Memories of a Hostess: A Chronicle of Eminent Friendships Drawn Chiefly from the Diaries of Mrs. James T. FieldsTaken from the diaries of a member of Boston's famous late 19th-century literary scene, this book profiles several prominent writers and artists, including Mark Twain, Charles Dickens, Sarah Orne Jewett and others. |
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actors afterward Agassiz Aldrich amused appears asked Atlantic Monthly beautiful believe Booth Boston Bret Harte Caleb Cushing called CHARLES DICKENS Charles Street Charles Sumner Charlotte Cushman Clemens Cushman daughter dear death delight diary Dickens Dickens's dined dinner Dolby dress Edwin Booth Emerson England exquisite Facsimile Fanny Kemble Fechter feel Fields's Forceythe Willson friendship Hawthorne Hawthorne's heard Henry James Holmes hour Jamie journals Julius Cæsar knew lady last night laughed lecture letter live Longfellow look Lowell Lowell's Mark Twain Miss Jewett morning never o'clock passages play poem poet poor Sarah Orne Jewett Saturday scene seemed sleep speak speech spirit spoke story Sumner Sunday sure sweet talk tell theatre things Thomas Bailey Aldrich thought tion told verses walk Whittier wife WILKIE COLLINS wish woman words write written yesterday
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Page 212 - AT the close of the day, when the hamlet is still, And mortals the sweets of forgetfulness prove, When nought but the torrent is heard on the hill, And nought but the nightingale's song in the grove...
Page 158 - I am afraid he has too much talent for his genius; it is a fearful locomotive to which he is bound, and he can never be freed from it nor set at rest. You see him quite wrong evidently, and would persuade me that he is a genial creature, full of sweetness and amenities, and superior to his talents; but I fear he is harnessed to them. He is too consummate an artist to have a thread of nature left. He daunts me. I have not the key.
Page 92 - He boggled, he lost his place, he had to put on his glasses; but it was as if a creature from some fairer world had lost his way in our fogs, and it was our fault, not his.
Page 132 - Do not think," replied my uncle, "that I flatter you when I commend your mode of thinking and acting. I reverence the individual who understands distinctly what it is he wishes ; who unweariedly advances, who knows the means conducive to his object, and can seize and use them. How far his object may be great or little, may merit praise or censure, is the next consideration with me.
Page 155 - One of the oddest sights a green-room can present," he said one day, " is when they are collecting children for a pantomime. For this purpose the prompter calls together all the women in the ballet, and begins giving out their names in order, while they press about him eager for the chance of increasing their poor pay by the extra pittance their children will receive. ' Mrs. Johnson, how many ? '
Page 190 - DeQuincey, the Lectures on Moral Philosophy by Sydney Smith, and Carlyle's French Revolution. Of this latter Dickens said it was the book of all others which he read perpetually and of which he never tired, — the book which always appeared more imaginative in proportion to the fresh imagination he brought to it, a book for inexhaustibleness to be placed before every other book. When writing the
Page 137 - ... to be among us. On Sunday he visited the School Ship and said a few words of encouragement and counsel to the boys. He began his long walks at once, and girded himself up for the hard winter's work before him. Steadily refusing all invitations to go out during the weeks he was reading, he only went into one other house besides the Parker, habitually, during his stay in Boston.
Page 175 - I was shown into, and the two persons in it, Mr. Stanley and his father. Both gentlemen were extremely courteous to me, but I noted their evident surprise at the appearance of so young a man. While we spoke together, I had taken a seat extended to me in the middle of the room. Mr. Stanley told me he wished to go over the whole speech and have it written out by me, and if I were ready he would begin now.
Page 56 - ... but he always thought I was wrong in my decision. He said the whole description of the interview and the President's personal appearance were, to his mind, the only parts of the article worth publishing. " What a terrible thing," he complained, " it is to try to let off a little bit of truth into this miserable humbug of a world!
Page 243 - I could hate the man who could help loving him — or the woman either.' He had reason to be light-hearted that day, for his play was finished. For the plot Harte had taken one of the poorest of the Overland stories, Mr. Thompson's Prodigal. He elaborated the plot and reenforced it by introducing some of his favorite characters — John Oakhurst, Colonel Starbottle, and...