Autograph letter signed with her initials to the American journalist Kate Field.. Cet article n’est pas disponible.Autograph letter signed with her initials to the American journalist Kate Field.

An intimate unpublished letter between Elizabeth Barrett and her new young friend, Kate Field. EBB asks Kate to tell her "who is the best Singing-master (to your mind) in this Florence, and what his terms are at lowest; if an engagement is made by the quarter. My husband says 'not Romani' - who then? And do you know Aretini's terms for Italian?" Romani was a renowned Florentine teacher of voice and music, while Aretini was "well recommended" for the study of Italian, according to a contemporary London traveller's guidebook to central Italy. Field had arrived in Florence with her uncle and aunt from their residence in Paris in 1859, with the express intent of finding a voice teacher for the young woman. Kate Field (1838-1896) was an American journalist, lecturer, playwright, and actress, admired by a wide range of correspondents such as Anthony Trollope, Charlotte Cushman, Harriet Prescott (Spofford), Susan B. Anthony, and Adelaide Ristori. She met the Brownings in 1859, first in Rome and later in Florence. Kate Field and EBB seem to have taken an immediate liking to each other, and Kate spent days at a time in Casa Guidi. When EBB died in June 1861, Kate Field was at her graveside, and a week later wrote her obituary for the Atlantic Monthly. Field and EBB shared similar views on a range of other issues, including progressive politics, abolitionism, and spiritualism. Both EBB's father and Kate Field's uncle, Milton Sanford, had made their considerable fortunes by way of slave labour: the former in Jamaica and the latter in the southern States. EBB was disowned by her father because of her marriage, while Field was disinherited by her uncle for taking the side of the Union in the American Civil War. Spiritualism for EBB was an intensely private affair, not aired in her poetry. Field and the Brownings attended seances with others in their circle, including Anthony Trollope. As a mentor, EBB exercised a considerable influence over Field. According to her biographer, Field told Robert Browning that she looked upon Mrs Browning as her "model and guide" and that she would strive to live a life "worthy of such a teacher." Provenance: The scrapbook in which this letter was preserved was assembled by a woman from Boston with the surname Mears (possibly "Kitty" Mears); the scrapbook was purchased from a New England dealer in 2020. Single octavo sheet of thin wove paper; approximately 3.5 x 5.5 inches; EBB holograph recto; docketed at verso in another hand. Minor ink smudges and discolouration, remnants of glue to margins from previous mounting, still very good.…