The Emerson Sisters’ Correspondence: A Record of Daily Life in the Emerson Home and Nineteenth-Century Concord

Ellen Tucker Emerson and Edith Emerson Forbes, the daughters of Ralph Waldo Emerson, wrote an extensive correspondence to one another from their adolescence through Ellen's death in 1909. Their long, frequent letters offer an intimate look at the life inside the Emerson home, shedding light on the importance of Emerson's family to him and his ability to work. The sisters also document daily life in Concord, including the town's response to the Civil War and the changing world of the nineteenth century.