Louise Chandler Moulton, Poet and FriendWhiting, Lilian
General
Louise Chandler Moulton, Poet and Friend
Whiting, Lilian
Moulton, Louise Chandler, 1835-1908
"Frances Willard's mother was in her eighties,--she was on
her death-bed--it was, I think, the day before she died, and
her daughter said to her, 'Well, mother, if you had your
life to live over again, I don't think you would want to do
anything differently from what you have done.' The dear old
lady turned her gray head on the pillow, and smiled, and
said, 'Oh, yes; if I had my life to live over again, I would
praise a great deal more and blame a great deal less.' I
always thought it lovely to have felt and said."
In London in this summer of 1902 she notes in her diary that she went
to the dinner of the Women Writers. Later, she was given a luncheon by
the Society of American Women in London. She sat, of course, on the
right of the president, Mrs. Griffin, and next to her was placed Lady
Annesley, "who seemed to me," she said afterward, "the most beautiful
woman I had ever seen." She gave a little dinner to which she invited
Whistler, who accepted in the following terms:
_J. McNeill Whistler to Mrs. Moulton_
96 CHEYNE ROAD.
DEAR LOUISE: I accept your invitation with great pleasure,
and how kind and considerate of you to make it eight-thirty.
I really believe I shall reach you, not only in good time,
but in the unruffled state of mind and body that is utterly
done away with in the usual scramble across country, racing
hopelessly for the "quarter to."...
Yours sincerely,
J. McN. W.
When in her Boston home Mrs. Moulton was seldom, in later years,
allured far afield. She thought little of a journey to Europe, but
avoided even an hour's journey "out of town." She had in London,
however, come to be fond of the lady who became Mrs. Truman J. Martin,
of Buffalo, N.Y., and to her had written the lyric, "A Song for
Rosalys"; and she made an exception to her usual custom to visit her
friend in her American home. A Buffalo journal remarks on the
occurrence with the true floridness of society journalism:
"The event of the week _par excellence_ has been the arrival
in Buffalo of that gifted writer and eminent woman--Mrs.
Louise Chandler Moulton of Boston. Mrs. Moulton arrived on
Monday evening, and is the guest of her friend, Mrs. Truman
J. Martin of North Street, where she is resting after a
season of excessive literary work and many social
obligations.... Mrs. Moulton has a striking personality. The
years have touched lightly her heart and features, her
strongest characteristic being a heartiness and sincerity
and warmth that come to a great soul who has enjoyed and
suffered much and who has dipped into the deepest of life's
grand experiences. She dresses handsomely and somewhat
picturesquely, elegant laces and rich velvet and silks
forming themselves into her expressive attire."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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