MANUSCRIPT: BPL (Higg 116). Pencil. Envelope addressed by ED in ink: Col. T. W. Higginson./Cambridge./Mass. Postmarked: Palmer Aug 6 885.

PUBLICATION: L (1931) 320.

Accompanying the letter is a clipping from the Springfield Republican of 6 August, beginning: "Mrs. Helen Hunt Jackson is reported at the point of death in San Francisco, where she has been steadily declining for the past four months." Mrs. Jackson died, l2 August.

A rough draft of two of the sentences (AC-pencil) reads thus:

What a Hazard a Letter is - When I think of the Hearts it has Gleft or healed I almost wince to lift my Hand to so much as a superscription but then we always except ourselves-