Author: WENDELL HOLMES, Oliver.- ALS.- AMY TWISS [Recipient].-
Title: Personal letter by the famous doctor and conversationalist Oliver Wendel Holmes, dated 'Boston Aug. 15th 1876', opening 'My dear Lady...' To the author & collector Amy Twiss housed in the original 'Autographensammlung von Amy Twiss' folder. Wendell Holmes acknowledges the receipt of the letter and replies most kindly to Ms. Twiss' praise for his writing skills. He then tells the events surrounding the loss of her letter upon his return to Boston after a visit to the sea-shore. Once he realises he took out his pocket-book at a pharmacy's Sunday last [in order to buy some mosquito repellant] the puzzle is solved: 'Just one hour and 15 minutes ago I got into a horse-car and went to the shop where I made my purchase. There sure enough, I found the letter!' He explains that letter writing 'a few words of communication' makes him feel better. 'I like myself better for having done so.' In 30 lines he then proceeds to explain the poem 'How the Old Horse Won the Bet'
Description: Boston, autograph, 1876. [15 August 1876]. 8vo. [Meas. appr. 12.5 x 20.5 cm.]. 2 further folds visible. Without the envelope. Appr. 95 lines of text in the hand of Wendell Holmes, w. signature. (4 pp.). Oliver Wendell Holmes [1809 - 1894] was an American physician, professor, poet and author. He wrote 2 books on puerperal fever [G&M nrs. 6274 and 6276], numerous poems and 3 novels. Wendell Holmes was part of the beginning of modern american medicine and at the same time he was one of the highly valued authors of the 19th c., belonging to the 'Fireside Poets' [Longfellow, Cullen Bryant, Greenleaf Whittier and Lowell]. His 'Breakfast Table' books were serialized in the Athlantic Monthly from 1858 onwards. Due to his gift for eloquence and his wit he was a much appreciated speaker at social gatherings and symposia. Amy Twiss [1860 - 1947] [who married Alexander Grothe in 1885] was an author of primarily children's stories and saga's. Amy Twiss was involved as financier for Henry Tindal when he launched the morning paper 'De Telegraaf'. Throughout her life she built up a vast network of writers, actors, poets, mostly Dutch and German. Her deepest wish seems to have been to 'connect' to the authors on an intelectual level, to reach an understanding of their work, as is obvious from her contact with Wendell Holmes, raeching out to him for an explanation of one of his poems. Secondary to this was the collecting of original autograph samples of well-known writers. Amy Grothe-Twiss is best remembered for her fairytales on Swawa Helgi and the fact that she is seen as the founder of open-air theatre in Holland [1903 in the gardens of her Villa in Hilversum]. The final part of Wendell Holmes's answer to Amy Twiss reads: 'I have found more sympathizing natures than I had any right to hope for and should have felt sad if by any accident I had missed the opportunity of saying to you that I shall henceforth think of you as one of my most generous and penetrating readers.' Her close reading of his 'How the Old Horse Won the Bet' [1930, to the eds. of the Harvard Advocate, 1876], at only 16 years of age, must have impressed Holmes.

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