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Autograph Letter Signed “Madame Le Vert.”
Coleman House, New York — October 22, 1876
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📜 Summary
A beautifully penned autograph letter signed by Madame Octavia Walton Le Vert (1810–1877), written from the Coleman House, Broadway & 27th Street, New York, and addressed to Mary Louise Booth (1831–1889), founding editor of Harper’s Bazaar.
Le Vert refers directly to “Harper’s Building”—the Franklin Square headquarters of Harper & Brothers—and asks Booth whether she has “examined” an item recently sent to her via an intermediary, adding, “If you should not accept it, please return it to me.” The content clearly concerns a manuscript or submission for editorial review.
Le Vert continues in her refined Southern tone:
> “My daughter sends you many kind regards. She is a very great invalid and can only leave her bed with your permission dear Miss Booth... I would be most happy to call upon you… if you would indicate a time at which I might call, and the terms, I should do so with pleasure.”
She closes formally yet warmly:
“Most cordially your friend, Madame Le Vert.”
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🌿 Historical Context
This letter dates from the final year of Octavia Walton Le Vert’s life, as she attempted to re-enter literary society after a decade of hardship following the Civil War. Once hailed as the “Madame de Staël of the South,” Le Vert was a national celebrity before the war—author of Souvenirs of Travel (1857), friend to Washington Irving and Henry Clay, and hostess of the most celebrated salon in Mobile, Alabama.
By 1876, widowed and in declining health, she had come north in hopes of reviving her career. Staying at the genteel Coleman House, she reached out to Mary Louise Booth, who had built Harper’s Bazaar into America’s foremost women’s magazine. The letter reflects Le Vert’s attempt to re-engage with the New York literary establishment through one of the few editors sympathetic to accomplished Southern women writers.
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Booth (1831–1889) was a pioneering translator, historian, and journalist. Fluent in French and deeply engaged in transatlantic literary culture, she served as Harper’s Bazaar’s editor from its founding in 1867 until her death. Her office was located at Harper & Brothers’ Franklin Square building, exactly as referenced in the letter.
She championed female authors and corresponded widely with women of intellect and refinement—precisely Le Vert’s milieu. The cordial tone (“my dear friend”) suggests either prior acquaintance or shared professional respect.
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🏛️ Significance
This is one of the latest known letters by Octavia Walton Le Vert, written mere months before her death in 1877, and among the few surviving examples showing her interaction with Northern literary figures during Reconstruction. It embodies a remarkable cultural moment—Southern aristocratic intellect reaching out to a Northern feminist publisher in a spirit of mutual respect and professional exchange.
It also illuminates how elite women navigated post-war literary reintegration, bridging North and South through shared education, taste, and language.
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💰 Why this document is of significant interest.
Because of its rich provenance—Le Vert’s late-life correspondence, direct connection to Harper’s Bazaar, and signed closing—it’s considerably more valuable than a routine 19th-century ALS.
Institutional interest: archives of women’s studies, Southern letters, or Harper’s publishing history.
Rare 1876 autograph letter signed by Southern author Madame Le Vert to Harper’s Bazaar editor Mary Louise Booth, written from the historic Coleman House NY.
