The Bayeux Tapestry Elucidated by John Collingwood Bruce appeared in 1856. Architectural Antiquities of Normandy by John Sell Cotman appeared in 1822.
This letter, transcribed by John Alden, originally appeared in Boston Public Library Quarterly 9 (1957): 86-96. It is reprinted here courtesy of the Trustees of the Boston Public Library/Rare Books. Notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Celia Thaxter to Annie Adams Fields (fragment)*
[ Soon after 16 June 1886 ]
opened today -- It has been a heavenly day -- This morning a little after 3 I was wakened by the distressed cry of a sandpiper -- I knew the dear creatures had a nest
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near the reservoir ^towards which &^ over which one of my windows looks. I sprang up & looked out -- Sure enough round the brick parapet was stealing a hideous three-legged cat who got here nobody knows how & has grown wild & a terror to the birds, & we can't catch her -- I saw the sandpipers [ distressed may have been deleted by Thaxter ], flitting & piping -- Everything was rosy with dawn & the sea a mirror -- I threw on my dressing gown & not stopping even for stockings, slipped on my shoes, down stairs and out of the house, round the piazza, up through the green space & clustering rose & bayberry bushes, over the low fence, on to the broad, low wall of the reservoir, round which I ran at the edge of the still water, to the ledges on the other side where the tragedy was going on -- I scared away the cat & the wise sandpipers stood watching on the highest
[ Page 3 ]
part of the rock & ceased their shrieks of terror & peace descended upon the scene. The sun was yet some time below the horizon -- but such a rosy world! It was heavenly, the delicate sweet air, the profound stillness, the delicious color -- I quite forgot I was nearly fifty-one, & why I didn't get my death of cold the Lord he knows, -- I don't!*
I am a garrulous old woman -- How swiftly went Mr Whipple!* How fast we fly, one after another! Who next, I wonder! Did I tell you my dear cousin Albert Laighton is dying of cancer, exactly as Mr Thaxter* went? Could we be but spared such a lingering torture! Heaven give us swift release --
Do write to me, dear -- I'm sorry I was so long replying
from your loving C.T.
Notes
fragment: This letter was selected for inclusion in Letters of Celia Thaxter, edited by her friends A.F. and R.L. (Annie Fields and Rose Lamb), where it was placed with letters of 1881.
The manuscript includes a number of marks and notes, presumably by Fields and Lamb to guide the publication. These are not included in this transcription.
However, as indicated in the notes below, this fragment almost certainly was composed in 1886.
don't: The remaining text on this page has been deleted with a single line down the page, presumably by Fields and Lamb.
Mr. Whipple: American critic, Edwin Percy Whipple (1819 - 16 June 1886).
Albert Laighton ... Mr Thaxter: Albert Laighton (1829- 6 February 1887) was the son of Captain John Laighton, who was brother to Thaxter's father, Mark Laighton. Celia Thaxter usually spoke of her husband as Mr. Thaxter. Levi Thaxter died in 1884 after a long and painful illness.
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- 4166. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Fields and Lamb Transcription for Letters of Celia Thaxter
At the Shoals. This morning, a little after three, I was wakened by the distressed cry of a sandpiper. I knew the dear creatures had a nest near the reservoir, towards which and over which one of my windows looks. I sprang up and looked out. Sure enough, round the brick parapet was stealing a hideous three-legged cat, who got here nobody knows how, and has grown wild and a terror to the birds, and we can't catch her. I saw the sandpipers flitting and piping. Everything was rosy with dawn and the sea a mirror. I threw on my dressing gown, and, not stopping even for stockings, slipped on my shoes, down stairs and out of the house, round the piazza, up through the green space and clustering rose and bayberry bushes, over the low fence, on to the broad, low wall of the reservoir, round which I ran at the edge of the still water to the ledges on the other side, where the tragedy was going on. I scared away the cat, and the wise sandpipers stood watching on the highest part of the rock and ceased their shrieks of terror, and peace descended upon the scene. The sun was yet some time below the horizon, but such a rosy world! It was heavenly, the delicate sweet air, the profound stillness, the delicious color. I quite forgot I was nearly fifty-one, and why I did n't get my death of cold the Lord he knows, I don't!
Sarah Orne Jewett to Annie Adams Fields
Friday morning
[ Early Summer 1886 ]
Dear Mouse
Such a day's work yesterday -- straight through the battle of Hastings* so that I am ready to say Hooray and think that I have broken the back of my piece of work -- if I could go straight on now I should soon finish the first writing, but next week I shall have to be going to and fro crab fashion. If you dont hear from me to the contrary I
Such a day's work yesterday -- straight through the battle of Hastings* so that I am ready to say Hooray and think that I have broken the back of my piece of work -- if I could go straight on now I should soon finish the first writing, but next week I shall have to be going to and fro crab fashion. If you dont hear from me to the contrary I
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It is a great temptation when I think of seeing Mrs. Custer* and you know how much I want to see somebody else!
And the circus will be going by, Monday in the morning ! ~~~~~~~~
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I am as busy as a bee today and hardly know which way to hop first -- but here is my dear love to make up for what the letter lacks -- and Edith Thomas's* letter with her lovely poem --
Your own
Pinny*
Pinny*
Notes
Early Summer 1886: This date is supported by Jewett's report of her work on The Story of the Normans.
Mouse: Nickname for Annie Adams Fields. See Key to Correspondents.
battle of Hastings: "The Battle of Hastings" in which William the Conqueror invaded England in 1066 is the subject of chapter 15 of the 18 chapters in Jewett's The Story of the Normans (1887).
Mrs. Custer: A wild, but not impossible guess, is that this is Elizabeth Clift Bacon Custer (1842-1933), widow of Brevet Major General George Armstrong Custer (1839-1876), best remembered for his defeat and death at the Battle of Little Bighorn. By 1886, Mrs. Custer was a successful author and public speaker.
Edith 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. The poem Jewett mentions here, probably is a different one, however.
Pinny: Pinny Lawson (Pinny / Pin) was an affectionate nickname for Jewett, used by her and Annie Fields. See Key to Correspondents.
Jewett's final two lines are scrawled and almost unreadable, but she seems fairly clearly to intend what is given here.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library of Harvard University. Jewett, Sarah Orne, 1849-1909. Annie Fields (Adams) 1834-1915, recipient. 194 letters; 1877-1909 & [n.d.] Sarah Orne Jewett correspondence, 1861-1930. MS Am 1743 (255). Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Wyman Whitman to Sarah Orne Jewett
Monday night
[ June 1886 ]*
I found at Alice's* this evening that just as I left the Studio you had come there, O my dear! It was the Council meeting at Cambridge & going had to be: alas.
On Tuesday I make a first go at Mrs Custer:* but if you was to have a minute any time after 1.30 I could be there if I knew.
[ June 1886 ]*
I found at Alice's* this evening that just as I left the Studio you had come there, O my dear! It was the Council meeting at Cambridge & going had to be: alas.
On Tuesday I make a first go at Mrs Custer:* but if you was to have a minute any time after 1.30 I could be there if I knew.
Love from
_Sw_
Notes
June 1886: This date is a guess, based upon the possibility that Annie Adams Fields may have had Elizabeth Custer as a guest in the early summer of 1886.
With this note is what appears to be a second page that served as an envelope. It is addressed to Jewett at 32 Beacon Street. This may be an error, as this address appears not to have existed. Perhaps Whitman meant to write 34 Beacon St., the address of Jewett's friend Susan Burley Cabot. See Key to Correspondents.
A note on what would have been the back after the sheet was folded reads: "Could we go together to the Rockwells anytime in the afternoon?
Tuesday morning."
The identity of the Rockwells is not known. A possible candidate would be Boston neighbors of Whitman and Fields, Katharine Foote Rockwell (1839-1902) and Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor of mining, Alfred Perkins Rockwell (1834-1903).
Alice's: Jewett and Whitman shared several friends named Alice, including Alice Greenwood Howe and Alice Longfellow. See Key to Correspondents.
Mrs. Custer: A wild, but not impossible guess, is that this is Elizabeth Clift Bacon Custer (1842-1933), widow of Brevet Major General George Armstrong Custer (1839-1876), best remembered for his defeat and death at the Battle of Little Bighorn. By 1886, Mrs. Custer was a successful author and public speaker.
No evidence has yet been discovered that Whitman made a portrait Mrs. Custer or designed a binding for one of her books.
There is, however, tentative evidence that Jewett and Fields may have met Elizabeth Custer, in the above Friday morning letter from Jewett to Annie Adams Fields in the early summer of 1886.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library of Harvard University. Whitman, Sarah (Wyman) 1842-1904. 92 letters; [1884]-[1903] & [n.d.] Jewett, Sarah Orne, 1849-1909. Sarah Orne Jewett additional correspondence, 1868-1930. MS Am 1743.1 -107. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
John Greenleaf Whittier to Annie Adams Fields
Oak Knoll
Danvers6 Mo 22 1886.
My dear Friend
I have just found thy poem* in the Harpers magazine and as I read the closing lines, I said to myself: "To whom could they apply so well as to the writer herself?"
"Turning, as the flower has done
Even in the burning sun,
The sadness of remembered joy
[ With ? ] a grace no living joy can bring."
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I am wondering where this letter will find thee. Is Sarah Jewett* with thee or in Berwick, or are you both wandering to find lodgings in some one-story N.H. farm house, with no blinds to its windows and no prospect from them but the cow-yard & pig-sty, and where nobody can find you? -- I wish it might happen that I could be with you even there.
I have been idling away these
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beautiful June days reading but little and doing less and utterly despairing of ever getting out from under the accumulation of letters which are piled upon me. I am saddened by Edwin Whipple's death.* He was about the last of the pleasant company I used to meet at the old Corner Book store* forty years ago. Ah me!
"And I who dreamed of their remaining
To mourn me linger still behind."*
We are in the midst of the Oak Knoll hay harvest. The air is sweeter with the new mown grass, than
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was ever among the blest. How I used to enjoy it at the Old Haverhill home-stead!
What an ovation Dr. Holmes* is having! He will come back to us covered all over with glory and red gowns. I am heartily glad of his reception for his own sake, and proud of it for our country's{.}
I go to Amesbury soon and hope to spend a few days at the Shoals where I have not been for some years. How well I remember the pleasant days we spent there together!
God bless thee dear friend!
Affectionately
John G Whittier
Notes
poem: Fields's "Ros Solis" appeared in Harper's of July 1886, p. 257. Whittier has slightly altered Fields's lines from the Harper's text. Fields herself revised the final stanza heavily for The Singing Shepherd (1895).
ROS SOLISSarah Jewett: Sarah Orne Jewett. See Key to Correspondents. Her home was in South Berwick, ME.
by Annie Fields
Paracelsus says that the herb called Ros Solis is at noon and under a burning sun filled with dew, while the other herbs around it are dry. -- Bacon.
THOU lowly herb!
The lesson thou canst teach, my heart would learn!
For the road is hot,
The centre of my being a dry spot.
I hurry and I burn,
Till by the way-side here I thee discern,
Where thou dost hold and gather to thy breast
One cool sweet drop,
While I am so opprest.
Low upon my knee I pause
To watch thee nourishing the dew that fell
In one still hour when heaven blest earth
With her cool kiss.
In that one hour of bliss
Behold a sacred birth!
What voice could tell,
As whispers this cool drop,
The body's mystery,
The spirit's prop?
Ye who have gladness known, was it a toy
Broken with years and cast away?
Or does it live, a coolness in the heat,
A resting-place for other weary feet?
Is it a song for those who cannot sing,
Turning as this flower has done,
Even in the burning sun,
The sadness of remembered joy
Into a grace no living joy can bring?
Edwin Whipple's death: American critic, Edwin Percy Whipple (1819- 16 June 1886).
Corner Book store: The Old Corner Bookstore in Boston was a gathering place for writers, artists and intellectuals from the 1830s, when the publisher Ticknor and Fields, occupied the upper stories of the building, though the end of the century, though other owners held the property after the Civil War ended in 1865.
linger still behind: Whittier quotes from his own poem, "A Memorial," written for his "friend and relation," Moses Austin Cartland who died in 1863. He has slightly altered the lines to fit the occasion of this letter:
While I, who dreamed of thy remaining
To mourn me, linger still behind, ...
See The Complete Works of John Greenleaf Whittier.
Dr. Holmes: Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. See Key to Correspondents. In June 1886, he received an honorary degree from Yale University Law School.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Huntington Library, San Marino, CA, in the James T. Fields collection: mss FI 71-4792. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
John Greenleaf Whittier to Annie Adams Fields
Oak Knoll
6th Mo 25 1886*My very dear friend
Very welcome was thy letter in this dull, dark untimely weather. I am glad to hear of our blessed Sarah Jewett,* & of her renewed health and activity.
I [ don't like to ask ? ] the busiest woman in Boston, in the best work, too, to copy the notice in the "Revue",* but
[ Page 2 ]
if thee will do it, I shall be greatly obliged to thee.
If Sarah is with thee now tell her that our friend "Dr Leslie"* has gone to Europe for a few weeks, and that he called at her South Berwick house, but failed to find her.
What a wonderful man Gladstone* is in his triumphal entry into Ireland.
"To haud the Lothians three in tackets."?
I dont know
[ Page 3 ]
as his plan is altogether the best for England [ a meaning and ? ] Ireland. As the Duke of Argyle* said of kings, "The Irish are kittle cattle to shoe behind." I think a general federative system for [ English settled ? ] Ireland, Australia, Canada & India with representation in a common Parliament, and local legislatures would be best.
With love to Sarah if she is with thee I am always affectionately & gratefully thy friend
John G Whittier
Notes
1886: Whittier's handwriting is not clear; though the Huntington archivist probably is correct that he wrote "25" for the day, he may have written "21."
This manuscript has a penciled "2" at the top center of page 1, and a penciled "X" appears in the left margin of page 2 before the paragraph on Gladstone; and on page 3 next to his idea of an English colonial federation.
Sarah Jewett: Sarah Orne Jewett. See Key to Correspondents.
Revue: Fields has written to Whittier about a book review that appeared in Revue des Deux Mondes 183 (1886, pp. 80-115 ) of Edward Clarence Stedman's Poets of America (1885): "Les Poètes Américains," by Th. Bentzon, Marie Thérèse de Solms Blanc. See Key to Correspondents. Part IV (pp. 92-5) of the review deals with Whittier, and much of the rest covers New England poets who were Whittier's friends and acquaintances, including Oliver Wendell Holmes, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and Ralph Waldo Emerson. Each of these poets receives a one-chapter discussion in Stedman's volume. Annie Fields, herself, receives a sentence of attention in Stedman's section on "female poets."
See Whittier to Fields of 4 July 1886.
"Dr Leslie": J. B. Pickard notes: "Horace Granville Leslie (1842-1907) was a doctor in Amesbury for almost forty years, besides representing the town in local and state legislatures and performing many civic duties." Whittier's use of quotation marks suggest that he may be associating this Dr. Leslie with Jewett's Dr. Leslie, who is a main character in her novel, A Country Doctor (1884).
Gladstone: British politician William E. Gladstone (1809-1898).
See Jewett to Fields of Thursday night (June 1886), in which she discusses Matthew Arnold's views of Gladstone's 1886 proposal for Irish home rule.
tackets: Whittier quotes from Scottish poet Robert Burns (1759-1796), "On Captain Grose's Peregrinations Through Scotland, Collecting the Antiquities of that Kingdom." The passage appears in Stanza 6, in which are listed some the antiquities the captain has collected.
He has a fouth o' auld nick-nackets:
Rusty airn caps and jinglin' jackets,
Wad haud the Lothians three in tackets,
A towmont guid;
And parritch-pats, and auld saut-backets,
Afore the flood.
Complete Works, p. 97.
A rough translation, with the help of Glossary Of Scottish Words Used By Robert Burns: He has plenty of old knickknacks, rusty iron caps and jingling jackets (old armor?), would keep the three counties of Lothian in Scotland in shoe nails, and oatmeal pots, old wooden salt boxes from before the flood. See Noah's flood in the Bible, Genesis, Chapters 6-9.
Duke of Argyle: Whittier quotes from Sir Walter Scott's (1771-1832) novel, The Heart of Midlothian (1818), Chapter 38, in which the Duke of Argyle is a character: "Kings are kittle cattle to shoe behind, as we say in the north." A translation: Kings, like some livestock, e.g. sheep, are difficult to herd from behind.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Huntington Library, San Marino, CA, in the James T. Fields collection: mss FI 71-4795. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Houghton, Mifflin & Co.
South Berwick
27 June 1886
Messrs Houghton Mifflin & Co.
Gentlemen
Gentlemen
I send with this the copy for A -- White Heron;* all except the Atlantic for May 1886 containing Marsh Rosemary of which I have not a duplicate copy. This amount will make less [ than corrected ] there is in
[ Page 2 ]
my other small volumes -- Mate of the Daylight -- Country Byways* &c -- so that I think it would be well to use a more open type. These sketches are shorter than many others that I have written -- I am not quite sure that I shall keep both the last two,
[ Page 3 ]
so that I wish all the more to make as much of the material as possible. I shall be ready to read the proof at any time. The thought struck me lately that September is such a famous month for tourists that it might not be a bad plan to bring this story-book out at that time -- though, to be sure,
[ Page 4 ]
Christmas is the time upon which publishers and writers fix their eyes with most hope --
= Will you please send me a copy of Burrough's Signs & Seasons?* --
Yours sincerely
S. O. Jewett.
S. O. Jewett.
Notes
In the upper left corner of page 1, blue ink, underlined, in another hand: "S. O. Jewett."
On page 4, in blue ink, someone has drawn a line through the page of Jewett's requests. To the left of Jewett's signature are initials that appear to be "F.H.G". It seems likely that they should be F. J. G., for Francis Jackson Garrison, one of Jewett's regular contacts at Houghton Mifflin. See Key to Correspondents.
A -- White Heron: Jewett has underlined the title twice, as well as setting off "A" with a dash. Presumably she wishes to emphasize her title is "A White Heron," as opposed to the frequently seen "The White Heron."
Jewett's story, "Marsh Rosemary," appeared in the May 1886 Atlantic and then in her story collection, A White Heron of the same year.
Byways: Jewett's story collections, Country By-Ways (1881) and The Mate of the Daylight (1883).
Burrough's Signs & Seasons: American naturalist and author, John Burroughs (1837-1921), Signs and Seasons (1886).
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library of Harvard University in Houghton Mifflin Company correspondence and records, 1832-1944, Jewett, Sarah Orne, 1849-1909. 68 letters from; 1870-1907 and [n.d.]. MS Am 1925 (962). Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Annie Adams Fields
Thursday morning. [ June 1886 ]*
I shall have to write you the same sort of letter as Selborne's White wrote to the Hon. Daines Barrington,* for there doesn't seem to be anything to tell, except how things grow and what birds have come and how things don't grow and what the birds do. There is one adorable golden robin in one of the garden elms, who shouts "Pitty, pitty, pitty!" all day long like a delighted child, -- you will be so pleased to make that cheerful bird's acquaintance when you come. (I don't feel very certain about the time when I shall go to you. It depends upon how much I can do today and tomorrow, and it also depends upon how things are here, and what news I get from Judge Chamberlain,* to whom I have been writing about a desk at the Public Library. But if I don't go Saturday, I certainly must be no later than Monday, for I must get a good deal done next week. I am trying to get to a certain point in the story here, and then be free to forget that part and to do the chapters about the cathedral, etc., while I am away.) I can't say enough about the Ruskin biography.* I can hardly wait to have you know it, too. He is after our own heart in his affection for Dr. Johnson. Next week, if we have some time for reading, do let us take some of Mr. Arnold's papers that we have been putting off, and some of the poems. It seems like cramming, but I was so sorry I was not more familiar with certain parts of his work when I saw him before.* But some things of his we know as well as we know anything -- thank goodness!
Yesterday I was busy both morning and afternoon, and got on much better than the day before, and I hope it will be the same to-day. I was reading "Two Years Before the Mast"* in the evening, with new admiration for its gifts. It seems to me as much a classic as anything we have to give, -- it has exceptional charm in the way it is done, with perfectly genuine qualities. There is so little that is usually thought interesting to tell, and yet I could hardly skip a page.
What did you think of G. Sand's
letter to Madame d'Agoult,* -- that long letter at the
beginning of the book? I couldn't bear to have you read it
without standing by and seeing how you liked it. Nothing ever
made me feel that I really know Madame Sand as that letter
did.
Notes
[June 1886]: Jewett had written to Judge Mellen Chamberlain (see note below) about securing a desk at the Boston Public Library for her research on The Story of the Normans (1887) on June 9.Selborne's White wrote to the Hon. Daines Barrington: Gilbert White (1720-1793), though a fellow at Oriel College, Oxford, lived most of his life at Selbourne, in England, as a curate, where he could follow his avocations of naturalist and writer. His correspondence with Daines Barrington grew into the Natural History and Antiquities of Selbourne (1788). Barrington (1727-1800) was a naturalist and historian interested in the exploration of the North Pole. His publications include Miscellanies (c. 1900), essays on various subjects, and several books on North Pole exploration.
Judge Chamberlain ... a desk at the Public Library: Mellen Chamberlain, according to Paula Blanchard, was a Boston municipal judge and an amateur historian to whom Jewett turned for advice about her writing early in her career. He was director of the Boston Public Library from 1878 to 1890. (See Blanchard 63, and Key to Correspondents).
the Ruskin biography: John Ruskin (1819-1900) was an
English art and literary critic and social reformer. It is
difficult to know which Ruskin biography she was reading.
Ruskin's partial autobiography is Praeterita
(1886-89). But it is possible Jewett was reading William Smart
(1853-1915), John Ruskin: His Life and Work: Inaugural
Address Delivered Before the Ruskin Society of Glasgow
(1879).
Mr. Arnold's papers ... when I saw him before:
Matthew Arnold (24 December 1822 - 15 April 1888) visited the
United States and Annie Fields in 1883-4 and again in 1886.
"Two Years Before the Mast": Richard Henry Dana (1815-1882) published Two Years Before the Mast in 1840. He was a lawyer by profession and a graduate of Harvard College.
G. Sand's letter to Madame d'Agoult: This letter appears in George Sand's Correspondance 1812-1876 (Paris 1882), in six volumes. Richard Cary says in "Jewett to Dresel: 33 Letters," Colby Quarterly 11 (March 1975) 13-49, "Countess Marie de Flavigny d'Agoult is remembered for eloping with Franz Liszt and bearing his child, and as the author of History of the Revolution of 1848 under her pseudonym Daniel Stern." Though it is not impossible that Jewett and Fields read Sand's letters in French, they are more likely to have read Letters of George Sand, translated by Raphael Ledos de Beaufort, (London: Ward and Downey, 1886).This letter appears in Annie Fields, Letters of Sarah Orne Jewett (1911), Transcribed by Annie Adams Fields, with notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Annie Adams Fields
Monday Evening
[ Summer 1886 ]*
My dear darling
Thank you over and over again for your letter which came this morning -- and brought so much that I couldn't do without -- ( I had one beside from A Howe* which I send you and mean to answer very soon -- ) There is some thing touching about it -- and only to think of Figgy's*
[ Summer 1886 ]*
My dear darling
Thank you over and over again for your letter which came this morning -- and brought so much that I couldn't do without -- ( I had one beside from A Howe* which I send you and mean to answer very soon -- ) There is some thing touching about it -- and only to think of Figgy's*
[ Page 2 ]
[ Page 3 ]
day or two in Manchester than in town? I will wait though and see how things go on -- Cora* comes tomorrow to stay until Friday -- I am so glad it is now instead of later in the summer. Edward* will stay a few days longer too, and perhaps Frances Perry* will appear though that is doubtful -- Here is a little snip of your sweet briar -- I hope there will be a little of the sweetness left when
[ Page 4 ]
it gets to you --
The lessons for the memory came today but I am afraid I shall be none the better for them -- though I was tired and didn't give them quite a fair look -- I am afraid I shall give you a chance to say a fool and her money.
[ Up the left margin and across the top margin of page 1 ]
[ Up the left margin and across the top margin of page 2 ]
[ Up the left margin and across the top margin of page 3 ]
[ Up the left margin and across the top margin of page 4 ]
S. O. J.
Notes
1886: This date is merely a guess, supported slightly by Jewett reporting that she is making an effort to improve her memory. As the note on that below indicates, Jewett said late in 1885 that she would like to improve her memory while working on The Story of the Normans.
Parenthesis marks in this manuscript were penciled by Fields.
A. Howe: Alice Greenwood Howe. See Key to Correspondents.
Figgy's: It seems likely that this is Alice Howe's pet, but this is not certain.
Cora: Cora Clark Rice. See Key to Correspondents.
Edward: This person has not yet been identified. As he seems to be a family member, a likely possibility is Jewett's cousin Edward Harrison Gilman. See Mary Elizabeth Gray Bell in Key to Correspondents.
Frances Perry: Frances Fisk Perry, daughter of Lucretia Morse Fisk Perry. See Key to Correspondents.
lessons for the memory: Jewett may have purchased one of several available books on developing one's memory. A likely possibility is Memory Manual. Explaining, in Short and Simple Lessons, a System of ... Developing the Memory (1883) by George Yule. Another may be The Natural Method of Memorizing and Memory Training Based on the Four Laws of Logical Connection, Co-Existence, Resemblance, and Contrast in Eight Lessons (1888) by Wilbert Webster White, though it appeared after the speculative date of this letter.
When Jewett was doing her research for The Story of the Normans (1887), she lamented her inability to remember and, therefore, to easily order her extensive reading for the project. See Sarah Orne Jewett to Annie Adams Fields, Tuesday evening, November 1885.
a fool and her money: Referring to the proverb: "A fool and his money are soon parted." While it echoes the Bible, Proverbs 21:20, the saying in this form has been attributed to Dr. John Bridges' Defence of the Government of the Church of England, 1587.
Joe Quincy: This person has not yet been identified. Perhaps he is Josiah Phillips Quincy, poet, writer, and publicist. See Mark Antony De Wolfe Howe in Key to Correspondents.
Agamenticus: Mount Agamenticus is the highest point in the South Berwick area.
Fuff: Nickname for Annie Adams Fields. See Key to Correspondents.
Mrs. Waters: This person has not yet been identified. Jewett was acquainted with Reverend Thomas Franklin Waters. See Key to Correspondents.
indeed: This word is underlined twice.
you: This word is underlined twice.
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
Thursday night, [June 1886]*
This morning I read Mr. Arnold's
"Nineteenth Century" paper* with great joy. What a great man
he is! That holds the truth of the matter if anything does. It
is all very well to say, as Mr. Blaine does, "What business
has England?"* The association of different peoples is after
all beyond human control: we are "mixed and sorted" by a
higher power. And looked at from the human side, what business
has one nation to keep another under her authority, but the
business of the stronger keeping the weaker in check when the
weaker is an enemy? It had to be settled between England and
Ireland certainly -- for the two races were antagonistic, and
England could not have said "no matter, she may plague me and
fight me as she pleases." Law and order come in, and Ireland
has a right to complain of being badly governed, -- so has a
child or any irresponsible person, but we can't question the
fact that they must be governed. Ireland is backward, and when
she is equal to being independent, and free to make her own
laws, I suppose the way will be opened, and she will be under
grace of herself, instead of tutors and governors in England.
Everybody who studies the case, as Mr. Arnold has, believes
that she must still be governed. I don't grow very sentimental
about Ireland's past wrongs and miseries. If we look into the
history of any subject country, or indeed of any country at
all, the suffering is more likely to be extreme that length of
time ago, and I think as Mr. Arnold does, and as Mr. Lowell
did, that the mistake of our time is in being governed by the
ignorant mass of opinion, instead of by thinkers and men who
know something. How great that was of Gladstone, "He has no
foresight because he has no insight." Mr. Arnold never said a
wiser thing, and when he says that Gladstone will lead his
party (after describing what the party lacks) by watching
their minds and adapting his programme and using his ease of
speech to gain the end -- He is a party leader, and
not a statesman. Doesn't it seem as if it must fret a man like
Arnold to the quick to go on saying things as he has and
seeing people ignore them, then dispute them, then say that
they were God's truth, when the whole thing has become a
matter of history and it is too late to have them do the
immediate good he hoped to effect?
Notes
1886: Fields places this letter in 1884. However as the notes below indicate, Jewett must have written it after the appearance in May 1886 of the Matthew Arnold essay she mentions and probably after James G. Blaine's June 1 speech on Irish home-rule.Mr. Arnold's "Nineteenth Century" paper: Jewett quotes from Matthew Arnold (1822-1888), "The Nadir of Liberalism," Nineteenth Century 19:111 (May 1886), 645-663, when she admires his observation that Gladstone lacks foresight because he lacks insight. Therefore, it is virtually certain that Fields has incorrectly dated this letter. Almost certainly it was written after 1 June 1886.
In "The Nadir of Liberalism,"
Arnold critiques the Irish home rule proposal of William E.
Gladstone (1809-1898), who was Liberal prime minister of
England four times during a long and illustrious political
career. Arnold wrote his essay in the context of
Gladstone's third, short term as prime minister in 1886, when
he came to power by uniting the Liberal and the Irish members
of parliament around a proposal for Irish home rule. In
the essay, Arnold argues that the proposal for home rule was
deeply flawed for several reasons. A better long-term
solution to the antagonism between Ireland and England would
be to develop and follow policies that would create friendship
between the two peoples, and that such policies must recognize
the festering injustices resulting from past English failures
to curb the abuses of absentee landlords and to allow the
Irish to have their own established church.
Jewett's reading of this essay may have
been colored by her current work on The Story of the
Normans (1887), so that she saw contemporary England and
Ireland as replaying the 11th-century antagonism between
Normans and Saxons. Her assertions that the Irish are
backward, childish, and incapable of self-rule, do not in fact
square with Arnold's opinions in the essay, and particularly
with his views in an earlier two-part essay, "The
Incompatibles" which appeared in The Nineteenth Century
in April and June of 1881 and was collected in Irish
Essays and Others in 1882. In that earlier essay,
Arnold argues that in many cases, as decades and centuries
pass after a military conquest, like the Norman conquest of
1066, affairs settle down, the injustices of conquest are
forgotten, and the conquered and conquerors come to live
together amicably. This, however, is not what has
happened in Ireland, because the English have for centuries
renewed the original pain of conquest, keeping the wounds
fresh. Jewett seems to misunderstand Arnold's argument
at this time. Perhaps by the time she began her series
of Irish stories with "The Luck of the Bogans" (1889), her
thinking about the Irish as a people had changed.
Mr. Blaine ... "What business has England?":
American Republican politician James Gillespie Blaine (1830-1893), of
Maine, served as U.S. congressman, senator, secretary of
state, and presidential candidate. On June 1, 1886,
Blaine gave a speech in Portland, ME in which he advocated
passage of Gladstone's Irish home-rule bill then being debated
in the English parliament. In that speech, Blaine does
not ask literally "What business has England" to rule Ireland,
but that question summarizes well one of his main
points. The text of his speech, as printed in a New
Zealand newspaper, appears here.
Sarah Orne Jewett to John Greenleaf Whittier
South Berwick
Thursday morning
[Summer 1886]
My dear Friend:
A. F. has sent me your letter and I wish so much that I could go at once and make you a little visit, but I have just come back from town after finishing the history1 (very badly!) and now my sister is going away. We do not like to be away together this summer. Why can’t you stop here as you go back? There are hills enough for a gentle let-down from Holderness and you and I would have a beautiful quiet time and take a drive down Sligo way and across the Sligo bridge and home by Pound Hill. Mother and I are alone and it would be such a pleasure. You should not do anything you did not want to do, and our good John Tucker, and my Uncle William2 over in the old house, would save you from keeping company altogether with "the women folks." Do come! You shall have some cherries like Mrs. Fields's for every meal!
I am so sorry to disappoint you about coming to Asquam. I really would go if I could.
Yours affectionately,
S. O. J.
You need not stop to give notice -- just "drop down" any day. I shall love my dear old home all the more if you will come to it once and then again.
Notes
1 The Story of the Normans, Told Chiefly in Relation to Their Conquest of England (New York and London, 1887). Despite Miss Jewett's demurrer, the book proved to be popular, running into several editions in both the United States and England.
2 William Durham Jewett (1813--1887), her father's brother, was a childless widower who made much of his nieces. He kept the West Indian Store on Main Street in South Berwick and was later president of two banks.
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.
Celia Thaxter to Annie Adams Fields
Shoals. June 28th (86*
My dearest Annie:
The little pocket book* came last night & thank you much -- it is beautiful & I am sure I shall have great comfort with it. I am glad the flowers reached you in good condition. [ar n't so written ] the California poppies lovely? I wish you could see how they have, as it were boiled over Julia's* fence & down the bank, by the million, so that as you approach the island the great golden splash is visible far away, from the water. We love them so, these little gardens, they must grow & blossom their best! We take so much pains -- every morning I tug down stairs the pail full of my bath water & pour it down to refresh the roots of my
2
dear treasures, for water is a precious thing on this rock in the brine & we never have too much --
I am sorry for this dry, sullen storm, no drops of rain, only black skies which keep all the people away -- so much money going out to cooks, waitresses, chamber maids, [ unrecognized word ], porters, bell boys, watch man, book keeper, room-clerk, carpenters, housekeeper, steward, captain & crew of steamer, myriads of subordinates all necessary to keep this big machine running, all being paid full wages -- & nothing coming in -- The storm of ten days or a week has made hundreds & hundreds of dollars difference to O. & C.* You know their debt is a peculiar one -- they owe no creature a cent except this one big thing, they have the greatest horror of debt. But they were able to get Star island by joining in their business of a cousin of ours, who became part of the firm with the agreement that he shd leave it at anytime if he wished -- So [ year corrected ] before last he left & they had to take it all & owe him nearly a hundred
3
thousand dollars -- trusting to pay it little by little, year by year -- But it keeps [ everybody corrected ] so pinched & anxious [ my corrected ] little sister with her little ones has to be so rigidly economical & Cedric would be so glad to have it otherwise!
Well, we are going to hope for the best tho' it looks so discouraging -- And since the skies must frown, I would it would rain & save my poppies & cornflowers [ poor thin things ? ] The two [ poor ? ] scarlet poppies have flared wide this morning --
My love to the Millets & to Sarah* if she is with you -- O did I tell you I have a book of about fifty poems going through H. & M.'s hands, to be published in the autumn? To be called The Cruise of the Mystery & other Poems.* Half of them are love songs, a new departure for me -- but they have grown out of the various experiences I have witnessed
the human race going through from my corner here -- One belongs to Rose Lamb!* But nobody knows which belongs to who, & [ nobody corrected ] can guess! Then I am in the midst of the 24 poems for Wide Awake art prints,* which nearly crack my small skull, it is so difficult to circumvent their impossibility! [ Lothrop corrected ] gives me two hundred & fifty dollars for them, but five hundred would be cheap when the headaches I get from them are counted!
Now I must stop! Do pardon the rambling scrawls with such a [ hard ? ] pen! & believe me ever
thousand dollars -- trusting to pay it little by little, year by year -- But it keeps [ everybody corrected ] so pinched & anxious [ my corrected ] little sister with her little ones has to be so rigidly economical & Cedric would be so glad to have it otherwise!
Well, we are going to hope for the best tho' it looks so discouraging -- And since the skies must frown, I would it would rain & save my poppies & cornflowers [ poor thin things ? ] The two [ poor ? ] scarlet poppies have flared wide this morning --
My love to the Millets & to Sarah* if she is with you -- O did I tell you I have a book of about fifty poems going through H. & M.'s hands, to be published in the autumn? To be called The Cruise of the Mystery & other Poems.* Half of them are love songs, a new departure for me -- but they have grown out of the various experiences I have witnessed
4
the human race going through from my corner here -- One belongs to Rose Lamb!* But nobody knows which belongs to who, & [ nobody corrected ] can guess! Then I am in the midst of the 24 poems for Wide Awake art prints,* which nearly crack my small skull, it is so difficult to circumvent their impossibility! [ Lothrop corrected ] gives me two hundred & fifty dollars for them, but five hundred would be cheap when the headaches I get from them are counted!
Now I must stop! Do pardon the rambling scrawls with such a [ hard ? ] pen! & believe me ever
Your faithful
C.T.
C.T.
Notes
86: This manuscript has several notes penciled in another hand on page 1 that do not appear relevant to the content and are not included in this transcription. These suggest that Fields and Lamb considered including excerpts in Letters of Celia Thaxter.
pocket book: Thaxter's birthday was 29 June.
Julia: Julia Laighton, spouse of Thaxter's brother, Cedric Laighton. See Thaxter in Key to Correspondents.
O. & C.: Thaxter's brothers, Oscar and Cedric Laighton. See Thaxter in Key to Correspondents.
Millets ... Sarah: Journalist and publisher Josiah Byram Millet (1853-1938), Fields's next-door neighbor in Boston.
Sarah Orne Jewett. See Key to Correspondents.
other Poems: Thaxter's The Cruise of the Mystery and Other Poems appeared in 1886, published by Houghton, Mifflin, & Co.
Rose Lamb: See Key to Correspondents.
Wide Awake art prints: Thaxters's Idyls and Pastorals, a Home Gallery of Poetry and Art was published by D. Lothrop in 1886. Daniel Lothrop (1831-1892) was the originator of Wide Awake, a magazine for young readers, in which appeared work by Jewett and Thaxter. A publisher of other juvenile magazines as well, Lothrop regularly issued books that collected selections from the magazines.
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- 4220. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Houghton, Mifflin & Co.
South Berwick
1 July 1886
Messrs Houghton Mifflin & Co --
Gentlemen
Gentlemen
I have
just received Mr. Garrison's note of yesterday: I think that A
White Heron should be put into the [ little corrected
] classic binding ^size^ to match with The
Mate of the Daylight &c -- and I suppose that by making
the type larger
[ Page 2 ]
the material would hold out. Those are only 250 pages or so -- Deephaven* I think is 249.
I have a story* now in type for the Atlantic which will make good enough ^material^ I am sure if I use it with the two short stories at [ the corrected ] end of my present list --
[ Page 3 ]
I knew that I should have time to rearrange the end of the book so I did not consider that table of contents as final & sent it so that the printers could be at work on the first half ^and we could get an idea of the size.^ -- I hope that you will agree with me that this book
[ Page 4 ]
novels -- I think Mrs. Whitmans* cover is planned with that idea --
Believe me always
yours sincerely
Sarah O. Jewett
Notesyours sincerely
Sarah O. Jewett
At the top left of page 1 is the Houghton, Mifflin date stamp: Noon on 2 July 1886. In the upper right in another hand, in blue ink: "Sarah O. Jewett".
Below Jewett's signature on page 4, in blue ink are the underlined initials F.J.G.
At the bottom of page 4 and upside-down in pencil:
200 pp. Marsh Island
200 " Burglars --
"Burglars" may refer to another Houghton, Mifflin title from 1886, Elizabeth Stuart Phelps Ward's Burglars in Paradise. See Key to Correspondents.
A White Heron ... The Mate of the Daylight: Jewett's story collections A White Heron (1886) and The Mate of the Daylight (1883).
Deephaven: Jewett's first novel, Deephaven (1877). This letter suggests that Jewett may have thought of this book more as a story collection than as a novel. But she may refer merely to the size when she says she prefers the "Deephaven" series.
story: Probably Jewett refers to "The Two Browns" which appeared in Atlantic in August 1886 and was then included in A White Heron.
Mrs. Whitmans cover: Sarah Wyman Whitman. See Key to Correspondents. Link to cover image.
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
Amesbury 4th 7 Mo 1886
My dear Friend
When I asked thee to send me a translation of the notice in the Revue* des [ Mondes ? ], I supposed it was very brief. I did not mean to impose such a task upon thee, and I crave thy pardon for it. It was more than kind on thy part. The reviewer has made more of me than I ever dreamed of. But she is very generous and appreciative, and her article has given me real pleasure.
[ Page 2 ]
I am told that the Revue has said a true word for thee also,* and places thee where thee of right belong among American poets. It was like thee to say nothing of thyself in calling my attention to the review of my own writings, but I am sure thee know how much rather I would hear the praise of my dear friend than of myself.
As soon as I can copy thy translation I will return it, with hearty thanks.
We are going to have a grand celebration here [ two unrecognized words ] Salisbury & Salisbury Point are annexed
[ Page 3 ]
to Amesbury,* and we feel bound to [ become ? ] prouder & make a great noise about it. We are now almost large enough for a city, but I am not fat enough for an Alderman.
I find the enclosed scrap in the papers, which seems to show that ^the^ Italian superstition of the "Evil Eye"* is not without a basis of truth.
With grateful affection thy friend
John G Whittier
Notes
Revue: Fields has written to Whittier about a book review that appeared in Revue des Deux Mondes 183 (1886, pp. 80-115 ) of Edward Clarence Stedman's Poets of America (1885): "Les Poètes Américains," by Th. Bentzon, Marie Thérèse de Solms Blanc. See Key to Correspondents. Part IV (pp. 92-5) of the review deals with Whittier, and much of the rest covers New England poets who were Whittier's friends and acquaintances, including Oliver Wendell Holmes, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and Ralph Waldo Emerson. Each of these poets receives a one-chapter discussion in Stedman's volume. Annie Fields, herself, receives a sentence of attention in Stedman's section on "female poets": "Mrs. Fields, the most objective of these writers, veils her personality, except as it becomes revealed by a free rhythmical method, and obvious inclination toward the classical and antique" (pp. 445-6).
See Whittier to Fields of 25 June 1886.
thee also: Madame Blanc, in her review, praises Fields more explicitly than Stedman, putting her at the head of a brilliant group of America's many women poets: "Mrs Field, que nous placerons en tête du groupe nombreux et brillant des poétesses, reflète dans ses vers le génie de l'antiquité grecque...." (p. 114).
Amesbury: The annexing of Salisbury and Salisbury Point took place in June of 1886. The celebration was on 4 July 1886. See History of Amesbury, Essex County, MA and "The Amesbury-Salisbury Consolidation" in The Hub / The Automotive Manufacturer 28, p. 247.
"evil eye": Wikipedia notes that the fear of an evil eye is common to Mediterranean cultures, among others, and not unique to Italy.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Huntington Library, San Marino, CA, in the James T. Fields collection: mss FI 71-4806. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Annie Adams Fields
[ Green ink ] Monday afternoon
[ 5 July 1886 ]*
[ 5 July 1886 ]*
Dear Fuff*
A Pinny* playing with inks is a splendid sight but I got a pretty collection [ Gray ink ] for making different [ Green ink ] notes and references in the history* that I could see at a glance [ Gray ink ] whence [ Green ink ] this lively green! I dont know [ it corrected ] should dazzle ones eyes so, when green is already suffered to be so good for the eyes [ Black ink ] -- I am beginning my letter before I do any work for I mean to go
A Pinny* playing with inks is a splendid sight but I got a pretty collection [ Gray ink ] for making different [ Green ink ] notes and references in the history* that I could see at a glance [ Gray ink ] whence [ Green ink ] this lively green! I dont know [ it corrected ] should dazzle ones eyes so, when green is already suffered to be so good for the eyes [ Black ink ] -- I am beginning my letter before I do any work for I mean to go
[ Page 2 ]
[ Page 3 ]
purple ones but I associate the white one with the least of Pinnies and love them accordingly -- The white ones are the flower of Florence but I dont know what the purple ones are -- Do you? ---- I am afraid you will not get any letter from me today because of the holiday. I forgot to tell you that I should [ deleted word, possibly think ] like to keep the Johnsons Dictionary* but I dont care about the Wealth of Nations* if you have a copy -- you were
[ Page 4 ]
doubtful about it when we were away -- or did I make a mistake and was it only that you hadn't read the book.
-- I read Burnaby's Ride to Khiva* Saturday night with great pleasure and a new persuasion of the barbarism of Russia. Last week one day I indulged in a short peroration* on the true causes ^and benefits^ of war to begin a Normans chapter, and this story of travel made me still more eager about my opinions. I hope to read it to you someday, and have you say you agree!
[ Up the left margin and then across the top margin of p. 1 ]
Do attend to the Linnet* someday if you get a bit of time. He was really crying I believe when he wrote to me and feels very [ sad ? corrected ] and I think he will like to be speaked to by Fuff. We know that he really loves so few people, and is Linnet.[ No signature ]
Notes
5 July 1886: While this date is a guess, it seems likely to be correct. Jewett fears Fields will not receive a Jewett letter on this day because the previous day's holiday (Independence Day) will prevent the movement of mail on Sunday, delaying her previous missive. That the year is 1886 is supported by Jewett reporting that she is hard at work on The Story of the Normans, which was published at the end of the year.
Fields has written a note between the first and second lines on page 1: "Date of Norman's"
Parenthesis marks in this manuscript were penciled by Fields.
This letter is written with several ink colors. While it is not always easy to tell when a color changes, I have attempted to note changes in the transcription.
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.
the history: Jewett's The Story of the Normans (1887).
twins: Jewett often refers to the sisters, Helen Olcott Choate Bell and Miriam Foster Choate Pratt as the twins. See Key to Correspondents.
Though they were sisters, they were not twins.
golden lilies of France ... flower of Florence: As Jewett is working on The Story of the Normans, she would be familiar with "the golden lilies of France" or fleur-di-lis, that appear on the French coat of arms. The coat of arms for Florence also featured such a stylized lily, white before the 13th century. While the color purple was associated with royalty in heraldry, there may not be a purple lily among European coats of arms.
Johnsons Dictionary: British author Samuel Johnson's (1709-1784) A Dictionary of the English Language appeared in 1755.
Wealth of Nations: The Wealth of Nations (1776), by Scottish economist Adam Smith (1723-1780).
Ride to Khiva: A Ride to Khiva : Travels and Adventures in Central Asia (1876), by Colonel Frederick Gustavus Burnaby (1842-1885)
peroration: Jewett's peroration opens Chapter 13 of The Story of the Normans.
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 Louisa Loring Dresel
South Berwick
7 July 1886
7 July 1886
My Dear Loulie
I am not going to wait any longer for the chance of writing you a long letter. These summer days fly by so fast and I grow busier and busier. Luckily there is always time to think of ones friends and I have sent a good many thoughts flying across the sea after you. I saw Elly* at Cambridge
[ Page 2 ]
on Class Day and was so glad to have a nice little talk with him and to know that your summer had begun so pleasantly. I was perfectly sure all the time that you would feel a great deal better! I have a dreadful fear however that you will never tell me half so many things about your visits and journeys as if you did not have to come way from the end of Beacon St! Let us mourn a little now for I am sure that
[ Page 3 ]
there will be enough good things about the new house to console you a good deal for leaving the old one. I was in town last week to see the Matthew Arnolds* and to do some writing at the Athenaeum & public library,* and Mrs. Fields and Patrick* and I built a neat tea-house halfway down your side of the garden. You never saw the like of it, being composed of matting and "rustic" columns of hemlock poles. We had
[ Page 4 ]
afternoon tea there and there was a big rose bush in full bloom half inside it against the tea table and every body thought it was perfectly beautiful. Patrick disapproved at first but afterward admired it proudly and the Millet baby* finds it a pleasant shade -- It is really a lovely place in summer, that garden!
-- I am hurrying my very best to get the Normen (as A. Longfellow calls them)* done by the first of August, but we are in
[ Page 5 ]
the middle of the guest season and I have to make three people of myself every day. The White Heron book* is on foot too but I take no thought of that at all, it seems such a trifle compared to the other. On the seventeenth I am to meet Mrs. Fields at Mrs. Cabots and Miss Howes!* for a little visit and I look forward to that with great pleasure -- I am sure that you would be asked over to play with me if you were in Beverly. See what
[ Page 6 ]
a loss!Between you and me 'Elly' was very giddy on Class Day but we must never speak of it to others. He was walking about with girls and said ^that^ he thought he ought to see Class Day because his own would be next year, and I accepted the pretty explanation and rejoiced that he was having such a good time. He kindly sat with me for a short time and I was very glad to see
[ Page 7 ]
him. How long it seems already since you went away!
I shall try to see Mrs. Dresel when I go to Beverly. You must give my love to her when you write. Have a good time Loulie dear and remember that I am always
Yours very affectionately
Sarah. O. Jewett
Sarah. O. Jewett
Notes
Elly at Cambridge on Class Day: Dresel's brother, Ellis Loring Dresel, had just completed his third year at Harvard in the summer of 1886.
the Matthew Arnolds: The English poet and critic, Matthew Arnold (24 December 1822 - 15 April 1888) visited the United States and Annie Fields in 1883-4 and again in 1886.
Athenaeum & public library: Jewett did some of her research for The Story of the Normans (1887) at these two Boston libraries.
Mrs. Fields and Patrick: Annie Adams Fields, and her employee, Patrick Lynch. See Key to Correspondents.
Millet baby: It seems probable that the Millets are Josiah Byram Millet (1853-1938) and Emily Adams McCleary (1856-1941). They were married on 30 Oct 1883 in Boston. They had two daughters: Hilda, Mrs. William Harris Booth (November 1885-1966) and Elizabeth Foster, Mrs. Arthur Graham Carey, (November 1889 - 1955). He was a journalist and publisher, who managed the art department of Houghton, Mifflin and Company before becoming art editor at Scribner's and then beginning his own publishing business. In 1890, they were near neighbors of Fields at 150 Charles Street, having moved there after Dresel's family departed for a new house at 328 Beacon Street in 1886. See also Harvard Class of 1877 Secretary's Report, pp. 43-4.
the Normen (as A. Longfellow calls them): Jewett's popular history, The Story of the Normans, appeared in 1887. She refers here to Alice Mary Longfellow. See Key to Correspondents.
The White Heron book: Jewett's story collection, A White Heron and Other Stories appeared in 1886.
Mrs. Cabots and Miss Howes: Susan Burley Cabot and, presumably, her sister Elizabeth Howes. See Mrs. Cabot in Key to Correspondents.
The manuscript of this letter is held by Columbia University Libraries Special Collections in the Sarah Orne Jewett letters, Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College, from a Columbia University Libraries microfilm copy of the manuscript.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Francis Jackson Garrison
South Berwick
9 July.
[ 1886 ]*
9 July.
[ 1886 ]*
Dear Mr. Garrison
Thankyou for both the notes. I think that this will do very well, and we will use the Two Browns.* I should like to see it as soon as I can however. I suppose the first Atlantics will
[ Page 2 ]
be ready within a few days and if you will kindly send me one it shall be a deep secret from the world and I'll make some corrections in it ^(the Browns)^ before it goes again to the printer. I shall be in town for a day the very last of next week
[ Page 3 ]
and if there is anything that you think I could do or answer to in person at 4 Park St.* I hope that you will kindly let me know.
Yrs sincerely
S. O. Jewett.
S. O. Jewett.
[ Page 4 ]*
Will you pleas ask Mr. Safford to send me a copy of Old Salem Days?*
Notes
1886: As the notes below indicate, Jewett was preparing her story collection, A White Heron, during the summer of 1886.
In the upper right on page 1 appears a note in another hand, in blue ink: "Sarah O. Jewett."
Penciled on the bottom left of page 3 are initials, probably F.J.G, for Francis Jackson Garrison.
Two Browns: Jewett's story, "The Two Browns," appeared in Atlantic Monthly in August 1886, and was also the final story in her collection, A White Heron and Other Stories, which appeared later that year.
Page 4: Jewett has turned this page 90 degrees right to add this note.
4 Park St.: The Boston offices of Houghton Mifflin & Co.
Safford ... Old Salem Days: Mr. Safford has not yet been identified.
Houghton Mifflin published Marianne Cabot Devereux Silsbee A Half Century in Salem in 1887. See Key to Correspondents and Jewett's letter to Silsbee of 12 February 1887. Jewett would seem, then, to be requesting an advance copy.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library of Harvard University in Houghton Mifflin Company correspondence and records, 1832-1944, Jewett, Sarah Orne, 1849-1909. 68 letters from; 1870-1907 and [n.d.]. MS Am 1925 (962). Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Frederic Henry Gerrish (unfinished)
South Berwick Maine
11 July 1886 --
My dear Dr Gerrish
Can you tell me anything of the whereabouts of
Notes
This letter is incomplete and unsigned. It is addressed to Dr. Frederick Henry Gerrish (1845-1920), a surgeon and professor of medicine (Find a Grave). The manuscript is held by the Houghton Library of Harvard University, Cambridge, MA. bMS Am 1743 Box 6, Item 257.
Transcription and note by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Can you tell me anything of the whereabouts of
Notes
This letter is incomplete and unsigned. It is addressed to Dr. Frederick Henry Gerrish (1845-1920), a surgeon and professor of medicine (Find a Grave). The manuscript is held by the Houghton Library of Harvard University, Cambridge, MA. bMS Am 1743 Box 6, Item 257.
Transcription and note by Terry Heller, Coe College.
John Greenleaf Whittier to Annie Adams Fields
[ Begin decorative letterhead ]
ASQUAM HOUSE,
--------------
LEON H. CILLEY * * PROPRIETOR.
-----------------------------------
--------------
LEON H. CILLEY * * PROPRIETOR.
-----------------------------------
Holderness, N. H. 7 Mo
27 1886.*
[ End letterhead ]
My dear friend
Thy dear kind letter reached me before I left home, and thy picture of the view from thy parlor window of flower-skirted garden and sail white water seemed so charming that I thought thee felt no occasion or necessity for leaving
[ Page 2 ]
of nice people, but there is one room next to mine which is vacant and if thee & Sarah* could occupy it, it would be a joy for the time & forever. I know it is asking too much of you -- but I am here as "lone & lorn" as Mrs Grummidge,* and it would be an act of Christian charity
John G. Whittier
[ Up the left margin of page 1 ]
Here Mr Gray & wife & daughter [ Isa ? ] ^of Boston^ and Rev Mr Cummings & wife of Portland* are among the [ guests ? ]{.}
Notes
1886: The underlined portions in the date represent blanks in the letterhead that Whittier has filled in to complete the date.
bliss: Annie Field's poem, "An Invitation" appeared in Harper's New Monthly Magazine 73 (August 1886) p. 397.
When in the house the day is warm,
And dogs lie stretched before the door,
Come out to my neglected farm,
And sit upon the grassy floor.
Under the apple-trees' green roof,
Laced with the yellow light of morn,
Share nature's joy without reproof,
Thou man who art to trouble born!
Alas! 'tis said for price of gold
The axe shall hew these leafy towers;
The spade shall trample in the mould
This fragrant grass, these dewy flowers;
And when this pleasure-house is waste,
A mansion built for earthly care,
For waiting days, and tiresome haste,
Shall lift a stately front in air.
Then come, before the day declines,
And hear the bees among the boughs;
See where the early moon entwines
Her crescent in my bloomy house.
Perhaps before the spade shall wound
This turf, to plant the cares of earth,
A smaller plot of turf be found
More green, to tell our nobler birth.
Then hasten ere the day shall die,
And lay thy heart to summer's bliss,
And learn, whatever joys may fly,
To know the permanence of this.
Sarah: Sarah Orne Jewett. See Key to Correspondents.
Grummidge: Whittier appears to have written "Grummidge," but clearly he refers to Mrs. Gummidge, a character in David Copperfield by British novelist, Charles Dickens (1812-1870). In Chapter 31, she repeats that she is "lone and lorn."
Mr Gray ...Rev Mr Cummings: In several letters from Asquam House, Whittier mentions the Grays, but they have not yet been identified.
Fields was acquainted with two prominent Bostonians named Gray, who had spouses and daughters living in 1886, though neither is known to have had a child named "Isa." However, the transcription of Isa is uncertain and it may be a nickname not related to Isabelle. The two persons are: Boston businessman and Harvard overseer, William Rufus Gray (1810-1892); and Harvard law professor John Chipman Gray (1839-1915). See also Find a Grave.
Possibly, Rev. Cummings is American clergyman and author, Ephraim Chamberlain Cummings (1825-1897), a graduate of Bowdoin College, who served as a Civil War chaplain and a Congregational minister in Portland, ME. His wife Anne Louisa Pomeroy Cummings (d.1914), was a benefactor of Bowdoin College and a member of the Colonial Dames of Massachusetts.
See also Vermont in the Civil War and especially, "Ephraim Chamberlain Cummings: A Memorial," by George Foster Talbot, in Collections and Proceedings of the Maine Historical Society (1898), pp. 403-413.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Huntington Library, San Marino, CA, in the James T. Fields collection: mss FI 71-4789. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Annie Adams Fields
Thursday morning
July 28th 1886
July 28th 1886
My dear darling
I had a vision of you early at your desk by the window -- -- It is very still here and very bright as if the day would be hot. The breeze over the river doesn't come in at the window but I am arrayed in the little gingham and hope to find myself very com-
[ Page 2 ]
fortable -- (Mary* met me at the station and we had a friendly tea together as Mother and Carrie* &c. had gone to York. They didn't get home until late in the evening and seem to [ have corrected ] had a very nice time. Mary is going to Rye on Saturday for a week with the aunts -- and so I shall put off my Exeter visit for the[ Page 3 ]
present.) I feel more like reading storybooks than anything else, and a great sense of the history weighs* on my mind -- not the details any longer, but the whole enterprise, but I hope to forget it after awhile -- I dont know any news to tell you dear Fuff* except that I love you and miss you (-- I hope it was a good[ Page 4 ]
conference and that Marigold* came home with you afterward. -- I wish she could see how pretty the [ deleted word ] sunlight is through the green leaves here at the office window! But in only two weeks ladies!and here's Pin! )
Notes
(Mary: This parenthesis mark and all of the others in this letter were added in green pencil by Annie Fields.
Mary is Mary Rice Jewett. See Key to Correspondents.
Carrie: Carrie Jewett Eastman. See Key to Correspondents.
history weighs: Between these words, Fields has inserted "^*." At the bottom of this page, she has noted also in green pencil: "* The Normans."
Jewett refers to working on her popular history, The Story of the Normans, which appeared at the end of this year.
Fuff: Fuffy/Fuff, an affectionate nickname for Fields. See Key to Correspondents.
Marigold: Mary Langdon Greenwood (Mrs. James) Lodge. See Key to Correspondents.
Pin: Pin / Pinny Lawson was a Jewett nickname. 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.
Phillips Brooks to Annie Adams Fields
July 31, 1886
[ Begin letterhead ]
233 Clarendon Street.
Boston.
[ End letterhead ]
Dear Mrs Fields,
I have been away all the week & only returned this morning -- This must excuse my late answer to your note which I have just received.
And I am very sorry indeed that I cannot do the pleasant thing which you propose.* I have friends staying with me tomorrow when I must not leave
[ Page 2 ]
& the next Friday I have made an engagement which I must not [ break ? ] so I am helpless -- & very sorry indeed --
You were very kind & thoughtful to ask me & I thank you truly --
I am ever
faithfully your
Phillips Brooks
faithfully your
Phillips Brooks
Notes
propose: It is not yet known what Fields proposed.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Huntington Library, San Marino, CA. James Thomas Fields papers and addenda, 1767-1914, Correspondence and manuscripts; Brooks, Phillips, 13 pieces, 1879-1890, mssFI 1-5637, Box 6. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Annie Adams Fields to Sarah Orne Jewett
[ About 1 August 1886 ]*
My darling: I was so glad to have your dearest of notes just now -- Yes, I am getting very anxious to come to you and it is only ten days now! but when I think I am counting away summer which is usually such a time of gratitude for every day, the [ season corrected ] of flowering -- I could weep --
But I am sure fruit will come out of this too and yesterday morning I sat in the garden and really lived --
I find myself quite excited about the hot springs. I wonder what you will say. A. Warren described the baths and the water falls as something exquisite -- I hope it will not seem to you [ Quixotic ? ].
My darling --
good night
good night
I am so glad Mary* is to have an outing -- The papers say the Cardinals are all abloom alas! It is cooler tonight.
Notes
1886: See Jewett to Fields of 5 August 1886. That letter shows that Jewett and Fields were planning a stay that they began in the second half of August in Richfield Springs, NY.
A. Warren: This may be Alice Amelia Bartlett Warren (1843-1912), who traveled often in Europe and moved in the same social circles as Fields and Jewett, being a friend of Henry James and Ellen Emerson, among other Jewett correspondents. See the introduction to Little Women Abroad: The Alcott Sisters' Letters from Europe, 1870-1871 (2008), edited by Daniel Shealy, pp. lxii-lxiii.
Mary: Mary Rice Jewett. 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 Sarah Orne Jewett
Monday.
[ Summer 1886 ]*
Dear child:
There is a clouded dream=light over everything today which is exquisite -- Last night it was cool and grey and I walked to the Dana beach* with the dear girls' belongings -- I found them there and they were very tender and affectionate. Alice walked nearly home with me. Mr. Myers* [ unrecognized name ] was there. He is evidently making a great effort to get her but if he does not after the encamping he must give it up. Evidently he is determined and she will show a good deal of character if he
[ Page 2 ]
cannot succeed now --
Do you want Sympneumata? Shall I send, keep or return --
I have not had my morning mail today by some mischance so I cannot answer yours -- The dear girls send their love to you -- They had a warm day in Boston and today is no cooler
Goodbye darling
I am expecting Mabel*
your
A.F.
I am expecting Mabel*
your
A.F.
Notes
Summer 1886: This date is supported by Fields's report of having obtained a copy of Sympneumata. She wrote from her summer home in Manchester by the Sea.
Dana beach: Presumably, Fields walks to the summer home of Edith Longfellow and Richard Henry Dana III. It is likely that the "dear girls" were the Henry Wadsworth Longfellow daughters, Edith and Alice. Key to Correspondents.
Myers: I have not been able to make out this person's last name. It appears that this man was courting Alice Longfellow. If that is true, he was not successful. She did not marry, and she was paired with Fanny Stone, according to Wikipedia.
Sympneumata: Sympneumata: or, Evolutionary Forces Now Active in Man (1886) by Alice Le Strange Oliphant. Mrs. Oliphant was the wife of British M.P. and diplomat Laurence Oliphant (1829-1888). The couple collaborated in promoting their ideas of Christian mysticism, particularly in this book. Wikipedia.
Mabel: Mabel Lowell Burnett. 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 Annie Adams Fields
Thursday evening
5 August 1886
5 August 1886
Dear Mouse*
Just a week before you will be here -- I can hardly wait for it to go! -- I had been out to see my neighbours early in the evening and found your nice round roll of the English papers & the Youth's Companion* when I came in and stopped to read them so now I
[ Page 2 ]
am quite sleepy -- (It is very tired weather though it is cool enough and I hate to think of your having been so long in town. I wish I had pulled you down here for awhile early in the summer.)* You must spend the first day on the river under green oak boughs that hang over! and we will not start our travels until we are ready. I found out today by means[ Page 3 ]
of an old railway guide that the Hot Springs* are out beyond Charlottesville and Staunton on that same railroad (or off it)* that goes across the Shenandoah valley [and ? ], up into the mountains. Dont you know we waited at Staunton junction where we met Miss [ Fell or Tell or Teel ]?* -- well, westward from there fifty or sixty miles -- If I had the adventurous spirit of my youth I should like nothing better I suppose . . I am still[ Page 4 ]
reading Vanity-Fair* with perfect delight -- What a master Thackeray was! It is so long since I read one of his long novels that I find I didn't in the least appreciate this until now -- such spirit and fun! I wish we were reading it together. I used to know Henry Esmond best & think this very long and dull. It was too young a Pinny!* Talk of your French and Russian novels! Go and read Thackeray say I! ( -- Good[ Up the left margin and then across the top margin of page 1 ]
night my dear Fuff. Cora* went today. It was nice to have the little visit from her -- Mary* is having a pleasant time at Rye. I doubt if she comes before next week. Thanks so much for all your letters and dearness! to )your Pinny
Notes
Mouse: Mouse and Fuff are nicknames that Jewett and Fields used with each other. Jewett signs the letter with one of her nicknames, Pinny, for Pinny Lawson. See Key to Correspondents.
Youth's Companion: An American magazine for young readers, in which Jewett regularly published, though not in 1886.
summer.): This and most parenthesis marks in this letter were added in pencil by Annie Fields.
Hot Springs: This is Hot Springs, VA. Jewett and Fields are known to have stayed there, at the Homestead Hotel, in March of 1897.
off it): The parenthesis marks around this phrase are Jewett's.
Miss [ Fell or Tell or Teel ]: The transcription is doubtful, and the identity of this person remains unknown.
Vanity-Fair: William Makepeace Thackeray (1811-1863) was a British novelist. Vanity Fair (1848) is his best-known novel. He published The History of Henry Esmond in 1852.
Cora: Cora Clark Rice. See Key to Correspondents.
Mary: Mary Rice 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.
John Greenleaf Whittier to Sarah Orne Jewett
Sturtevant's*
Centre Harbor
N.H.
Centre Harbor
N.H.
8th Mo 8 1886
My dear Sarah Jewett
I was sorrier than I can tell when I heard that thee and Annie Fields* could not come to Asquam. I suppose you are about starting for Richfield Springs,* if you have not already gone. I should have gone home before this, but some friends wished to meet me here, so that I shall spend some days longer in the hill country. I greatly miss Gertrude Cartland* who has always
[ Page 2 ]
[ Page 3 ]
heretofore been with me. I hope the Springs
will be as healing as the fountain of Bathesda* and that the
fiend of Rheumatism will ^be^ driven from thee. He has got
hold of me up here, but I am not going to give way to him. I
will sit on the ground in spite of him. Just now neuralgia
has got my head in [ unrecognized word chains ?
], and the sharpness of his grip must excuse the brevity of
my note.
I hope our well beloved Annie Fields is with thee, and that
I hope our well beloved Annie Fields is with thee, and that
[ Page 3 ]
you are enjoying these delightful summer
days{.}
God bless thee!
Affectionately
Affectionately
John G Whittier
Notes
Sturtevant's: Sturtevant's farm on Asquam Lake provided Whittier and his friends with a quieter summer residence than was available at resort hotels such as the Asquam House. See Pickard, Life and Letters of John Greenleaf Whittier, v. 2, pp. 694-5.
Annie Fields: Annie Adams Fields. See Key to Correspondents.
Richfield Springs: Richfield Springs, NY, was known for its sulfur springs, where 19th-century patients sought relief for various conditions, rheumatism in Jewett's case.
fountain of Bathesda: In the Bible, John 5, is the story of the Pool of Bathesda, a site in Jerusalem, where people sought healing and where Jesus miraculously cured a paralytic.
Gertrude 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.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Huntington Library, San Marino, CA, in the James T. Fields collection: mss FI 1-4781. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Annie Adams Fields to Eben Norton Horsford
South Berwick -- Maine
August 18th 1886.
August 18th 1886.
My dear kind friend;
Really when I think of all the directions in which your benevolence is exerted I wonder at the generous economy of your life. You will be amused when I tell you, as I believe I usually have done! when you have surprised me with your benefactions, that I was just wondering how I should pull across a certain stream of needs which have been
[ Page 2 ]
presenting themselves* -- Now, I wonder no longer, thanks to you, my dear kind friend!
Sarah* has written you, I believe, or Lilian that the physician has advised her to go to Richfield Springs,* whither we are now turning, and I much fear that our lateness in going there will prevent us from having the visit we have looked forward to at Shelter Island.*
You and Kate* would have been interested to hear Mr.
[ Page 3 ]
Phillips Brooks* say, the other day, in a little talk ^I had with him^ just before I left town that the West was deeply interesting of course but in a way so totally different from any other part of the world just now; it has no past, he said, hardly any present: it is all future -- and Helen Hunt* is [ in ? ] ^its* mythology!! I am sure Kate would have joined me in the pleasure this little jeu d'esprit* gave.
I hope Kate will help Mr. Mabie* as far as possible in his Life of Mrs Jackson by giving him portions of her letters in case he has not already more than he can use.
[ Page 4 ]
You will have heard ere this I fancy that your friend Mr. Cushing, his family and his Indians are visiting Mrs Hemenway* at our beloved Manchester by the Sea. She has taken two houses there one of which she calls Casa Ramona. It is a secret!!! but as Zuni Indians cannot well travel in their warpaint upon the Eastern Railroad without being seen, I know I may confide in you.
We have heard of Mrs Horsford's and Cornelia's* gayeties and triumphs in Newport and are liking Shelter Island all the better for it.
Sarah sends her love with mine to you all.
Believe me, affectionately yours
Annie Fields
Notes
themselves: Presumably, Horsford has sent a gift of money to support Fields's work with the Associated Charities of Boston.
Sarah: Sarah Orne Jewett.
Lilian almost certainly is Lilian Aldrich. See Key to Correspondents.
Richfield Springs: In September of 1886, Fields and Jewett were at Richfield Springs, NY, known for its sulfur springs, where 19th-century patients sought relief for various conditions, rheumatism in Jewett's case.
Shelter Island: Horsford's family inherited the Sylvester Manor on Shelter Island, off the east coast of Long Island, New York.
Kate: Horsford's daughter, Mary Katherine. See Key to Correspondents.
Phillips Brooks: See Key to Correspondents.
Helen Hunt: Helen Fiske Hunt Jackson (1830- 2 August 1885) was an American author and activist upon behalf of Native Americans. She was a friend of the Horsford family. Her popular novel of Native American life, Ramona, appeared in 1884.
Later in this letter, Fields notes that Mrs. Hemenway has named one of the houses she has rented in Manchester by the Sea after the novel's protagonist: Casa Ramona.
jeu d'esprit: French, play of the intellect.
Mabie: According to Ruth Odell in Helen Hunt Jackson (1939), Jackson named American author Hamilton Wright Mabie (1846-1916) to be her biographer. Respecting her privacy, her family discouraged all other attempts to produce a life, and Mabie never took up the 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. Hemenway: "Mary Porter Tileston Hemenway (1820-1894) was an American philanthropist. She sponsored the Hemenway Southwestern Archaeological Expedition to the American southwest [first led by Frank H. Cushing], and opened the first kitchen in a public school in the US." Wikipedia
Anthropology News (no longer available on-line) 1988 provides this sketch of two Cushing trips East with Native Americans:
In 1882, urged by his Zuni hosts and to further his own interests, Cushing came east with five Indians, four men from Zuni and one Hopi, who made appearances from Washington to Boston. Cushing with his long blond hair and dressed in his Zuni (cum-Navajo) outfit -- for obvious reasons the Navajo called him “Many Buttons” -- attracted even more attention than his simply dressed Indian companions. In the course of the tour the group met Mary Hemenway. Four years later, when on sick leave back east, Cushing was offered a cottage on the Hemenway estate at Manchester, Massachusetts....Cushing's account of this 11 August to 12 October stay appears in The Lost Itinerary of Frank Hamilton Cushing (2002), 45 ff.
Mrs Hemenway, her interest sustained and enlarged by Cushing, arranged for another visit from the Pueblos, this time Frank Hamilton Cushing in Indian garb ... and three Zuni men in August 1886.
Cornelia's: Horsford's daughter. 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.
This letter was published in John W. Willoughby, "Sarah Orne Jewett and Her Shelter Island: Letters of Sarah Orne Jewett and Annie Fields to Eben Norton Horsford," Confrontation (Long Island University) 8 (1974): 72-86. New slightly revised transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Samuel Sidney McClure
Spring House. Richfield N. Y.
26 August [ 1886 ]*
Dear Mr. McClure --
Thank you for your
kind note -- I think you must [ put corrected ] me
down in a kind of general way in your prospectus for I must
not make any distinct promises this long time of yet, if I
wish to go on properly with my work by and by. But
[ Page 2 ]
you must use my name if you think it will aid you, for I surely wish to be of aid and later I shall no doubt have many things to say -- I was sorry that the Jacqueminot Rose* [ story corrected ] was too long --
[ Page 3 ]
I [ was corrected from way ] afraid it would be and it is not fit for a serial -- yet I wanted you to have something of mine -- We will both have patience! and you must believe me
Yours faithfully
S. O. Jewett
[ Page 4 ]
I have asked Mrs. Fields* but she cannot promise to do any
work -- She gives almost all her time to her charity work you
know -- nowadays --
I shall probably be here for several weeks --
Notes
1886: Though various dates have been given to this
letter, Charles Johanningsmeier in Fiction and the
American Literary Marketplace the Role of Newspaper
Syndicates in America, 1860-1900 (1997, notes, p. 253),
assigns it to 26 August 1886. This is likely correct, for
Jewett went to Richfield Springs under doctor's orders in
August of 1886.
Jacqueminot Rose: Jewett submitted this story to Harper's Magazine early in 1880. It is not yet known to have been published. See Jewett to Henry Mills Alden of 19 February 1880. Richard Cary says: "Manuscript copies of 'The Jacqueminot Rose' are in Harvard's Houghton Library Collection: Sarah Orne Jewett compositions and other papers, MS Am 1743.22, item 52."
Fields: Annie Adams Fields. Key to
Correspondents.
New transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
A SUCCESSFUL SEASON.
A GREAT ROUND OF PLEASURE AND PROSPERITY AT RICHFIELD.
New York Times 29 August 1886, p. 3.
A GREAT ROUND OF PLEASURE AND PROSPERITY AT RICHFIELD.
New York Times 29 August 1886, p. 3.
RICHFIELD SPRINGS, Aug.
28. -- In Richfield, just as in other parts of the world,
men welcome the "flowers that bloom in Spring" because they
are full of promise of a "Summer of roses and wine." The
promise of the early Summer here has been generously
fulfilled. A gay and brilliant season was predicted, and it
has come. Richfield, giddy, whirling young belles, its
divine matrons, its industrious and devoted young cavaliers,
and silver-laden fathers, never had a better or more
prosperous time than it has had this Summer. And the season
is not over yet. September, the queen month of the royal
year, is still to come, and the outlook for pleasure is
wide. The whirl of society life has passed its zenith
and many more germans or full-dress hops cannot be expected.
But coaching and dinner parties will keep a sharp edge on
existence, and the fact that Richfield is a safe retreat
from hay fever will add a hygienic inducement to its other
attractions. The New American will close on Sept. 15, but
the Spring House is to remain open till Oct. 1. The
number of engagements at that house is greater than for any
previous September....
Mrs. James T. Fields and Miss Sarah Orne Jewett, of Boston, arrived at the Spring House this week....
Mrs. James T. Fields and Miss Sarah Orne Jewett, of Boston, arrived at the Spring House this week....
Sarah Orne Jewett to Gertrude Van Rensselaer
Wickham
Richfield, New York
August 29, 1886
My Dear Mrs. Wickham:*
Indeed I have a dog1 and
a very dear one of much and varied information and great
dignity of character. His name is Roger and he is a large
Irish setter with a splendid set of fringes to his paws and
tail, and two eyes that ask more questions and make more
requests than dogs I know. And it is {so} nearly impossible to
refuse his requests that he is quite in danger of being
spoiled or would be if he were not so sensible. Once the
Reverend J. G. Wood,2 who understands dog life as
well as anybody in the world, asked us reproachfully while
Roger lay before the library fire on a very soft rug, if he
ever had to do anything he didn't like. And I felt for a long
time afterward that I might be neglecting the dear dog's moral
education.
Roger spends his winters in Boston,
where luckily he has a good-sized garden to run about in on
the shore of the Charles River, but he likes to be taken out
for a long walk and follows me so carefully and politely that
I feel very much honoured and obliged. It is such a delight
and such a touching thing to see what pleasure he gives the
people in the shops, and I quite forget my errands sometimes
in talking about him. Roger himself cannot help feeling how
tired faces light up when he comes by on his four paws with
wagging tail, and I am sure that he is very grateful to the
tired hands that pat him -- and knows that he rouses a too
uncommon feeling of common humanity and sympathy.
But any mention of Roger without a
word of his best friend, Patrick Lynch,3 would be
incomplete. All his best loyalty and affection show themselves
at the sound of Patrick's step -- for this means all outdoors,
and the market, and long scurries about town and splashes in
the frog-pond, and, more than that, it means one person that
understands what Roger wants and why he wants it. Whether
Patrick has learned dog-language or Roger knows how to whine
English I really cannot tell, but it must be one or the other.
All day Roger is expecting some sort of surprise and pleasure
with this most congenial of his friends, but every evening he
condescends to spend quietly with the rest of the family and
comes tick-toeing along the hall floor and upstairs to the
library, as if he were well aware that he conferred a real
benefaction. Alas, there are sometimes bonnets outward bound
which give him a great sorrow if he finds that, as often
happens, he must stay at home. But if he is invited to go,
what leaping and whining in noisy keys! What rushing along
snowy streets! What treeing of unlucky pussies and scattering
of wayfarers on account of his size and apparent fierceness!
But the best place to see this dog
is in the summer by the sea, where he runs about in the
sunshine, shining like copper, and always begging somebody for
a walk or barking at the top of a ledge for the sake of being
occupied in some way! Mrs. Fields is more than ever his best
mistress there, for she oftenest invites him to walk along the
beach and chase sand peeps. Strange to say, this amusement
never fails though the sand peeps always fly to seaward and
disappoint their eager hunter.
I hope that I have not said too
much. I think your plan a charming one, and wish you great
success.
Yours sincerely,
S. O. Jewett
Notes
Wickham was commissioned by St. Nicholas, a children's magazine, to write a series of three articles on "Dogs of Noted Americans," which appeared in the issues of June, July 1888 and May 1889. The account of Miss Jewett's dog, closely paraphrasing this letter, was published in the last (XVI, 544-545).
1 Miss Jewett was seldom without at least one house pet. See "Sara Orne Jewett's Dog," St. Nicholas, XVI (May 1889), 544-545; "Some Literary Cats," St. Nicholas, XXVII (August 1900), 923-926; Fields, Letters, 46, 62, 66, 75, 101, 147; and Letters 130, 131 in this volume. See also Lee Coyle, "Sarah Orne Jewett and Irish Roger," Colby Library Quarterly 6 (1964) pp. 441-2.
2 John George Wood (1827-1889) wrote some thirty books on botany, zoology, natural history, and Biblical animals, in which he studied minutely common objects of the country and seashore. In Man and Beast: Here and Hereafter (1874), Reverend Wood combined his vocation and avocation.
3 In the employ of Mrs. Fields.
This letter was edited and annotated by Richard Cary in Sarah Orne Jewett Letters; the ms. is held by the Western Reserve Historical Society, Case Western University. Added notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Houghton Mifflin & Co.
The Spring House
Richfield N. York* 2 Sept. [ 1886 ]*
Richfield N. York* 2 Sept. [ 1886 ]*
Messrs Houghton Mifflin & Co
Gentlemen
I see that the new Edition of Deephaven is out:* and I should like so much to see it. Will you please send me half a dozen copies here (I should think they might easily come by mail in two packages)
[ Page 2 ]
and I should like to have the same number sent to me at South Berwick all charged on my account as I shall like to have them there to dispose of when I get home --
I hope that the White Heron volume* is getting on well. Will you please have both the newspaper
[ Page 3 ]
notices of the new Deephaven and A White Heron kept for me to see? I shall probably stay here two or three weeks longer so my letters &c can be sent to this address --
Believe me
very sincerely
Sarah O. Jewett*
Sarah O. Jewett*
Notes
1886: As indicated in the notes below, Jewett refers to events of this year.
In the upper left corner of page 1, underlined in blue ink and in another hand: "S. O. Jewett". In the upper right corner are underlined initials in pencil and in another hand; though this is uncertain, they appear to be: D.B.U. A line, probably in pencil, is drawn down the page, to the right of center, beginning in about the middle of the page.
A similar line appears on page two, to the left of center through the first two lines of text.
Richfield: Richfield Springs, NY, was known for its sulfur springs, where 19th-century patients sought relief for various conditions, rheumatism in Jewett's case.
new Edition of Deephaven: In A Bibliography of the Published Writings of Sarah Orne Jewett (1949), Clara Carter and Carl J. Weber note that in 1886, Deephaven (1877), Jewett's first novel, was reissued in a Riverside Pocket Series edition.
the White Heron volume: Jewett's story collection, A White Heron (1886).
Jewett: On the back of page 1 appear these notes in pencil from Houghton.
Top right corner and repeated, but less readable, at the bottom is the Houghton, Mifflin date stamp: 2 p.m. on 3 September 1886,
Top left corner: The orders in this letter we do not fill. JDW
Top half of page:
By order from BO Authors copies of Deephaven have been sent as follows
3 to So Berwick
6 to " "
Sep 8 6 to Richfield NY
How this is to be interpreted is uncertain. Often this would mean "Back ordered" or "Book order." If BO are initials, it may be that BO has overridden JDW's statement of company policy in this case. Or perhaps there was a question of which office was responsible for responding to this request or of whether Jewett was to be charged for all of the copies. For example, it is notable that Jewett is sent 15 copies, though she requested 12. Perhaps the extra three are "free" author's copies?
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
9th Mo 4. 1886*Dear Annie Fields
I was exceedingly glad to hear from thee and Sarah,* for the summer has passed and you seemed almost lost to me. I came back from N.H. three weeks ago, since which time, I have ^had^ a steady succession of pilgrims and callers -- some of whom I was glad to see, and if the others found any satisfaction in their visits (I am not disposed to) complain.* I am grieved to hear of Gen Armstrong*
[ Page 2 ]
[although ? ] I am not surprised at it. He has been working in his noble cause beyond any mortal man's strength. He must now have a rest if it ^is^ possible for him; and his friends must [ deleted word ] ^now^ keep up the school by redoubled efforts. Ah me! There is so much to be done in this world! I wish I were younger or a millionaire!
And so thee & Sarah are in a great, fashionable hotel* enjoying or enduring all that this implies! If our beloved friend is the better for it, you will not regret your experiment of combining health and luxury. For myself I
[ Page 3 ]
think I should prefer the old house which Sarah occupied at Deephaven.* And this reminds ^me^ that we are to have another of her delightful little volumes.
I am glad you visited Matthew Arnold,* and I heartily share thy indignation at the way our [ people ? ] have spoken of him -- one of the foremost men of our time, a true poet, a wise critic, and a brave upright man to whom all English-speaking peoples owe a debt of gratitude. I am sorry I could not see him again.
I hope dear Sarah is really benefited
[ Page 4 ]
by her baths. If rheumatism like other miseries likes company tell her that I am in the clutches of it at this moment. The weather is here cool for the season, and a trifle too damp for our aftermath haying. One of [ the ? ] fields is now picturesque with a hundred hay-heaps with mowers swinging their scythes beyond them, and Phebe* galloping her horse between them and three dogs following after her. Good Bye dearest of friends!
John G Whittier
Notes
1886: This manuscript has a penciled "6" at the top center of page 1, and a penciled "X" appears in the left margin of page 3 before the paragraph on Matthew Arnold.
Sarah: Sarah Orne Jewett. See Key to Correspondents.
complain: While the parenthesis marks seem to have been written by Whittier, their meaning is puzzling. Perhaps the marks are flourishes of handwriting?
Armstrong: Samuel Chapman Armstrong (1839-1893) was principal at Hampton Institute, founded in 1861 to educate former African American slaves.
fashionable hotel: In September of 1886, Fields and Jewett were at Richfield Springs, NY, known for its sulfur springs, where 19th-century patients sought relief for various conditions, rheumatism in Jewett's case.
Deephaven: A fictional Maine coastal village, the setting of Jewett's first novel, Deephaven (1877). Jewett's "little volume" of 1886 was A White Heron and Other Stories.
Matthew Arnold: British poet and critic, Matthew Arnold (1822-1888), traveled to the United States in the summer of 1886 mainly to visit his daughter, Lucy Charlotte Whitridge (1858-1934), and her family. However, he did present a few lectures as well. Fields's observation about Arnold's poor treatment in the American press may refer to criticism of Arnold's proposals for English administration in Ireland, which were not popular with Irish Americans. See Sarah Orne Jewett to Annie Adams Fields of Thursday night (June 1886).
Phebe: Phebe Woodman (1869-1953), adopted daughter of Whittier's cousin Abby Johnson Woodman (1828-1921). See Letters of John Greenleaf Whittier v. 1, p. 337.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Huntington Library, San Marino, CA, in the James T. Fields collection: mss FI 71-4776. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett and Annie Adams Fields to Anna Loring Dresel
Richfield Springs*
6 September [1886]
6 September [1886]
Dear Mrs. Dresel*
I send you a nice letter from Loulie but you cannot have it to keep! Please put it away for me.
We are very contented here and the rest and the baths together are so good
[ Page 2 ]
[The top 1/5 of this page is marked off with a line. Above the line it reads: (this was not my finger!)
There is a faint smudge between This and was. Below the line, it reads as follows.]
that I already begin to feel more flourishing than for a great while before -- We like the country very much though several persons told us that it was uninteresting. I am sure that you
[ Page 3 ]
would like it too and we both wish that you were here with us -- I suppose we shall stay a fortnight longer -- We hope to be in Manchester for a few days before winter but it seems irresponsible to say when!
You must play that this hurried note is only
[ Page 4 ]
a kind of postscript to Loulie's!
Yours [affectionately corrected]
Sarah O. Jewett
[ Following on page 4 is a note from Annie Fields]
Dear Friend; I send this a dear chapter out of "the history of my life" by Loulie.
We have [had corrected ] three good letters already from our M.G.L.* who is well and finding life beautiful indeed in green England. Her neighbors the fishermen in [Boston ?] turned out with their engines to salute her when she went over*
Notes[ Following on page 4 is a note from Annie Fields]
Dear Friend; I send this a dear chapter out of "the history of my life" by Loulie.
We have [had corrected ] three good letters already from our M.G.L.* who is well and finding life beautiful indeed in green England. Her neighbors the fishermen in [Boston ?] turned out with their engines to salute her when she went over*
[ Up the left margin of page 4
]
Yours ever A.F.
Richfield Springs: Richfield Springs, NY, was known for its sulfur springs, where 19th-century patients sought relief for various conditions, rheumatism in Jewett's case. As shown in Annie Adams Fields to Eben Norton Horsford 18 August 1886, Jewett and Fields traveled together to Richfield Springs in late August of 1886.
Dresel: For information about Mrs. Dresel, see Louisa Loring Dresel in Key to Correspondents.
M.G.L.: Mary Greenwood Lodge. See Key to Correspondents.
over: The transcription of this sentence is uncertain.
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 Houghton Mifflin & Co.
Spring House
Richfield N. Y.*
9 September --
9 September --
[ 1886 ]*
Messrs Houghton Mifflin & Co.
Gentlemen
I see that A White Heron* is to come out this week and I am eager to get a copy or two. The twenty-five copies that I usually have I should like very much to have
[ Page 2 ]
sent to me at South Berwick -- but will you please send two copies, charged to me, to this present address? There were to be some of the new Deephavens* sent here which have not yet arrived. I say this not because I am in any hurry, but lest
[ Page 3 ]
there should have been a mistake. Will you please [ send corrected ] me also by post a copy of the new Memoirs of Mrs. Madison?*
[ Yours ? ]
sincerely
S. O. Jewett.
S. O. Jewett.
Does anybody know yet when
Notes
1886: In the upper left corner of page 1 is the Houghton, Mifflin date stamp: 10 September 1886.
In the upper right corner of page 1, underlined in blue ink and in another hand: "S. O. Jewett", followed by underlined initials, apparently: D.B.U. A two-part line in the same ink is drawn down the center of page 1; similar single lines are drawn down the remaining two pages.
Richfield: Richfield Springs, NY, was known for its sulfur springs, where 19th-century patients sought relief for various conditions, rheumatism in Jewett's case.
A White Heron: Jewett's story collection, A White Heron (1886).
new Deephavens: In A Bibliography of the Published Writings of Sarah Orne Jewett (1949), Clara Carter and Carl J. Weber note that in 1886, Deephaven (1877), Jewett's first novel, was reissued in a Riverside Pocket Series edition.
Memoirs of Mrs. Madison: Memoirs and Letters of Dolly Madison, Wife of James Madison, President of the United States, by Dolly Madison and Lucia Beverly Cutts, was published by Houghton, Mifflin in 1886.
Mr. Aldrich: Thomas Bailey Aldrich. See Key to Correspondents. At the time of this letter, he was editor of Atlantic Monthly, and so in the employ of Houghton, Mifflin. During these years, he typically traveled in the summer.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library of Harvard University in Houghton Mifflin Company correspondence and records, 1832-1944, Jewett, Sarah Orne, 1849-1909. 68 letters from; 1870-1907 and [n.d.]. MS Am 1925 (962). Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Houghton Mifflin & Co.
[ Begin letterhead ]
Spring House
Richfield Springs, N. Y.*
[ End letterhead ]
Spring House
Richfield Springs, N. Y.*
[ End letterhead ]
15 September [ 1886
]*
Messrs Houghton Mifflin & Co --
Gentlemen
Mr. Geo H. Putnam* writes
me today that he has asked for the use and reproduction of two
Longfellow illustrations.* I wish to explain that I
suggested that he might find what we cannot very well do
without in the Longfellow boxes, for my history of the Normans
which is just in press.
Last spring I sent Mr. Putnam a careful list of some pictures
Last spring I sent Mr. Putnam a careful list of some pictures
[ Page 2 ]
which I knew we ought to have if the Normans were to be illustrated at all, and somehow or other, I dare say owing to Mr. Putnams absence nothing in particular was done about getting the plates ready until now -- I have been much troubled about it -- Illustrations are quite out of my line, but I was all the more anxious to do my part about these as early and as
[ Page 3 ]
well as possible -- If it is not against the laws and customs of H.M. & Co. I cannot help begging this new favor. The little book is already in press and waiting, and so am I and hoping to get the work off my hands at last --
I am delighted with the look of the White Heron -- and hope that both that and the new Deephaven* will flood the market at once!!
Believe me always
yours sincerely
S. O. Jewett.*
Notes
1886: In the upper right corner of page 1, underlined in blue ink and in another hand: "S. O. Jewett". The notes below confirm the year of the letter.
Richfield: Richfield Springs, NY, was known for its sulfur springs, where 19th-century patients sought relief for various conditions, rheumatism in Jewett's case.
Putnam: George Haven Putnam, the publisher of Jewett's forthcoming history, The Story of the Normans (1887). See Key to Correspondents.
Longfellow illustrations: Related to American poet, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. See Key to Correspondents.
new Deephaven: In A Bibliography of the Published Writings of Sarah Orne Jewett (1949), Clara Carter and Carl J. Weber note that in 1886, Deephaven (1877), Jewett's first novel, was reissued in a Riverside Pocket Series edition.
At about the same time appeared Jewett's story collection, A White Heron (1886).
Jewett: Following this letter in its Houghton Library folder is a memorandum from a Houghton, Mifflin & Company pad, dated 17 September 1886.
On the first side it reads: "Please note this letter from Miss Jewett. Mr. H. O. H. [ Henry Oscar Houghton, see Key to Correspondents ] hopes you will come to a speedy conclusion in the matter, & is ready, himself, to oblige Miss Jewett, charging $10.00 for the Skeleton in Armor cut, & $15.00 for the Long Serpent from Ill. Longfellow."
This part of the note, in blue ink, is signed with initials that are not easily readable: F.J.G for Francis Jackson Garrison [see Key to Correspondents ]?
Below this note in another hand, is penciled another note: "We retain Putnams letter -- We notified them yesterday that we would today send two Electros."
This part of the note seems to be signed lightly with the same initials as the first note. "Electro" is short for eletrotype, a copy made by the electrotyping process.
On the back of the memo appears another note: "from Skeleton in Armor, which they had said would be satisfactory to them."
This is initialed with what appears to be: JDH.
Despite these arrangements, the Longfellow illustrations are not included directly in the Putnam Story of the Normans. In Chapter 1, p. 13, is an illustration of a Viking ship that resembles that of "The Long Serpent" in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's "The Saga of King Olaf," which appears after p. 246 in The Complete Poetical Works of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Volume 3. Longfellow's ballad, "The Skeleton in Armor," appears with an illustration in the same volume, pp. 25-7. A somewhat similar image of a Viking appears on p. 17 of Jewett's book.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library of Harvard University in Houghton Mifflin Company correspondence and records, 1832-1944, Jewett, Sarah Orne, 1849-1909. 68 letters from; 1870-1907 and [n.d.]. MS Am 1925 (962). Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Houghton Mifflin & Co.
Spring House
Richfield N. Y.*
18 September --
18 September --
[ 1886 ]*
Messrs Houghton Mifflin & Co.
Gentlemen
I have
been shown a fault in the printing of A White Heron* which
is indeed provoking to [ discover corrected ] --
Somehow or other one page of the type (or perhaps two) were
not stereotyped and there is a break between p 174 and 175.
I do not think that
[ Page 2 ]
so much ^copy^ could have been overlooked in
the proof reading either by me or by the careful
proofreaders who go over the pages so many times before I do
--
I wonder what we can do about it? It is such a serious affair to re-page seventy-five or eighty pages that I shrink from suggesting
it though the story itself has suffered an [ earthquake corrected ] crack !! Perhaps I could rewrite the lower part of page 174 and the top of page 175 so that the story would be patched over! I am afraid that my only copy of the story has been thrown into the wastepaper basket though there may possibly be one in South Berwick.
I wonder what we can do about it? It is such a serious affair to re-page seventy-five or eighty pages that I shrink from suggesting
[ Page 3 ]
it though the story itself has suffered an [ earthquake corrected ] crack !! Perhaps I could rewrite the lower part of page 174 and the top of page 175 so that the story would be patched over! I am afraid that my only copy of the story has been thrown into the wastepaper basket though there may possibly be one in South Berwick.
[ Page 4 ]
or possibly the printed page may have
been kept in [ proof corrected ] at the press. Will
you kindly let me know what you think should be done?
[ Yours ? ] sincerely
S. O. Jewett
S. O. Jewett
Notes
1886: In the upper right corner of page 1, underlined in blue ink and in another hand: "Sarah O. Jewett". In the upper left corner is a Houghton, Mifflin date stamp reading 4 p.m. on 20 September 1886. At the bottom of page 2 two notes appear in different hands: a set of initials in blue ink, "F.J.G." for Francis Jackson Garrison, and in pencil, "Read by JDW." For Garrison, see Key to Correspondents.
Richfield: Richfield Springs, NY, was known for its sulfur springs, where 19th-century patients sought relief for various conditions, rheumatism in Jewett's case.
A White Heron: Jewett's story collection, A White Heron (1886). The gap Jewett speaks of would have been in the sixth of the nine collected stories, "A Business Man." A comparison of newspaper texts with printings after the first of A White Heron that are available from Google Books shows no significant difference between the relevant passage in the two sources. Presumably there are copies in existence of the first printing that would show the error.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library of Harvard University in Houghton Mifflin Company correspondence and records, 1832-1944, Jewett, Sarah Orne, 1849-1909. 68 letters from; 1870-1907 and [n.d.]. MS Am 1925 (962). Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Houghton Mifflin & Co.
Richfield --
23 September
[ 1886 ]*
Messrs Houghton Mifflin & Co --
Gentlemen
I have received Mr. Garrison's note about the White Heron. If there were only two lines left out, I will keep those copies that I have and write in myself, what is missing. It will be very little trouble, and will save throwing those copies away. You see I have a frugal mind! How interesting the fall catalogue is! I have been [ reading corrected ] it in the Atlantic.
Yrs sincerely
S. O. Jewett
S. O. Jewett
Notes
1886: In the upper right corner of page 1, underlined in blue ink and in another hand: "S. O. Jewett". In the upper left corner is a Houghton, Mifflin date stamp reading 2 p.m. on 24 September 1886. At the bottom of the page two penciled notes appear in different hands: "F.J.G." for Francis Jackson Garrison, and "Read by JDW." For Garrison, see Key to Correspondents.
This letter was written on a "United States Letter Sheet Envelope," which allowed a note written on one side to be folded inside and sealed, with postage printed on the outer, addressable side. To reopen after sealing, side tabs would be torn away.
Richfield: Richfield Springs, NY, was known for its sulfur springs, where 19th-century patients sought relief for various conditions, rheumatism in Jewett's case.
A White Heron: Jewett's story collection, A White Heron (1886). Jewett refers to an error in the first printing, omitting material belonging between pages 174 and 175. See her letter to the publisher of 18 September. This gap would have been in the sixth of the nine collected stories, "A Business Man." A survey of the 1886 editions available from Google Books shows no gap between pages 174-5. This would suggest that the problem was quickly corrected after the first printing.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library of Harvard University in Houghton Mifflin Company correspondence and records, 1832-1944, Jewett, Sarah Orne, 1849-1909. 68 letters from; 1870-1907 and [n.d.]. MS Am 1925 (962). Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Louisa Dresel
[ Manchester, Mass. ]
Tuesday morning
[ Autumn 1886 ]
Dear Loulie:Tuesday morning
[ Autumn 1886 ]
I was very sorry to miss you the other afternoon, and I find {it} is so hard to write what I wish to say in answer to your interesting letter that I am tempted to wait and talk it over when we meet in town! It was just the kind of letter I like to have, written out of a mood and bringing a piece of your life to me. I know how one regrets having written such letters because the next day is apt to find one reserving one's opinions with great care!! but they are immensely helpful between friends and so I thank you very much for sending this to me. Indeed it startles me now and then to grow suddenly conscious of unexplored territory in myself! as if my thoughts could be laid out map-fashion; and here is my native state and here its neighbour and the rest of New England, and there is "Out West" where I have been two or three times only1 -- and then like the old geographies comes blank places of yellow and red marked Desert and waste land -- (Please make all that I mean out of this bungling simile!). And little by little we learn our way about our own consciousness. I think that you were right in the main, in saying that we should be able to say things that we think clearly, but the power of apprehension is one that differs as well as the power of expression, and both can be cultivated. When I follow you a little farther and come to the vehicle of expression, I believe that the reason of our pleasure with the verses that our thoughts make themselves into is this: that we have to make them very clear and brief little figures and so our thoughts have a live definiteness that is very enticing. But I liked the way you put your thought into prose best. It takes an experienced verse writer, not to be hampered with rhyme and metre. For myself, I made a resolve long ago that verses should not escape me, that if I had a poetical idea it must go to enrich my New England prose. I could show you more than one bit of a prose page that was verse to begin with!2 and I think that I have gained rather than lost. But sometimes when verses make themselves it is a great joy, and for the moment lifts one to a higher level of literary companionship. There is one sure thing, one should try to write verses now and then to teach himself to properly value a true poet. What a dear good talk we might have about all this!
I am afraid that you will be gone to town when I next drive up the Beverly road but we will make the most of town by and by.
Give my love to Mrs. Dresel and remember to give Miss Brockhaus* a message from me when you are writing.
Yours affectionately,
Sarah O. Jewett
Cary's Notes
1For several months
in 1868-1869 Jewett visited with her uncle John Taylor Perry
in Cincinnati, with some trips to Kentucky from there. In the
seventies she journeyed to Chicago and to the Oneida Indian
reservation in Wisconsin. "Tame Indians," Independent,
XXVII (April 1, 1875), 26, is a dramatized account of the
latter visit.
2Almost five years later
Jewett wrote: "I was still a child when I began to write down
the things I was thinking about, but at first I always made
rhymes and found prose so difficult that a school composition
was a terror to me, and I do not remember ever writing one
that was worth anything. But in course of time rhymes
themselves became difficult and prose more and more enticing,
and I began my work in life" ("Looking Back on Girlhood," Youth's
Companion, LXV [January 7, 1892], 6).
Editor's Notes
Miss Brockhaus: Marianne Theresia
Brockhaus. See Key
to
Correspondents.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library,
Harvard University, MS Am 1743 (50). This transcription
by Richard Cary appeared originally in "Jewett to Dresel: 33
Letters," Colby Library Quarterly 7:1 (March 1975),
13-49, which gave permission to reprint it here. Notes
are by Cary, with additions by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Frank Hamilton Cushing*
[ 21 October 1886 ]*
My dear Mr Cushing
I send you a bottle of the medicine which I sincerely hope will do you good. I think you can use it three or four times a day if it suits you -- just shaking it and putting it on with a bit of old linen -- At any rate I think it will do you
[ Page 2 ]
no harm though if you find it very heating and the wrong thing altogether you must kindly set it down not to the lotion itself but to your too ignorant medical adviser [ extra space followed by a slanted line ] but very sincere friend
Sarah O. Jewett
148 Charles St.Boston October 21st
[ Page 3 ]
Mrs. Fields* and I send our best regards
to Mrs. Cushing and Miss Magill and hope that Mrs
Cushing is getting better fast -- And may we not send a
kind remembrance to "The Zunis" -- whom we shall always
remember with such respect and pleasure --
Notes
Cushing: 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.
1886: Though it is possible that this letter is from 1882, almost certainly it was composed in 1886.
Anthropology News (no longer available on-line) 1988 provides this sketch of two Cushing trips East with Native Americans:
In 1882, urged by his Zuni hosts and to further his own interests, Cushing came east with five Indians, four men from Zuni and one Hopi, who made appearances from Washington to Boston. Cushing with his long blond hair and dressed in his Zuni (cum-Navajo) outfit -- for obvious reasons the Navajo called him “Many Buttons” -- attracted even more attention than his simply dressed Indian companions. In the course of the tour the group met Mary Hemenway. Four years later, when on sick leave back east, Cushing was offered a cottage on the Hemenway estate at Manchester, Massachusetts....Cushing's account of this second 11 August to 12 October stay appears in The Lost Itinerary of Frank Hamilton Cushing (2002), 45 ff.
Mrs Hemenway, her interest sustained and enlarged by Cushing, arranged for another visit from the Pueblos, this time Frank Hamilton Cushing in Indian garb ... and three Zuni men in August 1886.
Mrs. Fields: Annie Adams 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 190. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Louisa Loring Dresel
South Berwick Maine
Wednesday 27 October
[ 1886 ]*
Wednesday 27 October
[ 1886 ]*
My Dear Loulie
I am afraid that this note will not arrive in time to be among the first of your welcomes home, but it is not the least of the welcomes for all that. I did not know that you were on your way until you must have been nearly here.
[ Page 2 ]
We were in Manchester for a day or two over a week, but I was [ aggravated corrected ] by a large round cold in my head and had to stay in the house altogether too much of the time for my liking. Mrs. Fields* was very busy for there were some things to do about the place, so we "stayed by" as the sailors say. Roger* had the best
[ Page 3 ]
holiday possible but I am sure he missed the [ gram-gram ? ] at Jack* to which he looked ^forward^ almost as much as we [ deleted word ] ^did to^ seeing Mrs. Dresel!
Mrs. Fields came to Berwick with me, but she goes back to town tomorrow. I shall miss her very much for we have been together an exceptionally long time. We have had a lovely series of long walks here and are selfishly grieved at
[ Page 4 ]
rainy weather because it will make the fields so wet. But I look for much sunshine in November -- you know it is my favorite month!
I suppose you are very busy with the new new-house? I wish you a most happy winter in it, dear Loulie. Give my love to your mother and do not forget that I am your sincere and affectionate friend
Sarah O. Jewett.
When I see you I shall say "Now begin at the beginning!"
Notes
1886: This date appears in another hand, top left of page 1. Though the rationale for this choice is not known, this is a reasonable date for this letter, especially as it is known that the Dresel family moved into a new house at 328 Beacon Street in 1886.
Mrs. Fields: Annie Adams Fields. See Key to Correspondents.
Roger ... gram-gram ... Jack: Jack would appear to be the Dresel dog, and gram-gram may be the fanciful name by which Roger, Jewett's dog, knows Mrs. Dresel or for encounters between the pets.
When I see you I shall say "Now begin at the beginning!"
Notes
1886: This date appears in another hand, top left of page 1. Though the rationale for this choice is not known, this is a reasonable date for this letter, especially as it is known that the Dresel family moved into a new house at 328 Beacon Street in 1886.
Mrs. Fields: Annie Adams Fields. See Key to Correspondents.
Roger ... gram-gram ... Jack: Jack would appear to be the Dresel dog, and gram-gram may be the fanciful name by which Roger, Jewett's dog, knows Mrs. Dresel or for encounters between the pets.
The manuscript of this letter is held by Columbia University Libraries Special Collections in the Sarah Orne Jewett letters, Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College, from a Columbia University Libraries microfilm copy of the manuscript.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Annie Adams Fields
Monday evening
[ October 1886]*
[ October 1886]*
Dearest (Fuff)* --
Such a heavenly day! I do wish that you could have played out of doors in the sun as I did -- I took Cousin Sarah,* and afterward Carrie,* to drive this morning and after dinner I stole away to my fence corner and spent a beautiful season of peace and quietness. Jock* followed me but the distant sound of a gun scared him [ and corrected ]
Such a heavenly day! I do wish that you could have played out of doors in the sun as I did -- I took Cousin Sarah,* and afterward Carrie,* to drive this morning and after dinner I stole away to my fence corner and spent a beautiful season of peace and quietness. Jock* followed me but the distant sound of a gun scared him [ and corrected ]
[ Page 2 ]
[ Page 3 ]
and yet after a while I had a consciousness that something strange was going on and looked up to see a great white and gray trail of fog like a huge reptile [ deleted letters ] all along the course of the river past the town and so I knew that there was a noble sea-turn on its way inland and scrambled to the top of the hill to find all the eastern country a great gray lake, Agamenticus,* hidden (for once! you will say)* and
[ Page 4 ]
in fact the edge of the low cold cloud was uncomfortably near, so Jock and I raced it home and beat, for it was only a minute or two before the village was all a mist --(?* Mme Blanc's picture came tonight and I forgot to tell you that a little note from her, heralding it, came yesterday -- She must have given it to some friend to bring across -- The engraving is signed by Amaury Duval and is very sweet to look at -- though taken* twenty years ago she says. It took the medal at the Salon!* I think it is a little large to bring to you, but perhaps not -- (And another present came from Mr. Poor;* two beautiful ^English^ volumes of Jagos. Wasnt he kind? They are really most valuable books -- My H. & M. account* came today $212 -- I dont quite dare to venture upon the sealskin until the History payment* for you know I have bills)
[ Page 5 ]
coming in for half this or more but perhaps if I find [ just corrected ] the right thing when I am in town? -- I had a wild hope that there would be a little more than this but I had -- forgotten that they make up the account Oct 1st when A White Heron* had only been out a little less than three weeks. It had sold over a thousand in that time which was pretty well -- Good night my dear dear FuffYours always
Pinny*
Notes
October 1886: This date is confirmed by Jewett
reporting that her collection, A White Heron and Other
Stories (1886) has just been published.
Fields has penciled at the upper right:
"189--". She also has penciled parentheses around "Fuff"
in the greeting and then deleted the nickname. Parenthesis marks
in this manuscript were penciled by Fields.
Fuff: Nickname for Annie Adams Fields. See Key to Correspondents.
Cousin Sarah ... Carrie: Caroline Jewett Eastman. Jewett's cousin may be Sarah Howell.See Key to Correspondents.
Jock: F. O. Matthiessen in Sarah Orne Jewett (1909) identifies Jock as one of Jewett's dogs.
"Milton's Shorter Poems" ... "Lycidas": John Milton
(1608-1674), English poet and essayist is most famous for his
verse epic, Paradise Lost (1667). Among his shorter
poems is the pastoral elegy on the death of a student friend,
Edward King, "Lycidas" (1638).
though: In addition to deleting this word, Fields
also penciled a + before it.
Agamenticus: Mt. Agamenticus is the highest point
in the South Berwick area.
say): Parentheses around this phrase are by
Jewett, not Fields.
(?: These marks in green pencil are not especially
clear. Fields has added the parenthesis, but it is not
clear that a question mark follows.
However, it has not yet been established that this is the one by the French engraver Amaury Duval (1808-1885), who was the author of L'atelier d'Ingres (1878) and Souvenirs (1829-1830) (1885). Nor has the awarding of the medal been documented.
taken: Fields has penciled an insertion after "when": "it was painted". She decided to change "painted" to "taken" at a later point.
Mr. Poor … Jagos: Mr. Poor has not been identified. It is possible that he is Henry Varnum Poor (1812-1905) or his son Henry William Poor (1844-1915), whose financial partnership firm was a predecessor to Standard & Poor's. William became "widely known as a book collector and patron of the arts."
While "Jagos" also is mysterious, it seems likely that Jewett would be interested in the work of Francis Vyvyan Jago Arundell (1780-1846), an English antiquary, Anglican clergyman and oriental traveler. Before changing his name in 1815, he published under the name of Jago.
history payment: At this time, Jewett was completing The Story of the Normans (1887). This remark suggests that she received some advanced payment for that work.
A White Heron: Jewett's collection of short stories appeared in 1886.
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.
Annie Fields Transcription
The following transcription of the above letter appears in Annie Fields, Letters of Sarah Orne Jewett (1911), pp. 75-7.
Such a heavenly day. I do wish that you could have played out of doors in the sun as I did. After dinner I stole away to my fence-corner and spent a beautiful season of peace and quietness. Jock followed me, but the distant sound of a gun scared him, and so he crept close to my petticoats. I had my little old "Milton's Shorter Poems" in my pocket and read "Lycidas" with more delight than ever before; and then I did nothing for awhile, and finally took to aimless scribbling, and I don't wonder that you so dearly like to do your work out of doors. You never would believe how beautiful the country looked; and yet after a while I had a consciousness that something strange was going on, and looked up to see a great white and grey trail of fog, like a huge reptile all along the course of the river past the town, and so I knew that there was a noble sea-turn on its way inland, and scrambled to the top of the hill to find all the eastern country a great grey lake, Agamenticus, hidden (for once, you will say), and in fact the edge of the low cold cloud was uncomfortably near, so Jock and I raced it home and beat, for it was only a minute or two before the village was all a mist.
Madame Blanc's picture came tonight, and I forgot to tell you that a little note from her, heralding it, came yesterday. She must have given it to some friend to bring across. The engraving is signed by Amaury Duval and is very sweet to look at. When it was taken, twenty years ago, she says it took the medal at the Salon. I think it is a little large to bring to you, but perhaps not.Sarah Orne Jewett to Louisa Dresel
[Manchester, Mass.]
Tuesday morning
[ Autumn 1886 ]*
My dear Loulie:
I was so sorry to miss you and your brother1 and so was Mrs. Fields. We had gone for a long ramble along shore2 and did not get in until dark, but how glad we should have been to see you if we had only known. Thank you for liking the "Heron"3 so much. I begin to wish to read it over myself. I felt very discontented with it when it was first written, and it is most reassuring to have you feel such a satisfaction even though you heard long ago what it was meant to be!
We spent one day this week at Ipswich Neck4 and I want you so much to see it and try some sketches. There is nothing more beautiful in any country than I could show you there on the right sort of a day -- just such a day as we are having now. If I were to be here long enough I should ask you to come down by train and drive over with me, but we must do it late next year perhaps, if Mrs. Fields and I come down. We mean to see you again if possible, but Thursday is the day set for going away and we may have to wait until we are all in town. You don't know how much I like my little sketch of the treetops and how I keep it here on my desk, perched in front of a pigeonhole though sometimes it slips inside. It might be more polite perhaps to call it your sketch! but I like to own it!
With dear love to Mrs. Dresel and a little kiss for Loulie.
Yours sincerely,
S.O.J.
Notes by Cary
1Ellis Loring Dresel (1871-1925), a graduate of Harvard College and Law School, became a career diplomat. As a plenipotentiary at the Paris Peace Conference following World War I, he was one of the signers of the peace treaty. He served at various times in the United States embassies at Berlin, Vienna, and Berne.
2Fields's summer home, Gambrel Cottage, was situated on Thunderbolt Hill in Manchester-by-the-Sea, Massachusetts, a popular resort for Bostonians between Beverly and Gloucester on the North Shore.
3Jewett's short story, "A White Heron," appeared in A White Heron and Other Stories (Boston 1886).
4A northwestern point of
Cape Ann extending into Ipswich Bay, a short ride from
Manchester.
Editor's Notes
1886: This date is inferred from the fact that
Dresel seems just to have read "A White Heron,." The most
recent story collected in the volume where this story first
appeared was "The Two Browns," which appeared in Atlantic
for August 1886.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Thomas Bailey Aldrich
Manchester by the Sea
Sunday Morning
[ October 1886 ]*
Sunday Morning
[ October 1886 ]*
This is from your early friend Miss Sadie M . . . . . . . . . .* who wishes to ask the address of that educational institution to which Trip* is a walking advertisement. The dog college, in short. We have just been in Newport for a few days and the Masons* have a lively
[ Page 2 ]
young collie with absolutely no repose of manner, nor ^any^ sound moral basis whatever. I told his missuses about Trip and they desire to have so promising but ignorant a doggie follow in such illustrious paw- [ deleted letters ] steps --
I have just come back from Berwick, that is [ deleted letters ] it was just before we
[ Page 3 ]
went to Newport. A.F.* is going to town the last of the week probably and you will soon hear a loud ring at 59 --*
Yours affectionately
Sarah O. Jewett
Sarah O. Jewett
"An early answer will oblige!"
Notes
October 1886: This letter precedes one to Aldrich of 9 October 1886
Sadie M: One of Jewett's nicknames. With the Aldriches, this would have been Sadie Martinot, after the actress of that name. See Key to Correspondents.
Trip: T. B. Aldrich's much-loved dog, Trip, died in May 1892.
Masons: Ellen and Ida Mason. See Key to Correspondents.
A.F.: Annie Adams Fields. See Key to Correspondents.
59: The Aldrich home at 59 Mount Vernon Street in Boston.
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: 2673.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Thomas Bailey Aldrich
Manchester by the Sea
Wednesday 9th October [ 1886 ]
Wednesday 9th October [ 1886 ]
My dear friend
Thank you and Lilian* for your notes. I have written to Mifs Mason* who seems disposed to give her promising bow-wow every advantage -- I wish I could send you a married [ version ? ] of the Dulham Ladies*
[ Page 2 ]
who was never mentioned by her family because she --
---- Dear me, I came near beginning to write you one on the [wrong corrected ] side of this little paper! ----
I ought to have some work ready but I haven't; though there are some things at home which only need goings over and copying. I shall be at home within
[ Page 3 ]
a fortnight and will see then what I can do and whether there is anything suitable. I had to think hard about them just now to remember my words -- which is never a compliment. But you know all the stories got chased away this summer -- and I had my mind too full of real things ----
Yours affectionately,
Sarah O. Jewett --
Sarah O. Jewett --
Notes
1886: This date is based mainly upon Jewett's mention of "The Dulham Ladies" as a recent publication. That Jewett has been thinking about "real things" rather than her fiction during the previous summer would then be explained in part by her being occupied with completing The Story of the Normans. See notes below.
Lilian: Lilian Woodman Aldrich. See Key to Correspondents.
Mason: Ellen Mason. See Key to Correspondents.
Dulham Ladies: Jewett's "The Dulham Ladies" appeared in Atlantic Monthly in April 1886. After August 1886, Jewett published nothing in Atlantic until May 1887, though several pieces appeared elsewhere. Presumably Jewett's fiction output during this period was somewhat smaller because she was finishing a major project, her popular history, The Story of the Normans, which appeared at the very end of 1886, with an 1887 copyright date.
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: 2687.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Editor of The Book Buyer (fragment)
South Berwick Maine
23rd of October 1886
23rd of October 1886
My dear Sir
I hope that this little notice of Well Worn Roads* will serve your purpose -- The book needs the best of good
[ Bottom half of page is torn away
]
Notes
Roads: Jewett's "An Artist's Search for the Picturesque" (Review of Well-Worn Roads by F. Hopkinson Smith) appeared in The Book Buyer (3,2: 437-439). 1 December 1886.
Jewett has underlined the "w's" in her title three times each, probably because they appear to be lower case, and she wanted them read as upper case.
The manuscript of this fragment is held by the Houghton Library of Harvard University, Cambridge, MA. Sarah Orne Jewett Correspondence, bMS Am 1743 Box 7, Item 279, a folder of fragments.
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Charles E. Miller
South Berwick Maine
30 October 1886
30 October 1886
My dear Mr. Miller*
I return your copy of Deephaven by this post. It is very pleasant to see how much the little book has been read. I must confess to you that I have a great affection for this first one of all my story-books. The greater part of it was written when I was very young and of course I find now a good deal of youthful experience between the gray covers --
Believe me yours sincerely,
Sarah O. Jewett
Sarah O. Jewett
Notes
Miller: With this page is an envelope addressed to Charles E. Miller, Esqre, care of Van Antwerp Bragg & Co., Cincinnati, OH, later the American Book Company. Van Antwerp Bragg was the publisher of the McGuffey Readers. See Wikipedia: American Book Company.
A photocopy of this manuscript is held by the Maine Women Writer's Collection, University of New England, Letters from Sarah Orne Jewett, 1875-1890, the Burton Trafton Jewett Research Collection. The location of the original manuscript is as yet unknown.
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
John Greenleaf Whittier to Annie Adams Fields
Amesbury 10 Mo 30 1886
Dear Annie Fields
I wonder whether thee are all alone this dreary week. I imagine thee sitting by the parlor fire with Sarah's dog* as thy sole companion. I have dreaded almost to hear from you{,} fearing that, notwithstanding thy kind note, you have taken cold from your visit to me. But
[ Page 2 ]
how brave & [ beautiful ? ] it was to come to me in the teeth of bitter cold and blowing down from the snow-covered New Hampshire hills!
I have been here all the week shut in by the north-east storm. My niece Mrs Pickard* is with me.
I suppose our Sarah is at S. Berwick. A friend who came down from [ North Conway ? ] yesterday
[ Page 3 ]
says that she left Mt Washington not only with a cap, but a cloak of snow. I do not like to think that winter is really so near us, and that I have seen so little of thee this season. God bless thee, dearest of friends! With ever grateful love thy friend
John G Whittier
I see Dr. Wallace* is to lecture in Boston. Did thee meet him in England?
Notes
Sarah's dog: Sarah Orne Jewett. See Key to Correspondents. This Jewett dog was Roger, an Irish Setter.
niece Mrs Pickard: Richard Cary says that Elizabeth Hussey (1843-1909) was the daughter of Whittier's brother Matthew and namesake of his sister. She assumed the other "Lizzie's" place in Whittier's household from 1864 to 1876, the year she married Samuel T. Pickard, editor of the Portland Transcript and, later, biographer of Whittier.
Dr. Wallace: Whittier refers to British naturalist and author, Alfred Russel Wallace (1823-1913), who in November 1886 began a 10-month lecture series in the United States on a variety of topics, mainly on Darwinism, but also on a topic possibly of greater interest to Fields, Jewett and Whittier, spiritualism.
Fields probably did not meet Dr. Wallace during her 1882 trip to Europe with Jewett.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Huntington Library, San Marino, CA, in the James T. Fields collection: mss FI 71-4828. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Pasted to the bottom of page 3 of the manuscript is a newspaper clipping of "The Bartholdi Statue," referring to the Statue of Liberty, by Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi (1834-1904). The statue was erected in 1886 in New York harbor and dedicated on 28 October 1886.
Whittier's poem was included in a pamphlet, Inauguration of the Statue of Liberty Enlightening the World by the President of the United States on Bedlow’s Island, New York, Thursday, October 28, 1886 (1887).
John Greenleaf Whittier to Annie Adams Fields
Amesbury 10th 31 1886
My dear Friend
I sent thee in my letter, some verses* of mine, which were written hastily, and which I expected to revise in the proof. The exigency of rhyme led me [ to or by ] [ unrecognized word ] upon a reference to the old flag of France, and I meant to change the verse, in the proof{,} which unfortunately never came. The verse should read:
"O France, the beautiful! -- to thee
Once more a debt of love we owe;
In peace, across the severing sea,
We hail a later Rochambeau!" *
[ Page 2 ]
It is not of much consequence any way, but I often owe much to an afterthought in revising the proofs. I sometimes think the old French Bishop* was half right when he said that the Devil suggested one's first thoughts.
Another day of clouds & rain! I suppose thee have heard Phillips Brooks* this morning. [ Now or How] I thank [ him corrected ] for his liberal movement in the Episcopal Convention!
Ever affectionately
thy friend
thy friend
John G. Whittier
Notes
verses: In Whittier to Fields of 30 October 1886, Whittier included a newspaper clipping of "The Bartholdi Statue," referring to the Statue of Liberty, by Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi (1834-1904). The statue was erected in 1886 in New York harbor and dedicated on 28 October 1886. It seems clear that Whittier had considerable difficulty with stanza 3.
In the 30 October clipping, the stanza reads:
O France, the beautiful! to theeWhittier's poem was included in a pamphlet, Inauguration of the Statue of Liberty Enlightening the World by the President of the United States on Bedlow’s Island, New York, Thursday, October 28, 1886 (1887). There, stanza three is slightly altered:
Once more a debt of love we owe;
In peace beneath the Fleur de lis,
We hail a later Rochambeau!
O France, the beautiful! to theeIn The Poetical Works in Four Volumes (1892), the stanza varies a little more.
Once more a debt of love we owe:
In peace beneath thy fleur-de-lis,
We hail a later Rochambeau!
O France, the beautiful! to theeRochambeau: Marshal Jean-Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur, comte de Rochambeau (1725-1807) was a French nobleman and general. He commanded a French Expeditionary Force that aided the American Continental Army against the British.
Once more a debt of love we owe:
In peace beneath thy Colors Three,
We hail a later Rochambeau!
French Bishop: The source of Whittier's allusion has not yet been discovered. The idea that one's first thoughts often have an evil origin is fairly common in Christian writing.
Phillips Brooks: See Key to Correspondents. 31 October fell on a Sunday in 1886.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Huntington Library, San Marino, CA, in the James T. Fields collection: mss FI 71-4651. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.*
South Berwick Maine
31 October 1886
My dear Doctor Holmes
I think of you as my fairy-godfather because Mrs. Fields* says that you have given her a ticket for her to go to the great Harvard Day on the 8th.* I have seldom wished for anything so much as to be there but I kept reminding myself that there were at least some thousands of people who had a better
[ Page 2 ]
right. Though I am child of Bowdoin I am none the less grandchild of Harvard* and you will see me 'rah with the very loudest especially when the poet of the day comes to the front.
Please give my kindest regards to Mrs Holmes and take my most grateful thanks for your kindness to [me blotted]{.}
Yours sincerely
Sarah O. Jewett
Notes
In the top left corner, written diagonally in another hand: S. O. Jewett.
Mrs. Fields: Annie Adams Fields. See Key to Correspondents.
great Harvard Day on the 8th: On November 5-8, 1886, Harvard University celebrated the 250th anniversary of its founding. The festivities included an oration by the poet James Russell Lowell and an original poem read by Oliver Wendell Holmes. They appeared together in the the Sanders Theatre on the morning of Alumni Day, Monday 8 November. Holmes presented an occasional poem specifically for the celebration, concluding his first stanza with this question:
That joyous gathering who can e'er forget,child of Bowdoin ... grandchild of Harvard: Jewett's father, Dr. Theodore Herman Jewett graduated from Bowdoin College. Her maternal grandfather, Dr. William Perry, earned his medical degree from Harvard Medical School.
When Harvard's nurslings, scattered far and wide,
Through mart and village, lake's and ocean's side,
Came, with one impulse, one fraternal throng,
And crowned the hours with banquet, speech, and song?
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Library of Congress in the Oliver Wendel Holmes Papers, on Microfilm 15,211-3N; Microfilm 15,671-3P, Box 2, Reel 2. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
John Greenleaf Whittier to Annie Adams Fields
Amesbury 11 Mo 6 1886
Dear Annie Fields,
Thy letter was very welcome. I suppose thee and Sarah* will be at the [ Harvard ? ] celebration.* I wish she would stop over a train when she goes back, or, better still, stay over night here & go on her way in the morning. We will make her comfortable.
[ Page 2 ]
If the weather is cold, we will give her a bed of coals, with a pillar of fire and a sheet of flame.* Really I think she might give me the great pleasure, without much inconvenience to herself.
I can do little more than pray for the Hampton Fund.* I have sent $100 -- all I can now spare. I am sure the needed amount will be raised but I fear it will not be done speedily enough to relieve our noble friend
[ Page 3 ]
from anxiety. I know he prizes very highly thy interest and sympathy. Heaven bless thee for all thy good words & deeds for him and so many others! --
I hope [ thee corrected ] may have an opportunity to talk with Prof Wallace* in regard to his experience and experiments in the matter of spiritualism. One is weary of cranks and pretenders, and those who "divine for money" and a truly scientific investigation, impartial and loyal to truth, must be worth hearing.
[ Page 4 ]
Give my love to Sarah Jewett, and send her this way, and I shall be more than ever gratefully thy loving friend
John G Whittier
Notes
Sarah: Sarah Orne Jewett. See Key to Correspondents.
Harvard celebration: The transcription of "Harvard" is very uncertain. However, it is likely to be correct, because on November 5-8, 1886, Harvard University celebrated the 250th anniversary of its founding. The festivities included an oration by the poet James Russell Lowell and an original poem read by Oliver Wendell Holmes. They appeared together in the the Sanders Theatre on the morning of Alumni Day, Monday 8 November.
bed of coals ... pillar of fire ...sheet of flame: Whittier jokes and puns with familiar phrases, one of which is found in the Bible. In Exodus, a pillar of fire leads the Israelites by night as they journey toward the promised land.
Hampton Fund: Presumably, the Hampton fund was for the Hampton Institute in Hampton VA, founded in 1861 to educate former African American slaves. Samuel Chapman Armstrong (1839-1893) was principal, and probably he had been asking his friends, Fields and Whittier, for help raising money. See Whittier to Fields of 4 September 1886.
Prof Wallace: Whittier refers to British naturalist and author, Alfred Russel Wallace (1823-1913), who in November 1886 began a 10-month lecture series in the United States on a variety of topics, mainly on Darwinism, but also on Spiritualism.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Huntington Library, San Marino, CA, in the James T. Fields collection: mss FI 71-4825. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Annie Adams Fields
Friday Evening
[ November 1886 ]*
Dear Mouse*[ November 1886 ]*
How nice a time with Mr. Howells and Marigold! Pinny* to be a fly, but to sit high and innocent-minded on a cornice and only listen and never buzz -- I shall want to hear all about it. I hope that Marigold could get round last night in spite of the rain and that Mr -- Brooks* can come on Sunday --* Today has been very
[ Page 2 ]
[ Page 3 ]
He has a grave conference with an old priest who thanks him for what he has done for [ Buddhism* corrected ], and then Arnold asks him if there are any Mahatmas, to which the priest answers "no, none at all! if we had better interpreters of [ deleted word ] Buddha's teaching we might reach [ heights corrected ] and depths of power & goodness that are now impossible; but we have fallen from the old wisdom and none of us today are so advanced." -----There are all sorts of [ deleted word them ? ]
[ Page 4 ]
interesting things in this India Revisited -- one is that the Mayflower was chartered for the East [ Indies corrected ] trade after her Pilgrim experiences and was sunk on her last voyage with a cargo of rice!!* I don't know why I found that so wildly interesting!!( I am* going to put in a bit of verse* that I wrote this afternoon. I thought it was going to be worth working over when I was writing it, but now I dont quite know -- I got a note from
[ Up the left margin and then across the top margin of page 1 ]
one of the Putnam's Clerks* to acknowledge the manuscript so that is all right so far. I keep remembering notes that I made last fall and never put in!Goodnight my dear one from P.L.
[ Up the left margin of page 4 ]
Dear Fuff give my love to Marigold --
Notes
1886: Fields has penciled in the upper right of page 1: "South Berwick 1885 ], but as the note on Edwin Arnold indicates, Jewett could not have read his book on India until 1886. Further it seems clear that she has recently submitted her completed manuscript for The Story of the Normans, which appeared at the end of this year.
Mouse: Mouse and Fuff are nicknames that Jewett and Fields used with each other. See Key to Correspondents.
Mr. Howells ... Marigold ... Pinny: William Dean Howells.
Marigold is Mary Langdon Greenwood (Mrs. James) Lodge.
Pinny Lawson was a Jewett nickname; this letter is signed P.L. See Key to Correspondents.
Brooks: Phillips Brooks. See Key to Correspondents.
Sunday --: Fields has inserted "X" above this dash, apparently indicating the beginning of the section she included in her 1911 collection. See below.
book of Edwin Arnold's: British author, Sir Edwin Arnold (1832-1904) published India Revisited in 1886.
Estes & Lauriat: Dana Estes (1840-1909), of Gorham, Maine, published books and ran a retail bookstore in partnership with Charles E. Lauriat on Washington Street, opposite the Old South Meeting House in Boston. In 1898 Estes formed his own firm, D. Estes & Company. As secretary of the Boston chapter of the American Publishers' Copyright League he became an important advocate in the movement for international copyright.
Buddhism: What Jewett actually wrote here is unclear. She has corrected her spelling, writing over Buddhists or Bhuddism or perhaps Bhuddists,
Mayflower: The Mayflower is remembered as the ship in which the Pilgrims traveled to form their colony at Plymouth, Massachusetts in 1620.
( I am: The parenthesis mark in green pencil presumably was added by Fields to mark the end of the passage she included in her 1911 collection.
bit of verse: Which verse Jewett showed Fields is not known, but the next Jewett poem to be published was "A Caged Bird" in Atlantic Monthly (59:816-817) in June 1887.
Putnam's Clerks: Jewett's popular history, The Story of the Normans was published by G. P. Putnam's Sons at the end of 1886.
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.
Fields Transcription
This letter appears in Annie Fields, Letters of Sarah Orne Jewett (1911), p. 25.
Friday evening, SOUTH BERWICK [1885].
Today has been very hot and I have read with great delight the book of Edwin Arnold's, which I didn't send back after all, and I am most glad to have it. More than that I want you to read parts of it, for it is charmingly done, so modest and manly and wise, and when he gets to Ceylon all the Buddhists turn out to do him honor. He has a grave conference with an old priest, who thanks him for what he has done for Buddhism, and then Arnold asks him if there are any Mahatmas, to which the priest answers no, none at all! If we had better interpreters of Buddha's teaching we might reach heights and depths of power and goodness that are now impossible; but we have fallen from the old wisdom and none of us today are so advanced. There are all sorts of interesting things in this "India Revisited"; one is that the Mayflower was chartered for the East Indian trade after her Pilgrim experiences, and was sunk on her last voyage with a cargo of rice!! I don't know why I found that so wildly interesting!!
Sarah Orne Jewett to Annie Adams Fields
Monday night
[ November 1886 ]*
[ November 1886 ]*
Dear love
A poor tired little Fuffy* with many things and Patrick* ought to ^have^ chosen another time to go away -- I am sorry that it all came together just as you got home and I wish I were there to take my part -- But your letters are so outrageously interesting! I want to have a great talk tonight in return but my eyes are a little tired with nothing at all, and so I
A poor tired little Fuffy* with many things and Patrick* ought to ^have^ chosen another time to go away -- I am sorry that it all came together just as you got home and I wish I were there to take my part -- But your letters are so outrageously interesting! I want to have a great talk tonight in return but my eyes are a little tired with nothing at all, and so I
[ Page 2 ]
[ Page 3 ]
of the day, and yet* we might have one lunch while the feast goes on? -- These patterns are lovely that you send. I cant tell about the
Oh my dear Fuff I was
[ Page 4 ]
so pleased that you liked the grown older -- I came out here to the study and hunted up the first writing and read it through with great curiosity -- and I believe it is good too! Dear Mouse the best thing is that you liked it -- Here is another one* that I wrote on the fence corner yesterday -- It isnt very good, but perhaps it will give you a little field air, one half [ whiff corrected ], say! Good-night -- I am going to Exeter Thursday afternoon so please write me there if there is anything to say -- Care Dr. William Perry.* I
[ Up the left margin and then across the top margin of page 1 ]
shall get to Boston at the same time you did (quarter of two I believe) on Saturday.Your own
Pinny*
Dont forget to take plenty of claret dear
Pinny*
Dont forget to take plenty of claret dear
[ Up the left margin of page 4 ]
Cousin Sarah* was at the first Jenny Lind* night in New York and has been giving me such a glowing account!
Notes
November 1886: This speculative date has a little support. Jewett mentions sending poems to Fields and reminds Fields to have her daily claret, as she also does in a letter to Fields believed to be from November-December 1886. Other letters probably from this time share other topics, such as a projected journey to Exeter.
Fuffy: Nickname for Annie Adams Fields.On page 4, Jewett uses another nickname for Fields, Mouse. See Key to Correspondents.
Patrick: Patrick Lynch, Fields's man of all work.
Lilian: Lilian Aldrich. See Key to Correspondents.
yet: Jewett seems to have drawn a line, either through or beneath this word.
Arnold & Constable: Probably Jewett means "Arnold Constable & Company, a department store chain in the New York City area from 1825 to 1975.
Mr. Howells: William Dean Howells. See Key to Correspondents.
another one: It appears Jewett has been writing and revising poems. Whether either was published is not yet known. She only published one poem in the following year, "A Caged Bird" in Atlantic (June 1887).
Dr. William Perry: Jewett's grandfather and also his son, Jewett's uncle. See Key to Correspondents.
Cousin Sarah: Jewett's cousin may be Sarah Howell. See Key to Correspondents.
Jenny Lind: Johanna Maria "Jenny" Lind (1820-1887), "the Swedish Nightingale," was a popular and highly regarded opera singer.
This reference creates difficulties. Lind's concert career ended in 1883, with a final public performance in England. This letter must have been composed after Jewett and Fields returned from their first European trip in 1882, when they began using the "Fuff" and "Pinny" nicknames. No record has been found of Lind traveling to New York and performing there in 1882 or 1883.
If Cousin Sarah is Sarah Howell, she would be far too young to have heard Lind in New York, when promoter P. T. Barnum brought her there in the early 1850s.
I have found after World War I that at least one singer successfully impersonated Jenny Lind on a national tour, but have not found a record of such performances during Jewett's lifetime.
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 Annie Adams Fields
Wednesday
[ November 1886 ]*
[ November 1886 ]*
Dear Mouse*
I do hate to have you so tired -- Are you having a good full glass of claret twice a day ?? -- I am glad you went to Dorchester yesterday even if Mrs. Baker* were not at home, for it kept you out of doors and away from questions
I do hate to have you so tired -- Are you having a good full glass of claret twice a day ?? -- I am glad you went to Dorchester yesterday even if Mrs. Baker* were not at home, for it kept you out of doors and away from questions
[ Page 2 ]
My dear Fuff you are so good about the verses but when I get thinking about your Orpheus* as I
[ Page 3 ]
did today -- I think* that is the top thing and I am so proud of it and so thankful that we went to Richfield ^for the writing of that^ if for nothing else -- I want to hear it again when I come, if we get time, and we will you know! So we are to see the President and Mrs. C.* but hang us if we will go to their
[ Page 4 ]
reception unless you say so, then a meek Pinny* will take hold of hands and say yes Fuff if you please -- and "tag on" -- This letter is just written to send you a kiss in --from your
P. L.*
P. L.*
Notes
November 1886: This tentative date is based mainly upon the likelihood that Jewett refers to the 8 November 1886 Harvard anniversary celebration as an event soon to take place. Also helpful are her references to having been at Richfield Springs with Fields and to Fields's poem, Orpheus: A Masque, which Jewett mentions in another letter from 1886. See notes below and also Jewett to Fields of Friday Evening, November 1886.
Mouse: Nickname for Annie Adams Fields. On page 2, Jewett uses another of her nicknames for Fields, Fuff. See Key to Correspondents.
Mrs. Baker: Mrs. Baker has not been identified. Among Fields's acquaintances were Emily Francis Boles (1837-191), wife of playwright George Melville Baker (1837-1898), and Charlotte Augusta Farnsworth (1831-1907), wife of businessman William Emerson Baker (1828-1888).
conference: Probably related to Associated Charities of Boston.
Orpheus: Annie Fields's Orpheus: A Masque was published in 1900. However Jewett writes about reading it in a letter to Fields from November-December 1886. In late August and early September 1886, Jewett and Fields went to Richfield Springs, NY, known for its sulfur springs, where 19th-century patients sought relief for various conditions. Jewett indicates that Fields composed her masque while at Richfield.
Regarding her own verses, it appears Jewett has been writing and revising poems. Whether either was published is not yet known. She only published one poem in the following year, "A Caged Bird" in Atlantic (June 1887).
I: Jewett has underlined this word twice.
President and Mrs. C.: Almost certainly, Jewett refers to President and Mrs. Grover Cleveland. Mr. Cleveland (1837-1908) served as United States President twice: 1884-1889 and 1893-1897.
That Jewett and Fields expect to meet them and have been invited to a reception almost certainly indicate that the occasion is the awarding of John Greenleaf Whittier's honorary degree during the celebration of Harvard University's 250th Anniversary on 8 November 1886.
P. L.: 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 John Greenleaf Whittier
South Berwick
Sunday morning
November 14, [1886]
My dear Friend:
I was so sorry when I found that by some mischance the photograph of your sister1 had been left behind and I thank you very much for sending it to me. I have it here on the old study table now. You do not know how much I enjoyed my little visit to you though when I think how many things we talked about and remember so much that you said to me it seems as if I had stayed at least a week. I went to Portland the next morning and spent a very pleasant day and night. My sister Mary was already there with our dear aunt Mrs. Gilman2 whom I wish you might know sometime when you are staying with your niece.3 I never knew a better woman, or a more charming one in many ways. She is already one of your most grateful friends. I saw Mrs. Pierce, Longfellow's sister,4 and also Lizzie Jones (or Mme. Cavazza!)5 and had a good long talk with her which I like very much to remember. She is a singular product of our Maine soil -- but always a very interesting one to me. I remember when we were children that she already knew a good deal of Italian when all I knew of Italy was that organ grinders came from there. What a proof it is that our lives are planned and not accidental -- if one needed another proof.
I have been very busy since I came home Friday afternoon for the work on the Norman book is very pressing just now and this coming week must be divided between indexing and dressmaking. If the weather is fair again I shall take to my heels and seek refuge in windy pastures. The snowstorm was a great blow to me yesterday for that is the only weather of which I am really afraid and almost spoils my out of door world. I send you the verses you were kind enough to wish to see.6 Please remember me very kindly to Judge and Mrs. Cate,7 and do not forget how affectionately I am yours ever,
Sarah O. Jewett
Will you please let me have the verses again some day? I have no perfect copy.
Notes
1. Whittier had two sisters: Mary (1806-1860) who married Jacob Caldwell, and Elizabeth Hussey (1815-1864). Miss Jewett is probably referring to the latter, "Lizzie," who never married, remaining until her death his closest companion and head of his household.
2. Helen Augusta Williams Gilman (1817-1904), daughter of Reuel Williams the noted lawyer, legislator, and U. S. Senator, married John Taylor Gilman, one of Maine's most prominent physicians. She was founder or officer in several philanthropies, private and public.
3. Elizabeth Hussey (1843-1909) was the daughter of Whittier's brother Matthew and namesake of his sister. She assumed the other "Lizzie's" place in Whittier's household from 1864 to 1876, the year she married Samuel T. Pickard, editor of the Portland Transcript and, later, biographer of Whittier.
4. Anne Longfellow (1810-1901) married George W. Pierce, described by the poet as "brother-in-law and dearest friend."
5. Elisabeth Jones Cavazza Pullen (1849-1926), a native of Portland, Maine, was early educated in music and Italian language and literature. In 1885 she married Signor Nino Cavazza, and in 1894 Stanley J. Pullen, an editor of the Portland Daily Press. She wrote music and literary criticism for that newspaper and for the Literary World, as well as two obscure volumes of fiction.
6. Probably "A Caged Bird," Atlantic Monthly, LIX (June 1887), 816-817, the last known poem she published until 1895.
7. George Washington Cate (1834-1911) came to Amesbury as a lawyer in 1866, was appointed judge ten years later. He served in the Massachusetts Senate and locally as trustee of several civic organizations. He married Caroline C. Batchelder of Amesbury in 1873. After Whittier went to live at Oak Knoll, the Cates occupied the Amesbury residence and kept it open for him and his friends until the end of his life.
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 Annie Adams Fields
Friday -- after supper
[ 19 November 1886 ]
Dear Mouse.*[ 19 November 1886 ]
(I suppose that you and Jessie* are having a quiet dinner together in good season before the party! I wish I were there, I truly do! I meant to speak to Jessie in season of six Miss Pitchers* who live in Walnut St. or used to, for they would have helped out very well as a family. --
I shall long to hear how it went off, and if "Trina"* was comfortable on the stairs.) I have had a very
[ Page 2 ]
worrisome day -- I made up my mind to get the index* done and started early in the day, when I got news that Georgie Halliburton was at Mrs. Doe's, so presently Mary and I took ship* for there and spent the last hour of the morning with her most pleasantly. (She feels as solemn as I did, but expects great pleasures. I made as light of all the woes as I could. George* was with her and has taken a suite in Miss Willard's* house and is going to settle in Boston because his father could not let him go west after all. I think he has decided[ Page 3 ]
right -- I always thought Boston was the place. We can have him now at Jessie's next party? Most good-looking, and really so much more sympathetic and nice than ever before -- he used to be quite a pine-wooden little lad.) Then I had my dinner and a piece of the index for dessert and then I had to go to a funeral down the street! then I came home for a little while and then went to the station to have a last little word and good bye with Georgie.* Then I pulled at the index and finished it !! in time[ Page 4 ]
for the last mail. (I suggested to Mr. Putnam that he should have the proofread in the office as I had written it all very plain).Now I feel as if I had life all before me again. It is a solemn thing to get such a long hard piece of work done, but I must get my breath and go for the herb-woman "Sister Wisby" --*
(Georgie sends you her love and wishes that she could have seen you to say good-bye -- I shall miss her a good deal though I see her so little. I have always been used to having her near. Goodnight dear love. I hope you and Jessie will have a pleasant Sunday. Dont let her go away this ever so long.)
[Up the left margin and then across the top
margin of page 1 ]
I (got the box of chocolate by Express. Did Mr. Pierce* send you some too?
Yours always lovingly
Pin)
Pin)
Notes
19 November 1886: Jewett reports completing the index for The Story of the Normans. In a letter to J. G. Whittier of 14 November 1886, she says she plans to complete the index the following week. Friday of that week would be 19 November.
Mouse: Mouse and Fuff are nicknames that Jewett and Fields used with each other. Jewett signs the letter with one of her nicknames, Pin, for Pinny Lawson. See Key to Correspondents.
The parenthesis mark at the beginning of the first sentence and all other parenthesis marks in this letter were added in pencil by Annie Fields.
Jessie: Jessie Cochrane. See Key to Correspondents.
six Miss Pitchers: It is not clear whether the underlining is by Jewett or by Fields.
The Miss Pitchers were seven at one time, though one had married Charles Farley, who seems to have died by 1885. They lived at 7 Walnut Street in Boston before November 1885 and at 50 Hereford Street after. See Back Bay Houses.
Trina: The identity of this person remains unknown.
index: Jewett is working on the index for her only work to require one, The Story of the Normans (G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1887), which she was completing in the autumn of 1886.
ship: Fields revised this passage in pencil. The result of her revision is: "I got news that was, so Mary and I spent that last hour of the morning with her... " The incoherence of this suggests that Fields did not complete her intentions for revision.
The persons named are: Georgie Halliburton, Edith Bell Haven (Mrs. Charles Cogswell) Doe, and Mary Rice Jewett. See Key to Correspondents.
George: Georgina Halliburton's half brother, Dr. George Haven. See Georgina Halliburton in Key to Correspondents. Their father, George Wallis Haven, died in August 1895.
Miss Willard's: Presumably a rooming house or hotel in Boston, but this person has not been identified.
Georgie: Fields has deleted this name with pencil.
Sister Wisby: Jewett's "The Courting of Sister Wisby" appeared in Atlantic Monthly (59:577-586) in May 1887.
Mr. Pierce: Henry Lille Pierce. 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 Eliza Pratt
South Berwick
22 November
[ 1886 ]*
22 November
[ 1886 ]*
Dear Mrs. Pratt
May I trouble you to have copies of the June Wide Awake* sent to the following addresses? I hope I am not doing wrong in coming to you [ deleted word ] ^for^ the favour but it is a matter of a day or two to get them here and start them off again.
Yours sincerely
S. O. Jewett
S. O. Jewett
[ Page 2 ]
Mrs. James T Fields*Miss Lucia Fairchild*
Care of Mr. Charles Fairchild
Baring Bros. Bankers
Bishopsgate St. [ within ? ]
London
Care of Mr. Charles Fairchild
Baring Bros. Bankers
Bishopsgate St. [ within ? ]
London
148 Charles St.
Boston
Mrs John H. Rice*
34 Union Park.
Boston
John G. Whittier*
Mass.
Notes
1886: Assuming Jewett wanted to give friends copies of an issue of Wide Awake magazine containing one of her own pieces, she appeared three times in June issues: "Cake Crumbs" in 1880, "Katy's Birthday" in 1883, and "York Garrison, 1640" in 1886. 1880 seems unlikely as she was not yet well-acquainted with Annie Fields at that time. Both 1883 and 1886 remain possible. I have chosen 1886 as a guess. Lucia Fairchild would have been approaching her 14th birthday (6 December), a good age to be interested in Jewett's historical narrative poem.
Miss Lucia Fairchild: The American painter, Lucia Fairchild Fuller (1872-1924), was the younger sister of Sally Fairchild. See Key to Correspondents.
Mrs. James T Fields: Annie Adams Fields. See Key to Correspondents.
Mrs John H. Rice: Cora Clark Rice. See Key to Correspondents.
John G. Whittier: John Greenleaf Whittier. See Key to Correspondents.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Small Library, University of Virginia, Special Collections MSS 6218, Sarah Orne Jewett Papers. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to William Smith, F.S.A.S.*
South-Berwick Maine U.S.A.*
26 November 1886
26 November 1886
Dear Sir
I thank you sincerely for your kind promise of a copy of your delightful book.* I remember Dr. Robert Collyer's* speaking of it sometime ago. I am afraid that my story-books will be a very poor exchange but I shall gladly send you one when I next go to town -- I hope that you
[ Page 2 ]
will give me credit for at least loving my New-England Berwick as well as you love your old-England Morley, though I am far from knowing how to make it as evident and interesting to other people. Pray believe me with many thanks
Yours very truly
Sarah O. Jewett
Sarah O. Jewett
To William Smith, Esqre
Morley --
Morley --
Notes
Smith: Though he published a number of volumes of local history of West Yorkshire, William Smith has proven very difficult to identify. F.S.A.S. almost certainly indicates that he was a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland.
U.S.A.: It appears likely that "Maine U.S.A" was added in another hand.
book: Smith probably had sent Jewett a copy of his 1886 book on his home town of Morley, in Yorkshire, England: Morley: Ancient and Modern. Smith produced several books about this town. Jewett's 1886 story collection was A White Heron and Other Stories.
Robert Collyer: See Key to Correspondents.
This transcription is from a photocopy held by the Maine Women Writer's Collection, University of New England, Letters from Sarah Orne Jewett, 1875-1890, Box 4, Folder 159, Burton Trafton Jewett Research Collection. Trafton's notes indicate that the manuscript is held by the University of California, Los Angeles Library, Department of Special Collections.
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Annie Adams Fields to Sarah Orne Jewett
Darling -- Tuesday ---
We must look up thy friend's* birthday this year and not let it slip by --
I was most glad and grateful for your dear letter last night --
Appleton Brown* came and was very pleasant but he is helplessly and hopelessly inadequate to his work I fear -- if he only sticks and comes often enough he may catch some ideas of progress -- but I fear I have small hope --
Very tired this morning but I am going out
with my dear Jessica* for the last time (she goes tomorrow) and then I shall shut myself up and only do the indispensable things --
But Mr. Allen* is to have another sale, Mr Winch* concerts &c -- &c -- -- and I have a foolish sense
of the whole tempest in a teapot going on through my brain --
I hope you did not suffer very much at Rochester -- It was a lovely day -- When I saw the fog this morning I thought of England and how much we had to be thankful for in our beautiful November.
I should like to tell you the story of every hour -- how I saw E.B.G. ^at E.M.B's studio,^ and her heartfelt pictures -- How I am tempted by them. How I want you to see them. How interesting the [ Doustes ? ]* are. How Ellen Hale* has sent for us to see her things.
In short the world whirls by and I long to have you by my side only I need to rest now and speak to nobody --
Your own ever loving A.F.
Kate* thinks brocaded silk and velvet the
prettiest thing for your last dress -- Be sure to send your black skirt{.}
Notes
November 1886: This date is supported by Fields's references to the Doustes and Mr. Allen's art sale. See notes below.
Thy friend: John Greenleaf Whittier. His birthday was 17 December.
Appleton Brown: Key to Correspondents.
Jessica: Probably Jessie Cochrane. Key to Correspondents.
Allen: Rev. Frederick Baylies Allen (1840-1925) was an Episcopalian clergyman who became involved in multiple social and moral reform organizations in Boston, including the local Shamut Working Girls Club. Also a painter, he periodically oversaw art sales to benefit charity. In 1886, he was assistant to Phillips Brooks at Trinity Church, Boston. See Correspondents.
Winch: Boston musical artists William J. Winch (1847- ), tenor, John F. Winch, bass, and Mrs. John Winch, alto, made up a musical family performing in Boston from the 1870s.
E.B.G.... E.M.B: These transcriptions are uncertain, and the identities of these artists is not yet known.
Doustes: Probably this is the family of Jeanne Douste de Fortis (1872-1968), an English child prodigy at the piano. According to Wikipedia, she and her sister performed together in the U.S. twice, the second time in 1886, where they became acquainted with Jewett correspondent Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and his family. *
Ellen Hale: Key to Correspondents.
Kate: This person has not yet been identified, though probably she was a Fields employee.
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.
Smith: Though he published a number of volumes of local history of West Yorkshire, William Smith has proven very difficult to identify. F.S.A.S. almost certainly indicates that he was a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland.
U.S.A.: It appears likely that "Maine U.S.A" was added in another hand.
book: Smith probably had sent Jewett a copy of his 1886 book on his home town of Morley, in Yorkshire, England: Morley: Ancient and Modern. Smith produced several books about this town. Jewett's 1886 story collection was A White Heron and Other Stories.
Robert Collyer: See Key to Correspondents.
This transcription is from a photocopy held by the Maine Women Writer's Collection, University of New England, Letters from Sarah Orne Jewett, 1875-1890, Box 4, Folder 159, Burton Trafton Jewett Research Collection. Trafton's notes indicate that the manuscript is held by the University of California, Los Angeles Library, Department of Special Collections.
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Annie Adams Fields to Sarah Orne Jewett
Darling -- Tuesday ---
[ November 1886 ]*
We must look up thy friend's* birthday this year and not let it slip by --
I was most glad and grateful for your dear letter last night --
Appleton Brown* came and was very pleasant but he is helplessly and hopelessly inadequate to his work I fear -- if he only sticks and comes often enough he may catch some ideas of progress -- but I fear I have small hope --
Very tired this morning but I am going out
[ Page 2 ]
with my dear Jessica* for the last time (she goes tomorrow) and then I shall shut myself up and only do the indispensable things --
But Mr. Allen* is to have another sale, Mr Winch* concerts &c -- &c -- -- and I have a foolish sense
[ Page 3 ]
of the whole tempest in a teapot going on through my brain --
I hope you did not suffer very much at Rochester -- It was a lovely day -- When I saw the fog this morning I thought of England and how much we had to be thankful for in our beautiful November.
[ Page 4 ]
I should like to tell you the story of every hour -- how I saw E.B.G. ^at E.M.B's studio,^ and her heartfelt pictures -- How I am tempted by them. How I want you to see them. How interesting the [ Doustes ? ]* are. How Ellen Hale* has sent for us to see her things.
In short the world whirls by and I long to have you by my side only I need to rest now and speak to nobody --
Your own ever loving A.F.
[ Down the right margin of page 4 ]
Kate* thinks brocaded silk and velvet the
[ Down the left margin of page 4 ]
prettiest thing for your last dress -- Be sure to send your black skirt{.}
Notes
November 1886: This date is supported by Fields's references to the Doustes and Mr. Allen's art sale. See notes below.
Thy friend: John Greenleaf Whittier. His birthday was 17 December.
Appleton Brown: Key to Correspondents.
Jessica: Probably Jessie Cochrane. Key to Correspondents.
Allen: Rev. Frederick Baylies Allen (1840-1925) was an Episcopalian clergyman who became involved in multiple social and moral reform organizations in Boston, including the local Shamut Working Girls Club. Also a painter, he periodically oversaw art sales to benefit charity. In 1886, he was assistant to Phillips Brooks at Trinity Church, Boston. See Correspondents.
Winch: Boston musical artists William J. Winch (1847- ), tenor, John F. Winch, bass, and Mrs. John Winch, alto, made up a musical family performing in Boston from the 1870s.
E.B.G.... E.M.B: These transcriptions are uncertain, and the identities of these artists is not yet known.
Doustes: Probably this is the family of Jeanne Douste de Fortis (1872-1968), an English child prodigy at the piano. According to Wikipedia, she and her sister performed together in the U.S. twice, the second time in 1886, where they became acquainted with Jewett correspondent Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and his family. *
Ellen Hale: Key to Correspondents.
Kate: This person has not yet been identified, though probably she was a Fields employee.
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.
John Greenleaf Whittier to Annie Adams Fields
Oak Knoll
Danvers
11 Mo 26 1886Danvers
My dearly beloved friend!
I am wondering how it looks this charming morning from thy windows, over the sun-lit water, and the delectable hills beyond.* There the lawns are green as summer, and the pansies are in full bloom in the garden.
What a lovely story is Sarah's* in the last
[ Page 2 ]
Harpers! -- She has never written better. The description and characterization, the humor and pathos of it, are [ surely or rarely ? ] excellent.
Our dear friend Gen Armstrong in a late letter, says "I am almost overwhelmed by the kindness of friends. It pays to work for others, and to try to uplift men. I have the greatest comfort in the friendship of Mrs Fields. How rare and lovely she is! One is greatly drawn by her." To which I
[ Page 3 ]
say, Amen! I am thankful that the right to love is a right which nobody, not even its object, can deny. "If "I love you," said Spinoza* "what is that to you!"
Hoping to be able to look in upon thee before the rough winter sets in, I am most affectionately thy friend
John G Whittier
Notes
beyond: There is no evidence that Fields was away from her Charles Street, Boston home in late November of 1886, though she did have a view over her garden to the Charles River. She could not literally have seen green lawns and blooming flowers from her windows in November.
Sarah's: Sarah Orne Jewett. See Key to Correspondents. Jewett's "The King of Folly Island" appeared in Harper's Magazine in December 1886.
Gen Armstrong: The Hampton Institute in Hampton VA was founded in 1861 to educate former African American slaves. Samuel Chapman Armstrong (1839-1893) was principal.
Spinoza ... "what is that to you!": Whittier places extra quotation marks in this passage, perhaps because "I love you" begin a new line? And he seems clearly to use an exclamation point rather than the expected question mark.
He refers to the Dutch philosopher, Baruch Spinoza (1632-1677). In his 1880 biography, Spinoza: His Life and Philosophy, Frederick Pollock quotes Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832), who attributes this saying to himself under the influence of Spinoza (p. 395). Whether Spinoza actually wrote or spoke that sentence is uncertain.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Huntington Library, San Marino, CA, in the James T. Fields collection: mss FI 71-4814. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Annie Adams Fields
Wednesday evening
(with a great rain on the roof of the study)
[ November - December 1886 ]
(Yes,* my dear Fuff.* I think the little poem will do -- It is such a tight place! for one cant give ones best and wont give ones least -- I hate to be asked for things in this way -- and I promptly dismissed the letter from my mind, but this kind of reminds me -- Do you think I ought, too? There was that bit about the funeral going along the village street.* If you think best and will send it to me I will copy
[ Page 2 ]
or should we be too lugubrious a pair?
Yes, I think so -- let me off !! ) -- Oh my dear Fuff -- [
yesterday corrected possibly from Saturday ] I was
wishing dreadfully for more [ leafed ? ] pears and said no
Pinny;* they are all gone -- no more until next year dear, and
feeled very disappointed, and tonight the wet expressman brought
the box !!! Thank you ever and ever so much, how the whole
summer is in them!
I have spent the afternoon in stoning raisins, and
such placidity drove off a headache that seemed to be clouding over my sky this morning.
(Mother* has been at Exeter these three days -- Grandpa is still in bed. I am afraid that he will stay there, but not die soon either which would be a melancholy thing to him and all the rest of us for he has always dreaded being helpless poor man --
Mifs Grant* goes in the morning but comes back after two weeks -- I have heard
of no more velvet -- )
I have been reading Mr. Arnold's Essays on Celtic Poetry* with perfect reverence for him and his patience and wisdom. In the introduction some things almost brought tears to my eyes. How much we love him and believe in him don't we? Do you know this book & the Essay on translating Homer? I long to read it all with you.
Mr. Putnam writes today that Mr. Freeman* has sent for proofs of my history because he is going to do the Sicily -- I am horribly afraid of Mr -- Freeman -- It is like having Sir Walter* come with his dogs after one of my story-books -- oh much, much worse! An old acquaintance is going to be as good as an Autumn Holiday* I think, when I once get at it -- I must do some more letter writing tonight, so I love you best and leave ^you^ -- (Love to Jessie.* Has she played my Keith of Ravelston?* -- )
[ No signature ]
NotesI have spent the afternoon in stoning raisins, and
[ Page 3 ]
such placidity drove off a headache that seemed to be clouding over my sky this morning.
(Mother* has been at Exeter these three days -- Grandpa is still in bed. I am afraid that he will stay there, but not die soon either which would be a melancholy thing to him and all the rest of us for he has always dreaded being helpless poor man --
Mifs Grant* goes in the morning but comes back after two weeks -- I have heard
[ Page 4 ]
of no more velvet -- )
I have been reading Mr. Arnold's Essays on Celtic Poetry* with perfect reverence for him and his patience and wisdom. In the introduction some things almost brought tears to my eyes. How much we love him and believe in him don't we? Do you know this book & the Essay on translating Homer? I long to read it all with you.
Mr. Putnam writes today that Mr. Freeman* has sent for proofs of my history because he is going to do the Sicily -- I am horribly afraid of Mr -- Freeman -- It is like having Sir Walter* come with his dogs after one of my story-books -- oh much, much worse! An old acquaintance is going to be as good as an Autumn Holiday* I think, when I once get at it -- I must do some more letter writing tonight, so I love you best and leave ^you^ -- (Love to Jessie.* Has she played my Keith of Ravelston?* -- )
[ No signature ]
November - December 1886: At this time, Jewett had just completed her popular history, The Story of the Normans. She reports that British historian Edward A. Freeman has requested a copy of proofs of her book in preparation for his own on Sicily.
(Yes: This and the following parenthesis marks in this letter were penciled by Annie Fields.
Fuff: Nickname for Annie Adams Fields. See Key to Correspondents.
street: It appears Jewett has been asked to contribute a poem somewhere, and she would rather not. Jewett does not seem to be thinking of a poem that she or Fields published.
Pinny: Pinny Lawson, a Jewett nickname. See Key to Correspondents.
(Mother: This and the next parenthesis mark by Fields are in green pencil.
Mifs Grant: Olive Grant, who usually helped the Jewett family produce their clothing. See Key to Correspondents.
Mr. Arnold's "Essays on Celtic Poetry": British poet and critic, Matthew Arnold (1822-1888), published his book On the Study of Celtic Literature, and on Translating Homer in 1867.
Mr. Putnam ... Mr. Freeman ... Sicily: Jewett's The Story of the Normans (1887), published by Putnam's Sons, appeared in the same series -- The Stories of the Nations -- as Edward Augustus Freeman's Sicily (1891). According to The Critic 158 (8 January 1887), 23, Freeman had agreed to write this book by January 1887. Jewett completed her work on her own book in late 1886.
Jewett was naturally intimidated by Freeman, a professional academic historian of great repute who had been a main source for her popular history of the Normans, including her own chapter on the Normans in Sicily.
Sir Walter ...with his dogs: Probably Jewett refers to Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832), the Scottish author, who was known for his affection for dogs and for keeping hunting dogs.
An old acquaintance ...an Autumn Holiday: Jewett's "An Autumn Holiday" appeared in Harper's Magazine (61:683-691), October 1880. Jewett did not publish a story entitled "An Old Acquaintance." However, soon after completing The Story of the Normans, she published a humorous story of New England eccentrics, not unlike "An Autumn Holiday," "The Courting of Sister Wisby" in Atlantic Monthly (59:577-586), May 1887.
Jessie ...Keith of Ravelston: Jessie Cochrane. See Key to Correspondents. "The Ballad of Keith of Ravelston" is a poem by English poet and critic, Sydney Dobell (1824-1874). What musical setting Cochrane may have played 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
In Letters of Sarah Orne Jewett (1911), p. 54, Fields includes a passage from this letter.
Wednesday evening
(with a great rain on the roof of the study).
I have been reading Mr. Arnold's "Essays on Celtic Poetry" with perfect reverence for him and his patience and wisdom. How much we love him and believe in him, don't we? Do you know this book and the essay on translating Homer? I long to read it all with you.
Annie Adams Fields to Sarah Orne Jewett
Thursday night --
[ Fall 1886 ]*
What a storm it has been dear! The sunset was glorious and it is cold and clear as a vast crystal out in the open world -- I have not been out all day -- I was completely tired last night and when I saw the blinding sun today I took it as a promise that I might stay at home. Jessie* has been in dear child looking very fresh and pretty out of the sun but otherwise all is still -- I have enjoyed the opportunity you may be sure of reading and writing if not of arithmetic! [ Oops ? ] I have had a book [ vender ? so spelled ] here who screwed good solid
[ Page 2 ]
money out of me for a book I did not want!! You wouldn't have suspected me of such weakness, would you!! However there are cases.
I begin to be very impatient of writing and find I am saving things till you get here. I hope this new snow fall did not bring back the pains --
What a pathetic little company at Arkansas Springs! A dear letter from Kate.*
I have points respecting Perkingses --*
[ Page 3 ]
I hope to have time for a word with Wide Awake Pratt* some day perhaps after you come. I am so pleased and "set up" because you like the bit of prose -- only I can never do it again -- I have the asses gifts of slowness and dulness with prose I fear generally --
Do do do take care of your dear eyes. O Pinny* what shall we do without your good eyes! Pinny to get them back as soon as possible --
[ Page 4 ]
I wish we could see our way to Madame Descartes* and some French, but better than to worry ourselves with too many things if we find we [ cant corrected ] do it, will be to have her out of season sometime. I think we do want to see something of our friends -- However we will try to arrange our hours as well as we can and then be content.
Good night darling
Ever your own
A.F.
Ever your own
A.F.
I sent you E.S.P.'s* letter to show you how precisely right you were in your diagnosis --
Notes
Fall 1886: This date is a guess, based upon Fields mentioning the Perkins family, about whom Fields gave regular reports during late 1886, when Mr. Perkins was fatally ill. See note below.
Jessie: Jessie Cochrane. Key to Correspondents.
Arkansas Springs: Fields's one known acquaintance in Arkansas was Alice French, but this reference does not mention her. Key to Correspondents.
The best-known springs in Arkansas would have been the resort at Hot Springs. Perhaps Fields and Jewett knew someone who sought treatment there.
Kate: It is difficult to know to which of the many Kates among their acquaintances Fields refers.
Perkingses: Jewett and Fields use this name to refer to Fields's next door neighbors, Richard Perkins (ca. 1805 - 6 Dec 1886) and his wife Catherine (1828-1893). In a journal entry of 14 December 1873, Fields notes that when Mrs. Perkins comes to call, she names her husband "Mr. Perkings."
Wide Awake Pratt: Eliza Pratt. Key to Correspondents.
Pinny: A Jewett nickname.
Descartes: This transcription is uncertain. Presumably Madame Descartes offered French lessons.
out: This word is underlined twice.
E.S.P.'s: Elizabeth Stuart Phelps Ward. 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 Sarah Orne Jewett
Monday night.
[ Late Fall 1886 ]*
[ Late Fall 1886 ]*
My darling: Your (tired)! Sunday Letter came safely and was a dear thing to find when I got back from [ Roxbury corrected ] in the chill and rain this evening. I know it is a bad thing for you to be shut up so much but we must make every compensation by daily walks when you are once more by my side. Dear Sandpiper* came to dinner tonight and was entirely like her old self only many times more so! She was delightful. Mohini* is reading the Baghavat Gita to a class of five of which she is one. She says he is a wonderful looking creature and his exposition of the poem is absorbingly interesting --
[ Page 2 ]
If Mrs Waters* should send for me I should certainly go if it were only to put myself into relation with this new personality and to feel his influence -- But I have no reason to suppose she will do so.
Alice Warren is in town for 24 hours and sends a wish through Mrs Whitman* to see me which I shall obey tomorrow --
I begin to be in a vast hurry to have you here -- I shall save many things to do together dear child, but I have been anxious to clear the decks of a mass of things which seemed to obstruct the way in every direction --
[ Page 3 ]
Beside, two people are apt to think of twice as many things to do I fear. Parties are coming thick and fast! Three this week but I cannot go to them -- Mrs Shaler's luncheon Thursday{,} Mrs E. E. Hale's Tea Wednesday{,} Mrs Johnson's* "Musicale" one other day evening!
But it is getting late and I must to bed.
It is everything to know you are so near. I cannot believe it -- just one week -- !
A. F.
Ellen Mason's Plato* is beautifully done. Did I tell you she came last night in the dark just before tea as usual. I was very glad to see her; she is
[ Page 4 ]
very friendly and lovely{;} as I know her better [ , I ? ] like her and love her. She asked for you of course --
Good night -- God bless you dear
your
A. F.
A. F.
Hasn't the Fru Ole* done nobly about the statue! She is a clever little woman.
Anne and [ Adeline corrected ] came for a call on Saturday. Anne has built a cottage or her sister has, at Shelbourne. Adeline was the architect!
Notes
1886: This letter was composed during Mohini's 1886-7 visit in the United States. While it seems likely to come from the autumn of that year, it's also possible that Fields wrote in the early spring of 1887.
Sandpiper: Celia Laighton Thaxter. Key to Correspondents.
Mohini: Mohini Mohun Chatterji (1858-1936) was a Bengali attorney and scholar who became a prominent representative of Theosophy during the 1880s, taking his message to England, Ireland and the United States. The Theosophical Society had been founded in 1875 in the United States and later established an international headquarters in India. Mohini visited the United States in 1886-7. He was in Boston in March 1887. See Diane Sasson, Yearning for a New Age (2012), pp. 173-179. Wikipedia.
Waters: Edwin Forbes Waters (1822-1894), owner of the Boston Daily Advertiser, was an author and traveler. He and Clara Erskine Clement (1834-1916) hosted Mohini for a year in 1886-7. See Gopal Stavig, Western Admirers of Ramakrishna and His Disciples (2010, pp. 452-3). See also Find a Grave.
Alice Warren ... Mrs. Whitman: For Sarah Wyman Whitman, see Key to Correspondents.
Alice Amelia Bartlett Warren (1843-1912) traveled often in Europe and moved in the same social circles as Fields and Jewett, being a friend of Henry James and Ellen Emerson, among other Jewett correspondents. See the introduction to Little Women Abroad: The Alcott Sisters' Letters from Europe, 1870-1871 (2008), edited by Daniel Shealy, pp. lxii-lxiii. Find a Grave.
Shaler's ... Hale's ... Johnson's: For Edward Everett Hale and Robert Underwood Johnson, see Key to Correspondents. Hale's wife was Emily Baldwin Perkins. Johnson's wife was Katharine McMahon.
Nathaniel Southgate Shaler (1841-1906) was a Harvard paleontologist and geologist. Wikipedia. His wife was Sophia Perin Page (1843-1918). Find a Grave.
Ellen Mason's Plato: For Ellen Francis Mason, see Key to Correspondents. Mason published several translations of works of Plato. Probably Fields refers to Talks with Socrates about Life: translations from the Gorgias and The Republic of Plato (1886).
Fru Ole: Sarah Chapman Thorp Bull. Key to Correspondents.
Fields appears to have written an accent mark over the "u," but this is not clear.
A likely candidate for the statue Fields mentions is the one by Jakob Fjelde (1859-1896), which in 1897 was placed in Loring Park in Minneapolis, MN. Wikipedia. Another possibility is the statue by Stephan Sinding (1846-1922) in Bergen, Norway, erected in 1901. In either case, it would appear Mrs. Bull may have arranged for the statue long before it was completed.
Anne and Adeline: Anne Rebecca Whitney and her domestic partner, the painter Adeline Manning. Key to Correspondents.
Whitney's sister was Sarah Watson Whitney (1817-1895). Find a Grave.
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
Sunday night --
[ Late Fall 1886 ]*
Dearest -- Coolidge* has been here to tea and Mr. Millet looked in and Mr. Brandeis* later, so it was cheerful and I think she enjoyed it. Mr. Millet says that Mr. Burlingame* wants short poems{.} I have put him on the track of Edith Thomas* but I wish you would send your sheaf also, or one or two of them --
Who should come just before tea in all the rain but Ellen Mason.* She was very sweet and interesting. He last book is out and she is most anxious to
[ Page 2 ]
have it mentioned -- indeed Genl Armstrong* has written me on the subject. I wonder if you could find time to help about this, dear, for I seem to find things accumulate -- Perhaps after you get here will do, though the sooner the better
I will try to write to Mr. E. W. Eustis* -- and I will speak to Mr. Millet when he comes again -- but I think two or three
[ Page 3 ]
good notices in Boston papers would go far --
Jessie,* like a dear girl came to go to hear Mr. Brooks* this P.M. It was a beautiful service --
Good by my darling. How eagerly I begin to look for you.
Ever your own
A.F.
A.F.
My love to all at home.
Notes
1886: This letter appears to be one of a sequence of daily letters written in the late fall of 1886. Mentioning Mason's new book ties this letter to the others mailed the following Monday and Tuesday.
Coolidge ... Mr Millet: Sarah Chauncey Woolsey and Josiah Millet. Key to Correspondents.
Mr. Brandeis: Identifying this person without more clues is difficult. It's possible that he was the lawyer and future Supreme Court justice Louis D. Brandeis (1856-1941). He established law practice in Boston in 1879. Wikipedia.
Burlingame: Edward Livermore Burlingame (1848-1922) was editor of Scribner's (1886-1914).
Thomas: Edith Matilda Thomas. Key to Correspondents.
Mason: Ellen Frances Mason. Key to Correspondents. Mason published several translations of works of Plato. Probably Fields refers to Talks with Socrates about Life: translations from the Gorgias and The Republic of Plato (1886).
Armstrong: Samuel Chapman Armstrong. Key to Correspondents.
Eustis: This person has not yet been identified.
Jessie: Jessie Cochrane. Key to Correspondents.
Brooks: Phillips Brooks. 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 Sarah Orne Jewett
Tuesday night.
[ Late Fall 1886 ]*
Coming back from So. Boston tonight, a vessel
was stuck in the draw and I was detained of course with all
the rest watching the [ sheets corrected ] of a great
three masted schooner outlined and perfectly still against the
sunset sky -- So much for the Conference afternoon! I met
Sandpiper* where I took to my feet in self=defence, walking
out of Mohini's* reading with the Baghavat Ghita under her
arm! I took a cab there and went to see the Dresels and the
Howells -- * The D's have a very pretty home indeed and
last night was the first Club meeting -- Mrs Dresel talked
about The White Heron* which she greatly likes -- Also Howells
who has delightful things to say about the book altogether --
I could
[ Page 2 ]
have stayed a long time with Howells, but you can imagine I was glad to turn my face homeward for I had a note last night from Mrs Whitman* asking me to go up this morning to see Alice Warren* who was there for 24 hours -- so up I went (after going down to St. Mary's church to see Father Duncan)* and shall tell you of our most interesting talk by and by --
I am sorry dear Mary* was not quite well. May she be all right at this time of writing -- you are right
[ Page 3 ]
about Mrs Tyler,* I dare say she will come in after all to our councils --
I remembered that it was Howells and not Curtis* who talked about books in Harpers and so I asked H. if he knew the translations of E.M.* He had seen some of them and said it was just what he should like, to get hold of them to write about. Isn't this good? Now [ Chatauqua* so spelled ] is the next place. But we will do this when Pinny* comes! Dear Pinny, I shall be delighted to get you here -- and it is less than a week now -- I hope they will
[ Page 4 ]
not take your coming too hard at home, because I know it is the right thing for you --
But good night now{.} I am too sleepy to make another scratch of the pen --
Your
A.F.
A.F.
My darling! I have only just taken in to my dull brain the part that you bought me a copy for my very own of "Celtic Literature."* I am thanking you all the time darling, but I must do it now{.}
Notes
1886: This letter probably was composed soon after the publication of Jewett's A White Heron in October 1886.
Sandpiper: Celia Laighton Thaxter. Key to Correspondents.
Mohini's: Mohini Mohun Chatterji (1858-1936) was a Bengali attorney and scholar who became a prominent representative of Theosophy during the 1880s, taking his message to England, Ireland and the United States. The Theosophical Society had been founded in 1875 in the United States and later established an international headquarters in India. Mohini visited the United States in 1886-7. See Diane Sasson, Yearning for a New Age (2012), pp. 173-179. Wikipedia.
Dresel ... Howells: Mrs. Dresel is the mother of Jewett intimate, Louisa Dresel.
William Dean Howells. Key to Correspondents.
The White Heron: Jewett's story collection, A White Heron, appeared in 1886.
Mrs Whitman: Sarah Wyman Whitman. Key to Correspondents.
Alice Warren: Alice Amelia Bartlett Warren (1843-1912) traveled often in Europe and moved in the same social circles as Fields and Jewett, being a friend of Henry James and Ellen Emerson, among other Jewett correspondents. See the introduction to Little Women Abroad: The Alcott Sisters' Letters from Europe, 1870-1871 (2008), edited by Daniel Shealy, pp. lxii-lxiii. Find a Grave.
Father Duncan: Almost certainly this is Rev. William H. Duncan, S.J., who became a pastor at North Boston's St. Mary's Catholic Church in 1877. He oversaw major expansions of the church's services, especially in education and social facilities. James Bernard Cullen, The Story of the Irish in Boston, p. 135.
Mary: Mary Rice Jewett. Key to Correspondents.
Mrs Tyler: Probably Augusta Maria Denny Tyler. Key to Correspondents.
Curtis: Probably George William Curtis. Key to Correspondents.
E.M.: Ellen Francis Mason, see Key to Correspondents. Mason published several translations of works of Plato. Probably Fields refers to Talks with Socrates about Life: translations from the Gorgias and The Republic of Plato (1886).
Chatauqua: Founded in the 1870s, the Chautauqua movement is a U.S. adult education and social movement that has included home reading courses and educational "assemblies" for inexpensive entertainment and culture. Jewett contributed course material for an 1891 course on British History and Literature. Presumably, Jewett and Fields planned to lobby for the inclusion of Ellen Mason's translations in a Chautauqua course.
Pinny: A nickname for Jewett.
"Celtic Literature": British poet and critic Matthew Arnold (1822-1888) authored On the Study of Celtic Literature (1867).
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
Sunday.
[ 28-9 November 1886 ]*
Dearest -- Will you send up your black silk skirt at once because
[ Page 2 ]
we had much to do with it, I believe!
O how many things I have to say to you dear, but I have got something with one of my eyes this afternoon and I cannot see so I must lie down patiently until tea --
A lovely visit from Lily Fairchild* yesterday{ -- } I never saw her when
[ Page 3 ]
she was more interesting
--------
Monday
My darling: The eye became worse so I could not get my letter off
for you this morning -- I was much disappointed! but you will get
it tonight. Meantime I sent for good Dr. Hay* who lives opposite
and he turned up the lid and found a wicked mite there too small
to see almost but enough to be very uncomfortable.Genl. Armstrong* was here Saturday
[ Page 4 ]
evening and again last night when Jessie and I went to [ preach ? ] in Charlestown. On Saturday I thought him better of course but in spite of the Dr's telling him that the [ wound ? ] at his heart is healed, I can see that he is not to be well -- Poor fellow! I only trust the end is not to far nor the way to be too painful --
My Charlestown business was a great help thanksgiving day -- I really had no other time and I had to hurry up and make the best of it -- for with that and the party I had my hands full -- Darling you know how I miss you but this glorious weather is
[ Page 5 ]
so unusually glorious even for this season that I hope now that the History* is done (thank God!) you will get out a good deal between your interviews with "Sister Wisby" -- Jessie was vastly entertained with your letter about the 'Pitcher ladies' and Mis' Wisby { -- } she laughed til she cried -- Dear Jessie! She has been very very sweet and companionable and always ready for delightful music
[ Page 6 ]
and she carried off the party well!
Thank dear Mary* for the eggs -- They have been particularly good.
Yes! Mr. [ Prince ? ] sent me some Jewett chocolates too -- like yours.
Goodbye darling for today. John is waiting and my table is covered with notes{.}
[ Page 7 ]
to be written or answered
your own
A.F
A.F
Notes
November 1886: Almost certainly this letter was written on the Sunday and Monday following Thanksgiving in 1886. See notes below.
W.'s: This is likely to be Sarah Wyman Whitman. She is the person both Fields and Jewett would recognize when called by the initial of her surname. What Whitman may have published in Saturday Review at this time is not yet known.
Lily Fairchild: See Sally Fairchild in Key to Correspondents.
Dr. Hay: Almost certainly, this was Gustavus Hay (1830-1908), ophthalmologist and surgeon, who for some time lived at 91 Charles Street in Boston. Back Bay Houses and Find a Grave.
Armstrong: Samuel Chapman Armstrong. Key to Correspondents. He died in 1893.
Jessie: Jessie Cochrane. Key to Correspondents.
History: Jewett completed her history, The Story of the Normans (1887), near the end of 1886.
"Sister Wisby": Jewett's "The Courting of Sister Wisby" appeared in Atlantic Monthly in May 1887.
Mary: Mary Rice Jewett. Key to Correspondents.
Prince ... Jewett chocolates: What Fields means by Jewett chocolates is not known. Mr. Prince probably is the husband of Helen Choate Prince. 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 Mary Rice Jewett
[ Late November - December 1886 ]*
Dear Mary
-------------- Thank you so much for your letter this morning. I am delighted about your going to Cousin Mary's.* I dont doubt it will be a godsend to her. You can put her in the way of getting hold of things -- and seeing Coolidge & Mrs. Howland* especially. -- but it will be ever so pleasant for you if only because you have power to make it pleasant and to take the lead of all our minds in that special case. She might just as well turn to and see what she can do with her life. Regret isn't a thing to really live upon -- but nature will assert itself. She is young and strong & has got her money to use, and she ought to be thinking of what she can do -- and so she will if she is helped by the right ones -- She seemed to me a good self-forgetful creature but naturally much warped.
With love to all the aunts
Sarah
Sarah
Notes
The lines of hyphens presumably indicate omissions from the manuscript.
1886: This date is highly speculative. If the Cousin Mary named in the letter is indeed Mary Nealley and if the life-changing event mentioned is the death of her husband, John B. Nealley, then this letter probably was composed not long after his death on 23 November 1886.
Cousin Mary's: That Jewett knew so many "Marys" complicates identifying this person. It seems likely that Jewett refers to Mary Elizabeth Jewett Nealley (1817-1890), daughter of Thomas and Elizabeth Lord Jewett, and the wife of the Hon. John B. Nealley (1810-1886), whom Richard Cary identifies as "a lawyer in South Berwick and a member of the Maine State Senate. They lived adjacent to the Cushing house on Main and Academy streets, a few hundred feet from the Jewett home."
Coolidge & Mrs. Howland: When Jewett refers to "Coolidge" she usually means Susan Coolidge, pen name of Sarah Chauncey Woolsey (1835-1905), author of the What Katy Did stories and many other books. But this identification clearly is problematic in this context. A Mrs. Howland living in South Berwick at this time was Susan Neally Howland (1825-1889).
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.
Annie Adams Fields to Sarah Orne Jewett
Friday Evening.
[ 3 December 1886 ]*
[ 3 December 1886 ]*
By the side of a noble fire with Rogy* close by I can at last write to you in peace my darling --
I was tempted while dear Jessie* was here to spend an hour at breakfast and another at noon, and every evening in talk and relaxation beside going to concerts et alia, and the result was that my [ write so written ] all ran behind and I was hurried and worried and tired -- Now I am beginning to see daylight{.}
There has not been a second until tonight when I could glance at the Christmas list
[ Page 2 ]
but I shall soon get round to it now.
How relieved I felt to get your letter tonight dear, telling me your pain was beginning to go away. This bitter weather has not been good for it, and yet I do wrong to call the weather "bitter" { -- } it is not that yet{,} only "brisk." My dear friend* came this morning but he could not stay to luncheon. I was there also at sundown last night. He means to go
[ Page 3 ]
home tomorrow. Mifs E. D. [ Procter so it appears ]* is still there. She is not altogether displeasing though belonging to the fuss and feathers variety! I was delighted to see Arnold's beautiful speech. I gave it to thy friend { -- } was that right? How fresh ^J.G.W.^ he is mentally. He says Lucy Larcom's book* printed by H.M. & Co (is it beckonings or breathings, I forget) is one of the very best things of the kind ever done. It is wonderful that another book of [ extracts ? ] should sell, though I am sure she [ has corrected ] done this [ remarkably ? ] well.
I have been all over town
[ Page 4 ]
this afternoon, making arrangements for Mr. Allen's sale* next week -- Tonight I believe things are pretty well in train -- I think we must decide to have Mr. Winch's concerts* at the Vendome though I have tried hard to find a studio --
I rejoice that you are able to read Arnold. I* have dreams now of reading a little also in a few days --
I stopped at my neighours Perkins's* door tonight only to hear that he is dying --
Poor woman! Pinny* warned me to go there some time ago but alas!
By the way, speaking of sad things { -- } Helen* told me the other night that Mifs Barstons had just sent Abby Alger* a box full of unpaid bills which had been accumulating at 129 -- just as Abby was thinking and hoping she
[ Up the left margin of page 1 ]
had reached the end -- What a foolish thing a sheet of
[ Up the right margin of page 1 ]
paper is when I want to write to you!
[ Up the right margin of page 2 ]
Good night and God bless you my own darling
[ Up the left margin of page 2 ]
From your own A.F.
Notes
1886: Almost certainly this letter was composed the Friday before the death of Richard Perkins on 6 December 1886. See notes below.
Rogy: Presumably short for Roger, a dog.
Jessie: Jessie Cochrane. Key to Correspondents.
friend: John Greenleaf Whittier. Key to Correspondents.
E. D. Procter: American poet, Edna Dean Proctor (1827-1923). Wikipedia.
Arnold's: British poet and critic Matthew Arnold (1822-1888). It is difficult to be sure to which of his speeches Fields refers.
Perkins's: Catherine (1828-1893) and Richard Perkins (ca. 1805 - 6 Dec 1886).
Lucy Larcom's book: American poet and teacher, Lucy Larcom (1824-1893). One of her compilations of religious writing was Beckonings (1886).
Allen's sale: Rev. Frederick Baylies Allen (1840-1925) was an Episcopalian clergyman who became involved in multiple social and moral reform organizations in Boston, including the local Shamut Working Girls Club. Also a painter, he periodically oversaw art sales to benefit charity.
Winch's concerts: Boston musical artists William J. Winch (1847- ), tenor, John F. Winch, bass, and Mrs. John Winch, alto, made up a musical family performing in Boston from the 1870s.
I: Fields has underlined this word twice.
Pinny: A Jewett nickname.
Helen: Of the several "Helens" who were mutual friends of Jewett and Fields, a likely candidate is Helen Merriman. Key to Correspondents.
Barstons ... Abby Alger: Abby Langdon Alger. Key to Correspondents.
The transcription of Barstons is uncertain, and this person has not yet been identified.
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
Saturday night --
My darling: I went round to dine at Judy's* tonight partly to
make special request about the photograph{.} She says she has
"some"! whatever that may mean [ and corrected ] you
shall have your choice -- I am sure "some" were bad enough --
but we will see. Also she has kindly promised to help me
in getting some things for the poor people which is good --[ 4 December 1886 ]*
Don't you think you and I will do well to go alone to our three or four places this year since Marygold* cannot!
Mr Beal* is in a very weak condition. He has had lumbago, but his [ vitality ? ] seems to [ run ? ] very low.
[ Page 2 ]
Minna Timmins* came in at dark looking very handsome{.} I ask her and Gemma to preside over Mr. Allen's* picture show on Thursday and Friday{.} I don't believe the girls are much to be counted on at present, Minna at least for work! but she has an interesting side, very -- She says a company of 19 {,} Mrs Lawrence, Mrs Agassiz{,} Mrs [ Wistar ? ] and Mrs Whitman among them ( and Mr. Lowell) went to see "The [ Unrecognized name ]" in New York -- What a gay flight! Ellen Mason I saw was there also. The acting seems to have been pretty [ bad corrected ] but New York
[ Page 3 ]
is always interesting --
I did not get to see Thy dear friend* again today but I shall go up tomorrow to see if he stayed over -- Life presents a great many problems to me just now -- I am so overrun with cards and places where I ought to call, that I do not know exactly what to do --
I am determined to make a quick space to live and breathe in if possible -- and yet not to be rude or neglectful -- !!
Did I say that Coolidge* comes this week --
The second title respecting Mis' Wisby* I remember liking particularly -- "A Sunshine Holiday" is beautiful, but I thought
[ Page 4 ]
the second which I cannot recall at this moment wonderfully fitting --
What is the new dress to be made next week? I had forgot you had a new dress -- no, I think it must be one for Mary --*
I am reading the Norton Carlyle.* Some of his boyish letters if they may be called so, those of the unripe period seem to me quite dull and undeveloped. I fear Mr. Norton is dealing with dregs and scrapings and we shall think quite as well of Mr. Froude's* literary judgment when we get through whatever we may say of his morals --
Good night dearest Pinny* -- Let us be "True to the Kindred points of Heaven and Home".*
your
A.F.
A.F.
Notes
4 December 1886: Almost certainly this year is correct. Other letters from November and December 1886 show Jewett working on her story, "The Courting of Sister Wisby," and discussion of a charity art sale organized by Rev. Frederick Baylies Allen. This letter probably was composed the Saturday before that sale, which probably took place on 9 and 10 December. See notes below.
Judy's: Judith Drew Beal. See Fields in Key to Correspondents.
Marygold: Mary Greenwood Lodge. Key to Correspondents.
Beal: Presumably Fields's brother-in-law, James Henry Beal. See Fields in Key to Correspondents.
Minna Timmins ... Gemma: Sara Gemma Timmins (1862-1890) was the niece of Martin Brimmer, first director of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts (founded 1870). Joel Poudrier explains that Gemma's sister, Minna Elisa Timmins Chapman (1861-1897), was especially close to Sarah Wyman Whitman, but both sisters were artists and protégées of Whitman. See also Find a Grave.
Allen's: Rev. Frederick Baylies Allen (1840-1925) was an Episcopalian clergyman who became involved in multiple social and moral reform organizations in Boston, including the local Shamut Working Girls Club. Also a painter, he periodically oversaw art sales to benefit charity.
Mrs Lawrence, Mrs Agassiz ... Mrs [ Wistar ? ] ... Mrs Whitman ... Mr. Lowell: For James Russell Lowell, Sarah Wyman Whitman, and Ida Higginson Agassiz, see Key to Correspondents.
The transcription of "Wistar" is unlikely to be correct, and this person has not yet been identified.
Robert Mainfort and Mary Kwas (University of Arkansas) identify Mrs. Lawrence as Elizabeth Chapman Lawrence (1829-1905), one of Whitman's correspondents. See E.L., The Bread Box Papers: a biography of Elizabeth Chapman Lawrence, (1983) by Helen H. Gemmill. She was married to the diplomat, Timothy Bigelow Lawrence (d. 1869). Her home was the Aldie Mansion in Doylestown, PA.
Fields seems clear that this group attended a dramatic performance in New York City in the fall of 1886. The name of the show looks like "The Archamites," but I have failed to discover any drama with a similar title, performed in New York or anywhere else.
Ellen Mason: Key to Correspondents.
friend: John Greenleaf Whittier. Key to Correspondents.
Coolidge: Sarah Chauncey Woolsey. Key to Correspondents.
Wisby: Jewett's "The Courting of Sister Wisby" appeared in Atlantic Monthly in May 1887.
Mary: Mary Rice Jewett. Key to Correspondents.
Norton Carlyle: American author and Harvard University professor of art, Charles Eliot Norton (1827-1908) published Carlyle's Letters and Reminiscences in several volume in 1886, 1887, and 1888. Fields probably was reading the first volume, Early Letters of Thomas Carlyle which covered 1814-1826.
Mr. Froude's: British historian and author, James Anthony Froude (1818-1894) was a prolific biographer of fellow historian, the Scottish author, Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881). The question of Froude's morals probably refers to the controversy over his publication of private papers of Carlyle and his wife, which many of Froude's contemporaries thought morally suspect. Wikipedia.
Pinny: A Jewett nickname.
Heaven and Home: Fields quotes the final line of "To the Skylark" by British poet William Wordsworth (1770-1850).
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
Sunday afternoon
[ 5 December 1886 ]*
My dear [ darling corrected ]
I was overjoyed with your nice long letter last night -- and I felt that you were beginning to get rested again(. I rebel at the Allen Art gallery*
but if you only do as well as last year, we will be very
thankful. I speak as one of the Associated Charities, having
my future Monday-morning employment well in mind. )
Yesterday I went over to Uncle Williams* to write in the
afternoon and
[ 5 December 1886 ]*
My dear [ darling corrected ]
I was overjoyed with your nice long letter last night -- and I felt that you were beginning to get rested again
[ Page 2 ]
I was much moved by your news about poor Mr. Perkings{.}* I am glad that the old man
[ Page 3 ]
is likely to be released, but there is a little round world of two people going to fall to pieces. All the better for them in some ways too, but with all their provoking narrowness there is something very appealing in their relation to each other and she is going to find life very hard simply because it has been so narrow and she has no great outlook or preparation for unselfish usefulness -- I dare say you are going to be able to help her by and by, but now all that anybody can do for her is to try to make her feel that there are a few kind hearts that
[ Page 4 ]
are truly sorry for her --
(Dear Mouse* the little paper in Wide Awake* is very sweet and full of a vague personal sweetness that I cant find words to describe. I dont know that I ever found so much of your self in any bit of prose that you ever wrote. I hope you will do some more for Mrs. Pratt* -- you know you held out hopes to Pinny* of speaking of clothes and their expressiveness -- How we will talk over our little works and ways* together after Christmas! I begin to feel as if that time were very near -- (Last night I tied up my face in a big)
[ manuscript breaks off; no signature. ]
Notes
5 December 1886: This date is likely because Fields seems to have told Jewett that her neighbor, Richard Perkins, is expected to die soon. He died on Monday 6 December 1886. Of course, a serious decline in his health could have begun earlier.
This date squares well with writings to which Jewett probably refers, pieces by Fields published in December 1886 and the following year, and Jewett's work on "The Courting of Sister Wisby," which appeared in 1887. See notes below.
Parenthesis marks in this manuscript were penciled by Fields. She also has deleted her first two parenthesis marks in the letter.
Allen Art gallery: Rev. Frederick Baylies Allen (1840-1925) was an Episcopalian clergyman who became involved in multiple social and moral reform organizations in Boston, including the local Shamut Working Girls Club. Also a painter, he periodically oversaw art sales to benefit charity. In 1886, he was assistant to Phillips Brooks at Trinity Church, Boston. See Correspondents.
Uncle Williams: William Durham Jewett. See Key to Correspondents.
He resided in what became known as the Sarah Orne Jewett House in South Berwick.
the herb gathering: This transcription is uncertain. Jewett may have written "herb gatherer." Almost certainly Jewett refers to her short story, "The Courting of Sister Wisby," which appeared in Atlantic Monthly 59 in May 1887. There the narrator meets an elderly herb gatherer who recounts a comic courtship.
Mr. Perkings: Fields has deleted "Perkings" and penciled in an unrecognized word. Beneath "Perkings" she also has penciled "xxxx".
Mrs. Perkings is Catherine (Mrs. Richard) Perkins, Fields's next-door neighbor at 146 Charles Street. An anonymous researcher has provided the following information about the family.
Richard Perkins (ca. 1805 - 6 Dec 1886). In the 1860 census, he and Catherine, his wife, and his brother, Abijah Crane Perkins (23 December 1802-10 August 1884), already lived next door to Annie and James T. Fields. The brothers were retired merchants at that time. Richard and Catherine P. Dow (ca. 1828 -29 April 1893) married in Boston on 2 June 1857.
Richard and Abijah's parents were William and Nabby Butler Crane Perkins. Catherine's father was Jones Dow of Lowell, MA.
In the 1880 census, Richard Perkins is listed as disabled by paralysis; suggesting that his health had been precarious for some time by December 1886.
In a journal entry of 22 September 1866, Fields describes him as a successful businessman possessed of a "dull kindliness."
Upon her death, Mrs Perkins left a substantial estate that included $91,000 given to Radcliffe College.
In a journal entry of 14 December 1873, Fields notes that when Mrs. Perkins comes to call, she names her husband "Mr. Perkings."
In another entry appears this description of the Mr. Perkins.
22 September 1866Mouse: Nickname for Annie Adams Fields. See Correspondents.
Our garden is getting into order. Mr Perkins has made me two or three long calls today, finding 50 dollars too much for [ them ? ] to pay for getting the whole laid down in grass he has passed full 24 hours of good time getting the work done cheaper. Ours is the benefit so I have cause to thank him -- beside it has given me opportunity to study this queer man -- one of a class I fear but there is a kind of dull kindliness about him which his money getting has not altogether extinguished. He feels kindly towards us I am sure and this should content us but how strange it is that we will not be grateful for the regard we ourselves receive but ask that it shall come out of a large fountain where many may drink.
little paper in Wide Awake: If this letter is correctly dated, then Jewett almost certainly refers to a piece by Fields that appeared in the section, The Contributors and the Children, "The Poet Who Told the Truth" in Wide Awake 24, December 1886. A year later, in volume 26, December 1887, Fields published another piece in the same section, "About Clothes."
Mrs. Pratt: Eliza Pratt and her husband were editors of Wide Awake. See Correspondents.
Fields has deleted "Mrs. Pratt" with two penciled lines. She has penciled a "+" before the name, and above it she has inserted in pencil: "the editor's [ unrecognized word ]".
Pinny: Pinny Lawson (Pinny / Pin) was an affectionate nickname for Jewett, used by her and Annie Fields. See Correspondents.
works and ways: In her letters, Jewett several times repeats this phrase, sometimes within quotation marks. The actual phrase does not appear, as one might expect, in the King James Bible, though it is suggested in several places: Psalms 145:17, Daniel 4:37, and Revelations 15:3. In each of these passages, the biblical author refers to the works and ways of God. Jewett may be quoting from another source or from commentary on these passages, which tend to emphasize that while God's ways are mysterious, they also are to be accepted humbly by humanity.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library of Harvard University. Jewett, Sarah Orne, 1849-1909. Annie Fields (Adams) 1834-1915, recipient. 194 letters; 1877-1909 & [n.d.] Sarah Orne Jewett correspondence, 1861-1930. MS Am 1743 (255). Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
John Greenleaf Whittier to Annie Adams Fields
Oak Knoll
12 Mo 6 1886My dearest friend
I was very sorry to leave Boston without bidding thee good bye{.} It seems now as if I had had but a glimpse of thee. I started to go {to} Celia's* after leaving thee on Friday but after riding a little distance I felt the cold weather so much that I told the driver to turn back to Claflins,* not, however, before I felt the "fiend Neuralgia" gripping me. I sent a note to Celia &
[ Page 2 ]
{she} was good enough to come to see me on Saturday{.} I hoped a little to see thee on Friday evening or the next morning. Lowell and Gen Walker* came Friday evening. I had not seen L before for 12 years, & we talked over the old anti-slavery days. Saturday as I felt obliged to return to Danvers I should have called on thee but company detained me until it was time to go {to} Sewall's where I had promised to lunch with my dear old friend Mrs Pitman*
[ Page 3 ]
and Theodore Weld.* I left on the 3 oclk train for Danvers.
Winter has come too early. The snow storm which is raging would do credit to January. I wish I was sitting by thy open fire.
I meant to return the Pall Mall paper.* I will ask Mrs C to do it. Take care of thyself this hard weather and think of me as more than ever gratefully thy friend
John G Whittier
Notes
Celia's: Celia Thaxter. See Key to Correspondents.
Claflin's: Mary Bucklin Davenport Claflin. See Key to Correspondents.
Lowell and Gen Walker: James Russell Lowell. See Key to Correspondents. After serving in various ambassadorial roles in Europe, beginning in 1877, Russell returned to the United States in June 1885.
Probably, General Walker is American educator and author, Francis Amasa Walker (1840-1897). He earned his military rank as a Union officer in the American Civil War (1861-1865).
Mrs Pitman: Whittier's friend and correspondent, Harriet Minot Pitman died in October 1888. His obituary of her appears in J. B. Pickard, Letters of John Greenleaf Whittier v. 3, p. 552. While this is not certain, probably Mrs. Pitman is staying with Whittier's old abolitionist friend, Samuel Edmund Sewall (1799-1888).
Theodore Weld: American author and speaker, Theodore Dwight Weld (1830-1895), was a founder of the movement to abolish slavery in the United States.
Pall Mall paper: This item has not been identified. Possibly Fields has loaned Whittier a copy of the London (England) evening newspaper, The Pall Mall Gazette.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Huntington Library, San Marino, CA, in the James T. Fields collection: mss FI 71-4810. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Annie Adams Fields to Sarah Orne Jewett
[ 6 and 7 December 1886 ]*
Dear child: If we get pens for our boxes the handles must be very short, therefore I still believe we shall think stylographics* by the dozen or 1/2 will not be over 50 cts and that they will be much better worth getting -- Let me hear what you think --
Please accept a pretty new pocketbook from your [ friend ? ]
Will you re=mail the Record to dear Marigold* after reading.
Your [ apron ? ] has arrived from Mrs Cable* with a good letter.
Tuesday night --
How glad I was to have your dear letter through the storm tonight.
Lazybones that I am I
[ Page 2 ]
have not been out all day. It was too tempting.
Yes, at dark I went to see poor Mrs Perkins.* She has two excellent ladies with her, her cousin whom I think you saw and her aunt a Mrs Clark, wife of Dr. Luther Clark,* I understood her to say, a most wise and sweet woman. She wished you knew all the particulars!! He died at 3:30 yesterday and is to be buried on Friday. Afterward I
[ Page 3 ]
popped in upon Mrs Millet* who was sitting solitary with Check. I was only there five minutes. Then home again to my Carlyle* which is most engrossing. His early letters to Jane Welsh and the growth of their love is curiously interesting because we get at the roots of things more nearly than ever before.
Another letter tonight about the poor [ Bensel ? ] girl! This time from Charlotte Fiske Bates.* There's one comfort in all this -- it is the same woman, a single misery
[ Page 4 ]
and not three or four of them as might be in England -- But the persistence of them is something appalling especially with the aunt who is willing to support her, or at least pay her rent of whom they say nothing -- You are right about that newspaper letter{.} It is a theme for an essay [ thrown ? ] into [ her ?] hands --
I was quite annoyed about the dress because Kate* had made the other skirt quite handsome enough to wear with the velvet
[ Up the right margin of page 4]
red dress --
[ No signature ]
Notes
1886: This letter was composed over two days, the first being 6 December 1886, the day of the death of Richard Perkins, Fields's neighbor. See note below.
stylographics: an early form of fountain pen.
Marigold: Mary Greenwood Howe. Key to Correspondents.
Mrs Cable: Probably this is George Washington Cable's first wife, Louisa Stewart Bartlett (d. 1904). Key to Correspondents.
Perkins: Catherine (1828-1893), wife of Richard Perkins (ca. 1805 - 6 Dec 1886).
Dr. Luther Clark: Selina Cranch Minot Clark (1816-1904) was the widow of Dr. Luther Clark (1810-1884), a homeopathic physician, and possibly a member of the Perkins's Swedenborgian church.
Mrs Millet: See Josiah Millet in Key to Correspondents. Check is likely to be a pet, but their first daughter, Hilda, was born in 1885.
Carlyle: Scottish author, Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881). Other letters of late 1886 show that Fields was reading the first volumes of Charles Eliot Norton's multi-volume edition of Carlyle's letters.
Bensel ... Bates: American author and educator, Charlotte Fiske Bates (1838-1916).
The situation of the "Bensel girl" is not known in detail. Bates was acquainted with the American poet James Berry Bensel (d. 6 February 1886) and his sister Annie Berry Bensel (1861- after 1910). According to Family Search, Miss Bensel, who also wrote poetry, resided in nearby Lynn, MA. When her brother died, she had lost all of her immediate family, including her father William (1827-1877), her mother Harriet (1829-1883), and her sister, Emily (1867-1884). Possibly, then, her difficulty stemmed from these losses.
Kate: A seamstress, possibly a Fields employee.
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 --
[ 7 December 1886 ]*
[ 7 December 1886 ]*
Dear Fuff*
Thank you for letting me have dear Mrs. Arnold's letter.* How like her it is! I had already read Motleys memoirs* in Last Sunday's Herald. Is Badeau* going on with the story of Everybody? but it is mortal interesting and explanatory. I never shall get overBadea
his saying that he had "dined with queens on other
occasions", quite by the way you know as if things much more
splendid had also befallen him --
Thank you for letting me have dear Mrs. Arnold's letter.* How like her it is! I had already read Motleys memoirs* in Last Sunday's Herald. Is Badeau* going on with the story of Everybody? but it is mortal interesting and explanatory. I never shall get over
[ Page 2 ]*
[ Page 3 ]
we could have our money for Christmas? and not draw upon our little stores too much? I do not hear from Mr. Putnam,* but will give him more days grace because it is such a busy time of year -- I have been snowbound this day with the dearest of Berwick for company but it is great weather for dressmaking ----
(Poor Mrs. Perkins!* I thought I would write her a little note -- Shall you go to the funeral or is it a time
[ Page 4 ]
that you cant -- I think it would be observed! -- )
What a storm! I hope my darling Fuff didn't go blowing along Charley st* and get lodged poor little thing! in one of the trees or telegraph wires. Oh I must to and 'tend to her!
loving and anxious
Pinny --*
Notes
1886: As the notes below indicate, this letter almost certainly was written the Friday after the 6 December death of Richard Perkins.
Fuff: Nickname for Annie Adams Fields. See Key to Correspondents.
Fields has penciled a large open parenthesis mark from the top of the page to below the left side of the greeting. She places a similar end parenthesis mark to the right of the bottom 3 lines of this page.
Mrs. Arnold's letter: Francis Arnold, wife of British poet and cultural critic, Matthew Arnold (1822 - 1888). Arnold visited America for the last time in 1886.
Motleys memoirs in Last Sunday's Herald: Possibly Jewett refers to John Lothrop Motley (1814 - 1877), an American author of popular history and a diplomat. Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr., friend of Jewett and Fields, authored John Lothrop Motley. A Memoir (1878). See Key to Correspondents.
However, it has not been confirmed that a memoir about him appeared in the Boston Herald in the last months of 1886.
Badeau ... the story of Everybody: Almost certainly, Jewett speaks of American soldier, author and diplomat, Adam Badeau (1831-1895). He had published Aristocracy in England (1886), but this does not contain the quotation about dining with Queens.
At about this time, he must have been working on Grant in Peace (1887), remembered for its gossipy account of the life of General Ulysses S. Grant after the Civil War. The quotation Jewett presents does not appear in that book, but Jewett may refer to this passage about Motley meeting Queen Victoria after she had not included him in a dinner for General Grant: "It was not because she was a queen, for I have been well-received by other queens; and at this moment, as may be supposed, I was not altogether in a mood to admire; but the plain little woman conquered me with a sweetness of look and smile which I had heard of before but had never seen at court. It is of no imaginable consequence, but I forgave her my dinner" (p. 287).
However, it has not been confirmed that this book was serialized before complete publication, which seems to be what Jewett implies.
Page 2: Fields has inserted "Dear" top left and "begin" top right in pencil. Though so marked, this letter does not appear in the Fields collection.
Mother & Mary and Miss Grant: For Mary Rice Jewett and Olive Grant, see Key to Correspondents.
Mr. Burlingame: Edward Livermore Burlingame (1848-1922) was editor of Scribner's (1886-1914). Almost certainly the date of this letter is incorrect. Jewett's "Law Lane" appeared in Scribner's in December 1887 and was reprinted in The King of Folly Island in 1888.
Mr. Putnam: George Haven Putnam. See Key to Correspondents.
In a letter to Fields of October 1886 Jewett indicates that she probably is expecting an advanced payment for her work on The Story of the Normans, which was to appear at the beginning of 1887.
Mrs. Perkins ... funeral: Mrs. Perkings is Catherine (Mrs. Richard) Perkins, Fields's next-door neighbor at 146 Charles Street. See the notes for Jewett to Fields of 5 December 1886.
Charley st: Annie Fields's Boston residence was 148 Charles St.
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 Annie Adams Fields
[Wednesday corrected, probably from
Tuesday ] Afternoon
[ 8 or 15 December 1886 ]*
[ 8 or 15 December 1886 ]*
My dear Darling
I longed to send you a note this morning but* unluckily I didn't have any paper upstairs and I had to leave ^soon^ after breakfast, or before half-past eight! so I didn't like to ask for writing materials! I was so glad that I went -- The dear friend* was so glad to see me and we sat right down and went at it -- and with pauses at tea time the conversation
[ Page 2 ]
was kept up until after ten -- He was even more affectionate and dear than usual and seemed uncommonly well though he had had neuralgia all day and made out to be a little drooping with the assistance of the weather and coming company!* But oh my dear Fuff * how rich we are with [ thy corrected ] friend for a friend -- He looked really stout for him and his face was so full of youth and pleasure
[ Page 3 ]
and eagerness of interest as we talked, that it was good only to see [ him corrected ] . The L.L.D. had evidently given pleasure though he was quite shy about it, and blustered a good deal about Harvard College voting for Andrew & Foster and for Leopold morse "that Jew,"* -- He was full of politics but we also touched upon Wallace and my old granduncle whom he used to know in Bradford, grandfather's brother, and we talked about Burns
[ Page 4 ]
[ Page 5 ]
owed to you. (He said once when we were talking (about you alone that he had no such reverence for any friend, that nobody knew what an inspiration you had been and were) -- you were "not like other folks but just right" -- You must imagine him saying these things with his peculiar emphasis ---- and I cannot tell you with what feeling he told me that he did not dare to go to stay long with you for he could not bear having to come away. We had a good
[ Page 6 ]
talk afterward about his not coming last winter -- He said he could not be persuaded by either of us that it was not for his sake ("pity for me") that we wanted him to come and with all your cares, he had not the heart to be another thing to think of -- He wanted to and thought a long while about it and gave it up. I did not press him about coming though I spoke earnestly to make him feel as you [ Page 7 ]
did about it, and we had a dear time. I cannot begin to tell you all -- I told him about the Orpheus* in which he was much interested.
Dear Mouse when did she have a picture taken in a fluffy white dress, holding out her hand to a little barefooted child? So sweet a mouse that I was taken with a sad attack of longing to see you again and even borrowed it of thy friend though
[ Page 7 ]
he made me promise over and over again to give it back! In some ways it is liker you than anything -- it perfectly fascinates me = do tell me all about it -- It would be just like you to have a blessed hoard of one or two, and if you haven't, I must get this copied, that is all! Who is the Pinny?* Oh dear I do want to get hold of you so when I look at it! ( -- All well here -- I go to Portland tomorrow but only for the night.)
[ Up the left margin of p. 1,
in pencil, perhaps in another hand ]
in pencil, perhaps in another hand ]
Now for proofs!*
[ Up the left margin of p. 5 ]
I hope my trunk will get here but I suppose there
[ Up the left margin of p. 6 ]
is no doubt -- I can go anyway but without my best bunnit --
[ Up the left margin and then across the
top margin of p. 7 ]
(What a three days I have had! Thy friend says he knows nothing so fine as Mr. Brooks's sermon,* & I must read it --
Your own
S.O.J.
S.O.J.
Notes
1886: Fields penciled in notes: "1897?" "Written at Mr. Whittier's house at Amesbury" in the upper right of page 1. She also has deleted "dear" in the greeting and inserted below "darling" -- "Mrs. Fields".
Other penciled notes at top left of the page may not be by Fields: "p. 128" and "Sarah Orne Jewett Letters".
Jewett mentions Whittier's honorary degree as a recent event. He received an LL.D. from Harvard University during the celebration of Harvard's 250th Anniversary on 8 November 1886. James Russell Lowell (February 22, 1819 - August 12, 1891) presented an oration as part of the celebration. President and Mrs. Grover Cleveland also attended.
That Whittier's birthday seems to be approaching, makes it likely that the letter was composed on a Wednesday not long before that date, 17 December.
but: Jewett seems to have written very hurriedly, for this word in her script reads "hel," her letters not fully formed, her final T not crossed. Other words show similar problems.
dear friend: John Greenleaf Whittier. See Key to Correspondents.
coming company: Presumably, Whittier refers to his approaching birthday on 17 December, which in his latter years was a stressful as well as gratifying time, when he received many letters and visits from well-wishers.
Fuff: Nickname for Annie Adams Fields. See Key to Correspondents.
Leopold Morse (1831-1892) was a German Jewish immigrant who became a Boston clothing store owner, Democratic politician, serving in the U.S. Congress, and, in 1884, president of the Post Publishing Company, publisher of the Boston Post newspaper. He won election to Congress in November 1886.
While Harvard College students may have voted for alum John Forrester Andrew (1850-1895), 1886 Democratic candidate for Massachusetts governor, he did not win election that year. Having served in the Massachusetts legislature in the early 1880s, he later served two terms as Massachusetts 3rd district congressman in the U.S. House. One may wonder about the apparent antisemitism of Whittier's remark and Jewett's repetition.
Andrew's Democratic running mate for governor was Frank Keys Foster (1854-1909), a labor leader and newspaper editor who assisted in the founding of the American Federation of Labor.
Jewett has underlined "Foster" 6 times, and she seems clearly not to have capitalized "morse."
Wallace ... grand uncle... Burns ... Julian Hawthorne ... Lowell, and the President and Mrs. Cleveland, and ... Lowell's oration:
Wallace: Which Wallace Jewett refers to is uncertain. However at this time, British naturalist and author, Alfred Russel Wallace (1823-1913) began a 10-month lecture series in the United States on a variety of topics, mainly on Darwinism, but also on a topic possibly of greater interest to Fields and Jewett, spiritualism.
my old grand-uncle ...Bradford: which of Jewett's grand-uncles Whittier knew at Bradford (Massachusetts?) is not known.
Robert Burns: Burns (1759-1796) was a Scots poet.
Julian Hawthorne: Hawthorne (1846-1934) was the son of Nathaniel Hawthorne, and the author of several books.
Grover Cleveland: Cleveland (1837-1908) is the only American President to serve nonconsecutive terms (1885-89 and 1893-97).
(He: This and the remaining parenthesis marks on this page were penciled in by Fields.
Orpheus: Fields's Orpheus: a Masque was published in 1900.
Dear Mouse: Mouse is another nickname for Annie Fields. Fields has penciled a parenthesis mark before "Dear" and then deleted it.
Pinny: Pinny Lawson (Pinny / Pin) was an affectionate nickname for Jewett, used by her and Annie Fields. See Key to Correspondents.
However, in this case, Jewett seems to refer to the little girl in the photograph, identifying herself with that person.
night.): These parentheses were penciled in by Fields. The opening consists of three marks, two open parenthesis and one closed.
proofs: The proofs Jewett mentions may be final proofs for The Story of the Normans, which appeared at the end of the year.
Mr. Brooks's sermon: Phillips Brooks. See Key to Correspondents. Which sermon Whittier means is not known.
The parenthesis mark at the beginning of this passage was penciled 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.
Annie Fields Transcription
Fields includes a passage from this letter in Letters of Sarah Orne Jewett (1911), p. 128.
South Berwick,
Wednesday Afternoon
I longed to send you a note this morning,
but unluckily I didn't have any paper upstairs, and had to leave
soon after breakfast, or before half-past eight, so I didn't like
to ask for writing materials! I was so glad that I went. "Thy dear
friend" was so glad to see me, and we sat right down and went at
it, and with pauses at tea-time, the conversation was kept up
until after ten. He was even more affectionate and dear than
usual, and seemed uncommonly well, though he had had neuralgia all
day and made out to be a little drooping with the assistance of
the weather and coming company. But oh, how rich we are with "thy
friend" for a friend! He looked really stout for him, and his face
was so full of youth and pleasure and eagerness of interest, as we
talked, that it was good only to see him. The LL. D. had evidently
given pleasure, though he was quite shy about it. He was full of
politics, but we also touched upon Wallace and my old grand-uncle,
whom he used to know in Bradford, grand-father's brother; and we
talked about Burns and "thy friend's" "Aunt Jones," who believed
in witches, and he told a string of his delicious old country
stories, and we went over Julian Hawthorne and Lowell, and the
President and Mrs. Cleveland, and I told him how Lowell's oration
made me feel, and I don't know what, or who else, except you and
your dearest one, for he talked about you both in a heavenly way
of your friendship and how much he owed to you. [After a visit to Mr. Whittier's house at Amesbury.]
Annie Adams Fields to Sarah Orne Jewett
[ About 9 December 1886 ]*
I got the silk braids, dear, for 38 cents each and I think them a pretty as well as useful addition. ^The threaded needles are not to be bought{.}^ If we can get the stylographics* for 50 it really seems to me it would be well. But I will leave that to your judgment. Because if we have the ink bottles as we mean to do it will bring the cost up to two dollars each even with a cheaper handle and pens -- But they will be delightfully useful things and pretty too --
About sending the poems to Linnet!* I think he will send them back because he has made up his mind that it is not your vocation -- Still if he would take the trouble to [ utilise ? ] them it would be worth sending -- I think he grudges your sending things elsewhere
[ Page 2 ]
I am much interested about the Sunshine Holiday,* but I think you have forgotten another title which I thought uncommonly good.
I long to get at Arnold's* books -- I have never read them you know, -- These you are reading now --
How sorry I am about your precious eyes -- Did you write to Dr. Crain as H.M.* bade you?
It was very pleasant at the Winches last night! Mr. Lang* came in with us{.} Sometime
[ Page 3 ]
(Mr. Winch) is shivering over the idea of his concerts. He, like Appleton Brown* insists* upon [ losing ? ] his chances for lack of courage. What a lesson it is.
Good night darling. God bless you. How the great snowstorm wraps us in his arms tonight.
your loving
A.F.
A.F.
Notes
1886: In December of 1886, Fields and Jewett exchanged several letters regarding making up what appear to have been charity gift boxes. This letter is part of that conversation.
stylographics: an early form of fountain pen.
Linnet: Thomas Bailey Aldrich nickname. Key to Correspondents.
Sunshine Holiday: Jewett considered "The Sunshine Holiday" as the title for the story she eventually called "The Courting of Sister Wisby," published in Atlantic Monthly in May 1887.
See Fields to Jewett of 4 December 1886.
Dr. Crain as H.M.: H.M. almost certainly is Helen Merriman. Key to Correspondents.
Dr. Crain has not yet been identified.
Winches ... Lang: Boston musical artists William J. Winch (1847- ), tenor, John F. Winch, bass, and Mrs. John Winch, alto, made up a musical family performing in Boston from the 1870s.
Boston organist Benjamin Johnson Lang (1837-1909).
Appleton Brown: John Appleton Brown. Key to Correspondents.
insists: This word is underlined twice.
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
Friday morning
[ 10 December 1886 ]*
Dear Mouse[ 10 December 1886 ]*
(What a nice long letter it was last night! I had a beautiful good time with it -- almost like seeing you. I have so many things to say but they are beginning to wait now until I see you. I think that will be certainly a week from Tuesday and perhaps Monday -- It will depend!)
[ Page 2 ]*
I have got over the snowstorm now and felt very well yesterday afternoon and did a good deal. I hope to finish the sketch today. Things are always longer than ropes when you have to copy them but this is really only fifty-five or six pages* -- just about right I think for what it is. I long to read it to you. I[ Page 3 ]
dont know where I have laughed so over anything that belonged to me! --( -- I hope your picture sale* has been prosperous -- but I am afraid it wont 'draw' [ deleted word ] as it did last year -- People would buy one who would care about two! What a beautiful bright day. I suppose the "Swedenborgian obsequies" will take place -- I hope
[ Page 4 ]
(poor Mrs. Perkings* will be satisfied with the proceedings. What true country-people they are with a city all round them -- -- I have got every thing of my part of the list except the sealing wax, but I can easily get that when I come and you mustn't think about it. There was some in town! but only the big red sticks and I thought they wouldn't fit in -- Good by dear darlingfrom Pin
I got such a nice scissors!)
Notes
10 December 1886: Fields notes in pencil top right of page 1: Winter? 1886. This date is supported by the recent death of Fields's neighbor, Richard Perkins, on 6 December 1886. Jewett seems to refer to his funeral in this letter, meaning that it probably was written soon after the death. See notes below.
Mouse: Mouse is a nickname that Jewett and Fields used with each other. Jewett signs the letter with one of her nicknames, Pin., for Pinny Lawson. See Key to Correspondents.
The parenthesis mark at the beginning and all other such marks were added in pencil by Fields.
Page 2: At the top left, Fields has penciled the note: begin.
pages: Probably, Jewett is writing "The Courting of Sister Wisby" Atlantic Monthly 59 (May 1887). Jewett said in a letter of 19 November 1886 that she intended to complete work on this sketch after finishing with The Story of the Normans, and in her letter to Fields of 5 December 1886, she indicates that she has been working on this story.
picture sale: See Jewett to Fields of 5 December, the Allen Art Gallery.
"Swedenborgian obsequies" ... Mrs. Perkings: Probably, Jewett refers to the recent death of Richard Perkins and his funeral. See Jewett to Fields of 5 December 1886.
Mrs. Perkings is Catherine (Mrs. Richard) Perkins, Fields's next-door neighbor at 146 Charles Street.
This letter suggests that the Perkins were members of the New Church. Locally, that may have been the Church of the New Jerusalem (Swedenborgian) in Cambridge, Massachusetts, which dates from 1901, though the congregation began in the 1880s. Among Jewett's acquaintances, the family of Theophilus Parsons belonged to the founding congregation. 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
12. M. Friday --
Darling: When I think you cannot have a letter from me tonight I
am more than sorry, but I really was too spent this morning to get
up and write, and last [ evening ? ] Mr. Warren* ( of the
Herald you remember ) and Mr. [ Quincy ? ] were here all
the evening. Mr. Warren was most interesting. But I am going to
lie down a few minutes before going on to you --[ 10 December 1886 ]*
1.30 -- Here I am again "all right"! But oh!
[ Page 2 ]
how I am longing to talk with you. I am grieved to think of the twinges this damp weather is giving you and how little you can get [ out ? ] -- As for me, I am forced out on all kinds of business and keep strong and vigorous on the whole thereby.
Mr. Allen's sale goes on pretty well, not
[ Page 3 ]
quite so [ sociably ? ] as Mrs Whitman's fair where they made more than [ unrecognized word ] -- $650.00 yesterday* {.} It is really wonderful. She was very gay this morning and tomorrow she has her artists reception -- She said last night at the Fair was the best of social good times -- Mr. Brooks* was there of course -- But I did not [ carry ? ] anybody any thing they could offer
[ Page 4 ]
in exchange for my talk with those two gentlemen. I like Mr. Warren immensely. I wish I could know something more of him. He is writing a valuable series of papers and will help our work.
Yes, dear, the [ pocket ? ] book was made by our little [ bride or birdie ? ] Hatzen.* I am so glad you like it -- I found your old one was too shabby to return.
I have been to Mr. Perkins's funeral* today at the Swedenborgian church{.} The services were very good indeed --
I think on the whole some new pen holders and - [ 9 ? ] pens will answer{.}
[ Up the left margin of page 1 ]
you are tempted to get them at home -- dear
[ Up the right margin of page 1
]
you must remember they will have to be an
[ Up the left margin of page 2 ]
[ inch ?] shorter than this sheet [ nearly ? ]{.}
[ Up the left margin of page 3
]
[ Up the right margin of page 3
]
Ever and ever your own A.F.
Notes
1886: References to Mr. Allen's sale and Mr. Perkins's funeral tie this letter to a number of letters composed in December 1886. See notes below.
Warren ... Herald ... Quincy: These people remain unknown. The number of "Heralds," "Warrens," and "Quincys" to which Fields could refer is large.
Allen's sale: Probably this was Rev. Frederick Baylies Allen (1840-1925), an Episcopalian clergyman who became involved in multiple social and moral reform organizations in Boston, including the local Shamut Working Girls Club. Also he was an artist, whose work may have been for sale near Christmas of 1886 as part of a fund-raising effort. Or, he may have organized an art sale featuring several local artists. In 1886, he was assistant to Phillips Brooks at Trinity Church, Boston. See Correspondents.
Mrs Whitman: Sarah Wyman Whitman. Key to Correspondents.
yesterday: This word is underlined twice.
Hatzen: This transcription is uncertain, and this person has not yet been identified.
Mr. Perkins's funeral: Richard and Catherine Perkins were next-door neighbors to Fields at 146 Charles Street, Boston. Though details are scarce, it appears that he died near 7 December 1886. Probably the funeral was held on Friday 10 December. See Jewett to Fields of 7 and 10 December 1886.
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
[ 11 December 1886 ]*
Was it not wonderful that dear Mrs Whitman* should buy one of Allen's pictures* in our behalf !!! How endlessly giving she is --
Pinny* has done nobly about the box but we must get some cheap pen holders instead of the stylos --*
I shall not go to the reception this afternoon; partly because I have absolutely declined to go to the Saturday Charity meetings. I really think it is better to stay here one afternoon -- I am sorry on every account but
[ Page 2 ]
my brain is tired by Saturday -- This sounds very weak -- I fear it is so -- but it is [ instinctive ? ] as well as reasonable -- so I yield{.} I am glad to the bottom of my heart that you are better -- It has been wretched weather for you, though it is divine in town { -- } most inspiring -- I am getting off all the foreign Christmas letters this week. I have to get a paper in order too for Roxbury -- Monday p.m. -- ^I hope this will be the last for a long time -- ^
Good bye -- Heaven bless you my darling --
your A.F.
about half the pictures sold{.}
Notes
December 1886: This letter seems to follow directly upon Fields to Jewett of 10 December. See note below on Rev. Allen's pictures.
Mrs Whitman: Sarah Wyman Whitman. Key to Correspondents.
Allen's pictures: Probably this was Rev. Frederick Baylies Allen (1840-1925), an Episcopalian clergyman who became involved in multiple social and moral reform organizations in Boston, including the local Shamut Working Girls Club. Also he was an artist, whose work may have been for sale near Christmas of 1886 as part of a fund-raising effort. Or, he may have organized an art sale featuring several local artists. In 1886, he was assistant to Phillips Brooks at Trinity Church, Boston. See Correspondents.
Pinny: A nickname for Jewett.
stylos: An early form of fountain pen.
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 Mary Victoria Novello Cowden Clarke*
South Berwick
^Maine U.S.A.^
11 December
[ 1886 ]*
Notes^Maine U.S.A.^
11 December
[ 1886 ]*
My dear Mrs Cowden-Clarke
I have been meaning to thank you for the pleasure I had in your charming little story of Uncle, Peep and I.* It is the kind of book I liked best in my childhood and still keep a place in my heart for and
always manage to find plenty of time to read though other books are passed by!
In this New England winter weather I like to be able to look through your windows over the bay of Genoa -- I hope that this note will reach you in time to give my warm Christmas
greeting to you and your brother and sister. I shall go to town in a few days now and spend my Christmas time as usual with Mrs Fields* so you must think of us together.
I send you my last little story-book* (for grown-up people) and hope that you will find time to
look it over someday, for it carries a most affectionate remembrance from yours faithfully
Will you not give my best regards to your sister Mrs [ Searle so spelled ] and say that someday we must have another sight at the fireworks! How well I remember that evening at Westward House.
I have been meaning to thank you for the pleasure I had in your charming little story of Uncle, Peep and I.* It is the kind of book I liked best in my childhood and still keep a place in my heart for and
[ Page 2 ]
always manage to find plenty of time to read though other books are passed by!
In this New England winter weather I like to be able to look through your windows over the bay of Genoa -- I hope that this note will reach you in time to give my warm Christmas
[ Page 3 ]
greeting to you and your brother and sister. I shall go to town in a few days now and spend my Christmas time as usual with Mrs Fields* so you must think of us together.
I send you my last little story-book* (for grown-up people) and hope that you will find time to
[ Page 4 ]
look it over someday, for it carries a most affectionate remembrance from yours faithfully
Sarah O. Jewett
Will you not give my best regards to your sister Mrs [ Searle so spelled ] and say that someday we must have another sight at the fireworks! How well I remember that evening at Westward House.
1886: Associated with this letter is an envelope addressed to Mary Cowden Clarke at the Villa Novello in Genoa, Italy, cancelled in Portsmouth, NH in September 1888. While this envelope probably is from Jewett, as noted on the back side, it clearly is not the envelope in which this December letter was mailed. The cancellation on the back of the envelope is dated 10 September in English, suggesting that this is the likely date the letter left the United States.
Cowden Clarke's children's novel, Uncle, Peep and I, was published in 1886. It seems likely that this letter was composed in that year.
Clarke: Mary Victoria (Novello) Cowden Clarke (1809-1898) was a British author and Shakespeare scholar. Her father was musician and music publisher, Vincent Novello (1781-1861). Among her 10 siblings were music publisher Alfred Novello (1810-1896) and the famed operatic soprano Clara Anastasia Novello (1818-1908). Her sister Cecilia married the dramatist, author, actor and journalist, Thomas James Serle (1788-1889).
Fields: Annie Adams Fields. See Key to Correspondents.
book: Jewett's story collection from 1886 was A White Heron and Other Stories.
This transcription appears here by permission of Special Collections and Galleries, Brotherton Library, University of Leeds, UK, the holder of the manuscript: BC MS NCC (Novello-Cowden Clarke) Letter from Jewett, Sarah Orne to Cowden Clarke, Mary Victoria (8 Sep 1888) 1 letter, INDEX/LETTERS/28009. Written consent for reproduction/publication/commercial use must be obtained from the Head of Special Collections, Brotherton Library.
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Annie Adams Fields to Sarah Orne Jewett
Saturday P.M.
[ Probably 11 or 18 December 1886 ]*
My darling: your dear note is just here and I run to my desk to say a word or two -- First: may I send you the [ Norton: Carlyle and Mr Brooks's, sermons?* so punctuated ] I have not done so because you [ said corrected ] "don't [ deleted quotation mark ] -- I will read them when I come" but it is not too late if you are the mood.
Second: please mail "The Critic" to S.H. Adams*
123 Potsdamer Strasse
bei Mrs Phillips
Berlin
[ Deleted word ]
When you have read it &
[ Page 2 ]
I am sending Marigold* a copy of Lowell's "Democracy{.}" Pinny* to write to her when she can and that will do for this year because it is late --
Latty Fairchild* has been here just now and half a dozen others and we have had tea and I think it was pleasant, at least I hope so{.} They all asked for Pin -- except Mrs. [ Lanciani ? ]* who did not know her and so could not ask !!
[ & ? ] the [ bundle ? ] came safely and
[ Page 3 ]
not only that but I thanked you for it! but I am going to say it all over again first because perhaps the letter was lost and second because I think it is an excellent creature and 3d* because you were a very dear little girl to get one for Fuff too !!!!
Notes
1886: This letter almost certainly was composed in December 1886, when Fields and Jewett were preparing their Christmas gifts together. The main support for this choice in this text is Fields's offer to send Jewett a volume of Charles Eliot Norton's edition of Carlyle's letters, which Fields reports reading in December of 1886.
Norton: Carlyle ... Brooks's sermons: American author and Harvard University professor of art, Charles Eliot Norton (1827-1908) published Carlyle's letters and reminiscences in several volume in 1886, 1887, and 1888.
For Phillips Brooks, see Key to Correspondents. Volumes of his sermons were published regularly during his lifetime.
S. H. Adams: Fields's sister, Sarah Holland Adams. See Fields in Key to Correspondents.
Marigold ... Lowell's Democracy: Mary Greenwood Lodge and James Russell Lowell. Key to Correspondents. Fields refers to Lowell's Democracy and Other Addresses (1886).
Pinny: Jewett nickname.
Latty Fairchild: Probably this is the painter Lucia Fairchild Fuller, sister of Jewett correspondent Sally Fairchild. In 1886, Lucia Fairchild would have turned 14. Key to Correspondents.
Lanciani: Though it is difficult to be certain, it seems likely this is Mary Ellen Rhodes Lanciani (1842-1914), wife of the Italian archaeologist Rodolfo Lanciani (1845-1929).
3d :This word is underlined 3 times.
Fuff: A Fields nickname.
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 Louisa Dresel
Christmas night
[1886]
My dear Loulie:
What a dear girl and what a dear picture! and now I ought to say what dear girls and the splendidest calendar that ever crossed the sea! Do thank Miss Brockhaus1 for thinking of the new friend whom she has not seen, and doing this charming thing for a faraway Christmas. Indeed I care very much for the picture. I like it with a growing liking and Mrs. Fields, who knows, says it is the very best yet, and that Loulie is -- well, that must wait to be told and not written.
I sent you the little Wordsworth,2 because this summer I have waked up to such a wonderful new glimpse and wide understanding of some poems that I did not know before, and I am in such a corresponding hurry that everybody else should look through the same window!
Forgive this hurried note because with all its blots and blunders it is very full of true gratitude for your dear kindness and I am
Your sincere and affectionate friend,
Sarah O. Jewett
Notes
1Marianne Brockhaus, a young German girl Dresel met on one of her frequent trips abroad, who remained a devoted friend and correspondent for many years. When Jewett died, Miss Brockhaus wrote from Dresden to Fields, in part: "I shall always count the hours spent with you both among my most precious recollections & shall never forget the atmosphere of perfect sympathy & understanding in your sweet companionship. The literary world of America lost much but only those who knew her can feel with you, nearer and dearer to this rare woman than anyone else. I am proud to have known her and feel grateful to her for great kindness as well as for opening my eyes to various things in American character that a foreigner never would have appreciated but for her books."
2Selections from
Wordsworth. With a brief sketch of his life. (R. Clarke
& Co.: Cincinnati, 1886), 40 pp.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Louisa Loring Dresel
[1886. probably in another hand, upper left corner of page 1]
148 Charles St.
Sunday December 26th
[1886]*
Sunday December 26th
[1886]*
Dear Loulie
You are no less than my fairy god child! Thank you for the dear watercolour which I love very much and keep like a bit of summer country in this wintry town and thank you too for the charming book-clasps which [ will written over letters ] always be a treasure
[ Page 2 ]
too -- I shall ask you all about the quaint silver-smithery, where you found it and how you could bear to give it away when I see you. That must be very soon but in the mean time I send you my best wishes for the last of the old year and the whole of the new to you and Mrs. Dresel.
[ Page 3 ]
I hope you had a happy Christmas. I am sure you did, for the first one in the new house,
Yours lovingly
Sarah O. Jewett
Notes
1886: This letter appears here because of the date that appears on the manuscript, even though that is problematic. This follows another Christmas letter to Louisa Dresel, dated by Richard Cary in 1886. It is unlikely that both are from the same year, but this problem has not yet been resolved.
The manuscript of this letter is held by Columbia University Libraries Special Collections in the Sarah Orne Jewett letters, Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College, from a Columbia University Libraries microfilm copy of the manuscript.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Emma Lewis Coleman
28th December 1886
[ Begin letterhead ]
148. Charles Street.
Boston.
[ End letterhead ]
148. Charles Street.
Boston.
[ End letterhead ]
My dear Miss Coleman*
I hardly know how to thank you for the pleasure these photographs give me. I look and look again at the harbour-road with the Harmon Elms,* and
[ Page 2 ]
feel as if I were taken back to the York of many summers ago. Even before I knew Mifs Lane and Mifs Baker,* long years ago when there was nothing in the world to do but drive about with my father I remember going to the Donnell house* and seeing the master and mistress
[ Page 3 ]
of it and being regaled with a sight of their big gay glass mugs and chinaware by way [of ? ] treat -- It was even longer ago than the kittenhood of their far-famed big cat!
The other pictures are truly a bit of York summer here in this wintry town. I think you were most kind to give them to me. Sometime I wish very
[ Page 4 ]
much to see the rest of your photographs -- and next summer we will try to make sure of getting the [South written over a word ?] Berwick part taken.
Believe me yours
gratefully and sincerely
Sarah O. Jewett
gratefully and sincerely
Sarah O. Jewett
Notes
Coleman: Jewett spells "Miss" as "Mifs." She continues with this spelling through the letter.
Harmon Elms: This reference remains obscure. A York Harbor hotel of the 19th century was named Harmon Hall. Jewett may refer to elms associated with this hotel. One may speculate that the Harmon elms became the Chantrey elms in Deephaven; a Woodbury drawing of these appears at the beginning of "Deephaven Society" in the 1893 edition of Deephaven.
Donnell house: The Donnell House was an early resort hotel at Long Sands beach, York Beach, ME. In the 1890s, the manager was B. G. Donnell. Information about the proprietors and their cat in the period Jewett refers to (about 1855-1865) has not yet been located.
Mifs Lane and Mifs Baker: Jewett refers to the American landscape and genre painter, Susan Minot Lane (1832-1893) and American historian, Charlotte Alice Baker (1833-1909). In the 1880s, Jewett, Lane, Baker and Coleman collaborated in producing a group of photographic illustrations for Deephaven (1877). Though no edition including these images was published, Coleman created at least one extra-illustrated copy as a gift to Baker in 1907.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Small Library, University of Virginia, Special Collections MSS 6218, Sarah Orne Jewett Papers. The envelope associated with this letter is addressed to 704 Tremont St., Boston. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Elizabeth Cabot Cary Agassiz to Annie Adams Fields and Sarah Orne Jewett
[ Begin letterhead ]
Quincy Street,
Cambridge.
[ End letterhead ]
Quincy Street,
Cambridge.
[ End letterhead ]
[ After 25 December 1886 ]*
Dear friends,* -- It touched me very nearly
that you should send me Sarah's dear story* of her quaint old
ladies with their modern "fronts" and "frizettes" -- to [ unrecognized
word ] back their origin in the days of [ our ? ]
youth [ when ?] every grandmother [ of ? ]
that
[ Page 2 ]
generation wore some such adornment over their brows. Curiously they wore them before their own brown glossy locks had [ unrecognized word ] [ away ? corrected ].
How was your Christmas dear friend. Mine which has been overflowing with young folks was a was a [ long ? ] quiet day enlivened by remembrances, -- and
[ Page 3 ]
[ dear ? ] niece Georgia Cary* came out to pass the day & night with me and she made it very cheerful.
Goodbye dear friend{.}
I hope that one of [ those ? ] days I shall [ drive ? ] to your door again{.}
Your old & loving friend
Elizabeth C. Agassiz
Elizabeth C. Agassiz
Notes
1886: This date is speculative, resting on the 1886 publication date of the Sarah Orne Jewett story mentioned in the opening. See note below.
friends: Agassiz appears to have written "friends," but her handwriting is eccentric and this is uncertain. After this opening, she seems to address only one person. Still, I have tentatively assumed that the letter is addressed to both Fields and Jewett.
story: Agassiz refers to Jewett's "The Dulham Ladies," first published in Atlantic Monthly in April 1886. See Key to Correspondents.
Georgia Cary: This transcription is uncertain, but this is likely to be Georgiana Shelton Cary (b. 1860), daughter of Agassiz's brother, Civil War Union casualty, Richard Cary (1836-1862). Stedman Families Research Center.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Huntington Library, San Marino, CA, James Thomas Fields papers and addenda mssFI 1-5637, Box 1. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Helen Hunt to Sarah Orne Jewett
[ Begin letterhead ]
[ End letterhead ]
My dear Miss Jewett| CUPPLES, UPHAM & CO., PUBLISHERS, BOOKSELLERS, AND IMPORTERS 283 WASHINGTON STREET. |
CHARLES L. DAMRELL HENRY M. UPHAM JOSEPH GEO. CUPPLES Boston, Dec 30 1886* |
[ End letterhead ]
Among the many beautiful [ unrecognized word ] which your many friends will send you, will you accept the enclosed from me.
With them I send my sincerest wishes and most affectionate regards -- sending them as I do in slight circumstances of [ how ? ] you have brightened my life with happiness whenever I have seen you; or taught me to make the best of what is hard in the life of one alone, & far from my own people. God bless you, & in the words of Tiny Tim* "God bless us every one{.}"
Very affectionately your friend
Helen Hunt*
Helen Hunt*
Notes
1886: The underlined portions of the letterhead were filled in by hand.
Tiny Tim: A character in A Christmas Carol (1843) by British author, Charles Dickens (1812-1870). Wikipedia.
Hunt: The author of this letter has not been identified. Helen Hunt Jackson, a seemingly likely possibility, died on 12 August 1885.
On the back of this letter is a penciled note that I am not able to make out. There may be 7 words, the last of which is "letters." It is initialed "H.H."
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library of Harvard University: Sarah Orne Jewett Correspondence I, Letters to Sarah Orne Jewett.
Hunt, Helen. 1 letter; 1886. (107).
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.
Letters probably from 1886
Sarah Orne Jewett to Louisa Loring Dresel
Thursday
[ 1886 ]*
Dear Loulie[ 1886 ]*
I am sorry to hear that you are not feeling well today and I send you my politest wishes for a quick recovery. I have been quite weakly myself for some days but this afternoon in spite of everything being against it I have discovered myself quite limber and frisky. I am beginning to do a little writing now at half past four, and tomorrow
[ Page 2 ]
I shall expect to be very well indeed. I send you a perfectly beautiful story book which I should like to have again within thirty six hours at the utmost for I cannot possibly wait longer than that before I read it straight through again -- A great emergency is not to be read first: you must turn to Madam
[ Page 3 ]
Liberality in the last of the booky and weep a little, and remember that it is partly an autobiography of Mrs. Ewing* herself. It is so touching and wise and sweet and some of it reminds me of my own plays and sore throats.
Then you must read the first story and see what watercolor pictures there are all along -- and take particular note of the
[ Page 4 ]
[ deleted letters ] boy's coming out of the dockyard gate and meeting the sailor going in "with a ship's name on his hat" -----
= I am going out to dinner tonight and if you hear voices of sailors under your windows, lowering the bower anchor,* you will know it is I, coming home by sea.
Yours affectionately
S. O. J.
S. O. J.
Notes
1886: This date has been added in another hand and different ink to the top left corner of page 1. I have chosen to accept it, though the rationale is not known. See notes below for problems with this date.
Mrs. Ewing: Juliana Horatia Gatty Ewing (1841-1885) was an English author of children's stories, including A Great Emergency and Other Tales (1897). "Madam Liberality" is the final story of this volume. The account of meeting the sailor at the dock yard gate appears on p. 53, but -- while this edition is illustrated -- there does not appear to be an illustration of this event. Presumably, Jewett is looking at a more fully illustrated edition or perhaps thinking of scenes Dresel might paint.
This title seems not to have been published in the United States before 1895. While Jewett certainly could have had access to earlier British editions, the book was more easily available to her at a later date.
The first color-illustrated edition, with 8 color plates by M. V. Wheelhouse, apparently was published in 1911, after Jewett's death.
bower anchor: Usually a pair of anchors permanently attached to the bow of a ship, ready to drop quickly in the case of an emergency.
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
Evening
[ 1886 ]*
[ 1886 ]*
I have just come in from such a lovely drive.
I took you there once, round a country-road do you remember
where the goose came out and fought Brownie, poor old bow wow?
Mary* and I discovered a bush of laurel in the
^a^ thicket by the wayside, the first we have ever seen
growing in town. (That was indeed an event. Oh my dear girl I
do want to see you
[ Page 2 ]
Good night dear
from your P.L.*
from your P.L.*
Notes
1886: This date is merely a guess. The letter contains little information to help with dating. Clearly it was composed after the summer of 1882, when Fields and Jewett went to Europe. Brownie, the Jewett dog, is first mentioned in a letter to Eben Norton Horsford of 27 October 1881. As a dog seldom lives longer than 13 years, this letter probably was composed before 1894.
Other hints may narrow this range a little. Fields has visited Jewett in South Berwick at least once before this letter. Jewett's reference to a study suggests that she and Mary may be residing in the Jewett-Eastman house, where she grew up, rather than in the Sarah Orne Jewett house next door, where she was born and died, which became her residence in 1887. Taking these hints would place the letter in the middle 1880s.
Mary: Mary Rice Jewett. See Key to Correspondents.
P.L.: Pinny Lawson (Pinny / Pin) was an affectionate nickname for Jewett, used by her and Annie Fields. See Key to Correspondents.
Fields has penciled a line to the right of "Good night dear" and "from your P.L."
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.
Celia Thaxter to Sarah Orne Jewett
[ 1886 ]*
Monday
No cats came & I was so sorry that I thought spite of my weariness, I'd have some of [ them out & go to the house ? ] on the Point to see if they had strayed there.* I found they had! One last night, the other this [ morning ? ]. They were brought home in triumph -- Will send Wed. -- to Mrs D.N.* Goodnight dear, will write [ soon ? ] again.
Your
[ initials C & T superimposed. ]
[ initials C & T superimposed. ]
Notes
1886: Rosamond Thaxter penciled "1885-7" lightly in the upper right corner of this transcription and may have erased it, suggesting that she considered this and then changed her mind. In the absence of any other helpful clue, I have arbitrarily placed this letter in 1886.
Rosamond Thaxter also penciled at the top right of page 1: Kittery Point.
Meralle ... Mrs. T.: Lucy Thaxter Titcomb (1818-1908) was a sister of Thaxter's husband, Levi Thaxter. The transcription of "Meralle" is uncertain, and this person has not yet been identified. She would appear to be an employee at the Kittery Point farm of Thaxter's middle son, John. See Thaxter in Key to Correspondents.
there: Rosamond Thaxter transcribes this passage as follows: "No cats came & I was so sorry that I thought spite of my weariness, I'd have some of the children and go to the beach on the Point to see if they had stayed there." While Thaxter's handwriting is very difficult at this point, I believe my transcription is closer to what she wrote.
Mrs. D.N.: Emily. F. de Normandie (1836-1916), spouse of Unitarian minister, James de Normandie (1836-1924).
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library of Harvard University: Sarah Orne Jewett correspondence MS Am 1743 Box 4, item 211. Thaxter, Celia (Laighton) 1835-1894. 10 letters to Sarah Orne Jewett; 1888-1890 & [n.d.], 1888-1890.
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.
New transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Edited by Terry Heller, Coe College.
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