DOCSLIB.ORG

Gertrude Stein and Psychical Research Lorna Fitzsimmons

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Gertrude Stein and Psychical Research Lorna Fitzsimmons TERTIUM QUID: GERTRUDE STEIN AND PSYCHICAL RESEARCH LORNA FITZSIMMONS Several factors may account for Gertrude Stein’s later attempts to disparage her undergraduate studies of subconscious states. On philosophical grounds, she may still have been upholding Weininger’s belief that “genius is identical with the highest and widest consciousness”: any state short of consciousness was for Weininger highly immoral.1 By the 1930s, Stein certainly considered herself a genius; yet during the decades since her reading of Weininger’s theory in 1907, she did not consistently decry the subconscious. Indeed, two years after reading Weininger’s book she would write: “Automatic action is creation, creation is a mingling of more.”2 Here she valorizes the subconscious as a creative source while evoking William James’ concept of the subliminally accessible “more”.3 Furthermore, in a contemporary notebook she remarks that her “initiative” is an involuntary “propulsion” which she neither controls nor creates.4 Moreover, Stein would be “delighted” and “proud as punch” when in 1913 Mabel Dodge Luhan published an article attributing her creativity to the subconscious.5 Why, then, would she later argue that she “never had subconscious reactions” and then undermine her scientific studies?6 This is a revised version of an article that originally appeared in The Journal of Lesbian Studies, V/4 (2001), 25-61, and is reprinted by permission of the publisher, Taylor and Francis (http://www.informaworld.com). 1 Otto Weininger, Sex and Character (1906), New York, 1975, 111. 2 Two: Gertrude Stein and Her Brother, and Other Early Portraits 1908-12, in The Yale Edition of the Unpublished Writings of Gertrude Stein, 8 vols, New Haven: CT, 1951, I, 234. 3 William James, The Varieties of Religious Experience (1902), New York, 1978, 488 and 492. 4 Notebook B-20. Use of this and other unpublished material from the Gertrude Stein Collection is with the permission of the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University, New Haven: CT. 5 See Mabel Dodge Luhan, Movers and Shakers, New York, 1936, 35. 6 Gertrude Stein, The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas, New York, 1933, 97. 356 Lorna Fitzsimmons During the 1930s, Stein was anxious to differentiate her genius from the Surrealist movement, while also reacting to a diatribe launched by B.F. Skinner.7 Unearthing the first of Stein’s scientific articles, in 1934 Skinner argued that Tender Buttons (1914) shows “the characteristics of the automatic writing produced by Miss Stein in her early psychological experiments”. In the widely read Atlantic Monthly, Skinner criticized Tender Buttons as a “probably ill-advised experiment”.8 Touring the United States in 1934-35, Stein was repeatedly reminded of Skinner’s attack.9 That she attempted to suppress evidence of her early interest in subconscious states is readily apparent upon comparative analysis of her 1898 article and her 1930s comments. In 1934 she states that her conclusion was as follows: “In these descriptions it will be readily observed that habits of attention are reflexes of the complete character of the individual.”10 The conclusion she published in 1898, however, is somewhat more complex: “In these descriptions it will be readily observed that habits of attention are reflexes of the complete character of the individual and again on habits of attention are dependent the different forms and degrees of automatic writing.”11 By omitting the final variable, automatic writing, from her 1934 summary, Stein radically alters the purpose of her experiments, bracketing their concern with the subconscious. Consequently, critics relying on her post facto comments fail to understand a significant aspect of her intellectual development.12 The present study aims to clarify the shifting contours of Stein’s 7 Gertrude Stein, Everybody’s Autobiography (1937), New York, 1971, 30. 8 B.F. Skinner, “Has Gertrude Stein a Secret?”, Atlantic Monthly, January 1934, 54 and 57. 9 Stein notes that there “has been a lot said about those experiments” and that members of her lecture audiences asked her about them (Everybody’s Autobiography, 264 and 266). 10 “The Gradual Making of the Making of Americans”, in Selected Writings of Gertrude Stein, ed. Carl Van Vechten, New York, 1972, 243. 11 Gertrude Stein, “Cultivated Motor Automatism: A Study of Character in Its Relation to Attention”, Psychological Review, 5 (1898), 299. 12 This is the problem under which Leon Katz labours in The First Making of The Making of Americans: A Study Based on Gertrude Stein’s Notebooks and Early Versions of Her Novel (1902-1908), Diss. Columbia University, 1963. His dissertation has several serious inaccuracies. See also Lisa Ruddick, “‘Melanctha’ and the Psychology of William James”, Modern Fiction Studies, 28 (1982-83), 545-56. In “Has Gertrude Stein a Secret?” Skinner draws upon only the first of Stein’s Psychological Review articles. Donald Sutherland, in Gertrude Stein: A Biography of Work, New Haven: CT, 1951, assumes that the “secondary and tertiary personalities of hysterical cases” were typically seen as “sadly stupid” (1). Also see Norman Weinstein, Gertrude Stein and the Literature of Modern Consciousness, New York, 1970, 12. .
Load more

Recommended publications
  • The Salon of Mabel Dodge
    DIVISION OF THE HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCES CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY PASADENA, CALIFORNIA 91125 THE SALON OF MABEL DODGE Robert A. Rosenstone To be published in Peter Quennell, ed., Salon (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1980). HUMANITIES WORKING PAPER 24 January 1979 THE SALON OF ~WillEL DODGE Robert A. Rosenstone Mabel Dodge's salon ••• burst upon New York like a rocket. Margaret Sanger It was the only successful salon I have ever seen in America. Lincoln Steffens Many famous salons have been established by women of wit or beauty; Mabel's was the only one ever established by pure will power. And it was no second-rate salon; everybody in the ferment of ideas could be found there. Max Eastman 2 It is indeed the happy woman who has no history, for by happy we mean the loving and beloved, and by history we designate all those relatable occurences on earth caused by the human energies seeking other outlets than the biological one. • . That I have so many pages to write signifies, solely, that I was unlucky in love. Most of the pages are about what I did instead •. Mabel Dodge 1 Mabel Dodge was rich and attractive and more than a little lucky. For two years -- from 1912 to 1914 -- she played hostess to the most famous and no doubt the most interesting salon in American history. This success was no accident, but the result of a subtle interplay between her individual needs and ambitions and the historical moment. It was a very special period in the cultural life of the United States, one when expatriate Irish painter John Butler Yeats cocked an ear and heard "the fiddles • tuning as it were allover America.
    [Show full text]
  • 0300-7936 Number 77 January 1990 CONTENTS NEWS and NOTES
    ISSN: 0300-7936 Number 77 January 1990 CONTENTS NEWS AND NOTES Page 2 DISSERTATION ABSTRACTS: Page 6 Lucas, Gundy, Dickson, Edwards CONFERENCE PAPER ABSTRACTS: Page 11 Marshall, Yozzo, Daughaday, Schweizer HUGE PITS OF DARKNESS by Helen Vendler Page 13 NEW WINE, OLD SKIN by Tim Hunt Page 22 UNA JEFFERS--MABEL DODGE LUHAN Page 25 UNA JEFFERS, CORRESPONDENT: LUHAN LETTERS Page 28 ----------------------------------------------------------------- Subscription: $10.00 per year. Charge for Backfile: $175.00 Address subscriptions to: Tyrus G. Harmsen Occidental College 1600 Campus Road, Los Angeles, CA 90041 ----------------------------------------------------------------- Copyright 1990 by Occidental College Number 77 Page 2 NEWS AND NOTES THE ROBINSON JEFFERS OCTOBER FESTIVAL. Each Tor House Foundation festival has its own genius, its own flair, style, and special contributions. This year it began Friday, October 13th with a booksigning reception for the festival authors Zaller, Karman, Nemerov and Gioia and Stanford University Press (THE COLLECTED POEMS and THE EXCESSES OF GOD) at the Thunderbird Bookshop, The Barnyard, Highway One and Carmel Valley Road. Saturday saw seminars at Monterey Peninsula College, 980 Fremont, Monterey, in Lecture Forum 103, with moderator, Professor Alison Schwyzer of the Philosophy Department of the College. The morning session heard Dana Gioia, poet and critic, on "Revival of the Narrative Poem," and James Karman, author of Chronicle Books ROBINSON JEFFERS: POET OF CALIFORNIA, on "Jeffers and His Critics." The afternoon session heard Robert Zaller, author of CLIFFS OF SOLITUDE and editor of ELEGIES FOR ROBINSON JEFFERS, on "Land and Value: Jeffers as Environmentalist," followed by a session of questions and discussion. The annual Jeffers banquet was held at the Carmel Mission Inn, Rio Road and Route One, where Poet Laureate Howard Nemerov gave an hour-long after dinner talk on the genius of Jeffers' poetry, his peculiar prophetic voice, and some of the agreements and dis- agreements Mr.
    [Show full text]
  • Why So Many Artists Have Been Drawn to New Mexico
    C r e at i v i t y W h y S o M a n y Ar t i s t s H a v e Be e n D r a w n t o Ne w Mexico For generations, artists from Georgia O'Keeffe to Ken Price havefollowed New Mexico’s magnetic pull, finding inspiration in the highdesert’s expansive vistas, quietude, and respite from social and market pressures. Alexxa Gotthardt May 17, 2019 5:57 pm Georgia O’Keeffe had an unexpected train detour to thank for her first encounter with New Mexico. Little did she know, it was the land that would free her—both artistically and emotionally. Several months after photographer­gallerist Alfred Stieglitz presented O’Keeffe’s first New York solo show, in April 1917, the 29­year­old painter embarked on a trip across the American West with her youngest sister, Claudia. While they’d planned to head straight from Texas to Colorado, their train detoured to Santa Fe. New Mexico’s vast, mercurial skies and incandescent light mesmerized the artist. “I’m out here in New Mexico—going somewhere—I’m not positive where—but it’s great,” she gushed in a letter to Stieglitz, dated August 15th. “Not like anything I ever saw before.” Portrait of Georgia O’Keeffe in Abiquiu, New Portrait of Bruce Nauman in New Mexico by Mexico, 1974. Photo by Joe Munroe/Hulton Francois Le Diascorn/Gamma­Rapho via Getty Archive/Getty Images. Images. “There is so much more space between the ground and sky out here it is tremendous,” she continued.
    [Show full text]
  • Salons by Robin Imhof
    Salons by Robin Imhof Encyclopedia Copyright © 2015, glbtq, Inc. Entry Copyright © 2002, glbtq, Inc. Mabel Dodge Luhan Reprinted from http://www.glbtq.com (above) established a colorful salon in her Fifth Avenue Apartment in No one has disputed the significant contribution of women in the cultural history of New York City. salons, but what is often overlooked in mainstream publications on the topic is that Photograph by Carl van many of these salon hostesses and attendees were lesbian, bisexual, or gay. Vechten, April 12, 1934. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century Parisian Salons Division. The tradition of literary gatherings began in Renaissance France and Italy, but it was in eighteenth-century Paris that the salon gained prominence for lively intellectual conversation in the fields of arts and letters. The hostesses of these events were typically women of some distinction, whether by title or personal wealth. The meetings were often referred to by the day of the week on which they were held. Topics of conversation ranged from (but were not limited to) matters of literary and social taste and, increasingly, political issues. Salon conversation was characterized by a blend of wit and oral brilliance. A notable salon hostess of eighteenth-century Paris was Madeleine de Scudéry. Famous for her "Saturdays of Sappho," she recreated salon society in her novels. What is striking about these assemblies is that they were presided over by women, a rare example of female control in a literary realm. During the nineteenth century, Paris salons became showcases for musicians such as Chopin and Liszt.
    [Show full text]
  • State Historic Preservation Officer Certification the Evaluated Significance of This Property Within the State Is
    Form No. 10-300 W',. \0/j sra UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR NATIONAL PARK SERVICE NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES INVENTORY -- NOMINATION FORM SEE INSTRUCTIONS IN HOWTO COMPLETE NATIONAL REGISTER FORMS TYPE ALL ENTRIES -- COMPLETE APPLICABLE SECTIONS NAME HISTORIC Jf MABEL DODGE LUHAN HOUSE / A«€TOft-HHi6H<SHOUSE AND/OR COMMON BIG HOUSE / ST. TERESA HOUSE LOCATION STREET & NUMBER Luhan Lane —NOT FOR PUBLICATION CITY, TOWN CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT Taos — VICINITY OF 1 £DDE COUNTY CODE STATE New Mexico1* . Taos 55 HCLASSIFICATION CATEGORY OWNERSHIP STATUS PRESENT USE DISTRICT —PUBLIC —OCCUPIED _ AGRICULTURE —MUSEUM iLBUILDING(S) ^PRIVATE —UNOCCUPIED —COMMERCIAL —PARK —STRUCTURE —BOTH —WORK IN PROGRESS X-EDUCATIONAL X-PRIVATE RESIDENCE —SITE PUBLIC ACQUISITION ACCESSIBLE —ENTERTAINMENT —RELIGIOUS —OBJECT _|N PROCESS X-YES: RESTRICTED —GOVERNMENT —SCIENTIFIC —BEING CONSIDERED — YES: UNRESTRICTED —INDUSTRIAL —TRANSPORTATION —NO —MILITARY —OTHER: [OWNER OF PROPERTY NAME v/ George Qtero and Roy Krosky also: Michael Pagan STREET & NUMBER vy 981 llth Street Luhan Lane Boulder, Colorado CITY. TOWN STATE Taos. — VICINITY OF New Mexico LOCATION OF LEGAL DESCRIPTION COURTHOUSE. REGISTRY OF DEEDS.ETC. Taos County Courthouse STREET & NUMBER CITY. TOWN STATE New Mevirn I REPRESENTATION IN EXISTING SURVEYS TITLE New Mexico Register of Cultural Properties DATE December 12, 1Q77 —FEDERAL )LsTATE —COUNTY —LOCAL DEPOSITORY FOR SURVEY RECORDS New Mexjr.n Hlstinrir. Preservation Program CITY, TOWN STATE Santa Fe New Mexico DESCRIPTION CONDITION CHECK ONE CHECK ONE —EXCELLENT —DETERIORATED —UNALTERED X-ORIGINALSITE V X-GOOD —RUINS _I:ALTER ED —MOVED DATE. _FAIR _UNEXPOSED DESCRIBE THE PRESENT AND ORIGINAL (IF KNOWN) PHYSICAL APPEARANCE In 1918 Mabel Dodge Sterne purchased some property which adjoins Taos Pueblo land and through it runs the Acequia Madre del Pueblo, the oldest water rights in New Mexico and on it were two small adobe houses, Mabel writes of one as a four room coffin-shaped house which dates to the late 18th or early 19th century.
    [Show full text]
  • Big House 2. Loca
    *USDI/NPS NRHP Registration Form Luhan, Mabel Dodge, House Page # 1 *********** (Rev. 8-86) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES REGISTRATION FORM __________________________________ 1. Name of Property historic name: Mabel Dodge Luhan House other name/site number: Big House 2. Location Morada Lane, Taos, New Mexico street & number: Morada Lane not for publ ication:N/A city/town: Taos vicinity:N/A state:NM county: Taos code: 055 zip code: 87571 3. Classification Ownership of Property: private Category of Property: building Number of Resources within Property: Contributing Noncontributing 0 buildings 0 sites 0 structures 0 objects 0 Total Number of contributing resources previously listed in the National Register: 1 Name of related multiple property listing: 4. State/Federal Agency Certification As the designated authority under the National Historic Preservation Act of 1986, as amended, I hereby certify that this __ nomination __ request for determination of eligibility meets the documentation standards for registering properties in the National Register of Historic Places and meets the procedural and professional requirements set forth in 36 CFR Part 60. In my opinion, the property__meets _ does not meet the National Register Criteria. __ See continuation sheet. Signature of certifying official Date State or Federal agency and bureau In my opinion, the property __ meets __ does not meet the National Register criteria. __ See continuation sheet. Signature of commenting or other official Date State or Federal agency and bureau 5. National Park Service Certification I, hereby certify that this property is: entered in the National Register __ See continuation sheet, determined eligible for the National Register __ See continuation sheet, determined not eligible for the National Register removed from the National Register other (explain): ___________ Signature of Keeper Date of Action *USDI/NPS NRHP Registration Form Luhan, Mabel Dodge, House Page # 3 6.
    [Show full text]
  • University of Pardubice Faculty of Arts and Philosophy Mabel Dodge Luhan
    University of Pardubice Faculty of Arts and Philosophy Mabel Dodge Luhan: a Patroness and Promoter of Arts of Taos Indians Jana Procházková Bachelor Thesis 2014 Prohlašuji: Tuto práci jsem vypracovala samostatně. Veškeré literární prameny a informace, které jsem v práci využila, jsou uvedeny v seznamu použité literatury. Byla jsem seznámena s tím, že se na moji práci vztahují práva a povinnosti vyplývající ze zákona č. 121/2000 Sb., autorský zákon, zejména se skutečností, že Univerzita Pardubice má právo na uzavření licenční smlouvy o užití této práce jako školního díla podle § 60 odst. 1 autorského zákona, a s tím, že pokud dojde k užití této práce mnou nebo bude poskytnuta licence o užití jinému subjektu, je Univerzita Pardubice oprávněna ode mne požadovat přiměřený příspěvek na úhradu nákladů, které na vytvoření díla vynaložila, a to podle okolností až do jejich skutečné výše. Souhlasím s prezenčním zpřístupněním své práce v Univerzitní knihovně. V Pardubicích dne 28. 6. 2014 Jana Procházková Acknowledgement I would like to express a sincere gratitude to my family and my boyriend for their support during the whole process. I also would like to thank to Dilek Çalışkan, a university teacher at Anadolu University, Turkey who inspired me with the topic of Taos Indians. Lastly, I express my gratitude to Doc. Šárka Bubíková, Ph.D. for her guidance. ANNOTATION The main aim of this thesis is to analyze Mabel Dodge Luhan‟s role as a patroness and promoter of arts and Taos Indians. At the beginning of the second chapter, the terms Modernism and the pre-Modernist period is defined.
    [Show full text]
  • Jag Målar Som En Gud. Ellen Thesleffs Liv Och Konst
    JAG MÅLAR SOM EN GUD JAG MÅLAR Hanna-Reetta Schreck SOM EN GUD Ellen Thesleffs liv och konst Svenska litteratursällskapet i Finland, Helsingfors Appell Förlag, Stockholm 2020 Denna bok är nummer 834 i serien Skrifter utgivna av Svenska litteratursällskapet i Finland och utges gemensamt av Svenska litteratursällskapet i Finland och Appell Förlag. Boken utges med stöd av Ingrid, Margit och Henrik Höijers donationsfond II inom Svenska litteratursällskapet i Finland. © Brev, anteckningar och fotografier med anknytning till familjen Thesleff samt Ellen Thesleffs skisser och konstverk är publicerade med tillstånd av rättsinnehavarna. Denna utgåva © Hanna-Reetta Schreck och Svenska litteratursällskapet i Finland 2019. Detta verk är licensierat under Creative Commons Erkännande-Ickekommersiell- IngaBearbetningar 4.0 Internationell (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0). Originalets titel: Minä maalaan kuin jumala. Ellen Thesleffin elämä ja taide © Hanna-Reetta Schreck, 2017 Originalet publicerat på finska av Kustannusosakeyhtiö Teos. Publicerad med tillstånd av Helsinki Literary Agency. Översättning: Camilla Frostell Översättning av tyska citat: Jörgen Scholz och Elisa Veit, av franska citat: Märtha Norrback Omslag och grafisk form: Maria Appelberg/Station MIR Bildbehandling: Kari Lahtinen Omslagsbild: Ellen Thesleff, fotot ingår i samlingen Ellen Thesleffs fotografier (SLSA 959), Svenska litteratursällskapet i Finland. Typsnitt: Minion Pro och Brandon Grotesque ISBN 978-951-583-462-1 (tryckt utgåva, Finland) www.sls.fi ISBN 978-91-984960-2-4 (tryckt utgåva, Sverige) www.appellforlag.se ISBN 978-951-583-513-0 (epub), http://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:sls-978-951-583-513-0 ISBN 978-951-583-514-7 (pdf), http://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:sls-978-951-583-514-7 Skrifter utgivna av Svenska litteratursällskapet i Finland ISSN 0039-6842 (tryckt) ISSN 2490-1547 (digital) UDK 75.071 Thesleff INNEHÅLL TILL LÄSAREN 11 Självporträttet 13 Att berätta ett liv 15 Kortklippt frisyr 19 KAPITEL 1 SÅNG VID GITARR.
    [Show full text]
  • Editor's Introduction.Pdf
    Editor’s Introduction Julia L. Mickenberg “It is a noteworthy fact that a large number of those who have written of the present situation in Russia are women,” the writer Margaret Ashmun notes in a 1919 review essay entitled “Russia Through Women’s Eyes”: The modern woman does not shrink from physical hardships, and her imagination overleaps hunger and danger when she sees an issue at stake. Moreover, this is preeminently the age of woman in revolt: and whoever has the courage to rebel against oppression, in actuality or only in spirit, is an object of intense interest to women in general. Any attempt, however bungling, to right a social wrong wins from them a throb of sympathy, even when their better judgment disapproved both method and result.… This strongly developed social sense in the best type of modern woman explains why they have responded to the appeal of Russia in Revolution.1 Behind the Battle Line: Around the World in 1918 by Madeleine Z. Doty (1918) is among the books that Ashmun discusses, as half of that book is devoted to a discus- sion of the revolution unfolding in Russia. And Doty herself was in many ways the prototypical “modern woman.” Today, both Doty and her account of the Russian Revolution are largely forgotten. However, Doty’s own story and her reporting on the revolution, the latter drawn from Behind the Battle Line and reprinted here for the first time as a stand-alone volume, offer much that is of interest to contemporary readers. Doty arrived in St. Petersburg (then called Petrograd) just days after Lenin and the Bolsheviks launched their coup against the Provisional Government, in Novem- ber 1917.
    [Show full text]
  • Baby Woojums in Iowa
    View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Iowa Research Online Baby Woojums in Iowa BRUCE KELLNER Among the unique holdings in the Special Collections of the Uni­ versity of Iowa Library is the manuscript—actually three successive typescript drafts with holograph revisions—of Carl Van Vechten’s obituary for Gertrude Stein. Although not his final tribute to “a great writer, a great thinker, a great conversationalist, and a great woman,”1 it is probably the only item out of the vast collection of materials con­ nected with the two writers not sheltered either in the New York Pub­ lic Library, to which Van Vechten gave most of his papers, or in the Yale University Library, to which Stein gave all of hers. When, in 1947, the Special Collections requested manuscripts from various Iowa au­ thors, Van Vechten donated the piece he had most recently completed, “An Epilogue,” as he titled it, to a friend. It is worth preserving in permanent form to mark one of the most fruitful literary associations in modern letters, and Iowa, perhaps, is not an altogether surprising re­ pository. The long alliance between Gertrude Stein and Carl Van Vechten began in 1913, when they first met in Paris, although he had already written about her. As a reporter for the New York Times, he tried un­ successfully to place an accolade with the Sunday magazine editor, then with Bookman, then with the Sunday World, then with his friend Pitts Sanborn for whom he occasionally wrote reviews in the Evening Globe.
    [Show full text]
  • Psyche & Muse: Creative Entanglements with The
    Psyche & Muse: Creative Entanglements with the Science of the Soul on view at Beinecke Library, Yale University, January 28 through June 13, 2011 __________ Case Studies: American Writers Encountering Psychoanalysis Checklist and Descriptions Exhibition Curator: Nancy Kuhl, American Literature ([email protected]) __________ 1. F. Scott Fitzgerald: This Side of Paradise and The Beautiful and Damned F. Scott Fitzgerald, This Side of Paradise, NY: Scribner’s, 1920. The Jazz Age of the early 1920s was characterized by a broad rejection of Victorian sensibilities and social conventions. Young people who came to define the period, known as the “Flaming Youth,” adopted a popularized version of Freudian ideas in support of a free spirited lifestyle unburdened by “suppressed desires.” Contemporary novels employed references to Freudian concepts to mark characters’ modernity, broadminded views of sexuality, and general lack of inhibition. This Side of Paradise was published in 1920 when F. Scott Fitzgerald was not yet 25; it immediately became the quintessential novel of the Flaming Youth and made Fitzgerald spokesman for the generation coming of age in the Roaring Twenties. Fitzgerald’s characters pursue pleasure with insistence and a vague sense of rebellion. In the words of the novel’s hero Amory Blaine, they had “grown up to find all gods dead, all wars fought, all faiths in man shaken.” The novel was based on Fitzgerald’s experiences at Princeton and his stormy courtship of Zelda Sayre; the two married days after the first edition of the novel sold out. Their sensational, champagne-drenched escapades made them Jazz Age celebrities. When the Flaming Youth evolved into the Lost Generation, Fitzgerald wrote his late novel Tender is the Night, based in part on Zelda’s emotional breakdown and psychiatric treatment (Tender is the Night is exhibited on the alternate side of the mezzanine).
    [Show full text]
  • Catalogcover:Layout 1
    134 MUSEUM OF NEW MEXICO COLLECTION FLORENCE CHAIR In 1920, Museum of International Folk Art founder Florence Dibell Barlett first visited New Mexico and stayed in Alcalde, at the historic and well-known San Gabriel Ranch. Bartlett grew to love New Mexico and visited San Gabriel often. In the 1930s she bought and lovingly restored the 70-acreranchl, which she renamed “El Mirador.” Bartlett loved the expansive New Mexico landscape; during the ranch restoration she had several large west-facing windows installed. On many winter evenings, Bartlett would settle in her favorite chair and look out her big windows at the dramatic sunset. Upon her death the entire contents of the ranch were given to the Museum of Interna- tional Folk Art. Included in that gift was the “sunset viewing” chair— the inspiration for the Florence Chair. DODGE SOFA Mabel Ganson Evans Dodge Sterne arrived in Taos, New Mexico, in 1916. A wealthy easterner who was a prominent figure in the heady arts and society scenes of New York and Europe, Mrs. Sterne’s salons in New York and Florence were a draw for the avant-garde artists, activists, writers and thinkers of her time. Soon after her move to Taos, Dodge purchased a rustic three-room adobe house looking out on Taos Pueblo land. In short order, she divorced artist Maurice Sterne and married Tony Luhan, a dignified Taos Pueblo Indian. Legendary connections happened in this house. Dodge not only brought her wealth to Taos, but her desire to fuel the arts, welcoming artists, writers and intellectuals to her cozy home.
    [Show full text]