H L17
JP 5, JL 173
FP 4
OMC 22
mid-1850s
ink, one sheet, four pages
gilt-edged
watermark/embossment: SMLY, Superfine Paper London, embossed
19.5 x 12 cm.
multiply folded, corners folded to be inserted into scrapbook
FF 181-182, poem but not the letter; Letters (1894), 162;
(1931), 159, LL, 188, prose variant of the second stanza as a concluding paragraph in a "Late
Autumn, 1853" letter to Josiah and Elizabeth Holland (dated "early 1854" in LH, 38): "Then will
I not repine, knowing that bird of mine, though flown -learneth beyond the sea, melody new for
me, and will return." Poem on p. 3. Instead of lines between them, ED ends stanzas with periods. Signature "E"
rhymes with "tree" and "me" of final stanza. "Young" pencilled on fourth page. "X" on verso. Handwriting looks shaky. Though
they are women in their mid-twenties, Johnson notes, "there is nothing in other letters to indicate
a rift between the girls at this time. The draft of a letter. . .from Austin to Susan, 23 September
1851, alludes to some differences between the girls about which he refuses to take sides, but this
letter is in the handwriting of 1854." He then underscores his editorial construction substantiating
his biographical presumptions: "It is placed here to follow the emotional tone of the letter to
Susan of late August [L 172, pp. 54-57], though the disagreement on spiritual matters that seems
to lie behind it may have no connection with the feeling of neglect shown in the earlier one." Thus
his dating is conjecture. Our hypothesis is that these documents belong to a period when Sue and
Austin had already or were about to be married. More important than determining what caused
the strain between the two is the fact that this occurs rather early in a relationship that was to
grow only more intense over the next three decades. Such documents testify to the emotional
complexities and depth of the relationship.
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Transcription and commentary copyright 1996 by Martha Nell Smith, all rights reserved
Last updated on June 5, 2001
Maintained by Lara Vetter <lv26@umail.umd.edu>