Lucy Larcom Correspondence
Scope and Contents
Several reoccurring themes run throughout Lacy Larcom’s letters to Ada Elise Locke, among them are the challenges that come with writing for a living, her reasons for moving from place to place, and the grace she experiences from living according to her Christian beliefs. The letters also contain descriptions of the sermons Larcom heard preached by Phillips Brooks (1835-1893) at Trinity Church in Boston, Massachusetts, mentions her friendship with John Greenleaf Whittier (1807-1892) and that she is making a Whittier calendar, and discusses the publication of A New England Girlhood. In addition, she provides details on the change of seasons and the kinds of flowers in that are in bloom whether she is in Bethel, Maine or in the White Mountains in New Hampshire.
Dates
- 1879-1893
Creator
- Larcom, Lucy (Person)
Conditions Governing Access
The collection is open for research.
Conditions Governing Use
Items in this collection may be subject to copyright restrictions. In most cases, the Boston Public Library does not hold the copyright to the items in our collections. It is the sole responsibility of the user to make their own determination about what types of usage might be permissible under U.S. and international copyright law.
Biographical / Historical
Chronology:
1824 - Born in Beverly, Massachusetts on March 5.
1835-1845 - Works in cotton mills in Lowell, Massachusetts.
1840-1845 - Contributes to the Lowell Offering.
1846-1852 - Moves with sister Emeline near St. Louis, Missouri and enters Monticello Female Academy. Graduates and stays on as a teacher.
1852-1853 - Returns to Massachusetts and publishes her first book, Similitudes from the Ocean and Prairie.
1854-1863 - Teaches at Wheaton Female Seminary in Norton, Massachusetts where she introduced the study of English Literature.
1854-1893 - Publishes and edits several books, among them Ships in the Mist and Other Stories (1859), Poems (1869), and Hillside and Seaside Poetry (1876), Wild Roses of Cape Ann and Other Poems (1880), and Easter Gleams (1890). Contributes to The Atlantic Monthly, Harper's New Monthly Magazine, and The New England Magazine.
1863-1874 - Starts as assistant editor and later becomes editor for Our Young Folks magazine (later St. Nicholas Magazine). Retires from Our Young Folks to write full time.
1885 - Writes Wheaton Seminary: A Semi-Centennial Sketch.
1889 - Publishes A New England Girlhood.
1893 - Dies in Boston on April 17.
Extent
70.00 Items
Language of Materials
English
Arrangement
Arranged chronologically.
Method of Acquisition
Purchased in 1939 with J. L. Whitney funds.
Processing Information
Finding aid written by Kimberly Reynolds, May 2011.
Processing Information
This electronic finding aid is transcribed from legacy data. In many cases, transcriptions were not verified against collection materials at the time of transcription. As a result, this finding aid could be incomplete and might only reflect a partial understanding of the material.
Statement on harmful description
Archival description reflects the biases of time periods and cultures in which it was created and may include direct quotations or descriptions that use inappropriate or harmful language. Creator provided descriptions may be maintained in order to preserve the context in which the collection was created and/or used. Legacy description and potentially offensive content may be made available online until a collection can be reprocessed because the access that they provide to primary source materials is uniquely valuable to the research community at large. Our efforts to repair outdated descriptions and to describe our collections more equitably are iterative and ongoing.
- Authors, American -- 19th century -- Correspondence Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Larcom, Lucy, 1824-1893 -- Correspondence.
- Locke, Ada Elise -- Correspondence.
- Title
- Lucy Larcom Correspondence
- Date
- 10/21/2011
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
About this library
Part of the Boston Public Library Archives & Special Collections Repository
