Overview
Primarily correspondence of James Thomas Fields and other editors at Ticknor and Fields, a nineteenth-century Boston, Massachusetts, publishing house.
Dates
- Creation: 1839-1881
Language of Materials
Collection materials are in English.
Conditions Governing Access
There are no restrictions on physical access to this material.
Extent
0.5 linear feet (1 boxes)Primarily business and personal correspondence of James Thomas Fields along with the correspondence of James R. Osgood and other Ticknor and Fields' editors. Correspondents include Louis Agassiz, Lydia Maria Francis Child, George William Curtis, and Elizabeth Stuart Phelps Ward, among other nineteenth-century literary figures. Some letters include cartes-de-visite of the correspondent. There is a small amount of correspondence among Ticknor and Fields' authors as well as letters from Annie Fields. Compositions include autograph manuscript poems by Annie Fields, print and autograph manuscript poems by James Thomas Fields, and a partial autograph manuscript of George Stillman Hillard's Six months in Italy, among other items. Finally, there are royalty checks to various Ticknor and Fields' authors, visiting cards of James Thomas Fields, and a cabinet photograph of an unidentified man.
Biographical / Historical
Ticknor and Fields of Boston, Massachusetts was the premier "literary" publishing house in the United States during the middle years of the nineteenth century. Ticknor and Fields originated in the firm of Allen and Ticknor established in 1832. The partners in Ticknor and Fields were William D. Ticknor (one of the partners in Allen and Ticknor) and James T. Fields, who entered the firm as a junior partner in 1843. Fields edited the Atlantic monthly from 1861-1870. Fields was also a writer; his writings include: Poems (1849), Yesterdays with authors (1872), and Hawthorne (1876). In 1854, Fields married Annie Adams, an author, literary hostess, and social welfare worker. Ticknor and Fields became Fields, Osgood and Co. in 1868 when James R. Osgood joined the firm. After a series of changes, Fields, Osgood and Co. evolved into Houghton, Mifflin and Company.
Arrangement
Arranged into three series:
- I. Correspondence
- A. Letters from James Thomas Fields
- B. Letters to James Thomas Fields
- C. Other Ticknor and Fields correspondence
- D. Other correspondence
- II. Compositions
- III. Other papers
Physical Location
b
Immediate Source of Acquisition
98M-2 and 2001M-31. Purchased from John William Pye Rare Books with funds from the Parkman D. Howe Fund, the James Duncan Phillips Fund for Harvard College, the Harmand Teplow Fund, and funds from the sale of duplicates; received: 1998 June 24; 2001 Nov. 13.
Processing Information
Processed by: Jackie Dean.
- Title
- Ticknor and Fields. Ticknor and Fields records, 1839-1881: Guide.
- Author
- Houghton Library, Harvard College Library
- Language of description
- und
- EAD ID
- hou00106
Repository Details
Part of the Houghton Library Repository
Houghton Library is Harvard College's principal repository for rare books and manuscripts, archives, and more. Houghton Library's collections represent the scope of human experience from ancient Egypt to twenty-first century Cambridge. With strengths primarily in North American and European history, literature, and culture, collections range in media from printed books and handwritten manuscripts to maps, drawings and paintings, prints, posters, photographs, film and audio recordings, and digital media, as well as costumes, theater props, and a wide range of other objects. Houghton Library has historically focused on collecting the written record of European and Eurocentric North American culture, yet it holds a large and diverse number of primary sources valuable for research on the languages, culture and history of indigenous peoples of the Americas, Africa, Asia and Oceania.
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