Oct 24 at 10:30 AM - Sale 2683 -
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Sale 2683 - Lot 194

Estimate: $ 3,000 - $ 4,000
Alcott, Louisa May (1832-1888)
Three Autograph Letters Signed to Ellen Humphreys.

Concord, MA, 8 April [1880]; Concord, MA, 2 September [1881]; [and] Boston, MA, 14 October [1885].

In these letters, each written over four pages (two with envelopes), LMA writes to a British friend of her deceased sister Abigail May Alcott Nieriker (1840-1879), who died shortly after giving birth to her first child, Louisa May "Lulu" Nieriker (1879-1975); each letter with old folds, nicely preserved and legible; each about 8 3/4 x 6 3/4 in.

May Alcott, the artistic sister, studied fine art in Paris, London and Rome in the 1870s. At some point during her artistic explorations in London, she encountered Ellen Humphreys, and the two became friends. These letters indicate that LMA was aware of Humphreys, as she notes "[May] always called you her 'dear little friend' & enjoyed many happy days with you among the pictures." Evidently, Humphreys reached out to ask for news about the fate of May's daughter. LMA is happy to oblige. "She is very like her mother, slender, fair, blue-eyed & golden haired." At the time the first letter was written, Lulu is still in Baden, Germany, with her grandmother on her father's side. LMA writes, "I may go fetch my baby in the summer." She also asks whether Humphreys knows the whereabouts of any of May's work. "I want to find out if she left any pictures in any of the English Galleries. Do you know? I asked Mr. N[ierker] to look them up, but the poor desolate man seems to have no heart for the task as I hear nothing of them. All May's pictures are now very precious to us & I do not like to think that any one lost or forgotten."

By the second letter, the aunt has collected her charge, and can report firsthand information on the growing Lulu. LMA is clearly very excited; she even mistakenly calls the child by her mother's name. "My dear little May has been with me for the past year, daily growing more lovely, sweet & strong. [...] She is a very promising & precocious child, walking, talking, remembering & understanding as many children of three do not. She will be two on the 8th of Nov. & these two first hard years are nearly over in safety, for which I am grateful."

By the third letter, Lulu is in kindergarten, and about to turn six. LMA says that Lulu models in clay, sings, reads, dances, plays lively games, and will be given a pony the following summer. "She runs wild from June to Sept at the seaside & is the prize child among the fifty who go to Nonquitt where our cottage is. I am very proud when strangers say, 'That's a magnificent child, whose is it?' & the answer, 'Miss Alcott's baby,' makes me laugh."

Lulu stayed with Louisa May Alcott until she passed away in 1888. At that point, she was sent back to Germany to live with her father's family, where she lived into her 90s. Full transcripts of all three letters available upon request.
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