Elizabeth Stuart Phelps to GE, East Gloucester, 27 July 1875
Title
Elizabeth Stuart Phelps to GE, East Gloucester, 27 July 1875
Title
Elizabeth Stuart Phelps to GE, East Gloucester, 27 July 1875
Sender
Elizabeth Stuart Phelps
Recipient
George Eliot
Date(s)
- 1875-07-27
Place
East Gloucester
Letter Content
Elizabeth Stuart Phelps to GE, East Gloucester, 27 July 1875
MS: Berg Collection, New York Public Library. Hitherto unpublished.
East Gloucester | Massachusetts. | July 27. 1875.
My dear Mrs. Lewes:
I am quite conscious that in my endeavor last year to learn from you exactly how to treat in my lectures the biographical aspects of the author, I blundered so far as to be misunderstood, if not indeed to give you positive offence. 291 And yet I trust so far to your quick perceptions and kind heart as to venture once more to ask a favor of you -- the last time that I shall trouble you, I hope, in this way.
If I am found by my physicians strong enough, I am to read these long-delayed lectures early in October next; 292 the whole course being upon George Eliot.
Now I make a "point" in one lecture, where, in reading such passages from your letter as 'abyou'bb I felt authorized to use, I want to lift the letter in my hand, that the boys and girls may see it at the audience-distance. The whole motif of one of my pet sentences hangs upon the act -- and you can fancy my dismay at going one day to my travelling-bag where I had packed your two letters with valuable money papers for safe keeping, to find that my little travelling-flask of brandy had leaked out and ruined them both. I think I would rather have lost the money! But there they are -- illegible; and the best chemical advice gives me no hope of restoring them. Here then is my bold request: I enclose a copy of the extracts 293 which I so much want. If you felt quite willing to rewrite them and send them back to me, I shall gratefully appreciate it. If you do not, I am sure that you will not. My address will be for a month or more, as above.
I was at Mrs. Stowe's pretty Florida home this winter, for a little; I like to hear one great woman speak of another as she spoke of you. I am, Madam,
Yours sincerely,
Elizabeth Stuart Phelps.
I took the liberty of sending you the little volume of my verses 294 just out; though I do not think largely of them myself, nor expect others to.
MS: Berg Collection, New York Public Library. Hitherto unpublished.
East Gloucester | Massachusetts. | July 27. 1875.
My dear Mrs. Lewes:
I am quite conscious that in my endeavor last year to learn from you exactly how to treat in my lectures the biographical aspects of the author, I blundered so far as to be misunderstood, if not indeed to give you positive offence. 291 And yet I trust so far to your quick perceptions and kind heart as to venture once more to ask a favor of you -- the last time that I shall trouble you, I hope, in this way.
If I am found by my physicians strong enough, I am to read these long-delayed lectures early in October next; 292 the whole course being upon George Eliot.
Now I make a "point" in one lecture, where, in reading such passages from your letter as 'abyou'bb I felt authorized to use, I want to lift the letter in my hand, that the boys and girls may see it at the audience-distance. The whole motif of one of my pet sentences hangs upon the act -- and you can fancy my dismay at going one day to my travelling-bag where I had packed your two letters with valuable money papers for safe keeping, to find that my little travelling-flask of brandy had leaked out and ruined them both. I think I would rather have lost the money! But there they are -- illegible; and the best chemical advice gives me no hope of restoring them. Here then is my bold request: I enclose a copy of the extracts 293 which I so much want. If you felt quite willing to rewrite them and send them back to me, I shall gratefully appreciate it. If you do not, I am sure that you will not. My address will be for a month or more, as above.
I was at Mrs. Stowe's pretty Florida home this winter, for a little; I like to hear one great woman speak of another as she spoke of you. I am, Madam,
Yours sincerely,
Elizabeth Stuart Phelps.
I took the liberty of sending you the little volume of my verses 294 just out; though I do not think largely of them myself, nor expect others to.
Signature
Elizabeth Stuart Phelps.
Citation
Elizabeth Stuart Phelps, Elizabeth Stuart Phelps to GE, East Gloucester, 27 July 1875, Complete George Eliot Letters(2026), George Eliot Archive, edited by Beverley Park Rilett. https://GeorgeEliotArchive.org, Accessed September 7, 2026. https://georgeeliotarchive.org/items/show/91824