101.
28. Friday. To the European Office, corner
of Broadway and Fulton. Saw Forbes and Rus-
sell, the latter a gray haired, English faced, deli-
berate speaking Briton, the founder and proprietor
of the paper. It is a sixteen paged
journal chiefly made up of editorials and selections
from other papers, with weak depreciatory comment
on American institutions and misrule. The original
editorial matter is in the proportion of Falstaff s item
of bread to that of sack and not good, at that.
Russell is or has been a lawyer, and claims im-
mense knowledge of political life on this side of the
Atlantic. The paper is devoted so its projectors
say to the course of European radicalism. Never
were men more enthusiastic of success though where
their purchasers are to come from the Lord knows.
The journal s as heavy as lead, not a shred of
light matter as art, criticism, literature, the
drama in it. I was horribly bored and kept
waiting for nearly two hours when five minutes
might have settled all that was required finally
being requested to come tomorrow.
29. Saturday. Drenching day. Went down
town in omnibus full of damp people, a big Irish-
woman with a huge bundle facing me. A hour
or more of delay at the interview, which I contrived
to clench through Forbes, who whispered principal.
I m to attend each day from 9 1/2 to 2, (one day
| Page |
| Title: | Thomas Butler Gunn Diaries, Volume Eight: page one hundred and eight |
| Description: | Regarding the new paper ''European'' started by Russell and Colonel Forbes. |
| Date: | 1856-11-28 |
| Subject: | European.; Forbes, Hugh; Gunn, Thomas Butler; Publishers and publishing; Russell (proprietor) |
| Coverage (City/State): | [New York, New York] |
| Coverage (Street): | Broadway; Fulton Street |
| Scan Date: | 2011-02-02 |
| Volume |
| Title: | Thomas Butler Gunn Diaries, Volume Eight |
| Description: | Includes descriptions of the process of publishing his book, ''The Physiology of New-York Boarding Houses;'' his poor mental state upon returning to New York from England; meeting Walt Whitman; visits with Fanny Fern, James Parton, and Harriet Jacobs' daughter Louisa who is living with them; a visit to the Catskill Mountains with the Edwards family; moving into the boarding house at 132 Bleecker Street; working on the publication ''European'' with Colonel Hugh Forbes; the death of publisher William Levison and his daughter Ellen in his boarding house; visiting the scene of the murder of a dentist to get a sketch of the suspect; visiting Newport, Rhode Island, on assignment to sketch for Frank Leslie; and the death of his brother-in-law, Joseph Greatbatch. |
| Subject: | Boardinghouses; Bohemians; Gunn, Thomas Butler; Journalism; Medical care; Mental illness; Publishers and publishing; Travel; Women |
| Coverage (City/State): | New York, New York; Newport, Rhode Island |
| Note: | Thomas Butler Gunn was born February 15, 1826, in Banbury, England, and came to New York in 1849. During the Civil War he worked as a correspondent for the New York Tribune and the New York Evening Post. He returned to England in 1863, and died in Birmingham in April 1903. The collection includes twenty-one volumes of his diaries, including newspaper clippings, letters, photographs, sketches, and various other items inserted by Gunn. Diary entries date from July 7, 1849, to April 7, 1863, and include his experiences with the New York publishing and literary world, his descriptions of boarding houses, his travels throughout the United States, and his experiences traveling with the Federal army as a Civil War correspondent. |
| Publisher: | Missouri History Museum |
| Rights: | Copyright 2011 Missouri History Museum. |
| Source: | Page images, transcriptions, and metadata of the Thomas Butler Gunn diaries have been provided by the Missouri History Museum. |
