JULIA WARD HOWE - AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED - HFSID 253292

JULIA WARD HOWE
Howe handwrote and signed this letter to a Capt. Walker, inviting him to Sunday dinner and to "bring any friend of your's who 'feels inclined'."
Autograph letter signed "Julia W. Howe.". With erased pencil notes near top left corner in unknown hand. 2 pages, 4½x7 (folded), 1 sheet folded, front and verso. Dated "Friday 15th". Addressed to "Capt. Walker". In full: "Dear Capt. Walker, Do come on Sun-day evening, at 8 o'clock, and bring any friend who of your's who 'feels incli ned [sic]'. It is a long time since we have seen you. Your's truly". Postscripted: "Ps. An officer by the name of James came last Sun day [sic] evening. Perhaps he will come with you. I believe he is Col James, examining harbor de-fenses." 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. Light show-through from handwriting, which touches handwriting but not signature on opposite side. Ink transference inside letter, which does not touch handwriting or signature. Folded twice and unfolded. Pinholed along spine of letter, especially where folds touch signature. Otherwise in fine condition.