135
vague idea that she mayn t have an opportunity.
As or Mort, he felt poor Chips death extremely at
the time is lonely, and though an amiable fellow,
not much beyond it. He is sympathetic and material
istic his young wife gone, he looks about to replace
her, like a true Yankee. He hasn t strong individuality
of character, doesn t think down to the root of any-
thing, cannot live in daily duties and not altogether
sorrowful retrospection of the poor dead child who loved
him to the extent of her nature, for a decent year or
two. Moreover he don t know any better than to
believe in Fanny Fern. I m not going
to use any more repression about the woman. My
first instincts towards her dislike and repugnance
were the true ones. One, naturally, hates to nourish
distrust towards a person whose hospitality you are ac-
cepting, and struggles to accept her favorably but
the infernal ineradicable taint in the cursed Willis
blood is too palpable. She is slowly killing Jim
Parton. There s the miserablest tragedy going on in
that house, day by day. Oh the folly he committed
in marrying her! I can tell how it grew: first
pity for her presumed misfortunes, then a liking
for some of her sentiments which touched him particular
ly, then she did the rest. Finding a man of
far higher intellect than herself who believed in her to
the extent of investing himself in her, she annexed him.
She loves him only as he ministers to her infernal self
| Page |
| Title: | Thomas Butler Gunn Diaries, Volume Ten: page one hundred and fifty-four |
| Description: | Regarding the marriage of Fanny Fern and James Parton. |
| Date: | 1859-03-16 |
| Subject: | Eldredge, Grace (Thomson); Fern, Fanny; Gunn, Thomas Butler; Marriage; Parton, James; Thomson, Anna (''Chips''); Thomson, Mortimer (Doesticks); Women |
| Coverage (City/State): | [New York, New York] |
| Scan Date: | 2011-01-31 |
| Volume |
| Title: | Thomas Butler Gunn Diaries, Volume Ten |
| Description: | Includes descriptions of an explosion of a boat on the North River, New York literary Bohemians, boarding house living at 132 Bleecker Street, his freelance writing and drawing work, the death of writer Mort Thomson's young wife Anna, working on the publication ''Constellation,'' visits to the Edwards family, a falling out with Fanny Fern over an article he wrote criticizing ''The New York Ledger,'' a rumor that Fitz James O'Brien is the heir to an Irish baronetcy, and a change of landladies at his boarding house. |
| Subject: | Boardinghouses; Bohemians; Gunn, Thomas Butler; Journalism; Publishers and publishing; Women |
| Coverage (City/State): | New York, New York |
| 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. |
