Autograph letters signed from Fanny Kemble to various recipients [manuscript], 1831-1890.

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Autograph letters signed from Fanny Kemble to various recipients [manuscript], 1831-1890.

Correspondents: Lady [Anne] Byron, F[rances Power] Cobbe, William [Bodham] Donne, Henry [William] Greville, Mary Charlotte Lloyd and Harriet St. Leger. Includes 167 letters, many letters incomplete, and 9 leaves from her journals. Many of the letters describe her experiences in America and her views on slavery and on the Civil War. Letters written from London, Ireland, Switzerland, Italy and the United States. A letter to Donne (307) tells of John Brown's Raid and castigates him as a "fanatic maniac." Some letters to Greville discuss New England's reactions to the possibility of England's entering the war. Several letters touch on Shakespeare. Othello is a sermon against inordinate affections. She did like [Charles] Kean's Othello. She thinks she would not like Fechter's; his Iago must be like her father's (347, 247, 249, 245). Sarah Bernhardt's portrayal of Lady Macbeth recalled Mrs. Siddons' notion of her as a small delicate fair blue-eyed woman (187). The letters refer constantly to her family and friends and to contemporary artists, actors, writers, preachers and politicians, among them Joanne Baillie (223), Ann Bradshaw (247), Emily Brontë (353), John Gibson, William Godwin (387), Nathaniel Hawthorne (381), Harriet Hosmer, Henry James, Charles Kingsley (387-389), Frederic Leighton, Longfellow (413), Macaulay, F. D. Maurice (393), Mendelssohn, Theodore Parker, Adelaide Procter (415) and Shelley (363). Also, a letter to Fanny Kemble from Frances P. Cobbe, July 8, [1875] (19b), a letter to Frances Cobbe from Fanny Kemble's maid, Eleanor Brianzoni, January 19, 1898, telling her of Fanny Kemble's death (457), a poem on Venice by Fanny Kemble, ca. 1861 (453) and several photographs and illustrations. Poem listed in Folger index of first lines. The fragments of her journals, 1831-1832, ca. 1840 and ca. 1850, include an anecdote about Mrs. Siddons and Richard Sheridan (435), musings on Lawrence's drawings of the Kemble family (449), a description of her feelings on seeing an actress on her first night (441) and a discussion of The tempest and A midsummer night's dream (439).

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SNAC Resource ID: 7575692

Folger Shakespeare Library

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There are 34 Entities related to this resource.

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Kemble, Fanny, 1809-1893

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Frances Anne "Fanny" Kemble (27 November 1809 – 15 January 1893) was a British actress from a theatre family in the early and mid-19th century. She was a well-known and popular writer and abolitionist, whose published works included plays, poetry, eleven volumes of memoirs, travel writing and works about the theatre. In 1834, Kemble married a wealthy Philadelphian, Pierce Mease Butler, grandson of U.S. Senator Pierce Butler, whom she had met on an American acting tour with her father in 1832....

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Kean, Charles John, 1811?-1868

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Leighton of Stretton, Frederic Leighton, baron, 1830-1896

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Brontë, Emily, 1818-1848

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Greville, Henry William, 1801-1872

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Tree, Ann Maria, 1801-1862

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Baillie, Joanna, 1762-1851

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6w95h94 (person)

Epithet: of Add MS 35118 British Library Archives and Manuscripts Catalogue : Person : Description : ark:/81055/vdc_100000000677.0x0000cd Baillie was a Scottish poet and dramatist. Norton (1786-1853) graduated from Harvard College in 1804, taught sacred literature as a professor, and authored numerous works on religious topics. From the description of Letters to Andrews Norton, 1827-1850. (Harvard University). WorldCat record id: 84429823 From the guide ...

Sheridan, Richard Brinsley, 1751-1816

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Lawrence, Thomas, Sir, 1769-1830

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English portrait painter. From the description of Autograph letter signed : London, to J.W. Croker, 1815 Feb. 23. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 663622098 From the description of Autograph letter signed : London, to [J.W. Croker], Monday noon [1829 Feb. 23]. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 664707618 From the description of Autograph letter signed : London, to [J.W. Croker], [1829] Feb. 20. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 664707570 From the description of Auto...

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Fechter, Charles, 1824-1879

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English actor and dramatist of German origin. From the description of Autograph letter signed, dated : [London], 29 June 1864, to an unidentified recipient, 1864 June 29. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 270576797 Epithet: actor and dramatist British Library Archives and Manuscripts Catalogue : Person : Description : ark:/81055/vdc_100000000205.0x00002b Actor. Full name: Charles Albert Fechter. From the description of Charles Fechter letter, un...

Maurice, Frederick Denison, 1805-1872

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Donne, William Bodham, 1807-1882

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w60v9n0q (person)