“Yes,” said Philip, “I am afraid she has already taken cold, with her head bare, she is so delicate.” There was deep love in his eyes as he drew the soft folds closely round his little wife, and lifted a corner to cover her bowed head. Then, still keeping his arm about her, he turned her so that she stood with her back toward the distant group, and also toward the stairway by which the other parents must descend.
They came a moment afterwards, poor things! But the noise of an arriving train on the other side covered the sounds that followed—if there were any. Philip, glancing over his shoulder, saw the child borne into one of the waiting-rooms, whose door was immediately shut upon the gazing crowd.
Now came a train on their side—the one from Notting Hill. It stopped, and Christine, composed and cool, emerged, holding Fritz’s arm firmly with one hand, and Polly’s with the other.
“Don’t stop to kiss them now,” said Moore; “let us get away from here. Christine, take the children home as fast as possible.” He followed the surprised nurse (surprised, but instantly obedient), supporting Amy up the long stairway directly behind Polly’s little legs and the knickerbockers of Fritz.
Gertrude ascended behind them. She too was bareheaded; but no one had noticed that. At the door of the station stood Banks. Composedly he presented Philip Moore’s hat.
The injured child recovered, though not for many long months. The Moores, however, left the house the next day, for the accident had made the place unpleasant to Amy. They went to the Bristol, Burlington Gardens.
On the passenger lists of the White Star steamer Teutonic, January 6, 1892, were the following names: “Philip Moore and wife; two children and nurse. Miss Remington.”
Gertrude Remington does not keep a diary. But in a small almanac she jots down occasional brief notes. This is one of them: “New Edinburgh, February 20, 1892. Philip and A. gone to Washington. House here closed.”
CHRONOLOGY
NOTE ON THE TEXTS
NOTES
Chronology
1840–49
Born March 5, 1840, in Claremont, New Hampshire, sixth daughter of Charles and Hannah Cooper Pomeroy Woolson. The only child to receive the middle name “Fenimore,” inherited on her mother’s side from the Cooper family, which includes James Fenimore Cooper, Hannah’s uncle. Two weeks later, scarlet fever epidemic hits the family: Julia, nearly 2, dies March 21; Gertrude, nearly 4, dies March 22; and Ann, 5, dies April 3. Baby Connie and two older sisters (Georgiana, 9, and Emma, 7) survive the epidemic. In the fall, Woolson family visits Cooper relatives in Cooperstown, New York, then moves to Cleveland, Ohio. A sister, Clara, born December 20, 1843. A seventh sister, Alida, born January 8, 1845; after a year of “grief and anguish,” dies January 30, 1846. Her only brother, Charles Jarvis, Jr., born September 7, 1846. Attends Miss Fuller’s Episcopal school for girls and in the late 1840s, Miss Hayden’s coeducational private academy. Around age eight, writes the poem “Symmes’ Hole”; it impresses her teacher, who predicts she will one day “excel as a writer.”
1850–52
Oldest sister Georgiana marries Samuel Livingston Mather September 24, 1850. Second oldest sister, Emma, marries Rev. Timothy Jarvis Carter May 7, 1851, despite family’s concerns about his worsening health. Georgiana gives birth July 13, 1851, to her first child, Samuel Mather, who will become a confidant and financial advisor to his aunt Constance in later years. Timothy Jarvis Carter dies of tuberculosis November 15, 1851. Emma Woolson Carter dies of tuberculosis August 14, 1852; is remembered by her family as having “literally given up her life to love.”
1853
Begins a year of coeducational schooling at public Rockwell School. Georgiana gives birth to a second child, Katharine Livingston Mather, September 3. Georgiana dies, probably of tuberculosis, November 2, making Constance, thirteen, the oldest living child, although the sixth born.
1854–57
Attends progressive Cleveland Female Seminary 1854–57, taking classes in music, art, and painting, as well as English literature, rhetoric, Latin, philosophy, history, chemistry, botany, and trigonometry. In physiology, dissects a calf and learns how to assemble a skeleton. Teacher Linda Guilford encourages her writing. The Woolsons own a cottage on Mackinac Island and spend summers there from 1855 to 1857. On Mackinac Island she gets to know Zephaniah Swift Spalding, who will become a romantic interest and model for many male characters in her later fiction. In 1857 goes to Madame Chegaray’s French finishing school in New York; takes voice lessons, attends the opera, and learns French and Italian, among mostly southern belles.
1858–60
Graduates from Madame Chegaray’s in 1858 with honors for her compositions. Family buys her a new set of stylish dresses and takes her on a tour of the fashionable East Coast resorts, presumably to look for a husband. According to a family story, she ignores her mother’s warning not to carry an open inkwell up and down stairs and spills ink all over one of her new dresses. Returns to Cleveland and begins a period of devotion to her father and mother, who suffers from chronic rheumatism. Father takes her on long drives in the country, visiting the Zoar community in the Tuscarawas Valley. Her hearing begins to deteriorate, a condition inherited from her father.
1861–65
During the Civil War, volunteers with the Soldier’s Aid Society of Northern Ohio, serves as postmistress at a Sanitary Fair, sings at fundraising concerts, and greets trainloads of wounded soldiers with food and medicines. Becomes secretly engaged to Zephaniah Spalding. Reads the papers closely, following the great battles and news of Zeph’s regiment, the Ohio 27th. He leads his regiment to victory in the Battle of Corinth in Mississippi and is later captured and imprisoned at Cahaba, Alabama, an episode that makes its way into her fiction. Many years later she will write that “the war was the heart and spirit of my life, and everything has seemed tame to me since.”
1865–69
After the war’s end, Zephaniah Spalding is sent to Hawaii, then a sovereign kingdom, as a spy by Secretary of State William Seward, a friend of his father’s. Within a year he will become U.S. consul, serving until 1869. Clara Woolson marries George Stone Benedict on January 31, 1867, and gives birth to a daughter, Clare Rathbone Benedict, on December 20, 1868. Woolson’s closest friend, Arabella Carter, weds the Rev. Alan Washburn in 1869. Woolson tells her, “The glory of your life has come to you.” Begins to call herself a “spinster.” Father dies August 6, 1869, of complications of erysipelas and typhoid. Away at Mackinac Island, Woolson feels “eternal regret” at not being at his side.
1870
Decides to begin publishing her writing to support herself and her mother. Travels to New York with brother-in-law George Benedict and meets with magazine editors; Harper’s New Monthly Magazine wants an exclusive contract with her (she declines). First two signed publications, travel sketches, appear in July 1870: “The Happy Valley” (about Zoar) in Harper’s New Monthly Magazine, and “The Fairy Island” (about Mackinac Island) in Putnam’s Magazine. Spends summer in Cooperstown with her mother. First short story, “An October Idyl,” appears in Harper’s New Monthly Magazine in October. Moves to New York with her brother, Charlie, living at 49 West 32nd Street. In December, begins writing “Letters from Gotham” for the Daily Cleveland Herald, owned by George Benedict and his father. Publishes six New York letters there through February 1871. Translates George Sand’s novel La Mare au Diable (1846) but is unable to find a publisher.
1871–72
George Benedict killed in train crash February 6, 1871. Moves back to Cleveland, living with her mother and sister. Zephaniah Swift Spalding weds sugar heiress Wilhelmina H. Makee in Hawaii July 18, 1871. Woolson is devastated but many years later imagines they would both think, “Great heavens—what an escape I had!” Publishes prolifically, including seven short stories, in Harper’s New Monthly Magazine, Appleton’s Journal, Lippincott’s Magazine, The Galaxy, and Harper’s Bazar.
1873
Wins $500 prize from D. Lothrop & Company for her children’s novel, The Old Stone House, published in their “Sunday school series.” The Old Stone House appears under the pen name “Anne March,” a nod to Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women (1868). Not happy with the result, gives up trying to write for children and never acknowledges the novel. “Solomon,” the first of many stories to be published in the prestigious Atlantic Monthly, appears in October, receiving positive notices. Story “St. Clair Flats” published the same month in Appleton’s. In November, goes to New York with mother, Clara, and her niece, Clare, to see Charlie on his return from Europe. For mother’s health they head south, reminders of the recent war at every stop along the way. Spends winter in St. Augustine, Florida, and will winter in Florida until her mother’s death in 1879. Continues rapid pace of publication in 1873: six travel narratives, twelve poems, and five short stories.
1874
Meets the critic and poet Edmund Clarence Stedman in St. Augustine in March, forming a lasting friendship. Short story “Peter the Parson” published in Scribner’s Monthly in September, drawing criticism for its dark ending. In the fall, James R. Osgood approaches her about publishing a collection of her Great Lakes stories. Spends the summer with her mother in Asheville, North Carolina, leaving in November to head back to St. Augustine, stopping at Civil War battlefields along the way. Publishes nine short stories this year, including “The Lady of Little Fishing” (The Atlantic, September) and “Jeannette” (Scribner’s Monthly, December).
1875
Begins to correspond with southern poet Paul Hamilton Hayne after he writes to praise her writing. She and Hannah spend the spring months in Charleston, part of June and July in Cleveland Springs, South Carolina, and July and August in Goshen, Virginia, with trips to Charlottesville, Harpers Ferry, and Gettysburg. Turns down Harper’s New Monthly Magazine offer to write about her visit to Gettysburg; writes unpublished poem about it instead. Attempts to undertake a novel while in Goshen but suffers from a bout of depression that lasts through the winter. In the fall, in New York, meets Mary Mapes Dodge, Richard and Elizabeth Stoddard, and other writers at the home of Edmund Clarence Stedman and his wife. Writes to him later about how women writers pale in comparison to his unliterary wife, Laura Hyde Woodworth Stedman. Spends November in Charleston then heads to St. Augustine for the winter. Story collection Castle Nowhere: Lake-Country Sketches published by James R. Osgood to positive reviews.
1876
Stays in St. Augustine until the weather becomes too warm and spends April and May in Summerville, South Carolina. First Reconstruction story, “Old Gardiston,” published in Harper’s New Monthly Magazine in April. Is warned by one of the Harper brothers, while in St. Augustine, not to write anymore about the postwar South, due to the mounting tensions around the presidential election that year. Spends summer in Cooperstown, New York, visiting her mother’s family. Returns to St. Augustine with her mother, Clara, and Clare, for the winter. Feels out of place in the increasingly fashionable resort town, now an outpost of northern high society. Publishes “Felipa” (Lippincott’s Magazine, June) and five other stories this year.
1877
Publishes the long poem “Two Women. 1862” (Appletons’ Journal, January and February), drawing mixed reviews; decides to give up ambitions as a poet and focus on fiction. Frightening telegrams from Charlie in Chicago indicate he has broken down mentally and physically, but he returns to Cleveland and seems to be improving by March. In the spring, moves to Yonkers, New York, staying in a house Clara has purchased. The Atlantic Monthly publishes “Rodman the Keeper” in March to lead the magazine; it is widely noticed and commended, the Christian Union calling it “one of the few artistically perfect tales that the history of the civil war has inspired.” Publishes “Sister St. Luke” in The Galaxy in April. Has plans to write a novel, which James R. Osgood expresses interest in. Begins writing for The Atlantic Monthly’s “Contributors’ Club” in May. In September, Edmund Clarence Stedman visits her and her family in Yonkers. In December, arrives with Hannah at Hibernia, near Green Cove Springs, Florida, a much quieter place to write than St. Augustine.
1878
Publishes “King David” in Scribner’s Monthly in April. Writes for nine hours a day, completing her first adult novel, Anne, in May. Tells Stedman that she is nearly “‘finished’ too!” Decides to give it to Harper & Brothers, but they will sit on it for two years, deferring her hopes of establishing herself as a novelist. Spends summer with Hannah, Clara, and Clare by the sea in Narragansett Pier, Rhode Island. Works during the day to revise and copy her novel and swims in the afternoon. They all return to Yonkers in the fall, Charlie joining them. Falls very ill in December.
1879
Publishes two reviews of Henry James’s The Europeans in The Atlantic’s “Contributors’ Club” (January and February). In mid-January, barely able to stand, returns to Hibernia with her mother, whose own health worsens rapidly, a downturn that Woolson will blame on her own illness and the care her mother had to give her. Hannah Cooper Pomeroy Woolson dies February 13. With sister, Woolson brings mother’s body north to Cleveland to the house of their brother-in-law, Samuel Mather. Spends March in Washington, D.C., the summer in Cooperstown, and October in Cleveland, consumed with guilt over mother’s death and burdened with depression. In Cleveland, meets the writer John Hay, former secretary to Lincoln and friend of Henry James and Edmund Clarence Stedman; he will become a good friend. Clara proposes a trip to Europe, which she will subsidize. Woolson, Clara, and Clare, nearly eleven, sail on the Gallia, arriving in Liverpool, England, on November 30, amidst the worst winter England has seen this century. They spend only ten days in London. With a letter of introduction from her cousin Henrietta Pell-Clarke, Woolson knocks on the door of Henry James’s flat, but discovers he is in Paris. Her hearing has deteriorated to the extent that others refer to her as “deaf,” although she uses an audiophone (a kind of curved fan that directs sounds through the teeth) and an ear trumpet. Chased away by the cold weather, they travel to southern France and stop in Menton, on the Riviera, for the winter. Writes the story “‘Miss Grief’” sometime that winter (published in Lippincott’s Magazine in May 1880).
1880
In Menton, takes excursions to castles and ruins, but complains that the weather is not as warm as Florida’s. Worries about Charlie, now in California, who has had another collapse. Intent on supporting herself in Europe, begins to write again, starting the novella “For the Major.” Woolson, Clara, and Clare travel to Florence, arriving on March 18 at the Casa Molini pension. Writes all morning and tours churches in the afternoons with the aid of John Ruskin’s Mornings in Florence. Meets Henry James one day at the Casa Molini; for the next three or four weeks he guides her around Florence’s churches and museums in the mornings, taking time away from writing his novel The Portrait of a Lady. He doesn’t know her work and writes home that she is “old-maidish, deaf & ‘intense’; but a good little woman & a perfect lady.” She thinks him “a delightful companion.” The places they visit together and their differing views on art make their way into her story “A Florentine Experiment” (published in The Atlantic Monthly in October). In June, travels with Clara and Clare to Venice, Milan, and Lake Como, and heads to Lucerne, Switzerland, for the hot months, and in the fall to Geneva, where she takes a break from writing and reads the Lake Leman writers, including Madame de Staël. Returns to Florence in December. Second collection of stories, Rodman the Keeper: Southern Sketches, is published by D. Appleton and Company to very good reviews, including the one James clips and sends to her from the June issue of the London Spectator. In December, her novel Anne finally begins its run in Harper’s New Monthly Magazine, premiering in the first transatlantic edition, published simultaneously in the United States and England. It will appear monthly until May 1882.
1881
After a trip to Siena, arrives in Rome
in January with an old friend from St. Augustine. Visits the Vatican, Borghese Gardens, St. Peter’s, the Forum, and more. In March, Clara and Clare arrive, and then in April return home to Cleveland. Delighted to be alone in Rome, rents an apartment. Writes for seven hours a day and explores the city, including the Doria Gallery and the Protestant Cemetery, where she visits the graves of Shelley and Keats. James visits her during his two-week visit to Rome. Stays on, despite her family’s concerns about Roman fever, until June 4. Then travels to Switzerland, staying until August in Geneva, Engelberg, and Lucerne, writing “At the Château of Corinne,” which Harper’s New Monthly Magazine won’t publish while Anne is still being serialized. (It won’t appear for six years.) In the fall, travels throughout Italy, from Turin to Milan, Padua, Venice, Florence, and Naples, arriving in Sorrento in December.
1882
In Sorrento, writes most of the day in her room overlooking the Bay of Naples. Fan letters about Anne arrive daily and, unexpectedly, in February, a letter from Harper & Brothers enclosing a $1,000 check and requesting the right of first refusal on all future works. The Harper brothers will be her exclusive American publisher for the rest of her career. Publishes “The Street of the Hyacinth” in The Century Magazine in June. In July, Anne is published in book form and goes on to sell 57,000 copies. Reviews compare her to George Eliot and predict an “enduring fame,” calling Anne “one of the strongest and most perfectly finished American novels ever written.” Sees few of the reviews from abroad. The Atlantic Monthly’s new editor, Thomas Bailey Aldrich, requests a serial from her, but she declines due to her new contract with the Harpers. Falls ill in the summer and loses sixteen pounds. Returns to Florence and consults a doctor. Joins Clara and Clare, returned from America, in Baden-Baden, Germany, where she works ten- to thirteen-hour days for ten weeks to complete For the Major, which will begin serialization in Harper’s New Monthly Magazine in November. At the end of August, they visit Dresden, then Cologne in September and on to London, from where Clara and Clare sail home. In London, socializes with John and Clara Hay, and with William Dean Howells and his wife, Elinor. In December, follows the Hays to Paris and meets up briefly with James.
Constance Fenimore Woolson Page 80