61
Morris.
factory at the south east corner of Houston and
Greene Streets, the church opposite and several
adjacent buildings. The flames and luminous
smoke soared upwards over the housetops, in the
clear frosty night, lighting up the city far and wide.
Smoked a pipe surveying it, then to bed.
16. Sunday. In doors, scribbling and reading,
in company with Boweryem, until Morris arrived.
Just the same impracticable person as ever, weakly
envious of others presumed success; affecting that
provoking amiability that comes from essential feeble-
ness of character; wishing he could do this and
that; going through the motions of intelligent ap-
preciation of literary rot; a believer in Mc Clel-
lan, Vanity Fair (not the novel but the journal)
and Les Miserables which last extraordinary
book is not a revelation, but a menagerie of mons-
ters, stirred up artistically posed by a man who
perhaps only lacks common sense to be a splendid
genius. Morris bored me. He has been living on
his parents as he did on Mrs Bryant s dupes,
for a season; doing a very small amount of lite-
rary piddlings in Vanity Fair. Billington came
also, after supper. By 10 with Morris, to
745. Honeywell, young Ned Nichols and Haney
there, beside the family. Stayed till 11, then
broke up, Morris, Haney and I dropping in
for oysters and drinks subsequently, at the invita-| Page |
| Title: | Thomas Butler Gunn Diaries, Volume Twenty-One: page sixty-six |
| Description: | Regarding a visit by Morris. |
| Date: | 1862-11-15 |
| Subject: | Billington; Books and reading; Boweryem, George; Bryant, Mrs.; Fires; Gunn, Thomas Butler; Haney, Jesse; Honeywell, Charles; Morris, James (K. N. Pepper); Nichols, Ned; Vanity fair. |
| Coverage (City/State): | [New York, New York] |
| Coverage (Street): | Greene Street; Houston Street |
| Scan Date: | 2010-10-18 |
| Volume |
| Title: | Thomas Butler Gunn Diaries, Volume Twenty-One |
| Description: | Includes Gunn's descriptions of his experiences as a war correspondent for ""The New York Tribune"" at New Orleans, Louisiana, and Baton Rouge, Louisiana; boarding house living; a visit to the Rawlings family; a fight with Mr. Blankman at his boarding house; his journey on the North Star with the Banks expedition; the re-occupation of Baton Rouge by Union forces; a visit to a sugar plantation in Louisiana; and Fanny Fern's daughter Grace Thomson's death. |
| Subject: | African Americans; Boardinghouses; Bohemians; Civil War; Gunn, Thomas Butler; Journalism; Military; Publishers and publishing; Transportation; Travel; Women |
| Coverage (City/State): | New York, New York; New Orleans, Louisiana; Baton Rouge, Louisiana |
| 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 2010 Missouri History Museum. |
| Source: | Page images, transcriptions, and metadata of the Thomas Butler Gunn diaries have been provided by the Missouri History Museum. |
