File:Frances (Appleton) Longfellow to Emmeline (Austin) Wadsworth, 16 April 1852 (9638acbb-ee58-44a6-9908-00a7e6199fb1).jpg

Manuscript letter

Archives Number: 1011/002.001-022#010

Cambridge April 16th 1852.
Dearest Emmeline,
I will gladly aid you in enlarging little Austin's library & would send you those books I think good at once if I knew whether you have them not, & where you would like to have them purchased. It is not easy to find very good ones for a young child, & I remember, in my despair, I often thought of writing some myself knowing so well what pleased best my own children. They liked always stories of simple truth, without being spiced with horrors or with fairy fancy, but as they get older their tastes are less innocent. I rather prefer the English books to the American ones, for these latter are so apt to have Yankee expressions or Calvinistic ideas, but [p. 2] the Rollo books have always had a good reputation. My children have only Rollo Learning to Talk , which has short stories, and they always liked it much when little. “Little Annie's First Book” is a good one to learn to read by. (American) Then “Little Mary's Treasury of Elementary Knowledge” (English) is an excellent book, having many charming pictures & comprising 8 books in one from young lore to older. Erny calls it his Bible because it has the Bible history simply explained and so well illustrated that he has learned every important fact by the pictures. Then “Pleasures of the Country” by Mrs. Myrtle (English) is a charming book with capital stories, and if a little too old for Austin, he would enjoy the highly colored & truly English pictures by Gilbert and would soon grow up to the text.
Then “Willy's Rambles” by Jane Marcet [p .3] is a very nice little book about the building of a house, not too old. And “Jane Taylors Nursery Rhymes” is always a favorite, and “Rhymes, Chimes, and Jingles” which you probably have. My children have any quantity but not many they care to hear twice except these I have mentioned. There may be newer ones I know not of.
“The Illustrated Book of Songs” for children is a beautiful book, adorned by Birket Foster, and among fairy books “Gammer Grethel ” always holds its place.
How I wish I could see your darlings at these pretty ages. What a comfort they must be to both of you, their young life seeming to supply what is wanting from our more exhausted fountain. My whole life is bound up now in my home & children. I am spoiled by it for society, which seems to me very barren & unsympathetic, giving us only glossy surfaces or sharp comers instead of the genial depth & lofty aspiration we crave. We so miss Sumner's Sunday [p. 4] visits, with their free fresh variety of topics & nice literary talks which he best loves. He too pines for them in Washington &says a lecture from Agassiz was a great refreshment to him there so cut off is he from all science & literature. Papa, Mrs A. & Tom have gone to Washington for a month. Very provokingly the Merlin (Bermuda steamer) met with an accident, so Mary’s coming may be delayed till June, & the letters by it have not yet reached me to decide definitely our summer, but we have sent to engage a house at Newport on the cliff – Julia Howe having promised to join use to help fill it. We dined on Tuesday at Mrs Winthrops a very elegant dinner in honor of Mrs Lawrence with any quantity of tasteful ‘dolces’. I had the felicity of sitting next George Ticknor Curtis, but was consoled by my handsome neighbor on the other side Harrison Ritchie, who was very agreeable. Charley Norton is a very noble youth and interests me much. The article in the N. American upon better houses for the poor was by him, and he seems full of sympathy for the unfortunate, & not like so many of our youths sneering at all misfortune. He [p. 1 cross] has not an ardent nature either, but thoughtful & pitiful. He is like an English youth, where there is now so much philanthropic feeling among the young & old too. Shall I select the books I have mention to you at Ticknors & send them to Edward or do you get them from N. York?
ever thine
Fanny E.L.

• Keywords: correspondence; long archives; frances e. a. longfellow papers (long 20257); frances elizabeth (appleton) longfellow; people; document; subject; family life; education; social life; Correspondence (1011/002); (LONG-SeriesName); Letters from Frances Longfellow (1011/002.001); (LONG-SubseriesName); 1852 (1011/002.001-022); (LONG-FileUnitName)