Helen Hunt Jackson 1-2-1 transcription
Helen Hunt Jackson Papers, Part 1, Ms 0020, Box 2, Folder 1, Miscellaneous letters 1859-60
Transcribed by Gloria Helmuth, July 1996
[Letter from M.D. Conway introducing HHJ to Mrs. H.W. Longfellow, 1859]
Addressed: Mrs. H.W. Longfellow, Cambridge.
Mrs. Hunt.
[Wednesday] Cin. O. Feb. 16./59.
My dear Mrs. Longfellow,
My friend, Mrs. Lieut. Hunt, is now in Cambridge, where she is to spend a few months longer I believe. She was in my Church at Washington City, and was the light of many a dark hour there. Her husband is a man of science & of excellent personal qualities. If you and Mr L. will make their acquaintance I am sure you will need no apology for my writing this note.
Yours,
M.D. Conway.
Mrs. H.W. Longfellow.
[Letter from E.B. Hunt, 1859]
[Wednesday] Brattleboro. Vt.
Sept. 14. 1859.
Dear Everett.
I meant sooner to have notified you of my safe arrival at this place, but have some how been busy & have thus postponed it. After leaving you, I went to Weston, where I found a larger portion of the household gone to Concord, but had a pleasant visit with Aunt Maria & took her on two miles with me to make a call. I reached Fitchburg via Stow, Bolton, Lancaster & Leominster. (keeping clear of Concord.) about 8 o'c P.M. The next morning I stopped to see the town, started at 8 1/2 oc Lived drove through Ashburnham & Ringe to Fitzwilliam where I dined, & in the afternoon through Richmond, Winchestre & Hinsdale to Brattleboro. I passed in close view of [Neonachnoe?] & in distant sight of [Wachuset?]. Cloudy was considerably tired but stood the trip well, & so did the buggy, which I am happy to say meets Helen's approbation & is I believe what we need. I find that you had Cloudy eleven weeks & I want you to let me know how much I owe you on her acct.
I am regularly embarked in the water treatment since Saturday. It is a funny process, & ought to do something one way or other. I am soaked three times a day & walk after which makes great inroads on my time. Besides there are sundry social requirements which are on the whole quite pleasant, & I presume we shall spend our two months quite pleasantly. Our boarding house is quite good, & there seems abundant promise of walks & drives for the future, so that whether I receive any good or not, I think we shall be pleasantly situated for the time being.
With kind remembrances to your household, which I trust for Annie's sake still includes Miss Jennie H.
Yours truly.
E.B. Hunt.
[Letter from Henry A. Homes to HHJ, 1860]
[Thursday] State Library, Albany, N.Y.
Aug. 30. 1860.
My Dear Mrs. Hunt
It gives me great pleasure to fulfil my promise made at Newport and forward to you the lines written by your father so many years since for me the boy of fourteen, as an introductory piece in my Album. You "never knew that he had written a line of poetry in his life." He had so much talent with a critic's sense of the beautiful, that I am sure he would always have succeeded to the satisfaction of his friends in every attempt he might have made. He was then a bachelor; we were boarding at Mrs. Shepard's. I received some letters from him while in Constantinople, but with furniture and books, one of those common conflagrations that carry off hundreds of houses there, consumed them. I saw him for a few brief and cheerful hours in [Lungruaoruly?]; but Mrs Homes had the pleasure of having him as a guest in Constantinople during his stay there. To both your father and your mother, my parents and Sisters were warmly attached; and during my college course, I was much indebted to them for their refined Society. I have now reached the period of life, when reminiscences of the past form no inconsiderable portion of enjoyment, and while I congratulate myself that I can recal associations connected with friends departed, so pure and gentle, I am also delighted that their memory and traits are perpetuated in yourself and sister.
I shall leave this unsealed, that your sister may also read these lines. I should be happy at any time to learn of your being in Albany.
Very respectfully and sincerely
Henry A. Homes.
To Henry - by his Album.
To thee my form and my being I owe,
Thy will the hand of the artist controll'd,
Nor formed me chiefly for beauty and show;
But gems of wisdom and truth to infold.
To thee my volume I gladly devote,
And hope thy kindness and care to repay,
In measure rich, at a day not remote,
By pearls that friends in these leaves may inlay.
My value, dear youth, will ever depend
On whom you serve with the use of my page;
These blanks are free to the virtuous friend,
To lovers of good, to the noble and sage;
But folly's child let him never distain
With wit's false glare, or with vice in dis-guise
This margin pure; nor with error, profane
The space, devoted to truth from the skies.
My Henry, list to the voice of the good;
It speaks of peace that is lasting and sweet,
Of joys on high where no sorrows intrude,
Of paths of life for your wandering feet.
x x x x x x x
The stores I gather herein from the hand
Of caste and genius, perhaps you'll survey,
When he is gone to the far distant land,
Who drops the first of these tokens today.
Forget then, Henry, forget as you read,
If ever he pained you in word or in deed;
But forget not he urged you to study God's truth,
And to love thy Creator in days of thy youth.
N.W.F.
Amherst College, July 21, 1827.
Helen Hunt Jackson
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