By Spencer Cawein Pate
I’ve just learned of a new twist to the story of Madison Cawein (see my other posts on Cawein here) thanks to Sharon Cummings, a collector / dealer of literary memorabilia who specializes in items from the poet Sara Teasdale (1884-1933). Ms. Cummings recently came into possession of a trove of Teasdale’s letters, which were auctioned off at the estate sale of Teasdale’s friend and biographer Margaret Carpenter. Apparently, a handful of the letters were sent from Madison Cawein to Sara Teasdale, ranging from 1909 to 1912. To my delight, Ms. Cummings found my thesis in researching Madison Cawein online, and since I’m related, albeit distantly, she decided to contact me to ask if I would want the letters. I enthusiastically said yes.
These letters constitute quite an interesting rediscovery, one which further illuminates a forgotten corner of literary history. Otto Rothert says in his The Story of a Poet (which reprinted all of Cawein’s extant letters) that Teasdale thought her correspondence with Cawein was lost. Otherwise, the only mention of her in the book occurs in a letter from Cawein to the poet, critic, and anthologist Jessie B. Rittenhouse, a friend of Cawein’s. Cawein says he is anxious to meet Teasdale in person and to introduce her to Rittenhouse, and he goes on to claim that Teasdale “is writing exquisite verse” and “will be heard from unquestionably, in the world of poetry, later on, as one of our greatest poets.” Considering that Teasdale is still well known, this is a fairly accurate judgment.
The correspondence would have occurred near both the end of Cawein’s life (1914) and the beginning of Teasdale’s career (as she published her first of four poetry collections in 1911); when these cordial letters began, Teasdale would have been only 25 years old and Cawein 44. This age gap between the two poets suggests that Cawein may have been a direct influence on a new generation of younger and more modern writers. (Which, of course, we already knew re: T.S. Eliot.) All of this underscores my contention that Cawein is a crucial mediator / missing link in twentieth century poetry.
The letters discuss Cawein’s travels, the bad review given to his work by the New York Times critic Shaemas O’Sheel (which I discuss in my thesis), and his book Nature Notes and Impressions, of which he sent a copy to Teasdale. In return, she sent Cawein some of her verse, and because he introduced Teasdale to Rittenhouse, I would be willing to surmise that Cawein helped her first break into publication. Teasdale’s first collection, Helen of Troy and Other Poems, was published by G.P. Putnam’s Sons, which was Cawein’s publisher at the time as well. And due to the Cawein connection, I’ve begun to read more of Teasdale’s poetry (having been previously familiar with only ten or so of her poems), and I can definitely see many strong similarities between the themes and styles of the two writers.
Thank you again to Sharon Cummings for these fascinating and charming letters! I have scanned and transcribed all seven to the best of my ability, so they are presented below for first time. Interested readers can click on any image to magnify it to full-size.
Envelopes 1-3: October 1909, March 1910, October 1911
Envelopes 4-6: December 1911, December 1911, April 1912
Envelope 7: December 1912
Letter 1: October 18, 1909
My Dear Miss Teasdale:–
You hit it correctly. It was last year at Annisquam, near Gloucester, in the month of September that I saw the wonderful display of Northern Lights. The meteor passed directly through the splendor overhead. Mrs. Cawein and I were the guests of Mr. Eric Pape for that month and it was at his artistic and hospitable home and in the surrounding woods that I wrote all the sonnets including the one on the Aurora.
This summer we were there again with Mr. Pape, at a house party which included the poet Percy Mackaye and the eminent dramatist Charles Rann Kennedy, author of The Servant in the House, and his wife, whose stage name is Edith Wynn Matthison, greatest of the living English actresses.
I want to thank you for your kind words regarding my work.
Your work impressed me greatly, as it has also impressed my most critical and poetry loving friend Dr. H.A. Cottell, who has several of your lyrics by heart and repeats them constantly.
Mr. Gibson can tell you all about Cottell and what a lover of good poetry he is and what it means to have won his approval.
With wishes for your success, believe me, faithfully yours, Madison Cawein.
Letter 2: March 17, 1910
Dear Miss Teasdale:–
Your letter was good to receive. I thought the poems about Florida would appeal to you. I am sending you today another book of mine entitled “Nature Notes.” In it you will find a long prose note made in one of my notebooks when I took a trip up the Ocklawaha.
Ere this, doubtless, you are home again, and probably have seen Mr. Gibson, from whom I had a letter yesterday. He writes me of a new poem of yours which he says he intends sending me as soon as Dr. De Menil returns it. I am sure that I shall enjoy it if it is on the order of the blank verse piece by you which I read with such great pleasure in the February Forum.
With best wishes, believe me, ever sincerely yours, Madison Cawein.
Letter 3: October 26, 1911
Dear Miss Teasdale:–
Thank you for your good words about my book of Poems. If it pleased you as much as your Helen of Troy delighted me I am satisfied.
As to Miss Jessie B. Rittenhouse–I have had several communications from her this month. She has spent several weeks at her summer home in Michigan, Mullett Lake, it is, and is now back in New York at work on a book, she tells me, which occupies all her time. Probably she failed to receive your vol. of poems. Her address in New York is #602, West 157th St. You might write her there and get a definite answer as to whether or not she received your book. She is indeed a charming as well as an intellectual woman, to whom Mrs. Cawein and I are greatly attached.
Very sincerely, your friend, Madison Cawein.
Letter 4: December 27, 1911
Dear Miss Teasdale:–
Yours is a happy little greeting and one that added considerably to my Christmas pleasure. A lovely card; and the quatrain graceful and surest to the poet’s soul.
Well, I don’t know any more to say, except that your card outclasses all the Christmas cards I have ever received, or even have seen, in originality and beauty.
I wish you, profoundly, success and joy with the coming new year.
Very sincerely your friend, Madison Cawein
Letter 5: December 30, 1911
Dear Miss Teasdale:–
Mrs. Cawein has finally persuaded me to go on to the Poetry Society’s dinner and Miss Rittenhouse’s reception on the 21st. We leave on the 19th of Jan. and look forward to seeing you in New York, and shall be at the Martinique Hotel, cor. of 32nd and Broadway. It is a charming hotel, and we wonder if you could not make it your stopping place also while in New York.
It was only three or four weeks ago that I was East, and am due there again in Feb., I think, for the National Institute of Arts and Letters dinner. I prefer the latter to any of these dinners, as there all the most eminent men of the country are brought together at the University Club. However, I shall have to omit this meeting for the Poetry Society’s the coming year, and count myself as well repaid by meeting you; as I have already met the greater part of the poets who will gather around the festal board on the 23rd of Jan.
I send you a little booklet of mine under a separate cover, with new year’s greetings. Mrs. Cawein is anxious to meet you, and just as wild about going to New York. She too has to have something new to wear, but as for myself–well!
Very cordially yours, Madison Cawein.
Letter 6: April 30, 1912
Dear Miss Teasdale:–
Thank you for the clipping from the Chicago Post. I am glad to see that you are back in St. Louis.
I am sorry I did not get to see you again before leaving the East. Mrs. Cawein was luckier than was I.
Mr. Gibson, you may be glad to learn, is out of the asylum at last, and is with Dan’s Mercantile Agency. He’s busy riding around the country–so beautiful this spring–and is enthusiastic, poor fellow, about his better outlook. [Note: Mr. Gibson was an official, not a resident, at the St. Louis Insane Asylum.]
Did you see the notice of your Helen of Troy in the May Smart Set?
Very truly yours, Madison Cawein
P.S. The clipping refers to an ovation extended me here in Louisville on March 23rd in honor of my 47th birthday and publication of my first vol. 25 years ago. C.
Letter 7: December 5, 1912
Dear Miss Teasdale:–
I am very sorry to hear of your illness. I hope that your eye is perfectly well now. Too bad!
Your words about my book are most cheering, as Mr. Shaemas O’Sheel has pronounced the poems in “The Poet” etc. as being rank and absolute nonsense. [Note: You can read O'Sheel's review here.] This in the N.Y. Times two weeks ago. Miss Rittenhouse wrote the Times a long letter about the notice, which they refused to publish, because Mr. O’Sheel is a particular pet of the Times. They published mine, however, much to my surprise. [Note: You can read Cawein's reply here.]
Miss Rittenhouse’s review of the Lyric Year in last Sunday’s Times Book Review sums up the vol. to my thinking. [Note: Both Cawein and Teasdale appeared in this anthology.] Mr. Johns’ poem deserves the first prize, I think. But I question the other two. There is too much rhetorical fireworks in them. And this hard-spurring of Pegasus does not appeal to me for high flying. There are really only half a dozen lyrics in the book. It belies its title. How in the name of Heaven did the editors come to include such stuff as that rank imitation of Poe’s Raven–the poem called Miriam? a peacock, forsooth! One of Mr. Wheeler’s friends I suppose. And Julian Hawthorne too! What a mix up! Well, live and learn.
We are all quite well and Mrs. Cawein asked to be remembered to you with love.
Believe me ever sincerely yours, Madison Cawein
