[Photo Credit: Internet Archive Book Images, No restrictions, via Wikimedia Commons]
Julia’s sister Emma sent her a novel for her twenty-ninth birthday, writing on January 6, 1901: “I wish you ever so many happy Birthdays and this one too – trusting in some way that you may have a celebration – I send you A Kentucky Cardinal which you may have read – but as I don‘t know – I have to take the chances and hope you haven’t – It is always considered a pretty story.”
A Kentucky Cardinal (1894) was written by James Lane Allen (1849-1925), a Kentucky native who was considered the state’s first famous author. The book featured humorous pen-and-ink drawings by Irish illustrator Hugh Thomsen (1860-1920), who was known for his sentimental style. The story details the long courtship of next-door neighbors Adam Ross and Georgiana Cobb. He was a somewhat ponderous naturalist, prone to comparing people to birds and other animals. She was a coquette who refused him several times before consenting.
We don’t know if Julia habitually read romance novels; this is the only one that comes up in her correspondence. Like all such formulaic stories, it ends happily with their betrothal.
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