JULIA WARD HOWE - AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED 04/18/1900 - HFSID 287091

JULIA WARD HOWE
ALS (1900), accepting an invitation to be a house guest
Autograph Letter signed: "Julia Ward Howe", 2 pages (integral leaf), 4x6. New York, N.Y., 1900 April 19. To "Dear Mrs. Fritch [?], in full: "You are most kind in inviting me to your house. I only hope that I may not cause you any trouble or inconvenience by my visit. I remember your grandmother very well, and also your Aunt, Mrs. Leslie. I anticipate much pleasure in seeing you. Your kind letter reached Boston after I had left town, & was forwarded to me in Washington. Believe me, yours very 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. Mounting residue at left edge on face and verso. Pencil note (unknown hand) at lower edge. Otherwise, fine condition.