Annie Fields's James T. Fields. Biographical Notes and Personal Sketches (1881)
Dublin Core
Title
Annie Fields's James T. Fields. Biographical Notes and Personal Sketches (1881)
Subject
Fields, James Thomas, 1817-1881
Fields, Annie, 1834-1915
Fields, James Thomas, 1817-1881
Praise
Relationships--Networks
Description
Annie Fields mentions Cushman "a woman of great energy and ability" who aimed at "forwarding her own plans or those of others in whom she was interested."
Credit
Creator
Fields, Annie, 1834-1915
Publisher
Houghton, Mifflin and Co.
Date
1881-00-00
Type
Reference
Auto/Biography Item Type Metadata
Text
[pages 74-76]
This was the period of Mr. Fields's first intimate acquaintance with Charlotte Cushman, a woman of great energy and ability. Many of the pleasantest days in Rome that winter were passed under her roof and at her table. Here was to be seen, from day to day, everybody of interest either among the residents in Rome or the chance visitors to that city. Her dramatic talent and her courage made her a power in the social circle. Miss Cushman was a keen observer and appreciator of that disinterested power of doing for others, which was one of the distinguishing characteristics of her friend's disposition. It is amusing to see how full her letters are of suggestions for forwarding her own plans or those of others in whom she was interested.
[page break]
"A thousand thanks about the something for me to read next season. Show, show, show ! 'It would have rejoiced your sympathetic soul to have seen 2,000 people under the influence of the ' Young Gray Head.' . . . You would have seen the reward of your search, and in pointing it out to me as a reading." "I want very much to introduce to you the bearer of this, . . . and you will make something of him, . . . for you seem to have the power to make of people what you will. I think you are the great original philosopher's stone." . . . Again she writes : — "I want you to come to see me and give me some vitality. ... I want to be taken up bodily and made to do whatever is right, and good, and pleasant. . . . We unite in declaring you are the most wonderful fellow for finding out just what will suit the friends you love and honor with your gifts. I sit down with double-barreled determination to write and say I am keeping well, seeming to contradict the 'malignancy' of disease which my surgeon feared for me. . . . Tell me one thing. Do the lines in the 4 Adonais ' of Shelley, beginning at stanza 31, ' Midst others of less note,' etc., refer to Byron? or to whom ? Please tell me. ... I know you are very busy, and I would not trouble you, but we cannot get to any action save through your personal pressure. ... I will beg you to assume this responsibility. . . . E. S. [Emma Stebbins] has made such a lovely little figure of the Angel of Youth, . . . and a colossal head of the original (secesher, I call it) Rebel, ' The Archangel Ruined'
[page break]
as she calls it, alias Lucifer, which is full of power, and ought to be ordered by somebody at home. . . . How wonderful are the ' Biglow Papers ; ' there is more said in those papers than has been said by any writer and speaker yet."
This was the period of Mr. Fields's first intimate acquaintance with Charlotte Cushman, a woman of great energy and ability. Many of the pleasantest days in Rome that winter were passed under her roof and at her table. Here was to be seen, from day to day, everybody of interest either among the residents in Rome or the chance visitors to that city. Her dramatic talent and her courage made her a power in the social circle. Miss Cushman was a keen observer and appreciator of that disinterested power of doing for others, which was one of the distinguishing characteristics of her friend's disposition. It is amusing to see how full her letters are of suggestions for forwarding her own plans or those of others in whom she was interested.
[page break]
"A thousand thanks about the something for me to read next season. Show, show, show ! 'It would have rejoiced your sympathetic soul to have seen 2,000 people under the influence of the ' Young Gray Head.' . . . You would have seen the reward of your search, and in pointing it out to me as a reading." "I want very much to introduce to you the bearer of this, . . . and you will make something of him, . . . for you seem to have the power to make of people what you will. I think you are the great original philosopher's stone." . . . Again she writes : — "I want you to come to see me and give me some vitality. ... I want to be taken up bodily and made to do whatever is right, and good, and pleasant. . . . We unite in declaring you are the most wonderful fellow for finding out just what will suit the friends you love and honor with your gifts. I sit down with double-barreled determination to write and say I am keeping well, seeming to contradict the 'malignancy' of disease which my surgeon feared for me. . . . Tell me one thing. Do the lines in the 4 Adonais ' of Shelley, beginning at stanza 31, ' Midst others of less note,' etc., refer to Byron? or to whom ? Please tell me. ... I know you are very busy, and I would not trouble you, but we cannot get to any action save through your personal pressure. ... I will beg you to assume this responsibility. . . . E. S. [Emma Stebbins] has made such a lovely little figure of the Angel of Youth, . . . and a colossal head of the original (secesher, I call it) Rebel, ' The Archangel Ruined'
[page break]
as she calls it, alias Lucifer, which is full of power, and ought to be ordered by somebody at home. . . . How wonderful are the ' Biglow Papers ; ' there is more said in those papers than has been said by any writer and speaker yet."
Location
Boston, MA, US
Geocode (Latitude)
42.3602534
Geocode (Longitude)
-71.0582912
Provenance
Hathi Trust, https://hdl.handle.net/2027/loc.ark:/13960/t8md0dj77. Accessed 10 March 2021.
Social Bookmarking
Geolocation
Collection
Citation
Fields, Annie, 1834-1915, “Annie Fields's James T. Fields. Biographical Notes and Personal Sketches (1881),” Archival Gossip Collection, accessed April 19, 2024, https://www.archivalgossip.com/collection/items/show/572.