182
26. Monday. To tailor s for panta-
loons. Then with Gun and Billington for a walk
to the Central Park, the latter taking the skates
of the former. A mild day, a great crowd,
an amusing sight, innumerable skaters though
rather slushy ice. Return to dinner by 3 1/2.
At 7, with Morris to Edwards . All the folks
assembled upstairs: first the family, then of
persons I know, Jim Parton, Fanny, her
daughters, Mrs Thomson (Mort s mother) Clifford,
(her son) the Russells, Bonestalls, Willistons, Mrs
Honeywell (Charley s mother lives in the house
a dressmakers thinks the world of her son) Nichols,
George Edwards, wife and children, pretty Miss
Brown (friend of Eliza) the Pillows and others
whom I don t identify very clearly. The perform
ers were of course for the present invisible,
behind the closed folding doors of the front par-
lor. Heaps of presents covered the table, pushed
away to the further end of the apartment, promi-
nent among which was the punchbowl, the gift of
the girls, Jack, Haney and perhaps Parton to
Mr and Mrs Edwards. The side shelf-counter
too was littered with them. Nast had anticipated
me in presenting Papa Edwards with the Tale of
Two Cities but mine was the better edition. (I only
brought that and a Rosa Bonheur Horse Fair: engra-
ving for Mrs E.) Interchanged cordial greeting
| Page |
| Title: | Thomas Butler Gunn Diaries, Volume Eleven: page one hundred and ninety-one |
| Description: | Describes the Edwards family's Christmas party. |
| Date: | 1859-12-26 |
| Subject: | Billington; Brown, Josie; Christmas; Edwards, Eliza; Edwards, George; Edwards, George, Jr.; Edwards, George, Jr., Mrs.; Edwards, John; Edwards, Martha; Edwards, Sally (Nast); Edwards, Sarah; Eldredge, Ellen; Eldredge, Grace (Thomson); Fern, Fanny; Gun, Robert; Gunn, Thomas Butler; Haney, Jesse; Honeywell, Charles; Honeywell, Mrs.; Morris, James (K. N. Pepper); Nast, Thomas; Parton, James; Thomson, Clifford; Thomson, Sophy |
| 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. |
