Letter from Elizabeth Stuart Phelps to John Greenleaf Whittier, February 14, 1872

Letter from Elizabeth Stuart Phelps to John Greenleaf Whittier, February 14, 1872

Feminist author Elizabeth Stuart Phelps (1844-1911) sends a short note to John Greenleaf Whittier regarding an autograph card. Phelps (later known as Elizabeth Stuart Phelps Ward) was best known for her radical feminist fiction. In the 1870s, Phelps advocated clothing reform for women, encouraging them to burn their corsets and “make a bonfire of the cruel steels that have lorded it over your thorax and abdomens for so many years.”

Elizabeth Stuart Phelps

February 14, 1872

Andover, Mass.

Wed. Feb. 14. 1872.

My dear Mr. Whittier:

May I take the liberty of calling at the Marlboro Hotel with the autograph card some day this week? Perhaps tomorrow, or Friday, at two o’clock? Do not alter a plan however, if you please, or change a step for my coming, since I can leave the card for you, and would rather forego the pleasure of a sight of your face, than to feel that I had imposed upon your good nature in this unceremonious fashion, to your inconvenience.

With many thanks for your kind promise touching one _{­­­_____ _____}

Pain, I am

Sincerely and respectfully yours,

Elizabeth Stuart Phelps.

P.S. I did my best for the North St. Mission, through Miss Larcom and Miss Wright. Your poem is enough in itself to sanctify all the glitter of the great show.