JULIA WARD HOWE
Howe handwrote and signed this letter to a Mrs. Sargent, saying that she will read at Sargent's club, but only if she was expected to. She added this caveat: "I will come as well prepared as circumstances have allowed."
Autograph letter signed "Julia W. Howe.". With erased pencil notes near top left corner in unknown hand. 1 page, 5x8. Dated "Feb. 13th" from "Benedict Chambers.". Addressed to "Mrs Sargent". In full: "Dear Mrs Sargent, Are you expecting me to read at your club on Monday next? If so, I will come as well prepared as circumstances have allowed. If not, I will still come to hear whatever has been provided, hoping to read for you some other time. Your's truly,". Howe (1819-1910, born in New York City), a social reformer and poet, is best known for writing the poem The Battle Hymn of the Republic, which she was inspired to write after visiting army camps in Washington, D.C. during the Civil War. Howe's poem, first published in the February 1862 issue of The Atlantic Monthly, was later set to music to the tune of the popular antislavery song John Brown's Body and became the unofficial song of the Union Army. Howe later turned her fervor against slavery into a crusade for women's rights. She was a co-founder (1868) and first President of the New England Woman's Suffrage Association, co-led (with Lucy Stone) the American Woman Suffrage Association (1869) and founded the Women's International Peace Association (1871). In 1870, Howe assisted Stone and her husband, Henry Blackwell, to establish the Woman's Journal, and served as an editor and writer for the publication for 20 years. Howe, who also wrote poems for other women's journals and founded the Boston Authors Club, was the first woman elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters (1908). Lightly toned and creased. Letter was neatly torn from a pad or notebook on left edge. Folded once horizontally and vertically. Otherwise in fine condition.