LETTER: Autograph letter signed, to Bliss.
THE FIRST WOMAN TO ADDRESS CONGRESS
RESPONDS TO THE CHARGE OF RUDENESS
AND SPARS WITH HER PUBLISHER
Dickinson, Anna. Autograph letter signed, to Lollis Holly, December 21, 1868; four pages.
Together with:
Dickinson, Anna. Autograph letter signed, to Bliss, October 4, 1872; four pages.
Dickinson, a gifted orator, was the first woman to speak before Congress. She was removed from
a clerkship at the U.S. Mint for criticizing General George McClellan’s handling of the war;
campaigned for the Republicans in 1863; and continued her lyceum speaking tour after the war.
After a stint acting in Broadway plays, her sister had her committed to a mental institution. Upon
her release, she sued those who had her committed and the newspapers that had labeled her
insane. She won in court, but the press retaliated by refusing to cover her case. This related letter,
from 1868, reads in full:
you think me very rude, & very indifferent-, & very careless.- & have written down all
manner of dire & horrible things against my name:- this I doubt not, - & certainly with
seeming good valor. Please don’t:- & please mark them off. … Your letter through some
mistake was not forwarded to me:- how then could I answer that which I knew not of … I
am quite out of the reach of Boston, - in Ohio at the time … with a petition from
Binghamton to Mr. Phillips – he promised to speak for them last season & failed to do so.
– they are exceedin[g]ly anxious to hear him, the place is a very wide one, hall good,
society willing to pay his own price. – proper & also full of cordial & friendly feeling for
speaker & man. – I gave them my word … that I would do what I could for them, but as I
shall not see Mr. Phillips, probably in a long time, & as I have no reason to think that any
petition of mine would be received with special favor by him, will you please intercede
for Binghamton, & write me down your debtor. – his correspondent then is H.H. Lisber…
In the second letter, Dickinson drives a hard bargain with a potential publisher regarding the
terms of her book, A Paying Investment, which called for social reforms such as mandatory
education, prisoner reform, poor relief, and worker training. It was ultimately published by James
R. Osgood of Boston, Massachusetts, in 1876. In part:
Permit me to say that there has been a misunderstanding. … When I spoke to you of the
offers made me, it was of offers, distinctly stated, of money to be paid down on delivery
of the manuscript, - as ‘guarantee’; & a guarantee made at the outset, & not at some time
in the future.
My understanding of your offer was of a similar one. …When I agreed to take a less
percentage than the one you originally proposed, of course I did it for an equivalent, - that
equivalent to be the advantage of money in advance. … I certainly would not be willing
to write a book unless I felt sure of a sale of over 40.000. … why should I take 25 cts
royalty in place of 7 ½ per ct for a gain that I received no gain? … Mr. Perkins had no
talk with me whatever on the subject, & no correspondence – after the two contracts
came, I wrote him that as the only inducement for me to write the book was the $10,000
in hand, when it was done, & far declined this, there was nothing to be said:…
(#4657104 and #4657105)
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