Description:

Fremont John 1813 - 1890 Jessie B. Fremont ALS, writer wife of Major General John C. Fremont, with literary content.

3pp bifold ALS by author Jessie Benton Fremont inscribed overall on white stationery paper and signed "Sincerely yours, J.B. Fremont" along vertical axis in bottom left corner of second page. Stamped "Autograph Collection of Dr. Max Thorek, Chicago" near top of last blank page. In near fine condition, with expected paper folds, one or two minor edge tears, and several bars of isolated light-yellow discoloration, each page measuring 5.125" x 8.125". Accompanied by circa 1940s typed letter transcript, biographical sketch, and labeled manila archival folder labeled "Autograph Collection, Dr. Max Thorek".

Jessie Benton Fremont penned this letter to one Mr. Bartlett, probably a publishing company contact. She wrote it at Pocaho, her estate in the Hudson River Valley where the family lived between 1864 and 1875. In the letter, Fremont refers to some of her writing projects, saying: "I have just answered your two notes by a telegram asking you to make the name "Distinguished People I Have Known". Known is more true and explicit than Met. I have my aversions to certain words and 'whom' is on the black list. Four of my subjects are 'materialized' as my irreverent boys call my work. I hope they will do but writing so fast I am sure they are too diffuse and too personal and I have not time to condense ... If my work goes well and I can lift some of these heavy cares so unjustly forced on the general".

Jessie Benton Fremont (1824-1902) eloped at age sixteen with her future husband John C. Fremont (1813-1890), dubbed the "Pathfinder" for his territorial expeditions out West. This fiery Mexican War veteran, 1856 Republican Party presidential candidate, Civil War Commander of the Western Armies, and California and Arizona Territory elected official had an unpredictable temperament which frequently led him into trouble. When Fremont's business ventures permanently overturned in the 1870s, Jessie Benton Fremont began to publish travel narratives and other memoirs to earn some income. She published six books between 1878 and 1891. "Distinguished People I Have Known" might have referred to a magazine article she was writing.

Jessie Benton Fremont's "boys" referred to her sons John Fremont, Jr. (1851-1911) and Francis Fremont (1855-1931). The "heavy cares so unjustly forced on the general" referenced her husband's financial troubles. The Panic of 1873, combined with John C. Fremont's investment in failed railroad stock, led him to declare bankruptcy in 1873.

This letter came from the Autograph Collection of Dr. Max Thorek (1880-1960), a Hungarian-American doctor, surgeon, and co-founder of a still-operating Chicago hospital. In addition to his medical interests, Thorek was an amateur photographer and autograph collector. The collector's notes included with this letter probably date from the 1940s, around the time that Irving Stone (1903-1989) published a biography of Jessie Benton Fremont. Ex Dr. Max Thorek with original folder.

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