JULIA WARD HOWE - AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED 05/09/1898 - HFSID 251394

JULIA WARD HOWE
Howe handwrote, dated and signed this letter to a Mr. Child from Rome in 1898. She autographed two book plates sent by Child with a line from Battle Hymn of the Republic [not included] and regretted not meeting him at Chicago's Columbian Exhibition.
Autograph letter signed "Julia Ward Howe". With erased pencil notes near top left corner in unknown hand. 2 pages, 5x8, 1 sheet folded, front and verso, written on thin paper. Palazzo [illegible], Rome Italy, May 9, 1898. Addressed to "Mr Child". In full: "Dear Mr Child, I am gratified to learn that you think my volume of poems worth [illegible]. As you sent me two book plates, I have written on both a line of my Battle Hymn [not included]. If I remember rightly, we tried to meet in Chi-cago, during the Colum-bian Exhibition. I think that you called upon me, and did not find me, for which I was sorry at the time. I expect to sail for New York from Naples, on May 1st to Friday of this week. I shall be glad to learn that these lines, and the book cards have reached you in safety. Your's sincerely,".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, soiled and creased. Torn at right edge along top fold. Folded twice and unfolded. Otherwise in fine condition.