File:Frances (Appleton) Longfellow to Thomas Gold Appleton, 31 March 1851 (ab942798-197c-4b63-9d71-499b617e293d).jpg

Manuscript letter

Archives Number: 1011/002.001-021#012

Craigie House
March 31st 1851.
Dear Tom,
Many good wishes to you upon this your birthday! May they smooth your path for the coming year, & turn bitter weeds to flowers & do all kind & gentle offices for your bodily & mental comfort –
I hope this soft Spring day blurs pleasantly into your windows altho’ they are strange ones, [p. 2] and that you will make yourself comfortable at the Tremont, get nice rooms, invite your friends to dine, & enjoy the independance [sic] of that life, till you can find a better, as you are not now in the paternal mansion where we are destined to feel as strangers. If you can get a snug parlor with bed-room attached, & bring to it some familiar things I think you would like it – for [p. 3] there you can smoke & chat at your ease, or quietly read or paint when weary of the Club.
We are reading with pleasure the Tennysonian poetry of Curtis’ book – lulled by soft Lydian airs & trying to forget the harshness of this land of storms & mental conflicts. He takes the lazy mental point of view, or of feeling rather, - in his book & it gives you the languid atmosphere even [p. 4] in the style deliciously – with many sly touches of humour. It is very soothing to the nerves so I recommend it as a gentle medicine – even tho’ it be to you of poppies He said to me “It is a very young book” – but that is why I like it, - for I love that golden shore from which I feel sliding away, as I dare say you do today. But we are among those favored few who can always row back to it for an hour’s stroll, when we like, however strong the current [p. 1 cross] sets down stream – ever yr affte Fanny.

• Keywords: correspondence; long archives; frances e. a. longfellow papers (long 20257); frances elizabeth (appleton) longfellow; people; document; birthday; events; subject; family life; Correspondence (1011/002); (LONG-SeriesName); Letters from Frances Longfellow (1011/002.001); (LONG-SubseriesName); 1851 (1011/002.001-021); (LONG-FileUnitName)