Work, Faith and the Jewish Merchants

RAMSEY COUNTY Romance, Melodrama Mayhem in Not-So- Fictional St. Paul A Publication of the Ramsey County Historical Society Page 10 Spring, 1993 Volume 28, Number 1

. . . ‘And A Sprinkling of Jews’ Work, Faith and the Jewish Merchants

The Swadelsky family in the 1890s, Zlotah Rivkah Swadelsky (second from left) settled with her husband and family on the West Side after emigrating from Russia. She was one of those unsung women of history. Pious herself, she led religious services for the women of B ’nai Abraham Synagogue on State Street. She ran a Shelter House for strangers passing through the Jewish commu­ nity, and organized a Women’s Free Loan Society that provided loans without interest to immigrant women to help them buy furni­ ture for their new homes. Photo from the Jewish Historical Society of the Upper Midwest. See article beginning on page 4. RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY Executive Director Priscilla Famham Editor Virginia Brainard Kunz

RAMSEY COUNTY Volume 28, Number 1 Spring, 1993 HISTORICAL SOCIETY BOARD OF DIRECTORS William S. Fallon CONTENTS Chairman o f the Board Joanne Englund President 3 Letters John M. Lindley 4 . . . ‘And a Sprinkling of Jews’ First Vice President James Russell Work and Faith and Minnesota’s Jewish Merchants Treasurer Marilyn Chiat Arthur Baumeister, Jr., Thomas Boyd, 10 Romance, Melodrama, Murder, Mayhem— Marshall Hatfield, John Harens, Liz Johnson, Don Larson, Judge Margaret M. The Novelist in Not-So-Fictional St. Paul Marrinan, Dr. Thomas B. Mega, Laurie Murphy, Richard T. Murphy, Sr., Eileen Frances Sontag Roberts, Darrell Rooney, Mark Stein, Richard A. Wilhoit and Laurie Zenner. 19 Growing Up in St. Paul— Looking Back at the Black Community-Part II EDITORIAL BOARD David V. Taylor John M. Lindley, chairman; Thomas H. Boyd, Thomas C. Buckley, Charlton Dietz, 25 Books, Etc. Thomas J. Kelley, Arthur McWatt, Laurie M. Murphy, Dr. Thomas B. Mega. 26 What’s Historic About This Site?

HONORARY ADVISORY BOARD The Highland Park Water Tower Elmer L. Andersen, Coleman Bloomfield, And Its Architect, Clarence Wigington Olivia I. Dodge, Charlton Dietz, William Arthur Me Watt Finney, Clarence Frame, Otis Godfrey, Jr., Ronald Hachey, Reuel D. Harmon, Robert S. Hess, Ronald M. Hubbs, Fred T. Lanners, Jr., George Latimer, Lewis Lehr, David Marsden, Robert B. Mirick, Samuel Morgan, Marvin J. Pertzik, J. Jerome Publication of Ramsey County History is supported in part by gifts from Plunkett, Peter S. Popovich, James Reagan, Clara M. Claussen and Frieda H. Claussen in memory of Henry H. Rosalie E. Wahl, Donald D. Wozniak. Cowie, Jr.; by a contribution from Reuel D. Harmon, and by grants from The Saint Paul Foundation and the F. R. Bigelow Foundation. RAMSEY COUNTY COMMISSIONERS Commissioner Hal Norgard, chairman Special contributions have been received from the following supporters Commissioner Diane Ahrens who are hereby named honorary editors of the Winter and Spring, 1993, Commissioner John Finley Commissioner Ruby Hunt issues o f Ramsey County History. Commissioner Warren Schaber Commissioner Brenda Thomas Anthony Andersen Robert Haugen Commissioner Richard Wedell Anthony Bechik Ronald M. Hubbs Terry Schutten, executive director, Ramsey Robert B. Mirick County. George Benz Charlton Dietz Samuel H. Morgan Ramsey County History is published quarter­ Roger Foussard Mary Bigelow McMillan ly by the Ramsey County Historical Society, Harry and Lorraine Hammerly John G. Ordway 323 Landmark Center, 75 W. Fifth Street, St. Paul, Minn. 55102. Printed in U.S.A. Copy­ Marshall and Elizabeth Hatfield right, 1993, Ramsey County Historical Society. ISSN Number0485-9758. All rights The Ramsey County Historical Society and the members of Ramsey reserved. No part of this publication may be County History’s Editorial Board wish to express their deep appreciation reprinted or otherwise reproduced without to these contributors for their support. written permission from the publisher. The Society assumes no responsibility for statements made by contributors.

2 RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY Romance, Melodrama, Murder, Mayhem — The Novelist in Not-So-Fictional St. Paul

Frances Sontag

ow many people can name any­ by Maud Hart Lovelace. Lovelace creates one who was present at the burn­ a magical sense of time and place with her ing of Atlanta, besides Scarlett descriptions of the river, the bluffs, the HO’Hara and Rhett Butler? Yes, we seasons,know the animals, and the Indians as they weren’t really there, yet the faces that they were when the first white settlers en­ stand out against those flames in our minds tered upon the scene. Her descriptions of are those of Rhett and Scarlett, not those of unspoiled nature, of the social life at Fort Sherman’s generals Oliver 0 . Howard and Snelling, and of the precarious existence Henry W. Slocum, or of Captain Orlando of the early settlers are accurate historical­ Poe, who personally supervised the de­ ly, yet seen through a romantic sensibility. struction. Early Candlelight, which has been When we want factual information reprinted by the Minnesota Historical So­ about a city, we look not to fiction but to the ciety, is the story of a romance between work of geographers, statisticians, histori­ Delia Du Gay, daughter of a French- ans, or economists. Yet those professions Canadian settler, and Jasper Page, Ameri­ can only verify our understanding of life in can Fur Company factor. Page’s lifestyle is Joyce’s Dublin, Dickens’ London, or obviously based on that of Henry Sibley, Cather’s Santa Fe. In the work of novelists but his character and personality are who plant their characters solidly in the fiction. Delia makes her way toward her M aud Hart Lovelace. Gene Garrett photo, real world of time and place, that created own personal happiness while adventures Minnesota Historical Society. world can be more real than reality itself. and tragedies surround her. Admitting at the start that St. Paul has Lovelace introduces real historic not had a Joyce, a Dickens, or even a Mar­ characters seamlessly into the fictional frontier town of over a thousand people, garet Mitchell, it is nevertheless fascinat­ milieu. Her careful research is reflected in with more arriving every day. English has ing to look for a sense of St. Paul as a place the lifelike language and behavior of the replaced French as the common language. in the city’s past fiction. In our quest for real characters, such as the Indian agent, Only a few settlers from Europe have yet history in fiction, artistic quality will Major Lawrence Taliaferro; early settler appeared; most of the newcomers are count, but we will find that we can learn a Vital Guerin; Father Lucien Galtier; the Yankees. Single males make up a large lot from books that richly deserve their missionaries Samuel and Gideon Pond; percentage of the population, and the so­ place in the dumpster of literary history. and fur trader Gabriel Renville. She was cial tone of the community has suffered In the century before St. Paul became also able to depict Native American accordingly. Drinking, swearing, and the capital of Minnesota Territory, the characters sympathetically as individual fighting consume much of the recent ar­ area was traversed and often fought over human beings. rivals’ time and many of Kraus’ pages. Al­ by the Native Americans, and the Ojibway In the 1840s, near the end of the story, lowing for the difference in style between and Dakota in particular. The great white little Pig’s Eye/St. Paul starts to grow; Fa­ Lovelace and Kraus, the change in at­ cliff at the bend of the Mississippi was a ther Lucien Galtier suggests to his flock mosphere is striking and probably ac­ landmark for the Native Americans and that the name Pig’s Eye seems inadequate curate historically. for the fur traders, explorers, and soldiers to the hamlet’s dignity, and the villagers The book’s main character, Shawn who followed. Among the novels that take agree that St. Paul would be a much better Dark, arrives in St. Paul on a steamboat in the reader back to those exciting voyageur name. Steamboats begin arriving regular­ the spring of a year in the early 1850s to days are Black Feather, by Harold Titus; ly, carrying new people who speak English stay with his Uncle Jabez, who owns a low- The Forbidden Ground, by Neil H. Swan­ instead of French, and James M. Goodhue class boarding house called the Hunter’s son; and Red River Trail, by Ethel C. Brill. appears with his printing press. Bee. Shawn plans to go north with the Red Beginning only a year or two after Early River ox carts, but must wait until late July Early St. Paul Candlelight ends, The Ox-Cart Trail, by for their arrival. In the meantime, he ex­ Pig’s Eye, as St. Paul was known in the Herbert Kraus, shows a changed St. Paul. plores St. Paul. He attends one decorous 1830s, is the setting for Early Candlelight, The village has become a crude, violent party held in a mansion, but most of the so-

10 RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY rial life of the town appears to consist of street fights. Finally, Shawn hears the ox carts in the DAKOTA PANT); distance:

A sound brought him sitting up in the bed. OK, Through the leafwork of the oak he heard the screaking sound coming from beyond St. Anthony Hill, beyond the rim of the THE BEATTY OE ST. PAUL. western ridge . . . A faraway shout, a nearer but unintelligible answer, a call in the next block and a rush of excited voices from house to house, from street to street. It AN ORIGINAL, ILLUSTRATED, gathered in volume. ‘They’re coming! They’re coming! Didja hear? The oxcarts. H i s t o r i c a n d R o m a n t i c W o r k , Can’t be far away now.!’ Presenting a Combination of Marvelous Dreams and Wandering Fancies, Singular Events and Strange Fatalities, all Interwoven with Graphic The Ox-Cart Trail is not very rewarding Descriptions of the Beautiful Scenery and as a novel, for it lacks a well-knit plot or serious analysis of human nature, but WONDERFUL ENCHANTMENT IN MINNESOTA. Kraus manages to work in a great amount of authentic detail about steamboats, buildings, food, clothing, and everyday TO WHICH IS ADDED events of the period. “ .A. BOUND O 3T PLEASURE,” With Interesting Notes of Travel, Maps, etc., and Forming a Comprehensive- Fiction As Promotion Guide to the Great North-West. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow never visit­ ed Minnesota, but his Hiawatha played a role in St. Paul’s mid-nineteenth century BY COL. HANKINS, ©bitor of “ D>io gorh |§omt (Sajttit.” tourist boom. The introduction of luxuri­ ALSO. EDITOR OF THE NEW ILLUSTRATED “ JOURNAL OF SOCIETY.*' ous steamboats, along with publicity about And Author of “ Agnes Wilton,** “ Maniac Father,** “The Apostate Quaker,” “ ThcTdiot of the Mill,” “ The Orphan Dream,” “ The Banker’s Wife, “The Mother’s the scenery on the Upper Mississippi, the Prayer,” “The Beautiful Nun,” “ Hearts That Are Cold;” Beside healthy climate, and die cool summers, at­ Innumerable Serial Productions of Truth and Fiction. tracted a stream of summer visitors, many of whom were excited by the romantic view of the “noble red man” as seen by Longfellow and James Fenimore Cooper. 1868 : As parties of visitors arrived wishing to be HANKINS & SON, PUBLISHERS, taken to the supposed girlhood home of “Journal of Society” Office, N o. 1 Baric Blaee, Minnehaha, the name of Brown’s Falls was * N E W YOKE CITY. changed to Minnehaha Falls, and the falls speedily became Minnesota’s number one tourist attraction. Tourism promotion could not have Title page from Col. Hankins’ fanciful account of St. Paul’s early years. Ramsey County Historical Society photo. been further from Longfellow’s mind as he wrote Hiawatha, but many lesser writers of that era used fiction to tout the advan­ tages of new locations. A local example of the novel as an economic promotion tool is varying credibility, including a fanciful its report on St. Paul’s local historic folk­ Dakota Land, or The Beauty o f St. Paul, resolution of the mystery surrounding the lore gathered firsthand from early par­ written and published in 1868 by Colonel fate of Pig’s Eye Parrant. ticipants. Appended to the book is a forty- C. Hankins. The fictional thread of the sto­ The colonel states in his introduction page section of travel information, with ry is best ignored. The colonel devotes that he made two short visits to St. Paul be­ details on trains, boats, hotels, and points more than half his pages to descriptions of fore writing the book. He appears to have of interest. Among the tourist attractions St. Paul and environs, to patronizing anec­ based his work mostly on conversations in the colonel recommends for the St. Paul dotes about the Indians (including the fa­ hotel bars with local St. Paul storytellers; area are Fort Snelling, Minnehaha Falls, mous Old Bets), and to historical yams of thus, the interest of the book today lies in and the bones of the Dakota chief Little

RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY 11 Crow, which he says were then on display in the Minnesota Historical Society’s room in the first state Capitol.*

Literature Begins The earliest St. Paul novel that demon­ strates literary effort for its own sake, and that also shows St. Paul as a large city, is Allisto, a Romance, by Mrs. Ansel Oppen- heim. The book was first published in 1884; it was revised and republished in 1904, and again in 1909, under the title, Evelyn, A Story of the West and the Far East. Mrs. Ansel Oppenheim was bom Josephine Greve, daughter of a wealthy St. Paul real estate developer, Herman Greve. She married Oppenheim not long after his arrival in St. Paul in 1878. Oppenheim prospered through railroad and real estate investments, built the St. Paul Metropoli­ tan Opera House and the Oppenheim Building, and served on the board of the St. Paul Union Stockyards. Around the tum- of-the-century the Oppenheims moved to nesota. Her mother dies and her father, bles and turns pale at the thought,” when New York, where they lived in an apart­ distraught with grief, leaves her in the kind she tells him that she would like to be a doc­ ment at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel. She hands of the Walbum family and disap­ tor. He tells her that women are unreasona­ died in 1915 and he in 1916. pears. The Walbums move to Memphis, ble to be discontented; in his experience, While the plot of Allisto is typical mid­ where the whole family dies of cholera in “women under care of a physician are nineteenth century melodrama, the author 1873. Evelyn, who now seems to be in her more in need of spiritual guidance.” uses the story as a framework for the in­ late teens, is cared for by a family friend, Evelyn responds, “If you believe in the troduction of exotic characters and for the Hungarian Count Tochmann, a refugee theory of evolution, women are but obey­ serious discussion of many advanced in- of the Kossuth rebellion. ing an irresistible law when they chafe tellectural interests of the day. Her charac­ Count Tochmann brings Evelyn to St. against restrictions that narrow the sphere ters converse at length about Oriental Paul for her health to spend the summer at of their activities. Herbert Spencer traces religions, Germanic mythology, higher the Merchant’s Hotel, which stood at the the change of the uniform into the com­ consciousness, scientific thought, fate, northeast comer of Third (Kellogg) and plex, and can women alone be exempt and woman’s place in the nineteenth cen­ Jackson Streets. Noise doesn’t seem to en­ from this law of evolution? It is my opinion tury. danger Evelyn’s health, for she calmly that it is the working of this widespread and The book’s heroine, Evelyn, lives in a notes the din of hammering on the new irresistible law of evolution that makes the little woodland settlement in central Min- buildings going up all over town. Evelyn women of our age restless.” attends a concert in Rice Park, a picnic at Not long after arriving in St. Paul, Eve­ White Bear Lake, and a “hop” at Fort Snell- lyn meets an exciting, attractive man ing. She meets some childhood friends named Allisto. “He has come to St. Paul,” *In 1868 the Minnesota Historical Society was again, including Malcolm Graham, who is someone tells her, “to pursue certain elec­ located in the basement of the first state Capi­ tol, which stood in the block surrounded by now a doctor. trical investigations which the marvellous Tenth, Cedar, Exchange, and Wabasha Mrs. Oppenheim presents Evelyn as an clarity of the air renders possible.” The Streets. Patricia Harpole, Minnesota Histori­ intelligent, idealistic young woman who Count, too, is interested in science; his ex­ cal Society reference librarian, stated on April seeks some sort of purpose or usefulness, periments involve distilling flowers. Eve­ 28,1992, that the society believes that it never but whose efforts are firmly squelched by lyn has by now acquired a rather stimulat­ had the complete skeleton o f Little Crow, but that his skull and scalp were indeed on display the men in her life. When she tells Wal­ ing social circle, to which is added Don for a short period. These artifacts remained in bum, for example, that the Women’s Miguel Hidalgo from Mexico. Don storage until 1971 when they were returned to Reading Club has resolved that young Miguel, who is in St. Paul to seek investors Little Crow’s people. Fora description o f Little women should be educated to be able to in a gold mine, turns out to be Evelyn’s fa­ Crow’s death and later treatment of his body, earn their own living, he is shocked and ther. Evelyn and Allisto marry, honey­ see Duane Schultz, Over the Earth I Come: The Great Sioux Uprising of 1862. New York: St. hurt. He tells her that women should moon in Mexico, and return to Allisto’s Martin’s Press, 1992, pp. 273-74. “adorn the home.” Malcolm, too, “trem­ house on Dayton’s Bluff.

12 RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY Mrs. Oppenheim describes Dayton’s the major theme, of fiction up into the February 15,1920, and read an article on Bluff in 1875: 1950s. local writers who were “Breaking Into the In A Social Conspiracy, or Under the Magazines,” little did readers know that This place, removed from the din of the city, Ban, published in St. Paulin 1888, the her­ before the year was out This Side o f Para­ afforded a retreat congenial to the studies oine is a beautiful, virtuous orphaned girl dise and Main Street would make Min­ Evelyn was to pursue, while the picturesque named Pearl, who teaches music in St. nesota famous or, in the case of Main beauty of the surrounding countryside dis­ Paul. Though poor, she is not friendless; Street, infamous. “Mr. Harry Sinclair posed the mind to contemplation, and she is received among the city’s socially re­ Lewis” was described in the article as a among the occupants below was found am­ spectable set. Pearl saves file life of the writer who did not wait for inspiration to ple opportunity for the exercise of charity. governor, Cassius Kellogg. The gover­ strike, but sat down to work each day at a In regarding the nearby squatter settle­ nor’s wife sets tongues wagging against regular hour. The following paragraph ment of Swede Hollow and its objects of Pearl, who is soon dropped socially by all from the story is quoted in its entirety: charity as a real estate advantage, Mrs. but a very few close friends. Through “Mrs. Blair Flandrau, sister-in-law of Oppenheim shows herself to be an original many fast-paced turns of plot, the town Charles Macomb Flandrau, recently had thinker. discovers that the governor’s wife is guilty a story in the Saturday Evening Post. Allisto/Evelyn lacks a believable plot or of a crime committed in another city under F. Scott Fitzgerald, son of Mr. and Mrs. subtle characterization, but it is interesting another name. The governor’s wife disap­ Edward Fitzgerald of Summit Avenue, has in the knowledge of contemporary issues pears from the story, the governor marries had several stories accepted.” that its author, a young St. Paul woman, Pearl, and presumably they live happily Fitzgerald spent his formative years in displays. ever after. St. Paul, and the values and conflicts that The primary theme of the book is a surrounded his childhood and adolescence statement against social hypocrisy in St. formed the basis of his life’s work. Though The New American City Paul’s upper class. The author, Veen logo none of his novels is set in St. Paul, many By the 1880s, St. Paul, which only thirty (pseudonym ofMrs. lone Daniels), lets the of his best short stories are. In the late years earlier had been a small settlement, reader know what she thinks of the gossipy 1920s, years after Fitzgerald had become was a great city, the center of transporta­ old society hens who are so willing to fol­ an international figure, he wrote a series of tion and wholesaling for the entire North­ low power rather than integrity by ostra­ nine short stories about the adolescence of west. During the single decade of the cizing Pearl. But just below file surface lies a boy named Basil Duke Lee, who lives 1880s, the population of the city tripled, another theme, the allure of that wealth with his widowed mother in a comfortable from 41,500 people to more than 133,000. and power. Though it is her heroine’s vir­ house on Holly Avenue. In his notes to a In addition to the many thousands who tue and high-mindedness that the author collection, The Stories o f F. Scott Fitzger­ came to live in the City, many thousands wishes to reward with a happy ending, ald, Malcolm Cowley wrote: more passed through on their way to popu­ Daniels’ glittering descriptions of the He relived his boyhood in the [Basil] stories late its agricultural hinterland. governor’s horses and carriage, of houses and made little effort to disguise the fact that The overriding theme that emerges and clothes, and of fancy parties reveal he was writing autobiography. Almost ev­ from the fiction of that period is the forging that her values are not anti-materialistic. ery incident happened in life and almost ev­ of a new social order out of the chaos of Daniels is not really criticizing the game; ery character can be identified. Basil Duke values, customs, and languages those new­ she is only saying that a nice girl can play Lee was of course Fitzgerald himself; his comers brought to the city. The definition and win. friends Ripley Buckner, Bill Kempf, and of what it was to be an American, the In itself, A Social Conspiracy is a sim­ Hubert Blair were, in life and respectively, Americanization of the immigrant, and the plistic Cinderella story, but as an early lo­ Cecil Read, Paul Ballion and Reuben struggle for survival and upward mobility cal novel dealing with what will be the ma­ Warner. were powerful emotional forces in conflict jor theme of Minnesota fiction for the next with die older ideas of social class brought seventy years, social class strivings, it ac­ It is interesting to note that, however by earlier settlers from the East. quires significance and interest. Better autobiographical the Basil stories were, By the 1880s, in St. Paul as in every writers would explore that theme on many Fitzgerald avoids having to deal with his large American city outside the South, levels. F. Scott Fitzgerald, for example, father by making Basil’s mother a widow. new wealth had brought into being a new achieved lasting fame with his sophisticat­ Since the Basil stories portray St. Paul class system in which status based on sud­ ed analysis of manners and morals. And in in undisguised form, and since most of the denly acquired riches challenged status the hands of Sinclair Lewis, the exposure Summit Hill buildings of that era still based on birth or behavior. The struggle of of social hypocrisy in Minnesota would stand, it is easy for today’s reader to picture the nouveaux riches for acceptance by the win a Nobel Prize. the settings of the stories. In F. Scott Fitz­ old aristocracy, and the struggle of the up­ gerald in Minnesota, His Homes and per middle class to resemble the nouveaux Haunts, author John J. Koblas has iden­ riches, form the song and story of the era. Fitzgerald and Lewis tified the many St. Paul homes in which the Class analysis was a major theme, perhaps When St. Paul opened its Daily News on Fitzgerald family lived, along with the

RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY 13 homes of Scott’s friends and their schools, personification and perhaps the inventor of Mrs. Blair Flandrau, mentioned above, clubs, and other haunts. Koblas identifies the generation gap. was a St. Paul writer who was a contem­ the Wharton backyard in which Basil It is fortunate for local history that Fitz­ porary of Fitzgerald and Lewis; at one gathered to play as that behind the Charles gerald’s reputation as a writer rebounded time the three lived within a few blocks in W. Ames home at 501 Grand Hill. as quickly as it did from the slump that set St. Paul. Grace Hodgson Flandrau pub­ Besides the Basil stories, three other in during his later years. By the time of his lished four novels between 1917 and 1934, well-known Fitzgerald stories are set in St. death in 1940, his work was no longer all set in St. Paul and all about the search Paul: “Winter Dreams,” “The Ice Palace,” popular. In a 1950 article in Minnesota for a deeper purpose in life within the con­ and “Bernice Bobs Her Hair.” “Winter History on “Thirty Years of Minnesota fines of St. Paul society. Dreams,” a story about the love of a Fiction,” the critic John T. Flanagan The daughter of Edward and Mary Sta­ grocer’s son for a wealthy, spoiled girl, summed him up thusly: “Serious effort has ples Hodgson, Grace Flandrau was bom in prefigures the theme of The Great Gatsby. recently been made to rehabilitate Fitzger­ St. Paul in the late 1880s. (The exact date It is set in the summer colony at White Bear ald’s fame; still there seems to be small rea­ is debated.) The family lived at 518 Day- Lake. son for disturbing his position as a clever ton Avenue. The house is still standing, In “The Ice Palace” a southern girl, Sal­ and bright chronicler of an age which most and it demonstrates that the Hodgsons ly Carroll Happer, comes to St. Paul at people are quite willing to let die.” were prosperous, though not perhaps Winter Carnival time to meet the family of Wrong, Flanagan. By 1960 college stu­ among the city’s wealthiest families. her fiance, Harry Bellamy. Harry explains dents were reading him again, and by 1975 From the age of twelve to seventeen, St. Paul to Sally: “You’ll notice a lot of his picture was on T-shirts. Flandrau was sent to Paris to a school she things that’ll seem to you sort of vulgar dis­ Sinclair Lewis never set an entire novel later remembered as rather mediocre.* In play at first, Sally Carroll; but just remem­ in St. Paul, though occasional passages 1909, she married William Blair Flan­ ber that this is a three-generation town. take place there. In Main Street, Carol drau, son of prominent St. Paul Judge Everybody has a father, and about half of Kennicott works briefly at the St. Paul Charles E. Flandrau and brother of the us have grandfathers. Back of that we don’t Public Library before Dr. Kennicott per­ writer Charles Macomb Flandrau. Grace go-” suades her to marry him and go off to Go­ joined Blair on his coffee plantation near The climate and manners are twin sym­ pher Prairie. During their St. Paul court­ Jalapa, Mexico, where they lived until bols of alien culture to Sally Carroll. She ship, they take walks and gaze out over the 1916. Forced by the Mexican Revolution faces the cold and snow bravely, but at her river valley. Lewis himself was very sensi­ to leave, they returned to St. Paul to live first St. Paul party the cultural climate tive to the landscape and history of the city, with Blair’s brother Charles in the old seems even chillier to her. Fitzgerald but his characters were thinking only of Flandrau mansion at 385 Pleasant Avenue. wrote: themselves, so the city does not play an im­ Grace Flandrau’s first novel, Cousin portant role in the book. Julia, is the story of a hard-working St. In the South an engaged girl, even a young In one of Lewis’ last works, The God- Paul businessman Jim Bradford, his married woman, expected the same amount Seeker,a naive New England carpenter, domineering manipulating wife Julia, and of half-affectionate badinage and flattery Aaron Gadd, goes as a missionary to the their daughters Louise and Virginia. Jim that would be accorded a debutante, but here Dakota Indians at Bois des Morts, a Pres- pays the bills and obeys his wife’s instruc­ all that seemed banned. One young man, af­ byterian-Congregationalist mission sta­ tions as she firmly engineers the family’s ter getting well started on the subject of Sal­ tion near today’s western Minnesota bor­ rise in social status. Virginia, who is ly Carroll’s eyes, and how they had allured der. In 1849, disillusioned with proselety- adopted, loves a French marquis, but Julia him ever since she entered the room, went zing the Indians, Aaron flees to St. Paul secures his marriage to her biological into a violent confusion when he found she with Selene Lanark, the half-breed daugh­ daughter, Louise, by telling the marquis was visiting the Bellamys-was Harry’s ter of the local fur baron, to marry and start that Louise will inherit the family money. fiancee. He seemed to feel as though he had a new life as a carpenter. Though Lewis Louise’s marriage is unhappy. Virginia made some risque and inexcusable blunder, was very near the end of his life when he finally realizes that the marquis married became immediately formal, and left her at wrote The God-Seeker, the sardonic old her sister for money. After a period of dis­ the first opportunity. moralist had not lost his touch, as he illusionment, Virginia settles for marriage After becoming lost and nearly frozen demonstrates in his telling of the Gadds’ to a nice, rich, boring man. at the Ice Palace, Sally Carroll has had life in 1850s St. Paul, “this land of prom­ In Cousin Julia, Flandrau introduces a enough of St. Paul and its ways. She breaks ise, which is soon to teem with the wheels theme which will appear in all her novels: the engagement and goes back to Georgia. of commerce, the palaces of the wealthy the loneliness of an intelligent and/or All of Fitzgerald’s St. Paul stories deal and the bellyaching of the poor.” talented person in stifling, conventional St. with youth discovering their personal identity through relationships with other Other Writers *Flandrau interview with her friend, Min­ young people. Fitzgerald believed that Besides the two giants, there were many neapolis writer Brenda Ueland. “Among Those people of his generation were really differ­ other writers who dealt with various We Know, ” in Golfer and Sportsman, vol. 15, ent from previous generations; he was the aspects of class and Americanization. no. 91 (December, 1934) p. 26.

14 RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY Paul society. That lonely person is usually tect their name and bails him out. Dick and a woman, but some of her male characters Rita gratefully withdraw into the family, also feel vague longings and spiritual dis­ chastened by their glimpse of what life contents with their workaday lives. It is in­ could be like outside that secure, respecta­ teresting to note that the same theme ap­ ble fold. pears in Main Street among characters at a Flandrau published her last novel, In­ lower economic level. Would Carol Ken- deed This Flesh, in 1934. In it, Will Quane nicott’s life have been very different if, in­ is a St. Paul businessman whose wife Mar­ stead of marrying Dr. Kennicott and en­ tha is not very intelligent and lacks social tombing herself in Gopher Prairie, she had grace. The novel depicts the bitterness of stayed in St. Paul and married one of Grace marriage between unequal minds as Mar­ Flandrau’s wealthy male characters? tha’s inadequacies destroy all Will’s efforts Flandrau’s second novel, Being Re­ to improve himself personally and social­ spectable, created a stir in St. Paul when it ly, shallow and misjudged as some of those was published in 1923. A full-page story in efforts are. Flandrau shows sympathy and the Pioneer Press for January 21, 1923, understanding toward both parties in this was headlined, “St. Paul Society Furnishes unhappy marriage. Indeed This Flesh is set Characters for New Novel by Mrs. Flan- in a period from the 1880s to about 1910. drau; City’s Institutions, Localities are In her last novel, Flandrau shows a wi­ Called by Right Names; Author’s Aliases dened range of interests and a deepened Not Complete Veil to Identities of Persons Park. “In Columbia,” Flandrau wrote, power to depict characters and events out­ Named.” An example of Flandrau’s veiled “people did not sacrifice bravely and beau­ side her own social circle. Martha’s in­ identities is the mention of a madam named tifully to impractical passions. They did terests allow Flandrau to introduce com­ Anna Gifford. And as if that weren’t not even have them. At most they cheated mon people, and Will’s business trips enough excitement, Warner Brothers a little now and then, when opportunity around the Northwest allow the author to made a movie based on the book, starring offered.” explore thwarted lives in dreary little Monte Blue. Flandrau’s picture of Jazz Age St. Paul towns far from Summit Avenue. Flandrau Being Respectable is set in Columbia offers a fascinating contrast to that of her rarely notes the personalities of any but her (St. Paul) in the early 1920s. Darius Car­ neighbor, F. Scott Fitzgerald. While he upper class characters. There are maids, penter is a rich and respectable widower casts a shimmering glamour over those coachmen, waiters, and cigar store clerks who lives on lower Summit Avenue. His dinners and dances at the club, with his in her books, but they are stick figures. three children, Charles, Louisa, and De­ protagonist outside longing to be on the in­ They have names like Katy, Selma, or borah, are devoted to their vigorous social side, Flandrau’s main character is inside Lars, but no human dimensions. Only in lives, so the book contains many scenes of and likely to be a little bored. her last book did she even begin to deal their constant round of dinner parties, In Entranced, Flandrau continues the with such characters as people. dances at the University Club, ladies’ theme of the conflict between personal It is significant for local history that luncheons, shopping, etc. identity and social form. Dick and Rita none of Flandrau’s major characters have Charles and Louisa are married, Mallory are a brother and sister who were Irish names, and none of her female Charles to a refined Eastern girl who raised apart because of their parents’ di­ characters seem to know any political would prefer to spend more evenings at vorce. Rita comes to St. Paul to attend her figures socially. If her men know the may­ home, and Louisa to a businessman whom brother’s wedding to Lydia Harrison, or or members of the City Council, they she ignores. Deborah is an intelligent, daughter of a wealthy family in the “job­ see them only for business reasons and idealistic young woman searching for bing” business. She meets Lydia’s brother never mention them at home. Darius Car­ something to do with her life. She thinks Gordon and marries him. penter makes one of Flandrau’s few refer­ about going to college, but doesn’t. She Dick and Rita are happy in their marri­ ences to the political life of St. Paul when does some volunteer work, but without a ages, but both occasionally feel there must he says, “Oh, that City Hall crowd! Just a sense of commitment. She flits discontent­ be more to life. Rita flirts with disaster by bunch of crooks.” edly from one interest to another. “You almost slipping into an affair, but she con­ Why are the works of Sinclair Lewis had to do something. They all had to do siders the consequences of leaving a and F. Scott Fitzgerald still popular while something, these women and girls of wealthy husband who loves her, and draws those of Grace Flandrau, though still very Columbia with their empty hours and fat back. Dick creates a crisis by secretly in­ readable, are known to few? The contrast bank accounts.” vesting in a hat factory in Anoka, contrary today between Flandrau’s reputation and Charles and Louisa’s husband Philip to his agreement with his father-in-law that that of Lewis and Fitzgerland is probably enter into extramarital affairs, Charles he will make no individual investments fair. Compared to Lewis, her human sym­ with a woman of their own set, Philip with outside the family interest. He loses a lot of pathies and understanding are narrow. Her a poor young woman who lives in Hazel money, but the family closes ranks to pro­ themes and treatments are very similar to

RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY 15 those of Fitzgerald, but his work is crafted leisured sisters. She tricks an Amiot pro­ a police reporter for the St. Paul Dispatch- with an elegance she never approached. As fessor’s son into marriage by telling him Pioneer Press when his first novel was social history, however, her work is more she is pregnant. When she discovers that published by Doubleday in 1947. In Eagle valuable than ever for its documentation of the family, who seemed rich to her naive at My Eyes, Joe, son of an immigrant Jew­ the aridity of life for upper class women of eyes, is really making a genteel appear­ ish family and reporter on the St. Paul pa­ that era. ance on very little money, she feels cheat­ per, meets gentile Mary when she comes in Mabel Seeley was the author of several ed. The family interest in books and good to put a social announcement in the paper. novels set in Minnesota, including a num­ manners, the sister-in-law who plays Bach He takes her to the Rice Street Festival. ber of detective stories, and she wrote two on the piano, the ladies’ club - all are a total When Joe’s family learns of his love for books, The Listening House and Woman of Mary, they put him under intense pressure Property, with St. Paul settings. Neither to break off the relationship. book conveys a strong sense of place, but After a stormy courtship, Joe and Mary Woman o f Property remains a vivid story. elope but their marriage is troubled by With the addition of a little charm, Joe’s internal conflicts and his inability to Frieda Schlemke, the heroine of Woman of accept Mary’s family’s reception of him. Property, might have been Scarlett He is constantly alert to anti-Semitism, and O’Hara, but because Seeley gives us a he rebuffs overtures from Mary’s friends darkly realistic picture of vulgar, grasping and family. Joe’s friend and mentor at the Frieda, Woman o f Property is no Gone newspaper tells him he has a “persecution With the Wind. While the reader knows complex.” Joe and Mary stay together, but that Scarlett is selling herself for money, it the novel lacks artistic resolution. is possible to be amused by the process, but Eagle at My Eyes is difficult to evaluate Frieda’s cold use of lust wipes the smile off because the author’s intention is not clear. the reader’s face. The pleasure to be der- " Is this story meant to be a realistic picture ived from Woman o f Property lies in of anti-Semitic prejudice in St. Paul, or is recognition of its psychological and social it a psychological study of a young man realism whose overreaction to bigotry causes him As the story opens in 1889, Frieda, mental health problems? daughter of a German barber in Northfield The chilling portrait of Joe’s mother is (called West Haven in the book) is fourteen but one example of the novel’s ambiguity. and working as a stockroom girl in the em­ Norman Katkov. St. Paul Dispatch- She is a harridan to whom the marriage of porium of Junius B. Hake. In the store, Pioneer Press photo. a child to a non-Jew is the equivalent of Frieda’s eyes begin to open to social class death. The scenes in which she teaches her differences. “All her life she had kept away children her hatred and paranoia are realis­ from those Other People of the tow n-the bore to Frieda. tic and frightening. Joe treats his mother Americans, the people who Had Things, Eventually, with her two spoiled chil­ with respect, but Katkov does not make it the people who made the judgements, the dren and her only remaining friend, the clear whether he does so just because she people who set the form. Now, however, seamstress Rozzie Balik, the divorced is his mother, or because Joe really has no she wanted to go where she could see, feel Frieda moves to St. Paul, leaving behind idea how pathological her influence is. and know what made them different from her all the people who know her for what Such a situation in an immigrant of any re­ herself.” she is. In St. Paul, Frieda opens a dress ligion or nationality does not stretch the In Frieda’s experience, people who shop based on Rozzie’s talents and be­ limits of realism, but Katkov’s presenta­ worked hard were poor, so she deduces comes a great success, eventually to be tion lacks artistic versimilitude. that the key to becoming an upper class brought down by her own faults of charac­ While not very good as a novel, Eagle person is not to work, necessary as that ter. Frieda learned to dress well, but she at My Eyes is a reminder of ho w popular in might be, but to look like an upper class never learned the ethical and behavioral the postwar world were the issues it raises. person. Frieda’s first halting efforts to im­ basis of real class. After World War II, ecumenical and inter­ prove her appearance, and her discovery racial organizations became very active in that a corseted figure is essential to social Minority Groups in Fiction St. Paul, and fighting prejudice attracted respectability, are touching, but she gra­ St. Paul’s fascinating array of racial and increasing support. Politics became not dually loses the reader’s sympathy. Her national groups has yet to be used fully by only respectable, but a means of upward employer notes her shrewdness and ener­ novelists. There have been a number of mobility in itself. Social class issues, in the gy, and she soon moves up in the store. novels set in St. Paul’s Jewish community, sense that Fitzgerald and Flandrau knew West Haven has two colleges, Amiot but the dramatic histories of other groups them, had begun to fade just before the (Carleton) and St. Ansgar’s (St. Olaf). lie waiting for the right author. war, and vanished into irrelevancy after Frieda envies the playful students and their Norman Katkov, a St. Paul native, was the election of John F. Kennedy.

16 RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY Back to Norman Katkov. In his second doesn’t stop. book, A Little Sleep, A Little Slumber, he Knute Nelson and Ignatius Donnelly, gains his voice. His second novel is a however, do appear. Nelson is a young touching and beautifully written tribute to lawyer who comes over from Alexandria an immigrant father and to family love and to the fictional town of Gumbo to defend loyalty. Lev Simon brings his wife Sarah Scandinavians who can’t speak English, to and baby Joe through many perils from help them become citizens, and to organize Russia to Canada and over the border ille­ them to vote. When Sven Opsahl, the gally to join relatives in St. Paul’s West fictional Gumbo newspaper editor, be­ Side ghetto. There Lev works hard and has comes active in the Farmers’ Alliance and three more sons. He begins as a pushcart is elected to the Minnesota House of peddler, starts a fruit and produce store, Representatives, he and the reader meet and sends his sons to the university, living Donnelly. Benson shows Donnelly as a all the while under the shadow of his illegal spellbinding orator and prime manipulator entry. Suffice it to say that he eventually in the legislature, but he shows Sven becomes a citizen in a great scene set in the doubting Donnelly’s sincerity. Thus, Ben­ old Federal Courts Building, now Land­ son enmeshes himself in a problem com­ mark Center. mon to writers who mix real and fictional You don’t have to be Jewish to love this characters: Is Sven’s opinion of Donnelly story. Many St. Paulites would not be here his own or Benson’s? Governor Floyd B. Olson. Minnesota today if it weren’t for an ancestor like Lev, When Sven comes to St. Paul for the Historical Society photo. and many readers will see their own grand­ legislative session in about 1890, the old fathers in his courage and devotion to his Merchant’s Hotel is still the center of polit­ family. Readers will enjoy, too, the ical intrigue. Sven can’t afford to stay settings-the fruit store, the pool hall, the there, but he joins in the meetings at the events, including the Villard celebration in old Farmers’ Market, the streetcars, the bar. At that time the hotel had recently in­ 1883, and the festivities upon completion steep hill where the kids slide on Isabel stalled central heating and removed the of the Great Northern in 1893. Ryder’s Street. As a result of urban renewal, most stoves from the rooms. Sven is amazed to work as a railroad lawyer also makes natu­ of the houses and streets on the West Side find newspaper reporters listening at the ral the introduction of material relating to in this story are only a memory. stovepipe holes in rooms next to political legislation and legal battles connected with kingpins. railroad development in Minnesota. Real Characters in Fiction A different picture of Ignatius Donnel­ Lucien is invited to view Hill’s famed Some legendary characters in Minnesota ly, as a great man, appears in Oscar M. art collection. He is impressed by the mag­ history were so fascinating that authors Sullivan’s North Star Sage, the Story of nate’s gallery in his great new house and by have tried to capture their personalities in Ignatius Donnelly. The novel’s main the taste his collection evinces. Lucien has fiction. If the author tries to keep the real character is Herman Theobald, editor of been told that Hill’s Barbizon paintings individual on the fictional stage for more the Hastings newspaper. By focusing on “surpass the collections in Boston and New than a short appearance in his or her public the fictional editor’s life and by letting the York.” More paintings actually owned by role, artistic and historical problems arise. editor follow Donnelly’s career closely, Hill are mentioned by title as Lucien But for readers looking for historic rather Sullivan is able to introduce several “in studies them intently. Lucien’s visit is end­ than literary value, even unsuccessful at­ person” appearances by Donnelly while ed by the arrival of Archbishop Ireland tempts to delineate real people and events avoiding the problem of mingling fact and who has dropped in to chat with Hill. can be very interesting. And because St. fiction. Donnelly’s house in Nininger was Other aspects of St. Paul life enter the Paul is the state capital and the ultimate still standing when this novel was pub­ story through Genevieve Sinclair, the arena of Minnesota politics, many of the lished in 1953, so the description of its in­ “modem” girl Lucien marries. Genevieve state’s prominent characters show up in St. terior, as seen by Theobald on a visit to the lives with her mother on Crocus Hill, is a Paul in fiction as they did in real life. Sage, is valuable today. graduate of the University of Minnesota In Hill Country, the Story of James J. Sullivan uses the same technique in The (where she was a great admirer of Maria Hill, Ramsey Benson keeps Hill before the Empire Builder, a Biographical Novel of Sanford), and is a volunteer social worker reader as a legendary presence in the lives the Life o f James J. Hill. Hill enters on­ for Associated Charities. Lucien is dis­ of the farmers and smalltown residents stage from time to time, but the main turbed by the fact that Genevieve actually who live along the railroad. The book’s character is Lucien Ryder, a young lawyer visits the homes of the poor in the Con­ fictional characters talk about Hill fre­ who works for Hill and lives in Lower- nemara Patch and on the Upper Levee, but quently, but they and the reader never meet town. As the young man goes about his life she stoutly defends the usefulness of what him in person. A train, said to be carrying and work, Sullivan takes him to the Winter she does. She tells Lucien about her work­ the great man, roars through town but it Carnival, concerts, plays, and major civic ing day with its “numerous calls in the

RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY 17 households of want, of suffering and mis­ has a go at Floyd B. Olson in Last Ditch published in 1896, a generation before ery accompanied by much hard thinking Stand, a roman a clef wherein Olson ap­ Prohibition began. The Boss o f the Ward is about what should be done in each in­ pears as Governor Hank Lund. It’s all set forth as fiction, but it lacks a plot or stance, and followed by a great deal of run­ there—the teamsters’ strike, the relation­ character development, none of which ning around to see church and lodge ship with FDR, the sexual innuendoes, the detracts from its interest. It pictures St. officials, employers, and similar sources political dirty tricks, the death from can­ Paul as a city “where the Democratic Party of help.” It is unclear whether the attitudes cer, and the real political leadership and held the balance of power but could show toward the poor expressed here are Sul­ idealism-but the book is so badly written you the descendants of half a dozen Irish livan’s own or those of the characters, but that it is painful to read. In addition to kings serving as aldermen, with a cor­ the picture of the social worker’s attempts clumsy writing, McGovern yields glimp­ responding number of subjects on the po­ to change the feckless behavior of the Con­ ses of a love-hate attitude toward his hero. lice force.” nemara Irish reveals an attitude bred deep Old pols say that, aside from the ro­ As Vandiver demonstrates, the system in St. Paul history. mance with the wife of the president of the of harboring criminals in St. Paul began Through Genevieve, Lucien becomes Citizens Association, the incidents in this long before John Dillinger took up resi­ interested in social problems and is elected book are largely true; thus, the book has dence. Vandiver describes the way things to the board of Associated Charities. He value for its place in Minnesota folklore. were done in St. Paul in 1896: later serves on the Unemployment and But the lesson of Last Ditch Stand is, if The chief calls the crook into his office and Housing committees of the Association of you’ve got gossip this good, just tell it. says to him—‘Here, your name is So-and- Commerce, in a St. Paul that begins to Don’t try to get it across through fiction. So. I know you, and I know your graft. You resemble the city of today. Near the end of can stay here, and have as good a time as you the book we see Hill working on plans for The Bad Old Days can find here. But! The first crooked move his great library. Back in 1893, according St. Paulites today seem to take great in­ you make in this town Fll throw you in the to Sullivan, Hill had tried to get the city terest, and even a little pride, in the city’s sweat box and keep you there until I find out fathers of St. Paul to fund a public library reputation for corruption and violence where all you are wanted. Git!’ rather than the railroad celebration, but during Prohibition days. Saint Mudd, by they had preferred the party. Steve Thayer, is the story of newspaper The fund raised by the local system of Another of Minnesota’s legendary columnist Grover Mudd and his attempt to corruption, wrote Vandiver, “amounts to figures is Floyd B. Olson, but so far Olson pin the goods on the gangsters, crooked about $75,000 a year, and it is divided has not been well served by his fictional ap­ cops, and venal politicians who ruled St. about as follows: for the next campaign pearances. In fact, in 1934 he was the sub­ Paul when Prohibition was ending and the fund, $20,000 ($10,000 a year); the mayor ject of a fictional diatribe. Thirty Years depression was beginning. The Hamm and gets $7,500 a year; captains and detectives fromNow, a novelette published in St. Paul Bremer kidnappings, the Hollyhocks $1,000 each ($8,000); chief of detectives in 1934 by its author, Robert C. Emery, Club, the shoot-out at Dillinger’s apart­ $2,500; chairman of the city committee who was obviously to the right politically ment, and early FBI involvement are $6,000; police court judge $2,000; city from Olson, is set in 1964. John Hansen, among the well-known pieces of local his­ clerk $1,500; recorder or clerk of the po­ who worked for the election of Olson in tory featured in Mudd’s daily rounds as a lice court $2,000; mayor’s private secre­ 1934, has been away from Minnesota for newspaperman. The author has taken tary, whatever he can steal. The balance is thirty years, and he is looking forward some liberties with history, such as the ap­ divided among the aldermen, ward com­ with pleasure to visiting his old home. He pearance of the famous madam Nina mittees, influential organizers and party is a little surprised to find that the railroad Clifford. She actually had died four years workers upon an equitable system.” will sell him a ticket only to Hudson, Wis­ before this novel begins in 1933, but her At the time Vandiver wrote his book, a consin. Minnesota has its own railroad role in the story works as fiction. system of ethnic politics later perfected in system, he is told. Thayer spent years researching the Chicago seems to have prevailed in St. When the passengers reach Hudson, period, and he does a good job of recreat­ Paul. He discusses the “race (nationality) they disembark, cross the bridge, and are ing the way the streets and buildings question” in Minnesota politics: frisked by armed guards. Money and pos­ looked at that time. This is St. Paul before Of the foreign vote in Minnesota, for in­ sessions are taken from them before they air conditioning and urban renewal—when stance, there is probably the ratio of 90 board the Minnesota train. Hansen finds a lot of its rooms were lit by a single un­ Swedes, 85 Norwegians, 60 Germans, and that “ala Leningrad, the name of Min­ shaded bulb hanging from the middle of 40 Irish. Of these the Swedes are all Repub­ neapolis has been changed to Olsonia.” the ceiling, when characters could get licans, while the Irish are all Democrats. Hansen spends some time in St. Paul and around town easily on public transporta­ The majority of Germans are Democrats, elsewhere in the state, and after many tion, when the present city hall was new. while the majority of Norwegians are amusing (to us, not to Emery) incidents, he Those who think that it was Prohibition Republicans. Now any man not familiar escapes from the totalitarian soviet state of that brought corruption to St. Paul will be with the practical workings of politics Minnesota over the border to Iowa. surprised by J. S. Vandiver’s The Boss o f Another author, Sylvester McGovern, the Ward, A Story o f Municipal Politics, Novelist to page 24

18 RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY Novelist from page 18 temporaries, but it differs from the actual feminist writer because she had no politi­ facts of their lives in many significant cal construct within which to place her would expect to see the offices divided in ways. characters’ problems. Flandrau seems to about the same ratio. But they are not. The Dennis McElroy is an idealistic Catho­ have identified herself politically as a 85 Norwegians will get twice as many lic politician. (But he isn’t witty, so how WASP and a Republican, not as a woman. offices as the 90 Swedes, and the 40 Irish­ could he be Eugene McCarthy?) His wife Her female characters have no notion, nor, men will get three times as many offices as Mary Anne is the daughter of the wealthy does it appear, did Flandrau herself that the 85 Norwegians. In politics the Nor­ Rileys from Capital City (St. Paul). Den­ there was any connection between their wegian is the Irishman of the Scandinavian nis attended St. Andrew’s, clearly St. problems and those of working class wom­ races. John’s University, and the ties made there en. Her wealthy women characters com­ remain critical to his career and to the de­ plain a lot. Flandrau identifies their prob­ Vandiver dedicated his book to his dog, velopment of the plot. lem as boredom. with apologies for mentioning its name in Powerful themes abound in the life of the same breath with politicians. any city, and they lie unused until someone Themes in St. Paul Fiction sees the story in them. For example, there Relatively Recent Times The social history of St. Paul since white must be at least one dramatic epic, a thrill­ Norman Katkov left St. Paul about the time settlement spans more than 150 years. One er or two, and a nice domestic comedy in his second novel was published and later of the benefits of reading the fiction set in the unwritten history of the Irish in St. became a Los Angeles television writer that period is a greater understanding of Paul. St. Paul’s African American commu­ and the biographer of Fanny Brice. Years the city’s culture as we know it today. In nity boasts famous artists, heroes of the la­ later he published one more St. Paul story, existing St. Paul fiction, some themes and bor movement, and respected families Eric Mattson. Set in the Twin Cities about topics occur frequently, others not at all; who have lived in the city for many genera­ 1960, Eric Mattson is a “doctor book,” a and some themes appear in fiction which tions. There has to be a story there. The very popular genre at the time. have been little explored by serious two great domes that overlook St. Paul ap­ Eric is a resident in surgery at the historians. pear in many books as beloved features of university hospital, and he works nights as A frequent theme of St. Paul novels be­ the landscape, but no novelist has tackled a police surgeon riding around St. Paul in fore 1950 involves social and economic the theme they symbolize, the develop­ the police ambulance. Katkov must have conflict between Yankees and immigrant ment of Minnesota’s renowned tradition of been a good reporter; his masterful control groups. These conflicts play out in such civil liberty. over his huge set of interrelated charac- plots as: sensitive, intelligent immigrant Critics have often said that historical ters-the cops, the doctors, the nurses, the struggles toward a goal while suffering be­ writing is a kind of fiction for, however reporters, the newspaper owners, the ing looked down upon by natural inferiors diligently a historian may seek perfect in­ governor and his aides, the desk clerk at who happen to be WASPs and therefore clusiveness and perfect objectivity, the die Chippewa (Ryan) hotel-m ust surely consider themselves superior; or, im­ historical story must be based on selection have come from tracking them in real life migrant parents and their children suffer and validation of existing data. The work as a reporter. pain as die parents try unsuccessfully to of the most balanced historian will inevita­ Except for some key details, Eric Matt­ keep their children from being Ameri­ bly reflect to some extent the interests of son could be set today. Recognizably con­ canized. The immigrant experience loses the author. The fiction writer, on the other temporary, for example, are the internal its tension about 1950 as the members of hand, cultivates idiosyncratic vision. In politics at the university hospital or the the last great immigrant wave begin to die, the work of great historians and great way the governor handles the media. But and this change in focus is reflected in novelists alike, somewhere in the creative the tip-off that this book was set more than fiction being written at that time. process must occur a congruence of factual thirty years ago is the role of women. The image of the businessman-as ad­ analysis and imagination. There are no women doctors or medical mirable builder, as rapacious exploiter of students at the university; only one report­ people and resources, or as Babbitt- NOTE: Readers will find copies of the er and none of the lawyers are women; and appears often in the nineteenth and books mentioned in this article in the col­ not one middle-class married woman in twentieth-century fiction. The real people lections of the Minnesota Historical Socie­ this story has a job. behind those images and the important role ty or the St. Paul Public Library. When McElroy was published in 1980, they played in history have been neglected several reviewers were critical because by professional historians. And the grip­ Frances Sontag holds a master o f arts de­ they considered it a clay-footed picture of ping drama of local government and poli­ gree in library science from the University Eugene McCarthy. It is true that the au­ tics in St. Paul has been almost totally ig­ o f Minnesota and has a serious interest in thor, Marvin R. O’Connell, knew McCar­ nored by historians. local history. She is principal assistant to thy, and that the story bears many similari­ The most prolific St. Paul writer on the Ramsey County Commissioner Ruby Hunt. ties to the lives and backgrounds of theme of women’s lives was Grace Flan- McCarthy, his wife Abigail, and their con­ drau, though she could hardly be called a

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