Sarah Orne Jewett Letters of 1890
John Greenleaf Whittier to Annie Adams Fields
Amesbury
1 Mo 6 [1889 actually 1890 ]*
My dear friend
I am glad thee did not get the "grippe" by
coming to Amesbury and making my birth-day which I dreaded so much
a very happy one. Of course thee cannot realize how much that
visit was to me, nor how pleasantly it lingers in my memory
through these dark winter days.*
I hope my adopted daughter Sarah* is
[ Page 2 ]
with thee now, and that you are both free from the prevailing
epidemic. I have a dread of the "grippe" for I have a distinct
memory of it as it treated me in 1841.*
There seems a prospect for an ice-storm today!
The ice is accumulating on the trees, and there may be a
repetition of the storm of two or three years ago. Every thing
looks grey and ghastly out of doors, and in doors I can read
nothing,
[ Page 3 ]
write nothing, do nothing.
I had the pleasure of sending to Gen Armstrong
at Christmas with my annual subscription, $1,000 which a friend
placed in my hand. I wish our friend could be relieved from the
task of raising money by a hundred such donations.*
I had a letter from U. S. Minister Loring at
Lisbon* yesterday. He speaks of the Ex Emperor as looking very old
and sad, and dwelling upon the past with pathetic devotion. "He
speaks," Mr. Loring says "of you and
[ Page 4 ]
Longfellow and Agassiz* as if you had been his brothers."
Tell Sarah that I made Phebe* happy by a set of
her books for Xmas. I owe her a letter in return for her kind one
from Berwick. My love to her. I think of you both with grateful
affection.
Thy old and ever faithful friend
John G Whittier
I am told the enclosed paper is green, but I am not sure
for red & green are alike to me.
Notes
1890: Pickard writes in the notes for his
transcription: "Whittier dated the letter as 1889, which is
obviously incorrect since he refers to the gift of $1,000 for
General Armstrong which he received in December 1889 and to
Loring's letter which was sent December 22, 1889."
winter days: Pickard writes in the notes for his
transcription: "Whittier wrote to Annie Fields from Amesbury
on December 13, 1889, about the coming birthday: 'I find myself
hardly fit for Birth-day receptions, and came up here yesterday
where I hope the day will pass quietly. I do not know how long I
may stay here -- perhaps for a month, or more. As life draws
nearer the close, one feels desirous to be near the old home and
the unforgotten landscape of youth, and to muse by the same
fire-side where our dear ones used to sit. I can do little but
muse now -- I can read only with difficulty, and I cannot walk
much.'"
Sarah: Sarah Orne Jewett
1841: Pickard notes that Whittier had suffered a
"slight case of the grippe" in the winter of 1841.
such donations: Pickard writes in the notes for his
transcription: "Algernon P. Nichols of Haverhill had sent him the
check. General Armstrong's administration of the Hampton Institute
had been under attack during 1889 over the supposed severe
treatment accorded Indian students. Armstrong had printed a public
letter defending his actions and Whittier wrote a letter to the
Boston Journal on June 22, 1889, also praising
Armstrong."
The Hampton Institute, founded in 1861 to
educate former African American slaves, is now known as Hampton University. The first principal of
the school was General Samuel Chapman Armstrong (1839 - 1893).
U. S. Minister Loring at Lisbon: American physician and
politician George Bailey Loring (1817-1891) was United
States Minister to Portugal 1889-1890.
Dom Pedro II (1825-1891) was the second and
final monarch of Brazil. He became quite popular in the
United States for his democratic and liberal ideas and policies.
A penciled "X" appears at the beginning of this
paragraph.
Longfellow and Agassiz: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and
Swiss-American scientist Jean Louis Agassiz (1807-1873), husband of
Jewett correspondent, Elizabeth Cabot Cary Agassiz. See Key
to
Correspondents.
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
72-4846. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe
College.
This letter has been transcribed previously by
John B. Pickard, Letters of John Greenleaf Whittier. v. 3.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Editors of Century Magazine
148 Charles Street Boston*
9 January
[ 1890 ]
Editors of The Century
Gentlemen
I should very
much like to have the manuscript of my story
In Dark New
England Days, or if that was not kept when the
type-writer copy was made will you kindly send the copy itself
to me for a few days? It will perhaps
[ Page 2 ]
be safest to send it by express, to the above address, care of
Mrs. J. T. Fields.*
I hope that I am not giving you unwarranted
trouble, and send my best thanks in advance.
Pray believe me
Yours sincerely
Sarah O. Jewett
Notes
Boston: It is not clear whether this underlining is
by Jewett or penciled in another hand. In pencil to the left of
this line, probably in another hand: "Sent Jan 10/90".
Days: "In Dark New England Days" appeared in Century
Magazine in October 1890.
Fields: Annie Adams Fields. See Key to Correspondents.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Princeton University
Library, Princeton, NJ: Robert H. Taylor Collection of English and
American Literature RTC01, Box 10, Folder 12. Transcription and
notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
John Greenleaf Whittier to Annie Adams Fields and Sarah
Orne Jewett
Amesbury
Jan. 10 1890*
My dear friends
I was glad to get thy letter this bitter
snow-stormy day. That green rose came from Florida. I half suspect
it was manufactured like Barnum's Wooly Horse and Mermaid.*
I am sorry Phebe*
[ Page 2 ]
failed to appear. I am sure she would have rejoiced to accept thy
invitation if it had depended on herself. At any rate I thank thee
for it and I know she does. Ah! I wish I could take the benefit of
thy kindness and go to 148 Charles.* But, I am quite unable, but I
am happy to think of it and imagine myself there. God bless
you & keep you safe from "la grippe". Love to you both
exceedingly.
J.G.W.
[ Up the left margin of page 2 ]
I enclose a [ unrecognized word ] of [ mine ? ]
which perhaps you have not seen.
Notes
1890: Uncharacteristically, Whittier has written
across the fold on the back side of this sheet, so that what would
normally be pages 2 and 3 on half sheets become a full-sheet page
2.
Barnum's Wooly Horse and Mermaid: American showman Phineas Taylor Barnum (1810 - 1891)
exhibited The Fiji Mermaid in his American
Museum. It consisted of the head and torso of a monkey sewn
to the tail of a fish. The "Wooley
Horse" was a "small maneless horse with wooly hair," that
Barnum displayed as a "new specimen" of horse supposedly collected
by American explorer John C. Frémont (1813-1890) during his
Sierra Nevada survey expedition in the American West (1843-4).
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.
148 Charles: Fields's Boston address.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Huntington Library,
San Marino, CA, in the James T. Fields collection: mss FI
72-4712. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe
College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Louisa Loring Dresel
Tuesday
[ 28 January 1890 ]*
Loulie
I am sorry to say I must give up the pleasure
of the luncheon and of seeing you and the sketches, (the luncheon
should not have been mentioned first!) Mrs. Fields* has had
another cold and now we are ordered South ignominiously by the
doctor ^(to go tomorrow night)^ -- There is a very
[ Page 2 ]
[ omitted great ? ] deal for her to stay at home
for, but it is no use to go on as she has been doing lately, and
we hope that we need not stay very long as it is far safer to come
North in February than in April. We both like St Augustine*
ever so much so it is not so bad as it might be. Do send a
line some day and will not Mrs. Dresel too? it would be such
a joy to A. F.
Yours ever faithfully
S.O.J.
The Ponce de Leon*
St. Augustine Florida
Notes
28 January 1890: This date does not appear on the
manuscript, but on the cataloging cover page. As 28 January
fell on a Tuesday and because it is known that Jewett and Fields
were in St. Augustine, FL in February and early March of 1890,
this date seems probable.
Mrs. Fields: A. F., Annie Adams Fields. See Key
to
Correspondents.
St. Augustine: Jewett and Fields spent about 6 weeks
in Florida in 1890.
Ponce de Leon: Jewett and Fields had enjoyed their stay in
this newly constructed winter tourist hotel in St. Augustine during
their winter trip in 1888.
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 Louisa Loring Dresel
St. Augustine 1 February [1890]
Hotel Ponce de Leon*
Dear Loulie
I thank you so much and so does Mrs. Fields*
for the lovely violets you brought the day we came away. I
wish that I could have seen you before I left (and indeed we did
not mean to start until Thursday night, which would have kept me
from missing the luncheon with you.) but I found that we could not
get the stateroom we needed in the "through car" unless we
[ Page 2 ]
grabbed it next day, which we did! You can imagine what a
scurry it gave us to get ready!
-- I am now sitting, as writers from Southern
hotels always say, "by an open window, with a bouquet of
roses"! I wish indeed that you could see this lovely place,
an ancient Spanish palace in good repair is what I call it.
My window looks out into the great courtyard with its fountain and
palms and magnolia and all their kindred, mixed with the familiar
nasturtiums and bright red geraniums. Yesterday I saw a tall
white hollyhock
[ Page 3 ]
in one of the gardens which gave me a Rip van Winkle* feeling as
if I had slept over into August.
Dear A. F. already feels better and looks
better and hardly coughs at all -- I think the change has done her
a great deal of good if it were only to make her forget the crowd
of duties and engagements and so little strength to meet them
with. It is quite impossible to be energetic here in the
same way as at the North, and yet you never forget that it is sea
air and there is a delicious freshness in it that cannot be
described. I feel like writing
[ Page 4 ]
here just as I did before, and so I hope to get my work well
along.
The stories I promised long ago for "winter
numbers" are one and all dreadfully behind hand. I begin to
think that coming away was a great thing on my part --
I have been thinking what a good sketch you
would make and how much material you would find here. It is
a wonderful place for artists -- more foreign than a great many
towns abroad and so full of color. Mrs. Fields sends love
and is going to answer a [ deleted word ] from Mrs. Dresel
very soon -- I am always affectionately
S.O.J.
You might kindly write a little letter someday !!!
Notes
1890 ... Ponce de Leon: Jewett and Fields had enjoyed their
stay in this newly constructed winter tourist hotel in St. Augustine during
their winter trip in 1888. The year 1890 is added by another
hand to the upper left corner of page 1. Because Jewett and
Fields are known to have spent about 6 weeks in Florida during
February and March of 1890, this date probably is correct.
Mrs. Fields: A. F. Annie Adams Fields. See Key
to
Correspondents.
Rip Van Winkle: From the 1819 short story, by the
American writer Washington Irving (1783-1859), about the American
who magically sleeps in the mountains for 20 years and then
returns home to find his village transformed in the passage of
time.
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 Charles Edgar Lewis Wingate
Hotel Ponce de Leon*
St. Augustine, Florida
3 February 1890
Dear Mr. Wingate
I am afraid that the necessary delay
in my receiving your note of the 28th January
will make the enclosed opinion of no use to you but I take
pleasure in sending it -- I should be glad to send fresh readers
to Mr. Lowell's fine essay,* at any rate, and I think
[ Page 2 ]
in this case he has the final word.
I hope that what I have written will
serve your purpose. If I have written too much, I think you had
better begin with the second paragraph, but I hope that you can
find space for the whole quotation -- I should like very much to
see the result of your work
[ Page 3 ]
when it comes in print. Mrs. Fields* and I are not having the
paper sent regularly.
Yours very truly,
S. O. Jewett
Notes
Hotel Ponce de Leon: This line has been
penciled in, possibly by Jewett.
Mr. Lowell's fine essay: James Russell Lowell. Key
to Correspondents.
Richard Cary writes:
A check of morning and evening editions of the Boston Journal
and of the Critic for this period reveals no word
about Lowell by Miss Jewett, so her communication did probably
arrive too late to be utilized. Reference may be to Lowell's
address to the Modern Language Association, published in PMLA,
V (January 1890), 5-22, and collected in his Latest
Literary Essays and Addresses (Boston, 1892), 131-159,
as "The Study of Modern Languages." Here Lowell applauds the
growth of modern language teaching and refutes the attitude
that masterpieces could only be written in the classical
languages.
Fields: Annie Adams Fields.
Key to Correspondents.
This letter is held by Colby College Special Collections,
Waterville, Maine: JEWE.1. It was originally transcribed, edited
and annotated by Richard Cary for Sarah Orne Jewett Letters.
New transcription and revised notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Wyman Whitman to Sarah Orne Jewett
February, 1890.
Things are many and pretty dull,
albeit they include much work and a little play; refusing to see
folks at the studio door of mornings and bowing and bending at
them of evenings (but most times declining to go where bowing
and bending is in order). ----- has been making aphorisms of
late, on the typewriter, so that they are more than usually
fundamental in their effect! and is dealing damnation out
against what she calls the "deep spiritual sin of the ."*
Notes
deep spiritual sin of the mind-cure: The mind cure was a
movement similar to Christian Science. Charles William Post (of
Post cereals) began his career operating a mind-cure based
health resort in Battle Creek, Michigan. For further information
see Gail T. Parker, The Mind Cure in New England (1973).
Research: Gabe Heller.
This transcription appears in Letters, Sarah Wyman
Whitman. Cambridge, MA: Riverside Press, 1907,
"Letters to Sarah Orne Jewett: 1882-1903," pp. 61-109.
John Greenleaf Whittier to Annie Adams Fields
Amesbury
Feb 14 1890
My dear friend,
The breath of roses and the warm Gulf winds
seemed to come with thy letter. I am glad to think of you among
the flowers and under the sunshine of Florida. I fancy Sarah* at
her [ palace ? ] window open to the air of summer and
perfumed with rose and orange bloom
[ Page 2 ]
"tending her soul," as Omar Khayam* would say, to the bleak
sea-side New England pastures blown over by the bitter East, with
their stunted cedars, and straggling stone fences, -- and a Poor
House with the poverty-stricken landscape for its setting.* I am
glad she has this dual power of seeing New England and Florida at
the same time, and that she never loses sight of the scene she has
depicted as no one
[ Page 3 ]
one else has done. I hope you both will stay where you are
until May day.* You have both earned the right to sit amidst the
roses, and be [ ministered ? ] to, as you have so long [
ministered ? ] to others.
I am still in Amesbury, and, as I can read but
little I know hardly anything of the world's doings. It is rather
hard to be compelled to be idle. I can't
[ Page 4 ]
pity anybody who can work and sleep.
Excuse this poor apology for a letter and read
between its lines the love and gratitude of
John G Whittier
Notes
Sarah: Sarah Orne Jewett.
Omar Khayam: Persian scientist and poet, Omar Khayyam (1048-1131). His ideas about
the human soul are a matter of controversy. He would have been
known to Whittier mainly through the translation of Edward
Fitzgerald, The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam (1859).
setting: Whittier's elaborate description of winter New
England suggests Jewett's forthcoming story, "The Town Poor,"
which appeared in Atlantic Monthly in July 1890. One
may wonder if she showed him this story before its publication.
May day: May 1.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Huntington Library,
San Marino, CA, in the James T. Fields collection: mss FI
72-4835. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe
College.
Annie Adams Fields to Lilian Aldrich
February 22d
-----------
[ 1890 ]*
Dear Lilian:
It really seems too bad to be leaving just as
you are coming to this lovely place! but I have been waiting for
the Dr. to give me leave of absence which I must own he does
rather reluctantly, in order to get away, and having got it, we
fly --
[ Page 2 ]
I should like to think you were to have rooms like ours on the
courtyard! Perhaps you have. A happy stay to you!
Tell dear T.B. to find the Reynolds Rose-garden and see a [
trellis ? ] [ with corrected ] yellow bessies on
it (near sunset) with a "chinaberry* tree in the background. Mifs
Reynolds will show it to him. How we should like to show him
things ourselves!
[ Page 3 ]
Dear Lily and T.B. -- Edwina* and her family are here -- Do speak
to her and make life easier by "letting bygones be bygones".
It will be unpleasant for you on both sides otherwise.
Do it for Mr. Booth's [ sake corrected from
sakes ] and for everybody's sake. She is so much younger that
she has had time to think over many things and has doubtless
changed more or less since her marriage. The match has been a good
one for her. She seems very happy and she is the person to be
suited!!
Good bye ----- from
[ Page 4 ]
yours very affectionately
Annie Fields.
This last is all "out of my own head" a kind
of will and testament -- Do not take it hardly dear
friends! [ Sarah* corrected ] leaves her love in
this with mine.
Notes
1890: While this is not certain, the content of the letter
suggests that it was written in St. Augustine, FL, at the end of
fields and Jewett's second stay there, at the Hotel Ponce de Leon.
The rose garden of Mrs. Reynolds on Bronson
street is mentioned in the guidebook, Chapin's Hand-book of St. Augustine, p.
21.
chinaberry: While there seems to clearly to be an open
quotation mark before the word, there is no closing mark. Also,
the word is written across two lines, and Fields seems to have
hyphenated it twice, once on each line, using =, as she often does
for hyphenation.
Edwina: Edwina Booth (1861-1938), daughter of the
American actor, Edwin Booth (1833-1893) and niece of the
presidential assassin, John Wilkes Booth (1838-1865). Edwina
Booth married Ignatius Grossman in May 1885. Details of the
apparent bad feeling are not yet known. Fields's sentence about
Edwina's youth seems confusing; perhaps she meant to write, "She was
so much younger ...."
Sarah: Sarah Orne Jewett. See Key to Correspondents.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library of
Harvard University: MS Am 1429, Box 6, Items 1446-1538.
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Horace Scudder
148 Charles Street
Boston 22 February
[ 1890 ]
Dear Mr. Scudder
Will you please have half
a dozen of those copies of my photographs printed, like the ones
that were made in the autumn for Mrs. Fields? I mean the ones that
were altered from the photograveur on the advertising [ deleted
letters ] slip. Everybody seems to approve
[ Page 2 ]
the likeness so that I wish it might be used for the portrait
catalogue* instead of the one that is there now -- However! -- it
^that^ gives my friends something to scold me about! -- Mrs.
Fields says that she thinks she paid seventy-five cents apiece for
those that were done for her -- I wonder what made the expense,
for certainly
[ Page 3 ]
the advertising slips were done much cheaper. I wish you would be
kind enough to send me a word about this. There is some question
of using these prints for a book and in a magazine and I should
like to know ^for^ what ^price^ they could be done by the
hundred. I think the paper need not be so good in that case.
I tried to find you the other day at
[ Page 4 ]
4 Park St* and meant to ask you these questions then, but you had
gone back to the Press.
Believe me, with best regards
Yours sincerely
S. O. Jewett
Notes
1889: In the upper right corner of page 1, in another hand,
underlined: "S. O. Jewett". Below Jewett's date on page 1,
is [ 1890 ]. No confirmation for this date appears in the letter,
but I have accepted it in the hope that it was written by someone
at Houghton Mifflin at the time of the letter.
Mrs. Fields: Annie Adams Fields. See Key to Correspondents.
portrait catalogue: The portrait Jewett refers to probably
is the one that appears on p. 79 of A Portrait Catalogue of the Books Published
by Houghton, Mifflin and Company (1905-6). This
would seem to be confirmed by the appearance of this portrait in Outlook,
with an October 1894 reprinting of "The Courting of Sister
Wisby." See the notes for this story.
4 Park St: The Boston office of Houghton Mifflin.
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 Sarah Wyman Whitman
[ February 1890 ]*
Dear, I could make this letter as long as a top s'l halyard with
the things [ that corrected ] could not be said this
morning -- Could you put that letter in your pocket tomorrow which
you were going to read; or will you read it some other day? And
was I so unmindful of my serious business as not to tell you to
read
[ Page 2 ]
all Mr. Burlingame's* letter to me, because he asks to have a
telegram sent about the manuscript --
And about Strangers and Wayfarers* --
would it be any help to have a suggestion that being wayfarers
you could use a staff and a scallop shell but please do make it
even prettier* than Folly Island* because it is our book
----
[ Page 3 ]
-- Theodore* is now your friend countryman and lover. He lost
himself at first in pleasure over your fence -- then came a burst
of silence: then says he: "I thought thshe would be olderly" --
When we neared the railroad crossing "Thshe must have painted that
cat ever so many times" -- but in the Morse woods, "ThShe
is very pleasthant" was
[ Page 4 ]
was uttered with such [ sense corrected ] of deep
conviction and satisfaction that I had to speak with him and not
be "lost so poorly in my own thoughts" after the fashion of Lady
Macbeth* ! !
I hope that you will get here tomorrow night
but not if it is too dark and wet -- it seems some how as if this
weather might last long! You will find A.F.* and me all alone and
so glad if you come and there shall be a
[ Up the left margin of page 1 ]
lantern out. With dear love S.O.J.
Notes
February 1890: This date is supported by Jewett suggesting
ideas for Whitman's book cover design for Strangers and
Wayfarers (1890). See notes below.
Burlingame's: Edward Livermore Burlingame (1848-1922)
was editor of Scribner's (1886-1914). Jewett's only pieces
to appear in Scribner's between 1890 and 1893 were "The
New Methuselah" in April 1890 and "A Little Captive Maid" in
December 1891. Almost certainly, Jewett and Burlingame are
corresponding about "The New Methuselah." In that case, it seems
likely this letter was composed no later than February 1890, or
possibly in early March.
Strangers and Wayfarers: Jewett's Strangers and
Wayfarers appeared in November 1890. Whitman's cover
included 2 decorations, but neither a staff nor a shell.
prettier: Jewett has written this as if she first
wrote "pretty" and then changed the "y" to an "i" and "e."
Folly Island: Jewett's The King of Folly Island appeared
in 1888.
Theodore: Theodore Jewett Eastman, who turned 11 in 1890.
Key to Correspondents.
Lady Macbeth: In Act 2, Scene 2, of William
Shakespeare's Macbeth, Lady Macbeth counsels her husband
to get hold of himself after he slays King Duncan, in order to put
on a show of innocence.
A.F.: Annie Adams Fields. Key to Correspondents.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library of
Harvard University, Cambridge, MA. bMS Am 1743 Box 6, Item
277.
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe
College.
Samuel Longfellow to Sarah Orne Jewett
[ Saturday 1 March 1890 ]*
Dear Miss Jewett
I was sorry on coming home last evening to find
that I had missed seeing you.
Alice's unexpected detention at Jackson on
account of Harry Dana's* attack of measles had prevented the
opening of the box & the hanging of the bay-wreath on the
birthday. But its
[ Page 2 ]
fragrance will long survive, a symbol of the kind & ever
faithful remembrances that sent it from so far.
I am just going to Portland, for my sister, Mrs.
Pierce's* 80th birthday -- as we say, meaning anniversary of the
birth-day, on Monday. I expect to meet Alice there &
shall take Mrs.
[ Page 3 ]
Fields's* letter to her.
If you see the (English) Fortnightly magazine
you will find in the February number a very bright article by our
friend William Fullerton,* on English & Americans. It is
nicely done -- a bit over-done here & there but quite
worth your reading{.}
With kind regards to
[ Page 4 ]
Mrs. Fields, & thanks, too long delayed, for the
flowers sent to my sick-chamber -- your little plant still
flourishes --
Very truly yours
Saml Longfellow
I have news this morning from ^of^ Mr.
Lowell* that he is decidedly better.
Saturday
Notes
1890: See notes below.
Harry Dana's: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Dana
(26 January 1881-1950), was the son of Richard Henry Dana II and
Edith Longfellow, daughter of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. See Key
to Correspondents and Find a Grave.
At note in another hand appears at the bottom
of page 4: "Taken from Final Memorials of Henry Wadsworth
Longfellow, Edited by Samuel Longfellow". Final Memorials
was published in 1887. American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
(27 February 1807 - 1882) was the brother of Samuel Longfellow and
the father of Jewett correspondent, Alice Longfellow.
Presumably, the bay wreath Longfellow mentions
was intended as a remembrance of his brother's birthday on 27
February.
Mrs. Pierce's: Anne
Longfellow Pierce (3 March 1810 - 24 January 1901). Find a Grave.
Fields: Annie Adams Fields. See Key to
Correspondents.
William Fullerton: "English and Americans" by American
author, William Morton Fullerton (1865-1952) appeared in the Fortnightly
Review (February 1980) pp. 242-255. Wikipedia.
Lowell: James Russell Lowell. See Key to
Correspondents.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library of
Harvard University: Sarah Orne Jewett Correspondence I, Letters to
Sarah Orne Jewett.
Longfellow, Samuel, 1819-1892. 1 letter;
[1887?]. (136).
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.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Horace Scudder
148 Charles Street
Saturday
[ 8 March 1890 ]*
Dear Mr Scudder
I send the stories at last with doubts whether
they can all go into an Aldine volume.* If not, may we
choose between the two last? Perhaps you will not agree with my
choice but I feel sure about the first four
[ Page 2 ]
and the White Heron. Some morning early in the week I will
see you about them unless you would rather make a special
appointment* --
Mrs. Fields* sends you this copy of The
Greatest Thing in the World* which she
[ Page 3 ]
feels sure you will like though you may not see "The House's" way
to re-publishing it.
Yours sincerely
Sarah O. Jewett
Notes
8 March 1890: In the upper left corner of page 1, in
another hand, underlined: "Sarah O. Jewett". The date,
penciled in brackets by another hand, is confirmed in the notes
below.
Below Jewett's signature on page 3 are
initials, H.ES., for Horace E. Scudder. See Key to Correspondents.
Aldine volume: Jewett's only book to appear in the Houghton
Mifflin Riverside Aldine series was Tales of New England
(1890).
special appointment: There appear to be initials or
letters beneath "special."
Mrs. Fields: Annie Adams Fields. See Key to Correspondents.
The Greatest Thing in the World: "The Greatest Thing
in the World" (1890) is a sermon by the Scottish biologist and
evangelist Henry Drummond (1851-1897). Though it
was published in multiple editions after 1890, Houghton Mifflin
seems not to have taken it up.
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 Horace Scudder
148 Charles Street
Boston
March 15, 1890
Dear Mr. Scudder:
I will send you an answer to your note
of this morning so that you shall have it early on Monday. I
have not managed yet to get time to look through the stories.
I wished to ask you at once if it
would not be better to push this book through and let it come
out before summer, since it simply makes one of a series, and if
I should make up another volume of short stories in the autumn
they might get into each other's way and 'trip up!' You see, I
betray a sad lack of confidence in my children! You do not
express any disapproval of the title which I put on the cover: Tales
of New England.1 It says itself well and easily
and perhaps will do as well as another, though I was not sure of
that first. You do not think it is too ambitious? But what
are they Tales of, if not ----? --------! says
Yours sincerely,
S. O. Jewett
Notes
1 This book was
published under that title by Houghton, Mifflin & Company in
May 1890 as one of the Riverside Aldine Series. It contained
eight stories culled from four of her previous collections.
Despite her qualms, it was reprinted four times in the next six
years. The other volume she refers to is Strangers and
Wayfarers, eleven stories gathered from the Atlantic
Monthly, Scribner's, Harper's, and Century,
published in November 1890.This too achieved multiple editions
in a short time.
This letter is edited and annotated by Richard Cary in Sarah
Orne Jewett Letters; the ms. is held by Colby College
Special Collections, Waterville, Maine
Sarah Orne Jewett to Houghton
Mifflin & Company
148 Charles Street
16 March 1890*
Messrs Houghton Mifflin & Co.
Gentlemen
I send you a new list of
contents for the Aldine volume.* I like this arrangement better
than the first.
I shall be at South Berwick on Monday and
Tuesday, returning to town on Wednesday.
[ Page 2 ]
What does Mr. Houghton* think of the title Tales of New England?
Yours sincerely
Sarah O. Jewett
Notes
1890: In the upper right corner of page 1, in another hand,
underlined: "Sarah O. Jewett".
Below Jewett's signature on page 2 are
initials, H.E.S., for Horace E. Scudder. See Key to Correspondents.
Aldine volume: Jewett's only book to appear in the
Houghton Mifflin Riverside Aldine series was Tales of New
England (1890).
Mr. Houghton: Henry Oscar Houghton. See Key to Correspondents.
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 Louise Chandler Moulton
Boston, March 19th
[ 1890 ]
[ Letterhead with superimposed initials,
SOJ ]
My dear Mrs. Moulton
I had just come come tired out with a long
half-day's hurrying about, when your dear book* and dearer note
were brought to me. I am so glad you like the roses for I
sent them with a message. I am sure they gave it to you for
[ there ? ] are some flowers that one
[ Page 2 ]
can always trust:
I thought while I was with you yesterday that
I was very sorry you were going away, but today I am somehow
sorrier still, and it seems very strange that I have not seen
you more when it was so easy a thing to go to you if I had only
known{.} I do not like to think of waiting so long, but
[ Page 3 ]
there is a great deal to remember which it would take me longer
than one summer to forget and I think of you over and over
again for many things I have heard you say, and for your kindness
which has come straight to my heart -- You say that I shall know
you better if I read your poems. And that is true enough,
but you already are no stranger
[ Page 4 ]
and is it not the truth always that one is never so confidential
as when one speaks to the whole world = Here is a bit of verse* I
wrote not long ago which seems to be part of this letter and I
cannot help sending it to you. I will not say good-bye to
you for I shall think of you very often and so you will not really
go away. And indeed I shall always be your sincere and
affectionate
Sarah O. Jewett
[ Page 5 ]
Why do I love you? If I told you why
Then you would know the secret that was made
The law that Love has from all time obeyed,
And I should understand a mystery.
From the four corners of the earth have I
Gathered into my heart, all unafraid
The friendships that are mine. This price I paid:
I gave myself for them most willingly.
The life in me a part of all Life is!
One great power moves the whole world on its way;
When I am happiest is when I find
The next of kin to me in hills or seas
Or trees that grow, or flowers that bloom in May
Or you dear love my friend so true and kind.
Notes
dear book: It is likely Moulton has given Jewett
a copy of her 1890 title, Stories told at Twilight (1890).
bit of verse: This sonnet is transcribed by John E.
Frost, appearing in his Sarah Orne Jewett, p. 116.
Jewett's characterization of the author's
confidentiality may be an echo of the opening paragraph of
Nathaniel Hawthorne's "The
Custom-House: Introductory to The Scarlet Letter."
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Library of Congress
in the Louise Chandler Moulton papers, 1852-1908.
MSS33787. This transcription of from a microfilm copy of the
manuscript, on Reel 8 of Microfilm 18,869-15N-15P.
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Houghton Mifflin &
Company
South Berwick
19 March
[ 1890 ]*
Messrs Houghton Mifflin & Co.
I enclose a second list of
the stories -- I return to Boston today and I shall be ready for
the proofs* whenever they are ready for me. By the stories going
at once to press I suppose that you mean to bring out the book
this spring. The more
[ Page 2 ]
I think of that the wiser it seems. I am sure to have a new
bookful ready for the autumn.
Yours very truly
Sarah O. Jewett
Notes
1890: In the upper right corner of page 1, in another hand,
underlined: "Sarah O. Jewett". Near the left
corner is a Houghton Mifflin date stamp: 20 March 1890.
Below Jewett's signature on page 2 are
initials, F.J.G., for Francis Jackson Garrison. See Key to Correspondents.
proofs: Jewett refers to Tales of New England
(1890).
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library of
Harvard University in Houghton Mifflin Company correspondence and
records, 1832-1944, Jewett, Sarah Orne, 1849-1909. 68 letters
from; 1870-1907 and [n.d.]. MS Am 1925 (962). Transcription and
notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Louisa Loring Dresel
Monday morning
[ Late March 1890 ]
Dear Loulie
I find that I can come to luncheon on Thursday,
so I say yes with great pleasure -- .
Mrs. Fields* asks me to say that she wishes
very much that you and Miss Cronyn would dine with us this
evening, very quietly, at
[ Page 2 ]
quarter before seven. Do say yes at once! we hope ever so
much that you can come.
In haste
Yours affectionately
S.O.J.
Notes
Late March 1890: In the upper left corner of page 1,
in another hand appears: March 1890. The rationale for this
choice is not known. If the letter is from March of 1890,
then it must have been written late in the month, after Jewett and
Fields returned from Florida.
Mrs. Fields: Annie Adams Fields. See Key
to
Correspondents.
Miss Cronyn: It is probable that Jewett refers to the
soprano Elizabeth A. Cronyn (1852 - 1921?), the daughter of Dr. John Cronyn (1827-1898), a founder of
the Medical Department of Niagara University. In addition to
her music degree from D'Youville College in Buffalo, NY, she
studied with Otto Dresel, Louisa's father, in Dresden, Germany.
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 Louisa Dresel
Friday morning
[March 21, 1890]
Dear Loulie:
I have claimed my own! but I must let
the little picture live here for Mrs. Fields likes it so much. I
hope you will show her the larger one of Hospenthal1
some day too. Thank you very much for giving this to me, it is a
bit of real life and country. I feel as if I had been in at all
the doors.
I had a very good and dear little
visit at home. Berwick was snowy but very sunshiny until the day
I came away.
I hope you are not too tired by this
time with the bags? I forgot to say that you must mark the
three-handled jar sold. I quite look forward to buying
it at the fair!! and it will look so fine on your table. I am
not sure that I shall not bring it home for a pretty present to
Mrs. Fields and have such a lark and may you be there to see!
But I must not stop to write any more
this busy morning. Yesterday I went to hear Patti,2
who was in exquisite voice and all ready to sing charmingly, but
the audience was so big and so sober minded that it didn't even
take much notice of a ballet between the acts and really didn't
seem to know that Patti was on the stage until she sang "The
Last Rose of Summer" in a divine way. Then it did
make a noise, but no bravos, no wild approval, only
sedate clapping. Somehow it was all very funny, but I never
shall forget some notes in her voice when she sang that song. I
have never heard her sing so before.
Goodbye, with love from
Sarah
My love to Miss Croniger. I hope she
is still with you and that I shall see her again. Perhaps you
can come tomorrow afternoon with her.
Cary's Notes
1An ancient fortified
village on a crag of the St. Gotthard Pass in central
Switzerland, now a popular holiday resort for winter sports. The
heavily wooded landscape, with baroque church and picturesque
castles, lent itself to the painter's eye.
2Adelina Patti
(1843-1919), coloratura soprano born in Spain of Italian
parents, came to the United States as a child, early achieved
international fame, and became the most highly paid singer of
her time. On this occasion she was making her first appearance
in three years -- a series of six operas at the Mechanics'
Building Grand Hall -- in von
Flotow's Martha.
Editor's Notes
Items remain unidentified in this letter, for which assistance
is welcome. What fair were the women preparing for?
Who is Miss Croniger?
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.
Alice Greenwood Howe to Sarah Orne Jewett
Rome
Mch. 25.
[ 1890 ]*
My dear Sarah,
Your letter was much welcome. How I wish you
were here, & rheumatism -- [ "tubes" ? ] far away. We
have had a few mild days, & many cool ones, some truly very
cold, but no rains since landing, except once in [ unrecognized
name ] at night. The air is soft & lovely, but I long
for a really basking time.
We are enjoying every minute. I long to stay on
& on in the charming south, after [ unrecognized word
] & Amalfi, but like Länzer* we were carried "Nach Rom, nach
Rom", and [ our ? ] two weeks here have been most full
& interesting, as you well know.
[ Page 2 ]
We are within a few doors of Jessie Cochrane*,
& see her often. Most kindly she asked some very agreeable
people to meet us at tea one afternoon. We have also seen Mifs
Leigh Smith two or three times. She is also at the end of our
street. She & Mifs Cochrane send much love to both of you,
& were delighted to hear of you and Mrs. Fields.* We hope to
persuade Mifs C. to return in the streamer with us in May. We have
also seen Maud [ Eliot ? ], where we met Huxley's
daughter, & what especially interested me -- the son of Père
Hyacinthe Loyson. When we were here before the father called on us
in Paris in his monks dress ---- and now this [ son ? ], with
a handsome young fellow, with an American wife of his own.
[ Page 3 ]
After mentioning people I may pass on to other matters, such as
Vaticans & forums, etc. The [ unrecognized word ]
Hare's book being much of it so satisfactory to have the right
quotations apt to one's hand. My chief delights are statues, ruins
with blue sky through the arches, & larks singing on the
campagna -- & all the native people. I have not dealt
much in churches. Yet today in the lovely Pamphili Doria* I
thought of you & Mrs. Fields at the [ unrecognized name
] in the grass, picking flowers, & looked across the city to
the deep blue mountains beyond --
Harry* is a most appreciative & delightful
companion, & I hope will remember all he is taking in,
[ Page 4 ]
rather highly condensed food, so much at once --
We stay here ten days longer, -- then go to
Siena & Florence, where I shall try to find Mrs. Fairchild.*
You do not speak of the Sargent pictures* except as a background
to dear Mrs. F. but I can imagine how charming & [ unrecognized
word ] her real picture was in contrast. What did
you think of Wertheimer?* I should think he would have visited
your dreams. I am so sorry you are having a poor winter dear
Sarah. I can deeply sympathize. I had seven such lean months last
year. You will have to try Miss Clark's treatments,* and
Holderness air, & then you will be set up.
With much love to Mrs. F.
Yours ever
Alice.
Notes
1890: This date is a guess, based on the implication in
this letter that John Singer Sargent's 1890 portrait of Annie
Adams Fields is in process.
Länzer: This transcription is uncertain, and the
allusion remains unidentified. Länzer was carried "to Rome,
to Rome."
Jessie Cochrane: See Key to Correspondents.
Leigh Smith: This may be English activist and artist,
Barbara Leigh Smith Bodichon (1827-1891). Wikipedia.
Fields: Annie Adams Fields. See Key to
Correspondents.
Maud [ Eliot ? ] ... Huxley's daughter: If
this transcription is correct, Howe probably refers to American
novelist Maud Howe Eliot (1854-1948), daughter of Julia Ward
Howe. See Key to Correspondents.
It would seem likely that Howe means English
biologist and defender of Charles Darwin, Thomas Henry Huxley
(1825-1895). Wikipedia says that he and his wife had five
daughters, four of whom survived in 1890. Perhaps the best known
of these was Henrietta (1863-1940), who became a singer.
Père Hyacinthe Loyson: French preacher and
theologian, Charles Jean Marie Loyson (1827-1912). He eventually
left the church and married an American woman. Wikipedia.
Hare's book: English author, Augustus John Cuthbert
Hare (1834-1903) published Walks in Rome (1871) and
several other guide books to Italy.
Harry: This person has not yet been identified.
Mrs. Fairchild: Probably this is Elizabeth (Lily)
Nelson Fairchild. See "Sally Fairchild" in Key to
Correspondents.
Sargent: American painter, John Singer Sargent
(1856-1925) made a portrait of Annie Fields in 1890. Wikipedia.
Wertheimer: This reference is mysterious.
Perhaps Howe has sent Jewett a reproduction of a painting by the
Austrian artist who worked mainly in Paris, Gustav Wertheimer
(1847–1902).
Miss Clark's treatments: Miss Clark's Mystic Cure for
Rheumatism & Neuralgia was popular at the end of the 19th
Century. Newspaper ads may be found on the internet.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library of
Harvard University: Sarah Orne Jewett Correspondence I, Letters to
Sarah Orne Jewett.
Howe, Alice (Greenwood) 1835-1924. 4
letters; 1892-[1900] & [n.d.], 1892-[1900]. (102).
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.
Edwin Augustus George Jewitt to Sarah Orne Jewett
Paxton Villa
Matlock
Derbyshire
25th March 1890
Dear Mifs Jewett
I was exceedingly pleased to receive your
very kind and interesting letter, and to hear that the "Sketch"
of the life of my father, which I took the liberty of sending
had proved interesting to you.
I
[ Page 2 ]
forwarded the "Sketch" to you, after reading, with unusual
interest a short [ biograph so spelled ] of yourself in an
American magazine, which had been lent to me by Mr. W.
H. Goss,* -- my fathers biographer.
As you express a desire to see a portrait of my
father, I have much pleasure in enclosing for your acceptance, a
copy of the last photo that was taken of him. I also send another,
and better portrait and also one of him and my
[ Page 3 ]
dear mother together{.}
W. Goss, to whom I showed your letter, tells me that he has
forwarded to you a copy of a Parian [ Bust ? ] which he
produced some years ago, and which is a remarkably good likeness
of my father.
The name of Jewett or Jewitt is by no means
common in this country, indeed, I have never met anyone of the
name except my own relations, and they are very few. Probably the
name would be met with at Bradford as it is also at the places in
Yorkshire.
You will see by the enclosed memorials* that I
am in the saddest trouble having
[ Page 3 ]
recently lost my darling wife very suddenly, after only three
years of truly happy married life. Since her death I have never
felt able to take the same interest in things I did before, and I
feel that I can never get over this saddest and greatest
trial possible. Since my darling wifes death I have lost my infant
daughter which has been an additional great grief.
Hoping the photos will be of interest to you,
and assuring you of the great pleasure it has given to me to hear
from you,
I am
yours very truly
Edwin A. G. Jewitt
Notes
W. H. Goss: English potter Willliam Henry Goss (1833-1906).
He authored The Life and Death of Llewellyn Jewitt (1884).
Wikipedia.
memorials: In the Houghton folder with this letter are two
documents: a printed memorial for Jewitt's daughter, Clara, 26
October 1889 - 25 February 1890; and another for his wife,
Georgiana Jewitt, daughter of W. H. Goss, of Cheshire, 30 July
1855 - 3 November 1889.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library of
Harvard University: Sarah Orne Jewett Correspondence I, Letters to
Sarah Orne Jewett.
Jewitt, Edwin A.G. 1 letter; 1890. (117).
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.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Louisa Dresel
[
April, 1890. ]*
Wednesday
Dear Loulie
Please put this to our
table's credit. Thank you for the three-handled vase, which
Mrs. Fields* discovered last night to be a
flower-pot
and now has bestowed her entire approval and much affection
upon it!! I shall hope to see you very soon
Yours ever S.O.J.
Notes
April 1890: This date is penciled in the upper left
of page 1, in another hand. It seems a reasonable choice because
this letter seems to be associated with others probably from March
and of April 1890, when Dresel and Jewett participated in an as
yet unspecified fund-raising fair.
Fields: Annie Adams Fields. See Key to Correspondents.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Princeton University
Library, Princeton, NJ: Robert H. Taylor Collection of English and
American Literature RTC01, Box 10, Folder 12. Transcription and
notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Louisa Dresel
[ April, 1890. ]*
Dear Loulie
I send you some Betty
Leicesters* but I cant tell you how sorry I am to miss all the
fun of the fair. I didnt know until within a day [ or corrected
] two that I wasn't going to be [ well corrected ]
enough to go -- I am not going to give you any
commissions but I wish dear Mrs Dresel would
pick me out two of the prettiest bags made of pieces
of the dear gowns -- the ones
she likes the best. With ever so much love to both from A.F.* and
me
Ever yours
S.O.J.
In bed, Saturday
afternoon --
Notes
April 1890: This date is penciled in the upper left
of page 1, almost certainly in another hand. This is a reasonable
date, for Jewett's Betty Leicester, A Story for Girls
(1890) had appeared at the end of 1889.
Also, there is a letter to Dresel dated 21
March 1890 in which Jewett speaks of her plan to attend a
fund-raising fair and her interest in bags that Dresel seems
involved in making.
A.F.: Annie Adams Fields. See Key to Correspondents.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Princeton University
Library, Princeton, NJ: Robert H. Taylor Collection of English and
American Literature RTC01, Box 10, Folder 12. Transcription and
notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
John Greenleaf Whittier to Sarah Orne Jewett
My dear Friend:
Looking over the last number of the Am. Hebrew,
a very able Jewish paper in N.Y., I could not help clipping out
the enclosed, which so exactly expresses the opinion of everybody
who is capable of having an opinion on thy charming little book.*
I wish I could look in upon you
[ Page 2 ]
in reality. I visit you often in imagination{.} With my
dearest love to Annie Fields,* I am affectionately thy frd.
John G Whittier
Notes
Am. Hebrew ... thy charming little book: A review of
Jewett's Betty Leicester (1890) appeared in The American Hebrew 42 (2 April
1890), p. 199.
Annie Fields: Annie Adam Fields. See Key
to
Correspondents.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library of
Harvard University. Sarah Orne Jewett Correspondence.
Letters from John Greenleaf Whittier, MS Am 1743 (235).
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
A previous transcription by Richard Cary
appears in "Whittier Letters to Sarah Orne Jewett," in
Memorabilia of John Greenleaf Whittier, ed.
John B. Pickard (Hartford: The Emerson Society, 1968), pp. 11-22.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Louisa Dresel
148 Charles Street
Tuesday
[
April 1890 ]*
Dear Loulie
I tried to speak to you
when I had just got through dinner last night, but the maid
said that you were at dinner, and when I suggestively inquired
"Almost through?" she said "On no: just starting in!"
So that I gave up -- and now, this morning I hear that you
have gone to Vermont -- So here you must find my thanks for a
Bag! instead of coming round to receive them in person, as
Mrs. Fields* was planning. I like my
Christmas bag very much and [ it corrected ] is none too
big for my crocheting -- Mrs. Fields sends her love and thanks for
the delightful Concord photographs -- You might send one [ here ?
] on a postcard to a city person.
Yours most affectionately
S. O. Jewett
Notes
1890: This letter could have been composed in almost
any year between 1884 and January 1909 during which Dresel was in
the United States and after she and Jewett became acquainted.
However, I have placed it in 1890 on the slight evidence of Jewett
thanking Dresel for a bag. In March and April of 1890,
Dresel and Jewett participated in a fund-raising fair, and in
their correspondence, Jewett expressed interest in piece-bags
Dresel and her mother were making for this fair.
Fields: Annie Adams Fields. See Key to Correspondents.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Princeton University
Library, Princeton, NJ: Robert H. Taylor Collection of English and
American Literature RTC01, Box 10, Folder 12. Transcription and
notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Mary Bucklin Davenport Claflin
[Top left corner of page 1 in another hand: wc ]
148 Charles Street
Thursday evening
[ Spring 1890 ]*
Dear Mrs Claflin
Pray do not feel bound by our, or rather my,
abrupt request this afternoon. I did not explain that only a
limited number of people are to join in giving the souvenir
of Boston to Miss Edwards
[ Page 2 ]
as there is not time to manage a large subscription. There
are many who stand ready however to join, so that you must
just act your pleasure and feel perfectly free to say no.
I have made two visits at home since I got back
from the South,* but I
[ Page 3 ]
shall now settle down and be a "stiddy meetin'er" for a while.
Yours affectionately
S. O. Jewett
I spent Monday morning with Mr. Whittier* and
found him in better health and spirits than I expected, but he has
evidently been
[ Page 4 ]
very poorly --
Notes
Spring 1890: This date is inferred from the letter's
reference to Amelia Edwards touring the United States and to
Jewett having recently returned from travel in the South.
See notes below.
Miss Edwards: Amelia Ann Blanford Edwards
(1831-1892). "In 1882, she co-founded the Egypt Exploration
Fund (now the Egypt Exploration Society) and became its joint
Honorary Secretary. In 1889-1890, she toured the United States
lecturing on Egyptian exploration."
from the South: Jewett and Annie Fields had spent February
1890 in St. Augustine, FL They had returned by 15 March.
Mr. Whittier: John Greenleaf Whittier. See Key
to
Correspondents.
The manuscript of this letter is held by Rutherford B. Hayes
Presidential Center in the Governor William and Mary Claflin
Papers, GA-9, Box 4, Miscellaneous Folder J, Ac 950.
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Mrs. Bates*
148 Charles St.
Boston 16 April [ 1890 ]*
Dear Mrs Bates
I give you my best thanks for your kind note
and I send you a copy of Betty Leicester with my autograph by
today's post --
Your most sincerely.
Sarah O. Jewett
Notes
1890: This speculative date is based upon the
publication date of Jewett's Betty Leicester (1890), which
appeared at the end of 1889.
Bates: This person has not been identified. However,
another letter of 15 May 1897 suggests that Mrs. Bates may have
resided near enough to Jewett to make reasonable an invitation to
give a public reading. Particularly in the Boston area, there were
several persons who might be in a position to issue a speaking
invitation. One example is Clara Smith Bates (1861-1946), spouse of
Republican politician John Lewis Bates (1859-1946), who eventually
served as governor of Massachusetts.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Small Library,
University of Virginia, Special Collections MSS 5672-a, Sarah Orne
Jewett Papers. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe
College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Thomas Bailey Aldrich
148 Charles Street
18 April
[ 1890 ]*
Will a kind T.B.A. speak with "The House" about a cheque for the
little Shrewsbury story?
Notes
1890: In the upper right corner of the page, in another
hand, underlined: "Sarah O. Jewett". Below
Jewett's date is penciled [ 1890 ].
This date is somewhat problematic. I have
accepted it on the authority of the penciled note. If this
is correct, then Jewett's payment for "Going to Shrewsbury" was
nearly a year late. It is possible, however, that she
requested payment soon after the story was accepted for July
publication, which could well have been in April of 1889.
After Jewett's signature appear what seem to be
underlined letters, possibly Ath, for author?
Below her signature is a penciled note:
"Going to Shrewsbury"
$80. ---
July Atlantic
__________________________
At the bottom left, in blue ink, are the initials, H.O.H. for
Henry Oscar Houghton. See Key to Correspondents.
T.B.A.: Thomas Bailey Aldrich resigned as editor of Atlantic
Monthly in June of 1890.
Shrewsbury story: Jewett's "Going to Shrewsbury"
appeared in Atlantic Monthly in July 1889.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library of
Harvard University in Houghton Mifflin Company correspondence and
records, 1832-1944, Jewett, Sarah Orne, 1849-1909. 68 letters
from; 1870-1907 and [n.d.]. MS Am 1925 (962). Transcription and
notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Celia Thaxter to Annie Adams Fields
Shoals. Apr 20th (90
My dearest Annie:
I was so glad of your dear letter & oh how
lovely it would be if you could come here, but precious Annie, I
hardly dare have you venture it quite yet lest some rough
experience might befall, & you know, the going & coming of
the little Pinafore* is so uncertain, depending so much on
the capricious wind & sea. For instance, if you were to write
& appoint a day when you would be in Ports, tho' the sun
should shine & the weather seem propitious, it might be
blowing out here so the little craft couldn't get over & there
you would be, & your priceless time wasted & all the
fatigue & trouble for nothing. I have had to wait a week at a
time at the De Normandies in Ports. in years gone, for a chance
over. And when Oscar sets a day to go across, half the time he
cant do it. Day before yesterday it was pretty smooth when he went
in in the morning, but when he returned in the aft. it was blowing
half a gale & the little boat plunged &
[ Page 2 ]
[ & repeated ] rolled so I fairly trembled to see it,
as it passed by to creep round the island to find some sheltered
place where they might land. Heavens! I should die to have
you run the risk of such an experience, & you would die in
it, delicate Flower* that you are. Let us wait a little -- in a
few weeks the regular, large boat runs, & when she begins
there will be hardly a soul about for some days, & the weather
will be warm & we can be in the cottage. I move over there in
May & all will be so beautiful then! If only we were on
the line of the R. R. it would be possible now, but you must not
run any risks, my dearest Annie. I should worry myself into little
bits to think of your doing so!
I am just beginning to get my strength back a
little & creep about in the sun & look at my
garden, & wish I were Samson.* We have [ had corrected
] a good many days of bitter weather, it froze so hard night
before last, the pipes burst, all about --, & the ground was
hard as stone. But the song-sparrows sing just as loudly &
sweet, & the martins are building their nests in their tiny
houses
[ Page 3 ]
on my piazza eaves -- the white breasted swallows.
Horace Lamb* wrote to me to tell me about his
marriage -- I think it is so beautiful! & I am so glad for
them both. He is so fine a creature -- She must be a happy woman.
There is so much I want to say, but must wait
-- dear Annie, it was so sweet in you to think of coming!
And please do keep it in mind for later. Tell me, when do
you go to Manchester?
My dearest, dearest love to you
Your
C.
Did I not tell you I sent for a gray gown of
cashmere & one of mohair from the patterns you were so lovely
to send me? And they are all ready to wear -- A thousand thanks,
but only bring yourself, when the possible time comes,
nothing else would be so welcome.
Notes
Pinafore: The Pinafore was the Thaxter's steam tug
that carried supplies and people between Portsmouth and Appledore
in the Isle of the Shoals during the summer season.
Flower: Thaxter is using intimate nicknames shared among
Jewett, Fields and herself. Pinny is Jewett; Flower is
Fields; Sandpiper is Thaxter. See Key
to
Correspondents.
Samson: Thaxter refers to the Biblical Samson,
whose story is told in Judges 13-15, a person of great physical
strength.
Horace Lamb: Horatio Appleton Lamb (1850-1926), son of a
prominent Boston merchant, Thomas Lamb (1796-1887), and brother of
painter and Jewett correspondent, Rose Lamb. See Key
to
Correspondents.
Horatio Lamb was a wholesale merchant and then
treasurer of Simmons College. He married Annie
Lawrence
Rotch (1857-1950) on 14 April 1890. Two of his daughters
became art collectors and patrons of the arts: Aimée (1893-1989),
also a painter, and Rosamund (1898-1989).
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Boston Public
Library, Rare Books Department, Celia Thaxter correspondence with
Annie Fields, 1869-1893, MS C.1.38 Box 2 Folder 6 (250-269)
https://ark.digitalcommonwealth.org/ark:/50959/qb98p696z
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe
College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Francis Jackson Garrison
148 Charles Street
Wednesday
[ January-May 1890 ]*
Dear Mr. Garrison
Would you be so kind as to
send me a cheque for $100, on my copyright account? If you
have heard anything of the sales of Mifs B. Leicester I should
like very much to know how
[ Page 2 ]
she has been getting on.
Yours sincerely
Sarah O. Jewett
Notes
1890: In the upper left corner of page 1, underlined and in
another hand: "Sarah O. Jewett". Beneath Jewett's
date, in another hand: [ 1890 ]. This date probably is
correct as indicated by Jewett's interest in sales of Betty
Leicester, which appeared at the end of 1889. That Jewett
asks about this book and not her book from spring of 1890, Tales
of
New
England, suggests that this letter was composed in first
half of the year.
Below this are initials which may be MM or
MW. Near the bottom right corner of page 2 are the initials
F.J.G for Francis Jackson Garrison. See Key to Correspondents.
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 &
Company
148 Charles Street
Saturday 3rd May
[ 1890 ]*
Messrs Houghton Mifflin & Co.
Gentlemen
I am much pleased with
your suggestion of putting one of my stories into the Riverside
Series -- but may I suggest that A Marsh Island seems to
me a better story for the purpose than A Country Doctor?*
As for sending the book out
[ Page 2 ]
to Mr. Douglas,* I should like that immensely -- and I think it
would be a good plan. I have had some very kind letters from Mr.
Douglas (chiefly* through Mrs. Fields* who used to know him in
Edinburgh, and about Dr. John Brown* matters.) but of course
nothing ever came up about re-publications. I wish Mr. Houghton
would be kind enough to send a
[ Page 3 ]
message about Tales of New England,* as Mr. Douglas would be
influenced by that. I always think that Mr Douglas's little paper
books are charming.
I must thank The House for the ten copies of
the Tales which came a day or two ago. It is really an [ an
repeated ] exquisite book and I feel a proud sense of
promotion! I was
[ Page 4 ]
so glad too, to find how well Betty Leicester had done.
I should have reported myself and made sure
there was nothing more I could do about the Tales, but I
have been [ deleted letters ] ill for a fortnight and
cannot yet go down stairs --
= With many thanks I am
Yours sincerely
Sarah O. Jewett
Notes
1890: In the upper left corner of page 1, in another hand,
underlined: "Sarah O. Jewett". Below Jewett's date is
penciled [ 1890 ]. This date seems correct in that 3 May fell on a
Saturday in 1890. See notes below.
In the bottom left corner of page 4 are the
underlined initials, F.J.G. for Francis Jackson Garrison,
followed by an unrecognized word -- ".Eus" ?
A Country Doctor: Jewett's novels, A Marsh
Island (1885) and A Country Doctor (1884). Jewett
seems to have underlined "A" twice in the former title.
A Marsh Island did appear in a
Riverside paper edition in 1890, according to WorldCat. A Country Doctor
appeared in the same series in May 1893.
Mr. Douglas: David Douglas. See Key to Correspondents. It does not
appear that Douglas reprinted any of Jewett's books at his
Edinburgh, Scotland press.
(chiefly: Almost certainly the parenthesis marks were
penciled in by another hand.
Mrs. Fields: Annie Adams Fields. See Key to Correspondents.
Dr. John Brown: John Brown (1735 - 1788) was a Scottish
physician and medical theorist.
Tales of New England: An 1890 retrospective selection of
Jewett's best previously collected short stories.
Betty Leicester: Jewett's 1890 novel, subtitled "a
Story for Girls."
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library of
Harvard University in Houghton Mifflin Company correspondence and
records, 1832-1944, Jewett, Sarah Orne, 1849-1909. 68 letters
from; 1870-1907 and [n.d.]. MS Am 1925 (962). Transcription and
notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Celia Thaxter to Annie Adams Fields
Shoals. May 8th (90
My dearest Annie:
It is so long since we have had a mail or heard
a word from the land, quite ten days, we feel more like Robinson
Crusoes* than usual, even, & it is truly hard to keep the run
of the days of the weeks & the month, when there is nothing to
mark them. Five days ago my brother started in the Pinafore* for
Portsmouth & we haven't seen or heard a word from him since.
He was to return at once, but the weather kept him three
days & yesterday was calm, he might have come & we were
watching for him all day, no sign of the little Pin however &
Cedric* & I
[ Page 2 ]
cant help feeling anxious lest something ill may have befallen.
The first thunder squall of the season pursued the little boat on
her way to Port -- & I saw her slender mast & smokestack
disappear in the blinding rain as she forged toward the land --
Since then not a word! & our provisions run low & every
body is wondering what has befallen & there is no way of
knowing, no other boat.Yesterday was a lovely day & I was able
to do quite a little in my dear garden & did not get so fearfully
tired
as
I
might.
But
this morning it is so cold & gray, & a wild [ dry ?
] N-easter blowing & the sea tumbling in black swollen waves
into Broad Cove opposite where I write. No Pin
[ Page 3 ]
today, I fear.
I hope all is well with you, dearest Annie,
& that you understood about the difficulty & possible
discomfort of reaching Appledore now. You were an angel to think
of it, an angel of kindness as you always are, & please, please
don't give it up, only postpone till you are sure of not being the
worse for it. Beside the uncertainties of the stormy sea, I should
be anxious [ lest corrected ] you might not be quite
comfortable after you got here, in our rough, Robinson Crusoe way
of living till the house opens -- all in this big room, the centre
of warmth, the "house place," which is all very pleasant for
bodies who are used to it, with its ten windows of blossoming
plants on this side, but the cooking range is on the opp. side
& also the kitchen sink, if you please, the dining table
always standing, set, here in this corner where I have my own
little table & Karl his typewriter table, & the sewing
machine close by & over near the range the women servants
dining table{,} they taking their meals in the same room.
The big gang of workmen have their
[ Page 4 ]
quarters outside in the "help's hall". But all the cooking for
them & us goes on here & the dish washing & Lord knows
what. I am used to it & don't mind, but it would be
the death of you! Later I go over to my own quarters in the
cottage, soon as it is warm enough, & then we have meals in
the dining room. Then dear, dear Annie, do come! don't
give it up. Evenings now, Cedric & Oscar (when he is at home,
& I spend in mother's room, where I also [ sleep corrected
] & where Karl sleeps in a little room adjoining.
Poor Karl has got on so well this spring, I hardly dare think
about it, I am so thankful. I dread the spring so much always for
him, for "then comes his fit"* especially & every
[ Page 5 ]
morning I look so anxiously in his face fearing to find his lips
white & eyes vacant, especially if rain comes, a long
rain storm then the foul fiend* works on him in the most
mysterious & dreadful way -- poor fellow. Plagued of the foul
fiend! Terrible fate! It is so pathetic to see him try to
take care of me, leaving his work every hour or so & coming to
look after me -- "well, how are you feeling now?" or if I
am in the garden, "Are you sure you are not cavoorting too much?
Please do go & lie down a little while!"
9th Again the morning & no
Pinafore, this is the sixth day -- tomorrow will be a week, &
the grain is out, for the cattle & provisions running very low
for humans. Cedric sat by the fire last night while I lay on the
couch in mother's room
[ Page 6 ]
& every minute we asked each other "What has become of
the Pinafore!" & the rain poured in torrents on the roof, as
it had poured all day. Still she might have come in the
rain, if all had been well for the sea was not so rough as it is
sometimes when she struggles with it.
I have really felt better for a few days past
& I am so thankful I hardly dare breathe it! Have been able to
work a little & rejoice with exceeding joy.
You ask me if I had read the {"}North Shore
Watch". Long ago. The Threnody Woodberry* wrote for my cousin
Clarence Laighton Dennett whom I never saw. He told me about him
& how lovely he was & how he loved him. Woodbury's verse
is fine, dont you think so? But I cant get over his calm statement
in the Atlantic that Browning never could take rank with the great
poets of the age because of his
[ Page 7 ]
lack of form -- that seems to me a tremendous arrogance of
criticism & I have no patience with it.
10th At last,
the Pinafore! The storms kept them, & the only calm day
Oscar had to go to Boston to see about a steward -- Such a
mail! It took me all the afternoon to read letters -- No
word from you, dear Annie. Pray all be well with you. Dear
love to you & Pinny* from your
CT.
Notes
Robinson Crusoes: After the novel by British author,
Daniel Defoe (1660-1731), in which Crusoe is
marooned for 28 years on a tropical desert island.
Pinafore: The Pinafore was the Thaxter's small
steam tug that carried supplies and people between Portsmouth and
Appledore in the Isle of the Shoals during the summer season.
Cedric: Cedric and Oscar Laighton were Thaxter's
brothers, owners of the Appledore resort business. Karl was
Thaxter's disabled son. See Key
to
Correspondents.
comes his fit: Probably Thaxter alludes to British
playwright William Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, 1:2, where
Cassius reports that when in a fit of fever, the Godlike Caesar
betrayed his mortality by trembling.
foul fiend: In Act III of William Shakespeare's King
Lear, Lear meets Edgar, who is hiding in disguise as a mad
beggar. Edgar says he is beset by a foul fiend.
Woodberry: George E. Woodberry. See Key
to
Correspondents. His long poem, "The North Shore Watch" in The North Shore Watch and Other Poems
(1890) mourns the death of Clarence Laighton Dennett, September 6, 1854
- June 5, 1878.
Woodberry's comments on British poet Robert Browning (1812-1889) have not yet
been located. Thaxter's husband, Levi Thaxter, was a noted oral
interpreter of Browning's poems.
Pinny: Thaxter is using intimate nicknames shared among
Jewett, Fields and herself. Pinny is Jewett; Flower is
Fields; Sandpiper is Thaxter. See Key
to
Correspondents.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Boston Public
Library, Rare Books Department, Celia Thaxter correspondence with
Annie Fields, 1869-1893, MS C.1.38 Box 2 Folder 6 (250-269)
https://ark.digitalcommonwealth.org/ark:/50959/qb98p7035
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe
College.
John Greenleaf Whittier to Annie Adams Fields
Oak Knoll
May 9 1890
My dear Annie Fields
I return the [ politics ? ] to the
Russian Empire* [ as corrected thee ? ] said in
thy letter, it will do no harm if ^it^ does no good. I fear the
autocrat will hold in his present course until he is blown up by a
charge of dynamite.
[ Page 2 ]
I hope Sarah Jewett is quite well by this time,
and that thee are not working too hard in the "Charities"!* The
country hereabouts is it seems to me, ^lovelier^ than I have [
ever ? ] before seen, so early in May. The dampness
however which has called up this green and flowery beauty, has
kept me too much in doors, when of late
[ Page 3 ]
I ^have^ had rather more pilgrims and interviews than I could
comfortably entertain. I wonder if thee has read the Babylonish
novel by the Phelps & Ward firm.* I have it but have not
yet been able to read it. It does not look to [ be inviting ?
]. I don't care much about Nebuchadnezer and his hanging
garden nor for Daniel and the lions. I should as soon think of a
[ Page 4 ]
[ a repeated ] story of love in the Moon, or the planet
Mars. But I have no doubt "The Master of the Magicians" is [
able corrected ] and strong; -- all that Elizabeth does is
so.
With love to Sarah I am thankfully and
affectionately thy friend
John G Whittier
Notes
Russian Empire: It seems likely that Whittier refers
to Czar Alexander III, the then current ruler of Russia, when he
mentions "the autocrat." However, this is not yet certain.
"Charities": Whittier refers to Fields's work with
the Associated Charities of Boston.
Babylonish novel by the Phelps & Ward firm: American
authors, the couple Elizabeth Stuart Phelps and Herbert Dickinson
Ward, published The Master of the Magicians in 1890. See Key
to
Correspondents. Whittier's description of the novel as
set in Babylon and concerning the Biblical prophet Daniel reflects
contemporary advertising and reviews. See for example, The Homiletic Review 20 (1890) p. 227
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Huntington Library,
San Marino, CA, in the James T. Fields collection: mss FI
72-4832. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe
College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Annie Claflin Ellis*
South Berwick
27 May 1890
Dear Annie
My sister Mary* and I
send you our best thanks for the invitation to your graduation
exercises, and are very sorry that it will not be possible for
us to accept as we have an engagement at home.
[ Page 2 ]
I am sure that it will be both a glad and a sorry day to you, and
I send you many kind wishes as you go out into the wider world
that lies outside the doors of your school life.
Yours affectionately
Sarah O. Jewett
We were all very sorry that you could not come
to us a week or two ago.
Notes
Ellis: See her mother, Emma Harding Claflin Ellis in
Key to Correspondents.
An envelope associated with this letter is
addressed to Miss Annie C. Ellis, Bradford Academy, Bradford,
Mass. Born in 1870, Ellis would be about 20 years old in May
1890.
Penciled on the back of the envelope in another
hand: "Sarah Orne Jewett note & autograph."
Mary: Mary Rice Jewett. See Key to Correspondents.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the University of
Wisconsin-Madison Libraries, Department of Rare Books and Special
Collections; Cairns Collection of American Women Writers,
Comprehensive collection of works by Sarah Orne Jewett.
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Wyman Whitman to Sarah Orne Jewett
[
26 May 1890 ]*
She fought so long, my little Gemma* -- twenty nine weary days
-- and this morning she went forth in the sunrise. It was so
peaceful & beautiful with her that one can only feel as
she felt: but the human heart cries out in pain & must cry
-- yet knowing that God is greater than our hearts & will
console and bless.
Yours
_Sw_
Notes
26 May 1890: The date of Sarah Gemma Timmins's death.
Gemma: Sara Gemma Timmins (1863-1890) 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
Whitman, but both sisters were artists and protégées of Whitman. A
number of other letters on her death appear in the Whitman letters
collection, and at the end is a Whitman poem addressed to Gemma.
Sources: Find a Grave and Raguin, Sarah Wyman Whitman
1842-1904 (pp. 133-4).
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.
Transcription from Letters of Sarah
Wyman Whitman (1907)
This letter appeared on p. 67.
May 26, 1890.
She fought so long, my little Gemma,* and
this morning she went forth in the sunrise. It was so peaceful and
beautiful with her that one can only feel as she felt; but the
human heart cries out in pain and must cry, yet knowing that God
is greater than our hearts and will console and bless.
Sarah Orne Jewett to John Greenleaf Whittier
South Berwick
27 May [
1890 ]*
My dear Friend
I send you a little new book of stories
which you yourself set me about, and I have given it ^the^
name you suggested and so with a word on the fly leaf I ask
[ Page 2 ]
you to take it for yours. But I dont know how to say either in
print or in a letter how grateful I am to you always or what a
help and pleasure you have been in all my story-writing years.
[ Page 3 ]
Please remember me kindly to Judge and Mrs.
Cate --* and I am always yours affectionately
Sarah.
[ Page 4 ]
Has Mrs. Fields sent you the big photograph of
our good senator Edmunds which we brought you from Washington?
Notes
1890: Jewett's only story collection to come out in
May during Whittier's lifetime was Tales of New England
(1890).
Cate: Judge and Mrs. George W. Cate, who occupied
Whittier's house in Amesbury, MA. See Life and Letters of John
Greenleaf Whittier (1894) by Samuel Thomas Pickard, v. 1,
note p. 612.
Fields.: Annie Adams Fields. See Key to
Correspondents.
Edmunds: George Franklin Edmunds (1828-1919) was a
Republican U.S. Senator from Vermont. Whittier would have
appreciated Edmunds as a fellow abolitionist. Wikipedia.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library of
Harvard University, Cambridge, Pickard-Whittier papers:
Jewett, Sarah Orne, 1849-1909. 12 letters to unidentified persons;
[n.d.]. Box:12 Identifier: MS Am 1844, (8616).
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe
College.
Annie Adams Fields to Sarah Orne Jewett
Tuesday night --
[ May 1890 ]*
How good it is to think my darling that you
are to be here again in about a week. Shall you come
Wednesday. I mean to send Maria and Katy* down on Wednesday
morning, and we will follow Friday with Bridget and Patrick
and Roger --* It is possible the first detachment will linger
until Thursday morning but that will depend upon Mrs Freeland*
& her daughter.
What a beautiful fresh wind has [ been ? ] and still
his blowing -- The trees in the "pelouse" wave their arms as
if they heard their happier sisters of the wilderness calling
to them to follow --
Olga and Mifs O'Brion* came today and brought me some pinks.
They were very sweet and interesting -- I like them very much.
This morning I went to find out
[ Page 2 ]
about [ Leza ? ].* I found her brother in the same
drinking shop. He said she was doing better{,} that her husband
was in a good [ hosiery ? ] in So. Boston etc=* but after
a while, he confessed that he knew nothing of her -- that he had [
been corrected ] ashamed of her and told her not to go
there. He has the same untruthful face that she had -- only worse
-- I told him that his business was not only unfortunate but it
was becoming dangerous, with the community so opposed to
liquor=selling and the sooner he gave it up the better -- Yes, he
said, he was so young when he went into it! He should know better
now -- And much more -- He was amiable like his sister and I fancy
slippery as she is too --
Hill's* last letter to me was unlike any of his
others. I have kept it to show you -- It was hopeful and grateful
and better in every way -- The little bit of success with his
story has done him a world of good. Mr. [ Paine ? ]*
has just sent me some interesting things from England{,}
[ Page 3 ]
papers and reports --
What a delightful note from Mrs Agassiz* -- I
re=enclose it at once -- and "truly thy friends"* also --
O yes dear the money order came and I will pay [ Ricker ?
]* just as soon as I can catch her again --
I hope Celia* is safe on her island once more and that all is well
-- It is not* right for her to leave Karl particularly as
she told me Julia her sister was so afraid of him -- It must be a
sore [ cross ?] to poor Julia for Celia has engaged the
rooms just above them for next winter -- Poor poor Celia! She is
so [ unrecognized adverb ] unhappy and makes others so --
Mr. Millet* is down by the waterside by himself
enjoying the view. I have had the steps put up but I have not used
them once thus far -- what with business and bad weather, but the
business is drawing to a close after tomorrow, pretty much --
Judy* goes to Nahant tomorrow --
[ Page 4 ]
I am trying to get through with errands and put all business
behind me because I should like to go to Cambridge once before I
go. I shall probably just miss Lowell* but perhaps it is better so
--
Good night darling -- I long to get you back! Now I must look over
Ivanhoe.* I am thinking up things to say at the "Easel party"
Thursday night! Mr. Millet and I are more [ amused ? ]
over the idea than we will ever confess and we laughed last night
till we were quite weak [ about corrected ] it -- The
tickets were the last stroke!! How you would have enjoyed them --
Well! "we
shall have had our day" !! or evening --
Good night, dearest Pin* -- After Mary's*
garden you will be dismayed at Manchester --- There's scarcely a
thing to be seen{.}
[ No signature]
Notes
1890: This date is a guess that should be
close. Fields indicates that she would like to visit James
Russell Lowell in Cambridge, MA. Near the end of his life,
Lowell moved to the family home, Elmwood, in Cambridge, remaining
there from 1889 until his death in August 1891.
Fields typically moved to her summer home in
Manchester by the Sea, MA in late May.
Maria and Katy ... Bridget .. Patrick ... Roger:
Patrick Lynch and the women are, presumably, members of Fields's
staff. Roger probably is a dog.
Mrs Freeland & her daughter: Mrs. Freeland
remains as yet unknown. She may be related to Mary Bucklin
Davenport Claflin, whose mother was Mary Sophia Freeland
(1802-1868). See Key to Correspondents.
Olga and Mifs O'Brion: Probably Boston musicians Olga von
Radecki and Mary Eliza O'Brion (1859-1930 -- unconfirmed life
dates). O'Brion was a concert pianist, private teacher, and
instructor at Wellesley College. Her name appears regularly on
programs as a piano soloist and accompanist with various groups
and orchestras. She often performed with the Latvian
immigrant composer and pianist Olga von Radecki (1858-1933).
Among von Radecki's compositions is a setting of Jewett's poem,
"Boat Song."
Leza: Probably one of Fields's clients at Associated
Charities, she has not been more fully identified.
etc=: Fields has represented a number of marks with
"=" in this letter: a colon as here and more often as a
hyphen. I present them here as they appear.
Hills: This person seems to be an author of fiction.
He has not yet been identified.
Paine: Probably this is American philanthropist Robert
Treat Paine (1835-1910).
Agassiz: Ida Higginson Agassiz. Key to Correspondents.
friend: John Greenleaf Whittier. Key to Correspondents.
Ricker: This transcription is very uncertain, and the
person has not been identified.
Celia: Celia Thaxter, her disabled son Karl, and her
sister-in-law, Julia Laighton. Key to Correspondents.
not: This word is underlined twice.
Millet: Fields's next-door neighbor, Josiah Millet. Key
to Correspondents.
Judy: Judith Drew Beal, Fields's niece by marriage.
See Fields in Key to Correspondents.
Lowell: James Russell Lowell. Key to Correspondents.
Ivanhoe: A novel of 1819, by Scottish author, Sir Walter
Scott (1771-1832). Wikipedia.
Pin: Pin and Pinny are Jewett nicknames.
Mary's: 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.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Henry Oscar Houghton
[ Spring/Summer 1890 ]*
Dear Mr. Houghton
I forgot
to ask you yesterday about something which interested me very much
-- Whether Mr. Longman's* took any further interest in the plan of
republishing my story-book!
And I wished to ask
[ Page 2 ]
too if some copies might not be sent to the London papers this
time -- the Spectator and Saturday Review [ to meaning too
? ]. There were excellent notices of The Country
Doctor* but I have not seen the titles of the later books* [ deleted
word ] on the
[ Page 3 ]
'Received' lists. I dare say that they were sent to
other papers but these two and Punch are the ones I see myself --
-- I do hope that you will not take your drive
"up country" without letting me see you in South Berwick. I
am pretty
[ Page 4 ]
sure to be there most of this summer.
Yours always sincerely
Sarah O. Jewett
148 Charles Street
Tuesday morning
Notes
1890: This date is guess. The letter
clearly was composed several years after the publication of A
Country Doctor (1884). That Jewett had one of her
fiction titles republished in England in 1891, gives a little
support to the possibility that she was talking with Mr. Houghton
about separate British publication the year before. In 1890,
she was preparing a retrospective collection, Tales of New
England, which may have given her confidence that she could
sell well abroad.
In the upper right corner of page 1, underlined
and in another hand: Sarah O. Jewett.
In the upper left corner this note is penciled:
"Mr. Smith ---- Please see F.J.G. about this. ----"
Houghton refers to Azariah Smith and Francis
Jackson Garrison. See Key to Correspondents.
Garrison has initialed the bottom center of
page 4: F.J.G.
Longman's: Jewett refers to the Longman
publishing company of London. Longman is not known to have
published a Jewett title during her lifetime. The only
Jewett title from about this time to be published separately in
London seems to be Strangers and Wayfarers (1891) by
Osgood, McIlvaine & Co.
The Country Doctor: Jewett's novel, A Country
Doctor (1884).
books: Jewett seems to have placed a period after
"books."
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
My dear Annie Fields
I thank thee for sending me that grand awful
and yet, all-hopeful sonnet* -- a masterful verse which recalls
Dante and Milton.*
Of course thee do not mean in the last verse
line but one of the poem to say that the flight was unstained.
Could thee not [ put ? ] ^it^ something in this way:
----- while unscathed, unstained
The immortal passed beyond the earth's control.
[ Page 2 ]
I merely [ venture ? ]* the suggestion. Carlyle says
people are "mostly fools" and they can only understand what is as
plain as a pike-staff.*
How glad I was to [ see corrected ] our
dear Sarah* the other day! If she is now with thee thank her for
sending Drummond's Africa* to me.
I am grieved to hear of our friend Celia
Thaxter's* illness, and am glad thee think of going to see her. I
wish I felt able to do likewise.
[ Page 3 ]
I venture to send thee a copy of my Haverhill
poem* to be read on the [ unrecognized text -- 6th.. ?
] 2nd of July [ next corrected ]. Like every thing
"written to order" it {is} rather mechanical and unpoetical -- but
it is the best I can do under the circumstances. Please keep it to
thyself, and dont let any body see it (always excepting Sarah) or
know that it is written. It would be disastrous in the extreme for
the reporters to get it in advance of its time.*
Ever gratefully thy old friend
John G Whittier
I wish I could see Lowell* and have a talk with him. It is long
since I have had that pleasure. Pray give him my
[ Page 4 ]
love when thee see him him.
Notes
sonnet: Whittier refers to Fields's "Flammantia Mœnia
Mundi." The title comes from Lucretius, "Flaming Walls of
the World." The sonnet appeared first in Atlantic Monthly
in August 1890, p. 235 and was collected in The Singing Shepherd (1895).
Except for adding a comma after "unstained," Fields fully accepted
Whittier's suggestion.
Dante and Milton: Italian poet Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) and British poet
John Milton (1608-1674).
venture: This word is Pickard's probably correct
reading of difficult handwriting.
a pike-staff: Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881), Scottish
philosopher and historian. Whittier's sources for
attributing these phrases to Carlyle are not yet known. Perhaps he
refers to Carlyle's description of readers of reporting on
Parliament as "twenty-seven millions mostly fools," in "Stump
Orator" (1 May 1850), collected in Latter-Day Pamphlets, p. 305.
Sarah: Sarah Orne Jewett.
Drummond's Africa: Henry Drummond (1851-1897), a Scottish
evangelist and biologist, wrote Tropical Africa (1888).
Celia Thaxter's: See Key
to
Correspondents.
Haverhill poem: John B. Pickard writes in his notes
for this letter:
Whittier's poem "Haverhill" was written for the two
hundred fiftieth anniversary of the founding of the city. The
poem was to be read at the exercises on July 2, 1890, with only
excerpts printed in the local press, as the complete poem was to
appear in the August Atlantic. The papers, however,
printed a full copy of the poem after the exercises, thus
embarrassing the Atlantic publication. A full account of
the situation is given in [ Thomas Franklin ] Currier, A
Bibliography, of John Greenleaf Whittier, pp. 255-259.
Lowell: James Russell Lowell. See Key
to Correspondents.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Huntington Library,
San Marino, CA, in the James T. Fields collection: mss FI
72-4654. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe
College.
This letter has been transcribed previously by
Pickard, Letters of John Greenleaf Whittier. v. 3.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Houghton Mifflin & Company
South Berwick Maine
11 June
[ 1890 ]*
Messrs Houghton Mifflin & Co.
Gentlemen
Please send me by express.
10, ten, copies of Tales of New England and two copies in
the red binding larger paper, also five, 5, copies of Betty
Leicester, and one copy of Dr. Peabody's new Harvard book.
Yours very truly
Sarah O. Jewett
over
[ Page 2 ]
Also three copies of Mrs. Fields's Under the Olive.
Notes
1890: In the upper right corner of page 1, blue ink in
another hand: "Sarah O. Jewett. 6/12". Near the left corner
is a Houghton Mifflin date stamp: 12 June 1890. To the left of
this stamp in the same ink as Jewett's name is a notation that
appears to read: "a 153 / c".
After the final request on the right side of
page 2 are the initials, J.F.
A check-mark has been penciled before each
title Jewett includes, presumably to indicate when that part of
the request was completed.
When Jewett writes "over" at the bottom
left of page 1, she is pointing to the left half of the folded
page upon which the letter is written, which would have been
folded away from page 1. On the actual back side of the page
is a Riverside Press date stamp: 1 p.m. on 12 June 1890.
Jewett requests copies of the following titles:
- Her two 1890 books, Tales of New England and Betty
Leicester.
- Under the Olive (1881), poems by Annie Adams Fields. See
Key to Correspondents.
- And the "new" Harvard book by Andrew Preston Peabody. See Key to Correspondents.
Peabody had published Harvard Reminiscences
(1888), but new from Houghton Mifflin in 1890 was Harvard
Graduates Whom I Have Known.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library of
Harvard University in Houghton Mifflin Company correspondence and
records, 1832-1944, Jewett, Sarah Orne, 1849-1909. 68 letters
from; 1870-1907 and [n.d.]. MS Am 1925 (962). Transcription and
notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Horace Scudder
South Berwick, Maine
June 20, [1890]
Dear Mr. Scudder:
Your news1 takes my breath
away, and I confess to something like the feeling I once knew
when I had written "The Shipwrecked Buttons" and, for the pride
of my heart, was kindly asked for another story which proved to
be "The Girl With the Cannon Dresses."2 Indeed, I
send my warmest good wishes to the Atlantic and its
editor. I hope that you will find double the pleasure and
satisfaction you arc looking for in these new duties which are
after all neither new nor untried.
I thank you very much for your kind
and cordial note and I will certainly try to have a story ready,
though I am ashamed to say that I have hardly got back yet to
industrious habits. Will you let me know how much time I can
have, please? And pray believe me always
Yours faithfully and sincerely,
Sarah O. Jewett
Notes
1 Scudder succeeded
Thomas Bailey Aldrich as editor of the Atlantic Monthly in
April 1890.
2 Twenty years before,
Scudder had published these stories in the Riverside
Magazine (see Letters
1, note 1; 6, note 1).
This letter is edited and annotated by Richard Cary in Sarah
Orne Jewett Letters; the ms. is held by Colby College
Special Collections, Waterville, Maine.
Sarah Wyman Whitman to Sarah Orne Jewett
Studio. June 28.
[
1890 ]*
Dear I have so often said "it is the best" -- and yet now I
must [ come
? ] and try it again -- this time with an
added joy -- for the Town Poor is so very
very
beautiful [ & true
? ] that I know nothing can
have quite reached this [ luminous
? ]
-celestial level. It has -- that thing -- which comes when the
pitch is high enough, & sustained enough. -- it has the
[ Page 2 ]
Biblical quality: like Millet's pictures or Homer's verses.*
Dear I love it: & I love you to have
written it. ---------
I have loved you much also in this last
fortnight, which has been a time of almost absolute silence:
& a period of great peace & refreshment, when one
could sit still & listen to the voices. I have
worked in town by day & gone down & sat by the shore,
& seen the stars shine -- sometimes even the dawn come up
-- & have found it very good.
[ Page 3 ]
I feel great courage: while the little child seems not so very far
away. --
Shall we meet soon? God bless you.
Sw_*
Notes
1890: Jewett's short story, "The Town Poor,"
mentioned in this letter, appeared in the Atlantic Monthly
for July 1890.
Millet .. Homer: Jean-François Millet (1814 -1875) was a
French painter, known for his painting of peasant life and rural
scenes.
If the transcription of "Homer" is correct,
then Whitman refers to the legendary
Greek author of the Iliad and the Odyssey.
Sw_: Whitman varies in this signature from her
typical long line beneath the initials. Instead she draws an
extended >.
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.
Transcription from Letters of Sarah
Wyman Whitman (1907)
Part of this letter appeared on p. 67-8.
June 28, 1890
This last fortnight, which has been a
time of almost absolute silence; and a period of great peace and
refreshment when one could sit still and listen to the voices, I
have worked in town by day and gone down and sat by the shore and
seen the stars shine; sometimes even the dawn come up, and have
found it very good.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Annie Adams Fields
Saturday morning, [June 1890]*
I am waiting for your letter to come,
and it seems a long half hour. A thriftless person when there
are so many things to do, but somehow I did not get to sleep
last night, except for two or three naps which were rather too
uneasy for comfort. I had one most beautiful time which was
after your own heart. It began to be light, and after spending
some time half out of the window hearing one bird tune up after
another, I half dressed myself and went out and stayed until it
was bright day-light. I went up the street and out into the
garden, where I had a beautiful time, and was neighborly with
the hop-toads and with a joyful robin who was sitting on a
corner of the barn, and I became very intimate with a big poppy
which had made every arrangement to bloom as soon as the sun
same up. There was a bright little waning moon over the hill,
where I had a great mind to go, but there seemed to be
difficulties, as I might be missed, or somebody might break into
the house where I had broken out. Weren't you awake, too, very
early? I thought so, and I was equally certain that other people
were asleep. Really, so much happened in that hour that I could
make a book of it -- I had a great temptation to go to writing.*
I have done so many things today that
I should like to write down them and see what they were. There
was a piece gone off the top of the three gilded feathers on the
breakfast room looking-glass, so I carved a feather top out of
pine wood and stuck it on and gilded it most satisfactorily, and
then I set Stubby* and an impoverished friend who needed money
for the Fourth* to digging plantains out of the grass at fifteen
cents the hundred, whereupon they doubled their diligence until
they got 1.65 out of me at dinner time!! And I transplanted a
lot of little sunflowers and put hellebore* on the gooseberry
bushes and wrote a lot of notes for the "Berwick Scholar" on
account of the Centennial arrangements,* and went down street
twice and -- but I won't tell you, yes, I will -- the little
Beverly doggie came by express! and is ardently beloved by
Stubs, and that took time, and after dinner I went to Beaver
Dam* with John about a carriage painter and another errand, and
then I dressed me all up and went and made two elegant calls,
and then I came home and wrote this.
Notes
1890: Fields dates this letter 1889, but it almost
certainly is from 1890. The Berwick Academy Centennial
Celebration took place on July 1, 1891, which also is the
publication date for the memorial
booklet that Jewett edited, supplying a preface.
Nephew Stubby (Theodore Eastman), born in 1879, is raising money
for the July 4 celebration, indicating that the holiday is not
far in the future. It is possible that Jewett was
preparing notes in June of 1891, but these probably would have
had to be completed in the previous summer to make it possible
to meet the July 1891 date. See also her March 1891
publication of plans for the celebration in The
Berwick Scholar.
to go to writing: Jewett recounts a similar incident in
"The
Confession of a House-Breaker," in The Mate of the
Daylight. A version of this sketch also appeared
anonymously in The Atlantic (September 1883: 419-22).
Stubby: Jewett's nephew, Theodore Eastman.
hellebore: dried and powdered extract from false
hellebores (Veratrum) is used as an insecticide.
the Fourth: American July 4 or Independence Day
holiday.
"Berwick Scholar" ... Centennial arrangements: The
Berwick Academy centennial took place in 1891, the academy
having been founded in 1791. See Jewett's "The Old Town of
Berwick." Jewett contributed several pieces for The Berwick
Scholar, the school magazine founded in 1887. She helped
with the Centennial arrangements of her alma mater, contributing
to the Scholar an article, "The Centennial Celebration"
in v. 4 (March 1891) and editing a memorial booklet of the
occasion.
Beaver Dam: Beaver Dam is a section of the town of
Berwick, about half way between Berwick and North Berwick on
State Route 9. There is private Beaver
Dam Campground there now, and also a summer theater, the
Hackmatack Playhouse, and at one time there was a Beaver Dam
Grange in this section. Research: Art Stansfield of Lexington,
Ky.
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 Wyman Whitman to Sarah Orne Jewett
July, 1890.
Strangely enough that impulse for out
of doors work has not yet taken me in its thrall. By this time,
usually, of a summer I am dying to be out in it and at it; but
the deep solemn inner living of this year has kept me in a place
apart; and I am still there, though the routine life goes on,
and I apparently with it.
Note
This transcription appears in Letters, Sarah Wyman
Whitman. Cambridge, MA: Riverside Press, 1907,
"Letters to Sarah Orne Jewett: 1882-1903," pp. 61-109.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Horace Scudder
South Berwick, Maine
July 3, 1890
Dear Mr. Scudder:
I wish that you would be kind enough
to look over this sketch and see if you think it is worth
printing. I wrote it some months ago and then put it by. But Mr.
Aldrich1 insists that I don't know the best work I
can do when I see it, and never has ceased to speak of my
undervaluing "The Dulham Ladies!"2
I should not send this, however, 'on
the chance' unless I were very doubtful about finishing another
sketch which I began for you. My mother has been very ill in
these last two weeks and now that she is getting better I don't
feel quite in condition for my work and I am half afraid that,
if I went on with the new sketch, it wouldn't be so good as this
one that I send. So I boldly risk being a rejected contributor
at the start!!3
Yours ever sincerely,
Sarah O. Jewett
Notes
1 Thomas Bailey
Aldrich (1836-1907) was editor of the Atlantic Monthly
from 1881 to 1890. The Aldriches lived on Beacon Hill during his
active editing days and became quite friendly with Miss Jewett
and Mrs. Fields. Miss Jewett visited them at their summer home
in Ponkapog, Massachusetts, and exchanged playful letters with
both Aldrich and his wife Lilian. In 1895 the Aldriches rented a
little cottage, The Crags, at Tenants Harbor, Maine,
and enjoyed the company of Miss Jewett and Mrs. Fields, who were
vacationing at Martinsville. In 1896 all four took a cruise of
the Caribbean islands (see Letter 78, note 3).
2 In the Atlantic
Monthly, LVII (April 1886), 455-462; collected in A
White Heron. Although Aldrich's comparative values are
questionable -- he said in a letter to Miss Jewett, "I believe,
for example, that Hawthorne's pallid allegories will have faded
away long before those two little Dulham ladies" -- his verdict
on public opinion has been sustained by time. Over the years,
"The Dulham Ladies" has been the most consistently anthologized
of Miss Jewett's stories.
3 Since Miss Jewett had
already appeared over thirty times in the pages of the Atlantic
Monthly, she was of course alluding to Scudder's "start"
as full-fledged editor. Scudder did reject this unidentified
sketch (see Letter 41).
This letter is edited and annotated by Richard Cary in Sarah
Orne Jewett Letters; the ms. is held by Colby College
Special Collections, Waterville, Maine.
John Greenleaf Whittier to Sarah Orne Jewett
Eliot*
July 18, 1890
My dear Friend,
I am glad to be almost in hailing distance of thee, at this
charming house overlooking the Piscataqua & the green
farm-lawn of Eliot, only wishing I felt able to ride over and see
thee. I am not well but I am here under favorable circumstances,
and as far as neuralgia will let me I shall like Falstaff "take
mine ease in mine own inn.{"}* Will thee not, as thy
mother's health improves, come and see us? I have not heard
from our beloved Annie Fields* for some time. Perhaps she
will visit thee and come with thee.
[ Page 2 ]
That last story of thine in the Atlantic was one of thy best --
true to the old life in N.E.. The pathos of it brought tears
to my eyes. I have got two old women, who ran away from
the Amesbury poor-house, to take care of as far as I
can. Sarah Farmer who is as much of an angel as humanity
allows of is very kind ^and^ neighborly, and my friend Atwood is
with us from Providence. He loves thy work, and would
be glad to see thee.
With a great deal of love thy friend
John G Whittier
Notes
Eliot: In Life and Letters of John Greenleaf Whittier
(v. 2, p. 747) Samuel T. Pickard says, "A few weeks of the summer
of 1890 were spent by Mr. Whittier at a quiet and pleasant place
on the Piscataqua River, in Eliot, Maine, known as "Green Acre."
This letter is on lined paper.
Falstaff "take mine ease....": See William
Shakespeare, Henry IV, Part 1, III,3, where Falstaff asks,
"Shall I not take mine ease in mine inn, but I shall have my
pocket picked?"
Annie Fields: Annie Adams Fields. See Key
to
Correspondents.
Amesbury poor house: The two old women running away from
the poor house point toward Jewett's story, "The Flight of Betsy
Lane," which appeared in Scribner's Magazine in August
1893, after Whittier's death. Therefore, Whittier almost
certainly refers to "The Town Poor," which appeared in Atlantic
Monthly in July 1890.
Sarah Farmer: The Farmer family owned Green Acre,
from which Whittier writes. In 1894, Sarah Jane Farmer (1847-1916) founded the
Green Acre Bahá'í School on the farm.
friend Atwood: Probably Reverend Julius W. Atwood, who
frequently spent extended time with Whittier in summers after
1884. Julius Walter Atwood (1857-1945) was born in
Salisbury, VT and studied at Middlebury College and The Episcopal
Theological School at Cambridge, MA. His wife was Anna
Richmond (d. 1907). In the 1890s, he was rector of St.
James' Church in Providence, RI. In 1911-1925, he served as
missionary bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Arizona. Find a Grave and Who's Who in Arizona (1913), p.
421.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the South Berwick Public
Library, South Berwick, ME. Transcription by John
Richardson. Annotated by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Annie Adams Fields
Sunday -----
[
20-21 July 1890 ]*
Dearest Fuff --*
I have sent many a thought to you today and
wished with all my heart I could see you! It must have been a
lovely Sunday at Manchester -- one we like best with such
bright sunlight and quick showers. I sat by a window to
my disadvantage yesterday writing a letter and talking by
turns with Mother, and I have
[ Page 2 ]
been stiff in my back, and very groansome! There hasn't been much
to [ do corrected ] but to lie on the bed in peace and
read Mrs. Oliphants* beautiful stories, and after I finished those
I turned to the Virginians* which I haven't quite finished yet.
(I send you Katy Bradbury's* letter which is
full of interesting things. Mary* had been reading about the Antigone*
[ Page 3 ]
and was much interested in that part of the letter, but I missed
the account of it somehow. And) I send too a nice little letter
from thy friend* which of course I want to keep. If tomorrow is a
good day I hope to drive down to take tea with him.
You will observe that he spreads his nets wide
for you! so if you possibly can -- do come here for a day by and
by and we will
[ Page 4 ]
go down! I suppose you will think it is easier to journey to his
neighbouring town of Danvers a little later in the season !!
I am so glad he likes the Town Poor.* -----
Monday ( Carrie* was going on a drive
yesterday and I sent some flowers to "Gertrude."* They [saw corrected
] thy friend too, but he was low in his mind with a neuralgia poor
old man.
I hope this bright sun [ to do intending today
? ] will cure him. Isn't K.B.'s letter delightful about
Southwell & Newark? (?)* ) but what did you think of
G. Sand's letter to Madame d'Agoult?* that long letter at the
beginning of the book. I
[ Up the left margin and then across the top
margin of page 1 ]
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. ( * But good morning dear
heart from your own Pinny.*
(Do tell her what the "troublesome things were"
when you first got
[ Up the left margin and then across the top
margin of page 2 ]
back. All the letters you sent were such nice ones. Yours most
lovingly
P.L.
[ Up the left margin and then across the top
margin of page 3 ]
I am writing a sketch little by little called By the Morning
Boat* about a boy who is leaving his home on the shore (like
the little houses we have just seen near Boothbay)* and going to Boston* to go into business. I think you will
like it.
[ Up the left margin and then across the top
margin of page 4 ]
(It was suggested by Henry Vaughan's* going and seeing his
father's * mother's faces as he sailed off.
How nice -- to have seen Miss Curtis & Mrs
Barnard! )
Notes
20-21 July 1890: This letter was composed soon after
the appearance of Jewett's story, "The Town Poor" in July 1890 and
after receiving Whittier's 18 July letter praising that story. I
have dated it on the following Sunday and Monday. See notes
below.
Parenthesis marks in this manuscript were
penciled mainly in green by Fields. All but one of her marks
in the marginal writing are in black, probably pencil.
Fuff: Nickname for Annie Adams Fields. See Key
to
Correspondents.
Mrs. Oliphant's: Scottish author Margaret Oliphant Wilson Oliphant (1828 -
1897). In 1890, her most recent volume of short stories was Neighbours
on
the
Green (1889).
the Virginians: This is not American author Owen Wister's
1902 novel, The Virginian, but British novelist William Makepeace Thackeray's (1811-1863)
historical novel of 1857-59, a sequel to Henry Esmond
(1852).
Katy Bradury's: Kate Bradbury. See Key
to
Correspondents.
Mary: Mary Rice Jewett. See Key
to Correspondents.
the Antigone: Antigone,
daughter of Oedipus of Thebes, is best known as the protagonist of
a tragedy of the same name by the classical Greek dramatist, Sophocles
(497-406 B.C. ) But many other references are possible, in
history, myth and visual art. It is not clear, then, without
access to Bradbury's letter exactly what has interested Mary
Jewett.
thy friend: John Greenleaf Whittier. See Key
to
Correspondents.
the Town Poor: Jewett's "The Town Poor" appeared in Atlantic
Monthly in July 1890. Whittier's letter to Jewett
expressing pleasure in her story is dated July 18, 1890.
Carrie: Carrie Jewett Eastman. See Key
to
Correspondents.
"Gertrude": Probably this is Gertrude Cartland (1822-1911),
who with her husband, Joseph Cartland (1810-1898), accompanied
Whittier on his summer vacations in Maine and New Hampshire for
five decades. Whittier lived in their home at Newburyport,
Massachusetts most of his last fifteen winters.
saw: Someone, perhaps Fields, has inserted above this word
a more readable "saw."
K.B.'s ... Southwell and Newark: Kate Bradbury. See Key
to
Correspondents. Southwell and Newark-on-Trent are
towns about 140 miles north of London in Great Britain and about
80 miles southeast of Bradbury's home near Ashton-under-Lyne.
? (?): While other parentheses marks in this letter
are fairly clearly by Fields, these around the question mark may
be by Jewett.
G. Sand's letter to Madame d'Agoult: It seems likely that
Jewett is reading Letters of George Sand volume 1
(1886), translated and edited by Raphaël Ledos de Beaufort (pp.
202-4).
did. (: This parenthesis mark by Fields is in green,
but appears to have been deleted in black pencil.
Pinny: Pinny Lawson (Pinny / Pin) was an affectionate
nickname for Jewett, used by her and Annie Fields. See Key
to
Correspondents.
By the Morning Boat: Jewett's "By the Morning Boat"
appeared in Atlantic Monthly in October 1890.
Boothbay) ... Boston: The parentheses around this clause
are by Jewett. She also has rendered "Boston" extra large and in
print rather than longhand.
Henry Vaughan's: Henry Goodwin Vaughan (1868-1938), who in
1890 was married to Sara Olea Bull (1871 - 1911), daughter of
Jewett's friend, Sara Chapman Thorp Bull. See Key
to Correspondents.
Miss Curtis & Mrs Barnard: The transcription of
both names is uncertain. Possibly, Jewett refers to Alice May
Curtis (1871-1961), a photographer. Curtis lived with Olivia Yardley Bowditch (1842-1928) in the
Bowditch family home at 506 Beacon Street until about 1908.
The couple traveled often in Europe, where Curtis took
photos. Bowditch was the daughter of Dr. Henry Ingersoll Bowditch (1808-1892),
Harvard Professor of Clinical Medicine, and Olivia Jane Yardley
(1816-1890). The family was deeply involved in various
reforms, including abolition and woman suffrage.
Mrs. Barnard may be the journalist
Helen M. Barnard, also an activist for woman suffrage. Barnard
worked as a journalist for the New York Herald, and served
the U. S. government in various capacities. The Washington Times of 22 July 1914 (p.
7) says that she was one of the first two female reporters allowed
to attend and cover the United States Senate: "Later Mrs. Barnard,
under Grant's Administration, was sent to Liverpool as immigration
commissioner. She visited England, Ireland, and Scotland. She
returned on the steerage of an ocean liner and gave one of the
most interesting and useful reports made on the subject of
immigration." The Los Angeles Herald of 27 May 1888 (p. 6)
says: "Helen M. Barnard was, and is, a regal woman, earnest,
thoughtful and profound. Her forte was politics, in which she
displayed extraordinary sagacity. She is now a staid married
woman, resides in New York City, and is editing a special monthly
journal." The description of a letter of introduction by James A. Garfield,
then an Ohio congressman, presenting her to E. B. Washburne, then
U. S. Minister at Paris, France, says: "Barnard was a government
clerk, journalist, and an original member of the Universal
Franchise Association, and an associate of Susan B. Anthony and
Elizabeth Cady Stanton."
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 Dresel
[ 25 July 1890 ]*
My poor little girl I know it all, and I send you [honest ?]
sympathy and hold you close to my heart. Give my love to
your dear mother and Ellis. I say that I know the sorrow but
thank God! I know the comfort too that comes only to those who
[ Page 2 ]
mourn. For the first time too, you will feel as if you
really knew and loved and understood your dear father. You
will find him closer to you than ever. I hope to see you
very soon. God bless you dear Loulie and make you more than
ever a blessing.
Yours faithfully
S.O.J
Notes
1890: Dresel's father, Otto, died on 25 July 1890.
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 Lilian Woodman and Thomas Bailey Aldrich
South Berwick Maine
23 July, 1890
My dear Friends
I began a letter to you the very week
you went away but I did not finish it for my mother has been
most dangerously ill and only just now begins to seem as if she
were getting well again. We have felt very anxious all these
long weeks.
I really [ deleted letters ] am
in a great hurry now to know where you are and what you have
been doing.
[ Page 2 ]
I was so overwhelmed when I got word of the change in the
Atlantic's fortunes* that I don't feel free to express myself
even yet! But this I can say, that I am most grateful ^for^ and
unforgetful of all the patience and kindness which my dear
friend the editor has given me in these years that are past. One
day I saw in the [ deleted letters ] Nation that "one
has learned to look for Miss Jewett's best work in the
[ Page 3 ]
pages of the Atlantic" but I could read something deeper still
between those lines and gladly owned to myself that it was ^due^
to many suggestions and much helpfulness that my sketches have a
great deal of their ^(possible)^ value -- I have been taught so
many lessons and been kept toward a better direction than I
could have found for myself. If I were not looking eagerly for
your new work, dear Mr. T. B. A.
[ Page 4 ]
and were not thankful that your time was your own now for your
works sake, I should lament more loudly than I do [ deleted
letters ] over the magazine's loss. (Mr. Scudder is
industrious and conscientious, but he cannot do what you have
done, for heaven hasn't sent the gift and so we mustn't expect
the performance. He sent me a very kind little note which
was the first news I had of the change. And asked me for a
sketch for his
[ Page 5 ]
first number which I was sorry not to send, but it was just at
the time when I was most busy and worried here at home.
I have seen very little of our dear A.F.*
who is at Manchester and just now has Miss von Blomberg* with
her, but she was pretty lonely through June, and I wished over
and over again for her sake that she was in England
[ Page 6 ]
or somewhere else than Manchester. That dear house is either
the saddest or the happiest place in the world to her and this
year she found it very hard to be there at first, and as it
happened, much of the time alone.)
I wonder if you will go to Paris, and
if you will see Madame Blanc?* I had a delightful letter from
her not long ago written in the South of France and
[ Page 7 ]
sounding like one of George Sand's, say from the second volume
of her Correspondence!* She sent me a volume of S.O.J. all in
French, which caused such pride of heart that no further remarks
are ventured upon the subject!
(Do write me some day, dear Lilian and dear
T.B.! I only ask for a little letter for I know how hard it is
to find time for anybody else with all your home
[
Page 8 ]
letters.) If Mrs. Fields and I should go
over to England another year we must have you go too and we
will plan such a holiday together of a week or a fortnight
that it makes me laugh to think of it. Somehow I think
we are going to have more time to play together now! (Give my
love to Mr. Pierce* if you are still together and) do not
forget how truly and affectionately I am ever your friend
"Sadie"*
Notes
change in the "Atlantic's" fortunes: Aldrich left the
editorship of the Atlantic Monthly in April 1890, to be
replaced by Horace Scudder (1838-1902), who served 1890-1898.
(Source: Cary, Sarah Orne Jewett Letters, pp. 64-5).
Jewett's relations with Scudder were less cordial than those with
Aldrich; see Ellery Sedgwick, "Horace Scudder and Sarah Orne
Jewett: Market Forces in Publishing in the 1890s" in American
Periodicals 2 (Fall 1992), pp. 79-88.
A. F.: Annie Fields (1834-1915). See Key
to
Correspondents.
Miss von Blomberg: Baroness Eva von Blomberg. See Key
to
Correspondents.
alone): This long passage in parentheses was omitted
in the Annie Fields transcription. Probably, then, she added
the parenthesis marks. Fields probably is responsible for setting
off two other passages of this letter in parentheses.
Madame Blanc: Marie Thérèse de Solms Blanc. See Key
to
Correspondents.
Mme. Blanc's translation of Jewett's A Country Doctor
(1884) appeared in 1890.
George Sand ... Correspondence: Probably George Sand's Correspondance
1812-1876 (Paris 1882), in six volumes. WorldCat's earliest
listing for Madame Blanc-Bentzon's translation of Jewett's A
Country Doctor is Le roman de la femme-médecin ; suivi
de Récits de la Nouvelle-Angleterre par Sarah Orne Jewett;
préface de Th. Bentzon. Traduction autorisée, J. Hetzel
(Paris) 1890.
Mr. Pierce: Henry Lille Pierce. See Key
to
Correspondents.
"Sadie": Sadie Martinot was a Jewett nickname with
the Aldriches, presumably after the American actress and singer,
Sarah/Sadie Martinot. See Key
to
Correspondents.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library,
Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. Thomas Bailey Aldrich Papers,
119 letters of Thomas Bailey and Lilian Woodman Aldrich,
1837-1926. MS Am 1429 (117). Transcribed and annotated by Terry
Heller, Coe College.
At the bottom left of page one, in another
hand, is a circled number: 2736. The mark appears again at
bottom left of p. 5.
This letter appears in Annie Fields, Letters of
Sarah Orne Jewett (1911), Transcribed by Annie
Adams Fields, with some alterations. Fields's
transcription follows.
My dear Friends, -- I began a letter
to you the very week you went away, but I did not finish it, for
my mother has been most dangerously ill, and only just now
begins to seem as if she were getting well again. We have felt
very anxious all these long weeks. I really am in a great hurry
now to know where you are and what you have been doing. I was so
overwhelmed when I got word of the change in the "Atlantic's"
fortunes* that I don't feel free to express myself even yet! But
this I can say, that I am most grateful for and unforgetful of
all the patience and kindness which my dear friend the editor
has given me in these years that are past. One day I saw in the
"Nation" that "one has learned to look for Miss Jewett's best
work in the pages of the 'Atlantic'"; but I could read something
deeper still between those lines and gladly owned to myself that
it was due to many suggestions and much helpfulness that my
sketches have a great deal of their (possible) value. I have
been taught so many lessons and been kept toward a better
direction than I could have found for myself. If I were not
looking eagerly for your new work, dear Mr. T. B. A., and were
not thankful that your time was your own now for your work's
sake, I should lament more loudly than I do over the magazine's
loss.
I wonder if you will go to Paris, and
if you will see Madame Blanc? I had a delightful letter from her
not long ago, written in the South of France, and sounding like
one of George Sand's, say from the second volume of her
Correspondence!* She sent me a volume of S.O.J. all in French,
which caused such pride of heart that no further remarks are
ventured upon the subject!
Sarah Orne Jewett to Horace Scudder
South Berwick, Maine
July 24, 1890
Dear Mr. Scudder:
I send you this sketch, "By the
Morning Boat,"1 which I am pretty sure you will like
better than the other which is good (and tame!) enough but never
belonged to the Atlantic. I should not have sent it to
you under other circumstances, or if I had not wished so much to
be in your first number. The House has paid me fifteen dollars a
page or thereabouts, on acceptance, in these later years of a
long and industrious career, but I continue to make believe that
I am still beginning in the Riverside! You and Miss
Francis2 must be kind as you begin to discover signs
of decadence, but I perceive that I take too mournful a strain
for a business letter!
Yours ever sincerely,
Sarah O. Jewett
Notes
1 Atlantic Monthly,
LXVI (October 1890), 518 -- 525; collected in Strangers and
Wayfarers.
2 Susan Moore Francis
(1839-1919), graceful essayist and book reviewer, came
to the Atlantic as editorial assistant during the
incumbency of James T. Fields and served the five succeeding
editors in similar capacity. Reputed to have an uncanny flair
for judging manuscripts, she is credited with suggesting to
Fields that he invite Bret Harte to contribute to the Atlantic,
but she is also said to have turned down David Harum because
it
was
"vulgar."
This letter is edited and annotated by Richard Cary in Sarah
Orne Jewett Letters; the ms. is held by Colby College
Special Collections, Waterville, Maine.
Mabel Lowell Burnett to Sarah Orne Jewett
Nichewaug
Tuesday
[
July 1890 ]*
Dear Sarah
"Oh
wer't thou in the cauld blast." as the song says, nothing on
earth would induce me to shelter thee, on the [ contrary ?
] I would come right out and sit in it with you, and tell you
that Petersham is a fraud -- It is pretty, but whew! aint it
hot? Last night as I lay awake sweltering, I could think of
nothing but the sound of the pictures in the [ lab ? ]
at Gambrel Cottage,* as they move gently back and forth in the
crisp sea breeze --
[ Page 2 ]
just to think of it made me wretched, and I couldn't think of
anything else -- There isn't anything to do here, and for that
reasons I can't write. When I am [ hurried ? ] to death,
and all tired out, then my soul longs to commune with other scenes
-- but now -- I have about as much life as a fresh water mussel
taken out of a nice hot pool. I hope my cough is
better, at any rate I do have moments when it lets me alone, so
that is an improvement. I hear very good news from Elmwood. Papa
speaks of some "domestic despot" whose absence enables them to do
all sorts of things{.} I can't imagine what he means
[ Page 3 ]
can you? In its absence he is going to buy a [ Victoria ?
],* think of us -- and think of George driving it -- have
you ever seen George? Papa says in his last letter "George
continues to mow the lawn with his two machines, one of which
perfects the roughness left by the other. His air when mounted on
the horse-machine puts me in mind of Neptune in the Iliad{.}" That
is better than anything I can say, so I shall end with that{.}
Every body here is most kind, each one has offered me an
absolutely, infallible cure for a cough -- but I stick to my cod
liver oil, which cured me once -- and which Dr Robinson* thinks
will again -- he thought Dr [ Steldout ? ] ought to have
told me in the beginning
[ Page 4 ]
how serious the trouble was, so that I might have [ two
unrecognized words ] more careful -- but at any rate, he
said he was sure I should get over it and I believe him --
I don't know whether you heard that Dr. [ Lyman ? ]
finally brought Dr. Minot to see Papa, and Dr M. said he could
find absolutely nothing wrong about him -- this for Dr M. who is
said to take gloomy views, usually, was very encouraging. And Papa
began to feel better at once. I am sorry to say that [ Lyman ?
] is going abroad next week, which will be a great loss to Papa,
who depended upon seeing him every other day. There [ here ?
] is the end of my paper.
Have you read "[ Unrecognized title ]" by [ Unrecognized
name ]; it is [ unrecognized word ] I think. Dearest
love to Mrs F.* Yours affectionately M.L.B.
Notes
1889-1890: This letter almost certainly was composed after
Burnett's father, James Russell Lowell, took up his last residence
in the family home at Elmwood, in Cambridge, MA -- 1889 -- and
probably before his final illness in the summer of 1891. I have
placed it in July 1890, believing this is a reasonably likely
date.
Diagonally to the left of "Dear Sarah" on page
1 in another hand is the note: M.L.B.
Blast: "O, Wert Thou in the Cauld Blast" is a poem by
Scottish poet, Robert Burns (1759-1796).
Gambrel Cottage: One of the names given to Annie
Fields's summer home in Manchester-by-the-Sea, MA. See Key
to Correspondents.
Victoria: Burnett refers to a Victoria carriage, a
four-wheeled open horse-drawn carriage. George, the likely driver,
apparently is a Lowell family employee.
Neptune in the Iliad: Poseidon, Greek god of the sea,
(Neptune for the Romans) at various times assists the Greeks in
their siege of Troy in Greek Homer's epic poem of the Trojan war,
The Iliad (c. 7th century B.C.).
Dr. Robinson ... Steldout ... Lyman ... Minot: The
transcriptions of Steldout and Lyman are very uncertain, and they
have not been identified. Dr. Robinson also remains unknown.
Probably, Mr. Lowell's doctor was Dr. James Jackson Minot
(1852-1938).
Mrs. F: Annie Adams Fields. See Key to
Correspondents.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library of
Harvard University: Sarah Orne Jewett Additional Correspondence I,
Letters to Sarah Orne Jewett. bMS Am 1743.1 (14).
This transcription is from a photocopy held by
the Maine Women Writer's Collection, University of New England,
Box 2, Folder 99, Burton Trafton Jewett Research Collection.
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe
College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Horace Scudder
Manchester, Mass.1
August 1, [1890]
Dear Mr. Scudder:
I had given up the idea of making up a
new book of stories this autumn because I thought that Tales
of New England would in a measure take the place of it.
But if you think that it would be a good plan, and a better
piece of business than to wait until the spring, I shall be glad
to abide by your judgment. There are more than enough stories
for a volume and I could put them together with very little
trouble.2 I shall be leaving here Monday morning and
I can go into town and see about it at any hour between a little
after ten o'clock and three.
I thank you for your kind note and I
am very glad that you liked the sketch.3
My sister enjoyed seeing you and Mrs.
Scudder very much indeed. I think that it must be pleasanter
than ever this summer at Little Boar's Head,4 for she
has so many pleasant tales to tell!
Believe me
Yours faithfully,
S. O. Jewett
I shall be at South Berwick after
leaving here and I will remember to keep you advised on account
of the proofs.
Notes
1 This popular resort
which came to be known as Manchester-by-the-Sea was the site of
Mrs. Fields's summer home, Gambrel Cottage, on
Thunderbolt Hill. Miss Jewett began visiting her friend here in
September 1880, when Mr. Fields was still alive. He admired her
instantaneously and spoke of her as an ideal companion for his
wife, which she became after his death in the following year.
Here, as at 148 Charles Street, gathered the elite of literature
and the arts, and the time was passed in comfort, conversation,
and projects.
2 Scudder advised Miss
Jewett to get the volume together posthaste. Strangers and
Wayfarers, a collection of eleven short stories from the
Atlantic Monthly, Scribner's, Harper's, and Century,
appeared in November 1890.
3 "By the Morning Boat."
4 A showplace of
southeastern New Hampshire about half a mile from Rye, where
Miss Jewett's maternal aunts had a summer home. The Scudders
rented houses at Little Boar's Head for several years, and Mrs.
Ingersoll Bowditch (Scudder's daughter Sylvia) recalls Mary
Jewett visiting there.
This letter is edited and annotated by Richard Cary in Sarah
Orne Jewett Letters; the ms. is held by Colby College
Special Collections, Waterville, Maine.
Edwin Lassetter Bynner to Sarah Orne Jewett
102 P. O. Bdg, Boston
Aug: 4. '90
My dear Mifs Jewett.
I have an irresistible impulse to tell
you how delighted I am with The Town Poor;* besides
its perfection in a literary way as a genre which
its pathos (so humble and direct) proved
[
Page 2 ]
so effective that on three different
occasions when I read it aloud to different circles of
friends I was badly shipwrecked and let me add that I am a
veteran & hardened mariner of the pathetic
main{.}
My intense appreciation of your work is
due doubtless to the fact that my early years were passed on
a farm in central Massachusetts{.}
[ Page 3 ]
I knew all that life well and had you struck
one false note I should have [ winced
? ]. As it is
it deserves to be placed beside "Mifs Tempy"* and I need say
no more.
Very Cordially Yours
Edwin L. Bynner.
Notes
The Town Poor: Jewett's "The Town Poor" appeared in Atlantic
Monthly, July 1890.
"Miss Tempy": Jewett's "Miss Tempy's Watchers" appeared in
Atlantic, March 1888.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library of
Harvard University, Cambridge, MA. bMS Am 1743 Box 1, Item
35 I. Letters to Sarah Orne Jewett.
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe
College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Horace Scudder
South Berwick, Maine
August 8, [1890]
Dear Mr. Scudder:
Will you please send me the first
sketch which I sent you?1 I meant to have taken it
the other day and so to have saved you this trouble. I was sorry
not to find you, but I did not know what days you were in town,
and I had not given time enough for an answer to my letter
.
In making up the new book of stories
(which I mean to call Strangers and Wayfarers) I meant
to put in my new sketch, "By the Morning Boat," for the last or
next to the last, so, when the Atlantic proof is ready,
will you be so kind as to ask the printers to send me duplicates
in order that I may have one to keep?
Yours sincerely,
Sarah O. Jewett
I am sending this note to Little
Boar's Head because I think it is possible that the sketch may
be there. Please give my very kindest remembrances to Mrs.
Scudder.
Notes
1 See Letter 40, note
3 in Sarah
Orne Jewett Letters.
This letter is edited and annotated by Richard Cary in Sarah
Orne Jewett Letters; the ms. is held by Colby College
Special Collections, Waterville, Maine.
John Greenleaf Whittier to Annie Adams Fields
Green-Acre
Eliot ME
[ August 1890 ]*
My [ beloved ? ] friend
I have just read over thy Sonnet in the
Atlantic, and must tell thee how strong and noble it seems. I read
it to my cousins & some friends here and all were deeply
impressed by it. It is an inspiration -- a prophetic vision -- a
true poem. I am glad to be so near dear Sarah Jewett. She is
confined just now by her sisters absence, to her house, and I have
not felt able to go to see her there. How we all thank Dr Holmes*
[ Page 2 ]
for relieving the hot dullness of dog-days with the fun and fancy
of his Broomstick Train! -- It is droller than his "One
Horse Shay.{"}
We should probably leave here next week; and it
is not certain whether we shall go back to Massachusetts or
further up North. It will depend upon my health, of which I
cannot say much. Our quarters here are very comfortable.
With love from Cousin Gertrude,* I am
thankfully and affectionately thine
John G Whittier
Notes
August 1890: Whittier did not date this letter, but
his reference to the dog-days places it in August, and his
references to items in the August 1890 Atlantic Monthly,
place it in 1890. His letter to Jewett of 8/11/1890 indicates that
he had left Green Acre by that time.
Sonnet: Whittier refers to Fields's poem, "Flammantia
Mœnia Mundi." The title comes from Lucretius, "Flaming Walls
of the World." The sonnet appeared first in Atlantic Monthly
in August 1890, p. 235 and was collected in The Singing Shepherd (1895).
See Whittier to Fields, 3 June 1890.
Dr. Holmes: Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. See Key
to
Correspondents. His poem, "The Broomstick Train;
Or, The Return of the Witches" appeared in the same August 1890
issue of Atlantic Monthly as Fields's sonnet, pp. 245-8.
Another popular humorous poem by Holmes is "The Deacon's Masterpiece," about the
"wonderful one-hoss shay."
Cousin Gertrude: Richard Cary says that Joseph Cartland
(1810-1898) and his cousin Gertrude Cartland (1822-1911)
accompanied Whittier on his summer vacations in Maine and New
Hampshire for five decades, and Whittier lived in their home at
Newburyport, Massachusetts most of his last fifteen winters.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Huntington Library,
San Marino, CA, in the James T. Fields collection: mss FI
72-4685. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe
College.
John Greenleaf Whittier to Sarah Orne Jewett
Oak Knoll
Danvers*
8/11 1890
My dear Friend,
How sorry I am that I was not at Green Acre* to
welcome thee & thy sister* when you called! I dont blame
thee for not driving over to {the} lawn party that terribly hot
day, but I looked anxiously for thee{.} It was ^a^ pleasant
affair, but it lacked
[ Page 2 ]
thee. Somehow I do not see so much of my adopted daughter as
I could wish.
The Grand Army* 50 or 60 strong has just
interrupted my letter, and my hand trembles from so much shaking.
Boston
has given [corrected from giving] the veterans a grand
welcome, and they are loud in its praise.
I had a line from dear Annie Fields* last
night. She says she shall ride over to
[ Page 3 ]
Oak Knoll soon. I hope thee will be with her.
I thank thee for thy care of the old
broken-legged image. If thee have got him on his feet it must have
been a rare piece of surgery{.}
Always thy affectionate friend
John G.Whittier
Notes
Danvers: Where Whittier writes from is somewhat
confusing. Though the letter is dated from Danvers, the
location of Oak Knoll, Whittier implies that he actually writes
from Boston. Though Danvers is near Boston, presumably
this village did not experience the crowds of veterans in the
streets of Boston for the National Encampment (see notes below).
Green Acre: In Life and Letters of John Greenleaf Whittier
(v. 2, p. 747) Samuel T. Pickard says, "A few weeks of the summer
of 1890 were spent by Mr. Whittier at a quiet and pleasant place
on the Piscataqua River, in Eliot, Maine, known as 'Green
Acre'." Green Acre was a hotel/retreat operated by the
Farmer family.
thy sister: Probably Mary Rice Jewett. See Key
to
Correspondents.
Grand Army: The 24th National Encampment of the Grand
Army of the Republic took place in Boston during 11-16 August
1890. See Unofficial Proceedings (1891); the
schedule of encampment events appears on pp. 52-3.
Annie Fields: Annie Adams Fields. See Key
to
Correspondents.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the South Berwick Public
Library, South Berwick, ME. Transcription by John
Richardson. Annotated by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Thomas Bailey Aldrich to Sarah Orne Jewett
[
Begin letterhead ]
HOTEL DU LAC
ST. MORITZ-BAD
ENGADINE
--------------
Gérant J. GIGER
-------------
[ End letterhead ]
[ Date added to the right of the letterhead ]
Aug 11 ' ' / 90.*
My dear Sadie:*
I wish I could tell you in a few words how much
pleasure your letter brought to me. But a few words will not
express it, and I will have to wait until my good fortune brings
me near to you. My pleasantest work in the Atlantic as to print
your stories. No suggestion of mine could add anything to the
liveliness of these little masterpieces, though you are generous*
and modest enough to assume that I was of some help to you. I only
saw how fine your touch was, and said so. When I return to Paris,
I shall get you in your French [ form ? ] which I know
will be [ becoming ? ], since Madam Blanc* is your couturiere.
I have lost her address. If you will send it to me (to the Hotel
Bristol, Paris) on receipt of this, perhaps it will reach me in
time. ----
The day we said good-bye in the Atlantic
office I was trying to tell you that I had turned my back on the
shop; but I was pledged to keep the matter secret until H. M.
& C. could announce it in their own way. If my lips had not
been sealed with a promise, you and Annie Fields* would have to
know of my resignation. When we meet I will tell you a curious
circumstance touching the affair. ( In confidence* -- I wasn't a
bit sorry that you didn't have a story for the magazine! I was in
the same situation with regard to a poem ) ---
[ Page 2 ]
We have been having an ideal journey. I wish
that you and our dear friend could have been with us to see the
grand Passion Play* at Ober Immergau and afterwards to spend a
week at Constantinople. Both these things were like beautiful
dreams. Mr Pierce* is still with us and will keep us company
until our return. He and Lilian send their love to you and Mrs
Fields. Please keep me in your memory as
Always affectionately yours,
T. B. Aldrich.
Notes
90: Aldrich's handwriting is somewhat confusing, and
this date might be read to mean "1900," but because he refers to
leaving his editorship at Atlantic Monthly, he must have
intended "1890."
Sadie: Aldrich uses his affectionate nickname, "Sadie
Martinot." See Key to Correspondents.
generous: I should note that Aldrich's usually tiny
hand-writing seems even more tiny in this ms. As a result, I
have guessed more often than my brackets indicate. Readers
wanting to be confident in referring to this letter should consult
the manuscript.
Blanc's: Marie Thérèse de Solms Blanc. Key to
Correspondents.
Annie Fields: Annie Adams Fields. Key to Correspondents.
confidence: Above "In confidence" appear 3 penciled
"x's," possibly in another hand, probably to indicate that this
parenthetical remark was to be withheld, perhaps should the letter
be published.
Passion Play: A staging of the passion of Jesus in
the village of Oberammergau, Germany, that has been presented once
per decade since 1680. It was first performed there in 1634.
Wikipedia.
Pierce: Henry Lille Pierce. Key to Correspondents.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library of
Harvard University: Sarah Orne Jewett Correspondence I, Letters to
Sarah Orne Jewett. bMS Am 1743 (4).
This transcription is from a photocopy held by
the Maine Women Writer's Collection, University of New
England, Box 2, Folder 99, Burton Trafton Jewett Research
Collection.
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe
College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to John Greenleaf Whittier
South Berwick
August 12, [1890]
My dear Friend:
I was so sorry when I went to Eliot1
to find that you and dear Mr. and Mrs. Cartland* had flown. I
tried to get to the lawn party but although I came home from
Manchester in good season to drive down it was so hot and so
showery by turns here that I was forced to give it up. I thought
that you were going to stay longer and I miss you very much,
besides hoping that after Miss Kimball's2 week was
over you could come up here for a day or two. I wasn't going to
tease! but I was going to appear with a very comfortable
carriage and sit before the door and indulge my hopes!!
But you must find it delightful at Oak
Knoll, and when I get back to Manchester by and by I shall drive
over. I don't like to trust your graven image to the express but
I must pack him in soft cotton and send him soon. He went to
Eliot yesterday and came home again in an envelope box. We had
(Mary and I) a very pleasant call on Miss Farmer3 who
seems to miss you all a good deal. Goodbye, dear friend, and
give my love to Phebe and the ladies and keep a good share that
belongs to yourself.
Yrs,
Sarah
Cary's Notes
1. Eliot, Maine, was a purely rural town on the Piscataqua
River famed even "across the ocean" as a summer vacation spot.
Whittier spent several weeks at a quiet hotel, "new, neat, and
comfortable, and not near enough to a railroad to be crowded."
(Pickard, Life and Letters, II, 747.) Eliot is a short
drive from South Berwick.
2. Harriet McEwen Kimball (1834-1917), author of numerous
mediocre religious lyrics, was a friend of Whittier's from the
sixties. Typically, he lauded her poems as "better than anything
of Vaughan or Herbert, excepting a very few pieces of the
latter." (Pickard, Life and Letters, II, 486.)
3. Sarah Jane Farmer was the only daughter of Professor Moses
Gerrish Farmer, distinguished inventor of many practical
electrical devices, who retired to Eliot. Miss Farmer
established the Greenacre Assembly in 1894 and the Monsalvat
School in 1896 for the study of comparative religion.
Additional notes
Richard Cary says that Joseph Cartland (1810-1898) and Gertrude
Cartland (1822-1911) accompanied Whittier on his summer
vacations in Maine and New Hampshire for five decades, and
Whittier lived in their home at Newburyport, Massachusetts most
of his last fifteen winters.
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
Tuesday 12 Aug. 1890
Dear Fuff* --
What a dark and still and (from this point of
view) perfect night it must have been yesterday for the lighting
up! I thought a good deal about it. You will be having a good
still day today and will rest and read and take up a George Sand*
book for a little while {.}
It is astonishing how the delight of that
letter from ^G. Sand to^ Madame d'Agoult* stays with
[ Page 2 ]
me. I think of it now and then with perfect delight. The
first bit of time I find I mean to read Matthew Arnold's letter
^essay^* again or perhaps I will wait until we read it together{.}
(Carrie* & family put into port this
morning from Mt [ Desert corrected, possibly from desert
] after a most glorious fortnight that ever was. They report
such fun in seeing the people who came up on the boat from way
down east bound for Boston. Such funny looking & amiable
fellow
[ Page 3 ]
country men! -- ) What a real pang it gave to hear of poor
Boyle O'Reillys death!* I am so glad for all the
friendliness that we could show him but I wish that it could have
been more -- My heart aches for his poor wife and the four little
daughters. And besides this I think he is a great loss. We had
wider and better sense than so many of his faith & nation and
I think there was a true spark of genius in the
[ Page 4 ]
man. I like to think of his pleasure about my Irish story,* dont
you? -----
(( Yesterday afternoon Mary* and I went down to
find thy friend* but he had flown -- and instead of going on to
Wakefield with the Cartlands he was naughty and ran home to
Danvers! Miss Farmer* said that at first he was frightened because
so many people came to Green Acre & wished to go away and then
when he had given up his rooms he was sorry & didn't feel to
go to the other place. He seems to [ love or lose ?
]
[ Manuscript breaks off here. No signature. ]
Notes
Fuff: Nickname for Annie Adams Fields. See Key
to
Correspondents.
George Sand: George
Sand (Amandine-Aurore Lucille Dupin, Baronne Dudevant,
1804-1876) was a productive French novelist, remembered also for
her love affairs with the painter Alfred de Musset and the
pianist-composer, Frederic Chopin.
Jewett probably has been reading Story
of
My
Life (1854-55).
Madame d'Agoult: Marie Catherine Sophie, Comtesse d'Agoult (1805 - 1876), was a
French author who published under the name, Daniel Stern. She is
remembered for eloping with Franz Liszt and bearing their child.
Her most famous book was History of the Revolution of 1848.
Almost certainly, Jewett speaks of George
Sand's first letter to Madame d'Agoult, which appears in Letters of George Sand volume 1
(1886), translated and edited by Raphaël Ledos de Beaufortl (pp.
202-4).
Jeannine Hammond, emeritus professor of French
at Coe College, points out that a deep friendship between d'Agoult
and George Sand came to an end in 1838; d'Agoult attempted to
reestablish it by means of letters after 1839, but without success
until their old age.
Aurelie Loiseleur, in Romantisme 132, pp. 149-150,
summarizes d'Agoult's correspondence as collected in Charles F.
Dupêchez, editor, Marie d’Agoult, Correspondance
Générale (3 v., Paris, Honoré Champion, 2003).
Loiseleur mentions letters to Sand of 20 August and 8 September
1839 in volume 2 as particularly moving in their attempts at
reconciliation.
See also Lisztomania, "Marie D Agoult."
Matthew Arnold: British poet and critic, Matthew Arnold (1822-1888), published
"George Sand" in The Fortnightly Review in June of 1877;
it was reprinted in Mixed Essays in 1879.
(Carrie: Carrie Jewett Eastman. See Key
to
Correspondents.
Except for those on page 1, all parenthesis
marks in this letter are penciled by Fields.
Boyle O'Reillys death: John Boyle O'Reilly (1844 - 10 August 1890)
was an Irish-American poet, journalist and activist for Irish
nationalism. Transported to Australia for his political
activities, he escaped to the United States, settling in Boston,
where he became editor of the Boston Pilot.
Mary: Mary Rice Jewett. See Key
to
Correspondents.
thy friend: John Greenleaf Whittier. See Key
to
Correspondents. Joseph Cartland (1810-1898) and Gertrude
Cartland (1822-1911) accompanied Whittier on his summer vacations
in Maine and New Hampshire for five decades, and Whittier lived in
their home at Newburyport, Massachusetts most of his last fifteen
winters.
Miss Farmer: Jewett refers to the Moses Farmer home in
Eliot, ME, which in 1894 became a center for interfaith religious
meetings and activity, under the leadership of Farmer and his
daughter, Sarah Jane Farmer (b. 1847). Eventually the site
became the Green Acre Bahá'í School.
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
August 14, 1890.
This Summer seems to give little room
for what one needs most. By this I do not mean to blame fate:
only to recognize some of the conditions which attend the
ordinary life we live, and which at a time of special stress
keep one's feet in the road, while one's heart is in the sea or
the sky.
Perhaps those skyey windows will
report themselves some day in renewed working impulses, though
as yet I can't count them.
Notes
This transcription appears in Letters, Sarah Wyman
Whitman. Cambridge, MA: Riverside Press, 1907,
"Letters to Sarah Orne Jewett: 1882-1903," pp. 61-109.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Thomas Bailey Aldrich
South Berwick
[ 23 corrected from 22? ] August 1890
My dear Friend
I thank you with all my heart for your dear and
delightful letter!
I hasten to answer your question about Madame
Blanc:* She wrote me last from the South of France where she
was spending a few weeks, and I cant put my disorderly hand on the
earlier letter. I
[ Page 2 ]
think that her address is 52 Rue de Bourgogne however,*
J. Hetzel et Cie 18 Rue Jacob
published the little book and they would be sure to know . .
I am particularly pleased because Lady
Ferry* was one of the translations. I always have believed
that it was one of the best things I could do, but Mr. Howells
[ Page 3 ]
wouldn't print it for all that. I should lop its beginning now,
but I do like it!
I have been at home almost all the time since I
wrote you. We are still very anxious about my dear mother, though
she has some pretty comfortable days and can drive out in the best
of weather. I saw our dear A.F.* two
[ Page 4 ]
or three weeks ago and she seemed very well and less lonely than
she was earlier in the summer. The Roger Wolcotts and their dear
little girl* were staying with her then -- and she has had Miss
von Blomberg* for some weeks which has been very pleasant, and
other friends beside.
With love to you and Lilian and Mr. Pierce*
Yours ever affectionately
"Sadie"
Think of your having been in
Constantinople!!!*
[ Up the left margin of page 4 ]
Do you know that Mr. Dresel* died very suddenly, a few weeks
ago at Beverly?
[ Up the left margin of page 1 ]
I wish that I could really tell you how much I thank you for
your letter, my dear and kind friend!
Notes
Madame Blanc: Marie Thérèse de Solms Blanc. See Key
to
Correspondents.
however: Jewett's punctuation at this point is difficult to
understand. She appears to have placed a period or a comma
after "however" but the sense of her sentence suggests that
"however" introduces the Hetzel address.
Hetzel was the publisher of Mme. Blanc's
translation of Jewett's A Country Doctor
(1884), which appeared in 1890.
Lady Ferry: Jewett submitted "Lady Ferry" to Atlantic,
when William Dean Howells ( See Key
to
Correspondents) was editor, and then printed it first in her
1879 collection, Old Friends and New.
A. F.: Annie Fields (1834-1915). See Key
to
Correspondents.
The Roger Wolcotts and their dear little girl: See
Edith Prescott Wolcott in Key
to
Correspondents. Among the six children listed at her
"Find a Grave" site, there is only one daughter, Cornelia Frothingham Wolcott Drury
(1885-1956).
Miss von Blomberg: Baroness Eva von Blomberg. See Key
to
Correspondents.
Mr. Pierce: Henry Lille Pierce. See Key
to
Correspondents.
Constantinople: According to Greenslet's The Life
of Thomas Bailey Aldrich, the Aldriches visited
Constantinople, Turkey in July of 1890 (pp. 162-3).
"Sadie": Sadie Martinot was a Jewett nickname with
the Aldriches, presumably after the American actress and singer,
Sarah/Sadie Martinot. See Key
to
Correspondents.
Mr. Dresel: See Louisa Loring Dresel in Key
to Correspondents. Her father, Otto, died 25 July 1890.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library,
Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. Thomas Bailey Aldrich Papers,
119 letters of Thomas Bailey and Lilian Woodman Aldrich,
1837-1926. MS Am 1429 (117). Transcribed and annotated by Terry
Heller, Coe College.
At the bottom left of page one, in another
hand, is a circled number: 2737.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Horace Scudder
South Berwick, Maine
August 19, 1890
Dear Mr. Scudder:
I notice that in the proof of my
sketch the title is changed to "By the Morning's Boat." Do you
think best to let it stand so and was it your change? I liked
the common phrase the Morning Boat as one hears it down
the Coast, like 'morning sky' and 'shining morning face!' Unless
you have a preference in the matter I should like to let the
first reading stand. But I leave the final decision to you --
being my editor!1
Yours sincerely,
Sarah O. Jewett
Do not give yourself the trouble to
answer this note.
[On 4th page]
25th August
Dear Mr. Scudder, this note turns up among
the papers on my (disorderly!) desk. Is it too late? I am very
sorry that I forgot to post it.
Notes
1 Scudder acceded to
Miss Jewett's preference. The title was rendered without the
offending apostrophe s in the October issue of the Atlantic
Monthly and was so reproduced in Strangers and
Wayfarers.
This letter is edited and annotated by Richard Cary in Sarah
Orne Jewett Letters; the ms. is held by Colby College
Special Collections, Waterville, Maine.
Sarah Orne Jewett to William Hayes Ward
South Berwick Maine
21 August 1890
My dear Mr. Ward
I am tempted to make a suggestion through you
to The Herald* in regard to the late accident at
Quincy.* It seems to me that such an accident is inevitably
made worse by the use of such heavy iron car seats, which
[Page 2]
shut together in a horrible way and then are impossible by their
own weight and interlocking to pry apart. Cannot The
Herald suggest something lighter; in a sense more
destructible? for although the bruises and injuries of every
sort would be innumerable in a suddenly stopped car the poor
victims would not all be held in vices as it were and
exposed to steam and fire -- [ deleted word ] Do not
take time to send any reply to this note, but take the idea -- if
it is worth anything!
And pray believe me
with high regard
yours sincerely
Sarah O. Jewett
Notes
The Herald: Jewett is known to have
read several Herald newspapers, including from Portsmouth,
NH, Boston and New York. Mr. Ward seems more likely to have had
connections in Boston and New York. Given that the train
wreck occurred near Boston, perhaps the Boston Herald is
the more likely choice..
accident at Quincy: Jewett refers to the Quincy, MA
train wreck of the Cape Cod and Woods' Hole train on 19 August
1890, in which at least 16 people died and many others were
injured.
For a discussion of passenger car seating, see
The American Railroad Passenger Car, Part 2
(1985) by John H. White, pp. 373-80.
The manuscript of this letter is held in the Abernethy Collection;
Special Collections and Archives, Middlebury College Library,
Middlebury, VT, aberms.jewettso.1890.08.21. It may be viewed
here. Transcription and annotation by
Terry Heller, Coe College.
William James to Sarah Orne Jewett
Tamworth Iron Works, N.H.
Aug 27. 90
My dear Miss Jewett,
Many thanks for your kind letter. Rest
assured that if ever a need of cash comes, so great that all
the reserves have to be called
[ Page 2 ]
out, your hard-earned savings also shall be put under
contribution! I have just sent back this morning another
contribution, from no less a person that Lorsette,* the memory
doctor, so you see that I'm impartial in my disinterestedness, as
[ Page 3 ]
he is a millionaire. I wish you could have stayed over Sunday. We
had a most charming time, and Mrs. Merriman* is assuredly one of
the finest women living. I am so glad to have seen her more
intimately at last.
With warm regards
[ Page 4 ]
from my wife, believe me always, your friend
Wm. James
Notes
contribution: The issue under discussion here has not yet
been explained.
Loisette: Wikipedia in "Mnemonic major system" says:
In the 1880s Marcus Dwight Larrowe, alias Silas
Holmes, was teaching memory courses in the United States based
on the Major System using a third alias Dr. Antoine Loisette.
Because he was charging inordinate sums of money for a system
which had obviously existed before, George S. Fellows published
"Loisette" Exposed (1888) and included all the material
of Larrowe's course which he determined not to be under
copyright. The incident was notable enough to gain coverage by
way of a book review in the journal Science. A well-known
student of Loisette's included Mark Twain whose endorsement
Loisette used regularly to sell his course. Following the
revelation that he had not originated the system, Larrowe
self-published his material under the pseudonym Dr. Antoine
Loisette in 1895 and 1896 and it was later re-published by Funk
& Wagnalls in 1899.
Merriman: Helen Bigelow Merriman. See Key to
Correspondents.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library of
Harvard University: Sarah Orne Jewett Correspondence I, Letters to
Sarah Orne Jewett.
James, William, 1842-1910. 3 letters;
1890-1902. (112).
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.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Frances Smith*
South Berwick, Maine
28 August 1890
Dear Miss Smith
I think that it must be
getting near low-tide in Mrs. Mary Fitzgerald's* pocket-book, so
please put this to her account.
I hope that you are having a good summer,
indoors and out. --
Yours most truly
S. O. Jewett
Notes
Smith: Frances Smith has not yet been identified.
Fitzgerald's: Mrs. Mary Fitzgerald has not yet been
identified. There is some possibility that she was Mrs. Mary
Fitzgerald (1820-1895) of South Boston. According to her
obituary in the Boston Daily Globe (5 March 1895, p. 9),
she was born in Kerry, Ireland, the daughter of John Hoar.
She immigrated to South Boston in 1879, where her previously
arrived son, John E. Fitzgerald, was involved in local politics.
She became active in her parish church, Gate of Heaven, and there
is evidence of her support for Catholic charities benefiting
children and working women.
The manuscript of this letter is held by Milne Special Collections
and Archives, University of New Hampshire Library, Durham, NH,
USA: Sarah Orne Jewett Papers, 1849-1909 Series 1: Correspondence,
MC 128 b1f3.
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe
College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Louisa Loring Dresel
Sunday morning
[ September 1890 ]
Dear Loulie
I now make you a present, (as kindly requested)
of Tuesday afternoon, leaving here by the 1.40 train! I hope
that you will see your way toward accepting so slight a
boon! Please do not take the trouble to write ___________
yes, on the whole I should like a post card.
[ Page 2 ]
My roses have, every one of them, come to full bloom, and I cant
tell you how we have enjoyed them, but perhaps of all the flowers
I liked my white gillyflowers best.
Yours affectionately
S.O.J.
Notes
September 1890: In the upper left corner of page 1,
in another hand appears: Sept. 1890. Without a rationale for
this choice and with no telling internal evidence, I have accepted
this date.
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 Louisa Loring Dresel
Thursday
Manchester
[ September 1890 ]
Dear Loulie
Thank you and Mrs. Dresel so many times for
these lovely flowers which blessed all the house yesterday when I
came. It was very dear of you both.
I hope to see you soon, and indeed
[ Page 2 ]
I should like to come up to dinner. Shall I not see you
first? Do drive down very soon.
Sarah.
It was a dear birthday.
Notes
September 1890: In the upper left corner of page 1,
in another hand appears: Sept. (?) 1890. As Jewett's
birthday falls in September, which may have been the occasion for
the mentioned gift of flowers, there is some rationale for the
guess of the month. Recognizing the lack of further
evidence, I have accepted the speculative date.
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 S. Weir Mitchell
Manchester by the Sea
15 September 1890
Dear Doctor Mitchell
I wish that I could have
thanked you before I came away from Newport for the words that
are written in the book you gave me. I cannot tell you
what a pleasure it was to see you – as if I were seeing an old
friend for the first time! A great doctor is always a
great hero to me,
[ Page 2 ]
and believe that I am always your delighted reader
and look for your lead in my own line of march. ----- I
cannot tell you how much I have thought of the new poem;* it
seems to me in many ways the strongest and most beautiful of
your shorter poems and full of touches -- as if that prison wall
held field flowers in its crannies and even the iron bars were
grown with vines. It is as
[ Page 3 ]
beautiful as it is awful.
I am sorry that I could not see
Mrs. Mitchell* again. I should like to tell her what a
good time I had at the dancing-party. I saw your daughter
and wished that I might know her some day -- I
am going to send her my Betty Leicester* when I go to
town again because I find myself wishing to!
[ Page 4 ]
and you must make some kind excuse for me if she
wonders why the story-book should come!
Pray believe me ever with best
thanks to you for many things
Yours sincerely
Sarah O. Jewett
Mrs Fields wishes me to add her best
regards and hope of seeing you if you should come to Boston.
[ Added diagonally at bottom right of
page 4, seemingly in haste with errors ]
I read to Mrs Mrs [written twice] Marsh and
Miss Ticknor on [ omitted reading?] for the first
time The Centurion*
Notes
new poem: Mitchell's narrative poem about
Christian martyrdom in the Roman Circus Maximus, "In the Valley
of the Shadow: The Centurion," was collected in his volume of
poems, In War-Time (1895). There it is dated 1890.
Jewett apparently did not see it in a magazine, for no such
publication has yet been documented. Perhaps Mitchell gave
Jewett a handmade copy of the poem.
Mrs. Mitchell: For Mitchell's
second wife, Mary, and their daughter, Marie, see Mitchell in Key
to
Correspondents.
Betty Leicester: Jewett's "story
for girls" was published in 1890.
Mrs Fields:
Annie Adams Fields. See Key
to
Correspondents.
Mrs Marsh... Miss Ticknor:
While this is speculative, a likely candidate for "Mrs. Marsh"
is Caroline Crane (Mrs. George P.) Marsh (1816-1901). Her
husband, George Perkins Marsh (1801-1882) was an
American diplomat, philologist, and conservationist. She
was a translator and poet, the author of Wolfe of the Knoll
and other Poems (1860).
Richard Cary identifies Miss Ticknor: "Anna Eliot Ticknor (1823-1896), eldest
daughter of the American historian George Ticknor, also
consorted with Jewett in the Northeast Harbor-Mt. Desert region
on the Maine coast. Miss Ticknor was one of the editors of Life,
Letters, and Journals of George Ticknor (Boston, 1876),
and sole editor of Life of Joseph Green Cogswell
(Cambridge, Mass., 1874)." Wikipedia credits her with
founding the Society to Encourage Studies at Home, the first
correspondence school in the United States, an early effort to
provide post-secondary education for women.
The manuscript of this letter is held in the Sarah Orne Jewett
Papers, Maine Women Writer's Collection, University of New
England, Houghton Autograph File to S. Weir Mitchell #6.
Transcription by Linda Heller; annotation by Terry Heller, Coe
College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Louisa Dresel
South Berwick, Maine
October 1, [1890]
Dear Loulie:
I was glad to get your two nice
letters, the first was full of delightful things to a person in
my business! I am so glad that you are having such a delightful
time. I thought you would! and the second letter quite proves
it. I envy your playing so much with dear Nelly Hale.1
It seems a great while since I saw her. I am indeed glad that
you feel so much better. I was sure of that too, and dear
Loulie, how the truth comes to us as we grow older that one gets
something out of simple country life in the green fields that
one never does anywhere else! It is very natural that I should
have a prejudice in that direction!
You see that I have left Manchester,
but I hope to go back again for the last few days of Mrs.
Fields's stay and be moved to town as I was moved down! Mr.
Sargent2 is still there and we have enjoyed him very
much. It is always such an interesting world to me, the picture
world, and he is such a serious man as my dear old
grandfather3 used to say, and so intent and
wholehearted about his work. I am sure that you would find great
pleasure in what he says and is. I wonder if Nelly has
not known him.
I must say good morning with much love
to you and Nelly and 'Mamma,' and here are best thanks for your
letters.
Yours always affectionately,
S. O. J.
Notes
1Ellen Day Hale
(1854-1940), daughter of Edward Everett Hale, studied with
William Morris Hunt and at the Julian Art School in Paris. Later
she established a studio in Boston and became notable for her
portraits, landscapes, and genre paintings.
2John Singer Sargent
(1856-1925), able and fashionable American painter, stayed at
Mrs. Fields's Gambrel Cottage "while he paints a person
or persons in the neighbourhood" -- listed in his biography as Mrs.
Augustus Loring, Miss Louise Loring, and Portrait
of a Lady. [The editor adds that according to Rita Gollin,
Sargent painted Annie Fields's portrait in 1890 (252).]
3Dr. William Perry
(1788-1887) raced spirited horses along the beach at Exeter, New
Hampshire, in his eighties and performed surgery in his
nineties. A strongminded and outspoken man, he early egged
Jewett toward a serious commitment to work. She dedicated The
Story
of the Normans to him.
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 Wyman Whitman to Sarah Orne Jewett
[
1 Oct 1890 ]*
I loved to see you again, dear friend: but I could not tell
you that morning in the [
unrecognized word station
?]
-- Mostly because you were so very dear. [ It
?
] had made me
[ Page 2 ]
feel such a deep rich sense of sympathy and love. Remember
sometimes that you say words which hearten me for great
stretches of time: even while I have the tender pain of
knowing they are beyond -- far far -- my
[ Page 3 ]
deservings. ----
A blessing on you that shall
be, like His Grace,* new every morning.
Your
SW
Notes
1 Oct 1890: This date is noted in another hand in the upper
right of the first page. It is supported by the envelope
that accompanies this letter, addressed to Jewett in South
Berwick.
His Grace: Presumably, Whitman refers to the
Christian God.
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.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Unknown Recipient (fragment]
South Berwick Maine
12 October 1890
My dear Sir
I thank you sincerely for the kindness of
your note and the very great pleasure it has given me. It is a
great delight to have my work praised by you -- and to have had
your note come just when I happened to be in a state of [
unsatisfied ? ]
[ Unfinished; no signature ]
Note
The manuscript of this fragment is held by the Houghton Library of
Harvard University, Cambridge, MA. bMS Am 1743 Box 7, Item
279.
Transcription and note by Terry Heller, Coe
College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Annie Adams Fields
Saturday
morning
12 October 1890
Oh dearest Fuff (I* am so glad about the road! I think it
is really a great blessing and delight to be sure that you need
not worry about that any more -- You ought to go down
and tell the old apple trees for the poor things must have been
curling up their toes to go, all summer!
What a nice budget of letters -- thank you
so much
[ Page 2 ]
and I am sorry you had to miss S.W.* but I take it in that
there was a Board Meeting! probably -- Tell me if little Smithy*
had come home -- and did anything farther ensue about the Twins*
up the lane? Did they speak after they returned to town? ) X* I
was busy writing most of the day yesterday, [ but changed
from and ] went up the street for an hour to the funeral
of a little ^grand^ child of one of our
[ Page 3 ]
neighbours -- The mother had died of consumption not long ago and
this [ delicate corrected, possibly from deligate ]
little thing was brought to the old grandmother to take care of.
So it was a blessed flitting -- and a solemn little pageant of all
the middle aged and elderly neighbours going to the funeral and
sitting in the room where the small coffin was and that old wise
little dead face, which made one feel oneself the ignorant child
and that
[ Page 4 ]
poor baby an ancient wise creature that knew all that there was
for a baby to know, of this world and the next.
( Then I came back and did some more writing
and then in the dusk I went to see [ an corrected ] old
and very much alive neighbour, and then I came home and ate my
supper and read all the evening. It was so good to have your dear
letter. -- I send you that charming letter which I should
like to have back again. It
[ Up the left margin and then across the top
margin of page 1 ]
is a very pleasant thing to have such a letter as that!
I hope you will have a good day tomorrow{.} Perhaps you can stop
at S.W's going or coming. Tell Mr. Sargent* that
[ Up the left margin of page 2 ]
there is honey going here but nothing like our
[ Up the left margin and then across the top
margin of page 3 ]
piece. I have sent to Mrs. Kelhaus* to see if she can send some
over. I hope she wont put it into a grape basket! ---
Goodby my darling
from your Pinny*
Notes
Fuff (I: Fuff is a nickname for Annie Adams
Fields. See Key
to
Correspondents.
The parenthesis mark here -- along with all
of the others in this manuscript -- was penciled in by Annie
Fields.
S.W.: Sarah Wyman Whitman. See Key
to Correspondents.
Smithy: This person is mentioned in several letters
between Jewett and Fields, and so far there are few clues to her
identity. One wonders whether she might be American
classical scholar, Emily James Smith Putnam
(1865-1944). Though there is no evidence that she and
Annie Fields were acquainted, they shared interest in classical
Greek studies. In 1891, Smith was not yet married, and she
was teaching Greek in Brooklyn. In 1899, she married a Jewett
correspondent, the publisher George Haven Putnam. See Key
to
Correspondents.
the 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.
X: Fields penciled in this X, presumably to mark
the point at which she began her transcription.
Mr. Sargent: If this passage is from the 1890s, then
this could be the painter, John Singer Sargent. However, this is
more likely to be a Boston neighbor, John Turner Sargent
(1807-1877), a prominent Unitarian minister, remembered for his
support of abolition and woman suffrage.
Mrs. Kelhaus: This person has not yet been identified.
Pinny: Pinny Lawson (Pinny / Pin) was an
affectionate nickname for Jewett, used by her and Annie Fields.
See Key
to
Correspondents.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library
of Harvard University. Jewett, Sarah Orne, 1849-1909. Annie
Fields (Adams) 1834-1915, recipient. 194 letters; 1877-1909
& [n.d.] Sarah Orne Jewett correspondence, 1861-1930. MS Am
1743 (255). Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe
College.
Annie Fields Transcription
Annie Fields includes a passage from this letter
in Letters of Sarah Orne Jewett (1911), p. 80.
Saturday
morning, 12 October, 1890
I was busy writing most of the day
yesterday, but went up the street for an hour to the funeral of
a little grand-child of one of our neighbours. The mother had
died of consumption not long ago, and this delicate little thing
was brought to the old grandmother to take care of. So it was a
blessed flitting, and a solemn little pageant of all the
middle-aged and elderly neighbours going to the funeral and
sitting in the room where the small coffin was, and that old,
wise, little dead face, which made one feel one's self the
ignorant child, and that poor baby an ancient wise creature that
knew all that there was for a baby to know, of this world and
the next.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Miss Robinson
South Berwick Maine
13 October 1890
My dear Miss Robinson*
I made my "last appearance
upon in stage" in that same week when you were such a kind
listener at the Saturday Morning Club, so that I must decline your
pleasant invitation.
[ Page 2 ]
I really make it a rule never to read in public, but I beg you to
accept my best thanks for your kind note and to believe me
Yours sincerely
Sarah O. Jewett
Notes
Robinson: This person has not yet been identified.
Saturday Morning Club: The catalog of the records of the
Saturday Morning Club, held by the Schlesinger Library at Harvard,
lists a number of Jewett friends associated with the Saturday
Morning Club, including its 1871 founder, Julia Ward Howe, as well
as Phillips Brooks, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Alice Longfellow,
Louise Moulton, Sarah Wyman Whitman, and Annie Fields.
A photocopy of the manuscript of this letter is held by the George
J. Mitchell Department of Special Collections & Archives,
Hawthorne-Longfellow Library, Brunswick, ME, Sarah Orne Jewett
Papers, Series 1 (M238.1): Correspondence, 1877-1905, n.d.
The original is in the Annie Lawrence Edmands autograph book
(M54).
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe
College.
Celia Thaxter to Annie Adams Fields
[ October 1890 ]*
Dearest Flower:*
Thank you so much for your dear note & I
will forward those photos the minute they are ready, & thank
you [ for blotted ? ] the proffer of the shelter of your
beautiful roof. How I wish I could be there even for a day! But I
dont see how I can go away from my moorings & I am too "poor"
to afford even so small a journey just now, unless it were some
dire necessity. Every summer before these two last I have been
able to do some thing to help my winter expenses, making a hundred
dollars or so by reading at the Shoals, or with my painting or
something -- but I couldn't do it this year & so I must print
this article I have been
[ Page 2 ]
saving long for a rainy day. You know, Flower dear, J. T.* was so
anxious I should print it. -- he said, "you must do it,
bye & bye, of course with some things left out, but you
must do it." The "bye & bye" was because Mr F objected
to anybody's printing any thing, you know, about anybody,
especially
Wm Hunt.* But now nearly twelve years are gone since
Hunt died & I think it is far enough away -- Ask Pinny what
she thinks -- Of course I am dissatisfied with it -- so I am with
every thing that I do, & I never would do any thing if I did
not have to earn my salt, -- I mean of this kind. Last winter I
painted a water color for Mrs Hemenway* & that tided me over
till spring & bought my gray gown you liked, you dear Flower.
[ Page 3 ]
As soon as I have the MS. in shape again I
shall send it for you to read, if you will be so kind, & if
you & Pin dont think its advisable ^to print it ^why I
wont do it, that's all.
Karl did not go up to the Fair* last week, the
weather was so bad. As it will go on for sometime longer, this
week will do as well.
How I should like to see Sargent's portrait of
you!* O Can't you keep it? didn't he leave it with you? I'm dying
to see it!
Both my brothers are at the Shoals through this
terrible storm -- I expect them the moment the weather lulls. We
are all waiting anxiously the last news from the syndicate,* which
must come before the end of this month. You know this change
doesn't affect me pecuniarily, for I do not own a pebble on the
Shoals. And I shrink from losing the independence of my own little
household here, for there is the terrible problem of poor Karl. If
the syndicate prevails, Cedric & Julia will have a home in
Boston & I shd have to go & live in Oscar's De Normandie
[ Page 4 ]
house* ^with him^ & there looms the problem of Karl -- Also
the [ new corrected ] [ house or home ?]
to be built at the Shoals -- what place is there for him & his
portentous traps which moor him & keep him content & happy
& out of mischief -- And as I live only for him, it is a grave
matter -- But I don't cross any of these bridges till I get to
them, or worry myself about anything, for that wd. be wicked &
foolish -- still it {is} always best to recognize that the facts
exist. Of course nobody wants Karl.
Dear Flower, when you are settled in town couldn't
you run down for a day & night before the weather gets cold?
There are so many things I want to talk to you about. There are
some experiences at the Shoals last summer, of the most
unprecedented nature & of which I am dying to tell you &
Pin too -- When she was here the other day we had only time to
scratch through the MS & nothing else -- -- I had a dear
letter from Rose Lamb* Sat night, think
[ Up the left margin and across the top of
page 1 ]
I'll enclose it to you. Please let me have it again when you've
read it. Think of the happiness of Horace & his wife!* Dear me
-- it is something beautiful & sends a ray of warmth &
brightness all the way from Egypt or Greece or wherever they are,
to the door beside the baker shop at 47 State St Ports, N.H.
U.S.A.!
Ever dearest Annie
Your C
Notes
October 1890: This is the date assigned by the Boston
Public Library, and it is supported by information in the
letter. See notes below.
This manuscript begins in black ink, but after
the first four lines of the body, shifts to pencil.
Flower: Thaxter is using intimate nicknames shared among
Jewett, Fields and herself. Pinny is Jewett; Flower is
Fields; Sandpiper is Thaxter. See Key
to
Correspondents.
J.T.: James T. Fields. See Annie Fields in Key
to
Correspondents.
Hunt: American painter, William Morris Hunt (1824- 8 September
1879). Wikipedia says: "Hunt died at the Isles of Shoals,
New Hampshire, in 1879, apparently a suicide. Hunt had gone to the
New Hampshire shore to recover from a crippling depression.... His
body was discovered by his friend, New Hampshire poet Celia
Thaxter."
If Thaxter succeeded in publishing her essay on
Hunt, this has not yet been located. Possibly parts of her work
are included in Helen M. Knowlton, Art-Life of William Morris Hunt
(1899), Chapter 17.
Mrs Hemenway: Probably, this is Mary Porter Tileston Hemenway (1820 - March
6, 1894), who, according to Wikipedia, "was an American
philanthropist. She sponsored the Hemenway Southwestern
Archaeological Expedition to the American southwest, and opened
the first kitchen in a public school in the US. ... [S]he married
Edward Augustus Holyoke Hemenway (1803-1876) in 1840."
Sargent's portrait of you: American artist John Singer Sargent (1856-1925). His portrait of Fields at the Boston Athenaeum
is dated in 1890.
syndicate: In Sandpiper (Randall 1963, 1999 pp.
233-4), Rosamond Thaxter says that an English syndicate
showed interest in purchasing the Thaxter brothers' hotel property
on the Isles of the Shoals. Negotiations continued through
the fall of 1890 and spring of 1891, finally without success.
Rosamond Thaxter further notes that at this
time, there was a plan to build summer cottages at Shoals,
including one for Celia and Karl.
Oscar's De Normandie house: For many years, this was the 47
State Street Portsmouth, NH winter residence of Oscar Laighton,
his sister Celia and her son Karl Thaxter. Laighton purchased the
house from Emily. F. de Normandie (1836-1916) in April
1887. Her husband was a Unitarian minister,
James de Normandie (1836-1924). See Men of Progress p. 360.
Rose Lamb: See Key
to
Correspondents.
Horace & his wife: Horatio Appleton Lamb (1850-1926), son of a
prominent Boston merchant, Thomas Lamb (1796-1887), and brother of
painter and Jewett correspondent, Rose Lamb. See Key
to
Correspondents.
Horatio Lamb was a wholesale merchant and then
treasurer of Simmons College. He married Annie
Lawrence
Rotch (1857-1950) on 14 April 1890. Two of his daughters
became art collectors and patrons of the arts: Aimée (1893-1989),
also a painter, and Rosamund (1898-1989).
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Boston Public
Library, Rare Books Department, Celia Thaxter correspondence with
Annie Fields, 1869-1893,
MS C.1.38 Box 2 Folder 6
(250-https://ark.digitalcommonwealth.org/ark:/50959/qb98p7698
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe
College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Messrs Houghton Mifflin & Co.
[ Address side of a postcard cancelled 20
October 1890 ]
Messrs Houghton Mifflin & Co.
Riverside Press
Cambridge Mass
[ Message side of postcard ]
Please send proofs* to 148 Charles St. Boston after Monday.
--------------------------
[ Probably in another hand, with equal in hyphen's place.
After
to=day
(Oct
14)
send
to South Berwick Maine
cw
Notes
proofs: It seems likely that Jewett was working on Betty
Leicester. A Story for Girls, published by Houghton
Mifflin late in 1890.
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 H. Rideing
148 Charles Street
Boston 24 October [ 1890 ]*
Dear Mr. Rideing
I thank you for your very kind note
and I must say that your plan for a series of autobiographical
sketches interests me very much. I should like to make certain
points in mine about the value that simple country surroundings
[ Page 2 ]
have had in my life simply because I was taught to be
interested in things close at hand. So many young people imagine
that it is their surroundings that help or hinder them.
I make it a rule not to do work of
this sort for less than a hundred dollars unless in exceptional
[ Page 3 ]
cases. I do not mean work of this character -- but ^[
deletion ]^ when I am asked by a magazine to do a special
thing. I know very well that a magazine must have some regard to
the length of a paper!, but I find, on the author's part, that
fifteen hundred words usually give me more work than four
thousand -- and
[ Page 4 ]
when I break into other work I must consider that. But it is
foreign to my wish to drive a hard bargain, and I promise to
send you the sketch --
Believe me with best regards
Yours sincerely,
Sarah O. Jewett
Please to address me at South Berwick, Maine.
Notes
1890: Jewett refers to "Looking Back on Girlhood,"
Youth's Companion, 65 (7 January 1892), 5-6.
Richard Cary notes that this was "the first in a series of six
reminiscent essays by prominent authors of the day."
Cary assigned the date of 1890, which seems
reasonably likely. 1891 would seem equally likely, except that
in October of that year, Jewett was kept in South Berwick by the
final illness of her mother, who died on 21 October.
This letter is held by Colby College Special Collections,
Waterville, Maine: JEWE.1. It was originally transcribed, edited
and annotated by Richard Cary for Sarah Orne Jewett Letters.
This new transcription with revised notes is by Terry Heller, Coe
College.
Robert Collyer to Annie Adams Fields
New York Oct 27th 1890
Dear Friend
Your letter brings help to me and healing and
to the children also who have all read it with tears. I wanted to
hear from you and knew I should hear very soon. Mother was very
sick for six days before the holy Angel folded her away from us
and very patient. She said early in the sickness she thought she
should not recover and was quite content to go now. Indeed she had
longed to ever since our darling* left us and only held on to life
as I would think sometimes because it was still a sacred trust.
She longed to be with Annie not for heavens sake or Christ [ His ?
] sake but for Annies for she would often say as we sat alone I
cannot free myself from the haunting that Annie wants her Mamma
and can not quite rest until I go to her but it will not be long.
We love to think now how well she was until the
end drew near. Two weeks ago yesterday she was able to go to
Church and stay to the communion and as she sat there in her
[ Page 2 ]
place I noticed a very sweet light on her face. She brought
home with her the light which is not of the sun. She has found
Annie and all her treasures the dear Mamma. I am very lonesome but
you know all about that dear friend and how this must have its
time. And I cannot help listening for her poor lame feet on the
floor and for some sound in the night when I awake and there is so
much I want to tell her and have her tell me. I cannot readjust my
life yet awhile to the new and strange conditions and especially
to the silence in which there is no reverberation of her human
presence for the first time in 41 years.
I will write again before long but must stop
now
Gratefully and lovingly
Robert Collyer
You would hear that our dear daughter Mrs Hosmer* lost her husband
in August { -- } she is with us now but will return to Chicago and
her three boys this week. Frank was a dear good son to us and his
death was a great sorrow all round.
Notes
patient: Collyer omits many periods in this letter. I have
supplied them wherever they seem necessary.
darling: The context of this letter is the recent
death of Collyer's second wife, Anne Armitage. Her "darling"
was their daughter, Annie, who died in 1886. See Collyer in Key to Correspondents.
Hosmer: Emma Collyer Hosmer. See Collyer in Key to Correspondents.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Huntington Library,
San Marino, CA, in the James T. Fields Papers and Addenda Box 10:
mss Fl 1-5637. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe
College.
Annie Adams Fields to Sarah Orne Jewett
[ November 1890 ]*
Dr. Holmes (1
Dearest. I had a long twilight hour with Dr. Holmes* tonight. He
had taken a nap and his senses were as clear as ever they were.
His talk was delightful. He spoke of Dr. Henry J. Bigelow* who has
just died ---- "a wonderful surgeon, great man in his own
direction -- nobody like him -- only one or two men in the world
who could be compared to him{.} I have just written an article
about him for the Medical Society -- a long paper -- long for me
now -- all in one day
[
Page 2 ]
He was a daring man in his work -- just like a
burglar (of course I dont say
that in my paper but it
is an excellent comparison) if he could not get at what he
wanted in any other way he would blow up the whole machine. He
wasn't a reader -- never read anything -- but he knew of
course how to go after anything he wanted in books and he had
wonderful persistence in getting to the root of any matter
which excited his interest. For instance he spared neither
time nor money in hunting up the portrait which was given me
and supposed to be of a famous French surgeon, he did not rest
until he had settled the matter definitely and the picture was
found to be the portrait of another man -- I have been reading
the history of the town of Woodstock* -- 400 great pages of
typewriting { -- } thought it would be a great bore but there
is a great deal that is very interesting in such details --
from the time my ancestor John Holmes went there with
[ Page 3 ]
[ his
corrected from hes ] axe (probably) over his
shoulder and founded a saw mill down through the minute
s
details of life in a remote
township{.} I ^[ too
?
]^ have had a very long literary life {--} 60 years I found
today as [ I
written over a ] wrote my autograph and
put the two dates in opposite corners of the sheet -- Few men
can show such a record as that. I began to write first in 1830
but after that I went to Europe to study medicine and for
nearly nineteen years I hardly wrote a line
In 1857 Lowell* wrote me that a magazine was to be started in
Boston and if I would write for it he would edit it -- I
thought that a great compliment of course but it seemed to me
he was out of his head -- but as it proved he [ showed
corrected
] great discernment because without vanity I may say I helped
to make the magazine a success and to sustain it -- I needed
money, my wife had a little fortune of her own, but I like to
do my share towards
[ Page 5 ]
the support of my family ^(with great dignity)^ and before I
began to write I went about lecturing ten dollars fifteen
dollars, very rarely 50 dollars in those days -- I remember
once going to Concord ( [Emerson's*
corrected ]
Concord) to lecture. I got through my lecture at the Medical
school about two -- had my [ dinner
corrected ] and
started off for Concord -- It was snowing and it snowed much
when I reached Concord{.}
[ Page 6 ]
As I got out of the train I asked if the Sec
y of
the lecture [ Course
corrected ] was there -- no he
was sick -- so I took my bag and footed it to the hall --
there I found an audience and a man talking to them but I said
he's only saying a few words to keep them busy till I get
there. I sent for the Sec
y and asked if I was not
expected to lecture there -- "No, he said, what's your name"
"Holmes" no there's nobody by that name in our course and
we've got a lecture for tonight so I went to the Inn
[ Page 7 ]
damp and hungry and went to bed. Next morning [ I paid
?
corrected ] my bills{,} went home ^with a cold^, hunted
up the letter and found by some accident of re=posting from
Cambridge that I had mistaken the [ mark
? ] and it
was Concord N.H. where I was expected!
Another time I went to a little town
Wrentham -- It was a stormy night and they said they didnt
think anybody would come and perhaps they had better give it
up -- I said why not take a [ loose sleigh
? ] and go
round and gather up the audience (I had no idea of losing my
ten dollars if I could help it){.} They
took up with my suggestion{.} I went round with 'em and we got
in quite a little company!
We talked of [ Shakspeare
so spelled
] and the new "Brief" -- "but there's no accounting for genius
-- genius I take it means a certain large way of looking at
things and in our experience the man of genius is not, [ I
believe
? ], Carlyle, nor Thackeray nor any of the [
fellow's
so spelled ]
[ Page 9 ]
we hear so greatly [ talked
corrected ] about, but
Dickens.*
There
was
always
enough of Dickens{.} It was a great wondrous fountain pouring
itself freely out for us and a wonderful personality -- such
force and as the woman said of the sea "Enough of it -- she
was glad there was enough of something --"
But I must end -- there was more -- but I
hope you will like this
from your
AF
November 1890: This date is based upon Fields
reporting the recent death of Henry J. Bigelow. See notes
below.
The "Dr. Holmes" before each of Fields's page
numbers appears to have been added after the first composition.
Dr. Holmes: Oliver Wendel Holmes, Sr. See Key
to
Correspondents.
Bigelow: American surgeon and Harvard medical school
professor, Henry Jacob Bigelow (1818- 30 October 1890).
Holmes's A Memoir of Henry Jacob Bigelow
appeared in 1894.
Woodstock: This transcription is uncertain; Fields
may have written "Woodstoke." In any case, Holmes meant Woodstock,
CT, where his great-great grandfather, John Holmes (1661-1713) settled.
Lowell: James Russell Lowell. See Key
to Correspondents. Lowell along with Holmes and others
founded The Atlantic Monthly in 1857.
Shakspeare ...the new "Brief": British playwright, William Shakespeare (1564-1616).
The meaning of "new 'Brief'" as Holmes uses it
has not yet been discovered.
Carlyle, nor Thackeray ... Dickens:
British authors, Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881), William Makepeace Thackeray (1811-1863), and
Charles Dickens (1812-1870).
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Center for the
History of Medicine at Countway Library of Harvard University,
Papers of Oliver Wendell Holmes, 1838-1890 (inclusive). GA
38. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Louisa Dresel
South Berwick, Maine
November 10, 1890
My dear Loulie:
I hear by the way of Charles Street
that you have been ill and I write to say that I hope you are
fast getting well again and to flaunt it in your face that I am
very well myself! But very busy, which is apt to lead to a
season of depression of body and especially of mind. It never
has seemed to me that I was meant for an Ornament alone, but
trying to be useful and energetic is not apt to be successful
either to judge from certain standpoints. This sounds very
self-contemplative and shallow, but forgive a well meant effort
to amuse you.
I have been going on very quietly
since I wrote you or saw you last. My mother has been a very
great deal more comfortable until yesterday when through a
sudden chill or the change of weather she had to go back to bed
again.* But she has been well enough to really enjoy her drives,
all wrapped up in furs and taking the "way of the wind," and so
the autumn weather has proved kind to us, gray as it has
sometimes been. My sister Mary1 has been away on some
visits and I have had a very dear quiet time helping my dear
mother to keep house and playing that she still could do it all.
Then I have been writing a good deal and riding a little and
going down river one lovely afternoon and coming up with the
tide and being quite Betty Leicester-like!2 in my
pleasures of outdoor life.* You would have laughed one day when
my nephew Theodore3 and I were far out of town among
the pastures, and began to play at scouting for Indians which
much occupy his eleven year old mind. You can imagine how we saw
feathered heads peering over the hills and rode for our lives,
and then discovered the campfire of these deadly savages and
were relieved at discovering that they were not a war party but
had their squaws with them and were on their way to the
mountains to cut tent poles, their own, fastened to their
ponies, being worn to stubs!! The quiet pastures never knew such
works, but indeed I can "play" as well as ever I could, and I
could be dead in earnest with sand piles if occasion offered.
Let us try next summer?4
Have you seen the new paper that is
started for the Girls' Clubs? Far and Near? I think
it
promises
very
well.
I
will
send you a copy with a story which I gave them,5 and
had to write in a great hurry, but it turns out pretty well if
only I could have corrected it enough. It is not always the
pieces of work that one works over most that are most
satisfactory to the reading public!
Next week I hope to go to town for a
day or two and I shall try to see you, so please to Get Well at
once!
Yours affectionately,
S. O. J.
Notes
1Mary Rice Jewett
(1847-1930), her elder sister, to whom she dedicated A
White Heron and other Stories.
2Heroine of two
Jewett stories: Betty Leicester: A Story for Girls
(Boston, 1890); Betty Leicester's English Xmas (Privately
printed, 1894), reprinted by Houghton, Mifflin &
Co., as Betty Leicester's Christmas (Boston,
1899).
3Theodore Jewett Eastman
(4 August 1879 - 1931), only child of Jewett's younger
sister Caroline, the last descendant in the direct line, was
graduated from Harvard College and Medical School. Jewett
nicknamed him "Stubby" and dedicated The Tory Lover to
him.
4Jewett's inexpungeable
streak of puerility is frequently evidenced in her letters to
friends and in her public writings. See Eugene Hillhouse Pool,
"The Child in Sarah Orne Jewett," Colby Library Quarterly,
VII (September 1967, 503-509; also Fields, Letters, 50,
125, 252, also "Grown-Up," Independent, XXIV (September
26, 1872), 2, Jewett's own interesting study of her tendency to
regress.
5The National League of
Women Workers, New York, initiated this magazine in November
1890. Jewett's story, "Miss Esther's Guest," appeared in that
first issue, vol. I, pp. 10-12. The Jewett bibliography
erroneously lists it as first appearing in A Native of Winby
and Other Tales (Boston, 1893).
Editor's Notes
mother: Caroline Frances Perry Jewett died on 21
October 1891.
Betty Leicester: Jewett's writing about Betty
Leicester first appeared as "A Bit of Color" in St. Nicholas
(16:456-463; 514-523; 572-580), April, May, and June,
1889.
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.
South Berwick Maine
12 November 1890
Editors of The Independent
Gentlemen*
I thank you for your note but I shall have
to decline to make any more engagements just at present. It is a
bad plan, I find, to write less and promise more!
Your sincerely
S. O. Jewett
Notes
Gentlemen: The formality of this note
seems somewhat mysterious, as Jewett was well acquainted with
William Hayes Ward, editor of The Independent, her
friend and neighbor in South Berwick. She had published
more than 30 pieces in The Independent by 1890.
See Key to Correspondents.
However, it is possible that this letter is
addressed not to the national weekly, but to the local South
Berwick and Salmon Falls newspaper, also The Independent.
Whether
Jewett
ever
published
anything
in
this newspaper is not known.
The manuscript of this letter is in the collection of the Miller
Library of Colby College, Waterville, ME: JEWE.1. Scott Frederick
Stoddart's transcription is in his Ph.D. dissertation at the
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign: Selected Letters of
Sarah Orne Jewett,1988.
New transcription and notes by Terry Heller,
Coe College.
Mary Bucklin Davenport Claflin to Sarah Orne Jewett
[
Begin letterhead ]
63, M
t Vernon Street.
Boston.
[
End letterhead ]
[ 15 November 1890 ]*
My dear Sarah --
It requires some courage to send my simple
little books to a distinguished author, but I send them
because I wish to, and because you have been so very good to
me. I think I have all your books with your autograph. Perhaps
you may find time in your busy life to turn over the leaves
and glance at the little stories whose
[ Page 2 ]
only merit perhaps is their truthfulness. Every expression in
Brampton is true to the old-time life, and the other little
book contains the
real happenings that have come into
my own life. I am sorry to hear your dear Mother is ill, and I
wish I could know just how she is. I heard from you and Mary*
through Mifs Johnson.* I was in Bradford a few days ago.
Please remember me
[ Page 3 ]
with love to your mother and Mary and believe me
very cordially yours
Mary B. Claflin
November fifteenth
: This date is well supported by information
in the letter. Jewett's mother, Caroline, died 21
October 1891. Mary Claflin sent two of her books with this
letter, both published in 1890:
Brampton Sketches and
Real Happenings.
Mary: Mary Rice Jewett. See
Key to Correspondents.
Johnson: Almost certainly this is Annie Elizabeth Johnson
(1826-1894) who was principal of the Bradford Academy in Bradford,
MA, 1875-1894. See Bradford: A New England Academy (1930) by
Jean Sarah Pond, Ch. 14.
Pond reports that Mary and Sarah Orne Jewett
were friends of Miss Johnson and frequent visitors at the Bradford
Academy (244-5).
The manuscript of this letter is held by the University of New
England Maine Women Writers Collection, Sarah Orne Jewett
Correspondence Box 1 Folder 050
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Isabella Stewart Gardner
148 Charles Street
Tuesday 18 November [1890]
Dear Mrs Gardner
You will find that passage from Amiel's Journal*
translated in Mr Arnold's essay* -- p. 326, the Second
Series of Essays in Criticism. I do not know where to
tell you to look for it in the original -- but I am sure that one
ought not to find fault with Mr Arnold's
Thank you for your charming kindness
yesterday. I look forward with real pleasure to the
friendship of the little Club.* Mrs Fields* seemed to
think that you had a right to play cockneys and call it H_it!*
Your ever sincerely
Sarah O. Jewett
Notes
1890: While this date seems probable, it also is
somewhat problematic. 18 November fell on a Tuesday in 1890
and 1902. In November 1902, Jewett was confined to her home in
South Berwick after her September carriage accident. However,
there is as yet no evidence that Jewett was in Boston on this date
in 1890. Jewett seems to imply that the "little club" has
been newly formed. The only currently documented meeting of
that club took place in February of 1894.
Amiel's Journal: Henri Frédéric Amiel (1821 -1881) was a
Swiss moral philosopher, poet, and critic. His Journal
Intime (private journal) was published posthumously,
beginning in 1884. Matthew Arnold's Essays in Criticism:
Second Series appeared shortly after his death in
1888. The passage from the journal, translated on pp. 326-7,
reads:
In society people are expected to behave as if
they lived on ambrosia and concerned themselves with no
interests but such as are noble. Care, need, passion, do not
exist. All realism is suppressed as brutal. In a word, what is
called le grand monde gives itself for the moment the
flattering illusion that it is moving in an ethereal atmosphere
and breathing the air of the gods. For this reason all
vehemence, any cry of nature, all real suffering, all heedless
familiarity, any genuine sign of passion, are startling and
distasteful in this delicate milieu, and at once destroy
the collective work, the cloud-palace, the imposing
architectural creation raised by common consent. It is like the
shrill cock-crow which breaks the spell of all enchantments, and
puts the fairies to flight. These select gatherings produce
without intending it a sort of concert for eye and ear, an
improvised work of art. By the instinctive collaboration of
everybody concerned, wit and taste hold festival, and the
associations of reality are exchanged for the associations of
imagination. So understood, society is a form of poetry; the
cultivated classes deliberately recompose the idyll of the past,
and the buried world of Astraea. Paradox or not, I believe that
these fugitive attempts to reconstruct a dream, whose only end
is beauty, represent confused reminiscences of an age of gold
haunting the human heart; or rather, aspirations towards a
harmony of things which every-day reality denies to us, and of
which art alone gives us a glimpse.
Jewett's friend, Mrs. Humphry Ward (see
Correspondents) also produced a translation of Amiel's
journal in 1885.
Club: Shana McKenna, archivist at the Isabella
Stewart Gardner Museum says that Jewett refers to the "It" club, a
lunch club formed by Julia Ward Howe and Isabella Stewart Gardner.
Its other members, in addition to Jewett, included:
Edith Greenough Wendell (1859-1938), author
of Old Quincy House at Quincy, Massachusetts and wife of Barrett Wendell (1855-1921), Harvard English
professor, lecturer and author.
Margaret Deland (1857-1945)
Katherine Parkman Coolidge (1858-1900). See
Correspondents.
Sarah Choate Sears (1858-1935)
Alma Canfield Sterling Porter (1863- ), wife of
Harvard Medical School professor William Townsend Porter (1862-1949).
Martha Silsbee (1859-1928)
The Gardner museum holds a guest book that documents a 12 February
1894 meeting at Gardner's home, 152 Beacon St., Boston. See Morris
Carter, Isabella Stewart Gardner and Fenway Court,
Houghton Mifflin, Boston, 1925. pp.141-2, and Isabella
Stewart Gardner, Guest book vol. 1 (1893-1894), page
37-38.
Mrs. Fields: Annie Adams Fields. See
Correspondents.
H_it: Jewett's noting of Gardner's
"cockney" rendering of "It," seems to imply that the club will be
a "hit," in the sense of being popular with its members. The
Oxford English Dictionary suggests that the use of the word
to refer to a popular performance (e.g. a hit song) first appeared
around 1908. However, the use of the word to indicate a more
generalized successful performance dates to 1811.
However, Douglass Shand-Tucci, in The Art
of the Scandal (1997), argues that the word "It" may well
have had more carnal connotations for the club's members,
connotations perhaps amplified by Jewett's comments (see p.
279).
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Isabella Stewart
Gardner Museum, Boston, MA. Transcription and annotation by
Terry Heller, Coe College.
John Greenleaf Whittier to Sarah Orne Jewett
Amesbury Mass
Nov 18 1890
My dear friend,
It was good -- -it was like thy dear self to
write me. I was feeling a little lonely when it came -- an
old friend of mine, a near neighbor* is lying very ill, and must
soon pass away. He was a plain farmer but a great reader and
[thinker ? ] and we have been always fast friends.
I am glad to hear that thy mother is more
comfortable. I have never got over the loss of my
mother. I had a letter from A.F.* a short time ago.
She is looking forward to thy coming to Boston. What a sweet
little poem [ two unrecognized words ]"in a green nook by
the sea."* I am anxious to see thy new book.*
Meanwhile I look over they [ so transcribed, meaning thy]
old ones.
I hope thee will stop here on thy way to
Boston. It will be a great pleasure to me to see thee again.
I dread the coming winter and the snow storm of yesterday looked
very dismal to me. But I suppose it will all be well --
nothing is so bad as our fear It will be; and the dear Lord is
over all.
In spite of the wet weather there are times I
hope thee have enjoyed the uncommonly fine colors of the
season. I never saw the leaves so gorgeous before at Oak
Knoll. An English tourist called on me at their brightest,
but he could see nothing worthy of his attention.
Always affectionately thy fr.
John G. Whittier
Notes
near neighbor: The identity of this neighbor is not
yet known. Assistance is welcome.
A. F. Annie Adams Fields. See Key
to
Correspondents.
green nook: Annie Fields's poem, "Revisiting a Green
Nook," appeared in Scribner's Magazine 8 (October 1890,
p. 472).
new book: In 1890, Jewett published three books: Strangers
and
Wayfarers, Betty Leicester and Tales of New
England. The last appeared in the spring of 1890, so
presumably, Whittier anticipates one of the first two. While
Betty Leicester is a "story for girls" and seems the less
likely alternative, it is set in Riverport, a renamed South
Berwick, and might well interest Whittier for its depiction of
local scenes familiar to him.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the South Berwick Public
Library, South Berwick, ME. From typescript of an unknown
transcriber. Annotated by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to John Greenleaf Whittier
South Berwick
25 November 1890
Dear Friend
I was so sorry to have to give up stopping in
Amesbury on my way home last week but I was not well all the time
I was in Boston and had to change all my plans. Now that I am
better it seems quite a foolish [ week corrected ] to have
spent! If you are still in Amesbury until after Thanksgiving
perhaps I can go over
[ Page 2 ]
someday, if not I shall go to Oak Knoll before very long instead.
In the mean time I send you a new storybook Strangers and
Wayfarers* which is a pretty book outside and that is something!
I had a very dear good time with our A.F.* She
had been spending two or three days in Baltimore where there has
been a reception and
[ Page 3 ]
inspection of Johns Hopkins hospital and much talk about the new
medical school for women. We both tried to do something about it
in the Spring -- She will have some interesting things to tell you
when you see her again, about her journey to Baltimore and the
people she saw. One was "Mis' President Harrison!"* but A.F. does
not set store by her { -- } at least it so appeared to me!!
While I was in Boston
[ Page 4 ]
the Journal of Sir Walter Scott came from Mr. Douglas* in [
Edinbur so it appears ] who edited it, and I devoured both
volumes at once -- You will enjoy it so much -- there is a great
deal in it that Lockhart could not use in print soon after Sir
Walter's death { -- } much about himself too. It is a most
Enchanting, appealing book -- -- Good-bye dear dear friend -- I do
very much wish to see you soon and I like to remember that I am
your very near relation, especially at Thanksgiving time --
Sarah.
[ Up the left margin and across the top
margin of page 1 ]
The Pound Hill* geese and turkeys will take the road to "the
corner" tomorrow!
Notes
Strangers and Wayfarers: Jewett's story collection appeared
in 1890. The cover was by Sarah Wyman Whitman.
A.F.: Annie Adams Fields. Key to
Correspondents.
Harrison: Benjamin Harrison (1833-1901) was U.S.
President 1889-1893. His first wife, Caroline Lavinia Scott
(1832-1892), was a music teacher and charity worker. Their
daughter was Mary Harrison McKee (1858-1930). Mrs. McKee
acted as her mother's assistant during Harrison's
presidency. Wikipedia.
Douglas: David Douglas. Key to Correspondents.
The Journal of Sir Walter Scott (1890)
edited by Douglas is a diary of 1825-1832. The journal was noted
for its unusual candor.
Scott (1771-1832) was a Scottish author.
Wikipedia.
J. G. Lockhart's Memoirs of the Life of Sir
Walter Scott appeared in 1837.
Pound Hill: Pound Hill is a hill in South Berwick.
The Jewett residence in 1890 was on the corner where the main road
northward branched toward the villages of Berwick and North
Berwick.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library of
Harvard University, Cambridge, Pickard-Whittier
papers I. Letters to John Greenleaf Whittier Jewett, Sarah
Orne, 1849-1909. 17 letters; [1882]-1883., [1882]-1883. Box: 3
Identifier: MS Am 1844, (169).
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe
College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Louisa Dresel
Friday
November 28, [1890]
Dear Loulie:
I don't like HIS looks at all. You
will frighten me into saying no to everything and everybody and
I shall never write any more little stories "at all mirover" as
the people say in Black's novels. By the way, have you read A
Princess of Thule1 lately? It is always such a
delightful book to reread -- you find it so much nicer than you
expected every time.
I had already made a vow, before I
read your note of admonition that after I copied a story and
finished a very brief sketch and got my paper on "Sarah,
Countess of Rumford"2 off my mind, that I wouldn't
get in for any more writing. Yet this very day one flashed clear
and bright into my mind, and I know by the way I see it that it
will be written. The name is "The Paley Twins,"3
and so there is half a winter's work. The "Countess of Rumford"
is really worth doing. Perhaps you don't know that the famous
count left a daughter, New England born and bred, who came back
from her gay life in Munich and Paris and London and spent the
last of her years in a quiet New Hampshire town. A countess of
the Bavarian Court and Concord are such a funny pair of
thoughts to put together! She was a near relative too, of some
of my connections and I have always been hearing about her, yet
never thought of writing about her until within a few years. I
must tell you a great deal about her some time.4
Dear Loulie I hope that you are
better, but if you still feel your throat I wish that you would
go away for two or three weeks. At this time of year one doesn't
dare to go out of doors much and colds are things of the house.
I shall preach from this text for I hope to see you next week
when, as the plan is now, I am to go to town again. Love to your
mother.
Yours affectionately,
S. O. J.
I am so glad that you liked the St.
Augustine story.5
Notes
1Five of William Black's
novels about his native Scotland highlands are in Jewett's
library, including A Princess of Thule, first published
in 1874, and described as "one of the most popular of a popular
novelist's novels." Jewett derived the name of her favorite
horse, Sheila, from the heroine of this book.
2Among Jewett's papers in
the Houghton Library is an unfinished holograph manuscript of
some twenty-five odd sheets, the ink and handwriting testifying
that they were written at different intervals, with plethoric
alterations, entitled "The Countess of Rumford." There is no
evidence of a fair copy or of publication.
3As above, there is no
record of this story in the Jewett bibliography. She may never
have written it, it may never have been accepted for
publication, or it may one day be discovered in a remote
newspaper or magazine, as have several others unlisted.
4Sarah Thompson
(1774-1852) was depicted by Jewett as a grande dame, an
ornament to both European and American societies. After her
return to Rumford (now Concord), New Hampshire, she involved
herself deeply in philanthropies for children, widows, orphans,
and the insane.
5 "Jim's Little Woman,"
Harper's LXXXII (December 1890) 100-110;
collected in A Native of Winby and Other Tales (Boston,
1893),
one
of
Jewett's
few
contrived
stories, is about an exemplary Maine girl who marries an
attractive, reckless sailor fond of drinking and carousing.
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.
Celia Thaxter to Annie Adams Fields
47. State St. Nov. 30th (90
My dearest Annie:
How glad I was to see your beloved handwriting
again! It is so long since I heard from you -- I am so much
interested in your seeing the Gilders* -- didn't you know we have
never met? Yet I feel as if I knew them very well! To think of
your flying off to Baltimore!* I really wish I could fly off to you
for a space, but I think I shall never be able to go any where
again, so curiously am I constrained at home, on all sides. Poor
Karl* is not
[ Page 2 ]
enough, other complications there are that tie me fast. Life is
such a strange thing! such a mixture --
I had a dear letter from Mr Whittier* a few
days ago. My brother & I had driven to the Greenacre in
Eliot, where he passed last summer, the most enchanting place!
& I found a blue cornflower blossoming before the door &
sent it to him & he was pleased & wrote me a dear letter
-- But he said "the years grow very heavy & my sight fails --
I can read very little & the long nights are tedious" -- poor
dear soul! Why doesn't he live where
[ Page 3 ]
some of us could run in & cheer him up now & then! you or
Pinny,* or "some of us"! Did I tell you how we drive every
where? to Greenland & Stratham & Newington, Great Bay,
Newmarket, Durham, Dover, York, & Bald Head Cliff & I know
not where else, to say nothing of exploring the whole coast nearly
to Newburyport! It is beautiful & out of doors is my
salvation, all the morning, all the afternoon I drive or walk,
& so purchase sleep at night.
But it seems as if I never missed you so much,
dear Annie, & I would give a great deal to be able to go to
see you as I used once a week -- those pleasant evenings! How
beautiful
[ Page 4 ]
they are to remember! I wonder if it is always going to be like
this the rest of my life, so far, & so imprisoned -- But I
have so much to be thankful for -- I dont mean to complain -- It
is much that it is possible for me to keep poor Karl & protect
& comfort & succor him -- I am very thankful that I may --
We are yet uncertain about the syndicate* --
Whether the [ news ? ] about the Barings will make a
difference, I dont know -- But money is hard to raise in England
just now -- We are sending to Farquhar* for next summer's flowers,
Cedric & I -- the seeds thereof -- Oscar went out to the
Shoals today & brought me a bunch of flowers from my deserted
garden, pansies & marigolds & gilliflowers, & tomorrow
is the 1st of December! Do write soon again to your most loving
CT.
I shd. love to see the Walter Scott{.}*
Notes
Gilders: Richard Watson Gilder. See Key
to Correspondents.
Baltimore: Fields's sister, the painter Elizabeth (Lissie)
Adams (1825-1898), resided in Baltimore, MD. See Key
to
Correspondents.
Karl: Thaxter's disabled son. She also mentions her
brothers, Oscar and Cedric Laighton. See Key
to
Correspondents.
Whittier: American poet, John Greenleaf Whittier. See
Key
to
Correspondents.
Pinny: Thaxter is using intimate nicknames shared among
Jewett, Fields and herself. Pinny is Jewett; Flower is
Fields; Sandpiper is Thaxter. See Key
to
Correspondents.
syndicate: In Sandpiper (Randall 1963, 1999 pp.
233-4), Rosamond Thaxter says that an English syndicate
showed interest in purchasing the Thaxter brothers' hotel property
on the Isles of the Shoals. Negotiations continued through
the fall of 1890 and spring of 1891, finally without success.
During 1890, Barings Bank of London experienced a
financial crisis, from which they were rescued by other banks.
Still, financial markets were thrown into turmoil, causing the Panic of 1890.
Farquhar: R. & J. Farquhar Company of Boston, MA
sold seeds and gardening supplies by mail order.
Walter Scott: Thaxter refers to The Journal of
Sir Walter Scott, (1890) first edited and published whole in
2 volumes by a Fields and Jewett friend, David Douglas. See Key
to
Correspondents. See Scottish author, Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832).
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Boston Public
Library, Rare Books Department, Celia Thaxter correspondence with
Annie Fields, 1869-1893, MS C.1.38 Box 2 Folder 6 (250-269)
https://ark.digitalcommonwealth.org/ark:/50959/qb98p715z
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe
College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Mary Rice Jewett
Wednesday morning
[ Winter 1890 ]
Dear Mary
There
is
a
little
snow-storm
all
over
the frozen ground which is enough to dull the noise: it has been
growing worse and worse these past few days. But no
sleighing yet. I never saw so plain a snowstorm hanging in
the sky as yesterday -- when I went out it was already
beginning, but out came the sun presently. I had been
bespoken on Friday by H. M. & Co.* but all affairs were
seriously attended to in a long session yesterday morning.
I wish there were one person there who cared about books.
Most of them might as well be keeping up a hardware business and
instead of being proud to print the great books as Mr. Fields*
and the old publishers used to be -- they love to have Kate
Douglas Wiggin & Hopkinson Smith.* All well enough,
but they bring standards down, and in the mean time the great
books of thirty years ago are still as good paying property as
publishers could wish. But they are all looking for sensations
in spite of that.
I felt quite tired but I had half an hour to spare and went in
to see Mrs. Cabot* who was delightful, but she has had another
turn of cold and was on the couch in her room reading the
English papers, and looking quite pale and 'wistful’!
Brother Robert* went off without great enthusiasm and when he
saw the snow beginning, he gave notice that if it kept on he
should come right back from Brother Cuckson’s* without going to
Salem. I think he is to be expected this afternoon so that
I must be in, though I doubt if A. F.* gets out to the
conference. She feels much better today and had the doctor
yesterday she felt so bad, and thats all I can say in this
moment. She looks a good deal better than she has
for some days. Yes, old Helen* was a noble sight but I
know she was foolish to come down by the eight o’clock train and
romp all day: she had a headache for it sure as the
world. I know old Helen’s tricks &
manners. I hope dear Aunt Mary* is nicely again. A
little grog is excellent for a sore throat. She can take
it as a medicine and then it wont taste as bad to her as if she
called it a pleasure. Mrs. Fields sends her love to you
all. My best respects to Aunt Gilman*
Sarah
Give my love to Cousin Fanny & the Boys. I wish I
were there! Sarah
Notes
Winter 1890: This tentative date is based mainly upon
Jewett complaining about Houghton Mifflin adding Kate Douglas
Wiggin and Francis Hopkinson Smith to their publication list;
they became Houghton, Mifflin authors in 1889.
H. M. & Co.: Jewett's publisher, Houghton,
Mifflin &Co.
Mr. Fields: James T. Fields, husband of Annie Adams
Fields. See Key
to
Correspondents.
Kate Douglas Wiggin & Hopkinson Smith: For Wiggin
and Francis Hopkinson Smith, see Key
to
Correspondents. According to Wikipedia, Wiggin was
added to the Houghton, Mifflin book list in 1889. WorldCat
lists Smith's first Houghton publication in 1889, as well.
Mrs. Cabot: Susan Burley Cabot. See Key
to Correspondents.
Brother Robert: Dr. Robert Collyer. See Key
to
Correspondents.
Brother Cuckson’s: This is probably John Cuckson (1846-1907), Unitarian
clergyman and author, pastor of the Arlington Street Unitarian
Church in Boston (1892-1907).
A.F.: Annie Adams Fields. See Key
to Correspondents.
old Helen: Richard Cary identifies "Old Helen" as Helen
Bigelow Merriman. See Key
to
Correspondents.
Aunt Mary: Mary Olivia Gilman Long. See Key
to
Correspondents.
Aunt Gilman ... Cousin Fanny & the Boys: It
is not yet clear whom sister Mary will see among the
aunts. Jewett may refer to Alice Dunlap Gilman or to Helen
Williams Gilman. See Key
to
Correspondents. Aunt Helen often is associated with
Fanny, who has not been identified. Aunt Alice, however,
had two sons, of whom Charles was a favorite cousin.
Sometimes, Cousin Fanny/Fannie is Frances F.
Perry (1861-1953), Jewett's mother's niece, the daughter of Dr.
William G. Perry and Lucretia M. Fisk. See William Gilman Perry
and Lucretia Morse Fisk Perry in Key to Correspondents.
This text is from transcriptions from mixed repositories in the
Maine Women Writer's Collection, University of New England,
Letters from Sarah Orne Jewett, 1875-1890, Folder 74, Burton
Trafton Jewett Research Collection. For more information about
the individual transcription, contact the Maine Women Writers
Collection. Preparation by Linda Heller. Notes by
Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to John Greenleaf Whittier
Boston. 13 December 1890
My dear friend
I do not know how to thank you for the most
dear and beloved words which you written in the book* which came
yesterday. They touch my heart, and make me wish many things -- it
would seem as if I had really been to you what I have wished to be
and as if you had read my
[ Page 2 ]
intentions as if they were deeds. But perhaps I never can show you
how much you have been to me and how much you have helped me to
live toward higher things and have helped me most of all in always
taking my will without waiting for the imperfect deed!
It is delightful to have these later poems all
together,
[ Page 3 ]
the little book was a most charming surprise to A.F.* and me and
we shall read the poems over again together with new pleasure and
fresh thanks.
We had a dear little visit from Phebe.* I wish
that you had been here too.
-- I must hurry home on Monday and I am afraid that I cannot go to
see you on your birthday but I shall [ think ? ] of you
[ Page 4 ]
as always with true affection and the lovingest gratitude.
Notes
book: Whittier's 1890 book was At Sundown, the
privately printed version, which probably is the one he sent to
Jewett. A posthumous 1892-3 edition contains additional
poems. His birthday was 17 December.
A.F.: Annie Adams Fields. Key to
Correspondents.
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 Houghton Library of
Harvard University, Cambridge, Pickard-Whittier
papers I. Letters to John Greenleaf Whittier Jewett, Sarah
Orne, 1849-1909. 17 letters; [1882]-1883., [1882]-1883. Box: 3
Identifier: MS Am 1844, (169).
At the bottom of page 4, upside down in two
other hands: "Sarah Orne Jewett" (ink)" and "1890" (pencil).
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe
College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to John Greenleaf Whittier
South Berwick
17 December 1890
My dear friend
I wish you a happy birthday and I wish that I
could have gone to Oak Knoll to help you keep it, but I shall save
my visit until later. I hope that my dear A.F.* will give you a
message from me [ as corrected ] she wrote me that she
[ Page 2 ]
meant to spend the day with you. I only send this word to
give you my love and to send my sisters' best wishes with mine --
I keep your last little book* as a great treasure. Good bye
and God bless you always. I think of many things to
[ Page 3 ]
say to you that it would be very hard to write.
Yours most affectionately
Sarah.
Notes
A.F.: Annie Adams Fields. Key to
Correspondents. Whittier's birthday was 17 December.
sisters': Carrie Jewett Eastman and Mary Rice
Jewett. Key to Correspondents.
book: Whittier's 1890 privately printed book was At
Sundown.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library of
Harvard University, Cambridge, Pickard-Whittier
papers I. Letters to John Greenleaf Whittier Jewett, Sarah
Orne, 1849-1909. 17 letters; [1882]-1883., [1882]-1883. Box: 3
Identifier: MS Am 1844, (169).
On the back of page 4, in two other
hands: "Sarah O." (ink)" and "1890" (pencil).
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe
College.
George Haven Putnam to Sarah Orne Jewett
[Printed letterhead, centered on left margin.]
G. P. Putnam's Sons
27 & 29 WEST 23rd STREET
NEW YORK
LONDON, 25 HENRIETTA STREET
COVENT GARDEN
12/17/90
Dear Miss Jewett,
Mr.
Unwin,
the
London
publisher
of
the "Story of the Nations" series, has finally offered to take a
set of the plates of the "Story of the Normans" at a small
advance on the cost of reproducing these. –
We
are
desirous,
for
more
reasons
than one, that this volume should not continue to be omitted
from the London list of
[ Page 2 ]
the series, and we have therefore accepted Mr. Unwin's offer
and shall plan to ship his set of the plates early in the New
Year.
The
margin
of
profit
on
this
shipment, amounting to £35.0.0. , we shall divide with the
author, passing to her credit £17.10.0.
Kindly
send
us
,
as
early
as convenient, a list of such corrections as seem to you
important, and we will have made (at our own cost) all that may
not entail any exceptional outlay.
We
can
secure
no
allowance
from
Mr. Unwin for the cost of correcting the plates for his English
edition, and we shall wish, therefore, to keep the expense of
these corrections as moderate as possible.
We shall send you in January February, statement showing
sales to date of the book.
Yours very truly
G. H. Putnam
Miss S.O. Jewett,
Charles
st.
Boston.
Notes
The ms. of this letter is held by the Houghton Library of
Harvard University: MS Am 1743 (185) Putnam, George Haven, 1
letter; 1890. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe
College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Annie Adams Fields
Saturday night
[December 1890]*
Dearest Fuff*
The letter from Mr. Collyer!* was from a
person who sought to know my opinion of the novel of the
future!! But he never will. (( -- on the
contrary{.} (I now find this beginning and go on with it Monday
morning)){.}* I copied for him those two wonderful bits of
Flaubert, -- "Et [ écrire corrected ] la vie ordinaire
comme on écrit l'histoire --" and the other "Ce n'est pas de
faire rire -- mais d'agir
[ Page 2 ]
á la façon de la nature, c'est a dire de faire rêver"* -----
I keep these pinned up on the little
drawers at the back of the secretary, for a constant reminder.
-- This morning I had a nice letter from Loulie* and from
Georgie Halliburton* with your dear letter and Dr. Weir
Mitchell's* new poems which he made a kind note of sending me
last September at Newport. Uncle Will* has just come and
approves Mothers condition most highly. It is so
[ Up the left margin of page 1 ]
I send you just as much love from your own Pinny*
Notes
December 1890: Fields penciled "Winter 1897" in the
upper right of page 1. It seems likely that Jewett
refers in her first sentence to an article by Foster Coates
(1855-1914), eventual city editor of the New York Evening
Journal. His "The Future of the Novel" appeared in The
Author 3:3 (March 1891) pp. 47-49, reprinted from the
Springfield Homestead. The article consists of
quotations from a number of contemporary writers on "the novel
of the future." The authors included are: Richard
Henry Stoddard, Octave Thanet, Edna Dean Proctor, Charles King,
George W. Cable, Thomas Nelson Page, Charles Dudley Warner, Noah
Brooks, Mary J. Holmes, Marion Harland, Amelia B. Edwards, Rose
Terry Cooke, S. G. W. Benjamin, and William Dean Howells. Jewett
is not quoted.
Fuff: Nickname for Annie Adams Fields. See Key
to
Correspondents.
Mr. Collyer: Robert Collyer. See Key
to
Correspondents.
morning)): The parenthesis marks on this page are
confusing. Some are clearly by Fields and some may be by
Jewett. It seems likely that only those around (I now find
... morning) are by Jewett. The deleted double open
parentheses and the second closed parenthesis around (( on the
contrary ... and morning)) seem to be in blue ink or pencil and
made by Fields.
Flaubert ... "Écrire la vie ordinaire comme on écrit
l'histoire"; and the other, "Ce n'est pas de faire rire - mais
d'agir a la façon de la nature, c'est à dire de faire rêver":
The first quotation is from a letter to Louise Colet of March 27
(Easter Sunday), 1853: "To write ordinary life as one writes
history" (Translation by Carla Zecher). The whole
sentence, as translated by Francis Steegmuller (Selected
Letters of Gustave Flaubert. New York: Farrar, Straus,
1953, pp. 148), reads: "It is perhaps absurd to want to
give prose the rhythm of verse (keeping it distinctly prose,
however) and to write of ordinary life as one writes history or
epic (but without falsifying the subject)."
The second quotation is from Flaubert's
letter to Louise Colet of 26 August, 1853. "It is not to
evoke laughter -- but to act in the manner of nature,
which is to say, to cause to dream." (Translation by Carla
Zecher). The whole passage as translated by Steegmuller
(pp. 163-4) is: "What seems to me the highest and the most
difficult achievement of Art is not to make us laugh or cry, or
to rouse our lust or our anger, but to do as nature does -- that
is, fill us with wonderment."
Loulie: Louisa Loring Dresel. See Key
to
Correspondents.
Georgie Halliburton: See Key
to
Correspondents.
Dr. Weir Mitchell's new poems: Silas Weir Mitchell. See Key
to
Correspondents. If the date of this letter is correct, then
Mitchell's most recent volume of poems would be A Psalm of
Deaths and Other Poems (1890).
Uncle Will: Dr. William Gilman Perry. 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.
That the final sentence does not follow
smoothly from page 2 suggests that there is missing material in
this manuscript.
The marginal line on this page was deleted by
Fields in blue pencil.
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 passages from this letter in Letters of Sarah
Orne Jewett (1911), pp. 165.
Dearest, -- The letter by Mr. Collyer
was from a person who sought to know my opinion of the novel of
the future! But he never will.
I copied for him those two wonderful bits
of Flaubert, -- "Écrire la vie ordinaire comme on écrit
l'histoire"; and the other, "Ce n'est pas de faire rire -- mais
d'agir a la façon de la nature, c'est à dire de faire rêver." I
keep these pinned up on the little drawers at the back of the
secretary, for a constant reminder.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Horace Scudder
South Berwick, Maine
December 18, [1890]
Dear Mr. Scudder:
I wish very much that you could print
in the Atlantic a paper that I heard Mrs. Whitman1
read on "Colour" the other evening. It is very full of
suggestions. I think that no one could fail to be wiser and to
find his power of enjoyment vastly increased. No one who read it
or heard it would go away ungrateful. Of course it would need
working over in certain places to change it into magazine shape.
I am sure that you would make allowance for this in the first
looking over. I write without having said anything to Mrs.
Whitman, but I hope that you will ask her to let you see the
paper and that she will not say no!2 I tried to find
you at your office a few days ago wishing to speak of this, but
you had gone out of town.
Yours sincerely,
Sarah O. Jewett
Notes
1 Sarah Wyman Whitman
(see Key to
Correspondents).
2 Either Mrs. Whitman or
Mr. Scudder said "no." No paper of this description made its
appearance in the Atlantic Monthly.
This letter is edited and annotated by Richard Cary in Sarah
Orne Jewett Letters; the ms. is held by Colby College
Special Collections, Waterville, Maine.
Sarah Wyman Whitman to Sarah Orne Jewett
[
19 December 1890 ]*
Dear & dear fellow-traveller:
I go tomorrow and for all the week. This I
find more difficult than usual this year -- but it is best, so
I am off.
There's hope in [
unrecognized word
me
?] that you will be here when I return: and [
meantime
? ] I think of you and love you, and ask for
a Xmas blessing in your heart.
Your
SW
December 19, 1890
Notes
19 December 1890: 20 Dec.1890 is noted in another hand in
the upper right of the first page, which is the cancellation date
of the envelope that accompanies this letter. The envelope
is addressed to Jewett in South Berwick.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library of
Harvard University. Whitman, Sarah (Wyman) 1842-1904. 92 letters;
[1884]-[1903] & [n.d.] Jewett, Sarah Orne, 1849-1909. Sarah
Orne Jewett additional correspondence, 1868-1930. MS Am 1743.1
-107. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Celia Thaxter to Sarah Orne Jewett
47. State St. Ports
Dec. 20th (90
My dear Pinny:*
Thank you so much for your kind letter. Dear
Pin if I thought Mr Hunt* wouldn't like it I'd go a barefooted
Sandpiper just before I'd print it. I dont think his people would
dislike it -- And I remember always how earnest Mr. Fields*
was about printing it "after some altering", "it must be done," he
said again & again & deplored the decision I held to at
the time, of not printing it for some years, at least -- But,
if there is
[ Page 2 ]
a doubt about it & if it is better not, it shall not see the
light. At any rate I shall wait & do nothing rash about it!
You are a kind Pinny and I love you & am
yours
Sandpiper
Notes
Pinny: A nickname for Sarah Orne Jewett used by
Thaxter and Annie Adams Fields. Sandpiper is their nickname for
Thaxter. See Key to Correspondents.
Mr. Hunt: Almost certainly, Thaxter refers to plans to
publish something about her painting mentor, William Morris Hunt (1824-1879). Thaxter is
not known to have published anything about Hunt after her
September 1879 letter to the New York Tribune, "William M.
Hunt's Last Day." See Uncollected Works of Celia Thaxter.
Mr. Fields: James T. Fields, deceased spouse of Annie Adams
Fields. See Key to Correspondents.
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.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Louisa Dresel
South Berwick, Maine
December 22, [1890]
Dear Loulie:
I am sorry to have only these two
photographs to send you with the book and my most affectionate
Christmas wishes. I have put away my negatives in such a safe
place that I can't find them to have more printed. But I think
that the Oldfields burying-ground1 ranks highest as a
work of art! and the dear old house where I was born and where I
now sit writing to you (near the window over the porch) will be
as interesting to you as any others of the little pictures. The
perspective of the house is quite queer! but I expect great
things from the next developing of sixty.
It is not very certain whether I shall
be in town this week. At any rate it will only be for a night
and part of a day tomorrow night or Christmas night. An old
cousin of ours here, of whom we are very fond, is, I fear,
dying, and this makes my mother very depressed and she as not
been quite so well lately at any rate. Then there is a wedding
of one of my cousins in Exeter tomorrow!2 It is a
strange hurried week altogether.
Dear Loulie I am sure that you will
have many thoughts beside those of Christmas merrymaking, but
after all the best of Christmas is that one feels free even in
repressed and undemonstrative New England to be as good as one
knows how to other people and to give them all the pleasure one
can. I can wish you a happy Christmas if not a merry one, and I
do most heartily with much love.
Your ever affectionately,
S. O. J.
Notes
1Area adjoining the
Piscataqua River in the north section of South Berwick, "between
its great forests and open fields." A photograph of the Goodwin
House and the burying-ground is reproduced on page 594 of
Jewett's "The Old Town of Berwick," New England Magazine,
X (July 1894), 585-609.
2Jewett's cousin was Helen
Bell (not to be confused with Helen Choate Bell), the youngest
daughter of ex-governor of New Hampshire, Charles Henry Bell who
had twice married into the Exeter Gilman family, maternal
cousins of the Jewetts. On the 23rd Miss Bell married Dr. Harold
North Fowler, professor of Classics in Phillips Exeter Academy.
The wedding company was described as "a large, brilliant
assembly," including two of the Harvard senior faculty and "many
people of prominence" from several states.
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.
John Greenleaf Whittier to Annie Adams Fields
Oak Knoll
12 / 22 '90
My dearest friend
I think the books ( W Scott* ) had better go to
Celia Thaxter* first, as it takes me so long now to read a book,
and let her send them to me at Amesbury as I expect to be there or
at Newburyport before long.
[ Thy ? ] presence at
[ Page 2 ]
my birth-day* was the best part of it; it made the day beautiful
which might otherwise have been sad and [ lonesome ?
]. But somehow I did not see enough of thee; I was so
selfish I wanted thee all to myself.
I had a lovely letter from S. O. J.* I find
that my letters telegrams and messages on the
[ Page 3 ]
occasion counted into the hundreds from all parts of the country
and from England Scotland and Ireland{,} Australia and the
Sandwich Islands.
This is a poor letter, but my best love goes
with it{.} Ever more & more gratefully thy friend
John G Whittier
Notes
W. Scott: Which books of Scottish author, Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832) these friends
would be circulating and sharing is not yet certain. A
strong likelihood would be The Journal of Sir Walter Scott,
(1890) first edited and published whole in 2 volumes by a Fields
and Jewett friend, David Douglas. See Key
to
Correspondents.
Celia Thaxter: See Key
to
Correspondents.
birth-day: Whittier's 83rd birthday was 17 December
1890.
S. O. J.: Sarah Orne Jewett.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Huntington Library,
San Marino, CA, in the James T. Fields collection: mss FI
72-4663. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe
College.
Celia Thaxter to Annie Adams Fields
47 State St. Ports
Dec 25th (90
My dearest Annie
I sent the Walter Scott to Mr. Whittier* this
morning. I have seldom seen any thing more interesting, more
delightful than this journal. Some time I shall ask you to let me
take it again, for I dared not keep it to read entirely, for who
knows what moment the dear old man may go where we can't reach him
with books any more, or any thing else! Karl was getting a
photograph ready for poor Lily Bowditch* -- she was as well as
usual, but I said, "Karl, I'm afraid
[ Page 2 ]
Miss Lily will be dead before you get that picture ready for her!"
"O," he said, "in a week or two ^she^ shall have it!" But long
before the week or two was gone she had gone whither no
express could follow her! So I dared not delay a moment but sent
the books the day after I opened your bundle. And many thanks,
Annie dearest, for that charming bundle & all its contents!
The pocket book was most welcome, mine had come all to pieces,
& for all your kind thought I am most grateful. How
good you are to want me to come to you & how I wish I could!
But just now Karl is so poorly,
[ Page 3 ]
it troubles me so much -- His eyes seem to grow perfectly white
& colorless & the pupil a mere black needle point, is the
smallest imaginable pin head & he cannot bring them to a focus
when he looks in my face -- one looks one way & one another,
& all his senses, sight, hearing, all, are so dulled &
blurred -- oh, it is so sad -- I know not what to do -- [ only blotted
] to have patience & to pray for more & more & more --
more patience & more resignation. I am so thankful to have
this little place to keep him contented & approximately happy
-- I give up almost the whole of the second floor to him & his
endless traps --try not to mind or to think of any worries or
vexations connected with him, for he cannot help any thing, poor
creature.
[ Page 4 ]
It is a blinding snow storm since early morning
& from the harbor's mouth the foghorn has been droning its
warning the whole day -- now the early dusk is closing. I wonder
if it snows in Boston. I am thankful not to be at the Shoals
today so far from every body! Dear Annie I wish I could
run in & see you this evening! But heaven only knows
when I ever can leave my little corner.
About the Hunt paper* -- I have grown myself so
sensitive about it I dont feel now as if I could print it at all
-- I shall set myself to work with might & main on some thing
else the moment I have finished this pile of Xmas letters, &
keep my head above water with "verses," heaven save the mark! the
best way I can. Goodbye my dearest dear true Annie. I shall write
to Pinny* tonight. I'm glad to have her dear book. Ever your CT
[ Up the left margin of page 1 ]
Did you read about Browning's voice* heard a year after his death,
from the phonograph? It sounds like a fairy story!
Notes
Walter Scott: Thaxter refers to The Journal of
Sir Walter Scott, (1890) first edited and published whole in
2 volumes by a Fields and Jewett friend, David Douglas. See Key
to
Correspondents. See Scottish author, Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832).
This journal apparently was shared among John
Greenleaf Whittier, Celia Thaxter, Jewett and Fields. See Key
to
Correspondents.
Lily Bowditch: Dr. Henry Ingersoll Bowditch (1808-1892),
owned a cottage on Appledore. His wife was Olivia Jane Yardley (1816 - 10 December
1890); their daughter Olivia Yardley Bowditch (1842–1928),
regularly spent part of her summer there. See Thaxter to Fields of
31 August 1887.
Karl is Thaxter's disabled son.
Hunt paper: American painter, William Morris Hunt (1824- 8 September
1879). Wikipedia says: "Hunt died at the Isles of Shoals,
New Hampshire, in 1879, apparently a suicide. Hunt had gone to the
New Hampshire shore to recover from a crippling depression.... His
body was discovered by his friend, New Hampshire poet Celia
Thaxter."
If Thaxter ever changed her mind about
publishing her essay on Hunt, this has not yet been located.
Possibly parts of her work are included in Helen M. Knowlton, Art-Life of William Morris Hunt
(1899), Chapter 17.
Pinny: Thaxter is using intimate nicknames shared among
Jewett, Fields and herself. Pinny is Jewett; Flower is
Fields; Sandpiper is Thaxter. See Key
to
Correspondents.
Jewett published three books in 1890: Betty
Leicester, Tales of New England, and Strangers
and Wayfarers.
Browning's voice: Not long before his death in 1889,
British poet Robert Browning (1812-1889) attempted a
recording of one of his poems. See The Public Domain Review.
"When the recording was played in 1890 on the anniversary of his
death, at a gathering of his admirers, it was said to be the first
time anyone's voice 'had been heard from beyond the grave'."
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Boston Public
Library, Rare Books Department, Celia Thaxter correspondence with
Annie Fields, 1869-1893, MS C.1.38 Box 2 Folder 6 (250-269)
https://ark.digitalcommonwealth.org/ark:/50959/qb98p7256
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe
College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Mary Bucklin Davenport Claflin
South Berwick
Saturday 28 [or 26] December
[1890 ]*
Dear Mrs. Claflin
I thank you for this little book which came
yesterday from town. You are always very kind to remember me
at Christmas time. I am very fond of reading The Tent on the
Beach, and it seems natural to associate something of Mr.
Whittier's with you.*
[ Page 2 ]
We had a great deal of Christmas pleasure in spite of
everything! The family feast was given up, but my Mother
came down to dinner with Mary* and me, and we had a great opening
of Christmas bundles in the morning with Carrie and her
household.*
I wonder if you know
[ Page 3 ]
that Cousin Mary Nealley* died this week? We shall miss the
dear little affectionate soul very much, my Mother has depended so
much upon her almost daily visits, and she was the last left of
the the three households -- four households -- that I remember in
childhood in my father's family. Mother seems left quite
alone and of course
[ Page 4 ]
[ the bottom right corner of a rectangle seems to be drawn on
the right side of the top of page 4]
we all feel that a good deal.
I hope that you had a happy Christmas -- and I
wish you a happy New Year.
Yours affectionately
Sarah O. Jewett
Notes
1890: This date is confirmed by the death date
of Jewett's cousin. See notes below. However, in 1890,
December 27 fell on Saturday, meaning that neither reading
of her handwriting for the day would seem right.
The Tent on the Beach ... Mr. Whittier's: John
Greenleaf Whittier. See Key
to
Correspondents. His volume, The Tent on the
Beach and Other Poems appeared in 1867,
Mary: Mary Rice Jewett. See Key
to Correspondents.
Carrie and her household: Carrie Jewett
Eastman. See Key
to
Correspondents.
Cousin Mary Nealley: Richard Cary says: "Mary
Elizabeth Jewett Nealley (1817-1890) died on December 23. She was
the daughter of Thomas and Elizabeth Lord Jewett, and the wife of
the Hon. John B. Nealley, 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."
The manuscript of this letter is held by Rutherford B. Hayes
Presidential Center in the Governor William and Mary
Claflin Papers, GA-9, Box 4, Miscellaneous Folder J, Ac
950. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
James Russell Lowell to Sarah Orne Jewett
[
Begin letterhead ]
ELMWOOD,
CAMBRIDGE.
[ End letterhead ]
26th Decr,
1890.
Dear cruel girls,
to send me a knife, &
such a pretty one too, in the very teeth of the proverb!* And a [
rose ? ] knife at my time of day! All my rosebeds
are mere stems & thorns. You are so far out of reach that I
venture a timorous allusion to the roses in Somebody's cheeks as
the most tempting I know of. But -- at any rate the knife
sha'n't cut our friendship.
Faithfully yours
J. R. Lowell.
Mifs S. O. Jewett*
Notes
proverb: One proverb is "One slash, two parts," which has
been interpreted that when one gives a knife as a gift, this
signifies slashing the bond of friendship.
Jewett: This line of text appears to have been
deleted with a double line.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library of
Harvard University: Sarah Orne Jewett Correspondence I, Letters to
Sarah Orne Jewett.
Lowell, James Russell, 1819-1891. 3
letters; bMS Am 1743 (139).
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
97, Burton Trafton Jewett Research Collection.
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe
College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Louisa Dresel
South Berwick, Maine
Saturday afternoon
[December 27, 1890]
Dear Loulie:
Your pillow did not get to me until
last night, owing to the storm and also a little I suppose to my
being away from town. I think it is a dear. I like
it
VERY
much,
and
I
send
you as many thanks as will make three to each of the stitches.
It is to go on an old couch covered with blue and white chintz
with shepherdesses and other persons for a pattern, and I hope
that some time you will put your own head on it for I do not
like to think of your having parted from such a pillow forever!
I thank you for your kind Christmas
thought, dear Loulie -- indeed I thank you for all your kind
thought that lasts me the year round.
I spent Tuesday night in town in a
whirl of busy-ness and got home again Wednesday evening. A dear
quaint little old cousin of ours, a great friend of my mother's,
has died this week, which has been a real sorrow -- as in
addition to our missing her at any rate my mother will
particularly miss her visits -- she had a brisk little cheerful
way of "running in." I must tell you more about her some day
when we are talking together.1
I have just finished some teasing
work, the anxious revision of the Normans book which is
to be put into an English edition.2 I have felt
hurried with it and of course there could hardly be a more
distracting week of the year to undertake it in! But I am
sending off the papers today, and feel much relieved in mind.
Give my love to Mrs. Dresel and keep
much for yourself, dear child, from
Your most affectionate and grateful,
S. O. J.
Notes
1Mary Elizabeth Jewett
Nealley (1817-1890) died on December 23. She was the daughter of
Thomas and Elizabeth Lord Jewett, and the wife of the Hon. John
B. Nealley, 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.
2The Normans, Told
Chiefly in Relation to Their Conquest of England, No. 29
in The Story of the Nations series, was published by T. Fisher
Unwin (London, 1891). The first edition was brought out by G. P.
Putnam's Sons (New York, 1887).
Editor's Note
I have not undertaken finding the small revisions Jewett says
she made. However two have come to light. In a letter of 17 July 1887,
Edward Augustus Freeman wrote to Jewett after reading the 1887
edition of The Story of the Normans. He said
that she must rewrite page 139 to correct two errors, that she
"must not call George Maniakes Maurice or place the
Norse of 1040 at Amalfi instead of Melfi." Jewett must
have felt embarrassment at this demand, but fortunately, she
was given an opportunity to correct these problems in 1890,
when T. Fisher Unwin decided to add a British edition of her
book to their list of titles in the Story of the Nations
series. And, indeed, she did make two changes in Chapter
7.
1887,
p. 139
After a while Sicily was conquered, but the Normans were not
given their share of the glory of the victories; on the
contrary, Maurice, the governor, was too avaricious and
ungrateful for his own good, and there was a grand quarrel when
the spoils were divided.
1891, p. 139
After a while Sicily was conquered, but the Normans were not
given their share of the glory of the victories; on the
contrary, the Lombard governor was too avaricious and ungrateful
for his own good, and there was a grand quarrel when the spoils
were divided.
1887, p. 140
Twelve counts were elected by popular suffrage, and lived at
their capital of Amalfi, and settled their affairs in military
council.
1891, p. 140
Twelve counts were elected by popular suffrage, and lived at
their capital of Melfi, and settled their affairs in military
council.
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.