Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Irene Goldman-Price has taught literature and women's studies at Ball State University and Penn State University. She serves on the editorial board of the Edith Wharton Review and has consulted and taught at The Mount, Edith Wharton's house museum in Massachusetts. In 2010-2011 she was a visiting fellow at Yale University's Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, where the Wharton letters are held.

Auszug. © Genehmigter Nachdruck. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.

My Dear Governess

Yale UNIVERSITY PRESS

Contents

Preface................................................................................ixList of Abbreviations..................................................................xiiiIntroduction...........................................................................11. "Herz" and "Tonnie" MAY 1874 TO MARCH 1885.........................................252. "Spliced" JULY 1885 TO MAY 1893....................................................633. "Un peu de faiblesse" AUGUST 1893 TO DECEMBER 1896.................................1174. "Harvesting laurels" APRIL 1898 TO APRIL 1907......................................1715. "Turning-points" JUNE 1907 TO JULY 1914............................................2056. "This sudden incredible catastrophe" AUGUST 1914 TO APRIL 1916.....................247Bibliography...........................................................................277Acknowledgments........................................................................283Credits and Permissions................................................................285Index..................................................................................287

Chapter One

MAY 1874 TO MARCH 1885

When Anna Bahlmann first met her in 1873, Edith, called "Pussy" Jones, was a well-mannered, much-petted child of twelve, indulged the more by her parents for being the baby of the family, the only girl, and for having recently survived a near-fatal attack of typhoid fever. Not conventionally pretty, she had a strong, somewhat plain face with melting brown eyes and a torrent of auburn hair. She was possessed of a natural courtesy and an enchanting facility with words. In her imagination, the grasses in the wild spoke to her, and she understood, she later wrote, what animals said to one another. This prodigious imagination had compelled her, before she could read, to pace the floor, upside-down book in hand, passionately making up stories. Pussy Jones was already on her way to becoming one of America's most gifted and respected women of letters, Edith Wharton.

Edith's family consisted of her parents, Lucretia Rhinelander Jones (1825–1901) and George Frederic Jones (1821–82), and two older brothers. Harry (Henry Stevens) Jones (1852–1922) was unmarried and frequently traveled and lived with the family; Edith later described him as "the dearest of brothers to all my youth" (to Bernard Berenson, 23 Aug 1922, LEW, 453). Her oldest brother Freddy (Frederic Rhinelander) Jones (1846–1918) was married to Minnie (Mary) Cadwalader Rawle Jones (1850–1935), and they had a young daughter, Beatrix, called Trix (1872–1959).

Edith was tutored in German by Anna Bahlmann in the fall and winter of 1873–74. Her letters to her teacher began when they parted in May 1874: the Jones family going to Newport, Rhode Island, and Anna remaining in New York for a short time before traveling to Newport herself to prepare Edgerston, the summer home of her employers, the Rutherfurds, for the family's arrival. Anna's travel was not as convenient as that of her employers, who would have had an elegant stateroom in which they could sleep until their carriage met them at the Newport dock. Anna's description to her sister-in law of her own trip displays a nice humor and self-irony: "I managed to put myself on board the Newport boat before the gang-plank was drawn up & arrived here at 3 o'clock last Sunday morning. You see what an advantage a plain face is—a pretty young woman could never have arrived at that hour unmolested, taken a cab & driven along the solitary roads by moonlight. It might have been romantic but I found it only chilly, & was not sorry to stretch & rest my weary limbs in a comfortable bed" (to Lydia Abbot Bahlmann, 25 July 1875).

Edgerston was next door to Pen craig, the Jones home, and Edith played with the two Rutherfurd boys, Lewis and Winthrop, the latter of whom was just Edith's age. She enjoyed Sunday walks led by their father, the amateur astronomer Lewis Morris Rutherfurd (1816–92). She looked up to the Rutherfurd daughters, Margaret (Daisy) and Louisa (Poodle), who served as inspiration to her both in becoming a young lady herself and in her writing, as she said many years later: "The young gods and goddesses I used to watch strolling across the Edgerston lawn were the prototypes of my first novels" (BG, 47).

These earliest letters, written over several summers, chronicle Edith's family life and her activities. Along with tennis and archery, Edith read avidly and widely, critiqued what she read, and wrote poetry with a dedication she would retain for the rest of her writing career. Anna was her touchstone for all literary endeavor, offering a cultivated mind against which Edith could test her literary judgments. We can observe Edith's command of the language broaden even as her tone takes on a growing sense of privilege and expectancy of having her desires gratified. We also see the deepening of her fondness for her teacher: "My dear Miss Anna" becomes "My dearest Miss Anna" and soon "Dearest Tonnie" (derived from Tante, aunt); "Ever your very affectionate E. N. Jones" intensifies to "Most lovingly yrs, E. N. Jones," then "Your devoted 'Herz,'" or heart.

Edith was twelve years and four months old when she composed this first invitation to "Miss Anna."

1. In A Backward Glance, Wharton spells her childhood home as one word, Pencraig, and biographers and critics have followed suit. However, in her letters the young Edith spells it as two words, Pen craig, and the house letterhead is the same. I have retained the two-word spelling throughout the text. Pen craig is Welsh for top of the rock.

Pen craig, Newport May 31st, 1874

My dear Miss Anna,

Mamma has commissioned me to write and tell you that, when you come up to put the house in order we shall have a room ready for you and be very, very glad indeed to see you. Newport is delightful and we are ready for you whenever you may come, if you could let us know on what day to expect you. Besides, if I don't see you until next winter—Ich wurde [sic] mein Deutsch ganz und gar vergessen! [I would completely forget my German!]

So you really must come and pray be a long time putting the house in order—

Ever your very affectionate,

E. N. Jones

At nearly fifteen, Edith has expanded her vocabulary and developed decided literary opinions.

Pen craig, Newport Nov. 13th, 1875

My dearest Miss Anna,

How kind you are to your stupid "Hertz" in sending her such a long, charming letter in the midst of your busiest days! If you knew how much I enjoyed it & how overwhelmed I am by the honour of being allowed to do a commission for you, you would realize my thanks better than I can write them. Just fancy it's trusting me to do anything for you! It is the greatest pleasure that you could give me, & I will do my best for you when I go into town this morning—taking it for granted, however, that you don't want a medallion of Tasso, who, apparently, was by no means as handsome as he was unfortunate, & which Hammett shewed me the last time I was there—

Today is what the poets call "halcyon" weather; a word which always brings to "my mind's eye, Horatio" a vision of becalmed ships in blue seas, with white birds swooping overhead—but we have not been without storms since you...