1893 Reading Guide — The correspondence begins

What follows is a list of all posts that tell the story of the 1893 courtship letters.

The correspondence begins in January 1893, when Ethel is fifteen and Morris barely twenty, and both are still figuring out what they are to each other. The 1893 letters are full of bicycles and weather reports, theater outings and fierce wit — two young people who write well and know it, performing a little, watching each other perform. Early on, though, something steadier is running beneath the performance. When Morris is low, Ethel's next letter arrives bright and bracing. When Ethel struggles through her first semester at boarding school far from home, Morris — with a year of dormitory life behind him — knows exactly what to say. By year’s end, with Ethel in Cambridge and Morris in Ithaca, the letters reveal a subtle shift. December's letters carry a tone of greater intimacy that will carry forward and deepen in 1894.

Read the letters in order below. Context posts (Notes from the Archive and Widening the Lens) appear where they illuminate the correspondence.

• January 11, 1893 — Ethel Writes First (Ethel)

• January 20, 1893 — Writing in Stolen Time (Morris)

• January 27, 1893 — Ethel Thinks Aloud (Ethel)

  • Note from the Archive — Seeing Ethel

• February 3, 1893 — Morris Sharpens His Wit (Morris)

  • Note from the Archive — Why Share These Letters?

  • Family Portrait — How Ethel’s Voice Took Shape

• February 19, 1893 — Waiting for Her Letter (Morris)

  • Note from the Archive — The Waiting

• February 20, 1893 — Your Friend Still (Ethel)

  • Widening the Lens — Diphtheria in 1893

• April 9, 1893 — Morris Shares an Afterthought (Morris)

  • Note from the Archive — The Month That Isn’t There

• April 12, 1893 — Papa Has Written the Fatal Letter (Ethel)

  • Widening the Lens — From Milwaukee College to the Gilman School

• April 16, 1893 — Morris Takes a Sunday Walk (Morris)

  • Widening the Lens — Morris at Cornell

• April 27, 1893 — Ethel Rides Too Fast (Ethel)

  • Note from the Archive — The House on Wells Street

• May 6, 1893 — Morris Gets Pretty Nearly Drowned (Morris)

  • Widening the Lens — Ethel’s Unfinished Edges

• May 23, 1893 — Entirely Mine: Ethel Stakes Her Claim (Ethel)

  • Note from the Archive — The Shoebox of Letters

  • Family Portrait — The Home Morris Came From

  • Note from the Archive — The Benton House on Wells Street

• August 9-18, 1893 — An August Exchange (Morris and Ethel)

  • Widening the Lens — Morris and Ethel Read Together

• September 24, 1893 — A Milwaukee Girl Arrives in Boston (Ethel)

• October 1, 1893 — Just as Nice as Home (With Two Exceptions) (Ethel)

• October 8, 1893 — Not in the Mood for Hymns (Ethel)

  • Note from the Archive — No Orientation Session

• October 13, 1893 — Morris Returns with a Little Fire (Morris)

  • Widening the Lens — Morris in New York City

• October 19, 1893 — Ethel Gets Homesick (Ethel)

• October 29, 1893 — Ethel Goes to Church After All (Ethel)

• November 1, 1893 — The Easy Chair Club (Morris)

• November 5, 1893 — Friday Is the Most Pleasant Day (Ethel)

• November 8, 1893 — Morris Proposes a Visit (Morris)

  • Widening the Lens — Morris Seeks the Most Auspicious Time

• November 12, 1893 — Ethel Is Provoked at Herself (Ethel)

  • Widening the Lens — What was Ethel Reading in 1893?

• November 15, 1893 — Morris Writes of Logistics and Longing (Morris)

• November 22, 1893 — Ethel: A Problem to Be Solved (Ethel)

  • Widening the Lens — Ethel’s Sundays: Forms of reverence

• November 24, 1893 — Morris Awaits Friday (Morris)

• Early December 1893 — Godforsaken Town (Morris)

• December 17, 1893 — Ethel Before the Fire (Ethel)

• December 1893 — The Absent-Minded Nursery Maid (Ethel)

  • Family Portrait — The Household on Gorham Street