Emerson Family Forbes family See Harvard Riverside Assoc EDWARD WALDO EMERSON AND EMERSON FAMILY PAPERS Page 1 of 10 EDWARD WALDO EMERSON AND EMERSON FAMILY PAPERS, 1845-1971 (BULK 1876-1922) Note: See also Multi- volume, The Salorday Club, Esp. A Century Completed (P.27f). Vault A45, Emerson, Unit 3 EXTENT: .83 linear feet (2 containers). ORGANIZATION: Five series: I. Edward Emerson research and biographical materials relating to Thoreau, 1882-1918; II. Other Edward Emerson research, lecture, and writing topics, 1876- 1922; III. Printed items from the collection of Edward Emerson, 1845-1918; IV. Edward Emerson ephemera (undated); V. Other Emersons, 1867-1971. BIOGRAPHY: Edward Waldo Emerson (1844-1930)-the youngest child of philosopher, lecturer, essayist, and poet Ralph Waldo Emerson and his second wife Lidian (Jackson) Emerson-lived most of his life in Concord, Massachusetts. As a child, he grew close to Henry David Thoreau, who presided over the Emerson household as a live-in caretaker while Ralph Waldo Emerson traveled in Europe in 1847 and 1848. Edward attended Frank Sanborn's progressive, coeducational Concord private school. Rejected for service during the Civil War because of fragile health, Edward went to college instead of war, graduating from Harvard in 1866. Although artistic, he bowed to practical considerations and studied medicine. He spent a year in Berlin and London while enrolled at Harvard Medical School, from which he graduated in 1874. Back in Concord, he assisted Dr. Josiah Bartlett, eventually taking over Bartlett's practice. After his father's death in 1882, Edward left the practice of medicine and spent his time writing, editing his father's papers and manuscripts, and painting. He wrote the Social Circle biography of his father (1888), Ebenezer Rockwood Hoar (with Moorfield Storey; 1911), Henry Thoreau as Remembered by a Young Friend (1917), Early Years of the Saturday Club (1918), and edited his father's correspondence with John Sterling (1897), the Centenary Edition of Emerson's works (1903-1904), and (with Waldo Emerson Forbes) the 1909-1914 edition of Emerson's journals. He taught at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. In 1874, Edward married Concord girl Annie Shepard Keyes, daughter of John Shepard and Martha (Prescott) Keyes. They had seven children, six of whom predeceased their parents. Edward Emerson served Concord as Superintendent of Schools and on the Board of Health, the Cemetery Committee, and the Library Committee. He was a founding member of the Concord Antiquarian Society as well as a member of the Social Circle. He was also an accomplished horseman. SCOPE AND CONTENT: Papers, printed materials, and ephemera generated or accumulated between 1845 and 1971 by three generations of Concord Emersons: Ralph Waldo Emerson; his son Edward and his daughter Ellen; and Edward's son Raymond and daughter-in-law Amelia. Edward Waldo Emerson papers, 1876-1922, comprise the bulk of the collection, which includes much undated material, particularly undated transcriptions of earlier documents and papers. Edward Emerson's Thoreau-related http://www.concordnet.org/library/scollect/Fin_Aids/EWE.htm 10/12/2006 EDWARD WALDO EMERSON AND EMERSON FAMILY PAPERS Page 2 of 10 papers-manuscript, typescript, and printed items, 1882-1918-consist of notes based on the recollections of George Bradford Bartlett, Mrs. Edwin Bigelow, F.C. Brown, William Ellery Channing, James Garty, Edward S. Hoar, Horace R. Hosmer, Dr. Thomas Hosmer, George Keyes, B.W. Lee, Warren Miles, Edward Neally, Miss Mary Nicholson, D.F. Potter, Rev. Grindall Reynolds, Walton Ricketson, Sam Staples, Benjamin Tolman, Elizabeth J. Weir, Mrs. Deacon White, and Albert E. Wood; research notes; lecture notes; letters; chronologies; passages transcribed from the writings of Thoreau and Emerson; a note possibly in Thoreau's hand; and manuscript, typescript, and proof sections of Edward's book Henry Thoreau as Remembered by a Yound Friend (1917). The papers generated by Edward's involvement in research, lecture, and writing topics other than Thoreau consist of similar types of materials, 1876-1922, organized around the following subjects: the Alcotts; the Barretts and Punkatasset; Edward Jarvis Bartlett; Perez Blood; Dr. William Palmer Bolles; George P. Bradford and Martha Bartlett; William Ellery Channing; the Concord Artillery; Dr. Edwin Lewis Drowne; William Lorenzo Eaton; William Emerson; Flint's Bridge; William Torrey Harris; Ebenezer Rockwood Hoar; Josephine Hosmer's recollections; Francis Augustine Houston; J.S. Keyes's recollections; physicians of Concord; Adams Tolman, Charles Hosmer Walcott; and other medical and Concord-related topics. Printed titles from Edward Emerson's collection include five pamphlet and book items, 1845-1918, among them Samuel Hoar's copy of a Massachusetts Senate document (1845) dealing with South Carolina's treatment of free Blacks from other states and referring to Hoar's unsuccessful trip to South Carolina in 1844 to test the validity of that state's law regarding the issue. Edward Emerson ephemeral materials (all undated) include, among other items, a printed list of Edward's lecture offerings. Materials connected to other members of the Emerson family, 1867-1971, consist of presentation copies of printed items and of letters. SOURCE OF ACQUISITION: Gift of the Emerson family in two accessions, 1978 (from Amelia F. Emerson) and 1982. PROCESSED BY: LPW; finding aid completed October 28, 2003. CONTAINER LIST SERIES I. EDWARD EMERSON RESEARCH AND BIOGRAPHICAL MATERIALS RELATING TO THOREAU, 1882-1918: Interviews with, notes by, and letters from various individuals about Thoreau, 1882-1892: Box 1, Folder 1: George Bradford Bartlett (undated). Box 1, Folder 2: Mrs. Edwin Bigelow (1892, and undated). Box 1, Folder 3: F.C. Brown (undated). Box 1, Folder 4: http://www.concordnet.org/library/scollect/Fin_Aids/EWE.htm 10/12/2006 FirstSearch: WorldCat Detailed Record Page 1 of 2 OC LC FirstSearch SOUTHERN NEW HAMPSHIRE UNIV WorldCat Detailed Record Your resource sharing request was sent successfully, Click on a checkbox to mark a record to be e-mailed or printed in Marked Records. Resource Staff View My Account Options Databases Searching Results Sharing Comments Exit Hide tips List of Records Detailed Record Marked Records Saved Records Go to page III WorldCat results for: ti: elliot and ti: WorldCat cabot. Record 3 of 9. Subjects Libraries ILL E-mail Print Export Help 3 Mark: Prev Next Detailed Add/View Record Comments Man without a shadow : the life and work of James Elliot Cabot, Emerson's biographer and literary executor / Nancy Craig Simmons 1981, 1980 English Book 584 p. : ports. ; 21 cm. Ann Arbor, Mich. : University Microfilms International, GET THIS ITEM Availability: Check the catalogs in your library. Libraries worldwide that own item: 2 IIII Connect to Southern New Hampshire University Library Borrow this item from another library (Interlibrary Loan) FIND RELATED More Like This: Search for versions with same title and author Advanced options Title: Man without a shadow : the life and work of James Elliot Cabot, Emerson's biographer and literary executor / Author(s): Simmons, Nancy Craig. Publication: Ann Arbor, Mich. : University Microfilms International, Year: 1981, 1980 Description: 584 p. : ports. ; 21 cm. Language: English SUBJECT(S) Named Person: Cabot, James Elliot, 1821-1903. http://firstsearch.oclc.org.ezproxy.snhu.edu/WebZ/PatronProduceRequest?next=html/rec... 11/25/2006 946 SIMMONS Classmate post at Philadelphia's Curtis Institute of Music, Sim- not diminish the respect he earned from such figures mons followed. In addition to the continuation of his as Elizabeth Schwarzkopf, Birgit Nilsson, and the ap- work in conducting, he was accepted in the piano stu- preciative critics who attended his American and Eu- dio of Rudolf Serkin. During this time he served as ropean performances. pianist to Maria Callas, who, like many, initially thought him a servant because he was black. An important source on Simmons is Rinna Evelyn Wolfe, Following graduation in 1972 Simmons made his The Calvin Simmons Story; or "Don't Call Me Maestro" (1994). See also Jane Eshleman Conant, "Musician of the formal debut as conductor in San Francisco's produc- Month: Calvin Simmons," Musical America 29, no. 3 (Mar. tion of Hänsel und Gretel (with which he made his 1979): 6-7; A. Ulrich, "Calvin Simmons, Oakland's Para- Metropolitan Opera debut in 1978). As assistant direc- mount Talent," Focus 29, no. 3 (1982): 30; and Eileen tor of the Western Opera Theater, he gave perform- Southern's entry on Simmons in Biographical Dictionary of ances on tours from Arizona (where operas were pre- Afro-American and African Musicians (1982). An obituary is in sented to a Navaho audience) to Alaska (where they the New York Times, 24 Aug. 1982. performed for Eskimo children in a village of fewer DOMINIQUE-RENE DE LERMA than 100 residents). This was consonant with his dedi- cation to the presentation of music to new audiences, including many concerts for children and even opera SIMMONS, Edward Emerson (27 Oct. 1852-17 Nov. productions on the street corners of San Francisco. In 1931), painter, was born in Concord, Massachusetts, 1974 he was engaged by England's Glyndebourne Op- the son of George Frederick Simmons, a Unitarian era Company with the London Philharmonic Orches- minister, and Mary Emerson Ripley. His father and tra, principally for performances of Mozart's Così fan grandfathers were stern Unitarian ministers who tutte and Le nozze di Figaro, both at the Glyndebourne preached against slavery before it was fashionable. At estate and on tours. He moved to the Los Angeles an early age the sheltered, timid, yet inquisitive Sim- Philharmonic Orchestra as assistant to Zubin Mehta in mons was grief-stricken when his father suddenly 1975 with a grant from the Exxon Corporation and died, leaving the family in poverty. Simmons was made his first recording with that ensemble. raised in Concord's Old Manse by his mother, grand- In 1978 he was appointed music director of the Oak- mother (an amateur botanist), and his Bible-toting land Symphony, the first Áfrican American after Hen- grandfather, whose relatives had come from England ry Lewis (with the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra in on the Mayflower. 1968) to have full artistic authority over an American From childhood into early adulthood Simmons orchestra. In this post he was both aggressive and lived with and liked to listen to stories told by his fa- imaginative in selling/the orchestra to a large public, mous cousin Ralph Waldo Emerson, whom he ideal- raising the orchestra's standards as well as its budget. ized as a man "who rendered the commonplace sa- Frequently engaged as a guest conductor for most ma- cred" (From Seven to Seventy, p. 22). Surrounded by jor orchestras, he was selected to lead the debut of Fua- creative writers and men of the cloth, Simmons was na la loca, an operá by Gian Carlo Menotti, with Bev- inspired to learn all he could about natural history, lit- erly Sills in her final opera performance, and of that erature, and art, but because his family had little mon- Shostakovich opera which, as Lady Macbeth of ey, experiences outside of Concord were limited. Mtsensk, had infuriated the Soviet government. His Throughout his staunch, New England upbringing his St. Louis performance of Così in 1982 created a sensa- favorite activities were drawing and reading. tion, and numerous bookings reached into the future. Simmons entered Harvard in 1870. He found the SBD Among the soloists for this production were two new- academic environment exhilarating, even though comers to the opera scene, Jerry Hadley and Thomas classmates joked about his lack of experience and nick- Hampson. /A more provocative and consistent Così named him "Wambat." As the Hasty Pudding Club you are not/likely to come across in a lifetime of opera- ushered him into manhood, Simmons helped to found going," stated a review in the New York Times. That the Harvard Crimson, then called the Magenta, and summer, while relaxing at Lake Placid, his canoe over- was secretary of the art club. After obtaining his A.B. turned in the icy waters, and Simmons was drowned. in 1874, Simmons went to New York City with the in- His funeral was held in San Francisco's Grace Ca- tention of becoming an architect, but architect Russell thedral Musical tributes were offered by a string Sturgis convinced him to become a painter. quartet from the Oakland Symphony and by mezzo- Desperate to seek adventure and to leave New Eng- soprano Marilyn Horne. The orchestra's hall was sub- land and his austere relatives, in 1874 the ever-cau- sequently named in his honor when its schedule was tious Simmons packed a loaded gun and went to look resumed; it then became known as the Oakland East for work in Cincinnati. One day, after failing at at- Bay Symphony. tempts to become a salesman and a tutor of young Simmons was unmarried and childless. He was well boys, he boldly knocked on a door that read "Artist." known for his irrepressible and spontaneous humor, He had done SO out of curiosity, and as luck would which often was manifest at unexpected moments. Al- have it, the famous painter Frank Duveneck answered though he took music very seriously, he enjoyed play- the knock, greeted Simmons, and allowed him to enter ing pranks in public and was quick to improvise, par- the first artist's studio he had ever seen. From that day ticularly when this could ease tensions. His antics did forward Simmons was determined to save enough SIMMONS 947 money to train in Europe and become a professional Simmons had a nationalistic spirit, and his realistic painter. murals were attempts to dissociate American art from With an introductory letter from Emerson, Sim- European tendencies and to present views of Ameri- mons went to San Francisco in 1875 and secured a can life. In New York, famous architect Stanford part-time job as drama critic for the Chronicle and a White became Simmons's closest patron and friend. teaching position for $75 a month at the Strawberry Through him Simmons joined the city's Player's Club Valley School. Simmons enjoyed socializing with and Vaudeville Club, painting the latter's library ceil- painters William Keith and Thomas Hill as well as liv- ing in 1893; joined Boston's St. Botolph Club; and ing and working in San Francisco, but in 1877, after a received an award winning commission to paint the close friend was shot and killed on a city street, he de- Criminal Court House in New York City. Their cama- cided he had experienced enough excitement and soon raderie also stimulated Simmons's imagination and returned to Boston. helped to develop in him an exacting sense of design. At Boston's Institute of Technology Simmons met His murals appeared on the Astoria Hotel in New painter William Rimmer, who encouraged him to York; the Boston State House; the Library of Con- study at Boston's Museum School with Frank Crown- gress; state capitol buildings in St. Paul, Minnesota, inshield. Simmons did SO and after a few months with and Pierre, South Dakota; the Massachusetts State Crowninshield, drew well enough to sail for France. House; and the halls of the Panama-Pacific Interna- He arrived at the Hotel de Londres, located along the tional Exposition held in San Francisco in 1915. In rue de Douai in the Montmartre section of Paris, in 1898 he joined The Ten-a group of American im- 1878, For thirty francs a month he rented an unheat- pressionists who wanted to exhibit independently, ed, sixth-floor room with two iron cots and a trap door outside the National Academy, without rigid jury for a window. He studied with C. R. Boulanger, who scrutiny-and became the group's most prolific, instilled in Simmons the importance of being able to award-winning muralist. draw the human form with anatomical perfection, and Having for some time associated with some of the Lefebvre at the Académie Julian in Paris. By 1881 most innovative, inspired artists and architects of his he had become a friend of James Abbott McNeill day, by 1890 the once-shy Simmons had become one Whistler and won one hundred francs at the académie of the most extroverted, high-strung, impulsive men for finishing the best drawing; in 1882 his La Blanchis- in American art. Throughout his life, however, Sim- seuse won an honorable mention at the Paris Salon. mons remained an inquisitive artist who, until the day In 1881 Simmons moved to a wheat loft in Breton of his death in Baltimore, Maryland, sought to paint, on the coast of Concarneau, where for the next five in a realistic and impressionist manner, exquisite as- years he painted genre scenes of peasants working and pects of nature. playing in the streets and fields and on hillsides. Join- ing him to paint in Concarneau and Pont Aven were For a personal account of his life and times see Edward Willard Metcalf, Theodore Robinson, Edmund C. Simmons, From Seven to Seventy: Memories of a Painter and a Yankee (1922); for an artist's view of Simmons see Arthur Tarbell, Bastein-Lepage, and other famous painters. Hoeber, "Edward Emerson Simmons," Brush and Pencil, In December 1883 Simmons married writer Vesta Mar. 1900, pp. 210-15; for a complete history and lists of Schallenberger; their son was born the following year. awards, studios, murals, and memberships see Patricia Jobe From 1887 to 1891 the family lived in St. Ives in Pierce, The Ten (1976); for his mural decorations see Pauline Cornwall, England, where Theodore Robinson ac- King, American Mural Painting (1902); for his Concarneau companied Simmons as he painted the cliffs, coasts, years see Henri Belbeoch, Les Peintres de Concarneau (1994). and local fishermen. Summers were spent sketching in An obituary is in American Art Annual, vol. 38 (1931), p. 417. Denis, Montreuil, and Grez, France; in Stuttgart, PATRICIA JOBE PIERCE Germany; and in the Forest of Fontainebleau outside Paris. He divorced his first wife and in 1903 married SIMMONS, Franklin (11 Jan. 1839-6 Dec. 1913), Alice Ralston Morton, who gave birth to their son in sculptor, was born in Lisbon (later Webster), Maine, 1904. the son of Loring Simmons and Dorothy Batchelder. In 1891, having received a commission to design At the age of fifteen, while employed in the counting and construct a stained glass window for Harvard, room of a cotton mill in Lewiston, he took drawing les- Simmons returned to New York City to complete the sons and began modeling in clay. Encouraged by the project. For the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition favorable reception of his early efforts, Simmons went in Chicago Simmons, along with Robert Reid and Eli- to Boston in 1856 and briefly studied the rudiments of hu Vedder, was chosen by Frank Millet to decorate sculpture with John Adams Jackson. Then he estab- the domes of the Manufacturer's Building. From then lished studios in Lewiston, Bowdoin, and later Port- on Simmons resolved to devote his energies to mural land, Maine, where he specialized in executing por- painting and the painted decoration of buildings. The trait busts of local citizens. In 1864 he married Emily act of "painting pictures to be hung on the wall by J. Libbey of Auburn, Maine. strings in the wrong light" was no longer satisfac- In 1865 Simmons went to Washington, D.C., after tory. "But given a certain space to beautify where being commissioned by a foundry owner from Provi- one was reasonably sure his work would remain per- dence. Rhode Island, to produce a series of medallion manently-that was worth doing" (quoted in Hoeber). portraits representing Abraham Lincoln, his cabinet, 3 "retracting nothing, & reaffirming all": F. B. Sanborn, the Emersons, and a Courtship Gone Wrong Joel Myerson ranklin Benjamin Sanborn is known to literary scholars primarily as a JOEL MYERSON is Carolina F schoolteacher in Concord in the 1850s, a member of the "Secret Six" Distinguished Professor of American Literature, who had advance knowledge f.John Brown's raid at Harper's Ferry, a Department of English, writer and editor of the Springfield Republican and the Boston University of South Carolina, Commonwealth, an editor of the manuscripts and published works by numerous Columbia, South Carolina. Transcendentalists, and a biographer and chronicler of the Transcendentalists. He is also infamous for the editorial liberties he took with many of the texts he edited,2 his often inaccurate accounts of people and events,3 and his grating per- sonality. He may now also be noted for unsuccessfully courting Ralph Waldo Emerson's daughter, Edith, documented in an extraordinary exchange of letters between Sanborn, Edith, Waldo, and his wife Lidian Emerson, here printed for the first time.4 I For information on Sanborn, see John W. Clarkson, Jr., Lectures at the Concord School of Philosophy (1885) and the "Mentions of Emerson and Thoreau in the Letters of texts of Alcott's New Connecticut (1887), Ellery Franklin Benjamin Sanborn," Studies in the American Channing's Poems of Sixty-Five Years (1902) and Thoreau Renaissance 1978, ed. Joel Myerson (Boston: Twayne, the Poet-Naturalist (1902), Emerson's Tantalus (1903), 1978), 387-400, and Robert E. Burkholder's biblio- Theodore Parker's The Rights of Man in America (1911), graphical essay in The Transcendentalists: A Review of and Thoreau's Familiar Letters (1894), Poems of Nature Research and Criticism, ed. Myerson (New York: (1895), The Service (1902), The First and Last Journeys of Modern Language Association, 1984), 253-59. For Thoreau (2 vols., 1905), and Walden (2 vols., 1909). As Sanborn's career as a reformer and member of charita- an editor, Sanborn rarely hesitated to rewrite his sub- ble organizations, see Benjamin Blakely Hitchcock, ject's text when he thought his own wording was bet- "The Political and Literary Careers of F. B. Sanborn" ter. (Ph.D. diss., Michigan State University, 1953). 3 Thomas Wentworth Higginson once commented Sanborn's works on the Transcendentalists include hun- "Sanborn has the most encyclopredic mind of any man dreds of journal articles and newspaper columns, plus I know-and the most inaccurate" (quoted in George Henry D. Thoreau (1882), A. Bronson Alcott: His Life and E. Goodspeed, Yankee Bookseller [Boston: Houghton Philosophy (with William T. Harris, 2 vols., 1893), The Mifflin, 1937], 140). Personality of Thoreau (1901), Ralph Waldo Emerson 4 All letters (shelf mark *94M-25) are published by kind (1901), The Personality of Emerson (1903), Bronson Alcott permission of the Ralph Waldo Memorial Association at Alcott House, England, and Fruitlands, New England and of the Houghton Library, Harvard University. I am (1842-1844) (1908), Hawthorne and His Friends: grateful to Leslie Morris for helping me obtain access to Reminiscence and Tribute (1908), Recollections of Seventy these materials. In editing these letters, I have not Years (2 vols., 1909), and The Life of Henry David reported cancellations, unless they add significantly to Thoreau (1917). In addition, Kenneth Walter Cameron the meaning of the letter, nor have I indicated inser- has collected or edited over two dozen large collections tions. A few misspellings or redundant words have been of Sanborn's manuscript and published writings. silently corrected and punctuation added for clarity 2 He also edited The Genius and Character of Emerson: (such as periods after complete sentences). 3. HARVARD LIBRARY BULLETIN 4 The existence of these letters has been known to scholars for some time, but their owners declined to make them generally available until Eleanor M. Tilton's publication of her four volumes of Emerson's letters.6 Even then, Emerson's let- ter, which Tilton characterizes as "devastating," was only paraphrased, without direct quotation, and the rest of the correspondence was quickly summarized. All the correspondence is now at the Houghton Library, and may at last be printed in full and evaluated by the public. Sanborn first met Emerson in July 1853, when he walked from Cambridge, where he was attending Harvard College, to Concord for the purpose of calling on him. The ten-minute meeting was a success, as were others following it, and in late 1854, Emerson proposed that Sanborn open a school in Concord, where he moved in March 1855, after completing the requirements for his graduation from Harvard. By all accounts, the school was a success, from its beginnings through its closing in March 1863. Among its students were Garth Wilkinson James and Robertson James (brothers of Alice, Henry, and William James), Julian Hawthorne, Horace Mann's children,9 and Emerson's children Edith, Ellen, and Edward. Edith and Ellen had both attended Louis Agassiz's school in Cambridge, but, as Ellen noted, there was a sharp difference between the two. In Agassiz's school, "there was a feeling of home which I never had in any other school-the carpeted rooms and open fires and the being in a private house." There were also "the crowds of girls, the very best of Boston," and "the most marked feature of all, Mr. Agassiz's lectures, which are invaluable." At Sanborn's "delightful" school, there is "a head, that is a great thing, one master of all, under whose eye we sit, and this master is a wise and joyful and handsome man who holds the hearts of the school." To Ellen, the "teaching here is much better and more thorough, and broader too," plus "boys and girls go together here which I think is essential to a good school. 5 The materials came into the possession of the through" the manuscripts, states that Sanborn Goodspeed family at an undetermined time. The pub- "courted" Edith, who "rejected him; he refused to lisher and bookseller Charles E. Goodspeed had known accept her rejection. He tried first to cajole, then to Sanborn, published works by him, and was involved bully Edith. He impugned her integrity and got himself with him in other business transactions, including pur- into a prickly, defensive, whining correspondence chasing from Sanborn the manuscripts to Thoreau's (never published) first with Edith, then with Lidian. college essays and the galley proofs of A Week on the Finally Emerson himself wrote Sanborn an angry letter Concord and Merrimack Rivers (Goodspeed, Yankee advising him to drop the entire matter, which he did" Bookseller, 140). His son, George Goodspeed, lent a (Emerson: The Mind on Fire [Berkeley: University of "copy" of the materials to the scholar Bliss Perry in California Press, 1995], 526-27, 65In). 1927; and when Perry returned them on May 23, he 6 The Letters of Ralph Waldo Emerson, ed. Ralph L. Rusk commented: "I read them, of course, but did not make and Eleanor M. Tilton, IO vols. (New York Columbia any notes and I shall regard the whole matter as strictly University Press, 1939, 1990-1995). Rusk made no confidential. I am none the less grateful, however, to mention of the letters; Tilton prints her paraphrase and you for the correspondence explains certain allusions commentary on 9:78-80. which Edward Emerson often made to Frank Sanborn 7 See Jane Maher, Biography of Broken Fortunes: Wilkie and and which I was quite at 2 loss to account for until I had Bob, Brothers of William, Henry, and Alice James read this correspondence" (*94M-25). Perry indeed did (Hamden, Conn.: Archon Books, 1986), 14-23. not refer to this correspondence in his Emerson Today 8 See The Memoirs of Julian Hawthorne, ed. Edith Garrigues (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1931). Clarkson Hawthorne (New York: Macmillan, 1938), 77-93. cites these letters as in the possession of George 9 Sanborn, "Pupils, Teachers, and Classes of the Concord Goodspeed in his 1978 article. John McAleer states, School-1855 to 1863," Concord Minute Man, April 8, without attribution of a source, that "Sanborn had'once 1916, I; reprinted in Sanborn, Sixty Years of Concord encouraged Edith that he was her suitor but then let the 1855-1915, ed. Kenneth Walter Cameron (Hartford, pursuit grow cold. Emerson never forgave him for this Conn.: Transcendental Books, 1976), 34-38. injury" (Ralph Waldo Emerson: Days of Encounter IO The Letters of Ellen Tucker Emerson, ed. Edith E. W. [Boston: Little, Brown, 1984], 631). Robert D. Gregg, 2 vols. (Kent: Kent State University Press, Richardson, Jr., whom Goodspeed allowed to "read 1982), 1:163. 4. F.B. Sanborn, the Emersons, and a Courtship Gone Wrong 5 The entire Emerson family got along famously with Sanborn. Edward was delighted by the acting and declamatory roles Sanborn assigned him, and the girls enjoyed the school as well. There was, for some time, no public reason for believing that Sanborn might be involved romantically with Edith. After all, his wife had died in 1854 under tragic circumstances, and romancing a student in his school would have been highly inappropriate. But as Edith got older, and ceased being a student (although she did come back to serve on the school's fac- ulty), Sanborn began writing a series of poems about and to her (none of which seemed to have been delivered). 12 But by the late 1850s he had obviously begun courting her, for on August S, 1860, he deemed it necessary to write a friend that there was "a report which I encountered often in my travels and which is not true-that I am engaged to Edith Emerson," adding "If you hear it, please con- trovert The twenty-nine-year-old Sanborn apparently proposed on March 2, 1861 to nineteen-year-old Edith, who turned him down. Edith seems to have tried to lessen the impact of her refusal by continuing to be gracious to Sanborn, who clearly misunderstood her behavior. Sanborn seems to have written four letters to Lidian Emerson, all complain- ing of Edith's treatment of him, of which only one survives, written in response to a now-lost letter of hers: Concord Sunday March 9th 1862 My dear Mrs Emerson; I hasten to reply to your note received yesterday, because I am sure nobody more than myself desires to stand in a true relation to all the world, and especially to friends SO kind as you and your family, with a single exception, have been to me. And I still believe you to be my friend, in spite of certain expressions in this note and that of Sept 12th '61, where you speak of me as "angry without a cause," making an "extraordinary assumption," cherishing an "unjust resentment," "till time shall bring you to your better self" etc. I think I might also complain of some injustice on the ground of those expressions; for after six months reflection I do not find that I have been "angry without a cause" or even "angry" at all; nor have I made any charges against your family, with a single exception. Indeed I expressly said in my note that I did not blame any one but Edith. I regret that I used the expression about doubting "my own judgment of what was kind, deli- cate, honorable, and right," because as it stood it was an intimation which might be mistaken to apply to others than to Edith and Miss Jackson, whom I had in my mind. I believe I have explained to you what I meant by this; but I will repeat it, since you allude to it in your note of yesterday. Miss Jackson, in the extraordinary communication, which, (with the kindest intentions, I have no doubt,) she made me before Edith went to Boston a year ago, invited and urged me in the strongest terms to call on Edith at her father's house in Boston, and to remove any embarrassment, of which however I had not spoken, she said that Mrs Jackson knew and should know, nothing of what had passed. Acting on this invitation, which I was informed represented Edith's wish, II Sanborn began courting Ariana Smith Walker, a semi- Transcendental Horizons: Essays and Poetry, ed. Cameron invalid, in late 1850. Her health worsened, and they (Hartford, Conn.: Transcendental Books, 1984), 58; were married on August 23, 1853, only eight days and Ronald A. Bosco, "Twelve Ungathered Poems by before she died in Sanborn's arms. Franklin B. Sanborn (1831-1917)," Concord Saunterer, 12 See Collected Poems of Franklin Benjamin Sanborn of n.s. (Fall 1997): II3-3I (esp. 116, 129). Transcendental Concord, ed. John Michael Moran, Jr. I3 Sanborn, Young Reporter of Concord, ed. Kenneth Walter (Hartford, Conn.: Transcendental Books, 1964), 3I-37; Cameron (Hartford, Conn.: Transcendental Books, Sanborn, Ungathered Poems and Transcendental Papers, ed. 1978), 26. Kenneth Walter Cameron (Hartford, Conn.: 14 One of the daughters of Susan Bridge and Charles T. Transcendental Books, 1981), 224-32; Sanborn, Jackson of Boston, Lidian's brother and sister-in-law. 5. 5/11/19 93 RESOURCES for the STUDY of RALPH WALDO EMERSON at HARVARD Ronald A. Bosco and Joel Myerson Ralph Waldo Emerson and his family have always cared about collecting and maintaining the family's papers. In 1872, when a fire swept through Bush, the Emerson house in Concord, one of the first rooms to have its contents saved was the one containing Waldo's papers and those of his aunt Mary Moody Emerson, his father William and his mother Ruth Haskins Emerson, and his brothers, Charles Chauncy Emerson, Edward Bliss Emerson, and William Emerson.)After Bush was rebuilt, it housed the family papers for many years, with various fam- ily members editing them and making them available to researchers. The wealth of material in the family's possession made possible the editions of Emerson's Complete Works and Journals published between 1903 and 1914, and the family ensured that the collections were maintained. Ellen Tucker Emerson lived in Bush after her father's death until her own death in 1900. At that point, a Miss Legate, who had lived with Ellen, became the caretaker of Bush for Edith Emerson Forbes and Edward Waldo Emerson, who died, respectively, in 1929 and 1930. In the latter year, "the Emerson heirs, desirous of giving his property to the public," formed the Ralph Waldo Emerson Memorial Association (RWEMA) "to which they transferred all their interests in his house, including the estate of ten acres, and its furnishing equipment and ornaments, his library and his manuscripts and personal belongings.") By the time Ralph L. Rusk's six- volume edition of The Letters of Ralph Waldo Emerson (L) was published in 1939,4 the family papers were located in Bush, among descendants, and in a vault at the Fogg Museum of Harvard, where Edward Waldo Forbes (Waldo's grandson), had been director since 1909 (he held the position until 1944). $ When the Houghton Library was opened (right across Quincy Street from the Fogg) in 1 The Complete Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson, ed. Edward paragraph is drawn from the folder "Emerson Deposit Waldo Emerson, 12 vols. (Boston: Houghton, Mifflin, Book." 1903-1904), and The Journals of Ralph Waldo Emerson, 3 Emerson's library has been reconstructed using the ed. Edward Waldo Emerson and Waldo Emerson original furniture and books in the Concord Museum, Forbes, 10 vols. (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1909- accross the street from Bush. 1914), both drew heavily on manuscript materials for 4 The Letters of Ralph Waldo Emerson, ed. Ralph L. Rusk their texts and annotations. and Eleanor M. Tilton, 10 vols. (New York 2 Information about the Emerson Family papers, 25 well Columbia University Press, 1939, 1990-1995). 25 their removal from Bush to Fogg and thence to $ A "Revised Inventory of Contents of Safe in Houghton, may be traced in the Librarian's Office files Basement of Fogg Art Museum," dated December 1932, at Houghton Library, which Leslie A. Morris kindly lists most of what would become the RWEMA collec- made available to us. Most of the information in this tion at Houghton (bMS Am 1280.235 [728], Box 2). 94 RALPH WALDO EMERSON: A BICENTENNIAL EXHIBITION 1942, the family deposited almost all of its collections there,6 and in 1992, for- mally gifted Emerson's journals and notebooks to Harvard University. There are many resources for studying Ralph Waldo Emerson in the Harvard University libraries. The first place to look is HOLLIS, the Harvard on-line cat- alogue (http://lib.harvard.edu), which lists some nine hundred works by Emerson held at various Harvard libraries. The books in the Widener library are generally standard editions and miscellaneous reprintings. Manuscripts and rarer books, such as first editions and private press works, are held at the Houghton Library, which also holds many volumes inscribed by or to Emerson. The major collections are at the Houghton Library, which has continued to catalogue them in a detailed fashion over fifty years. The major sections of the collection have long been described in typescript finding aids in the Houghton reading room; now, with the advent of technology, they have been made avail- able on the Internet, along with other significant Houghton manuscript collec- tions, through Harvard's OASIS catalogue (http://oasis.harvard.edu/hou.html). The starting place for any Emerson researcher is the finding aids: 1 Letters to Ralph Waldo Emerson, ca. 1814-1882 (bMS Am 1280). 8 Emerson kept much of his incoming correspondence. However, following nine- teenth-century practice, many correspondents had their letters returned to them when Emerson died or to their families when they died; fortunately, many of these correspondences have found their way to Houghton as well.° The bMS Am 1280 collection lists 3575 letters written to Emerson over his lifetime (housed in 36 boxes stretching over I2 linear feet). 10 The Guide is arranged alphabetically by correspondent, and gives the number of letters and the year or inclusive years in which they were written. Among the correspondents are Matthew Arnold, Orestes A. Brownson, Thomas Carlyle (106 letters), Ellery Channing the poet, William Ellery Channing the minister, William Henry Channing, Samuel Langhorne Clemens, Arthur Hugh Clough, Moncure Daniel Conway, Rebecca Harding Davis, Orville Dewey, Frederick Douglass, Evert Augustus Duyckinck, Edward Everett, Annie Adams Fields and James T. Fields, Edith Emerson Forbes (Waldo's daughter), Convers Francis, Octavius Brooks Frothingham, James Anthony Froude, Margaret Fuller (49 letters), William Lloyd Garrison, Horace Greeley, Horatio Greenough, Rufus W. Griswold, Edward Everett Hale, Sophia Peabody Hawthorne and Nathaniel Hawthorne, Frederic Henry Hedge, Oliver 6 Other editions of Emerson family materials drawn 7 On 30 March 1951 the then-librarian William Jackson from the RWEMA collection include One First Love: wrote Edward Waldo Forbes that he had ordered The Letters of Ellen Louisa Tucker to Ralph Waldo Emerson, 7,500 folders in which to place materials, quite a large ed. Edith W. Gregg (Cambridge: Harvard University supply for the time and one of many indications of Press. 1962), The Correspondence of Emerson and Carlyle, Harvard's seriousness in taking proper care of and con- ed. Joseph Slater (New York: Columbia University serving the Emerson materials. Press, 1964), The Letters of Ellen Tucker Emerson, ed. 8 http://nrs.harvard.edu/um-3:FHCL,Hough:hou0123- Edith E. W. Gregg. 2 vols. (Kent: Kent State 9 We have not identified collections of people other University Press, 1982), The Selected Letters of Lidian than Emerson or his family whose contents relating to Jackson Emerson, ed. Delores Bird Carpenter Emerson have been published, such as Margaret (Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1987), and Fuller's or Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's letters in, The Selected Letters of Mary Moody Emerson, ed. Nancy respectively, the Fuller and Longfellow papers. Craig Simmons (Athens: University of Georgia Press, to An informal guide to this collection may be gleaned 1993}, The correspondence among Charles, Edward, from Rusk's index to L. the index term for "letters to Waldo, and William is being edited by Ronald A. Emerson mentioned" (where the contents of letters are Bosco and Joel Myerson 25 The Emerson Brothers: A described in the text), "letters to Emerson quoted," Fraternal Biography in Letters. and "letters to Emerson not mentioned or quoted" (listed by exact date) are almost entirely to the letters contained in bMS Am 1280. RESOURCES FOR THE STUDY OF EMERSON AT HARVARD 95 Wendell Holmes, William Dean Howells, Henry James, Sr., William James, Caroline Kirkland, Charles Lane, Emma Lazarus, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, James Russell Lowell, Horace Mann, Harriet Martineau, Charles Eliot Norton, Theodore Parker, Elizabeth Palmer Peabody, Wendell Phillips, George Ripley, Elizabeth Oakes Smith, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Charles Sumner, Henry David Thoreau, Frederick Goddard Tuckerman, Walt Whitman, and John Greenleaf Whittier. Emerson's relations with publishers are well documented in letters from Harper and Brothers; Little, Brown; James Munroe; Phillips, Sampson; Ticknor; and Wiley and Putnam. 11 2 Journals and notebooks, 1820-1880 (MS Am 1280H). 12 One of Emerson's greatest accomplishments as an author was the extensive journal he kept during most of his life. MS Am 1280H contains 252 items, including jour- nals, notebooks, account books, pocket diaries, and miscellaneous materials, including works by others. The Guide is arranged by type of material, and chronologically within that grouping. Nearly all of these items have been pub- lished in the modern scholarly editions of Emerson's Journals and Miscellaneous Notebooks (JMN), Poetry Notebooks (PN), and Topical Notebooks (TN)," and the Guide indicates publication information.14 Series I: Journals, notebooks, and account books of Ralph Waldo Emerson. Present here, but not included in any edition of Emerson's writings, are such works as Notebook TO [n.d.] or "Intellect"; Notebook IL [n.d.] or "Notes on Intellect"; School and preaching record; Index Major 1847; Index II [1847]; account books from 1828 to 1872;15 BL [1859-1860]; Phi Beta [1867-1878 and n.d.], "a compendium of hundreds of entries drawn from many sources"; CR [1871 and n.d.] or "Criticism"; QL [1875] or "Queries on Literature"; NQ [n.d.] or "Notes and Queries," a collection of "quotations, word lists, riddles, and passages for declamation"; Parnassus [1871 and n.d.], material used by Emerson in his 1875 poetry anthology Parnassus; Trees [1836-1874], dealing with Emerson's horticultural pursuits; Old Man [1877-1878], six short entries and newspaper clippings; Morals [n.d.]; OP [n.d.], "transcriptions of poems by other people"; OS [n.d.] or "Odd Sayings," subtitled "Sketch Book" and "Humor"; L Camadava [n.d.] or "Notes on Love"; Art [n.d.]; Sigma [1830 and n.d.] or "Anecdotes"; Charles K. Newcomb [1872 and n.d.]; and Mary Moody Emerson (four 11 A separate collection of fifty-five letters written 14 Art, CR or "Criticism," Notebook IL or "Notes on between 1845 and 1875 to James Elliot Cabot, Intellect," L Camadava or "Notes on Love," Morals, Emerson's literary executor and biographer, is cata- and Notebook TO or "Intellect" are described in TN logued as bMS Am 1718 (http://nrs.harvard.edu/um- as not published either because they repeat topics or 3:FHCL.Hough:houco326). These letters have all been are very late. BL, which includes information on published in L Emerson's 1859 lecture series, is not published because of its miscellaneous nature and because it is not as valu- 13 The Journals and Miscellaneous Notebooks of Ralph Waldo able as other journals in tracing Emerson's working Emerson, ed. William H. Gilman, Ralph H. Orth. et methods (r:2). Ronald A. Bosco is editing Notebook al, 16 vols, (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, IL or "Notes on Intellect," Morals, and Norebook TO 1960-1982); The Poetry Notebooks of Ralph Waldo or "Intellect" as Emerson's Construction of the Intellect. Emerson, ed. Orth et al. (Columbia: University of IS These are currently being edited by Ronald A. Bosco Missouri Press, 1986): and The Topical Notebooks of and Joel Myerson. Ralph Waldo Emerson. ed. Orth et al., 3 vols, (Columbia: Universary of Missouri Press, 1990-1994). 96 RALPH WALDO EMERSON: A BICENTENNIAL EXHIBITION volumes) [n.d.]. An Editorial Title list of nearly all the items in MS Am 1280H may be found in JMN, 1:403-415, and a list of "Journals and Notebooks in the Harvard Edition," listing the volumes and page numbers in JMN where they appear, is in JMN, 537-541. Series II: Manuscripts by Others. Included are Emerson's father William's journal and commonplace book [1795-1804], a number of church prayers, composed and written for the use of the Christian Church and Society in Harvard, Massachusetts, January, 1794-[1801], and funeral prayers, on vari- ous occasions; Emerson's brother William's notebook [n.d.]; Emerson's brother Edward's commonplace book [1823 and n.d.], miscellaneous seminalia [1824 and n.d.], journal [1827-1828], and "Book no. 4" [n.d.]; Emerson's first wife, Ellen Louisa Tucker Emerson's verse books and jour- nal [1825 and n.d.]; and collections of materials by and about Mary Moody Emerson and Margaret Fuller. Series III: Pocket diaries. Listed here are thirty-two pocket diaries kept by Emerson, all but one of which was printed in JMN. Series IV: Miscellany. Included here are Emerson's Notebook Miscellany, "short entries on various subjects"; Autobiographical Miscellany [1834-1866 and n.d.], another miscellaneous collection; Autobiography [1832-1878], containing "three separate chronologies of Emerson's life, lists of his pub- lished works, and journal entries about himself"; Parnassus Scraps [n.d.], material used for the 1875 anthology Parnassus; and Palimpsest [n.d.], with transcriptions of the poetry of Ellen Louisa Tucker Emerson, made soon after her death in 183I. Family members represented are Emerson's mother, Ruth Haskins Emerson's Commonplace book [1825-1837] and his son Edward Waldo Emerson's Notebook [1869 and n.d.]. (3) Lectures_and sermons (bMS Am 1280.193-1280.215).17 This is undoubtedly the most complex series of manuscripts in the RWEMA Collection. According to the Houghton's introduction to this series, the manu- scripts were formerly preserved in "manila envelopes in a series of twenty-one patent portfolios," apparently made by James Elliot Cabot and Edward Waldo Emerson after Emerson's death. Because "many envelopes contained multiple drafts or otherwise physically distinct forms of the same lecture, or of two or more different lectures," each such entity was "assigned a separate folder." No further attempt was made to "rearrange the contents of the folder, beyond cor- recting the most obvious errors of sequence. Instead, the leaves in each folder have been numbered consecutively." These numbers, written in pencil at the bottom left recto of each leaf, represent the Houghton's numbering system, not Emerson's, as some people have thought. In describing the state of these manuscripts, the editors of Emerson's Early Lectures (EL) comment that Emerson began by using bifolio sheets, which he 16 Much of this material was used in One First Love: The 17 http://nrs.harvard.edu/um-3:FHCL.Hought:hou00304. Letters of Ellen Louisa Tucker to Ralph Waldo Emerson, ed. Gregg. RESOURCES FOR THE STUDY OF EMERSON AT HARVARD 97 then stitched together. But this process "gradually broke down as more and more single leaves were inserted until, between 1848 and 1870, his lecture manuscripts consisted of single sheets of various sizes and kinds without much logical arrange- ment." As they gained more familiarity with the lecture manuscripts, the edi- tors of EL realized that the later they got into Emerson's lecturing career, the more complex the texts became, and the original plan to continue EL through the lectures of 1847 was revised: the edition stopped in 1843, after which "Emerson's approach to the whole process of writing and oral composition underwent a profound change (EL, 3:v). In our own work on Emerson's Later Lectures (LL), 19 we concluded that while the pages of a few of Emerson's later lecture manuscripts are sewn together, the vast majority consist of heavily emended leaves that were never sewn together [Also] there is ample evidence throughout these later lecture manuscripts of Emerson's having interleaved relatively fresh pages of prose among his worn pages over successive deliveries of a lecture and, as his multiple pagination sequences inscribed in various locations on each recto suggest, of his having moved text around both within individual lectures and between individual lec- tures (1:xxxvi) There are a number of comments in the Emerson family papers about how from one to five lecture leaves were to be given to family members at a time. In addition, notes by Edward Waldo Emerson scattered in Emerson's post-1855 lecture manuscripts "indicate his taking of anywhere from ten to fifty sheets of unspecified lecture manuscript material for a variety of not together clear pur- poses," but we strongly suspect that a major purpose was for use in the so-called Autograph Centenary Edition of Complete Works." We go into detail in this section to make clear that the lecture manuscripts in bMS Am 1280.193-1280.214 are of distinctly different types: those for 1843 and earlier are physically coherent units, usually stitched together; those from 1844 to 1870-1871 are progressively more and more composed of loose sheets of paper with multiple pagination sequences in Emerson's hand; and those from 1870- 1871 on are essentially loose leaves of paper in folders, whose order is that of the Houghton Library and not that of Emerson or his literary executors. 22 Many of these loose leaves are unpublished (though a number of them duplicate ideas expressed elsewhere in Emerson's writings or lectures), but they do not string themselves together into coherent lecture units. All of the sermons in bMS Am 1280.215 were published in The Complete Sermons of Ralph Waldo Emerson. Because this catalogue was compiled before the 18 The Early Lectures of Ralph Waldo Emerson, ed. Robert shows that most located copies have a leaf of lecture F. Spiller, Stephen E. Whicher, and Wallace E. manuscript present. Williams, 3 vols. (Cambridge: Harvard University 2.2 For a detailed examination of this issue, see also Bosco, Press, 1959-1972). tixxiii. "His Lectures Were Poetry His Teaching the Music 19 The Later Lectures of Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1843-1871, of the Spheres': Annie Adams Fields and Francis ed. Bosco and Myerson, 2 vols. (Athens: University of Greenwood Peabody on Emerson's "Natural History of Georgia Press, 2001). the Intellect" University Lectures at Harvard in 1870," 20 See bMS Am 1280.235 (728), Box 1. Harvard Library Bulletin, n.s. 8 (Summer 1997) 1-79. 21 LL, Exdi. The Autograph Centenary Edition was 2 23 The Complete Sermons of Ralph Waldo Emerson, ed. special printing (and binding), limited to 500 copies, Albert J von Frank et al., 4 vols. (Columbia: each with a page of Emerson's manuscript inserted. University of Missouri Press, 1989-1992). Our examination of numerous copies of this edition 98 RALPH WALDO EMERSON: A BICENTENNIAL EXHIBITION publication of Complete Sermons, the titles assigned to the sermons were taken from the list published by Arthur Cushman McGiffert, Jr., in Young Emerson Speaks (1938).24 (4) Emerson family letters and documents (MS Am 1280.218).25 This small collection contains documents concerning Emerson's father William and letters from Edward Bliss Emerson to Waldo. (5 Additional papers, ca. 1835-1891 (bMS Am 1280.220).28 These small collections of papers are divided into four series. Series I: Letters of Ralph Waldo Emerson. These letters to family members are all published in L. Series II: Letters to Ralph Waldo Emerson. The correspondents include fam- ily members such as Ellen Louisa Tucker Emerson and Elizabeth Hoar. Series III: Other letters. These letters were nearly all written to or exchanged among family members. Series IV: Manuscripts. Included here are Charles Chauncy Emerson's .Class oration [IS July 1828], Diary [1831-1836], and Notes on logic [n.d.]; a com- monplace book of Ellen Louisa Tucker Emerson, 1826-[1829]; Lidian Jackson Emerson's notebook containing drawings, accounts, and household inventories, II December 1810-January 1866; Emerson's diary [1862], with Edward Waldo Emerson's notes of a trip to the west coast; and various poems and notes for poems by Emerson. (6) Letters from various correspondents (bMS Am 1280.225). A small collection of letters including some to Emerson from Theodore Parker, his brothers Charles Chauncy and Edward Bliss Emerson, his daughter Ellen Tucker Emerson, and his aunt Mary Moody Emerson (plus letters by her to others). 7) Emerson family correspondence (bMS Am 1280.226).28 A major collection of some 4200 items housed in 45 boxes occupying IS linear feet. Included are letters exchanged among Charles Chauncy Emerson, Edward Bliss Emerson, Edward Waldo Emerson, Ellen Tucker Emerson, Lidian Jackson Emerson, Mary Moody Emerson, Emerson, Ruth Haskins Emerson, and William Emerson. Also included are numerous letters from Emerson (all printed in L); letters written between family members (including Emerson's father William); and letters to family members by Louisa May Alcott, James Elliot Cabot, William Henry Channing, Lydia Maria Child, Moncure Daniel Conway, Frederic Henry Hedge, Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Elizabeth Hoar, Emma Lazarus, Charles King Newcomb, Charles Eliot Norton, Elizabeth Palmer Peabody, Wendell Phillips, Ezra Ripley, Sarah Alden Bradford Ripley, Franklin Benjamin Sanborn, Daniel Webster, and others. 24 Young Emerson Speaks: Unpublished Discourses on Many 26 http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:FHCL.Hough:hou0032. Subjects, ed. Arthur Cushman McGiffert, Jr. (Boston: 27 http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:FHCL.Hough:hou0343. Houghton Mifflin, 1938). pp. 263-271. 28 http://nrs.harvard.edu/um-3:FHCL.Hough:hou00324 25 http://nrs.harvard.edu/um-3:FHCL.Hough:houco348. RESOURCES FOR THE STUDY OF EMERSON AT HARVARD 99 (8) Additional papers, 1852-1898 (bMS Am 1280.228).29 A small collec- tion, including materials by Edward Waldo Emerson, Ellen Tucker Emerson, Lidian Jackson Emerson, and letters (all published in L) and seven poems by Emerson. (9) Emerson family papers (bMS Am 1280.235).30 By far the largest of the RWEMA collections, this series of over 700 items (many of them single shelfmarks representing small collections in their own right) is housed in 169 boxes occupying 56 linear feet. This series brings together numerous collections that were previously catalogued separately, so anyone working with shelfmark references from earlier writings about Emerson, such as 'EM 349.P.1831.6.20', or accession numbers such as **[year]M-[number]' (as in '*42M-407'), should con- sult the catalogue for this series to determine whether the item for which they are looking has been renumbered and placed in this series. This collection is divided into six subseries and three appendices: Series I: Compositions by Ralph Waldo Emerson. Listed here are five subseries: Subseries A: Autograph manuscript poems by Emerson lists alphabetically by title or first line (if there is no title) over one hundred poems or frag- ments of poems and their place of publication, if any. Subseries B: Autograph manuscript prose by Emerson (though sometimes in other hands) lists alphabetically by title (or first line if there is no title) approx- imately 20 items, including a proposed table of contents for Essays: Third Series, and lists of Emerson's lecture engagements for the years 1846-1870 and lectures delivered by Emerson before the Concord Lyceum, 1841-1880. Subseries C: Transcripts and copies by others of poetry and prose composi- tions by Emerson lists alphabetically by title or subject approximately 50 items, including transcriptions of Emerson's address at the annual meet- ing of the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society [24 January 1861], address at the Latin School Alumni meeting on the centennial anniversary of the reopening of the school after the evacuation of Boston [n.d.], "Aristocracy and Education" [n.d.], a biographical sketch prepared to assist E. P. Whipple in his memoir of Emerson in the American Cyclopedia [n.d.], "Country Life" [n.d.], "The Preacher" [n.d.], "Remarks at a meeting held in Boston, May 30, 1867 [on] free religion in America" [n.d.], "Superlatives" [n.d.] (with a set of galley proofs), and "To James Russell Lowell on His 40th Birthday" [n.d.]. Subseries D: Photostats of compositions by Emerson contains copies of materials available elsewhere. Subseries E: Business papers by Emerson contains about forty items, the most interesting of them relating to Emerson's role as a lecturer and author, and in publishing the works of his friends. Included here are accounts with Charles C. Little and James Brown concerning receipts for tickets sold for lecture series by Emerson and the publication of Thomas 29 If It is also possible to check OASIS for accession num- 30 bers or old "EM" numbers. 100 RALPH WALDO EMERSON: A BICENTENNIAL EXHIBITION Carlyle's The French Revolution and Past and Present; with James Munroe detailing the publication and sale of Emerson's own works and receipts for tickets sold for his lectures, as well as for the publication of Carlyle's Critical and Miscellaneous Essays; with Phillips, Sampson concerning the publication of Carlyle's The Life of John Sterling; with Wiley and Putnam concerning Carlyle; and information about Emerson's involvement in the financial collapse of the Fruitlands community. Series II: Compositions by other authors. This is divided into two subseries: Subseries A: Manuscripts by authors other than Emerson, including Louisa May Alcott's "His own Rhodora fresh and fair," her poem written in honor of Emerson's seventy-eighth birthday; Ellery Channing's "Shakespere; in two parts" [n.d.]; Charles Chauncy Emerson, including an Exhibition oration on "The Value of Letters" [1827], "Journal of a tour to Maine and New Hampshire" [1830], "Mental Culture" [n.d.], college compositions, daybook, and lectures on games and amusements [ca. 1830], Puerto Rico [1833], society [ca. 1834], Socrates [ca. 1833], the constitution of man [ca. 1830], and toleration [1835]; Edward Bliss Emerson's "Address to the Convention of School-masters" [1824], "Hindoo Laws, Mosaic Law, Mackintosh Ethics" [n.d], lectures on Asia [1829-1830], memorandum book [1831-1834], "Oration in English: The Encouragement of a Sound Literature the Duty of the Patriot" [ca. 1823], and journal on Puerto Rico [1831-1832]; Lidian Jackson Emerson's poetry and prose fragments; Mary Moody Emerson's "Almanacks" [1804-1855] or diary in 47 folders; Ruth Haskins Emerson's private writings; Emerson's father William's diary, writings, and sermons; origi- nals and copies of writings by Margaret Fuller; Charles King Newcomb's journal and writings concerning Emerson's children; Sampson Reed's orations at Harvard (including "On Genius" [1830]); Ezra Ripley's ser- mons; and Henry David Thoreau's poems. Subseries B: Modern transcripts and copies of compositions by authors other than Emerson, includes I2 items copying materials elsewhere in the collections or not relating to Emerson. Series III: Correspondence of Emerson, includes some letters by Emerson (published in L), letters to Emerson, and calling cards and empty envelopes. Series IV: Letters by and to other correspondents is a general collection, including manuscript letters and transcripts and photocopies of letters, including letters by Ellen Tucker Emerson to various correspondents [1850- 1909] in 17 binders and transcripts of, extracts from, and copies of letters by and to various members of the Emerson family, the originals of many of which can be located in the Houghton catalogues and indexes to the Emerson Family Papers. 32 Mary Moody Emerson's "Almanacks" are being edited 33 Not all of Ellen's letters were published in The Letters by Noelle Baker, Phyllis Cole, and Sandra Harbert of Ellen Tucker Emerson, ed. Gregg. Petralions. RESOURCES FOR THE STUDY OF EMERSON AT HARVARD 101 Series V: Miscellaneous material, including 34 daguerreotypes, ambrotypes, and photographs of various members of the Emerson family;34 printed matter such as leaflets, brochures, clippings (loose and in scrapbooks), broadsides, books, magazine articles, and ephemeral printed matter; and ephemera including all manner of miscellaneous Emersoniana, such as greeting cards, calling cards, empty envelopes, printed menus, and invitations. Series VI: Secondary material, such as miscellaneous notes, compositions, and data collected by editors, biographers, and other Emerson scholars. Among the most interesting items are Sylvester Baxter's drafts for "The Other Emersons," an unpublished biography of the Emerson brothers; James Elliot Cabot's notes on Emerson, including materials relating to his 1887 biogra- phy of Emerson such as notebooks and ledgers; Edward Waldo Emerson's notes on his father; Charles Eliot Norton's list of corrections and deletions from his edition of Emerson's correspondence with Carlyle; and catalogues of books in Emerson's library (II card boxes). There are also three appendices: an index of names, an index to compositions by Emerson, and accessions numbers of manuscripts in this collection (useful in tracing where items with old shelfmarks have been recatalogued in the new series). Manuscripts by Emerson have also been obtained by the Houghton from sources other than the RWEMA collection, including "Adirondac" (MS Am 82.12), comments on the Centennial celebration of the Battle of Concord in 1875 (MS Am 82.8), "Character" from Lectures and Biographical Sketches (MS Am 82.3), "Days" (MS Am 82.10), "Power" from The Conduct of Life (MS Am 82), "Threnody" (MS Am 82.5), and "The Titmouse" (MS Am 82.2).35 Numerous letters to and from Emerson are present in other collections at Houghton, which has, after all, the papers of most of the great New England authors of the nineteenth century. From 1948 to 1992 these collections could be accessed through a card catalogue that indexed its finding aids and accession records. This catalogue, which provides the best single source of information about Houghton's holdings, was published in 1986 by Chadwyck-Healey. Some collections deserve special comment: Christopher Pearse Cranch's "Illustrations of the New Philosophy" (bMS Am 1506) brilliantly characterizes lines from Emerson through caricatures; the North American Review Papers (bMS Am 1704.10) include the manuscripts of two of Emerson's contributions to the journal, "Michael Angelo" [1837] and "The Poetical Works of John Milton" [1838]; and the Caroline Sturgis Tappan Papers (bMS Am 1221) contain some poems by Emerson and almost fifty letters she wrote him. 38 34 Some of these pictures of family members and friends 37 http://nrs.harvard.edu/umn-3:FHCL.Hough:houo137. are reproduced in the OASIS catalogue. Although published in F. DeWolfe Miller's Christopher 35 Also here is "The President's Proclamation" (MS Am Pearse Cranch and His Caricatures of New England 82.4). published in Emerson's Antislavery Writings, ed. Transcendentalism (Cambridge: Harvard University Len Gougeon and Myerson (New Haven: Yale Press, 1951), these are still worth viewing in person, University Press, 1995). especially after their recent conservation. 30 Catalogue of Manuscripts in the Houghton Library, Harvard 38 Many of Tappan's letters to Emerson are printed in University, 8 vols. (Alexandria, Va.: Chadwyck-Healey, Tilton's volumes of L. Her letters, along with those of 1986). Harvard is presently migrating all the informa- Emerson and Fuller, are being collected by Ronald A. tion in these volumes into HOLLIS and OASIS. Bosco, Robert N. Hudspeth, and foel Myerson in 2 volume that will document this spirited three-way cor- respondence. IQ2 RALPH WALDO EMERSON: A BICENTENNIAL EXHIBITION Holdings relating to Emerson at other Harvard libraries are of varying interest. The Harvard University Archives is understandably rich in materials detailing the lives of the four Emerson brothers at Harvard. The "Bertha Illsey Tolman Memorial Index of University Records 1636-1870" lists all appearances of the brothers in the university's manuscript records. Also, the Archives holds the manuscripts for a number of declamations, Bowdoin Prize essays, and graduation speeches made by the brothers, including Charles' "Astronomical Problems" [1828], "Public Opinion" [1828], "Valedictory Oration to the Senior Class" [1828], and "Whether the Moral Influence of Poetry Has Been on the Whole Beneficial to Mankind" [1828]; Edward's "Calculation and Projection of a Solar Eclipse in 1826" [1824]; and Waldo's "The Character of Socrates" [1821] and "On the Present State of Ethical Philosophy" [1820]. 39 The Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America holds manuscripts by friends and relations of Emerson, but no major materials by him. The Harvard Divinity School's Andover-Harvard Theological Library holds the papers of many of Emerson's ministerial colleagues, as well as records from the American Unitarian Association and various Boston churches.4 Of special interest are Theodore Parker's Papers (bMS 101), including his man- uscript journal, little of which has been published. The Harvard Law School Library holds the papers of James Bradley Thayer, a friend of Emerson's who accompanied him on his 1871 trip to California,42 including diary-like letters to his wife written while on the journey with Emerson, and letters to Emerson relating to Emerson's business affairs. 43 : 39 The shelfinarks are "Astronomical Problems" (HUC 41 Parts of Parker's journals are published in John Weiss, The $782.514PF), "Public Opinion" (HUC 6828.54), Life and Correspondence of Theodore Parker, 2 vols. (New "Valedictory Oration to the Senior Class (HUD York: D, Appleton, 1864). and Carol Ingalls Johnston, 228.04.34), and "Whether the Moral Influence of "The Journals of Theodore Parker: July-December Poetry Has Been on the Whole Beneficial to 1840," Ph.D. dissertation, University of South Carolina, Mankind" (HU 89.165.69); "Calculation and 1980. There are also letters from Frederic Henry Hedge to Projection of a Solar Eclipse" (HUC B782.514PF); and Emerson (b MS 183/1), but these have been published in "The Character of Socrates" (HU 89.165.44) and "On Myerson, "Frederic Henry Hedge and the Failure of the Present State of Ethical Philosophy" (HU Transcendentalism," Harvard Library Bulletin, 23 (October 89.165.5)-Emerson's two Bowdoin Prize essays 1975): 396-410. which are published in Two Unpublished Essays, ed. 42 See [James Bradley Thayer], A Western journey with Mr. Edward Everett Hale (Boston: Lamson Wolffe, 1896). Emerson (Boston: Little. Brown. 1884). 40 Finding aids to these papers may be found at 43 These materials are in the Harvard Depository and should http://www.hds.harvard.edu/library/bms/bmsindr.html. be ordered in advance of visiting the Law Library. 1-10-07 Bib PMHS CFPL C.Pam.3#17 1/07. (1844-1930) EDWARD WALDO EMERSON A MEMOIR BY ALLEN FRENCH EDWARD WALDO EMERSON, son of Ralph Waldo Emerson, was born on July 10, 1844, in Concord, Massachusetts, to perhaps the best conditions which the New England of that day had to offer: a town where the old ideals and simple living were prized, a circle which included people of great ability, and a household with a remarkable father and mother. The mother, "deeply religious and spiritually minded," brought the children up with care. The father, because of his lecture tours, was much away from home; but when with his family, he gave it of his best. Edward's older sister, Ellen, was his best companion in a delicate childhood and fostered his bent toward art. Of the many distinguished people who entered his father's doors the boy learned much, yet felt most interest in two neighbors, Louisa May Alcott and Henry D. Tho- reau, each half a generation. older than himself, When Ralph Waldo Emerson was away in Europe, Thoreau lived in the house; and at other times he was a frequent visitor. Thoreau had a marked respect for children and with his varied entertainment and instruction did much to develop Edward's mind and char- acter. In the household all the interests of the day were discussed. Edward learned to think for himself and, when necessary, to say his say. Edward W.Emeryon His life was conditioned by definite limitations - first of all his health. As he came of college age, the Civil War broke out, and he wished to enlist, for with his great love of horses he had the spirit of a cavalryman. But his health forbade his volunteering; and though twice drawn in the draft, he was each time rejected for service. He turned reluctantly to college, entered Harvard with the Class of 1865, and, after losing a year because of sickness, graduated in 1866. Next he tried railroading in the new West; but again his health broke down, and he had to build himself up by outdoor work. As he grew stronger, he wished to devote him- self to art, but saw, no living in it; and in view of the state of his I 2 3 father's finances his living had to be earned. Hence he made an- in pithy and arresting phrases. Of his profession he thought other of those compromises of which his life was made up, and highly, as indispensable; but he did not wish to lose himself in sought usefulness and health in the life of a country doctor. He it. "First, man; second, citizen; and then doctor, is the right got his education at the Harvard Medical School and in Europe, order." And when he said "A man's calling, if it be the right and in 1874 took up his practice in his own town. one, should confirm his strength and stimulate his growth," he For the secret of Edward Emerson's character one need look no was unconsciously thinking of the action of his profession on further than these repeated disappointments, these enforced sub- himself. For in it he came to a firm and well-rounded manhood. missions to fate. They did much toward developing in him a Yet he turned away from the calling. His health still handicapped sweetness of character in accepting temporary defeat, together him, and in spite of his valiant words he found the physical with a persistence in searching for the next thing which it was burden too great. At that time, also, the death of his father gave possible for him to do. His experience developed his sympathies; him definite financial support on which in part to rely. He left his face and voice showed his gentleness and kindliness. He was medicine, therefore, in order to devote himself to developing the lovable; yet he was strong. Repeated bereavements in a charming strongly aesthetic side of his nature by painting and writing. family life which there is here no room to describe he bore like After three years of systematic study he was appointed to the a soldier, and allowed them to cast no shadow on his brave and lectureship in art anatomy in the school of the Museum of Fine hopeful disposition. Arts, Boston. He held it for twenty years, naming his substitute For eight years Edward Emerson practised medicine in Con- during his summers abroad. He studied in Europe and, return- cord. His work was that of the typical family doctor in a country ing home, he gave exhibitions. But he felt that he had entered town; it was strenuous, exacting, wholesome, and full of inter- art too late, and he never gained sufficient self-confidence in it to ests, anxieties, and satisfactions. He was conscientious and a hard trust himself fully to it. His painting, however, was a welcome worker; he was out at all hours at whatever season. His love of means of self-expression and, for many years, a happy recourse. horses stood him in good stead, for he always had one horse in Work in art was early interrupted by the beginning of the long his stable, and sometimes three. According to the circumstances, labor of bringing out a definitive edition of his father's works. he drove in a buggy or a sleigh, or even rode, with his medicines The lecture platform drew him also. It is in this literary field and instruments in his saddle-bags. He was a good horseman and that he made his permanent mark, not merely as his father's edi- preferred the saddle for snowy times, thinking that it was easier tor, but as expressing in his own essays and lectures his views on for the beast. But once it proved worse for the rider when his life and art. He travelled to deliver his lectures, he put them in horse fell with him in the night and pinned him in a snowdrift, print as magazine articles, and he was called to deliver addresses with nobody near, and (as he knew at once) with his leg broken. and poems on special occasions. He was elected to honorary mem- Somehow he managed to get the horse up and himself in the bership in the Phi Beta Kappa in 1882, and in 1917 he became saddle, and to ride safely home again. The picturesque life rip- a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He was ened and matured him, though the strain of its hardships was elected to our own Society in June, 1910. Such recognition was severe. He would be greatly troubled by the death of a patient to him merely encouragement to persevere; and he was, in his if he could find the shadow of a reason to blame himself; but he various pursuits, always a busy man. His work on his father's took great satisfaction in his successful cases, which more than writings being finished in 1903 in the carefully annotated Cen- offset the distresses of his failures. tenary Edition, the son turned at once to the publication of the It was practically a farewell to his profession when, in 1882, he journals. These, by the valued help of Waldo Emerson Forbes, delivered his lecture on "The Man as Doctor," and in it sum- were issued in six volumes between 1909 and 1914. Dr. Emerson marized and reviewed his career. In this first of his printed writ- then at once began The Early Years of the Saturday Club, a long ings he proved that, like his father, he could set forth his ideas labor not completed until late in 1918. Meanwhile, in 1917, he 4 issued his Thoreau, as Remembered by a Young Friend. Earlier he had written Emerson in Concord and the lives of General Charles R. Lowell and (in collaboration with Moorfield Storey) Ebenezer Rockwood Hoar. In 1930, after Edward Emerson's death, his son issued in a volume entitled Essays, Addresses, and Poems the more outstand- ing of his father's shorter pieces. This book, the various volumes of Ralph Waldo Emerson's annotated works, the thick volume on the Saturday Club, and the others just named are permanent works of value standing to the credit of Edward Emerson. As his fa- ther's son he will doubtless always be overshadowed by his father's fame; but his own work has insight and sympathy, with an apt phrasing which gives it a flavor of its own, and deserves to be remembered. As age overtook him, he went for various winters to the South to avoid the northern climate. But he subsequently gave up the practice, and for the last few years of his life took the New Eng- land seasons as they came. A part of each summer he spent at Jaffrey, overlooked by the Monadnock which he loved. But he was a Concordian through and through; and as he was born in Concord, SO he died there on January 27, 1930. The delicate youth had lived to the ripe age of eighty-six. Of those who mourned for him, few remembered him as a doctor: the tribute of the many at his funeral was paid to the citizen and to the man. From the PROCEEDINGS of the Massachusetts Historical Society, Volume 65 Collection: Papers of Edward Waldo Forbes, 1867-2005 HOLLIS for Archival Discovery Page 1 of 3 HOLLIS for Archival Discovery COLLECTION Identifier: HC 2 " CITATION REQUEST VIEW PDF CSV ? ASK A LIBRARIAN Papers of Edward Waldo Forbes, 1867-2005 FOUND IN: Harvard Art Museums Archives / Papers of Edward Waldo Forbes, 1867-2005 COLLECTION OVERVIEW COLLECTION INVENTORY DIGITAL MATERIAL (26) These papers of Fogg Museum director Edward Waldo Forbes document his administration of the museum and a wide range of personal and professional activities and interests. The bulk of the collection dates from 1909 to 1944. The papers consist primarily of correspondence, including a series of correspondence with art dealers, and also include photographs, reports, expedition field notes and journals, printed material, newspaper clippings, See more > Dates 1867-2005 Creator Forbes, Edward W. (Edward Waldo), 1873-1969 (Person) Conditions on Access: Access: Unrestricted. Copyright: The President and Fellows of Harvard College hold any copyright in Forbes' papers. Copyright in some papers in the collection may be held by their authors' heirs or assigns. Researchers must obtain the written permission of the holder(s) of copyright and the Harvard Art Museum Archives before publishing quotations from any material in the collection. Conditions on Use: Copying: Papers may be copied in accordance with the Harvard Art Museums Archives usual procedures. https://hollisarchives.lib.harvard.edu/repositories/9/resources/384 2/6/2020 Who Lived Here ? - The Home of Ralph Waldo Emerson Page 1 of 6 The Ralph Waldo Emerson House is closed for the season and will reopen on April 30th, 2020. THE HOME OF RALPH WALDO EMERSON "EVERY SPIRIT BUILDS ITSELF A HOUSE; AND BEYOND ITS HOUSE, A WORLD " HOME VISIT EVENTS/NEWS PEOPLE EMERSON LINKS DONATE VISIT Who Lived Here ? THE EMERSONS IN 1879 WITH THEIR CHILDREN AND GRANDCHILDREN ON THE EAST DOORSTEP, EMERSON HOUSE. STANDING LEFT TO RIGHT; EDWARD EMERSON, EDWARD FORBES, ELLEN EMERSON, EDITH FORBES, RALPH WALDO EMERSON, CAMERON FORBES, LIDIAN EMERSON, DON FORBES, RALPH FORBES. SEATED LEFT TO RIGHT; ANNIE KEYES EMERSON, CHARLES EMERSON, EDITH EMERSON FORBES HOLDING WALDO FORBES. In addition to Ralph Waldo Emerson, family members who lived in the house included: https://www.ralphwaldoemersonhouse.org/who-lived-here 2/6/2020 Emerson Family Photographs, ca. 1845-1983 Page I of 22 Emerson Family Photographs ca. 1845-1983; bulk: 1850-1897 Guide to the Photograph Collection COLLECTION SUMMARY TITLE: Emerson family photographs DATES: ca. 1845-1983 BULK DATES: 1850-1897 PHYSICAL 153 photographs in 1 box and 1 volume (cased) DESCRIPTION: CALL NUMBER: Photo. Coll. 152 LOCATION: In the Massachusetts Historical Society Photo. Archives. REPOSITORY: Massachusetts Historical Society , 1154 Boylston Street, Boston, MA 02215 library@masshist.org (mailto:library@masshist.org) ABSTRACT This collection contains 153 photographs in one box and one cased volume, most dating from 1850- 1867. The bulk of the collection consists of loose formal portrait photographs and informal snapshots of various members of the Emerson, Haven, Forbes, Mott, and Tompkins families. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES William Emerson (WmE I) (1769-1811) was the son of William Emerson (1743-1776) and Phebe Bliss (1741-1825). He graduated from Harvard College in 1789, and in 1792 he became minister of the First Congregational Church at Harvard, Mass. From 1799 until his death, he preached at the First Church (Old Brick) in Boston. WmE I was a member of the Massachusetts Historical Society. He was married to Ruth Haskins (1768-1853) of Boston in 1796, and they had eight children: Phebe Ripley (1798-1800), John Clarke (1799-1807), William (WmE II) (1801-1868), Ralph Waldo (RWE) (1803-1882), Edward Bliss (1805-1834), Robert Bulkeley (1807-1859), Charles Chauncy (1808-1836), and Mary Caroline (1811-1814). http://www.masshist.org/collection-guides/view/fap020 2/6/2020 Emerson Family Photographs, ca. 1845-1983 Page 2 of 22 William Emerson (WmE II) (1801-1868), the son of William Emerson and Ruth Haskins, married Susan Woodward Haven (1807-1868), daughter of John Haven (1766-1849) and Ann Woodward (1771-1859), in 1833. He graduated from Harvard College in 1818, received his A.M. degree from Harvard University in 1821, and studied theology and philosophy at the University of Göttingen, Germany, from 1824 to 1825. He was appointed attorney and counselor in the state of New York and was named First Judge of the County Courts in the county of Richmond, N.Y. in 1841. He and his wife lived on Staten Island, N.Y., with their three children, William (WmE III) (1835-1864), John Haven (1840-1913), and Charles (1841-1916). Ralph Waldo Emerson (RWE) (1803-1882) was the son of William Emerson (WmE I) and Ruth Haskins. The well-known poet, preacher, and man of American letters married Ellen Louisa Tucker (d. 1831) in 1829 and Lidian Jackson (1802-1892) in 1835. This second marriage produced four children: Waldo (1836-1841), Ellen Tucker (1839-1909), Edith (b. 1841), and Edward Waldo (1844-1930). RWE was a member of the Massachusetts Historical Society. Charles Chauncy Emerson (1808-1836) was the son of William Emerson (WmE I) and Ruth Haskins. He graduated with the Harvard class of 1828 and received his A.M. and L.L.B. degrees there in 1832. He served as a lawyer in Boston and was engaged to Elizabeth Hoar (1814-1878) at his death in 1836. William Emerson (WmE III) (1835-1864) was the son of William Emerson (WmE II) and Susan (Haven). He graduated from Columbia College in 1853 and Harvard Law School in 1856. He was married to Sarah Hopper Gibbons (b. 1835) in 1863. They resided in New York, where he was a member of the bar. John Haven Emerson (1840-1913) was the son of William Emerson (WmE II) and Susan Woodward Haven. He graduated from Columbia College in 1860 and earned his M.D. degree at the New York College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1864. A successful New York physician, he was published widely in medical journals. He married Susan Titus Tompkins (b. 1840) of Somers, N.Y., in 1868, and they had six children: Ruth (b. 1870), William (b. 1873), Haven (b. 1874), Helena Titus (1877-1967), Elizabeth Hoar (1877-1882), and Julia Titus (b. 1877). Charles Emerson (1841-1916) was the son of William Emerson (WmE II) and Susan Woodward Haven. He graduated with the class of 1863 at Harvard College, and beginning in 1862, he served in the Civil War. He was married to Theresia ("Terche") Keveschi (b. 1847) of Hungary in 1871, and they settled in Concord, Mass. Ellen Tucker Emerson (b. 1839) was the daughter of Ralph Waldo Emerson and Lidian Jackson. She resided in Concord. Edith Emerson Forbes (b. 1841) was the daughter of Ralph Waldo Emerson and Lidian Jackson. She was married to William Hathaway Forbes (1840-1897) in 1865, and they resided in Milton, Mass. Their children were: Ralph Emerson (b. 1866), Edith (b. 1867), William Cameron (b. 1871), John Murray (1871-1888), Edward Waldo (b. 1874), Waldo Emerson (b. 1879), Ellen Randolph (1880-1881), and Alexander (b. 1882). Edward Waldo Emerson (1844-1930) was the son of Ralph Waldo Emerson and Lidian Jackson. He married Annie Shepherd Keyes (b. 1847) in 1874. Their children were: William (b./d. 1875), Charles Lowell (1876-1880), John (1878-1879), Ellen Tucker (b. 1880), Florence (b. 1882), William Forbes (b. 1884), and Raymond (b. 1886) For more biographical and genealogical information on the Emerson family, see Benjamin Kendall Emerson, The Ipswich Emersons (Boston: David Clapp & Son), 1900. http://www.masshist.org/collection-guides/view/fap020 2/6/2020 Emerson Family Photographs, ca. 1845-1983 Page 3 of 22 COLLECTION DESCRIPTION The Emerson family photographs consist of one box of loose photographs and one cased volume, as well as glass photographs stored separately from the collection. The collection spans the years ca. 1845 to 1983, with the bulk of the photographs dating from 1850-1897. Most of the collection consists of formal and informal portraits of Emerson family members. One box contains loose tintype, carte de visite portraits, cabinet cards, and other paper-based portraits of various Emerson, Haven, Forbes, Mott, and Tompkins family members. Subjects include William Emerson II; John Haven Emerson; Ralph Waldo Emerson, Lidian Jackson Emerson, and their children; Annie Shepherd Keyes Emerson and her children; and Edith Emerson Forbes and her children, among others. One album also contains carte de visite and tintype portraits of various Emerson family members. There are also a small number of loose photographs of various Emerson and Haven family homes in Massachusetts and New Hampshire. The Emerson family photographs also include a number of daguerreotypes and one ambrotype stored separately apart from the collection by format in the Daguerreotype collection (Photo. Coll. 1) and Ambrotype collection (Photo. Coll. 2). These cased glass photographs include portraits of various Emerson, Haven, Mott, and Tompkins family members. See the Photograph List for details and request these photographs based on the call numbers listed in bold there. Photographers represented in this collection include Edward Waldo Emerson, Jeremiah Gurney and Rockwood (both of New York, N.Y.), and James Wallace Black, John Adams Whipple, and Southworth & Hawes (all of Boston, Mass.). RELATED MATERIALS The Massachusetts Historical Society (MHS) library holds the following collection related to the Emerson family photographs: Emerson family papers, 1786-1959. Ms. N-251. Finding aid available at: http://www.masshist.org/collection-guides/view/fa0012 (http://www.masshist.org/collection- guides/view/fa0012) ACQUISITION INFORMATION This collection was removed from the Emerson family papers, which were deposited at the Massachusetts Historical Society in May 1993 by Dr. Michael Wortis, great-great-grandson of William Emerson. The papers were given to the Society by Dr. Wortis in Aug. 2003. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE COLLECTION http://www.masshist.org/collection-guides/view/fap020 2/6/2020 Edith Emerson Forbes and William Hathaway Forbes Papers and Additions, 1827-1969 Page 1 of 21 Edith Emerson Forbes and William Hathaway Forbes Papers and Additions 1827-1969; bulk: 1827-1953 Guide to the Collection Restrictions on Access The Edith Emerson and William Hathaway Forbes papers and additions (except two volumes) are stored offsite and must be requested at least two business days in advance via Portal1791 (https://aeon.masshist.org/) Researchers needing more than six items from offsite storage should provide additional advance notice. If you have questions about requesting materials from offsite storage, please contact the reference desk at 617-646-0532 or reference@masshist.org (mailto:reference@masshist.org) There are restrictions on the use of this collection. Users must sign an agreement stating that they understand these restrictions before they will be given access to the collection. COLLECTION SUMMARY CREATOR: Forbes, Edith Emerson, 1841-1929 TITLE: Edith Emerson Forbes and William Hathaway Forbes papers and additions DATES: 1827-1969 BULK DATES: 1827-1953 PHYSICAL 32 record cartons and 10 document boxes (stored offsite) and 2 volumes (stored DESCRIPTION: onsite) CALL NUMBER: OFFSITE STORAGE CALL NUMBER: http://www.masshist.org/collection-guides/view/fa0225 2/6/2020 Edith Emerson Forbes and William Hathaway Forbes Papers and Additions, 1827-1969 Page 2 of 21 Ms. N-2306 (Edith E. Forbes notebook and Waldo E. Forbes letterbook) REPOSITORY: Massachusetts Historical Society , 1154 Boylston Street, Boston, MA 02215 library@masshist.org (mailto:library@masshist.org) ABSTRACT This collection consists of the family papers of Edith (Emerson) and William Hathaway Forbes, who married in 1865. The collection contains Emerson family correspondence, Forbes family papers (including correspondence, financial papers, special collections, diaries and other volumes, and miscellaneous papers), William Hathaway Forbes correspondence and letterbooks, Ellen (Forbes) and Waldo Emerson Forbes correspondence, and miscellaneous papers. The bulk of the collection consists of correspondence of the various families, and in particular of Edith (Emerson) Forbes with family members and friends. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES Emerson Family William Emerson (1769-1811) married Ruth Haskins (1768-1853) in 1796. Among their children were: William Emerson (1801-1868), a lawyer and judge in New York City, living on Staten Island, who married Susan Woodward Haven (1807-1868) in 1833; and Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882), who married first Ellen Louisa Tucker (d. 1831) in 1829, and second Lidian Jackson (1802-1892) in 1835. The children of William Emerson and Susan Woodward (Haven) Emerson were: William Emerson (1835-1864), who married Sarah Hopper Gibbons in 1863; John Haven Emerson (b. 1840), who married Susan Tompkins in 1868; and Charles Emerson (b. 1841), who married Theresia Keveschi ("Tercsi") in 1871. The children of John Haven Emerson and Susan Tompkins Emerson were Ruth Emerson (b. 1870), William Emerson (b. 1873), Haven Emerson (b. 1874), and the triplets Helena Titus Emerson, Elizabeth Hoar Emerson, and Julia Titus Emerson (b. 1877). The children of Ralph Waldo Emerson and Lidian (Jackson) Emerson were: Waldo Emerson (1836- 1842), Ellen Tucker Emerson (1839-1909), Edith Emerson (1841-1929), and Edward Waldo Emerson (1844-1930). Ellen Tucker Emerson did not marry and lived in Concord throughout her life. She was devoted to family, community, and religion, and helped her father in various ways as a companion and assistant. Edward Waldo Emerson attended Harvard College from 1861 to 1866. After graduating from Harvard Medical School in 1874, he became a doctor and practiced medicine in Concord until EWE 1882. He married Annie Shepard Keyes (1847-1928) in 1874. After Ralph Waldo Emerson's death in 1882, Edward turned to painting, writing, and editing his father's works. Edward Waldo Emerson and Annie Shepard (Keyes) Emerson had seven children, four of whom survived: Ellen Tucker Emerson (1880-1921), who married Charles Davenport in 1920; Florence Emerson (b. 1882); William Forbes Emerson (b. 1884); and Raymond Emerson (1886-1977), who lived in Concord, married Amelia Forbes in 1913, and became a civil engineer and later an investment manager. On 3 Oct. 1865, Edith Emerson married William Hathaway Forbes, the son of John Murray Forbes and Sarah Swain (Hathaway) Forbes. See under Forbes family biographical information. http://www.masshist.org/collection-guides/view/fa0225 2/6/2020 Edith Emerson Forbes and William Hathaway Forbes Papers and Additions, 1827-1969 Page 3 of 21 Forbes Family John Murray Forbes (1813-1898) married Sarah Swain Hathaway (1813-1900) in 1834. Their children were: Ellen Randolph Forbes (1838-1860), Alice Hathaway Forbes (1838-1917), William Hathaway Forbes (1840-1897), Mary Hathaway Forbes (1844-1916), John Malcolm Forbes (1847-1904), and Sarah Forbes (1853-1917). Alice H. Forbes married Edward Montague Cary (1828-1888) in 1875 and had no children. Mary H. Forbes married Henry Sturgis Russell (1838-1905) in 1863 and had six children. Sarah Forbes married William Hastings Hughes (1833-1909) in 1887 and had two children. J. Malcolm Forbes married Sarah Coffin Jones (1852-1891) in 1873 and had seven children, including Ellen Forbes (1886-1954), who married her first cousin Waldo Emerson Forbes. After the death of Sarah C. (Jones) Forbes, J. Malcolm Forbes married Rose Dabney (1864-1947) in 1892 and had three children with her. William Hathaway Forbes entered Harvard in 1857, but was expelled in 1860, and then was employed at the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad, 1860-1861. He served in the First Regiment of the Massachusetts Volunteer Cavalry as second lieutenant and first lieutenant, Dec. 1861-Jan. 1863, and in the Second Regiment of the Massachusetts Volunteer Cavalry as captain, major, and lieutenant colonel, 14 Jan. 1863-15 May 1865. He was a Union prisoner at Charleston and Columbia, S.C., 6 July-Dec. 1864, and was discharged from the Second Regiment of the Massachusetts Volunteer Cavalry on 15 May 1865 He entered his father's firm of J. M. Forbes & Co. in July 1865 and married Edith Emerson on October 3 of that year. In 1871, he received the degree of A.B. from Harvard and built his summer house on Naushon Island (Buzzard's Bay, Mass.). In March 1879, William Hathaway Forbes was named president of the American Bell Telephone Company. For more information, see Arthur S. Pier, Forbes. Telephone Pioneer (New York: Dodd, Mead, 1953). On 3 Oct. 1865, William Hathaway Forbes married Edith Emerson (1841-1929), the daughter of Ralph Waldo Emerson. Their children were: Ralph Emerson Forbes (1866-1937), Edith Forbes (1867-1926, "Violet") William Cameron Forbes (1870-1959, "Cam"), John Murray Forbes (1871- 1888, "Don") Edward Waldo Forbes (1873-1969), Waldo Emerson Forbes (1879-1917), Ellen Randolph Forbes (1880-1881, "Rosebud"), and Alexander Forbes (1882-1965). Ralph Emerson Forbes married Elise Cabot (1869-1959) in 1901. Their children were: William Hathaway Forbes (b. 1902), Ruth Forbes (b. 1903), Margaret Forbes (b. 1905, "Marnie"), David Cabot Forbes (b. 1908), and Pauline Forbes (b. 1911). Edith Forbes married Kenneth Grant Tremayne Webster (1871-1942) in 1903. Their children were: Edith Emerson Webster (1909-1986) and Frederic Augustus Webster (b. 1912). William Cameron Forbes worked as a partner in his grandfather's firm, J. M. Forbes & Co., after 1899 and was appointed by President Roosevelt in 1904 to the Philippine Commission, where he held several administrative posts and then served as governor-general of the islands, 1909-1913. He also served as the ambassador to Japan in 1931-1932 and led an economic mission to East Asia in 1935. Waldo Emerson Forbes married his first cousin Ellen Forbes (1886-1954) in 1910. Their children were: Stephen Hathaway Forbes (b. 1910), Waldo Emerson Forbes (1912-1955), and Amelia Forbes (b. 1915). htp://www.masshist.org/collection-guides/view/fa0225 2/6/2020 Book Reviews Building Their Own Waldos: Emerson's First Biographers and the Politics of Life-Writing in the Gilded Age. By Robert D. Habich. (Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 2011. Pp. XXX, 186. $29.95 paper.) Building Their Own Waldos provides a perceptive analysis of the first six biographies of Ralph Waldo Emerson, which were written in a burst of memorialization that began in 1881, the year before Emerson's death, and ended in 1889. Robert Habich's study of these quite disparate books enhances our understanding of Emerson's early reception and illuminates the genre of biography, which in the 188os "was undergoing a redefinition driven in part by commercial consid- erations and in part by competing purposes" (p. 10). Habich under- stands biography as a genre conditioned by "ideology grounded in circumstance" (p. xix), and his engaging and superbly detailed narra- tive of the construction of each work makes an incontrovertible case for this approach. Each biography, as he demonstrates, was shaped by a swarm of intellectual, personal, and market-driven contingencies. Sincere admiration, celebrity worship, biographical responsibility, lit- erary aspiration, financial need, auctorial ego, and publishers' diverse goals all influenced this early appropriation of Emerson, a hot bio- graphical property in the 188os. Familial efforts to control Emerson's legacy further complicated the writing of these early biographies Longtime friends of Emerson, notably Bronson Alcott, William Henry Channing, and Frederic Henry Hedge, also felt a personal stake in the representation of Emerson, thereby compromising their value as impartial sources. Facing these tricky conditions, aspiring biographers were "forced to carve out new rhetorical territories for themselves," and Habich shows that these efforts made for "a rich, unstudied episode in the politics and commerce of life-writing" (p. xxi). George Willis Cooke, Emerson's first biographer, was, like his sub- ject, a discontented Unitarian minister who aspired to a more en- compassing spirituality. His interest in Emerson was intensified by the examples of Western Unitarian radicals like Jenkin Lloyd Jones The New England Quarterly, vol. LXXXV, no. 1 (March 2012). © 2012 by The New England Quarterly. All rights reserved. 168 This content downloaded from 137.49.125.110 on Tue, 04 Feb 2020 14:03:32 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms BOOK REVIEWS 169 and further deepened by his 1880 attendance at Alcott's Concord School of Philosophy. This experience brought him, he felt, in closer touch with Emerson's role as a universal religious teacher, and his Ralph Waldo Emerson: His Life, Writings, and Philosophy (1881), heavily influenced by Alcott, rendered Emerson as a mystic and a dispenser of Orphic truth. But Cooke failed to ground Emerson in a recognizably concrete local context, in large part because of a lack of sufficient access to the Emerson family and the Emerson papers LA lack of in-depth personal information also plagued Alexander Ireland (Ralph Waldo Emerson: His Life, Genius, and Writings, 1882) and Moncure Daniel Conway (Emerson at Home and Abroad, 1882), men whose brief periods of friendship with Emerson deeply affected them Their books were, like Cooke's, fragmentary in biographical detail, but they confirmed their subject's transatlantic reputation and portrayed a "warm and socially engaged Emerson" (p. 127), a view that would not fully return until the 1980s and 1990s when readers reappraised his later works and his antislavery commitment. "Evenhanded and gracefully written, personal in its appreciation but objective in its treatment" (p. 97), Oliver Wendell Holmes's Ralph Waldo Emerson (1884) improved upon its predecessors. The "vigor- ous marketing by America's leading literary house," Houghton Mifflin, also helped to make the book a commercial success (p. 97). Despite his lack of access to Emerson's journals, Holmes's book was well informed, given his large network of literary contacts and his "work- manlike diligence" (p. 80) as a researcher But Holmes leaned hard on the premise, implicit in all the early biographies, that Emerson should be remembered apart from transcendentalism, the movement that he helped to define and that is now nearly inseparable from his modern reputation.> "By the time of Emerson's death," Habich ex- plains, "the 'New School' was increasingly seen as passé: disengaged, irrelevant, childlike, even comic" (pp. 8-9). To protect Emerson from being tarnished, Holmes made him utterly un-transcendental, a man whose sometimes contradictory impulses were kept in check by "a constitutional equilibrium" (p. 89) that set him apart from his tran- scendentalist friends.This Emerson is not the religious radical or the egalitarian reformer to whom modern readers are drawn, but neither is he, Habich notes, a "cardboard icon fashioned by Gilded Age ideol- ogy" (p. 94). Holmes portrayed "an enormously complex and dynamic personality" (p. 94) that corresponds with the many-faceted, restlessly evolving personality one found in Emerson's journals. This content downloaded from 137.49.125.110 on Tue, 04 Feb 2020 14:03:32 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 170 THE NEW ENGLAND QUARTERLY This initial outpouring of biographical work culminated in two quite different books, both of which carried the authority of the Emerson family: James E. Cabot's Memoir of Ralph Waldo Emerson (1887), the biography written by Emerson's literary executor and sanctioned by the Emerson family, followed two years later by Emerson in Concord: A Memoir (1889), a book authored by Emerson's son, Edward Waldo Emerson. While Cabot was making steady progress on his biography, Edward Emerson was preparing his memoir for "the Social Circle in Concord, 25 influential men who met each Tuesday evening from Oc- tober through March" (p. 108). Edward began presenting parts of this work just before the publication of Cabot's official biography, which suggests that a subtle "rivalry" (p. 109) had developed between the men during Cabot's editorial work on Emerson's papers. This friction was further exacerbated by the Emerson family's sense that Cabot's intellectually oriented, scrupulously accurate narrative did not quite bring Emerson to life. In response, Edward Emerson determined to use anecdote and family recollection to re-create his father as a hus- band and parent, a friend and neighbor, and a citizen of Concord. Thus, his "much more localized" (p. 113) version of Emerson made information public that Cabot did not have or had regarded as outside the official biographer's sphere. From a critical standpoint, both Holmes's and Edward Emerson's perspectives are valuable, as are the insights of each preceding bi- ography. Taken as a whole, these early works create a portrait of "a diverse, complicated, deeply human Emerson" (p. 134), one that modern biographers and critics have since confirmed. Habich con- tends, however, that at the time this cumulative achievement had a surprisingly weak impact on Emerson's cultural reception. With the rise of "celebrity" (p. 127) as a marketable commodity in the early twentieth century, the richly complex Emerson of the first biographies was "supplanted by bland narratives of Saint Waldo" (p. 131) in the periodical press. As a result, "Emerson's cultural significance gradu- ally flattened into an iconic monotone" (p. 126). Lost to the archives for a century or more, the early Emerson biographies now show us a "'whole-souled' Emerson" who is "startlingly alive and surprisingly modern" (p. 134). David M. Robinson is Director of the Center for the Humanities at Oregon State University and author of EMERSON AND THE CON- DUCT OF LIFE (Cambridge University Press, 1993) and NATURAL This content downloaded from 137.49.125.110 on Tue, 04 Feb 2020 14:03:32 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms u.of Hartford PS 1631.674 18850 THE GENIUS AND CHARACTER OF EMERSON LECTURES AT THE CONCORD SCHOOL OF PHILOSOPHY EDITED BY F. B. SANBORN R. W. EMERSON KENNIKAT PRESS EDINBURGI, 1848. Port Washington, N. Y./London Hellotyped from IL patiting by DAVID SCOTT.