LETTER: Autograph letter signed to Parker Pillsbury, December 21, 1896.
Susan B. Anthony to Parker Pillsbury
on The History of Woman Suffrage
Anthony, Susan B. Autograph Letter to “My Dear Mr. [Parker] Pillsbury.” Rochester, New York. 12/21/1896; two leaves, one 8 ½ x 11-inch leaf National American Woman Suffrage Association stationery; one 5 ½ x 8 ½-inch leaf; writing on all sides; minor edgewear; small unobstructive open tear to first leaf, browned; two small closed tears to second leaf; both leaves creased where folded from mail.
Anthony writes to woman's rights advocate Parker Pillsbury regarding several receipts for copies of The History of Woman Suffrage issued to libraries. The History, Anthony's meticulous recollection of the suffrage movement, was first published in three volumes between 1881 and 1886, written with Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Matilda Joslyn Gage, and Ida Husted Harper. Pillsbury, who co-edited The Revolution, the feminist newspaper put out by the National Woman Suffrage Association, worked closely with Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and played a role in the distribution of Anthony’s History.
In her letter, Anthony submits to Pillsbury a tally of 1896’s book sales: “So far – so good…Now how many sets can you – will you thus place during 1897 – is the question – I should be mighty glad if you could place a whole $1,000 worth of the books…” On her own work, Anthony continues, “I am now with my secretary who is a stenographer & type-writer trying to write to every mortal – to whom it is my pleasure or duty to thus felt & thought to get the job done by tonight – but alas it will take weeks – yet – though I am getting off 16 & 20 every day.”
Printing the lengthy History was costly, and the idea of profiting of its sales looked bleak as Anthony had published the History largely out of her own pocket. Fortunately, a $25,000 bequest would eventually rid her of the publication debt. Anthony “personally distributed 1,000 copies to libraries in Europe and the United States and gave sets to Congressmen and other “prominent” persons.” Following publication, “the Anthony household in Rochester, which included her sister Mary and, often, a housekeeper and/or a typist spent much of their time packing and mailing the first four volumes” (Kelly, Martha. “A History of The History of Woman Suffrage.” IOBA Standard).
Anthony goes on in her letter to discuss other issues with Pillsbury, including an update on their aging peers, noting that she received “word that Carrie Putnam…lives still…Miss Putnam says that Miss Maria Porter of Rochester – 91 years of age, went out to Thanksgiving dinner…thinking Miss P. must be lonely, and could hardly believe it.” Anthony goes on to list the names of friends who are entering their 8th or 9th decade of living: “Mr. Nat – 85 – Mr. Hooker 81 – Mrs. Lowell Putnam – 86 – Mrs. Anna Shaw Greene – 79 – Parker Pillsbury – 90?- here she is too fast Miss Porter 91 – the brightest and best of my correspondents!” Anthony continues, “and as for you & Susan & myself, why we are in our prime & must hold out a decade or two at least.”
Anthony concludes with a lengthy postscript, returning to the matter of library copies of the History, requesting “Helen [Pillsbury’s wife] to write to the different libraries in which you would still like [to] place sets of the History…& I will see that books are sent.” Anthony gives specific instructions for dispatching the books, describing in detail how slips are to be pasted inside the covers. She ends with a musing, “My! How I wish I had the money – to get out a 2nd edition of 2,00 copies…bringing the History down to the close of the first half century of our movement…I know of no other one thing so important to round out our 50 years of the most magnificent work. I wish you would write me a letter – write now – of your estimate of our 50 years of work – for me to read at the celebration of our 50th anniversary to be held in 1898! Now do this for me!!”
Anthony’s wish for a later edition of History would come to fruition, though she would not live to see its completed state of six volumes and nearly 6,000 pages. Volume four would be published in 1902 (four years before Anthony’s death), but the final two volumes would be written entirely by journalist Ida Husted Harper.
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