An exciting archive came to auction in 2009: the papers and personal effects of Anna Catherine Bahlmann (1849-1916), a governess and companion to several prominent American families. Among the collection were one hundred thirty-five letters from her most famous pupil, Edith Newbold Jones, later the great American novelist Edith Wharton. Remarkably, until now, just three letters from Wharton's childhood and early adulthood were thought to survive. Bahlmann, who would become Wharton's literary secretary and confidant, emerges in the letters as a seminal influence, closely guiding her precocious young student's readings, translations, and personal writing. Taken together, these letters, written over the course of forty-two-years, provide a deeply affecting portrait of mutual loyalty and influence between two women from different social classes. This correspondence reveals Wharton's maturing sensibility and vocation, and includes details of her life that will challenge long-held assumptions about her formative years. Wharton scholar Irene Goldman-Price provides a rich introduction to My Dear Governess that restores Bahlmann to her central place in Wharton's life.
My Dear Governess
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"The letters provide penetrating insights into the Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist who chronicled old New York and developed a close friendship with another aristocratic Gotham native, Henry James."--Sam Roberts, New York Times--Sam Roberts "New York Times "
About the Author
Irene Goldman-Price has taught literature and women's studies at Ball State University and Penn State University. She serves on the editorial board of the Edith Wharton Review and has consulted and taught at The Mount, Edith Wharton's house museum in Massachusetts.
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Brilliant scholarship, an absolute delight!
11 Jun 2012
By J. E. Fields
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Hardcover
For Edith Wharton fans, this book will be a wonderful revelation into the mind and heart of a very young Edith Wharton, and a tender, thoughtful older one. Wharton's close relationship with her governess, then literary secretary is an insight into her voracious curiosity and love of literature. The letters Edith wrote to her "Tonni" show a vulnerable side to Wharton few know. Goldman-Price's frequent notes and comments are prodigiously researched and so finely written, we could not have found a better guide. This book is a must for anyone who appreciates Wharton.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
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Tender, readable letters...thoughtfully annotated
23 Jun 2012
By Connie Nordhielm Wooldridge
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
On May 31st, 1874, twelve-year-old Edith Wharton (then Edith Jones) wrote to her beloved twenty-five-year-old governess, Anna Bahlmann, inviting her to come to the Jones' summer home in Newport, Rhode Island: "...we shall have a room ready for you and be very, very glad indeed to see you." It was the first of 135 letters, tenderly written over forty-two years, and unknown to Wharton scholars until they surfaced at auction in 2009. Their publication provides a rare, unguarded picture of young Edith and corrects several misconceptions, most notably the negative picture of her mother that Edith herself painted in her published and unpublished autobiographies. Equally as interesting is the editor's research on Anna Bahlmann, which brings the proud but self-effacing governess out of the shadows. The letters themselves are infinitely readable and profuse annotations make them accessible to those unfamiliar with Wharton's life.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
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My Dear Governess: The Letters of Edith Wharton to Anna Bahlmann - Irene Goldman
1 Sep 2012
By Gary James
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
If you are a fan of Edith Wharton and her writings, this is a must read. Through Wharton's letters to her former governess, sometime secretary and life long friend, Anna Bahlmann, you will view the breadth of Wharton's interests - Europeon history, architecture, poetry - and a life style that included frequent travels throughout Europe. Wharton, of course, was fluent in both German and French languages.
The author adds commentary outside the letters to reveal more of Wharton's life - her unsatisfactory marriage, her friendship with contemporary writers such as Henry James, and her charitable works in France during the horrors of World War I. The book tells much of the life of this amazing woman, born of a period when women of her class were expected to do little more than marry well. Wharton's descritptive powers are on full view through her many letters. A book worth reading.
The author adds commentary outside the letters to reveal more of Wharton's life - her unsatisfactory marriage, her friendship with contemporary writers such as Henry James, and her charitable works in France during the horrors of World War I. The book tells much of the life of this amazing woman, born of a period when women of her class were expected to do little more than marry well. Wharton's descritptive powers are on full view through her many letters. A book worth reading.
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