Sarah Orne Jewett Letters of 1885
Sarah Orne Jewett to Miss Bridgman*
148 Charles St.
Boston 2nd January
[ 1885 ]*
My dear Mifs Bridgman
I thank you for your kind letter -- your first question is easily answered. I was born at South-Berwick Maine September third 1849 -- I never went to school regularly and hardly at all after my childhood. I was not ^at^ all strong, and besides I liked much better to wander in the fields and pastures, or best of all to drive about with my father who was
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a doctor. I hardly know what to say where you ask about my favorite studies -- I am not exactly a student, though I have always been very fond indeed of reading, and, since I have been shut up in the house a good deal by illness, I have had more time for books than most other people -- Out-of-door life and people themselves -- country life altogether, gives me more and more happiness every
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year. Lately however I have spent most of the winter in Boston.
-- I really could not give you a definite date for all my books. Deephaven* was printed in 1877, though the first of it was written five or six years earlier -- My first paper for the Atlantic: a story called Mr Bruce,* was published in ^Dec^ 1869 and written some months earlier. I think that, and a story in the Riverside Magazine called The Shipwrecked Buttons* I published at the same time --neither signed by my
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own name, were my first ventures except a story and some verses published when I was about fourteen in a weekly [two or three deleted words] paper --
The Marsh Island which I am just finishing for the Atlantic [deleted word] will be my seventh book in about seven years -- quite too many!
With best wishes for the new year
Yours sincerely
Sarah O. Jewett
Laura Bridgman
Notes
Bridgman: Without more information, it would seem impossible to identify this person. Perhaps the most famous "Miss Bridgman" in Jewett's world was Laura Dewey Lynn Bridgman (1829-1889), known as the first deaf and blind American child to gain an education in English by means of braille and a manual alphabet. Almost certainly Jewett knew who she was, because she was reasonably famous and was educated at the Perkins Institute, to which several close Jewett friends had some connection. However, there is as yet no known evidence that Jewett and Laura Bridgman corresponded.
1885: The date is based on Jewett's report that she is just completing A Marsh Island for Atlantic serialization.
Deephaven: Jewett's novel appeared in 1877.
Mr Bruce: "Mr. Bruce" by A. C. Eliot appeared in Atlantic Monthly in December 1869.
The Shipwrecked Buttons: "The Shipwrecked Buttons" by Alice Eliot appeared in Riverside Magazine in January 1870.
The Marsh Island: Jewett's novel, A Marsh Island, was serialized in Atlantic Monthly, January through June of 1885.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Small Library, University of Virginia, Special Collections MSS 6218, Sarah Orne Jewett Papers. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Louisa Loring Dresel
20 [ January corrected ]
[ 1885 ]*
Dear Loulie
Your letter was most estimable and pleased me much -- I am glad to find that you love your sparrow which is a truly artistic piece of Japanese art -- How entirely ugly -- to speak seriously so queer a little thing would be made by [ an possibly changed from another ] American! but there is a touch of life likeness to this sweet Japanese birdie! He (or
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She) only accommodates the shortest wax matches! -- I have [ her or a ] beloved mate, -- which news will give you pleasure.
I have been in town for one night and I thought that Mrs. Fields* looked piteously ill when I first saw her, but I think she is doing well. It was very hard to leave her so soon when I knew what a difference it would make if I could only stay -- but
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I am needed so much here -- my dear mother is fairly comfortable now, but very weak indeed and I cannot bear to think of being away for more than a few hours. I begin to feel the need of getting out more -- There is so much snow and I have to be so careful of it -- that I walk very little and though all the horses need [ driving corrected ], I dont really care much for sleighing and so I make excuse when
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ever I can. As for writing I keep beginning things -- and after all I like best to sit by the garden window in my mother's room and talk to her when she likes it, and look out at the snow and the glistening elm twigs. Now that [ we corrected ] are not so hurried and anxious about the illness my sisters and I feel a little dulled and tired = it has been a terrible strain and sorrow --
Dear Loulie, there is much more
[ Up the left margin and across the top margin of page 1 ]
that I wish to write or to say but I believe that I shall not try [ tonight ? ], and only tell you how glad I am to get your letters -- and send you my love. Yours ever lovingly
S.O.J.
[ Up the left margin of page 2 ]
Give my love to Mrs. Dresel.
Notes
1885: This choice of date is partly arbitrary. The year 1891 has been penciled in lightly in another hand on page 1. However, there is no rationale for this date, except perhaps that Jewett's mother died in October of that year. No other letters from January of 1891 indicate that Mrs. Jewett or Mrs. Fields was unusually ill or that Jewett made a one-night visit to Fields around January 20th.
During the years of 1887-1890, there also is little evidence of simultaneous serious illness for Mrs. Jewett or Mrs. Fields. At this time, evidence regarding their health is absent during January in 1884-1886. Also, we have so far no correspondence between Jewett and Louisa Dresel from before 1884.
I have placed the letter in 1885 only because this is a likely year within a window of probability.
Mrs. Fields: Annie Adams Fields. See Key to Correspondents.
The manuscript of this letter is held by Milne Special Collections and Archives, University of New Hampshire Library, Durham, NH, USA: Sarah Orne Jewett Papers, 1849-1909 Series 1: Correspondence, MC 128 Box 1, Folder 4.
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Frances Lucy Wightman Arnold* to Sarah Orne Jewett
NotesCobhamMy dear Mifs Jewett
January 31st 1885*
I have been too long in writing to thank you for your very welcome letter & for the beautiful photographs you sent at the same time -- but I waited until I had something like real leisure before attempting an answer or acknowledgment. We were so glad to hear from you & of dear Mrs Fields,* and as
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for the photographs! I wish you could have seen our pleasure, as we undid each one and recognized the familiar places! They are a delightful pofsefsion & I cannot thank you enough for them. I think you know my affection & admiration for Boston & for the [ home ? ] & friends we found at 148 Charles St.! I need hardly say we are looking forward to being there once more, if, all being well, we are able to pay
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America another visit. It was so kind of you to give me those details of [ the ? ] Whitridges family { -- }* they were very interesting to me, as everything connected with him must now be, [ and ? ] as we knew little or nothing about his family we [could? ] were very glad to hear all you could tell us -- Lucy* has been [ gone ? ] a month & I think, if pofsible, I mifs her more & more as time goes on -- I do not feel as if I should [ ever ? ] be reconciled to the great separation
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though as far as she is concerned I think it will not be her husband's fault if she is not happy -- & I [ am sure ? ] he will try to soften the pain of separation as much as pofsible by bringing her over as often as he can. They had a very bad Voyage and she, poor girl, was ill the whole time & since her arrival she caught cold so that she has not been very well so far -- but I think the cold was owing to a Gale a night or two after her arrival! She has taken over our maid who had been with us
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18 years, & this has been a great comfort to her, as I know Eliza will take every care of Lucy & help her in her household cares. I am telling you a great deal about Lucy but you & Dear Mrs Fields were so sweetly good & kind to her & I am sure to me also I cannot help writing more fully about her to you than I do to most people -- I [ deletion ] am longing for you to know Eleanor, or Nelly* as I hope you will call her -- I think you will like
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her & I am sure she will love you & Mrs Fields & [ deletion ] would indeed enjoy [ being ? ] at Manchester & so should I -- but I fear there is not much [ chance ? ] of that as I think Mrs Fields does not stay there later than October?
By this time I feel almost sure you must be in Boston so I shall direct my letter there. We are going to London for a few weeks & hope to leave there on the 5th February. We have
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taken a small house in Manchester Square (7a is the number.) until Easter. [ M ? ] Arnold [ feels ? ] having to [ go up & down ? ] from here in the winter & he will be very glad to be on the spot for his schools which are all in London. We were all [ much excited ? ] by the freak Dynamite [ affair ? ] last week, & much [ pleased ? ] at the way yr. papers have taken up the matter -- Senator Hawley* (whom we knew last year{)} seems to have made a very grand speech in the Senate. What
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with dynamiters & the war in Egypt & affairs at the [ Cape corrected from cape ] & S. Africa* generally -- England has much on her hands at present. The [ heros so written ] of Genle Stewarts brave little force being in safety as well as successful in all they had done was a great relief. The beginning of this week there was the greatest anxiety about their fates & now one hopes this costly trying war very soon {will} be at an end.
Will you give my dear love to Mrs Fields, & thanks for her last letter. I am always hoping to write to her -- I so often think of her
[ Up the left margin and across the top margin of page 1 ]
& will you remember me to Mrs Whitman* when you see her. & with love from Mr Arnold & Nelly to you & Mrs Fields always dear Mifs Jewett
Your affectionate friend
Frances Arnold
How are Maria & Katie* -- Remember me to them -- and if that
[ Across the top margin of pages 2 and 3 ]
dear Roger* is with you a loving pat from us.
Our dogs are well{.} The beautiful Dachshund Max is taken to London where he is a regular White Elephant he is such an anxious charge.
Is there a hope of a visit to England of you & Mrs Fields
[ Across the top margin of page 4 ]
this summer? Thanks again & again for the photographs & all your good wishes{.} I am sure we wished you & Mrs Fields every happiness [ in corrected ] this new year{.}
Arnold: See Matthew Arnold in Key to Correspondents. At the time of this letter, Matthew Arnold worked as an inspector of schools.
1885: Associated with this letter is an envelope addressed to Miss Jewett at 148 Charles St. in Boston and forwarded to South Berwick, canceled on 31 January 1885 at Cobham, Surrey. On the back are cancellations in Boston on 13 and 14 February.
Fields: Annie Adams Fields. Key to Correspondents.
Lucy: The Arnolds' daughter, Lucy Charlotte (1858-1934), married an American, Frederick Wallingford Whitridge (1852-1910). Lucy's younger sister, mentioned below, was Eleanor (Nelly) Mary Caroline Arnold (1861-1936).
freak Dynamite ... Hawley: Presumably, Arnold refers to the Fenian Dynamite Campaign of 1881-1885, when Fenians (Irish Nationalists) carried out a number of dynamite attacks against targets mainly in London. In January of 1885, this included bombs in a train station, the House of Commons and the Tower of London. Wikipedia.
Joseph Roswell Hawley (1826-1905) of Connecticut served in the U.S. Senate (1881-1905). Wikipedia.
war in Egypt ... the Cape & S. Africa: The Anglo-Egyptian War took place in 1882. Probably, Arnold refers to the 1885 revolt again British rule in Sudan, which eventuated on 26 January 1885 in the death of Major-General Charles George Gordon at Khartoum in Sudan.
Major-General Sir Herbert Stewart (1843- 16 February 1885) was mortally wounded during the revolt in Sudan during the Battle of Abu Kru. Note that he died a few weeks after Arnold mailed this letter. Wikipedia.
During the 1880s, Britain was among the European powers attempting to gain control over various parts of South Africa. In 1885, a British force led by Major-General Charles Warren seized control of two small Boer republics in the Cape Colony of South Africa. Wikipedia.
Whitman: Sarah Wyman Whitman. Key to Correspondents.
Katie and Maria: Katie my be Catherine Drinan. Presumably, Maria was another Jewett employee. Key to Correspondents.
Roger: One of Jewett's dogs.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library of Harvard University, Cambridge, MA. bMS Am 1743 Box 1, Item 9 I. Letters to Sarah Orne Jewett.
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Selected from John Greenleaf Whittier to Celia Thaxter
Danvers, February 6, 1885The manuscript of this letter is held by the University of Virginia. The transcription is from The Letters of John Greenleaf Whittier, edited by John B. Pickard (Cambridge, Harvard University Press, 1975, v. 3, p. 495). Notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
I agree with thee that there is something unsettling and disturbing in the changes going on in the religious world, but I believe that it is all in the ordering of Providence, and that there is a deeper more heartfelt acceptance of the Christian truth -- the vital and essential -- than ever before. He is turning and overturning whose right it is {to} reign,* and how wonderful it is to see the best minds and hearts turning turning to the great doctrine of Friends -- the Inward Light and Guide. That doctrine seems more and more precious to me. I only wish I could obey it more fully.
Notes
reign: Pickard points to Whittier's biblical reference to Ezekiel 21:27.
Celia Thaxter to Annie Adams Fields
Sat A.M.
[ 7 February 1885 ]*
My dear:
I shall see you [ tomorrow ? ] D.V.,* but I must send a word about last night at my brother's [ when or where ] we went to try for Roland.* Miss Bothe*, tho' far from well, came also.
My dear, it was an anguish! Nothing happened! we sat, she saw nothing, we heard naught, there was no sign -- My disappointment was so keen I could not keep the tears from creeping down my cheeks in the dark. Roland was perfectly respectful -- there seemed no reason -- everything had [ worked corrected ] [marvelously ? ] as if against fate, to procure us the sitting. At last Ida* said, "supposing you & Mrs D.* go into the dining room alone" -- we did, sat by the still [ white-covered ? ] table light out. No [ sign corrected ]. I said, "I love
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this life, but I would leave it gladly tomorrow, tonight, to bring peace & comfort to my boy --"
We went away from the room leaving it dark, at last, & tried again in the other -- no use -- lamps were lit, we gave it up. Julia* went into the dining room & the girls (servants) had made it light. J. said, "Did you leave flowers there?" "No!" "Well, there are some withered things there" -- We went eagerly to [ look corrected ] -- on the white cloth were scattered withered sprigs [ possibly deleted mark ] of wild* forgetmenot, a little insignificant, one might say, ugly flower, no green house wd. take pains to raise, nobody wd buy, withered as if brought from afar -- I put them in hot water -- they revived.
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More interesting than the most gorgeous blooms -- Roland, puzzled, carried all home, except one sprig, which I kept --
Now! Was ever anything so strange! But poor Mrs. D. fears now that nothing will happen any where -- that tomorrow night we shall get nothing! It does not follow -- & I think the withered wild flowers & the whole of last evening as surprising as any of the phenomena.
I'm writing in [ haste ? ] for [ morning ? ] mail.
Till tomorrow! Your C
Notes
7 February 1885: "Spring 1885" is penciled in another hand, top center of page 1. Its authority is absent, though it is well established that Thaxter and Marion Dickinson were in frequent contact at this time.
Thaxter to Fields of 9 February recounts a successful séance in which her son Roland is "brought together" with his deceased father. That letter, then, would seem to follow close upon this one. Therefore, I have tentatively dated this letter on the Saturday preceding 9 February.
Boston Public Library archivists have tentatively suggested that the events of this letter took place on Appledore, but the fact that Thaxter expects to see Fields on the day after this letter indicates she more likely writes from nearby. If the February date is correct, Thaxter and most of her family would be wintering on the mainland, and if the this letter precedes that of 9 February, then like that one, it comes from the Winthrop House hotel in Boston.
Thaxter begins this letter in pencil, and after 1 and 1/2 lines in the first paragraph changes to ink.
D.V.: Deo volente, Latin: God willing.
for Roland: Roland is Thaxter's youngest son. It would seem likely that a purpose of this séance is to contact Levi Thaxter, Roland's father, who died in 1884.
Miss Bothe: A German-born artist, Ida Bothe was active in Boston during the 1880s. She married a German baron in 1890 and returned to Germany.
While living in Boston, Bothe resided with the Candlers, who also were deeply involved in Spiritualism. 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).
Though it is possible that Ida Candler suggests shifting rooms during this séance, Thaxter specifically names Ida Bothe as being present on this occasion.
See also, Terry Heller, "Communing with the Dead: Celia Thaxter, John Greenleaf Whittier, Sarah Orne Jewett, Annie Adams Fields." SOJTP 2023.
Mrs D: In other letters from Thaxter to Fields, Mrs. D. is identified as Marion Dickinson, a spiritualist medium, wife of Sidney Dickinson. Very likely, she is Marion Miller (1854-1906), second wife of Sidney Edward Dickinson (1851-1919).
Julia: Thaxter's sister-in-law, wife of Cedric Laighton.
wild: This word is underlined twice.
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/qb98p484r
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Eben Norton Horsford
Thursday morning
[ February 1885 ]*
Dear Prof. Horsford --
Thank you so much for letting me see this pleasant letter -- It must be a most interesting country.
I am looking forward to another short visit in Boston when Irving* comes, and then I hope I shall see you --
Yours affectionately
Sarah --
Notes
February 1885: While this date is speculative, it is known that Jewett planned to see British actor Henry Irving (1838-1905), along with Ellen Terry (1847-1928) and the Lyceum Theatre Company, when they toured North America 30 September 1884 through 24 April 1885, performing, among a number of plays, Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice, Hamlet, Much Ado About Nothing, and Twelfth Night. They were in Boston in mid-February. See Jewett to Lilian Woodman Aldrich in February 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. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Celia Thaxter to Annie Adams Fields
W.H.* Feb 9th
(85
My dearest:
Will you let Patrick bring round the two vols of Ross Turner's* illustrating? because I'm doing Mrs Gardiner's books* & would like a hint here & there, & when I have finished I shall love to send them back for another visit [ if corrected ] you like.
We had a wonderful time last night -- We were showered with lilies of the valley -- (they cost half a dollar a spray in the shops!) All the invisible wore them, the whole room was fragrant, full of sweetness. James & Mr W. & Mr. Thaxter, very strong, came. J.* said "Bring them
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together," Roland & his father, & said, "tell Roland the Science he follows is of less importance than that [ to corrected] which he closes his eyes."
Mr. Candler was struck dumb with the wonder of the flowers -- They were, thrown with great force from behind me & fell wet & cold against the back of my neck, brushing my cheek & falling all over table & floor. The Psychic was on the opposite side of the room -- I sent some of the flowers & leaves to Prof. Horsford* as I promised -- Mr Darrah* who was here this A.M. tells me H. I. Bowditch the younger* is coming to interview me!
O, I forgot -- I was to say that the dear little woman dares not promise
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this week to go to you, perhaps she could Monday night next, if you say so we will keep the night. And oh, could Rose come? She asked me if you would let her [ . changed from a question mark ] It seems she can arrange with Horace* for one evening & she is dying to come. Mrs D.* would not mind.
Poor little dear -- her work has got so behind hand, she is half in despair & working too hard -- I am very anxious for her! The idea of her having to struggle so! Sidney Dickinson would die if he knew it -- his father promised to take care of wife & child for him, & not a thing has that father done for them.
Ever & ever your
C.
Notes
W.H.: EKC, the previous 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.
Patrick ... Ross Turner's ... Mrs Gardener's books: Patrick Lynch, according to Richard Cary, was an employee of Annie Fields.
Ross Sterling Turner (1847-1914), one of Thaxter's painting mentors, "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."
WorldCat indicates lists only one volume illustrated by Turner, Illustrated Poems of Oliver Wendell Holmes (1885). Thaxter's description suggests that she speaks of a unique book of sketches owned by Thaxter.
Thaxter probably is decorating a copy of a book owned by Mrs. Gardiner. The identity of Mrs. Gardiner is not yet known. A likely candidate is Helena Lawrence Baird (1857-1925), wife of Boston lawyer William Howard Gardiner (1851-1906). The Gardiner's son, William Howard Gardiner, Jr. (1875-1952), married John Wilson Candler's daughter, Amelia Garrison Candler (1869-1945).
James & Mr W. & Mr. Thaxter ... J.: Thaxter identifies the spirits of the dead who were present at the séance she describes. James seems likely to be Fields's husband, James T. Fields. Though one may pause at Thaxter using his first name and then his initial, she has, in fact, used his first name in other letters. See the notes for John Greenleaf Whittier to Annie Adams Fields, 1 December 1884.
Mr. Thaxter, is Levi Thaxter, husband of Celia Thaxter.
Mr. W. probably is American clergyman and author, John Weiss (1818-1879), a deceased Thaxter family friend who appeared at sittings Thaxter reported to Fields when the latter was in Europe in 1882. See also "Digital Library of Unitarian Universalism."
See also, Terry Heller, "Communing with the Dead: Celia Thaxter, John Greenleaf Whittier, Sarah Orne Jewett, Annie Adams Fields." SOJTP 2020.
Mr. Candler: John Wilson Candler (1828-1903) was a Boston businessman and Republican politician. His second wife was Ida M. Garrison (1848-1891). His interest in attending a séance may have been his loss of a daughter, Lucy, in 1871, or perhaps more likely, the more recent loss of his mother in 1882. See also Wikipedia.
Prof. Horsford: Eben Norton Horsford. See Key to Correspondents.
Mr Darrah: Probably Thaxter refers to Robert Kendall Darrah (7 December 1818- 22 May 1885). Fields's obituary of Darrah suggests that his interest in sittings with Thaxter derived from the loss of his wife, Ann Sophia Towne, in 1881.
H. I. Bowditch the younger: Thaxter was acquainted with Dr. Henry Ingersoll Bowditch (1808-1892), who owned a cottage on Appledore, and his wife, Olivia Jane Yardley (1816-1890). Dr. Bowditch's brother, Edward, named a son Henry Ingersoll Bowditch (1874-1926). At the time of this letter, he would have been 10-11 years old. Presumably, this is H. I. Bowditch the younger, though this is not certain.
Rose ... Horace: Rose and Horace Lamb. See Key to Correspondents.
Mrs D.: In other letters from Thaxter to Fields, Mrs. D. is identified as Marion Dickinson, a spiritualist medium, wife of Sidney Dickinson. Very likely, she is Marion Miller (1854-1906), second wife of Sidney Edward Dickinson (1851-1919). His Find-a-Grave biographical sketch indicates that at the time of this letter, he often was studying and traveling in Europe, Australia, New Zealand and the U.S. See also A Mother’s Letter from Northampton, MA – 1882.
Presumably the Pyschic Thaxter mentions is Mrs. Dickinson.
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/qb98p457v
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Celia Thaxter to Annie Adams Fields
Feb. 13th (85 -
Dearest,
Mrs Dickinson is going down to Florida next month with the Candlers.* Our time grows short! How I hate to be separated from her, with that key of heaven in her hand!
It occurs to me to suggest to you this -- (but please realize that it is only for your sake, not mine, for I have had [ such ? ] endless experience, I dont need any more) that if on Tuesday night you would like Ida Bothe* to come, we might have those showers of flowers, for it is unquestionable that her presence helps Mrs D.s' power in some way. I remember we have not had flowers except on the gas screw --* the flowers always coming from the opposite side of the room --
What do you say to Ida & Rose?* It would make a little battery to [ help corrected ] the power -- but I [ only corrected ] suggest it for your sake. I long to have you see this, but if you dont care about it, I should not think of it again [ two unrecognized words ]
[ two unrecognized words ] & [ one unrecognized word ] C.
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[ In pencil and perhaps in another hand ] Thank you so much for sending the hyacinths!
Notes
Mrs Dickinson ... Candlers: In other letters from Thaxter to Fields, Mrs. Dickinson is identified as Marion Dickinson, a spiritualist medium, wife of Sidney Dickinson. Very likely, she is Marion Miller (1854-1906), second wife of Sidney Edward Dickinson (1851-1919).
John Wilson Candler (1828-1903) was a Boston businessman and Republican politician. His second wife was Ida M. Garrison (1848-1891).
Ida Bothe: Celia Thaxter introduces Bothe as a Spiritualist in a letter to Jewett and Annie Fields of 12 October 1884. A German-born artist, Ida Bothe was active in Boston during the 1880s. She married a German baron in 1890 and returned to Germany.
Thaxter wrote to Fields about a "shower of flowers" at a séance in a letter of 9 February 1885.
gas screw: Valve for turning a gas light on or off.
Rose: Rose Lamb. See Key to Correspondents.
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- 4219. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
John Greenleaf Whittier to Annie Adams Fields
Danvers
2nd Mo 18. 1885.
My dear Friend
Thy letter was most welcome, but my pleasure at receiving it was somewhat lessened by the fear that the writing of it taxed time & strength already too fully occupied & tested. I know what demands are constantly made upon thee, and I would, if it were possible
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lessen thy burdens rather than add to them.
Would it not be well for thee & dear Sarah* to run away South for a few weeks! I am very sorry to hear of her rheumatic trouble. [ Isn't ? ] it the [ gout ? ]? Haven't you been living too fast? If so you had better break up housekeeping and take board at the Hotel
[ Page 3 ]
Winthrop.*
I return the [ wonder ? ] manuscript. -- Mrs D.* seems to be a psychic as remarkable as the "Seeress of Prevorst."* Mrs Thaxter has just sent me an account of the [ miraculous ? ] discovery of a fire in a drawer in Mrs D's room. Of course thee know all about it. It is absolutely amazing even in this day of wonders, and seems direct evidence of spirit manifestation.
[ Page 4 ]
Has Prof James* met Mrs D. yet? If he is anything like his brother, he will misrepresent her. I do not however think he is. If he was originally his wife has made a better man of him.
I am sorry I missed seeing Mr. Wood.*
With love to Sarah Jewett, affectionately thy friend.
John G Whittier
Notes
Sarah: Sarah Orne Jewett. See Key to Correspondents.
Whittier seems clearly to have ended this sentence with an exclamation point; however, his question marks often are nearly indistinguishable from exclamation points.
Winthrop: The Winthrop Hotel on Bowdoin Street in Boston was quiet and inexpensive. Whittier sometimes stayed there when visiting Boston.
Mrs D: For Celia Thaxter, see Key to Correspondents.
In letters of this year from Thaxter to Fields, Mrs. D. is identified as Marion Dickinson, a spiritualist medium, wife of Sidney Dickinson. Very likely, she is Marion Miller (1854-1906), second wife of Sidney Edward Dickinson (1851-1919).
See also, Terry Heller, "Communing with the Dead: Celia Thaxter, John Greenleaf Whittier, Sarah Orne Jewett, Annie Adams Fields." SOJTP 2020.
Seeress of Prevorst: Friederike Wanner Hauffe (1801-1829), also known as the Seeress of Prevorst, was a German mystic who claimed to have visions while in a trance state.
Prof James: American philosopher and psychologist William James (1842-1910) was a founder of the American Society for Psychical Research, which began in 1885. Its purpose was the scientific investigation of "psychical phenomena," such as communication with the dead. His wife was Alice Howe Gibbons.
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.
In Celia Thaxter to Fields of April-May 1884, Thaxter names Wood as among those who share her interest in spiritualism and communicating with the dead.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Huntington Library, San Marino, CA, in the James T. Fields collection: mss FI 71-4820. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Annie Adams Fields to Lilian Aldrich
[ February 1885 ]*
[ Begin letterhead ]
148. Charles Street,
Boston.
[ End letterhead ]
My dear kind Lilian!
I do not in the least suppose you will care for the tickets tonight since it is to Merchant of Venice without Irving, but Patrick* shall wait because I can easily find delighted recipients!
Do come again! Your visit gave us both sincere pleasure and our dear
[ Page 2 ]
patient* is so very weak that I do not anticipate much going out for her in a long time coming.
Affectionately to you all,
Annie Fields
Notes
February 1885: See Jewett to Lilian Aldrich of Sunday, February 1885. That letter is speculatively dated at this time because British actor Henry Irving (1838-1905), along with Ellen Terry (1847-1928) and the Lyceum Theatre Company, toured North America 30 September 1884 through 24 April 1885, performing, among a number of plays, Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice, Hamlet, Much Ado About Nothing, and Twelfth Night. They were in Boston in mid-February. Jewett's letter to Aldrich also indicates that she has been ill.
While it is not certain that either of these letters is from 1885, it seems clear that they were written at about the same time.
Patrick: A long-time employee of Annie Fields.
patient: Sarah Orne Jewett. 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.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Lilian Woodman Aldrich
Saturday[ Begin letterhead ]
[ February 1885 ]*
148. Charles Street,
Boston.
[ End letterhead ]
Dear Lilian
I thank you so much for the note and the spoon and the violets. I never saw such a dear and benevolent Duchess!* I had a beautiful time opening the three little bundles and displayed them with such triumph when A.F.* came home. I got up at dinner time by
[ Page 2 ]
way of surprise -- and I am going to get up to lunch today, so you see I am flourishing. I do want to see you dreadfully{ -- } we haven't had a spree of our own all winter. Are you going to the Irving plays* and do you know just where they are to be? Lily Fairchild* promised to get tickets for me with hers, but I forgot
[ Page 3 ]
to ask her and must. I havent been to a show all winter! Saving up, as it were, though I must say it wasn't intentional!
I was sorry not to see Miss Sprague* again. I meant to go see her as you know, but I was in the house awhile before I went to Newport and have not been out for a week now -- Do tell
[ Page 4 ]
Mrs Anthony* if you see her.
-- I have just got the proofs of the Marsh Island -- the April number* which I think the best. I am in a great hurry for you to read it.
Dear Lilian you dont know how good you were to send me the dear things yesterday!
Yours ever
Sadie*
Notes
February 1885: As Jewett has proof for a selection of A Marsh Island scheduled to appear in the April 1885 number of Atlantic, which would appear at the end of March, Jewett probably composed this letter in February or early March of 1885 at the latest. Henry Irving's acting company appeared in Boston in mid-February of 1885.
Duchess: Nickname for Lilian Aldrich among her close friends; she and her husband were the Duke and Duchess of Ponkapog. See Key to Correspondents.
A. F.: Annie Fields (1834-1915). See Key to Correspondents.
Irving plays: British actor Henry Irving (1838-1905), along with Ellen Terry (1847-1928) and the Lyceum Theatre Company, toured North America 30 September 1884 through 24 April 1885, performing, among a number of plays, Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice, Hamlet, Much Ado About Nothing, and Twelfth Night. They were in Boston in mid-February.
Lily Fairchild: See Sally Fairchild in Key to Correspondents for information about her mother, Elizabeth Fairchild.
Miss Sprague: While this can only be speculation, it is possible this is Mary Aplin Sprague (1849-1939), author of An Earnest Trifler (1880), a novel praised by William Dean Howells.
Mrs. Anthony: This person has not yet been identified. Among Annie Fields's acquaintance was Mary Aurelia Walker Anthony (1830-1913), a singer, the wife of artist Andrew Varick Stout Anthony (1835-1906).
Marsh Island -- the April number: Jewett's novel, A Marsh Island was serialized in Atlantic Monthly, January to June 1885, after which the novel was released as a book.
"Sadie": Sadie Martinot was a Jewett nickname with the Aldriches, presumably after the American actress and singer, Sarah/Sadie Martinot. See Key to Correspondents.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. Thomas Bailey 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: 2738.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Annie Adams Fields
[ Winter-Spring 1885]*
----- Miss Ward* has gone and we miss her very much, being such a dear visitor. She is down at Mrs. Goodwin's* and tomorrow Mary* and I are going there to tea. I hope there will be a moon and a South wind and not a frozen Pinny who desires only not to have to go 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. Then I wrote a little hour or two at the story -- this is 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. -----
Notes
1885: It seems likely that Jewett was writing the final chapters of A Marsh Island (see notes below) early in 1885.
A transcriber's note with this text reads: [to A. F.]. The lines of hyphens presumably indicate omissions from the manuscript.
Miss Ward: Susan Hayes Ward. See Key to Correspondents.
Mrs. Goodwin's: Which Mrs. Goodwin is meant is difficult to determine.
Mary: Mary Rice Jewett. See Key to Correspondents.
Pinny: A nickname for Jewett used by Jewett and Fields.
to drive: A transcriber's note identifies this story as A Marsh Island (1885). The drive referred to occurs in Chapter 19, which first appeared in Atlantic Monthly in June 1885..
Uncle William: William Durham Jewett. 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, Undated Letters, Folder 75, Burton Trafton Jewett Research Collection. For more information about the individual transcription, contact the Maine Women Writers Collection. Notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Samuel Sidney McClure
148 Charles Street
Boston 11 March
[ 1885 ? ]
Dear Mr. McClure
Thank you for your last note. I was sure you would be interested in the little book.* Have you seen Mrs. J. S. Lowells Private relief & Public Charity?* Mrs. Fields* has been delighted with that: it is published by the Charity Organization Soc. in N.Y.
I am going to be in New
[ Page 2 ]
York for a short time, and if you have not sent me the cheque for my story,* I should like very much to have it there -- at the Brunswick Hotel -- care Mrs. J. T. Fields
-- With best wishes always
Yours sincerely
S. O. Jewett
Notes
1885: While there is some support for this date, it remains speculative. Because Jewett seems to be discussing with McClure books that were published in 1884, one might guess that the letter was composed that year. However, Jewett seems clearly to have published a story with the McClure syndicate, which entered into business in 1884. Her first known story believed to be distributed by the McClure Syndicate probably was "A Business Man" in March of 1885.
the little book: It seems likely that Jewett and McClure have corresponded about Annie Field's book, How to Help the Poor (1884).
Public Charity: Jewett seems to have reversed the terms in the title. Almost certainly she refers to Public Relief and Private Charity (1884) by Josephine Shaw Lowell.
Fields: Annie Adams Fields. See Key to Correspondents.
my story: If the composition date is correct, this may be "A Business Man," which first appeared in various newspapers in March 1885.
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.
Celia Thaxter to Annie Adams Fields
Kittery Point. Mch 24th (85.
My dearest Annie
I have just heard from our poor dear little Mrs D.* who tells me of your kind visit to her & Mary Lodge's* most unkind suspicions. "O," she says, "if they had only searched me! O dear! do you suppose I am strong enough to face all the odds & finally come out victorious? Why was I, an unbeliever, picked out to be subjected to all this distrust & all these aspersions? I was living a quiet, peaceful life, & really, I fear I want to go back to it, & leave all the rest to be made known through someone greater & better than I." But she cannot choose, poor child, & a martyr she has got to be in spite of any thing she may desire to the contrary --
I never did feel happy about Mary's being with us, tho' all seemed so well, & I fear she will do us infinite harm now by stating her opinion of our imbecility to our friends
[ Page 2 ]
-- it is not pleasant to be thought a fool -- I dont mean, dearest Annie that she will go about calmly stating that she thinks Annie Fields & Celia Thaxter & Sarah Jewett* three credulous geese, but her point of view will make itself felt [ wherever blotted and possibly corrected ] & whenever the subject comes up in her presence. So I am sorry, sorry, sorry, -- but we couldn't foresee it -- I hope the sitting you will have when the Psychic* comes back from Springfield will be satisfactory, but if her mind is strained & troubled, -- I fear, I fear! ^No matter how eagerly she may desire it^ the processes are so delicate, the mind of man can not conceive them, -- we dont know what will make success, but we do know what makes failure -- Do be sure & have Ida* there, for Mrs D. leans on her & is more tranquil & at ease when she is by.
If you have not sent back to me Sidney Dickinson's letter, will you kindly enclose it to Mrs Lang* to whom I promised to show it & she will send it to me. Her people have believed in this thing some time & it was to tell her mother about it I went to her house. [ dearest not capitalized ] Annie best love to you & Pinny* dear, & do write to your most most loving
C.
[ Up the left margin of page 1 ]
I hope you always realise, Annie dear, that when I have spoken of these things as I have often to various people, I have carefully left any mention of you in connection with it, out -- your experiences belong to you & I dont consider that I have any right to them -- Where I myself am alone concerned, or the C.s,* or people who do not care, that is a different thing --
Notes
Mrs D.: In other letters from Thaxter to Fields, Mrs. D. is identified as Marion Dickinson, a spiritualist medium, wife of Sidney Dickinson. Very likely, she is Marion Miller (1854-1906), second wife of Sidney Edward Dickinson (1851-1919). His Find-a-Grave biographical sketch indicates that at the time of this letter, he was studying and traveling in Europe, Australia, New Zealand and the U.S. See also A Mother’s Letter from Northampton, MA – 1882.
See also, Terry Heller, "Communing with the Dead: Celia Thaxter, John Greenleaf Whittier, Sarah Orne Jewett, Annie Adams Fields." SOJTP 2020.
Mary Lodge: Mary Greenwood Lodge. See Key to Correspondents.
Thaxter probably is writing about an event like the one described in her letter to Fields of 9 February 1885, during which the group at a séance is showered with flowers. Mary Lodge apparently was at this meeting, believed she saw the soaked handkerchief, and suspected Mrs. D. had brought the mysterious flowers in it.
Sarah Jewett: Sarah Orne Jewett. See Key to Correspondents.
Psychic: The identity of this psychic seems unclear. In the context of this letter, Mrs. Dickinson seems to be "the psychic," but it seems odd that Thaxter refers to her in this way. Perhaps, then, there is another clairvoyant expected to return from Springfield soon.
Mrs Lang: This person has not been identified. Fields and Jewett were acquainted with Boston musician Benjamin Johnson Lang (1837-1909) and his wife, the singer Frances Morse Burrage (1839-1934), but no evidence of their connection with Thaxter or spiritualism has yet been discovered.
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.
the C.s: It is likely Thaxter refers to John Wilson Candler (1828-1903), who served as a U.S. Congressman from Massachusetts, 1881-3 and 1889-91, and his wife, Ida May Garrison (1848-1891). Their daughter was Amelia Garrison Candler Gardiner (1869-1945).
Thaxter may refer to a séance at the home of Annie Fields, during which the medium claimed to see and to speak to James T. Field's, Annie Fields's deceased husband. See the notes for John Greenleaf Whittier to Annie Adams Fields, 1 December 1884. This letter also shows that Thaxter has told at least one other person of this event, though Whittier was their trusted confidant.
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/qb98p4630
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
John Greenleaf Whittier to Annie Adams Fields
Oak Knoll Danvers
3rd Mo, 24, 1885*
Dear Annie Fields
Thanks for thy welcome letter! I imagined you away in search of milder weather as I had not heard from you for so long a time. I am sorry to hear of dear Sarah's* illness, and to think of her suffering while we have been enjoying her installments of "Marsh Island" so heartily. I shall not pity myself for neuralgia any more, but shall [ spend ? ] all my sympathy upon her. But indeed we
[ Page 2 ]
are all objects of pity in this bitter weather. I wander out into our grounds to find some nook where the pines & hemlocks shut out the wind and let in the sunshine, and try to forget that the thermometer is all the time below the freezing point.
I had a line a few days ago from Celia Thaxter.* She is down on that lonesome, windy coast where she can only look upon the desolate, winter-bitten pasture land and the cold grey sea. I hope she warms herself with memories of her Italian travels.
[ Page 3 ]
I have no copy ^of^ Poe's Tamerlane,* and so I cannot endow a school with the [ avails ? ] of it. What do thee hear from Gen. Armstrong?* What a reversal of the "funeral baked meats" of Hamlet* was the wedding cake of the N.Y. millionaire whose funeral was on the day fixed for his marriage.* I had a line from Kate Sanborn* telling me of her prospects, and had just sent my congratulations. I hope a handsome bequest will somewhat relieve the disappointment. "Jeanie woman," said Dumbedekes, "will siller do 'it?"*
I have been reading Hovey's "Mind Reading and Beyond."* That part of it which is his own strikes me as logical and reasonable.
[ Page 4 ]
Did thee know Rachel S. Howland of New Bedford?* I am pained to hear of her being under treatment at Channing's private [ Insane corrected ] Hospital at Brookline. She was a beautiful and gifted woman. I rememberwhenher, as I first saw her, a fair graceful young girl under the primeval pine trees on the lawn of her home at West Hill in Burlington New Jersey. By what a frail tenure we hold all that makes life sweet and desirable!
I would be glad {to} see Edith Thomas.* She has a divine gift, & her first book is more than a promise -- an assurance. But I shall not be able to visit Boston at present, and I must go to Amesbury as soon as the weather moderates. Give a great deal of love to Sarah & be assured of a great deal for thyself from
thy friend John G. Whittier
[ Up the left margin of page 1 ]
Tell Sarah that her "Marsh Island" is even better than the Country Doctor.
Notes
1885: This manuscript has a penciled "3" at the top center of page 1, and a penciled "X" appears in the left margin three times: at the bottom of page 1, on page 2 when he mentions Celia Thaxter; and page 3 when he mentions Poe's Tamerlane.
Sarah's: Sarah Orne Jewett. See Key to Correspondents. Her third novel, A Marsh Island (1885), began as a serial in Atlantic Monthly in January 1885. Her second was A Country Doctor (1884).
Celia Thaxter: See Key to Correspondents.
Poe's Tamerlane: American author, Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) in 1827 published his first poetry collection, Tamerlane and Other Poems.
Gen. Armstrong: 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.
Hamlet ... N.Y. millionaire ... Kate Sanborn: See William Shakespeare's Hamlet Act 1, Scene 2, in which Hamlet complains that the leftovers prepared for his father's funeral supplied food for his mother's second wedding.
New York millionaire Gordon Webster Burnham (1803-1885) was president of Waterbury Clock and two other companies. He died in March 1885, and was buried on what was to have been the day of his marriage to American author and educator, Kate Abbott Sanborn (1839-1917). He did leave her a substantial legacy.
Jeanie ...siller: Whittier quotes from Sir Walter Scott's (1771-1832) novel, The Heart of Midlothian (1818), in which Jeanie Deans and the Laird of Dumbiedykes/Dumbiedikes are characters. In the novel, the Laird wonders if silver could help to solve several problems, but does not suggest it as compensation for the loss of a betrothed.
Hovey's "Mind Reading and Beyond": William Alfred Hovey (1841-1906) is the author of Mind-Reading and Beyond (1885). At the time of this letter, Hovey was editor of the Boston Evening Transcript.
Rachel S. Howland ... Hospital: Rachel Howland (1816-1902) was a minister of the Society of Friends and an activist for peace, labor and elderly women.
The Channing Sanitarium a "Private Hospital for Mental Diseases" (founded 1879) was established by Dr. Walter Channing (1849-1921). See also Dr. Channing's Private Asylum.
Edith Thomas: American poet, Edith Matilda Thomas (1854-1925). In 1885, she published A New Year's Masque and Other Poems.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Huntington Library, San Marino, CA, in the James T. Fields collection: mss FI 71-4691. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Lilian Woodman Aldrich
Thursday Noon [ April 1885 ]
Yes, dear Lilian with the very greatest pleasure.
-- I am getting on so well now and really feel as good as new almost!
-- I [ deleted word ] have ever so many things saved up to talk about -- and I shall be so pleased to see 'Charles.'* I think "Down the Ravine"
[ Page 2 ]
is her dearest and best story --
Yours ever
Sadie*
Notes
April 1885: According to Wikipedia, In 1885 Charles Egbert Craddock revealed, first to T. B. Aldrich, that she was Mary Noailles Murfree. This would be the earliest year, then, in which Jewett could have referred to her as female. An early public acknowledgment of her identity appears in The Critic 3:65 (28 March 1885), p. 152. It seems likely, therefore, that Jewett writes in the spring of 1885, during or soon after the serialization of Down the Ravine. See notes below.
'Charles': That this name is in quotation marks indicates that Jewett refers not to Lilian Aldrich's son, Charles, but to Charles Egbert Craddock.
Mary Noailles Murfree (1850-1922), an American fiction writer, published under the pen name Charles Egbert Craddock. Her novel, Down the Ravine, first appeared as a serial in Wide Awake, beginning at Christmas 1884, in the January 1885 number.
Sadie: One of Jewett's nicknames among her friends.
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: 2656..
Celia Thaxter to Annie Adams Fields
Kittery Point. April 3rd
(85.
My dearest Annie:
Indeed I dont "feel hardly toward those who cant follow me altogether, or those who wish to try for themselves." If I did I should have to feel hardly to the greater part of the whole world. Don't think it of me, dear. The point I complain of is that Mary* makes a statement that she was sure "Mrs. D's* hdkcf was wringing wet & so she had brought the flowers in it"-- She never felt of the hdkf, & it was most unkind & unjust of her to draw her own conclusions, without examination. If that statement were true Mrs [ D. corrected ] would be a liar & worse, & I never would touch her or look at her again. She would be worse than dead to me. [ Deleted mark ] I don't "feel hardly at outspoken remark", my dearest Annie, but I do feel ^it^ hardlythat so grave an accusation as this should have been brought. Of course, we are all seekers. I never have minded, except in Mrs. Moulton's* case, the tide of talk & suspicion, -- the thing is so big & so beautiful it is idle to notice the
[ Page 2 ]
froth and foam of the current that has got to lose itself finally in the great sea, no matter how it fusses -- -- The amount of it is, there be those in the world who are ready for this, & there be more who are not, & its of no use to bother about the people who cant & wont & dont wish to look at the matter in its true light. Their time is farther off, that's all -- they will have to come to it finally, but meanwhile it is time thrown away to "bother" about them, as I said before. As for bringing any "bitterness", my dear Annie, I gave you all I had in that sheet of paper. I don't carry bitterness about to any great extent, don't like its company well enough. -- I had to fire up and resent an injustice to my friend, that's all. Good heavens, supposing you had been in Mrs D's place, shouldnt I have been furious for the time being, & wouldn't you have thought me pretty lukewarm if I hadn't? Marion Dickinson would no more [ deceive blotted and corrected ] ^us^ & be guilty of such ^a^ knavish trick than you or Mary or Pinny* or I.
[ Page 3 ]
I must say if I were she I should be a little "mad" on my own account, but she has behaved most wisely & patiently, tho' she is quick as a flash, as a general thing. She is as true as truth.
I am only going to town for a few days, for John does not like me to leave Karl* here even for that length of time. He is going to Worcester on the 16th to stay till the 20th, & I shall probably go up on that day or the next, Tuesday the 21st{.} Shall probably bring Mrs Dickinson back with me as Oscar* is coming over from the Shoals for us in the Pinafore on the first of May. I have not found it dreary. I have been too busy to think about it when it wasn't pleasant.* It has taken me a long time to write out all my notes of this wonderful winter & I have had lots & lots to do besides, Roland & Charley Eliot* came down Wednesday for a few days. O Annie when I look at my boy ---- it takes all the philosophy of which I am capable to face his aspect of illness -- so thin, so pale, so shadowy is he, my heart sinks -- for I dont want him to go away before me -- it isn't natural & I feel as the life to come must lack the experience of
[ Page 4 ]
this -- I fear he is ill in every atom of his being: it is an anguish to feel it. O what would become of me if those golden doors should swing to again -- I cannot think of it.
Goodbye dear Annie. Love to you & Pinny* from
Your
C.
Notes
Mary: Mary Greenwood Lodge. See Key to Correspondents.
Thaxter probably is writing about an event like the one described in her letter to Fields of 9 February 1885, during which the group at a séance is showered with flowers. Mary Lodge apparently was at this meeting, believed she saw the soaked handkerchief, and suspected Mrs. D. had brought the mysterious flowers in it.
Mrs D: Very likely, this is Marion Miller (1854-1906), second wife of Sidney Edward Dickinson (1851-1919). His Find-a-Grave biographical sketch indicates that at the time of this letter, he was studying and traveling in Europe, Australia, New Zealand and the U.S. See also A Mother’s Letter from Northampton, MA – 1882.
Mrs Moulton's: Louise Chandler Moulton. See Key to Correspondents.
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 ... Karl: Thaxter's middle and oldest sons. See Key to Correspondents.
Oscar: Thaxter's brother, Oscar Laighton. See Key to Correspondents.
The Pinafore is the family's steam tug.
pleasant: In the left margin next to this passage, probably in another hand, appears this note: What a lot of ITS!
Charley Eliot: Roland is Thaxter's youngest son, Charles Eliot is (1888-1906), Thaxter's grandson. Though she often expresses worry over Roland's health, he survived into his 70s. 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/qb98p570d
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
John Greenleaf Whittier to Annie Adams Fields
Amesbury
4 Mo
[ 1885 ]*
My dear friend
Thy letter was very welcome. I value more and more as the time grows short, these kind remembrances.
I wonder whether the good Bishop, whom thee heard, really believes that all our frds are still really with us, from the other side. There is a great deal of indefinite talk among clergymen about these matters, which when enquired into proves to be wholly unreal.* For myself, not having seen or heard, I believe. But, I dont wish to come in contact with professional ghost-seers. I don't want to put myself in ^the^ way of being cheated by them. Why would our dear ones come to us directly in our
[ Page 2 ]
best moments? -- They [ they repeated ] do sometimes I have no doubt. I will possess my soul in patience for the little time I have to wait here, assured that, if my friends do not manifest themselves to me in this state, I shall soon meet them beyond.
I am glad to learn by [ Sarah corrected ] Jewett's letter that Celia Thaxter is making pictures with brush as well as pen. She has the eye & soul of a painter.
This morning has a wintry look. The grass is white with snow, & the trees are loaded. I have been suffering for the last week with almost constant pain in the head, which totally unfits me for writing or reading or thinking. Tell Sarah Jewett that I am more than her match in the matter of rheumatism.
[ Page 3 ]
I enclose a bit of rhyme which I do not pretend is poetry -- but the grimmest kind of realism. I felt it a duty to remind the extravagant eulogists of [ unrecognized word ] Calvinism,* of some of its doings.
Tell dear Sarah that I shall answer her kind letter as soon as I am well enough. With love to her & Celia Thaxter, I am ever & affectionately thy friend
John G. Whittier
Notes
1885: The Huntington Library has speculatively dated this letter in 1888. However, it seems more likely that Whittier refers to a letter he received from Sarah Orne Jewett, currently dated 6 April 1885, in which she reports that Celia Thaxter has begun taking painting lessons. For Thaxter, see Key to Correspondents.
unreal: Whittier is discussing his response to Spiritualism, a controversial belief system that flourished in the United States after the Civil War (1861-1865). Key beliefs were that the spirits of the dead wish often to communicate with the living, and that some people, Spirit Mediums, have the ability to facilitate such communication. Fields, Jewett, and Celia Thaxter all showed interest in this system at one time or another. Whittier also responds to the relatively frequent exposure of spirit mediums as charlatans with skepticism that the dead often desire to communicate with the living.
The Bishop to whom Whittier refers has not yet been identified, and it is not clear whether he refers to a clergy title or a person with this name.
See also, Terry Heller, "Communing with the Dead: Celia Thaxter, John Greenleaf Whittier, Sarah Orne Jewett, Annie Adams Fields." SOJTP 2020.
Calvinism: As a Quaker, Whittier rejects Calvinist beliefs, particularly the doctrine of predestination. It is not yet known to which of his poems he refers.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Huntington Library, San Marino, CA, in the James T. Fields collection: mss FI 72-4693. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Annie Adams Fields
Tuesday evening
[ April 1885 ]
Dearest Fuffs*
The big box of pretty clothes surprised me tonight, and I am so much obliged to you for all you have done about them. ^They look as if they were perfectly done^) I only took hurried looks at them* because I thought it best to save little Mifs Grant's* feelings and not parade them -- as she might feel grieved, and think I have forsaken her. Poor little soul -- she looks tired and old this spring. I must see what I can do to give her a pleasure by and by. Oh dear Fuffy I had such a beautiful time this morning. (I thought of you so
[ Page 2 ]
[ dearly or clearly]!) Just as I was getting dressed [insertion by Fields this morning] I heard some strolling musicians*
outsomewhere in the street and out went my head among the apple blossoms to view the world! It really was a most perfect morning and yet in spite of the unmistakeable New England weather -- the dandelions and every sort of spring smell in the air -- off I flew to Venice and went floating solemnly up the Grand Canal* as if that were the only place in the world! I dont know anything but "Santa Lucia" and "Mariannina"* and much other
[ Page 3 ]
music of that sort, which would be equal to making one confuse a big pink-and-white tree with the crumbling palaces and their reflections in the green water -- but this is the story of it! -- Afterward I properly [ clothed ? ] myself in walk-abroad clothes and went out and captured the three players who were very [ friendly ? ] and much amused with my few [ deleted word ] ^Italian^ words ( (being quite off my head with enjoyment)* and I paraded them up the street to give Carrie* a morning serenade. I haven't been steady all day after such a delightful experience --) it was so funny and sweet to have the really charming ^music & old^ Italian songs
[ Page 4 ]
here in Berwick -- but indeed I believe I [ never corrected ] have known such an [ perhaps a single quotation mark ] amazingly, bewilderingly beautiful Spring. It doesn't not [ so written ] seem like a real one; it gets into my head a little as Marigold* says the scarlet oaks do in October 'down on the Cape'* -- I think every day you will come rustling through the air and light down beside me{.} I keep wishing for you so, and if tomorrow should be the least bit better than today I should have to go to Boston after you --
[ Seemingly two deleted, penciled beginning parenthesis marks ] Oh Fuff dear the bloom of it will all be gone by the 12th of June -- I wish we could
[ breaks off; no signature ]
[ Up the left margin of page 1]
Did you ever see such a dear letter from Thy friend?* Please send it right back. [ Penciled note: Whittier ]
Notes
April 1885: Penciled notes in upper right, presumably by Fields read: "(Spring)" "1885" and two unrecognized marks.
The latest possible date for this letter would appear to be 1889, the year of Mary Greenwood Lodge's death in December. In the absence of clearly contradictory information, I have tentatively accepted the penciled in date.
This letter presents a puzzle, because Jewett has written another letter almost certainly describing exactly the same event. These two letters are presented together here. Perhaps the same musicians showed up on two different days in the same week, or perhaps these letters are from different years.Fuffs: Nickname for Annie Adams Fields. See Key to Correspondents.
them: Annie Fields has penciled in a number of editorial marks. All of the parenthesis marks are hers, except for the set noted below. Despite this editing, Fields did not include this letter in her 1911 selection of Jewett's letters.
At this point, she has deleted Jewett's "them" and penciled in "my new dresses tonight."
Fields also has drawn a penciled line from her opening parenthesis to the beginning of the line "I only took ..." suggesting that had she used this letter, she would have begun her transcription with this sentence as she has revised it.
Miss Grant's: Olive Grant, who usually helped the Jewett family produce their clothing. See Key to Correspondents.
strolling musicians: Jewett describes almost exactly the same events in another letter to Fields of Thursday morning, probably in April 1885.
Venice ... Grand Canal: Jewett almost certainly refers to her summer 1882 stay in Venice, Italy.
"Santa Lucia" and "Mariannina": According to Wikipedia, "Santa Lucia" is a traditional Neapolitan song: "The original lyrics ... celebrate the picturesque waterfront district, Borgo Santa Lucia, in the Bay of Naples, in the invitation of a boatman to take a turn in his boat, to better enjoy the cool of the evening." "Marianina" is an Italian folk song about a fairy flying over sea, fields and mountains.
enjoyment): Jewett puts this phrase within parentheses, but the first of the two marks at the beginning of the phrase was penciled by Fields.
Carrie: Caroline Jewett Eastman. See Key to Correspondents.
Marigold: Mary Greenwood Lodge. See Key to Correspondents.
the Cape: Probably, Jewett refers to Cape Ann, MA, where the summer home of Annie Fields in Manchester-by-the-Sea is located.
Thy friend: John Greenleaf Whittier. 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 Annie Adams Fields
G. Haliburton: Georgina Haliburton. See Key to Correspondents.
Thursday morning
[ April 1885 ]*Dearest Fuff*
I am so distracted by a charming three of Italian musicians who now play Santa Lucia* under my window, that I have doubts about [ this corrected from the ] letter's turning out very well as to hard facts. -- (Now they go into another ^air^ which starts me up the grand canal so that I suppose
[ Page 2 ]
thatI must have heard it there!) They are gathering an idle crowd out of the village and I must ------ in fact I have descended, and ascertained the fact that Napoli was [ their corrected ] home and we have bowed many times and been as polite as we know how in our best moments. They now
[ Page 3 ]
play The Anvil Chorus* with a bent pin some where in a fiddle string, perhaps for the family sins of over generosity!! but what a funny bit of gayety they bring into a sober New England village. Deacon Litchfield of the Baptist church* stands in his shop door with his foot twitching in his big shoe as if it might dance any minute.
(We went to Portsmouth
[ Page 4 ]
yesterday afternoon and had a delightful drive. I found G. Haliburton* better but still in bed. I shall try to go down for a day next week. Mrs. Haven & her sister* asked most affectionately for you. I wish that we were going to have one of our long drives this fall. I suppose that we might have expected Jessie's* letter. I hope that we were not foolish to write it. Carrie says that Eva* is very sensitive about people's
[ Up the left margin and then across the top margin of page 1 ]
( saying that she is not well, fearing that word of it will get about, we must just let her go on her own way, and at any rate she gets off in the spring you know. I think of you )
[ Up the left margin and then across the top margin of page 2 ]
going to the wedding today -- Please let William take Mrs. Kilhaus's* plate back that the
[ Up the left margin and then across the top margin of page 3 ]
honey came in. Have you ever thought to send a word to Mrs. Perkins* in Newport. I think a letter that the old lady could see would be best and you can
[ Up the left margin and then across the top margin of page 4 ]speak generally about Mary.* Perhaps you did write.
Good by from Pinny.*
( dear Fuff ))
Notes
April 1885: This letter presents a puzzle, because Jewett has written two letters to Fields describing the Italian street musicians, the first on Tuesday evening, tentatively dated in April 1885. Perhaps the musicians lingered for several days in South Berwick, which seems not unlikely, considering Jewett's description of her treatment of them in the Tuesday letter.
Most parenthesis marks in this manuscript were penciled by Fields.
Fuff: Nickname for Annie Adams Fields. See Key to Correspondents.
Santa Lucia: According to Wikipedia, this is a traditional Neapolitan song: "The original lyrics ... celebrate the picturesque waterfront district, Borgo Santa Lucia, in the Bay of Naples, in the invitation of a boatman to take a turn in his boat, to better enjoy the cool of the evening."
Anvil Chorus: According to Wikipedia, this chorus is from act 2, scene 1 of Giuseppe Verdi's 1853 opera Il Trovatore (1853): "It depicts Spanish Gypsies striking their anvils at dawn ... and singing the praises of hard work, good wine, and Gypsy women."
Deacon Litchfield of the Baptist Church: Deacon Litchfield has not been identified.
Mrs. Haven & her sister: Probably, Mrs. Haven is Geogina Halliburton's mother, Susan Halliburton Peters, whose second husband was George Wallis Haven. This Mrs. Haven is not known to have had sisters, but her first husband had two sisters, one of whom resided near Georgina in Portsmouth, Mary Ann Halliburton. See Key to Correspondents.
Jessie's: Jessie Cochrane. See Key to Correspondents.
Carrie ... Eva: Carrie Jewett Eastman and, probably, Baroness Eva von Blomberg. See Key to Correspondents.
William take Mrs. Kilhaus's: In a letter to Fields of 12 October 1890, Jewett mentions Mrs. Kilhaus as a supplier of honey. William presumably is a Fields employee; he has not yet been further identified.
Mrs. Perkins ... Mary: This Mrs. Perkins has not been identified. Sarah Hart Eliot Perkins (1814- 4 Feb. 1885), the mother-in-law of correspondent Mrs. Edith Forbes Perkins, could be a candidate, but she died in February 1885. Edith Perkins, at about 42 years of age, hardly seems an "old lady." See Key to Correspondents.
Mary's identity also is uncertain. She may be Edith Perkins's daughter, Mary Russell Perkins (1883-1970).
Pinny: Pinny Lawson (Pinny / Pin) was an affectionate nickname for Jewett, used by her and Annie Fields. See Key to Correspondents.
( dear Fuff )): This final text is problematic. It is in pencil. Jewett almost certainly produced this text: (dear Fuff); "dear" is underlined twice, probably by Jewett. The final parenthesis mark is larger, marking both "dear" and "Fuff," which appear on two lines in the top margin of the page; almost certainly Fields supplied this mark.
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
Late Wednesday Afternoon
[ Spring 1885 ]*
Dear Annie
The day has flown [ fast or past ] -- I read the newspapers and I did my proofs, or went over them again, and read something else -- then I found some one come to spend the day here and a good sized mail to consider which took my time until dinner; then I had to go over to the other house* and do the proofs which had taken so much thought -- and now they have gone off in the
[ Page 2 ]
mail. ----- I am writing because I have a nice little quiet time -- the company having gone as well as the proofs, and I wish to be at my work early tomorrow. The painters are in the hall and my desk upstairs all covered up so that I am sitting at Mary's* in the library.
There is such a pretty flock of crocuses all round the lilacs -- I can
[ Page 3 ]see them as I look out and I wish you could too! (I hope it has been a good conference.) You will just be coming home and having no Pinny to drink up tea with! (Dear Fuffy* I do hope ^that^ when I come again I shall not be grumbling and apprehensive of every misfortune! It is never a very brisk time in spring, but let us not think of that. I think that nothing is so bad as worrying, only some worries worry you, and others)
[ Page 4 ]
are just you a-worrying, and I seem at this moment to be possessed by both! (I wonder if you will see Mrs. Cabot* -- I shall like to think of you there. ---- Now I must go and take off my best waist{.}
-- I feel as if your eye were upon me!! but I have been so busy since I got home.
With dearest love
Pinny*
A letter from Cora about the Country Doctor!!* I suppose it is a teacher who went there -- the stamp looks so far off!
Notes
Spring 1885: This date is guess. Fields penciled "Spring 1901" in the upper right of page 1. However, internal evidence strongly suggests that it was written after 1884, when Jewett's A Country Doctor was published and before 1887, when she and her sister moved into the "Jewett House." That she is working hard on proofs suggests that this is the time when her third novel, A Marsh Island was appearing in Atlantic Monthly, between January and June of 1885.
(I hope: Parenthesis marks in this letter have been penciled in by Fields.
other house: Jewett and her sister Mary resided in the "doctor's" house, built for their family after her father's marriage, until the death of their uncle William Jewett in 1887. After 1887, Jewett and Mary moved to the older family home, now the Jewett House Museum, and their sister Carrie and her family resided in the doctor's house. Before 1887, when Jewett needed quiet to work, she would repair to the Jewett House.
Mary's: Mary Rice Jewett. See Key to Correspondents.
Fuffy: Nickname for Annie Adams Fields. See Key to Correspondents.
Mrs. Cabot: Susan Burley Howes Cabot. See Key to Correspondents.
Cora ... Country Doctor: Cora Clark Rice. See Key to Correspondents.
Jewett's novel, A Country Doctor, appeared in 1884.
Pinny: 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
34 Union Park*
Sunday Evening [ 12 April 1885 ]*
Dear Prof. Horsford
I think it was so kind and thoughtful of you to send me all those lovely flowers. I have been enjoying them all day long and I wish I could say 'thank you' instead of writing it -- You have always been
[ Page 2 ]
so kind to me, and I dont feel as if I ever could do half enough for you to show you how dear you are to me and that I dont forget one bit of the pleasure and help you have given me in your friendship. Somehow you make me think
[ Page 3 ]
of my own father and when I say that I cant say anything more --
-- I am so glad you are going away for such a pleasant journey, and I shall wish to hear all about it. I asked the doctor today if I couldn't go over to Cambridge and he
[ Page 4 ]
said I might very soon so I shall see you all. I was so glad to see Mamie and Lilian* yesterday -- Please give my love to dear Mrs. Horsford and all the household, and believe that I am always yours affectionately
Sarah O Jewett
Notes
34 Union Park: In Boston's South End (2004), Anthony Mitchell Sammarco notes that Alexander Hamilton Rice was at one time a resident at 34 Union Park in Boston. Alexander Rice was the father of John Rice, who married Jewett's close friend Cora Clark Rice. See Key to Correspondents.
12 April 1885: This date is speculative. Jewett to Emma Harding Claflin Ellis, tentatively dated 15 April 1885, indicates that Jewett is staying with Cora Clark Rice at 34 Union Park in Boston and that she is suffering from a severe cold, as she reports in this letter. It is possible, then, that this letter was written at about the same time, and probably before the 15 April letter.
Mamie and Lilian: Two of 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. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College
Celia Thaxter to Annie Adams Fields
Sunday. Apr. 12th
(85.
My dear Annie:
I could not help smiling, tho' a little sadly, I must confess at what you say about the lunch at Helen's.* It is not for any trouble made for Mrs D.* in that way ^for^ which I have to reproach myself, but for bringing her into personal contact with people who would take Mrs. Moulton's* attitude toward her, [ that corrected ] is what I profoundly regret. Ever since these things, being too big to be kept, have been vaguely known abroad, I have made it my duty as well as delight to give this winter's experience to any ears who wished to hear it, for if known at all, I wanted it known straight, just as it had happened, But I have stuck to my own experience, what went on under your sacred roof was sacred to me, & I have carefully left out your connection with it whenever I have spoken. When Mary* at the lunch wanted me to tell of the new experience (which happened to be the fire in the bureau drawer,) I said I did not know if the time & place were fit to tell it, meaning to take her apart after lunch, but they begged me & I was only too glad to tell them as much as I could of the whole matter. Mrs. Aldrich* afterward asked me, begged to know if any thing had been heard of Mr Fields.* I said "that is something I do not talk about," & she urged me no further.
I have not a shadow of doubt that Time will set
2
Mrs D. right, four square, as Pin* would say, to the world, but the chaotic state of opinion ^as to the phenomena in general^ will still exist for perhaps ages to come, for there be folk who cannot & will not accept these things, all the Psychic Societies in the world notwithstanding. They abhor & will have none of them, "tho one rise from the dead".* But life is a brief moment, & Death will prove all, to each individual.
So, as Dr Watts* advises in the hymn, I "put a cheerful courage on" & will be neither cross, nor discouraged, nor put down ^about the matter,^ but will possess my soul with a brave patience. "Let them rave".* 'Tis but a moment of time.
I am so sorry not to have your word about the lily (not that the flower was of any consequence, & probably ^it^ was wilted & dead when it got to you) for it means that I have lost one of your dear notes which I am most sorry to do.
I am ever so sorry not to go to town -- but one reason I stay for is that I hate to take my hand from the helm while the girl Julia* requires such a constant use of the tiller. I do want to try to keep the poor thing, but some times I almost despair of ever kneading this lumpy piece of Celtic clay into any thing approximately decent. When
over
3
I find all the door knobs sticky after she goes through, & all the dirt in the corners, & wind rows of dust across every thing, & no possibility of making her [ remember corrected ] a thing for two consecutive days, grim despair tugs at my heart strings. Yesterday I came upon her in my room with my precious little Geneva clock out of the case, in her red, unsavory hands -- She could not get it back into the case. "For heaven's sake Julia!{"} I cried, "why, what are you trying to do? No one in the house is allowed to touch that, not even one of my sons," & I wiped it carefully & put it backin the Russia leather case, while she stood looking at me, with a furtive gleam of defiance in her black eyes. If there were much of that sort of thing I should give it up, but I am going to keep on trying, & if it is humanly possible, in the time given, I hope to get her civilised.
When is Pin* coming to Berwick? Does she know there are lessons in photography given in the Mason & Hamlin building over the Conservatory of Music?* Please tell her, perhaps she would like to know. Louise Goddard* goes there regularly for lessons. With love to her & to you
Your C.
Notes
Helen's: From among several mutual acquaintances named Helen, it seems probable that Thaxter refers to Helen Olcott Choate Bell. See Key to Correspondents.
Mrs D.: The spirit medium, Mrs. D., was almost certainly Marion Miller (1854-1906), second wife of Sidney Edward Dickinson (1851-1919).
See also, Terry Heller, "Communing with the Dead: Celia Thaxter, John Greenleaf Whittier, Sarah Orne Jewett, Annie Adams Fields." SOJTP 2020.
Mrs Moulton's: Louise Chandler Moulton. See Key to Correspondents.
Mary: It is next to impossible to know which of the many mutually known Marys this is. However, Mary Greenwood Lodge was present at the Fields's home, when a spirit medium claimed to see James T. Fields. See Key to Correspondents and the note below. Lodge became suspicious of Marion Dickinson during the spring of 1885, believing that she was deceiving Thaxter and other friends who accepted her as a genuine spirit medium.
Mrs Aldrich: Lilian Woodman Aldrich. See Key to Correspondents.
Mr Fields: Thaxter refers to Spiritualist sitting at the home of Annie Fields, during which the medium claimed to see and to speak to James T. Field's, Annie Fields's deceased husband. See the notes for John Greenleaf Whittier to Annie Adams Fields, 1 December 1884.
Pin: Thaxter is using intimate nicknames shared among Jewett, Fields and herself. Pinny is Jewett; Flower is Fields; Sandpiper is Thaxter. See Key to Correspondents.
Psychic Societies: The Society for Psychical Research in England was founded in 1882 to bring scientific research to bear on reports of paranormal events. An American Society was founded in 1885. One purpose the societies was to examine spirit mediums to determine their authenticity.
Dr Watts: Isaac Watts (1674-1748) was a British Congregational clergyman and hymn writer, perhaps best remembered for his Christmas hymn, "Joy to the World."
Thaxter quotes from "Awake, Our Souls!" See The Psalms, Hymns, and Spiritual Songs of the Rev. Isaac Watts, pp. 312-3.
"Let them rave": Probably, Thaxter refers to British poet, Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809-1892). His poem, "A Dirge," uses the refrain: "Let them rave."
Julia: Thaxter's brother Oscar Laighton was married to a Julia, but this Julia appears to be an Irish-born employee.
Mason & Hamlin ... Conservatory of Music: The Mason and Hamlin Building in Boston was home to the Mason and Hamlin Company's piano sales showroom. The building also provided artist studios. The Boston Conservatory (now the Boston Conservatory at Berklee) was founded by Thaxter's friend, Julius Eichberg (1824-1893), a German-born composer, musical director and educator in Boston.
Pin: Thaxter is using intimate nicknames shared among Jewett, Fields and herself. Pinny is Jewett; Flower is Fields; Sandpiper is Thaxter. See Key to Correspondents.
Louise Goddard: This person has not yet been identified.
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/qb98p477b
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Laura M. Wachschlager
148 Charles St
Boston April 12 1885
My dear Mifs Warchschlager*
I am so sorry that your kind note has waited so long for an answer, but I have been ill almost all winter, and because I was not able to attend to it at the time the little note was mislaid.
I am glad now to say how much I thank you for your interest in my stories and
[ Page 2 ]
all your kind words about them. I am really very glad to know that you have liked them so much -- and I shall [ take corrected ] more pleasure in writing than I ever have before. That is saying a great deal you know!
Yours sincerely and gratefully
Sarah O. Jewett
Notes
Warchschlager: Jewett almost certainly has deleted the third letter in this name, making it Wachschlager, and so I have rendered it.
Almost certainly she is writing to Laura M. Wachschlager (1865-1950). The daughter of German immigrant parents, Hugo and Augusta Wachschlager, she married Thomas Chesbro Watkins (1872-1962) in 1897. Wachschlager apparently wrote very effective letters of praise to prominent Americans, including Mark Twain, Herman Melville, and Mary Mapes Dodge, with the purpose of securing autographed letters in reply. The following entry appeared on a Heritage Auctions web page:
Artists' Letters Signed: Charles Turner, George Inness, William Beard and George Boughton (2). Five letters in total, all handwritten, spanning the years from 1884-1889, from the four American artists to a Miss Laura Wachschlager. The majority of letters are short replies, thanking the woman for her kind letters; Turner even agreed to a meeting at his studio. Although little is known about Miss Wachschlager's identity and her role with these artists, the letter from William Beard hints at what the involvement might have been. His letter, dated March 13, 1889, reads in full:She also solicited Annie Fields (see Key to Correspondents), who gave her a letter signed by her husband, James T. Fields.
"Your letter inviting me to inaugurate [sic] your list of a artists names, was duly received and the compliment appreciated, I assure you, and from time to time, when I have had a leisure moment, I have endeavored to coax my poor drudging wits out from their rut to do something worthy your acceptance, but in vain. The mill, so to speak, is not set for such results, and the habits of thought have so long continued in other directions, that I cannot now turn them in this, to any account. I am therefore forced to forgo the pleasure and honor of writing the required introduction to your illustrious list and must send you this apology, explanation, or more properly, confession, instead, hoping you will kindly accept it as a valid excuse, and believe me, Sincerely yours, W.H. Beard."
The manuscript of this letter is held by the University of New England Maine Women Writers Collection, Sarah Orne Jewett Correspondence Box 2 Folder 137.
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Emma Harding Claflin Ellis
34 Union Park*
Wednesday
[In another hand Apr 15, 1880] [or 1885]*
Dear Mrs. Ellis
I had a letter from Mrs. Claflin* this morning asking me to make her a little visit on & after the 26th and I have just been thinking what I should say! I write [unreadable faint script] to see her, and yet I am not by any means well yet and I am afraid I
[ Page 2 ]
will take very small part in the festivities she suggests.
[Perhaps an unreadable word] I can only promise myself the pleasure conditionally and I am going to do that. If I feel as well on Friday as I do now, I think I shall go out in the train to see you for an hour or two. If you are to be in town that day or especially busy would you please send me a
[ Page 3 ]
line here? I should probably go out early in the afternoon.
Yours always lovingly
Sarah
You wouldn't let my coming interfere with whatever you were going to do you know!
Notes
34 Union Park: In Boston's South End (2004), Anthony Mitchell Sammarco notes that Alexander Hamilton Rice was at one time a resident at 34 Union Park in Boston. Alexander Rice was the father of John Rice, who married Jewett's close friend Cora Clark Rice. See Key to Correspondents.
or 1885: In 1880, April 15 fell on a Thursday. With this letter is an envelope addressed to Mrs. Ellis that was cancelled on April 15, but no year appears in the cancellation. It seems unlikely that Jewett would date her letter a day later than she mailed it. Therefore, this 1880 date is uncertain. The closest year to 1880 on which April 15 falls on Wednesday is 1885. Therefore this letter is placed with others of both years, even though its content comports especially well with April of 1885.
Mrs. Claflin. Mary Bucklin Davenport Claflin. See Key to Correspondents.
The manuscript of this letter is held by Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Center in the Governor William and Mary Claflin Papers, GA-9, Box 4, Miscellaneous Folder J. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
John Greenleaf Whittier to Annie Adams Fields
Amesbury
4th Mo 16 1885*
My dear frd
I am pained but not altogether surprised, at the intimation which has reached thee of what seems untrustworthiness on the part of Mrs D.* & Mifs B.* If there is any truth in the intimations it does not follow ^that^ there has been any predetermined deception. From all that I have known of mediumship, it seems to affect unfavorably the moral sense -- the distinction between true & false is less clear -- Mediums are first deceived themselves, & they are tempted to deceive others -- their actions
[ Page 2 ]
have the irresponsibility of dreams: they live & move in an [unatural so written ] atmosphere where it is never full daylight nor yet utter darkness: an uncertain twilight in which things may seem which are not.
The more I think of it the more I am convinced that, for the present, the whole matter may be best left to the cool heads of the Psychical Research.* The Future Life is sure -- our dear ones live: but we may [ seperate so written ] ourselves farther from them, by consulting uncertain oracles, deceiving and deceived.
[ Page 3 ]
I hope Celia Thaxter* is not intending to publish her notes of the "Signs & Wonders." It is safe to wait awhile. She has the assurance of the Future Life,and^but^ her record of these things will not convince others. We mustrememberremember that poor Dale Owen* would have given his life to recall his statement in the Atlantic of his experience. Let us believe & trust, and wait. "Patience" Milton says "is the exercise of saints."* And it may not be unprofitable for us sinners!
I am not sure of L Larcoms* whereabouts. I think she spoke of going to Norton. I am sorry for Edith Thomas'* disappointment. She did well in leaving at once. Sleep is more than a
[ Page 4 ]
luxury; it is an inexorable necessity. I am in the way of sympathising with dear Sarah Jewett* for I am suffering from the "rheumatics" to-day. It is too bad for her to be troubled with it. How I wish I could see you both!
I had a nice visit from Cable* the other day. He is a noble fellow -- more than a genius -- a true, good man. Ten righteous men like him would save the [ South ? ].
Ever affectionately thy friend
John G. Whittier
Notes
1885: This manuscript has a penciled "7" at the top center of page 1, and a penciled "X" appears in the left margin near the middle of page 1 next the sentence on mediumship; on page 2 next the sentence on Psychical Research; on page 3 when he quotes Milton; and page 4, when he describes G. W. Cable as a noble fellow.
Mrs D ... Mifs B: In letters from Thaxter to Fields, Mrs. D. is identified as Marion Dickinson, a spiritualist medium, wife of Sidney Dickinson. Very likely, she is Marion Miller (1854-1906), second wife of Sidney Edward Dickinson (1851-1919). His Find-a-Grave biographical sketch indicates that at the time of this letter, he was studying and traveling in Europe, Australia, New Zealand and the U.S. See also A Mother’s Letter from Northampton, MA – 1882. See especially Whittier to Fields of 1 December 1884.
Miss B. probably is Ida Bothe, whom Celia Thaxter introduces in a letter to Jewett and Annie Fields of 12 October 1884. A German-born artist, Ida Bothe was active in Boston during the 1880s. She married a German baron in 1890 and returned to Germany.
See also, Terry Heller, "Communing with the Dead: Celia Thaxter, John Greenleaf Whittier, Sarah Orne Jewett, Annie Adams Fields." SOJTP 2020.
Psychical Research: The Society for Psychical Research in England was founded in 1882 to bring scientific research to bear on reports of paranormal events. An American Society was founded in 1885.
Celia Thaxter: See Key to Correspondents.
Owen: J. B. Pickard notes that author and politician Robert Dale Owen (1801-1877) published "Touching Visitations from a Higher Life" in the Atlantic of January 1875.
saints: J. B. Pickard identifies Whittier's source as Samson Agonistes (l. 1287) by British poet John Milton (1608-1674).
L Larcoms: Lucy Larcom (1824-1893) was a popular American author and teacher.
Edith Thomas: American poet, Edith Matilda Thomas (1854-1925). In 1885, she published A New Year's Masque and Other Poems.
Sarah Jewett: Sarah Orne Jewett. See Key to Correspondents.
Cable: George Washington Cable (1844-1925). J. B. Pickard says that Whittier first met Cable in the Boston home of William Claflin in 1883. A southerner, Cable advocated for racial equality and against "Jim Crow" laws, arousing hostility that in 1885 led him to move his family to Massachusetts.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Huntington Library, San Marino, CA, in the James T. Fields collection: mss FI 71-4855. 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, 1392. He notes that part of this letter also appeared in S. Pickard, Life, pp. 709-710.
Dr. Helen Morton to Sarah Orne Jewett
Notes[ 1 May 1885 ]*
[ Begin letterhead ]
16 UNION PARK
[ End letterhead ]
Dear Miss Jewett,
I came to see how you were getting on, but found you out. Dont you want to let me know, as I should like to do know if there is no need of my seeing you?
Yours very truly,
Helen Morton.
May 1.
1885: Penciled in the upper right corner of the page is "May 1885." Circled in the left bottom margin is a penciled numeral 1. It is not clear that either note is in Morton's hand.
An envelope appears in the folder with this letter, addressed to Jewett at 148 Charles St. in Boston and cancelled on 1 May 1885.
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 159. I. Letters to Sarah Orne Jewett.
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Annie Adams Fields to Sarah Orne Jewett
[ May 1885 ]*
Dearest child: What can I give Marian* for her barking cough which has returned with great{er} virulence than ever -- I think you did not tell me what you used but I have several medicines here -- and I hope the right one --
Our [ cure ? ] is most popular!! Mrs Dexter's* milk has given out for the time and Mifs Eustis* in distress they have both sent to me for assistance --
By the way do not fail to read two articles in the Sunday Herald -- upon Mesmerism and Hypnotism*
[ Page 2 ]
and did you see last Sundays. Did I tell you E.S.P.* has a paper ready for the N A.R.
This is Monday and I find yesterday was o100 in the shade in the strawberry [ lane ? ] -- but today is cool -- The change came here last evening --
Oh how I wish you could have seen the sunset last night here -- it was really the most divine vision I ever remember!
And I saw it alone! Heaven can only be that with those we love!
[ Page 3 ]
Such tender hues! Land and sea and skies seemed to be painted with ineffable [ hues corrected perhaps from colors ], too tender and delicate even to altogether comprehend.
Think of the [ Aldrich's corrected ] fortune* -- dear me! They will not know how to be the better for it I fear --
With Mrs Whitman* it is different --
Good by dearest. How glad I am to have your letter today!
your own
A.F.
over
[ Page 4 ]
What a strange irony of fate it seems that Howells should probably be really poor in spite of his reputation or his labor -- Osgood's failure can hardly help giving him trouble if not loss --
When shall I see you I wonder -- Anna Dresel* comes this P.M. if all is well -- the day certainly is but she is never to be counted on --
Notes
May 1885: See notes below.
Marian: The identity of this person is not yet known. Use of the first name suggests she may be a Fields employee. But perhaps this is another acquaintance, Marian Hovey (1836-1898), a benefactor of Radcliffe. Woman's Column 1899 says she was a life-long invalid who donated women's gymnasiums to several colleges and who was a supporter of woman suffrage. Find a Grave.
Mrs Dexter's milk ...Mifs Eustis: The reference to Mrs. Dexter's milk is mysterious, but it appears the mild may be a treatment for some ailment.
Miss Eustis may be Elizabeth Mussey Eustis (1858-1936), a resident of Boston, who fortunately survived the Titanic disaster of 1912. See Find a Grave and The New England Historical and Genealogical Register, Volumes 76-77, pp. lxxxviii-lxxxix.
Herald .. Hypnotism: At the time of this letter, Fields was especially interested in topics related to the supernatural and Spiritualism.
Coverage of issues related to Spiritualism appeared with some frequency in the popular press. While I was unable to access the Boston Herald articles Fields recommends, I was able to read other pieces from 1885. The Boston Daily Globe, for example, reported on the founding of the American Society for Psychical Research, for which hypnotism and mesmerism were among the topics to be investigated. The article opened with an apparent allusion to Shakespeare's Hamlet, and perhaps as well to William Dean Howells's 1880 novel: "A company was formed in Boston last fall for the exploration of "the undiscovered country" (1 March 1885, p. 12). The article names a number of friends and acquaintances of Jewett and Fields as among the society's investigators. The society plans soon to investigate "the subject of spiritualistic mediumship." Thomas Wentworth Higginson is quoted:
The difficulties surrounding this subject are so numerous that it will be necessary to proceed with the greatest caution. There is so much of sham, trickery and deception in the performances of professional mediums that investigations of them would be doubly difficult and less promising. They become so accustomed to deception that they often cannot tell themselves where the genuine ends and the sham begins. It is our desire to find some one who possesses the mediumistic power, but does not exercise it professionally.In "Psychic Research," Charles Morris discusses the British society's report on investigating telepathy, which seemed to confirm that some people really possess the ability to communicate by means other than the five senses (Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, April 1885, p. 9).
E.S.P.: Elizabeth Stuart Phelps Ward. Key to Correspondents.
The transcription of "N A.R." is uncertain, but it is the case that Phelps's "The Great Psychical Opportunity" appeared in The North American Review 141 (September 1885), pp. 251-68.
Phelps's article responds to the founding of the American Society for Psychical Research and reports on the recent work of the British society. She argues that previous scientific research in Biology and Geology has helped in understanding the history of life, where we have come from, but has contributed little to understanding human destiny, the question of "Why are we here?" She expects psychical research to begin to shed scientific light upon that question.
Aldrich's fortune: Thomas Bailey Aldrich. Key to Correspondents. It is not yet known what sort of fortune came to Aldrich's family in 1885.
Whitman: Sarah Wyman Whitman. Key to Correspondents.
Osgood's failure: James Ripley Osgood. Key to Correspondents.
On 2 May 1885, though he was publishing Mark Twain's popular works, Osgood's second publishing company went bankrupt. See A History of and Guide to Uniform Editions of Mark Twain's Works by Barbara Schmidt.
Anna Dresel: Louisa Dresel's mother. See Key to Correspondents.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library of Harvard University, Sarah Orne Jewett Papers, Additional Correspondence, bMS1741.1 Box 1, Item 33. 100 Letters from Annie Adams Fields to Sarah Orne Jewett. Transcription and notes, Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Samuel Sidney McClure
148 Charles Street
Boston May 6th
[ 1885 ]*
Dear Mr. McClure
I send the story as requested. I have asked the writer if it were not too true, but he says that with the exception of the cave description itself, he drew entirely upon his imagination{,}
There was a nomadic impulse among the small boys it is true but nothing exactly like this. I never read anything that seemed so real in its way --
[ Page 2 ]
and I suppose it is a great virtue in sketch writing like this -- I think you will probably use this in two parts, but Mr. Hill will I dare say send you some shorter pieces by and by. I think his work has a good deal of uncommon readableness. I know if I could talk to you about him you would feel as much interest in him as I do, but it is not exactly the thing to put into type.
[ Page 3 ]
-- I am so glad to hear that you are getting on so very well, but dear Mr. McClure, believe me, it is the poorest economy to overwork yourself -- Cannot you get just the right man to help you and so by and by have a kind of lieutenant who could manage for you?
-- You will be needing a rest you know -- Dont enlarge too far -- it keeps one always at such a strain, and doesn't not [ so written ]
[ Page 4 ]
make sure of a comfortable foundation -- Forgive my attempts at lecturing because they are so sincerely well meant! -- I shall be glad to hear from this as soon as possible, and you may make the cheque out to Roland B. Hill* and send it to me and I will forward it{.}
With best wishes
Yours very truly
Sarah O. Jewett
[ Up the right margin of page 1 ]
I will send you a short sketch by and by but I am not doing any work just now for I need a rest very much.
Notes
1885 or later: In the absence of any fruitful information about Roland Hill, it seems one can be sure only that this letter was composed after S. S. McClure founded his publishing syndicate. Jewett's earliest known syndicated publication was "Stolen Pleasures" in the autumn of 1885.
Roland B. Hill: Even with this full name, it has proven thus far impossible to identify this person. The only contemporary published author named Roland Hill seems to be a minor British poet active at the turn of the 20th century, the author of verse dramas and poetry collections such as The Happy Traveler (1909).
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Small Library, University of Virginia, Special Collections MSS 6218, Sarah Orne Jewett Papers. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Daniel Berkeley Updike*
South Berwick
19 May, 1885
Dear Mr. Updike
Will you please convey my thanks to the firm for the copies of A Marsh Island* which I received tonight?
I send you the newspaper cutting which will amuse you only half as much as it does me as I look it over, I am afraid!
I saw the new moon over
[ Page 2 ]
my left shoulder this very evening. I hope it is not a bad omen for the Marsh Island -- You must wish it [ good corrected ] luck to make up!
Yours sincerely
Sarah O. Jewett
I believe I should like to keep the maligned cutting!
Notes
Updike: Almost certainly Mr. Updike is Daniel Berkeley Updike (1860-1941) an American printer and typography historian who began his career at Houghton, Mifflin & Co. in 1880 before going on to found Merrymount Press in 1896.
A Marsh Island: Jewett's novel was published by Houghton, Mifflin in 1885, with advance copies available in May. The clipping she mentions may refer to the novel, but this is not clear. The earliest known reviews were positive and began to appear at the end of May 1885. One may wonder whether Jewett is referring to Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, which appeared in February of 1885, in which Huck says, "I've always reckoned that looking at the new moon over your left shoulder is one of the carelessest and foolishest things a body can do."
The manuscript of this letter is held by Milne Special Collections and Archives, University of New Hampshire Library, Durham, NH, USA: Sarah Orne Jewett Papers, 1849-1909 Series 1: Correspondence, MC 128b1f2.
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Celia Thaxter to Annie Adams Fields
Shoals June 2nd [ 1885 ]*
Dear Annie
I came over on Friday in half a gale, with the sea beating over us from stem to stern, but I was so anxious to get to [ Karl corrected ]* that I didn't care for anything. Found he had been buying a boat -- was [ so ? ] thankful I could get back to him -- made a vow that I would never leave him again. Though it was for anything but pleasure, my stay in town -- I was sorry I lost the McDonald's address when you had taken pains to send it & how the Halifax girl* will get in I don't know, but I've left her to her fate -- I cannot be like the Irishman's bird,* in more than half a dozen places at once.
I have thought of you every day as I weeded marigolds, & of the dear garden at Manchester & wondered what was coming up there. Did you plant the morning brides?*
[ Page 2 ]
I tried so hard to have some this year, but out of four papers have not more than a dozen plants -- But oh, the marigolds & cornflowers, so strong & so faithful, they are a comfort -- I hope you got some of the Prince of Orange* kind, which is so large & rich in color. Do tell me about the garden. I think of it every day & how happy dear J.T.* was in it all, the whole lovely place. When does Pinny* go down to you? What a pleasant thing to think of you both there --
Julia & her little golden-haired darlings, Ruth & Margaret, are here. The children are such a dear comfort. Oscar has gone across to Ports. in the Pinafore* to bring back Mrs. Dickinson* this evening.
With love to you & Pin, & do write and tell me when you will be at M, & all about the garden.
Yours ever
C.T.
Notes
1885: Rosamond Thaxter, when she transcribed this letter, apparently had some difficulty. At the time she typed, she read it as addressed to Fields and as composed in '83. Afterward, she seems to have changed her mind, perhaps when she no longer had access to the original, handwriting notes to change the recipient to Sarah Orne Jewett and to question the date.
R. Thaxter was mistaken to change the recipient, for the letter clearly is addressed to Annie Adams Fields at Manchester-by-the-Sea, MA, her summer home, and it mentions "Pinny," their nickname for Jewett, as expected soon at Manchester.
R. Thaxter was correct, however, to question the date. Thaxter's handwriting is ambiguous, but this letter clearly is from 1885, when Marion Dickinson spent June at Appledore. See notes below.
Karl: Thaxter's disabled oldest son.
McDonald's ... Halifax girl: These persons have not yet been identified.
Irishman's bird: Scottish author, Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881), in a letter to American author Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) of 29 October 1842, wrote that he could not write two books at once or live in two centuries at the same time, "a feat which excels even that of the Irishman's bird: "Nobody but a bird can be in two places at once!" (p. 10).
J.T.: James T. Fields, deceased spouse of Annie Adams Fields. See Key to Correspondents.
Pinny: Also, Pin, a nickname for Sarah Orne Jewett used by Fields and Thaxter.
morning brides: Scabiosa atropurpurea.
Ruth ... Margaret ... Oscar: Ruth and Margaret are Thaxter's nieces; Oscar Laighton is her brother. See Thaxter and Julia Stowell Laighton in Key to Correspondents. The Pinafore was the Laighton's steam tug, which carried supplies and passengers between Portsmouth, NH and the Isles of the Shoals.
Mrs. Dickinson: Marion Dickinson, a spiritualist medium. Very likely, she is Marion Miller (1854-1906), second wife of Sidney Edward Dickinson (1851-1919). As other letters from the spring and early summer indicate, Dickinson was for some weeks with Thaxter on Appledore.
A typescript is held by the Portsmouth Athenaeum MS129, Rosamond Thaxter's Papers for Sandpiper, Folder 12: Correspondence: Celia Thaxter to Sarah Orne Jewett, 1888-1893. The manuscript is held by the Houghton Library of Harvard University MS Am 1743, Box 7 item 321a. III Letters to Annie Adams Fields. 4 letters from Celia Thaxter.
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Annie Adams Fields to Sarah Orne Jewett
[ June 1885 ]*
Dearest child: your letter urging me to come to you was awaiting my return after the board meeting* tonight. We had a very stormy time. The treasurer wanted Ward 7 to give up their assistant=agent and I was very indignant. I dont know when I have been so stirred -- Mary* had gone away to pass a few days with Mrs. Lowell at Chestnut Hill* and I was alone in the breach. They saw they must do it if at all over my dead body and so reluctantly withdrew{.}Friday night --
[ Page 2 ]
I cannot help feeling it very keenly after all I have done that they should press me so hard. I feel how it is a kind of black mail which if they were not so ignorant they would be ashamed of -- They do not exert themselves to raise money themselves, they do not give it, they are bent upon curtailing and thereby injuring the work and I must
[ Page 3 ]
be here to devise ways and means to prevent it. --
Mr. Millet* has just been here bringing good news! Such news! "The Marsh Island"* was all sold (the first edition I mean) at once --
Is not that beautiful? Can we be happy enough?
Mr. Lang* came after Mr. Millet. They are all going to Europe. Poor Mrs. Lang is quite poorly and I gather that the newspaper attacks on him have really cut her to the quick this winter -- He bears it all
[ Page 4 ]
in a most manly fashion but he is distressed about her condition. I think a year abroad will probably restore her altogether, but he is evidently anxious.
How thankful I am my darling that you are through at the dentists. I did not know you must go.
I am sorry, not to be with you dearest child but I cannot. I am pressed on every side. Thank Mary* for her thought but I must imagine South Berwick in all her loveliness this time.
Your ever loving
A.F.
Notes
June 1885: This letter was composed at about the time Jewett's A Marsh Island (1885) appeared as a book, which was in late May or early June 1885. While it is uncertain that Benjamin Lang is the person mentioned on pp. 3-4, as the notes below indicate, he and his family sailed for Europe in June 1885.
board meeting: Fields served on the board of the Associated Charities of Boston.
Mary: While it is difficult to identify this Mary, Mary Greenwood Lodge sometimes served with Fields on the Ward 7 board of the Associated Charities. See Key to Correspondents and the First Annual Report of the Family Society of Greater Boston (1880) v. 1, p. 80.
Mrs. Lowell at Chestnut Hill: Probably this is Lucy Buckminster Emerson Lowell (1827-1904), wife of American jurist, John Lowell III (1824-1897).
Mr. Millet: Josiah Byram Millet (1853-1938) 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, he was a near neighbor of Fields at 150 Charles Street. See also Harvard Class of 1877 Secretary's Report, pp. 43-4.
"The Marsh Island": Jewett's A Marsh Island was published in May/June 1885.
Mr. Lang: This is likely to be Benjamin Johnson Lang (1837-1909), Salem-born organist, pianist. teacher, composer, and conductor. He studied in Germany with Liszt, introduced the European masters to America and especially promoted the music of Wagner. He married vocalist Francis Morse Burrage (1839-1934). He sailed to Europe with his family on 13 June 1885.
However, no negative press about him or any other likely person named "Lang" has been found in the Boston Globe for 1884-5.
Mary: Mary Rice Jewett. See Key to Correspondents.
The manuscript of the letter is held by the University of New England Maine Women Writers Collection,MWWC0196_02_00_086_01. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Celia Thaxter to Annie Adams Fields
Appledore
Wed. 10th June ( 85
My dear Annie:
I must tell you that night before last came flowers which never grew on this island, the pink die letra, if I spell it right, -- you know it, it grows in long pink & white drooping sprays on the mainland, but none has [ ever corrected ] grown here -- Minnie* the mother came & said to our entreaty that she would bring us flowers from the little Minnie (her daughter's) garden, in Northampton -- they were perfectly fresh -- Marion saw her with them in her hands first & said they looked like sweet peas, the colors are pink & white, you know, but I knew no sweet peas could be blooming out of doors at this season -- No boat had been to the land, but the flowers
2
came. However, it is hardly worth the [ stray mark ] while to tell you this, because [ yours corrected ] and Pinny's hearts are closed & hardened as far as Marion is concerned in all this, with the poison of Mary's* suspicions -- [ long line in left margin ] the little rift within the lute* ---- [ extended space ] I know it is of no use to tell you any thing where she is concerned -- But my sister has a nurse for Ruth & Margaret,* a good, quiet steady American girl quite pretty & lady like & respected [ by corrected ] all.
There have been some of the phenomena connected with her, that is, raps have followed her, &c, but she never minded, her thoughts being on her work, & she has not had any thing to do with the subject. Last night Julia said "let us have Ella to sit with us" -- Her name is Ella Adams* -- So, reluctantly Ella
3
came -- For a long time we sat in the dark & nothing happened. Marion saw nothing -- We talked quietly of various matters, suddenly Ella began to shake like an aspen & turned cold as ice & rose from her seat reaching her arms out in an ecstasy of joy & longing & excitement, she saw her dead brother, her sobs [ and corrected ] tears, her agonised entreaties to him to come near her, were something most pathetic. She rose up, clinging to us & reaching out her arms followed to where she saw his face, but he disappeared & she was heart broken -- We lighted the lamp, her face was absolutely colorless, bathed in tears. Marion did not see what she saw, as in the case of Mr. Garrison,* when he began to see they both saw the same things -- But later, last night, Ella saw what Marion saw, only less distinctly. We could not sit long, for
4
the deep & deadly trance nearly carried Marion away, & left her so weak we swore we would never let her sit again while she was here -- She must rest all summer & get back all her strength --
The picture of herself & little Minnie I had put in a little gold frame & hung near my [ desk corrected ]. Saturday she had seen hands about the frame. Last night Minnie said to her, "did you see me near the baby?" Marion said, "O was it you?"-- [ I corrected ] said, "can't you do something with that picture to show us?" Marion said, "can't you turn it face to the wall, for a sign for us?" "Do something to it!" I begged. She answered she would try -- We were sitting in mother's chamber. When we left my parlor to come over here to supper, I looked round the room before I left it, the picture
5
was hanging in its place. I saw it -- We came to tea -- stayed here till it was dark enough [ to blurred ] go upstairs & sit. After our sitting we had to almost carry Marion over, she was so gone, her face white as this paper -- drawn & dwindled, it really seemed to have lost substance -- [ extended space ] When we got over to the cottage I flew into the parlor first, lighting a couple of matches outside, which were enough to show me the picture was not on the wall - "Quick, quick,[" so it appears ] come in", I cried to all the rest & we all saw that the picture had been taken from the nail & carried over to the table & laid on a pile of books ----
Pardon me if I bore you with all this --
Your C.
Notes
Minnie: Minnie Henrietta Stockwell (1855-1877) was the deceased first wife of Marion Dickinson's husband. Marion Dickinson has communicated with Minnie Dickinson during a spiritualist trance.
Marion Miller (1854-1906) was the second wife of Sidney Edward Dickinson (1851-1919). His Find-a-Grave biographical sketch indicates that at the time of this letter, he was studying and traveling in Europe, Australia, New Zealand and the U.S.
Minnie Dickinson died soon after the birth of her first child, Minnie Stockwell Dickinson. At the time of this letter, "Little Minnie" was in the care of family in Northampton, MA.
See A Mother’s Letter from Northampton, MA – 1882.
Pinny ... Mary's: Pinny is Sarah Orne Jewett. Mary probably is Mary Greenwood Lodge. Letters above show that beginning in April 1885, Lodge has doubted that Dickinson's visions are genuine. By the time of this letter. Jewett and Fields also are distrustful.
the little rift within the lute: Thaxter quotes Vivien's song from "Merlin and Vivien" (1859), one of British poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson's (1809-1892) Idylls of the King (1859-1885). Thaxter's choice of allusion in this case is rich with complexity, for in this song, Vivien is attempting to seduce and betray Merlin by demanding perfect faithfulness in love.
In Love, if Love be Love, if Love be ours,
Faith and unfaith can ne’er be equal powers:
Unfaith in aught is want of faith in all.
It is the little rift within the lute,
That by and by will make the music mute,
And ever widening slowly silence all.
The little rift within the lover’s lute,
Or little pitted speck in garner’d fruit,
That rotting inward slowly moulders all.
It is not worth the keeping: let it go:
But shall it? answer, darling, answer, no.
And trust me not at all or all in all.
Ruth and Margaret: Thaxter's nieces, daughters of her brother, Cedric Laighton and his wife, Julia Stowell. See Thaxter in Key to Correspondents.
Ella Adams: Probably this is Ellen F. Adams (1863-1934) of Portsmouth, NH. In the clipping from a genealogical history shown at her father's Find-a-Grave page, she is listed as Ella.
This clipping shows two brothers deceased by 1885: Joseph O. (1857-1861) and Alonzo (1873-1875). Presumably, Ella sees the spirit of the latter brother, whom she would have known.
Oscar Laighton reports that Ella Adams continued working for the Laighton hotel as a housekeeper for many years after her time as nursemaid to Cedric and Julia Laighton's children. He also notes that Ella's brother, Oliver Adams, Jr., served as engineer for the Laighton's steam tug, the Pinafore. Two of their sisters, Ena/Eva and May/Mary, drowned in a 1902 sailing accident in the Isles of the Shoals.
Mr. Garrison: This person has not been identified, but it seems possible he is Francis Jackson Garrison. See Key to Correspondents. Garrison lost his first wife, Mary Pratt, and their daughter, Ruth, in 1882.
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/qb98p492f. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
John Taylor Perry* to Sarah Orne Jewett
Exeter, June 11. 1885.
Dear Sarah --
I ought long ago to have told you how much I liked a Marsh Island,* as a whole, but I had already given you my views when it was fairly well along, & having to write a good deal in the way of business, was too much inclined to put off duty letters, even when, as in the present case duty and pleasure are identical.
I have to thank you for a copy, which you were very kind to send, and as I had finished the book before its arrival, my views were not colored by it, but already formed. Artistically, the story is the most perfect thing you have ever done. So say all whom I have heard expressing an opinion. There is no interruption of the story by moralizing, & the incidents and outcomes are just what we should expect. I have heard some regrets that the girl didn't get a really fine fellow in that
[ Page 2 ]
of a farm laborer & blacksmith, but then the f. l. could not have been [ devoted ? ] { to } any less sensible girl, while the artist had well nigh all the world before him to choose. So I shall say to you, as my pa* says to me almost every day, "go ahead!" Your forte lies in descriptions. You can hardly improve these. Invention on the other hand, is not your strongest point. You didn't need much of it in Marsh Island, "The dearest idyll I have known,"* but a little combination of plot & paragraphing might give the public a new appreciation of your versatility. I saw you were in a red-covered dictionary of female authors published in London* -- I forget its name -- at Cupples & Upham's* the other day. Your birth was accurately recorded Sept. 3. 1849. A good many women would have inserted a 5 in place of the 4, and hoped for a blotting from the recording angel. I am glad you are both honest & sensible. Your grandfather sent a Philadelphia man his photograph, and a two page letter yesterday. The man had seen a piece in the Phil. Times about the Fulton steamer voyage, written by some one here in a literary press of Ben Prescott's* I think -- & wanted an autograph. He was generously rewarded for his [ pains ? ], & the letter was as well written as it could have been two years ago. Regards to all.
J.T.P.*
Notes
Perry: See Sarah Chandler Perry in Key to Correspondents.
Marsh Island: Jewett's third novel, A Marsh Island (1885), appeared first as a serial in Atlantic Monthly, January - June 1885.
pa: Penciled in brackets in another hand above this word: "aet 96." His father, Dr. William Perry, turned 97 on 20 December 1885.
known: The source of this quotation is elusive. However, there is a hymn text by British poet, William Cowper (1731-1800), Olny Hymns, I, "O for a Closer Walk with God," that includes this stanza:
The dearest idol I have known,See also Wikipedia.
Whate'er that idol be,
Help me to tear it from thy throne,
And worship only thee.
London: It is not yet known to which reference book Perry refers. Katherine Aydelott in Maine Stream: A Bibliographical Reception Study of Sarah Orne Jewett, notes that Jewett appeared in the seventh edition of A Brief Handbook of American Authors (1884) by Oscar Fay Adams, and that he said she was "the possessor of an exquisitely simple, natural, and graceful style."
This title, however, was published in Boston by Houghton, Mifflin.
Cupples & Upham's: Cupples, Upham and Co. a 19th-century Boston publisher.
J.T.P: Penciled in another hand after the signature: John Perry, uncle of S.O.J.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library of Harvard University, Cambridge, MA. Sarah Orne Jewett Correspondence, bMS Am 1743 Box 4, Item 177. I. Letters to Sarah Orne Jewett.
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Horace Parker Chandler
[ Begin letterhead ]
148. Charles Street
Boston
[ End letterhead ]
[ To the right of the letterhead ] 12 June
[ 1885 ]*
My dear Mr. Chandler
Your note reached me at once as I happen to [ be corrected ] in town for a few days -- I do not think there is anything worth telling about me! If I had a sketch of the old house in South Berwick I would most
[ Page 2 ]
gladly give it to you and perhaps, I could get one if you did not wish for it at once. I was born in the old house at the corner in South Berwick, (not in the newer one in its garden where I live now -- as most people think) on the 3rd September
[ Page 3 ]
1849 -- I am not very fond of being written about,* I must confess, but I know that I like to hear about people whose books I read, so there is nothing to do but resign myself!
-- I wish you would remember me most kindly to your father* -- My father and mother's old friend, and
[ Page 4 ]
pray believe me
Yours sincerely
Sarah O. Jewett
I shall be at Manchester by the Sea with Mrs. Fields* next week --
Notes
1885: Jewett and Chandler are corresponding about a biographical sketch of Jewett that appeared in Every Other Saturday on 5 December 1885.
father: Chandler's father was Peleg Whitman Chandler (1816-1889) of Boston, a lawyer and politician who graduated from Bowdoin College, as did Jewett's father.
Mrs. 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.
Celia Thaxter to Sarah Orne Jewett
Shoals. 12th June (85
Sandpiper* to go with Pinny to the circus! Never was so sorry as that she couldnt when she got Pin's letter -- But she is a struggling Sandpiper, fighting yet with garden & weeds & all sorts of works. Little Ruth* announces as soon as she is dressed every morning, that she "wants to go play with [ Theila corrected ]* & she comes down & sits on a cricket ^in the path^ by Theila, & watches her pull weeds & looks with wide eyes of astonished interest at the angle worms that crawl out, disturbed by the commotion I make in the earth -- Ruth leans her hands on her knees & puts her sweet face as near as she can to the worms' long futile length of squirm, & utters a thousand ohs & ahs of delighted amazement. It is too pretty to see her. She & I
[ Page 2 ]
feel just about the same age --
She is the dearest playmate -- trotting about & looking like a little miniature mother bless her!
Little Margaret is such a cheerful ever-smiling dear -- I dont know how I ever lived without the children.
Sparrows didn't eat poppies but nearly stripped our gardens of sweet peas -- If I had not had forethought enough to plant quarts, in relays, we shouldn't have had a sweet pea to our backs --
It is delightful to have two gardens & share & [ sympathise corrected ] -- Cedric & Julia & [ I corrected ] work like Trojans* every day, weeding, transplanting, ^watering,^ training vines & rejoicing over our treasures or railing against our enemies, cutworm & sparrow & little black spider & all --
The flowers & the children are a never ceasing delight -- Pinny to write again to Sandpiper & give love to Annie,* & pardon busy Sandpiper's scrawl.
Notes
Sandpiper: Thaxter is using intimate nicknames shared among Jewett, Annie Fields and herself. Pinny is Jewett; Flower is Fields; Sandpiper is Thaxter. See Key to Correspondents.
Ruth: Thaxter's niece, daughter of her brother, Cedric Laighton and his wife, Julia Stowell. Thaxter also mentions another of the Laighton daughters, Margaret.
Theila: This would seem to be Ruth's childish pronunciation of Celia, or perhaps Aunt Celia.
Trojans: According to legend, as recorded in both Virgil's Aeneid and Homer's Iliad, the inhabitants of the city state of Troy in Asia Minor were a hard-working, determined, industrious people. From Morris Dictionary of Word and Phrase Origins by William and Mary Morris (HarperCollins, New York, 1977, 1988).
Annie: Annie Adams Fields. 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/qb98p5016
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Annie Adams Fields to Sarah Orne Jewett
Monday Evening
[ After 12 June 1885 ]*
I was delighted to hear of your safe return from Exeter and of the good time there, dear. Your letter came in just as I was helping Katy* dismantle the little reception room this afternoon and it was a good break. Eva* was here too and told me that Jessie was not coming east this summer after all -- Ah! said [ French ? ] Mary,* "the mistake was in Jessie's being born in Louisville at all" -- I fear there will be little use in having a friend at Manchester -- I must wait and see.
If there is to be another year I do think I might do something better -- To carry all the detail of two houses in one's head, even if they are little ones, for other people and "chance customers" is a
[ Page 2 ]
painful and sorry thing to do. Mrs. Osgood* has sent me today a large box of wild flowers all beautifully gathered in bunches, of one kind in each --
By the way your Houstonias are growing in the lovesick way you can imagine -- they have not even winked not to speak of "drooping their lids" -- They are like surprised and pleased children -- I make them a visit quite often -- The [ unrecognized name ] trees too are exquisite now -- and the tamarisk.
I promised Ida* I would go there to tea tomorrow and so I suppose I shall but the mole-hill is a mountain. Meantime I go twice more to
[ Page 3 ]
Chardon St.* Did you see my [ screed ? ] (called "Charity Work"* by the Editor) in todays Advertiser? Do read it please to see if it is clear and "all right."
Good-night dear -- Shall I really have you on Thursday{?} How uncommonly good that bit about my book in the "Commonwealth." Good in the sense that I* liked it !!
Ever and ever your
A.F.
The tarpaulin came all well. Do bring the "sketch" over to read.
I might let Mr. Dwight* come once but I do not feel drawn that way --
Poor Sandpiper* and the sparrows are having an out and out fight for her garden. My own theory is that
[ Page 4 ]
she put in too much sand --
Good bye again with my love to all --
Notes
1885: This date is somewhat supported by Celia Thaxter's letter to Jewett of 12 June 1885. See notes below.
Associated with this letter is an envelope addressed to Jewett in South Berwick and postmarked 5 June, with no year, but archivists have marked it with a circled 23, matching the letter ms. It is unlikely to be the envelope for this letter if it was written in 1885. That year, 5 June fell on a Friday. June 5 fell on Monday in 1893, the year Martha Osgood died, and Thaxter died in 1894. If the letter was composed on Monday and mailed on Tuesday, then 1883 would match the letter with the envelope, the only likely year that 5 June fell on Tuesday.
It is reasonable to speculate that this letter was composed in either 1883 or 1885.
In the upper left corner on the front of the envelope is a penciled note next to a circular mark. It says:"This is not a blot!! It is a tear from a poor pale Iris on the table - wh. the [ cora sentinal ? ]."
On the back side is a blue ink decoration stamped on the flap, which seems to be the initials TF superimposed inside a shield.
And there is another penciled note: "So far, I can only hear of Norah [ Perry ? ]* as "the group" I saw Cupples* [ today ? ] ---"
Norah Perry: Probably Fields refers to American poet and author of juvenile fiction, Nora Perry (1841-1896). For some years she was Boston correspondent of the Chicago Tribune. Wikipedia.
Cupples: Probably this is Joseph G. Cupples (c. 1855-1915), a 19th-century Boston publisher. His obituary in Publishers Weekly (18 September 1915) says the Scottish-born Cupples went into business in Boston after immigrating to the U.S. in 1866.
Katy: A Fields employee.
Eva ... Jessie: Eva von Blomberg and Jessie Cochrane. Key to Correspondents.
French Mary: This person has not yet been identified.
Mrs. Osgood: This may be Martha Hooper Usher Osgood. Key to Correspondents.
Ida: Probably Ida Agassiz Higginson. Key to Correspondents.
Chardon St.: Location of the offices of Associated Charities of Boston.
"Charity Work": This notice has not yet been located.
my book ... "Commonwealth": Fields's new book in both 1883 and 1885 was How to Help the Poor (1883).
I: Fields underlined this word twice.
Dwight: Mr. Dwight has not yet been identified. A possibility is Thomas Dwight (1843-1911), professor of Anatomy at Harvard University, who was involved in Catholic charity in Boston.
Sandpiper ... sparrows: Sandpiper is Celia Thaxter. Key to Correspondents.
In a letter to Jewett of 12 June 1885, Thaxter reported that sparrows were stripping her garden by eating her newly planted seeds.
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.
Celia Thaxter to Annie Adams Fields
Shoals. June 19th
(85
Dear Annie:
Thanks for your nice letter, it was good of you to stop in the hurry & confusion of getting settled to speak a word to me. Mrs Dickinson* left us to go to New York to meet her husband the day after I wrote to you. We did not have many sittings, for that deadly [ unconsciousness corrected ] was so prone to seize her, & it always frightens me lest she may never come back -- She ceases to breathe, almost to live -- it is a thing truly tremendous. You have never seen her in it. If you had you would never doubt her again. I am so thankful her husband will be with her now, & save her & shield her & take care of her.
2
I hope you have enjoyed these eight beautiful days in a row as I have. The hay is down on the lawn & smells so sweet! Cedric & Julia* & I have a lovely time in our gardens together -- We water them every night -- it is the only way to give the plants a good start. Does Patrick* do it for you? While they are young & tender they absolutely [ require corrected ] it -- I have wondrous poppies this year & some new yellow flowers -- Also a big garden at the farm which I go to see every Friday. [ it not capitalized ] had not a weed in it when I [ left looks like lleft ] it -- Roland & Mrs T. go down to the farm today --
Pansies would be fine for you to
3
have in that little bed to the right as you stand at your front door. You buy them in town by the basket all in bloom & they never stop blooming all summer & they are so gay & lovely! They give you a dozen plants for half a dollar -- you can get them [ a meaning at ] Quincy Market, or any where, but perhaps there are florists nearer, in Manchester -- Every body who sells any green thing sells pansies -- Do try them dear, they are so satisfactory, but they need a deal of water -- If you had them near the [ border corrected ] & let sun flowers & chrysanthemums or marigolds or something tall grow up back of them to give them a little shade, which they love, they would do beautifully --
4
I am full of gardens! Do tell me about yours -- I have got a forest of hollyhocks. I write a wretched scrawl in a hurry, for this island is the busiest place in the world -- I have got some orders to fill that weigh on me.
Had letters from the Ross Turners* in bliss up the coast in a Gloucester nook by the sea.
Did I say I have the rooms in the Clifford* [ above corrected ] Cedric & Julia? for next winter -- Have got to earn some money to furnish them. I am so thankful to have them{.}
Dearest love to you & Pin*
Your C
Notes
Mrs Dickinson: In other letters from Thaxter to Fields, Mrs. Dickinson is identified as Marion Dickinson, a spiritualist medium, wife of Sidney Dickinson. Very likely, she is Marion Miller (1854-1906), second wife of Sidney Edward Dickinson (1851-1919). His Find-a-Grave biographical sketch indicates that near the time of this letter, he was studying and traveling in Europe, Australia, New Zealand and the U.S. See also A Mother’s Letter from Northampton, MA – 1882.
See also, Terry Heller, "Communing with the Dead: Celia Thaxter, John Greenleaf Whittier, Sarah Orne Jewett, Annie Adams Fields." SOJTP 2020.
Cedric & Julia: Thaxter's brother, Cedric Laighton, and his wife. Later in this letter, she mentions her youngest son, Roland.
Patrick: Patrick Lynch, according to Richard Cary, was an employee of Annie Fields.
Mrs T: Lucy Thaxter Titcomb (1818-1908) was a sister of Thaxter's husband, Levi Thaxter.
Ross Turners: 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."
Thaxter took some painting lessons from him.
Clifford: During this period of her life, Thaxter and Karl wintered at the Clifford Hotel in Boston. See Rosamond Thaxter, Sandpiper (Randall 1963,1999), p 185.
Pin: Thaxter is using intimate nicknames shared among Jewett, Fields and herself. Pinny is Jewett; Flower is Fields; Sandpiper is Thaxter. 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/qb98p5041
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Helen Bell to Sarah Orne Jewett
Sunday the 21st
[ 21 June 1885 ]*
[ Initials H.B. handwritten as monogram
not certain in whose hand ]
Dear Miss Jewett
I meant to come & thank you yesterday for the book,* but I became so absorbed in it & so interested that nothing would have tempted me to leave it one moment, even to see you "on the Heights" --*
[ Page 2 ]
May I blow my blast about it & try to say how beautiful the book is as a mere work of art -- even leaving out the [ unrecognized word ] interest -- ? if my eyes had not brimmed up every time that Dan's* did, I should almost think I had been looking at a
[ Page 3 ]
beautiful picture, instead of reading a book -- a lovely Fuller picture -- I mean as Fuller was meant to be but was not quite -- then the fun -- & the dignity of it all & there is Just enough -- & not ^one^ word too much -- & at the last I suppose you meant to leave a little sad
[ Page 4 ]
suspicion, as to whether Dan or the Artist was the "true God" that Emerson* writes of -- a kind of "might have been" weighs on me -- is it your fault? I liked Dan & your word 'compelling' made me, as well as Doris in love with him -- the flight across those sand-dunes made my old heart carry on like mad. I was surprised at my excitement & kept saying
[ Page 5 ]
"who would have believed the old man had so much blood in him?!"*
You ought ^to be^ and are [ deletion ] proud -- to have written it ---- I could kill Minnie* with envy as she is just beginning it -- How "like your two gracious selves" to bring it down here & usher our [ sea ? ] life in with it -- If I [ rave madly ? ]
[ Page 6 ]
you have only yourself to thank for it -----
Love to our Lady of the Heights -- I hope to bring this ---
[ Your admiring ? ]
Helen Bell
Notes
21 June 1885: The only Sunday to fall on the 21st in 1885 was in June.
book: Bell's discussion of the characters -- the artist, Dan and Doris -- indicate that she writes about Jewett's novel, A Marsh Island (1885). The first reviews of the novel appeared in May of that year.
Heights: Reference to Jewett and Annie Adams Fields at Fields's summer home on Thunderbolt Hill in Manchester-by-the-Sea, MA.
Dan's: This word is underlined twice.
Fuller: Bell seems to refer to a visual artist, but no obvious candidates for such an artist have yet been found.
meant: This word is underlined twice.
Emerson: American poet and philosopher, Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882). See Ellen Tucker Emerson in Key to Correspondents. "True God" is an idea and a phrase that appears more than once in his work. The idea often refers to a person who has come to understand her/his transcendental relation to the universe.
blood in him: Bell quotes Lady Macbeth from William Shakespeare's Macbeth Act 5, Scene 1.
Minnie: This transcription is uncertain, but it seems likely Bell would refer to her sister, Miriam Foster Pratt. See Bell in Key to Correspondents.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library of Harvard University: Sarah Orne Jewett Correspondence I, Letters to Sarah Orne Jewett.
Bell, Helen. 2 letters; [1898 & n.d.], bMS Am 1743 (19).
This transcription is from a photocopy held by the Maine Women Writer's Collection, University of New England, Letters from Sarah Orne Jewett, 1875-1890, Box 2, Folder 99, Burton Trafton Jewett Research Collection.
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
John Greenleaf Whittier to Annie Adams Fields
Oak Knoll
6th Mo 22 1885
My dear Friend
Annie Fields
I have been at Portland & have found thy dear letter awaiting me. It is kind in thee to say such pleasant things of my poem in the Atlantic.* I thought of thee in writing it -- in both the thought and my inspiration.
I shall be delighted to have a visit from thee & Gen. Armstrong,* and hope nothing will prevent it.
[ Page 2 ]
I am glad to think of our beloved Sarah Jewett* with thee again, well and happy. I made a poor over-worked young woman -- a doctor -- who was just starting for a healthful vacation in the country, [ happy corrected ] by giving her a copy of "Marsh Island" the other day.
I am glad Lowell* comes home in such delightful weather. I hope he has come to stay, but I fear he will be [ enticed ? ] back to England, again.
[ Page 3 ]
Much more love than I can put on paper for thee and Sarah. I am thankfully thy friend
John G. Whittier
Notes
Atlantic: In the Atlantic for July 1885 (pp. 22-4) appears Whittier's poem, "The Two Elizabeths," comparing two saints, Saint Elizabeth of Hungary (1207-1231) and the Quaker reformer Elizabeth Fry (1780-1845).
Gen. Armstrong: Samuel Chapman Armstrong (1839-1893).
Sarah Jewett: Sarah Orne Jewett. See Key to Correspondents. Her third novel was A Marsh Island (1885).
Lowell: James Russell Lowell. See Key to Correspondents. After serving as ambassador to England, Russell returned to the United States in June 1885. He did not return to England.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Huntington Library, San Marino, CA, in the James T. Fields collection: mss FI 71-4755. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Miss Remann*
Manchester by-the-Sea. Mass.
23 June 1885
My dear Mifs Remann
I cannot send the autograph for the fair without adding a word of thanks for your most kind and cordial note. Believe me –
Yours sincerely and gratefully – Sarah O. Jewett
Notes
Remann: This may be the Miss M. J. Remann who sought and received an autograph from Mark Twain in May 1883. Presumably, in both cases, Remann sought autographs to be sold at a fundraising fair. As yet, nothing more about her has been learned.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the University of New England Maine Women Writers Collection, Sarah Orne Jewett Collection, item MWWC0143.
Transcription by Kelsey Squire, Ohio Dominican University; edited and with notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Houghton, Mifflin & Co.
[ 23 June 1885 ]*
Messrs Houghton Mifflin & Co.
Please send of copy of Down the Ravine to -- Mrs. John H. Rice
4 Oxford Terrace
Boston
-------------
by mail today -- and charge it to my account. Also a copy of A Marsh Island ^ (marked 'from the author'^ to Mifs Edith M. Thomas
Geneva -- Ohio.
Yrs very truly
Sarah O. Jewett
Manchester, Mass.
23 June
Notes
23 June 1885: At the top left of page 1 is the Houghton, Mifflin date stamp: Noon on 23 June 1885. In the upper right in another hand, in blue ink: " Sarah O. Jewett -- June 23.
Down the Ravine: American fiction writer, Mary Noailles Murfree (1850-1922), wrote under the pen name Charles Egbert Craddock. Her Down the Ravine appeared in 1885.
Mrs. John H. Rice: Cora Lee Clark Rice. See Key to Correspondents.
A Marsh Island: Jewett's novel appeared in May/June 1885.
Mifs Edith M. Thomas: American poet Edith Matilda Thomas (1854-1925).
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 2nd (85My dear Annie:
I must thrust all else aside & grab --so to speak, at the time to write to you. I am trying to make over my unfortunate poems for children,* sweeping ^away^ the nightmare illustrations, & it keep{s} every minute so full just now, what with people & things & gardens & babies & flowers & painting & going over to the farm* every Friday & losing a whole day, I don't know where I am. Mrs Hemenway is here & Rose Lamb & Mrs Goddard has been here for the past week. Craddock came with Lily Sohier & Mrs Homans* to look for rooms, a quiet place in wh. to write her novel.
2
I don't know if she will come; tho' she thought she should, for the island wore its more [ triste ? ] aspect, low tide, gray sky, leaden sea, chill wind. But she may go to stay at Star.
Her husband has come home to Mrs Dickinson* -- that is the best news I have. She so surely needed him. Did I tell you the comfort I had in hearing my brother Oscar say -- well -- I must tell you for I'm sure I have not -- One of the brothers of Thora Ingebertsen* was drowned here last week. Oscar, until he knew Mrs D. had never believed in any after life & was the most unmanageable skeptic on [ on repeated ] all these subjects. Ingbert was drowned off Malaga, the water was covered with boats trying to recover his body -- it was all done in an instant, the youth was careless, did not loose the sheet when a tiny puff of wind came, the boat careened, filled, sank under him & he went down, why we shall
3
never know for he was a strong swimmer. Help, tho' it strove to reach him, came too late. Oscar & Julia* & I sat on the rock on the south side of the island watching the scene quarter of a mile away. Understanding only that there was trouble, Julia & he & I had hastened over there, [ seizing ? ] a bottle of brandy, thinking it might be a case of resuscitating or something. But all was over when we got there -- only the boats in the calm water & the men with the grappling irons trying to find the body.
Oscar sat looking, musing -- "Poor Ingbert" he said, "half an hour ago he was [ here corrected ], well & strong & happy, & expecting nothing less than such a change as this!
I wonder if he knows any thing yet, if he has come to himself enough to realise it."
I can't tell you how happy this made me -- it spoke more than volumes!
4
Yes, indeed, I never shall forget that dear birthday in the past, when you were both* here -- How lovely it was! Thank you for your kind wishes, dear -- I dare not think what may come to me between this & my next birthday, when I think of my Roland* who is growing more like a mute shadow every day. Only my belief, my faith, my actual knowledge gained this winter, preserves me from despair.
I hope the drenching rain has saved your garden. Mine is splendid, for I have watered it with the hose every day, & the rain has made it grow like wildfire. Over at the farm the drought was terrible, but I hope the showers came in time to save John's millet & the crops. My garden over there was so rich, is so rich in flowers, but they were all dying from the drought & even the wells & cisterns were giving out{.}
5
I was so interested in the cow Clarissy! How delightful! I should like to hear the Swedenborg* so much! Mrs D. does not come here now, but goes at once with her husband to his father's home in Northampton for the summer. [ Poor dear corrected ] little woman -- her drop of bitterness, draught, I should say, in the joy of her husband's return was the thought, "Sidney is coming back to find me accused." Over & over again she said it, full of misery at the thought. To find the name so dearly reverenced coupled with lies, -- it must have been bitter for him, for them both --
I expect my piano today -- put it off as long as possible on account of expense -- have to [ count corrected ] all my pennies in view of furnishing my
[ Page 6 ]
rooms in the Clifford* for next winter. Paines & Eichbergs will be here shortly --
With dear love to you & Pin.*
Ever & ever your
C
Notes
unfortunate poems for children: Thaxter published Poems for Children in 1884. It appears she may be revising this book, but the next collection of her poems for children did not appear until 1895, after her death, with a foreword by Sarah Orne Jewett.
the farm: Thaxter's son, John, a dairyman, worked at Champernowne farm on Cutts Island, Kittery Point, NH. See Mandel, Beyond the Garden Gate, pp. 103-5.
Mrs. Hemenway ... Rose Lamb ...Mrs Goddard ... Craddock ... Lily Sohier & Mrs. Homans:
Probably 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."
Rose Lamb. See Key to Correspondents.
Martha LeBaron Goddard (1829-1888) was the compiler, along with Harriet Preston Waters, of Sea and Shore: A Collection of Poems (1874). The anthology included poems by Thaxter.
Charles Egbert Craddock is the nom de plume of Mary Noailles Murfree (1850-1922). Her next novel was "In the Clouds" (1886). Thaxter indicates that Craddock may choose to stay on Star Island in the Shoals, rather than at the Laighton establishment on Appledore.
Lily Sohier probably is Elizabeth Putnam Sohier (1847-1926), a Boston philanthropist remembered especially for her support of libraries.
Almost certainly Thaxter refers to Eliza Lee Lothrop, wife of Dr. Charles Dudley Homans (1826-1886). See also The Boston Medical and Surgical Journal 155 (1886), p. 385. Eliza Homans was active in various Boston philanthropies.
Mrs Dickinson: In other letters from Thaxter to Fields, Mrs. Dickinson is identified as Marion Dickinson, a spiritualist medium, wife of Sidney Dickinson. Very likely, she is Marion Miller (1854-1906), second wife of Sidney Edward Dickinson (1851-1919). His Find-a-Grave biographical sketch indicates that at the time of this letter, he was studying and traveling in Europe, Australia, New Zealand and the U.S. See also A Mother’s Letter from Northampton, MA – 1882.
Other letters offer some information about the accusation of which Mrs. Dickinson complains. See Thaxter to Fields 24 March and 3 April of 1885, in which she speaks of Mary Lodge accusing Mrs. Dickinson of being a fraudulent medium. See also Whittier to Fields of 8 July 1885.
See also, Terry Heller, "Communing with the Dead: Celia Thaxter, John Greenleaf Whittier, Sarah Orne Jewett, Annie Adams Fields." SOJTP 2020.
Thora Ingebertsen: Malaga is a very small island south of Appledore in the Isles of the Shoals. In a Harper's Magazine article (49, 1874, pp. 663-76), "The Isles of Shoals," John W. Chadwick describes visiting the Shoals in the 1870s and becoming acquainted with Jörje Edvart Ingebertsen, "an old Norse viking," and his family, including daughter, Thora. Apparently at that time, young Ingbert had not been born; at least he is not named. Thaxter also writes a little of the family in "A Memorable Murder," one of the sketches in Among the Isles of the Shoals (1878).
Julia: Julia Laighton, wife of Thaxter's brother, Cedric.
both: Almost certainly Thaxter feels she addresses both Fields and Sarah Orne Jewett. See Key to Correspondents.
Roland: Thaxter's youngest son. See Key to Correspondents.
Swedenborg: Emanuel Swedenborg (1688-1772) was a Swedish Christian theologian and mystic, founder of the New Church.
Clifford: During this period of her life, Thaxter and Karl wintered at the Clifford Hotel in Boston. See Rosamond Thaxter, Sandpiper (Randall 1963,1999), p 185.
Pin: Thaxter is using intimate nicknames shared among Jewett, Fields and herself. Pinny is Jewett; Flower is Fields; Sandpiper is Thaxter. 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/qb98p509d
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Azariah Smith
Manchester, Mass.
Friday --
[ Early July 1885 ]*
Dear Mr. Smith
I have been thinking a good deal about A Marsh Island* since I saw you yesterday and I have come to the conclusion that I should like to advertise it a good deal as a venture of my [ deleted word ] own. I find that people ^in^ whose opinion I have a good deal of confidence think it is better than my other stories, but it seems to "hang fire" just now. Of course the bulletins and circulars do a good deal of advertising
[ Page 2 ]
for it, but I believe most story-buyers are attracted to books by seeing a good deal about them in the papers and getting the idea that they have a good run, are popular and that it is "the thing" to read them. I have looked over the notices and taken some short bits of them and made up these little advertisements which I enclose.
[ Page 3 ]
If you do not see anything out of the way in it will you be kind enough to have some copies [ deleted word ] sent to these papers with any others which seem proper to you? The Sunday Herald, the Journal, Advertiser & Transcript, & Traveller -- in Boston -- N.Y. Evening Post & Chicago Tribune -- I should say the Herald on two Sundays and the Traveller only once or twice, but I should like to have it repeated in the other papers every
[ Page 4 ]
other day for a while. I should like to spend at least seventy-five dollars on my own account in this experiment, and I hope the publishers will have no objection to this plan.
Would you please send some "items" occasionally to the papers? I think it might be well to say that the scene is supposed to be laid in Essex -- Mass -- or Essex Country ----- I hope you will not think I am unmindful
[ Page 5 ]
of all your interest and kindness about this and all my books -- but I perfectly understand that a publishing house has its limits ^in proper adventures^ and cannot make an exception of my story [ deleted word ] ^or^ any other{.}
-- But I hope there will not be any reason why I cannot speculate a little in [ advertising corrected ] on my own account -- It will be a satisfaction to my mind at any rate!
Your sincerely,
Sarah O. Jewett.
Notes
July 1885: Jewett's novel, A Marsh Island, appeared soon after it was serialized in Atlantic Monthly, in May/June 1885. It seems clear that she writes not very long after the novel was published.
In the upper right of page 1, after "Dear Mr. Smith," in another hand, blue ink, underlined: "Sarah O. Jewett". In the bottom left corner of page five, probably in the same ink and hand are the initials A.S.
A check mark appears next to each of the newspapers Jewett lists where she would like to place her own ad.
Two possible results of Jewett's effort are:
"Literary Notes" in New York Tribune 15 July 1885, p. 6: The locality of Miss Jewett's "Marsh Island" is said to be Essex County, Mass.
"Literary Notes" in Christian Union (30 July, 1885), p. 21: Miss Jewett's popular novel, "A Marsh Island," is having a steady sale, and is now in its fourth thousand. Critics think it is the best thing she has done.
The effectiveness of Jewett's idea is difficult to determine; The Literary World (26 December 1885, p. 487) listed A Marsh Island as one of the four "most successful" American novels of the year, overshadowing such titles as The Rise of Silas Lapham by William Dean Howells.
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.
John Greenleaf Whittier to Annie Adams Fields
Oak Knoll
8th - 7th Mo 1885
My dear Friend
Thy letter was very welcome, but I am sorry not to have that visit from thee & from Armstrong.*
The "Welcome" lines* were written in a hurry. I had the notice too late, & had only an hour or two to write them.
I like Swedenborg* in the general not in some of his details. There is what M. Arnold* calls a "sweet [ reasonablenefs ?]"
[ Page 2 ]
in his philosophy. I am hoping soon to get Dean Plumptre's* book on the Future Life, which is just issued.
Don't let poor Mrs [ Dickinson's ? ]* voluntary or involuntary acting trouble you. The truth lies [ safe ? ] behind it all.
I go to Amesbury this week & shall probably go to the hills soon. How I should rejoice to see thee & Sarah* riding up to the Asquam!* You will come, wont you?
I read by Gov Claflin* a picture of Harriet Prescott Spoffords house on her Merrimac island; and one of
[ Page 3 ]
Deering's Lake at Portland sung & loved by Longfellow.*
With more love than I can write, I am, dear Annie Fields, thy old friend
John G. Whittier
Notes
Armstrong: Samuel Chapman Armstrong (1839-1893).
"Welcome" lines: Almost certainly, Whittier refers to his poem, "A Welcome to Lowell." After serving as ambassador to England, James Russell Lowell returned to the United States in June 1885. See Key to Correspondents.
The poem appeared in The Literary World of 27 June 1885, p. 217.
Swedenborg: Whittier may have written "Swedenberg." Still, he refers to Emanuel Swedenborg (1688-1772), the Swedish mystic theologian and philosopher, whose teachings are the foundation of the New Church.
Arnold: British poet and critic, Matthew Arnold (1822-1888), lectured in the United States from October 1883 through March 1884. Whittier presumably refers to Arnold's essay, "Literature and Dogma" (1873), Chapter 12:
But of Christianity the future is as yet almost unknown. For that the world cannot get on without righteousness we have the clear experience, and a grand and admirable experience it is. But what the world will become by the thorough use of that which is really righteousness, the method and the secret and the sweet reasonableness of Jesus, we have as yet hardly any experience at all.Dean Plumptre's: Edward Hayes Plumptre (1821-1891) was a British author, educator and clergyman. His book on "the future life" was The Spirits in Prison, and Other Studies on Life after Death (1884 and 1885).
Dickinson: This transcription is uncertain. However, Marion Miller (Mrs. Sidney) Dickinson (1854-1906) was among those holding séances with Celia Thaxter, Fields and Jewett in 1885. See Celia Thaxter's letters to Annie Fields during this year. See Key to Correspondents.
Sarah: Sarah Orne Jewett. See Key to Correspondents.
Asquam: Whittier refers to Asquam House, a resort on Lake Asquam in New Hampshire.
Gov Claflin: Former Massachusetts governor, William Claflin. See Mary Bucklin Davenport Claflin in Key to Correspondents.
It would appear that Claflin has described visits to the two sites in a letter to Whittier. See Key to Correspondents for Harriet Prescott Spofford and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.
After 1865, Spofford maintained a summer home on Deer Island, in the Merrimack River at Amesbury, MA.
Longfellow remembered Portland's Deering's Woods in his poem, "My Lost Youth":
And Deering's Woods are fresh and fair,The woods is now Deering Oaks Park in Portland, ME, a 55 acre public park with a pond.
And with joy that is almost pain
My heart goes back to wander there,
And among the dreams of the days that were,
I find my lost youth again.
And the strange and beautiful song,
The groves are repeating it still:
"A boy's will is the wind's will,
And the thoughts of youth are long, long thoughts."
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Huntington Library, San Marino, CA, in the James T. Fields collection: mss FI 71-4849. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Samuel Sidney McClure
South Berwick Maine
16 July
[ 1885 ]*
S. S. McClure Esqr
Dear Sir
If you will send me the mss. of Mr. Hill* I will return you the amount of the postage -- I am sorry you cannot use them. I understood from your letter that you would keep the longer one (Mr.
[ Page 2 ]
[Hobart's ?] Cave) or I would have asked you to let me have it long ago.
The others I knew were waiting for decision. I am not surprised that you think you cannot use them but I am sorry about the other --- especially as I have told the author that you had accepted it. In haste yrs sincerely
S. O. Jewett
Notes
1885 or later: In the absence of any fruitful information about Roland Hill, it seems one can be sure only that this letter was composed after S. S. McClure founded his publishing syndicate. Jewett's earliest known syndicated publication was "Stolen Pleasures" in the autumn of 1885.
Mr. Hill: Jewett refers to several pieces of writing by Roland C. Hill that she submitted to McClure. No further information about him has yet been located.
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.
Annie Adams Fields to Sarah Orne Jewett
Saturday
[ Summer 1885 ]*
Darling: In my note of this morning I did not answer your questions about the [ proposed ? ] translator of the "Country Doctor --" My reply would be to consult Madame Bentzon --* If the Bordeaux physician has a gift for language -- all's well! otherwise you would be sorry -- or perhaps you might ask the lady herself to send you some of her work, or a word from her publisher to say that he would like to publish her translation -- What say you! It might so easily be poorly done! You did not send me the letter. Said you would but did not.
[ Page 2 ]
I am sorry to find that we cannot have Sheila at Mr. Chase's* before the 15th of September -- but until then we can keep her at the hotel station or (of course) at Peabody's{.} The hotel stables would be better I presume, though I cannot be sure --
Mrs Claflin* and her niece "turned up" today -- They are at the Masconomo and I must ask them here --
How can I thank you dear for the Ruskin* which has just arrived! And for all these English papers!
[ Page 3 ]
I am delighted to have them all -- But Pinny* to be very dear and thoughtful always and I did not need all these delightful things to tell me so, but I am proud and pleased indeed to have them.
[ Page 4 ]
[ Tuikham's letters ? ]* is queer! Like a blind alley leading nowhere ---
Poor business man that, one would say --
What a good letter of Eva's* and now I can see all the lovely place --
I often want to go back there.
How [ unrecognized word ] about the hat!!
[ no signature ]
Notes
1885: Letters of 1885 indicate that Fields, Jewett and Mme. Blanc were in contact with each other that year. This would be the earliest likely year that Jewett might contact Blanc about translating her 1884 novel. See notes below.
"Country Doctor": Jewett's 1884 novel, A Country Doctor.
Bentzon: Marie Thérèse de Solms Blanc. Key to Correspondents.
Mme. Blanc's translation of A Country Doctor appeared in 1893 in a volume with several of Jewett's short stories.
not: This word is underlined twice.
Sheila at Mr. Chase's: Sheila was Jewett's horse. Mr. Chase, presumably, operated a stable in or near Manchester by the Sea.
Claflin: Mary Bucklin Davenport Claflin. She had several nieces.
Claflin and her niece were staying at the Masconomo House hotel in Manchester by the Sea.
Ruskin: British author and art critic, John Ruskin (1819-1900).
Pinny: A Jewett nickname.
Tuikham's: This transcription is uncertain. This may be a book, but it has not yet been identified.
Eva's: Eva von Blomberg. Key to Correspondents.
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.
Annie Adams Fields to Eben Norton Horsford
Manchester by the Sea.
[ 19 July 1885 ]
Dear Professor Horsford;
Your delightful note giving me a series of names and the quotation from "Paradise Lost" was gratefully received.
I hope you are all happily settled once more on your beautiful island which I love to remember.
Today I turn to you to ask a question --
A letter has been sent me asking assistance for
[ Page 2 ]
Mifs Howard formerly of Wellesley, but it is such an extraordinary epistle that I do not feel sure that it is a true appeal. I believe on the whole I will enclose it, and some day when you have the leisure to reply if you assure me that all is well I shall surely [ do corrected ] what I can in dear Mifs Howard's behalf.
[ Page 3 ]
My Sarah* is away just now or she would join me in sending loving messages to all yours
Believe me
most affectionately
yours ( & theirs)
Annie Fields
July 19 -- 85
Thunderbolt Hill.
Notes
"Paradise Lost": Epic poem by English poet John Milton (1608-1674) on the Christian story of the fall of humanity from innocence into sin.
Mifs Howard: This may be Adeline Lydia "Ada" Howard (1829-1907), who became the first woman president of Wellesley College in 1875, then resigned in 1882 for health reasons. It is possible this is the Miss Howard referred to in Celia Thaxter to Fields of 7 September 1882. She may be a relative of the Samuel G. Ward's daughter-in-law, Sophia Read Howard (1848-1918), who married their only son, Thomas Wren Ward (1844-1940). See also Find a Grave.
Sarah: 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.
Annie Adams Fields to Sarah Orne Jewett
July 19 -- 1885.*
Dearest Pinny:*
I send you a note from Anne Whitney* which I think you would like to see, but I do not send one from poor Mrs Freeland* in which she expresses much disappointment about the work in Boston and says she fears I was not satisfied and she returns me half of the money -- The latter I return again to her, tell her in the kindest way I know that I found the clerical work was what she was doing in Boston & what I wanted was out-door* work etc -- I should of course have shown you both letters if you had been here --
[ Page 2 ]
This is a blessed Sunday afternoon. Aunty is lying down and Ida* is indulging in hieroglyphics yclept "correspondence" and I am looking forward with pleasure to the long afternoon and thinking of you my darling --
How I long to see the long to see the [ Heron ? ] story.* I hope it came in a fortunate time. I shall not doubt.
Always thanks, dear child, and this time for these addresses. My Atlantic did not get here -- but I have got the [ Lymonds ]* which I shall read with you if we have time, also, when you come -- Perhaps the
[ Page 3 ]
girls will all like a tough bit of reading and perhaps they will not!
Edith and Richard* came up yesterday and tomorrow Ida spends with them. O their beautiful children! Somehow I keep thinking of dear Longfellow* when I see them and of what he is thinking of too as he watches them.
Have you seen the Herald today with its two columns about Psychics? --
Good bye, dearest. Oh! here is a letter from Sandpiper* -- a very sad one.
Your ownNotes
A.F.
1885: Fields's date is ambiguous. She may have written July 17.
Pinny: A nickname for Jewett.
Anne Whitney: Anne Rebecca Whitney. Key to Correspondents.
Freeland: Mrs. Freeland remains as yet unknown. She may be related to Mary Bucklin Davenport Claflin, whose mother was Mary Sophia Freeland (1802-1868). See Key to Correspondents.
Here it appears that Mrs. Freeland was involved with Fields in the work of the Associated Charities of Boston. Mrs. James H. Freeland is listed as a home "visitor" in the First Annual Report of the Associated Charities of Boston (1880), p. 19. Possibly this was Julia E. Woodruff Freeland (1834-1888), spouse of James Horatio Freeland (1827-1902). Find a Grave.
out-door: Fields often uses "=" as a hyphen. I render these as hyphens.
Presumably the subject in this passage is Fields's work with Associated Charities of Boston.
Aunty ... Ida: Aunty's identity is uncertain, perhaps her sister Louisa Jane, stepmother of Ida Gertrude Beal, Fields's niece.
Heron story: The transcription is uncertain, but it is the case that Jewett was working on her short story, "A White Heron" in the summer of 1885. She reports in a letter to Fields of August 1885 that William Dean Howells had declined accepting it for Atlantic Monthly.
Lymonds: This transcription is very uncertain, and the reference remains mysterious.
Edith and Richard: Richard Henry Dana III and Edith Longfellow, the latter a daughter of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Key to Correspondents.
Longfellow: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow died in 1882. At the time of this letter, Fields was involved with Celia Thaxter in activities of Spiritualism and especially open to the belief that the spirits of the dead watched over their loved ones in the world of the living.
Sandpiper: Celia Laighton Thaxter. Key to Correspondents. Fields may refer to the Thaxter's letter to Fields of 2 July 1885, in which she reports the drowning death of a neighbor.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library of Harvard University, Sarah Orne Jewett Papers, Additional Correspondence, bMS1741.1 Box 1, Item 33. 100 Letters from Annie Adams Fields to Sarah Orne Jewett. Transcription and notes, Terry Heller, Coe College.
Annie Adams Fields to Sarah Orne Jewett
Monday
[ Summer 1885 ]*
My darling: I must send you a line again today to tell you that Harriet* has had a beautiful visit and leaves tomorrow morning. Ida* is the greatest belle of all and is flying about the land. Today she is at Edith Dana's{.}*
Please be good dear and destroy the verses I sent you if you know where they are !!! or I may never send any more -- I am certainly in a most unilluminated condition -- And poor Edith Thomas* in the [ t.hr, ? ]* how forced hers are -- on the other hand those by Andrew [ Redpoole ? ] are fresh as the morning and exquisite indeed --
[ Page 2 ]
By the way your A.M. is [ here ? ], and your [ Garden ? ]* and indeed a world of lovely things are here which belong to you -- Do you not want them for some lady at home? I have bought the "Story of a Short Life"* for you -- to have when you come -- It is most charming -- meanwhile it is visiting --
Aunt H.* (who really is a judge) cannot say too much about the careful work in the "Marsh Island"* --
[ Page 3 ]
She is charmed with the book and I shall give her a copy to take home.
Ross Turner* sends me a pretty note and is coming for a night next week --
Darling I need not say I miss you for I love you and you are [ unrecognized word ] --
My love to all from
your
A.F.
Notes
1885: This date is supported by Fields reporting that her aunt is reading A Marsh Island.
Harriet: Which of the several "Harriets" this is from among Fields's acquaintance has not yet been determined, though possibly she is the Aunt H. mentioned near the end of this letter.
Ida: Ida Higginson Agassiz. Key to Correspondents.
Edith Dana's: Edith Longfellow Dana, wife of Richard Henry Dana III. Key to Correspondents.
Edith Thomas: Key to Correspondents.
t.hr: This transcription is uncertain. It appears to be an abbreviation, possibly for a magazine title, but its meaning remains unknown.
Andrew Redpoole: This transcription is uncertain, and this person has not yet been identified.
A.M....Garden: Probably Atlantic Monthly and another magazine.
Story of a Short Life: British children's author, Juliana Horatia Ewing (1841-1885), published The Story of a Short Life in the year of her death. Wikipedia.
Aunt H.: Almost certainly this is Harriet Newcomb Holland (1809-1897), sister-in-law of Fields's mother. Find a Grave.
"Marsh Island": Jewett's A Marsh Island was serialized in Atlantic Monthly, January - June 1885.
Ross Turner: American painter and teacher, Ross Sterling Turner (1847-1914), mentor to Celia Thaxter, among other artist friends of Fields.
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
Thursday afternoon, 23 July, 1885.
Now comes the news of General Grant's death,* which is a relief in a way. I think nothing could be more pathetic than the records of his last fight with his unvanquishable enemy. No two men I have ever seen came up to Grant and Tennyson* in Greatness. Tennyson first, I must say that. Good heavens, what a thing it is for a man of Grant's deliberate, straightforward, comprehending mind, to sit day after day with that pain clutching at his throat, looking death straight in the face! and with all his clear sight he was no visionary or seer of spiritual things. It must have made him awfully conscious of all that lay this side the boundary. And now he knows all, the step is taken, and the mysterious moment of death proves to be a moment of waking. How one longs to take it for one's self!
Notes
General Grant's death: Ulysses S. Grant (1822-1885), Union Commander in the United States Civil War and later President. He died of throat cancer on July 23, 1885.Tennyson: Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809-1892), the English poet.
This letter appears in Annie Fields, Letters of Sarah Orne Jewett (1911), Transcribed by Annie Adams Fields, with 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., 7 Mo 25 188 / 5
[ End letterhead ]
My dear friend
It is a long time since I have heard from thee, and this morning my thoughts have turned seaward, as the mountain mist makes our hill-top seem an island like Appledore. I suppose you now full of "folks," and that even thy lovely cottage is [ surrounded ? ]. I wish I could look in upon thee, as in summers past. But I fancy the sea air affects my throat
[ Page 2 ]
less favorably than the inland breezes. I have been here a week or more, and find it very pleasant. The House is rather over-full just now, but the landlord says if Mrs. Fields & Miss Jewett* will come he will find room for them. Is Mifs Jewett still on the island! Mrs Fields wrote me that she was going there with one of her friends. We have been reading her books under the Asquam pines with great satisfaction. She is a universal favorite and she bears up beautifully under her popularity.
[ Page 3 ]
I congratulate myself that I was one of the first to discover her.
Cousins Joseph and Gertrude Cartland* are here with me and send their love.
Are thee writing anything this summer? I wish Houghton & Mifflin* would publish thy poems in one handsome volume. Such Songs of the Sea were never before written and never will [ deleted word ] ^be^ again.
I am visited too much even here where I expected to be safe. People sojourning in neighboring towns find me out, and I find myself annoyed & wearied. I am getting old, & such "grasshoppers are a burden."* I do not like to refuse to
[ Page 4 ]
^see^ folks who have jolted over the hills twenty miles to greet me, but I get [ rudely or badly ? ] weary at times.
If Sarah Jewett is with thee, give her my love. I wish she and Annie Fields would come here & bring thee with them.
Ever and affectionatelyNotes
thy old friend
John G Whittier
Mrs. Fields & Miss Jewett: Annie Adams Fields and Sarah Orne Jewett. See Key to Correspondents.
Cartland: Richard Cary notes Joseph Cartland (1810-1898) and Gertrude Cartland (1822-1911) accompanied Whittier on his summer vacations in Maine and New Hampshire for five decades.
Houghton & Mifflin: The Boston publisher of Thaxter, Whittier, Fields and Jewett. The next collection of Thaxter's poems from Houghton, Mifflin was The Cruise of the Mystery (1886).
burden: It is not clear why Whittier has placed this clause in quotation marks.
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., 25 Jul 1882. Part of this letter appears in he Letters of John Greenleaf Whittier, edited by John B. Pickard (Cambridge, Harvard University Press, 1975, v. 3, p. 503). Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Annie Adams Fields to Sarah Orne Jewett
Saturday P.M.
[ 25 July 1885 ]*
At last darling we have had a delightful shower on our parched earth, and so instead of driving tonight I am sitting up at my little study window listening to the sea and thinking of you. While the Woolseys* were here we had a flaming rainbow, double & treble, but today it has been only a soft sketch of color in the sky -- Ida* went this morning and poor Mrs Dresel is in bed with headache so I shall be alone until Monday afternoon -- but I really need it -- Mrs Bullard* called here today -- She has just returned with the family from Mt. Desert where she has been with her brother Prest Eliot ever since the 4th
[ Page 2 ]
where our little book went. Mary* left too early in the morning to receive it, but Mrs Bullard was evidently much pleased. She thinks the story very lovely as everybody else does! I sent Dr. Holmes* his copy this morning. Did I tell you what a very lovely visit we had there Ida & I -- and how I promised to come again with you before long --
Who should appear here yesterday but Rose Lamb* -- She is passing two weeks with Mifs Perkins at Beverly Farms and she wants to see you. She was delightful as ever
[ Page 3 ]
In the afternoon also Ida & I went to the Bartols* -- Mfs Mary was at home and I made her sit down at the piano and play to me -- anything quainter or sweeter or more [ truly ?] musical after a childlike fashion you never heard -- and as we came away from the door & she stood there fondling her white cat she was a picture I shall not soon forget. Lizzy Greene* has reached home again having been ill the entire journey but she is better now and is coming to stay there.
I have your dear note of yesterday about Grant and
[ Page 4 ]
Carries* and all the things I want to hear about.
And now good bye darling -- I fear you cannot get this till Monday{.} I am so sorry but our sending to the P.O. is quite irregular --
O this delightful rain --
your own
A.F.
Notes
1885: This date is a guess with a slight foundation. It may be that Jewett's mentioning "Grant" in her previous letter is a reference to former President Ulysses S. Grant, in which case the previous letter would be Jewett to Fields of 23 July 1885. If this is correct, then Fields probably wrote this letter on the following Saturday. See notes below.
Woolseys: Sarah Chauncey Woolsey and her sister, Dora. Key to Correspondents.
Ida ... Dresel: Ida Higginson Agassiz and Anna Loring Dresel, mother of Jewett correspondent, Louisa Dresel. Key to Correspondents.
Mrs. Bullard ... Eliot: Charles W. Eliot (1834-1926), the President of Harvard University (1869-1909). Wikipedia.
One of his sisters was Elizabeth Eliot (1831-1895), who married Stephen Hopkins Bullard (d. 1909). Find a Grave says she died at Manchester by the Sea and was buried at Mt. Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, MA.
story: To which story Fields refers is not yet known.
Mary: Probably this is not Mary Rice Jewett, but it is not yet known which of the other Marys familiar to Fields and Jewett is this one.
Holmes: Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. Key to Correspondents.
Rose Lamb ... Mifs Perkins: For Rose Lamb see Key to Correspondents.
A Miss Perkins is mentioned in other letters, but she has not yet been identified. Perhaps she is a daughter of Jewett correspondent Edith Forbes Perkins.
Bartols ... Mifs Mary: Possibly this is the family of Rev. Cyrus Augustus Bartol (1813-1900) and Elizabeth H. Howard (1803-1883). Rev. Bartol's sister was Mary Bartol (1822-1902).
Lizzy Greene: This name turns up in other letters, but she has not yet been identified. See Thaxter to Fields of 24 May 1882.
Grant and Carries: This reference is mysterious. The most obvious in a Jewett letter would be to Jewett's sister Carrie and to Olive Grant, the Jewetts' dressmaker. However, Fields may mean that Jewett mentioned in her last letter the death of President Ulysses S. Grant, which took place on 23 July 1885. See Jewett to Fields of 24 July 1885.
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.
Annie Adams Fields to Sarah Orne Jewett
Sunday --
[ 26 July 1885 ]*
A rainy sky but the girls have walked to church -- Marigold* and I are at home. I enclose you a note translated which came from [ Loulie's* friend ? ] in Germany --
How solemn this period of the Nation's [ mourning ? ] becomes and how the long days of summer with the flags at half mast must impress the whole people with the thought of that dead figure lying there and picturing our Past! How well it is that [ things move slowly ? ] sometimes --
[ Page 2 ]
Pinny* would have laughed the other night quite late when a pussy called at Fuff's window -- a very little kitty now had to be let in -- but she played so hard that there was no sleeping so she had to be put out again and Pinny to [ learn ? ] all about it when she comes!
It is less than a week now when you will come again dear and I am more than glad{.}
[ Page 3 ]
I must correct the Recollection verses dear so you can destroy those or else they will turn up someday instead of the better [ one ! ? ]
Think of me tomorrow night dear --
Goodbye my own Pinny --
Notes
1885: This date receives some support from the likelihood that Fields refers to the period of national mourning following the death of former U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant on 23 July 1885. Wikipedia. Whatever national event Fields refers to would have had to occur before the 1889 death of Mary Greenwood Lodge.This date is the Sunday after Grant's death. See note below.
Marigold: Mary Greenwood Lodge. Key to Correspondents.
Loulie's friend: Louisa Loring Dresel and her German friend, Marianne Theresia Brockhaus. Key to Correspondents.
Pinny: Jewett's nickname. Fuff is a nickname for Fields.
Recollection verses: Fields is not known to have published a poem with this title. And the word "recollection" does not appear in her last collection, The Singing Shepherd (1895).
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
Tuesday morning
[ July 1885 ]
Dear Fuff*
The long-wished for showers are hindering me from going to York and I hear that the Howells's* are at Wells, or were last Sunday. I wish that they would fall in love with the [ old corrected ] place and its green marshes and win other people there. If I feel just like it, I mean to drive round there from York first to the Cliff* to see the friends of last year and then to Wells to spend the night. I shouldn't dare to tell Mother but I should like to run away
[ Page 2 ]
and have a day by myself. I feel like your Berkshire [ deleted letters ]oldwoman who said My God! More creatures!! and yet I am having a dear quiet time at home. And now that Carrie* is better I am so thankful and hopeful that everything seems right -- It is so pleasant here in the old house -- the old houses I ought to say. And yet I like to play out doors all alone sometimes just as I used when I was a little girl -- Fuff not to be scared about Pinny going round the shore alone.
[ Page 3 ]
Every fisherman knows her and she will be protected! And I daresay she wont go! ---
What a Fuff to say that I must destroy the Pearl [ st- Fuffy ? ] poem!!* I wont!* So you may expect vast naughtiness on that point. I love them very much and you are not to be low about them or about your work or your own dear self. I wonder if you are skipping your claret for lunch or misbehaving yourself any way -- Pinny to come and tend to you awfil! [ so spelled ] (Dear Aunt Harriet!* I am so glad
[ Page 4 ]
the little visit is a blessing -- ) and* thank you ever so much for telling me about the Marsh Island.* ----- I have been wondering about that sketch of Hills which has to do with the old Pennsylvania town* -- I wonder this: if you would send it to Mr. Childs's paper* with a word -- It is entirely local and not bad. I think it might come under the head of correspondence{.} I haven't got them back from McClure* yet but will you think about this dear. I shall be quite prepared for your saying you
[ Page 5 ]
would rather not. What he does is so newspapery -- if he rose to eminence I am sure it would be as local editor -- he has a clever way of putting particularities, but no idea of general truths or principles it seems to me -- I wish we could get a place for him on a paper late this fall away from Boston -- He really has great qualities of usefulness which some paper ought to have the good of.
A good thunder-storm is [ brewing ? ] over my head and I daresay there will be pleasant weather afterward. Oh I must brag
[ Page 6 ]
about having put the black silk skirt in order all myself! (I took the overskirt from that one with the velvet petticoat --) ( dont you [ remember ? ] it was such a nice silk -- and quite fresh compared to the other which was truly a little past.) (Do give my love to Ida.* I am so sorry to miss her visit -- ) How dear of you to get Mrs. Ewing's story! I really long to read that and the Pattison life,* but do lend them until I come. I think it is being a missionary to have nice books and send them where they are needed -- (and you are so wise about that dear darling -- ) [two or three deleted words, possibly in pencil and by Fields ]
I could go on writing a great
[ Up the left margin and then across the top margin of page 6 ]
while, but I think this letter is long enough. (Made four calls last night. I [ was or am ? ] very good ladies. No more self [ complacencies ? ] from a truly humble and very loving
Pinny ))
Notes
July 1885: Fields places 1889 in the upper right of page 1. However, it seems clear that Jewett writes during the struggle she had with S. S. McClure to either place or return the Roland Hill manuscripts. See notes below. Further, Jewett writes here as if A Marsh Island (1885) were a recent publication; the novel completed its serial appearance in Atlantic in June 1885. It seems highly likely, therefore, that this and the other letters concerning Hill were composed in 1885.
Fuff: Nickname for Annie Adams Fields. See Key to Correspondents.
Howells: William Dean Howells. See Key to Correspondents.
the Cliff: York Harbor, ME is known in part for "The Cliff Walk ...an ancient shoreline path lined with beach roses, [that] winds along Eastern Point ledges above the surf." The surrounding area has long included summer residences.
Carrie: Caroline Jewett Eastman. See Key to Correspondents.
Fields has deleted Carrie's name and replaced it with "C." in pencil.
Pearl poem: Probably this poem by Fields has not been published. Just one poem from her 1895 collection, The Singing Shepherd, contains the word "pearl": "The Gift Divine."
wont!: Jewett has underlined this word 4 times.
Aunt Harriet: Arthur Holland's mother, Harriet Holland. See Key to Correspondents.
blessing ... and: The parenthesis marks here have been penciled in by Fields. She also has deleted the word "and."
All other parenthesis marks in this letter are from Fields's pencil.
Marsh Island: Jewett's novel, A Marsh Island, appeared in 1885.
Hills ... Pennsylvania town: Jewett refers to a pieces of writing by Roland C. Hill that she submitted to S. S. McClure. No further information about Mr. Hill has yet been discovered. In pencil, Fields has deleted "Hills" and inserted "P's."
Mr. Childs's paper: Wikipedia says "George William Childs (1829-1894) was an American publisher who co-owned the Philadelphia Public Ledger newspaper with financier Anthony Joseph Drexel.... 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. In addition to numerous private benefactions in educational and charitable fields, he erected memorial windows to William Cowper and George Herbert in Westminster Abbey (1877), and to John Milton in St. Margaret's, Westminster (1888), a monument to Leigh Hunt at Kensal Green, a William Shakespeare memorial fountain at Stratford-on-Avon (1887), and a monument to Richard A. Proctor. In 1875, he gave the final donation to complete the Edgar Allan Poe monument in Baltimore."
McClure: S. S. McClure. See Key to Correspondents.
Ida: Jewett and Fields shared a number of friends and family named "Ida." In this case it seems likely that Jewett refers to Ida Gertrude Beal, step-daughter of Field's sister, Louisa Jane Beal. But perhaps she means Ida Agassiz Higginson. See Key to Correspondents.
Mrs. Ewing's story ... Pattison life: Juliana Horatia Gatty Ewing (1841- 13 May 1885) was an English author of children's stories, including A Great Emergency and Other Tales (1877). Presumably, Jewett and Fields were interested in some recent book. Several of her books appeared in the last two years of her life; knowing to which Jewett refers is difficult. However, The Story of a Short Life (1885) deals with child welfare and, therefore, would be more likely than some titles to interest Fields.
Dorothy Wyndlow Pattison (1832-1878) was an Anglican nun, better known as Sister Dora. Margaret Lonsdale published her biography, Sister Dora (1880).
Pinny: Nickname for Sarah Orne Jewett. 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 Samuel Sidney McClure
South Berwick Maine
28 July
[ 1885 ]
My dear Mr. McClure
Will you please send me the Hill sketches?* I must see what else I can do with them or one of them at least, and Mrs. Fields* has a place for the other. I am particularly anxious for the Lancaster sketch --
I have been prevented
[ Page 2 ]
from doing any work of any consequence lately and so I am belated about sending you a story. I have one ofseven oreight ^or nine^ thousand words which might do if you could use one so long, but I believe you do not go over six unless for a serial?
Yours very truly
S. O. Jewett
Notes
1885 or later: In the absence of any fruitful information about Roland Hill, it seems one can be sure only that this letter was composed after S. S. McClure founded his publishing syndicate. Jewett's earliest known syndicated publication was "Stolen Pleasures" in the autumn of 1885.
Hill sketches: Jewett refers to several pieces of writing by Roland C. Hill that she submitted to McClure. No further information about him has yet been located.
Mrs. Fields: Annie Adams Fields. See Key to Correspondents.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Small Library, University of Virginia, Special Collections MSS 6218, Sarah Orne Jewett Papers. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
John Greenleaf Whittier to Annie Adams Fields
[ Begin letterhead ]
ASQUAM HOUSE.
SHEPARD HILL.
Alexander W. Weeks, - - Prop'r.
Holderness, N. H. 29th 7th Mo1885.*
[ End letterhead ]
My dear Friend
This ^is^ a wild windy morning -- one thunder-gust succeeding another -- clouds hanging low on the mountains -- a barn below us struck by lightning -- rain in torrents -- white gleams of light from some unknown quarter striking across the shadows of the lakes! We have had for the last ten days absolutely perfect weather. Our hillsides are red with raspberries & blue with blueberries. The house is full of good people -- The Yale professors [ a meaning and ? ] their families, and the Trumbulls & Davenports of Connecticut, Mr. Gray & wife & daughter from
[ Page 2 ]
Boston,* and old friends from N. Y. & Philada. But I am sorry all the time to miss thee and dear Sarah Jewett!* I suppose S. J. is at the Shoals with her sister, and that thy lovely home by the sea is full of pleasant guests. You were so good to come here last year and the year before.That with[ your not capitalized ] absence now greatly lessens my enjoyment of the place. I wonder whether I have not asked too much of thee, dear friend, -- whether I have any claim upon thy love and friendship which have made my life in its late autumn beautiful as its spring time. What can I give in return? I must, I suppose be content to owe a debt beyond possibility of payment.
[ Page 3 ]
My Cousins the Cartlands* (who send their love to thee) -- and I are about going to spend a week or two at the Sturtevant Farm which overlooks both the Winnepesauke & Asquam lakes. Some old friends will join us there. Our P. O. Address will be Centre Harbor.
I have just heard of the death of my dear old friend Mrs Thayer of Northampton the mother of Prof. Thayer* of Cambridge with whom I found a pleasant home when at school fifty odd years ago. And now the papers tell me of the departure of Maria Weston Chapman* who was an inspiration to us in the early days of Abolitionism.
I wonder if Sarah Jewett has not by this time returned to thee. If so give her
[ Page 4 ]my love, and think of me always as thy very grateful friend
John G Whittier
Notes
1885: The underlined portions represent blanks in the letterhead that Whittier has filled in to complete the date.
This manuscript has a penciled "1" at the top center of page 1, and a penciled "X" appears in the left margin before the first paragraph on page 1 and next to the line mentioning Prof. Thayer on p. 3.
Yale professors .. the Trumbulls & Davenports of Connecticut ...Mr. Gray & wife & daughter from Boston: In several letters from Asquam House, Whittier mentions Yale guests, but does not name them. The Trumbulls, Davenports and Grays also have not yet been identified.
Sarah Jewett: Sarah Orne Jewett. Her sister is Mary Rice Jewett. See Key to Correspondents.
Cartlands: Richard Cary says that Joseph Cartland (1810-1898) and Whittier's 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.
Mrs Thayer ... Prof. Thayer: Susanna Bradley Thayer (1801- 24 July 1885) of Northampton, MA. Her husband was Abijah Wyman Thayer (1796-1864), and her son was James Bradley Thayer (1831-1902), legal theorist and Harvard University law professor.
Maria Weston Chapman: Chapman (1806- 12 July 1885) was an American abolitionist author and editor.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Huntington Library, San Marino, CA, in the James T. Fields collection: mss FI 71-4751. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
This letter has been transcribed previously by Pickard, Letters of John Greenleaf Whittier. v. 3, 1396.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Lillian Munger
[July - August 1885]*
My Dear Lily
I think of you so often and wish I could hear from you and know how you are getting on. Do ask your friend to write me again if you do not feel equal to it yourself. Dear child I hope and pray that you find some comfort already. I know you must. I will only send you this little word to-day instead of a letter but I wish very much to hear from you.
Yours affectionately
S. O. J.
Notes
July - August 1885: It seems likely that this letter refers to the death of Lillian Munger's mother, Ann Celia J. (Anderson) Munger, which took place on July 1, 1885, according to a biographical sketch of her father. Rev. Charles Munger, which appears in History of Methodism in Maine, 1793-1886, p. 494.
See Marti Hohmann in "Sarah Orne Jewett to Lillian M. Munger: Twenty-Three Letters."
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Old Berwick Historical Society, in the archives at the Counting House Museum in South Berwick, ME: item 1974I 0003.C. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Annie Adams Fields to Sarah Orne Jewett
Tuesday Morning.
[ August 1885 ]*
Dearest child! Here is a mass of [ 2 unrecognized words ] from Georgina Hogarth* -- How hard [ Marnie ?] has made her life! It is all very sad and I cannot help seeing from what she says that there something very wrong. But I am always hoping I am mistaken --
Anna Dresel* is here and we are having a "very dear time together", as Pinny* says -- This morning I take her over to see the Twins --* She thinks their place as beautiful as [ ours -- ? ] it really is!!
I am puzzling over what to do with poor [ Smee ? ]* I think she will do better to go to Gloucester with her brother -- She is a ne'er do well if ever there was one --
[ Page 2 ]
I am sure it will be a good thing to get Mr. E.* over to his wife just as soon as you can but I wish there were some one else to do it -- since there is not however I am most grateful (with you) that you can.
How exquisite these cool days are yesterday and today --
I send you some verses. [ God corrected ] keep you my darling and [ by for be ? ] well [ by ? ] bring you home again to me!
your own
A.F.
How our country has been uplifted by one grand week after another since the war --
Even Grant's death*
Notes
August 1885: This date is supported by Fields's report of the recent death of Ulysses Grant on 23 July 1885.
Georgina Hogarth: Georgina Hogarth (1827-1917) was "the sister-in-law, housekeeper, and adviser of English novelist Charles Dickens and the editor of two volumes of his collected letters after his death." Wikipedia.
Anna Dresel: Louisa Dresel's mother. Key to Correspondents.
Pinny: A Jewett nickname.
Twins: The sisters, but not twins, Helen Choate Bell and Miriam Foster Pratt. Key to Correspondents.
Smee: This transcription seems unlikely, and the person remains unidentified.
Mr. E: This may be a client of Associated Charities. He has not been identified.
Grant's death: U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant died on 23 July 1885.
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.
Annie Adams Fields to Sarah Orne Jewett
Thursday
[ August 1885 ]*
My darling:
I forgot to tell you in my note of this morning that when I went to the window at half past five, there you were, "a little white [ moth* corrected ]" waiting to speak to me.
We talked a moment { -- ] I sent you a kiss and let [ him ? corrected ] fly away --
Friday
The company sped forth yesterday to lunch and to tea and have again gone forth to lunch while I catch a moment to bless you dear and thank you for your letter from Rye --
[ Page 2 ]
It was very pleasant at Mrs Cabots' yesterday! Mrs. Dresel and Mifs King* were there and no one else. It seemed the ladies wanted me to bring the Woolseys* and thought I would suggest it -- hence the Express! However we are to go again nextThurs^Tues^day. Great regrets over your absence.
Big thunder shower in the afternoon -- so I had to get myself home by
[ Page 3 ]
train, but I did not get wet. The new thin black dress came in the nick of time --
O my darling I do hope you are not suffering with the heat. I have everything to say to you but I forget now everything but your dear sweet self and my love to you.
The company is getting along very well I think --
By the way the book which was so to speak "in the offing" was Mr Arnolds "Discourses in America"* sent from the Author --
[ Page 4 ]
It does seem so strange not to have you night and morning!
Goodbye -- tell me if you are pretty well and not troubled by the heat --
your
A.F.
Mr. & Mrs Kidder* came yesterday. Missed you regretfully.
Notes
1885: This date is supported by Fields reporting that Matthew Arnold has sent a copy of his new book, Discourses in America (1885).
moth: Jewett's poem, "Verses for a Letter" appeared in Atlantic Monthly, April 1880. It opens:
Did you send out a little white mothMrs Cabots ...Mrs. Dresel ... Mifs King: Susan Burley Cabot, Anna Dresel, mother of Louisa Dresel, and, probably, Caroline Howard King. Key to Correspondents.
On an errand to-night?
Woolseys: Sarah Chauncey and Dora Woolsey. Key to Correspondents.
Arnold's "Discourses in America": British poet and critic Matthew Arnold (1822-1888) published Discourses in America in 1885.
Kidder: "Henry Purkitt Kidder (1823-1886) was an American bank founder born in Cambridge, Massachusetts....His parents were Thomas Kidder, a Boston civil servant in charge of meat and fish inspection, and Clarissa Purkitt. Henry Kidder was the founder of investment bank Kidder Peabody and served on several charitable boards." Wikipedia.
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
Home Saturday afternoon [ August 1885 ]*
Dear Fuff*
(Mary* and I are just going to start for [ unrecognized word, intended Boston ? ] and I shall spend the night with Cora* and come up to-morrow afternoon.)*
What balls and routs upon Thunderbolt Hill!* The sedan chairs must be all out there moonlight nights and such singing and junketing -- and a rural Pinny* sits under her ellum tree and admires
[ Page 2 ]
it from afar --
Mr. Howells* thinks that this age frowns upon the romantic, that it is no use to write
themromance any more, but dear me, how much of it there is left in every-day life after all! It must be the fault of the writers that such writing is dull, but what shall I do with my "White Heron* now she
[ Page 3 ]
is written? She isn't a very good magazine story, but I love her and I mean to keep her for the beginning ^of my next book^ and ^the^ reason for Mrs. Whitman's* pretty cover -- In the meantime I will simply state that the next story is called Marsh Rosemary,* and I made it up as I drove to the station in Wells this morning. It deals with real life. Somehow dear, dull old Wells is
[ Page 4 ]
a first-rate place to find stories in -- Do you remember how we drove up that long straight road across the marshes last summer? It was along there the Marsh Rosemary grew --
(Carrie* is nicely settled and great friends with Mrs. Howells [ already corrected ] -- [ deleted word ] not to speak of others -- I went out sailing with Carrie yesterday and was howling seasick, but I think my cold is much)
[ Up the left margin and part way across the top margin of page 1 ]
improved !! It has been a hot cold and quite a misery in a small way, but I feel as if it were a thing of the past.)
[ Up the left margin of page 2 ]
It has been perfectly delightful to see so much of the Howells's and I was so carried back
[ Up the left margin and cross-written at the top of page 3 ]
to those old days in Cambridge when I used to see them more. (Good by dear dear Fuff. Please give my love to Marigold,* and tell me all about her --)
[ no signature ]
Notes
1886: The date 1883? appears in the upper right of page 1, but clearly this letter is from before Jewett's 1886 collection, A White Heron, and before May 1, 1886, by which time "Marsh Rosemary" would appear in Atlantic. Almost certainly, the letter was composed before Jewett to Fields of Tuesday Morning, August 1885 (see the notes for that letter.) Her description of the activity at Fields's summer home supports the summer date as well.
Fuff: A Jewett nickname for Annie Fields. See Key to Correspondents.
Mary: Mary Rice Jewett. See Key to Correspondents.
Cora: Cora Clark Rice. See Key to Correspondents.
Thunderbolt Hill: The bluff upon which Fields's summer cottage stands in Manchester-by-the-Sea, MA.
Pinny: Pinny Lawson (Pin), one of Jewett's nicknames.
afternoon): Parenthesis marks in pencil and probably another hand. This is the case for all parenthesis marks in this letter.
Mr. Howells: William Dean Howells. See Key to Correspondents.
White Heron: A White Heron and Other Stories appeared in 1886; the volume included the title story and "Marsh Rosemary," which had appeared first in May 1886.
Mrs. Whitman's: Sarah Wyman Whitman. See Key to Correspondents.
Marsh Rosemary: Jewett's "Marsh Rosemary" appeared in Atlantic Monthly in May 1886.
Carrie: Caroline (Carrie) Augusta Jewett Eastman. See Key to Correspondents.
Marigold: A nickname for Mary Langdon Greenwood (Mrs. James) Lodge. 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's Transcription
A part of this letter appears in Annie Fields, Letters of Sarah Orne Jewett (1911), p. 59.
Home, Saturday afternoon
Mr. Howells thinks that this age frowns upon the romantic, that it is no use to write romance any more; but dear me, how much of it there is left in every-day life after all. It must be the fault of the writers that such writing is dull, but what shall I do with my "White Heron" now she is written? She isn't a very good magazine story, but I love her, and I mean to keep her for the beginning of my next book and the reason for Mrs. Whitman's pretty cover. In the meantime I will simply state that the next story is called "Marsh Rosemary," and I made it up as I drove to the station in Wells this morning. It deals with real life. Somehow dear, dull old Wells is a first-rate place to find stories in. Do you remember how we drove up that long straight road across the marshes last summer? It was along there the Marsh Rosemary grew.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Horace Parker Chandler
South Berwick
5 August 1885*
My dear Mr. Chandler
I have not been successful in getting proper photographs of the old house -- There was a young man who opened photograph rooms for a few weeks who I pressed into my service, but the perspective &c was so bad ^the views^ gave such a poor
[ Page 2 ]
idea that I would much rather not have them used. I am sorry to have kept you waiting so long. The man has gone back to Portland now and I shall go away myself this week.
You can safely say that the house where I was born is a fine specimen of the old colonial architecture,* with broad
[ Page 3 ]
hall and elaborately [ finished ? corrected ] panelings and cornices* -- and that I drew some of the description of the Brandon House in Deephaven* from it --
Yours sincerely,
Sarah O. Jewett
Notes
1885: Jewett and Chandler are corresponding about a biographical sketch of Jewett that appeared in Every Other Saturday on 5 December 1885.
architecture: Jewett's handwriting is uncertain; she may have written "architexture."
cornices: From this point, the rest of the letter is in pencil.
Deephaven: Jewett's first novel, published in 1877.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the University of New England Maine Women Writers Collection, Sarah Orne Jewett Correspondence Box 3 Folder 161. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Robert Collyer
Thursday 8th August
[ 1885 ]*
[ Begin letterhead ]
South Berwick, Maine
[ End letterhead ]
Dear Doctor Collyer
I sent a letter to Newburyport to you a few days ago and I have thought since that you might change your plans or something, so I write again by way of New York to say how much I wish that you and your daughter could come here
[ Page 2 ]
on Tuesday afternoon if you are in the region, and spend the night and next day. I hope that Annie Fields* will be here but she may possibly be kept in town where she is now, I am sorry to say, in spite of the heat looking after her charity work.
It would be so good
[ Page 3 ]
to see you -- I hope nothing will prevent your coming.
Yours always sincerely
Sarah O. Jewett
I think we can be sure of A.F. if she knows you will be here.
Notes
1885: With this letter is an envelope addressed to Reverend Collyer, redirected from New York City to Newburyport MA, first cancelled on 8 August 1885.
Annie Fields: See Key to Correspondents.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the University of New England Maine Women Writers Collection, Sarah Orne Jewett Correspondence Box 3 Folder 152
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Celia Thaxter to Annie Adams Fields
Shoals. Aug 8th (85*
Dearest Annie:
I have thought of you every day but writing is next to impossible -- this is at early breakfast -- half past five A.M. Roland* is in Newfoundland. I had a note from him at Halifax -- so far well. I try not to be too anxious. The summer flies -- never so lovely, never such beautiful weather, flowers, music, never such beautiful people best of all -- I wish you & Sarah* could come here -- where is she? I have heard nothing from her -- Charlotte Dana is here, so intensely appreciative, all ears for Bach & Beethoven & Jessie's friend Hattie Bishop,* revelling in the music, & truly Mr Eichberg plays like Ariel upon this more than two centuries old Amati, & Paine outdoes himself -- then there are other, lesser stars, tho' Grace Gorham* is
[ Page 2 ]
second to none, both Paine & Eichberg say she is the finest amateur pianist they know, -- she is the only woman I really care to hear play -- Charlotte Dana said "When you asked her to play I made up my mind to put up with it, as one has to do with young ladies' playing, but when you asked her to play Chopin I shuddered!" No words could express her delight however, when Grace did play. O she grasps at eternal things, it is no tickling of the ear. I never heard the like -- Do you know her? very blonde & beautifully shaped (her hands a poem in them selves, moving over the keys.) in mourning always for her lover lost a year or two ago. A most interesting girl -- I expect Rose & her friend on Monday -- The Bowditches* are still here with a parlor opposite mine, dear kind old man!
Would I had time to tell of the charming people! The only drawback to the beautiful time is the tremendous pressure. I have not time for sleeping & eating, & one must keep one's balance. This is only a word to tell you I love you & think of you{.}
[ Up the left margin of page 1 ]
Do write to your CT.
Notes
85: Diagonal lines indicate that someone has deleted much of this manuscript, all but the last 5 lines of page 1 and the bottom half of page 2. Between lines at the end of the first diagonal deletion appears this note probably in another hand: "Begin Shoals August 1885".
Roland: Thaxter's youngest son. See Key to Correspondents.
Sarah: Sarah Orne Jewett. See Key to Correspondents.
Charlotte Dana ... Jessie's friend Hattie Bishop: Probably Thaxter refers to Ruth Charlotte Dana Lyman (1844-1939), daughter of American author, Richard Henry Dana, Jr. (1815-1882).
Jessie almost certainly is amateur pianist, Jessie Cochrane. See Key to Correspondents.
Cochrane's friend probably is Hattie Bishop Speed (1858-1942), founder of the Speed Museum of Art in Louisville, KY. She also was a respected amateur pianist.
Mr Eichberg ... Ariel ... Amati ... Paine ... Grace Gorham:
Julius Eichberg (1824-1893) was a German-born composer, musical director and educator in Boston. His wife was author, Sophie Mertens (d. 1927).
Thaxter refers to Ariel, a spirit character in William Shakespeare's The Tempest. The character's magical abilities include producing charming music.
The Amati family of violin makers flourished in Cremona, Italy in the 16th-18th centuries.
John Knowles Paine (1839-1906) was an American composer who also served as professor of music at Harvard University.
Pianist Grace Gorham (1853-1926) later married Arthur Batelle Whiting (1861-1936), an American pianist, composer, and music critic. See also Wikipedia, and Boston Sunday Globe, 26 May 1889, p. 13.
Rose -- The Bowditches: Thaxter probably refers to Rose Lamb. See Key to Correspondents.
Dr. Henry Ingersoll Bowditch (1808-1892) owned a cottage on Appledore. His wife was Olivia Jane Yardley (1816-1890), and their daughter was Olivia Yardley Bowditch (1842-1928).
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/qb98p518c
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Samuel Sidney McClure
Manchester by the Sea
Mass.
10 August
[ 1885 ]*
Dear Mr. McClure
I must ask you once again to send me immediately Mr. Hill's sketches.* I am very sorry for this delay -- it is not business-like either on your part or mine. I am
[ Page 2 ]
responsible for them of course and under the circumstances, I must expect you either to forward the three papers to me or to send me the amount of their value -- I have waited several weeks now, and while I was ready at first to make allowance for your hurry
[ Page 3 ]
I cannot help feeling that it is quite time the five minutes for sealing them up and addressing them to me should be found -- As I have already said twice, I will refund the price of the return postage to you immediately
Your friend,
S. O. Jewett.
Notes
1885 or later: In the absence of any fruitful information about Roland Hill, it seems one can be sure only that this letter was composed after S. S. McClure founded his publishing syndicate. Jewett's earliest known syndicated publication was "Stolen Pleasures" in the autumn of 1885.
Mr. Hill's sketches: Jewett refers to several pieces of writing by Roland C. Hill that she submitted to McClure. No further information about him has yet been located.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Small Library, University of Virginia, Special Collections MSS 6218, Sarah Orne Jewett Papers. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Eben Norton Horsford
Manchester by the Sea
16 August [ 1885 ]*
Dear Prof. Horsford
I ought to have answered your kind letter sooner, but I was housekeeping at home and I had to give my whole mind to that and desert my inkbottle -- let it dry up I may say! My mother and sister were dispersed to various points
[ Page 2 ]
on the sea shore and I had relays of visitors which does not often happen. I hope they fared half as well as if anybody had been at home! -- I am only here for a few days now but I am coming over again next month to stay longer, and I am afraid that will cover all the time
[ Page 3 ]
I can spend away from home before cold weather{.} I must begin my big book* you know -- and so I am afraid I cannot go to Shelter Island* this year -- much as I wish that it were possible -- I confess that if I needed any extra inducement, (which I dont!) Mr. Cushing* would amply suffice. You must tell me by and by all about your new discoveries --
[ Page 4 ]
We have spoken of you all so often since we heard of Mrs. Jackson's* going away which saddened us so much -- We have been seeing the [ Danes ? ]* a good deal and Alice and Annie Longfellow* come here tomorrow for their visit. I do not think Annie looks quite so well as she did at York. I thought she seemed much stronger there. I went down for one night tell Lilian* --
Give my dear love to Mrs.
[ Up the left margin of page 1 ]
Horsford and the girls and believe how affectionately I am yours
Sarah O. Jewett
Notes
1885: This date is supported by Jewett's apparent reference to the death of Helen Hunt Jackson.
Shelter Island: Horsford's family inherited the Sylvester Manor on Shelter Island, off the east coast of Long Island, New York.
my big book: Probably, Jewett refers to The Story of the Normans (1887), for her a major project.
Mr. Cushing: Frank Hamilton Cushing (1857-1900), of the Smithsonian Institute and the Bureau of American Ethnology was a scholar of Native Americans.
Mrs. Jackson's: Helen Fiske Hunt Jackson (1830- 2 August 1885) was an American author and activist upon behalf of Native Americans. Jewett seems to refer here to her death. She was a friend of the Horsford family.
Danes: This transcription is uncertain and these people have not been identified.
Alice and Annie Longfellow: For Alice Longfellow, see Key to Correspondents. Alice's younger sister was Anne Allegra (1855-1934).
Lilian: One of 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. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to John Greenleaf WhittierManchester, Mass.
Monday August 16, 1885
My dear Friend:If I had written you every time I have thought of it this summer you would have had half a room full of letters! I hoped that it would come about that A. F.* and I should not miss our little visit to Asquam* but she has felt that she ought not to go away and until within a few days I have not been able to leave home. My sister was ill when I went away from her six weeks ago and then between relays of visitors and my family's dispersing to the seashore, I was very much "dispersed" myself from my pen and ink's neighbourhood. I like to keep house dearly, but I have to give my whole mind to it!! It has been a lovely summer in Berwick and I never loved the dear old place so much -- it is harder every time to come away and when I am here, I "strike root" amazingly, so I am quite grieved to the heart every little while. I am going home again directly -- this is only a visit between visits like the old topers "drinking between drinks." The Longfellow girls1 are coming tomorrow and after their visit is over Mabel Lowell and her boys,2 but I shall not be here then. I did get two short stories done:3 one is highly approved by A. F. and the other reminds me of an installation prayer which Father used to mention. The parson was thanking God for all the predecessors in that pulpit (which was in Dover) and he extolled Father Bellamy and all the rest straight along, until he came to one who had been an awful scallawag: "And now O Lord we come to thy next servant of whom Lord, of whom -- we -- can't -- speak -- quite -- so -- well.''
I hope your dear cousins, Mr. and Mrs. Cartland* are with you, and that you will give my love to them. My sister Mary* and I are going to drive to Manchester again some time next month and I shall call all along the road, as the farmers' wives do in "Witchtrot."4
We have been much saddened by the news of H. H.'s death5 and talk of her and her work a great deal. How many people will miss her, especially those to whom she has reached out such a strong helping hand. Edith Thomas6 for one!
I think now and then about the story you sent me,7 and I have faith that something is growing out of it. I have to work backward when I get an idea in this way, for I usually know my people and their surroundings first and then, whatever particular happens to them is secondary.
My hand is getting better, of late, and does not begin to trouble me as it did for so many months, and I should have written a good deal this last time I was at home if there had not been so many other things to do. I hope to take Mrs. Fields back with me for a few days when she leaves here in October. She would send her love to you by this conveyance I am sure, but one small letter cannot carry two people's whole affectionateness any way in the world. You know how dearly we both love you and I am more than your grateful and affectionate
S. O. J.
Notes
1. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow had three daughters: Alice Mary (1850-1928); Edith (1853-1915) who married Richard Henry Dana; and Annie Allegra (18551934) who married Joseph G. Thorp. Of the three, Miss Jewett was most familiar with Alice.
2. James Russell Lowell's daughter Mabel (1847-1898) married Edward Burnett; they had three sons and two daughters. Mrs. Burnett collaborated with Charles Eliot Norton on a Grolier Club edition of John Donne in 1895.
3. Probably "Mary and Martha," Christian Union, XXXI I (November 26, 1885), 12-13 , and "The Dulham Ladies," Atlantic Monthly, LVII (April 1886), 455-462; both collected in A White Heron and Other Stories (1886).*
4. Witch Trot Road ran through Wells, Maine, past the Jewett house and to the Lower Landing at the Hamilton House. It abounded in the legendry of bewitched animals, mildewed crops, secret compacts with the devil, and tormented souls driven for centuries by wizards and witches.*
5. Helen Hunt Jackson (1830-1885) died August 12. Under the initials "H. H." and the nom de plume "Saxe Holm," she wrote poems and fiction, best remembered of which is the novel Ramona.
6. Edith M. Thomas (1854-1925), poet with a classical idiom, impressed Mrs. Jackson when she called on her in a New York hotel with a scrapbook of unpublished verses. Mrs. Jackson's personal persuasion was responsible for the publication of some of these. Miss Thomas' rondeau, "A Friend at Court," acknowledges the value of such aid; her "Born Deaf, Dumb, and Blind" owes much in diction and metaphor to Mrs. Jackson's "The Loneliness of Sorrow."
7. "The Courting of Sister Wisby," Atlantic Monthly, LIX (May 1887), 577-586; collected in The King of Folly Island and Other People (1888). After publication, Whittier wrote that he had read it "with great satisfaction" and was "glad to have any hint of a story acted upon so admirably." (Cary, "More Whittier Letters, p. 135.)
Editor's Notes
A.F.: Annie Adams Fields. See Key to Correspondents
Asquam: Now called Squam Lake, Lake Asquam is "in the Lakes Region of central New Hampshire, United States, south of the White Mountains, straddling the borders of Grafton, Carroll, and Belknap counties. The largest town center on the lake is Holderness."
Mr. and Mrs. Cartland: Cary identifies this couple as Joseph Cartland (1810-1898) and Gertrude Cartland (1822-1911), who accompanied Whittier on his summer vacations in Maine and New Hampshire for five decades, and in whose home at Newburyport, Massachusetts, he lived most of his last fifteen winters.
sister Mary: Mary Rice Jewett. See Key to Correspondents.
1886: Cary's guesses about which stories Jewett completed in the summer of 1885 are reasonable, but one may wonder about the "awful scalawag." While the merchant who sells bangs to the Dobin sisters in "The Dulham Ladies" is less than scrupulous, Jerry Lane in "Marsh Rosemary" (Atlantic May 1886) seems the more awful scalawag among the characters in her stories published in the year after this letter.
Witch Trot Road: Wendy Pirsig's The Placenames of South Berwick (2007) shows a different route for Witchtrot Road that does not pass the Jewett House or extend to Hamilton House (pp. 68-71).
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.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Louisa Loring Dresel
Thunderbolt Hill*Dear Loulie
Sunday
[ Summer 1885 ]*
I thought I was quick as I could be! I just spoke to Mrs. Whitman* and clipped into the study and out round the piazza with an offering of a lemon one and a peppermint for provisions on the drive home -- and when I reached the brow of the hill thinking I should
[ Page 2 ]
overtake you you were already getting into the [ deleted letters ] carriage! I watched you from the top of the hill with my gibralters* in my hands, so do come soon again and get them. I forgot to tell you too what seems to belong to you in a way; I
[ Page 3 ]
have been "making up" the White Heron* again and so when I get down to Berwick it is really going to be written -- no postponement on account of the weather!
In a hurry -- just before tea --
Your affectionate
S. O. J.
Notes
Thunderbolt Hill: The location of the Gambrel Cottage of Annie Adams Fields in Manchester-by-the-Sea, MA. See Key to Correspondents.
Summer 1885: Written in another hand and ink at the top left of page one is the date: 1885. This seems likely to be correct, for Jewett indicates in the letter that she has not yet completed a draft of "A White Heron." She reports near the beginning of 1886 that William Dean Howells has rejected the story for The Atlantic. That Jewett is writing from the Fields home in Manchester suggests that the time is warm weather, when Fields usually was at her summer home. See Sarah Orne Jewett to Annie Adams Fields, dated early 1886.
gibralters: Wikipedia says that Gibraltar rock candy, associated with Salem, MA, was the first commercially manufactured candy sold in the United States, beginning in 1806.
"the White Heron": Jewett's story first appeared when she included it in her 1886 volume, A White Heron and Other Stories.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Columbia University (New York) Library in Special Collections, Jewett. Transcription from a microfilm copy and annotation by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Annie Adams Fields
[ Fragment ]
[ August 1885 ]*
(nice to look at, for that sort of prettyness, and she had a dress on yesterday that was a pleasure --)* Her mother is astray out of a Dickens* book but I don't know which one. I wish I knew that kind of people well enough to write about them -- they are dreadfully interesting sometimes. Today I am plunged into the depths of the rural districts and this promised to be one of my dear country stories like the Only Son* and [ underlined unrecognized word ] -- Good
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heavens! what a wonderful kind of chemistry it is that evolves all the details of a story and unites* them presently in one flash of time! For two weeks I have been noticing a certain string of things and having [ hints ? corrected ] of character &c -- and day before yesterday the plan of the story comes into my mind and in half an hour I have put all the little words and ways into their places and can read it off to myself like print -- Who does it, for
[ Page 3 ]
I grow more and more sure that I dont. I am going to grapple with the difficulties of a run-away husband! I wish I could tell you all about it, but I mean to have it done in two or three days. I ought to be preparing The Dulham Ladies, and A Grey Man for "the press"* -- but it is better to get hold of this new one while I can. I send you a
Scribner^Century.^ Do read the Virginia girl's paper about the war.* We
[ Page 4 ]
have often heard bits of talk that match it, but those pathetic days have never been more truthfully and delicately written down. -- (Oh, about Mrs. Burnett* I think I must ask somebody else about her. I take it that it is not the things she wanted to say about herself that Mme Bentzon* wants -- I know three or four people who have seen a good deal of Mrs. Burnett. I used to know her a little myself --
Oh you dear Fuff! what are you playing with Marigold?*
I want to see both of you but
[ up the left margin and then across the top margin of page 3 ]
I shall be there soon. I wish I could show you all my pink and red hollyhocks. I never saw such a blooming out. Dear Darling I wonder if you will be glad to see me as I shall to see you!
Goodby from your Pin* ----
Notes
August 1885: At the top of page 1, Fields has penciled: "Madame Sands" in green. Notes that may also be by Fields are in black: "P. 51" and "Dec. 1889." The page number refers to her 1911 collection, Letters of Sarah Orne Jewett.
In her 1911 volume, Fields gives a complete date: "Thursday night, 4 December, 1889. At the end of the letter, Jewett mentions the extraordinary blooming of her hollyhocks, which would occur in middle-to-late summer. The very latest date of this letter then, would be before frost in 1885, probably September.
As the opening page of the letter is missing, there is no confirmation that Jewett actually wrote this date. December 4 fell on Wednesday in 1889. 4 December fell on a Friday in 1885, on a Thursday in 1884, but clearly this letter could not be from 1884.
"An Only Son" appeared in Atlantic Monthly in November 1883, "The Dulham Ladies" in April 1886, and "A Gray Man" first appeared in A White Heron in 1886. The story of a runaway husband mentioned as not yet complete probably is "Marsh Rosemary," which appeared in Atlantic in May 1886.
Finally, Jewett mentions a Century article that first appeared in the August 1885 issue. The letter must have been composed after early August of 1885.
See also Sarah Orne Jewett to John Greenleaf Whittier of 16 August 1885.
pleasure --): The parenthesis marks are penciled by Fields, and a line has been drawn from the "Madame Sands" note at the top and the second parenthesis mark.
At the beginning of the next sentence, Fields has inserted between Her and mother: "Madame S's."
Presumably, she refers to French author, George Sand (1804-1876). Jewett probably has been reading Story of My Life (1854-55). Sand's father had an aristocratic background, but her mother, Sophie-Victoire Delaborde, according to Wikipedia, was a commoner.
Dickens: British novelist, Charles Dickens (1812-1870).
unites: Fields transcribed this word as "writes," but it seems clear that Jewett wrote "unites."
Near the end of "The Poet," Emerson says: "He hears a voice, he sees a beckoning. Then he is apprised, with wonder, what herds of daemons hem him in. He can no more rest; he says, with the old painter, 'By God, it is in me, and must go forth of me.' He pursues a beauty, half seen, which flies before him. The poet pours out verses in every solitude. Most of the things he says are conventional, no doubt; but by and by he says something which is original and beautiful. That charms him. He would say nothing else but such things. In our way of talking, we say, 'That is yours, this is mine;' but the poet knows well that it is not his; that it is as strange and beautiful to him as to you; he would fain hear the like eloquence at length."
the war: "A Virginia Girl in the First Year of the War," by C. C. Harrison, The Century Magazine 30 (August 1885) pp. 606-614.
Mrs. Burnett: Jewett was well acquainted with poet James Russell Lowell's daughter, Mabel Lowell Burnett -- See Key to Correspondents. Therefore, it seems likely that here she refers to Frances Eliza Hodgson Burnett (1849-1924), a British writer who spent a number of years in the United States, whom Jewett may have met in Washington, DC.
Mme Bentzon: Marie Thérèse de Solms Blanc, who wrote under this pen-name. See Key to Correspondents.
Fuff: A nickname for Annie Adams Fields. See Key to Correspondents.
Marigold: A nickname for Mary Langdon Greenwood (Mrs. James) Lodge. 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.
Annie Fields Transcription
Annie Fields includes passages from this letter in Letters of Sarah Orne Jewett (1911), p. 51. They are folded in with passages from other letters. Only the final 2 paragraphs below actually belong with the above letter.
Thursday night, 4 December, 1889
Such a day! -- the weather could not be resisted, and I went to York -- you would have truly loved it, for I never knew more delicious weather, as bright and sweet as Indian summer, only more bracing. I had my luncheon out of doors and sat afterward in an old boat on the pebbles and watched the great waves of a high tide. I could not bear to come away. You never saw anything more beautiful than that great stretch of shore, and the misty sea, and the gulls, so lonely, so full, and so friendly, somehow. I went chiefly for the sake of seeing my old friend, and found her in a mood that matched the day, all her wildness and strangeness of last summer quite gone, and a sweet pathos and remembrance come in their stead. She was so glad to see me, that my heart cries to think of her. She said once, "I want you to thank your mother for bringing you into the world, you have been such a pleasure to me." -- And then I must go to her closets and find her best cap, and a new double gown, and a better shoulder-shawl, and help her put them on because I had come! She has grown so thin and small, as if she were slowly turning into a fairy, and it was so sweet to see her less troubled, though she remembered perfectly the last time I was there, broken as she seemed to me then. The sunshine filled the quaint old room and we had a delightful long talk, though once in a while she would be a little bewildered, and tell me over and over again about her sister's death. "I lay down beside her," she would say, "and I thought she seemed very cold, but I put my arms round her"; and then she would cry, and I would talk about something else, until in a minute or two she would be smiling again through her sad old tears. As long as I could see the house, she was standing at her chamber window and waving her handkerchief to me, and I promised to go down again the first time I came home. She seems very feeble. I had a strong feeling that I should not see her again. I must tell you that she said with strange emphasis, "I have seen Betsey,* she came one night and stood beside my bed; it shocked me a good deal, but I saw her, and one of my brothers came with her." As she told me this I believed it was the truth, and no delusion of her unsteady brain. I ought not to write any more, but somehow there is a great deal to tell you.This morning I was out, taking a drive about town with John and I saw such a coast from way up the long hillside down to the tavern garden, and directly afterward down in the village I beheld Stubby* faring along with his sled, which is about as large as a postage-stamp. So I borryed it, as you say, and was driven up to the top of the hill street and down I slid over that pound-cake frosting of a coast most splendid, and meekly went back to the village and returned the sled. Then an hour later in bursts Stubby, with shining morning face: "There were two fellows that said Aunt Sarah was the boss, she went down side-saddle over the hill just like the rest of the boys!"
I have been reading Christopher North's "Genius and Character of Burns"--father's old Wiley and Putnam copy* with such delight, and this evening I got down the poems and longed to have them with you. We don't read Burns half enough, do we? And when I read again the eloquence of the Wilson book,* I wondered at that dull placidity that was lately printed in the "Atlantic," yet I was most grateful to it for freshening my thought of the big Scotsman. Do let us read bits of the Burns together some time, just for the bigness of his affection and praise.
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.*
Madame Sand's mother is astray out of a Dickens book, but I don't know which one. I wish I knew that kind of people well enough to write about them; they are dreadfully interesting sometimes. Today I am plunged into the depths of the rural districts, and this promised to be one of my dear country stories like the "Only Son." Good heavens! what a wonderful kind of chemistry it is that evolves all the details of a story and writes them presently in one flash of time! For two weeks I have been noticing a certain string of things and having hints of character, etc., and day before yesterday the plan of the story comes into my mind, and in half an hour I have put all the little words and ways into their places and can read it off to myself like print. Who does it? for I grow more and more sure that I don't!
I am going to grapple with the difficulty of a run-away husband. I wish I could tell you all about it, but I mean to have it done in two or three days. I ought to be preparing the "Dulham Ladies" and "A Gray Man" for "the press," but it is better to get hold of this new one while I can. I send you a "Century." Do read the Virginia girl's paper about the war. We have often heard bits of talk that match it, but those pathetic days have never been more truthfully and delicately written down.
Notes for these paragraphs
Betsey .... Stubby: Stubby is Jewett's nephew Theodore Eastman (4 August 1879 - 1931). Betsey almost certainly is Elizabeth Barrell (c. 1799 - November 12, 1883), and Jewett is speaking of visiting Mary Barrell (c. 1804 - June 6, 1889), who lived in what is now the Sayward-Wheeler House in York Harbor, ME. for much of the 19th century.
Christopher North's "Genius and Character of Burns"-- father's old Wiley and Putnam copy ... the Wilson book: Robert Burns (1759-1796), famous Scots poet. John Wilson (1785-1854) wrote under the name of Christopher North. Wilson's The Genius, and Character of Burns was published by Wiley and Putnam in 1845.
the Academy: The Berwick Academy in South Berwick, Maine. See "The Old Town of Berwick," for information and illustrations.
the mood had spent itself: see the opening of R. W. Emerson's, "Nature."
Maine Women Writers Collection Transcription
This transcription of seemingly the same letter includes Jewett's paragraph on the chemistry of story-writing, but it opens with a paragraph that has not yet been discovered elsewhere. Perhaps it comes from an earlier missing page?
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 73, 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.
I have been reading and writing this rainy morning and look forward to a blessed long afternoon. I would sell my mornings cheap for all the good I or any body else even gets out of them. It is a great pity to lose so much of the day. I used to like to sit up half the night but I am getting to be a sleepyhead like you, and so I have come unto a land in which it seemed always afternoon. Such a good letter from Carrie* this morning………….
Notes for this fragment
A typewritten note on this transcription reads: (before Oct. 1891). The ellipses indicate a partial transcription.
Carrie: Caroline Jewett Eastman. See Key to Correspondents.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Annie Adams Fields
Tuesday morning
[ August 1885 ]*
Dear Fuff --*
Thank you so much for Thy friends* letter -- how dear he is to you and how much he loves you! We mustn't let any more chances slip than we can help of being with him, and must look at it from his side just as much as we can. There never was anything more touching than what he says to you about his [ autumn corrected ] being as beautiful as spring ( -- And Mrs. Dresel's* belief about the medium was so true and lovely. Dear Fuff you do give such good gifts to all of us!)
I have been reading and
[ Page 2 ]
writing this rainy morning -- and look forward to a blessed long afternoon. I would sell my mornings cheap for all the good I or anybody else ever gets out of them -- It is a great pity to lose so much of the day -- I used to like to sit up half the night, but I am getting to be a sleepyhead like you, and so I have come into a land in which it seeméd always afternoon* ---- (Such a good letter from Carrie* this morning. She is so well and having such a good time with
[ Page 3 ]
several new friends, and thinks more and more highly of Mrs. Howells* -- They are such friends! it is too funny to watch their goings on -- [ Taddy* corrected ] appears rather the elder and more experienced of the two at times. What a good thing! I wish Mrs. Howells would like to stay and play longer and not hurry on to the next place for Howells himself likes it so much. They thought of going to the Mountains tomorrow but there couldn't be a worse time than in this foggy weather. Really Mrs. Howells is a different creature there from what we
[ Page 4 ]
ever see her nowadays in town. I suppose the fret and worry over everyday cares [ are corrected from is ? ] more than she can carry ---
What a downpour of rain! ) It has been so dark sometimes this morning that one really needed a lamp -- I must go and look down the garden to see my pink hollyhocks with their clean faces. What colours are yours down by the gate? Dont you want some pink and red ones and did you ever tell Mrs. Howe?* Oh about the Kitten that came to the window !!! Was Fuff frightened?* or was it such a little kitten that [ she or her ? ] didn't mind much? Pinny*
Notes
August 1885: This date is supported by Jewett commenting on the first page about Whittier's letter to Fields of 29 July 1885, where he says that he is finding his autumn of life as beautiful as his spring.
Parenthesis marks in this manuscript were penciled by Fields.
Fuff: Nickname for Annie Adams Fields. See Key to Correspondents.
Thy friends: Fields has penciled notes at this point indicating correcting the possessive to "Friend's" and placing an "x" that points to her note at the bottom of page 1: "x Whittier".
Mrs. Dresel's ... the medium: For Mrs. Dresel see Louisa Loring Dresel in Key to Correspondents. Probably "the medium" is a spirit medium.
always afternoon: Jewett quotes from British poet Alfred Lord Tennyson's (1809-1892) "The Lotos-eaters":
In the afternoon they came unto a land
In which it seemed always afternoon.
Carrie: Carrie Jewett Eastman. See Key to Correspondents.
Mrs. Howells: See William Dean Howells in Key to Correspondents.
Taddy: Theodore Jewett Eastman. See Key to Correspondents.
Howe: Probably Alice Greenwood Howe. See Key to Correspondents.
frightened: Jewett has written "frightened" extra large and the second "kitten" extra small.
Pinny: 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 Sarah Orne Jewett [ fragment ]
[ August 1885 ]*
you cannot think of anything more beautiful than the ocean has been during or since our wonderful storm --
Together with the cutting off of many hollyhocks [ & ? ] the beating of some by the rain mine are not now much of a show -- But they have been exceedingly pretty and my one garden pride this year. They have been shades of fire red and pink -- I fear I did not give a proper message to Alice Howe,* but I thought it was too late to transplant.
[ Page 2 ]
I am thankful yours have been so lovely --
I* think the road has stood very well but Patrick* has been at work upon it for a day since and is scornful of praise for the road -- I know he is [ unrecognized word ] [ Thursday ? ] so I do not mind. Any road must wash a little in such a deluge --
I am resting today after my many visitors --
[ Page 3 ]
but here comes -- who do you think -- but Mademoiselle Ritter* -- she has been ill and swears better sense in her arrangements for the future -- I have sent Bridget* to the beach with her and I trust her jaunt will do her good.
Good bye my darlingAnnie Longfellow* is again not so well and I think it is too much T ___/. e in the house -- entre nous { -- }
Ever your
A.F.
Notes
August 1885: This guess is supported by this letter appearing to be a response to Jewett's letter to Fields, dated Tuesday morning, August 1885, in which she speaks about her own hollyhocks and asks after Fields's.
Alice Howe: Alice Greenwood Howe. Key to Correspondents.
I: Fields has underlined this word 3 times.
Patrick: Fields's handyman.
Mademoiselle Ritter: This transcription is uncertain but very likely, Fields received a visit from the French operatic soprano, Cécile Ritter-Ciampi (1859-1939). Almost certainly she performed in Boston during her opera career which came to an end not long after her marriage in 1886, but as yet no information about specific Boston performances has been located. See Catalan Wikipedia and Gabrielle Ritter-Ciampi (her daughter) in Wikipedia.
Bridget: A Fields employee.
Annie Longfellow: Anna Allegra Longfellow (1855-1934), sister of Jewett correspondent Alice Mary Longfellow. Key to Correspondents. See also Henry Wadsworth Longfellow in Wikipedia.
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.
Annie Adams Fields to Lilian Aldrich
"Tree Tops" -- Thunderbolt Hill*
August 19 -- 1885
My dear Lilian;
There was a little touch of compensation for my loss, in failing to see you and yours during the summer days, when the owlet* flew home with the three legged stool under her wings and said it was for me! from you! I have planted it by the fireside in my little parlor where it looks as if it grew up among the other things in the room. It was more than good of you to think
[ Page 2 ]
to send it to me.
Sarah had a delightful half day with you and brought me back the news which I so sincerely found myself desiring, as to you welfare and [ surroundings ? ]. She asks me to enclose a note from Madame Bentzon* [ which corrected ] contains a mention of your other self -- Will you kindly mail it to her at South Berwick,
[ Page 3 ]
Maine when you are quite done with it.
You do not see Gambrel Cottage at the head of my paper, because my neighbors have taken to calling the place "Tree Tops" and so I yield for the time to the pretty fancy. The trees have indeed grown delightfully and the little [ roof=tree so written ] is
[ Page 4 ]
none the less lovely for the years which have passed over it.
We cannot always say this of poor humanity but at least the heart of a friend cannot lose value with the seasons!
Most affectionately
yours (and his),
Annie Fields.
Notes
Thunderbolt Hill: Fields's summer home in Manchester by the Sea, MA, stood on Thunderbolt Hill. Fields explains "Tree Tops" on page 3.
owlet: A nickname sometimes used for Sarah Orne Jewett, particularly by Celia Thaxter. See Key to Correspondents.
Madame Bentzon: Marie Thérèse de Solms Blanc. 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.
John Greenleaf Whittier to Sarah Orne Jewett
Amesbury (19th 8 Mo 1885)*
My dear Friend,
Nothing could be more welcome than thy letter which has just reached me. I needed it. We missed thee and dear Annie Fields* this summer at the Asquam. We enjoyed our summer but the best thing seemed wanting. I sometimes looked to see you coming through the sunset light as you did once before.
I hope soon to see thy two new stories, and even the one which is "not quite so well" will be welcome. Did I tell thee how I like thy story of the girl who turned farmer?* It is one of thy very best.
I never met "H.H."* but two or three times -- the first before she was famous but, familiar with all her writings, I seemed to know her intimately. She had a rare gift and used it nobly. She was, I think, prepared to solve the great mystery.
I am afraid the story I sent thee is not exactly suited to thy purpose, but perhaps some hints may be got from it without attempting to [ fathom ? ] it.
I hope I shall see thee and thy sister* as you drive by Manchester, but I fear I may not as I am going to Danvers soon. I am only just back from Holderness. But I wish thee and dear Annie could come here when you go to Berwick and spend a night once more under my roof. I will be in A.* at the time if you will drop me a line. You know I cannot afford now to let one of my years pass without seeing you.
Excuse this brief note. I am under an avalanche of letters unanswered from people who have no claim upon my time and strength. I wish the postage was trebled. With love to our dearest of friends, I am always affectionately thine.
John G. Whittier
Notes
1885: Whittier uses the Quaker convention of numbering months. The transcriber put the full date of the letter within parenthesis, but tentatively dated it in 1888. It seems clear however that Whittier refers to "Farmer Finch" (1885) as a recent story and that Jewett has asked him about the recently deceased Helen Hunt Jackson. See Sarah Orne Jewett to John Greenleaf Whittier for 16 August 1885.
Annie Fields: Annie Adams Fields. See Key to Correspondents.
girl who turned farmer: Jewett's "Farmer Finch" appeared in Harper's Magazine in January 1885. It was collected in A White Heron and Other Stories (1886).
the Asquam: Whittier probably refers to the Asquam House hotel. Now called Squam Lake, Lake Asquam is "in the Lakes Region of central New Hampshire, United States, south of the White Mountains, straddling the borders of Grafton, Carroll, and Belknap counties. The largest town center on the lake is Holderness." Richard Cary notes of Holderness: "A summer resort village in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. Asquam House was on the peak of Shepard Hill which afforded a magnificent view of the several lakes in its vicinity. The scene inspired his poems "The Hill-Top" and "Storm on Lake Asquam."
H.H.: Helen Hunt Jackson (1830 - 12 August1885) used the pen name, H.H. She was the author of a number of works, fiction and non-fiction, featuring Native Americans, notably A Century of Dishonor (1881) and Ramona (1884).
thy sister: Probably Mary Rice Jewett. See Key to Correspondents.
A.: Presumably,Whittier means Amesbury, MA.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the South Berwick Public Library, South Berwick, ME. From typescript of an unknown transcriber. Annotated by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Lilian Woodman Aldrich
South Berwick
Sunday
[ 23 August 1885 ]*
Dear Lilian
Thank you for Mme Bentzon's* letter which came last night. I hunted for Miss Thomas's* verses to send with it, for I thought I had them with me at Manchester, but
[ Page 2 ]
here they are on this study table after all. I am sure that you will like to see them so I send them along. I am perfectly delighted and so is the rest of this household, at the idea of your coming. I think there
[ Page 3 ]
will be nothing ^here^ to prevent, any time when you get the chance to steal away. I shall be looking forward and counting upon it. If there should not be a corner here (which is always likely) you and I will only have to skip across 'the
[ Page 4 ]
yard' and dwell at the old house! -- Now do come dear and stay as long as you can. Make believe that it is a little trip to Europe!
Yours always
Sadie*
I sent to Otis's* for the fish-dish and A.F.* liked it very much. She was as pleased as a child, with the stool
[ Up the right margin of page 4 ]
you sent her -- and took it as a great
[ Upside down across the top margin of page 4 ]
compliment 'to Clarissa'* -- It lives close by the fireplace in the parlor.
Notes
1885: The date 1883 in brackets appears in the upper right corner of page 1, penciled in another hand. No rationale for this choice is given. However, this letter seems to follow Fields to Lilian Aldrich of 19 August 1885 in which a letter from Bentzon is enclosed for the Aldriches to read.
See also Sarah Orne Jewett to Thomas Bailey Aldrich of 28 August 1885.
Mme Bentzon's: Pen name of Marie Thérèse de Solms Blanc. See Key to Correspondents. Probably this is the letter Annie Fields sent along to Aldrich on Jewett's behalf. See Fields to Lilian Aldrich of 19 August.
Miss Thomas's: In 1885, Edith M. Thomas (1854-1924) published her first volume of poetry: A New Year's Masque and Other Poems.
Sadie: Sadie Martinot, after the American actress of that name, was a nickname for Jewett with the Aldriches. See Key to Correspondents.
Otis's: Presumably, this is a Boston or Manchester area store, but it has not been identified.
A.F.: Annie Adams Fields. See Key to Correspondents.
Clarissa: This reference is not yet identified.
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: 2703.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Samuel Sidney McClure
South-Berwick, MaineDear Mr. McClure
24 August [ 1886 ]*
Then I shall expect a cheque from you on the 20th of September. -- you must not make me wait longer, for while the amount is not large I had made arrangements to use it for a special purpose and I am sorry to have it wait so long as that. While I am
[ Page 2 ]
interested in your success, after my talk with you last winter, and have tried to do all I could to help you, I do not feel as if, even in a business way it would be quite right to do this thing again, and if I do any more work for you I must have my regular price and be paid at once.* It would be so in any other business transaction
[ Page 3 ]
wouldn't it? I believe most heartily in enterprise, but I am always afraid that you are not keeping [ deleted word ] firm ground under your feet, and that your constant enlargement of your business is only increasing the risk of it and decreasing your own percentage of profit. Oughtn't you to have put a safe and profitable business in good order by this time? or is that exactly what you will have done by the first of October? -----
[ Page 4 ]Notes
You see it troubles your writers and makes them lose a little confidence, and it has already given you a serious pull down in the way of illness. Dont resent my unasked-for advice for indeed I mean it kindly, for your sake and your wife's. I am sure she is not like my poor little Hattie* of the story!
Yours sincerely
S. O. Jewett
1885: It is possible that Jewett composed this letter in 1886, but in August of that year she was at Richfield Springs under doctor's orders, not in South Berwick.
paid at once: Jewett published another syndicated story in March of 1886, "A Business Man." The next syndicated piece after that was "New Neighbors" in October 1888.
Hattie: Almost certainly, Jewett refers to Hattie Webber in her syndicated story, "Stolen Pleasures," which first appeared in October 1885.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Small Library, University of Virginia, Special Collections MSS 6218, Sarah Orne Jewett Papers. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Thomas Bailey Aldrich
South Berwick
28 August [ 1885 ]*
Dear Mr. Aldrich
Lilian* says that you liked the Invitation to a Walk which Miss Thomas* sent me, and could and would use it in the Atlantic if neither Miss Thomas nor I objected. I should be only too glad to give a proud consent. Would you like to have me
[ Page 2 ]
ask the author's consent or would you rather do it yourself?
I am sorry that Lilian cannot [ come corrected ] here just now, but I shall hope to have the visit, later on, and I need not say how glad I should be if you could come too. Any time if Lilian is tired and would be better for a change, do speak a
[ Page 3 ]
word for me and send her down to Berwick and give me the great and dear pleasure of taking care of her -- I know that she would enjoy the drives about this old [ settlemint so spelled ], and I can offer some privileges of crockery-ware!
If I had seen you that day in Lynn one of the things I wished to say was a word about a poem
[ Page 4 ]
called Recollection which A.F.* wrote early in the summer. I thought it was very lovely -- [ two deleted lines ] Of course I am telling you this entirely on my own account,butso do not say anything about me, and ask her to let you read a [poem corrected ] or two when you see her next. She is always so pleased when you say a word about her poems and seem to care for them. I dont mean this for the Atlantic's ears, only your own.
Yours ever affectionately S. O. J.
Notes
1885: This date is based upon Jewett's discussion of "Invitation to a Walk," which appeared in Atlantic Monthly in 1885. See notes below.
Lilian: Lilian Woodman Aldrich. See Key to Correspondents.
Miss Thomas: Edith Thomas's (1854-1925) poem to Sarah Orne Jewett, "Invitation to a Walk," appeared in The Atlantic in December 1885, pp. 805-6. Thomas refers specifically to two works of Jewett, "The Confession of a House-Breaker" -- which appears in The Mate of the Daylight (1883) -- and A Marsh Island, which was serialized in Atlantic, January - June 1885.
A. F.: Annie Adams Fields. See Key to Correspondents.
Fields is not known to have published a poem entitled "Recollection." Perhaps she published it under a different title. She published no poems in Atlantic during late 1885 and 1886, nor during that period is she known to have published a poem for which this title is especially appropriate.
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: 2693.
Annie Adams Fields to Sarah Orne Jewett
Saturday.Notes
[ 29 August 1885 ]*
Only a line dear child to thank you for yours about Agamenticus!* That was a delightful trip -- Were the [ Thurbers ? ]* with you or was it a family party? It is a lovely morning and Dr. Holmes's* birthday. Your little apples are not here, but the basket of fruit and flowers is very pretty and I shall go over [ early ?] with it.
General Armstrong* comes this P.M. for Sunday.
Most lovingly your
Annie Fields.
29 August 1885: This is mainly a guess with a slight foundation. Probably the Jewetts are receiving a visit from their distant relations, the Henry Jewett Furber family of Green Bay, WI. The Furbers are known to have visited the Jewetts in South Berwick in the summer of 1885. Of course, the visit referenced here may have taken place in nearly any August between 1883 and 1892, the October before the death of Samuel Armstrong.
Agamenticus: A low mountain near South Berwick, ME.
Thurbers: The only Thurber mentioned in Jewett's correspondence is in 1906, Samuel Thurber, a teacher in Newton, MA. It is far more likely that Fields refers to the Furbers, distant relatives of Jewett, who lived for a while near her home in South Berwick and fairly often visited there after moving to Green Bay, WI. See Cynthia Elvira Irwin Furber in Key to Correspondents.
Holmes's birthday: 29 August was the birthday of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. Key to Correspondents.
General Armstrong: Samuel Chapman Armstrong. Key to Correspondents.
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 Laura E. Bellamy
South Berwick, Maine
31st of August 1885
My dear Miss Bellamy
I am sorry that I have not been able to answer your letter sooner -- but I was glad I had not written you when I found this little essay yesterday in the Sunday Herald.* It says many things, which you will appreciate, much better than I could say them. And, I think, gives [ deletion ] ^us a^ simple straight forward explanation of the fact that some books are for a time and some for no time and some for all time -- It isn't for me to decide whether you must keep on writing; that belongs to your own heart and conscience, but I know one thing, -- that you will not be left in the dark
[ Page 2 ]about it. Do not be misled either by a difficulty or a facility [ of corrected ] expression, if you have something to say it will and must say itself, and the people will listen to whom the message is sent. ---
I often think that the literary work which takes the least prominent place nowadays is that belonging to the middle ground -- Scholars and so-called intellectual persons have the wealth of literature in the [ two words deleted ] splendid accumulation, of books that belong* to all times -- and now and then a new volume is added to the great list. Then there is the lowest level of literature, the trashy newspapers and sensational novels, but how seldom a book comes that stirs the minds and hearts of the good men and women of such a village as this for instance -- One might say that
[ Page 3 ]
they are not readers by nature, or "that they do not get their learning" in this way -- but the truth must be recognized that few books are written for and from their standpoint. That they have ^read^ certain books proves ^that^ they would read others if they had them -- And whoever adds to this department of literature will do an inestimable good, will see that a simple, helpful way of looking at life and speaking the truth about it -- "To see life steadily, and see it whole," as Matthew Arnold* says -- in what we are pleased to call its everyday aspects must bring out the best sort of writing --. My dear father used to say to me very often, "Tell things just as they are!" and used to show me what he meant in A Sentimental Journey!* The great messages and discoveries of literature
[ Page 4 ]
come to us -- they write us, and we do not control them in a certain sense.
= [ From corrected ] what I know of your wishes in regard to your work, I am sure you will not neglect any chance of forwarding it -- and if it proves that you must make something else first, and put the great gift and pleasure of writing second in your life, you will live none the less helpfully and heartily, and try to find God's meaning and purpose for your work and give it to the world again in whatever you do.
---- I try to remember very often a bit from a criticism upon one of Miss Thackeray's novels which I saw in Harper's long ago: "It is, after all, Miss Thackeray herself in Old Kensington who gives the book its charm.{"}*
-- I fear that I cannot help you much, but I hope and believe that you are equal to helping your self -- for it is what we ourselves put into our own lives that really counts. Thank you for letting
[ Page 5 ]
me see Mr. Ward's* letter which pleased me very much. I only wish that I could be as kind a friend to younger writers as ^those friends whom I^ found when I was beginning. But they all said, "Work away!"
With best wishes, believe me
Yours sincerely,
Sarah O. Jewett
Notes
Sunday Herald: Richard Cary identified the essay: "Tests in Literature," Boston Sunday Herald (August 30, 1885), 12, which he describes: "an unsigned discussion of the successful versus the unsuccessful book, using for illustration the works of Shakespeare, Carlyle, Wordsworth, Keats, Dana, Ticknor, Browning, Tennyson, and Whitman."
belong: Jewett appears to have deleted an "s" at the end of this word.
Arnold: Matthew Arnold (1822-1888). From Arnold's sonnet, "To a Friend," addressed to Sophocles, "Who saw life steadily, and saw it whole." The Poems of Matthew Arnold.
A Sentimental Journey: Wikipedia says: "A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy is a novel by Laurence Sterne (1713-1768), written and first published in 1768, as Sterne was facing death."
charm: Cary found the review of Anne Thackeray Ritchie's Old Kensington in the "Editor's Literary Record," Harper's, XLVII (June 1873), 131. He says "Henry Mills Alden, then editor, actually wrote: 'It is Miss Thackeray in Old Kensington which makes it so delightful a story.'"
Ward: William Hayes Ward. See Key to Correspondents.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Colby College Special Collections, Waterville, ME: JEWE.1. Richard Cary included his transcription in Sarah Orne Jewett Letters.
New transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Annie Adams Fields
[ Summer 1885 ]*
[ A fragment with missing material at the beginning ]
[ I have been down to York ]* and I even found time for a little call upon Miss Mary Barrell* -- She was at tea and seemed to consider the [ two deleted words ] usual contribution of peppermints as desirable as at any other time -- She told me that General Armstrong* had been there lately and she had a beautiful call from him -- I think they told me that he came over from the Shoals* but I did not understand when it was -- Poor Miss Mary
[ Page 2 ]
still lives upstairs [ and corrected ] looked rather feeble in this wilting weather, but I think she is pretty well on the whole. ( -- Dear Fuff* did you send a mysterious tongue which came today? I know you did dear darling, and I thank you ever so much. I was going to send but we didn't need it when I first came and now Mr. & Mrs. Furber* are coming ^ [ deleted or written over word ] tomorrow p -- ^ to finish their visit -- I shall get more out of him about my normans.* Good-night dear -- I am going )
[ Manuscript breaks off. No signature. ]
Notes
Summer 1885: This letter almost certainly was composed at the time Jewett was researching and writing her popular history, The Story of the Normans (1887). While this letter could have been composed in 1886, by that summer Jewett was far into her work on The Story of the Normans and less likely to be querying relatives about their ideas as she reports planning in this letter.
to York ]: The clause in brackets has been penciled at the top of the page by Fields. She also has deleted "even" in the opening line. Parenthesis marks in this manuscript were penciled by Fields.
Miss Mary Barrell: One of 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.
General Armstrong: Samuel Chapman Armstrong. See Key to Correspondents.
the Shoals: The Isles of the Shoals, near Portsmouth, NH.
Fuff: Nickname for Annie Adams Fields. See Key to Correspondents.
Mr. & Mrs. Furber: See Cynthia Elvira Irwin Furber in Key to Correspondents.
my normans: Jewett's The Story of the Normans (1887).
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 Lilian Woodman Aldrich
Friday morning
[ Summer 1885 ]
My dear Lilian
I think about you so often, but I have hoped you were a great deal better all this time [ than corrected ] A. F.* says you have really been. I think you had better try some Berwick air since even Ponkapog hasn't done any better for you. How glad I should be to have you here! I wish we could manage
[ Page 2 ]
[it blotted ] by and by -- You would dare to "up and say" you were coming wouldn't you? -- (Please excuse these [ blot ] two blots which were caused by my stopping to break a piece of maple sugar in two with a loaded pen in hand!)
I am ever so much better and for the first time in several years I have not been making up a story so I have an astonishing amount of interest and energy
[ Page 3 ]
to spend on other things. I poke about in the garden or tinker in the house all day and have a beautiful time. I read part of a book today for fear I shall forget my letters altogether I have so completely forsaken literature. I want to see A.F. dreadfully but I can think of last winter and of pavements and city walls and brick chimneys in long rows without a sigh. I shall have to go to town next week, (the
[ Page 4 ]
the very last of it) because I must go to a wedding,* and then I am going to be moved down to Manchester and stay ten days or a fortnight until somebody else comes and the dear mistress of the gambrel house will not be left alone. I dont wonder that she is lonelier there thanat homein Boston, but I couldn't bear to think of her spending even part of this summer in town.
---- I have kept the missing Tamerlane* in my mind constantly and I
[ Page 5 ]
have not exhausted the possible hiding-places yet. I have pulled over the books in this house pretty well and made some rewarding discoveries. Many of the volumes I hadn't taken into my hands for a great while. Father had a great quantity of paper covered literature of a most professional sort, and these we never gave away so they have been collecting dust diligently and needed overhauling -- I
[ Page 6 ]
felt sometimes as if I were Nan in the Country Doctor* but usually like my own self who was being constantly reminded of very dear old days when I used to drive about with Father over the hills and down the river roads. I suppose some of these old French and English books would make any doctor happy but I find so many notes and so many traces of their best reader that I
[ Page 7 ]
mean to keep [ all corrected ] that are left{.} Father was always giving his books away and lending them and never getting them back while he was here -- so there aren't enough to be any trouble now, even if one never looked at them.
Isn't it fun about the Marsh Island* which seems to be doing better than any of my books so far? I shall begin to show signs of [ deleted letters ] unwonted prosperity before long. I thought I might need another horse
[ Page 8 ]
this year but Sheila is so well and perky that she seems quite colt-like and sometimes I can hardly hold her. This fall when I bring her to Manchester I mean to drive up to Lynn and let you make her acquaintance.
Goodnight dear, do get well faster to please your most affectionate "Sadie"* if for no other reason.
Notes
1885: While it is possible that this letter was composed in the summer of 1886, it seems more likely that Jewett is reporting on sales and on reviews of A Marsh Island as they began to appear in May and June of 1885. And in 1886, she was busy with The Story of the Normans (1887).
A.F.: Annie Adams Fields. See Key to Correspondents.
wedding: Probably this is the wedding of Anne Allegra Longfellow (1855-1931), to Joseph Gilbert Thorp (1852-1931) on 14 October 1885. Miss Longfellow was the daughter of American poet, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and sister of Jewett's close friend, Alice Longfellow. See Key to Correspondents.
Tamerlane: It seems probable that Jewett has borrowed from T. B. Aldrich a copy Tamarlane and Other Poems (1827), the first book by Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849), probably the then new 1884 edition by Richard Herne Shepherd.
the Country Doctor: Jewett's novel, A Country Doctor (1884).
the Marsh Island: Jewett's novel, A Marsh Island was serialized in Atlantic Monthly, January to June 1885, after which the novel was released as a book.
"Sadie": Sadie Martinot was a Jewett nickname with the Aldriches, presumably after the American actress and singer, Sarah/Sadie Martinot. See Key to Correspondents.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. Thomas Bailey 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: 2726. The same mark is repeated bottom left on p. 5.
Celia Thaxter to Sarah Orne Jewett
Shoals. Septr 7th (85My dear Pin:*
Lots of moths transpired this summer -- But I was disappointed not to see you & Mary,* please tell her with my love --
It has been almost the divinest summer of all, such weather, such flowers, such heavenly music, such lovely people. And I did not look forward to one bit of bliss! But it was wonderful -- Now it is done, only [ Kinnie Kerly ? ], Dr Keating, & Charlotte Dana* left to care about,-- others, but not "mine" as Emerson* has it, people that dont belong to me. I expect to leave the 15th or somewhere near, & be in Boston sharp Oct 1st -- I've got to furnish my rooms in town myself & want to get settled & at work soon as possible. Shall not be more than ten days at farm, hope you can come over.
Poor quaint Charlotte Dana struck her [ ancle so it appears ] against a hidden boulder
[ Page 2 ]
in a deep cow-path, & so bruised it that she has been obliged to keep it higher than her head ever since & is just beginning to creep about. Poor thing, she was so hilarious, & now is so patient & cheery, tho' it is a [ great ? ] disappointment for her not to go to the Mountains with Edith Dana as they had planned, -- the Adirondacks.
Tell Flower I'm glad the posies I sent pleased her -- They were not as beautiful as they shd. have been for a hurricane had cuffed & battered them, since then they have been growing more & more lovely -- My dear love to you & to her,
Yours
[ Signature is a stick drawing of a sandpiper. ]
Notes
Pin: Thaxter is using intimate nicknames shared among Jewett, Fields and herself. Pinny is Jewett; Flower is Fields; Sandpiper is Thaxter. See Key to Correspondents.
Mary: Mary Rice Jewett. See Key to Correspondents.
Kinnie Kerly, Dr Keating, & Charlotte Dana: The transcription of "Kinnie Kerly" is uncertain. Rosamond Thaxter names Kennie Kerly as a regular Appledore visitor, but this person has has not yet been identified further (Sandpiper, Randall 1963, 1999 p. 200).
In a letter to Annie Fields, quoted by Rosamund Thaxter (Randall 1963,1999, p 200), Thaxter identifies Dr. Keating as also from Philadelphia. It is likely that she refers to author and physician, Dr. John Marie Keating (1852-1893).
Author/editor, Ruth Charlotte Dana Lyman (1844-1903 ) was the daughter of American author, Richard Henry Dana, Jr. (1815-1882). Edith Longfellow (1853-1915), daughter of American poet, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882), married Charlotte Dana's brother, Richard Henry Dana III (1851-1931).
not "mine" ...Emerson: Ralph Waldo Emerson. See Key to Correspondents. Possibly Thaxter refers to Emerson's essay, "Friendship," in which he says: "Friendship requires that rare mean betwixt likeness and unlikeness that piques each with the presence of power and of consent in the other party. Let me be alone to the end of the world, rather than that my friend should overstep, by a word or a look, his real sympathy. I am equally balked by antagonism and by compliance. Let him not cease an instant to be himself. The only joy I have in his being mine, is that the not mine is mine."
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 5 (230-249).
https://ark.digitalcommonwealth.org/ark:/50959/qb98p521p
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Annie Adams Fields
Friday evening
[ Summer / Autumn 1885 ]*
Dearest Fuff
This is such a nice long letter from Eva with Compton* messages for you that you must have it all -- and here is the English letter too, which I forgot this morning -- This afternoon I drove Mother to Dover to do an errand and the rest of the day I have been reading.
NoFor one thing I have finished the Buckland life* which is not a very well managed memoir of a most
[ Page 2 ]
interesting man -- I am so fond of ^reading^ letters from people who know how to write them that it seems a resentable thing that there are almost none in this book. Only you soon catch the 'go' and excited business of the man and [ deletion ] understand that any account of him would only be a fragmentary account of his activity. He was so public spirited, so determined to do his work that you get a greater enthusiasm [ constantly ? ] as you go on -- I have missed the Spectator this week but I send you the Saturday Review and Punch*
[ Page 3 ]Saturday morning and Mary* says she would like to go to York once more to see Mrs. Tyler,* for they leave on Monday -- so, it being cool and fair, off we go ladies.
Did I tell you that I am reading Bulwer's Harold -- the last of the Saxon Kings,* with great delight? It is such a high coloured, vivid picture of life in those days that nothing has made me place my chief figures so easily. Mr. Furber told me to read it -- and you said something about
[ Page 4 ]one of Kingsley's* didn't you? which I must surely get -- Yes my dear mouse "next week or so will bring a Pinny* -- It will depend upon the weather and my getting a short visit to Exeter made whether I have to wait for the "or so"! ! Good-bye and I hope you will have a dear Sunday and be sure to think sometimes of Pin --
Notes
1885: This tentative date is based upon Jewett reporting that she has read "the Buckland life," which -- if she refers to Frank Buckland -- was published in 1885. American reviews began to appear in July 1885, indicating that Jewett likely read the book during the second half of the year.
The manuscript contains marks, mainly parentheses, some deleted, indicating the Annie Adams Fields considered including parts of it in her Letters of Sarah Orne Jewett (1911).
Fuff: Nickname for Annie Adams Fields. See Key to Correspondents.
Eva ... Compton: Eva is likely to be Baroness Eva von Blomberg. See Key to Correspondents. Compton probably refers to Little Compton RI, a resort village.
Buckland life: This seems likely to be Life of Frank Buckland (1885) by George C Bompas. Francis Trevelyan Buckland (1826- 1880), "was an English surgeon, zoologist, popular author and natural historian." Wikipedia.
Spectator ... Saturday Review and Punch: These all would be British weekly serial publications at the time of this letter: The Spectator, The Saturday Review of Politics, Literature, Science, and Art and Punch. Wikipedia.
Mary: Mary Rice Jewett. See Key to Correspondents.
Mrs. Tyler: This is likely to be Augusta Maria Denny Tyler. See Key to Correspondents.
Kings: In 1885, Jewett had begun work on her "big book," The Story of the Normans (1887). Hence her interest in British author and politician Edward Bulwer-Lytton's Harold, the Last of the Saxons (1848).
Mr. Furber: Probably Henry Jewett Furber. See Cynthia Elvira Irwin Furber in Key to Correspondents.
Kingsley's: British clergyman and author, Charles Kingsley (1819-1875). Jewett read his novel, Hereward the Wake (1866), in preparation for her popular history, The Story of the Normans (1887). Wikipedia.
Pinny: Nickname for Sarah Orne Jewett. See Key to Correspondents.
The manuscript of this letter appears in Jewett, Sarah Orne, 1849-1909. Annie Fields (Adams) 1834-1915, recipient. 194 letters; 1877-1909 & [n.d.] Sarah Orne Jewett correspondence, 1861-1930. MS Am 1743 (255). Houghton Library, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Louisa Loring Dresel
South BerwickMy dear Loulie
9th of September
[ 1885 ]*
What a dear, nice long letter! -- and how it has brought me a whiff of real mountain air! I must send a word of thanks to you right away, but I hope to hear more about your good times soon, as I am going back to Manchester
[ Page 2 ]
in a very few days. My sister Mary* and I mean to drive up as we did last year and if Friday morning promises good weather we shall start on Friday, or else the first of the week.
I meant to write you while you were away and indeed I sent many loving thoughts
[ Page 3 ]
after you and fairly 'wished' you into getting better! but we have had a succession of guests coming by twos and threes (and odd ones who didn't match,) and I have found it hard to do much writing these last few weeks.
Do give my dear love to your mother. I hope that she is better too. I wish
[ Page 4 ]
I had been with you on 'the spree' -- What joy to see the naughty tourists on the front seat getting soaked through! or to feel them, though you were wet too.
-- I have taken great pleasure in the stormy little picture you gave me. I like it better and better for there is an increasing proportion of me that likes just that sort of weather.
Yours affectionately
S. O. J.
Notes
1885: This date has been added in another hand and different ink to the top left corner of page 1. This seems likely to be correct, as evidenced by its connection with other letters from this year. Two Jewett letters to T. B. Aldrich discuss poems of Edith Thomas and Annie Adams Fields, the first fairly firmly dated on 28 August 1885. The second, 10 September, also mentions Jewett's intention of traveling with Mary Rice Jewett by horse carriage to Manchester, on Friday the 11th or the following Monday.
Mary: Mary Rice Jewett. See Key to Correspondents.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Columbia University (New York) Library in Special Collections, Jewett. Transcription from a microfilm copy and annotation by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Thomas Bailey Aldrich
South BerwickDear Mr. T.B.A.
10 September [ 1885 ]*
Here is Mifs Thomas's poem.* I like it better than ever because it brings back the June weather when she sent it to me. Yes -- I perfectly understand what you say about our dear friend. I think she is more conscious herself about the half poems that get written down. She has spoken sadly enough of them this very summer but writing is her most intense pleasure as it must be to every one from whose inmost heart it comes!
[ Page 2 ]
-- I asked her if she should not print the poem of which I told you (for it seemed to 'sing' in a most lovely way,) but she said that she thought not. She didn't think it was one to be printed exactly. This was long before I wrote you. I dont know why she wished to keep it all to herself but she evidently read a great many things between the few lines -- And then there was another one about her own childhood which I fairly loved and I mean that you should see both some day. It is only that I like to have her think
[ Page 3 ]
that I keep her secrets small and great! that I thought of your asking her 'out of clear sky' what she has been doing -- And I dont believe she would think of you first and foremost as the Atlantic Monthly for whatever month it might happen to be at the time!! Yet of course it is hard for you to separate yourself from all that, or that, or rather, to believe that some body who could supply 'material' can separate you. -- I shall turn into a cheap penholder before long -- I am beginning my Norman history* and so far I like
[ Page 4 ]
the work of it ever so much. Either tomorrow or Monday my sister Mary* and I are going to start for Manchester [driving corrected ] ^(Sheila)^* ourselves as we did last year with cheerful independence of the Eastern Railroad. I think I shall drive to Boston from Manchester if I like the weather next week -- and then I shall call at 4 Park St.* and perhaps at Ponkapog which [ deleted word ] is a good inspiration to follow! Please forgive such a long letter. Dont let Miss Fxxxxxx* see you reading it in office hours!! With love to Lilian*
Yours sincerely, Sadie*
Notes
1885: This letter seems clearly related to Sarah Orne Jewett to Louisa Loring Dresel of 9 September 1885, particularly regarding the planned trip by horse carriage to Manchester, and to Sarah Orne Jewett to T. B. Aldrich of 28 August 1885, continuing discussion of poems of Edith Thomas and Annie Fields.
Mifs Thomas: Probably this is Edith M. Thomas (1854-1925). Richard Cary says she impressed Jewett's friend and correspondent, Helen Hunt Jackson "when she called on her in a New York hotel with a scrapbook of unpublished verses. Mrs. Jackson's personal persuasion was responsible for the publication of some of these." After Jackson's death in August 1885, it may be that she corresponded with Jewett.
However, the "dear friend" Jewett refers to here is Annie Adams Fields. See Sarah Orne Jewett to Thomas Bailey Aldrich of 28 August 1885 and Key to Correspondents.
Norman history: Jewett probably began work on her popular history, The Story of the Normans (1887) as early as 1884, but did not complete it until late in 1886.
Mary: Mary Rice Jewett. See Key to Correspondents.
Sheila: Jewett's first personally owned horse.
4 Park St.: 4 Park Street in Boston was the address of publisher Houghton, Mifflin and of Atlantic Monthly.
Miss Fxxxxxx: Richard Cary writes: "Susan Moore Francis (1839-1919), graceful essayist and book reviewer, came to the Atlantic as editorial assistant during the incumbency of James T. Fields and served the five succeeding editors in similar capacity. Reputed to have an uncanny flair for judging manuscripts, she is credited with suggesting to Fields that he invite Bret Harte to contribute to the Atlantic, but she is also said to have turned down David Harum because it was 'vulgar'."
Lilian: Lilian Woodman Aldrich. See Key to Correspondents.
Sadie: Sadie Martinot was a Jewett nickname with the Aldriches, presumably after the American actress and singer, Sarah/Sadie Martinot. 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: 2679.
John Greenleaf Whittier to Annie Adams Fields
[ After 10 September 1885 ]*
Dear Annie Fields
I send thee a correct copy of my verses read at Haverhill. The newspaper I see made a mess of them by misprints. When will thee & dear Sarah* visit Oak Knoll? With love to her, I am thy affectionate friend
John G Whittier
Notes
1885: With this letter is a print copy of Whittier's "The Reunion": "Read Sept. 10th, 1885, to the Surviving Students of Haverhill Academy in 1827-28." See The Poetical Works of John Greenleaf Whittier, p. 327.
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 71-4574. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to John Greenleaf Whittier
Thunderbolt Hill
Thursday
[ September/October 1885 ]*
My dear friend
I have been meaning to send you a word of thanks for the little Bishop book* which I read with deep interest from beginning to end -- It pleased me greatly -- (for I never forget that I am made of Maine dust) and beside that, it helped
[ Page 2 ]
along a story called The King of Folly Island* which has been buzzing in my head -- like ^one^ of these belated flies -- for some time past. I am afraid I shall not get it done just yet, but it is a [ sure ? ] thing!!
We are going to leave here the last of this week, but what lovely days there have been
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lately! -- if we dont have a little bad weather I am afraid we can not bring our minds up to the starting point, or rather, down to it -- It makes a picture that can never fade, to have such a day as last Thursday to remember -- when we were at Ipswich neck among the white sand dunes and the brown cranberry pickers -- Dear me! -----
[ Page 4 ]
-- We are so glad and thankful when we think about having you "to keep" for a very long time this winter -- I am sure you must not have another doubt -- A.F.* is looking forward with such delight and has always set her heart on it. I think you will give her a great comfort and I know that you will feel as free and at home as you do or anybody can -- anywhere -- and there are all
[ Up the left margin of page 1 ]
those dear books,when^if^ other things fail! \\
yours lovingly
S.O.J.
Notes
September/October 1885: This guess is supported by Jewett mentioning that she is working on "The King of Folly Island" but not feeling near finishing it. Also, Whittier may have sent her a copy of an 1885 printing of W. H. Henry's book. That Jewett expects to leave Thunderbolt Hill, Fields's summer home, soon indicates that this is the end of the summer season, which typically is around 1 October. The cranberry harvest in Massachusetts typically begins in September and continues through October.
Bishop book: A book published in the few years before the appearance of "The King of Folly Island," that Whittier might have sent Jewett, and that Jewett could have found useful in writing her story is Fish and Men in the Maine Islands by William Henry Bishop (1880, 1885).
King of Folly Island: Jewett's "The King of Folly Island" appeared in Harper's Magazine in December 1886.
A.F.: Annie Adams Fields. Key to Correspondents.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library of Harvard University, Cambridge, Pickard-Whittier papers: Jewett, Sarah Orne, 1849-1909. 12 letters to unidentified persons; [n.d.]. Box:12 Identifier: MS Am 1844, (8616).
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
John Greenleaf Whittier to Annie Adams Fields
Oak Knoll
Danvers
10 Mo 2, 1885*
Dear Annie Fields
Thy welcome letter reached me yesterday.
Ever since the red-letter day of your visit to Oak Knoll I have been thinking of thy gracious and generous proposal of hospitality. It has made {me} very happy though I have not been able to see how I can avail myself of it.
I find that I am unable to bear the excite
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^ments^ of city life for any length of time, however carefully I may be shielded by my friends. I am [ unhappily corrected ] notorious and cannot hide myself. My deafness makes me confused and uncomfortable whenastrangers are present. The great and really painful effort I am compelled to make, when in company, to listen and try to understand, and make fitting replies and the uncertainty which I feel when I venture to speak, whether I have heard aright: ^all this^ affects my nerves, and costs me nights of sleeplessness and days of weariness. In fact I am what the Turks call
[ Page 3 ]
"a cut-off one," so far as society is concerned.
I am afraid you do not take into account the certainty that as soon as it is known that I am in your premises, a steady stream of interviewers, autograph-hunters, ^and^ people with missions will flow in upon you. It would be like having a waif from Barnum's Museum* shut up in your library, and people coming to see what it looks like. It would make your lives [ miserable corrected ]. Sarah's dog* could not keep them off. You would have to get out a writ of ejectment and set me and my carpet-bag into the street.
[ Page 4 ]
And yet how I wish I could say "Yes!" Every day of my life I thank the good Providence that has given me such a friend, dear as Vittoria Collona* to Michel Angelo.* I wish I could look forward to the enjoyment of such friendship for many years, in this life, but, when one is approaching four score, that is not to be expected. Though, for that matter, I see that Senator Hoar* in his great speech of day before yesterday at Springfield took occasion to deny the self-evident fact that I am an old man!
[ Page 5 ]
I had a rare, good visit from Dr. Holmes* & his wife, the other day. We two old boys wandered about in the woods, talking of many things* -- half merry, half sad. We were stranded mariners, thelast^survivors^ of a lost crew; warming ourselves at a fire kindled from the wreck of ^our^ vessel. The good Dr is a little materialistic, but I told him to read the Reports of the Society for Psychical Research* and he promised to do so.
The woods here are blazing with color -- but I fail to see the red against the green: both look the same. But the walnuts & maples are glorious, making sunshine when there is none in the heavens.
[ Page 6 ]
Tell our dear Sarah that I shall not be able to go to Amesbury for some time -- perhaps not before the 18th of the month, and so I fear I shall miss her visit there on her way to Berwick.
With love to her, and with much affection I am thy friend
John G. Whittier
I can't stop to look over my letter which has been too hastily written for legibility or verbal accuracy.
Notes
1885: This manuscript has a penciled "1" at the top center of page 1, and a penciled "X" appears twice in the left margin of page 5: next to the sentence about the old boys wandering in the woods and again next to the sentence explaining Whittier's color-blindness.
Barnum's Museum: American showman Phineas Taylor Barnum (1810-1891) exhibited exotic curiosities, many of them hoaxes, in his American Museum.
Sarah's dog: Sarah Orne Jewett. See Key to Correspondents. Her Irish Setter was Roger.
Collona: Italian poet, Vittoria Colonna (1492-1547). Late in his life, artist and author, Michelangelo (1475-1564) became passionately attached to her and addressed a number of sonnets to her.
Senator Hoar: George Frisbie Hoar (1826-1904), a Massachusetts Republican politician, was re-elected to the United States Senate in 1883. Whittier had supported his election. A letter supporting Hoar's candidacy appeared in the Boston Advertiser. The letter and Senator Hoar's response are quoted in Life and Letters of John Greenleaf Whittier, Volume 2, p. 685.
The New York Times reported on 1 October 1885 that Senator Hoar's speech at the Massachusetts Republican Convention on 30 September "wearied the delegates by its length, the latter part especially falling on very unwilling ears" (p. 5).
Dr Holmes: Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. See Key to Correspondents.
many things: Whittier may allude to British author John Bunyan's (1628-1688) The Pilgrim's Progress, Part 2, p. 253.
Research The Society for Psychical Research in England was founded in 1882 to bring scientific research to bear on reports of paranormal events. An American Society was founded in 1885. Whittier probably recommends the Journal of the Society for Psychical Research, which began publication in 1884.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Huntington Library, San Marino, CA, in the James T. Fields collection: mss FI 71-4740. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
This letter has been transcribed previously by John B. Pickard, Letters of John Greenleaf Whittier. v. 3, #1401. It also was published, in part in Pickard, Life, pp. 712-713.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Horace Parker Chandler
Manchester --Mass
[ 18th corrected ] October --
[ 1885 ]*
Dear Mr. Chandler
Yes indeed, my grandfather ^Dr. William Perry* of Exeter^ is alive and well! at the beginning nearly of his ninety-eighth year -- as he was born Dec 20th 1788 ^He married Miss Gilman of Exeter.^ -- He graduated at Harvard in18101811 and was the pupil of the first Dr. John Warren* Surgeon General of the Revolutionary war -- He
[ Page 2 ]
remembers distinctly the talk in his family about the execution of Marie Antoinette* -- I dare say there is not another person living on this side of the sea who would happen to remember that! and he also was a passenger on Fulton's* first steamboat's first voyage down the Hudson -- I tell you this for your own interest -- not because you asked me for anything more --
My mother's name is Caroline
[ Page 3 ]
Frances (Perry) and my father's was Theodore Herman.* He died on the 20th September 1878 -- My grandfather Jewett, his father, was a man of great natural ability and [ knowledge corrected ] of human nature -- He followed the sea in early life, but after leaving that he carried on a large business as a ship owner and builder in Berwick{,} sending great quantities of timber
[ Page 4 ]
timber&c to the West Indies which of course necessitated a local business in Berwick [ deleted word of ? ] as the lumbermenfrom up countrywho bought his supplies from the inland country were paid ^chiefly^ in goods, not money -- This made the village a busy centre in those days as other men carried on much the same [ enterprises corrected ] and made South Berwick a link between the larger trading
[ Page 5 ]
posts and the inland country. Sometimes the timber teams came from Vermont and often from the upper part of New Hampshire through the Crawford Notch.* The village is at the head of the tide water above Portsmouth -- and my grandfather and his associates built several large ships just below the town.
This will showyouthat there was more importance to the little town than there
[ Page 6 ]
is [ nowadays corrected ], and account for the old sailors and larger range of ^[ deleted word ]^ character with which I have been able to come in contact --
I have just happened to think that there is a careful memorial ^& biographical^ sketch of my father in the Proceedings of the Maine Medical Society* (of which he was President) for 1879. I dare say you could find that easily at some library --
Yours sincerely
S. O. Jewett.
Notes
1885: Jewett and Chandler are corresponding about a biographical sketch of Jewett that appeared in Every Other Saturday on 5 December 1885.
Dr. William Perry ... Gilman: For Jewett's maternal grandparents, see Key to Correspondents.
Dr. John Warren: American physician, John Warren (1753-1815), also founder of the Harvard University Medical School.
Marie Antoinette: Queen of France at the time of the French Revolution, Marie Antoinette ( 1755-1793) was the wife of King Louis XVI. She was executed by the French Revolutionary Tribunal.
Fulton's: American engineer and inventor, Robert Fulton (1765-1815) was instrumental in developing a commercially successful steamboat. Wikipedia says: "... the first was called North River Steamboat (later Clermont). In 1807, that steamboat traveled on the Hudson River with passengers, from New York City to Albany and back again...."
Caroline Frances ... Theodore Herman: For Jewett's parents and her paternal grandfather, see Key to Correspondents.
Crawford Notch: An important pass through the White Mountains in New Hampshire.
Maine Medical Society: "Theodore Herman Jewett, M.D. of South Berwick" appeared in Transactions of the Maine Medical Association, 1877-1879 (6, 1879, pp. 680-684). Richard Cary points out that Sarah Orne Jewett herself almost certainly was the author of this obituary sketch.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the University of New England Maine Women Writers Collection, Sarah Orne Jewett Correspondence Box 3 Folder 160. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Alice Mary Longfellow
-- I did not mean to write such a long letter but somehow it has written itself. Don't think you owe it an answer for I know very well how many [letters corrected] you have to write and by and by when I go to town we shall "play together" I hope, and carry out some of the plans that were made last year. Mrs. Fields is hoping to see you when she gets back (after a few days in Berwick) -- Good-by dear girl -- believe that I am yours always lovingly S.O.J.ManchesterTuesday afternoon
[ October 20, 1885 ]*
My dear Alice
I have thought of you so often these days since the wedding* was over, and I think I must write a little letter, though to be sure there is not much news to tell! I wish you could have seen the beauty of this part of the country in the last week or two. We feel
[ Page 2 ]
dreadfully at having to leave Manchester! We have been driving and walking all up and down the coast and have made several excursions inland to Wenham and Essex and Danvers. I wish you had been with us one day at Ipswich Neck* -- a great deal more wonderful and beautiful sand-heap than Coffin's Beach* even -- Someday we must go there.
I drove up from Berwick
[ Page 3 ]
with my own particular 'Sheila'* and on this next Thursday we are going back and the little gig will have a deck-load of wraps and bags, and Sheila's own garments for the night, that it can hardly carry without spilling over! I ought to have had some sort of a hold built under the gig long ago, but Mrs. Fields* has made the same journey once before and knows well what to expect -- -- I am so glad that the wedding "went off"
[Bottom right corner of page 3 in another hand: LONG 18653]
[ Page 4 ]
so charmingly -- here came Mrs. Fields just [now written over then ?] to send you her dear love and say how much she enjoyed it. I went to town with her and we stayed over night at the house and altogether it was quite a gay frolic. I was so eager to hear all about it, and it was very pleasant starting her off. I am so glad that she seems better in every way than she was two years or even a year ago -- and that it no longer gives her such unbearable pain to see her old friends and be reminded of the
[ Page 5 ]
old days* -- Time is a great healer, but how we resent the thought of our sorrow ever growing less when we are young, and then grow more and more grateful for such help as time brings, as we grow older! --
I am so often reminded of Carlyle's saying "The only happiness men ought to ask for, is happiness enough to get their work done!"*
There's nothing like it after all, however pleasant it is to be amused or entertained -- and indeed the sense of work done is the only thing that makes holidays
[ Page 6 ]
worth having -- That reminds me of your weeks in the woods. I was so glad to hear that you had such a successful time. I am sure it must have rested you through and through.
I have had more time out of doors this fall than for a long time before, and I am very eager now to begin my winter's work. I have finished some sketches lately and I am just in the middle of another which deals (imperfectly!) with
[ Page 7 ]
the coast of Maine -- and is to be called The King of Folly Island -- a Marsh Island plot,* though in quite a different key --
We have been reading the Life of Agassiz* aloud with perfect delight. Dont you think it is beautifully done? I cant begin to say what an inspiriting book it is to me. I believe I shall write my Norman book* better for having read it first now.
[ Page 8 ]
Notes
October 20, 1885: This date is speculative, based mainly upon the mention of the wedding, presumably, of Anne Allegra Longfellow. See the following notes.
the wedding: Probably, Jewett refers to the wedding of Alice's younger sister, Anne Allegra Longfellow (1855-1931), to Joseph Gilbert Thorp (1852-1931) on 14 October 1885.
Wenham and Essex and Danvers ... Ipswich Neck: These towns all are in Essex County in northeast Massachusetts; however the exact location of Ipswich Neck in relation to the village is not yet known.
Coffin's Beach: Wikipedia notes: "Wingaersheek Beach is a 0.6-mile ... long beach located on the Annisquam River in West Gloucester, Massachusetts, United States.... The beach was alternatively called Coffins Beach for Peter Coffin whose farm was located alongside this beach."
'Sheila': Jewett's horse.
Mrs. Fields: Annie Adams Fields. See Key to Correspondents.
reminded of the old days: James T. Fields, husband of Annie Adams Fields, died 24 April 1881. Visiting with old friends such as Alice Longfellow apparently still reminds Fields of her loss.
Carlyle's saying: Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881) expresses this general idea in several of his works, including Characteristics (1831) and Sartor Resartus (1833). The passage to which Jewett refers is most likely Past and Present (1843) III,iv.
The King of Folly Island -- a Marsh Island plot: Jewett's "The King of Folly Island" was published in Harper's Magazine (74:102-116), December 1886. Her novel, A Marsh Island, was serialized in Atlantic Monthly and appeared in book form in 1885.
Life of Agassiz: It is likely Jewett and Fields are reading Burt G. Wilder's The Life of Agassiz (1885).
my Norman book: Jewett's The Story of the Normans (1887) appeared at the end of 1886.
The manuscript of this letter is held in the archives of Longfellow House-Washington's Headquarters NHS; Correspondence of Sarah Orne Jewett. HWLD-B139-F94 nd Sarah Orne Jewett to AML 002. Transcription and annotation by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to John Greenleaf Whittier
South Berwick
29 October
[ 1885 ]*
My dear friend
I should like very much to see that book! "The King of Folly Island" is almost done and so it is just the right time to put my last touches on -- If I take half the satisfaction out of this new book that I did out of Bishop's,* I shall
[ Page 2 ]
be pleased enough -- that was what A.F.* is apt to call "not literature, but material for it" -- but I liked it most sincerely and wished to go wandering eastward as the author did -- Once I went on a pilgrimage to Orr's Island* -- did I ever tell you?
A.F. and I reached here last Friday; we meant to go see Mrs. Cartland* in the morning, but we found it
[ Page 3 ]
grew so chilly early in the afternoon ^the day before^ that we decided it would be best to leave Newburyport at half past eight o'clock in order to reach here the sooner -- I was disappointed not to make the call, but I knew that my companion hadn't been brought up on wheels as I [ had corrected ] and must be favored on the journey -- We did have a [ most corrected ] lovely drive and enjoyed it more than we did the same road last year. Monday we went to
[ Page 4 ]
York -- and Tuesday A.F. went home in season for her Wednesday 'conference' -- Oh you dont know how happy it makes her to think of your coming this winter -- Even the thought of it seems to be a comfort to her and to do her good -- She lays great plots against your seeing any pilgrims except those with a true [ commisson so it appears] -- and pilgrims or no pilgrims what a good roof that is to be sheltered under! As for the trouble which you have feared -- I think that if you knew how much
[ Up the left margin and across the top marge of page 1 ]
harder these days are when there is nobody to speak to when she goes in and out and nobody to help her make a feast out of her solitary hurried meal you would never say 'trouble' again --
Good night
your ever affectionate
Sarah Jewett
My sister* sends her love to you -- and was so
[ Up the left margin of page 2 ]
sorry that she did not find you at Amesbury{.}}
Notes
1885: This date is supported by Jewett's noting that she has nearly finished "The King of Folly Island." See notes below and also Jewett to Whittier of September/October 1885.
King of Folly Island: Jewett's "The King of Folly Island" appeared in Harper's Magazine in December 1886.
It is not yet known what new book Jewett hoped Whittier would send.
Bishop: A book published in the few years before the appearance of "The King of Folly Island," that Whittier might have sent Jewett, and that Jewett could have found useful in writing her story is Fish and Men in the Maine Islands by William Henry Bishop (1880, 1885).
A.F.: Annie Adams Fields. Key to Correspondents.
Orr's Island: Probably Jewett calls this a pilgrimage because of her admiration for Harriet Beecher Stowe's The Pearl of Orr's Island (1859). Key to Correspondents.
Cartland: Richard Cary says that Joseph Cartland (1810-1898) and Whittier's 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.
sister: Almost certainly, Mary Rice Jewett. Key to Correspondents.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library of Harvard University, Cambridge, Pickard-Whittier papers: Jewett, Sarah Orne, 1849-1909. 12 letters to unidentified persons; [n.d.]. Box:12 Identifier: MS Am 1844, (8616).
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Lilian Woodman Aldrich
Thursday morning
[ 1885 ]*
[ Begin letterhead ]
148. Charles Street.
Boston.
[ End letterhead ]
Dear Lilian
If ever I thought I "stood to my guns" it was day before yesterday afternoon! and I was quite crestfallen to think you suspected all the time that I had a secret about the plays too! It would have been so much nicer to tell you, but it was a childish Sadie* who had to give herself time and come home & tell T.L.* -- She
[ Page 2 ]
had so much sympathy with both places you see! --
Mrs. Fields wants me to tell you that going down to the charity building with poor little Mrs. Abbott* very much in her mind and heart she found Mr. Fay there who knows about Mr. Ives's affairs, and he told her that Mr. Ives had his life insured for a large amount in his childrens favour. One of the sons
[ Page 3 ]
is doing well in business for himself and can probably help his sister beside letting her have his share of the money that is left. So it isn't quite so cruelly hard for her as we feared -- but hard enough at any rate. I have thought so much about her. If you are writing to her do send my love and sympathy ----
Yesterday afternoon I went down to see Whittier* and had such a pleasant piece
[ Page 4 ]
of an afternoon -- It was pouring in torrents and I think he was glad to have company.
-- Good-bye -- and I shall be so glad to see you Sunday night.
Yours always lovingly
S. O. J.
Notes
1885: This date in brackets appears in the upper right corner of page 1, penciled in another hand. No rationale for this choice is given. In any case, the letter would have to be composed between about 1883, when Jewett began staying regularly with Annie Fields on Charles Street and 1892, when Whittier died. See notes below.
Sadie: Sadie Martinot, after the American actress of that name, was a nickname for Jewett with the Aldriches. See Key to Correspondents.
T. L.: Nickname for Annie Fields. See Key to Correspondents.
Mrs. Abbott: Mr. Fay may be Franklin Brigham Fay (1821-1904), a Massachusetts businessman and politician who served as the mayor Chelsea, MA. The other persons named in this passage, Mrs. Abbott and Mr. Ives, have not yet been identified.
Among Fields's acquaintances was the Jane Williams Bourne Abbott (1810-1896), widow of Rev. John Stevens Cabot Abbott (1805-1877).
Whittier: John Greenleaf Whittier. 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: 2702.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Annie Adams Fields
Tuesday evening
[ November 1885 ]*
My dear little Fuff*
This has been a hardworking Pinny,* but a getting-along-one! I wish I could be sent to school over again for I never was more conscious that I dont know how to study.* Of course a certain [ amount corrected ] of this reading must be committed to memory, else I have to go back again and again to get things straight -- ---- The box you sent me by mail held the little sketches by Edith Thomas* -- a 'touching' thing enough! pretty bad in
[ Page 2 ]
one way but oh so good! in another -- so full of feeling and exquisitely drawn -- It is a little plain house in the dawn of an autumn morning and I look up at it again and again -- I want you to see it very much -- (I am afraid its faults will shock you, but it is so full of thought) By the way, have you seen the last Century yet for November with her lovely sonnet called Migration?* There is a thing worth doing, for us!
(I was much
[ Page 3 ]
amused by the report of your fray (with Mr. Herford* -- ) I am afraid that Liberal Christianity wont be much the better for such [ patronage corrected ] {.} Why cant people help the world to be Christian first, and let the special variety alone
thetill that's done? -- There is a great wind blowing tonight, and the river is so high that it jars the whole country-side -- I have been out twice today but not very far -- for I couldn't get the time somehow.
(It was funny that you should
[ Page 4 ]
have sent me Mrs. Crosland's* letter again, for I wished after I had sent it back that I had read it over -- What makes thee stir up thy friend* ^to come^ just yet? at any rate until after you have been to New York. I dont know why I say that either except that I think you have more to carry just now in getting started 'as it were' -- How good about Mr. Haweis!!* a first chop Fuffy, and I hope a first chop meeting too. I send more love than ever dear Fuff to make up for this dull letter --
Your own Pinny -- )
[ Up the left margin and then across the top margin of page 1 ]
Mary* is going to Exeter tomorrow for a few days{.} Yes. I will send the Dulham Ladies* to Linnet,* or rather keep it for him because I cant dally with [ them ? ] just now. I read them yesterday and loved them more than ever.))
[ Up the left margin and then across the top margin of page 4 ]
(I sent Edith Thomas some more coca and another remedy beside -- Isn't it good she is better?
If it isn't too much trouble I should like to see the dress too, dear. Mother would be much pleasured. Could it be put in the (little basket perhaps{?}
Notes
November 1885: In the upper right of page 1, Fields has entered the note, "188". The November 1885 date is confirmed by Jewett mentioning the current November issue of Century magazine and by her plans for "The Dulham Ladies," which was published in April 1886.
Parenthesis marks in this manuscript were penciled by Fields.
Fuff: Nickname for Annie Adams Fields. 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.
study: Probably, Jewett refers to her preparation for writing The Story of the Normans (1887).
Edith Thomas: American poet Edith M. Thomas (1854-1925).
Her sonnet, "Migration," appeared in Century Magazine 31 (November 1885), p. 115.
Mr. Herford: Probably, Jewett refers to Reverend Brooke Herford (1830-1903), who was a British Unitarian minister and author. He immigrated to the United States, serving in Boston after 1881. In 1892, he returned to England to serve at the Rosslyn Hill Chapel in Hampstead.
Mrs. Crosland's: Though this is far from certain, it is possible this is Camilla Dufour Toulmin Crosland (1812-1895), a British writer and translator, notably of Victor Hugo. She published under the name of "Mrs. Crosland."
thy friend: John Greenleaf Whittier. See Key to Correspondents.
Mr. Haweis: While this is not certain, it is possible that this is Hugh Reginald Haweis (1838-1901), a British cleric and author. He visited in Boston as Lowell lecturer in 1885.
Mary: Mary Rice Jewett. See Key to Correspondents.
Dulham Ladies: Jewett's "The Dulham Ladies" appeared in Atlantic Monthly 57 (April 1886).
Linnet: Thomas Bailey Aldrich. 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 Annie Adams Fields
Sunday afternoon
[ November 1885 ]
My dear darling what a rainy day this is! I hope you are having a good rest and a little fire to keep you warm while you read in the library -- Pinny* to be there in another chair so that she can look over and see her dear Fuff!!* -- I went to church this morning when it was not so wet as it is now, and this afternoon I have been reading The Burning of the Convent* -- if you please! which I had half forgotten. It was so [ nice corrected ] to come to the part about Pearl St. and Dr. A in the
[ Page 2 ]
window of the Athenaeum reading his newspaper. ---- Yesterday I was reading hard all day as indeed I mean to be for a good many days to come. I remind myself constantly how good all this work is in every way -- and how thankful I shall be to have done it when I go to England again -- I shall be able to improve an ignorant [ in every small script mouse's ]* mind and to speak with confidence of battlefields and warriors and be a very profitable companion in short!
*( I dont know what to think about the twins* -- I am afraid they are imagining a lovely
[ Page 3 ]
country inn instead of a very commonplace one in a village street. They will be well-fed there and kept warm and clean and of course I will do whatever I can for them -- but that seems to be so little just now in proportion to a twins deserts! You see that if it stopped raining this very moment (and it [shows corrected ] no sign) the roads and fields must surely be sopping wet for a week unless they [ deleted word dry ? ] ^freeze^ up -- and yet perhaps all this state of things will do for them as well as any other -- I should be glad to see them because who would not be glad to see
[ Page 5 ]
twins, that lives and breathes and has her senses? In the mean time here is Alice Longfellow's* letter which points out a charming haven for a little earlier in the season and we must [ remember corrected ] it -- for next year. Perhaps you would like it for awhile and Pinny to go too! -- Dont think I am inhospitable to Mrs. Bell's and Mrs. Pratt's coming for indeed I am not -- only I dont want them to think that Berwick now {is} [ the corrected ] Berwick of a month ago -- Probably they don't care -- they could always have a dry walk toward the top of the hill
[ Page 6 ]
and many other blessings --
-- Isn't this nice paper? It is a little thin, but delicious to write upon -- Fuffy to have some? ----- So you are going to New York? I didn't see the little word at first and when I found it on the outside as I read the letter again -- I had a great feeling of putting my arms round a little F ---- out in the world by herself in that fashion, but it is a good and beautiful thing for you to do, and I am glad you are going -- Great temptations
[ Page 7 ]
rose up within me, but I remembered that Cora's* visit comes just at that time too -- so I shall put off seeing you until afterward.))
-- I must stay here as long as I can, but dont you think if I take two or three days just after Thanksgiving it will be very wise? Then I could see about some Christmas things &c and we could have a little dear time together -- Have you had time to look over Coolidge's bookatee?* I am heartily grateful to her for writing it -- it will be such a help
[ Page 8 ]
to every girl who reads it -- I wish I had it when I was a growing Pinny. It is very sympathetic and natural -- Only I wanted a tender word or two for poor stiff old Aunt Myra up in Connecticut, if she was [ an corrected from and ] old mullein stalk! (She must have missed nice little Cannie dreadfully. I dont know a nicer book to give a child or a growing girl rather --
Goodbye dear love. Thank you more than ever for your dearness to your own Pinny.)*
Notes
November 1885: Fields has written this date with a question mark on the top right of page 1. Almost certainly she is correct, as Jewett reports being hard at work on The Story of the Normans that would appear at the end of 1886 and that she has just read Susan Coolidge's 1885 novel.
Pinny ... Fuff: Nicknames that Jewett and Fields used with each other. See Key to Correspondents. Jewett uses variations on both as well in this letter.
Burning of the Convent: Jewett refers to The Burning of the Convent: A Narrative of the Destruction by a Mob of the Ursuline School on Mount Benedict, Charlestown, as Remembered by One of the Pupils (1877) by Louisa Goddard Whitney (1819-1883). The passage about meeting Dr. A ___ at the Athenaeum appears on pp. 187-8.
The Athenaeum is a private library in Boston.
( : This parenthesis mark is penciled in another hand, presumably that of Annie Fields. There may be two marks, the text being smeared. Two matching marks appear on page 7, at the end of the first paragraph -- until afterward.))
Mouse: Mouse is another nickname Jewett uses for Fields. Jewett is writing about her research reading for The Story of the Normans, a popular history published at the beginning of 1887.
Cora's: Cora Clark Rice. See Key to Correspondents.
Coolidge's bookatee: "Bookatee" is a Jewett coinage for a small book. She refers to Sarah Chauncey Woolsey, who wrote under the name of Susan Coolidge. See Key to Correspondents. Her novel, A Little Country Girl (1885), featured Aunt Myra (aged 69) and Cannie / Candace (aged 9).
Pinny.): The parentheses around this paragraph were added in pencil, presumably by Annie Fields.
twins: Jewett almost certainly is expecting a visit in South Berwick from the sisters, Helen Olcott Choate Bell and Miriam Foster Choate Pratt, who are named later in the letter. See Key to Correspondents.
Though they were sisters, they were not literally twins.
Alice Longfellow's: 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.
John Greenleaf Whittier to Annie Adams Fields
Amesbury 11 Mo 17, 1885
My dear Friend
Thy welcome letter I wanted to answer at once, but I take the first real opportunity to acknowledge it. I have been unable to write or read without [ wretched ? ] pain or distrefs in my head, and a sense of physical exhaustion which admits of no work mental or otherwise. One can do but little without a head.
[ Page 2 ]
I remember indeed that one of the old Catholic Saints* who, after his head was cut off, took it under his arm & went to mass as usual; but, I am not in that Calendar, & cannot expect a miracle in my favor. I do not know when I shall leave here, indeed I dare not look forward. I should be glad to go to Boston but unless I am better & stronger it would be imprudent.
[ Page 3 ]
I had a visit from [ unrecognized first and last name ] & Phillips Brooks* before I left Oak Knoll, which I greatly enjoyed. I know Mr. Haven well by reputation as an able writer and am glad thee have had his aid in the Associated Charities.* I like to think of thee in thy holy work but am fearing that thee are over doing, and that thee do not spare thyself at all. Keep thy health for thy work's sake, and the sake of
[ Page 4 ]
the friends who love thee. What is it Solomon* says? -- "Be not righteous over much; why should'st thou destroy thyself?" -- I hope our dear Berwick girl* will be soon with thee, if she is not already. I suppose thee see Celia Thaxter* often. She seems to be pleasantly situated now and poor Carl has found his vocation in cabinet-making for his mother. I am in hopes she will yet take comfort with him & be repaid for all her care & anxiety. Ever with grateful love
John G Whittier
Notes
Saints: Though more than one saint is supposed to have survived beheading, the best known is Saint Denis of Paris. A Calendar of Saints is associated with the Christian liturgical year, identifying days of the year for the veneration of specific saints.
Phillips Brooks: See Key to Correspondents.
Though the name of the person who seems to have accompanied Brooks in the visit to Whittier is difficult to make out, the last name may be Farrar. British Church of England cleric, scholar and author, Frederic William Farrar (1831-1903) did, in fact, tour in the United States in late fall of 1885 and spent time with Phillips Brooks during that visit.
Mr. Haven ... Associated Charities: Probably, Whittier refers to Rev. Dr. William Ingraham Haven (1856-1928). A prominent Methodist clergyman, he became deeply involved in the welfare of the Boston community, including work for the Associated Charities of Boston, where Annie Fields was a leader. See his obituary in the New York Times, 6 June 1928, p. 25.
Solomon: See the Bible, Ecclesiastes 7:16: Be not righteous over much; neither make thyself over wise: why shouldest thou destroy thyself?
Berwick girl: Sarah Orne Jewett. See Key to Correspondents.
Celia Thaxter: See Key to Correspondents. Karl was her disabled eldest son.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Huntington Library, San Marino, CA, in the James T. Fields collection: mss FI 71-4829. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Annie Adams Fields
[ November 1885 ]*
[ This afternoon I copied the whole ]* of the Gray Man* which was good spin, copying is apt to be so much slower than making up and this was 24 good pages. Then I read Carlyle* and like it dreadfully+* -- it needs much less work than I expected. If I only had time I should copy all my manuscripts. I think it pays over and over and the best shall have it -- The Gray Man has noble margins, and I should like to put ^it^ into your dear fingers for a blessing before it goes -- I have a great mind to make the Carlyle look very nice and skip them off together -- Why
[ Page 2 ]
Fuffy,* I did not think you would care so much about the verses.* I take it all from your kindness and feel very splendid nevertheless it being so long since I caught one of those mice* -- not that I sit much by the mouse hole!
-- I am afraid I have let a number of thin ones run away for very laziness! I feel as if earthquakes were impending from what you say -- and have a mingled sense of horror and cheerfulness -- I get quite worried to pieces if I let my mind dwell on the subject, and have a cowardly thankfulness that I am out of it -- though my dear Fuff knows that I am always only too glad [ to be of any use doesn't she? ]*
[ Manuscript breaks off. No signature ]
Notes
November 1885: In a letter to Fields almost certainly from 24 November 1885, Jewett writes that "The Gray Man" is nearly ready to be submitted for publication. This letter probably precedes that one by a short time.
whole: The text in brackets has been inked in at the top of page 1, probably by Fields.
the Gray Man: Jewett's short story, "The Gray Man" was not accepted for magazine publication. It appeared for the first time in her collection, A White Heron (1886).
Carlyle: Jewett's fictional account of Scottish author Thomas Carlyle's secret, supposed visit to America was not published in her lifetime. A transcription of one manuscript appeared in 1982: Rodger Tarr and Carol Anita Clayton, American Literature (Mar. 1982): 101-15. A new transcription of both known manuscripts appeared in 2015.
dreadfully+: Fields has inserted the "+". This points to a note she has inked in at the bottom and then up the left margin of page 1: "+ a paper she had written on Carlyle and later decided not to print."
Fuffy: Nickname for Annie Adams Fields. See Key to Correspondents. Fields, with a green pencil, has deleted this word and inserted "dear".
verses: While it is not known what new verses Jewett has shown to Fields, one likely possibility is her narrative poem "York Garrison, 1640," which appeared a few months later, Wide Awake (23: 18-22), June, 1886.
mice: Though she is playing with metaphor, Jewett probably also is playing with another of her nicknames for Fields, Mouse. See Key to Correspondents.
she?: The text in brackets has been inked in at the bottom of page 2, probably by Fields.
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
Wednesday evening
[ November 1885 ]*
My dear Fuff*
(It is so nice to look forward to your letter, and then to really have it -- Every one seems as if it were the very first! -- I have read [ this written over it ] with such pleasure though it was such a dear hurrying little one that I am afraid you are very tired tonight. I think of you at the lecture and I wonder who went too! Pinny* to want to go dreadfully ladies, (on account of going with Fuff! as much as anything) -- -- I found the sonnet, such as it was, and I am going to put a copy of it into this letter with a hope that it will do -- Perhaps you will think that I had better
[ Page 2 ]
leave it out? but [ we written over something or perhaps deleted ] will take a day or two to consider things of that vast importance. I have finished copying the paper, and having come to the last of it in the middle of this fine afternoon{,} I took a long walk down toward the Hamilton house, though I did not really go so far as that -- and made two calls and stopped at Mrs. Burleigh's* on the way home so she is off my mind, being a personnaggia, (is that the way you spell her?) and to be at least once a year called upon in polite ceremoniousness. The air was lovely, and I devoured a great supper when I came in. I am afraid you did not see what a lovely sunset there was from
[ Page 3 ]*
this palazzo -- I seem to be dropping into Italian in this letter! ----
I had a long chase after the sonnet through bush and briar of desks and other depositories -- The last two lines seem better than ever but all the rest is rather boggy -- Oh Fuff, I wish the balance had been a much bigger one and all on your side at Houghton's!* It will be changed from Mr. Beal for yesterdays always trumps up --* Sometimes the business part of writing grows very noxious to me and I wonder if in heaven our ^best^ thoughts -- poet's thoughts, especially {--} will not be flowers somehow or some sort of beautiful live things
[ Page 4 ]
that stand about and grow, and dont have to be chaffered over and bought and sold -- It seems as bad as selling our fellow beings! but being in this world everything must have a body, and a material part, so covers and leaves and publishing generally (!) come under that head, and is another thing to make us [ deleted words, possibly fly a ] wish to fly away and be at rest!! -- Now what do you think of sending either Marsh Rosemary or the "King" or both to choose from, to a linnet?* (I am wondering very much what he and his Matilda will think of the Millet's change -- They are sure to be sorry, but we must hope that ) __*
(Somebody nice will live at 131 and surely since Millet wanted the big house always they cannot think that we ----- But why)*[ Up the left margin of page 1 ]
should I be fancying an altercation with Linnet''s and Matilda's, -- Tomorrow is the [ sewing-society corrected ] and Pinny to go, being very Berwickish at present and[ Up the left margin and partly across the top margin of page 2 ]
scuttling round like a lively crab for fear that snow or colder weather will come and things be left undone -- I had a word from dear Marigold* tonight with the story of the Dog most touchingly put into verse. It gave my heart quite a pull -- even reading it in her writing made it very touching to me. I am[ Up the left margin and across the top margin of page 3 ]
going to write her -- but not tonight because I must go to work now ---- good night and bless you dear [ love corrected ] from Pin --[ Up the left margin and across the top margin of page 4 ]
Oh Fuff I always hold you close to my heart in these early November days! I wish I could always spend them with you{.}
Notes
November 1885: This date is confirmed by Jewett reporting that she has completed "Marsh Rosemary" and "The King of Folly Island" for publication. Both appeared in 1886.
Fields has penciled upper right on page one: "November". Near the top right of page three, Fields (probably) has penciled "1890".
The parenthesis mark at the beginning of the body also was penciled by Fields.
Fuff: Nickname for Annie Adams Fields. 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.
Page 3: At the top right of this page, someone has written "P. 62". indicating the page number upon which this part of the letter appears in her Letters of Sarah Orne Jewett (1911),
On p. 63 appears Jewett's poem about meeting Ralph Waldo Emerson, which may be the sonnet that Jewett sent to Fields with this letter.
Right here, where noisiest, narrowest is the street;If this is the correct poem, then perhaps Fields has suggested that Jewett include it in a story she was working on at the time, "Carlyle in America." This sonnet appears in Jewett's manuscript for that story.
Where gaudy shops bedeck the crowded way;
Where idle newsboys in vindictive play
Dart to and fro with venturesome bare feet;
Here, where the bulletins from fort and fleet
Tell gaping readers what's amiss today,
Where sin bedizens, folly makes too gay,
And all are victims of their own conceit;
With these ephemeral insects of an hour
That war and flutter, as they downward float
In some pale sunbeam that the spring has brought,
Where this vain world is revelling in power;
I met great Emerson, serene, remote,
Like one adventuring on seas of thought.
Mrs. Burleigh's: Matilda Buffum Burleigh, a South Berwick neighbor, the widow of a mill owner and Maine congressman. John Holmes Burleigh (1822-1877).
Houghton's: Houghton, Mifflin, Jewett's publisher, and also publisher of Fields's Under the Olive 1881 and How to Help the Poor (1884), for which she probably was earning some royalties in 1885.
Mr. Beal ... trumps up: After this sentence, Fields has penciled a large end parenthesis and inserted "Begin here"; in the right margin she has written "+". This indicates the beginning of the portion of the letter she included in her collection.
This Mr. Beal seems to be an employee at Houghton, Mifflin. He has not been further identified.
Marsh Rosemary ... the "King"...a linnet: The Linnet is Thomas Bailey Aldrich, at this time editor at Atlantic Monthly. See Key to Correspondents.
Jewett's "Marsh Rosemary" appeared in Atlantic (57:590-601), May 1886. "The King of Folly Island" appeared in Harper's Magazine (74:102-116), December 1886
Matilda ... Millet's: Aldrich seems to have called his wife Matilda. Her full given name was Mary Elizabeth "Lily" Woodman. See Key to Correspondents.
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. By 1890, they were near neighbors of Fields at 150 Charles Street. See also Harvard Class of 1877 Secretary's Report, pp. 43-4.
It appears that in 1885, the Millets moved from a location nearer Aldrich's house at 59 Mount Vernon Street to become a neighbor to Fields. Jewett indicates the Millets former address was "131." If she means on Mount Vernon Street, then they were about 0.3 miles west of the Aldrich residence before moving. Fields's residence was about 0.3 miles north of 131 Mount Vernon.
that ) __: The parentheses around these sentences were penciled by Fields, and she also seems to have made the line after the end parenthesis.
but why): Parenthesis marks around this text were penciled by Fields.
Marigold: A nickname for Mary Langdon Greenwood (Mrs. James) Lodge. See Key to Correspondents. If her poem about a dog was published, this is not yet known.
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
A part of this letter appears in Annie Fields, Letters of Sarah Orne Jewett (1911), pp. 62-3.
Sometimes, the business part of writing grows very noxious to me, and I wonder if in heaven our best thoughts -- poet's thoughts, especially -- will not be flowers, somehow, or some sort of beautiful live things that stand about and grow, and don't have to be chaffed over and bought and sold. It seems as bad as selling our fellow beings, but being in this world everything must have a body, and a material part, so covers and leaves and publishing generally come under that head, and is another thing to make us wish to fly away and be at rest!
Sarah Orne Jewett to Annie Adams Fields
Saturday afternoon
[ November 1885 ]*
Dearest Annie
I have been thinking of what you said about some plan for a mortgage -- and I hasten now to tell you that I shall be delighted to lend you fifteen hundred dollars without interest for just as long as it lasts, and then we can see about more! You shall [ pay ? ]
[ Page 2 ]Notes
me when you get ready -- when the changes are made about the garden or later. No one need know anything about it except that you can send this note, if you like to Mr. Beal,* or tell him that I shall send a cheque as soon as I can get to the Bank & my papers. I
[ Page 3 ]
promise it on the fifteenth or very soon after.
I am getting round to thinking about things now, as you may see!
In haste with love always.
S.O.J.
November 1885: This date is a very tentative guess. In a letter to Fields from November 1885, Jewett speaks of a financial imbalance between Houghton, Mifflin publisher and Fields. I am speculating that this letter in some way speaks to the consequences of that imbalance.
In the upper left corner of page one appears this note:
To be saved
-------------------------- A.F.
How generous, how loving.
Mr. Beal: This could be James Henry Beal (d. 1904), husband of Fields's youngest sister, Louisa Jane Adams. See Fields in Key to Correspondents.
However, in a letter to Fields from November 1885, Jewett mentions another Mr. Beal, who seems to be an employee at Houghton, Mifflin who was concerned with financial matters.
If this letter is correctly dated, then Fields's problem with Houghton may have stemmed from royalties for her books, particularly How to Help the Poor, which Houghton published in 1884.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Huntington Library, San Marino, CA, in the James T. Fields papers: mss FL 5563. This manuscript has been damaged by water, making parts of the transcription less than normally certain. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Annie Adams Fields
Tuesday evening
[ 24 November 1885 ]*
Dear Fuff*
(I am* so glad to have you home again. Yes you did leave your little book here and I did not suppose you would want it until I came, so it was not sent. I daresay I should have forgotten it, too, but I will not now. What a dismal day! but it is almost the first very bad one. It has snowed a little here and been chilly and dark, and I have
[ Page 2 ]
felt a little stiff and found it hard to shake off my cold, though it is a good deal better.)
I have been busy putting The Dulham Ladies* in order, but I really am afraid it is not the thing for the Atlantic. There are funny places in it, and yet with all the good bits it does not make a good whole thing -- I will bring it up and let the Linnet* see it, because I promised, but it will do
[ Page 3 ]
better for the Independent* and I shall say so frankly -- I can give him the Gray man.*
-- All these last stories lack something. I want to say "Well what of it?" when I finish reading them -- I am ashamed to say that I think I shall get on better another year for why didn't I get on well this year except that last winter's siege took the goodness out of it --
(Only think of the Millets!* a father and mother and
[ Page 4 ]
a baby! Personally I am very glad she is a girl, but I am sorry if they were disappointed -- How good to hear so much of the Sunday sermon! I really care more about hearing Mr. Brooks* next Sunday than I do Canon Farrar,* so we will be sure to go in the afternoon wont we?
I wish I could sleep through Thanksgiving Day! but I am going to try to be good -- Good night from tired and bad Pinny but one that loves you. )
Notes
24 November 1885: While this date is speculative, it almost certainly is correct, as Jewett speaks in the letter of the near approach of Thanksgiving Day, which fell on 26 November in 1885.
Fuff: A nickname for Annie Adams Fields. See Key to Correspondents.
(I am: This and all other parenthesis marks in this letter have been penciled in by Fields.
The Dulham Ladies: Jewett's "The Dulham Ladies"first appeared in Atlantic Monthly (57:455-462) in April 1886,
Linnet: Thomas Bailey Aldrich, editor of Atlantic. See Key to Correspondents.
Independent: Jewett was well acquainted with William Hayes Ward, editor of The Independent, her friend and neighbor in South Berwick. See Key to Correspondents. She published often in this weekly.
Gray man: "A Gray Man" first appeared in A White Heron in 1886.
Millets: Jewett probably speaks of 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. By 1890, they were near neighbors of Fields at 150 Charles Street. See also Harvard Class of 1877 Secretary's Report, pp. 43-4.
Jewett's letter to Fields of Wednesday evening, [ November 1885 ] suggests that the Millets may have moved during 1885.
Mr. Brooks: Phillips Brooks. See Key to Correspondents.
Canon Farrar: Frederic William Farrar (1831-1903) was a cleric of the Church of England (Anglican), schoolteacher and author of children's literature. He was Canon of Westminster (1876 -1895) and eventually became Dean of Canterbury. He visited Boston in the autumn of 1885.
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
[ Begin letterhead ]Thanksgiving Day
[ 26 November ] 1885.
148. Charles Street,
Boston.
[ End letterhead ]
You have given me a fresh cause for Thanksgiving, my dear friend, not only by your kindest of notes and your continual remembrance, but by giving me the power of smoothing the rough road for others.*
I did not need this sign of your thoughtfulness of [ my ? ] occupations and interests (although it was a particularly grateful one last evening,) because I am
[ Page 2 ]
sure of that! and I am always surprised afresh that you can find room to think of me in this particular way, when I remember the endless claims which surround you.
My Sarah* has not yet come to town. I look for her soon to pass a day or two as a kind
[ Page 3 ]
of preliminary visit before the winter opens. We are both secretly planning to get out to see you and yours during this brief stay, but of course her going will depend somewhat upon the weather as well as the time she allows herself in Boston.
I wish we might have heard your paper about the Indian language*
[ Page 3 ]
but when we meet you will tell me, I am sure, of the further wonders your researches have opened.
With my love to your wife and the dear girls
believe me
affectionately yours
Annie Fields.
Notes
others: Presumably, Horsford has sent a gift of money to support Fields's work with the Associated Charities of Boston.
Sarah: Sarah Orne Jewett. See Key to Correspondents.
Indian language: Probably, Fields refers to Horsford's The Indian Names of Boston and Their Meaning (1885), which was "read before the New England Historic Genealogical Society" on 6 November 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
Newichawannock
[ 3 ? ] December [ 1885 ]*
Dear Prof. Horsford
I wish you would thank Mr. Healy* for his kindness, (and yourself too!) -- I was fortunate enough to see [ Mme ? ] Greville* twice in the short time I stayed in town -- and I enjoyed her very much. I hope to see more of her
[ Page 2 ]
when she gets back to Boston by and by -- She seemed such a frank, sincere woman, full of true kindness of heart and sympathy -- She spoke of Mr. Healy with great interest -- I was detained a day or two (as I believe I told you) by Mrs. Fields's* not being well. It was only one of the prevailing
[ Page 3 ]
colds which attacked her, and she is much better again -- I had one three or four sizes too big for my head before I went [ away corrected ] and I have hardly got over it yet. I dont mean to send it to you by this letter, but I should be glad if it tried to ride off on the outside of the envelope and was lost at -- say Haverhill!
[ Page 4 ]
I shall go back to Boston just before Christmas and shall hope to let myself in at 27 Craigie St. very soon afterwards --
I read the Gardiner's Island* paper, and wished with a kind of jealousy that Shelter Island had the first turn! This is a very enticing paper though and the pictures are pretty -- Next summer somebody ought to take photographs all about the Manor.* When I see you
[ Up the left and across the top margin of page 1 ]
I shall want to hear all about Mr. Cushing's* explorations -- and whether you went to Montauk --
yours affectionately
Sarah
O.
Jewett --
[ Up the left margin of page 2 ]
What is Quamp-hegan?* That is the name of Berwick or one of them. I imagine it belongs
[ Up the left margin of page 3 ]
above the "high place," near the fishing place at the falls -- perhaps?
Notes
1885: This date is supported by Jewett's report that she has met Mme. Gréville during her first visit to Boston.
Wikipedia says the Salmon Falls River in New Hampshire and Maine was named the Newichawannock by the Abenaki, meaning it was a river of many falls. At South Berwick, the Salmon Falls flows into the Piscataqua River.
Jewett interprets the name, in "The Old Town of Berwick," as "my place of wigwams."
Mr. Healy: Probably American portrait painter, George Peter Alexander Healy (1813-1894). He is perhaps best remembered for his portrait of "The Young Abe Lincoln," though he produced portraits of several presidents.
Greville: Probably, this is Henry Gréville, pen name of French novelist Alice Marie Fleury Durand (1842-1902). Madame Durand visited America in 1885-6 and gave lectures in New York and Boston. The New York Times reports her introduction at a Boston lecture by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. (7 December 1885, p. 2). See also American Bookseller v. 19-20, (26 January 1886), p. 63.
Mrs. Fields: Annie Adams Fields. See Key to Correspondents.
Gardiner's Island: Gardiners Island is a small island near East Hampton, on the eastern end of Long Island, NY. Presumably Jewett refers to "The Manor of Gardiner's Island" by Mrs. Martha J. Lamb, which appeared in The Magazine of American History 13 (January 1885), pp. 1-30.
Shelter Island ... the Manor: Horsford's family inherited the Sylvester Manor on Shelter Island, off the east coast of Long Island, New York.
Mr. Cushing's: Frank Hamilton Cushing (1857-1900), of the Smithsonian Institute and the Bureau of American Ethnology, was a scholar of Native Americans. In the 1880s, Cushing made a study of the Zuni Pueblo in New Mexico.
Quamp-hegan: The Old Berwick Historical Society says that Quamphegan Landing in South Berwick, where the tidal Piscataqua River begins, was a Native American fishing camp. The Wabanaki name denotes "dip net," indicating a favored fishing method at this spot. In "The Old Town of Berwick," Jewett offers a slightly different meaning: "the great fishing place."
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 Eben Norton Horsford
148 Charles St.
Wednesday morning
[ December 1885 ]*
Dear Prof. Horsford
Your letter has found me here but I am afraid I must give up the pleasure of seeing you as I go away in the morning -- This is only a little visit! but I am coming back before Christmas -- What
[ Page 2 ]
you say about the meaning of Newichawannock* -- is exactly right -- and next summer you must certain [ come corrected ] and see the high place between the two rivers for yourself: it is a most beautiful bit of land and as I walked along an old river-path a few days ago -- before the snow came
[ Page 3 ]
I saw an Indian path leading down to the water! I have always known that there was a famous town of Indians on the sandy upland there -- but I never found an arrowhead and never saw one that anybody else found. They were all fishermen I dont doubt!
With love to all --
Yours affectionately
Sarah O. Jewett
Notes
December 1885: See Jewett to Horsford of 3 December 1885, in which Jewett gives her home address as Newichawannock. This date receives support from this letter apparently being part of a conversation between Horsford and Jewett about the meaning of the name "Newichawannock." See notes below.
The first transcriber of this letter, John W. Willoughby, places it between the 1884 and 1886 letters in his collection.
Newickawannock: Wikipedia says the Salmon Falls River in New Hampshire and Maine was named the Newichawannock by the Abenaki, meaning it was a river of many falls. At South Berwick, the Salmon Falls flows into the Piscataqua River. While recent scholarship seems to have settled on this meaning, during Jewett's time, there were other opinions. It appears that Horsford has defined the name to mean a high place between two rivers. While Jewett agrees with him here, by 1894, she had changed her opinion. In her essay, "The Old Town of Berwick" (1894), Jewett says:
The records say that Pring could find no inhabitants in the Indian villages near the coast, except a few old people, from whom he learned that they had all gone up the river to their chief fishing place. So he followed them at flood tide for a dozen miles or more, finding little wealth of sassafras, but discovering a magnificent wooded country and the noble river itself, with its many tributaries and its great bay. The main branch of the Piscataqua (river of right angles or the great deer drive, as one may choose to interpret it) would lead him to Newichawannock Falls (my place of wigwams), and to Quampeagan (the great fishing place). No doubt there were those who could direct him to this point, for, being in June, it was the time of the salmon fishery at the Newichawannock Falls, to which place all the Indians came to catch and dry their fish for winter use. It was the great fishery for all that part of the country.
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 Horace Parker Chandler
South Berwick Maine
9 December
[ 1885 ]*
Dear Mr. Chandler
Thank you for your note which I received this evening. I should like very much to have a few copies of Every Other Saturday, in fact I was going to send to town for some to come down within a day or two.
-- We were much interested
[ Page 2 ]
and pleased with the reminiscence of my father -- I wish you would thank your father for me and tell him how glad I am to have the kind words of his old friend, and the little glimpse of that last day. Mr. Chandler's* being at the hotel, was such a pleasure both to my
[ Page 3 ]
mother and father --
I ought to thank you, and I do most sincerely for the pains you have taken to make up the little paper which I literally [ "read --" ? ]! It is embarrassingly full of praise and I am afraid it is going to be very hard to live up to -- as the old lady said of her best new
[ Page 4 ]
china ---- Believe me
Yours very truly
Sarah O. Jewett
Notes
1885: Jewett and Chandler are corresponding about a biographical sketch of Jewett that appeared in Every Other Saturday on 5 December 1885.
Inked in the upper right corner of page 1 is what appears to be the numeral: 2.
Chandler's: Chandler's father was Peleg Whitman Chandler (1816-1889) of Boston, a lawyer and politician who graduated from Bowdoin College, as did Jewett's father.
Included in the December 1885 sketch is an extended account of the death of Theodore Herman Jewett as remembered by Peleg Chandler.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the University of New England Maine Women Writers Collection, Sarah Orne Jewett Correspondence Box 3 Folder 162. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Annie Adams Fields to Sarah Orne Jewett
Monday Morning
NahantMy darling:
[ 12 December 1885 ]*
Did the little cab return for you I wonder, in season. To the last moment I thought you would see me back again, but I just caught the train, good Mr. Beal* being on the lookout. I can see you still anxiously peering out of the door. How strange it was for me to go and leave you to get away as best you could.
Yesterday I translated the paper for dear Whittier.* It is really charming and presently I hope to write to Madame Blanc.*
I shall stay here until tomorrow when I must go to town and try to find Boylston’s* drinking cup and a copy of White’s Selborne for Willy.* I think Willy seems a better boy as you get nearer to him and his life. His [ wan corrected ] listlessness comes from lack of vitality I think and no worse causes. It is a discontented
2
little face, but even that has its better side – You know how apt we are to mistranslate faces in this world – even Shakespeare* you remember warns us on this head.
This cool weather will give you a fresh chance at the “Normenâ€* I hope. I long to have you with that mountain climbed and far behind.
I shall stay for that wretched garden party this P.M. and tomorrow wing my way, glad to be free, to my solitary covert. I shall be thankful to stay there, for I am no visitor, unsatisfactory in more ways than one and I shall hope to find some interesting [ occupation corrected ] after the Ireland notes* are finished.
It was a pity to lose these days with Marigold* and from Trinity,* but they will keep and it has been very good to be here. They have all been most tender and affectionate and we have had pleasant hours{.}
[ Page 3 ]
It is a dear good household. I know of no place where a number of people are trying any harder than they are here, for the right and they are all more than good to me.
I have asked “thy friend†to let Phoebe* copy the paper for him to read and to perhaps return mine. I should like you to read how beautifully Madame Blanc has spoken.
Good bye, dear child –
Do not send the money for the rugs – when we meet will be the time – not now -- God bless you my darling –
Your A. F.
My love to all – Carry’s* needles are a great comfort{.}
Notes
1885: The envelope associated with this letter was cancelled on this date.
Mr. Beal: Fields's brother-in-law, James Henry Beal. See Annie Adams Fields in Key to Correspondents.
Whittier: John Greenleaf Whittier. See Key to Correspondents.
Madame Blanc: Marie Thérèse de Solms Blanc. While this is not certain, the paper Fields refers to may be Blanc's review of Jewett's A Country Doctor (1884). See Key to Correspondents.
Boylston’s: Probably, this is Fields's nephew, Zabdiel Boylston Adams, III (1875-1940). She could refer to another nephew, Boylston Adams, but he would have been 20 years old in 1885, a little old to miss his drinking cup. See Annie Adams Fields in Key to Correspondents.
White’s Selborne: Gilbert White (1720-1793), though a fellow at Oriel College, Oxford, lived most of his life at Selborne, in England, as a curate, where he could follow his avocations of naturalist and writer. The Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne appeared in 1789.
Willy: Fields's nephew, William Fields Beal. See Annie Adams Fields in Key to Correspondents.
Shakespeare: Possibly Fields refers to British playwright William Shakespeare's (1564-1616) Hamlet Act 1:5, when Hamlet says of his step-father, "I set it down / That one may smile, and smile, and be a villain."
"Normen": Jewett's popular history, The Story of the Normans, appeared at the end of 1886.
Ireland notes: Fields is not known to have published anything on Ireland.
Marigold: A nickname for Mary Greenwood Lodge. See Key to Correspondents.
Trinity: Fields attended Boston's Trinity Church (Episcopalian).
"thy friend" ... Phoebe: "Thy friend" was Jewett and Fields's nickname for Whittier. Phebe Woodman (1869-1953) was the adopted daughter of Whittier's cousin Abby Johnson Woodman (1828-1921). See Letters of John Greenleaf Whittier v. 1, p. 337. See Key to Correspondents.
Carry's: Caroline Jewett Eastman. See Key to Correspondents.
The manuscript of the letter is held by the University of New England Maine Women Writers Collection MWWC0196_02_00_010_01. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
John Greenleaf Whittier to Annie Adams Fields
My dear friendOak Knoll
12th Mo 19, 1885*
Annie Fields.
How long it is since I have heard from thee! I have feared that illness was the cause, though I knew how thy time was occupied, and how much thee had to do and think of; and I have been reproaching myself, that I have been trespassing too much on thy time and
[ Page 2 ]
good nature: and if I missed thy word among the many [ ones or others ? ] that reached me. I did not need it to assure me that I was kindly remembered.
In the intervals of visitation on that day my thoughts were with dear friends who have passed from us, among whom I need not say ^was^ thy dearest friend.* How vividly the beautiful mornings with you were recalled!
Then I wondered at my age -- and if
[ Page 3 ]
{it} was possible that I was the little boy on the old Haverhill farm, unknown & knowing nobody beyond my home-horizon. I could not quite make the connection of the white haired man with the black locked boy. I could not help a feeling of loneliness, thinking of having outlived so many of my life companions, but I was still grateful to God that I had not outlived my love for them, and for those still living.
[ Page 4 ]
Among the many tokens of good will from all parts of the country & beyond sea, there were some curious and amusing missives. One "Secesh" woman* took the occasion to include me in her curse of the "mean, hateful Yankees!" To offset this I had a telegram from the Southern Forestry Congress assembled at DeFuniak Springs Florida, signed by its Pres & Secretary informing me that "in remembrance of your birthday we have planted a live-oak tree to your memory which like the leaves of the tree will be forever green."
[ Page 5 ]
I hope thee met Dr Farrar.* On the day he sailed he wrote me a note -- a very kind one -- promising to send me his sermons & speeches in this country. I have been saddened by the death of Dr Mulford* -- I knew {him} but slightly personally, but I felt very near to him in his writings. He was the strongest thinker of our time, and he thought in the right direction. HisCity of God"Republic of God" is intellectually greater than St. Augustine's "City of God"* and infinitely nearer the Christian ideal.
Is our dear S. O J* with thee? I hope so. Thee must
[ Page 6 ]
need her these short dark days & long winter nights.
For myself, I hope to see you both some time this winter. My head is somewhat better but my lame knee troubles me, and I am hardly equal to leaving home.
Has thee read Elizabeth Phelps'* "Madonna of the Wash Tub" in the Harper's Mage? It is, it seems to me a very admirable story, in spite of some of her peculiar mannerisms.
Good by dear friend. The Lord bless thee! Ever affectionately thy frd.
John G Whittier
Notes
1885: Whittier's birthday was 17 December.
This manuscript has a penciled "9" at the top center of page 1, and a "13" at the top center of page 5. "X" is penciled several times in the left margin: on page 2 next to the sentence about the passing of dear friends; on page 3 next to the mention of the white haired man; twice on page 4, when he mentions amusing missives and next to his report of having a tree planted in his honor in Florida; twice on page 5, at the top and when he mentions the death of Dr. Mulford.
dearest friend: Almost certainly, Whittier refers to Fields's deceased husband, James T. Fields. See Fields in Key to Correspondents.
"Secesh" woman: A secessionist or supporter of the Confederacy in the American Civil War (1861-1865).
Dr Farrar: British Church of England cleric, scholar and author, Frederic William Farrar (1831-1903) visited the United States in late fall of 1885.
Dr. Mulford: American Protestant Episcopal clergyman and author, Elisha Mulford (1833- 9 December 1885). The Republic of God, an Institute of Theology appeared in 1881.
The Algerian-born Augustine of Hippo (354-430) was an early Christian theologian. The City of God was composed around 410.
S. O J: Sarah Orne Jewett. See Key to Correspondents.
Phelps': Elizabeth Stuart Phelps. See Key to Correspondents. "The Madonna of the Tubs" appeared Harper's for December 1885.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Huntington Library, San Marino, CA, in the James T. Fields collection: mss FI 71-4853. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
This letter has been transcribed previously by John B. Pickard, Letters of John Greenleaf Whittier. v. 3, #1405.
Alice Marie Fleury Durand* to Sarah Orne Jewett
Newport, [ unreadable word 1885 ]*
My dear Miss Jewett.
A happy Christmas to you and those you love. Keep a little corner in your heart for my daughter and for my self. When you know my husband I shall ask a 3d little cosy room for him also.
Affectionately yours
Henry Gréville
[ Note on the back of the page, bottom, in another and ]
Taken from Dosia
From the French of Henry Greville,
by Mary Neal Sherwood.*
Notes
Durand: Henry Gréville was the pen name of French novelist Alice Marie Fleury Durand (1842-1902). Madame Durand visited America in 1885-6 and gave lectures in New York and Boston. The New York Times reports her introduction at a Boston lecture by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. (7 December 1885, p. 2). See also American Bookseller v. 19-20, (26 January 1886), p. 63.
1885: This date was assigned by the Houghton Library, holder of the original copy, which probably is more readable than the photocopy from which this is transcribed. In the photocopy the script very faded.
Sherwood: Mary Neal Sherwood was an American translator. She translated Henry Gréville's Dosia: a Russian Story (1878). She may be the Mary Neal (1829-1914) who married Robert Henry Sherwood (1826-1863). Find a Grave.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library of Harvard University: Sarah Orne Jewett Correspondence Series: I. Letters to Sarah Orne Jewett MS Am 1743 (54) Durand, Alice Marie Céleste (Fleury) 1842-1902. 1 letter; 1885. Signed Henry Gréville.
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.
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Thomas Bailey Aldrich
Tuesday morning
South Berwick
[ December 1885 ]
Dear M. T. B. A.
Here is the answer right away! And I shall expect the gray man* home again and love both him and his unkind editor still the same. As for The King of Folly Island (isn't he a splendid name?) I cant get time this week to put him in good order for printing --
But saving your presence and T. L.s* did she give you any hint of this work of imagination which I now send you with heartfelt pride? Oddly enough I had
[ Page 2 ]
part of it written before there was anything said about missing letters --
-- I had this in my bag when I went to Boston last, but it has been slowly coming to its present perfection. I am particularly anxious to keep the authorship ^a^ secret* and I think we can manage it, dont you? Even though my writing is so well known at the Press.
-- This seems like taking things for granted, but you know I dont really do that and that I am always your affectionate friend
Sadie*
[ Page 3 ]Notes
Dont trouble yourself to send The Gray Man here. I will take it when I come or you can send it to 148 --
I hope that you will have a delightful Christmas week in New York. I am in a great hurry to take one bite of a cherry!
[ Page 4 ]*
December 1885: This date is based upon Jewett's mentioning that the Christmas holiday season is near and upon her writing about two of her stories that appeared during 1886, neither, it turns out, in Atlantic Monthly. It is somewhat confusing that Jewett reports to Aldrich on her proofing work on "The King of Folly Island," as it appeared in Harper's.
the gray man: Jewett's story entitled "The Gray Man" is not known to have appeared in a magazine. It was first published in A White Heron and Other Stories (September-October 1886).
The King of Folly Island: Jewett's story, "The King of Folly Island," appeared in Harper's Magazine (74:102-116), December 1886. It is not clear why Jewett is corresponding with Aldrich about this story.
T. L.s: Annie Adams Fields. See Key to Correspondents.
Page 4: At the top left of this blank page, penciled in another hand appears: 42m-1836.
work of imagination ... secret: Jewett published three stories in Atlantic during 1886: "The Dulham Ladies" in April, "Marsh Rosemary" in May, and "The Two Browns" in August. None of these was published anonymously. Jewett is not yet known to have published anything anonymously in 1886. However, she was a regular in the anonymous Contributors' Club column, and there may be a not yet discovered piece there. Of course, Aldrich simply may not have accepted her submission.
Another possibility is that she has decided to show Aldrich a story she had been working on in the autumn of 1885, but never published, "Carlyle in America." See the notes for Sarah Orne Jewett to Annie Adams Fields, Wednesday evening, [ November 1885 ].
Sadie: Sadie Martinot was a Jewett nickname with the Aldriches, presumably after the American actress and singer, Sarah/Sadie Martinot. 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: 2708.
Edited by Terry Heller, Coe College.
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