224
seen but once since her husband s death is said to be
out of town. Cahill, who s a very good fellow, is
in Bellew s employ, writing for him and attending
to his business affairs, duning people &c down town.
Patten, his wife and obnoxious boy are sea-siding it at
Fire Island. Miss Cooper our landlady s sister
and Miss Weighty Griffin who is very pretty, despite
her name stay here still. I met Mrs Cunninghm
not the murderess, but my former landlady in Leonard
Street the other day. She complimented me about my
book, told me her husband was dead and that the
Flowers had never paid them, ($200.) Also some
weeks ago I met Alcock, the dentist, face to face.
He stared, but said nothing and I passed on, half
anticipating some enquiries about Greatbatch.
9. Sunday. To Partons. He has almost
completed his book, and sold out the copyright of
the Humerous Poetry to the Masons. Lowell told
him, blandly, that the expected to sell 3000 of my
P. N. Y. B. H but not more. I shall consider the
thing a failure if it don t reach 5000. / The
family are meditating a week at the Cattskills,
probably going on Wednesday, Miss J proceeding to
Boston. Fanny had written a favorable review of
my book for the Ledger, which didn t go in because
Dyer pointed out to Bonner my allusion to Silenus
Gobb Junior. Bonner would not have seen it but
for the act of the natural toady as Parton called
| Page |
| Title: | Thomas Butler Gunn Diaries, Volume Eight: page two hundred and thirteen |
| Description: | Mentions that Fanny Fern's favorable review of his book, ''The Physiology of New-York Boarding Houses,'' was not put into the ''New York Ledger'' because of a comment Oliver Dyer made to the publisher Robert Bonner. |
| Date: | 1857-08-08 |
| Subject: | Alcock; Bellew, Frank; Bonner, Robert; Cahill, Frank; Cooper, Lucia; Cunningham; Cunningham, Mrs.; Dyer, Oliver; Fern, Fanny; Greatbatch, Joseph; Griffin, Weighty (Davis); Gunn, Thomas Butler; Jacobs, Louisa; Levison, William; Levison, William, Mrs.; Mason Brothers (New York, N.Y.); Mason, Lowell; New York ledger.; Parton, James; Patten, George; Patten, Willis; Patten, Willis, Mrs.; Parton, James; Publishers and publishing |
| Coverage (City/State): | [New York, New York] |
| Coverage (Street): | Leonard 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. |
