Charlotte Cushman's Diary, 1844/1845 (reused)
Dublin Core
Title
Subject
Description
Charlotte Cushman writes a diary in 1844 and 1845. In October 1844, she gets on a steamer to go to Liverpool. In England, she hopes to be successful enough to enable her love, Rosalie Sully, to always be with her. The journey is rough and Charlotte is homesick and suffers physically and mentally. In her diary, she mentions the people that she meets, the engagements of the respective evenings, the letters that she receives and writes, and her living expenses.
Every now an then she sends newspapers to her brother Charles, for instance, or notices a comment about her illness in the press.
Cushman mentions countless letters to and from Rose [Rosalie Sully].
Since she cannot afford to buy another diary in 1845 when she is struggling to be successful in England, Cushman reuses her diary from 1844 and adds new entries to the respective dates turning the book and writting across the pages.
Every now and then she mentions "Father," whom she pays. Many more expenses listed.
Much of the diary is written in pencil. Partially for that reason, both Emma Crow (in "A Memory," 1918) and Emma Stebbins (in a letter to Sidney Lanier, July 6, 1876) consider it almost indecipherable, when they try to make use of it for Cushman's biographiy after her death.
Credit
Creator
Source
Type
Diary (Entry) Item Type Metadata
Text
published yearly by Hymen L. Lipman,
Stationer & Blank Book Binder,
No. 139 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia
"Letter from A Brewster"
Jan 28, 1844
Anne Brewster mentioned
Feb 6, 1844
"Letter from A Brewster"
Feb 20, 1844
"Letters from A Brewster"
March 1, 1844
"wrote to A Brewster"
Feb 4, 1845
"Macready called [...]
Newspaper from Tuckerman with the notice of my illness"
"Rehearsed with Macready"
May 16, 1844
"Part of a Letter to Rose called out!"
June 1, 1844
"wrote note to Rose. Sent Ring [underlined twice]"
June 3, 1844
"no money from theatre
Talked about England going"
June 4, 1844
"wrote to Mac: Answer from him. Good natured! wrote again.
Wrote to Willis&Toykoff about England"
June 16, 1844
"Bracelet from Rose & note. answered"
June 30, 1844
"saw Rose"
Aug 2, 1844
"passed afternoon with Rose"
Aug 19, 1844
"caught in the +++. Slept with Rose."
Aug 23, 1844
"Happy Day Rose"
Aug 24, 1844
"Happy Day Rose rode on +++"
"slept with Rose"
Sept 28, 1844
"Talked all way with Macready"
Oct 10, 1844
"Invitation from Macready"
Oct 11, 1844
"Letter from Father"
Oct 12, 1844
"wrote note of thanks to Macready"
pencil writing [day when she sailed to Europe?]
"steamboat ... sailed at 11"
Oct 28, 1844
"My dear & sole thought was Rosalie dear Rosalie
Rested in bed all day"
Oct 29, 1844
"so tired & homesick
thought of Rosalie
[..]. I see Rosalie [...] I hear her sigh [...] I feel almost her arms about me"
Nov 9, 1844
"we are only halfway on our passage [...] I am getting thinner at all event I am getting more miserable & wish in my heart that I had staid [sic] at home"
Nov 10, 1844
"I am impatient & fear that I shall not be successful abroad, if not I am worse off at home. Than if I had not gone [...] I fear my very age will not do me good [...] my physical +++ are worse than when I left home"
Nov 18, 1844
"arrived in Liverpool"
Nov 20, 1844
"wrote to Macready"
Nov 21, 1844
"Letter from Macready - answered it"
Nov 24, 1844
"Letter from Macready"
Dec 3, 1844
"very sick all day"
Dec 6, 1844
letters of introduction mentioned
Dec 19, 1844
"arrived in Paris"
Dec 28, 1844
"very ill - home.
writing letters"
Dec 31, 1844
"cant [sic] buy another Diary, & so carry on the year 1845 in this, writing crosswise"
starts with Jan 11, 1845[?]
Jan 12, 1845[?]
speaks about "disgraceful profession," cannot believe that she left her home for that
"how I hated myself tonight - as I felt that I formed one of a miserable group & why should I not be considered as bad as they"
Oct 31, 1844
"I think I will never go to the sea again after I return once more to my dear Rosalie. [...] if only to enjoy her affection, which is to me all the world. [...] shall I ever make sufficient money to have her with me always? [...] oh dear. oh dear. how I hope it. how I sigh for it"
Nov 1, 1844
"God bless her if she but knew how constantly she possessed my thought how often I traced her features"
Nov 11, 1844
looked up boat transfers from Liverpool to NYC
Location
Secondary Texts: Comments
“Diaries are predicated on time, on the movement of time through hours and days and years, and on the positive valuation of "marking" time, recording events as they occur chronologically. Entries in most nineteenth century women's diaries begin with statistics: at the very least, diarists record the day of the week, the date, and their geographical location. Most record the weather; a few record the hour.” (Harris 27)
“the typical "Ladies' Diary," with its printed calendar and restricted writing space disciplines the diarist by encouraging short, unreflective entries, lists rather than commentary. In contrast, an open-ended diary (a diary with blank or lined pages and no pre-printed matter) imposes nearly no material constraints, encouraging the diarist to create her own structure and to provide as much commentary as she chooses.” (Harris 29)
“this is because nineteenth-century diaries were not really private; many were written with the expectation that they would be read by other people, and even the putatively private diary was subject to occasional inspection by family or friends. But I would argue that the absence of the physical is also evidence of the diaries writing herself into acceptable femininity.” (Harris 32)
