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Guide to the Clemmer, Myrtle: Collection of Emily Chubbuck Judson Papers
CFT00022
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Table of contents
Collection Title: Clemmer, Myrtle: Collection of Emily Chubbuck Judson Papers
Dates: 1844-1962
Identification: CFT00022
Creator:
Clemmer, Myrtle M.
Judson, Emily C. (Emily Chubbuck), 1817-1854
Physical Description: 3.00
Alternate Extent Statement: 5 Boxes
Language of Materials:
English
Repository:
David Allan Hubbard Library Archives
135 N. Oakland Avenue
Pasadena, CA, 91182-0002
URL: http://library.fuller.edu/archives/
Email: archives@fuller.edu
Phone: (626) 584-5311
Fax: (626) 584-5613
Emily Chubbuck was born in 1817, in Eaton, New York, into a family whose financial needs contributed to her early development
as a capable working woman. During the summers she worked in the woolen mill near her home and by the time she was 15, was
teaching at the Utica Female Seminary. She earned her livelihood by teaching school for 13 years before her marriage, but
her own development as an author was her hobby and her real passion. Even as a girl she contributed to church publications
and under the penname Fanny Forester published 4 books in the series “Valuable Religious Books for the Fireside and Sabbath
School.” She was well known for her lively articles written for the New York Mirror and a collection of them was published
in 1845 under the title Trippings in Author Land, followed by a second collection in 1846,Alderbrook. Although the newspaper
did not pay her for these sentimental tales of village life, she won a large following, and the second collection went through
eleven editions.
Her initial meeting with Adoniram Judson, who had read excerpts from Trippings, was for the purpose of discussing the preparation
of the memoir of his late wife Sarah B. Judson. When they married and sailed for Burma, Emily took up this task and produced
the biography, Memoir of Sarah B. Judson: of the American mission to Burmah (1852), using her old penname Fanny Forester.
After her return from Burma, saddened by her husband’s death and very ill herself, she still continued to earn her living
by writing. In 1852 she gathered the poems she had written throughout her life into a book entitled An Olio of Domestic Verses.
In 1853 she contributed a story to the collection Thought Blossoms, and gathered a collection of missionary stories, essays
and poems published under the title The Kathayan Slave. In the last year of her life she wrote a memoir, My Two Sisters: a
sketch from memory and during these years also contributed to a small publication of the Missionary Union, the Macedonian.
In 1854 she succumbed to tuberculosis.
This Collection is indexed under the following controlled access subject terms.
Clemmer, Myrtle M.
Judson, Adoniram, 1788-1850
Judson, Emily C. (Emily Chubbuck), 1817-1854
Missionaries
Missionary stories -- Juvenile literature
Scholarly use within parameters of copyright law.
Supervised use only
Series I: Myrtle M. Clemmer (Box 1)
This series documents Miss Clemmer’s background and her own work as an author and archivist for the Presbyterian Church USA
as well as her research for the Emily Judson biography. It includes her correspondence with publishers and editors, archivists,
friends and other contacts related to gathering information on Emily Chubbuck Judson as well as notes on genre (the literary
biography), method, bibliography and resources for the Emily Judson biography. It also contains some personal correspondence
and biographical information.
Series II: Background preparation for biographical work on Emily Chubbuck Judson (Box 2)
Gathered background material for the proposed biography which was intended not only as a biography but as a reflection on
the religious and educational climate of Emily Chubbuck Judson’s era. It includes notes, clippings and lists of possible sources
both archival and bibliographical, for gathering information.
Series III: Biographical information on Emily Chubbuck Judson (Box 2)
Photocopies and notes on the life of Emily from birth through her marriage to Adoniram Judson.
Series IV: Biographical materials on Adoniram Judson (Box 3)
Biographical materials on Adoniram Judson, his missionary activities, first wives, courtship of Emily Chubbuck, and death
as well as material regarding his children and their families.
Series V: Correspondence of Emily Chubbuck (Box 4)
Transcriptions of Emily Chubbuck’s correspondence from 224 through 1851, including letters using her penname Fanny Forester.
Series VI: Writings of Emily Chubbuck (Box 5)
This series includes lists of her writings as well as copies of many of her poems and articles and two of her books:
Records of Alderbrook or Fanny Forester’s Village Sketches, 1854; and
An Olio of Domestic Verses, 1852.
Myrtle Clemmer wrote on missions topics for the Presbyterian Church USA. The materials in this collection were gathered by
her for the purpose of writing a more complete biography of Emily Chubbuck Judson for the series United States Authors: a
biography which would highlight her development as a writer and the cultural, literary and educational climate of her era.
Emily was the third wife of Adoniram Judson, first American missionary to Burma. The focus of this collection of papers is
not on her marriage or missionary activity but rather on her literary development and success.
The collection begins with clippings, notes and letters documenting the purpose behind Myrtle Clemmer’s collection of materials
on Emily Chubbuck Judson: the writing of her literary biography for the series "United States Authors." The material collected
includes clippings, notes from books and archives, letters to archivists and librarians, transcribed letters of both Emily
and Adoniram, photocopies of Emily’s writings, notes, clippings and photocopies for background and context, notes for further
research or resource ideas and the manuscript of the biographical work in progress.