A Guide to the Clare Benedict Collection of Constance Fenimore Woolson

Dates: 1800 to 2002.

Extent: Four linear feet in seven boxes; 215 monograph titles.

Access: Open access except one box.

Language: English.

Copyright statement: The materials of the Constance Fenimore Woolson collection are governed by the Copyright Law of the United States.

Preferred citation: Researchers wishing to cite this collection should include the following information: container number, the Constance Fenimore Woolson Collection, Archives and Special Collections, Rollins College, Winter Park, Florida.

Summary

The collection consists of papers preserved by Clare Benedict in memory of her aunt, the American author Constance Fenimore Woolson (1840 – 1894). The contents partially document Woolson’s literary career, including original manuscripts and reviews of her work, as well as the literary ambitions of her family, in particular those of her niece, Clare Benedict. Very well documented is Benedict’s gift of the Woolson House to Rollins College, largely expressed through the correspondence between Benedict and the College’s president at the time, Hamilton Holt. The formation and development of a literary society in Woolson’s honor is similarly well recorded. Though personal correspondence does exist, the collection does not thoroughly record Woolson’s personal relationships. In contrast, Benedict’s are particularly well documented, and it is worthwhile to note that she shared many of her aunt’s acquaintances, such as Henry James. The collection consists of Woolson’s literary contributions; family information, including genealogy and correspondence; the connection between Benedict and the College, particularly in regard to their joint venture, the Woolson memorial; the beginnings of and contributions from the Woolson Society; photographs of the collection’s inventory, places of significance to Woolson and her family, and the conferences of the Woolson Society; and media documenting the Society’s events, including both VHS cassettes and DVDs.

Provenance: Clare Rathbone Benedict, October 1961.

Constance Fenimore Woolson, January 1894.

Index Terms:

Personal Name:

Benedict, Clare Rathbone 1868 – 1961.

Cooper, James Fenimore 1789 – 1851.

James, Henry 1843 – 1916.

Woolson, Constance Fenimore 1840 – 1894.

Subject Terms:

American literature—19^th century.

Authors, American—19^th century.

Rollins College (Winter Park, Florida)—Woolson House.

Women and literature—United States.

Processed by Bethany B. Reynolds, 2009.

Table of Contents:

Biography

Scope and Content

Container List - Series One:  Administration

Series Two:  Literature

Series Three:  Woolson Family

Series Four:  C.W. Woolson Society

Series Five:  Photographs

Series Six:  Media

BIOGRAPHY

Constance Fenimore Woolson (1840 – 1894) was born in New Hampshire on March 5, 1840. After three of Woolson’s sisters died of scarlet fever, the family relocated to Cleveland, Ohio. She attended the Young Ladies’ Seminary at Cleveland and continued her education at Madame Chegaray’s Finishing School in New York City. Though she wrote throughout her childhood and young adulthood for her own betterment, it was not until the death of Woolson’s father in 1869 that she sought in earnest to write professionally. Travel narratives comprised her earliest works, and in 1870, her first story, “The Happy Valley,” was published in Harper’s Monthly. She contributed regularly to this publication as well as Putnam’s Magazine, The Atlantic Monthly, Scribner’s, and Appleton’s Journal. Though she refrained from following the trend of the times by appealing to her readers’ tastes with overt sentimentality, her writing was well-received. Often referred to as a local colorist, Woolson was not bound by genre. Recent scholarship proves her versatility. The plight of women artists figures prominently in her stories, especially characterized in Miss Grief.

After her father’s death, Woolson, as the unmarried daughter, assumed responsibility for her own and her mother’s welfare. Both were left small legacies, enough to live in genteel poverty, but no more. As a writer, Woolson contributed enough to their existence to continue an independent lifestyle. They traveled in the South and beginning in 1873, spent the winters in the mild climate of St. Augustine, a city famous as a refuge from the harsh winters of the North—especially for people of frail health, such as her mother.

Her first collection of short stories, entitled Castle Nowhere: Lake-Country Sketches, was published in 1875. This collection highlighted the region of the Great Lakes, where Woolson had spent her earlier life. The landscapes and ways of life in the South, however, began to color her newer work. Careful attention was given to distinguishing Southern regional types, and each distinctive group represented various themes.

After the death of her mother in 1879, Woolson spent time living and traveling abroad, often with her widowed sister and her niece, Clare Benedict. She stayed in London, France, and at length, in Italy. She habitually chose a hotel to reside in for several months before moving on to her next location, engaging in a sort of nomadic lifestyle that fed her artistic creativity. In 1880 she published Miss Grief, which has rarely been out of print, and remains her most anthologized story. During the same month of the publication of Miss Grief, Woolson met the American author Henry James in Italy, and the two would remain close friends for the remainder of her life. The American expatriate community provided Woolson with a most curious study, for here was a new and unique regional type that found its way into several of her short stories, including “The Front Yard” and “A Transplanted Boy,” published in 1888 and 1894, respectively.

Health problems occasionally dampened Woolson’s European sojourns, and complications with her hearing resulted in steadily increasing deafness. Isolated by her health, her hearing defects, and her own battles with depression, she continued nevertheless to regularly contribute to her American publishers back in the United States.

On January 24, 1894, during a bout with influenza, Woolson fell to her death from her balcony in her apartment at the Casa Semeticolo in Venice. Whether her fall was an accident or purposeful is not known. At the time of her death, she had written four novels, four collections of short stories, a novella, and a plethora of uncollected stories, in addition to her earlier works of literary criticism, travel narratives, and poetry. Two works were published posthumously: a collection of travel sketches and of short stories. During her lifetime, Woolson was considered one of the finest writers America possessed, for her work was not only popular, but it was a critically acclaimed.

Woolson’s niece, Clare Benedict, determined to create a worthy monument to the memory of her aunt, gave Rollins College a small building that she furnished with items from Woolson’s estate, including some of her books and manuscripts. Her gift, Woolson House, opened with much ceremony on May 31, 1938. Fred Lewis Pattee, the famous literary historian who established the canon of American literature, gave the dedicatory address. It was Clare Benedict’s desire that Woolson House be used for literary gatherings of aspiring, as well as accomplished, writers. Benedict endowed her gift with a fund to assure its upkeep. For security purposes, Woolson’s library and her manuscripts were moved to the Department of Archives and Special Collections in 1992. Woolson’s desk, which had fallen into disrepair, was restored through the generosity of Rollins Alumna, Carolyn Van Bergen Rylander, Ph.D. It is now a showpiece in the Conference Room of the Rollins Archives.

Most of the manuscripts given to Rollins were published by Benedict in her memorial book, Constance Fenimore Woolson (London n.d.). One of the prized possessions are a set of caricatures, drawn for Plum (Woolson’s pet name for her niece), titled “Visiting in Asheville,” and the manuscripts of her Fern poems, penciled in Chapman’s Flora of the Southern United States (N.Y. 1872).

Woolson’s fame waned during the 1930s; however, appreciation of her work experienced a renaissance in the 1980s, and today an active international scholarship has developed. As a result, the Constance Fenimore Woolson Society was founded in January 1995 at Rollins College. The Woolson House has been renovated, and the English Department uses it as its faculty lounge while continuing to make it available to small groups on request.

SCOPE & CONTENT

The materials in this collection highlight the writing career of Constance Fenimore Woolson, as well as the history of the Woolson family as a whole. Special attention is given to the Woolson genealogy and to Woolson descendants’ accomplishments, including the contributions of Clare Benedict. Very well documented is Benedict’s connection with Rollins College, including correspondence of business and personal nature. The development of the Constance Fenimore Woolson Society is also well documented, including photographs, correspondence, and conference programs. The collection is divided into six series: ADMINISTRATION, LITERATURE, WOOLSON FAMILY, C.F. WOOLSON SOCIETY, PHOTOGRAPHS, and MEDIA.

The ADMINISTRATION series contains documents pertaining to the shipments received at Rollins College from Clare Benedict, for the express purpose of establishing a Woolson memorial. Inventories of these shipments, as well as lists of returned items, are likewise included. Documents pertaining to the construction and dedication of the Woolson House are found in this series. There is one sub-series, Memorabilia, which contains a list of the current items in the Collection. Some of the material in this series is restricted, and is appropriately marked.

The LITERATURE series is divided into two sub-series: Manuscripts and Criticism. The Manuscripts sub-series includes a wide array of Constance Fenimore Woolson’s writing, both personal and published, as well as a list of books that are currently in print. Additionally, the sub-series includes writings by and about members of Woolson’s family. The Criticism sub-series includes reviews by Woolson’s contemporaries as well as scholars who have pursued her work after her death. The sub-series also contains historical information regarding the world Woolson herself lived in, and the world she created for her stories.

The WOOLSON FAMILY series possesses extensive information regarding the Woolson family line, including Constance Fenimore Woolson’s predecessors and successors. Correspondence among members of the family and addressed to members of the family is found in this series. The Clare Benedict sub-series is also included, which contains correspondence between herself and Rollins College in addition to documentation of her life abroad.

The C.F. WOOLSON SOCIETY series is divided into two sub-series: Conferences and Correspondence. In the first sub-series, documentation of the planning and execution of the Society’s various conferences is included; in the second sub-series, correspondence between members of the Society is organized by surname.

The PHOTOGRAPHS series contains pictures which largely focus on the following themes: the C.F. Woolson Society and its members, locations important to the Woolson family (both in the United States and abroad), portraits of the Woolson family, pictures of the Woolson House, and pictures of the individual items included in the Woolson Collection.

The MEDIA series includes four DVDs and five VHS cassette tapes, all of which document the C.F. Woolson Society’s initial conference, which was hosted at Rollins College in 1995.

Not considered a series but still a part of the Woolson Collection is a library of 214 books, which includes works written by Constance Fenimore Woolson, volumes from her personal library, and works regarding her literature and her life. Records are available online through the Olin Library catalog.

CONTAINER LIST

Box Folder

Series One: ADMINISTRATION

1 1 Catalogue of memorabilia 1938

1 2 Sequential inventories

1 3 Lists of returned items to Clare Benedict

1 4 Woolson House construction

1 5 Woolson Memorial plate

1 6 Woolson House dedication 1938

1 7 Woolson House uses and responsibilities

1 8 Woolson House maintenance

1 9 Woolson House correspondence

1 10 Catalogue of memorabilia correspondence

1 11 Inventory of memorabilia circa 1990

1 12 Deutsche Schiller-Stiftung von 1859

1 13 1937 shipment

1 14 1^st shipment, customs, Department of Treasury

1 15 1938 shipment

1 16 Archive correspondence—RESTRICTED.

1 17 Clare Benedict will and endowment—RESTRICTED.

1 18 Clare Benedict Trust Fund—RESTRICTED.

Series Two: LITERATURE

2 1 Manuscripts inventory

2 2 Rodman the Keeper and Alden’s Oxford Guide

2 3 Mottos, Maxims, Reflections

2 4 Campalto

2 5 Lido; San Niccolo

2 6 Reflections

2 7 “Dorothy”

2 8 “Corfu and the Ionian Sea”

2 9 “The Grand Canal”

2 10 Ghost Story: manuscript

2 11 Where There Is No Vision

2 12 “Nick Woolson’s Ride”

2 13 “Angelo”

2 14 Copies of manuscripts

2 15 Excerpts from novels

2 16 Woolson’s books in print

2 17 Harper’s Weekly 1887 review

2 18 New York Times review

2 19 Review of Anne

2 20 New Yorker 1963 review

2 21 Rollins Alumni Record 1939

2 22 Mackinac Island memorial

2 23 “The Ballad of Fenimore Woolson”

2 24 Constance Fenimore Woolson and the South

2 25 The Vindication of the American Heroine

2 26 Patrons and Protégées

2 27 Analyses of the 1996 conference

2 28 The Vengeance of Kindness

2 29 Strangers in a Strange Land

2 30 Constance Fenimore Woolson’s personal library

2 31 Kathleen Reich’s articles

2 32 Cheryl Torsney’s articles

2 33 Caroline Gebhard’s articles

2 34 Joan Weimer’s articles

2 35 Leonardo Buonomo’s article

2 36 Writing Across Time and the Region

2 37 Regionalism in the Works of Constance Fenimore Woolson

2 38 Historical context

2 39 Historical St. Augustine

Series Three: WOOLSON FAMILY

3 1 Biography

3 2 Website chronology

3 3 A Biographic Mystery

3 4 Family tree

3 5 Ira Knight Woolson statement

3 6 The Claremont Woolsons

3 7 Peter Trone, Esq.

3 8 Albert Woolson article

3 9 George Stone Benedict article

3 10 Copy of check

3 11 J.L and J.B. Gilder letter

3 12 Letter to Elizabeth (Mrs. Samuel Mather)

3 13 Pictures for Plum

3 14 Pictures for Plum transparencies

3 15 Mrs. Pomeroy Woolson’s letters to Mrs. Samuel Mather

3 16 Copies of autographed letters

3 17 Clare Benedict biography

3 18 Clare Benedict collection

3 19 Schwabach-Albrecht articles

3 20 Chess tournament

3 21 The Deutsche Schillerstiftung

3 22 Copies of Henry James’ letters to Clare Benedict

3 23 Hamilton Holt correspondence

3 24 Mary M. Laughlin correspondence

3 25 Rollins correspondence 1931

3 26 Rollins correspondence 1937

3 27 Rollins correspondence 1938

4 1 Rollins correspondence 1939

4 2 Rollins correspondence 1940

4 3 Rollins correspondence 1941

4 4 Rollins correspondence 1942

4 5 Rollins correspondence 1943

4 6 Rollins correspondence 1946

4 7 Rollins correspondence 1947

4 8 Rollins correspondence 1948

4 9 Rollins correspondence 1949

4 10 Rollins correspondence 1950

4 11 Rollins correspondence 1951

4 12 Rollins correspondence 1952

4 13 Rollins correspondence 1953

4 14 Rollins correspondence 1954

4 15 Rollins correspondence 1955

4 16 Rollins correspondence 1956

4 17 Rollins correspondence 1957

Series Four: C.W. WOOLSON SOCIETY

4 18 Society proposal

4 19 1995 conference programs and brochures

4 20 1995 conference registration

4 21 1995 conference hotel reservations

4 22 1995 conference finances

4 23 1995 conference catering

4 24 1995 conference speech by Kate Reich

4 25 1995 conference correspondence

4 26 1995 conference follow-up correspondence

4 27 1995 conference emails

4 28 1996 conference

4 29 1998 conference

4 30 2000 conference

4 31 2002 conference

5 1 Membership lists

5 2 Correspondence A

5 3 Correspondence B

5 4 Correspondence Brehm

5 5 Correspondence C

5 6 Correspondence D

5 7 Correspondence Dean

5 8 Correspondence E

5 9 Correspondence Gebhard

5 10 Correspondence Gordon

5 11 Correspondence H

5 12 Correspondence K

5 13 Correspondence listserv

5 14 Correspondence M

5 15 Correspondence N

5 16 Correspondence P

5 17 Correspondence R

5 18 Correspondence S

5 19 Correspondence Schwabach

5 20 Correspondence Swartz

5 21 Correspondence T

5 22 Correspondence Torsney

5 23 Correspondence V

5 24 Correspondence W

6 1 Correspondence Weimer

6 2 Correspondence Woolson

Series Five: PHOTOGRAPHS

6 3 Woolson Society

6 4 Clare Benedict chess tournament

6 5 European destinations

6 6 Pomeroy Place

6 7 Woolson graves

6 8 Negatives

6 9 Portraits

6 10 Fenimore Cooper

6 11 Woolson House and Memorial

6 12 Collection inventory

6 13 Collection detail

6 14 Dollhouse detail

6 15 C.F. Woolson’s bust detail

6 16 Transparencies

6 17 C.F. Woolson’s autographed portrait

Series Six: MEDIA

Media files under WOOLSON, CONSTANCE FENIMORE: 5 VHS tapes, 4 DVDs.