LETTERS: 5 ALS to Clement, Jan 29, no year.
FIVE AUTOGRAPH LETTERS
Jewett, Sarah Orne. Five autograph letters to Edward H. Clement. Ca. 1895-1897.
Five leaves; each folded to make four pages; rectos and versos. In a specially made cloth slipcase.
All of Jewett’s letters are written in ink, and four of them are on her “South Berwick Maine” stationery. One is not dated; two have months and days noted but not the year – 30th September and 29 March – and two are dated in full: July 1, 1895 and 27 November 1897.
Clement (1843-1920) was a journalist from Massachusetts who write for the Savannah Morning News, the New York Tribune, the Newark Daily Advisor, the Elizabeth Daily Journal and the Boston Transcript; he became editor-in-chief of the Transcript in 1881. He was also one of Helen Keller’s many acquaintances – a letter to him is quoted in The Story of My Life (209).
Jewett mentions the Transcript throughout her letters to Clement, often suggesting pieces Clement might consider printing, and also talks about her work. Though all of her letters formally address her recipient as “Dear Mr. Clement,” and close “S.O. Jewett,” the tone of the letters suggests that Jewett had a familiar and fond relationship with him.
In the July 1, 1895 letter, Jewett sends a gentle request and reminder to Clement:
I sent a very busy editor a contribution from France two or three weeks ago and since it didn’t come back I have looked with anxious hope to see if it were in [the] Saturday Transcript. And I don’t see it, so I begin to fear that it has stopped by the way to wait until it is called for. Perhaps you will remember it is by Madame Droussart – and it has to do with the Comte de Chambrou and his good works etc. – it was sent to me through my friend Madam Blanc…If you have found it unusable will you be so kind as to let me have it again? But what joy if you have put it by to print some day or other!
In the letter dated September 20, Jewett writes about current trends and tastes in literature:
It is sadly true what you said of the public taste, and the kind of stories put out now in vogue. But let us hope for better things. It is always at such moments that some man of genius strikes a true note and sets a new fashion according to the old simple rules. We must hope that this flood has nearly passed and that the old channels of literature will soon [ ] clear again. I have thought very much about this sudden immense demand for stories on the part of the public.
She concludes this letter by saying, “You remember the old story of somebody’s saying ‘Folks are dyin’ this year that never died before’ – I am inclined to say that ‘folks are reading this year etc.”
The November 27, 1897 letter reveals Jewett’s observation about the power of word-of-mouth:
I have ventured to copy a longer passage from Mrs. Field’s Life of Mrs. Stowe thinking that you might like to print them in extracts in The Transcript. I am so eager for people to begin to read and talk about this really delightful biography! And there are so many readers who are not touched by the announcement of the book itself – but only by the talk of others. I am eager, not only for Mrs. Field’s sake but for the sake of Mrs. Stowe’s daughters to have the book succeed in gaining public notice and recognition, and while this has surely been an autumn of great biographers like the Tennyson, the Jowett, and the Lord Roberts autobiography, we have a peculiar interest in this reverent and beautiful life of Harriet Beecher Stowe.
“Mrs. Fields,” of course, is Annie Fields – Jewett’s companion and family friend of the Stowe’s.
Jewett mentions the Stowe biography in another letter: “It seems to me that I have never been so eager for the success of any book as The Life of H.B.S. Success, it has had in being the book that it is, but I long to have more and more readers and to make it catch the widest possible public attention. It holds such lessons for its readers.” (29 January, n.d. but likely 1898).
An enlightening collection of letters showing Jewett’s interest and involvement in the publishing world.
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