19th Century Popular Works

Isabella Lucy Bird (1831-1904).                                
The Englishwoman in America.  Bristol, U.K.: Ganesha Pub.; Tokyo, Japan: Edition Synapse, 1997.
 

Englishwoman Isabella Bird was a noted traveler, writer, and early female adventurer, seeking out places to explore in America and throughout the world.  She first traveled in America and wrote of her experiences in The Englishwoman in America, published in 1856.  A Lady’s Life in the Rocky Mountains (1879), one of her most famous works, describes her 800 mile journey on horseback through the Rocky Mountains in 1873 through letters to her sister Henrietta.  You can see an 1882 edition of A Lady’s Life in the Rocky Mountains in the first floor exhibit case.

Washington Irving (1783-1859).
Astoria: or Anecdotes of an Enterprise beyond the Rocky Mountains. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, [1964].

Washington Irving, known for his stories “Rip Van Winkle” and “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” also wrote narratives on the American West.  In 1832, Irving returned to America after a long period abroad, and went on a short expedition to see the Osage and Pawnee Indians, detailed in his Western Journals.  He wrote Astoria, or Anecdotes of an Enterprise beyond the Rocky Mountains (1836), reprinted here, primarily from Robert Stuart’s journal detailing a new route through the Rocky Mountains.  Following Astoria, Irving wrote The Rocky Mountains, based on the notes of Army Captain Benjamin L. E. Bonneville, who explored the Rocky Mountains from 1832-1835.  In total, Irving wrote three books devoted to aspects of the American West for international audiences.  See Robert Stuart’s journal and a first edition of The Rocky Mountains in the first floor exhibit case.

The Western Journals of Washington Irving.  Edited and annotated by John Francis McDermott.  Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1944.

Robert Louis Stevenson

“The Silverado Squatters: Sketches from a Californian Mountain,” Century Illustrated Monthly Magazine, v. 27, no. 1, November, 1883.

Stevenson penned “The Silverado Squatters” during his 1880 honeymoon with second wife Fanny Vandegrift to the Napa Valley of California.  Unable to afford boarding, Stevenson and his wife “squatted” in a bunkhouse at a derelict mining camp, “Silverado,” located on Mt. Saint Helena.  Stevenson kept a journal of his experiences and travels throughout the area, and later published excerpts as articles in Century Illustrated Monthly Magazine, before finally publishing Silverado Squatters in a book of travel essays in 1883.

Charles Dickens (1812-1870).

American Notes and Pictures from Italy.  London; New York: Oxford University Press, 1957.

Charles Dickens made his first trip to America in 1842.  Already a celebrity due to the popularity of novels such as Oliver Twist, Dickens was constantly sought after as a guest in Boston and other places he traveled.  American Notes, originally published in 1842, is a critical account of his travels through American society at the time.  Dickens especially abhorred the institution of slavery, which he attacked in American Notes.  His travel in America later became the basis for some parts in his novel Martin Chuzzlewit.  Dickens would return to America in 1867 as a guest of Annie and James Fields.

Samuel Woodworth Cozzens (1834-1878).

The Marvelous Country: or, Three Years in Arizona and New Mexico, the Apaches' Home.  Boston: J. M. Piper, [c1875].

 

M. A. De Wolfe Howe (1864-1960).

Memories of a Hostess; a Chronicle of Eminent Friendships Drawn Chiefly from the Diaries of Mrs. James T. Fields.  Boston: The Atlantic Monthly Press, [c1922].

Annie Fields (1834-1915), an author, married James T. Fields, partner in the Boston publishing firm Ticknor & Fields, in 1854.  As a result of her marriage to Fields, she became intimately acquainted with many New England authors of the period, like Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry James, who came to the literary salons she hosted.  Annie Fields kept a diary of her activities, which included hosting Charles Dickens at her house when he came to America in 1867-1868 to give readings in the Boston area.  Dickens became close friends with Annie and James Fields over the course of his visit.  Memories of a Hostess is drawn from Annie Fields’s diary.

Robert Ferguson (1817?-1898).

America During and After the War.  London: Longmans, Green, Reader and Dyer, 1866.