When Catharine Maria Sedgwick wrote of “a perfect community of light, & joy, & feeling, for all of one heart & one mind,” you might be excused for thinking she meant CSUDH on a warm April evening. But that particular phrase came from Sedgwick’s letter to Susan Higginson Channing, and it was sent in 1821—far before Toros roamed these hills.

Those letters by Sedgwick, a popular American novelist at the time, are making their way online thanks to Patricia Kalayjian, an emerita professor of interdisciplinary studies. The National Endowment for the Humanities recently awarded Kalayjian a $200,000 grant to support her work creating a digital archive of Sedgwick’s correspondence.

Sedgwick’s letters display the contradictions that life held for a female literary light in the 19th century. Some revel in “the glorious sun as he poured his golden beams upon” the trees; others fear “the thick clouds of calamity that envelop our Country” during the War of 1812. Still others state how many yards of cotton and linen cloth she wants her sister to buy.

“On one hand, Sedgwick was taking care of the family home in Stockbridge, making mince pies,” Kalayjian said. “But she was also going to Washington, D.C. and being escorted around by Millard Fillmore. She had a really interesting life!”

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