Dear Mrs. Claflin
I came to town for a few days just
as you kindly sent your note and the books to Berwick
to find me. I dont believe in acknowledging
books before I read them -- as a general thing! -- but
I must thank this time and
tell you now how
much I like the stories when I come up again
[ Page 2 ]
and can see you. Mary* writes me that Mother*
has been enjoying your reminiscences* very much and
that alone gives me great pleasure in having them.
I am glad to say that dear Mother
is much more comfortable than she has been and that
she gets out to drive in pleasant weather &c. but
she is
[ Page 3 ]
still very far from strong and we are always trying to
take great care of her.
I wish that we could have sent for
you to come to Berwick this summer, but we had to be
very quiet of course, nearly all the time.
With my best thanks and much love
Yours sincerely
Sarah O. Jewett
Notes
1895: As the note below indicates, this
letter is dated in relation to Mrs. Jewett's health
and the publication date of Mary Claflin's
Under
the Old Elms. It is possible that the
letter at another time when Mrs. Jewett was unwell and
Mrs. Claflin had published one of her three
biographical books.
Mary: Mary Rice Jewett. See
Key
to
Correspondents.
your reminiscences: Given that Jewett's
mother, Caroline Perry, is seriously ill and that she
died in the spring of 1897, it seems reasonable to
guess that the book Jewett mentions is Claflin's
Under
the Old Elms (1895).
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.
Annie Adams Fields to Mary Rice Jewett
Sepr 2d
1895
[ Begin letterhead ]
The Anchorage,
Martinsville, Maine.
[ End letterhead ]
My dear Mary:
Sarah* will have written you "the
true story" of our housekeeping here, nonetheless I
must add a few words to say that I trust you will be
making up your mind to come down during the month
for a week or two after your guests have gone.
We have the whole world to ourselves and a most
picturesque world it is! wide pastures and great
sea, to make [
two or more unrecognized words
]
[ Page 2 ]
of in the direction of view from life and
out-of-door [
unrecognized word, ____ment
]. It is not a [locale
?] for [
unrecognized
word ] driving but for endless tramps and
boating.
And now I am going to add to your
[present
?] duties and 'cares' by asking you
to put up a package for me and send to Miss
Henrietta Marion Grew
The Sumachs.*
Manchester-by-the-Sea
Mass.
Sarah says that there is a
[ Page 3 ]
[
unrecognized word ] (or
several she thinks) of [
2 or 3 unrecognized
words ] Books at South Berwick and that she
will be glad to have [
unrecognized word ]
take one. The book has been out of print and
as the young lady is to be married on the 18
th
I do not like to defer sending on a chance. I
am most sorry to give you all this trouble but Sarah
has over persuaded my reluctance. I know
indeed that you are ready to do a kindness,
therefore,
[ Page 4 ]
am going to beg this 'new one' at your hands.
You would have been pleased to
see us [ shaking
? ] house into our little
abode. We had scarcely arrived when the rain fell in
torrents lasting all night, but in the height of the
storm in the [ midst
? ] of the [
unrecognized
word ] Sarah's [
6 unrecognized words
] we had a bedstead carted away in order to leave us
room. I am sure our neighbors must have been
alive with excitement at such goings on.
I hope it will [ seem to you
?
] worthwhile to come as soon as you are free.
If the weather is good I think you will enjoy
it. [
Unrecognized word ] to you and
Carrie [ a
meaning and
? ]
[ Up the left margin &
down the top margin of page 1 ]
Theodore* from your Annie Fields. Tell Carrie please
-- that her pincushion seems to have been created
for this [ purple
? ]! We all have to
wait our opportunities !! do not fail to give
my best regards to Mrs. Tyler* and Miss [
unrecognized
name ]
: Sarah Orne Jewett. See
Key
to
Correspondents.
Henrietta Marion Grew ... The Sumachs:
Henrietta Marion Grew (1872-1957)
married
Stephen Van Rensselaer Crosby
(1868-1959) on 18 September 1895 in Manchester,
MA. Their children included Henry Grew Crosby
(1898-1929) and Katharine Schuyler Crosby
(1901-1959). She lived in Manchester-by-the-Sea
at the time of her death. Her parents were
Henry Sturgis Grew (1834-1910)
and
Jane Norton Wigglesworth
(1836-1920). A successful Boston businessman,
Mr. Grew had homes in Boston, Hyde Park, and
Manchester by the Sea. The Manchester home was
the Sumacs, on Masconomo St.
Carrie ... Theodore: Carrie Jewett
Eastman and Theodore Jewett Eastman. See
Key
to
Correspondents.
Mrs Tyler: Augusta Maria Denny Tyler. See
Key
to
Correspondents.
The manuscript of this letter is held by Historic New
England in Letters from Annie Fields to Mary Rice
Jewett, Jewett Family Papers: MS014.01.04.
Transcribed and annotated by Terry Heller. Coe
College.
Thomas Bailey Aldrich to Sarah Orne Jewett
Ponkapog, Mass
Sept 2d 1895
Dear Sarah:
A volume of the "Twice Told Tales"*
on a shelf here has just reminded me that I didn't
finish a sentence which I began the other day at the
Crags.* Matilda* or somebody interrupted me, and my
meaning was left dangling in the air. What I meant to
say was this: Every generation has its own
story-tellers, and very few of them ever survive their
generation. The two or three who do, are authors who
have painted some special phase of life in some
indelible local color. I think that Mrs.
[ Page 2 ]
Stowe* has done this in several of her Oldtown
sketches ("Uncle Tom's Cabin" will live for other
reasons), Miss Wilkins in her Humble Romances,* and
you in at least a dozen pictures of New England
country life. I believe, for example, that Hawthorne's
pallid allegories will have faded away long before
those live little Dulham ladies* will give up their
daring railway journeys to the neighboring town, in
search of innocent personal decorations. Now my
own stories are without any particular
raison
d'ȇtre,* they record nothing, they toil not
neither do they spin.* They simply amuse, if they do
that. They are written in good English and have a
certain kind of humor; but in nothing is the fashion
so brief
[ Page 3 ]
and whimsical as in humor. So, you see, I care very
little about my prose. I wish it had been of the
permanent sort. Into my verse, I hope, I have got some
more lasting material. I don't know. I wont say I
don't care, but I don't care greatly. I have had my
pay in the pleasure of expressing myself. Is it vital
-- what 1995 shall think of us all? Perhaps it will
prefer F. B. Sanborn to Emerson, and think Will
Carleton a finer poet than Longfellow.* Meanwhile I
wish to the Lord that we were back at Tenants Harbor,
a-smelling of the sea and planning a cruise to
Monhegan.
With our love to you both,*
Affectionately yours,
T.B.A.
Notes
"Twice Told Tales": American author Nathanial
Hawthorne (1804 1864) collected his early stories in
two volumes of
Twice Told Tales (1837,
1842).
the Crags: Beginning in the 1890s, this was
the Aldrich's summer home in Tenants Harbor, ME.
Matilda ... boys: Mrs. Aldrich's full given
name was Mary Elizabeth "Lily" Woodman. Almost
certainly, Aldrich refers to her. The Aldriches'
twin sons,
Talbot and Charles were born
in 1868. See
Key
to
Correspondents.
Mrs. Stowe: Harriet Beecher Stowe. See
Key
to
Correspondents. Her anti-slavery novel,
Uncle
Tom's
Cabin, appeared in 1852. She published
two volumes of Oldtown sketches,
Old Town Folks
(1869) and
Oldtown Fireside Stories (1871).
Miss Wilkins ...Humble Romances: American
author, Mary Eleanor Wilkins Freeman (1852-1930)
published
A Humble Romance and Other Stories
(1887) and numerous other works of fiction and of
literature for children.
Dulham ladies: Jewett's "The Dulham
Ladies" appeared in
Atlantic Monthly 57
(1886).
raison d'ȇtre ...neither do they
spin: French: raison d'ȇtre means "the reason
for something's existence."
Aldrich alludes to the Bible,
Matthew 6:28, where Jesus says: "And why take ye
thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the
field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they
spin."
F. B. Sanborn ... Emerson ... Will Carleton ...
Longfellow:
Franklin Benjamin Sanborn
(December 15, 1831 – February 24, 1917) was an
American author and reformer, a chronicler of
American transcendentalism who wrote biographies of
the movement's key figures, notably
Ralph Waldo Emerson
(1803-1882).
William McKendree Carleton
(1845-1912) was a Michigan poet who wrote mostly of
rural life, and he was sometimes compared with
Scottish poet, Robert Burns.
For Henry Wadsworth Longfellow,
see
Key
to
Correspondents.
The manuscript of this letter is held by Colby
College Special Collections, Collection of Sarah
Orne Jewett Materials: Letters to Sarah Orne
Jewett, Thomas Bailey Aldrich 1889-1895. 2 ALS
Cambridge. Ponkapog, MA. 6 p.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Carrie Jewett Eastman
Seawoods*
Tenants Harbor
Wednesday
[ September 1895 ]
Dear Carrie
…………..…Tell John* that I paid for the band to go to
Emery's Bridge* and he must tell Mr. Adams* and have
him settle it. -- perhaps it would be
better now to wait for the moon, but he can see.
Notes
Seawoods: According to George Carey's "
The Rise and Fall of Elmore,"
"William Richardson, known to his intimates as “Will
Dear” ...had made a small fortune when he invented the
clothing snap, the popular forerunner of the zipper,
and with some of his money he built Seawoods, a
13-room house that faced the ocean. Richardson’s
sister-in-law married Thomas Bailey Aldrich, the
editor of
The Atlantic Monthly, and soon his
large rambling cottage, The Crags just to the north of
Seawoods, was drawing to Elmore such literary
luminaries as Mark Twain and Sarah Orne Jewett."
September 1895: As other letters from
September 1895 show, Jewett and Annie Fields stayed in
Tenants Harbor, ME during this month.
The line of points presumably
indicates an omission from the manuscript.
John: John Tucker. See
Key to Correspondents.
band to go to Emery's Bridge: The
details of Jewett arranging for a band to play at
nearby Emery's Bride in September of 1895 are not yet
known. It is not clear that South Berwick had a
local band.
Mr. Adams: This person has not been
identified. This will be difficult without
knowing more about the band performance Jewett has
paid for.
This text is from transcriptions from mixed
repositories in the Maine Women Writer's Collection,
University of New England, Letters from Sarah Orne
Jewett, 1875-1890, Undated Letters, Folder 75, Burton
Trafton Jewett Research Collection. For more
information about the individual transcription,
contact the Maine Women Writers Collection. Notes by
Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Louisa Dresel
The Anchorage
Martinsville, Maine
September 4, 1895
Dear Loulie:
I don't know whether you
would find this a good sketching ground but it is
certainly a dear untroubled corner of the world.1
The house stands in a green field that slopes to the
sea and we have three families of neighbours and two
empty little old houses pretty near and some other
neighbours -- the Dwyer family -- a little farther
off. One Dwyer child brings the mail for fifteen
cents a week and the boy catches cunners and
lobsters (small ones two cents each) and other
Dwyers do other things and are a heritage from the
last people who were here. And this is a
story-and-a-half house and I sleep in the little
back corner bedroom and look out from my bed at a
stonewall across the lane and a little field where
men in blue overalls have been digging potatoes and
beyond them are the dark pointed firs that cover
most of this coast of Maine. Dear A. F. and I say
"let's go out doors" and after we have stayed2
Notes
1Martinsville
is a hamlet at the end of one of Maine's myriad
"points" that jut out into the Atlantic Ocean,
several miles south of Rockland. Seeking "peace and
quiet" after a nagging attack of pneumonia, Jewett
accompanied by Fields, rented The Anchorage from a
Boston doctor. In these idyllic surroundings, with a
view of the Monhegan Light ten miles out at sea,
Jewett caught up with some editorial work, walked,
rode. and visited extensively, soaking up the
atmosphere of the area, which has arresting
resemblances to the locale of The Country of the
Pointed Firs, serialized in the Atlantic
Monthly starting January 1896.
2This
unfinished, unsigned note was enclosed in the
following letter, dated Tuesday.
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 Carolyn Jewett Eastman and
Mary Rice Jewett
[8 September 1895]*
Sunday morning
[Letterhead]
The Anchorage
Martinsville, Maine.
Dear Mary & Carrie
I have now returned from
Mrs. Bacheller's* have returned the aforesaid cinnamon
& nutmegs which were borrowed yesterday, and had a
beautiful call and been given a handful of sweet peas.
She is going to Tenant's Harbor this afternoon to her
uncle's funeral: he died very sudden with a heart
complaint -- She was coming in to see us
yesterday [late
written over something] and
picked the blackberries to bring (we had them in a
little glass dish for breakfast.) but she was
prevented. We have been looking forward to a call, but
everybody goes to Mrs. Bacheller for everything.
^When^ A. F.* stepped for [for
may be underlined]
the cinnamon 'a lady' had come to get Mrs. Bacheller
to help her with a dress and it was a [cutting
?]
out on a table. You will have words about the garden
with her Mary. She has got all
ther her window
ledges full of things in cups
[2]
and tin cans so that none of them look as if they
could be opened….
I am glad that there are any
prospects in regard to the Upham things -- and I sent
Becca a cheque so that there will be money enough over
for my part; though I have spent Miss Betty
Leicester* in a way that was more pleasing. She was
always a nice little girl and ready for what was
wanted of her!
Now, I should
like to do something about [Mr.
?] A. F.
Kelley!* I think that it is unforgiveable not to make
any report of your money, which has been waiting so
long and mine which has been waiting interest &
new investment since July. I think we had better get
Mr. Yeaton to look into that and ask him as our lawyer
to get a statement of the things in his hands “for
reference”.* He may have got more and more careless
but that is one road to being swamped. If I had my
money [now
?] I should do something else with
it, but the difficulty is to get it.
[3]
and I shall never give him anything else for I hate to
be bothered so.
I am dying to hear
about the yacht race but in this far corner of the
world it takes news a long time to get about.
What a nice time you
all must have had going to Dover Point!* I wish
I had been there to make one more. Tell Annie.*
I should have eaten a great part of the supply, that's
one certain thing. I am so glad Carrie is going to
Little Boars Head.* I think it will be a beautiful
time to her and little Mary!* They never fail for
words when they are together and you can say so with
my blessing dear little girls! but not to put more on
the horse than they ought though such a willing horse
and a good
roader. One part of the country is
as good as another when the conversation be well kept
up. For example we are contented to sit like
hopper
toads here at Martinsville, speaking from time
to time and dwelling in the sun among the goldenrod. I
wonder if it would be asking too much
[4]
for you to bring my camera when you come by and
by. There are some pretty things to take.
Oh
how
I
should
like
to
see
Mrs. Tyler and Hattie this morning!* I wonder if
you are all going to meeting; we are very remote from
the meetin' house but you see the steeple of it like
the [near well
? ] from 'Sam's* only there is
water between instead of marshes. I shall have
to wait until tomorrow night to get word about the
Friday company. I don't believe Maggie Baker will be
different only look older.*
Don't
forget
to
give
Mrs.
Tyler
a
piece of plumb cake, if her conduct warrants it that
is !!
And
no
more at present
from
your
affectionate Sister.
[
No signature]
Notes
8 September 1895: This date is penciled
in on the first page of the manuscript, upper right.
Mrs. Bacheller: This person has not been
identified. One should notice her similarities
to Mrs. Todd, the narrator's landlady in
The
Country of the Pointed Firs, upon which Jewett
may have been working during this stay in
Martinsville.
A. F.: Annie Fields. See
Correspondents.
Upham things ... Becca ... Miss Betty
Leicester: "The Upham things" presumably
refer to the Jewett sisters' communications with the
Duluth Securities Company. See above on July 2:
T. F. Upham to Mary Rice Jewett.
Becca very likely is
Rebecca Young (1847-1927).
In
Sarah Orne Jewett: her World and her Work
(2002), Paula Blanchard says: "Rebecca Young, who
lived a few doors from the Jewetts, was an old
classmate of the [Jewett] sisters from the days of
Miss Raynes's school and Berwick Academy and an
intimate friend of both Mary and Carrie. She was
for many years treasurer of the South Berwick Savings
Bank" (p. 203). She was riding with Sarah Orne
Jewett on 3 September 1902, when a stumbling horse
threw both of them from the carriage.
Jewett's
Betty Leicester: A
Story for Girls (1890) apparently still was
paying royalties in 1895, or, perhaps, she speaks of
advance payment for "Betty Leicester's English
Christmas" on which she worked during this summer and
which appeared in
St. Nicholas (December1895 -
February 1896).
A. F. Kelley: This reference has not been
identified. However, in the early 1890s, there
was a case in South Berwick of apparent mortgage
fraud, involving the firm of
Austin
F.
and
Louis
E.
Kelley
of
Minneapolis,
MN. Whether and how the Jewetts were
connected with the Kelley firm is not yet known.
Mr. Yeaton: George Campbell Yeaton
(1836-1918) was a prominent South Berwick attorney,
known locally for his prosecution of Louis Wagner in
the Smuttynose murder case on the Isles of the Shoals,
about which Celia Thaxter writes in "A Memorable
Murder," which appeared in
Atlantic Monthly,
May 1875
According to
Dennis
Robinson, Mr. Yeaton "was born in South Berwick,
studied law when a young man, received a degree from
Bowdoin College and was admitted to the York Bar in
May, 1862. Thirteen years afterward he was made county
attorney and attained widespread fame for his work in
convicting Wagner, assisted by Attorney General Harold
M. Plaistead, who afterward became governor of Maine."
Dover Point: Dover Point in
Dover,
NH is at the confluence of the Bellamy and
Piscataqua rivers.
Annie: This seems clearly not to be Annie
Fields, who is with Jewett at Martinsville, ME.
She may be a Jewett family employee. This may be
Annie Barker, a Jewett family neighbor and friend.
Carrie ... Little Boars Head ... little Mary:
Carrie
Eastman
Jewett.
See
Correspondents. Sarah Almira Gilman
(1827-1850), a Jewett relative from Caroline Perry
Jewett's side of the family, had married the
politician,
Charles
Henry
Bell (1823-1893). Their daughter was
Helen (Mrs. Harold North) Fowler
(1848-1909).
C. H. Bell's second wife, Mary E.
Gray Bell (1826-1894), was the mother of Mary Persis
(Mrs. Hollis Russell) Bailey (1864- ). It
appears that Mary Persis at least sometimes was called
Persis. They and their daughter, Gladys Loring Bailey,
b. 1887), eventually settled in Cambridge, MA.
Bell built for his second
wife a summer home,
the Cove, in Northampton, NH.
Of all the possible Marys, "little
Mary" probably is Mary Cabot Wheelwright. See
Correspondents.
Mrs. Tyler and Hattie: For Augusta Maria Denny
Tyler and her sister Mary Harriet Denny, see
Key
to
Correspondents.
'Sam's: This reference is obscure.
There is today a Sam's Lane between York and South
Berwick, from which a landmark in either town would be
at some distance.
Maggie Baker: Margaretta Baker Hunt. See
Key
to
Correspondents.
The manuscript of this letter is held by Historic New
England in Letters from Sarah Orne Jewett to Caroline
Augusta Jewett Eastman and Mary Rice Jewett, Jewett
Family Papers: MS014.01.02.01. Transcribed by
Tanner Brossart, edited and annotated by Terry Heller.
Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Mary Rice Jewett and Carrie
Jewett Eastman
Sunday
[ 8 September 1895]
[ Begin letterhead ]
The Anchorage
Martinsville, Maine*
[ End letterhead ]
Dear Sisters
You would not
think from this fine paper that Martinsville* was so
plain and bushy a little place, but I suppose it is a
relic of the big house that was burnt. I feel as
if it were a good while since I wrote before -- but
what do you think happened just after I
had
sent down my letter Friday night, but the sound of
Mary Garrett's* mild voice out in the entry and it
proved that when she got to Camden* by the electric
car there was no [
deleted word ] wind
whatever so she conversed with the skipper and made
arrangements and got the rest of her basket of
luncheon and came back again. It was only half
past eight but I was just going to put on my
nightgown, the gas being bad and other
[ Page 2 ]
occupation failing after I had looked at the
newspaper. Mary was in great spirits and luckily
I had two nightgowns and bestowed the best upon her
though I had slept in it one night at Isleboro* in her
dear best bed. Then we had a nice time and
parted and dont you think I heard a great rattling [
a
line inserted between lines ^as if the carts
were going down to the Boston boat^] and waked up with
a start and looked at my watch --
five o'clock
says I! and they have forgotten to call us! and I
scuttled the best
as I could and was
all but ready to go down when I looked at the watch
again and found that I had mistaken the hands with
sleepy eyes and it was twenty five minutes past
twelve. (a poor sister never was very bright to [
deleted
word] tell the truth!) The morning I was
going to Isleboro they routed me at four and you never
can tell what time the little bay steamers get
off. However I retired and slept my appointed
time and Mary and I went down to the
[ Page 3 ]
steamer wharf and found A.F.* who was having a nice
[time
corrected] in the cabin of the Silver
Star* with Cassie & Margaret* who is one of the
nicest girls {,} as neat with her cooking as Cassie
would be ^and a very nice cook I think^ -- Mary could
only stay a little while and I saw her to the
Juliette*and
then
off
we
started down the bay and it soon blew clear and
dry. The Linnet* was on the wharf to meet us and
^was^ prepared to take us up, girls & all, to have
breakfast. He & A. F. walked up by the
little path and we did have such a nice time &
beautiful breakfast. They were going to town
later in the day but the house isnt to close for a few
days. They are going to New York to the Yacht
races. The [Linnet
corrected] being
tres
amiable and better than when we were here.
& Lilian ever so nice. The boxes
[ Page 4 ]
with provisions hadn't come from the big boat to the
little one, so you can imagine what benefactions of
delicious butter etc. ^Lilian^ heaped upon us.
The little house looked very pleasant as we drove up
and we soon made it look very nice and quite our own,
inside, & Margaret & Cassie like it as much as
we do. I found two proper mushrooms this morning
and they are going out with a basket this afternoon
with high hopes. Crabby* slept some in the
night, we dont know whether he was only lonesome or
saw a mouse in the kitchen. I was so glad to get
your letter yesterday -- and to hear about Stubby's*
going for a sailor. it rained hard all yesterday
afternoon,
pelting, and we thought it was the
north-easter but today has been perfectly lovely so
bright with a blue sea. Do tell Becca* that I
ate one pear at four & one at
[ Written across left and down
the top margins of page 1 ]
five a.m. and called them early pears. They were
so good -- and the others I brought also served
purposes{,} one being given away, tho' with some
regret. Do tell Lizzie*
both of you how
sorry I was not to see her again. Mrs. Fields
sends love to both. I hope you will excuse this
letty with a pin pen* as have not got going at my own
desk.
with much love
Sarah
I shall have a beautiful birthday*
and get out my [fine ?] presents &
have them all [ new ?].
: Martinsville, in
St. George, ME, has long been a
summering spot for artists and writers.
Mary Garrett's: Mary Elizabeth
Garrett. See
Key
to
Correspondents.
Camden ... Isleboro: Mary Garrett has
been visiting Jewett in Martinsville and has taken an
electric car to Camden, about 25 miles north to catch
a sailing vessel, perhaps to
Isleboro, another summer colony,
which is about 10 miles further northeast across West
Penobscot Bay.
A. F ... Silver Star ... Cassie & Margaret:
Annie
Adams
Fields.
See
Key
to
Correspondents. She has brought with her
two of her employees, Cassie and Margaret.
Further information about them is welcome.
The Silver Star, with
Captain I. E. Archibald, was a steamer in the Rockland
and Friendship Line, leaving at 7:30 a.m. Mondays,
Wednesdays and Saturdays in the 1895 season, serving:
High Island, Spruce Head, Tenant's Harbor (near
Martinsville), Clark Island, Port Clyde, and
Friendship. Round-trip tickets were $1.50.
Linnet: Thomas Bailey Aldrich. With
him, is his wife, Lilian. See
Key
to
Correspondents.
Juliette: The
Juliette with Captain
Ralph H. Crockett, was one of a pair of steamers in
the Bluehill & Ellsworth Steamboat Line. These
steamers left Rockland on the arrival of boats from
Boston, daily except Mondays, with a stop at
Isleboro. The Rockland to Ellsworth trip was
about 65 miles and, with stops, took about 10
hours. Probably, there was a Camden stop, though
this is not listed in the 1895 advertisement.
Crabby: A Jewett family dog.
Stubby: Theodore Jewett Eastman.
See
Key
to
Correspondents.
Becca: Rebecca Young. See
Key
to
Correspondents.
Lizzie:
Lizzie: Typically, when
Jewett refers to Lizzie, she means a frequent Jewett
employee in South Berwick, Lizzie Pray, or Elizabeth
Jervis Gilman. See
Key
to
Correspondents.
pin pen: This term may be of Jewett's
invention. It seems clear that she usually uses
a fountain pen, and this is a different kind of pen,
which, by implication is smaller. It is possible
that she refers to a
ball point pen, which was
patented in 1888.
birthday: Jewett's birthday was actually
several days before this letter, on 3 September.
The manuscript of this letter is held by Historic New
England in the Jewett Family Papers MS014.02.01.
Transcription and annotation by Terry Heller, Coe
College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Sarah Wyman Whitman
Sunday September 8th
1895
[ Begin letterhead, small
caps, green ink ]
The Anchorage,
Martinsville, Maine.
[ End letterhead ]
You would not think from this handsome and large paper
what a small plain bushy corner of the world this
letter comes from.
The golden rod is all in
bloom and there is a lighthouse ^(Monhegan)^* off the
coast and the Anchorage is a nice story-and-half house
that stands in a green field that slopes down to the
sea. I sleep in a little back bedroom whose
window 'gives on' a lane and a stone wall and a potato
field, where the figures of J. F. Millet* work all day
against a very un-French background of the pointed
firs that belong to Maine like the gray ledges they
are rooted in. I dont think you would like it
very well
[ Page 2 ]
unless you fell to painting and then -- Oh my! -- I
dont wish for you as I do in most places -- perhaps it
is because the landscape is usually without figures --
in spite of the potato field. But oh! I have
found such a corner of this world under a spruce tree
where I sit for hours together, and neither thought
nor good books can keep me from watching a little
golden bee that seems to live quite alone and to be
laying up honey against cold weather. He may have been
idle and now feels belated, and goes and comes from
his little hole in the ground close by my knee, so
that I can put my hand over his front door and shut
him out, but I promise you and him that I never will.
He took me for a boulder the first day we met, but
after he flew round and round he understood things and
knows
[ Page 3 ]
now that I come and go as other boulders do by glacial
action and can do him no harm -- A very handsome
little bee and often to be thought of by me, come
winter. ---
Did you read Bourget's
address on his admission to the
Academie?* I
have had it for ever so long, waiting for the right
day: there was so much of the cramped newspaper type,
that wind weather and the planets had to be all right!
It is wonderfully interesting, quite a noble speech I
think, and quite his own heart and hope talking out
loud as if there were no people there. = This he
[ Page 4 ]
says once: -- ... "Tant il est vrai que le
principe de la création intellectuelle comme de toutes
les autres reside dans le don magnanime et irraisonné
de soi-même, dans l'élan attendri vers les autres,
dans la chaleur de l'enthousiasme, et que le génie de
l'artiste est comme toutes les grandes choses du
monde: un acte de foi et d'amour."* ------ Some day I
wish we could talk about this address of Bourgets --
there are things about it which touch one's heart very
much. Some day next winter perhaps? in the
studio! = In fact I almost wish for you this day in
Martinsville! Now there
are figures: 1 Mis'
Bachelder and 2 Mis' Clarks all within easy call and
one Mis' Clark keeps ducks and we are eating them
up. I now hear the happy quacks of the
survivors. You can buy little lobsters for 2
cents apiece. I merely mention it to a careful
housekeeper, and to make you
[ Up the left margin of page
1 ]
know the reasons why I may stay until the late
November frosts. With much love
Yours ever
S.O.J.
Notes
Monhegan:
Monhegan is an island in Maine,
not far from Martinsville. The
Monhegan lighthouse was built in
1850.
J. F. Millet:
Jean-François Millet
(1814-1875), French painter.
Bourget's address ... Academie:
In
the
manuscript,
the word Academie
may be underlined
twice. Furthermore, part of each line of the
French quotation is underlined, suggesting that Jewett
meant to present it all as underlined.
Paul Bourget (1852-1935) was
elected to the French Academy in 1894. His
Discourse
de
Réception
à
l'Académie Française appeared in 1895. He says:
"So true is it that the principle of intellectual
creation, like all others, consists in the magnanimous
and unreasoned gift of one-self, in the compassionate
impulse toward others, in the warmth of enthusiasm,
and that the genius of the artist is like all the
great things of the world: an act of faith and love."
(Translation by Carla Zecher)
Mis' Bachelder ... Mis' Clarks:
Paula Blanchard in
Sarah Orne Jewett,
identifies Mrs. Rozilla Trussel Harris Batchelder
(1837-1922), wife of Nathan Batchelder (1828-1900), a
favorite friend in Tenants Harbor, ME (pp.
275-6). The spelling of names varies in
different sources; these spellings are from
"Find-a-Grave."
Mrs. Clark, the purveyor of ducks,
has not yet been 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
included part of this letter in
Letters of Sarah
Orne Jewett (1911). Her transcription
follows.
You would not think from
this handsome and large paper what a small plain
bushy corner of the world this letter comes from.
The golden-rod is all in bloom, and there is a
lighthouse (Monhegan) off the coast, and the
Anchorage is a nice story-and-half house that stands
in a green field that slopes down to the sea. I
sleep in a little back bedroom whose window gives on
a lane and a stone wall and a potato field, where
the figures of J. F. Millet work all day against a
very unFrench background of the pointed firs that
belong to Maine, like the grey ledges they are
rooted in. I don't think you would like it very well
unless you fell to painting and then -- Oh my! -- I
don't wish for you as I do in most places -- perhaps
it is because the landscape is usually without
figures -- in spite of the potato field. But oh! I
have found such a corner of this world, under a
spruce tree, where I sit for hours together, and
neither thought nor good books can keep me from
watching a little golden bee, that seems to live
quite alone, and to be laying up honey against cold
weather. He may have been idle and now feels
belated, and goes and comes from his little hole in
the ground close by my knee, so that I can put my
hand over his front door and shut him out, -- but I
promise you and him that I never will. He took me
for a boulder the first day we met; but after he
flew round and round he understood things, and knows
now that I come and go as other boulders do, by
glacial action, and can do him no harm. A very
handsome little bee and often to be thought of by
me, come winter.
Did you read Bourget's
address on his admission to the
Académie? I
have had it for ever so long, waiting for the right
day; there was so much of the cramped newspaper type,
that wind, weather and the planets had to be all
right. It is wonderfully interesting, quite a noble
speech, I think, and quite his own heart and hope
talking out loud, as if there were no people there.
Thus he says once: "Tant il est vrai que le principe
de la création intellectuelle comme de toutes les
autres reside dans le don magnanime et irraisonné de
soi-même, dans l'élan attendri vers les autres, dans
la chaleur de l'enthousiasme, et que le génie de
l'artiste est comme toutes les grandes choses du
monde: un acte de foi et d'amour." Some day I wish we
could talk about this address of Bourget's. There are
things about it which touch one's heart very much.
Carrie Jewett Eastman to Mary Rice
Jewett and Sarah Orne Jewett
Saturday.
[ 1895 ]*
Dear Sisters,
Its quite early, but I cant seem to
sleep! I was so glad to get your letter Mary and
that Sarah is getting on so well. She must be
glad to have you up with her. Before I forget
it, your little Guiney book didn't come from Estes
& Lauriat* neither did my [Peary
corrected
] Journal,* so I must think of something else for B.
Jacqués.* I hope to go once to Hansons* today,
and see if I can pick up anything. I didn't feel
like it yesterday, and wanted to go awfully.
[ Page 2 ]
and then I guess I will have a dinner with Frances,*
and I can see to some of the things over there, and
what there is. Its, of course, harder, to go
sort of half way, as I have had to do, than if I could
have gone right through the list. I shall get
the little thing done for Annie Barker,* and I long
for you to see it. Theodore* has it in mind to
go to Exeter today. He came home
wild
over the play at the Academy* last night. He
said it was
full, and evidently a great
[ Page 3 ]
success, he and [
unrecognized name Tourpy?]*
being ushers, and had "all they could do." I
sent you a little box & letter from
Newark.
[Noonians
?]* yesterday. I hope you got Thiders
umbrella [ case / cane
?], but I haven't
opened it yet. Becca goes today, as Lizzie
comes, and Elsie & Millie* are expected for the
day, on account of Dentist, and pleasure -- and she is
overset, feeling she
ought to ask them for
Sunday, but knows Lizzie don't want them, being tired
&c. So I guess Lizzie's feeling will
conquer. Tous.* is vary [
intended very]
[ Page 4 ]
active, all over the bed, banging everything in high
spirits. The best thing I have got to tell, is
of the call from Mrs. Rollins late yesterday
afternoon. And she had a struggle to get here,
on account of Miss Simpson being very [jealous of
?]
the Jewetts [and she dodging here
?] to get in
by herself. She had a nice [little letter
?]
from Frank who had actually been to the funeral, and
another from Harriett, saying how pleased they were
^to have Frank^ -- and that Annie hoped to come on
here to Aunt Ellen,* a season after she gets
[ Page 5 ]
settled. Isn't that nice, for a sister, and
every body elses{?} [Lottie Thorne
?]*
is going there for a little while. I don't know
when she may ever come, only it pleased poor Mrs
Rollins beyond anything to think
she was the
one Annie was to flee to, as she has hard feelings --
you know, and Annie
right in the midst of all
her trouble now, was thoughtful enough to send me
word. Mrs Rollins should have her barrel.
Even [tho
?] it had to be a little late.
[ Page 6 ]
But Mrs. Rollins* had had a
fearful time with
Simpson ^and ugly^, who [
underlined and
unrecognized word cursed
?] her
on account of having Annie* come, and
she
couldn't have her at all. I said horrid things,
being curious & jealous. Yesterday morning
Mrs Lewis* was here a long time, and wants me to write
Liddy* to know of a boarding place for Phil.* in
Brunswick,* as he is going to study medicine, only
they dont want to be talking about it yet. In
the afternoon I had a long call from Matildy,* and
[ Page 7 ]
her, Matildy only being up for two nights -- or one
night -- I guess. I couldn't really find out
anything of [ Walter
? ]. They or
[else
?], seems to feel he is a little
stronger. Becca* seems to be washing unduly, by
the noise in her room! before going home. I
think she seems to have got more cold, as she is
stuffed & coughs much more but one can't speak of
it, Mary. Last evening Helen [
Unrecognized
name]* called, looking so pretty, and is
happy at a 3 weeks vacation. When I was just
coming up to bed, being
[ Page 8 ]
dead tired, when Mrs Mower and Kate Sanborn came --
and sat till 9. Sammy having the fever, as you
may know. I was just about dead. Frances
has been in & out. Mr. Tucker* has had an
offish fit for a few days, & yesterday appeared to
tell me of Robbies* being
awfully sick [
unreadable
insertion] with two bad fits, and I guess came
near dying -- so that has been the matter. He
had one the day before you went, but "didnt tell
Mary," and another since. As far as I could find
out, it must have been indigestion. But Kings [
babe or baby
? ] had 3, and no more so John
has hopes, poor soul --
Love for you both from Carrie
[
Bottom right margin of page 4.] Forever
love.
Notes
1895: This year of composition is
inferred from the reference to Philip Lewis beginning
study toward the medical degree he completed in
1898. The reference to Peary's journal, which
appeared in 1895 supports this inference.
However, it is possible that this letter was written
at almost any time in the 1895-spring 1896 period,
when Theodore Eastman is known to have been a student
at Berwick Academy, making it likely that he would
usher at a drama performance. See notes below.
little Guiney book ... Estes & Lauriat:
Estes and Lauriat was a 19th-century Boston publisher
and bookseller. See Dana Estes in
Key
to
Correspondents. It is difficult to know which of
Louise Guiney's books is meant (see
Key
to
Correspondents). Here are the likely
choices:
A Roadside Harp (1893,
poetry)
A Little English Gallery
(1895, essays)
Robert Louis Stevenson
(1895, biography, with Alice Brown)
Lovers' Saint Ruth's and Three
Other Tales (1895, short stories)
Nine Sonnets Written at Oxford
(1895, poetry)
Peary Journal: Probably refers to
My Arctic
Journal (1894) by the American explorer,
Robert E. Peary (1856-1920).
Hansons: In the late 19th century,
Hanson's was a South Berwick
pharmacy.
B. Jacqués: This person is as yet
unknown.
Frances: The Jewetts were acquainted with
many women of this name. It would seem
reasonable to guess that this is "Fanny Gilman" of
Portland. See Mrs. Helen Williams Gilman in
Key
to
Correspondents.
Annie Barker: Paula Blanchard in
Sarah
Orne
Jewett (2002) identifies Barker as a Jewett
friend and neighbor (p. 45). She is mentioned
frequently in Jewett's
1869
diary.
Theodore: Theodore Jewett Eastman, later
referred to as Thider. See
Key
to
Correspondents.
the play at the Academy: It is not yet known at
what productions Theodore Eastman might have served as
an usher.
[
unrecognized name Tourpy?] As the name
has not yet been puzzled out, identifying this person
remains impossible.
Newark. [Noonians ?]:
Jewett's
acquaintance
in
Newark is not yet known, and the unrecognized name
remains untraceable.
Becca ... Lizzie: "Becca" usually refers
to Rebecca Young. See
Key
to
Correspondents. But this context suggests the
possibility that Becca has been working for the
family, but will cease upon Lizzie's return, in which
case, this could be Lizzie Pray, a long time Jewett
family employee. Assistance sorting this out is
welcome.
Elsie & Millie: These
individuals remain unidentified.
Tous: Apparently a Jewett family dog,
possibly Touser.
Frank ... Harriet ... Annie ... Aunt Ellen:
These individuals remain unidentified.
Mrs. Rollins ... Simpson ... Annie:
Richard Cary says: "Ellen Augusta Lord Rollins
(1835-1922) lived at Main and Young streets in South
Berwick, within sight of Miss Jewett's home." Miss
Simpson remains unidentified. Annie presumably
is the Annie Barker mentioned earlier in the letter.
Mrs Lewis ... Liddy ... Phil ... Brunswick:
Katharine
Lewis
was
the wife of the long-time Congregational pastor in
South Berwick, George Lewis. See
Key
to
Correspondents. Their son,
Philip Prescott Lewis
(1870-1926), like his father, studied at Bowdoin
College in Brunswick, ME., completing a medical degree
(1898), and practicing in Gorham, ME.
Presumably, then, Caroline plans to write to her
cousin, Elizabeth (Liddy) Jervis Gilman in Brunswick
for help in finding room and board for Philip.
Matildy ... Walter: Caroline's topic here
is difficult to discern. Her association of
Matilda and Walter suggest she may be reporting about
Matilda Travers and her husband, Walter Gay. See
Susan Travers in
Key
to
Correspondents.
Helen: In the absence of a recognizable
last name, this person remains unidentified.
Mrs Mower and Kate Sanborn ... Sammy having
the fever: For Annie Elizabeth Caldwell Mower
(1848-1932), see
Key
to
Correspondents.
Kate F. Sanborn (1848-1915), a
South Berwick neighbor, was the
daughter of
Dr. Caleb Sanborn (1814-1871).
The identity of Sammy remains unknown.
Mr. Tucker ... Robbies ... Kings: John
Tucker was a Jewett family employee and Robby was a
Jewett family dog. Perhaps Caroline means that
the Kings have a dog that has survived three fits, or
that a puppy of a dog named King so suffered? If
the Kings are neighbors, they have not been
identified. See
Key
to
Correspondents.
The manuscript of this letter is held by Historic New
England in the Jewett Family Papers MS014.02.01.
Transcription and annotation by Terry Heller, Coe
College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Louisa Dresel
The Anchorage
Martinsville, Maine
Friday1
September 28,
[1895]
Dear Loulie:
I began a long letter to
you when I first came and here I am just going away
and it never got finished! But I have thought of you
many times and wished that you could see this bit of
country which to the eyes of my imagination is even
better than such a place as Folly Cove.2
I have had a little shop going, a nice smallish
table, right in front of the window of my nice
little back bedroom, and I sit there now looking
down a dear lane with stone walls, toward the bay.3
There are two masts of a schooner just at the end
and there are some wind bent trees growing just at
the right place at the highest point of the lane
where you seem to be able to jump over into the
water! We have been very contented and have liked
our little housekeeping so much. I have been busy
with proofs and with a little writing but I have not
got done anything like what I hoped as much I mean!
However, I hope to be very busy after I get settled
down at home. My sister Mary has been here this last
week and we have sailed and walked a great deal and
had most lovely weather.
There does not seem to be
much chance of our coming to Manchester as I think
the Eatons4 will stay so late in Mrs.
Fields's house that they will close it themselves
and save her the trouble! Mrs. Fields is coming to
Berwick for awhile and so I doubt if we go to the
Shore again -- I mean go to Thunderbolt Hill. We are
all the more glad to have had our lovely week in
August. It was so nice to see you Loulie dear and I
look back to the day with you and your mother when
we had luncheon and saw the sketches with very great
pleasure.
With ever so much love,
dear Loulie,
Yours ever affectionately,
S. O. J.
Notes
1Jewett has
written either the wrong day here or the wrong date
on the next line. Friday was September 27 in 1895.
The postmark on the envelope containing this letter
is clearly 1895.
2Folly Cove is
on Ipswich Bay, Rockport, Cape Ann, Massachusetts,
not far from the Dresels' summer cottage in Beverly.
3Muscongus
Bay, to the west of Martinsville.
4W. S. Eaton
was listed in the local newspaper as a Summer
Resident at Thunderbolt Hill from August 31 to
October 19 in 1895.
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.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Louisa Dresel
[South Berwick, Maine]
Tuesday [September
1895]*
Dearest Loulie:
In getting into an old
corduroy jacket I found this beginning of a letter
to you in the pocket and it brought back that nice
out of door time so vividly that I am obliged to
send it on. I don't know why it never got done,
perhaps it was mislaid!
I hope that this bright
sun is shining for you -- in all ways -- as it is
for me. I feel much better today and we have two
dear elderly cousins making us a little visit. I can
hear them chirping together down in the library.
I send you much love dear,
and many a thought.
S. O. J.
Note
September 1895: Richard Cary points
out that the unfinished letter to Dresel dated
September 4, 1895, was sent to her with this
explanatory note.
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.
Sarah Wyman Whitman to Sarah Orne Jewett
September 17, 1895.
I make little fugitive
sketches of things seen from car windows as I fly
back and forth from glass and marble shops -- or of
a belated moon which waits for the game of billiards
to be over and then comes creeping from the rim of
earth, smoky with earth's vapors, but burning with O
such inward fire!
These things console me;
and I so report to you. This is one of the summers
when there is nothing to tell unless you tell
everything. I think I have felt more molten
within, if you'll forgive so clumsy a term, than in
any summer I ever spent, yet it would puzzle me to
mention any one incident. In fact there have been
none, only persistent tumultuous feeling, highly
controlled as must ever be and non-resultant, save
perhaps for some inner mobilization.
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 Arthur Stedman
[ 28 September 1895 ]*
Dear Mr. Stedman
I am so glad
that you like the little story.
In haste with sincere regard
S. O. Jewett
South Berwick
[ 28 ? ] September --
Notes
1895: This letter seems associated with
Jewett to Stedman of 11 April and 6 November of
1895.
This transcription is from a photocopy held by the
Maine Women Writer's Collection, University of New
England, Letters from Sarah Orne Jewett, 1875-1890,
Box 4, Folder 159, Burton Trafton Jewett Research
Collection. Trafton's notes indicate that the
manuscript is held by Columbia University Library,
Special Collections.
Transcription and notes by Terry
Heller, Coe College.
Dame Ellen Terry to Sarah Orne Jewett
[ 1 October 1895 ]*
The Vendome -- Tuesday =
My dear Miss Jewett
I cannot ask you to find a [ kind
referral
? ] for a poor woman who is always
being
"rushed" -- Your lovely bookie came to
me & I thank you affectionately for it -- Don't
you [
underlined deletion, possibly of envy
] envy me? I am just reading The White Heron* --
I
love it!
[ Page 2 ]
I want you to be so good as to let me know by one
line whether you or M
rs Fields* w
d
care to have my box at the Play* for any night (or
every night) this week ( to
day* it is engaged
= )
Wed -- Much Ado --
Thurs -- -- Arthur
Fri -- Merchant of V.
Sat mat | Becket*
| __
On Thurs. or Friday morning I am coming down to
[ Page 3 ]
Charles S
t to take my chance of
finding you & M
rs Fields at
home = We are
very busy rehearsing
"Macbeth" & it is difficult to make a
prospective engagement as I'm always
wanted!
Ellen Terry =
Again
Thank you* for the Tales of New
England --
Notes
1895: Almost certainly, Terry refers in this
letter to the Lyceum Company tour of 1895-6.
Henry Irving's company performed in Boston 30
September to 26 October 1895. Their American tour
repertoire included all of the plays named in this
letter, though
Macbeth may not have been
performed in Boston.
Jewett's letter to Sarah
Wyman Whitman of Thursday 3 October reports having
already seen
King Arthur, which Terry says
was performed on Thursday evening, suggesting that
Jewett wrote at night, after returning from the
play.
If this speculation is correct,
then Terry must have written on Tuesday 1 October.
Heron: Terry has underlined "I love it"
twice.
Jewett's story, "A White Heron,"
first appeared in her book of that title in 1886,
but as Terry notes at the end, Jewett has given her
Tales of New England (1890), which also
contains that story.
Fields: Annie Adams Fields. Key
to Correspondents.
Play: In this letter, Terry lists three works
by British playwright William Shakespeare
(1564-1616),
Much Ado About Nothing,
The
Merchant of Venice, and
Macbeth.
King Arthur (1895) was by
British playwright and critic, J. Comyns Carr
(1849-1916).
About
Becket, there is
confusion. Various sources indicate that the
play was by British illustrator and sometime actor
Sir John Bernard Partridge (1861-1945), but
Wikipedia says nothing about his working as a
playwright.
The Victoria & Albert Museum
says that the play in the Irving repertoire was by
British poet, Alfred Lord Tennyson (1809-1892), who
indeed published a drama of that title in 1884.
today: "day" is
underlined twice.
Becket: Terry has drawn a wavy vertical
line before Becket, extending down the page to the
word "Friday."
Thank you: Terry underlines these words with
a wavy line.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the
Houghton Library of Harvard University, Cambridge,
MA. Sarah Orne Jewett Correspondence, bMS Am 1743
Box 4, Item 209. I. Letters to Sarah Orne
Jewett.
Transcription and notes by Terry
Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Sarah Wyman Whitman
3 October
[ 1895 ]*
[ Begin letterhead ]
South Berwick.
Maine.
[ End letterhead ]
I am so sorry that I shall have
to miss so dear a chance of seeing you = it comes of
idleness I fear, and a poor business gift which lets
stories get pushed into the last minutes of time and
fall over one. And now I miss this Sunday that
I might have had!
[ Page 2 ]
The trouble has been that all
summer I could not put myself down to steady work
but autumn weather is always kind, and certain
things have blown away that troubled summer air.
Darling there is Every thing to
say and I shall be longing to see you. Could you
write a little letter someday these next two
[ Page 3 ]
weeks to kind of make up to a fellow who might have
seen you on a Sunday?
and loves you very much
S. O. J.
go to see King Arthur* -- the first three
acts!
The stage pictures, as one may
say, are marvellously beautiful -- & Miss Terry
never played so nobly or
[ Page 4 ]
with such touching sweetness & in a most
difficult part -- -- it was really
great
playing on Tuesday night. The last of the play
{is} very silly however. Irving passes away at
length and most unnecessarily before an impatient
audience --
Notes
1895: This date is confirmed by
Jewett's report of seeing
King Arthur.
See note below.
King Arthur ... Miss Terry ... Mr. Irving:
King
Arthur (1895) was by British playwright and
critic, J. Comyns Carr (1849-1916).
The theatre company of British
actor/director Sir Henry Irving (1838-1905), with
actor Ellen Terry (Key to Correspondents), toured
King
Arthur in the United States in 1895 after its
British run. It was an illustrious production, only
in part because of its world-famous acting
duo. British artist Edward Burne-Jones
(1833-1898) designed the sets, and composer Arthur
Sullivan (1842-1900) -- of "Gilbert and Sullivan" --
composed the music. Wikipedia.
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 Wyman Whitman to Sarah Orne Jewett
[
8 October 1895 ]*
Darling: Perhaps if you had come A.F.* wouldnt
have had a bad cold and never come herself! and O
wasn't I disappointed? and am I not disappointed
still? And thanking you for your kind letter: but
still feeling that literature had no Claims which
Friendship ought to respect!
But seriously, beloved friend,
I had wanted to see you under my roof & was [
sorry
? ]: although, seriously also, I
knew just how it was -- & I like to [ hear
?
] with the work singing
[ Page 2 ]
in your head to be done -- & I hope every
falling leaf makes contribution & [
unrecognized
word ] to the theme, and each white star
approves the same. ----
A.F.'s absence made me so [
sorry
? ]: for I had made two such good
little plans for her: & [ Eleanor
?
] [
unrecognized surname ] & M
rs
Charlie [
unrecognized surname ] were
guests, & all a-waitin': but it could not be.
I havent written because I have
been
at it in such a relentless fashion.
People have penetrated every corner of my being:
there have been book-covers (one more little may
flower for the Life of Nancy*
[ Page 3 ]
2
this time -- ) & D
r Holmes's memorial
tablet,* & pastel heads of growing infants
& [ moans of memory, and meetings, and all the
other innumerable happenings of the Fall -- which
I now perceive is all Summer & all Winter
squeezed together!
Thus even my letter becomes a
catalogue and I am somewhat ashamed even to write
to you at all -- but nevertheless I love you well
enough not to mind these infringements of the
proprieties of friendship, &
[ Page 4 ]
so shall dispatch this silly sheet . ----
Coolidge* was on the Shore as a
Learned Lady of Fashion: & had
much
attention, & was my dear [
unrecognized word
] -- And everyone that has been or is on the Shore
except you. Say one word to me -- & love me.
_Sw_
Studio October 8. 1895
Notes
1895: Up the right margin at the bottom of page
4, Jewett has written this note: "This letter
very
beautiful and nearly all printable (S.O.J.)"
A.F.: Annie Adams Fields. See
Key
to
Correspondents.
Life of Nancy: Whitman designed the cover for
Jewett's story collection,
The Life of Nancy (1895),
with a wreath of flowers.
Dr Holmes's memorial tablet:
Oliver Wendell Holmes
(1809-1894) was an American 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. King's Chapel in Boston
erected an inscribed memorial tablet in his honor
listing his accomplishments: "Teacher of Anatomy,
Essayist and Poet." Above this list is a
quotation from Horace's
Ars Poetica: Miscuit
Utile Dulci: "He mingled the useful with the
pleasant." The inscription was provided by President
Charles Eliot of Harvard. See also, Gustaf E.
Linkskog, "
Oliver Wendell Holmes" (1974).
While this may be the tablet that
Whitman mentions, I have not been able to verify that
she was involved in its design.
Coolidge: Probably Coolidge is Sarah
Chauncey Woolsey, who wrote under the name Susan
Coolidge. However this is problematic because Whitman
also was well-acquainted with Katherine Scollay
Parkman Coolidge. The problem arises because
Whitman refers often to seeing "Coolidge" and "Old
Coolidge" in letters from after Katherine Coolidge's
death in February 1900. See
Key
to
Correspondents.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton
Library of Harvard University. Whitman, Sarah (Wyman)
1842-1904. 92 letters; [1884]-[1903] & [n.d.]
Jewett, Sarah Orne, 1849-1909. Sarah Orne Jewett
additional correspondence, 1868-1930. MS Am 1743.1
-107. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe
College.
Transcription from Letters of Sarah
Wyman
Whitman (1907)
Part of this letter appeared on pp.
83-4.
October 8, 1895
O wasn't I disappointed and
am I not disappointed still! and thanking you for your
kind letter, but still feeling that Literature had no
Claims which Friendship ought to respect! But
seriously, beloved friend, I knew just how it was and
I like to hear of the work singing in your head to be
done, and I hope every falling leaf makes contribution
to the Theme, and each white star approves the same. .
. . I haven't written because I have been
at it
in such a relentless fashion. People have penetrated
every corner of my being, there have been book-covers
. . . and Dr. Holmes' memorial tablet, and pastel
heads of growing infants, and moans of memory, and
meetings, and all the other innumerable happenings of
the Fall. Which I now perceive is all Summer and all
Winter squeezed together!
Thus even my letter becomes a
catalogue, and I am somewhat ashamed even to write to
you at all, but nevertheless I love you well enough
not to mind these infringements of the proprieties of
friendship and so shall despatch this silly sheet.
Rudyard Kipling to Sarah Orne Jewett
------ Waite*
Windham Co.
Oct: 16. 1895
My dear Miss Jewett.
The Life of Nancy* came yesterday
and I read it then and there. I knew and had laughed
over "Fame's Little Day": seen The War Debt in one of
the magazines and read The Only Rose almost with tears
but the others are new to me and altogether delightful
-- specially "All My Sad Captains{"}: which is a
perfect title. But who am I to send you compliments? I
will for a change protest.
Did you in the War
Debt* (serial form) put in those four lines italic at
the end: because I don't remember having seen them and
-- I don't like them. They explain things and I loathe
an explanation. Please cut 'em out in the next edition
and
[ Page 2 ]
let people guess that he married Mrs Bellamy's grand
daughter. I think the best of the lot in its manner (I
wonder if you think this way) is "The Guests of Mrs
Timms.{"} To my thinking Miss Jewett can be when
she thinks fit, masculine enough to equip three
small average male story-tellers and in "The Guests of
Mrs Timms" she gives proof of it. It's a kinder
dry-point, firm handed work that pleases me all over.
Then the Hilton's Holiday is another of the best in
another manner. It's worthwhile spending three winters
in New England to be able to draw the full flavour out
of your stories: and when you come to think of it, I
am about the only Englishman in the business who could
turn in and review such a book from the more or less
inside stand point. It makes me grin sometimes when I
read of some man across the water laying down
possibilities and impossibilities in American tales.
[ Page 3 ]
We are preparing for the winter
siege, digging and sodding and hauling dirt and
spreading phosphates and putting the garden to rights.
I hope to get a copy of The second Jungle book* by the
10th of next month when, if you will, I will send it
you. With kindest regards from my wife & myself
believe me
Yours always sincerely and
admiringly
Rudyard Kipling.
Owen Wister* (whose Arizona &
army-post stories you must know) has looked in us
for a day. He's a splendid young man and I think
he has steam enough in him to carry him a long
way. Have you ever met him. He's really and truly
nice and a man.
: The Kiplings' temporary home in Vermont.
With this letter is an associated
envelope addressed to Jewett c/o Houghton Mifflin
& Co., and forwarded to South Berwick. It was
canceled on 16 October 1895, then in Boston and South
Berwick on 18 October.
Life of Nancy: Jewett's
The Life of Nancy
(1895). Kipling mentions most of the stories in this
collection.
War Debt: Jewett
did alter her ending,
changing it in the first printing from its original
appearance in
Harper's Monthly for January
1895. The magazine ending merely hints that Tom
Burton, the protagonist, may soon connect with the
daughter of his southern friends, whom he never
actually meets during the visit recounted in the
story: "a most lovely hope was in his heart."
The first printing adds several lines, including the
italics Kipling mentions, making explicit that Burton
met and married the woman. In the second
printing however, Jewett followed Kipling's advice,
removing the final italics.
Jewett's move in the first printing
toward realizing the potential romance in the magazine
version may have been influenced by the 20 January
1895 letter she received from a fan, Lieutenant John
Howard Wills, who wrote: "I can not but hope that you
will shortly allow the agreeable hero to meet the lady
who was 'the queen of her little company' and that we
may be permitted to be present."
Jungle book: According to Thomas Pinney in
The
Letters
of Rudyard Kipling (1990, c. 2004),
Kipling's
The Second Jungle Book appeared in
the U.S. on 9 November 1895 (p. 205).
Owen Wister: Key to Correspondents.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Miller
Library, Special Collections, Colby College,
Waterville, ME: JEWE.1. New transcription and notes by
Terry Heller, Coe College.
Annie Adams Fields to Lilian and Thomas Bailey
Aldrich
148 Charles St. Boston
Oct. 22d 1895
Dear friends:
I am to have a
little dinner on the 29
th, --
Keats's birthday* -- in his memory --
Do come -- and
at Seven o'clock.
Affectionately yours
Annie Fields.
Notes
Keats's birthday: British poet
John Keats (1795-1821) was born
on 31 October.
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.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Louisa Dresel
Tuesday
[ 29 October 1895 ]*
Dear Loulie
"Yours received and contents noted"
as the business letters say! Thank you so much for
A.F.'s* & my lovely pictures. The walky storkys by
the brook please us both -- in fact we shall be so
near a squabble if we try to part the gift that
[ Page 2 ]
we mean to keep it as a little collection and each
play she owns it all. Where
did you get them
Loulie!
= I was very busy all day yesterday and could not
write to say this and now there is only time to say
how much we enjoyed seeing you
[ Page 3 ]
on Saturday and that we send our love to Mamma! I
found yesterday a poor gouty day { -- } my shoes were
tight and my temper none of the best. I hope nobody
else found fault with such lovely weather!
Yours most affectionately
SOJ.
Notes
1895: This date has been penciled here in
another hand. In the Morgan Library folder with this
and other letters from Jewett to Dresel is an envelope
cancelled on this date. Presumably a Morgan
Library archivist connects this letter with the
envelope.
A.F.'s: Annie Adams Fields. See
Key to Correspondents.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Morgan
Library & Museum. MA 2932. Purchase, Acquisitions
Fund; 1976. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller,
Coe College.
Louise Imogen Guiney to Annie Adams Fields
[ 31 October 1895 ]
Dear Mrs. Fields:
I slipped
your envelope, addressed to Mr. Porter of the
Stevenson Memorial Committee, in with my own
script, this morn, to his colleague Mrs. Williams;
and I
do think, -- well, that there are
not A.F.'s and S.O.J's on every bush! I am bound
by every tie to the success of that fountain; and
I shall not wonder if a few of us ^in Boston^ were
destined to help it along beautifully. Mrs.
Williams is the Dora Norton Williams to whom (and
to whose goodman) "Silverado Squatters" is
dedicated. In a day or two, if I may, I would like
to send you, to read, her very nice letter.
Meanwhile I can't thank you enough.
[ Page 2 ]
What a Time it was! with such a joyful
commemorating spirit abroad, better than salvos of
cannon. I repent that I did not put on my little
new green gown, cut in what may be described as a
U* back and front! to keep Miss Whitney, and Alice
and the two white doves* company. But the regret
is all swallowed up in all manner of pleasure and
the blessedness of receiving, except:
1. I did so want Miss Jewett to have the Keats of
the Two Chairs!
2. I wanted you to read the Adonӓis! Mr. Copeland*
saw the copy in my hands, and offered me that hard
condition, that he would read Shelley if I would
attempt La Belle Dame:* and I knew you would say
"Yes', although I couldn't cross the room
[ Page 3 ]
to ask you; and so I did my beggarly best with the
divine lines, and purchased a golden peroration
for all our [
deletion ] ears, from other
than the first-intended. I wish I were to look in
upon you tomorrow, or Saturday, rather! but I am
plunged in ^the^ month's accounts, like Clarence*
in the butt of malmsey, and only able to say here
that I shall sit by in spirit, and thank you once
more for one more poetical association with the
House of Poets. With love to Miss Jewett, I am
Ever yours,
Louise I. G.
Auburndale, 31
st Oct.,
1895
Notes
Stevenson Memorial Committee: Guiney
refers to Scottish author, Robert Louis Stevenson
(1850- 3 December 1894). In 1895, Guiney's
friend,
Alice Brown (1857-1948),
published
Robert Louis Stevenson: A Study,
with "prelude and postlude" by Guiney.
The
Robert Louis Stevenson Memorial
in San Francisco at one time included a
drinking fountain.
In a letter to American artist
Bruce Porter (1865-1953) of
December 1895, Guiney wrote about an inscription
she hoped to have placed on the memorial, and she
lamented the difficulty of raising money to
complete the work (
Letters of Louise Imogen
Guiney, p. 86). Having Jewett's and
Fields's names listed among contributors would be
helpful to fund-raising.
Shortly after their marriage
Fanny Osbourne and Stevenson honeymooned at an
abandoned mining camp on Mount Saint Helena,
California. He wrote about this experience in
The
Silverado
Squatters (1883). Their friends,
Virgil and Dora Williams,
had suggested this inexpensive and healthful
retreat as both newlyweds were recovering from
serious illness and in financial difficulty.
S.O.J.s: Sarah Orne Jewett. See
Key to Correspondents.
U: Guiney has drawn a large U that
could be mistaken for a V; above it she has
printed in small letters: "you".
Miss Whitney ... Alice ... two white doves:
Presumably
the
two
white doves are Fields and Jewett. Alice is
American author,
Alice Brown (1857-1948).
Miss Whitney is American sculptor
Anne Whitney (1821-1915).
Keats of the Two Chairs: Probably Guiney
refers to a print of Joseph Severn's (1793-1879)
portrait of British poet
John Keats (1795-1821) with
two chairs. Keats was the author of the poem
Guiney read at this gathering, "La Belle Dame Sans
Merci."
"Adonӓis," the poem Guiney
hoped Fields would read is by English poet
Percy Bysshe Shelley
(1792-1822).
Charles Townsend Copeland
(1860-1952) was a critic and a professor of
English at Harvard University.
Clarence:
George Plantagenet, Duke of
Clarence (1449-1478) was brother to the English
kings, Edward IV and Richard III. He was executed
for treason. He is best remembered, perhaps,
as a victim of Richard III in William
Shakespeare's play of that name, where he is said
to have been executed by drowning in Malmsey wine.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the
Huntington Library, San Marino, CA, in the James T.
Fields collection Box 25: mss FI 1609 .
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe
College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Mellen Chamberlain
South Berwick, November 1, 1895:
I
have
just
received
your
very
kind
note at the moment when you will be waiting for me
at the Library. I came home some days ago and I
thought that I told Mr. Putnam and Mr. Knapp [the
Keeper of Bates Hall] that I should only be
working at the Library for two or three days --
but even if I did there is no reason why they
should have charged their minds with remembering
it!
I
am
so
sorry
that
you
should
have had the trouble of going to the room and
being kept waiting, all to no purpose.
I
shall
not
be
in
town
again
before the middle of the month; perhaps I can
write you then and ask if I may come some day when
you are to be at your Library room at any rate ? .
. .
I
wish
that
we
might
sometimes see you. I have not been in town this
winter however except for some brief visits.
Notes
This letter, transcribed by John Alden, originally
appeared in
Boston Public Library Quarterly 9
(1957): 86-96. It is reprinted here courtesy of
the Trustees of the Boston Public Library/Rare Books.
Alden introduces this letter: "Miss
Jewett again visited the Boston Public Library in the
fall of 1895 -- Chamberlain had resigned as Librarian
in 1890, but a note to him from his successor, Herbert
Putnam, of October 25, refers to her researches there
on John Paul Jones." Jewett at this time
apparently was working already on
The Tory
Lover (1901), in which
John
Paul
Jones is a featured character. Jones
(1747-1792) was a captain in the American
revolutionary navy.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Sarah Wyman Whitman
Sunday night 3 Nov [
1895
]*
[
Begin letterhead ]
South
Berwick.
Maine.
[
End letterhead ]
I was so glad to get your letter yesterday dear --
it quite surprised me at the very end of a
poky-looking great handful that came from the post
office in a busy moment. I was wishing to hear
about the visit to Stonehurst* but to be very
frank I never expected to, no not this good while
because people are busy in town -- and had better
be in the country though they dally more than she
should and writing and
[
Page 2 ]
other things lag along.
I asked Theodore* where he was in
his Greek and how he was getting on: "
Why --
Homer!{"} says Theodore ^"and^ the Goddess
Athena called the long-haired Greeks to war
yesterday"
-- He looked quite gallant himself over it, and
I began to feel a little as if things were going on
after all. [ I have
corrected ] felt better
all day by reason of that classic answer. Our
conversation is so apt to be of right tackles and
quarter backs and fake points that anything else comes
in with
[
Page 3 ]
peculiar freshness --
This being enough of me and
Theodore I now say that I wish you was here this
Sunday night -- I am keeping house quite alone for
a week or two and I [ think blotted ] of
those I likes the best -- the only thing is to
dream true as taught by the story of Peter
Ibbetson;* but indeed one sometimes is ready to
slight the dear pleasures of remembrance through
eagerness for new life -- for a new sight ^of a
face^ and a faster hold of hands.
Sunday is
[
Page 4]
always a good day here in the
village -- The street takes on the look it used to
wear always, years ago. I counted on a long walk
over the hill but a scud of snow came in the night
and spoiled ones footing on the pasture turf. I
hoped that Sally Norton* [ might ? ] be
here for a day or two just now but she was
prevented and the little snow storm was more than
half a consolation because we should have wished
to be out of doors ----
On darling dont
mind jobbing. I do so long to have you keep at
your work{.} I long to have you paint these later
autumn colors. I never
[
Up the left margin and across the top margin
of page 1 ]
can feel that it is right about the jobbing. Going to
see people married is jobbing { -- }
everything
is jobbing but just painting, and so I say as cross as
can be with something that hurts in my throat -- But I
dont think I shall ever be [ so
? ]
[ Up the left margin of page
2 ]
cross again, and I say that I knew you would like
Bourgets*
[ Up the left margin and
across the top margin of page 3 ]
paper and you can keep it ever so much longer only not
lose it -- Good night and I love you very much
S.O.J.
Notes
1895: Jewett's handwriting is puzzling here,
but "1895" probably is what she wrote. This reading is
supported a little by the notes below, especially the
one on Bourget. Known letters from Whitman to
Jewett in the preceding months of 1895 emphasize the
number of projects Whitman had in hand, many of which
did not involve making art.
Stonehurst: The estate of Helen Bigelow
Merriman. Key to Correspondents.
Theodore: Theodore Jewett Eastman. Key to
Correspondents. He is reading the Greek poet Homer,
The
Iliad (c. 7th century B.C.). Jewett
underlined "Homer" twice.
Peter Ibbetson: George Louis Palmella
Busson du Maurier's 1891 novel. Key to Correspondents.
Sally Norton: Sara Norton. Key to
Correspondents.
Bourgets paper: In a letter of 8 September
1895, Jewett recommended to Whitman French author Paul
Bourget's 1894
Discourse de Réception à l'Académie
Française, upon being elected to the French
Academy. Wikipedia.
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
Sunday night
[ Nov 3, 1895 ]*
Dear Loulie
Mrs. Fields*
wrote me about Two Noble Lives* but she is
mistaken about my having it -- I think if she read
it it must have belonged to Mrs. Cabot.* I
have looked about [ our corrected ] book
cases thinking that my sister may have had it, [
but corrected ] I don't see it -- if she
has it it is lent! A Noble Life and Three
Generations
of
English
Women* are the
nearest approach that I can make! I wish that I could
hear if your mother is better yet. This scud of snow
which fell last night ought to make all lamish folkses
feel better -- the air has been so chilly & snowy.
I wish you were here to spend the evening with me -- I
happen to be keeping house alone just now -- but I
ought to
[ Page 3 ]
say the
rest of the evening.
I am so sorry that I cant send the
book --
Yours affectionately
S.O.J.
Notes
1895: This date is penciled here in another
hand. With this letter is an envelope addressed to
Mifs Dresel at 328 Beacon Street, Boston, and
cancelled in Boston on 4 November 1895. November
3 fell on a Sunday in 1895.
Mrs. Fields: Annie Adams Fields. See
Key to Correspondents.
Two Noble Lives: Jewett and Dresel
could refer to two books of this title.
Two Noble
Lives: John Wicliffe and Martin Luther by David
J. Deane was published sometime before 1890.
The
Story of Two Noble Lives, being Memorials of
Charlotte, Countess Canning, and Louisa, Marchioness
of Waterford, by Augustus J. C. Hare, appeared
in 1893. Given the similar books Jewett names, the
latter probably is the title she tried to find for
Dresel.
Mrs. Cabot: Susan Burley Cabot. See
Key to Correspondents.
my sister: Mary Rice Jewett. See
Key to Correspondents.
A Noble Life and Three
Generations of English Women: Two
possibilities for the first title are:
A Noble Life (novel, c.
1880), by
Dinah Maria Mulock Craik, and
A
Noble Life (poems, 1894), by
George Clinton Rowe.
Three Generations of English
Women: Memoirs and Correspondence of Susannah
Taylor, Sarah Austin and Lady Duff Gordon
(before 1892) by Janet Ann Ross. That Jewett sees this
as a similar book to the others, she probably refers
to Craik's novel, rather than Rowe's poems.
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 Arthur Stedman
6 Novr 1895
[ Begin letterhead ]
South Berwick, Maine
[ End letterhead ]
Dear Mr. Stedman
I was beginning to feel worried
about the little Thanksgiving (which I forgot to have
registered)* and now I have seen it advertised so that
I know that you received it --
It has always been your
[ Page 2 ]
most kind custom to write at once on the receipt of a
manuscript so that I wonder if I have missed a letter
from you. I was away last week and my letters
had to follow me about
[ Page 3 ]
I ordered a copy of my new book of stories* to be sent
to you which I hope you received. Please do tell
your father* that I spent last evening most
delightfully with his new Anthology.*
Notes
story ... registered: Jewett speaks of
her story "The Night before Thanksgiving," which
appeared under distribution by the
Bachellor Syndicate, for which
Stedman acted as agent. It appears that Jewett
usually submitted her stories by registered mail, in
order to have notice of their delivery.
book of stories: Jewett's new book in
late 1895 would be
The Life of Nancy.
your father: Edmund C. Stedman. See
Key
to Correspondents.
new Anthology: Edmund C. Stedman edited
the
Victorian Anthology (1895), a collection
of poetry which provided important reading during the
1896 winter cruise on which Jewett, Fields, and T. B.
Aldrich were guests on the yacht of Henry L. Pierce.
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. A note
appearing with this manuscript says that this letter
has had the signature cut off.
Sarah Wyman Whitman to Sarah Orne Jewett
November 12, 1895.
In the train for Newport.
I have indeed had a
wonderful little vacation, seeing the landscape
which is always to me the largest, the most full of
intimation; and at Newport the "passion of Autumn"
is more felt than anywhere I think in the world! The
sea turns from violets into pansies; the great
clouds entrench themselves in more substantial
ramparts. And I am full of gratitude for having a
few days of wonder before the actual and immediate
come rattling about my ears.
Note
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
[
14 November 1895 ]
Dear Mrs. Fields:
The
Poet* wishes to say that people stared at him
consumedly in the cars, but that he didn't
mind it much, and was conveyed in a cab to his
new home, where he has taken up a temporary
abode on an ancient 'whatnot' in the
Poeticule's study, with ^a brown^ Spenser
under one arm, and ^a green^ Shakespeare under
the other, and a garland of creeping-jenny
several years old about his placid brow.
He hopes soon to be acclimated, and sends you
much love and many thanks for your attentions
to him in preparing him for the journey
Selah.*
That eve I brought him out, I had been to the
College Club, on an unexpected and welcome
invitation. I wished for Miss Jewett,* for Mr.
Bancroft* sang any number of those old magical
[ Page 2 ]
Celtic songs, among which, however, he failed to
number
'Full high
in Kilbride'.
But we had 'The Brown-Breasted Pearl', and 'Little
Mary Cassidy', and 'The Castle of Dromore', and
'Tara', and 'The Wearing o' the Green', and much
else which was good.
Mrs. Williams* tells me that Mrs. Stevenson sails
for Honolulu today, with Lloyd Osbourne, who has
been and is very ill with some mysterious disease
which they
know must be heartbreak for
Stevenson; for it began when his friend of friends
died. Is it not interesting and touching? and does
it not make one, somehow, love that Lloyd
Osbourne?
Love to you. I am 'slogging'!
not at my
own appointed trade. Yours
Louise I. G.
14
th Nov., 1895.
Notes
Poet: The identity of this poet has not yet
been discovered.
Selah: A somewhat mysterious biblical word,
often appearing at the end of a Psalm.
Bancroft:
Frederick W. Bancroft (d.
March 1914) was a popular collector, interpreter,
and performer of Celtic songs. Though this is not
certain, it seems likely that he is
Frederick Wallace Bancroft
(1856-1914).
Boston's Association of
Collegiate Alumnae (founded in 1882) was the
predecessor organization of the
American Association of
University Women. In 1895, it was called the
College Club and had a meeting room on Beacon St.
in Boston.
The songs Guiney lists were
traditional and recent Irish music. 'The
Brown-Breasted Pearl" is not listed as a known
Celtic song; perhaps Guiney meant "The Snowy
Breasted Pearl."
Miss Jewett: Sarah Orne Jewett. See
Key to Correspondents.
Mrs. Williams:
Dora Williams was a close friend
of Scottish author,
Robert Louis Stevenson, who died
in Samoa on 3 December 1894. His wife,
Fanny Osbourne Stevenson
(1840-1914), had three children from her first
marriage, the second being
Samuel Lloyd Osbourne
(1868-1947).
The manuscript of this letter is held by the
Huntington Library, San Marino, CA, in the James T.
Fields collection Box 25: mss FI 1610 .
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe
College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Alfred Ernest Keet
148 Charles Street
Boston 18 November
[ 1895 ]*
My dear Mr Keet
I send you Madame Blanc's
paper* which I have had translated as well as
possible and worked over to the best of my own
ability, wishing all the time that the charming
style of the original manuscript could be better
kept.
[ Page 2 ]
The proofs may be sent to me at this address, when
they are ready; for the present I shall be still in
the country (at South Berwick, Maine.)* and I beg that
you will call upon me at any time if I can do anything
further about the paper.
Yours very truly,
Sarah Orne Jewett
Notes
1895: Richard Cary assigned this date based
upon the likelihood that the letter concerns Blanc's
essay, "Family Life in America." See note
below.
paper: Marie Thérèse Blanc had visited
the U.S. in 1893-4. See Key to Correspondents.
Cary identified the article to
which Jewett refers as "Family Life in America,"
which appeared in Forum, XXI (March 1896),
1-20. He notes that this was "a condensation of her
series 'upon the condition of women in the United
States,' published in the Revue des Deux Mondes
during 1895."
Maine: Someone has underlined the address in
red pencil, probably Mr. Keet.
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.
Sarah Wyman Whitman to Sarah Orne Jewett
November 22. 1895*
1:30 AM --
which makes it Nov. 23
Darling I dont know why, but I was
sure you were not coming to the Studio Tuesday,
and
so I loitered to do errands
on the way, & so missed you: I was awfully
disappointed -- And perhaps this message is mainly
to mention this fact, though [ there
corrected
] are other impulses which tend in the same
directions: and move me at the end of a day long
and arduous to send a word which may come running
in of a Saturday afternoon and which will speak of
love.
After I missed you on a Tuesday
I fell to work and began thinking of the Winter --
a thought I have not hitherto allowed myself:
because that way madness lay. But now I grow
bolder and venture to plan somewhat for things to
be. And to think of the Window* in
[ Page 2 ]
a thousand different ways: a way of thinking
through which I must pass before I decide upon
one
way. --- And I have now had definite talk with the
powers at Trinity, & there is no doubt that
the Class will be allowed to put its memorial to
Mr. Brooks,* there, in the triple window which we
have in
own our own room. So
that is for the immediate future. And I guess not
much portrait painting this year -- except that it
is never safe to prophesy! But enough of Shop.
I have been this evening
to dine at Shady Hill with that hot, pulsing and
amazing creature R. Kipling: and he was exceeding
interesting, real and full of talk. He seemed in
fact, like a focus of creative energy: with that
dark imaginative eye behind the glass. I had never
seen the Banjo Song,* which he recited in a sort
of still,
molten way, and which I think
the most [ human
or humane]
[ Page 3 ]
and large word ---- albeit couched in
the short syllables of a sort of refrain -- he has
ever written. --- It all made me feel very
strangely, as I came in town again, under a gray
sky. --
You did not show me
his letter. But perhaps you will? and perhaps you
will tell me when you are coming up, if once before
the Fair,* & then at the Fair -- which is twict
[ so written ].
Who is Woodrow
Wilson who writes the best thing ever said about
Bagehot in the Atlantic?* & do you know if
Copeland was the man who wrote therein lately a
brief summary of Bessy Costell?* I
think Mrs. Ward has given a fresh turn on the wheel,
so far as strength and texture in the fabric of her
work goes -- Sir George Trevelyan* opens with a
stout clutch on her material and firm and easy
[ Page 4 ]
movement. ---- It seems a very live world to me
to-night, as you see, my friend: and I am dying for
talk and those things which come with speech &
companionship when one knows there is everything to be
said. A hot silence has some gleams of delight in it:
but one is left rather like a crater thereafter. ---
But my one word is made of
many syllables and I [ must
? ] reduce it to
two and say Goodnight.
Shall I not say also God
bless you?
_SW_
Notes
1895: This manuscript is in pencil.
An envelope associated with this
letter is addressed to Jewett in South Berwick, ME,
and cancelled 23 November 1895. Notes have been
penciled on the front of the envelope. At the
top appears: "Letters of Mrs Whitman some marked for
selection or quotation by S.O.J." At the bottom
appears: "Kipling ---- The
hot silence
that makes one feel like a
crater afterward)".
the Window: Whitman probably refers to the
Brimmer
window, destined for the transept of Memorial Hall at
Harvard University, for which she received the
commission in 1895.
the Class ... its memorial to Mr. Brooks:
Almost certainly this refers to the Phillips Brooks
Memorial Window that Whitman designed for the Parish
Room at Trinity Church, Boston. According to
Virginia Raguin, this window was a gift of Whitman
and her Bible Class, and was installed at Easter,
1896. (Sarah Wyman Whitman 1842-1904, p.
190).
Shady Hill ... R. Kipling ... Banjo Song:
Shady Hill was the family home of Charles Eliot
Norton (1827-1908) in Cambridge, MA. He was
co-editor of the North American Review
(1863-1868) and then professor of literature and art
at Harvard University.
Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936)
published "The Song of the Banjo" in 1894. It
begins:
You couldn't pack a
Broadwood half a mile --
You mustn't leave a fiddle
in the damp --
You couldn't raft an organ
up the Nile,
And play it in an
Equatorial swamp.
Research assistance: Gabe Heller. See Key
to
Correspondents.
the Fair: It is likely Whitman
refers to a church fair at Trinity Church,
Boston. Such charity fairs, offering donated
crafts and other items for sale, often took place as
the Christmas holiday approached.
Woodrow Wilson ... Bagehot ...
Atlantic: Thomas Woodrow Wilson
(1856-1924) in 18 law and political economy at
Princeton University. He later became
President of the United States (1913-1921). Wilson
Walter Bagehot was "A Literary Politician" Atlantic Monthly 76
(November 1895) pp. 668-80.
Walter Bagehot (1826-1877), an
important influence on Wilson's thought, was a
British journalist and essayist, writing about
government, economics, and literature.
Copeland ... Bessy Costrell:
Mary
Augusta Ward (1851-1920) published The Story of
Bessie Costrell in 1895. See Key
to
Correspondents. Whitman has altered the
spelling of the title.
Probably, Whitman refers to
Charles Townsend Copeland (1860-1952) was a
critic and a professor of English at Harvard
University.
Mrs. Ward ... Sir George Trevelyan:
Mary Augusta Ward (1851-1920) published Sir
George Tressady in 1896; it first appeared as
a serial in Atlantic Monthly, beginning in
1895. Whitman seems to have mistaken the
title. See Key
to
Correspondents.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton
Library of Harvard University. Whitman, Sarah (Wyman)
1842-1904. 92 letters; [1884]-[1903] & [n.d.]
Jewett, Sarah Orne, 1849-1909. Sarah Orne Jewett
additional correspondence, 1868-1930. MS Am 1743.1
-107. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe
College.
Transcription from Letters of Sarah
Wyman
Whitman (1907).
Part of this letter appears on
pp. 85-7.
I fell to work and began
thinking of the winter, a thought I have not hitherto
allowed myself because that way madness lay! But now I
grow bolder and venture to plan somewhat for things to
be. And to think of the Window in a thousand different
ways, a way of thinking through which I must pass
before I decide upon one way. And I have now had
definite talk with the powers at Trinity and there is
no doubt that the Class will be allowed to put its
memorial to Mr. Brooks there, in the triple window
which we have in our own room. So that is for the
immediate future, and I guess not much portrait
painting this year, except that it is never safe to
prophesy! But enough of Shop.
I have been this evening to
dine at Shady Hill with that hot, pulsing and amazing
creature R. Kipling; and he was exceedingly
interesting, real and full of talk. He seemed in fact
like a focus of creative energy, with that dark
imaginative eye behind the glass. I had never seen the
Banjo Song which he recited in a sort of still, molten
way, and which I think the most humane and large word,
albeit couched in the short syllables of a sort of
refrain, he has ever written. It all made me feel very
strangely as I came into town again under a gray sky .
. . . I think Mrs. Ward has given a fresh turn on the
wheel, so far as strength and texture in the fabric of
her work goes. Sir
George Tressady opens with
a stout clutch on her material and firm and easy
movement. It seems a very live world to me to-night,
as you see, my friend; and I am dying for talk and
those things which come with speech and companionship
when one knows there is everything to be said. A hot
silence has some gleams of delight in it, but one is
left rather like a crater thereafter.
But my one word is made of
many syllables and I must reduce it to two and say
good-night.
Shall I not say also God
bless you?
Sarah Orne Jewett to Sarah Wyman Whitman
Saturday afternoon
[ 23 November 1895 ]*
And your letter coming in just as you thought it would
and making me a great pleasure dear. I thought of you
last night so dearly and nearly, and knew you were out
at Shady Hill where I hoped to be but Sally* had told
me to look out for Mr. Kipling,* coming on the
fifteenth when I was in town a while ago and I made my
plans boldly round that hopeful day and therefore got
left as one may say. As for R.K.* he is all that
you say. I have known writers and writers but never
one who was such
[ Page 2 ]
a mountain torrent of power and invention: &
creative as such a torrent is -- getting itself born
out the clouds and rocks. You feel as if Homer* were
born so of the elements -- There is no limit to what
such a man may do in quantity, and as for [ his
corrected
] quality that is born and not made like Stevenson's
for instance with all its Scottish flavor and French [
sun=heather
so written ] & fleur
de lis; heather
honey if you ever ate that out
of a honey pot of burnt clay to your tough bread in
Edinburgh -- and rejoiced like me!! -- One has a kind
of sacred feeling about a man like Kipling young and
^so^ [ alive
corrected ] -- it is so easy for
him to do great things and you have only to read some
[ Page 3 ]
of the poorer [ among
corrected ] his early
Plain Tales* to see how he has grown already.
We are born pretty much as we are
going to continue,
though I dont
know that Kipling seems any greater or more uncommon
than he did when I happened to take a little brown
Calcutta book off an Athenaeum shelf one day, and felt
as if I had found him lost on the road and gave up the
next day to talking about him and then in a week or
two he was in every paper in the known world.
---
Well, he is way up above everybody who is
trying to write stories now, and he gives a cry now
and then from the path where he walks ahead and all
that, and I never had such a talk about stories as I
did one
[ Page 5 ]
day with him. He may play with his wolf brothers for
fun, that young Mowgli* but his heart is a mans heart
and full of all [ he
? ] thought and loved
when he was a child. Did you read the last story that
ever was -- Quiquern in McClure's Magazine?* -----
But all this is a thing to say by
night and we could have made the most of small hours
last night as ever was, we who have things to say to
each other: but never the night to say them. One gets
a habit of missing people at every turn as if they had
died, and means of communication had been somehow
[ Page 6 ]
lost though they live and go their ways under the same
sky. It gets to be that lovely thing {-- } a
friendship of spirit -- but now and then I get
rebellious and fly at Fate angrily and will have no
more of such a world. Either one must get hold of
hands sometime and walk a little way together, or turn
away and say "That used to be and
is, and I
love to think about it but now I must wait until I
come to another and a better world before I can either
have what I want of going on together, or grace enough
to be reconciled to
not having it.*
As for me it grows easier
[ Page 7 ]
to do without things -- One gets more sympathy for
ones friends and less for oneself as she grows older
-- and falls back on Carlyle's cry that the only
happiness one ought to ask for is happiness [ enough
corrected
] to get her
work done.
And this about work [ has
corrected
] never been so near my heart as now = if it were last
night -- and we had been talking together I couldn't
have helped saying things.
= You do not say anything yet about dear [ A.Fs
so
written ] book of verse* and I think you dont
care about it -- I cannot help confessing how much I
care. There are
[ Page 8 ]
some poems like
Still in thy love I trust that
touch me inexpressibly with their beauty and
appealingness{.} I believe that this is true poetry
this of hers -- but not to be easily read in any but
the right mood and not quickly felt by most people --
Her use of conventional phrases and her sometimes
difficult ways of saying simple things -- all this is
hindering to a reader but -- but -- there is the
poetic feeling -- the fresh apprehension { -- }
the
feeling in the line that
is truly the soul of any body of verse -- A man like
Stedman* excellent critic as he is may write well a
letter as he did and praise her as he did and always
has, most delightfully and choose unerringly the best
thing
[ Page 9 ]
and Mr. Aldrich* who knows good verse may say his say
of praise and affection and call it a lovely book --
but I find something deeper still. Thats very natural
you may say; but I do find something of the ^
very^
heat* just as I have seen the best
ones
^[ men
corrected ] and women^* of our time
seem to recognize at once a subtle kinship with
her,
so these verses are of the kind that makes great
verse. It is not like Emily Dickinson* or like the New
School, but ^it is^ the Asphodel, type and spring
flowers instead of the ribbon beds and the nasturtium
colours. Sometimes she makes anything do for a
rhyme instead of leaving it flying in the air as Emily
Dickinson would, both [ of
corrected ] them
have this in common -- of fine boldness that
[
Page 10 ]*
cant stop for such trifles! ----
And I wish that she had
^not^ printed so many but that mustn't make a
fellow blind to uncommon qualities in the best.
The very fullness of heart & life and
feeling that speaks in them is such a warmth
after these pinched and careful bookeys that
come like leaves thick into ones hand and all
seem to say ^whisper^ the same
thing.
But this is too long to talk
about and bookeys of a common year and impulse
always do say the same thing.
Now all winter we may never
speak out -- but there is a comfort in
[
Page 11 ]
knowing what the other fellow thinks. And so I say God
bless you dear and I stop this long letter. Except
that you must remember to have patience with me who
love you very much; patience with impatience, with a [
dullness
corrected ] that grows instead of
brightening -- with most of all a heart that finds its
doors fast shut and cannot get them open some days,
try as it may and beat as it may behind them, -- and
patience when ---------
Well, when a letter gets
too long and tries to
say things
[
Page 12 ]
that cant be said and gets still
longer . . . If we could master our
conditions ^ I mean the difficulty of getting our
work done!^ I wonder if we should be any happier
or if our work would really go on any better, any
better at all! No dear, sometimes I get a gleam of
knowledge that our [ deletion ] only
chance for happiness is [ deletion] in our
conditions and that when they are taken away,
^the^ happiness must go too that belongs to them.
But one sees what one might do and what those one
loves best might do and falls to fretting and
[ Page 13 ]
worrying -- In our conditions we get all the help we
can ever have { -- } I wonder if it is not truly so =
they are like the structure of a lamp and our lives
are the oil that burns -- yes, hindered sometimes but
^to see^ what light they can give in all their
business -- and when we really are talking sometime I
must tell you about that poem of A.F.'s that she calls
The Offering.
Good night dear and now you will
tear this long chapter into nice little pieces and
forget about it. And someday I shall see you and we
must say things then about Dr. James's paper.*
The
denial of the idol is the great phrase{.}
[ Up the left margin and
across the top margin of page 14 ]
I mind what you say about the Window and the Fair.*
Yours with true love
S.O.J.
[ Up the left margin and
across the top margin of page 1 ]
Woodrow Wilson is at Princeton { -- } a young man
& very interesting{.} I dined with him once in
Baltimore. I go to read his Bagehot paper!
Notes
1895: This extraordinary letter responds
to Whitman's of 22/23 November 1895.
At the top of the first page are
several notes, some clearly not in Jewett's
hand. Top right is penciled the date
1896.However, 1895 clearly is the correct year.
Also noted top right is that this
letter is addressed to Whitman.
Finally at the top center are marks
I cannot interpret, looking like "NO ."
Bottom left of this page, penciled
probably in another hand is a circled number 8.
The letter is extraordinary for
several reasons, not merely because it is one of the
longest Jewett is known to have written.
Especially notable are her extravagant praise of
Rudyard Kipling and her passionate defense of Annie
Fields's newly published poetry collection,
The
Singing Shepherd. Both of these features
are discussed below.
Also notable is that Jewett wrote
this letter at the height of her literary power, when
the first installment of her masterpiece,
The
Country of the Pointed Firs, was soon to appear
in
Atlantic Monthly, January 1896. She had
been hard at work on the installments, for though the
second appeared in March 1896, she was out of the
country in January and February on a grueling
Caribbean cruise, with several of her friends,
including Thomas Bailey Aldrich and Annie Fields.
Shady Hill ... Sally: Sara Norton resided with
her family at Shady Hill in Cambridge, MA. Key
to Correspondents.
Kipling: Rudyard Kipling. Key to
Correspondents.
Jewett's awe at Kipling's ability
clearly was stimulated by her personal contacts with
him as well as her reading, but it also is notable
that just a few weeks before this letter, on 16
October 1895, he wrote her a letter praising her new
book
The Life of Nancy, but also complaining
that she had spoiled one story, "A War Debt," by
altering the ending between its publication in
Harper's
Magazine and when she collected it in
The
Life of Nancy. He wrote:
Did you in the War Debt (serial
form) put in those four lines italic at the end:
because I don't remember having seen them and -- I
don't like them. They explain things and I loathe an
explanation. Please cut 'em out in the next edition
and let people guess that he married Mrs Bellamy's
grand daughter.
Jewett followed Kipling's advice, again altering the
ending in the second printing of
The Life of Nancy.
R.K.: Jewett appears to have corrected a
K into the R.
Homer: The Greek poet Homer (c. 7th century
B.C.)
Stevenson's: Scottish author, Robert Louis
Stevenson (1850-1894).
Plain Tales: Kipling's
Plain Tales
from the Hills (1888).
Mowgli: A character in Kipling's two books:
The
Jungle Book (1894) and
The Second Jungle
Book (1895).
Quiquern in McClure's Magazine: Kipling's story
appeared in
McClure's in November 1895.
"That: Jewett seems clearly to have
opened the quotation here, though she does not close
it.
it: At the bottom left of this page,
penciled, probably in another hand, after this word is
the circled number 8.
Carlyle's cry: Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881)
expresses this general idea in several of his works,
including 'Characteristics' (1831) and
Sartor
Resartus (1833). The passage to which Jewett
refers is most likely
Past and Present (1843),
p. 110.
book of verse: Annie Adams Fields,
The
Singing Shepherd (1895). Key to Correspondents.
Both poems Jewett mentions are from
that volume, and both deal with enduring
separation.
Jewett's defense of Fields's book
is unprecedented in her correspondence. It is
somewhat odd that she thinks Whitman may not like the
book, as she seems to have no evidence of this except
for Whitman's silence. Yet she undertakes a
passionate defense. This merits more discussion than I
can undertake in these notes, but I will lay out some
of what seems relevant to this passage.
Jewett mentions only the laudatory
responses by letter of Stedman and Aldrich, which she
seems to have found inadequate. Unfortunately,
Stedman and Aldrich's letters have not yet been found.
Perhaps Jewett also was upset by
the silence of print reviewers. Probably she had
seen no published reviews of
The Singing Shepherd,
though at least two appeared soon after in
The
Congregationalist and
The Literary World.
While it's not very likely Jewett saw them before this
letter, they probably illustrate in part what she says
here.
Mrs. James T. Fields is one of the poets
who, although always in sympathy with what is
cheerful, nevertheless by preference sings in
strains prompted by her grave moods. A poet of the
meditative school, her verses have serious meanings
and repay pondering.... [H]er most recent collection
illustrates both her easy rule over metrical forms
and her occasional independence of them, and it
especially appeals to the deeper nature of the
reader. Congregationalist (28 November
1895, p. 847).
Mrs. James T. Fields's
volume ... has much that is beautiful in it, but its
cheerful title is most inappropriate; it would have
been far more aptly named ""The Valley of the Shadow
of Death." Many of her poems are in memory of those
who fell in the Civil War. Mrs. Fields has a
delicate melody which is unfailing, and if her
choice of words is not brilliantly successful, it is
never either jarring or commonplace. One of
her most charming poems, "Winter Lilacs," is too
long to quote, but an excellent example of her range
and style is shown in "A Dream in May:" . ...
"The Garden of Fame" is also a poem worth reading
and remembering. On the whole Mrs. Fields's poems
are decidedly above the average, and the volume will
be an acquisition to those lovers of poetry who can
value the minor as well as the major poets. The
Literary World (27 December 1895, p. 476)
It may be guessed that Aldrich and Stedman also saw
Fields as a "minor" poet and, perhaps, betrayed this
in their letters, which were likely to be expressions
of friendship as much of high praise for her art.
Jewett's defense seems to concede this point, and what
she has read into Whitman's silence may be Jewett's
own considered evaluation. That is, Jewett may respond
to her sense of the book's weaknesses by making a
passionate argument that Fields's very best poems are
not minor, even though much of her work may be.
The weaknesses she concedes are several and telling:
- successful reading requires the "right
mood" and sensitivities most readers lack,
- she can be too conventional and too obscure,
- she is old fashioned, unlike Emily Dickinson and
the New School,
- she included too many poems, not being well able
to select only her very best,
- she works too hard to manage her rhymes.
Also remarkable in this defense is
Jewett's frankness. Would she have said these
things to Fields herself? Unfortunately for
21st-century readers, even though there is evidence
that Jewett and Fields sometimes sent each other
copies of poems they were working on, virtually all of
what Jewett said to Fields about her poetry occurred
in their private conversations. One may imagine
Jewett encouraging Fields to include fewer poems in
this collection and that she made suggestions about
diction, rhymes, and clarifying obscurities in some of
the poems. But what she actually said is hidden, and
so it remains difficult to imagine that Jewett would
have enumerated for Fields the list of weaknesses she
presents to Whitman.
Jewett's frankness is illuminating,
especially with regard to the relationship between
Jewett and Whitman. In
Sarah Orne Jewett
(1994), Paula Blanchard says that the friendship
between Jewett and Whitman was second only in
importance to that between Jewett and Fields (pp.
217-20). Blanchard notes the similar intense
engagement with each other, the expressions of love
and intimacy in their correspondence, their
participation in each other's art. All of these
features are visible in this letter, but especially
apparent is the mutual trust that leads Jewett to
confide in Whitman judgments of her beloved Fields
that she knows Whitman will not repeat.
Stedman: Edmund Clarence Stedman. Key to
Correspondents. His
An American Anthology,
1787-1900 (1900), included 5 poems each by
Fields and by Emily Dickinson. Of course, Jewett
had not yet seen this volume.
Aldrich: Thomas Bailey Aldrich. Key
to Correspondents.
heat: This is fairly clearly what Jewett
wrote, but it is a somewhat puzzling word choice at
this point. Perhaps she meant "heart"?
and women: It appears that in this
insertion, Jewett started out to write just "women"
and changed the first "w" to an "m." Also, this
insertion appears to be in pencil, suggesting that it
was added later.
Emily Dickinson: American poet, Emily Dickinson
(1830-1886). The first volume of Dickinson's
poems was published in 1890. Three collections
appeared between 1890 and 1896. Wikipedia.
Page 10: Penciled in the bottom left
corner of this page is the circled number 8.
Dr. James's paper: Jewett refers to an
essay by William James. Key to Correspondents.
"The denial of the idol" appears in
his essay, "Is Life Worth Living? An Address to the
Harvard Young Men’s Christian Association." It
appeared in the
International Journal of Ethics,
(October, 1895). The essay as a whole is
directly relevant to this letter, the passage she
quotes especially so:
Now, to make an idol of the spirit of
nature, and worship it, also leads to
sophistication; and in souls that are religious and
would also be scientific the sophistication breeds a
philosophical melancholy, from which the first
natural step of escape is the denial of the idol;
and with the downfall of the idol, whatever lack of
positive joyousness may remain, there comes also the
downfall of the whimpering and cowering mood.
(Section 3)
Window and the Fair: Jewett probably refers to
the Brimmer window, destined for the transept of
Memorial Hall at Harvard University, for which Whitman
received the commission in 1895.
Whitman speaks of the fair in her
23 November letter. It is likely she refers to a
church fair at Trinity Church, Boston. Such
charity fairs, offering donated crafts and other items
for sale, often took place as the Christmas holiday
approached.
Wilson: American academic and politician,
Woodrow Wilson (1856-1924) was United States President
(1913-1921). He published more than one article
on British author Walter Bagehot (1826-1877). Jewett
probably refers to "A Literary Politician," which
appeared in the November 1895
Atlantic Monthly.
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 Wyman Whitman to Sarah Orne Jewett
[
December 1895-1897 ]*
Dear, in loves stupid way a note I began to you at
Berwick did not get itself finished [
two
unrecognized words ], & this goes just
to say that that [ check
? ] is hereby
acknowledged but not accepted -- (a matter which
must be adjusted with the living voice -- ) &
that the Fair meantime [ looks
? ] for you
to arrive
[ Page 2 ]
just as early on Thursday as your dear works &
ways will allow. It opens at 11 a.m. &
Coolidge* is an Awful Engine at these [
unrecognized
word ] & makes the unwary buy
pincushions in a way I -- having the [ worse
?
] of a commercial capacity -- could never dream.
But I could give you a
sandwich there: & love you pretty well. Tell
the dear Lady* that the bough shall be my Xmas
piece: & I bless her for it.
Thine
_Sw_
Notes
December 1895-1897: This date range is
speculative. Whitman was involved in organizing
a fund-raising fair at Trinity Church (Episcopal) in
Boston each year before Christmas for much of her
adult life. There are other letters from this
period in which Whitman writes to Jewett about this
fair.
Coolidge: Probably Coolidge is Sarah Chauncey
Woolsey, who wrote under the name Susan Coolidge.
However this is problematic because Whitman also was
well-acquainted with Katherine Scollay Parkman
Coolidge. The problem arises because Whitman
refers often to seeing "Coolidge" and "Old Coolidge"
in letters from after Katherine Coolidge's death in
February 1900. See
Key
to
Correspondents.
Lady: Annie Adams Fields. See
Key
to
Correspondents.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton
Library of Harvard University. Whitman, Sarah (Wyman)
1842-1904. 92 letters; [1884]-[1903] & [n.d.]
Jewett, Sarah Orne, 1849-1909. Sarah Orne Jewett
additional correspondence, 1868-1930. MS Am 1743.1
-107. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe
College.
Annie Adams Fields to Thomas Bailey Aldrich
148 Charles St. Boston
Tuesday Eveg
[ November 1895 ]*
My dear friend;
Sarah* has gone
today, but we had a brief period when we could sit,
each, with a dear little book in separate corners and
read out, at times, our favorites. "Andromeda" "Imp of
Dreams" "I vex me not";* Ah me! Why should I write a
catalogue? They are all melodious and beautiful
strings -- various, though of the same instrument.
By the way, Mr. Stedman* sent me a
long note yesterday.
[ Page 2 ]
I am glad you could send him such a sustaining letter
about his anthology: it must have warmed the cockles
of his heart.
Thank you from us both for the
enchanting volumes -- (no, "book=a=tees")
Affectionately yours
and Lilian's*
Annie Fields.
Notes
1895: This date in brackets appears in another
hand. As indicated in the notes below, this almost
certainly is correct.
Sarah: Sarah Orne Jewett. See
Key to Correspondents.
vex me not: Aldrich's poems appear in two
books.
"Andromeda" and "A Serenade" that
opens, "Imp of Dreams," are in
Unguarded Gates
(1895).
His sonnet, "I vex me not with
brooding on the years" appears in
The Sister's
Tragedy (1891).
As Fields reports she and Sarah Orne Jewett have been
reading two "little books," it seems likely that they
were looking at these titles rather than at later
larger collections, like
Later Lyric (1896).
Stedman: Edmund Clarence Stedman, editor
of the
Victorian Anthology (1895). See
Key to Correspondents.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton
Library of Harvard University: MS Am 1429, Box 6,
Items 1446-1538. Transcription and notes by Terry
Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Annie Adams Fields
[
1895 ]*
[ A fragment with missing
material at the beginning ]
( you may know about her going on -- dear Sally,*
how I should love to see her! but I am afraid she
is too busy to think of a little visit.))
= I have now taken to reading
Mr. Pepys* and find him very charming but so busy
in the first volume with the King's return* that I
shall be glad to get to where there are more
reports of his new clothes and cheerful
companions. I wavered between him & Boswell's
Johnson* and I am by no means sure that [ Mr
corrected ] Pepys has finally won the day.
But they was great folks to read about, and one as
good
[ Page 2 ]
as the other in being terrible interesting.
- ( I am just slipping these one
cent stamps into the envelope for you to put [
deleted
word ] on the pamphlets &c which have to be
remailed. They wont
send ^remail^
"second class matter" without a second-postage as they
will letters and I get cards from the postmaster that
there is something waiting -- you tell Cassie* about
it. Sometimes they kindly stamp it
1 cent
due & send it along: I should think they
might all the time.
Good night dear
with ever so much love from
Pinny*
Notes
1895: This date is a guess, based upon
"Cassie" first being named as probably a cook for
Annie Fields in a letter of 1895.
Parenthesis marks in this
manuscript were penciled by Fields.
Sally: Probably this is Sara Norton. See
Key
to
Correspondents.
Mr. Pepys:
Samuel Pepys (1633-1703) was
British civil servant and Member of Parliament, best
remembered for his diary of 1660-1690, covering quite
eventful years in England.
King's return:
Charles II became King of
England after eleven years during which England was
without a king after the execution of his father,
Charles I in 1649.
Boswell's Johnson:
James Boswell (1740-1795) is
most famous as the Scottish biographer of British
author,
Samuel Johnson (1709-1784).
Pinny: Pinny Lawson (Pinny / Pin) was an
affectionate nickname for Jewett, used by her and
Annie Fields. See
Key
to
Correspondents.
Cassie: Presumably a Fields employee,
possibly a cook, as suggested in a letter to Carrie
Jewett Eastman of 8 September 1895. No further
identification has been found.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton
Library of Harvard University. Jewett, Sarah Orne,
1849-1909. Annie Fields (Adams) 1834-1915, recipient.
194 letters; 1877-1909 & [n.d.] Sarah Orne Jewett
correspondence, 1861-1930. MS Am 1743 (255).
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Frederick Mercer Hopkins
[ Begin letterhead ]
South Berwick, Maine [ End letterhead ] 27
Novr [ 1895 ]
My dear Sir
It seems to me that anyone who knew
Mrs. Thaxter* or who reads the book of her
Letters*
could not fail to see that the Editors told what there
was to tell in regard to her character and the way she
grew & came to be herself. The idea of the
Editors having 'suppressed' any material is absurd,
except so far as they
[ Page 2 ]
exercised their taste and discretion in not including
personalities that involved the concerns of
others. Mrs. Thaxter was never what one would
call a student in the common acceptance of the word
and her literary work was done with singular swiftness
and definiteness of thought and touch. She was
always busy, and full of eager interest in what went
on about her; her knowledge of the books she liked
best
[ Page 3 ]
was very clear and quite at her command. I think
that she found any long piece of writing very
difficult -- The ^Among^ Isles of the Shoals volume*
which was done at first for The Atlantic perhaps less
so than any -- but she did little of prose writing
which was so remarkably beautiful. I believe
that Among the Isles of the Shoals will live as Whites
Selbourne* has lived and always find its
lovers{.} It seems to have
[ Page 4 ]
many of the same qualities.
The book of Children's prose and
verse which I have just edited* has the same
delightful qualities --
In haste
Yours very truly
S. O. Jewett.
To
F. M. Hopkins Esq
r
You will have admired Mrs. Fields's* exquisite preface
to the letters I am sure. It is most just and so
beautifully written, with both frankness &
reticence!
Notes
1895: Rosamond Thaxter places this in
1895 or 1896, but 1895 is the more likely date, as
both Thaxter's letters and the edition of Thaxter's
work for children were published that year..
Thaxter ... Letters:
Letters
of Celia Thaxter, edited by Annie Fields and
Rose Lamb, appeared in 1895.
Among the Isles of the Shoals: Thaxter's book
appeared in 1878.
White's Selborne:
Gilbert White (1720-1793),
though a fellow at Oriel College, Oxford, lived most
of his life at Selbourne, in England, as a curate,
where he could follow his avocations of naturalist and
writer. His correspondence with Daines Barrington grew
into the Natural History and Antiquities of Selbourne
(1788).
prose and verse: Jewett's edition of Thaxter's
Stories and Poems for Children appeared in
1895.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Small
Library, University of Virginia, Special Collections
MSS 6218, Sarah Orne Jewett Papers. A typescript
transcription is held by the Portsmouth Athenaeum
MS129, Rosamond Thaxter's Papers for
Sandpiper,
Folder 12: Correspondence: Celia Thaxter to Sarah Orne
Jewett, 1888-1893. Edited and annotated by Terry
Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Mr. J. S. Lee
[ Begin letterhead ]
South Berwick, Maine
[ End letterhead; date to the right of
letterhead ]
4 Decr
1895
Dear Sir
I
suppose
that
you
mean
by
'an
autograph fiend' a person who [ troubles
corrected
] a busy person unnecessarily -- for his own profit. I
must say that, since there are dealers in autographs
in all our large cities who can supply specimens of
writing at small cost, I believe
[ Page 2 ]
that it is much more considerate, not to say
dignified, for collectors to deal with them directly.
Letters
are
like
questions
which
one
delights
^to answer^ if they show real interest and hates if
they are simply urged by curiosity; I am afraid
[ Page 3 ]
that I must confess to a belief that most
requests for autographs come under the latter ignoble
heading. Certainly the time taken up in asking
for them and in replying on the author's part does not
seem very well spent ^on either side^ -- and you would
do well in your paper to remind young people to think
seriously what it means to gather a
[ Page 4 ]
collection of autographs from strangers: whether
they should think it quite courteous to ask for time
^& trouble^, or their equivalent, on any other
grounds.*
In haste yours very truly
S.
O. Jewett
For
Mr.
J.
S.
Lee
Notes
your paper ... other grounds: Apparently,
Mr. Lee indicated to Jewett that he was preparing a
paper to be published in an outlet for young
people. Whether such a piece was published is
uncertain. However, nine years later, revised
portions of this letter appeared in "
Confessions
of
an
Autographomaniac," in
The
Independent (New York) 55 (26 May 1904)
pp. 1195-8. The by-line for this piece is "The
Maniac," but he suggests in the article that his first
name is Jonathan. This is not the sort of piece
Jewett recommended that he write, for the Maniac
glories in his success at provoking interesting
responses from his correspondents. He disguises
Jewett's gender and makes other changes to the text we
have in the manuscript:
One of our foremost
novelists generously gave me his opinion of
autograph collectors. I was delighted to receive the
letter, for I did not expect more than a signature:
Dear Sir: You are one of those
who trouble a busy person unnecessarily. I must say
that since there are dealers in autographs in all
large cities who can supply specimens of writing at
small cost, I believe it is much more considerate,
not to say dignified, for collectors to deal with
them directly, Letters are like questions, which one
delights to answer if they show real interest, and
hates if they are simply urged by curiosity. I am
afraid that I must confess to a belief that your
request for an autograph comes under the latter
ignoble heading. Certainly the time taken up in
asking for it and in replying on my part does not
seem very well spent on either side; and I would
remind you and others to think seriously what it
means to gather a collection of autographs. Go and
sin no more. (1196)
Notes from two other readers
filed with the ms. at MWWC.
The unknown first transcriber added these typed
notes.
"Most Requests for Autographs
Come Under the...Ignoble Heading"
Jewett, Sarah Orne.
Autograph Letter Signed.
South Berwick, Maine, 4 Dec. 1895.
Autograph letter signed to Mr. Joseph Lee, 6 x 3-7/8",
four pages (approx. 185 words), on white stationery
engraved "South Berwick, Maine," folded quarto with
traces of glue at left margin, not affecting text,
very good.
A direct, often caustic letter on the subject of
autographs and autograph seekers. Jewett launches her
letter with "Dear Sir, I suppose that you mean by 'an
autograph friend'* a person who troubles a busy person
unnecessarily -- for his own profit." She suggests it
is both "more considerate, not to say dignified" for
collectors to deal with autograph dealers. "Letters
are like questions which one delights to answer if
they show real interest and hates if they are simply
urged by curiosity..." Jewett's impatience continues
unabated as she ends the letter by asking rhetorically
"whether [young autograph collectors] should think it
quite courteous to ask for time & trouble, or
their equivalent, on any other grounds." She signs "in
haste" and in fact the interjections at various points
suggest Jewett did write the letter rapidly and with
an unusual degree of emotion.
And Jewett was very busy in December of 1895. She had
just seen through press THE LIFE OF NANCY, a
collection of poems and stories for children by her
friend Celia Thaxter, a short story for the Bachellor
Syndicate and had before her in 1896 a book of
Thaxter's poetry and her own masterpiece, THE COUNTRY
OF THE POINTED FIRS. She had been a published author
for nearly thirty years; and while autograph seekers
for the very popular Victorian pass-time of autograph
albums with their specimen signatures and sentiments
may have been flattering once, now they were a
distracting intrusion. Perhaps a less pressured Jewett
would have softened the warmth of her response. As it
is, this is a remarkable letter with the writer
allowing herself a rare display of impatience, even
anger, yet with a characteristic grace of phrase and
language.
This note was appended by hand in July 2000.
*looks like “fiend” rather than “friend” to me –
(added by
Kent Bicknell, 7/2000).
Editor's note: I agree with KB that in
her opening sentence Jewett wrote "autograph fiend"
rather than "autograph friend," which was the
rendering in the earlier transcription.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the
University of New England Maine Women Writers
Collection, Sarah Orne Jewett Correspondence Box 2
Folder 134.
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe
College.