LETTER: ALS to Mrs. Gray.
Autograph Letter Signed
Howe, Julia Ward. Autograph Letter Signed “Julia Ward Howe” to “Mrs. Gray.” West Boston, Massachusetts: April 9, 1900; one 4 x 6.25” leaf; folded to make four pages; writing on all sides; partially split at central fold.
Howe writes to Gray, apparently a chair of an American women’s club. Howe writes, partly in apology for the time that has passed since Gray’s initial letter to her,
…excuse my long delay in acknowledging your very kind letter, received I am ashamed to say how many weeks ago…I have been much driven, this last season, with correspondence and lectures so that the winter has gone by at a more rapid rate even than usual. I was very glad to hear of your club. I have no doubt but that you are able to make it very interesting.
She goes on to query Gray about her organization, “I was much interested in your list of the topics discussed at your club, and am quite uplifted at hearing that you have read the paper published under the heading: “Is White Society White?”
In 1900, following the publication of her book, Reminisces, Howe was in high demand from literary journals and periodicals to contribute her thoughts on various social and political subjects; as a result, there was an nary “an obscure Boston death or public occasion that did not elicit a commemorative poem” from Howe. The article to which she references, “Is White Society White,” was likely a result of this literary outpouring (Notable American Women, Vol. 2).
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