Sarah Orne Jewett to Elizabeth Jervis Gilman
[ Begin letterhead ]
POLAND SPRING HOUSE
[ Graphic design* ]
SAPIENTIA DONUM DEI*
HIRAM RICKER & SONS.
SOUTH POLAND, ME.
[ End letterhead ]
[ To the right of the
letterhead Friday evening ]
[ 22 September 1905 ]*
My dear Lizzie:
I thought that I should send you
a 'line' at once, but I found myself pretty tired and* I
have not tried to do much. I undertook rather too many
things the week before I saw you, and after keeping myself
wound up like an old watch, I seem to ^have^ stopped
now and quite run down. That's just what I
came to do! now that I think of it -- it is so easy to
[ Page 2 ]
gain a little strength and so much easier to spend it again,
that a patient like me doesn't get ahead. I am quite by
myself here, which is good -- I only know one person in this
great place, a Cambridge acquaintance, for most of the
company seems to be from the West or from Philadelphia, not
very interesting to my eyes either, but quite splendidly
arrayed!
I heard from Mary that she got
home all right on Tuesday and yesterday she was going to
York with Eva* to luncheon. It
[ Page 3 ]
was really a splendid day here. I am more and more
thankful that we could have those few hours with you on
Monday, and you will not need to have me say how many dear
memories filled my heart of your mother's affection and
kindness to us all -- You know how much we all loved her,
and how near Mary and I shall always feel to you four
children. You will have a great many sad times in missing
your dear mother, but I am sure that the happiness of
knowing how she was loved, and how much you all did to
make her happy especially
[ Page 4 ]
in these last years, will be a great comfort.* With true
love to all, and I shall often be thinking of you, dear
Lizzie,
Yours very
affectionately,
Sarah O. Jewett
If there has been some notice of your mother in the
Brunswick paper I should be so glad if Charlie* would be
kind enough to send it to me.
Notes
design: This letterhead
includes a graphic design like a coat of arms, with a
shield, vines and leaves, and including at the bottom a
ribbon with the words "POLAND SPRING."
DEI: Latin. Wisdom is the
gift of God.
1905: In his transcription,
Richard Cary has assigned this date, noting that Jewett
refers to the recent death of Alice Dunlap Gilman. This
date, in another hand, is penciled in brackets in the
upper right corner of page 1.
and: Jewett sometimes
writes "a" with a long tail for "and." I have
rendered these as "and."
Mary ... Eva: Mary Rice Jewett; see Key to
Correspondents. Eva has not be identified; though here it
appears she may be a member of the family, well-known to
Elizabeth Gilman as well as to the Jewetts. However,
she may be Baroness Eva von Blomberg, a mutual
friend of Jewett and Fields. See
Key to Correspondents.
d
ear mother: Mrs. Alice Dunlap Gilman died on
15 September 1905. Her four children
were: David Dunlap Gilman (1854-1914); Elizabeth
Jervis Gilman (1856-1939); Charles Ashburton Gilman
(1859-1938); Mary Gardiner Gilman (1865-1940).
See Key to Correspondents.
Charlie: Charles Ashburton 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. Another transcription
appears in Richard Cary's Sarah Orne Jewett Letters.
New
transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Edward Garnett
October 2d 1905
[ Begin deleted letterhead ]
South Berwick.
Maine.
[ End deleted letterhead ]
My dear M
r Garnett
It is more than a
year* since your most kind letter came and I cannot say how
many times I have remembered the kindness of it and have
wished to write to you -- I have grown stronger in certain
ways but the effects of the accident* of three years ago --
the blow on my head -- still hold me captive, and it has
never grown to be as easy to read or write as before, nor
does there
[ Page 2 ]
seem any chance yet for taking up my old works and ways* of
story writing. I still have to avoid every possible fatigue
of driving, or talking much -- in short all the innocent
ways of living and spending ones time seem beset by dangers.
I can only remember Mr. Fawcett's* high courage in
determining, when his blindness came upon him, to live as
nearly as possible like a man who could see, and* try to
live as nearly as
I can like a person who is well. I
am
[ Page 3 ]
just now quite by myself at one of our mountain hotels -- a
fine 'caravansary' where one can be amused without too much
responsibility. I have been able to read story books more
than for a long time before -- not being tired by trying to
do things that one's friends are doing! -- and I have felt
quite like the Londoners of my early visits in reading
Phineas
Finn and another story or two of Trollops.* I tell you
all this because you have been so very kind, and I have been
the better for your sympathy whenever your letters came -- I
only wish
[ Page 4 ]
that I might beg for them often. -- I read Messrs.
Duckworth's* announcement of new books, on the back of my
Athenaeum* with double interest -- to try and catch some
hint of your book & interests -- -- I have only once
seen Mr. Mifflin* for a year or more past, and I tried to
find out something to tell you -- our interview was not
formal but by friendly chance, [ but
corrected ] I
found that he had nothing to say about a new edition ^of my
stories^ though they were talking about it in old Mr.
Houghton's* day, long before I was ill. Perhaps this was
because he thought that my part of the work was out of the
question then -- I cannot help hoping that I may get hold of
things by another year. I could say
[ Up the left margin and across the
top margin of page 1 ]
in confidence some things to you of a certain lack of
ability that I feel in certain departments of the old house.
In many ways they have shown such great kindness that I must
not be in a hurry to find faults but there is no true
publisher in the house now -- no man who both understand{s}
the business side of things and loves and knows the books
themselves. May I send my
[ Up the left margin and across the
top margin of page 2 ]
best regards and kindest wishes to you, and to Mrs. Garnett*
and call myself your [
unrecognized word ] friend
S. O. Jewett
I delighted last year in all I could read of Mrs. Garnetts
beautiful translations, and I have the War & Peace
waiting.
Notes
year: See Garnett to Jewett of 22 July 1903 and
10 October 1905.
accident: Jewett refers to her carriage accident of
September 1902, which resulted in permanent disability.
works and ways: This phrase appears more than once in
the King James Bible, notably in Psalms 24:4.
Mr. Fawcett's:
Henry Fawcett (1833-1884), a British
economist and statesman, was blinded at the age of 25. He
served as Britain's Postmaster General (1880-1884).
and: In this letter, Jewett sometimes writes
"a" with a long tail for "and." I have rendered all as
"and."
Messrs. Duckworth's:
Gerald Duckworth & Company (1898)
remains a British publisher. In 1905, Garnett was employed
there.
Athenaeum: A British weekly literary
magazine (1828-1921).
Mr. Mifflin: Almost certainly George Harrison
Mifflin, long associated with Houghton, Mifflin and Company,
the "house" to which Jewett refers. See
Key to Correspondents.
In a letter to Garnet of 12 October 1903,
Jewett discussed her hope for publication of a new selection
of her published stories, perhaps along the line of
Tales
of New England (1890). At that time, it appeared the
Duckworth & Company was considering such a volume, but
it never appeared.
o
ld Mr. Houghton's: Henry Oscar Houghton. See
Key to Correspondents.
Mrs. Garnett:
Constance Black Garnett (1861-1946)
was a prolific English translator of nineteenth-century
Russian literature. Her translation of
War and Peace
by
Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910) appeared in
1904.
This manuscript is held by the Harry Ransom Humanities
Research Center, University of Texas at Austin, Jewett,
Sarah Orne, 1849-1909. 2 ALS, AL to Garnett, Edward,
1904-1905, undated; Edward Garnett Collection MS-1541.
Container 9.1. Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe
College.
Edward William Garnett to Sarah Orne Jewett
I shall
try Messrs Houghton MIfflin again by
& by.
10 October. 1905
[ Begin Letterhead ]
Telegrams: "DUCTARIUS, LONDON."
Cable Address: "GERWADUCK, LONDON."
3. HENRIETTA STREET
COVENT GARDEN, W.C.
[ End Letterhead ]
Dear Miss Jewett,
I was most pleased to
get your letter, after many months.* I wish I could come to
see you -- but at least I can write. Your news of
yourself is half sad. You say nothing as to whether you
suffer
-- apart from the other incapacities.* I wonder whether you
might not benefit us all, & yourself a little perhaps,
if you kept a Diary of your thoughts. I know that there must
[
Circled figure, perhaps 1 ]
[ Page 2 ]
be many days vacant in such a Diary, but many things must
pass through your mind day by day, & you might find
yourself equal to writing down your detached thoughts, just
as Hawthorne* jotted down his
Note Books.
I wish you would try this. The best books
always seem to me to have sprung from life itself, in
forcing its strangeness & incompleteness on the minds of
those who have been [ pulled
? ] up, [
unrecognized
word ] face to face with it. I am very fond of
Whitman's*
Diaries
[ Letterhead repeated ]
(2)
in his
Prose Works --
November Boughs, &
Specimen Days, &
In War Time, where he
jotted down daily notes, are full of strength & beauty.
I am so delighted that you appreciate my
wife's
Turgenev translations.* They have a
very restricted circulation here -- ^averaging^ about [ 1200
corrected from 1000 ? ] copies, but I feel those
copies are in the right hands. I shall
[ 2
circled ]
[ Page 4 ]
give my wife, tonight, your messages.
I wish I could say
something about my own literary activities -- but I am a
dilatory person, rather a humbug I fear, & I have always
felt that
life offers me more than letters. I begin
things, & don't finish them.
Do you [ know any of
? ]
Conrad's* works? You should read
Youth ^( Blackwood
[ V1
o ? ].)^ He is a Pole (one of my
friends), & I imagine that he is very little known in
America -- although he is one of the first [
deletion]
of our writers.
Please ask a friend to
[ Down the left margin of page 4
]
read
Youth aloud to you, if you cannot soon read it
yourself. / With very sincere messages of friendship,
yours
Edward Garnett.
Notes
months: See Jewett to Garnett of 2 October
1905.
incapacities: Garnett refers to the continuing
effects of Jewett's debilitating carriage accident of
September 1902.
Hawthorne: American author, Nathaniel Hawthorne
(1804-1864). Published posthumously were three volumes of
"passages" from his notebooks:
English Note-Books
(1870),
French and Italian Note-Books (1871), and
American
Note-Books (1879).
Whitman's: American poet, Walt Whitman (1819-1892)
published in several other genres as well. His diaries
include:
Memoranda During the War (1876),
Specimen
Days (1882), and
November Boughs (1888).
translations: According to Wikipedia, Constance Clara
Black Garnett (1861-1946) translated 71 works of Russian
literature into English, including those of Ivan Turgenev
(1818-1883).
Conrad's: Joseph Conrad (1857-1924) was a
Polish-British fiction writer. His autobiographical
novella,
Youth, first appeared in
Blackwood's
Magazine Vol. 164 (Sep 1898). Wikipedia.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton
Library of Harvard University: Sarah Orne Jewett
Correspondence I, Letters to Sarah Orne Jewett.
Garnett, Edward. 1868-1937. 2
letters; 1903-1905. (74).
Associated with this letter is an
envelope addressed to Jewett in South Berwick and canceled
in London, UK, on 10 October 1905.
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.
Charles Eliot Norton to Sarah Orne Jewett
Shady Hill. 12 Oct. 1905
Dear Miss Jewett: --
It would make me happy if you can assert
to me that you are not
almost, but
quite
well again, and that you have been enjoying, with a
delightful sense of health, these superb autumn-days.
I send you with my
[ Page 2 ]
love, a little volume which I have had pleasure in editing
as an act of piety to a great poet who, alas! stands much in
need of such an act.*
-----
Sally is at Lenox with Mrs. Wharton,* and
send her love to you from there{.}
Affectionately Yours
C. E. Norton.
Notes
Norton: See Sara Norton in Key to
Correspondents.
In the Houghton folder with this letter
is an envelope addressed to Jewett in South Berwick, ME, and
forwarded to Manchester by Sea, Mass., cancelled on 12
October 1905, and on the back on 13 October in both South
Berwick and Manchester..
On the back of the envelope is this
penciled note: "Taken from The Love poems of John Donne,
edited by Charles Eliot Norton."
act: The line after this word slants up to the
right, apparently intended to emphasize the break between
the two paragraphs.
Wharton: Sally is Sara Norton. Mrs.
Wharton at Lenox is American author Edith Wharton
(1862-1937). Wikipedia.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton
Library of Harvard University, Cambridge, MA. Sarah Orne
Jewett Correspondence, bMS Am 1743 Box 4, Item 166. I.
Letters to Sarah Orne Jewett.
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller,
Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Annie Adams Fields
[
Autumn 1905 ]*
[ A fragment with missing material at the beginning
]
her hard work and excitement about the Play. It seemed
to me as if that were a losing game from the first -- I
can see a Play more easily in Lady Rose,* but
[ Page 2 ]
-- I shall have to get broken in to being a Boston lady
again -- but Fuff* not to mind a respectable old Country
Pinny!!* She will have a steeple top parasol
[
Manuscript breaks off. No signature. ]
Notes
Autumn 1905: The date is speculative, based
upon the dramatization that year of two of Mary Augusta
Ward's novels, to which Jewett
may refer. See
notes below.
This manuscript consists of two small
pages, about the bottom 1/4 of each page. They are torn
similarly and seem to be in the same ink and paper,
suggesting that they belong together, though the sequence is
not apparent.
Lady Rose: The novel,
Lady Rose's Daughter
(1903) by Mary Augusta Ward (1851-1920)
, was
dramatized as
Agatha in 1905. See
Key
to Correspondents.
Ward's
The Marriage of William Ashe
(1905) was adapted for the stage in 1905 as well.
Jewett may be comparing these two works in the suitability
for the stage.
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 Sarah Norton
October 23 [ 1905 ]
I am very sorry and disappointed that you could not
come, S. dear! Our fine weather seems to be keeping on
through another chapter. I have not finished the
House
of Mirth* but I look forward to the last chapters with
great eagerness -- it will be very dependent on these last
chapters. Mrs Fields is very well and seems rested
after the really hot and busy days in town. Mr.
Howells spent yesterday afternoon with us. Please
forgive this post card because it lay closest to hand.
With love
S. O. J.
Notes
1905: This probable date presumes that Jewett
read Wharton's
The House of Mirth as it was
serialized in 1905.
House of Mirth: American fiction
writer
Edith Wharton (1862-1937) published
her novel,
The House of Mirth, in
1905. It was serialized in
Scribner's Magazine
beginning in January 1905, and appeared as a book on 14
October.
This transcription appears in Nancy Ellen Carlock's 1939
Boston University thesis,
S.O.J.
A
Biography
of
Sarah
Orne
Jewett. She indicates that she owned the
postcard in 1939. Notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Julia Ward Howe to Sarah Orne Jewett
241 Beacon St. Oct. 27
th 1905
Dear Sarah,
I have found the enclosed document in the
confusion of my papers. I think it must have been in some
book of [ your's
so spelled ] which I [
deletion
] may have borrowed, begged, or stolen. I have heard nothing
of you nor of Annie Fields* for a long time. I hope
[ Page 2 ]
that this "no news" is good news, as the old interpretation
is, or was. I am here on the [
unrecognized word ]
jump, going back to Newport at the end of this week, for a
few more precious days of [ shore
? ] air &
sunshine. I hope that Mary* is well of her [ lameness
?
] long before this time. A line by recognition would be
highly acceptable to all sorts of [ your's
so spelled
],
Julia Ward Howe.
Notes
Fields: Annie Adams Fields. See Key to
Correspondents.
Mary: Mary Rice Jewett. 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, Julia (Ward) 1819-1910. 8
letters; 1901-1905 & [n.d.] (103).
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 Frances Parker Parkman
Sunday
[ Late October 1905 ]*
[ Begin letterhead ]
South Berwick, Maine
[ End letterhead ]
My dear Frances
I meant to send this letter off
yesterday -- it may not catch you; but you wont pine, in
Virginia! without the Berwick news . . . I hope that you
and Mr. Parkman have had a delightful time, and find
that you haven't forgotten how to Play -- you two
children who love to Walk just a little too much for
your own good . . .
(This is not my settled opinion but
spoken on the impulse of
[ Page 2 ]
the moment.)
One thing I do hope, that you have
found the weather as enchanting as it has been, and
is, here. Today I should like to have spent with
you at North East* -- I really missed you when the
time came for the little visit I planned last
week. I asked an old friend to spend the day
with me on Friday and I think she liked it, and I did
too, but I still have your visit to look forward to --
it is [ not
or n't ] all spent and
[ Page 3 ]
behind me -- my sister has been away but came back
last night.
I have been finding more of S.W.'s
dear letters* -- I just had a longing to put two or
three into this envelope, but they might be lost, and
you shall see them some other day. I have come to a
point, long dreamed of, of looking over my papers and
the letters I have kept, and finding all I can of hers
by the way -- It is rather dreary work though I find
many dear surprises, and it is very strange what vital
sparks some letters are, while others simply make one
a little impatient and are
[ Page 4 ]
torn in two without a thought -- It isn't always ruled by
ones feelings toward the writers by any means. The tracks of
my story-writing pen [ amaze
or amazes ] me, and the
stories themselves seem like the sands of the sea -- I have
forgotten even their names -- pieces of me though they were,
and all my heart put into each! Those that touch me deepest
are the ones that I tried to do for village readers like
some of my neighbours along the Berwick roads -- but somehow
it makes me ache as I read them, -- all
that is
quite done, and was done years ago -- I dont believe it was
my proper audience, and yet
it and
I
certainly thought so. This
[ Up the left margin and across the
top margin of page 1 ]
letter is the dullest news that ever went out of Berwick but
dont mind for I send love enough to make up -- Yours most
affectionately
S.O.J.
Tell me all about your travels like a good girl! Mrs.
Fields is having
[ Up the left margin and across the
top margin of page 2 ]
a very nice time with the Baddeleys* -- I shall try to
see them too but not just yet.
Notes
Late October 1905: Penciled at the top of page one: [
1903 ]. However, the letter almost certainly was composed
after the death of Sarah Wyman Whitman in June 1904. The
speculative date of October 1905 is based on the letter's
reference to the Baddeleys. If these people are
correctly identified in the notes below, then the letter
almost certainly was composed in the autumn of 1905.
At the bottom left of this page is
penciled and circled: 221, the Houghton Library item number
for this ms.
In this letter, Jewett sometimes shortens
"and" in various ways, some of which appear only as "a" with
a long tail. I have rendered these as "and."
North East: Presumably, Jewett refers to Northeast
Harbor, ME.
S.W.'s dear letters: Sarah Wyman Whitman
died in June 1904. See
Key
to Correspondents. Jewett helped to gather and prepare
a selection of her letters for a
1907 publication.
Baddeleys: It seems likely Jewett refers to
British antiquarian Welbore St. Clair Baddeley (1856-1946),
who gave a course of eight lectures at Boston's Lowell
Institute on "Ancient Rome in the Light of Recent
Discoveries" during November 1905. See
Monthly Bulletin of Books Added to the
Public Library of the City (1905) Volume 10, p. 396
and
Worldcat Identities. His wife
was the
subject of a 1907 portrait by
Augustus Edwin John (1878-1961).
However, it is possible that she refers
to
John Frederick Baddeley (1854-1940),
British journalist, traveller and scholar, specializing in
Russia and the Caucasus. He is not yet known to have married
or to have visited in the United States at the presumed time
of this letter.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton
Library, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA. Jewett, Sarah
Orne, 1849-1909. 17 letters to Frances Parkman; [190-]-1907.
Parkman family, Edward Twisleton, and Sarah Wyman Whitman
additional papers, 1763-1917 (inclusive) 1850-1907 (bulk).
MS Am 1408 (214-230). Transcription and notes by Terry
Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Louisa Loring Dresel
Sunday ----
[ November 1905 ]*
[ Begin letterhead ]
South Berwick Maine
[ End letterhead ]
My dear Loulie
I hope that this
note will be in time to welcome you and* your dear
Marianne* and I wish that I could be the first-foot (as
the Scots say on New Year Day) to go to your door. I think
you must be good and send me a line to say if you had a
good passage, and (right away!) how Miss Brockhaus likes
America. She will have to get used [ to corrected
] this question, and I promise
[ Page 2 ]
never to ask it in person [ and
corrected ] so she
will never have to answer. Please take my love, both
of you, and believe how glad I am to think of seeing you --
with
her it is just seeing old friends for the first
time -- The two sphinxes* on the great harbor gateway were
very funny and solemn = in / spite of their offended
initials I couldn't quite make the association clear --
I shall be coming to
[ Page 3 ]
town before long, dear Loulie, but I cannot just [ now
corrected
] say when it will be. Then we must play together: I think
that it would be nice to go to a show . . I say this so that
you will understand how much better I have gown, that I now
have Energy and Take an Interest in Life --* I hope that
Scrapper will be able to bark the welcome that he [ must
?
] feel, and that you will find every think 'comfy' in
getting back.
Yours very affectionately
S. O. J.
Notes
1905: Marianne Brockhaus probably visited the
United States in 1905. See Jewett to Dresel
tentatively of 4 December 1905. There appears to have been
no other U.S. visit during Jewett's lifetime.
On the first page of the photocopy of
this letter appears this note:
"Photocopy sent to us Nov. 1991 by Sara Strazok, trying to
date it.
SOJ used this stationery in 1893 & 1894 if the dating
on 2 letters in this file is correct. RWL."
and: Sometimes Jewett writes "a" with a long
tail for "and." I render these as "and."
sphinxes: Jewett's allusion is not yet identified.
Life: Jewett refers to her long and
never complete recovery from her carriage accident of
September 1902.
A photocopy of the manuscript of this letter is in the
collection of the Miller Library of Colby College,
Waterville, ME: JEWE.1.
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller,
Coe College.
Clara Sidney Taylor Davidge* to Sarah Orne Jewett
62 S. Washington Square
November third
[ 1905 ]*
Darling Sarah. If I flood you with printed matter you
must ignore it even to the point of putting it aside
altogether till you want something to read. But I could
not resist having the really great poem of our dear
Torrence* [ type
corrected ] written for you.
Because you will soon know ^him^ & best by this. For
the
[
Page 2 ]
interests of science only, I
venture to enclose one of the Unity Society* sets of
rules or directions [ for
? ] patients. Only
to find out if any of the ideas strike sympathetic
strings on your harp. I dont want you to be [
treated
or healed ] by the Silent Unity
circle. I have a good grasp of you, & whether
you believe it or not, you are going to spread wide
your wings & be freer in being
[ Page 3 ]
more established & richer than
ever before -- The results come usually when you are
not looking for or expecting ^anything^ -- when [ y
meaning you ] have either given up or
forgotten -- There is some secret in the very
letting go that attends the hour -- But it always
comes to the Unity people, when they are given
an open road, & I can see the certainties now as
I [ never corrected ] yet have seen them. If
I dared I would send you the
[ Page 4 ]
"Signs that Follow," the bi-monthly
report of the pleasant miracles that flow along like
a river.
But apart from miracles let me
first beg a benefit. What time of the winter would
suit you best to try a couple of weeks in the old
world in New York. You have never staid down here --
You do not know how quiet it is -- at night as still
in the
[ Page 5 ]
big back room you will have, as the country. And
still & peaceful in the evenings. It is out of
the tide, a world of our own, and you can have as
much or as little of life as you like -- The poets
are reverently waiting in hope, any time at all is
^a^ good time for me. I am all alone, & very
free this year. Give my love to Miss Mary* whom I
think
[ Page 6 ]
of so much, as is natural after falling in love so
hard{.}
Your ever loving
C. S D
Notes
1905: This date is a guess. Almost certainly, the
assumed topic of this letter is Jewett's chronic pain
and delicate health after her nearly fatal carriage
accident of September 1902. It is unlikely that the
letter was written before 1903, because Jewett was
seriously incapacitated the autumn after her accident,
and the latest possible year is 1908. I have arbitrarily
chosen a year within that period.
Penciled in the upper left corner of
page 1: "An offered remedy!"
With this manuscript is a small strip
of paper; penciled on the strip is: "Charles Dudley
Warner and the Tory Lover." This may refer to Annie
Fields's report in
Charles Dudley Warner
(1904) that Warner encouraged Jewett to write her 1901
novel,
The Tory Lover. Why the note is attached
to this letter is not clear. A note by KB from March
2001 also appears with the letter: "no idea of the
significance or provenance of this note."
Davidge: In a letter to Lilian Aldrich of 18 June
1908, Jewett says that the American painter
Clara Sidney Potter Davidge
(1858-1921) is an old friend. Jewett also refers to her
in a letter from Europe in 1882. Davidge was the
daughter of Episcopal Bishop of New York, Henry Codman
Potter. In 1892, she married her first husband,
Mason Chichester Davidge (d. 10
October 1899). In 1913, she married the painter
Henry Fitch Taylor (1853-1925).
Torrence: It seems likely that this is American
poet
Ridgely Torrence (1874-1950).
Residing in Greenwich Village after 1896, possibly near
Davidge, who gives an address on Washington Square, he
associated with several contemporary poets, including
Edward Arlington Robinson, William Vaughan Moody, and
Robert Frost. Presumably, this is the circle of poets
said to be interested in meeting Jewett.
Unity Society: Founded in Kansas City, MO, by
Charles and Myrtle Fillmore in 1889, the
Unity Church "grew out of
Transcendentalism and became part of the New Thought
movement." Davidge apparently was a member of the New
York Unity Society, also called the Society of Silent
Unity.
A major feature of this society was
faith healing. According to their journal,
Unity
v. 29 (1908), p. 413, the society published a 24-page
pamphlet, "Instructions to Patients," "giving full
information for those who desire treatments from our
Silent Unity Society." As a healing movement, Unity
distinguished itself from Christian Science: "Unity
emphasizes spiritual healing, prosperity and the curing
of illness by spiritual means, but Unity does not reject
or resist medical treatments."
The Unity Society also published a
regular "paper,"
The Signs that Follow, that
gave "in every issue short extracts from the numerous
letters we are constantly receiving, telling of the
healing of nervous, acute, and chronic cases of every
description" (
Unity v. 29, p. 343).
Mary: Mary Rice Jewett. See
Key to Correspondents.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the University of
New England Maine Women Writers Collection, Sarah Orne
Jewett Correspondence Box 1 Folder 032
Previous transcriber: KB (Kent Bicknell,
2001). New transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe
College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Harriet Jackson Lee Morse*
Wednesday 8th Novr
[ 1905 ]*
[ Begin letterhead ]
South Berwick, Maine.
[ End letterhead ]
Dearest Mrs. Morse
I have thought of you a great many times
when I couldn't write to say so, and* now I really must just
send my love to you and dear Fanny, if no more -- (I'm not
sure that I ought [ to
corrected ] speak as if there
were no more than love: I suppose it must have a
material shape sometimes -- a little body of expression of
some sort -- to belong in this world!) I must say, first,
what I know you will be glad to hear, that I am really
[ Page 2 ]
getting to be much stronger as I always believed I should
so, when the cool weather began again. I confess to many
backslidings and downfallings -- for instance I went to
Kittery Point to see the Howells's* by trolley cars last
Friday and have had to keep the back of my head just as
still as a mouse's ever since. But I begin to get hold of
myself and to feel the 'blot,' and 'cloud" and uncertainty
not to say impossible sort of pain, growing less and less.
It
is something to be able to hold on to things
instead of that dreary feeling of their slipping away, and
if I can keep to a moderate ache in my head most of the
time, I shall get up the
[ Page 3 ]
long hill faster and faster -- the old sort was very
damaging, and "
I aint what I was" as our neighbors
say, without hesitation -- -- -- I went over to Manchester
(forgive such a long chapter about my woes!) a day or two
before Mrs. Fields* moved to town and as I drove by, I saw
the bar across your gate, and sent a blessing though I could
not see you, as I might have done. I only let Mrs.
Fields stay in town a day or two. The weather was so
promising, and then we came right here where she stayed with
me two weeks, all but a day, and we had a dear time together
-- one week quite alone (me a housekeeping like anything
while my sister was at Little
[
Page 4 ]
Boarshead with my cousin -- we drove a
little and sat in the garden [ on ? ] a
sheltered bench a good deal. Mrs. Tyson* is
staying late as she did last year: it is really
delightful to have her appear as she did [ last
? ] yesterday afternoon, and say she has come to
supper, with some London letters and London papers, with
accounts of Sir Henry Irving's funeral &c; and if
there isn't some thing interesting from the outside we
fall to talking of our respective gardens, and "next
year's" plans.
She and Elise too, are such kind and
delightful neighbours. How I wish that I had you and
Fanny as near! -- but we are neighbours in our hearts
even if you should go and spend the
[
Up the left margin and across the top margin
and up the right margin of page 1 ]
winter in Japan -- I hope you dont mean
to? -- My sister just came by and asked me to send her [
best corrected ] remembrance. -- I hope to get
to town again before long for a few days at least and
then I shall see you dear -- Mrs. Fields has some
English friends the Baddeleys* there just now.
Perhaps you or Fanny may be going
that way on a Saturday? I send you both my dear love
[
Up the left margin of page 2 ]
and all sorts of wishes. Tell me
about [ Gwenn* so spelled ]. I saw that she
[
Up the left margin of page 3 ]
had returned from her delightful travels. Yours very
affectionately
Sarah
Notes
Morse: See Frances (Fanny) Rollins Morse in Key
to Correspondents.
1905: This is the year Henry Irving died.
See note below.
and: Sometimes in this letter, Jewett writes an "a"
with a long tail for "and." I render these as "and."
Howell's: The family of William Dean Howells. Key to
Correspondents.
Fields: Annie Adams Fields. Key to Correspondents.
Tyson: Emily Davis Tyson and her step-daughter,
Elizabeth. Key to Correspondents.
Sir Henry Irving's funeral: British actor, Sir Henry
Irving (1838- 13 October 1905). Wikipedia.
Gwenn: Frances Rollins Morse was the sister of Dr.
Henry Lee Morse (1852-1929). He married Jessie Frances
Lizzie Scott (1860-1909). Their only known child, Harriet
Morse's granddaughter, was Gwendolyn (1886-1968). Family
Search.
Baddeleys: Probably British antiquarian Welbore
St. Clair Baddeley (1856-1946), who gave a course of eight
lectures at Boston's Lowell Institute on "Ancient Rome in
the Light of Recent Discoveries" during November 1905.
See
Monthly Bulletin of Books Added to the Public
Library of the City (1905) Volume 10, p. 396 and
Worldcat Identities. His wife was the subject of a
1907 portrait by Augustus Edwin John (1878-1961).
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton
Library of Harvard University, Cambridge, MA. bMS Am
1743.1 (123) Box 4, II. Letters from Sarah Orne Jewett.
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller,
Coe College.
William Dean Howells to Sarah Orne Jewett
Kittery Point
Nov. 17, 1905.
Dear Miss Jewett:
I have been so sorry ever since you were
here with your sister that I was not here, too! I was off
with our faithful Albert* [
unrecognized last name ]
digging up a roadside bush for our hedge. But all such joys
are now at an end, and I would have given the best bush that
ever grew for another glimpse of you, if I had only known it
in time. You left behind some delightful [ mementoes
so
written ] of
[ Page 2 ]
South Berwick in the jams and jellies which we all have
shared, and for which we join in common thanks. They had the
flower, the bouquet of some of your most charming studies,
and there was a quaintness which was like the [ graciousness
? ] of certain [ gentlewomen
? ] in your
lovely pages. My wife celebrated your healthful looks, which
I [ doubly
? ] noted the day I saw you in the
parlor=garden and the garden=parlor of your own beau=
3/
3
=tiful house by=the=trolley. That makes me think of Mrs.
Fields,* with ^whom^ I lunched in Charles Street Wednesday;
Pilla* being in Boston for dentistry, and it seeming easy
for me to go up because she was there. It was the first time
we had sat together at that venerable table, and looked out
upon that legendary lagoon. Dr. Hale and his daughter* were
there, and two most agreeable English people. Nothing was
wanting but you; and I have rarely seen Mrs. Fields sweeter
[ Page 4 ]
and brighter. What a [ recovery
corrected ] she has
made!* It ^would^ [ seems
so written ] inevitable,
if you were not doing as much.
We expect to be leaving Kittery Point in
a fortnight or so. I am going to New York to see my brother
off for Turks Island, where he goes Consul;* but I return
and then go back again with the family.
Pilla is still in Boston or she would
join her mother and me in best love to your sister and
yourself.
Yours sincerely
W. D. Howells.
Notes
Albert: It seems likely that Albert is an
employee of the Howells family. I have failed to
decipher his last name and to identify him further.
Mrs. Fields: Annie Adams Fields. See
Key to Correspondents.
Pilla: Howells's daughter. See
Key to Correspondents.
Hale and his daughter ... English people:
Edward Everett Hale (1822-1909) was an
American author and clergyman, best remembered perhaps for
"The Man Without a Country" (1863). His daughter,
Ellen Day Hale (1855-1940) was an
American impressionist painter and author.
An English visitor who may have spent
time with Fields in the autumn of 1905 was the antiquarian
Welbore St. Clair Baddeley
(1856-1946), who gave a course of eight lectures at Boston's
Lowell Institute on "Ancient Rome in the Light of Recent
Discoveries" during November 1905. See
Monthly Bulletin of Books Added to the
Public Library of the City (1905) Volume 10, p. 396
and
Worldcat Identities. His wife,
Helen Georgiana Grant, was the
subject of a 1907 portrait by
Augustus Edwin John (1878-1961).
Consul: Howells's elder brother,
Joseph Alexander Howells (1832-1912)
was American consul to Turks Island (1905-1912). See
also Richard J. Hinton, "The Howells Family," edited by
Clara M. and Rudolf Kirk, p. 18n.
The manuscript of the letter is held by the Houghton Library
of Harvard University. Howells, William Dean, 1837-1920. 16
letters to Sarah Orne Jewett; 1875-1908. Sarah Orne Jewett
correspondence, 1861-1930. MS Am 1743 (105). Transcription
and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to William Dean Howells
South Berwick, Maine,
Friday. [ November 1905 ]
Dear Mr. Howells
Mrs. Fields* is here for some days to
come; all next week I hope, and longer!
-- and it would be delightful if you felt like
"taking the trolley" again. I shall not say that I
have written to you so that if you are busy or do not feel
like an autumn journey to Berwick you can be quite free,
and she will not be looking for you and be
disappointed. I wish that I could see Mrs. Howells
and Pilla.*
We have early dinner at one and an
early supper before seven -- late breakfast,
and tea at any moment. Indeed I meant to go to see
you but I was away (at Manchester and Poland Spring
and Intervale) almost all the late
summer. I have wished to 'talk over' that dear day
when you and Mr. James were here* -- that
misty day which left the clearest and brightest
memories. It will not be half so nice for you to
come to Berwick again without him -- and in a
closed car, but you will find a double welcome.
Yours most affectionately,
S. O. Jewett
Notes
November 1905: The letter refers to the June
1905 visit of Howells and Henry James to South Berwick,
ME, and is written after Jewett's return from the fall
1905 travels she mentions, to Poland, ME and Intervale, NH
in the White Mountains.
Mrs. Fields: Annie Adams Fields. See Key
to Correspondents.
Mrs. Howells and Pilla: See William Dean
Howells in Key
to Correspondents.
when you and Mr. James were here: Howells
and James visited Jewett in South Berwick, ME in June
1905.
There are two typescripts of this letter. This transcription
is from that held by the Houghton Library of Harvard
University, Cambridge, MA. bMS Am 1743.1 Sarah
Orne Jewett Additional Correspondence II. Letters from Sarah
Orne Jewett, Box 4 (120).
Another virtually identical one appears
in transcriptions from mixed repositories in the Maine Women
Writer's Collection, University of New England, Letters from
Sarah Orne Jewett, 1875-1890, Folder 72, Burton Trafton
Jewett Research Collection.
Digitized with notes by Terry
Heller, Coe College.
Mary Amelia St. Clair to Annie Adams Fields
C/O Miss Holt*
New York City
Nov: 19 [
1905 ]*
My dear M
rs Fields
Thank you very much
for y. kind letter. As it happens a later date will suit me
better, as I have to be in New York on Dec 5, for the Mark
Twain Dinner,* & must put off my visit to
[ Page 2 ]
Boston till after that.
My plans are to come to Boston with Miss
Holt for a week, sometime between the 8
th & the
18
th, & to avail myself of your most kind
invitation for a day or two, if a date either at the
beginning or end of my visit w. suit you. Say, from the 8
th
to the 10
th, or the
[ Page 3 ]
16
th to the 18
th
Perhaps you will let me know a little
later wh. of these two dates will suit you better. If
neither s
d suit, I will still hope to see something
of you while I am in Boston with Miss Holt.
With kind regards & many thanks
Sincerely yrs. May Sinclair
Notes
1905: This date corresponds to May Sinclair's visit
to the United States in the autumn of 1905.
Miss Holt: The publisher and author,
Henry Holt (1840-1926), was May
Sinclair's American publisher. His daughter,
Winifred Holt (1870-1945), was an
American sculptor and co-founder, with her sister Edith, of
the New York Association for the Blind, which became
Lighthouse International. While she would likely have
been the Miss Holt with whom Sinclair stayed while in New
York, there was another sister, Sylvia Holt, possibly living
at the same address in 1905-6.
Mark Twain Dinner: A dinner to celebrate
the 70th birthday of Samuel Clemens
(Mark Twain) took place at Delmonico's in New York City on 5
December 1905.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Huntington
Library, San Marino, California: James Thomas Fields Papers
and Addenda (1767-1914), Letters of Sinclair, mss FL 1-5637.
May Sinclair, when she abbreviates a word
as well as with some titles places some of the letters in
superscript position. I have elected not to duplicate
this practice in the transcriptions of her letters.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Francis Jackson Garrison
November 20th
[ 1905 ]*
[ Begin letterhead ]
South Berwick Maine
[ End letterhead ]
Dear Mr. Garrison
I have been wishing to thank you
for your kind and delightful letter, which brought me real
pleasure and* a sense of friendly companionship, and for
the book, a beautiful memorial of your father.* The Words
are "still vital with spiritual insight" and all
the heavenly gifts your preface claims. I had sent it --
or ordered it to
[ Page 2 ]
be sent -- to David Douglas* for he always seems to me
akin to these things ---- and to another old friend* who
lives near Manchester and who will soon have this book by
heart, though he followed the maker of it through all the
old days -- Somehow it gave me a great delight in
imagination -- to follow the two volumes on their way.
Your letter sounds as if the
[ Page 3 ]
summer's journey had done you good, -- It
is good to
have new things to think of, and such freshening makes one
see the old things with new eyes. I hope that it will be
long before you get so very tired again; it was too bad!
When I get to town by and by I
shall hope to see you and dear Mrs. Garrison, tell her
that I get very hungry and thirsty sometimes for some
music.
-- Yours most sincerely,
Sarah O. Jewett
Notes
1905: Jewett refers to and quotes from the Garrisons'
preface to
The Words of Garrison (1905).
and: Sometimes Jewett writes "a" with a long
tail for "and." I render these as "and."
father: Richard Cary writes: "With his brother
Wendell Phillips Garrison, Francis Jackson wrote
William
Lloyd Garrison, 1805-1879; The Story of his Life as told
by his Children (New York, 1885-1889), 4 vols. Francis
also edited
The Words of Garrison (Boston, 1905)."
David Douglas: See Key to Correspondents.
old friend: Jewett had a number old friends living
near Manchester. Presumably, she does not mean Annie
Fields, whom she would almost certainly have named. Possibly
she means Thomas Bailey Aldrich. More likely would be Susan
Burley Howes Cabot, or, especially, Julia Ward Howe.
The manuscript of this letter is held by Colby College
Special Collections, Waterville, ME: JEWE.1. Richard Cary
included his transcription in
Sarah Orne Jewett Letters.
New transcription and notes by
Terry Heller, Coe College.
Marie Thérèse de Solms Blanc to Sarah Orne Jewett and
Annie Adams Fields
This postcard was
composed in French; a transcription follows the
translation.
Editor's note*
[ 23 November 1905 ]*
Dear Annie, this is to speak just one
more time about Duse.* She appeared only one night in this
wrenching play by Gorky,* so filled with emotion and
talent, and to which events in Russia lend further
interest. She performed in Italian, while the other actors
spoke French, but this went unnoticed in a plot so
poignant and moving. Dare I say, though, that while there
was so much to admire in her performance, she lacked that
great gift of the artist, to fully enter into the
character she portrayed. The Russian shrew became an
Italian virago. Whatever she does, she embodies Italy
itself, with its passion and charm. That is enough to earn
our applause, so that we want to see her again, but I dare
say that she has only natural gifts. Of all the actor's
requisites, these are the most beautiful. We crowded into
the New Theater to see her. It was a gala performance and
all the extravagant luxury of the women's evening dress as
they witnessed scenes of popular misery, which Gorky knows
how to represent, reminded me of the royal court cheering
the performance The Marriage of Figaro,* which was a
general prelude to The Terror. I embrace you. ThB
Notes
Editor's note: This document was
added to the Sarah Orne Jewett Text Project or revised
after June 2022. At that time it became necessary to
change format, mainly to eliminate nearly all links to
other documents. As a result, this letter differs in
format from most others in the collection.
1905: This postcard was sent
to Annie Fields at 148 Charles Street, Boston, from Mme.
Blanc Bentzon, Meudon "J. et O.," Chemin de la Station,
No. 24. It was cancelled at Versailles A Paris
November 05, and in St. Louis, MO on 6 December, and at
Back Bay Station, Boston, on a date not readable in
1905. Stamped in red, bottom left, is the note:
"Missent to St. Louis."
Duse: Italian actor, Eleonora Giulia Amalia
Duse (1858-1924). Wikipedia.
Gorky: Russian author and activist, Alexei
Maximovich Peshkov, popularly known as Maxim Gorky, was
the author The Lower Depths, first performed by
the Moscow Arts Theatre under the direction of Konstantin
Stanislavski in 1902. S. Rolet (University of
Lille), in "How the French Discovered The Lower Depths"
(2018), describes the 25 October 1905 performance of the
play at L'Oeuvre Theatre in Paris, with Duse playing
Vassilissa, the shrewish landlord's wife in a crowded
tenement.
Blanc refers to the January 1905
Russian Revolution, a nation-wide wave of political and
social unrest. (See also, Wikipedia).
Marriage of Figaro: Wolfgang Amadeus
Mozart's (1756-1791) comic opera, The Marriage of
Figaro, (1786) was based on a play (1778) by French
playwright, Pierre Beaumarchais (1732-1799). In the play,
a servant, Figaro, succeeds in preventing his employer, a
philandering count, from seducing Figaro's intended. The
play is generally interpreted as a critique of
aristocratic privilege, particularly of a nobleman's right
to exploit his female servants. Wikipedia notes that King
Louis XVI was so shocked by a private reading of the play
that he forbade its public performance. After
considerable revision, including setting the play in
Spain, public performances were allowed, beginning in
1783.
the Terror: Blanc refers to the "Reign of
Terror," the phase of the French Revolution that began in
1792 or 1793 and ended in about 1794, a series of
massacres and public executions aimed at people considered
to be enemies of the revolution. Wikipedia.
The manuscript of this card 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, ceci est pour vous parler
seulement encore une fois de Duse.
Elle a joué un seul soir dans cette
terrible pièce de Gorky, si pleine
d'émotion et de talent et à laquelle
les évenements de Russie prêtent
un intérêt de plus. Elle jouait en
Italien tandis que les autres acteurs
jouaient en français, mais cela
passait inaperçu dans l'action
si poignante et si mouvementée.
Oserai-je vous dire que cette fois, tout
en ayant beaucoup de raison
de l'admirer, j'ai dû constater
qu'elle manquait d'un grand
don de l'artiste, celui de s'incarner
dans le personnage qu'elle représentée.
La mégère russe était une virago
italienne. Quoiqu'elle fasse elle
est toujours Duse l'Italie-même
avec sa passion et son charme.
C'est assez pour qu'on l'applaudisse
et qu'on tienne à la revoir, mais
j'oserai dire qu'elle n'a que des
dons de nature. Ce sont du reste
les plus beaux de tous. -- On s'écrasait
au Nouveau Théâtre pour la voir.
c'était une représentation de gala
et toutes ces femmes en toilettes du soir
d'un luxe extravagant assistant à de
[ Up the right margin ]
scènes de misère populaire comme Gorky sait les
peindre me faisaient penser à la cour acclamant le Mariage
de Figaro
[ Down the left margin ]
ce prélude général de la [ Terreur
? ] Je
vous embrasse. ThB
Julia Ward Howe to Sarah Orne Jewett
Own room. Nov. 24
th 1905
No, dear -- never [ hearn
so written ] tell of them.
I shall be very glad of the loan of them, but more glad for
the gift of your presence,
affect'
J. W. H.
[ bottom right corner, set off by a vertical line
after the signature ]
Those blue Cornell magazines [ ?
or ! ]
[ bottom left corner ]
241 Beacon St.
[ up the left margin ]
never [ seen yet
? ] the Berwick nights!
Notes
The manuscript of this postcard is held by the Houghton
Library of Harvard University: Sarah Orne Jewett
Correspondence I, Letters to Sarah Orne Jewett.
Howe, Julia (Ward) 1819-1910. 8
letters; 1901-1905 & [n.d.] (103).
The card is addressed to Jewett in South
Berwick, cancelled in Boston 24 November 1905.
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 Francis Jackson Garrison
South Berwick
November 29
th
[ 1905 ]*
[
Stamped red monogram of SOJ initials inside a
circle ]
My dear Mr. Garrison
I
am much interested to know how affairs have gone on about
the novels for the enterprising New York house!* -- It
occurs to my mind that I asked to have my name put down for
a copy of Calverly's
Theocritus* -- I see that ^the
book^
[ Page 2 ]
has been, or is soon to be, published and I should like to
be sure that I shall not be disappointed -- we have not
happened to speak about it --
Will you please have someone tell me
about both these matters? I know how busy you are --
yourself, every day{.}
Yours sincerely
S. O. Jewett
Notes
1905: This date is supported by Jewett's
request in the letter for a copy of the already or soon to
be published
Theocritus, translated by C. S.
Calverley. See notes below. As Jewett's letter
is dated near the end of the year, it seems likely she
writes the year before the book's official publication.
This note appears to have been written on
two sides of a card, which has been punched with two holes
at the top. The holes obscure some of the page two text.
Penciled on the bottom left of page 2 are
initials, probably
F.J.G, for Francis Jackson
Garrison.
New York house: The meaning of Jewett's
reference is uncertain. According to
A Portrait Catalogue of the Books
Published by Houghton, Mifflin and Company (p.
xiv), Houghton Mifflin had a New York office at 85 Fifth
Avenue by 1905.
Calverly's Theocritus: In 1869,
British poet
Charles Stuart Calverley (1831-1884)
published a verse translation of the third century BC Greek
pastoral poet,
Theocritus. Houghton Mifflin issued a
volume,
Theocritus, translated by Calverley in 1906.
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.
David Douglas to Sarah Orne Jewett
DAVID DOUGLAS
PUBLISHER
10 Castle Street
Edinburgh Nov 27 1905*
[
End letterhead ]
My dear Miss Jewett
It did me good to get your kind letter
and to look at your clear firm hand earlier this morning.
The last account I heard of you was through Mrs Fields* who
gave her card to a young American -- Miss Murray* -- who
halted for a day in Edinburgh
en route for
the Western Isles in pursuit of folklore and popular songs
and music. We had the pleasure of seeing her one
afternoon at Drummond Place and were sorry she could not
spare us any more time, but we hope to see more of her next
spring as she proposes returning
2
to prosecute her 'quest' -- Should you chance to meet her
during the winter I am sure she would interest you by her
descriptions of the [ primitive
? ] life on Eriskay
and the good Father Allen who died at his post a few days
after she left the island -- I saw the [ specimens
?
] she gave [ as
intended and
? ] I cannot
help thinking that her lecture in Boston -- which she is (I
think) to deliver today { -- } will be very interesting --
--
Now let me speak of yourself. I wish you could have given me
a better account of your condition, but from what you tell
me you must be stronger & I hope that your strength will
gradually though (maybe slowly)* increase! I shall ^be
glad^ to hear from you -- when you are in the [ vein
?
] -- that such is the case{.}
3
Your sojourn with Mrs Fields [ in
? ] the autumn
must have indeed been a great pleasure to both --
Our little household after an agreeable autumn met again in
October hoping to be [ braced
? ] up for the winter
but -- man proposes* -- my dear wife [ the first
? ]
day she was out after our return had a sudden attack of
rheumatism [ on the chest
? ] which crippled her so
that she was obliged to be carried to her room where she has
been almost [ closely
? ] confined ever since.
Rheumatism gave way to [ treatment
? ] leaving a
tendency to bronchitis & the two together have kept her
in bed a prisoner until last [ week
? ] when she has
been able to [ crawl
? ] downstairs for an hour or
so
4
in the afternoon & evening -- I am thankful for the
respite though the cough is still troublesome at night and
she does long for a breath of fresh air. This I hope she
will soon be allowed to get{.} Sophie has been invaluable as
she would not hear of a stranger coming between her and her
mother -- --
They will both be glad to read your letter this afternoon
when I go home. They often speak of you and
South
Berwick { -- } our September home{,} the gracious
Earlsferry* as usual just opposite
North Berwick the
opposite side of Macduffs [ in
? ] Earlsferry. --
We enjoyed our camping out as much as ever though our
rambles this autumn were not so extensive as those of
previous seasons ---
5
I am glad you keep up your library for Letters. I venture to
suggest today a very [ refreshing
? ] letters
volume, one of the
M.S.S. Reports* of which there
have been nearly 100 volumes [ which
? ] ( [ 2
unrecognized
words ] for students){.} The reason why I send this
particular volume is that a part of it relates to a great
lady of the 18
t Century. --
Do you remember the 'Heart of Midlothian'* where Scott
represents the Duke of Argyle introducing Jeanie Dean to
Caroline of Ansbach in the garden -- [ if not please take
down your
? ] Waverly novels & look at the
description -- Scott with the majority the public hints that
Lady Suffolk's position* was that of an accredited Mistress
-- Many people now think
6
her friendship with that coldhearted creature George ii was
simply Platonic, & that her loss of influence with the
king arose from her increasing deafness which did not permit
her to give the [ little
? ] man so much of
court-gossip as he desired -- --
I daresay you know Herveys* Mems of the Court of George
Second?* If you should get [ interested
? ] in the [
pursuit beyond
? ] what Thackeray* affords in his
"Four George's Stories{,}" an old volume of Lady Suffolks
letters -- published anonymously, but really [ edited
?
] by John Wilson Croker, which gives a good deal about the
lady. I do not know if there is a good public library at
South Berwick but if not please let me know and I shall [
deletion
] ^lend you^
7
Crokers books* should you care to read
them -- I have them at Drummond Place and shall be glad to
lend them to you. The risk of loss in the transit
is [ now ? ] fortunately not great
---
I hear of a volume of Letters of M
m Dugald Stewart
from Earl Dudley* just published. I have not had time
to look at it yet but if they are very good I shall let you
know --
You of course [ saw the account
? ] of the raising
of the body of Paul Jones* in Paris last summer -- I have
seen nothing as to [ its
? ]
reinterment or
where the government intends to
8
[ On an upside-down letterhead page ]
place it.
Pray forgive me for inflicting such a long letter upon you
in my bad hand which old age and dim eyes [ doe
so
spelled ] not improve{.}
Believe me
yours [ unrecognized word ]
David Douglas
P.S. Of course you know Fanny Burneys Diary.* I am glad she
is becoming more valued as time goes on. Some of her
descriptions such as her account of days she spent at Warren
Hastings trial as told to George Third are admirable.
Notes
1905: The underlined portions in the letterhead
were filled in by hand.
Douglas's handwriting in this text is
very challenging. I am sure of little in this
transcription. If being confident of accuracy becomes
important, the reader should consult the manuscript.
Mrs Fields: Annie Adams Fields. See Key to
Correspondents.
Murray: Amy Murray (1865-1947) an American
author, musician and folklore collector of Gaelic music who
performed across the United States and the United Kingdom
near the turn of the twentieth century. One of her
better-known books is
Father Allan's Island (1920).
Father Allan MacDonald (1859- 8 October
1905) was a Scottish Roman Catholic priest and poet who
spent his final years at Eriskay. Wikipedia.
See Douglas to Fields of 9 December 1905.
(maybe slowly): It is not certain that Douglas
intended to use parentheses here, but if he did, perhaps he
meant to open his parentheses with "though"?
man proposes: "Man proposes and God disposes." The
German monk and author Thomas à Kempis (1380-1471) wrote
this proverb in
The Imitation of Christ Bk 1, Ch. 19
(c. 1441). Wikipedia.
Earlsferry: In Scotland on the north coast of the
Firth of Forth, fishermen of this town, according to
tradition, are said to have aided MacDuff in his escape from
King Macbeth in the 11th century. See William
Shakespeare's drama,
Macbeth.
M.S.S. Reports: Probably this is one of
volumes of reports of the Royal Commission on Historical
Manuscripts. Wikipedia.
Midlothian:
The Heart of Midlothian
(1818) is a novel by Scottish author, Sir Walter Scott
(1771-1832), one of a series of books called "The Waverly
Novels." In that novel is presented a fictionalized
account of Jeanie Dean pleading with Queen Caroline of
Ansbach (1683-1737), to intercede with her husband, King
George II of England, to spare the life of her condemned
sister. The poor Scottish woman is introduced to the Queen
by the Scottish Duke of Argyle, John Campbell (1680-1743).
One of George II's mistresses was
Henrietta Howard (1689-1767), who became Countess of
Suffolk. Howard's second husband was British politician
George Berkeley (d. 1746).
Douglas refers to
Letters to and from
Henrietta, Countess of Suffolk, and her second husband,
the Hon. George Berkeley : from 1712 to 1767 ; with
historical, biographical, and explanatory notes ; in two
volumes (1824), edited by John Wilson Croker and
published by John Murray.
See Wikipedia for Scott, George II and
Queen Caroline, Howard and Berkeley.
Herveys:
Memoirs of the Reign of George the
Second (1848) by John Hervey and John Croker.
Earl Dudley:
Letters to "Ivy" [ Helen d'Arcy
Stewart, May 21, 1801 - January 12, 1832 ]
, from the
first Earl of Dudley [John William Ward] (1905) by
S.H. Romilly.
Fanny Burneys Diary: British author Frances
(Fanny) Burney (1752-1840) was "Keeper of the Robes" in the
court of Queen Charlotte, wife of King George III of
England. Her diaries and journals of her life at court were
published beginning in 1842. It seems likely that
Douglas refers to a new edition in 1904:
The Diary and
Letters of Madame d'Arblay, ed. Austin Dobson.
In that book, she recounts the trial of
Warren Hastings for "official misconduct in India."
According to Wikipedia, Hastings (1732-1818) was accused of
corruption in 1787 and eventually acquitted in 1795.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton
Library of Harvard University: Sarah Orne Jewett
Correspondence I, Letters to Sarah Orne Jewett.
Douglas, David, 1823-1916. 5
letters; 1888-1906, bMS Am 1743 (48).
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller,
Coe College.
Annie Adams Fields to Sarah Orne Jewett
Day before Thanksgiving --
[ 29 November 1905 ]*
Dearest: I hope you will not have to
spend another morning putting drawers in order{.}
It is but dull work at best, and I want you to be
thinking of other things too !!! To be sure one
can do a heap of thinking when one is doing uncongenial
hand work sometimes but our Concord sage* said
farm and garden rather than [ retarding ? ] to
his library work. By the way a telephone yesterday
[ Page 2 ]
from Sally Norton{.}* She is at home once again and asked me
if I ever received a note about Louise Guiney!* -- said she
would come into tea or luncheon the last of the week. My
Osteopath came yesterday and I am surely less lame, and more
flexible -- If I am really improved by this I shall beg my
dear to try it also -- it is not rubbing you know -- and it
shall be a queer kind -- but my kind of xmas present to she
! ! !
[ Page 3 ]
No more nonsense today darling for John* waits{.}
Love to both and all. Think of Jo. knowing the song! Josie
D.* [ ran
? ] in yesterday but [ finding
? ]
A.M. just made a [
unrecognized word ] call of small
importance I fear --
Good bye dear
from your
A.
Notes
1905: In a letter of 9 December 1905, Fields reports
that she is having regular sessions with an osteopath,
probably Dr. Edith Stubbs Cave of Boston. It seems
reasonable to guess that Fields is announcing here the first
appointment.
Concord sage: Ralph Waldo Emerson. See
Ellen Tucker Emerson in Key to Correspondents. The source of
Fields's paraphrase has not yet been discovered.
Norton: Sara Norton. Key to Correspondents.
Guiney: Louise Imogen Guiney. Key to Correspondents.
John: A Fields employee.
Josie D: Josephine Anna Moore (1846-1937), who
was the second wife of Chicago lawyer Wirt Dexter
(1832-1890). She returned to her Boston home after her
husband's death, where she died, though she was buried with
him in Chicago.
A.M. may be Amy Murray (1865-1947) an
American author, musician and folklore collector of Gaelic
music who performed across the United States and the United
Kingdom near the turn of the twentieth century.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton
Library of Harvard University, Cambridge, MA. Sarah Orne
Jewett Additional Correspondence, 100 letters from Annie
Adams Fields, bMS Am 1743.1 Box 1, Item 33.
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller,
Coe College.
Harriet Jackson Lee Morse* to Sarah Orne Jewett
[ 1 December 1905 ]*
[ Begin letterhead ]
12 MARLBOROUGH STREET.
[ End letterhead ]
Dearest Sarah,
This "Life of Henry Lee"* has just come
to me from my dear Bessy Shattuck,* the first copy! she has
given to anyone. I want to send to you my first gift with a
wealth of love. You and Mrs Fields will I am
[ Page 2 ]
sure enjoy it -- but first your sister will read it with
you, if eyes are unequal. I have been but poorly for past
fortnight & have so felt for you, but I am better now,
& get to concert to-day & can read.
Always most lovingly
yours
Harriet Morse
Decr 1.
: See Frances (Fanny) Rollins Morse in Key
to Correspondents.
With this letter is a note saying that it
was "taken from Memoir of Colonel Henry Lee Prepared by John
T. Morse, Jr.
1905: The year of the first published life of
Colonel Henry Lee. See note below.
Henry Lee: Boston banker and author, Colonel Henry
Lee (1817- 24 November 1898). His wife was Elizabeth
Perkins Cabot (1823-1909). Lee was a friend of Fanny
Kemble, and published an article on her in
Atlantic
Monthly after her death in January 1893. It was
reprinted in
Memoir of Colonel Henry Lee (1905),
prepared by John T. Morse, Jr. (1840-1937), Mrs. Morse's
nephew.
Bessy Shattuck: In
Henry and Mary Lee
Letters (1926) by Frances M. Morse, Bessie Shattuck is
named as a cousin, Mrs. Fred C. Shattuck.
Fields: Annie Adams Fields. Key to
Correspondents.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton
Library of Harvard University, Cambridge, MA. bMS Am
1743 (159) Box 4, I. Letters to Sarah Orne Jewett.
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller,
Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Louisa Dresel
Manchester
Thunderbolt Hill
Monday
[ 4 December 1905 ]*
Dear Loulie
I am only here for today and tomorrow
(and the telephone
not here in spite of being
commanded early!) and I hope that you and Marianne* can
drive over this afternoon or tomorrow for a cup of tea or
that I shall see her again. I drove to Mrs. Cabot's*
yesterday and tried to find
[ Page 2 ]
news of you both by questions and telephone, but Mrs. Cabot
was just going to ask
me! She said that your "aunt
Kiddy"* was just moving down from Salem, and I should have
gone on there but I found myself a little too tired. "Moving
is a great tug" as Mrs. Fields* sagely remarked "but so nice
when you
[ Page 3 ]
get there!" ---- I shall come back again before long but on
Saturday I leave Berwick for Jackson to spend a week with
Miss Wormeley --* Miss Amy Murray* is coming here on the 8
th
so that I do not leave dear Mrs. Fields quite alone --
that's a great comfort to my heart.
Perhaps you & Marianne have been
delayed in
[ Page 4 ]
getting home from your Travels -- I do really hope that this
note may bring you, but if it doesn't I send much love and
many good wishes, and hopes that Marianne will come again! I
had a glimpse of Mrs. Gallison at your aunt Emma Cary's*
last week -- a real pleasure.
Yours very affectionately
S. O. J.
: This speculative date is based upon Jewett's
letter to Sarah Cabot Wheelwright tentatively dated in
December 1905, in which Jewett reports meeting Amy Murray.
Marianne: Marianne Theresia Brockhaus. See
Key to Correspondents.
Mrs. Cabot: Susan Burley Cabot. See
Key to Correspondents.
aunt Kiddy: Caroline Howard King (1822-1909), called
"Kiddy" by her family, was born in Salem, MA, lived there
until 1866, then for thirty years in Boston, after which she
returned for the rest of her life to Salem. She authored
When
I Lived in Salem 1822-1866 (Brattleboro, Vt., 1937) --
for which Dresel wrote the preface. (Richard Cary)
Mrs. Fields: Annie Adams Fields. See
Key to Correspondents.
Miss Wormeley: Katherine Prescott Wormeley. See
Key to Correspondents.
Amy Murray: Amy Murray (1865-1947) an American
author, musician and folklore collector of Gaelic music who
performed across the United States and the United Kingdom
near the turn of the twentieth century. One of her
better-known books is
Father Allan's Island (1920).
Mrs. Gallison ... aunt Emma Cary's: Mrs.
Gallison has not yet been identified, but it seems likely
she is a Dresel relative, connected with her Aunt Kiddy,
whose brother was named
John Gallison King.
Emma Forbes Cary (1833-1918) was the
youngest sister of Elizabeth Cabot Cary Agassiz. See
Key to Correspondents. Though Lousia's
mother was a close friend of the Cary family, no evidence
has yet been found to establish that she was a
relative. Therefore, it appears the "Aunt" is an
honorary term in this case. See Lucy Allen Paton,
Elizabeth Cary
Agassiz: A Biography (1919).
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Morgan Library
& Museum. MA 2932. Purchase, Acquisitions Fund; 1976.
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Annie Adams Fields to Sarah Orne Jewett
[ 9 December 1905 ]*
Day after ----
Growing warmer!
I wish I knew just how it is with you this morning
dearest!
By the way I have not yet unpacked the generous baskets
Mary* sent but next week when you come we will speak of
"[ unrecognized word ]" -- Amy Murray* is
greatly pleased with your messages. She hopes she has
found a room at 110. The dinner went off well
and thanks to you the [ unrecognized word ]
offices produced a great effect! I should
[ Page 2 ]
certainly have forgotten them. Eva* out shown herself. Poor
Triene* was very quiet, hearing almost nothing.
Mifs Shedlock* told two or three Andersen tales after dinner
and was very full of amusing talk at table. There was not a
dull moment -- and Amy Murray sang to close the ball.
Bayley* the frame man came this morning about framing the
Philip Sidney{.}*
[ Page 3 ]
He says he has done a great deal with dear S.W's*
picture-framing [ a
for and ] restoring them and he
is most intelligent{.} I think I should trust him as soon as
any man in Boston. We can telephone to him at any time -- I
must not write now dearest for the little Mrs Cave*
(osteopathist) will soon be here -- She is coming twice in
the week now.
Love to the household from your A.F. who
gives you carte blanche to use her room if you will be
careful !!!
Notes
9 December 1905: This speculative date is based
upon the speculative date of Jewett to Dresel of 4 December
1905, in which Jewett says that Amy Murray is expected to
visit in Jewett's absence on 8 December. Both of these
letters are dated tentatively, as is another, Fields to
Jewett of Sunday June/July 1906, in which Fields speaks of a
future gathering that will include Amy Murray.
Probably Fields's letter refers to one of those events.
Mary: Mary Rice Jewett. Key to
Correspondents.
Amy Murray: Amy Murray (1865-1947) an American
author, musician and folklore collector of Gaelic music who
performed across the United States and the United Kingdom
near the turn of the twentieth century.
Eva: Baroness Eva von Blomberg. Key to
Correspondents.
Triene: This person remains unidentified. She
is mentioned in Jewett to Fields of 25 September 1899.
Shedlock: Marie L. Shedlock (1854-1935), a British
story-teller, author of
The Art of the Story-Teller
(1915). She began a tour of the United States in 1900,
remaining until 1907, presenting readings and lectures on
fairy-tales, including those of Danish author Hans Christian
Andersen (1805-1875). Wikipedia.
Bayley: Probably this is Frank William Bayley
(1863-1932) of the Copley Gallery in Boston. He framed the
work of several prominent artists. See "John Singer Sargent
and Picture Framing" at the National Portrait Gallery
website.
Philip Sidney: British poet and courtier, Sir
Philip Sidney (1554-1586). Wikipedia.
S.W: Sarah Wyman Whitman. Key to
Correspondents.
Mrs Cave: Probably this was Dr. Edith Stubbs Cave of
Boston.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton
Library of Harvard University, Cambridge, MA. Sarah Orne
Jewett Additional Correspondence, 100 letters from Annie
Adams Fields, bMS Am 1743.1 Box 1, Item 33.
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller,
Coe College.
David Douglas to Sarah Orne Jewett
DAVID DOUGLAS
PUBLISHER
10 Castle Street
Edinburgh Dec 9 1905--*
[
End letterhead ]
My dear Miss Jewett
My daughter & I wish to send you a
treat from Scotland in the shape of a trifling sketch which
she made when visiting Professor Masson's* family in August
last. The old Professor had settled for the autumn months on
the shores of Loch Earne. (you remember [
unrecognized
word ] and the Legend of Montrose)* and enjoyed its
seclusion. We had got a comfortable cottage belonging to
people of whom you may have heard -- The sisters Findlater*
[ Page 2 ]
authors of "the Green Graves" of Glenn (something) -- The
scenery is picturesque & is tempting to the artist --
The Braes of Balquhidder stretch away towards Loch Voil --
& Rob Roys* grave & tombstone are in the churchyard
-- My daughter's hasty sketch which she begs you to accept,
with her best wishes, is the opening of the grand
glen
^Pass^ -- Glen-Ogle (how John Muir* would laugh at me in my
terming such scenes 'grand' when he thinks of his -- [
Canons
meaning Canyons
? ] & mountains
of California -- but never mind; to us, poor islanders they
are grand and many a fine walk [ has
so it appears ]
my dear wife & I had
down
[ Page 3 ]
the glen from Killin in days gone by. -- The railway now
goes though the pass & from the train the passengers can
see [ three other
? ] roads all still clearly
marked, [ viz
? ] The Kings "highway". -- The older
"road" & a still more primitive "path" used for cattle
driving. --
I am glad to tell you that my wife is improving though
slowly and I hope she may be allowed outside next week --
She is very weak & has difficulty in [ hobbling
?
] up & down stairs but I am [ hoping
? ] every
day to see an improvement{.}
I am writing a short note
[ Page 4 ]
to Mrs Fields* today and hope [ ere
? ] the new year
becomes very old to hear good accounts of you both.
Yours very faithfully
David Douglas
[ unrecognized word, perhaps an
insertion in the next line ]
P.S. You have been paying a well deserved tribute to the
memory of a good man in L. Garrison.* Many thanks for
The Centennial [ vol
? ] which will remind many
people of his labours. It opens very suddenly with the
[ startling
? ] sentiment -- "The world is my
country [ ."
? ] Time brings its revenges. One
wonders what he would have thought of [ reformations
?
] of matters at present and whether he would approve of the
sudden [ realisation
? ] of his idea by President
Lincoln* -- This race problem is a hard one to solve and it
must be faced, however by both the people of the U. S. A.
and of G Britain [ in relation to South Africa ]. I have
been [ looking
? ] with interest on the experiment
of Booker Washington* in his practical college education in
Alabama -- & wonder if he is really to be a Moses to the
black population{.}
Notes
1905: The underlined portions in the letterhead
were filled in by hand.
Professor Masson's: This transcription is uncertain,
but it is likely Douglas refers to David Masson (1822-1907),
Scottish journalist, editor and author.
Montrose:
A Legend of Montrose (1819) is a
novel by Scottish author, Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832),
Findlater: Scottish novelist Jane Helen
Findlater (1866-1946) was the author of
The Green Graves
of Balgowrie (1896). She and her sister, Mary,
collaborated on a number of works. Wikipedia.
Rob Roy: This Scottish folk hero, Rob Roy MacGregor
appears as a fictionalized character in Sir Walter Scott's
novel,
Rob Roy (1817). Wikipedia.
John Muir: Scottish born American naturalist and
author John Muir (1838-1914). An early
environmentalist, he advocated for the preservation of
wilderness and became a leader in the founding of two
national parks in California, Yosemite and Sequoia.
Garrison: American abolitionist and social reformer,
William Lloyd Garrison (1805-1879). See Wikipedia.
Jewett has sent Douglas a copy of
The Words of Garrison;
a centennial selection (1805-1905) of characteristic
sentiments from the writings of William Lloyd Garrison.
Garrison's opening words in the book are: "My country is the
world; my countrymen are all mankind."
Lincoln: Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) was President of
the United States during the American Civil War (1861-1865).
What Douglas means by the sudden realization of Lincoln's
idea seems not to be obvious.
South Africa: Relations between African-Americans and
the white political and social establishment became
increasingly fraught after the Civil War, with
well-publicized violence against Blacks enforcing "Jim Crow"
laws and customs, a form of apartheid.
Great Britain won control of South Africa
in the Second Boer War in 1902, gaining with the territories
the multiple problems of maintaining white dominance over a
mostly non-white population. At the time of this letter,
negotiations were under way toward South African
independence.
Washington: American educator and author, Booker
Taliaferro Washington (1856-1915), was a founder of the
National Negro Business League and the Tuskegee Institute, a
college for American Blacks that emphasized "practical"
education in industry, crafts, and business, with the goal
of achieving Black economic independence. Wikipedia.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton
Library of Harvard University: Sarah Orne Jewett
Correspondence I, Letters to Sarah Orne Jewett.
Douglas, David, 1823-1916. 5
letters; 1888-1906, bMS Am 1743 (48).
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller,
Coe College.
David Douglas to Annie Adams Fields
[
Begin Letterhead
Underlined portion filled in by hand. ]
DAVID DOUGLAS
PUBLISHER
10 Castle Street
Edinburgh Dec 9 1905
[
End Letterhead ]
My dear Mrs Fields
I have been intending to write to you
ever since we had the pleasure of getting your card with [
Miss Murray
? ]* with whom we were much pleased and
only regretted that her stay in Edinburgh was so short --
She has I think carried with her a valuable addition to her
knowledge of the Scottish West Highlands people & their
ways -- I am sure she would tell you of the [ pathetic
?
] ending to her stay at Eriskay -- Father Allan*
[ Page 2 ]
appears to have been a very fine specimen of the R.C.
priesthood. -- I was glad to get a cheerful letter from Miss
Jewett* giving me an account of you and of herself. I was
glad it was so favorable though I could have wished it had
been better --
Time rolls on & here we are again close upon the end of
another year. [ please
not capitalized ] accept my
greetings and good wishes -- My Christmas card this year is
a photograph taken by my son on July 5
th (the
fiftieth anniversary of our marriage --) of his mother &
me. I am sorry to say that since our return from the seaside
in October
[
Page 3 ]
she has been confined to her room by an
attack of bronchitis. She is now, during the last day or
two, permitted to come down stairs for an hour or two:
and I hope next week she will be allowed to get a breath
of fresh air --
We take very ill with this
because [ hitherto
?
] we have enjoyed such a long period of good health --
-- Is not this human nature!! -- ungrateful creatures
that men are -- I hope to hear good accounts of you when
you have leisure --
Yours very faithfully
David Douglas
[ Page 4 ]
P.S. We have not been doing much in literature here
lately but some of our young folks have been exerting
themselves to produce a volume [ for
? ] a
charitable object -- a copy of which I venture to send
you trusting that it may find a place on your drawing
room [ table
? ] for a day or two ere it finds
its way to the wastepaper basket{.} My daughters friends
(children of Professor Masson)* have several papers in
it -- one which she read to me a few nights ago on
seeing Louis Stevenson* for the last time appeared to be
good. --
: The exact transcription is uncertain,
but almost certainly, Douglas refers to Amy Murray
(1865-1947) an American author, musician and folklore
collector of Gaelic music who performed across the United
States and the United Kingdom near the turn of the twentieth
century. One of her better-known books is
Father
Allan's Island (1920).
Eriskay ...Father Allan:
Eriskay is an island of the Outer
Hebrides in western Scotland.
Father Allan MacDonald (1859- 8
October 1905) was a Scottish Roman Catholic priest and poet
who spent his final years at Eriskay.
Miss Jewett: Sarah Orne Jewett. See
Key to Correspondents.
Masson: Scottish author and reformer,
David Mather Masson (1822-1907).
Whether the volume Douglas mentions was published is not yet
known.
Stevenson: Scottish author,
Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894).
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Huntington
Library, San Marino, CA, in the James T. Fields Papers and
Addenda, Box 16: mss FI 5637. Transcription and notes
by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Helen Cross Knight to Mary Rice Jewett and Sarah Orne
Jewett
December 13 -- 1905
Mary, my dear
one, do not think I gave a languid welcome to Judge
Perkins* or [ Dirk Natterdo ? ] as we [
girls ? corrected ] [ nic-named so
spelled ] ^him^ -- I am trying to recall why
-- nobody could look less like another -- But he
does look like himself -- oh yes! what a favorite he
was with Kate Sleeper's* set! How kind he was to us
little girls and how much comes back of that happy
summer, when Elizabeth Chadwick* & I published
the " [ Miniature ? ] Gazette" and annoyed
all the "fellows and girls" by marrying them
[ Page 2 ]
to each other. The old ladies thought
it very indecorous --
He is conspicuously on the mantle
-- I did not write you before especially to say how
lovely it was to see you both looking so well -- yes.
I [ would or could ] again ^have^ cried tears
of joy, as I did when you came before.
We are reading Dante* in our
History club this winter and I was asked to give a
preliminary on the 13th century -- which I
found the greatest century in history with enough to
take all my time to pick up and [ assort ? ]
for a lively speech -- It absorbed me you see and was
very interesting -- the subject --
[ Page 3 ]
It came off Friday and I am emancipated to enjoy other
things like writing some letters to dear friends
especially near to me.
Grace was so sorry not to see
you -- She is picking up wonderfully -- a fine [ table
?
], plenty of sunshine and [
unrecognized word
Toro
? ] living like a Prince -- The only
drawback is their distance from us -- no [ nightly
corrected
] "running in" -- Grace spent evenings with me last
winter -- We
do generally meet every day -- I do
not know whether that is a good sentence or not.
[ Page 4 ]
Have you read the "House of
Mirth{"}?* The Outlook pronounced it [
deleted word
] superior -- and a friend has sent me a copy -- My eyes
have to be more or less saved -- Is it worth while to
attack it, when there is so much to read to keep up with
things worth knowing{.} To day is election day -- and
women vote* on the school board, or rather we vote for [
women
? corrected ] on the school board -- So
Susie & I went to the polls -- Mary also -- poor
Russia!* This [
unrecognized words tribulation
until new
? ] Russia emerge -- to [
unrecognized
word ] -- Lord, lord.*
H. C. K.
[
Page 5 ]*
[
Begin letterhead ]
HAYES HOUSE
SOUTH BERWICK, MAINE
[
End letterhead ]
The lady who best, as I view it,
Has the heart and the art how to do it,
How to prove her religion
By potting a pigeon
On Sunday, is Mary R. Jewett
-- Innominato.
[ Page 6 ]*
She left the church all in the lurch
Our good friend Mary Rice
To bring a dinner to a poor sick
sinner who needed something nice,
There's the devil to pay for breaking
the day with a bird of Paradise --
[ Page 7 ]*
Welcome Spectator,* I [
unrecognized
word ] Sarah! Do let me pay something towards it
as I find crossing the ocean pays a big tax to support
our government.
I feel so much indebted to you for
your kindness in providing such good [ food
? ]
for my mind & other minds{.} I have dipped into the
"House of Mirth" -- It leaves a bitter taste --
all of your writings tasted wholesome: more refreshing,
and led into many -- so many sweet, sunshiny ways --
Notes
Judge Perkins ... Dirk Natterdo: At
the age of 91, Knight recalls people of the generation
of Mary Jewett's a parents. Few of the persons
mentioned in this letter have yet been identified. It
appears that Judge Perkins may have died, for Knight
seems to be speaking of a photograph rather than a
person.
The transcription of "Dirk Natterdo"
is uncertain and the meaning as yet unknown.
Kate Sleeper's: Possibly the mother of
Grace Gordon Treadwell Walden, Katherine Parker Sleeper.
See
Key to Correspondents. The
"Grace" of this letter probably is Grace Walden.
Elizabeth Chadwick: Not yet identified.
Dante: Italian poet,
Dante Alighieri (c. 1265-1321).
House of Mirth: American author Edith
Wharton (1862-1937) published
The House of
Mirth in 1905. Knight has read a review in
weekly magazine,
The Outlook.
women vote: In 1905, in some states in the U.S.,
women were able to vote in elections considered relevant
to women, such as for members of the school board.
Susie and Mary have not yet been
identified.
poor Russia:
The Russian Revolution of 1905
continued through most of the year. In December the
government successfully ended the fighting, after
thousands of deaths and extensive damage.
lord: This transcription is uncertain.
Knight may have written: "Love, love."
Page 5: In the same folder with the above
letter are additional items: an envelope and 3 more
pages (5-7). Their exact relationship with this
letter is not known.
The envelope is addressed to Mary R.
Jewett, postmarked in June, no specified year. Vertical
on the left side of the front is this note: Rhymes from
the Hayes Mansion.
The "Hayes Mansion" presumably is the
Hayes House of the letterhead.
Page 6: Though pages 5 and 6 appear in this
order in the folder and page 5 appears on letterhead, it
is notable that page two is the bottom half of a torn
page with bits of handwriting visible at the tear.
To this reader, the verses would work better as a single
poem were the pages reversed. The signature tends to
support this idea, but of course, we currently lack the
information to be sure.
Page 7: Lightly printed in pencil at the
top center are the initials H G K, almost certainly in
another hand.
Note that this page is addressed to
Sarah Orne Jewett.
Spectator: British weekly
magazine (1828 - ).
These manuscripts are held by the University of New England
Maine Women Writers Collection, Sarah Orne Jewett
Correspondence Box 3 Folder 210. Transcription and notes by
Terry Heller, Coe College.
Alice Meynell to Annie Adams Fields
[ Begin letterhead ]
4, GRANVILLE PLACE MANSIONS,
W.
[ End letterhead ]
December 14
[ 1905 ]*
My dearest Mrs. Fields
Whenever I can I gather news of you, and
to my great joy the accounts are good. How much I hope that
you are altogether restored to your dear health,
[ Page 2 ]
precious to your friends who love you. If, as I trust, we
are to meet, I begin to think it must be rather by your
coming to England than by my going to America again. Alas! I
am sorry to think I
[ Page 3 ]
may not once more be in the country which I found so
delightful.
Our summer was very happy. First
Madeline,* my eldest unmarried girl, went with me to
Scotland and then, motoring, through the English Lake
country and
[ Page 4 ]
the moors -- two charming visits. There I had a week of
Wagner* operas in Munich, and went over the Brenner to meet
my husband and nearly all my children in Italy. It was the
first visit of some of them, and they loved it so! Those two
dear singing Italians, Carmela and Grazia,* went with us. We
are all great friends. They are good and charming girls. I
hope that, at
[ Across the top margin of page 1 ]
last, they are to have some success in London.
All loving good wishes my dear beloved
friend.
Your ever affectionate
Alice Meynell
Notes
1905: Damian Atkinson (2013), in his
"Chronology of Alice Meynell" says that the motor trip in
the north of England, mentioned in this letter, took place
in 1905.
Madeleine: Meynell's daughter (b. 1884) married Percy
Lucas in 1908.
Wagner: German composer, conductor and author,
Wihelm Richard Wagner (1813-1883).
Bavaria, Germany, became Wagner's home in the 1860s and some
of his major works premiered in Munich.
Carmela and Grazia: Atkinson (2013) says that the
sisters, Carmela and Grazia Maria L. Carbone were
Italian-American singers. Grazia Carbone married Meynell's
son, Everard in 1908. The sisters performed together at
Queen's Hall in London in 1907. See
Catholic Who's Who (1936-1952),
p. 61.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Huntington
Library, San Marino, CA, in the James T. Fields Papers and
Addenda Box 47: mss FI 3304, Folder 1. Archival notes on the
manuscript have not been reproduced. This letter was
previously transcribed by Damian Atkinson for
The
Selected Letters of Alice Meynell (2013). New
transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Alice Meynell to Sarah Orne Jewett
Granville Place Mansions.
W.
14 December [1905]
My very dear friend,
I want to write to you without imposing
on you the labour of answering until it is no longer
laborious and you are quite strong.* Your last letter to me
was a great delight for which I have kept a grateful heart,
perhaps too long silent. After the distraction of leaving
our house and taking a tiny flat, -- a hard task of
condensation -- we had a very happy journey to Germany and
then to Italy. I joined my husband and most of my children
at Verona. Italy was new to them, and they loved it so! A
flat is very bad for work and I have done less of any kind
than in any year I can remember.
I sometimes see a traveller from Boston
and my first question is always of you and my dear Mrs.
Fields. It has been a joy to me to hear of the progress of
both. I hope that by this time all is well. Are you not
coming to Europe? Are you able to work? And shall we read
your lovely stories again? I go back to those darling books
again and again.
As soon as ever I can settle down to the
collection and revision of another little book of essays,* I
shall send you a copy. I hope this will be soon. I wish some
good luck could take me again to dear Boston and to my much
loved friend.
Ever, my Dear,
Your affectionate
Alice Meynell
Notes
strong: Meyell refers throughout this letter to
Jewett's debility following her 2 September 1902 carriage
accident.
essays: Atkinson notes that Meynell was unable to
bring out her book until 1909:
Ceres' Runaway and Other
Essays.
This manuscript is held by the Houghton Library of Harvard
University: bMS Am 1743, Sarah Orne Jewett Correspondence,
Series 1: Letters to Sarah Orne Jewett, item 153.
Transcription by Damian Atkinson for
The
Selected Letters of Alice Meynell: Poet and Essayist
(2013), p. 216. Notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Sarah Cabot Wheelwright
Monday Morning [ December 1905? ]*
South Berwick Maine
My dear Sarah
I was very sorry not to see you again before I came
away; last Thursday, but after my sister came to Charles
Street we had a good many things to do together and I
began to get a little too tired before I got through --
Only that last Day [so transcribed] I thought
that I had saved the last end of the morning to see you as
I came back to luncheon and then I was delayed after all,
and got disappointed! I now begin to wish that you could
come to Berwick again!! However, I shall be in town again
within a fort-night, I am grieved when I think that
it may be one of your brothers who has died* -- do tell me
dear, for I don't quite know or cannot quite remember --
but at any rate he was one of your near kindred --
sometimes it seems very strange that one can feel so close
to one's friends and yet things that they feel
close to can be so far away or even unknown, I was
thinking lately about a very old friend of mine who has an
only brother whom I never knew -- who never seemed to step
inside our circle of friendship -- in fact I almost
believed that I must belong to her much more than he did
-- which was probably not at all the case. It is so
different when one has been brought up in town and not
away from it, like me -- But you know now I am sure, that
anything that touches you deeply can't fail to touch me
too for your sake. I keep thinking as I write about dear
Mrs. Aggassiz [so transcribed]* -- I was
dreaming and dreaming of her last night and now I am
feeling as if I had been so foolish to let other things
keep me from going to see her when I was in Cambridge -- I
wish that you and I could drive out there together some
day. will you? = Miss Amy Murray* [so transcribed]
has been here harp and all Since Friday = [so
transcribed] on Saturday she sang for the Club
(Womens Club)* better than I ever heard her. Mrs. Fields*
asked her to come today for a few days -- but I can't find
that she has any engagements or plans. I am trying
to help her to make a new programme of old fashioned songs
or later date war songs & S. Foster* etc. etc.
just for a variety for those who don't want the Gaelic
again. She has such a pleasant voice for such things.
Good by dear -- do send me a little word someday when
you feel just likit like it and give my
love to Mary and your dear Man*
Yours always
S. O. J.
Mary* had such a nice walk & talk with you & Kim
[so transcribed]*
Notes
December 1905?: This guess at a date
should be close, as there are documented Boston performances
of Amy Murray (see notes below) in 1902 and 1905. And as the
notes below indicate, Mrs. Wheelwright lost three of her
brothers during this period. While Jewett could have
written this letter in 1903, following the death of James
Elliot Cabot, it seems more likely to have been written
early in 1905, a few months after the death of Walter
Channing Cabot, or even more likely at the end of 1905, soon
after the November death of Stephen Cabot and the November
performance by Amy Murray.
In 1903, Jewett was still quite
weak after her August 1902 carriage accident and, probably,
not up to the quantity of activity she reports in this
letter.
one of your brothers: Sarah Cabot Wheelwright's
brothers were:
Thomas Handasyd Cabot (born 1814)
Samuel Cabot, III (born September 20, 1815)
Edward Clarke Cabot (1819-1901)
James Elliot Cabot (June 18, 1821 - January 16, 1903)
Stephen Cabot (December 9, 1826 - November 23, 1905)
Walter Channing Cabot (April 28, 1829 - May 8, 1904)
Louis Cabot (born 1837)
dear Mrs. Aggassiz: Elizabeth Cabot Agassiz
(December 5, 1822 - June 27, 1907) was a granddaughter of
Thomas Handasyd Perkins, a contributor to Perkins School for
the Blind, in Watertown, Massachusetts, which was named to
honor him. She may have been related to Sarah Perkins
Cabot Wheelwright. The importance of visiting her may
relate to her ill health and approaching death.
Miss Amy Murray: Amy Murray (1865-1947) was an
author, musician and folklore collector of Gaelic music
who performed across the United States and the United
Kingdom near the turn of the twentieth century. One
of her better-known books is Father Allan's Island
(1920). The Boston Daily Globe reported on
performances of Murray in Boston in December 1903 and
November 1905, though in 1905, the article specifies that
Murray stayed with Mrs. Ole Bull for at least part of her
stay.
The Boston
Evening Transcript of 24 May 1905 has her performing
at a reception of the Boston Authors Club to honor Julia
Ward Howe on her 86th birthday. However, the
reception did not occur on a Saturday.
A
1902 photo of Amy Murray with her harp.
for the Club (Womens Club): It is unclear
whether Jewett is specifying the "Women's Club," or if
this is an insertion by the transcriber. It is
possible Jewett is referring to the reception for Julia
Ward Howe, mentioned in the Amy Murray note above.
Mrs. Fields: Annie Fields. See Key
to Correspondents.
Foster: Stephen
Foster (1826-1864), American composer of popular
songs.
Mary and your dear Man: Wheelwright's
daughter, and her husband, Andrew C. Wheelwright.
Mary: Probably Mary Rice Jewett. See Key
to Correspondents.
Kim: The Wheelwright's pet dachshund.
The manuscript of this letter is in the collection of the
Miller Library of Colby College, Waterville, ME. The
transcription first appeared in Scott Frederick 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 by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Annie Adams Fields to Sarah Perkins Cabot Wheelwright
Monday Eveg
[
December 1905 ]*
My dear Mrs Wheelwright:
Will you and your
daughter come in, Wednesday eveg at half past eight
o'clock to hear Mfs Amy Murray* sing her Gaelic
songs? I am asking half a dozen ladies because
Mifs Murray brought me a letter of introduction and
asked if she might bring her harp and sing to me.
It will be a pleasure if you can join
us.
Most truly yours
Annie Fields
148 Charles St.
Notes
December 1905: While this date is not certain,
it is quite probable. See Jewett to Wheelwright, also
probably written on this same date.
Amy Murray: Amy Murray (1865-1947) was an
author, musician and folklore collector of Gaelic music who
performed across the United States and the United Kingdom
near the turn of the twentieth century. The
Boston
Daily Globe reported on performances of Murray in
Boston in December 1903 and November 1905. The 1905 article
specifies that Murray stayed with Jewett and Fields
correspondent Mrs. Ole Bull during at least part of that
tour.
The manuscript of this letter is held by Milne Special
Collections and Archives, University of New Hampshire
Library, Durham, NH, USA: Annie Fields Letters, 1882-1911,
MS 58.
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller,
Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Annie Adams Fields
Saturday morning
[ 23 December 1905 ]*
Dearest Annie
(I just went into your room to borrow a
little note paper! and it made me quite lonesome, dear. I
somehow felt you there -- ) This is a very blotted
little sheet but I dare say you wont mind -- a{nd} I only
want to say that I got home all right and went to bed early.
We mustn't lose heart about the book, but I was
[
Page 2 ]
really so disappointed at finding that
certain things had been let slip and so, when I have
been trying all the time to make sure of their being
done! I wish only this, that I had kept my visit to 4
Park Street* to myself a{nd} not worried you with it,
but we cant help telling each other things, can we? But
let's be gay about it, now, and not mind whatever comes.
I am sure that you have been wise in warning me
[
Page 3 ]
not to expect too much, but I know that
to get what [ success corrected ] we may, we
must take "the market" as other people do.
I have thought much about the dear
company I left and I have just been wishing that they
were [ here ? ] -- it is a perfect morning and
we could have the day out of doors or much music within
just as we like! Do give my love to Jessie* and to Mr.
London* ----- Oh, I remember that there are some prints
[
Page 4 ]
from my old photograph and that green writing case on the
little table by my desk in the study, a{nd} one of the old
house too, I think. So you can find one there. I wish
that Mr. London would take a photograph of you in the
favorite hat, The Paris hat! -- you and Jessie together, for
me! I must say good bye darling -- and you will
forgive such a dull little
poor piece of a letter
from your own Pinny
Notes
23 December 1905: This very tentative date has
some support in the notes below. It depends upon the
guess being correct that Jack London is visiting at the
Annie Fields home. He came to Boston on 16 December
1905. During the following week, he gave several lectures.
See
The Harvard Crimson for 21
December 1905.
4 Park Street: 4 Park Street in Boston was the
address of publisher Houghton, Mifflin and of
Atlantic
Monthly.
If the tentative date for this letter is
correct, then it is probable that Jewett and Fields are
working on the edition of
Letters of Sarah Wyman Whitman,
which eventually appeared from Houghton, Mifflin in 1907.
Jessie: Jessie Cochrane. See
Correspondents .
Mr. London: Though this is not certain, it seem
likely that Fields is entertaining American author
Jack London (1876-1916). Though there
is as yet no documentation indicating that they met, London
was published in
Atlantic Monthly, making their
meeting possible. One main support for this guess is
that London, after about 1896, was a passionate and active
photographer. More suggestive is that, according to
Earle Labor, in
Jack London: An American Life,
London lectured in Boston soon after his marriage to
Charmian Kittredge in 1905, appearing at Harvard and Faneuil
Hall in late December (p. 227).
Pinny: Pinny Lawson, a nickname for Jewett. See
Correspondents .
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Huntington
Library, San Marino, CA, in the James T. Fields papers: mss
FL 5553. This manuscript has been damaged by water, making
parts of the transcription less than normally certain.
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Mary Amelia St. Clair to Annie Adams Fields
C/O Miss Holt*
New York [ NY ? ] --
Dec. 24 [
1905]*
My dear M
rs Fields
I am so sorry that my
little Xmas cards (Katherine Tynan's "Poems"
& "The Grey World"* will not arrive in time to
[ Page 2 ]
greet you and dear Miss Jewett. Meanwhile, I send you both
my love and all possible good wishes for Xmas and the New
Year.
It is now settled that I am going home
after the middle of January, so my next visit to Boston must
be put off a little longer.
[ Page 3 ]
I have carried away a very pleasant
recollection of the city & its people, & I shall
always count you & Miss Jewett, if I may, among the
friends who stand for the most & the best.
Hoping I see you again some day not too
far -- off, I am, always
most sincerely yrs
May Sinclair -------------------
Notes
1905: This date corresponds to May Sinclair's visit
to the United States in the autumn of 1905.
Miss Holt: The publisher and author,
Henry Holt (1840-1926), was May
Sinclair's American publisher. His daughter,
Winifred Holt (1870-1945), was an
American sculptor and co-founder, with her sister Edith, of
the New York Association for the Blind, which became
Lighthouse International. While she would likely have
been the Miss Holt with whom Sinclair stayed while in New
York, there was another sister, Sylvia Holt, possibly living
at the same address in 1905-6.
Katherine Tynan's "Poems" and "The Grey World" [by Evelyn
Underhill]: The prolific Irish novelist poet,
Katharine Tynan (1859 - 1931); her new
poetry in 1905 would have been
Innocencies, but
Sinclair reveals in her letter of 12 January 1906, that her
gift was to be "collected poems," perhaps referring to
Tynan's,
Poems (1901).
Wikipedia says Evelyn Underhill (1875
- 1941) "was an English Anglo-Catholic writer and pacifist
known for her numerous works on religion and spiritual
practice, in particular Christian mysticism."
The Grey
World (1904) was her first novel, in which "the hero's
mystical journey begins with death, and then moves through
reincarnation, beyond the grey world, and into the choice of
a simple life devoted to beauty."
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Huntington
Library, San Marino, California: James Thomas Fields Papers
and Addenda (1767-1914), Letters of Sinclair, mss FL 1-5637.
May Sinclair, when she abbreviates a word
as well as with some titles places some of the letters in
superscript position. I have elected not to duplicate
this practice in the transcriptions of her letters.
Ellen Tucker Emerson to Annie Adams Fields
Concord December 27th
1906
Dear Mrs Fields,
I thank you for the wonderful little bag,
so smooth and white and as light as it can be, and shall
take much pleasure in using it. Thankyou too for the
pictures, the Indian girl I think must be the bright
Alfarata* we used to hear sing about her canoe upon the
rapid river. The babies are cunning and pretty{;} we
have enjoyed gazing at them.
[ Page 2 ]
The Fra. Angelicos* are new to us and charming, and could
there be a more opposite pole of design than the French one?
whose intricacies take long to search out.
If you have not yet seen Mr Mill's* life that I told you
about, only say when you would like to see it and I will
lend you mine.
Affectionately
Ellen T. Emerson.
My love to Miss Jewett.
[ In another hand: The pictures went to the
old ladies{.}]
: Emerson refers to a popular song from 1844,
"
The Blue Juniata."
Fra. Angelicos: Italian renaissance painter,
Fra Angelico (c. 1395-1455).
Mill's life: One would guess Emerson refers to a
biography of English philosopher John Stuart Mill, but this
is not certain. A number of biographies of Mill were
available in 1906.
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 Papers and
Addenda, Box 16: mss FI 5637. Transcription and notes
by Terry Heller, Coe College.
Sarah Orne Jewett to Harriet Jackson Lee Morse*
28th Decr
1905
[ Begin letterhead ]
South Berwick, Maine.
[ End letterhead ]
Dearest Mrs. Morse
I love the beautiful photograph -- you
were so good to send it -- especially when you had just put
such a Book* into my hand! Thank you again and again for
both, and I thank Dear Fanny, most of all for the dear note
that came after Christmas -- it brought you and herself
nearer to my heart than ever. I
[ Page 2 ]
wonder if you do not think as I do, that this was a very
happy Christmas, indeed.
The true spirit of it was shining
everywhere. I was so glad to tie up my little bundles again,
and feel "like other folks" -- I shall be coming back to
town before very long and hope to see you again. -- Usually
I get to Mrs Cabot*
[ Page 3 ]
on the hill the first Monday of January but this year it is
the second -- the
eighth.
-- I do hope that you are having a nice time this "perfect
day{"} -- I just wish that we were on the hill at the [
Arboretum
?] -- looking at the world together!
Yours very
affectionately
Sarah
I have been telling Miss Allen* how much I like my basket --
[ Page 4 ]
[ Gwenn's
so spelled ] orchids were still fresh and
a delight when I came away from town -- You were so good to
send them and Fanny to bring them!
Notes
Morse: See Frances (Fanny) Rollins Morse in Key
to Correspondents.
Book: See Morse to Jewett of 1 December 1905,
in which she says she is sending a copy of
Memoir of
Colonel Henry Lee (1905), prepared by John T. Morse,
Jr. (1840-1937), Mrs. Morse's nephew.
Cabot: Susan Burley Cabot. Key to
Correspondents.
Allen: Miss Allen has not yet been identified.
Gwenn's: Frances Rollins Morse was the sister of Dr.
Henry Lee Morse (1852-1929). He married Jessie Frances
Lizzie Scott (1860-1909). Their only known child, Harriet
Morse's granddaughter, was Gwendolyn (1886-1968). Family
Search.
The manuscript of this letter is held by the Houghton
Library of Harvard University, Cambridge, MA. bMS Am
1743.1 (123) Box 4, II. Letters from Sarah Orne Jewett.
Transcription and notes by Terry Heller,
Coe College.