141
16. Wednesday. Wrote to Waud. Phonography.
Out for a walk in the afternoon, the sun appearing for the
first time these two (or more) days. Met Selina Jewell,
and presently Banks, who began talking of a $250 story
he wanted me to write for a Sunday paper &c!! It
appears Sol Eytinge accompanied Thomson in a recent visit
to Boston. It being Sunday they couldn t find Waud.
17. Thursday. Writing & Phonography till 5. Banks
came up. To Brooklyn. Parton and Fanny had to go
out in the evening. Sat and read Lamb and Tennyson
to Grace. Felt very weak and slept little.
18. Friday. Returned to New York with a pocket full of
books. Blazing hot. To Mercury Office, saw Caldwell
about story. They ll pay $250 for a tremendously long
one, to run eleven weeks, eight or nine hideously long columns
each week. Don t think it ll pay. To Frank Leslie s.
Wood there as casheir. To Pic Office, saw Gun. Met
Kelly in Broadway; told me he d just got married. A
letter from Hannah awaiting me at Bleecker St.
Drawing and writing. In the evening with Gun to Bellew s
present boarding-house, 22nd street. O Brien has got into
another row, as he confessed to Bellew, in consequence of
his own insolence. He was drunk and insulting everybody
at the New York Hotel a place where he is in extreme ill
odor) having shewn it up in Harper s some months ago,)
when a Nicaraguan captain or colonel, resenting his re-
marks, licked him infernally, blacking both his eyes, dama-
ging his nose and administering pugilistic punishment gene-
rally. Bellew had visited him to-day. The
| Page |
| Title: | Thomas Butler Gunn Diaries, Volume Nine: page one hundred and sixty-two |
| Description: | Mentions a fight Fitz James O'Brien got into with a Nicaraguan captain at the New York Hotel. |
| Date: | 1858-06-16 |
| Subject: | Banks, A.F.; Bellew, Frank; Bennett, Hannah; Books and reading; Caldwell; Eldredge, Grace (Thomson); Eytinge, Solomon; Farnham, Captain; Fern, Fanny; Gun, Robert; Gunn, Thomas Butler; Jewell, Selina (Wall); Kelly; O'Brien, Fitz James; Parton, James; Waud, Alfred; Wood, John A. |
| Coverage (City/State): | New York, [New York]; Brooklyn, [New York] |
| Coverage (Street): | 22nd Street; Bleecker Street; Broadway; New York Hotel |
| Scan Date: | 2011-02-02 |
| Volume |
| Title: | Thomas Butler Gunn Diaries, Volume Nine |
| Description: | Includes descriptions of boardinghouse living, a picnic at Hoboken with other New York artists and journalists, his drawing and writing work in New York, attending a lecture by Lola Montez, visits to James Parton and Fanny Fern and the Edwards family, a controversy over Fitz James O'Brien's story ''The Diamond Lens,'' artist Sol Eytinge's relationship with writer Allie Vernon, the suicide of writer Henry William Herbert, antics of the New York Bohemians, the interest of people living in his boarding house in spiritualism, a visit to his friend George Bolton's farm in Canada, a visit to Niagara Falls, and a scandal involving Harbormaster Willis Patten, who lives in his boarding house. |
| Subject: | Boardinghouses; Bohemians; Farms; Gunn, Thomas Butler; Publishers and publishing; Suicide; Travel; Women |
| Coverage (City/State): | New York, New York; Rochester, New York; Elmira, New York; Paris, Ontario, Canada |
| 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. |
