JULIA WARD HOWE - AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED 06/06/1899 - HFSID 76235

JULIA WARD HOWE
Howe handwrote, signed and dated this letter to a Mrs. Clemson in 1899. In it, she gives her expected arrival time in Boston by train and adds that she "shall hope to meet your daughter, and to have her com-pany on my journey."
Autograph letter signed "Julia Ward Howe.". 2 pages, 4¼x6¾ (folded), 1 sheet folded, front and verso. From "241 Beacon Pl.", June 6th, 1899. Addressed to "Mrs Clemson". In full: "Dear Mrs Clemson: Your very kind invi-tation is hereby acknowl-ledged and accepted with thanks. I will leave Boston tomorrow, Wednes-day 6th, by the 4.45 train, and shall hope to meet your daughter, and to have her com-pany on my journey. Hasting to reach you without 'let or hindrance', I am 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 rippled. Adhesive residue inside letter and paper loss inside letter, which shows through and discolors paper. Folded twice and unfolded. Otherwise in fine condition.