Rebecca Harding Davis

Janice Milner Lasseter And Sharon M. Harris

Description

This is the annotated edition of novelist/journalist Rebecca Harding Davisís 1904 autobiography, Bits of Gossip, and a previously unpublished family history written for her children. The memoirs are not traditional autobiography; rather, they are Davis's perspective on the extraordinary cultural changes that occurred during her lifetime and of the remarkable--and sometimes scandalous--people who shaped the events. She provides intimate portraits of the famous people she knew, including Emerson, Hawthorne, Louisa May Alcott, Ann Stephens, Oliver Wendell Holmes, and Horace Greeley. Equally important are Davis's commentaries on the political activists of the Civil War era, from Abraham Lincoln to Booker T. Washington, from the "daughters of the Southland" to Lucretia Mott, from Henry Ward Beecher to William Still.

Sujets

• Literary Criticism
• History of the United States

Informations

• Publié par: Vanderbilt University Press
• Date de parution: 01 décembre 2001
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780826591296
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

REBECCA HARDING Writing Cultural DAVIS Autobiography E D I T E DB Y Janice Milner Lasseter and Sharon M. Harris

Rebecca Harding Davis

R E B E C C A H A R D I N G D A V I S

Writing Cultural Autobiography

E D I T E DB Y Janice Milner Lasseter A N D Sharon M. Harris

Vanderbilt University Press • Nashville

©2001Vanderbilt University Press All rights reserved First Edition2001

This book is printed on acid-free paper. Manufactured in the United States of America

Photographs on pages133–34are reprinted from Gerald Langford,The Richard Harding Davis Years, A Biography of a Mother and Son.Holt, Rinehart and Winston, NY,1961.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Davis, Rebecca Harding,1831–1910. [Bits of gossip] Rebecca Harding Davis: writing cultural autobiography / Rebecca Harding Davis; edited by Janice Milner Lasseter and Sharon M. Harris. p. cm. Originally published: Bits of gossip. Boston : Houghton, Mifflin & Co.; Cambridge: Riverside Press,1904. Includes additional unpublished family history. isbn0-8265-1354-9(cloth: alk. paper) isbn0-8265-1384-0(pbk.: alk. paper) 1Rebecca Harding,. Davis, 1831–1910.2. Davis, Rebecca Harding,1831–1910—Family.3American—. Authors, 19th century— Biography.4. Authors, American—19th century—Family relation- ships.5States—Civilization—. United 19th century. I. Lasseter, Janice Milner,1940–Harris, Sharon M. III. Title. II. ps1517.b52001 813'.4—dc21 2001005429

Contents

Acknowledgments Rebecca Blaine Harding Davis: A Chronology Introduction

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

 . P A R T I B I T S O F G O S S I P In the Old House Boston in the Sixties In the Far South The Scotch-Irishman The Civil War The Shipwrecked Crew A Peculiar People Above Their Fellows

P H O T O G A L L E R Y 131–134

 . P A R T I I F A M I L Y H I S T O R Y The Wilson Family The Leet Family The Harding Family

Notes Works Cited Index

v vii 1

23 36 53 62 73 87 97 113

137 140 142

149 199 205

Illustrations

Rebecca and Clarke Davis at the time of their marriage

Rebecca and Clarke Davis later in life Nora Davis, Rebecca’s only daughter Bessie McCoy Davis (“Yama Yama Girl”)

Richard Harding Davis, Rebecca’s oldest son Richard with his brother, Charles Belmont Davis Richard Harding Davis with President Theodore Roosevelt

Emilie Harding Berry, Rebecca’s beloved sister

Hugh Wilson (“Wilse”) Harding, Rebecca’s closest sibling

131 131 132 132 133 133

133 134

134

Acknowledgments

In the summer of1997, the poet Rachel Loden contacted Sharon Har- ris with an initial inquiry about Harris’s earlier work on Rebecca Hard- ing Davis. Out of this initial contact grew an extended correspondence about Davis and her family. More interestingly, after a few exchanges Loden revealed that she is the great-granddaughter of Rebecca’s only surviving sister, Emilie. Further, Loden generously offered to share with Harris a typescript of a family history that Davis had written for her children. That previously unpublished document is appended to the present volume of Davis’s1904autobiography,Bits of Gossip. The edi- tors of this volume wish to express our sincere appreciation of the gen- erosity of Loden and her family for sharing this document and the pho- tographs on page135 with us and for giving us permission to make them available to other scholars interested in Davis, the nineteenth century, and autobiographical writings. Their support of our project extended the collaborative nature of this project and of Davis studies in general. There are several other people who deserve our acknowledgments as well. First, sincere thanks to our editors at Vanderbilt; their commit- ment to the study of women’s writings is worth special notice. We are grateful. To the Clifton Waller Barrett Library, Special Collections Depart- ment, University of Virginia for permission to use the correspondence from the Richard Harding Davis Collection (#6109) in this book. Appreciation is also extended to Samford University for a faculty de- velopment grant for Janice Lasseter and to Donna K. Fitch, reference librarian at Samford University. Special thanks to our research assis- tants: Roxanne Gay of the University of Nebraska, Lincoln; Joi Soo Tribble, of Samford University; and Christopher Hill, now at the Uni- versity of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. These three students’ research

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