Sarah Orne Jewett to Katharine Peabody Loring and Alice James
3 January 1891 [1892]*
Dear Katharine and Alice. (for may I not say the "first name" because I always think it? --)
I send you most loving wishes for your new year -- and my dear love. Somehow you seem very near today. it will just be growing dark in London and I can think of you together in the closest way, and how you think together and know each other's thought, as only those friends can who are
very near and very dear, and for whom illness has pushed away everything but the best of life.
I have been thinking a great deal about this of late -- and of what we call separation. Where one has gone on ahead into the new state of things, and what that one does for the one who stays on longer in this world -- it seems to me that in the first place we learn to know the 'angel' at once -- all that was really of this world fades out of mind. It is simply wonderful to me the nearness I feel
to my mother* and the new love and completer understanding between us. Why should people ever have wished for spirit rappings* or for a "medicine" of any sort, when you feel sure of the warm love and instant presence in your own heart as nobody could ever persuade you of it. What will it be to be together again! to find the dear contentment of this world glorified in another and better world! "They are all gone into the light" --* but surely the light shines back into our dim eyes and the "separation" is only a
perfecting [or corrected from of?] [deleted letters or ?] continuing of the love and friendship here. Nobody who has truly loved and truly known a friend can help feeling this. It is only that we forget that there can be no gain without a smaller loss, and we hate to lose even for a little while any part of what made us happy. --
-- I go writing on about this to you just as if I were with you and talking about it! The truth is that I ought not to be writing at all because my eyes are sadly out of repair
and I have had to be disagreeably careful of them, else I should have written you many days or even weeks ago. There is nothing the matter, says Dr. Wadsworth,* except that I am a little run down and pretty rheumatic by nature and I gave them a strain by night in the summer & autumn. Dr. Morton said the same thing but the fact remains that I cant use them much, and feel rather naughty and pretty nice when I get a pen into my hand and my
thumb & middle finger well inked which is always necessary to an ease of expression on their part.
Christmas went by, not very cheerful to our hearts here, but on the whole happy to look back upon. I went to the little Catholic Church to mass in the morning with my friendly, well to do Irish [and corrected] French-Canadian friends and neighbors, and I had a 'lot' of dear presents which always make you feel like a boy again, and then I took the night train and went to town after
a pleasant dinner with my sisters.
Mrs. Fields had gone to her sister's* and I waited an hour or two before she came back, and I stretched myself in comfort on the green couch in the library and contemplated the heap of nice white paper bundles on the piano -- Then I was a surprise party to A. F. and we sat up late and talked of many things. It is ten years since Mr. Fields died* and I spent my first Christmas there!
We still talk about going over
in the spring, but no more definitely than when I wrote last: I am eager to have Mrs. Fields get a long rest and change, but the ^recent^ accounts of voyages in the North Atlantic dont allure me to plough the main just at present.
. . I wonder if you two have an acquaintance with the poems of Mrs. Katharine Philips "The Matchless Orinda" -- ??* One day in the studio Mrs. S. Whitman,* my dear beloved friend, did read me the poem to Mrs. M.A. (Mary Aubrey) which Keats quotes in one of his letters.* She had it in the Sydney Colvins book, and that sent me back with delight to the old book itself. I do think
that the Matchless Orinda knew what it was to "be friends" as well as anybody ever did and had a wonderful gift of saying the things that friends feel.
There are some such lovely poems -- one about a country life and to a little child that had died, but most of all these poems [of ?] friendship.
Do get them and read them over! How I should like to read them with you!
Good bye dear Friends. God bless you and keep you both. I remember you every day with love and joy that I have you in my heart
S.O.J.
Mrs. Fields wrote me that she was going to "the Jo. Guiney's" to tea tonight with Dr. & Mrs. James.* a quiet Sunday night [to ?] all by themselves -- the which I [ unrecognized word ] envy her!
Have I ever sent you one of these little pictures of [this ? ] old house
where I was born and still live -- My own room is round the right hand corner looking over to the spruce trees but I am writing at our old secretary in the upper hall [ at ? A seemingly unfinished sentence. ]
Notes
1891 [1892]: While this letter seems clearly dated 1891 in Jewett's hand, the fact that she speaks of her mother's recent death, which occurred on 21 October 1891, shows that Jewett almost certainly wrote the wrong year -- perhaps out of habit -- in one of her first letters of 1892.
Alice: Alice James "(August 7, 1848 - March 6, 1892) was an American diarist, sister of novelist Henry James and philosopher William James." Domestic partner of Katharine Loring, James suffered from both psychological and physical illness most of her life. By the date of this letter, James was just two months away from her death from breast cancer. Wikipedia
Probably Jewett feels she is taking a liberty by speaking of Alice James, whom she knew less well than Loring, by her first name rather than as "Miss James."
nearness I feel to my mother: Caroline Augusta Perry Jewett died 21 October 1891. Sarah's experience of nearness to deceased friends and family is reflected in her writing from at least the death of her father, Theodore Herman Jewett in 1878. See the first two poems "To my Father," in Jewett's Verses, 1916.
spirit rappings: Jewett uses a judgmental term for Spiritualism, the contemporary belief system that included the ideas the spirits of the dead sought to communicate with the living and that some people, spirit mediums, were gifted with the power to facilitate such communication. In a seance, led by such a medium, a spirit wishing to communicate with a living person was thought to signal its presence by making a rapping sound.
Jewett and her friends had given these beliefs serious attention in the early 1880s. See my report: "Communing with the Dead: Celia Thaxter, John Greenleaf Whittier, Sarah Orne Jewett, Annie Adams Fields." (July 2020).
"They are all gone into the light": Henry Vaughan (1622-1695) was a Welsh mystical poet who wrote in English. "They are all gone into a world of Light!" appears in Silex Scintillans (1655), which begins, "They are all gone into a world of light! / And I alone sit lingering here; / Their very memory is fair and bright, / And my sad thoughts doth clear." Jewett refers several times to this image in her writings, notably in her story "A Native of Winby" (Atlantic Monthly, May 1891), which she may have been drafting at about the time she composed this letter.
Dr. Wadsworth ... Dr. Morton: It is possible that Jewett was seeing Dr. Oliver Fairfield Wadsworth (1838-1911), an ophthalmologist practicing in Boston who was, in 1892, a Professor of Ophthalmology at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Helen Morton (1834-1916) had offices successively on Marlboro, Boylston, and Chestnut streets in Boston. Richard Cary says that Jewett once characterized her as "touchy {touching?} in her doctorly heart and more devoted in her private capacity as a friend."
little Catholic Church ... Irish ... French-Canadian friends and neighbors: St. Michael’s Church, a short walk from the Jewett home in South Berwick, before being renovated into the current South Berwick Public Library, was the parish church attended by the many immigrant mill workers and their descendants in the area.
Mrs. Fields had gone to her sister's ... A. F. ... ten years since Mr. Fields died: A. F. is Annie Fields; her sister, Sarah Holland Adams (1823-1916). Fields' husband, the publisher James T. Fields died on 24 April 1881.
Katharine Philips "The Matchless Orinda": "Katherine or Catherine Philips (1632-1664), also known as Orinda, was an Anglo-Welsh poet, translator, and woman of letters. She achieved renown as translator of Pierre Corneille's Pompée and Horace, and for her editions of poetry.... After her death, in 1667 an authorised edition of her poetry was printed entitled Poems by the Most Deservedly Admired Mrs. Katherine Philips, the Matchless Orinda. The edition included her translations of Pompée and Horace." Wikipedia
Mrs. S. Whitman ... the poem to Mrs. M.A. (Mary Aubrey): Sarah Wyman Whitman. See Correspondents.
"To Mrs M. A. at parting" appeared in her volume of poems. See Selected Poems (1904), pp. 12-13.
John Keats (1795-1821), the British Romantic poet, discussed Philips in his letter to J. H. Reynolds of 21 September 1817. See The Letters of John Keats: Vol 1 (2012) pp. 162-5.
the Sydney Colvins book: "Sir Sidney Colvin (1845-1927) was an English curator and literary and art critic, part of the illustrious Anglo-Indian Colvin family. He is primarily remembered for his friendship with Robert Louis Stevenson." Wikipedia
However it is not clear which Colvin book Jewett refers to. His 1887 biography of Keats would seem a likely possibility, but an electronic search does not show that Philips is mentioned in this biography.
one about a country life ... a little child that had died ... all these poems [of ?] friendship: Philips's "A Country Life" appears in Selected Poems, pp. 26-8. The poem on her deceased young son is "Epitaph," p. 23. While a number of the Selected Poems deal at least in part with the theme of friendship, one poem is entitled "Friendship," pp. 23-5.
"the Jo. Guiney's" ... Dr. & Mrs. James: "William James (1842-1910) was an American philosopher and psychologist who was also trained as a physician. The first educator to offer a psychology course in the United States.... He married Alice Gibbens in 1878." Wikipedia
The identity of "Jo. Guiney" is not known. Timothy Guiney and his wife, Johanna Josephine" resided in Cambridge, MA at the time this letter was composed, but no information has been found connecting them with William James. Given that the Guineys apparently were working-class Irish immigrants, it is possible that Johanna worked in the James household and that Jewett may be joking about her power by identifying her as the host of the evening.
Timothy Guiney - 1920 Census Record
Cambridge Ward 9, Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States
Timothy Guiney lived in Middlesex County, Massachusetts in 1920. He was the head of the household, 50 years old, and identified as white. Timothy was born in Ireland around 1870, and both of his parents were born in Ireland as well. In 1920, Timothy was married to Johanna Guiney, and they had thirteen children named Patrick J., Mary, Daniel, Catherine, Margaret, Helen, Anna, Lucy, John, Rose, Thomas, James, and William. He could read and write, owned his residence, and immigrated to the United States in 1894.
Louise Imogen Guiney to Sarah Orne Jewett
Will dear Miss Jewett lend her name to this list of patronesses of a Kindly little plan conceived by Dr. Clarence Blake?* I ask her to do so with all my heart. There are no responsibilities of office! I will be glad to explain the thing further sometime. Meanwhile I pledge myself that she cannot ever regret conferring on us the glory of counting S.O.J. as an ally.
New York. Jan. 8th 1892.
Notes
1892: This note is written on a visitor's card, with "Miss Guiney" printed in the center.
Blake: Dr. Clarence John Blake (1843-1919), Professor of Otology (anatomy of the ear) at Harvard University Medical School was the author of several books. His wife was Mary Alice Houghton Blake (1863-1919). With her help, he was instrumental in founding The Women's Rest Tour Association of Boston, Massachusetts, which "comprised a network of middle-class members who collected information about travel abroad and shared it among like-minded American women who required trustworthy non-commercial and unsolicited confidential recommendations suitable for women 'who desire to visit Europe at the least possible expense consistent with comfort'." The organization was founded in 1891. Wikipedia. See also "A Summer in England" by Libby Bischof, chapter 9 of Transatlantic Women: Nineteenth-century American Women Writers and Great Britain.
In 1891, Guiney produced A Summer in England. A hand-book for the use of American women, published by the WRTA.
The manuscript of this card is held by the Miller Library, Special Collections, Colby College, Waterville, ME: JEWE.1. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Celia Thaxter to Annie Adams Fields
My dearest Annie:
I have been once more to town ^Camb.^,* flying back next day, to see my little boy,* who is growing stronger, heaven be praised, every day, tho he looks still pretty white & thin -- but I think he is on the road to health & feel better about him. He clung to my neck. "Only one Granna," he said, "only one!" He frightens me, if he were fifty instead of three he could not say more thoughtful things....
Dearest, how are you? Sickness & death* are so busy it is something awful here in this town. The streets are full of funerals, the doors are marked with black all over the town. A neighbor lost her fine husband & her son of 21 within a week! It is a trying time. Are you going away, dear Annie, to those lovely southern places, St. Augustine* or somewhere, presently? Do tell me. Next time I go up I must have a glimpse of you. If I leave Camb at 12, I could reach you at Noon when I should be likely to catch you & then have time to reach my 3.30 train in the Eastern road home all right. Dear Annie you have no need to hold out Mrs Winch* as a temptation! If I only could you would see more of me than you could bear, I assure you!
I should be turning up at your hospitable threshold all days & hours, only too grateful for the privilege of seeing you & abiding for even so short a space within your beautiful gates.
I thought of you when I read that fine article of Emerson's* in the Atlantic. There is no one like him! Do you remember this passage --
"It is the property of the religious sentiment to be the most refining of all influences. No external advantages, no good birth or breeding, no culture of taste, no habit of command, no association with the elegant, even no depth of affection that does not rise to a religious sentiment, can bestow that delicacy & grandeur of bearing which belong to a mind accustomed to celestial conversations. All else is coarse & external, all else is tailoring & cosmetics, beside this, for thoughts are expressed in every look & gesture, & these thoughts are as if angels had talked with the child."
I did not know who wrote the article as I turned the pages of the magazine, looking at the opening lines of each; & the moment I read the first words of this I found I could not stop, held by
so fine a spell was I, &, turning to the cover to see who spoke with such a voice, lo! Emerson! No wonder I was held.
Dear, dear Annie, in little more than another week, perhaps a fortnight, I hope to go once more for a night to my children, & then see you with these loving eyes. My best to you & Pinny* --
C.
Notes
92: This manuscript includes a number of notes & marks related to its inclusion in Letters of Celia Thaxter. These notes have not been included in this transcription.
Camb: Cambridge, MA.
boy: Thaxter's grandson, Charles Eliot Thaxter, was born 31 October 1888.
Sickness & death: The 1889-1890 influenza pandemic included subsequent outbreaks each year through 1895.
Mrs. Winch: William J. Winch (1847- ), tenor, John F. Winch, bass, and Mrs. John Winch, alto, made up a musical family performing in Boston from the 1870s.
See "Sweet Boston Singers," Boston Globe (13 October 1895) p. 28.
St. Augustine: Fields and Sarah Orne Jewett had traveled together to St. Augustine, FL, in 1888 and 1890.
Emerson's: American essayist and poet, Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882). The passage is quoted with slight differences from his essay, "Boston," which appeared in Atlantic Monthly in January 1892.
Pinny: A nickname for Sarah Orne Jewett. See Key to Correspondents.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Huntington Library, San Marino, California: James Thomas Fields Papers & Addenda (1767-1914), mss FI 1-5637, Box 63 FI 1- 4165. Transcription & notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Fields & Lamb Transcription for Letters of Celia Thaxter
I have been once more to Cambridge, flying back next day, to see my little boy, who is growing stronger, Heaven be praised, every day, though he looks still pretty white & thin, but I think he is on the road to health & feel better about him. He clung to my neck. "Only one granna," he said, "only one!" He frightens me; if he were fifty instead of three he could not say more thoughtful things.
I thought of you when I read that fine article of Emerson's in the Atlantic. There is no one like him. Do you remember this passage? --
"It is the property of the religious sentiment to be the most refining of all influences. No external advantages, no good birth or breeding, no culture of taste, no habit of command, no association with the elegant, even no depth of affection that does not rise to a religious sentiment, can bestow that delicacy & grandeur of bearing which belong to a mind accustomed to celestial conversations. All else is coarse & external, all else is tailoring & cosmetics, beside this, for thoughts are expressed in every look & gesture, & these thoughts are as if angels had talked with the child."
I did not know who wrote the article as I turned the pages of the magazine, looking at the opening lines of each; & the moment I read the first words of this, I found I could not stop, held by so fine a spell was I, &, turning to the cover to see who spoke with such a voice, lo! Emerson! No wonder I was held.
In little more than another week, perhaps a fortnight, I hope to go once more for a night to my children, & then see you with these loving eyes.
Boston January 12th [ 1892 ]*
The Editors of The Century
Gentlemen
A few days since Mr L. J. B. Lincoln* asked me for one of my sketches to be read at his Reading here, and I told him that if you made no objection I was willing that he should have a copy made of The Hilton's Holiday* which you have. Perhaps he has
already spoken to you about it.
It occurs to me to tell you that it is possible that I may go away early in the spring for a number of months. So that if you should be writing to use this sketch within a year or more, perhaps it would be wise to have the proof ^[ sent ? ]^ while I am close at hand. I remember that in printing
'Dark New England Days'* you sent me a type-written copy first and you may think that sufficient now. I should like to have the manuscript kept for me.
Sarah O. Jewett
for the accounts of Mr. Johnson's* illness and how very glad we were to know that he is better, and that we send now our kindest wishes for his recovery.
1892: The choice of this date is based upon Jewett's mentioning the as yet unpublished story, "The Hilton's Holiday," which appeared in Century in September 1893. Century typically published Jewett's stories many months after acceptance. Jewett says she believes she is about to take a long trip. In March of 1892, she joined Annie Adams Fields for several months travel, mainly in Italy, France and United Kingdom.
L. J. B. Lincoln: Almost certainly, this is Luther Joshua Barker Lincoln (1851-1902). He married Mary Agnes Fuller (1858-1902). His father, Luther Barker Lincoln (1802-1855), served as principal of the Deerfield Academy, in Deerfield, MA. According to The Author 5-6 (1895) p. 231, Lincoln organized popular public readings at which well-known authors presented unpublished writing. He called these "Uncut Leaves." They took place in New York City, Brooklyn, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington, DC during winters. This letter suggests that such a reading is to occur near Manchester, but it seems clear that Jewett herself will not present the reading.
Dark New England Days: Jewett's story appeared in Century in October 1890.
Fields: Annie Adams Fields. See Key to Correspondents.
Johnson's: Robert Underwood Johnson. See Key to Correspondents.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the New York Public Library, Century Company records 1870-1930s [bulk 1886-1918], Series 1, General Correspondence 1870-1930, b. 51, Jewett, Sarah Orne 1889-1901.
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to John Greenleaf Whittier
15 January 1892
My dear friend
I am so sorry to see by the newspaper that you have a touch of the grippe -- I hope that the newspapers have got the story wrong and that it is only a very small cold that will soon fly away. I cant bear to think that you are sick! I have been wishing so much to write to you and to dear Mrs.
Cartland,* but I have had a serious time since I saw you with an attack of rheumatism in my eyes. I have been able to read and write very little ( and I never could cipher! ) but now they are getting a little better.
Last week I saw dear Mrs. Fields* and we talked about you and our lovely visit on the birthday. She was so touched and made
so glad by your poem about the wreath.* I dont know when anything has ever pleased her so -- We thought you must be very well because you had written it -- Now be just as good as thee can and take your medicine and dont play in the snow till Mr. Cartland says so! Do get well very soon for the sake of your
My sister* sends her love and hopes that you will soon be better
Notes
Cartland: Richard Cary says that Joseph Cartland (1810-1898) and Whittier's cousin Gertrude Cartland (1822-1911) accompanied Whittier on his summer vacations in Maine and New Hampshire for five decades, and Whittier lived in their home at Newburyport, Massachusetts most of his last fifteen winters.
Fields: Annie Adams Fields. Key to Correspondents.
about the wreath: See Whittier to Fields of 29 December 1891, which included his poem about a birthday wreath given him by Fields. The final stanza is:
But still this rustic wreath of thineA revised version, "The Birthday Wreath," with additional stanzas was collected in the posthumous edition of Whittier's At Sundown (1893). Whittier's last birthday was 17 December 1891.
Of wintergreen, and bay, and pine,
The wild growths of our forest land,
Woven and wound with careful pains,
And tender wish and prayer, remains,
As when it dropped from love's dear hand.
sister: Probably Mary Rice Jewett. Key to Correspondents.
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 Annie Adams Fields
[ 17 January 1882 ]
( Dearest Fuff
Miss Putnam's Mr Lincoln* sends us
these tickets with a very nice note. Perhaps you
will put them on your desk together! I have had a bad
day with my eyes today -- the bright sun on the snow
seems to make them ache a good deal.
Your letters have been so interesting. I hope that the
reception went off well and Boylie's* visit.)
Monday morning --
and what do you think is on this day but little Miss
Grant's funeral*
[ Page 2 ]
the poor soul having got through at last and
suddenly -- so Mary* and I are going down ^to
Portsmouth^ to the service which is to be in the
little hospital -- I cant take it in that I
shall see that lively, friendly quaint [ busy corrected
] creature no more! My stories are full of her here
and there as you know and she has made a great part in
the rustic side of my life and so in the town side.
Well! it is one of the moments when I am glad to think
that 'there shall not be any more tears
[ Page 3 ]
neither sorrow nor sighing' ----- *
( I have been
considering dear Fuff, and I wonder if since the
Warners* aren't coming and I dont know anything else
that we particularly want me for! -- I wonder if I
hadn't better stay here this week?
(Mary and I are going to Exeter
tomorrow to stay tomorrow night, -- I haven't been
there since midsummer or a little after and all my
dear aunts a growing old! -- and after that I must
keep
[ Page 4 ]
to a plot with the dentist, which I could put [ off ?,
looks like on ] if there were special need --
but it is better to see about it -- I didn't go out
yesterday even to Carrie's* but she was here, and
seems better though not strong yet -- She is
going away the last of the week so it is a good time
for me to be here -- unless, as I say there
turns up some special reason. Dear
little Fuff I am looking for your letter today -- do
take nice care of you my darling.
[ fm ? ]
Pinny*
Laura Richards' letter is so funny about its being
"her portion to read the Pepper Owl."*
17 January 1892: Fields penciled "Winter 1897"
in the upper right of page 1. However,
it seems probable that Olive Grant, whose funeral is
mentioned, died on Sunday 17 January 1892.
Dr. Lewis's: Dr. George Lewis. See
Correspondents.
Parenthesis marks in this letter
have been penciled in by Fields.
Fuff: Nickname for Annie Adams Fields.
See Key to Correspondents.
Miss Putnam's Mr Lincoln: These people have not
been identified. Possibly, Jewett refers to
Bertha Putnam, daughter of the publisher of The
Story of the Normans, George Haven Putnam.
See Key to Correspondents.
Boylie's visit: This transcription is uncertain, but almost certainly Jewett refers to Fields's nephew, Zabdiel Boylston Adams, III, who usually went by Boylston. See Annie Adams Fields in Key to Correspondents.
Miss Grant's funeral: Olive Grant. See Key to Correspondents.
Mary: Mary Rice Jewett. See Correspondents.
sorrow nor sighing: See Isaiah 35:10 and Jeremiah 45:3.Warners: Charles Dudley Warner. See Correspondents.
Carrie's: Caroline Jewett Eastman. See Correspondents.
Laura Richards: See Correspondents.
Pepper Owl: Jewett's "The Pepper Owl" appeared in St. Nicholas (3:492-496), June 1876.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library of Harvard University. Jewett, Sarah Orne, 1849-1909. Annie Fields (Adams) 1834-1915, recipient. 194 letters; 1877-1909 & [n.d.] Sarah Orne Jewett correspondence, 1861-1930. MS Am 1743 (255). Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Annie Fields Transcription
Fields includes a passage from this letter in Letters of Sarah Orne Jewett (1911), pp. 208.
Monday morning -- and what do you think is on this day but little Miss Grant's funeral, the poor soul having got through at last and suddenly. So Mary and I are going down to Portsmouth to the service, which is to be in the little hospital. I can't take it in that I shall see that lively, friendly, quaint, busy creature no more. My stories are full of her here and there, as you know, and she has made a great part in the rustic side of my life and so in the town side. Well, it is one of the moments when I am glad to think that there shall not be any more tears, neither sorrow nor sighing.
William Dean Howells to Sarah Orne Jewett
Dear Miss Jewett:
About this time I promised myself to begin feeling anxious if you had not yet sent me your story;* and I am keeping my promise to the letter. I hope I may see it soon.
If this should follow you to South Berwick will you give my love to my dear Theodore,* and tell him that we had a
splendid time with those nests he sent me. I wish I could say how sweet a gift they were to me.
W. D. Howells.
Notes
story: See Howells to Sarah Orne Jewett of 8 February 1892. In 1892, Jewett's "Decoration Day" appeared in the June Harper's Magazine, where Howells was editor.
Theodore: Theodore Jewett Eastman. See Key to Correspondents.
The manuscript of the letter is held by the Houghton Library of Harvard University. Howells, William Dean, 1837-1920. 16 letters to Sarah Orne Jewett; 1875-1908. Sarah Orne Jewett correspondence, 1861-1930. MS Am 1743 (105). Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Francis Hopkinson Smith to Sarah Orne Jewett
Jan 26. [ 1892 ]*
My dear Miss Jewett
I have sent your letter to Page* -- it will delight him immensely. He fell in love with Mrs Fields at sight. And when he kissed her hand at parting it was quite as if he was kissing his own good mothers
cheek -- Her sweetness and gentleness combined with that alertness of mind which we who love her know so well, quite won his heart.
I missed you in Boston and especially in "my audiences.{"} Many good friends helped us by their faces, -- so full of quick appreciation -- but
When I come again in a few weeks will you not be at 148?
F. Hopkinson Smith
1892: See note below.
Fields: Annie Adams Fields. Key to Correspondents.
Page: This person has not yet been identified.
Venetian Sketches: Wikipedia says that Smith sketched on his vacations, mainly in the White Mountains of New Hampshire, but also abroad in various countries, including Italy. His Gondola Days and The Venice of To-Day both appeared in 1897. He illustrated these travel books with his own sketches.
Doll and Richards was a major gallery in Boston. There is a Doll and Richards catalog for his 1892 exhibit, "A Summer in Venice, A Series of Watercolors by F. Hopkinson Smith of New York."
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Miller Library, Special Collections, Colby College, Waterville, ME: JEWE.1.
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Mary Rice Jewett
half past eleven
[ January-February 1892 ]
Dear Mary
-------------- Mary Wilkins and Mrs. Louise Chandler Moulton* and I were at one time in a cheerful company & were beheld by Mr. Aldrich* with much pleasure. I spoke of us frankly as the authoresses and we had a nice funny little time!! Miss Wilkins looked prettier than I ever saw her but a great deal older somehow, & represented herself to be toiling over a book. It is now 190,000 words & Mr. Alden* wants her to cut off half at least! I'd like to see me doing it! ---------------
Notes
The lines of hyphens presumably indicate omissions from the manuscript.
1892: This speculative date is based upon the fact that Wilkins's only novel before 1900 to be serialized in Harper's began appearing in April 1892. See notes below.
Mary Wilkins and Mrs. Louise Chandler Moulton: For Moulton see Key to Correspondents. Mary Eleanor Wilkins (1852-1930) was an American fiction writer. She met Dr. Charles Manning Freeman in 1892 and married him in 1902.
Mr. Aldrich: Thomas Bailey Aldrich. See Key to Correspondents.
Mr. Alden: Henry Mills Alden. See Key to Correspondents. That Wilkins is working with Mr. Alden on her manuscript indicates that she is preparing it for serialization in Harper's Magazine, where Alden was editor. The only Wilkins novel serialized in Harper's before 1900 was Jane Field: A Novel, which began appearing in April 1892 (v. 84, pp. 815-32) and continued through November.
This text is from transcriptions from mixed repositories in the Maine Women Writer's Collection, University of New England, Letters from Sarah Orne Jewett, 1875-1890, Undated Letters, Folder 75, Burton Trafton Jewett Research Collection. For more information about the individual transcription, contact the Maine Women Writers Collection. Notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Richard Watson Gilder to Sarah Orne Jewett
148 Charles Street,
Boston, Mass.
My dear Miss Jewett:--
I have asked the Art Department to take the name and keep in mind the young artist, Mr. C. H. Woodbury* of 175 Tremont Street, Boston. It would be very much better if he could send some examples of his work in a portfolio to our Mr. A. W. Drake [ unrecognized handwritten insertion ].* There is not so much demand, however, for landscape drawing as for that ^in^ which figures are more important.
That is a very charming suggestion of Mrs. Fields* of a Boston visit. Mrs. Gilder and I are both, unfortunately, so situated just now that absence from New York seems to be quite impossible. Mrs. Gilder was not well in the fall, you know, but is now holding her own splendidly and is gaining strength all the time, but she has to be very careful.
We have been having a great time with music this winter, getting especial pleasure out of Paderewski,* both his public and private playings. I hope you and Mrs. Fields have a good deal of that pleasure in Boston. I think you heard him there too.
With most cordial regards and thanks to both of you, I am, my dear Miss Jewett,
R W Gilder ]
Notes
C. H. Woodbury: Charles Herbert Woodbury. See Key to Correspondents. Jewett apparently has recommended her friend to Gilder as a potential illustrator for Scribner's Magazine, where Gilder was an editor.
A. W. Drake: Alexander Wilson Drake. See Key to Correspondents.
insertion: The insertion seems to give an address for Mr. Drake, but in the microfilm copy, the handwriting is too light to read confidently. It may read in part "to Newton: or "to New Town," but both ideas are mere guesses.
Mrs. Fields: Annie Adams Fields. See Key to Correspondents.
Paderewski: Ignacy Jan Paderewski (1860-1941) was a Polish pianist and composer, and an advocate for Polish independence. Wikipedia notes that after his first American tour in 1891, he frequently returned to perform in the United States, which became his second home.
A copy of this typescript is held on microfilm in the Richard Watson Gilder papers. Manuscripts and Archives Division. The New York Public Library. Astor, Lenox, and Tilden Foundations, letterbooks volume 5, p. 674. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College. Archival notes and marks have been omitted from this transcription.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Sara Norton
Saturday morning
[ February 1892 ]*
My dear Sally
Mrs Fields* asks me to say that we shall come to you tomorrow with the very greatest pleasure, between half past four and five o'clock. It is delightful to think of seeing Mr and Mrs Kipling* -- but we are sorry that there will not be time for them to come to us.
= What a busy gray day this is! I find myself thinking a great deal about yesterday and missing you very much -- What a shining little holiday it was!
S. O. Jewett
Notes
February 1892: This date is a guess based upon the implication that the Kiplings are making a first short visit to Boston. This happened in early 1892, shortly after the Kiplings married in London on 18 January.
Fields: Annie Adams Fields. Key to Correspondents.
Kipling: Rudyard and Carrie Kipling. Key to Correspondents.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library of Harvard University, Cambridge, MA. bMS Am 1743.1 Sarah Orne Jewett Additional Correspondence II. Letters from Sarah Orne Jewett, Box 4 (124).
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
John McLary Hill to Sarah Orne Jewett
No 2447.
B. A. Kimball, Prest. Jane Minet, Cashier
Capital $150,000
State Charter 1834 Nationalized 1880.
Concord, N.H. February 8, 1892
[ End letterhead ]
My dear Mifs Jewett: --
I read with much pleasure your article* in "The Youth's Companion," of January with reminiscence of "Capt. Nathan Lord," [ who ? ] was grandfather of Mrs. Elisabeth [ C. Hill ? ]. I have a silhouette of him, and also of his wife, ^and of^ Mrs. Chase, (his daughter); and also one of Mifs Temperance Brewster, ("Aunt Tempy.")
Young Lord entered the [ army ? ] at the age of 16, and, with a company enlisted at Berwick, and in an expedition to Ticonderoga, under John Sullivan. John and James Sullivan, noted in the history of New Hampshire* were both born in Berwick. Sullivan and Lord were taken prisoner by the Indians, tied to a tree and about to be shot, when an English officer interceded and paid their ransom. They were subsequently liberated. This officer's name was James Edwin Parks Stanhope* for whom Mr. Edwin Parks Lord of Rollinsford was named. Young Lord [ soon ? ] after enlisted in the navy on the Ranger under Paul Jones.
I have a print of matched pictures in my dining-room descriptive of the "Marriage of His Royal Highness, the Prince of Wales and the Princess Caroline of Brunswick,* [ unrecognized abbreviation ]. 1795." They are done in color and [ portray ? ] the costumes and [ apointments so it appears]. The one represents "the procession of the bride from the drawing room of the palace to the Chapel Royal St. James"; the other, "the marriage ceremony, performed by the Archbishop of Canterbury assisted by the Bishop of London in [ presence ? ] of the King and Queen and many notables." In the first named picture, "the bride is led by the Duke of Clarence, preceded by a gentleman usher between two heralds, and attended by her bridesmaids, four ladies daughters of dukes," and others. This Duke of Clarence is the veritable middy with whom your Lord had the "set to." He was Prince William Henry, afterward William IV.*
I had read of this young man in Russell's Life of Nelson,* with whom a great intimacy existed. I had also heard the family legend of the boxing match, but had never located the [ print ? ] Your article fixed the [ capture ? ] of the story. I have hung the silhouette over the picture and have written out and appended the history of young Lord (for a portion of which I am indebted to you). I feel very much obliged to you for the details of the fisticuff on the British firgate. I would like to have you see the pictures. They were bought in Europe by an old ship-master, Capt. George Connell* of Newburyport,* were framed in N. in the year 1800, as shown by newspaper dates on their backing; and presented to my Mother on the occasion of her marriage in [1812 or 1820 ]. The frames are the originals [ two unrecognized words ] [ and gold ? ].
[ Page 3 also on letterhead ]
(3)
I fear I may have wearied you with this [ unrecognized word ] note. I sat down merely to express my thanks for your article.
Notes
top left: The design consists of a well-muscled right arm holding up a hammer. Outside the circle are a few leafy branches. Around the circle: MECHANICS NATIONAL BANK OF CONCORD. The 1889 Banker's Almanac and Register lists Hill as a bank director at Mechanics National.
The underlined portion of the letterhead text is filled in by hand.
article: Jewett's "Looking Back on Girlhood" appeared in the January 1892 Youth's Companion.
Find a Grave notes that John M. Hill (1821-1900) married Elizabeth Lord Chase (1825-1887). Geni genealogy says that her mother was Maria Lord Chase, who was a daughter of Captain Nathan Lord (1758-1808). Captain Lord's wife was Elizabeth Brewster (1744-1837), who, according to Find a Grave, is buried in the Old Town Cemetery in Rollinsford, NH..
Sullivan ... History of New Hampshire: John Sullivan (1740-1795) was an American general in the Revolutionary War, later a politician and judge. His brother, James Sullivan (1744-1808) also became a judge. He wrote The History of the District of Maine (1895).
Probably, Hill refers to The History of New Hampshire (1813) by Jeremy Belknap.
William IV: In "Looking Back on Girlhood" Jewett recounts the probably fictitious account of a challenge and fight between Nathan Lord and an unnamed British sailor, who turns out to be the future King William IV (1765-1837). The account is problematic for several reasons, the most telling of which is that the young future king was about 12 years old at the time the fight supposedly took place, while Lord was about 19.
Russell's Life of Nelson: English author, William Clark Russell (1844-1911) wrote several books about Admiral Horatio Nelson, two of which appeared before 1892: Nelson's Words and Deeds a selection from the dispatches and correspondence of Horatio Nelson (1890) and Horatio Nelson and the naval supremacy of England (1891).
Capt. George Connell of Newburyport: Captain Connell appears on the internet as the father of American diarist Sarah Newman Connell Ayer (1791-1835). He was said to sail in the India trade out of various New England ports from Philadelphia, PA to Portland, ME., including Newburyport.
.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library of Harvard University: Sarah Orne Jewett Correspondence I, Letters to Sarah Orne Jewett.
Hill, John M. 1 letter; 1892. (96).
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.
Annie Adams Fields to Sarah Orne Jewett
[ 1892 ]*
Dr. Osler [ came corrected ] on Friday but he is still reflecting on the case. "Been going beyond your income of strength always" he pronounced at one point, and I suppose "time" will be spoken of more emphatically than ever. At any rate it is ^a^ delight
Notes
1892: Dating this fragment presents challenges. In her own hand, Fields clearly dated it in 1892. But the date has been deleted in pencil, perhaps also by Fields, and changed to 1902. This is further complicated by knowing that if the letter was written in the U.S., it should have been composed in 1904,. when Dr. Osler visited the U.S., including Boston and Cambridge, MA See note below.
However, on the back of this sheet is a note in another hand that reads:
This could suggest that Fields wrote her note while in Rome, where indeed she was in the winter of 1892. However, she did not arrive in Rome until early March.[ Fwd. ?]
Mrs. Fields,
34a via Porta Cinciana.
None of the dates we have for this letter seem possible. However, because Fields clearly dated it in 1892 when she first composed it, I have placed it in that year.
Dr. Osler: Sir William Osler (1849-1919) was a Canadian physician and medical educator, one of the founding professors of Johns Hopkins Hospital. He presented his Ingersoll Lecture in winter of 1904, Science and Immortality (Houghton Mifflin, 1904). The Ingersoll Lectures on Human Immortality took place at Harvard University, beginning in 1896. Wikipedia.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library of Harvard University: Sarah Orne Jewett Correspondence I. Letters to Sarah Orne Jewett. Fields, Annie (Adams) 1834-1915. 16 letters; 1894-1901 & [n.d.], 1894-1901 bMS Am 1743 (64).
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
[ February 1892 ]
Dear Loulie
"The Werra* from New York to Genoa" on the 27th of this month! That is what makes a central point in my mind just now for Mrs. Fields and I have decided and are really going -- perhaps you have already thought so?
I am sure that it is wisest
and best, but it was very hard for me to come to a decision{.} My sister Mary* did not feel like going again just now and I am sorry to leave her for so long and my other sister,* too -- but it is a great joy that they are close together here and that Mary wont really be quite alone.
When I see you I shall
have much to say --
I liked that candy! Thank you for it and for much beside that is well remembered{.}
S.O.J.
Notes
Werra: Wikipedia says "The Rivers class was a class of eleven ocean liners of the Norddeutscher Lloyd (NDL), the first class of German express liners. The ships were built between 1881 and 1890, the first nine in Glasgow by John Elder & Co. or the renamed Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company, the last two in Stettin by Vulcan. All were named for rivers in Germany." The Werra was completed in 1882.
Mary: Mary Rice Jewett. See Key to Correspondents.
other sister: Carrie Jewett Eastman. See Key to Correspondents.
Ellis: For Ellis Dresel, see Louisa Loring Dresel in Key to Correspondents.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Columbia University (New York) Library in Special Collections, Jewett. Transcription from a microfilm copy and annotation by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Louise Imogen Guiney to Annie Adams Fields
Dear Mrs. Fields:
I hope that what I see in the Transcript is not true, that Miss Jewett* is suffering from rheumatism of the eyes? It has been worrying me. Perhaps rumor has confounded her with Miss Longfellow,* and yet that is not great solace to me, for I should not like to think Miss Longfellow were in pain, either. May health speedily 'fly away with' you and all you love!
My little book* is coming out directly. May I send you in the unbound copy I have already? "The 'subject' is a very stirring young body, and he might help to amuse whichever dear convalescent you have with you. I am working hard
out here, (whenever I am not rolling in the snow with my only dog) and often think of you on Saturn's day.*
Louise I. Guiney
Notes
Miss Jewett: Sarah Orne Jewett. See Key to Correspondents. Guiney has been reading the Boston Evening Transcript.
Miss Longfellow: Alice Longfellow. See Key to Correspondents.
Saturn's day: Saturday.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Huntington Library, San Marino, CA, in the James T. Fields collection Box 25: mss FI 1593. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Katharine Loring
South Berwick
Dear Katharine
Your dear letter came yesterday = this is the answer.* A. F.* and S.O.J. putting out to sea on the Werra* the 27th of this month for the port of Genoa just as was recommended by London friends! It is a great pull to get started and very hard for me to
think of leaving home -- as well as for A.F. to break up her comfortable house and scatter her good young maids and leave Ward VII and Deer Island* responsibilities and all her good works and ways.* But she needs a good rest and change and so do I -- it is all true that you say in your letter dear, wise, and always helpful Katharine! And in the
summer I go by order to Aix les Bains* in the capacity of rheumatic patient.
When we shall get to London I cant say but I shall be wishing and wishing, and to see you both is one thing thought of a great deal. I believe we are to be at the Isotta Hotel in Genoa* at first but as soon as I know about our banker I will speak you his name.*
For I love to think that our letters will be only a day or two a-coming. And that some happy fine morning I shall go a knocking at your door. I hope that the char man* wont be to aged to hobble forward to let me in, in case he is near by. It is so [ so is double underlined] about him. I read him to my sister and we laughed much. Thank you and thank you for the Cranford.* I have a feeling that it will come today
and I shall always be fond of it. With dear love to you and [you meaning yours?]
Yours ever faithfully
S.O.J.
Notes
yesterday = this: Though Annie Fields often uses "=" to indicate a hyphen, a dash or a colon, Jewett rarely does this.
A. F.: Annie Adams Fields. See Key to Correspondents.
Werra: Wikipedia says "The Rivers class was a class of eleven ocean liners of the Norddeutscher Lloyd (NDL), the first class of German express liners. The ships were built between 1881 and 1890, the first nine in Glasgow by John Elder & Co. or the renamed Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company, the last two in Stettin by Vulcan. All were named for rivers in Germany." The Werra was completed in 1882.
leave Ward VII and Deer Island: Boston's Seventh Ward, adjacent to Boston Common, was a wealthy part of Boston, where many of Fields's close friends resided, and may well have included the home of Annie Fields. According to Wikipedia, Deer Island, in Boston Harbor, contained an almshouse for paupers in 1892 and, therefore, was among those sites of interest to the Associated Charities with which Fields worked.
works and ways: In her letters, Jewett several times repeats this phrase, sometimes within quotation marks. The actual phrase does not appear, as one might expect, in the King James Bible, though it is suggested in several places: Psalms 145:17, Daniel 4:37, and Revelations 15:3. In each of these passages, the biblical author refers to the works and ways of God. Jewett may be quoting from another source or from commentary on these passages, which tend to emphasize that while God's ways are mysterious, they also are to be accepted humbly by humanity.
by order to Aix les Bains: "Rising from the shores of the largest natural lake of glacial origin in France, the Lac du Bourget, [ Aix-les-Bains ] is one of the important French spa towns."
Isotta Hotel in Genoa: The Grand Hotel Isotta in Genoa.
I will speak you his name: The identity of Jewett's banker during this European trip is not yet known.
the char man: Like a char-woman, a char man does home maintenance work. In the United States, the more common term would be "chore man."
Cranford: Elizabeth Gaskell's (1810-1865) novel, Cranford (1851-3).
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Beverly MA Historical Society in the Loring Family Papers (1833-1943), MSS: #002, Series I: Letters to Katharine Peabody Loring (1849-1943), Box 1, Folder 2, Letters, 1879-1895. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
William Dean Howells to Sarah Orne Jewett
Dear Miss Jewett:
"All my sad Captains"* is a delightful title, and the price is all right; but the sketch is not one of your first=best, and I sh'd so want one of your first-best! I have bragged to Mr. Walker* over your account to write for the "[ Captn ? ]," and I can't bear to have you come short of my brags in my first number!
Can't you send me something, I don't care how short, like Going to Shrewsbury or Mr. Teaby's Quest?* And let me send you this back to get a little more story into it, or something. It seems to go along, [ and ? ] not to get there -- without any sort of sense of arrival. Forgive my frankness. I expect to take it when you've done your utmost to it; for I asked you to write it and a bargain is a bargain. But there seems the mak=
=ing of so much more in it. How would it do to take that part III, and amplify it with [ some ? ] other seafaring figure, and let it stand, just for a lot of characteristic talk about times and folks and [ long past ? ] [ possibly deleted marks ] bits of reminiscence, etc.? I don't care how slight it is.
What stunning news you tell me! I do hope we shall see you both before you sail.*
W. D. Howells
Notes
"All my sad Captains": Jewett's story eventually appeared in Century Magazine (September 1895), not at Harper's where Howells was then editor.
Mr. Walker: Probably this is E. D. Walker, then editor of Cosmopolitan Magazine, formerly editor at Harper's. However no further information about him has yet been located.
Going to Shrewsbury or Mr. Teaby's Quest: Jewett's "Going to Shrewsbury" (July 1889) and The Quest of Mr. Teaby (January 1890) ,appeared in Atlantic Monthly, where Howells was then editor.
sail: Jewett and Annie Adams Fields sailed to Italy on 27 February 1892.
The manuscript of the letter is held by the Houghton Library of Harvard University. Howells, William Dean, 1837-1920. 16 letters to Sarah Orne Jewett; 1875-1908. Sarah Orne Jewett correspondence, 1861-1930. MS Am 1743 (105). Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Mary O. Long to Sarah Orne Jewett
Tuesday P. M.
My dear Sarah
Your note this morning was indeed a bombshell! I knew that you had in mind another trip abroad at some time, but did not dream it would be this winter. It makes me shiver to think of it, at my more than fourscore
years! But you are young & full of hopes & energy, & I trust will realize all your fondest anticipations.
You must come to me dear, for my "blefsing"--bring your bag & stay at least one night. If you & Mary* will share one bed -- I have but one spare room now -- it will be so lovely to have you both together.
As for my promised
visit from Mary, I would not be so so cruel as to ask for it till after the 27th as I know she would not willingly be separated from you -- so tell her my dear, with my love that I give her her freedom till after that date!
Please let me know when you will both come.
My love to you three interesting sisters.
Notes
Mary: Mary Rice Jewett. At the end of the note, Long mentions three sisters, the third being Caroline Jewett Eastman. See Key to Correspondents.
Jewett planned to sail for Italy on 27 February.
The manuscript of the letter is held by the University of New England Maine Women Writers Collection MWWC0196_02_00_020_01. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Wyman Whitman to Sarah Orne Jewett
February, 1892.
The whole living and breathing world beside has been filing in platoons before my weary eyes, but here is a Thursday afternoon with a great snow storm going on outside, and I flatter myself, -- Alas for human ignorance! at this moment I hear the voice of ---- in the hall below, and all is over. . . .
Midnight.
And all was over, for the
fashionable caller who goes, rather than comes, came not, but
the affectionate few who go not but stay did appear. . . .
Notes
This transcription appears in Letters, Sarah Wyman
Whitman. Cambridge, MA: Riverside Press, 1907,
"Letters to Sarah Orne Jewett: 1882-1903," pp. 61-109.
Louise Imogen Guiney to Annie Adams Fields
Dear Mrs. Fields:
Saturday the twentieth would be a delightful day for me! and I shall come in joyfully to dine and sleep in "the house of Pindarus."* I congratulate you with all my heart on the new prospect of Italy.*
My ink-bottle has been hard-driven all day, and you see how it begins to revenge itself! Pray commend me, even in these pale characters, to miss Jewett and Miss Longfellow.*
Louise I. Guiney
Notes
Pindarus: Pindar (c. 518-438 BC) was an ancient Greek lyric poet. Presumably, Guiney alludes to Fields's deep interest in classical Greeks, as reflected in her 1881 poetry collection, Under the Olive.
Italy: Sarah Orne Jewett and Annie Adams Fields sailed to Italy on 27 February 1892.
Miss Jewett and Miss Longfellow: Sarah Orne Jewett and Alice Longfellow. See Key to Correspondents.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Huntington Library, San Marino, CA, in the James T. Fields collection Box 25: mss FI 1594. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Louise Imogen Guiney to Annie Adams Fields
Alas, dear Mrs. Fields, Friday won't do for me, "intoirely"! If I could wrench it to any such pleasant end, I wouldn't fail to try. And I would have liked, moreover, to call and say so, in person; but here I am, with plenty of Women's Rest Tour Work* &c. upon my desk. That very thing, however, gives me a glimmer of hope. Is it possible that I may see you and Miss Jewett* at Mrs. Clarence Blake's* on Tuesday evening? Your presence would be a real benediction to the Dr.'s kindly scheme, so that I wish you may find the time to be there, (though the ways and means whereby you can make out to do so, so near the parting-day, be dark to me) and very earnestly,
Notes
Women's Rest Tour Work: "The Women's Rest Tour Association of Boston, Massachusetts comprised a network of middle-class members who collected information about travel abroad and shared it among like-minded American women who required trustworthy non-commercial and unsolicited confidential recommendations suitable for women 'who desire to visit Europe at the least possible expense consistent with comfort'." The organization was founded in 1891. See also "A Summer in England" by Libby Bischof, chapter 9 of Transatlantic Women: Nineteenth-century American Women Writers and Great Britain.
In 1891, Guiney produced A Summer in England. A hand-book for the use of American women, published by the WRTA.
Miss Jewett: Sarah Orne Jewett. See Key to Correspondents.
Blake's: Mary Alice Houghton Blake (1863-1919) was married to Dr. Clarence John Blake (1843-1919), Professor of Otology (anatomy of the ear) at Harvard University Medical School and the author of several books. Dr. Blake, with the support of his wife, was instrumental in founding the WRTA.
Italy: Sarah Orne Jewett and Annie Adams Fields sailed to Italy on 27 February 1892.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Huntington Library, San Marino, CA, in the James T. Fields collection Box 25: mss FI 1595. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
26 February, Friday -- Jewett wrote to Louisa Dresel that she was about to depart.
27 February, Saturday -- Embarkation from New York City, destination Genoa, Italy.
Jewett sent her sister Mary a note from on board the Werra before sailing.
28 February -- Marie Thérèse de Solms Blanc wrote to Jewett, looking forward to meeting her and Annie Fields for the first time and asking for their itinerary.
8 March -- Jewett telegraphed sister Mary from Gibraltar, reporting a rough crossing. As this was a leap-year, the trip took about 11 days.
18 March -- Death of Edwin Calvin Eastman, husband of Jewett's younger sister, Caroline.
20 March -- Jewett wrote to Emma Harding Claflin Ellis from the Hotel Bristol in Rome. She reported visiting Genoa, Siena, Pisa, and Orvieto.
25 March -- Jewett wrote to Louisa Dresel from Rome. She was then ill with tonsillitis.
2 April -- Annie Fields wrote to Thomas Bailey Aldrich from Rome.
17 April -- Sometime not long before this date, Mme. Blanc wrote to Jewett, who was somewhere in Italy, about arrangements for when Jewett and Fields were to come to France. She expected them in late June.
Soon after this date, Blanc wrote again, with information about their projected visit to Aix-les-Bains. At that point, Jewett and Fields had left Rome.
April -- a Thursday. Jewett wrote to Alice Greenwood Howe from Venice.
11 May -- Jewett wrote to Dr. William Wilberforce Baldwin from Venice, reporting on how his treatment of their various ills in Florence has led to their improvement.
20 May -- Jewett wrote to her sisters from Venice, with a circumstantial account of her sight-seeing.
27 May -- Jewett wrote to Dr. Baldwin from Aix-les-Bains, with a report on her medical progress.
30 May -- Jewett wrote to Susan Manning Haven from Aix-les-Bains, reporting on stays in Rome and Venice.
June -- Jewett wrote to Alice Greenwood Howe from Aix-les-Bains, reporting visits to the Grande Chartreuse, Chamonix, and Martigny.
14 June -- Jewett wrote to Louisa Dresel from Aix-les-Bains.
3 July -- Jewett wrote to an unknown recipient from Paris.
6 July -- Mme. Blanc sent a short note to Annie Fields about their plans for a trip to Barbizon.
8 July -- Jewett wrote to Sarah Wyman Whitman from Barbizon, where Mme. Blanc had joined her and Fields.
9 July -- Jewett wrote to Alice Greenwood Howe and John Greenleaf Whittier from Barbizon.
14 July -- Robert Collyer wrote Fields from Leeds, UK, anticipating a visit from Jewett and Fields.
27 July -- George du Maurier wrote to Jewett from London, anticipating her arrival on this day.
August -- Fields wrote to Thomas Bailey Aldrich from London, saying that they would sail home beginning 22 September. In about a week, they planned to go to Whitby and then Scotland.
13 August -- Mary Augusta Ward wrote to Annie Fields, anticipating that Jewett and Fields would visit her at her country home in about a week.
20 August -- Jewett wrote to Sarah Wyman Whitman, reporting that she has been in Yorkshire, visiting Robert Collyer, in Surrey visiting Alfred Lord Tennyson, and at Tring visiting Mary Augusta Ward. She expected to leave soon for Whitby to see George du Maurier, before continuing to Scotland. She and Fields plan to return on the Cephalonia, expecting to arrive home on about 2 October.
21 August -- Mary Augusta Ward wrote to Jewett from Stocks, noting that, due to illness, she failed to understand who Jewett was on the previous Saturday, 20 August.
23 August -- Jewett wrote to Mary Augusta Ward from London.
7 September -- the death of John Greenleaf Whittier.
Mme. Blanc wrote to Jewett and Fields.
11 September -- Jewett wrote to Sarah Wyman Whitman from Edinburgh, Scotland, reporting visits to Canterbury and Whitby.
4 October -- Jewett's aunt, Lucretia Morse Fisk Perry, wrote to welcome her home.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Francis Jackson Garrison
South Berwick
22nd
[ February 1892 ]*
Dear Mr. Garrison
I forgot to say to you that my sister (Mifs Mary R. Jewett,)* will read the rest of the proofs, but she is to be in New York this next week after I sail* and I will send the address later. I only write now so that no more may be sent here.
I shall send back these in hand by tomorrow's mail. I am delighted that they are so well along and I thank you for all the trouble you have taken.
Sarah O. Jewett
Notes
1892: At the top right of page 1, in another hand: "S. O. Jewett. 2/22". At the left top is a note in another hand, blue ink, "H.O.H. & Co. Please note F.J.G" H.O.H. is Henry Oscar Houghton, and F.J.G. is Francis Jackson Garrison. See Key to Correspondents.
Near the bottom center of page 2 appear initials in blue ink, with a line above and a line below: "L.A.W."
On the blank page opposite page 2 (the back of age 1) appears a partial Riverside Press date stamp: 23 February 1892.
Mary R. Jewett: See Key to Correspondents.
It is somewhat uncertain what proofs Jewett was reading in February of 1892. Nothing appeared under her name in Atlantic Monthly during that year, nor did she release any books. Two anonymous short essays attributed to Jewett appeared in the Atlantic's Contributors Club column: "A Club for Little Hercules" in September and "A Memory" in November.
sail: Jewett and Annie Adams Fields sailed to Italy on 27 February 1892.
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
Dear S.W. What do you think of asking Mr. Garrison* some day if there would by chance be a place for Mr. Copeland in the House? I leave you to think on it!
My darling it was very hard to let you go, my heart keeps aching and the white violets make me cry to myself. I begin the little letters now!
Just after the cars started I saw a very absorbed look on Theodore's* countenance, and
in a minute I heard him say to himself = {"} Its my aunt Thally" -- with his fondest lisp -- This pleased me much -- there was such a golden sense of possession about it --
Yesterday he asked me all of a sudden, Aunt Tharah! have you got a flag !" and I confessed that I hadn't and meekly asked why -- "For the Fourth of July you know!"* -- That was also a nice tone -- and one of forethought --
A.F.* has already begun
to wear her look and [ demeanor ? ] of childlike enjoyment -- There never was anybody who pleased herself so in a journey -- Some time you will see. ----
I have been thinking of our Matchless Orinda* -- & her "Well, we must do that rigid thing which makes spectators think we part!" --
liking her very much --
Be good to poor little Loulie Dresel* -- She is very sad about her Ritter's death and she minds my going away -- She [ said corrected ] one day that he was the only person who cared whether she painted well or not -- She hasn't found much to cheer her of late poor child. She must wait for other years I fear, but she is a much sweeter and wiser Loulie already than one might have expected ----
Notes
1892: This date is based upon the death date of Louis Ritter, 24 February 1892. Family Search. Jewett writes after his death, but before her departure for Europe on 27 February.
Mr. Garrison ... Mr. Copeland ... House: Francis Jackson Garrison was assistant to the editor at Jewett's publisher, Houghton Mifflin.
Charles Townsend Copeland (1860-1952) was a critic and a professor of English at Harvard University. Wikipedia.
Theodore's: Theodore Jewett Eastman. Key to Correspondents.
flag: Jewett has underlined this word 6 times.
know: It is not clear whether Jewett intends an exclamation point here.
A.F.: Annie Adams Fields. Key to Correspondents.
Matchless Orinda: Anglo-Welsh poet Katherine Philips (c. 1631-1664) was known as "The matchless Orinda." Wikipedia. Jewett refers to her poem, "Parting with Lucasia; a Song," a poem about the parting of intimate friends.
Loulie Dresel: Louisa Dresel. Key to Correspondents.
Dresel studied painting with Louis Ritter (1854-1892).
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.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Louisa Dresel
Friday night
[ 26 February 1892 ]
Dear Loulie
I must send a word of good by from this spot where I seem to be keeping my last foot ashore! We had an excellent journey on -- and found Miss Lizzie Adams* which was a great pleasure and tonight dear Jessie Cochrane*
I send you the picture which I didn't* care about and found among the papers in my desk when I was having my last clearing up -- It seems quite tragic to be sending ^back^ your picture on the eve of sailing. !!
Good bye dear Loulie. I
S. O. J.
And love to mamma and oh a great deal to you dear child --
26 February 1892: Jewett writes from the Brunswick Hotel, where she and Annie Fields often stayed when visiting New York City. On Saturday 27 February 1892, they sailed for Genoa, Italy from New York City. Though these dates seem to fit together well, still it is possible that this letter is from April 1898, when Jewett and Fields again set sail for Europe.
Lizzie Adams: Elizabeth Adams, sister of Annie Adams Fields. See Fields in Key to Correspondents.
Jessie Cochrane: See Key to Correspondents.
didn't: Jewett's underlining is ambiguous, but she seems to have intended underlining the whole word.
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 Carrie Jewett Eastman and Mary Rice
Jewett
Sister is so glad to be started, she dreaded it and feeled so bad about it!
I have been up on deck & found the steamer chair all right. -- It is lovely and fresh and I begin to feel as if I should get my going boots on pretty soon. We send ever so much love
and were so glad to find Mr. Robert Underwood Johnson* who is always so friendly & nice with his wife{.} Mr. Gilder was waving to us from the wharf but I couldn’t show him to you --
Do write a word to Thy friend* & say we got off all right & send
[ Page 3 ]
our love to him --
Good by dear Sisters, & Stubby.* You have been so kind and dear. I hope you will have a lovely time in New York. & give my love to George [& Ann ? ], and the Wards and all dear friends.
Your loving
sister
Siddie*
Notes
1892: This date is added at the top right of the
page in another hand. Saturday 27 February was Jewett and
Annie Fields's departure date.
Mr. Robert Underwood Johnson … wife: for details about Johnson and his wife, Katherine, See Key to Correspondents.
Mr. Gilder: Richard Watson Gilder (1844-1909) was a poet and editor of Century Magazine. See Key to Correspondents.
Thy friend: John Greenleaf Whittier. See Key to Correspondents.
Stubby:Theodore Jewett Eastman. See Key to Correspondents.
George [& Ann ?]: Ann is
believed to be a Jewett family employee. This may also be
the case for George.
the Wards: Almost certainly the siblings, Susan and William Hayes Ward. See Key to Correspondents.
Siddie: One of Jewett's several family nicknames.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library
of Harvard University in Jewett, Sarah Orne, 1849-1909.
Mary Rice Jewett 1847-1930, recipient, 40 letters;
1877-1892 & n.d. Sarah Orne Jewett Correspondence,
1861-1930. MS Am 1743 (255). Transcription and
annotation by Terry Heller, Coe College, with assistance from
Tanner Brossart and Linda Heller.
Marie Thérèse de Solms Blanc to Sarah Orne Jewett
This letter was composed in French; a transcription follows the translation.
Dear Miss Jewett, dear, very dear friend, your letter has filled me with joy. To prevent my answering it immediately required a set of overwhelming circumstances. Indeed, with my work and my continuing concern for my son's health,* and rushed preparations for my nephew's* departure, a young engineer sent on a mission to Guadeloupe. The Miss Kings,*
whom I have had the great pleasure of seeing occasionally, will perhaps have told Mrs. Fields* how busy they found me. In this case, you will have forgiven me. Some good days of chatting together are better than all the letters in the world, even were they as delicious as yours. Don't fail to keep your promise, dear friend. I rejoice at the prospect of kissing you
to Aix, I will refer you to an excellent doctor, who is one of my dearest friends and a fine poet as well as a scholar, Dr. Henri Cazalis.*
Until we meet, I am forming the most delicious plans, dear friend, which will include you. Please accept my ardent affection.
Th Blanc-Bentzon
28 February
Send me your itinerary as soon as possible
Notes
1892: This date is supported by Blanc's anticipation of meeting Jewett and Fields face-to-face for the first time. This meeting took place in early July 1892.
son's health: For Blanc's son, Édouard, see her entry in Key to Correspondents.
Miss Kings: Grace King (1852-1932) was an American author based in New Orleans. She developed a close relationship with Mme. Blanc. She had two unmarried sisters, Annie/Nan and Nina. Wikipedia.
Mrs. Fields: Annie Adams Fields. See Key to Correspondents.
Dr. Henri Cazalis:French symbolist poet and physician, Henri Cazalis (1840-1909). Wikipedia.
This letter is held by the Houghton Library of Harvard University, Cambridge, MA: b MS Am 1743, Sarah Orne Jewett Correspondence I, Letters to Sarah Orne Jewett, Blanc, Thérèse (de Solms) 1840-1907. 10 letters; 1892-1906 & [n.d.], 1892-1906, Identifier: (23). Transcription, translation and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College, with essential assistance from Jeannine Hammond, Professor of French, Emerita, at Coe College.
Transcription
Blanc sometimes abbreviates "pour" to "pr" and "vous" to "vs." Such instances in this letter are rendered as "pour" and "vous."
Chère Miss Jewett, chère, bien
chère Amie, votre lettre m'a
comblée de joie. Il a fallu
pour m'empêcher d'y répondre
tout de suite un concours de
circonstances écrasant pour moi.
J'ai eu en effet à travers mon
travail et le souci que me
cause encore par moment
la santé de mon fils, à
précipiter les préparatifs du
départ de mon neveu, un
jeune ingénieur envoyé
en mission à la Guadeloupe.
Les Miss King que j'ai eu
le grand plaisir de voir
quelquefois, auront peut-être
dit à Mrs Fields combien
elles m'avaient trouvée
affairée. Vous m'aurez pardonné
en ce cas. Quelques
bonnes journées de causerie
valent mieux que toutes
les lettres du monde, fussent-elles
délicieuses comme
le sont les vôtres. Ne manquez
pas de tenir votre promesse,
chère Amie. Je me réjouis
tant de vous embrasser
visage dont je n'ai eu
jusqu'ici que l'effigie.
Je serai si heureuse aussi
de connaître Mrs Fields! Surtout
dites-moi au juste le moment
de votre arrivée afin que
j'arrange mon printemps
en conséquence. Je ne ferai
qu'une ^seule^ absence prolongée
au mois de Juin que je
passe toujours chez mes
amis de Gascogne. Tout le
reste du temps nous pourrons
nous entendre. Si vous allez
à Aix, je vous recommanderai
à un médecin excellent qui
est l'un de mes plus chers
amis et un grand poète aussi
bien qu'un savant, le docteur
Henry Cazalis.
A bientôt, je forme les
plus agréables projets en
vous y mêlant, chère
Amie. Croyez à mes sentiments
de vive affection.
Envoyez-moi
votre itinéraire
le plus tôt possible
Sarah Orne Jewett to Mary Rice Jewett
[Western Union Telegram Form not duplicated here.]
Date received: March 8, 1892.
From
Gibraltar via South Berwick, ME
To: Mary R Jewett
Care
Chas Willis.
Netherwood-
via V*
Rough well.
S O. Jewett
Notes
The identities of Charles Willis and Netherwood are not yet known, though Netherwood, New Jersey is a likely reference.
The manuscript of this telegram is held by the Houghton Library of Harvard University in Jewett, Sarah Orne, 1849-1909. Mary Rice Jewett 1847-1930, recipient, 40 letters; 1877-1892 & n.d. Sarah Orne Jewett Correspondence, 1861-1930. MS Am 1743 (255). Transcription and annotation by Terry Heller, Coe College, with assistance from Tanner Brossart and Linda Heller.
Sarah Wyman Whitman to Sarah Orne Jewett
Now I report more in full of the last week, & of this day, and of all time! The day has been quite a wonderful one, & I am embarked from Boston after such a greeting and hospitality, as one only finds in such a city-country setting I believe.
My heart was so warmed that it makes me feel like an infant now -- a smiling infant: not the more familiar one, "crying in the night", dear friend. --
Mrs Warren & her friend Mrs Cabell* & about 1700 [ deletion ] kind people who seemed to have roses & tulips growing all over them, & the dearest little comfortable hall, & only you not there! Well it was a
good [ thing corrected ] to come, & I have $25 -- so [ $ordid so written ] am I.
I go away mainly [ unrecognized word ] & return plus [ supper ? ] & a paint box and we must keep the oath: & I have a vision of trucks against a Hartford [ She ? ] [ two unrecognized words ] of a great Literary Lady -- Tell this to the [ unrecognized word ] of Europe and see what the result is upon an [ effete civilization ? ] . -----
Since you & my A.F.* went away which seems a hundred years ago I have kept at the familiar jobs and made all the speed I could, but with tragically little result -- and today I have been
subjected to a mighty temptation, for Mrs Brimmer* is ordered to Bermuda for a month, and has invited me to go with her & Mr. Brimmer and consider the lilies of the field instead of my moral obligations -- Having said no, I confess to feeling in a state of collapse: but the Sunday Class will pull me out of this --- that hour being in reality a period in which one's self is the main audience -- one's own [ reform ? ] & correction & re-construction
the main [ outcome ? ]! --
Tomorrow also, I shall see "Mary E Wilkins"* -- (that little author being here in charge of Mrs Dickens* -- a lady who seems to have no [ unrecognized words] relationships, but is enveloped in a penumbra of suppositions and at this moment abides at 18 Louisberg Square) and she is to come to view the landscape [ over ? ] at the studio.
O darling I think you are not so far from dry land now: and that land -- Italy. And Beauty / Rapture await you there. Hail & farewell.
Notes
About 8 March 1892: Someone has written "1892" at the top right of page 1. If this is correct, then since Whitman reports writing at about the time Jewett expected to land in Italy, this would be about 8 March on her 1892 voyage to Europe. This probably is correct, but Jewett also traveled by ship to Italy in March of 1900, then en route to Greece.
Warren ... Cabell: Mrs. Warren probably is Alice Amelia Bartlett Warren (1843-1912), who traveled often in Europe and moved in the same social circles as Fields and Jewett, being a friend of Henry James and Ellen Emerson, among other Jewett correspondents. See the introduction to Little Women Abroad: The Alcott Sisters' Letters from Europe, 1870-1871 (2008), edited by Daniel Shealy, pp. lxii-lxiii. Find a Grave.
Mrs. Cabell has not yet been identified. It is possible that she was Mary Virginia Ellet Cabell (1839-1930). Wikipedia.
A.F.: Annie Adams Fields. Key to Correspondents.
Brimmer: Marianne Timmins (1827-1906) was the wife of Martin Brimmer (1829-1896), an American politician and first president of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
Wilkins: Mary E. Wilkins Freeman. Key to Correspondents.
Dickens: Mrs. Dickens has not yet been identified, but as she seems a sort of celebrity, perhaps she was Elisabeth Matilda Moule, the wife of Charles Dickens, Jr. (1837-1896). Wikipedia.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library of Harvard University, Cambridge, MA. bMS Am 1743 Box 5, Item 234.
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
18 March 1892
Death of Edwin Calvin Eastman
husband of Jewett's younger sister, Caroline (Carrie)
and father of Theodore (born 4 August 1879)
Sarah Orne Jewett to Emma Harding Claflin Ellis
20 March 1892
Dear Mrs Ellis
I thanked you so much for your thought and kindness in sending me your friend's address and the card of introduction and I wish that it had been possible for us to have the pleasure that the use of it might have brought. When your note reached me we had only two days more in Genoa and
the weather was very bad, and we found beside, that Madame Roffo's* villa was several miles away down the coast near Nervi,* so that we were forced to give up making an attempt to see her. If we had gone to stay at Nervi as we planned in the beginning, it would have been very easy ^to see her^ and delightful to have had so charming a neighbour. There was snow two or three days after we landed and we have hurried southward, after Mrs. Fields*
saw some very old friends{,} Mrs. Cowden Clarke and the Novellos but we both caught cold and I have had a serious time with the effects of a fall I got one night on the [unrecognized word. Their trans-Atlantic ship was the Werra.] which banged my head shockingly. We stopped at Siena* two or three days however and enjoyed a great deal and spent nights at Pisa and Orvieto so that our days journeys were not too long and now we are in Rome for a little while in delightful sunny rooms, with dear friends close at hand on the same floor and we shall soon pick up and
be equal to anything and everything. I got a letter from Mary* while she was staying with you and so I have shared in the pleasures of her visit. Mrs Fields sends her best regards and best thanks just as if we had had the pleasure of using your card ^it was so kind of you to think of it^.
Please remember me to Mr. Ellis and Mary and Annie* and believe me always yours most affectionately
Notes
Hotel Bristol: Richard Cary notes that the Grand Hotel Bristol Bernini in Rome "was in the Via Veneto and Piazza Barberini quarter."Madame Roffo's villa ... Nervi: Nervi is a former fishing village, now a seaside resort on the Italian coast 12 miles north of Portofino. Madame Roffo has not been identified.
Mrs. Fields: Annie Adams Fields. See Key to Correspondents.
Mrs. Cowden Clarke and the Novellos: Mary Victoria (Novello) Cowden Clarke (1809-1898), British author, Shakespeare scholar, and friend of Annie Fields. See also The Dictionary of National Biography, Volume 22, pp. 453-4.
Siena ... Pisa and Orvieto: Italian hill towns north of Rome.
Mary: Mary Rice Jewett. See Key to Correspondents.
Mr. Ellis and Mary and Annie: Emma Ellis is Mrs. Claflin's step-daughter and the mother of Mary and Annie. 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 Wyman Whitman to Sarah Orne Jewett
New York, March 24, 1892.
I am writing from New York on
my way to Bermuda for two weeks. . . . I take with me the
munitions of war, oil paints, pastel, and even water colours,
for who shall say of what complexion the emotions of Bermuda
will be?
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 Louisa Dresel
Hotel Bristol, Rome1
March 25, [1892]
Dear Loulie:
I wonder why you show such a preference for tonsilitis! Now that I have tried it again I like it no better than ever, and in this first week in Rome too! I scolded to A. F.* as I lay in my bed yesterday that I might just as well be in Wenham and Hamilton2 (they sound so impersonal when you hear them named in the train!) as here, but today I got up and even went to the Pincian3 to drive, so that I shall soon be as good as new now, if one could only remember what new felt like!
Luckily we have the pleasantest of neighbours, being in two rooms of a corridor where Alice Howe4 is at one end and Miss Garrett3 of Baltimore, whom we like very much, at the other. It has been nice for A. F. who has taken her walks abroad and her drives and already looks much better for she was quite pale when we landed. It was a pretty bad voyage, bad rough weather all the way, but there was a very pleasant ship's company and at the last I didn't mind how much the Werra* rolled (she's an awful roller!) and I got used to pitching, as I always do, very soon. I got a frightful fall and blow on my head the first night out and I haven't got over it yet, but my black eyes faded out some days ago.
We had a very nice time in Genoa, staying four or five days, though there were some good New England snowstorms and squalls, and we found it so cold in that part of the country generally that we left it without trying Nervi6 as we meant to, at any rate for a week or two. The Isotta* was really very comfortable indeed and we found friends and saw a good deal of Villa Novello.* So we have saved Nervi for another time or later this very spring perhaps, and we spent one night in Pisa and two or three in Venice, which I loved, and one in Orvieto, where I began to be ill, and then came here and liked it very much. You see I haven't much to tell you yet, Loulie dear. You will have to fill in the Roman landscape with A. F. and me for figures! I send a great deal of love in it, though, to you and Mrs. Dresel.
A. F. and Miss Garrett have gone together to the Villa Pampli-Doria7 and afterward to call upon Mrs. Story.8 Mrs. Howe has gone to the Villa too, but I'm going Monday if you please. Goodbye.
With love from
S. O. J.
Cary's Notes
1On their second trip to Europe together Jewett and Fields concentrated on France and Italy, meeting among other prominent authors Mark Twain, Du Maurier, Tennyson, and Mrs. Humphry Ward. The Grand Hotel Bristol Bernini was in the Via Veneto and Piazza Barberini quarter.
2Two towns between Ipswich and Beverly in Essex County, Massachusetts.
3A hill affording a wide panorama of Rome, noted for its much frequented park with a wealth of decorative paths, busts of distinguished Italians, fountains, flowerbeds, and old trees.
4Mrs. George D. [Alice Greenwood] Howe (1835-1924) had a cottage in Manchester-by-the-Sea within a short walk of Mrs. Fields's. Jewett dedicated her finest book, The Country of the Pointed Firs, "To Alice Greenwood Howe."
5Mary Elizabeth Garrett (1854-1915), an early patron of Bryn Mawr College and the Johns Hopkins Medical School, often invited Jewett to her summer cottage at Dark Harbor, Maine. Jewett's Betty Leicester's English Xmas was privately printed for The Bryn Mawr School (of which Miss Garrett was a founder), and was dedicated "To M. E. G."
6A resort town on the rockbound shore, replete with attractive villas, gardens, parks, and small galleries of art. Now a part of the municipality of Genoa.
7A sumptuous palace built in the 17th century for Prince Camillo Pamphili, with an enormous park containing a lake. The chief feature was the gallery of paintings by Bellini, Coreggio, Titian, Caravaggio, Rubens, Teniers, Poussin, Velasquez, Breughel, and others.
8Mrs. William
Wetmore Story, née Emelyn Eldredge of Boston, married the
American poet, essayist, and sculptor in 1843 and lived with
him in Rome from 1847. Henry James quotes him as saying, "She
was my life, my joy, my stay and help in all things" (William
Wetmore
Story and His Friends [Boston, 1904], II, 316).
James described "the admirable efficacy of Mrs. Story's
presence in her husband's career -- a presence indefatigably
active and pervasive, productive in a large measure of what
was best and happiest in it" (II, 317). They celebrated their
Golden Wedding anniversary in October 1893, she died shortly
thereafter in the spring of 1894, and he followed in the next
year.
Editor's Notes
A. F.: Annie Fields. See Key
to Correspondents.
Werra: Wikipedia
says "The Rivers class was a class of eleven ocean liners of
the Norddeutscher Lloyd (NDL), the first class of German
express liners. The ships were built between 1881 and 1890,
the first nine in Glasgow by John Elder & Co. or the
renamed Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company, the
last two in Stettin by Vulcan. All were named for rivers in
Germany." The Werra was completed in 1882.
Isotta: The Grand
Hotel Isotta in Genoa.
Villa Novello: Jewett refers to the home in Genoa
of Mary
Victoria (Novello) Cowden Clarke (1809-1898), British
author, Shakespeare scholar, and friend of Annie Fields. See
also The
Dictionary of National Biography, Volume 22, pp. 453-4.
2nd April 1892
Dearest Coolidge
I have thought of you many times but I am just beginning to feel like writing letters because I nearly cracked my head -- such as it is -- by a fall on the steamer and when I got to Rome I was ill for a week or more with just such a throat as I should have had at home. But now I am very brisk and so is A.F.* and I am flying round to catch up with my sight-seeing! It is lovely weather
for Easter I suppose and you must think of us a little. This letter will reach you in time to [ give corrected ] you an Easter wish from A.F. and me. I have never said how much I cared about your dear letter on the [ steamer ? ] and my beloved key ring! And A.F. has taken great pleasure in Elsket* and so have other friends. She will be writing you soon but I thank you for her now, just the same{.} I never was in Rome before except for one week in late summer when I could not see it as I can now. I love the fighting
arch-building Rome and all its relics, but the Rome of the Bambino* is more and more perplexing -- How that chubby cheerful little old dolly can have meant so much to thousands of sick and sorry people -- but then it has, Coolidge! and we mustn't make remarks.
Do write soon and tell me about things -- tell us about being in Boston and what you did and where you went.
S. O. Jewett
Speak of shop a little and what
you are going to do this summer with your writing. I'm on a 'alf-'oliday I am and I like to hear of the works of others. Please give our love to Dora* and if this gets to you in Boston you must give my love to dear S.W.* and send me an Easter flower from the class. I shall be thinking about things.
A.F.: Annie Adams Fields. See Key to Correspondents.
Elsket: American writer Thomas Nelson Page (1853-1922) published Elsket, and Other Stories in 1891.
Page 3: At the top center of this page someone has written "2." This does not appear to be Jewett's handwriting.
Bambino: It seems likely that Jewett refers to the Santo Bambino of Aracoeli, a venerated wooden image of Jesus as a child at the Basilica Santa Maria in Aracoeli. The image has been reputed to have healing power.
Dora: Theodora Walton Woolsey (b. 1840), youngest sister of Sarah C. Woolsey. Wikipedia.
S.W. Sarah Wyman Whitman. Whitman led a Sunday School class for adults at Trinity Church, Boston. See Key to Correspondents.
This transcription is from a photocopy held by the Maine Women Writer's Collection, University of New England, Letters from Sarah Orne Jewett, 1875-1890, Box 4, Folder 159, Burton Trafton Jewett Research Collection. Trafton's notes indicate the the manuscript is held by the Johns Hopkins University.
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Annie Adams Fields to Lilian and Thomas Bailey Aldrich
April 2d 1892
Dear, dear friends:
Ever since our faces were washed by a lovely snow=storm in Genoa which only served to make the roses look brighter in the gardens by the way, I have been looking for a spare corner of a table and a second free from the iron grasp which seems to belong to the covers of
"Baedecker"* to write you a word of loving remembrance{.} We passed our afternoons in Genoa always at the Villa Novello where dear old "Mrs Cowden"* as she is called (she is now 82 years old with a mind clear as the sound of a silver bell) wished immediately to know if I was acquainted with the works of "an adorable young American poet by the name of Aldrich." His poem of "Elmwood"* she said was wonderful but she was a great lover of all his poems.
I modestly confessed to living a few streets away about as near as it would do lest I should be struck blind! and she appeared satisfied with the spirit of my reply. "What message may I carry to him" I said, hoping to be possessed of a new adjective which would be somewhat nearer the ordinary forms of speech than the words she has already used{.} "O tell him I find him an adorable poet! "she said --
So I send you my message. She said when a while ago she tried to write about
Mrs Shelley* in one of the magazines the critics said "Mrs Clarke insists upon painting everything rose=color" but she said indignantly "I thought they wanted to know what a poet's love was like and if I said her
We are possessed with the loveliness of Rome and heard our first nightingale from the Palace of the Caesars yesterday -- Ah! spring in Rome is indeed the most poignant season of all -- the blossoms
are hanging over every tomb in spite of the [ humble crows ? ] who
croak despair. Good bye. (Sarah's* love goes with mine) Your Annie Fields.
Notes
"Baedecker": German publisher Verlag Karl Baedeker published popular world travel guides during the 19th century.
Cowden: Mary Victoria (Novello) Cowden Clarke (1809-1898) was a British author and Shakespeare scholar. She made her home in Genoa, Italy, at the Villa Novello.
Elmwood: The house, Elmwood, is best remembered as the birthplace and longtime home of American poet, James Russell Lowell. See Key to Correspondents. Aldrich's poem of that title was written in memory of Lowell.
Shelley: British author of Frankenstein (1818) and spouse of the poet, Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822), Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (1797-1841).
Sarah's: Sarah Orne Jewett. See Key to Correspondents.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library of Harvard University: Thomas Bailey Aldrich Papers, MS Am 1429, Box 6, Items 1446-1538. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Helen Bigelow Merriman to Sarah Orne Jewett
Florence April 8 --
I am so afraid of losing track of you -- Do send me a line to tell me of your next [ move ? ] and to assure me, of what I was hoping, that you are quite well of the attack of [ tonsilitis so spelled ], and are enjoying yourself with freedom.
Robert Bancroft* and his very pretty and charming wife are at this hotel, and kindly let me share their
My news from the East comes slowly -- I can hardly realize that it is my quickly-responsive and daily-writing husband who keeps me on such short commons in the way of letters -- but I get assurance by an occasional telegram that he is all right{.}
Home news looks as if we should go back to the church in Worcester for another [ spell ? ] of indefinite length, with an assistant to be responsible for almost everything but the preaching -- I shall be rather glad to have it so -- It would be hard to enjoy "individual freedom" where the people need so much -- Dan's work has been so [ peculiar ? ] that he is almost pledged to [ set ? ] it forward in person -- I did not mean to write all this, and
things may not turn out this way after all, but we have a habit of making you our confessor -- so [ dear ? ] you --
Much [ love ? ] to Mrs. Fields -- I have rather made up my mind not to buy the "Morning Glory" ^[ Vedder's ? ]^ but to be satisfied with the "Heart of the Rose"* and the Poppies -- was the [ bronze ? ] Miss _____ (I cant think of her name) bought the one from the picture "Waiting for Judgment"? Good bye --
Notes
1892: Penciled in another hand in the upper right corner: 92? This guess at a date probably is correct, for Jewett did suffer from tonsillitis during her 1892 trip to Europe, as she reported to Louisa Dresel in a letter from Rome of 25 March. However, this choice is complicated by Merriman's possible reference to "The Morning Glory," by Elihu Vedder, which seems to have been painted in 1899.
Robert Bancroft: Ellen Bancroft (1838-1912) and Robert Hale Bancroft (1843-1918) were the surviving children of cotton merchant Thomas Poynton Bancroft. (1798-1852) and Hannah Putnam (1799-1872). According Back Bay Houses, Robert was an insurance broker who retired in the 1870s, thereafter traveling abroad several times with his sister. He married in 1891. The Bancrofts had a summer home in Beverly, MA.
Lorings: Probably, this is the family of Katharine Peabody Loring. Key to Correspondents.
Roger: Helen and Daniel Merriman's son. See Merriman in Key to Correspondents.
Fields: Annie Adams Fields. Key to Correspondents.
Heart of the Rose: Merriman refers to purchasing art. The transcription of "Vedder" is uncertain, but American painter Elihu Veder (1836-1923), with a studio in Rome, did produce a pastel and charcoal drawing entitled "Heart of the Rose." This work is assigned various dates; Artnet places it in 1891-2. His "Memory (Girl with Poppies)" is dated 1877 and "Cypress and Poppies (1880-1890). Wikipedia dates his "The Morning Glory" to 1899. Wikipedia.
Louise Chandler Moulton reports seeing Vedder's "Waiting for Judgment" in Rome (Lazy Tours in Spain and Elsewhere (1896).
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library of Harvard University, Cambridge, MA. bMS Am 1743 Box 3, Item 151 I. Letters to Sarah Orne Jewett.
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Louisa Loring Dresel to Sarah Orne Jewett
[ Begin letterhead ]
328 Beacon Street [ End letterhead ] April 11. 1892
Dearest S. O. J.:
Your letter from Rome, the first one from you, has just reached me. I am very sorry I did not give you the brass piggy after all -- the George Medal* has evidently not done the work! Or you would not have had sore-throat & a fall from out of your berth at sea -- But without your medal who knows how much worse you would have fared! -- there is always that to be considered.
I truly hope that after these sorrows by land and by sea you and A. F.* have entered upon a season of sunshine and rest, and are both gaining by double handfuls what you went to seek. I have been thinking of you so constantly since you left that I hope the wet element has not proved entirely a non-conductor, and that you have felt sure of my good wishes that follow you everywhere.
The question of a European trip
still swings in the balance, & is beginning to be an awful
nightmare! I feel so "stranded" and there seems no
light given. Since I wrote last Dr. H. M.* announced that she
thought we had
[ Page 2 ]
better go! but finding how Mamma felt, she began to waver & doubt, just as I have, and we are as far from a decision as ever! But the longer it is put off, the less probable it seems, & I imagine June will find us in Beverly.
Till I think of Venice and such
things to paint, I feel not uncontented with the prospect of
the Ross Turner* Class and the Beverly shore, but the thought
of Venice makes all else pale before it, & I am filled
with wicked envy of any one who goes there. Where will this
note reach you? At Amalfi, or north again, Florence perhaps?
The Ritter Studio closed
March 31st. And as I did not wish to chop off any
endeavours so suddenly, I have enlisted at Miss Johnston's
Studio for a month. G. Cary -- & others of the type work
there, & there is a certain somnolent & soothing
quality about working in this class which is a grateful
influence upon wrought-up feelings! I used to draw with Miss
Johnston in the very same studio when I was an atom of a girl,
eleven or twelve years old, & it gave me a queer feeling
to go back there.
[ Page 3 ]
The top-light is the only distracting feature. I find it rather upsetting to all pre-conceived ideas of shadow & color, never having worked under a sky-light before. But a change is good discipline. It was very sad to have the Old Studio break up, -- a little of the presence and inspiration of our dear teacher seemed to linger there, and it was a new parting --
I went the other
day to see your little Woodberrys* -- he had a special Exhib.
in another room in the same building -- but I asked for her
& went into the studio and saw her & a good deal of
her work, which is more interesting than his to me, though I
think his is in some ways more mature, it seems to be less
full of promise than hers. I think hers shows that she has
more mind than he -- he is such a small little man outside,
& he is so blond, & he had a long checked necktie tied
in a bow, and looked as if he lived principally on crackers!
She made much more impression on me, & interested me
decidedly. But his work is really good -- better than hers, technically
-- he had some capital sketches -- & his use of pencil
[ Page 4 ]
is very uncommon. I mentioned you to them both, & she instantly became very cordial, and he remarked that you were "A very fine woman," which way of putting it took me so aback that it took me some minutes to recover my equanimity! He looked so small when he said it. But his size was emphasized by the presence of my giantess friend, Alice Stackpole* who went with me, so it was not quite his fault. She paints, & is a disciple of Ritter too, & wanted to go to the little Woodberrys Exhib. so we went together.
There has been a Monet Exhib. at the Botolph,* & there has been fierce war waging pro and con in the papers, -- to my surprise I found myself liking many of them very much. There is much that is very true, but only a trained eye can appreciate it -- & I think a good many people talked twaddle and pretended to see things which they didn't. Lafarge* also had an Exhib. at Doll's -- & there are Art Clubs ad. lib.
Did I tell you of
my last call on Dr. Holmes?* He was so interested to
have news of you & A. F. He seems to be quite enchanted
with Mrs. Whitman's* portrait
[ Page 5 ]
2.
of himself, & delighted to have it admired by his friends. He only regrets that it is not to stay in Boston. He seemed as bright & lively as possible, & full of pretty speeches. When I left he begged me to come again, and added "It is only seeing delightful people -- such charming people as you -- that keeps me alive now!" A little pathetic wasn't it? But it was he that had been talking and entertaining me, and I only listened.
I think he likes me because
when I say anything I can make him hear without shouting,
& like everyone who is a little deaf, he hates to have
people raise their voices unnecessarily. He propounded the
ingenious theory that agreeable voices and agreeable
expressions of face went together always! I wish he were
right! So many sweet-voiced ^faced^ American
women look like angels till they speak, & then become
peacocks -- birds of quite another feather.
Mr. Lang* is
getting up another Parsifal-Performance in Music Hall{.}
[ Page 6 ]
Mrs. Joachim* is giving a series of historical concerts; the
Hendschels* are to sing in the Passion music, also in the next
Symphony concert. I leave Parsifal severely alone, but am
booked for the other shindies.
The Opera was wonderfully good. The de Reszkes* are the finest singers I know of. They are coming in October again, & then you must go to "Faust" too*
I have been reading "Villette"* for the first time. I think the uncertainty of the end is most distressing. A sort of "The Lady or the Tiger" business! I suppose she means he really was lost at sea -- because being a morbid creature it would be just like her -- (C. Bronté, I mean) but it seems to me quite an unnecessary thing to happen.
How nice to be with Mrs. Howe* in Rome. Please give her my dearest love if you are still with her, or when you next see her. I suppose you will be in Venice with her.
I hear that the O.
B. Frothinghams* are going to Aix! Mrs. F. has rheumatism
& is dragging the hapless old Rev. across
[ Page 7 ]
the ocean. He totters & sways on his feet & doesn't look as if he could survive an ocean-voyage, though I dare say he is daily in more danger in Boston from electric cars and fast driving!
Mamma & I called on "the ladies" a day or two ago. Miss Howes* seems very bright & well now. The next day she sent Mamma a very large & very fat cut-glass cologne bottle, (!) which looks so exactly like the donor that we have to call it "Miss Howes."
-- I suppose spring has now reached
you, & you are revelling in blossoms of every kind. But,
if you had gone to Nervi,* you would have really been warm!
Even with a snowstorm at Genoa --
The difference is
incredible, unless one has experienced it -- & in May the
hotel is already closed I believe -- It must have been
horridly chilly in Sienna & those regions, but you have
seen heavenly things -- which I have often longed to see{.}
[ Page 8 ]
It was very nice to get your letter, but it will be a good while before I get another. Which is a disadvantage -- If you were in Berwick it w'd be time for another Boston visit now, and I begin to miss you quite in earnest.It is late, and I must go to bed. Goodnight -- love to Mrs. Fields.
I send you dearest love & best of wishes for all your wanderings.
Always yours,
Loulie.
N. B. A better letter next time
-- tonight I was too tired for a longer one or a better one.
Notes
George Medal: This
and the brass piggy seem to be mysterious private jokes
about items Dresel might have given to Jewett for good
luck on her voyage. Perhaps the most likely reference
for the George Medal would be Saint
George, sometimes described as the patron saint of
scouts and guides. However, 1889 was the centennial
of
the
inauguration of George Washington as the first
United States President, and at least one medal was issued
as part of the celebration. Though there is as yet no
way to be certain this is relevant, 19th-century "piggy
banks" often were made of brass and in the shape of actual
pigs.
A. F.: Annie Fields. See Key
to Correspondents.
H.M.: Cary identified Dr. Helen
Morton (1834-1916), who "had offices successively on
Marlboro, Boylston, and Chestnut streets in Boston. Jewett
once characterized her as 'touchy {touching?} in her
doctorly heart and more devoted in her private capacity as
a friend.'"
Ross Turner: Ross Sterling Turner (1847-1914),
"was a painter, watercolorist, and illustrator, active in
the Boston area, known for his landscapes and floral
subjects. ... Loosely associated with the 'Duveneck boys'
after about 1879, Turner painted in Venice and Florence,
and he also worked in Rome. In 1882 he settled in Boston,
exhibiting more watercolors than oil paintings."
The Ritter Studio ... Miss Johnston's Studio ... G. Cary: According
to the Vose Gallery website, landscape painter and
lithographer, Louis Ritter (1854-1892) "was born in
Cincinnati, Ohio and received his early training at the
McMicken School of Design between 1873 and 1874. He later
traveled to Munich to paint with the charismatic artist Frank
Duveneck. Ritter followed Duveneck to Florence and Venice, but
by 1883, perhaps following friends Theodore Wendel and Charles
Mills, Ritter came to Boston and took a studio at 12 West
Street. He began to teach in Boston and at Wellesley College,
while painting landscapes along the north shore." It
appears that his studio closed as a result of his death, which
would account for Dresel's sadness at the loss of her "dear
teacher" and the breaking up of the studio.
While this is not certain, it
seems likely that Miss Johnston's studio was that of Charlotte
Constance Johnston (1845-1917). Her obituary in The
Sacred Heart Review, Volume 57, Number 6, 20 January
1917, says:
One of her brothers, Thomas M. Johnston, was a celebrated painter. A sample of his work may be seen in the Church of the Immaculate Conception, Boston, under the title " Stella Matutina." The other brother, John B. Johnston, was an eminent landscape and cattle painter. Her sister, Sarah J. F. Johnston, is a painter of rare skill. About sixty years ago, the Johnston family moved to their Dorchester home. Here Miss Johnston attended the Grammar and High Schools. After graduating from the latter with high honors, she went to Doctor Gannett's private school where she specialized in music and art. She then opened an art studio in which she did some fine work. Being an ardent lover of nature, she spent much of her leisure time in fields and woodlands admiring God's handiwork and doing out-door sketching. As a source of recreation, she translated many stories from the French, some of which have been published by Little, Brown and Company. A few years before coming to the Sacred Heart Review, she opened an artistic print shop in which she did some very creditable work in brochure and book printing.
The only French translation currently credited to her in
WorldCat is of George Sand, The Master Mosaic-Workers
(Boston: Little Brown, 1895).
G. Cary is likely to be Georgina
S. Cary (d. 1933), daughter of Richard Cary (1836-1862) killed
in the Battle of Cedar Mountain/Hill) and Helen Eugenia
(Skelton) Cary (d. 1904). See Back Bay
Houses.and Richard
Cary Letters.
Woodberrys: Charles Herbert and Marcia Oakes Woodberry. See Key to Correspondents.
Alice Stackpole: According to
"Back Bay
Houses 292 Beacon," attorney Joseph Lewis
Stackpole built the house at this location on Beacon Street,
Boston, the same street on which Louisa Dresel
lived. After her parents' deaths, the artist Alice
Stackpole (1866-1949) remained at the address until about
1922.
Monet Exhib. at the Botolph: WorldCat lists a catalog:
An Exhibition of paintings by Claude Monet: St. Botolph
Club, March 28th to April 9th, 1892. According to
its website, The St. Botolph Club
for gentlemen "was founded in a golden epoch of the City of
Boston. Arts, literature, music, architecture, clubs and
public affairs, as well as the vast commercial, shipping and
professional empires that supported them, were all
experiencing a great flowering. Many of the eminent
individuals connected with all these were original members of
the St. Botolph Club. The Club was founded on January 3,
1880.... The early years began weekly meetings and monthly
suppers and, especially after the Club settled at the great
house at 4 Newbury St. with its magnificent gallery, art
exhibits. There were shows for many artists, including some of
the Club's own."
Wikipedia
says: "Oscar-Claude Monet (1840-1926) was a founder of French
Impressionist painting, and the most consistent and prolific
practitioner of the movement's philosophy of expressing one's
perceptions before nature, especially as applied to plein-air
landscape painting. The term "Impressionism" is derived from
the title of his painting Impression, soleil levant
(Impression, Sunrise), which was exhibited in 1874 in the
first of the independent exhibitions mounted by Monet and his
associates as an alternative to the Salon de Paris." One
may sample a little of the controversy over Monet's show in
the Boston Evening Transcript on-line: Monday 28 March
1892, p. 4, "The Fine Arts."
Lafarge: John LaFarge (1835-1910),
was an American visual artist in several media.
Wikipedia. Dresel appears not to have capitalized the "f."
According to the Smithsonian Archives of
American Art, "The Doll & Richards gallery originated in
Boston in 1866 as an art gallery and framing shop owned by
Charles E. Hendrickson, E. Adam Doll, and Joseph Dudley
Richards. The gallery was a well-known Boston establishment
for over 100 years that represented William Stanley Haseltine,
Winslow Homer, William Morris Hunt, and Andrew Wyeth, among
many other notable American painters, sculptors, and
printmakers."
According to James L. Yarnall in John
La Farge, Watercolors and Drawings (1990), LaFarge spent
1890-1 in the South Seas producing popular travel
sketches. Returning in late 1891, he mounted a
remunerative show of his sketches at his dealer, Doll and
Richards of Boston (60).
Holmes: Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. See Key to Correspondents.
Whitman: Sarah Wyman Whitman. See Key to Correspondents.Cary's note: In Amiable Autocrat, A Biography of Oliver Wendell Holmes (New York, 1947). 383, Eleanor M. Tilton writes: "When he [Holmes] forgot his sittings for the portrait Mrs. Whitman was doing for the Philadelphia College of Physicians, he wrote verses to the painter to announce his coming for the postponed sitting:
Some in rags
Some in tags
And one in an Oxford gown."
On September 17, 1891 Holmes indited an untitled poem of four quatrains to Mrs. Whitman -- "From Nature's precious quarry sought" (Thomas Franklin Currier, A Bibliography of Oliver Wendell Holmes [New York, 1953], 343-344). Mrs. Whitman contributed decorative line-cuts to the title pages of Holmes's The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table and Over the Teacups Birthday Edition, 1890, 1895).
Lang: Cary identified Benjamin Johnson Lang
(1837-1909), "Salem-born organist, pianist. teacher, composer,
and conductor, studied in Germany with Liszt, introduced the
European masters to America and especially promoted the music
of Wagner."
Parsifal
(1882) is an opera by Richard Wagner based on the story of
the quest for the Holy Grail. According to John Louis
DiGaetani in Opera and the Golden West: The Past,
Present, and Future of Opera in the U.S.A., a
successful production of Parsifal was performed on
15 April and again on 4 May at Music Hall in Boston
(162). Wikipedia
says: "The Boston Music Hall was a concert hall located on
Winter Street in Boston, Massachusetts, with an additional
entrance on Hamilton Place. One of the oldest
continuously operating theaters in the United States, it was
built in 1852 and was the original home of the Boston
Symphony Orchestra. The hall closed in 1900 and was
converted into a vaudeville theater named the Orpheum
Theatre. The Orpheum, which still stands today, was
substantially rebuilt in 1915 by architect Thomas W. Lamb as
a movie theater."
According to the New York
Metropolitan Opera Archive, the de Reszke brothers appeared
in Boston in the Mechanics Building Auditorium during March
of 1892 in Met performances of: Les Huguenots by
Giacomo Meyerbeer, Roméo et Juliette by Gounod,
Faust by Gounod, Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg
by Wagner, and Lohengrin by Wagner. However,
there is no record in the archive of a Boston performance of
Faust in October of 1892. Which performances
Dresel saw is not yet known.
Charles-François Gounod
(1818-1893) was a French composer, whose best known opera is
Faust (1859), the story based on Goethe's dramatic
poem of the same title.
Hendschel: Cary identified George Henschel (1850-1934)
"German-English composer, conductor, and baritone" and his
wife, Lillian Bailey Henschel (1860-1901), the American
soprano "whom he married in 1881, the year he became first
conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra." See Wikipedia.
Dresel has added the "d" to their name.
de Reszkes: Cary identified "The Polish
deReszke brothers, Jean (1850-1925) and Edouard (1855-1917),
stars of Paris and London opera houses, who became
respectively the leading tenor-baritone and bass singer of the
New York Metropolitan Opera Company for more than a decade
beginning in 1891" See Wikipedia for Jean, who was a
tenor. Edouard was a bass.
Villette: Dresel refers to two stories with unresolved
endings.
British author Charlotte Brontë (1816-1855)
published her novel in 1853. Wikipedia.
American author, Frank Richard Stockton
(1834-1902) is best remembered for his fable, "The Lady, or
the Tiger?" (1882). Wikipedia.
Mrs. Howe: Mrs. George D. [Alice Greenwood] Howe (1835-1924) See Key to Correspondents.
Frothinghams: Cary identified
"Octavius Brooks Frothingham (1822-1895), American
Unitarian minister, historian, and biographer, fell under the
liberalizing influence of Theodore Parker, organized the Free
Religious Association in Boston, and wrote prolifically on new
religious thought." See also Wikipedia.
if you had gone to Nervi: Dresel points out to
Jewett that Genoa tends to be colder in the spring than towns
further northward on the Italian coast, such as
Nervi. Sienna, among the hill towns north of Florence is
inland and cooler yet in winter and spring.
New transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College. This transcription differs in minor ways from Cary's. His notes are most informative, and I have included much information from them.
Sarah Wyman Whitman to Sarah Orne Jewett
Bermuda, April 12, 1892.
It is a little world all by
itself and a world of colour, as its main attribute. Such a
Sea, such a Sky! A dream of beauty different from anything
else and I can see amazing pictures to be painted at every
turn. . . .
The local incident; the white
houses built from the coral of which the island itself is
made, . . . the negroes and their picturesque methods, the
acres of lilies all in fragrant bloom, these things one can
only glance at in writing, but some day I will tell you a
pretty chapter of geography and history made out of this
strange island in the sea, so lovely and so serene.
Notes
This transcription appears in Letters, Sarah Wyman
Whitman. Cambridge, MA: Riverside Press, 1907,
"Letters to Sarah Orne Jewett: 1882-1903," pp. 61-109.
Marie Thérèse de Solms Blanc to Sarah Orne Jewett
This letter was composed in French; a transcription follows the translation.
Certainly, dear friend, I will make myself available for the period you are talking about, regardless of my previous plans. I expect this will happen towards the end of June, and I look forward to meeting you then, with great regret that it could not be sooner. How good it would be to be with you in this time of trouble for you and
which I hope will end soon. Well, the Cazalis* will be at your disposal for all your wishes. I wanted to secure for you the advantages I have enjoyed for the two previous years, of staying with them, but this year, they take a new villa, where they have no spare rooms. Their old house (right next door) is becoming
what you want and what price you are willing to pay ( this can vary from 10 to 12 francs per day and per person -- living room additional -- ). Knowing the place, I would make the choice of apartment and reserve for you, leaving you free to change if it does not suit you. I believe this would serve you well, avoiding the crush and the expense of the big hotels in Aix, and insuring
You haven't said how long you will spend in Paris, where I want to do the honors of showing you around, before your depart to Provence. Forget the idea of poor Nohant,* a fragment giving little idea of what it once was. Soon I will send you a little itinerary. Certainly I will return from Gascony by 25 or 28 June. I embrace you dear, wishing you a speedy recovery, and I charge you with my best compliments to Mrs. Fields.
In Florence, would you like to become acquainted with my friend, Vernon Lee, and other English women
less famous, but also very pleasant!
.. It goes without saying that I will be charmed to receive your friends,* but none of them has come yet, and I'll be off right after Easter.
Notes
1892: In mid-June of 1892, Jewett and Fields were in Aix-les-Bains, where Jewett sought help for her rheumatism. During March through May, the pair traveled in Italy, having departed the U.S. near the beginning of March. Easter that year fell on 17 April; Blanc says that Easter is in the future.
Cazalis: French symbolist poet and physician, Henri Cazalis (1840-1909). Wikipedia.
Dupuis: Mme. Vie Dupuis was the proprietor of two hotels in the 1911 La Savoie Pittoresque: Bulletin des Syndicats d'Initiative de la Savoie: the Hôtel-Pension Wagram in Aix-les-Bains, on Rue Lamartine, near the "Etablissement Thermal," and another of the same name during the winter in Cannes.
grief: Jewett's brother-in-law, Edwin Eastman, died on 18 March 1892.
Nohant: French author, George Sand / Aurore Dupin (1804-1876). Jewett admired Sand and, apparently, had planned to visit her home village of Nohant. See "House of George Sand" in Wikipedia.
Vernon Lee: See Key to Correspondents.
This letter is held by the Houghton Library of Harvard University, Cambridge, MA: b MS Am 1743, Sarah Orne Jewett Correspondence I, Letters to Sarah Orne Jewett, Blanc, Thérèse (de Solms) 1840-1907. 10 letters; 1892-1906 & [n.d.], 1892-1906, Identifier: (23). Transcription, translation and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College, with essential assistance from Jeannine Hammond, Professor of French, Emerita, at Coe College.
Transcription
Blanc sometimes abbreviates "pour" to "pr" and "vous" to "vs." Such instances in this letter are rendered as "pour" and "vous."
Assurément, chère amie,
je me rendrai libre pour
le temps dont vous
me parlez, quels qu'aient
pu être mes projets
antérieurs. Je suppose
que ce sera vers la
fin de Juin et je
me réjouis de vous
rejoindre alors avec
un grand regret que
cela ne puisse pas
être plus tôt. Combien
il me serait agréable
de vous tenir compagnie
dans ce temps de souffrance
que vous traversez et
qui, j'espère, aura bientôt
un terme! -- [ Et bien ? ]
les Cazalis seront tout
à votre disposition pour
ce que vous pourrez
désirer. Je voulais vous
assurer l'avantage, dont
j'ai joui deux années
de suite, de demeurer
chez eux, mais cette
année ils prennent une
nouvelle villa où ils
ne pourraient disposer
d'aucune chambre.
Leur ancienne maison
( tout à côté d'eux) devant
une pension modeste et
confortable à la fois entre les
mains d'une Mme Dupuis qui
l'hiver est à Cannes. Vous pourriez
dès à présent lui écrire Route d'Antibes
pension Wagram, de la part de
Mme Henry Cazalis en lui disant
que celle-ci vous a promis que vous
trouveriez chez elle des conditions
avantageuses. Ou bien, ce qui
serait mieux, dites-moi exactement
ce que vous voulez et le prix
que vous désirez mettre (cela peut
varier de 10 à 12 f. par jour) et
^par personne -- salon en plus --^
Connaissant la maison, je
déciderais du choix de l'appartement
en réservant que vous êtes libre
de le quitter si vous ne vous
y trouvez pas bien. Je croirais vous
rendre service en vous évitant
la cohue et la dépense des grands
hôtels d'Aix et en vous assurant
le proche voisinage de
votre médicin d'abord
et ensuite d'une maison
^(la sienne)^
où vous rencontrerez tout
ce qui passe d'intéressant
à Aix, sans que vous
sortiez pour cela de
la demi-retraite qui
convient à votre deuil.
^Pour revenir à la pension.^
Il y a au premier étage
de cette Maison Lamartine
un bon appartement
composé de deux chambres
à coucher et d'un petit
salon avec fenêtres donnant
sur un balcon d'où l'on
aperçoit la Dent du Chat
au-delà -- d'un petit
jardin. Voulez-vous
que je m'informe de ce
qu'on le louera?
de temps vous passerez à Paris
dont je veux vous faire
les honneurs, avant [ l'on ? ]
[ gassisations de votre
pièce ? ] en provence.
Ecartez l'idée du pauvre
Nohant, [ morcélé ? ] de figure
qui ne vous donnerait
aucune idée de ce qu'il
fût. Je vous [ soumettrai ? ]
prochainement un
petit itinéraire. Soyez
sûre que je m'arrangerai
pour être revenue de
Gascogne du [ 25 ? ] ou 28 Juin{.}
Je vous embrasse, chère
amie en vous souhaitant
une prompte guérisison
et en vous chargeant de
tous mes meilleurs compliments
pour Mrs Fields. Th Blanc Bentzon
Désirez-vous faire connaissance
à Florence avec mon amie
Vernon Lee et avec d'autres Anglaises
moins [ célèbres ? ], mais crois agréables aussi!
que je serai charmée
de recevoir vos
amis, mais aucun
n'est encore venu
et je m'absente
aussitôt après Paques
Caroline Augusta Jewett Eastman to Sarah Orne Jewett
My dearest Sarah --
I am sure I don't know what to say to you dear -- Its so hard to write things and sometimes it has seemed as if I never could make my body again my own. [ Unrecognized word ] [ me ? ] so long being [ unrecognized word ] but its so much better. One of the hard things of all this is -- that it had to come to you, in all your pleasure -- till it seemed as if it would break my heart that you had to share it, too. Sometimes I don't in my heart know which way to turn. It seemed as if we were just beginning to live and of course as we were happy in our home life -- [ unreadable line, perhaps 7 words ] [ makes ? ] it very hard ^to be alone^. It doesn't
seem possible it is all true and I am fairly haunted with the feeling some days he is coming home again. We fairly fought night and day for his life, and I am so grateful for one thing, that I [ could ? ] do all through and Ned didn't see me cry once, but every thing was sunshine in his room till he [ went ? ]. But to have anyone just [ detached ? ] from you is very hard. I do feel glad for his sake he was saved a long sickness and I too feel he never would have been well again if he could have been pulled through this. It would touch you & Mrs. Fields very much to know Theodore now. Ned always brought him up to be thoughtful and "nice to Mama," and he sure is doing it. It is a terrible
thing for the boy, and he kept coming in, laying on the sofa -- "I'm sick at my stomach Mama." when it was only all [ this ? ]. Ned interested him in so many ways in behind the store, so that 'Betty'* has been a perfect blessing as well as to Mary too! I was dreadfully upset yesterday to find I was ashore as to the store again -- The man
a pleasure to me -- and we watch eagerly for them. There are so many things I want to tell. Every day has been very dear to me. But you have no idea how people feel about it all. Ned developed & broadened every day of his life and I hear so many good things of his life toward the poor. [ My ? ] Sarah, even think of old Ann* -- buying a sheet of paper & envelope and getting a touching little letter written me -- We were surprised this morning to hear of Mrs. Traftons* dying early this morning -- No one knew of her being much sick. She had sort of a bilious attack, and then sank quickly & died.
Mr Barrow* came down this morning, after I wrote this to see more about the business -- and Mrs. Knight* appeared for the day. Mary was up to her ears in house cleaning, so I sent her dinner over to her. You know it never rains but it pours -- and this is one of the days.
[ of repeated ] Miss Caroline* -- They came home at seven o'clock -- having waited almost [ two ? ] hours in the depot -- But as there were seventeen of our congregation -- I imagine they touched on many subjects in their conversation. [ You should ? ] be surprised to see the big packed basket of letters I have had and I must try to thank people now for them, if I can.
I know Mrs. Fields will forgive my not writing her this time, only if you will give her enough love -- and thank her -- for her dear letter. I only wish you both knew how much you are in my thoughts. Susy* sends you much love -- She is very well. I don't know how
long I can keep her but as long as I can you better believe. If Mary [ Harris ? ] comes soon -- before long I can borrow Becca, who says she will come. Have the very best time you both can and get all the good you can out of it all, and be sure I think of you very very often and lovingly --
Carrie
I do love Sarah to think of Hattie* & mother and Ned all living together -- they loved one another so, even tho' its all this for us.
Notes
1892: The occasion of this letter is the death of Edwin Eastman, Caroline Jewett's husband on 18 March 1892.
Fields: Annie Adams Fields. See Key to Correspondents.
"Betty": A Betty is mentioned in Sarah Orne Jewett to Mary Rice Jewett of 7 August 1893 in a way that suggests she could be a horse, or perhaps a family employee. She remains unidentified.
Mary: Mary Rice Jewett. See Key to Correspondents.
The identity of Jinny is not yet known.
Yeaton: Probably, this is George Campbell Yeaton (1836-1918), a prominent South Berwick attorney.
Old Ann: This person has not yet been identified.
Mrs. Traftons: Susan M. Walker Trafton (1822 - 19 April 1892). Find a Grave.
Mr. Barrow: This person has not yet been identified.
Mrs. Knight: Though this is not certain, probably this is Helen Cross Knight. See Key to Correspondents.
Becca ... Lizzie Parks: Lizzie Parks probably is Elizabeth Cutts Parks (1831-1918), mentioned in The Placenames of South Berwick, pp. 72, 82, a near Jewett neighbor.
See Rebecca Young in Key to Correspondents.
Theodore's: Theodore Jewett Eastman. See Key to Correspondents.
Miss Howes: At this time, the only 'Miss Howes" associated with the Jewett family is Elizabeth Howes, sister of Jewett's close friend, Susan Burley Howes Cabot. See Key to Correspondents.
Miss Caroline: This person has not yet been identified.
Susy: While this cannot yet be verified, the Jewett's were close friends of Susan Marcia Oakes Woodbury. See Key to Correspondents.
Mary Harris: This transcription is uncertain, and this person remains unidentified.
Hattie: Which Hattie or Harriet Eastman refers to is not yet known. The Jewett sisters' mother, Caroline Frances Perry, died the previous October, 1891.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library of Harvard University: Sarah Orne Jewett Correspondence Series: I. Letters to Sarah Orne Jewett MS Am 1743, 56, Eastman, Caroline Augusta (Jewett) 1855-1897. 2 letters; [1892 & n.d.], 1892
This transcription is from a photocopy held by the Maine Women Writer's Collection, University of New England, Letters from Sarah Orne Jewett, 1875-1890, Box 4, Folder 159, Burton Trafton Jewett Research Collection.
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Elizabeth Cabot Cary Agassiz to Annie Adams Fields
Quincy Street,
Cambridge.
[ End letterhead ]
My dear friend
I am sorry to have missed my little plan for Sunday. I should have liked very much to have seen Miss [ Truham ? ]* again. I think however she must have been disappointed that the letter of which she had taken such care was not to [ rest ? ], after all, in its true home. It is one so sweet in character, -- tells so
much that is so delightful of the person who wrote it that I am inclined to consult an intimate cousin of ours who knows every branch of the family tree, even to the finest tips & the deepest roots, and as certain [ two or three unrecognized words ] as any one living who would [ value corrected ] it as much as we should have done had it been the writing of [ Rose Mayor ? ] the beloved mother & grandmother of our own family{.}
Elizth C. Agassiz,
I blame myself now that I should have let the years go by and lost my opportunity --
Notes
1893: This date is based on the speculation that Fields has given Agassiz a copy of her new book on John Greenleaf Whittier. See notes below.
Truham: This transcription is very uncertain, as is that of another name, Rose Mayor. Louis Agassiz's mother was named Rose.
Whittier: John Greenleaf Whittier (d. 1892). See Key to Correspondents. Fields's book, Whittier, appeared in 1893.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Huntington Library, San Marino, CA, James Thomas Fields papers and addenda mssFI 1-5637, Box 1. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Marie Thérèse de Solms Blanc to Sarah Orne Jewett
This letter was composed in French; a transcription follows.
Dear Miss Jewett, dear friend, while you were stricken by a grief with which I sympathize deeply,
I also have had my troubles. I have lost a dear elderly relative, who suffered successive attacks of paralysis. She was a distant relative, but the links of friendship often are stronger than those of blood. And then a friend of more than 30 years, who had shown me and mine much proof of attachment and with whom I had the joy, even more rare, of being able to speak of the past, was suddenly carried away with pleurisy{.} For two sad weeks, I have lived with the dead and dying. I also understand the grief and pain you must feel to be so far away! The very beauty of spring, these enchanted scenes you pass through, must weigh upon you by contrast. We had not supposed you would spend so little time in France. I am sorry that you are gaining such a superficial acquaintance with the country. I had reported your itinerary to Hamilton Aïdé* who -- returning from Sicily -- rushed to the Bristol hotel in vain! -- If one of my letters was lost, certainly it was the one in which I told you that Mme. Dupuis* consents regarding the g. t. pension, per day and per person plus a sitting room. If you want to use only the hotel lounge, write to her directly a little before your arrival: Maison Lamartine, Aix les Bains. ----- The apartment that I have arranged for you seems convenient, and I find it pleasant. The Misses King* told me that you might come to Paris before going to to Aix; I see that they got it wrong. Consider this, that I am thinking about traveling to America. Let's talk about this when I have the pleasure of seeing you. May God send you the consolation and the strength that you need.
All the best to you and Mrs. Fields
Th Bentzon*
Notes
1892: The letter opens with a reference to the death Edwin Eastman, husband of Jewett's younger sister, Caroline, on 18 March 1892. At the time of his death, Jewett was traveling with Annie Adams Fields in Italy. The last known letter Jewett sent from the Hotel Bristol in Rome was dated 2 April. Mme. Blanc wrote to Jewett about pension arrangements on about 17 April. On 20 May, Jewett wrote her sisters from Venice. By 14 June, she was established in Aix-les-Bains, France, and by 3 July, she and Fields were in Paris, where they met Mme. Blanc for the first time, after corresponding with her since 1885. Probably this letter was composed soon after 17 April and sent to Jewett in Venice or elsewhere in Italy.
For Fields see Key to Correspondents.
Hamilton Aïdé: French-born British author, Charles Hamilton Aide (1826-1906).
Misses King: "Grace Elizabeth King (1852-1932) was a writer of local color stories of Creole life in New Orleans. She writes of her friendship with Madame Blanc in Memories of a Southern Woman of Letters (New York, 1932). King stayed with Madame Blanc in Meudon during the last few months of her life. Wikipedia.
She had two unmarried sisters, Annie/Nan and Nina.
Mme Dupuis: Mme. Vie Dupuis was the proprietor of two hotels in the 1911 La Savoie Pittoresque: Bulletin des Syndicats d'Initiative de la Savoie: the Hôtel-Pension Wagram in Aix-les-Bains, on Rue Lamartine, near the "Etablissement Thermal," and another of the same name during the winter in Cannes.
The meaning of "g. t. pension" remains mysterious.
Bentzon: Mme. Blanc's pen name.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Huntington Library, San Marino, CA, in the James T. Fields Papers and Addenda Box 5: mss FI 5637. Transcription, translation and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College, with essential assistance from Jeannine Hammond, Professor of French, Emerita, at Coe College.
Transcription
Chère Miss Jewett, chère amie, tandis
que vous étiez frappée de chagrins
auxquels Je prends une grande parti,
J 'avais moi aussi mes peines.
Je voyais s'éteindre après des
attaques de paralysie successives
une chère vieille parente -- éloignée
sans doute, -- mais les liens de
l'amitié sout souvent plus forts
que ceux du sang. Puis un amie
qui depuis plus de 30 ans avait
donné á moi et aux miens
toutes les preuves d'attachement et
avec qui j'avais la joie, de plus
en plus rare, de pouvoir parler
du passé, ns était bien brusquement
enlevée par une fluxion de poitrine{.}
Je n'ai pas cessé d'être depuis deux
tristes semaines auprès des morts
ou des mourants. Combien je
comprends vos deuils et la douleur
que vs devez éprouver d'être loin!
La beauté même du printemps, ces
scènes enchantées que vous traversez
doivent vs être à charge par la
contraste. Ns supposons pas que
vous traverseriez France si rapidement{.}
C'est un regret pour moi que
vs ayez fait avec elle une si superficielle
connaissance. J'avais signalé votre
sejour á Hamilton Aïdé qui
-- revenant de Sicile -- s'est
précipité à l'hôtel Bristol
en vain! -- Si une lettre
de moi s'est perdue, c'est sans
doute celle où je vs disais que
Mme Dupuis consentait à la
pension de g t. par jour et
par personne, salon en plus [ two marks below sentence line that look like St ]
Si vous voulez vous contenter
du salon de l'hotel, écrivez-lui
directement un peu avant votre
arrivée: Maison Lamartine, Aix
les Bains. ----- L'appt [ for apartment ] que j'ai
retenu pour vous m'est bien
[ commode ? ] et je le trouve agréable.
Les Misses King m'avaient dit que
vs viendriez peut-être à Paris avant
de vs rendre à Aix; Je vois qu'elles
se sont trompées. Figurez-vous
que je prémédite pour mon compte
un voyage en Amérique. Nous
en causerons quand j'aurai la
joie de vs voir. Que Dieu
vs envoie les consolations et
la force dont vs avez besoin.
tout à vous et à Mrs Fields
Th Bentzon
Louise Imogen Guiney to Annie Adams Fields
My dear Mrs. Fields:
Many a time since you went away, I have thought of writing you, and now I am doing it in unexpected haste, and, alas! 'with a purpose'. But the purpose is nice [ deleted letters atone ? ] enough to be its own excuse, to wit: May we put that honored name of yours down on the little Keats circular touching the placing of Miss Whitney's bust in the Hampstead Parish Church?* The circular itself, which will be a tasteful bit of work, will be ready [ for corrected ] private distribution by the end of the month; so there is just time to beg boons of you, and get your reply. Professor Norton* is our Ajax,* and Mr. Aldrich and Mr. Gilder* have just fallen into line with twenty-dollar subscriptions apiece, and the better gold of their adhesion. Mr. Day* wishes to ask Mrs. Alice Freeman Palmer to stand beside you, and then, probably, Dr. Parsons:* and with six such -- patrons; there must be fair sailing for us in behalf of "our younger brother's" memory.
Only Americans, and, if possible, only literary Americans are to know of the thing, and help further it. Prof. Norton is the purse-holder. We are proud as Lucifer* of your friendly sympathy, and have no doubt whatever that it was warranted to last; but we did not think it right, even with this confidence, to write you down, without a parting permission and your blessing. Do say Yes!
I send you my small book,* which failed to reach Charles St. in its embryo stages, through a stupid mismanagement which was, wondrous to [ mark that may be a comma ] add, none of mine. May you like it, and may Miss Jewett* like it too! It has gone off very well indeed, so far. Unless I discover your name upon the subscription-lists of the new quarterly, The Knight Errant,* whose printers, editors, contributors, &c. are working, like Spenser's angels,* "all for love and nothing for reward," may I also forward a copy of the first number? I am sure you will approve of the Knight's look, if not of his opinions.
And how [ mark somewhat like a dash ] happy you must all be in Italy! The first violets are out today in this inclem-
ent young fatherland, before there is so much as a bud upon the oaks and walnuts. The electric cars are screaming through Washington St., and the vender at the corner explaining how bad are the times for trade, when "alla 'e maka on 'e peanutta, 'e loosa m 'e damma banan' !" And there has been a glorious amateur circus in the Arena, full of fun and fashion, with the dulcissima mundi nomina* figuring between elephants' heads on playbills: Mr. Harrison Gray Otis striding about as ring-master, and Mr. Robert Gould Shaw with a blue fillet about his brows, in the Roman standing riding.* And otherwise the little world hereabouts seems to wag as usual. There is a possible chance of my getting back to the British Museum next winter, if I
important or ever so slight that I may do for you here? I do not forget either of you, and my love goes to you over the sea. Felicità!
Louise Imogen Guiney
30th April, 1892: Auburndale, Mass.
Notes
Miss Whitney's bust: American sculptor Anne Whitney (1821-1915) made a bust of British poet John Keats (1795-1821) in 1873 and carved a replica in 1883. The latter was given to St. John at Hampstead Parish Church on 16 July 1894. Wikipedia.
See also: Ann Wierda Rowland, "John Keats, English Poet (Made in America)," Keats-Shelley Journal 65 (2016), pp. 112-125. She describes the fund-raising campaign for making the gift.
Professor Norton: Charles Eliot Norton. See Sara Norton in Key to Correspondents.
Ajax: The Greek mythological hero, Ajax, plays a major role in Homer's Iliad, a courageous warrior in the Trojan War.
Mr. Aldrich ... Mr. Gilder ... Mr. Day ... Mrs. Alice Freeman Palmer ... Dr. Parsons:
For Thomas Bailey Aldrich, Richard Watson Gilder, and Fred Holland Day, See Key to Correspondents.
Thomas William Parsons (1819-1892) was an American dentist and poet, a translator of Dante. Wikipedia.
Alice Freeman Palmer (1855-1902) was an American educator, who served as president of Wellesley College and later as Dean of Women at the University of Chicago. Wikipedia.
Lucifer: Associated with the morning star, the planet Venus, Lucifer as named here, presumably refers to the devil as he appears in Dante's Inferno and in Milton's Paradise Lost.
small book: Guiney's small book of 1892 was "Monsieur Henri" a Foot-note to French History. Presumably, this is what she sent with this letter.
Miss Jewett: Sarah Orne Jewett. See Key to Correspondents.
Knight Errant: In 1892-3, the Visionists, an informal social club of Boston area artists and intellectuals produced a quarterly journal, The Knight Errant. Among Jewett correspondents, Guiney and Fred Holland Day were part of this group. Wikipedia.
amateur circus in the Arena: The New York Times noted Boston's "swell" circus opening performance on 28 April 1892 (29 April 1892, p. 5): "The programme was rich in novel features, but decidedly too long, as the performance lasted until after midnight." The Boston Globe (19 April 1892, p. 5) reported in detail on a dress rehearsal.
dulcissima mundi nomina: Latin: the world's sweetest names.
Mr. Harrison Gray Otis: According to his obituary in the Boston Daily Globe (6 January 1915, p. 2), Otis (1856-1915) was a prominent "club man," of an aristocratic family, descended from James Otis (1725-1783), a prominent advocate of the American Revolution. His memberships included the Boston Athletic Association, one of the sponsors of the 1892 amateur circus.
Mr. Robert Gould Shaw: This is not Robert Gould Shaw, the Union Civil War hero, who died in 1863. Rather this is the Boston architect, Robert Gould Shaw (1850-1931).
lyrics: WorldCat does not list such an anthology produced by Guiney. She did, however, publish Katherine Philips, 'The matchless Orinda': selected poems (1904), Thomas Stanley: his original lyrics, complete, in their collated readings of 1647, 1651, 1657 (1907), and An Oxford Poem by Henry Vaughan (1911).
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Huntington Library, San Marino, CA, in the James T. Fields collection Box 25: mss FI 1596. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Helen Bigelow Merriman to Sarah Orne Jewett
[ Most of this letter was written in very light pencil, making transcription virtually impossible. A determined reader with the actual manuscript in hand -- rather than a digital image -- might be able to read it. ]
April 30 -- 1892*
[ I was able to make out only a few words on the first page ]
Dearest Sarah, I am so glad you [ liked the ? ] little [ unrecognized word].... I thought Florence was a good plan ....
have been most kind -- They met me at the Station and I take my meals with them. Besides which Mrs. B. and I have dabbed water colors together, and I have made quite a decent little portrait of her, yes one -- The Peabodys are here too, and the Emersons, and more English people than one can count.
I had a letter from Dan, from [ Berrick or Berwick ] explaining many things. For one, they went without letters for weeks and weeks and were in despair, until it was found that a whole great pack of them had been mislaid by Cook !* -- which, if they had had it a week earlier would have saved them several days [ deletion ] delay in getting to Greece -- Wasn't it hard?
Write soon dear, and tell me how your eyes are -- Love to Mrs. Fields* from your
Notes
1892: Though I am unable to read the last digit of Merriman's date, information on the final page supports the likelihood that this letter is from the same month as Merriman's of 8 April.
Mrs. B: In her letter to Jewett of 8 April, Merriman said that she was taking her meals with the Bancrofts. Ellen Bancroft (1838-1912) and Robert Hale Bancroft (1843-1918) were the surviving children of cotton merchant Thomas Poynton Bancroft. (1798-1852) and Hannah Putnam (1799-1872). According Back Bay Houses, Robert was an insurance broker who retired in the 1870s, thereafter traveling abroad several times with his sister. He married in 1891. The Bancrofts had a summer home in Beverly, MA.
Peabodys ... Emersons ... Dan: The Peabodys and Emersons known to Jewett and Merriman were numerous. Possibly, the Peabodys were from the family of Jewett correspondent Andrew Preston Peabody, the Emersons from the family of Ellen Tucker Emerson. Key to Correspondents.
Daniel Merriman was Merriman's husband.
Cook: Almost certainly, Merriman refers to Thomas Cook & Son, a major 19th-century travel agency. Wikipedia.
Fields: 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 3, Item 151 I. Letters to Sarah Orne Jewett.
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
John Greenleaf Whittier to Annie Adams Fields and Sarah Orne Jewett
Oak Knoll
Very welcome was thy letter from the Eternal city.*
I felt a great deal of solicitude during the stormy week of your voyage. I knew, if not in danger you were in extreme discomfort, and, after all your rough
Since the 20th of March we have had almost [ unintermitted ? ] sunshine -- no rain for a month. April has been milder than May usually is, and the
[ Page 3 ]
[ Page 4 ]
A friend who has just visited [ Hampton ? ]* tells me that our dear Gen [ Armstrong ? ] is still very feeble. How I wish our millionaire would have the grace to put his noble school on a firm foundation and relieve him from his solicitude.
I have had the pleasure of reading Sarah's letter from
[ Up the left margin of page 3 ]
[ Up the right margin of page 3 ]
-- Give her my love and blessing.
There seem[s ? ] to be rumor in the air of [ degenerate outrages ? ] in Europe* on the 1st of May. I hope it is only a threat.
Good bye! dear friend. Whenever you go by sea or land I shall be with you in thoughts like the unseen passenger of Uhland's boatmen.* I hope
ever with grateful love
John G. Whittier
Notes
Archivist notes with this manuscript indicate that the letter was mailed from Danvers, MA, the location of his Oak Knoll estate. A note on provenance reads: "Removed from autograph album no. 2, Gift of Mr. & Mrs. Benjamin Bole, Jr. 12-78". And with this letter is an engraved image of Whittier: by H. W. Smith from a photograph by Hawes, published by Ticknor & Fields.
Eternal city: Rome
Bishop Brooks: Phillips Brooks. See Key to Correspondents.
cousin in Newburyport: 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.
Hampton: The transcriptions of Hampton and Armstrong are uncertain, but they would seem to be confirmed by Whittier's interest in the Hampton Institute, founded in 1861 to educate former African American slaves, now known as Hampton University. Whittier enjoyed summer visits with the first principal of the school, General Samuel Chapman Armstrong (1839- 11 May 1893). Armstrong suffered a stroke in 1892. The millionaire Whittier mentions may have been William Jackson Palmer (1836-1909), an important financial supporter of the school.
Academy Centennial book: See A Memorial of the One Hundredth Anniversary of the Founding of Berwick Academy (1891). Jewett took a leading role in organizing the celebration and producing this booklet.
degenerate outrages: May Day (on 1 May), or International Workers' Day, began in 1890, and in the following decade became a date for worker protests, in Europe as well as in the United States. Whittier's attitude toward the interests of organized labor was sympathetic, but he worried about strikes and violence, especially if they might threaten his friends. The New York Times of 2 May 1892 (page 1) reported that the alarms concerning May Day violence had proven baseless, though "anarchist disorders" were reported in a few places.
Uhland's boatmen: Whittier refers to "Neckar, The River: The Passage" by the German author, Johann Ludwig Uhland (1787-1862), in which the narrator crosses the river with two invisible passengers: "... Invisible to thee, Spirits twain have crossed with me."
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Huntington Library, San Marino, CA, in the James T. Fields collection: mss FI 1-5302. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Alice Greenwood (Mrs. George D.) Howe
Venice, Thursday morn, [ April ] 1892.*
Dear Neighbour and Friend! -- I now say that we did go to Torcello,* and it was so heavenly beautiful that I forbear to speak. Oh if you only had been along! Such sails, such towers, such islands; on the far edge of the sea such a blossoming bough of whitest elder against the blue sky! And we ourselves, going all the way with a sail, and I holding the stern-sheets. It was in stripes of red and orange, with blue corners to it, faded just right, and a kind little breeze served us even in the little canal that leads almost to the cathedral door. What can we say about it? there the stone shutters, the old lonesome, mysterious mosaics that stare in each other's solemn eyes through the shadows, the dampness, the greenness, the birds that sing and the droning bells. Well, when you wish to give me a happy moment of the sweetest remembrance, just say Torcello, and back I shall fly to it. There were haycocks on a bit of green meadow, and there were children in an old boat playing and calling and rustling the bushes by the canal, and the old Campanile looked as if it were made strong to hold up the sky.
I had a good dear letter from
home this morning; new dog a treasure, but three of the horses
with coughs -- Dick and Betty and Susan! the distemper thought
to be of no consequence by John until Dick caught it!*
Notes
[ April ] 1892: Blanchard in Sarah Orne Jewett says that Jewett spent much of April 1892 in Italy (261).
Torcello: Wikipedia says: "Torcello is a sparsely populated island at the northern end of the Venetian Lagoon, in north-eastern Italy. It is the oldest continuously populated region of Venice, and once held the largest population of the Republic of Venice.... Today's main attraction is the Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta, founded in 639. It is of basilica-form with side aisles but no crossing, and has much 11th and 12th century Byzantine work, including mosaics (e.g. a vivid version of the Last Judgement)."
View of Torcello with the campanile of
Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta.
Courtesy of Wikipedia
John: John Tucker, Jewett family employee. See Key to Correspondents.
This letter appears in Annie Fields, Letters of Sarah Orne Jewett (1911), Transcribed by Annie Adams Fields, with notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to William Wilberforce Baldwin
Venice 11 May
[ 1892 ]*
Dear Doctor Baldwin
The tonic you gave Mrs. Fields* -- Horsfords Phosphate* & Parishes [ cheese ? ] -- food -- red wine &c have already done her a great deal of good. She has also found much relief from using the gargle -- the same thing that you gave me for my eyes & nose. I have not seen her colour so good for a long time and she seems much
stronger, and sends you her best thanks. I am sure that this tonic is something that will almost always serve her when she gets run down. She had the Ricasoli wine in Florence and the Barolo here as you directed. The Ricasoli seemed so good that she is getting Signor Isola* to send some to Boston.
My eyes have been getting on much better but yesterday I strained them, or did something! and my nose feels swollen again and my eyes were shut up and very badly off this morning. The trouble from the blow I had at sea seems to return, but very likely I shall conquer what little [ inflamation blotted, apparently so spelled ] there may be when I get to Aix les Bains. I am taking the iodide of soda as you wished. My hands are apt to be swollen and to ache a little and sometimes to look blue
in the morning and on those days I get very short-breathed. I dont know if I told you this but you probably understood it "from the context"!
Will you please give us any further direction if you think best, and will you be so very kind as to send your account here for Mrs ^J. T.^ Fields and me.
Believe me with great regard yours sincerely
Notes
1892: This date has been added in pencil near the top of page 1. Also on this page are other penciled notes reading: "Sarah, Sarah O." and, in the top left margin, a circled number 2.
The date almost certainly is correct, for Jewett was in Venice at this time, and she mentions in this letter the lingering effects of the accident she had aboard the Werra during her Atlantic crossing. See Jewett to Louisa Dresel of 25 March 1892.
Furthermore, with this letter is an envelope with which it may be associated. The cancellation date is not very clear, but it seems to read "5 92". It is addressed to Dr. Baldwin, 1 Via Palestro, Firenze, Italia.
Mrs. Fields: Annie Adams Fields. See Key to Correspondents.
Horsfords Phosphate: Jewett mentions several treatments for the ills she and Fields have been suffering during their travels.
Acid phosphate was a mixture of calcium, magnesium and potassium phosphate salts with a small amount of phosphoric acid, manufactured by the Horsford Chemical Company. In addition to medicinal treatment, it was used in phosphate soda, a popular beverage with a tangy flavor.
Transcription of these words is difficult: Parishes -- cheese -- food. Whether she has actually written "cheese," and how these words are to relate to each other is not known. Jewett may have connected all three with hyphens. It is not yet known what she means.
Ricasoli wine and Barolo red wine have long histories in Italy. See also Tuscan wine in Wikipedia.
Iodide of soda is commonly used to add iodine to drinking water to prevent iodine deficiency.
Isola: Signor Isola's identity is not yet known.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Morgan Library & Museum. MA 3564. Gift; Mrs. Stanley Hawks and Mrs.Arthur Bliss Lane; 1968. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Carrie Jewett Eastman and Mary Rice
Jewett
Venice 20 May [1892 ]*
Dear Sisters
To think of this being the day that Princess* is going to pasture, only I am afraid that she will have to delay for a short time, the season being cool by night and somewhat backward. It will make exercise for the other pelters going to see her! but Mary’s* tale of Jane’s* being so gay that she was hard bitted keeps me laughing yet.. I have been so pleased with this last letter but it made me more homesick than most with words about gardens and homes and all the home goings-on. I wish I could hop home for a day or two if no longer. ------ Day before yesterday we "hopped" to Torcello.* Do read something about it in some book about Venice so that you can share a little of our pleasure. They call Torcello the mother of Venice and nobody knows exactly how old the cathedral is or the old church and campanile near it. They stand almost alone like the temples at Paestum* except, like them, for a few old stone farmhouses, and are full of old mosaics and delicate carvings though they are barer and plainer and worlds
^older^ than anything here except the oldest part of St. Marks. In the morning we were out with Miss Blythe* a shopping in an iron shop for some pretty hanging charms upon which A. F.* had set her affections, and we came home and gobbled our luncheons early and set forth. It was the most perfect afternoon with a light breeze and Giovanni had another gondolier to help him row by name of Bastiano and we also had a sail which Miss Blythe recommended; it was striped with orange and red and had four blue corners all nicely faded and of a lug rig, but it cost ten cents for that sail which awful information was broken to me in private most humbly by Giovanni who had to hire it for the occasion. Miss Adams went, and Miss Garrett* to trim the boat, and so we started cheerfully at two o’clock. First we went across by the canal that goes under the bridge of sighs* and turned to the right instead of toward the canal again (you remember, Mary?) and came out after a [while corrected] past Zani Polo as they call the Church of S. Giovanni e Paoli* (I think Zanipōlo is so funny somehow, it is so familiar for a big and solemn church with its own little piazza in front it leading down to the canal and the great Colleoni
statue beside it, of a splendid horse and rider which is going to be copied and sent to Boston to go in Copley Square because it is thought the finest statue of its kind in the world.) Soon we came out into the lagoon heading northward toward Murano and out there somewhere we caught an obliging wind and Giovanni put up the sail very pompous and proud and off we went over the smooth stretches and the ripples just a little faster than they could row, but neither of them knew much about sailing so I had to come to the fore at times with the little I knew which was of value as far as it went. You know the great lines of piles? They are like the lagoon roads! You have to follow them except at any high water, so that you meet all the other boats like carriages in a great highway and we were evidently in the turnpike to Burano which is another island town, far up beyond Murano,* where all the fishermen and lace makers live, as the glass makers all live on Murano. We sailed along and along and saw one ^great big^ sail that was simply bright scarlet on a fishing shack, but most were orange and brown or clear or white, and the villages on
the wide scattered islands each had their bell towers and pretty soon we saw the great square bell tower of Torcello away to the north. Ruskin says somewhere that these towns on the lagoon look like handfuls of jewelry scattered on a mirror.* I don’t know why they have such very bright colours though when you come near you do see that the red bricks are very red and the yellow ones very yellow and so with the orange and the white and then of course there are pictures in coarse bright mosaics here and there and every thing catches the sun.
When
we
got
close
to
Torcello
[
deleted word ] proved to be nothing but a long green
island where there were some slender bell towers and then
only green fields and one was full of haycocks, and the
elder was in bloom holding great blooming boughs right up
against the blue sky. Off farther to the north all the
way we had seen the snow covered alps glimmering through the
haze, but here you forgot all about the sea or the mountains,
it was a bit of country low and green like Holland. The little
[ Page 5 ]
wind served us right up the old canal where the ruined brickwork had crumbled on each side and all sorts of trees and flowers and bushes had crowded down. At the end there was a sort of ruined stone pier -- there was no city of Torcello to be seen but the great stone cathedral in the blossoming fields, the queer octagonal church, and a few old houses and buildings near by and the great square campanile like this by St. Marks in Venice without its pointed top, looking as if it were built to hold up the sky. Inside the damp gray old place tall mosaic figures of saints and virgins on the wall stare at each other’s eyes and hold their crosses and crowns and palms. In the whole place you feel like whispering, as if you were a poor fly buzzing about these everlasting relics and strange creatures of the past. I thought it was a ghostly kind of place at Torcello, but a sweeter flowerier bit of country you never saw ever in Ireland in June, or Italy itself. There were half a dozen pleasant little children with pretty eyes that followed us about, as if they had grown in the long grass and had
[ Page 6 ]
to break their stalks when they started. -----
We were sorry to come away, but over at Burano we had thoughts of eating [ deleted word ] a handful of cherries and some nice Venetian cakes by way of afternoon tea and of giving the two gondoliers an hour to themselves. I bestowed a franc apiece on them by way of a gentilezza, which seemed to strike such joy into their honest hearts that after tying us fast to the side of the canal^ filled with fishing boats^ that cuts Burano in two, they stood side by side on the shore and made us a perfectly splendid bow together, with great waves of the hat and then took to their heels and ran ^like^ little boys! there was something about this piece of politeness that pleased me to the heart’s core. Molto salute! they said in impressive voices [before they corrected] ran and we had to make the best bows we could in return. ^ I hope it was good vino rosso at the little shop where they went, don’t you?^ All Burano stepped with proper haste to that point of the canal and watched us with interest. It was after six and they had nothing else to do. I never saw more beautiful women
[ Page 7 ]
it seems to me, carrying babies like the old pictures of the Madonna,* and dressed in such shades of olive and brown and green and dull red that you might have thought all the old pictures in Venice came alive at six o’clock every summer night in Burano.
Then we came home rowing in the sunset seven miles to Venice and met all the fishermen on our way in long processions of black boats and gay sails for they still had enough wind, and I may say much conversation to which we listened as best we could. And we got back to our house at eight o’clock just as it was growing dark and out of our parlor windows the Salute* was turning white as it always does at nightfall. I hope you will feel as if Torcello were the best thing yet in all our Venetian days, I can’t help saying so every time I think about it.
Yesterday we did not go very far, until Miss Garrett and I went out between nine and eleven for an hour
[ Page 8 ]
or so before we went to bed. The nights are so mild and the stars are so bright that you don’t miss the moon as I might have feared. I went to walk with Mr. Howe in the afternoon. Alice* is better but still in bed. I haven’t seen her now since Friday and this is Thursday. It is a great loss; we meant to do so many things. Miss Adams hasn’t been very well. She felt dizzy and tired the night after we came from Torcello and yesterday she stayed in bed and kind sisters are attending her. The doctor said it was nothing & that she will be all right in a day or two. She is one who likes to see everything & may have overdone, & though she likes to be here is also one ^for^ whom mountain air is considered to be better! So perhaps it is well that we are going at any rate on Tuesday to Milan & next day to Aix. We have been seeing a good many pleasant people these last few days. I had a delightful call from Mr. Clemens yesterday -- Mark Twain -- who is one of the most really serious men in the world. I always say so every time I see him don’t I? but I do like him very much. Love to all at home, to the girls and John.* I hope he
[ Up the left margin of page 5 ]
will go to see Princess often the first few days, & take something for me in his pocket. Good by with lots of love to both of you & [Stukey ?] & [Berea ? ] & Susy from Sarah.
[ Up the left and down top margin of page 1 ]
How kind & nice Mr. Havens* letter was! I am glad he liked the book as much as he did. I thought he was very just about it. There was nothing great but nothing worrisome -- Of course he couldn’t feel not living there how much gratitude was expressed.
Notes
Princess ... Jane: Princess and Jane were Jewett
family horses.
Torcello: Wikipedia
says: "Torcello is a sparsely populated island at the northern
end of the Venetian Lagoon, in north-eastern Italy. It is the
oldest continuously populated[citation needed] region of
Venice, and once held the largest population of the Republic
of Venice." Wikipedia
also says: "The Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta (Cattedrale
di Santa Maria Assunta) is a basilica church on the island of
Torcello, Venice, northern Italy. It is a notable example of
Venetian-Byzantine architecture, one of the most ancient
religious edifices in the Veneto, and containing the earliest
mosaics in the area of Venice. According to an ancient
inscription, it was founded by the exarch Isaac of Ravenna in
639, when Torcello was still a rival to the young nearby
settlement at Venice."
Miss Blythe: Miss Blythe is Isabella Blythe, who was the domestic partner of Anna (Nannie) Leigh-Smith (1831-1919). Anna was sister to the British women's rights activist's, Barbara Leigh Smith. See Barbara Leigh Smith Bodichon: Feminist, Artist and Rebel (2010) by Pam Hirsch.
A. F.: Annie Adams Fields. See Correspondents.
Miss Adams … Miss Garrett: The identity of Miss Adams
is not certain. Probably she is the eldest sister of Annie
Adams Fields, Sarah Holland Adams (1823-1916), who had
recently been living in Germany up to 1892. See Gollin, Annie
Adams
Fields: Woman of Letters, pp. 12-13. If this is the
correct Miss Adams, then the report of her illness later in
the letter and of her being cared for by sisters may refer to
Annie herself.
Mary Elizabeth Garrett
(1854-1915), an early patron of Bryn Mawr College and the
Johns Hopkins Medical School, often invited Jewett to her
summer cottage at Dark Harbor, Maine. Jewett's Betty
Leicester's English Xmas was privately printed
for The Bryn Mawr School (of which Miss Garrett was a
founder), and was dedicated "To M. E. G."
bridge of sighs: Wikipedia says: "The Bridge of Sighs
(Italian: Ponte dei Sospiri) is a bridge located in Venice,
northern Italy. The enclosed bridge is made of white
limestone, has windows with stone bars, and passes over the
Rio di Palazzo and connects the New Prison (Prigioni Nuove) to
the interrogation rooms in the Doge's Palace."
S. Giovanni e Paoli: Wikipedia
says: "The Basilica di San Giovanni e Paolo, known in Venetian
as San Zanipolo, is a church in the Castello sestiere of
Venice, Italy." Jewett clealy spells the Italian for
Paul: Paoli.
the great Colleoni statue: Wikipedia says: "The Equestrian statue of Bartolomeo Colleoni is a Renaissance sculpture in Campo Santi Giovanni e Paolo, Venice, Italy, executed by Andrea del Verrocchio in 1480-1488. Portraying the condottiero Bartolomeo Colleoni (who served for a long time under the Republic of Venice)."
Burano … Murano: Venetian islands. Burano
is especially known for its brightly painted houses and for
lace-making; Murano, a
group of small islands linked by bridges is known for its
glass making.
Ruskin ... mirror: John Ruskin John Ruskin (1819-
1900), according to Wikipedia
was the leading British art critic of the Victorian era.
In The
Stones
of Venice (1851-3), writing of Murano, Ruskin
said: "To the north, there is first the great cemetery wall,
then the long stray buildings of Murano, and the island
villages beyond, glittering in the intense crystalline
vermilion, like so much jewellery scattered on a mirror, their
towers poised apparently in the air a little above the
horizon, and their reflections, as sharp and vivid and
substantial as themselves, thrown on the vacancy between them
and the sea" (p. 29).
old pictures of the Madonna: Among Christians, the
Madonna is Our Lady, Mary, the mother of Jesus.
Salute: Wikipedia
says: "Santa Maria della Salute [completed in 1681]
(English: Saint Mary of Health), commonly known simply as the
Salute, is a Roman Catholic church and minor basilica located
at Punta della Dogana in the Dorsoduro sestiere of the city of
Venice, Italy.
"It stands on the narrow finger
of Punta della Dogana, between the Grand Canal and the
Giudecca Canal, at the Bacino di San Marco, making the church
visible when entering the Piazza San Marco from the water. The
Salute is part of the parish of the Gesuati and is the most
recent of the so-called plague-churches."
Mr. Howe … Alice: George Dudley and Alice Greenwood Howe. See Key to Correspondents.
Mr. Clemens … Mark Twain: Wikipedia says: "Samuel Langhorne Clemens (1835 -1910), better known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, entrepreneur, publisher and lecturer. Among his novels are The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876) and ...Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885).
John: John Tucker. See Key to Correspondents.
Mr. Havens: The only Haven family so far known to
be acquainted with the Jewetts consists of George Wallis Haven
and Helen Sarah Bell Haven. By her first husband,
James Pierrepont Halliburton, Mrs. Haven was the mother of a
close Jewett friend, Georgina Halliburton. With Mr.
Haven, she was the mother of another close Jewett friend, Mrs.
Edith Bell Haven Doe. See Georgina Halliburton in Key
to Correspondents.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library
of Harvard University in Jewett, Sarah Orne, 1849-1909.
Mary Rice Jewett 1847-1930, recipient, 40 letters;
1877-1892 & n.d. Sarah Orne Jewett Correspondence,
1861-1930. MS Am 1743 (255). Transcription and
annotation by Terry Heller, Coe College, with assistance from
Tanner Brossart and Linda Heller
Sarah Orne Jewett to Sarah Wyman Whitman
-- And we all comed to Aix-les-Bains and find it but a hot and dusty world after Venice -- And I confessing that I hoped there would be a little letter from you because I never knew what you went and did after you came back from Bermuda, except that I know there was more to do for having gone! and
so not really expecting a word until the mail after next.
-- ( We left Alice Howe* a good deal better but looking very ill still. I cant help being worried about her, though it is better to remember how astonishingly well she was in Rome before this strange illness came on. I suppose it is a touch of influenza as the doctor said, but it has made her an invalid again which is a pity. It grew more and more delightful in Venice, and we grew to
know it better and better. A.F.* flourished more and more and we came away -- And a dear* letter from you having come that next day! (I think it must have been) and I loving every word of it and feeling quite far away and in a foreign land when I came to words about the tea-party -- but on the whole a near neighbour to my S.W. though longing to have another letter just as dear and as long the very next minute.
Now they have been to [ Chamouni so spelled ] and stayed there
[ Page 4, black bordered ]
one great moonlight night they ran away from the baths at Aix and took Miss Adams* to cooler ^& befriended^ climes in Geneva for which her heart began to long -- and they drove out to Ferney-Noltaire ^a very longing dream for years!^ -- and they took a steamer upon the lake of Geneva and passed a night at dear Martigny with little goat bells clinking by the paved street and a great green meadow and huge mountains opposite, and the next morning they drove to Chamouny right up over the Fȇte Noire pass, and snow drifts all about them and in the green valley all the
way up were more flowers than every anybody saw before: harebells and [ forgetme nots so written ] made blue fields and double buttercups and ladies [ delights' so written ] made yellow fields and a kind of pink clover made pink fields, and the green grass fairly dazzled your eyes, and little children in white round caps chased us and got yellow and red Martigny candy out of a paperful, and gave an occasional mountain strawberry and smiles like all next summer in return. And it was A.Fs. dear birthday and we liked to be going up that valley to the snow mountains and along a [ dreary ? ] bit of moorland full of brooks like strands of white silk and
down into Chamouny -- Oh we liked it very much and we thought about you -- There was a cloud over Mont Blanc all day -- it had been a rainy night -- but the sun and wind went down together and when we got to the [ big corrected ] hotel where we found ourselves all alone -- (there is so much snow on the passes yet --) we looked up and saw the great sight of that huge mountain head all glistening clear with the moon just above and the last of the daylight still shining -- I might as well try to tell somebody about it --
I suppose everybody tries ----
: Now we have at least two weeks longer here, perhaps more -- There are great fȇtes by night in Aix-les-Bains with Japanese lanterns and fireworks and you can buy swiss carvings and sorrento woodwork and jewelry and 'Koopman' antiquities* ancient and modern and dreadful beguiling as if you were in Florence or Newport or Boston, and crowned heads come to take the baths, and so do persons from Berwick and sulphurous odours blow round the pretty corners of villas.
-- Dear, why do I write this nonsense when I have other things to say -- I suppose it is because nonsense can be written and [ other corrected ] things cant -- You will be at Beverly when this reaches you -- God bless you darling -- and A.F. sends you her love.
I must tell you that I really feel better already for being here -- Indeed I hope to come home feeling equal to things as I have not in a long time. Have I ever said that we mean to sail September 22
by the Cephalonia* -- coming straight to Boston?
[ no signature ]
Notes
1892: This is a problematic letter. While the pages seem to go together mostly well enough, they are on two different kinds of stationery and they do not appear in order in the Houghton folder, having been shuffled around. A main problem is that though the letter is dated 27 May, Jewett says that Fields's 6 June birthday has passed. Further, the transition between pages 3 and 4 seems awkward.
Despite doubts, I present this as a single letter, for clearly the parts were composed at about the same time, during Jewett's 1892 stay in Aix-les-Bains.
Alice Howe: Key to Correspondents.
A.F.: Annie Adams Fields. Key to Correspondents. Her birthday was 6 June.
Miss Adams: The identity of Miss Adams is not certain. Probably she is the eldest sister of Annie Adams Fields, Sarah Holland Adams (1823-1916), who had recently been living in Germany up to 1892. See also, Jewett to Carrie Jewett Eastman and Mary Rice Jewett of 20 May 1892.
Cephalonia: The Cunard line SS Cephalonia was in service from 1882 to 1900. They eventually sailed on the SS New England.
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.
Sarah Orne Jewett to William Wilberforce Baldwin
Maison Lamartine
My dear Doctor Baldwin
I thanked you indeed for your most kind letter (in spite of this late answer to it,) but I had an idea of waiting until I reach Aix so that I could tell you about Dr. Brachet* --
He came at once to see me after I had left your card of introduction with my own address and request
for a consultation -- full of warm regard and interest in you, and so has been most kind and friendly. I am to begin at once with baths &c and a tonic, but nothing has been said of going on with the iodide of soda* which I took until I came. I was much better most of the time in Venice but the change of coming here, the great heat &c have made me pretty low and clumsy-handed for the time being.
Your prescription for my eyes has relieved them very much so that even the journey did not make them nearly so bad as everything kept them when I first saw you.
I find Dr. Brachet the great man you described to me -- most interesting and admirable -- in fact all that you said. Being a 'country person' myself I recognize certain qualities in him at once with immense pleasure. I thank you for the great pleasure you gave in sending me to him.
Mrs. Fields* and I have been reading Mr. James's exquisite paper about Mr. Balestier* and cannot help sending it on to you directly{.} I am sure that it will delight you. Mrs. Fields begs to be most kindly remembered.
We shall always be hoping to see you again -- in Boston or Florence -- and to know Mrs. Baldwin also. Please do not let your dear little son forget us.
Yours most sincerely and with many thanks.
Notes
1892: An envelope associated with this letter seems to be postmarked in Aix Les Bains on 6/28/92. On the back side is another postmark in Torino, Italy, on 6/29/92. Penciled on the front side upper left is "Sarah Jewett May 27, 1892." The envelope is addressed to Dr. Baldwin, 1 Via Palestro, Firenze, Italia. While the day and the year of the postmarks coincide with Jewett's dating and the penciled note, the month does not.
Dr. Brachet: "Chateau Brachet" describes Léon Brachet as the "Doctor of Kings"; he "was one of the leading figures in Aix les Bains at the end of the 19th century. As a doctor attached to the thermal baths and first deputy mayor, he proved a driving force in the development of Aix as a spa town and thriving resort. He and his wife, Nelly, welcomed crowned heads from the four corners of Europe into their home, and spared no effort to treat them to every amenity to make their stay unforgettable." He was the author of several books on the uses of mineral waters for treatment of various physical and mental illnesses. See also "Aix-les-Bains" in Harper's New Monthly Magazine 71 (Jun 1, 1885): 391-4.
Mrs. Fields: Annie Adams Fields. See Key to Correspondents.
Balestier: Wolcott Balestier (1861- 6 December 1891) was a promising American writer, whose early death in Germany from typhoid ended his friendship with American author, Henry James (1843-1916). Balestier's sister, Carrie Balestier (1862-1939), married British author Rudyard Kiplng (1865-1936). For James and Kipling, see Key to Correspondents.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Morgan Library & Museum. MA 3564. Gift; Mrs. Stanley Hawks and Mrs.Arthur Bliss Lane; 1968. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Susan Manning Haven
30 May 1892
I have always been wishing to write to you, and to thank you for the dear note you sent me when I was coming away from home. I have kept it with great affection, and have thought of you very often. Now that my eyes are so much better I am delighted to begin to write letters again, but for a good many weeks, I have hardly done any thing except to send all the letters I could to Mary and
Carrie* -- Of course I do not feel the changes at home in exactly the same way I should [ deletion ] if I
Mrs Fields* and I did not
leave Italy until this very last week and have had very good fortune as to weather and still better as to meeting and making friends. In Rome almost every time I went out I met somebody whom I knew -- and in Florence we were only two doors away from Mrs. Coale and Mifs Julia Bell* who asked for you and Mr. Haven and were always wishing to hear everything that I could tell them of the households in Portsmouth and [ Rollinsford corrected ]. They had both changed very much since I saw them last, but to be sure that was a good many years ago. Madge and Olla and I revived the memories of our old days together
in Portsmouth when they were staying with you and I 'happened down' -- and I enjoyed seeing them very much. Madge has been very ill all winter with a [ rheumatic corrected ] trouble as you no doubt know and still looks like an invalid. I was so glad to see them all again. In Rome Mrs. Fields saw "Nelly Grampini"* several times and said that she seemed little changed and most cheerful, and was delightfully placed in a pleasant 'apartment'. At first I was ill for a week and then I had such bad news* and so it happened that I did not see her at all except one day when we passed each other driving. Mrs. Fields thought Signor Grampini a very agreeable man and ^said^ that they were apparently most happy!
After we left Florence we spent nearly three weeks in Venice where everything was even more delightful than ever to me. How I should like to talk about it with you and with Mr. Haven! We saw the huge palace which the young Brownings* have fitted up anew in the best old fashions{,} adding to it all their fathers and mothers treasures and relics, so that it has become, I suppose, one of the most interesting houses in the world. Mrs. Fields had not seen Mr. Browning since he was a small boy in Rome, and it was very
entertaining to hear them renew their old acquaintance. Miss Browning the aunt, lives with them, and recalls her brother to every one who knew him. She is a delightful fresh and charming old lady -- full of keenness and wit and good humour -- I had seen her once in London and was so glad to have such a pleasure as seeing her again.
Now we are here so that I may take the sulphur baths and must stay for a month I suppose but Aix is an amusing little old French village crowded a good deal by great hotels. A
friend* of [ deletion ] ours in Paris recommended us to lodgings in a quaint little house which has a pretty garden behind it just now full of blossoming acacias and roses, and we like it much better than hotel life. My eyes, and my aches in general, have given me a great satisfaction because I have come to know two of the best doctors over here -- Dr. Baldwin of Florence and Dr Bracket* here. "Dr George Haven"* will know about them I think and I shall like to talk with him about them when I get back. Dr. Baldwin is a great friend of some friends of mine who begged me
to see him after I got hurt on the ship* and was so ill -- and he in his turn sent me to Dr. Bracket -- I mean to recommend to George for a summer employment, to set up a great establishment by "the Beetles" sulphur spring near the Does!!* It is said to be very strong in its sulphurous fragrance and I always meant to visit it but never did, and so behold me here at Aix-les-Bains!
I suppose that Georgie* will soon be coming home. How I wish I could see her, and you and Mr. Haven -- Do keep well and please to think of me once in awhile!
I believe that I never have been half as fond of my friends as I have of late and I have more than once remembered all your kindnesses dear Mrs. Haven and
felt as if I would give anything if I could give you some pleasure or show you in any way the gratitude and sincere affection that I feel.
Mrs. Fields asks me to give her love to you and Mr. Haven with mine -- Yours affectionately
Sarah.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Alice Greenwood (Mrs. George D.) Howe
Aix-les-Bains, Sunday. [
June 1892 ]*
Dearest Alice, -- I have sent many thoughts flying your way, if I haven't sent any letters in all this time, but the baths are a great siege and seem to take all one's time and one's wits away together. (And I beginning this letter on a half-sheet unbeknownst, but going straight on, it being among friends.) We have hardly begun to take the countless drives and excursions about this lovely green country, and look upon the journey to the Grande Chartreuse* as if it were beyond Moscow, somewhere on a steppe!
Did A.* tell you what a
perfectly beautiful time we had when we boldly ran away to
Chamouny? or Chamounix?* -- whichever way you spell it,
because I always forget. I never, never shall forget one bit
of that lovely day when we drove from Martigny over the Téte
Noire.* A's dear birthday and such weather, and such flowers
(it is sainfoin, that pink one that I asked you
about), whole fields of ladies' delights, and large double
buttercups, and harebells, and forget-me-nots, and red things,
and pink things, and yellow things galore, and Solomon's
seal,* one sprig in a ledge just to show that there was a
piece of everything, if you only stopped to look: blue
gentians withal, something like our fringed gentians in
October.... We went on up and up that dear, high green valley,
passing cold little white-silky brooks; and every now and then
on the road we came to peasant families with their flocks and
herds chirping and clanking, and all the children capering,
and the old grand-mother with her staff, going up to the high
châlets, to pasture for the month of June. We had a lot of
candy and gave largess and left such a wake of smiles behind
us. I went shopping for it in Martigny at break of day. And
the grass so green and just in flower, and none of it cut,and
everybody so pleasant along that road, and we being so
pleasant and gay that we kept getting out to have a little
walk; the air getting into our heads, and the great peaks
coming around other peaks' corners, to look at us solemnly,
and all the morning clouds blowing away one by one, until the
sky was all clear blue, and when we got to Chamounix, at
night-fall, Mont Blanc was shining white, and the full moon
right above it, as if we had come to see at last where the
moon lived, and started from, to go up into the sky. And next
morning we had a long walk, with the sky still clear, and we
were all alone in the biggest hotel and felt like princesses
under the orders of a "retinue." There were very few tourists
to be seen, but all my month in Interlaken (when I came
before) means less to me, I believe, than that day going up
from Martigny. And after all this we came back as good as pie
and went to work at our baths again, and never minded much
about the hot weather or anything. I somehow hate not to have
you go to Egypt! (You would tell about it so well and
ascertain the address of a pretty Rag Fair -- all to my own
good and delight!) but don't go fumbling in dark
pyramids or make up a little paper bundle of sand of the
desert that was too interesting to throw away, and always has
sifted out over everything! . . . I wish I had begun to tell
you about Chambéry, of which we have had one glimpse; tomorrow
we mean to go there again and to see Les Charmettes* and the
Grande Chartreuse. Goodbye, with dear love.
Notes
Aix-les-Bains ... June 1892: "Rising from the shores of the largest natural lake of glacial origin in France, the Lac du Bourget, [Aix-les-Bains] is one of the important French spa towns." This letter reports on Jewett's 1892 trip to Europe with Annie Fields.Grande Chartreuse: The Grande Chartreuse is a Carthusian monastery near Grenoble in the Chartreuse Mountains of France. See note below.
A.: Annie Adams Fields. Her birthday is June 6. See Key to Correspondents.
Chamounix ... Martigny ... Téte Noire: Chamounix and Martigny are towns near the French and Italian border in the French Alps, of which the Téte Noire is a peak of 5800 feet. The famous Mont Blanc, "the Monarch of the Alps" according to a 1907 Baedeker guide to Southern France is the dominant peak in this area at 15,782 feet.
sainfoin, (that pink one that I asked you about), ... ladies' delights, and large double buttercups, and harebells, and forget-me-nots, ... and Solomon's seal: Sainfoin or "holy hay" belongs to the pulse family of herbs, native to Southern Europe. It is associated with the hay upon which Jesus slept in the manger after his birth. See Luke 2. The Oxford English Dictionary identifies the lady's-delight as a violet. Harebells (Campanula rotundifolia) have blue to lavender bell-shaped flowers at the tops of thin stalks. There are more than 100 species of Forget-me-nots (Cryptantha) and more than 300 of buttercups (Ranunculus). Solomon's Seal (Polygonatum beflorum) has greenish white bell-shaped flowers and has been used medicinally for closing and healing wounds and bruises.
Chambéry, ... Les Charmettes: Chambéry is a village in Southern France, between Lyon and Grenoble. Les Charmettes is a country home open to tourists in the 19th century, where, according to a 1907 Baedeker guide to Southern France, Rousseau and Mme. De Warens resided.This letter appears in Annie Fields, Letters of Sarah Orne Jewett (1911), Transcribed by Annie Adams Fields, with notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Jane M. Lyon to Sarah Orne Jewett
955 Prospect [ Aves so it appears ] --
I have wiped my eyes and [ teased ? ] an uncomfortable lump from my heart, and now I want to thank you for your beautiful and pathetic little story* in June Harper's{.} I am carried back years -- and have been
Your [ work ? ] dear Miss Jewett is all delightful but I think "A Marsh Island"* very charming -- I read it over at Least once a year. Thanking you -- once more for the pleasure you have given me, I am cordially yours,
Jane M Lyon --*
Mr H. J. Lyon.
Notes
story: Jewett's "Decoration Day" appeared in Harper's Magazine in June 1892.
Lyon's capitalization is somewhat eccentric. I have presented what she appears to have written.
"A Marsh Island": Jewett's novel appeared in 1885.
Lyon: Jane M. Lyon has not yet been identified.
There are notes, probably in another hand, diagonally at the bottom of page 4:
Philip Hale*
43 Av Victor Hugo
John Howells*
Hotel Mont Blanc
Rue du Seine
Philip Hale: This may be American musician, Philip Hale (1854-1934). Wikipedia.
John Howells: The son of William Dean Howells. See Key to Correspondents.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library of Harvard University, Cambridge, MA. bMS Am 1743 Box 3, Item 140 I. Letters to Sarah Orne Jewett.
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Sarah Wyman Whitman
[ 1892 ]*
I have been thinking of you so much to-day dear (--* I wonder how things are with you -- it seems as if something brought us very near.
I have to stop now and begin my letter over again for what I have written is really all there is that must be said -- ) This bright sunny day shines through green leaves into one small sitting room. A.F.* and I have been reading or trying to read -- French stories and I hear little wooden soled shoes out in the street.
-- you cant think how different all the small details of life seem here -- and if you get thinking about them you feel very far away ^from home^ until some mysterious power takes you, as it has just taken me today, out of France and back
-- No, there seems to be a neutral ground about the earth and below the sky to which I am often carried and where today certainly you came and met me. We shall know better about these things some day --
I am so delighted about Ellen's* coming over and we shall arrange our plans so that we can meet her and Ida either in Paris or elsewhere -- Ellen wrote me about her disappointment in not coming here, but it is much better, for it [ already corrected ] grows so very hot and besides the Edmunds's* will be gone and we shall be gone --
in the pleasant country outside the town and the outlooks among the mountains -- I shall always like to remember them. This is the region of the Grande Chartreuse you know, and of Rousseaus Chambéry life -- and of Lamartines romance called Raphael* which I have [ read corrected ] with great attention and a mixture of hearty sentiment and sympathy and a little amusement -- The preface is a lovely bit of writing -- and all this Aix scenery is -- well, people must have thought it made immortal at the time, but this library copy does not seem much worn -- A.F. was in
possession of the full particulars about Raphael and had read him long ago but as for me I had never heard of him when Madame Blanc* said in a letter that I ought to read him here.
Are you in Beverly I wonder? you certainly will be by the time this reaches you -- and all the shadows of the vines flickering at the studio windows - I can always see the poor little white ghost of Beau* going slowly about when I think of it -- I wish the wise little heart of him were still there ---- but this
is all of my letter -- it makes me wish to see you too much. Love is a thing that can be sent, so find it here darling
We shall be going to Paris about the 26th of June and reach London the middle of July or a week later -- Cant you think of something that might be done?
for you? ?
I wonder if you wont be seeing Katharine Loring --* Her letter [ touch so written ] my very heart -- it is a dear Grave Soul but very lovely -- Alice James's* going has made a great empty [ place corrected ] in her life --
Notes
1892: Jewett writes during her 1892 trip to Europe.
In the Houghton folder near this letter is an envelope addressed to Mrs. Whitman at Old Place, Beverly Farms, MA. Etats Unis [ d'Amerique so spelled ]. Cancelled on 6 June 1892. Given this date, it seems unlikely to match this letter, but this indicates that Jewett wrote to Whitman from France fairly often.
dear (--: The parentheses have been penciled in, possibly by another hand.
A.F. Annie Adams Fields. Key to Correspondents
Ellen's: Ellen Frances Mason and her sister, Ida. Key to Correspondents.
Edmunds's: George Franklin Edmunds (1828-1919) was a Republican U.S. Senator from Vermont. In 1852 he married Susan Marsh (1831-1916); they had two daughters, Mary (1854-1936) and Julia (1861-1882). Wikipedia.
Rousseaus ... Lamartines: French polymath, Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778).
French poet and politician, Alphonse Marie Louis de Prat de Lamartine (1790-1869) published Raphaël in 1849. Wikipedia.
Beau: Presumably, Whitman's deceased dog.
Katharine Loring ... Alice James's: Loring and James were domestic partners. See Loring in Key to Correspondents. James died on 6 March 1892.
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.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Louisa Dresel
14 June, Aix-les-Bains. [ 1892 ]*
My dear Loulie, -- I wonder if Pyrmont* was anything at all like this! I remember it well enough in your letters to feel that there were more differences than likenesses; but a foreign bath-town is a foreign bath-town! and this amuses me a good deal. The rich and illustrious English have their season just now and are very interesting, for the most part, to me; the dignified elderly men and the fine women and charming tall girls, all have a refinement and kind of perfection of development and reasonableness, a repose and decision that I like to watch very much. They are so unconscious and nice when they start off for a walk, and wear such an air of satisfaction and triumph as they return. Later the French and Spanish bathers come, -- they are already beginning to appear, and are très gais* as you may suppose.
We know very few people here. Our dear friends, the Edmundses, are most companionable, and Mrs. Parkman Blake* is a near neighbour, and most kind and simple and friendly always. We have had some little drives and long ones together. She is going away soon I am sorry to say.
I liked your letter from the
country. I always find Pepperell* very interesting when you go
there. I keep stopping in my letter, because a funny little
Polish dame is playing Rubinstein* downstairs. She plays
pretty finely, too, though not so well as she must have played
before her fingers got quite so old, and she isn't very clear
about what she means, or rather what Rubinstein meant, when
she comes to some places in the music. Still, a great deal of
feeling comes up the crooked stairs in the notes. She is a
cross-looking person in a funny blonde wig, and has very bad
manners at table, and has a funny way of holding her head over
her plate like a hungry kitten, until you expect to hear a
handsome pin that she wears clink against the plate, like the
aforesaid kitten's padlock! This is very wicked of me, but we
are pretty friendly nevertheless, and I write in a grateful
spirit for her good music. I wish you could see her, Loulie!
She looks as if she were born in the far edge of Poland, or
wherever it was she came from, but had dwelt much in Paris and
always by herself, with not even a fellow kitten for company.
It is a great temptation to write in this spirit about people
you don't know, just as I always laugh at everybody I choose
at a circus -- you don't feel exactly as if they had
personality when you don't know them, and feel as if they were
figures merely. "They ain't folks, they're nothin' but
a parcel of images," an old friend of mine* used to say, with
some truth, -- but the minute you get beyond a certain point
of interest and acquaintance, how this all changes! -- I find
myself beginning to think of new story-people in these days,
partly because having had two or three of my sketches printed
has made me remember that part of me with surprising
vividness. I wonder if you won't look up the June -- no May
-- "Ladies' Home Journal," and read "An Every-day Girl"?* I
think there are good things in it, and I hope it will make two
or three things a little plainer to some girls who will read
it. Good-night, little Loulie. I must put down my pen now, but
I have enjoyed this bit of gossip. Love to your mother.
Notes
1892: Annie Fields includes this letter with a
group Jewett wrote during their 1898 European trip, but as the
notes below indicate, it almost certainly comes from their
1892 trip.
Pyrmont: The Columbia Gazetteer identifies "Bad Pyrmont," a town in Lower Saxony, Germany, 9 mi. SW of Hameln, a noted spa with mineral springs and mud baths. See v. 1, p. 222. (Research: Betty Rogers)
très gais: very jolly.
the Edmundses ... Mrs. Parkman Blake: George
Franklin Edmunds (1828-1919) was a Republican U.S.
Senator from Vermont. In 1852 he married Susan Marsh
(1831-1916); they had two daughters, Mary (1854-1936) and
Julia (1861-1882). Jewett and Fields enjoyed friendly
association with the family during their 1888 stay in Aiken,
SC. See the letters of March
1888.
Samuel Parkman Blake (1835-1904)
was a prominent Boston businessman. His wife, Mrs. Mary
Lee (Higginson) Parkman Blake (1838-1904) was a benefactor of
Boston's Museum of Fine Art and of Harvard University.
Pepperell: A town in north central Massachusetts, near the New Hampshire border.
playing Rubinstein: Anton Rubinstein (1829-1894) was a Russian virtuoso pianist and composer. He made a major tour of the United States in 1872-3.
an old friend: Jewett later says this was her
grandfather. See the letter 110 from Poland Spring House,
Monday, in about 1903-04. To see Jewett reusing her
grandfather's saying, see "The
Gray Mills of Farley" (1898).
In Ancestors and Immigrants
(Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1956), Barbara Miller
Solomon reads Jewett's sketch of the elderly Polish pianist as
displaying the xenophobia common among New Englanders after
the Civil War (175, 257).
Jewett's sketch of the musician
seems more carefully written than many of her letters, as if
she is thinking over material for a new story, as she suggests
near the end. The writing is playful. The musician is
accomplished, but age has diminished her ability. She is
pathetic and amusing, with her cross looks, funny wig, bad
table manners, and kitten-like demeanor. But Jewett
confesses that this uncharitable portrait is wicked, and she
reminds Dresel that she has become friendly with the woman and
feels sincere gratitude for "her good music."
Solomon notes Jewett's
repetition here of her grandfather's remark that some people
seem like a "parcel of images," made up of trivial appearances
without a real inner self. But Jewett knows this view
contains only "some truth." She is aware of her personal
temptation to emphasize the ridiculous surface at the expense
of sympathy: "but the minute you get beyond a certain
point of interest and acquaintance, how this all
changes!" This is like laughing at anyone she chooses at
the circus, and Jewett reminds her correspondent that this is
not just.
June - no May - "Ladies' Home Journal," and read "An
Every-day Girl": Jewett's story, "An
Every-Day Girl" appeared in Ladies' Home Journal
in June, July, and August of 1892 and was reprinted by Richard
Cary in Uncollected Stories of Sarah Orne Jewett.
Jewett
may
also have been thinking of her next Irish immigrant story, "Between
Mass
and
Vespers" or of "The
Flight of Betsey Lane," with its portraits of the
denizens of a rural poor farm.
Francis Jackson Garrison to Sarah Orne Jewett
4 PARK STREET
BOSTON
[ End letterhead ]
Dear Miss Jewett:
On receiving your letter of the 31st ult., I referred the royalty question raised by you to the Firm, to whom, indeed, I had mentioned our previous conversation on the subject immediately after you were here, but the matter did not then present itself either to my mind or theirs as a formal proposition on your part [ for corrected ] which you were awaiting our consideration & reply. They have now addressed you directly on the subject, and their letter will probably reach you by the same mail with this. As you will see, they do not feel that it would
I am sorry that your experiment with [ sulphur so it appears ] baths was not immediately encouraging, but trust that the benefit has been more perceptible as you have gone on with them.
Mr. Houghton* has seemed pretty well since his return, & proposes to take occasional brief trips away, for change & rest, instead of going to the seashore for the whole season as usual.
Mr. Whittier* has been at Amesbury for some weeks now, & is feeling the severe heat [ or ? ] rather violent changes of temperature a / good* deal.
F. J. Garrison.
Notes
Houghton: Oscar Houghton. Key to Correspondents.
Whittier: John Greenleaf Whittier. Key to Correspondents.
good: The slash before this word seems intended to separate more clearly "a" and "good."
death: Edwin Eastman died on 18 March 1892. See Carrie Jewett Eastman in Key to Correspondents.
Fields: 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 2, Item 76 I. Letters to Sarah Orne Jewett.
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Celia Laighton Thaxter to Annie Adams Fields and Sarah Orne Jewett
Dearest Annie & Pinny,*
This is my birth day, 57, most sixty, & a very nice birth day too! Your dear letter from Venice came & made me glad -- yes, oh yes, we were there a week & know it all, never was anything so enchanting on this planet! I remember the lines you could not recall
Open my heart & you will see
Graved inside of it -- Italy" --*
I think those are the very words --
I wonder where you are now -- how many miles away from that beautiful Venice! I hope I shall hear again soon -- I am writing this at early breakfast, 6 o'clock, the only time I can get to write! for the world has got me in its grip, & time, to do anything I wish to do, no longer exists for me. I hope you will not feel aggrieved at the pencil & trust it will be legible. it [ not capitalized] seems to be the only thing left, stylographics* failed me long ago. They ink everything except the page ^on wh^ you -- want them to write --
Notes
Pinny: Pin and Pinny were nicknames for Jewett among her closest friends. See Key to Correspondents.
Italy: Thaxter omits the opening quotation mark from her quotation of Robert Browning's "De Gustibus ---." In Edmund Stedman's Victorian Anthology (1895), the lines are:
Open my heart and you will seestylographics: The stylographic pen is an early version of a fountain pen, precursor to the ball-point pen. Like a fountain pen, a stylographic stores ink in a reservoir, feeding it to the tip or nub as one writes or draws. Most stylographic and fountain pens were susceptible to accidental leaking and blotting. Jewett mentions this kind of pen in Betty Leicester (1890), Chapter 8.
Grav’d inside of it, “Italy.”
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Boston Public Library: Celia Thaxter correspondence with Annie Fields, 1869-1893, MS C.1.38, Item 265 (incomplete). Transcription and annotation by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to an unknown recipient
My dear Sir
I have received your pleasant letter and send [ you ? ] my best thanks. I do not know that there was any relationship between my family and the late Mr John P. Jewett except perhaps the remote connection that came from his descent from the same
original stock -- a Yorkshire family that came very early to Massachusetts and settled in Rowley -- We are descended from one of the brothers named Maximilian{.} I do not know any thing of Mr. J. P. Jewetts ancestry but at one time there was a meeting of the family* and I have an idea that the different branches were pretty carefully
traced.
of your letter
Yours sincerely,
Sarah O. Jewett
Notes
meeting of the family: Jewett may refer to the family gathering at Rowley, MA on 14 June, 1855. Out of that came an extensive genealogical document: History and Genealogy of the Jewetts of America. Whether this text would answer the author's question is not known. John Punchard Jewett (1814-1884) was perhaps the best known Jewett of this name at this time; he was the head of the company that first published Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852).
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.
Mary Rice Jewett to John Greenleaf Whittier
[ 6 July 1892 ]*
Dear Mr. Whittier:
I was just thinking of sending these letters for you to read when your letter came this morning. You should have had them sooner but they have been sent to an invalid cousin to read and were just returned.
I hope these pleasant days find you much stronger. I wish you could come here for a little change for old Berwick never was more beautiful.
Isn’t it good that our travelers seem so happy?
Yours very truly
Mary R. Jewett
Wednesday
July 6th
Sarah’s address is: Care J. S. Morgan & Co., 22 Old Broad St., London
Notes
1892: Jewett and Fields were traveling in France
in July of 1892, but it seems clear their mail was going to
London. This date is inferred from the Wednesday July 6th
date that Mary gives. July 6 also fell on Wednesday in
1898, but in that summer, Mary and Theodore joined Jewett and
Fields in France in July.
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.
Marie Thérèse de Solms Blanc to Annie Adams Fields
This letter was composed in French; a transcription follows the translation.
Dear Annie,
We are taking the 9:45 train from the Lyon Station, which is quite far from your house: you will have to leave nearly an hour in advance. You should wait for me to get tickets to Melun. In Melun, we can take a small coach or a private carriage on to Barbizon.* The mailing address there is:
Hotel SironThinking of you.
Barbizon
par Chailly
Seine et Marne
I'm bringing a trunk full of books.
Notes
1892: This official "Carte-Télégramme" postcard is addressed to Jewett at 53 or 54 Avenue d'Iena, Paris. It is postmarked 6 July 1892. Handwritten in the upper left is "Marceau" Th bb. The crossing of the capital "T" is extended over the "bb." Presumably, Blanc refers to the Avenue Marceau, and the initials signify: Thérèse Blanc-Bentzon.
Barbizon: Jewett and Fields spent several days, beginning on about 8 July 1892 in a cottage in Barbizon, France, seeing local sites of interest. They were drawn to this part of France by their admiration for the painting of the French Barbizon school painter, Jean-François Millet (1814-1875). The Hotel Siron, in Barbizon, is remembered in part because British author, Robert Louis Stevenson, once stayed there.
A photocopy of the manuscript of this letter is held by Maine Women Writers Collection of the University of New England, Portland, ME: Burton Trafton Collection Box 2, Folder 90. The original is held by the Houghton Library of Harvard University, Cambridge, MA: b MS Am 1743, Sarah Orne Jewett Correspondence I, Letters to Sarah Orne Jewett, Blanc, Thérèse (de Solms) 1840-1907. 10 letters; 1892-1906 & [n.d.], 1892-1906, Identifier: (23). Transcription, translation and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College, with essential assistance from Jeannine Hammond, Professor of French, Emerita, at Coe College.
Transcription
Chère Annie,
Nous prenons le train
de 9 h. 45 à la gare
de Lyon qui est très loin
de votre maison: il
faudra que vous partiez
près d'une heure à l'avance.
Vous m'attendrez pour prendre
les billets jusqu'à Melun.
A Melun on peut prendre
soit la petite diligence soit
une voiture particulière
qui conduit à Barbizon{.}
L'adresse pour les lettres
est hôtel Siron*
par Chailly
Seine et Marne
[ Pensées à vous ? ]
J'emporte une
malle avec des
livres tout plein.
John Greenleaf Whittier to Annie Adams Fields and Sarah Orne Jewett
July 7 1892
AF & S O. J
I suppose you are now at Aix les Bains{.}* I ought to have answered A F's dear letter before this, but I have been feeling ill -- a [ sort ? ] of relapse of the grippe, I fancy -- and I waited to feel in better condition for writing. I came here
My niece Mrs Pickard* has just got back from a delightful journey [ deleted word: mistake writing "south"] south and west to [ unrecognized name: Newhall ? ]
[ Page 3 ]
July 8. I have just had some of [ Sarah's ? ] letters sent me by her
[ Page 4 ]
Notes
Oak Knoll: This letter is written on a special stationary with, in the upper left of page 1, an engraved image entitled "Whittier's Birthplace." Centered on the page beneath the image is printed text that Whittier had deleted: "Haverhill, Mass.," and on the right margin after this text is a number, 18, which appears to have been added in black ink and in another hand.
Aix les Bains: Aix-les-Bains is a spa town in southeastern France.
4th: Whittier refers to July 4, Independence Day in the United States.
Pickard: Richard Cary says that Elizabeth Hussey (1843-1909) was the daughter of Whittier's brother Matthew and namesake of his sister. She assumed the other "Lizzie's" place in Whittier's household from 1864 to 1876, the year she married Samuel T. Pickard, editor of the Portland Transcript and, later, biographer of Whittier.
sister: Mary Rice Jewett. See Key to Correspondents.
Cartlands: Richard Cary says that Joseph Cartland (1810-1898) and Whittier's cousin, Gertrude Cartland (1822-1911), accompanied Whittier on his summer vacations in Maine and New Hampshire for five decades, and Whittier lived in their home at Newburyport, Massachusetts most of his last fifteen winters.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Huntington Library, San Marino, CA, in the James T. Fields collection: mss FI 1-5303. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College
Also included with this letter is a clipping of Whittier's poem, "The Wind of March." The poem apparently was reprinted from The Independent. Whittier included the composition or occasion date at the end: Newburyport, Third Mo. 4, 1892.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Sarah Wyman Whitman
Now they live at Barbizon! in a little stone house covered with vines -- you open a big gate on the narrow paved street and come into the courtyard that might almost be the farmyard at night painted by Millet that Mr Shaw has --* Millet's own house is only a stone's throw away and when they drove from the railway station at Melun they had to cross that well-known plain -- almost as familiar as any place in Berwick! -- and when they saw the low sunlight -- the old church with its low pointed tower {,} the fields of green, the windings of
my darling picture at Mr. Shaw's -- of the piece of wild moorland and the gray rabbit! --------------------
We came here with Madame Blanc* who knows and loves the place very well: you must remember how I have been writing to her these many years without seeing her -- and I can truly say that when I was [ mounting corrected ] her stairs my heart was heavy with fear of what might happen, but I do indeed love her very much. It was a very dangerous thing to see so old a friend for the first time but I cant say how perfectly delightful A. F. and I both find Madame Blanc and how we look forward to your knowing her and liking her too. I think it very likely that she will come to Boston with us or just after us this autumn
She is French of the French is "Th. Bentzon" -- and has been so associated with the best of French writers and people of letters that we [ are ? ] all the time enchanted by what she has to say -- She has brought down a package of George Sands' unprinted letters to herself as a young girl* to read to us which is a feast in itself -- It is very dull of me to write all this. I felt quite like Mr. Lowell's fond bit of slang ^Oh^ [Hail ?] a hall!"* a moment ago as I [wrote corrected ] -- but indeed being here and being here with her is most delightful.
You can't think how much better I am lately! I announce
the fact with triumph and I am afraid you will think the letter cant be from me -- you have had so many letters of groanings and despair. Every body said at Aix that you didn't feel much good from the baths* until after three months or so, but I suddenly find myself more cheerful and I may say limber! than for a very long time before -- It is pronounced to be rheumatic gout* that afflicts me, and probably always will more or less, and tired-out-ness is a symptom for it to be discovered but while it is worse in some thing's [so the text appears ] than either
of the maladies which give it name in some other things it is better than either, and having [managed corrected] to get through with the worst it can do to me I now proceed to enjoy myself as a rheumatic gout patient at her best. ----- and now I have put me to the expense of a hall for the second time w[ith] one short letter -- Never mind dear darling! which is to say, I know you wont mind.
We mean to stay in France until we have seen Ellen and Ida.* I am waiting to hear from Ellen now before we make any plans about leaving here, but
at any rate we shall stay pretty well through next week. Tomorrow I suppose they sail. I saw Rose Lamb* day before yesterday looking so fresh and so bright and well. The three years [ deleted word ] ^abroad^ have really done wonders for her.
I can look through the door into A.F.'s room and there the dear thing is, sound asleep in her chair by the big window with a book in her lap. She does not look or seem much stronger than ever -- Oh yes she does look better than in the winter when we came away, but I am always hoping that she will
be a very great deal better. We have been in the forest the whole long morning. I send you her love just as if she were awake, and mine as if I were asleep! Goodbye dear, and I say bless you and Heaven keep you in every one of these days
SOJ
Notes
1892: This manuscript has been edited in pencil, with marks and words added, presumably by Annie Adams Fields when she was considering including parts of it in Letters of Sarah Orne Jewett (1911). I have ignored these items in making this transcription. Fields omitted parts of this letter in her collection.
farmyard at night ... Millet ... Mr Shaw: Quincy Adams Shaw (1825-1908) was a businessman who became one of the wealthiest men in Boston. He married Pauline Agassiz (1841-1917), daughter of the Swiss born Harvard naturalist, Louis Agassiz. Among the couple's many philanthropic activities was collecting art that eventually became part of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts collection. In the Shaw collection were many works by the French Barbizon school painter Jean-François Millet (1814-1875), including two pastels: "Farmyard at Night" and "The Rabbit-Warren." The latter probably is the work to which Jewett later refers as "my darling picture." See also: Quincy Adams Shaw Collection: Italian Renaissance Sculpture: Paintings and Pastels by Jean François Millet : Exhibition Opening April 18, 1918.
Millet, "Farmyard at Night"
Image courtesy of "The Athenaeum.org"
Millet, "The Rabbit Warren"
Image courtesy of Pinterest.
Madame Blanc: Marie Thérèse de Solms Blanc, who published under the name Th. Bentzon. See Key to Correspondents.
George Sands' ... letters to herself as a young girl: Amantine Lucile Aurore Dupin (1804-1876), French novelist and playwright, wrote under the pseudonym, George Sand. Jewett appears to say that Madame Blanc reads from letters that Sand wrote to herself, that is, to Sand as a young girl. However no such work is known to exist. But George Sand did correspond with Madame Blanc, when Blanc was in her early 20s. These letters, in French, may be found in George Sand, Correspondance: Tome XVI de juillet 1860 à mars 1862 and Tome XVII de Avril 1862 à juillet 1863. (Research assistance: Jeannine Hammond, Coe College, and Franck de Nice, administrator of Mon Carnet George Sand.)
Mr. Lowell's ... fond bit of slang ^Oh^ [Hail ?] a hall!" James Russell Lowell. See Key to Correspondents. The transcription of Lowell's slang is uncertain, and Jewett's reference remains undiscovered.
Aix ... baths: "Rising from the shores of the largest natural lake of glacial origin in France, the Lac du Bourget, [Aix-les-Bains] is one of the important French spa towns."
rheumatic gout: Wikipedia says "Gout is a form of inflammatory arthritis characterized by recurrent attacks of a red, tender, hot, and swollen joint.... The joint at the base of the big toe is affected in about half of cases." Wikipedia defines "rheumatism" as a spectrum of disorders with symptoms of intermittent pain in joints and other areas. Jewett's diagnosis indicates that she suffers from one of these.
Ellen and Ida: Ellen Frances and Ida Mason. See Key to Correspondents.
Rose Lamb: See Key to Correspondents.
3 Merrimans ... Roger: Helen Bigelow Merriman, with her husband Daniel and their son, Roger. See Key to Correspondents.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library of Harvard University, Cambridge. MA: Whitman, Sarah (Wyman) 1842-1904, recipient. 25 letters; 1892-[1900] & [n.d.]. Sarah Orne Jewett additional correspondence, 1868-1930. MS Am 1743.1 (126). Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Alice Greenwood (Mrs. George D.) Howe
Chailly, 9 July, 1892.
Dearest Alice, -- Now they live in Barbizon, on the edge of the forest of Fontainebleau,* under the very eaves I ought to say, and they are having a beautiful good time, and in the day-time they play in the woods, and after dinner they walk out on the great plain and hear (and almost see!) the Angélus.* I wish I had time to write a long letter all about Paris and Madame Blanc who brought us here. I can tell you that I went up her stairs with my heart much a-feared, -- it is an awful experiment to see so old a friend for the first time, -- but I found her even more dear and kind and delightful than she has been in her letters for those eight long years. There has been no end to her friendliness, and what I have liked very much, she has taken us to see some of her friends, one ideal French lady, a comtesse* of the old school, in the Place Vendôme, whose self and house together were like a story-book. You would simply love the drives here, but I dare say you know them much better than I. Last night we strayed far out on the great plain, and when we were coming back I heard a man with his heavy scythe cutting the wheat, and it was so dark I couldn't see him, and perfectly still, except the noise he made, the sharp swish of the scythe and the soft fall of the grain; one couldn't hear it so by day. When we hear the Angélus we can't help looking all about for two figures with bent heads. Millet's own house is close by ours.* We have some rooms in a pretty old place, covered with vines; you go out through a half court-yard and half farm-yard and open a big gate to the narrow paved street -- and a nice piggy lives in a little stone mansion close by this gate. I feel very much at home, being in truth a country person, but nobody could help loving Barbizon.
O little pains! Mes
petite breads!
I break with joy your crisp
young heads
In you no dreadful soda lurks
To stab me with a thousand
dirks.
Some baker immigrant should
bring
You to my New World suffering.*
Notes
Barbizon, on the edge of the forest of Fontainebleau: Barbizon is a village at the edge of Fontainebleau forest about 30 miles south of Paris. A group of French landscape painters was associated with this area in the mid-nineteenth century.the Angélus: bell announcing the Roman Catholic
devotion commemorating the Incarnation of Christ, which is
said in the morning, at noon, and in the evening. Presumably
Jewett refers to the Millet painting. See below.
Place Vendôme: A major street intersection in Paris, where stands a column commemorating Napoleon's victories.
Millet's own house: Jean François Millet (1814-1875), a French painter noted for scenes of country and peasant life. Born in Normandy, he studied in Cherbourg and Paris, where he worked until 1849, when he moved to Barbizon. One of his well-known paintings is "The Angélus" (1859), in the collection of the Musée d'Orsay, Paris.
comtesse: Almost certainly this is Sophie de Beaulaincourt. See Key to Correspondents.
suffering: Jewett's praise of French bread suggests that she may have suffered from sensitivity to the sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) often used in quick breads.
This letter appears in Annie Fields, Letters of Sarah Orne Jewett (1911), Transcribed by Annie Adams Fields, with notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to John Greenleaf Whittier
Dear friend I think of you so often and I have sent much love with every letter that our dear A.F. has written to tell you of our goings on. Now that my eyes are so much better I shall be writing to you too -- there is one thing that she doesn't write about: I am sure that she doesn't tell you about herself and that I can do at any rate! Every day I watch so eagerly to see if she is not too tired, and I do believe that you would think that she looks much better than when we were coming away. With all our sight seeing &c we have had a great many quiet weeks and ^have^ seen
a good deal of quiet country places in Italy and France and that is always good for A.F. Everywhere she goes people are so fond of her and appreciate in a very dear way her kindness and sympathy. I like to see how old friends greet her and new friends make her welcome -- but all these things you have known longer than I have. You can't think how much we enjoy as go along -- I wish you had been with us on the 6th of June - her birthday -- when we were driving from Martigny to Chamouny -- up the high green
valley toward the snow and almost touching it by the roadside and then going down among the flowers and green fields again -- On the way up we passed families of peasants with their flocks and herds, capering goats and lambs and children and the old grandmothers with their long staffs, and all the cowbells and goat bells clinking and clanking going up to the highest mountain châlets for June pasturing. We had a big paper of candy and gave it to the children who took it with surprise and delight -- A.F. had gone out in the early morning at Martigny to buy it and she
also got a little sheep bell for me to carry home to you -- it is such a funny old-fashioned little bell -- it somehow makes you feel like a small lamb in the bayberry bushes to hear it! ---- I have better news from home {--} my [ two sisters corrected ] are much better and more cheerful and they have had friends staying with them a good deal -- If you should go to Greenacre this summer or Mr. and Mrs. Cartland,* do please let them know -- Perhaps nothing is better for them than driving about our own dear bit of countryside, though I wished a good deal at one time that they would come over and meet us in England --
Sarah.
Kindly remember me to Mrs. Cate if you are still there --
Notes
1892: In the upper left corner of page one appear these notes probably in two other hands: "S. Jewett" (ink) and "1892" (pencil). In the bottom left corner is another such note: "Jewett".
A.F.: Annie Adams Fields. Key to Correspondents.
sisters: Jewett's sisters were Mary Rice Jewett and Caroline Jewett Eastman. While Fields and Jewett were in Europe, Caroline's husband, Edwin Eastman died unexpectedly on 18 March. Key to Correspondents.
Cartland: Richard Cary says that Joseph Cartland (1810-1898) and Whittier's cousin Gertrude Cartland (1822-1911) accompanied Whittier on his summer vacations in Maine and New Hampshire for five decades, and Whittier lived in their home at Newburyport, Massachusetts most of his last fifteen winters.
The "C" in Cartland appears to be underlined twice.
Cate: 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.
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.
Lucia Gray Swett Alexander to Sarah Orne Jewett
10 July, 1892.
My dear Cousin,
I am afraid you will think me somewhat presumptuous to address you in these terms, but you must follow the example of the good patient man, whose wife used to beat him, who remarked it did him no harm and it pleased her -- We were delighted with your letter, and to know you are both well and happy, and holding us in kind remembrance -- I hope the rheumatism is permanently cured, it might attack many of us common people, and be more easily pardoned, but any thing that touches your precious eyes is a calamity indeed, for you, to whom it must be a delight to write as you do, and to all the rest of humanity who have the privilege of reading what you write. I can speak feelingly at present on this subject, for every morning we begin the day with you. Francesca*
[ Page 4 ]
L. Alexander
Notes
Francesca: Alexander's daughter. Key to Correspondents.
Captain Ball: "The Taking of Captain Ball" appeared in Harper's Magazine in December 1889 and was collected in Strangers and Wayfarers (1890).
Bogans: "The Luck of the Bogans" appeared in Scribner's Magazine in January 1889 and was collected in Strangers and Wayfarers (1890).
Masons: Ellen and Ida Mason. Key to Correspondents.
Cushing: This person has not yet been identified.
Curtises ... Gardners: Probably the families of George William Curtis and Isabella Stewart Gardner. Key to Correspondents.
Effie Lowell ... Cabot: These persons have not yet been identified.
Smith ... Whittier: John Greenleaf Whittier. Key to Correspondents.
Mrs. Smith has not yet been identified.
Mary Low: Mary Sheafe Low Swett (1823-1893), Alexander's sister-in-law, who married Samuel Bourne Swett (1810-1890).
Ida may be Ida Mason.
Fields: 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 1, 7. Letters to Sarah Orne Jewett.
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Robert Collyer to Annie Adams Fields
Leeds
Dear Friend
I am here in good care. We had a tumbling voyage the half way this way but were no worse for it. I guess Mrs Dexter* gave in at the table which was near ours but was bright as a dollar all the same when they could get on deck. "Ours" was Mr & Mrs Eastman* and two of the Bairns who were well all the way as seagulls or Mother Careys Chickens --* thats a [ Current Carey ? ] but it don't look like one -- Also Mr Gill was of "ours" and Mrs Bell* with her three bairns so we had good company. That ceremonial will be on the second of August I think which is a Tuesday. Sunday and Monday are the days of the village feast
and that will be a sort of ending up but it may be Wednesday before we can have our turn.* We are not sure Mr Gill will go over from here to morrow and consult with the village magnates and the Trustees of the Foundation.
It is not in Ilkley bless you but some six miles away in the Dale of the Washburn to the north over Asquith moor but if you should come you would have to make Ilkley your headquarters where there are very good Hotels and take a carriage from there in the morning to return in the evening. The place is called Timble { -- } it is the very essence of the rustic life and behind all the times we know of or can find in our dear north{,} but wholesome after a fashion and one of the thousands of such places where they have raised men for England this thousand years
to me but the enchanted eyes can not be "you uns" any more than the "Marsh Island"* and sitch can be mine.
always yours
Robert Collyer
Notes
turn: Collyer omits many periods in this letter. I have supplied them wherever they seem necessary.
Mrs Dexter: Collyer's friends included Chicago lawyer Wirt Dexter (1832-1890) and his wife, Josephine Moore (1846-1937).
Eastman: Collyer's daughter, Harriet Eastman. See Collyer in Key to Correspondents.
Mother Careys Chickens: This phrase may be remembered best as the title of a 1911 novel by Kate Douglas Wiggin (1856-1923). See Key to Correspondents. However, the phrase has an earlier, 18th century origin, referring to a seabird, the storm petrel.
Gill: Robinson Gill (1829-1897) of Timble immigrated to the United States, where he became a successful businessman and a member of Collyer's All Souls Universalist Church in Brooklyn. In 1892, he built the Robinson library in Timble to benefit his home community and provide a memorial for his maternal ancestors. Robert Collyer spoke at the opening of the library in 1892 and at an 1898 memorial service at Timble, following Gill's death. Paula Blanchard, in Sarah Orne Jewett, indicates that Fields and Jewett attended the original dedication in August of 1892 (p. 264), but no documentary support for this has yet appeared. However, they did attend the memorial service in 1898. See Fields's account of the August event in her 1898 "Diary of a Trip to France."
Bell: Lizzie French Eastman Bell (1857-1895) was the sister of Joseph Eastman, who married Collyer's daughter, Harriet. See Collyer in Key to Correspondents. Lizzie Eastman married Sir Henry Bell (1848-1931); their children were: Sir Eastman Bell, Henry Bell, and Lucy Putnam Bell Fitzgerald. See Sir Henry Bell's obituary in the New York Times of 17 March 1931, p. 36.
Eden: The Garden is Eden is a paradise in the the biblical book of Genesis.
"Marsh Island": Collyer refers to Sarah Orne Jewett's 1885 novel, A Marsh Island. Both Fields and Jewett were, at this time, traveling in Europe. See 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.
Robert Collyer to Annie Adams Fields
Leeds July 14th 1892
Dear Mrs Fields
I have sent a note on to [ Aix ? ] in the hope that it may reach you there and write this on the chance that you may have left for London.
I am here all right at the address you have and shall stay hereabouts until after August second when we have the doings which are not at Ilkley but over the moor. Its all in the note which will reach you somewhere including a faint hope that you may not be able to come just for that while a visit to Ilkley -- Bolton -- and
shall we say Haworth would be nuts and tarts. I guess my children Hattie and Joe who came along in the steamer will come into Yorkshire early in August. They are staying with Mr & Mrs Bell* 5 Cornwall Terrace Regents Park London. Mrs Bell you know is my son in law Mr Eastmans sister {-- } can you not drop in on them the both* of you{?}
Robert Collyer
Notes
London: Collyer omits many periods in this letter. I have supplied them wherever they seem necessary.
Mrs Bell: Lizzie French Eastman Bell (1857-1895) was the sister of Joseph Eastman, who married Collyer's daughter, Harriet. See Collyer in Key to Correspondents. Lizzie Eastman married Sir Henry Bell (1848-1931); their children were: Sir Eastman Bell, Henry Bell, and Lucy Putnam Bell Fitzgerald. See Sir Henry Bell's obituary in the New York Times of 17 March 1931, p. 36.
both: Collyer means both Fields and Sarah Orne Jewett, who were traveling in Europe at this time. See 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.
Robert Collyer to Annie Adams Fields
Dear Friend also
The [ ball ? ] is at two o-clock or thereabouts. "The Middleton" in Ilkley will be the best hotel for a brief knock about sojourn and for [ livery ? ] "The Ilkley Wells House" for a longer stay{,} both nice as new [ unrecognized word ]{.} Mrs John Dickenson will want you to stop for tea (and tarts) after meet'n { -- } she is only afraid American ladies will think it is not what they can enjoy but I know before you get away you twain* you will have won her heart for ever more. Why don't you come north on Saturday to Ilkley{?} We mean to drive over from Timble way Sunday morning to Bolton Abbey to Church [ i e ? ] services { -- } it would be pleasant and easy for you to drive over from Ilkley only 6 miles but we shall not drive over if it is wet and wild.
on sermon paper
I preach in London
Aug 7th
Notes
thereabouts: Collyer omits many periods in this letter. I have supplied them wherever they seem necessary.
Mrs John Dickenson: John Dickinson (1844-1912) kept diaries that were edited to become Timble Man: Diaries of a Dalesman (1988). They provide a history of the village, mainly 1878-1912. His wife was Fanny Holmes (1859-1927). While most other sources spell his name "Dickinson," Collyer seems to have written "Dickenson." Fields records meeting the Dickinsons in her diary of the 1898 trip she and Jewett made to Europe.
See Collyer's other letters to Fields from July 1892.
twain: Collyer means both Fields and Sarah Orne Jewett. See Key to Correspondents.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Huntington Library, San Marino, CA, in the James T. Fields Papers and Addenda Box 10: mss Fl 1-5637. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
George Du Maurier to Sarah Orne Jewett
Hampstead Heath.
[ End letterhead ]
My dear Mifs Jewett,
I need hardly tell you how pleased I was to get your kind letter -- which I have deferred answering till today, the day you mention for your arrival in London.
It will give us the greatest pleasure if you & Mrs. Fields* will come to see us here -- would you come any day to lunch with us at 1.30? letting us know a day
before hand -- or to tea at five, and a walk on the heath after? It is a pretty place and Lowell* was very fond of it & often [ came ? ]
I am so delighted you should have seen the mare d'auteuil,* tho of course it is very different from what it was when first I saw it as a small boy fifty years ago -- as all the forest has been cut away, and the shape of the [ unreadable word ] itself has been altered.
You will be charmed with Whitby I feel sure, and I hope
Memories of Lowell* are in every corner of it -- and it was there last year that we heard of his death. He thoroughly loved the place, I think -- now so do we.
Hoping to see you soon & Mrs. Fields
George du Maurier
Note in another hand ]
Notes
Fields: Annie Adams Fields. See Key to Correspondents.
Jewett and Fields met du Maurier in Whitby in late August.
mare d'auteuil: A small lake in the Bois de Boulogne, Paris, France.
Lowell: James Russell Lowell died in on 12 August 1891. See Key to Correspondents.
Ibbetson: du Maurier's first novel, Peter Ibbetson (1891).
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library of Harvard University: Sarah Orne Jewett Correspondence Series: I. Letters to Sarah Orne Jewett MS Am 1743 (53) Du Maurier, George, 1834-1896. 4 letters; 1891-1893. This transcription is from a photocopy held by the Maine Women Writer's Collection, University of New England, Letters from Sarah Orne Jewett, 1875-1890, Box 4, Folder 159, Burton Trafton Jewett Research Collection.
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Sarah Wyman Whitman
Ilkley -- Yorkshire 30 July [ 1892 ]*
Now they live in London at 22 Clarges St. but they send a
sprig of heather from the Yorkshire moors to [ which written
over where ] they have come for a few days and will not
finish this letter until they have been to Haworth -- -- Dear,
I am so sorry about your eye. I was afraid there was
something: I could not find you just right when I thought of
you -- I remember how bad an eye it was once seven or eight
years ago. Do be careful of it, I beg you this hard a [ so
it appears ] because mine are not yet mended to their
old estate though much better since Aix and delighting in the
promise made them there of being quite well soon.
-- And now this is two
[ Page 2 ]
days after the first beginning of this letter and I long to
tell you now much I love this Yorkshire country, the Bolton
Abbey of Wordsworths White Doe of Rylstone,* and Wharfedale
with its green fields that touch the sky and its great brown
moors, full of brooks and springs and peat bogs and grown
thick with budding heather like fur on their long backs. We
have climbed them as far as we could and driven over them,
footing it bravely when the carriage could hardly be pulled
with us in it. On the top the air is the sweetest and coolest
air in the world. You follow the old road through the heather
and fern and
[ Page 3 ]
see the whole sky for once and the moor, and nothing else. I
love to tell you about it { -- } I truly do. I wish --- well
my darling I like it so much on those high places that I just
wish it was you who had seen them and was a writing to me!
Today we went to Haworth* and found it most appealing.
People had said that the Brontë church was pulled down and the
rectory all changed and that a railroad went to the town which
had set up manufactures and grown to 6000 inhabitants; but we
sagely remembered such [ advices or advisers ] about
other places. There were those who told us that there was
nothing to be
[ Page 4 ]
seen at Les Charmettes* -- So we went to Haworth and it is
true that the church is a good deal bedizened and
that the rectory is a little modernized -- worst of all that
the present vicar resents pilgrims to the shrine of the Brontë
family, but he didn't bite us and let us see things pretty
pleasant. It is a dreadfully sad old village -- the moors
aren't so kind and sheltering as at Ilkley here, but farther
back from poor Haworth and the plaintive sound of the old
chimes will haunt my ears for many a day. You go up a long
steep narrow street to the top of a hill -- it all looks
pretty much as it did when that household known of the world
now, burned their lights of genius like
[ Page 5 ]
candles flaring in a cave -- like will o' the wisps of their
upland country shut up, captives and prisoners in that gloomy
old stone house. Nothing you ever read about them can make you
know them until you go there -- I can see the little pale
faces of those sisters at the vicarage windows -- and the
Black Bull Inn* where the strange young brother used to
comfort himself with light and laughter and country revelry
and break their hearts at the same time is a little way down
the hill -- Never mind people who tell you there is nothing to
see in the places where people lived who interest you! You
always find something of what made them the souls they were,
and at
[ Page 6 ]
any rate you see their sky and their earth.
----- We had some days near Bristol at Miss Edwards's house
with Katie Bradbury* -- it was like a visit to a ghost by
which I have no idea of saying that it was altogether sad --
on the contrary! and her library is a room you would like
dearly. One always felt that she must be coming into it next
minute. I shall tell you much more than this about the
Larches* some day. The greatest pleasure so far in London has
been a good walk on Hampstead Heath with Mr. du Maurier* --
and seeing all his Peter Ibbetson drawings -- This is only a
beginning to a letter. A.F.* is discovered to be keeping awake
in her room until I show signs of going to sleep{.} I shall
put her love in just the same but good night and good by for
this time dear SW
[ Up the right margin of page 6 ]
Notes
Ilkley, Yorkshire: Jewett wrote this during her 1892 trip to Europe with Annie Fields.Wikipedia says: "Ilkley is a spa town and civil parish in the City of Bradford, West Yorkshire, in Northern England."
the Bolton Abbey of Wordsworth's "White Doe of Rylstone" ... Wharfdale: William Wordsworth (1770-1850) published his book The White Doe of Rylstone in 1815. Wikipedia says: "Bolton Abbey is an estate in Wharfedale in North Yorkshire, England, which takes its name from the ruins of the 12th-century Augustinian monastery -- now generally known as Bolton Priory."
"Les Charmettes": Les Charmettes is a country home open to tourists in the 19th century, where, according to a 1907 Baedeker guide to Southern France, Rousseau and Mme. De Warens resided.
Haworth: Anne (1820-1849), Charlotte (1816-1855), and Emily Brontë (1818-1848) wrote their famous novels while living at Haworth Parsonage in Yorkshire, England.
Black Bull Inn: Patrick Branwell Brontë (1817-1848) was "an English painter and writer. He was the only son of the Brontë family, and brother of the writers Charlotte, Emily and Anne. Brontë was rigorously tutored at home by his father, and shared much of his sisters’ creative talent, earning praise for his poetry and translations from the classics. But he drifted between jobs, supporting himself by portrait-painting, and gave way to drug and alcohol addiction, apparently worsened by a failed relationship with a married woman, leading to his early death." He was a well-known "character" at the Black Bull Inn in Haworth (see The Bronte Country by J. A. E. Stuart, 1888, pp. 160-1).
Miss Edwards's house with Katie Bradbury: 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." After 1864, her residence was at Westbury-on-Trym, Bristol, Great Britain. Wikipedia
Kate Bradbury (1854-1902) lived at Riversvale Hall near Ashton-Under-Lyne in Great Britain. She married Francis Llewellyn Griffith (1862-1934) in 1896. Both were Egyptologists. See also Riversvale Hall: The Story Of A Victorian Country House.
Mr. du Maurier ... Peter Ibbetson drawings: Wikipedia says: "George Louis Palmella Busson du Maurier (1834 -8 October 1896) was a Franco-British cartoonist and author, known for his drawings in Punch and for his novel Trilby." Peter Ibbetson, his first novel (1891) was adapted for stage, film and opera. Du Maurier drew a large number of illustrations for this novel.
A.F.: Annie Adams Fields. See Key to Correspondents.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library of Harvard University, Cambridge. MA: Whitman, Sarah (Wyman) 1842-1904, recipient. 25 letters; 1892-[ 1900 ] & [ n.d. ]. Sarah Orne Jewett additional correspondence, 1868-1930. MS Am 1743.1 (126). Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Fields Transcription
Annie Fields included part of this letter in Letters of Sarah Orne Jewett (1911). Her transcription follows.
I long to tell you how much I love this Yorkshire country, the Bolton Abbey of Wordsworth's "White Doe of Rylstone," and Wharfedale, with its green fields that touch the sky, and its great brown moors, full of brooks and springs and peat-bogs and grown thick with budding heather, like fur on their long backs. We have climbed them as far as we could and driven over them, footing it bravely when the carriage could hardly be pulled with us in it. On the top the air is the sweetest and coolest air in the world. You follow the old road through the heather and fern and see the whole sky for once, and the moor, and nothing else.
Today we went to Haworth and found it most appealing. People had said that the Brontë church was pulled down and the rectory all changed, and that a railroad went to the town, which had set up manufactures and grown to 6000 inhabitants; but we sagely remembered such advices about other places. There were those who told us that there was nothing to be seen at "Les Charmettes." So we went to Haworth, and it is true that the church is a good deal bedizened, that the rectory is a little modernized, most of all that the present vicar resents pilgrims to the shrine of the Brontë family, but he didn't bite us. It is a dreadfully sad old village. The moors aren't so kind and sheltering as at Ilkley, here, but farther back from poor Haworth, and the plaintive sound of the old chimes will haunt my ears for many a day. You go up a long steep narrow street to the top of a hill. It all looks pretty much as it did when that household, known of the world now, burned their lights of genius like candles flaring in a cave, like will o' the wisps of their upland country, shut up, captives and prisoners, in that gloomy old stone house. Nothing you ever read about them can make you know them until you go there. I can see the little pale faces of those sisters at the vicarage windows; and the Black Bull Inn, where the strange young brother used to comfort himself with light and laughter and country revelry, and break their hearts at the same time, is a little way down the hill. Never mind people who tell you there is nothing to see in the place where people lived who interest you. You always find something of what made them the souls they were, and at any rate you see their sky and their earth.John Greenleaf Whittier to Annie Adams Fields
Aug. 8 1892
My dearest Friend
I have thee and dear Sarah* always in my mind, but the awful heat of this season, which I am glad you have escaped, has compelled me { to } refrain from attempting to make any exercise of mind or body. Today the [ sultry ? ] humid air has been changed by thunderstorms and
a cool wind blows from the north west. We are fortunate in finding [ very corrected ] pleasant quarters here, on a high swell of land looking over the wide green meadow and Hampton river and the [ the repeated ] sand-bar and the ocean beyond. I was here three weeks before the interviewers found me{.} A very persistent one came yesterday, and wanted to make a syndicate of me, [ whatever corrected ] that may be. As he did not seem disposed to go I went, and left him.
You, of course, have heard of the great Carnegie strike, the murders, the attempted [ assassination ? ] of the agent of the works by a N. Y. Anarchist, and the calling out of the State militia.* There really seemed no adequate cause for ^the^ strike. There was been no stir yet in the political world, and the election is likely to be a very quiet one. The murder of Borden* and his wife, at Fall River is causing much excitement as the daughter is suspected. Boston is deserted by all who can get away, and gives no sign of life. What is doing in the literary {world}
I do not know as I read but little.
This {is} a very old place. My mother's [ ancestors settled ? ] here and hereabout as early as 1640, and built the mill on the little river. The old mansion of Gov. Weare* is here -- and, of course, Gen Washington slept in one of its chambers when on his way to Portsmouth. I have no idea where you now are or when you think of returning. It has been a great comfort to hear from thee. Sarah's sister Mary* has kindly let me read her letters. My cousins send their
love. I am thankfully thy friend
Hampton Falls N.H.: A note in another hand at the top left of page 1 reads: "His last letter to Mrs A. F."
Huntington Library archivists have read Whittier's ambiguous handwriting to determine that he composed this letter in Hampton Falls, North Carolina, but there seems to be no such town in North Carolina. The letter's content indicates he actually wrote from Hampton Falls, New Hampshire.
Sarah: Sarah Orne Jewett.
Carnegie strike: Whittier refers to the Homestead Steel Strike which began on 1 July 1892, and ended finally in November with the defeat of the Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers.
Wikipedia says the strike resulted from the Carnegie Steel Company's decision to break the union. The conflict quickly escalated, and the company brought in Pinkerton agents to break picket lines and admit nonunion workers. Shooting led to a number of deaths on both sides. When Pinkertons failed to dislodge the strikers, several thousand Pennsylvania state militia subdued the strikers and re-opened the plant.
"On July 23, Alexander Berkman, a New York anarchist with no connection to steel or to organized labor, plotted with his lover Emma Goldman to assassinate Frick [ Henry Clay Frick, manager of the Homestead operation]. He came in from New York, gained entrance to Frick's office, then shot and stabbed the executive. Frick survived and continued his role; Berkman was sentenced to 22 years in prison."
election: Democrat Grover Cleveland defeated incumbent Republican Benjamin Harrison in the 1892 U.S. Presidential election. Whittier died on 7 September, not living to seeing the election outcome.
murder of Borden: Wikipedia says that Lizzie Andrew Borden (1860-1927) "was the main suspect in the August 4, 1892, axe murders of her father and stepmother in Fall River, Massachusetts. Borden was tried and acquitted of the murders."
Weare: Meshech Weare (1713-1786) an American revolutionary statesman was the first President (governor) of New Hampshire (1886-1785). First American president, George Washington's visit to the house in Hampton Falls, NH, has been documented, according to Wikipedia.
Mary: Mary Rice Jewett. See Key to Correspondents.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Huntington Library, San Marino, CA, in the James T. Fields collection: mss FI 72-5301. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Annie Adams Fields to Thomas Bailey Aldrich
Dear friend:
The dark dull day was lighted by your "Sea Longings{.}" It is a poem to live by! I feel happy when I think of home, that you are ours, and that we really see you and can love you both --
It is very wet and sunless here just now, but intensely interesting as usual. We have been seeing all the old Sir William Dugdale* books at the lady's house* you will recall and many other interesting people and things of which & whom we will talk together soon. We sail on the 22d of Septr --
Sarah sends you both her love with mine. May we meet soon again. Best regards to Mr. Pierce.* Bon voyage.
We go North in about a week, but we stay here until we go to Whitby & Scotland.
Notes
1892: The upper right corner of the page has been cut away. However, the content makes clear that this letter was written from England during the European trip Fields and Jewett made during the spring and summer of 1892.
"Sea Longings": Aldrich's "Sea-Longings" appeared in Century Magazine in August 1892.
Sir William Dugdale: There were several prominent Englishmen of this name. Probably Fields refers to William Stratford Dugdale (1828-1882) who died heroically in an 1882 mining accident. He was a beloved pupil of Benjamin Jowett at Oxford. In The Life and Letters of Benjamin Jowett (1897) appears Mrs. Dugdale's account of her husband's love and respect for his teacher and Jowett's letter to her upon Dugdale's death. See Jewett to Sarah Wyman Whitman of 20 August 1892.
Sarah: Sarah Orne Jewett. See Key to Correspondents.
Pierce: Henry Lille Pierce. See Key to Correspondents.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library of Harvard University: MS Am 1429, Box 6, Items 1446-1538. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Mary Augusta (Mrs. Humphry) Ward to Annie Adams Fields
TRING.
Dear Mrs Fields
I am very sorry -- your letter to me if I remember right, reached me one day at Grosvenor Place when I had gone up from here to consult a doctor. I was then ill, read it hastily, meant to answer it, came down
here a good deal worse, & as I penitently admit quite forgot it. Ever since that day I have been on [ deleted word ] the sofa ^or in bed^ struggling with the results of a horrid internal chill, & very dazed and stupid in mind. So I hope you will forgive me -- though I find it hard to forgive myself! --
I wish I could tell you
where Ethel* is, but at this moment I do not know! Last week she went to Scotland, promising to send us her address when she knew it, but it has not come, and neither my sister nor I have an idea where she is. Somewhere in Skye we believe -- but that is hardly an address!
Directly I know it, I will send it to you -- Meanwhile, would it be possible for you to
come ^down^ here to lunch one day next week? -- on Wednesday, or Saturday? We should be so glad to see you, & we are very accessible from London -- The 11.45 train from Euston would bring you here at 12.53. We could meet you & send you back in a 4.51 train in the afternoon. I hope you will ^let me^ have such an opportunity of atoning for my abominable behavior. I am writing
in bed. but I hope by then to be better.
Mary A. Ward
Notes
Ethel: Ethel Margaret Arnold. See Mrs. Humphry Ward 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: mss FI 5637, Box 64, Ward, Mary Augusta (Arnold), 14 pieces. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Alice Greenwood Howe to Sarah Orne Jewett (and Annie Adams Fields)
[ 1892 ]*
Of all the Sarahs I ever knew, you are [ really ? ] the unkindest! [ Never ? ] to say in your last if Morgan is your banker or if you got both my letters from [ Venice ? ]* -- A most impractical Sarah! So, [ here ? ] goes another sheet of paper up into the air, [ heavy ? ] with love & longing, to find its feeble way to you --
I'm now slowly journeying northward, roosting in the coolest boughs to be found, but not too high -- [ Venice became ? ]
[ hot ? ] before [ we tore ? ] ourselves [ away ? ] two days ago, but we felt it was [ time ? ] to [ move ? ] -- at [ Verona ? ] was the usual [ noise ? ] & impossibility of [ unrecognized word ] & [ unrecognized word ] always great charm & interest -- a small earthquake shook us gently out of its gates! & we took [ council ] & went to Trent* --, went through [ the mountains ? ] went through the [ hills ? ] called the [ Chiese di Verona ? ], where [ Barbarossa ? ]* [came down ? ] some [ few ? ] years ago! Trent is [ smart ? ] & sympathetic & we stayed two days [ prancing ? ] about -- Then to [ Bötym ? ] which we know well, where the sharp hands
of Dolomites point up into the blue -- Two days there & so here, where we wait for a telegram from Salzburg, which has just come that we may go with rooms ready next Monday -- Meantime we want to [ break ? ] the way at Zell am See, higher yet than [ unrecognized word ] in the Tyrol -- If we succeed in this crowded season, we go tomorrow -- These Tyrol mountains are more sympathetic to me than [ Swiss land ? ] --, I cant just tell why, & the people [ put on ? ] their feathers stuck just where you wouldnt put them on hats, & their Edelweis too, are simple [ unrecognized word ] yet, & [ much ? ] pleasanter than Germans -- After Salzburg [ quickly ? ] up to Dresden -- until we turn our faces to the South once more -- [ Do ? ] say when you write how you liked du Maurier* -- I hope you fell deeply in love with him -- And how good that A.F. has new hats & bonnets, and is happy --
When you are in Boston next winter, I hope you will both know young Joseph Lindon Smith,* [ the ? ] young earnest worker as I am not -- He was in [ Venice ? ] with his brother [ one or two unrecognized words ], & [ mother ? ] -- He draws & paints things that nobody else does, so [ was ? ]
[ unrecognized word ] & faithfully, & with true feeling -- But you [ had ? ] probably known of him as the one who colored the Hermes & the Venus Genetrix as they think they probably [ were ? ] --, & Robinson* wrote a pamphlet thereupon{.}
Dont go home too early, dear two -- Have as long an outing as you possibly can make it & the memories will make the [ sun shine ? ] all winter -- Letters from our family at Beverly Farms tell of [ peace ? ], & that [ Alice ? ]* is happier than perhaps she has ever been ---, and going about a great deal, not harassed by the Vt. family, & in fact,
most independent & contented. How [ curious ? ] it all is; as if one [ should stumble ? ] into a hole in the road, & get a bit bruised & stumble out again, & get [ unrecognized word ] [ beskinned ? ] again in a jiffy!
Do write, both of you, & I shall send this to Morgan in hopes -- Have read the Sinners Comedy,* a bitter sad clever book, & Countess Eve by Shorthouse, quite German in tone & spirit, I think -- but Wreckers by Stevenson,* a horrid, useless book, in my poor opinion --
[ George sits ? ] at your [ 4 ? ] feet & I am with my heart to both
Alice --
1892: Though "1900?" appears in another hand at the top of page 1, almost certainly, this letter was composed in 1892. From February through October of 1892, Jewett and Annie Adams Fields traveled together in Italy, France and England. They met George Du Maurier there in July.
Venice: Howe's handwriting is very challenging, and much of this letter is guesswork, not just the items in brackets about which I am even less sure.
Trent: While Howe seems clearly to have written "Trent" twice, almost certainly she refers to Trento, Italy.
Barbarossa: Presumably Frederick Barbarossa (1122-1190), Holy Roman Emperor (1155-1190). Wikipedia.
du Maurier: George du Maurier. See Key to Correspondents.
A.F.: Annie Adams Fields. See Key to Correspondents.
Lindon Smith: See Key to Correspondents. Howe refers to Edward Robinson, The Hermes of Praxiteles and the Venus Genetrix: Experiments in Restoring the Color of Greek Sculpture by Joseph Lindon Smith (Boston: Alfred Mudge & Son, 1892).
Alice: This person has not yet been identified.
Sinners Comedy: The Sinner's Comedy (1892) by Anglo-American novelist Pearl Mary Teresa Richards (1867-1906), who published as John Oliver Hobbes. Wikipedia.
Shorthouse: English novelist Joseph Henry Shorthouse (1834-1903) published The Countess Eve in 1888. Wikipedia.
Wreckers by Stevenson: This transcription is uncertain, but it appears Howe refers to The Wrecker (1892) by Scottish novelist, Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894). Wikipedia.
Arthur: Howe refer to the memorial to Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I (1459-1519) in the Court Church in Innsbruck. See "Court Church" in Wikipedia.
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.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Sarah Wyman Whitman
[ Begin letterhead in red ]
22, Clarges Street,
May Fair, W
[ End letterhead ]
I a-thinking of you this Sunday morning and wishing we were having a word together. I believe that I wrote you last from Yorkshire and there seems to be so much to tell since that my pen quite flies in the air like a horse that wont go -- We had a lovely [ scurry ? ] indeed, home from Ilkley by the way of "Lincoln Peterborough and Ely" not to speak of Boston and Cambridge* where we gave ourselves just time enough to see Newnham
and to have a walk and to go to the afternoon service at King's College chapel* and to stray afterward in the dusk into Trinity hall to see the portraits, and then to our inn to sleep as best we might after a great day and go on to London in the morning.
We spent eight solid hours in the house of Commons one Tuesday night to hear the great debate* and were flying about a good deal all that week and at the end we went up into Warwickshire to stay with Mrs. Dugdale,* a most charming visit in a storybook country house which we both enjoyed enormously and then by Oxford back to London again
and this last week we have been seeing much of ^the^ Arnolds who have come back to town because Nelly's father in law of the house of Kimberley* is in the new government and there was a revival of 'society' for a brief space by which we profited. It is a very good time for being in London on the whole -- but we have been spending nights and making day journeys in the neighborhood and begin to feel that we are not likely to see half enough of London itself -- But what can I tell you (with a common Flying Scotchman pen*) of going to see my lord and lady Tennyson* down among the Surrey hills. It meant a great deal more to me than when I saw them before. I wish I could make you know their wonderful faces -- one goes into their presence with
the feeling of a former age -- I believe that I know exactly what I should have felt a thousand years ago if I were paying a friendly visit to my King, but it is the high court of poetry at Aldworth whatever one may say. My Lord Tennyson was so funny and cross about newspapers and reporters that I feel his shadow above me even in this letter innocent hearted as I be! -- he has suffered deep wrongs indeed: perhaps it is well that I cant write long enough to tell you many delightful things that he said and did, ^saying some of his poetry once or twice in a wonderful way,^ except one which belongs to you: his complete delight in my Japanese
crystal which he looked at over and over and wondered much about, and enjoyed, and thought to find things in it -- Wasn't that nice of you S.W.? and you a giving it to me -- but indeed so many people beside a poet have liked me for it, and remember me now as the person to whom it belonged! If I could have given it to anybody in this world, I could have given it to Tennyson then and there, but no! and now I like it more because he likes it, a shining in its silver leaves.
Yesterday, we spent the day with Mrs Humphry Ward* who has been ill for a while and is just
getting better. Somehow she seemed so much younger and more girlish than I expected even with Ethel* her next sister clear and dear in my mind. Ethel was not there but Mrs. Huxley* and the [ unrecognized word inserted, in pencil and possibly in another hand. The next word "old" has been deleted. ] old father and his wife [ one third of a line has been left blank] and Mr. Ward himself for which I was very glad. I quite long to have you know Mrs. Ward. you [ apparently not capitalized ] would quite take her to your heart. She is very clear and shining in her young mind, brilliant and full of charm but with a lovely simplicity and sincerity of manner. I think of her with warmest affection and a sacred expectation of what she is sure
to do if she keeps strong, and sorrow does not break her eager young heart too soon. Her life burns with a very fierce flame and she has not in the least done all that she can do -- but just now it seems to me that her vigor is a good deal spent. She has [ three corrected ] most lovely children. The young son was busy with cricket match, and we beheld a good part of it, and saw the charming old gardens and altogether it was a very pleasant day indeed, and held pleasure enough for two or three.
Now that I have begun to tell things I wish to write you a complete autobiography of two weeks, but all the other people
and things must wait until I see you --
Except perhaps that I must tell you how wonderfully well Mary Beaumont* looks and seems.
This week we are going to Cobham to stay a few days with dear Mrs. Arnold who would touch you with her changed looks -- She has grown so much older since that merry day when we went to the first feast at Old Place.* She asks so affectionately for you, and is just as dear as ever.
When you get this letter I think we shall be staying up at Whitby on our way to Edinburgh seeing the du Mauriers* again according to agreement and other friends and liking to go there because Mr. Lowell* was always talking about it and was so fond of it. Then we go on to Edinburgh.
See what a little place I have left to send A.F's* love in! but here it goes
Goodbye dear
You might be expecting the Cephalonia* in about the second of October you might! There will be swan quills* in the hold. You a dozen{,} A.F. a dozen and me the odd one of twenty-five, on account of my having less use for it.
Notes
"Lincoln Peterborough and Ely"... Boston and Cambridge: All are towns in Lincolnshire and Cambridgeshire, Great Britain.
Newnham … King's College chapel: Though this is somewhat confusing, it seems clear that Jewett refers to the town of Cambridge in England and to Cambridge University. The University is thought to have begun in the 12th century. Newnham was a woman's college, one of the pioneers in women's education at Cambridge. King's Chapel and Trinity Hall remain sights for tourists. Regarding the portraits in Trinity Hall, ArtUK.org says: "A number of paintings tell the story of the College through portraits of a succession of notable Fellows and Masters. One such painting is of Sir John Lyons by John Bellany, who was artist in residence. He collaborated with our Fellow and eminent surgeon, Sir Roy Calne, whose own painting 'Mr Sloots and Mr Wright having Tea' captures a friendly moment between two respected members of staff, while his portraits of Shaun Wylie and Thaddeus Mann (Fellows, friends and colleagues) are enjoyed by visitors."
the great debate: In August of 1892, a vote of "no confidence" forced a change of government in Great Britain. At the time of Jewett's visit, it is likely that William Gladstone was forming a new government.
Mrs. Dugdale: This is Mrs. W. S. Dugdale. Her husband, who died heroically in an 1882 mining accident, was a beloved pupil of Benjamin Jowett at Oxford. In The Life and Letters of Benjamin Jowett (1897), appears her account of her husband's love and respect for his teacher and Jowett's letter to her upon Dugdale's death.
Arnolds … Nelly's father in law... Kimberley: In 1889 Matthew Arnold's daughter, Eleanor, married Armine Wodehouse, "the younger son of Lord Kimberley of the India Office" (Park Homan, Matthew Arnold: A Life, 1981, 423). See Key to Correspondents.
Flying Scotchman pen: "The Flying Scotchman" in the nineteenth century was a London to Edinburgh train renowned for its speed. Hence, this pen writes very fast. (Research: Betty Rogers)
Tennyson: According to Wikipedia, Alfred Lord Tennyson resided in Farmingford House on the Isle of Wight after 1853, but found himself so pestered there by tourists that he moved to Aldworth, in West Sussex in 1869, spending only his winters at Farmingford. See Key to Correspondents.
Mrs. Humphry Ward … Ethel: For Mary Augusta Ward, her sister Ethel Arnold, and family see Key to Correspondents.
Mrs. Huxley: Almost certainly, this is Mrs. Leonard Huxley, or Julia Arnold Huxley, daughter of Matthew Arnold's brother, scholar Thomas Arnold (1823-1900), and sister of Mary Augusta Ward and Ethel Arnold. Leonard was the son of scientist and writer, Thomas Henry Huxley (1825-1895). Leonard and Julia became the parents of novelist Aldous Leonard Huxley (1894-1963) and poet/scientist Sir Julian Huxley (1887-1975).
Mary Beaumont: Probably, this Mary Beaumont is the author of Joan Seaton a Story of Percival-Dion in the Yorkshire Dales (1896) and A Ringby Lass & Other Stories (1895), but this is not certain.
Old Place: Whitman's home at Beverly Farms, MA.
du Mauriers: Wikipedia says: "George Louis Palmella Busson du Maurier (6 March 1834 - 8 October 1896) was a French-British cartoonist and author, known for his cartoons in Punch and also for his novel Trilby."
Mr. Lowell: James Russell Lowell. See Key to Correspondents.
A.F's: Annie Adams Fields. See Key to Correspondents.
Madame Blanc: Marie Thérèse de Solms Blanc .See Key to Correspondents.
Cephalonia: The Cunard line SS Cephalonia was in service from 1882 to 1900.
swan quills: Wikipedia says that swan quills were the best for larger lettering and were more expensive than goose quills commonly used for writing. However, they were less used after the beginning of mass production of metal pens in the early 19th century.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library of Harvard University, Cambridge. MA: Whitman, Sarah (Wyman) 1842-1904, recipient. 25 letters; 1892-[1900] & [n.d.]. Sarah Orne Jewett additional correspondence, 1868-1930. MS Am 1743.1 (126). Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Fields Transcription
Annie Fields included most of this letter in Letters of Sarah Orne Jewett (1911). Her transcription follows. The origin of the final paragraph is as yet unknown. It may not be from a letter to Whitman.
I believe that I wrote you last from Yorkshire, and there seems to be so much to tell since, that my pen quite flies in the air, like a horse that won't go. We had a lovely scurry indeed, home from Ilkley by the way of "Lincoln, Peterborough, and Ely," not to speak of Boston and Cambridge, where we gave ourselves just time enough to see Newnham, and to have a walk and to go to the afternoon service at King's College Chapel, and to stray afterward in the dusk into Trinity Hall to see the portraits, and then to our inn to sleep as best we might, after a great day, and go on to London in the morning.* We spent eight solid hours in the House of Commons, on Tuesday night, to hear the great debate,* and were flying about a good deal all that week, and at the end we went up into Warwickshire to stay with Mrs. Dugdale,* a most charming visit in story-book country house, which we both enjoyed enormously; and then by Oxford* back to London again, and this last week we have been seeing much of the Arnolds, who have come back to town, because -- 's father-in-law, of the house of Kimberly, is in the new government,* and there was a revival of "society" for a brief space, by which we profited. It is a very good time to take for being in London, on the whole, but we have been spending nights and making days' journeys to the neighborhood, and begin to feel that we are not likely to see half enough of London itself. But what can I tell you (with a common Flying Scotchman pen)* of going to see my Lord and Lady Tennyson, down among the Surrey hills!* It meant a great deal more to me than when I saw them before. I wish I could make you know their wonderful faces. One goes into their presence with the feeling of a former age. I believe that I know exactly what I should have felt a thousand years ago if I were paying a friendly visit to my king; but it is the high court of poetry at Aldworth, whatever one may say. My Lord Tennyson was so funny and cross about newspapers and reporters that I feel his shadow above me even in this letter, innocent-hearted as I be. He has suffered deep wrongs indeed; perhaps it is well that I can't write long enough to tell you many delightful things that he said and did (saying some of his poetry once or twice in a wonderful way), except one which belongs to you, -- his complete delight in my Japanese crystal,* which he looked at over and over, and wondered much about, and enjoyed, and thought to find things in it. Wasn't that nice of you, S. W.? and you a-giving it to me, and indeed so many people beside a poet have liked me for it, and remember me now as the person to whom it belonged. If I could have given it to anybody in this world, I could have given it to Tennyson then and there; but No! and now I like it more because he liked it, a-shining in its silver leaves.
Yesterday we spent the day with Mrs. Humphry Ward, who has been ill for a while and is just getting better. Somehow, she seemed so much younger and more girlish than I expected, even with Ethel, her next sister, clear and dear in my mind. Ethel was not there, but Mrs. Huxley, and her father and his wife, and Mr. Ward himself, for which I was very glad. I long to have you know Mrs. Ward. You would quite take her to your heart. She is very clear and shining in her young mind, brilliant and full of charm, and with a lovely simplicity and sincerity of manner. I think of her with warmest affection and a sacred expectation of what she is sure to do if she keeps strong, and sorrow does not break her eager young heart too soon. Her life burns with a very fierce flame, and she has not in the least done all that she can do, but just now it seems to me that her vigor is a good deal spent. She has most lovely children. The young son was busy with a cricket-match, and we beheld a good part of it, and saw the charming old garden, and altogether it was a very pleasant day indeed, and held pleasure enough for two or three. Now that I have begun to tell things, I wish to write you a complete autobiography of two weeks, but all the other people and things must wait until I see you; except perhaps that I must tell you how wonderfully well Mary Beaumont looks and seems. This week we are going to Cobham, to stay a few days with dear Mrs. Arnold, who would touch you with her changed looks. She has grown so much older since that merry day when we went to the first feast at Old Place. She asks so affectionately for you, and is just as dear as ever. When you get this letter, I think we shall be staying up at Whitby, on our way to Edinburgh, seeing the Du Mauriers again, according to agreement, and other friends, and liking to go there because Mr. Lowell was always talking about it and was so fond of it. Then we go on to Edinburgh. See what a little place I have left to send A. F.'s love in, but here it goes. Good-bye, dear.
And then "Lady Rose's
Daughter"!* If you were here how much we should talk about
it. There are splendid qualities of the
highest sort. One says at certain moments with happy certainty
that here is the one solitary master of fiction -- I mean
of novel writing. How is she going on at this
great pace to the story's end? But one cannot let
such
a story flag and fail -- there must be an end
as good as this beginning.
Note
Lady Rose's Daughter: By Mrs. Humphry Ward, this novel
was published in 1903. According to Jane Silvey, "'The
Sympathy of Another Writer': The Correspondence between
Sarah Orne Jewett and Mrs. Humphry Ward," in Transatlantic
Women, edited by Brigitte Bailey and Lucinda Damon-Bach
(pp. 295-6), Ward's novel began serialization in Harper's
Magazine in May 1902. Therefore, this paragraph
could not have been written in 1892. Almost certainly it
belongs in the summer of 1902.
Mary Augusta Ward to Sarah Orne Jewett
Tring
[ End letterhead ]
Dear Mifs Jewett
I was so stupid the day you were with us -- I was really in a good deal of pain -- that I did not get clearly into my mind that you were the Mifs Jewett who wrote The King of Folly Island* a story which delighted me, & like Mifs Lawless's*
Grania* made me live with new friends beside new seas. There were many other things I liked much in your book -- but that story [ mark like a period ] dwells with me particularly, & I thought I should like to write you these few lines to atone for my puzzle-headedness on Saturday --
Have you written anything since that volume? If so will you send it me?
You have that keen unspoilt eye for details, which seems to me often the distinctive American gift. -- & so much charm. I hope you have been writing more --
They have carried me down to the garden today which is very cheering.
In a fortnight's time I hope to be moving again.
With very kind regards to Mrs Fields* & yourself,
Mary A. Ward.
Notes
1892: At the upper left of page 1 is a penciled date, Aug 27 -- 1892, which appears to be in Ward's hand. However, this date comes after Jewett's response to this letter, which was dated 23 August 1892. Perhaps the penciled date actually is 21 August; this is what I have assumed.
Folly Island: Jewett's "The King of Folly Island" first appeared in Harper's Magazine in December 1886. It was collected, where Ward seems to have read it, in The King of Folly Island and Other People (1888). Jewett, of course, published a good deal between 1888 and the date of this letter. Her books were Strangers and Wayfarers (1890), Betty Leicester (1890), Tales of New England (1890).
Grania: Irish author Emily Lawless published her novel Grania: The Story of an Island in 1892. Wikipedia.
Fields: 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.Ward, Mary Augusta (Arnold), bMS Am 1743.1, Box 2, 106.
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Mary Augusta Ward
23 August 1892
My dear Mrs Ward
I can hardly tell you what pleasure your most kind letter has given me; I have been thinking of you very often since Saturday. Indeed I shall send you all the story books that can be found and try to remember what you have said to me whenever
I feel unhappy as a story writer often must!
And I so eagerly try to tell you what a delight and what a new treasure of helpfulness and inspiration your great books always are to me as they are to so many. I thank you and thank you
Sarah O. Jewett
Will you not remember us most kindly to Mr and Mrs Arnold and to Mr and Mrs Huxley?* -- It is so good to know that you could go down to the garden.*
Notes
Fields: Annie Adams Fields. See Key to Correspondents.
Ethel: For Mary Augusta Ward, her sister Ethel Arnold, and family see Key to Correspondents.
Arnold ... Huxley: The Arnolds are the widow and family of British poet and critic, Matthew Arnold (24 December 1822 - 15 April 1888).
Mrs. Leonard Huxley, or Julia Arnold Huxley, daughter of Matthew Arnold's brother, scholar Thomas Arnold (1823-1900), and sister of Mary Augusta Ward and Ethel Arnold. Leonard was the son of scientist and writer, Thomas Henry Huxley (1825-1895). Leonard and Julia became the parents of novelist Aldous Leonard Huxley (1894-1963) and poet/scientist Sir Julian Huxley (1887-1975).
garden: In Jewett's letter to Sarah Wyman Whitman of 20 August, she reports that Mrs. Ward has been ill and is beginning to recover.
This manuscript is held by the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, University of Texas at Austin. Manuscript Collection MS-4409 (Ward, T.H.) Misc. Container 2.4, Jewett, Sarah Orne to Ward, Mary Augusta. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Celia Thaxter to Mary Rice Jewett
Dear Mary:
I am sending you a water hyacinth & a Parrot's feather:* both water plants. They are fine in tubs in the garden, but they are also fine in the house all winter. My little daughter Mabel, Roland's wife,* has her water hyacinth in an olive bowl like Sarah's,* but any deep dish will do. And for the parrot's feather, a bowl or jar (to hang in the window) over which it will droop beautifully & grow like mad. Fill, for both plants, the bowl [ centering ? ] them two thirds full with rich earth mixed into well-rotted barn-manure, ^[ but I ? ]^ plant the roots down in this, & fill the other third full of water & keep it always full of water & they will do beautifully. Parrot's feather does not flower, but is pretty enough without. Water hyacinth has a lovely spike of fragrant lavender flowers.
Dearest love to Sarah & to you, kindest [ five unrecognized words ...to all, not forgetting ? ] "Theodore".* [ Wish I cd. take him where a humming bird moth* I fd ? ] this summer, very rare, only found in West Indies, but he came to my garden!
Affly yrs
C. Thaxter.
Notes
water hyacinth & a Parrot's feather: Water hyacinth is Pontederia crassipes. Parrot's feather may be Myriophyllum aquaticum. However, Thaxter says her plant does not flower, whereas Wikipedia describes Myriophyllum aquaticum as a flowering plant.
wife: Roland was Thaxter's youngest son.
Sarah's: Sarah Orne Jewett. See Key to Correspondents.
Theodore: Theodore Jewett Eastman. See Key to Correspondents.
humming bird moth: Presumably, Thaxter refers to a variety of sphinx moth, some of which may be mistaken for hummingbirds because of their size and appearance in flight.
This letter is written on a sheet designed for folding into an unstamped mailing envelope. The manuscript is held by the Houghton Library, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA. MS Am 1743, Jewett, Sarah Orne, 1849-1909. Correspondence Series: IV. Letters to Mary Rice Jewett from various correspondents, (377) Thaxter, Celia (Laighton) 1835-1894. 3 letters; 1891-1893. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
7 September 1892
Death of John Greenleaf Whittier
Marie Thérèse de Solms Blanc Annie Adams Fields
This letter was composed in French; a transcription follows the translation.
[ 7 September 1892 ]*
Dear Mrs. Fields, dear friend. I have finally reached the refuge you wished for me. I write from this beautiful and peaceful home where I always find the room that bears my name, full of memories of my youth, of the memory of my beloved mother, who came here often to visit the mother of Alice de Sinéty* -- I will be able to rest a little
from the protracted mental and emotional stress of awaiting my son's return, for which he cannot fix the date, because, on one hand, he would like to visit some friends in various parts of southern Russia after the Congress is over -- and on the other, he is tempted to return via Finland and Sweden on a boat lent by two French scholars he knows, Mr. M. Milne Edwards and Schlumberger.* His last letter left me in complete uncertainty
I was held up in Paris, correcting proof for the short novel being published in the Revue des Deux Mondes* and finishing an article, so I ran out of time to read the book by Mrs. Humphry Ward* you so kindly sent me, and for which I should have thanked you immediately. I brought it to Passay, and I will plunge into it; I have already read and re-read
the best epoch. But people will not look at the drawings, just read the text. I send you a thousand compliments with all my heart, joyful
about the pedestal which you raise to the name of Guérin in America.
I { believe* } the too devoted Trébutien { earned } the curse of the friends of belles letters by ruthlessly sacrificing many pages {to the flames}. Maurice will appear greater as a result, but much less manly as well, it is true. His dangerous friend burned the work of his years of fever and even madness in Paris. This {lost} contrast, however, would have been beautiful, between {the Paris years} and the calm scriptures and sweet ecstasies at La Chesnaie.
Again all my admiration and the best regards to share with our friend* as well.
Madame de Sinéty entrusts me to convey her fondest memories.
Notes
1892: Blanc is not transparent about the date of this letter. That it was composed in the latter half of 1892 is supported by her reference to Field's August publication of "Guérin's Centaur." Fields and Jewett were in Europe, including a first face-to-face meeting with Blanc, during the summer of 1892. While it seems unlikely that Blanc sent this letter before their return, almost certainly it was composed in September, after Blanc would have completed reading proof for her short novel in Revue des Deux Mondes. See notes below.
Alice de Sinéty: Alice Marie Léonie Ogier d´Ivry Comtesse de Sinéty (1837-1924), wife of Count Joseph Louis Marie de Sinéty (1837-1915). Her mother was Léonie Aymardine Caroline Adrienne Ogier d'Ivry (born de Nicolay, 1818-1870).
son's: Traveler and author, Édouard Blanc (1858-1923) was Blanc's only son. See her entry in Key to Correspondents. Probably, M. Blanc attended the Fourth International Railway Congress in St. Petersburg, Russia, at the end of August 1892. See The Railway Times (27 August 1892), p. 281.
Mr. M. Milne Edwards and Schlumberger: Blanc's reference to Milne Edwards is somewhat confusing. Almost certainly, she refers to French biologist, Alphonse Milne-Edwards (1835-1900). His father, Henri Milne-Edwards (1800-1885), a British-born zoologist, published under the name M. H. Milne Edwards.
Probably Schlumberger is French paleontologist Charles Schlumberger (1825-1905).
Revue des Deux Mondes: Blanc's short novel, Le Parrain d'Annette (Annette's Godfather, 1893), was serialized in Revue des Deux Mondes in the first two September numbers of 1892. Her next article in the Revue was "Un Voyage de Découvertes a Travers la Société Américaine" (1 October).
Mrs. Humphry Ward: Mary Augusta Ward. See Key to Correspondents. Her new book in 1892 was The History of David Grieve in three volumes. Fields and Jewett had visited Mrs. Ward at her home in August 1892, and it seems likely that Fields sent Blanc this book while in England.
Centaur: A prose-poem by the French poet, Maurice de Guérin (1810-1839). Annie Fields's essay and translation, entitled "Guérin's Centaur," appeared in Scribner's (August 1892, pp. 224-32). With the piece were two drawings of centaurs by French academic painter, Charles Édouard Delort (1841-1895).
Especially memorable in the poet's life and writing was an idyllic stay at La Chésnaie, in Brittany (1831-3), home of the French Catholic priest, philosopher and educator, Félicité Robert de La Mennais (1782-1854). He died in Paris of tuberculosis just 6 years later, without having published.
After his death, his sister, also a celebrated author, Eugénie de Guérin (1805-1848), attempted to publish his work, but died before she could complete the task. The poet's friend, Guillaume-Stanislas Trébutien, published a selection in 1861.
believe: Not only was this cross-written passage difficult to transcribe confidently, but the syntax mystified us. In the translation, we have made inferences and added words that seem to clarify what Blanc probably meant. We have marked our main additions by placing them in braces.
Another issue is Blanc's use of the word "vertueux." Translated literally, the word conveys the idea of moral virtue, but the context suggests that Blanc probably intended its more latinate meaning of "idealized manliness."
our friend: Sarah Orne Jewett. See Key to Correspondents.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Huntington Library, San Marino, CA, in the James T. Fields Papers and Addenda mss FI 1-5637, Box 5. Transcription, translation and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College, with essential assistance from Jeannine Hammond, Professor of French, Emerita, at Coe College.
Transcription
Blanc sometimes abbreviates "pour" as "pr" and "vous" as "vs." These are rendered here as "pour" and "vous.".
Château de Passay
par Savigné-l'Évêque
[ 7 7bre ? ]
Chère Mrs Fields, chère
amie{.} J'ai enfin gagné
le refuge que vous
me souhaitez. Je vous
écris de cette belle
demeure paisible où
je retrouve toujours la
chambre qui porte mon
nom, toute pleine de
souvenirs de ma [ jeunefse for jeunesse ]
du souvenir de ma bien aimée mère
qui venait souvent
voir ici la mère d'Alice
de Sinéty -- Je vais pouvoir
me reposer un peu
d'une trop longue tension
d'esprit et de nerfs,
en attendant le retour
de mon fils dont il
ne peut encore fixer
la date, car d'une part
il voudrait, le Congrès étant
terminé voir quelques
amis dispersés dans le
sud de la Russie -- et de
l'autre il est tenté de
revenir par la Finlande
et la Suède sur le
bateau qu'ont prêté deux
savants français de sa
connaissance, M. M. Milne,
Edwards et Schlumberger.
La dernière lettre me
laisait dans une
complète incertitude
Je ne sais même plus
son adresse.
J'ai été retenue à Paris
par la correction de éprouves
du petit roman qui est
au cours de publication
dans la Revue des deux Mondes
et par un article à
terminer, de sorte que
le temps m'a manqué
pour lire le livre de
Mrs Humphry Ward que
vous avez en la bonté
de m'envoyer et dont
il eut fallu vous
remercier tout de suite.
Je l'ai apporté à Passay
et vais m'y plonger;
ce qui j'ai déjà lu et relu
traduction du Centaure;
vous seule aviez les droit de
vous attaquer à cette oeuvre
d'art d'une pureté classique
où la forme est tout
ou presque tout. Le
sentiment que vous avez
de la beauté antique
vous a fait réussir
dans une entreprise plus
que difficile. Je regrette
seulement les dessins
trop parisiens de Delort.
Son petit Centaure pourrait
porter un faux col et
la centauresse un chapeau
de la rue de la Pain. Il
eut fallu un simple
dessin au trait comme
ceux de [ unrecognized name, looks like Harman ], [ deletion ] [ q. q. for quelque ] chose
qui donnât l'impression
de la sculpture, des fragments
quelconques d'un marbre de
la meilleure époque. Mais on ne regardera pas
les dessins et on lira le texte. Je vous envoie mille compliments
de tout coeur heureuse
du piédestal que vous élevez au nom de
Guérin en Amérique. Je le trop [ dévot ? ] Trébutien
que maudissent les amis de la belle
littérature, n'eut pas par [ scrupule ? ] sacrifié
beaucoup de ces pages, Maurice apparaitrez
plus grand, -- beaucoup moins vertueux
aussi, il est vrai. Ce dangereux ami
a brûlé ce qui était le résultat des
années de fièvre et même de folie
[ pasfées for passées ] à Paris. Le contraste eut été
beau pourtant avec les [ scrivres ? ] calmes
et douces extases à La Chesnaie.
Encore toute mon admiration et les
meilleures amitiés à partager avez notre amie. ThB
Mme. de Sinéty me charge de ses plus sympathiques souvenirs.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Sarah Wyman Whitman
[ 1892 ]
And now they have but ten
days left and those in Edinburgh and the
Lakes and two or three with Katie Bradbury* at Riversvale
Hall before they come sailing home on the
Cephalonia!* So this is a letter which has many
things to say. They went to Canterbury after they
made the Surrey visits,* and there they found the Emersons
of Milton* and played and walked, and saw which were the
Early English
[ Page 2 ]
windows and which were Norman* with ever increasing
pleasure.* Then they came back to London and found
the Merrimans* and did meet them again and pass a lovely
Sunday at York together. Then these came to Whitby
and those went to London & Southhampton to sail.
-------- I wish I could possibly tell you anything of the
charm of Whitby* -- no wonder dear Mr. Lowell* grew so
fond of it and of the people who spend their autumns
there.
[ Page 3 ]
We saw a good deal of the Smalleys and Du Mauriers until
we felt like oldest friends.* You may expect me to be
always telling you how delightful Mr. Du Maurier is! You
can't think him at all until you see him and hear him sing
his old French songs and have him show you his drawings
with all the simplicity of a boy with a slate, and all the
feeling of a great artist. He is sadly troubled with his
poor failing eyes now -- but there is always a lovely
sunshine
[ Page 4 ]
in his face -- and you meet him out walking with a timid little fluffy terrier that gets frightened and stops [ deleted words] all of a tremble and has to be hunted up just when his master is talking most eagerly, and turned back for -- such a beloved and troublesome little dog.
Whitby is full of pictures
-- there were places that made me think of your Gloucester
picture* -- only a grayer sea and bright red tiled roofs
climbing the steep hill --
[ Page 5 ]
and a gray old abbey at the top of the hill -- holding up its broken towers and traceries against the clouds.* It is a noble seacoast and a most quaint fishing town quite unchanged and unspoiled. I shall be telling a great deal about the charms of Whitby!
I forgot whether I wrote
you just before or just after, our visit to Cobham. No, I
am sure I have not told you about Mr. Arnold's favorite
walks* and his most interesting study, [or written
over and ?] how delighted I was to find
your own rhododendrons hanging
[ Page 6 ]
on the wall!* It is a dear bit of yourself somehow -- they are very fond of it --
Mrs Arnold ^ (she has grown
so old poor dear little lady!)^ & Nelly Wodehouse
asked for you [most corrected ] affectionately and
sent their best messages.
Now that I hope to be
talking so soon I find it very hard to write. I
suppose that I never have said that Madame Blanc* had to
put off her visit to Boston until the spring.
We have been taking great
joy in the Raeburn portraits* here. I have always
liked them so much in engravings -- Which reminds me that
I never have taken you yet to see the Sir Joshua* down at
Providence by which token you will know me for the same
person (the travelled!) A.F.* would
send love if she were here and I send mine at any
rate. Yours with dear love S.O.J.
Notes
1892: Annie Fields includes this letter with a group Jewett wrote during their 1898 European trip, but as the notes below indicate, it almost certainly comes from their 1892 trip, as George Du Maurier died in 1896.Katie Bradbury ... Riversvale Hall: Kate Bradbury (1854-1902) lived at Riversvale Hall near Ashton-Under-Lyme in Great Britain. She married Francis Llewellyn Griffith (1862-1934) in 1896. Both were Egyptologists. See also Riversvale Hall: The Story Of A Victorian Country House.
Cephalonia: The Cunard line SS Cephalonia was in service from 1882 to 1900.
Surrey visits: As indicated below, Jewett visited the Matthew Arnold family in Surrey.
Emersons of Milton: The family of Sylvia Hathaway Watson Emerson. See Key to Correspondents.
Early English windows ... Norman: The Canterbury Cathedral as rebuilt in the 1070s was Norman in its architecture, for example, using the round arch. Where Jewett was able to see earlier English, Anglo-Saxon, windows is not clear, though there are examples in the east of England.
pleasure: between this line and the next are 4 "x's," presumably added by Annie Fields to mark a passage she thought of including in Letters of Sarah Orne Jewett (1911).
Merrimans: Helen Bigelow Merriman. See Key to Correspondents.
Whitby: Wikipedia says: "Whitby is a seaside town, port and civil parish in the Borough of Scarborough and English county of North Yorkshire. It is located within the historic boundaries of the North Riding of Yorkshire. Situated on the east coast of Yorkshire at the mouth of the River Esk, Whitby has an established maritime, mineral and tourist heritage. Its East Cliff is home to the ruins of Whitby Abbey, where Cædmon, the earliest recognised English poet, lived. "
dear Mr. Lowell: The American poet James Russell Lowell (1819 -1891) served as Minister to England (1880-1885).
the Smalleys and Du Mauriers: Presumably, Jewett refers to George Washburn Smalley (1833-1916), a correspondent for the New York Tribune and his wife, Phoebe Garnaut (d. 1923). Smalley was the author of "Mr. Lowell in England," Harper's New Monthly Magazine: 92: 551 (April,1896), pp. 788-802. In Portrait of a Friendship: Drawn from New Letters of James Russell Lowell to Sybella Lady Lyttelton, 1881-1891 (1990), Michael Russell says that Phoebe acted as a "lady in waiting" to Mrs. Lowell (106) during the nine summers the Lowells spent in Whitby, beginning in 1881.
Wikipedia says: "George Louis Palmella Busson du Maurier (6 March 1834 - 8 October 1896) was a French-British cartoonist and author, known for his cartoons in Punch and also for his novel Trilby. He was the father of actor Gerald du Maurier and grandfather of the writers Angela du Maurier and Dame Daphne du Maurier. He was also the father of Sylvia Llewelyn Davies and grandfather of the five boys who inspired J.M. Barrie's Peter Pan." The article notes that Du Maurier turned from drawing to fiction in part as a result of deteriorating eyesight.
Gloucester picture: Whitman made several paintings with Goucester, MA as her subject, such as "Gloucester Harbor."
It is possible that Jewett refers to Whitman's painting, "Edge of Evening at Annisquam" (c. 1880-1890); Annisquam is a waterfront neighborhood in Gloucester, MA. Images of the painting, held by a private collector, are available at several web pages. The image below appears courtesy of Artnet. The original is oil on canvas, 17 x 18.5 inches.
S. W. Whitman, Edge of Evening at Annisquam
Cobham ... Mr. Arnold's favorite walks: Cobham is a village in Surrey, England, about 17 miles southwest of London. British poet and cultural critic, Matthew Arnold (24 December 1822 - 15 April 1888) visited America for the last time in 1886, staying with Annie Fields while in Boston. His wife was Frances and their daughters were Eleanore/Nelly and Lucy; Francis resided in Cobham after his death, having moved there in 1873. Their daughter, Eleanore was then married to Armine Wodehouse (1860-1901).
rhododendrons ... wall: A Whitman painting of rhododendrons is in the collection of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, labeled as a bequest of the artist. Though this probably is not the actual painting owned by the Matthew Arnold family, it gives an idea of how it may have looked.
Madame Blanc: Marie Thérèse de Solms Blanc. See Key to Correspondents.
Raeburn portraits: Sir Henry Raeburn (1756-1823) was a Scottish portrait painter who made his home in Edinburgh. He may be best remembered for his often reproduced portrait of Sir Walter Scott.
Sir Joshua: Almost certainly, Jewett refers to Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723-1792), an English painter known especially for his portraits. The Providence Rhode Island Athenaeum holds a painting attributed to Reynolds, "The Girl Reading."
A.F.: Annie Adams Fields. See Key to Correspondents.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library of Harvard University, Cambridge. MA: Whitman, Sarah (Wyman) 1842-1904, recipient. 25 letters; 1892-[1900] & [n.d.]. Sarah Orne Jewett additional correspondence, 1868-1930. MS Am 1743.1 (126). Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Annie Fields Transcription
Annie Fields included part of this letter in Letters of Sarah Orne Jewett (1911). Her transcription follows.
I wish I could possibly tell you anything of the charm of Whitby. No wonder dear Mr. Lowell grew so fond of it, and of the people who spend their autumns there. We saw a good deal of the Smalleys and Du Mauriers, until we felt like oldest friends. You may expect me to be always telling you how delightful Mr. Du Maurier is. You can't think of him at all until you see him and hear him sing his old French songs, and have him show you his drawings with all the simplicity of a boy with a slate, and all the feeling of a great artist. He is sadly troubled with his poor failing eyes now, but there is always a lovely sunshine in his face, and you meet him out walking with a timid little fluffy terrier that gets frightened and stops all of a tremble, and has to be hunted up just when his master is talking most eagerly, and turned back for, -- such a beloved and troublesome little dog.
Whitby is full of pictures. There were places that made me think of your Gloucester picture, only a greyer sea and bright red-tiled roofs, climbing the steep hill, and a grey old abbey at the top of the hill, holding up its broken towers and traceries against the clouds. It is a noble seacoast and a most quaint fishing-town, quite unchanged and unspoiled. I shall be telling a great deal about the charms of Whitby.
I forgot whether I wrote you just before, or just after, our visit to Cobham. No, I am sure I have not told you about Mr. Arnold's favorite walks and his most interesting study, or how delighted I was to find your own rhododendrons hanging on the wall.Lucretia Morse Fisk Perry to Sarah Orne Jewett
My dearest Sarah
I bid you a most loving and cordial welcome to your own home; in which all my family join. We have had you in mind the last thing at night, and the first in the morning. Our first look at the morning paper was for the arrival of the steamer. I rejoice (too) with dear Mary, and with Carrie too, and have no doubt your home coming will be the very best kind of a tonic for Theodore.* I shall (in spirit) sit at your table with you tonight, where I so lately sat in person (with great satisfaction).
'Pa' is professionally hindered from giving you a welcome home tonight; and he honestly thinks his presence would be more acceptable a little later, when your mind and body were a little rested from the tumults of sentiment consequent upon regrets that a most delightful page of your life is closed; and the happiness of meeting again with those dearest to you -- With that weighty sentence I may as well close. Frances will speak for herself, if she gets her hands free from babykin, who is "good" but he has the activity of his father, and needs constant following.
We look forward with great satisfaction to the pleasure of embracing you again, and we want to hear about the charming places and persons you have seen. With love to all my dears.
Exeter Oct. 4.
Notes
1892: This date is supported by the chronology of Jewett's 1892 trip to Europe, from which she and Fields returned at the beginning of October. At this time, Francis Perry Dudley was the mother of her infant son, William Perry Dudley. "Pa" is Jewett's maternal uncle, Dr. William Gilman Perry. See Lucretia Morse Fisk Perry in Key to Correspondents.
Mary ... Carrie ... Theodore: Jewett's sisters, Mary Rice Jewett and Caroline Jewett Eastman, and her nephew, Theodore Jewett Eastman. See Key to Correspondents.
The manuscript of the letter is held by the University of New England Maine Women Writers Collection MWWC0196_02_00_024_01. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Sarah Wyman Whitman
[ 1892 ]*
South Berwick, Maine
[ End letterhead ]
---- and I was oh so sorry not to come day before yesterday but it could not be = as I look back I think there were at least a thousand great and small affairs, and the hot weather very hindering -- I was ill with a Cold at sea and* came ashore quite done, and so no more
at present of reasons, but as many regrets as there are leaves on the nearest poplar. And I shall be coming along as soon as ever I can, and I hope you will hear me when I am knocking at the door.
Because there is every thing to say, and now that A.F.* has seen you and I haven't, I am very very jealous which is a great
sin . . . . It is a most beautiful day except that this bright windy weather is not best for you and me as I remember. I think it is a wind from Intervale out hunting for Helen.*
Good-by darling -- there is a good deal in this letter though one might not think so.
Notes
1892: As Jewett indicates, she has just returned from her 1892 trip to Europe with Annie Fields (A.F.). She debarked on Tuesday 4 October and sent this letter on Thursday 6 October 1892. Key to Correspondents.
and: Jewett often writes "a" with a long tail for "and." I render these as "and."
Helen: Helen Bigelow Merriman's estate was Stonehurst in Intervale, NH. 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.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Louisa Dresel
South Berwick, Maine
Friday morning [ October 7, 1892 ]
Dear Loulie:
I was so glad to get your letter from Jackson1 and I wish that I could have sent you a word sooner to say so. It is very pleasant to be at home again and very busy and very sad too, I must confess, but we all try hard not to let each other know that we think anything about that!2 I think it is possible that Mrs. Fields will go to Manchester for a few days to close the house, etc. -- and if she does I shall go over and so have a chance to say things. I am sure to hear from her about it within a few days. I think that she has come home very well if only she doesn't work too hard at first and get cold!
Dear Loulie, I liked the four-leaved clover hugely. I have a great superstition about them of the most cheerful sort and I took this for great good luck.3 With love to Mrs. Dresel.
Yours most affectionately,
S. O. J.
Notes
1Katharine Prescott Wormeley (1830-1908), indefatigable translator of Balzac, Molière, Dumas, Daudet and other French authors, was an Englishwoman who lived in Newport, Rhode Island, then retired to Jackson, New Hampshire, in the heart of the White Mountains. She was an intimate friend of both Jewett and Dresel, who often visited her there. See Fields, Letters, 232, 244.
2The
black-bordered envelope in which Jewett dispatched this
letter suggests allusion to the approaching first
anniversary of her mother's death.*
3In "A
Four-Leaved Clover," Verses (Boston, 1916),
24-25, Jewett celebrates the beneficent propensities of
this flower. However, in keeping with her faith in the
fundamental Puritan moralities, she asserts that those who
"hunt the hayfield over" develop a quality of patience,
and "in little things or great, / all good luck, / Must
come to those who nobly earn."
Editor's Notes
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library, Harvard University, MS Am 1743 (50). This transcription by Richard Cary appeared originally in "Jewett to Dresel: 33 Letters," Colby Library Quarterly 7:1 (March 1975), 13-49, which gave permission to reprint it here. Notes are by Cary, with additions by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Annie Adams Fields
[ 7 October 1892 ]*
I was so glad to get your very dear note -- but I was disappointed to find that you are still alone -- Yet it is good to be by oneself just now -- I find myself heaving little sighs when I see dearest of neighbors approaching! I think there is a great deal of beauty in your poem* darling Fuff though the last of it troubles my practical mind with a kind of confusion in its figures. I cant quite
think it one of your best things yet, with
all its beauty and suggestion. I think it is a thing
to work over.)
How much we
have felt in these last days and how we can see this
pathetic figure and his great dim eyes.* I am so rich in
the thought of that visit -- and I can truly say that the
one thing which made me feel most anxious to have you get
to England this summer was to make sure of your seeing him
again -- and now you have seen him and I too, and it was a
most lovely visit. The great dignity
and separateness of his life comes clearer than ever to mind. He seemed like a King in captivity, one of the Kings of old, of divine right and sacred seclusions -- None of the great gifts I have ever had out of loving and being with you seems to me so great as having seen Tennyson, and then I stop and think of Mr. Lowell* and wonder if I ought to have been so sure though that was a little different -- But if somebody said Come and see Shakespeare* with me
I had a lovely ride this morning and wished for you -- it is most sweet weather today -- Dear Fuff I send you this small cheque for things I [ owed ? ] you in [ Liverpool ?]* &c. I daresay it isn't enough but I have kept the best account I could, and I am
Pin. )*
7 October 1892: Fields penciled October 1898 and then corrected it to 1892 in the upper right of page 1. The latter correctly identifies the month and year of Tennyson's death. See notes below.
(Fuff: Nickname for Annie Adams Fields. See Key to Correspondents.
Parenthesis marks in this letter have been penciled by Fields.
your poem: Jewett gives too little information to determine whether this is a poem that Fields eventually published. Jewett's reference to the complex figures at the end of the poem hint that Fields may have been working on "Death, Who Art Thou?" which appeared in Harper's Magazine a year later, in October 1893, and was collected in The Singing Shepherd (1895).
dim eyes: Fields has penciled "+ Tennyson" at the bottom of this page. Jewett refers to their seeing British poet, Alfred Lord Tennyson, the previous August, during their 1892 visit to England. Tennyson died on Thursday, 6 October 1892.
Lowell: James Russell Lowell. Key to Correspondents.
Shakespeare: British poet and dramatist, William Shakespeare (1564-1616).
Mrs. Hallam: Hallam Tennyson, 2nd Baron Tennyson (1852-1928), son of Alfred Tennyson, served as governor of South Australia (1899-1902) and Governor-General of Australia (1902-1904). His first wife was Audrey Boyle (d. 1916).
Liverpool: This transcription is uncertain, but if it is correct, I would appear that Fields and Jewett passed through Liverpool on their return trip from England at the end of September 1892.
Pin: Pinny Lawson (Pinny / Pin) was an affectionate nickname for Jewett, used by her and Annie Fields. See Key to Correspondents.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library of Harvard University. Jewett, Sarah Orne, 1849-1909. Annie Fields (Adams) 1834-1915, recipient. 194 letters; 1877-1909 & [n.d.] Sarah Orne Jewett correspondence, 1861-1930. MS Am 1743 (255). Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Annie Fields transcription
This passage appears in Annie Fields, Letters of Sarah Orne Jewett (1911), pp. 101-2.
Home, South Berwick, October, 1892.
How much we have felt in
these last days and how we can see his pathetic figure#
and his great dim eyes. I am so rich in the thought of
that visit, and I can truly say that the one thing which
made me feel most anxious to have you get to England this
summer was to make sure of your seeing him again, and now
you have seen him and I too, and it was a most lovely
visit. The great dignity and separateness of his life
comes clearer than ever to mind. He seemed like a king in
captivity, one of the kings of old, of divine rights and
sacred seclusions. None of the great gifts I have ever had
out of loving and being with you seems to me so great as
having seen Tennyson, and then I stop and think of Mr.
Lowell and wonder if I ought to have been so sure, though
that was a little different. But if somebody said
come and see Shakespeare with me I couldn't have felt any
more or deeper than I did about Tennyson.
Fields's note
# TennysonAnna Fuller to Sarah Orne Jewett
Oct. 16. 1892
My dear Miss Jewett.
Remembering the kind note which you wrote me two years ago when my first story "Aunt Betsy's Photographs"* was printed, I venture to send you the
book which has grown out of that story. I should like, too, to tell you what an incentive I have found in your word of approval.
We were glad to hear how well you and Mrs. Fields*
cordial greetings to Mrs. Fields and yourself --
Anna Fuller --
"Aunt Betsy's Photographs": Fuller's story was collected in Pratt Portraits, Sketched in a New England Suburb (1892).
Mrs. Fields: Annie Adams Fields. Key to Correspondents.
Jewett and Annie Fields returned home from several months in Europe near the beginning of October 1892. Perhaps Fuller refers to the Asiatic cholera epidemic of 1892, which led to President Benjamin Harrison ordering that all ships entering the U.S. from foreign ports must undergo a 20 day quarantine. See Harper's Weekly (17 September 1892).
Miss Frothingham: Possibly American author Eugenia Brooks Frothingham (1874-1971). Bartleby.com "Reader's Dictionary of Authors" and Wikisource, "Representative Women of New England."
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Miller Library, Special Collections, Colby College, Waterville, ME: JEWE.1. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Sarah Wyman Whitman
And I just holding your flowers in my hand and thinking about Beaux*-- and wondering!
And feeling sorry -- and at last hunting about in the little drawer of my old secretary and finding some poor verses that were written long ago about a dog, and forgotten these many months.
I am glad that you have gone to your South in this lovely
[ Page 2 ]
weather and I follow you with a thought and wonder if you are coming back before Sunday and if I shall not be in town next week as you say. Perhaps! but it is easier to stay here just now. Town means that I should begin things over again, and here it is very idle and most of the dear village neighbours have made their kind visits and we can be alone in the long sunny afternoons. Yesterday, a dear little old woman, who[ Page 3 ]
rarely leaves her house, came in to see Mary and me. "I know just how you feel dear," she said: "I have been through the same sorrow" -- and I could see that it was present yet in her heart and she almost ninety and missing her mother still.* -- It was a most tender and
touching little old face -- I wish you had been here to
know the dignity and sweetness of her visit, dear quaint
old lady, mindful of the proprieties; and one who had seen
almost everybody go whom she had known in youth
[ Page 4 ]
or middle-age even. I wish you knew some of the village
people {--} not the new ones -- but those to whom in their
early days Berwick was the round world itself.
I wonder a great deal about
dear people in Town though! and A.F. and Alice* in their
life together just now. Dr. Folsom* has been to see
Alice and I hope that she is going to stay on awhile in
Charles St. This illness is very hard for her --
I never can tell you how
dear a comfort A.F. was last week. I dont know what
[ Page 5 ]
I should have done without her -- Nobody knows how dear and full of help she is and the best sort of strength. It makes one all the more eager to do what one can for her in little things and ways when she feels alone.I hope that all will
[ Page 6 ]
as one reads in that lovely poem of Donne's about a Dreame .. and, by the way, how it lends lines to the story of Peter Ibbetson!* You must look at it some day if you dont remember it --I somehow think that you will read this last number ^of Ibbetson^ as you go on in the train. It is full of touching things and I long to see someday the drawings themselves which must be perfectly exquisite. These little woodcuts are charming but somehow one often knows
[ Page 7 ]
them changed in the cutting -- and often made coarser --Dear S.W. forgive me this wandering letter and read what you wish had been written between the lines of it. My love is here and my most affectionate care for you and eagerness to please and never wound or weary you my dear friend! Thank you for Helen's letter* {--} one can almost hear her say the things about Roger and the Schilling family!* -- and thank you again and again for "the flowers." We shall
[ Page 8 ]
be often remembering little Beaux -- he knew many things. I liked to think he was there --Good night dear
Notes
October 27, 1892: As the notes below indicate, Jewett almost certainly wrote this letter the year after her mother's death, near the anniversary. However, this is not certain, for in her transcription, Fields assigns the letter a specific date: "South Berwick, October 29, 1892." As the manuscript is dated Thursday by Jewett, this date cannot be correct, because 29 October fell on Saturday in 1892. Furthermore, it is at least possible that Jewett composed the letter in 1891, the week after her mother's death. I have chosen for now to place it in 1892, the Thursday after the anniversary, because its tone differs considerably from other letters she wrote in the weeks after 21 October 1891. Both Jewett and Fields, on other occasions, reported feeling grief on the anniversaries of the deaths of loved ones.Beaux: Jewett seems to have spelled the name of Whitman's dog in this way, though Whitman spelled it "Beau." Whitman mentions him in a letter to Minna and Gemma Timmins of 13 May 1886. Jewett is not known to have published a poem about a dog.
missing her mother still: October 21 is the anniversary of the death of Jewett's mother, Caroline Perry Jewett, in 1891.
A.F. and Alice: Annie Adams Fields and probably, Alice Greenwood Howe. See Key to Correspondents.
church ... Baltimore: During her childhood, Whitman lived in Baltimore MD with her grandparents. She executed the stained glass windows of the All Saints Episcopal Church in Baltimore, which was begun in 1891.
continued'st it: From "The Dream" by the British poet, John Donne (1572-1631), the first stanza:
Dear love, for nothing less than theestory of Peter Ibbetson: Wikipedia says: "George Louis Palmella Busson du Maurier (1834 -8 October 1896) was a Franco-British cartoonist and author, known for his drawings in Punch and for his novel Trilby." Peter Ibbetson, his first novel (1891) was adapted for stage, film and opera. Paisley Mann says that the novel appeared in Harper's New Monthly Magazine from June to November of 1891. "Du Maurier illustrated his own novel, contributing eighty-four drawings (fourteen per serial part)" ("Memory as "Shifting Sand," Victorian Review 31:2, p. 160).
Would I have broke this happy dream;
It was a theme
For reason, much too strong for fantasy,
Therefore thou wak'd'st me wisely; yet
My dream thou brok'st not, but continued'st it.
Thou art so true that thoughts of thee suffice
To make dreams truths, and fables histories;
Enter these arms, for since thou thought'st it best,
Not to dream all my dream, let's act the rest.
Helen: Helen Bigelow Merriman. See Key to Correspondents.
Roger ... Schilling family: Roger Merriman is Helen Merriman's son. See Key to Correspondents. The Schilling family has not be identified.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library of Harvard University, Cambridge. MA: Whitman, Sarah (Wyman) 1842-1904, recipient. 25 letters; 1892-[1900] & [n.d.]. Sarah Orne Jewett additional correspondence, 1868-1930. MS Am 1743.1 (126). Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Annie Fields Transcription
Annie Fields included part of this letter in Letters of Sarah Orne Jewett (1911). In that volume, Fields implies that this letter was addressed to Fields rather than to Whitman. Her transcription follows.
Town means that I should begin things over again, and here it is very idle, and most of the dear village neighbours have made their kind visits, and we can be alone in the long sunny afternoons. Yesterday, a dear little old woman, who rarely leaves her house, came in to see Mary and me. "I know just how you feel, dear," she said, "I have been through the same sorrow"; and I could see that it was present yet in her heart, and she almost ninety, and missing her mother still.*
It was a most tender and touching little old face, -- I wish you had been here to know the dignity and sweetness of her visit, dear quaint old lady, mindful of the proprieties, and one who had seen almost everybody go whom she had known in youth, or middle-age, even. I wish you knew some of the village people, -- not the new ones, but those to whom in their early days Berwick was the round world itself.
Sarah Wyman Whitman to Sarah Orne Jewett
November, 1892.
Oh, having a Show isn't half so leisurely a proceeding as I had supposed,* and I have never been so busy in my life, I guess, as for the last three days. But the world, critics and otherwise, takes the Show more seriously than ever it did before; and that gives me a grave pleasure. Indeed I have felt a great many things, owing to folks and their remarks.
Notes
having a Show: According to Betty S. Smith, Whitman had two shows in 1892, at the Doll and Richards gallery in Boston and at the Avery Gallery in New York. Presumably, she here refers to the later one in New York. Her works on exhibit included oil paintings, pastels, sketches, and watercolors. See Smith, "Sarah de St. Prix Wyman Whitman," Old Time New England (Spring/Summer 1999), pp. 47-64.
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 Lilian Woodman Aldrich
[ Begin letterhead ]
Maine.
My dear Lilian
When I went to Town for Sunday I thought that I surely should find you in Mount Vernon St. and I was so much disappointed when I heard from A.F.* that you were still out of town and especially that you are not quite well yet. I have been expecting to go to Boston and to see you there so that I have
never written a word! I was so grieved to hear of your illness, and I wish very much to see you. If I possibly could have stayed I should have gone to Ponkapog to spend an hour at least. -- dear Ponkapog! how I should like to have a drive with you there again!
I have been busy as everybody is when she first gets home after seven months & more away, answering foolish
and home it all seemed to put its arms round me -- I am always looking forward to having you and T.B.A. here. I wish it were not so late in the autumn.
Good-by dear Lilian -- My sister Mary* sends her love with mine. We read For Bravery on the Field of Battle* with such delight and pride, and we found ourselves pretty close to crying over it I needn't say! I knew that I should when I heard its name in Paris & knew what it was to be about --
Your affectionate S. O. J.
Please give my love to your mother and to Mr. Pierce.*
Notes
A.F.: Annie Adams Fields. See Correspondents.
T.B.A.: Thomas Bailey Aldrich. See Key to Correspondents.
Mary: Mary Rice Jewett. See Key to Correspondents.
For Bravery on the Field of Battle: T. B. Aldrich's poem appeared in the October 1892 Century Magazine.
Mr. Pierce: Henry Lille Pierce. 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: 2743.
Annie Fields Transcription
Annie Fields included most of this letter in Letters of Sarah Orne Jewett (1911). Her transcription follows.
My dear Lilian, -- When I went to Town for Sunday, I thought that I surely should find you in Mount Vernon Street, and I was so much disappointed when I heard from A. F.* that you were still out of town, and especially that you are not quite well yet. I have been expecting to go to Boston and to see you there, so that I have never written you a word! I was so grieved to hear of your illness, and I wish very much to see you. If I possibly could have stayed I should have gone to Ponkapog* to spend an hour at least, -- dear Ponkapog! how I should like to have a drive with you again!
I have been busy, as everybody is when she first gets home after seven months and more away, -- answering foolish strangers' letters, and so never having a minute in which to write to wise friends, and trying to get a little writing done, and trying to see all my neighbours, and to remember which bureau drawer anything is in! It was so sweet to get home again and into the old places -- I never shall forget the beauty of that first evening on Charles Street as we sat looking out over the river, and being so glad to be off the steamer; and next day, when I came here to the dear old house and home, it all seemed to put its arms round me.* I am always looking forward to having you and T. B. A. here. I wish it were not so late in the autumn.
Sarah Orne Jewett to David Douglas, Edinburgh
10th November, 1892, South Berwick, Maine.
My dear Mr. Douglas, -- I only wish I were near enough to make one of your household now and then. I console myself by thinking that we do not live either in a letterless world or one where the remembrance of the past pleasures of friendship need ever be anything but present joy. As I sat at your table it was something like being at home in the old days when I still had my dear father and mother with all their wit and wisdom and sweetness. Now my elder sister and I are often alone.
It is funny how everything here seems to concern itself with the World's Fair at Chicago! for one of our magazines -- Scribner's -- means to be first in the field with a Great Representative Number! and I am hurrying to finish a story for it -- a May number, but the editors are already anxious about being behind hand.*
Mrs. Fields has seen Dr. Holmes and found him pretty well, and full of delightful fun; bearing his years cheerfully, and drawing his old friends closer, as he lets the rest of the world slip away little by little. Whittier's and Tennyson's death touched him closely, and it happens that some other old friends of his went this autumn too. Mr. Curtis, and Mr. Samuel Longfellow, the brother, a biographer of the poet, and Dr. Parsons, an erratic man of real genius, the translator of Dante and a poet of no mean skill, who was one of Dr. Holmes's and Mr. Fields's friends -- all this has been sad for the dear old doctor, but as I have said, he keeps very cheerful.*
Dear Mr. and Mrs. Douglas! My best thanks for Dean Ramsay's and Felicia Skene's book and more for the thought.
Yours most affectionately.
Notes
the World's Fair at Chicago ... Scribner's: The World's Columbian Exposition opened in Chicago in May 1893, a little late, to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Columbus's arrival in the New World in 1492. The May 1893 "Exhibition Number" of Scribner's Magazine was indeed special, designed as the "Conductors' Point of View" column said, as a "representative number of an American magazine . . . [showing] to what these popular mediums of literary and artistic enjoyment and information have grown." Contributors to this number include George Washington (by means of a document), William Dean Howells, Thomas Bailey Aldrich, Bret Harte, Walter Besant, Thomas Hardy, Henry James, Robert Blum, Frances Hodgson Burnett, Jewett's story, "Between Mass and Vespers," Francisque Sarcey, and George Washington Cable. Among the popular illustrators to appear were Robert Blum, A. B. Frost, and Howard Pyle.Dr. Holmes ... Dean Ramsay's and Felicia Skene's book: Oliver Wendell Holmes (1809-1894) was a poet and author of The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table (1858). Trained as a physician, he was the father of the Supreme Court Justice, Oliver W. Holmes, Jr. John Greenleaf Whittier (see note above) died in 1892. Alfred Lord Tennyson died on October 6, 1892. The Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia says: "George William Curtis, b. Providence, R.I., (Feb. 24, 1824, d. Aug. 31, 1892), was an eminent American editor, literary figure, orator, and political leader. For 30 years (1863-92) he was political editor of Harper's Weekly." Thomas William Parsons (1819-1892) was a poet and translator of Dante. For more on Parsons, see Melissa J. Homestead, "Buried in Plain Sight: Unearthing Willa Cather's Allusion to Thomas William Parsons's 'The Sculptor's Funeral,'" Studies in American Fiction 43:2 (Fall 2016), pp. 207-299.
I have not been able to locate a single book upon which Felicia Skene (1821-1899) and John William Ramsay, Earl of Dalhousie (1847-1887) collaborated, if this is the Dean Ramsay referred to. However each wrote a separate book on the same topic. Skene's polemical novel on the law against marrying a deceased wife's sister, The Inheritance of Evil: Or, the Consequence of Marrying a Deceased Wife's Sister, appeared in 1849. Ramsay's compilation on the controversy, American Experience of Marriage with a Deceased Wife's Sister: the Answers of the Governors of States, &C. To Inquiries Made by the Earl of Dalhousie, appeared in 1883.
Perhaps Douglas sent her more than one book, a title each by Ramsay and Skene?
This letter appears in Annie Fields, Letters of Sarah Orne Jewett (1911), Transcribed by Annie Adams Fields, with notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Lilian Woodman Aldrich
[ Begin letterhead ]
Dear Lilian
I must send you and T.B.A.* a little note this morning to thank you both for the great pleasure you gave us all in your visit{.} Mary* wishes me to send her love and to say so for her too. It made us so sorry to have you go off in such a storm and I do hope
both under the roof in that wet & windy weather.
I am so glad that the birthday is fair!
S. O. J.
Notes
1892: There are two confusions about this date. Though Jewett may have written 1897, I have chosen to place the letter in 1892. Jewett seems to suggest that she writes on one of the Aldriches birthdays. T. B. Aldrich was born 11 November. Lilian's birthday is 8 May and their twin sons, Talbot and Charles, were born on 17 September. Perhaps she refers to the birthday of someone outside the family? Or perhaps she is temporarily confused about the date of T. B. Aldrich's birth.
T.B.A.: Thomas Bailey Aldrich. See Key to Correspondents.
Mary: Mary Rice Jewett. See Key to Correspondents.
Mrs. Richards: Probably Laura Elizabeth Howe Richards. 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: 2744.
Ellen Tucker Emerson to Annie Adams Fields
19 Nov. 1892
Dear Mrs Fields,
I thank you for thinking of Mother* and of us. Many pleasant times you have given to her and to my Father and us children. It was kind of you to send the wreath and we thank you. It went with her to the grave and now lies on it.
Ellen T. Emerson.
Notes
Mother: Emerson's mother, reformer, Lidian Jackson Emerson (1802-1892), died on 13 November.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Huntington Library, San Marino, CA, in the James T. Fields Papers and Addenda, Box 16: mss FI 5637. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Abby Gilman Fiske to Sarah Orne Jewett
Your friend's cure was a wonderful one, but, not as wonderful as that of my friend whose portrait I send you -- Please read the plain facts of the case and you will be convinced I feel sure --
This has been a quiet pleasant day, with walks to the barn & Mr. Tucker* -- reading writing and lounging.
Caddy & Thidder have just stepped in to give an account of a "Thanksgiving Concert" they both attended this eve. at the Vestry -- Caddy seemed quite impressed by the goodness of it, but Thidder in-
I miss you dreadfully -- but am so glad you are meeting such pleasant people & enjoying so much. Isn't it delightful that Mary is going next week to Mrs. Tylers* -- I hope they will keep her for a good long visit --
This brings you much love from Rosey* & me -- We are well & hope you are the same!!
[ Mary corrected ] is writing particulars --
Notes
1892: This letter probably was composed between 1892 and 1896. Mentioning preaching and a Thanksgiving concert suggests that the letter was composed on a Sunday shortly before Thanksgiving. Mentioning Caroline Eastman but not her husband, suggests that the letter was written after Edwin Eastman's death in the Spring of 1892, but before Caroline Eastman's death in the spring of 1897.
Jewett was nearly always home for Thanksgiving during these years, but clearly she was away from home when Fiske wrote, for Fiske reports the South Berwick news. Jewett may have been in Boston on the Sunday preceding Thanksgiving in any of these years.
I have placed the letter in 1892 only because that is the earliest of the likely years.
Tucker: John Tucker. Key to Correspondents.
Mary: Jewett's South Berwick family, sisters Mary Rice and Carrie Eastman, and Carrie's son, Theodore. Key to Correspondents.
Lewis: Probably the children of Rev. George Lothrop Lewis. Key to Correspondents.
Tylers: Probably, Augusta Maria Denny Tyler. Key to Correspondents.
Rosey: The author of this letter is Abby/Abba Gilman Fiske. See Mary Walker Fiske in Key to Correspondents. Rosey has not yet been identified.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library of Harvard University, Cambridge, MA. bMS Am 1743 Box 2, Item 66 I. Letters to Sarah Orne Jewett.
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
How many times I have thought of you and wished to write and say so -- to write the longest of letters full of questions and full of answers! I find myself making believe that I am sitting beside you in the corner of the drawing room -- it is indeed lovely to me that I can make you visits in thought if not in reality, and remember all the beautiful surroundings outside and inside the windows. I am only sorry that I never went up to see Francesca's* roof garden!
It is the time of year when
a roof garden in Boston would fare very ill. The snow keeps off pretty well but the winds blow and dust stings one's eyes ----- You see that I am now writing in town instead of at home in Berwick -- and look at life from a townish point of view. I have come to Charles St. to make a short ceremonious visit to Mrs. Fields! but next month I hope to come for at least two or three weeks with boxes and bundles. I have been in the country nearly all the time since we landed, the first of October* -- for both my sisters are lonely without
me; one being quite alone, and the other who was left a widow* last spring with [ deletion ] ^one^ little son, finds it hard to pull her life together again and depends upon what we can do for her -- The winter begins sadly. I missed my dear mother more than ever when I came back to the old house and to her empty room -- --*
I have made one delightful visit to dear Aunt Mary Long* -- your 'Mary Olivia' -- and you cant think how eagerly she asked me all sorts of affectionate things about you and begged me to give you her dearest love and to say with what pleasure she [ clings corrected ]
trying some of them for me. She happened to tell me that she herself composed the air and accompaniment to that one you particularly like "Are we almost there" -- I never knew this before. ---- but indeed I should rather hear her play a song than most people sing it! As Mrs. Fields once said 'it takes so much more than a good voice to make a good singer!' and we are fortunate* ( arent we? ] who used to hear Aunt Mary sing the old Scottish and English songs -- The house looks just as it always has since I can first remember it and the high teas are just as good!!
-- I am going on with this very rambling letter, at home after a little visit in Portland to my aunt Helen Gilman* (the widow of my uncle "Dr John") and she too was delighted to hear about you and your Francesca. Sometimes when I find your old friends hearts so warm with remembrance and how much they wish for you, I wish I had made you into a nice tidy bundle with white paper and a pretty string, and brought you right home with me !! --I must give
I am sending you a book of her stories for I know they will interest you both. I am begging her to got to Italy ^where she has never been^ and she means to go, and then you will see her.
I mean to go to Jamaica Plain [ & ? ] see how the Swetts are, just as soon as I possibly can -- and then I shall write to you again.
Please find, both of you the Christmas wishes that I put into this letter. I hope the dear eyes are better? Mine are better but not quite well even yet.
Notes
Alexander: A line has been penciled vertically through the first two and one half pages. Probably Jewett did not intend to delete this material. More likely, someone, perhaps Annie Fields, thought of publishing part of this letter, and considered this omission.
In the Houghton folder containing Jewett's letters to Alexander are several envelopes. One is addressed to Mary Jewett in South Jewett in South Berwick, cancelled in 1929, and labeled "Save ... Letters to Mrs Alexander S.O.J." A second is addressed to Mrs. Alexander in Florence, Italy, cancelled in Florence and in New York in September 1893; it is labeled on the back: "Miss S. O. Jewett September 1893." The third is addressed to Mrs. Alexander in Florence, cancelled in South Berwick on 10 December 1892 and in New York on 11 December; it is labeled on the back: Miss S. O. Jewett 4 December 1892."
Francesca's: Alexander's daughter. Key to Correspondents.
Fields: Annie Adams Fields. Key to Correspondents.
October: Jewett and Fields were traveling in Europe during much of 1892.
widow: Mary Rice Jewett and Carrie Jewett Eastman and her son, Theodore Jewett Eastman. Key to Correspondents. The Jewetts' mother, Caroline, died in October 1891.
room: The apparent deletion ends with this paragraph.
Mary Long: Mary Olivia Gilman Long. Key to Correspondents.
fortunate: The first 2/3 of this page also has a vertical line through it, ending here.
Elizabeth Cavazza: Elisabeth Jones Cavazza Pullen (1849-1926), a native of Portland, Maine, was early educated in music and Italian language and literature. In 1885 she married Signor Nino Cavazza, and in 1894 Stanley J. Pullen, an editor of the Portland Daily Press. She wrote music and literary criticism for that newspaper and for the Literary World, as well as two obscure volumes of fiction. Her 1892 book was Don Finimondone: Italian Sketches." Wikipedia.
stornelli: Short Italian street songs.
Swetts: Charlotte Swett of Exeter was the second wife of the historical Jonathan Hamilton (1745-1802), builder of the Hamilton House in South Berwick and a character in Jewett's novel, The Tory Lover (1901). After Hamilton's death, she married Governor John Taylor Gilman of Exeter, a great uncle of Mrs. Theodore Herman Jewett (Sarah O. Jewett's mother). Lucia Alexander was a descendant of Charlotte Swett's family.
Ellen and Ida: Ellen and Ida Mason. Key to Correspondents.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library of Harvard University, Cambridge, MA. bMS Am 1743.1 Sarah Orne Jewett Additional Correspondence II. Letters from Sarah Orne Jewett, Box 4 (114).
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to William Wilberforce Baldwin
6 December 1892
Dear Doctor Baldwin
This is to wish you and your house a happy Christmas from Mrs Fields* and me -- and to say that we remember seeing you with a very great pleasure that makes us always look forward to seeing you again{.}
I send on by way of
token this small match-box from the Japanese shop which beguiles me most -- It is not big enough to hold what you Florentines are pleased to call Scalas,* but perhaps it will hold a light to start now and then the fires of friendship -- and cigars! Believe me
Sarah O. Jewett
We have been at home about two months now and like our country enormously!
The picture book is for Mrs. Fields intimate friend {.}
Was his dear name [ Shorty ? ] ?*
Notes
1892: Penciled at the top of page 1: a circled number 3 and "SARAH O. JEWETT". Associated with the letter is an envelope also with a penciled and circled number 3.
The envelope cannot belong with the letter, though a note appears on the back indicating that it does: "S. O. Jewett" in ink. Also on the back flap is "1860". Though it is addressed to Dr. Baldwin, Via del Moro, Florence, Italy., it bears an Italian postage stamp, indicating that the envelope was mailed in Italy, while the letter is dated from South Berwick. The front and back cancellations indicate that it was mailed from Bellagio to Florence.
The front cancellation reads: "Bellagio 1 MAG 83." The back cancellation seems to read: "3 5 - 83 8 M". The envelope then is from early May/Maggio 1883.
Mrs. Fields: Annie Adams Fields. See Key to Correspondents.
Scalas: Literally, in Italian, this means stairs or stairways. Jewett seems to indicate that in Florence the word was used to refer to large matches as well.
Shorty: This transcription is very uncertain. Jewett's uncertainty about the nickname and the picture book as a gift suggest she refers to a child.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Morgan Library & Museum. MA 3564. Gift; Mrs. Stanley Hawks and Mrs.Arthur Bliss Lane; 1968. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Horace Granville Leslie*
[ 1892 ]*
Dear Doctor Leslie
I was so sorry that I could not wait yesterday afternoon to see you again and to tell you how beautiful your short address was to me -- It touched my heart, and seemed to me exactly what our dear friend would have liked best -- I thank you sincerely for the great pleasure I had in listening
to what you said.
I am sure that you miss Mr. Whittier* more and more, as -- in truth -- all his best friends must. He so often spoke of you, and always with such warmth of appreciation and interest that the evening I spent with you once is like a long friendship, or, I ought to say, part of a long friendship. I hope
Sarah O. Jewett
Dr. Leslie: Horace Granville Leslie (1842-1907), a physician and poet, served as a surgeon in the Civil War. See The Granite Monthly: A New Hampshire Magazine, Volume 39 (1907), p. 326.
1892: This date appears penciled in another hand, added presumably because this was the year of John Greenleaf Whittier's death. Key to Correspondents.
The manuscript of this letter held by the Miller Library Special Collections at Colby College, Waterville, ME. JEWE.1. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Robert Underwood Johnson
[ 1892 ]*
Maine.
[ End Letterhead ]
I thank you over and over again
for the great pleasure I have had in your lovely book of
poems.* and I thank you most for your kind remembrance. I
cannot tell you with what feeling I read again the pages that
I knew last spring in Venice and some of the lines of
The Winter Hour* belong to my life as much as to yours. I shall [ be blotted, perhaps corrected ] always reading between those dear lines and remembering days that we both remember.*
I did not need them to recall
our friendship: but I put your white flower of a book into the
safest place. I know how dear The Winter Hour must
be
to
your
wife -- it made
it doubly beautiful to me because I knew something of your
life together. God bless you both dear friends! I send you my
best Christmas wish and I wish for thyself that I may be so
fortunate as to see you sometimes in the New Year.
I saw Mrs. Fields* a day or
two ago and found her pretty well -- We talked of
you then -- we are pretty sure to think of you when we think of the spring and summer in Italy and France -- -- I envy you the pleasure that your white book will give to every one, and so bring back to you -- Pray believe me always your sincere and affectionate friend
Sarah O. Jewett
Notes
1892: Richard Cary assigned the letter this date; his rationale seems clear in his note below.
poems: Johnson's The Winter Hour, and Other Poems (1892).
The Winter Hour: It is not clear that this underlining is Jewett's. This also is the case when the title is repeated on page 2.
remember: Richard Cary's note: On their second trip to Europe in the summer of 1892 Miss Jewett and Mrs. Fields crossed the ocean on the steamer Werra with Mr. and Mrs. Johnson, then toured Italy and France together. Miss Jewett met Mark Twain in Venice, Madame Blanc and Brunetière in Paris, continued on to England where she romped with George Du Maurier's delightful dog at Whitby, and paid more formal calls on Tennyson, Mrs. Humphry Ward, and Matthew Arnold's family.
Miss Jewett's friendship with Horace E. Scudder was genuine and lifelong, but a conversation reported by Johnson in his Remembered Yesterdays (Boston, 1929), 392, reveals one of her thoroughly human traits: "I remember she had a dislike for Horace Scudder, one-time editor of the Atlantic, apropos of whom she said to me, 'What a strange world this is!' -- and then with a rapid zigzag forward gesture of her hand, -- 'full of scudders and things.' "
Mrs. Fields: Annie Adams Fields. See Key to Correspondents.
The manuscript of this letter is held by Colby College Special Collections, Waterville, ME: JEWE.1. Richard Cary included his transcription in Sarah Orne Jewett Letters.
New transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Robert Collyer to Annie Adams Fields
Dear Friend
This brings all the good wishes for a merry Christmas and a happy new year and for many more to follow. You dwell always in my heart for auld lang syne* and for the brightness you have brought into the later years{.}
Notes
auld lang syne: Loose translation from Scots: for old times' sake.
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.
Marie Thérèse de Solms Blanc to Annie Adams Fields
This letter was composed in French; a transcription follows the translation.
Paris, 24 December [ 1892 ]*
Dear Mrs. Fields, I send you my very devoted and tender thoughts at the end of the year{.} For me 1892 will remain a year marked with a white cross, despite much sadness, for I have had the happiness of knowing you, of spending intimate days with you such as come to pass too rarely. I cannot overstate how sweet to me has been the constant memory of you since your departure, now already four months ago. How grateful I am for your dear letters! On my worktable are poems written in your hand; to look at them impresses me as if I should shake this friend's hand, "artful work," as Montaigne* says. You will speak to me about my Japanese
-- German -- American citizen of the world.* In you he recognized an exquisite feminine type, the best, that he can understand quite well, in spite of a certain overflow of sensualism (idealized as well) that characterizes his disorderly work. Has he decided to show you his so-called Christ? There is an Oriental sense, a certain flavor of the desert, that impresses many good judges here, but his subject is such that Christian souls cannot agree with it. He had written me that he did not dare show you this script, in which he surpasses the audacity of his master, Walt Whitman;* I would like to know if he really is bolder and what you actually make of this bizarre being, who unites
Will your translation of "The Centaur"* appear in a book? What are you working on right now? For my part, I gave the Fortnightly Review a small anonymous article on our most delightful women's arts exhibition, after the appearance in the Revue [ des Deux Mondes ] of Annette's Godfather* and of [ unrecognized title ] in the Debates;* not to mention a few other articles in progress. I will have completed much this year, despite my poor eyes, which always worry me greatly.
I returned to Paris barely 20 days ago, having taken winter excursions in the Nivernais, in Burgundy and in the Marval -- the granite mountains were beautiful despite the snow, and until it fell
the autumn hunting had drawn to all their old castles a large society within which I could isolate myself. Then I went to Dijon, to help the widow of my old friend Mr. Milsand* to put her husband's papers in order. They will be published soon. I told you about this great soul with American origins; the Milsands must have come to France in the 18th century, with Law. -- His family has a Renaissance great house that looks like it was detached from the castle of Heidelberg, with a sculpted façade, foliated and flowered miraculously. But how cold it was on those old stone stairs!
After long days of fog we are having nice dry and freezing weather, which is better. Paris is as pretty as if it were not sad and weighed down by many political and financial troubles.
Please remember, if some friends of yours are coming to Paris, some excellent information about boarding.
For those who would like the quarter of St. Germain,* an area of schools and workers, but close to the Louvre: Mrs. and Mrs. Alliou,* 23 rue de Verneuil. Alliou is the editor-in-chief of the Recreation Magazine with Hetzel,* an intelligent atmosphere with all the books and magazines, and if a young woman needed someone to accompany her for shopping or lessons, Mrs. Alliou could act as a mother -- 10 francs per day – on the third floor, overlooking the garden.
For a young man ^student^ this would be equally ideal, 300 francs per month, well-furnished and much more elegant, at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Hippolyte Fournier,* the husband a well-known critic and lawyer, the wife very brilliant and charming. Financial misfortune leads them to take 3 or 4 boarders during the summer in St. Germain-en-Laye, 2nd rue de Lorraine, where they have a delicious property, and they winter in Paris [ unrecognized phrase ] but they will move to the Champs Élysées. With them as with Mr. Alliou, breakfast is served American style, with two more hearty meals, including wine of course.
I send you, dear friend, my most tender wishes and regards from my son*
ThBlanc
Notes
1892: After years of corresponding, Blanc met Fields and Sarah Orne Jewett face-to-face for the first time in the summer of 1892. This letter opens referring to this first encounter.
Montaigne: French author, Michel Eyquem de Montaigne (1533-1592).
citizen of the world: Japanese-German-American critic and poet, Carl Sadakichi Hartmann (1867-1944). See also Photography and Criticism CyberArchive. Blanc refers to what became Hartmann's first book, Christ: A Dramatic Poem in Three Acts (1893).
Walt Whitman: American poet, Walt Whitman (1819-1892).
"The Centaur": A prose-poem by the French poet, Maurice de Guérin (1810-1839). Annie Fields's essay and translation, entitled "Guérin's Centaur," appeared in Scribner's (August 1892, pp. 224-32). With the piece were two drawings of centaurs by French academic painter, Charles Édouard Delort (1841-1895). This work was not reprinted as a book.
Annette's Godfather: Le Parrain d'Annette (Annette's Godfather, 1893), a novel by Th. Bentzon. The book was serialized in Revue des Deux Mondes in September of 1892.
Debates: Journal des Débats Politiques et Littéraires. To which article Blanc refers is not yet known.
Milsand: Joseph Antoine Milsand (1817-1886), French critic, philosopher, Protestant theologian, and a close friend of British poet, Robert Browning (1812-1889). His Littérature Anglaise et Philosophie appeared in 1893.
Blanc's essay "A French Friend of Browning -- Joseph Milsand" appeared in Scribner's XX (July 1896), 108-120.
Law: Scottish economist, John Law (1671-1729) became infamous for the "Mississippi Bubble," a series of financial transactions that led to the collapse of the French Banque Générale.
Alliou: In 1898, Auguste Alliou appeared on the masthead as "Secrétaire de la Rédaction" of Magasin d'éducation et de récréation: Journal de Toute la Famille (Volume 3). This probably is the person to whom Blanc refers, as Th. Bentzon also appears on the list of "récréation" contributors.
Alliou also appears on the internet as a collaborator in the publication of work by Jules Verne.
Hetzel: Pierre-Jules Hetzel (1814-1886) was a publisher, editor and author, best remembered for publishing elaborate editions of the works of French author, Jules Verne (1828-1905). Presumably, Blanc refers to his son, author and editor Louis Jules Hetzel (1847-1930), who took over the family publishing business after his father's death.
Hippolyte Fournier: Almost certainly this is Hippolyte Fournier (1831-190?), author of fiction and criticism, editor and lawyer. See the Bibliothèque Nationale de France.
son: For Blanc's son, Édouard Blanc, see Blanc 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 mss FI 1-5637, Box 5. Transcription, translation and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College, with essential assistance from Jeannine Hammond, Professor of French, Emerita, at Coe College.
Transcription
Paris, 24 Décembre
Chère Mrs Fields, Je vous envoie
mes pensées bien dévouées et
bien tendres en cette fin d'année{.}
1892 restera pour moi, malgré
beaucoup de tristesses, marquée d'une
croix blanche, car je lui ai
dû le bonheur de vous
connaître, de vous bien posséder
dans des journées l'intimité
telles qu'il est donné trop
rarement d'en [ passer ? ]. Je
ne puis vous dire assez combien
votre constant souvenir depuis
[ ce or le ] départ, qui remonte à quatre
mois déjà, m'a été doux.
Comme je suis reconnaissante
de vos chères lettres! J'ai sur
mon table de travail des vers écrits
de votre main; les regarder me
faisais la même impression que
si je la serrais cette main
amie, [ "ouvrière l'art" ? ] comme dit Montaigne.
Vous me parlerez de mon japonais
-- allemand -- américain,
citoyen du monde. Il a
reconnu en vous un type
exquis du féminin ^le meilleur^ qu'il
sait très bien comprendre
malgré un certain débordement
de sensualisme (idéaliste
d'ailleurs) qui caractérise son
oeuvre désordonnée. S'est-il
décidé à vous communiquer le ^prétendu^ Christ?
Il y a un sentiment de
l'Orient, une certaine peinture
du désert qui ont beaucoup
frappé ici des bons juges, mais
le sujet est tel que des âmes
chrétiennes n'en peuvent
prendre leur parti! Il m'a
écrit qu'il n'osait vous
montrer drame où les
audaces de son maître
Walt Whitman sont dépassées, je voudrais bien savoir
s'il s'est enhardi et ce
que vous pensez en somme
de cet être bizarre qui réunît
une enveloppe aussi composite
que paraît l'être son intelligence.
Votre traduction du Centaure
paraîtra-t-elle en volume?
Que faites-vous en ce moment?
J'ai, quant à moi, donné à
la Fortnightly un petit article
anonyme sur [ notre ? ] très joie
exposition des arts de la femme
depuis la publication dans la
Revue du Parrain d'Annette
et celle du [ unrecognized name ] dans les
Débats; sans parler de [ q.q. for quelques ]
articles en préparation. J'aurai
beaucoup travaillé cette année
et dépit de mes pauvres
yeux qui sont toujours
mon gros souci. -- A peine
suis-Je rentrée à Paris depuis
une vingtaine de jours, ayant
fait des [ réfugiature ? ] d'hiver en
Nivernais, en Bourgoyne et
dans le Marvau -- Les montagnes --
^granitiques^ étaient belles malgré la neige, et
^jusqu'a à ce qu'elle tombait,^
la chasse à courre ^avait^ réuni
dans tous ces vieux châteaux
une société nombreuse aux
milieu de laquelle je pouvaîs
m'isoler. Puis je suis allée à
Dijon, aider la veuve de mon
vieil ami M. Milsand à mettre
en ordre des papiers de son
mari qui seront publiés bientôt.
Je vous ai parlé de cet esprit
supérieur qui avait des origines
américaines les Milsand ayant
dû venir en France, au 18e S,
avec Law.* --- Sa famille
possède à Dijon un hôtel
de la Renaissance qui a l'air
d'un morceau détaché du château
de Heidelberg, avec une façade
sculptée, feuillée, fleurie à miracle.
Mais qu'il faisait froid sur ces
vieux escaliers de pierre!
Après de longs jours de brouillard
nous avons un beau temps sec
et glacial qui vaut mieux.
Paris est aussi joli que s'il n'était
pas triste et sous le coup de bien des
embarras tout politiques que financiers{.}
Veuillez-vous rappeler si
[ q.q. for quelques ] amis à vous [ viennent ? ]
à Paris d'excellentes indications
de board.
Pour des personnes que
voudraient le [ fs ? ] St Germain,
le quartier des écoles, du
travail avec cependant
le proche voisinage du
Louvre: M. et Mme Alliou
23 rue de Verneuil.
Alliou est le rédacteur
en chef du Magasin de
récréation chez Hetzel
milieu intelligent, tous les
livres et revues [ et au ? ]
besoin s'il s'agissait
d'une jeune fille à
conduire à des courses ou
leçons les soins maternels
de Mme Alliou. 10 fr
par jour -- au 3e vue sur des jardins{.}
Pour un jeune homme ^[ Student ? ]^ ce serait la
[ perfection ? ]
également 300 fr. par
mois, très bonne installation
beaucoup plus élégante
chez M et Mme Hippolyte
Fournier, le mari critique
bien connu et avocat.
La femme très brillante
et très aimable, des revers
de fortune les décident à
prendre 3 ou 4 pensionnaires
l'été à St Germain en
Laye, 2nd rue de Lorraine
où ils ont une délicieuse
propriété et l'hiver
à Paris [ unrecognized phrase ] mais
^ils vont déménager aux Champs Élysées.^
Chez eux comme chez M. Alliou premier déjeuner
[ sobile ? ] à l'américaine
deux autres repas copieux
vin compris, bien entendu{.}
Je vous prie d'en parler à vos connaissances { -- }
ce sera leur rendre service, je crois. [ Et ? ] aller de ma part.
Je vous adresse, chère amie, mes voeux les plus tendres et
les respects de mon fils ThBlanc
George Du Maurier to Sarah Orne Jewett
Hampstead Heath.
[ End letterhead ]
Dear Mifs Jewett,
Very many thanks for your most kind remembrance of us -- it was delightful to hear from you, & to be told that Mrs Fields* & yourself hold us in your memory so warmly.
Thanks also for the portrait of dear O W H,* which must be excellent in the original. The photograph reminds me a little
of the late Dean Stanley* -- Has the likeness ever been noticed before?
Yesterday was a happy Xmas day for us -- for we have been in dreadful trouble & [ anxiety ? ] since we saw you. Our son-in-law, Charlie Millar,* lay ill of brain & typhoid fever in [ Florida ?] for forty-six days! so ill that his recovery is a Miracle -- he has just come back, weak indeed, but out of all danger, & dined with us yesterday -- a [ quite unlooked for piece ? ] of good fortune.
I have lent your delightful book* to Canon [ Ainger ? ]* ( at his own request ) and so far it seems to have pleased him as much as it pleased us.
Harpers have taken my new book* and I have begun the illustrations which interest me immensely -- I shall have a year to do them in as "Trilby" (that's the name) cannot appear in the magazine till '94 -- probably '95 -- which I fear is a little late. It will be very [ thickly ? ] illustrated if all goes
well with me. I very sincerely hope that both drawings & [ letterpress ? ] will find favour in your eyes. The publishers seem anyhow well pleased with this story.
I can think of no greater joy than writing a story & then illustrating it oneself!
You will both be coming over again I trust -- How charming if you would live some little while in Whitby & learn to love it as Lowell* did, & I & mine do!
With our kindest new year wishes to Mrs Fields & yourself I remain
George du Maurier
My wife is quite strong again.
Notes
Fields: Annie Adams Fields. See Key to Correspondents.
O.W.H:: Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. See Key to Correspondents.
Dean Stanley: Anglican priest and church historian, Arthur Penrhyn Stanley (1815-1881). Wikipedia.
Millar: du Maurier's eldest daughter, Beatrix (1864-1913) married Charles Christian Hoyer Millar (1860-1942).
book: Jewett's most recent books at this time had appeared in 1890. In a letter of 9 September 1891, du Maurier thanked Jewett for a copy of Strangers and Wayfarers. Also appearing that year were Betty Leicester and Tales of New England.
Ainger: This transcription is very uncertain. If du Maurier has written Ainger, then he may refer to the English biographer Alfred Ainger (1837-1904). Wikipedia.
new book: du Maurier's Trilby appeared in 1894.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library of Harvard University: Sarah Orne Jewett Correspondence Series: I. Letters to Sarah Orne Jewett MS Am 1743 (53) Du Maurier, George, 1834-1896. 4 letters; 1891-1893. This transcription is from a photocopy held by the Maine Women Writer's Collection, University of New England, Letters from Sarah Orne Jewett, 1875-1890, Box 4, Folder 159, Burton Trafton Jewett Research Collection.
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Mary Rice Jewett
Wednesday morning
[ 28 December 1892 ]*
Dear Mary
Another lovely day and it seems strange not to have you here. I ought at this time to hear great laughter below stairs. I miss you very much and Mrs. Fields* said she did before you had been gone twenty minutes! Mrs. Whitman* came in just after you left and had been to Trinity but was little profited by the sermon of her rector and speaked very unsympathetic of his efforts! Then it came early dinner time and hearing of goose below I mustered and went down and had a good dinny with a plum pudding and Mrs. Fields was much pleased and I none the worse and stayed down until eight o’clock or after and we had tea up in the library and the screen looked more and more lovely with a bright fire. A package came from Mrs. Claflin* with a little worked linen photograph frame for me and a little silver paper cutter for A.F. & Mary Garrett* sent a piece of Eastern pottery and of old Indian silk and a Rossetti photograph.* I think that was all after you left.
Dr. Morton* was here just before you went away, and Judy* came in and was sorry not to see you but received thanks for her napkins and bestowed them in her turn, and was so funny about T. Sarah* that I nearly died laughing. S.S.* had great Christmas and we were commenting on her return to Boston. “Yes, I thought she would get tired of it” said Judy. And last winter there were times. However I wasn’t going to worry about the future. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.”* The other day she was dining with us and she said Sister Lizzie was too old to be knocking about Europe!* Mr. Beal* said ‘What do you think of that! after she went away.”
I thought you ought to share these particulars, but Judy was so funny and dear relating them. I must write another note or two so good bye with much love to all. I shall get down stairs before long as I did yesterday. I hope you got home all right with your bungles.*
Sarah
Notes
28 December 1892: A handwritten note on
this transcription reads: 189-. This tentative date is
based upon the implication that Annie Fields's sister, Sarah
Adams, has recently returned from her long residence in
Germany, an event that took place in 1892. The Wednesday
after Christmas in 1892, was 28 December.
Mrs. Fields: Annie Adams Fields. See Key to Correspondents.
Mrs. Whitman: Sarah Wyman Whitman. See Key
to Correspondents.
Mrs. Claflin: Mary Bucklin Davenport Claflin. See Key to Correspondents.
Mary Garrett: See Key to Correspondents.
Rossetti photograph: Presumably, this is of the
English poet, Christina Rossetti (1830-1894), but it
could be of her brother, poet and artist, Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-1882).
Dr. Morton: Dr. Helen Morton (1834-1916) had offices successively on Marlboro, Boylston, and Chestnut streets in Boston. Richard Cary says that Jewett once characterized her as "touchy {touching?} in her doctorly heart and more devoted in her private capacity as a friend."
Judy: While this has not been confirmed, it seems likely that this is Judith Drew Beal, stepdaughter of Annie Fields's sister, Louisa Adams Beal. See Annie Fields in Key to Correspondents.
T. Sarah: In this context, Jewett may refer to Annie Fields's sister, Sarah Holland Fields, or perhaps to Sara Holland, wife of Fields's cousin, Arthur Holland. See Key to Correspondents.
S.S.: Possibly meaning Sister Sarah in
reference to Sarah Holland Adams? She returned to Boston
in 1892 from a long residence in Germany. See Gollin, Annie Adams Fields pp. 12-14.
Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.:
See
the
Bible, Matthew 6:34.
Sister Lizzie was too old to be knocking about Europe! ... Mr. Beal: Mr. Beal is James Henry Beal, husband of Louisa Adams. Sister Lizzie, presumably, is Elizabeth Adams, older sister of Annie Fields. See Annie Fields in Key to Correspondents.
bungles: Playfully meaning bundles?
This text is from transcriptions from mixed repositories in the Maine Women Writer's Collection, University of New England, Letters from Sarah Orne Jewett, 1875-1890, Folder 73, Burton Trafton Jewett Research Collection. For more information about the individual transcription, contact the Maine Women Writers Collection. Preparation by Linda Heller. Notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Elizabeth Hussey Whittier (Mrs. S. T.) Pickard
31 December 1892
Dear Mrs Pickard
I thank you so much for the knife which came while I was in Boston for a day or two, so that I am late in acknowledging it -- perhaps I should not have asked for it back again but I have a feeling that it meant so much more to me than it possibly
could to anybody else and I thought you would not mind!
I hope that you will soon be able to put by the hurry and press of all these affairs which must be so sad to you* and keep you so busy -- Do take care of your dear self! I know by experience that one does not feel such a strain at first, there is a certain excitement that helps ones strength to last, but a few months afterward
nature insists upon being paid and then it is very hard to feel unstrung and unequal to everything -- So do rest, the very best you can! -- as you go along --
I have not forgotten about sending the letters* I had from your uncle, but I have not found time yet to make a thorough search for them. I never have filed letters as most people do, and while I know pretty well where I
put the ones for which I care most they do stray about a good deal in two or three different [ boxes ? ] here and in Boston. I am sure you will like Mrs. Fields's paper.* Of course while he was writing so steadily to her, I was so often with her that I did not write too -- and was always afraid of overburdening him with letters to be answered. I was so sorry about that rainy day in Portland{.} I wanted to say things that we cannot write, but I shall hope to see you and Mr. Pickard some other time. I send you my warmest
and best wishes for a happy new year. and beg you to believe me always yours sincerely.
My sister asks to be most kindly remembered{.} You do not know how I love my dear picture of the marsh.
Notes
sad to you: Pickard's uncle, American poet John Greenleaf Whittier died on 7 September 1892.
the letters: Samuel T. Pickard, with assistance from his wife, brought out Life and Letters of John Greenleaf Whittier in 1894.
Mrs. Fields's paper: Annie Adams Fields (see Key to Correspondents) published her book Whittier: Notes of His life and of his Friendships in 1893.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Small Library, University of Virginia, Special Collections MSS 6218, Sarah Orne Jewett Papers. The first page of the letter is bordered in black. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Sarah Wyman Whitman
[ 1892 - 1895 ]*
It is orful nice to get your letter this morning dear -- Yes of course the one o'clock train which I shall board at half past three like a privateer. For me, I shall carry a large Inkstand* said to be of the Empire: but well timbered and capable of quarts of various coloured inks. One approaches it
by a flight of steps as if it were a classic four-poster bed of Elizabeth's* reign . . .
The great visit of Theodore* and the boy ended last night at six. They had good appetites, and they went out and came in ever so many times
as boys do -- they saw the Pigeons from time to time and lingered in the stable and took walks and drives and when they spoke it was nearly always of great subjects of athletics and the danger of other fellows not passing their finals. We liked Laurie Endicott* whom we had not seen before -- he has nice eyes and a really
charming wise and quiet way. And he has such uncommon truthfulness in his way of speaking that it delights my heart to remember it.
This must now over to the post office but I send love to give a poor letter wings.
Notes
1892 - 1895: This is a guess at a range of dates. Jewett makes nephew Theodore sound quite young and apparently often in Jewett's home. I speculate that the events Jewett describes took place after the March 1892 death of his father and before he turned 16 in 1895. Key to Correspondents. I place it in 1892, as the earliest probable date.
Inkstand: Jewett has written this word in enlarged letters.
Elizabeth's: Probably Jewett refers to England's Queen Elizabeth I (1533-1603). Wikipedia.
Laurie Endicott: This person has not yet been identified. Theodore receives a letter from "Lawrie" when travelling with Jewett and others in Europe. See Jewett to Whitman of 2 August 1898.
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.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Annie Adams Fields
[ 1892 or early 1893*]
How good you are with ^sending^ all your little letters and telling me what is going on in those and you own dear letters. They all seem short no matter how long they are! and I feel us talking over those that you send from other people. Which is a breathless sentence as of one in a hurry. -- I must tell you such a funny thing: Day before yesterday I got thinking of dear Miss Blythe and
Miss Leigh Smith and at last I remembered that there are things about them in Mary Howitts Life* and so I hunted that up and had a lovely time reading it, for friendships sake and my mind was still flying their way when I found the letter in your envelope last night! It was just one of those things! What an exquisite letter it is. We must write her soon mustn't we? At any rate I wish to tell her this before I forget it. Mrs. Alexander sends you her love
think that was a pretty poor committee about [ Haverhill ? ]* -- most of them setting by theirselves and wishing to prove their own theories a little too much. At least not the best committee that could be scared up. But talking over is ^always^ good -- it is acting in too much of a hurry that puts things back. You cant do much usually except to take off the hindrances to things that can work themselves out if they are left alone -- like lifting a stone off a tuft of grass -- You can lift the stones but the grass has got to do its own growing.
[ 2 circled in bottom left corner, in another hand.]
Notes
1892 or early 1893: Jewett seems to imply that she and Fields have visited the Alexander family in Italy prior to composing this letter. As she has been re-reading the life of Mary Botham Howitt, published in 1889, it seems quite likely that she is writing after their 1890 trip to Europe. However, they also visited Italy in 1900, and given the information available at this time, the letter may not have been composed until after the 1900 voyage. However, grounded shakily in the mention of the Haverhill meeting, which may have been about the disposition of the John Greenleaf Whittier homestead after his September 1892 death, this letter is tentatively dated in that year. See notes below for details.
Miss Blythe ... Miss Leigh Smith ... Mary Howitts Life: Anna Mary Howitt Watts (18241884) was "an English painter, writer and feminist." Her mother was Mary Botham Howitt (17991888), an English poet and author of the famous poem "The Spider and the Fly."
Among Anna's friends was Barbara Leigh Smith, Madame Bodichon (18271891), who "was one of the foremost founders of the women's rights movement in Britain."
Miss Blythe is Isabella Blythe, who was the domestic partner of Barbara Leigh Smith's sister, Anna (Nannie) Leigh-Smith (1831-1919). See Barbara Leigh Smith Bodichon: Feminist, Artist and Rebel (2010) by Pam Hirsch.
Probably Jewett was reading Mary Howitt: An Autobiography, Volume 2 (1889), by Margaret Howitt Mary's daughter and Anna's sister. See pp. 348-58.
Mrs. Alexander ... Francesca ... soup kitchens: Frances / Fanny "Francesca" Alexander (1837-1917) was an American illustrator, author, and translator. Her mother was Lucia Gray Swett (Mrs. Francis) Alexander (1814-1916), also a translator from Italian to English. Wikipedia identifies her father, the American portrait painter, Francis Alexander (1800-1880). In the 1850s, they moved from Boston to Florence. In 1882 Francesca met John Ruskin, becoming his friend and correspondent until his death in 1900.
The Schlesinger Library sketch of the family notes:
In Florence the Alexanders moved among the social, cultural and ecclesiastical elite of northern Italy, and entertained distinguished visitors from overseas. Esther Frances Alexander devoted herself to art and to charity among the Tuscan peasants: some of them considered her a saint. International celebrity came to her with the close friendship that developed in 1882 between the Alexander women and John Ruskin. The English art critic bought Esther Frances Alexander's illustrated manuscript, "Roadside Songs of Tuscany" (published 1883); edited "Christ's Folk in the Apennines" (1887-1889); and discussed her drawing in his Slade Lectures at Oxford. "Tuscan Songs" (1897) and "The Hidden Servants and Other Very Old Stories" (1900) also sold well. In 1905 at the age of ninety, Lucia Gray Alexander published "Il Libro de Oro," a collection of saints' legends. She died in 1916 in Florence. Francesca, who had been dominated and protected by her mother all her life, died there in January 1917.Mrs. Alexander's paper on soup kitchens has not been located.
https://hollisarchives.lib.harvard.edu/repositories/8/resources/4892
As there is no such place as Bellagra, it is possible that Jewett refers to Bellegra, an area within the city of Rome. Jewett seems to suggest here that she and Fields saw Mrs. Alexander's paper when they were "there," that is, in Italy. They visited Italy together three other times, in 1882, 1890 and 1900.
Aunt Mary Long: See Key to Correspondents. The circumstances under which Long became acquainted with the Alexanders are unknown.
Haverhill: What this meeting was about remains undiscovered. Though this is purely speculative at this time, it is significant that John Greenleaf Whittier's homestead and birthplace was in Haverhill, MA. If this letter was composed after Whittier's death on 7 September 1892, then it is possible that the Haverhill meeting had something to do with decisions about preserving his birthplace, which opened to the public in 1893. It may even have been a meeting of the Haverhill Whittier Club. Founded in 1886, the Haverhill Whittier Club received the Whittier Homestead as a gift with the understanding that it would become a memorial museum. Though this has not been established, it is likely that Annie Fields was among those involved in the initial planning of the memorial. See Jewett's letter to Mary Bucklin Davenport Claflin of 2 January 1893.
Pinny: P.L. and Pinny Lawson are Jewett nicknames.
The manuscript of the letter is held by the Houghton Library of Harvard University. Jewett, Sarah Orne, 1849-1909. 40 letters to Annie (Adams) Fields (no date). Sarah Orne Jewett additional correspondence, 1868-1930. MS Am 1743.1 (117). Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Edited by Terry Heller, Coe College.
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