JULIA WARD HOWE - AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED - HFSID 48353

JULIA WARD HOWE
Howe handwrote and signed a short letter on this card to "Anne". In it, she thanks Anne for "you good wishes and sweet gift" and mentions that she already sent a thank you note to another address.
Autograph letter signed "J. W. Howe." With erased pencil notations on front and verso in unknown hand. 2 pages, 3½x2½ card, 1 card front and verso. Addressed to "Anna". In full: "My dear Anna, I sent a word of thanks to you addressed at Oursley, and now see by your card that you are still in town. So, let me say now that your good wishes and sweet gift are much appreciated by yr ancient & affect-". 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 stained. Handwriting and signature are both lightly smeared in places but legible. Otherwise in fine condition.