Mary Thacher Higginson, Thomas Wentworth Higginson: the story of his life

‘Would you like to look in at the Free Church?’ wrote Mr. Higginson to his young friend, Harriet Prescott, May, 1854. ‘The people are bright and earnest, rather than cultivated. There is a tradition of a progressive improvement in the bonnets, oa evenings, since the first summer; but I doubt if we can bear this test of increased social distinction. Worcester is a great thoroughfare, and there are always many strangers, and many Nicodemuses there are, who come by night only.’—‘We are well,’ he reported to his mother, ‘and I am only too busy; too busy to read, which is the greatest trial. . . .And inwardly, my transplantation to this new soil has enriched and strengthened me immeasurably; and given me many steps toward maturity.’

He always craved books and more books, but the actual purchase of one was a luxury. With a little money sent him by his Aunt Nancy, he bought Mrs. Jameson's ‘Commonplace Book of Thoughts, Memories, and Fancies,’ and told his aunt, ‘I shall write very carefully in the beginning that it was a present, so that my parishioners and friends may not think it my own extravagance, in these hard times.’ Certain favorite books, such as Jane Austen's novels, Scott's ‘Pirate,’ and Thoreau's ‘Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers,’ Mr. Higginson usually read once a year.