From collection Creating Acadia National Park: The George B. Dorr Research Archive of Ronald H. Epp

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Samuel Gray Ward (1817-1907) 1817-1849 File1
Samuel Gray Ward. (1817-1907,
1817-1849. File 1
COPY- S.6.Ward
THOMAS WREN WARD OF BOSTON FAMILY TREE
(Compiled by Ronald H. Epp, August 2019)
William W. & Ruth Putnam
Of Salem
William W. (1761-1827) m. 1. Martha Proctor (1762-1788); 2. Joanna 'Nancy' Chipman (1761-
)
Thomas Wren Ward (1786-1858)
m. Lydia Gray W. (1788-1874), daughter of Samuel Gray (1760-1816) m.
Anna Orne (1767-1797)
Samuel Gray
George Cabo
Martha
Mary Gray
William
Mary Gray
John
Thomas Wm.
(1817-1907)
(1824-87)
(1812-53) (1816-19) (1819-30) (1820-1901) (1822-56) (1831-59)
m. 1840
m. 1850
William Dorr
Anna Hazard Barker W.
daughter of Jacob & Eliza Barker
Charles Hazen Dorr
(1851-
(1813-1902)
(1821-1893)
George B. Dorr
(1853-1944)
Anna Barker Ward
Lydia Gray Ward
Elizabeth Barker Ward
Thomas Wren Ward
(1841-75)
(1843-1929)
(1850-1920)
(1844-1940)
m. 1862
m. 1870
m.
m. 1872
Joseph Thoron
Baron Richard F.
Baron Ernst Schoenberg
Sophia Read Howard
(1828-1901)
Von Hoffman
(1850- )
(1849-1918)
Maria Louisa
Lt. Col. George C.
Elizabeth Howard Ward
Howard Ridgely Ward
(1864-1950)
(1876-1936)
(1873-1954)
(1881-1946)
m.
m. 1901
m. 1896
m. 1905
T.W. Ward
Wm. Crowninshield
Justine Cutting
Charles Bruen Perkins*
Beatrice Kidder
Elizabeth
Endicott Jr.
(1860-1929)
Beatrice
(1860-1936)
Ward P.L.F.F.S. Thoron
Francis
Anna
Elinor
Mary
* son of Charles
(1867-1938)
Davenport 'Nancy' Perkins Perkins
Callahan Perkins &
Perkins
Perkins
Mansfield
Ryan
Frances D. Bruen
(1897-1970) (1899-1993) (1900-70) (1912-93)
Page 1 of7.
Notes on Samuel/Ward [draft]
Gray
Samuel Gray Ward was the eldest son of Thomas Wren Ward.
Thomas Wren Ward was born in 1786; he married, in 1809,
Lydia Calley Gray, daughter of Samuel Gray. They lived
when they were first married on Pearl Street. Soon after
that he established himself in business with his cousin,
Jonathan Goodhue, in New York, the firm name being Goodhue
and Ward, later Goodhue & Company. In 1817, Thomas Ward
returned to Boston and bought the house at 3 Park Street,
where Samuel Gray Ward was born on October 3, 1817.
Samuel Gray Ward's schooling -
first, Mr. Thayer's private school
then, Public Latin School
Dr. Cogswell's School for Boys at Round Hill, Northampton
Harvard, from which he graduated in 1836.
After his graduation from Harvard, he went to Europe with
Prof. and Mrs. Farrar - Mr. Farrar being a Professor at
Harvard, with whom Samuel Gray Ward had spent vacation
periods at West Point. Mrs. Farrar was a cousin of
Miss Anna Barker. She, Mrs. Farrar, was the daughter of
Benjamin Rotch, brother of William Rotch who had gone to
England with his wife for a brief visit shortly after their
marriage and remained there permanently due to his wife's
seasockness on the way over. He made his home at Milford
Haven and Mrs. Farrar, his niece, spent many of her early
years there.
(Samuel Gray Ward)
2.
The trip to England, in 1836, took 25 days. On arriving
in England, he and the Farrars went directly to North
Wales, then from Holyhead to Dublin, then to Edgeworthstown,
Prof. Farrar having letters to Miss Edgeworth. on return-
ing to Dublin they went to Belfast, then crossed to Scot-
land and passed the rest of the time in the Highlands
till autumn, when they went to London. Prof. and Mrs.
Farrar stayed in London with her parents and Samuel G. W.
joined Mr. Cogswell, his former schoolmaster, and Francis
Calley Gray, his cousin, on a trip to Paris and Italy.
They spent a month or two in Paris, then took a carriage
to Lyons; from Lyons they went by boat down the Rhone,
stopping at Avignon on the way down. Took a steamer from
Marseilles to Genoa and on to Rome, At Rome, found the
Ticknors. (Mr. Ticknor, prof. at Harvard; Mrs. Ticknor, a
Miss Eliot of Boston; & young daughter, Anna.) In the spring
on 1837, S.G.W. was invited to join the Ticknors on a trip
to the north - they visited Florence, Pisa, Milan, Venice,
Verona, etc. In the Plains of Lombardy, met Wordsworth
and his companion Crabb Robinson, who joined their party,
returning finally to the Italian Lakes and Milan. From here
SGW started on a walking trip, with a guide, to Switzerland
to Join the Farrars. They walked 20 or 30 miles a day, and
were about a month on the way to Lucerne, where he joined
the Farrars and found Mrs. Farrar's cousin, Miss Anna Barker,
with them. The rest of the summer of 1837 was spent among
the mountains and valleys; that fall, Prof. and Mrs. Farrar
of
1837
was
spent
among
(Samuel Gray Ward)
3.
and Miss Barker went south, and Samuel Gray Ward went to
Germany where he planned to spend some time in study. Prof.
Ticknor had recommended Dresden and he went directly there;
he had been there but a short time when he received news from
home that his elder sister, Martha, was seriously ill. He
immediately took a steamer from Hamburg to London, and left
in a packet ship from Portsmouth. It took them 41 days to
reach New York; that afternoon, S.G.N. took the boat to
Providence and arrived in Boston the following morning (Jan'y,
1838.
In the summer of 1838, SGW, Mrs. Ward and Martha took a trip
through the state of Massachusetts for Martha's health. on
the trip, going over the Lebanon Mts. from Lebanon, SGW
had a look into the Lenox Valley and told his mother that
if ever be went to live in the country, it would be there.
Insummery 1838 met Emerson at Mary. Falleis Rome in concern
In the fall of 1838, SGW. went to New Orleans with Barings'
agents, Edward Austin and John Ellerton Lodge, to learn
something about the cotton business. Mr. Austin and Mr.
Ladge were large buyers for the factories. That winter, of
1838-39 Anna Barker returned to New Orleans from Europe, and
in March, 1839 SGW writes of seeing her again and asking his
father's permission to continue his relationship with her.
(Samuel Gray Ward)
4.
Anna Barker was the daughter of Jacob Barker, who was born
Swan Islandin maine - but-velue
at
Netrocket. When a young man he entered the counting
house of Grinnell, Minturn & Company, and married, soon
after, Eliza Rodman Hazard, daughter of Thomas Hazard and
Annie Rodman. Jacob Barker and his wife lived Beekman
77
new
Street, having a country home also at Bloomingdale on the
Hudson. Just as their daughter, Miss Anna, was beginning to
go into society in New York, her father's loss of property
brought about a change of residence to New Orleans, where a
considerable amount of his wife's property was invested in
two insurance companies which had got into trouble, and the
companies employed Mr. Barker to go there and attend to their
affairs. He studied and mastered the Civil Code existing in
Louisiana and managed his own cases, being admitted to the Bar
In New Orleans he also entered the Exchange business, and took
his young son, Abraham into partnership with him; they were
so successful in this business that Abraham was able to retire
at the age of BY twenty-one with $40,000, with which he started
in business in Philadelphia, marrying there Sarah Wharton.
Miss Anna, not wishing to go out in New Orleans society, went
the
Q
to school of the Sisters of the Sacred Heart at St. Michaels
90 miles up river till she joined the Farrars on their trip
to Europe that following year.
(Samuel Gray Ward)
5.
In the spring of 1839, SGW returns home, visiting Cuba on
the way. In the summer, visited at Sam Ward, the banker's,
home at Newport, where his sister, Mary, was also a guest.
In the fall of 1839, Prof. and Mrs. Farrar returned from Europe.
In the summer of 1839, SGW also went to New York, and saw
the Barkers there.
In the spring of 1840, SGW made his second trip to New Orleans,
going down by bost and returning by land, by way of the
Great Lakes, Etc. He saw Miss Barker but did not advance
his cause, writing to his father that he had no expectation
of making Anna Barker his wife. On his way home, he caught
a malarial fever and was seriously ill. During his convales-
cence "Bonne-Maman, who had come north for the summer as
the family always did, on the way to Newport by the boat
from New York, with her mother and younger brother Abraham,
noticed an elderly gentlemen sitting near them at supper, who
eyed their party with curiosity. Predently he said to Abraham,
'Did I hear you addressed as Mr. Barker, and is that your sis-
ter Anna whom my son knows so well? I am his father; pray
introduce me to your mother and to her." My father soon
found himself engaged in so interesting a conversation that
he did not break it off till bedtime; andfrom that hour I am
sure it would have been the greatest of disappointments to
him had ahe not become his daughter." (Quoted from SGW Book)
(Samuel Gray Ward)
6.
SGW and Anna Barker were engaged on Midsummer's Day, 1840,
23rd
and were married on October 3rd, 1340 - his birthday.
TWWard bought a house for them in Louisburg Square. SGW passed
a year in his father's office, keeping books in order that
he might learn bookkeeping. Then he started in for himself
as a broker. After three years, he decided that he was not
fitted for a business life and removed to Lenox, in 1844.
fall
In
the of 1841 writes statement to his father in regard
to finances.
In December, 1843, writes statement of his views in regard to
business, gives resume of his early life and his reasons
for wanting to live in the country.
In 1844, rented a house in Lenox while they were deciding on
Red Tonick
a place to buy. In August, 1844, writes of a farm of 150
acres on Stockbridge Pond, 2 miles from the village of
while
Lenox, and on Sept. 17th, 1844 writes of purchase of 1/3
filtage
of the farm. On December 1st, 1845, writes from his new
home, Highwood.
In 1850 SGW returns to Boston to enter the Barings Agency.
priorism
His home in Lenox sold to Mr. William Bullard. TWWard retires
from the agency in 1853. In 1862) SGW went to N.Y. to live,
being joined there by his brother George and they remained
+ 1865
(Samuel Gray Ward)
7.
together till George's death, twenty-five years later, in
1887, when SGW retired from the Baring agency. For a few
years after, the firm of KidderyPeabody & Co. of Boston
were agents for the Baring firm.
In the early 1870s Mr. and Mrs. S.G.W. and Miss Elizabeth
(Bessie) Ward went to Europe for 3 years. His daughter
Lily was at that time married to Richard VonHoffman and
they our
living in Rome, where they spent some time with them.
Then they spent 3 months on the Nile. From Egypt to
Hibilia
Palestine, then to Damascus, Baalbec, Beyrut, Constantinople
Matter
and Athens. On the return to Rome Elizabeth met and became
engaged to Ernst Schonberg, and they were married at the
(30 away
east end of Lake Constance, in Austria, before Mr. and Mrs.
Ward left for home, where business affairs had become so
Auronas
threatened that the London firm claimed his promise to
Hubbella
return and take charge of the agency while the pressure
continued.
well
After retiring from business, in 1887, Mr. and Mrs. SGW spent
3
A
a summer or two at Rockaway, then returned to Lenox
where they built Oakwood. They had also built a house in
Washington where they spent their winters, later giving up
their new Lenox home.
Thomas Uren ward, born in 1844
[ G.B.Dorr is
author].
Elizabeth - Baby in 1847
vii
BIBLIOGRAPHY
'Bride',"
83.
Ward Materials
Thomas Wren Ward Collection. Massachusetts Historical
Society. Donated by George B. Dorr in 1946.
All letters between Ward and his family are
to be found in this collection, except as noted
in the text. Also here is the diary of Thomas
Wren Ward, covering intermi ttently the period
from September, 1827 to June, 1853; (a typed
copy accompanying this diary is not reliable).
Samuel Gray Ward Collection. Harvard College Library.
Donated by Mrs. Charles Bruen Perkins and Mrs.
William C. Endicott in 1942, supplements in
December, 1944, and March, 1946.
The collection includes: letters from Emerson
to Ward: many letters of a social nature to the
Wards; Ward's unpublished poems; and Anna Barker
Ward's diary, 1845-1852.
Supplementary Letters and other documents. Owned by
Dr. Anna Ward Perkins. Specific items noted in
the text.
(Note: All ampersands in manuscripts have
been written out. Otherwise the original
spelling and punctuation have been retained,
except in one or two cases when confusion no
would result.)
the
Ward Family Papers, collected and written by Samuel Gray
Ward (privately printed, Merrymount Press, 1900).
A collection of Ward documents in printedited
form, the major one being Ward's "Long Letter to. , 1938.
His Grandchildren.
AMC[samuel gray ward[1,1017,2,3,3,3,4,6,5,100,6,1]] (4-1)
Page 1 of 1
Records 4 through 4 of 22 returned.
Author:
Ward, Samuel Gray
Title:
Samuel Gray Ward art works, [undated].
Description:
14 items (on partial microfilm reel)
Notes:
Patrons must use microfilm copy.
Eleven watercolors by Ward; and photographic
portraits of him, his mother, and his father, Thomas Wren
Ward, each with watercolor added to the surface.
35mm microfilm reel 268 available for use at
Archives of American Art offices and through interlibrary
loan.
b. 1817; d. 1907. Grandfather of art patron
Elizabeth Ward Perkins. He translated Goethe's Essays on art
(1845) .
Received from heirs along with papers of
Elizabeth Ward Perkins and Charles H. Woodbury, and of her
father-in-law, Charles C. Perkins.
Subjects:
Works of art aat
Photographs aat
Location:
Archives of American Art, Smithsonian
Institution, Washington, D.C. 20560
Control No. :
DCAW212194-A
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My dear father,
I wrote a hive to George a
day ontwo ago in which I mentioned that we
were all doing wele, Since which nothing has
happened awefs Annad confirment but been
a perfectly healthy procep the is doing x =
markably well, & I think her health much
be benefitter by it The child i
a
picture of health, the judges lay of good
look, but in this respect Is not look
/
upon a man as a competent critic
of
A to reserblance I have thought from
4
the first that he too be 5 like you which
6
3
I hope when you lee him you will aol
consider a poor complement - Anna leaves
vent happy to have a boy.
Little Annie
LLd are also as will as can be of become
better company all the time you humble less
rank has nothing to complain of his over
2 of 4
to that on the whole we are a very
such latiffer handshote
t see us, t Anna is much obliger to
May is very kuir to offer to may
hew I think in about a forthight
will be a1 loon as it will he defearble
for Anna to lee any one; the has and
been a soul out of the house, Lrd con
liter this quert very deterable for them
as long as the continue weak. I wile
write Many in the counte of a week. Your
promiser aid will be the greatest
pleature to us.-
Mary lays you will like Labeeh
2
the bull this marking I as we have no
very Conven 'ent place here we Thale be
glas that you have it. the pedestal
condition of several pieces, his packed in
N
3 of4
two baper. One of these through mistake Mr.
Jowle leut me L the a then not. l enclose a
note to him on the subject : when you get
there pieces I will lendyou the other. I thall
he glad to have the perectual in town worder
to have something done to it which Power
recommended
The have a them to day which is
fall stripping the leaver from the trees-
am lony you will not Dee the country
in its beauty - Mith
best love to all
your affectionate for
Sam
25
Thomas 7. Washly
Boston
John G. Ward to Thomas W. Ward
4
Paris, October 26, 1853.
My dear Father,
I regret that Martha is no better: for myself
and you at home I regret it, but if I were an on-looker
merely I should be happy to see one who has lived so
well die so nobly. If I had children, I should have
but one prayer for them, that they might so live, and
so prepare to die. What matters it if one's life is
young in years, when the change comes, so long as it
is old in high thoughts and good works.
I hear that Sam has bought a farm
My own
love for the country grows on me as I become older,
SO I can the better appreciate the pleasure I wish
that he may find in his new home.
I hope that dearest Mother is well. I never
pass any of the
flower gardens here, which I do two or
three times a day, without thinking of her. For myself,
I think well enough of the world to believe that one who
has SO high an appreciation as I of what is beautiful in
*
This was the farm at Canton formerly belonging to his
friend Ingersoll Bowditch, son of Nathaniel Bowditch, the
Navigator. Soon afterwards his father bought a farm im-
Anpt
mediately adjoining this for a country home and we purchased
S. G. Ward's farm after his father's death and when he was
removing to New York as = better home for his agency
busi-
ness. and it was there that my brother and I spent our
springs and autumns thereafter until we grew up.
(October 26, 1853)
2.
books, in man, and in nature, may find notwithstanding
the troubles of life enough of happiness.
Yours most truly,
J. G. Ward.
Will you give Martha a kiss from me? Your
lips can better tell her the love I have for her than
my pen.
Boston, July 18, 1854.
Park Street.
My dear John,
It is months since I have had any letter from
you, but I learn by a letter quoted me from Mrs.
Haggerty that you have been with them. Mr. and Mrs.
Mills mentioned seeing you in Paris. Pray write and
let us know your whereabouts, and what your plans are.
Your mother is delighted with her farm*, perfectly
well and entirely satisfied. She is having greenhouses
made and a garden of an acre prepared for fruits and
flowers and is to have all kinds of grapes, etc. She
and Sam have both a natural taste for the Country and
your mother would, I think, like it all the year. Anna
is at Sharon Springs, New York, for a few weeks. Mary
and Mr. Dorr at Nahant. George and Mary Ann and Tom at
New York. Tom lives at Staten Island this summer and
has a saddle horse.
At Canton.
(July 10, 1854)
2.
I have been so much occupied with the work going
on at the farm that I have been hurried more than I like
and rarely come to town; and time flies with increased
rapidity. There is no getting a round turn to hold on
Farm
cycle
by and all the world seems to be on the race. We rise
at 6 and breakfast at 7, dine at 12, tea at 7, and to
bed at 9. I am often on my feet for 12 or 14 hours in
the day. The country never has looked more beautiful
than now, but we keep our house open in Park Street, as
we always have done, and it is not easy to find a more
pleasant place. Elias and Cynthia take care of Park
Street; Ann Quinn and Mary at Canton.
Sam's place next ours at Canton is really beauti-
ful and both Anna and himself are perfectly satisfied and
pleased with it. Your mother likes hers best, so all
are pleased.
I find time to read a good deal and am now on
Lockhart's Life of Scott. It recalls former times when
we were looking for every new Waverly novel, and the
kindliness of Scott's nature is brought fresh before me.
Biography is always pleasant to me, and vovages and
travels, but I am surprised at the number of books I
have not found time to read.
1 of 2
My deaw father
Thomas treen would made his
appearance this morning at 2 1/2 a clock He
is a fine fellow Anna suffered bf than
herebofere 5 all is wele
your mall affectionates
Samp
DO
't.
Leuros Fuerday money
4% actack
"
95
Homas le. wordly
Boston,
off
Samuel G. ward to Mary it. W. worr
Seabright, N. J.
Sept. 8, 192
My dear Mary:
I cannot let your kind letter wait for an answer,
although there is only one thing I can tell you, and that is
the secret of good gardening, which you raise the question
lies
about. In this climate of ours it all (presuming that
one has a good man & that one loves flowers) in an unfailing
supply of water. Living here in the land of windmills (per-
haps you have one?) I have quite overcome any objections I
ever had to them on the score of the picturesque, - but from
my remembrance of the water privileges of Bar Harbor I have an
idea you will never have enough until the lake in the mountains
is brought down.
I am very proud that you think my one eye still so
effectual & still more so that you wanted to see me so much,
and it was certainly not the want of will that was in the way
of my gratifying my desire to see you by coming to B. H. but
the "instability" of my condition - & my exceeding sensitive-
ness to changes of weather & fatigue, particularly since my
illness. But I expect to get more vigour with the cool weather
& get my legs into walking order or else I am very well & have
nothing to complain of. We are too happy that you take
pleasure in our Loulou & Betsy. It is very kind of you too,
to renew your invitations to Ward. It has been a trial to me
Samuel G. Ward to Mary G. W. Dorr
2 of2
-2-
Sept. 8, 192
to have him so confined to his work as he has been, but it
has not seemed to wear on him & I am proud of determination
to make a man of himself & put his work through.
We are beginning to think the summer is over-though
the weather is perfect - but I think we shall leave shortly
after the 1st Oct as Tom's family then will have left or be
leaving for New York.
With my love & Anna's to you all
Affectionately
S. G. W.
Samuel G. Ward
sweard
If
$4.25
1608 K. Street, N. W.
worlington
23 December, '93
DC
My dear Mary:
I return the interesting letters, with many
of
thanks. It is like a breath out of the very long past,
G.1828
sixty-five years ago; and I can see myself twelve years oldj
happening
seed all these took place about those times. Old Tom Baring
(179)-1873)
(then young Tome) came along in those days while father was
laid up in Park Street (he was near a year getting over the
to arrange
accident), about the Agency, superb in a blue dress coat and
gold buttons - which he always wore buttoned up. W
wrote
with quill pens then and no envelopes and paid 18 cents
postage as you will see on the back of the letter. It is an
interesting fact that the accident occurred at a time when
hater
thought he had retired from business to devote himself
to his books and public objects, - But nature and habit, and
his own restless activity were too much for him - and he
went back to work. I wish we had a good likeness of him in
those days.
We have had two or three of our household down with
grip, but expect to get all straight next week. With Anna's
love and mine to you and George, and hoping to see you by
thy
by
Affectionate by
S.G.W.
Samuel G. Ward to Mary G. W. Dorr
1608 K St. N.
*
11 May 199
Dear Mary:
Looking over old letters of Martha's which I find
very interesting, it occurred to me that you would be glad
to have a copy of the drawing of her (Cheney's, is it not?)
& I asked Miss Angier to try it with her Kodak. I send you
the result. To me it is even better than the original, be-
ing a little darker in the shadows it has more force & I
Beautist
think more likeness. I also send Miss
sketch of me.
Party
I do not recognize myself in it. It looks more like a
Spanish cardinal in old time, but as Miss B. said with a sigh
after finishing it "I begin to see Mr Ward that you are a
complex person !" I told her it was too bad she had not time
to go round to the other side of me and do another.
Also, in the same parcel you will find a photo by
Miss Angier of one of my many sketches. She has done several
& as I never learned to etch & as photography is so easy
(when another person does it.) it is interesting to see your
own ideas in a light & free translation. I do not know whe ther
this will find you at B. Harbor or 18 C. Ave., but wherever
you are, I hope you are well, & enjoying the spring. I am
down (which is the cause of my pencil) with one of my usual
conjestions, but hope to be well in a day or two. Anna sends
love with mine to you & George.
Affectionately,
S. G. W.
Samuel G. Wardato Mary G. . W. Dorr
1608 K Street, Wash. D. C.
19 Nov 199
My dear Mary:
Though you cling SO to Bar Harbor in the autumn
I suppose by this time you may be settled in Commonwealth
Ave ? & well I trust ? Anna & I go on quietly, better I
think, than a year ago.
In arranging my papers Ec notes it occurs to me that
I always meant to have a copy of Grandfather Ward's little
memoir. I believe you have it, & if you would send it to me,
registered, I would have typewritten copy made & return you
the original. I believe there is a copy but I forget who
has it.. Was our first American ancestor Miles or Joshua ?
Miss Angier is improving in her work with a new
Sourty lens
If you like to send me any pictures as suggested some
time since, they will be copied &c returned as soon as the
requisite sunshine is secured to do them.
When you see Mrs Whitman, pray say to her that the
smallest sketch from her hand in remembrance would be most
gratefully received.
My kind regards to George. Anna sends love to you
both.
Affectionately
Sam'l G. W.
Samuel G. Werd to Mary G. W. Dorr
1608 K. Street,
Dec'r 14, 199
My dear Mary:
The pictures are photographed and being packed
up to go home. We think them a success, & send you prints
of them which you can put into your book. The Wm Candid is
copied, too, & the M. S. will go to you forthwith, with many
thanks. I find it extraordinarily interesting. I don't be-
lieve I had read it for half a century or more & had forgot-
ten how good it was. I will have it printed with other
family documents for the family only. You didn't acknowledge the
little book of prints I sent you. I hope you are not ill.
By the way, after this book was gone it struck me
I had written your initials M. G. W. instead of M. G. W. D.
If so, will you please add the D. It was mere inadvertance
which I am SO subject to that I hardly trust myself to
?
up a cheque.
Anna & both of us have been much afflicted by the
death of Mrs Rhine lander here, where they had come for a mild-
er winter. She had been a most devoted friend. With her
love to you & G.
Affectionately,
S. G. W.
Samuel G. Ward to Mary G. W. Dorr
1608 K. St. N. W.
Dec'r 3d, '99
My dear Mary:
good
My best thanks for your two card notes and for
the box of pictures just arrived, but not yet opened, and
for the manuscript which I shall receive tomorrow no doubt.
The copy you send would answer all my purposes for making
a typewritten one, but what you say about the original in
Book form "with a good many other family papers" makes me
curious to see that also as I may find other things of inter-
est I may wish to have copied to add to my own collections
of memoranda. Don't fail to have anything you send register-
ed.
I enclose herewith several of Miss Angier's late
photographs which we think are an advance on the earlier ones.
They are mounted on pages like the book I sent you SO you
can add them to the book by simply untying the string. I
3
also send a little volume of Emerson's tales which I thought
(?)
of too much interest not to be published. I said nothing
about it at the time of publication to anyone, SO that it's
connection with me might not get into the newspapers & re-
porters be calling on me for my photo and a short account
of my life ! But of course it is an open secret.
Anna sends you best love. Except that her hands are
nearly helpless from gout, & that she cannot lie comfortably
at night but has to half sit up in bed & not turn over, her
Samuel G. Ward to Mary G. W. Dorr
2 d From.
-2-
Dec'r 3, 199
condition is better than a year ago. She sits up reading
much of the day by the window. I am also for the moment in
better ease than usual, but scarcely dare say so, my experi-
ence being that to brag is apt to bring a reverse. We are
GBD
glad to learn that George found so great a resource in his
Its
gardening. No pleasures are endless.
Affectionately
S. G. W.
Samuel G. Ward to Mary G. W. Dorr
Simily
May 1900.
My dear Mary:
I am glad to hear of you in such vigor as you
show in going to Lenox to put the house in order.
I had not forgotten the book of old Mss - far from
it - but as my posthumous volume will contain most of what
is valuable in it, including Wm Candid's narration, and the
proofs are only just now beginning to come in, I shall need
it for some months to come. By the way, as to its ultimate
disposition, you and I being the last of our generation,
what do you think of our passing it on while we are here to
4.
Ampt.
the next generation in the Ward name, where alone it can be
of value - Say to Tom with a letter from us requesting that
it be always passed on to the oldest possessor of the Ward
the
Pressure
name .
( note there has been a regular succession of Wards,
mostly eldest sons, from Miles Ward.
To insure its care, I think a case should be made for
it, & marked. I am glad to know I may expect your photograph
to make my number complete.
We expect to leave for West End on 24th if Annis well
enough, which always makes our moving an anxious question.
Please regard all I have said about my book as confi-
dential.
Affectionately yours,
S. G. W.
The Pockering genealogy
NINTH GENERATION.
839
Mrs. Dalrymple was a daughter of John and Jerusha (Upton) Flint.
Her ancestry includes the following families Flint, Dounton, Hart,
Proctor, McIntire, Upton, Frost, Beckford, Pinson, Green, Upton, Maber,
Burnap, Flint, Putnam, Hutchinson, Bosworth, Pope, Folger, Morrill. See
ANCESTRY TABLES 104
17. IX. 239. Martha Ann Ward [Thomas W. 17. VIII. 183], born
in Boston, died in Boston.
An obituary notice of Miss Ward, which appeared in the Boston Daily
Advertiser of November, 1853, speaks of her as a woman devoted to
charities, and is highly eulogistic in its character.
17. IX. 241.
Samuel Gray Ward [Thomas W. 17. VIII. 183],
born in Boston. A retired banker. Residence : Washington, D. C.
Mr. Ward, H. C. 1836, spent a year and a half, after graduating, in
European travel. He is said to have been a rare classical scholar, and
gifted both as poet and painter. Six years of his early married life
were spent at his country home in Lenox, Mass., it being his intention to
devote his life to literature and art. His father had been for many years
the American representative of Messrs. Baring Brothers & Co., of London,
and he desired that his son should succeed him in that position. A business
life, however, was distasteful to Mr. Ward; but he yielded to his father's
wishes, and, in 1850, returned to Boston, and afterwards succeeded him as
sole agent of the London bankers. In 1869, the headquarters of the busi-
ness were removed from Boston to New York, where Mr. Ward was joined
by his brother, George Cabot Ward, the style of the firm being S. G. &
G. C. Ward. The brothers remained thus associated until Jan. 1, 1886.
On the death of his brother, in 1887, Mr. Ward retired from active busi-
ness, thus closing a connection of two generations of his family with the
Barings, in which for sixty years all the American business of the London
firm had been in their hands.
In resigning a life devoted to art and literature for one of business,
Mr. Ward felt that there was some compensation. He believed the perfect
maturity of art had already been reached, and that there was not that need
of the artist's work as there was during the classic period. He believed
Google
Original from
PRINCETON UNIVERSITY
840
THE PICKERING GENEALOGY.
that man had still an important mission to his fellow-men, and that it was
best fulfilled by the interlacing of nations and races. For this end, he
believed that commerce was to be the principal means, and that, by becom-
ing the representative of one of the greatest commercial houses which bind
together the four quarters of the globe, he could be the means of working
for men. For this end he acted.
During the Rebellion, Mr. Ward was a warm supporter of the govern-
ment. At his office, 28 State Street, gathered the representative business
men of Boston; and there were proposed and carried out many valuable
measures in harmony with the ideas of Governor Andrew.
Mr. Ward's views of humanity were of the largest kind, both in busi-
ness transactions, in politics, and in social life. His house was a gather-
ing-place for the wise, the good, and the most brilliant men and women
of the day.
He was one of the founders and original trustees of the Metropolitan
Museum of Art in New York.
17. IX. 241. Anna Hazard Barker, the wife of Samuel G. Ward,
born in New York City.
Mrs. Ward is a daughter of Jacob and Elizabeth (Hazard) Barker, of
New York. Elizabeth Hazzard Barker [2. IX. 13] is her niece. Her
ancestry includes the following families : Barker, Williams, Prince, Collier,
Folger, Gibbs, Morrill, Barnard, Barnard, Hervey, Folger, Gibbs, Morrill,
Gardner, Frier, Shattuck, Church, Severance, Coffin, Thember, Stevens,
Bunker, Godfrey, Look, Bunker, Godfrey, Hazard, Brownell, Borden,
Earle, Robinson, Allen, Bacon, Potter, Hazard, Wilson, Rodman, Clark,
Scott, Willett, Borden, Clayton, Wanton, Freeborn, Brownell. See
IX
ANCESTRY TABLES 106.
17. IX. 243. Mary Gray Ward [Thomas W. 17. VIII. 183], born
in Boston. Residences Boston, Mass., and Bar Harbor, Maine.
Mrs. Dorr is a woman of decided views, is fond of sketching, and
Revotes much time to society. Her tastes are cultivated, and she has
avelled all over the world.
Google
Original from
PRINCETON UNIVERSITY
The Sturgis-Tappan Family Papers, 1812-1982: Contents List
Page 1 of 3
The
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Home >> Sophia Smith Collection >> The Sturgis-Tappan Family Papers, 1812-1982
Contents List
Sophia Smith Collection
Smith College
Northampton, MA
KEE
SERIES I. BIOGRAPHICAL
(1836-
1982)
MATERIAL
Family history
Photocopies of pages from various
1914, 1973,
Box 1: folder
books,
n.d.
1
The American Transcendentalists: Their
(1957)
Box 1: folder
Sturgis-Tappan Family
Prose and Poetryand The
(1950)
2
Papers
Transcendentalists: An Anthology by
n.d.
Perry Miller: photocopies of excerpts,
Notes taken on the Tappan family by
n.d.
Box 1: folder
Browse Finding Aid:
George McCandlish: photocopies,
3
Collection Overview
Caroline Sturgis Tappan and the
1982
Box 1: folder
- Biographical Note
Grand Tour by George Dimock (2
4
-
Scope and Contents of the
Collection
copies)
- Information on Use
Account of Lewis Henry Tappan's first
circa 1823
Box 1: folder
- Additional Information
two years (brother of William
5
- Search Terms
Aspinwall Tappan), by his father,
Series Descriptions
> Contents List
Lewis Tappan,
Note:
[See Oversize Materials]
View Entire Finding Aid
Caroline Sturgis Tappan: photograph,
n.d.
Box 1: folder
6
Tanglewood: correspondence,
1836-56,
Box 1: folder
n.d.
7
SERIES II. CORRESPONDENCE
(1812-
1913)
Caroline Sturgis Tappan
Family
Bigelow, William S.,
n.d.
Box 1: folder
8
Dixey, Ellen Sturgis Tappan,
1875-87
Box 1: folder
9-11
Dixey, Richard Cowell,
1875-85
Box 1: folder
12
Goodwin, Ezra,
1828
Box 1: folder
13
Hooper, Anne Sturgis,
1855-59,
Box 1: folder
n.d.
14-15
Hooper, Edward W.,
1861
Box 1: folder
16
Sturgis, Susan,
1849, n.d.
Box 1: folder
17
Sturgis, William,
1848-50
Box 1: folder
18
Tappan, Lewis (combined letter
1861
Box 1: folder
from Caroline Sturgis Tappan
19
and Ellen Sturgis Tappan (Dixey)
[father-in-law/grandfather,
respectively],
Tappan, Mary Aspinwall,
1887, n.d.
Box 1: folder
20
Unidentified relative,
1849
Box 1: folder
21
Friends and acquaintances
Channing, William Ellery, n.d.
Box 1: folder
22
Child, Lydia Maria,
1847
Box 1: folder
23
Note:
https://asteria.fivecolleges.edu/findaids/sophiasmith/mnsss112_list.htm
7/16/2018
The Sturgis-Tappan Family Papers, 1812-1982: Contents List
Page 2 of 3
Emerson, Ralph Waldo (includes
1838-72,
Box 1: folder
some photocopies),
n.d.
24-35
Hawthorne, Sophia,
1842
Box 1: folder
36
James, William,
1882
Box 1: folder
37
White, Ellen,
n.d.
Box 1: folder
38
Unidentified fragments,
n.d.
Box 1: folder
39
Mary Aspinwall Tappan
Family
General,
1887, n.d.
Box 2: folder
1
Bigelow, William S
1888,
Box 2: folder
1913,
2
n.d.
Brooks, Gorham,
1913
Box 2: folder
3
Dixey, Arthur Sturgis,
1890-1905,
Box 2: folder
n.d.
4-5
Note:
[See also Oversize Materials]
Dixey, Ellen Sturgis Tappan,
1879-1910
Box 2: folder
6-7
Dixey, Rosamond Sturgis,
1908-24
Box 2: folder
8
Tappan, William Aspinwall,
1886-1904,
Box 2: folder
n.d.
9
Friends and acquaintances
James, William,
1901, n.d.
Box 2: folder
10
Miscellaneous,
1905-32
Box 2: folder
11
Other family members
Bigelow, William S. to family,
n.d.
Box 2: folder
12
Davis, John to William W. Sturgis,
1816
Box 2: folder
13
Dixey, Ellen Sturgis Tappan to various
1851-95
Box 2: folder
recipients,
14
Dixey, Richard W. to wife, Rebecca
1859
Box 2: folder
Dixey,
15
Hooper, Anne Sturgis to various
1851, n.d.
Box 2: folder
recipients,
16
Hooper, Ellen Sturgis to William Swain,
1844
Box 2: folder
17
Sturgis, Ellen M. to Ellen Goodwin,
1815-25
Box 2: folder
18
Sturgis, Susan to William Swain,
1846
Box 2: folder
19
Sturgis, William to various recipients,
1812-59
Box 2: folder
20
Sturgis, William W. to various recipients,
1822
Box 2: folder
21
Tappan, Susan A. to "Mrs. Colonel
1821
Box 2: folder
Aspinwall' (sister),
22
Tappan, William Aspinwall to various
1855-1903,
Box 2: folder
recipients,
n.d.
23
Third party
Emerson, Ralph Waldo
Forbes, Margaret,
n.d.
Box 2: folder
24
Peabody, Elizabeth Palmer,
n.d.
Box 2: folder
25
1845
d
https://asteria.fivecolleges.edu/findaids/sophiasmith/mnsss112_list.htm
7/16/2018
The Sturgis-Tappan Family Papers, 1812-1982 Contents List
Page 3 of 3
Box 2: folder
27
SERIES III. WRITINGS AND
(1849-59)
DRAWINGS
Drawings: Tappan, Caroline Sturgis
Pencil sketches,
1846-57,
Box 3: folder
n.d.
1-2
Pencil sketches and watercolor
n.d.
Box 3
paintings: album,
Note:
[Located in Box 4]
Poetry
Tappan, Caroline Sturgis: handwritten
n.d.
Box 3: folder
booklet of poetry with pressed
3
flowers,
Tappan, Caroline Sturgis and Ellen
1836, n.d.
Box 3: folder
Sturgis Hooper (?): miscellaneous
4
poems,
Note:
[See also Oversize Materials]
"G.W.": "Nebulae,"
n.d.
Box 3: folder
5
Unidentified author: handwritten book
n.d.
Box 3: folder
of poems,
6
Correspondence pertaining to Rainbows for
1849-59
Box 3: folder
Children by Lydia Maria Child,
7
Published etchings by various artists of sites in
n.d.
Box 3: folder
Great Britain,
8
Album of pencil sketches and watercolor
n.d.
Box 4
paintings by Caroline Sturgis Tappan,
OVERSIZE MATERIALS
Letter to Mary Aspinwall Tappan from Arthur
29 Nov
Flat file
Sturgis Dixey,
1894 (?)
Questions about this collection? Contact the archives
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7/16/2018
Samuel Gray Ward art works, [undated].
Page 1 of 1
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Creator:
Ward, Samuel Gray
Ward, Samuel Gray
Title:
Samuel Gray Ward art works, [undated].
Works of art
Phy. Description: 14 items (on partial microfilm reel)
Photographs
reel 268
Additional forms: 35mm microfilm reel 268 available for use at
Archives of American Art offices and through
interlibrary loan.
Bio / His Notes:
b. 1817; d. 1907. Grandfather of art patron Elizabeth
Ward Perkins. He translated Goethe's Essays on art
(1845).
Summary:
Eleven watercolors by Ward; and photographic
portraits of him, his mother, and his father, Thomas
Wren Ward, each with watercolor added to the
surface.
Provenance:
Received from heirs along with papers of Elizabeth
Ward Perkins and Charles H. Woodbury, and of her
father-in-law, Charles C. Perkins.
Restrictions:
Patrons must use microfilm copy.
Form / Genre:
Works of art
Photographs
Repository Loc: Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution,
Washington, D.C. 20560
Local Number:
AAA 268
AAA
Item information
No Item Information
Format:
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Delimited
Subject: Samuel Gray Ward art works, [undated].
Email to:
Send
Horizon Information Portal 3.09_74.01
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© 2001-2004 Smithsonian Institution All rights reserved.
http://siris-archives.si.edu/ipac20/ipac.jsp?session=12712G63Y707K.5589&profile=all&s.
4/14/2010
Ward, Samuel Gray. Papers of Samuel Gray Ward and Anna Hazard Barker Ward: Guide. Page 1 of 69
bMS Am 1465
Ward, Samuel Gray. Papers of Samuel Gray
Ward and Anna Hazard Barker Ward: Guide.
Houghton Library, Harvard College Library
VI
i
265
See
Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138
C 2002 The President and Fellows of Harvard College
Descriptive Summary
*
Repository: Houghton Library, Harvard College Library, Harvard University
Location: b
Call No.: MS Am 1465
Slew
Creator: Ward, Samuel Gray.
Title: Papers of Samuel Gray Ward and Anna Hazard Barker Ward,
S.P.A.
Date(s): 1823-1934 (inclusive) 1837-1900 (bulk).
Abstract: Papers of Samual Baker Ward and his wife Anna Hazard Barker Ward, friends
way
eorsing
Quantity: 7 boxes (2.3 linear ft.)
of Ralph Waldo Emerson and associates of the Transcendentalists.
Administrative Information
Acquisition Information: *42M-2088.
Gift of Mrs. William C. Endicott and Mrs. Charles Bruen Perkins; received: 1942 and
1944.
Historical Note
Ward (1817-1907), a banker in Boston and New York, was a friend of Ralph Waldo
Emerson and an associate of the Transcendentalists. Anna Hazard Barker Ward was his
wife.
Organization
Organized into the following series:
http://oasis.harvard.edu/html/hou00309.htm
8/15/2003
I. Papers
II. Other papers
III. Miscellanea
Scope and Content
Chiefly letters to the Wards from relatives, friends, and business associates; also some
letters by them, a few poems by Samuel Ward, and a diary, 1845-1852, and commonplace
book of Anna Ward. The chief correspondent represented is Ralph Waldo Emerson.
Others include Joshua Bates, John Murray Forbes, Margaret Fuller, Otto and Jenny Lind
Goldschmidt, Augustine Heard, Henry James (the father), Fanny Kemble, Charles Eliot
Norton, Elizabeth Peabody, Catherine Maria Sedgwick, Charles Sedgwick, Elizabeth
Buckminster Dwight Sedgwick, Celia Laighton Thaxter, and Sarah Butler Wister.
Container List
Series: I. Papers
(1) Adams, Charles Francis, 1807-1886. A.L.s. (C.F.Adams) to [Samuel Gray Ward];
[n.p.] 18 Jun [18--?] folder ([1]p.)
(2) Adams, Charles Francis, 1807-1886. A.L.s. (C.F.Adams) to [Samuel Gray Ward];
London, 1 Apr 1863. folder ([3]p.)
(3) Adams, Charles Francis, 1807-1886. A.L.s. (C.F.Adams) to [Samuel Gray
Ward];London, 19 Jun 1863. folder ([4]p.)
(4) Adams, Charles Francis, 1835-1915. A.L.s. (Charles F. Adams) to [Samuel Gray
Ward]; South Lincoln, 9 Nov [1900] folders ([7]p.)
(5) Adams, Marian (Hooper) 1843-1885. A.L.s. (Marian Adams) to [Samuel Gray Ward];
Alexandria, 15 Mar [1873] folder ([4]p.)
(6) Adlerspawr, A A.L.s. (A.Adlerspawr) to [Mrs. Anna Hazard Barker Ward]; [n.p.] 10
Jun 1862. folder ([2]p.)
With envelope.
(7) Adlerspawr, A A.L.s. (A.Adlerspawr) to [Anna Hazard Barker Ward]; Carlskrona, 23
Sept 1862. folder ([2]p.)
Addressed on p. [4].
(8) Adlerspawr, A A.L.s. (A.Adlerspawr) to [Anna Hazard Barker Ward]; Stockholm, 21
Apr 1869. folder ([3]p.)
(9) Agassiz, Alexander, 1835-1910. A.L.s. (A.Agassiz) to [Anna Hazard Barker Ward];
Cambridge, 21 Sept [1860] 1/2 folder ([1]p.)
(10) Agassiz, Elizabeth Cabot (Cary) 1822-1907. A.L.s. (Elizabeth C. Agassiz) to
[Samuel Gray Ward]; Cambridge, 5 Nov 1900. folder ([3]p.)
(11) Agassiz, Louis, 1807-1873. A.L.s. (L.Agassiz) to [Samuel Gray Ward]; [n.p., 185-?]
folder ([1]p.)
(12) Agassiz, Louis, 1807-1873. A.L.s. (L.Agassiz) to [Samuel Gray Ward]; Cambridge,
29 Dec [185-?] ([2]p.)
(13) Agassiz, Louis, 1807-1873. A.L.s. (L.Agassiz) to [Samuel Gray Ward]; [Cambridge]
24 Dec 1860. folder ([3]p.)
(14) Agassiz, Louis, 1807-1873. A.N.s. (L.Agassiz) to [Samuel Gray Ward]; Cambridge,
9 May 1861. ([1]p.)
(15) Allen, Mary W A.L.s. (Mary W.Allen, and 5 others) to [Margaret (Fuller) Ossali];
http://oasis.harvard.edu/html/hou00309.html
8/15/2003
Ward, Samuel Gray. Papers of Samuel Gray Ward and Anna Hazard Barker Ward: Guide. Page 15 of 69
[1873. ]folder ([1]p.)
(252) Dixon, Joshua A.L.s. (Joshua Dixon) to [Anna Hazard (Barker) Ward]; Cheshire,
20 Mar 1876. folder ([3]p.)
(253) Dixon, Joshua A.L.s. (Joshua Dixon) to [Anna Hazard (Barker) Ward]; Cheshire,
29 Nov 1876. folder ([2]p.)
(254) Dixon, Joshua A.L.s. (Joshua Dixon) to [Anna Hazard (Barker) Ward]; [n.p.] 29
Oct 1877. folder ([5]p.)
(255) Dixon, Joshua A.L.s. (Joshua Dixon) to [Anna Hazard (Barker) Ward]; Cheshire,
15 Jan 1879. folder ([4]p.)
(256) Dixon, Joshua A.L.s. (Joshua Dixon) to [Anna Hazard (Barker) Ward]; Exeter, 4
Aug 1879. folder ([3]p.)
(257) Dixon, Joshua A.L.s. (Joshua Dixon) to [Anna Hazard (Barker) Ward]; 28 Jun
1880, Exeter. folder ([4]p.)
(258) Dixon, Joshua A.L.s. (Joshua Dixon) to [Anna Hazard (Barker) Ward]; 27 Dec
1880. folder ([4]p.)
(259) Dixon, Joshua A.L.s. (Joshua Dixon) to [Anna Hazard (Barker) Ward]; Exeter, 25
Jun [1882. ]folder ([4]p.)
(260) Dixon, Mrs. Margaret A.L.s. (Margaret Dixon) to [Anna Hazard (Barker) Ward];
Letherhead, 21 Jan 1886. folders ([8]p.)
(261) Dixon, Mary L A.L.s. (M.L.Dixon) to [Anna Hazard (Barker) Ward];[Liverpool]
16 Oct [185-?] folders ([8]p.)
(262) Dixon, Mary L A.L.s. (M.L.Dixon) to [Anna Hazard (Barker)] Ward; [Liverpool] 4
May [1858]([2]p.)
(263) Dorr, George Bucknam, 1853- Typescript of letter to [Thomas Wren Ward]; Bar
Harbor, Nov 1933. (31.)
Enclosure: typed annotation, identifying people mentioned in this letter.
(264) Dorr, George Bucknam, 1853-Typescript of letter to T[h]om[as Wren Ward]; Bar
Harbor, 3 May 1934. ([1]p.)
(265) Dorr, Mary Gray (Ward) A.L.s. (M.G.W.Dorr) to [Anna Hazard (Barker) Ward];
Nice, 11 Dec [1875] folder ([4]p.)
(266) Downing, Andrew Jackson, 1815-1852. A.L.s. (A.J.Downing) to [Samuel Gray
Ward]; Newburgh, 14 May 1849. folder ([4]p.)
(267) Downing, Andrew Jackson, 1815-1852. A.L.s. (A.J.Downing) to [Samuel Gray
Ward]; Newburgh, 1 Jul 1850. folder ([2]p.)
(268) Dresel, Anna (Loring) A.L.s. (Anna Loring) to [Anna Hazard (Barker) Ward];[n.p.]
15 Oct [186-?] folder ([4]p.)
(269) Dresel, Anna (Loring) A.L.s. (Anna Dresel) to [Anna Hazard (Barker)] Ward;
Dresden, 22 May [18]72. folder ([4]p.)
(270) Dresel, Anna (Loring) A.L.s. (Anna Dresel) to [Anna Hazard (Barker) Ward];
Dresden, 30 May [1872. ]folder ([4]p.)
(271) Dresel, Anna (Loring) A.N.s. (Anna L.Dresel) to [Anna Hazard (Barker) Ward];
Boston, 19 May 1873. ([1]p.)
(272) Dresel, Otto, 1826-1890. A.L.s. (Otto Dresel) to [Samuel Gray Ward]; [n.p., 18--?]
([1]p.)
(273) Dresel, Otto, 1826-1890. A.L.s. (Otto Dresel) to [Anna Hazard (Barker) Ward];
North Conway, 11 Aug [186-?] folder ([3]p.)
(274) Dresel, Otto, 1826-1890. A.L.s. (Otto Dresel) to [Anna Hazard (Barker) Ward];
Beverly, 21 Sept 1868. folder ([2]1.)
(275) Dresel, Otto, 1826-1890. A.L.s. (Otto Dresel) to [Samuel Gray Ward]; [Boston,
187-?] folder ([3]p.)
http://oasis.harvard.edu/html/hou00309.html
8/15/2003
482
November 1907
November 1907
483
To Ida Minerva Tarbell
The greatest pleasure your book has constantly brought me, for it has
laid close at hand through it all, came from the ever-present assurance
95 IRVING ST. I CAMBRIDGE. Nov 17.07
that you had cared to send it. The book itself, meanwhile, grows more
Dear Miss Tarbell,
surely memorable. I cannot quite adjust my thoughts, even yet, to all
I thank you for your letter, too long unanswered. It may be (tho
the terms of it. I am sure, however, that it comes nearer the philosophy
isn't likely) that I shall have some stuff susceptible of popularization. I
toward which I have blundered through my fifty years than I should at
happens that just at this moment McClure is accepting a short address
first have thought it could. That what we call truth is itself conditioned
that I gave at Radcliffe College the other day-the last "address" I shall
by the imperfections of our wits and our language is as plain as that the
ever give in my life! Someone from that magazine had interviewed m
earth turns. That we live and die in terms of surmise is another little
wife during my absence in the Country about my writing some article
truth not to be gainsaid. That we need not think in these lesser terms
and she had promised to "submit" that as soon as it was delivered, with
clear. That the terms in which we think, at our wisest, are as far this
the result of their accepting it if I will make it a soliloquy-a least no
de perfection soon comes to follow. Finality is nowhere within human
an address on a particular occasion. So I must now soliloquize it.
That we can always press some way further on the road thither is
have nothing now in sight for a possible "American." But I shan't for
hat makes life at once most despairing and most inspiring.
get!-What a beautiful November.
Faint, old as all this may seem, it will perhaps tell you better than any
Very sincerely yours, Wm Jam
fort to be more precise what the vistas are when I have strayed with
ALS: PMA
our or from you, during the months of silence. In temperament, I am
Ida Tarbell, previously with McClure's Magazine, was at this time associated with A
ore and more the Tory I was born. It is a good world, this, and a very
ican Magazine.
MI at the same time. Progress takes us into new regions of both sorts.
2WJ's "Social Value of the College-Bred."
We who would rather linger cherish the old good- that, ill as
nings go, they might go worse. You who press on have more confident
From Barrett Wendell
ope not completely sustained, I personally think, by the noble, tragic
story of human aspiration. But, at heart, we are more at one than
358 Marlborough Street, I 19 November 100
re careless moments sometimes make us fancy. For what we both
Dear James:
for most is that the truth we leave behind us shall help the time to
The pure delight your letter brings me is dimmed by sense of
one towards more righteousness that it has been our own passing lot
carelessly I must have seemed to neglect you all these months.1
WH
diffuse.
Pragmatism came to me, a night-mare of a summer was beginning
was pleasant to see Billy the other day. Every hearty message to
dear old Aunt Sarah Barrett, who has no other of her line near by
and to you all.
a stroke of paralysis, which seemed final.² She lingered, day by day
Always sincerely yours Barrett Wendell
I had-gladly, too, for she has been perhaps the most constantly
bms Am 1092.9 (683)
lightful of all my kin since I was a baby-to be with her every day.
WI's letter of 18 November 1907 is calendared.
ter weeks, she began, most deplorably, to recover a bed-ridden
Sarah Barrett was a sister of Mary Bertoldi Barrett Wendell, Wendell's mother.
tence. Incidentally, there were many perplexities-a new thing for
in just this aspect. It goes on still. She is really better, to survive
definitely. I do not have to see her constantly, though I am there as
Margaret Mary James
ten as possible. From May to October, however, I hardly missed
And it was all I could do-Letters, work, reading, everything wen
95 IRVING ST.
I
CAMBRIDGE. Nov
the board. And SO the weeks passed into months, without a word
Peg- This is just a note, snatcht into the before breakfast hour,
you; until, for my shame, I didn't write.
others being still up stairs, to say that we are gladly expecting you
404
for Thanksgiving. We have been having rather busy times, with Sher
I am now hurrying to Harvard Square with your bundle. I suppose
win Gibbens, Miss Pope, etc spending the nights, but it's over. I too
you got the previous one, also expressed to the Hotel by Adams express.
have got off some extra jobs, and can settle to work on the Hodgson
This one goes by American Express. Please acknowledge receipt!
Piper records, beginning to day. Bill is gone with Roger W. superscript(2) to the
Yours, as ever, I WJ.
Cape-poor things! the weather being SO bad. Your mother is well
ALS: CtY
no headaches. Mrs. Piper is in Boston at last. Geo Dorr also.
I
saw
The Mills Hotels were in New York City. James Bates Peterson, WJ's long-standing
him yesterday at Sam Ward's funeral at Mount Auburn 3
Royce is giv-
charity, resided in one of them.
ing Lowell lectures, I shall go to night. 4 Also for the 2nd time to
Lo!
hengrin at the Castle Square Theatre to morrow night. 5
Think of
3 weeks of that superlative Opera with best seats at 50 cents!! Keep well
To Wincenty Lutoslawski
and give my love to Mary W.. 6 I'm summoned to bkfst!
95
IRVING ST.
I
CAMBRIDGE. Nov. 23. [1907]
Your loving W.J.
Dear Luto-Your heartrending letter of yesterday arrives this A.M.-all
ALS: MH bms Am 1092.9 (3090)
the effect of Mills Hotel! Aussi que diable alliez vous faire dans cette
In his diary for 18 November 1907 WJ notes: "Sherwin Gibbons and his wife for the
galère? The brutality of their not receiving the package because it was
night."
2 Roger Sherman Warner.
unpaid! I ought to have paid it, but I imagined your feeling pleased at
Samuel Gray Ward (1817-1907), American banker, father of Thomas Wren Ward.
paying it yourself. A similar package (also unpaid) (the second) went
4 WJ's diary entry for 21 November 1907 is: "Went to Royce's Lowell lecture. Loyalty.
the day before yesterday (or yesterday, I can't remember which, my brain
See letter to Cattell of 21 August 1907.
is SO muddled in these days).
5 According to his diary WJ saw Lohengrin on 15 November and thought the "bass
I hope you wont turn away from America merely on account of the
singer" splendid.
brutalities of the Mills Hotel. As regards the general question of what
6 Mary Worthington.
you had better do next, I confess that I have no advice to give. Your
lines of activity-Yoga & Poland- SO remote from anything that I
To Wincenty Lutoslawski
have had experience of, that I have no intuitive impressions. All I know
is that one can't build up anything solid all of a sudden. Unless you
95 IRVING ST. I CAMBRIDGE. Nov 21. 07
wish simply to be passive, I should not go to Asheville yet. And if you
Dear Luto-Truly you lead an adventurous life! Your record of
do wish simply to be passive, there are numerous places in Europe far
achievements in your long letter which arrives this morning, is wonder
more erfreulich than that. Your provincial tour in Massachusetts was SO
ful. You ask me to address you at "General Delivery" which I do as far
successful, that I would try to work that line a bit first. Why not go next
as this letter goes, but the bundle of pamphlets that came two days ago,
to Chicago? and see if any opening occurs? I can do nothing in the way
I prefer to send by express, as it exceeds the limit of 4 pounds weight,
of help, for I have no access either to Yoga circles or Polish circles, and
and to send it to the hotel, where I am very sure you will find it. The
having seen you started in both those ways (I tell everyone that you are
Mills Hotels are charity institutions, almost, built for working men, and
the Yoga of my Energies article() 1, I must leave the resultant in the
barely [able] to pay interest on plant.¹ I'm surprised that Fletcher
hands of yourself and Time! Don't leave America yet. Wait for some-
should have sent you there. You must have given him a tremendous
impression of your asceticism.-Don't hope for anything more from
thing to turn up!
Yours as ever W.J.
Lowell, who probably thinks he has done all he can for Poland by hav-
ALS: CtY
ing had you! As for a bank, I have no direct knowledge of New York
Banks, but all the large ones must be sound, e.g. the Fifth Avenue B. the
1st, or the 2nd National Banks, etc. You will probably have to be
identified by someone before they will open an account for your check.
THE
PICKERING GENEALOGY:
BEING AN ACCOUNT OF THE
first Three Generations
OF
THE PICKERING FAMILY
OF SALEM, MASS.,
AND OF THE DESCENDANTS OF JOHN AND SARAH (BURRILL)
PICKERING, OF THE THIRD GENERATION.
BY
HARRISON ELLERY
"
AND
CHARLES PICKERING BOWDITCH.
VOL. III.
PAGES 773-1284.
PRIVATELY PRINTED.
1897.
L.
OF CONGRESS OF
FEB 4 *1898
Register of Copyrists
TWO COPIES RECEIVED
.NINTH GENERATION.
839
Mrs. Dalrymple was a daughter of John and Jerusha (Upton) Flint.
Her ancestry includes the following families: Flint, Dounton, Hart,
Proctor, McIntire, Upton, Frost, Beckford, Pinson, Green, Upton, Maber,
Burnap, Flint, Putnam, Hutchinson, Bosworth, Pope, Folger, Morrill. See
ANCESTRY TABLES
17. IX. 239. Martha Ann Ward [Thomas W. 17. VIII. 183], born
in Boston, died in Boston.
An obituary notice of Miss Ward, which appeared in the Boston Daily
Advertiser of November, 1853, speaks of her as a woman devoted to
charities, and is highly eulogistic in its character.
17. IX. 241. Samuel Gray Ward [Thomas W. 17. VIII. 183],
born in Boston. A retired banker. Residence : Washington, D.C.
Mr. Ward, 1836, spent a year and a half, after graduating, in
European travel. He is said to have been a rare classical scholar, and
gifted both as poet and painter. Six years of his early married life
were spent at his country home in Lenox, Mass., it being his intention to
devote his life to literature and art. His father had been for many years
the American representative of Messrs. Baring Brothers & Co., of London,
and he desired that his son should succeed him in that position. A business
life, however, was distasteful to Mr. Ward; but he yielded to his father's
wishes, and, in 1850, returned to Boston, and afterwards succeeded him as
sole agent of the London bankers. In 1869, the headquarters of the busi-
ness were removed from Boston to New York, where Mr. Ward was joined
by his brother, George Cabot Ward, the style of the firm being S. G. &
G. C. Ward. The brothers remained thus associated until Jan. 1, 1886.
On the death of his brother, in 1887, Mr. Ward retired from active busi-
ness, thus closing a connection of two generations of his family with the
Barings, in which for sixty years all the American business of the London
firm had been in their hands.
In resigning a life devoted to art and literature for one of business,
Mr. Ward felt that there was some compensation. He believed the perfect
maturity of art had already been reached, and that there was not that need
of the artist's work as there was during the classic period. He believed
840
THE PICKERING GENEALOGY.
that man had still an important mission to his fellow-men, and that it was
best fulfilled by the interlacing of nations and races. For this end, he
believed that commerce was to be the principal means, and that, by becom-
ing the representative of one of the greatest commercial houses which bind
together the four quarters of the globe, he could be the means of working
for men. For this end he acted.
During the Rebellion, Mr. Ward was a warm supporter of the govern-
ment. At his office, 28 State Street, gathered the representative business
men of Boston; and there were proposed and carried out many valuable
measures in harmony with the ideas of Governor Andrew.
Mr. Ward's views of humanity were of the largest kind, both in busi-
ness transactions, in politics, and in social life. His house was a gather-
ing-place for the wise, the good, and the most brilliant men and women
of the day.
He was one of the founders and original trustees of the Metropolitan
Museum of Art in New York.
17. IX. 241. Anna Hazard Barker, the wife of Samuel G. Ward,
born in New York City.
Mrs. Ward is a daughter of Jacob and Elizabeth (Hazard) Barker, of
New York. Elizabeth Hazzard Barker [2. IX. 13] is her niece. Her
ancestry includes the following families : Barker, Williams, Prince, Collier,
Folger, Gibbs, Morrill, Barnard, Barnard, Hervey, Folger, Gibbs, Morrill,
Gardner, Frier, Shattuck, Church, Severance, Coffin, Thember, Stevens,
Bunker, Godfrey, Look, Bunker, Godfrey, Hazard, Brownell, Borden,
Earle, Robinson, Allen, Bacon, Potter, Hazard, Wilson, Rodman, Clark,
Scott, Willett, Borden, Clayton, Wanton, Freeborn, Brownell. See
ANCESTRY TABLES 106
17. IX. 243. Mary Gray Ward [Thomas W. 17. VIII. 183], born
in Boston. Residences : Boston, Mass., and Bar Harbor, Maine.
Mrs. Dorr is a woman of decided views, is fond of sketching, and
devotes much time to society. Her tastes are cultivated, and she has
travelled all over the world.
NINTH GENERATION.
841
17. IX. 243. Charles Hazen Dorr, her husband, born in Boston,
died in Boston. A retired merchant. Residences Boston, Mass., and
Bar Harbor, Maine.
Mr. Dorr in early life was actively engaged in business, but he retired
about thirty years previous to his death. He passed the latter part of his
life in foreign travel, and between his house in Boston and his estates in
Lenox and Bar Harbor. The latter, "Old Farm," is one of the largest
and finest on Mount Desert. Mr. Dorr was a man of cultivated tastes
and of quiet and agreeable manners.1
He was a son of Samuel and Susan (Brown) Dorr, of Boston. His
father was prominent in the Legislature of Massachusetts fifty years ago.
His ancestry includes the following families : Dorr, Hawley, Harbottle,
Rawson, Perne, Wilson, Mansfield, Hooker, Bucknam, Wilkinson, Knowers,
Peabody, Fiske, Brown, Lazinby, Proctor, Adams, Winburn, Parker. See
ANCESTRY TABLES
100.
17. IX. 245. George Cabot Ward [Thomas W. 17. VIII. 183],
born in Salem, died in New York City. A banker. Residence: New
York City.
Mr. Ward, H. C. 1843, on graduating, went to Heidelberg. After
going around the world in a sailing ship, he went to New York, where
he founded the banking house of Ward, Campbell, & Co. In 1869,
his brother, Samuel Gray Ward, moved to New York, when Mr.
Ward retired from the firm of Ward, Campbell, & Co., and became
joint agent with his brother, under the name of S. G. & G. C. Ward,
as agents for Baring Brothers & Co., of London. This partnership con-
tinued until Jan. 1, 1886. Mr. Ward was an intimate friend of Secre-
tary Chase, who consulted him on many points during the war. He
was for a long time a director of the Bank of Commerce, New York,
and of other institutions. He was a charter member of the Union
League Club, of New York, its treasurer many years, and its president
one year.
I The Boston Daily Advertiser of Jan. 30, 1893.
2 Boston Evening Transcript of May 5, 1887.
842
THE PICKERING GENEALOGY.
17. IX. 2451. Mary Anne Southwick, the first wife of George C.
Ward, born in Salem, died in New York City.
Mrs. Ward was a daughter of John Alley and Elzabeth (Kinsman)
Southwick, of Salem. Eliza K. Southwick [15. IX. 215] was her sister.
For her ancestry, see under the head of Eliza K. Southwick [15. IX. 215],
on page 834. See ANCESTRY TABLES
17. IX. 2452. Frances Morris, the second wife of George C. Ward.
Mrs. Ward is a daughter of William Lewis and Mary Elizabeth
(Babcock) Morris. Her ancestry includes the following families: Morris,
Pole, Graham, Staats, Ludlow, Bennett, Hanmer, Corbett, Ludlam,
Wickham, Babcock, Lawton, Lawton, Isaacs, Arden, Blanc. See ANCESTRY
TABLES IOT2.
17. IX. 247. Stephen Goodhue Wheatland [Richard G. 17. VIII.
185], born in Newton, Mass., died in New York City. A lawyer. Resi-
dence: Salem.
Mr. Wheatland, H. C. 1844, studied law, was admitted to the Essex
Bar in 1850, and practised his profession in Salem. He took an active
interest in the affairs of the city, and served as a member of the Common
Council in 1852, 1853, 1859, 1861, and 1862, the last two years being presi-
dent of that body. He was mayor of the city in 1863 and 1864, and its
representative in the Legislature in the years 1862 and 1863.¹
17. IX. 247. Ann Maria Pingree, his wife, born in Salem. Resi-
dence: Salem.
Mrs. Wheatland is a daughter of the Hon. David and Anna Maria
(KimbalI) Pingree. He was an eminent merchant and shipowner, of
Salem. Her ancestry includes the following families : Pingree, Clement,
Pickard, Crosby, Brocklebank, Platt, Kneeland, Perkins, Gould, Towne,
Blessing, Symonds, Easty, Kimball, Scott, Cummings, Andrew, Towne,
Perkins, Kimball. See ANCESTRY TABLES 108
17. IX. 249. Richard Henry Wheatland [Richard G. 17. VIII.
185], born in Newton, Mass., died in Salem. Residence: Salem.
1
The Boston Transcript of March 4, 1892.
TENTH GENERATION.
1049
16. X. 293. William Henry Dalrymple [James 16. IX. 238],
born in Salem. An attorney-at-law. Residence : Colorado.
16. X. 293. Evaline Cressy, his wife, born in Salem.
Mrs. Dalrymple married, as her second husband,
Woodbury,
of Beverly, Mass.
Mrs. Woodbury is a daughter of Charles Cressy, of Salem. ANCESTRY
TABLES .
16. X. 296. Kate Dalrymple [James 16. IX. 238].
For an account of her, see page 838.
16. X. 296. Aaron Perkins, her husband.
His number in direct descent is [15. IX. 235]. For an account of him,
see page 838.
16. X. 298. Francis Tukey Dalrymple [James 16. IX. 238], born
in Salem. Assistant secretary of the Holyoke Mutual Insurance Company,
of
Salem. Residence: Salem.
16. X. 298. Sarah Metella Swasey, his wife, born in Fall River,
Mass.
Mrs. Dalrymple is a daughter of Antony H. De Wolf and Sarah Chase
(Ripley) Swasey. He was a carpenter and builder, of Mobile, Ala. ANCES-
TRY TABLES 63
17. X. 299. Anna Barker Ward [Samuel G. 17. IX. 241], born
in Boston, died in New York City.
17. X. 299. Joseph Thoron, her husband, born in Candia, Island of
Crete. A commission merchant. Residence: New York City.
Mr. Thoron, although actively engaged in business, is interested in, and
devotes much time to, the charities of New York. He is the president of
the French Benevolent Society, and is one of the founders of the French
Catholic Club.
Mr. Thoron is a son of Paul and Louise (Consinéry) Thoron. His father
was French Consul at the Island of Crete, during the First Empire. The
family belongs to the south of France. ANCESTRY TABLES
1050
THE PICKERING GENEALOGY.
17. X. 300. Lydia Gray Ward [Samuel G. 17. IX. 241], born in
Boston.
17. X. 300. Richard von Hoffman, her husband, born in Leip-
zig, Saxony. Residence: Villa Paulina, Obermais, Meran, Sud Tyrol,
Austria.
Freiherr Richard von Hoffman is a knight of the first class of his sov-
ereign's order. He has owned, since July, 1870, the Villa Celimotana,
known formerly as Villa Mattei, in Rome, Italy, renowned for its beautiful
grounds, and its views of ancient Rome and the Alban Hills. Mr. and Mrs.
Hoffman resided there from 1871 to 1879; but in 1880 they settled in Frei-
burg, Germany, for the education of their sons.
He is a son of Baron Louis Ferdinand and Paulina Elizabeth (Mayer)
von Hoffman, of Leipzig and Dresden, Saxony. ANCESTRY TABLES
17. X. 301. Thomas Wren Ward [Samuel G. 17. IX. 241], born
in Boston. A banker. Residence: New York City.
17. X. 301. Sophia Read Howard, his wife.
Mrs. Ward is a daughter of Charles Ridgely, and Elizabeth Anne
(Waters) Howard, of Waverly, Howard County, Md. Her ancestry in-
cludes the following families : Howard, Carroll, Eager, Murray, Chew,
Ayres, Benson, Galloway, Oswald, Caruau, Ridgely, Dorsey, Ely, Dorsey,
Ely, Warfield, Hill, Waters. See ANCESTRY TABLES XX
17. X. 302. Elizabeth Hazard Ward [Samuel G. 17. IX. 241],
born in Brooklyn, N. Y.
17. X. 302. Ernst von Schönberg (Roth Schönberg), her husband.
Residence: Schloss Pallus, bei Brixen, Sud Tyrol, Austria.
Baron von Schönberg is the second son of Baron von Schönberg. His
mother, the baroness, was Emily Malortic, descended from an old Norman
feudal family bearing the titles of Marquis de Villars and Baron de
Bismont.
The family of von Schönberg belongs to the older nobility of Austria.
ANCESTRY TABLES
TENTH GENERATION.
1051
17. X 304. George Bucknam Dorr [Mary G. 17. IX. 243], born
in West Roxbury, Mass. Residences: Boston and Bar Harbor, Maine.
Mr. Dorr graduated at Harvard College in 1874.
17. X. 305. Samuel Gray Ward [George C.17. IX. 245]. Resi-
dence: New York City.
Mr. Ward, H. C. 1876, returned to New York and entered the New
York office of Kidder, Peabody, & Co.
17. X 305. Frances Lydia Botts, his wife.
ANCESTRY TABLES
17. X. 306. Marian Ward [George C. 17. IX. 245].
17. X. 306. Abbot Augustus Low, her husband. Residence: Brook-
lyn, N. Y.
Mr. Low is a son of Abiel Augustus and Ellen (Dow) Low. Henry
Cutler Low [18. X 332] is his cousin. His ancestry includes the following
families : Low, Bordman, Lamb, Choate, Varney, Proctor, Burnham, Has-
kell, Tybbot, Giddings, Hubbard, White, Wise, Thompson, Gardner, Smith,
Porter, Hathorne, Dorman, Allen, Hodges, Phippen, Wood, Williams,
Skerry, Manning, Calley, Dow, Sanborn, Coffin, Phippen. See ANCESTRY
TABLES to
17. X. 308. Richard Wheatland [Stephen G. 17. IX. 247].
For an account of him, see page 996.
17. X. 308. Mary Kemble Robinson, his wife.
Her number in direct descent is [59. IX. 1198]. For an account of her,
see page 996.
17. X. 311.
Philip Dumaresq Wheatland [George 17. IX.
254], born in Salem. Residence: Salem.
17. X. 311. Alice Ellerton Pratt, his wife.
Mrs. Wheatland is a daughter of Edward Ellerton and Miriam Foster
(Choate) Pratt, of Boston. ANCESTRY TABLES
INDEX OF NAMES.
1171
WARD, Augusta (French)
[IX]
904
WARD, Lucy Augusta [VIII]
612,
WARD, Samuel Gray [X]
1051
Benjamin [VIII] 600,
609, 904
908, 909
- Sarah [VIII]
611,
906,
907
Benjamin Augustus [IX]
904,
- Lydia (Gray) [VIII]
429, 433,
Sarah (Henfield)
[VI]
222,
363,
1077
555,575
364,
365
Benjamin Colman
288
- Lydia Gray [X]
1050
Sarah (Patterson)
898
-
Betsey (Bowman) [VII]
363
- Lydia Henfield
[VII]
365, 615
Sarah (Trask)
604
Betsey F. (Attwill) [VIII]
600,
- Marian [X]
1051
Sarah Heufield [VIII] 613,
909,
609, 610
- Martha (Grush)
612, 612
910
Caroline Elizabeth [IX]
905
- Martha (Proctor)
104,
Sophia R. (Howard) [X]
1050
Catherine (Davis)
496
336,
337, 554
Stillman [VII]
496
Catherine (Moore) [VIII]
610
Martha Ann [IX]
839
Thomas Wren [VIII,
338,
389,
Elizabeth [VIII
610
Martha Dowst [VIII] 614,
910
554-555, 555, 839,
840,
841
Elizabeth Cutler [VIII]
611,
Martha Elizabeth [IX]
904,
Thomas Wren [X]
337, 1050
907
1077
- William [VII] 104,
336,
Elizabeth Hazard [X]
1050
Mary
851
339
Ellen Sophia [TX]
905
Mary (Attwill) [VIII]
600, 609,
- William
337, 339
Emeline (Brown)
[VIII]
611
610-611
William Henry [X]
1077
Emeline Brown [IX]
905, 1078
-
Mary (Cutler) [VII].
364
WARD family
895
Emily (Grush) [VIII]
619, 612
- Mary A. (Southwick) [IX]
834,
- Campbell & Co.
841
- Esther Gilbert
835
842
WARDWELL, Clarissa Dilla-
- Florence A. (Clay) [IX]
907
-
Mary Adelaide [X]
1077
way
606
-
Frances (Morris) [IX]
842
-
Mary Ann [VIII]
611, 906
WARE, Anne Bent
1009
Frances L. (Botts)
[X]
1051
Mary Ann [IX]
.
905, 1078
Catherine Pond [VIII]
606
Gamaliel Everard [VIII]
604
Mary Attwill [VIII]
600,610-
Charles Eliot [VIII]
504-505,
George A. 198 n, 209 n., 238 n.,
611
992
304
338 D.
-
Mary E. (Battles) [VII]
496,
Clarissa D. (Wardwell)
606
George Cabot [IX]
839,841,
771
Elizabeth
505
842,1051
- Mary Elizabeth [IX
898-899
Elizabeth C. (Lee) [VIII]
504
George James [IX
907
- Mary Ellen [IX]
910, 1080
Erastus
606
Gustavus Attwill [IX]
904
Mary F. (Marseilles)
Fannie
1005
Haunah (Derby)
220
[VIII]
771-772
Henry
505
Hannah (Higginson)
222
- Mary Gray [TX] 840-841, 1051
John
505, 938
Hannah R. (Clarrage)
Mary H. (Williams) [VIII]
614,
John F. W.
288
[VIII]
614
614
- Rebekah
624
Herman Eugene [VIII]
771
Mary Holyoke
895
WARNER, Amelia
330
Ida T. (Luscomb) [X]
1077
Melissa H. (Ward) [IX]
905
Anna Goodale [VIII]
622,
916
Isaac
496
Miles
61, 220, 339
Caleb [VII]
369-370
James Cutler [VIII]
600, 610,
Nathaniel [VII] 363-364, 364,
Caleb Henry
370
905
610, 611, 612
Caroline (Daland) [VIII]
623
James Franklin
[IX]
905
Nathaniel [VIII]
612
Caroline E. [IX]
917
Jane (Adams) [VIII]
612
Nathaniel
220, 604
Delia
509
John [VII] 364, 612,
613, 614
Raymond Lee
49
Edward
370
John
222, 898
- Rebecca E. (Williams)
Eloise
308
John D. A. [IX]
904, 1078
[VIII]
614, 614
Jonathan
308
John Henfield [VIII]
614, 910,
- Richard Bowman [VIII]
610
Mary (Goodale) [VII]
369,
911
- Ruth (Putnam)
339
622, 623
Jonathan [VII]
364
- S.G. & G. C.
839, 841
Mary Pearson
370
Joshua
49
- Sally [vii]
364
Sallie (Cook) [VIII]
623
Joshua H.
791
- Samuel [vll]
365
Susan (Palmer)
370
Laura Augusta [X]
1077
Samuel [VIII]
612,907
Susan P.
370
Louisa (Hunt) [VIII]
604
- Samuel Gray [IX]
339, 555,
William
[VIII]
617,
623,
623,
Lucy (How) [VII]
364
555 n., 839-840,
840, 841,
917
Lucy Ann
338
1049, 1050
William
370
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13 documents found for: "samuel Gray Ward" Refine Search
1. THE MINISTERS KEPT BUSY; MANY COUPLES UNITED IN
MARRIAGE
AMID FLOWERS. SOME NOTABLE WEDDINGS YESTERDAY
IN THIS CITY AND
VICINITY AT WHICH THE BRIDES AND THE BRIDESMAIDS
WORE
EXQUISITE DRESSES.
New York Times (1857-Current file). New York, N.Y.: Oct 29,
1891. p. 2 (1 page)
Article image - PDF Page map Abstract
2.MARRIED BY CARDINAL GIBBONS.; Miss Ellen Warder
Weds Mr.
Ward Thoron in Washington.
New York Times (1857-Current file). New York, N.Y.: Nov 16,
1893. p. 5 (1 page)
Article image - PDF Page map Abstract
3. .Obituary 1 -- No Title
New York Times (1857-Current file). New York, N.Y.: Nov 16,
1900. p. 7 (1 page)
Article image - PDF Page map Citation
4.WHAT IS DOING IN SOCIETY.
New York Times (1857-Current file). New York, N.Y.: Nov 16,
1900. p. 7 (1 page)
Article image - PDF Page map Abstract
5. Obituary 2 -- No Title
New York Times (1857-Current file). New York, N.Y.: Nov 17,
1900. p. 7 (1 page)
Article image - PDF Page map Citation
6. FOR NEW YORK POST OFFICE.; Bill to Appropriate
$2,000,000
Is Put In by Congressman Douglass for a Branch.
CHARLES DE KAY.. New York Times (1857-Current file). New
York,
N.Y. Nov 19, 1903. p. 6 (1 page)
Article image - PDF Page map Abstract
7. Obituary 7 -- No Title
New York Times (1857-Current file). New York, N.Y.: Feb 21,
1929. p. 22 (1 page)
Article image - PDF Page map Citation
8. JENNY LIND RELICS SHOWN; Historical Society Puts on
View
Mementos of Singer.
New York Times (1857-Current file). New York, N.Y.: May 17,
1936. p. 27 (1 page)
Article image - PDF Page map Citation
9. THOMAS WARD DIES; HARVARD CLASS '66; Oldest
Alumnus, 95,
Former Banker Here, Friend of Justice Holmes and William James
http://us.f842.mail.yahoo.com/ym/ShowLetter?MsgId=7744_0_118236_2376_1108888
12/11/2007
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EX-AIDE TO LOUIS AGASSIZ With Scientist's Expedition to
Brazil
in 1865--Father Was College Treasurer, 1830-42 Member of
Noted
Family Joined Kidder, Peabody & Co.
New York Times (1857-Current. Jul 19, 1940. p. 24 (1 page)
Article image - PDF Page map Abstract
10.SAINT-GAUDENS BIRTH HONORED BY EXHIBIT
New York Times (1857-Current file). New York, N.Y.: Mar 2,
1948. p. 25 (1 page)
Article image - PDF Page map Abstract
11.Saint-Gaudens Out of Storage; About Saint-Gaudens
JAMES R. MELLOW. New York Times (1857-Current file). New
York,
N.Y.: Jul 29, 1973. p. D17 (2 pages)
Article image - PDF Page map Abstract
12.A New Hall At Tanglewood; Lenox, Mass.
LINDA S. APPLETON. New York Times (1857-Current file). New
York, N.Y.: Jul 25, 1993. p. R13 (1 page)
Page Image - PDF Page map Abstract
13.BOOKEND; The Ties That Bound in America
Caleb Crain. New York Times (1857-Current file). New York,
N.Y.: Dec 17, 2000. p. BR39 (1 page)
Article image - PDF Page map Abstract
1-13 of 13
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Courtesy of concord: P.Z.
C.F.P.L. F.B.Sanborn. TableTalk 1981. Transcendental Books.
of 2
218
1907
seen in his travels. But where did Milton get the
the same effect; indeed, he was one of the first consulted
y of his Paradise Lost? or how could he describe
by Lowell in the matter of the Atlantic, and I was present
ttom of the monstrous world"? or Shakespeare pic-
at some of these colloquies, as a listener, Lowell was
hemia and the plains of Troy, and the landscape and
strongly in favor of making political comment a marked
ces in the "Tempest." Where had Coleridge seen
feature, and proposed a special department for political
asure-dome of Kubla Khan, or the vistas of the An-
censure, with the device of a broom at its masthead, like
lariner? Imagination is the poet's best hold; if he
old Van Tromp's particularly intended to sweep old
it, he can invent a better landscape than Nature can
Buchanan from the seas. It was by adding strongly to
nly furnish.
Parke Godwin's essay on Buchanan's administration that
Lowell sharply offended Godwin. The weakness of the
Nov. ALFRED WHITMAN AND CON-
Atlantic on the political side has usually been an unwilling-
-HIS SERVICES TO KANSAS--A FRENCHWOMAN'S
ness to take a positive tone and adhere to that. The chief
RTATION ON THOREAU.
business of a literary magazine, however, must be litera-
ture; and in that the Atlantic has seldom been surpassed,
ed Whitman, who died suddenly this week at Law-
in its first 20 years.
in Kansas, was the son of a Kansas pioneer and
graduate, who was very serviceable to Kansas in
(508
Nov. 21, 1907. SIGNIFICANCE OF SAMUEL
iggle of years against negro slavery. Alfred him-
GRAY WARD, A CONTEMPORARY OF VERY AND THOR-
S at school in Concord, where he became intimate
EAU--EMERSON'S LETTERS TO HIM--MONCURE D.
e Alcotts, and took part with them in dramatic en-
CONWAY, AND SANBORN AND ANTI-SLAVERY--
ments. He was one of two lads from whom Louisa
COMMONWEALTH.
made up her composite "Laurie." During the civil
served with his father, a major, in Kentucky, but
One of the earliest surviving graduates of Harvard,
ice lived in Kansas and been one of the active friends
Samuel Gray Ward, died at his house in Washington on
state university, to which 10 years ago the sculptor
Sunday, and was buried at Mount Auburn yesterday. He
presented his bust of Miss Alcott. Alfred's broth-
was in the class of 1836, and among his classmates were
B. Whitman, is a prominent lawyer of Boston
A
Jones Very and Col. Henry Lee. He was of the same age
Frenchwoman, a traveling scholar of the Sorbonne,
as Thoreau, who, if living, would now be 90, and like him
oston pursuing her inquiries in American literature
was an early intimate of Emerson and the Concord group
with a view to her doctor's thesis next year on
of authors. His artistic and poetic temperament inclined
iu, of whom she is an admirer. It is only of late
him to a literary life, and he was one of the "Dial" con-
:hat such scholarships have been granted to women.
tributors, as they were. His father, a banker, insisted
on his following that occupation, and he did so, for more
) Nov. 12, 1907. GENESIS AND BACKGROUND OF
than half a century. He paid the expenses of Channing's
TLANTIC.
first volume of poems in 1843, and occasionally wrote
verse himself. He belonged in the circle at Cambridge
gs were rather better in 1857, when the Atlantic be-
of which Mrs. Prof. Farrar was the hostess (afterward a
nd payment was made for whatever came out in its
resident of Springfield), and where Margaret Fuller, her
-column pages. The name seems to have been sup-
friend Miss Anna Barker, daughter of the New Orleans
y Dr. Holmes; but the plan of a magazine or review
merchant, Jacob Barker, and other brilliant young ladies
fice in Boston, but contributors on both sides of the
were at home; and some time after leaving college he
was as old as 1837, and was definitely discussed in
married Miss Barker. It was to his friend Ward that the
1, when Alcott was there in July, 1842, as mentioned
"Letters to a Friend" of Emerson, edited by Prof. Norton,
fragment of his diary in England which alone sur-
were written, from 1838 to 1853, but Mr. Norton is cer-
-the rest having been lost in a box of papers at A1-
tainly wrong in saying Mr. Ward "was a younger man than
as Mr. Norton's English papers were lost in the
Emerson by nine years." That would put back his birth-
vay in 1857. But Alcott wrote, July 21, thus:-
day to 1812, and make him 25 at his graduation, --whereas
he graduated under 20, as was much the fashion in those
ening, at Heraud's Barham, Westland Marston,
days, Emerson himself having graduated at 18, and
and others were there We discussed printing a
George Bancroft at 17. Mr. Ward early traveled and re-
urnal, to be supported by contributions from the old
sided in Europe, and collected engravings (particularly
and the new, and issned quarterly. A good deal was
of the work of Michael Angelo, Guercino and Piranesi),
Heraud and Barham deem Carlyle's interest essen-
among which was the beautiful copy of an ancient Endymion
its success with the public. I put the work on its
which has long hung in Emerson's house. It was Ward's
erits, quite independent of names; and Wright agrees
portfolios which Emerson examined in 1839, and which
e
I gave them the theory of my new journal;
figure in the "Ode to Beauty." Some months before its
bes it must meet, the audience it must create, the
publication in the "Dial" for 1840, Emerson sent to Ward
outors it must secure. I proposed that it should an-
Thoreau's poem "Sympathy," which his friend styled an
o something like this: 'The Janus; an Ephemeris of
"Elegy,"
rmanent in Religion, Philosophy, Science, Art and
s.' My idea was obviously too broad and daring for
For elegy has other subject none.
And to Ward in February, 1843, Emerson confided his
nk Emerson wrote from England in 1847 something to opinion of Wendell Phillips, when at the Concord lyceum,
2 of 2.
1907
219
1907
invited by Henry Thoreau and his young friends, Phillips
with its cable cut, which finally carried them to the bottom.
had overcome the veteran lawyers of that town in debate on
It cost Conway few or none of his real friends in America,
but it fixed his purpose to remain in England, and the next
negro slavery. Said Emerson:-
year his wife and children went to join him there; his Con-
"The core of the comet did not seem to be much, but the
cord house was sold, and I stored such of his furniture as
whole air was full of splendors. One orator makes many;
Mrs. Conway could not take with her or have sent after her.
but I think him the best generator of eloquence I have met
His career in England and in Europe generally, was a suc-
for many a day, and of something better and grander than
cessful one, and his life, on the whole, a brilliant success,
in spite of his changes of place and opinion; and I must es-
his own."
teem his quiet and sudden death, though away from his
children, a happy exit from a world in which he felt him-
For years Mr. Ward had a home in Boston and a summer
residence in Lenox, afterward attached to the large Shadow
self lonely.
brook estate of Mr. Stokes; but of late years his home has
been in Washington. Last summer he spent at his grand-
(509) Nov. 28, 1907. THOUGHTS ON JAMES H.
HOLMES, ONE OF JOHN BROWN'S MEN--THE LIFE OF
daughter's in Jamaica Plain.-
Moncure Conway' /residence in Washington before the
MAJOR GEORGE LUTHER STEARNS.
STOP
civil war was short and troubled. Dr. Earle heard him
preach there in February, 1856, and he came and dined
The death of James H. Holmes, a young lieutenant of
with Dr. Nichols and Dr. Earle March 23 of that year. In
John Brown in Kansas, was attended by painful circumstances.
He was about the age of Moncure Conway, and in his sphere,
his diary the doctor wrote:--
for a time, did good antislavery work, as Conway did He
"Mr. Conway is as interesting in conversation/a in the
was the son of a New York broker, well educated, and went
pulpit; a man of superior intellect and of oral/qualities of
early to Kansas to act on the free-state side; brave and en-
a very high order; yet his religion is that of the extreme
thusiastic, he joined the small band of Brown in 1856, and
Unitarians. He does not believe in the miracles. Among
again in 1858, and had many adventures under that leader-
his reasons is that not one of the books of the New Testa-
ship. I had often urged him to write out his record of Kan-
ment was written until 50 years or more after the birth of
sas life, and he had promised to do so, but, SQ far as I
Christ, and long after his death, --time enough, he thinks,
know, never completed it. He wrote fairly well, and was
for a story to grow considerably, if stories grew then as
for years a journalist, --editing at one time a Vermont
rapidly as now. This heterodoxy does not divide his church
newspaper, and corresponding from Washington for distant
so much as his anti-slavery sermons, which please Horace
newspapers. But he was one of those persons, by no means
Greeley and John P. Hale of New Hampshire, --both of whom
few, who need the direction of a leader to keep them up to
I have seen there. But nine families have withdrawn be-
the mark. Under Lincoln's presidency he became an office-
holder (secretary of the territory of New Mexico), and
cause of one anti-slavery sermon.)
then appeared at Washington in some department office.
In the November following Conway was settled in Cincinnati,
The moral and political tone of Washington is far from ele-
where he remained, preaching, editing and lecturing, till
vating, is one of the most servile and corrupt of modern
he had SO effectively divided his parish that when he re-
capitals, --and Holmes fell under influences from which his
signed, in the summer of 1862, and came to Boston to edit
old captain would have guarded him. I fear in later years
the emancipation weekly, the Commonwealth, there was
the instincts and tendencies of the broker got the better of
little opposition to his leaving, though he left many good
the unselfish sentiments under which he enlisted in the na-
friends there. He settled in Concord early in the autumn
tional crusade against slavery. But, as I have noticed in
of 1862, where he had already spent many weeks, nine
other men who failed to live up to their youthful ideal,
years before, and he became a neighbor of my own. I was
Holmes always retained that fraternal feeling which bound
associated with him in editing the newspaper, and took
the antislavery men together, when they were a small but
charge of it in March 1863, when Conway went to England
never discouraged minority. For some years I had lost
for a short missionary tour, as he supposed, and became
sight of him, and was thus unable to make some provision
for his declining and lonely years. It seems that in his re-
my London correspondent. He communicated to me, too
late to write him what a blunder it would be (for there was
treat at Red Bank, N.J., he suffered great privations from
no ocean cable then) his purpose of proposing emancipation
poverty, and when his last illness came upon him, he was
to Mason, as if authorized by the American abolitionists
alone and unable to summon aid for a day or two. When
I showed the letter to Phillips and Garrison, and we all
found, he was taken to the house of a friend where he died
agreed that a brief intimation of his scheme should be given
on the 21st. His friend, John Redpath, a kinsman of Brown's
in my newspaper and an effort be made to cover the retreat
first biographer, James Redpath, went down from New York
that SO indiscreet a diplomatist would have to make when
and nursed him until death. Holmes desired to be buried
the letters were made public. Conway's intentions were of
beside his captain at North Elba, where also the slain com-
the best, but he was seldom discreet when left to himself;
rades of Brown at Harpers Ferry had their bones laid at
his excellent wife, then 3000 miles away from him, often
rest under McKinley's administration, escorted to their
moderated his enthusiasm into something at least resem-
funeral ceremonies, near Brown's grave, by a detachment
bling discretion. Upon the whole, I think his blunder did
of United States soldiers sent on from Plattsburg by Elihu
more good than harm, for it unmasked to Europe the big-
Root, then secretary of war. At the burial Bishop Potter
oted folly of the disunionists, in clinging to slavery as the
and Whitelaw Reid were present, among many others, and
life buoy of their new oligarchy; while it was the anchor
the graves are fenced in around the great bowlder upon the
308 Ward, Samuel Gray
Ward, Samuel Gray
spite their distance from Boston, Samuel Ward
(1817-1907)
maintained correspondences with his Transcen-
dentalist friends throughout his life.
Samuel Gray Ward was friends with several Tran-
scendentalists, from his Harvard schoolmates
Bibliography
William Ellery CHANNING II, to Jones VERY, to Mar-
Myerson, Joel. The New England Transcendentalists and
garet FULLER, with whom he shared a close intellec-
the Dial: A History of the Magazine and Its Contribu-
tual and emotional relationship. It was through Fuller
tors. London and Toronto: Associated University
that he first met Ralph Waldo EMERSON and was
Presses, 1980.
brought into the growing circle of Transcendental-
Tilton, Eleanor M. "The True Romance of Anna Hazard
ists in the late 1830s. Ward eventually contributed
Barker and Samuel Gray Ward," Studies in the
several pieces to the DIAL magazine, including four
American Renaissance (1987): 53-72.
of his poems chosen by editor Fuller to appear in the
first issue of July 1840. In later issues he published
essays on themes such as "Notes on Art and Archi-
Ware, Henry, Jr.
tecture" and "Translation of Dante."
(1794-1843)
Samuel Ward married Anna Hazard Barker
(WARD) in October 1840. Their engagement was a
Ralph Waldo EMERSON took Henry Ware's place as
shock and personal disappointment to their mutual
minister of Boston's Second Church and, even after
friend, Margaret Fuller, who felt not only that her
he left the Unitarian church, the influence of Ware
long friendship with Anna would be interrupted by
had an impact on Emerson's rhetorical style and in-
the marriage, but who herself had become attached
tellectual development as a Transcendentalist.
to Samuel. The fact that he had chosen Anna, a
Emerson initially assisted Ware, but took over
close mutual friend, over her made the news of his
when Ware accepted a position as professor at
marriage even worse to take, Fuller saw Samuel
HARVARD DIVINITY SCHOOL in 1830. Ware was one
Ward's marriage not only as a personal crisis but as
of the most important Unitarian ministers of the
a crisis of VOCATION for a scholarly mind. In order
early 19th century and had a direct influence on
to prove his ability to support her and thus marry
the Transcendentalists in establishing the liberal
Anna, Samuel Ward had chosen to pursue business
model that would be taught at the Divinity School
rather than literature and this choice at such a
during that time, with its emphasis on self-culture
young age was seen by some of his friends as stunt-
and the spiritual development of the individual.
ing his intellectual growth. As Margaret Fuller put
The appointment of Ware's father, Henry Ware, Sr.,
it in a letter to Ward, "I had longed to see you a
to a professorship at Harvard's Divinity School in
painter
when I learned you were to become a
1805 was one of the defining moments of the Uni-
merchant, to sit at the dead wood of the desk, and
tarian controversy that led to the organization of
calculate figures, I was betrayed into unbelief."
the new liberal denomination promoted by Ware,
Besides his Dial contributions, Samuel Ward
Jr., during his ministry. Ware, Jr., was one of the
did not pursue a literary career but instead, as the
most articulate defenders of UNITARIANISM and
wealthiest member of the Transcendentalist com-
had as his forum the CHRISTIAN EXAMINER, a peri-
munity due to the inheritance of his father's siz-
odical for which he served as editor at one time.
able estate as well as his own business dealings,
Although he influenced Emerson and a generation
lived the life of a gentleman. Emerson did choose
of young Unitarian men at Harvard, Ware did not
three of Ward's poems for his 1874 collection of fa-
espouse the Transcendentalist philosophy and the-
vorites, PARNASSUS. The Wards eventually moved
ological critique that emerged from that liberal reli-
to New York where Samuel used his influence and
gious atmosphere. His 1838 The Personality of the
money as a patron of the arts, most notably as a
Deity was a response to and critique of Emerson's
founder of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. De-
controversial DIVINITY SCHOOL ADDRESS of that
TLL Frederich Danlstrand. Ank of
Ncote 1982,
PURITAN ARISTOCRAT IN THE
AGE OF EMERSON: A STUDY OF
PURITAN ARISTOCRAT IN THE
SAMUEL GRAY WARD.
AGE OF EMERSON: A STUDY OF
SAMUEL GRAY WARD.
(Order No. 61-3483)
David Baldwin, Ph.D.
University of Pennsylvania, 1961
Supervisor: Robert E. Spiller
Samuel Gray Ward, 1817-1907, was in the eighth gener-
ation of an upper class Puritan family that came from
Salem, Massachusetts, and moved to Boston as the nine-
teenth century opened. All Ward men down to and including
Ward's generation were merchants or bankers.
One reason for studying Ward closely is that in many
ways he was typical of this regional group. The other is
that he was caught up in the cultural ferment of New Eng-
land during the 1830s and 40s. He became a very close
friend of Emerson. Their relationship illuminates certain
David Baldwin, Ph.D.
sides of Emerson's nature and of the Transcendental group
University of Pennsylvania, 1961
generally. Also, Ward made a few intellectual contribu-
tions to his age in the form of articles on architecture,
painting, and sculpture.
The problem was to blend a portrait of Ward as a type
and as an individual of limited but definite importance.
After experimentation, it was found that the organizing
principle should be conventional chronology.
The first portrait was possible to construct because of
the richness of Ward documents going back three genera-
tions. The results support many of the widely held assump-
tions about the character of upper class Massachusetts
Bay Puritans: a high respect for honesty, moral and spir -
itual earnestness, intellectual strength, self-awareness, a
talent for leadership but dislike of publicity, aggressive
self-reliance and opportunism, strong and often burden-
some family loyalty, social clannishness together with a
sense of stewardship for worthy outsiders. The Ward ma-
terials also demonstrate that many of these traits changed
or were weakened only slowly, if at all, between the eight-
Reprinted from Dissertation Abstracts
eenth and the twentieth century.
Volume XXII, No. 5, 1961
The second portrait shows Ward to have been a success-
ful businessman, inheriting a banking position in Boston
from his father as American agent for Baring Brothers of
London. At his insistence the agency was moved to New
York during the 1860s. When a young man he had travelled
to the West and South; his observations in letters home
constitute an addition to American travel literature. He
attended Boston Latin, the experimental Round Hill School
in the Berkshires, and Harvard, class of 1836. A year
abroad thereafter stimulated an art interest already
aroused. He met Emerson through Margaret Fuller, who
apparently was in love with him for a time. He married
Anna Barker, beautiful daughter of a wealthy Quaker mer-
chant, a woman whose charms captivated Emerson.
Ward's brief writings on art in the 1840s show genuine
sophistication and are still relevant. His ideas on Ameri-
can architecture were surprisingly similar to Horatio
Greenough's and arrived at independently, so far as can be
learned. Spurred on by Emerson, he ably translated some
important essays on art by Goethe, whose art views influ-
enced his own.
He helped several New England intellectuals financially,
with Emerson organized the Saturday Club, was one of the
founders of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and aided
E. L. Godkin and The Nation. He was a typical New Eng-
land patriot during the Civil War. As social leaders, he
and his wife entertained much, and knew a wide variety of
the prominent men and women of the day.
Ward's life lacked special drama or major personal
conflict. He inherited the religious impulse but not the re-
ligious substance of his forbears, and consciously trans-
formed the already fragmented Puritan creed of his fa -
ther into a nineteenth century one. He expressed it as a
"hunger and thirst after relations" - - between man and
man rather than between man and a traditionally conceived
Christian God. But he rejected positivism, and saw art as
a catalyst that could unite spiritually those of superior
qualities, in fact, and, in theory, all men.
Microfilm $4.25; Xerox $15.10. 332 pages.
A microfilm or Xerox copy of the complete manuscript is available
from the publisher, University Microfilms, Inc., Ann Arbor, Michigan,
at the prices quoted at the end of the abstract.
PURITAN ARISTOCRAT IN THE AGE OF EMERSON
A STUDY OF SAMUEL GRAY WARD
B.
David Baldwin (2/8/1922-12/20/2020) -
dwin
A DISSERTATION
in
AMERICAN CIVILIZATION
Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Arts and
Sciences of the University of Pennsylvania in Partial
Fulfillment Philosophy. of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of
1961
Purchased E. Guill
Supervisor of Dissertation
another Chairman Goom
of Department
XV
INTRODUCTION
If a minor historical figure is worth attention, it
is because he was a part of something important. Samuel
Gray Ward was in the eighth generation of a Puritan family
belonging to the Massachusetts Bay Colony. The Wards had
always been merchants, never ministers or writers; the
ample documents they have left behind make it possible to
examine closely this less often considered branch of
Puritanism.
Ward's choice of a career WES much influenced by what
his father and grandfather had done. So too were his choice
of a wife, his behavior towards his contemporaries -- in fact,
the whole matter of where he lived and what he lived for.
The first two chapters of this study are meant as a portrait
of a family, in which are foreshadowed many of the outlines
of Ward himself.
A minor figure may further be valuable because he
lived during a special period and had associations that help
to clarify it. This is also true of Ward. He lived through
the great generation of literary New Englanders. While true
to his solidly mercantile heritage, he managed to make con-
tributions to the renaissance. Not so much in the usual
ways: he joined no new ventures for the betterment of man-
kind, and failed to become either a poet or a lecturer.
XV
xvi
write some significant articles on art, and
translated essays by Goethe on the same subject. Asidels
from business career usefulcincits own right, neverthe-
sort of man Ward was mattered more than, what
accomplished That was the way Emerson felt, at least.
To Emerson he became a close friend. Fortunately the dis-
tance between Concord and Boston was then great enough so
that the two men depended more on letters than visits. A
significant correspondence developed, the Emerson side of
which has survived.
Ward for his part always revered Emerson, no more
for his particular genius than for the nineteenth century
attitude he represented. Born in Boston in 1817, he was
heir of the late Federalist era; by birth a conservative,
there remained in him a classical strain. But he was also
moulded by the intellectual circle whose central figure
Henry Adams called naive. Though he lived on and on, not
dying until 1907, and outwardly keeping up with the times,
Ward remained in spirit a child of the age of Emerson.
He had known Margaret Fuller, William Ellery Channing the
post, and less intimately a host of others, and gave help
to the group in practical ways.
In the late years, during which business and
most held his attention, Ward shared that favor
habit of retrospection and assessment in an
letters with Charles Eliot Norton. He wrot
xvii
grandchildren what was ostensibly a record of his life,
just as his grandfather had done, but what was really also
part of an assessment. Altogether, he left behind ample
FOUNDERS
material with which to gain hints about his journey, and
the journey of others like him, from the eighteenth to the
twentieth century.
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173-174.
BereAfter this volume will be edited W.F.P.
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Re: Archival Inquiry @ Dr. David Baldwin
From : Paul Coleman
Mon, Apr 09, 2012 04:05 PM
Subject : Re: Archival Inquiry @ Dr. David Baldwin
To : Ronald & Elizabeth Epp
Dear Dr. Epp,
I apologize for our delay in responding to your inquiry. I will ask Rebecca about it this afternoon. As it happens, however, I might be able
to lend some direct assistance. I had correspondence with Dr. Baldwin about one year ago, about some books he had donated to the
library. He has moved to a retirement community in York, Maine, and I feel certain he would want me to let you know his address. Here
it
is:
Dr. David Baldwin
Sentry Hill
2 Victoria Ct., # 204
York, ME 03909
I
trust this information will be of some help. Please let me know if there's anything else I might do.
Best regards,
Paul
Paul Coleman
College Librarian
Stevens-German Library
Hartwick College
Oneonta, NY 13820
l
607.431.4449 / colemanf@hartwick.edu
Sent from my iPad
On Apr 9, 2012, at 11:40, "Ronald & Elizabeth Epp" wrote:
Rose
Dear Mr. Coleman:
Nearly three weeks ago I sent the following inquiry to your archivist. To date I have received no response.
As
a professional courtesy, would you determine whether my inquiry was received and if so, what is its status.
Thank you.
Ronald H. Epp, Ph.D.
Shapiro Library Director (Ret.)
Southern New Hampshire University
532 Sassafras Dr.
Lebanon, PA 17042
717-272-0801
eppster2@comcast.net
From: "Ronald & Elizabeth Epp"
To: ambroser@hartwick.edu
Sent: Wednesday, March 21, 2012 12:14:42 PM
Subject: Inquiry @ Dr. David Baldwin
Dear Rebekah:
http://sz0122.wc.mail.comcast.net/zimbra/h/printmessage?id=44029&tz=America/New_Yor... 4/9/2012
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I am a retired academic library director (University of Hartford, Southern New Hampshire University) engaged in research
that is directly related to the publication record of a Hartwick College faculty member, Dr. David Baldwin.
I know not whether he has retired (Ph.D. University of Pennsylvania, 1961) or relocated but I would like to contact him
about our shared scholarship.
According to my documentation he completed a highly regarded article on "The Emerson-Ward Friendship, Ideals and
Realities," which appeared in the 1984 annual, Studies in the American Renaissance, pp. 299-324, an outgrowth of his
dissertation on Puritan Aristocrat in the Age of Emerson: A Study of Samuel Gray Ward.
The aforementioned Samuel Gray Ward is the uncle of George Bucknam Dorr (1853-1944), the founder of Acadia
National Park about which I have just completed his biography. I'm now trying to located Dr. Baldwin to touch base with
him about a few minor points of shared interest. Any assistance you could provide would be greatly appreciated.
I appreciate this professional courtesy. I have the impression that we were introduced at a ACRL-ENY meeting in days
gone by.
Most Cordially,
Ronald H. Epp, Ph.D.
532 Sassafras Dr.
Lebanon, PA 17042
717-272-0801
eppster2@comcast.net
http://sz0122.wc.mail.comcast.net/zimbra/h/printmessage?id=44029&tz=America/New_Yor... 4/9/2012
10 April 2012
Dear Professor Baldwin:
A colleague of yours, Fred Coleman at Harwick College, provided me with contact
information. Little did I know that you had retired to York, a community that my
wife and I visited SO frequently while Merrimack New Hampshire residents (2001-
2011).
I write first in order to express my profound appreciation for the research that you
completed and defended in your dissertation. I would be very interested in
knowing how this topic was selected and how the research was pursued, especially
given the paucity of secondary resources.
For more than a decade I have been researching the life and times of George
Bucknam Dorr (1853-1944), a nephew of Samuel Gray Ward by way of Ward's
sister Mary (1820-1901). You'll recall that you cited in your bibliography the
estate of GBD for the donation of the Papers of Thomas Wren Ward to the
Massachusetts Historical Society.
Forty years after the completion of your dissertation, I became intrigued by the
historical process that led to the establishment and development of Acadia National
Park. I was nearing the end of my careers as a philosophy professor, managing
editor of a scholarly journal, and academic library director and became obsessed
with righting the sorely neglected role of Mr. Dorr as a philanthropist and
conservation pioneer. Moreover, the existing literature focused exclusively on
Dorr's role in Maine, ignoring his family ties to Massachusetts. Dorr not only
founded Acadia on the eve of the establishment of the National Park Service
(1916) but served as its first superintendent for a quarter century until his death in
1944. Since retirement in 2006, I completed "The Making of Acadia National
Park" and am currently in pursuit of a publisher. Within the past few months, I
find my interest in the Ward family re-energized.
Besides the manuscript collections you consulted, it was my good fortune to locate
the fifteen hundred Ward-Perkins family letters spanning three generations (1820-
1930) that were donated to the University of California, Santa Barbara beginning
in 1984 (described in great detail in an article in Soundings by the late David
Finch). The Houghton Library and Harvard Archives yielded exceptional
manuscript collections, especially documents detailing Dorr's service to the
philosophy department and his deep relationships with President Charles W. Eliot,
William James, and Josiah Royce. I think I have successfully shown in how the
Brahmin legacies of Thomas Wren Ward and his son Samuel Gray Ward were
continued and extended by Dorr to the preservation of landscapes of exceptional
value.
Your treatment of the Berkshire County properties (in "The Emerson-Ward
Friendship: Ideals and Realities" prompted me to visit the sites of his homes and
adjacent Highlawn, the Dorr family property, under the careful direction of local
historian Cornelia Brooke Gilder. Her Hawthorne's Lenox: the Tanglewood Circle
(History Press, 2008) contains a well researched chapter on "The Wards and the
Bullards at Highwood," which may be familiar to you.
I
suspect that by this time you may be curious about the purpose of this letter.
Quite simply, it is the fulfillment of a long neglected intent to track down one of
my few contemporaries who have been inspired by the Thomas Wren Ward family
of Boston, to indicate my continuing interest in your scholarship, and to offer what
I have accumulated should you be SO inclined. Since we moved in August of 2011
to the Cornwall Manor retirement community just east of Hershey, we no longer
travel as frequently to Mount Desert Island and the Gulf of Maine but I would
welcome the opportunity to meet you should we travel to Maine later this summer.
I've enclosed a copy of the first chapter of my manuscript since it covers common
ground. I look forward to hearing from you and if you have access to the Internet,
ongoing contact should be simplified.
Most cordially,
Ronald H. Epp, Ph.D.
532 Sassafras Drive
Lebanon, PA 17042
717-272-0801
Eppster2@comcast.net
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Inquiry about Professor Baldwin
From : Rebekah Ambrose
Mon, Apr 09, 2012 07:07 PM
Subject : Inquiry about Professor Baldwin
To : eppster2@comcast.net
Cc : F. Paul Coleman
Dear Dr. Epp,
Please accept my apologies, I had written back to you, but I see now that I had your email address incorrectly. I understand
that Paul Coleman sent you an address for Dr. Baldwin - I hope you have been able to reach him.
I had also found the following references for you:
Here are some articles that were published before the one you mentioned -
Baldwin, David. "Whitman's Use of the Apostrophe" Walt Whitman Review Spring 1982
"Humor in "Buck Fairshaw's Funeral"" Mark Twain JournalSummer 1981
""Distinguished" a poem" Emerson Society Quarterly Spring 1971
He also wrote biographies of Lucy Larcom and Kate Field that were published in Notable American Women 1607-1950
Harvard University Press, 1971.
Also:
Comments on Freshman English College English Association Critic Winter 1962.
Importance of a College Library Dean Junior College Alumni Bulletin Winter 1961
I hope this information will be helpful for you. Please don't hesitate to contact me if you have any questions.
My family and I will be spending a week near Acadia late this summer. We have all been very much in love with the park for
some time now - I am eager to go back. We are certainly very grateful to George Bucknam Dorr!
Best wishes,
Rebekah Ambrose-Dalton
http://sz0122.wc.mail.comcast.net/zimbra/h/printmessage?id=44034&tz=America/New_Yor..4/9/2012
David B. Baldwin SeacoastOnline.com
Page 1 of 1
David B. Baldwin
December 23, 2012 2:00 AM
YORK, Maine - David B. Baldwin, 90, most recently of York Harbor, Maine, and formerly of Oneonta, N.Y.,
passed away on Thursday, Dec. 20, 2012 at York Hospital in York.
Born in Cambridge, Mass., Feb. 9, 1922, he was educated at various schools and graduated cum laude from
Harvard College in 1944. He received an M.A. from Columbia University in English and a Ph.D. from the University
of Pennsylvania in American Civilization in 1961.
He taught at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Northeastern University, Rutgers University and Dean Junior
College (as chairman of the English Department) before coming to Hartwick College in 1964, where he remained
until his retirement in 1993. He was also an editor for Arthur D. Little, management consultants.
His interest in learning and teaching always centered around American literature. Among his favorite authors was
Walt Whitman, and he especially loved poetry. He was a member of the American Studies Association and the
College English Association. His publications included contributions to a major reference work on Whitman.
He served on various committees at Hartwick and in the community, including the Catskill Choral Society, in which
he sang bass, the Catskill Symphony Orchestra, the Center for Continuing Adult Learning and the city of
Oneonta's Board of Assessment review.
Dave married Ruth Corey, artist and former WAVE, in 1947. She died in 1993. They had four children, one of
whom, David Henry, died in 2002.
Dave's life was joyful. A Christian bent moved him to join the Catholic Church in 1990. He, his family and his
associates had to deal with his longtime bipolar condition diagnosed in his twenties. After recovering from this
initial episode while at Harvard, he worked at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute as an underwater
photographer, part of wartime sonar research. After his retirement, he took up oil painting under the guidance of a
professional, Paul Marsellino. The last three years were spent nearer his family at Sentry Hill in York Harbor,
Maine, where he especially enjoyed giving a series of poetry readings.
He is survived by one son, Ben and his wife, Liz Doucette, two daughters, Anita and Liza, two brothers, one sister
and six grandsons.
SERVICES: A funeral mass will be offered on Friday, Dec. 28, 2012, at 10:15 a.m. in St. Mary's Church, Oneonta,
N.Y., with the Rev. David Mickiewcz officiating. Burial will be in Glenwood Cemetery, Oneonta, following the Mass.
Condolences to the family may be made online by visiting www.grummonsfuneralhome.com. Arrangements are by
the Lester R. Grummons Funeral Home, Oneonta, N.Y.
http://www.seacoastonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?aid=/20121223/PUBLICRECORDSO.
1/10/2014
Thunks
Dan
An Antebellum Bostonian's Journey to New Orleans
David Baldwin
February, 1985
When Samuel Gray Ward returned from his elegant tour of Europe in 1836, follow-
ing his graduation from Harvard, he found himself with nothing much to do. ordinar-
ily someone in his favored position would have been taken into the family firm, but
his father, Thomas Wren Ward, American representative of the London-based Baring
Brothers financial concern, was not in a position to do so. As it turned out some
years later, the son did succeed the father as Baring representative, and distin-
guished himself in that role.
Meanwhile, he was unemployed. It was a slack time in business. The panic of
1837 had already hit financial circles when the young Ward was ready to be useful.
But soon the father hit upon an agreeable pastime for his son by arranging for him
to travel down to New Orleans where business connections were located. There
Samuel could investigate at first hand why the cotton market was SO badly depressed,
and incidentally pick up valuable training in how such financial operations were con-
ducted, under the guidance of friendly tutors. Young Ward responded eagerly. His
letters back home to Park Street, Boston, reveal an observant eye and a generous
spirit. They also are not without historical interest as travel literature. Ward's
itinerary was similar to de Tocqueville's and Beaumont's seven years earlier, and
paralleled some of the travels of other foreign visitors during the 1830's.
Ward's journey was taken in the transitional period when the Appalachian bar-
rier had been breached for same years but before the middle continent had taken on
settled characteristics, and before fully extended railroads had brought their con-
veniences. Unlike de Tocqueville Ward was not ostensibly going to the West and
South to study the country, but he was in no great hurry to report to his father's
connections in New Orleans, (which he could have reached sooner by boat), taking
care to absorb impressions along the way. Like de Tocqueville and Beaumont, he
took the route beginning in Philadelphia, and like them, he began in the late fall.
-16-
of noble trees, and everywhere the richest land makes up the en-
tire surface of the state SO far as I yet have seen it. The coun-
try is very thinly settled, and in the large prairies you are in
perfect solitude; when you ride up a little knoll you may see
twenty miles about and no sign of man except perhaps a large herd
of cattle. The people settle near the timber, without which they
can do nothing. Some of the praries are low and wet, but not
swampy; these are apt to languish; others are very high and rol-
ling, and are very healthy; the air sweeps across them as free and
bracing as across the ocean, and I am often reminded of the air of
Nahant. The scenery, though by no means various like our own,
is ever sublime from its vastness and simplicity. I can truly
say that leaving aside grand or picturesque scenery I have never
seen anything like SO noble a country for man's habitation."
These generous, expansive views suggest that such New Englanders as Ward were
not altogether provincial. But it was as unlikely that he would live west of the
Appalachians as it was that he could live in New Orleans. New York and Washington
he was to make his residences in later life - his Boston roots did not prevent such
southern extensions. But the farthest west he could ever again think of settling
in, where he built a large estate in later years, was Berkshire Country, Massachusetts.
(Ward's letters home are located in the Thomas Wren Ward Collection, The Massa-
chusetts Historical Society, Boston. Other materials connected to Ward's life, 1817-
1907, are in the Harvard College Library.)
5/1/08
1726.2 Ballplaying and Boston Common
A Town Playground for Boys
and Men
Brian Turner
Sam. Hirst got up betime in the morning, and took Ben Swett with him and went into
the [Boston] Common to play at Wicket.
S
ince 1634, Boston Common has been celebrated as "the outdoor stage on which many
characteristic dramas of local life have been enacted. One such drama - cited
in
Protoball 1856.20 and 1858.35 - was the duel between the Massachusetts version of
baseball and that of New York. In 1856 the Olympic Club of Boston conducted "trial"
matches of the Massachusetts game on the Common3; in 1858, the Common hosted the
first New England match by New York rules. Those games, unambiguously baseball,
were the culmination of two centuries of Boston ball-play
Protoball 1700c.2 refers to much earlier games played on the Common. Two histories
present identical assertions, but neither gives a source: Mary Farwell Ayer (1903) and
Samuel Barber (1916) write that in the late 1600s and early 1700s the "favorite games"
were "wicket and flinging the bullet [bullit, in Barber's version, probably the original
spelling]. "5 (The latter involved throwing cannonballs. We know less about 17th century
wicket.) Protoball 1700c.2 to Protoball 1858.35, therefore, encompass Boston ballplaying
from "wicket" to the New York game.
Evidence that wicket was played in Boston before 1700 comes from Cotton Mather's
autobiographical manuscript Paterna. Born in 1663, Mather recalled that he began
preaching "at an Age wherein I See Many Lads playing at their marbles or Wickets in
the street."6 Mather's remembrance places "Wickets" as early as the mid-1670s. The
name wicket could refer to the stumps in cricket, or arise from a meaning well known
at the time, i.e., a small opening in a fortified gate, large enough to duck through. The
term was often used as a metaphor to convey the narrowness of the opening through
which one might enter heaven's gate. We don't see Wickets (or Wicket) again until fifty
years later. In his 1726 diary, in an entry that qualifies as primary evidence, Samuel Sewall
expressed displeasure when his grandson, then 20, skipped morning prayers "to play
at
Wicket on the Common."7
H L. Mencken defined Puritanism as the "haunting fear that someone, somewhere,
may be happy." Historians have painted a more nuanced portrait of colonial attitudes
toward pleasure and recreation, which, in moderation, had their place. If ball-play broke
the Sabbath, however, a Reverend or a Magistrate brought out his diary to take note8;
such disapproving voices have dominated the historical record.
One need not be a Puritan to regard life in New England as a struggle: Winters
were long; summers short. A Boston man who stood watch on Beacon Hill in the 1630s
DOI: 10.3172/BB.5.1.21
21
would have gazed east upon the Atlantic and west into wilderness. His emotions cannot
be known, but exhilaration and terror would have been reasonable. Would he have
scouted for "a place leavel enough to play ball"?? Not yet, I suspect. A ceaseless labor
awaited him, from which no one was exempt, not even his children.
Some children were fortunate enough to go to school. In 1635, the Public Latin
School opened on the north side of School Street. Where students played then isn't clear,
but the Common beckoned. As the conditions of life improved, and grandfathers and
fathers pushed back the wilderness, children had more of a chance to play. Of schoolboys
in the 1700s, Edward Ellsworth Brown wrote, "In the few hours that could be given to
out-door sports, they had skating and coasting in winter, and in summer swimming,
and a variety of games, including some with bat and ball." 10 More schools started, more
schoolboys flooded onto the Common as classes let out. In time, Boston Latin's "play-
ground was that corner of Boston Common lying between the path from West Street to
the Old Elm, and Park Street and Beacon Street."
As long as anyone could remember, "Boston Common was the playground of the
Boston School Boys. 2 In 1831, the young Samuel Gray Ward observed, "There are a
great many boys all the time on the Common now playing bat and ball In 1840, a
former Bostonian recalled in the Honolulu Polynesian, "There's good old bat and ball,
just the same as when [we] ran from the school house to the 'Common' to exercise our
skill that way
"14 Between 1851 and 1854, J. Pierpont Morgan attended Boston English
School and "in between school and work, played 'bat and ball' on Boston Common."15
Boyhood play gave rise to nostalgia, which resulted in positive accounts of ballplaying
that offset news of boys crushed beneath the wheels of a wagon during a game of ball or
adult men struck down by "surfeit, playing ball. "16
Thomas Wentworth Higginson and James DeWolf Lovett, from Cambridge and
Boston Common, a good place to play ball. James Kidder (1793-1837).
22
BaseBall 5/1 (Spring 2011)
would have gazed east upon the Atlantic and west into wilderness. His emotions cannot
be known, but exhilaration and terror would have been reasonable. Would he have
scouted for "a place leavel enough to play ball"?9 Not yet, I suspect. A ceaseless labor
awaited him, from which no one was exempt, not even his children.
Some children were fortunate enough to go to school. In 1635, the Public Latin
School opened on the north side of School Street. Where students played then isn't clear,
but the Common beckoned. As the conditions of life improved, and grandfathers and
fathers pushed back the wilderness. children had more of a chance to play. Of schoolboys
in the 1700s, Edward Ellsworth Brown wrote, "In the few hours that could be given to
out-door sports, they had skating and coasting in winter, and in summer swimming,
and a variety of games, including some with bat and ball." ¹ ¹ More schools started, more
schoolboys flooded onto the Common as classes let out. In time, Boston Latin's "play-
ground was that corner of Boston Common lying between the path from West Street to
the Old Elm, and Park Street and Beacon Street."
As long as anyone could remember, "Boston Common was the playground of the
Boston School Boys. 2 In 1831, the young Samuel Gray Ward observed, "There are a
great many boys all the time on the Common now playing bat and ball In 1840, a
former Bostonian recalled in the Honolulu Polynesian, "There's good old bat and ball,
just the same as when [we] ran from the school house to the 'Common' to exercise our
skill that way "14 Between 1851 and 1854, J. Pierpont Morgan attended Boston English
School and "in between school and work, played 'bat and ball' on Boston Common."15
Boyhood play gave rise to nostalgia, which resulted in positive accounts of ballplaying
that offset news of boys crushed beneath the wheels of a wagon during a game of ball or
adult men struck down by "surfeit, playing ball. "16
Thomas Wentworth Higginson and James DeWolf Lovett, from Cambridge and
Boston Common, a good place to play ball. James Kidder (1793-1837).
22
BaseBall 5/1 (Spring 2011)
Boston respectively, celebrated their sporting days. During the early 1830s Higginson
was fitted for Harvard in the private school of William Wells Dan Englishman. "Athletic
sports, as well as the humanities, were warmly encouraged by Mr. Wells, and the after-
noons spent in cricket, football, and skating on Fresh Pond "18
The
cricket
recalled
by
Higginson, Harvard Class of 1841, "was the same then played by boys on Boston Common
very unlike what is now called cricket. Balls, bats, and wickets were all larger than in
the proper English game; the bats especially being much longer, twice as heavy, and
three-cornered instead of flat
"19
Higginson was many things: an abolitionist, Civil War officer, women's rights advo-
cate, and author of many books and articles. James eWolf Lovett, by contrast, was first
and foremost a sportsman who wrote one book, Old Boston Boys and the Games They
Played (1906). Lovett's descriptions have a substance previous accounts lack, partly
because society no longer looked down upon a sportsman's enthusiasms: "The ready-
made ball of those days, for sale, was either a mushy, pulpy feeling thing, with a soft
cotton quilting over it which wore out in a few days; or else a rubber one, solid or hollow,
as one preferred; but all equally unfit for batting purposes." Clearly, this ball could be
used for hitting the runner without risk of injury. That such a ball was available in stores
implies that customers purchased them for games familiar and popular.
Lovett was restless with the "mushy" ball, SO his father made him a lively one: "The
balls my father taught me to make were made of tightly wound yarn, with a bit of rubber
at the core, quilted with good, rough twine, and would last a long time; and when
needed new jackets could be put upon them " His father made him "a little bat of
black walnut. I can see it now; it had a round handle for about a foot and gradually
widened out into two flat sides, being perhaps an inch and a half thick. "21 Lovett expressed
impatience with the batting that resulted: "This mode of back-striking was carried so
far that bats not more than twelve or fifteen inches long with a flat surface were used,
and instead of making any attempt to strike with it, this bat was merely held at a sharp
angle and the ball allowed to glance off it, over the catcher's head."22
The Common was Lovett's playground. "A lot of mechanics, firemen, etc. of the
West End occasionally used to meet on the Common for a game. "23 The conditions there
suited some games but not others. "The Common was an impossible place for cricket,
the hard baked ground making a good wicket or crease out of the question. I and
others
drifted
into baseball. "24 Later, after his baseball career ended, Lovett joined the
Longwood Cricket Club.
Even before Lovett made the transition to the New York game, he yearned for
another style of play: "the black walnut bat broke; but by this time I had outgrown
it and wanted one like the others in use, that is, round and not square. "25 When he
did
play the New York game, his ball club, the Lowells, called the Common its home field.
In the end, the Massachusetts game, like Boston itself, was eclipsed by New York.
But Boston games have their story to tell and much to tell historians of baseball.
Notes
1. Protoball 1726.2: "Diary of Samuel Sewall," in Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society, vol.
7, ser. 5 (p. 372).
2. DeWolfe, M. 1910. Boston Common: Scenes from Four Centuries (p. 7).
1726.2 Ballplaying and Boston Common (Turner)
23
3. Protoball 1856.20. A letter to a newspaper, cited in this Protoball entry, evokes "round ball" as pre-
cursor of the Massachusetts game. Many Protoball "round ball" entries come from Henry Sargent, based
on his letters to the Mills Commission in 1905. The earliest reference to "round ball" remains Robin Carver's
Book of Sports: "It is sometimes called 'round ball.' But I believe that 'base' or 'goal ball' are the names
generally adopted in our country" (Protoball 1834.1). Carver no doubt had cause to mention "round ball,"
yet he presents the name gingerly, as if unsure of its general usage.
4. Protoball 1858.35. A telling sidelight to the advent of the New York rules in Massachusetts comes
from James DeWolf Lovett's Old Boston Boys and the Games They Played (1906). In addition to the Tri-
Mountains of Boston, four other Massachusetts clubs played the New York game in 1858 (p. 42). The
apostate cities were Westfield (Atwater), Springfield (Pioneer), and Northampton (Union and Nonotuck),
roughly 90 miles west of Boston. Why such a cluster of clubs using New York rules? The answer, in part,
is that these cities dated to the 1600s, when the earliest settlers followed the seacoast and rafted up the Con-
necticut River long before attempting the state's interior wilderness. By 1858, of course, river travel was less
common. But railways followed the path of least resistance, along the Connecticut River. Hence, New York
rules came to western Massachusetts almost as soon as they came to Boston.
5. Ayer, M. 1903. Boston Common in Colonial and Provincial Days (p. 8). Barber, S. 1916. Boston Common:
A Diary of Notable Events, Incidents, and Neighboring Occurences (p. 47).
6. Mather, C. (ed. R. Bosco). 1976. Paterna (p. 25).
7. Protoball 1726.2.
8. Mather and Sewall participated in the 1692 Salem witch trials.
9. Altherr, T. 2000. ""A Place Leavel Enough to Play Ball': Baseball and Baseball-type Games in the
Colonial Era, Revolutionary War, and Early American Republic," Nine (p. 15). Altherr's title comes from
Henry Dearborn's journal, written in 1779.
10. Brown, E. 1905. The Making of Our Middle Schools (p. 138).
11. Abbot, E. 1902. The New England Historical and Genealogical Register, vol. 57 (p. 300).
12. Barber 1916, 238-239. The quote is from Curtis Guild's address to the Sixth Reunion of the "Old
Boston School Boys" (1885).
137 Samuel Gray Ward papers, Massachusetts Historical Society.
14. Protoball 1840.38.
15. Carosso, V., and R. Carosso. 1987. The Morgans: Private International Bankers, 1854-1913 (p. 41).
16. "Deaths," New York Spectator: Sept. 11, 1811.
17. Wells, as it turns out, was the grandfather of William Wells Newell, who compiled Games & Songs
of American Children (1883). Indeed, at the time Newell published his book of games, he lived in the same
rambling structure in Cambridge that had once housed his grandfather's school.
18. Higginson, M. 1914. Thomas Wentworth Higginson: The Story of His Life (p. 15).
19. Protoball 1840c.39. I invite readers to imagine a three-cornered bat. I can't picture anything other
than a triangular post-like object, certainly not the shovel or spoon-like bat of Berkshires-style wicket.
20. Lovett, J. 1906. Boston Boys and the Games They Played (p. 133).
21. Ibid., 134.
22. Ibid., 132.
23. Ibid., 137.
24. Ibid., 72-73. Lovett also reported playing "Tip-cat" on Boston Common in the 1850s, though his
description is limited to the specific feat of "Charlie Troupe a fine player of the old 'Massachusetts' game
of baseball With the three strokes which were allowed in this game, I have seen a cat sent from the
Spruce Street path on the Common over the Public Garden fence" (46-47).
25. Ibid., 137.
24
BaseBall 5/1 (Spring 2011)
3. Protoball 1856.20. A letter to a newspaper, cited in this Protoball entry, evokes "round ball" as pre-
cursor of the Massachusetts game. Many Protoball "round ball" entries come from Henry Sargent, based
on his letters to the Mills Commission in 1905. The earliest reference to "round ball" remains Robin Carver's
Book of Sports: "It is sometimes called 'round ball.' But I believe that 'base' or 'goal ball' are the names
generally adopted in our country" (Protoball 1834.1). Carver no doubt had cause to mention "round ball,"
yet he presents the name gingerly, as if unsure of its general usage.
4. Protoball 1858.35. A telling sidelight to the advent of the New York rules in Massachusetts comes
from James DeWolf Lovett's Old Boston Boys and the Games They Played (1906). In addition to the Tri-
Mountains of Boston, four other Massachusetts clubs played the New York game in 1858 (p. 42). The
apostate cities were Westfield (Atwater), Springfield (Pioneer), and Northampton (Union and Nonotuck),
roughly 90 miles west of Boston. Why such a cluster of clubs using New York rules? The answer, in part,
is that these cities dated to the 1600s, when the earliest settlers followed the seacoast and rafted up the Con-
necticut River long before attempting the state's interior wilderness. By 1858, of course, river travel was less
common. But railways followed the path of least resistance, along the Connecticut River. Hence, New York
rules came to western Massachusetts almost as soon as they came to Boston.
5. Ayer, M. 1903. Boston Common in Colonial and Provincial Days (p. 8). Barber, S. 1916. Boston Common:
A Diary of Notable Events, Incidents, and Neighboring Occurences (p. 47).
6. Mather, C. (ed. R. Bosco). 1976. Paterna (p. 25).
7. Protoball 1726.2.
8. Mather and Sewall participated in the 1692 Salem witch trials.
9. Altherr, T. 2000. "A Place Leavel Enough to Play Ball': Baseball and Baseball-type Games in the
Colonial Era, Revolutionary War, and Early American Republic," Nine (p. 15). Altherr's title comes from
Henry Dearborn's journal, written in 1779.
10. Brown, E. 1905. The Making of Our Middle Schools (p. 138).
11. Abbot, E. 1902. The New England Historical and Genealogical Register, vol. 57 (p. 300).
12. Barber 1916, 238-239. The quote is from Curtis Guild's address to the Sixth Reunion of the "Old
Boston School Boys" (1885).
13 Samuel Gray Ward papers, Massachusetts Historical Society.
14. Protoball 1840.38.
15. Carosso, V., and R. Carosso. 1987. The Morgans: Private International Bankers, 1854-1913 (p. 41).
16. "Deaths," New York Spectator: Sept. 11, 1811.
17. Wells, as it turns out, was the grandfather of William Wells Newell, who compiled Games & Songs
of
American Children (1883). Indeed, at the time Newell published his book of games, he lived in the same
rambling structure in Cambridge that had once housed his grandfather's school.
18. Higginson, M. 1914. Thomas Wentworth Higginson: The Story of His Life (p. 15).
19. Protoball 1840c.39. I invite readers to imagine a three-cornered bat. I can't picture anything other
than a triangular post-like object, certainly not the shovel or spoon-like bat of Berkshires-style wicket.
20. Lovett, J. 1906. Boston Boys and the Games They Played (p. 133).
21. Ibid., 134.
22. Ibid., 132.
23. Ibid., 137.
24. Ibid., 72-73. Lovett also reported playing "Tip-cat" on Boston Common in the 1850s, though his
description is limited to the specific feat of "Charlie Troupe a fine player of the old 'Massachusetts' game
of baseball With the three strokes which were allowed in this game, I have seen a cat sent from the
Spruce Street path on the Common over the Public Garden fence" (46-47).
25. Ibid., 137.
24
BaseBall 5/1 (Spring 2011)
Hanard graduates Magagine blood 1908
542
News from the Classes.
[March,
1833.
principal trustees in Boston. In 1861
Charles Alfred Welch, who died at
Mr. Welch joined the Monitor Lodge
Cohasset, Jan. 22, 1908, was born in
of Free Masons in Waltham, and he
Boston, Jan. 30, 1815. He was the son
was thenceforth prominent in that or-
of Francis Welch, and Margaret Crease
ganization, serving as the Grand Master
Stackpole, both of Boston. He came of
of the Masons of Massachusetts, 1878-
long-lived stock: his father was born in
80. As a lawyer, his specialty was the
1776 and died in 1867; his grandfather,
trial of cases before the Massachusetts
Francis, was born in Boston in 1744
and the United States Supreme Courts;
and died in England in 1790; his great-
he was also distinguished as an equity
grandfather, John (1711-1789), was a
lawyer; and he managed large estates
carver, and carved the wooden codfish
in trust. He was cremated at Forest
which is preserved in the State House,
Hills Cemetery, and buried at Mt.
Boston. Mr. Welch was born in a house
Feeke Cemetery, Waltham.
belonging to his mother's family on the
site of the present Boston Post Office.
Like his father, grandfather, and sons,
Samuel Gray Ward was born at No. 3
Sic
he attended the Boston Latin School.
Park Place Boston, Oct. 3, 1817, and
-
Street
In 1829 he entered Harvard and grad-
died Nov. 17, 1907, at Washington,
uated in the Class of 1833. While in
D. C. His father, Thomas Wren Ward,
College he belonged to the Med. Fac.,
was well known among the great mer-
and to the Porcellian, of which he was
chants of the day, as agent for Baring
grand marshal, 1837-40. After grad-
Brothers of London from 1828 until he
uating he taught Latin and Greek at
retired in the "fifties," and showed his
Baltimore College in 1833-34. In 1834-
public spirit by serving gratuitously as
35, he attended the Harvard Law
Treasurer of Harvard College for 12
School, and in 1837 he began to prac-
years, also being a member of its Cor
tise law in Boston. In March, 1838, he
poration. His mother, Lydia Gray,
formed a partnership with Edward D.
was the daughter of Samuel Gray of
Sohier. '29, which continued unbroken
Boston. Samuel Gray Ward went to
until Mr. Sohier's death, Nov. 23, 1888.
the Public Latin School; the Round
He was once, about 1860, a candidate
Hill School at Northampton, and Har
on the Democratic ticket for Congress.
vard College, where he graduated at the
For many years he served as Chairman
age of 19. On his return from travel
of the Waltham School Committee. He
in Europe he married, Oct. 3, 1840,
resided in Waltham from about 1847
Anna Hazard Barker, daughter of
until about 1880. The last 25 years of
Jacob Barker and Eliza Hazard of
his life he made his home in Cohasset.
Rhode Island. After three years in
For many years he was president of
business he retired and settled at Lenox,
the Lewis and Long Wharf Companies,
where he spent his time in the varied
and of the Social Law Library; and a
occupations of farming, reading, and
director in the 3d National Bank of
painting, for the next six years. His
Boston. On Aug. 20, 1844, he married
poetic temperament inclined him to a
Mary Love Boott, of Boston, who died
literary life and he wrote a few essays.
March 29, 1899. Two of their children
translations, and poems, some of which
survive, viz.: Charles A., a yachtsman,
appeared in The Dial, and Emerson's
and Francis C., a lawyer, and one of the
"Parnassus." The circle at Cambridge,
1908.]
News from the Classes.
543
to which he belonged had at its head
in Plymouth, March 3, 1822, a son of
the wife of Prof. Farrar, and among
William and Joanna Davis, his mother
the friends of his early days were William
being a daughter of Capt. Gideon White,
Ellery Channing, Margaret Fuller, and
who was an officer in the English Army,
Emerson. It was to Samuel Gray Ward
and a descendant of Peregrine White.
that Emerson's "Letters to a Friend
the first child born in the Pilgrim Colony.
were written from 1838 to 1853. About
Mr. Davis received his early education
1850, his father - wishing to retire
in the Plymouth public schools, and
entrusted him with the business in the
entered Harvard College, being gradu-
United States of Baring Brothers, the
ated in the Class of 1842 at the age of 20.
foreign bankers for the government.
Then he traveled in Europe, and on
He conducted this business with signal
his return to this country he studied
ability and success through the Civil
law at the Law School and was admitted
War, and was actively interested in the
to the Boston bar in 1849, but never
politics of the times with John Forbes,
practised In 1853 he removed from
Henry Lee, and others. In 1865 he
Boston to his native town, which was
moved to New York for greater con-
thenceforth his home. The fisheries
venience in business - where. with his
being at that time one of the most im-
brother, George Cabot Ward, '43, he
portant industries of the town, he nat-
continued to represent Baring Brothers
urally became interested in them, and
until 1885, when he retired and went to
was engaged in sending vessels to the
live in Washington, D. C. In later
Grand Banks, but soon turned his at-
years, with more leisure, he spent much
tention to banking and was president
time in painting, chiefly in water-colors
of the Plymouth Bank, and the Ply-
with great success; and retained an
mouth National Bank. Public affairs
active interest in public affairs, litera-
early attracted him, and he was elected
ture, and art throughout his life, being
to the board of selectmen in 1855, and
a founder of the Union Club, Boston,
served continuously to 1866, being
a supporter of the Nations and a trustee
chairman for the last 11 years, and
of the Metropolitan Art Museum in
having the responsibilities of that office
New York. He had three daughters
during the Civil War, when he devoted
and one son. His eldest daughter, Anna
most of his time to the needs of the sol-
Barker Ward, married Joseph Thoron
diers in the hospitals, and on the field, as
and died in 1874. leaving two children.
well as to those of their families at home.
One surviving daughter, Lydia Gray
In that period he enlisted about 800
Ward, married Baron Richard Hoffman
men from Plymouth and the near-by
and has two sons. The other daughter.
towns. He declined a re-election in
Elizabeth Barker Ward, married Baron
1866, and was chosen twice afterwards,
Ernst Schönberg. His son, Thomas
but declined to serve. In 1888 he was
Wren Ward, of the Class of '66, married
again elected to the board, and this
Sophia Read Howard, of Baltimore,
time he served for several years. He
and has three children. With the
was a member of the school committee
death of Mr. Ward the Class of 1836
for a long term of years. In his early
became extinct. It had 39 members.
life he was a Republican in politics,
and was sent to the General Court as
1842.
senator from the Plymouth district in
William Thomas Davis was born
1858 and 1859, and in 1864 he was a
1908.]
News from the Classes.
543
to which he belonged had at its head
in Plymouth, March 3, 1822, a son of
the wife of Prof. Farrar, and among
William and Joanna Davis, his mother
the friends of his early days were William
being a daughter of Capt. Gideon White,
Ellery Channing, Margaret Fuller, and
who was an officer in the English Army,
Emerson. It was to Samuel Gray Ward
and a descendant of Peregrine White.
that Emerson's "Letters to a Friend
the first child born in the Pilgrim Colony,
were written from 1838 to 1853. About
Mr. Davis received his early education
1850, his father - wishing to retire
in the Plymouth public schools, and
entrusted him with the business in the
entered Harvard College, being gradu-
United States of Baring Brothers, the
ated in the Class of 1842 at the age of 20.
foreign bankers for the government.
Then be traveled in Europe, and on
He conducted this business with signal
his return to this country he studied
ability and success through the Civil
law at the Law School and was admitted
War, and was actively interested in the
to the Boston bar in 1849, but never
politics of the times with John Forbes,
practised. In 1853 he removed from
Henry Lee, and others. In 1865 he
Boston to his native town, which was
moved to New York for greater con-
thenceforth his home. The fisheries
venience in business - where. with his
being at that time one of the most im-
brother, George Cabot Ward, '43, he
portant industries of the town, he nat-
continued to represent Baring Brothers
urally became interested in them. and
until 1885, when he retired and went to
was engaged in sending vessels to the
live in Washington, D. C. In later
Grand Banks, but soon turned his at-
years, with more leisure, he spent much
tention to banking and was president
time in painting, chiefly in water-colors,
of the Plymouth Bank, and the Ply-
with great success; and retained an
mouth National Bank. Public affairs
active interest in public affairs, litera-
early attracted him, and he was elected
ture, and art throughout his life, being
to the board of selectmen in 1855, and
a founder of the Union Club, Boston,
served continuously to 1866, being
a supporter of the Nation, and a trustee
chairman for the last 11 years, and
of the Metropolitan Art Museum in
having the responsibilities of that office
New York. He had three daughters
during the Civil War, when he devoted
and one son. His eldest daughter, Anna
most of his time to the needs of the sol-
Barker Ward, married Joseph Thoron
diers in the hospitals, and on the field. as
and died in 1874. leaving two children.
well as to those of their families at home.
One surviving daughter, Lydia Gray
In that period he enlisted about 800
Ward, married Baron Richard Hoffman
men from Plymouth and the near-by
and has two sons. The other daughter,
towns, He declined a re-election in
Elizabeth Barker Ward, married Baron
1866 and was chosen twice afterwards,
Ernst Schönberg. His son, Thomas
but declined to serve. In 1888 he was
Wren Ward, of the Class of '66, married
again elected to the board, and this
Sophia Read Howard, of Baltimore,
time he served for several years. He
and has three children. With the
was a member of the school committee
death of Mr. Ward the Class of 1836
for a long term of years. In his early
became extinct. It had 39 members.
life he was a Republican in politics,
and was sent to the General Court as
1842.
senator from the Plymouth district in
William Thomas Davis was born
1858 and 1859, and in 1864 he was a
Hudspeth, Robert N.
Harvard Library
11 Margaret Fuller's 1839 Journal: Trip to Bristol
Buletin
447
raphy of Goethe. Riding the enthusiasm of her writing through the
27, H 4
spring, she wrote long essays on contemporary French writers, es-
says that Emerson praised. She visited the exhibition of paintings
(1979),
and engravings at the Allston Gallery and wrote up a record of her
445-70.
observations. (Finally, she wrote a critical response to the drawings
and essays of Samuel Gray Ward. It was in him that her public and
private life came together, for he was not only an artist and a student
of German Romanticism but also an attractive young man to whom
she was increasingly drawn.
She had been introduced to him in 1834 or 1835 by Eliza Farrar,
who had invited both Ward and Fuller to accompany the Farrars to
Europe Fuller was set to go when her father died suddenly in Octo-
ber 1835. The burden of a destitute family kept her at home while
saw
the Farrars and Sam Ward went abroad. (The two resumed their
acquaintance upon Ward's return, and in 1839 this friendship had
deepened, at least on Fuller's part, into love. Although most of the
correspondence between them has been destroyed, enough fragments
remain to give evidence of Fuller's deep feelings toward Ward and
of her expectations that more than a mere literary friendship would
develop.
But by mid-summer of 1839, Fuller was seeing clear signs that Ward
was retreating from her and that his feelings, whatever they had once
been, were becoming increasingly cool. We can conjecture that she
went to Bristol in part to escape her problems with Ward, if only for
a few days; it is likely that she went with a sense of foreboding and
a powerful fear of rejection. By the end of August the romance was
broken; Ward had rejected Fuller and was beginning to court Anna
Hazard Barker (who, to complicate matters, was a close friend of
Fuller's) 8
C The Letters of Ralph Waldo Emerson, ed. Ralph L. Rusk (New York: Columbia
University Press, 1939), II, 223.
7 See especially the MS copy of a letter from Fuller to Ward, July 1839. Houghton
fMS Am 1086 (Works, 1:179-81) and the holograph letters, Fuller to Ward, ca. I
September 1839 and 15 October 1839. Houghton fMS Am 1086 (9:60); (9:63).
Ward's replies have not survived.
8 On 3 October 1840 Ward married Anna (1813-1900), daughter of Jacob and
Eliza Hazard Barker, a New Orleans beauty who had become a close friend of
Fuller's. Sam Ward (1817-1907) entered the banking profession under his father,
Thomas Wren Ward, and was highly successful as director of the American office
of Baring Brothers. After their marriage, the Wards became and remained good
friends of Margaret Fuller's. For more on Ward, see David Baldwin, "Puritan
lof3
THE HOUR OF PRIENDSHIP"
DAVID M. ROBINSON
The first arose out of the utopian talk of community, cooperation, and human
members of a group of five that included Caroline Sturgis, Anna Barker,
solidarity that came under the label of Associationism or Fourierism, and
and Samuel Gray Ward-bright, articulate, artistic, and charming young
led to the Brook Farm experiment. Emerson refused to join the group, but
individuals, 'Margaret, wherever she came, fused people into society, &
not without some soul-searching, and the presence of so many of his friends,
klowing company was the result," Emerson recalled of her (JMN 11: 449).
acquaintances, and allies there certainly created a pull on his attention and
AN soon as "The American Scholar" and "The Divinity School Address"
had thrust Emerson into public view as the presumed leader of an avant-
spurred him to deeper thinking about the possibilities of human community
and social discourse. The famous conviviality of Brook Farm, the undercur-
Marde movement, he also found himself surrounded by engaging protégés
rent of escapade that seems to have coursed through the group's early years,
who were eager to know him and each other better.
The aim of this group-an aim that Fuller cultivated-seems to have
furthered the commune's claims and appeal.2
An even more significant advocate of friendship was Margaret Fuller.
been to establish a circle that was purely open in its communication, spon-
Among the Transcendentalists it was Fuller who placed friendship at the
lancous, thoroughly honest, and free of convention. That there were erotic
center of her philosophy, pressing that issue both philosophically and emo-
undercurrents among them is clear enough from the correspondence, and
there have been several quite different readings of the group dynamic. It
tionally on Emerson. We can, in fact, best understand Fuller's innovative
and pioneering theorizing of feminism and women's rights to be essentially
WASN in fact, the engagement of Barker and Ward that broke the party up,
an outgrowth of her concern with friendship. In a journal entry recollect-
king Fuller profoundly, and bruising her friendship with Emerson.
Ward and Barker were married on Ward's birthday, 3 October 1840-a date
ing the headiest days of the Transcendentalist movement, Emerson wrote
that it was in many ways a movement of Margaret's friends: "Margaret with
white h, as Robert Hudspeth has written, "Fuller noted each succeeding
her radiant genius and fiery heart was perhaps the real centre that drew so
year" (Fuller The interconnections and undercurrents among the
many & SO various individuals to a seeming union" (JMN 16: 22).
group are fascinating. Fuller had perhaps been in love with Ward. She had
It was the socially constructed inequality between men and women
perhaps also been in love with Barker. Fuller's relationship with Emerson
that made true friendships difficult or impossible, Fuller believed. Such
WAN emotionally intense-some readers consider them to have been "in
also filled with stress and conflict. Emerson's letters to Caroline
inequality was not only a barrier to friendships between men and women,
it also distorted men's relationships with men and women's with women.
Sturgis, Fuller's closest female friend, are unusually warm and intimate,
Fuller contended, as I have argued elsewhere, that the philosophy of self-
and Kathleen Lawrence has recently described Sturgis as Emerson's "soul-
culture that grounded Transcendentalist discourse implied and demanded
mate and feminine counterpart" (Lawrence 2005, 38). Emerson and Ward
an equality between men and women. Her Woman in the Nineteenth Cen-
seem powerfully drawn to each other, and Caleb Crain has recently argued
that Emerson wrote "Friendship" with Samuel Ward principally in mind.4
tury reclaims the possibilities of friendship as the heart of the quest for
spiritual learning, just living, and the growth of the soul-all of which are
Irresistible though these speculations may be, the more significant point
IN that Fuller-and implicitly, Emerson-had hoped that the circle would
essential aspirations of Transcendentalism.
remain as it was: a unified community of souls attempting to redefine
Emerson met Fuller in 1836, and initially claimed that he was not im-
pressed. But Fuller insisted on friendship and proved to Emerson that she
friendship and experimenting in a new form of dialogue and intimacy.
could be a stimulating and challenging companion, and that he needed
The fate of this experiment is one of the more important catalysts for
such stimulations and challenges. Bringing him not only her own energy,
Emerson's essay on "Friendship." While it is technically an "early" Emerson
originality, wit, boldness, and immense learning, Fuller also brought a
work, part of the first collection of Essays that distilled his annual lecture
group of lively younger friends to Emerson, with the apparent mission of
series of the 1830s, the essay rehearses a pattern of thinking that we might
luring him out of himself-not allowing him to settle into the reserve and
associate more closely with Emerson's somewhat later philosophical reori-
decorum to which he at times inclined By 1839 she had engineered a small
entation, of which "Experience" is the signature essay. In this reorientation,
Emerson called into question several of the premises of his earlier work,
utopian experiment of her own. in which she and Emerson were the senior
Eds. John T. Lysakert Wm.doss:
Indiana.U.P., 2010
2.of3
50
DAVID M. ROBINSON
"IN THE GOLDEN HOUR OF FRIENDSHIP"
reconsidering his affirmations of human enlightenment and benevolence,
with profound consequences for the conception of family relations, com-
and qualifying his advocacy of the self-reliant individual. One of the causes
munity building, democratic dialogue, participatory citizenship, and just
of this reorientation was Emerson's disillusionment with the seeming certi-
public policy. "Friendship" suggests ways of considering transpersonal goals
tude produced by, on the one hand, rationalistic idealism, and on the other,
that have significant promise for cooperative human association in a broad
visionary or mystical experience. His pursuit of such certitude gradually
arena of activities. For Emerson, Fuller, and most of the Transcendentalists,
became secondary to the more complex and demanding goal of ethical dis-
a renewed and expanded conception of friendship represented an important
cipline and pragmatic effort in the service of broader social justice. If we
dimension of the utopian energy of the 1830S and 1840s. Emerson's theoretical
regard "Friendship" as one of the earlier signs of a shift in Emerson's think-
Investigation of friendship must be seen in this light, as a moment in which
ing, one which he self-consciously dramatizes in the structure of the essay
his long engagement with self-culture also yielded an ethical inquiry into
itself, then we can also conclude that the collapse of the small but intensely
right expectations and just conduct among friends, and a re-imagining of the
engaged circle of friends that Fuller brought together was one of the initiating
power of friendship to reformulate the social dimensions of experience.
events in Emerson's disillusionment. There was clearly something experi-
mental and utopian about this group's aspirations-an implicit but working
The paradoxical heart of the essay on "Friendship" is Emerson's refusal, on
assumption among them, that the constrictive barriers which had defined
ethic al and pragmatic grounds, to accept the very theory of human relation-
friendship in the past were being overcome. In the same way that the Brook
ships that he shows logically to be the inexorable law of the human condi-
Farmers believed that they were reinventing work and community, Fuller-
tion Though unobserved, as far as I have seen, in the ocean of Emerson
and to varying degrees those she had gathered around her-felt that they
# holarship, criticism, and commentary, Emerson enacts in this essay a
were redefining intimate friendship and love as something that was mutually
quite extraordinary repudiation of his own philosophy. He first describes
shared among a group rather than restricted to a couple.
the desire of one individual for another as an unchosen or fated condition,
When Samuel Ward and Anna Barker announced their engagement,
the initial promise of which is by nature impossible to fulfill. By this logic,
it was as if they had betrayed the larger project of friendship and its poten-
friendship is always already doomed to fail. But Emerson then simply dis-
tially revolutionary aspirations. This was an acute emotional blow to Fuller,
misses this iron law of existence as a recognition "not to be indulged," and
who not only lost her close connections with Ward and Barker, but also
dese ribes human relationships not as the product of determinism or fate,
found her relationship with Emerson diminished, because she no longer
but of the careful nurture of creative sympathies, and of a discipline that
had the emotional access to him that the larger group of friends provided.
requires both deep perception and unyielding commitment.
Emerson's essay on "Friendship" suggests that, stoic though he seems about
Emerson's opening observations on friendship focus on the riddle that
it in his letters and journals, the collapse of the group was significant to
"we have a great deal more kindness than is ever spoken" (CW 2: 113). Such
him as well, teaching him the limits of such utopian aspirations, while
veiled and unspoken kindness, he suggests, tempers the callousness that
simultaneously reinforcing the power and the immense value of human
we NCC everywhere around us. "Maugre all the selfishness that chills like
affection and mutual sympathy. Insofar as Emerson, Fuller, and their
east winds the world, the whole human family is bathed with an element
friends were attempting (in the words of the Orphic Poet in Emerson's
of love like a fine ether" (CW 2: 113). This assertion of an implicit sympathy
Nature) to "build" their "own world," they found that they were unable to
and compassion intimates the possibility of a social world that might be
do so. Ward and Barker retreated into the convention of marriage, thereby
transformed through compassion and benevolence, of an alternate social
abdicating their central role in this newly emerging group friendship.
reality that lurks in daily events and ordinary interactions.
"Friendship" is therefore rooted in a utopian social experiment, though
of an unusual kind. While the essay's representations of life and its images
I low many persons we meet in houses, whom we scarcely speak to, whom
yet we honor, and who honor us! low many we see in the street, or sit with
and language are couched in terms of interpersonal relationships, these issues
in church, whom, though stiently, we warmly rejoice to be with! Read the
point toward a larger vision of human mutuality and Interdependent support,
language of these wandering eye-beams. The heart knoweth. (CW 2: 113)
3 of 3
22
LAWRENCE BUELL
TRANSCENDENTAL FRIENDSHIP
23
ern scholars have been predisposed to think otherwise. So my summary
An Oxymeron?
not) But the model for the Friend of Thoreau's essay, to the extent it is
answer to the question my title posed is: Yes, Transcendental friendship is
based on a particular individual, is almost surely his late elder brother
oxymoronic; but it does not follow from this that its theorists were less
John, who accompanied him on the trip that his book memorializes.
than friends in practice. I hope that this précis is both pointed enough to
But what I should especially stress about the two discourses is a telling
serve as a signpost for the rest of this essay, and tantalizing enough to keep
difference in emphasis notwithstanding convergence on a number of points,
my explication from seeming anticlimactic.
ww. that friendship should be conducted on the highest moral plane, that
friends should be utterly sincere with each other, that so-called friendship is
Friendship in Theory
type ally a shabby affair compared with what friendship ought to be, and that
friendship of the very highest kind is rare, exceedingly hard to attain, and
The intertextual links between Thoreau's 1849 disquisition on friendship
Indeed is obtainable only in fleeting moments. ("Like the immortality of the
in A Week and Emerson's "Friendship" essay of 1841 are so thick that it is
well to start by reminding ourselves that (almost certainly) neither man is
toul," writes Emerson, it is "too good to be believed" [CW 2: 116].) Perhaps
the prototypical friend the other has chiefly in mind.
the single most revealing indicator of this underlying difference between the
Essays. however, is their different way of handling the device of the tortuous
Emerson's essay was published in the wake of that moment in his life
hypothetical letter to one's would-be friend. The tenor of the two letters dif-
when he was most drawn by the idea of "a circle of godlike men and women
for sharply.
variously related to each other, and between whom subsists a lofty intelli-
On the one hand, Emerson posits that "every man," "if he should re-
gence." Here Emerson hints at a recurring dream he realized in part and
ford his true sentiment, might write a letter like this, to each new can-
never gave up on trying to realize more fully: to attract a critical mass of
didate for his love":
like-minded people of both sexes to Concord who would provide all the best
pleasures of intellectual stimulation and sociality. The individuals he espe-
Dear Friend:-
cially had in mind at this point were probably Margaret Fuller, Caroline
II I was sure of thee, sure of thy capacity, sure to match my mood with thine,
Sturgis, Samuel Gray Ward, and Anna Barker-the latter two of whom, to
I should never think again of trifles, in relation to thy comings and goings.
both Emerson's and Fuller's chagrin, proceeded to get married and go their
I am not very wise: my moods are quite attainable: and I respect thy genius:
II IN to me as yet unfathomed; yet dare I not presume in thee a perfect intel-
own way. The real-life "ideal" reader that epistolary records suggest Emer-
ligence of me, and so thou art to me a delicious torment. Thine ever, or never.
son had most pointedly in mind, as the essay was in preparation, was young
W 2: 117)
Samuel Ward-exactly Thoreau's age (fourteen years younger than Emer-
son), but from a higher socioeconomic class. Ward was a genteel and refined
On the other hand, Thoreau's (rather longer) letter, which he imagines
artistic dilettante who later blossomed (or faded, depending on your view)
being written by "the true and not despairing Friend," goes like this:
into the "wizard of Wall Street." While putting the finishing touches on
I never asked thy leave to let me love thee,-I have a right. I love thee not as
"Friendship," Emerson alerted Ward that he hoped to send it to him-as evi-
something private and personal, which is your own, but as something uni-
dently he later did-for "I would gladly provoke a commentary from so il-
versal and worthy of love, which I have found. o how I think of you! You are
luminated a doctor of the sweet science as yourself. I have written nothing
purely good,-you are infinitely good. I can trust you forever. I did not think
that humanity was so rich. Give me an opportunity to live.
with more pleasure, and the piece is already indebted to you and I wish to
You are the fact in a fiction,-you are the truth more strange and ad-
swell my obligations" (CL 391-392).
mirable than fiction. Consent only to be what you are. 1 alone will never
As for Thoreau, whose essay on friendship in the "Wednesday" chapter
stand in your way.
of A Week was composed with a decade's experience of Emerson as his
This is what I would like,-to be as intimate with you as our spirits are
primary coach and encourager, the model Imagined reader may well have
intimate,-respecting you as I respect my ideal. Never to profane one an-
been his mentor, whom the text explicitly lauds (as Walden studiously does
other by word or action, even by a thought. Between us, if necessary, let there
be no acquaintance.
19.10t6
1013
her return to Groton at the beginning of October, she naturally obliged. So began
exception of Henry Wadsworth I longfellow's classes at I larvard just then begin-
the steady stream of visits and stopovers that would eventually make the Bush
ning. Fuller's Boston school probably provided more comprehensive instruction
house for Fuller a second-if not always entirely tranquil-home.
in modern European literature than that offered anywhere in America,
1836
V
(S.G.W.)
Besides teaching the twenty or so adolescent girls and young women who
began her classes on November 9, Fuller that winter gave (at the hefty rate of two
dollars per hour per student) private lessons to five other young women. She also
By mid-October of 1836 Fuller was back in Boston. The reason for her quick
once a day for ten weeks instructed in Latin orally and read English history and
return was this time, not pleasure, but business. She was acutely aware (as she
Shakespeare's historical plays to a little blind boy. ("Very interesting, but very
told a friend in the summer) that her "dear, gentle, suffering mother" and bei
latiguing," she described this last experience to Clarke.) Her students came to
younger siblings were counting on her to make up the deficit in the family
her in various ways. Many were from her growing collection of protégées. "You
income. As she had recently decided the pen would not do it for her, she knew
know my magnetic power over young women," she had boasted to Clarke the
she needed (as she said to Clarke) to "take other means." Those means, of
year before; "well! some ten or twelve have been drawn into my sphere since you
course, were the only ones she had ever had available to her. As she announced
knew me- to all I have given sympathy and time (more than was agreeable)."
with a firm sigh that summer in another letter to a friend, "I will make up my
Others were drawn by word of mouth. A November 8 letter from her young
mind teach." And she did. In the summer she even briefly resuscitated her old
friend Sam Ward, then traveling with the Farrars in London, to his sister Mary,
plan of teaching in the West, but as usual Clarke discouraged her from thinkin
shows how one word got around:
of that as a "money-making" idea. So she tried something nearer to home-hu
own school in Boston. After making arrangements to board with her Uncle
You tell me that Miss Fuller is coming to Boston to give lessons in the languages,
Henry and his family at No. 1 Avon Place and taking rooms for her school next
and Lwish you by all means to take the opportunity of being with her. She not only
door at No. 2, she had printed up and distributed a circular proposing "to give
has read more than any woman of my acquaintance but understands more thor-
instruction to classes of Ladies in GERMAN. ITALIAN, and FRENCH
oughly the spirit of the German and Italian literatures than anyone I know. But
ERATURE," for the then fairly steep per-student price of fifteen dollars for one
whether or not you study German or Italian with her, make her if you can your
twelve-week course of twenty-four lessons. Like her rates, her objectives were
friend; talk with her and consult her on any subject from a ribband to your Bible. I
high. "Pupils," the circular read, would read only "the best authors." They could
am sure you will find her a delightful acquaintance and with a universality of knowl-
also be expected to receive sufficient "historical and critical" instruction
edge that will surprise you. 54
enabling them to become, "with ease and pleasure," both "familiar with the style
Both Fuller's boast and Ward's broadside also showed something else-that
of the prominent writers of those nations, at different eras in their literary his
for some of her adolescent girls, her teaching was as much personal as intellec-
tory" as well as cognizant of "some part of the treasures of thought" contained
tual. Certainly this was true with her inner circle of pupils. They came from
in their works. In her circular Fuller frankly confessed that she herself had been
wealthy and highly literate Boston families: Caroline Sturgis, the younger sister
impeded in the past by not having had sufficient oral instruction, and this is the
of Margaret's old friend Ellen Sturgis and the daughter of the wealthy William
key to what she was trying to do. Essentially she was offering college-level
Sturgis, whose firm, Bryant and Sturgis, controlled over half of the American
instruction to adolescent girls who had been denied, as she had been, a college
made with the Pacific Coast and China; Jane Tuckerman, a talented songstress
education. Her descriptions of her classes' pace and content confirm this. With
and the daughter of another well-to-do Boston merchant; Marianne Jackson, the
her elementary German students, she sped. "At the end of three months," she
daughter of the state Supreme Court justice Charles Jackson and the niece of
reported to Clarke, "they could read 20 pages of Gn at a lesson and very well,
Patrick Tracy Jackson, the cofounder with his brother-in-law Francis Cabot
Her advanced German classes she drove at an even faster clip: during their first
I owell of the Boston Manufacturing Company and the architect of its famous
three-month session they read three dramas of Lessing's, two of Schiller's, and
five of Goethe's, including the first part of Faust ("as valuable to me as to them")
I owell town and mills;(Mary Ward. the daughter of the banker and American
Haring Brothers agent Thomas Wren Ward: and Mary Channing, the oldest
MGW
along with a good deal of Tieck and the first volume of Jean Paul's difficult Titani
child of Boston's illustrious Dr. William Ellery Channing. These were some of
In Italian her students read large parts of Tasso, Petrarch, Ariosto, and Alfieri,
Boston's most cultivated girls, and their families were anxious-in good Boston
as well as the entire Divina Commedia ("with the aid of the fine Athenaeum copy
and all the best commentaries"). She also managed to secure with Emerson
Umitarian tradition-that they receive the best moral and intellectual training
help ("it would be their great pleasure to do it," he graciously reported), the assis
then money could buy. Fuller did her best to provide it. "My dearest, you must
suffer," she wrote in answer to one note from the "sensitive, overstrained"
tance of Harvard language instructors Hermann Bokum, Francis Sales, and Pie
Jane about Jane's despondency over her mother's illness, "but you will always
tro Bachi to provide special classes in speaking and pronunciation, With the
be growing stronger, and with every trial nobly met, you will feel a growing assur-
page 2 of6
276
told Caroline she wanted to end their "intimate" friendship. Not until the win
cool, SO decided & sure in his opinions," Sarah Clarke would tell Fuller a few
ter-after months of mutual silence punctuated by cautiously affectionate lete
years later; "he must always control the minds of those near him, except in the
ters-did their friendship get repaired or (as Fuller put it the following year)
very few instances where he meets his equal.") The few fragments of his intel-
"redeemed from 'the search after Eros.'
lectual reflections that survive from these couple of years support this percep-
Fuller's allusion to the beautiful, libidinous boy Eros, who is seduced by his
lion. Also, apart from Emerson, Ward was the only one of their circle to have
foster mother in the fairy tale in Novalis's Heinrich von Ofterdingen, might have
actually viewed firsthand the major European masterpieces, and his portfolio of
been intended, at least unconsciously, as something more than a vague literary
copies of them, which he would lend to Emerson in the fall of the following year,
phrase. For the tides of emotion that swept over the beaches of Nahant were only
was an important stimulus to their circle's growing passion for painting.
the crest of a much larger wave for Fuller that summer. To locate the source of
Most of all, Ward was drawn to Fuller. whose "literary insight & power of
that wave, one needs to turn to another figure in Fuller's circle.
assimilation," he would later write, he had found "astonishing." He later
In a painting that the Romantic portraitist William Page did a couple of years
claimed that Fuller had been the first person to open up to him the spiritual value
later of Sam Ward-in a high-buttoned dark coat, with his dark, thick, longish
of modern German and Italian literature, the most important intellectual pas-
hair swept to the side over a high, Fullerlike brow crowning an oval face of large,
sions of his life. But art and literature were not the only passions Ward stimu-
Goldwin
liquid eyes, sensuous nose and lips, and softly boyish yet stolid expression-he
lated in Fuller. She also fell in love with him, although exactly how or when is
looks very much like the Puritan aristocratic aesthete depicted by his modern
not clear. After their trip together to Trenton Falls, they mostly carried on their
biographer, His highly respected father, Thomas Wren Ward, whom he was
friendship by mail. While Ward was traveling in Europe, they wrote frequently
close to, was something, in a more worldly way, of a post-Puritan himself.
to each other. All of this correspondence is lost, but if the one surviving and
Besides being the successful American agent for Baring Brothers, the English
already quoted letter she wrote before he left-about her fascination with the
firm that financed most Anglo-American trade, the bookish elder Ward was also
heaving, bosomlike, "undulatory motions" of water-is any indication, what-
one of Boston's prime cultural leaders, serving for many years as the treasurer of
ever was personally revelatory was pretty heavily veiled. After he returned and
both Harvard University and the Boston Athenaeum. Naturally he saw to it that
they had their happy August meeting at the Allston gallery (even two years later
his son received a first-rate schooling. Unfortunately for his father, that school
she would remember being then in "the heights of bliss"), her references to him
ing, first at Boston Latin School, where Ward placed first in his class, and later
111 her letters assumed an increasingly affectionate tone. In February she asked
at the progressive Round Hill School (which young Ward liked) and Harvard
Caroline Sturgis to make a large, decorated box to hold all her letters, verses, and
(which generally bored him), altogether confirmed his sense of himself (as he put
sketches "from my friend Raphael," which she intended to "keep devoted to
it) as "a student and literary man" rather than, as the seven generations of Wards
him while I live." "I agree with you that this is not pretty enough for him, though
before him. a merchant. This feeling was confirmed by his frequent visits to the
quite pretty enough for me," she told Caroline, urging her to line his with a softer
Athenaeum library and gallery and, after his graduation, by his year-and-a-half
and paler color than she had used for hers. "He is such an Ariel that he deserves
tour of Europe in the company of the Farrars and Harvard's professor-turned
to be ministered to of every creature's best.
author, George Ticknor.38
By this time, Ward was gone on a six-month pleasure and business trip
It was further confirmed when, after returning to the United States in early
through the Ohio Valley down to New Orleans. After he returned in April, they
1838, Ward renewed his friendship with Fuller, who introduced him to Emer
resumed their friendship on, if anything (at least so Fuller would later claim), an
son. Together they drew Ward into the growing circle of more or less Transcend
even more affectionate plane than before. But by June it was clear to Fuller that
dentalist young people they were gathering around them. Although the more
something was seriously wrong, a fact no doubt that caused her, out of a desire
bizarrely religious of the band bemused him, Ward cultivated friendships, if
for some reassurance, to press Caroline at Nahant for a declaration of love. In
little warily (one of them thought because of his "fear of ridicule"), with the more
July, obviously worried, she wrote to him anxiously:
literary and bohemian among them. He was especially taken with the unboh
emian Emerson. His letters show that this was more because of Emerson's exam.
No, I do not distrust you, so lately as you have spoken the words of friendship. You
ple as a poised and independent literary intellectual than his specific ideas
would not be so irreverent as to dare tamper with a nature like mine, you could not
Ward's Goethean aestheticism would always keep him distant from Emerson'
treat so generous a person with levity.
idealism. Nonetheless, he maintained/ a lifelong friendship with the Concord
The kernel of affection is the same, no doubt, but it lies dormant in the husk. Will
ever a second Spring bid it put forth leaf and flower? I can make every allowance.
sage. From their side, too, Fuller and Emerson found Ward to be a valuable com
The bitterness of checked affections, the sickness of hope deferred, the dreariness of
panion. Although barely twenty when he returned from Europe, Ward aston
aspirations broken from their anchorage. I know them all, and I have borne at the
ished many in their circle with his intellectual sophistication and commanding
same time domestic unhappiness and ruined health.
martner. ("His mind seems formed to subdue others to its influence-so clear,
I know you have many engagements. What young man of promising character
278
Margaret Fuller
Conversations (1838 1840)
page afte
279
and prosperous fortunes has not one waiting his every hour? But if you are like
you can trample upon such petty impossibilities if you love me as I deserve to me, be
tasks, will wait for thee whom I have loved so well. I will never wound thy faith, nor
loved, you cannot dispense with seeing me
repel thy heart, never, never! Only thyself shall have power to divorce my love from
We did not begin on the footing of rational good-will and mutual esteem, but of
its office of ministry,- not even mine own pride shall do it. So help me God, as I
intimacy; and I should think, if we ceased to be intimate, we must become nothing
keep this vow, prays
to one another.
We knew long ago that age, position, and pursuits being so different, nothing but
ISOLA.4
love bound us together, and it must not be my love alone that binds us. I want a
On the surface, such mournful and elevated pleadings sound suspiciously
friend that could realize to me what is expressed in Byron's ["Stanzas to Augusta")
reminiscent of Fuller's one-way romance with George Davis eight years before.
"Though the day of my destiny's over, &c" And above all the line "Though loved,
(Her ever-loyal brother Richard would later disparage Ward to Margaret as
thou forborest to grieve me!"
"another George Davis.") Particularly when one adds to this Fuller's allusion to
Evidently, foot-trampling demands, threats, appeals, and even Byronic self
another love in Ward's life-along with her intimation that this was the reason
pity failed to work. In early September, in a seething letter, she exploded in des
for his withdrawal-the feeling of déjà vu would seem to be confirmed. But it
peration and anger:
would also be superficial. For one thing, the maternalistic Christian and German
Romantic death rattles at the end of her letter suggest a relationship, if no less
You love me no more- How did you pray me to draw near to you! What words
ethereal than that with Davis, certainly at least at a higher emotional and intel-
doubtless to yourself, too, of all we might be to one another.
were spoken in impatience of separation! How did you promise to me, aye, and
lectual pitch. For another, the serious-minded, artistically inclined Ward was a
We are near and with Spring's fairest flower I poured out my heart to you.- At
more complicated and, from Fuller's point of view, considerably more suscep-
an earlier period I would fain have broke the tie that bound us, for I knew myself
tible figure than the flippant, worldly-wise young Davis. Furthermore-though
incapable of feeling or being content to inspire an ordinary attachment. As soon
with most of Ward's side of the correspondence lost, we cannot be certain of
I saw a flaw I would have broke the tie. You would not- You resented, yet with as
this-it seems highly unlikely that Fuller would have alluded, however histri-
what pathetic grace, any distrust on my part. Forever, ever are words of which you
onically, to pledges by Ward unless he had indeed pledged that spring or sum-
have never been, are not now afraid.
mer, however obscurely or platonically, his love "forever, ever. "Finally, to com-
find yourself with me. I doubt not the depth of your attachment, doubt not that
-You call me your best of friends, your dearest friend, you say that you always
plicate the matter still further, the young woman in this triangle was no mere
acquaintance, but none other than Fuller's close and enormously admired friend
attachment are gone-are they gone forever?
feel my worth. But the confiding sweetness, the natural and prompt expression you of
Anna Barker. In order to understand the full complexity of Fuller's love tangles,
it is necessary to know something about Anna.
The rest of the letter was a point by point enumeration of all the evidence that
showed, despite his protestations of respect and friendship for her, his real eme
tional indifference towards her. ("The confiding sweetness are
V
sympathizing contemplation of the beautiful in Nature, in Art is gone over for us.") The
Still, she said, despite all this, she would not break things off. Instead, in an
Even among Fuller's large collection of talented and well-to-do young female
extraordinary conclusion, seething with both self-abnegation and presumption,
friends, Anna Barker stood out. For one thing, she was not a Bostonian.
she declared:
Although her parents were New Englanders, she was born and lived for twenty-
one years in New York City. After this, in 1834, her father, the flamboyant and
for I will wait- I will not complain- I will exact nothing- I will make every allowance
extremely wealthy, Democratic New York merchant Jacob Barker, following
the restlessness of a heart checked in its love, a mind dissatisfied with its pursuits,
one of his numerous financial gyrations, moved the family to New Orleans.
I will bear in mind that my presence is like to recal all you have need to forget and
There Anna attended for a while an upper-class Catholic convent school. After
will try to believe that you would not be with me lest I "spoil you for your part on
life's dull scene," or as you have said "call up the woman in you."
this she continued to shuttle among her family's various town and country
You say you love me as ever, forever. I will, if I can, rely upon your word, believing
houses in New York and Newport. In the second place, she and her family were
you must deem me entitled to unshrinking frankness.
not Unitarians, but Quakers. Such a variety of high and liberal viewpoints,
You given me the sacred name of Mother, and I will be so indulgent, as ten.
together with her large family's closeness, probably explain the affectionate, sen-
der, as delicate (if possible) in my vigilence, an if I had borne you beneath heart
sitive, spiritual-minded, and, above all, generous characteristics one finds her
instead of in it. But Oh, it is waiting like the Mother beside the sepulchre my for the
displaying in her diary and letters. (Her friends were charmed by her habit of
resurrection, for all I loved in you in at present dead and buried, only a light from
Miving them presents on her birthday.) She was reasonably well read in contem-
the tomb shines now and then in your eyes. But I will wait, to me the hardest of all
have seems to
porary English, French, and German Romantic literature, which she
blithely filtered through a sentimental version of her Hicksite liberal Quak-
page 4 of 6
280
Margaret Fuller
Conversations (1838-1840)
281
erism. "That we ought to trust all and love all, and that then all would become
are.laden with, not only ethereal passion, but homoerotic passion as well. One
worthy of trust and love," Sarah Clarke would state as her "sweet doctrine" at a
of her favorite gambits-in which her male friends also freely indulged-was to
Transcendentalist discussion the following year. But mainly she impressed oth-
compare (as in one letter to her favorite sex-role exchange partner Clarke) "my
ers by her lively and gracious social charm and dazzling beauty. Certainly she
Anna" with their young wives, fiancées, and lovers. But the best example of this
impressed the Boston-Cambridge Unitarian and Transcendentalist friends
sort of thing is suggested by a journal entry Fuller wrote three years later, after
whom she saw whenever she visited her cousin Eliza Farrar. "You should have
her passion for Anna had subsided. Recording the thoughts she had had while
seen [her]," Emerson would write ecstatically-and rather typically-to his
recently leafing through a collection of pictures of famous French men and
probably startled Calvinistic confessor Aunt Mary after he met Anna in the fall;
women during and after the Revolution, she wrote:
"a vision of grace & beauty-a natural queen-just returned from Europe,
where as here she received incense every day, in all places, which she accepts with
Nothing fixed my attention so much, as a large engraving of Me Recamier in her
high glee & straightway forgets from her religious heart. She is the very heroine
boudoir. I have so often thought over the intimacy between her and Me de Stael. It
of your dreamed romance which you related to Charles & me at Elm Vale
is so true that a woman may be in love with a woman, and a man with a man. It is
once. "
SO pleasant to be sure of it because it is the same love that we shall feel when we are
angels when we ascend to the only fit place for the Mignons where
For Fuller, too, Anna Barker was a romantic heroine. Higginson speculated
Sie fragen nicht nach Mann und Weib-
that Eliza Farrar had originally introduced Margaret to her younger cousin, who
It is regulated by the same law as that of love between persons of different sexes, only
was three years younger than Margaret, with the idea of offering her as "a charm
it is purely intellectual and spiritual, unprofaned by any mixture of lower instincts,
ing model" in the ways of young womanhood. If true, this certainly would have
undisturbed by any need of consulting temporal interests, its law is the desire of the
given Fuller one initial push toward heroine-making. They also kept up contact.
spirit to realize a whole which makes it seek in another being for what it finds not in
After Fuller moved to Groton, in addition to vacationing together during Anna's
itself. Thus the beautiful seeks the strong, and the strong the beautiful, the mute seek
yearly summer treks from New York, and later New Orleans, to Cambridge and
the eloquent &c the butterfly settles always on the dark flower. Why did Socrates love
Newport, they wrote to each other frequently while Anna was in Europe
Alcibiades?- why did Korner love Schneider? how natural is the love of Wallen-
Numerous references in Fuller's letters and journals during this time show how
stein for Max, that of Me de Stael for de Recamier, mine for Anna Barker. I loved
Anna for a time I think with as much passion as I was then strong enough to feel-
much Anna meant to her. "Have I ever told you how much I love her?" she had
Her face was always gleaming before me, her voice was echoing in my ear, all poetic
asked James Clarke about her "amica del cuore" a few months before her father
thoughts clustered round the dear image. This love was a key which unlocked for me
died. "Never could fancy create a being of greater purity grace and softness.
many a treasure which I still possess, it was the carbuncle (emblematic gem) which
If I write a novel I shall take Anna for my heroine." Over the next few years, she
cast light into many of the darkest caverns of human nature.- She loved me, too,
dedicated most of her poems, including her first serious Romantic ones like
though not so much, because her nature was "less high, less grave, less large, less
"Drachenfels" and "The Hieroglyphic Spell," to Anna as her "beloved" or (as
deep" but she loved more tenderly, less passionately. She loved me, for I well remem-
she put it aptly in one poem) "my heart's sister and my fancy's love." William
ber her suffering when she first would feel my faults and knew one part of the exqui-
Henry Channing-who had himself been attracted to Anna and had often seen
site veil rent away, how she wished to stay apart and weep the whole day. Then again
the two together during these years in Cambridge and Newport-thought that
that night when she leaned on me and her eyes were such a deep violet blue, so like
the deep attraction Anna had had for Margaret had been her allure as her unreal
night, as they never were before, and we both felt such a strange mystic thrill and
ized alter ego:
knew what we had never known before. Now well too can I now account for that
desire which I often had to get away from her and be alone with nature, which dis-
Susceptible in temperament, anticipating with ardent fancy the lot of a lovely and
pleased her so, for she wished to be with me all the time. I thought of all this as I
refined woman, and morbidly exaggerating her own slight personal defects, Mar
looked at M superscript(e) Recamier and had one thought beside which has often come into my
garet seemed to long, as it were, to transfuse with her force this nymph-like form,
mind, but I will not write it down; it is so singular that I have often thought I would
and to fill her to glowing with her own lyric fire. No drop of envy tainted the sisterly
never express it in any way; I am sure no human being but myself would understand
love, with which she sought by genial sympathy thus to live in another's experience
11. "
to be her guardian-angel, to shield her from contact with the unworthy, to rouse each
It IS tantalizing, of course, to speculate on exactly what thought was so singular
generous impulse, to invigorate thought by truth incarnate in beauty, and with unfelt
ministry to weave bright threads in her web of fate.4
that she refused to write it down. The idea that would probably first strike many
modern readers-that it was a conscious wish for a homosexual experience-
Even if one discounts Channing's literary ornateness, that Margaret felt for
seems unlikely. (She would a few years later praise unstintingly in her journal
Anna as a more beautiful, graceful self is very plausible. It is also likely that Mar
two poems of the lesbian poet Sappho, but then add, "as woman she is repul-
garet was attracted to Anna sexual object Many of her references to Anna
sive") Indeed, on one level, in her musings about Anna, she may not have been
282
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Margaret Fuller
Conversations (1838-1840)
283
expressing much that was sexual at all. Both popular boosters of women's "kin-
dred" homosocial passions and highbrow Romantic writers of the period often
and she likewise "confessed her affection" as well as undoubtedly her attraction
had a way of seeming to promote, while actually diffusing and sublimating, sex-
to him. (A few years later, Sarah Clarke would report to Fuller that when she had
ual expressions that are hard for later franker-or cruder-generations to grasp,
recently seen them, Anna quoted Sam "at every other word as before.") There
and certainly Fuller's proclaiming of the purely "spiritual" in homosocial love
was, however, one major stumbling block-money, or, as Sam would later del-
would fit into this pattern. On the other hand, Goethe's hermaphroditic Mignon
icately put it in a letter to his father, the requirement that he satisfy "not only
and the notoriously, if virginally, voluptuous and bisexually flirtatious Madame
her feelings but her tastes." On this they had agreed: "There was very little prob-
Récamier-posed in what one de Staël biographer has called Récamier's "awe-
ability of such a connexion unless my plans of a scholar's life gave place to some
inspiring" boudoir-definitely have a bisexual flavor that seems rather different
lucrative profession." So, after returning to Boston in April and going to work
from what one usually finds in either the sentimental female friendship literature
for his father, Sam struggled with the dilemma Margaret gently alluded to in her
or Anglo-American Romantic writings. Furthermore, one element in Fuller's
letter of July: he disliked business and he wanted a literary career, but he also
erotic self-consciousness put her far beyond the pale of most Anglo-American
wanted Anna. Finally, after a year of sometimes difficult courtship-with Sam
friendship writings; namely, her sense, which she often expressed in these years
pledging to unite "the character of a literary man and a man of Business" and
in her journals, that the possessive emotions she felt for Anna and, to a lesser
Anna struggling to overcome her doubts-they married. For a few years Ward
degree, other young women were those, not of a "kindred spirit," but an opposite
worked for his father, contributed papers on art and literature to his Transcen-
one. And not just an opposite one, she suggested, but one that was defined (as
dentalist friends' Dial, and for a while tried living as a gentleman farmer in the
she put it in a journal account that fall of one dream she had about the "femi-
Berkshires-a sort of (in Emerson's word) "chateaux" version of the 1840s
nine" Anna) by its "masculine traits." Thus, too, in this entry, the mysterious
Transcendentalist effort to solve the vocational problem by combining frugality,
"carbuncle"-a symbol of potency she got from Novalis and which she vari-
farm work, and writing. Then, feeling guilty and dissatisfied with the life of a
ously associated in this passage with her love for Anna, "a key which unlocked
literary dilettante, he returned to Boston to take his father's place as the Amer-
for me many a treasure," and an "emblematic gem
lican agent for Baring Brothers. After the Civil War the Wards moved to New
which cast light into
many of the darkest caverns of human nature"-she would later write in her
York, where Anna emerged as a popular socialite and Sam distinguished him-
journal came in two genders: "The female cast out light, the male has his within
self, as his father had, as a prominent patron of literature and the arts, serving
himself. Mine is the male." Some of this, no doubt, is traceable to Fuller's recent
for many years as a founder and trustee of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and
reading in German and French Romantic literature, where sex-role swapping as
a backer of E. L. Godkin's liberal Republican Nation. Like most New Englan-
well as passionate displays of emotional attachment to both sexes sometimes fig.
ders who had once been touched by the Transcendental virus, the Wards
ure prominently. But this would still beg the question of why Fuller, unlike most
retained remnants of their youthful Romantic faith. In middle age Anna con-
men and women of her generation, responded so passionately and personally to
verted to Roman Catholicism. Sam, meanwhile, clung to his Goethean panthe-
this literature. Clearly, her latent bisexual feelings, going back to her remem
ism, although salting it with the seasoning of a Victorian man of the world.
bered feelings for Ellen Kilshaw and her mother, were not a mere literary affect
"Every day," he wrote in a late essay on the philosophy of dress, citing Goethe's
tation, but a deeply ingrained part of her emotional makeup. This would explain
approval of the importance of appearances, should be "more or less a jour de
why, given her basically heterosexual identity as well as the conventions of her
lete." In this connection he found post-Romantic wisdom in Jean Anthelme
culture, these bisexual feelings often led to tense relations and sometimes serious
Brillat-Savarin's curiosity, The Physiology of Taste; or, Meditations on Tran-
social crises. 47
scendental Gastronomy, which explored the influence of spiritual eating habits
One of the most serious of these crises was the one she had to face that summer
on work, marriage, dreams, and (that quintessentially Victorian preoccupation)
when she had to confront the fact that the two people whom she was most pas
getting fat. 48
sionately attracted to were in the process of revealing their own "elective affini
Emerson's concern, later expressed to Fuller on the eve of Ward's marriage,
ties," not for her, but for each other. The two had first gotten acquainted after
about the union's "consequences to the history of his genius" would seem to
Anna, who was four years Sam's senior, having finally arrived in England in the
have been confirmed by Ward's later history. Fuller's near-panic over its per-
summer of 1837, had traveled with the Farrars to Switzerland to meet Sam, who
sonal consequences for her was not delayed so long. The first thing that had to
had been touring the continent. They were together for two months, and he soon
go was the passion. The surviving fragments of Ward's letters to her in these
fell in love with her. That love was renewed when they spent several months
months (which Fuller copied into a journal) show why. Although in them he
affirmed his desire for "the gush of mingling souls" and "the fiery action of mind
together during his trip in the winter of early 1839 to New Orleans and Anna
on mind," he also denounced his past wish "to cast myself into the arms of some
came home ("most unexpectedly" he would tell his father) from Europe, He
other nature" as "womanish," lamented he was "not yet a man," confessed his
then revealed to her and a little later to his parents that he wanted to marry her,
"mind seeks shelter in silence," and, above all, declared (consistently, he said,
page 6 of6
396
Notes to Pages 276-282
Notes to Pages 283-294
sive"); to CS, Oct. 7, 1839, FL, II, 94 ("say yes"); [June 28? 1839], ibid., 79 ("intimate");
Fuller was quite familiar-see Ursula Vogel, "Humboldt and the Romantics: Ne
[1840?], ibid., 107 ("'Eros'')'). Smith-Rosenberg, "Female World of Love and Ritual," is
Hausfrau nor Citoyenne-the Idea of Self-Reliant Femininity in German Romantici:
the classic study of homosocial passion in the lives of nineteenth-century middle-class
in Ellen Kennedy and Susan Mendus, eds., Women in Western Political Philos
American women.
(Brighton, England, 1987), 115-17.
38. To Thomas W. Ward, Dec. 2, 1843, Ward Papers, MHi ("literary man"). The best
48. [Oct. 1842], "FJ42-2," 287 ("elective affinities"); Mar. 4, 1839, Ward Papers,
picture of Ward is provided in his letters, collections of which are in the Ward Papers at
("unexpectedly"); SGW to Thomas W. Ward, May 1, 1840, ibid. ("affection"); May
MH and MHi, and the Ward-Perkins Papers at CU-SB. Ward's Ward Family Papers con-
1847, FMW, X, 38 ("every other word"); Dec. 2, 1843, Ward Papers, MHi ("tastes'
tains valuable reminiscences. David Baldwin, "Puritan Aristocrat in the Age of Emerson:
CS, ca. Feb.? 1845, EL, III, 279 ("chateaux"); manuscript, n.d., quoted in Bald
A Study of Samuel Gray Ward" (Ph.D. diss., University of Pennsylvania, 1961), is a useful
"Emerson-Ward Friendship," 308 ("jour de fete"). For a sober account of the Bar
biographical study. Also informative are idem, "The Emerson-Ward Friendship: Ideals
Ward courtship, quite unfriendly to Fuller, see Tilton, "True Romance."
and Realities," in SAR, 1984; and Eleanor M. Tilton, "The True Romance of Anna Haz-
49. Aug. 29, 1840, EL, II, 327 ("his genius"); [ca. Fall 1839], FMW, Box A ("w
ard Barker and Samuel Gray Ward," in SAR, 1987, 53-72.
anish"); May 1, 1840, Ward Papers, MHi ("boy"); to RWE, Nov. 1841, FL, II,
39. WEC2 quoted in MF, "Memoranda," Jan. 13, [1837], FMW, Box 3 ("ridicule");
("son").
[ca. Apr. 1847], FMW, X, 38 ("subdue others"). Some of Ward's reflections were copied
50. Quoted in July [5], 1844, "FJ44-1," 77 ("Platonic affection").
by Fuller into her journal, [ca. Fall 1839], FMW, Box A.
51. [Ca. Winter 1839-1840], "FS," 164 ("W's choice); [ca. Fall 1839], FMW, Bc
40. To James Elliot Cabot, Aug. 11, 1882, CU-SB ("literary insight"); to RWE, [Apr.
("son of the Gods"); Aug. 21, 1842, FL, III, 88-90 ("broker's shop").
25], 1840, FL, II, 133 ("bliss"); Feb. [21?], 1839, ibid., 49 ("Raphael").
52. [Oct. 30], 1842, "FJ42-2," 290 ("Sam was away").
41. FL, II, 80-81 ("not distrust you").
53. Oct. 7, 1839, FL, II, 93 ("intoxicated").
42. First days of Sept. 1839, FL, II, 90-91 ("love me no more").
54. Oct. 15, 1839, FL, II, 95-96 ("understood perfectly").
43. To MF, Feb. 4, 1845, FMW, XVII, 17 ("another George Davis").
55. Ibid., 96 ("tranquil").
44. To JFC, Dec. 6, 1840, "CLS" ("trust all"); Dec. 22, 1839, EL, II, 244 ("natural
56. [Ca. Winter 1839-1840], "FS," 173 ("man's ambition"); Mar. 23, 1840, "O
queen"). Anna Barker's papers are in the Ward Papers at MH and MHi, and the Ward-
497 ("Poor Mignon!"); [ca. Fall 1839], FMW, Box A ("skinny finger"); [ca. Fall 18
Perkins Papers at CU-SB. Baldwin, "Puritan Aristocrat," and Tilton, "True Romance,"
"FS," 149 ("male eye").
provide useful sketches of Barker. For Jacob Barker, see his Incidents in the Life of Jacob
57. [Ca. Fall 1839], FMW, Box A ("bee"); quoted in ibid. ("repose"); [ca. Fall 18
Barker, of New Orleans, Louisiana (Washington, D.C., 1855).
FMW, Box A ("woman of genius").
45. HO, 36 ("model"); Apr. 28, 1835, FP ("love her"); "To the Same/ In answer to the
58. [Ca. Fall 1839], OC, 120 ("no home"); Jan. 1, 1840, FP ("friends again"); ON
letter of January 6th, 1836," [ca. Jan. 1836], OC, 145 ("fancy's love"); OM, II, 8 ("fill
98-99 ("past relations").
her").
59. ABA, "Diary for 1839 from July to December," Aug. 26, 1839, 175, Alcott Pap
46. MF to JFC, Jan. 1, 1840, FP ("my Anna"); [Oct. 1842], "FJ42-2," 286-87 ("Reca-
MH ("Conversations"); Dec. 9, 1838, FL, I, 354-55 ("education of women").
mier").
60. For the antebellum female seminary movement, see the works cited in chap
47. [Aug.] 6, 1844, "FJ44-1," 110 ("repulsive"); J. Christopher Herold, Mistress to an
note 1. Good treatments of early nineteenth-century women's education may be fou
Age: A Life of Madame de Staël (Indianapolis, 1958), 288 ("awe-inspiring"); [ca. Fall
in Cott, Bonds of Womanhood, chap. 3; Kerber, Women of the Republic, chap. 7; S
1839], FMW, Box A ("masculine traits"); [June 27], 1844, "FJ44-1," 64 ("male"). An
mon, In the Company of Educated Women, chaps. 1-3; Sklar, Catharine Beecher; A1
indication that at least part of Fuller's expressions of homosocial passion were considered
Firor Scott, "What, Then, Is the American: This New Woman?" Journal of Ameri
innocent and culturally acceptable is the fact that Emerson, Channing, and Clarke-who
History, 65 (December 1978), 679-703; and idem, "The Ever Widening Circle: The I
otherwise in her Memoirs suppress any hint of sexual boldness on Fuller's part-printed
fusion of Feminist Values from the Troy Female Seminary, 1822-1872," History of E
this journal passage, only censoring Barker's name and toning down the language a little.
cation Quarterly, 19 (Spring 1979), 3-27.
OM, I, 283-84. Smith-Rosenberg, "Female World of Love and Ritual," is excellent on
61. For a discussion of the social and ideological character of Fuller's Conversat
the semi-erotic dimension of late eighteenth- and nineteenth-century female friendship
classes, see my "Margaret Fuller as Cultural Reformer: The Conversations in Bosto
literature. See also Nancy F. Cott, "Passionlessness: An Interpretation of Victorian Sexual
American Quarterly, 39 (Winter 1987), 509-28.
Ideology, 1790-1850," Signs: Women in Culture and Society, 4 (Winter 1978), 219-36,
62. Harriet Martineau's Autobiography, II, 71 ("gorgeous"). Higginson (HO, 121-
But for a cogent revisionist interpretation that emphasizes the passionate, companionate
demolished Martineau's myth, but it continues to crop up. See, for example, Mas
character of nineteenth-century middle-class American women's private heterosexual
Wade, Margaret Fuller: Whetstone of Genius (New York, 1940), 74-75.
expressions, see Karen Lystra, Searching the Heart: Women, Men, and Romantic Love in
63. EJ, V, 175 ("wonderful"); to JFC, Nov. 17, 1839, "CLS" ("infidel association'
Nineteenth-Century America (New York, 1989). Lillian Faderman, Surpassing the Love
64. See, for the Grimkés' tours, Gerda Lerner, The Grimké Sisters from South Ca
of Men: Romantic Friendship and Love Between Women from the Renaissance to the
lina: Pioneers for Woman's Rights and Abolition (1967; New York, 1971), 146-204, 22
Present (New York, 1980), is a valuable survey of female homosexual and homosocial
28; for Wright's lectures, Celia Morris Eckhardt, Fanny Wright: Rebel in America (Ca
themes in modern Western literature. For a good, brief discussion of heterosexual role
bridge, Mass., 1984), 171-224; for Bacon's meetings, Vivian C. Hopkins, Prodigal P
reversals in Friedrich Schlegel's novel Lucinde-II key German Romantic text with which
fan: A Life of Delia Bacon (Cambridge, Mass., 1959), 49-57, 66-70; and for Peabod
Caleb Craine crican Sympathy.
Yale, 2001.
PS-Sof6
I82
Emerson's "Friendship" and the Samaritans
Emerson's "Friendship" and the Samaritans
entireness not possible to any but a woman, with a depth possible to few
183
women." And she demanded that womanly depth in reply - from men as well
people. The letters Emerson wrote to Barker, Sturgis, and Ward were unlike
as women When the young Samuel Gray Ward pulled away from Fuller, she
those he wrote to anyone else. For a hermit, Emerson could gush with senti-
"as wrote him that she would excuse his loss of love by bearing in mind that she
ment. Although he never altogether let his guard down with Fuller herself,
you have said 'call up the woman in you.'" Ward could not handle this
Emerson relaxed with his new young friends, perhaps because they were so
evocation of his female spirit. Not all men could love as well as Fuller
young that they were not socially his peers. In 1840, when these friendships
discovered, to her chagrin. "Few male natures can long endure women, a nature
climaxed, Sturgis was twenty-one, Ward twenty-three, and Barker twenty-
pure, as open, as trusting, above all, as overflowing as J[ane]'s," she once as
seven. That year Emerson himself was thirty-seven and Fuller turned thirty.
had counseled a female disciple, alluding to a frustration another of her disciples
At the peak of these sentimental liaisons, Emerson himself marveled at the
recently experienced. "They [i.e., men] want folds to penetrate, dragons to
change in his emotional habits. He wrote about his new friends with tentative
feminine slay, pepper to the cream tart." Fuller saw Emerson as more capacious of
pride to Carlyle: "I have been drawing nearer to a few men & women whose
response than most men; in 1842 she wrote of his "sweet girlish- a
love gives me in these days more happiness than I can write of." With his near
ness," which came and went and which she wished to see more of. And Emer-
sister-in-law Elizabeth Hoar, he was exuberant: "Have I been always a hermit,
for son recognized the erotic, even homoerotic, strain in Fuller's aggressive search
and unable to approach my fellow men, & do the Social Divinities suddenly
intimacy, which he admitted he could not satisfy. The tone of her yearning
offer me a roomfull of friends? Please God, I will not be wanting to my fortune
struck him as at once unspeakably carnal and indescribably pure. When he
but will eat this pomegranate." (In his essay "Of Friendship," Francis Bacon
touched on the matter in his memoir of Fuller, he wrote that Fuller's "friend-
likens the fruit of friendship to "the pomegranate, full of many kernels.") In
ships, as a girl with girls, as a woman with women, were not unmingled with
his portion of the Memoir of Margaret Fuller Ossoli, Emerson explained that
have passion, and had passages of romantic sacrifice and of ecstatic fusion, which I
he and the other editors had considered giving the memoir the title "Margaret
heard with the ear, but could not trust my profane pen to report."1
and her Friends," so inextricable was Fuller's life from the lives she surrounded
late 1830s. He wrote in his journal on 6 May 1837, "Sad is this continual the
Despite his fears and limitations, Emerson was ripe for an experiment in
herself with. He advised the reader that "the narrative, like a Greek tragedy,
should suppose the chorus always on the stage, sympathizing and sympa-
postponement of life. I refuse sympathy & intimacy with people as if in view of
thized with by the queen of the scene." Between the years 1837 and 1841, the
some better sympathy & intimacy to come. But whence & when?" To the
same supposition should perhaps be applied to any discussion of Emerson.
question If not now, when? Emerson had no good answer, and so he lowered
Emerson resisted socialization, but Fuller set upon him optimistically. On
his barriers and let Fuller go to work. She arranged for her choicest friends
21 September 1836, she directed a letter to Emerson with the salutation "My
meet the Concord sage. The Boston bluestocking and poet Caroline Sturgis to
dear friend," explaining that "I may venture to begin SO since you have sub-
visited the Emersons in June 1838, where, Emerson wrote, "twice she engaged
scribed yourself my friend." A year later, however, she had come to a better
my cold pedantic self into a fine surprise of thought & hope." On 3 July 1839,
appreciation of her subject's intractability. On I4 August 1837, a somewhat
Emerson accompanied Fuller to an exhibition of Washington Allston's paint-
dejected Fuller declined to offer any excuses for not having written sooner. "I
ings in Boston, where he met Samuel Gray Ward, the art-loving scion of
have not wished to write," she told Emerson. "For I have been in an irreligious
prominent banking family. Emerson met Anna Hazard Barker, a socialite from a
state of mind, a little misanthropic & sceptical about the existence of any
where New York by way of New Orleans, on 4 October 1839 at Jamaica Plain,
real communication between human beings. I bear constantly in heart that
Barker had come to visit Fuller! described Barker to his aunt as "a
text of yours 'O my friends, there are no friends' but to me it is a paralyzing
he vision of grace & beauty," and she inspired him to write in his diary a sentence
conviction. "19
recycled in his essay "Friendship": "A new person is to me ever a great
In one of his commonplace books, under the heading "Friendship," Emer-
event."
son recorded several such grim entries. One Spanish proverb claimed, much
Barker, Sturgis, and Ward were Fuller's friends long before they were Emer-
like Robert Frost's neighbor in "Mending Wall," that "A wall between both,
he son's. Fuller made him the gift of a posy of intelligent, attractive people. As
best preserves friendship." Emerson also transcribed "Ne cor edito," Pythag-
joked to Fuller, "For a hermit I begin to think I know several very fine
orean apothegm he had found in an essay by Francis Bacon, who glossed it
thus: "Eat not the heart
Those that want friends to open themselves unto
pq-2of6
198 Emerson's "Friendship" and the Samaritans
Emerson's "Friendship" and the Samaritans
199
task, Fuller decided, was to "make all this false true." According to Fuller's
Barker was raised in New York City, although her family relocated to New
Plato, a soul could not return to the ideal until it had been fully real, and that
Orleans in 1834, when she was twenty-one. Adopting a genteel southern
experience included the madness of love. Emerson's premature turn to the
custom, Jacob Barker sent the family women north during the summers, away
general was a hesitation "to act under these limitations of time and space, and
from the heat and the danger of plague, to stay with relatives in Philadelphia,
human nature," to use Fuller's words. It was a resistance to being Waldo
New York City, Newport, and Cambridge. Barker was staying with her cousin
Emerson.
Eliza Rotch Farrar, a sophisticated Quaker who had written a popular book of
In 1842, while Fuller was visiting Concord, she and Emerson fell into one of
etiquette for young women, when she first met Fuller, who was Farrar's Cam-
their debates "on Man and Woman, and Marriage," which by then had be-
bridge neighbor and confidante. Fuller mentioned Barker in her correspon-
come habitual. "W[aldo] took his usual ground," Fuller wrote. "Love is only
dence as early as 1834. By all accounts, Barker was a graceful woman, at ease
phenomenal." She reported that Emerson ended his side of the argument by
with her femininity. It would have been easy for someone like Fuller to react to
stating, rather snidely, that a woman might claim she wanted "to further the
Barker's poise and beauty with envy, but she didn't. Instead, she fell in love.
genius of her husband
but her conduct will always be to claim a devotion
Writing about the two women years later, William Henry Channing thought it
day by day that will be injurious to him, if he yields." By 1842, Fuller and
was as though Fuller had wanted to merge with her young friend - as if Fuller
Emerson had already harrowed hell in pursuit of a resolution to this disagree-
were one of Aristophanes' split people and had recognized in Barker her com-
ment, and she no longer tried to answer him. "I made no reply, for it is not
plement. "Margaret seemed to long, as it were, to transfuse with her force this
worthwhile to, in such cases, by words." Only practice could show up her
nymph-like form, and to fill her to glowing with her own lyric fire," Channing
friend's pessimism.59
wrote. "She sought by genial sympathy thus to live in another's experience."
But in 839 both Emerson and Fuller were still hopeful for a more amicable
Between 1835 and 1837, Fuller wrote more than half a dozen poems about her
result. One optimistic sign was the enthusiasm with which Emerson read
feelings for Barker.61
Elizabeth Brentano von Arnim's Goethe's Correspondence with a Child in
In "To A.H.B.," which Fuller composed in 1836, Barker boards the ship that
July. Posing as a Lolita-like ingenue with the nickname Bettina, von Arnim
has brought Fuller back to Boston, in order to greet Fuller on her return from a
presented a series of fictional letters as authentic- as if they were a sentimen-
holiday in New York State. That holiday in 1835 soon turned out to have been
tal, heterosexual complement to the conversations between Goethe and Ecker-
il brief respite of pleasure in Fuller's life, because the death of Fuller's father a
mann. The book told the story of a sexually charged but apparently uncon-
couple of months later plunged her and her immediate family into poverty.
summated romance between Goethe and Bettina, and its plot-elder sage
When the two young women embrace on deck, as yet ignorant of this tragedy
versus winsome, erotic set the tone for the friendships to come between
but "full of fears / For future days," Fuller daydreams of launching the ship
Emerson and Fuller's circle of youths. Emerson wrote of von Arnim that "it
back out to sea, of whisking Barker away to "some isle far from the haunts of
seems to me she is the only formidable test that was applied to Goethe's
men," where she would be spared "treachery's pestilence, and passion's strife.'
genius." It was a test that Goethe did not seem to have passed. Goethe's
But then Fuller thinks better of her impulse to flee, because it would be wrong
response to Bettina was timorous. It showed he was "too discreet and cow-
10 deprive Barker of the chance to struggle with the world herself. "For thee as
ardly to be great," Emerson noted. Emerson aspired to be equal to any Bettina
me," Fuller concludes, "fire the gold should test." The tests Barker faced would
who challenged him, but he was far from sure of himself. Twice that year he
never be as severe as those that confronted Fuller, but something in Fuller
expressed his worry in his journal: "How can I hope for a friend to me who
reached out to the young beauty in a tender wish to protect her. 6
have never been one?"6
Another poem describes Barker nursing Fuller through a fever. She appeared
almost as an angel in Fuller's dreams, prompting Fuller to observe in he
During 1839 and 1840, even as Fuller bestowed her friends on Emerson, she
journal that "as I have masculine traits, I am naturally often relieved by th
herself was losing her hold on them. Like Emily Dickinson, whose beloved
women in my imaginary distresses." Looking back in 842, Fuller admitte
brother, Austin, married her best friend, Susan Gilbert, Fuller had the bad luck
that "Hoved Anna for a time I think with as much passion as I was then strong
of losing two loves at once, to each other,
enough to feel." Fuller often compared her love for Anna with Madame de
I
The first of Fuller's loves was Anna Hazard Barker. A beautiful socialite,
Stael's love for Madame de Récamier, and made no secret of the comparison
page 3 of 6
Emerson's "Friendship" and the Samaritans
201
feel when we are angels." She stipulated carefully that her passion was "purely
intellectual and spiritual, unprofaned by any mixture of lower instincts," but
its il reader of Plato, she felt that the mystery of her attraction to Anna had the
same solution as the question "Why did Socrates love Alcibiades?"63
The second of Fuller's two loves was Samuel Gray Ward Like Barker, Ward
2
SGW
was from a wealthy family, who, in his case, hoped he would follow his father
into banking. Eventually he did, but when Fuller met him, in July 1835, Ward
was in college and "looked upon myself as a student and literary man," as he
later explained to his father. They met on the same New York trip to Trenton
Falls that figures in Fuller's "To A.H.B." Fuller's impression of Ward at the time
was not favorable. "Did not like him much," she wrote in her journal. But a few
months before her death, she wrote Ward from Italy that she looked back on
their vacation upstate as "the last period of tranquillity in my life." Ward
contributed poems to The Dial, and during an 1836-38 trip to Europe a trip
which Fuller was invited to share but which her father's death prevented -
Ward collected reproductions of famous paintings and sculptures and found
himself gravitating to the fine arts. Today his name is engraved in marble in the
loyer of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which he helped to found, years
after he left Transcendentalism for the world of finance. 64
In the Memoirs of Margaret Fuller Ossoli, Emerson wrote that Ward was
Fuller's "companion, and, though much younger, her guide in the study of
ant.
Emerson explained, as delicately as he could, that Fuller's art-historical
interest in Ward was accompanied by a romantic one. The affinities they
shared, "though sincere, were only veils and occasions to beguile the time, so
profound was her interest in the character and fortunes of her friend." Fuller's
correspondence is more blunt and revealing. A letter she wrote to Ward on
10 April 1836 compares the undulations of a pool of water to "the heaving of
the bosom," in highly sensuous prose. "Oh! what wild work makes a female
pen," Fuller flirtatiously exclaimed. In February 1839, Fuller thanked Sturgis
for a hand-decorated box and asked her to make another with a pale blue
lining, to "hold all I have had and shall have from my friend Raphael; Letters
verses sketches all. I will keep it devoted to him while I live." "Raphael" was
the cognomen Ward had earned, for the interest he took in that artist. Unfor-
muntaly, by the time summer came, in July 1839, Fuller was reproaching
Raphael-Ward for keeping her at a distance. "If you love me as I deserve to be
loved, you cannot dispense with seeing me." From the start, age and social
status had placed them in two different circles. "Nothing but love bound us
together," she explained, "and it must not be my love alone that binds us. "65
As Ward drifted away from Fuller, Emerson took him up. In July, the same
month that Fuller complained of Ward's neglect, Emerson met Ward for the
page 40F6
202 Emerson's "Friendship" and the Samaritans
Emerson's "Friendship" and the Samaritans
20
first time, during a group visit to Washington Allston's Boston gallery. Ward
Although he desired "the gush of mingling souls" as fervently as any Roman-
invited Emerson to come back 10 Boston soon, to see the casts that Horatio
111, he feared that any wish of his "to cast myself into the arms of some other
Greenough had made of Michelangelo's Day and Night. Emerson could not
nature" was "womanish." By manhood, Ward meant in part the respectable
accept Ward's invitation until November, but in August the two ran into each
banking career that his father wanted for him. Fuller accepted this excuse, as if
by chance while hiking in the White Mountains. That autumn, they began to
11 were only natural that she should be associated in his mind with rebellion
correspond regularly
66
from a correctly gendered future. "I will bear in mind that my presence is like
At the end of July, Emerson received a poem from Henry David Thoreau
to recal all you have need to forget and will try to believe that you would not
that struck a chord. Titled "Sympathy," the poem described Thoreau's infatua
be with me lest I 'spoil you for your part on life's dull scene," or as you have
tion with eleven-year-old Edmund Sewall. "I might have loved him had I loved
wind 'call up the woman in you." Ward seems, however, to have been telling
him less," Thoreau wrote. The boy's beauty had caused Thoreau pain and left
Fuller only a partial truth. Soon, with a flood of emotions, the full truth about
him lonely, and Thoreau laid the blame for this on his own inability to achieve
his affections emerged.
a Phaedrus-like vision of the principle shining through Sewall's good looks. "If
In early October 1839, Anna Barker came to stay with Fuller at her home in
I but love that virtue which he is," Thoreau concluded, skipping over Plato's
Jamaica Plain, outside Boston. In "the very first days of Anna," to adopt the
fascination with male bodies to Plato's transcendence of them, "Still shall we
regual chronology used by Fuller, the two women renewed their romance.
be truest acquaintances." In Emerson's opinion, Thoreau's poem was "the
Fuller was "so intoxicated" and "so uplifted by that eldest and divinest love"
purest strain & the loftiest, I think, that has yet pealed from this unpoetic
that her health was overwhelmed, and she took to bed. There she wrote to
American forest."67
Caroline Sturgis, whose rebuffs had recently wounded her. In her bliss, Fuller
On the page immediately following this acclamation of Thoreau, Emerson
HOW forgave Sturgis, but she hinted that Barker's return demoted Sturgis to an
wrote a short monologue warning off a young would-be friend. "I have no
understudy-mu in the way that Mifflin had demoted Gibson when Norris
right of nomination in the choice of my friends," Emerson wrote sternly. "Sir,
1
returned from Europe.
should be happy to oblige you, but my friends must elect themselves." Emer
On Friday, October 4, Emerson went to Jamaica Plain, where for the first
son was accustomed to resolving his erotic attractions by means of Platonic
I
time he met the woman he had been calling "the beautiful Anna" for years,
abnegation, as Thoreau had in "Sympathy." The experiment of weaving these
During his two-day visit, Emerson was charmed to share "the frank & gen-
attractions into friendships made him uneasy. At first Emerson seems to have
crous confidence of a being so lovely, so fortunate, & SO remote from my own
resisted Ward, but this resistance was not rejection. In a September 24 journal
experiences." In his journal, he paid Barker the high compliment of calling her
entry, Emerson took issue with Fuller for misunderstanding his slowness. 'If
"it unit & whole." Although the bias of her nature was "not thought but
you do not like my friend at first sight you will never like him.' Indeed! I had
emotion or sympathy," Emerson found, to his puzzlement, that she "does not
not thought so. I did not, I remember, like you at first sight, yet we manage to
distance me as I believe all others of that cast of character do." In Emerson's
converse now without disgust." Emerson found Ward attractive, but he had
essay "Manners," Barker became a "Persian Lilla" who acted as "a solvent
reservations. "Who is rich, who is fashionable, who is high bred, has great
powerful to reconcile all heterogeneous persons into one society."71
hindrances to success" if he hopes to befriend me, Emerson wrote. Ward
In fact, Barker's erotic power divided rather than united this small society of
would have to prove himself. "Whom have I rejected? whom have I not ad-
Transcendentalists. On October I5, Fuller wrote to Ward that at last she knew
mired?" Emerson wrote to Fuller when she accused him of a sour unwilling-
the truth. Ward and Barker, the two children of wealth and privilege, had
ness to open his heart. "The utmost of my offence is the sluggishness of my
tallen in love. They had been in love since the autumn of 1837, since the
perceptions."6
European tour Fuller had not been able to afford. In Switzerland they had
Meanwhile, Fuller was losing patience with the polite stratagems by which
spent two months admiring the mountain landscapes together. When Ward
Ward kept her at bay. "You love me no more," she wrote him in September.
bought a Saint Bernard, Barker named it Alp. Between December 1838 and
She remembered with anguish that in earlier days, "how did you pray me to
March 1839, Ward had visited Barker again, in New Orleans. As Ward wrote
draw near to you!" Ward put her off a little longer, explaining that he was "not
10 his father on 4 March 1839, he did not then become engaged, but he had no
yet a man" and that intimacy with her felt threatening to his fragile manhood.
doubt that his father "should find in her all that you could desire or wish for in
5 of 6
204
Emerson's "Friendship" and the Samaritans
Emerson's "Friendship" and the Samaritans
205
your daughter and your son's wife." During Barker's return to Massachusett
Men. women should not marry, because marriage made permanent a set of
in October 1839-t the same visit that "so intoxicated" Fuller-the couple
had habits that crippled male sensibility and undermined female strength.
feelings for each other deepened, although as Ward was careful to observe
#1 elibacy," she wrote, is "the great fact of the time. It is one from which no
his father, "My relation to Miss Anna Barker has not changed" - that is, the
vow. no arrangement, can at present save a thinking mind."74
was still no formal engagement. Nonetheless, someone, probably Bark
For a time, in Fuller's circle celibacy prevailed. Ward and Barker had given
thought it was time to disillusion Fuller. "I understand all perfectly," Full
Fuller and Emerson a bad scare, but there was as yet no proposal of marriage.
wrote to Ward on October I5 in a spirit of resignation. She reproached Ward
An Ward himself later recalled, "There was very little probability of such a
for underestimating her; he should have told her sooner; she wished only
jonnexion unless my plans of a scholar's life gave place to some lucrative
further his happiness. "Do you not feel how I should grieve to be the ghost to
profession." And Ward was not ready to give up his literary and artistic ambi-
cross the path of true communion in the Elysian grove[?] Live without
Nons. On 2I October 1839, Emerson wrote in his journal that Fuller had
now. "72
privately told him "a chronicle of sweet romance, of love & nobleness which
In her journal, Fuller was not so accepting. "The son of the Gods has sold hi
have inspired the beautiful & brave." Two pages later, Emerson reconsidered
birthright," she wrote. "He has received therefor one, not merely the faires
Puller's version of their story, somewhat more ambivalently. heard with joy
but the sweetest and holiest of earth's daughters. Yet it is not a fit exchange,
that which thou toldest me o eloquent lady, of thy friends & mine, yet with
Fuller may have been suffering from jealousy and heartache, but her com
my joy mingled a shade of discontent. Things must not be too fine. Parian
ments reflect an accurate understanding of the practical compromises that
marble will not stand exposure to our New England weather.
I dare not
union of Ward and Barker would demand. If they married, Ward and Barker
believe that a mood so delicate can be relied on like a principle for the wear &
would no longer be able to depend on their parents for financial support
tea of years." If Fuller had told Emerson the simple story of Barker and
they wanted to live the way they were both accustomed to living, they would
Ward's courtship, he would perhaps have been disappointed by Ward's defec-
have to give up the intellectual life. Ward would be expected to take up
lion 10 money-making if Ward had defected (he hadn't yet), but there would
traditional career in order to earn enough money to satisfy Barker's expensiv
have been no occasion for him to doubt that a relationship between these two
tastes. For her part, Barker would cultivate those tastes instead of learning to
wealthy, gifted, and lovestruck people would endure. It is more likely that
think or fend for herself. Marriage would stunt the development of both the
Fuller told Emerson that Barker and Ward had exchanged vows of love but
man and the woman.
decided to forgo their enjoyment of each other in order to pursue more lofty
In Woman in the Nineteenth Century, Fuller elaborated her disappointment
goals. This more complicated story would have both elated Emerson and
with Ward and Barker into a feminist critique, writing, "Now there is no
caused him to wonder if it could last.
woman, only an overgrown child." Since marriage was often to blame, Fuller
Emerson was right to be skeptical of what Fuller told him. Fuller seems 11
found herself in that book telling stories against marriage as commonly under
have projected her own wishes and concerns onto the Barker-Ward relation
stood: of an Indian maiden who became betrothed to the sun, of a German
ship. News of the romance set Fuller weighing the pros and cons of her OWI
man and woman who fulfilled their love by joining a monastery and a convent,
romantic state: on the one hand, "No one loves me," but on the other, "I have
of lovers who resided on different continents. Paraphrasing a "wise contempo
notetter on as she wrote in her journal. Perhaps to console herself, Fulle
rary," Fuller wrote that "union is only possible to those who are units." The
began to formulate the idea that reached its fullest expression in Woman in th
wise contemporary was almost certainly Emerson, who wrote in "Friendship"
Nineteenth Century, that marriage as it was then practiced impeded persona
that "there must be very two, before there can be very one." In Fuller's hands,
fulfillment. In her journal in the fall of 1839, she speculated that great spirit
Emerson's eschewal of too much intimacy with other men became an argu-
could never marry, because either marriage would shackle the spirit, or great
ment against heterosexual marriage. Emerson's hierotomy had preserved both
news would throw off the bridle of marriage as it would any other constrictin
his arousal and his innocence with men; it was the impetus, the always post
sham. "Social wedlock," she wrote, "is ordinarily mere subterfuge and sin
poned reward, and the condition of his literary work. In a fascinating twist,
ulacrum: it could not check a powerful woman or a powerful man." Lonel
Fuller adapted this hierotomy to feminist ends. If its effect in Emerson's think
and let down, Fuller seems to have persuaded herself that these insights abou
ing had been somewhat homophobic, its effect in Fuller's was heterophobic.
marriage were as true for Ward and Barker IN they were for herself.
page 6 of
206 Emerson's "Friendship" and the Samaritans
Emerson's "Friendship" and the Samaritans
207
With careful archival work, the scholar Eleanor Tilton has rectified most of
held on to the sketches for two months. He wrote about them repeatedly in his
Fuller's misconstructions and corrected the story and chronology that Fuller,
journal, and in December, when he returned the portfolio to Ward, he summed
out of wishful thinking, somewhat garbled in her poems and in her correspon-
up his impressions in a six-page commentary. Emerson's comments are reveal-
dence. As Tilton points out, somewhat harshly, Fuller got a number of the facts
ing of the different desires that male and female beauty aroused in him. He
wrong, for the simple reason that no one told them to her: they were none of
described the female figures as beautiful in their inattention. They are "pen-
her business. Fuller's misconstructions seem to have irritated Tilton, but I
sive," "unconscious," "thinking of something else," and "stony inscrutable."
would like to pay some attention to them here. Emerson's initial skepticism of
He described male beauty, on the other hand, as natural power. The face of a
Fuller soon gave way to complicity.
Raphael angel "intimates authority impossible to dispute." Guido's Aurora
Perhaps the key thing to understand is that Fuller (and later Emerson) took
has "the most masculine force" with "no convulsion, no straining, no ado, no
as permanent a state of affairs that Ward and Barker no doubt understood to
foam, but flowing grace & ease." Michelangelo is "always colossal even in
be a stopgap. The two lovers were in conflict: Barker wanted financial security,
boys & cupids." And a Roman relief of Endymion displays "the beauty &
and Ward wanted a life of the mind. In 1839 they thought they should not
greatness of one to whom the senses suffice."
marry until they could resolve this conflict. In 1840 they married anyway, and
On 27 October, Emerson wrote to thank Ward for a second gift of Ellery
they resolved their conflict by living it out. They tried both ways of life. After
Channing's poetry. He liked the new batch better than the first better, appar-
their marriage, Ward worked for three years in Boston as a broker, and then
ently, than Ward himself liked them. "There was no progress" in Channing's
the couple spent five years as Transcendental-Jeffersonian farmers in the Berk-
verses, Ward objected when he and Emerson met in early November. 80 Emer-
shires. When, in the end, Ward accepted the position his father had once held
son also acknowledged that he liked Ward's attentions. "I am very happy in
as the American representative of the British investment bank Baring Brothers,
the new relations to which you invite me by your persevering kindness." A few
it was not so much a compromise of his true self as a recognition that in his
days later, Emerson at last went to the Boston Athenaeum to see the casts of
half-decade of sketching and independent study he had not accomplished
Michelangelo's Night and Day that Ward had recommended. He also saw
much. As the banker he finally chose to become, Ward was an outstanding
Ward. When Emerson reported the visit to Elizabeth Hoar, he bestowed on his
success. If Barker and Ward gave each other up in 1839, they must have sensed
new young friend a cognomen even more extravagant than the one Fuller had
in their hearts that the surrender was temporary. Fuller, however, convinced
given him: "I have also seen the Prince-of-the-Purple-Island himself at some
herself otherwise.
leisure & advantage not here but twice in Boston and we have got on farther
It was against this background that Emerson's friendship with Ward bur-
but not yet farthest." Emerson had earlier written to Ward that "there are
geoned. After the two men met in July and August, Ward seems to have
fewer painters than poets." But after an evening's and a morning's tutelage
courted Emerson with a series of gifts. Early in the fall, he forwarded to
from Ward in Boston, artists jumped to the top of Emerson's list of world
Emerson the florid and ungrammatical poems of his friend Ellery Channing.
geniuses. "I had told [Bronson] Alcott that my First Class stood for today
Emerson responded on 3 October in measured tones. He gave the poems qual-
perhaps thus; Phidias, Jesus, [Michel] Angelo, Shakspeare."81
ified praise, and he agreed-almost grudgingly - to meet the poet. Emerson
Emerson's ranking of the arts was not the only prejudice of his that Ward
spent 4 and 5 October with Ward's beloved, Barker. Then, on 8 October,
was altering. Emerson's thoughts on friendship were also in flux. Back in June,
Emerson received from Ward a "rich pacquet": Ward's portfolio of copy
his opinion of friends was the doctrinal paradox he had laid out in "The
sketches of paintings and sculpture by European masters, along with a com-
Heart": "though I prize my friends I cannot afford to talk with them and study
mentary by Fuller. What Emerson was glimpsing of Ward's world impressed
their visions lest I lose my own." In October, however, when Emerson GON-
him. "Two persons lately, very young children of the most high God," Emer-
lided his thoughts on friendship to his journal, they were no longer so aloof.
son wrote in his journal in mid-October 1839, "have admonished me by their
Where before he had presented himself as waving his friends off, now he
silent being. It seemed as if each answered to my heart's inquiry Whence is
imagined himself pining for them. "What needs greater magnanimity than the
your power? 'From my nonconformity.1"
waiting
for a friend; a lover, for years? A few days after his trip with Ward to
Emerson had seen some of the images in Ward's portfolio a year before,
the Athenaeum, Emerson was counseling himself, rather than his importunate
when Fuller brought them to Concord. But in the autumn of 1839, Emerson
friends, to observe a reticent silence, "Why dare you to intermeddle in SO
M. H. S. MISCELLANY
HIS
Published
LOTTER
Massachusetts
occasionally
Historical
by the
Society
1791
1154 Boylston Street, Boston 15, Massachusetts
No. 6
DECEMBER
1960
Come with Me to the Feast;
or, Transcendentalism in Action
T
HE manuscript of the following record of a transcendental half-hour in a
Boston office in 1839 was recently acquired by the Society. The partici-
pants were Samuel Gray Ward (1817-1907), who was sufficiently im-
pressed by the experience to write a Tittle account of it soon afterward, and his
Harvard classmate Jones Very (1813-1880), the principal subject of the account.
Though they were both representative types of their time and place, it would
be hard to imagine two men more different than Ward and Very, which is one of
the reasons why their interview is memorable. Born at No. 3 Park Street across
from Boston Common, Samuel G. Ward was the son of Thomas Wren Ward,
American agent of Baring Brothers and treasurer of both Harvard College and
the Boston Athenxum. His mother was Lydia Gray, of the great Salem and Bos-
ton shipowning family. Sam was sent to Boston Latin School and then to the
Round Hill School at Northampton, whence he entered Harvard. Upon gradu-
ating in 1836 he spent two years in Europe, touring Italy with the Ticknors in
their great berlin drawn by four horses and combing the galleries and print shops
of half a dozen other countries. Returning in 1838, he entered his father's busi-
ness and continued, though with intervals, for many years to preside over the Bar-
ings' interests in the United States. It was he who managed the financing off the
purchase by the United States of Alaska in 1867.
In 1838 Ward had been introduced by Margaret Fuller to Emerson, and a
friendship sprang up between them that was to be lifelong. "Ward has aristo-
cratical position," Emerson wrote in his Journal in 1847, "and turns it to excellent
account; the only aristocrat who does." As one of the founders of the Saturday
1
Club a decade later, Ward helped realize a dream that Emerson had cherished for
Though the precise date of the interview between the mystic and the banker is
years. The long, gemütlich Saturday afternoon sessions at the Parker House were
not known, it very likely took place shortly before Emerson's edition of Very's Es-
a far cry from the spiritual aims and atmosphere of the Transcendental Club fif-
says and Poems was published in the summer of 1839.
teen or twenty years earlier.
One cannot imagine Jones Very at a meeting of the Saturday Club. He was the
Samuel Gray Ward's Account of a Visit
son of a ship captain in William Gray's Salem merchant fleet who died young and
Private
from Jones Very in 1839
impecunious. Very went to work early to support his mother and sisters, but he
had literary talents and contrived to enter Harvard, where he made a distinguished
Shortly before I left home my classmate Very came to see me. When we were in col-
scholastic record. Appointed tutor in Greek, he enrolled in the Divinity School. A
lege we had sate side by side for 3 years without any farther intercourse than that of
the recitation room. He had been quite indifferent to me. I had regarded him as a labori-
tall, gaunt figure with piercing eyes beneath a high, pale forehead, Very had been
ous drudge. There was an ungracefulness about him-yet it was a solemn, not-to-be-
contributing verse to Salem newspapers for years. His poems now grew more
trifled-with awkwardness. He seemed to me to be intensely self conscious. After a-while
rhapsodic and mystical in substance and tone, and early in 1838 Elizabeth Pea-
I began to hear strange stories of him from others. At first that he considered himself
body, a Salem neighbor and a member of the Transcendental Club, wrote enthusi-
born for a great poet; to restore epic poetry. Then of unbridled passions overcome by
astically to Emerson about the poems and their author. Eager to find an American
monkish austerity and selfdenial. [But he was so given to women, crossed out] that he
genius, Emerson was happy to meet Very, was fascinated by his saintly bearing
had made himself a law not to speak (or look at women, I forget which). I never took
and utterances, and hailed him as one of those who might fulfill, in the language
much notice of them, nor thought of him-for I left College and went abroad-until
of The American Scholar, "the postponed expectation of the world with something
W[aldo] Emerson spoke of him. Apparently E. had brought him to remember me.
better than the exertions of mechanical skill."
When he came in I was in the middle of a letter. We shook hands and I gave him a
Then one day in September, 1838, Very told his Greek class that they must
seat. He was changed much in 3 years. His face had no longer the hard, thin, anxious
"flee to the mountains, for the end of all things is at hand." Requested to leave
look of old. His forehead was fuller-his whole face more smooth. It seemed as if he
Harvard, he returned to Salem, announced that what he wrote was dictated by the
had left off thinking since he had become so happy as he expressed himself to be. The
Holy Ghost, publicly disputed with the settled ministers of Salem, and was per-
expression of his features especially the eyes, was peculiarly sweet, and compassionate;
but a constant nervous twitching checked his words.
suaded by his family to enter the McLean Asylum. Just before this he had fur-
He said "I hear little of what is going on-but you were brought to my mind by Mr.
nished Emerson with a collection of his poems and essays. Emerson thought them
E. speaking of you. You have travelled much in foreign countries, since I saw you."
"noble," and declared: "Such a mind cannot be lost." What is more, he set to work
Yes: And you too have not been idle from all I hear from my friends. You have done
editing a selection from them that appeared in 1839 as Essays and Poems, which
a good deal since we left college.
contains most of the sonnets on nature and religion by which Very is remembered
"I have: or rather perhaps, what I have done was but the appearance of the fruit that
today. Very was released after a single month and paid a visit of several days to
was maturing during those years I was there."
Concord, "confounding us all," Emerson recorded, "whether he was insane. At
He said the time is coming when the wheat must be separated from the husk-and
first sight and speech, you would certainly pronounce him so. Talk with him a few
I came to see where you were. The husk must be thrown aside as of no value-and I
hours and you will think all insane but he"-a transcendentalist pronouncement
come to bid you if you are ready to come to the feast where we are all assembled-and
if there ever was one.
waiting for you; and I am one:-
But about the time the Essays and Poems came out, Emerson made a decision
I replied-You speak of corn and husk. Now look into a cornfield-first you see the
concerning Very. "Here is Simeon the Stylite, or John of Patmos," he wrote in his
green shoot; that is beautiful and good: let it stay! Then you see coming out one by 0116
the leaves the blossom, the husk- green and flourishing-all a beauty and clothing
Journal in June, 1839, "in the shape of Jones Very, religion for religion's sake,
to the Earth. But the corn all this while is hidden. We are not anxious, because we
religion divorced, detached from man, from the world, from science and art; grim,
know that where the plant is strong and healthy, the corn within is sound. Now I said
unmarried, insulated, accusing; yet true in itself, and speaking things in every
I am not ready to throw the husks aside as long as they are beautiful and useful-and
word. The lie is in the detachment; and when he is in the room with other persons,
suit the time.
speech stops as if there were a corpse in the apartment." In short, Very might be
hear you-but I take no meaning from what you say. I hear your words, but they
an inspired poet, but he was also a bore. Emerson was not going to give up the
convey nothing to me."
world of his friend Sam Ward for the spiritual exaltation-and isolation-of his
friend Jones Very.
How then shall hear you? How shall I know that what you tell me is right, more than
what I tell you-how shall we know whom to believe?
"Believe all."
3
But some men say what is not true-they deceive themselves.
Papers), and endorsed "Jones Very
during his aberration of mind." Written
one can deceive himself."
shortly after his release from McLean, it gives a remarkably detailed account of
Then he drew his chair nearer to mine-and said--) came yesterday to see you twice
at your house-and did not find you at home-and I took this for a sign that I was not
Very's recent spiritual progress and current state, and calls upon Bellows as a
to find you at your real home-and I do not. I come from the banquet where we are all
minister of Christ to "beware lest you add to the number of those false prophets
together. I do not wish to come, for myself. I am happy there-and it pains me to break
who have already come, crying peace, peace when there is no peace
This letter
my repose and come into the world-but I feel that we cannot live for ourselves alone;
is written that you may make it as public as possible." The second is a letter from
and SO I do come to tell you how sweet the banquet is, and to beg you to come in to it:
Richard Henry Dana, Jr., to William Cullen Bryant, Boston, May 21, 1840 (4
You are writing a letter-if you are ready, break it off in the middle and follow me.
pages, Dana Papers), sending a copy of Very's Essays and Poems. The sonnets,
I answered that I was not ready-that I had that letter to finish, and my life to live;
says Dana, "will please you wonderfully. The thought is deeply spiritual; and
and that when I was ready I would come.
while there is a certain character of peculiarity which we so often find in like things
Well- whenever the time comes you must come-i will be in vain for you to resist
of our old writers, there is freedom from quaintness. You will be much struck with
and I have come this morning and laid the axe at your door, and it can never be taken
the collocation, simplicity and expressiveness of the language. Indeed, I know not
away from there by any one.
where you could turn away from yourself, and find any thing in this country to
[It seemed to me that he came with an ill omen to the matter I was busy upon when
compare with these Sonnets." As for Very himself, Dana continues, he
he entered: which was one of no little import to me.]
I said: we have gone along, and been near each other much, and yet met little-now
is clearly insane, and has been SO for nearly two years.
The other day he uttered
you come to me-you have something to say-and we shall meet perhaps when you shall
some deep truths, but in strange phraseology, and connected with much that could only
find me more at home than now:
be as a dream to himself. Yet, I am told that these sonnets have been written since he
He said: that is the way with pilgrims. They go along together by the same way and
fell into this condition
He is quite intimate with Emerson and the other Spiritualists
when one has any thing to tell the other to his advantage he goes and tells him-other-
or Supernaturalists, or whatever they are called, or may be pleased to call themselves;
wise each goes along his own way.
and his insanity has taken that shape accordingly. I am told that some of them are ab-
He invited me to visit him at his own house. "Dont make the mistake that the gentle-
surd enough to say that he is not insane-but that the world does not understand him.
man did who came to visit one of our city; and knowing him to be distinguished he
Would their insanity were no worse than his; but "madness is in their hearts."
looked at first in the best street, and among the best houses. But he did not find it, not
even in the street. And he went into another poorer street, and did not find it there-
L. H. BUTTERFIELD
and at last, in a poor street in a poor house he found him. Now when you come to look
for the 'rich man' do not commit this mistake. My friends receive me now: those who
are glad of this news I bring them. But I am going to have soon a new mansion for
Plus Ca Change, etc.
myself."
I--not understanding m-asked if he spoke of his temporal or spiritual house. But
The Society takes pride in its service to scholarship. But as its collections-and
he said it was all one. There was but one house.
therefore its visitors-have increased over the years, such service became harder
Then he shortly bade me good bye.
to offer: our second-floor Reading Room was too small for the number of scholars
frequenting it.
[Added in a later hand:]
As of this past October, this awkward situation was no more. Early in that
The above has no date but was undoubtedly written by me in the year 1839.
month, the Reading Room had new-and exceptionally handsome-quarters on
Saml G Ward
the building's first floor. The contents of one and a half tiny rooms now occupy
May 25. '96
three, among them the largest in the entire edifice. A brisk autumn assures us they
will be warm in winter; air conditioners promise cool research in summer; and
Among other manuscripts by and relating to Jones Very owned by the Society
dark fall afternoons prove their lighting effective. Seating and table space are al-
and evidently not hitherto used in studies of his life and writings are two that are
most trebled, while new low bookcases provide working tools within easy reach.
of special interest but too long to include in this MISCELLANY. The first is a letter
On the walls are hung some of our finest large portraits. About the only constant
from Very to the Reverend Henry Whitney Bellows, an acquaintance of Very's at
item in the new quarters is the service: it remains prompt, courteous, and reas-
the Harvard Divinity School, dated Salem, December 29, 1838 (4 pages, Bellows
suring.
4
5
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David Dowling aims to give us here "a deeper explanation of the professional fates of those in
whom Emerson invested generous time, energy, creativity, and capital for their literary success" (4). At
the same time, by working through the effects of Emerson's mentoring on these varied figures, Dowling
aims to construct an "aggregate portrait of his signature method and style of patronage, which has
received little critical attention" (5). Indeed, we learn much about Emerson's pedagogy and theory of
influence: whom he selected to mentor and why; what sorts of genius he found in actually existing
humans; how he struggled with the question-begging prospect of actually teaching self-reliance, creative
autonomy, and obedience to method; and how he met the challenge faced by all mentors: separating
personal feelings and allegiances from professional judgement and responsibility.
In an assured and knowing style, Dowling often furnishes what feels like a window on the
innermost sanctums of the Emersonian circle. On Henry David Thoreau: "It is testament to Emerson's
conscientious mentorship and patronage that he was constantly supplying his pupil with the tools of his
own independence, from his initial funding of his study of British poetry to providing him with the real
estate for his cabin at Walden" (89-90). On Margaret Fuller: "What perhaps pays homage most to
Emerson's successful mentorship was that she passed on precisely the kinds of courage he taught to
her" (68). On Christopher Cranch: "Emerson's intervention would rid Cranch of his passive theological
calling, encouraging him instead to consider vocation a conscious choice to be mediated by and
implemented in a real market with a discerning and paying audience" (130-31). If there is any defect in
Dowling's prose it is his occasional lapse into a fan-clubby ventriloquism that channels a nineteenth-
century discourse of genius: "Emerson now turned toward cultivating Thoreau's creative mind, which
vibrated through these roots to the bottomlessness of the human soul, the infinitude of the sky and
universe beyond, and the sheer power of immortality" (75).
A
key point--the role of the market in conferring and confirming success as a creator--is given
especial weight in Dowling's study of Samuel Gray Ward. In many ways, Ward was Emerson's ideal pupil:
though not as personally close to Emerson as Fuller or Thoreau, he stood out from the other protégés--
Cranch, Charles King Newcomb, Jones Very, and William Ellery Channing--by proving most adept at
balancing his art and his life. While Emerson appreciated and promoted his work, Ward married well,
succeeded as a banker, and, most important, pursued his aesthetic and spiritual ventures without
making continuing demands on Emerson for patronage. More than any of the other mentees, Ward did
not need Emerson. In that respect, Dowling observes, "he was in Emerson's eyes a master at life and a
finished man" (167).
In citing these examples of Emerson's effectiveness in mentoring, I may have given the impression
that Dowling chiefly highlights his protégés. But this book is ultimately about Emerson's development as
mentor, confederate, and instigator. If you want to learn more about lesser known figures in his orbit
such as Very, Ward, and Newcomb, you will be disappointed. This book surveys their lives mostly to show
how they impinge on Emerson and reveal his capacities as the pater familias of Transcendentalism. Very
is a good example. Dowling charts his astonishing rise and even more astonishing departure from the
Transcendental circle only insofar as they reveal Emerson's nuanced and sympathetic cultivation of the
(likely) bipolar young poet.
But that is as it should be; there is no need for Dowling to retell the lives of Thoreau or Fuller or
even Cranch. He aims instead to show how their aspirations as writers and thinkers dovetailed with
Emerson's mission to forge a new American nous. "The mind of this country, taught to aim at low objects,
eats upon itself," declared Emerson in "The American Scholar." Given this debility, Dowling shows how
Emerson pushed his mentees to aim higher and feed voraciously on the new possibilities of a new nation.
2/26/2020
4 Samuel Gray Ward: A Financier's Aesthetic - Yale Scholarship
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9780300197440
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4 Samuel Gray Ward: A Financier's Aesthetic
David Dowling
OI:10.12987/yale/9780300197440.003.0005
This chapter focuses on Ralph Waldo Emerson's mentorship of aristocratic Boston banker and art
critic Samuel Gray Ward. It considers how Ward filled Emerson's need for an art critic in his
journal, the Dial. Before analyzing the relationship between Ward and Emerson, the chapter
examines Ward's decision to marry wealthy socialite Anna Barker rather than Margaret Fuller,
and how that marriage was perceived by many as a defection from the transcendentalist
movement. It then turns to the reaction of Emerson and Elizabeth Peabody to the Ward-Barker
union before concluding with a discussion of Ward's writings on art criticism and history.
Keywords: mentorship, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Samuel Gray Ward, Dial, Anna Barker, Margaret Fuller, marriage,
transcendentalist movement, Elizabeth Peabody, art criticism
David Dowing Enerson's Proteges.
SAMUEL GRAY WARD
New Haven: Yale U.P., 2014.
4
SAMUEL GRAY WARD: A FINANCIER'S
AESTHETIC
Seated beside Jones Very at Harvard's commencement exercises
in 1836, Samuel Gray Ward seemed yet another young aesthetic rebel
poised for his turn with Concord's leading light. The tableau would prove
misleading, however, as their proximity during the ceremony was by acci-
dent of alphabetical order only. In fact, the two were virtual strangers at
Harvard, which is not surprising given their disparate temperaments and
career trajectories. Very, the zealot infamous for proclaiming he was the
second coming of Christ, would occupy transcendentalism's radical fringe
Samuel Gray Ward (Houghton Library, Harvard University)
at the farthest imaginable distance from Ward, who was to become a worldly
aristocratic Boston banker and art critic. Both, however, shared the distinc-
tion of donning professional identities that tested the tolerance of a tran-
Ellery Channing, the younger) who expected them to marry and were
scendental movement well known for accommodating eccentricity. Very
stunned when they did not. Fuller's own painful response to the news of
extended Emersonian radicalism to unheard-of levels, while Ward sent
their engagement illustrates this discrepancy of expectation, especially the
shock waves throughout the transcendental community with an entirely
nature of their relationship as Ward imagined it. Indeed, the proposal to
different, yet perhaps more violent breach of the circle's collective ethos.
some violated the sacrosanct anti-trade ethos of the Concord circle, and
With great expectations to marry Margaret Fuller and embrace an aesthetic
the aggrieved, the foremost of whom were Fuller and Channing, duly
life of art and literature-a royal wedding of sorts in Emerson's Concord
registered their shrill protests. By contrast, T. S. Eliot's bank work in
kingdom-Ward sinned unpardonably by instead marrying wealthy socialite
London in the next century was understood by his literary circle to be a
Anna Barker and accepting employment in her father's banking firm.
regrettable, but finally unavoidable, concession to economic necessity
Although Ward may have never considered Fuller in a romantic light
rather than an endorsement of the capitalist culture. Indeed, Ezra Pound
despite their intense intimacy and companionship, and courted Barker
even established an organized fund-raising drive on his behalf to relieve
from the first day he met her, different levels of understanding of Ward's
him of what he believed was mindless drudgery. Although Eliot's banking
wedding plans ranged from Fuller herself to the Concord circle (led by
position effectively answered his financial needs, his predicament was
The Early Years of The Saturday Club, 1855-1870.
Ed. Edward Waldo Emerson. 1918.
"Samuel Gray Ward"
"Ward was a man of good birth and breeding, with artistic tastes
and gifts, and political business talent; these struggled in him for
the mastery. His father, Thomas Wren Ward, was a merchant in
Boston with his home in Park Street, where Samuel was born in
1817 Margaret Fuller, the eager young girl of astonishing
scholarship and intellectual power became his friend,
[introducing him to Ralph Waldo Emerson, 14 years older]."
[Their friendship is legendary. As early as 1847, Emerson writes
in his Journal]: "Ward has aristocratical position and turns it to
excellent account; the only aristocrat who does.. I find myself
interested that he should play his part of the American gentleman
well, but am contented that he should do that instead of me,--do
the etiquette instead of men,--and I am contended that others
should sail the ships and work the spindles."
"In the middle of the last century a constellation ..had been
visible, at first dimly, in the New England heavens. a group [that]
gave increasing light and cheer here and to the westward
journeying sons and daughters. These brave illuminators-poets,
scholars, statesmen, workers in science, art, law, medicine, large
business, and good citizenship. were drawn together [and][
in
the summer of 1855 eleven of these agreed to meet for monthly
dinners in Boston soon [drawing] friends with genius or wit into
their circle."
R.W. Emerson conceived of such a group in 1844, " about the
time...when he was finding great refreshment and pleasure in a
friendship with Samuel Gray Ward, a young man of high
aspirations, careful breeding, much natural gift for and knowledge
of art, and entirely at home in society and literature." "
Their members included Louis Agassiz, Emerson, Ward, James
Russell Lowell, Ebeneezer Rockwood Hoar, Henry Wadsworth
Longfellow, Oliver Wendell Holmes, John Greenleaf Whittier,
Nathaniel Hawthorne, Charles Eliot Norton, Henry James, James
Thomas Fields, etc.
Biographical profiles of their members were published in three
volumes, covering the first century of the organization. Each
chronicles, as Bliss Perry puts it, " " the comings, goings,
personalities, opinions, and occupations" of their members,
recollections of older members written by younger friends.
A full set is in Emerson's home nearby.
Compilation
Epp. March 10, 2016
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Samuel Gray Ward (1817-1907) The Walden Woods Project
Menu
Historical and Biographical Introduction to the Dial. G.W. Cooke.
1902. Vol2
Pp. 36-39.
pl
Courtesy of Houghton Portrait File, Houghton Library, Harvard
University
One of Emerson's friends, who became a contributor to "The Dial"
through his influence, was Samuel Gray Ward, son of Thomas Wren
Ward, a Boston banker, for many years treasurer of the Boston
Athenaeum, and afterwards of Harvard College. The father was, in 1827,
made the American agent of the banking house of Baring Brothers of
London, and on his retirement many years later, the agency was
continued. in the hands of the son. It remained under his direction until
1887, first in Boston, but after 1862 in New York; and during this period
https://www.walden.org/what-we-do/library/thoreau/samuel-gray-ward-1817-1907/#:~:text=Samuel Gray Ward was born, and friendship with Emerson b
2/8
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Samuel Gray Ward (1817-1907) I The Walden Woods Project
Menu
JULLLDJ.
Samuel Gray Ward was born in Boston, October 3, 1817, and graduated
at Harvard in 1836. He then spent two years of travel in Europe under
fortunate circumstances; and it was on his return, in 1838, that his
acquaintance and friendship with Emerson began. He contributed six
poems to "The Dial" and four prose articles. Four of the poems were
printed in the first number, being the sonnet to W. Allston on seeing his
painting called "The Bride," which was placed immediately after
Margaret Fuller's article on the "Allston Exhibition;" the song on the
next page; and the poems called "The Shield" and "Come Morir," placed
before and after "The Problem" of Emerson. In the third number of the
first volume appeared Ward's "Letters from Italy on the Representatives
of Italy," which were devoted to the discussion of the influence of
Boccaccio on Italian literature and character. Near the end of the
second number of the third volume was printed a dialogue by Ward,
called "The Gallery," which discussed the true principles of art. In the
first number of the fourth volume appeared "Notes on Art and
Architecture," and in the third number an article on the "Translation of
Dante," reviewing T. W. Parsons' translation of the first ten cantos of
"The Inferno." The last number contained "The Twin Loves" and "The
Consolers," poems by Ward. Emerson included in his "Parnassus" "The
Shield" and "The Consolers," but without Ward's name.
In a personal letter Ward says of his connection with "The Dial": "The
only literary interest attaching to my name in this connection grows out
of my early intimacy with the founders of "The Dial," - Margaret Fuller,
whom I knew from 1835, and R. W. Emerson a year or two later; and
with the other writers who made SO great a name in the following
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Samuel Gray Ward (1817-1907) I The Walden Woods Project
Menu
NUSHILDO, I WAIN LVC11 supporing
the literary gift, which, as it never manifested itself in such
surroundings, may be doubted." However, Ward contributed an essay
on "Criticism" to Miss Peabody's "AEsthetic Papers," and, in 1840, he
published in Boston a volume of translations from Goethe, entitled
"Essays on Art." It was at one time proposed that he should prepare a
part of the memoirs of Margaret Fuller, which were finally written by
Emerson, Clarke, and W. H. Channing. Higginson prints in his biography
of her a letter to Ward, in which she speaks in glowing words of her
interest in the various phases of nature. Emerson found in Ward a
devoted friend, and his letters to Ward have been edited by Professor
Charles Eliot Norton as "Letters from Ralph Waldo Emerson to a Friend,
1838-1853." Norton says of these letters: "The letters and fragments of
letters here printed are part of the early records of a friendship which,
beginning when Emerson was thirty years old, lasted unbroken and
cordial till his death
The friend was younger than Emerson by nine
years. At the beginning of their friendship he had lately returned from
Europe, where he had spent a year and a half under fortunate
conditions. The youth had brought back from the Old World much of
which Emerson, with his lively interest in all things of the intelligence,
was curious and eager to learn. His own genius was never more active
or vigorous, and his young friend's enthusiasm was roused by the spirit
of Emerson's teaching
He did not fall into the position of a disciple
seeking from Emerson a solution of the problems of life; but he
brought to Emerson the highest appreciation of the things which
Emerson valued, and knowledge of other things of which Emerson
knew little but for which he cared much."
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Samuel Gray Ward (1817-1907) I The Walden Woods Project
Menu
copeciany painting 111 LIIIS
knowledge that Emerson learned most from his friend. In one of the
earlier of the letters Emerson refers to a portfolio of sketches loaned
him by his friend. Ward gave him one of these, and Emerson expressed
his reluctance to separate it from "its godlike companions to put it
where it must shine alone." In his "Ode to Beauty" Emerson refers to his
art studies with Ward:
"I turn the proud portfolios
Which hold the grand designs
Of Salvator and Guecino,
And Piranesi's lines."
The friends exchanged books, Emerson sending Thoreau's "Elegy," and
his own essay on "Friendship." Concerning the latter he wrote: "I am just
now finishing a chapter of friendship (of which one of my lectures last
winter contained a first sketch) on which I would gladly provoke a
commentary. I have written nothing with more pleasure, and the piece
is already indebted to you and I wish to swell my obligations." This
correspondence did not continue beyond 1853, doubtless in part
because the friends often met for a number of years after that date.
What the friendship was to Emerson is indicated by his saying in one of
his letters: "The reason why I am curious about you is that with tastes
which I also have. you have tastes and powers and corresponding
circumstances which I have not and perhaps cannot divine." In one of
his letters to Carlyle, in 1843, Emerson wrote of Ward as CC my friend
and the best man in the city, and. besides all his personal merits, a
master of all the offices of hospitality." In fact, Ward was eminently a
clubbable man, and he was not only a member of the transcendental
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Samuel Gray Ward (1817-1907) I The Walden Woods Project
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LITTIC 111 IUTU. VVILI LIIL
Saturday Club, the most prominent and successful of the literary clubs
of Boston. Concerning its formation Richard Henry Dana, the younger,
said: "The club had an accidental origin. in a habit of Emerson, Dwight,
Whipple, and one or two more dining at Woodman's room at Parker's
occasionally. Ward is a friend of Emerson's, and came."
In one of his letters to Ward Emerson mentions his having invited
Longfellow and Lowell to join the club, and their interest in it; also he
speaks of Lowell's enthusiasm in regard to the publication of a
magazine, "The Atlantic Monthly" finally being the result.
After his retirement from business, in 1887, Ward became a resident of
Washington, where he is still living.
-George Willis Cooke, A Historical
and Biographical Introduction to the Dial
(Cleveland: Rowfant Club, 1902) V. 2, pp. 36-39
From AEsthetic Papers:
Criticism
From The Dial:
No. I (Vol. I., no. 1): July 1840:
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6/8
THE UNION BANK OF LOUISIANA LOAN, 1832
A CASE STUDY IN MARKETING
R. W. HIDY
Wheaton College
Norton, Massachusetts
T
FILL one gap in the hitherto neglected historical
analysis of the services and functions of international
bankers, this paper presents a study of the technique of
placing a specific American loan on the European market approxi-
mately one hundred years ago. It attempts also to determine
generally the question of profit or loss to the marketing firms, to
analyze the circumstances affecting the operation, and to assess
the influence of the transaction upon the policy of the London
firm directly responsible for selling the bonds. The material for
this study is derived largely from the business correspondence of
Baring Brothers and Company now in the Public Archives of
Canada, Ottawa.
In many ways the history of the marketing of the Union Bank
loan of 1832 serves as an excellent illustration of the activities
of London merchant-bankers handling American bond issues dur-
ing the 1830's The loan was issued by the state of Louisiana as
an aid to the establishment of a land bank, in itself a typical
practice of southern states in a period of great agricultural ex-
pansion. The firm of Baring Brothers and Company, the leading
merchant-bankers in Anglo-American trade at the time, could
scarcely be excelled as a type The contract provided for both a
purchase on joint account and sales on commission, but the Bar-
ings exercised exclusive control over the sale of the securities.
Finally, the loan, the largest single American issue placed by the
Barings upon the European market prior to the débâcle of 1842,
is important as marking some changes in the policy of the firm
itself.
The Union Bank of Louisiana, chartered on April 2, 1832, and
destined to become the model for other institutions of its kind
232
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All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
Journal of Political Economy
47 (1939):232-253.
Note: on Thomas when and Samed
gray ward representation for
Barurgo in the deepsouth.
THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS JOURNALS
The Union Bank of Louisiana Loan, 1832: A Case Study in Marketing
Author(s): R. W. Hidy
Source: Journal of Political Economy, Vol. 47, No. 2 (Apr., 1939), pp. 232-253
Published by: The University of Chicago Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1826640
Accessed: 22-09-2017 02:40 UTC
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An Historical and Biographical
Introduction to Accompany
The Dial
As Reprinted in Numbers for
The Rowfant Club
George Willis Cooke
G
In Two Volumes
Vol. II
Unitarton minister, writer, editor lecturer
(1848-1923). Will known for his Unitalianign
in America (1902), his edition of Sweeson life
twittings (1881), and his borgraph of John Sullivan
Durght (1898). Cleveland
The Rowfant Club
1902
VI
SAMUEL GRAY WARD
ONE of Emerson's friends, who became a contributor to "The
Dial" through his influence, was Samuel Gray Ward, son of
Thomas Wren Ward, a Boston banker, for many years treas-
urer of the Boston Athenium, and afterwards of Harvard
College. The father was, in 1827, made the American agent
of the banking house of Baring Brothers of London, and on
his retirement many years later, the agency was continued
in the hands of the son. It remained under his direction
until 1887, first in Boston, but after 1862 in New York;
and during this period of sixty years the agency was con-
ducted with uniform wisdom and success.
Samuel Gray Ward was born in Boston, October 3, 1817,
and graduated at Harvard in 1836. He then spent two
years of travel in Europe under fortunate circumstances;
and it was on his return, in 1838, that his acquaintance and
friendship with Emerson began. He contributed six poems
to "The Dial" and four prose articles. Four of the poems
were printed in the first number,)being the sonnet to W.
Allston on seeing his painting called "The Bride," which
was placed immediately after Margaret Fuller's article on
the " Allston Exhibition;" the song on the next page; and
the poems called "The Shield" and "Come Morir," placed
before and after "The Problem " of Emerson. /In the third
number of the first volume appeared Ward's "Letters from
Italy on the Representatives of Italy,">which were devoted
to the discussion of the influence of Boccaccio on Italian
literature and character.
Near the end of the second num-
ber of the third volume was printed a dialogue by Ward,
36
Samuel Gray Ward
called "The Gallery," which discussed the true principles
of art.> In the first number of the fourth volume appeared
" Notes on Art and Architecture," and in the third number
an article on the "Translation of Dante," reviewing T. W.
Parsons' translation of the first ten cantos of "The Inferno."
The last number contained "The Twin Loves" and "The
Consolers," poems by Ward. Emerson included in his
"Parnassus" "The Shield" and "The Consolers," but with-
out Ward's name.
In a personal letter Ward says of his connection with
"The Dial": "The only literary interest attaching to my
name in this connection grows out of my early intimacy
with the founders of 'The Dial,'- - Margaret Fuller, whom I
knew from 1835, and R. W. Emerson a year or two later;
and with the other writers who made so great a name in the
following decades.> The thirty years and more of my active
life were devoted to business, which left no time for literary
work, even supposing that I had the literary gift, which, as
it never manifested itself in such surroundings, may be
doubted." However, Ward contributed an essay on "Criti-
cism" to Miss Peabody's " Asthetic Papers," and, in 1840,
he published in Boston a volume of translations from Goethe,
entitled "Essays on Art.">It was at one time proposed that
he should prepare a part of the memoirs of Margaret Fuller,
which were finally written by Emerson, Clarke, and W. H.
Channing. Higginson prints in his biography of her a letter
to Ward, in which she speaks in glowing words of her in-
terest in the various phases of nature.
Emerson found in Ward a devoted friend, and his letters
to Ward have been edited by Professor Charles Eliot Norton
as "Letters from Ralph Waldo Emerson to a Friend, 1838-
1853." Norton says of these letters : "The letters and frag-
ments of letters here printed are part of the early records of
a friendship which, beginning when Emerson was thirty
years old, lasted unbroken and cordial till his death.
The
37
Introduction to The Dial
friend was younger than Emerson by nine years. At the
beginning of their friendship he had lately returned from
Europe, where he had spent a year and a half under fortu-
nate conditions. The youth had brought back from the Old
World much of which Emerson, with his lively interest in
all things of the intelligence, was curious and eager to learn.
His own genius was never more active or vigorous, and his
young friend's enthusiasm was roused by the spirit of Emer-
C.F. Norton
son's teaching.
He did not fall into the position of a
disciple seeking from Emerson a solution of the problems of
life; but he brought to Emerson the highest appreciation of
the things which Emerson valued, and knowledge of other
things of which Emerson knew little but for which he cared
much.">
While in Europe Ward had devoted himself largely to the
study of art, especially painting and architecture; and it was
in this field of knowledge that Emerson learned most from
his friend. In one of the earlier of the letters Emerson
refers to a portfolio of sketches loaned him by his friend.
Ward gave him one of these, and Emerson expressed his re-
luctance to separate it from "its godlike companions to put
it where it must shine alone." (In his "Ode to Beauty" "
Emerson refers to his art studies with Ward
"I turn the proud portfolios
Which hold the grand designs
Of Salvator and Guecino,
And Piranesi's lines."
The friends exchanged books, Emerson sending Thoreau's
"Elegy," and his own essay on "Friendship."> Concerning
RWE
the latter he wrote : "I am just now finishing a chapter of
friendship (of which one of my lectures last winter con-
tained a first sketch) on which I would gladly provoke a com-
mentary. I have written nothing with more pleasure, and
the piece is already indebted to you and I wish to swell my
38
Samuel Gray Ward
obligations." This correspondence did not continue beyond
1853, doubtless in part because the friends often met for a
number of years after that date. What the friendship was
to Emerson is indicated by his saying in one of his letters
"The reason why I am curious about you is that with tastes
which I also have, you have tastes and powers and corre-
sponding circumstances which I have not and perhaps can-
not divine."
In one of his letters to Carlyle, in 1843, Emerson wrote
of Ward as "my friend and the best man in the city, and,
besides all his personal merits, a master of all the offices of
hospitality." In fact, Ward was eminently a clubbable man,
and he was not only a member of the transcendental club, but
of the Town and Country Club that succeeded it for a short
time in 1849. He was also connected with the beginnings
of the Saturday Club the most prominent and successful of
the literary clubs of Boston. Concerning its formation Rich-
ard Henry Dana, the younger, said: "The club had an acci-
dental origin, in a habit of Emerson, Dwight, Whipple, and
one or two more dining at Woodman's room at Parker's oc-
casionally. Ward is a friend of Emerson's, and came." In
one of his letters to Ward Emerson mentions his having
invited Longfellow and Lowell to join the club, and their
interest in it; also he speaks of Lowell's enthusiasm in
regard to the publication of a magazine, "The Atlantic
Monthly" finally being the result.
After his retirement from business, in 1887, Ward became
a resident of Washington, where he is still living.
39
Contents
CHAPTER
PAGE
I. CHRISTOPHER PEARSE CRANCH
1
II. THE EMERSON FAMILY
7
III. JOHN SULLIVAN DWIGHT
20
IV. WILLIAM HENRY CHANNING
24
V. THEODORE PARKER
30
VI. SAMUEL GRAY WARD
36
VII. AMOS BRONSON ALCOTT
40
VIII. WILLIAM DEXTER WILSON
51
IX. THE STURGIS SISTERS
54
X. JAMES FREEMAN CLARKE AND SARAH CLARKE
62
XI. FREDERIC HENRY HEDGE
69
XII. WILLIAM ELLERY CHANNING
75
XIII. THOMAS TREADWELL STONE
87
XIV. JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL
94
XV. JOHN MILTON MACKIE
98
XVI. JOHN FRANCIS TUCKERMAN
99
XVII. ELIZA THAYER CLAPP
101
XVIII. JONATHAN ASHLEY SAXTON
113
XIX. WILLIAM BATCHELDER GREENE
117
XX. BENJAMIN FRANKLIN PRESBURY
129
XXI. CHARLES ANDERSON DANA
133
XXII. JONES VERY
137
XXIII. CHARLES KING NEWCOMB
143
XXIV. CHARLES LANE AND ALCOTT'S ENGLISH FRIENDS
148
V
385271
Contents
CHAPTER
PAGE
XXV. CHARLES STEARNS WHEELER
161
XXVI. LYDIA MARIA CHILD
166
XXVII. GEORGE WILLIAM CURTIS
170
XXVIII. BENJAMIN PETER HUNT
176
XXIX. JAMES ELLIOT CABOT
181
XXX. CHARLES TIMOTHY BROOKS
184
XXXI. ERRATA, REPRINTS, ETC.
187
XXXII. TITLES AND CONTRIBUTORS
196
XXXIII. INDIVIDUAL CONTRIBUTIONS
212
INDEX
229
vi
Allen Chamberlain. keacon Hill: Its Anciat Parture
and Early llansions. Boston: HM,
1925.
Chap. 13 only
LOUISBURG SQUARE
events of wide importance enacted there was the
marriage of the famous singer, Jenny Lind, to her
accompanist, Otto Goldschmidt, on February 5,
1852 Samuel G. Ward, who lived at Number 20,
was Boston representative of Baring Brothers,
the prima-donna's London bankers, and he opened
his house for the occasion.) During her most suc-
cessful years Louisa M. Alcott and her aged father
lived as tenants at Number IO, and William Dean
Howells was at Number 4 at the time when he was
editing the 'Atlantic Monthly.' In the sixties
John G. Palfrey, author of 'The History of New
England,' was a tenant in the Square, and the
well-beloved Reverend Samuel Hobart Winkley
made his home at Number II from 1874 until his
death in 19II. In the summer of 1915, Mrs. Fiske,
the celebrated actress, chose the Square as the
setting for a scene from 'Vanity Fair' that she
was to act before a screen camera. It was to be
the picture of the marriage of Becky Sharp to
Jos Sedley in Russell Square, London, and in
Louisburg Mrs. Fiske found an environment
sufficiently English in its qualities to satisfy the
needs of the occasion. In this act she was supported
by two amateurs, both residents of the Square,
one gentleman taking the part of Sedley, the other,
arrayed in blue-and-white livery, acted as coach-
man and drove the bride and groom around the
mall.
201
Note: Enderce indicates that
Thousan when ward financed
S.G ward residence
Louisburg the gift? Residency after Square the appear mid-1840's marriage to
uncertain when the S.6.W family Lenoy. moved
8/17/2019
Proprietors of Louisburg Square (Boston, Mass.) Records, 1826-1980
Proprietors
of
Louisburg
Square
(Boston,
Mass.)
Records
1826-1980
Guide to the Collection
COLLECTION SUMMARY
CREATOR:
Proprietors of Louisburg Square (Boston, Mass.)
TITLE:
Proprietors of Louisburg Square (Boston, Mass.) records
DATES:
1826-1980
PHYSICAL
6 document boxes, 5 cased volumes, and 3 extra large folders in
DESCRIPTION: drawers
CALL
Ms. N-35
NUMBER:
REPOSITORY: Massachusetts Historical Society , 1154 Boylston Street
,
Boston, MA 02215 library@masshist.org
(mailto:library@masshist.org)
8/17/2019
Proprietors of Louisburg Square (Boston, Mass.) Records, 1826-1980
This collection consists of the administrative and financial records of the Proprietors
of Louisburg Square, an association of property owners in Boston's Beacon Hill
neighborhood. Included are loose papers and bound volumes of correspondence,
deeds, meeting minutes, treasurer's accounts, and printed material.
HISTORICAL SKETCH
The Proprietors of Louisburg Square are an association of property owners located
in Louisburg Square, an area of Boston's Beacon Hill between Pinckney and Mt.
Vernon Sts. Originally pasture acreage referred to as the Copley tract, the land was
purchased from John Singleton Copley by the Mt. Vernon Proprietors, consisting of
Jonathan Mason, Harrison Gray Otis, Benjamin Joy, and Henry Jackson. The area
was divided into lots owned by several proprietors, and an 1826 partition deed
indicates a plan for the Square's jointly owned central park space and parallel
streets.
Though development of the Square's lots was planned in the late 1820s, building did
not begin until 1834 and continued through the 1840s. By 1844, all of the square's
Greek revival houses, including several designed by architect Charles Bulfinch, had
been constructed. At that time, twenty eight lot owners signed the Proprietors
Indenture and Articles of Agreement, which ensured current and subsequent
SGW
homeowners would act as stewards of the shared land; this is considered the
earliest example of a homeowner association in America. In order to maintain
common land, the agreement established the Committee of the Proprietors of
Louisburg Square, whose first action was to guide the enlargement of the jointly
owned central park for the use of all residents. The Committee's later agreements
further delineated the elected roles of clerk, treasurer, and chairman, and outlined
the procedures for majority approval of activities and the annual assessment of fees
due to proprietors.
The Committee held meetings; collected annual assessments; determined the
allotment of funds for hiring staff and contracting organizations to ensure the
Square's upkeep and security; and planned, approved, and carried out projects for
the improvement of the Square's shared space and roads. Aside from regular
landscaping work involving the maintenance of the Square's lawn and trees and the
brief establishment of a separate Garden committee for ornamental plants, major
changes to the Square include the construction of an enclosing iron fence, as well
as the 1850 addition of statues of Aristides the Just and Christopher Columbus. The
committee, through majority vote of proprietors at meetings, also approved changes
in policy, including a 1852 vote to exclude children from the Square's park.
Over time, the Square's buildings have not only seen changes in residents and
8/17/2019
Proprietors of Louisburg Square (Boston, Mass.) Records, 1826-1980
split into separate apartment units. Use of buildings have also changed to suit the
needs of institutions, most notably the 1888 conversion of No. 17 Louisburg Square
from a private residence into St. Margaret's Convent, home to the Sisters of the
Society of St. Margaret. Notable residents of Louisburg Square have included
novelist and Atlantic Monthly editor William Dean Howells, A. Bronson Alcott,
novelist Louisa M. Alcott, and, more recently, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and
novelist Robin Cook.
SOURCES
Griswold, Gabrielle. "The Story of Louisburg Square." 1950.
Jacoby, Ernest. "Notes in Regard to the Statues of Louisburg Square." 1963.
McKenzie, Evan. Privatopia: Homeowner Associations and the Rise of Residential
Private Government. Hew Haven: Yale University Press, 1994.
Snell, Charles W. "National Register of Historic Places Inventory - Nomination Form:
Beacon Hill Historic District." Division of History, Office of Archeology and Historic
Preservation, National Park Service, 1970. Accessed 28 November 2016.
http://architecturaltrust.org/-architec/wp
content/uploads/2013/06/Report_NR_Beacon_Hill.pdf
Winkley, Hobart William. "Annals of Louisburgh Square." 1920.
COLLECTION DESCRIPTION
This collection contains records of the Proprietors of Louisburg Square in Boston,
including correspondence, proprietors' records, treasurer's records, and scrapbooks.
Correspondence is primarily between members of the executive committee of the
Proprietors of Louisburg Square and other organizations and individuals, and is
largely administrative, focusing on plans for improvements, repair, and general
upkeep of the Square's streets and landscaping. Proprietors' records pertain to the
history, meetings, and policies of the Proprietors, including deeds and agreements;
meeting announcements, minutes, and powers of attorney; lists of proprietors'
information and payment status; records related to the regulation and enforcement
of private parking; historical accounts of the Square and its statues; articles and
illustrations related to Louisburg Square and its residents; and blueprints of the
Square. Materials collected by long-time resident Horace Morison include historical
sketches, poems, and printed material related to the history of the Square. Financial
3/20/2017
Behind the Curtains of Boston's Best Neighborhood, a New Elite The New York Times
The New York Times
U.S.
Behind the Curtains of Boston's Best
Neighborhood, a New Elite
By CAREY GOLDBERG
FEB. 18, 1999
They call Louisburg Square (pronounced Lewisburg, please, not Loueeburg) the most prestigious
property, the most exclusive enclave, the most treasured trophy address in Boston. They call it the heart
of Beacon Hill, that slope of brick-paved, gas-lighted lanes once a bastion of Boston Brahminism.
But peep into the town houses here -- or rather, into their real estate records -- and Louisburg Square
suddenly comes to represent the exact opposite of old Boston.
For on the little square where names like Cabot and Appleton still dominated a generation ago, a
transformation is complete: from old Anglo-Saxon to new ethnic names; from shabby gentility to $3
million price tags on town houses without garages that allow passers-by on snowy days the unusual sight
of a billionaire or two clearing off their cars.
Most important, descendants of old shipping and merchant banking fortunes that defined Boston for
generations have ceded possession of the square to largely self-made captains of the high-tech, financial
and other industries that are reinventing the city.
The changing of the guard on Louisburg Square mirrors other transitions from blue blood to new blood,
from old money to new money, urban scholars say: Pacific Heights in San Francisco, or, to a lesser extent,
Society Hill in Philadelphia or the lakeside Gold Coast in Chicago.
"You could call it turbo-gentrification," the sociologist Alan Wolfe said, borrowing from a new book
on the super-charged economy, "Turbo-capitalism."
But other scholars and participants describe it as a sort of de-gentrification: A process in which
meritocracy, or marketocracy, periodically triumphs over breeding in forming an elite. For a city's own
good, if it wants to avoid economic atrophy, the new money had better triumph, historians say.
These days, "young people and people with ideas and people who like the tumble and tide are
attracted to Boston and San Francisco and Chicago and New York" and a few other spots, said Kenneth T.
Jackson, an urban historian at Columbia University.
"I think that St. Louis, New Orleans, maybe in some ways Memphis, are cities that had an older elite
that wasn't as open to new people," Mr. Jackson said, "and I think all those cities suffered a little bit."
Here in Boston, the effect of the old money's accession to new is felt in subtle ways: the clutter of
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the Museum of Fine Arts; in talk of the city's economic and cultural vibrancy, and a sense that the old
Brahmin monopoly on financial and social power, like the Irish monopoly on political power, has given
way to something more open and complex.
On Louisburg Square the change comes into clear relief. These days, neighbors say, they cannot name
a full-blown Brahmin left in residence. The current owners of the 27 town houses that line the square
include Chris Gabrieli, a son of immigrants who made millions in software and is now a venture capitalist;
Robin Cook, a self-described "poor boy from Queens" who bought his house after writing "Coma," the
best-selling novel; Peter Lynch, the Fidelity investment guru; Alan Friedberg, retired chairman of Loews
Theatres; Thomas Stemberg, who built the Staples office supply chain, and Amos Hostetter, who built
Continental Cablevision.
Several of the new residents are ensconced not only in their own paneled libraries but in
philanthropic activities once mainly the province of Brahmins.
Mr. Hostetter is widely said to be about to start the biggest private foundation in Boston. Mr. Gabrieli
has a family foundation and oversees a public-policy center. Mr. Lynch announced this week that he and
his wife were giving more than $10 million to Boston College's school of education.
"It's not like it used to be, when your name had to be something and your background had to be
something," said Mr. Friedberg, the retired Loews chairman, who serves on several boards. "Now it's
more a question of, are you a valuable asset? Not just in terms of money, but are you a straight shooter,
are you willing to roll up your sleeves and work?
"I think the game rules have changed. It's not about whether you have the right ancestors, it's who
you are."
Who you are also affects to some extent how you direct your money, Mr. Gabrieli said.
"By and large, it's somewhat less toward traditional culture and arts -- though that's not to say there's
no giving there, there is -- and more heavily toward education and opportunity," he said. "It's very
entrepreneurial."
Mr. Gabrieli added: "These people, myself included, are entrepreneurs. The pitch that XYZ museum
has been around forever and deserves a new generation of stewards is less appealing -- not that it should
be, because those are great institutions -- but it's less appealing than, 'Here's a new idea that could really
transform something and really needs some drive behind it.''
The social transformation of Louisburg Square began to take on steam in the late 1970's, said Thomas
Townsend, a real estate broker and authority on the Hill. Old Brahmins' departures and deaths opened
the way to owners with a new kind of money.
Now, at the end of the century, the strong economy and restored city chic are bringing Beacon Hill
renewed glory. Its impeccable preservation, central location and community spirit have combined to
make it a neighborhood SO hot that a former carriage house is for sale here at nearly $2 million.
As recently as 1970 the Louisburg Square town houses sold for around $100,000. The first Beacon
Hill sale to crack $1 million came in 1984 on Louisburg Square, real estate agents say. Though a handful
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2/4
the Museum of Fine Arts; in talk of the city's economic and cultural vibrancy, and a sense that the old
Brahmin monopoly on financial and social power, like the Irish monopoly on political power, has given
way to something more open and complex.
On Louisburg Square the change comes into clear relief. These days, neighbors say, they cannot name
a full-blown Brahmin left in residence. The current owners of the 27 town houses that line the square
include Chris Gabrieli, a son of immigrants who made millions in software and is now a venture capitalist;
Robin Cook, a self-described "poor boy from Queens" who bought his house after writing "Coma," the
best-selling novel; Peter Lynch, the Fidelity investment guru; Alan Friedberg, retired chairman of Loews
Theatres; Thomas Stemberg, who built the Staples office supply chain, and Amos Hostetter, who built
Continental Cablevision.
Several of the new residents are ensconced not only in their own paneled libraries but in
philanthropic activities once mainly the province of Brahmins.
Mr. Hostetter is widely said to be about to start the biggest private foundation in Boston. Mr. Gabrieli
has a family foundation and oversees a public-policy center. Mr. Lynch announced this week that he and
his wife were giving more than $10 million to Boston College's school of education.
"It's not like it used to be, when your name had to be something and your background had to be
something," said Mr. Friedberg, the retired Loews chairman, who serves on several boards. "Now it's
more a question of, are you a valuable asset? Not just in terms of money, but are you a straight shooter,
are you willing to roll up your sleeves and work?
"I think the game rules have changed. It's not about whether you have the right ancestors, it's who
you are."
Who you are also affects to some extent how you direct your money, Mr. Gabrieli said.
"By and large, it's somewhat less toward traditional culture and arts -- though that's not to say there's
no giving there, there is -- and more heavily toward education and opportunity," he said. "It's very
entrepreneurial."
Mr. Gabrieli added: "These people, myself included, are entrepreneurs. The pitch that XYZ museum
has been around forever and deserves a new generation of stewards is less appealing -- not that it should
be, because those are great institutions -- but it's less appealing than, 'Here's a new idea that could really
transform something and really needs some drive behind it."
The social transformation of Louisburg Square began to take on steam in the late 1970's, said Thomas
Townsend, a real estate broker and authority on the Hill. Old Brahmins' departures and deaths opened
the way to owners with a new kind of money.
Now, at the end of the century, the strong economy and restored city chic are bringing Beacon Hill
renewed glory. Its impeccable preservation, central location and community spirit have combined to
make it a neighborhood so hot that a former carriage house is for sale here at nearly $2 million.
As recently as 1970 the Louisburg Square town houses sold for around $100,000. The first Beacon
Hill sale to crack $1 million came in 1984 on Louisburg Square, real estate agents say. Though a handful
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3/20/2017
Behind the Curtains of Boston's Best Neighborhood, a New Elite The New York Times
On "the Hill," where the sweep of historical memory spans the two centuries since it was built up by
developers who also sliced off its top, the influx of mega-rich appears to evoke mixed feelings. No one
seems to mourn the isolationist side of the Brahmin reign, or the crumbling Boston of two or three
decades ago that dropped prices and sent families fleeing to the suburbs.
And the strong sense of history prompts obvious parallels: Karen Cord Taylor, editor and publisher of
The Beacon Hill Times, pointed out that Charles Bulfinch, the famed architect and developer whose gems,
like the State House, crown Beacon Hill, was something like the Donald J. Trump of his day. And who
were the original Beacon Hill residents but entrepreneurs who happened to be in shipping and import-
export and banking rather than technology and media?
"They were the nouveaux riches and arrivistes of their day," she said.
Still, the arrival of this new wave is bringing some consternation along with the welcome for
billionaire blockbusters.
Henry Lee, scion of a Brahmin family and longtime resident of a house that looks out on Louisburg
Square but is not technically a part of it, said that many of the new rich residents are laudably generous to
community causes like the Friends of the Public Garden, which he heads. But he worries, he said, that
"money is a terrible destroyer of architecture."
"Poverty is a great preserver," Mr. Lee added. "One thing I do deplore is that an awful lot of people
have moved into houses on Louisburg Square and elsewhere and gutted them."
Some houses may have needed gutting, said Mr. Cook, the novelist, who discovered the dirty little
secret of Louisburg Square when he moved in: The houses were largely built by developers rather than by
owners, and their grandeur sometimes hides "pathetic" construction flaws that require major repairs like
new foundations.
Still, Mr. Lee and others are concerned about architectural treasures being thrown out with the 19th-
century heating systems. And there seems an element of psychological discomfort as well.
"I sometimes am a little appalled to look out and realize three or four billionaires are living on
Louisburg Square, let alone millionaires," Mr. Lee said, sounding dryly amused. One recent Christmas, he
said, he saw a Porsche with a fat red ribbon around it parked on the square -- "probably a stocking
present."
Nonetheless, perhaps the most striking thing about the square's social transformation is that, aside
from the fanciness of the cars parked on the dedicated spots that other Beacon Hill residents would kill
for, its appearance is virtually unchanged, preserved under glass by powerful rules and even more
powerful public sentiment that Beacon Hill's beauty lies in its historical integrity.
Its little park, often compared to those in London and locked to all but the residents, seems as
unchanging as the houses' understatedly grand facades. The replacement of the octogenarian residents
who dominated 20 years ago by younger mega-rich, Mr. Cook said, has meant a new collective willingness
to fix the lawn and the fence and the road but not to make any major changes -- such as putting in the
fountain he proposes.
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way they want it."
In a way, Mr. Lee said, the new mega-rich of Louisburg Square are not really a change, either, but
only the continuation of a cycle.
"After all," he said, "class in America has always been wealth. In Boston, it got to be a little bit more
than that because Bostonians invest their money very prudently and lived simply and therefore could pass
it along from generation to generation".
But, he said, 'All these things are only a matter of time. It only takes two generations to get smug."
© 2017 The New York Times Company
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Louisburg Square - Wikipedia
WIKIPEDIA
Coordinates:42°21'30.35"N71°04'07.08"W
Louisburg Square
Louisburg Square is a private square located
in the Beacon Hill neighborhood of Boston,
Massachusetts that is maintained by the
Louisburg Square Proprietors. While the
Proprietors pay taxes to the City of Boston, the
city does not own the square or its garden. It
was named for the 1745 Battle of Louisbourg,
in which Massachusetts militiamen led by
William Pepperrell, who was made the first
American baronet for his role, sacked the
Houses on Louisburg Square,
French Fortress of Louisbourg. Louisburg
Beacon Hill
Square has become one of the most exclusive
neighborhoods in the US, with townhouses
listing for over $15,000,000.
Contents
Description
History and residents
References
External links
Description
The square itself is a small grassy oval surrounded by a wrought-iron fence; there is
no public access. There is a statue of Christopher Columbus at the north end and of
Aristides the Just at the south end. [1]
History and residents
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louisburg_Square
1/4
8/10/2021
Louisburg Square - Wikipedia
The Greek Revival houses around the square reflect the rarefied privilege enjoyed
by the 19th century upper class in Beacon Hill. The square was surveyed in the
1820s, and the houses around it were designed and built between 1834 and 1847.[2]
One of the last private residences built on Louisburg Square was 2 Louisburg
Square, built in 1847 for wealthy merchant and philanthropist Thomas Handasyd
Perkins Jr., known as "Short-Arm Tom", who lived at 1 Joy Street. Among the
famous people who lived there in the 19th Century were Atlantic Monthly editor
William Dean Howells, architect Charles Bulfinch, painter John Singleton Copley,
and teacher A. Bronson Alcott and his daughter, author Louisa May Alcott (who
died there). [1] Jenny Lind was married in the parlor of a house on Louisburg
Square. [1]
As of 2014, it is one of the most expensive residential neighborhoods in the USA;
townhouses on Louisburg Square sold for $11.5 million in 2011 [3] and $11 million in
2012, [4] for instance. The square is often included in walking tours and guidebooks.
Former U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and his wife Theresa Heinz, own the
townhouse at 19 Louisburg Square. [5]
in 1901
Histortan Mark A. De Wolfe House lived with his daughter (Helen) in
an apartment at 16 foresburg Square,
Samuel Gray Ward resided c his family at 20 fouisburg Square
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louisburg_Square
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8/17/2019
Louisburg Square, Boston
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Charming Louisburg Square has long been one of Boston's most desirable
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Faneuil Hall
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Situated in one of Boston's most sought after neighborhoods,
Paul Revere House
Louisburg Square is one of the loveliest parts of Beacon Hill.
John Hancock Tower
The homes around Louisburg
Quincy Market
Square were built in the 1840s and
New England Aquarium
were to serve as a model for
Museum of Fine Arts
townhouse development.
Prudential Center
Tour of The
Old State House
History of the Square
Freedom Trail
Public Garden
The area that is now Louisburg
Bunker Hill Monument
From USD $16.00
Square is said to have been the
Louisburg Square
USS Constitution
home of Rev. William Blaxton
Book this tour
Custom House
(sometimes known as Blackstone) in the early 1600s. Blaxton
Fenway Park
had come here after separating himself from a group of
Stata Center
Puritans in Charlestown, seeking more peace and quiet. It is
South Station
said that he purchased land from the Native Americans and
MIT
encouraged others from his group, who had complained about
Back Bay Fens
the lack of water in Charlestown, to travel
Rowes Wharf
across the river and enjoy his "spring".
Old South Meeting House
There's no evidence of the spring today, so
THE
City Hall
the origins of the story are uncertain. A
Independence
Louisburg Square
plaque at one of the homes on the square,
THIT
Pub Crawl
Long Wharf
however, pays homage to Blaxton, who
eventually moved to Rhode Island for yet
From USD $39.99
South End
Christian Science Church
more seclusion.
Book this tour
Harvard Yard
Famous Residents
Because Beacon Hill, and Louisburg Square
Typical facade
in particular, has always been THE place to
live in Boston, a number of recognizable names have made
their home here. Charles Bulfinch, architect of the nearby
State House lived here as well as John Singleton Copley, a
famous American painter. Author Louisa May Alcott - of Little
Women fame - made her home at no. 10 and died here as
Boston Odyssey
well. It is said that opera singer Jenny Lind married here in the
Brunch Cruise
1850s. Author and critic William Dean Howells also lived on
From USD $86.33
Louisburg Square. More recent residents include Jack Welch
and former presidential hopeful, John Kerry.
Book this tour
The Square Today
The square is owned by the people who live in the houses
around it and has always been well-tended and pristine. As a
symbol of exclusivity, the small fenced park is the last private
square in the city of Boston.
Inside the fenced park - a grassy area lined with are
8/17/2019
Louisburg Square, Boston
Aristides the Just, both donated by a Greek
merchant who lived at the square in the
1850s.
Many of the grand colonial-style homes
around the square have turned from single-
family houses to condominiums and
apartments that accommodate a host of
renters of various ages, mostly up-and-
coming young professionals.
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Columbus Statue
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Louisburg Square
United States History
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Louisburg Square
Laid out in 1826 by Mt. Vernon proprietors on pasture land purchased from John
Singleton Copley, Louisburg Square stands as the epitome of the posh Beacon Hill
district - a residential area in Boston, Massachusetts. It connects Mt. Vernon with
Pinckney Street. The square is acknowledged as one of the only two private London-
style garden squares in the nation, the other being Gramercy Park in New York City.
A historic piece of real estate, Louisburg Square is named after the battle of Louisburg,
during which the Massachusetts Militiamen sacked the French Fortress in 1745.
The square is surrounded by homes once resided in by the famous personalities such
as the author and critic William Dean Howells and Louisa May Alcott.
Presently, Louisburg Square is home to the city's most expensive property and
includes townhouses valued at more than $1 million. The Greek Revival-style houses
found in the area reflect the privilege enjoyed by the 19th-century upper class in
Beacon Hill. Further, the square is noted for its Federal-style houses built by Charles
Bulfinch in the 1790s. These elegant buildings, with its red-brick facades, are adorned
by classical details.
The whole square is actually oblong in shape, and its central area has an oval park
with a tall iron fence.
Found at the either end of the square are the Italian marble statues of Aristides and
Columbus. The narrow, cobblestone streets; brownstones; and gas-lit streetlamps, add
to the old charm of the area.
Off-site search results for "Louisburg Square"
Washington Square
open spacious quality." The 6.4-acre Southeast Square was renamed Washington
Square in 1825 to honor the great general and first President. A Tour of the Park Start
in the southwest corner and move clockwise We'll start our tour at 230
http://www.ushistory.org/tour/tour washsq.htm
Hartford's Neighborhoods I Barry Square
Barry Square takes its name from Father Michael Barry, whose Catholic parish built
St. Augustine's Church on Campfield Avenue in 1902. Many early parishioners at St.
Augustine Church were Irish who came to Hartford as laborers, the greatest
http://hartford.omaxfield.com/barrysq.html
New Orleans Square
for New Orleans Square Haunted Mansion or Pirates of the Caribbean New
Orleans Square! A taste of the old bayou the way it was. This is the place, if you ask
me. It has always been one of my favorites, not only because of the great rides, but
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Custom Search
5/1/2020
Xfinity Connect Berkshire Quartet Printout
Cornelia Gilder
5/1/2020 9:34 AM
Re: Berkshire Quartet
To RONALD EPP
Hello Ron, Yes, I loved Richard Stebbins' article and learned alot from it! I have a
vague recollection of talking to him on the phone as he was knowledgeable about this
cast of characters and era.
Are you trying to piece together when the Wards sold Highwood? After renting it to
the Tappans, they rented to Louisa Norton and William Bullard. The Bullards were
Bostonians with lots of interconnections with the Wards and Tappans (She was
Charles Eliot Norton's sister) In 1857 the Wards sold Highwood to the Bullards ,and
the house was passed down in the Bullard family even into my lifetime.
So there was a twenty-year gap before the Wards returned bought new land nearby
and build Oakswood. The transfer of Highwood to the Bullards is in Hawthorne's
Lenox p.30.
Did I tell you that when I asked the Century Club archivist if other New York clubs
have put online such a biographical archive, he said not to his knowledge.
All well here. Am deep in re-painting a guest room and organizing the voluminous
photographs of my grandfather taken between 1905 and 1921 - some Lenox and
some other parts of his life including forays to the Adirondacks and coastal Maine.
All the best, Nini
On Thu, Apr 30, 2020 at 5:06 PM RONALD EPP < eppster2@comcast.net> wrote:
Hi Nini,
I hope you are safe and secure these days as we enter yet
another month of viral lock down.
As I continue my pursuit of all things "Doorish," I am much
indebted to the U. of Hartford for providing me with access in
these days to the published journal literature--but not
monographs. Are you acquainted with an article titled "Berkshire
Quartet: Hawthornes and Tappans at Tanglewood, 1850-1851" by
R.P. Stebbins from the Nathaniel Hawthorne Review (1999). The
quartet is comprised of Sophia and Nathaniel, Caroline and
5/1/2020
Xfinity Connect Re_Berkshire Quartet Printout
William. This 20 page article is concerned with Highwood under
Samuel G. Ward's absentee ownership to the rentals of the estate
to Tappan and the occupancy of the red House by the
Hawthornes. I recommend it strongly!
However, what it leaves unanswered is the following. Tappan had
written in 1850 to Upjohn that he was renting for three years, yet
after the departure in late 1851 of the Hawthornes I am left
wondering about the fate of the property. Were you able to
document the final sale of the property? The reason I am pursuing
this is that I would like to settle in my mind when Samuel G. Gray
put his first Lenox experiment behind him, recognizing that he
would return much later.
I am safely self contained here in Farmington, securing groceries,
books, medicines, and stationary supplies via online providers.
Once a week I take a 20 minute drive through the neighborhood to
supplement by daily walks and witness the seasonal
changes.Daily emails and phone calls with friends keep me
engaged as does the ongoing research. What about you?
Many hugs,
Ron.
Ronald H. Epp, Ph.D.
7 Peachtree Terrace
Farmington, CT 06032
603-491-1760
eppster2@comcast.net
Edith Wharton's Lenox , by Cornelia Brooke Gilder (2017)
https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-
keywords=Cornelia+Gilder
8/17/2019
Behind the Curtains of Boston's Best Neighborhood, a New Elite - The New York Times
The New York Times
Behind the Curtains of Boston's Best
Neighborhood, a New Elite
By Carey Goldberg
Feb. 18, 1999
See the article in its original context from
February 18, 1999, Section A, Page 16 Buy Reprints
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They call Louisburg Square (pronounced Lewisburg, please, not
Loueeburg) the most prestigious property, the most exclusive
enclave, the most treasured trophy address in Boston. They call it
the heart of Beacon Hill, that slope of brick-paved, gas-lighted lanes
once a bastion of Boston Brahminism.
But peep into the town houses here -- or rather, into their real estate
records -- and Louisburg Square suddenly comes to represent the
exact opposite of old Boston.
8/17/2019
Behind the Curtains of Boston's Best Neighborhood, a New Elite - The New York Times
For on the little square where names like Cabot and Appleton still
dominated a generation ago, a transformation is complete: from old
Anglo-Saxon to new ethnic names; from shabby gentility to $3
million price tags on town houses without garages that allow
passers-by on snowy days the unusual sight of a billionaire or two
clearing off their cars.
Most important, descendants of old shipping and merchant banking
fortunes that defined Boston for generations have ceded possession
of the square to largely self-made captains of the high-tech, financial
and other industries that are reinventing the city.
The changing of the guard on Louisburg Square mirrors other
transitions from blue blood to new blood, from old money to new
money, urban scholars say: Pacific Heights in San Francisco, or, to a
lesser extent, Society Hill in Philadelphia or the lakeside Gold Coast
in Chicago.
"You could call it turbo-gentrification," the sociologist Alan Wolfe
said, borrowing from a new book on the super-charged economy,
"Turbo-capitalism."
You have 6 free articles remaining.
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But other scholars and participants describe it as a sort of de-
gentrification: A process in which meritocracy, or marketocracy,
periodically triumphs over breeding in forming an elite. For a city's
own good, if it wants to avoid economic atrophy, the new money had
better triumph, historians say.
8/17/2019
Behind the Curtains of Boston's Best Neighborhood, a New Elite - The New York Times
These days, "young people and people with ideas and people who
like the tumble and tide are attracted to Boston and San Francisco
and Chicago and New York" and a few other spots, said Kenneth T.
Jackson, an urban historian at Columbia University.
"I think that St. Louis, New Orleans, maybe in some ways Memphis,
are cities that had an older elite that wasn't as open to new people,"
Mr. Jackson said, "and I think all those cities suffered a little bit."
Here in Boston, the effect of the old money's accession to new is felt
in subtle ways: the clutter of construction trash bins and trucks on
Beacon Hill and in the tony Back Bay, as new owners spend millions
on interior renovations; the increasingly diverse trustees of the
Boston Symphony Orchestra or the Museum of Fine Arts; in talk of
the city's economic and cultural vibrancy, and a sense that the old
Brahmin monopoly on financial and social power, like the Irish
monopoly on political power, has given way to something more open
and complex.
On Louisburg Square the change comes into clear relief. These days,
neighbors say, they cannot name a full-blown Brahmin left in
residence. The current owners of the 27 town houses that line the
square include Chris Gabrieli, a son of immigrants who made
millions in software and is now a venture capitalist; Robin Cook, a
self-described "poor boy from Queens" who bought his house after
writing "Coma," the best-selling novel; Peter Lynch, the Fidelity
investment guru; Alan Friedberg, retired chairman of Loews
Theatres; Thomas Stemberg, who built the Staples office supply
chain, and Amos Hostetter, who built Continental Cablevision.
Several of the new residents are ensconced not only in their own
paneled libraries but in philanthropic activities once mainly the
of Brahmins
8/17/2019
Behind the Curtains of Boston's Best Neighborhood, a New Elite - The New York Times
Mr. Hostetter is widely said to be about to start the biggest private
foundation in Boston. Mr. Gabrieli has a family foundation and
oversees a public-policy center. Mr. Lynch announced this week that
he and his wife were giving more than $10 million to Boston College's
school of education.
"It's not like it used to be, when your name had to be something and
your background had to be something," said Mr. Friedberg, the
retired Loews chairman, who serves on several boards. "Now it's
more a question of, are you a valuable asset? Not just in terms of
money, but are you a straight shooter, are you willing to roll up your
sleeves and work?
"I think the game rules have changed. It's not about whether you
have the right ancestors, it's who you are."
Who you are also affects to some extent how you direct your money,
Mr. Gabrieli said.
"By and large, it's somewhat less toward traditional culture and arts
-- though that's not to say there's no giving there, there is -- and more
heavily toward education and opportunity," he said. "It's very
entrepreneurial."
Mr. Gabrieli added: "These people, myself included, are
entrepreneurs. The pitch that XYZ museum has been around forever
and deserves a new generation of stewards is less appealing -- not
that it should be, because those are great institutions -- but it's less
appealing than, 'Here's a new idea that could really transform
something and really needs some drive behind it.' "
The social transformation of Louisburg Square began to take on
steam in the late 1970's, said Thomas Townsend, a real estate broker
authority on the Hill Old Brahmins' departures and
8/17/2019
Behind the Curtains of Boston's Best Neighborhood, a New Elite - The New York Times
opened the way to owners with a new kind of money.
Now, at the end of the century, the strong economy and restored city
chic are bringing Beacon Hill renewed glory. Its impeccable
preservation, central location and community spirit have combined
to make it a neighborhood SO hot that a former carriage house is for
sale here at nearly $2 million.
As recently as 1970 the Louisburg Square town houses sold for
around $100,000. The first Beacon Hill sale to crack $1 million came
in 1984 on Louisburg Square, real estate agents say. Though a
handful of more modest rental units and condominiums remain,
recent sales have exceeded $3 million and $4 million.
On "the Hill," where the sweep of historical memory spans the two
centuries since it was built up by developers who also sliced off its
top, the influx of mega-rich appears to evoke mixed feelings. No one
seems to mourn the isolationist side of the Brahmin reign, or the
crumbling Boston of two or three decades ago that dropped prices
and sent families fleeing to the suburbs.
And the strong sense of history prompts obvious parallels: Karen
Cord Taylor, editor and publisher of The Beacon Hill Times, pointed
out that Charles Bulfinch, the famed architect and developer whose
gems, like the State House, crown Beacon Hill, was something like
the Donald J. Trump of his day. And who were the original Beacon
Hill residents but entrepreneurs who happened to be in shipping and
import-export and banking rather than technology and media?
"They were the nouveaux riches and arrivistes of their day," she
said.
Still, the arrival of this new wave is bringing some consternation
along with the welcome for billionaire blockbusters.
8/17/2019
Behind the Curtains of Boston's Best Neighborhood, a New Elite - The New York Times
Henry Lee, scion of a Brahmin family and longtime resident of a
house that looks out on Louisburg Square but is not technically a
part of it, said that many of the new rich residents are laudably
generous to community causes like the Friends of the Public Garden,
which he heads. But he worries, he said, that "money is a terrible
destroyer of architecture."
"Poverty is a great preserver," Mr. Lee added. "One thing I do
deplore is that an awful lot of people have moved into houses on
Louisburg Square and elsewhere and gutted them."
Some houses may have needed gutting, said Mr. Cook, the novelist,
who discovered the dirty little secret of Louisburg Square when he
moved in: The houses were largely built by developers rather than
by owners, and their grandeur sometimes hides "pathetic"
construction flaws that require major repairs like new foundations.
Still, Mr. Lee and others are concerned about architectural treasures
being thrown out with the 19th-century heating systems. And there
seems an element of psychological discomfort as well.
"I sometimes am a little appalled to look out and realize three or four
billionaires are living on Louisburg Square, let alone millionaires,"
Mr. Lee said, sounding dryly amused. One recent Christmas, he said,
he saw a Porsche with a fat red ribbon around it parked on the
square -- "probably a stocking present."
Nonetheless, perhaps the most striking thing about the square's
social transformation is that, aside from the fanciness of the cars
parked on the dedicated spots that other Beacon Hill residents
would kill for, its appearance is virtually unchanged, preserved
under glass by powerful rules and even more powerful public
sentiment that Beacon Hill's beauty lies in its historical integrity.
8/17/2019
Behind the Curtains of Boston's Best Neighborhood, a New Elite - The New York Times
Its little park, often compared to those in London and locked to all
but the residents, seems as unchanging as the houses' understatedly
grand facades. The replacement of the octogenarian residents who
dominated 20 years ago by younger mega-rich, Mr. Cook said, has
meant a new collective willingness to fix the lawn and the fence and
the road but not to make any major changes -- such as putting in the
fountain he proposes.
For the octogenarians, he said, "spending more than $10 was
anathema." Now, he said, "people are probably willing to spend
money but everyone's a boss -- SO they don't want the fountain
unless it's the way they want it."
In a way, Mr. Lee said, the new mega-rich of Louisburg Square are
not really a change, either, but only the continuation of a cycle.
"After all," he said, "class in America has always been wealth. In
Boston, it got to be a little bit more than that because Bostonians
invest their money very prudently and lived simply and therefore
could pass it along from generation to generation".
But, he said, 'All these things are only a matter of time. It only takes
two generations to get smug.i
A version of this article appears in print on Feb. 18, 1999, Section A, Page 16 of the National edition with the
headline: Behind the Curtains of Boston's Best Neighborhood, a New Elite
TENTH GENERATION.
1049
16. X. 293. William Henry Dalrymple [James 16. IX. 238],
born in Salem. An attorney-at-law. Residence: Colorado.
16. X. 293. Evaline Cressy, his wife, born in Salem.
Mrs. Dalrymple married, as her second husband,
Woodbury,
of Beverly, Mass.
Mrs. Woodbury is a daughter of Charles Cressy, of Salem. ANCESTRY
TABLES Hi
16. X. 296. Kate Dalrymple [James 16. IX. 238].
For an account of her, see page 838.
16. X. 296. Aaron Perkins, her husband.
His number in direct descent is [15. IX. 235]. For an account of him,
see page 838.
16. X. 298. Francis Tukey Dalrymple [James 16. IX. 238], born
in Salem. Assistant secretary of the Holyoke Mutual Insurance Company,
of Salem. Residence: Salem.
16. X. 298. Sarah Metella Swasey, his wife, born in Fall River,
Mass.
Mrs. Dalrymple is a daughter of Antony H. De Wolf and Sarah Chase
(Ripley) Swasey. He was a carpenter and builder, of Mobile, Ala. ANCES-
TRY TABLES x
17. X. 299. Anna Barker Ward [Samuel G. 17. IX. 241], born
in Boston, died in New York City.
17. X. 299. Joseph Thoron, her husband, born in Candia, Island of
Crete. A commission merchant. Residence: New York City.
Mr. Thoron, although actively engaged in business, is interested in, and
devotes much time to, the charities of New York. He is the president of
the French Benevolent Society, and is one of the founders of the French
Catholic Club.
Mr. Thoron is a son of Paul and Louise (Consinéry) Thoron. His father
was French Consul at the Island of Crete, during the First Empire. The
family belongs to the south of France. ANCESTRY TABLES
1050
THE PICKERING GENEALOGY.
17. X. 300. Lydia Gray Ward [Samuel G. 17. IX. 241], born in
Boston.
17. X. 300. Richard von Hoffman, her husband, born in Leip-
zig, Saxony. Residence: Villa Paulina, Obermais, Meran, Sud Tyrol,
Austria.
Freiherr Richard von Hoffman is a knight of the first class of his SOV-
ereign's order. He has owned, since July, 1870, the Villa Celimotana,
known formerly as Villa Mattei, in Rome, Italy, renowned for its beautiful
grounds, and its views of ancient Rome and the Alban Hills. Mr. and Mrs.
Hoffman resided there from 1871 to 1879; but in 1880 they settled in Frei-
burg, Germany, for the education of their sons.
He is a son of Baron Louis Ferdinand and Paulina Elizabeth (Mayer)
von Hoffman, of Leipzig and Dresden, Saxony. ANCESTEY TABLES
17. X. 301. Thomas Wren Ward [Samuel G. 17. IX. 241], born
in Boston. A banker. Residence: New York City.
17. X. 301. Sophia Read Howard, his wife.
Mrs. Ward is a daughter of Charles Ridgely, and Elizabeth Anne
(Waters) Howard, of Waverly, Howard County, Md. Her ancestry in-
cludes the following families: Howard, Carroll, Eager, Murray, Chew,
Ayres, Benson, Galloway, Oswald, Caruau, Ridgely, Dorsey, Ely, Dorsey,
Ely, Warfield, Hill, Waters. See ANCESTRY TABLES
17. X. 302. Elizabeth Hazard Ward [Samuel G. 17. IX. 241],
born in Brooklyn, N. Y.
17. X. 302. Ernst von Schönberg (Roth Schönberg), her husband.
Residence: Schloss Pallus, bei Brixen, Sud Tyrol, Austria.
Baron von Schönberg is the second son of Baron von Schönberg. His
mother, the baroness, was Emily Malortic, descended from an old Norman
feudal family bearing the titles of Marquis de Villars and Baron de
Bismont.
The family of von Schönberg belongs to the older nobility of Austria.
ANCESTRY TABLES
HAWTHORNE'S
enox
THE ANGLEWOOD CIRCLE
CORNELIA BROOKE GILDER
WITH JULIA CONKLIN PETERS
2008
Charleston
London
History
PRESS
of3
CONTENTS
Acknowledgements
9
Introduction
13
The Sedgwicks and the Hive
15
The Wards and the Bullards at Highwood
23
Tanglewood and the Tappans
35
The Hawthornes and the Red House
43
The Perch and Fanny Kemble
49
Summerwood and Sarah Starr Lee
55
Reverend Cook and the Dorrs at Highlawn
59
Beecher Hill
63
The Aspinwalls and Woolseys at Woodcliff
67
The Haggertys and Vent Fort
71
The Schermerhorns and Pinecroft
77
The Ellery Sedgwicks and the Elms
81
The Higginsons and Mahkeenac Farm
87
The Hoopers and Nestledown
91
Afterword: Touring Lenox's Hawthorne-era
Houses Fifty Years Later with Henry James and Edith Wharton
97
Appendix: Literary and Social Neighbors
in the Berkshires of Hawthorne's Day
103
Notes
109
Bibliography
119
Index
123
About the Authors
127
lof3
THE WARDS AND
THE BULLARDS AT HIGHWOOD
D
esigned by a leading New York City architect for an extraordinary Boston couple,
Highwood launched the era of elegant country houses in the Berkshires. Now
owned by the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Highwood's identity has become merged
with the neighboring Tanglewood grands of the Boston Symphony Orchestra.
It all began in 1844 on a dreary day in the third week of March, when a handsome,
well-heeled twenty-seven-year-old Samuel Gray Ward (1817-1907) strode across Daniel
Barnes's brown, tufted meadow with a glorious view of Lake Mahkeenac and pronounced
it "very good." His amused guide, the Berkshire clerk of courts Charles Sedgwick, who
had been a Lenox resident for over twenty years, wrote to his daughter Bessie, "I cannot
help thinking that he has some sinister purpose in his dogged determination to settle
in Lenox." He asked Bessie, in Boston on a visit, to make discreet inquiries about this
delightful Mr. Ward. ²
Sedgwick soon found out for himself that Ward was no ordinary gentleman, and
that Anna, his w fe, was equally winning. He arranged temporary lodgings for them in
Lenox,3 and with n months the Wards and Sedgwicks were dining together and swapping
everything from philosophical ideas and prized books to celery plants and manure.
Ralph Waldo Emerson or Margaret Fuller might have enlightened Sedgwick about
his new neighbors. Samuel Ward was a much-admired friend and a regular member of
Emerson's Transcendentalist circle in Concord. The usually unworldly philosopher was
frankly awed by :his well-traveled, trilingual, literate and artistic younger man. Unlike
most intellectuals, Ward also possessed a comfortable income and valued business
connections. His father was one of the leading international bankers of the day.
Margaret Fuller had introduced Ward to Emerson in 1838. At that time, Ward was
still a bachelor. Fuller, an intensely complicated, homely bluestocking from an intellectual
and destitute family, fell for him. Ward credited Fuller for kindling in him a love of
literature and encouraging his own writing. As editor of The Dial, she began publishing
Note: The Sanuel G. Ward family " in 1844 left Boston
for Lenny/Stockbridge end a new agrarian way of
life. This experiment ended in 1850 when the
health of his father required a return to the
business interests that he had avoided. Their
home, " Highwood was left behand. See Lenox file.
Carole Owens. The Bechsheres, 2004 Charleston, S.C.: Arcedia Publishing -
HIGHWOOD, 1845. At Highwood, Sam Ward entertained Jenny Lind, Fanny Kemble,
Margaret Fuller, George Inness, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Catharine Sedgwick, but on this
day, he was waiting for the chimney man. "December 16, 1845, Richard, In a new house, at this
season of the year after sparing no noine
1.10
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New England Quanterly (1946).
MEMORANDA AND DOCUMENTS
EMERSON'S FRIENDS AND THE ESSAY ON
FRIENDSHIP
JOHN BARD McNULTY
E it is true, as Emerson believed, that the finding of a new friend
is a great event, the years 1838 to 1840 must be counted among
the most eventful in his life. His friendship with Thoreau began
early in 1838. In June of the same year, through the agency of his
friend Margaret Fuller, he met Caroline Sturgis, whom he was soon
to call "sister"-on of the most brilliant lights in the constellation
of Boston society. In August, again under the aegis of Margaret
Fuller, his friendship began with Samuel Gray Ward, a traveled
and cultured lover of art, the son of a Boston banking family, The
next year, in October, Miss Fuller introduced him to Anna Barker,
'that very human piece of divinity," who later became Ward's
wife. As for Margaret Fuller herself, Emerson had first entertained
her at Concord in 18g6, Subsequently, his letters to her were ad-
dressed to "My dear Miss Fuller," and later to "My dear Friend,"
and still later to "Excellent Friend," and finally in August 1840 to
"My dear Margaret." In May 1840 he wrote his first letter to Car-
lyle's friend, the Scottish critic and poet, John Sterling, whom he
was never to meet, though the two became fast friends.
Such sudden access of friendship was certain to exercise the most
profound effect upon Emerson, who regarded himself as something
of a hermit. The warmth of friendship was almost a novel sensa-
tion to him. He wrote of it to Carlyle and to his other friends; he
debated it with Margaret Fuller and Caroline Sturgis. Finally, in
the summer of 1840, he wrote his essay, "Friendship."
"My friends have come to me unsought," Emerson declared in
his essay. This, in general, was true; but of no one was it truer than
of Sarah Margaret Fuller, who more than any other individual was
responsible for getting Emerson to write "Friendship." She first en-
tered Emerson's home in July, 1836, thereby achieving a goal to-
ward which she had been striving for about two years. He was not
a little dismayed by the newcomer. "She had a face and frame that
would indicate fullness and tenacity of life," he recalled. "She was
390
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MEMORANDA AND DOCUMENTS
391
rather under the middle height; her complexion was fair, with
strong fair hair. She was then, as always, carefully and becomingly
dressed, and of ladylike self-possession. For the rest, her appearance
had nothing prepossessing. Her extreme plainness,-a trick of in-
cessantly opening and shutting her eyelids,-the nasal tone of her
voice,-al repelled; and I said to myself, we shall never get far."
But Margaret Fuller and Emerson had too much in common not
to get on well. She had read Ovid, Shakespeare, Cervantes, and
Molière before reaching her teens; she recognized the importance
of Carlyle, the greatness of Goethe, the vitality of transcendental-
ism. In 1837 she was admitted to the Transcendental Club. In
July, 1840 she brought out, as editor, the first issue of The Dial.
Emerson's collaboration with her in this vènture brought the two
closer together than ever. In the meanwhile, she had developed
new interests which she shared with Emerson. They discussed
painting and drawing. Late in 1839 she had begun her famous Con-
versations, which drew together the most brilliant women of Bos-
ton-the Peabody sisters, Elizabeth Hoar, Lydia Child, Mrs. Theo-
dore Parker among them.
The most interesting of her wide circle of friends she intro-
duced to Emerson. Thus she supplied him with what may be called
the raw material of his essay on friendship. She introduced a
thoughtful recluse to a group of charming friends; and the hermit
began to contemplate with renewed interest the beauties and won-
ders of friendship. His letters to his friends, and his Journal notes
about them he later used in his essay,
Margaret Fuller all but forced Emerson into writing "Friend-
ship" by criticizing his frostiness toward his friends. 44
I rode
with Margaret to the plains," he wrote in his Journal for August
16, 1840. "She taxed me, as often before, so now more explicitly,
with inhospitality of Soul. She and C. [Caroline Sturgis] would
gladly be my friends, yet our intercourse is not friendship, but lit-
erary gossip. I count and weigh, but do not love. They make no
progress with me, but however often we have met, we still meet as
strangers. They feel wronged in such relation
The accusations of Margaret and Caroline nettled Emerson. In
a series of letters in 1840 to these two women he defended himself
R, W. Emerson, W.H. Channing, and J.F. Clarke, Memoirs of Margaret
Fuller Ossoli (Boston, 1852), I, 102.
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(01200 0046
1.04
392
THE NEW ENGLAND QUARTERLY
against their charges. "If I count & weigh," he wrote Caroline, "I
love also. I cannot tell you how warm & glad the naming of your
names makes my solitude." On this question he felt that his back
was to the wall. His Journal jotting about Margaret's taxing him
"as so often before" with inhospitality of soul coincides almost ex-
actly with his completing a draft of "Friendship" and sending it
off to Samuel Gray Ward for criticism, There can be no doubt that
Margaret Fuller, seconded by Caroline Sturgis, prompted Emer-
son's writing of "Friendship." The essay was more than an expo-
sition of his views; it was his self-defence.
When he came to the actual writing of the essay in the summer of
1840, Emerson drew, of course, upon his experience with his
friends. But he went further. He wrote into the fabric of "Friend-
ship" lines which he had originally written to the friends them-
selves, or which he had written about them in his Journal. The
more one examines this aspect of "Friendship," the more its superfi-
cial frostiness melts. In the essay Emerson writes, "We are armed all
over with subtle antagonisms.
Almost all people descend to
meet"-and a good deal more in the same vein-all of which seems
forbidding enough until we consider that he had written these
words over a year earlier in a chatty letter to Margaret Fuller. "I
chide society, I embrace solitude," he wrote in his essay. These
words he took from his Journal for July 14, 1839, at which time he
was chiding society and embracing solitude by entertaining his de-
lightful friend Caroline Sturgis as a house guest.
Emerson's friends are everywhere in his essay. "I awoke this
morning with devout thanksgiving for my friends, the old and the
new
My come to me unsought, The great God
gave them to me." He transferred these lines to the essay from a
Journal passage about his good friend across the sea, John Ster-
ling.4 "A new person is to me a great event," he wrote in the essay,
repeating the very words he had written in his Journal after his
Letter dated August 16, 1840, in The Letters of Ralph Waldo Emerson,
Ralph Leslie Rusk, editor (New York, 1939), 11, 925.
a Letter dated October 12, 18g8, in Letters, II, 168. The entire passage com.
prises 81 words; the corresponding passage in the Essay comprises 78 words. Thus
the two, passages, though similar in most points, are not identical. For example,
the letter reads "these subtle antagonisms." In the following notes I have not
indicated such slight variations.
Entry for December 8, 1859, in Journals of Ralph Waldo Emerson, E. W.
Emerson and W. E. Forbes, editors (Boston and New York, 1911), v, 952.
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MEMORANDA AND DOCUMENTS
393
first meeting with Anna Barker.5 His friend Jones Very is described
in some detail in the essay. Carlyle, too, is represented in the lines
near the beginning about the pleasure of writing to a friend. This
passage is taken from the Journal for April 22, 1835, where Emer-
son writes of "Carlyle the wise, the brave." On July 14. 1840, Emer-
son wrote to Samuel Gray Ward, "I have got my 'Essay on Friend-
ship' now into some shape, not yet symmetrical but approximate
to that, and though it is longer than it was when I proposed to send
it to you, yet it shall go. I shall not want it for some weeks." In an
earlier letter (June 22) he had written "the piece is already in-
debted to you."
From all this it is clear that Emerson originally wrote certain pas-
sages in "Friendship" with Carlyle in mind, or Sterling, or Very, or
Margaret Fuller, or Caroline Sturgis, or Anna Barker; and perhaps
with Ward and Thoreau, I do not wish to imply that the essay as a
whole may be broken up and assigned to one or another of Emer-
son's friends, but only that his experience and intercourse with
these friends, in all its freshness, has been transferred directly into
the fabric of the essay.
Though he certainly did not write "Friendship" for the mem-
bers of a private circle, Emerson remembered that his friends
would be among his readers. "High thanks I owe to you," he wrote
in the essay, "excellent lovers, who carry out the world for me to
new and noble depths, and enlarge the meaning of all my
thoughts." He sought to explain his apparent remoteness from his
friends; to clear himself of the charge of coldness in friendship:
"It would indeed give me a certain household joy to quit this lofty
seeking, this spiritual astronomy or search of stars, and come down
to warm sympathies with you; but then I know well I shall mourn
always the vanishing of my mighty gods. It is true, next week I
shall have languid moods, when I can well afford to occupy my-
self with foreign objects; then I shall regret the lost literature of
your mind, and wish you were by my side again. But if you came,
perhaps you would fill my mind only with new visions; not with
yourself but with your lustres, and I shall not be able any more
than now to converse with you." Emerson does not reach a solu-
5 Entry for October 7. 1889. in Journals, V, 278-279,
a Letters of Emerson to a Friend, C. E. Norton, editor (Boston and New York,
18gg). e6.
Letters of Emerson to A Friend, 21,
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P. 08
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THE NEW ENGLAND QUARTERLY
tion of this problem. Neither lofty seeking nor warm sympathy
wholly satisfies him. And he confides to his Journal, "Yet would
nothing be SO grateful to me as to melt once for all these icy barriers,
and unite with these lovers." It is interesting that both passages
quoted above from "Friendship" are, unlike most of the essay,
addressed to the second person. Here are special messages for his
friends.
The face value of "Friendship" is a little deceptive. It seems at
first to be an austere and exacting treatment of a subject which
should evoke warmth and humanity. And, indeed, we do find both
warmth and humanity when we look closely, Emerson's friends
prompted the essay; a letter to one of them is quoted in it; Journal
observations about them are worked into it; his friends are directly
addressed in it; it was sent to a friend for criticism. Probably there
were times when Emerson actually felt that he was writing it for
his friends, Yet these intimate details are all but hidden. What
Emerson says of himself in a letter to Caroline Sturgis he might
well have said of the essay: "Perhaps it is ungrateful never to testi-
fy by word to those whom we love, how much they are our bene-
factors. But to my thought this is better to remain a secret from the
lips to soften only the behaviour,"
HAWTHORNE AND
THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH
GILBERT P. VOICT
I
view of the conversion to Roman Catholicism of a significant
number of present-day men and women of letters, it is interest-
ing to note the attitude of Nathaniel Hawthorne toward the
Roman Catholic Church, which assumes a prominent role in The
Marble Faun,
When Hawthorne entered Italy in 1858, he was still essentially a
Puritan, who had been reared in a region of strong anti-Catholic
prejudice. This prejudice is expressed by Kenyon in The Marble
Faun. Hawthorne's Calvinistic theology had been scarcely affected
Letter dated August 16, 1840, in Letters, II, 845.
9 Entry for August 16, 1840, in Journals, V, 45%.
TOTOI P as
Walks with Ellery Channing.
27
WALKS WITH ELLERY CHANNING.
THE following extracts from the MS.
speech and a tone that is tremulous with
diaries of Ralph Waldo Emerson are
emotion, that he is a flower in the wind.
here for the first time offered to the
Ellery said his poems were proper love
public, with the consent of his children.
poems; and they were really genuine
They describe with utter frankness his
fruits of a fine, light, gentle, happy in-
walks, talks, and excursions with his
tercourse with his friends. C.'s [Chan-
younger neighbor and friend, the late
ning's eyes are a compliment to the hu-
William Ellery Channing, usually known
man race; that steady look from year
as Ellery Channing, to distinguish him
to year makes Phidian Sculpture and
from his uncle and godfather, the emi-
Poussin landscape still real and contem-
nent divine. The younger Channing
porary, and a poet might well dedicate
resided for the greater part of his life
himself to the fine task of expressing
in Concord, and clearly inspired in Em-
their genius in verse.
erson much admiration for his rare gifts,
1843. Ellery, who hopes there will
as well as a warm affection for his way-
be no cows in heaven, has discovered
ward and recluse temperament. This
what cows are for, namely, it was two-
combination of feeling shows Emerson
fold, (1) to make easy walking where
in a light almost wholly new to the gen-
they had fed, and (2) to give the farm-
eral reader, exhibiting him, not merely
ers something to do in summer-time. All
as a warm and even tender friend, but
this haying comes at midsummer be-
as one fully able to recognize the limita-
tween planting and harvest when all
tions and even defects of the man he loved
hands would be idle but for this cow and
and to extend to him, when needful, the
ox which must be fed and mowed for;
frankest criticism. With all our previous
and thus intemperance and the progress
knowledge of Emerson, it may yet be
of crime are prevented.
truly said that he has nowhere been re-
20 May. Walked with Ellery. In
vealed in SO sweet and lovable a light
the landscape felt the magic of color;
as in these detached fragments. His
the world is all opal, and those ethereal
relations with Thoreau may have come
tints the mountains wear have the finest
nearest to this friendship with Channing;
effects of music upon us. Mountains
but in dealing with the self-reliant Tho-
are great poets, and one glance at this
reau, he had not to face a nature SO com-
fine cliff scene undoes a great deal of
plex, so shy, or so difficult to reach. It
prose and reinstates us wronged men in
might well be of this friendship that Em-
our rights.
erson wrote, in his essay bearing that
Ellery thinks that very few men carry
title, 'Let it be an alliance of two large
the world in their thoughts. But the ac-
formidable natures, mutually beheld, mu-
tual of it is thus, that every man of me-
tually feared, before yet they recognize
diocre health stands there for the sup-
the deep identity which beneath these dis-
port of fourteen or fifteen sick; and
parities unites them."
though it were easy to get his own bread
T. W. H.
with little labor, yet the other fourteen
SGW
damn him to toil.
Probably 1841, 10 December. A
Ellery said the village [of Concord]
good visit to Boston. saw S.
G. W.
did not look SO very bad from our point;
Ward and Ellery [Channing
to
ad-
the three churches looked like geese
vantage. E. has such an affectionate
swimming about in a pond.
Atlantic blonthly July, 1902.
28
Walks with Ellery Channing.
W. E. C. railed an hour in good set
He breaks faith with the reader, wants
terms at the usurpation of the past, at the
integrity. Yet, for poets, it will be a
great hoaxes of the Homers and Shake-
better book than whole volumes of Bry-
speares, hindering the books and the men
ant and Campbell.
of to-day of their just meed. Oh, cer-
A man of genius is privileged only as
tainly ! I assure him that the oaks and
far as he is a genius. His dullness is as
the horse-chestnuts are entirely obsolete,
insupportable as any otherdullness. Only
that the Horticultural Society are about
success will justify a departure and a
to recommend the introduction of cab-
license. But Ellery has freaks which
bage as a shade tree, SO much more con-
are entitled to no more charity than the
venient and every way comprehensible;
dullness or madness of others, which he
all grown from the seed upward to its
despises. He uses a license continually
most generous crumpled extremity with-
which would be just in oral improvisa-
in one's own short memory, past contra-
tion, but is not pardonable in written
diction the ornament of the world, and
verses. He fantasies on his piano.
then SO good to eat, as acorns and horse-
Elizabeth Hoar said that he was a
chestnuts are not. Shade trees for break-
wood-elf which one of the maids in a
fast.
story fell in love with and then grew
Ellery's poetry shows the art, though
uneasy, desiring that he might be bap-
the poems are imperfect; as the first da-
tized. Margaret [Fuller said he
re-
guerres are grim things, yet show that a
minded one of a great Genius with a
great engine has been invented.
wretched little boy trotting before him.
Ellery's verses should be called poetry
1846. Channing thinks life looks
for poets. They touch the fine pulses of
great and inaccessible and constantly at-
thought and will be the cause of more
tacks us, and notwithstanding all our
poetry and of verses more finished and
struggles is eating us up.
better turned than themselves but I
Sunday, September 20. Suffices El-
cannot blame the N. Americans [N.
lery Channing a mood for a poem.
Reviews and Knickerbockers if they
"There, I have sketched more or less in
should not suspect his genius. When
that color and style. You have a sam-
the rudder is invented for balloons, rail-
ple of it, what more would you get if I
roads will be superseded, and when El-
worked on forever?" He has no pro-
lery's muse finds an aim, whether some
position to affirm or support, he scorns
passion, or some fast faith, and kind of
it. He has, first of all Americans, a
string on which all these wild and some-
natural flow, and can say what he will.
times brilliant beads can be strung, we
I say to him, if I could write as well as
shall have a poet. Now he fantasies
you, I would write a good deal better.
merely, as dilettante in music. He breaks
No man deserves a patron until first
faith continually with the intellect. The
he has been his own. What do you
sonnet has merits, fine lines, gleams of
bring us slipshod verses for? no occa-
deep thought, well worth sounding, well
sional delicacy of expression or music of
worth studying. if only I could confide
rhythm can atone for stupidities. Here
that he had any steady meaning before
are lame verses, false rhymes, absurd
him, that he kept faith with himself but
images, which you indulge yourself in,
I fear that he changed his purpose with
which is as if a handsome person should
every verse, was led up and down to this
come into a company with foul hands or
or that with the exigencies of the rhyme,
face. Read Collins Collins would have
and only wanted to write and rhyme some-
cut his hand off before he would have
what, careless how or what, and stopped
left, from a weak self-esteem, a shabby
when he came to the end of the paper.
line in his ode.
Walks with Ellery Channing.
29
1847. Channing wished we had a
has seen service, and had wear and tear
better word than Nature to express this
of the world for centuries, and now the
fine picture which the river gave us in
article is brand-new. So Pope had but
our boat, yesterday. "Kind' was the
one good line, and that he got from
old word which, however, only filled half
Dryden, and therefore Pope is the best
the range of our fine Latin word. But
and only readable English poet.
nothing expresses that power which
Channing has a painter's eye, an ad-
seems to work for beauty alone, as C.
mirable appreciation of form and espe-
said, whilst man works only for use.
cially of color. But when he bought
The Mikania scandens, the steel-blue
pigments and brushes, and painted a
berries of the cornel, the eupatoriums
landscape with fervor on a barrel-head,
enriched now and then by a well-placed
he could not draw a tree so that his wife
cardinal adorned the fine shrubbery with
could surely know it was a tree. So Al-
what Channing called judicious modest
cott, the philosopher, has not an opinion
colors, suited to the climate, nothing ex-
or an apothegm to produce.
travagant, etc.
Ellery C. declared that wealth is ne-
1848. I find W. E. C. always in cun-
cessary to every woman, for then she
ning contraries. He denies the books
won't ask you when you go out whether
he reads, denies the friends he has just
you will call a hack. Every woman has
visited; denies his own acts and pur-
a design on you - all, all - if it is only
poses By God, I do not know them,"
just a little message. But Mrs. H. rings
and instantly the cock crows. The per-
for her black servant.
petual non sequitur in his speeches is ir-
Ellery was witty on Xantippe and the
resistibly comic.
philosophers old and new and compared
Ellery affirms, that James Adams,
one to a rocket with two or three mill-
the cabinet maker, has a true artistic
stones tied to it, or to a colt tethered
eye for he is always measuring the
to a barn.
man he talks with for his coffin."
He celebrates Herrick as the best of
He says that Hawthorne agrees with
English poets, a true Greek in England
him about Washington, that he is the
a great deal better poet than Milton who,
extreme of well-dressed mediocrity.
he says, is too much like Dr. Channing.
If he was Mr. Bowditch [President
Yesterday, 28 October. Another walk
of the Life Insurance Company] he
with Ellery well worth commemoration,
would never insure any life that had any
if that were possible but no pen could
infirmity of goodness in it. It is Good-
write what we saw. It needs the pencils
win who will catch pickerel if he had
of all the painters to aid the description.
any moral traits, he 'd never get a bite.
November 19. Yesterday, a cold fine
He says writers never do anything
ride with Ellery to Sudbury Inn and
some of them seem to do, but do not.
mounted the side of Nobscot. "T is a
H.T. [Thoreau] will never be a writer;
pretty revolution effected in the land-
he is as active as a shoemaker. The
scape by turning your head upside down
merit of Irving's Life of Goldsmith is
an infinite softness and loveliness is add-
that he has not had the egotism to put
ed to the picture. Ellery declared it
in a single new sentence ; 't is agreeable
made Campagna of it at once so, he said,
repetition of Boswell, Johnson & Com-
Massachusetts is Italy upside down.
pany and Montaigne is good, because
26 November. Yesterday walked over
there is nothing that has not already
Lincoln hills with Ellery and saw golden
been cured in books. A good book be-
willows, savins with two foliages, old
ing a Damascus blade, made by welding
chestnuts, apples as ever.
old nails and horseshoes. Everything
What fine weather is this," said El-
30
Walks with Ellery Channing.
lery, as we rode to Acton, nothing of
water all naturel, and in winter they
immortality here
serve it up artistically in this crystal
Life is so short," said he, that I
johnny-cake; and he had observed the
should think that everybody would steal."
same thing at the confectioners' shops,
I like Stow. He is a very good char-
that he could never get but one thing
acter. There is only a spoonful of wit,
there, though [they] had two ways of
and ten thousand feet of sandstone."
making it up.
He told Edmund Hosmer that he did
14 December.
Every
day
shows a
not see but trouble was as good as any-
new thing to veteran walkers. Yester-
thing else if you only had enough of it."
day, reflections of trees in the ice; snow-
He says Humour is unlaughed fun."
flakes, perfect, on the ice; beautiful
He said of Stow's poor Irishman that
groups of icicles all along the eastern
he died of too much perspiration."
shore of Flint's Pond, in which, espe-
He thinks our Thurston's disease is
cially where encrusting the bough of a
a paralysis of talent."
tree, you have the union of the most
Of H.D.? [Thoreau] hesaid, " Why,
flowing with the most fixed. Ellery
all
yes, he has come home, but now he has
the way squandering his jewels as if they
got to maximize the minimum, and that
were icicles, sometimes not comprehend-
will take him some days." [This irresist-
ed by me, sometimes not heard. "How
ibly suggests Thoreau's noted sentence,
many days can Methusalem go abroad
" I have traveled a great deal - in Con-
and see somewhat new When will
he
cord."]
have counted the changes of the kaleido-
[Apparently a quotation from Ellery
scope?'
Channing's talk.] "Drive a donkey
1850. Then came the difference be-
and beat him with a pole with both hands
tween American and English scholars.
that's action; but poetry is revolu-
H. said the English were all bred in one
tion on its own axis."
way, to one thing, they went to Eton,
He says he has an immense dispersive
they went to college, they went to Lon-
power.
don, they all knew each other and never
How well they [the stars wear
did not feel [i. e., never doubted] the
He thought a man could still get along
ability of each. But here Channing is
with them, who was considerably re-
obscure, Newcomb is obscure, and so all
duced in his circumstances ; they are a
the scholars are in a more natural, health-
kind of bread and cheese which never
ful, and independent condition.
fail.
W. E. C. said A. [Alcott] is made of
1849, November 17.
Yesterday saw
earth and fire he wants air and water.
the fields covered with cobwebs in every
How fast all this magnetism would lick
direction, on which the wake of the set-
up water He discharges himself in
ting sun appeared as on water. Walked
volleys. Can you not hear him snap
over hill and dale with Channing, who
when you are near him ?
found wonders of color and landscape
1852. Walk with Ellery to Lincoln
everywhere, but complained of the want
benzoin, laurus, rich beautiful plant in
of invention Why, they had frozen
this dried-up country parti-colored war-
water last year why should they do it
bler. E. laughed at Nuttall's descrip-
again Therefore it was so easy to be
tion of birds, On the top of a high tree
an artist, because they do the same thing
the bird pours all day the lays of affec-
always, and therefore he only wants time
tion," etc. Affection ! Why, what is it
to make him perfect in the imitation
A few feathers, with a hole at one end,
and I believe, too, that pounding is one
and a point at the other, and a pair of
of the secrets." All summer he gets
wings ; Affection Why, just as much
Walks with Ellery Channing.
31
affection as there is in that lump of peat.
the gay scenes. Hehas a stroke of humor
We went to Bear Hill, and had a fine
in his eye, as if he enjoyed his master's
outlook. Descending, E. got sightof some
jokes - Ellery "thinks England a flash
laborers in the field below. Look at them,
in the pan; as English people in 1848
he said, those four four demoniacs
had agreed that Egypt was humbug. I
scratching in their cell of pain Live
am to put down among the monomaniaes
for the hour Just as much as any man
the English agriculturist, who only knows
has done or laid up in any way, unfits
one revolution in political history, the
him for conversation. He has done some-
rape-culture. But as we rode, one thing
thing, makes him good for boys, but spoils
was clear, as oft before, that is favora-
him for the hour. That's the good of
ble to sanity the occasional change of
Thoreau, that he puts his whole sublu-
landscape. If a girl is mad to marry,
nary capital into the last quarter of an
let her take a ride of ten miles, and see
hour; carries his whole stock under his
meadows, and mountains, she never saw
arm. t home I found H. T. [Thoreau]
before, two villages and an old mansion
himself who complained of Clough or
house and the odds are, it will change
somebody that he or they recited to every
all her resolutions. World is full of fools,
one at table, the paragraph just read by
who get a-going and never stop; them
him or them in the last newspaper, and
off on another tack, and they are half-
studiously avoided everything private. I
cured. From Shawsheen we went to Bur-
should think he was complaining of one
lington and E. reiterated his conviction,
H. D. T. [Thoreau himself].
that the only art in the world is land-
1853. Yesterday a ride to Bedford
scape-painting. The boys held up their
with Ellery along the Bedford Levels"
fish to us from far a broad new pla-
and walked all over the premises of the
card on the walls announced to us that
Old Mill, King Philip's mill, - on the
the Shawsheen mill was for sale; but we
Shawsheen River ; old mill, with sundry
bought neither the fish nor the mill.
nondescript wooden antiquities. Boys
1854. Delicious summer stroll through
with bare legs were fishing on the little
the endless pastures of Barrett, Buttrick,
islet in the stream; we crossed and re-
and Esterbrook farms, yesterday, with
crossed, saw the fine stumps of trees,
Ellery the glory of summer, what mag-
rocks and groves, and many Collot views
nificence yet one night of frost will kill
of the bare legs ; beautiful pastoral coun-
it all. E. was witty on the Biographie
try, but needs sunshine. There were
Universelle - de soi-même. T.
millions of light to-day, so all went well
had been made to print his house into his
(all but the dismal tidings which knelled
title-page, in order that A. might have
a funeral bell through the whole after-
that to stick into one volume of the B.U.
noon, in the death of S. S.).
[Probably referring to Alcott's volumi-
Rich democratic land of Massachu-
nous journals.]
setts, in every house well-dressed women
1856. November 15. Walk with
with air of town ladies : in every house
Ellery, who finds in Nature or man that
a clavecin [harpsichord] and a copy of
whatever is done for beauty or in sport
the Spectator ; and some young lady a
is excellent; but the moment there is
reader of Willis. Channing did not like
any use in it, or any kind of talent, is
the landscape too many leaves - one
very bad and stupid. The fox-sparrows
leaf is like another and apt to be agi-
and the blue snow-birds pleased him, and
tated by east wind, on the other hand
the water-cresses which we saw in the
"Professor" (Ellery's dog) strode grave-
brook, but which he said were not in
ly as a bear through all the sentimental
any botany.
parts and fitted equally well the grave and
When I said of Ellery's new verses
32
Walks with Ellery Channing.
that they were as good as the old ones,
S.6.w.
perior to his early books wondered at
Yes," said Ward, "but those were excel-
his imagination which can invest with
Tent promise and now he does no more."
such interest to himself these (one would
He has a more poetic temperament than
think) hopeless details of German story.
any other in America, but the artistic ex-
He is the only man who knows. What
ecutive power of completing a design he
a reader, such as abound in New Eng-
has not. His poetry is like the artless
land, enwreathed by the thoughts they
warbling of a vireo, which whistles pret-
suggest to a contemplative pilgrim.
tily all day and all summer on the elm,
"Unsleeping truths by which wheels on
but never rounds a tune, nor can increase
Heaven's prime."
the value of melody by the power of com-
There is a neglect of superficial cor-
position and cuneiform [sic] determina-
rectness which looks a little studied, as
tion. He must have construction also.
if perhaps the poet challenged notice to
As Linnaus delighted in a new flower
his subtler melody, and strokes of skill
which alone gave him a seventh class, or
which recall the great masters. There
filled a gap in his system, so I know a
is nothing conventional in the thought
man who served as intermediate between
or the illustration, but thoughts that
two notable acquaintances of mine, not
voluntary move harmonious numbers,"
else to be approximated, and W. E. C.
and pictures seen by an instructed eye.
served as a companion of H. D. T., and
Channing, who writes a poem for our
T. of C. [Thoreau of Channing].
fields, begins to help us. That is con-
In answer to evidences of immortal-
struction, and better than running to
ity, Ellery said, There is a great deal
Charlemagne and Alfred for subjects.
of self-importance, and the good Orien-
W. E. C.'s poetry is wanting in clear
tal who cuts such a figure was bit by
statement. Rembrandt makes effects
this fly."
without details, gives you the effect of a
He said of Boston, " There is a city
sharp nose or a gazing eye, when, if you
of 130,000 people, and not a chair in
look close, there is no point to the nose,
which I can sit."
and no eye is drawn. W. M. Hunt ad-
There often seems so little affinity be-
mires this, and in his own painting puts
tween him and his works that it seems
his eye in deep shadow; but I miss the
as if the wind must have written the
eye, and the face seems to nod for want
book and not he.
of it. And Ellery makes a hazy, indefi-
1859. Secondary men and primary
nite expression, as of miscellaneous music
men. These travelers to Europe, these
without any theme or tune. Still it is an
readers of books, these youths rushing
autumnal air, and like the smell of the
into counting-rooms of successful mer-
herb, Life Everlasting and syngenesious
chants, are all imitators, and we get
flowers. Near Home is a poem which
only the same product weaker. But the
would delight the heart of Wordsworth,
man who never SO slowly and patiently
though genuinely original and with a sim-
works out his native thoughts is a pri-
plicity of plan which allows the writer to
mary person.
leave out all the prose. "T is a series of
Ellery said, looking at a golden-rod,
sketches of natural objects.
'Ah! here they are. These things con-
W. E. C., the model of opinionists, or
sume a great deal of time. I don't
weather painters. He has it his own way.
know but they are of more importance
People whose watches go faster than
than any other of our investments."
their neighbors'.
Glad of Ellery's cordial praise of
1861. March 26. Yesterday wrote
Carlyle's history, which he thinks well
to F. G. Tuckerman to thank him for
entitled to be called a 'Work," far su-
his book Poems. Boston : 1860], and
Walks with Ellery Channing.
33
praised Rhotruda [a poem]. Ellery C.
May-days and parliaments of wit and
finds two or three good lines and metres
love, was no better to-day nor half SO
in the book thinks it refined and deli-
good as in some walks.
cate, but says the young people run on a
Ellery says :
What a climate!
notion that they must name the flowers,
one day they take the cover off the sun,
talk about an orchis, and say something
and all the Irishmen die of drinking cold
about Indians; but he says, "I prefer
water; and the next day you are up to
passion and sense and genius to botany."
your knees in snow."
Ellery says of Tennyson, 'What is
He admires, as ever, the greatness in
best is the things he does not say."
Wilhelm Meister. "It is no matter
He thinks these frogs at Walden are
what Goethe writes about. There is no
very curious but final facts; that they
trifle; much superior to Shakespeare in
will never be disappointed by finding
this elevation."
themselves raised to a higher state of
A. B. A. [Alcott] said of W. E. C.
intelligence.
that he had the keen appetite for society
Here is a right bit of Ellery C.:
with extreme repulsion, SO that it came
Helps's book, called Friends in Coun-
to a kind of commerce of cats, love and
cil, is inexpressibly dull." 'In this
hate, embrace and fighting.
manufacture the modern English excel.
Ellery thinks that he is the lucky man
Witness their Taylors, Wordsworths,
who can write in bulk, forty pages on a
Arnolds and Scotts (not Walter). Wise,
hiccough, ten pages on a man's sitting
elegant, moderate, and cultivated, yet
down in a chair (like Hawthorne, etc.)
unreadable."
that will go. [Evidently referring to
Ellery says of Thoreau : His effects
the marvelous chapter in the House
can all be produced by cork and sand
of the Seven Gables, where Governor
but the substance that produces them is
Pyncheon sits dead in the lonely room.
godlike and divine." And of C. [Cur-
Ellery thinks that these waterside cot-
tis ?], Yes, he would make a very
tagers of Nahant and Chelsea, and SO on,
good draughtsman, if he had any talent
never see the sea. There, it is all dead
for it."
water, and a place for dead horses, and
October 24. A ride yesterday to
the smell of Mr. Kip's omnibus stable.
Marlborough, though projected for years,
But go to Truro, and go to the beach
was no good use of the day. That town
there, on the Atlantic side, and you will
has a most rich appearance of rural
have every stroke of the sea like the
plenty, and comfort; ample farms, good
cannon of the "sea-fencibles" [old-fash-
houses, profusion of apples, pumpkins,
ioned military companies for coast de-
etc. Yellow apple heaps in every en-
fense]. There is a solitude which you
closure, whole orchards left ungathered,
cannot stand more than ten minutes.
and in the Grecian piazzas of houses,
He thinks the fine art of Goethe and
pumpkins ripening between the columns.
company very dubious. and 't is doubtful
At Gates's, where Dr. Channing and Mr.
whether Sam Wardis quite in his senses
S.G.W.
Jonas Phillips used to resort, they no
in his value of that book of prints of old
longer keep a public house, closed it
Italian school, Giotto and the rest. It
to the public last spring. At Cutting's,
may do for very idle gentlemen, etc.,
though there were oats for the horse,
etc. I reply, There are a few giants
there was no dinner for men, - SO we
who gave the thing vogue by their real-
repaired to the chestnut woods and an
ism, Michel Angelo and Ribiera and
old orchard, for ours. Ellery, who is a
Salvator Rosa, and the man who made
perpetual holiday, and ought only to be
the old Torso Hercules and the Phidias
used like an oriflamme or a garland for
- man or men who made the Parthenon
VOL. XC. - NO. 537.
3
34
Two Years' Legislation in Porto Rico.
reliefs - had a drastic style which a
just now in vain to restore a witty criti-
blacksmith or a stone-mason would say
cism of his, yesterday, on a book.
was starker than their own. And I
1864. On the 24th of September
adhere to [Van Waagen's?] belief, that
Ellery and I walked through Becky
there is a pleasure from works of art
Stow's hole dry-shod hitherto a feat
which nothing else can yield.
for a muskrat alone.
1862. Matthew Arnold writes well
This year the river meadows all dry
of "the grand style," but the secret of
and permeable to the walker. But why
that is a finer moral sentiment. 'Tis
should Nature always be on the gallop?
very easy for Alcott to talk grandly, he
Look now, and instantly, or you shall
will make no mistake. 'T is certain
never see it. Not ten minutes' repose
that the poetic temperament of W. E. C.
allowed. Incessant whirl? And 't is
will utter lines and passages inimitable
the same, I thought, with my compan-
by any talent; 't is wood-thrush and
ion's genius. You must carry a steno-
cat-bird.
graphic press in your pocket if you would
His talk is criss-cross, humorsome,
have his commentaries on things and
humorous. I tormented my memory
men or they are irrecoverable.
TWO YEARS' LEGISLATION IN PORTO RICO.
THE WORK OF THE FIRST LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY OF PORTO RICO,
1900-1902.
THE problem of endowing our new-
sults there actually accomplished will
ly acquired insular possessions with po-
exercise a profound influence upon the
litical institutions and systems of law at
management of affairs in our other pos-
once conforming to American ideals of
sessions. If the policies pursued in
individual liberty and political justice,
Porto Rico meet with success, they will
and yet adapted to the peculiar condi-
undoubtedly be used as a guide for action
tions in each island and the character
elsewhere. Everything, therefore, that
of its inhabitants, constitutes one of the
is done in Porto Rico in the way of work-
greatest of the many responsibilities now
ing out the problem of government and
resting upon the American people. Of
administration assumes an interest and
the various possessions to which this
importance to the whole United States
problem relates Porto Rico occupies an
almost as great as to Porto Rico itself.
unique position from the fact that it is
Civil government was organized in
the first of the possessions coming to us
Porto Rico on May 1, 1900. Its con-
from Spain to be granted a civil govern-
stitution is found in the so-called For-
ment and a considerable measure of
aker Act," approved by Congress April
local autonomy. It is in this island,
12, 1900, which provides the Organic
then, that the United States is really
Act under which civil government is es-
making its first essay in the field of
tablished on the island. This act did
governing a dependency. The capacity
little more than set forth the bare out-
of the United States to govern another
lines of a scheme of central government,
people may be said there to be on trial.
leaving to the Porto Ricans its subsequent
More than this, it is certain that the re-
elaboration. Briefly, the act provided
a Browson alcott His Life t Philosophy
2/20/2020
F.B. Sanborn +Wm Torrey Harris. Bostor, Robats
1893,
Vol.2. Chapter 10 Life in Boston -Toen
from after the alcaHts took up their above
in Boston, 1848, Business blest begre to hold
# 12
Envirations mine rooms alluest a St. Eay,
1849, a club wood ayough with a Resultable
let D newters, ada have chosen N
Everson, afterwords perpetected tol. Hoggins my
in a more pursuant expenses in Negsort
104 member July 182 Jane G. Week
lested a oc mately the Tour County Clet-
thoff to does he not seill have a home
in henox?
Shert leved, francist indultedness led to
its fature The was
The Saturday Club
January 6, 2019
p.46 Robert D. Rischardone. Wollow Junes
Bostm HM, 2006.
William visited the Wards, Tappans,
Forbises whitent
Sertificatehal 1861-62. Jun
might have be be feest in teracts
with the child whener bwedin
c GBD, or just a reacquoratance
Boston on Communicate are or still at
Park St.
p.
52 A denuer party at the word
during the war
p. 272 Sanuer people verity Chocorua resudence
of the Jameses, included the Words.
See taken for reference Touldors
P 65
Service Gray Waedoor major backed
the Aefassiz Expection
ps. 1 f.2
Ed.
The Letters of Margaret Fuller
Robert N. Hadspeth
Vol.3 1842 44. Ithaca Carrello.P., 1984.
The Letters of Margaret Fuller
2. Jane Tuckerman, daughter of Gustavus Tuckerman of Boston, had been Fuller's
pupil. She was a good friend of Caroline Sturgis.
3. Bartolomé Esteban Murillo (1617-82), the Spanish painter. His Dos ninos
man must needs be the painter of our country, and as one in the ser
comiendo fruta was painted ca. 1650.
ried ranks of his friends, I shall witness his victories over the immorial
beauty, with some little satisfaction, as high as my nature will go to
that line, which I do confess is not lofty. The very mould of this mans
lace was built for the life of statues, buildings, and splendid lan
scapes. He will set the century on fire, with the beauty of his concept
386. To Samuel G. Ward
tions, and burn up the stubble of our degeneracy in a flame which
shall lick away the stars. Once in five hundred years, God sends some
Concord
pitiful figure to convince us that we are only dead bones in his pres
August 21st 1842
ence, and life springs into charming, from the touch of his finger, is
The Sunday came with its usual contracts of sunlight, coolness, and
il he did create.
pleasure. But you came not with it, at which I did not grieve, for I
I had linked these silly thoughts with you, and many times, in imaj
have nothing to offer you, or any one, in society, though God knows I
mation, have I" sat in your studio, and wept over my inadequal
do bear you with me in my heart. I am under a painful weight of debt
strength to grasp the greatness of your landscapes or statues in my
to you for large store of kindnesses in the past, and in the present,
eye, and played some comic part among your creations which were
and am glad to find my faith does not diminish in your bounty, or my
nigh to lunacy. Yet, it was not without a touch of ravishment, when
affection grow cold in absence. I think you stand well among the fig-
NEW you spring on shore after your Italian voyage, as light as som
ures on my canvass,- a reasonable man, whom the demon of vanity
creature of the element, and the translation of all the beauty of man
has not led into idleness or contempt for his kind. I am free to carry
centuries. I felt it was a glad hour for art, and that our Promethen
you as a recollection which I am past doing for many, and only won-
still held the divine fire on the point of his pencil. Of course, it wa
der you have escaped all the nonsense of our day SO well and stand
that you must be the Painter of the time, redeem our souls from thei
steadily drudging at your broker's shop, like many another son of
Lethean slumber, and waft us into the upper airs of felicity. Suel
Adam. Whence came that broad prudence which has made its nest in
were the silly tricks, my fatuous imagination played with the hones
your brain, unless from Minerva herself?
domain of common sense, for even then I had a pitiful snickering at
shall never pay off even the interest of this large debt I owe you,
ter verse, and already had made some wretched rhymes.
of fine thoughts, of noble deeds, now running on SO many years, but
(When I learned you were to become a merchant, to sit at the dead
if there is any God who meets men face to face, and knows their mer-
wood of the desk, and calculate figures, I was betrayed into some un
its, I believe your goodness to me will not go unbalanced. I was born
belief, as if this information was the lusus of a report, the shadow ()
to a fortune, though not of pence, for which last, truly, I cannot bow.
the chimney's smoke. Yet it came true, as many another unbelief ()
I came in, to meet the splendid hearts of friends, who have matched
mine has.
their earliest gifts, every day down to this present; I have been con-
I would you had starved yourself lean, for two-score years, over
quered out of my desperate monodies, by the sounds of their cheerful
few shavings in some garret, and therein fixed an iron spear in the
speech. Yet, though I love them more, I am every day more careless
hard breast of Art, and forced it to yield its elixir. I would that Ar
of them, being but a poor creature at the best, and my only mercy
had crushed you in its bronze vice, until your life ran out a rich wine
with any at the nib of the pen. My speech to men has failed to pay its
of beauty. Had only a great despair passed its stained fingers across
dividends, yet my capital stock is not withdrawn.
your temples, and drawn therein ten perpetual furrows. Had want
will confess, once for all, I had longed to see you a painter, and
showered early over your classic form its grey mantle of cloud, had
not a merchant out of the intolerable stupidity of my nature, which
you wept bitter tears, over five hundred failures of your pencil stung
still owns a treacherous inkling for pictures and poems, and I have
your palm, as though it had carried an asp to its handle>
not even so far cured this miserable vanity, as not now and then to
So wretched a mendicant am I, at the great gate of riches, and SO
scribble some paltry line. used to gaze on you. and say to myself, this
low are my conceptions of that ripe prudence which tarries in your in-
tellect, as if fourscore years had unladen their mighty freights of ex-
88
89
page 2 of 2
The Letters of Margaret Fuller
The Letters of Margaret Fuller
perience in your mind, I feel assured, both by the honor I bear your
find just the alternation of repose and satisfying pleasure that I need.
deeds, and by the respect I feel that the path you now creep in is the
[
]
best.
Do not find fault with the hermits and scholars. The true text is:-
I do but paint the shadows which intrude momentarily in my being
and pass forever more over the fathomless lake of my existence. Yet I
"Mine own Telemachus
have been fortunate, and plucked some sunny spring-flowers, which
He does his work-I mine."
shake their blue bells over this ruin that I was. It matters not, in this
brief and flying moment, which we call life, after all, what we accom-
All do the work, whether they will or no; but he is "mine own Telema-
plish. Unresting nature bathes each infant as he rises out of the vi-
chus" who does it in the spirit of religion, never believing that the last
sionless sea with these fair, gentle influences, and does not demand
results can be arrested in any one measure or set of measures, lis-
back even the husks of our joys. Ever swings at th' other end, the mel-
tening always to the voice of the Spirit,-and who does this more
ancholy portal at which we exit, a line of shadow between two worlds
than [Waldo]?
of spotless beauty.
After the first excitement of intimacy with him,-when I was made
SO happy by his high tendency, absolute purity, the freedom and infi-
Who paints not here,
nite graces of an intellect cultivated much beyond any I had known,
Paints in that other sphere,
And bends his line
-came with me the questioning season. I was greatly disappointed in
With forms divine.
my relation to him. I was, indeed, always called on to be worthy,-
this benefit was sure in our friendship. But I found no intelligence of
By the stroke of the clock, I see the meridian hour sits full upon the
my best self; far less was it revealed to me in new modes; for not only
fields. Yon stately" elm, with its central shadow, else sheeted in this
did he seem to want the living faith which enables one to discharge
crown of sunlight, which ever day wears for the full noon hour, em-
this holiest office of a friend, but he absolutely distrusted me in every
blems again the picturesqueness of our fate. I see the tasselled corn
region of my life with which he was unacquainted. The same trait
I
ripening in the glorious warmth; I do note the green turf of the bank
detected in his relations with others. He had faith in the Universal,
below me, and the blue of the peaceful sky. So infinitely genial may
but not in the Individual Man; he met men, not as a brother, but as a
also fall the noon-hour of your life, and the gratitude of your poor
critic. Philosophy appeared to chill instead of exalting the poet.
friend be" like some little birds' song in the grand meridian concert.
But now I am better acquainted with him. His "accept" is true; the
With which I also conclude myself, yours in love
"I shall learn," with which he answers every accusation, is no less true.
No one can feel his limitations, in fact, more than he, though he al-
ways speaks confidently from his present knowledge as all he has yet,
AMs (MII: IMS Am 1086 [9:91]). Endorsed in Fuller's hand: E to Rafaello.
and never qualifies or explains. He feels himself "shut up in a crystal
The letter probably is a copy made by Fuller.
cell," from which only "a great love or a great task could release me,"
have II (I) have 11
You stately| Yo(u)n stately
and hardly expects either from what remains in this life. But I already
friend be) friend(s) be
see SO well how these limitations have fitted him for his peculiar work,
1. In the mid-1830s Ward had gone to Europe with John and Eliza Farrar, a trip
that I can no longer quarrel with them; while from his eyes looks out
Fuller would have made had not her father died.
the angel that must sooner or later break every chain. Leave him in
his cell affirming absolute truth; protesting against humanity, if SO he
appears to do; the calm observer of the courses of things. Surely, "he
keeps true to this thought, which is the great matter." He has already
387. To William H. Channing[P]
paid his debt to his time; how much more he will give we cannot
know; but already I feel how invaluable is a cool mind, like his, amid
August 1842
the warring elements around us. As I look at him more by his own
Concord
law, I understand him better; and as I understand him better, differ-
Beneath this roof of peace, beneficence, and intellectual activity,
I
ences melt away. My inmost heart blesses the fate that gave me birth
90
T. of the Society of Architectural Historians 7 (1948):
17-20
Emerson and His Circle: Advocates
Of Functionalism
ROBERT B. SHAFFER
Ralph Waldo Emerson has been largely ignored
He was likewise impressed by the Cathedral of
by historians of American architecture. But it is
Milan :
worth noting that he and certain friends, almost
the grand Gothic perspective of the aisles,
a century ago, were voicing a viewpoint which an-
the colors of the light which all enters through
ticipates that of the later advocates of function-
stained glass, the richness and magnitude of all
alism and related ideas.
the objects,-truly it is good to be there."
It is generally assumed that Emerson cared
But while at Milan, he received an impression
little for architecture. The basis for this assump-
of a different kind:
tion can be found in his own writings. At the
"Architecture - shall I speak what I think -
age of twenty-nine, while touring Italy in 1833,
seems to me ever an imitation. Accustomed to
he confessed that he was more interested in men
look at our American churches as imitiative, I
and associations than in art:
cannot get it out of my head that these which
I now see are only more splendid and successful
"
how evanescent and superficial is most of
imitation also.
It is in the soul that archi-
that emotion which art and magnificence can
tecture exists, and Santa Croce and this Duomo
awaken. It yields in me to the interest the most
are poor far-behind imitations.
ordinary companion inspires.¹
A few years later (1836), he enlarged upon his
"In Rome it is not the diameter nor the circum-
distaste for imitative works in the following pas-
ference of the columns, it is not the dimensions
sage:
nor the materials of the temples, which consti-
tute their chief charm. It is the name of Cicero;
"The Marine Railway, the United States Bank,
it is the remembrance of Scipio and Cato and
the Bunker Hill Monument, are perfectly genu-
Regulus; the influence of human character
ine works of the times. So is a speech in Con-
gress.
But Taylor's Van Artevelde, Byron's
He admitted being perplexed by the calculating
Sardanapalus, and Joanna Bailey's dramas are
and analytical way in which he found himself
futile endeavors to revive a dead form and can-
looking at architecture, and concluded that he
not succeed, nor, I think, can Greenough's
sculpture. You must exercise your genius in
"would rather know the metaphysics of architec-
some form that has essential life now; do some-
ture
than anything else in the matter."
thing which is proper to the hour, and cannot
At the same time he showed enthusiastic appre-
but be done. But what is once well done, lasts
ciation of St. Peter's appeal to the senses:
forever, as the Gladiator, the Apollo, the Parthenon,
the Iliad.
"I love St. Peter's church.
It has a peculiar
smell from the quantity of incense burned in it.
Later generations of anti-revivalists might quar-
n-15
The music that is heard in it is always good and
rel with the examples cited, but not the principle.
the eye is always charmed. It is an ornament
of the earth. It is not grand, it is so rich and
Emerson in 1841 developed his ideas on the
pleasing; it should rather be called the sublime
"metaphysics" of architecture in an article which
of the beautiful.
appeared in The Dial.9 He maintained that the
soul is subservient to the universal mind, and that
1. Journals of Ralph Waldo Emerson, ed. Edward W. Emerson
and Waldo Emerson Forbes (Boston, 1909-1914), III, 100.
6. Ibid., p. 143.
2. Ibid., D. 102.
7. Ibid., D. 146.
3. Ibid., p. 146.
8. Ibid., IV, 38-9.
4. Ibid., p. 147.
9. [R. W. Emerson], "Thoughts on Art," The Dial, I (1840-1),
5. Ibid., pp. 89-90.
367-878.
18
SOCIETY OF ARCHITECTURAL HISTORIANS
therefore art, which is the creation of the soul, is
Horatio Greenough, the American sculptor.
strictly dependent upon Nature, which is the uni-
Greenough was a superior man, ardent and elo-
versal mind's representative. The division of Na-
quent, and all his opinions had elevation and mag-
nanimity
He was a votary of the Greeks, and
ture into the two aspects material and ideal -
impatient of Gothic art. His paper on American
led Emerson to the formulation of two interesting
architecture, published in 1843 ['Remarks on
doctrines.
American Art,' in the United States Magazine and
Since art is subservient to the material aspect
Democratic Review] announced in advance the
leading thoughts of Mr. Ruskin on the morality
of Nature, it follows that works of art must con-
in architecture, notwithstanding the antagonism
form to natural laws. This applies especially to
in their views of the history of art. I have a pri-
architecture. One cannot build as he wishes, but
vate letter from him - later, but respecting the
as he must. "It is only within narrow limits that
same period - in which he roughly sketches his
the discretion of the architect may range. Gravity,
own theory. 'Here is my theory of structure: A
scientific arrangement of spaces and forms to func-
wind, sun, rain, the size of men and animals, and
tions and to site; an emphasis of features propor-
such like, have more to say than he. "10 In other
tioned to their gradated importance in function;
words, form is determined by material properties
color and ornament to be decided and arranged
and physical laws. The architect cannot get free
and varied by strictly organic laws, having a dis-
tinct reason for each decision the entire and im-
of this material basis, but on the other hand such
mediate banishment of all make-shift and make-
things as the mass of a building or the materials
believe. "13
used can actually be a source of pleasure.
Since art is also subservient to Nature in its
In 1852, while Greenough was preparing his
book, The Travels, Observations, and Experiences
ideal aspect, works of art will be expressions of
of a Yankee Stonecutter, for publication, he not
the universal mind that formed Nature, and there-
only exchanged a number of letters with Emerson
fore must be based on reason and necessity.
on the subject of art and architecture, but also
"Arising out of eternal reason, one and perfect,
consulted him in Concord. It is clear from letters
whatever is beautiful rests on the foundation of
written by Emerson during this year that he had
the necessary
Fitness is SO inseparable an ac-
companiment of beauty, that it has been taken for
great admiration and respect for Greenough's
it. The most perfect form to answer an end, is SO
theories. 14
far beautiful.
We feel, in seeing a noble build-
This exchange of ideas on architecture was ter-
ing, which rhymes well, as we do in hearing a
minated by Greenough's death in December 1852,
perfect song, that it is spiritually organic, that is,
had a necessity in nature, for being, was one of
but Emerson had other friends, now obscure, who
the possible forms in the Divine mind, and is now
were thinking along similar lines. One of these
only discovered and executed by the artist, not
was Samuel Gray Ward, an amateur draftsman
arbitrarily composed by him.
and art connoisseur, described by Emerson as "my
Thus close did Emerson come to formulating
friend and the best man in the city.' 15 When
the related doctrines of "honest construction,
Emerson assumed the editorship of the Dial, he
truthfully expressed," and "form following func-
published Ward's essay, "Notes on Art and Ar-
tion," both of which are more advocated at the
chitecture, 16 which developed the ideas on func-
present time than in his day. However, among
tional form and expressive materials suggested by
Emerson's friends there were several who held
Emerson in the same periodical two years pre-
similar views.
viously.
One of these friends was Horatio Greenough,
Ward begins his article by hoping that his notes
whose ideas on architecture are sufficiently modern
may come to the eye of some person proposing
to have been worthy of re-publication recently 12
to build a house or a church, in time to save a new
It is not surprising that Emerson held him in great
13. From Emerson's English Traits, as quoted in The New Path,
esteem:
II (1865), 136. It is odd that this passage should have been chosen
for publication in a periodical devoted to furthering the Gothic
Revival according to Ruskin.
"At Florence, chief among artists, I found [1833]
14. See The Letters of Ralph Waldo Emerson, ed. R. L. Rusk
10. Ibid., 369.
(New York, 1939), particularly IV, 271-2, 306, 311, 312.
11. Ibid., 375.
15 In a letter to Carlyle, quoted in The Correspondence of
12. Greenough's ideas have recently attracted attention through
Thomas Carlyle and Ralph Waldo Emerson, ed. C. E. Norton (Bos-
their republication by H. A. Small, ed., with the title Form and
ton, 1897), II, 51-52.
Function; remarks on art (Berkeley, 1947).
16. The Dial, IV (1843), 107-115.
EMERSON AND HIS CIRCLE
19
edifice from some of the faults, which make our
Another life-long friend of Emerson was James
domestic and what we call our religious archi-
Elliot Cabot. He was also a contributor to the
tecture
insignificant(2) He then continues "The
Dial, and practiced architecture for a time (he
crowning and damning sin of architecture with
had a part in the design of the Boston Athenaeum).
us
is, the doing of unmeaning, needless things."
He eventually became Emerson's literary executor.
In building, there should be a reason for everything.
He wrote several articles on domestic architecture
"Let any man of good sense say to himself what
for early issues of the Atlantic Monthly which
sort of a house he would have for convenience, sup-
found favor with Emerson, as Cabot was also
posing him to have the space to build it on; then
thinking along functional lines.
let him frame and roof these rooms, and if he has
made his house truly convenient, its appearance
In his "Notes on Domestic Architecture," pub-
cannot be absurd."
lished in 1858, he takes note of the prevailing con-
As for churches,
fusion, which he attributes to attempts to beautify
houses deliberately. These attempts are destined
"If the builder would content himself with putting
together
essential parts with the utmost sim-
to fail, for they ignore the "two-fold requirement
plicity, without any excrescences or breaking up,
of fitness for its use and of harmony with its sur-
striving only to balance the members against each
roundings."
other, SO that each should have its proper propor-
tion, he would produce a specimen of national
"For a house is not a monument, that it should
church architecture."
draw attention to itself, - but the dwelling-place
of men upon the earth; and it must show itself to
But Ward warns against mistaking plainness for
be wholly secondary to its purpose."
simplicity. In order to become a work of art,
He notes that Americans are more likely to be
some adornment must be provided for these essen-
successful when building a pig sty or a log house
tial parts. But this adornment must be suitable.
than they are when attempting to import "styles,"
"The artist may employ all his taste and imagina-
an effort which is bound to fail because not based
tion in decorations, (always entirely subordinate,)
on real need.
of these main parts, taking care that his decora-
tions are in keeping with the uses of the building."
"What is wanted for any real progress is
more thoughtful consideration on the part of house-
Ward, like Emerson, points out the importance
owners of what truly interests them in the house.
of the honest and expressive use of materials.
What is it that we really care for in the build-
ing of our houses? Is it not, that, like dress, or
"
every material should be employed with an
manners, they should facilitate, and not impede
eye to its peculiar properties.
the business of life?
They are to be lived in,
"To see materials used skillfully and in accordance
not looked at; and their beauty must grow
naturally from their use.
with their peculiar qualities is a great source of
beauty in architecture. The vice of many of our
Cabot amplified his position in an Atlantic ar-
buildings is that the material is entirely dis-
ticle in 1862.18
guised,
all we see is a plain white surface.
Have done with this paltry concealment; let us see
"Because our architecture is bad, and because the
how the thing is built.'
architecture of our forefathers in the Middle Ages
He criticizes the contemporary practice of using
was good, Mr. Ruskin and others seem to think
there is no salvation for us until we build in the
Greek forms without adaptation, and points out
same spirit as they did."
that wooden columns should not be Greek in pro-
portion, but "just SO large as is needful for the
But Cabot feels that this position is not a rea-
purpose for which they were erected."
sonable one, because his own age has needs and
Ward does not base his ideas on "Nature" to
wants that the earlier people did not have.
the extent that Emerson does, but examples from
'The only chance clearly is to cut away till we
Nature are cited to support them.
come to the solid ground of real, not fancied, re-
quirement. As long as it is our whims, and not
'Architecture is a tendency to organization.
in
our necessities, that [we] build, it matters little
natural organizations as the tree or the animal, we
how much pains we take, how learned and as-
see no part that has not a meaning and use, and
siduous we are. I have no hope of any considerable
each part of that material which answers to its end.
17. Atlantic Monthly, I (1858), 257-63.
This also is a fundamental law of architecture.'
18. "House-Building," Atlantic Monthly, X (1862), 423-31.
20
SOCIETY OF ARCHITECTURAL HISTORIANS
advantage from the abundant exhortation to frank-
at the beginning of the century [e.g., Salem], come
ness and genuineness in the use of materials, unless
nearer to our wants; but they sacrifice too much
it lead first of all to a more frank and genuine
to a cut-and-dried symmetry to be of much use to
consideration of the occasion for using the materials
us. After that the way is downward through one
at all.
set of absurdities after another
"
"The first step toward seemly building is to rectify
What, then, is to be done? First of all, there
the relation between the appearance and the uses
must be no more "forgeries" of the styles of the
of the building, - to give to each the weight that
it really has with us, not what we fancy or are
past. Then, Cabot suggests, the safest rule to
told it ought to have."
follow, is:
Cabot believes that the main character of a
"not to be conspicuous, and, to that end, to respect
building should be determined by needs and use,
the plain fundamental rules of statics, of good con-
and discusses practical considerations in planning,
struction, of harmonious color, and to resist sac-
rificing any solid advantage to show.
such as orientation, the number and size of rooms,
and their purpose. Then,
In the Atlantic two years later, Cabot elaborated
his attack upon Ruskin's theories, - an attack
"The position, the internal arrangement, and the
which had the admiring approval of Emerson.19
material being determined upon, the next point
is that the structure shall be as little of an eyesore
But Emerson and his friends, although united in
as we can make it.'
their opposition to the Gothic Revival, were unable
to stop it. Their ideas, though linked with "Na-
He commends old New England farmhouses for
ure," seem actually rather to be derived from the
their lines and effectiveness in their environment,
Vitruvian concepts of firmitas and utilitas, and
but an attempt to "revive" them would not be in
as such are outside the current of their own time.
accordance with the principles he advocates.
But much of what they wrote is in harmony with
"In fact, were it possible, we could not do better
present day attitudes toward architecture, and the
for the outside than to take these old houses for our
twentieth century reader is inclined to regret that
model. But here, as everywhere, we find the out-
side depends on the inside, and that what we most
these men were not more heeded by their con-
admire in them will conflict with the new require-
temporaries.
ments.
The later and more ambitious houses,
WASHINGTON, D. C.
such as were built in the neighborhood of Boston
19. See Emerson letter to Longfellow, quoted in The Life of
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Samuel Longfellow (Boston,
1891), III, 31. Cabot's article is "On the Relation of Art to Nature,"
Atlantic Monthly, XIII, 183-199, 313-329.
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Journal Title: The critic.
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contemporary poets
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Imprint: New York [Good Literature Pub. Co., 18
Emerson and Contemporary Poets
By F. B. SANBORN
strend,
BEING asked to give in THE CRITIC
from purposed disregard thereof; but
some recollections of Emerson as I
of tune in music he had none or the
knew him personally for nearly thirty
very faintest conception. He shared
SC
414
length topic years, it think, upon any
occurs to me to touch a
this defect with many eminent poets;
not yet, I treated at
but his young friends, Thoreau and
pa
in any of the thousand essays,
Ellery Channing, had the musical ear,
the had good, Emerson bad, indifferent, subject which during
and have
and therefore have occasionally sur-
for their
passed Emerson in the harmonies of
past sixty years. His relations
verse. When they did so, he was not
with and towards his contemporary
always aware of the fact, from this very
4839
poets were unique; far more free from
defect of which I speak. Of that,
envy and scorn than those of Landor,
however, he was fully aware, and used
for example; and, like his general atti-
to tell a story against himself on the
tude towards the human race, benefi-
subject. He said that when he went,
cent and
with other lads, to be taught vocal
needful, brethren candid. He poets, did not think it
like some to flatter his
music by a blind vocalist, and they
that turn flatter him; they might he in
in order that
were all requested to "sound, -that
or tolerate nor had
is, to run up and down the scale a
uneasy de-
little with their voices,-th blind man
to Dr. fect Johnson, in poetic consciousness inspiration instance of (according some led
his which
said, when he heard Waldo Emerson's
for
ineffective notes: "That boy need not
Miss Seward), to undervalue and
come again; he cannot learn to sing.'
disparage all contemporary writers of
Yet Emerson's voice for rhetorical uses
verse. Emerson was a poet by nature,
was carefully modulated, and most
and had much of the higher poetic en-
effective, as those who ever heard his
that ear for music which Burns,
dowment, though lacking entirely in
more serious and thrilling tones will
unite in saying.
such Moore, many Shakespeare, helped poets,
and more eminent
Of the outfit for an English poet
as Milton and to
Emerson had the essential requisites,
fectly; their of rhythm in verse. The per-
best effects sense
-early and wide reading in good verse,
or time in music he had
which a few poets can do anything,
surprising verbal memory (without
when he transgressed it was
414
The Critic
unless they resort to a rhyming dic-
I received your note and the enclosed verses by
tionary), keen observation of nature
mail, though I acknowledge it so tardily. I write
R.WE.to
and of human nature, and that broad
so late, I believe, because I liked the message so
idealizing spirit, for lack of which
well. I was willing to wait for a select hour to re-
S.E.W.
many poets rise hardly above the bal-
ply to what took my fancy with the most agreeable
ladist, sonnetteer, or didactic bard.
surprise. Certainly your friend, in these lines and
Bacon's famous definition of poetry,
in the very few others I have seen, goes to the very
end of the poetic license, and defies a little too dis-
conforming the shows of things to the
dainfully his Dictionary and his Logic. Yet his
desires of the mind, suited Emerson
lines betray a highly poetic temperament, and a
exactly; and he became, partly by na-
sunny sweetness of thought and feeling, which are
ture, partly by long practice, one of
rare gifts; and the voluminous eloquence of his
the chiefest of oracular poets.
Spenserian stanza, so bland and flexible, is in itself
Although fully, if gradually, made
an indication of great skill and cunning. Perhaps
aware of possessing this high poetic
I judge the lines too partially on account of their
gift, Emerson was slow to exercise it
subject, and the affectionate playfulness with which
in public. Some of his most famous
he treats indeed I was very happy to meet
Re
verse ("Good-Bye, Proud World," for
this kindness. But I know the lines would have
instance) was written before he was
pleased me if addressed to a third person and I
channing
five-and-twenty; but most of that by
think bad praise more annoying than censure.
which he will be known did not appear
You must not despair of your friend's success be-
till he was forty. He had in verse, as
cause of any temporary inaction. Wit and Imagi-
in prose, that high sense of responsibil-
nation, Milton said, are tender maidens ; and
ity to the public and to posterity,
Margaret Fuller showed me, not long ago, a sen-
which made him hold back his essays
tence of De Vigny,-that the Poet must lose a good
and verses until he had brought them
many days in order to have one great day. Besides,
to a state of comparative perfection;
-though I have to acknowledge times, as much as
and he was severe, though friendly,
Dr. Johnson did in owning the existence of weather.
towards poets who had not this power
-yet it seems as though a certain perplexity and
of withholding and polishing. His
hesitation were all but universal among the con-
friend, Ellery Channing, for example,
templative class of persons in this country, at this
whose early and precocious talent for
moment. The very children are affected with
poesy Emerson at once recognized,
skepticism and ennui. Even the active-except in
was continually falling under his cen-
a few very happy instances-appel to owe their
A
sure for impatience and heedlessness
health and efficiency to their foregoing the exercise
in finishing what was so wondrously
of thought and the creative arts. So general a mis-
S.G.W
begun. Through the courtesy of Mr.
chief will be accompanied by its own secret advan-
Samuel Gray Ward, now of Washing-
tages and meantime the more fortunate must wait
R.W.E.
E.C
for the less, with a sure trust in the remedial force
ton, who was Channing's earliest appre-
of Nature.
ciator of verse, I am allowed to print
the letters in which, before December,
If we outgrow our early friendships there is no
help ; and undoubtedly when there is inequality
1840, when he first met Ellery Chan-
in the intellect we must resign them. But true
ning, Emerson declared his interest in
society is so rare that I think I could not afford to
this 'new poet," as he styled him,
spare from my circle a poet, as long as he can offer rela-
when introducing his verse to readers
so indisputable a token as a good verse of his that
of The Dial, in October, 1840. At
tion to what is highest in Being. It is possible
that time Channing was in his twenty-
my love of these gifts might enable me to be useful
second year (having been born in Bos-
to your friend if I knew him. As lovers of English
ton, November 29, 1818), and had been
poetry, we should certainly have common ground
writing good verse for seven years. A
enough to meet upon. I seldom go into company of
year earlier, however (October 3, 1839).
in Boston but if I should have an opportunity
Mr. Ward had sent to Emerson some
making his acquaintance, I will not fail to use
of the youthful poems of Channing,
among which were verses in compli-
Emerson
had
earlier
made
the
inti-
ment to Emerson. In acknowledg-
mate
acquaintance
of
the
young
poet-
Thoreau,
and
that
poem
of
ment of them, Emerson wrote to
Ward:
naturalist,
Henry's, which Emerson told me
was
Emerson and Contemporary Poets
415
his best,-"Sympathy,"-wi already
in my neighborhood, I think I should go to his
written and perhaps in Emerson's
doors and take him by the strong hand. I wish to
hands, who published it in The Dial in
see him,-and to see him at ease, leisure, and
July, 1840. But Channing was harder
alone. How shall I do this? If I come to you,
to catch than Thoreau, who lived near
will you bring me to him? Or will he not, if I
Emerson; and while this letter was on
write him a note, come out here [to Concord] for a
its way to Mr. Ward in Boston, Chan-
day? I think I cannot have him unless he comes
ning was speeding away to the prairies
here. If my woods are dwarfs, he will exult the
of Illinois, where he spent a winter or
more in his Illinois. Do not let him go away again
two in a log-cabin, near what is now
without informing me beforehand. I can come to
Woodstock, in McHenry County. Mr.
Town on any day ; though I never wish to come if I
Ward sent his verses in larger quantity
can avoid it.
to Emerson, as a deposit; and (Octo-
ber 27, 1839) their receipt was acknowl-
The long-desired interview did not
edged in this letter:
take place till December 10, 1840,
R.WE
when Emerson, spite of his dislike to
It was very kind in you to select me as the de-
"Town," as he styled Boston, made
the stage-coach journey of eighteen
12/10/40
to
positary of this fine poetry of your friend. It has
SGW
given me the happiest thoughts and auguries. Ex-
miles, and thus recorded the event in
cept the very best moments of life,-those pre-
his Journal:
sentiments, I mean, which acquaint us with the
A good visit to Boston : saw S. G. W. and Ellery
great and transcendent Nature by which we live,-
I have no sweeter experiences than come from read-
to advantage. E. has such an affectionate speech,
ing poetry. Nor do I care how wild and loose the
and a tone that is tremulous with emotion, that he
is like a flower in the wind. He said his poems
verses be, so that only they indicate that the soul
was poetic, was pleasing itself, was inventive, was
were proper love poems ; and they were really
genuine fruits of a fine, light, gentle, happy inter-
Channing advancing, my they could you of
while flowed. All these verses
course with his friends. C's [Caroline Sturgis's]
please ear and heart. How
[before] include those all
eyes are a compliment to the human race; that
their the ruder ones, which, delicacy, with
steady look from year to year makes Phidian
merits, seem to me far inferior to the
sculpture and Poussin landscape still real and con-
variety and bold thought of several of these
pieces? I am sure you do not prize them as much
temporary and a poet might well dedicate himself
to the fine task of expressing their genius in verse.
as I, or you would have praised them more. When
I consider their dainty I am at
Contrary to the opinion of Colonel
tional the tone,-betraying sweetness, surprised
steadiness of their a constitu-
Higginson in the Atlantic Monthly for
tendency to those finer
July last, I give this last hyperbole to
favorite That which scenery appreciate light, poetic lights eyes.
are too evanescent for most
Channing rather than to Emerson, and
autumnal and which seem so
interpret the initial "C." by the name
a topic with him, to the the sort
of a friend of both, to whom Channing
the the of beauty writer music your express has friend, for the soul. eye Since
which this
often wrote verses. The shy poet was
is alive, and I will not incur
again speeding to the West,-this time
him but I risk before have concerning seen and
of saying all I would them
to Cincinnati, where he fell in love with
am sorry I should not known
Margaret Fuller's sister Ellen. and
he left home. I tell
soon after their marriage they came (in
him deeply must that wish things, you would highly
you have showed me these and how
April, 1843) to live near Emerson in
contented I am with them and how
Concord. Thenceforward Emerson
hope in regard to his character and genius.
took Channing's poetic fortunes under
By the summer of 1840 Ellery Chan-
his neighborly protection.-published
Emerson writes to Ward, who had the
ning was again in Boston, and again
or prose, or found publishers
1840
his it,-an verse office to which I succeeded
clue to his goings and comings:
here, Nothing nothing does. surprise I am glad that Channing
ought to when
to give the wayward poet good much counsel the
twenty for years later,-and never failed
and
sharp
criticism.
It
was
R.W.E.
great life, us we are as
with
Thoreau,
who
was
as
indus-
same
SGH.
though my joy is somewhat by
Channing
was
eccentricity so decided and qualified in. I have an
trious
and
persistent
as
impatient (as he told me in his last illness) so far
and
capricious;
and
Thoreau
that, wanted to see him so much so since persisted I read his poetry
rather than lose the opportunity of his presence
416
The Critic
conformed to Emerson's judgment as
He taught his children and their
to destroy without copying much of his
schoolmates to declaim Tennyson's
own verse, because his friend told him
Wellington ode, but nothing of Brown-
it was not worth printing. Thoreau
ing's, whom he looked on as having
afterwards regretted this slaughter of
neither clearness nor melody in his
the innocents; he said: "Perhaps they
longer poems. But when Walt Whit-
were better than Emerson thought
man appeared, with that extraordinary
book of 1855, "Leaves of Grass,
them."
Towards the popular poets Emerson
Emerson saw at once, what many were
was a little distant, though he valued
slow to perceive, the original force of
the wit of Holmes, the learning of
the new man, and never went back
Lowell, and the gentle and flowing
from this first salutation, although he
muse of Longfellow. He had been a
took less interest in the later poems,
reader of Tennyson from the first; and
especially those concerning the Civil
the early verse-collection of 1833 lay
War. In his "Parnassus" Emerson
customarily on his parlor-table. He
quoted nothing from Whitman, and
admired Tennyson's mastery of verse,
only six pieces in all from the two
and an occasional passage or whole
Brownings; while he gave room for
poem; but thought his poesy "facti-
twenty-two of Tennyson's, seven each
tious, -whatever that adjective might
of Holmes's, Whittier's, and Longfel-
signify. He quoted to me two pass-
low's, five of Thoreau's, eight of
Lowell's, and eight of Channing's
ages as fine:
The million stars which tremble
Bryant also had eight, John Sterling
O'er the deep mind of dauntless infancy;
two, and David Wasson two. I com-
plained to him that he had inserted
and
none of his own poems. He replied:
Sown in a wrinkle of the monstrous hill
"That would not have been decent."
The city sparkles like a grain of salt.
Emerson as a Poet
By GERALD STANLEY LEE
WHEN I was asked to write this essay
or appear to - before I get through, this
on Emerson, the first thing that hap-
but I wish to make record at
pened to me was a long, comfortable
point-put it down as my main tribute first
feeling, a general pleasant sense of
to Ralph Waldo Emerson. The
things saved up about Emerson and
thing that Emerson did with me when
filed away in envelopes. The next
THE CRITIC asked me to write about it.
thing that happened was when I
him was to try to get me not to do
looked at the envelopes. There were
I do not think that Whitman would
just three small leaves in the envelope
have tried. If I had been asked for sent an
marked Emerson." Everything I had
essay on Whitman I would Whitman, have
ever thought of about Emerson was
book.
I
am
not
blaming
under the head of something else.
a THE CRITIC,-and I have not room
I cannot think of anything better to
to nor blame myself,-I am merely always prais-
say of Ralph Waldo Emerson than this.
ing Emerson. Great poetry is to
Probably there are better things, and
an act. The best way for a man con-
as it has just happened to me, it may
consider what great poetry is, is to it
not be as good as it looks. But my
sider what it has done, and what
present impression is, that there could
has done where he especially knows,
not be any better tribute to the memory
what it has done with him, and what
of a great poet than not having any-
it tends to make him do.
thing to say about him. I shall prob-
take
part
in
a
general
ably take it back and say something-
experience If I were meeting to on the subject
810, 9
CRA
American Sympathy
Emerson's "Friendship" and the Samaritans
when we are angels," She stipulated carefully that her passion was "purely
MEN, FRIENDSHIP, AND
ellectual and spiritual, unprofaned by any mixture of lower instincts," but
reader of Plato, she felt that the mystery of her attraction to Anna had the
LITERATURE IN THE
the solution as the question "Why did Socrates love Alcibiades?"63
The second of Fuller's two loves was Samuel Gray Ward. Like Barker, Ward
NEW NATION
from a wealthy family, who, in his case, hoped he would follow his father
in banking. Eventually he did, but when Fuller met him, in July 1835, Ward
in college and "looked upon myself as a student and literary man," as he
Caleb Crain.
RE explained to his father. They met on the same New York trip to Trenton
ill. that figures in Fuller's "ToAHHB" Fuller's impression of Ward at the time
not favorable. "Did not like him much," she wrote in her journal. But a few
moths before her death, she wrote Ward from Italy that she looked back on
their vacation upstate as "the last period of tranquillity in my life." Ward
contributed poems to The Dial, and during an 1836-38 trip to Europe trip
this 11 Fuller was invited to share but which her father's death prevented-
and collected reproductions of famous paintings and sculptures and found
Unself gravitating to the fine arts. Today his name is engraved in marble in the
liyer of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which he helped to found, years
Met.Mus-Art
ther he left Transcendentalism for the world of finance. 64
In the Memoirs of Margaret Fuller Ossoli, Emerson wrote that Ward was
Fuller's "companion, and, though much younger, her guide in the study of
in Emerson explained, as delicately as he could, that Fuller's art-historical
interest in Ward was accompanied by a romantic one. The affinities they
shared, "though sincere, were only veils and occasions to beguile the time, so
rofound was her interest in the character and fortunes of her friend." Fuller's
jorrespondence is more blunt and revealing. A letter she wrote to Ward on
Yale University Press
to April 1836 compares the undulations of a pool of water to "the heaving of
New Haven
the bosom," in highly sensuous prose. "Oh! what wild work makes a female
London
wil" Fuller flirtatiously exclaimed. In February 1839, Fuller thanked Sturgis
for it hand-decorated box and asked her to make another with a pale blue
2001
lining, to "hold all I have had and shall have from my friend Raphael; Letters
sketches all. I will keep it devoted to him while I live." "Raphael" was
the cognomen Ward had earned, for the interest he took in that artist. Unfor-
Simately, by the time summer came, in July 1839, Fuller was reproaching
duce Within Fuller's circle, Récamier became Barker's cognomen: "Shall
Haphael-Ward for keeping her at a distance. "If you love me as I deserve to be
me to your Recamier this summer?" Emerson asked Fuller on you IN Him line
loved, you cannot dispense with seeing me." From the start, age and social
1839. Fuller defended her love for another woman in her journal, writing TE
Matus had placed them in two different circles. "Nothing but love bound us
so true that a woman may be in love with a woman, and a man with a manam
together," she explained, "and it must not be my love alone that binds us. "65
so pleasant to be sure of it because undoubtedly it is the same love that westes
As Ward drifted away from Fuller, Emerson took him up. In July, the same
month that Fuller complained of Ward's neglect, Emerson met Ward for the
Emerson's "Friendship" and the Samaritans
203
202
Emerson's "Friendship" and the Samaritans
Although he desired "the gush of mingling souls" as fervently as any Roman-
first time, during a group visit to Washington Allston's Boston gallery. Ward
tic, he feared that any wish of his "to cast myself into the arms of some other
invited Emerson to come back to Boston soon, to see the casts that Horative
nature" was "womanish." By manhood, Ward meant in part the respectable
Greenough had made of Michelangelo's Day and Night. Emerson could nil
banking career that his father wanted for him. Fuller accepted this excuse, as if
accept Ward's invitation until November, but in August the two ran into each
it were only natural that she should be associated in his mind with rebellion
by chance while hiking in the White Mountains. That autumn, they began of
from a correctly gendered future. "I will bear in mind that my presence is like
correspond regularly.66
to recal all you have need to forget and will try to believe that you would not
At the end of July, Emerson received a poem from Henry David Thoreau
be with me lest I 'spoil you for your part on life's dull scene," or as you have
that struck a chord. Titled "Sympathy," the poem described Thoreau's infatua
said 'call up the woman in you." Ward seems, however, to have been telling
tion with eleven-year-old Edmund Sewall. "I might have loved him had loved
Fuller only a partial truth. Soon, with a flood of emotions, the full truth about
him less," Thoreau wrote. The boy's beauty had caused Thoreau pain and left
his affections emerged. 69
him lonely, and Thoreau laid the blame for this on his own inability to achieve
In early October 1839, Anna Barker came to stay with Fuller at her home in
a Phaedrus-like vision of the principle shining through Sewall's good looks "If
Jamaica Plain, outside Boston, In "the very first days of Anna," to adopt the
I but love that virtue which he is," Thoreau concluded, skipping over Platin
regnal chronology used by Fuller, the two women renewed their romance.
fascination with male bodies to Plato's transcendence of them, "Still shall WE
Fuller was "so intoxicated" and "so uplifted by that eldest and divinest love"
be truest acquaintances." In Emerson's opinion, Thoreau's poem was the
that her health was overwhelmed, and she took to bed. There she wrote to
purest strain & the loftiest, I think, that has yet pealed from this unpoetic
Caroline Sturgis, whose rebuffs had recently wounded her. In her bliss, Fuller
American forest."67
now forgave Sturgis, but she hinted that Barker's return demoted Sturgis to an
On the page immediately following this acclamation of Thoreau, Emerson
understudy - much in the way that Mifflin had demoted Gibson when Norris
wrote a short monologue warning off a young would-be friend. "I have no
returned from Europe. 70
RWE
right of nomination in the choice of my friends," Emerson wrote sternly. "Sird
On Friday, October 4, Emerson went to Jamaica Plain, where for the first
should be happy to oblige you, but my friends must elect themselves." Emer
Anwa
time he met the woman he had been calling "the beautiful Anna" for years.
son was accustomed to resolving his erotic attractions by means of Platonia
During his two-day visit, Emerson was charmed to share "the frank & gen-
abnegation, as Thoreau had in "Sympathy." The experiment of weaving these
crous confidence of a being SO lovely, SO fortunate, & so remote from my own
attractions into friendships made him uneasy. At first Emerson seems to have
experiences." In his journal, he paid Barker the high compliment of calling her
resisted Ward, but this resistance was not rejection. In a September 24 journal
unit & whole." Although the bias of her nature was "not thought but
entry, Emerson took issue with Fuller for misunderstanding his slowness.
If
emotion or sympathy," Emerson found, to his puzzlement, that she "does not
you do not like my friend at first sight you will never like him.' Indeed! Unit
distance me as I believe all others of that cast of character do." In Emerson's
not thought so. I did not, I remember, like you at first sight, yet we manage (ii
essay "Manners," Barker became a "Persian Lilla" who acted as "a solvent
converse now without disgust." Emerson found Ward attractive, but he had
powerful to reconcile all heterogeneous persons into one society."
reservations. "Who is rich, who is fashionable, who is high bred, has great
LI fact, Barker's erotic power divided rather than united this small society of
hindrances to success" if he hopes to befriend me, Emerson wrote, Ward
Transcendentalists. On October 15, Fuller wrote to Ward that at last she knew
would have to prove himself. "Whom have I rejected? whom have I not ad
the truth. Ward and Barker, the two children of wealth and privilege, had
mired?' Emerson wrote to Fuller when she accused him of a sour unwilling
fallen in love. They had been in love since the autumn of 1837, since the
ness to open his heart. "The utmost of my offence is the sluggishness of DES
European tour Fuller had not been able to afford. In Switzerland they had
perceptions. "68
spent two months admiring the mountain landscapes together. When Ward
Meanwhile, Fuller was losing patience with the polite stratagems by which
bought a Saint Bernard, Barker named it Alp. Between December 1838 and
Ward kept her at bay. "You love me no more, she wrote him in September
March 1839, Ward had visited Barker again, in New Orleans. As Ward wrote
She remembered with anguish that in earlier days, "how did you pray me E
to his father on 4 March 839, he did not then become engaged, but he had no
draw near to you!" Ward put her off a little longer, explaining that he was "not
doubt that his father "should find in her all that you could desire or wish for in
yet a man" and that intimacy with her felt threatening to his fragile manhood
204
Emerson's "Friendship" and the Samaritans
Emerson's "Friendship" and the Samaritans
205
your daughter and your son's wife." During Barker's return to Massachusett
in October - the same visit that "so intoxicated" Fuller - the couple
Men and women should not marry, because marriage made permanent a set of
feelings for each other deepened, although as Ward was careful to observe
had habits that crippled male sensibility and undermined female strength.
his father, "My relation to Miss Anna Barker has not changed" - that is, then
Celibacy," she wrote, is "the great fact of the time. It is one from which no
was still no formal engagement. Nonetheless, someone, probably Barker
now, no arrangement, can at present save a thinking mind. "74
thought it was time to disillusion Fuller. "I understand all perfectly," Fulla
For a time, in Fuller's circle celibacy prevailed. Ward and Barker had given
wrote to Ward on October I 5 in a spirit of resignation. She reproached War.
Puller and Emerson a bad scare, but there was as yet no proposal of marriage.
for underestimating her; he should have told her sooner; she wished only
As Ward himself later recalled, "There was very little probability of such a
further his happiness. "Do you not feel how I should grieve to be the ghost n
ponnexion unless my plans of a scholar's life gave place to some lucrative
cross the path of true communion in the Elysian grove[?] Live without me
profession." And Ward was not ready to give up his literary and artistic ambi-
now.
"72
Bons, On 21 October 1839, Emerson wrote in his journal that Fuller had
In her journal Fuller was not SO accepting. "The son of the Gods has soldhi
privately told him "a chronicle of sweet romance, of love & nobleness which
birthright," she wrote. "He has received therefor one, not merely the faired
have inspired the beautiful & brave." Two pages later, Emerson reconsidered
but the sweetest and holiest of earth's daughters. Yet it is not a fit exchange,
Fuller's version of their story, somewhat more ambivalently. "I heard with joy
Fuller may have been suffering from jealousy and heartache, but her com
that which thou toldest me O eloquent lady, of thy friends & mine, yet with
reflect an accurate understanding of the practical compromises that the
my joy mingled a shade of discontent. Things must not be too fine. Parian
union of Ward and Barker would demand. If they married, Ward and Bark
Marble will not stand exposure to our New England weather
I dare not
would no longer be able to depend on their parents for financial support Il
believe that a mood SO delicate can be relied on like a principle for the wear &
they wanted to live the way they were both accustomed to living, they would
lear of years." If Fuller had told Emerson the simple story of Barker and
have to give up the intellectual life. Ward would be expected to take up
Ward's courtship, he would perhaps have been disappointed by Ward's defec-
traditional career in order to earn enough money to satisfy Barker's expensive
lion to money-making if Ward had defected (he hadn't yet), but there would
tastes. For her part, Barker would cultivate those tastes instead of learning
have been no occasion for him to doubt that a relationship between these two
think or fend for herself. Marriage would stunt the development of both the
Wealthy, gifted, and lovestruck people would endure. It is more likely that
man and the woman.
Fuller told Emerson that Barker and Ward had exchanged vows of love but
In Woman in the Nineteenth Century, Fuller elaborated her disappointment
decided to forgo their enjoyment of each other in order to pursue more lofty
with Ward and Barker into a feminist critique, writing, "Now there
mals. This more complicated story would have both elated Emerson and
Bused him to wonder if it could last. 75
woman, only an overgrown child." Since marriage was often to blame, Fulle
found herself in that book telling stories against marriage as commonly under
Emerson was right to be skeptical of what Fuller told him. Fuller seems to
stood: of an Indian maiden who became betrothed to the sun, of a Germai
IVe projected her own wishes and concerns onto the Barker-Ward relation-
man and woman who fulfilled their love by joining a monastery and a convent
hip. News of the romance set Fuller weighing the pros and cons of her own
of lovers who resided on different continents. Paraphrasing a "wise contempo
lémantic state: on the one hand, "No one loves me," but on the other, "I have
rary," Fuller wrote that "union is only possible to those who are units. 110
HO letter on me," as she wrote in her journal. Perhaps to console herself, Fuller
wise contemporary was almost certainly Emerson, who wrote in "Friendship
Bigan to formulate the idea that reached its fullest expression in Woman in the
that "there must be very two, before there can be very one." In Fuller's hands
Nineteenth Century, that marriage as it was then practiced impeded personal
Emerson's eschewal of too much intimacy with other men became an atte
falfillment. In her journal in the fall of 1839, she speculated that great spirits
ment against heterosexual marriage. Emerson's hierotomy had preserved both
fuld never marry, because either marriage would shackle the spirit, or great-
his arousal and his innocence with men; it was the impetus, the always poin
would throw off the bridle of marriage as it would any other constricting
poned reward, and the condition of his literary work. In a fascinating twis
Ilam. "Social wedlock," she wrote, "is ordinarily mere subterfuge and sim-
Fuller adapted this hierotomy to feminist ends. If its effect in Emerson's think
illacrum: it could not check a powerful woman or a powerful man." Lonely
ing had been somewhat homophobic, its effect in Fuller's was heterophohi
and let down, Fuller seems to have persuaded herself that these insights about
Barriage were as true for Ward and Barker as they were for herself.
206
Emerson's "Friendship" and the Samaritans
Emerson's "Friendship" and the Samaritans
207
With careful archival work. the scholar Eleanor Tilton has rectified most
held on to the sketches for two months. He wrote about them repeatedly in his
Fuller's misconstructions and corrected the story and chronology that Full
Journal, and in December, when he returned the portfolio to Ward, he summed
out of wishful thinking, somewhat garbled in her poems and in her correspor
BP his impressions in a six-page commentary. Emerson's comments are reveal-
dence. As Tilton points out, somewhat harshly, Fuller got a number of the fat
ing of the different desires that male and female beauty aroused in him. He
wrong, for the simple reason that no one told them to her: they were noner
described the female figures as beautiful in their inattention. They are "pen-
her business. Fuller's misconstructions seem to have irritated Tilton, but
live," "unconscious," "thinking of something else," and "stony inscrutable."
would like to pay some attention to them here. Emerson's initial skepticism
He described male beauty, on the other hand, as natural power. The face of a
Fuller soon gave way to complicity.
Raphael angel "intimates authority impossible to dispute." Guido's Aurora
Perhaps the key thing to understand is that Fuller (and later Emerson)
has "the most masculine force" with "no convulsion, no straining, no ado, no
as permanent a state of affairs that Ward and Barker no doubt understood
form, but flowing grace & ease." Michelangelo is "always colossal even in
be a stopgap. The two lovers were in conflict: Barker wanted financial secure
& cupids." And a Roman relief of Endymion displays "the beauty &
and Ward wanted a life of the mind In 1839 they thought they should
greatness of one to whom the senses suffice."79
marry until they could resolve this conflict. In 1840 they married anyway
On 27 October, Emerson wrote to thank Ward for a second gift of Ellery
they resolved their conflict by living it out. They tried both ways of life Ali
Channing's poetry. He liked the new batch better than the first better, appar-
their marriage, Ward worked for three years in Boston as a broker, and
ently, than Ward himself liked them. "There was no progress" in Channing's
the couple spent five years as Transcendental- Jeffersonian farmers in the Beil
werses, Ward objected when he and Emerson met in early November. 80 Emer-
shires. When, in the end, Ward accepted the position his father had once
son also acknowledged that he liked Ward's attentions. "I am very happy in
as the American representative of the British investment bank Baring Brothe
the new relations to which you invite me by your persevering kindness." A few
it was not so much a compromise of his true self as a recognition that in
days later, Emerson at last went to the Boston Athenaeum to see the casts of
half-decade of sketching and independent study he had not accomplish
Michelangelo's Night and Day that Ward had recommended. He also saw
hearted ifor
much. As the banker he finally chose to become, Ward was an outstands
Ward. When Emerson reported the visit to Elizabeth Hoar, he bestowed on his
success. If Barker and Ward gave each other up in 1839, they must have sensit
new young friend a cognomen even more extravagant than the one Fuller had
in their hearts that the surrender was temporary. Fuller, however, convine
Biven him: "I have also seen the Prince-of-the-Purple-Island himself at some
herself otherwise. 77
leisure & advantage not here but twice in Boston and we have got on farther
It was against this background that Emerson's friendship with Ward has
but not yet farthest." Emerson had earlier written to Ward that "there are
geoned. After the two men met in July and August, Ward seems to ha
fewer painters than poets." But after an evening's and a morning's tutelage
courted Emerson with a series of gifts. Early in the fall, he forwarded
from Ward in Boston, artists jumped to the top of Emerson's list of world
Emerson the florid and ungrammatical poems of his friend Ellery Channia
Reniuses. "I had told [Bronson] Alcott that my First Class stood for today
Emerson responded on 3 October in measured tones. He gave the poemsqui
Berhaps thus; Phidias, Jesus, [Michel] Angelo, Shakspeare."81
ified praise, and he agreed-almos grudgingly- to meet the poet. Emersia
Emerson's ranking of the arts was not the only prejudice of his that Ward
spent 4 and 5 October with Ward's beloved, Barker. Then, on 8 October
Was altering. Emerson's thoughts on friendship were also in flux. Back in June,
Emerson received from Ward a "rich pacquet": Ward's portfolio of COE
his opinion of friends was the doctrinal paradox he had laid out in "The
sketches of paintings and sculpture by European masters, along with a cois
Heart": "though I prize my friends I cannot afford to talk with them and study
mentary by Fuller. What Emerson was glimpsing of Ward's world impresa
their visions lest I lose my own." In October, however, when Emerson con-
him, "Two persons lately, very young children of the most high God," Emer
fided his thoughts on friendship to his journal, they were no longer so aloof.
son wrote in his journal in mid-October 1839, "have admonished me by the
Where before he had presented himself as waving his friends off, now he
silent being. It seemed as if each answered to my heart's inquiry Whener
imagined himself pining for them. "What needs greater magnanimity than the
your power? 'From my nonconformity.'
Waiting for a friend; a lover, for years?" A few days after his trip with Ward to
Emerson had seen some of the images in Ward's portfolio a year before
the Athenaeum, Emerson was counseling himself, rather than his importunate
when Fuller brought them to Concord. But in the autumn of 1839, Emerse
friends, to observe a reticent silence. "Why dare you to intermeddle in SO
208
Emerson's "Friendship" and the Samaritans
Emerson's "Friendship" and the Samaritans
209
sacred
a
formation
as
Friendship?
for
you
to
say
aught,
is
to
be
frivolor
discussed "the great difficulty of bringing two male faces any where near
Wait until the necessary & everlasting overpowers you, until day & night ath other without exciting extreme disgust." "When people embrace on the
themselves of your lips. "82
I am ready to die of shame and disgust at the sight," Fuller wrote. "How
By "day & night" Emerson no doubt meant a metonymy of nature's for
Sin they endure to get SO near one another, I feel." Fuller in 1839 seems to have
But he may also have been alluding to the twinned Michelangelo statues
far from her 1842 rhapsodizing over love between two men or between
and Ward had seen at the Athenaeum, monuments of the body's power
for women as "the same love that we shall feel when we are angels." As an
confinement in itself: Day a man in middle age, weighted down by his this
Seption to her disgust, Fuller cited Raphael's painting of Jupiter embracing
culature, his face still half-unshapen in marble; Night a woman, also
upid, in the Villa Farnesina, where the closeness of the two male figures for
with strength, writhing, one breast jutting almost angrily forward. In the
aline reason did not repel her.
ripeness, the couple suggest time as an irresistible force - "the necessary
Raphael's Jupiter and Cupid must have been reproduced in either Fuller's or
everlasting," in Emerson's words moves, by the alternation of day
ard's portfolio because it was referred to again, a year later, in a dreamy
night and by the opposition of male and female, toward death.
liter that Fuller's protégée Sturgis wrote to Emerson. Sturgis's letter is worth
During his Athenaeum visit, Emerson probably also saw Bertel Thorval
Hoting at length as another example of how Emerson's intimates were using
sen's Ganymede, first exhibited in Boston in 1839. He made no comment
time sex images from European art to eroticize and etherealize the psycho-
this statue in his correspondence or journal although another work by This
Innamics of their friendships:
valdsen, The Triumphant Entry of Alexander into Babylon, appeared
Ward's portfolio. Fuller, however, mentioned the Ganymede in her Dial
Yesterday the reflection of the sunset SO concentrated itself into a golden
view of the exhibition, and several years later, in 1843, she wrote "Ganym
column that did not seem to lie upon the river, but rose high in the air. The
to His Eagle," a poem inspired by it. Fuller imagined the cupbearer as waiting
base was hidden by long grass, the capital stood fairly forth. With my eye I
carved it into a Jupiter & placed an Amore Greco beside it, then asked myself
anxiously, "a willing servant to sweet love's command," pleading for Zeut
which I would be. Now will you not wonder that I chose to be the Amore,
eagle to return and carry him again to Olympus. In Fuller's version, the eagle
because I said, then I can admire that golden Jupiter, but if I were the Jupiter I
not an incarnation of Zeus himself but an intermediary: the bird is the god
should be alone & have nothing to admire. But when I saw how noble he was,
"messenger" and the boy's "destined brother friend." (The bird is also,
how he glowed within himself, & evolved light, I chose to be the Jupiter, &
course, the emblem of the sovereignty of the United States, as Fuller's aneedor
saw I could admire the being beside me, pale, passionate, & pure, because his
about a chained eagle, a few chapters earlier, makes clear.) In the eagle
beauty would differ from mine. Thus for the hundredth time did I learn that
company, the boy can ascend. But in the moment of the poem, Ganymede
which is around is of worth as well as that above.85
alone, not sure that the eagle cares for him anymore. He longs to be united
Here was meant to be a lesson in Sturgis's conclusion, a little jab at Emerson,
again with his equal/eagle SO that he can rise to his ministry, the dispensing
no, in Fuller's and Sturgis's opinion, insisted on acting like a Jupiter disdain-
drinks from a spring which, like the forms the gods feast on in Phaedrus, scene
al of his Ganymedes.
to be both nourishment and truth to the poets who sip from
In Concord, the myths painted by Europe's Old Masters could easily take on
Fuller elides sex in her retelling of the Ganymede myth, although her Gani
personal meanings. And in Emerson's case, I believe, these images may have
mede does address as "O bliss" the eagle who will "upbear/My earthlier form
lved to channel a resurgence of the feelings he had experienced in college. As
into the realms of air." Here as everywhere in the Fuller-Emerson circle, Plato
boy, Emerson had rationalized his attraction to Martin Gay into a puzzled
Phaedrus is the model for introducing and then overcoming a same-sex erofi
ilterest in gazes. In a similar way, a middle-aged Emerson transposed the
charge. The passion that Ganymede feels for union with the eagle is to he
feelings that Samuel Gray Ward stirred in him into an attachment to the visual
understood as a passion for poetic inspiration, not (or not only) as a carnal de
its. Ward was, after all, Raphael to Fuller and her friends. (His other nick-
sire. Thorvaldsen sculpted Ganymede in several versions. One of them stand
Bame was Michelangelo.) "I have identified your collection with the collec-
alone, and in the other two, Zeus appears as an eagle, not a human figure
lbr," Emerson confessed to Ward on 26 November 1839. When he admitted to
Thorvaldsen thus avoided presenting two men as lovers, circumventing the
Fuller that it saddened him to have to return the portfolio to Ward, he wrote in
sort of reaction that Fuller recorded in her journal in September 39, when
style that echoed the Phaedrus-like passage in Nature. "I shall part with it,"
210
Emerson's "Friendship" and the Samaritans
Emerson's "Friendship" and the Samaritans
211
Emerson wrote of an image of Raphael's "Cumaean sibyl," "with a likele
to that which arose when beautiful persons have passed out of my sight
Two days later, on 26 November, Emerson received another gift. "Ward has
Endymion too - did not know that drawing had been so perfect." Theat
me the Endymion with friendliest letter," Emerson reported in his jour-
gave Emerson a new vocabulary, one in which, perhaps, the heavy
"It shall hang by Carlyle's Guido." Guido's Aurora was the token of
heterosexual couple of Michelangelo's Day and Night might be contrad
flyle's friendship with the Emersons, and the place beside it was a place of
with the smooth, airy homosexual communion of boy and eagle in Thore
honor. No doubt Ward had selected the Endymion as a gift because Fuller
sen's Ganymede.80
relayed to him Emerson's liking for the image. Emerson was strongly
In "Ode to Beauty," Emerson wrote of turning the pages of
ted. "I confess I have difficulty in accepting the superb drawing which you
the proud portfolios
me to keep," he wrote to Ward, the same day. In Emerson's letter, it sounds
Which hold the grand designs
though Ward had shown Emerson a bouquet and plucked out the prettiest
Of Salvator, of Guercino,
just for him. But Emerson thought the copy sketches more intimate and
And Piranesi's lines.
are revealing than flowers would have been. "Your mute friends," as Emer-
dubbed the images, "tell me very eloquently what you love, & a portfolio
The reference is to a portfolio of art reproductions that Fuller broughthou
to me a more expressive vehicle of taste & character than a bunch of
8 June 1838, a few months before she brought him Ward's. Emerson's
wers. This beautiful Endymion deserves to be looked on by instructed eyes,
apostrophizes Beauty as a goddess ("Queen of things!") who has entire
and I like to think of you surrounded by such objects. But I shall not resist your
Emerson. But the manner of the enslavement recalls Emerson's teenage
herosity, and indeed am warmed at heart by your good will to me.
fascination" with Gay:
to match Ward's gift, Emerson copied out Thoreau's poem "Sympathy."
When first my eyes saw thee,
rd must have liked it, because on 3 December, Emerson wrote to him that
I found me thy thrall,
see it will be vain for me to resist you, if you like Bettina SO well, & my
By magical drawings,
jung poet too." (Years later, Emerson sent another homoerotic masterpiece
Sweet tyrant of all!
Ward: even before he found time to write back to Walter Whitman, Emer-
forwarded Ward his copy of Leaves of Grass.)90
In Emerson's pun, artists' drawings are magically able to "draw" Emers
Responding to a note of melancholy in Ward's letter, Emerson's 26 Novem-
because ideal Beauty peeps out through artwork, as it peeped out throw
thank-you letter went on to offer a dose of cheerful Transcendental boiler-
ephebes in the Phaedrus, luring and intoxicating the viewer. "Thy dangero
late, which probably depressed Ward further. "What space can be allowed
glances / Make women of men," Emerson writes. As in Plato, to love
for a moment's despondency? The free & the true, the few who conceive
beauty philosophically is to understand that the people and things it thing
a better life, are always the soul of the world." Ward was hoping to find a
through should neither be owned nor touched. Beauty, when glimpsed here
y to marry the girl of his dreams and satisfy his intellectual ambitions.
earth, is "Somewhat not to be possessed/ Somewhat not to be caressed.
Unhelpfully, Emerson waved the carrot of high-minded purity and brandished
On 24 November 1839, Fuller sent Emerson a parcel of letters and
she and Sturgis had exchanged, as well as passages from her private journal
poors
a stick "the general mediocrity of thought produced by the arts of gain." By
NEW this gesture of wishful, unworldly thinking should be familiar compar-
Fuller probably also sent - either in this parcel or in a supplement that
thie to Mifflin's wish for Gibson to go into some other field than law, or
lowed it - letters by (or at least concerning) Ward. The parcel added rich detat
Brown's attempt to dissuade Wilkins from passing the bar. To the extent that
to the story of Ward, Barker, and Fuller that Fuller had confided to Emerson
Amerson was thinking of Ward as if he were a work of art that Emerson had
outline in October. As Fuller explained, "All the verses, even the transl[atio]a
allen in love with, there was a temptation to play Pygmalion - a sort of
bear some reference to Anna, W|ard| and myself." One poem rather cost
Transcendental Professor Higgins, snootily refashioning Ward after the Emer-
tically turned the three protagonists into flowers - a dahlia, a rose, and
Jonnan ideal.
heliotrope. It was this parcel that caused Emerson to startle his wife and
The next day, 27 November, Emerson wrote to Fuller with the good news
mother with his wish "to live a little while with people who love & hate,
about the Endymion. "I delight much in what I dreamed not of in my first
lequaintance with you my new relations to your friends," he told her. As he
220
Emerson
Friendsmip
and
aumarilans
This letter captures in miniature the spirit of the essay as a whole, Likenz
Much of what a reader understands from a text is inferred. Even with
essay, it is an attempt to state the nature of a relationship that is not static. AL
anayistic prose, the reader imagines a scene, with characters and a setting.
like the essay, it is unevenly opaque. In any communication, the most semai
Whenever Emerson mentions "friendship," the reader imagines a character
tically loaded zones are the beginning and the end. They appear to be remail
named Emerson and a character who is Emerson's friend, and the reader
ably transparent in this letter. Most readers would know what to make ut
Imagines a narrative, however skeletal, that puts their relationship in context.
letter that began by wondering what would happen "If I was sure of thee"
The essay "Friendship" dazzles its readers in part because, sentence by sen-
ended by declaring that "thou art to me a delicious torment." If the start
fence, there are drastic shifts in the background narrative that the reader must
the end of it were all we had, we would not hesitate to say that this
construct to make sense of what Emerson is saying. It was Emerson's method
love letter, from a passionate but somewhat flirty supplicant. "Thine everage
of composition to patch together pithy and stylistically elegant observations
never," indeed. But we have the middle of the letter, too, and that middle
that he had condensed from life experiences. By the time the observations
tortuous. Once we move past the first phrase, it turns out that it is not dis
appeared in his published essays, the details of the life behind them had been
friend's heart that Emerson wants to be sure of but his "capacity." Emerge
emitted long ago. The sentences that compose "Friendship" are clipped from
might mean "capacity to love," but if so, he does not spell this out. Explicitly
many moments in many relationships, with various people and at various
his concern is only whether the friend has "a perfect intelligence of me. Yel
times. In Chapter 4, I called this method of cutting an emotion or an insight
Emerson is also careful to say that neither his wisdom nor his moods are out
away from the circumstances that generated it "hierotomy," a holy divorce
his friend's reach ("lam not very wise; my moods are quite attainable"), asilié
that is as typical of American literature as Fiedler's holy marriage is. Hiero-
indicate that his doubt of his friend's "intelligence" is not a doubt of his
tomy gives Emerson's prose its distinctive flavor - at once highly abstract and
friend's intellectual capacity. He must therefore mean some other kind of
revealingly personal. It hides Emerson's actual experience by dividing it into
intelligence. Also, although he says it somewhat elliptically, Emerson seems in
pieces and then jumbling those pieces. But it also makes the reader especially
be worried about losing his friend or not holding his attention. The implied
eurious about that actual experience. Each sentence seems to give a glimpse
tion of the first sentence is that since Emerson is not sure of his friend lie
into Emerson's heart that, though brief, is altogether unobstructed. And by
thinks of "thy comings and goings" as anything but "trifles."
causing rapid contradictions and shifts in the background story that the reader
Emerson's one-paragraph letter is deliberately incomplete. It fails to givethi
is building and remodeling while reading, hierotomy forces the reader to
reader enough information to assemble an adequate paraphrase of its denota
spend more energy speculating about this background story than would a text
tive meaning. It is, however, rich with tones and nuances that the reader could
whose mode of composition was more organic and straightforward. By the
use while imagining a relationship between the character Emerson and the
effort it requires, SO similar to the effort of interpretation and explanation that
character of his friend. Moving from atom to molecule, consider the essay
is the chief mental labor of an intimate relationship, hierotomy may even give
"Friendship" as a whole. Like the small letter it contains, the larger letter of
the reader the feeling of being in a personal relationship with Emerson. Re-
"Friendship" seems deceptively clear if you look only at its extremities. The
peatedly, the reader must extend sympathy into the prose to make sense of it.
first sentences of its first and last paragraphs read as follows: "We have a great
The character of the friend is the easiest character for the reader to play. After
deal more kindness than is ever spoken" and "It has seemed to me lately more
all, Emerson has defined friendship according to terms that are accurate and
possible than I knew, to carry a friendship greatly, on one side, without du
appropriate for a relationship between writer and reader, however inaccurate
correspondence on the other" (341,3 From this line of sight, the letter
or needlessly confining they may be between friends or lovers in real life.
intent could not be more plain. Suppose you received a letter that began and
ended with these confessions, but whose middle protested with great ingenuity
In the summer of 1840, Anna Barker's annual sojourn in the north was
that its author was not in love, because he did not believe love was anything
impatiently awaited. She delayed it, not arriving until early August, when she
more than an illusion, and that for a number of reasons, it was inadvisable
came to stay with Fuller in Jamaica Plain. After ten days with Fuller, Barker
anyway for two people to get very close to each other. You would know what
moved to Mrs. Farrar's, nearby in Cambridge. On Friday, 14 August, Emerson
the writer, despite himself, meant. And perhaps more than any other American
NIW Barker, probably in Cambridge, and then shared a ride with Fuller as far
writer, Emerson writes despite himself.
as Jamaica Plain, on his way back to Concord. Although neither Emerson nor
228 Emerson's "Friendship" and the Samaritans
Emerson's "Friendship" and the Samaritans
229
Fuller knew about it for two more weeks, Barker had changed her mind unit
renunciation as a woman by establishing ideal relations: Not only Raphael
accepted Ward's proposal of marriage on or around this date. Ignorani (if
|Ward] shall be my brother, but that Puritan at Concord [Emerson] who is
Barker and Ward's defection, Emerson and Fuller spent their ride togethe
reputed at some time to have seen the mighty Gods, I will elect him also.''
renegotiating the terms of their celestial friendships. As Emerson confided III
What most baffled Emerson was that neither Barker nor Ward appeared to
his journal, Fuller "taxed me as often before SO now more explicitly with
show any signs of guilt for what he regarded as a betrayal. "She does not feel
inhospitality of soul. She & Caroline would gladly be my friends, yet our
any fall. There is no compunction written on either of their brows." When
intercourse is not friendship, but literary gossip." As he wrote to Sturgis in
Emerson wrote to Fuller about his disappointment, he seemed to forget that he
letter he never mailed, "I confess to the fact of cold & imperfect intercoura
himself was already married, and complained that "the fragment of confi-
but not to the impeachment of my will, and not to the deficiency of my affet
dence that a wife can give to an old friend is not worth picking up after this
tion." In that unsent letter, Emerson suggested that he was reluctant to open
invitation to Elysian tables. "120
himself more deeply to Sturgis because he was protecting himself against the
The marriage of Ward and Barker destroyed Emerson's dream of realizing
danger that she might find a husband and leave him in the lurch.
chaste fellowship here on earth. "A flash of lightning shivers my castle in the
As Emerson asserted, his affections were not deficient. On the contrary,
air," he wrote to Fuller. As Carl F. Strauch has noted, Emerson repeated this
he wrote in his journal on 18 August, the attraction with which these young
metaphor in his poem "Initial, Daemonic, and Celestial Love," where he as-
people drew him was SO great as to make them his "tyrants." "Two or
three
serted that the pride and selfishness inherent in "Daemonic" love would, in the
men and three or four women rule the life of every mortal
Unable to escape
end, "shiver the palaces of glass." Emerson had mistakenly believed that Ward
from these tyrants, he scuds behind a grave-stone at last, and if you go there in
and Barker's love above the "Daemonic" to the "Celestial" level, which
look, you shall find a tuft of fresher grass." Emerson later turned this journal
was governed by the principle set forth in his couplet "When each the other
entry into the poem "Manners," where he gives the character based on his
shall avoid, / Shall each by each be most enjoyed." To Emerson's chagrin,
addled, love-oppressed self the name Endymion. The name strangely muddles
Barker and Ward turned out not to be the "shining examples of Denial" he had
the poem. In the myth as most readers know it, it is Diana, not Endymion
hoped they were. 121
whose painful need to gaze on her beloved puts her at a loss. 118
"Celestial" was also the word that Lidian, with one of her customary side-
The weekend of 22-24 August, Emerson hosted Barker, Fuller, and Sturitis
swipes, used to describe Emerson's letter of congratulation to Barker and
in Concord. "My three golden days," Emerson called their time togethe
Ward. "Mr. Emerson," Lidian wrote to her sister-in-law on 2 September 1840,
"these flying days." The four seem to have reached a new level of spiritual
"has written Anna a celestial letter on the occasion. This expression must not
closeness. In high Swedenborgian style, they vowed to address each other AA
be repeated. I don't want it talked about and made ridiculous as it easily might
brother and sister. "I shall never quite go back to my old arctic habits," Emer
be." "Celestial" was how Emerson described the sincerity with which Barker
son wrote to Fuller afterward. "I shall believe that nobleness is loving, N
and Ward would henceforth be able to address their "high prisoner," Emer-
delights in sharing itself." 119 Emerson's letters describe this interlude in a tone
son. Lidian was correct that the letter might easily be made ridiculous, but
so exalted as to be cloying, perhaps because by the time the letters were
incorrect in claiming that it was written to Barker. It was studiously addressed
written, only a few days later, that exaltation had already met with disappoint
to both husband- and wife-to-be. Its yous cannot be sorted. Consider the
ment. He was asserting the glories of a moment he knew had already passed
following passage:
His hopes were dashed on 27 August, at the Phi Beta Kappa ceremonies of
the Harvard commencement. There, Barker let Emerson know that she and
Certainly I have never yet got so far with you, my dear brother, (for SO today
Ward were engaged. Emerson's first reaction was "a certain terror," It stunned
at least I will joyfully call you;) we have halted hitherto on the precincts of
speech with whatever confidence we have both augured our final relation
him to discover that Barker's engagement antedated the "three golden days
And Anna for the most of the time has quite overpowered all my talents And
she had spent with Emerson, Fuller, and Sturgis. As he explained to Sturgis, I
yet I must say in some moments your angel has appeared at all the doors
thought that the whole spirit of our intercourse at Concord implied another
melted my reserves & prepared me to say things never before spoken. But if
resolution. I thought she had looked the world through for a man as universal
you grow SO fast on my love & reverence that I can dare believe that this dear
as herself & finding none, had said 'I will compensate myself for my great
style we are learning to use to each other is to become very fact then we can
Emerson's "Friendship" and the Samaritans
231
230 Emerson's "Friendship" and the Samaritans
drop our words-of-course & can afford the luxury of sincerity. There are
beyond even the strain of heroism
& resign without a sigh two Friends." In
many degrees of sincerity, & persons like us three who know the elegance of
Emerson's opinion, Fuller's new piety indicated that the strain had been too
truth may yet be far without their own highest mark of simple intercourse,
much for her. In his section of the Memoirs of Margaret Fuller Ossoli, years
later, Emerson recalled that "in the summer of 1840, she passed into certain
Emerson begins by addressing Ward as "you, my dear brother." Then he refers
religious states, which did not impress me as quite healthy, or likely to be
to Barker in the third person as "Anna." By the end of the section, he is
permanent.
discussing "us three" - Emerson, Ward, and Barker. Whose angel appeared at
No doubt Fuller's loss of Barker and Ward was aggravated by her sense that
all the doors? Deliberately and perhaps appropriately - since two flesh are to
Emerson, too, had begun to withdraw. In the aftermath of Ward and Barker's
be made one - it is impossible to say for sure. 122
engagement, Emerson's relationships with Fuller and Sturgis changed quickly.
Like Emerson, Fuller, too, experienced the marriage as both a personal loss
At first, Sturgis advanced, as if by default, from her role as sentimental backup.
and a philosophical letdown. For years afterward, her journals memorialized
She and Emerson exchanged a series of letters whose maudlin vows escalated
3 October Ward's birthday and the date of Barker and Ward's wedding->
dangerously. Sturgis assured him that she would continue to love him even if
a sad anniversary. She recorded 3 October 1844, for example, as an "Anniver
she married; he wrote that "you shall be my saint & purify me wholly." She
sary of the most moving event of my life, when the Ideal seemed nearest in
explained that "I loved you SO much, that I could easily see how I could love
earthly realization-al Just as Emerson wrote "Initial, Daemonic, and
you & others also"; he wrote that "you shame my little faith by your large-
Celestial Love" to work through his disappointment, Fuller composed in Jan
ness." But then, as quickly as their friendship had overheated, it crashed. By
uary 1841 a long poem about the mystic union of an angel of music named
13 October, Emerson seems to have wearied of Sturgis's melodramatic rap-
Melodia (representing Fuller) and a man conjured from white marble named
tures. "And you have found out that you are alone, & only now, and only for
Paria (representing Ward). 123
yourself," he wrote her, once again in the style of no-friend to no-friend. "I am
Whereas Emerson settled on the ancient Roman relief of Endymion as his
alone, and will you please to tell me of any friend of yours whom you know or
emblem of chaste love, Fuller chose a painting by Raphael of the Virgin Mary
have read of, who is not." On 18 October, he reproved her sharply for her
and Christ Crucified. Fuller saw the bond between Christ and his mother a
credulous interest in animal magnetism and for using too many superlatives.
the paragon for nonsexual relationships of great strength and intensity, In
a
"I have written you down in my books & in my heart for my sister because you
woundingly frank letter that Ward wrote to Fuller, probably during this period
are a user of the positive degree," he warned her. She was free to love him with
of final revelations, Ward referred to Fuller's belief "that an attachment sub
others, if necessary, but not to abuse her adjectives. 126
sisted between Jesus and Mary sufficient to suggest to the spotless son of God
As with Sturgis, SO with Fuller, but more sourly. Fuller must have hoped that
the existence of a new, vast, and tumultuous class of human emotions." Fuller
the sympathy of a shared loss would bring Emerson closer to her. It did not.
had evidently accused Ward of turning his back on this new class of emotions
The two did not experience even the brief surge of unreal, friendly hyperbole
His angry response came very close to reminding her that as a virgin she had
that Sturgis and Emerson exchanged. Instead, Fuller turned to Emerson with
no way of knowing for sure that sexual love was a lesser thing than Platonii
the full burden of her emotional needs, exacerbated by her recent losses. Emer-
love. "I, too, once knew and recognized the possibility of Platonic affection li
son retreated. On September, in a half-apology for not answering her letters
is possible to those who have never passed the line X Before that, all the
promptly, he explained that he was rationing his correspondence. "A letter for
higher class of emotion all the nobler views of life exist; but in a shape that
it letter & not for a billet, especially, if, as in late instances, that billet be a
seems sublimated and idealized to the more experienced: to those who have
dun." Fuller's billets, however doux, struck Emerson as accounts payable. On
passed that line, the higher emotions and the passions are apt to be always
26 September, he complained in his journal, "You would have me love you.
afterward inextricably commingled.
What shall I love? Your body? The supposition disgusts you." While he strug-
Emerson relapsed easily into his former Transcendental isolation. Fullei
gled to reestablish the walls that had formerly distanced them, she struggled to
took the blow harder. Her identification with Raphael's Madonna formed
tear them down. Emerson alleged that there was "a certain willfulness" in her
part of a larger religious crisis. To Sturgis, she wrote of "mighty changes in on
claim that "I am yours & yours shall be." He maintained that in fact "we meet
spiritual life." Emerson did not think much of these changes. When news of
& treat like foreign states."
the engagement had broken, he had warned Fuller that "you must be generous
"But did not you ask for a 'foe' in your friend?" Fuller urged Emerson,
Emerson's "Friendship" and the Samaritans
233
232 Emerson's "Friendship" and the Samaritans
quoting "Friendship" back to him. "Did not you ask for a 'large formidate
Dreams can accomplish it number of contradictory purposes and usually
nature'? But a beautiful foe, I am not yet to you." The strictures that Emerad
do. But it is likely that the dream reformers' objections were the same objec-
had set on himself to enable him to approach Ward now did double duty
tions that Emerson and Fuller had offered to the marriage of Ward and Barker
barriers that kept Fuller at bay. After a month of Fuller's recriminations ule
ever the course of the previous year. That is, marriage, with its proprietary
Emerson's regrets rendered especially awkward when Emerson was invite
claims, impeded the exchange of emotions that celestial friendships left free
to Ward and Barker's wedding and Fuller apparently was not - Emerson the
and clear. Marriage would bring Ward financial burdens that would have bad
the door firmly. "Ice has its uses," he told her on 22 October. On 24 October
consequences to the history of his genius," just as it would put Barker in
he wrote that Iought never to have suffered you to lead me into any converse
a state of financial dependence that would infantilize her genius. The vigor-
tion or writing on our relation." By repeatedly analyzing their friendship
ous firehose, then, corresponds not to the force of patriarchy or to the force
Fuller had violated the "pudency" that, in Emerson's opinion, ought to IIIIII
el Emerson's sexual drive but to what had thwarted Fuller and Emerson:
late friendship from language. 128
Ward's sexual drive. Transcendental rationales could not contain it. In his
Fuller and Sturgis consoled each other by sharing notes on the rejections
dream, Emerson takes a vicarious pleasure in the dousing- he is "astonished
each had received from Emerson. After Fuller read over one of Emerson
&
amused" because it confirms Ward's erotic power. This power always
scolding letters to Sturgis, she wrote Sturgis that "Waldo is
secluded by
fascinated Emerson. "What a master in life!" he wrote to Sturgis about Ward
doubt, secluded by a sneer." "O these tedious, tedious attempts to learnith
several years later. "I compared this man, who is a performance, with others
universe by thought alone. Love, Love, my Father, thou hast given me,
who seem to me only prayers.' At the end of his dream, Emerson also takes
thank thee for its pains." But Emerson wanted no more of its pains. Although
a firsthand pleasure in the dousing when the speaker hoses him, too. The
they protested, the two women had to accept the new limits Emerson set in
dream thus assuages Emerson: even as Ward is lost to marriage, the eruption
their intimacies with him. They continued to write and see him often. But the
of his sexual energy includes Emerson in its shower.
experiment in celestial love was over. 129
"Ward I shall not lose," Emerson vowed shortly after he learned that Ward
One night near New Year's, 1841, Emerson dreamed of a convention as
would marry. And he never did lose him. Emerson wrote to Ward until the end
sembled to discuss the institution of marriage, where "grave & alarming el
of his life. It was hard for Emerson to reconcile himself to Ward's marriage and
jections [were] stated on all hands to the usage." But this reformist debate took
what this meant for Ward's "genius." A year after the wedding, Emerson
a strange turn:
praised Ward to Carlyle as "a beautiful & noble youth of a most subtle &
magnetic nature" while still regretting that Ward had "sacrificed [his art] to
One speaker at last rose & began to reply to the arguments, but suddenly
Despair." And Ward is probably behind an enigmatic entry in Emerson's 1843
extended his hand & turned on the audience the spout of an engine which
journal: "A soft lovely child always truer & better, unhurt amidst the noxious
copiously supplied from within the wall with water & whisking it vigorousl
influences of wealth & ultra whiggism, & can resist everything unless it were
about, up, down, right, & left, he drove all the company in crowds hither
the vitriolic acid of marriage." But despite his bitterness over Ward's choice all of
thither & out of the house. Whilst I stood watching astonished & amused it
life, Emerson continued to love him. A tone of longing persists through
the malice & vigor of the orator, I saw the spout lengthened by a supply of
hose behind, & the man suddenly brought it round a corner & drenched THE
Emerson's letters to Ward. In 1848, on board a steamship returning from of
as I gazed. I woke up relieved to find myself quite dry, and well convinced that
England, Emerson wrote to Ward as if he were at last realizing the fantasy and
the Institution of Marriage was safe for tonight.
his 1838 journal, of being "shut up in a little schooner with
a
man"
"husband[ing] my joys" by thinking of but not speaking to this beloved fellow
This dream has been much interpreted. Christopher Newfield has read it
passenger: "What is it or can it be to you that through the long mottled trivial
the reformers' objections to marriage stemmed from an opposition to pa
a dreaming brother cherishes in a corner some picture of you as a type or
triarchy and as if the dream was Emerson's way of using passivity to identify
years nucleus of happier visions & a freer life. I am so safe in my iron limits from
himself with a restored patriarchal power. Joel Porte has read it as if the
intrusion or extravagance, that I can well afford to indulge my humour with
reformers' objections were to the failure of marriage to give sufficient vent to
the figures that pass my dungeon window, without incurring any risk of a
sexuality and as if the dream offered Emerson "an alternative way to express
ridiculous shock from coming hand to hand with my Ariels & Gabriels."
his drives," which were not being satisfied with Lidian.
10
"Your loving fellow film," Emerson signed this letter. As he explained in one of
Emerson's "Friendship" and the Samaritans
235
234 Emerson's "Friendship" and the Samaritans
the masses too well. For lectures to support him, Emerson had to deliver them
hislastletters to Ward, "I only desire to know that there is a mind with the
in which was not as efficient as the existing technology permitted.
inthe car or the ship. "132
Emerson's person, lectures perpetuated an authorial presence that was increasingly
Emerson's hierotomy completes a movement that the diaries of Leander
archaic, the hallmark of an earlier literary mode.
Emerson's sortie into magazine publishing also attempted to exploit a tran-
Lorenzo began. The essay "Friendship" has cut itself off from the desire flian
sition. In his late career, Charles Brockden Brown had struggled to make a
generated it, its author's wish to reach another man. It bloomed from this
commercial success out of an American magazine. By contrast, Emerson's
situation, which gives it its aroma. But although Emerson once asserted (till
"the root of the plant is not unsightly to science, though for chaplets mil
magazine The Dial was designed at the outset to be something other than a
commercial success. It was not necessary for The Dial to fail in the market-
festoons we cut the stem short," it was in fact his technique to cut the floor
from its root. 133 In the genteel, wealthy beau monde of eighteenth century
place, but to succeed there was not its goal. Emerson and Fuller intended The
America, it was the connection of a work of art to its author that counted Bill
Dial to perform a kind of literary arbitrage, to take advantage of the disparity
in the public, democratic marketplace of nineteenth-century literature the
III prestige between belles lettres and the marketplace. They did not look
workhad to be cut from its author SO that any purchaser of the text could find
beyond their social circle for contributors. The Dial was a liminal form - a
printed, mass-circulation vehicle for the writings of an elite accustomed to
menni ga pleasure there.
Emerson is crucial to American literature because he resists this demand
exchanging their work privately. "It serves as a sort of portfolio," Emerson
explained to Carlyle, "to carry about a few poems or sentences which would
even as accommodates himself to it. His style brings forward the cruditi
otherwise be transcribed and circulated. "136
biathe marketplace inflicts on the personal, in a way that the marketplace
Corresponding to this ambition, one theme of The Dial was the value (and
appreciate. By making hierotomy central to his style, Emerson draws attention
othecut. Again and again, Emerson intimates to us that he has suffered lost
difficulty) of romantic friendships, the relationships that composed belletristic
circles. The tone of etherealized homosexual libido that pervaded the corre-
that grief will never quite heal. "The only thing grief has taught me, is tokaira
bow shallow it is," he writes in "Experience." Emerson respects the cut he has
spondence of the Fuller-Emerson circle also infused The Dial. Thoreau, for
nade, and he never connects with what he has lost. Even his son's death does
example, contributed his poems "Sympathy" and "Friendship," as well as his
tottouch
"134 The reader is thus able to substitute private losses for l'me
elegant translations of Anacreontic verse, which muted but did not altogether
me.
sit who has, as it were, cut his losses to make this possible.
suppress their frequent homoeroticism. 137 The Dial published Charles King
Newcomb's one and only literary work, a story entitled "The First Dolon,"
Emerson resists moving forward from this moment of sacrifice. He knows
hose bewildering mix of sadism, pedophilia, and religiosity went unmatched
marhisstrength is in transition. "Power
resides in the moment of transition
toma past to a new state," he writes in "Self-Reliance"; and in his essay
for half a century.
In The Dial, Fuller was able to continue the homilies on friendship that
Plato, Emerson recommends that transitions "be adroitly managed to present
Emerson no longer wanted to hear. On the last page of the first issue, she
much transitional surface as possible." Emerson's moment fell in what
admonished any reader who was overprudent in offering affection, "Wise
Inqueville called a "period of glory as well as of ferment, when the conditiona
(men are not sufficiently settled for the mind to be lulled in torpor, when
man, you never knew what it is to love." In her essay on "Romaic and Rhine
Ballads," she jabbed at Emerson by quoting his intimacy-averse couplets from
are sufficiently unequal for men to exercise a vast power on the minde of
another." The sacrifice of the personal held the greatest poignancy when
The Sphinx,"
literature had not yet finished its migration from the drawing room to du
Have I a lover
bookstore,
Who is noble and free?
Emerson managed his own literary career to maximize this transitional
I would he were nobler
stace, Lyccum lecturing was a livelihood that locomotives made possible
Than to love me
HM as newspapers threatened to render it obsolete. Throughout his carefill
Emerson had to bully and sweet newspaper editors out of printing mail
and alleging that they would have nonplussed the Norse hero Siegfried, who
was as fearless of friendship as of dragons. In her essay "Bettine Brentano and
kipts of his lectures, because newspapers threatened to deliver his message
236 Emerson's "Friendship" and the Samaritans
Her Friend Günderode," Fuller again took Emerson to fill will
Emerson found in Hafiz, as he had not found in Fuller or among her circle, a
disparaging quotation. Fuller noted that although Goethe had failed
horse naughty enough 10 match his good horse Plato. In his first collec-
Bettina had been able to save her faith 111 romantic friendship In
the Poems of 1847, Emerson published two of his secondhand transla-
female friend, the canoness Günderode. An individual failure III
its of Hafiz. The Persian title of one of the poems was Sakiname, or "The of
Fuller observed, ought not to discourage faith in friendship intl
tank of the Cupbearer." Emerson modestly retitled it "From the Persian
survivor if in losing his friend, he loses not the idea of friendship birth
Haliz." But as the original title suggests, this and many of Hafiz's poems were
sex relationship of Bettina and Günderode, friendship's ideal
adressed to young men. Emerson knew this. In the essay "Persian Poetry,"
without compromise "We feel of these two that they were
Emerson translated with unrectified gender the compliment that Hafiz once
another to be led to indicate their best thoughts, their fairest visitive
lid to a youth he liked: "Take my heart in thy hand, O beautiful boy of
therefore theirs was a true friendship. They needed not 'descend in these
thiraz! / I would give for the mole on thy cheek Samarcand and Buchara."
But for the story this chapter tells, perhaps the most provocative
Stide from his infamous 1860 advice to Whitman to tone down the sexual
this vein was a poem Ward gave to The Dial. "The Twin Lover from
entent of Leaves of Grass, Emerson almost never felt shame when other
Platonic myths of Phaedrus and the Symposium to the Choice of
Writers expressed loves he would have sternly censured in himself. In Repre-
Ward faced in his personal life. In the poem, the narrator descendi from
entative Men, he grandly proclaimed, "Let none presume to measure the
starry sphere to earth, forgetting all but "a faint dim belief" in heaven
irregularities of Michel Angelo and Socrates by village scales." And in the case
falls. Once on earth, he meets two gods of love, both male, each of
of lafiz, too, Emerson asserted that "this boundless charter is the right of
beckons to the narrator to follow. The first god, "like the Grense the
Benius."142
stands silent at first, "so statue-like, SO earnest, so severe," The itemil
into
Emerson never published any but those first two of his translations of Hafiz,
prattles amiably and seductively about earthly pleasures. The first noil take
and he omitted even these from the second and all later editions of his poetry.
rupts the second god sternly, and the narrator knows which alternative
still, the energy he privately poured into his translations of Hafiz during the
must choose. "My soul was strengthened, SO that the proud
next decade suggests that he was thinking about sex, love, friendship, and
power within me like its own." The narrator chooses to follow the
literary art long after his experiment in intimacy with Fuller, Ward, Barker,
god up the "rocky path" toward virtue. Intriguingly, the narrator brime the
and Sturgis had collapsed. Perhaps Hafiz appealed SO strongly because Emer-
second, softer love-god with him, and whenever the rocky path's
ion had learned to distinguish Plato's austere conclusions from Plato's more
the boy's feet offend, In my strong arms I bear the sorrowing child lavier
playful methods; perhaps he had learned to read Plato more as Fuller read
biographical terms, no doubt the first love-god represents Ward's
him. After all, as Ward's poem intimated, Emerson himself was a sort of love-
Emerson, and the second ove-god represents his wife, Emerson Once
ment
god - a Cupid-Socrates whose arrows were all the sharper for teaching that
that American literature was "optative"; nonetheless, "both" is not realis
desires were never meant to be satisfied. Ido not drink wine," Emerson wrote
satisfactory resolution to the Choice of Hercules. It was a pleasant
in his journal in 1849, "but would have the name of drinking wine." Or, as he
Ward's part, written perhaps for Emerson's benefit. In the event, Want lerita
But it, even more ambiguously, in a stanza he adapted from Hafiz:
stern angel tread his rocky path alone. 140
As these items suggest, The Dial would well repay a literary the
To a wink sacrificed I
examined it from the angle of gay studies. So would another of Employer
My virtue
Ah therein is all my store
long-running interests, the Persian poet Hafiz, whom Emerson first mentions
Of good works. 143
in his journal in 184 " Tis easy out of the soul to banish lust / Not FARE
friend from the soul to thrust," ran one of Emerson's manuscript translational
of a Hafiz ghazal. The couplet captures Emerson's own ambivalent attitude
toward love and friendship almost too well. More often, Hafiz's intered in
friendship ran to the ecstatic, unabashedly. Emerson filled hundreds of intritist
pages with his translations of Hafiz, made not from Persian texts but francis
books of German versions prepared by Joseph von Hammer Purgstall in
TheDial 1843 V. 4
1843.)
Art-and Architecture.
107
Samuel g. Ward
NOTES ON ART AND ARCHITECTURE
[NOTE. A few sheets have fallen into our hands, which contain such good
sense on the subject of architecture, that we shall not be deterred by their in-
complete method from giving them to our readers, in the hope that they will
come to the eye of soine person proposing to build a house or a church, in time
to save a new edifice from some of the faults, which make our domestic and what
we call our religious architecture insignificant.]
ART.
THERE are three periods of art. First, when the thought
is in advance of the execution. Second, when the expres-
sion is adequate to the thought. And third, when the
expression is in advance of the thought. The first is the
age of the Giottos and Cimabues the second, of Raphaels
and Michel Angelos. The third is the only one we know
by experience. How inexpressibly interesting are those
early works, where art is only just able to shadow forth
dimly the thought the master was burdened with. They
seem to suggest the more, because of their imperfect utter-
ance.
True art is an expression of humanity, and like all other
expressions, when it is finished, it cannot be repeated.
It is therefore childish to lament the absence of good
painters. We should lament the absence of great
thoughts, for it is the thought that makes the painters.
Art is the blossoming of a century-plant. Through hun-
dreds of years the idea grows onward in the minds of men,
and when it is ripe, the man appears destined to gather it.
It was not Raphael who painted, but Italy, Greece, and all
antiquity painting by his hand, and when that thought was
uttered, the flowers dropped. The aloe blossomed in the
Gothic Architecture of the middle ages:- - and Bach and
Beethoven have in their art unfolded its wondrous leaves.
In this belief may we find consolation when all around
us looks SO cheerless. The noble plant whose blossoms we
would SO fain see, must have its root, must have its slow
growing, massive leaves, must have its cold and retarding
spring, its green growth of the stalk, that it may in summer
108
Art and Architecture.
[July,
bring forth its flowers. Shall we not then honor earth,
root, leaves, flower-stalk, nay, shall we repine that we must
perhaps by our destiny be one of these, since these are
part of the flower, and the flower of them, the flower is the
sum of their united force and beauty transfigured, glori-
fied.
The artist who is fast-grounded in this pure belief is
beyond the reach of disappointment and failure. If he
truly loves art, he knows that he is bearing on his should-
ers one stone for that stately future edifice, not the key-
stone, perhaps, but a necessary stone, and silently and
faithfully he works, perfecting as he may his talent, not
looking to outward success, but to inward satisfaction.
Such a man knows that to advance the edifice at which he
labors, are needed not gorgeous successes apparent, but
conscientiousness, severity, truth. What would Angelico
da Fiesole have done, had some devil tempted him to work
out effects, instead of painting from his heart. These men
who laid the foundation of the great Italian art were relig-
ious men,- men fearing God, and seeing his hand at work
even in the mixing of their colors, - men who painted on
their knees. Such too were the forerunners of the great
German musicians, such the Greeks,-such men have laid
the foundations of greatness everywhere.
ARCHITECTURE.
What architecture must a nation situated as we are
adopt? It has no indigenous architecture, it is not there-
fore a matter of religion with us, but a matter of taste.
We may and must have all the architectures of the world,
but we may ennoble them all by an attention to truth,
and a contempt of littleness. Nay, is not our position, if
we will use our advantages properly, the more fortunate,
inasmuch as we are not by the force of circumstance or
example, bound to be or to build in this or that particular
way, - but all ways are before us to choose. If our posi-
tion is unfavorable to a speedy development of national
taste, it is most adapted to give fair play to individual.
The crowning and damning sin of architecture with us,
nay, that of bad taste everywhere, is, the doing of unmean-
ing, needless things. A Friends' meeting sits silent till one
1843.)
Art and Architecture.
109
has something to say ; SO should a man always,- SO should
the building man never presume to do laught without rea-
son. To adorn the needful, to add a frieze to life, this is
Art.
Rightly does the uninstructed caviller ask, when he sees
a fine house, for what purpose is this balustrade, or that
screen, these windows blocked up, and SO on. Let any
man of good sense say to himself what sort of a house he
would have for convenience, supposing him to have the
space to build it on ; then let him frame and roof these
rooms, and if he has made his house truly convenient, its
appearance cannot be absurd. Well, but he says, my
house is plain, I want it to be beautiful, - I will spend
what you choose upon it, but it shall be the most beautiful
in the country. Very good, my friend. We will not
change a single line, but we will ornament these lines.
We will not conceal but adorn your house's nakedness ;
delicate mouldings shall ornament every joint ; whatever is
built for convenience or use, shall seem to have been built
for beautiful details ; your very doorlatch and hinges shall
be beautiful. For house, say church for the purposes
of daily life, say the worship of God, and behold we have
the history of architecture.
There is nothing arbitrary in true architecture, even to
the lowest detail. The man, who should for the first time
see a Greek temple of marble, would indeed ask and with
reason, what meaning there was in triglyph, and metope,
and frieze but when he is told that this is a marble imi-
tation of a wooden building, a reproduction in a more
costly material of a sacred historical form, he then sees in
the triglyph the end of the wooden beam, with the marks of
the trickling water drops, in the metope the flat panel
between. But, says our modern builder, there is no reason
that I should use triglyphs and metopes. I have no histori-
cal recollection to beautify them ; what shall I use for or-
naments? My friend, what form has ever struck you as
beautiful ? He answers, Why, the form of every living
thing, of every tree and flower and herb. And can you ask
then what ornaments you shall use ? If your cornice
were a wreath of thistles and burdocks curiously carved
or cast, can you not see how a hundred mouths would pro-
claim its superiority over yonder unmeaning layer of
plaster ?
110
Art and Architecture.
[July,
A mistaken plainness has usurped the place of true sim-
1
plicity, which is the same mistake as an affected plainness in
1
manners or appearance, lest one should be suspected of
foppery. All houses, all churches are finished within side
by the plane (or mould-plane) and plaster-smoother. Has
f
a man made a fortune, he moves from his plain house
which cost ten thousand, to one which cost an hundred
t
thousand. Now perhaps his poor friend shall see some-
a
thing beautiful. Alas, it is but the old house three times
d
as large, the walls and the woodwork three times as smooth ;
t
a little warmer house in winter, than the old one, a little
t1
airier in summer. Verily, friend, thou hast done little with
se
thy hundred thousand, beyond enriching thy carpenter.
d
To see materials used skilfully and in accordance with
n
n
their peculiar qualities is a great source of beauty in archi-
en
tecture. The vice of many of our would-be pretty build-
de
ings is that the material is entirely disguised, SO that for
aught we know they may be marble, or wood, or paste-
board all we see is a plain white surface. Have done with
of
this paltry concealment ; let us see how the thing is built.
b
A Swiss cottage is beautiful, because it is wooden par ex-
in
cellence ; every joint and timber is seen, nay the wood is
W
not even painted but varnished. So of the old heavy-tim-
ru
w
bered picturesque houses of England.
th
Hope says; "Je n'ai pas besoin d'appuyer ici sur la perfec-
sp
tion que les Grecs ont donnée à toutes les parties, essentielles
ad
ou accessoires de leurs edifices ; elle alla si loin que, dans cer-
bu
tains temples ils paraissent avoir été animés d'un sentiment
purement religieux, penetrés de l'idee que la divinité voyait ce
ess
qui échappait à l'il de l'homme, et qu'il fallait rendre toutes
cre
les parties egalement dignes de l'être immortel auquel l'édifice
me
était consacré.
pro
" L'addresse en mécanique est une faculté tout-à-fait dis-
chi
tinct du gout dans les beaux arts.
tas
" En Grèce, la colonne était un élément de construction plus
tio
characteristique et plus essentiel que la muraille."
tioi
Among the Romans, on the contrary, the wall was the
Th
integral part of the building, of which the columns served
dec
only to adorn the nakedness. Among ourselves, although
par
the pillars-we so frequently see have the real purpose of
the
sustaining a projection, to protect from the rays of the
pre
sun ; yet there is no reason that we should adopt for this
a (
1843.]
Art and Architecture.
111
1-
purpose a model of proportions that were meant to support
11
the immense weight of the whole structure in Greece. How
of
much more elegant would our verandahs be, were the
le
wooden columns just SO large as is needful for the purpose
IS
for which they were erected.
se
" Ainsi, les premières basiliques chrétiennes n'offraient, dans
ed
toute leur entendue, si l'on excepte leurs colonnes antiques,
aucune moulure, aucune partie qui ressortit et se detachât
de leur surface plane et perpendiculaire ; elles ue présen-
taient, au-dessus de leurs murailles nues que la charpente
le
transversale de leur plafond, et de leur toit; elles res-
th
semblaient en un mot à de vastes granges, que l'on aurait bati
de somptueux materiaux, mais la simplicité, la pureté, la mag-
th
nificence, l'harmonie de toutes leurs parties constitutives, don-
i-
naient a ces granges un air de grandeur que nous cherchons
en vain dans l'architecture plus compliquée des églises mo-
dernes."
or
In the eye of every New Englander, the essential parts
th
of a church are a spire or tower, half-disengaged from the
It.
building and formerly a porch, and a simple oblong build-
ing like a barn, forming the main body of the edifice;
is
within, the pulpit at the end opposite the tower, a gallery
m-
running round the other three sides, supported by columns
which in some cases also shoot upward to aid in supporting
the roof. In spite of the almost total absence of beautiful
ec-
specimens, it is in vain to say that this form is not as well
les
adapted to beauty as the basilica or any other. If the
er-
builder would content himself with putting together these
ent
essential parts with the utmost simplicity, without any ex-
tes
crescences or breaking up, striving only to balance the
ice
members against each other, SO that each should have its
proper proportion, he would produce a specimen of national
dis-
church architecture. The spire would seem to be in better
taste than the square tower, partly because of the associa-
lus
tions, but also because its form is agreeable to a construc-
tion in wood, which we shall long see in this country.
the
The artist may employ all his taste and imagination in
ved
decorations, (always entirely subordinate,) of these main
gh
parts, taking care that his decorations are in keeping with
of
the uses of the building. How unmeaning beside the un-
the
pretending simplicity of such a building, is the pretence of
this
a Grecian front, - not that the native product shows SO
112
Art and Architecture.
[July,
much genius in the invention, but that it has a sacred as-
sociation in our eyes, which the other has not.
In the same way that the literature of the ancient world,
for SO long a time dwarfed the authors of a modern date,
does the ancient architecture, Gothic and Grecian, dwarf
our builders. They dare not invent for themselves, for their
inventions would seem SO puerile beside the great works to
which the world would compare them. It is cheaper for
them and more satisfactory to their customers, to borrow a
form that all the world has admitted to be beautiful, and
almost inevitably degrade it by putting it to a wrong use. In
poesy no one longer doubts that the nature around us is the
nature from which Homer and Phidias drew inspiration,
and it is the spirit and not the forms of ancient art that
make its productions almost divine. Scarcely in architec-
ture do we see the first faint light of such a dawn, yet it
depends upon ourselves, that ours shall be that glory. An
intense thirst for the beautiful exists among us, - it only
requires a direction. It is idle for us to complain of the
want of models, the want of instruction. England has
wealth of these beyond count, yet build's nowadays no
more tastefully than we ; it must come from ourselves, from
reflection, from the study of nature.
Materials rightly employed grow more beautiful with
age. In pure architecture, everything is to be rejected,
that will grow less beautiful with age. For this end, it
is sufficient that every material should be employed with
an eye to its peculiar properties. This rule, if strictly
followed, would indeed do away with several materials,
the cheapness of which has rendered their use almost
universal, but which deserve no place in the severe
and simple architecture which should distinguish our
churches. Let it not be our reproach that we are a nation
of lath and plaster and temporary shifts ; let our joints and
beams be made beautiful, not hidden, - let our wood work
show the grain of the wood for ornament, not hide it under
paint.
Suppose one of our churches were to be left alone for
fifty years, when we enter how unlovely would it be, the
plaster dropping away, showing the laths like ribs beneath,
the paint dingy and mouldy, reminding us of nothing but
the tomb - but the interior of the unpainted, unplastered,
1843.]
Art and Architecture.
113
gothic church would still be beautiful in age, and frag-
ments of carved oak be treasured at its weight in silver.
Architecture is a tendency to organization. Nature or-
ganizes matter, and endows it with individual life. Man
organizes it for his own ends, but it has no life but SO far as
he has been able to endow it with his own. Now in
natural organizations as the tree or animal, we see no part
that has not a meaning and use, and each part of that
material which answers to its end. This also is a funda-
mental law of architecture.
The ancient architecture is entitled to that great praise
of producing on the mind an effect of unity. It has been
too often the bane of modern architecture, that what one
man designed, his successor changed, SO that to the most
unpractised eyc, the grossest inconsistencies are constantly
apparent till we are almost ready to say in despair,
there is no good architecture but in the mind of the artist.
It cannot be doubted that either Bramante, Sangallo, or
M. Angelo, alone, would have made a far finer building
than the actual St. Peters.
The modern architects certainly attempted more difficult
things than the ancient. The Greek had not to invent the
form of his edifice. Nature and immemorial custom had
done that for him. He was only to see that all his details
were in due proportion. There was not SO much room for
had taste. But the church architect of the renaissance had
the whole dome of the heavens to exhibit his antics in.
MONUMENTS.
In regard to monuments it may be laid down as a rule
that all sentimental monuments are bad, and all conceits of
every sort ; as, a broken column, a mother weeping over
her child, a watchful dog, &c. They strike at first, but
the mind wearies to death of them the moment they are
repeated. To my mind, a monument should be an archi-
tectural structure (including any admitted form of obelisk,
pyramid, or of any style of architecture), which should be
only striking by the simplicity and purity of its form. Its
adorments may be infinitely rich, but always entirely sub-
VOL. IV. NO. 1.
15
114
Art and Architecture.
[July,
ordinate ; SO that at a distance the effect shall always be of
simplicity and repose. A simple headstone might be
wrought by a Phidias, might contain the most exquisite
sculptures, and still never lose its character of a simple
headstone. Our monuments are all in the open air con-
sequently those Gothic tombs that with all their splendor
have SO severely religious an air, are denied us. I prefer
upon a tomb figures of a vague character, what are called
academic figures. These, when noble in their form and ex-
pression, produce an effect analogous to architecture, sug-
gestive,- - whereas all figures of a fixed character, Charities,
Hopes, Griefs, &c., irresistibly put their own character for-
ward, and give the intellect an occupation where we should
awaken only feelings. It is as if we should introduce
descriptive music into a requiem. A monument should
never tell you what to think or feel, but only suggest
feeling.
The renowned monument of Lorenzo di Medici by
Michel Angelo is an illustration. The feeling of repose,
not of forgetfulness, but of deepest thought, which it im-
presses, is so complete, that the gazer almost forgets himself
to stone, and it seems like an intrusion to ask what the
figures mean. We feel that they mean all things.
The style and spirit of the Grecian Architecture is SO
pure that when an architect adopts it, he must carry it
out. As far as the details are concerned, nothing can with
propriety be added to or taken from them. They are
things fixed. If a man uses the Ionic, we demand a pure
Greek Ionic, and everybody knows what it ought to be.
To adapt these details in Greek spirit to modern needs,
this is what classic architecture has in modern times to do.
The architects who have accomplished this feat in a satis-
factory manner, in modern times, are SO few, that one may
number them on his fingers and scarce need his left hand.
To do this a man must be a Greek, and more than a
Greek. He has to live in the past and present at the same
time. He must be independent of his time, and yet able
to enter fully into it.
The Gothic and the Lombard architecture, on the other
hand, make no such all but impossible demands,-- or at
least did not, at the time in which they flourished, though
it is no less hard for us to enter into their spirit than into
1843.]
The Glade.
115
the Grecian, - perhaps even harder, since the principle of
the Gothic is complex, and the ideas which controlled both
it and the Lombard have told their errand, and have past
away from the world. The Grecian being conceived in a
more universal spirit, aspiring to absolute perfection, has in
it the principle of life, it has been the parent of the others,
and yet flourishes green and strong, while its offspring have
passed into decrepitude.
It would be well for us, once for all, to abandon the
attempt to transplant hither the Gothic Architecture. The
noble trees yet stand in the old world, but their seeds are
decayed, the woodwork, that we dignify by this name, can
only excite a sigh or a smile at its utter want of harmony
and use. A few fine churches we may have, like Trinity
church in New York, but they can be only approximations
to foreign works. There is nothing new to be done in
Gothic architecture. Its capacities, infinite as they seem,
,are in fact limited, and are exhausted. Not SO with the
Grecian. It is not indeed to be expected that we shall
make more perfect specimens than were made two thousand
years ago, but we may reproduce those in endless new
combinations. This is what Palladio and Bramante did,
and new Palladios and Bramantes would always find
room.
THE GLADE.
A GREEN and vaporous cloud of buds the larch
Folds in soft drapery above the glade,
Where deeper-foliaged pines high over-arch,
And diguity the heavy, stooping shade,
There yellow violets spring, in Tarest show,
And golden rods in secret clusters blow.
There piping hylas fill the helpless air,
And chattering black-birds hold their gossip by,
And near I saw the tender maiden-hair,
With the fine, breeze-born, white anemone;
The glade, though undisturbed by human art,
Has richer treasures than the busy mart.
CONCORD
AUTHORS
Emerson, R.W., subject
Myerson, J.
The New England
transcententalists
Samuel Gray Ward
215
ainst
of his verses appeared in the Dial. Also, immediately after the Spirit's departure
ginal
in 1840, Very wrote few poems. When one of his three poems in the Dial, "The
I not
Evening Choir," appeared "altered considerably" by Emerson from what Very
ided
had written, he was upset. But, since he no longer believed that the Spirit wrote
his poems, Very protested only mildly, no doubt taking Emerson's editorial work
g or
to be a statement upon a deficiency in his own poetic talents. ² ¹
I the
Very was "much pleased and satisfied" with "the occasional glances" he got of
n he
the Dial. He followed Alcott's trip to England in the October 1842 number,
ban-
which he thought "a superior one," and he suggested that the Dial publish some-
S in-
thing on Heraud's lectures. However, Emerson, Very, and the Dial soon drifted
Very
apart, and Emerson, who had placed Very on the free list after his contribution
to the ninth number, failed to send him any more copies after April 1843.
22
une.
four
By that date Emerson had decidedly given up on Very; subsequent references
rite.
to him in Emerson's journal are always in the past tense, as if speaking of a dead
reely
man. 23 Emerson recognized that Very was no longer the "saint" he had earlier
and
appeared to be, and, looking back, he saw him as "morbid" even then. In 1839
Con-
Emerson had drawn this picture of Very: "Here is Simeon the Stylite
in the
both
shape of Jones Very, religion for religion's sake, religion divorced, detached from
ing.
man, from the world, from science & art; grim, unmarried, insulated, accusing;
cted
yet true in itself, & speaking things in every word. The lie is in the detachment."
when
Now, but a few years later, Emerson found him to be "lamentably sane."24
t his
ling,
olem
38
d by
(&
orial
Samuel Gray Ward
ery's
son-
uller
Two
844
eur"
Samuel Gray Ward was the wealthiest of the Dial's contributors. When he was
born in Boston on 3 October 1817, his father was well on his way to the half-
onal
million-dollar fortune he would leave at his death in 1858. Ward's early educa-
und
tion was at the Boston Latin School, where he was first scholar, and the Round
cted
Hill school in Northampton, Massachusetts, where he met Ellery Channing. The
ckly
boy's interest in learning was encouraged by his father, the treasurer of the
orth
Boston Athenaeum. His father was also the treasurer of Harvard, and in 1832
Club
Ward entered college there.
ersa-
At Harvard Ward's classmates included Jones Very, and another
his
undergraduate, Channing, became his friend. Upon his graduation Ward
of a
toured Europe.
When he returned to Boston in the summer of 1838, he entered his father's
the
mercantile business and left to work at a branch in New Orleans. One reason
few
CONCORD
AUTHORS
Emerson,
R.W.,
sub
ject
Myerson, J.
The New Eng land
transcententalists
217
Samuel Gray Ward
why he chose New Orleans was Anna Barker, a beautiful young socialite there
whom he had met at Cambridge, Massachusetts, and again in Europe. When
spring came and Ward journeyed back to Boston, he found himself very much in
love, and in May 1839 he returned to New Orleans to propose. Ward, who fan-
cied himself a "student" and a "literary man," discovered that Miss Barker felt
that there was "very little probability" of marriage unless his plans of "a scholar's
life gave place to some lucrative profession."
Unwilling to trade art for commerce, Ward returned home, arriving at Boston
in a state of health that worried his family. Although he insisted that "Anna
used no influence," he also realized that he must "satisfy not only her feelings but
her tastes," and when she came north in June, he proposed to her again with the
full understanding that he was to provide material as well as spiritual comfort.¹
To this end Anna's father promised Ward a position in his banking firm. The
engagement was formally announced, and Ward's father prepared a house on
fashionable Louisburg Square in Boston for the young couple to live in after
their October marriage.
Another woman in Ward's life was Margaret Fuller, whom he had first met in
1835. Although she did not immediately like him,2 Ward took to her at once.
And, when she moved to Boston in 1835, Ward wrote from London to tell his
sister that "by all means" she should try to take lessons from Fuller, "a most
delightful acquaintance and with a universality of knowledge." They cor-
responded, and he gratefully followed her guidance in his literary and artistic
pursuits. However, Fuller wished an emotional as well as an intellectual involve-
ment, and Ward's engagement to Anna Barker both stunned and angered her.4
Having known Anna for many years, Fuller was especially hurt because she
thought Ward had chosen beauty over intelligence. Even worse to her was his
choosing the "dead wood" of a banker's desk as his profession.6
It was through Fuller that Ward met Ralph Waldo Emerson. After hearing
him lecture in Boston Ward asked her for an introduction, and the two met for
the first time in the summer of 1838. In October of the following year Ward in-
troduced Emerson to Anna. By 1840 the two were well on the way to a large cor-
respondence, and Emerson found Ward "beautiful" to him among the "many
ordinary & mediocre youths" of his acquaintance.
Fuller also introduced Ward to Caroline Sturgis and Ellen Hooper, and their
mutual friendship with Ellery Channing assured frequent meetings and letters.9
Another uniting force was the Dial. Fuller would often copy Ward's poems for
Sturgis to see, and from her supply of them she chose four to include in the Dial's
first. number. The New-Yorker thought well enough of his sonnet on
Washington Allston to reprint it, and James Clarke especially asked about
"The Shield. "10
Ward's approaching marriage eclipsed any further literary activity, and he
was absent from the October 1840 number. On the third of that month he mar-
ried Anna: Emerson wrote a letter of congratulations11 and Elizabeth Peabody,
a friend of Anna's, thought Ward "blest" by having married her. The
capricious Channing, whose poetry Ward had shown to Emerson, bitterly
218
NEW ENGLAND TRANSCENDENTALISTS AND THE DIAL
lamented the marriage, complaining that now Ward should have "no place or
need
for
him"
in
his
affections.
13
Fuller
remained
silent.
Although Ward contributed a paper on Italian literature to the next Dial, his
marriage and entrance into the business world soon took up all his time 14 A
C
friend's observation that Ward was "very well sewed up" in business was only too
true. 15 Emerson still praised Ward as "a beautiful & noble youth of a most subtle
& magnetic nature, made for an artist," but he noted: "For the present, he buys
& sells. "16
Ward bought and sold well enough to accumulate the beginnings of a good-
Charles Stear
sized fortune. The money not only brought the Wards material happiness but
the Dial, was
was also spent on friends, in such acts as Ward's backing of Channing's poems
Even Henry
for publication. As Ward moved closer to relative financial independence, he
writing and F
again picked up his pen, and by September 1842 he had sent some pieces on art
the pieces in
to Emerson for the Dial. But when Emerson told Sarah Clarke and Ellen Hooper
Wheeler wa
who the author of the essays was, Ward withdrew most of them, leaving only
cord. At four
one, "The Gallery," for the October number. 17 Ward apparently wanted most of
mers at Phine
the unfinished pieces back to revise, now that he knew that others were aware of
his authorship. At any rate, Emerson was sure that he would publish the essays,
the only two
and in Augus
for he put an "editorial muzzle" on himself, and he warned the others to preserve
Wheeler's 1
Ward's anonymity. To the letter of "warning" Emerson playfully added that, if
than most of
they kept Ward's secret, "as many as six or seven subscribers to the Dial shall be
seriousness. ]
kept in profound ignorance of our secret, & who knows but that the next
educated con
Number may record the death of subscribers whom curiosity has burst. "18
Ward wrote Emerson again in April 1843 about the article, and in May the
James Russell
fraternity. W
Dial's editor thanked him for the "good news" that he would again write for the
Library of A
magazine. When Emerson received Ward's "papers on art, &c" at the beginning
index-making
of June, they were still unfinished, and he suggested that if Ward did not want to
A "quiet,
complete them they could be printed as "sketches." Thus Emerson, who had told
and a grea
Thoreau that the "good sense" of the pieces was "eminent," printed them in the
undergradua
July 1843 Dial as "Notes on Art and Architecture." For many readers the un-
the Bowdoin
finished form of the "notes" did not detract from their value. Sophia Ripley
for Not Exp
praised their "sense & practical American talent," which were in a rare union
second hono
with "taste & knowledge." Their "strength and sense" made Fuller "proud" as
That sum
she reread them with Sarah Clarke. 19
resident gra
Ward's plan to "write on poetry" for the January 1844 Dial resulted in a review
a
new
translation of Dante. 20 To the Dial's last number he contributed two
became enga
of
reader for
poems, one of which, "The Consolers," may be a comment on his relations with
Wheeler help
Emerson. 21 In June 1844 the Wards left for Lenox, Massachusetts, since their
editon of Th
personal worth of $35,000 now allowed them to live and work in the country for
Carlyle's Fre
a while. Had the Dial continued longer, it is quite possible that Ward would
following tw
have contributed more.
Essays of Tl
Alfred Tenn
he prepared
use at Harv
10
CONCORD AUTHORSEMERSON, R.W., subject.
Myerson, J.
The New England
NEW ENGLAND TRANSCENDENTALISTS AND THE DIAL
Appendix
315
Henry David Thoreau
Samuel Gray Ward
Sympathy
Aulus Persius Flaccus
I.1.83
"To W. Allston, On Seeing His 'Bride'''
Stanzas
I.1.84
Song
Sic Vita
I.1.121
The Shield
Friendship
I.1.123
Come Morir?
Natural History of Massachusetts
I.3.386-400
Letters from Italy on the Representatives of Italy
[Metrical prayer]
III.2.269-72
The Gallery
The Black Knight
IV.1.107-15
Notes on Art and Architecture
The Inward Morning
IV.3.285-90
Translation of Dante
Free Love
IV.4.455-57
The Twin Loves
The Poet's Delay
IV.4.469
The Consolers
Rumors from an AEolian Harp
The Moon
To the Maiden in the East
The Summer Rain
Charles Stearns Wheeler
The Laws of Menu [selected]
The Prometheus Bound [translation]
Anacreon
III.3.388-97
[Letter from Germany]
Ethnical Scriptures. [Sayings of Confucius] [selected]
III.4.541-44
[Letter from Heidelberg]
To a Stray Fowl
Orphics. I. Smoke. II. Haze.
Dark Ages
A Winter Walk
William Dexter Wilson
Homer. Ossian. Chaucer.
Pindar
The Preaching of Buddha [selected]
I.1.99-117
Channing's Translation of Jouffroy
Herald of Freedom
I.4.409-43
The Unitarian Movement in New England
Fragments of Pindar
Unknown
John Francis Tuckerman
Music of the Winter
II.2.228-30
Poems on Life
II.3.359
De Profundis Clamavi
III.1.76-77
Vespers
III.1.85
["I asked the angels to come to me
`']
Jones Very
III.2.265
Lines
the Dial
286
NEW ENGLAND TRANSCENDENTALISTS AND THE DIAL
Chapter 38: Samuel Gray Ward
Note: Biographical information is from Ward's own brief account of his life in Ward Family Papers
([Bo: Merrymount Press], 1900), and David Baldwin, "Puritan Aristocrat in the Age of Emerson: A
Study of Samuel Gray Ward," Ph.D. diss., University of Pennsylvania, 1961.
1. Ward's statement, 2 Dec. 1843, in Baldwin, "Ward," p. 143-44; Faith Chipperfield, In Quest of
Love: The Life and Death of Margaret Fuller (NY: Coward-McCann, 1957), p. 168 (health); Ward's
statement, 2 Dec. 1843, in Baldwin, "Ward," p. 144.
2. On 27 July 1835, while on a boat trip near New York, Fuller had written in her journal: "About
six, came out, & had a walk & a talk with Mr Ward: did not like him much" (copy by RWE, in Em-
JMN, 11:484).
3. SGW to Mary Ward, 8 Nov. 1836, in Baldwin, "Ward," p. 65; in 1873 Charles Eliot Norton
noted in his journal that Ward had "listened much to her, and to good purpose" (Letters of Charles
Eliot Norton, ed. Sara Norton and M. A. Wolfe Howe [Bo: HoMif, 1913], 1:510).
4. In one of a series of letters to Ward Fuller stated: "You love me no more!
Why hide it from
me?" In another she grieved that Ward had cut her from him in his "highest hour," and she moaned that
the "world has separated us as intimates" (Sept. 1839, in FuW, 1:183; 15 Oct. 1839, MH).
5. James Clarke was pleased to hear Fuller talk favorably of Anna and was glad that she had "such
a sweet creature to love." Rusk correctly assumes that in Anna, "a New Orleans beauty," Fuller saw
"the unrealized half of what she herself wished to be" (12 May 1835, in ClLetMF, p. 94; RuLiEm, p.
253).
6. 21 Aug. 1842, MH.
7. On 7 October 1839 Emerson recorded in his journal that in Anna he had "enjoyed the frank &
generous confidence of a being so lovely, so fortunate, & so remote from [his] own experiences" (Em-
JMN, 7:259).
8. 20 Apr. 1841, in ibid. p. 432; RWE, Letters from Ralph Waldo Emerson to a Friend, ed.
Charles Eliot Norton [Bo: HoMif, 1899], prints only a small part of their total correspondence.
9. Ward actively promoted Channing to Fuller and quoted his words "whenever his own seemed in-
adequate, esteeming [Channing] of clearer insight, and, in some respects, of finer temper then
himself` (MF to W. E. Channing, (3 Oct. 1841], MH).
10. MF to CS, 10 Feb. 1840, MH; JFC to SC, 8 July 1840, MH.
11. RWE to SGW and Anna Barker, Sept. 1840, in EmL, 2:338-39. In his journal Emerson wished
his "beautiful, pure, & happy friends, peace & beauty & power & the perpetuity & the sure un-
folding of all the buds of joy that so thickly stud your branches" (5 Oct. 1840, in EmJMN, 7:404).
12. That night Peabody dreamed that it was John Sullivan Dwight, and not Ward, who married An-
na, and she told Dwight that she "almost died of joy by way of sympathy" for him (EPP to JSD, 20
Sept. 1840, MB).
13. SGW to F. B. Sanborn, 9 June 1902, in SaRec, 2:576. To Fuller Channing said: "Why did he
marry a fashionable woman, older than himself. And to marry a woman that had rejected him, what
nonsense! There could have been no offering or rejecting, if the thing had been right.' Yet T. W.
Higginson later called Ward the "most patient & longsuffering of Ellery's early friends" (ca. 24 Aug.
1842, in FuJ42, p. 327; Higginson to Sanborn, 10 Aug. 1895, MHarF).
14. Emerson was "delighted" with this article but admitted that what his "beautiful friends" wrote
he did not examine with "Aristotelian eyes but love it instead & thank God for the sunshine` (RWE to
MF, 19 Jan. 1841, in EmL, 2:377).
15. F. M. Ward to Sam Ward, Jr., 24 Jan. 1842, in Maud Howe Elliott, Uncle Sam Ward and His
Circle (NY: Macmillan, 1938), p. 222.
16. RWE to TC, 14 Nov. 1841, in EmCorTC, p. 310.
17. Emerson printed the piece without so much as an initial as a sign of authorship, calling it "one
paper out of our folio" and mentioning that it had been detached "from its chapter" (Dial
3:269-72).
18. RWE to SC, 30 Sept. 1842, MH.
CONCORD
AUTHORS
Emerson,
sub
Myerson,
ject
J.
Notes
287
19
RWE to SGW, [ca. 29? Apr. 1843], in Edward Waldo Emerson, The Early Years of the Saturday
Club 1855-1870 (Bo: HoMif, 1918), p. 113: the date is by Rusk (EmL, 3:169); 3 May 1843, MH;
RWE to MF, 7 June 1843, in EmL, 3:179; 10 June 1843, in ThCor, p. 118; SR to RWE, 5 July [1843],
MH; MF to RWE, 4 Aug. 1843, in EmL, 3:194n.
amily Papers
20. RWE to SGW, 23 Oct. 1843, MH.
f Emerson: A
21. Baldwin suggests that Ward was "memorializing" his exchange with Emerson on spiritual mat-
ters in "The Consolers" ("Ward," pp. 172-73).
1, In Quest of
alth); Ward's
rnal: "About
Chapter 39: Charles Stearns Wheeler
RWE, in Em-
Eliot Norton
'TS of Charles
Note: Biographical information is from John Olin Eidson, Charles Stearns Wheeler: Friend of Emer-
son (Athens, Ga.: University of Georgia Press, 1951); also of value is the same author's "Charles
Stearns Wheeler: Emerson's 'Good Grecian,'' NEQ 27 (Dec. 1954):472-83.
hide it from
1. Wheeler's brother, quoted in Henry Williams, Memorials of the Class of 1837 of Harvard
moaned that
MH).
University (Bo: Geo. H. Ellis, 1887), p. 23.
2. Wheeler recorded in his class book that "To be one of so happy a crew was a lot too blessed for
he had "such
,"Fuller saw
me." An example of Wheeler's industry was that he was licensed to preach on 14 June 1842 without
RuLiEm, p.
having ever enrolled in the divinity school (ibid.).
3. These teas not only attracted Wheeler's Cambridge friends but also strangers passing through,
and in this way George William Curtis and Charles King Newcomb met Wheeler. Not everyone was
the frank &
happy with Wheeler's friends. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow dryly noted that "the infected class of
the divinity school had gone, and "only one Transcendentalist, and he a tutor!" remained in "all
iences" (Em-
Cambridge. And an obituary of Wheeler complained that he was "sometimes too much absorbed
with the whimsical novelties which the agitations of the age have brought to the surface of the foam-
Friend, ed.
ondence.
ing sea of philosophical and religious discussion" (Longfellow to Sam Ward [of New York], 1 Dec.
n seemed in-
1840, in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, The Letters of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Andrew
emper then
Hilen [Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1966- ]. 2:268; [Cornelius C. Felton], "Notices
of Mr. Wheeler," Christian Examiner 35 [Nov. 1843]:238).
4. MF to RWE, 25 Apr. 1840, in EmL, 2:291n; TP to C. Francis, 12 June 1844, in John Weiss, Life
erson wished
and Correspondence of Theodore Parker [NY: Appleton, 1864], 1:241; Very to RWE, n.d., MWelC;
the sure un-
HDT to Helen Thoreau, 21 July 1843, in ThCor, p. 129; W. E. Channing to Sanborn, 1883, in
MN, 7:404).
HDT. Familiar Letters of Henry David Thoreau, ed. F. B. Sanborn (Bo: HoMif, 1894), pp. 68-69n.
married An-
5. See HDT to CSW, 28 Nov. 1838, 3 Jan.. 2 Mar. 1840, in Kenneth Walter Cameron, "Thoreau
P to JSD. 20
and Stearns Wheeler: Four Letters and a Reading Record," ESQ. no. 48 (III Quarter 1967), pp.
74-75.
Why did he
6. RWE to CS, 5 Aug. 1842, MH. Emerson told Carlyle of the coming of his "good Grecian"
him, what
Wheeler, but the two never met (1 July 1842, in EmCorTC, p. 323).
Yet T. W.
7. Quoted in Eidson, Wheeler, p. 64 (European life); 11 Nov. 1842, MH: one "youngster" who car-
ca. 24 Aug.
ried a Dial to Wheeler was Horace Mann (RWE to CSW, 30 Apr. 1843, ViU-B); CSW to RWE. 5.
24, 26 Jan. 1843, MH; RWE to LdE, 6 Jan. 1843, in EmL, 3:112.
8. RWE to FHH, 23 Mar. 1842, in EmL, 3:37-38.
ends" wrote
e" (RWE to
9. Quoted in CSW to J. F. Heath, 14 Nov. 1842, MH. The best account of this incident is Sculley
Bradley, "Lowell, Emerson, and the Pioneer," AL 19 (Nov. 1947):231-44.
ard and His
10. Wheeler also suggested that Lowell print the item in "a different order, from that which I have
used, [and] things would go vastly better." Ironically, Robert Carter did just that when he used the
letter in the Pioneer's unauthorized printing of it (8 Nov. 1842, MH).
11. 11 Nov. 1842, MH.
lling it "one
12. RWE to WmE, 25 Nov. 1842, in EmL, 3:100. Wheeler had told Emerson to make "any erasures,
ipter" (Dial
verbal insertions. transpositions of sentences, or other improvements without the slightest feeling
that the shadow of an apology is necessary." Since Wheeler wrote his newsletters over a period
of
Nathenicl Hawthorna Review 25,#1 (1999):1-20
Berkshire Quartet:
Hawthornes and Tappans
at Tanglewood, 1850-1851
Richard P. Stebbins
Among the treasures preserved in the Archives of the Boston Symphony
Orchestra is an item with special meaning for persons interested in the
New England literary tradition and the history of the Tanglewood estate,
the orchestra's summer home in the Berkshire Hills of western Massachu-
setts. This item is an autograph letter written on blue note paper, dated from
"The Red House, Sept. 7th, 1851," signed "Nathl Hawthorne," and
obviously addressed to William Aspinwall Tappan, Hawthorne's host and
landlord on the property now known as Tanglewood. Slightly discrepant
from the version printed in the Centenary Edition of Hawthorne's corre-
spondence, the letter seeks to alleviate the sting of a vexatious incident
which occurred during the Hawthorne family's residency in "the little Red
House," a building unremarkable in itself but much celebrated in
Tanglewood annals.
Hawthorne's presence in the Berkshires at the middle of the nineteenth
century was part of the sequence of events that began with the loss of his
position in the Salem Custom House amid the political maneuvering that
followed the election of 1848. Already in his mid-forties, the author of
Twice-told Tales, Mosses from an Old Manse, and a forthcoming novel
entitled The Scarlet Letter had been looking out for a new residence for
himself and his little family-then consisting of his wife, Sophia, and two
young children, Una and Julian-where he could carry on his writing in
more congenial surroundings. One such possibility had been offered by the
New York-bred Mr. Tappan and his wife, a former Bostonian, a minor poet,
and a Hawthorne acquaintance of some years' standing,
The Tappan couple, considerably younger than the Hawthornes, was
mainly renowned for the glittering, somewhat capricious temperament of
its female member rather than the good-natured but painfully modest and
retiring personality of her husband. As a member of one of Boston's
wealthiest and most prominent families, Caroline Sturgis Tappan (1819-
1
2/26/2020
The Cottager I Highwood Manor: Where Hawthorne dreamed up Tanglewood tales I The Manchester Journal I Manchester Breaking
When Ward met Fuller, he was a poet who wanted nothing to do with his father's line of
work. Fuller, then editor of Emerson's "The Dial," would publish his poetry, while he
taught her about the world of art. Following in the footsteps of his father, Thomas Wren
Ward, the esteemed American representative of London's Baring Brothers bank, was
the furthest thing from his mind He planned to remain a member of Emerson's
Transcendentalist Circle, writing poetry and analyses for "The Dial" until he met Anna
during the summer of 1836. In 1837, just home from his European trek, Ward put aside
his poetry and went to work as a banker. He also courted Miss Barker for the next three
years, traveling often to her family home in New Orleans, before marrying her in 1840,
"By 1843, he made up his mind that trade was not compatible with his disposition, that
country life would be more suitable to him, a scholarly and intellectual man," May Callas
writes in "Profiles of Tanglewood Families" of Ward's decision to move his young family
to the Berkshires. If there was a place to become a gentleman farmer at the time, it was
in the Berkshires, where a 'hive' of intellectuals was buzzing about the Sedgewick clan.
In "Hawthorne's Lenox: The Tanglewood Circle," author Cornelia Brooke Gilder writes
of the young family's Berkshire beginnings "It all began in 1844 on a dreary day in the
third week of March, when a handsome, well-heeled 27-year-old Samuel Gray Ward
(1817-1907) strode across Daniel Barnes' brown, tufted meadow with a glorious view
of Lake Mahkeenac and pronounced it 'very good.'
Wards's guide at the time was the esteemed Berkshire Clerk of Courts Charles
Sedgewick, who arranged for the family's lodging while their three-story home was
built. That October, the couple's third child, Thomas, was born in Lenox.
The home, Highwood Manor, completed in 1845, is credited to architect Richard
Upjohn, known best for New York City's Trinity Church, who was building a church for
the Episcopal congregation in Stockbridge at the time. Upjohn would later design the
Tappen house, which still sits within walking distance of Highwood.
Whether or not Upjohn, whose signature was Gothic Revival manses and churches,
designed the house is somewhat controversial, as the house's original design is more of
an Italianate country house. Of this Callas wrote, but there is correspondence
between Ward and his father, which mentions construction of Highwood done by the
firm of Upjohn. Since Richard Michael Upjohn joined his father's firm the same year that
Highwood was completed, it may be the younger Upjohn, assisting his father, added his
own design incentives. There are design details in the Tappan house that are similar to
those at Highwood, i.e., window soffits and apron benches."
What is for certain about Highwood Manor are two things: It is considered to be the
first of the Gilded Age cottages and it, not the Tappan house, was the inspiration for the
porch in Nathaniel Hawthorne's "Tanglewood Tales." We also know that despite Ward's
affection for his adoptive "Lenox valley," the house and its 220 acres sat on the
Stockbridge side of the town line.
Cornell University Making of America
Page 1 of 1
AMERICAN COUNTRY DWELLINGS.
5
try homes of to-day are infinitely better than
future paths, and most especially those which
the best and the average of twenty or even of
dealt with the new necessities of iron. He
ten years ago. But it is just as little open to
question that the "professional architect "
was so enthusiastic and versatile that every
branch of the art appealed to him - even the
now plays much more important part in their
construction or, again, that this architect is
then despised branch which includes country
becoming year by year more professional him-
homes. All this did good, I repeat, not only as
self that is, more widely differentiated from
influencing other workers, but as raising the
the mere artisan in quantity of knowledge, in
generally received opinion with regard to
the utility of an architect in architecture. But
thoroughness and quality of training, in refine-
in this last respect we are most of all indebted,
ment of intelligence, in width of artistic hori-
perhaps, to the force of character and witch-
zon, in processes and theories and ideals.
ingness of tongue that enabled Mr. Hunt to
LIBRARY
IN
HOUSE
OF
SAMUEL GRAY WARD, ESQ., LKNOX, MASS.
One name, I think, deserves to be men-
lay hold of the stolid, indifferent, obstinate,
tioned here with especial honor. It would be
or timid client, and lead him whither he would
difficult to overestimate the good influence
have him go. I do not feel that in saying this
Mr. Richard Hunt has had both upon the
I overstep the line which divides legitimate im-
profession itself and upon its status with the
personal from illegitimate personal commen-
public. When he began to practice such an
education and equipment as his were almost
tary; for, let it be in the other arts as it may,
in the architect's art personal force and per-
anomalous with us, while to-day (of course
suasiveness are essentially part and parcel of
not by any means solely, but yet, I think,
the required endowment. As I have said so
partly through his example) they are getting
often, this art depends upon direct, special,
to be thought essential and getting to be not
reiterated acts of patronage to a degree quite
quite exceptional. He was SO industrious a
peculiar to itself; and as every new commis-
worker, moreover, that the sum of his results
formed a very large lump of leaven - a re-
sion differs from every other, an artist's past
record is not always taken - indeed, cannot
markably large lump, seeing that they were
always be taken - as a guarantee of future
not all, like the results of too many others,
success. Therefore he who has not a modicum
patterned upon one shallow, monotonous
of personal persuasive power runs a great risk
scheme. He was SO full of ideas that he ex-
of being obliged to follow those whom he ought
perimented very widely and diversely. Not
to lead. I do not say how it might be in an
all of his experiments, we may grant, were
ideally artistic community there, perhaps,
successful. But as they were based on knowl-
all excellence would be self-evident to all in
edge, not ignorance, all were useful as sys-
anticipation as in fact, and no discussion or
tematizing future efforts and marking out
persuasion necessary. But as communities
http://cdl.library.cornell.edu/cgi-bin/moa/pageviewer?coll=moa&root=%2Fmoa%2Fcent...
11/14/2005
Cornell University Making of America
Page 1 of 1
16
AMERICAN COUNTRY DWELLINGS.
I
DINING-ROOM
IN
MR. WARD'S HOUSE.
stand to-day, that architect will be most ser-
with it a sound much less of novelty and offense
viceable to his clients, as well as to his art
is largely due just to this one champion.
and to himself, who (other things being equal,
Of course Mr. Hunt was not the first to try
I mean, of course) can persuade them most
to improve upon the "vernacular" type of
convincingly that he knows best. When Mr.
country dwelling- to try to put architectural
Hunt began to practice this seemed a very
coherence and something which might truth-
strange proposition to the ears of the free
fully becalled design in the place of the fantastic
and independent American citizen-espe- -
and yet mechanical medley which prevailed.
cially when he was intent upon the structure
Doubtless he was not even the first to do this
of his own home. The fact that it now carries
with real ability and radically right ideas to
How often do we still hear some "house-father"
of gratitude I feel to Mr. Howells for having set be-
of the elder generation proclaim with child-like pride
fore my readers so delicately trenchant a dramatic
is I had no architect ; the builder and I did it all " -
picture of the difference between the old régime and
or, more likely, "/ and the builder." And how inva-
the new in matters architectural. Silas Lapham
riably does the fact reveal itself in a very different
and his new house and his architect will. I am very
way from that which he supposes! Perhaps this is as
sure, advocate my conclusions far more persuasively
good a time as any to acknowledge the personal debt
than all my own theoretic preachments.
http://cdl.library.commell.edu/cgi-bin/moa/pageviewer?coll=moa&root=%2Fmoa%2Fcent.
11/14/2005
RICHARD UPJOHN
ARCHITECT AND CHURCHMAN
By EVERARD M. UPJOHN
ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF FINE ARTS
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY
l.
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS
NEW YORK
MCMXXXIX
THE AMERICAN COUNCIL OF LEARNED SOCIETIES
HAS GENEROUSLY CONTRIBUTED FUNDS TO ASSIST
FOREWORD
IN THE PUBLICATION OF THIS VOLUME
A
MERICANS are almost incorrigibly romantic in their architec-
tural thought; it is a century-old habit. In Colonial days they
naturally looked to the far-off Mother Country for models, and in
the nineteenth century, of course, Europe supplied the paradigms,
while the American works were thought of as more or less satis-
factory reflections of a distant ideal. American architects shone
only with a reflected glow. But in recent decades critics have come
to see that there are many American works which are great in their
own right. A number of our practitioners are taking enviable
places, and they well merit scholarly study as technicians of the
first rank, creators of an architecture essentially American. Sullivan
comes instantly to mind-inspired apostle, in the early nineties, of
that functionalism which runs like a refrain through American
architecture from its first beginnings. Richardson too has come into
his own. The key to understanding him is a comprehension of his
uncanny originality in reading the lessons of the historic styles
and making new creations of his own, using diverse traditional
elements in a functional manner of unusual power. For example, in
his famous design for the Allegheny County buildings at Pitts-
burgh he was able to join Norman Romanesque towers, German
rounded turrets, and French pavilions roofed in Gothic fashion
with sheer unadorned masonry and with functionally expressed
brick and metal interior construction-all without loss of unity or
COPYRIGHT 1939 BY
consistency. He was able to create types in frame structure and
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS, NEW YORK
communicate to them the noble qualities of his masonry style. Thus
FOREIGN AGENTS: OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS, Humphrey Milford, Amen
Richardson is a notable point of focus or synthesis in the kaleido-
House, London, E.C. 4, England, AND B. I. Building, Nicol Road,
scopic nineteenth-century Battle of Styles.
Bombay, India; KWANG HSUEH PUBLISHING HOUSE, 140 Peking Road,
Richard Upjohn, subject of the book which is before us, had his
Shanghai, China; MARUZEN COMPANY, LTD., 6 Nihonbashi,
part in creating that kaleidoscope in America, as we all know; but
Tori-Nichome, Tokyo, Japan
he is a figure of larger significance and is more fully representative
of his age than we commonly realize. In his earliest work the
MANUFACTURED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
210
APPENDIX: CLASS B
APPENDIX: CLASS B
211
ELTINGVILLE, STATEN ISLAND, N. Y. Church of the Holy Comforter.
Reference
Dedicated, Oct. 8, 1865. Old engraving. (R. M. U.)
The Evening News and Hoboken (anniversary edition] Hoboken,
References
1893).
Richard M. Bayles, History of Richmond County, New York (New
JACKSONVILLE, ALA. Episcopal Church. 1854. Internal evidence. Extant.
York, 1887).
JAMESTOWN, N. Y. St. Luke's Church. First church cornerstone, Sept. 27,
Ira K. Morris, Memorial History of Staten Island (2 V., West New
1854; completed, 1856. Letters, May 29, 1854-July 30, 1855. Second
Brighton, 1900).
church cornerstone, June 18, 1863; consecrated, May 20, 1865. Letters,
FITCHBURG, MASS. Christ Church. Cornerstone, April 22, 1867; conse-
Jan. 21, 1864-Oct. 28, 1864. Destroyed.
crated, April 22, 1868. Parish records. Extant; chancel remodeled,
References
H. B. U.
Vernelle A. Hatch, Illustrated History of Jamestown (Jamestown,
Reference
1900).
William A. Emerson, Fitchburg, Mass., Past and Present (Fitch-
Jamestown Evening Journal, May 8, 1894.
burg, 1887).
KINDERHOOK, N. Y. St. Paul's Church. Consecrated, June 22, 1852. Plans,
FORT MADISON, IOWA. Church. 1855. Letters, May 1, 1855-Sept. 21,
July 15, 1851-Oct. 10, 1851. Letter, May 7, 1851. Extant.
1858.
References
FOUR MILE BRANCH, TENN. Church. 1852-53. Plans, Jan. 15, 1852. Let-
Edward A. Collier, A History of Old Kinderhook (New York, 1914).
ters, Dec. 10, 1851-March 21, 1853.
Harriet H. K. Van Alstyne, A History of St. Paul's Episcopal Church,
GARRISON, N. Y. Res. H. W. Belcher. 1853-54. Original drawings. Plans,
Kinderhook, N. Y. (Chatham, 1936).
Nov. 14, 1853-April 11, 1854. Letters, Oct. 26, 1853-March 21, 1855.
KINGSTON, N. Y. First National Bank. 1862-63. Letters, Oct. 2, 1862-
Now Res. Hamilton Fish.
Dec. 22, 1863.
Res. William Moore. 1854-55. Letters, June 17, 1854-July 12,
1855. Extant.
Res. James C. Forsyth. 1849-50. Plans, Sept. 10, 1849-Nov. 11,
GENEVA, N. Y. Hobart College Chapel. 1858-62. List of R. U. buildings.
1849. Letters, Sept. 11, 1849-Sept. 14, 1850.
Letters, March 29, 1858-Feb. 24, 1864. Extant.
LENOX, MASS. Res. W. A. Tappan, "Tanglewood." 1849-50. Plans,
Res. W. B. Douglas. 1861-63. Letters, Oct. 27, 1860-July 25,
June 12, 1849-Feb. 4, 1850. Letters, Jan. 23, 1849-May 17, 1850.
Extant.
1863. Now Blackwell House, William Smith College.
Reference
Reference
M. H. Turk, Hobart, the Story of a Hundred Years (Geneva, 1921).
R. de Witt Mallary, Lenox and the Berkshire Highlands (New York,
GREENWOOD (now ARDEN), N. Y. St. John's Church. Cornerstone, July 7,
1902).
1863; consecrated, June 7, 1864. (Charles Babcock.) Extant.
Res. S. G. Ward, "Highwood." 1846. Letter, April 4, 1846.
Reference
Destroyed.
A Review of the Work of Episcopalians Prior to 1882 at Greenwood,
Reference
now Arden, New York ([Arden?] 1914).
R. de Witt Mallary, Lenox and the Berkshire Highlands (New
Res. Gay. 1848. Plans, Oct. 16, 1848.
York, 1902).
HAMILTON, N. Y. St. Thomas's Church. Consecrated, June 8, 1847.
LEXINGTON, N. C. Grace Church (project?). 1849-50. Plans, Dec. 6,
Lengthened, tower and transepts added, 1853. Plans, Dec. 2, 1846-
1849. Letters, Sept. 24, 1849-Jan. 8, 1850.
April 5, 1847. Letters, March 23, 1846-April 1, 1847. Extant.
LITHGOW, N. Y. St. Peter's Church. 1849-50. Plans, Sept. 8, 1849-
Reference
March 1, 1850. Destroyed.
Charles Worthen Spencer, Historical Address Read at the Centennial
LOWELL, MASS. St. Anne's Church, Sunday School Chapel. 1868. Letters,
of the Organization of St. Thomas' Church, Hamilton, New York,
April 28, 1868-Sept. 1, 1868. (R. M. U.)
September 21, 1935 [Hamilton, 1935?].
Reference
Res. L. P. W. Balch. 1847. Plans, July 7, 1847.
A. St. John Chambré, Historical Sermon Delivered in St. Anne's
HOBOKEN, N. J. Trinity Church. Planned, 1848. Cornerstone, Dec. 18,
Church, Lowell, Mass. (Boston, 1885).
1855; consecrated, Oct., 1858. Chancel extended, 1882. Parish records.
LYONS, N. Y. Grace Church (enlarged). 1857. Letters, April 20, 1857-
Plans, June 5, 1848-July 11, 1849. Extant.
Sept. 4, 1857. Extant.
APPENDIX: CLASS B
207
206
APPENDIX: CLASS A
TAUNTON, Mass. (Continued)
CLASS B
St. Thomas's Church. Cornerstone, June 15, 1857; consecrated,
(SECONDARY WORKS; CONDITION GIVEN WHEN KNOWN)
March 3, 1859. List of R. U. buildings. Letters, Dec. 24, 1856-Dec. 30,
AIKEN, S. C. St. Thaddeus's Church. 1847-48. Plans, Oct. 16, 1847.
1858.
ALBANY, N. Y. Office, S. Van Rensselaer. 1850-52. Plans, Oct. 17, 1851.
Reference
Samuel Hopkins Emery, History of Taunton (Syracuse, 1893).
Letters, March 11, 1850-Dec. 10, 1852.
Trinitarian Congregational Church (called Broadway Church).
Res. Stephen Van Rensselaer (alteration). 1840-44. Original
Cornerstone, Aug. 19, 1851; dedicated, Sept. 29, 1852. Plans, May
drawings. Letters, Aug. 17, 1840-April 11, 1844. Moved to Williams-
14, 1850-Aug. 19, 1852. Letters, Nov. 25, 1850-July 28, 1851. Some-
town, Mass., now Sigma Phi Fraternity.
AMENIA UNION, N. Y. St. Thomas's Church. 1849-51. Letters, Feb. 26,
what altered after 1871.
1850-Feb. 14, 1851. Extant.
Reference
Samuel Hopkins Emery, History of Taunton (Syracuse, 1893).
Reference
City Hotel. 1848-51. Plans, Sept. 28, 1848-May 17, 1849. List
Mrs. A. C. Knibloe, History of St. Thomas' Church (unpublished).
of R. U. buildings. Letters, Nov. 26, 1849-July 24, 1854. Destroyed.
ANNANDALE, N. Y. St. Stephen's Chapel. 1867-68. Letters, July 9, 1867-
June 13, 1868. (R. M. U.) Extant.
Reference
The Book of Taunton (C. A. Hack and Sons, Taunton, 1907).
ARDEN, N. Y., see GREENWOOD, N. Y.
UTICA, N. Y. Grace Church. Cornerstone, July 10, 1856; opened, May
AUGUSTA, ME. Res. Edward Bridge, "Grecian Villa." 1835. Account
20, 1860. Tower, 1870; spire, 1875 (remodeled, H. B. U.); chancel,
Book No. 1. Destroyed.
1890 (R. M. U.). Vestry minutes. Plans, Oct. 8, 1851-Nov. 6, 1851.
BALLSTON SPA, N. Y. Christ Church. Cornerstone, Oct. 5, 1860; com-
Letters, Oct. 11, 1849-July 3, 1863.
pleted, March, 1862. (Charles Babcock.)
References
Reference
M. M. Bagg, ed., Memorial History of Utica (Syracuse, 1892).
Edward F. Grose, Centennial History of the Village of Ballston Spa
Grace Church, Utica, N. Y.: Seventy-fifth Anniversary, 1838-1913
(Ballston, 1907).
(Utica [1913?]).
BANGOR, ME. Res. F. A. Hill. 1836. Account Book No. 1.
City Hall. 1852-53. Plans, May 15, 1852-Aug. 2, 1853. List of
BATH, ME. Central Congregational Church. 1846-47. Extant.
R. U. buildings. Letters, Jan. 13, 1852-April 3, 1854.
Reference
Henry Wilson Owen, History of Bath, Maine (Bath, 1936).
Reference
Utica Morning Herald, Sept. 28, 1853.
BAY RIDGE, BROOKLYN, N. Y. Christ Church. 1853. List of R. U. build-
WATERTOWN, N. Y. Trinity Church. Cornerstone, May 14, 1850; con-
ings. Destroyed.
secrated, Jan. 23, 1851. Plans, Aug. 1, 1849-July 27, 1852. Letters,
BOONTON, N. J. St. John's Church. Cornerstone, July 8, 1863; dedicated,
Oct. 14, 1849-May 3, 1855. Destroyed.
Oct. 13, 1863. Original drawing. (R. M. U.) Extant.
References
Reference
Harold L. Hooker, One Hundred Years, 1828-1928, Trinity Parish,
Isaac S. Lyon, Historical Discourse on Boonton (Newark, 1873).
Watertown, N. Y. (Watertown [1928?]).
BOSTON, MASS. Pitts St. Chapel. Dedicated, Nov. 13, 1836. Account
F. B. Hough, History of Jefferson County in the State of New York
Book No. 1. Destroyed.
(Watertown, 1854).
Reference
WEST SPRINGFIELD, MASS. Res. C. Ely. 1852-54. Plans, Oct. 30, 1852-
Leaflet of dedication.
March 16, 1854. Letter, Nov. 24, 1853.
St. Stephen's Chapel. 1846. Plans, Jan. 28, 1850. List of R. U.
buildings. Letters, Nov. 4, 1844-Nov. 10, 1846. Destroyed.
Reference
Springfield Republican, Feb. 25, 1934.
Res. E. B. Bigelow. 1846-47. Plans, Nov. 4, 1846-Sept. 8, 1847.
Letters, Nov. 1, 1846-Nov. 6, 1847.
Res. E. W. Pike. 1848. Plans, March 4, 1848.
BRAINTREE, Mass. Emmanuel Church. 1854. Letters, March 6, 1854-
Nov. 26, 1854. (Authorship doubtful.)
This book Is on
THE LITTLE RED HOUSE. On Au
morning in driving about trying to
of how far afield she drove, but the
doorstep. Hawthorne took up reside
Shanty. (Author's collection.)
HIGHWOOD, 1845. At Highwood, Sam Ward entertained Jenny Lind, Fanny Kemble,
Margaret Fuller, George Inness, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Catharine Sedgwick, but on this
day, he was waiting for the chimney man. "December 16, 1845, Richard, In a new house, at this
200;
21
and
of
in
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Page 3 of 3
page 2 f 4
ly with them, imparting, as none but a scien-
tific, unselfish man can, his views and opinions
gathered from extensive reading and reflection,
and they in return as cheerfully taught him
the manipulations and practical results of their
work. This intercourse of Mr. Ward with his
farming neighbors became more and more fre-
quent and interesting, until at length, as a
means of doing greater good, he formed an ag-
ricultural club, the first it is believed in west-
1846
ern Massachusetts. Of this association Mr.
Ward was literally the head and heart. His
genial nature, cordiar manners, passion for ru-
ral pursuits, critical investigation and thorough
conviction of the importance of this primal in-
dustry, gave him great influence, and enabled
him to dispel the prejudice against book farm-
ing.
In his lucid and impressive manner, he de-
monstrated that there were important general-
izations at the base of agriculture, which could
be safely trusted, and upon which the earth's
successful culture depended. Familiar with
many of these principles he illustrated them,
and thus gave them an intense practical inter-
est, the tendency of which was to provoke dis-
cussion, and thus greatly augment not only the
numerical but logical power of the club.
At length in the full tide of agricultural suc-
cess the duties of Mr. Ward called him to Bos-
ton, and his connection with the farmers of
Stocktridge, Lee and Lenox was broken, to
their regret. The Club, however, did not break,
but bright and active with a centrifugal force
which has made its results of improved agri-
culture visible through the neighborhood, and
doubled the farming products of its members
within ten years, they have reared this annual
festival as a monument to the memory of their
founder, more enduring than brass or granite;
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America's Historical Newspapers
Page 2 of 2
Page 3 of4
Headline: AgriculturaL Saturday, March 27, 1869. the Festival; Article Type: News/Opinion
Paper: Pittsfield Sun, published as The Pittsfield Sun; Date: 04-01-1869; Volume: LXIX; Issue: 3576; Page: [4];
Location: Pittsfield, Massachusetts
This entire product and/or portions thereof are copyrighted by NewsBank and/or the American Antiquarian Society. 2004.
Agricultural.
SATURDAY. MARCH 27. 1869.
The Festival
Of the Farmers of the No. Stockbridge
and Lenox Farmers' Club. held on Friday
evening of last week, at Curtis' Hotel in
Lenox, is said to have been a very pleas-
ant affair. About 140 guests were pres-
ent, and the Supper was served in the ex-
cellent style for which M. Curtis is dis-
tinguished as a caterer.
RICHARD GOODMAN. Esq., President of
the Club, presided. and made some happy
remarks himself, and called out several
gentlemen who made interesting respon-
ses-among the number Hon. Henry W.
Bishop of Lenox ; T. S. Gold, Esq. of
West Cornwall, Ct. : Messrs. Smith and
Thatcher of Lee, and Luther S Butler of
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page 4.84
LOVE 01 Lenoa onereu 1111
following sentiment :
Hon. Henry W. Bishop, the late Charles
Sedgwiek, and Samuel G. Ward-three
bright stars : the founders of the North
Stockbridge and Lenox Farmer's Club.
In responding to this toast, Judge Bisli-
up said the Club was organized 23 years
ago last February.
Mr. Gold spoke of the success of the
Milk enterprize. and said that the Milk
from the Housatonic Valley reached New
York last summer in better condition than
that near Bridgeport. because better care
was taken with it.
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Samuel Gray Ward (1817-1907) 1817-1849 File1
Details
1817 - 1907