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A-4

Aldrich, Mildred, 1853-1928. Autobiography, 1926: A Finding Aid

Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America
Radcliffe College
December 1986

© 1986 Radcliffe College

Descriptive Summary

Repository: Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute
Call No.: A-4
Creator: MILDRED ALDRICH, 1853-1928
Title: Autobiography, 1926
Quantity: 4 volumes, 1 reel of microfilm (M-114)

Processing Information:

Reprocessed: December 1986
By: Susan J. von Salis

Acquisition Information:

Accession number: 56-155
This autobiography of Mildred Aldrich was given to the Schlesinger Library by Theodore Johnson in October 1956.

BIOGRAPHY

Mildred Aldrich, journalist, author and editor, was born in Providence, Rhode Island, to Edwin and Lucy Ayers (Baker) Aldrich. She was raised in Boston, Massachusetts. After graduation from Everett [High] School (1872), she taught elementary school in Boston for a brief period. She began her career as a journalist with the Boston Home Journal, and later worked for the Boston Journal and the Boston Herald. In January 1892 she founded The Mahogany Tree, which she edited until December 1892, when the magazine folded. Published weekly, The Mahogany Tree contained editorials, fiction, poetry, and drama and book reviews.
In 1898 MA travelled to Paris, and subsequently settled there. While living in Paris, she became a close friend of Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas, and was a member of their social circle. She worked as a foreign correspondent, translated plays from French into English, and negotiated the rights to the works of French playwrights for production in the United States. In 1914 she retired to "Hilltop" ("La Creste"), her cottage in Huiry, a village on the outskirts of Paris. While at "La Creste" she published four collections of her letters: Hilltop On the Marne (1915), On the Edge of the War Zone (1917), Peak of the Load (1918), and When Johnny Comes Marching Home (1919). She also published a novel, Told In A French Garden (1916). In her later years she was supported largely by a fund that had been established for her by Stein and Toklas in 1924. MA died at "La Creste" on February 19, 1928.

SCOPE AND CONTENT

The collection consists of four bound volumes containing MA's transcript autobiography, entitled Confessions Of A Breadwinner, which she completed in 1926. The Schlesinger Library also has MA`s "The Burial of a Fallen Poet " (call number A/A36). This is an edited version of Chapter V of Part Third of Confessions Of A Breadwinner (Volume Three, pp.190-213), incorporating changes made by hand in the volume. The "fallen poet" is Oscar Wilde.

Additional catalog entries.

The following catalog entries represent persons, organizations, and topics documented in this collection. An entry for each appears in the Harvard On Line Library Information System (HOLLIS) and other automated bibliographic databases.
Autobiographies
Autobiography--Women authors
Boston (Mass.)--Social life and customs
France--Social life and customs--19th century
France--Social life and customs--20th century
Stein, Gertrude, 1874-1946
Theater
Travel
United States--Social life and customs--1865-1918
Wilde, Oscar, 1854-1900
World War, 1914-1918--Personal narratives

INVENTORY


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