MANUSCRIPT: AC. Ink. Dated: Sunday afternoon. Envelope addressed by Edward Dickinson: Mr. Austin Dickinson/Boston. The mutilations of this letter, like those in other letters written to Austin, were probably made at some later date to expunge references to Sue.

PUBLICATION: L (1894) 78-79, in part; L (1931) 75-76, in part; Home 226-232, entire, with facsimile reproduction.

The New England Puritans established a Fast Day in March or April, celebrated by the proclamation of the magistrates of each province or colony; the custom survived as a holiday in Massachusetts well into the nineteenth century. In 1852 it fell on April 8.