99
mer position of confidence and intimacy with
the girls, I broached the subject to him, getting
the preceding statement of his feelings (with a little
more) and one extraordinary blunder. He never
dreamed of the direction of little Nast s aspirations,
supposing them devoted to Eliza!!! He has
acted on that assumption all along. I put him right
there, to his great satisfaction. Went up into his
room, smoked a pipe, went out to Mc Pyke s for beer
and didn t separate till past 1. He knows
that his friends have thought he s sweet on Sally;
(Parton has Wells has as I know ) but don t
confess, perhaps to himself, how far it has gone;
anyway don t desire to speak for her until his posi-
tion warrants it. Maybe there s some lingering
thought of another even Eliza in his head, but
not a hint of that did I drop. Maybe it is only
a maybe: I got just a passing suspicion of it
from his talk of her doings with Nast at Grafton.
He seemed to resent those more than Matty s who
was equally familiar. I want the girls
to like me and am touched and gratified at their
little confidences. Having no little game of my
own, I can look on less selfishly, as interestedly.
Moreover I want fair play. And I should hate
to see Monroe, or Wells or any weaker nature
walk over the ground and win the prize, because
Haney from mistake or fastidiousness refrained
| Page |
| Title: | Thomas Butler Gunn Diaries, Volume Eleven: page one hundred and seven |
| Description: | Regarding Jesse Haney's intentions regarding the Edwards girls. |
| Date: | 1859-08-31 |
| Subject: | Edwards, Eliza; Edwards, Martha; Edwards, Sally (Nast); Gunn, Thomas Butler; Haney, Jesse; Nast, Thomas; Parton, James; Welles, Edward; Women |
| 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. |
