Diary of Annie Adams Fields

Sep. 11 A clouded sweet morning. The sparrows are hopping around the door. Lizzy has been ill—but is better today.

Saturday Sepr 27. Returned home to Charles St. Jamie still lame poor dear boy.

Saturday Octr 4. Home just one week. Found everything in wonderful order—every book clean—everything just where we would wish it. We have had a happy week.

Saturday Octr 11th Helen & Alice Towne have come to pass Sunday with us. Charles Sumner, Longfellow, Greene, Dr. Holmes came to dine. Mr. Sumner seemed less strong than of late and I fancied he suffered somewhat while at table during the evening—but he told me he was working at his desk or...

Sunday Mr. Whittier came to breakfast. He was filled with solicitude for dear J. Was interested to ask after Mrs Leonowens whom he has never met. He was the same loving friendly soul as ever. He stayed till noon.

Saty Nov 1. Mr. Lowes Dickinson, an English portrait-painter of some eminence came to dine. We liked his quiet polished manners, perfectly natural, friendly, even tender as he came to know us better. His wife is with him. He is traveling for his health two months in America. They have five...

Sunday Nov. 2. Mr. & Mrs Dickinson dined with us. She is very deaf, but one of the most simple and perfect ladies I have seen for many a day. She says Mr. D. sees many celebrities professionally but she lives very quietly in the country. Their cottage is of brick, covered with every beautiful...

Nov. 16. Yesterday was the 19th anniversary of our wedding day. It seems like yesterday—and yet, as Dickens used to say how odd it is that there is another side to the lapse of time when it seems long as eternity. Certainly all my previous life counts as nothing in time even from the shortest...

Dec. 14. 1873 For the last two weeks the great tea-party of Faneuil Hall to celebrate the throwing over of the tea in 1773, wh. is to come off this week has occupied me entirely. Now the arrangements are completed and I sit down quietly.

Decr 16. Agassiz’ funeral. Longfellow joined us with glistening eyes afterward.

Have been looking over Wilhelm Meister! I struck upon that marvellous passage “I reverence the individual who understands distinctly what he wishes; who unweariedly advances who knows the means conducive to his object, and can seize and use them. How far his object may be great or little is...

March 31. 1874. Went yesterday to see Mrs Agassiz. The three motherless children of A’s son were playing in the grounds as I approached. They are now her care. Later in the visit, they all came in to see “grandmamma” and the little one hardly more than two years old scrambled up in her lap...

May 2. At last the sun comes after long hiding. Up to this date we have hardly seen the birds or felt a touch of the Spring.

May 28. Have just read Mrs Duffey’s reply to Dr. Clarke. She is unjust to the Dr. and not at all cool & unimpassioned in her style. She has much right on her side but I think his book still remains useful and a help to the human race. Let co-education begin under the Dr.’s warning & all will...

June 1st All these interesting days of experience among men and women have sped away and I have been unable even to make a record. This past week Louisa’s two youngest children have been with us and their nurse and Miss Mary Dewey for the last two or three days.

June 6th My birthday—A lovely mist covers the earth and it is very warm. Everything is quite still about the house for “J.” is away in Hanover. Last night was his last lecture. He will come home glad and tired about noon if all is well.

Sunday 7th We enjoyed quietly at home. Aunt Willard and Nelly came to tea—in the afternoon I walked out when Miss Palfrey called and left me a bunch of white lilies of the valley—considering our separation I was truly moved by her gentle memories of me. Jamie went to see his brother’s...

Monday 8th Was warm and perfect in its beauty. Miss Knowlton came to tea. The sunset was exquisite; we had seen in the morning two marvellous pictures by La farge and a beauty of a garden by Hunt. We had much to talk of artistically—also she came to consult us with regard to a newspaper which...

Tuesday 9th Dickens’s death day, sent flowers to two Holly Trees & to Boffin’s Bower. Went to hear Mr. Curtis pronounce the last eulogy upon Sumner. It was a glorious occasion. Whittier’s poem written for the occasion was read for him, Miss Kellogg & Miss Phillips sang, also a chorus of...

Wednesday 10th Went to the Athenaeum to see Mr. Sumner’s pictures and engravings bequeathed to the art Museum. The engravings are exceptionally valuable and interesting. I would give much to own a portrait of Fénélon. I shall never forget its beauty & power.

Thursday. Went to a Charity Fête at Mrs Claflin’s but it rained and took as C.C. says all the gilt I fear off the gingerbread. But Henry Wilson was there and talked of Schurz. Says he is not an executive man! The best speaker in the Senate, he makes painful mistakes when he attempts to act....

Friday. Wind has gone East—lovely cool rain, delicious refreshment for man & beast. Went to see Mrs Caswell and find she is very ill. I fear she will never recover. Her intense labor in bad air among the poor of the city, the affairs she has kept in her hands, the letters she has written, the...

Saturday. Cool and clear. Wrote at home during the morning and read in Goethe’s autobiography and poems (German) two hours. Invited Lilian Aldrich to lunch but she was deep in dust of housecleaning, poor child, getting her townhouse into order and could not leave. I saw her for a moment....

Sunday—14. One of June’s perfect days. Wrote introduction to The Childe of Bristane, my version before breakfast and amended the lives I had left imperfect on the new reading.

Monday. Perabo fulfilled a promise made to us last week by coming at nine o’clock in the morning to play to us. It really seemed too bad to have but one pair of people listening to such a treat. He brought Rubinstein’s “Lenore” to play but he would not begin with that—so first we had...