The Letters of Sarah Orne Jewett

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Colby Quarterly

Volume 5 Issue 3 September Article 4

September 1959

John Eldridge Frost

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Recommended Citation Colby Library Quarterly, series 5, no.3, September 1959, p.38-45

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38 Colby Library Quarterly glimpses of the farmscapes and homely prototypes she so art fully and viably transposed to paper. So with the First Citi zeness of South Berwick: the evanescent flesh is remote now, but the inextinguishable spirit lives on.

THE LETTERS OF SARAH ORNE JEWETT

By JOHN ELDRIDGE FROST THE ever-growing volume of Miss Jewett's letters in print has made desirable a survey both of those which have been printed and of those in manuscript form in libraries. It is neither possible nor desirable to list those owned by individuals for this would constitute an invasion of the collector's privacy or, worse still, a breach of manners toward Miss Jewett's friends and their heirs. It is interesting to note that plans have already been nlade for the eventual disposal to libraries of all letters privately owned that I have viewed. Miss Jewett was a warm, vivid, stinlulating person whose genius often flowed into her correspondence. An astonishingly large amount of it was saved by those who knew her. She was an avid correspondent who frequently devoted an entire morn ing to the writing of letters. When she was twenty-three she kept for a year a list of names and dates of all correspondents, both letters sent and received. The list of several hundred let ters is now owned by the Houghton Library. It is important to recall that this list was compiled before Miss Jewett had be come a well-known author or written a book. H.er correspo·nd ence increased with her fame. By the will of Sarah Orne Jewett, signed in 1897 and pro bated in the fall of 1909, her sister Mary Rice Jewett and her friend Annie Adams Fields were given full authority to deter mine what unprinted papers, unpublished manuscripts, and "more especially ... any ... letters in whosoever hands they may be" should be allowed publication. In accordance with these directions two years after Miss Jewett's death, Annie Fields selected from the letters written to Sarah's family and friends those which seemed to possess the most interest, and

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Colby Library Quarterly 39 the volume was issued by Houghton Mifflin Company, Sarah Jewett's publisher. One hundred forty-four letters were repro duced in part, and this collection for years served as the chief biographical source on the writer. Unfortunately, this very readable collection has its limita tions. In 1905 the private publication of the letters of a promi nent Boston woman had aroused considerable controversy as to whether letters should be published in full, or whether they should appear devoid of their more personal aspects. Two years later, when the letters of Sarah Wyman Whitman appeared, Sarah Jewett felt it necessary to use a phrase in her editorial note: "If the veil of privacy seems to be unduly lifted..." To nl0st persons the veil of privacy seemed hardly to have been lifted at all, and many complained that the excerpts were so brief and so bowdlerized that the essential personality that should have infused them had been shorn away. Yet, when Annie Fields edited Sarah Jewett's letters, the memory of the six-year-old controversy was sufficiently strong so that no single letter appeared in full. The letters used by Annie Fields were returned to their owners, and perhaps no more than half can be located today. A large number of those found are in the Houghton Library. A comparison of the original letters with those in the book reveals that letters of different dates have been joined, and dates have been assigned which are at best occasionally doubtful and sometimes in distinct error. 1 The elinunation of much that was personal seemed desirable in 1911, but it is less so today. The collection is extremely readable, and it is to be hoped that eventually we may have an edition containing nlany of these letters in their entirety. By the will of Dr. Theodore Jewett Eastman (Sarah's nephew), signed in 1925 and probated in 1926, the personal papers and family correspondence of the Jewetts were dispolsed of. Correspondence which seemed closely related to Miss Jewett's work eventually found a home in the Houghton Li brary of Harvard University while the bulk that remained was housed in the library of the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities. In this way two of the three largest

] On PD. 161 and 162, for instance, letters dated 1899 should read 1896.

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40 Colby Library Quarterly Jewett collections were formed. The third at Colby College was established largely through the efforts of Professor Carl J. Weber, his wife Clara Carter Weber, and Professor Richard Cary, all of Waterville, Maine. Colby College has rendered distinguished service to scholar ship by making available in print its entire collection of Jewett correspondence. In 1947 the Colby College Press published two hundred and twenty-five copies of a volume of Jewett let ters owned by their school, with editorial notes by Professor Weber. This volume, printed by the Anthoensen Press, was chosen by the Anlerican Institute of Graphic Arts as one of the Fifty Books of the Year, and went out of print almost over night. In 1956 the school published a much larger volume of Jewett letters, this time edited by Professor Richard Cary of Colby, and now also out of print. High standards of scholar ship have been maintained in both of Colby's editions of the Jewett letters, and the footnotes are especially praiseworthy. Additional Jewett letters are included in the COLBY LIBRARY QUARTERLY as they are acquired by the college. The comprehensiveness of the following checklist of letters written by Miss Jewett now in institutional libraries was greatly enhanced through the kindness of Professor Joseph Jones of the University of Texas who made available to the compiler a supplementary list of institutions which had reported owner ship of correspondence. The name of the institution, its loca tion, total number of letters owned, persons addressed and number of letters to each, are listed. Collections of published letters with their contents and letters in periodical articles are first noted.

PUBLISHED LETTERS

Jewett, Sarah Orne. Letters of Sarah Orne Jewett; edited by Annie Fields. Boston, Houghton Mifflin, 1911. 144 letters: to Mary Elizabeth Woodman Aldrich ( 1) , Thomas Bailey Aldrich (3), the two latter (1), Willa Cather (3), Ellen Chase (4), David Douglas (4), Louisa Dressel (2), Annie Adams Fields (62), Alice Greenwood Howe (4), Miss A. O. Huntington (1), Rose Lamb (2), Louisa P. Lor-

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Colby Library Quarterly 41 ing (1), Elizabeth McCracken (2), Alice Meynell (1), Fran ces Rollins Morse (1), Sara Norton (21), Frances Parker Parkman (3), Harriet Prescott Spofford (2), Charles Miner Thompson (1), Dorothy Ward (2), Mary Augusta Arnold Ward (2), the latter and Dorothy Ward (1), Sarah Cabot Wheelwright (3), Sarah Wyman Whitman (15), George E. Woodberry (2). Jewett, Sarah Orne. Letters of Sarah Orne Jewett now in the Colby College Library; with explanatory notes by Carl J. Weber. Waterville, Colby College Press, 1947. 33 letters, reprinted in the next, and larger, collection. Jewett, Sarah Orne. Letters; edited with an introduction and notes by Richard Cary. Waterville, Colby College Press, 1956. 94 letters: to Lyman Abbott (1), Henry Mills Alden (3), Walter R. Benjamin (1), Agnes Bartlett Brown ( 1), J. Appleton Brown (1), Fred Holland Day (1), Dana Estes (3), Mary Lanman Ferris (1), Andress S. Floyd (2), Wen dell P. Garrison (2), Henry Green (7), Ida Agassiz Hig ginson (1), Sara O. B. Holland (1), Louis A. Holman (1), Frederick M. Hopkins (4), Alice Greenwood Howe (1), Mr. Jamieson (1), Katharine McMahon Johnson (1), Robert Underwood Johnson (6), Alfred E. Keet (2), Edwin W. Morse ( 1), Mary E. Mulhplland (1), Sara Norton (1), James R. Osgood (1), Violet Paget (3), Andrew Preston Peabody (2), Lucretia M. F. Perry (1), Sarah Chandler Perry (1), Dr. William Perry (1), William H. Rideing (1), Annette Rogers (1), Horace E. Scudder (27), F. Hopkin son Smith (4), Harriet Prescott Spofford (2), Jennie O. Starkey (1), Jessie McDermott Walcott (1), Susan Hayes Ward (1), William Hayes Ward (1), Sarah Wyman Whitman ( 1), Charles E. L. Wingate (1). Alden, John, ed. "Sarah Orne Jewett to Mellen Chamberlain," in Boston Public Library Quarterly, v. 9, no. 2 (April 1957), 86-96. 10 letters to Hon. Mellen Chamberlain. Cary, Richard. "Sarah Orne Jewett and the Rich Tradition," in Colby Library Quarterly, sere 4, no. 12 (November 1957), 204-217. 1 letter to Lucretia Fiske Perry.

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42 Colby Library Quarterly Cary, Richard. "Jewett's Cousins Charles and Charlie," in Colby Library Quarterly, sere 5, no. 3 (September 1959), 48-58. 2 letters: to Charles Jervis Gilman (1), Charles Ashburton Gilman (1), with excerpts from others. Green, David Bonnell. "Two Letters of Sarah Orne Jewett," in Notes and Queries, n.s., v. 5, no. 8 (August 1958), 361-362. 2 letters: to James Ripley Osgood (1), William Hayes Ward (1) . Nye, George P. "Jewett and the Juvenile Critics," in Colby Library Quarterly, sere 5, no. 3 (September 1959), 45-48. 2 letters to Samuel Thurber.

LETTERS IN LIBRARIES Allegheny College, Meadville, Pa.: 1 to Ida M. Tarbell. American Antiquarian Society, Worcester, Mass., 4: to Alice Morse Earle (1), Thomas Wentworth Higginson (1), Susan Hayes Ward (1), John Greenleaf Whittier (1). Amherst College, Amherst, Mass.: 1 to Amy Lowell. Boston College, Chestnut Hill, Mass.: 2 to Patrick K. Foley. Boston Public Library, Boston, Mass., 21: to Anon. (1), Ed- ward Bok (2), Hon. Mellen Chamberlain (15), Thomas Wentworth Higginson (3). Boston University, Boston, Mass.: 1 to Katharine and Louisa Loring. Bowdoin College, Brunswick, Me., 17: to Alice M. D. Gilman (7), Charles Ashburton Gilman (4), Charles Jervis Gilman (1), Elizabeth Jervis Gilman (2), the latter and Mary Gard iner Gilman (2), William DeWitt Hyde (1). Chicago Historical Society, Chicago, Ill.: 1 to Mr. Squires. Colby College, Waterville, Me., 97: 94 (as above), to Sally (1), Lilla Cabot Perry (1), Mary Davenport Claflin (1). College of the Holy Cross, Worcester, Mass.: 7 to Louise Imo gen Guiney. Columbia University, New York City, 7: to Anon. (1), Miss Smith (1), Society of the Philistines (1), Arthur Stedman (4).

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Colby Library Quarterly 43 Duke University, Durham, N. C.: 5 to Hon. Francis Rives Las- siter. Emory University, Atlanta, Ga.: 1 to Mary Noailles Murfree. Fenway Court, Boston, Mass.: 4 to Isabella Stewart Gardner. Harvard University (Houghton Library), Cambridge, Mass., 479: to Mrs. Fred P. Abbott (1), Mary Elizabeth Woodman Aldrich (71), Thomas Bailey Aldrich (43), the two latter (4 ), Anon. (1), Boylston Beal (1), Mabel Lowell Burnett (6), David Douglas (1), George du Maurier (2), Annie Adams Fields (169), Dr. Christopher P. Gerrish (1), Amy Gordon Galt Grant (1), Anna Lyman Mason Gray (1), Col. Thomas Wentworth Higginson (1), Louis A. Holman ( 1), Houghton, Mifflin and Co. (1), Alice Howe Gibbens James (1), Prof. William James (2), Mary Rice Jewett (36), James Russell Lowell (1), Ellen Mason (1), Mr. Merriam (1), Dr. S. Weir Mitchell (6), Thomas B. Mosher (1), Mr. Munroe (1), Nelly Nichols (1), Charles Eliot Norton (17), Lily Norton (1), Sara Norton (2), James R. Osgood (1), Frances Parker Parkman (15), Prof. Theophilus Parsons (2), Bliss Perry (8), Samuel T. Pickard (8), Harriet Waters Preston (1), Sarah Wyman Whitman (37), John Greenleaf Whittier (31). (Lamont Library). 3 to George Edward Woodberry. Haverford College, Haverfo'rd, Pa.: 1 to James R. Osgood. Rutherford B. Hayes Library, Fremont, Ohio, 23: to Adams Davenport Claflin (3), Mary Davenport Claflin (8), Emma Harding Claflin Ellis (11), William Dean Howells (1). Sarah Orne Jewett Memorial, South Berwick, Me., 3: to Charles Eliot Norton (2), Sara Norton (1). Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Md.: 1 to Sarah Chaun cey Woolsey. Library of Congress, Washington, D. C., 6: to Oliver Wendell Holmes (2), Louise Chandler Moulton (4). Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Memorial, Canlbridge, Mass.: 2 to Alice Longfellow. Loyola University, Chicago, Ill.: 1 to F. Hopkinson Smith. Maine Historical Society, Portland, Me.: 1 to Hon. F. E. Boothby.

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44 Colby Library Quarterly Massachusetts Historical Society, Boston, Mass., 5: to Mary Davenport Claflin (2), Annie AdalTIs Fields (1), Francis Jackson Garrison (1), Mrs. Haskins (1). Middlebury College, Middlebury, Vt., 4: to Elizabeth Stuart Phelps Ward (1), William Hayes Ward (3). New York Public Library, New York City, 5: to Messrs. Bacheller, Johnson & Bacheller (1), Jeanette Leonard Gilder (1), Richard Watson Gilder (1), Mr. Road (1), Edmund Clarence Stedman (1). Newark Public Library, Newark, N. I.: 1 to Susan Lord Hayes Ward. Newberry Library, Chicago, Ill.: 3 to Alice French. Pennsylvania Historical Society, Philadelphia, Pa., 6: to Anon. ( 1), Arthur Stedman (1), Edmund Clarence Stedman (3), William Hayes Ward (1). Phillips Exeter Academy, Exeter, N. H.: 1 to Miss Crawford. Princeton University, Princeton, N. I., 3: to Edward Bok (1), Laurence Hutton (1), Hon. Thomas Brackett Reed (1). Radcliffe College (Women's Archives), Cambridge, Mass.: 1 to Elizabeth Cary Agassiz. Society for the Preservation of New Englan.d Antiquities, BOls ton, Mass., 1026: to Mary Gilman Bell (1), Caroline Jewett Eastman (13), Theodore Jewett Eastman (1), Caroline Per ry I ewett (5), Mary Rice Jewett (974), Mary Rice Jewett and Anon. (1), Mary Rice I ewett and Caroline Iewett East man (29), Mary Rice Jewett and Theodore Jewett Eastman (1), Mary Rice I ewett, Theodore Jewett Eastman, and Abba Fiske (1). University of California, Los Angeles, Cal.: 1 to William Smith. University of Southern California, Los Angeles, Cal.: 3 to Ham lin Garland. University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Va.: 1 to Prof. Charles W. Kent. Wellesley College, Wellesley, Mass., 2: to Katharine Lee Bates (1), Annie Adams Fields (1). Yale University, New Haven, Conn., 9: to Abby Alger (2), William A. Baker (1), Sarah Warner Brooks (1), Samuel

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Colby Library Quarterly 45 Adams Drake (2), Miss Macy (1), Janles R. Osgood (1), W. L. Sawyer (1). --_ .._- JEWETT AND THE JUVENILE CRITICS By GEORGE P. NYE TWO letters written by Sarah Orne Jewett in May 1906 came to my attention about ten years ago at the high school in Newton, Massachusetts.1 In them she acknowledged and com mented on a sheaf of compositions which had been sent to her by the senior English class of Mr. Samuel Thurber (1879 1943). According to Robert W. Boyden, a member of that year's senior class (and now of Proctor Academy, Andover, New Hampshire), Thurber taught English in the commercial and general courses at that time. The text used by the class is listed in school files as Short Stories. 2 No copies have sur vived. Was the book The Queen's Twin and Other Stories? The King of Folly Island and Other People? It may well have been anyone of half a dozen kindred collections. I have no definite information, except that it was a very old rebound text, not used in classes during the past fifteen years. Whatever the Jewett stories were that the students read, I think we can readily infer from the two letters that Thurber's charges were not as enthusiastic as they might have been had they been reading, say, To Have and To Hold. Reading under compulsion is a limited joy at best, as we all know, and Miss Jewett's quiet delineation of rural character is not the type of literary fare likely to have satisfied pupils who craved more ac tion and excitement. Years later, in Not Under Forty (New York, 1936), Willa Cather could address her fiercely pro Jewett remarks to these same people, but while they were youngsters in Thurber's class it was their pleasure to write a few comments which obviously distressed the gentle invalid in South Berwick.

1 Unfortunately, no other documents besides the letters have conle to light. At least one letter mUBt have been written to 80J by Mr. Thurber. Most helpful, if they could be found, would be the compositions themselves, wih l\-Iiss Jewett's marginal comments. 2 No such title is listed in Clara C. and Carl J. Weber's Bibliography of the Pttbli8hed W1 4 itings of Sarah Orne Jewett (Waterville, Ma~ne, 1949).

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