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graves, and that love and kindness are immortal
but why should they have their berth in pain and
sorrow? God knows. There is mystery all
round us mystery, mystery
It is a dark, mild night as I sit writing;
with few, not overbright, stars shining. What
an awe has settled down on the memory of the
dead child, already. The elements were not
kindly mixed in her but she had life and
youth, and one can t be indifferent to a child
altogether O poor fellow mortals let
us love and forgive one another there s no time
for quarreling here. Our turn will come swift
enough. We shall drift out into that awful
shoreless sea which has swallowed so much
that was kind and wise and good Chaucer
and Shakspere and Lamb
O to know what that dead child does perchance
by this time! Patience the
knowledge will come soon enough.
Levison will be very desolate for a time. The
man had not too much happiness before. And now
his only child is gone
31. Saturday . Office. Broadway is its
vilest winters attire, street crossings mid leg deep in
snow mire and sidewalks filled with pools of filthy
water, a steady, persistent drizzle falling. Took
Levison s hat to the hatters to have crape put on it.
| Page |
| Title: | Thomas Butler Gunn Diaries, Volume Eight: page one hundred and forty-five |
| Description: | Regarding the death of Ellen Levison. |
| Date: | 1857-01-30 |
| Subject: | Children; Gunn, Thomas Butler; Levison, Ellen; Levison, William |
| Coverage (City/State): | [New York, New York] |
| Coverage (Street): | Broadway |
| 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. |
