Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library
Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections LibraryP.O. Box 400110
University of Virginia
Charlottesville, Virginia 22904-4110
URL: https://small.library.virginia.edu/
Initial record created by Rose Oliveira. Processing details by Ellen Welch
Administrative Information
Conditions Governing Access
The collection is open for research use.
Preferred Citation
MSS 16488, Caroline Ticknor collection of American Authors and Publishers, Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library, University of Virginia Library.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
This collection was purchased from The Brick Row Book Shop by the Small Special Collections Library at the University of Virginia Library on 12 March 2021.
Biographical / Historical
As a member of a family prominent in the publishing business, from childhood Caroline Ticknor knew many men and women in the literary establishment and was devoted to their work. She was the granddaughter of William Davis Ticknor, who founded Ticknor and Fields. The firm published the most successful authors of the period; directed the old Corner Bookstore, rendezvous for the intellectuals of Boston, Cambridge, and Concord at the time of their dominance in the country's cultural life; and also published the Atlantic Monthly, whose contributors included leading writers of America and England. Her father continued in the business, and Ticknor became an author and editor.
Having been educated privately, except for a year in public school and a special course at Radcliffe College, Ticknor began writing at the age of eighteen "for the fun of it." She wrote both short fiction and articles for Harper's, Century, the Independent, Cosmopolitan, the New England Magazine, and Atlantic. Although a collection of minor stories and a light satire appeared in 1896, her work as a biographer is more important.
Source: "Caroline Ticknor". Encyclopedia.com https://www.encyclopedia.com/arts/news-wires-white-papers-and-books/ticknor-caroline
Content Description
This collection contains forty-one letters and manuscripts by American authors and publishers from the files of James R. Osgood & Co. and its successor Ticknor & Co assembled by Caroline Ticknor (1866-1937), daughter of Benjamin Holt Ticknor (1842-1914) and granddaughter of William Davis Ticknor (1810-1864).
Many of the authors represented in this collection have related collections in the Small Library. Authors represented in this collection of letters and manuscripts are: Henry Mills Alden, Edward Bellamy, William Cullen Bryant, Edwin Lassetter Bynner, Rose Terry Cooke, Alice Durand, Edward Everett, Edgar Fawcett, Eugene Field, Mary Wilkins Freeman, Edmund Gosse, Joel Chandler Harris, Bret Harte, Lafcadio Hearn, Thomas Wentworth Higginson, William Dean Howells, Laurence Hutton, Lucy Larcom, Louise Chandler Moulton, Mary Noailles Murfree, James R. Osgood, Nora Perry, John Godfrey Saxe, Harriet Prescott Spofford, Edmund Clarence Stedman, Richard Henry Stoddard, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Benjamin Holt Ticknor, John Townsend Trowbridge, Lewis Wallace, Susan Wallace, and John Greenleaf Whittier.
Significant Persons Associated With the Collection
- Osgood, James Ripley, 1836-1892
- Ticknor, Benjamin Holt, 1842-1914
- Ticknor, Caroline, 1866-1937
Container List
Henry Mills Alden, the editor of Harper's Magazine , writes to Caroline Ticknor about his regrets to attending a tribute to Julia Ward Howe and Thomas Wentworth Higginson, and offering compliments to Howe and Higginson for their noble enterprises and distinction to the American social and literary life of their time.
Edward Bellamy note to Benjamin Ticknor congratulating him on his new publishing firm of Ticknor and Company and to request payment for his work. He mentions his upcoming work of two stories (unnamed). The next book that Ticknor and Company publishes for him is "Looking Backward" (1888).
John Bright letter to James R. Osgood thanking him for the volume on the life of James Greenleaf Whittier that was sent as a gift. He mentions his reverence for Whittier and praises his work against slavery in America.
William Cullen Bryant note to James T. Fields written on the stationery of The Evening Post, responding to Fields request for his poem, Bryant explains that he would not send the poem as a single item but only as part of a collection of his poems.
Edwin Lassetter Bynner letter to Benjamin H. Ticknor on the stationery of the Bar Association of the City of Boston, 1886 August 1, asking about the terms of publishing what he felt was his best work, "Agnes Surriage" a historical novel about the coastal town of Marblehead, Massachusetts. It was published in 1887 by Ticknor with several editions as late as 1923 by Houghton Mifflin with the "Marblehead Edition."
Also included is a note from Bynner to Caroline Ticknor sending her one of the famous Cuban bull-fight fans as a remembrance of Nassau and asking about the well being of her family. (Fan not enclosed). No year mentioned. April 24.
Rose Terry Cooke letter to Benjamin Ticknor, 1889 September, writes about her health and financial stress and wants to move to Boston if that would give her more work.
Samuel Adams Drake note to Benjamin Ticknor about his health, the weather, and no plans to make a trip to Boston.
The letter from Alice Durand to Benjamin Ticknor is signed under her pseudonym, "Henri Greville" 1886, February 9,about the success of her lecture tour on the East Coast and asks for more advertising. She also mentions copyright law and Richard Watson Gilder's work on it in New York.
Edward Everett note to George Ticknor 1864 November,about visiting him at his office with the [Report]. He writes that he is enclosing Alberi's interesting letter (not enclosed) and that he left two other copies of the volume at Ticknor's house yesterday.
Unpublished manuscript "A Newspaper Critic". Fawcett had a famous dislike of critics and may have written this out one evening while discussing critics with fellow authors. See Caroline Ticknor's Glimpses of Authors , pages 65-73.
Eugene Field letter to Benjamin Ticknor on 1887 [Mayhem] 22, with a small drawing of his self portrait and comparing it to Dante on the stationery. He writes about sending news clippings, engravings, self portrait, stories, and critical reviews. He mentions that he is sick of critics and imagines whether it would be better for posterity to leave his manuscript to be discovered later.
Annie Fields note to Caroline Ticknor responding to her about her passport.
Mary Wilkins Freeman note to Caroline Ticknor 1906, December 28,sending regrets to her invitation to the tribute of Julia Ward and Colonel Higginson because she is busy with work and suffering from an attack of rheutatism. She will send a telgram congratulating them.
Edmund Gosse letter to James R. Osgood on 1885 May 1 about a prospective book on his lectures ("From Shakspeare to Pope) and terms for publishing one edition with Osgood and one with the University of Cambridge.
Joel Chandler Harris letter to James R. Osgood and Company 1883 July 24 on The Constitution stationery about Harris's second book, Nights with Uncle Remus .
Joel Chandler Harris note to Benjamin Ticknor on 1887 February 25 on The Constitution stationery about the publication of a short story, Free Joe and Other Georgia Sketches
Joel Chandler Harris note to Benjamin Ticknor and James R. Osgood and Company on [1883] April 23, writing that Harris would only be willing to illustrate the particular part of the Uncle Remus that is confined to animal subbects and discussion of the price.
Parody on Algernon Charles Swinburne's poem "Atalanta in Calydon (1865). It was first published in the September, 1870 issue of the Overland Monthly.
The connecton to Swinburne was quickly lost as the poem became known as "The Heathen Chinee" and was reprinted widely throughout the United States. The sixth stanza concerns the discovery that the heathen Chinee and Nye are both cheating at a card game. Harte in his fair copy of a single stanza, has changed one revealing word: "Chinee" has been changed to "B. J."
John Hay note to James R. Osgood asking him about the original photographs of engravings from (Ward Hill) Lamon's "The Life Of Abraham Lincoln." On the next page of the note, is a question from James Osgood to Benjamin Ticknor asking about the plates (engravings) and requesting a copy of Longfellow's book.
Hearn writes to James Osgood about the publication of his book, Stray Leaves from Stray Literature ,an anthology of fables, from Indian, Polynesian, Buddhist, Egyptian, and Persian parables and fables. Hearn referred to it as a collection of "very strange and beautiful literatures." Osgood published it in June 1884, the month following this letter.
Thomas Wentworth Higginson note to Caroline Ticknor on 1903 May 29, about his address on the centenary of Ralph Waldo Emerson's birth, published in June 1903.He mentions that Samuel Taylor Coleridge can help at the museum and he is the man who is deeply interested in American Literature.
William Dean Howells note to Benjamin Ticknor on 1887 July 24, about a reprint of Howells edition of his novels and the financial terms of their contract.
William Dean Howells note to Benjamin Ticknor on 1883 November 15, thanking Ticknor for writing to him about the little book, A Little Girl Among the Old Masters which was a collaboration between Howells and his daughter, Mildred Howells
William Dean Howells note to Benjamin Ticknor on 1885 July 30, about the publication of The Rise of Silas Lapham , Tuscan Cities , and Poems
William Dean Howells note to Caroline Ticknor on 1913 November 26, writing that he has been reading her book about her grandfather and Hawthorne with the greatest pleasure and remembers Mr. Ticknor even though he saw him for only a few moments.
Laurence Hutton note to Benjamin Ticknor on 1881 March 13, about an essay Hutton wrote on Shakespeare and defends his spelling Shakespere.
Lucy Larcom letter to Benjamin Ticknor and manuscript poem about the American Civil War. Larcom, a poet and abolitionist, writes that she would like to revive the enthusiastic outburst of song that was awakened by the War.
Louise Chandler Moulton letter to Benjamin Ticknor on [1881] December 30 about the possibility of creating an illustrated book of poetry. Moulton also mentioned her appreciation of Songs and Lyrics by Ellen Mackay Hutchinson, published by James R. Osgood and Company in 1881.
Mary Noailles Murfree note to James R. Osgood on 1884 May 22 about the publication of her second book, Where the Battle was Fought published by Osgood in June 1884. Noailles requested that the copyright entry should be made in his name and that the book should be advertised and published under the pseudonym Charles Egbert Craddock.
James R. Osgood note to Benjamin Ticknor [1882] May 5 responds in general to work regarding Miss Brown, "Uncle Remus", George Washington Cable's novel,Samuel Clemens's lawsuit, and a matter involving Nathaniel Hawthorne (no details provided). Osgood is traveling with Samuel Clemens to New Orleans and the Mississippi River, gathering material for Clemens'book, Life on the Mississippi .
Nora Perry letter to Benjamin Ticknor 1886 April 5, praising and encouraging the work of Rose Terry Cooke. She also criticizes the dialect used by Mary Noailles Murfree,(pseudonym, Charles Egbert Craddock.)
Wendell Phillips to his cousin Miss Wainwright about the burial and resting place of John Brown.
Samuel Pickard note to Caroline Ticknor requesting two tickets to the annual dinner.
John Godfrey Saxe letter to Benjamin Ticknor on 1873 June 29 about a new edition of his poems to be called the "Diamond" edition.
Harriet Prescott Spofford note to Caroline Ticknor regardin a portrait of Nora Perry that would do her justice for Spofford's book, Glimpses of Authors .
Edmund Clarence Stedman letter to Benjamin Ticknor 1887 April 22, as part of an ongoing conversation on the subject of Eugene Field. Stedman also mentions frustrations with his own work.
Richard Henry Stoddard note and letter to Benjamin Ticknor, 1896 November 15 & 29, and 1897 April 16, about publishing projects, Funk & Wagnalls, "Memoirs of Hawthorne," and related literary business matters.
Harriet Beecher Stowe note to James R. Osgood, 1872 December 29, about her forthcoming epistolary travel narrative about the St. John's River area of Florida, Palmetto-Leaves . In her note, Stowe identifies the anonymous illustrator as "Miss Aikens", an obscure artist whose work was rarely credited.
Benjamin Ticknor note to Alfred Lord Tennyson 1889 August 6 wishing Tennyson a happy anniversary and remarking it as also being his grandfather's birthday, William Davis Ticknor.
William Ticknor published Tennyson's first poems, and established the principle of international copyright forty seven years earlier. Ticknor was the first American publisher to pay foreign authors for the rights to their works, beginning with a check to Alfred Tennyson in 1842.
John Townsend Trowbridge manuscript poem, "When We Came from the War: Song of the Poorhouse Veterans." It was first collected in Trowbridge's The Lost Earl with Other Poems and Tales in Verse before 1888. Townsend writes that many of the veterans ended up in the almshouse with the poor people in the town.
Lewis Wallace letter to his acquaintance from serving in the American Civil War, Benjamin Ticknor 1882 January 1 about a play Wallace was writing on Maternus, a slave who lead an uprising against the Roman emperor Commodus. He also mentions Ben Hur and The Fair God .
Susan Wallace (wife of Lewis Wallace) letter to Benjamin Ticknor 1884 December 29 about the possibility of publishing her Christmas story "Ginevra or the Old Oak Chest". She mentions how "Ben Hur" is selling well. Her story was published by Worthington in New York in 1887.
John Greenleaf Whittier letter to Benjamin Ticknor 1886 February 15 about selecting his biographer and publisher. He mentions Samuel T. Pickard, [Horace E.] Scudder, and [Edwin P.] Whipple. Samuel T. Pickard wrote the biography Life and Letters of John Greenleaf Whittier which was published by Houghton Mifflin in 1894.