1.
- Creator:
- Siefert, Louisa, 1845-1877
- Call Number:
- GEN MSS 640
- Container / Volume:
- Box 6
- Image Count:
- 256
- Abstract:
- Series I contains approximately a thousand letters, primarily personal correspondence among members of Louisa Siefert's family. The majority of the letters are between Siefert and her sister, Clemy (Siefert) Bost, and between Siefert and her mother, Adele-Adrienne (Belz) Siefert. These letters mainly document social and personal activities, such as news of Clemy's husband and children and the health of their mother. Many of Louisa Siefert's letters to her sister describe her own ailing health and advancing tuberculosis, and her doctors' advice. Letters to Siefert's mother also describe the dinners Siefert attends; visits with acquaintances, including Victor Hugo, Charles Blanc, and Paul Chenevard; and operas she sees. Other correspondents in the collection include Siefert's friends such as Charles Asselineau, Chenevard, and Emmanuel des Essarts; admirers of her poetry; the Journal de Lyon concerning her publications; and family members to each other after her death. Also in the collection are Siefert's wedding announcement and death notice; several accounts and receipts; and a manuscript, with numerous corrections, of Adele-Adrienne Siefert's memoirs of her daughter and Series II contains eight volumes of poetry, primarily in Siefert's hand. Two volumes contain collections of other poets' works, one of which includes, dos-a-dos, a juvenile play by Siefert titled En Automne. Other volumes include a set of notes taken during a course on French poetry taught by Charles Asselineau, and four collections of original poetry dated between 1865 and 1872, which include many sentimental or dedicatory poems to friends and family members. The original poems are annotated with the dates of their composition, and occasionally with publication information; and laid in a volume titled Poems d'amour are two pages of comments on the poems in Asselineau's hand. Also included in the collection is a volume of reviews of Siefert's works, copied in her hand
- Description:
- Louisa Siefert (1845-1877), poet, was raised in Lyon as a Protestant by her parents Henry Siefert, vice-consul to Portugal, and Adele-Adrienne (Belz) Siefert. Her first book of poems, Rayons perdus, was published in 1868 to great acclaim; other collections published during her lifetime include L'Année républicaine (1869); Les Stoïques (1870); Les Saintes Colères (1871); and Comédies romanesques (1872); as well as a novel, Méline (1875). Through her friendship with Charles Asselineau, she became well acquainted with other literary and artistic figures, including Victor Hugo, Emile Deschamps, Charles Baudelaire, and Paul Chenavard. In 1876, she married Jocelyn Pene, secretary to Emilio Castelar; a year later, she died of tuberculosis in Pau, France. After her death, her mother published Souvenirs, Poésies inédites. and In French.
- Subject (Geographic):
- France and France.
- Subject (Name):
- Asselineau, Charles, 1820-1874, Blanc, Charles, 1813-1882., Castelar, Emilio, 1832-1899., Chenavard, Paul Marc Joseph, 1807-1895., Des Essarts, Alfred Emmanuel Langlois, 1839-1909., Hugo, Victor, 1802-1885., Siefert, Louisa, 1845-1877., and Siefert family.
- Subject (Topic):
- Artists, Authors, French, French literature, French poetry, Romanticism, Sentimentalism in literature, Tuberculosis, and Social life and customs
- Found in:
- Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library > Louisa Siefert correspondence and poems, 1857-1910