Sarah Orne Jewett to Mary E. Mulholland
148 Charles Street, Boston
January 23, 1899
My dear friend:
I thank you sincerely for your most
kind letter, and I wish to tell you how much pleasure it gives
me to know that you like my stories, and especially that you are
such a friend of Miss Betty Leicester!1 I must own
that I took a great liking to her myself when I was writing her,
and that she has always seemed to me to be a real person. And it
is just the same way with Mrs. Todd.2
I cannot tell you just where Dunnet
Landing is except that it must be somewhere 'along shore'
between the region of Tenants Harbor and Boothbay, or it might
be farther to the eastward in a country that I know less well.
It is not any real 'landing' or real 'harbor'3 but I
am glad to think that you also know that beautiful stretch of
seacoast country, and so we can feel when we think about it, as
if we were neighbours. If you ever read the Atlantic Monthly
magazine you will find a new chapter about Mrs. Todd and one
of her friends in this new February number,4 and I
hope that you will like it.
I am sure that you must like a great
many other books since you like these stories of mine. And I am
so glad, because you will always have the happiness of finding
friendships in books, and it grows pleasanter and pleasanter as
one grows older. And then the people in books are apt to make us
understand 'real' people better, and to know why they do things,
and so we learn sympathy and patience and enthusiasm for those
we live with, and can try to help them in what they are doing,
instead of being half suspicious and finding fault. It is just
the same way that a beautiful picture makes us quicker to see
the same things in a landscape, to look for rich clouds and
trees, and see their beauty.
I wonder if you like Miss Thackeray's
beautiful stories5 as much as I do, but I am sure you
will a little later if you do not know them now.
Good-bye, dear Mary, I send you many
thanks for your letter and my kindest wishes. I hope that you
will be as busy and as happy as can be and never be without
plenty of friends -- in books and out of them.
Yours affectionately,
Sarah O. Jewett
Notes
1 Miss Mulholland was
thirteen years old when she wrote to Miss Jewett about her love
for Betty Leicester, A Story for Girls. She had
received the book in 1890, and it had been read aloud to
her until she was able to read herself.
2 The ample landlady,
artful herbalist, canny mariner, and bucolic philosopher of
Dunnet Landing in The Country of the Pointed Firs.
3 Miss Jewett always
eluded precise placement of her fictional locales (see Letters
8, note 4; 30).
4 In "The Queen's Twin," Atlantic
Monthly,
LXXXIII (February 1899), 235-246; collected in The
Queen's Twin and Other Stories, Almiry Todd takes the
narrator on a visit to Mrs. Abby Martin, who has made a fetish
of her affinity with Queen Victoria.
5 Lady Anne Isabella
Thackeray Ritchie (1837-1919), eldest daughter of
William Makepeace Thackeray, concentrated upon fiction for
children before 1887, then gradually turned to biography and
criticism. It was on her first trip to Europe (May-October 1882)
that Miss Jewett met Lady Ritchie, whose art she invariably
described with highest regard (see Fields,
Letters, 192).
This letter was edited and annotated by Richard Cary in Sarah
Orne
Jewett Letters; the ms. is held by Colby College Special
Collections, Waterville, Maine.
Alice Greenwood Howe* to Sarah Orne Jewett.
[ February 1899 ]*
too cold for Mrs. [ unrecognized name ] -- In the first place, I consider the opening paragraph just perfect, in [ style ? ], in English, & a certain grasp of the whole condition.* [ Then ? ] as to Mrs Todd, I was so glad to [ see her ? ] again that I
Before I was out of bed, my chimney took fire! Great
confusion, terrible [ dirt ? ], but luckily no bad [ other ? ] results. I am banished from my room, had to wash off the [ surface ? ] black in [ George's ? ], & havent improved my cold by standing about in a wrapper throwing water on the burning [ soot ? ].
My dear love to A.F.* And how can I ever see you?
[ George is fairly well ? ]
A week of suspense about Charles's [ wife ? ]. She is a shade better, but I doubt if she
is out of danger --
Notes
Howe: Though this letter appears with a group of letters to Jewett from Annie Adams Fields, it clearly is signed "from Alice." The handwriting and internal references show that the author is
Alice Greenwood Howe. The main supporting evidence is her reference to her husband, George Howe. See also other letters from Howe from 1899. The handwriting in this letter may be compared with that in other letters by Howe held by the Houghton Library: Howe, Alice (Greenwood) 1835-1924. 4 letters; 1892-[1900] & [n.d.], 1892-[1900] Identifier: (102).
The writer's script is very challenging. I am grateful to Emily Walhout of the Houghton Library for help with this transcription.
February 1899: This date is based upon the writer's mentioning "The Queen's Twin" (Atlantic, February 1899) with the implication that the story is new.
condition: The author of this letter seems use a short line to indicate a period, unlike the frequent dashes that Jewett, Fields and a number of their correspondents use in their letters. In this transcription, I have rendered those shorter lines as periods.
Marcus Aurelius: Roman emperor and stoic philosopher, Marcus Aurelius (121-180). Wikipedia.
our book: Jewett's first work presenting Almira Todd as a character was The Country of the Pointed Firs (1896), which was dedicated to Alice Greenwood Howe.
Charles: The identify of this person and his wife are not yet known.
This manuscript is held by the Houghton Library of Harvard University -- Sarah Orne Jewett correspondence, MS Am 1743, Box 2: 64. Fields, Annie (Adams), 16 Letters to Sarah Orne Jewett. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Mellen Chamberlain
Charles Street, Boston, February 2, 1899, to Mellen Chamberlain:
I thank you very much for your most kind remembrance and for giving me this copy of your book of essays. I will not say that it is a new book to me for I saw it very soon after it was published, but I am delighted to have such a gift from you and I shall always take it in my hands with great pleasure. I often say to myself when I think that it is a long time since I saw or heard from an old friend "Well: my stories are a sort of long letter, they tell what I have been thinking, or, if not, what I have been doing." And so it is when I have a book from a friend himself. Perhaps our books: our essays and our stories tell more than our letters could!
I suppose it was some such feeling that came into my mind this morning when you spoke so kindly of my last sketch in the Atlantic.* You were a very kind friend many years ago when I was beginning to take my work of writing seriously and I like to remember that kindness and interest, and to find that you still feel it in these days when so much of my work is put behind me. I wish that it had been better, but I have done the best I could, perhaps, with a kind of health that was never very certain, or very favorable to steady industry. But my heart has always been in my stories, and I feel sometimes as if I just began to see what I could really do.
I have thought many times that I should like to see you again and to talk a little about the things for which we both care. I am much pleased to know that my friend Miss [Louise Imogen] Guiney* is to have something to do with the cataloguing of your collections [of manuscripts] at the Public Library. She is one of our few really distinguished scholars among women, and a devoted student of literature. I am sure that the work will be welcome to her.
With my best thanks for your book and your note . . .
Notes
Alden points out that Chamberlain gave Jewett a copy of his John Adams and Other Essays (1898).
Atlantic: Jewett's "The Queen's Twin" appeared in Atlantic Monthly in February 1899.
Louise Imogen Guiney: Louise Imogen Guiney (1861-1920) was an American poet, essayist and editor, born in Roxbury, Massachusetts. See Key to Correspondents.
Louise Imogen Guiney to Annie Adams Fields
Dearest Mrs. Fields:
I was so glad of your nice letter, and especially to hear that you were 'a-building' after your breakdown. I have Saturdays free now, and there is Tom Whittemore* (who met dear Miss Jewett* lately) very, very anxious to be taken to 148 Charles St.,* according to your old and delightful invitation. May it all come true this very month! The library and I get on well together. Mr. Scudder* has asked me to edit a little Arnold for schools,* which I look forward to doing, with immense pleasure; only, so far, I seem to crawl ignobly into bed, day
after day, at 7 and eight o'clock, after a fashion which no New England housewife would call 'ambitious': and nothing is yet done. But I am really very well: only torpid, which I never used to be in cold weather.
Mother is always saying that she wishes you had some of her choice eggs, and waiting her chance to send them by me. (I have but an hour at noon.) However, it will come about sometime, like the fall of Troy.* Love to you both. I am glad you liked the little Britisher book* . . yea, 'proud as Punch!'*
Your L.I.G.
5 Feb. '99.
Notes
Tom Whittemore: American scholar and archaeologist, Thomas Whittemore (1871-1950).
Miss Jewett: Sarah Orne Jewett. See Key to Correspondents.
Scudder: Horace Scudder. See Key to Correspondents.
Arnold for schools: In 1899, Houghton Mifflin published a selection, Sohrab and Rustum, and Other Poems, by British poet, Matthew Arnold (1822-1888), edited by Guiney.
Troy: Guiney refers to the Trojan War as narrated in various works of ancient Greek literature, notably The Iliad.
Britisher book: It seems likely that Guiney refers to her most recent poetry collection, England and Yesterday (1898).
Punch: The typically proud husband in dramas presented in the traditional British "Punch and Judy" puppet shows.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Huntington Library, San Marino, CA, in the James T. Fields collection Box 26: mss FI 1620. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Louise Imogen Guiney to Annie Adams Fields
Dearest Mrs. Fields,
I was so relieved that you approved your blessed writ of execution! Eva* handed it, and your note, to me in good time. Till Monday, (for I cannot stop in a minute this packed day!) yours as ever,
P.M.: This line appears to be penciled in, probably by Guiney.
Charles St.: Fields's Boston address.
Eva: Probably Eva von Blomberg. See Key to Correspondents.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Huntington Library, San Marino, CA, in the James T. Fields collection Box 26: mss FI 1542. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Marie Thérèse de Solms Blanc to Sarah Orne Jewett
This letter was composed in French; a transcription follows the translation.
La Ferté 12 féve. 1899*
How fortunate, dear Sarah, that The Atlantic brings me your good, your excellent news,* which consoles me some for having no letter from you, despite the worry your last gave me. Were you not strong, you could not have written this amusing and charming tale. I hope your English friends will show it to the Queen, who could not help feeling deeply gratified. The final words are profound and delicious.
As for the subject, this story proves that New England retains many intimate ties to Old England. And regarding New England, neither you nor Annie* have whispered a word to me about an article* from the beginning of November last year that concerned you more than most people. Had I not forwarded that issue of The Revue, which keeps coming to my address, I would have believed that you hadn't read it. Now I am forced to think that you didn't like it, but friendship is not silent -- it asks, it explains.
Silence is the sign of indifference, and before I suspect you of indifference, I will await whatever you have to say, good or bad, knowing with certainty that I myself have not the slightest wish to offend that part of America where I have the most friends. Perhaps, after all, the burnt incense of devotion tires those who breathe it, even when it is as sincerely meant as was mine. I count on your loyal affection to enlighten me, dear friend, especially because you aid me in more ways than one.
One day we told each other that friendship between people of different nationalities had a zest and a romantic savor not found in other friendships, and this is quite true, for here is the special pleasure of continual discovery; but there also is insecurity, even after all imaginable proofs of devotion on both sides. We do not know exactly what interpretation this or that word will receive. I hadn't ever thought about what affects you until recently, and then Annie, in the case of The Living Age,* accused me of having misunderstood the law, when she could only really blame me (according to you, my editor as well) for being too good and stupidly naive. This started me thinking about point of view. Once again, I beg you, tenderly and sincerely, enlighten me dear friend. I have too much distress on the French side to have to bear more on the American side.
I was in the process of writing you when I was brought your letter. Thanks for the article on Lucy Stone.* I had already brought away documents on her, but these can be added, and will be valuable to me. I'm sorry not to know yet that you are better. Why aren't you here during this lovely [ missing text ]
I await Marianne Damad,* the sister-in-law of our ambassador in Rome, who comes to keep me company on this day of celebration. My last stay in Paris was exhausting, dinners every night, and every morning business, after getting up too early. Edward Rod* leaves on Saturday; I gave him some small commissions for you. I hope you have read his novel, The Household of Pastor Naudié, which is rated very high here. I believe that, except for The White Rocks, he has written nothing better since his first books, since The Death Race and The Meaning of Life. I talk about it a lot. You are aware
that I think less of his speaking than of his writing, but all the same, his recent lectures have been very successful, and I hope the experience gained in England will help him to triumph in America.
Please send a good letter, speaking frankly and holding nothing back, when you have time. I embrace you with all my heart, you and your dear sister* and Annie, if you are together now. Tenderly to you,
ThB
Certainly, yes, I remember Elmwood.* This is sad
[ Cross-written from the left ]
for you [ as read my blow ]. *
Mme. Standish,* of whom I've often spoken to you, has just lost (within a month) both her father and mother, the Count and Countess of Cars.*
Notes
1899: There is an envelope associated with this letter, addressed to Jewett in South Berwick, ME, and forwarded to 148 Charles St. Boston. It is cancelled in La Ferté on 12 féve. 1899. On the back it is cancelled in Boston on 25 February 1899. Messages have been written on the envelope flap, on the outside in another hand, and on the inside by Blanc.
news: Jewett's story, "The Queen's Twin," appeared in The Atlantic in February 1899.
The story concerns a lonely Maine woman in an isolated setting who cultivates an imagined intimacy with Queen Victoria of Great Britain.
Annie: Annie Adams Fields. See Key to Correspondents.
article: Blanc refers to her essay, “Dans la Nouvelle-Angleterre: Notes de Voyage,” Revue Des Deux Mondes 150, no. 3, (1 November 1898) pp. 542-82.
The Living Age: Mme. Blanc's issues with The Living Age are not yet known. Presumably, they were related to the serialization of a translation of her novel, Constance (1891) in The Living Age, 1 October - 31 December 1898. The translator was Mrs. Elizabeth Wormeley Latimer (1822-1904), and the copyright for the translation was claimed by The Living Age.
Lucy Stone: American abolitionist and suffragist, Lucy Stone (1818-1893). Wikipedia.
Blanc profiled Stone in The Condition of Woman in the United States (1895), pp. 113-4.
Marianne Damad ... rest: 12 February fell on a Sunday in 1899.
In 1899, the French ambassador to Rome was Camille Barrère (1851-1940). His wife was Irène Damad. They had a daughter named Blanche Marianne Jeanne Barrère (b. 1881). Though no more has been learned about the family of Barrère's wife, it seems likely that she had an unmarried sister named Marianne.
Édouard Rod: French-Swiss author Édouard Rod (1857-1910). He was nominated for the first Nobel Prize in Literature, but died before the prize was awarded. His works include: La Course à la Mort (1885), Le Sens de la Vie (1888), Les Roches Blanches (1895), and Le Ménage du Pasteur Naudié (1898). He lectured in the United States during the first half of 1899. Wikipedia.
Mme. Blanc profiled him in The Critic for April 1899, pp. 335-8, where she described him as a moralist, comparable to the contemporary British novelist Mary Augusta Ward (1851-1920). In her conclusion, she says that his ideas "... will be sympathetic to his American audiences; he will meet them half way without needing to fear those misunderstandings which arise so easily between them and the pure-blooded Frenchman, owing to the too absolute divergence of their points of view."
sister: Mary Rice Jewett. See Key to Correspondents.
war: Both the United States and France prosecuted colonial wars during 1899. The U.S. fought the The Philippine-American War beginning in early February 1899, ending in July 1902. France was fighting a colonial war in central Africa that led to scandal at home. The "Peteau Scandal" regarding French atrocities broke in February 1899, but apparently just after the date of this letter. Wikipedia
America: Mme. Blanc wrote extensively about her travels in the United States. As she published under the name Th. Bentzon, it is not too surprising that a foreign writer would mistake her sex. How she felt about his mistaking her age is another question.
Rute Rattazzi: The transcription of this sentence is very uncertain, but it is clear that Blanc refers to French author Marie Bonaparte-Wyse (1831-1902). As she was several times a widow, it is difficult to be sure of her official name. Her second husband, Urbano Rattazzi, died in 1873, and she soon after married Don Luis de Rute y Ginez who died in 1889. It appears that her in work for the Nouvelle Revue Internationale, both as editor and author, she was "Madame Rattazzi." Wikipedia.
Howe's: Julia Ward Howe. See Key to Correspondents. Probably, Jewett has sent a copy of Howe's most recent book, From Sunset Ridge: Poems Old and New (1898).
We cannot with confidence transcribe or translate Blanc's remarks on Howe's book.
Monvel: French painter and illustrator, Louis-Maurice Boutet de Monvel (1850-1913). Wikipedia.
Elmwood: Elmwood was the estate of American poet and diplomat, James Russell Lowell. Probably Jewett has told Blanc of the death of his daughter, Mabel Lowell Burnett in December 1898. Mabel Burnett was a friend of Jewett, and it is likely that Blanc met her during one of her American visits. See Burnett in Key to Correspondents.
wound: We are reasonably sure that our transcription is correct, but we are unable to translate this text with confidence.
Standish: Hélène de Pérusse des Cars (1847- ) married the British aristocrat, Henry Noailles Widdrington Standish (1847-1920). Her parents were Amédée-Joseph de Pérusse des Cars 1820-1899 (Comte des Cars) and Mathilde-Louise-Camille de Cossé-Brissac (1821-1898).
Charles Lonne: This person has not yet been identified. Though his note is quite informal, he seems to address Jewett with a French formality, meaning something like: Miss Orne-Jewett.
This letter is held by the Houghton Library of Harvard University, Cambridge, MA: b MS Am 1743, Sarah Orne Jewett Correspondence I, Letters to Sarah Orne Jewett, Blanc, Thérèse (de Solms) 1840-1907. 10 letters; 1892-1906 & [n.d.], 1892-1906, Identifier: (23). Transcription, translation and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College, with essential assistance from Jeannine Hammond, Professor of French, Emerita, at Coe College.
Transcription
This manuscript consists of three sheets of extra wide paper, with 2 pages written on each sheet, for a total of 6 pages. The final sheet, pages 5 and 6, is almost wholly cross-written and very difficult to read. The transcription of those pages contains much guess-work; hence the above translation is more than usually tentative.
La Ferté 12 féve. 1899
Très heureusement, chère Sarah, l'Atlantic
m'apporte des vos bonnes, de vos excellentes
nouvelles, ce qui me console un peu
de n'avoir pas de lettre de vous
malgré l'inquiétude que m'avait laissée
la dernière. Si vous n'étiez pas forte
vous n'auriez pu écrire cette chose
amusante et charmante. J'espère
que vos amis d'Angleterre la mettront
sous les yeux de la Reine qui ne pourra en
[ a circled 5 ? ] être que très flattée. Le mot de
la fin est profond et délicieux. Quant
est encore unie par beaucoup de liens
très étroits à Old England. Et à propos
de New England, ni vous ni Annie ne
m'avez soufflé mot d'un article qui
cependant vous concernait plus que
personne et qui a paru au commencment
de [ Novembre abbreviated ] de l'année dernière. Si je n'avais
mis moi-même l'adresse sur le [ No ? ] que
La Revue s'obstinait à envoyer ici, je croirais que vous ne l'avez pas lu.
Maintenant, je suis réduite à penser
qu'il ne vous a pas plu, mais en
ce cas l'amitié ne se tait pas, elle
réclame, elle explique; le silence est
le fait des indifférents et avant de
croire de votre part à de l'indifférence
j'attendrai tout ce que vous avez à me
dire en bien ou en mal, sûre pour
ma part de n'avoir pas eu à l'égard
de la portion de l'Amérique où j'ai le
plus d'amis l'ombre d'une intention
désobligeante. Peut-être que l'encens
brûlé fatigue après tout ceux qui le respirent
même quand il est aussi sincère que
l'a été le mien. -- Je compte sur votre
loyale affection pour m'éclairer, chère
amie, d'autant que vous me rendez
service aussi sous plus d'un rapport.
[ Page 4 ]
Nous disions un jour que l'amitié entre
personnes de différentes nationalités avait
un piquant et une saveur romanesque
qui ne se rencontre pas dans d'autres et
c'est très vrai, parce qu'il y a le plaisir
continuel de la découverte; mais il y en
a aussi l'incertitude, même après toutes
les preuves imaginables de dévouement des
deux côtés. On ne sait pas au juste quelle
interprétation sera donnée à ceci ou à cela.
Je n'y ai jamais pensé en ce qui vous
touche jusqu'à ces derniers temps, et puis le
jugement d'Annie dans l'affaire du Living
Age, m'accusant d'avoir méconnu la loi quand elle
ne pouvait vraiment me reprocher ^( selon vous, mon éditeur compris )^ que de m'être
montrée trop bonne et dupe jusqu'à la stupidité
m'a fait réfléchir sur le point de vue. Encore
une fois je vous supplie tendrement et sincèrement
de m'éclairer, bien chère amie. J'ai trop de chagrins du
côté France pour pouvoir supporter d'en avoir encore
du côté Amérique.
J'étais en train de vous
écrire quand on m'apporte
votre lettre { -- } merci de l'article
sur Lucy Stone. J'avais
emporté déjà des documents
sur elle mais ceux-ci
pourront s'y ajouter
et me seront précieux{.}
Je suis désolée de ne pas
vous savoir encore
rétablie. Pourquoi n'êtes
vous pas ici par ce [ doux ? ] [ missing text ? ]
J'attends Marianne Damad la
belle-soeur de notre ambassadeur
à Rome qui vient me tenir
compagnie ce jour de [ liesse ? ].
Mon dernier séjour à Paris a
été épuissant tous les soirs des
dîners, tous les matins des cours
d'affaires bien après
m'étant levée trop tôt. Édouard
Rod part Samedi; Je l'ai chargé
de petites commissions pour vous{.}
J'espère que vous avez lu son roman
Le Ménage du Pasteur Naudié qui est
la plus haute valeur. Je crois que sauf
Les Roches blanches, il n'avait rien
écrit de meilleur depuis les premiers livres
[ depuis ? ] La Course à la mort et le Sens de la Vie{.}
J'ai [ ferént ? ] tant de bruit. -- Vous savez
que je goûte moins sa
parole que sa plume
mais ses dernières conférences
ont eu cependant beaucoup
de succès et j'espère que
l'expérience acquise en
Angleterre l'aidera à triompher
en Amérique.
Une bonne lettre, je vous
prie, sans contrainte ni
réticences, quand vous
en avez le temps, je vous
embrasse de tout mon coeur
vous et votre chère soeur et Annie
si [vs for vous ] êtes ensemble. Tendrement à vous
ThB
Note that this is written in 2 columns. ]
[ Left column ]
Si vous êtes
cheerful and
prosperous malgré
la guerre, nous
sommes hélas
tout le contraire.
__________
Et nous n'avons pas
la sagesse qui vous
fait garder pour
vous vos inquiétudes.
Vous ai-je dit qu'un
journal espagnol
m'avait peinte comme
un jeune homme
rendu à l'Amérique?
[ Vous savez sans doute je
suis fière d'ailleurs ? ]
par [ unrecognized word ] Mme de Rute Rattazzi
qui dirige la Revue
internationale.
[ The next two lines extend the full length of the page ]
De quelles photographies parlez
Vous -- Annie a-t-elle [ reçu la ? ]
Jeanne d'Arc [ unrecognized words ]
à la poste, ayant le bulletin de
[ paquet ? ] recommandé
[ Right column ]
Les vers de Mrs Howe
m'ont charmée.
Je trouve une segasse
les souvenirs mais
[ unrecognized word ] [ summaries etions ? ]
sans grand intérêt
[ Inside Flap of the associated envelope ]
M. de Monvel m'a écrit les
raisons qui ne lui permettaient
pas d'accepter une hospitalité
dans je lui avais vanté les charmes{.}
Il paraît très content.
Certes oui je me rappelle Elmwood. Voilà une tristesse
[ Cross-written from the left ]
pour vous,
[ comme lu
mon frappe! ]*
Mme Standish
dont je vous
ai souvent
parlé vient
de perdre
(en un mois)
son père et
sa mère le
Cte [ Comte ] et la
Ctesse [ Comtesse ] des
Cars
[ Outside flap of the associated envelope, in another hand ]
Charles Lonne* sends a warm hello to Miss O. Jewett{.} Always, I remember these ladies with pleasure.
Emma Forbes Cary to Sarah Orne Jewett
[ Begin letterhead ]
92 BRATTLE STREET
CAMBRIDGE, MASS.
[ End letterhead ]
The Queen's Twin* is exquisite. Only you since Hawthorne have shown that sense of the unseen which belongs to us New Englanders. And let me thank you, dear friend, for your
[ Page 2 ]
valiant stand made for the Irish
Catholics,* as you made it for your own people and my
own people. It is a great work well done.
That unpopular planet,
the Dayspring, nears its setting, I think, & I want
you to have it from me before it is extinguished
altogether.
[ Page 3 ]
I have not forgotten your pleasant words about my little book, made in the valley of a heavy shadow -- of life, not death.Emma F Cary
A provenance note with the letter says: "Removed from RB 472022, Dayspring from on High, in March, 1983." Cary, a Catholic convert, was the compiler of this calendar of religious quotations. See Key to Correspondents.
The Queen's Twin: Jewett's story, "The Queen's Twin," appeared in Atlantic Monthly in February 1899.
Irish Catholics: Beginning in 1889 with "The Luck of the Bogans," Jewett published a series of stories featuring Irish-American characters. Two of these appeared in Jewett's 1899 collection, The Queen's Twin: "Where's Nora?" and "Bold Words at the Bridge."
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Huntington Library, San Marino, CA, in the James Thomas Fields Papers: mss Fl 5330. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Mary Rice Jewett
Monday afternoon
[ February 27, 1899 ]
Dear Mary
The library is so pretty -- all full of yellow light from the sunset and now I suppose it will be dark before I can get this letter done. Sylvia Emerson* has been here for a long and dear old fashioned call. I didn’t tell you that a day or two ago Mrs. John Forbes* heard Sylvia say I had not been well and sent me the most beautiful great box of flowers -- so many kinds! Cherokee roses* & all sorts. Sylvia was disposed to speak of All Tyson family. Both Mr. Tyson and Elise’s mother were her cousins* and she is so interested always about Elise though her sister Ladd* knows her best having brought up daughter.
Before I forget it I must tell you that A. F.* said today you must come and have a day or two when the Watsons are here Maclarens -- the seventh I think she set, so you can step from Mrs. Tyler’s* into the midst of them. . . It seems a great while since I saw Mrs. Tyler but it was only just before I got cold again. We have just had a telegram from Mr. Robinson who has been kept at home in New York -- so there will only be Mrs. R. & the Peirsons* (sister wants to go to the show!)* I have got “Catherine Hunts” picky* in such a lovely old fashioned oval black & gold frame. You shall see her in it when you come. . . Oh laws, if I could remember to put in some clean pens I should be so gratified, but it is already duskish at this end of the room. Good-bye with love from
Sarah
I have just got your beautiful letty* of Sunday. Thank you so much. Please send this dear letty of Nelly Prince’s right back for I want to send it up to her mother.
Notes
February 27, 1899: Though tentative, this date
is probably very close. As indicated below, Annie
Fields was expecting a visit from Ian Maclaren/John Watson
on "the seventh." He reports being the guest of Annie
Fields in a letter of 9 March 1899 (p. 227).
Sylvia Emerson: Sylvia Hathaway Watson Emerson. See Key to Correspondents.
Mrs. John Forbes: Sarah Hathaway (1813-1900) married
John Murray Forbes (1813-1898), "an
American railroad magnate, merchant, philanthropist and
abolitionist ... president of both the Michigan Central
railroad and the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad in
the 1850s." Their sons were William Hathaway and John
Malcolm. William married Edith Emerson, daughter of
Ralph Waldo Emerson.
Cherokee roses: Wikipedia says: "Rosa laevigata,
the
Cherokee
rose,
is
a
white,
fragrant
rose native to southern China and Taiwan south to Laos and
Vietnam, and invasive in the United States."
Mr. Tyson and Elise’s mother were cousins: Sylvia
Emerson says that George Tyson and his first wife were her
cousins. See Emily Davis Tyson in Key
to Correspondents. George Tyson's first wife was Sarah
Anthony (1842-1873) of New Bedford, MA.
her sister Ladd: According to A Sedgwick Genealogy, Sylvia Emerson's
younger sister, Anna Russell Watson (1843-1909) married
William Jones Ladd (1844-1923). See also The Ladd Family, pp. 240-1.
A. F: Annie Adams Fields. See Key to Correspondents
Watsons ... Maclarens ... Mrs. Tyler’s:
Dr. John Watson (Ian Maclaren): Wikipedia says: "Rev. John
Watson (3 November 1850 - 6 May 1907), known by his pen name
Ian Maclaren, was a Scottish author and theologian....
Maclaren's first stories of rural Scottish life, Beside
the Bonnie Brier Bush (1894), achieved
extraordinary popularity, selling more than 700 thousand
copies, and were succeeded by other successful books, The
Days
of Auld Lang Syne (1895), Kate Carnegie and those
Ministers (1896), and Afterwards and other Stories
(1898)." Annie Fields records a dinner at her home
that included John Watson on the evening of Monday, 11 March
1907.
The identity of Mrs. Tyler is unknown,
though it is clear from other letters that Mary Rice Jewett
often visited her when staying in Boston. In a letter
of 8 September 1895, Jewett mentions a visit to South
Berwick by her and Hattie. There are letters in the
Houghton Library between A. M. Tyler and T. E. Tyler and
members of the Jewett family.
Mr. Robinson ... Mrs. R. & the Peirsons:
These
persons
have
not
been
identified.
Among
the Robinsons with whom Fields and Jewett were likely
acquainted were Edward Robinson (1858-1931), an
American writer and art scholar, who was curator of
classical antiquities at the Boston Museum of Fine Art and
later director of New York's Metropolitan Museum, and his
wife, Elizabeth Hebard Gould (1859-1952).
However, it is not certain that these are the Robinsons
Jewett mentions.
The Peirsons, sometimes spelled Pierson,
may be Emily Russell (1843-1908) andCharles Lawrence Peirson(1834-1920),
both of whom were residents of the Manchester area.
the show: It is possible that this is a presentation by Maclaren/Watson. He reports in his letter of 9 March 1899 that while in Boston, "I had the pleasure of showing the 'Face of the Master," which is Sefton Park work, since it is the joint production of the minster and the clerk of the deacons' court. There was a large audience, and the slides were much admired." Watson was minster of Sefton Park Presbyterian Church, Liverpool, 1880-1905. His book, The Life of the Master, a biography of Jesus, appeared serially in McClure's Magazine in 1900. According to an interview article in the Chicago Tribune (24 March 1899), "The Face of the Master," was a presentation of material that would become part of Watson's life of Jesus.
“Catherine Hunts" picky: It seems probable that Jewett refers to a portrait of Catherine Clinton Howland (1841-1909), wife of the prominent American architect, Richard Morris Hunt (1827-1895). The photograph of Mrs. Hunt with her son, Livingston, at her Find-a-Grave page could be a copy of the one to which Jewett refers.
letty: Jewett's word for "letter."
Nelly Prince's: Richard Cary identifies Helen Choate
Prince, (1857-1943), granddaughter of Rufus Choate, and wife
of Charles Albert Prince the Boston lawyer. She was
the author of The Story of Christine Rochefort
(1895) and three other novels.
This text is from transcriptions from mixed repositories in
the Maine Women Writer's Collection, University of New
England, Letters from Sarah Orne Jewett, 1875-1890, Folder
74, Burton Trafton Jewett Research Collection. For more
information about the individual transcription, contact the
Maine Women Writers Collection. Preparation by Linda
Heller. Notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Elizabeth Chapman Lawrence to Sarah Orne Jewett
Cable Address, "Boldt, Philadelphia"
|
Hotel Bellevue
N.W.Cor. Broad & Walnut Sts, Phila. The Stratford S.W.Cor. Broad & Walnut Sts. Phila Boldt's Restaurant Bullit Building Fourth St. Phila. The Waldorf-Astoria 5th Ave: 33rd-34th Sts. Astor Court New York Geo C. Boldt |
Hotel Bellevue
PHILADELPHIA GEORGE C. BOLDT & CO. |
My dear Sarah Jewett.
I was sitting at home day before yesterday in my little room very busy, when a magazine was handed to me from your own dear hand & the instant my eye caught the first words of {"}The Queen's Twin"* they riveted my attention & I laid down everything else & began [ deletion ] reading it & had scarcely finished the first page before I rushed down stairs & into the library where I read it aloud as well as I could between tears & laughter
& with these my heartfelt congratulations. I will soon
E. Lawrence*
Notes
1899: This date has been added in pencil --- it is not clear in whose hand. In the folder with this letter is an envelope of Hotel Bellevue stationery, addressed to Jewett care of Annie Adams Fields in Boston. It was cancelled on 27 February 1899, which fell on a Monday. For Fields see Key to Correspondents.
Queen's Twin: Jewett's "The Queen's Twin" appeared in Atlantic Monthly in February 1899.
Mr & Mrs French: This transcription is uncertain, and these persons have not yet been identified.
Barrill: This transcription is uncertain. Perhaps Lawrence refers to Jewett's deceased friend Mary Barrell. See Elizabeth Barrell in Key to Correspondents.
Lawrence: Robert Mainfort and Mary Kwas (University of Arkansas) have identified Elizabeth Chapman Lawrence (1829-1905) as a correspondent of Sarah Wyman Whitman. See E.L., The Bread Box Papers: a biography of Elizabeth Chapman Lawrence, (1983) by Helen H. Gemmill. She was married to the diplomat, Timothy Bigelow Lawrence (d. 1869). Her home was the Aldie Mansion in Doylestown, PA.
While it is not certain this Elizabeth Lawrence was the author of this letter, it is highly probable.
For Whitman see Key to Correspondents.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library of Harvard University, Cambridge, MA. bMS Am 1743 Box 3, Item 131 I. Letters to Sarah Orne Jewett.
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
George Lincoln Goodale to Sarah Orne Jewett
My dear Miss Jewett,
You will let me tell you how much pleasure I have in your stories. The pleasure is given not only by their exquisite literary detail and faithful coloring, but by the encouraging and stimulating optimism which pervades them through and through
I think often when I read what you have written, of the delight your father would have
found in your bright side of life. He was the most sensible and cheery optimist I ever knew, and flooded the darkest sickrooms with sunshine. You are doing the same good work in the same way, with a vastly enlarged
As one of your grateful patients, I send you hearty thanks.
George Lincoln Goodale
Notes
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library of Harvard University: Sarah Orne Jewett Correspondence I, Letters to Sarah Orne Jewett.
Goodale, George Lincoln, 1839-1923. 1 letter; 1899. (83).
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 Mary Rice Jewett
I was pretty late to luncheon in consequence and people began to come before I got dressed and came steadily all the whole afternoon. It was one of those times but who should appear but dear Mrs. Agassiz* who had come all the way in a-purpose to talk about the Queen’s Twin,* and we had to leave everything and sit together and hold hands, and she said she had smiled and laughed, and then she had to cry. I cant tell you all she said -- but it was such a pleasure to give her any pleasure -- as you know. Alice Longfellow* was here and I promised to go to lunch with her Tuesday. She is going abroad with the Danas* right away. She wishes there were some body to take her house & go right on with it for the Spring. Good bye now with much love from Sarah
Notes
Handwritten notes with this text read: [to Mary] [Sunday
Morning].
Mrs. Agassiz: Elizabeth Cabot (Cary) Agassiz
(1822-1907) "was an American educator, and the co-founder
and first president of Radcliffe College. A researcher of
natural history, she was a contributing author to many
scientific published works with her husband, [Harvard
University professor] Louis Agassiz [1807-1873]."
the Queen's Twin: Jewett's story, "The Queen's
Twin," appeared in Atlantic Monthly (83:235-246) in
February 1899 and simultaneously in Cornhill Magazine
(London, n.s. 6:145-161).
Alice Longfellow: See Key to Correspondents.
the Danas: See Richard Henry Dana III in Key to Correspondents.
This text, presumably a fragment, is from transcriptions
from mixed repositories in the Maine Women Writer's
Collection, University of New England, Letters from Sarah
Orne Jewett, 1875-1890, Folder 74, Burton Trafton Jewett
Research Collection. For more information about the
individual transcription, contact the Maine Women Writers
Collection. Preparation by Linda Heller. Notes
by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Annie Trumbull Slosson to Sarah Orne Jewett
March 4 / 99
My dear Miss Jewett
I wish you would fly to my window. I would take you in as I did the poor little four swallows which fluttered outside during the freezing weather of Feb 14th.
I have a favor to ask. Will you write
your name in a copy of the Pointed Firs* for me. I love that book and keep giving away my own copy. But if you make it dearer with your "hand write" I shall not part with it. I have ordered the book sent you. Then will you be so
very good as to mail it to me here. I hate to bother you -- it is a bother, I know! -- but I want the book here, having just given away my only one.
I was reading David Harum* when your letter came. It is delicious.
A darky here told me the other day in eulogizing his minister that he was "one of the finest quoters"
[ Page 4 ]
he ever heard! Another who always uses the most elegant language and talks in [ rounded periods ?] was betrayed into a somewhat homely expression. But he saved his self-respect by adding "to speak sociably". Isn't that as good as "colloquially"? Oh, I like them so.
Affectionately
Annie Trumbull Slosson
Notes
Pointed Firs: Jewett's The Country of the Pointed Firs (1896). See Slosson to Jewett of 12 April 1899.
David Harum: American author Edward Noyes Westcott (1846-1898) published his popular novel, David Harum, in 1898.
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.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Mary Rice Jewett
[Wed night, March 1899]
It is really beautiful, as you said, to find that my little lamp isn’t going out, but it makes more and more hard thinking and care to keep it going. Though one has a kind of capital in all the work she has done. --- There are those who are so funny just now, Louisa* having sent round to be signed a petition to the Mayor of Boston, against the imported Finch or English sparrow* whose presence is no longer deemed expedient. It was signed by the Bishop & other clergy -- by capitalists and society leaders of highest degrees[,] Mrs. Gardner and the Ames’* and college professors[,] without regard to other opinions and it did seem like such engineering against one little fluffy one, but you had to remember their numbers and how they troubled the other birds to whom New England belongs. You might be keeping snow birds Mary, and have some of Aunt Anne’s little chippys with the stripes on their heads for summer* -- dear little things. I am hoping that you will be coming along in a day or two. I am sure you dont need to be reminded that we shall be just in time after the Watsons* visit to go down to little Aunt’s birthday -- and so home. I wonder if we shall get to “Maria’s”* -- perhaps when I am coming back. Good night with much love. Miss Jane Addams & Mr. Woods are coming to dinner tomorrow night, & Mrs. Wolcott & Miss Annette Rogers (both Overseers of the Poor for the City of Boston.) It may sound sober but I know them all to the contrary, though I dont doubt there will be good things to hear. Respects to the Treasurer*
S. O. J.
Notes
March 1899: Dating this letter is somewhat
problematic, though there is a good deal of precise
information available. It seems fairly clear that when
Jewett refers to the Watsons, she means John Watson/Ian
Maclaren, the Scots author, who visited Annie Fields in
March of 1899. Several other seeming correspondences,
such as Aunt Mary Long's birthday, point toward this date
for the letter. Yet the petition regarding English
Sparrows to which Jewett refers was presented to the Mayor
of Boston in March of 1898. It seems odd that Jewett
would refer to it a full year after it appeared, though the
controversy over reducing the sparrow population continued
into 1899, and Jewett may be responding to municipal
attempts to eliminate the birds from public parks and
cemeteries. This seeming delay may be accounted for by
noting that in March of 1898, Jewett and Fields were
preparing for their long trip to Europe that began in late
March or early April.
Handwritten notes with this text read:
[to Mary] [Wed. night].
Louisa: Almost certainly Louisa Dresel. See Key to Correspondents.
Mayor of Boston ... finch or English sparrow: The
Audubon Society's Bird-Lore magazine (1899)
offers a brief account of "The So-called Sparrow War in
Boston," 1898-1899 (pp. 137-8). According to this
account, in March 1898 a petition was presented to Josiah Quincy, Mayor of Boston, signed
by "a host of representative Bostonians." The petition
asserted that "the noxious imported Finch, known as the
English Sparrow, has come to be a public nuisance." It
asked that their numbers be reduced, particularly in public
places, such as the Boston Common and in cemeteries.
See also Kim Todd's "The Sparrow War," Chapter 4 of Sparrow (2013).
the Bishop ... Mrs. Gardner and the Ames’:
Jewett is likely referring to the Episcopal Bishop of the
Archdiocese of Massachusetts, William Lawrence. But she may
mean the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Boston at the time, John Joseph Williams.
Mrs. Gardner is Isabella Stewart
Gardner. See Key
to Correspondents.
While this is not certain, it seems
likely that Jewett refers to the Ames family, relatives of
Frederick Lothrop Ames (1835-1893), who built the Ames Building as "corporate
headquarters for the families' agricultural tool
company." This was Boston's first skyscraper and from
1893 to 1915, it was the tallest secular building in Boston.
snow birds ... Aunt Anne’s little chippys with the stripes on their heads for summer: Jewett's description suggests that she believes that English Sparrow refugees from Boston may seek shelter in South Berwick, where Mary will feed them along with local birds. Aunt Anne probably is Annie Fields. See Key to Correspondents.
Watson's: Jewett probably refer to Rev. Dr. John
Watson (Ian Maclaren) (1850-1907).
Wikipedia.
little Aunt's ... "Maria's": While it is
difficult to be certain which of Jewett's aunts is "little
Aunt," her favorite Aunt Mary Long's birthday was March 9.
The identity of "Maria" is uncertain,
especially as it is in quotation marks. In Sarah Orne
Jewett, Blanchard mentions a Cousin Maria (p. 36) as
residing in Portsmouth, NH. Possibly this is Cousin Maria, Maria Parker Perry Robinson
(1817-1912) who 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).
Miss Jane Addams & Mr. Woods: Jane Addams
(1860-1935), "was a pioneer American settlement
activist/reformer, social worker, public philosopher,
sociologist, author, and leader in women's suffrage and
world peace. She co-founded, with Ellen Gates Starr, the
first settlement house in the United States, Chicago's Hull
House that would later become known as one of the most
famous settlement houses in America." Wikipedia
Robert Archey Woods (1865-1925) was a
settlement house pioneer, founder of South End House, the
first settlement in Boston. He was a social reformer,
author, and educator.
Mrs. Wolcott & Miss Annette Rogers (both Overseers
of the Poor for the City of Boston.): Jewett was
acquainted with Mrs. Edith Wolcott, wife of Massachusetts
governor (1896-1898) Roger Wolcott (1847-1900). Edith
(1853-1934) was the daughter of American historian William
Hicking Prescott. See "Jewett to Dresel: 33 Letters" in Colby
Library
Quarterly 7 (March 1975): 45.
Little has been learned about Annette
Rogers. Her name is listed with contributors to and
officers for the Overseers of the Poor for the City of
Boston, where Annie Fields also was active. She helped
to organize the Howard Industrial School for "colored"
refugees from the Civil War in Cambridge, MA. See
Lydia H. Farmer, What America Owes to Women
(1893, p. 365).
Treasurer: While this allusion seems obscure,
it is likely Jewett refers to Rebecca Young, who was
Treasurer of the South Berwick Savings Bank.
This text is from transcriptions from mixed repositories
in the Maine Women Writer's Collection, University of New
England, Letters from Sarah Orne Jewett, 1875-1890, Folder
74, Burton Trafton Jewett Research Collection. For more
information about the individual transcription, contact the
Maine Women Writers Collection. Preparation by Linda
Heller. Notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Mary Eleanor Wilkins Freeman to Sarah Orne Jewett
March 16, 1899 --
I give in -- She belongs to me, but I must own I had quite forgotten her. Thank you ever so much, for sending her home -- I was sorry I could not get in to the [ Sargent ? ] tea* that Monday -- My little [ unrecognized word ] with you always warm my heart, and I wish they came oftener --
Mary E. Wilkins
tea: If Freeman has written "Sargent," then it seem likely she refers to American painter, John Singer Sargent (1856-1925). In 1899 he was working in Boston, and in that year completed a portrait of Jewett acquaintance Sarah Choate Sears. During 20 February - 13 March, there was an exhibition of his work at the Copley Gallery in Boston.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library of Harvard University, Cambridge, MA. bMS Am 1743 Box 2, Item 69 I. Letters to Sarah Orne Jewett.
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Miss Sedgwick*
[ Late winter 1899 ]
Dear Mifs [so written] Sedgwick
I was afraid to say yes when your kind note came yesterday morning and I could not bear to say no. Whence the lateness of this reply. I am so much better for this bright sunshine that I see no reason why I should not have the pleasure of going to you and hearing the concert if is still good weather
for once! but I still have to be careful of me -- a 'poor thing at best' and necessarily troublesome this winter -- as you have seen.
We are in such suspense and anxiety over the news from Mr Kipling*
on Thursday. So that I hope to be coming along before six{.} -- If you are to be out in the afternoon do not hurry home but I do not like to leave the drive until late. And will you be so kind as to have a cab come for me for the concert? I am shamed [as I ?] speak for that bit of a walk is nothing on ordinary terms. I hope you wont feel quite above driving with a friend{.}
Notes
Miss Sedgwick: Probably this was British-American author Anne Douglas Sedgwick (1873-1936).
Because this letter refers to the serious illness of Rudyard Kipling, it almost certainly is from early 1899, when Kipling nearly died while staying in Massachusetts. At that time, Jewett almost certainly was acquainted with Ellery Sedgwick, editor of Atlantic Monthly, but whether this Miss Sedgwick is connected with him has not been discovered.
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 Mary Rice Jewett
[Wed. evening, March 1899]*
Sally* only got home last night and says that poor Mr. Kipling* is still very feeble and far from getting up. She saw him several times but he only sees one person a day yet -- and I think gets out of his head easily from weakness and thinks all the children are gone etc. I suppose he misses them about. He sent his love to me she said. They mean to go back to England just as soon as he is able, but I believe there is no thought of it before the last of May. Lily Norton* is thinking of going to Quebec this summer and staying with Sister St. Andre as Therese did.* You know she has hay fever so, poor child, that she is driven about from pillar to post. Sister St. A. wrote a most lovely letty, and also one to me, which you shall have but I lent it to Lily today. Give much love to Liddy.*
Sarah
Tighe & Burke* said that the gloves were sent a week ago (to Berwick)
Notes
March 1899: This date is based upon the report of Kipling visiting in New England and being seriously ill, events of 1899. See notes below. Handwritten notes with this text read: [to Mary] [Wed. evening].
Sally: Sara Norton. See Key to Correspondents.
Mr. Kipling: Rudyard Kipling. See Key to Correspondents. According to A Kipling Chronology, the Kipling family, who had resided in New England (1892-1896) at the beginning of their marriage, returned to visit in 1899, where they all became seriously ill. Kipling nearly died. His 6-year-old daughter, Josephine, died in early March.
Lily Norton: Elizabeth Gaskell Norton. See Key to Correspondents.
Sister St. Andre ... Therese: According to Sadliers' Catholic Directory, Almanac and Ordo (1883), in the Archdiocese of Quebec, Sister St. Andre was superior at the Sisters of the Good Shepherd Convent of St. Laurent . She led four sisters, and they taught 85 pupils in their school (p. 10).
For Marie Thérèse de Solms Blanc, see Key to Correspondents.
Liddy: Richard Cary identifies Liddy as Elizabeth Jervis Gilman. See Key to Correspondents.
Tighe & Burke: Tighe & Burke are listed as grocers in the 1899 Long Distance Phone Directory for Boston. In The Boston Directory (1879), the proprietor's names are John Tighe and William Burke, with an address on Charles St., Boston.
This text is from transcriptions from mixed repositories in the Maine Women Writer's Collection, University of New England, Letters from Sarah Orne Jewett, 1875-1890, Folder 74, Burton Trafton Jewett Research Collection. For more information about the individual transcription, contact the Maine Women Writers Collection. Preparation by Linda Heller. Notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Ida M. Tarbell
Boston
Dear Miss Tarbell
I am glad to send you a message by our friend Mr. Morton who will carry you Mrs. Fields's and my own affectionate messages of remembrance. I shall not be surprised to find that this note begins a friendship. You have have many interests in
common. ( I now speak humbly as a former contributor!) and I think that you will be interested in Mr. Morton's stories of which I hope he will speak to you. . I wish that I could see you again.
Sarah O. Jewett
Notes
1899: It seems very likely that Jewett (along with Annie Fields) here provides a letter of introduction for Johnson Morton (1865-1922). According to Wikipedia, Morton (Harvard 1886) was editor at the The Youth's Companion (1893-1907). Jewett probably became acquainted with him around May 1899, when she resumed publishing in The Youth's Companion, after a 7-year hiatus. From 1899, when she published two pieces there, she published one each year through 1903.
It is not yet known when Jewett first met Tarbell. Tarbell joined McClure's in 1894, a year after Jewett's first publication in the magazine. Jewett did not appear again in McClure's until April 1899. She then published several stories there through 1904.
In Sarah Orne Jewett to Mary Rice Jewett [September 9, 1900], Jewett speaks of Morton and of Tarbell as people she knows and indicates that they are likely to meet soon at Annie Fields's Manchester home, suggesting that all of them are by this time acquainted with each other.
While it seems likely that this letter was written after May 1899 and before September 1900, in March 1900, Jewett and Fields were traveling in Europe. Therefore, it seems more likely that the letter was composed in 1899.
That Jewett speaks of herself as a "former contributor" may indicate her desire to contribute again in the future; however, it is possible that she writes after her 1902 carriage accident, when her fiction-writing career ended. It is possible that this letter should be dated after 1902 and closer to 1907, when Morton resigned from The Youth's Companion to focus on publishing his fiction.
Mrs. Fields: Annie Fields. See Key to Correspondents.
The manuscript of this letter is held by Allegheny College Library, Special Collections: Letter: Sarah O. Jewett to Ida M. Tarbell, March 29 Allegheny College DSpace Repository. Transcribed and annotated by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Louise Imogen Guiney to Annie Adams Fields
Dearest Mrs. Fields:
You are always, always, so good to me; to us! I am distressed to have missed you at the Library;* I do not think I have been absent for all of a Saturday before, since I enlisted as Mr. Putnam's contented private. The book is quite a treasure, for Easter or any time! [ Marmee ? ]* has got ahead of me in telling you so, but has withheld her thanks in order to send them with mine. I am joyfully disposed to heed that invitation. Only Mr. Whittemore* is in Albany, and is due in Philadelphia and some other place next week, but will be at home between-times, so that I shall not fail to broach the delightful subject to him. I rather think he will have to choose April 11th, 12th, 13th or 14th, as you say those dates will be equally ac-
ceptable to you; and they will suit me, too, quite as well as any. May it all come off! and may we have spring, and health, and a shining Charles* dancing under the windows! Of course I will let you know what the Party of the Third Part has to say, as soon as ever I hear.
I have just finished editing the little Arnold* for H. M. & Co.'s Riverside Series. It was the best of fun. You may believe that I am well, and in working order, to be able to get even that done, among the chores, many and miscellaneous, of every day. I do hope your own physical cheer is no whit less than mine, at last. My lovingest love to Miss Jewett.*
Louise I. Guiney
Notes
Library: At this time, Guiney was working at the Boston Public Library, at the behest of George Haven Putnam, cataloguing the papers of Judge Mellen Chamberlain. See Key to Correspondents for both men.
Marmee: This transcription is somewhat uncertain. If it is correct, then by calling her mother Marmee, Guiney may allude to Little Women by American author Louisa May Alcott (1832-1888), where the mother of the little women is called Marmee.
Mr. Whittemore: American scholar and archaeologist, Thomas Whittemore (1871-1950).
Charles: Guiney refers to the Charles River, which flowed past the bottom of Fields's Boston garden.
little Arnold: In 1899, Houghton Mifflin published a selection, Sohrab and Rustum, and Other Poems, by British poet, Matthew Arnold (1822-1888), edited by Guiney.
Miss Jewett: Sarah Orne Jewett. See Key to Correspondents.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Huntington Library, San Marino, CA, in the James T. Fields collection Box 26: mss FI 1621. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sally A. Kaighn* to Sarah Orne Jewett
Dear friend
I want to send you just a few words to thank thee for the "Atlantic," received recently. It did me so much good to meet dear "Mrs Todd"* again and follow her through the upland pastures and the pointed firs in sight of the sea{.} She has seemed like an old friend to me, since knowing her through thy pleasant introduction -- Yes!
carried its cheery messages -- and I am always glad when I can put "Betty Leicester" into the hands of a young girl, feeling that the substitution of such (including the "Marsh Island" that dear love story -- ) will perhaps crowd out the trashy literature of the time -- It was delightful to hear the enthusiasm over the "Mate of the Daylight"* shown by a schoolgirl who had seemed so dull and heavy before.
But I must stop, though it is a subject which leads me into "much speaking{.}" It was so kind in thee to think of me. "It rests me sitting here to think what a sight of use you must be"! and so farewell
Notes
Kaighn: This person has not yet been identified.
Todd: Kaighn refers to "The Queen's Twin," which appeared in Atlantic Monthly in February 1899. Jewett's character, Almira Todd, first appeared in The Country of the Pointed Firs (1896).
"Deephaven" ... "Betty Leicester" ... "Marsh Island": Jewett's books: Deephaven (1877), Betty Leicester (1890), A Marsh Island (1885).
"Mate of the Daylight": "The Mate of the Daylight" appeared in Atlantic Monthly in July 1882.
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 Mary Rice Jewett
Saturday morning
[ 1 April 1899 ]
Dear Mary
I send you the materials for Miss Chases behoff* -- and I hope you will like them. I am going to have her make me an India silk skirt which can be worn to mill and to meeting as Jennie S. says. I wonder if Miss E. Warren could do it -- but how nice if she could come & sew (on waists & things). If you havent done or seen, about her perhaps you could have her week after next. I am setting upon the 10th to go home or 11th as near as I can tell. You can take this bundle for an Easter present!* I feel like Grandpa who had begun too late to hear of keeping Christmas in Massachusetts.* I think I began too late about Easter the only times I have much deep association with are those young days when Georgie & I used to go to Trinity.* I meant to write her a letter to get tomorrow, but I must now write it tomorrow. I am still hoping that you may fetch a compass & come up. -- -- -- -- -- --
Notes
1 April 1899: This reasonably certain
date is based in part upon the fact that Jewett writes about
acquiring fabric from a Miss Chase. This person also
is mentioned in a letter of 17 January 1898. In 1899 Easter
fell on 2 April, and this letter seems likely to be from the
Saturday before Easter.
The main support for this date, then, is
elimination. I have assumed the year must be not too
far from 1898 and before 1903, when Jewett was too ill in
the spring to travel to Boston, where she usually spent
Easter when she was able. In all other years from 1896
to 1902, there is evidence in her correspondence that Jewett
was not in Boston at Easter, either because of events at
home, such as the 1897 death of her sister, Carrie, or
because she was traveling, as she was in 1896, 1898, and
1900. She reports frustration at not being in Boston for
Easter in 1901, and all the letters we have from 1902
indicate that she was in South Berwick at Easter.
Finally, Jewet mentions here a plan to
write to Georgie Halliburton the next day, and there is such
a letter dated 2 April 1899.
The dashes at the end
indicate this is an incomplete transcription.
Miss Chases behoff: Except that she seems to
be a fabric supplier, Miss Chase has not yet been
identified. The use of the term "behoff" is odd for
Jewett. It is a legal term (more often spelled
"behof"), meaning for someone's use or advantage. Or perhaps
Jewett had another idea in mind, such as a dialect
pronunciation for "behalf?"
Jennie S. ... Miss E. Warren: The identities of
Jennie S. and E. Warren are not yet known. It appears
that among the employees in Carrie Jewett Eastman's
household during the 1890s was a woman named Jennie, who is
mentioned in other letters. However, it seems likely
this letter was composed after sister Carrie's death.
Grandpa ... Christmas: Dr. William Perry (See
Key
to Correspondents) apparently was among those
conservative New Englanders who resisted turning Christmas
into a semi-secular holiday. See the 19th-century
history of the holiday in Wikipedia.
Georgie ... Trinity: Georgina Halliburton and Jewett sometimes attended Trinity Church (Episcopal) together when Jewett was in Boston. 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 74, Burton Trafton Jewett Research Collection. For more information about the individual transcription, contact the Maine Women Writers Collection. Preparation by Linda Heller. Notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.Sarah Orne Jewett to Georgina Halliburton
My first letter must be to you today. I thought of you early and I am sure that you thought of me. It is very long since we were together at Easter to go to church and all that -- but I know that we both remember the old days at Trinity,* especially one Easter morning and that we feel closer together than any other day in the year.
I am not at church this
morning because I particularly wish to go to an afternoon service and I cant do both. I am quite longing for the snow to be gone for I have had such a hard disappointing winter, full of illness, and I am not yet very strong though I make a "bolt for the open" now and then and get some nice thing done. There are plenty of nice things to do if one only could.
Mary* is here & very well{.} You dont know how much pleasure she has in our friends who have taken the Hamilton
House --* They have been coming and going, and sometimes staying with us while they finished the repair on the house, and it is new pleasure and tie to Berwick. I know you will like Mrs. Tyson and her nice young daughter. I hope to take you there some day this summer. They will be moving down next month early.
I saw Mrs. Will Forbes* a few days ago and she asked me so affectionately about you and talked about your dear mother. We had a lovely
time together. She said how glad she was that her daughter had been in Santa Barbara* that winter & seen you & her -- Mrs. Wheelwright* told me that she was going there for a month or two just now & I promised to tell you and Auntie.* I think she is at a cottage -- And she is a very delightful person to all her friends{.} I wish you might have time to go to see her some day, if she is still there.
Dearest Georgie I hope to hear from you soon and to see you too, before too many weeks pass -- we are nearer Summer than one would think from all the
snow in Berwick, at least last week there was plenty! Last year it was much more springlike. How often I think of those days! -- and I was just going way. Give my love to Auntie. I know Mrs. Fields* & Mary would both send a message if they were here.
Always your loving and unforgetting
Sarah
Notes
1899: Easter, the Christian celebration of the resurrection of Jesus, fell on 2 April 1899.
Trinity: Jewett and her friends often attended Trinity Church in Boston, especially during the years Phillips Brooks was rector, 1869-1893. See Key to Correspondents.
Mary: Mary Rice Jewett. See Key to Correspondents.
Hamilton House ... Mrs Tyson ... daughter: See Emily Davis Tyson in Key to Correspondents.
Mrs. Will Forbes: Almost certainly this is Edith Emerson (1841-1929), daughter of Ralph Waldo Emerson, who married William Hathaway Forbes (1840-1897).
Santa Barbara: In the 1940s, relatives of the Haven family of Brooklyn were residing in the Santa Barbara area, where George Griswold Haven III seems to have worked for the San Bernadino Sun.
Mrs. Wheelwright: Sarah Perkins Cabot Wheelwright. See Key to Correspondents.
Auntie: This person remains unidentified.
Mrs. Fields: Annie Adams Fields. See Key to Correspondents.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library of Harvard University, Cambridge, MA: Sarah Orne Jewett correspondence, 1861-1930. MS Am 1743 (260).
Sarah Orne Jewett to Annie Adams Fields
Excuse an [ectographic ?] pen!!*
Wednesday Morning [April 1899]*
Dearest Annie
I am all in my morning bed with a nice bright fire &
feeling much better pains & all! -- The cool weather
seems to work well -- at any rate. I have lost a good deal of an
exhausted [a dot appears here, like a period] mouse under
an air receiver* feeling that appertained to [those changed
from the] hot days. But after a most beautiful
& I may say royal dream of you and me and Queen Victoria*
who sat and talked to you a long time as if she had never been
blessed with
[Page 2]
without your Pinny* to make a fuss! After you went away dear S. W.* came and I went down to the reception room and she stayed some time so dear, and as leisurely as the Queen! though I suppose she had everything to do. I had a lovely time with her and I was lying on the blue couch while she sat along side. Then I had a nice luncheon with more of the clam
soup. (I wish you had a hot cupful now!) and then I got off very well but feeling pretty invalidish, and "so home["] as Mr. Pepys* would say. Katy* is doing so nicely -- I like her cooking very much. [We corrected] have had muffins of the best and a quite perfect mince for breakfast. John* is in great feather. Mary* looks rather sulky to me poor child we shall see: Katy is the main thing & seems contented so far.
With dearest love fondly from P.L.
Notes
April 1899: The main reason for this date is that Katy Galvin is reported as still settling in. See Key to Correspondents.
air receiver: What Jewett means is not clear. Technically, an air receiver is a tank for temporarily holding compressed air. Jewett seems to be speaking of how she feels after the end of Fields's visit.
Queen Victoria: "Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 - 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death." Jewett's story, "The Queen's Twin," which may be seen as including dreams of Queen Victoria, appeared in Atlantic Monthly (83:235-246) in February 1899.
your hill ... Fuff: Fuff is one of Annie Fields' nicknames. Her summer home in Manchester, MA, stands on Thunderbolt Hill.
Pinny: P.L. or Pinny Lawson, one of Jewett's nicknames.
S. W.: Sarah Wyman Whitman. See Key to Correspondents.
Mr. Pepys: Samuel Pepys (1633-1703) "was an English naval administrator and Member of Parliament who is most famous for the diary that he kept for a decade while still a relatively young man." The phrase "and so home" occurs with some frequency in his Diary of Samuel Pepys (1660-1669)
Katy ... John: Katy Galvin and John Tucker were Jewett family employees. See Key to Correspondents.
Mary: Mary Rice Jewett. See Correspondents.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. Jewett, Sarah Orne, 1849-1909. 40 letters to Annie (Adams) Fields (no date). Sarah Orne Jewett additional correspondence, 1868-1930. MS Am 1743.1 (117). Transcribed and annotated by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Louise Imogen Guiney to Annie Adams Fields
My dear Mrs. Fields:
It is all that busy 'Saint' Whittemore's* doings; but I fear our Spanish castles for next week are tumbling down. I had a hurried note from him en route for New York, begging me to excuse him to you for the dates when he thought he should be free, and finds he isn't; and asking if he might possibly be taken in on the 17th, 18th, or 19th, instead? Whichever of these you may or can be good enough to hold for us, we will keep it: Deo volente, as Lamb* used to say, et Diabolo nolente. It is too, too bad that the cares of the professorial world should play ducks and drakes* with that dear little plan! and we are both ever so sorry, but hope to be forgiven. Love to you for every day between, from
Notes
Whittemore's: American scholar and archaeologist, Thomas Whittemore (1871-1950).
Lamb: British author, Charles Lamb (1785-1834). The Latin translates: God willing and the Devil opposed. Lamb uses this language in at least one published letter, to Mr. Manning of 27 December 1800. See Letters of Charles Lamb (1849), edited by T. N. Talfourd, pp. 122-3.
ducks and drakes: Game names vary so much that it is difficult to determine Guiney's meaning. In the United States, "Ducks and Drakes" is usually a stone-skipping game, throwing stones so that they skip along the surface of a quiet body of water. Perhaps Guiney meant something more like "Duck, duck, goose," a game that involves waiting to be chosen from a circle to pursue the chooser around the circle, hoping to catch that person before completing the circle. Or perhaps she is thinking of "Fox and Geese," a pursuit game in a circular path (often in snow) with two cross trails and a safe zone where the cross trails meet; the "fox" attempts to tag a goose, who then becomes the fox.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Annie Adams Fields
Friday morning [ 7 April 1899 ]*
Dearest Annie
How fast the week is going! You will be flitting back to town before we know it, but oh what lovely weather one sees these bright mornings that come shining into my room. I went out, too, yesterday to look about the garden, but I dont feel like doing much yet, very slow and of quite an inferior quality! I read Mon Frere Yves* again yesterday and our fortnight in Brittany has made it a new book and far
more beautiful. Mary* was full of affairs. She had Mary Boyd* back for a day to sweep & dust the other house and put the rugs and blankets out &c -- Katy* goes on delightfully well. I think you will like her results (of cooking!) very much. -- all kinds of nice bread and remarkable coffee, and as a whole most satisfactory to both of us. I forgot the blue waterproof at first but I sent it yesterday dear
with some white poppy seeds inside, we might give Alice Howe* a few if she happens along. She too has much luck with poppies. How Sandpiper* would have grown them -- bigger than any of us! I think of you very often dear, and how busy you must be by day. This sun will shine bright into your room. Do you sit there in the evening or does the furnace make it nice & warm in the little study? Stubby has reported
the sophomore dinner at the Vendome* as a great occasion. (on Tuesday evening last.). Mary sends love.* Yours always most lovingly.
Pinny.*
Katy befriends both Bobby & Timmy* & the cats from the stable! & becomes at once a General Favorite !!
Notes
7 April 1899: As the notes below indicate, Jewett writes on a Friday after the 1899 Harvard Sophomore Dinner, which traditionally took place at roughly mid-semester, e.g. April 5, 1898. If it took place the first Tuesday in April in 1899, that would have been April 4.
Mon Frere Yves: My Brother Yves (1883) "is a semi-autobiographical novel by French author Pierre Loti [1850-1923]. It describes the friendship between French naval officer Pierre Loti and a hard drinking Breton sailor Yves Kermadec during the 1870s and 80s. It was probably Loti's best-known book, and its descriptions of Breton seafaring life, on board ship and on shore, set the tone for his later acclaimed work, An Iceland Fisherman (1886)."
Jewett and Fields most recent trip to Europe was in the spring - autumn of 1898.
Mary: Jewett's sister, Mary Rice Jewett. See Key to Correspondents.
Mary Boyd: Mary Ann Boyd is mentioned in other letters as early as 1897; this letter makes clear that she did housekeeping work for the Jewetts. Except for the fact that there were Boyds living in South Berwick at this time, no details about this Mary Boyd have been located.
Katy: Katy Galvin, a newly arrived Jewett family employee. See Key to Correspondents.
Alice Howe: Alice Greenwood (Mrs. George Dudley) Howe. See Key to Correspondents.
Sandpiper: A nickname for Celia Thaxter, who died in 1894. See Key to Correspondents.
Stubby ... Sophomore dinner .. Vendome: Stubby is the Jewett sisters' nephew, Theodore. His sophomore year at Harvard was 1898-9. See Key to Correspondents.
The Hotel Vendome (1871) was a luxury hotel on Commonwealth St. in Boston.
The 1898 Harvard Sophomore Dinner was held on Tuesday April 5, at 7 p. m: "Tickets will be $2.00 and no dress suits will be worn." No information has been located about the 1899 dinner.
Mary: This Mary is Mary Rice Jewett.
Pinny: One of the nicknames Annie and Sarah use for Sarah.
Bobby & Timmy: Timmy is a Jewett family dog. In Sarah Orne Jewett to Annie Adams Fields Monday morning. [Before September 1902], Jewett reports the death of Bobby, a pet bird.
The manuscript of this letter is held in Jewett, Sarah Orne, 1849-1909. 40 letters to Annie (Adams) Fields (no date). Sarah Orne Jewett additional correspondence, 1868-1930. MS Am 1743.1 (117). Houghton Library, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to the Castilian Club
South Berwick, Maine
[ End letterhead ]
Mifs Sarah O Jewett
regrets that she must decline The Castilian Club's* very kind invitation for Friday April twenty-first owing to absence from town{.}
148 Charles Street
April Seventh
Notes
7 April 1899: Between 1883 and Jewett's death, 21 April fell on Friday in 1893, 1899, and 1905.
In 1899, Jewett was in South Berwick on 21 April. In 1893, it appears likely Jewett was at 148 Charles Street on 21 April. At this time, little is known of Jewett's movements in April of 1905. However, it appears that she and her sister both were suffering ill health in South Berwick in early April.
Castilian Club's: The Castilian Club of Boston apparently was a women's study club, presumably focusing on Spanish language and culture studies. Historical Dictionary of Women's Education in the United States (1998), p. 485, suggests that this was among the women's education clubs that focused its attention on the topic suggested by its name, and therefore, different from more general and wide-ranging study clubs. The club's interest in Jewett, therefore, would seem somewhat puzzling. Almost certainly she was acquainted with some club members in the Boston and Cambridge area. Perhaps their invitation to attend or perhaps speak resulted from her 1890 Harper's Magazine story, "Jim's Little Woman," in which the Spanish history and culture of its setting in St. Augustine, FL were important elements.
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Annie Adams Fields to Robert Underwood Johnson
1899 --
Dear Mr. Johnson:
It does seem as if the two engravings* were from one original. My first impulse is to ask the Mefsrs Harper, my second to ask Mr. Cross. Perhaps Mr. Stodart if he can be discovered. What about Mr. Tietze too --
Well! you see I have no methods of discovery to [ suggest corrected ] which are not at your own finger's end. It must I should say be the same picture and I am sorry to feel that you get a better idea of the shape of her face and carriage of the head on [ Stodart's ? ] picture{.}
Sir
^(yes -- it is i the Life & Letters.^
Stodart may have combined the earlier and the later woman, because his picture looks more mature than Tietze's.
I have been carefully revising the proof, cutting out one paragraph near the beginning and adding one at the end. I hope it will read better for this treatment --
Mifs Jewett is still in town
and better than she was during the cold weather. We came within an ace of foreswearing Boston during the winter. She sends her friendliness with mine to you both
Annie Fields
engravings: Fields and Johnson are dealing with details regarding illustration for her article, "George Eliot," which appeared in Century in July 1899, pp. 442-6. The portrait of Eliot that finally appeared was by the Swiss artist François D'Albert Durade (1804-1886), which belongs to London's National Portrait Gallery. This is likely the painting that Fields attributes to Sir Frederic Burton (1816-1900), who is not known to have painted a portrait of Eliot. G. J. Stodart produced an engraving from this portrait, which appears in volume 2 of George Eliot's Life, arranged and edited by J. W. Cross, and published by Harper & Brothers (1885).
the: Fields has underlined this word twice.
Jewett: Sarah Orne Jewett. See Key to Correspondents.
The manuscript of this letter is held by The New York Public Library, Archives & Manuscripts, Century Company records 1870-1930s, Series I. General Correspondence 1870-1930, b. 33, Fields, Annie 1886-1912. http://archives.nypl.org/mss/504#detailed.
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Annie Trumbull Slosson to Sarah Orne Jewett
April 12/99
I was just leaving Miami when your package and letter came. Thank you so much for writing in the Firs and for your Easter gift.* I had read all the stories before
but I went through them all again with fresh delight, sat up all night with Aunt Tempy's watchers, saw the white heron on her nest and assisted at the courting of sister Wisby. I love your writings. I wish I might see and talk with you. Perhaps you wouldn't like me. Do you know that I'm old and wear caps & I was sixty on
my last birthday! You [ are ? ] a young [ snip ? ] beside me. But you've got fac'lty and I have not. I am so sorry you have had a hard winter. But spring is almost here, even in New England and and you will come up like the violets. Mr Warner* spent a week with us at Miami. We talked of you. We hoped someone would send the Queen's Twin* to dear old [ Vic ?]. I own
[ Page 4 ]
frankly I did not see the patriotic [ p'int ? ] to that dear sketch. The [ drama ? ] appealed to me, I cannot tell you how strangely, and the meeting of Mrs. Todd again [ chirked ? ] me up amazin'.
No thank you, I've not been writing this winter, except for some natural history papers (you know I'm a bug crank).
Well, I had better stop. There are lots of things I want to say and ask but I'll wait.
[ Up the top left corner of page 1 ]
Thank you too for the picture. 'Tis delightful to have it.
Notes
gift: It appears that in addition to a signed copy of The Country of the Pointed Firs (1896), Jewett seems to have sent Tales of New England (1890). The latter contains: "Miss Tempy's Watchers," "A White Heron," and "The Courting of Sister Wisby."
See Slosson to Jewett of 4 March 1899.
Warner: This transcription is uncertain, but probably Slosson refers to Jewett correspondent, Charles Dudley Warner. Key to Correspondents.
Queen's Twin: Jewett's collection, The Queen's Twin, appeared in 1899, but not in time for Slosson to refer to it here. Probably, then, she refers to the first publication of the short story of that title in Atlantic Monthly, February 1899.
"Old Vic" presumably refers to Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom (1819-1901), who was the "queen" of the story's title.
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.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Alice Dunlap Gilman
[ 20 April 1899 ]*
Maine.
Dear Cousin Alice
I must say a word myself, in spite of Mary's* having told you what delights we are taking in your beautiful pinks, for they seem to grow bigger and* brighter every hour. And I want to thank Lizzie and Mary* too; the candy is better than ever: (such a wealth of
butternuts, Lizzie !) We shall be enjoying our boxes, and politely offering exchanges for a good while. I do hope that you will keep well, dear Cousin Alice, and get out as much as you can when the weather is all right. With love and thanks to you and the dear candy makers --
Their loving cousin and yours
Notes
1899: Exact as it is, this date is quite tentative. This letter seems likely to have been written at about the same time as Jewett to Elizabeth Jervis Gilman of 22 April 1899. However, the letter to Elizabeth Gilman was dated by Richard Cary, who offers no rationale. I defer to his closeness to the materials, and I hazard that the butternuts in this letter are the same as those mentioned on 22 April.
Mary's: Mary Rice Jewett. See Key to Correspondents.
and: In this letter, Jewett sometimes writes "a" with a long tail for "and." I have rendered all as "and."
Lizzie and Mary: Elizabeth Jervis and Mary G. Gilman. See Key to Correspondents.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the George J. Mitchell Department of Special Collections & Archives, Hawthorne-Longfellow Library, Brunswick, ME, Sarah Orne Jewett Papers, Series 1 (M238.1): Correspondence, 1877-1905, n.d.
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Annie Adams Fields
[ April 1899 ]*
Dearest Annie
Thank you for such a dear little letter yesterday. I [ kept corrected ] it in my heart ever since and you would see by my morning note and Katy's* messages how much we were thinking of you! Yes, we must see what will be best -- Theodore will be here for a week yet, and "Russell" is coming as I said so Mary* will not think of leaving though she was much pleased by your message about it. I get on so much
[ Page 3 ]
I send you a great budget of letters for you know best what you care to keep. I never say a word about that fine straightforward most excellent tribute to your book from Charlie [ unrecognized marks, possibly including a comma] old friend -- be sure to keep it -- And I was rebuked for my presumptions about the [ twinnies ? ] maid, when my eye fell upon Mrs. Bell's* note -- I wish we could have
[ Page 4 ]
just [ two or three blotted and unrecognized words ] person between [ blotted and unrecognized word (I paying half of [ it ? ] ) for the winter! Fuff will think that's a high flight indeed -- but you are so much more than I, and I got a buzzing bee in my bonnet not remembering just what was said. Fuff to make the best of a poor old meddling Pinny!* but I should so like to have just the right person for you to make things easy, ^ [ unrecognized words ]^ But I didn't mean to write [ hard words ? ] this morning -- but to write [ other letters ? ]. I cant seem to get [ on ? ] with them at all! [ Your Pin ? ]
Notes
April 1899: This tentative date is based upon Jewett reporting in a letter to Elizabeth Jervis Gilman of 22 April 1899 that Russell Greeley is spending spring vacation with Theodore Jewett Eastman in South Berwick. Richard Cary has dated that letter, and his rationale is not known. However, that date must be close, as it falls during Theodore Eastman's years at Harvard. See notes below.
Katy's: Probably Catherine Drinan. SeeKey to Correspondents .
Theodore ... "Russell" ... Mary: Theodore Jewett Eastman and Mary Rice Jewett. SeeKey to Correspondents .
Russell Hubbard Greeley (1878-1956) was a classmate of Theodore Eastman at Harvard College. The Third Catalog of the Signet (1903) shows that Greeley was living in Boston soon after his 1901 graduation, where he was studying painting, and notes that while at Harvard, he was editor of the Lampoon (p. 79). He studied at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston School, where he won two student prizes in 1905. He is listed among the members of the Tavern Club of Boston in 1904.
Fuffy ... Margaret: Fuffy/Fuff, a nickname for Fields. SeeKey to Correspondents .
Margaret was Fields's maid.
tribute to your book from Charlie: Almost certainly, Charlie is Charles Ashburton Gilman (1859-1938), a favorite Jewett relative. SeeKey to Correspondents .
If the letter is dated correctly, "Charlie" probably has been praising Fields's Nathaniel Hawthorne (1899).
twinnies ... Mrs. Bell's: Jewett sometimes refers to the sisters (who were not twins) as "the Twins," Helen Olcott Choate Bell and Miriam Foster Choate Pratt. SeeKey to Correspondents .
Pinny: Pinny Lawson, a nickname for Jewett. SeeKey to Correspondents .
Brother Robert's: Robert Collyer. SeeKey to Correspondents
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Huntington Library, San Marino, CA, in the James T. Fields papers: mss FL 5556. 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 Elizabeth Jervis Gilman
[ 22 April 1899 ]*
South Berwick, Maine
[ End letterhead ]
Dear Lizzie:
You can't think how
I am enjoying the butternuts! I have had a great feast,
especially the day after they came -- Wednesday morning -- when
I was busy in the garden and kept a deposit with
a useful hammer on the stone carriage-block where I returned
every little while to crack a few and enjoy a season of rest!!
Gardening takes hold of a person
in the early days of the season -- and I wish that I could
always have butternuts to see me through! You
were so kind to remember my love for them, and* I thank you very
much. I have meant to write each day but I have been out
of doors more than usual and Theodore is at home this week for
his vacation, and has his friend Russell Greeley* with him. They
go back tomorrow and are enjoying every minute, it seems to me.
Everybody
belonging to this family looks a little sunburnt. . . We are
so glad to have a card from dear Cousin Alice* now and then; the
water is a blessing at any rate, but I [ bless corrected]
it beside for bringing us a word from her. It makes me so happy
to think that she feels a little stronger this spring, but dont
let her do too much in the garden
(unless you have saved out a few butternuts to stay her;
I do find them so* efficacious!). We are not doing
anything very new
this year but you know, Cousin Alice knows, that there are
always gaps to fill, and transplantings to do after the long
winter. Mary is very well and busy; we mean to spend a few days
in Boston next week.
With my thanks again, dear Liddy,
and love to you and all the family, especially your mother, I am
Your very affectionate
cousin,
Sarah
Notes
1899: This date was assigned by Richard Cary. His rationale is not known.
and: Jewett sometimes writes "a" with a long tail for "and." I have rendered these as "and."
Greeley: Richard Cary identified Russell Hubbard Greeley (1878-1956), a classmate of Theodore Eastman at Harvard College. Eastman is Jewett's nephew. See Key to Correspondents.
The Third Catalog of the Signet (1903) shows that Greeley was living in Boston soon after his 1901 graduation, where he was studying painting, and notes that while at Harvard, he was editor of the Lampoon (p. 79). He studied at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston School, where he won two student prizes in 1905. He is listed among the members of the Tavern Club of Boston in 1904.
Cousin Alice: For fuller information about Alice Dunlap Gilman and other members of the Gilman family mentioned in this letter, and about Jewett's sister, Mary, see Key to Correspondents.
Richard Cary says: "The Paradise Spring bottling company was one of the schemes of Charles Jervis Gilman to restore his fortune. The spring ran through a tract originally granted to the Dunlap family, on the road to Bath about a mile from Brunswick. The naturally filtered water, although excellent, never managed to replace the Poland Spring brand in popular favor. Miss Jewett was an habitual user of curative waters."
so: Jewett has underlined this word twice.
A previous transcription of this letter appears in Richard
Cary's Sarah Orne Jewett Letters; the ms. is held by the
Sarah Orne Jewett Papers, George J. Mitchell Department of
Special Collections and Archives, Bowdoin College Library.
New transcription and notes by Terry Heller,
Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Annie Russell Marble
24 April 1899
My dear Mrs Marble
As far as I have any right in the volumes of Mrs Thaxters poems which I edited,* I am only too glad to have you reprint anything that you choose. I am sure that the publishers will make no objections, especially for such a delightful collection*
as you seem to have in mind.
I send you my best wishes for its success; I should have answered your note sooner but I have been ill.
S. O. Jewett
Notes
Thaxters poems: After the death of her close friend, Jewett participated in bringing out two collections of Celia Thaxter's poems, writing introductions for Stories and Poems for Children (1895) and The Poems of Celia Thaxter (1896). See Celia Thaxter in Key to Correspondents.
delightful collection: Almost certainly, Jewett refers to Nature Pictures by American Poets (1899), edited by Annie Russell Marble. Marble included in this collection Thaxter's "The Song-Sparrow" (pp. 77-8). This poem had appeared in The Poems of Celia Thaxter (pp. 57-9).
The manuscript of this letter is held by the American Antiquarian Society, Worcester, MA in Marble, Annie Russell, Correspondence, 1888-1929 Location: Misc. Mss, Boxes ‘EM.” Transcribed and annotated by Terry Heller. Coe College.
Harriet Goodhue Hosmer to Sarah Orne Jewett
Cambridge
May 2nd [ 1899 ]*
Many thanks for the Card connected with the [ unrecognized word ] Exhibition which [ courtesy ? ] should have been sooner acknowledged.
I have been reading with great interest and pleasure your story
of the Queen's Twin.* So [ unrecognized word touching ? ] and original. I am writing something about the Brownings* -- at the [ request ? ] of Mr. Thompson of the Youth's Companion* -- and when the article sees the light, I hope it will give you as much pleasure as the Queen's Twin has given me. I am, dear Miss Jewett, truly [ yrs ? ]
1899: Jewett's "The Queen's Twin" appeared in Atlantic Monthly in February 1899. Hosmer's "Recollections of the Brownings" appeared in The Youth's Companion on 15 November 1900. While it possible that Hosmer wrote in 1900, it is unlikely that Jewett wrote her in the spring of 1900, because she was then traveling in Europe. For this reason, 1899 seems the more likely date.
It is possible that Hosmer wrote this letter in 1899, but 1900 seems somewhat more probable.
Companion: Charles Miner Thompson. Key to Correspondents.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Miller Library, Special Collections, Colby College, Waterville, ME: JEWE.1. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Annie Adams Fields
Saturday morning [ 6 May 1899 ]*
Dearest Annie
I hope that you had a good day in town, and oh how I wish that I were bustling away among the things that ought to be done in Manchester! I wonder if I could send you any pieces for covers or help you in any way? Mary* sent little supplies for the garden yesterday fearing that the mint on the cistern top might all have been run off into the grass. She thought you would like the forgetmenots too. They will do just as well
where it is a little shady. I felt better last night and waked up feeling more alive and in much less pain "through me" -- Yesterday I felt pretty poor all day long and so tired if I heard any body talking and all that -- but I think it must have been the last day of that kind for this morning seems quite different. I have been very careful just as I promised, and I haven't seen or spoken to any body outside the household since
pleasure in certain places that I found at ten! I still think that she wrote it, [most corrected] of it at her very best height. I [wish corrected] as I have long wished, to go to Orr's Island again. [It corrected] is a lovely corner of the earth -- [line under the dash] Somewhere[.] Speaking of a change of religion from Catholic to Protestant, she says that [when written over a letter] [one corrected] breaks the cup one is is apt to spill the sacred wine -- it all touches of human nature and of the outer earth are of her best in the book. The two heroines most lovely especially "Sally
[14 circled in lower left corner of page 4]
Kittredge'* -- You see I cannot help talking about the story still!
I hope you will have a good day tomorrow, perhaps a walk, and to think of Pinny* if you please. I am so glad you like the Browning letters.* I am more in an Orr's Island mood, as you see, and perhaps you would [add ?] that such is generally the case with Miss P. L.
News came yesterday that Susy Woodbury's sister* had [died corrected] -- younger than she and leaving little twin girls
a year or two old. She had married a young doctor & lived in [Wollaston corrected]. Susy was here & Mary went to see her. The old father is much broken, and I am afraid this will bring an untimely burden upon Mrs. Oakes. -- Remember me to Maggie & Cassie* and now I shall leave the other page because it may be useful!
With dearest love
Pin
Notes
6 May 1899: This is the Saturday following the death of Katrina Oakes Adams reported in this letter. See notes below.
Mary: Mary Rice Jewett. See Correspondents.
Becca: Becca very likely is Rebecca Young (1847-1927). In Sarah Orne Jewett: her World and her Work (2002), Paula Blanchard says: "Rebecca Young, who lived a few doors from the Jewetts, was an old classmate of the [Jewett] sisters from the days of Miss Raynes's school and Berwick Academy and an intimate friend of both Mary and Carrie. She was for many years treasurer of the South Berwick Savings Bank" (p. 203). She was riding with Sarah Orne Jewett on 3 September 1902, when a stumbling horse threw both of them from the carriage.
The Pearl of Orr's Island ... The Spanish Episode ... Sally Kittredge: Sally Kittredge and Mara Lincoln are the protagonists of Harriet Beecher Stowe's novel, The Pearl of Orr's Island (1866). Presumably, the Spanish episode refers to Chapter 9 of the novel, which consists mainly of a letter that tells the story of Dolores, daughter of Don Jose Mendoza, a Spanish gentleman who becomes a slave-owning planter in Florida.
Pinny: one of Jewett's nicknames.
Browning letters: Two main volumes of "Browning" letters were available to Jewett and Fields, The letters of Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett Barrett, 1845-1846 (1889) and Life and letters of Robert Browning (1891) by Sutherland Orr.
Susy Woodbury's sister: Katrina M. "Kathrine" Oakes Adams (1867 - 4 May 1899) was the younger sister of Susan Marcia Oakes Woodbury. See Key to Correspondents. Katrina married Dr. Charles Sumner Adams on October 18, 1894 in South Berwick, ME. Their twin daughters, Catherine and Marcia, were born April 8, 1896. Katrina died in South Berwick, and is buried in the Portland Street Cemetery. Katrina and Susy's father was Abner Oakes (1820 - 2 September 1899), a well-known local judge.
That Jewett says Katrina and her family lived at Wollaston, MA is somewhat mysterious, as they seemed to be living in South Berwick at the time of her death.
Maggie & Cassie: Fields employees. Cassie may be a cook, as suggested in a letter to Carrie Jewett Eastman of 8 September 1895. Maggie is sometimes called Margaret. No further identification has been found.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. Jewett, Sarah Orne, 1849-1909. 40 letters to Annie (Adams) Fields (no date). Sarah Orne Jewett additional correspondence, 1868-1930. MS Am 1743.1 (117). Transcribed and annotated by Terry Heller, Coe College.
George Bainton to Sarah Orne Jewett
COVENTRY
[ End letterhead ]
May 26th 89
Dear Madam,
I am wanting to address some young people, in response to their request, by way of a lecture upon the act of composition, & the means essential to form a forcible & interesting style of [ expression ? ]. I have thought that the only way by which I could add any considerable interest & usefulness to an evening's pleasant intercourse upon such a topic would be to secure, if at all possible, a personal [ testimony ? ] of one or more of our most skilful
writers. I have all the help I need from authors at home, & I am now very anxious to secure the [ like ? ] aid from a favorite author beyond the Atlantic.
To this end I have taken the very great liberty to write to you & solicit your generous cooperation. Believing that example is always better than precepts, may I be permitted to ask if in early life you gave yourself to any special training with a view to the formation of style, or what influences best [ guided ? ] you in preparing for & finding your life-work as an author, & also whether
you can give us any information of your own methods that would [ aid us ? ] [ unrecognized word ], in some degree at least, the secret of your own great power in the use of clear & forcible English.
I write to you because your books are cherished friends of my own, delightful companions which give me more pleasure than I can well say, & also because I feel in [ getting ? ] such a [ fame ? ] that you must be so accustomed to people feeling attached to you by reason of your charming stories that you will readily forgive
the request even if you cannot grant it.
If I am giving you any trouble or ignorantly making an undue demand on your time, pray forgive me. But, shall you find yourself able to do me the kind service asked I can assure you of the gratitude of many beside myself.
Faithfully & respectfully yours
George Bainton.
To
Miss S. O. Jewett
P.S. I must apologize for the seeming discourtesy in asking a favor without enclosing { a } stamped envelope for reply. But I have [ tried ? ] every considerable source here, & cannot lay my hand upon an American stamp.
Notes
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library of Harvard University: Sarah Orne Jewett Correspondence I, Letters to Sarah Orne Jewett.
Bainton, George. 2 letters; 1888-1889, bMS Am 1743 (15).
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 Annie Adams Fields
Saturday morning [ 27 May 1899 ]*
Your paper about Glass Decoration* is beautiful dear! beautifully thought and delightfully well done. I got it just too late to read it, and say so in this morning's letter. I am sure that dear S. W.* will like it, and that so many will agree in what a Partial Pinny* now says.
-- It seems like a Midsummer day and the house is pleasanter for the first time this year with the blinds shut. I suppose that this good breeze comes off the water at Manchester, but it is [is repeated] both
hot and bright -- I am not going out until later in the afternoon.
-- Do you remember remember that Tuesday is Decoration Day?* I was afraid that you might be counting on doing things in town that you cant do. Somehow the day seems more serious [than corrected] ever, and more and more it comes to be like All Saints Day abroad, a day of remembering those who are gone.
-- I had the most friendly letter this morning from Mrs. Crafts asking me to come to Ridgefield* to make
a visit long of S. W.* on the 13th of June & said she was going to ask Mrs. Wister.* How I should fly! ---- but as I read the [ letter corrected ] it seemed quite impossible. Still it is more than a fortnight and I can't stay always in this incompetent state. I shall think tomorrow and write at night or Monday. Perhaps by that time & after I have had a week at Manchester or some days, it would be a good thing -- I could go from there & come back which would make it easier.
But how Kind of her!
And oh, your letter was so dear
This is only a word between times but I send you much love dear --
S. O. J.
I am afraid that these lilacs will all be gone by the time you come -- They are in full bloom today to the least tips of the plumes --
[ M circled in another hand, bottom left of page 4]
Notes
paper about Glass Decoration: Annie Fields's "Notes on Glass Decoration" appeared in The Atlantic Monthly 83, Issue: 500, June 1899, pp. 807-812. The article included discussion of the work of Sarah Wyman Whitman. See Key to Correspondents.
S. W.: Sarah Wyman Whitman. See Key to Correspondents.
Tuesday is Decoration Day: Now called Memorial Day in the United States, Decoration Day fell on May 30, a Tuesday in 1899. Decoration Day was a day of remembrance for American war dead, and in 1899, attention tended still to focus on the Civil War dead, though the Spanish-American War also was on Americans' minds.
All Saints Day: The Roman Catholic Feast of all Saints falls on 1 November.
Mrs. Crafts ... Ridgefield: James Mason Crafts (1839-1917), an American chemist, taught and worked at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. and in 1899 was serving as president of MIT. In 1868, he married Clemence Haggerty (1841-1912), who is very likely the Mrs. Crafts Jewett refers to. The Crafts had a summer home in Ridgefield, CT.
Mrs. Wister: Mary Channing (Mrs. Owen) Wister. See Key to Correspondents.
old Margarets letter: Jewett and Fields knew several women named Margaret. Which may be referred to here is unknown.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. Jewett, Sarah Orne, 1849-1909. 40 letters to Annie (Adams) Fields (no date). Sarah Orne Jewett additional correspondence, 1868-1930. MS Am 1743.1 (117). Transcribed and annotated by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Annie Adams Fields
Monday Morning
[29th corrected] May [ 1899 ]
Dearest Annie
Oh how good it was to hear the soft rain coming down on the thin leaves and dry grass last Saturday night! -- we were very thirsty in this piece of country -- but I am afraid that you & Sister Sarah* had to be housed more than you liked. However, you & she had a good taste of salt air and that is a first rate tonic. I have not written to Mrs. Crafts* yet, as waiting until today would only make my letter
one day later -- not two: and the more I think it it, the more I [see corrected] that it would be almost too much to do. If it were hot weather which is likely, I should be ^too^ much tired when I got there -- And I feel as if it were [very corrected] uncertain that dear S.W.* could go -- in a week so close both to moving to the Shore and to the Radcliffe Commencement* -- If only you were here to
indeed within two weeks. Perhaps I shall hear from S.W. this morning.
= No. No letters except odds & ends, and one from Therese* which I shall send in my next letter. Mary* would like to read it. No: you shall have it & send it back to me for her. It has a very dear tone. I feel as if I had been with dear Thérèse at her quietest and sweetest minute -- Here is Mrs. Craft's letter too which I know you will like. Goodbye
darling Fuff,* and dont get cold now that it is cool weather.
says your most loving
Pinny
[13 circled at bottom left corner of page 3]
Notes
Sister Sarah: Presumably this is Annie Fields's sister, Sarah Holland Adams (1823-1916).
Mrs. Crafts: James Mason Crafts (1839-1917), an American chemist, taught and worked at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. and in 1899 was serving as president of MIT. In 1868, he married Clemence Haggerty (1841-1912), who is very likely the Mrs. Crafts Jewett refers to. The Crafts had a summer home in Ridgefield, CT.
Radcliffe Commencement: Radcliffe College's Class Day was 21 June 1899, followed by commencement on 27 June. Elizabeth Cary Agassiz (1822-1907) gave the address, which is included in the report in the Harvard Graduates’ Magazine 8, no. 29 (Sept. 1899): 65-70. This report indicates that S. W., Sarah Wyman Whitman (see Key to Correspondents), was present for Class Day. Whitman and her husband, Henry, both were guests at the 27 June commencement dinner, where Henry gave a presentation, "Style in Art" (p. 73).
P.L.: Pinny Lawson, one of Jewett's nicknames.
Therese: Marie Thérèse de Solms Blanc. See Key to Correspondents.
Mary: Mary Rice Jewett. See Correspondents.
Fuff: One of Annie Fields' nicknames.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. Jewett, Sarah Orne, 1849-1909. 40 letters to Annie (Adams) Fields (no date). Sarah Orne Jewett additional correspondence, 1868-1930. MS Am 1743.1 (117). Transcribed and annotated by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Thomas Bailey Aldrich to Sarah Orne Jewett
May 29 ' ' 1899
Dear Sadie:*
Your sweet word of welcome was waiting for us when we arrived home on Saturday night -- the news-papers lied about us as usual. We reached N.Y. on the 27''. I have so much to tell you that my pen is all balled up. We are well
and glad to get back, and want to see you. What a lovely world! and what lovely people are in it! You among the rest. Never in my life will I say to you "Nobody loves you."
All my little tribe sends love & remembrances.
T.B.A.
Notes
Sadie: Aldrich uses his affectionate nickname, "Sadie Martinot." 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. bMS Am 1743 (4).
This transcription is from a photocopy held by the Maine Women Writer's Collection, University of New England, Box 2, Folder 99, Burton Trafton Jewett Research Collection.
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Wyman Whitman to Sarah Orne Jewett
Darling, you will know that I must be a prey to the awfulness of Things, when it is so long since I have put one these disgraceful pencil words on paper to S. O. J. But I will only allude to this & pass on -- telling [ instead ? ] of my gratitude for your message to me, [ unworthy ? ] -- in which I see you are better, but not well enough, alas: and which will sadly disappoint dear [ unrecognized word ].
For me also the possibility has wholly vanished. I had supposed that Mr. Whitman would make his trip to the fishing ground as planned = but he has changed his mind & goes not. So I could go at no time this summer so far as [ I see ? ]: alas. ------
But how ^can^
2
working out of great moral forces? After the Outrage* -- after 6 years -- after the terrible [ unrecognized word ] of a Nature informed and debauched by a [ fetish ? ] of Party -- after the despair of the friends of justice ---- comes slowly up this way the impact of the world's moral force! Once more "un long air d'espérance a traversée la terre," and the lonely prisoner will at last be judged by a just man. ----- Ah it is a [ unrecognized word ] consolation in this week of the President's act* of open corruption: & when we are all so bruised & [ torn ? ] from the year's undoings & misdoings --
I write straightway to E. Law-
3
rence,* for she has not missed a point I believe, in the whole Dreyfus Case -- and she is rosy with happiness today I know. ----
I am writing in a train for Walpole where I keep a long-ago promise of a visit to Fanny [ Mann ? ], by going to to spend tonight -- But, when I return I shall ^have^ had a holiday not to be measured by hours, but by the extent & variety of my emotions: & counting those already experienced I promise that I shall have made a long sojourn at Fanny's! and may be obliged to write further concerning the world of Nature & of Human nature.
O how dear is A.F's "Notes"*
4
in the new Atlantic! It makes me quite drunk -- [ I or & ] when I wrote her a letter could only murmur thank you. I am indeed becoming an adept in silence and finding that the "vocation wanting" which I had taken for a form of [ manners ? ] is a mode of life.
Sw
A most important P.S. It may be that Elizabeth Franklin* & father will spend their summer at Shady Hill !!! Think of him embroidering on that piazza.*
Notes
June 1899: The main support for this date is Whitman's reference to Fields's essay on stained glass that appeared in Atlantic Monthly in June 1899. The choice is corroborated by a major development in the Dreyfus Affair. See notes below.
Outrage: As Whitman says on p. 3, she refers to the Dreyfus Case. In 1894, the French officer Captain Alfred Dreyfus (1859-1935) was tried and convicted of treason, but not long after, evidence began to emerge suggesting and eventually proving his innocence. Through multiple scandals and retrials until 1906, when he was finally exonerated, his case became an international cause célèbre. In June 1899 began a second trial. Though Whitman hopes it will be fair, it too took place in the midst of social and political chaos in France and ended a few months later in a second conviction. Wikipedia.
President's act: It is not yet known precisely which of President William McKinley's actions has so offended Whitman. During the spring of 1899, there was public anger over the performance of Secretary of War Russell Alger (1836-1907), particularly during the recent Spanish-American War. In the early summer, McKinley (1843-1901) was defending his friend amidst calls to replace him.
Lawrence: Elizabeth Chapman Lawrence (1829-1905), one of Whitman's correspondents.
Fanny Mann: This person has not yet been identified.
A.F's "Notes": Annie Adams Fields. Key to Correspondents.
Her article, "Notes on Glass Decoration," appeared in Atlantic Monthly, June 1899.
Elizabeth Franklin & father: Elizabeth Franklin was a member of the Bible class Whitman taught at Trinity Church in Boston. See Letters of Sarah Wyman Whitman (1907).
piazza: After this word, Whitman has drawn a long wavy line from the right margin nearly to the left and back again.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library of Harvard University, Cambridge, MA. bMS Am 1743 Box 5, Item 234.
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to John Thaxter
South Berwick, Maine
June 5, 1899
Dear Mr. Thaxter:
I shall take great pleasure in reading
your story and in helping you in any way that I can about it. I
don't hesitate to say, however, that from long experience I have
only got a more complete assurance that 'pulls' do not count: a
good story is its own best pull!
Please let me have the manuscript as
soon as you can. It will come in just the right time for
I
am
in
the
last
week
or
two of idleness after a long illness, and presently I must turn
to my own writing again.
With kindest remembrance to you and
your wife,1 believe me ever
Yours sincerely,
S. O. Jewett
Notes
See Richard Cary. "Jewett on Writing Short Stories." Colby
Library
Quarterly 10 (June 1964): 425-440.
1 In 1887 Thaxter married
Mary Gertrude Stoddard (1858-1951) of Worcester, Massachusetts,
mistress of the house at the time of this letter.
This letter was edited and annotated by Richard Cary in Sarah Orne Jewett Letters; the ms. is held by Colby College Special Collections, Waterville, Maine.
Sarah Orne Jewett to John Thaxter
Manchester, Massachusetts
June 11, [1899]
Dear Mr. Thaxter:
Your note and the story reached me
here, and I have been eager to write you sooner but I was
prevented yesterday. I wish that we could have a long talk for
there are many things that I should find it much easier to say
than to write. I think that the story has many fine qualities
but it seems to me to fail in construction. You introduce your
characters in an interesting way always, but there are too many
of them for the length of the story and, if I may speak plainly,
too many starts which do not come to sufficient
importance. There is the really delightful, spirited beginning
in which you make one deeply interested in the old house, the
Doctor and his family, and the Scotch dependents, (your
landscape and especially your descriptions are beautifully done)
but
afterward
you
keep
making
new
claims
upon the reader's attention and interest: there is the castaway
and his mysterious history, then his relation to the little
girl; then one must follow her career; then his as an inventor;
then there are divergences into his past history etc., from all
of which one expects more satisfaction, or some final results,
and at the last you do not completely relate his shadowed fame,
and his record as Deserter, to the story, that is, you bring it
in too lightly and casually -- I do not like the letter being
lost!! And the whole sketch is confused and bewildering and even
improbable, as if one saw a beautiful, quiet piece of landscape
painting with its figures hastily done, and crowded and even
puzzling to the eye. I cannot praise enough the pictures of
nature, the keen observation of sea and shore. I think that you
have tried to do a very difficult thing in your plot,
and that it would be a great wonder if you had quite succeeded.
I wish that you would try something
that does not aim so much at incidents. Take a simpler history
of life: that very doctor who goes to help some lonely
neighbour, and finds himself close to one of the tragedies or
comedies of rustic life. Try to give his own life with its
disappointments, his growth of sympathy etc in that lonely
place. You could make a series of short sketches of him and his
casual patients, his walks or rides to the lonely farms and
homes along shore in winter nights and summer dawns, and find
yourself following out his character in interesting ways. Just
write things that you know and have done.
This piece of work interests me
a good deal. I find such an interesting inheritance in it here
and there of some of your mother's gifts of saying things, and I
also find things that are wholly your own and which make me urge
you to go on.
I think that you could easily get
this story printed, but not in just the places where I should
like to have you start, and besides there is too much really
good material to make light of. I somehow wish to simplify it,
to have you think about it again and see if you agree with what
I have said. And don't go to work at it for some time, but try
what you can do with the doctor -- defeated, invalided, isolated
in the strange old house. Write some real thing
about his being knocked for some summer night and going to see a
patient, and coming home again. Don't write a 'story' but just tell
the
thing! I am afraid that I am disappointing you, but I know
you will like it best if I write frankly.1
Mrs. Fields is not here just now, but I
know she would wish to have me send a very kind message to you.
We were both much pained to hear of your uncle Cedric's death. I
think of your uncle Oscar a great deal.2
Believe me ever
Yours most sincerely,
S. O. Jewett
Notes
1 No copy of this
story survived among his manuscripts. It is noteworthy that Miss
Jewett's remarks in these letters to Thaxter add up to a
declaration of her own principles of composition for the short
story and a remarkably close reflection of her own practices.
2 Mrs. Fields is Annie
Adams Fields. Cedric Laighton (1840-1899) and Oscar
Laighton (1839-1939) were brothers of Celia Thaxter (see Key
to Correspondents). They managed the Appledore House, a
resort hotel on the Isles of Shoals ten miles off the Maine
coast. Some of the guests over the years included Hawthorne,
Emerson, Holmes, Whittier, Lowell, Aldrich, Mrs. Stowe, and Miss
Jewett, as well as many eminences from the worlds of art, music,
theatre, science, and the university.
This letter was edited and annotated by Richard Cary in Sarah
Orne
Jewett Letters; the ms. is held by Colby College Special
Collections, Waterville, Maine.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Annie Adams Fields
[ 1899 ]*
She will be writing tomorrow
[ Page 2 ]
She told the same story about Coolidge* -- (that she didn't seem well) -- that you told me after seeing her at North East Harbor. I shall have to take Coolidge to Richfield next time: And think of her sending verses to Mr. Franklin!* I love to think of that, and likewise of the letters about the Celebration.*
Financial statements have not yet been made, but I shall just attend to that in person.
[ Page 3 ]
someday when I catch you, either by hand, or in some useful trap as the case may be.
[ i not capitalized ] am very idle and very busy all at the same time. Theodore* has gone to town, and all the fantail pigeons are walking the green grass in a masterless company. I saw them keeping low company with a common blue person who bobbed his head with the best, but had an air of victory at last -- there was nobody to forbid him the yard. This sight touched something in my heart -- and I knew that something
had been left behind beside the pigeons -- boyhood, as one may say for short, with all its solemn concerns and little important affairs.
-- I now read the History of Port-Royal by Sainte Beuve,* consecutively! and with a new impulse of interest. One sees where my great saint Fénelon* got his gallantry and not where he got his self-forgetfulness, and the gifts of a seer of character . . How some pages make one laugh and cry at once! but, my goodness! how Sainte Beuve does say things -- and open a window in what you took
to be a blank wall of a page! ---- How I wish I could see you dear -- but good night, and I send my love to you.
Notes
1899: Internal evidence suggests a composition date between 1897 and 1901: See notes below. This window for the date is based on Jewett's reflection that Theodore J. Eastman has outgrown his pigeon-raising hobby and the implication that he now is under the care of his aunts. A reasonable guess at the date is after the death of his mother, Caroline Jewett Eastman in 1897 and before his graduation from Harvard in 1901. I have tentatively placed it with letters of 1899.
Parenthesis marks on page 1 of this manuscript were penciled by Fields.
Ridgefield: James Mason Crafts (1839-1917), an American chemist, taught and worked at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. and in 1899 was serving as president of MIT. In 1868, he married Clemence Haggerty (1841-1912). The Crafts had a summer home in Ridgefield, CT.
Etta's: Among Jewett's acquaintance was Etta Dunham, the daughter of James Dunham of New York, and the subject of an 1895 portrait by John Singer Sargent.
AG.: This transcription is very uncertain. The "A" is clear, but though the second figure looks like a "G" it could be something else entirely. Among Jewett's acquaintance, this might refer to Alice Greenwood Howe, but that is only a guess.
Coolidge: When she uses this name, Jewett seems usually to mean Sarah Chauncey Woolsey, who wrote under the name of Susan Coolidge, but in this case, she may mean Katherine/Catherine Scollay Parkman Coolidge, who published a volume of poems, Voices, in 1899. See Key to Correspondents.
Mr. Franklin: Mr. Franklin has not been identified, though it would seem he is associated with a publisher, such as Little, Brown and Company, who published Katherine Coolidge's poems.
Celebration: It is not yet known to what celebration Jewett may refer. Perhaps she refers to a commencement or a class day. Other letters from spring of 1899 refer to Radcliffe College's Class Day on 21 June 1899, followed by commencement on 27 June and to Harvard's class day week, which began Harvard's Class Day Week on Sunday 18 June.
Theodore: Theodore Eastman Jewett. See Key to Correspondents.
History of Port-Royal by Sainte Beuve: French literary critic, Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve (1804-1869). Wikipedia says: "Port-Royal (1837-1859), probably Sainte-Beuve's masterpiece, is an exhaustive history of the Jansenist abbey of Port-Royal-des-Champs, near Paris."
Jewett's new interest in the history of Port Royal likely follows from her research for The Tory Lover (1901). Master Sullivan, a key historical figure in that novel, was educated there, as he explains in Chapter 17.
Jewett reports that she is currently reading Sainte-Beuve in a letter of 28 December 1896 to Louise Imogen Guiney.
Fénelon: Wikipedia says: "François de Salignac de la Mothe-Fénelon ..., more commonly known as François Fénelon (1651-1715), was a French Roman Catholic archbishop, theologian, poet and writer."
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 Adams Fields to Mary Rice Jewett
[ 1899 or later]*
Dear Mary:
I was very sorry for all your trouble, but I rejoice to think that tonight Theodore* will be at home who will help to make things right. I looked for you with little Timmy* in hand each evening, but from your not coming I began to think the trouble was virtually at an end. I suppose it was some ignorant man who was frightened about his child.
I could not believe my eyes when the yellow lilies came today close upon the lovely flowers of yesterday. They all came in perfect order. Sarah* drove down this afternoon with Mrs. Whitman. She is coming again when she will have
a quiet moment to enjoy the lilies fully I hope.
How good about the French! I wish I had as good a chance for we are getting a little French color here this season and I am not proud of my rusty tongue.
Give my true and best regard to Katie* -- and my love. She is a dear soul.
And now, good night dear Mary. Tell Tim
I shall go to Mrs. Cabots* to luncheon on Friday and I hope on the 10th Sarah will be on the wing once more.
Affectionately yours
Annie Fields
I can seem to see the garden. How beautiful the flowers are. By the way did your [Chorca Panglas]* come up. I have to plant
now and can give you more seeds another year.
The vine is "Lophospermum scandens"* which means nothing [unrecognized, perhaps deleted word ] nor
can I find it in Gray*
Notes
Theodore: Theodore Jewett Eastman. See Key to Correspondents.
Timmy: A Jewett family dog. Details of this incident remain unknown.
Sarah: Sarah Orne Jewett. See Key to Correspondents.
Katie: Probably Katie Galvin. See Key to Correspondents.
Mrs. Cabot: Susan Burley Cabot. See Key to Correspondents.
Chorca panglas: This is what the two words look like, but clearly there is no such garden plant.
Lophospermum scandens: "Lophospermum scandens is a ... climbing herbaceous perennial native to south central Mexico, with red-violet and white tubular flowers and toothed heart-shaped leaves."
Gray: Probably Fields refers to Manual of Botany of the Northern United States, from New England to Wisconsin and South to Ohio and Pennsylvania Inclusive, by Asa Gray (1810-1888). First published in 1848, the manual went through numerous editions.
The manuscript of this letter is held by Historic New England in Letters from Annie Fields to Mary Rice Jewett, Jewett Family Papers: MS014.03.02. Transcribed and annotated by Terry Heller. Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Annie Adams Fields
[ 15 June 1899 ]*
Thursday Morning
No pens & inks for Pinnys on the morning blanket and sheet any more so that you will have do with a pencil. What beautiful bright weather with a fine (westering) wind! The poplar leaves shine in the sun quite wonderful as I look out and I can see the green top of the hill. yesterday morning we took a good drive going first to Hamilton House where we found Elise and Peggy! Mrs. Tyson* having gone to town but she came back just before [seven or eleven] and the girls having gone to meet her they all put in for a call and we didn’t go into the house at all but sat in the garden and had a nice time. There is a quite enchanting [litter on ? ] table out there now which you would like. The red lilies are quite splendid and the peonies not gone yet, and such nice lettuces in the garden that I wish you had a good half of them this minute! I feel far far better! this morning but yesterday was most terrible tired and discouraged for poor P. L.* and she didn’t know what she was ever a going to do but slept better last night and things look quite possible. I have talked with Mary about going away & she is full of approval, so I shall be off before long perhaps Monday and perhaps before. I am looking for a letter from you this morning -- Oh darling Fuff I do hope that you are well and not too lonely. I hope you find company enough in your Hawthorne books until Mark & Fanny can come.* It must be bright and shining on the dear hill* this morning. I can see the walnut tree and the two cherries and all the crabs! and all the round nasturtium leaves as if I were there. There is some "company" come today. We could wish it otherwise, but Mary will give them a nice drive -- a McHenry cousin (& his wife)* whom we haven’t seen for a long time. the wife we have never seen.
Dear Fuffy I hoped to have sent the leaves* right back but I found that the gold paint here wasn’t the right kind. I think that I may be able to hunt up some at one of the stores.
With
dear love Pinny --
Notes
15 June 1899: In June 1899, Jewett was
working with Fields on a "leather leaves" craft project.
The June date is based upon the likelihood that this letter
precedes Jewett's trip to Mouse Island in late June of 1899.
Hamilton House ... Elise and Peggy!
Mrs. Tyson: Hamilton House is a historic late
18th-century estate and home in South Berwick, ME., now
belonging 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. The Tysons were part of a new wave of summer residents who were caught up in the Colonial Revival romance of owning country houses which reflected the grace and prosperity of colonial forbears and provided a healthful rural retreat away from the heat and pollution of cities.
The Tysons hired Herbert Browne of the Boston architectural firm Little and Browne to oversee some interior changes and to design additions to the west and east sides of the house. The Tysons also embarked on creating a grand Colonial Revival-style garden at the east side of the house encircled by an elaborate pergola. All major work was completed by 1900. Important additions to the property made in the following decade included murals painted in the parlor and dining room of the house by George Porter Fernald and the construction of a charming garden cottage fitted with interior paneling salvaged from a colonial home in Newington, New Hampshire. Luckily, Elise Tyson was an accomplished amateur photographer whose photographs of interior and garden views provide a rare and wonderful documentation of the early years the ladies spent at the property.
The identity of Peggy is not known.After her stepmother’s death in 1922, Elise Tyson Vaughan and her husband Henry Vaughan (married 1915) were encouraged by William Sumner Appleton, the founder of the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities, now Historic New England, to keep the house.
P. L.: Pinny Lawson is one of Jewett's nicknames.
The red lilies are quite splendid: Retired
Historic New England gardener, Nancy Wetzel, identifies three
kinds lilies to which Jewett may refer:
There are two wild lilies -- true Lilium -- of Maine that can be red and bloom in June. Wild plants often were used in cultivated gardens of Jewett’s day. The gardener might transplant or collect seed from the wild or purchase these from a nursery catalog.
Lilium canadense, Canada lily. Blossoms may be yellow or red. See Roger Tory Peterson, A Field Guide to Wildflowers. Flowers are like nodding bells.
Lilium philadelphicum, Philadelphia lily, also named common red lily and wood lily. See Peterson. This flower is upward facing.
A third possibility is a cultivated variety that originated in Siberia, Lilium pumilum, coral lily, which was introduced to the American market in 1812. It was available in several New England nursery catalogs in Jewett’s day, including Hovey & Company, Boston, which listed it in 1866. In Restoring American Gardens, Denise Wiles Adams says: “By mid-nineteenth century, plant explorers had introduced many new species of Lilium from the western United States and the Orient, and the American nursery trade was quick to supply the latest finds to gardeners." These lilies typically were used in borders and shrubberies.
In her own garden, Jewett also grew the scarlet Lychnis chalcedonica, London pride, another native of of Siberia.
 Two images of Canada Lily
|
 |
 |
 |
Hawthorne books until Mark & Fanny: Fields
published Hawthorne
in 1899, dating her preface in September. Writer and editor, Mark
Antony
De
Wolfe
Howe (1864-1960) was married to Fanny Huntington
Quincy (1870-1933), of the literary and reformist Quincy
family. She also was a writer. He published Memories
of
a
Hostess (1922), a selection from the diaries of Annie
Fields.
the hill: The Fields house in Manchester by the
Sea stands on Thunderbolt Hill.
a McHenry cousin (& his wife): Tracing Jewett genealogy is quite complicated, but
it seems clear that the Jewett sisters were connected with
some McHenrys through their grandmother, Sarah Orne. It
appears that the >Odior was passed to Sarah Orne, daughter
of Sarah Moore Orne, upon her death in 1875, then to her
daughter, nbsp;(1818-1887), who had
married Alexander R. McHenry (1814-1874)..
Their only married and living son in 1899
was Edward
Orne
McHenry (1855-1910); his spouse was Hannah Mason Smyth
McHenry (1863-1917). While this is only speculation, there
is at least some probability that these were the cousins who
visited the Jewetts this spring in South Berwick.
the leaves: Jewett has been working at handcrafted
"leather leaves." See Sarah Orne Jewett to Annie Adams
Fields, Saturday [June 17 1899].
The ms. of this letter is held by the Houghton Library of
Harvard University: bms Am 1743.1 (117). Transcription and
notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Charles Eliot Norton to Annie Adams Fields
Your very kind note of a week ago comes to me from Ashfield,* reaching me last night. Our plans for going there were changed last week, on learning that my boy Richard* and his wife were on the way home. We determined to wait for
[ Page 2 ]
them, to receive them here, and for that end we shall remain here till the last days of the month. Sally* is, indeed, just now for a day or two in Ashfield, to look after the garden and to see to things generally, but I expect her at home tonight or tomorrow.Your invitation to the seashore in August is delight-
[ Page 3 ]
ful. I should like to accept it, but I am most home keeping by long habit, and find it best to follow the example of Ulysses* and close my ears even to the most alluring call. I think you most cordially for offering me such a pleasure, even if I must decline to accept it.I trust that Miss Jewett* will soon be with you, and gaining strength. I am sorry
[ Page 4 ]
that she should have had so long a siege of illness. Why do the good suffer? Providence becomes more & more inexplicable! Even last night's refreshing rain does not reconcile me to this parched & scorched June.I return Miss Guiney's* pleasant Celtic note with many thanks to you for letting me see it. What a share she has in the baronial gift of sweet, responsive sympathetic expression!
C. E. Norton.
Notes
Ashfield: The Nortons' summer home in the Berkshire mountains. Norton writes from their Cambridge, MA, home at Shady Hill.
Richard: For Norton's younger son, see Sara Norton in Key to Correspondents.
Sally: Sara Norton. See Key to Correspondents.
Ulysses: Norton alludes to the story of Odysseus or Ulysses in Homer's Odyssey, in which he orders his crew to stop their own ears and to restrain him as they pass the island of the Sirens, so that he can listen without danger to the song that draws sailors into shipwreck and death.
Miss Jewett: Sarah Orne Jewett. See Key to Correspondents.
Miss Guiney's: Louise Imogen Guiney. See Key to Correspondents.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library of Harvard University. Sarah Orne Jewett Additional Correspondence. III, Letters to Annie Fields (Adams) 1834-1915, Norton, Charles Eliot, 1827-1908, 1 letter; 1899. MS Am 1743.1 (198).
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Annie Adams Fields
Friday morning
[ 16 June 1899 ]*
Dear Annie
I feel so humbled by the remembrance of all my ink going over the bed yesterday morning that you will have to accept a pencil instead of a pen! And at this moment comes Mary* smiling with the aforesaid inkbottle safely bestowed in a flat high-sided Japanese dish, but I shall keep on -- I seem to have dropped down into a poor time again but you know I never feel very
energetic early in the morning (like some persons!) and I shall be up soon and doing the best I can -- I didn't go to drive yesterday -- it is so dusty just now and we had such a long drive the day before -- but Mary was busy in her room making the new cover for her big chair which you will have to admire deeply -- it is a great success. As for me I did something to a dress of hers -- the neck wanted some rearranging. A
great Pinny* at such works when she gets her noble mind upon them. ----
Oh how beautiful it must be at Manchester this morning, and I dont doubt you will be dealing with nasturtiums -- I can hardly wait to see you dear Fuff* -- O don't put off coming again, it seems as if I couldn't wait at all when I think of it ---- And as if I should feel so much better when
you get here. So tell me all about everything. Can you [see written over something] anything of my little sprig of a cherry tree in the rock? What about William's setter.* You know we were going to book him.
-- I hope to get your letter early today ----- Oh yes I look forward to going back with you[.] I do hope nothing will prevent[.] With best
love Pinny
Mary always sends love. She is always talking about your coming --
[9 circled in lower left corner of page 4.]
Notes
16 June 1899: This tentative date is based upon a construction of events of June and July of 1899. In a letter to Fields tentatively of 15 June 1899, Jewett reports that she is not using pen and ink, perhaps referring to the accident she reports in this letter.
Mary: Mary Rice Jewett. See Correspondents.
Pinny: Pinny Lawson is one of Jewett's nicknames.
Fuff: One of Annie Fields' nicknames.
William's setter ... book him: This reference remains mysterious. Fields may have employed a man named William.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. Jewett, Sarah Orne, 1849-1909. 40 letters to Annie (Adams) Fields (no date). Sarah Orne Jewett additional correspondence, 1868-1930. MS Am 1743.1 (117). Transcribed and annotated by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Alice Greenwood Howe to Sarah Orne Jewett
[ Summer 1899 ]*
MANCHESTER BY THE SEA
My dear dear, I am thirsty for a novel, but I dont want you to write it! Because I know, as you dont write, that you are not yet in a very sturdy condition --
Here let me interpolate that you must not read this solitary [ summons ? ] until you get it from [ me ? ]
[ Page 2 ]
As to us, we jog along -- George is really better & stronger much than last summer, though always stiff about getting about -- But he is up and around the place many times in the day, & [ watches ? ] the deadly progress of the drought with desperate patience -- What else is there to do? My two half [ hogsheads of water ? ] plants are the only things that float serene above fate, & defy the skies -- Other flowers & bushes bloom in the most alarming manner, & then decide to go to seed just the first minute they can scurry there -- In a sneaking fashion I love dry times, & [ still ? ] plant on the dry turf cheerfully, & breathe the light air & think [ they ? ] cant be [ prouder ? ] when there is no moisture in the firmament ---- The [ Town's were ? ] to have come yesterday & of course didn't, as [ Miriam ? ]* had a sudden panic, & decided
[ Page 3 ]
that the only way of safety lay in flying from [ town ? ] before they had intended, & so are off tomorrow, & had to pack & [ rush ? ] -- [ S. W. corrected ]* comes down today with huge masses of household matter, & if possibly will lunch here, & gladden our hearts -- Helen* is with us, & Gino comes next week, & they both fly off the 23rd for [ other ? ] Shores -- Now you have all the family, excepting [ poor ? ] inconspicuous myself, who was not firstrate when she came, but now has [ come ? ] to a [ front ? ] second class seat,
[ Page 4 ]
& goes on slowly to a higher position, perchance -- as second class, she propounded this conundrum in the family -- Why are water lilies like porpoises? After much consideration your [ writer ? ] clearly perceives that it is because -- they both come to the surface to blow!
Dear dear, I want to whisper something -- Dont come to Manchester until you are really & truly strong -- Real rest & freedom is [ more nearly ? ] for you at hand in your own home -- I feel sure of it, & also no great changes of climate -- Be sensible & I say it [ wofully ? ], for I do want
you here terribly, but not under [ some ? ] conditions -- and George sends faithfully
his love, & I [ send ?] my love faithfully
Notes
Summer 1899: I see no direct confirmation for this date in this letter. However, it seems to relate to other letters Howe sent to Jewett this year, during which Howe's husband, George, was slowly recovering from a serious illness the previous year: see Saturday -- [ February 1899 ] and July 19 [ 1899 ].
Towns ... Miriam: The transcription is uncertain, and this person has not yet been identified.
S.W. ... Helen ... Gino: S.W. almost certainly is Sarah Wyman Whitman. See Key to Correspondents. Other members of the Howe entourage have not yet been identified: Helen and Gino.
A.F.: Annie Adams Fields. See Key to Correspondents.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library of Harvard University: Sarah Orne Jewett Correspondence I, Letters to Sarah Orne Jewett.
Howe, Alice (Greenwood) 1835-1924. 4 letters; 1892-[1900] & [n.d.], 1892-[1900]. (102).
This transcription is from a photocopy held by the Maine Women Writer's Collection, University of New England, Letters from Sarah Orne Jewett, 1875-1890, Box 2, Folder 99, Burton Trafton Jewett Research Collection.
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Annie Adams Fields [Fragment]
[ June 1899 ]*
I am getting the leather leaves* along but I cant find just the right gold stuff -- And I dont feel glad that I chose tulip tree leaves any way [y written over d] but you shall have better ones some day. The Bocconia* looks quite beautiful by contrast but I found that I only had a little leather here. You can use those three! Thank you darling Fuff for sending Stubby's letter.* I felt that it was just such a time!
It is warmer again today -- but you will have a delicious breeze at Manchester. Oh your long letter on the little sheets was perfectly lovely yesterday afternoon[.] I had a real little feast of it -- I am so glad that you can get through the Grew place* and that you had the nice walk to the Shore darling Fuff. You haven't seen Mr. Grew to meet this year. And calls made! of such Fuffs there should be a song written! Now I shall rest
awhile -- and then muster up to get down to the Bank. The Charles Daltons are coming down to Hamilton House on Monday & Mary* is going down to tea -- I believe the Delands* are asked too but I dont know if they are coming. Mary will hear about "Old Helen"* from the Daltons so now we are having plenty of newses.
Good bye with best love (and Oh, thinking so many times a day[ ) ] from.
Pinny
[In a box drawn in lower right corner] Miss Cheyne is for debts: scissors & [unrecognized word] & etc & e
Notes
June 1899: This tentative date is based upon Jewett mentioning that she is working on "leather leaves," a craft project that she and Fields undertook in June of 1899.
leather leaves: In Novel Craft: Victorian Domestic Handicraft and Nineteenth-Century Fiction (2011), Talia Schaffer describes the Victorian craft of making leather leaves "which transforms imperfect living leaves into idealized leather specimens that are fixed forever in varnished, incised, solid arrangements" (p. 18).
The Bocconia: Wikipedia says: "Bocconia is a genus of flowering plants in the poppy family,"
Fuff ... Stubby: "Fuff" is a Jewett nickname for Annie Fields, "Stubby" for her nephew, Theodore Eastman. See Key to Correspondents.
the Grew place: Edward Sturgis Grew (1842-1916), a dry-goods merchant in Boston, built All Oakes (completed 1903) as a summer residence in Manchester by the Sea. It appears that in 1899, Grew owned property between the Fields house and the sea, making it difficult to take walks along the shore without passing through the property.
Charles Daltons: Though this is not certain, it seems likely that the Tyson's are expecting a visit from Sir Charles Dalton (1850-1933), "a Prince Edward Island businessman, politician and philanthropist" (Wikipedia).
Hamilton House: Hamilton House is a historic late 18th-century estate and home in South Berwick, ME., now belonging to Historic New England. See Emily Davis Tyson in Key to Correspondents.
Mary: Mary Rice Jewett. See Key to Correspondents.
Delands: While this is not certain, it is likely that the Delands are the author Margaret Deland (1857-1945) and her husband, Lorin F. Deland.
"Old Helen": See Sarah Orne Jewett to Sarah Wyman Whitman August 4, [1903], in which Richard Cary identifies "Old Helen" as Helen Bigelow Merriman. See Key to Correspondents.
Miss Cheyne: The identity of Miss Cheyne is unknown, though it appears she may be a source for sewing or craft supplies. Perhaps Jewett has enclosed a cheque.
The manuscript of these pages is held by the Houghton Library, Harvard University: Jewett, Sarah Orne, 1849-1909. 40 letters to Annie (Adams) Fields (no date). Sarah Orne Jewett additional correspondence, 1868-1930. MS Am 1743.1 (117). Transcription and annotation by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Marie Thérèse de Solms Blanc to Annie Adams Fields
This letter was composed in French; a transcription follows the translation.
Paris 18 June [ 1899 ]*
Dear Annie, Finally, I have seen Miss R. Lamb;* a word from her came to me at La Ferté last week in the midst of the horrors of my move, which made me a few days late in replying. As soon as I returned to Paris, I ran to the Hotel d'Iéna, where I found her as interesting and enjoyable as I could imagine. She gave me the photograph, for which I thank you a thousand, thousand times, along with the ink eraser, the maple sugar, and the Japanese boxes that dear Sarah* had
added; I persuaded her to take the present for Mme. de Beaulaincourt* herself, rather than entrusting it to me, as she wished to do, and yesterday she came with Miss Mason* to join me for afternoon tea on Rue Beaujon; they have promised me 48 hours at La Ferté in August, after their return from Luchon.* I am so grateful to you for putting me in touch with your friends.
Mme. Flateau cuts all bodices according to my size? wouldn't that be unfortunate for slender ladies? Why do you believe I prefer tight armholes? This sentence in your letter intrigues me! I have hardly thought about clothing this summer, and so am driven to hastily get a dress for the Brunetière's* first dinner at Madame de Beaulaincourt's* which is next week. She and I were invited by Mme. Foulon de Vaulx* to a very chic dinner at the pavillon d'Armenonville,* the gathering place for the crème de la crème
Mr. Jaccaci* has come to Paris lately. I was so pleased to see him again. A thousand good wishes, and thank you again
La Ferté had so many roses that each morning I regretted your absence! You would have enjoyed [ unfinished sentence ? ]
The little [ unrecognized word ] now lives at
31 rue de Constantinople
When I have time, I will write volumes to you about our Feminist Convention.
Notes
1899: This date is speculative.The letter must have been composed after Blanc and Fields met in Paris in the summer of 1892 and before Mme. de Beaulaincourt's death in December 1904. It is unlikely that this letter was composed before 1895, the year after her first U.S. tour, or after 1899 when, according to her biographer, Madame Paul Fliche, Blanc took up permanent residence in Paris.
A main clue is the "Congrès féministe" to which Blanc refers, but Blanc frequently attended such conferences, including The International Congress of Women in London, 26 June to 7 July, 1899. See Wikipedia. If this letter was composed in 1899, then this conference had not yet taken place, but was imminent.
I have eliminated 1897, when Blanc was in the U.S. and 1898, when Fields was in Paris. It remains possible then, that Blanc wrote this letter in 1895 or 1896. I have placed it tentatively in 1899 mainly because of Blanc's participation that year in the London conference.
Miss R. Lamb: Rose Lamb. See Key to Correspondents.
Sarah: Sarah Orne Jewett. See Key to Correspondents.
Beaulaincourt: Sophie de Beaulaincourt. See Key to Correspondents.
Miss Mason: Ellen Frances Mason. See Key to Correspondents.
Luchon: The spa town of Bagnères-de-Luchon. Wikipedia.
Flateau: This transcription is uncertain; perhaps the name is Hateau. It seems clear she was Mme. Blanc's dress-maker.
Brunetière: Ferdinand Brunetière (1849-1906), then editor of Revue des Deux Mondes.
Foulon de Vaulx: In 1872 Alice Devaulx married Henri Foulon (1844-1929). Shortly after they married, they changed their names to "Foulon de Vaulx." Henri Foulon de Vaulx was a Belgian industrialist and historian. Alice Foulon de Vaulx became a translator, notably of works by Hamlin Garland.
The Pavillon d'Armenonville in the Bois de Boulogne was originally a hunting lodge; today it houses the Paris Visitors and Convention Bureau.
Republic: Blanc compares society of the Second French Empire (1852-1870) and the Third French Republic (1870-1940). Wikipedia.
Jaccaci: Auguste Jaccaci (1857-1930) at the time of this letter was art director for McClure's Magazine. He was born in France of Hungarian ancestry. After immigrating to the U.S. he became a decorative artist and an art dealer. In the U.S., he Americanized his name, and so sometimes is referred to as August Iaccaci. See Robert Sellwood, Winged Sabres (2018), the opening of Chapter 20.
This letter is held by the Houghton Library of Harvard University, Cambridge, MA: b MS Am 1743, Sarah Orne Jewett Additional Correspondence I, Letters to Annie Adams Fields, Blanc, Thérèse (de Solms) 1840-1907. 1 letter; [ n.d.], Box 5 (138). 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 18 Juin
Chère Annie, J'ai enfin
vu Miss R. Lamb; un mot
d'elle m'est arrivée à la
Ferté ^la semaine dernière^ un milieu des horreurs
de mon déménagement
ce qui m'a fait tarder
quelques jours à lui répondre.
Aussitôt arrivée à Paris,
j'ai couru à l'hôtel d'Iéna
où je l'ai trouvée aussi
intéressante et agréable
que je pouvais l'imaginer{.}
Elle m'a remis la photographie
dont je vous remercie mille
et mille fois avec le joli
essuie plume, le sucre
d'érable et les boites japonaises
que la chère Sarah y avait
joints; je l'ai engagée à
porter elle-même le
présent de Mme de
Beaulaincourt au
lieu de me le confier
comme elle voulait
le faire et hier elle
est venue avec Miss
Mason, prendre une tasse
de thé rue Beaujon dans
l'après-midi; elles me
promettent 48 heures à
La Ferté au mois
d'août à leur retour
de Luchon. Je vous
savoir si bon gré de
m'avoir mise en rapport
avec des amies à vous{.}
de votre présence visible
m'est si doux ! Je voudrais
seulement savoir que
vous allez de mieux en
mieux. Moi je voudrais
bien pouvoir suivre le
régime que vous me
recommandez, mais j'en
suis incapable. Miss Lamb
ne m'ayant pas demandé
de la mettre un rapport
avec Mme [ Flateau / Hateau ? ], je ne
lui ai pas parlé de celle-ci
pour les entournures des
manches. Pourquoi supposez-vous
que Mme [ Flateau / Hateau ? ] taille tous
les corsages sur le modèle
des miens? ce serait dommage
pour les personnes sveltes?
Et pourquoi me soupçonnez
vous de porter des entournures
justes? Cette phrase de votre
lettre m'intrigue! -- Je n'ai
guère pensé à la toilette
cet été et suis réduite
à me faire bâcler une
robe à la hâte pour le
premier dîner des Brunetière
chez Mme de Beaulaincourt
qui aura lieu la semaine
prochaine. Elle et moi avons
été invitées par Mme Foulon
de Vaulx à un dîner très chic
au pavillon d'Armenonville le
le rendez-vous de la crème de
la crème de société
élégante depuis quelques temps
et, ne connaissant plus
ce monde là que par
nos souvenirs plus au
moins lointains, nous
avons été choquées du luxe
tapageur et vraiment
extravagant -- qui caractérise
la République. Sous l'Empire
on n'a jarmais eu l'idée
de rien de pareil, mais il
y avait en pareils lieux
autant de gaîté, d'entrain
d'aisance mondaine. Ces dames
ont l'air de ne penser qu'à
leurs diamants et à leurs
chapeaux: assemblage [ unrecognized word ]
qui autrefois eut fait hurler!
Ah! c'est la décadence!
Les évènements ne le
prouvent que trop
d'ailleurs! -- Nous
traversons une crise
politique épouvantable.
Quant à la révision
je l'ai toujours souhaitée
sûre que la lumière
ne pouvait venir
qui de là, coûte que
coûte, mais elle est
accompagnée de bien
des dangers.
M. Jaccaci est venu à
Paris dernièrement. J'ai
en grand plaisir à le revoir.
Mille tendresses et encore merci
La Ferté a donné tant de roses que chaque
matin je regrettais votre absence! Vous en
auriez joui [ unfinished sentence ? ]
La petite [ unrecognized word ] demeure maintenant
31 rue de Constantinople
Quand j'aurai le temps je vous écrirai
des volumes sur notre Congrès féministe
Sarah Orne Jewett to Annie Adams Fields
Friday
[ 23 June 1899 ]*
Dearest Annie
It is a cloudy morning a little cool and apprehensive to say the least, for Class day weather* -- And the Circus is coming to Berwick! Yesterday was quite perfect.
I mean to start Monday on my travels. Tomorrow is the day when most of the places hotels & boarding houses open along shore
and Saturday is such a crowded day to start. I mean to set sail for Boothbay, and if Mouse Island* is not available there is the other hotel over across which will do for a first stopping place at any rate. I have times of feeling just like it, and other moments quite the reverse -- but -- I'm going. It seems now and then as if I were foolish not to go right to Dunnet Landing* where I Know every body! but after
all that wasn't the doctors prescription --
*Our guests just spent the day yesterday so that I got on very well. Mary* & I went to drive afterward --
I send you Helens* dear & interesting letter --
With much love your most [loving written over letters]
Pinny
Notes
23 June 1899: This date is supported by Jewett mentioning Harvard's Class Day Week.
Class day: Theodore Jewett Eastman (AB 1901), Jewett's nephew, was a sophomore at Harvard University in 1899. According to the Chicago Tribune of Monday June 19, 1899 (p. 10), Harvard's Class Day Week opened on Sunday 18 June. The Cambridge (MA) Tribune, XXII; 17, (24 June 1899, p. 4) reported that Class Week weather in 1899 was excellent.
Mouse Island: A small resort island east of Southport and south of Boothbay, ME.
Dunnet Landing: The fictional setting of Jewett's The Country of the Pointed Firs (1896)
Our guests: This and the following lines may not be new paragraphs, but Jewett sometimes uses large spaces between sentences to indicate new paragraphs.
The guests probably are a Jewett cousin, Edward Orne McHenry (1855-1910) and his spouse, Hannah Mason Smyth McHenry (1863-1917).
Mary: Mary Rice Jewett. See Correspondents.
Helen: There are several Helens to whom Jewett may refer. This probably is not her aunt, Helen Gilman, who would be called "Aunt Helen." Perhaps she refers to Helen Merriman or Helen Choate Bell, both frequent correspondents. See Key to Correspondents.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library, Harvard University: Jewett, Sarah Orne, 1849-1909. 40 letters to Annie (Adams) Fields (no date). Sarah Orne Jewett additional correspondence, 1868-1930. MS Am 1743.1 (117). Transcription and annotation by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Annie Adams Fields
Saturday
[ 24 June 1899 ]*
Dearest dear Annie
Yesterday I sent you the leather leaves.* I am disappointed in the Bocconia* after all. I think that a [solider ? ] -- a less cut leaf is much handsomer. The paper pattern is charming but the leather to my eyes less so -- When I come I'll cut some more for you to make up the set, but you can do with these for a while, at any rate with white things at the table ends even if you have
I should like to say something toward the poor things who "got off" from Ward VII last week,*
little girl! and Mrs. Tyson "paid in" a lot of little boys and Joe (the gardener) & his old Mary* were at a short distance. It was a great moment! -- Afterward we came [back ?] & started to have a cupper tea but we were all so hungry that we continued our meal and called on Katy for further supplies{,} having had a very very early dinner and it was one of the cosiest of times. The Tysons got
off soon afterward to start their family for the evening performance. It was so amusing and delightful, and irresponsible in its joys! I did miss you dreadfully. --. And on this morning what a tired Pinny! but she will stay in bed later and is not hurt in life or limb but thought she had come most to an end when she was a waking up. Fuff not to scold her. I know she will not, for Mary wouldn't have gone and it was so good for all of us[.]
[3 circled on bottom left of the page.]
Notes
17 June 1899: Jewett employee, Katy Galvin, probably came to South Berwick in 1899. Other letters probably from this time take note of Jewett attending a circus, slowly recovering from a long illness, and working on a "leather leaves" project.
leather leaves: In Novel Craft: Victorian Domestic Handicraft and Nineteenth-Century Fiction (2011), Talia Schaffer describes the Victorian craft of making leather leaves "which transforms imperfect living leaves into idealized leather specimens that are fixed forever in varnished, incised, solid arrangements" (p. 18).
The Bocconia: Wikipedia says: "Bocconia is a genus of flowering plants in the poppy family,"
who "got off" from Ward VII last week: Boston's Seventh Ward, adjacent to Boston Common, was a wealthy part of Boston in 1899, and may well have included the home of Annie Fields. To whom, exactly, Jewett refers is unclear, but it may be herself, as she has been ill and is planning a physician-prescribed stay at Mouse Island.
2 Tysons: Hamilton House is a historic late 18th-century estate and home in South Berwick, ME., now belonging to Historic New England. See Emily Davis Tyson in Key to Correspondents.
Stubby: "Stubby" is a nickname for her nephew, Theodore Eastman, who has just completed his sophomore year at Harvard University. See Key to Correspondents.
Katy & Jane: Jewett family employees. Katy Galvin is newly arrived from Ireland. See Key to Correspondents.
Joe (the gardener) & his old Mary: It is not clear whether Joe and Mary work for the Jewetts, for the Tysons, or for someone else. Joe is mentioned in other letters as a presumably temporary driver for the Jewetts, perhaps after the death of John Tucker in 1902.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library, Harvard University: Jewett, Sarah Orne, 1849-1909. 40 letters to Annie (Adams) Fields (no date). Sarah Orne Jewett additional correspondence, 1868-1930. MS Am 1743.1 (117). Transcription and annotation by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Annie Adams Fields
Mouse Island
Tuesday
[ 27 June 1899 ]*
Dear Annie
This place of our hearts is quite unchanged. The path through the fir balsams as you come up from the wharf and the stone cottages and the green field sloping down to the water and the red light on Burnt Island a little way across. The sunset last night and the fragrance of the woods and the song sparrows and the peoples voices coming across the water all just as we [want ?] to see and hear them. I found
that the hotel was n't really open and two passengers who landed when I did had to go in a row boat across to "Boothbay Harbor" but I took the proprietor apart and snatched a word with him, and so he took me in and I was glad enough being pretty tired by that time, and I am all established -- one of the rooms in the cottage, the one opposite ours' a nice little place enough looking between the spruce tops across the bay. After I had my supper last night I sat on a warm old ledge in the field near the water and felt a deep sense of the loveliness of this
how you get on. I needn't say how I miss you in this place which we found together. I shall stay on, for the present at any rate{,} it is as good as anything and the air salt and balsam firry as possible.
With dearest love
your
Pinny
Please give my best remembrances to Miss Quincy.*
There are new people here, but good-natured as can be!
Notes
27 June 1899: This speculative date is based upon grouping this with a number of letters of June and July 1899, when Jewett traveled alone to Mouse Island to recuperate from a long illness. Clearly it makes a pair with Jewett to Mary Rice Jewett and Theodore Eastman of the same tentative date.
Miss Quincy: It is likely that this is Fanny Huntington Quincy (1870-1933), who married Mark Antony De Wolfe Howe on 21 September 1899. See Key to Correspondents.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. Jewett, Sarah Orne, 1849-1909. 40 letters to Annie (Adams) Fields (no date). Sarah Orne Jewett additional correspondence, 1868-1930. MS Am 1743.1 (117). Transcribed and annotated by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Mary Rice Jewett and Theodore (Stubby) Jewett Eastman
Tuesday
[ 27 June 1899 ]*
Dear Mary & Stubby
I had a delightful sail down the bay from Bath. It is even lovelier than I remembered it ^all among the islands^ with the little old grey houses in their green fields with the spruces & fir balsams climbing the hill behind -- and* the gay little summer houses & villages all crowded together. Five Islands has got more new houses than old ones now at [ the corrected, possibly from its ] chief metropolis and a pretty little hotel with which I was much tempted -- but I came on and landed here with two other passengers
and our goods and four [ barr’ls so spelled ] of coal, and the Captain said that the people were here but it looked lonesome on the wharf and we presently found that the hotel was belated* owing to a large Sunday clambake and other causes! and the proprietor thought we had better go over to Boothbay. So they went (the other passengers) in a row boat, but I was tired and was glad to find when I had snatched a chance to speak to the proprietor apart, that he could put me up as well as not if I didn’t mind. I believe he is going to "open" tomorrow & there are some people waiting
at Bath to get a summons that the house is ready -- I have got the corner room in the cottage that you had when you were here -- and I passed a good night and am doing well. I was out nearly all the evening -- It was perfectly lovely with such a sunset! and I sat on a warm ledge in the field down toward the water & Burnt Island after supper and then I went strawberrying for a time (little real good ones!) and then I went through the woods to the landing to see the sunset. I thought of you going to Hamilton House* & coming home. There was* a good moon if you stayed late enough for that! There
is a new man and his wife here as good natured as they can be.
The only thing that I left behind this time is one of those shore maps that Helen Sewall* gave me and I believe it is in the left square drawer in the secretary and I would be gratified if you would roll the one of this end of Maine in an Advertiser, or perhaps both. [ Cap’n so spelled ] Free* is said to be round but hasn’t turned up yet. There isn’t a breath of wind but it is always cool enough here. You may be irregular about hearing from a well-set sister for the mails have to be got over to the harbor, and the service seems to be irregular! Tell John* that Hon.
William P. Frye* was on the boat and I thought how gratified he would be to learn of Tom Billy* his pretty namesake.
Good bye with much love to all
Sarah
Notes
27 June 1899: This speculative date is based upon grouping this with a number of letters of June and July 1899, when Jewett traveled alone to Mouse Island to recuperate from a long illness. Clearly it makes a pair with Jewett to Annie Adams Fields of the same tentative date.
and: In this letter, Jewett sometimes indicates "and" with a long-tailed "a."
belated: Jewett may have underlined this word.
Hamilton House: See Emily Davis Tyson in Key to Correspondents.
there was: Jewett may have underlined these words, but it seems more likely she has extended the line crossing her T in "stayed" in the line below.
Helen Sewall: Probably Jewett refers to a South Berwick neighbor, Helen D. Sewall (1845-1922), who was sister to Jotham and Jane Sewall. See Pirsig, The Placenames of South Berwick, p. 75.
Cap'n Free: Probably this is Captain Free McKown, known in the Mouse Island area at the turn of the twentieth century for his clambakes and for providing transportation in his boat, Edith. Though little has been discovered about him, he is mentioned in The Boy Patrol Around the Council Fire (1913) by Edward Sylvester Ellis (Chapter 17) and The Latchstring to Maine Woods and Waters (1916) by Walter Crane Emerson (p. 123).
John: John Tucker. See Correspondents.
William P. Frye: William Pierce Frye (1830-1911) was a Republican politician from Maine, who served in the Maine legislature and then in the United States House and Senate.
Tom Billy: The transcription is uncertain. "Tom" may be another name and may not be capitalized, and "Billy" may be "Billys." One may speculate that the Jewetts have named a male cat after the Honorable Mr. Frye.
The manuscript of the letter is held by the University of New England Maine Women Writers Collection, item MWWC0196_02_00_098_01. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Annie Adams Fields
Thursday morning
[ 29 June 1899 ]*
Dearest Annie,
Yesterday nobody went across the bay for the mail and I dont know about today but I seem to have a great deal to write! I had a beautiful piece of a morning in the woods ^yesterday^ which are a great deal more lovely than I remembered them. The spruces and firs well grown overhead and plenty of young bright green ones for underbrush with their new tips just growing out. I have got "a burrow along the shore" like William in the pointed firs.* And I stay out of doors nearly every minute -- but yesterday it grew greyer and
greyer overhead until I heard a solemn and strangely loud sound of summer rain and had to hurry under cover. When I first went out after breakfast I came upon an old hen partridge with a lot of little chickens among the little green firs and this being a great event, is my chief news! I am going to the same region to sit very still and see her 'go by' but with less haste than yesterday when there was a loud fluster!
It rained all day after that and I stayed in my room sewing and looking at the harbour [last two letters corrected] to see
the old schooners putting in out of the bad weather -- lots of them yesterday -- and one particularly nice old one with a green hull much weather beaten, and her sails so patched that I think the capin's wife & maiden sister must have been all winter patching and darning them. -- I was so excited by all these things that I got sleepy and took a nap of nearly two hours.
-- I don't know when such a thing ever happened before. The air is really so bracing that I couldn't breathe quite well
enough at [first written over letters] and [thought written over letters] I should fall into a bad aching again but today I am much better and the sun is out and I feel in good trim. I almost dread having anybody else come! [but written over letters?] quite understand some of poor Joanna's feelings on Shellheap island -- after she forgot what sent her there and got to neighbouring with the birds.* This is a most lovely place. I keep saying to myself -- I am sure that I shall get a letter from you today dear. I send Lily Nortons* which is quite delightful.
With a heart full of love. P. L.
[8 circled in another hand, lower left of p. 3.]
Notes
29 June 1899: This speculative date is based upon grouping this with a number of letters of June and July 1899, when Jewett traveled alone to Mouse Island to recuperate from a long illness.
pointed firs: William Blackett is the brother of Almira Todd, the narrator's landlady in Jewett's The Country of the Pointed Firs (1896).
poor Joanna's feelings: Joanna, the subject of several chapters in Jewett's The Country of the Pointed Firs, becomes a hermit on a solitary island after a disappointment in love.
Lily Nortons: Elizabeth (Lily) Gaskell Norton. See Key to Correspondents.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. Jewett, Sarah Orne, 1849-1909. 40 letters to Annie (Adams) Fields (no date). Sarah Orne Jewett additional correspondence, 1868-1930. MS Am 1743.1 (117). Transcribed and annotated by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Mary Rice Jewett
Sunday morning
[ July 2, 1899 ]
Dear Mary
------------------- They dont seem to wilt in sea air which is a great point. I saw the little steamer come wading in from Monhegan at the close of day yesterday in all the wind with a kind of trysail up and looking as if she had hard work not to roll over, with considerable top hamper and no width of beam. -------------------------------------------------
Notes
July 2, 1899: This tentative date is based upon
other letters recounting Jewett's physician prescribed rest stay
by herself at Mouse Island before the season of regular summer
visitors.
The hyphens at the beginning and end
indicate this is an incomplete transcription.
This text is from transcriptions from mixed repositories in
the Maine Women Writer's Collection, University of New England,
Letters from Sarah Orne Jewett, 1875-1890, Folder 74, Burton
Trafton Jewett Research Collection. For more information about
the individual transcription, contact the Maine Women Writers
Collection. Preparation by Linda Heller. Notes by
Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Mary Rice Jewett
Monday evening
[ 3 July 1899 ]*
Mouse Island
Dear Mary
‘Irvin’* has gone to the Harbor,* but I fear me that it will be a very late mail the night before the Fourth! I shall just send a word tonight for I dont feel sure of Fourth of July boats and mails. It has been a lovely day but hotter than usual and after my usual morning in the woods I took a nap and read and sewed a little until supper time. The bay is perfectly still -- an old big schooner has been ever so long drifting up with the tide. She stood ever so long quite wistful at the mouth of the harbor with a disappointed droop to her sails but now she is drifting along. It is so funny to hear Fourth of July horns out in boats, but distance does lend a little enchantment. You were good to send the last Letter. This is just the place to read one all through. Have you sent the post card to stop W. D. Jewett’s subscription to the Congregationalist!!!* I should like to see you square up to the desk to write it. Love to you & Stubbs* and all the family. I wrote Mrs. Tyler* a letter last night which I have been meaning to do ever since she went away after the visit and now it is done.
Good night
from
Sarah
Notes
1899: This letter fairly clearly belongs with the
group of letters from June and July 1899, when Jewett traveled
alone to Mouse Island to recuperate from a long illness.
'Irvin' ... Harbor: The identity of this person is not
yet known. The Harbor is Boothbay Harbor, near Mouse
Island, ME.
W. D. Jewett’s subscription to the Congregationalist:
William Durham Jewett died in 4 August 1887. It appears
that the sisters continued his subscription to this weekly
paper, in which Jewett had published a series of pieces in the
1880s, for twelve years after his death.
Stubbs: Theodore Jewett Eastman. See Key to Correspondents.
Mrs. Tyler: Augusta Maria Denny Tyler. 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 74, Burton Trafton Jewett Research Collection. For more information about the individual transcription, contact the Maine Women Writers Collection. Preparation by Linda Heller. Notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.Sarah Orne Jewett to Annie Adams Fields
Sunday. Mouse Island [Mouse underlined twice]
Dearest Annie
The wind has been blowing and blustering all day long so that I long for the sun to go down and stop it! I sat out in the woods, & walked, as usual all the morning and I had to hunt for a little place out of the bluster [and corrected] among the little fir balsams, but this afternoon I have stayed in and read the Atlantic & some newspapers. Mary sent Mr. Bonapartes speech* with great delight & interest and I have read most of it, and the pieces of Owen Wisters poem.* What a
lovely verse next to the end!
"Oh my dear better angel and my Star" --
I am sure that you liked it, as if we had read it together. Thank you for sending "Charlie's" book* along -- it is just the time to read it and I set tomorrow for the day. This morning I had a little copy of Wordsworth in the woods and it seemed after all these years and readings, as if I read even 'At the corner of Wood Street' -- for the first time.
A good many people came yesterday & this morning so that I begin to feel a little like the old partridge, and as if I liked it better to have the island to myself. There is the bell for
supper and I must put on another dress and shoes.
--- The great affair is now accomplished and now that I come back to my window and my little table it seems quieter as if the old wind were quieting down --
-- Tomorrow I shall have been here a week and it seems quite as long -- the first two days very long indeed but that was to be expected. Dr. Williams* said that two weeks would be more than twice as good as one and so I am settling down to the second with composure. I love this island, but I fear that it will be quite a comedown no longer to have it for my own! I have tried to write
just as little as I possibly could and to do all I could to get the best of such a proceeding. I am guilty in the matter of rubbers, but I brought my old Russia leather shoes* that I had on the yacht with rubber soles and they are ample provision for the gravel walk to the wharf where I walked after the rain. Sometimes I wish that I were in a little plain house on a green hillside, with a good sea view instead of this little good enough hotel = but it is really a place to send some one to now and then. Miss Smith,* now, would like it if she were coming to the sea. Cap'n Free* turned up today at last, and was full of inquiries about Alice. I have been waiting to see him to write her
[13 circled in left bottom corner of page 4, in another hand]
a note from here which will amuse her indeed.
Do give my love to dear Alice Howe.* I am going to write to her, too. Jessie* told us she had promised a visit in Rome, to Cliffs. I suppose she will stay till the last minute in Louisville -- naturally, and then always be in a hurry. Though I dont suppose she will wish to get back to Rome too early unless she has made late autumn plans over there. Oh, your notepaper letter of last night was perfectly dear and beautiful! I did enjoy every word of it. I particularly wanted to hear
more about the great call on Mrs. Cabot.* I wonder if she is waiting to hear from me about my going there? We left it, that she was to arrange about some other visits, and then let me know. So [ it with a line perhaps through the word ] is really "her play" -- but we can let it go along. Think of it being July already! I am so sorry about Cassie's foot. Do have her rub it with Ponds Extract. And William with tonsillitis, and Pinny down east. Oh what a poor plagued little Fuff.* How does your reading get on? Oh how I wish you could sit out of doors a whole morning and read your Wordsworth but when I come, why then you shall! I begin to feel much better as I think of it!
Goodnight dear with best love
from P. L.
[Written up the left margin of page 1; not clear whether this is a postscript or is intended to be inserted at some point on p. 1.]
I sat and watched a dear Sandpiper for friendships sake a long time the other afternoon. [Their ?] little cry always seems like C. T.* speaking when I first hear it.
Notes
Mr. Bonapartes speech ... Owen Wister's poem ... "Oh my dear better angel and my Star": Mary Rice Jewett has sent her sister materials from the June 29, 1899 meeting of Harvard's Phi Beta Kappa chapter. The Harvard Graduates Magazine 8 (September 1899), pp. 104-5, reports on this meeting. Charles Eliot Norton, the president, was reelected to his position. Owen Wister (See Key to Correspondents) was made an honorary member. After a business meeting, the group adjourned to the Sanders Theater, where "Orator of the Day," Charles J. Bonaparte '71, and "Poet of the Day," Owen Wister '82, among others, made presentations. HGM reports that both presenters expressed their "opinions on the stirring political questions of the day."
Wikipedia says: "Charles Joseph Bonaparte (June 9, 1851 - June 28, 1921) was an American lawyer and political activist for progressive and liberal causes. Originally from Baltimore, Maryland, he served in the cabinet of the 26th U.S. President, Theodore Roosevelt." He is considered to be the founder of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
His 1899 PBK oration was entitled "Our National Dangers." Joseph B. Bishop in Charles Joseph Bonaparte, his Life and Public Services
(1922) presents an excerpt:
Washington affirms that 'virtue or morality is a necessary spring of popular government.' We have abandoned the government he founded to the Boss and the Ring. These powers of darkness would have men ignorant and vicious, pressed by want and rebellious to law, because of such men they make their dupes and tools. They are the common enemies of all who war against sin and suffering, for amid a people happy through righteousness they could not live. They protect and foster every degrading pursuit, every noxious industry, every dangerous and shameful calling, as training-schools for their followers and resources for their [fisc] use. We know them and their works, yet we endure them as our rulers, and we have endured them for many weary years: it is as true now as it was when Burke said it, that 'there never was long a corrupt government of a virtuous people.' (81-2)Owen Wister's poem presents something of a mystery. His PBK poem was entitled, "My Country." Supposedly the poem was published in Harper's Weekly 43 (July 1, 1899), pp. 640-1, and it does appear there in 33 stanzas. Percy T. Magan and C. S. May review the poem favorably in their anti-imperialist book, Imperialism Versus the Bible: the Constitution, and the Declaration of Independence; Or, The Peril of the Republic of the United States (1899), pp. 132-4. They note that the poem is structured as a dialogue between Columbia and Uncle Sam. They begin quoting at stanza 47 and end with stanza 57. In neither of these publications does Jewett's quotation from the poem appear. The quotation does appear in another favorable notice in The Unitarian Register, (July 6, 1899), p. 760. This newspaper published four stanzas, none of which appear in the other publications.
It has not, therefore, been determined as yet how long the poem was, which stanzas Jewett saw and where they came from, and where those stanzas appeared in the poem as a whole. The stanza from which she quotes seems distant from the topic of the political issues troubling the United States; it appears that Uncle Sam may address Columbia here:
O my dear better Angel and my star,
My earthly sight needs yours, your heavenly, mine!
I am your flesh, and you my spirit are:
I were too gross alone, you, too divine!
Parted, I'd fall in dust, and you would shine
In voiceless ether. Therefore we unite
To walk on earth together, that we walk aright.
"Charlie's" book: This must be speculative, but among the writers intimate enough with Fields and Jewett to be known as "Charlie" would be Charles Dudley Warner, whose novel That Fortune appeared in 1899. This assumes that the book is by "Charlie" rather than connected with him in some other way.
Wordsworth ... 'At the corner of Wood Street': The English poet, William Wordsworth (7 April 1770 - 23 April 1850) composed "The Reverie for Poor Susan" in 1797.
AT the corner of Wood Street, when daylight appears,
Hangs a Thrush that sings loud, it has sung for three years:
Poor Susan has passed by the spot, and has heard
In the silence of morning the song of the Bird.
Tis a note of enchantment; what ails her? She sees
A mountain ascending, a vision of trees;
Bright volumes of vapour through Lothbury glide,
And a river flows on through the vale of Cheapside.
Green pastures she views in the midst of the dale,
Down which she so often has tripped with her pail;
And a single small cottage, a nest like a dove's,
The one only dwelling on earth that she loves.
She looks, and her heart is in heaven: but they fade,
The mist and the river, the hill and the shade:
The stream will not flow, and the hill will not rise,
And the colours have all passed away from her eyes!
Dr. Williams: Almost certainly this is the Dr. Williams who cared for Fields during illnesses at about this time. Francis Henry Williams (1852-1936) was making his name at Boston City Hospital in the 1890s for developing ways of using x-rays for chest scans. In 1891, he married Anna Dunn Phillips (d. 1933) of Boston. Before 1895, they were distant neighbors of Fields, at 23 Marlborough St.
His book, The Roentgen Rays in Medicine and Surgery was first published in 1901. It was updated in 1902 and again in 1903.
Russia leather shoes: Wikipedia says: "Russia leather is a particular form of bark-tanned cow leather. It is distinguished by a later processing step, after tanning, where birch oil is worked into the rear face of the leather. This gives a leather that is particularly hard-wearing, flexible and resistant to water.[1] The oil impregnation also deterred insect attack."
Miss Smith: This person has not been identified. It appears Jewett exchanged letters with Miss Frances M. Smith, probably the author of Talks with Homely Girls on Health and Beauty (1885), Colonial Families of America (1909), and About Our Ancestors (1919).
Among Fields's acquaintance was Sarah/Sally Smith (1841-1916), daughter of Asa Dodge Smith, a president of Dartmouth College.
Cap'n Free: Probably this is Captain Free McKown, known in the Mouse Island area at the turn of the twentieth century for his clambakes and for providing transportation in his boat, Edith. Though little has been discovered about him, he is mentioned in The Boy Patrol Around the Council Fire (1913) by Edward Sylvester Ellis (Chapter 17) and The Latchstring to Maine Woods and Waters (1916) by Walter Crane Emerson (p. 123).
Alice Howe ... Jessie ... Cliffs: Alice Greenwood Howe's summer home was "The Cliffs" in Manchester. MA. Pianist Jessie Cochrane was a frequent guest of Annie Fields. See Key to Correspondents.
Mrs. Cabot: Susan Burley Cabot. See Key to Correspondents.
Cassie's foot... Pond's Extract: Cassie may be Fields's cook, as suggested in a letter to Carrie Jewett Eastman of 8 September 1895. No further identification has been found.
Wikipedia says: "Pond's Cream was invented in the United States as a patent medicine by pharmacist Theron T. Pond (1800-1852) of Utica, New York, in 1846. Mr. Pond extracted a healing tea from witch hazel which he discovered could heal small cuts and other ailments. The product was named 'Golden Treasure.' After Theron died, it would be known as 'Pond's Extract.'"
William with tonsillitis: William may be a Fields employee. It may be his setter mentioned in Sarah Orne Jewett to Annie Adams Fields Friday morning [June 1899]. And see Sarah Orne Jewett to Annie Adams Fields Monday Morning [July 1899].
Fuff: One of Annie Fields' nicknames.
P. L.: Pinny Lawson, one of Jewett's nicknames.
Sandpiper ... C. T.: Celia Thaxter. See Key to Correspondents.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. Jewett, Sarah Orne, 1849-1909. 40 letters to Annie (Adams) Fields (no date). Sarah Orne Jewett additional correspondence, 1868-1930. MS Am 1743.1 (117). Transcribed and annotated by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Mr. Scott*
[ End Letterhead ]
I am very sorry that your letter did not find me at once, but I am staying on an island of the Maine coast just now -- and I must also confess to you that I am not able to attend to my letters as usual -- having just gained some sort of freedom after a long and severe illness -- But
I should like to see your paper if you will be so kind as to have a copy sent to me at the above address.
Notes
Scott: This person's identity has not yet been discovered. No piece on Jewett by a person named Scott -- if Scott is the author -- is yet known to have appeared in 1899 or 1900.
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
[ 6 July 1899 ]
Dearest Annie
I sent three of your napkins today, please say if you get them -- it was a perfect boon to do them! I have got another here but I thought you might wish you had some back by this time.
Poor Mary* says it has been dreadfully hot at home but now the rain has come, here at least. I hope things are going to be better. I couldn't
{go ? } out to my dear woods today nor, I am afraid, tomorrow either which is a great loss, but it is nice and cool in my room after the sun gets out in the morning.
Thank you for the papers which came today. They make me feel quite rich again. I have had Richard Carvel* and find it a capital story. I'm
not sure that it isn't good enough for you to read! Shouldn't you like the little Mark Howe books* back? You shall have them at any rate for people will like to see them. (There is another shower coming up and it suddenly grows dark --) Poor sister Sarah!* but she will forget all about it and write a beautiful letter next time --
I couldn't help laughing about Louisa Beal* and her opinions of Rome! not ^having been there^ according to sister Sarah! Poor wise Judy, to be so slandered! -- No it was not David Swan or the Gentle Boy* either that a meek Pinny* speaked of but it is now too dark to continue.
Pin
What scared the first partridges?
Notes
Mary: Mary Rice Jewett. See Key to Correspondents.
Richard Carvel: Wikipedia says: Richard Carvel is a historical novel by the American novelist Winston Churchill [1871-1947]. It was first published in 1899 and was exceptionally successful, selling around two million copies and making the author a rich man.
little Mark Howe books: Mark Antony De Wolfe Howe (1864-1960) published his study of the minister Phillips Brooks in 1899. See Key to Correspondents for both Howe and Brooks. Probably this is the book to which Jewett refers.
sister Sarah: Jewett seems not to refer to herself, but to Field's sister, Sarah Holland Adams. See Fields in Key to Correspondents.
Louisa Beal: The younger sister of Annie Adams Fields. See Key to Correspondents. Henry Beal had two unmarried daughters from his first marriage to Judith Drew Beal (d. 1860), who was his first cousin: Ida Gertrude and Judith Drew. Probably Judy is Louisa Beal's step-daughter, Judith Drew Beal. See Annie Field's letter of 20 June 1882 and Back Bay Houses.
David Swan ... Gentle Boy: "David Swan" (1837) and "The Gentle Boy" (1838) are short stories by the American author, Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864), both appearing in his collection, Twice-Told Tales (two volumes, 1837, 1842).
Pinny: Nickname for Jewett. See Key to Correspondents.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. Jewett, Sarah Orne, 1849-1909. 40 letters to Annie (Adams) Fields (no date). Sarah Orne Jewett additional correspondence, 1868-1930. MS Am 1743.1 (117). Transcribed and annotated by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Louise Imogen Guiney to Annie Adams Fields
Dear Mrs. Fields:
You may look for me on Saturday. I will go straight to the station from B.P.L. as close on five o'clock as ever I can, and catch whatever there is to catch! Many thanks to you for the tickets. I shall wish Sunday to move slowly. The heat, especially at night, is unspeakable; may it be far from Thunderbolt Hill.
Your old
L. I. G.
Wednesday A.M.
Notes
1900: Guiney worked at the Boston Public Library (B.P.L.) in January 1899 and continued the end of 1900.
This transcription is from a copy held by the Dinand Library of Holy Cross College in Box: SC007-GUIN-002, Folder 29, with the note that the original is held by the Colby College Archives.
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Annie Adams Fields
Friday Morning [ July 7, 1899 ]
Dearest Annie
I think there is plenty of daylight to get my little letter written this time. It is a clear lovely night quite cool enough and salt into the bargain, in place of the very sticky tiresome heat of two days past, with wet wood into which a poor Pinny* couldn't get out. I felt quite downhearted, quite to the end of everything last night, and could
hardly face the rest of the summer at all. In one way I mind being alone less than most people do, but when you dont feel very well you are so glad to have a Fuff* at hand and a Mary* and not [to written over say ] dwell upon the matter further, you dont like so well to be away from home & alone. But a great Pinny writes you tonight compared to last night! I hope you had a good visit from Guy Murchie?* I like him so much and I wish I could have been there when
he came. How nice it was to ask Mrs. Fiske* and how it warmed her heart! When I get home I shall try to go to York for a day, to see Mrs. Lawrence* if for nothing else. And I want to take Mary* & go to Ogunquit to see Susy Woodbury's new house* &c: we have never been. I must try to do these things and keep out of doors and in The Air! and get toughened up a little to doing things again. But you may be sure I shall get over to see you
before very very long Miss Fuffy!
Somehow it seems like Saturday night and the bay looks all smooth for Sunday. I am sure you will be sitting out, and I can think myself with you on the back piazza.
How nice about Mr. Eaton's* message and his anxiety about it! You must tell him I was much pleased. It was nice to go there for the Fourth.*
Good night dearest Annie with so many things left unsaid, or rather all said but not written --
Your most loving
Pin
Notes
July 7, 1899: It seems likely that this letter belongs to the series Jewett wrote while recuperating from illness at Mouse Island, Maine. As the letter indicates the Fourth has passed, the following Friday would be 7 July.
Pinny: Pinny and Pin are nicknames Annie and Sarah use for Sarah.
Fuff: Fuff and Fuffy are nicknames Annie and Sarah use for Annie Fields.
Mary: Mary Rice Jewett. See Correspondents.
Guy Murchie: Guy Murchie, Sr., "was a graduate of Harvard Law School, a ... member of Theodore Roosevelt's Rough Riders, a U.S. Marshall, and a prominent Boston attorney who at one time served as attorney to Winston Churchill. Sitting President Theodore Roosevelt and his wife attended Guy Jr.'s christening." He married "Ethel A. Murchie -- who designed the interior of a seaplane for Sikorksy Aircraft." Their multi-talented son, Guy Murchie, Jr. (January 1907-1997), became a well-known journalist for the Chicago Tribune and a writer about the Bahá'í Faith.
Mrs. Fiske: It is not yet known which Mrs. Fiske may be meant here. Jewett and Fields knew Gertrude Hubbard Horsford (Mrs. Andrew) Fiske and also Jewett's relatives, Ruth Tucker (Mrs. William Perry) Fiske, and Abigail (Mrs. Frank) Fiske (1862-1947). Whether the other two women were living in 1899 remains unknown.
York ... Mrs. Lawrence: There are two Mrs. Lawrences who are likely candidates.
"William Lawrence (1850-1941) was elected as the 7th Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts (1893-1927). Lawrence was the son of the notable textile industrialist Amos Adams Lawrence and a member of the influential Boston family, founded by his great-grandfather and American revolutionary, Samuel Lawrence. His grandfather was the famed philanthropist Amos Lawrence" (Wikipedia). He and his wife, Julia (1853?-1900), summered in York, ME.
Elizabeth Chapman Lawrence (1825-1905) was the second wife of Timothy Bigelow Lawrence. Daughter of Henry Chapman (1804-1891), a Pennsylvania congressman, she was a popular and cosmopolitan woman who, after her marriage, moved in the same circles as Annie Fields and Jewett and corresponded with Sarah Wyman Whitman. See notes for Sarah Orne Jewett to Sara Norton, September 16, 1908, and E.L., the Bread Box Papers: The High Life of a Dazzling Victorian Lady: a Biography of Elizabeth Chapman Lawrence (1983) by Helen Hartman Gemmill.
Susy Woodbury's new house: Susan Marcia Oakes Woodbury. See Key to Correspondents.
Mr. Eaton's message: According to Judith Roman in Annie Adams Fields (1990), Georgiana Godland Eaton was a neighbor and friend of Fields in Manchester by the Sea (p. 38). It seems likely that Roman meant to name Georgiana Goddard Eaton (1857-1911). This relationship connects Fields with two likely Mr. Eatons who might want a message conveyed to Jewett: William Storer Eaton (1817-1902), brother of Georgiana, and his son William Storer Eaton (1854-1949). The younger Mr. Eaton married after Jewett's death and maintained homes in Lakeville and Middleboro, MA as well as in Boston. Whether he or his father owned either of the village homes in 1899 is not known. Presumably, if one of these is the correct Mr. Eaton, such a home would be a good site for celebrating July 4, 1899. It has not been confirmed that any of these Eatons had a home in the Manchester area, but if Roman is correct, Fields may have spent the Fourth with Eatons there..
The manuscript of this letter is held in Jewett, Sarah Orne, 1849-1909. 40 letters to Annie (Adams) Fields (no date). Sarah Orne Jewett additional correspondence, 1868-1930. MS Am 1743.1 (117). Houghton Library, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Annie Adams Fields
Mouse Island
Sunday 10 July [1899]
Dearest Annie
I have had a lot of letters to write this [afternoon corrected] -- but I did not mean to leave yours until the last -- when I was tired! My chief news is that Theodore* is coming tomorrow afternoon, so that I suppose I shall not get home before Wednesday at the least. Now that the weather is bright and cool again I am very glad to have him. I think he would have found himself dull this last week. Don't write here again after you get this letter for the mails are so slow --
I send some letters of yours which
I found in looking over things. I brought some belated ones to answer, and I have had a little table going by the window which has been very comfy, with a dear picture of Fuff* at the back of it to keep company. Laura Richards* sent me a little note last night, by way of Berwick, to say that she was going to Monhegan this week, but I have written her to stop here first ---- I daresay my letter wont catch her in time.
Oh
this is a lovely evening. I wish you could see the Bay and all the schooners that have been spending Sunday in harbor. [There ?] is a nice old green one with a rail around the deck painted white like a front yard fence! -- I went in a rowboat up 'the river' with Capin Free* this morning to see his wife & mother both nice creatures, but the mother delightful ----a little like 'Mrs. Todd' in spirit.* There was a white fog this morning but
blowing about by that time and pretty clear before we came home so that I could see something of the view which is just what you always believed. I began to long for a house in that immediate neighbourhood -- there is a nice old one not far away, so we must see sometime. I am just beginning to enjoy things, besides that dear enjoyment of woods & quietness. I shall have some good rows with Stubby.* I like that better than sailing in my heart of hearts: going along by the green shores and seeing the little houses but oh you wouldn't guess how
[20 or 30 circled in another hand, bottom left of page 4]
many new houses there are! The capes where we used to see one or two or three are turned into villages now. But it is all good for the island people. With dearest love from your own P. L.
Notes
Fuff: Jewett's nickname for Annie Fields.
Laura Richards: Laura Elizabeth Howe Richards. See Key to Correspondents.
Capin Free: Probably this is Captain Free McKown, known in the Mouse Island area at the turn of the twentieth century for his clambakes and for providing transportation in his boat, Edith. Though little has been discovered about him, he is mentioned in The Boy Patrol Around the Council Fire (1913) by Edward Sylvester Ellis (Chapter 17) and The Latchstring to Maine Woods and Waters (1916) by Walter Crane Emerson (p. 123).
'Mrs. Todd': The narrator's landlady and friend in Jewett's The Country of the Pointed Firs (1896) and related tales.
P.L.: Pinny Lawson, one of Jewett's nicknames.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. Jewett, Sarah Orne, 1849-1909. 40 letters to Annie (Adams) Fields (no date). Sarah Orne Jewett additional correspondence, 1868-1930. MS Am 1743.1 (117). Transcribed and annotated by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Lilian Woodman Aldrich
10 July [ 1899 ]*
South Berwick, Maine
Dear Lilian
I have felt quite like a neighbor to you and T.B.* and have wished that we were near enough to speak. I could only succeed in getting half well after my illness and the doctor sternly packed me off a fortnight ago tomorrow to "a new place" and one where I knew nobody and could stay out of doors. I had been here long ago and knew
how good and salt the air was. This island was all my own for the first week, and I set in the fir woods nearly all day and read, or watched for an old capable partridge and her flock of chickens, and now I have nearly lost my aches & pains and That Tired Feeling of which our daily press once spoke much.
You wrote me such a kind letter and Mary* too -- for we shared it with joy. I do hope before
the summer ends that I shall get a look at you both you and T.B. -- either in Berwick or at Tenants Harbour. I fear that the first minute I can I must hurry home, where (and I may add, in Manchester) things are waiting for a delinquent S.O.J. But I may get eastward again -- I should be terribly tempted to take a Rockland boat successor to the Silver Star* and go see you before I go home but somebody has written to make
an appointment on Monday or Tuesday, who I cant disregard. ----- I think with pleasure how really near you are after being away so far and so long, and I say much in this letter which is not written with ink --- Please remember me most warmly to Mr. and Mrs. Richardson.* I should have seen your sister last winter before she went away if I had not been most of the time ill in bed. Mary wishes me to thank you and say how much she hoped to
see you ---- and how kind you were to ask her. Dear A.F.* is well. I have not seen her lately of course.
"Sadie"
Notes
1899: As the surrounding letters indicate, Jewett made an extended stay at Mouse Island under doctor's orders in June and July of 1899.
T.B.: Thomas Bailey Aldrich. See Key to Correspondents.
Mary: Mary Rice Jewett. See Key to Correspondents.
Silver Star: The Silver Star, with Captain I. E. Archibald, was a steamer in the Rockland and Friendship Line, leaving at 7:30 a.m. Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays in the1895 season, when Jewett and Fields used it, serving: High Island, Spruce Head, Tenant's Harbor (near Martinsville), Clark Island, Port Clyde, and Friendship. Round-trip tickets were $1.50.
Mr. and Mrs. Richardson: According to George Carey's "The Rise and Fall of Elmore," "William Richardson, known to his intimates as “Will Dear” ...had made a small fortune when he invented the clothing snap, the popular forerunner of the zipper, and with some of his money he built Seawoods [in Tenant's Harbor, ME], a 13-room house that faced the ocean. Richardson’s sister-in-law married Thomas Bailey Aldrich, the editor of The Atlantic Monthly, and soon his large rambling cottage, The Crags just to the north of Seawoods, was drawing to Elmore such literary luminaries as Mark Twain and Sarah Orne Jewett."
Unfortunately, little additional or corroborating information has been discovered.
A.F.: Annie Adams Fields. See Key to Correspondents.
Tal and Charles: 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 Baily 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: 2718.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Annie Adams Fields
Mouse Island
Tuesday
11 July [ 1899 ]*
South Berwick.
Maine.
[End letterhead]
Dearest Annie
Theodore* went off sailing after breakfast and I to my dear place in the woods and [when corrected] we "got in" at dinner time we found Laura Richards,* so dear and nice, & meaning to stay until morning, when she must go back on account of great festivities in Hallowell.* We had a long sail all of us, this afternoon up to the head of Linekins bay* and there we landed and walked across
the fields by a pretty foot path, to a boat-builders [shop corrected ] -- and there Laura and I strolled back and Stubby and Cap'n Free went further. We sat under a tree in a lovely place and [had corrected] a nice time together and bought some candy from a [deleted word] woman in a funny little addition to [her ?] house -- and then we sailed home again ^ not very exciting events^ but they took all the afternoon! -- Laura told me about the birthday and her feeling about what you said. She said it "was the one thing,["] and her eyes filled
with tears. She really could not speak about it, and [said ?] the had kept it before her on her table ever since. She has been sitting in my room this evening and ^we^ have had a nice talk. I am so glad she came down. I feel quite tired as well as sleepy -- it has grown very cool tonight and a Pinny is d-r-o-w-s-y !
I hope to go home on Thursday. ---- Laura goes early tomorrow morning. [Goodnight corrected] dear with best love from
P. L.
Notes
1899: This letter clearly belongs with the series that Jewett wrote from Mouse Island, ME, in July 1899.
Theodore: Jewett's nephew, Theodore Jewett Eastman, nicknamed Stubby. See Key to Correspondents.
Laura Richards: Laura Elizabeth Howe Richards. Her birthday was 27 February. See Key to Correspondents.
Hallowell: Presumably, Jewett refers to Hallowell, ME, a village near Gardiner, ME. The Richards family is associated with both villages as well as with nearby North Belgrade, ME, the location of the Richards' boys' camp, Camp Merryweather.
Linekins bay: A resort a few miles east of Boothbay Harbor, ME
Cap'n Free: Probably this is Captain Free McKown, known in the Mouse Island area at the turn of the twentieth century for his clambakes and for providing transportation in his boat, Edith. Though little has been discovered about him, he is mentioned in The Boy Patrol Around the Council Fire (1913) by Edward Sylvester Ellis (Chapter 17) and The Latchstring to Maine Woods and Waters (1916) by W alter Crane Emerson (p. 123).
P. L.: Pinny Lawson, one of Jewett's nicknames.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. Jewett, Sarah Orne, 1849-1909. 40 letters to Annie (Adams) Fields (no date). Sarah Orne Jewett additional correspondence, 1868-1930. MS Am 1743.1 (117). Transcribed and annotated by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Annie Adams Fields
Wednesday [ 13 July 1899 ]
South Berwick, Maine
[ End letterhead ]
Dearest Annie
It is just before tea and I must write a word of good bye from Mouse Island. I am so eager to get home now though I had a letter just now from Dr. Williams* wishing me to stay three weeks but it only lacks half a week, and there are getting to be too many people here -- a boat load to call yesterday from Linekins Bay !!*
-- I have got a lot of nice fir balsam tips to make you
a new pillow and I shall make a pretty bag for it as soon as possible. (I mean an inside cover.) I suppose Mary* is having slow hours now until we get home. She went to Portsmouth yesterday, to see Mrs. Knight &c. and came back in such a state of mind because George Haven has sold
-- and I cant think of anybody but dear Mrs. Haven & Georgie looking out of the windows -- He seems to have so little Feeling! But I dont know as it would please us any better to have him and his uninteresting crowd there. So after all! but it was a home for gentle-folk.
---------------- Goodnight dear and it will be nice to feel so much nearer to you tomorrow night if all goes well
Yours most lovingly
P. L.
Notes
His book, The Roentgen Rays in Medicine and Surgery was first published in 1901. It was updated in 1902 and again in 1903.
Linekins Bay: A resort a few miles east of Boothbay Harbor, ME
Pinny: Pinny Lawson, P. L., one of Jewett's nicknames.
Miss Irwin's visit: Probably Agnes Irwin (1841-1914), the first dean of Radcliffe College (1894-1909).
Schlesinger tea: It seems reasonably likely that Fields has either attended or given a tea for Barthold and Mary (McBurney) Schlesinger. Schlesinger (1828-1900) was a successful iron and steel merchant who built an impressive home, Southwood, in Brookline, MA and supported a number of local institutions.
In Community by Design:The Role of the Frederick Law Olmsted Office in the Suburbanization of Brookline, Massachusetts, 1880 to 1936, Keith N. Morgan, Elizabeth Hope Cushing and Roger Reed say:
Even before deciding to move to Brookline, and specifically to Warren Street, Frederick Law Olmsted received a commission from one of his future neighbors. Barthold Schlesinger had come to the United States as a diplomat from Germany, then married a member of Boston society and gone into business there. As lovers of music and collectors of art, the Schlesingers became prominent in Boston and Brookline social circles, and their new Brookline estate, a showplace. (pp. 377-8)See also Back Bay Houses.
Mary: Mary Rice Jewett. See Key to Correspondents.
Portsmouth ... Mrs. Knight: Probably, Jewett refers to Helen Caroline Cross Knight (1814-1906) of Portsmouth, NH. See Life and Light for Woman 37 (January 1907, pp. 33-4). Her sister, Charlotte Tilton Cross (1819-1903), was the second wife of Elisha H. Jewett (1816-1883), who was first cousin to Jewett's father, Theodore Herman Jewett.
George Haven ... Frank Jones ... Mrs. Haven & Georgie: Georgie almost certainly is George Halliburton, whose half sibling was Dr. George Haven. See Key to Correspondents.
Jones is likely to be the Portsmouth brewer and politician, Frank Jones (1832-1902), who had served as mayor of Portsmouth and for two terms in Congress.
Mrs. Haven has not yet been identified. It appears that Dr. George Haven did not marry. Mrs. Haven may be the spouse of one of Georgie Halliburton's Haven cousins.
The sale of the Haven mansion in Portsmouth at about the time of this letter, led to a law suit, over portraits in the house, settled in March 1902.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. Jewett, Sarah Orne, 1849-1909. 40 letters to Annie (Adams) Fields (no date). Sarah Orne Jewett additional correspondence, 1868-1930. MS Am 1743.1 (117). Transcribed and annotated by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Alice Greenwood Howe to Sarah Orne Jewett
[ 1899 ]*
[ Begin letterhead ]
MANCHESTER BY THE SEA
Dearest S.O.J.
[ You would have the ? ] reward of your friendliness could you see how George* has enjoyed your [ second ] book, as much as the first{.} He passed over the last volume
last [ evening ? ] after sitting up a half hour later than his invalid time, & said I should find it very interesting --
[ Have been sweltering in ? ] the house, [ came to ? ] Cliffs, & yesterday was a [ three unrecognized words ] the short storm, & a lighter
atmosphere by night, & today just like an up country honest summer day -- The [ lakes ? ] had a little sea wind this summer, but I no longer know the smell of it -- only the perfume of sunburned grass on the air -- I am hoping that [ Mouse ? ] Island was cool & comfy -- A. F.* brought me home -- over [ one day or Sunday ] Katie Nicholas* is with us, homey & dear & reposeful -- [ Gino ? ] has mumps at North East, cut off from his pals! George has been very poorly, but I hope is better today, & I really think so -- I
having seen another [ Day's ? ] lost also,
but have got my [ Manchester ? ]
[ walk ? ] again -- all love to you
from us -- your Alice --
Notes
1899: In 1899, Jewett, under doctor's orders, spent about 3 quiet weeks on Mouse Island, near Boothbay Harbor, ME, until about 13 July. She made a similar, shorter stay in 1900, but arrived on approximately 14 July. More likely, then, this letter refers to the 1899 stay.
George: Howe's spouse. See Key to Correspondents. The reference to a second book is somewhat confusing. Jewett's most recent book in 1899 was The Country of the Pointed Firs (1896), dedicated to Alice G. Howe. The Queen's Twin (1899) was not yet available. Mr. Howe could be reading any of Jewett's available books, or even, books Jewett had given him.
hope: Howe's handwriting is very challenging, and much of this letter is guesswork, not just the items in brackets about which I am even less sure.
A.F.: Annie Adams Fields. See Key to Correspondents.
Katie Nicholas ... [ Gino ? ]: Both transcriptions are uncertain, and these people have not yet been identified.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library of Harvard University: Sarah Orne Jewett Correspondence I, Letters to Sarah Orne Jewett.
Howe, Alice (Greenwood) 1835-1924. 4 letters; 1892-[1900] & [n.d.], 1892-[1900]. (102).
This transcription is from a photocopy held by the Maine Women Writer's Collection, University of New England, Letters from Sarah Orne Jewett, 1875-1890, Box 2, Folder 99, Burton Trafton Jewett Research Collection.
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Houghton Mifflin & Company
Messrs. Houghton Mifflin & Co.
Gentlemen
refined and charming -- I hope that your new artist* will work in the same spirit! You know that story-writers are proverbially anxious about the portraits of their characters -- -- I have not seen Little Jane & Me:* I am sorry that I forgot to send for a copy as I meant to do. This Story of Betty is not a child's story exactly, but the artist, and certainly the designer of the cover* will understand that.
S.O. Jewett.
My address next week will be Care Mrs. J. S. Cabot*
Prides Crossing, Mass.
Notes
1899: The first page, as usual, appears on the right half of a folded sheet. Two holes are punched through the folded sheet in the top margin, leaving 4 holes when the sheet is unfolded. In the top left corner is a Houghton Mifflin date stamp with a hole through most of the year; still it fairly clearly reads 21 July 1899. To the left of the date stamp are initials that appear to be NOS. The other hole in page 1 obscures Jewett's date, removing the "18" from 1899.
At the bottom left of page 2 are the initials: F.J.G. for Francis Jackson Garrison. See Key to Correspondents.
Betty Leicester's English Christmas: Jewett's sequel to Betty Leicester: A Story for Girls first appeared as a Bryn Mawr School publication in 1894, under the title Betty Leicester's English Xmas. It appeared again as Betty Leicester's English Christmas with illustrations by English-American illustrator, Reginald Bathurst Birch (1856-1943); this was a three-part serial in St. Nicholas, December 1895 and January / February 1896. The Houghton Mifflin publication, slightly revised, was entitled Betty Leicester's Christmas (1899), and included new illustrations by Anna Whelan Betts (1873-1959).
Link to Birch's procession illustration.
Little Jane & Me: The Story of Little Jane and Me (1898) by Mary Edgcumbe Blatchford (1838-1931). The illustrator of this Houghton Mifflin volume is not yet known. Though it is possible the illustrator was Reginald Birch, he was popular enough by 1896 that he almost certainly would have been credited in the front materials of the volume, but he is not.
designer of the cover: The cover for Betty Leicester's Christmas was designed by Sarah Wyman Whitman. See Key to Correspondents.
Link to image of the cover.
J. S. Cabot: Susan Burley Cabot. See Key to Correspondents.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library of Harvard University in Houghton Mifflin Company correspondence and records, 1832-1944, Jewett, Sarah Orne, 1849-1909. 68 letters from; 1870-1907 and [n.d.]. MS Am 1925 (962). Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Henry Mills Alden to Sarah Orne Jewett
PUBLISHERS
NEW YORK AND LONDON. EDITORIAL ROOMS
My dear Friend --
It was ( & remains ) delightful to be remembered by you. I do not willingly let a summer pass without seeing you. I am now alone with Annie,* my [ two ? ] girls having fled -- Harriet to a summer-school at Cornell, where she is studying Psychology, of which she is a teacher at the State Normal School in Trenton, & Carolyn to the Adirondacks where, with
a friend, she is having a good time & gaining much needed physical strength. I have no plans for my summer outing, as I am unable to get away just now, it being the busiest season of the year with me. I hope to get a release during next month, & if I come anywhere near Manchester, I will let you know & come to you if you can receive me. Annie will write.
H. M. Alden
Notes
Annie: Alden's daughter, Annie Fields Alden (1863-1912). His other two daughters were Harriet Camp Alden (1867-1921) and Carolyn Windham Alden (1870-1916).
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 (3).
This transcription is from a photocopy held by the Maine Women Writer's Collection, University of New England, Box 2, Folder 99, Burton Trafton Jewett Research Collection.
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to John Thaxter
Pride's Crossing1
Beverly, Massachusetts
July 29, [1899]
Dear Mr. Thaxter:
I am sorry to have kept your story so
long, but I could not somehow get the right moment for a last
reading, and to write to you. I have been moving about, and I
have had to think much of other things.
Yet I have thought much of this piece
of work which on the whole I like much better than the other. It
is better worked out and more sincerely felt. I find myself
always thinking of it as "The Heart of Abijah" -- and you have
certainly given a most touching picture of a true and dependent
affection. It is most genuine and real. The one thing that I
question is the episode of the new teeth: one cannot have a
chance to smile in just that way at poor Abijah or to let him be
even the least bit shocking to one's sense of good taste. You
have written all the rest in such a different key, and keep your
reader in a different atmosphere, and so I think the very truth
of it strikes a wrong note of 'realism.'
I think that one of the weekly
magazines like the Independent of New York or the Outlook
might like to print it. I have a great liking also for our
good story-paper in Portland, the Portland Transcript. You
may
think
that
I
am
not
choosing
the best places, but I think that a sketch like this with all
its good qualities does not exactly belong to the magazines as
it is. I want you to print it,* for I think nothing helps a
writer like seeing his work in print. And I sincerely hope that
you will go on and write more.
With very kind regards to Mrs.
Thaxter,
Yours ever most truly,
S. O. Jewett
I think when the writer speaks of the
hero, he should usually write his name in full -- leaving 'Bije'
to be spoken by the characters.
On p.12: I think that 'Bije' would not
have been kept from going to the grave by the doctor's order,
unless you had explained before that he was ill when he died,
'or something.' It would be the one thing that he insisted upon,
it seems to me.
Notes
Thaxter's wife was Mary Gertrude Stoddard
(1858-1951).
Editor's Notes
print it: John Thaxter is not known to have published
any of his fiction.
This letter was edited and annotated by Richard Cary in Sarah
Orne
Jewett Letters; the ms. is held by Colby College Special
Collections, Waterville, Maine. Supplemental notes by Terry
Heller, Coe College. See also Richard Cary. "Jewett on Writing
Short Stories." Colby
Library
Quarterly 10 (June 1964): 425-440.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Alice Dunlap Gilman
[ 1899 ]*
[ Begin letterhead ]
Pride's Crossing
[ End letterhead ]
Dear Cousin Alice:
I meant to write to
you before I came away to tell you how much I enjoyed my dear
day with you, and so did Theodore* too! I had been wishing so
much to see you, and I always love to take a look at Brunswick
which is always full of delightful associations for me. You made
it seem pleasanter than ever with your kind welcome, not only
you but all the family and* it was
a great delight to see you all again and the old house, and to
have a look at the garden.
We came home easily, getting to
Salmon Falls before seven, and found John* waiting for us. I was
much applauded by Mary* for coming back so much better than I
had gone away. Theodore went off again in a few days to make a
week's cruise along the shore with one of his friends and I left
just before he got back to come
here to make a little visit to my old friend Mrs. Cabot, and
today I am going to Mrs. Fields's,* and then home again at the
last of the week. Only think, Theodore will be twenty years old
on Friday! I can't believe it = time does fly so fast. -- He
said ever so many times how much he enjoyed his day in Brunswick
-- especially the good talks with Cousin Charles* (I think it
would be hard to tell any difference in their ages!!)
You can't think how glad I was to see
Mrs. Rollins* again, as she had come home from her long
winter away while I was at Mouse Island.* She looks as well and
bright as can be, and it is so pleasant to have her house open
again. She was glad to hear about you & Lizzie & Mary:*
indeed, all of your friends were, and I have told them that I
hope you are coming for a nice visit before cold weather. You
know there is always a warm welcome waiting for all of you --
Good-bye with love to all from your affectionate
Sarah.
I wish so much to know if you got off
to Bailey's Island* -- Cousin Fanny* will be coming and you
musn't put it off too long, for it does you so much
good.
Notes
1899: Jewett says her nephew Theodore will be 20 years
old in a few days, indicating that this letter was written in
1899.
Theodore: Theodore Eastman, Jewett's nephew.
His birthday was 4 August 1879. See Key to Correspondents.
and: Jewett sometimes writes "and" as an "a" with a
tail. I render these as "and."
John: John Tucker. See Key to Correspondents.
Salmon Falls ... Mary: Salmon Falls, NH, site of a local
train station, is across the Piscataqua River from South
Berwick. This Mary is Mary Rice Jewett. See Key to
Correspondents.
Mrs. Cabot ... Mrs. Fields: Susan Burley Cabot and
Annie Fields. See Key to Correspondents.
Cousin Charles: Charles Jervis Gilman, born in
1824, actually is 55 years older than Theodore. See Key to
Correspondents.
Mouse Island: Richard Cary says Mouse Island is a "wooded, twenty-acre island in Boothbay Harbor, famed in these days for its mineral spring and summer resort hotel, the Samoset House. A decade before this letter was written, Alice Longfellow -- an annual sojourner -- introduced Miss Jewett to the island's charms. Miss Jewett often revisited Miss Longfellow and tried to keep up with her strenuous sessions of rowing and sailing."
In late June and early July 1899, Jewett stayed at Mouse Island for about 17 days, recovering from a long illness.
Lizzie and Mary: Richard Cary says, "Mary Gardiner
Gilman (1865-1940), younger sister of Elizabeth, became Town
Librarian and occupied the position for forty-seven years.
Secretary of the Pejepscot Historical Society, she was an
acknowledged authority on the city of Brunswick and Cumberland
County."
Baily's Island: Richard Cary says, "Bailey Island is
just south of Orr's Island in Casco Bay, off the coast of
Brunswick."
Cousin Fanny: Cousin Fanny may be Frances F.
Perry (1861-1953), Jewett's mother's niece, the daughter of Dr.
William G. Perry and Lucretia M. Fisk. See William Gilman Perry
and Lucretia Morse Fisk Perry in Key to Correspondents.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the George J. Mitchell
Department of Special Collections & Archives,
Hawthorne-Longfellow Library, Brunswick, ME, Sarah Orne Jewett
Papers, Series 1 (M238.1): Correspondence, 1877-1905, n.d.
Another transcription by Richard Cary appears in Sarah Orne
Jewett Letters.
New transcription and notes by Terry Heller,
Coe College.
Frances Perry Dudley* to Mary Rice Jewett
[ Summer 1899 ]*
My dear Mary.
Good fortune followed our expedition to the end -- I never had so many miles of pleasant drives in three days in my life -- We came home very comfortably by Dover Point, a most beautiful road all the way. Altogether it was a perfect good time, without labor of preparation
or weariness afterward --
We had a delightful visit with you, and all shared the sentiments of Une,* who wished to stay two weeks! The drive to York was charming. I was very glad that Bert* should see the place, and also to refresh my own remembrance of it -- It was dressed up in a high tide to receive us, and everything was delightful --
Why dont you drive up here sometime by way of Dover Point? It is perhaps three miles farther than the
other way, but a very good road, and no steep hills -- We could not have had better weather all through, and the dust was laid by the shower Wednesday night. We got home a little before one -- Cousin Joe arrived in the middle of the afternoon, and we had a very pleasant time with him. He left at nine for Boston this morning -- Mary Fiske wrote yesterday that she is at Foss Beach* resting for a week, and would like to come here on her way home. Bert has gone there on his bicycle this afternoon
and will arrange about her coming -- P_ has gone as usual to East Kingston, and Une has disappeared -- I went this afternoon to see Mrs Eastman,* whom I had not seen for a long time. She seemed about as usual. Her doctor has been encouraging her that she would be better when warm weather came, but it has hardly come at all this summer. If Bert and William were here they would surely have messages to send, for we enjoyed our little visit so very much -- I wish we could have brought you home with us -- With much love I am always your affectionate
Notes
Dudley: See Lucretia Morse Fisk Perry, her mother, in Key to Correspondents.
Frances Perry married Albertus / Bert True Dudley (1866-1955) in 1890. Their surviving son was William (1891-1965). His nickname may have been "Une," but this is somewhat confusing, because Frances Dudley also refers to a William who, with Bert, was absent when she wrote the body of the letter. It is not clear whether Une and William are the same person or different persons.
Uncle John is John Taylor Gilman Perry (1832-1901), who lost his wife, Sarah Chandler, in 1897. See Sarah Chandler Perry in Key to Correspondents. Presumably, Mrs. Gray is a potential second wife, though this is by no means certain.
Mary Fiske probably is Mary Walker Fiske (b. 1850), Frances Perry's cousin on her father's side, daughter of his sister, Abby Gilman Perry, and Francis Allen Fiske.
Cousin Joe has not yet been identified.
P_ also has not been identified, but she may refer to her father, Dr. William Gilman Perry. See Key to Correspondents.
Summer 1899: This date is speculative. The letter must have been composed after the death of Sarah Chandler Perry in 1897, and probably long enough after her death for her widower, John Taylor Perry, to be considering a second marriage. As John T. Perry died in 1901, almost certainly this letter is from between 1897 and 1901. While 1899 may not be exact, it probably is close.
Foss Beach: A resort area in Rye, NH. A bicycle trip from Exeter to Rye would be about 11 miles.
Mrs. Eastman: In the Jewett family context, one would expect this to be Caroline Jewett Eastman, but she died in 1897, almost certainly before this letter was written. Therefore, this person's identity remains unknown.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Mary Rice Jewett
Aug. 2, [1899 ]*
Dear Mary
....... Tomorrow I quite dread, & I suppose it will be hot in town but I must get to H. & M's* & it is apt to be hot in town at this season so one day is as good as another. I feel very low about my new book of stories (I was over them all morning especially as I took up the Life of Nancy book today & felt how much better those stories were than these, but the Queen's Twin & Where's Nora, just swing the rest, & Martha's Lady which I always liked myself, whatever others may have thought!
Notes
1899: Jewett speaks of working on her collection The Queen's Twin and Other Stories, which appeared in 1899. The opening ellipses indicate that this is a partial transcription.
H. & M's: Houghton, Mifflin & Co., Jewett's publisher.
Life of Nancy ... the Queen's Twin & Where's Nora ... Martha's Lady: Jewett's collection of 1895 was The Life of Nancy. The other stories she names were collected in The Queen's Twin and Other Stories (1899): "The Queen's Twin," "Where's Nora?" and "Martha's Lady."
Where Jewett received negative comments on "Martha's Lady" is not yet known.
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 70, Burton Trafton Jewett Research Collection. It was hand-copied many years before the current edition, and the old notes are somewhat unclear. For more information about the individual transcription, contact the Maine Women Writers Collection. Notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Alice French
[ Summer 1899 ]*
MANCHESTER-BY-THE-SEA
[ End letterhead ]
Dear Mifs French
I am with Mrs Fields* in this moment, and we both hope that you and your friend Mrs Blair* can drive over on Monday when we shall be at home in the afternoon and delighted to see you{.}
I write in haste to catch the morning mail, but we shall have many things to say -- shall we not! -- when we meet
Yours sincerely
Forgive so many blots! -----
And Mrs. Fields suggests that if it is not good weather for a drive, you should come by train (to make sure!) and ask for Mr. Boyle* at the station who will send you over to the house.
Notes
1899: Penciled in brackets at the top right of page one is a date: 13 October 1899. However, this is unlikely to be the correct date of this letter, as there is a Jewett letter from Manchester on 8 October, apparently addressed to French in Clover Bend.That letter indicates that French has recently visited Jewett and Fields at Manchester.
George L. McMichael, in his biography of French, Journey to Obscurity: the Life of Octave Thanet (1965), reports that in the summer of 1899, French made an extended trip to New England, where she met Jewett and Fields (p. 158).
There are numerous stray marks on this manuscript.
Fields: Annie Adams Fields. See Key to Correspondents. There may be added lines lightly drawn on the final page.
Blair: Mrs. Blair has not yet been identified.
Boyle: Other letters in this collection indicate that Patrick Boyle owned a stable and provided transportation for Fields's visitors in Manchester by the Sea, MA. No more about him has yet been discovered.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Newberry Library, Chicago, IL, in the Alice French Papers, Modern Manuscripts, Series 1: Correspondence, approximately 1892-1932: File — Box: 1, Folder: 13. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to John Thaxter
South Berwick, Maine
August 7, [1899]
Dear Mr. Thaxter:
I think that this story is far and
away better than the others! You have made it stronger in
construction, more direct and interesting in every way. I hope
that you will not mind my spoiling the two end pages, but
somehow they did not quite follow the others well enough and I
have shortened them as you will see, and using your own words
most always, I have tried to put them into the 'key' of the
first chapter. I think the end -- being such an end -- ought to
be as clear and simple as possible, and I even want that
reference to the second greatest moment in Jonas's
experience to come up (when he broke away from his mother), as
if in those last moments his life was moved to its very depths.
And I want you to write three or four lines of description for
the very end -- that "The doctor, as he went out into
the clear light of the early morning, along the little
sea-pasture, saw a sea pigeon raising itself from the water and
diving, then floating; flapping its white-barred wings as if to
try its strength."
I think that this will link the end
of the story to its beautiful beginning. There is no need to say
anything about the bird, but just say it was there and
let people feel what they like about it. Somehow its presence
that first morning and the poor fellow, sense of the bird's
freedom and yet its fixed habit of life to that spot, were very
striking -- and you can't but like the bird and the man, or do
better than repeat yourself. I think that this will make the
sketch still more definite and complete. I wonder what name you
have in mind -- perhaps "The Life of Jonas?" I think that I
should try the Atlantic with this, and if that fails, McClure's
Magazine or Harper's.1
In great haste,
Most sincerely,
S. O. Jewett
Notes
See Richard Cary. "Jewett on Writing Short Stories." Colby
Library
Quarterly 10 (June 1964): 425-440.
1 In all three extant copies of this story Thaxter followed Miss Jewett's promptings to the letter: equating man and nature transcendentally by way of a structural reprise. Notwithstanding, it sold to none of the sources she suggested. Sea pigeon is an alternative name for a sea gull.
This letter was edited and annotated by Richard Cary in Sarah Orne Jewett Letters; the ms. is held by Colby College Special Collections, Waterville, Maine.
William Dean Howells to Sarah Orne Jewett
Aug. 9, 1899.*
My dear Miss Jewett:
Your kind invitation for Thursday could hardly have appealed to [
We write in a ten=
=der wail of regret, but we are not without hope for the future.
My love to Theodore.*
This is one of your days, as much as if you had made it -- [ silvery ? ], serene, with an edge, a delicate [ filigree ? ], of frosting, in the [ evening ? ] air.
W. D. Howells
1899: Associated with this letter is an envelope addressed to Jewett in South Berwick, canceled in August 1899, and also in South Berwick. Other information in the cancellation is not readable.
York: The Old Gaol in York, ME, continues as a historical site, one of the Museums of Old York. See Old York Gaol in Wikipedia.
Theodore: Theodore Jewett Eastman. Key to Correspondents.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Miller Library, Special Collections, Colby College, Waterville, ME: JEWE.1. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Louisa Loring Dresel
South Berwick, Maine
August 12, [ 1899? ]*
My dear Loulie:
Just a word this windy morning to tell you how glad I was to get your letter, and how much I read between the lines that made me happy about you. I am so glad too that I have seen you. I hope that you are keeping out of doors a good deal -- that's the very best thing -- it is impossible not to be one's simple and natural self with nature and I sometimes think that the minute one goes into a house one is subject every way to some degree of artificial conditions! On the whole I approve of them but [ me must'nt intending we mustn't ] forget that we are little beasts of the field too!!!
I was enchanted the other day with a letter in the beginning of Madame Sand's Correspondence (to her friend Madame d'Agoult) where she describes one of her early morning rambles and says that at last she succumbed to the temptation to walk into the river! and then came out again and dried herself in the sun, and liked the effect so much that she repeated it.1
I tell you about it very stupidly but you will wish to make for the next brook when you read it yourself, and one feels refreshed oneself as one sees how that great woman who was always burdened and excited by her great living and thinking found perfect joy in being a wild creature for a little while, and made herself next of kin to the bushes and the birds. I have been reading her letters and her life lately but it always vexes me to read French books that I care a great deal for because I cannot gallop along the pages as I do with English books. I wish to have your Marianne2 read another book of Rudyard Kipling's stories if only for the sake of one called "With the Main Guard." It is in the volume called Soldiers Three.*
Goodbye dear Loulie for I must get some other letters done in time for the mail. Give my love to your mother.
Yours lovingly,
S. O. J.
Cary's Notes
1George Sand, Correspondance
1812-1876 (Paris, 1882), 6 vols: "L'autre jour, j'etais si
accablée, que j'entrai dans la rivière tout habilée. Je n'avais
pas prévu ce bain, de sorte que je n'avais pas de vétements ad
hoc. J'en sortis mouillée de pied en cap" (II, 4-5).
Countess Marie de Flavigny d'Agoult is remembered for eloping
with Frans Liszt and bearing his child, and as the author of
History of the Revolution of 1848 under her pseudonym
Daniel Stern.
2Marianne
Brockhaus,* a young German girl Dresel met on one of her
frequent trips abroad, who remained a devoted friend and
correspondent for many years. When Jewett died, Miss Brockhaus
wrote from Dresden to Fields, in part: "I shall always count the
hours spent with you both among my most precious recollections
& shall never forget the atmosphere of perfect sympathy
& understanding in your sweet companionship. The literary
world of America lost much but only those who knew her can feel
with you, nearer and dearer to this rare woman than anyone else.
I am proud to have known her and feel grateful to her for great
kindness as well as for opening my eyes to various things in
American character that a foreigner never would have appreciated
but for her books."
Editor's Notes
1899 ... Soldiers Three: Cary gives a date of
1890 for this letter, but Kipling's Soldiers
Three was published in England and the United States
in 1899 and contained "With the Main Guard."
Publication history of this book in Wikipedia suggests that
Jewett was more likely to have the 1899 edition, though the
mentioned story had appeared in an 1888 collection, also called
Soldier's Three, published in India.
Marianne Brockhaus: See Key
to Correspondents.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library,
Harvard University, MS Am 1743 (50). This transcription by
Richard Cary appeared originally in "Jewett to Dresel: 33
Letters," Colby Library Quarterly 7:1 (March 1975),
13-49, which gave permission to reprint it here. Notes are
by Cary, with additions by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Horace E. Scudder
Manchester-by-the-Sea, Mass.
Sunday
August 20, [1899]
Dear Mr. Scudder:
Madame Blanc-Bentzon* has sent me over
from Paris the sheets of this book which she has partly written
and wholly edited, and which is being taken up with greatest
interest in France.1 She and the publishers are eager
that there should be an American edition for use in our schools
and I run to you who know so much better than I about such
things to ask if you think there would be any chance of the use
or success of such a thing. It seems to me very French indeed
and not according to our scheme of things, but Mrs. Agassiz2
who has been looking it over thought of it more hopefully than
I. I like the chapter on "Friendship"3 especially, as
she did, but whether it would appeal to girls -- especially
American girls! -- remains doubtful, and while the other
chapters give good statements of the virtues somehow they do not
make many suggestions or link themselves to the development of
modern life. But you will really know whether there is any
chance of its use as a textbook or manual in any sense, and I
should think your opinion so finally valuable and conclusive
that I make bold for a friend's sake to ask you for it. I do not
wish to carry it to any publishers if there is really no hope.4
I am just beginning to feel like myself
again after a very long illness and still longer process of
getting well. I can speak of every elegant attention of the grippe!!
Mrs.
Fields*
asks
to
be
most
kindly
remembered to you and Mrs. Scudder and Sylvia, and so do I. I
hoped to see you more than once last winter, but last winter is
to be counted out!
With kindest regards, believe me
always
Yours sincerely,
S. O. Jewett
Notes
1 Causeries de
Morale Pratique (Paris, 1899), written in
collaboration with Mlle A. Chevalier, was prepared as a "cours
de morale à l'usage des jeunes filles."
2 Elizabeth Cabot
Agassiz (1822-1907), second wife and biographer of the
naturalist Jean Louis Agassiz, was a member of Mrs. Fields's
social coterie. Her vocational interest centered on Harvard's
female "Annex," which she helped to establish as Radcliffe
College, and which she served as president until 1899.
3 The twenty-fourth
causerie: "L'amitie.-- Devoirs des aims."
4 In a letter from
Chocorua, New Hampshire, dated August 22, 1899, Scudder
confirms Miss Jewett's surmise that translating and publishing
the book for use in American schools would be impractical and
would, in any case, have no vogue here. (Houghton Library,
Harvard.)
Editor's Notes
Madame Blanc-Bentzon: Marie Thérèse de Solms
Blanc. See Key
to Correspondents.
Mrs. Fields: Annie Adams Fields. See Key
to Correspondents.
This letter was edited and annotated by Richard Cary in Sarah
Orne
Jewett Letters; the ms. is held by Colby College Special
Collections, Waterville, Maine.Additional notes by Terry Heller,
Coe College.
Horace Elisha Scudder to Sarah Orne Jewett
MIFFLIN &
COMPANY
+ EDITOR'S
OFFICE +
4 PARK ST.
+ BOSTON
22 August 1899
Dear Miss Jewett
Your letter seemed to lean toward a discouragement of the scheme of translating and publishing here the Causeries de Morale Pratique,* and I am obliged to say that my own reading of the book confirms such a judgment. It is orderly and sensible and does not confuse the reader with casuistry or too much detail, but partly for this very reason, it seems to me to lack the point,
the fresh setting of elementary truth in a new light which would be needed to justify a publication here. Moreover the examples are almost all drawn from French history and biography and literature; and there is just enough difference between the two countries as regards social life to make the emphasis fall where it is needed in France and not where it is needed in America. I doubt greatly if it could have any vogue here; [ unrecognized word ] I do not believe it could take its place in school use. There is a little passage near the foot of p. 70 "Le ne connais &c {"} in which the author
comes near furnishing a [ sceptic so spelled ] with a weapon drawn from the author's [ armoury so spelled ] for attacking a scheme for rationalizing the book in America.
I am most sorry to hear of your long illness. Would not a touch of mountain air be just what is needed to make you forget you are laboriously getting well? We all wish you could take the Chocorua variety, -- the all being Mrs. Scudder, Sylvia and I. We came up at the end of June and hope to stay till the end of September. I had been in despair of getting at the Life of Lowell* I had undertaken, and so ran away from Cambridge and Boston, carrying with me the ma-
[ Page 4 ]
terial which Mr Norton* had placed in my hands and I had otherwise accumulated. Then came the [ vexatious ? ] Atlantic business, drawing me back two or three times to Boston -- But I hope all will now go well. I am delighted with my task, as well as fearful before it, and have made some progress -- But you ought rather to see the path I am making in the woods!
Please give my kind remembrances to Mrs. Fields,* in which Mrs. Scudder joins me, as well as in the affectionate messages which we all send you.
Notes
Pratique: Marie Thérèse de Solms Blanc wrote Causeries de Morale Pratique (Paris, 1899) in collaboration with Mlle A. Chevalier. This was a textbook for the education of young French girls. See Richard Cary "Miss Jewett and Madame Blanc," pp. 477-8.
In a letter to Mary Rice Jewett of July 1897, Jewett reports working on this material with Mme. Blanc, during Blanc's 1897 visit to North America.
Life of Lowell: Scudder's James Russell Lowell: a Biography appeared in 1901.
Norton: See Jewett correspondent Sara Norton in Key to Correspondents for notes on her father, Harvard professor Charles Eliot Norton.
Fields: Annie Adams Fields. 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 195. I. Letters to Sarah Orne Jewett.
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to John Thaxter
Manchester-by-the-Sea, Mass.
August 27, 1899
Dear Mr. Thaxter:
Mr. Bliss Perry1 (the new
editor of the Atlantic) wrote me a day or two [ago] in
the course of a letter about other things: "Mr. John Thaxter's
story happened to fall into my hands, and I liked his management
of the descriptive passages very much. There were other elements
too that seemed to me of distinct promise, and I disliked to
return the story, though upon the whole I thought it not
strongly enough put together to justify publication in the Atlantic."
I was sorry to find that you had met
with a disappointment, but I do think so much frank praise a
consolation.
I have been thinking that you had
better send it now to Harper's -- with a personal note
to Mr. Henry M. Alden2 in which I am willing that you
should tell him of my advice, and I think that since he was such
a warm friend of your mother that he would like to know the work
was yours, and to see what you are doing; even if he
cannot print it, I think he would be glad to help you about it.
It is not that I think these things affect the value of work,
especially to the mag. in question, which is what the editors
must decide by, but all editors like to watch for new writers.
With kindest wishes, believe me
Yours sincerely,
S. O. Jewett
Notes
See Richard Cary. "Jewett on Writing Short Stories." Colby
Library
Quarterly 10 (June 1964): 425-440.
1Bliss Perry
(1860-1954), essayist, professor of English literature
successively at Princeton and Harvard universities, was editor
of the Atlantic Monthly from 1899 to 1909. In their rage
for culture, Mrs. Fields and Miss Jewett once tried to convince
him that he ought to reprint in the Atlantic twenty-five
to thirty pages each month in French from the Revue des Deux
Mondes, a suggestion he smilingly rejected. See Key
to Correspondents.
2 Henry Mills Alden. See
Key
to Correspondents.
This letter was edited and annotated by Richard Cary in Sarah
Orne
Jewett Letters; the ms. is held by Colby College Special
Collections, Waterville, Maine.
Lucy Elliot Keeler to Sarah Orne Jewett
LEK
417 Birchard Avenue,
Fremont, Ohio.
My dear Miss Jewett:
Is not your life, too, dotted over with little white cornerstones when a certain person has told you to read a certain book, or it has come to you through some other "winding passage" to give a new slant to all your after life? Your Fénelon at [ Twenty ? ]* makes me think so. How much more interesting our friends' thoughts
And I give a little responsive squeeze to the hand you hold out to me in our foreboding and pain. My [ Mother corrected ] stands in a double relationship. I was only six when a terrible carbuncle on her spine put out her physical vigor -- her spirit has never been daunted -- and all these later years she has seemed my child. Passing through the Valley of Baca* she has indeed made it a well, for many beside her family. Mercifully she is suffering less now, but the look of [ Heaven ?] is in her eyes.
One of my diversions in these broken days is making [ lunch-cards ? ] which I press into my friends' hands much as poor Mrs. McKinley* does her knit slippers -- (one of my uncles possessed seven pairs) -- and which are doubtless as great a [ bore ? ]. Please, Miss Jewett, may I send you some
Lucy Elliot Keeler
Fénelon at [ Twenty ? ]: This transcription is uncertain, and the reference is currently unknown. Jewett is not known to have written a book of this title or a review of such a book by another author. Indeed, no book of this or a similar title is listed in WorldCat.
François de Salignac de la Mothe-Fénelon (1651-1715) was a French cleric and author whom Jewett much admired and often quoted. Wikipedia.
Jewett's only known appearance in Life Magazine was on 6 April 1899 (p. 295), which consisted of a tribute poem and a sketch drawing.
Valley of Baca: Sometimes interpreted as the valley of weeping. See Psalms 84, and "Bakkah" in Wikipedia.
Mrs. McKinley: William McKinley (1843-1901) was the 25th U.S. President (1897-1901). He married Ida Saxton (1847-1907). After the deaths of their young daughters, Mrs. McKinley suffered from ill-health the rest of her life. Wikipedia.
lunch-card: This transcription is uncertain. It is not yet known how lunch cards would be use by Keeler and Jewett.
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.
Marie Thérèse de Solms Blanc to Annie Adams Fields (and Sarah
Orne Jewett)
September 1899 ]*
Forgive me dear for having taken so long to respond. I have been to Paris to see my brother in treatment for his accidental deafness, of which very probably there will remain no trace. I was very worried [ two unrecognized words ] for the rest of the family who think they know better than I do a country they have never inhabited. I was furious that I couldn't persuade everyone together to partake of
the hospitality of La Ferté, where my friend, the Russian lady, would look like the Devil to them and where they would plunge M. Blanc back into his nervous illness with their impatience and annoyance. I am so pleased with the improvement he has made in the Germain* that I do not want for anything in the world to risk compromising it. He will be able to have his hunt, despite the fact that a wasp stung him on
the foot this morning, which is not terribly good for walking. This evening, I write you under a charge to lay greetings at your feet. -- There are three pairs of them,* -- with the regret of not being able to add some of the partridges that he is going to kill. The billiard room is finished, furnished, wonderful --. We will spend our life there. The room will be wonderful for the children, who will arrive on the 15th, all crestfallen
because they cannot show their treats to the women* who gave them the doll, the moccasins and the candy. -- After excruciating heat, we had a cool taste of fall. Summer has now returned since yesterday. Tell Theodore* that I speak often of him and that Jean went to the guardhouse, for he got to Maubeuge* two hours too late, because he didn't know. Being punished in the guardhouse is worse than prison. One sleeps on a straw mattress inhabited by fleas etc., without blankets, and in the company of the scum of the regiment. But these things do not dishonor a soldier, they make him what he should be,
and Jean isn't anything less than a corporal.* Louis also sends his best wishes, having come to La Ferté. This summer he begins a job as a director of engineering, for he is in charge of a good-sized factory located on Rue de Crimée. That means an hour from home by trolley,* which will make winter fun since he must be there at seven in the morning. The wife claims she will go to have lunch with him.
Those are the sorts of promises people keep once with enthusiasm, and then never repeat. All these details are for Theodore who has friends there none of whom will forget him, the [ Toussiaque Brothers ? ] no more than the rest. It's not your birthday today as it is Sarah’s. Still, I am sending two pansy blossoms from my garden, which has never been so full of flowers. I miss you every day.
God bless you my dears!
Mrs. Johnson* has written to invite me to come to the home of Mme Fournier, as her guest, which is very nice, but I will not be able to go even to Acosta* in my present state of my affairs.
Notes
Translated: This translation is limited by the constraints of a difficult transcription as described below. I have placed the pages in their correct order, without reference to the complexities of arrangement of the manuscript pages as explained in the introduction to the transcription.
Professor Hammond and I have guessed often about Blanc's intent. We see both texts as working documents, subject to future correction.
3 September 1899: The year in this date is speculative, but should be reasonably close. Though Madam Blanc's handwriting for the month is perplexing, she establishes 3 September as the composition date by mentioning at the end that it is Sarah Orne Jewett's birthday, which was 3 September.
Almost certainly, Madam Blanc writes not too long after her summer 1898 visit from Fields, Jewett, and Jewett's nephew, Theodore Jewett Eastman, who is mentioned in the letter and with whom Blanc seems well acquainted.
In September of 1898, the earliest likely year for this letter, the Fields party remained in Europe, having spent most of the month in England. But it seems clear that Fields has written to Blanc recently from the United States.
Though it is possible Blanc wrote this in almost any year between 1899 and 1902, when Mme. Blanc's brother died, I have chosen the earliest likely year.
brother ... Jean ... Louis: According to Geneanet, Madame Blanc's brother was Christian de Solms (1841-1902). He was married to M. Augustine Bourguille (1844-1924). Their sons were Frédéric Louis (1866-1907), Engineer of Arts and Manufactures, Joseph (ca. 1875- ?), and Jean (1878-1939).
In 1896, Frédéric Louis married Thérèse Gourio du Refuge (born c. 1872). They had one daughter before 1899: Alice (1897-).
Germain: M. Blanc is Mme. Blanc's estranged husband, who regularly came to La Ferté sous Jouarre to hunt.
The Centre hospitalier intercommunal de Poissy-Saint-Germain-en-Laye is a hospital in Poissy, west of Paris, about 105 km from Mme. Blanc's home at La Ferté sous Jouarre. See Blanc in Key to Correspondents.
Mme. Blanc's Russian woman friend is not yet known, but Fliche notes that Blanc traveled in Russia and the Ukraine and made Russian friends there..
three of them: This passage is puzzling. Perhaps Blanc means that M. Blanc wishes her to greet the three people (pairs of feet) who finally are addressed in this letter: Fields, Jewett, and Theodore Jewett Eastman.
the women: That moccasins are among the gifts suggests that Fields and Jewett were the givers, perhaps during their extended 1898 visit and travels with Madam Blanc in France.
Theodore: Theodore Jewett Eastman, Jewett's nephew. See Key to Correspondents.
Maubeuge: Maubeuge in 1899 was a fortress town on the French border with Belgium. It appears that Blanc's young nephew (of an age with Theodore Eastman) was a soldier in the French army and had been assigned to the fortress at Mauberge.
corporal: Blanc appears to imply that Jean de Solms's seemingly severe punishment for a minor offense will not stand in the way of his promotion.
by trolley: Mme. Blanc uses the word "voiture" in this sentence, which in modern French signifies an automobile. Though automobiles were in use in France at the turn of the 20th century, it seems unlikely that Louis Blanc and his wife would even consider traveling separately each day to his place of work an hour from home by automobile. In 19th-century France, train and trolley cars were "voitures." Rue de Crimée (19th Arr.) at that time was on the northeastern outskirts of Paris, not accessible by the Metro as it is today.
Mrs Johnson ... Mme Fournier: While this is not certain, it is likely Madame Blanc refers to Katharine McMahon Johnson (1856-1924). See Key to Correspondents.
The transcription of Madame Fournier is uncertain. There was a contemporary Parisian who could have been the person Madame Blanc names: Anne-Elisabeth Fournier, remembered as a wealthy widow who contracted French architect Hector Guimard to design Castel Béranger, one of the first Art Nouveau buildings in Paris.
Acosta: Le Château d'Acosta -- now demolished -- was about 43 miles west of Paris at Aubergenville, not far from Poissy, but about 125 km from La Ferté sous Jouarre. At the time of this letter, the chateau was the summer residence of Mme. Beaulaincourt. French Wikipedia says that Sophie de Castellane, Marquise de Contades, then Beaulaincourt, Countess Marles (1818-1904) was a writer and kept a salon. Her father was Esprit Victor Elisabeth Boniface de Castellane, Comte de Castellane (1788-1862), a French military officer and ultimately a Marshal of France. Madame Blanc included an account of the Marquise in an essay that Sarah Orne Jewett helped to translate, "Conversation in France," Century 48:4 (Aug 1894): 626-634.
The manuscript of this 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, translation and notes by Jeannine Hammond and Terry Heller, Coe College.
This transcription was very difficult for both of us. Hammond, though a French speaker, nevertheless struggled with Madam Blanc's eccentric handwriting. Though fairly familiar with the relationship between Blanc, Fields and Jewett, Heller remained limited in guessing what Blanc might want to say where her script is puzzling.
Also puzzling was the order of the pages. To help clarify this for readers, each page has two labels. The numerals indicate the order in which Blanc intended the pages to be read. The letters indicate the order in which they appear on the sheets of the manuscript from Historic New England, two of which contain two pages on one side the sheet.
[ 3 ? bre ]
Pardon, chère, d'avoir autant tardé à vous répondre. Je suis alleé à Paris voir mon frère en traitement pour cette surdité tout accidentelle et dont il ne restera aucune trace très probablement; Je me suis fait beaucoup de souci en [ two unrecognized words ] pour le reste de la famille qui prétend connaître mieux que moi un pays qu’elle n'a jamais habité. J'ai ragé de ne pouvoir offrir á tout ce monde ensemble
l'hospitalité de La Ferté où mon amie russe leur ferait l'effet du diable et où ils mèneraient M. Blanc à sa maladie nerveuse par l'impatience et la contrarieté. Je suis si contente de l'amélioration qu'il a rapporté de le Germain que je ne veux pour rien au monde risquer de la compromettre. Il va pouvoir avoir la chasse, quoiqu’une guepe l’ait piqué au
pied ce matin, ce qui est [ affreusement ? ] peu favorable à la marche. Le soir que je vous écris il me charge de mettre ses hommages à vos pieds réunis, -- il y en a trois [ paires ? ], -- avec le regret de ne pouvoir y joindre quelques uns des perdreaux qu'il va tuer. -- La salle de billard est achevée meublée, superbe --. Nous allons y passer notre vie. Ce sera pour les enfants qui arriveront le 15 tout déconfits --
et Jean n'en est pas moins nominé caporal. Louis envoie aussi son souvenir étant venu à La Ferté. Il commence [ deleted word ] cet été métier d'ingénieur directeur, étant maitre d'une usine considerable située rue de Crimée c’est à dire à une heure de chez lui en voiture ce qui lui promet du plaisir pour l'hiver car il doit y étre à 7 h. du matin. La femme se promet d'aller déjeuner avec lui.
Ce sont des promesses qu'on fait une fois avec enthousiasme et qu'on ne recommence jamais! Tous ces details pour Théodore qui a là des amis dont aucun ne l'oubliera, les [ Frères Toussiaque ? ] pas plus que d’ autres. Ce n'est pas votre fête aujourd'hui comme c’est celle de Sarah. Je vous envoie cependant deux pensées cueillées dans le Jardin qui n’a jamais été plus fleuri. Je vous regrette tout les temps.
God bless you, dears!
Mrs Johnson m'a écrit de venir chez Mme [ Fournier ? ] as her guest ce qui est très aimable mais je ne pourrai même pas aller à Acosta dans les conditions où je suis.
Sarah Orne Jewett to John Thaxter
Manchester-by-the-Sea, Mass.
[September 1899]
Dear Mr. Thaxter:
Thank you very much for your letter,
and especially for the invitation to come to you for a day or
two a little later. I keep the pleasantest remembrance of my
visit to the farm and I wish that I could see so pleasant a
place again but I am almost afraid to make any promise to come
this year. I lost so much time through my long illness that I
feel very much hurried now that I have had to put by many plans.
Perhaps in October or November I may get a day for one of the
long drives in which I delight, and so can see you then. I hope
that Mrs. Thaxter is having a delightful journey in Canada.
Thank you both for wishing that I could come, and believe me
Yours sincerely,
S. O. Jewett
I should like dearly to see
our sea pigeon, and the little pasture!*
Notes
little pasture: See Sarah Orne Jewett to John
Thaxter August 7, [1899]. Sea pigeon is an alternative
name for a sea gull. This connection between the two letters
supports the proposed date for this one.
This letter was edited and annotated by Richard Cary in Sarah
Orne
Jewett Letters; the ms. is held by Colby College Special
Collections, Waterville, Maine.
Sarah Orne Jewett to the Edgar Allan Poe Memorial Association
South Berwick.
Maine.
[ End letterhead ]
Miss Sarah Orne Jewett regrets that it will be impossible to accept the honor of an invitation from the Poe Memorial Association to the University of Virginia to be present at the unveiling of Zolnay's bust of Poe,* on October seventh.
September 19th 1899
Notes
Zolnay .. bust of Poe: George Julian Zolnay (1863-1949) was a Hungarian-American sculptor. The celebration of the unveiling of his bust of Edgar Allan Poe (1809 - 7 October 1849) took place as indicated in the letter at the University of Virginia on 7 October 1899, the 50th anniversary of Poe's death.
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.
===
wf9
Sarah Orne Jewett to Sarah Wyman Whitman
South Berwick, Maine
[ End letterhead ]
When Coolidge* followed on to speak of the death of Cornelius Vanderbilt* & just chuckled out loud, and* my feelings was easier to bear. You might in answer just remark to old Coolidge that once there was a lady who said she had had a great many troubles and most on 'em never happened -- Perhaps when she sees the window she may get some ease, but she will always remember Dora's* calm
opinion . . O Laws what world it is . . . and Coolidge a building a house which will give her satisfaction in the end but makes her feel all worked up in this moment. Aint it a good ways for you an' me to go to see her next year? me, I wont go alone and I now give fair notice. The only consolation that I can get hold of is that the window is quite beautiful and that Dora Woolsey has no more taste than a plain bun without currents. This is one of the certainties of life
-- you dont need to see either.
I wish one thing, that you were right here. I am always on the brink of telegraphing and sending you special invitations, but oh Darling you know you can always come{.} Perhaps before Mrs. Lawrence* goes? ---------- Was it a great evening at Annisquam? and were you far far too late? There is a whole book of questions if only one had time to ask. I dont know when I can get back to the shore. Mary* and I have a plot of
driving off "up country" the middle of next week. George Howe's birthday* comes that Sunday, the first, and I wish that I could get back in time but I fear not. (It takes more time to live in two places than it does in one -- ) I am now much better but not very strong and I am just making a great fight to keep steady and get a year full of things done before winter.
And little Jessie* has gone and all her music with her! I can always see that small figure in the blue dress and the eager, wistful smile like a childs
[ when corrected ] one speaks to her -- She hopes and hopes to see you again. She wishes it could be in Rome . . .
Goodbye darling and dont you worry about things going wrong. Me and you, we know better!
yours ever
S.O.J.
& do speak a little word to a lonesome A.F.* if you are driving by! Theodore* sends his love -- He goes back to college on Wednesday.
Notes
1899: This date is confirmed by Jewett mentioning the death of Cornelius Vanderbilt II and also noting the birthday of George Dudley Howe being about a week in the future. See notes below .
Coolidge: Sarah Chauncey Woolsey. Key to Correspondents.
Vanderbilt: American socialite, Cornelius Vanderbilt II (1843- 12 September 1899). Wikipedia.
Dora's: Dora was, presumably, Woolsey's sister, Theodora Walton Woolsey (1840-1910).
and: Jewett often writes "a" with a long tail for "and." I render these as "and."
Mrs. Lawrence: Elizabeth Chapman Lawrence (1829-1905), one of Whitman's correspondents. See E.L., The Bread Box Papers: a biography of Elizabeth Chapman Lawrence, (1983) by Helen H. Gemmill.
Mary: Mary Rice Jewett. Key to Correspondents.
George Howe's birthday: See Alice Greenwood Howe in Key to Correspondents. Her husband's birthday was 30 September. October 1 fell on Sunday in 1899. Presumably Jewett means there will be a celebration of his birthday on the Sunday after.
Jessie: Jessie Cochrane. Key to Correspondents.
A.F.: Annie Adams Fields. Key to Correspondents.
Theodore: Theodore Jewett Eastman. Key to Correspondents. He graduated from Harvard University in 1901.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library of Harvard University, Cambridge, MA. bMS Am 1743 Box 6, Item 277.
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Annie Adams Fields
[In top left corner of page 1; 2 lines]
I am so sorry about William*
Do tell me if he is better
Monday Morning [25 September 1899]*
Dearest Annie
I meant to write you a good long letter yesterday but I went to church in the morning and after early dinner I [fell corrected] to reading and then I went to see Miss Huntress* -- and the day was gone. I never had such pleasure before in reading Mr. Arnold's letters which Mary had lying about. I see him much more plainly now than
kindness in every day life, but a lack of greatness. The scholar the teacher, but nothing of what one always meets face to face at every moment in Tennyson, a kind of loftiness of feeling[: ?] the opposite of what for lack of a better word we call commonplaceness.
Do you remember how often and how anxiously M. A. denies 'greatness' to Tennyson? ---- It is very interesting to read the letters again{.} I think it was a lack in him not in the book, which I felt
at first so strongly.
The letter of [Triene ?]* is [pinted meaning pointed?] enough so that possibility must be put by. They can only help themselves, and we must leave them alone. I dare say their going might wear upon Eva[; ?] * At any rate we can do no more. And I dare say we shall have one comfort that they may perk up in [unrecognized name], I mean, out of a desire to show that there was no need of their going. I am writing while I wait for the mail to come. Perhaps I ^shall^ get
a letter from you! -- This is a very eventful week. Katy going to Boston for two days to get her winter things & see her mother, and Stubby* to depart with all his goods on Wednesday and that afternoon I shall take Mary & we are going to drive up to Tamworth* for a day or two. We shall take a night on the road both ways and get back on Saturday. I hope that it wont rain. I get a good deal out of these drives in what I see and have to think about. This visit has been put off one year after another for a long time, but now we both see
[w circled in another hand, bottom left corner of page 4.]
our way to going. I hope you will think it is nice. It is gray weather today but not cold: however it may be any sort of weather before Wednesday and if it looks stormy then, why, of course, we shall not go --
The Merrimans came in on the New England. I hope to have a word from "Old Helen[.]"
What a nice note from Boylston Adams* -- it will be so good about the room. And on very cold days, which after all do not come so often or stay so very long, he can find some warmer place with his books, elsewhere in the house. I believe you will like having them there even more than you think -- it will be so much more advantage to him than if he were in a lodging house and they will feel better about him beside. It will give him a little more hold on the world he belongs to, and he will be too busy with his studies to make you feel any weight of his presence. We must both do everything we can for him. I think it is a place where what one can do will really count.
But I must stop writing. Good bye dear with no end of love.
Pinny*
Notes
25 September 1899: This date is inferred from the fact that Jewett's nephew, Theodore Eastman, leaves home during this week to return to Harvard. In 1899, Harvard opened for the fall term during the week of 25 September.
The other event that helps to date this letter so precisely is mentioned in Sarah Orne Jewett to Annie Adams Fields Friday night [ 29 September 1899 ], the death of John Hamilton Rice on 25 September 1899.
William: Sarah Orne Jewett to Annie Adams Fields, Sunday. [around July 4, 1899], indicates that William, probably a Fields employee, is suffering from tonsillitis. That at the end of September, he still has health problems related to that illness seems unlikely, so it would appear he has suffered another misfortune.
Miss Huntress: William Huntress was a cabinet maker and prominent businessman in late 19th-century South Berwick, ME. A talk on Jewett by Rebecca O. Young is reported in the Lewiston Evening Journal (23 November 1918, p. 7). Young says that Jewett's two teachers at Olive Raynes' school were Miss Raynes and Miss Huntress. It may be that neither of these clues points toward the Miss Huntress whom Jewett visited.
Arnold ... letters... Mary: Jewett probably is reading Letters of Matthew Arnold 1848-1888, edited by George William Erskine Russell (Macmillan 1895-6).
Mary Rice Jewett. See Correspondents.
Tennyson: Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson (1809-1892) "was Poet Laureate of Great Britain and Ireland during much of Queen Victoria's reign and remains one of the most popular British poets."
The letter of [Triene ?]: What Jewett speaks of here is unknown.
Eva: This may be Baroness Eva von Blomberg. See Key to Correspondents.
Katy ... Stubby: Katy Galvin is a Jewett family employee, and Stubby is Theodore Jewett Eastman, Jewett's nephew. See Key to Correspondents.
Tamworth: Tamworth, NH is in the White Mountains. It includes the villages of Chocorua, South Tamworth, Wonalancet, and Whittier.
Merrimans ...the New England ... "Old Helen"..., Boylston Adams: Helen Bigelow Merriman. See Key to Correspondents.
The S.S. New England, of the Dominion Line, served the Liverpool to Boston route in 1899.
Richard Cary identifies "Old Helen" as Helen Bigelow Merriman.
Boyston Adams is almost certainly Zabdiel Boylston Adams, III, (1875-1940) son of Annie Adams Fields's brother Zabdiel Boylston Adams, Jr. (1829-1902). The younger Boylston became a surgeon.
Pinny: one of Jewett's nicknames.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. Jewett, Sarah Orne, 1849-1909. 40 letters to Annie (Adams) Fields (no date). Sarah Orne Jewett additional correspondence, 1868-1930. MS Am 1743.1 (117). Transcribed and annotated by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Annie Adams Fields
[Written on lined paper, across the lines]
Wednesday night [ 27 September 1899 ]*
Wakefield, N.H.
Dearest Annie
I send you just a word to say that we had a most lovely long afternoon drive; the hills begin to stand high and the colours are most beautiful very green trees & very bright trees mixed together{.} We came twenty-five miles, and are going to spend the night in this nice old fashioned Pike's
Tavern -- at Union Village.* It was a little windy when we first set forth but the wind went down and it grew beautifully still & clear. I have n't much to say but to send my love -- It seems like a journey you would love, but perhaps almost too long drives -- Tomorrow 30 miles, but the air is oh
so good. Mary* seems to be already enjoying much, and I long to see the little old houses and to make up stories about the people. Good night dear with ever & ever so much love
P. L.
Notes
Wakefield, N.H.: Wakefield is a town in Carroll County, New Hampshire, just across the Maine border, about 30 miles north by road from South Berwick, ME. On the following day, Jewett and her sister plan to drive to Tamworth, NH, another 30 miles north northeast.
Pike's Tavern ... Union Village: Dudley Pike's Hotel / Tavern in Union Village, NH, would have been about 5 miles south of the village of Wakefield. Though this is not certain, the Pike Tavern may still stand in the area. The problem is that Dave Proctor's house, which is supposed once to have been Pike's Tavern is located not in Union Village, but in nearby Brookfield.
Mary: Mary Rice Jewett. See Key to Correspondents.
P.L.: Pinny Lawson, one of Jewett's nicknames.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. Jewett, Sarah Orne, 1849-1909. 40 letters to Annie (Adams) Fields (no date). Sarah Orne Jewett additional correspondence, 1868-1930. MS Am 1743.1 (117). Transcribed and annotated by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Annie Adams Fields
Tamworth, NH
[ 28 September 1899 ]*
Dearest Annie
I have got your dear letter & the other envelope with Mr. Emerson's* note and delightful little sketch which everybody is ready to steal away from me. I do hope that I shall see them{,} Mr. E. & Sylvia{,}* but I dont see how I can get to Manchester until early in the week. I shall not get home until some time on Sunday, and we only have tomorrow & tonight here leaving early on Saturday morning
-- We have had a long drive today, all day in fact except a couple hours at Ossipee* at noon. It has been a perfect day, such colour & neither too warm [nor corrected] too cold. Mrs. Walden ('Grace') who wishes to be kindly remembered to you -- has really made a most charming summer home here -- 105 acres and an old house charmingly [unrecognized word]{.} I am so glad to see it after all these years -- & we have
so many old times to talk over -- Mary* having such a nice time that is good to see -- Darling Fuff.* I shall try to get to you on Monday but perhaps it will have to be a little later. I send you dearest love, and I shall try to write a letter later tomorrow. This goes on the dead run for the early mail.
Love to Sylvia & R. W. E.
from P. L.
Notes
Wonalancet ... Tamworth, NH: "Wonalancet is an unincorporated community in the northwestern corner of the town of Tamworth in Carroll County, New Hampshire, United States." Wikipedia
Mr. Emerson's note ... Mr. E. & Sylvia: This is somewhat puzzling because at the end of the letter, Jewett refers to "R. W. E. and Sylvia." However, it seems quite likely that she refers to the American architect William Ralph Emerson (1833-1917). Wikipedia says that Emerson was a cousin of Ralph Waldo Emerson; born in Alton, IL, he lived most of his life in Boston: "On September 15, 1873 he married Sylvia Hathaway Watson." Watson (1833-1917) was his second wife.
Ossipee: Ossipee Lake also is in Carroll County, NH. Wikipedia
Mrs. Walden ('Grace'): Katherine (Kate) Sleeper Walden (1862-1949) established the Wonalancet Farm Inn in about 1891. In 1902, she married Arthur Treadwell Walden (1871-1947), "a Klondike Gold Rush adventurer, dog driver and participant in the first Byrd Antarctic Expedition. He is also known as an author and developer of the Chinook sled dog breed." Wikipedia
For a biographical sketch of Mrs. Walden, see When Women and Mountains Meet: Adventures in the White Mountains by Julie Boardman, pp. 82-7.
While the couple did not marry until 1902, it appears that they were cohabiting well before this date and that she may have been called "Mrs. Walden" in 1899.
No explanation or confirmation of her being called "Grace" has yet been found.
Mary ... Fuff: Mary Rice Jewett. See Key to Correspondents.
Fuff is Jewett's nickname for Annie Fields.
P.L.: Pinny Lawson, one of Jewett's nicknames.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. Jewett, Sarah Orne, 1849-1909. 40 letters to Annie (Adams) Fields (no date). Sarah Orne Jewett additional correspondence, 1868-1930. MS Am 1743.1 (117). Transcribed and annotated by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Bliss Perry
28 September [ 1899 ]*
Dear Mr. Perry
I thank you for your most kind note, and I am delighted that you like the Shepherdess.* I should be very sorry if you did not count me among your promised writers for next year. I hope to get some work in hand before very long of which I shall some day speak to you, but
Pray believe me ever yours most sincerely
I have your new book of stories* which arrived just as I was leaving home, but I am looking forward and with great pleasure to reading (or rereading) the delightful volume.
Notes
1899: Though not certain, this date is probable because Jewett seems to be acknowledging Perry's acceptance of her 1899 story, "A Dunnet Shepherdess." That the month precedes the story's December publication, speaks of her hope to appear in Atlantic "next year," and likely acknowledges receiving a copy of an 1899 publication by Perry support this guess.
Page 2: In the bottom right corner of page one is penciled, in another hand, the ms number, 293. Penciled in the upper left corner are the initials, B.P.
Shepherdess: "A Dunnet Shepherdess," a story in the series set in Dunnet Landing, which includes The Country of the Pointed Firs (1896), appeared in Atlantic Monthly in December 1899.
Page 3: Someone, perhaps Jewett, has numbered this page, top center, and underlined -- 3. The letter is written on a folded sheet, so that page two appears on the right side of the inside. Page 3 text is on the bottom third of the left side, inside the folded sheet.
new book of stories: Though it is difficult to be certain, Jewett probably has received Perry's short-story collection, The Powers at Play (1899).
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. Jewett, Sarah Orne, 1849-1909. 8 letters to Bliss Perry; undated. Perry, Bliss, 1860-1954, recipient. Bliss Perry letters from various correspondents, 1869-1942. MS Am 1343 (290-297).
Sarah Orne Jewett to Annie Adams Fields
Friday night [ 29 September 1899 ]*
Dearest Annie
It has been a lovely day. I have enjoyed my little visit here very much. We are going to start after breakfast tomorrow to drive home again. Thirty-six miles tomorrow, and I hope it it is n't going to rain but it is cloudy over the mountains. You would love the sight of
Sandwich Dome and Passaconaway & Chocura* -- and there is just enough colour to be most beautiful.
I think of your dear guests tonight. I hope you will give my love to them. If you really cant give away those scissors (!) there is a pretty French box in the same
a truly unfortunate choice of my week away, but the weather has been good; if I had stayed away & it had rained too it would have been far more unsatisfactory. But oh darling Fuff* rest yourself all you can and get some of your port wine & take [littles ?] of it. I think you seem as if you would be better for it. There is a great talk going on about a little
[16 circled at bottom left of page 3]
too tired to come right away on Monday. The two days drive is pretty steep! in every sense.
= I got a letter today from poor Cora* in answer to mine. Such a characteristic letter, full of expressions! She might have written it next week -- or anytime, poor thing! I cant tell what a strange feeling
it gave me -- But I shall try to do what I can -- I wish that I could think it would be much, but she has her boys lives to live in now. --------
I must not write on. I send you much love, and I think of you anxiously{.} I am so afraid you are getting tireder than you ought and I want to build you up a little stronger
when I come. Take a little quinine* for two or three days, & then stop?
Yours always
P.L.
Notes
29 September 1899: This date is inferred from the reference to "poor Cora," whose husband died and left her with 3 sons, aged 18-20, at the end of September 1899. See note below.
Sandwich Dome and Passaconaway & Chocura: Sandwich Mountain (or Dome) is in the Sandwich range of the White Mountains of New Hampshire. The range also includes Mount Passaconaway, named after a Pennacook Indian chief, and Mount Chocorua.
Jess ... Alice ... Judy: While this is not certain, it likely Jewett refers to Jessie Cochrane and Alice Greenwood (Mrs. George Dudley) Howe. See Key to Correspondents.
While this has not been confirmed, it seems likely that Judy is Judith Drew Beal, stepdaughter of Annie Fields's sister, Louisa Adams Beal. See Annie Fields in Key to Correspondents.
Fuff: One of Annie Fields' nicknames.
Cora: Richard Cary says: "Cora Clark Rice (1849-1925) was one of Miss Jewett's earliest Boston friends who introduced her to the social and cultural life of the city. Married to the son of a Massachusetts governor, John Rice, she devoted much time to philanthropies and the Home for Incurables in Boston.
John Hamilton Rice (July 6, 1849 - September 25, 1899) was the son of Alexander Hamilton Rice, former governor of Massachusetts, and Augusta E. McKim.
Cora and John's children were: Alexander Hamilton Rice, Jr. (1875-1956); John Clark Rice (1876- ); and Arthur Noble Rice (1878- )
quinine: Quinine is a medication used to prevent and treat malaria.
P.L.: Pinny Lawson, one of Jewett's nicknames.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. Jewett, Sarah Orne, 1849-1909. 40 letters to Annie (Adams) Fields (no date). Sarah Orne Jewett additional correspondence, 1868-1930. MS Am 1743.1 (117). Transcribed and annotated by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Elizabeth Marshall Maltby
[ 1899 ]*
We herewith offer our best thanks for the peppermints which are as large and as strong and as good as the best! They are diminishing, [because ?] my sister Mary* has joined us and also likes them. I will not attempt to disguise that we take
turns in putting the box into our travelling bags and that our presence in any part of Vermont or New Hampshire is betrayed at once by the flavor of us.
We have had a most delightful journey so far. I wish to recommend the Elm House at Orford* as one of the pleasantest country inns in the wide
world -- Nobody can tell you however until you get here what a quaint ^village^ and charming country the Elm House's windows look out upon -- Yet the peppermints this minute remind me of the great pleasure of our Northampton visit.
Sarah O. Jewett
1899: This date is speculative. If Jewett stayed with Elizabeth Maltby in Northampton, it seems likely this was after Maltby opened her boarding house in 1898. Of the years after that date, 1899 seems reasonably likely for a visit in western New Hampshire at the beginning of October. There is a letter probably of 28 September 1899 that places Jewett and her sister Mary in the White Mountains area of New Hampshire.
However, in Jewett's letters to Annie Adams Fields from the previous week, Jewett indicates her plan to return to South Berwick before 3 October.
Mary: Mary Rice Jewett. See Key to Correspondents.
Elm House at Orford: The Elm House Hotel was established in a remodeled home in Orford, NH, in 1875. The village of Orford in western New Hampshire, west of the White Mountains, is near the Vermont border.
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 Wyman Whitman to Annie Adams Fields
[ 7 October 1899 ]*
UNION CLUB
8 PARK STREET
[ End letterhead ]
Dearest friend: I dont suppose you will quite know how acutely disappointed I am at being here instead of there tonight! But [ when ? ] Mr. Whitman left for two or three days in New York, I found myself with time & [ call for called ? ] some comtee meetings & so, having already given hostages to [ Annie ? ]* for her wedding, I arranged
to stay on and talk over Radcliffe questions with Mr. Warner.* Alas. -- For this morning came your second message, & O, how I should have adored being there, & now all was over. -- Even going to the Hill* is most uncertain ( [ though I have my ? ] hopes.) because & to the [ appointments ?] of [ tomorrow is ? ] added the funeral of the one little dear old lady of the villages who was -- who is -- personally dear to me. A little Botticelli* in appearance. So delicate & distinguished -- with praying hands, the gold beads she had when was 16, tied into a little yellow ribbon when she had what she liked best = very gay when gayety had a chance & with a little romantic affection for me. Little Aunt Charlotte -- dead
at 83. Somehow the last three days have been difficult to live: for no one reason -- But you will see the strenuous note of the Fall is in the air.
Thank you for all; and love herewith.
Notes
7 October 1899: Associated with this letter is an envelope addressed to Fields at Thunderbolt Hill, Manchester, MA, canceled at Beverly Farms on 7 October 1899.
letterhead: This letterhead is stamped into the paper, not printed.
Annie: This transcription is uncertain, and the person has not yet been identified.
Radcliffe ... Mr. Warner: Whitman was deeply involved in the development of Radcliffe College. Joseph B. Warner, a Boston lawyer, was the founding treasurer of the college. See Elizabeth Cary Agassiz, A Biography, (1919) by Lucy Allen Paton, Chapter 9.
the Hill: Thunderbolt Hill, location of Fields's summer home in Manchester.
Botticelli: Italian painter Sandro Botticelli (c. 1445-1510). Wikipedia.
Charlotte: This person has not yet been identified.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library of Harvard University, Cambridge, MA. bMS Am 1743,1 Box 6, Item 222.
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Alice French
8 October 1899
South Berwick,
Maine.
[ End letterhead ]
My dear Mifs French
Your letter has been following my very erratic course, and I am so sorry to be so late ^even^ in saying [ deletion ] an unwelcome truth! For Mrs. Fields* and I cannot promise to do the thing you ask = our plans are too uncertain for next year, and I have kept, = for* { at } any rate, these many years -- to a strict rule not to undertake
in these later years I can never bear to have her put to the strain; and you will know, too, that our hearts are full of interest in the Womens Clubs* and especially in these great rallies and occasions. I am truly sorry to disappoint you, and to answer so kind a letter -- or letters - as yours in the negative.
We had such a real pleasure in the short time that we saw you, and
I am just here for a day or two, the dear home on the hill is shutting its doors early = we are going to town for the Dewey celebration* and then Mrs Fields is coming to stay with me in Berwick. She sends you many messages -- Do not come
east without a word to us! We wish so much to see you again --
Sarah O. Jewett
Notes
Fields: Annie Adams Fields. See Key to Correspondents.
= for: It is uncharacteristic for Jewett to double her dashes in this way, though Fields sometimes did so.
and: Jewett sometimes writes an "a" with a long tail for "and." I have rendered these as "and."
Womens Clubs: This reference remains unexplained. Perhaps French was involved in the Fifth Biennial of General Federation of Women's Clubs, 4-9 June 1900, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. She was a member of the Iowa Women's Club, gave presentations at meetings in other states, and was active in various club activities, notably during World War I. Unlike Jewett and Fields, French was an active opponent of woman suffrage.
Greenaway: Catherine "Kate" Greenaway (1846-1901), British children's verse writer and illustrator. Her first books of illustrated poems was Under the Window (1878), in which appeared, "I Saw a Ship":
Dewey celebration: In September 1899, Admiral George Dewey (1837-1917) received the honorary rank of Admiral of the Navy for his naval victory at the Battle of Manila Bay of 1 May 1898 during the Spanish-American War. He received a hero's welcome home in the fall of 1899, which included major celebrations in New York and in Boston. The Boston celebration was on 14 October. Wikipedia.I saw a ship that sailed the sea,
It left me as the sun went down;
The white birds flew and followed it
To town -- to London town.
Right sad were we to stand alone,
And see it pass so far away;
And yet we knew some ship would come --
Some other ship -- some other day.
Madame Blanc: Marie Thérèse de Solms Blanc. See Key to Correspondents.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Newberry Library, Chicago, IL, in the Alice French Papers, Modern Manuscripts, Series 1: Correspondence, approximately 1892-1932: File — Box: 1, Folder: 13. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Louisa Loring Dresel
Wednesday Morn --
[ Before 14 October, 1899 ]*
[ Begin letterhead ]
South Berwick.
Maine.
[ End letterhead ]
My dear Loulie
When I was in the train
yesterday I said to me 'Loulie will be landing [ deletion ]
one of these days and* you must send a note to meet her!' and
what should I find but a note from you -- all landed and settled
down at housekeeping in the cottage!* I shall hope
to see you very soon dear and I am so glad that you are safe at
home -- and that your cousin is here --
We are just going to town. Mrs. Fields* has
gone herself today but comes back to sleep and the general
flitting takes place tomorrow. I shall stay in town over the
Dewey celebration which
you and your cousin ought to see --* and then go to Berwick on
Monday -- but I shall [ hope corrected ] to have Mrs.
Fields there for a while -- it is far too early for her to
settle down in town.
I am feeling much better in this last month
and the ailment{s} of the months before are fast being forgotten
-- No more grippe for me, if you please: but I was
foolish in not heeding the Doctor who always warned me
that it would be a long time before I really got well.
How glad the Aunties must be [ to corrected
] see you and to have you back! I wish I could see you myself!
Yours affectionately
S. O. J. --
Notes
1899: A penciled note below "Wednesday Morn" reads "Oct 1899." Scott Stoddart writes: "14 October 1899 was declared a state holiday by Governor Roger Wolcott to celebrate the arrival of Admiral George Dewey to Boston, Dewey was seen as a national hero and presidential hopeful for his victory at Manila Bay, which won the Spanish-American War. The parade route passed the Fields' residence at 148 Charles Street."
and: Sometimes Jewett writes "a" with a long tail
for "and." I render these as "and."
cottage: Stoddart notes: "The family cottage was
at Cove Hill in Beverly, Massachusetts. Dresel spent many of her
summers there, a few miles from the Fields's cottage at
Manchester."
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.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Sara Norton
Maine.
[ October 17, 1899 ]*
My dear Sally
I have just got your letter -- here -- and I am so sorry to miss the pleasure of being at Shady Hill on Thursday. While it would be a double pleasure, & more, to have Theodore* there too. You were so kind to think of it. His
address is 2 Russell Hall this year. I shall not send on your invitation however because you [ may blotted ] like to make some other plan since one of these two must fail you.
I write in great haste to catch the afternoon mail.
S.O.J.
Notes
1899: This date comes from the envelope accompanying the letter, addressed to Shady Hill in Cambridge, MA, the Norton family residence.
A penciled note on the front of the envelope reads: "S. O. Jewett. For Autograph."
Theodore: Theodore Jewett Eastman, Jewett's nephew, was at Harvard University in 1899. 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.
17 October
1899
[ Begin letterhead ]
South Berwick, Maine
[ End letterhead ]
Your letter gives me great pleasure and I shall only be too glad to have you use one of my stories* as you propose. I cannot think that Messrs. Houghton, Mifflin & Co. will see any difficulty in the way. With best thanks for your kind words, and best
[ Page 2 ]
regards, believe me always
Your sincerely
S. O. Jewett
Notes
Gardiner: A note on a page with this letter reads:
"Harvard College Library, March 12 1935, Estate of John Hays
Gardiner through Mrs. Alice Gardiner Davis."
stories: Gardiner published The Forms of Prose
Literature in 1900. It was "A supplementary book to English
composition, by Professor Barrett Wendell." He
included in this collection of examples for writing students
Jewett's "Fame's Little Day" (1895). In his introduction
to the story he wrote:
The manuscript of the letter is held by the Houghton Library of Harvard University: Box: 6 Identifier: MS Am 1743, (256), Sarah Orne Jewett correspondence II. Letters from Sarah Orne Jewett. Gardiner, John Hays, 1863-1913, recipient. 2 letters; 1899-1900., 1899-1900. Transcription and annotation by Terry Heller, Coe College.I have asked permission to reprint this little story here because it is an example of the best kind of realism, of the realism which turns for its material to the homely events of everyday life and brings out the essential soundness and sweetness of that every-day life. It is not the easiest kind of realism: there is a morbid streak in human nature which makes the sordidness and brutality of Mr. Thomas Hardy's later people more interesting and perhaps convincing to a great many readers; a satisfying portrayal of such people is therefore, other things being equal, an easier task.than the portrayal of people who, as in this story, are also commonplace but not weak or evil-minded. The story shows, moreover, how unnecessary it is to go far afield for material when the world is as full as it is of all the varieties of human nature.
Thomas Bailey Aldrich to Sarah Orne Jewett
Oct 19. 1899.
Dear Sadie:*
If you think the enclosed would be of any interest to our dear friend Mme. Blanc,* you may send it to her in one of your letters, [ as you please ? ]. M. Aurélien Scholl appears to be invading her territory as well as mine. See how coolly he has stolen my story and reproduced it as his own, changing only the [ date ? ], the geography and the nomenclature. The dialogue is a verbatim translation. I begin to believe the M. Scholl is the real author of the famous
We hoped to have A.F. with us to-day, but that volatile girl must up and [ late-plan ? ] that she is going to you and not coming to us. Give our love to her all the same.
My lord and mistress is in town on committee work for a hospital, leaving her own one [im]patient* at home.
Sadie: Aldrich uses his affectionate nickname, "Sadie Martinot." See Key to Correspondents.
Blanc: Marie Thérèse de Solms Blanc. Key to Correspondents.
Aurélien Scholl: French author and journalist, Aurélien Scholl (1833-1902). Wikipedia.
M. Scholl, according to The Critic 35:869 (November 1899, p. 984), published under his own name in Le Gaulois, a conservative French newspaper, a series of translations of early stories by Aldrich. The article notes that Madame Blanc had previously published translations of some of these stories. One of them, "La Relique," a translation of Aldrich's "Quite So," was reprinted in New York, in the Courrier des Etats-Unis, also with Scholl as the "author." The Courrier was a French language newspaper published by French immigrants in New York City.
bordereau: The "bordereau" was an important document of mysterious authorship in the Dreyfus affair. Wikipedia.
A.F.: Annie Adams Fields. Key to Correspondents.
[im]patient: The brackets are Aldrich's.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library of Harvard University: Sarah Orne Jewett Correspondence I, Letters to Sarah Orne Jewett. bMS Am 1743 (4).
This transcription is from a photocopy held by the Maine Women Writer's Collection, University of New England, Box 2, Folder 99, Burton Trafton Jewett Research Collection.
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Sarah Cabot Wheelwright
South Berwick Monday Eve
[Autumn 1899 or later]*
My dear Sarah
I am so sorry that I was prevented from writing to you today
-- I wish to tell you as soon as possible about the trains to
South Berwick1 on next Saturday afternoon. If you are
going to join Mary Wheelwright at Beverly* (or she can join you,
to be more exact!) you had better take the 3:30 train Eastern
Division track at the North Station. Go along the line of
cars until you come to one marked for Northern Div. (ask the
brakeman)-- & for South Berwick, Sommersworth Rochester
etc, then you won't have to change cars any where, and we shall
meet you at the South Berwick Station. Tell Mary that she will
find this car toward the rear of the train at Beverly at 4:05. I
underline Eastern Division Track 4.
because sometimes people make a mistake and take a Western Div.
-- 3:30 train which is wrong=goes [so transcribed] to
another part of the town. I do hope that you can both
come. I send this slip of paper about trains for you to
send to Mary. Mrs. Fields* and I got down very well on Saturday
but pretty tired after the difficult little campaign in town. It
is lovely soft weather -- but not like the Newport climate
as Miss Appleton2 describes it -- with roses
still in bloom. She speaks with such pleasure of seeing you and
having a visit from A. C. W. (How I wish I could have one!)3
Mrs. Fields sends you her love and my sister sends her love and
welcome to you both. You may like to say that the first of the
week will suit you better than Saturday but oh do come
if you can dear! I am pretty sure of the Tysons being here until
the 1st or after and I know that Elsie [Elise?] &
Mary4 [ wanted should be deleted? ] would
play together out of doors beautifully,
Good night with ever so much love and I do hope that you will
feel stronger and that the little change of coming north a
little way to a new little old house like this will do you good.
Yours always
Sarah
Notes
1Mary [Rice Jewett] and Sarah Jewett totally
refurbished their South Berwick home between 1887 and 1890; the
date of this invitation possibly falls toward the end of this
period.
2 Mary Worthen Appleton (12 May 1886 - 15 April
1965), Newport, RI, supported local arts and philanthropy.
For example, she and Helen Ellis (died c. 15 November 1940)
served on the board of the Newport Hospital around 1910 and were
members of the Newport Historical Society.
According to Appleton's
Annual Cyclopedia and Register of Important Events
for 1899 (pp. 574-6), Appleton was the daughter of William Henry
Appleton (1814-1899) who, with his father, founded the New York
publishing firm, D. Appleton & Co. However, an Appleton
genealogy
web site lists Mary as the daughter of his son, William
Worthen Appleton, which better fits her life dates.
3Andrew Cunningham Wheelwright, Sarah Cabot's
husband.
4Elise (Elizabeth) Tyson Vaughan (1871-1949), stepdaughter of Emily Tyson. See Key to Correspondents
Editor's Notes
Mary Wheelwright at Beverly: Daughter of Mrs. Wheelwright; see Key to Correspondents. Beverly is just west of Manchester by the Sea in northeastern Massachusetts.
Mrs. Fields: Annie Adams Fields. See Key to Correspondents.
The manuscript of this letter is in the collection of the Miller Library of Colby College, Waterville, ME. The transcription first appeared in Scott Stoddart's Ph.D. dissertation at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign: Selected Letters of Sarah Orne Jewett, copyright by Stoddart, 1988. Annotation is by Stoddart, supplemented where appropriate by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to John Thaxter
South Berwick, Maine
October 23, 1899
Dear Mr. Thaxter:
Thank you for your very kind letter,
but I am afraid that I must not promise to accept your
invitation. I am very busy these weeks with writing and guests
and hurrying off to Town for two or three days at a time. I am
well again after so long a pull of illness, but not very strong,
and I must put many pleasant things aside.
I am sorry that your story is not yet
placed. I asked Mr. Arthur Stedman1 if he would not
undertake the placing of your work and he probably will write to
you. A great many writers do all that by means of such an agent
now. You have to pay a commission, but they generally get very
good prices. He is at the Dewey Building, 5 East 14th Street,
New York.
With my best regards to Mrs. Thaxter.
Yours most sincerely,
S. O. Jewett
P. S.
I have felt disappointed that Mr.
Alden2 should not have known about this last story. I
think that he was on his vacation when it was sent. Why do not
you write him a letter and ask if you may send it again and tell
him that it was sent back to you, but that I thought he would
like to see it, and would at any rate give you a word of advice.
He was a very warm friend of your mother and certain things in
the story would interest him doubly, as they did me.
Try some short sketches of 1500 or 2000 words with a view of the Youth's Companion. And if you get on with them, send them to the Care of Johnson Morton, Esq., Office of the Youth's Companion, Boston.3 I should think you could make easily some good sketches of fishing or woodcraft or of shooting, if you shoot. They are always longing for such things!! Short!!
Notes
See Richard Cary. "Jewett on Writing Short Stories." Colby
Library
Quarterly 10 (June 1964): 425-440.
1 Arthur Griffin Stedman
(1859-1908), son of Edmund Clarence Stedman, maintained a
literary agency in addition to his own literary work. He
prepared the biographies for A Library of American
Literature, which was jointly edited by his father and
Ellen M. Hutchinson in 1892; compiled a volume of selected poems
by Whitman; brought out an edition of Melville's Typee;
and supervised a series called Fiction, Fact, and Fancy.
2 Henry Mills Alden. See Key
to Correspondents.
3 Johnson Morton (1865-1922) was editor of The Youth's Companion (1893-1907).
This letter was edited and annotated by Richard Cary in Sarah
Orne
Jewett Letters; the ms. is held by Colby College Special
Collections, Waterville, Maine. Additional material by Terry
Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to John Thaxter
148 Charles Street
Boston 1 November
[1899]
Dear Mr. Thaxter:
I thank you for your kind and
delightful letter -- we are all three glad to know that you
found some pleasure in your little visit because it gave us such
real pleasure to see you!
Indeed I think that your idea of changing Jonas's 'plain name' to The Sea Pigeon* is excellent!
I happened to see Mr. Johnson
Morton* last evening, and I had a good chance to tell him how
much interested I am in your work, and he said that he should be
glad to talk with you. You must keep in mind the fact that the Y[outh's]
C[ompanion] is primarily for 'Youth' not children,
but sketches of adventure are always in order. I do not see why
he could not use "Blown Off."
In haste,
Yours most sincerely,
S. O. Jewett
Notes
See Richard Cary. "Jewett on Writing Short Stories." Colby
Library
Quarterly 10 (June 1964): 425-440. In his
essay, Cary reproduces an image of the first page of this letter
(p. 436). I have altered Cary's transcription of that page
so that it more precisely follows Jewett's manuscript.
The Sea Pigeon: See Sarah Orne Jewett to John
Thaxter August 7, [1899]. Sea pigeon is an alternative
name for a sea gull. In his essay, Cary has reproduced the first
page of a typescript of Thaxter's story (p. 437).
Morton: Johnson Morton (1865-1922) was editor of The
Youth's
Companion (1893-1907).
This letter is transcribed by Richard Cary in Sarah Orne
Jewett Letters; the ms. is held by Colby College Special
Collections, Waterville, Maine. Annotation by Terry
Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Wyman Whitman to Sarah Orne Jewett
November 3, 1899.
I had the first real day in the studio
to-day since June 10th, and now hope to be able to do Some Work.
But one never knows, and then what you do do, never seems to be
just it, but only just before it. All of which is part of the
Philosophy.
Notes
the studio: In A Studio of Her Own (MFA: Boston, 2001), Erica E. Hirshler says that after 1892, Whitman maintained the Lily Glass Works at 184 Boyston St., near Park Square, about half a mile from the Fields house at 148 Charles St. (p. 39).
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 Silvanus Hayward
4 November
1899*
[ Begin letterhead ]
South Berwick Maine
Dear Mr. Hayward
I am sorry to be so late
in thanking you for sending me the copies of your poem and the
sermon on Rest.* They both interest me very much -- the
poem must have given great pleasure to those who heard it read
on that delightful Old Home Day.* -- As I read your sermon, I
remembered what an old friend said to me when I was a girl:
'Learn to rest in your work instead of resting from
it* -- which has always been
a great help* to me -- You have by no means lost the
descriptive power [ which corrected ] I used to admire
so much when I listened to your sermons here long ago -- It gave
me quite a pang when you said that man had taken no steps toward
the removal of sin for I can't believe that the real goodness of
life & thought have had no effect (good sermons for
instance!) The world seems to me much better than when I was a
child, but perhaps you would say more comfortable & better
behaved, not really better?
But we
must talk about these great things some day: that will be much
better than trying to write. Please give my most affectionate
messages to Lucy and Bell* and believe me with many thanks for
your kind remembrance
Yours sincerely
Sarah O. Jewett
Notes
1899: In the upper left corner of page 1, in the author's hand and ink, is what appears to be a circled capital A.
Rest: This transcription is uncertain. "Rest,"
according to Worldcat, was the title of a sermon Hayward
delivered "in the Congregational church, Lyndon, September 6,
1899." The location of Lyndon is uncertain, there being a
Lyndon in Vermont, while in Maine there are East and North
Lyndon. However, there is a Congregational church in
Lyndonville, VT, less than a mile from Lyndon.
Old Home Day: Hayward's home town, Gilsum, NH,
held an Old Home Day on August 29, 1899. According to an
account in Reports to the Legislature of the State of New
Hampshire, Volume 2, p. 216, Hayward presented an oration
at this event, "The Influence of Home." While biographical
sketches indicate that he also wrote poems, it is not yet known
whether he presented any of his own poetry as part of his
oration.
help: This quotation turns up in an inspirational piece
on work by Frank Nelson of Minneapolis, MN (The Lutheran
Companion 25 (1917) p. 128). He writes: "Learn to
rest in your work, as well as from it!" Clearly, Jewett
could not be quoting him, but this evidence suggests that
perhaps they had a common source, or perhaps this was a fairly
common saying.
Lucy and Bell: Mrs. Lucy Keays Hayward, second
wife of Silvanus; Bell Hayward, the oldest daughter of Silvanus,
was Lucy's step-daughter. Key to Correspondents.
New transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Annie Adams Fields
[ 1899 ]*
[ No date or greeting, so presumably a missing page or pages. ]
I hope that you will get some good from the new little medicine. I dont see why you shouldnt get over that bothering little trouble at once if you keep right after it -- Have you ever noticed whether, when that goes on, your "pipes" are better? I have an idea that it is the same affair, but this we will profoundly discuss some other day ! ) I have been reading an old copy of Donne's* poems with
perfect delight -- they seem new to me just now even the things I [ knew or know ] best. I suppose it is my "first time" that Mrs. Bell* made us recognize { -- } we must read many of them together{.} I must have my old copy mended { -- } it is quite shabby with its label lost and leaves working out from the binding -- ( Tell Alice that I had a great pleasure in re-reading the Final Memorials* last night -- a great part of it. And as one always does, I found things that I hadn't taken in before, and I seemed to know her a long and dear Chapter better.
I had a touching little note from S.W.* yesterday morning written)
[ Manuscript breaks off, but a signature appears in the margins of page 2. ]
Love to you and Alice -- My dear dear little Fuff!* Do anything that you like with that hat and bonnet. I have
[ Up the left margin and across the top
margin of page 2 ]
Pinny )*
Notes
1899: This date is speculative. The letter was composed after the 1887 publication of the Longfellow Final Memorials. Jewett's report of the condition of her copy of John Donne connects with her seeking a new copy of an older edition in a letter of 8 November 1899.
Parenthesis marks in this manuscript were penciled by Fields.
Cassie: Presumably a Fields employee, possibly a cook, as suggested in a letter to Carrie Jewett Eastman of 8 September 1895. No further identification has been found.
Donne's: John Donne (1572-1631), English metaphysical poet and essayist.
Mrs. Bell: Helen Choate Bell. See Key to Correspondents.
Alice ... Final Memorials: Jewett refers to Alice Longfellow (see Key to Correspondents) and to Final Memorials of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, (1887) edited by Samuel Longfellow.
S.W.: Sarah Wyman Whitman. See Key to Correspondents.
Fuff: Nickname for Annie Adams Fields. See Key to Correspondents.
Pinny: Pinny Lawson (Pinny / Pin) was an affectionate nickname for Jewett, used by her and Annie Fields. See Key to Correspondents.
Mrs. Pitblado: Almost certainly this is Euphemia Wilson Pitblado (1849-1928), an American social reformer and writer, active in Woman Suffrage, Temperance, and missionary support.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library of Harvard University. Jewett, Sarah Orne, 1849-1909. Annie Fields (Adams) 1834-1915, recipient. 194 letters; 1877-1909 & [n.d.] Sarah Orne Jewett correspondence, 1861-1930. MS Am 1743 (255). Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Annie Fields transcription
This paragraph appears in Annie Fields, Letters of Sarah Orne Jewett (1911), p. 59.
I have been reading an old copy of Donne's poems with perfect delight. They seem new to me just now, even the things I knew best. We must read many of them together. I must have my old copy mended; it is quite shabby, with its label lost and leaves working out from the binding.
Louise Imogen Guiney to Annie Adams Fields
Dearest Mrs. Fields:
It was odd that after speaking with you on Saturday of the exquisite Cathedral photographs by Mr. Evans,* I should get these circulars today. I send you a couple, because I am sure you will be interested to know that he is willing at last to let people buy them. Then there is another thing. I had meant to ask you, in behalf of a friend who is writing, or rather, has written , an admirable book on Brook Farm,* something about Mrs. Cornelia Hall Parke; and especially whether she married, for a second husband, Mr. George Sumner, brother of our Senator C.S.? I think you will know that, if it be knowable!
My little visit was an oasis, in a desert of low spirits. I have had acres of them: cheap and causeless!
Louise.
6th Nov., 1899.
Notes
Mr. Evans: Frederick H. Evans (1853-1943) was a British photographer, remembered especially for his images of architectural subjects, notably of English and French cathedrals.
Brook Farm: Brook Farm was a utopian experiment in communal living in the United States in the 1840s.
Editor and author Lindsay Swift (1856-1921) published Brook Farm: Its Members, Scholars, and Visitors (1900).
According to Swift, Cornelia Hall was an occasional boarder at Brook Farm and was noted for giving "remarkable dramatic readings" (p. 59).
Charles Sumner (1811-1874) served in the United States Senate (1851-1874); his vigorous opposition to slavery led to his being beaten nearly to death in May 1856 on the Senate floor by Representative Preston Brooks of South Carolina.
One of his brothers was George Sumner (1817-1863), an author, prison reformer, and antiquary. It appears that George Sumner never married.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Huntington Library, San Marino, CA, in the James T. Fields collection Box 26: mss FI 1623. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to James Jeffrey Roche
I have decided to keep both the books -- (the clumsy volume of Madame de Sévigné's Letters* for the sake of two of the portraits!) But I should 'still' like to hear of an old French edition. The Daniel* I am very glad to get, and you need not look further, only please let me hear if a copy of one
S. O. Jewett
Notes
Sévigné's Letters: Marie de Rabutin-Chantal, marquise de Sévigné (1626-1696) "was a French aristocrat, remembered for her letter-writing. Most of her letters, celebrated for their wit and vividness, were addressed to her daughter."
Daniel: Samuel Daniel (1562-1619) was an English poet and historian.
John Donne: John Donne (1572-1631) was an English metaphysical poet and became a cleric in the Church of England.
The manuscript of the letter is held by the Burns Library, Boston College. Citation: Sarah Orne Jewett letter, 1899 November 8, box 7, folder 32, Authors Collection, MS.1986.087, John J. Burns Library, Boston College. Transcription and annotation by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Annie Adams Fields
[ November 1899 ]*
Dear Annie
( Mary* desires me to say! -- that she is happy to offer you on the part of this family some beautiful potatoes in a barrel -- also some winter vegetables of sorts to make a depot of supplies in another barrel, to go on Monday next to Charles St. She thought they were so good now and you would like to have them to count upon. And she will do your bidding as to chickens with gladness & ease, but is by no means certain about Ducks & Partridges which she takes when
[ Page 2 ]
( This report being made I shall proceed to say that Isabel's* letter was very welcome and I shall write to her about Thanksgiving though I daresay she may have made some engagement already -- I really want to see the child again -- one finds how attaching she is
[ Page 3 ]
more than ever now that she is away so long! -- ) Yesterday I did not get anywhere except for two brief runs at morning & night. It grew too chilly for a drive. I tried some writing but it wouldn't go, and I got very lame in my shoulders all of a sudden, and had to go and sit by the fire. Whereupon there came in interesting old native of Berwick* who [ lives corrected ] in Rochester N.Y. & who happens along once in two or three years -- much fuller than most who stay at home of stories of the old times. He seems like a day of childhood returning! So I sat
[ Page 4 ]
and talked with him through a long visit).*
-- I have nearly finished Thérèse's* long story (long for a short one) and I find it very clever as I try to read it from the French point of view -- the spirit with which she says at the end of a paragraph of the carping friend of Lautra about les Americain
[ Up the left margin and then across the top margin of page 1 ]
[ unrecognized word, possibly deleted ] flies in the face of every French propriety! The number looks interesting beside this paper of hers. Good by darling Fuff* {.} I hope you will have a good resting Sunday for it has been a busy week.Pinny*
Notes
November 1899: This letter precedes another letter believed to be from November 1899, in which Jewett reports that she has completed reading a long story by Madame Blanc that connects with the Dreyfus affair. See notes below.
Parenthesis marks in this manuscript were penciled by Fields, some in green, some in black.
Mary: Mary Rice Jewett. See Key to Correspondents.
Agamenticus: Mt. Agamenticus is the highest point in the South Berwick area.
Isabel's: This person has not yet been identified.
old native of Berwick: This may be John Marr. See Key to Correspondents.
visit): Between two lines, Fields has penciled in "Begin," and below "I" in the next line, she has made a pair of pencil marks "||".
Thérèse's: Marie Thérèse de Solms Blanc. See Key to Correspondents.
Which of Blanc's writings Jewett refers to is not yet known. The descriptive passage on Blanc's story presents several other puzzles.
The name "Lautra" would be unique in French. The transcription is uncertain. One might expect "Laura," but Jewett seems clearly to have placed a "T" after the "u." The final letters, however, are less clear.
Jeannine Hammond of Coe College provides this probable translation of the sentences Jewett quotes: "They live here, they imitate us. And they are right (to do so)!”
She also notes that its grammar is at best unconventional, leading one to wonder whether Jewett quotes it correctly:
"Ils nous restent" is grammatically correct, but it seems to me to be missing a piece. I personally would have written “Ils restent avec nous or Ils restent chez nous,” but then one loses the 3 syllable repetition.a short one): The parentheses around this phrase are Jewett's.
The use of the pronoun "ils"includes both genders.
The second sentence should have the verb in the plural: "Mon Dieu, ils avaient raison."
Also puzzling is that the first sentence is in the (perpetual) present tense, while the second is in the imperfect. I would have put the second sentence verb in the present, too: "Ils ont raison."
Dreyfus business: The Dreyfus Affair was a political scandal in France, developing from 1894 to 1906, in which Captain Alfred Dreyfus was falsely imprisoned for treason. Because he was of Jewish descent, anti-Semitism impeded the struggle to exonerate him. At the probable time of this letter, the development likely to have engaged Madame Blanc, as it did many French artists and intellectuals, was his second trial in 1899.
Fuff: Nickname for Annie Adams Fields. See Key to Correspondents.
Pinny: Pinny Lawson (Pinny / Pin) was an affectionate nickname for Jewett, used by her and Annie Fields. See Key to Correspondents.
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.
Louise Imogen Guiney to Annie Adams Fields
Dearest Mrs. Fields:
Many thanks to you for the loan-book and the gift-book. I have been 'g^u^ormandizing' on both, but would give fifty of the former for a paragraph of the latter, so well do I love the sparing and exact word. The letter, too, was a treasure by my Brook-Farming friend.* (I think you will like the spirit of the book, and especially the passages about Margaret Fuller. It is nearly ready, for the Macmillans.)
Do come in soon, and see our wigwam. Poor Tom's a-cold* today, for a new furnace is engendering below.
L.I.G.
16 Pinckney St. Boston.
11th Nov., 1899.*
It was a pleasant and odd thing this Miss Simpson's book* should have come into my hands on R.L.S.'s own birthday. No: I am wrong. This is only the 11th!
Notes
Brook-Farming friend: Brook Farm was a utopian experiment in communal living in the United States in the 1840s.
Editor and author Lindsay Swift (1856-1921) published Brook Farm: Its Members, Scholars, and Visitors (1900).
American author and reformer, Margaret Fuller Ossoli (1810-1850) was a frequenter, though not a member of the Brook Farm community.
See Guiney to Fields of 6 November 1899.
Poor Tom's a-cold: Guiney alludes to King Lear by British playwright William Shakespeare (1564-1616); see Act 3, Scene 4.
Scottish author, Robert Louis Stevenson, was born on 13 November 1850.
Simpson's book: Eve Blantyre Simpson, Robert Louis Stevenson's Edinburgh Days (1898).
Presumably, this is the gift for which Guiney thanks Fields.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Huntington Library, San Marino, CA, in the James T. Fields collection Box 26: mss FI 1624. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Annie Adams Fields
[ November 1899 ]*
Dearest Annie
( I do hope that your poor eye is better -- a [ dose corrected ] of bi-carb soda in hot water is good to tend it with, -- I dont know ^about^ that person who wrote to you from ^60^ Rutland Square -- It is not a very reassuring kind of letter -- not the way a person of sense would go about ^either^ funding a room or getting into relations with you. But what a good plain writing! -- ) I think a great deal about Thérèse since her last letter came { -- } it seemed to bring her close again, after a kind of Dreyfus cloud* coming between = What
[ Page 2 ]
[ Page 3 ]
a French lady, who says that she was afraid of their taking advantage of freedom by night but aprés tout they are all in early of their own accord & always tell her if they are going to stay out for the theâtre!! With what ohs and ahs will it be read this story but what gleams of light may improperly shine through!
I kept me busy writing yesterday, only some foolish short work for the sake of working in & doing something but I really got interested in it!
(Theodore* has invited me to the great game on Saturday which I take as a great attention, so that I must come up on Friday at
[ Page 4 ]
any rate (. Mary* is due to try on a coat with Miss Collins.* I thought perhaps we could come up on Monday & we could return together on Tuesday{.} Will you say if this can be, Dear?
= It is still wintry weather though today the wind is in the South West and the sun as bright as ever it shone on a November day). I just ran down stairs to see if there were a letter this morning from you -- but I shall be looking for it this afternoon{.} And oh yesterdays letter was such a letter, as plummy as a cake !!
[ Up the left margin and then across the
top margin of page 1 ]
I wish that you had viewed Katy's* rapt
admiration of those large ducks! I dont think she could have
torn them out of her heart for anybody else!! It was a great
occasion & the partridges coming to the door in that
very moment! I should think that [ you & Sylvia* ?
] would each take a duck!
I had such a dear letter from Alice Howe*
yesterday.
Notes
November 1899: This date is not certain. Jewett states that the month is November. Almost certainly, this letter was composed during Theodore Eastman's years at Harvard University, 1897-1901. Jewett is more likely to refer to Madame Blanc by her first name after Blanc's 1897 visit to the U.S. and especially after Fields and Jewett returned that visit in 1898. I have settled upon 1899 because there were major developments that year in the Dreyfus Affair, and Jewett indicates that Madame Blanc has been distracted recently by those developments. See notes below.
Fields seems to have drawn a vertical pencil line on this page, between her first and second parenthesis mark.
Parenthesis marks in this manuscript were penciled by Fields.
60 Rutland Square: The significance of this Boston address is uncertain. It may at one time have been the address of the Phillips and Fuller Law Firm, but it is not yet known whether this was the case at the time of this letter. That it proposes setting up a room would suggest that it is related to Fields's work with the Associated Charities of Boston.
Thérèse: Marie Thérèse de Solms Blanc. See Key to Correspondents.
Which of Blanc's writings Jewett refers to is not yet known. She refers to this text again in another letter to Fields tentatively from November 1899, giving additional descriptive details.
Dreyfus cloud: The Dreyfus Affair was a political scandal in France, developing from 1894 to 1906, in which Captain Alfred Dreyfus was falsely imprisoned for treason. Because he was of Jewish descent, anti-Semitism impeded the struggle to exonerate him. At the probable time of this letter, the development likely to have engaged Madame Blanc as it did many French artists and intellectuals, was his second trial in 1899.
Madame Sand: George Sand (Amandine-Aurore Lucille Dupin, Baronne Dudevant, 1804-1876) was a productive French novelist, remembered also for her love affairs with the painter Alfred de Musset and the pianist-composer, Frederic Chopin.
Theodore: Theodore Jewett Eastman. See Key to Correspondents.
Mary: Mary Rice Jewett. See Key to Correspondents.
Miss Collins: This person has not been identified. It seems unlikely that she is Annie Collins, a Jewett family employee, who usually was called Annie. See Key to Correspondents.
Katy's: Katy Galvin. See Key to Correspondents.
Sylvia: While this is not certain, it is possible Jewett refers to Sylvia Hathaway Watson Emerson. See Key to Correspondents.
Alice Howe: Alice Greenwood Howe. See Key to Correspondents.
Fuff: Nickname for Annie Adams Fields. See Key to Correspondents.
Pinny: Pinny Lawson (Pinny / Pin) was an affectionate nickname for Jewett, used by her and Annie Fields. See Key to Correspondents.
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 Abbie S. Beede
South Berwick, Maine
[ End letterhead ]
[ To the right of the letterhead ] Novr. 23rd
1899
My dear Mifs Beede
Thank you for your kind note which was a little late in reaching me here. I shall certainly put your address in a safe place, and it is very likely that I may be glad to ask you to help me with some copying by and by when I go
to town. I will speak to Mrs. Fields* also, though I think that she has some one who does type-writing for her, and she is very busy now with her good works of the Charities now rather than good works of writing!
Believe me with kindest regards and remembrance
S. O. Jewett
Notes
Mrs. Fields: Annie Adams Fields worked with Associated Charities of Boston. See Key to Correspondents.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the University of New England Maine Women Writers Collection, item MWWC0182.
Transcription by Kelsey Squire, Ohio Dominican University; edited and with notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Patrick Kevin Foley
26th Novr
[ 1899 ]*
Dear Mr. Foley
I enclose a list of books which I should like to have you get me for the Library here. They need not be new copies -- when you can get no others -- but in good sound condition for school use --
S. O. Jewett
1899: See Jewett to Foley of 11 December 1899.
This transcription is from a photocopy held by the Maine Women Writer's Collection, University of New England, Letters from Sarah Orne Jewett, 1875-1890, Box 4, Folder 159, Burton Trafton Jewett Research Collection. Trafton's notes indicate that the manuscript is held by Bapst Library, Boston University, Newton, MA.
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Thomas Bailey Aldrich
I am sorry to have forgotten so long that letter from Madame Blanc which contains remarks upon your Translator! I put it by to send to you at once and then it lay hidden under other letters -- it is only the great after-Thanksgiving clearing up of my desk which
brings it to light.
I am so glad to think of seeing your Herrick paper in the Century* that I can hardly wait for the proper number. Dont you like our new editor, Mr. Bliss Perry* very much. I do!
S. O. J.
Notes
December 1899: The date of 4 November 1896 appears in the upper right corner of page 1, but it is not clear that this is Jewett's hand, and it clearly is not correct. Bliss Perry became editor of Atlantic Monthly in 1899. The letter was composed after Thanksgiving (30 November 1899), not on November 4.
Madame Blanc ... Translator: Marie Thérèse de Solms BSee Key to Correspondents.
Blanc refers to Aurélien Scholl (1833-1902), a French editor, author and journalist. Mr. Scholl, according to The Critic 35:869 (November 1899, p. 984), published under his own name in Le Gaulois, a conservative French newspaper, a series of translations of early stories by Aldrich. The article notes that Madame Blanc had previously published translations of some of these stories. One of them, "La Relique," a translation of Aldrich's "Quite So," was reprinted in New York, in the Courrier des Etats-Unis, also with Scholl as the "author." The Courrier was a French language newspaper published by French immigrants in New York City. See Sarah Orne Jewett to T. B. Aldrich of Monday morning, December 1899.
Herrick paper ... Century: Thomas Bailey Aldrich's edition of Poems of Robert Herrick: A Selection from Hesperides and Noble Numbers, appeared in 1900. Robert Herrick (1591-1674) was a British lyric poet.
The book included Aldrich's introductory essay, which first appeared in Century Magazine in March 1900.
Bliss Perry: 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: 2753.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Thomas Bailey Aldrich
[ December 1899 ]*
South Berwick.
Maine.
Parfaitement!*
---- I must say that I never knew anything so unblushing for if there is one American story-writer known to France it is T.B.A. ----
A. F.* came to Berwick
to my great satisfaction for I found that she had got over tired in moving to town and that it was much better for her to come right away (. [ so punctuated ] She is still hoping to see you & Lily* in Ponkapog, and me, I am hoping to go too -- but I shall keep ^her^ here [ as corrected ] long as I can -- for she mustn't begin the winter too early. We both send love ^to you & L.A.^ and hope that
Mrs Richardson* [ gains, and corrected ] is much more comfortable. Please give many messages of affectionate interest to her & to Mr. Richardson wont you? --) [ so punctuated ] I long to see you and to have a good talk about writing affairs.
S. O. J.
Notes
1899: The discovery of Aurélien Scholl's plagiarism is reported as very recent in November 1899. See notes below.
Parfaitement: French: perfectly.
Madame Blanc: Marie Thérèse de Solms Blanc. See Key to Correspondents.
Aurelian Scholl: Aurélien Scholl (1833-1902) was a French editor, author and journalist. Mr. Scholl, according to The Critic 35:869 (November 1899, p. 984), published under his own name in Le Gaulois, a conservative French newspaper, a series of translations of early stories by Aldrich. The article notes that Madame Blanc had previously published translations of some of these stories. One of them, "La Relique," a translation of Aldrich's "Quite So," was reprinted in New York, in the Courrier des Etats-Unis, also with Scholl as the "author." The Courrier was a French language newspaper published by French immigrants in New York City.
Erckmann-Chatrian: This was the pen-name used by French authors Émile Erckmann (1822-1899) and Alexandre Chatrian (1826-1890), who collaborated in writing a large number of works, especially historical novels.
A.F.: Annie Adams Fields. See Key to Correspondents.
Lily: Lilian Woodman Aldrich. See Key to Correspondents.
Richardson: According to George Carey's "The Rise and Fall of Elmore," "William Richardson, known to his intimates as “Will Dear” ...had made a small fortune when he invented the clothing snap, the popular forerunner of the zipper, and with some of his money he built Seawoods [in Tenant's Harbor, ME], a 13-room house that faced the ocean. Richardson’s sister-in-law married Thomas Bailey Aldrich, the editor of The Atlantic Monthly, and soon his large rambling cottage, The Crags just to the north of Seawoods, was drawing to Elmore such literary luminaries as Mark Twain and Sarah Orne Jewett."
Unfortunately, little additional or corroborating information has been discovered. If this is, indeed, the right Richardson couple, then the Aldriches would necessarily be concerned for their well-being.
Mr. Barker: This person's identity has not been discovered. It seems likely the portrait was of Aldrich or his wife, but this cannot yet be certain.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. Thomas Baily 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: 2683.
Sarah Orne Jewett to John Thaxter
Boston
[November-December 1899]
Dear Mr. Thaxter:
Your letter and the sketch have
followed me here, or you should have heard sooner.
I don't care for this little story as
much as for some others -- it reads as if you had rather pushed
yourself to the writing of it, and with all its wonderful
accuracy of detail, and perfect verity of the old man's speech,
it has an artificial quality in its makeup that your best things
lack. I think that the melodramatic quality does not go with the
material. The old man is so real; the shut up room for so many
years does not seem to me to go with his plain living. There
might be such a room with the untouched things, but --
I must not try to write just what I
mean. The shipwreck, the drowning; it isn't simple enough, there
is too much in it. And then the Doctor who is so
familiar with this case of rheumatism -- how is it that he sees
the room and above all hears the story for the first
time!
I wish you would try some country
talk on a more everyday basis:1 a horse trade
reported, a funny bargaining sort of talk; a good story told as
some old farmers sit together -- one might overtake the other
plodding toward the village (have a bit of landscape) and take
him in and hear that he has been cheated in a horse trade or a
wagon bought at auction that comes to pieces, and his wife has
jeered at him. Call the sketch "A Bad Morning," or something of
that sort. All your sense of this talk ought to make something
very good. But I must not write longer.
Yours most truly,
S. O. Jewett
Notes
See Richard Cary. "Jewett on Writing Short Stories." Colby
Library
Quarterly 10 (June 1964): 425-440.
1Thaxter had sent Miss
Jewett a story written almost entirely in rustic dialogue,
replete with the misspellings dear to unrestrained local
colorists. She was looking for the kind of languid localisms she
used herself, and which would have given the story unequivocal
native resonance.
This letter was edited and annotated by Richard Cary in Sarah Orne Jewett Letters; the ms. is held by Colby College Special Collections, Waterville, Maine.
Alice Brown to Sarah Orne Jewett
[ November / December 1899 ]*
is, I think, the most elusive, lovely blossom on the "tip o' the top" of your tree. I am waiting for somebody to call you a symbolist! not the classified, cut-and-dried variety, but of those as simple as William Blake.* -- I wish you both* a beautiful year, and I am
Alice Brown.
Notes
1899: This date is likely because Brown refers to Jewett's newly published story, "A Dunnet Shepherdess," which appeared in Atlantic Monthly in December 1899.
William Blake: British poet, William Blake (1757-1827).
both: Presumably, Brown addresses both Jewett and 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.
Brown, Alice, 1857-1948. 4 letters; [1901 ?], bMS Am 1743 (28).
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 Mark Antony DeWolfe Howe
Thursday
[ December 1899 ]*
Dear Mr. Howe
I send you the story which I have [ hurried corrected] to get done before I must turn to some other things -- I am afraid that you will find it too long. I cannot stop to reckon it -- but I dare say that I could shorten it somewhat when I see the proof. Though it was meant at first to be much longer -- Perhaps you will find time to come and have a word
about it [ unconventional punctuation mark ] I [ do corrected ] hope very much that it will be what you wished. I believe that the suggestions of hospitality and cheerful taking up of the duty* that lies nearest are put clearly [ but corrected ] not with too much displeasing zeal !!
Sarah O. Jewett
P. S. !
I am not usually so mercenary but I should be glad if you could have the cheque sent me as soon as may be. It is one I wish to spend now !!
Notes
December 1899: This speculative date is based upon the probability that Jewett has submitted her story, "A Stage Tavern" to Howe. See note below. Her eagerness for the cheque hints that she is dealing with the expenses of Christmas gifts, and her presumption upon their friendship indicates that it is strongly established at this point, about 8 years after their correspondence begins.
duty: Of Jewett's stories for Youth's Companion, her description best fits "The Stage Tavern," her story in the 12 April 1900 issue. A young woman who has completed her degree at Radcliffe chooses to aid her father in keeping his hotel-tavern.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library of Harvard University in Mark Antony De Wolfe Howe additional papers, 1880-1959. MS Am 1524 (774). Jewett, Sarah Orne, 1849-1909. 16 letters from; 1891-1903. Transcribed and annotated by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Patrick Kevin Foley
11 December 1899
Dear Mr. Foley
I did not have time to look over the two packages sent by you until yesterday. I find that I must return the Cudjo's Cave & Trumps* since they are not in sufficiently good condition for use in our library. One of the Academy* teachers (the two institutions are connected with each other) asked me
for most of these books for use in one [of corrected] her classes, and you can see that neither of the above books would bear that kind of handling. The Winter & Chadwick volumes* I do not care for -- perhaps you can find a good copy of Trumps in that edition with nice notes [ unrecognized word ] which are better for my purpose --
I am going to town toward the week's end and if you will be so kind as to
at your Rooms* -- without giving you the trouble of sending it.
Will you also see if you can find a copy of an old [ religious corrected ] book: Christ Precious to the Believer?* I do not know the author or publisher. It must have been at least sixty or seventy years old. I wish to get it for an old friend who cherishes its memory but long ago lost his
copy.
In the third package of books you send me some interesting relics of a far off connection of my family, and a friend of my father Miss Sarah Jewett of Portland.* I do not find any note in the package and I shall wait to ask you about it before returning. I should like the old theological book as a memento.
[ unrecognized word ] sincerely S. O. Jewett
Notes
Cudjo's Cave & Trumps: Cudgo's Cave (1868) by John Townsend Trowbridge (1827-1916), a popular American author of juvenile fiction and other genres. Though this is not certain, it seems likely that "Trumps" refers to any of several books on rules for card games, such as Trumps' New Card Games (1886). "Trumps" was the pen name of William Brisbane Dick, "the American Hoyle." Dick (1827-1901) was a painter and publisher as well as an author of books on games.
Academy: The Berwick Academy in South Berwick, ME.
Winter & Chadwick volumes: While it is difficult to be sure of which books Jewett writes, it is possible that she refers a book by John Strange Winter, such as Cavalry Life (1881) or Regimental Legends (1883). J. S. Winter is the pen name of the British writer Henrietta Eliza Vaughan Stannard (1856-1911).
Jewett may refer to one of Henry Chadwick's (1824-1908) books on baseball, published by A. G. Spaulding, such as The Art of Fielding (1886).
Alford edition of Donne: The Works of John Donne (1839), edited by Henry Alford (1810-1871).
your Rooms: Mr. Foley's "rooms" receive a picturesque description in Nathan Haskell Dole, "Notes from Boston" (Book News 17, 1899, p. 381).
Christ Precious to the Believer: It turns out that while there is no 19th-century book with exactly this title, there are several with close approximations. Probably Jewett had a harder time, even with Mr. Foley's aid, than she may have anticipated in locating this book. Among the possibilities listed in WorldCat are: The Happy Change, or, Christ Precious to the Believer: Shown in a Dialogue between Gallio and Lydia (1819), an anonymous book which seems to be addressed to juvenile readers, and Samuel Davies, Christ Precious to All True Believers (1841).
Miss Sarah Jewett of Portland: This is likely to be the Sarah Jewett of Portland, ME who attended the 1855 meeting of the Jewett family in Rowley, MA, according to The History and Genealogy of the Jewetts in America (1908). Little more has yet been learned about her.
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 Horace E. Scudder
148 Charles Street
Boston
December 12, [1899]
Dear Mr. Scudder:
I did not have time to answer your
letter in some hurried days at home, but this has given me more
time to think the matter of it over, and I am now pretty sure
that it would not be wise, poor me, to undertake such a
piece of work. I can see that it would be very interesting, but
I am full of plans already which I long to be able to carry
through, and I have a great reluctance before the thought of
turning aside into a new road.1
When I come to Town to stay for some
time (this being but a brief stay), I shall hope to see you.
I am sending you a copy of The
Queen's Twin2 by this same post with many
unwritten messages of affectionate remembrance. It begins to
seem a great while since you printed "The Shipwrecked Buttons"
and "The Girl With the Cannon Dresses" in the Riverside
Magazine3 -- in fact, I can't remember when I
have thought of their dear young names before!
Yours most sincerely,
S. O. Jewett
Notes
1 Scudder must have prompted her to act on Charles Dudley Warner's suggestion* that she write an heroic novel about John Paul Jones's activities in Maine (see Letter 122). Warner admonished her to "Hold the story always in solution in your mind ready to be precipitated when your strength permits. That is to say, even if your fires are banked up, keep the story fused in your mind." (Mrs. James T. Fields, Charles Dudley Warner [New York, 1904], 183-184.) As an editor, he was aware that the vogue of local color was on the wane and that the historical romance was capturing the attention of the American reading public.
2The Queen's Twin and Other Stories, containing one new and seven collected sketches, with cover design by Sarah Wyman Whitman, was published by Houghton, Mifflin & Company in 1899.
3 January and August 1870, respectively.
Editor's notes
Warner's suggestion: While it is plausible that Scudder has encouraged Jewett to undertake The Tory Lover, it seems odd that Jewett would demur, given that she did, in fact, begin the novel within months of this letter and, apparently, had been considering the project for several years. Perhaps Jewett's mentioning her early children's stories offers a clue to an alternative, that Scudder proposed a new collection of her children's fiction to follow on her success with the Betty Leicester stories, particularly Betty Leicester's Christmas (1899). "The Girl With the Cannon Dresses" (1870), for example, had never been collected.
This letter was edited and annotated by Richard Cary in Sarah Orne Jewett Letters; the ms. is held by Colby College Special Collections, Waterville, Maine. Additional notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Louise Imogen Guiney to Annie Adams Fields
Ever dear Mrs. Fields:
How can I thank you for such a famous treat as the opera tickets? Incidentally (it wasn't their fault, poor dears!) they broke my heart, for I am particularly fond of The Flying Dutchman,* and yet I have such a cold that I was not allowed to go out. But Marmee* went, and took with her a luckier frãulein than her daughter. So before I go ignominiously to bed, I thank you from both our hearts. This same cold, which seems to lift and fall like a fog, has kept me from running in to see you, after your dear note of Monday, for I am indeed concerned that you are not in your best health. Let us mend that with all [ despatch so spelled ], if we can! I have lost some of my B.P.L.* time, which must be made up, but as soon as ever I can sound well, I shall appear. It pleases me very, very much that you
liked my fine Harriet Barnes.* She was altogether won by you. After we got out, she said: "Was there ever such a picture? The long room, and the river, and the afternoon light on the tall chair, and in the tall chair that exquisite creature!" Please, mam, that's You.
You will like to know what occupant came into my big room up-stairs: Prof. Buck,* the chair of the Greek Department in Boston University. He is a large man, but is as quiet as a mouse. I must not omit Mrs. Buck, who is the best of Germans, but is only as quiet as a mill-wheel. However, we love the mill well, and get on without mishaps. Goodnight! with love from
Flying Dutchman: Der Fliegende Holländer (The Flying Dutchman) is an opera by German composer, Richard Wagner (1813-1883).
The Flying Dutchman was performed on the evening of 13 December 1899 by the Maurice Grau Company at the Boston Theater. See Boston Daily Globe, 14 December 1899, p. 4.
Marmee: By calling her mother Marmee, Guiney may allude to Little Women by American author Louisa May Alcott (1832-1888), where the mother of the little women is called Marmee.
B.P.L.: Boston Public Library, where Guiney worked at this time.
Harriet Barnes: While this is not certain, it seems likely that Guiney refers to American painter Harriet Isabella Barnes Thayer (1864-1928).
Prof. Buck: Augustus Howe Buck (1825-1917) was head of the Department of Greek at Boston University, 1874-1901. His second wife, who survived him, was Louisa C. Melbach of Bart, Germany. See his obituary in the Boston Daily Globe, 27 April 1917, p. 10.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Huntington Library, San Marino, CA, in the James T. Fields collection Box 26: mss FI 1625 . 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.
Dear Annie, I am appointed a member of the jury of admissions for the exposition of 1900,* in the social economy group, "public hygiene assistance," and I have no doubt that being able to look at your admirable
and forward-looking work has earned me this honor. Therefore anything you can send to inform me on issues of apprenticeships, the protection of child labor, worker pay and benefits, cooperatives, about production? About credit? agricultural unions, workshop safety?
municipal and individual health -- will be welcome. This includes public assistance and also homes for lunatics, the blind, the deaf and mute, -- government-regulated pawnbokers, staffs of charities, [ underlined unrecognized word ]
Forgive me, and I thank you tenderly. A happy, happy Christmas!
Notes
1899: Blanc indicates that she is writing not long before Christmas, and she notes that she is preparing for the 1900 World Exposition in Paris. While it is possible her appointment came in 1898, the later year seems more probable.
exposition of 1900: The Paris Exposition Universelle of 1900 took place 14 April - 12 November 1900. Wikipedia notes:
The main U.S. presence was in the commercial and industrial palaces. One unusual aspect of the U.S. presence was The Exhibit of American Negroes at the Palace of Social Economy, a joint project of Daniel Murray, the Assistant Librarian of Congress, Thomas J. Calloway, a lawyer and the primary organizer of the exhibit, and W. E. B. Du Bois. The goal of the exhibition was to demonstrate progress and commemorate the lives of African Americans at the turn of the century.Blanc's jury presumably dealt with other exhibits at the Palace of Social Economy. See also: "Report of the commissioner-general for the United States to the International universal exposition, Paris, 1900 ... February 28, 1901."
Ravinet / Roviner: This transcription is quite uncertain, and this person has not yet been identified.
Johnsons: Robert Underwood Johnson. See Key to Correspondents.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Huntington Library, San Marino, CA, in the James T. Fields Papers and Addenda mss FI 1-5637, Box 5. Transcription, translation and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College, with essential assistance from Jeannine Hammond, Professor of French, Emerita, at Coe College.
Transcription
Blanc sometimes abbreviates "pour" to "pr" and "vous" to "vs." Such instances in this letter are rendered as "pour" and "vous."
Chère Annie, je suis
nommée membre
du jury d'admission
pour l'exposition
de 1900, dans le
groupe de l'Economie
sociale "hygiène assistance
publique" et
je ne doute pas que le
fait d'avoir pu jeter
un coup d'oeil sur
vos admirables oeuvres
de prévoyance ne
m'ait valu cet
honneur. Par conséquent
tout ce que vous pourrez
me faire parvenir sur
les questions d'apprentissage
de protection de l'enfance
ouvrière, de rémunération
du travail et participation
aux bénéfices, d'associations
coopératives, de production?
ou de crédit? de syndicats
agricoles, de sécurité des
ateliers? d'habitations
ouvrières, de sociétés coopératives
de consommation,
d'Institutions pour
le développement
intellectuel et moral,
des ouvriers, d'institutions
de prévoyance,
d'initiative publique
ou privée en vue
du bien être des
citoyens, d'hygiène
municipale et
individuelle sera
le bien venu.
Assistance publique
comprise et les
maisons d'aliènés
les aveugles, les sourds
muets, -- les monts de
piété, le personnel
des établissements de
bienfaisance, [ underlined unrecognized word ]
peut-être suggérer à divers
établissements l'opportunité
de m'envoyer [ q.q. for quelques ] brochures
pour la gloire de l'Amérique.
Pardon, merci, tendresses
à vous. A happy, happy
Christmas!
Th B
les Johnsons en Amérique ira
vous voir de ma part. C'est une
brave et excellente fille à qui
je m'intéresse un peu mais non
pas une amie. Ne prenez aucune
peine à son sujet. -- Le fait de
la recevoir sera une faveur suffisante{.}
Charles Dudley Warner to Sarah Orne Jewett
Dec 26 1899
This is just to send our love and wish you all the possible good there is in this holiday season which we are spending with Mrs Cabell* and Miss [ Unrecognized name ], in their lovely house.
We are so happy in their prosperity and goodness. I shall tell you all about it when I see you. It is really wonderful. We go home Jan. 2.
Chas. Dudley Warner
Notes
Cabell: Educator Mary Virginia Ellet Cabell (1839-1930). Wikipedia.
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.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Mary Rice Jewett
[Tuesday morning]
[ December 1899 ]
A.F.* sends love and so do I, to you both. The girls were so pleased with our presents, and Maggie* made such a pretty tark about Stubby’s* kind remembrance of a purse. “He was always [ thinking. he so transcribed ] do be arlways just like that!” So no more at present from
Sarah
Notes
1899: This speculative date rests solely upon the fact that Jewett mentions Maggie, presumably a Fields employee, in another letter from this year. Transcriber's notes with this text read: [to Mary] [Tuesday Morning].
A.F.: Annie Adams Fields. See Key to Correspondents.
Maggie: Presumably an Irish employee of Annie
Fields. "Tark," for example is Jewett's rendition of
Maggie's pronunciation of "talk."
Stubby: Theodore Jewett Eastman. 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 74, Burton Trafton Jewett Research Collection. For more information about the individual transcription, contact the Maine Women Writers Collection. Preparation by Linda Heller. Notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.Sarah Orne Jewett to Mary Rice Jewett
[ Dec. 1899 ]*
...... You may be interested to know that the old Roman emperor is no more & I have married William to the shepherdess & Mrs. Todd & I have seen them off to Green Island in the boat.*
Notes
1899: This date was added by the transcriber, and it seems a reasonable guess, because it is near to the time of Jewett's composition of "A Dunnet Shepherdess." The opening ellipses indicate that this is a partial transcription.
boat: Jewett is discussing the composition of "William's Wedding" (1910), a story she did not publish in her lifetime. Her story, "A Dunnet Shepherdess" (Atlantic Monthly, December 1899, introduces Thankful Hight, mother of Esther, who becomes William Blackett's bride in "William's Wedding." When the narrator meets Thankful, she sees: "In a large chair facing the window there sat a masterful-looking old woman with the features of a warlike Roman emperor, emphasized by a bonnet-like black cap with a band of green ribbon. Her sceptre was a palmleaf fan."
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 70, Burton Trafton Jewett Research Collection. It was hand-copied many years before the current edition, and the old notes are somewhat unclear. For more information about the individual transcription, contact the Maine Women Writers Collection. Notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Mrs. Hay*
1899
Dear Mrs Hay
I am sorry that your most kind and friendly note should have been mislaid in my absence from town and that I have just discovered it.
I am
grieved that I could not better carry out my part of your Christmas plan but I hope that you and Mr Hay will both understand and take my kindest wishes for the new year since your are such kind readers of my stories
Yours sincerely,
Notes
Hay: Mr. and Mrs. Hay have not yet been identified. Candidates could be American Republican statesman and diplomat John Milton Hay (1838-1905) and his wife Clara Stone Hay (1849-1914), who were sometimes in Boston when other candidates were living there, his brother, Charles E. Hay (1841-1916) and his wife, Mary Ridgely Hay (1844-1922).
The manuscript of this letter is held by the University of Wisconsin-Madison Libraries, Department of Rare Books and Special Collections; Cairns Collection of American Women Writers, Comprehensive collection of works by Sarah Orne Jewett. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Louise Imogen Guiney to Sarah Orne Jewett
My dear Miss Jewett:
How tardy I am in thanking you for your most welcome and exquisite gift! (You may know that profaner cares have come in like a tide, and carried me off my feet.) No one thing helped ^more^ to make my Christmas merry; and though the golden Reading-hours never seem to come any more, I have already read The Queen's Twin* (at meals!) and "'Where's Nora?' crossing the Garden to the Library,* and weeping frost-tears on the page, in the cold. But pretty soon I hope to give the dear flower-hearted book a better time of it.
We are happy as Kings, on Pinckney St., and I wish you were here, at the foot of my hill. Love, and all warmest New Year wishes to you, and Goodnight, from
Notes
The Queen's Twin: Among the stories included in Jewett's The Queen's Twin (1899) are the title story and "Where's Nora?"
Library: At this time, Guiney worked at the Boston Public Library.
Related to Sarah Orne Jewett
Tunbridge Wells
Many warm thanks -- we have enjoyed them -- I am so sorry the sweet stories are coming to an end -- I wonder
if the Queen has had sometime the Queen's Twin* sent her. I shd like her to have it if she hasn't -- How often one has felt that --
"She may feel my love staying her
heart sometimes & not know just where it comes from --" I think one does have that strong tender feeling sometimes when some one thinks kind thoughts & doesn't have
time to tell me perhaps. I hope you do, for they are often here for you.
[ John ? ] is making scraps of [ progress ? ] & then little steps back before another forward. Awfully depressing poor thing -- I do hope y. father bears this sunless N.E. windy weather
fairly well{.}
Ever my love
[ unrecognized signature ]
Notes
1899: This letter was composed late in 1899 or perhaps in early 1900, soon after Jewett's The Queen's Twin was published. While it appears to be addressed to Jewett, this cannot be certain. As it appears in the Houghton's collection of Jewett's letters from Sarah Wyman Whitman to Jewett, the donor must have believed it was addressed to Jewett. Even less certain is the sender. There is only the above signature to identify the author, and I am at loss to transcribe it. It certainly is not Whitman's characteristic "Sw."
The author quotes from the story and refers to Queen Victoria of Great Britain, who appears briefly in the narrative.
The author's reference to the recipient's father is evidence that the letter is not addressed to Jewett, whose father was long deceased in 1899.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton Library of Harvard University, Cambridge, MA. bMS Am 1743 Box 5, Item 234.
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Edited by Terry Heller, Coe College.
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