Louise Chandler Moulton, Poet and FriendWhiting, Lilian
General
Louise Chandler Moulton, Poet and Friend
Whiting, Lilian
Moulton, Louise Chandler, 1835-1908
"... I am so glad you like my story.... It was not I who
said 'Human beings can do anything if they set their minds
to it'; it was that beloved thing which has said things for
me all my life. Sometimes I call it 'The Fairy,' but I think
it must be a kind of splendid spirit. It is so strong, it is
so good to me, and I do so love it. When I said that thing
it seemed to make something waken within me. I began to say
it to myself, and to believe it. Only thus could I have
finished the story, and this makes me know it is true.... I
have sometimes thought the thing I had to give is nearly
always part of a story, some note of love, or message that
rings clear. I don't ask it should be a loud note, only that
some one shall hear it and remember. The fact that you have
heard, makes the story a success, so far as I am concerned.
As for giving, you give always. I have seen that. You give
of gentleness and kindness and all things that help. Your
hands are full of things to give."
Just before Mrs. Moulton's sailing in the spring of 1895 a breakfast
was given to her by a group of her friends, at which the decoration
was very prettily all of mountain laurel. In the centre of the table
was a basket of green osiers filled with the faintly pink kalmia, and
this color-scheme was carried out in the menu-cards, the embroidered
centre-piece, the candle-shades, and in the Venetian glass with which
the table was furnished. It is to this breakfast that Mrs. Blake
alludes in the little note which follows:
_Mrs. John G. Blake to Mrs. Moulton_
DEAR MRS. MOULTON: Among all the laurels which are being
laid before your conquering feet, will you take my little
flower of good-will and congratulations? The sonnets are
exquisite, so are you always to
Your affectionate
M.E.B.
In 1896 was published "Lazy Tours," Mrs. Moulton's most important book
in prose. This volume records her impressions in her wanderings in
Spain, in Southern Italy, in France, and in Switzerland. It is a
delightful mosaic of bits about people and places, of glimpses of
Rome, of Florence, of Paris, of the German "cures," and of pleasant
experiences of all sorts. The book is dedicated to Sir Bruce and Lady
Seton, "The well-beloved friends and frequent hosts of this lazy
tourist." The dedication is as appropriate as it is pleasantly
phrased, for the Setons were not only among the closest of Mrs.
Moulton's English friends, but with them she had done a great deal of
journeying. The book is charmingly vivid, and is a pleasant companion
for the traveller in the places with which it deals. Mrs. Moulton
neither was nor claimed to be an expert critic of painting and
sculpture, but her artistic taste responded sensitively to what was
best, and she recorded her feelings with a frank enthusiasm and a
wonderful freshness.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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