1889 Autograph Letter Signed by Rose T. Cook, Author and Poet.

This author request two religious texts of Hartford, Connecticut booksellers Messrs. Brown and Gross


Rose Terry Cooke (1827–1892), woman poet and author of New England fiction. In this very brief letter, Cooke requests “...two sets Prayer - Book + Hymnal…” of Hartford, Connecticut booksellers Messrs. Brown and Gross.

Historian Eve Kornfeld writing in ANB notes Cooke’s devoutness: “Cooke graduated from the Hartford Female Seminary at age sixteen. In the same year, she had a conversion experience and became a devout, lifelong member of the Congregational church. She taught school and served as a governess for a clergyman’s family in New Jersey for three years but returned to Hartford to care for her ailing sister’s family.”

And further speaking to Cooke’s life as an author, Kornfeld states:

“Cooke’s short stories, fictional sketches of New England lives, established her contemporary fame and enduring reputation. Like many other female authors of nineteenth-century New England, Cooke most frequently chose a regional focus for her fiction, working within the genre known as “local-color realism.” Centering on impoverished New England towns or barren rural settings, her “historical” sketches explored the hard lives and often dysfunctional relationships of Puritan families ... Throughout her adult life, Rose Terry Cooke was extremely proud of her independence and ability to support herself adequately, if not luxuriously, by her writing. Her local reputation centered on her personal dignity, intelligence, and quick, pungent wit. At the same time, she was devoted to her family and generous with her friends, to whom she often opened her home. Particularly sensitive to the financial and emotional needs of women, Cooke offered her female friends unquestioning support and refuge—she longed to offer the same to Jane Welsh Carlyle, upon reading her letters, and to give Thomas Carlyle a strong piece of her mind.”


Description: 1889 Autograph Letter Signed by Rose T. Cook, Author and Poet.

Winsted [Connecticut]. July 5, 1889. [1]p. Sm. 8vo. Contemporary docketing on verso. Folds; very good.

[3726093]

Price: $45.00