Finding Aid for the Frances Hodgson Burnett Letter, 1893 February 25
MS-2263University of Tennessee Special Collections Library, Knoxville, TN
Encoded by: Elizabeth Dunham, June 2, 2006.
Summary Information
Frances Hodgson Burnett Letter
Date/Date Range : 1893 February 25
0.1 linear feet
Abstract: The letter, dated February 25, 1893, from Burnett to a publisher regarding one of her short stories, published in Romance magazine, and the omission of the final paragraph.
MS-2263
University of Tennessee Special Collections Library, Knoxville, TN
Access and Use
This collection was purchased by Special Collections in May 1997.
Collection is open for research.
The copyright interests in this collection remain with the creator. For more information, contact the Special Collections Library.
[Identification of Item], Frances Hodgson Burnett Letter, MS-2263. University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Special Collections Library.
Arrangement
Collection consists of a single folder.
Biography / History
Frances Hodgson Burnett was born in England, November 24, 1849. In 1865, her family, following her father's death, moved to Knoxville, TN, where she began writing to help support her family. She lived both abroad and in the United States over the next three decades. In addition to short stories, she would also produce a number of novels and plays, (among the most famous, Little Lord Fauntleroy (1886), The Little Princess (1905), and The Secret Garden (1910)--all of which appeared in both forms). She settled in Long Island, New York, in 1909 and died there on October 29, 1924.
Collection Scope and Content Note
In a letter to a publisher, Burnett comments on the absence of her story's ending in its publication in Romance . She notes the omission and her concern for the impact of the omission on "The Captain's Youngest."
Subject Terms
- Periodicals -- Publishing.
- Women authors, American -- 20th century -- Correspondence.
- Short stories, American -- Tennessee.
Contents List
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Item
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Letter from Frances Hodgson Burnett to Mrs. Flake, 1893 February 25 Scope Note: Transcription of Letter:
Feb 25 1893
My dear Mrs. Flake,
Do you know that in its presentation in Romance the final paragraphs of The Captain's Youngest are omitted? I am impressed by this because, to me, the story seems to lose the proper & artistic termination entirely. I call your attention to it because I feel it a friendly thing to do. I know you are trying for success and that you depend for it on the friendly feeling of people who have written stories. And I know that nothing would be more likely to prevent their allowing for the reprint of their work than the knowledge that extraordinary changes or omissions might be made in it, about which they have not consulted. I am an amiable little person and not in the least given to laying stress in on myself but I can scarcely tell you how cross it made me when I saw my dear little story, old as it is, robbed of that last thought which seemed to me absolutely necessary to complete it. Somehow I feel as if it must be the result of some mistake, or that you cannot possibly have been aware of it. This is an untidy letter but I absolutely steal time for letters so you must pardon it.
Yours sincerely,
Frances Hodgson Burnett
Don't think me hypersensitive. It is not that at all. But I realize so fully what the effort would be of T, or any one, should say once "If you let Romance have a story & they are short of space they cut off the head or tail of it."
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