SOURCE: “Caroline M. Kirkland: Additions to the Canon” in Bulletin of Research in the Humanities, Vol. 86, No. 3, 1983-85, pp. 338-46.

[In the following essay, Roberts discusses Kirkland's letters and the value they add to understanding her as an author and an individual.]

During the heyday of the sentimental scribblers Caroline Kirkland pioneered as a literary realist. Kirkland, eschewing tears, idle tears, recorded with humor and candor America's achievements and shortcomings in mid-nineteenth century.¹ Now with the help of Kirkland's letters, several additions to her canon have come to light: a clever poem, “An Intercepted Letter to Dickens,” in Graham's; three burlesque sketches, “Notes for the Biography of a Distinguée,” published anonymously in Yankee Doodle; and some satiric comments on “The American Ideal Woman” for Putnam's.² All five pieces enhance her reputation.

Kirkland, born in 1801, spent her youth and young womanhood in New York state. But it was her western experience, three years in Detroit and another five in Pinckney, Michigan, that provided the impetus for her writing career. A New Home—Who'll Follow? (1839) achieved immediate popularity; Forest Life (1842) won enthusiastic reviews; and Western Clearings (1845), a collection of sketches that moved toward the short story form, Poe thought the best of all.³ Of these new finds, one was written in the West, and the others after her return to New York; all display her wit and sense for satire.

The Kirkland family papers were destroyed in the 1873 Chicago fire but 321 letters remain of Caroline Kirkland's correspondence.⁴ Besides providing intimate insights into Kirkland's life, they add information about her work habits and career as a writer.

A letter to Rufus Griswold (L20, Jan 21 [18]43—F) and a postscript on a letter (L25, Mar 17 1843—H) to her daughter Lizzy identify the first addition to her canon. Kirkland had begun writing for Graham's in September 1842. In the long letter to Griswold of January 1843 she comments first on a poem by her brother Edward Stansbury, then on one by Lowell, and finally comes to the point:

I was glad to find my scrap reached you in time—but I must find some fault to the printing thereof—It is full of errors, and they do not seem like typographical ones “devoted to gather” is not English. I wrote “to gathering” which comes well enough in the measure. … “Spitting and spitters” is very unmeaning—“Spitting the spitters” refers to impaling, a figure not unusual where ridicule is in question—“ought” should be “aught”—“Il Puritani” is a grammatical blunder; “puritani” being plural while the article is singular—I wrote “I Puritani” which is correct—. …

A faded message on the address sheet to Lizzy identifies what Kirkland is here complaining about—in tiny postscript—“the ‘letter to Dickens’ was so blundered in the printing that you could hardly tell what I meant—Griswold apologized afterwards—He was in affliction and did not attend.” The February Graham's carried “An Intercepted Letter to Dickens” signed Aminadab Peering. Kirkland, reflecting popular resentment at Dickens' American Notes (1842), had taken on the literary giant in 110 lines of doggerel verse. It reads in part:

Dear Sir,—As you wish for a private narration,
Of the cavils that rise at your “notes” on this nation,
I've devoted the evenings of two or three Sundays,
(You, I know, are a liberal,) to
gather the on dits. …
here goes for the whole—not the views of a clique;
I shall call to my aid neither Latin nor Greek,
But just a plain English, that both of us speak. …
the book, as a book, has not half the profundity
Of that of the club, let alone its jocundity. …
As to humor, 'tis though there is plenty of that,
But 'tis only ill humor, and desp'rately flat. …
“Six months” for a circuit or thousands of miles,
Has called up a legion of ill-natured smiles.
'Twas a cockney idea, the knowing ones say,
And scarce honest, to give such “poor preach” for good pay; …
Fall back on your conquests, sit under your laurels;
Don't be greedy of money; don't meddle with morals
But let alone temp'rance, and Hoosiers, and hom'ny,
And stick to your cockneys, et id genus omne;
The tavern, the play-house, the prison, the circus,
The Tuggses at Ramsgate, the boys in the “work 'us,”
And while you have Sam and sweet Nelly to rally by,
When accused of these “notes,” I would just “prove
an alleybi.”

Kirkland's only known pseudonym has been “Mrs. Mary Clavers”; now “Aminadab Peering” should be added.

In the fall of 1843, when the Kirklands moved to New York, William became an editor for the New York Mirror, and Caroline planned to give up writing and open a school. The Kirklands quickly entered New York literary circles; among their friends were Nathaniel P. Willis, Evert Duyckinck, and William Cullen Bryant. Edgar Allan Poe was a co-worker at the Mirror. According to the correspondence, within six months Caroline was writing sketches and reviews again.

Kirkland's letters to Evert Duyckinck clearly indicate his great help to her in the early New York years. “A series of four letters (L66, 67, 70, 72—D) to Duyckinck identify as Kirkland's the anonymous “Notes for the Biography of a Distinguée” published in the first three issues of Yankee Doodle.⁵ The letters touch familiar Kirkland themes: appreciation for being included in an illustrious male literary group, concern about getting paid, and a request to remain anonymous.

As to the Yankees—I scarce know what to say—The temptation of being enrolled among the “persons of wit and humor about the town” is great, certainly. … If I can think of anything in the way you suggest I will offer it, but it will not do to depend upon me—I should like to know what cause or causes you intend to further—what range of subjects is allowed, and whether one could depend upon an incognitio—. (L66, Sept 21 1846)

Letter 67 suggests an illustration for the first installment—a man preparing to weigh a baby:

I send what I myself think poor enough—so I shall not be at all offended if it is rejected. It admits, I think, of one good illustration—the weighing of the baby, tied in a shawl—not all in a bundle, but with two opposite corners tied together and the knot in each open corner to support the head & feet—I have seen the ceremony often, and always thought it a funny one—Mr Watty, looking on, or performing the operation, should of course be a ludicrous figure—perhaps a very diminutive person striving to look larger by means of high heels, tall hat, large whiskers, large ring, seals etc—I may perhaps make something amusing out of the story—. (Sept 21 1846)

An illustration exactly as Kirkland describes—a rather small man with a rather large nose, wearing a top hat, and pointing at a baby tied in a shawl, accompanies the opening of the story in Yankee Doodle.

The first installment humorously describes an American couple who go abroad to develop “class.” The Wattys, renamed Watteaus, go to Europe so their child might be born on French soil. The Wattys' hired girl narrates the episode in a Western drawl. The baby, a girl, is born aboard ship and after they arrive in Paris, the Wattys hire a French “bun"; the hired girl becomes the “famdysham”(one is reminded of Twain's Valet de Chambre). The hired girl disdains all Mrs Watty's attempts at fine manners; Mr Watty participates only in the weighing episode.

Kirkland's next letter to Duyckinck raises the familiar topic of payment, but more important, foreshadows a tragic event in her personal life.

I send another Chapter for Yankee—I have absolutely scratched the latter part of it—and doubt not it may need correction in construction or something else. … As to an illustration, I am quite at a loss, and my mind is full of other matters—I am much disturbed that my husband does not come, and imagination is busy, as usual, picturing ills.—But perhaps something may suggest itself to you.—I have not heard what was the sales of Yankee last week—but I wish you would signify to the gentlemen concerned that when there is any money going, I shall expect my share—. (L70, Oct 20 1846)

The second installment, also related by the “hired girl,” tells of the christening of the baby, which turns into a debacle as soot falls down the chimney (Kirkland's humor sometimes runs to slapstick). Mr Watty is spoofed, meekly submitting to his social climber of a wife. The episode ends with the “bun” being hauled away by the police for stealing the family jewels; the hired girl takes charge of baby Alphonsine. Between the second and third installments of “Notes for the Biography of a Distinguée,” on October 18 1846, William Kirkland accidentally drowned. Kirkland, after visiting their youngest son near Fishkill, New York, planned to take the Hudson River steamer back to New York City. Missing his footing in the dark, he fell off the edge of the dock, and could not be rescued.⁶ Caroline Kirkland wrote Duyckinck:

My good friend—I see you would gladly have me add something—and I would as gladly do as you wish—but I fear my present condition of mind will forbid all hope of anything that would be an advantage. I will make the effort, however—and if I fail you must forgive me. … (L72, Nov 10 1846)

Kirkland, in haste, dropped the amusing western dialect, took up instead the brisk speech of a clever Irish maid, and ended the series. This episode lacks the verve of the first or second installment, but ends on a high note as Mr Watty is killed in a duel by a man with a glass eye. Mrs Watty, first disconcerted by Watty's death, quickly recovers, “She thought too it would give her éclat at home, as well as assist in making her daughter distinguée, to have had her father killed in a duel.”

Kirkland managed to complete the third installment, but now totally responsible for her family of four children, she turned to teaching, full-time editing, and free-lance writing for magazines, and never completely returned to her comic style. One wonders, when thinking ahead to Twain's Innocents Abroad, how Kirkland's career as a satirist might have progressed if matters had been otherwise.

Early in 1853 Kirkland wrote several essays for the new Putnam's Monthly. One, the unsigned “The American Ideal Woman,” should now be attributed to her.⁷

Though never widely identified with the Women's Rights movement, Kirkland became interested in women's issues relatively early. In 1845, she wrote the introduction to Mrs Hugo Reid's A Plea for Women; Being a Vindication of the Importance and Extent of Her Natural Sphere of Action (NY: Farmer & Daggers 1845). While not a radical, she was sharply critical of women's economic inequality. In “The American Ideal Woman,” Kirkland, with tongue in cheek, writes as though she is a male. Thus, the ideal woman finds her chief glory in making a shirt, her highest pleasure in compounding a pudding.

In short, she was born to be the humble contributor to man; to bear with his tempers, follow his fortunes, humor his whims, cater for his wants, watch over his illnesses, bring up his children, economize his means, promote his enjoyments,—be wholly lost and swallowed up in him while he lived, and, if she survived him, be content with a pittance of his estate, or a condition of dependence, if it proved to have been his sovereign will and pleasure to leave the fortune she had helped to accumulate to posterity or the public. (527)

Kirkland was often preoccupied with money—making enough, being paid enough, having enough to spend.⁸ Always writing to earn a living, she was often cautious about her “image” and sought anonymity. As early as 1843, she wrote about the question to Griswold:

I have a word to say as to these anonymous pieces of mine. … Now a lady always feels under a certain degree of restraint when she feels that the world is looking her in the face all the time. … I shall probably never write anything as amusing as my first effort, because I accomplished that under the assured belief that the author would never be discovered. (L21, Jan 21 [18]43—V)

In 1845 she wrote to Evert Duyckinck, “[I] hope that you will not forget that whatever is sent you for the papers by a lady, must be strictly anonymous …” (L49, [1845?]—D) and in 1849 to Frances Bowen, editor of the North American Review, “Can't I be ‘Mrs A’—meaning Mrs Anonymous” (L183, Sept 13 1849—R). Kirkland must have been “Mrs. A” more often than we know. How much more she published anonymously remains to be discovered.

Notes

1. The only full-length study is William Osborne Caroline M. Kirkland (NY: Twayne 1974). Daniel Riordan, “The Concept of Simplicity in the Works of Mrs. Caroline M. Kirkland” Diss. (Univ of North Carolina at Chapel Hill 1973) provides, with the following additions, the most complete bibliography to date.

2. Aminadab Peering, “An Intercepted Letter to Dickens” Graham's 22 (Feb 1843) 144: “Notes for the Biography of a Distinguée,” Yankee Doodle 1 (Oct 17 1846) 15, (Oct 24 1846) 27, (Oct 31 1846) 45-46; “The American Ideal Woman” Putnam's Magazine 2 (Nov 1853) 527-31.

3. A New Home—Who'll Follow?; or, Glimpses of Western Life by Mrs Mary Clavers, An Actual Settler (NY: C.S. Francis 1839); Forest Life by the Author of “A New Home” 2 vols (NY: C. S. Francis 1842); Western Clearings (NY: Wiley and Putnam 1845)—Poe wrote an enthusiastic review in “Critical Notices,” Broadway Journal 2 (Nov 29 1845) 320.

4. Of the 321 letters, 225 are in five major collections: the Bryant-Godwin and Duyckinck (D) collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts Division, The New York Public Library; the Bellows letters at the Massachusetts Historical Society; the Sartain collection at Cornell University, and the private Hill collection. Other collections include: Otto Fisher Papers (F), Burton Historical Collection, Detroit Public Library; Charles Roberts Autograph Letters Collection (R), Haverford College Library; and University of Virginia, Charlottesville (V). I am grateful to Mrs Louisa Sanborn Hill and to the various institutions for their courtesy and permission to quote from letters. The oldest and most frequently consulted collections are the letters at The New York Public Library. It was a series of letters to Evert Duyckinck that revealed Kirkland's previously unidentified sketch “Biography of a Distinguée.” Two letters, one at the Detroit Public Library and one from the Hill collection identify Kirkland as “Aminadab Peering.” The Fales Collection in the New York Public Library's Rare Books and Manuscripts Division contains the holograph manuscript of “The American Ideal Woman,” All references to Kirkland's letters will be to my “The Letters of Caroline M. Kirkland” [hereafter, L], Diss. (Univ of Wisconsin 1976), where the letters are arranged chronologically and numbered in order. They will be designated in the text parenthetically by letter number, date, and the abbreviation of the collection included within parentheses above.

5. Duyckinck undertook, with William Gilmore Simms and Cornelius Matthews, to publish Yankee Doodle as an American humor magazine similar in format and style to Punch and rivalling the Knickerbocker. The journal lasted only one year, expiring on Oct 2, 1847.

6. Christian Inquirer 1 (Oct. 31 1846) 15 carries an obituary and account of the accident. William Kirkland had just undertaken editorship of this new weekly.

7. The 19-page holograph manuscript is located in the Caroline M. Kirkland Papers, Fales Collection, Rare Books and Manuscripts Division, The New York Public Library.

8. Another letter in the Duyckinck collection, dated Nov 10 1854, addressed to “My dear Caroline”and signed “AJS” is worth noting. Though it does not identify another Kirkland publication, it does suggest her intentions to write one. In the early 1850s Kirkland published collections of her sketches and sought various other writing ventures to earn her living. While working on a biography of George Washington, she must have been reminded of her own grandfather, Tory poet Joseph Stansbury, who escaped to Canada rather than fight the British during the American Revolution. Kirkland probably approached Arthur J. Stansbury, the only surviving son of Joseph, to ask if he were interested in publishing his father's poems about the American Revolution. In 1854 he must have been 83 years old. He wrote:

   My dear Caroline

   I ought sooner to have replied to your kind letter: but am both lazy and busy: and tho' you may be neither, yet being a woman, you know how to pity and forgive. As to my dear Father's verses tho very much admired and very efficient at the time, and moreover set off by his fine voice and manner and beaming eye, the interest has now passed away, and I think they would hardly justify publication. Besides many of them are personal, and derived their piquancy from a knowledge of the men who were hit. Half of Punch's jokes are wholly unappreciated in this country owing to the same causes. On the whole I have concluded to let my father's remains literary as well as physical, to rest in peace,

   Your old Friend AJS

   However in 1860 appeared a volume of poems, The Loyal Verses of Joseph Stansbury and Doctor Jonathan Odell: Relating to the American Revolution, ed. Winthrop Sargent (Albany: J. Munsell 1860). In his lengthy introduction to the poems Sargent only briefly mentions Stansbury and acknowledges no help from the family. Thus, Kirkland missed a bibliographic entry, but not because she didn't try.