John Woolman's Journal

Abstract

JOHN WOOLMAN'S JOURNAL.63 JOHN WOOLMAN'S JOURNAL. It will doubtless be of much interest to readers of the Bulletin to learn that three manuscripts of the famous Journal of John Woolman are now accessible to the student of that remarkable man. Some surprise has been expressed at the existence of so many originals all holograph, but investigation shows that they are all genuine, and a testimony to the careful and conscientious spirit of the author. The two earliest are at Swarthmore College, where they have been deposited by Mrs. George Dudley, a direct descendant of Woolman. MS. No. 1 is a small unbound quarto of forty pages, consisting of the rough draft to the year 1747. No. 2 is a thicker MS., on the same size sheet, into which the first has been copied. It is carried down to the year 1770. The same college library also has the little paper-covered pocket blank-book in which is recorded the five-weeks ocean voyage in 1772, as well as several valuable letters from John Woolman to members of his family and others. To the Historical Society of Pennsylvania has been given the leather-bound folio MS. No. 3, made by Woolman as a fair copy containing his marginal directions for the printer. It has come down through Major Samuel Comfort of New York, grandson in the fifth generation from John Woolman through his daughter Mary, who married John Comfort. This MS. was the one used by the Publication Committee for the first edition of 1774, and bears evidence of the severity of the editing in the handwriting of Samuel Comfort, the author's grandson, who was one of that committee. Two of Woolman's private account books, his marriage certificate and that of his daughter, the text of portions of his essays, and letters to his family accompany this folio. Many editions of Woolman's Journal have been published, several of them very recently, but not since 1837 has there been any attempt to collate the printed copy with the original. This was last done by John Comly in the edition printed in the above year, and even he followed the daring omissions and questionable 64BULLETIN OF FRIENDS' HISTORICAL SOCIETY. corrections of the original editors, who omitted two dreams, a half page on inoculation, the only case where Woolman was visited by the sheriff, and many minor paragraphs. One edition omits an entire chapter ! The most regrettable change is in the smoothing down of the singularly vigorous and simple Saxon phraseology of Woolman into commonplace, and this liberty has been taken throughout the volume. Woolman has indicated with perfect clearness what are his wishes as to omissions. The fact, for instance, that his childhood's dream at the age of nine years has been copied by himself in all three volumes certainly indicates his intention of printing it. The Friends' Historical Society proposes to publish a final edition of the Journal, which will be faithful to the original, accompanied by biographical notes of each person named in the text. Letters and manuscripts of Woolman are very rare, and any one who owns or knows of the existence of such will perform a real service to the Society in its effort to set forth the work with accuracy, by communicating with Amelia M. Gummere, Haverford, Penna. ...