Jewett Texts

1898 in Europe

Sarah Orne Jewett Letters of 1898

Sarah Orne Jewett to Grace Norton

148 Charles Street

Saturday morning

[ 1 January 1898 ]*

Dear Miss Norton

I wish you a happy new year, and I thank you from my heart for the kindness and sympathy of your letter -- You understand what I am glad that I can call last year as few friends can. It is impossible to get over the feeling that

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something of me died and not the living brightness and affectionateness of my sister. I have been reading Madame Darmesters Life of Renan* with great pleasure lately and I keep remembering one of the last sentences -- "The important thing in life is not our misery, our despair, however crushing, but the one good moment which outweighs it all" ---- I am looking forward to next Friday and to seeing you again -- and again

Yours with much love

Sarah O. Jewett

Notes

1 January 1898: Carrie Jewett Eastman, Jewett's younger sister, died on 1 April 1897. As 1 January 1898 fell on a Saturday, it seems likely that this is the date of composition.

Life of Renan: Agnes Mary F. Robinson, Madame James Darmestetter (1857-1944) published The Life of Ernest Renan in 1897. Jewett seems to have misspelled the author's name, and in her quotation, she actually paraphrases from the last paragraph of The Life.

The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library of Harvard University, Cambridge, MA. bMS Am 1743 Box 6, Item 269.
On the back of Page 1, is a penciled note:

Harvard College Library
July 15 1914
Collection of
Dr. Rupert Norton
of Baltimore
AB. 1888

Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.

Sister Saint Andrew* to Sarah Orne Jewett

This document was composed in French. The French text follows this translation.

[ About 1 January 1898 ]*

[ Translation of the New Year Card ]

The Superior of the Monastery of the
Precious Blood and its Community

ask you to accept their respectful homage

and their wishes of happiness
for the New Year.

Please, would you kindly address this letter to Madame Blanc?*

I am currently preparing to testify in the cause of the Reverend Jesuit Fathers martyred in Canada.* I expect to be questioned about all of them; and immediately afterwards, I will write to you. I have so many things to tell you! When we are in Heaven, how happy we will be to be able to talk as we wish! This will be one of my greatest joys. In the meantime, I wish you, and those you love, a good, holy and happy new year and many more to follow.

Sister Saint Andrew

Notes

Sister St. Andrew: Probably because of my limited knowledge of French, I have not been able to learn much about Sister St. Andrew. She apparently was one of les Soeurs Adoratrices du Précieux-Sang, who established a convent in Montreal, Canada, in 1885. In 1888, there appear to have been four nuns at the convent: Sister Julie-Émélie Lamarre of Saint-
Gabriel, Superior. Sister Marie des Anges, assistant, and Sister St-Elzéar, Sister St Léandre and Sister St. André (Andrew). Whether this Sister St. André is the same one who corresponded with Jewett is not certain.

1898: This date is a guess. A rationale is that the card probably was sent soon after Mme. Blanc visited the convent in Montreal during her trip to North America in 1897.

Blanc: Marie Thérèse de Solms Blanc. Key to Correspondents.

Canada: The eight Jesuit Canadian martyrs were canonized in 1930 by Pope Pius XI. Wikipedia.

The manuscript of this card is held by the Houghton Library of Harvard University, Cambridge, MA. Sarah Orne Jewett Correspondence, bMS Am 1743 Box 4, Item 191. I. Letters to Sarah Orne Jewett.
Transcription, translation and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College, using Google Translate.

French Text

[ Printed card ]

La Supérieure de l'Hôtel-Dieu du
Précieux Sang et sa Communauté
vous prient d agréer leurs respecteueux hommages
et leurs voeux de bonheur
pour la Nouvelle Année.

[ End printed portion ]

[ Up the left margin on the front of the card ]

Voulez-vous me faire le plaisir d'adresser cette lettre à Madame Blanc, s'il vous plait.

[ Beneath the printed portion on the front of the card ]

Je prépare actuellement mon témorguage dans la cause des Révérends Pères Jésuites

[ Back of the card ]

martyrisés au Canada. Je serais examinée en mass; et aussitôt après, je vous écrirai. J'ai tant de choses à vous dire!.. Quand nous serons au Ciel, comme nous serons heureuses de pouvoir causer au gré de nos désirs! Ce sera l'une de mes plus grandes joies. En attendant, je vous souhaite, et à tons cena que vous aimez, une bonne, sainte et heureuse année suivie de
plusieurs autres sembables.

S^r. S^t. André

Elizabeth Cabot Cary Agassiz to Annie Adams Fields

Jan 2^d / 98*

[ Begin letterhead ]

Quincy Street,

Cambridge.

[ End letterhead ]

My dear friend

I am passing pleasant hours with you just now for I am reading with deepest interest your Life and Letters of Mrs Stowe.* It is a delightful book and shows her in all the relations of her life -- daughter, wife, mother, sister & friend with so vivid a truth that one almost forgets [ for the moment ? ] [ deletion ] ^her^ work for the country and for a people & race not her own,* by virtue of which she became known of all men, -- her name is a national inheritance{.}

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I send you to-day something which should have come to you at Xmas, -- but in the press of the season I put it into the hands of the photographer rather late and it was not finished. I don't know whether you will think it a likeness of Agassiz -- -- it is different from all the others and was taken from an unfinished sketch of him by [ unrecognized name ]. The artist was dissatisfied and threw it away as waste

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paper. It was picked up and preserved by an old friend of Agassiz, who was his draughtsman during many years -- At his death it came to me and has always had something very characteristic. I had a few copies made for the family and I send you one -- with my love for the New Year.

Your affectionate friend

E. C. Agassiz

Notes

98: In the upper left corner of page 1 is penciled a large encircled lower case "a."

Stowe: Fields's The Life and Letters of Harriet Beecher Stowe (1897). For Stowe, see Key to Correspondents.

not her own: Agassiz refers most specifically to Stowe's anti-slavery novel, Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852). There appears to be an ink-blot, or perhaps a deletion above the word "own."

The manuscript of this letter is held by the Huntington Library, San Marino, CA, James Thomas Fields papers and addenda mssFI 1-5637, Box 1. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.

Louise Imogen Guiney to Annie Adams Fields

[ 9 January 1898 ]

You are good to me, dear Mrs. Fields! Indeed, I will come, and with joy -- The plays begin at eight, on the 18th, do they not? Shall I call at the house for you? I have had several pitched battles with a bad throat lately, but I devoutly hope nothing will cheat me of this pleasure, for which take the best thanks of your

L. I. G.

9th Jan. 1898.

Auburndale, Mass^tts --

Note

The manuscript of this letter is held by the Huntington Library, San Marino, CA, in the James T. Fields collection Box 26: mss FI 1614 . Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.

Louise Imogen Guiney to Annie Adams Fields

[ 12 January 1898 ]

Dear Mrs. Fields:

Indeed, I shall be delighted to dine beside you, and sleep above you, on Tuesday! I did not know that was in the plan. So you may look for me, rain or shine, about six, or a quarter past. I have had various disturbances in my throat this winter, but hope to have overcome them all. Love to you, and all thanks, from

Your

L. I. G.

12 Jan'y.

1898.

Note

The manuscript of this letter is held by the Huntington Library, San Marino, CA, in the James T. Fields collection Box 26: mss FI 1615. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.

Sarah Orne Jewett to Sarah Wyman Whitman

Friday night

[ 14 January 1898 ]*

[ Begin letterhead ]

South Berwick.

Maine'

[ End letterhead ]

Dear S.W.

DEAREST S. W., --

I came home to a day or two of illness, the last fling of an officious hanging-on old cold, and here I am writing to you a little more good-for-nothing than common, but mending, and with the tag end of Hope to hold on by. Even for me Things go crosswise -- which one cannot bear to say and I wont say after all! But send my love to you

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and beg you to hold on fast to the only certainty in this world which is the certainty of Love and Care -- I can't help feeling that Mary Darmesteter speaks true out of great pain and the deep places of life when she ends that last book -- "The true importance of Life is not misery, [ or written over something ] despair however crushing, but the one good moment which outweighs it all" --* I cannot say how often I have remembered this in the last month. The only thing

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that really helps any of us is love and doing things for love's sake.

-- I wanted to send you some box, dear fellow, but a flurry of snow fastened down its covering of boughs, -- its winter now, you know; but I'll just tell you one thing: its going to be spring and [there's corrected] not a great while to wait [deleted word], either! Dont you forget it was ~~was~~ I who told you this, and said good-night, as if we were together, with a kiss and a blessing.

S. O. J.

Whenever you want the Darmesteter book, Renan -- send down to 148 for it --. I meant to carry it to you. I am just reading Mrs. Oliphant's Life of Edward Irving* with great delight -- There is a wonderful piece of landscape in the beginning, (like one of your own pictures to me.) where the boy goes over the moors in the early morning to his 'covenanting' church.*

Notes

14 Jan 1898: The date "15 Jan 1898" in another hand appears on the manuscript. This date fell on a Saturday, but is based upon the postmark on the accompanying envelope. The composition date is the previous Friday.

Mary Darmesteter, "Renan": Agnes Mary F. Robinson, Madame James Darmestetter (1857-1944) published The Life of Ernest Renan in 1897. The quotation appears in the last paragraph of the biography. Jewett's sadness in this letter suggests that she is dealing still with the loss of her sister, Carrie Eastman, on 1 April 1897. See Correspondents.

148: The address of Annie Adams Fields at 148 Charles St. Boston, MA. See Key to Correspondents.

Oliphant's "Life of Edward Irving": Mrs. Margaret Oliphant (1828-1897) was the author of the Life of Edward Irving, Minister of the National Scotch Church, London: Illustrated by His Journals and Correspondence (1862), published in two volumes.
Edward Irving (1792-1834), Scottish minister, founded the Catholic Apostolic church, based on his belief in the imminent Second Coming of Christ.

covenanting church: "The Covenanters were Scottish Presbyterians of the 17th century who subscribed to covenants (or bonds), the most famous being the National Covenant of 1638 and the Solemn League and Covenant of 1643. The National Covenant opposed the new liturgy introduced (1637) by King Charles I . This led to the abolition of episcopacy in Scotland and the Bishops' Wars (1639-41), in which the Scots successfully defended their religious freedom against Charles." (Source: Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia).

The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library of Harvard University, Cambridge. MA: Whitman, Sarah (Wyman) 1842-1904, recipient. 25 letters; 1892-[1900] & [n.d.]. Sarah Orne Jewett additional correspondence, 1868-1930. MS Am 1743.1 (126). Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.

Annie Fields Transcription

Fields includes passages from this letter in Letters of Sarah Orne Jewett (1911), p. 129-30.

I came home to a day or two of illness, the last fling of an officious hanging-on old cold, and here I am writing to you, a little more good-for-nothing than common, but mending, and with the tag end of Hope to hold on by. Even for me things go crosswise, which one cannot bear to say, and I won't say, after all, but send you love and beg to hold on fast to the only certainty in this world, which is the certainty of Love and Care. I can't help feeling that Mary Darmesteter speaks true, out of great pain and the deep places of life, when she ends that last book, "The true importance of life is not misery or despair, however crushing, but the one good moment which outweighs it all." I cannot say how often I have remembered this in the last month. The only thing that really helps any of us is love and doing things for love's sake. I wanted to send you some sprigs of box, but a flurry of snow fastened down its covering of boughs, -- it's winter now, you know; but I'll just tell you one thing, it's going to be spring and there's not a great while to wait, either. Don't you forget it was I who told you this, and said good-night, as if we were together, with a kiss and a blessing.

Whenever you want the Darmesteter book, "Renan," send down to 148 for it. I meant to carry it to you. I am just reading Mrs. Oliphant's "Life of Edward Irving" with great delight. There is a wonderful piece of landscape in the beginning (like one of your own pictures), where the boy goes over the moors in the early morning to his Covenanting Church.

Sarah Orne Jewett to Annie Adams Fields

Monday morning

[ 17 January 1898 ]*

Dearest Annie

I think so much about you and wonder how you are and if things are going well. I know you would miss me Sunday -- -- I send back the Beecher* letter -- one wonders how such an old creatur' as he, (whom I remember at Mrs. Stowe's funeral) could write [ any corrected ] letter at all! All the other notes and letters are interesting and kind -- (* Yesterday I didn't go out, but finished the first volume of Edward Irving* and then read Carlyle's truly wonderful paper about him

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in which, by the way, he says that Mrs. Oliphant's account of Irving's last days* is quite wonderful -- he is really eloquent in writing about it -- but finds the early part of the biography ~~rather~~ ^a little^ untrue to the character of Irving ^as he knew him,^ romantic and idealizing to some extent. You feel that what he says of their various interviews and associations ^is^ exactly as he knows it ~~but that~~ and always most sympathetic and affecting, as you will remember, but to Mrs. Oliphant Irving stands always against the dark background of his fate. ----- Irving seems less great than I expected but very moving, a creature of brilliant natural

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gifts -- especially of speech. He would have made a certain kind of great politician, perhaps after Gladstone's kind,* but I understood part of the reason of his decline when Carlyle says that he was not a reader. Men of his impulsive nature ride off on strange ideas when they fail in what Matthew Arnold tried to teach in Literature and Dogma* -- After all Irving failed through the mistakes of ignorance, and the self confidence which always goes with that kind of ignorance. How we shall talk about this most moving book! ( I should send it right back to you

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but Mary* has been picking it up as soon as I laid it down) Carlyle took no stock in Irving's wife, and is so solemn and regretful about the Gift of Tongues* and the squeals of a lady parishioner one day when he was calling. ( The squint of Irving's eye was a sign of something in his brain.

( -- I hope to be summoned about my dress today -- I hurried Miss Chase* the best I could, but I cant do away with the usual processes! I begin to feel better and as if I could be good for something again. So let us hope.

With dearest love and thought

Yours [always corrected ] Pinny

Notes

17 January 1898: Fields penciled "1897?" in the upper right of page 1. However, there is a firmly dated letter of 14 January 1898, in which Jewett reports to Sarah Wyman Whitman that she is, for the first time, reading Mrs. Oliphant's biography of Edward Irving (see notes below). In that letter, she also reports being ill. Almost certainly, then, this letter was composed on the Monday following 14 January.

Beecher: This probably is one of the brothers of American author, Harriet Beecher Stowe. See Key to Correspondents.
Assuming that we have the correct date for this letter, then only two of Stowe's brothers remained alive: Charles (1815-1900) and Thomas Kinnicut (1824-1900).

kind -- (: This and the remaining parenthesis marks in this letter were penciled in by Fields.

first volume of Edward Irving ... Carlyle's truly wonderful paper ... Mrs. Oliphant's account of Irving's last days: Edward Irving (1792-1834), Scottish minister, founded the Catholic Apostolic church, based on his belief in the imminent Second Coming of Christ. Thomas Carlyle writes about him in Reminiscences (1881), edited by James Anthony Froude. Mrs. Margaret Oliphant (1828-1897) was the author of the Life of Edward Irving, Minister of the National Scotch Church, London: Illustrated by His Journals and Correspondence (1862), published in two volumes.

Gladstone's kind: William Ewart Gladstone (1809 - 1898) was a British politican who served twelve years as prime minister.

Matthew Arnold ... Literature and Dogma: See British author Matthew Arnold's (1822-1888) Literature and Dogma, where he argues in part that because much of contemporary religious thought lacks culture -- a knowledge of the best that has been known and thought -- many erroneously read the Bible as an authority on art and science as well as upon conduct.

Gift of Tongues: The Gift of Tongues refers to Pentecost as described in the second chapter of The Acts of the Apostles. Mrs. Irving believed that she could be overcome by the Holy Spirit and speak a foreign language not understood by her.

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

Mary: Mary Rice Jewett. See Key to Correspondents.

Miss Chase: In a letter to Mary Rice Jewett tentatively dated 1 April 1899, Jewett implies that Miss Chase is a supplier of fabrics. No other information about her has yet been found.

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

Annie Fields Transcription

Fields includes passages from this letter in Letters of Sarah Orne Jewett (1911), p. 121-2.

Monday morning.

Yesterday I didn't go out, but finished the first volume of Edward Irving and then read Carlyle's truly wonderful paper about him; in which, by the way, he says that Mrs. Oliphant's account of Irving's last days is quite wonderful. He is really eloquent in writing about it, but finds the early part of the biography a little untrue to the character of Irving as he knew him, romantic and idealizing to some extent. You feel that what he says of their various interviews and associations is exactly as he knows it, and always most sympathetic and affecting, as you will remember; but to Mrs. Oliphant, Irving stands almost against the dark background of his fate. Irving seems less great than I expected, but very moving, a creature of brilliant natural gifts, especially of speech. He would have made a certain kind of great politician, perhaps after Gladstone's kind, but I understood part of the reason of his decline when Carlyle says that he was not a reader. Men of his impulsive nature ride off on strange ideas when they fail in what Matthew Arnold tried to teach in "Literature and Dogma." After all, Irving failed through the mistakes of ignorance; and a self-confidence which always goes with that kind of ignorance. How we shall talk about this most moving book.

Carlyle took no stock in Irving's wife, and he is so solemn and regretful about the Gift of Tongues and the squeals of a lady parishioner one day when he was calling. The squint of Irving's eye was a sign of something in his brain.

Louise Imogen Guiney to Annie Adams Fields

[ 20 January 1898 ]

Madonna mia,* here is a Gymnastics card, with Miss Maxwell's* own mark thereupon. May it hatch into improved health for you, and into pleasure for me, since I shall see you oftener!

Well, I had such a happy yesterday with those thrice precious books! I wonder if sometime I might bring to see you (and them) a friend of Mr. Day's* and mine, Mr. Whittemore* of Tufts College, who is 'a spirit finely touched',* and a most devout young lover of letters?

Mother sends you her love with mine, and wishes to know whether you and Miss Jewett* wouldn't come and spend an afternoon in this wigwam, as soon as ever the

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spring tempers the air? If you only will, I think I should run up our best 12 x 9 flag! And doggie-boys would wear ribbons on their silky necks, and shake hands multitudinously!

Be better soon, will you not?

Your ever grateful and devoted

L. I. G.

20th Jan.

1898.

P.S. I find that the original of Mr. Cory-Johnson's lovely 'They Told me, Heraclitus', (translated also by Mr. Lang) is Callimachus.

Εἰπέ τις, Ἡράκλειτε, τεὸν μόρον

Notes

Madonna mia: Italian: "my lady."

Gymnastics card ... Miss Maxwell's: Charlotte E. Maxwell (c. 1856-1936) was the owner and operator of St. Botolph Gymnasium in Boston. See Writing Out My Heart: Selections from the Journal of Frances E. Willard, p. 392.

Mr. Day's: Fred Holland Day. See Key to Correspondents.

Mr. Whittemore: American scholar and archaeologist, Thomas Whittemore (1871-1950).

'a spirit finely touched'': This phrase has been repeated often enough that its origin is not certain.

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

Mr. Cory-Johnson's ...'They Told me, Heraclitus': William Johnson Cory (1823-1892) was an English educator and poet. His best known poem is an English rendering of "Heraclitus" by the ancient Greek poet, Callimachus (BC c. 310-240).
Scottish author and classical scholar Andrew Lang (1844-1912) included in Grass of Parnassus (1892), p. 161, his translation of "Heraclitus."
Guiney has quoted the opening words of Callimachus, "They tell me, Heraclitus, that you are dead." (Translation assistance from Angela Ziskowski, Coe College.)

The manuscript of this letter is held by the Huntington Library, San Marino, CA, in the James T. Fields collection Box 26: mss FI 1616. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.

Sarah Wyman Whitman to Sarah Orne Jewett

[ 23 Jan 1898 ]*

Darling. I find there's no use in my talking of Wednesday -- as I rashly did Friday night: for my windows* will not allow me a day off this coming week. -- But on Thursday before the afternoon sets in, I hope that all at 148* will come for luncheon, if perchance Miss Rep-

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plier ? ]* will come, [ & Else ? ] if she will not. And as you see I write this little note just to tell you how far from freedom I am just now: but hoping to be loved a little all the same.

[ unrecognized word Thine ? ]

_SW_

Notes

23 Jan 1898: This date is penciled in another hand in the upper right of page 1, but the associated envelope was cancelled 26 January 1898. The envelope is addressed to Jewett in South Berwick.

windows: In 1898, Whitman likely was at work on the central panel of the Lowell Memorial Window at First Parish Unitarian in Brookline, MA, "donated by Judge John Lowell and Lucy Buckminster Lowell in memory of their three deceased children," completed in 1899.

148: 148 Charles Street is the Boston address of Annie Adams Fields. See Key to Correspondents.

Repplier: Whitman probably refers to Agnes Repplier (1855-1950) an American author, noted for her essays.

The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library of Harvard University. Whitman, Sarah (Wyman) 1842-1904. 92 letters; [1884]-[1903] & [n.d.] Jewett, Sarah Orne, 1849-1909. Sarah Orne Jewett additional correspondence, 1868-1930. MS Am 1743.1 -107. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.

Sarah Orne Jewett to Henry Green

148 Charles Street

Boston 26 Jan^y

[ 1898 ]*

Dear Elder Henry

I return the letter of Madame de Boffle.* As you say, you must have her answer in regard to the price of the cloak which she quite misunderstands -- and by that time I can tell you whether the friends of Madame Blanc* will be going over to France, which is not yet decided.

I do not

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wonder that you were confused by hearing of M^rs. Bentzon!* but Madame Blanc is almost better known as Th. (or Thérèse) Bentzon, which is her writing name as George Eliot was the writing name of Mrs. Lewes.* Only in this case Bentzon was a family name to which our friend had a right. And she is usually called Madame Blanc-Bentzon, though here in America where double names are not

[ Page 3 ]

so common as in Europe she was usually called plain Madame Blanc. She was born Thérèse de Solms, daughter of Count de Solms -- but I must not confuse you with any more French names --

I had a very kind letter from dear Eldress Harriet* not long ago -- [ which corrected ] I answered.

You may be sure that anything which comes to you from France by the way of Madame Blanc will be all right -- She has

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no doubt set the fashion for Shaker cloaks -- she was so much pleased with her own which I thought much the prettiest one I have ever seen.

Please remember me affectionately to all my friends, and write whenever [ you corrected ] think I can make things clearer or help you in any way.

Yours very truly

S. O. Jewett.

I should think, in case of further orders that it might be as well to send by express -- there is little trouble with the customs in France, I believe, and it is quicker than waiting for chance travellers.*

Notes

Madame de Boffle: This woman has not been identified, but a possibility is Clothilde Danzel de Boffle (1844-1915).

Madame Blanc: Marie Thérèse de Solms Blanc. Key to Correspondents.

Bentzon: Jewett has underlined this name and, then, underlined the superscript separately.
Cary offers an explanation of the issue in this letter: "Evidently a French lady who so admired the Shaker cloak Madame Blanc purchased on her 1897 visit to the Alfred Shaker colony that she wrote directly to Elder Henry to order one for herself. The dress of the Shaker women is described in detail by Madame Blanc in the Revue des Deux Mondes article of November 15, 1897."

Mrs. Lewes: British novelist, George Eliot (1819-1880). Wikipedia.
Richard Cary indicates that Jewett may not have been aware that Evans and Lewes were not legally married. While that may be the case, it is not clear that Jewett was unusual in being ignorant of this fact, as George Eliot's biographers make clear that Evans and Lewes made a point of calling themselves Mr. and Mrs. Lewes.

Eldress Harriet: In photographs of residents at the Alfred Maine Shaker village in the 1890s, at Maine History Online, appear Eldress Harriet Goodwin (1823-1903) and Eldress Harriet Coolbroth (1864-1953). It is not clear to which woman Jewett refers.

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.

Shaker Cloak
Photographed at Canterbury Shaker Village, NH
by Terry Heller, October 2016

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

Paris 27 January

[ 1898 ]*

Dear Annie, you have taken my requests too seriously. I am back at work and all goes well. I only meant to ask this, that if you saw some pamphlets that might be useful to me, you would have them sent, -- even better, you would bring them yourself, because I believe you will come soon?

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I wish for that with all my heart. This lingering cold worries and upsets me. I just spent 15 days in Paris, caught up in meetings, a new association about the future of women, to assure them of their more than legitimate rights, to their personal property, protection of girls up to 16 years old,

[ Page 3 ]

the guardianship of children less closely related than son or daughter -- for example, nephews, etc. This very interesting work originates with Mrs. Coignet.* Our poor little Alice, daughter of Louis de Solms* is healing, but her eye is lost. This brings more than one sorrow, her father being forced to change

[ Page 4 ]

the whole course of his career in order to put the child in the hands of Paris doctors, who will keep a close eye on her for 5 or 6 years. For my son, everything is going wrong. I have neither the time nor the courage to write to our dear Sarah* today. Tell her that I've sent her in South Berwick

[ Page 5 ]

a manuscript to submit to Mr. Page* if she finds it interesting. My health holds, thank God, in the midst of my many sorrows.

On 19 February, Mr. Doumer* departs, charged by me with a few small commissions. Last Tuesday, he gave an admirable lecture on the Denigration of French society

[ Page 6 ]

by our novelists.

Last week was a dinner with the Brunetières.* We talked a lot about you. In addition, during this fortnight in Paris, I am willy-nilly going out every night. Paris is in a state of extraordinary tumult stirred up by this sad Dreyfus affair.* I'm too pro-military not to be revolted by the suspicions that hover over the war department, but this development of anti-Semitic feeling horrifies me; this puts me between these two parties, doubly exposed to wolves.

[ Page 7 ]

I've never heard of Professor Bracq,* and what can a professor of the Odeon be, other than an actor ??? -- The Manual * by Mr. Brunetière is indeed very suggestive but his last lecture on Art and Morals had only a limited success, being excessively paradoxical and far too austere. He sometimes takes himself too much for a Bossuet* (this just between us!) { -- }

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one will never persuade the French that art is immoral, even with a whip{.}* Greek art!!! ---

     I embrace you most dear Annie, with a thousand compliments for your beautiful book on Mrs. Stowe.* I embrace Sarah. -- to you two with all my heart ----. -- The Abbot Casgrain* hardly notices me. This is getting annoying.

Th Blanc

Thanks for the kind words about my grandchildren.* I regret that they live so far from me.

Notes

1898: As indicated in the notes below, this letter almost certainly was composed in 1898, soon after the publication of Fields's biography of Harriet Beecher Stowe and in anticipation of the trip Fields and Jewett made to France and England in the middle of 1898.

Coignet: French moral philosopher, educator and activist, Clarisse Coignet (1823-1918). Blanc reports her own recent participation in advocating legal reforms to protect not only women's rights to own and retain property, but also to protect young girls from forced marriage, and particularly, from misuses of guardianship that might involve sexual abuse, taking of property and forced marriage. Examples of such abuse are common in 19th-century English fiction, including Jane Austen, Charles Dickens and Anthony Trollope. See, for example, Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre (1847).

Louis de Solms: For Blanc's nephew and other members of her extended family, see Blanc in Key to Correspondents. Blanc's grandniece, Alice, was born in 1897.

Sarah: Sarah Orne Jewett. See Key to Correspondents.

Mr. Page: Walter Hines Page. See Key to Correspondents.

Mr. Doumer: Blanc may refer to French politician, mathematician and educator, Paul Doumer (1857-1931). A man of varied interests, he may well have lectured on French society as represented in the novel in the winter of 1897-8, but this has not yet been verified.

the Brunetières: In 1893, Ferdinand Brunetière (1849-1906) became editor of Revue des Deux Mondes.

Dreyfus affair: In a letter of 17 September 1898, Blanc wrote at greater length about current developments in the 12-year scandal over the wrongful conviction of Captain Alfred Dreyfus, a Jew, for treason, known as the Dreyfus Affair (1894-1896). There she also points to the anti-Semitism stirred up by media and politicians. On 13 January 1898, French author Émile Zola (1840-1902) became one of the first high-profile public defenders of Dreyfus, attacking the French minister of war and the general staff for their roles in what amounted to a cover-up of the framing of Dreyfus. It would appear that when Blanc wrote this letter, she was not yet convinced that military officials had acted wrongly.

Professor Bracq: French-born American author and scholar of romance languages, Rev. Jean Charlemagne Bracq (1853-1934). Vassar Quarterly 20 (1 May 1935) says that Bracq "served Vassar College with distinction from 1891 to 1918, at first as John Guy Vassar Professor of Modern Languages, afterwards as head of the Department of Romance Languages and Professor of French." See also also a profile of Bracq in Vassar Miscellany News 2 (21 November 1917), which notes: "In I898 he was called on to deliver a course of lectures at Lowell Institute, Boston, on 'Contempory French Literature.' Shortly afterwards the French Government decorated him as 'Officier d' Instruction Publique'."
    Blanc's reference to the Odeon may be playful, or perhaps she was not aware that the Lowell Institute lectures were given at this time at a former Boston theatre, named the Odeon.

The Manual: In 1898, Ferdinand Brunetière published Manuel de l’Histoire de la Littérature Française (1898).
    In the same year, he published L'Art et la Morale in Paris. In Brunetière and The "Monster Banquet" (Fortnightly Review, 2016), Elton Hocking says that Brunetière reversed his artistic philosophy during his career; he argued in Art and Morals that art was inherently immoral unless the artist rejected Brunetière's former belief in art for art's sake and strove to achieve social and moral purpose (46).

Bossuet: Jacques-Bénigne Lignel Bossuet (1627-1704) was a French bishop, theologian and politician, renowned for his oratory. Also relevant to Blanc's reference may be his defense of political absolutism, the "divine right of kings."

whip: The transcription of "fouet" is highly speculative. Blanc may have written this word, and the result makes sense in a playful way, but we are only guessing.

Mrs. Stowe: Harriet Beecher Stowe. See Key to Correspondents.
    Fields's Life and Letters of Harriet Beecher Stowe (1897).

Abbot Casgrain: French Canadian Roman Catholic priest, author and historian, Henri-Raymond Casgrain (1831-1904). Blanc's reasons for contacting Casgrain are not yet known. Perhaps she had met him when she had traveled to Quebec in 1897. Perhaps she hoped he would aid her own research or contribute to the Revue des Deux Mondes.

grandchildren: At this time, Blanc had two grandchildren from her son's troubled marriage. See Blanc in Key to Correspondents.

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

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

Paris 27 Janvier

Chère Annie, vous avez
pris trop au sérieux
mes demandes. Je suis
entrée en fonctions et
tout marche à souhait{.}
Ce que j'avais voulu
dire était seulement
ceci, -- que si vous voyiez
[ q. q.. for quelques ] brochures qui
puissent m'être utiles
vous me les fassiez
envoyer, -- ce qui serait
mieux serait encore
de me les apporter
vous-même car
je pense que vous
viendrez bientôt?

[ Page 2 ]

Je le souhaite de
tout mon coeur{.}
Ce rhume persistant
m'inquiète et me
désole. Je viens de
[ pasfer for passer ] 15 jours à
Paris prise entre
nos comités, une
nouvelle association
concernant l'avenir
des femmes pour
leur assurer des
droits trop legitimes,
propriété de leur
soin ^personnel^, protection
de la jeune fille
jusqu'à seize ans,

[ Page 3 ]

tutelle d'enfants
moins proches que
le fils ou la fille
-- de neveux par exemple ^etc^.
Cette oeuvre très
intéressante a pris
naissance chez Mme
Coignet. --- Notre pauvre
petite Alice, la fille
de Louis de Solms
va de mieux en
mieux mais son
oeil est perdu.
Nous avons là une
source de chagrin
de plus d'une
sorte, le père étant
obligé de modifier

[ Page 4 ]

tout le cours de
sa carrière pour
laisser l'enfant
aux maines des
médecins de Paris
qui la surveilleront
pendant 5 ou 6 ans.
Pour mon fils
tout va mal.
Je n'ai ni le
temps ni le courage
d'écrire à notre
chère Sarah aujourd'hui{.}
Dites-lui que je
lui ai envoyé à
South Berwick

[ Page 5 ]

un manuscrit
qu'elle soumettra
à M^r Page si elle
le trouve intéressant{.}
Mon santé ses
soutient, Dieu
merci au milieu
de bien des peines.

Le 19 février M. Doumer
partira, chargé par
moi de [ q.q. for quelques ] petites
commissions. Il
a fait Mardi dernier
une admirable
conférence sur le
Dénigrement de la
Société française

[ Page 6 ]

par nos romanciers.

La semaine dernière
dîner chez les Brunetière.
On a beaucoup
parlé de vous. Du
reste pendant cette
quinzaine parisienne
Je suis bon gré [ malgré for mal gré ]
sortie tous les soirs.
Paris est dans un
état d'effervescence
extraordinaire soulevée
par cette triste affaire
Dreyfus. -- Je suis trop
militaire pour n'être pas
révoltée des soupçons que
l'on fait planer sur le
conseil de guerre mais
le développement du
sentiment anti-sémite
me fait horreur; ce
qui me place entre ces deux
partis, doublement exposée aux loups.

[ Page 7 ]

Je n'ai jamais entendu
le nom du prof. Bracq
et que peut être
un professeur de
l'Odéon sinon
un acteur ??? --
Le Manuel de M.
Brunetière est très
suggestif en effet, mais
la dernière conférence
sur l'Art et la
Morale n'a eu que
peu de succés étant
paradoxale à l'excès
et par trop austère.
Il se prend trop pour
Bossuet en personne
par moment ( ce fait
entre nous! ) jamais

[ Page 8 ]

on ne persuadera
à des français que
l'art soit immoral
même au [ fouet ? ]
l'art grec!!! ----

Je vous embrasse
bien chère Annie,
avez mille
compliments à
votre beau livre
sur M^rs Stowe. [ J'embrafe for J'embrasse ]
Sarah. - -à vous
deux de tout
coeur ----. -- L'Abbé
Casgrain ne me
guette presque pas
cela devient comprometante !!!

Th Blanc

Merci de ce que vous dites d'aimable
sur mes petits enfants. Je regrette
bien qu'ils vivent si loin de moi.

Sarah Orne Jewett to Edward Henry Clement

148 Charles Street

29 [ Jan^y -- ? ]

[ 1898 ]*

[ Begin letterhead ]

~~South Berwick.~~

~~Maine.~~

[ End letterhead ]

Dear Mr. Clement

I am taking you at your kind word about the note in regard to Mrs. Prince's paper in the Chap-book* -- And I venture another note, longer and still nearer my heart, in regard to another subject. It seems to me that I have never been so eager for the success of any book ^as The Life of H.B.S.^* -- Success, it has had

[ Page 2 ]

in being the book that it is, but I long to have more and more readers and to make it catch the widest possible public attention. It holds such lessons for its readers. But I have no need to persuade you of its value -- your own praise revealed much of that to me. It always seems very odd that the publishers do less to make the public remind itself of books in this quiet reading season of long evenings and dull

[ Page 3 ]

days than [ on any ? ] other time -- One would think ^ [ several unrecognized words ]* ^ that there was no possible use of good books except to make Christmas presents of them! -- But I was glad to hear that the London publishers were just sending out another edition -- -- If you could find a place at the end of your page -- on separate days -- for these notes I should be very grateful.

[ Upward slanting line before the beginning of the next paragraph ]

Dear Mr. Clement, I was very sorry to find, so late that I could not ask to be presented to her, that Mrs. Russell* was

[ Page 4 ]

with you the other day at Mr Day's* exhibition. May not I give you my best wishes, both of you? I was sincerely glad to hear of your happiness -- I wish that you may be very happy in making your home together. Pray believe me always

Yours most kindly

S. O. Jewett

Notes

1898: This date is based upon the date of Mr. Clement's second marriage. See notes below.

Mrs. Prince's paper ... Chap-book: The Chap-Book (1894-1898) was a fortnightly literary magazine. Probably Mrs. Prince is the novelist Helen Choate Pratt Prince. See Key to Correspondents.
    Perhaps Jewett refers to her "From a French River" from Vol. 8 No. 2 (1 December 1897), pp. 72-6.

The Life of H.B.S.: For Harriet Beecher Stowe, see Key to Correspondents.
     Confusion about this title is easy. Jewett could refer to The Life of Harriet Beecher Stowe (1889) by H. B. Stowe and Charles Edward Stowe; a memorial edition was published in London in 1896.
    However, it is more likely that she refers to Annie Fields's Life and Letters of Harriet Beecher Stowe (1897), which was reprinted by her London publisher as well as by Houghton, Mifflin in 1898.

unrecognized words: In the case of this manuscript, I have only a scan of a photocopy, and parts of it are not sharp enough to read with confidence. This insertion in small handwriting may read something like: from advertisements of the present editions.

Mrs. Russell: According to Family Search, Clement's second wife was Josephine Annunsiata Hill (1869-1964). She had first married Charles Gilbert Russell (1869-1896) on 24 December 1895. Clement and Mrs. Russell were married in March 1898. See also Back Bay Houses.

Mr. Day's: Almost certainly American photographer Fred Holland Day. See Key to Correspondents.

The manuscript of this letter is held by the University of New England Maine Women Writers Collection, Sarah Orne Jewett Correspondence Box 3 Folder 190c. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.

Sarah Orne Jewett to Sara Norton

148 Charles Street
Tuesday [ February 8, 1898 ]*

~~South Berwick Maine~~ [This letterhead is deleted.]

Dear Sally

Could you come and spend Wednesday night the 16th and bring the fiddle?* Miss O’Brion was here on Saturday and she can come then, but if you are busy that day -- (Evening) we must look for another.* I

[ Page 2 ]

write for Mrs. Fields* who sends her love.

I am hoping to see you on Friday.

Yours affectionately

S. O. Jewett

Notes

1898: This date comes from the envelope accompanying the letter, addressed to Shady Hill. in Cambridge, MA, was the Norton family residence.

the fiddle: Sara Norton was an accomplished amateur cellist, though other letters suggest that she also played the violin.

Miss O’Brion: Mary Eliza O'Brion (1859-1941?), Boston-based concert pianist, private teacher, and instructor at Wellesley College. Her name appears regularly on programs as a piano soloist and accompanist with various groups and orchestras. She often performed with the Latvian immigrant composer and pianist Olga von Radecki (1858-1933). Among von Radecki's compositions is a setting of Jewett's poem, "Boat Song." Possibly her grave.

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

The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library, Harvard University. Norton Family, recipient. Letters Received by the Norton Family. 5 letters to Sara Norton; [1897-1908]. MS Am 1088.1 (870-874). Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College, with assistance from Tanner Brossart.

Louise Imogen Guiney to Annie Adams Fields

[ 15 February 1898 ]

Dear Mrs. Fields:

An idea, most cannily contrived to my own delight and advantage, has just struck me, to wit: Might I possibly sleep in dear 'Charley Street'* on Wed. the 23^d ? That evening is set, as we know, for the W.R.T.A.* meeting, and there's our Gymnasium orgie on the following morning; so that I should be happy as a King, if I might stay over with you; and 'upon that hint I spake.'* Besides, I might see Miss Jewett!* to say naught of bringing in my few nice Cowden-Clarke* letters.

Your lover and beggar,

L. I. G.

15th Feb. '98

Auburndale, Mass.

Notes

Charley Street: 148 Charles Street, Fields's Boston home.

W.R.T.A.: Mary Alice Houghton Blake (1863-1919) was married to Dr. Clarence John Blake (1843-1919), Professor of Otology (anatomy of the ear) at Harvard University Medical School and the author of several books. They founded and supported the Women's Rest Tour Association.
In 1891, Guiney produced A Summer in England. A hand-book for the use of American women, published by the WRTA.

Gymnasium orgie: Guiney's spelling. See her letter to Fields of 20 January 1898.

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

Cowden-Clarke: Mary Victoria (Novello) Cowden Clarke (1809-1898) was a British author and Shakespeare scholar.

The manuscript of this letter is held by the Huntington Library, San Marino, CA, in the James T. Fields collection Box 26: mss FI 1617. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.

Sarah Orne Jewett to Sara Norton

South Berwick, Maine, 23 February [1898 ]*

How delightful it was to see you! I cannot help thinking that yesterday morning is a very dear hour to put away and remember. I got home at half-past three in the afternoon, to a world of snow, which surprised me very much, with the rain raining on it as hard as it can and a general outlook toward a tremendous month of March. Tomorrow we are looking for some friends who mean to come down from town to look at the old house I have often told you about, and of which they had heard. I can't imagine a drearier moment, but there are the big elms high and dry, and some other attractions, and they must take their chances and make their choices. Berwick always seems a little sad, even to me! in the wane of winter. The old houses look at each other as if they said, "Good heavens! the things that we remember!" But after the leaves come out they look quite prepared for the best and quite touchingly cheerful.

Note

1898: This date is based on the likelihood that Jewett writes of a visit by Emily Tyson to examine the historic Hamilton House in South Berwick. According to Historic New England: " In 1898, Jewett convinced her friend Emily Tyson, widow of the president of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, and her stepdaughter Elise Tyson (later Mrs. Henry G. Vaughan) to purchase the house."

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

Sophie de Beaulaincourt to Sarah Orne Jewett and Annie Adams Fields

This card was composed in French; a transcription follows the translation.
Editor's note*

[ February 1898 ]*

[ Printed on a visitor card ]

Comtesse de Beaulaincourt

née Castellane

157 Bd. [ Boulevard ] Haussmann.

[ Handwritten note on the front and back of the card ]

I send these modest flowers of [ unrecognized word ]* to Mrs. Fields and Miss Jewett. Grateful as I am for their kind gift, I can send only this very small box, following Mme. Blanc's* instructions and not

[ Back ]

wanting to impose on M. Doumic,* whom I have not the pleasure of knowing. I would be very pleased should Mrs. Fields and Miss Jewett ever return to Paris. I would like to know them. Our mutual friend, Mme. Blanc has spoken to me about them so often that I feel as if I am almost their friend as well. I can write only these few words, being somewhat ill, and in my bed. I beg these ladies to accept this expression of my warmest regard.

[ SdB? ]

Notes

Editor's note: This document was added to the Sarah Orne Jewett Text Project or revised after June 2022. At that time it became necessary to change format, mainly to eliminate nearly all links to other documents. As a result, this letter differs in format from most others in the collection.

February 1898: When Jewett and Fields traveled to France in the late spring of 1898, they met Mme. Beaulaincourt, visiting and taking meals at her home. It seems clear that this note and its accompanying gift were sent before that first meeting. That they were sent by means of René Doumic (see note below) makes it quite likely that Jewett and Fields sent Mme. de Beaulaincourt some sort of gift, perhaps around the 1897-8 holidays, before Doumic departed for the U.S. to present a series of lectures at Harvard University; the lectures were under way in March 1898, according to the New York Times (6 March 1898).

word: According to Richard Cary in, "Miss Jewett and Madame Blanc," Colby Library Quarterly 7 (1967): 466-488, Madame de Beaulaincourt's hobby was making artificial flowers. Presumably, then, the word we cannot recognize refers to the material of which the flowers were made.

Blanc's: Marie Thérèse de Solms Blanc. See Key to Correspondents.

Doumic: French critic, René Doumic (1860-1937), a regular contributor to and then editor of Revue des Deux Mondes. (Wikipedia)
    An envelope apparently associated with this card is addressed to Madame Fields, et Miss Jewett, at 148 Charles Street, Boston. In the bottom left corner appears a circled note:

    "aux bon [ soins ? ] de Monsieur Doumic"
    [ "in the good care of Monsieur Doumic" ]

Penciled In the top right corner, probably in another hand: "Beaulaincourt".

A photocopy of the manuscript of this letter is held by Maine Women Writers Collection of the University of New England, Portland, ME: Burton Trafton Collection Box 2, Folder 90. The original is held by the Houghton Library of Harvard University, Cambridge, MA: b MS Am 1743, Sarah Orne Jewett Correspondence I, Letters to Sarah Orne Jewett, Beaulaincourt-Marles, Ruth Charlotte Sophie de (Castellane) Comtesse de. 1 letter; [n.d.]. Identifier: (18). Transcription, translation and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College, with essential assistance from Jeannine Hammond, Professor of French, Emerita, at Coe College.

Transcription

[ This appears in the photocopy to be a visiting card. On the front side is printed: ]

Comtesse de Beaulaincourt
née Castellane

157 Bd. Haussmann.

[ Handwritten text ]

Je charge ces modestes fleurs de
[ soie? ], à Madame Fields, et à
Miss Jewett. Combien j'ai été
sensible à leur si aimable
envoi, je ne puis qu'envoyer une
très petite boite d'après les
indications de Madame Blanc et ne

[ Page 2 ]

voulant pas être indiscrète vis-à-vis
ce M. Doumic que je n'ai pas le plaisir
de connaître. Je serais bien
contente si mesdames Fields et Jewett
reviennent jamais à Paris. J'aimerai à
les connaître. Notre commune amie
Mme Blanc m'a si souvent parlé d'elles
et de telle manière qu'il me semble
que je suis un peu leur amie aussi {.}
Je ne puis écrire que ces quelques mots
étant un peu malade, et dans mon
lit, je prie ces dames agréer l'expression
de mes meilleurs sentiments

[ SdB ? ]

Sarah Orne Jewett to Miss Katharine Hamer Shute

Boston -- Friday 4th March
1898

[ Begin deleted letterhead ]

~~South Berwick.~~
~~Maine.~~

[ End Letterhead ]

My dear Miss Shute*

You do not know how much I thank you for your most kind letter, or how well I remember what you said at Denison House!* And I remember all Miss Dickey's kindness too* -- it went to my heart to find such a friend of Martha's Lady.* I hope that I shall some day

[ Page 2 ]

see you both again. You must remember that a story-writer does not have her readers before her with their eager faces as a teacher (I was going to say, the other kind of teacher) does! And there was something very dear and delightful to me -- something very unusual in my life, too, on Monday afternoon in seeing so many friends of my stories. I am glad to know that you found it pleasant too.

With my best thanks
Yours most sincerely

S. O. Jewett.

Notes

Shute: An envelope associated with this letter is addressed to Miss K. H. Shute, 13 Laurel Street, Roxbury. This was the address of a Boston Public School in Roxbury, MA.

Denison House: Wikipedia says: "Denison House was a woman-run settlement house in Boston's old South Cove neighborhood. Founded in 1892 by the College Settlements Association, it provided a variety of social and educational services to neighborhood residents, most of whom were immigrants."

Miss Dickey: Miss Dickey has not yet been identified.

Martha's Lady: Jewett's story appeared in Atlantic Monthly in October 1897.

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.

Rebecca Young to Sarah Orne Jewett

So Berwick. Me.

March 10. 1898.

My dear Sarah.

Such a beautiful week as we are having for birthdays & trips to the [ post ? ] of Portland, & a general settlings of every thing from the appropriation for our "national defence"* to the snow-drifts before our [ windows ? ].

[ Page 2 ]

I saw Annie Baskin* a moment this morning & the visit was a great pleasure, & it will be fully reported later. She came in the bank to ask me to go to the society with her this afternoon, but I had promised to have tea with Mrs. Tyler & Miss Denny,* & to be honest, I was glad to have such a pretty reason for declining.

[ Page 3 ]

I began this at noon, & soon John* came in to ask me to ride a little way with him & I went at once. And now it is "after four" & your nice letter has come for which with its interesting items I am deeply grateful. I am so glad the birthday was so pleasant in all ways -- & you & Mary could be in it & also add so much to the happiness

[ Page 4 ]

of the dear little aunt.

Charley has just told me of the death of his uncle Mr. Alexander Plumer.* I knew he was quite sick in Florida. His wife was bitter when they heard of his illness --

Later

I have just had a nice call from Mrs. [ Greenlaw ? ]* & went with her to introduce her Mrs. Tyler & Miss Denny & now must hurry this to the mail. I will give your messages to John & the girls.* Please give my love to Mrs. Fields* thanking her for her kind [ rembrance so it appears ] of me. With dear love. Rebecca

[ Across the top margin of page 1 ]

Carrie & Mrs Pierce* wish me to thank you & Mrs. Fields for your congratulations & kind messages.

Notes

national defence: Young probably refers the impending Spanish-American War. Wikipedia.

Annie Baskin: This transcription is uncertain, and this person has not yet been identified.

Mrs. Tyler & Miss Denny: Augusta Maria Denny Tyler and her sister, Mary Harriet Denny. See Key to Correspondents.

John: Probably, this is Jewett family employee, John Tucker. Later, when Young mentions John and the girls, she probably refers to the Jewett family household staff. See Key to Correspondents.

Birthday ... Mary: Mary Rice Jewett. Probably the birthday they have celebrated is that of Mary Olivia Gilman Long, born 9 March 1810. See Key to Correspondents.

Charley ... Plumer: Rev. Alexander Roberts Plumer (1827 - 7 March 1898) died in Deland, FL and was buried in the Portland Street Cemetery in South Berwick. Charley, his nephew, probably was Charles H. Wentworth (1866-1924). Find a Grave.

Mrs. Greenlaw: This transcription is uncertain. She appears to be a resident of South Berwick, but she has not yet been identified. See Jewett to Carrie Jewett Eastman of "Monday Morning" August 1896.

Fields: Annie Adams Fields. See Key to Correspondents.

Carrie & Mrs Pierce: These people have not yet been identified. A Mrs. Pierce was a South Berwick dressmaker, mentioned in Jewett family letters of 1900.

The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library of Harvard University: Sarah Orne Jewett Correspondence I, Letters to Sarah Orne Jewett. bMS Am 1743 (246).
This transcription is from a photocopy held by the Maine Women Writer's Collection, University of New England, Box 2, Folder 99, Burton Trafton Jewett Research Collection.
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.

Helen Cross Knight to Sarah Orne Jewett

March 14, 1898

Sarah, my dear, all winter your kind letter, appreciating and approving [ my corrected ] [ unrecognized word or words ] has been simmering in my heart, and of late I have taken "my pen in hand" on the strength ^of it^ to put into a readable and publishable form a paper on "Trust" and "Ought", which I wrote for a club, a little brochure

[ Page 2 ]

for autumn sales --

If shaped in a form satisfactory to myself, may I send it to you to see how it strikes you. It can be easily read, tho' I detest reading manuscript myself, but the [ loss ? ] of Love, which I expatiate on, teaches us to do much which the natural man does not take kindly to --

The winter has passed with a slumberous swiftness, as time [ does ? ] the nearer we come

[ Page 3 ]

to the end of it -- and I feel very near the [ unseen ? ], which give me more and more a profound interest in currents of life [ surging ? ] around and over me -- It is delightful to live and death is but an incident of life --

But where are they who have gone? [ unrecognized passage ]* as the spring opens -- all who knew her do. How inexpressibly sad is Mrs. Haven's* serious illness.

Oh, dear! will she never come

[ Page 4 ]

back to her beautiful home.

I wonder where you are -- your [ unrecognized word ] gift, Mrs. Stowe,* has found admiring readers. Her autobiography was too big to send -- Mrs. Field has done her work gracefully and [ kindly ? ] -- Have I thanked you and dear Mary* for it. I hope your [ sweet ? ] words to me did not rob me of my manners -- With love, born and [ cherished ? ] by a long [ past ? ]

H.C.K.

Notes

"Trust" and "Ought": As with many words in this challenging manuscript, I am not certain of these transcriptions. It is not yet known whether Knight completed and published papers with these titles.
It is possible that the unrecognized word or words is "Jane." In that case, Knight may refer to her book, Jane Taylor: Her Life and Letters (American Tract Society, 1868).

passage: Knight has revised this passage, increasing the difficulty of making out her eccentric hand. The passage may read: "Susie is mourning for precious Bessie / Jessie." However, "mourning" appears to be deleted, and inserted are three words I've failed to recognize, except for the 2nd: "is."

Mrs. Haven's: Possibly this is Susan Manning Peters Halliburton Haven (1830- 9 April 1898), the mother, by her first marriage, of Jewett's close friend, Georgina Halliburton. See Key to Correspondents, and Mrs. Haven's entry at Find a Grave.

Mrs. Stowe: Harriet Beecher Stowe. Annie Adams Fields published her Life and Letters of Harriet Beecher Stowe in 1897. See Key to Correspondents for Stowe and Fields.

Mary: Mary Rice Jewett. See Key to Correspondents.

The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library of Harvard University: bMS Am 1743 (128), Knight, H. G. 2 Letters to Sarah Orne Jewett; 1898-1903. Transcribed and annotated by Terry Heller, Coe College.

The last of the four quatrefoils is done to-day:* and I have a momentary sensation like Christian's when the pack fell off. . . .* There's that in the Spring which makes a strange tumult and lends wings to the Dream.

quatrefoils: A conventionalized representation of a flower with four petals or of a leaf with four leaflets. This was one of Whitman's favorite forms, appearing in many of her stained-glass windows and in other designs as well.

Christian's when the pack fell off: Christian appears in Pilgrim's Progress (1678, 1684), a popular allegory by John Bunyan, (1628-1688). Christian tries in many ways to relieve himself of the burden he carries in his search for salvation, but finally it falls from his back when he follows the straight and narrow path of salvation and comes to the cross and a sepulchre, signs of the death and resurrection of Christ.

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

My price to the magazines for a story of the length you mention is so much larger than the price The Independent pays that I fear you would not think ~~that~~ it worthwhile to consider a new story.

I sent one last year, but I confess that my only reason for doing it was because my dear friend

Miss Ward had asked me and I was only too glad to think that I could do something that was in any sense for her!* This is a most unbusiness-like confession but I am sure that you can understand.*

1898: At the top of page 1, written over Jewett's text in thick green: "How much was she pd. before and how long a story".
     Penciled at the end of page 2 is a reply: "7 1/4 columns old form $75.00 ______ C. H. W."
    What these notes mean is somewhat problematic. The signature seems clearly to be C.H.W., though one might expect it to be W.H.W., William Hayes Ward.
    The Independent is only partly available on-line at this writing. In 1896, the publication was printed in a 3-column format, absent a cover page. In 1898, it appears in a 2-column format with a cover page. Presumably, then, the format changed from "old form" to a new form at the beginning of 1898.
    Richard Cary notes: "Miss Jewett's 'The First Sunday in June,' Independent, XLIX (November 4, 1897), 1446-1447, is seven and a half columns long."
    If all this is correct, then Cary has a persuasive rationale for dating the letter in 1898. It would have been written shortly before Jewett's departure for Europe; she arrived in U.K. on 18 April 1898. However, it is possible the letter was written in nearly any year between 1898 and 1902, except for 1900, when Jewett was in Europe in April.
    "The First Sunday in June" was the last Jewett story to appear in The Independent.

her: This word is underlined twice.
    Jewett refers to Susan Hayes Ward. Key to Correspondents.

On 18 April 1898, Jewett and Fields arrived at Plymouth, UK, and then traveled in England and France until 22 September. The link above leads to a collection of their correspondence that ncludes selections from the diary of this trip kept by Annie Adams Fields.

Here I am at the desk again, all as natural as can be and writing a first letter to you with so much love, and remembering that this is the first morning in more than seven months that I have haven't waked up to hear your dear voice and see your dear face. I do miss it very much, but I look forward to no long separation, which is a comfort. It was lovely in the old house and I did so wish you had come down, too, it was all so sweet and full of welcome, and Hannah and Annie and John and Hillborn and Lizzie Pray* all in such a state because I had got home!

To-day the sea has been a deep lapis lazuli: the sky clear, and the wind one rush across the earth, and it has not seemed to me one minute's distance to the Mountains where these friends have held the air in fee. So I have had companionship and have gathered some fresh impulses and in some brief intervals have hammered out a bit of work.

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

for help: John Alden identifies this young man as Henry Coyle, a poet about whom biographical information seems scanty. The following biographical sketch appears in Donahoe's Magazine 39 (1898) pp. 74-5.

COYLE, HENRY. -- The Promise of Morning, poems, Boston, Mass., 1899.
Born at Boston, Mass., June 7, 1867. His father was a Connaught man, and his mother from Limerick. He is self-educated, and has written frequently for American journals, including verse for Harper's Bazaar, Detroit Free Press, Boston Transcript, Catholic Union and Times (Buffalo), and Boston Pilot. Is now assistant-editor of Orphan's Bouquet, Boston, of which James Riley {q.v.) is editor.

This letter, transcribed by John Alden, originally appeared in Boston Public Library Quarterly 9 (1957): 86-96. It is reprinted here courtesy of the Trustees of the Boston Public Library/Rare Books.
John Alden says this letter regards "a young Irish-American whom the two ladies wished to befriend, named Henry Coyle. Nothing appears to have come of their efforts, but Coyle himself achieved a worthy career in Catholic publishing and charitable circles in Boston, in addition to publishing several volumes of poetry."