Sarah Butler Wister Signed Letter Daughter of Fanny Kemble Owen Wister Mother
$ 10.54
Description
Sarah Butler Wister Signed Letter Daughter of Fanny Kemble Owen Wister Mother . Autograph Letter Signed (ALS) — Sarah Butler Wister — Daughter of Fanny Kemble & Mother of Owen Wister (Author of. The Virginian . A genuine 19th-century letter, not a reproduction. She was the elder daughter ofFanny Kemble (1809–1893), the famous British Shakespearean actress whose. ). Autograph Letter Signed (ALS) — Sarah Butler Wister — Daughter of Fanny Kemble & Mother of Owen Wister (Author of The Virginian) Offered here is an original, handwritten autograph letter signed by Sarah Butler Wister (1835–1908) — a remarkable figure standing at the crossroads of three notable lives: the daughter of the celebrated actress and abolitionist Fanny Kemble, and the mother of Owen Wister, author of the classic Western novel The Virginian. The letter is written in ink, headed “Magnolia House, Magnolia, Mass., Aug. 6,” addressed “Sir,” and signed “S. B. Wister,” with her formal name noted beneath: “Mrs. O. J. Wister.” A genuine 19th-century letter, not a reproduction. The Content Writing from the Massachusetts seaside resort of Magnolia, Mrs. Wister responds to an inquiry — apparently about membership in the Onteora club (the artists’ and writers’ summer colony in the Catskills). She asks her correspondent to send “a list of the members of the Onteora,” so she can tell “whether I know any of them or not,” noting that “I probably do, as the lady who spoke to me of it, Miss Frelinghuysen, told me that several of her relations are there.” She politely adds that if he has no list, he need not trouble to reply, and mentions enclosing a card and the members “now at the Bear & Fox Inn.” A charming glimpse of Gilded Age summer-resort and club society, in the hand of one of its “great ladies.” About Sarah Butler Wister Sarah Butler Wister (1835–1908) was an American writer and renowned Philadelphia socialite — remembered by her family as “regal” and “the great lady of her neighborhood.” She was the elder daughter of Fanny Kemble (1809–1893), the famous British Shakespearean actress whose Journal of a Residence on a Georgian Plantation became a landmark anti-slavery document, and of Pierce Butler, a wealthy Georgia plantation owner. In 1859 Sarah married Dr. Owen Jones Wister, a Philadelphia physician; their son, Owen Wister (1860–1938), college friend of Theodore Roosevelt, became one of the most important American novelists of his generation, author of The Virginian (1902), the book that defined the Western genre. Mother and son maintained a close lifelong correspondence, and it was to her that the young Owen first confided his ambition to write. Sarah was herself an accomplished woman of letters, publishing travel writing, translations of French poetry, and the volume Worthy Women of Our Century, as well as keeping the vivid Civil War–era diaries now preserved at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. A signed letter from this pivotal figure — linking the worlds of the British stage, abolitionist literature, and the American West — is a wonderful piece of literary and family history. About the Wister Archive Connection This letter descends together with other family-related material; notably, the translator Annis Lee Wister — represented elsewhere in this collection — belonged to the same distinguished Wister family of Philadelphia, into which Sarah married. Condition Folded letter sheet (bifolium) written in ink, with an old collection number (“98”) penciled at the top of the first page. Age toning and mailing folds; clean and legible. Please see photos, which form part of the description. Authenticity Guaranteed authentic original, hand-written and hand-signed period letter (ALS) Place / Date Magnolia House, Magnolia, Massachusetts — “Aug. 6” (year not stated) Shipping FREE shipping — carefully packaged flat against bending and moisture
