Jewett Texts

[4]

fresh so that we could wear thicker clothes again.

One day at the hotel someone [ written over she?] came up to me and said that she knew my friend Miss Mary Longfellow of Portland and had seen you, Mary, at Aunt [Helen's ?],* as their Miss Crain of Portland -- who has come down to spend the winter. I have seen her several times since and so has A. F. and we find her pleasant to talk to and very knowing about Nassau things. She says she knows Jane Sewell too, so you must tell Jennie that I've seen her. I must see her tomorrow when we expect to go ashore for a last [send ?] up and down Bay Street. Today we went to church at the Cathedral, all but T. B. -- whom we pulled up by the roots toward evening and took for a walk on land. The church was quite big and grand with a lot of mural tablets and black and white pews mixed all together. There were two clergymen with

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[Cambridge ?] hoods* who looked delicate as if they had come out for their

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health and there was good singing and a proper sermon. The black troops in the garrison were marched in just before us in fine uniforms of white and red. You ought to have seen Bridget going in alone an hour before we did

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to mass, with the rowers and the Capin steering her!* I have had

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a very nice time in Nassau and I hope we shall come back again. Ever

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so much love to all   Your Sarah.

Notes

fishballs: A New England Recipes web page says: "The American Frugal Housewife published in Boston in 1833 has the earliest recipe for fish and mashed potatoes. 'There is no way of preparing salt fish for breakfast, so nice as to roll it up in little balls, after it is mixed with mashed potatoes; dip it into an egg, and fry it brown.' Fish balls were synonymous with New England Sunday breakfast. However, not all cooks served it at Sunday breakfast."

San Salvador ... Mr. Pierce: San Salvador Island is a district of the Bahamas. The island would be on the route to Jamaica, the next main stop Mr. Henry Lillie Pierce (1825-1896), owner of the Hermione, has planned. Pierce also was owner of the Baker Chocolate Company.

Mr. Midshipman Easy: Wikipedia says: "Mr. Midshipman Easy is an 1836 novel by Frederick Marryat, a retired captain in the Royal Navy. The novel is set during the Napoleonic Wars, in which Marryat himself served with distinction."

Lilian ... rottens: Along with Pierce, the touring party on the Hermione included Thomas Bailey Aldrich, his wife Lilian, and their Irish servant, Bridget, as well as Sarah Orne Jewett and Annie Adams Fields. If the word Jewett wrote is, indeed, "rottens," it is difficult to know quite what Lilian meant by fearing they would board the yacht via the cables were they to tie up to the dock. Perhaps she feared rats, but more likely criminals.

the schooner Nathan K. Cobb of Rockland: Probably Jewett meant the Nathan F. Cobb, of which Wikipedia says: "The Nathan F. Cobb was a three-masted schooner named after the shipbuilder and founder of Cobb’s Salvaging Company whose many rescues of stranded ships helped lead to the formation of the United States Life-Saving Service. Despite its namesake's history of shipwreck rescues, the Nathan F. Cobb capsized in heavy seas on 1 December 1896 en route from Brunswick, Georgia to New York with a cargo of timber and cross ties.... The Nathan F. Cobb of Rockland, Maine was a three-masted, square rigged schooner constructed in 1890...." Cobb (b. 1797) came from Eastham, Massachusetts on Cape Cod.

tackle and fall: A system of pulleys and ropes for lifting and lowering heavy objects.

Capins wife: The names of the captain and crew members of the Nathan F. Cobb are not yet known.

Grantstown: Grants Town was a village south of Nassau.

chaffering: Bargaining.

Miss Mary Longfellow of Portland ... Aunt [Helen's ?] ... as their Miss Crain of Portland ... A. F. ... Jane Sewell ... tell Jennie that I've seen her: Richard Cary says "Alice Mary Longfellow (1850-1928), daughter of the poet, was a friend of long standing. Jewett often visited with her in the summer at Mouse Island in Boothbay Harbor, Maine, where Miss Longfellow annually filled in the season with a vigorous regime of walking, rowing, and sailing."
    Helen Gilman was Jewett's much admired great-aunt. See Key to Correspondents.    Miss Crain of Portland has not been identified. It is possible that she has married since meeting Mary in Portland, but Jewett seems unclear about this.
    A. F. is Annie Fields.
    Jane Sewell, according to The Placenames of South Berwick (75), was a resident of South Berwick, ME and, therefore, a neighbor of the Jewett family.
    Jennie also is unidentified, but it is possible that she is Jane Sewell, and that Jewett wishes to convey a greeting to her.

Bay Street: A main thoroughfare along the north coast of Nassau, facing Paradise Island.

the Cathedral ... T. B. ... mural tablets and black and white pews mixed all together ... two clergymen ...[Cambridge ?] hoods: See Field's Diary of a West Indian Island Tour for her account of Nassau. The English Church in Nassau would have been Christ Church Cathedral. The church's website notes that no one is buried in the cathedral, that the inscriptions are plaques rather than markers.
    T. B. is Thomas Bailey Aldrich.
    It is uncertain what Jewett means by noting that "black and white pews" were mixed all together. Perhaps she means that, unlike in many churches she would attend outside New England, black and white people were integrated in the congregation. If so, it also is unclear to what degree they were integrated. Was each pew occupied only by people of one color? Or were whites and people of color free to sit wherever they chose? In her 2 February letter from Mandeville, Jamaica, Jewett says that church there was much like in Yorkshire, except for "all the decent black people scattered in."
    The identities of the presiding clergy are uncertain. The Right Reverend Edward Townson Churton, educated at Oxford, was Bishop at Nassau 1886-1900.
    The clergy wearing Cambridge hoods, if Jewett's description is precise, would indicate that they were graduates of Cambridge university and that they wore their academic hoods with their gowns during worship.

Bridget ... mass: The Aldriches brought with them, Bridget, an Irish Catholic, as a maid and general servant. The names of the crew of the Hermione also remain unknown.

The manuscript of this letter is held in the archive of Historic New England, Jewett Family Papers, MS014.02.01. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.

Sarah Orne Jewett to sisters, Carrie Jewett Eastman & Mary Rice Jewett

[Begin letterhead]

Steam Yacht Hermione

[End letterhead]

Port au Prince Hayti
25 Jan^y 1896

Dear Sisters,

I was sorry that I sent such a poor letter from Inagua* but there seemed to be scant time to do that and take it ashore [but written over another word] I found out afterward that I need not have hurried. You will now get further particulars with a one legged pen* of A. F.'s and hear that we were much interested with poor Inagua which seemed to have neither 'taters nor poor [ rabbit ? ] either! There had been a great enterprise of salt-making two or three square miles of flats all dyked and put in working order with salt houses and wheels and dams & channels and after they had made good salt a while like Turk's Island* there came a great cloudburst and all the mud, red and

[2]

sticky-looking worked up through, and the whole thing was left to go to ruin. The Consul's father was one of the men ^but died long ago^ and he and his old [unrecognized word] mother and the children have lived on but the little town went to pieces like the salt works because every body went away, and there lies Inagua in the hot sun low and hungry looking. [deleted word] All the little scrub oaks and things were quite forlorn ^looking^ ~~beside~~ ^after^ Nassau which was as bushy as Ireland. We had a nice long drive (though pretty hot and glaring) across the great salt plain where we saw snipe* feeding, and best of all, the most splendid flock of flamingos off on the flats, as bright as geranium flowers at that distance and the Consul said that they were tall enough to touch the top of his head with their beaks. I wish that Stubby* could have seen & shot one. I tried

[3]

to see if I could get an egg to bring him for his collection, [but written over another word] I couldn't. There must have been two or three hundred of them. We had the Consul & his mother & sister to dinner, and in the night we set sail over a rough piece of sea. From Inagua we could just see the mountains of Cuba, but I suppose that is all we are likely to see, and we turned south toward Haity [sic] and got into the most lovely bay among the mountains,* at sunrise -- with a queer little town like a geography picture -- high mountains behind and a long row of cocoa palms. The Republic of Hayti presently came off in a boat -- a number of persons who were dignitaries of that port the chief among them being a old black person like Charles [Tash ? ]* with a silk hat much too large for him so that it went down over his shoulders like a cape. Mr. Pierce and I were on the upper deck and I hopped up to see the boat

[4]

load thinking that they wanted to sell conch shells & things and my eye met this scene of splendor & I got Mr. Pierce and I thought he never would stop laughing: dont you know how Uncle William* would laugh sometimes until he cried? It had its affecting side too, but of all the majesty I ever saw! and that great hat! We stayed there all day but didn't go ashore. The Captain went off in a little boat and shot a pelican, and brought him aboard to our great interest. We saw them flying and fishing all down the shore and it was a great pleasure, nice picture-book pelicans, Carrie and Mary!
[Deleted word] Your sister tried to draw a little one but could not stop.... There was another big yacht in the bay & we left it there. We had our dinner and then went up on the Captain's bridge and stayed until bedtime. It was a lovely night perfectly quiet and still, and we sailed at nine o'clock and got here at seven this morning. The mountains are beautiful and the harbor full of shipping. There is a big steamer unloading

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pelters* that kick and swing in the air. Mary would know them all again and some behave so well poor things.

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A. F. who has been rather upset and poorly of late, is nicely this morning and in great feather. Mr. Pierce says we shall go ashore a week in Jamaica & go up among the mountains & stay

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perhaps. Lillian [spelling varies] who is much sicker than anybody is also well

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again.* And I have not been very badly off except that first day. Now we are away from that

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great Atlantic swell that knocks us about we shall be more comfortable.

Notes

Inagua: Inagua is the southernmost part of the Bahamas, consisting of two islands: Great Inagua and Little Inagua.

one legged pen of A. F.'s: A. F. is Annie Fields. The phrase "one legged pen" occurs several times in documents available on the Internet, but what distinguishes it from any other pen is not clear. The phrase does not appear in the Oxford English Dictionary. Examining the image of the manuscript shows no obvious difference between this and other letters Jewett mailed from the Hermione. Perhaps the phrase refers to the writer rather than the pen?

enterprise of salt-making ... like Turk's Island: See Fields "Diary of a West Indian Islands Tour" entry for January 24, for her account of visiting the salt works at Inagua. Though the production of sea salt on Inagua had failed by 1896, the Morton Salt Company now provides Inagua's main industry, with a large solar salt operation. The Turks & Caicos Islands had long been a source of salt in the Caribbean, from the 1600s to the present.

snipe ... flock of flamingos: Snipes are small wading birds, of which there are many varieties. Wikipedia says of Inagua: "There is a large bird sanctuary in the centre of the island with a population of more than 80,000 West Indian flamingoes and many other bird species....

Stubby: Theodore (Stubby) Jewett Eastman is Carrie's son, Jewett's nephew. See Key to Correspondents.

lovely bay among the mountains: According to Fields's diary, this bay was at Môle-Saint-Nicolas, on the northwest coast of Haiti. Wikipedia says: "Christopher Columbus' first voyage to the Americas landed at the site of what is now Môle-Saint-Nicolas on December 6, 1492. The town received its present name after France gained control of the western part of Hispaniola in 1697." Wikipedia notes that the French began to occupy the area beginning in 1625.

old black person like Charles [Tash ? ]: The identify of Charles Tash is unknown.

Uncle William: Jewett's Uncle William Jewett died in 1887.

pelters: This word occurs several times in Jewett's writings, and its meanings often are elusive. She seems here to refer to animals with pelts, but it is hard to imagine a ship-load of live, fur-bearing animals arriving in a Caribbean port. Could she refer to sheep?

Lilian: The Hermione's party consisted of: Jewett, Annie Fields (A.F.), Thomas Bailey (T.B.A.) and Lilian Aldrich and their servant, Bridget, and the yacht owner and host, Henry Lillie Pierce. See Key to Correspondents.

The manuscript of this letter is held in the archive of Historic New England, Jewett Family Papers, MS014.02.01. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.

Sarah Orne Jewett to Louisa Loring Dresel

     Steam Yacht Hermione, Kingston, Jamaica, January 30, 1896*

     Dear Loulie, -- I was so glad to get your letter today, and so was Mrs. Fields.* We are having a very much better time as we go on, for A. F. is better and I, too, and I find Jamaica a most enchantingly beautiful country. My fellow travellers say that Ceylon* is not a bit more beautiful. We have been a week in Nassau, where I wrote you, and then came down through the Bahamas, stopping only at Inagua, a strange lonely island which I must tell you about some day, with its wild marshes and a huge flock of flamingos, like all your best red paints spilt on the shining mud. There had once been square miles of salt works which were ruined by a tornado, and now the flamingos blow about there like flames. Then we went to Hayti, which was oh, so funny with its pomp of darkeys. Port au Prince was quite an awful scene of thriftlessness and silly pretense* -- but one or two little Haytian harbours and the high green coast were most lovely. And then Jamaica, with all its new trees and flowers, and its coolies, Loulie! with their bangles and turbans and strange eyes. You would like Jamaica immensely.

     Your news of the bicycle is very entertaining. you will be cutting by a slow-footed friend any day after I get back. I think it is so good for you, -- one needs a serious reason for getting out of doors sometimes, and a bicycle is a very serious reason indeed. The roads are so fine here, winding and looping along the sides of the hills as they do in Switzerland, -- fine English-made roads, -- and you look up to the great mountains, and down to the blue sea.

     I am writing in a hurry to catch a mail, and I send ever so much love to you and to dear Mrs. Dresel, and I know A. F. sends her love too.

     You will find this an old date, dear Loulie, but the letter was overlooked when our last mail was sent ashore, and there hasn't been one since, this being the 19th of February! We are on our way to Nassau now, expecting to reach there in a few days. We got into a port way down in Porto Rico, and after they had collected all the fees they told us if we went on to St. Thomas (where all our letters were!), or to any of the Windward Islands upon which our hearts were set, we should have to go through a long quarantine!* So we turned meekly around and came back all our long way, but we have seen a good many islands and many rough seas and I feel more resigned now than I did at first. We are sure to be at home in two or three weeks now if all goes well. I think this is a more important postscript than letter!

Notes

1896: Fields dates this letter in 1899, but clearly it refers to their 1896 Caribbean tour on the Hermione.

Mrs. Fields: Annie Adams Fields. See Key to Correspondents.

Ceylon: In 1894-5, Thomas Bailey and Lilian Aldrich traveled to the far east, visiting Ceylon (Sri Lanka) along with Japan, China, India and Egypt. See The Life of Thomas Bailey Aldrich, Chapter 7, "Indian Summer Days."

pretense: Annie Fields observes, in her journal of the 1896 Caribbean tour, that she found Port au Prince perhaps the most "strangely barbarian place ... on the face of the earth!" She goes on to offer the opinion that after years of occupation by Spanish, English and French colonialists, the Africans of Haiti are more degraded than those found in the "wilds of Africa." Fields does not describe what exactly provoked her reaction, as it does not appear that any of their party went ashore in Port au Prince. See her entry for Friday 24 through Monday 27 January. In her journal, Fields frequently recurs to this event as defining the darkest episode of the tour, the most challenging to her views about the progress of human history. In this letter, Jewett seems to react more moderately, though still quite judgmentally.

long quarantine: Fields explains in her journal that as a result touching shore in Mayaguez, Puerto Rico, because there had been at least one case of yellow fever on the island, they would have to wait in the St. Thomas harbor for 10 days before they could go ashore there or in any of the Windward Islands. Rather than wait so long and possibly increase their liability of exposure, they elected to return to San Domingo.

This letter appears in Annie Fields, Letters of Sarah Orne Jewett (1911), Transcribed by Annie Adams Fields, with notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.

Sarah Orne Jewett to sisters, Carrie Jewett Eastman & Mary Rice Jewett

Mandeville, Jamaica*
2nd February [1896]

[Begin letterhead]

Steam Yacht Hermione

[End letterhead]

Dear Mary & Carrie

We came up to this pretty old fashioned English village high enough among the mountains to be cool -- to spend Sunday and you can't think how nice it is! We miss some of the luxuries of the yacht to be sure but I cant say I regret them so much as to make me suffer though I never did sleep in a bed that felt more like plain wicker work than this one last night. We went to a hotel six miles from Kingston and spent Friday night for they were going to paint the hurricane deck and do some other jobs and mending of the Hermione, and the harbor of Kingston

[2]

is neither the coolest nor the most fragrant. So we spent the night at the Constant Spring Hotel where there is a view of both mountains & sea and found it a great rambling dull barrack in itself but pretty comfortable.* Yesterday we drove to Castleton gardens (one of the Government Botanical gardens)* and started at seven for the 13 miles which we enjoyed going up ) [sic] very much, it was so shady and cool. The gardens don't interest me half as much as those at Bath though I did see a mahogany tree and send you some leaves. It isn't half as handsome as it ought to be! when we think of its dignity. We drove back to Kingston after lunch and meant to go to Spanish Town* where the old Spanish & other government buildings are, to spend last night and then come on up here, but we found

[3]

it was low & hot like Kingston, so we made a bold [wish ? ] and a sudden change and come on fifty miles by rail, in a first class English "carriage" and drove up the mountains ten miles more which made us [147 ?] miles ^ [drive ?] ^ in all and wicker beds didn't matter! The air is delicious -- so cool and lovely & fresh. A. F. & Mr. Pierce* & I went to church this morning and you would certainly have thought you were in some old church in Yorkshire, if it had not been for all the decent black people scattered in. The Church tower is square & low with a clock and a funny bell, it ought to be a little peal and you would say it was certainly England with its church-yard & rector and two or three clergymen.
One thing we have had new here is bread fruit.* It is very good and,

[4]

now I believe I have had every thing the Swiss Family Robinson* did but the cassowary.* Wasn't that the nutritious bird they shot? After church we could see the people going home through the fields in little companies to eat their Sunday dinners. I don't know what they have but always yams. I have almost never tasted such sweet oranges as grow here. I believe they are quite famous.
We mean to sleep on board tomorrow night, then we sail next night for San Domingo which will take us two days nearly. There are some things to see in Kingston yet. We drove through the grounds of King's House where the governor lives and oh such flowers! all the coloured leaved things are splendid, here coleus & crotons.* But oh my dear sisters imagine my feelings at find[ing] the Browell* growing by the roadside in Jamaica!! I was penetrated with feelings at beholding it and I longed

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to have you both near -- It is a small blue flower that we have had in Maine.

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I trust you will feel an interest. I saw such pretty oxalis will* and this is the home of the storied Wandering Jew! and lots of others little garden things. It is so funny to see them and makes me think of meeting a

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gov's seal those warm May days that we generally choose. But [those ?]

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delights don't grow as they do in Switzerland. The Consul has paid us

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every kind attention [and ?] I can't think I shall like any place better than Jamaica.

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Give my love to John & Jenny & Liza and much to you all.

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Sarah. I was so sorry to hear of our Mrs Downy. Becca will miss her.*

Notes

Mandeville: According to Wikipedia, "Mandeville is the capital and largest town in the parish of Manchester in the county of Middlesex, Jamaica." Stark's Jamaica Guide provides a fairly detailed description of Mandeville as an English village in a tropical setting (pp. 112-6).

Constant Spring Hotel: The Constant Spring Hotel near Kingston may be seen in a rich post-card collection, in which this 1905 image appears. See Fields's diary, January 31, for more detail.

Castleton gardens ... Bath: Castleton is on the Wag Water River, which flows into Annotto Bay on the north side of the island, about 24 miles from Kingston. According to Stark, by the 1890s, the Wag Water had become an important part of Kingston's water supply. Wikipedia says: "In the 19th century, the British established a number of botanical gardens. These included the Castleton Botanical Garden, developed in 1862 to replace the Bath Garden (created in 1779) which was subject to flooding. Bath Garden was the site for planting breadfruit, brought to Jamaica from the Pacific by Captain William Bligh. It became a staple in island diets."

mahogany tree ... send you some leaves: Wikipedia says Swietenia macrophylla, commonly known as mahogany, Honduran mahogany, Honduras mahogany, or big-leaf mahogany, is a species of plant in the Meliaceae family. .... It is native to South America and Mexico, but naturalized in Singapore and Hawaii,[2] and cultivated in plantations elsewhere." The wood is prized for color, hardness and resistance to termites.

Mahogany leaves
Wikipedia

Spanish Town: Wikipedia says: "Spanish Town is the capital and the largest town in the parish of St. Catherine in the county of Middlesex, Jamaica. It was the former Spanish and English capital of Jamaica from the 16th to the 19th century. The town is home to numerous memorials, the national archives, a small population, and one of the oldest Anglican churches outside England." Spanish Town is about 13 miles west of Kingston.

A. F. & Mr. Pierce: The Hermione's party consisted of: Jewett, Annie Fields (A.F.), Thomas Bailey (T.B.A.) and Lilian Aldrich and their servant, Bridget, and the yacht owner and host, Henry Lillie Pierce. See Key to Correspondents.

bread fruit: "Baobab, common name for a tropical African tree (see Mallow). ... The fruit, called monkey bread, is about the size of a citron; the pulp, which has a pleasing acid taste, is used in the preparation of cooling drinks. The bark of the tree yields a strong cordage fiber. The baobab, native to Africa, is now cultivated in many tropical countries throughout the world." Encarta

Swiss Family Robinson: Wikipedia says: "The Swiss Family Robinson ... is a novel by Johann David Wyss, first published in 1812, about a Swiss family shipwrecked in the East Indies en route to Port Jackson, Australia."

cassowary: "Common name for any of three members of a genus of flightless birds. Cassowaries stand 1.2 to 1.8 m (about 4 to 6 ft) high and can run as fast as 48 km/h (30 mph) when frightened." Encarta. Among the birds the Swiss Family Robinson shot for food were ortolans and a bustard. More likely, Jewett is thinking of a bustard, heavy Old World birds that rarely fly. The Swiss family probably knew bustards from Switzerland and gave the name to a large terrestrial bird they shot in the East Indies; therefore, Jewett is correct that they more likely found a cassowary, which is a native of the East Indies.

King's House: the governor's residence was north of the village of Halfway Tree. Henry Arthur Blake was governor of Jamaica, 1888-1897.

coleus & crotons ... the Browell: According to Encarta coleus is a "large genus of tropical African and Asian herbs, of the mint family. The genus comprises about 100 species, several of which are extensively cultivated for their brilliantly colored, variegated foliage."
Crotons are pantropical plants with multiple varieties, making it difficult to determine which plant Jewett refers to. A number of domesticated varieties have multi-colored leaves.
Perhaps Jewett refers to Browallia which Wikipedia describes as "a genus of Solanaceae family. It is named after Johannes Browallius (1707–1755), also known as Johan Browall, a Swedish botanist, physician and bishop."

Browallia
Wikipedia

oxalis will: Wikipedia says: "Oxalis ... is by far the largest genus in the wood-sorrel family Oxalidaceae: .... The genus occurs throughout most of the world, except for the polar areas; species diversity is particularly rich in tropical Brazil, Mexico and South Africa. Many of the species are known as wood sorrels ... as they have an acidic taste reminiscent of the unrelated sorrel proper (Rumex acetosa). Some species are called yellow sorrels or pink sorrels after the color of their flowers instead."

Wandering Jew: As a legendary figure, the Wandering Jew was a person who refused to allow Jesus Christ to rest at his door as he bore his cross toward Calvary, and so was condemned by Jesus to wander over the earth until His second coming. Wikipedia says that there are three species of Spiderwort, Tradescantia, called Wandering Jew, perhaps because they grow out in lengthening vine-like stems.

John & Jenny & Liza ... Mrs Downy. Becca will miss her: John Tucker was a long-time employee of the Jewett family. See Key to Correspondents.
Jenny and Liza probably also are Jewett employees.
Mrs. Downy and Becca have not been identified, though Becca may be Rebecca Young. See Key to Correspondents.

The manuscript of this letter is held in the archive of Historic New England, Jewett Family Papers, MS014.02.01. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.

Sarah Orne Jewett to Harriet Jackson Lee Morse*

[ Begin letterhead ]

STEAM YACHT HERMIONE

[ End letterhead ]

Port Morant Jamaica

6 February 1896

My dear Mrs. Morse

You cannot think how delighted I was to get your charming letter the other day at Kingston! I had been thinking of you and meaning to write very soon but you can understand how difficult it is to write at sea and when we get into port we fly ashore to see what may be seen. We have had pretty rough seas but always a fresh breeze by day and the most lovely colours of sea and sky and of these magnificent Jamaica mountains which seem to rise straight up [ out written over a word ] of that sea itself with all shades of violet

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and gray -- We have found Jamaica a most exquisite place -- or I ought to say little country for it is a world by itself --The first ports we made were really tropical = our friends who were in Ceylon last year* insist that "the garden of the world" was not a bit more beautiful -- At Kingston we left the yacht for a few days & went up into the mountains to a village called Mandeville which is almost like a bit of Yorkshire with its old gray square towered parish church and [ quiet ? ] church yard. Such an old fashioned little English place all together -- and* with the

[ Page 3 ]

most delightful fresh air. There and at some other places we had all the fruits and vegetables of my beloved Swiss Family Robinson* and it was a constant amusement to investigate one's luncheon or dinner to see what new thing would happen to appear. At Nassau where we spent a week it was much less tropical but very quaint and pleasant. We had nice drives there and made the acquaintance of cocoanut trees and mango trees and especially the great ceiba or silk cotton tree which is the hugest most noble great tree in the world (at least in my world!) like a great forest in itself. I do so wish that I could show you one. The colored people have most luckily -- a superstition

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about cutting the ceiba down or doing them any harm so that you see them all about the country -- and on most islands -- Our only trouble is in the rough seas which Mrs. Aldrich minds very much. We are seriously thinking today of giving up our expedition to the islands farther South which will be such a disappointment to her and to all of us. When we have made our next turn across to Hayti we shall decide -- but it was a rough day when we made the passage before. When I get back I shall have so many things to tell you -- and you will hear me scold about Port au Prince which was such a funny hot dusty [ sandy ? ] [ metropolis corrected ] of our coloured [ brethren ?] {.}

-- I am sitting on deck writing to you and the trade wind is rolling the yacht a little so that you mustn't mind if my writing is hard to read. I loved your story about the dear pink

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bonnet! Mrs. Fields* and I send ever so much love to you and Fanny -- I have wished that Mrs Elliot* were only here to make some sketches -- the color is so lovely & it seems as if I must get a little paint box and try myself! I do hope that you are quite well

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again dear Mrs. Morse -- I am so sorry when I think what a siege you have had. I hope that you and Gwen* are having some nice afternoons together. Yours most affectionately

Sarah --

Notes

Morse: See Frances Rollins Morse in Key to Correspondents.

last year: Jewett refers to Lilian and Thomas Bailey Aldrich. Key to Correspondents.

and: Sometimes in this letter, Jewett writes an "a" with a long tail for "and." I render these as "and."

Swiss Family Robinson: An 1812 novel by Swiss author, Johann David Wyss (1743-1818). In the book, a Swiss immigrant family survives a shipwreck in tropical East India and successfully builds a life on a deserted island.

Gwen: Frances Rollins Morse was the sister of Dr. Henry Lee Morse (1852-1929). He married Jessie Frances Lizzie Scott (1860-1909). Their only known child, Harriet Morse's granddaughter, was Gwendolyn (1886-1968). Family Search.

Fields: Annie Adams Fields. Key to Correspondents.

Elliot: Jewett's reference is uncertain. One of her friends was Mrs. Maud Howe Elliot, daughter of Julia Ward Howe, Key to Correspondents. This Mrs. Elliot was well-known as an author, but not as a painter. A contemporary artist was the Canadian, Emily Louise Orr Elliot (1867-1952), Wikipedia. But there is as yet no evidence that Jewett was acquainted with her.

The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library of Harvard University, Cambridge, MA. bMS Am 1743.1 (123) Box 4, II. Letters from Sarah Orne Jewett.
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.

Sally A. Kaighn* to Sarah Orne Jewett

Moorestown, New Jersey

2^nd mo 10^th 1896

Dear friend

I wonder if with all the many claims on thy time and attention thee would be willing to read just these few lines I send thee to thank thee for all the help and encouragement, as well as pleasure, thy writings have given me through many years? Thy wonderful gift of understanding lonely lives, especially those of elderly women, is so unusual, there is such a [ warming ?] cheery tone in describing

[ Page 2 ]

the narrow limitation of some of our lives, and yet they never seem hopelessly ridiculous, as when others attempt to describe them. One laughs, and yet feels so grateful for the tender pathos, underlying it all. How often after a tiresome day, I have sat down and read one of thy spicy little [ stories corrected ], and felt so comforted and cheered, with my heart filled with a loving pity for those whose limitations were greater and harder than my own. I should not tire thee with telling thee this, if it were only myself who was thus [ benefitted so spelled ] but there are, there must be so many others, who could echo

[ Page 3 ]

my own poor words -- and not only among those of the [ class corrected ] I have mentioned, but also among those whose lives are so outwardly blessed with everything that some others have missed --

And we who are not young, and and do enjoy, dear "Betty Leicester" and the "Marsh Island" that loveliest of [ love corrected ] stories --

I am afraid thee can scarcely gather from this poorly written letter, just how much I thank thee for my part and share in all thee has done to cheer and uplift the hearts in this world of ours, which so greatly needs those who write for it to be pure and true, but it

[ Page 4 ]

seemed a little duty that yet remained for me to do. Please excuse the liberty I have taken, if I have tired thee, and, in conclusion may I quote from our dear Whittier,* the desire that our spirits may know our dear Master to

"Drop thy still dews of quietness
Till all our stirrings cease
Take from our souls the strain and stress
And let our ordered lives confess
Thy beauty of thy peace{.}"

Gratefully and lovingly

Thy friend Sally A. Kaighn

Notes

Kaighn: This person has not yet been identified.

"Betty Leicester" ... "Marsh Island": Jewett's books: Betty Leicester (1890), A Marsh Island (1885).

Whittier: John Greenleaf Whittier. Key to Correspondents. His poem, "The Brewing of Soma," appeared in Atlantic Monthly in April 1872. Stanzas from the poem were adapted to a hymn, "Dear Lord and Father of Mankind." Wikipedia.

The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library of Harvard University, Cambridge, MA. bMS Am 1743 Box 3, Item 121 I. Letters to Sarah Orne Jewett.
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.

Sarah Orne Jewett to sisters, Carrie Jewett Eastman & Mary Rice Jewett

Mayaguez, Porto Rico*
Tuesday 11 February [1896]

[Begin letterhead]

Steam Yacht Hermione

[End letterhead]

Dear Sisters,

Here we are in a new little island country -- Spanish this time and as foreign as it can possibly be. We had an awful voyage from Jamaica rough and tumbling day and night nearly all the way until until I didn't care whether I ever saw another island or not! We meant to go to San Domingo city along the south coast of Hayti but we got into the great blow & current of trade winds and turned about so that the course was changed and we stopped first at a little town called Boury* and then came 'north about' to another

[2]

dirty dilapidated [darkey ?] town called Cape Haytien* where there was a pretty harbor with old Spanish forts, but we made a very short look of the town answer, and then came on our way here. The air is quite different, very cool and fresh and delicious and the hills ashore look charming not so tropical but plenty of trees scattered about and a grassy look which we have seldom seen down here. All the town (the houses I mean) looks one story high and lovely Spanish damsels made eyes at T. B.* as we drove along. There is a good big cathedral with two yellow towers and

[3]

a square in front with a fine statue of Columbus.* It is very interesting because it is A.F's & my first look at Spain. We are going ashore again this morning to see the market and mean to sail this afternoon for San Juan on the north shore 80 miles and then go on from there to St. Thomas where I hope there will be a good big mail. How far we ^shall^ get "down the islands" I can't say: it will depend upon the blowing of the winds and the height of the waves, but the trade wind which keeps the air so fresh makes a great surf and you find very few harbors

[4]

but only roads for the most part, as if we anchored half a mile or a mile out of Wells in front of Sam's -- Inagua* was like that and this roadstead is not much better. I have wish[ed] so many times that I hadn't left my last letter from Auntie* ^before I left home^ in which she said the name of the place where Mrs. Lind lived. I have tried & tried to think of it. I asked the consul last night if he knew anything of the family but he had only been here a few years. He came off to call quite handsomely with a little old French mother from Bordeaux with whom A. F. held a great French conversation and made her have a beautiful time. There are electric lights in Mayaguez and

[Up the left margin of page 1]

what always pleases us -- an artificial ice machine so that we stock up and have ice water to drink*. Your sister who writes you is rather low this morning owing to a steady roll but she hopes to be the better of going up on

[Up the left margin of page 3]

the hurricane deck and reading a lively tale where the

[Up the left margin of page 4]

wind is blowing. The captain has just been trying to shoot

[Down from the left margin in the top margin of page 4]

a shark which has distracted my mind{.} Ever so much love to all from S. O. J.

Notes

Mayaguez, Porto Rico: Near the center of the west coast of Puerto Rico.

San Domingo city along the south coast of Hayti ... a little town called Boury: Jewett may be confused about the location of San Domingo, unless she only means that their intended route was along the southern coast of Haiti. Wikipedia says: "Santo Domingo ... known officially as Santo Domingo de Guzmán, is the capital and largest city in the Dominican Republic and the largest city in the Caribbean by population."
There is no town named "Boury" on the west coast of Haiti, though there is an inland area so named northeast of Port au Prince. In her diary for February 8, Fields reports sailing as far south as Cape Esavois on the south coast of Haiti, but no coastal town of this name can be located either. Because the sailing was terrible, perhaps both writers failed to hear correctly the name of the point at which the Hermione gave up trying to reach the Dominican Republic and turned northward toward Cape Haytien on the way to Puerto Rico. Possibly Fields meant Les Irois, a village on the tip of the southern peninsula of Haiti.

Cape Haytien: Wikipedia says 21st century Cap-Haïtien is "often referred to as Le Cap or Au Cap, is a commune of about 190,000 people on the north coast of Haiti and capital of the Department of Nord. Previously named as Cap Français, Cap Henri and historically known as the Paris of the Antilles, displaying its wealth and sophistication through its beautiful architecture and artistic life."

T. B.: Thomas Bailey Aldrich. The Hermione's party consisted of: Jewett, Annie Fields (A.F.), Thomas Bailey (T.B.A.) and Lilian Aldrich and their servant, Bridget, and the yacht owner and host, Henry Lillie Pierce. See Key to Correspondents.

Cathedral ... statue of Columbus: Wikipedia says: "Plaza Colón is the main plaza in the city of Mayagüez, Puerto Rico. This plaza and its fountain commemorate the explorer Christopher Columbus, whose name in Spanish was Cristóbal Colón. The plaza presents the traditional urban relationship in Puerto Rico with the church, now Nuestra Señora de la Candelaria Cathedral on one end of the plaza and the "Alcaldia" or Mayagüez town hall in the other." A statue of Columbus stands in the center of the plaza.

A. F.: Annie Adams Fields

Wells in front of Sam's -- Inagua: Jewett and her sisters in South Berwick were familiar with nearby Wells, Maine. Sam's would appear to be a business, but information about this has not been located. In her January 23 diary entry, Fields reports: ",,, there is no more landing at Inagua now than there was in the days of Columbus. All [the ?] night we could hear the waves dashing up on the cliffs and up the little beach; the breakers still washed rather high although there was no storm. However we ladies were carried ashore by the Captain except S. O. J. who watched for a chance and deftly jumped and ran."

from Auntie ... Mrs. Lind: Usually, when Jewett refers to "Auntie," she means her great aunt, Helen Gilman. See Key to Correspondents.
The identity of Mrs. Lind is unknown.

electric lights in Mayaguez ... artificial ice machine: The Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority says that electric lighting was introduced to the island in 1893. Dr. John Gorrie (1803 -1855) patented the first ice-making machine in the United States in 1851. For a detailed history of ice-making in the nineteenth century, see J. F. Nickerson, "The Development of Refrigeration in the United States," especially, pp. 170-1, in
Ice and Refrigeration, Volume 49, Nickerson & Collins Company, 1915.

The manuscript of this letter is held in the archive of Historic New England, Jewett Family Papers, MS014.02.01. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.

Sarah Orne Jewett to sisters, Carrie Jewett Eastman & Mary Rice Jewett

        Cape St. Nicholas Mole Haiti.*
        Tuesday 18th February

Dear Girls

    This is the third letter I haven't been able to mail! At San Domingo* we thought we were pretty sure of catching a steamer but when caught we found that letters sent by it wouldn't get to New York before the fifth or sixth of March.* So we came along letters in [and ?] all, but at Nassau they will have to look out an extra mail bag. Today we are left here in this nice snug harbor by a Norther which is raining a great rain and blowing up the sea outside. We are making our way as fast as we can to Nassau but it is a long stretch and oh so rough all the way along the South coast of San Domingo & Haiti! We had two quite awful nights when the minute you got to sleep a great

[2]

roll would bang you awake again. Your poor sister has often thought of her nice room and the fire in the fireplace those nights before she came away! but everything good costs something as we have heard, and I shall be glad to have seen these lovely places. I was dreadfully disappointed about "the islands,"* but now we are getting near Nassau again and I hope again for letters and so those woes are put by.

    There is a schooner from Tenants Harbor anchored close by us loading with logwood, or from St. George which is the same thing.* Isn't it funny? We have seen a Rockland schooner several times.

    Thursday

    We have had to lie here two days more until the Norther blew itself out and now tonight we are going on, I suppose to be

[3]

rolled about more, but it is only two days to Nassau and then I shall feel quite near to you all, and I hope to find some letters. The last one I had from you was at Kingston the 30th of Jan and dated the 24th so it is almost a month. I have thought of telegraphing but I knew you would get all the news there was from Lilian's despatches, and at a dollar & eighty-seven cents a word your ideas seem to fly away! We have been reading the life of Columbus* all of us and ^getting^ so interested because he was right here in these little harbors that we have learned to know so well and even named them all. It has been cold these last few days so that I took heart to get out my worsted work and have been much stayed with

[4]

the pleasure of doing it though I haven't got the black sprigs all filled in yet.

We went ashore day before yesterday and saw the funniest little mardi gras procession with masks and red things over their heads dancing in the streets with pipe & drum.* Coloured children & some bigger ones who danced ahead and twirled and then went back again. It was so wild looking somehow. There was a huge old fort here which has all crumbled down and this poor village seems to be cobbled up out of the ruins. The President gave us a mongoose in a cage at San Domingo & we had great fun with it at first but it drooped under sea faring so today the chief engineer & a 'boy' rowed ashore and let him out. Bridget* is quite bereft. I shall leave this envelope open to add

[Down from the left margin in the top margin of page 1]

a word later as we hope now to get to Nassau Sunday morning & I think the mail doesn't go until Monday.

Notes

Cape St. Nicholas Mole Haiti: Wikipedia says: "Christopher Columbus' first voyage to the Americas landed at the site of what is now Môle-Saint-Nicolas on December 6, 1492.... Vestiges of colonial forts can be found in several locations: Batteries de Vallières, Fort Georges, Saint-Charles, La Poudrière, Le Fort Allemand, Les Ramparts. Ruine Poudrière is an old magazine built sometime in the 1750s."
Jewett began a sketch entitled "The Cape St. Nicholas Mole \ Hayti Story," held by the Houghton Library in Sarah Orne Jewett compositions and other papers, 1847-1909. MS Am 1743.22 (10). Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass.

San Domingo ... letters ... wouldn't get to New York before the fifth or sixth of March: In her diary of 13 - 15 February, Fields details the Hermione's stay in Santo Domingo.

disappointed about "the islands": The original goal of the Hermione was the Windward Islands, the Lesser Antilles, between Puerto Rico and Venezuela, but bad weather prevented their steaming so far south.

Tenants Harbor ... or from St. George which is the same thing ... a Rockland schooner: Jewett and Fields had spent part of the summer of 1895 at Tenants Harbor, ME, the village which bears some resemblance to Dunnet's Landing in The Country of the Pointed Firs (1896), which was appearing in serial while Jewett was sailing with the Hermione. St. George and Rockland ME are on the peninsula north of Tenants Harbor, St. George about 5 miles, Rockland about 14 miles.

the life of Columbus ... he was right here in these little harbors ... and even named them all: Jewett, Fields, and perhaps their fellow voyagers, as well, were reading Washington Irving's A History of the Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus (1828).

mardi gras: In her February 18 diary, Fields wrote: "It was Mardi gras and a little procession of a dozen boys ^and girls^ or perhaps they were all boys dressed as women, and a few children ^all^ in the simplest disguises danced fantastically to tom-toms up and down the open ways between the huts -- when their noise stopped a perfectly ^the^ silence of the wilderness settled down. The gaily dressed figures stood out against the dark mountain-sides, clothed with green to the summit and black with cloud and vapor which lie behind and make a background to the place."

President gave us a mongoose ... at San Domingo ... Bridget: In her diary of 13 - 15 February, Fields describes the party's dinner with Louis Mondestin Florvil Hyppolite, President of the Dominican Republic. Bridget is the servant of Thomas Bailey and Lilian Aldrich. Wikipedia says "Mongoose is the popular English name for 29 of 34 species in the 14 genera of the family Herpestidae, which are small carnivores that are native to southern Eurasia and mainland Africa." They are an introduced species in the Caribbean.

The manuscript of this letter is held in the archive of Historic New England, Jewett Family Papers, MS014.02.01. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.

Sarah Orne Jewett to Carolyn Jewett Eastman and Mary Rice Jewett

Nassau Tuesday Morning [25 February 1896]*

Dear Girls

We are so delighted to get in -- and after all our fears of the long stretch & head wind{,} the last day & night proved better than the first -- I am hoping to get letters this morning -- and you can't think how long the weeks seem without a telegram or anything. We are anchored opposite the barracks this time and I now hear an early

[2]

bugle. After this we get letters nice and often. Keep sending them to 148 State St. to Talbot* -- until I say not, because they will be telegraphing & knowing just where we are. It seems so near to what it has been! that I feel as if I could almost speak across.
Ever so much love
from A. F. & me.

Notes

1896: According to Fields's Diary of a West Indian Island Tour, the Hermione party returned to Nassau on Monday, 24 February 1896.

Talbot: One of the twin sons of Thomas Bailey and Lilian Aldrich,. The sons have remained at home, while the parents travel with Fields and Jewett on this cruise.

A.F.: Annie Fields. 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 and annotated by Terry Heller. Coe College.

Sarah Wyman Whitman to Sarah Orne Jewett

March 4, 1896.

I think I have not written much of late, you seemed to be out of reach of letters, and beside I have been in a great valley of silence in which I seemed to have learned much that I knew not of before. I have been alone long days together; I have worked and dreamed, and have felt the days blessed and the lesson of continuance begun.

Notes

This transcription appears in Letters, Sarah Wyman Whitman. Cambridge, MA: Riverside Press, 1907, "Letters to Sarah Orne Jewett: 1882-1903," pp. 61-109.

Louise Imogen Guiney to Annie Adams Fields

[ 5 March 1896 ]*

Dear Mrs. Fields,

        I am so glad you are within hail again! I sent the tickets to Mrs. Tyler,* the day word came by wire. I was on the point of writing you at Charles St., asking on the envelope that the letter might be kept, so that I might know the moment you got home, and in what manner I was to dispose of the aforesaid passports to Elysium.* But I am vehemently gratified that you are not coming home at present, for the weather is unbearable. Yesterday and today are "the cruellest of occasions":* drifts anywhere from an inch to ten feet deep, and biting cold thrown in. So linger in your warm nest,* and avoid the Tellurian year* in these parts,

    Huit mois d'hiver,
    Quat' mois d'enfer!*

As for your good times, afloat and ashore,

[ Page 2 ]

I know they must melt in the mouth, and are too delicate delicious for speech. . like the Pomes by S.O.J.,* which, I have no doubt in the world got written, among your colored isles.

The world wags pleasantly by at last, hereabouts. Mothers keep well, and Post-offices ride the wave, leaving all sharks far behind. I have been with Mrs. Barnard* to see Romeo and Juliet done beautifully by Mr. and Mrs. Taber;* I have even passed a night at Scituate, and helped Tom Meteyard,* in the morning, to bury his brother Casman in a snow-bank. These make up my play-time since you went, if you add them to the memorable Saturday-night orgies. Once I was late, once absent; but for all I had and might have had, I thank you ever. At odd moments I try to edit that difficult Mangan.* And I have accepted a very kind proposal of Mr. Warner's,* to do

[ Page 3 ]

the Keats introduction and selection of his giant Library. It is as bold as the issue of a Confederate bond in 1861,* which comes payable in 1899; but perhaps, by adroit diplomacy, I may somehow and somewhere secure the leisure and solitude, and be as good as my word. Which reminds me that I must tell you, bye and bye, what we hope to do, in the summer. I must stop, for I weep as I write, at noon of March 5^th, in my study. There is a painter-man in the hall with pots and pans, and the aroma thereof stings "these spectacles"; which you will remember is Mackesay's optic idiom.* Our good Governor* died this morning, and I have just run up one flag to half-staff. Best love to you and Miss Jewett.

Yours always,

Louise I. Guiney

Auburndale, Massachusetts.

Notes

1896: This letter pairs with Guiney to Fields of 5 August 1896. In early March of 1896, Fields, along with Sarah Orne Jewett, Thomas Bailey Aldrich and others, were just returning from two often grueling months of cruising in the Caribbean.

Mrs. Tyler: Possibly Augusta Maria Denny Tyler. See Key to Correspondents.

Elysium: A paradise after death in ancient Greek religion.

"the cruellest of occasions": Why this is in quotation marks is not known.

warm nest: On 4 March 1896, Jewett wrote to her sisters from Nassau, Bahamas, after two weeks of no communication, during which she and Fields, along with cruising companions, were confined to the northern coast of Haiti by rough weather. Guiney's sunny view of their Caribbean island tour shows her not aware of the weather conditions they endured while at sea. See Fields, Diary of a West Indian Tour.

Tellurian year: the time required for the planet Earth to circle the sun.

d'enfer: French saying: Eight months of winter; four months of hell.

Mrs. Barnard: This person has not yet been identified.

Romeo and Juliet ... Mr. and Mrs. Taber: American actors Julia Marlowe (1865-1950) and Robert Taber (1865-1904) married in 1894 and divorced in 1900. Both had successful careers, often performing together in plays of British playwright William Shakespeare (1564-1616), such as Romeo and Juliet.

Tom Meteyard ... Casman: These transcriptions are uncertain; these persons have not been identified.

difficult Mangan: Irish poet, James Clarence Mangan (1803-1849). Guiney's James Clarence Mangan: His Selected Poems and a Study appeared in 1897.

Mr. Warner's ... the Keats introduction: Charles Dudley Warner (See Key to Correspondents) organized The Library of the World's Best Literature, a 30 volume anthology. Guiney eventually contributed a critical and biographical introduction to the British poet, John Keats (1795-1821).

1861: Bonds issued by the Confederate States of America in 1861 were worthless in 1899, long after the Confederacy was defeated in the American Civil War (1861-1865).

S.O.J.: Sarah Orne Jewett. See Key to Correspondents.

Mackesay's optic idiom: The transcription of "Mackesay" is uncertain; Guiney's allusion has not yet been identified.

good Governor: Frederic Thomas Greenhalge (1842- 5 March 1896), a Massachusetts politician, died during his third term as governor of the state.

The manuscript of this letter is held by the Huntington Library, San Marino, CA, in the James T. Fields collection Box 25: mss FI 1547. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.

Thomas Wentworth Higginson to Sarah Orne Jewett

[ Letterhead of decorated initials, TWH ]

[ Cambr' Mass ? ]

March 8. 1896*

My dear Miss Jewett

That last paper* of yours is perfectly fascinating -- your trip to the island -- nothing in Deephaven is more redolent of bayberry & wild roses; & the previous one had a superbly [ mild ? ] conception -- the old captain's Children of the mist. But are you sure you are right in putting a gaff to a spritsail? All the dory sails I ever saw ( & I hv. often sailed in them at Pigeon Cove) were sprit sails proper, with the slender slanting sprit supporting them transversely

[ Page 2 ]*

& a slender boom below both rolled into the sail & laid against the mast when unshipped. A gaff at the top of the sail would have to be held up by halyards, from ^ [ near ? ] ^ the top of the [ shaft ? ], beginning a taller & solider mast. Yet you are so at home on the seashore that I can't doubt you "interested yourself" on the matter, & may be describing some sub-order of dories, perhaps as localized as the lateen-sailed boats which used to be seen on the river at Portsmouth & above, but now have [ gone ? ]. We have a dory to this day on Monadnock Lake at Dublin N.H. (brought from E. Gloucester) & if you know my wife's graceful verses "The Anchored Dories"* you will know that they are near to our hearts.

Ever cordially with

best regards to Mrs. Fields*

T. W. Higginson

Notes

1896: Apparently in another hand, someone has indicated an insertion before the numeral 6, and above the date has written a question mark within parentheses. Presumably the reader was unable to read the numeral 9, and no wonder, for it is quite unclear. I have inferred that number from the contents of the letter. See notes below.

paper: Higginson refers to Jewett's The Country of the Pointed Firs (1896). The first installment of its serialization appeared in Atlantic Monthly in January 1896, and included Captain Littlepage's story of strange beings near the North Pole. The second installment in March included the account of the narrator's visit with the Blacketts on Green Island.
    See Jewett to Higginson of 9 April 1896.

Page 2: Higginson includes two drawings on this page to illustrate his point about sprit sails.

"The Anchored Dories": The poem by Mary Potter Thacher Higginson (1844-1941) appeared in Harper's Magazine in April 1893. It was collected in Such as They Are (1893), poems by Thomas and Mary Higginson. See also Find a Grave.

Mrs. Fields: Annie Adams Fields. See Key to Correspondents.

The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library of Harvard University: Sarah Orne Jewett Correspondence I, Letters to Sarah Orne Jewett.
     Higginson, Thomas Wentworth, 1823-1911. 1 letter; 1896. (95).
     This transcription is from a photocopy held by the Maine Women Writer's Collection, University of New England, Letters from Sarah Orne Jewett, 1875-1890, Box 2, Folder 99, Burton Trafton Jewett Research Collection.
    Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.

Marie Thérèse de Solms Blanc to Annie Adams Fields
This letter was composed in French; a transcription follows the translation.

[ Mid-March 1896 ]*

Most dear Annie, I read with sympathy the thrilling story of your trip, and I pity you for having suffered so much. But I am sure that once you return to Boston, well and safe, where I am dying to hear from you, you will remember only the tropical beauties, which you

[ Page 2 ]

at least got to see, and the best memories of your perilous voyage. You say you'll only take a steamer next time. Oh, my dear, grant that this next time come soon. Come this spring to Paris. I have put off my trip to Russia by a year, and here

[ Page 3 ]

is what I propose to you: that you and Sarah stay in my apartment while I am at La Ferté, where you will come to me when you tire of enjoying spring in Paris. I will come to you often. La Ferté is only an hour away, -- while you occupy my snug little place,*

[ Page 4 ]

where I will leave all that you need, even my maid if you want her, for I have another in La Ferté. She is thrifty and practiced and familiar with the neighborhood; finally, she will take good care of you. Please accept. Keep in mind that this gives me no shadow of difficulty or expense, that

[ Page 5 ]

I will be happy, so happy to be able to save you the trouble of a hotel, that you will be comfortable (don't judge my lodging in the Place V. Hugo according to the encampment in Rue de Grenelle.)* I await your "yes." You must come this year! Nothing will restore you better than this trip. And if you prefer fall, I can make you

[ Page 6 ]

the same offer until the end of October, but the spring is so much prettier . However, the fall in Paris and a winter in the south (you told me about your dreams of Provence) would also have their charms {.} All seasons would be charming for me if you were here. Dear Sarah* insist, I pray, and allow me this celebration. -- I am delighted with the translation in the Forum.* Read, dear Annie, the little note on The Singing Shepherd* in the bibliographic bulletin

[ Cross-written down the left side of page 6 ]

in the March Revue. I embrace you tenderly. Mr. Benoist* [ unrecognized word ] your appreciation

[ Cross-written up the right margin of page 6 ]

of his articles. He is touched by it.

[ Cross-written from the left on the top half of page 1
except for the last line which begins on the bottom half ]

Alas, your sister* did not come to see me, and there is no Rue Vacquerie.* The flu that caught me again at [ unrecognized word ] has also kept me away from your friend, but I did see Mrs. Bull* and her sister, who brought Sarah's pretty gift.

Notes

1896: Fields, along with Sarah Orne Jewett and others, toured the Caribbean in a steam yacht during January - March 1896. Though the island visits usually proved interesting and pleasant, the sailing was grueling in a small vessel on often stormy seas. About the earliest likely date for this letter would be soon after Fields returned from the tour. Fields and Jewett did not join Blanc for a long stay in France until 1898, when they toured Provence and Brittany.

place: Blanc speaks metaphorically of her "shell."

Grenelle: Since Fields and Jewett's previous visit to Paris, Blanc apparently has moved into what was then a new and stylish residential building in the 16th arrondissement, at 3 Place Victor Hugo.

Sarah: Sarah Orne Jewett. See Key to Correspondents.

Forum: Blanc's essay, "Family Life in America," Forum 21 (March 1896), p. 1-20.

Singing Shepherd: Fields's second collection of poems, The Singing Shepherd (1895). The notice of which Blanc writes has not yet been located.

Benoist: French journalist, politician and diplomat, Charles Benoist (1861-1936). His articles sometimes appeared in Revue des Deux Mondes.

sister: While one cannot yet be certain which of Fields's sisters visited Paris in 1896, the more likely possibility is Sarah Holland Adams. See Fields in Key to Correspondents.

Mrs. Bull: Sara Chapman Thorp Bull. See Key to Correspondents. Mrs. Bull had no sisters, but at this time, she had one living sister-in-law, Gidsken Edvardine Bull (1822-1906).

no Rue Vacquerie: While there is no Rue Vacquerie in Paris, there is a Rue Auguste Vacquerie. Perhaps Blanc was involved in a mix-up?

The manuscript of this letter is held by the Huntington Library, San Marino, CA, in the James T. Fields Papers and Addenda mss FI 1-5637, Box 5. Transcription, translation and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College, with essential assistance from Jeannine Hammond, Professor of French, Emerita, at Coe College.

Transcription

Blanc sometimes abbreviates "pour" to "pr" and "vous" to "vs." Such instances in this letter are rendered as "pour" and "vous."

Paris 16 Mars

Bien chère Annie
J'ai lu avec émotion
le récit palpitant
de votre voyage
et je vous plains
d'avoir autant
souffert. Mais je
suis sûre qu'une
fois rentrée saine
et sauve à Boston
d'où je grille d'avoir
de vos nouvelles
vous ne vous rappelerez
plus que les beautés
tropicales tout au

[ Page 2 ]

moins entrevues et
les meilleurs souvenirs
de votre périlleux
voyage. Vous me dites
que vous ne vous
embarquerez que
sur un steamer
la prochaine fois.
Oh! chère, de grâce
que cette prochaine
fois soit tout de
bon prochaine. Venez
ce printemps à Paris.
J'ai remis d'une
année mon voyage
en Russie et voilà

[ Page 3 ]

ce que je vous propose:
d'occuper, vous et
Sarah, mon appartement
tandis que je serai
à La Ferté où vous viendrez
me rejoindre après
vous être bien fatiguée
à jouir du ^Paris^ printanier{.}
J'irai vous voir
souvent{.} La Ferté est
à une heure de
distance, -- même
tandis que vous
occuperez ma coquille

[ Page 4 ]

où je laisserai
tout ce qu'il
vous faut et
même ma domestique
si vous la souhaitez
car j'en ai une
autre à La Ferté. Elle
^est économe et entendue et elle^
a les habitudes de
l'endroit; enfin elle vous
soignera bien. Acceptez
de grâce. Songez que
cela n'entraine pas pour
moi l'ombre d'une
difficulté ni d'une
dépense, que

[ Page 5 ]

Je serai heureuse,
heureuse, de pouvoir
vous éviter les ennuis
de l'hôtel, que vous
serez enfin confortablement
(n'allez pas juger de
mon gîte place V. Hugo
d'après le campement
de la rue de Grenelle.)
J'attends un bon
oui. Il faut que ce
soit cette année!
Rien ne vous
remettra mieux
que ce voyage. Et
si vous préférez l'automne
je peux vous faire la

[ Page 6 ]

même offre jusqu'à
la fin d'Octobre,
mais le printemps
est bien plus joli
cependant l'automne
à Paris et un hiver
dans le midi (vous
m'avez parlé de vos
rêves de Provence) auraient
aussi leurs charme tous
les saisons en auraient
pour moi si vous
étiez là. Chère Sarah
insistez, je vous en
prie, et donnez-
moi cette fête. -- Je suis
enchantée de la traduction
du Forum. Merci. Lisez,
chère Annie la petite note sur
le Singing Shepherd au bulletin

[ Cross-written down the left side of page 6 ]

bibliographique de la Revue de Mars. Je vous embrasse
tendrement. M. Benoist [ unrecognized word ] votre appreciation

[ Cross-written up the right margin of page 6 ]

de ses articles. Il en est touché.

[ Cross-written from the left on the top half of page 1
except for the last line which begins on the bottom half ]

Hélas votre soeur
n'est pas venue
me voir et il
n'y a pas de
rue Vacquerie.
L'influenza qui
m'a reprise à
[ unrecognized word ? ] m'a
aussi éloignée
de votre amie,
mais j'ai vu
Mrs Bull et
la soeur chargée
du joli présent de Sarah{.}

Sarah Orne Jewett probably to Mary Rice Jewett

Monday morning
[ March 16, 1896 ]

                    [ Begin hotel stationary letterhead ]

                    Hotel Ponce de Leon
                    Gillis and Murray, Managers
                    St. Augustine, Fla.

                    [ End letterhead ]

……………….…Mr. Whitridge* made us a long visitation yesterday afternoon and it is always very pleasant. He was so funny and dispairing about Kate Foot* -- always complaining of something --   cant tell much by what she says ….. he speaks sometimes just like Mr. C. Hobbs* so you would think them same – it gives me such a funny home like feeling   you must tell Mr. Hobbs that he is here and so interested to hear all about him and the old place. I promised him one of my snow pictures of the house taken there by the Methodist church and if it isnt too much trouble I wish you would look for it in the box and send it to me. I have had to go all over the Hayes and the Ferguson girls and Jourdin Ferguson and that golden time. You would like Mr. Whitridge. Your sister is so much distracted by the band playing without and beaucoup des personnes* passing up the middle of the court past the fountain and some of them getting the particulars with marked interest* that she cant compose her thoughts to this letty.* Fifteen rooms of Vanderbilts have created a great excitement but they are going to Tampa or some where to-day. There were terrapin for dinner last night. I suppose in the Vanderbilts honor.* This is all the news of today.

    Sarah

Notes

Mr. Whitridge: This is likely to be Frederick Wallingford Whitridge (1852-1916), the New York City businessman who married Matthew Arnold's daughter, Lucy. The biographical sketch below, from Encyclopedia of Biography of New York Volume 5, indicates the Whitridge's grandmother's family lived in South Berwick. This makes it understandable that he would remember visiting Cushing relatives in South Berwick in his youth and would be familiar with local families such as "the Hayes and the Ferguson girls and Jourdin Ferguson." Such visits would have taken place during the childhoods of Sarah and Mary Jewett, but it sounds as if Mary has not met Whitridge, or at least, that she has not met him as an adult.

WHITRIDGE, Frederick Wallingford,
Lawyer, Railroad President.

Frederick W. Whitridge springs from New England ancestors, and partakes of the qualities of thrift and enterprise which have distinguished the people of that section for three centuries. The founder of the family in this country was William Whitridge, born 1599, died December 9, 1688, came to America in the ship "Elizabeth" in 1625, with his wife, Elizabeth, born 1605, and son, Thomas, from Beninden, County Kent, England....
    Thomas Whitridge, son of William and Elizabeth Whitridge, born 1625, was living in Ipswich, Massachusetts, in 1648, and had a wife, Florence, who died in 1672.
    Their son, William Whitridge, born 1659, resided in Rochester, Massachusetts, and was the father of Thomas Whitridge, born there November 12, 1710, died March 7, 1795. His intention of marriage to Hannah Haskell was entered September i, 1733.
    Their third son. Dr. William Whitridge, was born February 13, 1748, in Rochester; settled at Tiverton, Rhode Island, in 1780, dying there April 5, 1831. In 1791 he received the honorary degree of Master of Arts from Yale College, and in 1823 received the honorary degree of Doctor of Medicine from Harvard University. He married Mary Cushing, born July 21, 1759, in Scituate, Massachusetts, died in Tiverton, March 17. 1846.
    They had a large family of children born in Tiverton. Of these, the second son, William Cushing Whitridge, was born November 25, 1784, in Tiverton, and became a physician, practicing many years with great success in New Bedford, Massachusetts. He married his cousin, Olive Cushing, born February 20, 1783, in Boston, eldest daughter and fifth child of John and Olive (Wallingford) Cushing, of South Berwick, Maine, died September 9, 1876.
    John Cushing Whitridge, son of William G. and Olive (Cushing) Whitridge, was born in Tiverton, Rhode Island, and lived in New Bedford, Massachusetts, where he died in 1908. He married Lucia Shaw Bailey, daughter of John G. Bailey, of Newport, Rhode Island, and they were the parents of Frederick Wallingford Whitridge.

    Frederick Wallingford Whitridge was born August 5, 1852, in New Bedford, Massachusetts, where he grew up, and received his primary education in the public schools. Entering Amherst College, Amherst, Massachusetts, he was graduated A. B. in 1874, following which he entered Columbia Law School in New York City, from which he received the degree of LL. B. in 1877. In that year he was admitted to the New York bar, but did not engage in active practice. For some years he was lecturer in the school of political science attached to Columbia University, and is one of the founders of the Civil Service Reform Association. Mr. Whitridge has given his talents and energies to the development and progress of many business enterprises, and is now a director of the Niagara Development Company and the Cataract Construction Company. He is and has been for several years receiver and president of the Third Avenue Railroad Company of New York City. In religion he is an Episcopalian, and in politics independent of party dictation. On the occasion of the marriage of King Alfonso of Spain to Princess Victoria Eugenie of England, Mr. Whitridge was appointed by the President as special ambassador to attend the ceremonies as representative of the United States. He has been an occasional contributor to magazines on various subjects, and has demonstrated a large amount of business ability and versatility in other directions. He is a member of several clubs, including the University, Knickerbocker, Metropolitan, City, Downtown Players, Century and Westchester County clubs.
    He married, in 1884, Lucy Arnold, daughter of Matthew and Lucy (Wightman) Arnold, and they have children: Arnold, Eleanor, Joan. For a quarter of a century the family has resided in the same house on East Eleventh street, New York City, and the summers are spent in the Scottish Highlands, where Mr. Whitridge is the owner of a beautiful estate.

Kate Foot: This may be Kate Knowlton Foote (1860-1943), wife of the American composer Arthur Foote (1853-1937). See Key to Correspondents.

C. Hobbs: This may be Charles C. Hobbs (1835-1917), local historian in South Berwick. He is a grandson of Olive Wallingford Cushing of South Berwick, as is Frederick Wallingford Whitridge.
    It is possible however, that Jewett refers to South Berwick grocer, Charles E. Hobbs (1844-1941). See Business Block, the Old Berwick Historical Society

the Hayes and the Ferguson girls and Jourdin Ferguson and that golden time: The Hayes and Ferguson families were old and prominent South Berwick families. As indicated above, "the golden time" is likely to include time Frederick Whitridge spent with family in South Berwick during his childhood.

Your sister is so much distracted The Ponce de Leon was one of the hotels that regularly employed bands to entertain guests during the winter season. See note and photograph above. It appears Jewett writes in the loggia or in a room that faces the courtyard and fountain, with windows open, allowing her to hear the band, and people passing and gossiping.

beaucoup des personnes: French. Many people.

Fifteen rooms of Vanderbilts: Thomas Graham reports in Chapter 17 of Mr. Flagler's St. Augustine, that in March of 1896, Cornelius Vanderbilt reserved nearly 20 rooms for "a huge retinue of friends." He quotes a contemporary: "Mr. Vanderbilt is very unassuming, the ladies and gentlemen going about in the most democratic fashion while here." But he notes that "the Vanderbilts usually dined upstairs in a private room set up for them, with their own headwaiter to bring up dishes from the main kitchen below."

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 Mary Rice Jewett

[16 March 1896] [Date penciled in another hand ]
Monday Morning in the train

[ Begin hotel stationary letterhead ]

Hotel Ponce de Leon
Gillis and Murray, Managers
St. Augustine, Fla.

[ End letterhead ]

Dear Mary

Here we are all started and so pleased to be going home, though it is so very pleasant to stay at our fine palace of the Ponce de Leon. Who do you think saw us to the train but Mr. & Mrs. Edmunds!* Who came up from the south where he had been fishing -- with such a sunburnt nose and great friendliness. They [came ? written over another word] Saturday night but we didn't see

[ Page 2 ]

them until yesterday morning since when we have played together pretty steadily. They were so sorry we were coming away for they mean to stay until Saturday and your sister is decked with violets presented by old Mr. Whitridge* -- who was delightful to the last & hopes to come to S Berwick -- some time. He had seen the Berwick paper in the New England* & couldn't say enough about it -- I really enjoyed him very much -- I dare say we shall find it cold on getting home but we dont

[ Page 3 ]

much care & mean to be careful. We shall not stay long in New York. I am afraid from what you say that I am not likely to find you there but we can "play something else" -- A. F.* interpolates a grateful message about the bonnet which she appreciates all over again ^it^ having been laid aside in the warm season for Madame Howard's hat* --
-- As we go along all the pear trees & cherry trees look

[ Page 4 ]

so pretty in full bloom. I wonder how far the Hermione* has got through the big seas.

    I am going to post this at Jacksonville.* We hope to reach the Albemarle tomorrow afternoon{.}* The train gets in between three & four.
    With ever so much love.
        Sarah.

Mr. Whitridge was so pleased with the pictures you sent -- of the house. Perhaps you could

[Up the left side of page 1]

come up to 148* to meet us. A. F. just came out with the same [wish written over letters] -- It would give you [a written over letters] nice little change. "prepared to stay a few days" A. F. says!!

Notes

Mr. & Mrs. Edmunds: George Franklin Edmunds (1828 - 1919) was a Republican U.S. Senator from Vermont. In 1852 he married Susan Marsh (1831-1916); they had two daughters, Mary (1854-1936) and Julia (1861-1882). Jewett and Fields enjoyed friendly association with the family during their 1888 stay in Aiken, SC. See the letters of March 1888.

Mr. Whitridge: See note above on Frederick Wallingford Whitridge [March 16, 1896 Monday Morning].

Berwick paper in the New England: Jewett's historical essay, "The Old Town of Berwick" appeared in New England Magazine in July 1894.

A. F.: Annie Fields. See Key to Correspondents.

Madame Howard's hat: In the 1890s, Mme. Howard operated a millinery shop at 6 Beacon Street off Charles Street, Boston. Images of some her more elaborate creations may be found at Pinterest.

Hermione: Jewett and her friends have recently returned from a cruise aboard Henry L. Pierce's steam yacht, the Hermione.

Jacksonville: In northern Florida.

Albemarle: The Albemarle Hotel, Madison Square West, New York City. See letters below.

This is a transcription of Letter 11 in Box 6 of Sarah Orne Jewett, letters to Mary Rice Jewett in the archive of Historic New England: Jewett, (Theodora) Sarah Orne (1849-1909), sister, January 4, 1896 - April 15, 1896\n Box 6, Folder 3, Letter 11. Transcribed and annotated by Terry Heller, Coe College.

Sarah Orne Jewett to Mary Rice Jewett

[ 17 March 1896 ] [Date penciled in another hand ]

Tuesday Evening

[Begin hotel letterhead]

Albemarle Hotel,*
Madison Square West,
New York.
O. B. Libbey, Prop'r.

[End letterhead]

Dear Mary.

Our long stretch is over and we got here just before dark an hour or so late which isn't very much for a southern train. I had my cold come back with seven others -- (or caught a new one I dont know which) and last night and today have seemed pretty long. I had a brow-ago almost -- like the one John had once* so that I could hardly see all day and the sun on the snow blinded me to pieces, but now I am here and we have a good supper of some tea &

[ Page 2 ]

bread & butter broiled together and feel much better so as to take notice. Your dear letter and Stubbys* met me when I came and as I finished my supper first I had such a good time reading. And they were appreciated by 2 ants. Only think of dear Cousin Maria's* having come! I can seem to see her sitting by the window -- and I hope to really see her in a [very ?] few days -- (I wish you could run up for one night to go & see the portraits with me. Stubby would come over and pass the night to keep company.)
I shall come right home (unless the Hermione* has got in before me) and then I shall have to

[ Page 3, 2nd sheet of stationary ]

come back to get my things for Mrs. Fields & Lilian will be busy enough and I have got stowaway shells, beside a share of shells in common. How I with I had a lot of lovely things to bring you all! I was sure of great shoppings in "The Windward Islands" -- but almost everywhere we went the things in the stores were from here & poor looking, and we could rarely find nice shells and were always told of tortoise shell & baskets down the islands. But you would forgive a sister if she came home pleasant I felt sure! (A. F. sends her love. She was hoping to see you as much as I, but we can make other arrangements.)

[ Page 4 ]

We like the hotel very much you know the old Brevoort people* are here, and we have got such nice little rooms with a bathroom up one flight just what we like
= I dont know how I shall feel about staying on -- if my cold troubles me as much as today I had rather go right on, for there is a lot of melting snow, and I couldn't get about. But it does feel ameliorated tonight. I wish you could see the puckers in my green dress! -- I don't think you ever saw so many but I had to do it up to keep the damp out & keep it in a locker. Goodbye with much love to all.
from Sarah.

Notes

Albemarle Hotel: A 1904 ad in McClure's Magazine 22 (p. 27), describes the Albemarle: "The location of this house is most desirable, being central to all places of amusement and convenient to the shopping district. O. B. Libbey, Prop., (for twenty-five years at the Brevoort House.)" Historic Hotels of the Village says: "The Hotel Brevoort was built in 1845 by the Brevoort family, owners of a large tract of land stretching from 5th Avenue to the Bowery and extending north of 14th Street. The hotel was demolished in 1954 and a new residential building, aptly named the Brevoort, still stands today. The hotel, and its later café, were frequented by heads of state as well as Village artists and writers."

brow-ago: Presumably Jewett is fancifully spelling "brow ague," referring to neuralgic pain in the temple, as in a sinus headache.

John: John Tucker, a Jewett family employee. See Key to Correspondents.

Stubby: Jewett's nephew, Theodore (Stubby) Jewett Eastman. See Key to Correspondents.

Cousin Maria: Blanchard, in Sarah Orne Jewett, mentions a Cousin Maria (p. 36) as residing in Portsmouth, NH. Probaby this is Maria Parker Perry Robinson (1817-1912) is mentioned in other letters as the mother by her first marriage of a childhood friend of Thomas Bailey Aldrich, Captain William Gardner Shackford (1840-1907).

Hermione: The Windward Islands were the intended destination of the exhausting cruise on The Hermione just completed, but rough seas frustrated the party's plans, and Puerto Rico marked the outward limit of their tour. The Hermione's party consisted of: Jewett, Annie Fields (A.F.), Thomas Bailey (T.B.A.) and Lilian Aldrich and their servant, Bridget, and the yacht owner and host, Henry Lillie Pierce. See Key to Correspondents.

Brevoort people: See note above for the Albemarle Hotel.

The manuscript of this letter is held in the archive of Historic New England, Jewett Family Papers, Box 6, Folder 3, Letter 4. Transcribed and annotated by Terry Heller, Coe College.

Sarah Orne Jewett to Mary Rice Jewett

[18 March 1896 ]* [Date penciled in another hand ]

Wednesday

[Begin hotel letterhead]

Albemarle Hotel,*
Madison Square West,
New York.
O. B. Libbey, Prop'r.

[End letterhead]

Dear Mary,

I just send a word to say that my cold still rages and you might hear loud sneezes if you listened, but I hope to be out tomorrow. It seemed wiser to keep in though it is a lovely day -- I suppose this will delay our getting back as I want to do a few errands against my summer clothes. There are those who have been as far as Stern's* this morning, and had a beautiful time. I was so

[ Page 2 ]

much obliged for your letter & Becca's{.} Give my love to her & to Liddy* and to "all" -----
    In haste
        Sarah

I do hope Cousin Fanny & Auntie* can come -- We'll have a great time.

Notes

Stern's: Wikipedia says: "Stern Brothers was founded in 1867 by Isaac, Louis and Benjamin Stern, sons of German Jewish immigrants. In that year, they began selling dry goods in Buffalo, New York. From these humble beginnings, the Stern Brothers became an important merchandising family in New York City.
    "In 1868, they moved to New York City and opened a one-room store at 367 Sixth Avenue. In 1879, the store was again relocated to larger quarters at 110 West 23rd Street. Outgrowing the store at 110 West 23rd Street, Stern Brothers erected a new structure at the same location which became the new flagship store in 1878. It was noted for its cast-iron facade at 32 to 36 West 23rd Street and 23 to 35 West 22nd Street."

Becca ... Liddy: Jewett family employees, probably, about whom little is known.

Cousin Fanny & Auntie: For Jewett, Auntie often means Mrs. Helen Williams Gilman (1817-1905). See Key to Correspondents. However, as the 19 March letter to Mary below indicates, Jewett is expecting a visit from her Exeter relatives upon her return, and, therefore, she may mean her Aunt Lucretia.
    Cousin Fanny (sometimes Fannie) would then be Frances F. Perry (1861-1953), Jewett's mother's niece, the daughter of Dr. William G. Perry and Lucretia M. Fisk. See Cary, Letters of Sarah Orne Jewett.

The manuscript of this letter is held in the archive of Historic New England, Jewett Family Papers, Box 6, Folder 3, Letter 5. Transcribed and annotated by Terry Heller, Coe College.

Sarah Orne Jewett to Mary Rice Jewett

[19 March 1896] [Date penciled in another hand ]

Thursday

[Begin hotel letterhead]

Albemarle Hotel,*
Madison Square West,
New York.
O. B. Libbey, Prop'r.

[End letterhead]

Dear Mary

I feel better today but it is a great rain so there is no thought of going out. It is a good thing to have this great cold over, so that I can start fair when I get home. I don't think we shall go until Saturday at any rate. there are those who are so pleasant Mary and ran out to 23rd St. this morning between the drops. Dont have the company from [Exeter ? written over letters] *

[ Page 2 ]

until next week -- I should be so distressed to miss a beautiful occasion. Thank you so much for the Transcript* [re ?] -- they have beguiled a poor sister much this day. Susan Travers* has been here, as nice as ever and I haven't been unhappy though I should like to have spent the day at the Metropolitan museum!* We have been counting on this couple of days for some time -- A. F. sends her love -- With much love to all

Sarah.

Notes

company from Exeter: Several of Jewett's mother's family, the Perrys, resided in Exeter, NH. See above the 18 March letter to Mary.

Transcript: The Boston Evening Transcript.

Susan Travers: See Key to Correspondents.

Metropolitan museum: Wikipedia says: "The New York State Legislature granted the Metropolitan Museum of Art an Act of Incorporation on April 13, 1870 'for the purpose of establishing and maintaining in said City a Museum and Library of Art, of encouraging and developing the Study of the Fine Arts, and the application of Art to manufacture and natural life, of advancing the general knowledge of kindred subjects, and to that end of furnishing popular instruction and recreations.'
The museum first opened on February 20, 1872, housed in a building located at 681 Fifth Avenue in New York City."

A. F.: Annie Fields. See Key to Correspondents.

The manuscript of this letter is held in the archive of Historic New England, Jewett Family Papers, Box 6, Folder 3, Letter 6. Transcribed and annotated by Terry Heller, Coe College.

Sarah Orne Jewett to Louisa Loring Dresel

Monday

[ Late March, 1896 ]

My dearest Loulie

I am so grieved to think that I cannot get to see you today but I am so miserable yet after last week's illness in New York and so anxious not to fall ill again here that I can do nothing but stay in by the fire. A few days at home will set me up and then

[ Page 2 ]

I can come back. It would be too much for dear A.F.* to have me upon her hands again ... A touch of the grippe* or whatever it was has made me very shaky & useless. But I think and think of you dear and somehow live over again my waiting and watching like yours, of three or

[ Page 3 ]

four years ago. I hope you will feel something of the love and nearness I feel for you Loulie dear and that I can be really nearer to you in every sense later on.

Send for your "Aunties" dear. -- I hope your aunt 'Kiddy'* will be well enough to come to you. It will be the greatest comfort you can give her

[ Page 4 ]

in what is ^is & will be^ a great sorrow* to her to have you turn right to her -- I learned this myself, for I think one is mistaken in trying to 'save' people -- She will want to be 'the one' as children say --- they all will. I dare say you would think of this before me, but you know I am older and alas I know! And I hate to think of you alone though one must be alone no matter.

[ Up the left side and down the top margin of page 1 ]

how many there are ... And when the suffering is all done you will feel a great peace as if it shone back to you from the new life just beginning.

with love and thought of you. S. O. J.

Notes

Late March, 1896: Almost certainly, Jewett refers in this letter to the death of Louisa Dresel's mother, Anna Loring on 23 March 1896. Jewett implies that the weather is chilly, making it hard for her to go out as she recovers from her recent illness in New York, probably following her grueling winter 1896 cruise in a stormy Caribbean. This would be another reason why she would not want to burden Annie Fields, who also was exhausted by the cruise. Jewett does not mention Dresel's mother, but suggests turning to her aunts for comfort. Further, the reference to Louisa watching for Jewett a few years earlier (actually about 4 and one half), is likely a reference to the death of Jewett's mother in October of 1891.

A. F.: Annie Adams Fields. See Key to Correspondents.

'Kiddy': Caroline Howard King (1822-1909), called "Kiddy" by her family, was born in Salem, lived there until 1866, then for thirty years in Boston, after which she returned for the rest of her life to Salem. She authored When I Lived in Salem 1822-1866 (Brattleboro, Vt., 1937) -- for which Dresel wrote the preface. (Richard Cary)

great sorrow: Louisa's father died in July 1890, her mother on 23 March 1896.

The manuscript of this letter is held by the Columbia University (New York) Library in Special Collections, Jewett. Transcription from a microfilm copy and annotation by Terry Heller, Coe College.

Sarah Orne Jewett to Caroline Howard King*

148 Charles Street
Thursday
[ Late March 1896 ]

Dear Cousin Caroline

I thought of you when I first waked up this morning, and with so much love -- I wish that I could say anything that would give you a little comfort in so great a loss* but I cannot help remembering that your own love and memory comfort you best. And there does come such a new feeling of nearness, and

[ Page 2 ]

complete understanding. I sometimes think that mis-understanding is the only thing to fear! -- and all that is forever swept away. I like to think that Loulie* is with you -- it is a blessing to her and will be her best comfort.

Please do not forget that my heart is with you, even if I cannot go.

Yours very affectionately and with dear remembrance of her --

Sarah

[ Page 3 ]

I hope to see Mrs Cabot* today.

Notes

Caroline Howard King: While it is not certain that this letter is addressed to Caroline Howard King, it seems likely, and if that is the case, this may another of several letters Jewett wrote upon the occasion of the death of Louisa Dresel's mother on 23 March 1896. See Key to Correspondents. The recipient and this date remain somewhat uncertain because King is not yet known to be related to Jewett. She was sister to Dresel's grandmother.

Loulie: Louisa Dresel. See Key to Correspondents.

Mrs. Cabot: See Key to Correspondents.

The manuscript of this letter is held by the Small Library, University of Virginia, Special Collections MSS 6218, Sarah Orne Jewett Papers. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.

Sarah Orne Jewett to Louisa Loring Dresel

Friday March 27th

[ 1896 ]*

[ Begin letterhead ]

South Berwick.
Maine.

[ End letterhead ]

My dear Loulie

You are so often in my thoughts -- after all, one sometimes comes nearer by thinking than by speech and if I were still in town I could not go to see you. I think of you particularly today when you will be finding it very strange to have all hurry at end, and that there are fewer things coming to you for decisions. You and Ellis* have had to decide things more and more in these last months

[ Page 2 ]

and have grown used to new cares. One does get used to all that and to taking responsibilities -- it is when new and unforeseen conditions come that you will be always thinking that she would know about them. I believe I miss my mother's* counsel much more in new affairs than in familiar ones.

-- I wonder if one thing is paining you now as it pained me and if I cannot help you a little. I was so distressed by all I saw my mother go through, and I became aware when she was gone of many sufferings

[ Page 3 ]

which I thought I had not felt half enough at the time, and it seemed to me as if they would forever haunt me sleeping and waking. But dear Loulie they do fade out and time is a great healer. If they trouble you now be sure they will not always trouble you. All the piteousness and ignominy of a long illness fades out of mind and will not spoil your peace any more than they will hers. I want to tell you this and to tell Ellis. And one learns over again that a larger life opens for us just as it does to the dear one who has

[ Page 4 ]

gone; those who are wiser than us help so very much at such times.

    I love* A. F.'s verse*

    Still in thy love I trust
    Supreme in Death since deathless is thy essence
    For, putting off the dust
    Thou hast but blest me with your presence.
_______________________________________

    I love to think of your dear Aunt Sallie Cary's* being with you -- She came to me that morning like the dearest and kindest of friends, and gave me a bit of sunshine to keep for ever in remembrance. And I know you will be a great comfort to your other Aunties. I send you

[ Written up the left margin and then down the top margin of page 1 ]

Dr. Morton's* card. She came after I had come home that day & A.F. had gone out. The real feeling of what she wrote in her little message touched me very much and you will like to see it. Goodbye dear Loulie{.} I shall be thinking of you and I shall see you next week.

S.O.J.

Notes

1896: Louisa Dresel's mother, Anna Loring Dresel, died on 23 March 1896.

Ellis: For Ellis Dresel, see Louisa Loring Dresel.

mother's: Jewett's mother, Caroline Frances Perry died on 21 October 1891.

love: Jewett underlines this word twice.

A. F.'s verse: Annie Adams Fields. See Key to Correspondents. Her poem, "Still in Thy Love I Trust" appears in The Singing Shepherd (1895). Jewett quotes the first stanza.

Aunt Sallie Cary's: Sarah Gray Cary (1830-1898) was a younger sister of Elizabeth Cabot Cary Agassiz. See Key to Correspondents. Though Lousia's mother was a close friend of the Cary family, no evidence has yet been found to establish that she was a relative. Therefore, it appears the "Aunt" is an honorary term in this case. See Lucy Allen Paton, Elizabeth Cary Agassiz: A Biography (1919).

Dr. Morton's: Dr. Helen Morton (1834-1916) had offices successively on Marlboro, Boylston, and Chestnut streets in Boston. Richard Cary says that Jewett once characterized her as "touchy {touching?} in her doctorly heart and more devoted in her private capacity as a friend."

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.

Annie Adams Fields to Lilian and Thomas Bailey Aldrich

Saturday

148 Charles St.

[ 28 March 1896 ]*

Welcome home! dearest Lily -- and dear T.B.!

I am sending back the little trunk with a heartfelt thanks not only for this but for all you have both done to make us happy during the Cruise -- "Everybody loves you", or could would and should who shared the fortunes of the "Hermione." Sarah* has been quite

[ Page 2 ]

poorly. [ deletion ] She has now gone to South Berwick to return in another week.

your loving

Annie Fields.

Notes

1896: Fields refers to the Caribbean cruise of Fields and Jewett in the company of Annie Fields and Thomas and Lilian Aldrich, as guests of Henry Pierce on his steam yacht, the Hermione in January-March 1896. Though the letter could have been written a week later on 4 April, very likely it was written on this Saturday, during a week Jewett spent at home as she continued recovering from the effects of the cruise. Fields's diary of the cruise shows that her relationship with Lilian may need some adjustment after the tensions arising from the bad weather that curtailed their itinerary.

Sarah: Sarah Orne Jewett. See Key to Correspondents.

The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library of Harvard University: Thomas Bailey Aldrich Papers, MS Am 1429, Box 6, Items 1446-1538. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.

Sarah Wyman Whitman to Sarah Orne Jewett

April 3, 1896. At Sea.

The "deep" wasn't very bad, but somehow I succumbed with more than my usual facility (spite of the presence of dear S. C. W.'s Elixir);* that admirable weapon the Human Will going to pieces as if it were made of flax; and reducing one to terms of which we will not speak for very scorn. But now I have regained a human composure. . . . Not having thought I naturally have not read, till now I find myself wandering in the sweet mystic pages of Le Tresor des Humbles,* where I find some words that have much truth and beauty. I think you will have read it too, and will have believed that the soul is entering upon such possessions as are therein described. Ah, how the "dream saves the world," how real is that which lies just out of sight it may be, but not out of feeling.

Notes

S. C. W.'s Elixir: It is probable that a mutual friend, Sarah Cabot Wheelwright, was visiting Whitman at this time. Wheelwright (1835-1917) was an artist, married to Andrew Cunningham Wheelwright. See Key to Correspondents.

Le Tresor des Humbles: The Belgian author, Maurice Maeterlinck (1862-1949) wrote Le Tresor des Humbles (1896, The Treasure of the Humble, trans. 1897). Presumably, "dream saves the world" is from this work, but the quotation has not yet been located. Research assistance: Gabe Heller.

This transcription appears in Letters, Sarah Wyman Whitman. Cambridge, MA: Riverside Press, 1907, "Letters to Sarah Orne Jewett: 1882-1903," pp. 61-109.

Sarah Orne Jewett to Thomas Wentworth Higginson

148 Charles Street

Wednesday April 9th [ 1896 ]*

Dear Colonel Higginson

Your most kind note has been taking a Southern journey on its own account but I glad to say that it has sought the North again and comes to my hand today. I don't know why I said gaff and meant sprit!* I can see the sail as I saw it when I was writing and I know better! You see how much I needed a winter

[ Page 2 ]

cruise in the Bahamas and West Indies* to make me more accurate in using a sea phrase?

You give me great pleasure by saying such kind things about the two sketches -- or rather the three sketches.* Mr. Scudder* left out their ^sub^ titles of which I thought best to scatter in now and then at the head of my divisions, but I feel as if some persons would take

[ Page 3 ]

the Pointed Firs to be a poor invertebrate sort of serial.

I am truly sorry that you have had such a siege of illness, and I hope that the month since you wrote your letter has done much for you. I think it may seem unsympathetic to suggest that my own diet in ~~the~~ regions of the Caribbean sea on the other side of the republic of Haiti and in the Navassa passage* makes yours of the winter sound

[ Page 4 ]

like a banquet! Trade winds taken the wrong way can make a monstrous sea: but when half a dozen of the crew are in the last agonies no wonder that a reflective passenger goes below and reads the letters of Madame de Sévigné* and declines a summons to luncheon.

With kindest regards and a hope that you are much better in these bright spring days

Yours most truly

Sarah O. Jewett

[ Up the left and top margins of page 1 ]

I have very good news from Madame Blanc* who always keeps kindest remembrance. Her Les Americains Chez Elles has gone through many large editions. It is meant for France but it has pages that are good for America too.

Notes

1896: This letter was composed shortly after Jewett's return from her winter 1896 Caribbean cruise and while The Country of the Pointed Firs was appearing in serial in Atlantic Monthly.

gaff ... sprit: F. O. Mathiessen in his biography of Jewett writes:

Thomas Wentworth Higginson, after reading the second section in the 'Atlantic,' told her, 'That last paper of yours is perfectly fascinating -- your trip to the island -- nothing in "Deephaven" is more redolent of bayberry and wild roses .... But are you sure you are right in putting a gaff to a spritsail?' And the rest of this letter is a long discussion of the point with drawings of various sails.

The word "sprit" does not appear in The Country of the Pointed Firs, and "gaff" appears only once, in Chapter 8, Green Island. It is exactly the same in the March Atlantic installment. It appears that if Higginson caught an error on this point, Jewett lost track of it as she prepared the book publication.

West Indies: Jewett in the company of Annie Fields and Thomas and Lilian Aldrich were the guests of Henry Pierce on his steam yacht, the Hermione, for a January-March 1896 Caribbean cruise.

three sketches: It is not perfectly clear why Jewett identifies three sketches. The second Atlantic installment of The Country of the Pointed Firs had appeared in March, with chapters 8-11.

Mr. Scudder: Horace Scudder. See Key to Correspondents.

Navassa passage: Navassa Island is a small, uninhabited island between Jamaica and Haiti.

letters of Madame de Sévigné: Marie de Rabutin-Chantal, marquise de Sévigné (1626-1696). Her correspondence with her daughter, more than 1500 letters, was published between 1725 and 1734.

Madame Blanc ... Les Americains Chez Elles: Marie Thérèse de Solms Blanc. See Key to Correspondents. Her notes on visiting the United States, American Women at Home, appeared in 1896.

The manuscript of this letter is held by the American Antiquarian Society, Worcester, MA in Sarah Orne Jewett Papers, Misc. mss. boxes “J.” Transcribed and annotated by Terry Heller. Coe College.

Sarah Orne Jewett to Horace E. Scudder

148 Charles Street

Boston

Friday afternoon

[Spring 1896]

Dear Mr. Scudder:

I thank you for your very kind note. I have been hoping to go to 4 Park Street every day but I came back ill, and the owner of what you might call either a lame or a game eye, so that both business and pleasure have been neglected. I have the better part of a new sketch done of Mrs. Todd and an island hermitage¹ and I shall finish it before I do anything else.

I hope that you and Mrs. Scudder have had a good winter, and I shall ask you eagerly for news from Bryn Mawr.²
Yours sincerely,

S. O. Jewett

Notes

¹ Published as untitled Chapter XIV of The Country of the Pointed Firs in the Atlantic Monthly, LXXVIII (July 1896), 83-86; called "The Hermitage" when issued in book form later that year.

² Scudder's daughter Sylvia was in her freshman year at Bryn Mawr College at this time.

This letter is edited and annotated by Richard Cary in Sarah Orne Jewett Letters; the ms. is held by Colby College Special Collections, Waterville, Maine.

Dame Ellen Terry to Annie Adams Fields and Sarah Orne Jewett

The Bellevue Hotel:

15. April

[ 1896 ]*

My dear M^rs Fields & Miss* Jewett =

My first visit was to have been to you this morning, but I am laid up with a stupid violent cold & -- disaster! The Doctor says I must stay in bed until my dooty* forces me to the theater tonight -- I shall hope however to call tomorrow afternoon on on my way home from M^rs Dexters* -- I can't thank you enough for your lovely thought of me in sending the exquisite roses.

[ Page 2 ]

-- my rooms are fully of flowers, & it makes me very happy to be well remembered. Looking forward to seeing you in the dear old house I am affectionately

Yours -- & yours dear Miss Jewett

Ellen Terry --

Notes

1896: There is no solid foundation for this date. Ellen Terry in America; the Lyceum Tours, a University of Arizona master's thesis by Bernice M Gough Mahmoud, includes a chronological list of Ellen Terry's performances in North America. It shows no performances by Terry in Boston on or near April 15 during any of the several American tours of the Lyceum Company. The nearest is in 1896, when the company was in Boston 20-25 April.

Miss: The "&" is underlined twice.

dooty: Presumably Terry mocks the American doctor's pronunciation of "duty."

Dexters: Josephine Anna Moore Dexter. Key to Correspondents.

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 Edward Henry Clement

20 April

[ 1896 ]*

[ Begin letterhead ]

South Berwick.
Maine.

[ End letterhead ]

Dear Mr. Clement

This poem of Mrs Fields' seems to have been written on purpose for these new days of the old Great Games,* so I have copied it from the volume of The Singing Shepherd* hoping that you will find a place to reprint it. It might have a

[ Page 2 ]

word of 'heading'. I am so glad that the olive wreath* is still used ^at the games^ instead of a modern symbol of it.

With my kind regards

Yours sincerely

S. O. Jewett

Notes

1896: This date, in another hand, appears on the manuscript of this letter. 1896 marked the first "modern" international Olympic summer games, and this date is confirmed by the reprinting of the poem Jewett offers Clement in this letter..

Great Games: The 1896 summer Olympic games were held in Athens, Greece on 6-18 April. A Jewett relative, Henry Jewett Furber, Jr. in 1901 became president of the International Olympic Games Association of 1904.

The Singing Shepherd: Mr. Clement, editor-in-chief of the Boston Evening Transcript, did in fact reprint "The Coronal" from Annie Adams Fields' The Singing Shepherd (1895) on 23 April 1896, p. 8. This head-note appeared with the poem: "The giving of the wild olive wreaths made from the trees of Olympia to our young American winners of the old Greek games recalls Mrs. Field's [so written] beautiful poem in her late volume of verse: 'The Singing Shepherd.'"

The poem includes these stanzas:

Behold the white-robed band,
Holding the mightiest tribute Greece can give, --
    A little fading wreath!
The deed with Zeus shall live.

What needs he other gift,
The hero, with his living torch aflame,
    Held high until the hour
The godhead gild his name!

No dusty sign for him,
No flaunting pile to quicken Fortune's wheel!
    Only Demeter's leaf
And tears that downward steal.

olive wreath: According to Wikipedia, the first-place winners in 1896 events received a silver medal and an olive branch.

The manuscript of this letter is held in the Abernethy Collection; Special Collections and Archives, Middlebury College Library, Middlebury, VT, Jewett, Sarah Orne Letters to Edward Henry Clement, 1896, Box 8, Folder 15.
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.

Mary Elizabeth Gray Bell to Sarah Orne Jewett

[ Begin letterhead ]

UNDER THE ELM.

EXETER, NEW HAMPSHIRE.

[ End letterhead ]

[ 23 April 1896 ]*

My dear Sarah,

Last summer I had presented to me a new Life of La Fayette by Dr. Charlemagne Tower* -- (I mean written by him){.} I read it lately. I found in it his connection with Paul Jones* -- and in a note were given his references. I have copied the note in full for you -- for if the books are within your reach I think you will like

[ Page 2 ]

to look them up. Of course the Boston libraries can furnish them when you are there. Now all this may be bringing "coals to New-castle" -- but I thought it might so chance this information might be of service to you -- so ventured.

With love to you all --

Yours affec'ly

Mary E. Bell

Thursday morning
April the twenty-third.

Notes

1896: This is the only year between 1894 and 1901 in which 23 April fell on a Thursday.

Tower: Charlemagne Tower, The Marquis de La Fayette in the American Revolution (1894).

Paul Jones: John Paul Jones (1747-1792), naval hero of the American Revolution, is a main character in Jewett's final novel, The Tory Lover (1901).

The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library of Harvard University: Sarah Orne Jewett Correspondence I, Letters to Sarah Orne Jewett.
     Bell, Mary E., 1826-1904. 1 letter; [n.d.], bMS Am 1743 (20).
     This transcription is from a photocopy held by the Maine Women Writer's Collection, University of New England, Letters from Sarah Orne Jewett, 1875-1890, Box 2, Folder 99, Burton Trafton Jewett Research Collection.
    Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.

Hannah Parker Kimball to Sarah Orne Jewett

April 30 --

[ 1896 ]*

My dear Miss Jewett,

I am almost sure that you will not remember me although I met you once, long ago.

But I have from time to time gleaned so much pleasure from your delightful stories; & have, lately, felt so

[ Page 2 ]

much enjoyment in the possession of Mrs Field's Singing Shepherd,* given me by a friend, that I have asked Messrs Copeland & Day, who are getting out a little book for me, to send you an early copy.

You must not bother to acknowledge the same, for I doubt not

[ Page 3 ]

you are over whelmed with such attentions;* & I shall be wholly re-paid if you will accept the little volume, & if you & Mrs Fields will look at it, -- some time.

Believe me, with [ sincerest ? ] admiration for your work,

Very cordially yours

Hannah Parker Kimball.

Notes

1896: American poet, Hannah Parker Kimball (1861-1921), published two books with Copeland and Day during Jewett's lifetime: Soul & Sense (1896) and Victory and Other Verses (1897). It seems likely, though not certain, that Kimball wrote to Jewett about the first of these.
Kimball has corrected 20 to 30 in her date.

Singing Shepherd: Annie Adams Fields published her poetry collection, The Singing Shepherd, in 1895. Key to Correspondents.

attentions: Kimball appears to have added an "s" to this word. Also, she has clearly separated "over" and "whelmed" in this sentence, and also "some" and "time" in the next.

The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library of Harvard University, Cambridge, MA. bMS Am 1743 Box 3, Item 123 I. Letters to Sarah Orne Jewett.
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.

Sarah Orne Jewett to Rose Lamb

Monday [May] 11th, 1896,* South Berwick, Maine.

My dear Rose, -- I was in town again for a few days, last week; I mean week before last, and I thought of you and of Mrs. R -- ,* but I was more taken up with affairs than usual so that I could not manage to get to see you. Now I am so busy with some writing here that I cannot say when I shall get to town again. But tell Mrs. R -- that the only way is to keep at work! If I were she I should read half a dozen really good and typical stories over and over! Maupassant's "Ficelle" for pathos and tragic directness, for one, and some of Miss Thackeray's fairy stories, "Cinderella," for instance, which I have always admired very much, old-fashioned romance put into modern terms, and Miss Wilkins's story about getting the squashes in one frosty night, and the cats being lost! I can't remember its name though the story is so clear and exquisite to my mind, and Daudet's "La Chevre de M. Sequin [Seguin]" and "La Mule du Pape."* These are all typical and well proportioned in themselves and well-managed, and I speak of them because they come readily to my mind, and give one clear ideas of a beautiful way of doing things. One must have one's own method: it is the personal contribution that makes true value in any form of art or work of any sort.

I could write much about these things, but I do not much believe that it is worth while to say anything, but keep at work! If something comes into a writer's or a painter's mind the only thing is to try it, to see what one can do with it, and give it a chance to show if it has real value. Story-writing is always experimental, just as a water-color sketch is, and that something which does itself is the vitality of it. I think we must know what good work is, before we can do good work of our own, and so I say, study work that the best judges have called good and see why it is good; whether it is in that particular story, the reticence or the bravery of speech, the power of suggestion that is in it, or the absolute clearness and finality of revelation; whether it sets you thinking, or whether it makes you see a landscape with a live human figure living its life in the foreground.

Forgive this hasty note, which perhaps you will read to Mrs. R -- I could not say more just now if we were talking together.

Yours affectionately.

Notes

1896: Assuming that Fields has the correct year for this letter, then the only Monday to fall on the 11th was in May.

Mrs. R: This is likely to be a relative of the wife of Rose Lamb's brother, Horatio/Horace, who married Annie Lawrence Rotch. See Rose Lamb in Key to Correspondents.

Maupassant's "Ficelle" ... some of Miss Thackeray's fairy stories, "Cinderella," ... Miss Wilkins's story about getting the squashes in one frosty night, and the cats being lost! ... Daudet's "La Chevre de M. Seguin" and "La Mule du Pape":
    Guy de Maupassant's (1850-1893) collection of stories, Yvette. La Ficelle. Le Papa De Simon. Deux Amis. La Parure, first appeared posthumously in 1907 in French. However "La Ficelle" had been published in France in 1884.
    Anne Thackeray, Lady Ritchie's "Cinderella" appeared in Five Old Friends and a Young Prince (1868).
    Mary Reichardt identifies the Mary Wilkins Freeman story as "An Object of Love." She says "It was commissioned by Harper's Bazar for the Valentine's Day 1885 issue, and was later collected in a Humble Romance and Other Stories (Harper and Brothers, 1887), Freeman's first short story collection." For an analysis of the story see Reichardt, Mary Wilkins Freeman: A Study of the Short Fiction (1997). Reichardt points out that there is only one lost cat in the story.
    Jewett probably read Daudet's stories in French. She could have found "La Chevre de M. Seguin" in Baptiste Méras's collection Cinq Histoires published in the United States in 1899. "La Mule du Pape" appeared in the United States in Le Siége De Berlin, et D'autres Contes (1887) and again in Trois Contes Choisis (1891).

This letter appears in Annie Fields, Letters of Sarah Orne Jewett (1911), Transcribed by Annie Adams Fields, with notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.

Louise Imogen Guiney to Annie Adams Fields

[ 11 May 1896 ]*

Dear Mrs. Fields:

Was it you who sent me the telephone message about the memorial to Lord Tennyson?* It reached me by a small boy sent to the house, where I had been lying, pretty well tired, and on a short furlough from the Post-Office, all morning. It was signed "Miss Field," and I did not know ~~whence~~ ^from which place^ it came. And so it puzzled me a bit. But I told the boy to say 'Yes' for me, if you and Boston were at the end of the wire. If I guess right, I must go farther, and thank you for the honor you do me in asking me. I am always yours, to do what you like with. Cela m'éblouit,* as I heard the best Ruy

[ Page 2 ]

Blas* say so romantically the other night.

I hope Miss Jewett is at your side yet, and well, and looking out over what is to be the Embankment.* My love to you both.

Louise I. Guiney

11^th May: Auburndale, Mass.

Notes

1896: Though this letter is undated, clearly Guiney and Fields are corresponding about a memorial fund for the Tennyson Monument on Tennyson Down on the Isle of Wight, which was erected in the summer of 1897. This letter could have been composed in almost any year from 1893 to 1896; I have chosen the latest likely year.

garden: Guiney and Fields are communicating about a memorial to the British poet, Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809-1892). Guiney names several of his poems that she particularly admires.

Cela m'éblouit: French, "It dazzles me."

Ruy Blas: Ruy Blas (1838) is a tragedy by French author, Victor Hugo (1802-1885).

Miss Jewett: Sarah Orne Jewett. See Key to Correspondents.

Embankment: The Charles River Esplanade was completed in 1910, but planning and civic discussion of the project began as early as 1894.

The manuscript of this letter is held by the Huntington Library, San Marino, CA, in the James T. Fields collection Box 25: mss FI 1566. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.

Louise Imogen Guiney to Annie Adams Fields

[ late May 1896 ]*

Dear Mrs. Fields:

This is my match to ^help^ light the big beacon on the island downs, which I will thank you heartily to add to the fund. I can't help wishing there were two ciphers to the right of the numeral! which, as it is, cannot express even approximately what I should like to do for the man who made In Memoriam, The Two Voices, and The Revenge, and the little lyric about the Swaintson garden,* which inhabits me from a child.

[ Page 2 ]

This is a post-officing week, and I must "go back to my gallipots."* Love to you, and cheer for a pessimistic June, from

Yours devotedly,

L. G. Guiney.

Thursday evening.

Notes

late May 1896: Though this letter is undated, it almost certainly was composed in late May, after Guiney to Fields of 11 May 1896. The year is less certain, the memorial fund to which Guiney contributes almost certainly was active during this year. It is possible, however, that this letter could have been composed in almost any year from 1893 to 1896.

garden: Guiney and Fields are communicating about a memorial to the British poet, Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809-1892). Guiney names several of his poems that she particularly admires.
This letter indicates that Fields is collecting contributions for the Tennyson Monument on Tennyson Down on the Isle of Wight. This monument was erected in the summer of 1897.

gallipots: It is not clear why Guiney has placed this passage in quotation marks. A gallipot, traditionally, is a small earthenware jar used by apothecaries.

The manuscript of this letter is held by the Huntington Library, San Marino, CA, in the James T. Fields collection Box 25: mss FI 1550. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.

Sarah Orne Jewett to Sarah Wyman Whitman

Wednesday

[ May/June 1896 ]*

Dear fellow

Your note gave me a great joy. I didn't know that you were to be here so soon -- quite so soon and you seem to have just 'lighted like a bird out of the sky. Which makes me pull hard at my lilac knot and wonder how long the knot is going to hold . . As for

[ Page 2 ]

the Hat: it is a very strange occurrence because only laziness (and [ busyness ? ]) has kept me from sending a note and a money order to hurry up a Hat the elements being severe upon the last production of Lebel Stritter* -- and a general feeling of being left roofless in the wind, had begun to settle down. These things ought to be communicated to the

[ Page 3 ]

Society for Psychical Research -- *

Oh dear how I long to see you! I can write no more foolishness but send love and love always -- I have been reading Le Tresor* with curious interest and delight -- there is such a touch of inheritance now & then of the great line of Fénelon* The last

[ Page 4 ]

place I should have looked for him would have been in a book of the line of Maeterlink. We must speak of these things.

I wish you was right here: there is lilacs in [ bloom corrected ] and dandelions, and the fields are green and there is some unusual glass in the Stone Abbey on the hill.* Art and nature now go hand in hand in Berwick.

S.O.J.

Notes

May 1896: 1896 is the earliest year Jewett could have read Maeterlinck's book. That lilacs are blooming in South Berwick indicates that month probably is May or possibly June.

Lebel Stritter: Hiekel & Lebel Stritter was a Paris hat-maker.

Society for Psychical Research: The American Society for Psychical Research was founded in 1884 to direct scientific research into what appeared to be supernatural phenomena. Wikipedia.

Le Tresor: Belgian author Maurice Maeterlinck (1862-1949). Jewett refers to his essay collection: Le Trésor des Humbles (The Treasure of the Humble) (1896). Wikipedia describes the essays as "deeply reflective and mystical."

Fénelon: French clergyman and author, François Fénelon (1651-1715). Wikipedia.

Stone Abbey on the hill: Probably Jewett refers to Stonehurst Manor in Intervale, NH, the home of Helen Bigelow Merriman. Whitman designed stained glass for the manor. Key to Correspondents. Another possibility is the comparatively new Fogg Memorial Building at the Berwick Academy, completed in 1894.

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 Samuel Sidney McClure

South Berwick Maine

3 June [ 1896 ]

Dear Mr. McClure

I will send you one or two short sketches for your youths department between now and August -- My serial in St. Nicholas* has given me a new interest in such work, but I do not wish to undertake a long piece of writing -- How your work

[ Page 2 ]

has grown! I like to think that I had to do with its beginning* --

Yours very truly

Sarah O. Jewett.

I have not forgotten the sketch for older people* which I promised you last year. Indeed I was thinking it over today.

Notes

1896: As the notes below indicate, this letter is likely to have been composed soon after Jewett's "Betty Leicester's English Christmas" appeared in St. Nicholas.

serial for St. Nicholas: Jewett published two serials in St. Nicholas, "A Bit of Color" (1889), which was incorporated into Betty Leicester (1890) and "Betty Leicester's English Christmas" in 1895-6. This letter seems to suggest that Jewett plans to submit stories for McClure's Magazine, which began publication in 1893.

beginning: Jewett contributed to the first issue of McClure's Magazine in June 1893, introducing "Human Documents: Portraits of Distinguished People."

sketch for older people: Jewett is not known to have published any fiction for younger readers in McClure's Magazine. Her first story to appear there was "Bold Words at the Bridge" in April 1899.

The manuscript of this letter is held by the Small Library, University of Virginia, Special Collections MSS 6218, Sarah Orne Jewett Papers. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.

Sarah Orne Jewett to Annie Adams Fields

Tuesday --

[ Mid-June 1896 ]*

[ Begin letterhead ]

South Berwick.

Maine.

[ End letterhead ]

Dearest Annie

I have just been putting some silk night gown cases into an envelope for Susan & Miss Appleton -- and now I feel as if I had seen them off. How pleasant it sounds about the teachers and your Sunday with dear little Miss Frances!*

This is the right kind of a day for Mrs. Dexter*

[ Page 2 ]

to come down, but there is no word of her yet! I wish she were coming somehow. I dont get on with my work very well, and it worries me. Yesterday I felt as if I had toiled all day & came at nothing like the fishermen,* but it has been very trying weather until today which is beautiful. I wish I

[ Page 3 ]

could see my dear Fuff* -- -- but I almost hope that Agnes Irwin* wont come until next week. The time flies so fast here as you know with people coming and going and many things to think of. I do hope to keep at my desk but the fault is mainly in me, I suppose, when I cant. A nice busy little person is at work in Manchester*

[ Page 4 ]

and that's a comfort. . .

I have just had such a nice present of Auccassin & Nicolette in one of Copeland & Days little blue & white books from the Author -- Mr E. W. Thomson.* Have you seen him ever? I cant remember -- but I must send a note to him. With dearest love Pinny.*

Notes

Mid-June 1896: This tentative date is supported by Jewett's receiving a gift copy of a book published in that year. The letter probably was written during the warmer months, when Fields stayed at her summer house in Manchester-by-the-Sea. See notes below.
If this date is correct, then Jewett probably was having difficulty completing her work on The Country of the Pointed Firs, which appeared in book form late in 1896.

Susan & Miss Appleton: In other letters of 1896, Jewett frequently mentions together Susan Travers and Mary (Minnie) Worthen Appleton (1886 - 1965), both of whom Jewett met in Newport, RI.

little Miss Frances: This person has not been identified. Possibilities include Frances (Fanny) Morse and Frances Willard.

Mrs. Dexter: Jewett may refer to Josephine Anna Moore (1846-1937), who was the second wife of Chicago lawyer Wirt Dexter (1832-1890). She returned to her Boston home after her husband's death, where she died, though she was buried with him in Chicago.

the fishermen: Probably Jewett alludes to the Bible, Luke 5, in which Jesus encourages Simon to try fishing again after his crew caught no fish during a night of toil.

Fuff: A nickname for Fields. See Key to Correspondents.

Agnes Irwin: See Key to Correspondents.

Agnes Irwin:.

busy little person is at work in Manchester: Jewett refers to Annie Fields, whose summer home was in Manchester-by-the-Sea, MA. Fields published Authors and Friends in 1896 and Life and Letters of Harriet Beecher Stowe in 1897.

Mr E. W. Thomson: Canadian author, Edward William Thomson (1849 - 1924) produced a rhymed version of the M. S. Henry translation of This is of Auccassin and Nicolette: A Song-tale of True Lovers in 1896.

Pinny: Pinny Lawson, a nickname for Jewett. See Key to Correspondents.

The manuscript of this letter is held by the Huntington Library, San Marino, CA, in the James T. Fields papers: mss FL 5554. This manuscript has been damaged by water, making parts of the transcription less than normally certain. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.

Sarah Orne Jewett to Mary Rice Jewett

Sunday

[14 June 1896]*

Dear Mary

Only think of Mrs. Claflin’s being dead!* We were so surprised -- it seemed as if it must be Mr. Claflin. Mrs. Fields* saw her just before she came down here. I suppose the funeral will be Tuesday and so I shall not come home tomorrow night as expected. I am pretty sure you will want to go to the funeral. I think we ought and if it is Tuesday I will meet you at the club. The last time I saw her was while Miss Kingsley was in Boston: how one only remembers the kindness at such a time and forgets everything else. I have been wondering if Mrs. Ellis wont come & stay with her father. Arthur & his wife* have let their house up the shore here and were going to Europe & I wonder if they may not be gone.

The company here is getting on nicely. They are going in the morning. I wish you were here to see them Susan* is so engaging. Mrs. Whitman* is coming to dinner tonight. I shouldn’t have had very pleasant weather at Conway,* but every opportunity to go over the house. I wonder if you have been detained from church another Sunday! I shall see you so soon that I can tell things. I have been doing a little writing yesterday & today so my beak is up again. A poor sister sends much love & love from A.F. Mrs. Cabot* is really better but she still looks pretty sick. Good bye with love to all from

Sarah

Notes

14 June 1896: A handwritten note on this transcription reads:1894? However, the exact date is indicated by the reference to the death of Mary Claflin, which took place on Saturday, 13 June 1896.

Mrs. Claflin’s: Mary Bucklin Davenport Claflin. See Key to Correspondents.

Mrs. Fields: Annie Adams Fields, also called A.F. See Key to Correspondents.

Miss Kingsley: The identity of Miss Kingsley is not yet known. Two possibilities are Mary Kingsley (1862-1900), the British writer and explorer and niece of Anglican priest and author, Charles Kingsley, and Mary St Leger Kingsley (1862-1931), the British novelist daughter of Charles Kingsley. Whether either of these women visited the United States and met Mrs. Claflin in the 1890s is not yet known. It is quite possible that another less illustrious Miss Kingsley is meant.

Mrs. Ellis ... her father ... Arthur & his wife: Mrs. Ellis is Emma Harding Claflin Ellis. See Key to Correspondents. Her father was Massachusetts Governor William Claflin, and Arthur Bucklin Claflin was her half-brother.

Susan: This Susan may be Susan Travers, a regular visitor, or possibly Susan Marcia Oakes Woodbury or even Susan Hayes Ward. See Key to Correspondents.

Conway: Conway, NH is a resort town in the White Mountains, where Jewett often vacationed.

Mrs. Whitman: Sarah Wyman Whitman. See Key to Correspondents.

Mrs. Cabot: Susan Burley Cabot. See Key to Correspondents.

This text is from transcriptions from mixed repositories in the Maine Women Writer's Collection, University of New England, Letters from Sarah Orne Jewett, 1875-1890, Folder 73, Burton Trafton Jewett Research Collection. For more information about the individual transcription, contact the Maine Women Writers Collection. Preparation by Linda Heller. Notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.

Sarah Orne Jewett to Annie Adams Fields

Wednesday morning

[ 17 June 1896 ]*

Dearest Annie

I am late as usual for the mail, with a heap of things to answer, but this morning it isn't so much from sleeping late as it is from strolling our of doors after breakfast . . . The garden is quite enchanting and I had to linger in the stable unduly because Dicky had been playing in [ his ? ] stall and lamed a foot that was such a good foot on the road yesterday! While I was buying some stockings yesterday at Stearns's* Mary* stepped

[ Page 2 ]

up along side which was most convenient and we went our ways together -- I got a "trinket" for Laura Richards* and then went to the Club and had our luncheons and Mary [ Branell / Russell ? ] came along and sat down with us most friendly and said I never asked her down to [ Berwick ? ] so I promptly did! but she laughed and said the [ week ? ] was [ unrecognized word ] "full{"} and she couldn't but she was coming sometime . . and after luncheon she went to rest, before going to the dentist [ mark that probably indicates a period ] [ two deleted words ] Lilian Aldrich* came along -- happily they didn't

[ Page 3 ]

meet -- at least [ I did not see them -- ? ] I supposed Lilian was going to the funeral, and she said she had meant to, but wasn't and Mary and I both thought she looked quite badly and seemed sick and nervous. After the funeral I saw poor Lily Fairchild* who sat before us all the time and wore a look of real trouble and pain that went to my heart. Something in her whole figure showed it. And it was as plain to Mary as to me. There were a great many people there -- I should think from their church and from Newtonville -- and two or three ministers none

[ Page 4 ]

of [ corrected word, perhaps whom ] said much except that dear old man who gave the benediction. Mary had been to see Mrs. Ellis* (having come up on the fast train) and said she was much grieved but it seems they had known that Mrs. Claflin* had Bright's [ disease ? ].

There were many flowers, and the house was so full of her. Nothing spoke to me so much as a picture of Mr. Whittier* which I always [liked ? ] and for which she cared very much in a ^pretty^ frame close by and on the mantelpiece. I must write now to Mary Davenport* Your dear note has just come and

[ Up the left margin and then across the top margin of page 1 ]

I will [ gladly ? ] give the nice present to Mrs. Pray.* She has just gone but I shall be out by and by. I miss you so much darling Fuff when I waked up I thought I was still in Manchester{.}

Your Pin*

Notes

17 June 1896: This date is confirmed by Jewett's account of the funeral of Mary Bucklin Davenport Claflin, which took place on Tuesday 16 June 1896.
It seems clear that the events Jewett describes took place in Boston and then in Newton, MA on 16 June. Probably at this time, Fields was in Manchester by the Sea.

Dicky: A family horse mentioned in other letters tentatively dated in August 1887 and 1903 or later.

Stearns's: R. H. Stearns and Company was a large Boston retail store noted for its women's clothing, from the 1860s until about 1920.

Mary: Mary Rice Jewett. See Key to Correspondents.

Laura Richards: Laura Elizabeth Howe Richards. See Key to Correspondents.

the Club: It is not yet known at which Boston club the Jewett sisters would have eaten their lunch.

Mary [ Branell / Russell ? ]: This transcription is very uncertain, and the person has not yet been identified.

Lilian Aldrich: See Key to Correspondents.

Lily Fairchild: See Sally Fairchild in Key to Correspondents.

Mrs. Ellis: Emma Harding Claflin Ellis. See Key to Correspondents.

Mrs. Claflin: Mary Bucklin Davenport Claflin, who died on 13 June 1896. See Key to Correspondents.

Mr. Whittier: John Greenleaf Whittier. See Key to Correspondents.

Mary Davenport: Possibly the daughter of Emma Ellis and step-granddaughter of Mrs. Claflin, Mary Agnes Ellis In the absence of any other known "Mary Davenport" connected with the Claflin and Ellis families, it seems possible that Jewett refers to Mrs. Ellis's daughter by this name, to distinguish her from her step-grandmother.

Mrs. Pray: The Pray family were Jewett employees. See Silverthorne, Sarah Orne Jewett: A Writer's Life, p. 102.

Fuff ... Pin: Fuffy and Pinny Lawson are nicknames for Fields and Jewett. See Key to Correspondents.

The manuscript of this letter is held by the Huntington Library, San Marino, CA, in the James T. Fields papers: mss FL 5569. This manuscript has been damaged by water, making parts of the transcription less than normally certain. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.

Sarah Orne Jewett to Thomas Bailey Aldrich

June 18th 1896

[ Begin letterhead ]

South Berwick.
Maine.

[ End letterhead ]

My dear T.B.

I think the poem of Santo Domingo* is most lovely. You can hardly think how it brings back that harbor and the red tower and all our days in that far port, but most of all the day comes back when you said to me those two beautiful lines at the end. They seem more beautiful than ever -- I shall get it all by heart, for this

[ Page 2 ]

poem speaks to me as few poems ever can. It is just as beautiful as I knew it was going to be! and I think you so much, my dear friend, for giving A.F. and me the pleasure of this early reading. I shall be watching the Century; in the meantime I am sending it right off to Mrs. Fields (A.F. or T.L.* I ought to have said with proper ceremony.)

I think so often of you and

[ Page 3 ]

Lilian.* This is a sad June for you both and I wish that I were near enough to give the least help. I did so hope that you would come to Berwick just now with Lilian & Mr. Pierce but I know from Lilian how impossible it seems to even think of such a thing. But if things are better with your two invalids you must let me know. From sad experience I know what a strain it is and sometimes a little change is a great

[ Page 4 ]

help and freshener to ones powers. Do count upon me as more than ready to give a helping hand in any way that I possibly can. -- and always

Yours affectionately

Sarah O. Jewett

Notes

Santo Domingo poem: Aldrich's "Santo Domingo" recounts his first sighting of the capital of the Dominican Republic after "long days of angry sea and sky." As Jewett indicates, she is well aware of the occasion of this poem, the storm-tossed cruise of the Caribbean the previous winter, which included Jewett, Annie Fields, and the Aldriches as guests of Henry L. Pierce on his steam yacht, the Hermione.
Aldrich's poem appeared in The Century Magazine v. 53 (November 1896), p. 32.

AFTER long days of angry sea and sky,
The magic isle rose up from out the blue
Like a mirage, vague, dimly seen at first,
At first seen dimly through the mist; and then --
Groves of acacia; slender leaning stems
Of palm-trees weighted with their starry fronds;
Airs that, at dawn, had from their slumber risen
In bowers of spices; between shelving banks,
A river through whose limpid crystal gleamed,
Four fathoms down, the silvery, rippled sand;
Upon the bluff a square red tower, and roofs
Of cocoa fibre lost among the boughs;
Hard by, a fort with crumbled parapet.
These took the fancy captive ere we reached
The longed-for shores; then swiftly in our thought
We left behind us the New World, and trod
The Old, and in a sudden vision saw
Columbus wandering from court to court,
A mendicant, with kingdoms in his hands.

A.F. or T.L: Annie Adams Fields, to whom Jewett gave the nickname T.L. See Key to Correspondents.

Lilian: Lilian Woodman Aldrich. See Key to Correspondents.

two invalids: Probably these are the mothers of Aldrich and Lilian. Aldrich's mother died at the end of June. See Key to Correspondents.

The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. Thomas Bailey Aldrich Papers, 119 letters of Thomas Bailey and Lilian Woodman Aldrich, 1837-1926. MS Am 1429 (117). Transcribed and annotated by Terry Heller, Coe College.
At the bottom left of page one, in another hand, is a circled number: 2751.

Alice Morse Earle to Sarah Orne Jewett

20 June 1896

[ Letterhead ]
LONG ISLAND SOCIETY DAUGHTERS OF THE REVOLUTION

REGENT,
Mrs. HENRY EARLE
242 HENRY STREET, BROOKLYN.
[Street address is underlined by hand]

VICE REGENT,

Mrs. JAMES F. PIERCE
7 MONTAGUE TERRACE, BROOKLYN.

[Left side, seal of the Daughters of the Revolution]

RECORDING SECRETARY,
Mrs. PRUDENCIO DE MURGUIONDO,
58 PIERREPOINT STREET, BROOKLYN.

CORRESPONDING SECRETARY,
Mrs. ERNEST W. BIRDSALL,
150 HENRY STREET.

TREASURER
Mrs. JOHN VAN B. THAYER,
46 SO. OXFORD STREET, BROOKLYN.

REGISTRAR,
Mrs. ALBERT VAN WYCK,
98 REMSEN STREET, BROOKLYN.

BROOKLYN, L.I., June 20th 189 6
[Underlined portions of the date filled in ink]

[End of letterhead]

My dear Miss Jewett --

    [Inserted in pencil between lines in another hand: Sarah
                                    Mary J ?]

    I am informed ---- not however on your authority that a celebrated adventuress -- of whom I tell in my "Colonial Dames and Goodwives" viz: Eliza Wilson, who masqueraded under the name of Princess Caroline Matilda, Duchess of Brownstonburges &c &c -- died in Berwick Maine about 1775.* I write to you asking you the name of some person in that town -- of antiquarian tastes, to whom I

[2 penciled and circled in another hand in left bottom margin]

[ Page 2 ]

could write and learn of the end of her days . -- or in fact any other information about her.

I had hoped ere this to meet you -- for I am told you are one of the fair "littery fellers" (as Senator Cameron said of Lowell)* who are satisfying as ^an^ acquaintance. The few whom I have met -- of "the art and mystery" of book-craft -- were most distinctly disappointing. Miss Wilkins was interesting -- [fair ?] however -- from being as I thought she would be --

I am very cordially yours
Alice Morse Earle

June 20th. 1896

[In pencil in another hand, bottom margin: Taken from Sun dials and roses of yesterday.

Alice Morse Earle]

Sarah Orne Jewett to an unidentified recipient*

148 Charles Street

Tuesday morning [ November 1896 ]*

Thank you so much for your most kind and dear note dear friend -- This is what Susy Travers* and I both thought it, for I sent it right away to her and she writes me this morning. She was only here from noon on Thursday to eight o’clock next morning when she went to Newport. I

[ Page 2 ]

found that nothing would give her more pleasure than to see you again and we were both much disappointed not to find you at home. We must talk about Susan one of those days! I have known her a long time and have watched her grow. You would delight in her real wit and honest brusque ways and (what I can only call in this hurried moment!) her individuality!!

Yours most affectionately Sarah O. Jewett

[ Page 3 ]

How delightful Dr Weir Mitchells new story is! I really love it and [unrecognized word] old Gainor Wynne and that exquisite French lady the mother.* I have found myself thinking sadly that she was dead: we must have a good talk about such a good live story as Hugh Wynne! it is far and away the best thing going. I do not get hold of the Martian* yet and

[ Up the left margin of page 3 ]

it seems so tired – I can somehow always see our Maurices* tired kind face over his book

[ Page 4 ]

Mrs. Fields* is better and sits up quite gallantly by the fire for a good bit of the day. I try to make life so enchanting in this state of health that she will forget about going down stairs.

Notes

November 1896: This date is based upon Jewett's apparent reference to Weir Mitchell's "new story," which began to appear in serial in November 1896, and upon her not yet knowing of the death of Du Maurier.

unknown recipient: The Maine Woman Writers Collection groups this letter with others from Jewett to Dr. Weir Mitchell, but this text seems clearly about him in part. While Jewett could have written to Mitchell himself in this way, that would not be characteristic of her work.

Susy Travers: See Key to Correspondents.

Dr Weir Mitchells new story: For Silas Weir Mitchell, see Key to Correspondents. His new story, is Hugh Wynne, Free Quaker (1897), which began appearing in serial in Century Magazine (53:1) in November 1896, and continued through October 1897.

the Martian: George Du Maurier (1834 - 8 October 1896) was author of The Martian: A Novel, which began to appear in serial in Harper's New Monthly (93:557) in October and November of 1896, after which it was discontinued, perhaps because of the author's death. The completed novel was published posthumously in 1898.

our Maurices: Jewett presumably refers to du Maurier, with whom she was friends. It appears that when she composed this letter, she did not yet know of du Maurier's death, of which she had learned by 9 November, when she wrote to Ellen Mason.

The manuscript of this letter is held in the Sarah Orne Jewett Papers, Maine Women Writer's Collection, University of New England, Houghton Autograph File to S. Weir Mitchell #1. Transcription by Linda Heller; annotation by Terry Heller, Coe College.

Sarah Orne Jewett to Ednah Dow Cheney*

9 November

1896

[ Begin letterhead ]

South Berwick.

Maine.

[ End letterhead ]

My dear M^rs Cheney

I have left answering your letter until the last minute because I waited to go to Boston and hunt through my desk there to see if I could possibly find any verses that were fit to print. I do so hate to say no when you ask me to do

[ Page 2 ]

anything -- but I [ almost corrected ] never write verses at all and then they are pretty bad! at least I never finish them or make any account for them -- though when I was younger and knew less of what made good verse I used to print them sometimes. This search has quite convinced me that whatever feeling I have in the direction

[ Page 3 ]

of poetry had much better go -- for what little it is worth -- into my prose sketches!

Indeed I am much interested in the fair, and I am counting on doing all I can as a customer if in no other way.

I write this note with real regret: I should so like to have answered you as you wished.

Yours most affectionately

Sarah O. Jewett

Notes

Cheney: Smith College Special Collections archivists identify Mrs. Cheney as Ednah Dow Littlehale Cheney (1824-1904). Cheney presumably is gathering materials that may be sold at a holiday fund-raising fair. Such fairs often were held by churches between Thanksgiving and Christmas to raise money for charitable purposes.

The manuscript of this letter is held by Smith College Special Collections, Northampton, MA, Letters --Jewett, Sarah Orne, 1890-96, undated. New England Hospital for Women and Children records, Sophia
Smith Collection, SSC-MS-00339.

Sarah Orne Jewett to Ellen Chase

9 November, 1896, South Berwick, Maine.

Dear Ellen Chase, -- How very good of you to send me these nice photographs of Whitby!* The face of the old woman is really wonderful, with its eyes that have watched the sea, -- indeed every one is interesting. I brought home a good many in 1892,* and wished for more, -- but is it not delightful that all these are new and different? I am very grateful to you, dear, for such kind thought. I knew Whitby first through Mr. Lowell,* who used to talk much about his summers there: so that after he died, and I went there, the place was full of memories of him. Do you know (of course, you do) his letters about it in the Life that Mr. Norton edited?* I am sorry to say that Mrs. Fields overlooked one, in sending her letters to Mr. Norton, which is more beautiful than any: about grey St. Hilda's Abbey and the red roofs of the old town.* And now as I look back I remember also how I went about the streets of Whitby with Mr. Du Maurier and his little dog, and one day I heard the songs in "Peter Ibbetson,"* with their right tunes sung by that charming voice that is silent now. So, with all this, you see that pictures of Whitby mean a great deal to me.

I am very glad to have the photograph of your own house. It looks as if it were old, and not new: it looks as if it were not without a past and dear associations, which is much to say of a new house. Some day -- oh, yes indeed! -- I should like dearly to come and see it.

Yours very affectionately.

I wonder if you have not been reading "Sir George Tressady,"* -- a really great and beautiful story as I think. I care very much for it.

Notes

Whitby: Wikipedia says: "Whitby is a seaside town, port and civil parish in the Borough of Scarborough and English county of North Yorkshire."

1892: Jewett and friends spent several months in Europe during 1892, including a visit to Whitby.

Mr. Lowell: American poet and critic, James Russell Lowell (February 22, 1819 - August 12, 1891).

Life that Mr. Norton edited: Charles Eliot Norton (1827-1908) was co-editor of the North American Review (1863-1868) and then professor of literature at Harvard University. He and his daughters' summer home was in Ashfield. He was the author of James Russell Lowell (1893) and the editor of a number of Lowell's works.

St. Hilda's Abbey: also known as Whitby Abbey in Whitby.

songs in "Peter Ibbetson": Peter Ibbetson (1891), by George DuMaurier (6 March 1834 - 8 October 1896) . Note that Mr. DuMaurier had recently died when this letter was written.

Sir George Tressady: Mrs. Humphry Ward's Sir George Tressady appeared in 1896. See Key to Correspondents.

This letter appears in Annie Fields, Letters of Sarah Orne Jewett (1911), Transcribed by Annie Adams Fields, with notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.

Barton Orville Aylesworth to Sarah Orne Jewett

[ Begin letterhead, underlined portions handwritten ]

DRAKE UNIVERSITY

BARTON O. AYLESWORTH, President

Des Moines, Iowa, Nov. 12th -- 1896

[ End letterhead ]

Dear Miss Jewett:

I have been profoundly interested in "The Country of the Pointed Pines,"* [ the ? ] originality and the vividness of its portraiture are incomparable in our new literature.

I have no doubt thousands feel just as I do, a feeling which scarcely [ warrents so spelled ] a communication of this nature.

I write because I have a story in process of building. It was written largely in a village school house -- in a mining camp in Colorado, its best scenes like in the school house, and are grouped about an old man of eastern birth, much culture, a [ Shakesperian, so spelled ], strong in imagination but weak in Judgment, and ^who^ hardly counts for more than an echo of [ other ? ] times, and forgotten people. He is a [ creature ? ] of strange dreams, and as sensitive in soul as is an infant is in flesh. He is an "actual," and I love him both in and out of the book. It will probably be sometime now before the sketch will be completed. This may not even interest you -- but it is [ written ? ]

Most cordially

Barton O. Aylesworth*

I mail you today a copy of "Song and Fable."

Notes

Pointed Pines: Jewett's The Country of the Pointed Firs appeared in 1896.

Aylesworth: Wikisource says that Barton Orville Aylesworth,

... was born in Athens, Ill., Sept. 5, 1860; son of Ezra M. Aylesworth. He was graduated at Eureka college in 1879, and was married. Dec. 12, 1882, to Georgia L. Shores. He was president of Drake university, 1889-'97; pastor of the Central church of Christ at Denver, Col., 1897-’99 and president of the Colorado State college at Fort Collins from 1900. He received the degree of LL.D. from Drake university; lectured on American literature, and is the author of "Thirteen and twelve Others"; and "Song and Fable."

A note with this letter in another hand reads: "Taken from Song and Fable, Barton O. Aylesworth."

The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library of Harvard University, Cambridge, MA. bMS Am 1743 Box 1, Item 13 I. Letters to Sarah Orne Jewett.
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.

Charles Dudley Warner to Sarah Orne Jewett

Hartford

Nov 12 1896

Dear Friend,

I am now sure, having read every line, that it is in [ unrecognized word ] of the first quality. It has pleased me through and through. Not only in its fine [ scenes ? ] of New England [ first ? ] and of human nature but in its exquisite language.* It seemed to me as I read that you never did any other thing so uniformly good. Look at the texture, the restraint. I wrote to Mrs Humphry Ward* what I thought. I am just back from a month of hard work and [ many dinners ? ] in New York. While there

[ Page 2 ]

Mrs Slosson* read it [ and was as ? ] [ two unrecognized words ] as I am. I do not know another [ critic ? ] whose discernment for [ fine ? ] literature is [ unrecognized word ] than [ hers ? ]. I am really proud of you for having [ so won her liking ? ].

I am studying up ancient Egypt for a visit in [ unrecognized word ].

I wish you well

Yours affectionately

Chas. Dudley Warner

Notes

language: Warner responds to Jewett's The Country of the Pointed Firs, recently issued in book form after appearing in an Atlantic Monthly serial earlier in 1896.
Warner's handwriting is quite challenging. Many of the words I believe I recognize are guesswork. Anyone working with this material should examine the manuscript.

Ward: Mary Augusta Ward. Key to Correspondents.

Slosson: Annie Trumbull Slosson. Key to Correspondents.

The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library of Harvard University, Cambridge, MA. bMS Am 1743 Box 5, Item 230.
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.

Annie Trumbull Slosson to Sarah Orne Jewett

39 E 23rd St

New York

[ 13 November 1896 ]

My dear Mifs Jewett

This is as far as I can remember, the first time I ever [ addresfed so spelled ] "an unknown author." But I have just laid down your Country of the Pointed Firs and I want to say a few words about it. I tell you frankly that it may be partly because of my strong feeling as to the present condition of literature that I have taken this book

[ Page 2 ]

so to my heart. This day of Breathings Sighs, Cameos, Silhouettes, Quatrains, Clots of Bloody Bravery etc. etc. make me tired. I'm dreadfully old. But I am young again for the hour as I read your story, and [ want ? ] to thank you for doing and for [ being all ?] this [ unrecognized word or words ]. Mr. Warner brought me his copy a day or two ago, knowing it would delight me. May I say a word or two of details. Did you ever hear that certain old, [ flowered ? ] glass came from Tobago? I have particular and [ unrecognized word] reasons for asking.

[ Page 3 ]

"Copycat" is quite new to me and lovely. So also with "sleeving"* anybody along. The gala company occasions of my childhood are [ appointed ? ] with hearts and rounds, but why do you write it 'rounds as if an abbreviation? Or is that yr. proofreader's idea. There are lots more things I want to say, but I spare you. I want to meet you. Do you ever come to New York? Do let me know when you are here. I have always had an intense admiration for your work. It is deepened by reading this last.

Very sincerely

Annie Trumbull Slosson

November 13 / 96

Notes

1896: This date has been penciled in another hand.

Pointed Firs: Jewett's The Country of the Pointed Firs (1896).

Warner: This transcription is uncertain, but probably Slosson refers to Jewett correspondent, Charles Dudley Warner. Key to Correspondents.

"sleeving": Slosson takes note of words Jewett used in The Country of the Pointed Firs.

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 199. I. Letters to Sarah Orne Jewett.
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.

Margaret Thomson Janvier to Sarah Orne Jewett

[ Late 1896 ]*

[ Missing material ]

graft a peach-tree

If only I could have you for a day on the [ Manasquan ? ] river, away down on the Jersey coast. It is a day's business to go & come, for the river winds like a ribbon thrown down. But at last, the boat arrives where there is no thoroughfare.

And the only drawback is the threatening gaze of cows upon the bank, where the river is very narrow & quite wadable. There

[ Page 2 ]

are pines & other trees, & there is a wild clematis & there is a place where trees try to hide the stream.

But for me, all that is over I am "so fast in prison that I cannot get forth,"* & my prison is a bed. So now you can imagine my joy in journeying with you through your Country of the Pointed Firs -- First by means of the Atlantic Monthly & again more lately through the book, which -- so small

[ Page 3 ]

is this world -- was the copy you sent by to my good friend, Dr. Weir [ Mitchell corrected ],* & it was lent me by his son, who for the three months or so which I have just spent in Phila, vainly trying to get mended, showered books upon me, with other kindnesses immeasurable.

I am so glad that two or three mournful pages concealed themselves, & did not get into that sunny Country. And could you not be a little more industrious, dear Miss Jewett?

[ Page 4 ]

Just think of the flood of [ pessimism ? ] which is to be [ unrecognized word ], & how few are trying to stem it. A girl whom I love, & who is beginning to write well, resented, at first, my strictness on her [ pessimism ? ] -- & the other day came a letter full of capitulation -- she had grown weary in a search for much needed cheerful reading. And to her I ^have^ sent a copy of The Country of the Pointed Firs.

It is a very great pleasure to me to know that you care for my verses. For many of them I am not re-

[ Page 5 ]

sponsible -- there is an indication that something is coming, & then it comes, though I mentioned it is freakish in its coming.

I need not tell you of the pleasure it would give me to meet you. Do you not ever come to Philadelphia? And should you come there, will you not come the little nine miles into Jersey which would bring you here? You would like this place --

[ Page 6 ]

all going into a rapidly-approaching book.

I think we must have met somewhere in the pastures, & from that I shall take hope that we may meet again -- here.

And will you think me too sudden if I say that I am affectionately yours

Margaret Janvier ?

(Which is the real name of Margaret Vandegrift.)

Notes

1896: While this date is uncertain, the letter seems to imply that Janvier writes fairly soon after the appearance as a book of Jewett's The Country of the Pointed Firs (1896).

get forth: See the Bible, Psalm 88:8.

Weir Mitchell: See Key to Correspondents. Mitchell had two sons in his first marriage. Wikipedia.

The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library of Harvard University: Sarah Orne Jewett Correspondence I, Letters to Sarah Orne Jewett.
     Janvier, Margaret Thomson, 1844-1913. 2 letters; 1901 & [n.d.]. (113).
     This transcription is from a photocopy held by the Maine Women Writer's Collection, University of New England, Letters from Sarah Orne Jewett, 1875-1890, Box 2, Folder 99, Burton Trafton Jewett Research Collection.
    Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.

Sarah Orne Jewett to Frederick Mercer Hopkins

18 November

1896

[ Begin letterhead ]

South Berwick, Maine

[ End letterhead ]

Dear M^r Hopkins

Unfortunately I can at this moment remember the name of only one of M^rs Thaxter's* photographers -- Notman* of Boston, and his portrait of her is not very good. Mr. J. Appleton Brown* the painter took the charming picture of her at her work table

[ Page 2 ]

which was copied for the Letters volume, and of that or any of the portraits used you could get replicas of the photogravure plates from Messr. Houghton & Mifflin. Or, if you wish one that has not been used so much you had better write to Mrs. Roland Thaxter 3 Scott Street

[ Page 3 ]

Cambridge, and I am sure that she will be very glad to help you. There were many amateur photographs made within the last ten years, but before that two or three most interesting and characteristic ones were taken. I am pretty sure that you would like one of these but, as I say, I cannot remember the

[ Page 4 ]

photographers --

In haste, with kind regards

Yours truly

S. O. Jewett

Pray remind The Review of Reviews to do all it can for Mrs. Ward's* most noble and delightful story Sir George Tressady! I am so eager to have it recognized as it should be, here in America.

Notes

Thaxter: Celia Laighton Thaxter. Her youngest son, Roland, married Mabel Gray Freeman. See Key to Correspondents.
Letters of Celia Thaxter (1895) was edited by Annie Adams Fields and Rose Lamb.

Notman: The Scottish-born Canadian photographer William Notman (1826-1891), based in Montreal, maintained studios in the Boston area from the 1880s. Wikipedia.

J. Appleton Brown: See Key to Correspondents.

Ward's: Mary Augusta (Mrs. Humphry) Ward published Sir George Tressady in the U.S. first in Century Magazine, from November 1895 through October 1896, where Jewett read it with enthusiasm. See Key to Correspondents.
The American Review of Reviews gave attention to Ward's novel in December 1896, after the book had appeared. There was a mainly negative response reprinted from the Fortnightly Review (p. 737). Hamilton Mabie's review of the year in fiction offered qualified praise (p. 742). He was more generous to Jewett's The Country of the Pointed Firs (p. 743).

This manuscript is held by Barnard College Archives and Special Collections, Overbury Collection (SC05), Autograph Letter Signed to Mr. Hopkins, South Berwick, Maine with photograph of Celia Thaxter, from Jewett, Sarah Orne, 1896. File — Box: 3, Folder: 86 Identifier: Series 1. Included with the manuscript is a print of the Appleton Brown photo of Thaxter at her work table. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.

Sarah Orne Jewett to George Harrison Mifflin

148 Charles Street

Wednesday

[ 18 November 1896 ]*

Dear Mr. Mifflin

I understand someone who spoke to me through the telephone before* Mr. Garrison* did on Monday afternoon that it was the Pointed Firs ^not Authors & Friends^* that wouldn't be ready until Thursday -- which naturally frightened its author at the thought of [ losing corrected ] so many days sales for herself and her House. That was why

[ Page 2 ]

I was so eager and anxious and asked for the special notice = but presently I found my mistake -- I am very sorry to have annoyed you about it -- to have made you think that I was displeased or believed that great care had not been taken about my book's interests. Pray be certain that I am very appreciative of all

[ Page 3 ]

this at all times. I dare say that the telephoner forgot* which was my book & which Mrs. Fields's -- but I naturally took fright when I heard of the Pointed Firs & Thursday -- added to which there was a difficulty with one telephone and I could not get hold of the longer sentences -- Next morning a good bundle of Pointed Firs appeared to reassure me!

Is it not

[ Page 4 ]

good that the books are going so well? -- there is still a good bit of time before Christmas too. I am perfectly delighted about Authors & Friends -- I should like you to see a really delightful notice which we happened to be shown in the Hartford Times this morning (a good book-buying neighbourhood!)

Yours sincerely always

S. O. Jewett

Notes

18 November 1896: Though the year is confirmed in the notes below, and this letter certainly was composed in November or possibly as late as 2 December, 18 November seems a probable date. Reviews of Fields's Author and Friends appeared as early as 28 November; see Outlook (28 November 1896, p. 989). It seems unlikely that Authors and Friends and The Country of the Pointed Firs were released during the week of Thanksgiving (26 November).
A large "V" in blue pencil that may be a check mark appears in front of "Wednesday" in the date. The page has two holes punched in the right margin; they appear in the left margin on page two, partially obscuring the text.

before: It is not clear whether Jewett meant to underline this word. The line beneath it is very short.

Pointed Firs ... Authors & Friends: Reviews of Jewett's The Country of the Pointed Firs began to appear in early December 1896. Annie Adams Fields's (see Key to Correspondents) Authors and Friends was announced in The Book Buyer in the fall of 1896 and advertised in October, but it seems clear it did not appear until near 1 December.
Why Jewett was so anxious about a day or two of delay in the availability of her new book is somewhat puzzling.

Mr. Garrison: Francis Jackson Garrison. See Key to Correspondents.

telephoner: It is not clear whether Jewett meant to underline this word. The line beneath it is very short.

The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library of Harvard University in Houghton Mifflin Company correspondence and records, 1832-1944, Jewett, Sarah Orne, 1849-1909. 68 letters from; 1870-1907 and [n.d.]. MS Am 1925 (962). Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.

Annie Adams Fields to Fred Holland Day

[ 18 November 1896 ]

My dear Mr. Day:*

Thank you for the beautiful alder berries which you left for me last evening!

I am sending you my book* with this note. I hope you will like it, in its way, half as much as I do these wild things which bring a memory of lovely haunts back to the chamber of imagination.

Most [ truly ? ] yours

Annie Fields

148 Charles Street

Nov. 18^th 1896.

Notes

Day: With this letter is an unstamped envelope addressed to Mr. F. H. Day, of Copland and Day, Cornhill.

book: Fields's most recent books in 1896 were Authors and Friends (1896) and The Singing Shepherd (1895).

The manuscript of this letter is held by the John Hay Library of Brown University, Ms.52.89.
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.

Robert Collyer to Annie Adams Fields

The Strathmore

New York Nov 24^th 1896

    Dear Friend

        I must delay no longer the thanks for Authors and Friends* which came a few days ago, and has been read so far at choice moments as you sip some fine wine. I took Longfellow in three glasses on the quiet afternoons and evenings and this afternoon I have taken my first of Emerson.* Master Thomas Fuller* writes in his note book may he be forgiven that in opening the holy book to read my morning portion I peeped overleaf to see if it was a long chapter. I peeped over leaf first now fearing Emerson might not hold out, and the last of my threesome delights might be somewhat like the way I would finish my milk 65 years ago so eager for more that my mother would say squeeze thy mug my lad{,} there is no more in the pitcher.

    It is such a good book dear friend so far and will be I know to Finis. Just what no other woman or man could do. Written with sanity and tender retention but therefore whole and wholesome as heaven bread

    "For love just puts her hand out in a dream
    And straight outreaches all things."*

    As you re-collect these memories

[ Page 2 ]

this brings "thanks awful." I still dwell on my happy week by the sea. How good it is as the years wane and benignities that make life still as when they said to the master the last wine is the best.*

Tell Sister Sarah* that I have not forgotten about the books but want to have them bound afresh and hope my binder may have them by New Years' at the latest { -- } meanwhile I send my love to you "firstly" as

Indeed yours

Robert Collyer

I am 73 Dec 8^th and we are going to have tarts { -- } also a goodfellow has sent us Ch ___ ne* wherein to make good the good bishops saying{:} It is good to be merry in God.*

Notes

Authors and Friends: Fields's 1896 collection of memoir essays opened with a long piece on American poet, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882) and a somewhat shorter piece on Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882).

Emerson: Collyer omits many periods in this letter. I have supplied them wherever they seem necessary.

Fuller: British cleric and historian, Thomas Fuller (1608-1661). Collyer's quotation has not yet been located.

things: Collyer adapts from Aurora Leigh (1856) by British poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-1861):
This love just puts its hand out in a dream
And straight outreaches all things.

best: A reference to the Bible, John 2:10.

Sarah: Sarah Orne Jewett. See Key to Correspondents.

Ch ___ n: Presumably champagne.

merry in God: Collyer may refer to St. Thomas More's admonition to his wife in a letter of 1529: "I pray you, be merry in God with my children and your household, ..." However, More (1478-1535) did not serve as a bishop. A similar quotation is attributed to an English Protestant martyr, Laurence Saunders (1519-1555), but he also was never a bishop.

The manuscript of this letter is held by the Huntington Library, San Marino, CA, in the James T. Fields Papers and Addenda Box 10: mss Fl 1-5637. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.

Louise Imogen Guiney to Annie Adams Fields

[ 27 November 1896 ]

My dear Lady Bountiful:*

I acknowledge your gift with delighted thanks. It is an exquisite book,* such as no one in our country can make but you, full of little sunny vistas, and of deep meanings, and of sanities of tone and theme: all worded in a sort of playful affectionate every-day type, with no spiritual italics to challenge the unelected eye. (And yet you sell! And long may you sell, and never, never be sold!) I went through each of the papers again. Do you put first, those on Emerson, Longfellow, and Mrs. Thaxter?* They seem to me perfect as any French pen could make them! You are good indeed to remember me, an underground, seldom-appearing creature, good at gratitudes, however, -- with such charming 'momentums of a friend.'

Besides post-officing, I am trying to write; to edit [ a ? ] piece, correct, and copy no fewer than three Immortal Works. For this fell purpose I have bought,

[ Page 2 ]

during the late summer, a typewriter, under which demon influence in Chaucerian phrase, I 'sweat and swink!'* When I get about again a bit, may I look on you and Miss Jewett,* and on the matchless Orinda* maintaining her young dignity on the lowest shelf sou'-sou'-east! These are some of the things which last out to the mind's eye, when, for long, another newer world sets up good steady tasks for Hercu-Louise.* At any rate, it is an uncommonly fine November, and the mother of me is well, and taxes are 'laid,' and two very affable angora pussies express their intention of remaining with our Zoo. Good-night: and love you ever, from

Yours to Keep,

L. I. G.

Nov. 27^th^.

Auburndale, Massachusetts.

Notes

1896: The Huntington Library dates this letter to 1896. This choice is supported by the evidence that Fields has given Guiney a book she published in 1896. See notes below.

Lady Bountiful: After a character in The Beaux' Strategem, a comedy by Irish playwright, George Farquhar (1677-1707).

exquisite book: Fields's new title in 1896 was Authors and Friends, which includes chapters on each of the authors Guiney names. When Guiney thanks Fields for remembering her, it is not because Fields wrote about her in the book, but, presumably, for giving her the book.

Emerson, Longfellow, and Mrs. Thaxter: For Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and Celia Thaxter, see Key to Correspondents.

'sweat and swink': Guiney quotes from the Wakefield Master, The Second Shepard's Play, which may date from British author Geoffrey Chaucer's (c. 1340-1400) time in the fourteeth century. There a poor shepherd says:

That such servants as I, that sweat and swink,
Eat our bread full dry gives me reason to think.
Wet and weary we sigh while our masters wink,
Yet full late we come by our dinner and drink—

Miss Jewett: Sarah Orne Jewett. See Key to Correspondents.

Orinda: Guiney refers to a book by Katherine Philips (1631/2 -1664), an Anglo-Welsh poet and translator. She is known as "the matchless Orinda," as a result of the publication of letters exchanged with Sir Charles Cotterell, Letters from Orinda to Poliarchus (1705). See Guiney to Fields of 1 March 1900, where she describes "the fat folio of Orinda's Poems on the low shelf near the window."
This book almost certainly was Poems by the Most Deservedly Admired Mrs. Katherine Philips, the Matchless Orinda (1665, 1710). It appears that at the time of this letter, only the two editions of this title, 1665 and 1710, were available. It appears, then, that Fields owned one of these.
Guiney later published Katherine Philips, 'The Matchless Orinda': Selected Poems (1904).

Hercu-Louise: Guiney connects her name with that of the hero of classical Greek legend, Hercules, who performed seven great labors.

The manuscript of this letter is held by the Huntington Library, San Marino, CA, in the James T. Fields collection Box 26: mss FI 1575. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.

Sarah Orne Jewett to Louisa Loring Dresel

Tuesday

[ 1 December 1896 ]*

My dear Loulie

Your letter has been taking little [ journies corrected ] and finds me here at last! Oh how sorry I am to know of your illness and* how I wish that I could have done anything for you! If you do not get on to Milton* tomorrow please send me word so that

[ Page 2 ]

I can come to see you -- A. F*. has been very poorly with one of her bad colds -- going out one day and then getting housed again but I hope she is better now and you too -- (I am glad that my Pointed Firs* were there if I myself were not.) I wished to see you last week but I had two or three such busy days and I could not get time before

[ Page 3 ]

I went home. I think you will be sure to "pick up" in Milton -- I have just been out there to Annie Russell's wedding, and it was so pleasant and the air so fresh & bright even if it was wintry. I shall be here for a week or so now, and I count upon seeing you.

Yours most affectionately,

S. O. J.

Notes

1896: This letter includes several notes in other hands, including a date: "12-1-96." This choice is supported by an associated envelope addressed to Dresel at 328 Beacon Street, Boston, postmarked 1 December 1896. That Jewett describes the current weather as wintry supports this date as well.

and: Sometimes Jewett writes "a" with a long tail for "and." I render these as "and."

Milton: Scott Stoddart notes that Dresel's proposed destination is uncertain, either "the residential and manufacturing town in Norfolk county, eastern Massachusetts, known for being the home of Milton Academy, a private boy's school, or to Milton, Delaware, then a beach and resort town."

A.F.: Annie Adams Fields. See Key to Correspondents.

Pointed Firs: Jewett's 1896 novel, The Country of the Pointed Firs, was released very close to 1 December.

The manuscript of this letter is in the collection of the Miller Library of Colby College, Waterville, ME: JEWE.1. Scott Frederick Stoddart's transcription is in his Ph.D. dissertation at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign: Selected Letters of Sarah Orne Jewett,1988.
New transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.

Samuel B. Haupt to Alexander R. McHenry

[ Begin letterhead ]

[ Two lines in red ink, all caps ]

All agreements made contingent upon strikes, fires, accidents or causes beyond our control.
Quotations subject to change without notice

[ remainder of letterhead in black ink, varying font sizes ]

S. B. Haupt, Vice President,
Duluth, Minn.

The Ironton Structural Steel Co.,
OFFICE, PROVIDENCE BUILDING.

OFFICE OF PRESIDENT AND TREASURER
29 BROADWAY
NEW YORK.

Duluth, Minn., Dec. 1st, 1896 189*

[ End letterhead ]

My Dear Rude:--

     It has only been within the last few days that I have been able to get any information about the land referred to in the enclosed letter.

    I find it is located about four or five miles in a south westerly direction from Ironton on the south side of the St. Louis river and in the state of Wisconsin.* It is, as stated in letter to Mr. Orne,* about one and one-half miles from the St. Louis river and I understand the river to be navigable some distance above that point. As to the value of the land, it is difficult to determine upon a figure. At the present time it is thought the land might be worth $10.00 per acre, yet if it were put up at forced sale, it is a question whether it would bring over $2.50 per acre. On the other hand, I am informed that in boom times, land well situated in this locality sold as high as $70.00 per [ care intended acre ].

    The above is the judgment of persons who are more or less familiar with real estate in and about Duluth.

Yours very truly,

S. H. Haupt

Notes

189: The full date has been typed in on a dotted line before this printed partial date.
See T. F. Upham to Mary Rice Jewett of 2 July 1895, for possibly related information. While that letter refers to buildings and this letter to land, these properties all are located near Duluth, MN.

Wisconsin: This location is a little confusing. Nicholas Roehrdanz of Duluth, MN, following the surveyor description given in Alexander R. McHenry, Jr. to Benjamin Orne of 19 August, places the land in Wisconsin, about 1.5 mi east of the border with Minnesota, southwest of Superior, WI and southeast of Jay Cooke State Park. This location is about 4.5 mi south of the St Louis River.
Ironton, MN, from which Haupt seems to write, is about 85 miles due west of this location, making it impossible that the described property would be 4-5 miles southwest of Ironton. Perhaps Haupt meant to name Superior, WI rather than Ironton.

Mr. Orne: See Alexander R. McHenry, Jr. to Benjamin Orne of 19 August. Benjamin Orne has not yet been identified, but a promising candidate is Benjamin Orne (1845-1912), son of James H. Orne, "a prominent carpet merchant," who is buried in Philadelphia with Roxalene Orne McHenry, mother of A.R. McHenry, Jr.

This typed letter is held by Historic New England, Jewett Family Papers, Correspondence: individual recipients; Other correspondence; Other correspondence, unidentified, undated; includes fragments, Box 13, Folder 62. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.

Lucy Elliot Keeler to Sarah Orne Jewett

The Bellevue, Boston, June 7th.

[ late in 1896 ]*

My dear Miss Jewett:

Pray do not think me absurd when I tell you that in a mild and inoffensive way I am a collector of choice autographs. There is one sentence of yours in "Betty Leicester" which long ago was tucked into a get-at-able place in my brain, and which more than anything else has kept me these years from falling into the shy and silent ways so easy to deaf people. I may not get the exact

[ Page 2 ]

words, but they are almost these: "Whenever two persons are brought together one is always host and one always guest; and they must be careful of their relations to each other." And so if you will write it out -- with my name above and your own charming one below -- I shall number it among my greatest treasures, and dying bequeath it to my children! There are three of them, and the eldest has just confided to me that 'the dearest girl in the world' has promised to marry him!

    I shall be at West Brattleboro, Vermont, for a few weeks, and my permanent address is Fremont, Ohio.

        I can't begin to tell you how much pleasure I had in meeting you the other day, and in finding that your [ precepts ? ] are taken from your own practices! and I beg you to believe me

    most sincerely yours

Lucy Elliot Keeler.

Notes

1896: This letter probably was composed not long before Keeler's letter to Jewett of 1 October 1896 in which she reports that she possesses a treasured Jewett autograph. In any case it must have been composed after the 1890 publication of Jewett's novel, Betty Leicester: A Story for Girls.
The quotation Keeler remembers appears near the end of Chapter 1.

The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library of Harvard University, Cambridge, MA. bMS Am 1743 Box 3, Item 122 I. Letters to Sarah Orne Jewett.
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.

Sarah Orne Jewett to Thomas Bailey Aldrich

148 Charles Street,

Thursday morning

[ Early December 1896 ]*

My dear T.B.

I came to town yesterday and was going right to 59 Mount Vernon St.* with a copy of the Pointed Firs* under my arm when what should I find but two books* from you to me, and 'T.L.'* read your note to say that you and Lilian* and the Commodore were

[ Page 2 ]

on your way to Lakewood!* I feel very humble about my one book (and its not being a poetry book either!) but I send it all the same with much love. And I thank you for your two beautiful copies of two beautiful poems: I shall read the Judith & Holofernes the first quiet hour I get, but I do not need to wait for anything more than

[ Page 3 ]

the hurried look I have had to say that it is beautiful -- We didn't have the Apocrypha on the Hermione for nothing.

I read your Santo Domingo poem* with great delight the other day and it seemed to have bloomed wider and fairer than when I read it first. I shall always keep a great sentiment of affection for it. I remember the day when you told me the ~~first~~ last two

[ Page 4 ]

lines on the hurricane deck. Perhaps (this is a proud thought) that other day when I banged across the deck in a high sea may have crystallized your floating thoughts and shocked them into ^imperishable^ form -- You may say that I was more likely to scatter them! and that the excitement passed before we went to Santo Domingo, but no matter. Give my love to Lily and to the Commodore. I hope

[ Page 5 ]

that his cold will soon be well -- I have been waiting from week to week to find the right time to ask you all to come to South Berwick but it has been wet and dreary there and I did not wish to deepen your impression of banging blinds. A.F. has been spending a week with us -- and I counted upon the Hermione party when she was there, but she had to fly to town unexpectedly

[ Page 6 ]

-- Tell the Commodore that I wonder if he hadn't better get a hat like the Haytian gentleman's as he passes through New York, if he thinks the shape of New York, being so long and narrow, would give room for a proper brim! --

A.F. sends her love and thanks with mine -- she has ^just^ got her new book* and you will be hearing from her.

Yours most affectionately

S. O. J.

Notes

November - December 1896: Jewett mentions two books that appeared late in 1896. The letter must have been composed before the death of Henry Pierce on 17 December, and probably before his stroke on 14 December. See notes below.

59 Mount Vernon St.: The Aldriches Boston home.

Pointed Firs: Jewett's The Country of the Pointed Firs was available in November 1896.

two books: As Jewett makes clear, one of the books Aldrich gave Jewett was Judith and Holofernes: A Poem (1896). Aldrich draws upon the Book of Judith, which Protestants place in the Apocrypha, as a non-canonical biblical text. The widow, Judith, delivers her Jewish people from their Assyrian conquerors by gaining the trust of General Holofernes and then beheading him.
    Aldrich published The Works of Thomas Bailey Aldrich in 8 volumes, two of which were poetry, in 1896, but Jewett does not mention multiple volumes. Therefore, it seems more likely that he gave her Friar Jerome's Beautiful Book, a selection of earlier poems, which was issued in a limited edition of 250 copies.

T.L. A nickname for Annie Adams Fields; later in the letter, she is A.F. See Key to Correspondents.

Lilian: Lilian Woodman Aldrich. See Key to Correspondents.

Lakewood: In the 1890s, there was a popular resort at Lakewood, New Jersey, but it is not certain that this was their destination.

Santo Domingo poem: Aldrich's "Santo Domingo" recounts his first sighting of the capital of the Dominican Republic after "long days of angry sea and sky." As Jewett indicates, she is well aware of the occasion of this poem, the storm-tossed cruise of the Caribbean the previous winter, which included Jewett, Annie Fields, and the Aldriches as guests of Henry L. Pierce, "the Commodore" on his steam yacht, the Hermione.
     Though Jewett was not aware of this as she wrote, Mr. Pierce was to suffer a stroke on 14 December. He died on 17 December 1896. See Key to Correspondents.

her new book: Annie Fields's new book in 1896 would have been Authors and Friends.

The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. Thomas Bailey Aldrich Papers, 119 letters of Thomas Bailey and Lilian Woodman Aldrich, 1837-1926. MS Am 1429 (117). Transcribed and annotated by Terry Heller, Coe College.
    At the bottom left of page one, in another hand, is a circled number: 2750.

Sarah Orne Jewett to Louise Imogen Guiney

148 Charles Street

Friday 11 December

[ 1896 ]*

Dear Mifs Guiney

M^rs Fields* and I wish so much that you would come to dine with us tomorrow -- Saturday, at ^quarter before^ seven -- It is M^rs Fields's afternoon at home, so please come as early as you can! I am here only until the first of the week and we are to

[ Page 2 ]

be quite by ourselves ^tomorrow evening^ -- save for Mifs Alice Longfellow* who has not been well and is staying with M^rs Fields for awhile. If you do come I shall be sure to ask you to play us a song!

Yours most truly

Sarah Orne Jewett

Notes

1896: Stoddart gives the 1891 date assigned this letter by a Colby College library curator. However, there is reason to believe that this letter was written at a later date, after Jewett and Guiney had entered into more intimate correspondence. By December of 1896, they had exchanged a number of letters. However, it is true that 11 December fell on a Friday in both 1891 and 1896.

Fields: Annie Adams Fields. Key to Correspondents.

Alice Longfellow: Key to Correspondents.

The manuscript of this letter is held by Colby College Special Collections, Waterville, ME: JEWE.1. Scott Frederick Stoddart's transcription appears in his Ph.D. dissertation at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign: Selected Letters of Sarah Orne Jewett.
New transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.

Thomas Bailey Aldrich to R. W. Gilder

Boston, Dec. 12, 1896.

Dear Gilder, --

I suppose that Woodberry has told you what a sad and anxious household we have here. Mr. Pierce came in from Milton a week ago last Thursday to pass three or four days with us, intending to go to New York on Tuesday. On Monday morning he had a stroke of paralysis, and has ever since been lying helpless in our house. His situation is very serious. For nearly twenty-five years he has been one of the most loved of guests at our fireside, and it takes all our fortitude to face the fact that that wise and gentle and noble heart has come to us for the last time. He is dimly conscious, but cannot speak; his right side is completely paralyzed. Should he, by a miracle, recover, he would never be able to walk, and his mind would be partly gone. I am sure you will be grieved to hear all this, for no one could be with him, even for so short a time as you were last summer, without being impressed by the sweetness and simplicity and integrity of his character. When I think of the false and cruel men who are let live, I don't understand the scheme which blots out such lives as his. I would have given him ten or fifteen happy years more. In haste.

Yours sincerely,

T. B. A.

Notes

R. W. Gilder: Richard Watson Gilder (1844 - 1909) was an American poet and editor.

Woodberry: George E. Woodberry (1855 - 1930). See Key to Correspondents.

Mr. Pierce: Henry L. Pierce (1825-1896), owner of Baker Chocolate and a politician who, among other offices, served as mayor of Boston, MA. The Aldriches, along with Jewett and Annie Fields, were regular guests on the steam yacht, Hermione, which Pierce owned during the last decade of his life. Pierce died on 17 December. Wikipedia.

This transcription was published in Thomas Bailey Aldrich (1908) by Ferris Greenslet, pp. 195-6.

Sarah Orne Jewett to Annie Adams Fields

Wednesday 15 Dec^r

1896

Dearest Annie

Such a dark day! and I dont like to think of your going out to the Conference* but I suppose a dear mouse* will prance there with all sails set -- I make this confusion of figures on purpose -- it is so pleasing to think of a mouse with sails !! Cousin Alice* is going today after a nice visit so far as I can say for I always enjoy her quiet serenity and dear old fashionedness, very much. Last night we "had the minister to tea" -- so all social opportunities [reached corrected ]

[ Page 2 ]

their height. Mr. & Mrs. Lewis* seemed to enjoy themselves too -- I was at the Bank awhile in the afternoon, and did some copying but beside running my errands to the post office &c that was all (All the little sparrows are out [ in or on ] the top of the porch looking in at me with their little bright eyes!)

Carrie* went to Boston yesterday and she meant to go to see you. Thank you for what you did about Jennie's people.*

[ Page 3 ]

I wont tell her the reports if she doesn't begin about them again -- unless they are good ones. ----- I suppose things are going on pretty much the same. I am so glad you didn't try to go yourself now -- for Everything you dont do at this season seems to be wise!! I do so want to keep you from getting more cold. Perhaps a little whiskey with your luncheon? --You thought it was very good for you last year, when the

[ Page 4 ]

cold weather was setting in --

But I must write no more of this dull letter -- except to send my love. Mr. Howells's letter is quite touching and Alice Warren's* writing was like seeing a ghost -- Now she is coming back to play! and I am always glad to play with her.

Good bye darling Fuff*

from your

Pin*

Poor Marguerite Hall!* How touching how genuine her note is! There is such deep & true feeling in it.

Notes

Conference: Presumably, this is a meeting of the Associated Charities of Boston.

mouse: One of Jewett's nicknames for Annie Adams Fields. See Key to Correspondents.

Cousin Alice: Probably Alice Dunlap Gilman. See Key to Correspondents.

Mr. & Mrs. Lewis: George Lothrop Lewis. See Key to Correspondents.

Carrie: Carrie Jewett Eastman. See Key to Correspondents.

Jennie's people: A Jennie is mentioned in a letter to Mary Rice Jewett and Carrie Jewett Eastman of 12 July 1894. That letter implies that Jennie is a household employee of Carrie and Ned Eastman. See Key to Correspondents. It would seem likely that Jennie is an Irish immigrant, with relatives in difficulty in Boston, where Fields could provide them with some aid through Associated Charities.

Mr. Howells: William Dean Howells. See Key to Correspondents.

Alice Warren's: This person has not been identified. However, Alice Amelia Bartlett Warren (1843-1912) moved in the same social circles as Fields and Jewett, being a friend of Henry James and Ellen Emerson, among other Jewett Key to Correspondents. See the introduction to Little Women Abroad: The Alcott Sisters' Letters from Europe, 1870-1871 (2008), edited by Daniel Shealy, pp. lxii-lxiii.

Fuff: Another nickname for Annie Adams Fields. See Key to Correspondents.

Pin: Pinny Lawson (Pinny / Pin) was an affectionate nickname for Jewett, used by her and Annie Fields. See Key to Correspondents.

Marguerite Hall: It seems likely this was Miss Marguerite Hall, who appears in the Boston Musical Year Book (v. 1) Season of 1883-84, in numerous vocal and piano performances. While an internet search finds her name in many performances in the United States and abroad through the early 20th century, it yields as yet no further information about her.

The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library of Harvard University. Jewett, Sarah Orne, 1849-1909. Annie Fields (Adams) 1834-1915, recipient. 194 letters; 1877-1909 & [n.d.] Sarah Orne Jewett correspondence, 1861-1930. MS Am 1743 (255). Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.

Sarah Orne Jewett to Lilian Woodman and Thomas Bailey Aldrich

South Berwick

Friday morning

[ 18 December 1896 ]

My dear Lilian and T.B.

    The sad news of our dear friends death* has just reached me by the morning paper and I cant tell whether I am most thankful for his going without any more suffering, or most grieved because he has gone. I shall miss him dreadfully, for fond as I have always been of him since I first knew him, all our living together at sea in this last year has brought

[ 2 ]
me so much nearer to him, as it has brought me nearer to you both. And I do feel your great sorrow with you as I believe few of your friends can, so do take the love and sympathy I send with all my heart.

    I shall of course come up to the funeral and I shall see you very soon. Please give my love to Bridget* and tell her how quick I thought

[ 3 ]

of her when I first knew that dear Mr. Pierce had gone.

    I cannot help thinking as I write of that dear old fashioned hymn:

-- Earth's transitory joys decay
    Its pomps its pleasures pass away:
    But the sweet memory of the good
    Survives in the vicissitude --*

Dear Lily you cant think how glad I am to have had that last look sad as it made my heart. I wish that I were there to take a little care of you now when you must be so outworn with sorrow and watching. I send my

[ 4 ]

love and many a thought today to you and dear T.B. and the boys* --

Always your affectionate

S.O.J.

Notes

friends death: As a note in another hand at the top of page 1 indicates, this letter refers to the 17 December 1896 death of Henry L. Pierce (see Key to Correspondents), a long-time friend and neighbor of the Aldrich family. He died after a stroke that occurred on December 14.
     Lilian and Thomas, along with Jewett and Annie Fields, had spent most of the first three months of 1896 cruising the Caribbean in rough seas on Pierce's steam-yacht, the Hermione.

Bridget: An Aldrich family employee who sailed with the Hermione party.

vicissitude: Jewett quotes with slight variation the opening verse of "Earth's Transitory Things Decay" with verse by Sir John Bowring (1792-1872) and the tune, "Rothwell" composed by William Tans'ur.

    Earth's transitory things decay,
    Its pomps, its pleasures pass away;
    But the sweet memory of the good
    Survives in the vicissitude.

boys: The Aldriches' twin sons, Talbot and Charles were born in 1868.

The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. Thomas Bailey Aldrich Papers, 119 letters of Thomas Bailey and Lilian Woodman Aldrich, 1837-1926. MS Am 1429 (117). Transcribed and annotated by Terry Heller, Coe College.
    At the bottom left of page one, in another hand, is a circled number: 2754.

Sarah Orne Jewett to Sarah Wyman Whitman

[ 23 December 1896 ]*

Dear fellow I tag you with a little box ---- you pays your Christmas and you takes your choice: but the little book has got to be Returned.

I liked these stories of Mr -- Howells's* so very much for certain reasons and Shaker association{s} of my own: and I was not sure that you had seen them. You might find an hour on your Christmas way, and this little Edinburgh reprint cant be

[ Page 2 ]

impeding even for your Baggage . . . And I send love. I miss you so much which may seem quite foolish to you a Philadelphia person -- and I really long to have you come back --

I shall have much to tell you that I could not tell you yesterday about Mr. Pierce's great and simple funeral. The verses ~~about~~ 'I was a stranger* -- sick -- and in prison and ye came

[ Page 3 ]

unto me' -- and 'the widow and fatherless and him that had no helper'* -- seemed to be new as they were read over that coffin -- and there was an irresistible wave of feeling that ran through, the church -- It was a most stately and grave company of men for the most part -- Roger Wolcott* looking most noble -- but so goes away that plain good old man, lonely and lovable, with some plaintive touch of childlikeness that made him timid in spite of

[ Page 4 ]

his great impulses and iron will to do what he thought right --

Who should come yesterday at dark but M^r Howells who has been spending two days at the Nortons* -- He has been ill and looks a little broken but was never so unforgettably himself. I wish you could have seen him -- and he you!

This winter they live at the Hotel Westminster down town in New York. Perhaps you have two minutes? And do see Ellen Mason* if you can and if she is there which indeed I do not know --

[ Up the left margin and across the top margin of page 1 ]

-- I have her a great deal in my heart these days. Good bye and Heaven bless you dear little girl. My heart follows you everywhere, and I shall keep Christmas with you

S. O. J.

[ Page 5 ]

I pull open my letter to tell you a piece of good news dear -- You will hear that M^r Pierce has left the Art Museum and Harvard and the Massachusetts Gen^l Hospital $50.000 apiece: which is good -- But still better that, is to be residuary legatees and since the will was made some years ago the dear old lover of his city had grown much richer, and so the Art Museum & [ Harvard corrected ] are most

[ Page 6 ]

likely to get seven or eight hundred thousand a piecel At least some one who is likely to know has just told me so !! And Radcliffe has a present of $20.000 -- thats still "The Society for the Collegiate Instruction of Women" isn't it? My mind is bewildered with so much news to tell -- It is lucky that there was a letter all begun!

Notes

1896: This date is confirmed by the letter's reference to the death of Henry Lille Pierce. See notes below.
    The folder containing this letter also contains a number of envelopes, but the contents have been shuffled. There is an envelope addressed to Mrs. Whitman at 256 S. 15th St., Philadelphia, PA, canceled in Boston on 23 December 1896. The back side has a December 1896 cancellation in Philadelphia. The day is obscured.

Howells's: William Dean Howells. Key to Correspondents.
    It is not certain to which stories Jewett refers. Howells wrote about Shakers several times in his career. Near the time of this letter, Howells published The Day of their Wedding (1895) and A Parting and a Meeting (1896), both with Shaker characters.

Mr. Pierce's: Henry Lille Pierce (d. 17 December 1896). Key to Correspondents.

stranger: See the Bible, Matthew 25.

no helper: Jewett seems to be quoting from the funeral sermon for Mr. Pierce, for this exact quotation does not appear in the King James Bible. Of course, it is consistent with the words of Jesus in Matthew 25, and the general idea appears often in the Bible, as in Psalms 72. Perhaps the closest to this wording is Job 20:12-16.

Roger Wolcott: Spouse of Edith Prescott Wolcott. Key to Correspondents.

Nortons: The family of Sara Norton. See Key to Correspondents.

Ellen Mason: Key to Correspondents.

The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library of Harvard University, Cambridge, MA. bMS Am 1743 Box 6, Item 277.
    Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.

Charles Eliot Norton* to Sarah Orne Jewett

Shady Hill, 26 December, 1896.

My dear Miss Jewett, --

If outward circumstances are as pleasant for you as I trust they are you must have had a very happy Christmas, -- for what can make one happier than the assurance of the love of friends, and the knowledge of having contributed to the happiness of each one of them, known & unknown?

I have often thanked you silently for opening to me the

[ Page 2 ]

Country of the pointed Firs,* and giving me a share in the sweetness and the charm which you brought to it and found in it. Your little book makes life pleasanter and better for all who read it.

And now this special gift, -- this exquisite old bronze dish -- which you have sent to me gives me a more than common pleasure. It touched my heart and my imagination alike, for it seemed as if, without spoken word, you have recognized my real sympathy

[ Page 3 ]

with you, and not waiting for me to express it, had by this token shewn your kindly acceptance of it, -- and it seems also like one of the treasures, long an heirloom in the Country of the Pointed Firs, given to me as a memorial of the beauty of the land and of the simple virtues and joys and sorrows of those who live there.

I thank you for such a gift, delightful alike to the outward and the inner eye.

I hope that we may see you

[ Page 4 ]

here before long, and I am looking forward with confident pleasure to your visit to us next summer at Ashfield.

I am gratefully & affectionately Yours

C. E. Norton.

I wish you a happy New Year.

Miss Jewett.

Notes

Norton: See Sara Norton in Key to Correspondents.

Firs: Jewett's The Country of the Pointed Firs (1896).

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 166. I. Letters to Sarah Orne Jewett.
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.

Sarah Orne Jewett to Mary Hopkins Loring*

28^th December

1896

[ Begin letterhead ]

South Berwick, Maine

[ End letterhead ]

Dear M^rs Loring

I have been trying to remember the Consul's name* which I have forgotten though I remember him so well! but at last it occurs to me that I can direct my note to him officially! I send it to you for your

[ Page 2 ]

sister with great pleasure.

-- [ In corrected ] Mandeville* we knew no one; we stayed at the hotel which I could hardly recommend for a long stay amusing and hospitable as we found it. In Mr. Froude's book about the West Indies* you will find a reference

[ Page 3 ]

to some very comfortable lodgings where he stayed -- which we heard well recommended, and I believe that there are other places of the sort. I thought that Mandeville was delightful, especially as to its oranges!

We took many excursions in Jamaica but in all the time we were there we only slept ashore three nights, living on the yacht in the

[ Page 4 ]

different harbours, so that I am not as good authority ^about houses^ as most travellers to that most enchanting island. I took a great fancy to Miss Duffy's lodgings at Bath* -- She was such a nice person and if Miss Hopkins* sees her, I should so like to be remembered to her. She went with us to the marvellous botanical gardens close by her quaint old house. With very fond regards

Yours ever

S. O. Jewett.

Notes

Loring: Probably this letter is addressed to Mary J. Hopkins Loring (1852-1914), spouse of Charles Greely Loring (1828-1902). Jewett was close friends with the family of Mr. Loring's brother, Caleb Loring. See Katharine Peabody Loring in Key to Correspondents.
    In the winter of 1896, Jewett, Fields and others undertook a steam yacht tour of several Caribbean islands. Annie Fields kept a "Diary of a West Indian Island Tour."

Consul's name: Presumably, Jewett is searching for the name of an American Consul in Jamaica. In Fields's Diary of a West Indian Island Tour Part 3, she mentions a Mr. Davis, who was then "consul" at Port Antonio. He was especially hospitable, and aided Fields's party in a tour of the Boston Fruit Company facilities near Port Antonio, Jamaica.
    It is not yet clear what it meant to be a U.S. Consul in Jamaica in 1896. The United States did not established formal diplomatic relations with Jamaica until the island became independent in 1962.

Mandeville: For an account of time spent in Mandeville, Jamaica, in early 1896, see Fields's Diary of a West Indian Island Tour, Part 4.

Mr. Froude's book about the West Indies: British historian and author, James Anthony Froude (1818-1894) traveled in the West Indies in the 1880s and authored a reflective account in The English in the West Indies, or The Bow of Ulysses (1888), with several chapters on Jamaica.

Miss Duffy's lodgings at Bath: Fields's account of a stop with Lucretia Duffy appears in Part 3 of her diary. See the notes for this part for details about Miss Duffy and her house.
    Also in Part 3, Fields recounts their trip to the Bath Botanical Gardens.

Miss Hopkins: Mrs. Loring had an unmarried sister, Sarah Keturah Hopkins (1855-1914), and a half-sister, Eunice Hopkins (1870-1938).

The manuscript of this letter is held by the Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.

Sarah Orne Jewett to Louise Imogen Guiney

28 December 1896

[ Begin letterhead ]

South Berwick.

Maine

[ End letterhead ]

Dear Louise

I thank you so much for my Book and for your most kind and dear remembrance. When I see you I shall tell you how much I like it, the book, I mean now; if it were your own I should read it first and write afterward. Which is what I mean to do with this exquisite little handful of (rose) leaves

[ Page 2 ]

which comes from Alice Brown!* I wish you would tell her if you see her or if you write. I can wait to take the right hour (which one cannot always do with a book that deserves justice) for I have forgotten her Pinckney Street number and so I must wait to thank her also when I get

[ Page 3 ]

back, presently, to town.

There are many things I should like to talk about with you and with her -- one is that this autumn I was off for a weeks driving and I went to the Shaker houses at Canterbury.* I had just been reading Sainte Beuve's Port Royal and* I hardly knew the difference between Mère Angelique and Eldress Joanna Kaime with her

[ Page 4 ]

white hood and stately old head.* New England was going to do without somethings and thought they were left behind, but human nature is too strong. So we have monasteries but we call them Shaker families! Oh there is much to tell about that day to which you would both listen and wish you had been with me.

I hope that I shall see you soon --

Yours affectionately,

Sarah O. Jewett

I hope that my Pointed Firs will remind you of some shoreward pleasures.

Notes

Alice Brown: The exclamation point here may be a colon, but it appears to be underlined twice.
Lucey says, "Four books by Alice Brown were published in 1896, among them The Road to Castaly which was dedicated to Louise Guiney. It would seem, however, from Miss Jewett's remark that Louise had sent her The Rose of Hope."
Lucey seems to believe that Guiney has sent Jewett a copy of Brown's book, but to me it appears that Brown has sent Jewett her own book. What book Guiney has sent is not yet known.

Canterbury: Lucey notes: "The Shaker Village mentioned in this letter was located in Canterbury, New Hampshire, a small farming town about twelve miles north-east of Concord. Miss Jewett described a visit to the Canterbury Shakers in a letter to Annie Fields dated "Thursday night, 1897." (Letters of Sarah Orne Jewett, edited by Annie Fields, p. 134). Both letters, it seems, refer to the same visit, and if this is so the date of the letter to Annie Fields should read 1896." See Wikipedia.

and: In the letter Jewett often writes an "a" with a long tail for "and." These are rendered here as "and."

old head: Wikipedia says that Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve (1804-1869,) "was a literary critic of French literature ... Port-Royal (1837–1859), probably Sainte-Beuve's masterpiece, is an exhaustive history of the Jansenist abbey of Port-Royal-des-Champs, near Paris. It not only influenced the historiography of religious belief, i.e., the method of such research, but also the philosophy of history and the history of esthetics."
According to Wikipedia, "Jacqueline-Marie-Angélique Arnauld, S.O. Cist. or Arnault, called La Mère Angélique (8 September 1591 in Paris – 6 August 1661 in Port-Royal-des-Champs), was Abbess of the Abbey of Port-Royal, which under her abbacy became a center of Jansenism."
This obituary of Eldress Joanna Kaime appeared in the 29 December 1899, Granite State Free Press:

Our community was deeply saddened by the intelligence from East Canterbury of the death of Eldress Joanna Kaime, on Dec. 29, of paresis. As presiding Eldress in the ministry for nearly thirty years she has in this capacity alternated in her home between the society of Shakers at Enfield and that at East Canterbury. She was truly a most estimable woman, of exceeding loveliness and sweetness of character, true and genuine in all the relations of life. None knew her but to love her, not only in her own home, where the sweet unselfishness of her life was best known, but many friends and acquaintances outside the home circle could bear witness to the saintly presence, which diffused blessing and peace, to those privileged to come under the shadow of her loving, gentle spirit. Although she had been in failing health for two months no one apprehended the end so near, until the final summons told us she had entered into rest.

Pointed Firs: The Country of the Pointed Firs (1896).

The manuscript of this letter is held by the Dinand Library of Holy Cross College in the collection of materials of Louise Imogen Guiney, Box: SC007-GUIN-004, Folder: 40. A transcription by William L. Lucey, S. J. appeared in "'We New Englanders': Letters of Sarah Orne Jewett to Louise Imogen Guiney." Records of the American Catholic Historical Society of Philadelphia 70 (1959): 58-64.
    The manuscript includes penciled marks and page numbers apparently added in another hand. There also are marks made by paper clips.
    This new transcription is from a photocopy held by the Maine Women Writer's Collection, University of New England, Letters from Sarah Orne Jewett, 1875-1890, Box 4, Folder 159, Burton Trafton Jewett Research Collection.
    Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.

Sarah Orne Jewett to Frederick Mercer Hopkins

29 December 1896

[ Begin letterhead in blue ink. ]

South Berwick.

Maine.

[ End letterhead ]

My dear Mr. Hopkins

I thank you for your kindness in sending me the Review of Reviews for December, and for all your friendliness in regard to the Pointed Firs* I am sure that you will like to know that it is doing capitally well as to sales.

I think very well of your

[ Page 2 ]

suggestion in regard to Mrs. Thaxter's Among the Isles of Shoals.* I mean to speak to Mr. Mifflin* about it at once, and I should be very glad if you would tell him what you think about the matter. The House will soon settle upon next year's plans and some things are of course already under weigh [ so spelled ].

With my best thanks and best New Year wishes.

Yours very sincerely

S. O. Jewett.

[ Page 3 ]

I have in mind Mr. J. Appleton Brown and Mr. Ross Turner* for the illustrators, for they both know the Islands so well -- are charming artists ^especially Mr. Brown -- and* were Mrs. Thaxter's intimate friends.

Notes

Firs: Richard Cary notes: "Hamilton W. Mabie's brief but laudatory critique of The Country of the Pointed Firs ('shows her true and delicate art in all its quiet and enduring charm') and a bust portrait of Miss Jewett appeared in the year-end review of worthy books in Review of Reviews, XIV (December 1896), 743.

Shoals: Celia Thaxter. Key to Correspondents. Thaxter's book appeared in 1873. After her death, Jewett consulted with Houghton MIfflin regarding a new edition. Hopkins seems to have suggested including illustrations.

Mifflin: George Harrison Mifflin. Key to Correspondents.

Brown ... Turner: John Appleton Brown. Key to Correspondents.
Ross Sterling Turner (1847-1915) taught painting at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Massachusetts Normal Art School. He gave lessons to Celia Thaxter.

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 Orne Jewett to Lilian Woodman Aldrich

Tuesday 29th December [ 1896 ]

[ Begin letterhead ]

South Berwick.
Maine.

[ End letterhead ]

Dear Lilian

I have been meaning to send you the yacht photograph but I believe that I had better bring it with me as I am coming back in a few days now. I should hate to have it get bent and broken in the careless mails! I think of you a great deal and every day it seems to me that I miss Mr Pierce* more. Just

[ 2 ]

[ intended now ? ] we are all being reminded of our happy plans a year ago -- aren't we? -- how true it is that one never knows a friend until he is gone -- never knows him in the closest way -- it is as if we followed on a little way and caught something of the new life.

-- I wish so much to see you and T.B.* again; next week is my winter week to go to Mrs. Cabot's* so that I shall be nearby, but I keep hoping that you will be well enough to go to New York for your New Year visit. I should

[ 3 ]

so hate to have you break into that dear custom, and if you can only risk the journey I think it would be good for you. I remember just after my mother died A.F.* persuaded me to go away with her for a time and it was a great pull at the time, but I was much better for it and thanked her so much afterward . .

Dear Lily, there are so many things that I wish to say but cannot write. I am hoping to see you soon at any rate and I send my love and my new year blessing

Yours always. 'Sadie'*

[ 4 ]

I am so worried about A.F. sometimes. Her winter cold seems worse than usual this year and she does not seem a bit strong. I shall be so glad when January is over -- that is always a hard month for her.

Notes

Mr. Pierce: Henry L. Pierce, who died 17 December 1896. See Key to Correspondents.
Lilian and Thomas, along with Jewett and Annie Fields, had spent most of the first three months of 1896 cruising the Caribbean in rough seas on Pierce's steam-yacht, the Hermione.

T.B.: Thomas Bailey Aldrich. See Key to Correspondents.

Mrs. Cabot's: Susan Burley Howes Cabot. See Key to Correspondents.

A.F.: Annie Adams Fields. See Key to Correspondents. Jewett's mother died in October 1891.

Sadie: One of Jewett's nicknames. With the Aldriches, this would have been Sadie Martinot, after the actress of that name. See Key to Correspondents.

The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. Thomas Bailey Aldrich Papers, 119 letters of Thomas Bailey and Lilian Woodman Aldrich, 1837-1926. MS Am 1429 (117). Transcribed and annotated by Terry Heller, Coe College.
At the bottom left of page one, in another hand, is a circled number: 2757.

Edited by Terry Heller, Coe College.

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