Lot 1176
Archive of Anna M. (Nugent) Edmonds, 1870s-1910. Archive of original typescripts and manuscripts by Anna M. (Nugent) Edmonds, aproximately 100 pages, c. 1870s-1910, New Orleans, Louisiana. Anna Nugent was reared in an old Louisiana family that settled in St. Landry Parish after 1690. Seven sons served in the Confederate Army and the family fled from advancing Federal troops in 1862. Ironically, in 1875 Miss Nugent married a Yankee entrepreneur, Captain James E. Edmonds of Ohio, who served in the 94th Ohio Volunteers. During Reconstruction he bought "Buck Ridge," a 1,000 acre cotton plantation in the Delta region of Mississippi. Here, with his Southern belle bride, Edmonds proceeded to live like the planters' sons he had recently helped vanquish. Anna Edmonds began writing short stories under the pseudonym Nathaniel Neugent. Her pieces were of that once-popular sentimental genre that relied heavily on Negro dialect for a sense of place and mythologized the finer aspects of life in the Old South. Quite often the tales were based upon her own experiences before, during, and after the Civil War. This archive includes two manuscripts, most likely written while the Edmonds lived in Mississippi. The stories are "Hazards of New Fortunes" and "A Successful Runaway"; the former is penned on thin, tissue-like paper, while the latter is penciled on lined ledger paper. Also included are four typescripts for "The Banshee of the Stoddards," "How Elder Bolivar Elected Himself," "Aunt Sally's Victory," and "Uncle Bill as a Labor Agent"; these stories are written for submission to a publisher, giving word count and return address. There is also a typed excerpt from "Reminiscence 1832 on a Louisiana Plantation"; this centers around the author's grandfather, Judge Seth Lewis, and gives some family history, as well as an examination of local customs. Some of the material is quite fragile.
Estimated Value $1,000 - 1,500.
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| Realized $690 |
