The Oxford Book of Letters

by Kermode, Frank; Kermode, Anita

• ISBN13: 9780192825223
• ISBN10: 0192825224
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1996-10-17
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

Reading other people's letters, like reading private diaries, offers thrilling and unexpected glimpses into the lives of others--their pledges of love and their sharp remonstrances, their thoughts on war and peace and the gossip of the day, their intellectual travels and idle chatter. It is partly this guilty pleasure we take in such literary eavesdropping that makes The Oxford Book of Letters so compelling. More than 300 letters spanning five centuries chronicle the affairs of correspondents from Elizabeth I to Groucho Marx, from politicans to poets, from the famous to the unknown. Editors Frank Kermode and Anita Kermode have chosen a remarkable selection of correspondents both educated and barely literate, with styles that range from polished and witty to stumbling and artless, but who all share a gift for letters that display an immediacy and intimacy not shared by any other form of writing. Here is John Adams to his wife, Abigail, in what we know to be a harried April of 1776 ("You justly complain of my short Letters, but the critical State of Things and the Multiplicity of Avocations must plead my Excuse--"); Benjamin Disraeli, confiding to Lady Bradford the secret of his purchase of the Suez Canal for England ("not one of the least events of our generation"); Charles Dickens to his son, Henry, regarding finances ("You know how hard I work for what I get, and I think you know that I never had money help from any human creature after I was a child"); Flannery O'Connor to Cecil Dawkins, a young college instructor, with writing advice ("You can't be creative in all directions at once. Freshman English would suit me fine. I'd make them diagram sentences"); and an indignant A.T. Harris to the head of the Atlantic City Railroad in 1896 ("On the 15th yore trane that was going to Atlanta ran over mi bull...yore ruddy trane took a peece of hyde outer his belly between his nable and his poker at least fute square"). Among the most moving letters are those from emigrants to America, Australia, and South Africa, describing the hardships they endured and the resolution with which they faced their new worlds--we read Anna Francis's letter to her sister, detailing her dashed hopes for happiness as an emigre in South Africa ("And is this the place in which I am to live out the remainder of my wretched existence! Forbid it heaven!"); and Rebecca Butterworth's forlorn letter to England from Arkansas, outlining a litany of disaster: stillborn children, poor crops, dire illness ("If we sell soon and the Lord spares us, we will be out in fall"). With subjects ranging from the mundane to the extraordinary, from the tragic to the hilarious, the Kermodes have included both isolated missives as well as exchanges of letters between regular correspondents, where familiarity and an ongoing saga add to the fascination. The editors provide a context for the letters, and unobtrusive notes. In an age where communication is instant and ephemeral, this volume celebrates the glory of the written word, and what may well be a dying art form.

Author Biography

About the Editors:
Frank Kermode, author and critic, is retired King Edward VII Professor of English at Cambridge. He has written and edited many books, including Uses of Error and The Oxford Anthology of English Literature. Anita Kermode has researched and taught English and American literature at Rutgers University, Columbia University, and the University of Cambridge.

Table of Contents

Introduction	xvii
Sir Antony Windsor to Lady Lisle
26 March 1535	3	(1)
Lord Edmund Howard to the same
1535?	4	(1)
Sir Thomas More to Margaret Roper
5 July 1535	5	(1)
Mary Hart to Lord Burghley
May 1573	6	(1)
Sir Philip Sidney to Edmund Molyneux
31 May 1578	7	(1)
John Stubbs to Lord Burghley
31 August 1580	8	(1)
`Emanuel Plantagenet' to the same
27 June 1587	9	(1)
Elizabeth I to James VI of Scotland
C.I February 1586/7	10	(1)
--- to the same
August 1588	11	(2)
--- to Lord Mountjoy
3 December 1600	13	(1)
Sir Walter Ralegh to his wife
December 1603	14	(2)
James Howell to Captain Thomas Porter
10 July 1623	16	(2)
--- to Sir I.S.
25 May 1628	18	(1)
--- to Lady Scroop
25 August 1628	19	(1)
--- to Lady Cornwallis
2 June 1630	20	(1)
Charles I to the Duke of Buckingham
12 July 1626	21	(2)
Lord Carleton to Queen Henrietta Maria
23 August 1628	23	(3)
Elizabeth, Queen of Bohemia, to the Earl of Carlisle
12 June 1630	26	(1)
John Winthrop to Margaret Winthrop
9 September 1630	26	(2)
Anthony Thacher to Peter Thacher
September 1635	28	(5)
Joseph Kent to ---
11 March 1649	33	(2)
The Earl of Derby to General Henry Ireton
July 1649	35	(1)
The Duchess of Newcastle to William Cavendish
1645	35	(1)
Anna Carr to Dr Symcotts
c.1650	36	(1)
Dorothy Osborne to William Temple
September 1653	37	(4)
Sir John Evelyn to Sir Richard Browne
14 February 1658	41	(1)
--- to Dr Christopher Wiren
4 April 1665	42	(1)
John Strype to his mother
October? 1662	43	(3)
J. Tillison to Dr Sancroft
14 September 1665	46	(1)
Mary Evelyn to her son
c.1673	47	(1)
Christopher Hatton to his brother
25 May 1676	48	(2)
Cotton Mather to John Higginson
1682	50	(1)
Sir James Dick to Mr Ellies
9 May 1682	50	(3)
Sir George Etherege to the Duke of Buckingham
March 1687?	53	(5)
Lady Mary Wortley Montague to Edward Wortley Montagu
c.26 July 1712	58	(2)
--- to the same
c.24 September 1714	60	(1)
--- to Lady ---
16 August 1716	61	(1)
--- to Lady ---
1 April 1717	62	(2)
--- to Lady Mar
23 June 1727	64	(2)
--- to Lady Pomfret
March 1739	66	(2)
Jonathan Swift to Lord Oxford
21 November 1713	68	(1)
--- to Robert Percival
3 January 1730	69	(2)
--- to John Gay
4 May 1732	71	(2)
Alexander Pope and John Arbuthnot to Jonathan Swift
5 December 1732	73	(2)
Thomas Sheridan to the same
15 July 1735	75	(1)
--- to the same
13 August 1735	76	(1)
Mrs Whiteway to the Earl of Orrery
22 November 1742	77	(2)
Deane Swift to the same
4 April 1744	79	(1)
Alexander Pope to Martha Blount
November 1714	80	(2)
--- to Hugh Bethell
19 March 1744	82	(1)
Lord Hervey to Stephen Fox
7 September 1730	83	(1)
--- to the same
14 November 1732	84	(2)
Thomas Gray to Horace Walpole
31 October 1734	86	(1)
--- to James Brown
24 September 1761	87	(3)
Horace Walpole to Richard West
27 February 1740	90	(2)
--- to Horace Mann
21 August 1746	92	(3)
--- to George Montagu
13 November 1760	95	(2)
--- to the same
2 February 1762	97	(1)
--- to Lady Ossory
8 April 1779	98	(3)
--- to the same
3 June 1780	101	(3)
Samuel Richardson, `From a mother to a daughter'
1741	104	(1)
---, `From a gentleman to a lady'
1741	105	(1)
---, `From a country gentleman to his brother'
1741	106	(2)
David Garrick to the Countess of Burlington
21 July 1755	108	(2)
--- to the Marquis of Hartington
2 August 1755	110	(1)
--- to Peter Garrick
6 November 1762	111	(1)
George Burton to William Stukeley
11 August 1755	112	(2)
Lady Sarah Lennox to Lady Susan Fox Strangways
7 July 1761	114	(1)
--- to Lady Susan O'Brien
9 June 1766	115	(5)
--- to the same
February 1779	120	(3)
--- to the same
29 September 1815	123	(1)
Lady Susan O'Brien, A note on changes between 1760 and 1818
1818	124	(3)
Samuel Johnson to the Earl of Bute
3 November 1762	127	(1)
--- to William Strahan
7 March 1774	128	(1)
--- to James Macpherson
20 January 1775	129	(1)
--- to Hester Thrale
27 October 1777	129	(1)
--- to James Boswell
14 March 1781	130	(1)
--- to Hester Thrale
19 June 1783	131	(2)
James Boswell to Samuel Johnson
30 September 1764	133	(1)
--- to William Temple
8 February 1768	134	(3)
Sir Joshua Reynolds to James Barry
1769	137	(1)
--- to Valentine Green
1 June 1783	138	(1)
--- to James Boswell
7 July 1785	139	(1)
Captain W. G. Evelyn to Mrs Leveson Gower
19 August 1775	140	(2)
Abigail Adams to John Adams
31 March 1776	142	(2)
John Adams to Abigail Adams
14 April 1776	144	(2)
Erasmus Darwin to Anna Seward and reply
7, 8 September 1780	146	(4)
The Prince of Wales to Prince Frederick
17 July 1781	150	(4)
Prince Frederick to the Prince of Wales
30 July 1781	154	(1)
The Prince of Wales to Princess Caroline
30 April 1796	155	(1)
Benjamin Franklin to Sir Joseph Banks
27 July 1783	156	(1)
--- to the same
30 November 1783	156	(1)
Vincenzo Lunardi to King George III
16 September 1784	157	(4)
John Newton to the Earl of Dartmouth
22 September 1784	161	(1)
Gilbert White to Mrs Barker
19 October 1784	162	(2)
Queen Charlotte Sophia to Prince William
August 1785	164	(1)
Sir William Hamilton to the Prince of Wales
12 November 1788	165	(1)
Edmund Burke to Sir Philip Francis
20 February 1790	166	(4)
Richard Burke to the King of France
6 August 1791	170	(2)
Mary Wollstonecraft to ---
1795	172	(1)
Henrietta, Countess Bessborough, to Granville Leveson Gower
1796	173	(1)
--- to the same
2 October 1805	174	(2)
--- to the same
11 October 1808	176	(1)
--- to the same
13 September 1811	177	(1)
Jane Austen to Cassandra Austen
20 November 1800	178	(3)
--- to Fanny Knight
18 November 1814	181	(4)
Lord Nelson to Lady Hamilton
17 February 1801	185	(1)
--- to the same
1 March 1801	186	(2)
Sir William Hamilton to Lady Hamilton
1802	188	(1)
William Wordsworth to Sare Hutchinson
14 June 1802	189	(1)
--- to Thomas De Quincey
29 July 1803	190	(2)
Lady Hester Stanhope to Patrick Craufurd Bruce
c.27 June 1810	192	(2)
--- to Mr Murray
2 January 1812	194	(2)
Harriet, Countess Granville, to Lady Georgiana Morpeth
28 August 1810	196	(1)
Fanny Burney to Esther Burney
March-June 1812	197	(8)
Maria Edgeworth to Mrs Edgeworth
October 1812	205	(3)
--- to the same
30 April 1831	208	(6)
Sir Walter Scott to Joanna Baillie
April 1816	214	(4)
--- to Abel Moysey
15 June 1819	218	(1)
Lord Byron to Thomas Moore
28 January 1817	219	(2)
--- to John Murray
1 August 1819	221	(6)
B. R. Haydon to John Keats
March 1817	227	(1)
Sydney Smith to the Farmer's Magazine
August 1819	228	(1)
--- to Lady Georgiana Morpeth
16 February 1820	229	(1)
--- to John Allen
9 November 1826	230	(1)
--- to Dr Henry Holland
8 June 1835	231	(1)
--- to Miss Lucie Austin
22 July 1835	232	(1)
--- to Mrs Austin
13 October 1842	233	(1)
--- to Lady Carlisle
1 October 1844	233	(1)
John Keats to P. B. Shelley
16 August 1820	234	(1)
--- to Fanny Brawne
August? 1820	235	(1)
--- to Charles Brown
1 November 1820	236	(2)
Anna Francis to Mrs Galabin
22 January 1821	238	(2)
Leigh Hunt to Joseph Severn
8 March 1821	240	(1)
Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley to Maria Gisborne
15 August 1822	241	(7)
The Chevalier de Santa Rosa to Sarah Austin
26 December 1822	248	(2)
Jane Baillie Welsh to Thomas Carlyle
16 September 1823	250	(1)
Thomas Carlyle to Jane Baillie Welsh
18 September 1823	251	(3)
--- to Ralph Waldo Emerson
27 January 1867	254	(2)
Benjamin Disraeli to John Murray
29 July 1824	256	(1)
--- to Henry Colburn
14 February 1830	257	(1)
--- to Sarah Disraeli
12 November 1831	258	(1)
--- to the same
9 May 1835	259	(1)
--- to the same
22 June 1838	259	(1)
--- to Lady Bradford
25 November 1875	260	(2)
Thomas De Quincey to Dorothy Wordsworth
16 July 1825	262	(1)
Emily Eden to Theresa Villiers
1825	263	(1)
--- to the same
15 December 1826	264	(1)
--- to the same
1 September 1827	265	(1)
Thomas Babington Macaulay to Zachary Macaulay
21 July 1826	266	(2)
--- to Thomas Flower Ellis
30 March 1831	268	(2)
--- to Hannah Macaulay
1 June 1831	270	(3)
--- to Margaret Macaulay
26 November 1832	273	(2)
Robert Southey to Charlotte Bronte
March 1837	275	(2)
Charlotte Bronte to Robert Southey
16 March 1837	277	(2)
--- to Emily Bronte
8 June 1839	279	(1)
--- to Ellen Nussey
2 June 1851	280	(2)
Sarah Austin to Susan Reeve
9 August 1837	282	(2)
Abraham Lincoln to Mrs O. H. Browning
1 April 1838	284	(2)
--- to Joseph Hooker
26 January 1863	286	(1)
Richard Bowler to his brother
15 April 1838	287	(1)
Samuel Palmer to the Linnells
9 October 1838	288	(5)
--- to Polly Linnell
13 November 1838	293	(1)
--- to Thomas More Palmer
6 October 1844	293	(3)
--- to Miss Julia Richmond
September 1866	296	(2)
--- to Mrs Julia Robinson
9 December 1872	298	(3)
Charles Dickens to Daniel Maclise
22 July 1840	301	(1)
--- to the same
12 March 1841	301	(2)
--- to Albany Fonblanque
12 March 1842	303	(4)
--- to Thomas Mitton
13 June 1865	307	(2)
--- to Henry Dickens
15 October 1868	309	(1)
Ralph Waldo Emerson to Margaret Fuller
24 October 1840	310	(2)
Henry Cockburn to John Cockburn
22 October 1841	312	(1)
--- to John Marshall
22 July 1847	313	(1)
F. W. Ludwing Leichhart to John Murphy
3 December 1842	314	(1)
Rebecca Butterworth to her father
5 July 1846	315	(3)
Herman Melville to Evert A. Duyckinck
3 March 1849	318	(2)
--- to Nathaniel Hawthorne
29 January? 1851	320	(1)
Caroline Norton to Sir Alexander Duff Gordon
9 June 1849	321	(1)
Charles Kingsley to his wife
24 October 1849	322	(1)
--- to Thomas Hughes
1851	323	(1)
John Clare to Mary Collingwood
1850	324	(1)
--- to James Hipkins
8 March 1860	325	(1)
Harriet Beecher Stowe to Mrs George Beecher
December 1850	325	(5)
John Ruskin to John James Ruskin
3 October 1851	330	(2)
--- to the same
20 February 1852	332	(1)
--- to Lady Mount-Temple
4 June 1869	333	(1)
--- to the same
4 October 1872	334	(2)
J.R. Lowell to A. H. Clough
23 December 1852	336	(1)
A.H. Clough to J.R. Lowell
24 December 1852	336	(1)
Robert E. Lee to Anne Lee
25 February 1853	337	(2)
Zaduck Bamford to Frances Bamford
8 October 1854	339	(1)
George Eliot to Sara Hennell
31 October 1854	340	(2)
--- to Mrs Charles Bray
4 September 1855	342	(2)
--- to John Chapman
1 February 1856	344	(1)
--- to Harriet Beecher Stowe
29 October 1876	345	(2)
Edward Lear to Chichester Fortescue
1855	347	(1)
--- to the same
9 July 1860	348	(2)
Elizabeth B. Browning and Robert Browning to Miss M. A. de Gaudrion
30 August 1855	350	(2)
H. D. Thoreau to H. G. O. Blake
6 December 1856	352	(3)
Barbara Bodichon to Benjamin Smith
7-11 December 1857	355	(5)
--- to the same
13-14 February 1858	360	(5)
Anthony Trollope to Dorothea Sankey
24 March 1861	365	(1)
Emily Dickinson to T.W. Higginson
7 June 1862	366	(1)
--- to Mrs J. G. Holland
October 1870	367	(1)
--- to Louise and Frances Norcross
July 1879	368	(1)
--- to Susan Gilbert Dickinson
October 1883	369	(1)
J.H. Newman to R.W. Church
11 July 1865	370	(1)
J. A. Symonds to Charlotte Symonds
8 December 1865	371	(5)
Joseph Upher to his parents
1 February 1868	376	(1)
William James to Alice James
4 June 1868	377	(2)
--- to Henry James, Sr.
14 December 1882	379	(1)
--- to Alice James
6 July 1891	380	(2)
Alice James to William James
30 July 1891	382	(1)
William James to Alexander James
28 August 1898	383	(1)
--- to Henry James and William James, Jr.
9 May 1906	384	(1)
Charles Eliot Norton to John Ruskin
15 June 1870	385	(3)
James Thomson to Hypatia Bradlaugh
5 July 1871	388	(2)
Mark Twain to W. D. Howells
15 June 1872	390	(1)
--- to the same
18 May 1880	391	(1)
W. D. Howells to Mark Twain
23 May 1880	392	(1)
Mark Twain to W. D. Howells
21 July 1885	393	(1)
W. D. Howells to Mark Twain
12 February 1903	394	(1)
Mark Twain to W. D. Howells
13 February 1903	394	(2)
--- to the same
12 June 1904	396	(1)
Wilkie Collins to Holman Hunt
11 March 1873	396	(1)
--- to the same
8 October 1885	397	(1)
Randolph Caldecott to William ---
29 March 1873	398	(4)
Henry James to William James
29 May 1878	402	(1)
--- to the same
1 January 1883	403	(1)
--- to W. M. Fullerton
26 November 1907	404	(2)
--- to Max Beerbohm
19 December 1908	406	(1)
--- to Rhoda Broughton
10 August 1914	407	(1)
--- to H. H. Asquith
28 June 1915	408	(1)
--- to H. G. Wells
10 July 1915	409	(1)
Edward, Prince of Wales, to Sir Henry F. Stephenson
17 October 1880	410	(1)
Rudyard Kipling to Edith Macdonald
4 February 1884	411	(3)
R. L. Stevenson to J. A. Symonds
Spring 1886	414	(2)
Mrs Stevenson to Mrs Sitwell
March 1889	416	(3)
Ernest Clark to the Daily Chronicle
14 August 1893	419	(1)
A. E. Housman to the editor of the Standard
12 March 1894	420	(1)
--- to Laurence Housman
12 May 1897	421	(1)
--- to Alice Rothenstein
28 May 1909	422	(1)
--- to Lily Thicknesse
11 August 1909	422	(1)
A. T. Harris to the Superintendent, Atlantic City Railroad
September 1896	423	(1)
Oscar Wilde to the Governor of Reading Gaol
28 May 1897	424	(1)
`Bert' to Oscar Browning
1 July 1897	425	(2)
W. T. Stead to the Cardinal Secretary of State
20 November 1898	427	(1)
--- to the same
21 November 1898	427	(1)
W. M. Fullerton to Oscar Wilde
23 June 1899	428	(1)
Three schoolmistresses to Edward Elgar
28 September 1900	428	(1)
Augustus John to Alexandra Schepeler
September 1907	429	(1)
Leonard Woolf to Lytton Strachey
29 September 1907	430	(1)
W. B. Yeats to John Quinn
4 October 1907	431	(2)
--- to the same
30 October 1920	433	(2)
--- to Olivia Shakespear
1 June 1930	435	(1)
--- to the same
27 December 1934	435	(1)
--- to Lady Elizabeth Pelham
4 January 1939	436	(1)
Edith Wharton to W. M. Fullerton
March 1908	436	(1)
--- to Henry James
28 February 1915	437	(2)
D. H. Lawrence and Frieda Weekley to Rachel Annand Taylor
3 December 1910	439	(2)
--- to Henry Savage
31 October 1913	441	(3)
--- to Middleton Murry
27 November 1913	444	(3)
--- to Lady Cynthia Asquith
3 June 1918	447	(1)
--- to Katherine Mansfield
9 February 1919	448	(1)
George Bernard Shaw to Gilbert Murray
14 March 1911	449	(5)
--- to Mrs Patrick Campbell
22 February 1913	454	(2)
--- to Lillah McCarthy
30 July 1916	456	(2)
--- to Mrs Patrick Campbell
7 January 1918	458	(1)
--- to St John Ervine
22 May 1918	459	(1)
--- to Ada Tyrrell
28 January 1928	460	(2)
--- to Helen Harris
26 August 1931	462	(1)
--- to Esme Percy
20 April 1932	462	(1)
--- to Edward Elgar
30 May 1933	463	(1)
--- to H. G. Wells
12 September 1943	464	(1)
Robert Frost to Susan Hayes Ward
10 February 1912	465	(1)
--- to John W. Haines
21 July 1925	466	(1)
J. B. Yeats to W. B. Yeats
30 August 1914	467	(3)
Hugh McCrae to Helen McCrae
1 October 1914	470	(5)
H.H. Asquith to Venetia Stanley
12 October 1914	475	(1)
--- to the same
13 October 1914	476	(1)
--- to the same
12 May 1915	477	(1)
Wyndham Lewis to Augustus John
Summer 1915	478	(2)
Charles Ricketts to Gordon Bottomley
2 October 1916	480	(1)
--- to the same
14 October 1916	480	(1)
--- to Lady Davis
July 1925	481	(1)
Dora Carrington to Lytton Strachey
29 January 1917	482	(2)
--- to the same
14 May 1921	484	(3)
--- to Gerald Brenan
5 May 1924	487	(2)
Ivor Gurney to Marion Scott
June or July 1917	489	(2)
--- to the same
4 October 1917	491	(2)
Aldous Huxley to Dora Carrington
14 July 1917	493	(2)
Wilfred Owen to Susan Owen
4 October 1918	495	(1)
Katherine Mansfield to Princess Bibesco
24 March 1921	496	(1)
Edmund Wilson to John Peale Bishop
3 July 1921	496	(3)
--- to Louise Bogan
19 July 1933	499	(1)
--- to Alfred Kazin
December 1952	500	(1)
--- to Mary Meigs
26 December 1964	501	(1)
--- to Francis Steegmuller
27 July 1968	502	(1)
Ernest Hemingway to F. Scott Fitzgerald
1 July 1925	502	(1)
--- to Sara Murphy
c.27 February 1936	503	(3)
Elinor Wylie to Horace Wylie
20 May 1927	506	(1)
James Joyce to Michael Healy
1 July 1927	507	(1)
--- to Giorgio and Helen Joyce
28 November 1934	508	(1)
Vladimir Dixon to James Joyce
9 February 1929	509	(1)
John Betjeman to Lord Kinross
13 June 1933	509	(1)
John Steinbeck to George Albee
1934	510	(2)
--- to Dorothy Rodgers
25 July 1954	512	(2)
James Thurber to Herman and Dorothy Miller
August 1935	514	(2)
--- to Robert Leifert
4 January 1958	516	(1)
Virginia Woolf to Vanessa Bell
1 October 1938	517	(3)
Evelyn Waugh to Laura Waugh
25 February 1940	520	(2)
--- to the same
31 May 1942	522	(1)
Stephen Spender to T. S. Eliot
21 August 1946	523	(1)
T. S. Eliot to Stephen Spender
21 August 1946	523	(1)
Wallance Stevens to Harvey Breit
8 August 1942	524	(1)
Groucho Marx to Warner Brothers
1948	525	(2)
Lady Diana Cooper to Patrick Leigh Fermor
15 June 1953	527	(3)
Flannery O'Connor to Cecil Dawkins
22 September 1957	530	(1)
--- to Maryat Lee
16 June 1964	530	(1)
Edith Sitwell to Lady Snow
20 May 1959	531	(1)
Elizabeth Bishop to Robert Lowell
27 July 1960	532	(3)
--- to the same
16 January 1975	535	(1)
Sylvia Townsend Warner to William Maxwell
22 July 1967	536	(2)
--- to David Garnett
6 June 1973	538	(1)
David Garnett to Sylvia Townsend Warner
13 June 1973	538	(1)
Sylvia Townsend Warner to David Garnett
18 June 1973	539	(1)
Philip Larkin to Kingsley Amis
21 November 1985	540	(3)
Sources and Acknowledgements	543	(12)
Index of Writers	555	(2)
Index of Recipients	557