Letter from Helen Hunt to Charlotte Cushman, Oct 28, 1874

Letter from Helen Hunt to Charlotte Cushman, Oct 28, 1874

Jackson, Helen Hunt

Cushman, Charlotte Saunders, 1816-1876

United States--New York City

Reputation

Relationships-- Intimate--Same-sex

Helen Hunt is unsure of whether Charlotte Cushman received her note in Boston, since she did not know the exact address. Helen Hunt mentions that Cushman is leaving for California and Hunt inquires about when exactly that will be, being optimistic that she herself will be in Colorado upon the other's return. She also writes about an article about Cushman written by Will Winter in the Tribune, which apparently speaks to Cushman's character off stage.

Credit

Library of Congress, Charlotte Cushman Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

For transcripts, please also see Colorado College.

Hunt, Helen Jackson, 1830-1885

LoC, CCP 11:3406-3407

1874-10-28

Reference

[3406] My Queen,

I hope you got my note in Boston, explaining that I was kept here by a friends [sic!] coming to spend a week with me. – I did not know your address so sent it to my Trustee, who gave it to the Clerk at Music Hall. – I did not so much grieve over that disappointment. because I felt sure of seeing you in New York. I had planned to be there, the last of next week, for a week with my sister, and a week with Mrs. Botta. – But I begin

[3407] now to fear that I shall not get there. at all. Of course you have noticed the accounts[?] of the fresh outbreak of diphtheria. Even friends who laughed at me for my fears in September, now beg me to stay away.
When do you set out for California? – I think it very possible that I may be in Colorado to welcome you when you come back; it feels less and less as if I should stay here. The gloom and gray of these skies and the wet and pinch of this air are odious to me. My throat burns

[reverse 3406] perpetually, and I feel a sword swinging over my head all the time.
How gloriously Will[?] Winter (is it?) has written of you in the Tribune. No word so true, so satisfying to my heart has ever been said of you before. – I shall always keep one of those articles to read to people when I try to tell them as I sometimes do, what you are, off [underlined] the stage, to people who love you and whom you love.
Your faithful H.H.

[reverse 3407] I shall hold on here till the 5th or 6th & then go to Boston, & wait [underlined] for some thing to turn up. I am a bit of drifting seaweed this autumn. –

Hunt, Helen Jackson, 1830-1885

Cushman, Charlotte Saunders, 1816-1876

bethlehem, NH, US

44.2804901

-71.6867729