43
in a cabinet-making establishment, has a
laugh upon which his pretensions to humour are
chiefly based, as exhilarating as the sound of a
watchman s rattle. Talks loud and laughs loud-
er, insomuch that when he is at table it would
be next to impossible for any persons, if at all
sensitive to clamor, to converse together. Utters
mere trash and approbative jocularities of a
second-rate order, repeating them twice over and
carrying all off successfully by dint of springing his
watchman s rattle laugh. Is considered by the
more feeble-minded the life of the establishment, very
few venturing to shower bath his pretensions by
repartee which would not be difficult. I ve thrown
a brick through his cucumber frame occasionally
when interfered with. Happily he sits at t other
end of the table. Name Le Blond; grave looking
if he could keep his mouth shut, meager-ish visaged,
and I think inclining to gray hair, looks something
like an exceedingly common place Carlyle, if such
a contradiction can be supposed and portraits
do not lie. A feminine employee in the es-
tablishment he belongs to, plump, not uncomely,
otherwise indistinguishable. Miss Clarke,
dark haired, American-featured, with a rather
projecting under-jaw, otherwise might be considered
good-looking. Has a mother who don t show at
table, both occupying the big back parlor, erst
| Page |
| Title: | Thomas Butler Gunn Diaries, Volume Eleven: page forty-eight |
| Description: | Describes the boarders at his boarding house. |
| Date: | 1859-07-09 |
| Subject: | Boardinghouses; Clarke, Miss; Gunn, Thomas Butler; Leblond |
| Coverage (City/State): | [New York, New York] |
| Scan Date: | 2011-01-31 |
| Volume |
| Title: | Thomas Butler Gunn Diaries, Volume Eleven |
| Description: | Includes descriptions of boarding house living at 132 Bleecker Street, his freelance writing and drawing work, the antics of New York literary Bohemians, Fanny Fern and James Parton's marriage, visits to the Edwards family, a Fourth of July excursion with the Edwards family and other friends, letters from Frank Cahill and Bob Gun's mistresses, Jesse Haney's proposal of marriage to Sally Edwards and rejection, Charles Damoreau's return from Boston to live in New York, and attending the Edwards family's 1859 Christmas party. |
| Subject: | Boardinghouses; Bohemians; Christmas; Gunn, Thomas Butler; Marriage; 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. |
