“Spartan little box”: HA to MHA, March 15, 1885, Letters, vol. 2, 581.
“sit all day in the library”: MHA to RWH, January 11, 1884, Adams.
Henry’s study would be: MHA to EC, January 11, 1884, Adams.
a New England coziness: In 1888 Mariana Griswold Van Rensselaer described the Adams house this way: “The chief rooms were to be upstairs, and the ground floor was to be divided longitudinally by a wall—the hall and staircase lying to the right, the kitchen apartments to the left of it, and communication between them being effected only at the back of the house. Richardson clearly marked this division on the exterior by designing his ground-story with two low, somewhat depressed arches with a pier between them. Within one arch is the beautifully treated main doorway, and behind the other, masked by a rich iron grille, are the windows of the servants’ apartments, while the door which leads to these lies beyond the arch to the left. Inside, the hall with its great fire-place and its stairway forming broad platforms is as charming as it is individual, and the living-rooms up-stairs are well proportioned, and simple but complete in detail.” Van Rensselaer, Henry Hobson Richardson and His Works (Boston: Houghton, Mifflin, and Company, 1888), 107.
[>] “hurry him up”: HA to John Hay, February 20, 1884, Letters, vol. 2, 537.
“no stained glass—no carving”: MHA to RWH, December 16, 1883, Adams; “fine house” . . . “unusual one”: MHA to RWH, March 23, 1884, Adams.
“These I shall put back”: Henry Hobson Richardson Drawings (MS Typ 1096), AHW E3j, Houghton.
“worked up” . . . “like a master”: HA to MHA, March 23, 1884, Adams.
“I am glad you are pleased”: H. H. Richardson to Henry Adams, June 2, 1884, Theodore F. Dwight Papers, MHS.
The first photograph: MHA, January 18, 1884, album #7, 50.11.
a dying lion: Richardson died of Bright’s disease on April 27, 1886. He was forty-eight years old. Oudry’s drawing was donated to the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston in 1920.
CHAPTER 18. Portraits
[>] “expect some very lively tariff” . . . “every day”: MHA to RWH, January 13, 1884, Adams.
“add much to us”: MHA to RWH, February 17, 1884, Adams. In the same letter, she registered her horror at the tragedy that had befallen Theodore Roosevelt, then a New York assemblyman. He had lost his mother to typhoid fever and his wife, Alice, to kidney failure, both on Valentine’s Day. His only daughter was just two days old. Clover recalled to her father how she and Henry had met young Teddy on the Nile twelve years before, remarking that in later years he and his beautiful wife had been “overwhelmingly hospitable” whenever she and Henry had met them in New York.
[>] “generosity knew no bounds”: Harold Dean Cater, Henry Adams and His Friends: A Collection of His Unpublished Letters (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1947), xlvii–xlviii. Rebecca Dodge vividly recalled meeting the Adamses for the first time: “I passed by the house frequently, for I lived in that neighborhood, and Mrs. Adams, liking my appearance, asked a friend who I was. It happened that this person was a good friend of mine, so we called together one day to see Mrs. Adams . . . I suppose I became an intimate at 1607 H Street.”
“always been utterly opposed”: MHA to EC, January 11, 1884, Adams.
“a long account” . . . “extremely”: MHA to RWH, February 24, 1884, Adams.
“society rabble” . . . “come at all”: MHA to RWH, February 3, 1884, Adams.
“a small part”: MHA to RWH, January 13, 1884, Adams.
“quiet evenings” . . . “keep out of it”: MHA to RWH, February 3, 1884, Adams.
She had opened her first album: The first two albums of Clover’s photographs were originally archived at the MHS in the wrong order, so that the album numbered #7 in the archive is actually the second album that Clover put together, and album #8 is the first. This is important to know, particularly when trying to consider the images in sequence. Laura Saltz somewhat misreads the photograph collection by basing her otherwise provocative argument in part on the original but incorrect archived order of the albums. Saltz, “Clover Adams’s Dark Room: Photography and Writing, Exposure and Erasure,” Prospects: An Annual of American Cultural Studies, ed. Jack Salzman, vol. 24, 449–90.
[>] a notable success: MHA, September 16, 1883, album #8, 50.81, 50.82, and 50.83.
Hegermann-Lindencrone’s daughter: The third sitter was Lettita Sargent, the Civil War widow of Lucius Sargent. Clover captured something of a widow’s sorrow in the woman’s expression, with her head tilted ever so slightly back and her face directed to the light. MHA, September 16, 1883, album # 8.50.84.
Dallmeyer wide-angle lens: MHA, December 28, 1883, album #7, 50.9.
[>] “enchanted with it”: MHA to RWH, January 6, 1884, Adams.
The Millets, whom Clover had met: See H. Barbara Weinberg, “The Career of Francis Davis Millet,” Archives of American Art Journal, vol. 17, no. 1 (1977): 2–18.
“different poses as statuary”: MHA to RWH, February 10, 1884, Adams.
like a classical: MHA, [February] 1884, album #7, 50.10, 50.21, 50.22, and 50.23.
[>] “which one I want” . . . “work”: MHA to RWH, February 10, 1884, Adams.
Madame Bonaparte: MHA, March 16, 1884, album #7, 50.20.
“astride a chair” . . . “worth keeping”: MHA to RWH, March 16, 1884, Adams.
“photos for nearly two hours” . . . “rumpled it all up”: MHA to RWH, February 24, 1884, Adams.
Senator’s notable geniality: MHA, February 23, 1884, album #7, 50.18.
[>] Clover positioned Gordon: MHA, February 23, 1884, album #7, 50.19.
“It is dim”: MHA to RWH, February 24, 1884, Adams.
hung a white sheet: MHA, January 20, 1884, album #7, 50.12 and 50.13.
“funny, dark-haired copy”: MHA to RWH, November 25, 1883, Adams.
“a rare chance”: MHA to RWH, December 9, 1883, Adams.
[>] Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.: MHA, February 1884, album #7, 50.14 and 50.15.
Clover places Mrs. Field: MHA, 1884, album #7, 50.26.
[>] “by long odds”: HA to MHA, April 11, 1885, Letters, vol. 2, 605.
“Mrs. Bancroft looks” . . . “one eye open”: MHA to RWH, May 25, 1884, Adams.
Mrs. Bancroft’s portrait: MHA, 1884, album #7, 50.40.
an ancient pine tree: MHA, n.d., album #7, 50.39; Arlington National Cemetery, November 5, 1883, album #7, 50.41.
“how any man or woman dares”: MHA to EC, January 11, 1884, Adams.
“a mob almost as un interesting” . . . “rather more solitary”: HA to CMG, February 3, 1884, Letters, vol. 2, 535.
[>] “spelled solitude”: MHA to APF, May 1, 1884, Hooper-Adams Papers, MHS.
“Poor little” . . . “not wanted above”: MHA to RWH, January 6, 1884, Adams.
“Perdita, perdita” . . . “when you’re around”: MHA to EC, January 11, 1884, Adams.
“chatter” and “smile”: HA to CMG, May 18, 1884, Letters, vol. 2, 540.
[>] “all in white muslin”: MHA to RWH, May 25, 1884, Adams.
“Mrs. Don” . . . “to the sea-side”: HA to JH, May 18, 1884, Letters, vol. 2, 542.
“or sends for her”: Esther, 50.
“shipwreck”: HA to Mabel Hooper, May 28, 1898, Letters, vol. 4, 596.
young woman, Grace Minot: MHA, October 8, 1883, album #8, 50.88.
[>] “My wife and I are becoming”: HA to JH, August 3, 1884, Letters, vol. 2, 547.
“I never feel a wish to wander”: HA to Sir John Clark, December 13, 1884, Letters, vol. 2, 560.
“the worst part”: Esther, 117.
“I shall dedicate”: HA to EC, December 7, 1884, Letters, vol. 2, 559.
Part IV: Mysteries of the Heart
CHAPTER 19. Turning Away
[>] The past five years: See Middle Years, 262–64.
“In you I detect”: HA to George Bancroft, January 10, 1885, Letters, vol. 2, 568.
which “is disappointing”: HA to Henry Holt,
January 6, 1885, Letters, vol. 2, 567. Henry made arrangements with Holt to have Esther published in England together with another American novel, Among the Chosen, by Mary S. Emerson. But this idea was dropped by the publisher, Richard Bentley and Son. Esther received mixed reviews in the English press.
[>] “the only portrait”: HA to Royal Cortissoz, May 12, 1911, Letters, vol. 6, 443. In one of her old sketchbooks, above a small jewel-toned watercolor painting of a goldfish bowl, Clover jotted down this identification: “February 22, 1885, J. La Farge.” MHA sketchbook, Hooper-Adams Papers, MHS. That same day Henry wrote a letter to John Hay, noting that La Farge “is with us again,” which indicates that the watercolor may have been painted by the artist while he stayed with the Adamses. HA to JH, February 22, 1885, Letters, vol. 2, 575.
“Excuse so much politics”: MHA to RWH, June 8, 1884, Adams.
“free-trade Democrat”: HA to CMG, September 21, 1884, Letters, vol. 2, 551.
there had been “no alternative”: MHA to RWH, April 13, 1884, Adams; “tattooed with corruption”: MHA to RWH, June 1, 1884, Adams.
“rotten old soulless party”: MHA to RWH, April 13, 1884, Adams.
“Grover Cleveland is safely” . . . “windows as from there”: MHA to RWH, March 5, 1885, Adams.
[>] “‘extra’ on Thursday” . . . “North Carolina once”: MHA to RWH, March 8, 1885, Adams.
“Take care of yourself”: MHA to RWH, March 8, 1885, Adams.
[>] “Bunged up by the nastiest cold”: HA to JH, March 7, 1885, Letters, vol. 2, 578.
“nobody wants me”: HA to Rebecca Gilman Dodge, April 8, 1885, Letters, vol. 2, 600.
“So methinks do”: ESH, folio of poems, privately printed by EWH, author’s copy.
[>] “in despair because Don”: HA to MHA, March 30, 1885, Letters, vol. 2, 596. The Camerons’ travel plans were revised a week later. Don Cameron hoped to go to California for his health, and Lizzie planned to spend the summer in Harrisburg; see HA to MHA, April 9, 1885, Letters, vol. 2, 602.
“seated by the library fire”: HA to MHA, March 28, 1885, Letters, vol. 2, 592.
“low in mind” . . . “glad to see him”: HA to MHA, March 21, 1885, Letters, vol. 2, 587.
“The day is gloomy”: HA to MHA, March 15, 1885, Letters, vol. 2, 581.
unspeakably “weary”: Esther, 89–90.
“for his wife again”: HA to MHA, April 12, 1885, Letters, vol. 2, 608.
in the third person: Ernest Samuels rightly observes that the tone of the letters is “astonishingly devoid of tenderness, filled with the surface concerns of household and society, visits to the dentist, dinners with Hay and other friends, queries about library fixtures and bells for the new house—all the small talk of a busy household.” Middle Years, 265.
“unselfish and brave”: MHA to APF, April 26, 1885, Hooper-Adams Papers, MHS.
[>] “kind heart”: As quoted in Mrs. Henry Adams, 33.
“You must take good care”: EWH to RWH, September 15, 1863, EWH Letters, MS Am 1969 (6), Houghton.
“It seems to me more”: MHA to RWH, June 28, 1872, as quoted in Mrs. Henry Adams, 115.
“of an anxious make”: MHA to RWH, January 15, 1879, Adams.
“as little in his children’s”: HA to CMG, June 23, 1872, Letters, vol. 2, 140.
“No one fills any part”: MHA to APF, April 26, 1884, Hooper-Adams Papers, MHS.
CHAPTER 20. “Lost in the Woods”
[>] “tired out in mind”: MHA to APF, April 26, 1885, Hooper-Adams Papers, MHS.
She was curious: “I’ve no desire to go abroad again, but should like to go in the director’s car over that line to the Pacific when the country is a little more settled up.” MHA to RWH, April 22, 1883, LMHA, 442.
[>] they hoped to “camp out”: MHA to APF, April 26, 1885, Hooper-Adams Papers, MHS.
“in better condition”: HA to JH, April 20, 1885, Letters, vol. 2, 609.
In the early spring: Edward Nelson Fell was a British mining engineer and had been born in New Zealand. He and Anne married on May 25, 1885, and they would live in Narcoossee, Florida.
“very glad” . . . “marry only heiresses”: MHA to APF, April 26, 1885, Hooper-Adams Papers, MHS. This is the last letter in the long correspondence between Clover and Anne.
[>] “on account of the flies”: HA to CMG, June 18, 1885, Letters, vol. 2, 617.
“a country less known”: HA to CMG, June 18, 1885, Letters, vol. 2, 617.
[>] “flaming yellow” . . . “Appenines”: HA to CMG, June 18, 1885, Letters, vol. 2, 617. See also Robert S. Conte, The History of the Greenbrier, America’s Resort (Charleston, WV: Pictorial Histories Publishing Co., 1989).
“so ideally bad”: HA to CMG, June 18, 1885, Letters, vol. 2, 617.
Clover and Henry had company: Rebecca Dodge would remember the trip many years later, noting she had an “adorable picture of that cottage with Mr. Adams leaning against a post.” Rebecca (Dodge) Rae to Louisa Hooper Thoron, June 7 (no year), Unprocessed Thoron papers, *93M–35 (b), Houghton.
The first three photographs: MHA, n.d., album #9, 50.106, 50.107, 50.108.
[>] “the ruins of a stone house”: MHA to RWH, May 13, 1883, LMHA, 448.
She took her first image: MHA, n.d., album #9, 50.111 and 50.112.
[>] Henry carefully wrote captions: Lousia Hooper Thoron, MHA’s niece, also identified several photographs at some point. Henry kept the photograph albums in his library, and when his library books were donated to the Massachusetts Historical Society, the albums were donated alongside his books.
not with the trip: MHA, n.d., album #9, 50.96 and 50.97.
[>] four photographs: MHA, n.d., album #9, 50.98, 50.99, 50.100, and 50.101.
liked to ride there: General John G. Parke had sent the Adamses the Union army map in 1881. MHA to RWH, November 20, 1881, LMHA, 301.
Rebecca Dodge: MHA, n.d., album #9, 50.109 and 50.110.
“we got a long way”: HA to CMG, June 18, 1885, Letters, vol. 2, 617.
CHAPTER 21. A Dark Room
[>] “Whither have you”: JH to HA, July 12, 1885, Theodore F. Dwight Papers, MHS.
“a month of rambling”: HA to JH, July 17, 1885, Letters, vol. 2, 619.
“private opinion” . . . “without fail”: Sturgis Bigelow to MHA, July 4, 1885, Unprocessed Thoron papers, *93M–35 (b), Houghton. The letter was dated July 4 and sent to 1607 H Street and forwarded to Beverly Farms on July 25, 1880.
“a gloomy spot”: HA to CMG, June 18, 1885, Letters, vol. 2, 617.
[>] McLean Asylum: The McLean Asylum is now McLean Hospital in Belmont.
“own lips her horror” . . . “take your advice”: MHA to RWH, May 9, 1882, transcripts of MHA letters omitted from publication, Hooper-Adams Papers, MHS.
“I cannot bear”: MHA to RWH, May 14, 1882, transcripts of MHA letters omitted from publication, Hooper-Adams Papers, MHS.
“taste for horrors”: MHA to RWH, December 25, 1881, LMHA, 315. When Dr. Hooper warned his daughter, he was trying to protect her. But Clover was defensive about her father’s accusation, writing back that wanting to know the social gossip of the Boston circle from her father was motivated “only to save time, otherwise in June I must visit Somerville and ask to see the patients’ book, and then explore Mt. Auburn for new-laid graves.”
“The insane asylum”: MHA to RWH, January 26, 1879, Adams. When Clover’s Aunt Anne (who’d been married to Congressman Samuel Hooper) struggled with chronic health complaints, which only got more complicated after the deaths of her son, husband, and daughter, Clover empathized with her father about her horrible fate. “I’m sorry for poor Aunt Anne. You say she ‘feels deserted and justly so.’” But she also defended her cousin Annie, Aunt Anne’s only surviving daughter, who evidently had been steering clear of her mother. “Annie must have very strong motives for staying away,” Clover reasoned. But when Aunt Anne’s caretaker and companion, Miss Folsom, apparently quit, and the family was at loose ends about who might be able to take care
of her, Clover made it clear she was no candidate. “I decline all responsibility in the matter, especially if Aunt Anne is to be in Beverly Farms,” she warned, recommending instead an acquaintance who had served as a companion for another “semi-insane” woman. MHA to RWH, June 11 and May 20, 1882, transcripts of MHA letters omitted from publication, Hooper-Adams Papers, MHS.
She tried to keep up: Clover’s niece, Louisa Hooper, remembered that Clover “kept up her riding during the summer and a semblance of her daily round with her family in and out of the house.” As quoted in Chalfant, Better in Darkness, 497.
[>] “Dearest Rebecca”: MHA to Rebecca Dodge, September 22, 1885, Unprocessed Thoron papers, *93M–35 (b), Houghton.
“in the gloomiest state of mind” . . . “towards us”: Ephraim Whitman Gurney to E. L. Godkin, October 16, 1885, Edwin Lawrence Godkin Papers, MS Am 1083 (350), Houghton. The letter is dated October 16, 1886, in Gurney’s handwriting. But it was clearly written the year before, in 1885, when Clover was still alive.
“every reckless” . . . “all of you real!”: EHG to Elizabeth Dwight Cabot, envelope dated January 1, 1886, Swann.
“all the dilapidated Bostonians”: Brooks, as quoted in Alexander V. G. Allen, Phillips Brooks: Memories of His Life with Extracts from His Letters and Note-Books (New York: E. P. Dutton & Company, 1907), 331.
“very bright and full of talk”: MHA to RWH, March 11, 1883, LMHA, 428.
[>] For those surrounding Clover: Clover’s sister, Ellen, would later write to a friend, “We did the best we knew how and we know no better now.” EHG to Elizabeth Dwight Cabot, January 1, 1886, Swann.
Rebecca remembered: Cater, Henry Adams and His Friends, ii.
“It is a common event” . . . “describe adequately”: Henry Maudsley, M.D., Body and Will, Being an Essay Concerning Will in Its Metaphysical, Physiological, and Pathological Aspects (New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1884), 307. The copy with Henry’s marginalia is in the Henry Adams Library at the MHS.
[>] “I am peculiarly anxious”: HA to Henry Holt, November 13, 1885, Letters, vol. 2, 636.
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