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<ead><eadheader><eadid>Sch00001</eadid>
<filedesc><titlestmt><titleproper>Aldrich, Mildred, 1853-1928. Autobiography, 1926: A Finding Aid</titleproper></titlestmt>
</filedesc>
<profiledesc><creation><date>07/16/1996</date>Susan von Salis</creation></profiledesc><revisiondesc><change><date>07/16/1996</date><item><persname>Susan von Salis</persname></item></change><change><date>12/11/96</date><item><persname>Susan von Salis</persname></item></change></revisiondesc></eadheader>
<frontmatter><titlepage><num>A-4</num>
<archdesc level="collection"><did><repository>Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe College</repository><unitid>A-4</unitid>
<unittitle>Autobiography, <unitdate>1926</unitdate></unittitle>
<physdesc><extent>4 volumes, 1 reel of microfilm</extent> (M-114)</physdesc>
</did>
<processinfo><p>Reprocessed:<date> December 1986</date></p><p>
By: <persname>Susan J. von Salis</persname></p></processinfo>
<acqinfo><p>Accession number: <num>56-155</num></p>
<p>This autobiography of Mildred Aldrich was given to the Schlesinger Library by <persname role="donor">Theodore Johnson</persname> in <date>October 1956</date>.</p></acqinfo>
<p><persname>Mildred Aldrich</persname>, <occupation>journalist</occupation>, <occupation>author</occupation> and <occupation>editor</occupation>, was born in <geogname>Providence, Rhode Island</geogname>, to Edwin and <persname>Lucy Ayers (Baker) Aldrich</persname>. She was raised in <geogname>Boston, Massachusetts</geogname>. After graduation from <corpname>Everett [High] School</corpname> (1872), she taught elementary school in Boston for a brief period. She began her career as a journalist with the <title>Boston Home Journal</title>, and later worked for the <title>Boston Journal</title> and the<title> Boston Herald</title>. In January 1892 she founded <title>The Mahogany Tree</title>, which she edited until December 1892, when the magazine folded. Published weekly, The Mahogany Tree contained editorials, fiction, poetry, and drama and book reviews.</p>
<p>In 1898 MA travelled to <geogname>Paris</geogname>, and subsequently settled there. While living in Paris, she became a close friend of <persname>Gertrude Stein</persname> and <persname>Alice B. Toklas</persname>, and was a member of their social circle. She worked as a foreign correspondent, translated plays from French into English, and negotiated the rights to the works of French playwrights for production in the United States. In 1914 she retired to "Hilltop" ("La Creste"), her cottage in Huiry, a village on the outskirts of Paris. While at "La Creste" she published four collections of her letters: <title>Hilltop On the Marne</title> (1915), <title>On the Edge of the War Zone</title> (1917), <title>Peak of the Load</title> (1918), and <title>When Johnny Comes Marching Home</title> (1919). She also published a novel, <title>Told In A French Garden</title> (1916). In her later years she was supported largely by a fund that had been established for her by Stein and Toklas in 1924. MA died at "La Creste" on February 19, 1928.</p></bioghist>
<p>The collection consists of four bound volumes containing MA's transcript <genreform>autobiography</genreform>, entitled <title>Confessions Of A Breadwinner</title>, which she completed in 1926. The Schlesinger Library also has MA`s "The Burial of a Fallen Poet " (call number A/A36). This is an edited version of Chapter V of Part Third of Confessions Of A Breadwinner (Volume Three, pp.190-213), incorporating changes made by hand in the volume. The "fallen poet" is <persname>Oscar Wilde</persname>.</p> </scopecontent>
<p>The following catalog entries represent persons, organizations, and topics documented in this collection. An entry for each appears in the Harvard On Line Library Information System (HOLLIS) and other automated bibliographic databases.</p>
<subject>Autobiographies</subject>
<subject>Autobiography--Women authors</subject>
<subject>Boston (Mass.)--Social life and customs</subject>
<subject>France--Social life and customs--19th century</subject>
<subject>France--Social life and customs--20th century</subject>
<persname>Stein, Gertrude, 1874-1946</persname>
<subject>Theater</subject>
<subject>Travel</subject>
<subject>United States--Social life and customs--1865-1918</subject>
<persname>Wilde, Oscar, 1854-1900</persname>
<subject>World War, 1914-1918--Personal narratives</subject>
</controlaccess>
<c level="file"><did><unitid>1v.</unitid><unittitle> Part First, eight chapters, 402 pp., <unitdate>1853-1898</unitdate></unittitle></did></c>
<c level="file"><did><unitid>2v.</unitid><unittitle> Part Second, six chapters, 126 pp., <unitdate>1898</unitdate></unittitle></did></c>
<c level="file"><did><unitid>3v.</unitid><unittitle> Part Third, eight chapters, 350 pp., <unitdate>1898-ca.1914</unitdate></unittitle></did></c>
<c level="file"><did><unitid>4v.</unitid><unittitle> Part Fourth, four chapters, 211 pp., <unitdate>ca.1914-1926</unitdate></unittitle></did></c></dsc></archdesc></ead>