mysterious. There was a popular British author of juvenile fiction, who published under the names "Elise" and "M. A. H." or M. A. Hall. Hall seems to have continued writing through about 1876. Jewett may have loaned Whittier a book by another author, who is similar to Hall, but this is not certain.
Sarah Jewett: Sarah Orne Jewett. See Key to Correspondents.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Huntington Library, San Marino, CA, in the James T. Fields collection: mss FI 71-4690. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Eben Norton Horsford
148 Charles St.,
Wednesday [March 1884]*
Dear Prof. Horsford
I have just received this new copy of the poem Banished from Whittier,* with another most beautiful verse which I know will please you and your dear people. He asked me to send it to you which I do at once. He says that he tried (after talking with you and writing it) to have it printed with the others but it was too late.
In haste your affectionate
S. O. J.
S. O. J.
[ Up the left margin ]
His address is Amesbury, Mass.
Notes
1884: Willoughby places this letter in his article between those of 1881 and 1884. It seems clearly related to Jewett's 19 March 1884 letter to John Greenleaf Whittier.
Whittier: American poet John Greenleaf Whittier's "Banished from Massachusetts." See Key to Correspondents. For details on this, see below, the notes for Whittier to Jewett of 22 March.
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. Revised transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
John Greenleaf Whittier to Annie Adams Fields
Amesbury 3 mo 15 1884
Dear Annie Fields
It will scarcely repay thee for taking the trouble of writing that blessed letter of thine, when thee have so many duties and so many friends to respond to, if I tell thee that it cheered and brightened the dismal March day, and made me profoundly grateful to the good Providence which gives me such a friend{.} It came to me at a time when I needed it.
I can understand how Phillips Brooks
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signed that petition. With poor Mrs Porter* at his elbow he would have signed his death warrant. No doubt he will get into difficulty by it, but he is strong enough to bear trouble that comes in any other shape than Mrs Porter.
Shall thee not [ contrive ? ] to meet Prof. Wood* before he leaves Boston. He is a wise learned man, not credulous and not liable to be deceived -- the kind of man whose experience would be worth hearing{.}
I must thank thee right here for the pleasure of [ reading ? ] Annie Keary's
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biography.* What a white beautiful soul! Her view of the mission of spiritualism seems very much like thine. I do not know when I have read a more restful helpful book.
I suppose dear Sarah is back again by this time. I am sorry she is again annoyed by that ugly visitor, rheumatism. The fiend has [ beset ? ] me this rough March weather, and he is not to be driven off by prayer & fasting. Tell her to have courage, the sun when he can get a chance to shine, will do it.
[ Page 4 ]*
I shall be glad, when I go back to Oak Knoll, to see her & Prof Horsford.*
How often I wish I could step into that pleasant Charles Street parlor and have a talk with you both!
Gratefully thy friend
John G. Whittier
John G. Whittier
Notes
Phillips Brooks ... petition ... Mrs Porter: For Phillips Brooks, see Key to Correspondents. Information about Mrs. Porter and the petition has not yet been discovered.
Brooks signed a petition and spoke in favor of an unsuccessful attempt to maximize license fees for liquor sellers in Boston in February of 1884. Whether this is the issue Whittier means is not yet known. See the Boston Globe 21 February 1884, p. 5.
Prof. Wood: The transcription of this name is uncertain, but it seems likely Whittier refers to Rev. John George Wood (1827-1889). He became a popular writer and lecturer on natural history, in addition to his Anglican church work. In 1883-4, he presented the Lowell Lectures in Boston. In an obituary in Light v. 9 (1889), p. 115, he was described as "a Spiritualist of much and varied experience, ... his knowledge dated from the earliest days of the movement."
Sarah: Sarah Orne Jewett. See Key to Correspondents.
Page 4: Pencil marks, presumably in another hand, appear on this page. Short lines in the left margin seem to mark the final paragraph. Apparently underlined is a note in the right margin before the final paragraph: + c.
Annie Keary's biography: Whittier refers to Memoir of Annie Keary by her Sister (1882), a biography of British author, Annie Keary (1825-1879) by Eliza Harriett Keary (1827-1918). For Keary's critical interest in Spiritualism, see especially pp. 126-35.
See also, Terry Heller, "Communing with the Dead: Celia Thaxter, John Greenleaf Whittier, Sarah Orne Jewett, Annie Adams Fields." SOJTP 2020.
Prof. Horsford: Eben Norton Horsford. See Key to Correspondents.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Huntington Library, San Marino, CA, in the James T. Fields collection: mss FI 70-5092. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to John Greenleaf Whittier
Wednesday 19 March
1884*
1884*
[ Letterhead in red ink ]
148. Charles Street,
Boston.
[ End letterhead ]
148. Charles Street,
Boston.
[ End letterhead ]
My dear Friend
You dont know how glad we were to get your letter yesterday. -- it was a tenth part as good as seeing you and that is saying a great deal about it -- (I dont mean to be extravagant in my speech!) And we have been thanking you for the new poem about the banished people* with all our hearts -- It is very beautiful and better than
You dont know how glad we were to get your letter yesterday. -- it was a tenth part as good as seeing you and that is saying a great deal about it -- (I dont mean to be extravagant in my speech!) And we have been thanking you for the new poem about the banished people* with all our hearts -- It is very beautiful and better than
[ Page 2 ]
the picture which is very good and interesting in itself.
Prof. Horsford* is greatly delighted with it and wrote me yesterday that he meant to try to buy it and keep it at Shelter Island* in the old house. What a big hearted man he [ is corrected ]! I used to stay with [ deletion ] his daughters a good deal before I was here so much and I am very fond of them all -- He is so busy now about the persecuted
[ Page 3 ]
friends and their histories* and if he were aiming at a complete revenge he couldnt be more painstaking -- I brought home from his library [ a corrected ] week or two ago a worn copy of New England Judged* which I read with great profit and astonishment, and many thoughts of you and wishes that we could sit down and scold together. Prof. Horsford has collected a great pile of books from the College library and the antiquarian book shops --
[ Page 4 ]
and [is corrected ] doing a grand piece of work which has led him on from page to page all winter ---- He was very anxious to see you again and I was only too glad to have a chance, and so I am glad you will like to see us at Oak Knoll.* I hope I shall not come down in the floods this time --- I was at home last week and I wished so much that I could go to see you at Amesbury{.} Next time you are there I certainly must knock at your study door to be let in! ---
[ Page 5 on letterhead ]*
2
What shall we do now that the Wizard's Son* is finished! I read the last of it in a MacMillan at the Atheneaum the other day -- Mrs. Oliphant is writing a lovely little story in the Youth's Companion which I hope you and Phebe* will give your best attention to -- My story* goes along sometimes fast and sometimes slowly -- but I gain [ deletion ] courage faster than I lose it on the whole. I am among the breakers of the love story just now!
[ Page 6 ]
and you must wish me good luck! -- A.F.* is as dear as ever -- and sends you her best love and says that Prof. Wood* has been asked to come to tea Sunday evening and said that he would if no engagement for a lecture asserted itself -- We have just got Drummond's Natural Law in the Spiritual World and I could hardly put it down yesterday to go to my writing. I was so delighted and [ deletion ? ] spirited by it -- A.F. will send it down presently I am [ sure ? ] if you would like it -- As for your man Gen. Gordon* I have been wandering [ with ? ] him and finding him uncommon good company -- yours lovingly -- S.O.J.
Notes
1884: It is not clear that the year is in Jewett's handwriting, but it is correct, as shown in the notes below. In the upper left corner of page 1 are two short more or less parallel diagonal lines.
Prof. Horsford: Eben Norton Horsford. See Key to Correspondents.
new poem about the banished people: According to The Friends' Intelligencer 41 (1884) pp. 436-7, the dedication of the Shelter Island monument on the Horsford property in Shelter Island, NY took place in July of 1884 (309-11). Whittier's "Banished from Massachusetts" was read for the occasion. Whittier had written the poem in 1883 and apparently shared it with Jewett and with Horsford, though it was not published until 1886, in St. Gregory's Guest and Recent Poems.
Shelter Island: A Long Island, New York village, the summer home of the Horsford family.
the persecuted friends and their histories: Whittier's "Banished from Massachusetts" is a narrative of persecuted Quakers (Friends) finding asylum at Shelter Island in 1660.
New England Judged": The full title of this book by George Bishop (d. 1668) is New-England Judged, by the spirit of the Lord: In two parts. First, containing a brief relation of the sufferings of the people call'd Quakers in New-England, from the time of their first arrival there, in the year 1656, to the year 1660 ... In answer to the declaration of their persecutors apologizing for the same, MDCLIX. Second part, being a farther relation of the cruel and bloody sufferings of the people call'd Quakers in New-England, continued from anno 1660, to anno 1665. Beginning with the sufferings of William Leddra, whom they put to death.
Oak Knoll: Richard Cary says: "In 1875 Whittier's cousins, the Misses Johnson and Abby J. Woodman, purchased a farm of sixty acres in Danvers and invited him to make his home there whenever he wished. The place was notable for beautiful lawns, orchards, gardens, and grapevines. Whittier suggested the name of 'Oak Knoll,' which was immediately adopted."
Amesbury: Whittier's family home was in Amesbury, MA.
Page 5 on letterhead: In the top right corner, probably in another hand, is the date: 19 March 1884.
Wizard's Son: Margaret Oliphant (1828-1897) was the popular Scottish author of The Wizard's Son (1884). The novel was serialized in Macmillan's Magazine, November 1882 through March 1884 (v. 47-9). Wikipedia.
Beginning in March 1884, Oliphant's The Covenanter's Daughter appeared in eight installments in the Youth's Companion. The introduction notes: "The circumstances of the following story, which are strictly true, occurred during the reign of James II., in what is called the time of the persecution in Scotland; when the Church of the Nation, the Presbyterian Church established at the Revolution, was cruelly oppressed...."
Phebe: Phebe Woodman (1869-1953), adopted daughter of Whittier's cousin Abby Johnson Woodman (1828-1921). See Letters of John Greenleaf Whittier v. 1, p. 337.
My story: Jewett refers to her novel, A Marsh Island, which began to appear in Atlantic Monthly in January of 1885.
A.F. Annie Adams Fields. Key to Correspondents.
Prof. Wood: Probably John George Wood (1827-1889). He became a popular writer and lecturer on natural history, in addition to his Anglican church work. In 1883-4, he presented the Lowell Lectures in Boston.
Drummond's Natural Law in the Spiritual World: Scottish biologist and evangelist, Henry Drummond (1851-1897), published his book in 1883.
Gen. Gordon: British Major-General Charles George Gordon (1833-1885). Whittier's admiration for Gordon probably was influenced in part by his efforts to suppress the slave trade when he was Governor-General of Sudan during the 1870s. He was killed at Khartoum on 26 January 1885.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library of Harvard University, Cambridge, Pickard-Whittier papers I. Letters to John Greenleaf Whittier Jewett, Sarah Orne, 1849-1909. 17 letters; [1882]-1883., [1882]-1883. Box: 3 Identifier: MS Am 1844, (169).
Another slightly different transcription is held in transcriptions from mixed repositories, Letters from Sarah Orne Jewett, 1875-1890, folder 63, Burton Trafton Jewett Research Collection. New transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
John Greenleaf Whittier to Sarah Orne Jewett
Amesbury
3 Mo. 22
[ 1884 ]
[ 1884 ]
My dear Sarah Jewett
I was heartily glad to get thy letter, bright and pleasant as thyself, in the storm of day before yesterday when the dismalest of nights was closing upon us. It amused me to think of thy reading the quaint old volume of "Bishop's New England Judges".*
[ Page 2 ]
I read it by the kitchen firelight long ago. I hope Prof. Horsford* will be able to get Abbey's drawing of the Banished Quakers* from which the engraving in Harper's was made. My little poem was written before I had seen Prof. C.* and heard his account of the Friends to whom the lord of Shelter Manor gave help.* I afterwards wrote an additional sonnet but too late for the paper,
[ Page 3 ]
in which I alluded to Sylvester & his isle of refuge. I shall send him a copy of it. A friend of mine tells me that at a recent gathering of Vassar girls it was agreed to vote for such authors as they would wish to be, and every vote was given for Sarah O. Jewett. This speak{s} well for Vassar.*
Did I tell thee that we had in our place a few years ago a "New Parishioner" almost identical with thine.* An old farmer who reads everything, told me he thought thee must have heard of our adventurer.
[ Page 4 ]
I must have thee at Amesbury some time.A note from dear Annie Fields informs me that Prof Wood* is to be your guest on First day.* I am glad of it for he is a reliable man, and his thought & experience must be worth knowing.
I think thy heroine must make her profession a solemn & imperative duty-- an "enthusiasm of humanity" -- too potent for even love to overcome.* It must awaken sacrifice & renunciation; and perhaps her very affection may hold her back from giving only a part of herself to the beloved object, and in the work & engrossment of her mission subjects even the
[ Written up the left margin of page 4
]
patience of love to a hard strain. With love to A.F.
thy affectionate friend
John G Whittier
Notes
3 Mo. 22, 1884: The transcriber dates this letter tentatively in 1884 on 22 August (8 Mo. 22, in the Quaker style). Ample evidence in the notes below confirms that 1884 is the correct year for this letter. However, the manuscript is confusing; Whittier seems to have written a 3 with so much flourish that it looks very much like an 8. Almost certainly, this letter responds to Jewett's letter to Whittier of 19 March.
"Bishop's New England Judges": Whittier refers to New-England Judged, by the Spirit of the Lord by George Bishop (d. 1668). This book offers an account of the persecution of Quakers in New England during 1656-1660. The volume includes several references to Lawrence and Cassandra Southwick, Quakers exiled from Massachusetts, who went to Shelter Island, NY for refuge (see especially, pp. 413 and 486). See following notes.
Prof. Horsford: Eben Norton Horsford (see Key to Correspondents) who inherited the Sylvester Manor on Shelter Island, off the east coast of Long Island, New York. There a group of banished Quakers sought shelter at the home of Nathaniel Sylvester (1610-1680) in 1660. Horsford designed a monument to Sylvester, the emigrant from England to Shelter Island who gave his name to Sylvester Manor. According to Mac Griswold in The Manor: Three Centuries at a Slave Plantation on Long Island (2013), the dedication of the Shelter Island monument took place in July of 1884 (309-11). Whittier's discussion of his poems, the illustration, and Professor Horsford refers to the plans for this monument.
Abbey's drawing: "Edwin Austin Abbey (April 1, 1852 - August 1, 1911) was an American muralist, illustrator, and painter." Wikipedia.
His painting, "Banished from Massachusetts" has not been located, though the illustration appears with 3 sonnets in Whittier's sequence of the same title in Harper's Weekly 28 (March 15, 1884). The poem appears on p. 166; the double-page illustration on pp. 172-3. The third sonnet in the final sequence of four did not appear in Harper's, but was added when the sequence was collected in St. Gregory's Guest and Recent Poems (1886).
The illustration is "a historical painting of the Southwicks, a Quaker family given shelter on Shelter Island by Nathaniel Sylvester. " The Publisher's Weekly 628 of 9 February 1884, p. 186 said: "Harper's Weekly will shortly publish a new poem by J. G. Whittier, entitled 'Banished,' to be accompanied by a beautiful drawing by Mr. Abbey, which represents a mournful group of Quakers driven from the Massachusetts shores by the persecutors of 1660."
In "Persecution of the Quakers in Essex County" (1897) Sidney Perley tells the story of the Southwicks (pp. 139-40), an elderly couple banished from Boston, their arduous sea journey to Shelter Island, and their deaths there soon after they arrived. Also among those prosecuted was Thomas Macy for giving hospitality to Quakers. (p. 140). However, Whittier takes poetic liberty in his sequence when he places Macy with the Southwicks as they flee to Shelter Island.
On a painting by E. A. Abbey. The General Court of Massachusetts enacted Oct. 19, 1658, that any person or persons of the cursed sect of Quakers should, on conviction of the same, be banished, on pain of death, from the jurisdiction of the commonwealth.
OVER the threshold of his pleasant home
Set in green clearings passed the exiled Friend,
In simple trust, misdoubting not the end.
Dear heart of mine! he said, the time has come
To trust the Lord for shelter. One long gaze 5
The goodwife turned on each familiar thing, --
The lowing kine, the orchard blossoming,
The open door that showed the hearth-fires blaze, --
And calmly answered, Yes, He will provide.
Silent and slow they crossed the homesteads bound, 10
Lingering the longest by their childs grave-mound.
Move on, or stay and hang! the sheriff cried.
They left behind them more than home or land,
And set sad faces to an alien strand.
Safer with winds and waves than human wrath, 15
With ravening wolves than those whose zeal for God
Was cruelty to man, the exiles trod
Drear leagues of forest without guide or path,
Or launching frail boats on the uncharted sea,
Round storm-vexed capes, whose teeth of granite ground 20
The waves to foam, their perilous way they wound,
Enduring all things so their souls were free.
Oh, true confessors, shaming them who did
Anew the wrong their Pilgrim Fathers bore!
For you the Mayflower spread her sail once more, 25
Freighted with souls, to all that duty bid
Faithful as they who sought an unknown land,
Oer wintry seas, from Hollands Hook of Sand!
So from his lost home to the darkening main,
Bodeful of storm, stout Macy held his way, 30
And, when the green shore blended with the gray,
His poor wife moaned: Let us turn back again.
Nay, woman, weak of faith, kneel down, said he,
And say thy prayers: the Lord himself will steer;
And led by Him, nor man nor devils I fear! 35
So the gray Southwicks, from a rainy sea,
Saw, far and faint, the loom of land, and gave
With feeble voices thanks for friendly ground
Whereon to rest their weary feet, and found
A peaceful death-bed and a quiet grave 40
Where, ocean-walled, and wiser than his age,
The lord of Shelter scorned the bigots rage.
Aquidnecks isle, Nantuckets lonely shores,
And Indian-haunted Narragansett saw
The way-worn travellers round their camp-fire draw, 45
Or heard the plashing of their weary oars.
And every place whereon they rested grew
Happier for pure and gracious womanhood,
And men whose names for stainless honor stood,
Founders of States and rulers wise and true. 50
The Muse of history yet shall make amends
To those who freedom, peace, and justice taught,
Beyond their dark age led the van of thought,
And left unforfeited the name of Friends.
O mother State, how foiled was thy design! 55
The gain was theirs, the loss alone was thine.
Image of the Abbey illustration from Harper's
Weekly
Prof. C.: Professor C has not been identified.
speak{s} well for Vassar: Details of this event at Vassar, the women's college founded in 1861, have not been located.
Whittier appears to have written "speak," but it is possible the word ends with a very small "s" in the manuscript.
"New Parishioner": Jewett's story, "A New Parishioner" appeared in Atlantic Monthly (51:475-493), April 1883, and was collected in The Mate of the Daylight the same year.
Annie Fields: Annie Adams Fields. See Key to Correspondents.
Prof. Wood: Probably John George Wood (1827-1889). He became a popular writer and lecturer on natural history, in addition to his Anglican church work. In 1883-4, he presented the Lowell Lectures in Boston. In an obituary in Light v. 9 (1889), p. 115, he was described as "a Spiritualist of much and varied experience, ... his knowledge dated from the earliest days of the movement."
First day: In the Quaker calendar, Sunday was "First Day."
thy heroine: Whittier refers to Jewett's new novel, A Country Doctor, in which the protagonist, Nan Prince, foregoes the traditional married life for 19th-century American women in order to follow her calling as a physician. "Enthusiasm of humanity" was a popular phrase in American religious writing in the late 19th century; the origin of the phrase is uncertain.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the South Berwick Public Library, South Berwick, ME. Transcription by John Richardson. Annotated by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Eben Norton Horsford
Sunday morning
[March 1884]
[March 1884]
[ Begin letterhead ]
148. Charles Street.
Boston.
[ End letterhead ]
148. Charles Street.
Boston.
[ End letterhead ]
Dear Prof. Horsford
We both thank you many times for the papers and your kind remembrance -- and I am looking forward to our Danvers pilgrimage -- Mr. Whittier* is still at Amesbury. I should like to go there to see him although it is an hours journey beyond Danvers -- and I hope
[ Page 2 ]
within a week or so to tell you about the plan --
-- I was sorry I did not see you yesterday for we were just going to Doll and Richards's to see the Ross Turner pictures,* and it would have been so nice if you had gone with us -- The pictures are very beautiful -- and especially the great one
[ Page 3 ]
of the Salute in Venice* which faces you as you go in the door -- We fairly worshipped it! and Mrs. Fields* said in a hurry that it was the most beautiful picture in Boston -- It is so golden and so light! I do want Mrs. Horsford to see it -- She asked me to tell her about this exhibition -- but with all
[ Page 4 ]
for Mr. Turner's work we had no idea he would have anything as fine as this ----
I have been at home this week and the snow was ever so deep! Do give my dear love to all.
Yours affectionately
Sarah O. Jewett.
Sarah O. Jewett.
I have not said anything about the Abbey picture and the poem* but we can talk about them --
Notes
1884: The first transcriber of this letter, John W. Willoughby, places it between those of 1881 and 1884. Other letters to Horsford and Whittier from March 1884 suggest that this letter is part of a series dealing with Whittier's poem "Banished from Massachusetts."
Danvers ... Mr. Whittier ... Amesbury: Danvers and Amesbury, MA both were homes of John Greenleaf Whittier. See Key to Correspondents.
Doll and Richard's ... Ross Turner pictures: The Los Angeles County Museum of Art says:
Ross Sterling Turner [1847-1914] was a painter, watercolorist, and illustrator, active in the Boston area, known for his landscapes and floral subjects. ... Loosely associated with the "Duveneck boys" after about 1879, Turner painted in Venice and Florence, and he also worked in Rome. In 1882 he settled in Boston, exhibiting more watercolors than oil paintings. He was closely associated with Childe Hassam, becoming known for his impressionist watercolor paintings of gardens. He married in 1885 and moved to Salem, Massachusetts, but maintained a Boston studio until 1903.... He was active as an instructor in the Boston area, teaching privately, at Grundmann Studios, at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and after 1909 at the Massachusetts Normal Art School. Turner wrote on watercolor technique and other art subjects. In 1899 he exhibited watercolors of Mexican scenes painted during a trip in 1898.According to the Archives of American Art, the "Doll & Richards gallery originated in Boston in 1866 as an art gallery and framing shop owned by Charles E. Hendrickson, E. Adam Doll, and Joseph Dudley Richards. The gallery was a well-known Boston establishment for over 100 years that represented William Stanley Haseltine, Winslow Homer, William Morris Hunt, and Andrew Wyeth, among many other notable American painters, sculptors, and printmakers."
The Banks Gallery says: "In 1883, Turner settled in Boston, exhibiting his watercolors and oils at the Boston Art Club and annually at Doll and Richards gallery on Newbury Street. He entered the intimate circle of Childe Hassam and the artistic community surrounding Celia Thaxter at Appledore, where he painted gardens in short, quick, colorful strokes that are similar to Hassam's style."
Salute: It is not yet certain which painting appeared in the Doll and Richard's exhibit Jewett and Fields saw. "View to San Giorgio Maggiore, Venice," which is attributed to Turner, gives an idea of what they may have seen.
View to San Giorgio Maggiore, Venice
Attributed to Ross Sterling Turner
Courtesy of Skinner Auctions.
the Abbey picture and the poem: Eben Horsford designed a monument to Nathaniel Sylvester, the emigrant from England to Shelter Island who gave his name to Sylvester Manor; the monument is referred to in this letter.
For details on the E. A. Abby illustration and Whittier's poem, "Banished,"see the notes for Whittier to Sarah Orne Jewett of 22 March.
"Edwin Austin Abbey (April 1, 1852 - August 1, 1911) was an American muralist, illustrator, and painter." Wikipedia.
Mrs. Fields: Annie Adams Fields. 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 transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Eben Norton Horsford
148 Charles St
Saturday
[ 23 March 1884 ]*
NotesSaturday
[ 23 March 1884 ]*
Dear Prof. Horsford
I was afraid that I did not make Kate* understand that it is tomorrow night (Sunday) at half past six that we hope to have you and Prof. Wood* here. I am so glad you can come.
I was afraid that I did not make Kate* understand that it is tomorrow night (Sunday) at half past six that we hope to have you and Prof. Wood* here. I am so glad you can come.
Yours lovingly
Sarah.
Sarah.
23 March 1884: Whittier to Jewett of 22 March 1884 mentions the coming Sunday visit of Professor Wood. See note below.
Kate: Horsford's daughter. See Key to Correspondents.
Prof. Wood: Probably John George Wood (1827-1889). He became a popular writer and lecturer on natural history, in addition to his Anglican church work. In 1883-4, he presented the Lowell Lectures in Boston.
The manuscript of this 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. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to John Greenleaf Whittier
148 Charles St.
Friday evening
Friday evening
[ Spring 1884 ]*
My dear friend
"I have been long a reader and admirer of your writings, and I take my pen at this time [ to corrected ] ask you to furnish me with your autograph and any sentiment you please" -- If I could choose I should like best to know if you found Amesbury had wintered well -- and if the snow is as nearly gone as it is here -- and if you have missed us a little and
[ Page 2 ]
have had any idea how often we have thought of you and spoken of you, here in Charles St --
I have not much news to tell you -- only that our A. F.* is better than when you saw her last, and yesterday she and Mary and I went out to Mrs. Ole Bulls* to lunch and had a very pleasant time -- Miss Longfellow* was there too -- but what delighted us more than anything [ were corrected ]
[ Page 3 ]
the blue birds in the Elmwood trees -- singing as if it were going to be as warm as July today instead of cold enough to bite ones ears off!! -- Coming home we stopped at the college to see Boylston Beals* room, and we had a great deal of fun, for he is a proud freshman and his Aunt Annie has not been out to visit him before --
Mary went away from us this afternoon to make another visit in town and
[ Page 4 ]
we miss her very much -- it was so pleasant too, for me to have her here -- -- I must tell you that Farmer Finch* has got into port at Harpers. And now I am writing a Christmas story* which they wanted for the Wide-Awake, and I am trying to see it in a proper frame of mind! I should as soon get a sleigh out [ to corrected ] go to the beach in August -- but we will hope for luck! Good-bye! And T. L.* sends her dear love to you with mine.
Yours affectionately
Sarah ---
Sarah ---
Notes
1884: This year is penciled tentatively in another hand, but it is correct, as shown in the notes below. In the upper left corner of page 1 are two short more or less parallel diagonal lines.
The opening paragraph seems to suggest the letter was written in the early spring, but rest of the letter is ambiguous about the season.
any sentiment you please: It seems likely Jewett quotes from the standard autograph request letter to hint to Whittier that she would like to receive a letter from him.
A.F.: Annie Adams Fields. See Key to Correspondents.
Mary ... Mrs. Ole Bull: Mary Rice Jewett and Sara Chapman Thorp Bull. See Key to Correspondents.
Miss Longfellow: While one cannot be certain which of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's daughters Jewett refers to, this presumably would be the eldest of his unmarried daughters in 1884, Alice. See Key to Correspondents.
Elmwood trees: Jewett refers to the birthplace and estate of American poet, James Russell Lowell (1819-1891).
Boylston Beals room: Bolyston Adams Beal (1865-1944) was the son of Annie Fields's sister, Louisa Jane Adams (1836-1920) and James Henry Beal (1823-1904). After graduating from Harvard, Beal became an influential Boston lawyer.
That Beal is a Harvard freshman complicates dating this letter, for he graduated from Harvard in 1886; he would have been a freshman in the fall of 1882, a junior in the fall of 1884.
Farmer Finch ... Harpers: Jewett's "Farmer Finch" appeared in Harper's 70 (January 1885).
a Christmas story ... Wide-Awake: Jewett's bibliography shows no Christmas story in Wide Awake between 1882 and 1885, nor, indeed, did any story appear in Wide Awake near the end of 1884. Her story "The Church Mouse" was in Wide Awake 18 (February 1884).
T.L.: One of Jewett's nicknames for Annie Fields was T.L.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library of Harvard University, Cambridge, Pickard-Whittier papers I. Letters to John Greenleaf Whittier Jewett, Sarah Orne, 1849-1909. 17 letters; [1882]-1883., [1882]-1883. Box: 3 Identifier: MS Am 1844, (169).
Another slightly different transcription is held in transcriptions from mixed repositories, Letters from Sarah Orne Jewett, 1875-1890, folder 63, Burton Trafton Jewett Research Collection. New transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Annie Adams Fields
Thursday morning
[ Spring 1884 ]
(Dear Fuff*[ Spring 1884 ]
Thank you for your nice letter of this morning{.} I think that the table cover is too bright -- at least for another color in that room. It is certainly handsome for just the right place.
Poor little Katie Coolidge!* I think that her fierce will makes her so many things but
[ Page 2 ]
peace of mind is a great joy!) It is fretting and friction that wears out machinery, not working and spinning -- I am really eager to get a little closer to[ Page 3 ]
My plum trees haven't wintered very well which is a disappointment. It is strange to see what things have fared hard in the snow. Your relations* have gnawed the bark off roadside willows and wild apple trees as if good juicy bark had been all their living. Deep snows are hard on the mice -- poor little field mice -- (cousins of a dear friend!)*I must
[ Page 4 ]
(run to the post office with this so good bye --from Pinny).*
Notes
Spring 1884: That the season is spring seems clear from the content. The year is written in another hand at the top right of page 1. There seems to be no further support in the letter for that date.
Red parenthesis marks in this letter are penciled in another hand, presumably by Annie Fields.
Fuff: A Jewett nickname for Annie Fields. See Key to Correspondents.
Katie Coolidge: Probably this is Katherine/Catherine Scollay Parkman Coolidge. See Key to Correspondents. This situation to which Jewett refers is not yet known.
your relations: As Jewett makes clear below, she refers to one of her nicknames for Fields, Mouse.
friend!): The parentheses marks around this phrase are Jewett's, while the others in this letter seem penciled in by another hand. The dear friend is Fields, sometimes called "Mouse."
Pinny: Pinny Lawson (Pin), one of Jewett's nicknames.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library of Harvard University. 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).
Sarah Orne Jewett to Henry Oscar Houghton
148 Charles St. 2 April --
[ 1884 ]*
Dear Mr. Houghton
I have been thinking a good deal about the new book* -- and I believe I should like to have it squarer than the one we looked at. I think it is a good thing to have a new departure altogether! I should think the same print
[ Page 2 ]
would do -- only when the book is bound I should like to have a wider margin at the sides of the page, than there [ is ? ] in But Yet a Woman* -- Mrs. Whitman* and I talked about it today -- and I am delighted with her idea for the cover -- and this is part of it, for we both agreed. -----
[ Page 3 ]
Do you not think a thin paper would be best? I dont like a stout heavy book for a story --
If the other books are to be bound alike I think it would be better to use the side
[ Page 4 ]
done before I come back do you think? I should think the titles ought to match that on the Mate -- and it would not be much trouble [ for written over in ? ] making it a uniform edition. I hope I dont trouble the wrong person in writing you this but I have mislaid the letter about this last matter --
Thanking you for your kindness
Yours always sincerely
Sarah O. Jewett
Sarah O. Jewett
Notes
1884: This date is based upon the high probability that Jewett's topic is the publication of her 1884 novel, A Country Doctor. This choice is supported by her implication that her previous book was The Mate of the Daylight. See notes below.
On page 1 appears a note in another hand, in blue ink, beneath the return address: "Sarah O. Jewett."
On the bottom left of page 4, probably in the same ink are initials, probably F.J.G, for Francis Jackson Garrison. See Key to Correspondents.
But Yet a Woman: American author, Arthur Sherburne Hardy (1847-1930) published his popular first novel, But Yet a Woman in 1883.
Mrs. Whitman: Sarah Wyman Whitman. See Key to Correspondents.
Link to an image of Whitman's cover for A Country Doctor.
the Mate: Jewett's story collection, The Mate of the Daylight, appeared in 1883.
A Country Doctor (1884) was her next book. The new book in its first printing was squarer than the previous one, according to Weber & Weber, 18 cm. rather than 15.5 cm. How Jewett's other preferences were handled is uncertain, though presumably a physical examination of first editions would clarify.
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 Francis Jackson
Garrison
74 West 35th St.
[ April 1884 ]*
Dear Mr. Garrison
Of course I dont wish to be unreasonable and
I see that I planned something which would be not at all easy to
accomplish. I didn't understand any of the reasons against
a squarer book* -- though I had considered the reasons for it!
-- But there will not be anything to prevent our using thinner
paper, will there? So that the book
[ Page 2 ]
will not be so thick --
I hope to send ^all^ the copy within a week or [ ten corrected ] days -- I suppose that will be in good season though I can tell best by the amount of proof I get --
-- I did not mean to have the book so large as Playdays,* you know! -- that would have been disastrous for a story. And we wont arrange
[ Page 3 ]
any disasters of our own accord!
Yours most sincerely
Sarah O. Jewett
Sarah O. Jewett
Notes
1884: This date is a guess, supported by Jewett's discussion of the squareness of her book, which she probably began in her 2 April 1884 letter to H. O. Houghton.
In a letter of 22 April to John Greenleaf Whittier, Jewett confirms that she was in New York City during April and finished the proofs for A Country Doctor while in the city.
At the top right of page 1, under the return address, in blue ink and another hand: "Sarah O. Jewett". At the bottom left of page 3 appear the initials: F.J.G, for Francis Jackson Garrison.
Playdays: Play Days (1878) was Jewett's collection of stories for younger children.
It seems likely Jewett is speaking of plans for A Country Doctor (1884). It turns out that this novel, in its first printing, was squarer than the previous book, The Mate of the Daylight, according to Weber & Weber, 18 cm. rather than 15.5 cm. This width made it even wider than Play Days, which was 17.5 cm.
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 Louisa Loring Dresel
Thursday
[ April 1884 ]*
Dear Loulie[ April 1884 ]*
This postcard came for you today -- I hope it is not about some thing which might have been done before you left town -- We missed you very much after you went away and it seemed quite odd without you last evening. I did not get read to at all! -- though my having a big bundle
[ Page 2 ]
of proofs was one reason. Roger* came up and was very affectionate and interfered with the proofs a good deal until he grew sleepy. We have not heard a mew and nobody seems to have seen the poor cat, but she may turn up yet -- Mrs.
[ Page 3 ]
Fields* and I both send a great deal of love to our neighbours and dear Loulie. I most truly hope that you will have a pleasant summer. I hope too that your 'country neighbours{'} will be made happy by you as I have been in the snow-stormy town this winter.
Yours affectionately
S. O. J.
S. O. J.
Notes
April 1884: Other readers have placed speculative dates on this manuscript: 1885 and 1889. The basis for these dates is not known. Mentioning her dog Roger as being with her in Boston during a winter stay with Annie Fields indicates that the letter was composed between 1883 and 1889. That Jewett has a large quantity of proofs to work on in the spring, would suggest that she is working on a longer work that appeared during this period. The only book of the 1880s that Jewett finished during the spring was A Country Doctor, which appeared in June of 1884.
Roger: Jewett's Irish setter is mentioned in letters as early as 1881 and as late as 1889.
Mrs. Fields: Annie Adams Fields. 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.
Annie Adams Fields to Lilian Aldrich
Bethlehem, Pa April 22d
1884.
My dear duchess!
What did we do yesterday but buy some rugs in New York, of such beauty and cheapness that we think we ought to tell you of two we have left behind us in case you might like them.
There is a rug from Cachemir* for twelve dollars in dim yellows evidently of great age which we thought very beautiful and
[ Page 2 ]
could hardly leave behind us. Also for twenty=two* dollars a very long ^nine feet^ striped antique.
Of course if you have already found one for me I shall keep it gladly, but if you have not I shall get on admirably [ with corrected ] those we found yesterday. We are longing to show them to you -- also to give you the chance for the
[ Page 3 ]
two I have mentioned if you wish for them.
The address is
O. Alexander
6 East 64th Street.
We have just reached this quaint place -- I have not even ventured out into it so I can only send off this most utilitarian epistle with both our loves --
Ever your
Annie Fields.
Annie Fields.
Notes
Duchess: The Aldriches were whimsically nicknamed among their friends, the Duke and Duchess of Ponkapog. See Key to Correspondents.
Cachemir: This transcription is uncertain, but it seems likely Fields intended the French spelling of Kashmir, in India.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library of Harvard University: MS Am 1429, Box 6, Items 1446-1538. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to John Greenleaf Whittier
Bethlehem, Pa.
22 April 1884
22 April 1884
Dear friend
We are still remaining away but your letter found us today, to our great pleasure. And I was just making up my mind to send you Mrs. Oliphants story A Beleaguered City --* Perhaps you have read it, but [ we are written over I am ] so amazed with the beauty of it that [ I deleted ] ^we^ wish to make certain that you see it too -- It is really great. Dont return it. ----- I wish you were here with us -- we have spoken of you so
[ Page 2 ]
many times -- for though we were disappointed at first in finding such a bustling town where we expected a rural neighborhood -- we are more and more delighted with what we find of the old Moravian settlement.* We can easily pick it out from the newer town, and the Church and community houses are very interesting but most of all the old burial ground. [ On corrected ] one little stone we saw an epitaph ^beside the record^ -- a very uncommon thing --
[ Page 3 ]
and found that after the childs name it said How did the Saviour look? Right clean was his reply. It was an old stone and this touched us so very much -- It could only be a most simple and devout people who had cherished the vision, and kept the simple words. Doesnt it make you think of William Blake?*
We have been this afternoon to the Sisters house* and saw some old embroideries of the nuns manufacture and bought some candy of the quaint little creature [ whose altered from who ] ^sister^ made it -- They have an atom
[ Page 4 ]
of a shop in one end of their prim and threadbare best room. The window was full of plants and the hinges of the doors were fine old iron work and Sister Roses world* was so small that you could ^have^ walked round it in an afternoon if one side of it wasnt bounded by heaven -- -- There are beautiful high [ hills corrected ] covered with walnut and maple trees, but only the willows are very green yet --
I finished A Country Doctor* the last day I was in New York but I was busy almost all the time I was there -- I do hope you will like it -- but I am sometimes quite down hearted and need the next piece of work
[ Up the left margin and across the top
margin of page 1 ]
to cure me of worrying about this! It keeps reminding me of itself too, but I am pretty tired just now. The next is A Marsh Island* about the Essex neighborhood! A. F.* sends her dear love and thanks for your letter. Mrs. Taylor* is in Cambridge at Mr. Horace Scudders,* & she thinks that
[ Up the left margin and across the top
margin of page 1 ]
she would like the letters. The first she means A. F. Good-night! we send as much love as you will take.
Yours ever
S.O.J.*
S.O.J.*
Notes
Mrs. Oliphants story A Beleaguered City: Scottish novelist Margaret Oliphant (1828-1897) published her long ghost story, A Beleaguered City in 1879.
Moravian settlement: Wikipedia says: "On Christmas Eve in 1741, David Nitschmann and Count Nicolaus von Zinzendorf, leading a small group of Moravians, founded the mission community of Bethlehem along the banks of the Monocacy Creek by the Lehigh River in the colony of Pennsylvania. They came to set up missionary communities among the Native Americans and unchurched German-speaking Christians. They named the settlement after the Biblical town Bethlehem of Judea, the birthplace of Jesus."
How did the Saviour look? Right clean was his reply. ... William Blake: According to Publications of the Pennsylvania-German Society 21 (1912) p. 44, the grave with this marker in Bethlehem's Moravian cemetery is in Row VI: Boys and Men; it reads
"Sam. Sidney Smith, 1814-19, son of John Jac. Smith.
"How does our Savior Look?"
"Right Clean," was his reply.
The British Poet, William Blake (1747-1827) is the author of Songs of Innocence, in which a number of poems echo the tone of this epitaph.
the Sisters house: Moravians in their mission endeavors maintained separate dormitories for single males and females. It is not clear why Jewett characterizes them as nuns, though the "single sisters" at Bethlehem lived under "a special covenant of consecration to the service of the Lord," according to Elizabeth Fetter Lehman Myers in A Century of Moravian Sisters (1918), p. 19.
Sister Roses world: Myers mentions a Sister Rose, who worked at Bethlehem in the 18th Century. Whether this is the person to whom Jewett refers is not clear.
A Country Doctor: Jewett's novel, A Country Doctor, appeared in 1884.
A Marsh Island: Jewett's novel, A Marsh Island, appeared in 1885, the Atlantic serialization beginning in January.
A.F.: Annie Adams Fields. See Key to Correspondents.
Mrs. Taylor: Maria Hansen Taylor (1829- 1925), widow of the American poet Bayard Taylor (1825-1878), with Horace E. Scudder, edited Life and Letters of Bayard Taylor (1885). It appears that Mrs. Taylor wanted to include letters between Taylor, Whittier and Fields that were in Whittier's possession. Maria Taylor was the author of several books, notably on German literature.
Mr. Horace Scudders: Key to Correspondents.
S.O.J.: Part of this letter appears in Whittier's Relations to German Life and Thought, Americana Germanica Volume 20 by Iola Kay Eastburn (1915), pp. 59-60. A note indicates that the original was then in the possession of S. T. Pickard. The transcription varies in some details from the one provided here. It reads:
I wish you were here with us, we have spoken of you so many times -- for though we were disappointed at first in finding such a bustling town where we expected a rural neighborhood -- we are more and more delighted with what we find of the old Moravian settlement. One can easily pick it out from the newer town, and the church and community houses are very interesting, but most of all the old burial ground. On one little stone we saw an epitaph beside the record -- a very uncommon thing -- and found that after the childs name it said: 'How did the Saviour look? "Right clean" was his reply.' It was an old stone and this touched us so very much. It could only be a most simple and devout people who had cherished the vision, and kept the simple words. Doesnt it make you think of William Blake? We have been this afternoon to the sisters house and saw some old embroideries of the nuns manufacture and bought some candy of the quaint little creature whose sister made it. They have an atom of a shop in one end of their prim and threadbare best room. The window was full of plants and the hinges of the doors were fine old iron work and Sister Roses world was so small that you could have walked around it in an afternoon, if one side of it wasnt bounded by heaven. There are beautiful high hills covered with walnut and maple trees, but only the willows are very green yet.The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library of Harvard University, Cambridge, Pickard-Whittier papers I. Letters to John Greenleaf Whittier Jewett, Sarah Orne, 1849-1909. 17 letters; [1882]-1883., [1882]-1883. Box: 3 Identifier: MS Am 1844, (169).
Another slightly different transcription is held in transcriptions from mixed repositories, Letters from Sarah Orne Jewett, 1875-1890, folder 63, Burton Trafton Jewett Research Collection. New transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Emma Harding Claflin Ellis
Bethlehem, Pa
22 April
[ 1884 ]*
Dear Mrs. Ellis
Thank you for your note -- It was so pleasant to see you again though not to have one chance for particulars grieves me sore, when we were neighbors for such an uncommon length of time! -- I hardly feel as if I had been in New York at all, at least until the last day or two -- for I could think of nothing but A Country Doctor* and indeed I was writing almost every hour -- I think
[ Page 2 ]
we shall stop as we go back and I shall hope to see you then.
It is so amazing to us here, for we hied us to Bethlehem because we '[were ?] of a notion' that it was a lovely rural neighborhood where we could be out of doors a great deal and here we are in a flourishing Pennsylvania town, and a first class suburban hotel with electric bells and gas and a 'lectric light ['forninst' ?] the windows! But there is still the old Moravian Bethlehem*
[ Page 3 ]
around which this brisk place has gathered, and we can find all the pieces of it and [put corrected] it together again as soon as we go out to walk --
Do give my dear love to Mrs. Claflin* and tell her that 'little Sarah'* thinks of her very often having so lately gone through exactly the same kind of misery. But somehow life is a great deal pleasanter this side of it than it was before. I look back at my long illness as if a night between two days -- Mrs. Fields* sends
[ Page 4 ]
a great deal of love to you both and so do I.
Yours always affectionately
Sarah O. Jewett
Notes Sarah O. Jewett
1884: Jewett reported on her stay in Bethlehem, PA in a letter to John Greenleaf Whittier of 22 April 1884.
A Country Doctor: Jewett's novel appeared in 1884.
Moravian Bethlehem: Wikipedia says: "On Christmas Eve in 1741, David Nitschmann and Count Nicolaus von Zinzendorf, leading a small group of Moravians, founded the mission community of Bethlehem along the banks of the Monocacy Creek by the Lehigh River in the colony of Pennsylvania. They came to set up missionary communities among the Native Americans and unchurched German-speaking Christians. They named the settlement after the Biblical town Bethlehem of Judea, the birthplace of Jesus."
Mrs. Claflin: Mary Bucklin Davenport Claflin. See Key to Correspondents.
little Sarah: Jewett refers to herself.
Mrs. Fields: Annie Adams Fields. See Key to Correspondents.
Te 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 Francis Jackson
Garrison
Bethlehem Pa.
22 April
[ 1884 ]*
Dear Mr. Garrison
Thank you for your note which I have just received -- I am sorry to be so far from the press for of course it will delay the book considerably, but I need the holiday more than ever, for I wrote steadily the greater part of every day while I was in New York -- I supposed that I should have the proofs faster -- you see I have been gone almost
Thank you for your note which I have just received -- I am sorry to be so far from the press for of course it will delay the book considerably, but I need the holiday more than ever, for I wrote steadily the greater part of every day while I was in New York -- I supposed that I should have the proofs faster -- you see I have been gone almost
[ Page 2 ]
a fortnight and have only read the first few pages. Perhaps the printers would not resent being hurried up a little? -- I thought I should get a good share of the proofs done ^in New York^ and then it wouldn't make so much trouble if I were farther away for a week. I will 'catch up' fast enough with the press by reading every day just as much as it
[ Page 3 ]
can let me have --
I wonder if it isn't time to say something about it in the newspapers, or aren't we near enough to the [ cover ? ]? -- I would rather have it called A. Story* than A Novel -- which may be a distinction without a difference -- Will you please tell Mr. Houghton that Mrs. Fields* and I found the New York rooms in 17th st. very pleasant and [ deleted word ] send him many
[ Page 4 ]
thanks for the hospitality -- I think I am safe in asking you to have the next proofs after you receive this letter sent to the Arlington Hotel Washington* -- Mrs. Fields joins me in sending you very kindest regards and I am yours sincerely
S. O. Jewett
Notes
1884: Jewett spent a week in Bethlehem, PA in April 1884.
At the top right of page 1, in blue ink and another hand: "Sarah O. Jewett". At the bottom left of page 4 appear Garrison's penciled initials: F.J.G.
A. Story: The period before the A seems distinct, though its purpose is less clear. Jewett refers to her novel, A Country Doctor (1884). She probably means she prefers that her book be called a story rather than a novel in advertising copy. In the contemporary ads I have viewed, it is called a novel.
Mr. Houghton ... Mrs. Fields: Henry Oscar Houghton and Annie Adams Fields. See Key to Correspondents.
Arlington Hotel Washington: The Arlington Hotel (1868-1912) in Washington, D.C. was in its day the "most opulent" hotel in the city.
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.
Celia Thaxter to Annie Adams Fields
98. Pinkney --
Sat. A. M.
[ April - May 1884 ]*
Sat. A. M.
[ April - May 1884 ]*
Saturday* A. M
Dearest Annie:
Rev. Wood & Rev. Savage* came to see me
yesterday morning & sat together in my room two hours &
a half -- it was after twelve when they left & I had just
time to snatch a bit of lunch & get off to my lesson, (which
I missed last Friday week because I sat with Mr. T. while Roland
& his Aunt Lucy* went to the last rehearsal) & then I
had to leave the studio at 3, because I had to go to Mr T.
earlier, for he has not been so well, for some days, suffering
intensely, from the pains in his limbs & the mocking
morphine relieving for the moment only to shut despair down on
him with its distressing results -- ruining digestion &
appetite -- Oh dear -- I think it
[ Page 2 ]
is dreadful -- a pull for Roland too, that makes me shrink to think of -- I came over this A. M. for I felt so anxious, at a little after 7 -- The report is, a pretty good night, but morphine, of course, had to be given --
In my present state of mind nothing less
than reaching after the dead would move me enough to do what we
propose doing -- I dont know if I told you, Mrs Ole* proposes
coming in on Wed. & Friday nights & staying at the W so
that we can go together, to the church of the Unity --* Joanna
Rotch cannot get so far & back two nights in the week. She
is not young, & the Binneys are both ill, staying with her
-- But she is of course intensely interested in our venture. Mr
Darrah* wants to come, & will, I suppose. Mr Savage
furnishes the rest. I dont know who, but I trust him -- Mr Wood
was entirely charming yesterday. I had no
[ Page 3 ]
idea he could be so delightful as he showed himself in my sky parlor with only Mr Savage & myself.I shall wait till after our first sitting, which I hope will be on Wed. evening next (& I trust poor Mr. T. will be well enough for me to be there) & then I shall run in & tell you & Pinny* all about it -- if you are not gone. I dont imagine however that anything will happen for the first two weeks at all -- Shall be surprised if any thing does. Mr. Wood said they were never allowed in their sittings to utter the words "strange!" or "extraordinary!" for a tremendous bang always followed the words, no matter by whom uttered, as if to say, "No! it is not extraordinary!"
Dear love to you & Pin
Your C.
Notes
1884: Original transcriber EKC places this letter
in the weeks before the 31 May death of Thaxter's husband, Levi.
The year is confirmed by the presence of John George Wood, who
visited the United States during this time. See notes
below.
Rev. Wood & Rev. Savage: Rev. Wood almost certainly
is the British naturalist and cleric John George Wood (1827-1889), author of
books on botany, zoology, natural history, and Biblical animals.
In an obituary in Light v. 9 (1889), p. 115, he was
described as "a Spiritualist of much and varied experience, ...
his knowledge dated from the earliest days of the movement."
Rev. Wood was in the Boston area in 1883-4 to
give the Lowell Lectures. The Christian World 29 notes
that he attended a dinner for Henry George in New York on about
7 May ("A Dinner to Henry George" 8 May 1884, p. 450).
Minot Judson Savage (1841-1918) was an
American Unitarian clergyman and "psychical researcher," serving
the Church of the Unity in Boston (1874-1896). He published
several books on psychic research, including Psychics: Facts and Theories
(1893).
See Terry Heller, "Communing with the Dead:
Celia Thaxter, John Greenleaf Whittier, Sarah Orne Jewett, Annie
Adams Fields." SOJTP 2020.
Roland & his Aunt Lucy: Roland is Thaxter's youngest
son. Lucy Thaxter Titcomb (1818-1908) was a
sister of Thaxter's husband, Levi Thaxter.
Mrs Ole: Sara Chapman Thorp Bull. See Key to Correspondents.
Presumably, she plans to stay at the Winthrop
House on Bowdoin Street in Boston, a quiet and inexpensive hotel
used by John Greenleaf Whittier and other literary visitors to
Boston.
It appears that Mrs. Bull is among those
planning to attend the Spiritualist sessions of which Thaxter
speaks.
Joanna Rotch ... the Binneys ... Mr Darrah: Joanna Rotch
(1826-1911) of Milton, MA., was an associate member of the American Society for Psychical Research in
1885-9. Her niece, daughter of her sister Elizabeth
Angier (1815-1884), was Josephine Angier (1840-1914), who married
William Binney, Sr. (1825-1909).
Probably this Mr. Darrah is Robert K. Darrah
(1818-1885), who, according to Memorial Biographies of the New
England Historical Society, was a Boston merchant
who became appraiser at the Custom House in 1861 (p. 211).
Annie Fields wrote an obituary piece on Mr. Darrah in 1886.
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 4 (210-229)
https://ark.digitalcommonwealth.org/ark:/50959/qb98p381q
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Francis Jackson Garrison
Old Point Pomfret*
2 May 1884
Dear Mr. Garrison
Mr. Houghton was right about the portrait. I did say that I could not get another picture which seemed in the least satisfactory -- and so I wanted that used -- I made two or three attempts.
Every one has liked that photograph more than any other which I have
[ Page 2 ]
had taken, so I am afraid the artist must make the best of it -- I return the copyright contract -- and hope to return the proofs tomorrow but I am really having great trouble in getting them -- for though I leave money with the hotel clerks for the stamps, I am sure to get a notification that the
[ Page 3 ]
-- I should like to have my copyright account when I get back -- [ deleted letter ] so that I shall know just how it stands --
Yours sincerely
Sarah O. Jewett.
Sarah O. Jewett.
Notes
In the top left corner in another hand and ink, appears: Sarah O. Jewett. At the bottom center of page 3, penciled in another hand, are the initials: F.J.G.
On the back of page one, Jewett has written "Mr. Garrison," suggesting that this note was folded and delivered with the contract she mentions.
Promfret: This transcription is uncertain. It appears, however, that Jewett writes from Pomfret, CT.
In May of 1884, it seems likely that Jewett was working on proofs for A Country Doctor, which appeared a few weeks later.
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 Mary Noailles Murfree
[ Begin letterhead ]
148. Charles Street
Boston.
[ End letterhead ]
19 May 1884
148. Charles Street
Boston.
[ End letterhead ]
19 May 1884
My dear Mr. Murfree*
I feel very ungrateful -- at least that I have made myself appear so because I have let so much time slip by without thanking you for your stories --
I have taken great pleasure in them as they came out in the magazines, but when I found them all together
[ Page 2 ]
they seemed quite new and I had all the pleasure over again -- As for the Star in the Valley,* I have read it several times and [ always corrected ] with new delight. It seems more and more touching and excellent in [ the corrected ] tone and fineness and strength -- I do not think one often meets so striking a single figure in print, now a days,
[ Page 3 ]
as that poor your girl, and the story of her [ deleted word ] courage is most appealing -- I cannot begin to tell you how glad I am that you wrote ^that^ [ deleted word ] -- and indeed, all your stories -- and I send you my most sincere thanks
Yours very truly
Sarah O. Jewett
Sarah O. Jewett
Notes
Murfree: Jewett's handwriting seems clear in addressing this letter to "Mr." Murfree. Jewett's choice is complicated in several ways. It is not clear whether Jewett simply made a writing error, or was somehow unaware of Murfree's gender, or was being playful, given that Murfree had previously pretended to be a man, Charles E. Craddock.
A further complication arises from the date of this letter. Jewett seems clearly to have dated it in 1884, but multiple sources, including the Tennessee Encyclopedia, agree that Murfree first revealed her given name to Atlantic editor Thomas Bailey Aldrich in May 1885, a full year after the date of this letter.
Valley: Murfree's "The Star in the Valley" appeared in Atlantic Monthly in 1878 and was collected in In the Tennesee Mountains (1884).
This transcription is from a photocopy held by the Maine Women Writer's Collection, University of New England, Letters from Sarah Orne Jewett, 1875-1890, Box 4, Folder 159, Burton Trafton Jewett Research Collection. Trafton's notes indicate that the manuscript is held by the Robert W. Woodruff Library at Emory University, presumably in the Mary Noailles Murfree papers, 1877-1928.
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Murfree: Jewett's handwriting seems clear in addressing this letter to "Mr." Murfree. Jewett's choice is complicated in several ways. It is not clear whether Jewett simply made a writing error, or was somehow unaware of Murfree's gender, or was being playful, given that Murfree had previously pretended to be a man, Charles E. Craddock.
A further complication arises from the date of this letter. Jewett seems clearly to have dated it in 1884, but multiple sources, including the Tennessee Encyclopedia, agree that Murfree first revealed her given name to Atlantic editor Thomas Bailey Aldrich in May 1885, a full year after the date of this letter.
Valley: Murfree's "The Star in the Valley" appeared in Atlantic Monthly in 1878 and was collected in In the Tennesee Mountains (1884).
This transcription is from a photocopy held by the Maine Women Writer's Collection, University of New England, Letters from Sarah Orne Jewett, 1875-1890, Box 4, Folder 159, Burton Trafton Jewett Research Collection. Trafton's notes indicate that the manuscript is held by the Robert W. Woodruff Library at Emory University, presumably in the Mary Noailles Murfree papers, 1877-1928.
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Annie Adams Fields
[ May 1884 ]*
[ missing material ]
and if we had waited until tomorrow our visit would have been very unsatisfactory. ).* I let Mary* leave me at the Barrell girls 'lane"* and after a nice call upon old Miss Mary I walked all the way down the harbour side to Norwoods* -- It is very pretty just at the edge of the river; the bank is high and steep with a wall at its foot -- the lilacs hang over the wall while higher up is a row of old houses -- overlooking the water -- The tide goes way out and leaves a fine broad pavement of little stones, and as I walk
and if we had waited until tomorrow our visit would have been very unsatisfactory. ).* I let Mary* leave me at the Barrell girls 'lane"* and after a nice call upon old Miss Mary I walked all the way down the harbour side to Norwoods* -- It is very pretty just at the edge of the river; the bank is high and steep with a wall at its foot -- the lilacs hang over the wall while higher up is a row of old houses -- overlooking the water -- The tide goes way out and leaves a fine broad pavement of little stones, and as I walk
[ Page 2 ]
[ Page 3 ]
clutter of worn out boat and ship furniture as lies about on the river bank where these lanes come down from the main road! Yes, and the [schooner corrected ] John and Frank and the schooner Gal-nare! sometimes are in port alongside these tottering wharves, and make very picturesque appearance in the summer boarders' sketches --
Cora* goes to town Tuesday. John was there, very nice too, and Mr. Clark was coming to spend Sunday -- He lent* me Vernon Lee's novel Miss Brown* and I read it last evening, sitting up until eleven o'clock ladies?
[ Page 4 ]
I longed to talk to [you corrected ] about it -- it is so unconscionably long and needlessly nasty -- but my dear Fuff* -- there is a spark of greatness in [ it written over something ] and I am going to expect great things of Vernon Lee as Miss Preston* says we must -- The characters talk much alike -- Mifs Brown who is an educated all-of-a-sudden nursing maid expresses herself from the start as
[ Up the left margin and across the top margin of the first page ]
tell you all the rest I have to say about it, this letter is growing so long and I must go over to make Uncle William* a call --Goodnight darling darling [ unrecognized
word ]
from your Pin --
from your Pin --
Notes
May 1884: This date is speculative, based mainly upon Jewett reporting on her reading of Vernon Lee's Miss Brown, published that year. See notes below. Her visit to Mary Barrell shows that the letter could not have been composed later than June 1889. By then, Vernon Lee had published four more books.
unsatisfactory. ): This parenthesis mark is double, once in black pencil, once in green, followed by the second period in black pencil. In green, Fields seems to have drawn a light line toward the top of the page.
Mary: Mary Rice Jewett. See Key to Correspondents.
Barrell girls 'lane": The Barrell sisters, spinster friends of the Jewett family. See Paula Blanchard, Sarah Orne Jewett, especially p. 223. Mary (c. 1804 - June 6, 1889) and Elizabeth Barrell (c. 1799 - November 12, 1883) lived in what is now the Sayward-Wheeler House in York Harbor, ME. for much of the 19th century. See also James Henry Stark, The Loyalists of Massachusetts and the Other Side of the American Revolution.
Jewett seems to have placed a single quotation mark before "lane" and a double quotation mark after.
Norwoods: There is now a Norwood's Farm Road on East Point in York, ME, but Jewett's walk seems not to be in that area, though she would walk toward it on her probable route. She probably walks southeast from what is now the Sayward Wheeler House, along what is now called "Fisherman's Walk," on the north side of the York River.
Cora ... John: Cora Clark Rice and her husband, John Hamilton Rice. Mr. Clark is her father. See Key to Correspondents.
Fields has left a green line before "Cora," though she may have tried to erase it.
He lent: Fields, in green pencil, has deleted "He" and inserted "Someone."
Vernon Lee's novel Miss Brown: Vernon Lee was the pseudonym of the British writer Violet Paget (1856-1935). According to The Library of the World's Best Literature (1917), Miss Brown (1884) is a satirical novel, the object of which is "to expose the falseness of the ĉsthetic ideal and its tendency to debase all who follow it; and it aroused the indignation of all the 'ĉsthetes'.
Fuff: Nickname for Annie Adams Fields. See Key to Correspondents.
Miss Preston: Harriet Waters Preston. See Key to Correspondents.
(but: This parenthesis mark is by Fields, in green pencil.
Uncle William: William Durham Jewett. See Key to Correspondents.
Pin: Pinny Lawson (Pinny / Pin) was an affectionate nickname for Jewett, used by her and Annie Fields. See Key to Correspondents.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library of Harvard University. 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). Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Wyman Whitman to Sarah Orne Jewett
[ 28 May 1884 ]*
It does look very well, Dear, except that I wish the brown silk were not quite so shiny. Perhaps they can better it. For the back: I agree to the value of the commercial view. I think the lettering had best be in gilt. In
[ Page 2 ]
A
COUNTRY
DOCTOR
[ rough drawing of a caduceus* ]
S O JEWETT
[ Page 3 ]
I think it makes a better "back" than if the
lettering comes in three places. What say you?
I thank you for the gift you
left as well -- To be in the city these days is to practice
great forbearance: "having
[ Page 4 ]
the [ birds ? ] without a [ unrecognized word fuss ? ] indeed!
Love to you -- and to the Lady Fields*
SWW
Notes
28 May 1884: This date is noted in another hand in the upper right of the first page. It is supported by the envelope that accompanies this letter. The envelope is addressed to Jewett at 148 Charles St. in Boston.
"Mate of the Daylight": Whitman describes her cover design for Jewett's novel, A Country Doctor (1884). Whitman also designed the cover for Jewett's story collection, The Mate of the Daylight (1884).
caduceus: This staff entwined by two serpents with wings at the top is associated with the Greek god, Hermes. Particularly in the United States, it has become a symbol for the profession of medicine. Wikipedia indicates that this is a result of confusion with the Rod of Asclepius, which has only one serpent entwining a rod.
To view Whitman's drawing, see the image of this page.
Lady Fields: Annie Adams Fields. See Key to Correspondents.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library of Harvard University. Whitman, Sarah (Wyman) 1842-1904. 92 letters; [1884]-[1903] & [n.d.] Jewett, Sarah Orne, 1849-1909. Sarah Orne Jewett additional correspondence, 1868-1930. MS Am 1743.1 -107. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Celia Thaxter to Annie Adams Fields
[ Saturday 31 May 1884 ]*
Dearest:
It was just over when I got here --
Your loving
C
Sat. A.M.
Notes
Saturday 31 May 1884: This is the date of Levi Thaxter's death. The Boston Public Library archive associates this letter with that event. As 31 May fell on Saturday in 1884, the library very likely is correct.
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 4 (210-229)
https://ark.digitalcommonwealth.org/ark:/50959/qb98p393h
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Celia Thaxter to Annie Adams Fields
Kittery Point.
[ 4 June 1884 ]*
[ 4 June 1884 ]*
Dearest:
We got here safely yesterday. It was a lovely day & the world divinely beautiful, fresh, fragrant, green & still, blossoms just "breaking from bud, not a lilac flower yet out -- We buried Mr. T. close to Charnpernowne, just walked out there, Lucy wasnt able to walk even that way -- was driven, -- & the men lowered the box into the deep deep grave in the friendly earth, & we came away, that was all.
June 4th Dear, I
began this letter as you see, but there are so many things to do
& think about, I have no time at all -- And I have been
under such a weight of anxiety about Roland it seems as if I had
lived years in these four days -- Now he begins to revive a
little, to take food, & creep feebly about his little
garden, & now & then
[ Page 2 ]
smiles a wan, sad smile that breaks my heart to see, but the work of recovery has begun, I hope & trust. I do believe the dogs do him the greatest good, the five strongly marked individualities, the 3 funny terriers & the two great splendid St Bernards, continually thrusting their cold, loving noses into his very face & eyes, climbing all over him as he lies on the sofa & smothering him with delighted caresses, till he can't help smiling, -- They dont respect anything or anybody, they express their sentiments with no regard to times or seasons, & break into his deepest thought as we humans would not dare to do, & it is so good for him. I am so thankful to them!
I want to write pages, but there is so much
to do that I cant stop now -- but I must tell you again what a
blessing the woman is -- how kind, how capable, how thoughtful
& good -- It makes a different thing of life, having her --
My very best love to you & Pinny* -- Mrs
Titcomb has gone to town this A. M. to arrange her affairs &
come back later -- Your loving C
[ Up the left margin of page 1 ]
Pardon scrawl. I have so many letters to write that that alone
is enough to distract one!
Notes
4 June 1884: Thaxter's husband, Levi Thaxter, died
on 31 May 1884. She completed the letter on 4 June, but it
is not clear on what day she began it. She changes from
pencil to ink in the first paragraph, with "the friendly earth."
Lucy: Lucy Thaxter Titcomb (1818-1908) was a sister of Thaxter's husband, Levi Thaxter.
Roland: Thaxter's youngest son.
Pinny: Thaxter is using an intimate nickname shared
among Jewett, Fields and herself. Pinny is Sarah Orne
Jewett.See Key to Correspondents.
MS C.1.38 Box 2 Folder 4 (210-229)
https://ark.digitalcommonwealth.org/ark:/50959/qb98p397m
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Mary Ann Farlin Vincent to Annie Adams Fields
June 5th
[ 1884 ]*
[ 1884 ]*
My dear Mrs [ Field so spelled ]
I am in hopes that you may be enabled to find enough in this little piece of silk to [ give a part ? ] to Mifs Jewett{.}*
With best love to both I am very
truly yours
I am in hopes that you may be enabled to find enough in this little piece of silk to [ give a part ? ] to Mifs Jewett{.}*
With best love to both I am very
truly yours
M A Vincent*
Notes
1884: Mary Ann Farlin Vincent (1818-1887), a British born Irish-American actor. She joined the stock company of the Boston Museum theater in 1852, where she continued until her death. Though Jewett was acquainted with her as early as 1882, this letter must have been composed after Fields and Jewett began spending large portions of each year together in Boston and Manchester, MA, beginning in 1883, and before Vincent's death in September 1887.
I have chosen 1884 arbitrarily, in part because Jewett, Fields and Vincent probably had other interactions that year.
Miss Jewett: Sarah Orne Jewett. See Key to Correspondents.
Vincent: Vincent's underlining is ornamental.
On the back of this page appears her full name: Mary Ann Vincent.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the University of New England Maine Women Writers Collection, Sarah Orne Jewett Correspondence Box 3 Folder 205. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Annie Adams Fields
Monday Evening
[ Early Summer 1884 ]*
[ Early Summer 1884 ]*
My dear Darling
You were quite right about the 'favoring gale' of today! I really finished the first chapter of The Marsh Island* -- it was not a very long one but I feel as if I had got fairly into the swing of the story and as if it might go off easily. I have taken a great fancy to the hero whose name I have at last remembered -- (Robert Dale sometimes called Bob -- ) and as for Doris, you will like her I know -- Dan Lester is the country
You were quite right about the 'favoring gale' of today! I really finished the first chapter of The Marsh Island* -- it was not a very long one but I feel as if I had got fairly into the swing of the story and as if it might go off easily. I have taken a great fancy to the hero whose name I have at last remembered -- (Robert Dale sometimes called Bob -- ) and as for Doris, you will like her I know -- Dan Lester is the country
[ Page 2 ]
[ Page 3 ]
the first ride ---- (Tomorrow I must go to Rochester to have that naughty little broken front tooth put to rights, but I shall feel like sitting still after the ride, and I dont believe I shall be much hurt -- I shall be home again by four o'clock or five -- )
(Oh, dont you think that this morning's mail brought me the most pathetic letter from Sandpiper* saying that she longed to see me and had been thinking of coming up to try to find me. She is going to the Shoals tomorrow and begged me to come out Wednesday, but I couldn't do that very well and
[ Page 4 ]
I have written her to come up here Thursday night when she gets in from the islands -- I believe it would be better -- a days real change may give a little different point of view and I felt it was right somehow to try that plan. Her letter sounded perfectly heart-broken -- I think I can manage to have it quiet and pleasant for her here -- and perhaps I will drive her down next day and bring Cora* up -- Your letter was such a dear one and such a long one! I am so glad you went to the Horsfords* and I am so interested about the Hawthorne paper* -- But)
[ Manuscript breaks off. No signature. ]
Notes
Early Summer 1884: This date is based upon Jewett reporting that she has begun the composition of her novel, A Marsh Island, which began serialization in Atlantic Monthly in January 1885.
Parenthesis marks after page one in this manuscript were penciled by Fields.
The Marsh Island: Jewett's A Marsh Island appeared in 1885. By that time, her character Robert Dale had become Richard/Dick Dale.
Mary: Mary Rice Jewett. See Key to Correspondents.
Sandpiper: Celia Thaxter. See Key to Correspondents.
Cora: Cora Clark Rice. See Key to Correspondents.
Horsfords: See Eben Norton Horsford in Key to Correspondents.
Hawthorne paper: Annie Fields's book on Hawthorne did not appear until 1899. Perhaps Jewett refers to the 1884 biography of Hawthorne, Nathaniel Hawthorne and his Wife, by his son, Julian Hawthorne, though Jewett usually refers to an article rather than a book with the term "paper."
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library of Harvard University. 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). Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Annie Adams Fields
Thursday 5 o'clock
[ Early Summer 1884 ]
My dear Fuffy
Thank you for the Critic and Nation* -- I found a good deal in the latter -- and read its politics until I was ready to cheer for Cleveland -- the Journal is so filled with vileness that I lose all respect for it. I think Blaine must be proud to have the chief weapons ^used^ in his behalf, of such a sort as these --
Today I have been reading the story* through,and I like some of it very much but I am afraid there isn't enough "go" in it and that it will be only a third rate thing, with a kind of
[ Page 2 ]
I was mad with the Nation for one thing; it was pleased to say that Carlyle* scolded people because they did no work and did nothing but talk himself.
[ Page 3 ]
When one remembers how he drudged, it certainly seems ungrateful of the Nation, but it isnt the fashion to call writing work! ---- a cross Pinny* ladies -- but a not very well Pinny and life drags a little.
Evening
Oh my poor dear little Fuffy to be really ill in bed and I not there. I want to fly to you on the wings of the wind, but how can I and what in the world can I do about it? do tell me tomorrow that you are getting all right -- Do send for Dr. Morton*
[ Page 4 ]
if the cold hangs on and do every thing she says like a good Fuff. Perhaps you will get rested and certainly you are kept in this damp day -- that's the only comfort. Dear darling if I were there I would take such good care of you that you wouldn't [ think written over a word ] about being sick at all. If it hurts you to breathe tell Patrick* to get some fresh Bryonia* and take that every hour. I send this little letter because it amused me with its practical lesson from the little paper -- Oh Fuff dear do get better, but if you should still be badly off when this letter comes
[ Page 5 ]
do send me word so I can go right to you. I should hate to [ have corrected ] you needing me. I shall be worrying all the time until I hear again.That is very beautiful and helpful [ deleted word ] about doing ones work.* I believe in Carlyle more than I ever did before. Good night dear love { -- } I am afraid you are very lonely tonight -- and the pen would go either* when [ poor corrected ] little Fuffy wrote the letter -- Oh dear me! but I am your own Pin --
Notes
Early Summer 1884: Jewett has begun work on A Marsh Island (1885), which she probably started no earlier than May or June of 1884.
Fuffy: Nickname for Annie Adams Fields. See Key to Correspondents.
Critic and Nation: The Critic (1881-1906), a monthly, and The Nation, a weekly magazine. Jewett reads about the 1884 Presidential election, in which Democrat Grover Cleveland ran against Maine Republican, James G. Blaine. Though Jewett and Fields were Lincoln Republicans, they and many of their friends favored Cleveland in this election because of his reputation for rectitude, as compared to Blaine, who had a reputation for political corruption. During the campaign, however, it came out that Cleveland almost certainly had fathered an illegitimate child. Hence Jewett's noting that much of the campaigning and press coverage of the campaign were vile, as each side bruited the moral turpitude of the other.
When Jewett refers to "the Journal," she probably means the Boston Journal newspaper.
story: Jewett is working on her novel, A Marsh Island (1885), presumably anxious to finish it by January 1885, when the serial publication began, and to make it better than it seems to her as she writes this letter.
nobody was in love: An early common-place in commentary on Jewett was that she rarely depicted romance and conjugal love in her stories.
Carlyle scolded people: While there is a review of J. A. Froude's Thomas Carlyle: A History of His Life in London (1884) that gives quite a negative portrait of Carlyle in The Nation 39 (20 November, 1884) pp. 438-9, this appeared after the presidential election and does not show Carlyle as a lazy hypocrite. The source of Jewett's complaint has not yet been discovered.
P. L.: Pinny Lawson (Pinny / Pin) was an affectionate nickname for Jewett, used by her and Annie Fields. See Key to Correspondents.
Dr. Morton: Dr. Helen Morton (1834-1916) had offices successively on Marlboro, Boylston, and Chestnut streets in Boston. Richard Cary says that Jewett once characterized her as "touchy {touching?} in her doctorly heart and more devoted in her private capacity as a friend."
Patrick: Richard Cary identifies Patrick Lynch as Fields's "man of all work."
Bryonia: A poisonous flowering plant sometimes used in herbal medicine.
one's work: Perhaps Jewett refers to Thomas Carlyle's (1795-1881) view that one needs only the kind and quantity of happiness that allows one to do his or her work. He expresses this general idea in several of his works, including 'Characteristics' (1831) and Sartor Resartus (1833). Jewett probably refers to Past and Present (1843), p. 110.
pen would go either: What Jewett means here is not yet known. Perhaps she omitted "not" before "go"?
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library of Harvard University. 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). Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Francis Jackson Garrison
Monday morning
[ June 1884 ]*
Dear Mr. Garrison
If there is a copy of The Country Doctor at the office, which will not be used, will you please let me have it? I am going down to see Mr. Whittier* this afternoon, and I should like to carry it to him. I dont [ think corrected from thing ? ] my package of books will be here before tonight -- Would you be
[ Page 2 ]
so kind, when you are telephoning the Press to ask them to put ^in^ a copy of Thoreau's Summer* for me also?
Yours sincerely
Sarah O. Jewett
Notes
June 1884: Jewett writes at about the time of the release of her 1884 novel, A Country Doctor.
At the top left of page 1, in blue ink and another hand: "Sarah O. Jewett". At the bottom center of page 2 appears this note: "Telephone J.D.H. by F.J.G," F.J.G. is Francis Jackson Garrison; J.D.H. has not yet been identified.
Mr. Whittier: John Greenleaf Whittier. See Key to Correspondents.
Thoreau's Summer: In 1884, Houghton Mifflin published Summer, selections from the journal of American author, Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862), edited by H. G. O. Blake.
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.
Celia Thaxter to Annie Adams Fields
Shoals. June 8th (84*
My dear Annie:
I imagine you settled at Manchester & I trust last nights rainbow means sunshine for us all, for such consecutive weeks of rain I have seldom known, too much even for the thin soil of island gardens -- How is your flower plot? Indeed I will try hard for a night at Manchester, dear Annie, -- I love to go, & always have such a beautiful time with you in that dear familiar house. I have had a lovely, hardworking spring, out of doors all day doing the things I love best to do & sleeping soundly at night & better in body than for years,
[ Page 2 ]
for which I am most grateful. The dear seeds you sent I am eagerly watching for. I planted them at once. The slugs [ plague corrected ] me sadly still, & my magnificent hollyhocks, scores & scores of them, are seized by the hollyhock pest which came over from England after laying almost all the family low over there, & how does it get here to my island! It spreads on the under side of the big broad leaves, a yellow crust, beginning with small yellow spots, a fungus, not an insect, & there's an end of the plant; it covers all of it, stems & all & devours its life -- I wonder if it has reached you. The birds & slugs have fairly beat me on mignonette this year. I have planted a whole solid ounce & what the birds left in the ground the slugs devoured the moment it lifted its head above the ground. And I fear the carnation twitter* will cut me off from pinks. My carnations warn me he has come; & for the poor little
[ Page 3 ]
margarets, I know they won't leave me a plant, they didn't last year. If they only will spare the rose Campion bed, it grows with the same habit as pinks & yesterday I found one stalk pierced its whole length with the wriggling worm. It is detestable! But oh, my larkspurs and lilies! such masses of rich green, strong growth! As yet nothing has meddled with them, but I hardly dare breathe as much aloud! Not a sunflower will birds & slugs allow me. I have planted pints of seeds, & not an aster of the hundreds of fine plants I have set out from boxes but the slugs have gobbled. To keep them I put a little pot upside down over each, & often when I lift the pot there is nothing underneath but a slug! the whole green plant vanished, tho I have ground the pot deep into the earth to prevent his getting in. But the Shirley poppies are simply glorious in their growth.
[ Page 4 ]
I am dreading people after all this peace & old clothes & informal existence -- I mean all kinds of indifferent folk that infest the premises, you know! I wish summer could go on all through thus peacefully.
My love to dear Pinny* -- I wonder if the hollyhock pest has struck South Berwick too -- Do tell me of your welfare on the hilltop.* My white Rose Rugosa is twelve feet high & has hundreds of little [ boughs ? ] with a [ unrecognized word ] at every end -- You must have a Clematis Paniculate it covers itself with white fragrant blossoms & stays all summer, is perfectly hardy, & grows like wild fire. With dear love yours
C.
Notes
84: This letter was edited for inclusion in Letters of Celia Thaxter by her friends A.F. and R.L. (Annie Fields and Rose Lamb).
The manuscript includes a number of marks and notes, presumably by Fields and Lamb to guide the publication. These are not included in this transcription.
carnation twitter: When Thaxter wrote this letter, she thought the attackers of her carnations and Dianthus probably were Carnation Twitters, which we now know is caused by an infestation of thrips. Thaxter sent specimens to an entomologist as was reported in Insect Life (USDA), 5 (September 1892-July 1893):
We have recently received an inquiry from Mrs. Celia Thaxter of Isle of Shoals, concerning a new disease of her Carnation plants. An examination of specimens showed that the trouble was caused by an Anthomyiid larva working in the stems of the plants near the ground. Many plants were killed and we are now endeavoring to rear the adult insect ....Thaxter's trouble, then, was not Carnation Twitter, but a stem and root feeding maggot which is the larva of a fly, Family: Anthomyiidae, Genus: Delia, species unknown. (Research: Richard Roehrdanz (USDA retired).
Pinny: A nickname for Sarah Orne Jewett. See Key to Correspondents.
hilltop: Fields's summer home in Manchester by the Sea was (and still is) located on Thunderbolt Hill.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Huntington Library, San Marino, California: James Thomas Fields Papers and Addenda (1767-1914), mss FI 1-5637, Box 63 FI 1- 4216. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Fields and Lamb Transcription for Letters of Celia Thaxter
I have had a lovely, hard-working spring, out of doors all day doing the things I love best to do, and sleeping soundly at night, and better in body than for years, for which I am most grateful. The dear seeds you sent I am eagerly watching for. I planted them at once. The slugs plague me sadly still, and my magnificent hollyhocks, scores and scores of them, are seized by the hollyhock pest, which came over from England after laying almost all the family low over there, and how does it get here to my island! It spreads on the under side of the big, broad leaves a yellow crust, beginning with small yellow spots, a fungus, not an insect, and there's an end of the plant; it covers all, of it, stems and all, and devours its life. I wonder if it has reached you. The birds and slugs have fairly beaten me on mignonette this year. I have planted a whole solid ounce, and what the birds left the slugs devoured the moment it lifted its head above the ground. And I fear the carnation enemy will cut me off from pinks. My carnations warn me he has come; and for the poor little margarets, I know they won't leave me a plant; they didn't last year. If they only will spare the rose campion bed! it grows with the same habit as pinks; and yesterday I found one stalk pierced its whole length with the wriggling worm. It is detestable! But oh, my larkspurs and lilies! such masses of rich, green, strong growth! As yet, nothing has meddled with them, but I hardly dare breathe as much aloud! Not a sunflower will birds and slugs allow me. I have planted pints of seeds, and not an aster of the hundreds of fine plants I have set out from boxes but the slugs have gobbled. To keep them, I put a little pot upside down over each, and often when I lift the pot there is nothing underneath but a slug! the whole green plant vanished, though I have ground the pot deep into the earth to prevent his getting in. But the sturdy poppies are simply glorious in their growth.
I am dreading people, after all this peace, and old clothes, and informal existence.
I wish summer could go on all through thus peacefully.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Horace Parker Chandler*
[Letterhead in red print]
148. Charles Street. [End letterhead line] 11 June [1884]*
[Resume letterhead] Boston.
[End letterhead]
148. Charles Street. [End letterhead line] 11 June [1884]*
[Resume letterhead] Boston.
[End letterhead]
Dear Sir
I hardly know what to say in answer to the questions -- it is not very easy to write about oneself --
The book* has nearly all been written ^in Boston^ since late in January -- but it will be out so soon I must leave it to speak for itself -- My father was a physician and also* my grandfather. Dr. Perry*
[ Page 2 ]
of Exeter -- who is now the oldest graduate of Harvard. My home is South Berwick Maine, but I spend the winter months with Mrs. James T. Fields in Boston.
-- I do not feel that this is what you wished to know -- and I am sorry to write so hastily but I am just leaving the city and am very much hurried this morning
yours sincerely S. O. Jewett.
Notes
Chandler: The recipient of this letter is not named. I speculate that Jewett writes to Chandler, with whom she corresponded in 1885 about a biographical sketch of her that eventually appeared in Every Other Saturday on 5 December 1885.
1884: It seems clear that Jewett refers to A Country Doctor, which appeared in June of 1884.
the book: Almost certainly Jewett speaks of A Country Doctor, her only novel after Deephaven (1877) that was not serialized. Jewett reports working intensely at it in April of 1884. By the end of June, it had been published.
also: Located outside the margin, this word appears to have been inserted.
Chandler: The recipient of this letter is not named. I speculate that Jewett writes to Chandler, with whom she corresponded in 1885 about a biographical sketch of her that eventually appeared in Every Other Saturday on 5 December 1885.
1884: It seems clear that Jewett refers to A Country Doctor, which appeared in June of 1884.
the book: Almost certainly Jewett speaks of A Country Doctor, her only novel after Deephaven (1877) that was not serialized. Jewett reports working intensely at it in April of 1884. By the end of June, it had been published.
also: Located outside the margin, this word appears to have been inserted.
Dr. Perry: Jewett's grandfather,
William Perry. See Key
to Correspondents.
The 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.
John Greenleaf Whittier to Annie Adams Fields
Oak Knoll
11th 6 Mo. 1884
My dear Friend
I have been reading Sarah's "Country Doctor"* with great satisfaction. It is I think her best -- better than "Deephaven" even. What a lovely picture she has given of the quaint old Idyllic life of New England, & how admirable is her characterization of the Doctor & his ward! The style is well nigh perfect.
I am afraid there may be some trouble about
[ Page 2 ]
^the^ Ossipee Park House,* & that it has not [ accomodations so written ] for all who would like to go there. It is not very large I believe. I shall ascertain soon about it.
How shall I thank thee for the "Life of Maurice!{"}* I will return it as soon as I can read it -- in a week probably.
I had a delightful call yesterday from Sarah & Prof. Horsford.* With love to her, always affectionately thy friend
John G. Whittier
Aldrich* ought to say that the "Country Doctor" is the best book of the season, -- in
[ Page 3 ]
the next Atlantic.
Notes
Sarah's "Country Doctor": Sarah Orne Jewett. See Key to Correspondents. Her second novel was A Country Doctor (1884); her first -- much praised by Whittier -- was Deephaven (1877).
Ossipee Park House: According to G. D. Merrill's History of Carroll County, New Hampshire (1889, p. 398), inventor Benjamin Franklin Shaw (1832-1890) of Lowell, MA, built a large summer home in the White Mountains in 1879 and named it Ossippee Park. This became a resort. See also Coburn History of Lowell and Its People (1920) v. 1, p. 356.
Life of Maurice: Fields has loaned Whittier The Life of Frederick Dennison Maurice (1884). John Frederick Denison Maurice (1805-1872) was a British Anglican scholar and author.
Prof. Horsford: Eben Norton Horsford. See Key to Correspondents.
Aldrich: Thomas Bailey Aldrich, currently Altantic editor. Horace Scudder wrote the Atlantic's highly laudatory review for the September issue. For both men, see Key to Correspondents.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Huntington Library, San Marino, CA, in the James T. Fields collection: mss FI 71-4798. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Annie Adams Fields
Sunday morning
[ Early Summer 1884 ]
[ Early Summer 1884 ]
My dear darling
I dont think I ever felt so badly at leaving you. After you had really driven off I would have given a great deal if I could have pulled you back for one more word. It was pretty hot in the cars and they were crammed all up and down the aisle, but when we got to Wenham & Hamilton a good company 'lighted down to go to the camp meeting --
[ Page 2 ]
(Pinny* to be tooken to a camp meeting? {"}She never went !!" I read my History* but I didn't feel very much like it -- (and John* met me at the train. Every body but mother had gone to [ deleted word ] Carrie's to tea so I had a good chance to get rested for I was pretty tired.) To-day it is better weather so cool and fresh and mountain like -- the wind must be blowing from the north and coming right down[ Page 3 ]
to Berwick from the big hills -- (you will have a lovely still day I hope. I know just how it all looks, and you are in 'the little room over the gate' making yourself wise and being very happy with your dear books.)I send you the Nation with a most noble compliment to Pinny -- Really, what could one ask more? To have the Nation say that Pinny is the girl who has [ deleted word ] style !!* ladies!
[ Page 4 ]
(( that ought to make the 'ladies' spin round and round.The Foots* go away tomorrow. Russell is a perfectly charming boy of fifteen. I must keep hold of him now for I always liked him. Mrs. Foot (who has been there a good many years)* says that Appledore is very badly kept. There is a new steward, & she thinks Cedric's marriage* has had a bad effect in some ways -- But there are people & people there -- Good bye and the most loving [ deleted word] )
[ apparently unsigned ]
Notes
1884: As indicated by the notes below, this letter most likely was composed in 1884, at the time of year when rail cars could be hot and when outdoor camp meetings might take place -- early summer or in autumn. It is a little odd, however, that Jewett would be noticing a positive book review several months after it appeared.
History: Jewett seems to have begun reading for her project The Story of the Normans (1887) as early as 1884. If this letter is dated correctly, this probably is what she refers to and why she capitalizes the word.
John: John Tucker. See Key to Correspondents.
Carrie's: Caroline (Carrie) Augusta Jewett Eastman. See Key to Correspondents.
Pinny: Pinny Lawson (Pin), one of Jewett's nicknames.
Nation ... style: While reviewers in The Nation more than once praised Jewett's style, probably -- because the praise is unreserved in this review -- Jewett refers to the review of The Mate of the Daylight that appeared in Nation 38 (17 January 1884) p. 59.
The Foots ... Russell: Katherine Chambers Bailey Foot (1842/3-1905) was a popular author of stories for younger readers and a contributor to Ladies Home Journal. One of her better-known books was The Rovings of a Restless Boy (1892). She and Homer Foot were the parents of three sons, one of whom was the glass artist and businessman, Russell Sturgis Foot (1869-1924) of Church Glass and Decorating Company in New York City.
years): The parentheses marks around this passage are by Jewett, whereas all the others in this letter appear to have been added in pencil by another hand.
Appledore ... Cedric's marriage: Cedric Laighton (1840-1899) was the brother of Celia Thaxter and with their brother, Oscar, was operator of the resort hotel on Appledore in the Isles of the Shoals. Cedric married Julia Stowell (1859-1926) in 1881. See Celia Thaxter in Key to Correspondents.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library of Harvard University. 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). Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Annie Adams Fields to Eben Norton Horsford
June 23d 1884
[ Begin letterhead ]148. Charles Street,
Boston.
[ End letterhead ]
Dear Professor Horsford;
I cannot let the season quite draw to a close without giving an account of my stewardship and telling you what a comfort the money you put into my hands has been to fall back upon and to "stop gaps" this winter --
The list stands as follows:
To a dressmaker whose husband has been ill for a long time until everything has gone and she is spent with nursing ------ 10.00
For Liebig's beef* for the same 1.60
Winter dress for a sick French teacher 6.00
Carriage for a sick man 1.00
For Epileptic to Baldwinville* 3.00
[ Page 2 ]
To a superannuated dressmaker of the better class for whom we have made a little pension ---- 5.00
Baby clothes 1.00
For visiting the poor by an intelligent woman thrown out of employment -- 12.00
To finding a troublesome beggar and dishonest and assisting to bring to court 7.00
For bringing diet kitchen food [ deleted word ] to a sick woman at ten cents day 4.40
_____
$50.00
$50.00
This last money is not yet all spent and if the woman can make any other arrangement we shall use the surplus for advertising for work for a woman in the country.
I hope you will feel that it has gone in ways that you approve of -- I can only repeat that it has been a comfort to me to have it to fall back upon --
[ Page 3 ]
I found Edith* and all the family yesterday. Richard had been
trying to relate a bible story ^to the children^ about the Garden
of Eden,* but his powers of description were not sufficient to
satisfy Dicky who protested that he didn't believe Eden was as
beautiful as grandpapa's garden!I thought if we told all that was in our hearts, we should confess it could hardly be more beautiful than Cambridge yesterday. I enjoyed my visit to you all sincerely.
Believe me gratefully
and affectionately
yours,
Annie Fields
and affectionately
yours,
Annie Fields
Notes
Liebig's beef: Beef extract intended as a meat substitute, in the 20th century marketed as bouillon cubes.
Baldwinsville: According to Philip L. Safford and Elizabeth J. Safford in A History of Childhood and Disability (1996), a private facility to treat epileptics under age 14 was founded in 1882 in Baldwinsville, MA (191).
Edith: John W. Willoughby identifies this family. Richard Henry Dana III (1851-1931) married Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's daughter Edith and lived near the Longfellows and the Horsfords at 113 Brattle Street in Cambridge. "Grandpapa" is presumably Longfellow, though both grandfathers, Richard Henry Dana Jr. and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, died before 1884.
Garden of Eden: Home of Adam and Eve before they ate the forbidden fruit, is described in Genesis, chapters 2 and 3, as well as in John Milton's Paradise Lost (1667).
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 59: Folder 35. Fields, Annie Adams: Connecticut, 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 transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Annie Adams Fields to Eben Norton Horsford
June 23d 1884
[ Begin letterhead ]148. Charles Street,
Boston.
[ End letterhead ]
Dear Professor Horsford:
I was looking over a little book of proverbs from Shakespeare, arranged many years ago by Mary Cowden Clarke* when your more than kind note came to me. I find;
"When words are scarce, they are seldom spent in vain,And again; "We do pray for mercy
For they breathe truth that breathe their words in pain"
And that same prayer doth teach us all to render
The deeds of Mercy{.}"
How beautifully Shakespeare's genius speaks for me tonight!
Gratefully yours
Annie Fields.
Notes
Clarke: Mary Cowden Clarke (1809-1898) was an English author and scholar, best remembered for her concordance to English playwright, William Shakespeare (1564-1616).
Her Shakespeare Proverbs; or, the Wise Saws of our Wisest Poet collected into a Modern Instance appeared in 1848.
The first quotation is from Shakespeare's Richard II, Act 2, Scene 1. The second is from The Merchant of Venice, Act 4, Scene 1.
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 59: Folder 35. Fields, Annie Adams: Connecticut, Maine & Massachusetts. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Celia Thaxter to Annie Adams Fields
Shoals - June 25th
My dear:
I came out for a day or two to see Aunty Reed -- Karl* brought me your letter tonight ^from the farm^. Did you get mine about the flasks? What do you think I am going to do when I go from here on Friday? Going to Berwick to spend the night with Pinny!* [ Arn't so spelled ] you jealous? I was so glad to have your letter -- I imagine your quiet days -- Yes. My room is all put back & I am coming with Karl for a visit next month -- If I could [ see corrected ] you I should have much to say.
2
I know you will not say one word of me or my affairs outside. [This corrected ] hateful, gossiping, lying world makes so free with the smallest item -- If any ask what I shall do, say only I am at the farm, but going to make a visit to the Shoals next month -- I am sorry I cannot see you, to say what I would like --
The baby is beautiful -- Julia's* garden a wonder -- Mine a
wild tangle --
3
I am enjoying my glimpse of Aunty Reed -- She brought the little Viking Edwin -- such a beauty! Norse to the marrow of his bones!* By the way, could you give me Fru Ole's* Norse address? I wish you would.
I know who wrote the obituary notice* -- Sometime will tell you --
Pinny said if it were pleasant she would
drive me down to the farm next Saturday -- I
am to go to her Friday night -- that's day after tomorrow -- I
wish I could see your moss rose!
Ever, dear Annie your C.
Aunty Reed ... Karl: Aunty Reed has not yet been
identified. Karl is Thaxter's oldest son, who was
disabled.
Pinny: Thaxter is using intimate nicknames shared among
Jewett, Fields and herself. Pinny is Jewett; Flower is
Fields; Sandpiper is Thaxter. See Key to Correspondents.
Browning: The meaning of Thaxter's remarks is
uncertain. It appears that after Levi Thaxter's death on
31 May, there was gossip about Celia Thaxter and some
disagreement within the family. Late in his life, Levi
Thaxter had achieved considerable reputation for his oral
interpretations of British poet Robert Browning (1812-1889), and Browning
honored Thaxter by providing an epitaph for his
gravestone. Perhaps this was a source of familial
disagreement. See Norma H. Mandel, Beyond the Garden
Gate, p. 113.
Thaxter's remarks about "hateful gossiping"
may refer to stories about her family that had appeared in the
popular press for some time. For example, in the 11
September 1881 Louisville, KY Courier Journal (p.
10) appeared a story about her family, characterizing Thaxter's
father as a misanthrope, rather like the title character in
Jewett's 1886 story, "The King of Folly Island." Among several
anecdotes appears this portrait of Thaxter on Appledore: "Mrs.
Thaxter is an atheist, and is said to parade her disregard of
Sunday by placing her sewing-machine on her front piazza and
working it on that day. She inherits from her father a variable
temper and disposition, and it depends upon her mood, when an
introduction is made, as to whether she will be civil. She is a
stout woman, and devoid of beauty." As Thaxter's letters and
published writings show, this gossip is far from accurate.
baby ... Julia's: Thaxter refers to her niece, Ruth Stowell Laighton (1883-1953), daughter of her brother Cedric and Julia Stowell Laighton (1849-1926).
bones!: Thaxter appears to have written her exclamation
point over a question mark.
Viking Edwin probably is the son of a
Norwegian immigrant on Isles of the Shoals, Thora Ingebretsen.
In Thaxter to Fields of 23 September 1883, Thaxter reports that
young Edwin has gone to live with Aunty Reed in Montpelier, VT,
where he will be able to attend school. See Norma Mandel, Beyond
the
Garden
Gate, pp. 80-3.
Fru Ole's: Sara Chapman Thorp Bull was an American author and philanthropist. It appears that at the time of this letter, Mrs. Bull was in Norway. See Key to Correspondents.
obituary notice: Presumably this is an obituary for Levi Thaxter. No full-length obituary from this time has been yet been located.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 4 (210-229)
https://ark.digitalcommonwealth.org/ark:/50959/qb98p4010
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Eben Norton Horsford
South Berwick,
June 29th [1884]*
June 29th [1884]*
My dear Friend
I was so glad to get your letter that I cant "stay written to" a minute and must answer it right away -- And will you thank the lady of the manor* for her dear note? I am so glad you both like my Country Doctor --*
I heard about you all
[ Page 2 ]
from Mrs. Fields* who enjoyed her call very much -- She is so fond of you and is looking forward to our September visit with great pleasure which delights me -- I am hoping to see her here the last of this week, and I should like to have somebody cut out the middle of the week and piece the ends together!
[ Page 3 ]
I am busy writing again and hope to get the new story almost done before I see Shelter Island --
I was so glad to know that Kate and Lilian were safe at home. You dont know how often I think of you dear people! -- This is not going to be half so good a letter as yours: it is only to thank you for that and
[ Page 4 ]
to send you a thousand loving wishes for your summer at the dear old house. I wish I knew just what day you are going down but before I know it you will be there!
Yours lovingly
Sarah --
Sarah --
Mrs. Thaxter spent Friday night here and I drove her down to Kittery yesterday -- such a hot day!
Notes
1884: The first transcriber of this letter, John W. Willoughby, places it in 1884. He says: "Sarah Orne Jewett's A Country Doctor was published in 1884 and her novel, "the new story," A Marsh Island in 1885, serial publication starting in January. By June of 1884 Sarah Orne Jewett and Annie Fields were well along with plans to visit the Horsfords in Shelter Island September 6 through 13, 1884. Celia Laighton Thaxter (1835-1894), a New England poet associated particularly with Kittery Point, Maine, was another mutual friend of Sarah Orne Jewett, Annie Fields, and the Horsfords."
lady of the manor: Jewett refers to Mrs. Horsford and their home, Sylvester Manor. See Key to Correspondents.
Mrs. Fields: Annie Adams Fields. See Key to Correspondents.
Kate and Lilian: Horsford's daughters. 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 transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Annie Adams Fields
Wednesday
[ 2 July 1884 ]*
(You made me laugh so -- it sounded just exactly like you!)
-- I had a very pleasant long call at Exeter -- Grandpa was very well and bright and was quite on fire to come down with me and go to the circus in Dover today -- Discretion held him back at the last and I was glad
[ 2 July 1884 ]*
Dear F~~~~~~f*
(You made me laugh so -- it sounded just exactly like you!)
-- I had a very pleasant long call at Exeter -- Grandpa was very well and bright and was quite on fire to come down with me and go to the circus in Dover today -- Discretion held him back at the last and I was glad
[ Page 2 ]
[ Page 3 ]
put in -- Dear Fuffy, did my ^to be!^ black jersey ever get back from Daloz's?* Dont bother to get it and bring it but ask Patrick* to go for it some day, please -- I must run! Only day after tomorrow now!
Your own Pin.*
Notes
2 July 1884: The Barnum and Bailey Circus performed in Dover, NH on Wednesday 2 July 1884 and Saturday 23 July 1887. The date of this letter, then, almost certainly is 2 July 1884.
The Dover Public Library has a collection of circus materials from performances in Dover, including this note:
1884, DAILY REPUBLICAN:F...f: Fuff, a nickname for Annie Adams Fields. See Key to Correspondents.
Barnums agents are telling around that the sacred white elephant will eat and drink from the golden water jars and troughs which the priests who attend him in Siam insisted should be included in his purchase. The holy brute is to travel in a gorgeous palace car The third section is to be set apart as a place of worship for the Burmese priests and will contain their idols. The priests have been cautioned not to address each other as Mike and Paddy. The elephants were treated to a bath in the Cocheco at the Soap Factory on River Street, The huge fellows wallowed and rolled in the water and enjoyed themselves immensely.
Uncle William: For Jewett's grandfather, William Perry, and her uncle, William Durham Jewett, see Key to Correspondents.
John: John Tucker. See Key to Correspondents.
Daloz's: Albert Roland Daloz, son of French immigrant Laurent Hippolyte, operated a cleaning business at 11 Humphreys St. in Dorchester, MA beginning in 1899. Whether he or a family member operated a cleaner at another location in the 1880s is not yet known.
Patrick: Richard Cary identifies Patrick Lynch as Fields's "man of all work."
Pin: Pinny Lawson (Pinny / Pin) was an affectionate nickname for Jewett, used by her and Annie Fields. See Key to Correspondents.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library of Harvard University. 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). Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Eben Norton Horsford
4 July -- South Berwick
[ 1884 ]*
[ 1884 ]*
Dear Prof. Horsford
How glad I am that the day* went off so finely! I do wish very much that I could have been there and I thought of you all so many times and tried to imagine how the company of people looked out there under the trees. It was so good of you to write me the dear long letter afterward
How glad I am that the day* went off so finely! I do wish very much that I could have been there and I thought of you all so many times and tried to imagine how the company of people looked out there under the trees. It was so good of you to write me the dear long letter afterward
[ Page 2 ]
and I feel almost as if I had seen everything myself -- Mr. Whittier* whom I saw a few days ago spoke of you with the warmest interest.
I think all your research and painstaking gave nobody more pleasure than it did him -- He has been very feeble all summer but is better just now and I hope he will go on gaining.
[ Page 3 ]
Mrs. Fields* has been with me until early yesterday except during most of week before last, when she went to town for some of the Charity meetings. We have had a very pleasant month though I have had to be busy about my new story* which ought to have a good deal more time than it gets -- However, I am going to be very diligent all
[ Page 4 ]
through August, and both Mrs Fields and I look forward with the greatest pleasure to seeing Shelter Island and the lord and ladies of the Manor on the sixth of September. Do thank Mrs. Horsford for the beautiful copy of the Mary Dyer poem* which came today -- and give my dear love to her and to the girls keeping always much for yourself -- from
Sarah.
Notes
1884: This date is supported by Jewett apparently referring to the Horsford's dedication of a Shelter Island monument in July 1884. See notes below.
the day: Jewett almost certainly refers to the July 1884 dedication of the Shelter Island monument to Quaker refugees who sought refuge on Shelter Island in the 17th century. Horsford's family inherited the Sylvester Manor on Shelter Island, off the east coast of Long Island, New York.
Whittier: John Greenleaf Whittier. See Key to Correspondents. His poem about the Quaker refugees was read at the dedication. See Whittier to Jewett of 22 March 1884.
Mrs. Fields: Annie Adams Fields. See Key to Correspondents. Fields served on the board of the Associated Charities of Boston.
my story: At this time, Jewett was working on A Marsh Island (1885).
Mary Dyer poem: Mary Dyer (1611-1660) was a Quaker martyr who took refuge at Shelter Island. Eventually, she was executed in Boston. It is not yet known to which poem Jewett refers. John Greenleaf Whittier wrote a poem about the Quaker martyrs, "The King's Missive" (1880).
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. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Mr. Wentworth [8 July 1884]*
Manchester Masstts
July 8th
Dear Mr. Wentworth
Thank you very much for your note and its enclosures about the sleeping car for Quebec on July 14th. If you will kindly have three parlor car seats kept for us at Conway Junction I shall be very much obliged.
Your most sincerely
S. O. Jewett
Notes
Paula Blanchard in Sarah Orne Jewett reports one trip Sarah and Mary Jewett made to Canada in the autumn of 1884 (p. 161). She does not name the third passenger.The ms. of this letter is held by the Berwick Academy Archives, item: 1993.0014. Transcription and annotation by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Wyman Whitman to Sarah Orne Jewett
July 10, (1884?).*
I think that I have never yet spoken
of the Country Doctor to you, dear friend, though I
declare to you that this is the third beginning I have made. . .
. There have been many practical reasons for delay, but perhaps
an unpractical one weighed heaviest in the scale; the fact that
I wanted to say so much, apropos to the Country Doctor,*
that no little scrap of statement would serve me! I think it
delightful: written with that combination of pure literary style
and aromatic individual flavor that gives one such especial
pleasure, and the people live and breathe for me and take their
place in the New England landscape. Then comes the moral of the
situation, and that's what I want to know more about. Is it that
Nan really loves her lover? or does she only feel the
possibility and decide to reject it?
Yet, after all, as I ask these
questions I see what a foolish person I am; for if one begins to
discuss this strange re-iterated problem, one must go into the
depths of it and only come forth with the pearl of Truth which
is hard to find.
I suppose I think, in some crude,
unformulated way, that if two souls really have found each
other, in the Divine Economy (by some highest Mathematics) they
will count for more together than they ever could apart; and
that whatever loss is entailed in this fusion of interests, is
more than made good by a new and more complete existence. But I
will not bore you with this, when I may be speaking quite wide
the mark of your opinion. . . .
I want to tell you that I have had
four days of sketching at Gloucester,* and among dreams and
visions, which has given me no mean lift, and provided much
consolation. There is not much to show for it, you might say:
but I got something nevertheless.
Dear friend, this is a most garrulous
letter, but sometimes there's no fun in brevity.
Notes
1884: This guess at the letter's date probably is
correct. Jewett's novel, A Country Doctor, appeared in
May or June of 1884.
Gloucester: a Massachusetts coastal town, north of
Boston.
This transcription appears in Letters, Sarah Wyman
Whitman. Cambridge, MA: Riverside Press, 1907,
"Letters to Sarah Orne Jewett: 1882-1903," pp. 61-109.
Notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Houghton, Mifflin & Co.
[ 14 July 1884 ]*
Messrs Houghton Mifflin & Co.
Please send me by Express six copies of A Country Doctor -- last edition. I should like to know too, how it is selling -- Not an exact statement, but how large the editions have been perhaps --
very sincerely
Sarah O. Jewett
Sarah O. Jewett
South Berwick Maine
14th July
14th July
Notes
1884: On the back of the page is a stamp indicating the letter was received at 8:30 a.m. on 15 July 1884.
Centered at the top of the front, in another hand and ink: "S. O. Jewett 7/14". A penciled line in another hand appears before the beginning of the first sentence. At the bottom of the page, left corner, penciled in another hand is a column of 3 numbers: 1500, 1000, 1000. Presumably these indicate the sizes of the first three printings. Bottom right are initials that appear to be JM.
Before "very sincerely" in another hand and ink, something is written, perhaps initials: W.E. ?
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.
Celia Thaxter to Annie Adams Fields
Shoals. July 16th 84
My dearest Annie:
Thanks for your dear note. I too waited,
because I was not sure where you would be -- I am so glad you
& Pinny* had such a good time -- Of course you would, I knew
it. Life goes on here in the same old way. My only comfort my
work & Ruth,* & for [ companion corrected, possibly
from compassion ] I am so fortunate as to have little
Lily Pierce,* a friend who has been devoted to me for twenty
years, since I first knew her --"the salt of the earth"* -- she
comes & reads to me while I work. Such a beautiful book she
brought me. "Flowers & Their [ Pedigrees corrected
]" by Grant Allen* -- dear Annie do get it, you will love it --
such wonderful things he tells us about our darlings! I am
yet very low down in the deeps & wondering if I have
got to the bottom yet, it seems as if there were no lower state
of mind to sink to -- & I am so grateful for any little ray
of joy in my dark. I had a letter from Lily Phelps* -- it
sounded as if she were on the verge of dissolution -- Also I
heard from Jessie Cochrane* dated at 6 Ellery St. Cambridge,
which reminds me, her Dr. Beach,* widower, is here, wildly &
fatuously in love with a Miss Fernanda Henry*
[ Page 2 ]
truly a pretty young creature -- but oh, the very seams of his coat are expressive of infatuation. They sat at table near me, with their backs toward me, & I never saw such expressive backs!
It is so cold & strange a summer! Frost in Portsmouth last night. My dear Mrs De Normandie,* by the death of the widow of her favorite brother, has an addition of five thousand dollars a year, to her income. I am so glad for her with all those boys to educate & care for.
I have pleasant talks with Mrs Hemenway,* who is in love with the Shoals which has done so much for herself & her Edith. Rose, I heard from in Lenox yesterday, {is} going home presently -- she spoke with such pleasure of her lovely time with you.
Do write to me often, dear. It is such a pleasure to see your dear handwriting -- Ever & ever your
CT.
Notes
Pinny: Thaxter is using an intimate nickname shared among
Jewett, Fields and herself. Pinny is Jewett. See Key to Correspondents.
Ruth: Thaxter refers to her niece, Ruth Stowell Laighton
(1883-1953), daughter of her brother Cedric and Julia Stowell
Laighton (1849-1926).
Lily Pierce: Thaxter's friend was Elizabeth
Pierce. In a letter to her, Thaxter wrote her first
account of the notorious "Smuttynose Murder" that she later
recounted in A Memorable Murder (1875).
"salt of the earth": Perhaps Thaxter uses the
quotation marks because she quotes a familiar phrase, best
remembered perhaps from the Sermon on the Mount in the Bible, Matthew
5: 13-16.
"Flowers & Their Pedigrees" by Grant Allen: Charles Grant Blairfindie Allen
(1848-1899) was a Canadian science writer and novelist. Flowers
and
Their
Pedigrees appeared in 1883.
Lily Phelps: Almost certainly, this is Elizabeth Stuart
Phelps, who was sometimes called "Lily." See Wikipedia.
Jessie Cochrane: See Key to Correspondents.
Dr. Beach ... Miss Fernanda Henry: It is possible
that Thaxter refers to Fernanda Antonia Henry Wanamaker
(1863-1900). Dr. Beach has not yet been identified.
Mrs De Normandie: Oscar Laighton purchased a house in Portsmouth, NH from Emily. F. de Normandie (1836-1916) in April 1887. Her husband was a Unitarian minister, James de Normandie (1836-1924). See Men of Progress p. 360.
Mrs Hemenway ...Edith: Mary Porter Tileston Hemenway (1820-1894),
who, according to Wikipedia, "was an American philanthropist.
She sponsored the Hemenway Southwestern Archaeological
Expedition to the American southwest, and opened the first
kitchen in a public school in the US. ... [S]he married Edward
Augustus Holyoke Hemenway (1803-1876) in 1840." Their third
daughter was Edith (1851-1904).
Rose: Almost certainly Rose Lamb. See Key to Correspondents.
MS C.1.38 Box 2 Folder 4 (210-229)
https://ark.digitalcommonwealth.org/ark:/50959/qb98p407n
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
John Greenleaf Whittier to Annie Adams Fields
Asquam House
Holderness N.H.
16th 7th Mo 84,
My dear friend
I came here some ten days ago. I was far from well when I left home, and the journey was a hard one for me, and I have not had a head equal to any thing more than lying under the trees, and listening to Cousin Gertrude* reading occasionally. My friends insist upon it that I must not attempt to go to Ossipee Park. It is 16 or 17
[ Page 2 ]
miles away and very rough road. I hate to give up going there, but I know that I ought to keep quiet as possible, for the present. In some respects I am better than when I left home, but I have not
Would it be possible for thee & Sarah* and her sister to come here? I want you to see the place in better weather than
[ Page 3 ]
that which kept us in doors last year. If you could come on Tuesday or Wednesday of next week there would be comfortable rooms for you. Indeed any day next week we could give you nice quarters. The new [mistrefs so it appears ] of the House, has improved it every way. The table is excellent & the mountain [ raspberries ? ] & blueberries are plentiful. I am sure you would like here, and you would have a warm welcome. Gertrude has been reading "The Country Doctor"* to delighted listeners under the pines. May we not hope to see you?
[ Page 4 ]
I am writing in haste with a [ unrecognized word arelated ? ] pen, to be in season for the mail. With love to dear Sarah if she is with thee, I am affectionately thy friend
John G Whittier
Notes
Cousin Gertrude: Richard Cary says that Joseph Cartland (1810-1898) and his cousin Gertrude Cartland (1822-1911) accompanied Whittier on his summer vacations in Maine and New Hampshire for five decades, and Whittier lived in their home at Newburyport, Massachusetts most of his last fifteen winters.
"the strength of the hills": See the Bible, Psalm 95.
Mr. Shaw: According to G. D. Merrill's History of Carroll County, New Hampshire (1889, p. 398), inventor Benjamin Franklin Shaw (1832-1890) of Lowell, MA, built a large summer home in the White Mountains in 1879 and named it Ossippee Park. This became a resort. See also Coburn History of Lowell and Its People (1920) v. 1, p. 356.
Sarah: Sarah Orne Jewett. Her sister, Mary Rice Jewett, often travelled with her. See Key to Correspondents.
"The Country Doctor": Jewett's second novel was A Country Doctor (1884).
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Huntington Library, San Marino, CA, in the James T. Fields collection: mss FI 71-4784. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Celia Thaxter to Annie Adams Fields
Shoals. 22nd July. (84
My dearest:
I want to send you
tomorrow morning, some of my marigolds, now in their glory but
if I find they are too closely shut I shall wait & send
gather at evening before they close so I cant see what they are,
& send next day --
Life looks a little lighter in spots &
streaks of clearer sky -- I think of you continually -- It is
lovely here. Mrs. Hemenway* is still here but goes soon -- The
Wards* came -- there are many pleasant people -- I live in my
work & the baby.* Write to your loving
C.
Notes
Mrs. Hemenway: Mary Porter Tileston Hemenway (1820-1894),
who, according to Wikipedia, "was an American philanthropist.
She sponsored the Hemenway Southwestern Archaeological
Expedition to the American southwest, and opened the first
kitchen in a public school in the US. ... [S]he married Edward
Augustus Holyoke Hemenway (1803-1876) in 1840."
Wards: It is likely Thaxter refers to the family of Samuel Gray Ward (1817-1907), an American
businessman and poet associated with the Transcendentalists.
baby: Thaxter refers to her niece, Ruth Stowell Laighton (1883-1953), daughter of her brother Cedric and Julia Stowell Laighton (1849-1926).
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 4 (210-229)
https://ark.digitalcommonwealth.org/ark:/50959/qb98p413s
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Wyman Whitman to Sarah Orne Jewett
[ 23 July
1884? ]*
Dear friend: have you still that little proof of my Angel picture* -- the altar piece? It is -- as it proves -- the only relic of my first sketch. If it is in existence please lend it to me: if it isn't, I shall not care at all.
Love with this --
_Sw_
Notes
23 July 1884?: An envelope associated with this letter in the folder is addressed to Jewett in South Berwick. The stamp and part of the cancellation have been removed, leaving the partial date: 23 July 188_ . The earliest known letter in which Whitman addresses Jewett as "Dear friend" is from 1884, the latest 1889, though Whitman often names Jewett as "dear friend" in the bodies of letters.
This letter is placed with those of 1884, though it may be from any later year through 1889.
On the face of the envelope are two penciled notes: "Busy" in the upper right corner may be in Whitman's hand or perhaps Jewett's; "Send" in the lower left corner appears to be in Whitman's hand.
Angel picture: Whether Whitman refers to any known piece of her work is not clear. If she painted an altarpiece, this has not been discovered. Perhaps the most prominent of her stained-glass windows to depict an angel is "Angel with a Trumpet" (1890) at All Saints Episcopal Church in Reistertown, Md.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library of Harvard University. Whitman, Sarah (Wyman) 1842-1904. 92 letters; [1884]-[1903] & [n.d.] Jewett, Sarah Orne, 1849-1909. Sarah Orne Jewett additional correspondence, 1868-1930. MS Am 1743.1 -107. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
John Greenleaf Whittier to Celia Thaxter
[ Begin letterhead, with blanks for filling in the date. ]
ASQUAM HOUSE,
Shepard Hill.
Alexander W. Weeks, . . Prop'r.
Holderness, N. H., 7th
Mo 28 188 4.
[ End letterhead ]
My dear Friend
It is a long time since I have seen or heard from thee. Our friends Annie Fields and Sarah Jewett* are here and we are greatly enjoying their company and we have wished thee could be with us. I came here as Chas. Lamb* would say "ratherish unwell," and have not yet found the benefit of the mountain air which I hoped for, but on the whole am
[ Page 2 ]
as comfortable as I have reason to expect -- For I am beginning to understand that I am an old man, &, as they say of town paupers, "past my usefulness." But nature keeps her promise to me, and I have, I am glad to say, a greater capacity for simple enjoyment than for performance.
[ Unrecognized name Jellie Worth Watson ? ] & her husband* who are staying at Ossipee Park paid us a visit last week. Lucy Larcom* is also at the Park. We have some nice people here, about
[ Page 3 ]
30 in all.
I wondered whether thee are at Kittery or the Island. I would like to set my foot once more on Appledore, but am not sure that I can. Has thee written much of late? I have ^not^ seen the magazines. -- I was feeling rather dull awhile ago, and took up an English collection of verse, & opened to thy beautiful "The Sunrise never failed us yet"* and like the sleep of the Ancient Mariner* the comfort of it "slid into my soul," and I thanked thee for it. Yet it is hard sometimes to realize that the shadows of our lives will ever pass away before [ deletion ] the sun rises. We are very quiet here, the guests are all out of doors under the pines, except one, who is working a demoralized piano under my room.
[ Up the left margin of page 3 ]
Just now the other friends here say they are going to write also & finish out my letter. I am glad, for I am too [ stupid ? ] to write today.
Ever & [ heartily ? ] thy old friend John G Whittier
Notes
Annie Fields and Sarah Jewett: See Key to Correspondents.
Lamb: British essayist and poet, Charles Lamb (1775-1834). For the quotation see The Life, Letters, and Writings of Charles Lamb (1876), v. 3, letter 349, p. 71.
Lucy Larcom: Lucy Larcom (1824-1893) was a popular American author and teacher, a close friend of Whittier & Fields. For an account of the Larcom-Fields friendship, see Rita Gollin, Annie Adams Fields, pp. 106-113.
"The Sunrise never failed us yet": Thaxter's poem appeared first in Arthur's Illustrated Home Magazine 45: 7 (Jul 1877): 393. It was collected in Drift-Weed (1878) and Poems of Celia Thaxter (1896).
Ancient Mariner: British poet, Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834), The Rime Of The Ancient Mariner (1798). See Part V, which opens:
Oh sleep! it is a gentle thing,The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. MS Am 1211, Box 1, Whittier, John Greenleaf, 1807-1892. A.L.s. to [Celia (Laighton) Thaxter]; Holderness, N.H., 28 Jul 1884. Part of this letter appears in John B. Pickard, The Letters of John Greenleaf Whittier v. 3, pp. 487-8. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Beloved from pole to pole!
To Mary Queen the praise be given!
She sent the gentle sleep from Heaven,
That slid into my soul.
Azariah Smith to Sarah Orne Jewett
[ Begin letterhead, underlined
portions filled by hand ]
| Editorial Office, 4 Park St. |
HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN &
CO, publishers |
New York Office, 11 E. 17th St. |
Boston, Aug. 6, 1884.
[ End letterhead ]
Dear Mifs Jewett,
Here is a handfull of notices*, most of them very pleasant. I would have sent sooner, but Mifs Pratt* is away, and I had to winnow these out of about a bushel of miscellaneous notices of our recent books.
Yours very truly,
Azariah Smith
Notes
notices: Presumably, these are for Jewett's 1884 novel, A Country Doctor.
Pratt: Miss Pratt has not yet been identified.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library of Harvard University, Cambridge, MA. Sarah Orne Jewett Correspondence, bMS Am 1743 Box 4, Item 200. I. Letters to Sarah Orne Jewett.
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
John Greenleaf Whittier to Sarah Orne Jewett
[ Begin letterhead ]*
SENTER HOUSE,
LAKE WINNIPESAUKEE
J. L. HUNTRESS & SON.
LAKE WINNIPESAUKEE
J. L. HUNTRESS & SON.
Centre Harbor, N.H. 8th Mo 6 1884
[ End letterhead ]
[ End letterhead ]
My dear Friend:
You left us all too soon, at Asquam, but I was very glad of your visit. I hope you got home comfortably. We have just got here and shall probably make a brief visit to Ossipee Park* tomorrow if we feel equal to it. I have just cut from the N.Y. Evening Post a notice of thy beautiful story of the Country Doctor.* Perhaps thee have seen it, but I venture to send it, and also a very remarkable statement relating to spiritual visitations,* which I think will interest thee
[ Page 2 ]
and dear Annie Fields.*
With a great deal of love from Cousin Gertrude and Addie Caldwell,* I am ever & gratefully thy friend
John G Whittier
Notes
This letter is written on hotel stationary, which includes blanks for writing the date; supplying "188" to be completed, as Whittier did by adding his 4.
Ossippee Park: According to G. D. Merrill's History of Carroll County, New Hampshire (1889, p. 398), inventor Benjamin Franklin Shaw (1832-1890) of Lowell, MA, built a large summer home in the White Mountains in 1879 and named it Ossippee Park. This became a resort. See also Coburn History of Lowell and Its People (1920) v. 1, p. 356.
Country Doctor: Jewett's novel, A Country Doctor, appeared in 1884. Kathrine C. Aydelott in Maine Stream notes that the August 2 New York Evening Post review is reprinted from The Nation (31 July 1884). See Reviews of A Country Doctor.
spiritual visitations: Richard Cary writes that on the same day of the Evening Post review of A Country Doctor (August 2, 1884), "a letter to the editor, captioned 'Another Ghost Story,' recounted an experience similar to that of Sir Edward Hornby, an English Chief Justice, whose story was reported in "Visible Apparitions," Nineteenth Century, XVI (July 1884), 68-95, and reprinted in the Post on July 29.
Celia Thaxter was intensely interested in Spiritualism at this time. Paula Blanchard in Sarah Orne Jewett, reports that Jewett and Fields also showed some interest, but were more skeptical. See Terry Heller, "Communing with the Dead: Celia Thaxter, John Greenleaf Whittier, Sarah Orne Jewett, Annie Adams Fields." SOJTP 2020.
Annie Fields: Annie Adam Fields. See Key to Correspondents.
Cousin Gertrude and Addie Caldwell: Richard Cary says that Joseph Cartland (1810-1898) and his cousin Gertrude Cartland (1822-1911) accompanied Whittier on his summer vacations in Maine and New Hampshire for five decades, and Whittier lived in their home at Newburyport, Massachusetts most of his last fifteen winters.
In Memorabilia of John Greenleaf Whittier, Richard Cary identifies Adelaide McClung (1843-1902) as the wife of his nephew, James Lewis Caldwell (1839-1895).
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library of Harvard University. Sarah Orne Jewett Correspondence. Letters from John Greenleaf Whittier, MS Am 1743 (235). Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
A previous transcription by Richard Cary appears in "Whittier Letters to Sarah Orne Jewett," in Memorabilia of John Greenleaf Whittier, ed. John B. Pickard (Hartford: The Emerson Society, 1968), pp. 11-22.
Sarah Orne Jewett to John Greenleaf Whittier
South Berwick
August 7, 1884
My dear Friend:
I am sorry this letter has been so late in going to you. At any rate I have been thinking of you and the pleasant days at Asquam1 a great deal. I have been so busy getting in my salt hay2 ever since A. F.* went away that there did not seem to be time for much else. I have done eighty-two pages so far this week and this is only Thursday. I wish I could keep on at that rate and it would be done in a month now except the last looking over and copying. I grow more and more interested in it, and it promises to be a "blooming" love story!!
Thank you so much for the newspaper cuttings. I was glad to see them both and Mrs. Fields shall have the ghost story.3 The more I think of it, the more I believe in the truth of the Bishop of Carlisle's theory.4
I didn't see the Greely reception.5 I could hardly hear about it without crying -- and it is all very real to me. So perhaps it is just as well I stayed away, but I don't believe a more thrilling sight ever was in Portsmouth, or "all along shore" for that matter.
I can't help wishing that you and Mrs. Caldwell and Mrs. Cartland* could stop over at S. Berwick on your way home. I want to thank you all again for your dear friendship and kindness. I have felt better in every way since I came home from Holderness.
With love from my sister and myself,
Yours always lovingly,
Sarah O. Jewett
P.S. I was getting in the salt hay much too late in the season and had to start over again!
Notes
1. From the top of a high promontory between Squam and Little Squam lakes, the Asquam House affords an expansive view of Lake Winnipesaukee and the mountain ranges beyond it. On July 16, 1884, Whittier had asked Mrs. Fields: "Would it be possible for thee and Sarah to come here?" (Pickard, Life and Letters, II. 694.)
2. Reference is to her novel, A Marsh Island,* the current work in progress.
3. Whittier had written: "I have just cut from the N. Y. Evening Post a notice of thy beautiful story of the Country Doctor . . . and also a very remarkable statement relating to spiritual visitations, which I think will interest thee and dear Annie Fields." (Cary, "Whittier Letters," p. 15 [ see above. ]) On the same day that this review appeared (August 2, 1884), a letter to the editor, captioned "Another Ghost Story," recounted an experience similar to that of Sir Edward Hornby, an English Chief Justice, whose story was reported in "Visible Apparitions," Nineteenth Century, XVI (July 1884), 68-95, and reprinted in the Post on July 29.
4. Harvey Goodwin* (1818-1891), Bishop of Carlisle from 1869 to his death, wrote prolifically in dynamics, statistics, biography, and religion. Miss Jewett seems to be referring to the assertion in his Walks in the Regions of Science and Faith (London, 1883), p. 6: "To drop all metaphor, the progress of human knowledge during the present century compels everyone who thinks at all to think with his eyes open to the results of physical science. Morals and religion have, of course, still their own territory, and their territory should be carefully and courageously guarded against invasion. But the moral and religious values of men will generally be modified by the necessity of recognizing indubitable physical truths."
5. In August 1881 Lt. Adolphus W. Greely and a contingent of
twenty-five men established a United States signal station for
arctic observation and exploration in Grinnell Land. When, after
two desperate winters, the expected relief ships did not come,
Greely and his party set out by sea. They drifted ten months,
cold and starvation reducing the group to six. They were finally
rescued by a naval squadron, which dropped anchor in Portsmouth
harbor on August 1, 1884. Formal ceremonies and impromptu
festivities for the survivors proliferated. With the Secretary
of the Navy and an admiral in attendance, the local press
reported that "Never before in the history of Portsmouth has
there been so grand and imposing an event as the celebration of
the return of Greely and the survivors of his expedition."
A.F.: Annie Adams Fields. See Key to Correspondents.
Mrs. Caldwell and Mrs. Cartland: Cary identifies Adelaide Caldwell, wife of Whittier's nephew Lewis, who was noted for her sparkling personality at family gatherings. And he says that Joseph Cartland (1810-1898) and Gertrude Cartland (1822-1911) accompanied Whittier on his summer vacations in Maine and New Hampshire for five decades, and Whittier lived in their home at Newburyport, Massachusetts most of his last fifteen winters.
A Marsh Island: Jewett's novel began to appear as a serial in Atlantic Monthly in January 1885. Gathering salt hay refers to a principal economic activity on the marsh island farm in her novel.
Harvey Goodwin: According to Georgina Byrne, Modern Spiritualism and the Church of England, 1850-1939 (2010), p. 51, Goodwin was among the early members of the British Society for Psychical Research. What theory Whittier refers to is not yet clear. It appears that Goodwin was open to the possibility of physical manifestations of spiritual activity like those Celia Thaxter, Annie Fields, and Sarah Orne Jewett witnessed in the early 1880s at the seances they attended. His membership in SPR indicates, as Cary's quotation shows, that Goodwin was serious about applying scientific tests to separate genuine from illusory revelations of spirits.
See also, Terry Heller, "Communing with the Dead: Celia Thaxter, John Greenleaf Whittier, Sarah Orne Jewett, Annie Adams Fields." SOJTP 2020.
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. Additional notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Eben Norton Horsford
South Berwick
20 August [ 1884 ]*
20 August [ 1884 ]*
My dear Friend
I only wish I could write the hymn! but you know that I used to write verses when I was younger and for the most part so badly that I almost never do it now, but how I hate to say [ deleted word ] no to so kind a friend as you! I should only make a clumsy bungle -- and yet I thank you for asking me and thinking that I could.
I have been meaning to send you a letter for a long time. I
[ Page 2 ]
wonder if you know the meaning of Tatnick or Tatnuck* -- an Indian name of part of our town and repeated near Worcester to my great interest.
How do you all like Lenox? I saw such a nice letter from Lilian to Alice Longfellow* some time ago, but somehow Lenox seems a great deal further off than Shelter Island -- I have been here almost all summer long -- for early in the season my mother was not well and later on [ Messrs ? ] Houghton Mifflin & Co. publishers! hurried me
[ Page 3 ]
up to such an extent with a book* that I am writing that I have had as one may say to sit with both feet in the inkbottle ever since! I have seen but little of Mrs. Fields but she is well and has just had Mabel* there for a few days -- (This ^news^ is chiefly for Lilian's benefit.)
Please give my love to Mrs. Horsford and all the girls.
Yours most affectionately
Sarah O. Jewett
Sarah O. Jewett
Notes
1884: This date is not certain, though probably the letter is from 1884, when Jewett was working on her novel, A Marsh Island (1885).
Tatnick or Tatnuck: Jewett refers to the area that now includes the Tatnic Hills Preserve near South Berwick, ME. Tatnuck also continues to name a neighborhood of Worcester, MA. Nipmuc Place Names in New England says the word means: "at the hill or at the great hill." In the case of Maine, the great hill would be Mt. Agamenticus, the highest point in the area of South Berwick.
Lilian to Alice Longfellow: Lilian is a Horsford daughter. See Key to Correspondents for both women.
a book: Probably, Jewett refers to A Marsh Island, which appeared as a serial in January - June 1885, and soon after appeared as a book.
Mrs. Fields ... Mabel: Annie Adams Fields and Mabel Lowell Burnett. 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. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
John Greenleaf Whittier to Annie Adams Fields
Oak Knoll
Danvers
8th Mo, 23, 1884*
My dear frd
It was kind of thee to write me, when I know there was never {a} woman so busy as thy self. Did I tell thee that we had been to Ossipee Park?* It is nice, but not quite so open to "all airs that blow," as Asquam. I have just come here, and find Gen Armstrong's* card on my desk. It must have been left when
[ Page 2 ]
my cousins* were absent, and the servants seem to know nothing about it. I am exceedingly sorry that I missed of seeing him.
I am charmed with thy little poem.* Its beautiful thought is conveyed in verses of rare sweetness & melody. The last verse does not however seem to me quite clear -- in the singular "thy"in the 2nd line and the plural "you" in the 3rd. Would this change give thy thought?
--
But in the heart of age a music low
Though [intended through ? ] the swift sequence of this night & morn,
Repeats: "Ye pass, but in the eternal flow
The flower unfolds, the soul of man is born!
[ Page 3 ]
I am not sure in the matter and leave it to thy consideration.
I am very sorry to hear of Elizabeth Phelps* continued suffering. I suppose nevertheless, she still works on with desperate energy. I have just recd a letter from a lady in South Africa -- a teacher in the Moravian Seminary,* who has been cooling herself by reading "Snow-bound."* -- She sends me pressed flowers and the leaves of the Silver Tree* -- Leucadenseuson Argentefoliceus -- indigenous to the vicinity of Table Mountain. I had read while at Asquam Lady Barker's* South African experience, and was glad to get a sight of one of the wonders of that strange land.
My dear friend & school-mate Mrs Pitman* of [ omitted name ]
[ Page 4 ]
is very ill at York Beach -- something of paralysis I believe. She wished to see me but her friends thought it would not be advisable in her present state. Almost all who knew me and mine in my boyhood have passed away. I often repeat the words of Vaughan.* --
"They are all gone into the world of light
And I alone sit lingering here."
I wonder whether thee are in Boston or in S. Berwick with Sarah Jewett* who I imagine is nearly through with her new book. I hope thee will see to it that she does not overwork herself, and that she will do the same for thee. Ever affectionately thy old friend
John G Whittier
Notes
1884: This manuscript has a penciled "3" at the top center of page 1, and a penciled "X" appears in the left margin of page 3 where Whittier reports having a letter from a lady in South Africa.
Whittier changes from blue to black ink on p. 3, when he gives a Latin name for the Silver Tree, and he completes the letter with black ink.
Ossipee Park: Ossipee Park and Asquam were resorts on or near Lake Ossipee in New Hampshire.
According to G. D. Merrill's History of Carroll County, New Hampshire (1889, p. 398), inventor Benjamin Franklin Shaw (1832-1890) of Lowell, MA, built a large summer home in the White Mountains in 1879 and named it Ossippee Park. This became a resort. See also Coburn History of Lowell and Its People (1920) v. 1, p. 356.
"all airs that blow": While the phrase "all airs that blow" appears in a number of sources, it seems likely Whittier quotes from "The Cottage on the Hill," a sonnet by American poet, Paul Hamilton Hayne (1830-1886). See Poems of Paul Hamilton Hayne (1882), p. 107.
Armstrong's: Whittier supported the Hampton Institute, founded in 1861 to educate former African American slaves, now known as Hampton University. The first principal of the school was General Samuel Chapman Armstrong (1839-1893), a friend of Whittier.
cousins: Richard Cary says that Joseph Cartland (1810-1898) and his cousin Gertrude Cartland (1822-1911) accompanied Whittier on his summer vacations in Maine and New Hampshire for five decades, and Whittier lived in their home at Newburyport, Massachusetts most of his last fifteen winters.
little poem: It appears that Fields never published this poem. It is not included in her collection, The Singing Shepherd (1895).
Elizabeth Phelps: Elizabeth Stuart Phelps Ward, see Key to Correspondents. In "Art for Truth's Sake," Ronna C. Privett notes that Phelps suffered from insomnia throughout her life.
Moravian Seminary: The Moravian Church is a Protestant denomination known for early missionary work in far-flung locations, the first to establish missions in South Africa. Whittier's correspondent was likely teaching in a girl's school (seminary), but which one is not yet known.
"Snow-bound": Whittier's best-known poem.
Silver Tree: The silver or silver leaf tree (Leucadendron argenteum) is an endangered plant found mainly near Cape Town, SA.
Lady Barker's: The Jamaica born journalist, Mary Anne Barker Broome (1831-1911) published under the name "Lady Barker." Her husband, Frederick Broome, eventually served in various colonial offices. She published A Year's Housekeeping in South Africa (1880).
Mrs Pitman: Whittier's friend and correspondent, Harriet Minot Pitman died in October 1888. His obituary of her appears in J. B. Pickard, Letters of John Greenleaf Whittier v. 3, p. 552.
Vaughan: Henry Vaughan (1622-1695) was a Welsh mystical poet who wrote in English. "They are all gone into a world of Light!" appears in Silex Scintillans (1655). Sarah Orne Jewett often drew upon this poem in her writing.
Sarah Jewett ... new book: Sarah Orne Jewett. See Key to Correspondents. In the summer of 1884, Jewett was working on her third novel, A Marsh Island, which began serialization in Atlantic Monthly in January 1885.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Huntington Library, San Marino, CA, in the James T. Fields collection: mss FI 71-4780. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
John Greenleaf Whittier to Annie Adams Fields
Seventh day Eveng
23d.
23d.
[ 23 August 1884 ]*
Thy letter of the 20th has just reached me from Centre Harbor. How good and beautiful it was for thee to write it! I am rich in such kindness. Next to the pleasure of seeing thee face to face, is that of reading thy written words. I note what thee say of Mr Meyer & his friends of the Association;* and am glad that experienced truth seekers by scientific methods are venturing to look into the great mystery of our time -- indeed of all times.
You are going to Shelter Island.* I would like to be "banished" there
[ Page 2 ]
When you return you must both come to see me and spend a day & night at least, either here, or at Amesbury, where I shall be the last of September. Put it down in your list of duties.
J.G.W.
Notes
1884: For a Quaker of Whittier's time, 7th day would be Saturday.
Whittier did not fully dated this letter. The Huntington Library places it in August of 1885, however, it seems more likely that it was composed on 23 August of 1884, shortly after the dedication of the Quaker monument at Shelter Island. See notes below.
This manuscript has a penciled "14" at the top center of page 1, and a penciled "X" appears in the left margin at the bottom of page 1 and next to the line mentioning Prof. Horsford on p. 2.
Mr Meyer & his friends of the Association: The transcription of "Meyer" is uncertain. Perhaps he refers to Frederic W. H. Myers (1843-1901), who was a founder of the British Society for Psychical Research. In 1884, he co-authored an essay, "Visible Apparitions," Nineteenth Century 16 (July 1884) pp. 68-95. Perhaps Fields and Whittier are exchanging opinions about this essay, which dealt with spirit mediums communication with the dead.
Shelter Island: According to The Friends' Intelligencer 41 (23 July 1884) pp. 436-7, the dedication of the Shelter Island monument on the Eben Horsford (see Key to Correspondents) property in Shelter Island, NY took place on 21 July of 1884 (309-11). Whittier's "Banished from Massachusetts" was read for the occasion. Whittier had written the poem in 1883 and apparently shared it with Sarah Orne Jewett and with Horsford, though it was not published until 1886, in St. Gregory's Guest and Recent Poems.
Sarah: Sarah Orne Jewett. See Key to Correspondents.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Huntington Library, San Marino, CA, in the James T. Fields collection: mss FI 71-4798. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Frances Ellen Lord*
Manchester by Sea
August 24th
August 24th
[ 1884 ]*
Dear Mifs Lord
I am very sorry to have neglected sending the proper answer to your letter but I have had the impression that it was only necessary to know that the choice had been made and you had been kind enough to give me the names. I am sure that your choice has been
[ Page 2 ]
a wise one -- you know the audience so well. -- the beginnings of art is certainly a most interesting subject for a lecture in that department -- and the other subject is delightful to think of too!
Yours sincerely
S. O. Jewett
S. O. Jewett
Notes
Lord: The recipient of this letter is very likely to be Frances Ellen Lord (1835-1920). At this time, she was a Professor of Latin Language and Literature at Wellesley College. During her years at Wellesley, she directed graduate studies and was at least once acting president. See "Nathalie Lord, Teacher of Booker T. Washington."
The topic of this letter remains unknown.
1884: An envelope associated with this letter is addressed to Mifs F. E. Lord, Camp Kengarvin, Hampden, Maine. It is cancelled on 24 August 1884. Penciled across the address is "autographs."
The transcription of "Kengarvin" is uncertain, and this place has not yet been identified.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the University of Wisconsin-Madison Libraries, Department of Rare Books and Special Collections; Cairns Collection of American Women Writers, Comprehensive collection of works by Sarah Orne Jewett. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Annie Adams Fields
Monday night
[ Summer 1884 ]*
My dear darling
I have been sorry all day that I sent you such a wretched piece of a letter -- I did get very tired yesterday, and when I took my pen and wanted to say so much it wouldn't go very well -- I know you cant help feeling the love that goes in every one of my letters though.
I wish our "wellness" had been equal to lasting more than a week! but indeed a week has asked a great deal for both of us and here we are living from hand to mouth again. Dont
[ Summer 1884 ]*
My dear darling
I have been sorry all day that I sent you such a wretched piece of a letter -- I did get very tired yesterday, and when I took my pen and wanted to say so much it wouldn't go very well -- I know you cant help feeling the love that goes in every one of my letters though.
I wish our "wellness" had been equal to lasting more than a week! but indeed a week has asked a great deal for both of us and here we are living from hand to mouth again. Dont
[ Page 2 ]
(I felt very much disturbed about the Reade paper,* and was going to have something done about it right away. I wish you had put your price on it -- and I wonder they could offer you less than you had for the other -- the Longfellow. That was such a silly reason ^they gave^, but we shall grow wiser and wiser and I am afraid never grow any richer writing for
[ Page 3 ]
the magazines -- I imagine Scudder* sneaking and asking some Century person how much they paid you. I wish you would ask the Editors to please not mention the price to anyone as it is less than you [ have ? corrected ]-- but I dont know whether it would be wise{.})
I have had a great worry over the Marsh Island* in these last two
[ Page 4 ]
about it -- and wish it were a stronger sort of story -- We will let it tell itself and wait, wont we [ we repeated ] darling? As for the company the two lads are having a good time -- nineteen and twenty-one and big as houses! and tomorrow Grandpa* is coming to join these "fellows of his own age" -- which will give us a handful of entertaining -- and not much writing weather -- perhaps it is just as well. I did enjoy A Tale of Two Cities* most uncommon. The people in it seemed people of say ten years ago but the [ swing ? ] of the story -- the art of it is some
[ Up the left margin and then across the top margin of page 1 ]
thing marvellous -- What a wonderful [ picture ? ] and product of his own time Dickens was! -- I could feel him in the story and what you loved in him, more than ever before -- Good night dear mouse.* Dont let's get downhearted whatever happens. We have no French Revolution to tear[ Up the left margin and then across the top margin of page 2 ]
us to pieces -- I was so glad to see Mifs Whittier's* note and oh your dear letters are such a delight. If you want me to look at the Pratt paper* really do send it down and we will[ Up the left margin and then across the top margin of page 3 ]
have done with it [immejetly ? ] -- (You are only to be scolded about the cretonnes -- Leave them alone naughty Fuffy -- you are busy enough! and I can wait and must until fall.Your own Pin* -- who thanks you for everything twenty times over.)
Notes
Summer 1884: In the upper right of page 1 appear notes probably penciled by Fields: "188-- 5? 9?" Given that Jewett is working on the first draft of A Marsh Island, the year almost certainly is 1884, and as she mentions waiting until fall about the upholstery project, the letter probably was composed in the summer of that year.
Parenthesis marks in this manuscript were penciled by Fields.
Reade paper: Annie Fields's "Acquaintance with Charles Reade" appeared in Century Magazine in November 1884. Her "Glimpses of Longfellow in Social Life" also appeared in Century, but in April 1886.
Scudder: Horace Elisha Scudder. See Key to Correspondents. Richard Cary suggests that over all, Jewett's relationship with Scudder was cordial and beneficial to her, but clearly there were times when she was distrustful of him.
Jewett's suggestion that Scudder is the person who paid too little for the Reade piece suggests that perhaps Fields withdrew it from Atlantic before publishing it in Century. The much later appearance of the Longfellow article suggests other complications that are as yet not understood.
Marsh Island: Jewett's A Marsh Island (1885) began serialization in Atlantic Monthly in January 1885. Jewett's other letters indicate that she worked hard to complete her first draft before the serial began.
Grandpa: Jewett speaks of Dr. William Perry, Sr., her vigorous and elderly maternal grandfather. Presumably the visiting young men also are relatives, but which ones is not yet known. See Key to Correspondents.
A Tale of Two Cities: British novelist Charles Dickens (1812-1870), who had been a special friend of Annie Fields, published A Tale of Two Cities in 1859. The novel was set in London and Paris during the French Revolution.
Mouse: Nickname for Annie Adams Fields. Later in the letter, Jewett uses another Fields nickname: Fuffy. See Key to Correspondents.
Mifs Whittier's: One would naturally assume this to be a relative of close friend John Greenleaf Whittier. See Key to Correspondents. However, he is not known to have any close living, unmarried, female relatives named Whittier and likely to be corresponding with Fields and Jewett at this time.
the Pratt paper: Eliza Pratt (See Key to Correspondents) was at this time editor of Wide Awake magazine for young readers. Fields published two pieces there entitled "The Contributors and the Children": December 1886 and April 1887. Though both appeared a considerable time after this letter, it seems that Fields was having difficulty completing them. However, Fields may have been attempting another piece that was not published.
Pin: Pinny Lawson (Pinny / Pin) was an affectionate nickname for Jewett, used by her and Annie Fields. See Key to Correspondents.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library of Harvard University. 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). Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Annie Adams Fields to Lilian and Thomas Bailey Aldrich
148 Charles Street
August 29th 1884
My dear friends:
I see that Mr Pierce* has returned so I feel sure you must be in hiding somewhere with your boys.
Welcome, welcome home! And don't do it any more just yet --
I hope you have had a beautiful time and will not think the less of New England. We have washed the face of nature for your welcome. Are we not almost as green as ^old^ England?
Affectionately yours
Annie Fields.
Notes
Pierce: Henry Lillie Pierce. See Key to Correspondents.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library of Harvard University: MS Am 1429, Box 6, Items 1446-1538. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Annie Adams Fields to Eben Norton Horsford
September 1st 1884
[ Begin letterhead ]148. Charles Street,
Boston.
[ End letterhead ]
Dear Professor Horsford;
I was very glad to see your handwriting once more and to know that you sympathized with Sarah's* interest and mine in getting our [ "trunks ready" ? ] for a little trip southward.*
She seems to have the details of the going at her fingers end, so I feel sure we shall try to start Saty the 6th as you have kindly arranged.
With your letter came one from Mifs Alice Longfellow* telling us of Mifs Annie's engagement!
[ Page 2 ]
I had heard the report but of course waited for something more definite. Alice appears sincerely pleased.
I shall bring with me a letter from Whittier* in which he congratulates us upon our prospect of going to you at Shelter Island. He is much better for his visit to the hills; they are a panacea for all his ills.
Please remember me affectionately to dear Mrs Horsford. I am wondering if you have
[ Page 3 ]
heard from Mrs Jackson* since her sad accident!
We have had some very "close" warm weather here lately and although today is beautifully cool, there seems to be a warning in its very loveliness, that we must hurry out into the open for such days cannot be expected to last.
Sarah is still busy at South Berwick but she will join me on the 4th if all is well, in season
[ Page 4 ]
for our delightful trip to you=ward.
Till we meet -- and always --
most truly yours
Annie Fields.
most truly yours
Annie Fields.
Notes
Sarah's: Sarah Orne Jewett. See Key to Correspondents.
southward: Fields and Jewett plan a trip to Horsford's estate on Shelter Island, at the east end of Long Island, NY. Horsford's family inherited the Sylvester Manor on Shelter Island.
Alice Longfellow: See Key to Correspondents.
Her youngest sister, Anne Allegra Longfellow (1855-1934), married Joseph Gilbert Thorp (1852-1931).
Whittier: John Greenleaf Whittier. See Key to Correspondents.
Mrs Jackson: Helen Hunt Jackson (1830-1885).
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 59: Folder 35. Fields, Annie Adams: Connecticut, Maine & Massachusetts. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Eben Norton Horsford and family
South Berwick
2 September [ 1884 ]*
2 September [ 1884 ]*
Dear friends
On Saturday we sail (or steam) by the Sunshine* from the port of New London -- I hope nothing will prevent. I am looking forward to it with such joy -- and so was Mrs. Fields* when we last
[ Page 2 ]
talked of it. I am so glad to get her away from town, for I think she is getting very tired -- "No more at present from yours with esteem" as the letters of a bygone fashion used to end -- but I shall have more to say than I can find time to write{.}
Yours [ lovingly ? ]
Sarah.
Sarah.
Notes
1884: See Jewett to Horsford of 4 July 1884, in which she announces a planned visit to Shelter Island on 6 September. In this letter, she announces details of their departure the following Saturday, which was 6 September in 1884.
Sunshine: A sidewheel paddle steamer that worked along the New England coast in the 1880s. An account of a serious accident appears in The Day of New London, CN of 4 August 1890, p. 1. It appears that in 1884, the vessel's route may have included the vicinity of Horsford's Shelter Island estate off eastern Long Island, NY.
Mrs. Fields: Annie Adams Fields. 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. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Annie Adams Fields to Eben Norton Horsford
[ 13 September 1884 ]
Dear friend;
Just one word in the twilight to say that the boat tossed about wickedly but we arrived in safety and found a basket of peaches waiting for you which will go down on Monday --
Yours in the dark
A.F.
Notes
13 September 1884: This postal card, addressed to Horsford at Shelter Island, was postmarked on 13 September 1884. Horsford's family inherited the Sylvester Manor on Shelter Island, off the east coast of Long Island, New York.
On this day, Jewett composed "Shelter Island," a poem of gratitude that eventually was included with the Horsford papers at New York University. See Manuscript Poems of Sarah Orne Jewett.
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 59: Folder 35. Fields, Annie Adams: Connecticut, Maine & Massachusetts. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett and Annie Adams Fields to the family of Eben Norton Horsford
[ 15 September 1884 ]*
[ This undated item consists of a printed card with a handwritten note on the other side.
The print shows Santa, with a sleigh and reindeer, on a rooftop, about to descend a chimney with a bag of gifts on his back. Text on the front says: "Frank Smith, Wholesale and Retail Dealer in Fruit, Confectionery and Toys, Cor. State and Main Street, New London, CT.
The message on the other side reads as follows: ]
Dear Friends, Please accept these peaches from your loitering guests at New London.
Affectionately from Sarah and Annie Fields
Notes
15 September 1884: This date is purely speculative. The main evidence against it is the Christmas motif of the card. Supportive evidence, though, is surprisingly strong. Jewett and Fields visited the Horsford family on Shelter Island, off the east coast of Long Island, NY, in September 1884. Shelter Island is just 30 miles by sea from New London, CT, and it is probable that this is the route Jewett and Fields took on their return home after the visit, New London being a terminus for rail travel to Springfield and Boston, MA. Fields to Horsford of Saturday 13 September notes that they have had a rough trip by sea on their return and that they have arranged a gift of peaches, to be sent the Horsfords on Monday. In 1884, purchasing peaches as Christmas gifts would have been very difficult in New England.
This item 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 59: Folder 35. Fields, Annie Adams: Connecticut, Maine & Massachusetts. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
The item may be viewed by locating the appropriate link in the Fales Library Finding Aid.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Lilian Woodman Aldrich
Thursday
[ 18 September 1884 ]
Dear Lily
I meant to see you this morning but a headache sent me home again early in the day.
-- I wished to ask you a business question: the address of the man in Sudbury M. who ^re-^silvers mirrors and re-guilds their frames.
[ Page 2 ]
sister Mary* and start early tomorrow. If this note doesn't reach you tonight will you please send the answer to Mrs. Fields --*
Yours most lovingly
Sadie.*
Sadie.*
in such a hurry! now that the headache is over with! -----
Notes
1884: Jewett writes the day before her Friday 19 September 1884 departure with her sister Mary to Montreal and Quebec. See Annie Adams Fields to Eben Norton Horsford, 19 September 1884.
Mary: Mary Rice Jewett. See Key to Correspondents.
Sadie: Sadie Martinot, after the American actress of that name, was a nickname for Jewett with the Aldriches. See Key to Correspondents.
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: 2681.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Annie Adams Fields
Thursday --
[ September 1884 ]*
[ September 1884 ]*
My dear Fuff --*
Who do you think has been passing the afternoon with me but Gen. Armstrong!* He was on his way to Prout's Neck and stopped over, which was very kind and very invigorating! He was as much in a hurry and talked as fast as ever and on the whole I feel much the better for him. He asked all about you and said he should go to see you next week on his way back -- he wants now to be in a place where
[ Page 2 ]
he can wear a flannel shirt and be very lazy -- He thought he might not like Prouts Neck and should run away and I suggested that it was better if he didn't like it and he had better be tied to a stout post in the middle of a desert place which seemed to amuse him highly -- Sometime he is coming here to have a good long horse back ride -- being delighted with Berwick, that is, he thinks he will. He has been reading the Country
[ Page 3 ]
Doctor* and had it with him. As he came up from Conway
Junction I drove him back there and he was pleased with Sheila*
-- and Grandpa* & he found great satisfaction in each other
so it was all very nice. I couldnt help thinking what an
example it was for these rich boys. The one who needed it
most was not here though!
= I think I shall have to let this
week go, hook and sinker, but next week I must make up for
it. I suppose the interruption is the best thing, but
there are
[ Page 4 ]
times when it seems the worst. I have thought at the
story a good deal -- and got out of the bog I was in the first
of the week, at least I hope I have --
------------------------------------------
Oh my kind dear Fuffy to send
the peaches and the little [ note corrected ] at the top
for a best bit of all! I think you are so dear a [ deleted
letters ] F ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~f and I thank you ever so
many times and wish I could write a quawking letter like
Sandpiper.* I picked such a good big peach out of the basket --
and grudge them
[ Page 5 ]
very much to most people because they are to be keeped for best! There's a greedy grasping Pinny* for you. ---- What a naughty Marigold* to bloom elsewhere on lunch day! Dear me, wouldn't I go to lunch with you if I had promised! -- I am afraid I shall be very [ skimpy corrected ] about day's visits even to Rye and Marigold -- it is really going to be a great pull if I get this story done by the first of November. A week like this disheartens me. I must not let them happen, I must
[ Page 6 ]
keep part of my afternoons at any rate -- but you know how hard
it is to do that and I like to make the most of Grandfathers
visits. I am so afraid every one will be the last -- -- I began
a letter to Marigold tonight but I was too tired to finish it
and I must say good-night even to you. How lovely this
is about the olive tree! -- But the dearest thing was your
reminding me of our 'perhaps' going to Manchester by and by --
How I should love that! I contemplate a Manchester Pinny with
admiration -- and she is Fuffs too!
Notes
September 1884: This choice of a date has
substantial support. This letter must have been composed between
1884 when A Country Doctor appeared and January 1887
when Jewett's grandfather, Willliam Perry, died. Jewett is
working on a novel she hopes to complete by November. A
Marsh Island began serial publication in January
1885. We have a letter of 19 September from Annie Fields to Eben
Horsford, that mentions she has sent him peaches.
Fuff: Nickname for Annie Adams Fields. See Key to Correspondents.
Gen. Armstrong: Samuel Chapman Armstrong. See Key
to Correspondents.
Prout's Neck: Prouts Neck is a peninsula, within the
town of Scarborough, in southeastern Maine.
Country Doctor: Jewett's novel, A Country
Doctor, was published in 1884.
Sheila: Jewett's first horse, purchased in 1877.
Grandpa: Dr. William Perry (d. January 11, 1887). See Key
to Correspondents.
Sandpiper: Celia Thaxter. See Key to Correspondents.
Pinny: Pinny Lawson (Pinny / Pin) was an affectionate nickname for Jewett, used by her and Annie Fields. See Key to Correspondents.
Marigold: Mary Langdon Greenwood (Mrs. James) Lodge. See Key to Correspondents.
This text is from transcriptions from mixed repositories in the Maine Women Writer's Collection, University of New England, Letters from Sarah Orne Jewett, 1875-1890, Folder 72, Burton Trafton Jewett Research Collection. For more information about the individual transcription, contact the Maine Women Writers Collection. Preparation by Linda Heller. Notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.Annie Adams Fields to Eben Norton Horsford
Sep 19th '84
[ Begin letterhead ]
148. Charles Street,
Boston.
[ End letterhead ]
148. Charles Street,
Boston.
[ End letterhead ]
Dear Professor Horsford;
I promised dear Mrs Horsford a note from our poet* and I send the enclosed because he thinks when it is written, that we are still with you.
I hope the peaches arrived safely and were of the best. We, Sarah* and I, are full of tender remembrances of our visit ------
Just here comes your note of the 17th which explains why
[ Page 2 ]
Mrs Horsford could not hear us when we spoke through the telephone* to bid her welcome on the ^late^ afternoon of Wednesday.
Sarah and her sister have gone this morning to Montreal and Quebec.* I feared a storm for them but instead they have a lovely autumn morning. She sends her love, as I do also, to your
[ Page 3 ]
daughters. She means to write them while she is away.
Our visit to you was a real refreshment. We found Mrs. Stowe* on Sunday in Hartford. She is very delicate in health [ two deleted words ] but is talking of going to Florida as usual.
My little home here is looking very pretty just now for the frosts spared the blossoms and the [ grass corrected ] everywhere is doing itself great credit.
[ Page 4 ]
The sketch* has just gone to be mounted. It looked lovelier than ever when we took it out of the trunk and knew that the scene itself was now only a memory to us.
affectionately to
you all
you all
Annie Fields.
Notes
our poet: John Greenleaf Whittier. See Key to Correspondents.
Sarah: Sarah Orne Jewett. See Key to Correspondents. Mentioned later is her sister, Mary Rice Jewett.
telephone: This letter suggests that Fields was an early adopter of the new telephone services, probably provided by the National Bell Telephone Company in New England.
Montreal and Quebec: Jewett's biographers report that Quebec was a favorite destination for the Jewett family, but little has been written about their travels in Canada or the writing that resulted, such as "Mère Pochette" (1888).
Mrs. Stowe in Hartford: Harriet Beecher Stowe was living at Nook Farm in Hartford, CT in 1884. See Key to Correspondents.
sketch: A water-color by Horsford's daughter, Cornelia. See Jewett to Horsford of 29 October 1884.
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 59: Folder 35. Fields, Annie Adams: Connecticut, 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.
John Greenleaf Whittier to Annie Adams Fields
Amesbury 27 9 Mo [ 1884 ]*
My dear Annie Fields
I hope the Gentians will reach thee before they are withered. I fancy that some atonement will be made to the Amesbury meadows for the robbery of its [ fairest ? ] ornaments if I share the spoils with thee.
No frost to harm has fallen upon us as yet, and the fields are green as June. The trees here have scarcely turned in this
[ Page 2 ]
vicinity. They will be at their best when thee visit Manchester by the Sea.
In regard to Bayard's* poetry I loved the man so much that I could never criticise his verse. "Lars" is his best long poem. It seems to me worthy of a place with Hermann & Dorothea and Evangeline.* But what a brave worker he was!
In the Andover Review* I shall have a bit of verse -- probably in the Oct. number.
I am glad thee liked L L's poem{.}* It seems [ to ? ] me tender & beautiful.
[ Page 3 ]
What delightful weather Sarah Jewett* is favored with in her Canada outing! Will she be with thee by the sea?
Ever thy grateful friend
John G Whittier
Notes
1884: While Whittier has not written a year for this letter, Huntington Library archivists are correct to place it in 1884. Support for this choice comes from these coinciding facts to which he refers: that Sarah Orne Jewett traveled to Canada in September of 1884, Whittier published a poem in the Andover Review in October of 1884, and Lucy Larcom published a poem in Atlantic Monthly in September 1884. See notes below.
This manuscript has a penciled "4" at the top center of page 1, and a penciled "X" appears in the left margin of page 2 at the beginning of the paragraph on Bayard Taylor.
Bayard: American poet Bayard Taylor (1825-1878) wrote Lars; a Pastoral of Norway (1873).
Hermann & Dorothea and Evangeline: Whittier ranks Taylor's Lars with other narrative poems. Hermann and Dorothea (1782-4) is by the German poet, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832). Evangeline is by the American poet, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. See Key to Correspondents.
Andover Review: Whittier's poem, "Adjustment" appeared on the opening page of the Andover Review for October 1884 (v. 2 # 10, p. 887).
L L's poem: Lucy Larcom (1824-1893) was a popular American author and teacher, a close friend of Whittier and Fields. Whittier probably refers to Larcom's "Elizabeth," in Atlantic Monthly. 54 (September 1884) p. 891.
Sarah Jewett: Sarah Orne Jewett. See Key to Correspondents. In Sarah Orne Jewett, Blanchard (p. 161) says that Mary and Sarah Jewett made a trip to Canada in September 1884.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Huntington Library, San Marino, CA, in the James T. Fields collection: mss FI 71-4704. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Celia Thaxter to Annie Adams Fields
My dearest Annie:
Your letter came last
night & thank you always -- You ask what keeps me so busy.
In the first place we are twelve in the family just now, &
you know how much there is to be done in a house. My woman has a
small girl to help her, (Mrs. Titcomb* & ^I^ share the
expense of her, for she comes under the head of luxuries) but
there are myriad things to see to, all the time -- If it were
only fighting the flies, its enough to do! Tho' every door &
window is carefully screened with wire, between the beach &
its kelp on one side, & the great barn on the other, we have
as much as we can do to keep them out. Karl made some "flappers"
for me, out of long light sticks with strips of newspaper tied
like a feather duster at the top, & we open the windows on
one side a room & drive them out with these -- it is really
a "job"! Then
2
[ there corrected ] are endless little things in
the cooking line, & a running accompaniment of pickling
& preserving going on continually, now the wild grapes, then
the ripe cucumbers for sweet pickles, yesterday the beautiful [
samphire* corrected ] for pickling, which the children
brought in in great armsfull from the marsh -- I [ wonder corrected
] if you have ever eaten it, by the way! I must bring you some
-- it is so pretty & so nice -- The barberries, -- the many
[ ways written over are ? ] in which John's
square acre of splendid tomatoes have got to be put up, -- there
must be marmalade of crab apples, there must be stores of all
sorts of things put up for the winter & spring -- Then I will
have flowers in the house, & you know what a care [ an
apparently deleted comma ] that is, how many moments of
time they take, -- but my garden is the most magnificent blaze
you can imagine, gorgeous doesn't express it, with [ its corrected
] splendor of zinnias & summer chrysanthemums, &
marigold & poppies, [ blooming corrected ]
3
so late, & forests of sweet peas & nasturtiums, &
the most splendid phloxes I have ever seen, in all scarlets
^crimsons,^ maroons, pinks, white, & purple; &
gaillardias that are like cornflowers gone mad, in every mixture
of scarlet & flame & deep reds, & twice as large
& coreopsis & black Scabious & real cornflowers
& [ rose-campion corrected ] -- well, I couldn't
begin to tell you! Truly a sight to be seen, my reward for
morning after morning's work in June, from four o'clock till
nine in the morning, every day for three weeks -- The
sunflowers are gone by, but they were splendid -- There are so
many things & places to be kept in order, so many touches to
be [ given written over giving ? ], needle
& thread to be used, brush & dusting, picking up &
setting straight after all these young folk! And my own little
room is no small job to keep straight, so small, with all my
writing & painting traps & personal belongings, -- it is
just as pretty as it
4
can be, but if it is not free from dust & [ litter corrected
], if things are not in their place & all fresh & sweet,
I cannot have a moment's joy in it -- I should hope not! My open
fire place is a great pleasure, every day I go to the beach
& bring driftwood for it, more for the pleasure & the
exercise than any thing else, for Drew, the man, brings it up
from the beach by the wagon load, & every one who goes to
the beach brings some, "for fun", -- tis a pleasure -- I wish
you could see how pretty the room is with the loveliest greenish
gray paper & frieze of apple blossoms & carpet to match
the paper & the walls full of pictures --- Oh I mustn't
write so much! Then I am working hard at my painting --
in especial a big water color of the farm house, elm tree,
crescent of sand beach &c. for Mr. Bowditch,* & various
other things, books &c. & then Mrs. Dodge* has insisted
that I must write a story for St N. I can't,
5
never did such a thing in my life, but I'm forced to try, & I have several little things, verses & "sich", getting done, for I must earn some money to buy some clothes for the winter -- it is two years since I have had a rag, & I must get some kind of warm cloak for the winter, for the one I got in Paris I have worn since 1880 straight thro', & it is gone --
Ross Turner* is here since Thursday &
you can fancy how I treasure every moment with him, what a boon
it is to watch him at work -- Roland* came back Friday night,
his train was delayed an hour at Revere, so he missed both ferry
& stage, & walked over from Ports., eight miles -- He
looked pretty white & hollow-eyed when he came in, dear
fellow, but he was in good spirits, passed his examination quite
triumphantly, as if he hadn't [ lost corrected ] two
years of study (with his knee &
6
his father's illness, -- but he has studied very hard [ these written
over those ? ] last few weeks of the summer &
shows the effects of it -- I wish, oh how I wish he
would devote himself to science for which he has an enthusiasm
& give up medicine for which his delicate body unfits him. [
Thaxter has deleted 3.5 lines ]
Mr. Jennison* is here, but only for over Sunday, he
enjoys it so much here! He is a very cultivated musician &
his daughter Kitty, Roland's cousin, you know, of whom he is so
fond, is also one, studied in Germany years, & has a most
sweet voice & sings in German & Italian & French
just as well as in English having lived in all those countries
long enough to get the languages perfectly* She & Roland
(& Mr. Jennison too when he is here, altogether)
7
play piano & violin most delightfully -- Bach &
Beethoven, Mozart & Haydn, & all kinds of things. Kitty
is singing this moment some lovely [ Persian corrected ]
songs by [ Saint-Saëns* corrected ], to Ross Turner, who
is delighted with her singing -- Her friend Mabel Freeman,* also
has been spending the whole summer here, the two are
inseparable, she is musical too -- She is pretty & sweet
with ^a^ superb mass of blonde hair, a picturesque creature
& very nice -- they have been here since June but soon all
go to town together -- Mrs Titcomb will begin in Pinckney St.
next week: she & Kitty will keep house, Mabel & Roland
& Mr. Jennison with them -- My woman will be glad when her
rest comes, for as you may imagine, there is washing &
ironing enough alone, to keep one person busy! And the
buttermaking
8
& taking care of milk -- 9 cows --, (besides heifers & calves &c) & John has just begun to sell his butter to the Union Club* in Boston, & [ I am corrected ] so thankful -- Poor John works so hard, tries so hard & has to fight so persistently for every step of his way. Last week as he was coming on horseback from the Post office, his little mare Bébé stepped on a rolling stone & slipped & broke her arch, & has got to be killed. Such a pity! & such a loss! ------
Dear me, what a disquisition I am writing! Didnt mean to! I am going to put a couple of [ gaillairdia intended gaillardia ] heads in this letter, of course they'll be all faded but I'd like to show you the color.
The days are most beautiful to look at -- Ross Turner enjoys them. I long to show you a vol of Driftweed* which he has illustrated for me in pen & ink -- too fascinating!
Thank you so much for your kindness to
Roland!
Ever dear [ Annie corrected ], your
loving
C. T.
Notes
Mrs. Titcomb: Lucy Thaxter Titcomb (1818-1908) was a
sister of Thaxter's husband, Levi Thaxter.
samphire: Probably, Thaxter refers to Saliconia, a common succulent that grows
in salt marshes.
Mr. Bowditch: Dr. Henry Ingersoll Bowditch (1808-1892),
owned a cottage on Appledore. His wife was Olivia Jane Yardley (1816-1890); their
daughter, Olivia Yardley Bowditch (1842-1928), regularly spent
part of her summer there.
Mrs. Dodge ... St N: Mary Mapes Dodge (see Key to Correspondents), editor at St. Nicholas. If Thaxter succeeded in giving Dodge a story for St. Nicholas, this is not yet known. She published two poems early in 1885: "The Child and the Year," in v. 12:3 (January 1885), p. 161; and "What Wakes the Flowers?" (March 1885) in v. 12:5, p. 331-2. Later in 1885, she placed more poems with St. Nicholas, and an article: "Peggy's Garden and What Grew Therein" in October, v. 12:12.
Ross Turner: Ross Sterling Turner (1847-1914) "was a
painter, watercolorist, and illustrator, active in the Boston
area, known for his landscapes and floral subjects. ... Loosely
associated with the 'Duveneck boys' after about 1879, Turner
painted in Venice and Florence, and he also worked in Rome. In
1882 he settled in Boston, exhibiting more watercolors than oil
paintings."
Driftweed is Thaxter's 1878
collection of poems.
Roland: Thaxter's youngest son. Later in the letter she mentions her middle son, John. See Key to Correspondents.
Mr. Jennison ... Kitty: Probably this is Samuel Jennison (1821-1900), a Cambridge, MA, area lawyer, who married Mary Lincoln Thaxter, sister of Thaxter's husband, Levi, and of Lucy Thaxter Titcomb (see below). Their 4 children were: Lucy White, Samuel Ellery (1856- ), Katharine Almy, and Robert (b. & d. 1861). Presumably, Katharine Almy is Kitty. See The Giles Memorial, pp. 275-6.
Bach & Beethoven, Mozart & Haydn ... Saint-Saëns:
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) and Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) were
German composers and musicians.
Franz Joseph Haydn (1732-1809) was a
prolific Austrian composer.
Charles-Camille Saint-Saëns (1835-1921)
was a French composer and musician. During his career, he
composed two song cycles, one being Mélodies Persanes
(Persian Songs, 1870).
Mabel Freeman: Roland Thaxter, married Mabel Gray
Freeman (1858-1952) in June 1887.
Union Club: The Union Club of Boston on Beacon Hill was
founded in 1863; it is one of the oldest gentlemen's clubs in
the United States.
MS C.1.38 Box 2 Folder 4 (210-229)
https://ark.digitalcommonwealth.org/ark:/50959/qb98p417w
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Louise Imogen Guiney to Annie Adams Fields
[ 30 September 1884 ]
Dear Mrs. Fields:It was very kind of you to go a-sailing in strange waters after me, and I thank you for it, though I missed the delight of seeing you. I never go by your own House Beautiful* save 'with reverent feet'; and I hope, at some not far day, to venture in once more, and find that this gentle good-will of yours is still mine to take and hold. I wonder, -- but I scarce ought to say so, -- whether you liked my paper on Leigh Hunt* in the Atlantic? It may seem a bit whimsical but you were one of the very few,
[ Page 2 ]
for whose pleasure
Your friend,
Louise I. Guiney
Louise I. Guiney
71 Rutland St. Sept. 30th '84.
Notes
House Beautiful: A place of comfort and healing during Christian's journey in The Pilgrim's Progress (1678) by British author, John Bunyan (1628-1688). Good-will also is a character in Bunyan's allegory, the keeper of the Wicket-Gate who directs Christian to the House Beautiful.
'with reverent feet': Probably, Guiney alludes to "Divina Commedia," by American poet, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882), which opens:
Oft have I seen at some cathedral doorLeigh Hunt: Guiney's "An English Literary Cousin" appeared in Atlantic Monthly 54 (October 1884), pp. 467-477. Fields wrote about Hunt in A Shelf of Old Books (1894).
A laborer, pausing in the dust and heat,
Lay down his burden, and with reverent feet
Enter, and cross himself, and on the floor
Kneel to repeat his paternoster o'er;...
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Huntington Library, San Marino, CA, in the James T. Fields collection Box 25: mss FI 1583. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Celia Thaxter to Annie Adams Fields
Farm Oct. 1st (84
O dear Annie, what is the matter with poor Hamilton Wilde!* How lives go out & go out! The last time I met him on Tremont Street in the rainy spring weather, he did not say "how do you do!" as he clasped my hand, but "Tommaso! poor Tommaso! Now he knows all about it!" referring to Tom Appleton's* death. What happened to him, Annie? He was always waiting to be free from care of mother & father to [ go corrected ] with his sister abroad to live. Dear me! & now its to a farther country yet, & alone! Surely, he is not old? is he?
I'm so glad you sent [ unrecognized word or name him ? ] some of the flowers -- Did they really get to you in any kind of order! I feared
[ Page 2 ]
the hot day would ruin them -- Roland & Mr Jennison* went to town in the [ eight or light ? ] train, so that was how they go to the express in Ports* so early -- John drove to town. How nice that Whittier* sent you the gentian!
Do you think it was any ^of^ our Lowes Dickinsons* who wrote the poem in ^Oct.^ Scribner signed Mary Lowes Dickinson?* Do write from Manchester -- Ross Turner* has gone back leaving beautiful things behind him. Did I tell you of the ship & the iceberg for "Tryst" which he made in black & white? He gave it to me -- What a [ unrecognized word ] household Mary* will have! --
Did I say how much I thought of what you said of our being in the [ world ? ] together to say to each other "Let us have patience?"
[ Now & ever yours ? ]
C.
C.
Notes
Hamilton Wilde: American painter, Hamilton Gibbs Wilde (1827-1884).
Tom Appleton's: Thomas Gold Appleton (1812- 17 April 1884), an American author, whose sister, Frances, married American poet, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882).
Roland & Mr Jennison: Mr. Jennison probably is Samuel Jennison (1821-1900), a Cambridge, MA, area lawyer, who married Mary Lincoln Thaxter, sister of Thaxter's husband, Levi. Roland is Thaxter's youngest son.
Whittier: John Greenleaf Whittier. See Key to Correspondents.
Ports: Portsmouth, NH. Presumably, Roland's next older brother, John Thaxter, is the driver Thaxter mentions.
Mary Lowes Dickinson: Fields and Thaxter were acquainted with the family of Lowes Cato Dickinson (1819-1908), British portrait painter and Christian socialist, founder of the Working Men's College of London. He married Margaret Ellen Williams (1824-1882).
Scribner's Monthly for October 1884 is not available on-line as of this writing.
No Mary Lowes Dickinson is yet known to have authored the poem Thaxter asks about. In the Lowes Dickinson family were at least two "Marys": Mary Catherine Dickinson was the spouse of Lowes Cato Dickinson's older son, Sir Arthur Lowes Dickinson. Mary Ellen Lowes Dickinson was their adopted daughter. However, the couple married in 1888, making it impossible that either woman authored the poem.
Ross Turner: The Los Angeles County Museum of Art says that Ross Sterling Turner [1847-1914] "was a painter, watercolorist, and illustrator, active in the Boston area, known for his landscapes and floral subjects. ... Loosely associated with the 'Duveneck boys' after about 1879, Turner painted in Venice and Florence, and he also worked in Rome. In 1882 he settled in Boston, exhibiting more watercolors than oil paintings." He had not yet married in 1884. Whether his "Tryst" has entered a public collection also is not yet known.
Mary: Which of the many "Marys" Thexter means from among their mutual acquaintances is not yet known.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Huntington Library, San Marino, California: James Thomas Fields Papers and Addenda (1767-1914), mss FI 1-5637, Box 63 FI 1- 4217. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Celia Thaxter to Sarah Orne Jewett and Annie Adams Fields
Farm. Oct 12th (84
My dearest Annie & Pinny:*
I am so glad to think of you at the sea these lovely days! Was there ever so beautiful an autumn? I never saw one. John* is away at Worcester, receptions, calls, -- Lord knows what, & I suppose his engagement will be out anon. The Lord be good to us all!
Your dear letters are read. You always tell me so much news! Poor Karl was glad to hear of Mrs. Claflin{.}* She was always so good to him. We will talk of Myers* &c. when I see you. I can't remember if I have spoken to you of that fine, splendid little Ida Bothe who lives with Mrs. John W. Candler* in Brookline, (because Mrs. Candler can't live without her) & has a studio in town & paints like
2
a man, with power & truth. I fairly love this girl -- she is to me most charming. She came from Germany, her birth place, with Mrs. C -- had some trying experiences & came to make her own way & earn her living which she does triumphantly. I never saw a person so full of the real old German spirit of objection to this sort of thing -- our Subject* I mean. She laughed it to scorn. But in her own person & Mrs. Candler's, with no "Medium", the thing has come to her with such force that she says in a letter I had last week "To me this [ thing corrected ] is now absolutely real. I shall never doubt it again .... The other night there came raps all over the ceiling (she & Mrs. Candler sitting alone) & Mrs. C. had to beg not to
3
be with them & the thought of strife ^(endeavor)^ & work & development is better than annihilation, after all."
You see she believed in annihilation -- her terrible experience had crushed hope out of her.
This is the most interesting thing I know about the matter: these two people who so scoffed are now my best comforts in it. They were in our [ meetings corrected ] at the Unity --* You must see Ida this winter -- She is most interesting -- petite, like a child, with soft brown hair & fair skin & pink color, fresh & lovely, but such a resolute face. And she talks such a charming lingo!
You are kind to be interested about my story, but I have no hope about it ---don't think it is worth the ink it took to write it. "Peggy's garden & what grew therein" I called it. It might be made nice if somebody took it who had the gift for such things. I haven't. Has Pinny written one for St N.?* I sent mine.
How nice that the Winches are back! And Jessie.* My dear love to you both.
Your C.
Notes
Pinny: Thaxter is using intimate nicknames shared among Jewett, Fields and herself. Pinny is Jewett; Flower is Fields; Sandpiper is Thaxter. See Key to Correspondents.
John: Thaxter's son, John, married Mary Gertrude Stoddard (1858-1951) in June 1887; their daughter Rosamond (1895-1989), became Thaxter's biographer. See Key to Correspondents and Richard Cary, "Jewett on Writing Short Stories" Colby Quarterly (June 1964), especially p. 427.
Mrs. Claflin: Mary Bucklin Davenport Claflin. See Key to Correspondents.
Myers: Possibly, Thaxter refers to Frederic William Henry Myers (1843-1901), a British author and scholar who became a founder of the Society for Psychical Research in 1883.
Ida Bothe ...Mrs. John W. Candler: A German-born artist, Ida Bothe was active in Boston during the 1880s. She married a German baron in 1890 and returned to Germany.
Ida May Garrison (1848-1891) married John Wilson Candler (1828-1903), who served as a U.S. Congressman from Massachusetts, 1881-3 and 1889-91. Their daughter was Amelia Garrison Candler Gardiner (1869-1945).
Subject: Thaxter refers to on-going exchanges between her and various friends on the topic of Spiritualism, communication with the dead, usually through "Spirit Mediums."
On 9 October, Annie Fields wrote to John Greenleaf Whittier:
The striking thing of today is the wide-spread interest in what we have called the supernatural. I am truly amazed at the new people and the new kinds of mind engaged in solemn consideration of this subject, since men of science have refused to scoff any longer but have joined the ranks of investigation ....These selections from Fields's letter appear in Judith Roman, Annie Adams Fields (1990), p. 116.
Mrs. Goddard came up here in one of those glowing sunsets and got talking with some earnestness about it. She has read all the books! as she says, but I'm glad to see some deeper interest awaking for I am sure she will find light in it and no one can need it more. I did not relate to her any personal experiences because she is not yet ready to receive them, but I can see something dawning in her mind where formerly all has been so dark.
See Terry Heller, "Communing with the Dead: Celia Thaxter, John Greenleaf Whittier, Sarah Orne Jewett, Annie Adams Fields." SOJTP 2020.
the Unity: Presumably, Thaxter refers to the Church of Unity in Boston. Minot Judson Savage (1841-1918) was an American Unitarian clergyman and "psychical researcher," then serving the Church of the Unity (1874-1896). He published several books on psychic research, including Psychics: Facts and Theories (1893).
See Thaxter to Fields of Sat. A. M., April - May 1884.
"Peggy's garden & what grew therein": Thaxter's story "Peggy's Garden and What Grew Therein" appeared in St. Nicholas 12:12 (October 1885) pp. 886-95.
St N: Jewett is not known to have published a piece in St. Nicholas in 1884 or 1885.
Winches ... Jessie: William J. Winch (1847- ), tenor, John F. Winch, bass, and Mrs. John Winch, alto, made up a musical family performing in Boston from the 1870s.
See "Sweet Boston Singers" Boston Globe (13 October 1895) p. 28.
Jessie Cochrane. 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 4 (210-229).
https://ark.digitalcommonwealth.org/ark:/50959/qb98p437c
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Annie Adams Fields to Eben Norton Horsford
Monday evening.
[ October 1884 ]*
[ October 1884 ]*
[ Begin letterhead ]
148. Charles Street,
Boston.
[ End letterhead ]
148. Charles Street,
Boston.
[ End letterhead ]
My dear friend:
I was more than sorry to pass your door today without knocking, but seeing both "Mamma" and Lilian on my way, (the first driving and at a distance) I concluded to defer my visit -- After a word with Frü Ole* I found myself late and tired and so, ignominiously, returned home. Sarah* gave me her love to bring to you all.
We have been passing the month at my cottage in Manchester by the Sea and I only returned this morning, leaving Sarah at South Berwick. We drove from Manchester to Berwick passing one night with Mr. Whittier* at Amesbury. He is uncommonly well again! ^and as^ full of the coming election, Quarterly meetings, the last new books and his orchard and grape=vines, as he ever was.
He again said how sorry he
[ Page 2 ]
was that he did not feel equal to the journey to Shelter Island.*
This afternoon was beautiful indeed in Cambridge and it was fitting that everybody should be out to see something of it at least. I wanted to see the Longfellows* and give them a word of welcome before looking about at the crowd of things which should keep me here for a while, but missing you I had a sense of disappointment after all.
Sarah will feel the death of
[ Page 3 ]
your favorite* and I feel it for you and with you.
Good-bye -- and please return good for evil [ in corrected ] not passing by my door.
Affectionately yours
Annie Fields.
Annie Fields.
Notes
October 1884: If the reference to the "death of your favorite" refers to the death of Trofarts, a family dog, then this letter from Annie must be close in time to the Jewett's letter of 29 October 1884, which includes condolence for this loss.
Frü Ole: Sara Chapman Thorp Bull. See Key to Correspondents.
Sarah: Sarah Orne Jewett. See Key to Correspondents.
"Mamma" and Lilian: Horsford's wife and daughter. See Key to Correspondents.
Whittier: John Greenleaf Whittier. See Key to Correspondents.
coming Election, Quarterly meetings: The Presidential election of 1884 was hotly contested, pitting Republican James G. Blaine against Democrat Grover Cleveland. Blaine was hampered by a political corruption scandal resulting from documentary evidence that he had sold his influence while in Congress. Cleveland was able to take the higher moral position until it was revealed that he had fathered (or at least taken responsibility for) an illegitimate child. The election was held on 4 November. As abolitionists and Republicans, Whittier and Fields and Jewett found the campaign upsetting, but chose to support the Democrat.
Whittier was a member of the Society of Friends (Quakers). Quarterly meetings of the Society of Friends are gatherings of regional representatives to worship and conduct business.
the journey to Shelter Island: According to Mac Griswold in The Manor: Three Centuries at a Slave Plantation on Long Island (2013), the dedication of the Shelter Island monument took place in July of 1884 (309-11). He reports that Whittier was present to read a poem he composed for the occasion, but this letter and others to the Horsfords would seem to contradict both reports. Contemporary accounts indicate that Whittier's poem was read, but do not specify that he read it or that it was composed for this occasion. See the Friends Intelligenceer v. 41 (August 1884) pp. 436-7.
Longfellows: American poet, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow had died in 1882, but his daughters still lived in the family home. See Key to Correspondents.
John W. Willoughby says that "the Horsfords lived at 27 Craigie Street [in Cambridge, MA], a few doors from the Longfellows." See Mary Melvin Petronella, Victorian Boston Today: Twelve Walking Tours (225).
death of your favorite: Probably Trofarts, a Horsford family dog.
According to transcriber John W. Willoughby, the manuscript of this letter is in the possession of the family of Andrew Fiske, Eben Norton Horsford's great-grandson, "heir to Sylvester Manor, Horsford's Shelter Island estate, who graciously offered to share with the public the letters from Sarah Orne Jewett and Annie Fields to Eben Norton Horsford and his family." 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. Annotated by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Annie Adams Fields
Monday night
[ Autumn 1884 ]*
[ Autumn 1884 ]*
(Dear Fuffy
What a dear letter came from you tonight! but I am afraid this will be a sleepy answer, since it is getting late). I wrote until after dark this afternoon and then went out to walk in the early moonlight, way down the street by the Academy and even up on the hill back of the Academy itself.* There was a great grey cloud in the west but all the rest of the sky was clear and
What a dear letter came from you tonight! but I am afraid this will be a sleepy answer, since it is getting late). I wrote until after dark this afternoon and then went out to walk in the early moonlight, way down the street by the Academy and even up on the hill back of the Academy itself.* There was a great grey cloud in the west but all the rest of the sky was clear and
[ Page 2 ]
[ Page 3 ]
new Browning book.* I shall be so glad to hear it by and by -- and how do you like the Lanier?* I have been looking over the Parkman books* a little and I also read a good deal of Lord Ronald Gowers* bookatee -- some of it is quite inconsequent but he is very charming in many ways -- a most [ loveable so spelled ] person I should think. Everything about his mother and sisters is perfectly charming and his love [ several deleted words ] for Dunrobin castle and
[ Page 4 ]
a Chiswick house is quite delightful{.}
I think you will like to look it over a little -- He seems to have been very sorry when he was in America before to have missed seeing Mrs. Stowe.* I hope that he saw her this time. Only think of our Crimean heroine!* that is really fine! Where next?
Good night my own darling. I think of you so often and so lovingly
Yours always
Pin* --
Pin* --
Notes
Autumn 1884: Jewett's reference to Ronald Gower's visit to the United States, places this letter almost certainly in 1884. Her references to books published in 1883 and 1884 tend to support this date. See notes below.
Parenthesis marks in this manuscript were penciled by Fields.
Fuffy: Nickname for Annie Adams Fields. See Key to Correspondents.
the Academy: The Berwick Academy in South Berwick, Maine. See Jewett's "The Old Town of Berwick," for information and illustrations.
the mood had spent itself: see the opening of R. W. Emerson's, "Nature."
new Browning book: This is difficult to determine, but perhaps Jewett writes of Bancroft Cooke's An Introduction to Robert Browning (1883), or W. L. Courtney, Robert Browning, Writer of Plays (1883).
the Lanier: It seems likely that this would be Sidney Lanier, Poet (1884) by William Hayes Ward, friend of Fields and Jewett. This book appeared in the spring of 1884. See Key to Correspondents.
the Parkman books: Probably Jewett means the popular American historian Francis Parkman Jr. (1823-1893). Which books she has in mind is hard to know. New in 1884 was Montcalm and Wolfe, which was volume 6 of his 7 volume France and England in North America (1865-1892).
Lord Ronald Gowers: Lord Ronald Charles Sutherland-Leveson-Gower (1845-1916), was a Scottish politician, sculptor and writer. Jewett is likely to be reading My Reminiscences (1883). Gower visited the United States during the second half of 1884. See "Some of Lord Ronald Gower's Views," New York Tribune 13 November 1884, p. 2.
Mrs. Stowe: Harriet Beecher Stowe. See Key to Correspondents.
our Crimean heroine: This person remains unidentified, though the term's association with British nurse and social reformer, Florence Nightingale (1820-1910) is difficult to ignore.
Nightingale was "in the news" in August of 1884 because of her recommendations for preventing the spread of cholera, which appeared in the New York Herald that month. See the Weekly Irish Times 16 August 1884, p. 3. Context for this may include a serious cholera outbreak in Naples, Italy in September of 1884.
Pin: Pinny Lawson (Pinny / Pin) was an affectionate nickname for Jewett, used by her and Annie Fields. See Key to Correspondents.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library of Harvard University. 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). Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Annie Fields Transcription
This appears in Annie Fields, Letters of Sarah Orne Jewett (1911), p. 51.
I wrote until after dark this afternoon, and then went out to walk in the early moonlight, down the street by the Academy, and even up on the hill back of the Academy itself. There was a great grey cloud in the west, but all the rest of the sky was clear, and it was very beautiful. When one goes out of doors and wanders about alone at such a time, how wonderfully one becomes part of nature, like an atom of quick-silver against a great mass. I hardly keep my separate consciousness, but go on and on until the mood has spent itself.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Lilian Woodman Aldrich
South Berwick
Saturday [ Autumn 1884 ]
My dear LilianSaturday [ Autumn 1884 ]
I am so glad that you are at home again -- and I dont stop to think much about your having lost your Russian journey in my selfish pleasure. Somehow I have missed you this summer more than I ever did before, and I had a haunting fear that
[ Page 2 ]
something was going to happen to you -- perhaps because you were low in your mind about going away. What a presentiment of note it would have been if it had come true, for I dont know when I have been more miserable at the thought of anybody's crossing the sea! And now for a good while to come I shall have no fear
[ Page 3 ]
of any presentiment whatever.
-- I have had a very quiet summer, but the busiest one that ever was for I was anxious to get my new story done. A.F.* was pleased with the beginning of it but ^I^ am in a great hurry to see if the rest will do -- I think I must be within a hundred pages of the end now, and that seems very near. I must say
[ Page 4 ]
that I dont wish to undertake two long stories in one year again, but I have taken great pleasure in this after all -- I am not going to write a long letter because I hope to see you very soon, for a few minutes at any rate. I have been sure [ deleted word ] all summer long that the first time I went to Boston I should go to see the Deer Cove household,* but I have not been [ on ? ] the Eastern Railroad since I last [saw corrected from say? ]
[ Up the left margin and then down across
the top margin of page 1 ]
you as I came home. Give my love to the Duke* and all the Deer Cove company -- And believe that I am more than ever your loving
"Sadie"*
Notes
Autumn 1884: This date is based upon Jewett writing that she is making progress on her second long story in a single year. The only 12-month period in which this could have happened was 1884-5, when she published A Country Doctor (1884) and A Marsh Island (1885).
A.F.: Annie Adams Fields. See Key to Correspondents.
Deer Cove: The Aldrich farm at Ponkapog stood near Deer Cove, northeast of Boston.
Duke: Among their close friends, the Aldriches were nicknamed the Duke and Duchess of Ponkapog. See Key to Correspondents.
Sadie: One of Jewett's nicknames. With the Aldriches, this would have been Sadie Martinot, after the actress of that name. See Key to Correspondents.
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: 2685.
Annie Adams Fields to Sarah Orne Jewett
[ Autumn 1884 ]*
My darling!
I do wish very much* that you could come to hear Mr. Gosse's last lecture Friday Afternoon ^Eveg^ and be at the supper afterward{.}
Do if you possibly can my darling.
your A.F.
I [ ask ? ] after [ unrecognized word ] (.)
Please telegraph if you cannot {.}
Notes
1884: This date is supported by the information that Edmund Gosse toured the U.S. in late 1884. See note below.
very much: These words are underlined twice.
Gosse: Probably Fields refers to Edmund Gosse (1849-1928), an English poet, author and critic. He made a popular lecture tour of the United States in late 1884.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library of Harvard University, Cambridge, MA. Sarah Orne Jewett Additional Correspondence, 100 letters from Annie Adams Fields, bMS Am 1743.1 Box 1, Item 33.
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Annie Adams Fields
[ Autumn 1884 ]*
Monday evening
Dear Darling
I had a good long afternoon's work and a mile's walk afterward and I hope I shall be able to tell the same story every night this week! Thank you for the dear letter tonight and for sending the two notes. I hope you wont mind my teasing you about calling on the Gosses* -- I am only anxious for you to be able to mark that off the list of things to be done -- it tires you to think it is waiting. How it must help Miss Butler* to have these days with you. When you are sad and life seems long I wish you could have a sense of the help you give and the good you do. I feel sometimes that I never can give you back any thing my own beloved darling. You seem like something unlike the rest of humanity -- not an angel because I see you and touch you, but not made of my own native soil! I think a little whirl of dust blew down from the heavenly streets, and it couldn't go back, so they made Fuff out of it. (dear Fuff -- and Pin* having a beautiful chance to say things, but will stop now!)
-- I found some lovely sonnets in these books I brought
from Montreal. One I had read before and forgotten, by Charles
Tennyson Turner* -- I am sure it must be in your
Maine book -- about the little girl and the Globe? --
Good-night dear --
Yours with all my heart
S. O. J.Dont forget about Mrs. Arnold's* address please -- I suppose the things must go either by the Wednesdays or Fridays steamer -- Could not Mr. Mifflin see about the Omar Khayyam?* Though I suppose Mr. Millet* will send word for one now -- I hope he is better --
I have ordered a box of cologne sent to the house for winter supplies -- so Fuff not to think it is Dynamite!
Tuesday morningI put in this bit of verse which I have just written dear Fuff -- not because it is done or because it is good -- I have always remembered meeting Emerson* in Washington St. long ago, and his looking so apart from every thing about him{.}
Notes
Autumn 1884: In Sarah Orne Jewett, Blanchard (p. 161) says that Mary and Sarah Jewett made a trip to Canada in September 1884. She reports an earlier trip in 1873 (108). Silverthorne, in her Sarah Orne Jewett, reports a still earlier trip in 1868, when Dr. Jewett took both Mary and Sarah (47), but we currently know of no trips to Canada after 1884. This letter likely was written soon after that trip.
the Gosses: It is possible that Jewett refers to Edmund and Ellen Gosse. Edmund Gosse (1849-1928) was an English poet, author and critic. He made a popular lecture tour of the United States in late 1884.
Miss Butler: The identity of Miss Butler is unknown. Fields and Jewett were acquainted with Sarah Butler, daughter of actor Fanny Kemble (1809-1893) and mother of American author, Owen Wister, but it seems unlikely they would refer to her by her maiden name. See Wister in Key to Correspondents.
Fuff ... Pin: Jewett and Fields used these terms of endearment for each other. Fields was Fuff and Fuffatee; Jewett was Pinny Lawson and Pinny and Pin. See Key to Correspondents.
Charles Tennyson Turner ... your Maine book -- about the little girl and the Globe: Charles Tennyson Turner (1808-1879) was an English poet, the older brother of Alfred Lord Tennyson. The reference to a Maine book is unidentified. The poem is "Letty's Globe."
WHEN Letty had scarce pass'd her third glad year,
And her young artless words began to flow,
One day we gave the child a colour'd sphere
Of the wide earth, that she might mark and know,
By tint and outline, all its sea and land.
She patted all the world; old empires peep'd
Between her baby fingers; her soft hand
Was welcome at all frontiers. How she leap'd,
And laugh'd and prattled in her world-wide bliss;
But when we turn'd her sweet unlearnèd eye
On our own isle, she raised a joyous cry
'Oh! yes, I see it, Letty's home is there!'
And while she hid all England with a kiss,
Bright over Europe fell her golden hair.
Mrs. Arnold's address: It is likely Jewett refers to the wife of Matthew Arnold (1822 - 15 April 1888), Frances Lucy Wightman (1825-1901). Arnold was an English poet and cultural critic who worked as an inspector of schools.
Mr. Mifflin ... the Omar Khayyam: J.R. Osgood & Company published an edition of Edward FitzGerald's Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam in 1877. Osgood and Company became Houghton, Mifflin Co. in 1880. George Mifflin was an early partner. See Key to Correspondents.
Mr. Millet: It seems probable that this is Josiah Byram Millet (1853-1938) who married Emily Adams McCleary (1856-1941) on 30 Oct 1883 in Boston. They had two daughters: Hilda, Mrs. William Harris Booth (November 1885-1966) and Elizabeth Foster, Mrs. Arthur Graham Carey, (November 1889-1955). He was a journalist and publisher, who managed the art department of Houghton, Mifflin and Company before becoming art editor at Scribner's and then beginning his own publishing business. In 1890, they were near neighbors of Fields at 150 Charles Street. See also Harvard Class of 1877 Secretary's Report, pp. 43-4.
meeting Emerson in Washington St: Jewett wrote a sonnet on this meeting and included it in this letter; it appears also in Jewett's unpublished story, "Carlyle in America" c. 1894-1890.
The manuscript of this letter is at the University of New England, Maine Women Writers Collection, Jewett Collection correspondence corr-055-soj-af.04. Transcription and notes by Terry & Linda Heller, Coe College
Sarah Orne Jewett to Annie Adams Fields
Sunday evening. [ Autumn 1884 ]*
I wonder if your pine boughs smell as sweet as mine tonight? Also I wonder if it is going to rain! I went to church this morning, and have been reading all the afternoon, chiefly the last volume of Dickens' Letters,* and I thought of you at every turn. What a lovely spirit there is in them! I think his letters to his sons, as they went away to the army or to Australia, are wonderfully beautiful. It was good to have the book fresh in my mind again. Now, dear, I have at last, after much grumbling and groaning, got my next two numbers of the "Marsh Island" ready for the printer, and I take a long breath, being free until February. The second of the two was not half so bad as I expected, and some day or two in town will work wonders with the rest. If I had another week I would write the McClure story,* and what a triumphant Pinny# that would be, ladies.
Mother is reading the Parson Hawker book,* with seeming joy, and I don't think she will mind in the least being left alone. I begin to feel dreadfully confused about Christmas now that the story is off my mind for a little while, but we shall soon talk about things, shan't we? and in this next week I shall come quite to my senses.
Does Sandpiper# play with you, or has she married a ghost* and therefore she cannot come? (Marigold being "excused" on account of following after Clark and Brown's Oxen.)* Did you see the interview with "thy friend"# and the remark that the best parlor was stiff and prim? I think that was quite an unnecessary comment, but a very observing interviewer, ladies*
I wonder how far you have got in the Swedenborg book?* I keep a sense of it under everything else. How such a bit of foundation lifts up all one's other thoughts together, and makes us feel as if we really stood higher and could see more of the world. I am going to hunt up some of the smaller books of extracts, etc., that Professor Parsons gave me. Oh! the garden is so splendid! I never dreamed of so many hollyhocks in a double row and all my own!
Fields's Notes
Pinny: She was called "'Pinny,' Ladies," she once wrote,
"because she was so straight and thin and her head no bigger
than a pin's."*
Sandpiper: Her pet name for Celia Thaxter.
thy friend: Whittier.*
Editor's Notes
last volume of Dickens' Letters: Charles Dickens (1812-1870), British author of such novels as David Copperfield (1850). Jewett could have been reading The Letters of Charles Dickens (1879, 1881) in three volumes from Scribner's.
McClure story: The date of this letter is problematic, and there is also a mystery about this McClure story. Jewett's mother died in 1891. The first Jewett piece known to appear in McClure's Magazine is "Human Documents," in June 1893, the year in which S. S. McClure (1857-1949) founded his magazine. Jewett's novel, A Marsh Island appeared in Atlantic Monthly in January - June, 1885. McClure may have had contact with Jewett between 1884 and 1890, through his associations with Century Magazine -- which first published a Jewett story, "In Dark New England Days," in 1890 -- and with his own news syndicate. Probably this part of the letter is presented out of chronological order, and we cannot be sure what McClure story Jewett refers to.
Parson Hawker book: Probably a book by or about the Cornish vicar and poet, Robert Stephen Hawker (1803-1875). Hawker was the subject of Baring-Gould's The Vicar of Morwenstow (1875).
Sandpiper: Celia Thaxter (1835-1894). See Key to Correspondents.
married a ghost: Celia Thaxter was intensely interested
in Spiritualism during 1881-1885. Though Thaxter's
husband died on 31 May 1884, she and Levi Thaxter had lived
apart for much of their married life, and he was not among those
Thaxter was eager to contact for herself during the séances in
which she participated.
Jewett here refers to one of the more
controversial elements of Spiritualism, the concept of a "spirit
spouse." Most Spiritualists believed that one continued after
death as the same personal identity, but on a spiritual plane of
existence. At least some Spiritualists came to believe in
spirit marriage, that each person was destined to marry one
particular person of the opposite sex. On the earthly
plane, some people mistakenly married the wrong person, but on
the spiritual plane, these mistakes would be corrected.
Following this belief, some people were persuaded that their
destined spouse had died before they could marry and, therefore,
with the aid of a medium, they might marry this deceased person.
See "Three Seances with Mrs. Miller," for an
account of an actual wedding of a mortal with a spirit bride, American Spiritual Magazine
(Memphis, TN, May 1877, pp. 153-4.
In Earth's Earliest Ages: And Their Connection
with Modern Spiritualism and Theosophy (1884),
George Hawking Pember explained and condemned the idea of the
spirit-marriage because it lacked Biblical foundation (pp.
382-90).
See also, Terry Heller, "Communing with the
Dead: Celia Thaxter, John Greenleaf Whittier, Sarah Orne Jewett,
Annie Adams Fields." SOJTP 2020.
Marigold ... Clark and Brown's Oxen: Mary (Mrs.
James) Lodge. See Key
to Correspondents. "Clark
and
Brown's
Oxen" apparently refers to a notorious 1833 court case
involving oxen belonging to Mr. Clark that broke through a fence
onto Mr. Brown's property, where they ate Brown's corn and then
died. How this relates to Mary Lodge not writing letters
recently is not clear.
Swedenborg: Emanuel Swedenborg (1688-1772), Swedish
philosopher, scientist and mystic. He developed an elaborate
theosophic system, and his followers formed the New Church on
his beliefs after his death. One of Jewett's mentors, Theophilus
Parsons (1797-1882), was a Christian Swedenborgian. See Key
to Correspondents.
Pin's: Jewett and Fields used these terms of endearment for each other. Fields was Fuff and Fuffatee; Jewett was Pinny Lawson and Pinny and Pin.
best parlor ... Whittier: John Greenleaf Whittier (1807-1892), the Quaker poet of Amesbury, Massachusetts, best known for his narrative poem, Snow-bound (1866). See Key to Correspondents. The interview with Whittier that described the "stiff and prim" parlor has not been located.This letter appears in Annie Fields, Letters of Sarah Orne Jewett (1911), Transcribed by Annie Adams Fields, with notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Eben Norton Horsford
South Berwick
29 October 1884
29 October 1884
Dear Professor Horsford
I meant to tell you long ago that I will send you Cornelia's* water colour sketch whenever you want it -- It has been mounted, so there will be no danger of its getting hurt if the expressmen are decently careful -- I shall not be in Boston for some time yet so if you will write me here I will 'follow orders' --
[ Page 2 ]
I was much grieved, but not surprised to hear of dear Trofarts departure.* He was a dear old fellow and I shall miss him so much. I suppose the cherry leaves and the maple leaves are covering his little grave at Shelter Island but I am so glad he could go to Cambridge with you. It would have broken his heart to be left behind. You will all have to come and play with Roger* this winter.
[ Page 3 ]
I am very busy writing now and hope to get done by the first of December. I don't wish to write another long story* for a good while and I am afraid it would have been wiser not to try this last one!
I so often think of my lovely visit at Shelter Island -- it was so pleasant there this summer, and the bright hot days are beautiful to look back at -- now the weather is growing so cold. Didn't we have a good time at East Hampton?
[ Page 4 ]
-- But I must say good night now with dear love to all --
Yours affectionately
Sarah.
Sarah.
Notes
Cornelia's watercolor: A Horsford daughter. See Key to Correspondents.
Trofarts: A Horsford family dog.
Roger: Jewett's Irish setter.
long story: In fall 1884, Jewett was working on A Marsh Island (1885).
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 transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Celia Thaxter to Annie Adams Fields
Farm - 29th Oct (84*
My dearest:
Your note -- thousand [
thanks corrected ] for your kindness about Sunday
-- I don't understand what you say, dear, about going to
Brookline. Can it be you think I am going to stay there? O no, I
only mean to go there for an hour or two ^, bye & bye.^
I
don't
leave
Karl*
you
know, more than a few hours at a time -- & I shan't go there
till I am settled. You have my note doubtless, saying we do not
start till [ Monday corrected ] on account of Roland's
coming down to spend Sunday. I want to be [ here corrected
] when he comes to see the new [ Skye corrected ]
puppies* & [ I corrected ] want to show him
where I have planted clumps of [ daffodils corrected ]
for the spring, [ & or in ]
[ Page 2 ]
a bed of crocuses, one hundred & seventy five bulbs, & I want him to help me plant sweet peas, now, deep, for next summer -- Karl & I expect to be at the Winthrop* on Monday -- Thank you dear for information about "clothes" -- I think I'll go to Jordans & Co.* if I can't find anything to fit, will try the Miss Green* then who fitted me so well before. It's all very well for you & Pin* to talk of "ready made"! If you were shaped like the great white elephant of Siam,* you wouldn't find it so easy!
What do you mean by saying I make more than
Pinny! You are wild, merely wild! O heavens, if I could spend my
own money on myself I could be dressed well enough. [ Most corrected
] of my money goes into a hopeless bottomless pit, which
[ Page 3 ]
never can be filled ^which is Karl^. Did I say Mrs. D.* wrote for a New Year's song -- alas, the threadbare subject! But I tried, & she says, "It is lovely, will be so helpful to young hearts!" And is going to send check to Winthrop. She's an extraordinary person, & I think she has taken leave of her wits because the thing seemed ^to me^ so deadly commonplace, which I have done.
Dear, I think the Chas. Read* is delightful.
How nice what he said of Hawthorne's eyes -- "A violet with a
soul in it!" Did you really find the ground covered with
speedwell, that almost microscopic, three-petaled pale blue
flower? The "little Veronica" is its pretty other name. Some
grew in my garden this year, a delicate weed which I [ could or
would ? ] not destroy. I send Pinny a baby
sunflower -- they are so dear! -- How kind you are to write when
so busy with your Burrages & [ Gilberts or filberts
? ]* & things!
How I shall be glad to see you!
Your loving C.T.
Notes
84: The Boston Public Library associates with this
letter two other objects: an envelope addressed to Fields at 148
Charles Street, cancelled 29 October in Kittery Point, ME; and a
dried flower, probably the baby sunflower mentioned in the text.
Karl: Thaxter's disabled adult son. She also
mentions her youngest son, Roland.
Skye puppies: The Skye Terrier is a breed of small,
long-haired dog.
Winthrop: EKC, the original transcriber of this letter, identifies this as Winthrop House, on Bowdoin Street in Boston, a quiet and inexpensive hotel used by John Greenleaf Whittier and other literary visitors to Boston.
Jordans & Co. ... the Miss Green: Thaxter
probably refers to the Boston department store, Jordan Marsh & Company.
The transcription of Miss Green is uncertain;
presumably she was a seamstress in Boston or perhaps in the
Kittery, ME / Portsmouth, NH area.
Pin: Thaxter is using an intimate nickname shared
among Jewett, Fields and herself. Pinny is Jewett. See Key to Correspondents.
great white elephant of Siam: White elephants are rare and particularly
valued in Thailand. The term has come to characterize an
unwanted gift because a white elephant was considered sacred and
exempt from work. To own one indicated high status because
it was without commercial use, yet expensive to maintain.
Mrs. D. Mary Mapes Dodge (see Key to Correspondents) was editor at St.
Nicholas. Thaxter's poem, "The Child and the Year,"
appeared in v. 12, no. 3 (January 1885), p. 161.
Chas. Read: It is difficult to determine
whether Thaxter wrote "Read" or "Reade." She clearly
refers to Fields's essay, "An Acquaintance with Charles Reade"
in Century Magazine 29 (November1884),
pp. 67-79. Charles Reade (1814-1884) was a British
novelist and dramatist. Reade offers his description of
American novelist, Nathaniel Hawthorne, whom Thaxter met when
she was in her teens, in a letter Fields presents in her essay
(p. 69).
Burrages & [ Gilberts or filberts
]: While Thaxter appears to have written "filberts" it
seems more likely she meant "Gilberts."
Fields was acquainted with two "Burrages"
whom she may have entertained at about this time, the young
lawyer, Albert Burrage (1859-1931), or perhaps
more likely, the clergyman Henry Sweetser Burrage. See Key to Correspondents.
Fields also was acquainted with the American
actor, John Gibbs Gilbert (1810-1889) and his
family.
MS C.1.38 Box 2 Folder 4 (210-229)
https://ark.digitalcommonwealth.org/ark:/50959/qb98p4452
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
John Greenleaf Whittier to Annie Adams Fields
Amesbury
10th Mo 29, 1884
My dear Friend
I suppose my note will reach thee at Charles Street. I was glad to hear from thee at So. Berwick, and of the successful race you ran against the rain.
I wrote to the Ed. of the Transcript about the Naples aid,* & he told me that no
[ Page 2 ]
movement has yet been made, though a second appeal had been sent to Boston. People were too absorbed in politics* to listen, or do anything. I have delayed sending the check (with my pittance{)} until this miserable contest is over.
I have read with great interest the Reports of the British Society for [ Psychical corrected ] Research.*
[ Page 3 ]
Dr Nichols* in the last [no ? ] of his Science News and Journal of Chemistry has an able article upon them, which I send.
Mrs Beecher Hooker* came here and lectured on Spiritualism and spent the night at my house. She is a Beecher and rather cranky I imagine. I hope she will not find thee [ next ? ] as she is to spend the winter in Boston. She is unlike Mrs Stowe. Is Mrs Thaxter* in the city? -- I heard that she was [ to ? ] winter at
[ Page 4 ]
at the Winthrop. I suppose [ three unrecognized words ] Sarah Jewett* is in her old house. I am looking for her new story.
Dear friend, the very thought of your visit here makes me happy, and my house is dearer to me for it. Like the invisible boatman in the German ballad,* I ride with you all the way by Berwick. I suppose thee have seen something of the "row" at the presentation of my picture at Providence-* -- an awfully overwhelming affair. I send thee a full report of it, that thee may see what comes
[ Up the left margin of page 4 ]
of "letting one's self own to writing verses.{"}
Heaven bless thee dear friend! I cannot tell thee how much I owe to thy love & friendship.
Ever thine
John G Whittier
Notes
Charles Street ... So. Berwick: Annie Fields resided in Charles Street, Boston, while Sarah Orne Jewett's residence was in South Berwick, ME. See Key to Correspondents.
Transcript ... the Naples aid: Probably, Whittier refers to a serious cholera outbreak in Naples in September of 1884. He has communicated with the Boston Evening Transcript, a regional newspaper.
politics: Whittier refers to the 1884 Presidential election,which took place on 4 November 1884. Democrat Grover Cleveland ran against Maine Republican, James G. Blaine. Though Whittier, Jewett and Fields were Lincoln Republicans, they and many of their friends favored Cleveland in this election because of his reputation for rectitude, as compared to Blaine, who had a reputation for political corruption. During the campaign, however, it came out that Cleveland almost certainly had fathered an illegitimate child. In a spring 1884 letter to Fields "Thursday 5 o'clock," Jewett noted that much of the campaigning and press coverage of the campaign were vile, as each side bruited the moral turpitude of the other.
Research: The Society for Psychical Research in England was founded in 1882 to bring scientific research to bear on reports of paranormal events. Whittier probably has been reading the Journal of the Society for Psychical Research, which began publication in 1884.
Dr Nichols: One of Whittier's neighbors in Amesbury was Dr. James R. Nichols M.D. (1819-1888). He was the founder and publisher of Popular Science News and Boston Journal of Chemistry. Presumably, Dr. Nichols's article on the Society for Psychical Research had appeared in a recent number of this journal. He also was the author of From Whence, What, Where? (1882) on the topic of science and religion.
Mrs Beecher Hooker: Isabella Beecher Hooker (1822-1907), sister of American author Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811-1896), was an activist in the American suffragist movement and other reform groups. For her interest in Spiritualism, see Barbara White, The Beecher Sisters (2008), chapter 10.
Mrs Thaxter: Celia Thaxter. See Key to Correspondents.
Sarah Jewett: Sarah Orne Jewett. See Key to Correspondents. Whittier probably anticipates Jewett's novel, A Marsh Island (1885), on which she had been working through this year and which began as a serial in Atlantic Monthly in January 1885.
German ballad: Whittier refers to "Neckar, The River: The Passage" by the German author, Johann Ludwig Uhland (1787-1862), in which the narrator crosses the river with two invisible passengers: "... Invisible to thee, Spirits twain have crossed with me."
picture in Providence: Possibly, Whittier has sent Fields a copy of Proceedings at the Presentation of a Portrait of John Greenleaf Whittier to Friends' School, Providence, R.I.: Tenth Month, 24th, 1884.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Huntington Library, San Marino, CA, in the James T. Fields collection: mss FI 71-4778. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
John Greenleaf Whittier to Annie Adams Fields
Amesbury [ 10th corrected ] Mo 31 '84
My dear Friend
I shall do no such thing. Santa Teresa* shall not go into the waste-basket. Her experience is that of all of us. The vision comes & in its light
[ Page 2 ]
of its blurred environment and sought to share
I am not sure that Mrs Stowe's attempt at match-making for Sarah* is not ^an^ instance of mistaken vocation. Why [ don't ? ] the young doctor "speak for himself"? -- if he knows her as we do he would at all hazards. Who is he? -- And is he the paragon who is worthy of her!
[ Page 3 ]
I think thee are wise not to aid & abet the thing, for if he should propose, I dare say she would reject him, and wear the scalp of his slain affection at her girdle! _______ Just here who should, of all the world,
An English lady called on me yesterday who was interested in the investigations of occult phenomena, & who hopes it will throw light on the [ marvel ? ] of Spiritualism.*
[ Page 4 ]
I am glad thee are to have friends with thee at the Sea,* as I was thinking it would be very lonely for thee.
I hope Sarah & her sister will reach Manchester as soon as thee do. They will have a hot ride I fear. But they were looking well and happy & handsome and no doubt enjoyed it.
I am going by Oak Knoll this week. I shall let you know when I am to be at Amesbury again. Ever, with "love unfeigned"* which the Apostle speaks of, thy friend
John G Whittier
Notes
Santa Teresa: Saint Teresa of Ávila (1515-1582) was a Spanish noblewoman and mystic who became a Carmelite nun. Fields and Jewett admired her writing, Jewett mentioning her several times in her letters and, especially, in her short story "William's Wedding."
Fields's poem is not known to have been published, but she did publish an extended essay: "Saint Theresa," Atlantic Monthly (March 1903), pp. 353-63.
mute: Whittier alludes to stanza 15 of "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard" by British poet, Thomas Gray (1716-1771). He may also allude to the King James Bible, Isaiah 51:3.
Sarah: Sarah Orne Jewett. When Whittier mentions her stopping by later in the letter, she almost certainly is accompanied by her sister, Mary Rice Jewett. For them and for Harriet Beecher Stowe see Key to Correspondents. Details of Stowe's match-making have not yet been discovered.
Psychical Researchers: The Society for Psychical Research in England was founded in 1882 to bring scientific research to bear on reports of paranormal events.
Spiritualism: Spiritualism is a religious movement beginning in the 19th Century, with the central idea that literal communication is possible between the living and the dead. During this time, Whittier, Fields and Jewett were in an extended conversation with Celia Thaxter regarding communication with the dead. See Key to Correspondents and Terry Heller, "Communing with the Dead: Celia Thaxter, John Greenleaf Whittier, Sarah Orne Jewett, Annie Adams Fields." SOJTP 2020.
the Sea: Whittier refers to Fields's summer home in Manchester-by-the-Sea, MA, and he is remembering that Fields once spent her summers there with her deceased husband, James. T. Fields.
love unfeigned: See the King James Bible, where St. Paul uses this phrase several times: 2 Corinthians 6:6; 1 Peter 1:22; Romans 12:9.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Huntington Library, San Marino, CA, in the James T. Fields collection: mss FI 71-4775. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Thomas Bailey Aldrich
South Berwick
5 November [ 1884 ]
5 November [ 1884 ]
Dear Mr. Aldrich
Dont be disheartened with A Marsh Island!* I am afraid you will think the beginning is dull, but I really believe it is better as it goes on. I shall have the next part ready in a few days; I have been finishing the story this last week and now I will put it in order as fast as I can -- Then, if you please Mifs Martinot* will forsake the paths of literature for
[ Page 2 ]
a time -- Oddly enough the rival authoress who calls herself the Duchess has published a tale of English life named Doris.* I see now the cause of forsaking certain plans of travel in Russia.
but I am yours most
affectionately
S. O. J.
S. O. J.
I remember that you gave the preference to the name of A Marsh Island when I was [ deleted word ] leaning toward Doris, in the spring!
I have returned the proofs to the Press --
Notes
Marsh Island: Jewett's A Marsh Island was serialized in Atlantic Monthly, January - June 1885. Though Jewett has only partially underlined "Marsh," it seems reasonable to assume she meant to underline the whole title. It also seems likely that she has just sent Aldrich the first installment of her new novel at the beginning of November.
Mifs Martinot: Sadie Martinot, after the American actress of that name, was a nickname for Jewett with the Aldriches. See Key to Correspondents.
Duchess ... Doris: Margaret Wolfe Hamilton Hungerford (1855-1897) was an Irish author of light romantic fiction. Her novel, Doris, appeared in 1884, making it fortuitous that Aldrich had recommended another title for Jewett's novel. Doris Owen is the protagonist of A Marsh Island.
In the United States, Hungerford's novels were published under the pen name, "The Duchess." The "rival authoress who calls herself the Duchess," would be an "in joke" for the friends of Aldrich, who affectionately nick-named him and his wife the Duke and Duchess of Ponkapog.
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: 2705.
Anna Harriette Leonowens to Sarah Orne Jewett
Sunnyside. Halifax. Nova Scotia
8th November 1884
8th November 1884
Dear Miss [ Jewitt so it appears ]
How very kind it was of you to have so long remembered my wish. I thank you very very much. I have already got from London a copy of "Esoteric Buddhism"* and have not only read it with deep interest, but have jotted down some notes on it -- which I intend later on to send to some magazine.
I am afraid I am too much a child of the East always to
[ Page 2 ]
please western editors and readers. We have read "The Country Doctor"* with real pleasure. It is charming from end to end, but I am sure your new story will be equally delightful.
Some young travellers brought us this summer a card from our dear Mrs Fields.* I somehow read only her name, and rushed into the drawing room to greet her, to be sorely disappointed for the moment. However, it was soon explained and we were very glad to meet the young girls, they seemed full of appreciation.
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NotesMy little book "Life and Travel in India"* has
been published, but I have not as yet seen a copy of it. I am
now busy with the papers for "The Wide Awake."
Your summer trips with dear Mrs Fields must have been delightful. I can picture the evening when you two talked deep into the heart of the night with dear Whittier.* I wish I could have been there{.} I am always better than myself whenever I am in the atmosphere of good and great minds{.} My visit to Boston this winter is still uncertain{.}
My dear daughter needs a change and if she should go to New
York in the spring, I shall stay at home with the dear babies.
Moreover the memory of my last visit to Boston especially to
Charles Street must serve to cover with beauty many weary
months of the winter here.
Pray give our grateful love to dear Mrs Fields. My daughter desires most cordially to be remembered to you; And with my dear love and thanks
A. H. Leonowens
Your summer trips with dear Mrs Fields must have been delightful. I can picture the evening when you two talked deep into the heart of the night with dear Whittier.* I wish I could have been there{.} I am always better than myself whenever I am in the atmosphere of good and great minds{.} My visit to Boston this winter is still uncertain{.}
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Pray give our grateful love to dear Mrs Fields. My daughter desires most cordially to be remembered to you; And with my dear love and thanks
I am very sincerely yours
A. H. Leonowens
Esoteric Buddhism: A. P. Sinnett, Esoteric Buddhism, 1884. Mrs. Leonowens's review of the book -- if it was published -- has not been located. Wikipedia.
"The Country Doctor": Jewett's novel, A Country Doctor, appeared in 1884. Her next novel was A Marsh Island, 1885.
Fields: Annie Adams Fields, who lived on Charles Street in Boston. Key to Correspondents.
"Life and Travel in India": Life And Travel in India: Being Recollections of a Journey before the Days of Railroads (1884)
Wide Awake: Leonowens apparently refers to work she is preparing for Wide Awake, a children's magazine in which Jewett also published. It is possible she refers to her series of essays, "Our Asiatic Cousins," which appeared in Wide Awake 26 and 27, from December 1887 to November 1888, and collected in 1889.
Whittier: John Greenleaf Whittier. Key to Correspondents.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Miller Library, Special Collections, Colby College, Waterville, ME: JEWE.1. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College. Alfred Habegger assisted with an earlier transcription.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Annie Adams Fields
Sunday night, November, 1884*
I am getting sleepy, for I must
confess that it is past bedtime. I went to church this morning,
but this afternoon I have been far afield, way over the hill and
beyond, to an unusual distance. Alas, when I went to see my
beloved big pitch-pine tree that I loved best of all the wild
trees that lived in Berwick, I found only the broad stump of it
beside the spring, and the top boughs of it scattered far and
wide. It was a real affliction, and I thought you would
be sorry, too, for such a mournful friend as sat down and
counted the rings to see how many years old her tree was, and
saw the broad rings when good wet summers had helped it grow and
narrow ones when there had been a drought, and read as much of
its long biography as she could. But the day was very lovely,
and I found many pleasures by the way and came home feeling much
refreshed. I found such a good little yellow apple on one of the
pasture trees, and I laughed to think how you would be looking
at the next bite. It was very small, but I nibbled it
like a squirrel. I found a white-weed daisy* fully blown, but
only an inch high, so that it looked as if somebody had snapped
it off and dropped it on the ground; and I was in some
underbrush, going along the slope, and saw a crow come toward me
flying low, and when I stood still he did not see me and came so
close that I could hear his wings creak their feathers -- and
nearly in the same spot I thought I heard the last of the
"creakits."* I wished for you so much, it was a day you would
have loved.
Notes
1884: Fields provides the date, but November in Maine seems somewhat late for blooming flowers and edible apples still on trees.white-weed daisy: any weed with a white or whitish flower, specifically the daisy, according to a contemporary dictionary.
"creakits": Presumably she refers to crickets.
This letter appears in Annie Fields, Letters of Sarah Orne Jewett (1911), Transcribed by Annie Adams Fields, with notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Annie Adams Fields
[ fragment ]
[ November 1884 ]
[ Horsfords will want it this ? ] winter sometime and I must write and ask him -- Poor little Millets!* the second year of being married always seems to be plain prose and the more glamour there was at first, the more determination there seems to be on the part of the Elements to dispel it -- I think he feels very dissatisfied at Houghton's, but I hope you will make a chance to say to him "Dont be modest -- be just to yourself and take
Notes
November 1884: This letter is a fragment of one page. The top of the page is torn away, and the first line visible is mostly missing. The date is inferred from Jewett saying that the Millets have finished their first year of marriage. As the note below indicates, they were married at the end of October in 1883.
Horsfords: See Eben Norton Horsford in Key to Correspondents.
Millets ... Houghton's: It seems probable that the Millets are Josiah Byram Millet (1853-1938) and Emily Adams McCleary (1856-1941). They were married on 30 Oct 1883 in Boston. They had two daughters: Hilda, Mrs. William Harris Booth (November 1885-1966) and Elizabeth Foster, Mrs. Arthur Graham Carey, (November 1889-1955). He was a journalist and publisher, who managed the art department of Houghton, Mifflin and Company before becoming art editor at Scribner's and then beginning his own publishing business. In 1890, they were near neighbors of Fields at 150 Charles Street. See also Harvard Class of 1877 Secretary's Report, pp. 43-4.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library of Harvard University. 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). Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
John Greenleaf Whittier to Annie Adams Fields
Oak Knoll
Danvers
11th Mo 14 1884
My dear Friend
I was much interested in thy account of the young child's visitants. I hope thee will know more of it. Did thee ever see Saml J. May's* account of what seemed to him the visitation of his young brother? It seemed to me a remarkable instance.
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His brother came to him and laid by his side every night for several months.
I am glad the election* is over, though sorry for the defeat of the Republican party. I wish a cleaner man than Cleveland was President Elect. The canvas has been a very unpleasant one.
I hardly know what to believe of Gen Gordon.* Conflicting accounts come of his death, of his captivity, and of his continued defense of Khartoum!
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Let us hope he is still alive, and that he will tell us the story of [ strange experience. so written]
I have been to-day to the old Gen Putnam house* to visit Mrs Col. Putnam on her one [ hundreth so written ] birthday. She is bright and sensible, and when I spoke to her said "Oh yes, Mr Whittier, you & my husband were old anti slavery friends." She was surrounded by four generations and seemed very happy.
[ Page 4 ]
I enclose the check as I see no movement for Naples relief.* The wretched Presidential election has demoralized Boston. God forgive the dreadful amount of lying
Just before I left [ A for Amesbury ? ] I had a letter from our dear Sarah* who I hope is now with thee. Give her my love & tell her that Dr Leslie* was charmed with her, and that she must come again, ride with him up the old river road & by lake Attitash.* Ever thy grateful friend
John G. Whittier
Notes
1884: This manuscript has a penciled "5" at the top center of page 1, and a penciled "X" appears in the left margin three times: page 2 when he mentions the defeat of the Republican party and where he names Gen Gordon; and page 3 where he names Mrs. Col. Putnam.
Saml J. May's: Samuel Joseph May (1797-1871) was an American reformer, particularly for women's rights and abolition. Wikipedia says: "When he was four years old his six year old brother Edward died while they were at play in their barn. May claimed that the loss of his brother and the dreams he had following the fatal accident led him to devote his life to God and inspired his passion to 'rectify the world's wrongs'." For an account of May's visions of his lost brother, see Memoir of Samuel Joseph May, Chapter 1.
the election: Whittier refers to the 1884 Presidential election,which took place on 4 November. Democrat Grover Cleveland ran against Maine Republican, James G. Blaine. Though Whittier, Jewett and Fields were Lincoln Republicans, they and many of their friends favored Cleveland in this election because of his reputation for rectitude, as compared to Blaine, who had a reputation for political corruption. During the campaign, however, it came out that Cleveland almost certainly had fathered an illegitimate child. In an 1884 letter to Fields "Thursday 5 o'clock," Jewett noted that much of the campaigning and press coverage of the campaign were vile, as each side bruited the moral turpitude of the other.
Gen Gordon: British Major-General Charles George Gordon (1833-1885). Whittier's admiration for Gordon probably was influenced in part by his efforts to suppress the slave trade when he was Governor-General of Sudan during the 1870s. He was killed at Khartoum on 26 January 1885.
Gen Putnam house: The General Israel Putnam House stands in Danvers, MA. Built in about 1648, it has become a storied building, associated with the Massachusetts witch trials of 1692 and with General Putnam, a Revolutionary War officer. The general's grandnephew, Colonel Jesse Putnam (1778-1861), served in the War of 1812. His wife, Elizabeth Merriam Putnam (20 September 1784-1887), was the mother of 12 children. After her 100th birthday celebration, Whittier wrote an account of the occasion, published in The Record 14:186 (15 January 1885) pp. 2-3.
Naples relief: Probably, Whittier refers to a serious cholera outbreak in Naples in September of 1884.
Sarah: Sarah Orne Jewett. See Key to Correspondents.
Dr. Leslie: J. B. Pickard notes: "Horace Granville Leslie (1842-1907) was a doctor in Amesbury for almost forty years, besides representing the town in local and state legislatures and performing many civic duties."
Attitash: This small lake is near Amesbury, MA.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Huntington Library, San Marino, CA, in the James T. Fields collection: mss FI 71-4821. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Annie Adams Fields
[ November 1884 ]
Oh Fuff* -- was there ever anything so delicious as Carlyle's* calling M. Fuller "that strange lilting, lean old maid"!! I think lilting is too funny and how many times do you suppose he 'laffed' after he wrote her down? I never loved the Carlyles before as I do in this book. Dont you wonder at him more and more? Froude is always the lover of his heroes, but I can't help thinking he is only just to Carlyle. I wish
[ Page 2 ]
we may have a chance to go to the Athenĉum* next month and see some of the English reviews of the book. I want to read about it. I hope I shall get to town with the story all done before the first of
(I* was so glad to see The Weft.* Wont you keep it darling till I do see you? I [ or I'd ] want to hear you read it again before I am
[ Page 3 ]
sure about something -- But it is so lovely. I dont know why am so particularly fond of it, it is one of the fondnesses that went up into the air out of the reach of reasons.)*
I have been finding a good deal in the Bayard Taylor* books but I believe I like them best for the sake of what I find about you. The Carlyle makes other books seem trivial, as books, just now. That cross Scotchman seemed to carry an exact, inexorable [ deleted letters ] yardstick and to measure with it as if he were
[ Page 4 ]
[ Page 5 ]
down stairs and to keep her poor bones in the house. I haven't creaked so for a good while! and altogether it has been a bad time.)( ---------------------------------
[ Later in the left margin. ] There I wrote a little hour or two at the story -- this a very hard chapter about Doris and her father* when they go to drive! I am trying hard to manage it well. (Uncle William* came and stayed an hour and brought your letter and has just gone away. I am so glad you had such a nice time with Howells.* Of course he liked the paper but how dear of him to come and say so!
S. O. J.
Notes
November 1884: Fields penciled 1891 in the upper right of page 1. However, as the notes below indicate, Jewett composed this letter late in 1884.
The top of the first page is torn away, removing most of a word in the upper left corner of the page. It is possible that preceding pages are missing.
Fuff: Nickname for Annie Adams Fields. See Key to Correspondents.
Carlyle's ... Fuller: In volume one of Thomas Carlyle: A History of His Life in London, Chapter 15, James Anthony Froude (1818-1894) quotes Carlyle's report of meeting Margaret Fuller (1810-1850), American journalist and essayist. Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881) describes her: "a strange, lilting lean old maid, not nearly such a bore as I expected."
(I: This parenthesis mark was penciled in blue by Fields.
Athenĉum: The Boston Athenĉum is an independent membership library in Boston.
The Weft: It sounds as if Jewett is speaking of a work by Fields, possibly a poem. A work of this title by Fields is not yet known.
reasons.) This parenthesis mark was penciled by Fields, but not in blue.
Bayard Taylor ... about you: Baryard Taylor (1825-1878) was an American poet, critic, diplomat and travel writer.
It is likely that Jewett was reading the two volumes of Life and Letters of Bayard Taylor (1884), which include a number of letters to Mr. and Mrs. James T. Fields, including several addressed to Annie Fields.
Book of Judgment: Possibly Jewett refers to Oahspe: A New Bible, which contains "The Book of Judgment," "being the grades and rates of mortals and angels in the light of god, as the word came to Es, daughter of Jehovih." Wikipedia says the book was "published in 1882, purporting to contain 'new revelations' from '... the Embassadors of the angel hosts of heaven prepared and revealed unto man in the name of Jehovih....' It was produced by an American dentist, John Ballou Newbrough (1828-1891), who reported it to have been written by automatic writing, making it one of a number of 19th-century spiritualist works attributed to that practice."
In Chapter 16, the voice of Jehovih speaks to Moses of sending 33 commissioners to inspect "the countries whither I will lead thee" and report on them.
Pinny and T.L.: Pinny Lawson is a nickname for Jewett. T.L. is a nickname for Fields. See Key to Correspondents.
Scotsbrig ... Mainhill ... Ecclefechan ...Haddington ... Craigenfuttock: All are locations in Scotland often mentioned in Froude's Thomas Carlyle: A History of His Life in London.
(Mifs Ward: This parenthesis mark and the next are penciled in blue by Fields. The first has multiple pencil strokes, and they may cross out some letters.
"Miss Ward" probably is Susan Hayes Ward. See Key to Correspondents.
Mrs. Goodwins ... Mary: Sophia Elizabeth Hayes Goodwin and Mary Rice Jewett. See Key to Correspondents.
time.): This parenthesis mark was penciled in blue by Fields. The remaining parenthesis marks are by Fields and -- except for the last one -- in blue.
Doris and her father: Jewett refers to her novel, A Marsh Island, which began to appear in Atlantic Monthly in January of 1885. Jewett was working on Chapter 19, which was in the final, June segment of the serialization.
Uncle William: Jewett has two uncles named William, Almost certainly this is William Durham Jewett. See Key to Correspondents.
Howells: William Dean Howells. See Key to Correspondents. Presumably, Howells has read and liked Fields's essay, "Acquaintance with Charles Reade," in Century Magazine, November 1884.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library of Harvard University. 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). Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Annie Fields transcription
This passage appears in Annie Fields, Letters of Sarah Orne Jewett (1911), p. 83.
Was there ever anything so delicious as Carlyle's calling Margaret Fuller "that strange lilting, lean old maid!" I think "lilting" is too funny, and how many times do you suppose he "laffed" after he wrote her down? I never loved the Carlyles before as I do in this book. Don't you wonder at him more and more? Froude is always the lover of his heroes, but I can't help thinking he is only just to Carlyle. I wish we may have a chance to go to the Athenĉum next month, and see some of the English reviews of the book. I want to read about it. The Carlyle makes other books seem trivial, as books, just now. That cross Scotchman seemed to carry an exact, inexorable yardstick, and to measure with it as if he were a commissioner from the Book of Judgment, though everybody else ran about with too short yardsticks and too long ones.
John Greenleaf Whittier to Annie Adams Fields
Oak Knoll
12th Mo. 1. 1884
My dear Friend
I welcomed thy letter, for I had an impression (I do not know why) that thee might be ill. Thy last letter before spoke of thee having had a cold.
Dear friend I am glad to read what thee says of the visit thee & Sarah Jewett made to Celia Thaxter's* room. Your feeling was right. I have longed to get something from the [dear one's beyond so written ], but I have somehow all along felt that I must wait God's time.
[ Page 2 ]
I believe there is such a thing as communion with those who are in another sphere; and that there is in this spiritualistic phenomena,* the prophecy of a coming revelation, -- but there is also much which repels & disgusts me. I am sorry that C.T. is yielding herself so unreservedly to the baffling and unsatisfactory influence. No real good can come of it, and I am afraid her experience ^will^ be a painful one.
I have not seen Hawthorne's book* and do not care to. I hope thee will not let it trouble thee.
[ Page 3 ]
I tried to stop G. H.'s* foolish and as it seemed to me unjust course, and when I heard that her book was in print & ready for publication I urged her to suppress it, and even offered to pay one half of the expense of the suppression. It fell dead from the press, and I don't know of any body who read it. I dont see how thee can blame thyself for poor Mrs. Hawthorne's [ misaprehensions so written ], or feel any misgivings for the enjoyment of an exceptionally sheltered and beautiful life{,} ^the^ great happiness of which was so generously shared with others. We were all thankful for its warmth and brightness.
I have not written anything of late -- the daily importunity of letters is more
[ Page 4 ]
than I can attend to. The uncommonly pleasant weather for the
season has tempted me out of doors and into the woods a good deal,
and I have been the better for it. Mrs Claflin
and President Freeman of Wellesley* dined with ^me^ a few days
ago. Has thee seen Elizabeth Phelps* lately? I am not in favor of
capital punishment, but the burglers who robbed her of her hard
earnings would fare hard if I were on the jury that tried them.Don't trouble thyself to answer this letter -- it is not worth it -- and thy time is precious. I hope to look in upon thee & Sarah sometime this winter. In the meantime, I am very gratefully thy friend
J.G.W.
Notes
Sarah Jewett ... Celia Thaxter: See Key to Correspondents.
spiritualistic phenomena: Whittier comments on Thaxter's interest in Spiritualism and her meetings with a spirit medium. For an account of Thaxter, Fields and Jewett's "sittings" see Norma H. Mandel, Beyond the Garden Gate ( ), pp. 125-6.
In his edition of this letter, J. B. Pickard provides an account of this meeting or perhaps another from about this time. The following narrative from Thaxter's to Whittier of 12 January 1885 seems to place this sitting in Fields's home, while Whittier clearly believes the séance was at Thaxter's room:
I thank you for your beautiful letter and your kind warning. Have no fear. It is not often we approach this most sacred subject. Always Mrs. D is on her guard, and they have never forced her against her will to see them. She has begged they will not come to her when she is alone, at night or any time, and with one exception, it has never happened.... Last week we went to Annie Fields. I tell this to no one but you, guard it safely -- I know you will -- After dinner we sat before the fire in the room we know and love, up stairs. Roger lay on the rug, Sarah J. at one side of the fire, Annie on the other, we opposite by the sofa, one on it. As we sat there presently I saw by the expression of Mrs. D's beautiful face that she began to see something, looked at her enquiringly. She said, "Do you wish me to tell you what I see?" We cried "O, yes!" Then she said "I see a misty [ something,' so this appears ] have seen it for some minutes, moving slowly about over the rug -- presently she said "it lengthens and takes shape: it is a young man, a blond young man, he walks about, now he stoops and touches the dog." Roger lifted his head and growled! .... [ Darrah observes another figure ] "No, it is larger, fuller, younger man, with a fine presence," she described him -- she had never seen James, nor any picture of him, she said, "he has straight dark hair darker than his beard and tumbled at the parting" (you remember how he always did that?) "his eyes are dark, his beard is large and seems rather square, it is curly wavy and has two streaks of gray down the front" -- in short she described him perfectly and he spoke so that she could hear and repeated what he said, all beautiful and what you would expect from him, she spoke of the arch, merry, human expression, she described in her exquisite way all that passed before her, till we were all sobbing, Annie and Mrs. Lodge and I, and Pinny too was touched to tears -- while I was eagerly leaning forward by Mrs. D's side to catch everything that passed, longing for Annie to be comforted ....Present at this event, in addition to Jewett (called Pinny) and her dog, Roger, Fields and Thaxter, was Mary Greenwood Lodge. See Key to Correspondents. The apparition of James refers to Annie Fields's deceased husband, James T. Fields.
The medium on this occasion almost certainly was Marion Miller (1854-1906), second wife of Sidney Edward Dickinson (1851-1919). See Thaxter to Fields of 3 April 1885. Pickard has added the material in brackets, which identifies a Mrs. Darrah as the medium; however there is no documentary evidence that Thaxter consulted a medium of this name.
In J. B. Pickard appears a Whittier to Fields letter of 19 December 1884, the manuscript of which is privately owned. There Whittier expresses his skepticism about Dickinson's reports: "In regard to our friend Celia's experience I hardly know what to think. It seems that she saw nothing, and if her friend's excitement had reached the trance state could her vision be relied upon as real? Could she even give any definite account of the glorious visitant?" (Letter 1388).
See also, Terry Heller, "Communing with the Dead: Celia Thaxter, John Greenleaf Whittier, Sarah Orne Jewett, Annie Adams Fields." SOJTP 2020.
Hawthorne's book: In his edition of this letter, J. B. Pickard notes that Julian Hawthorne, in Nathaniel Hawthorne and His Wife (Boston, 1885), "refused to acknowledge the help and assistance that Fields had given his father and presented the view of Mrs. Hawthorne (Sophia Peabody Hawthorne, 1809-1871) that her husband had received fewer royalties from Fields than he deserved."
G. H.'s: American writer, Mary Abigail Dodge (1833-1896) published under the name of Gail Hamilton. Wikipedia summarizes her conflict with James T. Fields and her breaking with Annie Fields over royalties for her work. Dodge published the anonymous A Battle of the Books (1870) to expose her grievance to the public.
Mrs Claflin and President Freeman of Wellesley: Mary Bucklin Davenport Claflin. See Key to Correspondents.
Alice Freeman Palmer (1855-1902), before her marriage, became president of Wellesley College (1881-1887).
Elizabeth Phelps: Elizabeth Stuart Phelps Ward. See Key to Correspondents. In 1886, Phelps published a novel in which a burglary such as Whittier describes takes place: Burglars in Paradise. The novel draws upon the burglary of her father's home on the night of 24 October 1884, in which bonds worth $5000 were stolen from each, Professor Austin Phelps and his daughter, Elizabeth Stuart Phelps. The thieves were not apprehended, nor were the bonds recovered. See the New York Times of 26 October 1884, p. 14 and Current Literature (December 1890), p. 47.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Huntington Library, San Marino, CA, in the James T. Fields collection: mss FI 71-4827. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
This letter has been transcribed previously by J. B. Pickard, Letters of John Greenleaf Whittier. v. 3.
Annie Adams Fields to Eben Norton Horsford
[ 15 December 1884 ]
Thank you, my kindest of friends for your note and ticket. How pretty it will be! And what a spirited, delightful, project of your "Cornelias"* {!} I wish dear Sarah Jewett* was to be here to go to you; but I do not look for her until a day or two later.
Again and always with grateful regard, I am yours.
Annie Fields.
Dec. 15. 1884.
Notes
Cornelia's: Horsford's daughter. See Key to Correspondents.
The nature of her project is not yet known.
Jewett: Sarah Orne Jewett. 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 59: Folder 35. Fields, Annie Adams: Connecticut, Maine & Massachusetts. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Houghton, Mifflin & Co.
South-Berwick
16 December
[ 1884 ]*
Messrs Houghton Mifflin & Co.
Gentlemen
Will you please reserve for me a copy of Omar Khayyam* and keep it for me at the office until I come for it? I want it for Mrs. Fields,* so it can't be sent to the house without letting her know too soon about her Christmas present! I shall
[ Page 2 ]
be at 148 Charles St. after next Monday -- so any proofs* &c. that may be ready for me after this week I should like to have sent there --
Yours very truly
Sarah O. Jewett.
Sarah O. Jewett.
Notes
1884: At the top left of page 1 is the Houghton, Mifflin date stamp: 5 p.m. on 17 December 1884. In the upper right corner, in another hand, underlined and different ink: "S. O. Jewett".
Omar Khayyam: Probably, Jewett plans to purchase British poet, Edward FitzGerald's (1809-1883) translation of The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam (1859). Khayyam (1048-1131) was a Persian poet, mathematician and astronomer.
Mrs. Fields: Annie Adams Fields. See Key to Correspondents.
proofs: In December 1884, Jewett was preparing the Atlantic serialization of her novel, A Marsh Island, which ran January through June of 1885.
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.
Phillips Brooks to Annie Adams Fields
December 17. 1884
[ Begin letterhead ]
233 Clarendon Street.
Boston.
Boston.
[ End letterhead ]
Dear Mrs Fields,
I am compelled -- unlucky person that I am -- to be out of town on Friday Evening* & so I cannot hear the lecture nor come to you afterwards as you so kindly ask. I am sincerely sorry, but I am very grateful for your invitation{.}
Yours most sincerely
Phillips Brooks
Phillips Brooks
Notes
Friday Evening: This would be 19 December. It is not get known to what event Fields invited Brooks. Possibly relevant is Fields's letter to Eben Norton Horsford of 15 December.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Huntington Library, San Marino, CA. James Thomas Fields papers and addenda, 1767-1914, Correspondence and manuscripts; Brooks, Phillips, 13 pieces, 1879-1890, mssFI 1-5637, Box 6. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Sophia Elizabeth Hayes Goodwin
148 Charles St.
Boston 27th Dec. [1884]
Dear Mrs. Goodwin
This morning while we were at breakfast your pretty box came in and I forsook everything else in my delight and must confess that the first bite of the first rose-cake brought great pleasure. Mrs. Fields* thought they were almost too good for an every day breakfast! -- and as charming to look at as they were good to taste. But she did not know as I did, how many pleasant associations belong to them. I could see myself sitting, years and years ago, in your mother's sunshiny parlour, and being entertained with the remote ancestors of these present rosecakes, in a fashion and with a kindness that were dear to my young heart. I think these are the flower of their family -- for none ever tasted better. So you see I am not thinking the past better than the present as we have frequent temptations to --
I have been thinking of you often in these last few days, and feeling so sorry for Minnie.* It is indeed a sad Christmas for her -- and I am glad to have this chance for sending a message of love and sympathy to her. I have been shut up in the house by a bad cold or I would have tried to see Fanny or some other member of the family. Goodbye dear Mrs. Goodwin and thank you so much for your kindness and do not forget that I am your loving friend
Sarah O. Jewett
Notes
1884: The transcriber dates this letter from 1883, but I speculate that it was composed in 1884 on the grounds that Jewett comments on what a sad Christmas this one has been for Minnie. See note on Minnie below.
Mrs. Fields: Annie Adams Fields. See Key to Correspondents.
Minnie: As Jewett is writing to Sophia Goodwin, she probably refers to her daughter-in-law, Minnie Lord Weeks Goodwin (1856-1919), wife of William Allen Hayes Goodwin (1853-1930). Their first daughter, Mary Lord Goodwin was born 19 January 1884 and died three days later, on 22 January. It seems likely that Jewett refers to the contrast between the couple's hopeful Christmas of 1883 and this bereft Christmas of 1884. Their next child, Wallingford Goodwin, was born in 1885 (d. 1958).
Fanny: Fanny's identity is uncertain. There were several living members of the Goodwin family with the first or middle name of Frances. This person apparently was in Boston at the time of this letter.
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. The transcriber identifies this letter as from the Goodwin Collection: [Letter from S. O. J. to Sophia Elizabeth Hayes Goodwin (Mrs. Ichabod) of "Old Fields," South Berwick, Me., now owned by Miss Elizabeth Goodwin of "Old Fields," South Berwick].
Sarah Orne Jewett to Henry Mills Alden
[ 30 December 1884 ]*
Dear Mr. Alden
I send you a sketch of Canadian life which I hope you will like -- The price is $200 --
Mrs. Fields* sends her kindest remembrance and best wishes for the New Year, with mine
Yours sincerely
Sarah O. Jewett
Sarah O. Jewett
148 Charles St. Boston
30 [ December corrected ] 1884
30 [ December corrected ] 1884
Notes
1884: This date is somewhat problematic. Jewett seems clearly to have written this date at the end of her letter. But her "Canada story" for Harper's Magazine appeared in March 1888: "Mére Pochette."
Given Jewett's confidence in her story, shown by her asking $200, one might guess that she has sent it to Alden, but then why did he delay for three years in publishing strong work by a quite popular author? Among the more obvious explanations are that Alden rejected a story that was never published, or that he asked for revisions that were not completed for three years, or that he had reasons to delay publishing "Mére Pochette." Less likely, but still possible is that the letter is incorrectly dated.
Fields: Annie Adams Fields. See Key to Correspondents.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the University of Wisconsin-Madison Libraries, Department of Rare Books and Special Collections; Cairns Collection of American Women Writers,Comprehensive collection of works by Sarah Orne Jewett. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
John Greenleaf Whittier to Annie Adams Fields and Sarah Orne Jewett
Amesbury
12 Mo 31 1884
My dear friends Annie Fields* & Sarah Jewett I cannot write a letter this morning, but I must, with all my heart wish you a Happy New Year! You have done more than you can ever know to make my last year happy. If in return I can do [ but ? ] little to add to your happiness I can at least be
[ Page 2 ]
Notesvery gratefully your affectionate friend.
John G. Whittier
Annie Fields: Annie Adams Fields. See Key to Correspondents.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Huntington Library, San Marino, CA, in the James T. Fields collection: mss FI 1-4824. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College
Undated Letter possibly from 1884