Despite the radio silence on my part and this website, scholarship on Sonia has not wavered. In this special post, I wanted to highlight an article recently published in The Fossil, and newly discovered newspaper clippings, all of which adds another layer to the portrait of Sonia. Additionally, I’ll conclude the post with an update on An Ardent Recruit.
The Horror at Martin’s Beach
One evening while walking along this esplanade—the full moon reflecting its light in the water, a peculiar and unusual noise heard at a distance as of a loud snorting and grunting, the shimmering light forming a moon-path on the water, the round tops of the submerged piles in the water exposed a rope connecting them like a huge spider’s web—gave the vivid imagination full play for an interesting, weird tale.
Two Hearts That Beat as One, Sonia H. Davis, p. 99.
The object was some fifty feet in length, of roughly cylindrical shape, and about ten feet in diameter. It was unmistakably a gilled fish in its major affiliations; but with certain curious modifications, such as rudimentary forelegs and six-toed feet in place of pectorial fins, which prompted the widest speculation. Its extraordinary mouth, its thick and scaly hide, and its single, deep-set eye were wonders scarcely less remarkable than its colossal dimensions…
“The Invisible Monster”, Sonia H. Greene, H.P. Lovecraft, Something About Cats and Other Pieces, 1949, pp. 19–20.
The invisible monster in “The Horror at Martin’s Beach” has rarely been dissected in terms of scholarship. Even Sonia, when describing the night which inspired the story, failed to reveal what animal had caused the loud snorting and grunting sounds. “Sonia Greene and the Cape Ann Sea Serpent” by David Goudsward is the answer to the mystery. Despite the short length, the article fantastically compares and contrasts the Invisible Monster to the Cape Ann Sea Serpent. Not wishing to give too much away though, I believe the story needed this kind of analysis for some time, and with David’s knowledge in cryptozoology, the article brings a fresh perspective to “The Horror at Martin’s Beach”.
The newspaper was to Sonia, and to others of her time, what social media is to us. The newspaper was not only a platform for breaking news and/or information about current events, but it was also a space where the locals could announce or advertise to others. It was through newspaper clippings that we were able to learn what really happened between Racille and Solomon Moseson. [Rachel Moseson]. It’s the same way we’re getting to know Sonia as well, beyond the confines of her marriage to H.P. Lovecraft. There are periods in Sonia’s life that are still unaccounted for, much of which she remained silent about in her autobiographical writings.
The following clippings shed insight on Sonia in 1930 after her divorce from Lovecraft, and in 1935, when she was then living in California. A huge thank you to Bobby Derie for finding the clippings and sharing them with me.
Transcript:
“HAND PAINTED CARDS for all occasions. Sonia Greene, 368 E. 17th St. Flatbush 5632.” Brooklyn Eagle, Brooklyn, New York, Fri, Apr 25, 1930, page 29. [Newspaper.com]
Transcript:
Noisy, Needless ‘Extras’
“From time to time the streets of the Ditmas Park section are aroused late at night or just before midday on Sundays with “Extras” hawked by newsmen that are neither important nor interesting enough to warrant such nerve-wracking alarm at a time when the neighborhood is entitled to peace and quiet.
At 11 o’clock Sunday morning newsmen for another paper were shouting the “Extra” that I had already read both in the Times and the Brooklyn Eagle at a much earlier hour.
Cannot some measure be taken to check this needless attack by newsmen upon peaceful, quiet neighborhoods? Besides alarming the neighborhood needlessly it is an imposition that obtains money under false pretenses. I trust it can be curbed in the future.” Sonia H. Greene, Brooklyn Eagle, Brooklyn, New York, Wed, Jun 25, 1930, page 18. [Newspaper.com]
Transcript:
“MILLINERY—Hats of the highest grade imported, velour soleil, velvet or French felt, made to fit your head; copied after original models; also your own hats cleaned, blocked and remodeled equal to new at very reasonable prices, Sonia Greene, 809 Ocean ave., near Cortelyou rd. Flatbush 5632, Apt. 1-D” The Brooklyn Citizen, Brooklyn, New York, Sat, Oct 11, 1930, page 9. [Newspaper.com]
“The current events class of the Redondo Union Evening high school is to hear a talk on “National Progress” by Mrs. Sonia H. Greene, of the Utopian’s speakers bureau, in the library, tonight at 7 o’clock.
Everyone is cordially invited to attend this class, which is instructed by Miss Alma Squires. Many speakers have enlightened the students on current economical problems during the past semester. Mrs. Greene is one of the outstanding speakers of the Utopian society and consequently is expected to bring a message of vital importance to everyone.” The Daily Breeze, Torrance, California, Thu, Apr 25, 1935, page 2. [Newspaper.com]
An Ardent Recruit
With Two Hearts That Beat as One now being in the wild, the natural course was to begin the next book, An Ardent Recruit. An Ardent Recruit focuses on Sonia’s contributions to amateur journalism. Seven months into the writing process, I wish I was further along in the manuscript than where I’m at currently. However, the journey has been interesting, especially as materials emerge along the way, bringing more depth to the overall progress. The following image is the table of contents for the book, and while some of the chapter titles may be subjected to change, the order in which the information will be presented will remain the same.
I’m wrapping up Chapter 1.2, taking on additional reading to supply extra particulars to the chapter. I would like to clarify, though, An Ardent Recruit will not give an in-depth history on amateur journalism. I’m providing a bare-bones summary to give context. By understanding some key historical moments of amateur journalism, we can then understand the struggles of what Sonia dealt with as a participant in publishing her journal and later as president.
An Ardent Recruit is still very much in its infancy stage, but once the bulk of the historical context is written, the rest of the writing should be relatively easy. I will certainly post an update on the next milestone.
Although 2025 is halfway over, considerable progress has been made for Sonia this year. As much as I try to give Sonia some renown of her own outside of her association with Lovecraft, it’s through that very relationship which has kept her from falling into complete obscurity. As long as there’s interest in Lovecraft, so will there be for Sonia.
It has been a pleasure to speak of all this. Ordinarily I do not believe in living in the past and seldom speak of IT.
Sonia H. Davis to Sidney and Florence Moseson, and Leonore [Moseson] Goldberg, August 25, 1964, Autobiographical Writings, Box 9, Folder 1, John Hay Library, Providence, RI.
Goodbye 2024
The end of the year is always a time of remembrance—remembering what was gained, what was lost, or what never came to be. For someone who bullet journals, I am always referring back to my yearly goals page at the end of the year. Last year I divided my annual goals into Scholarly, Literary, and Personal categories, which I did again this year. For 2024, I had four goals for the scholarly section, three of which I’ll break down for this month’s post, and what that means for the new year in Sonia scholarship.
Goal 1: “Finish transcribing Sonia’s essays.”
While I was editing Two Hearts That Beat as One, I was also transcribing Sonia’s essays. The first essay I transcribed was on October 4, 2022, and the last was on June 3, 2024. In that span of time, I’ve transcribed 71 essays in total, which comprise of 4 fragments, 46 essays (9 of which are duplicates with variations, and 1 that was published in The Rainbow (Vol. 2) as “Commercialism—The Curse of Art”), and 21 book reviews and miscellaneous writings. While tedious work, transcribing her essays was also beneficial, since many of the essays helped strengthened the autobiography and several posts on this blog.
Goal 2: “post once a month in the blog.”
With the exception of July, (a month of rest from the blog), I’ve posted every month this year. While I’m proud of the research this blog provided in 2023, I think the topics of 2024 were extremely fascinating to present. We had unique posts such as “What is this Phenomenon?” and “Lot #45119” which presented scans of the original draft of ThePsychic Phenomenon of Love and never before seen photos of Sonia’s entire passport. Then we had biographical sketches which magnified certain phases of Sonia’s life, such as her relationship with Florence Carol Greene, her correspondence with both Samuel Loveman and Alfred Galpin, her time as a historical researcher, and her friendship with a Korean spy, Kilsoo Kenneth Haan. The posts of 2024 were a remarkable bunch that covered an array of points that normally get overlooked in her life.
Goal 3: “Draft and finish Sonia on Amateur Journalism.”
I felt called this year to focus on Sonia’s contribution to Amateur Journalism, especially after my two-part posts, “Amateurdom and the Editor” and “Amateurdom of the Editor”, last year. After those posts, I felt there was more to say about it and so I’ve decided to expand the subject into a full length book called, An Ardent Recruit. For the majority of the year, I’ve studied amateur journalism and its history, reading book after book. This has taken up so much time that I haven’t had the chance to write the rough draft yet. Not all was lost, though. A short sample was published by The Fossils in their July issue: The Fossil, Vol. 120, No. 4, Whole No. 400.
Since I was using an advanced PDF copy of Two Hearts That Beat as One, the page numbers of the cited quotes in this article are wrong.
I am delighted to think that you appreciate my short and sketchy biography.
Sonia H. Davis to Leonore Goldberg, September 11, 1964, Box 1, Folder 1, From S.H. Davis 1944 – 1970, John Hay Library, Providence, RI.
One goal that came true, but was not include on my list, was the release of Two Hearts of That Beat as One. In the publishing world, nothing goes according to plan; last minute editing, publication date changes, shipments delayed. In short, too many moving parts. The wait for this book was sooo long, but it has finally shipped out and from what I’ve heard from all of you, the book has been worth the wait. I’m exceedingly thankful for all the kind words, love, and support I’ve received for this project. This dream didn’t only come true for Sonia and me, but also for all those who have silently waited for years (even decades) for this book to come to be.
If you haven’t gotten a copy yet, it’s available through Helios House and the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society:
So, what does all of this mean for the new year in Sonia scholarship? My goals for 2025 primarily focus on drafting An Ardent Recruit. There is still so much more to unearth, many archives to scour, many threads to unite into a readable treatise. I’m aiming for this to be the next publication, but there’s still other projects that I hope to push further along the timeline.
While all of her essays have been transcribed, the next step is to decide how to organize everything. Her essays range from love, politics, book reviews, Jewish history, and even autobiographical. It’s hard to say how many books these essays could take up, especially if it went by topic, but this is certainly the next project after An Ardent Recruit.
Another project I’ve had in mind but have spoken very little about has been Sonia’s letters. There are 11 folders of correspondence from Sonia (and to Sonia) in the Sonia H. and Nathaniel A. Davis papers. Out of the 11, I only have the first 3 folders. The next step would be to hire a proxy researcher to get the remaining letters scanned. If this can be achieved in 2025, that would be amazing!
As for this blog, this will be my last post. A lot of work goes into drafting these monthly posts, and sometimes it’s hard to finish them when “real life” gets in the way. Aside from being a “scholar”, I’m also a substitute teacher at a Christian high school, which means my work schedule isn’t always predictable and sometimes I’m scheduled for weeks on end. My second job is administrative assistant for a self-defense program. Sadly, this blog is a one-woman show and whatever spare time I have going forward, I would like to spend it drafting the new book. I will provide updates on this blog whenever the necessity arises regarding current projects and/or rare finds. Until then, please enjoy the last two years worth of scholarship on this website!
And thus, choosing not to dwell too far into the future, this is what Sonia scholarship looks like in the ensuing months. At the end of the day, these are just goals. Whether they come true or not, it’s obviously not an assessment of my worth as a scholar. Originally, I had set out to only publish Sonia’s autobiography and post on this blog because I wish I had these resources when I first learned of Sonia. Whatever comes after, either by me or someone new, that’s just a bonus in the grand scheme of bringing awareness to the unique life of Sonia H. Davis.
She was, first and foremost, a milliner. When the slow seasons between the high demand came around, Sonia had side jobs. The side jobs were either still within her trade, i.e., creating hats for neighbors and friends, or seasonal positions elsewhere. The Wall Street Crash of 1929, however, was the prelude to the Great Depression, and this was a season in which Sonia had not calculated into her financial security:
After I returned from Europe in 1932 where I went both for a business as well as a vacation trip, I found, upon my return to N.Y., that many of my heretofore successfully financial patrons had at last been caught up by the Wall St. debacle of 1929 + 30s and many of them were no longer able to pay the prices of my exclusive merchandise that they had enjoyed heretofore. While visiting many places of interest in Germany, England, + France I did not neglect the buying of millinery models to take back home with me; thinking that both French merchandise and copies of my models would more than pay for the expensive trip, but I calculated without the climate of the times. Many fashionable women among my clientele were no longer able to pay the prices they once did. Many of them owed me money and could not pay, and I did not feel that I wanted to sue them, since many of them were my friends.
Sonia H. Davis, Autobiographical Writings, Box 9, Folder 7, John Hay Library, Providence, RI.
In a country when needs would suddenly outweigh the wants, Sonia took a hit in her millinery. With no work, her funds were certainly dwindling, and she described a meeting with her banker that ultimately changed her trajectory:
My own misfortune did not pass me by until 1933, when I returned from Paris.
My banker, having noticed the depletion of my account, after having liquidated all my debts, called me into his office and asked me what I intended to do. Facetiously, I replied, “Not what several of the tycoons did when they lost their entire fortunes in Wall St. or elsewhere. I love life in all its phases. He asked what education did I have. I told him I had taken a cultural course at Columbia, but have no degree.
Did I know anything about early American history. “A little” I replied.
“How would you like to do some historical research, for a Diorama that is being planned by the members of the Metropolitan Museum?” he asked.
“I wouldn’t know how to go about it.” I said.
“I am one of the supporters of the Metropolitan Museum of History, and we are engaging artists and researchers for Early Colonial History.” You will get all the help you need from the Librarian of the children’s department which is in a separate building in Brooklyn.”
“I can try,” I said. “Very well” and he gave me a card with his name and occupation, and I went to Brooklyn’s Museum of Natural History, where I was engaged.
Sonia H. Davis, Autobiographical Writings, Box 9, Folder 8, John Hay Library, Providence, RI.
The dioramas were planned for the Brooklyn Children’s Museum, and according to the museum’s guide to the “Photograph Collection”, one folder contains photographs of dioramas that were created through the WPA. (1.2.4: Dioramas, 1906 – 1936, p. 7) The Works Progress Administration was a program created by Franklin Roosevelt on May 6, 1935, to help provide work during the Great Depression. (History) The exact month and day of when Sonia was hired as a historical researcher is unknown, but it was certainly in 1933.
Her scribbled notes as a historical researcher are included in the “Sonia H. and Nathaniel A. Davis papers” over at Brown University Library, but the notes themselves are not organized together in one specific folder. The first three pages, including the envelope, are in “Prose – M – R, Box 1, Folder 29”, while the last three pages are in “Autobiographical Writings, Box 9, Folder 1.” Nowhere else has her research papers been presented in their entirety—not even in her autobiography—until now:
Transcript:
The Roger Williams Historical Group
A plea for its completion according to the original plan.
In any series of historic groups chosen on the principles implied in the B’klyn [sic] Children’s Museum’s list, it is difficult to see how proper completeness can be attained without the inclusion of the model entitled
“Roger Williams speaks out for liberty before the New England Divines”
as provided for in the original plan.
It seems clear from the given list that the intention is to present certain typical, crucial moments and events in the formation of the American nation and attitude as they are today, and that the chief standard of selection is (apart from pictorial or dramatic vividness) the importance of these moments or events as decisive factors in the historic stream.
Thus there are groups representing the Indian background, the coming of the European, the victory of English civilization, the fixation of African Slavery, the vindication of a free press, the revolution, the establishment of the constitution, the enthronement of a democratic ideal under Jefferson, and so on down the years of the age of mechanical invention and wholesale immigration. Each of these groups depicts whatever active event seems most decisive or symbolic in connection with the national characteristic to be illustrated.
Now it would be difficult to name a national principle more basically, distinctively, importantly and influentially American than that of the separation of church and state. In its purest form it is an original product of American Soil, and one aspect or another of it has been dominant in the whole process of colonization and social and governmental development. More than anything else it is the distinguishing mark of this continent’s peculiar culture; and it has, in addition, reached back to the Old World to form a (monumental??), human attitude whose value is increasingly (illegible/missing word) every fresh historic development.
Above all other institutions which the sojourn of Europeans on American soil has produced, this assertion of the individual’s freedom of thought and opinion stands out as a salient landmark in the history of the United States and of world civilization alike. It is, then, unthinkable that some illustration of it should not be included within the present series of groups.
Now it is clear that any effective illustration of this all-important principle must come from the life of Roger Williams, whose precedence in proclaiming it in its entirety, and with all its implications, is plain and unchallenged. There is no ambiguity whatever about Williams’s place in history as a major pioneer in human thought and institutions, as the presence of his figure on the great international monument of the Reformation at Geneva, and of his bust in the American Hall of Fame, amply attests. The only real question concerns the particular episode in his career to be shown.
But even this question would be very easy to decide, for what scene could possibly be more directly, visibly and dramatically related to Roger Williams’s championship of the libertarian ideal than that of his open confrontation of the procedure at Newtown in October 1635? Here he dispelled all doubt of his position, openly defied the ruling powers of the Puritan Theocracy and publicly outlined his conception of the separate functions of church and state with a full realization of the consequences. This—unmistakably and conspicuously—was the Rubicon whose crossing led ultimately to the establishment of soul-liberty as a cornerstone of American governmental policy and a prime ideal of advanced humanity as a whole.
In the planning of the original museum list by Dr. Fox, this line of reasoning was very obviously followed; and it is hard to see how its cogency can be successfully challenged. Of all the long list of proposed groups, this one would seem to be the least capable of omission, substitution or variation. What then is the cause of the proposed departure from the original design?
The change, we are told, results from the reluctance of artists to model the substantial number of figures needed to represent the history-making scene at Newtown. It is alleged that something simpler in composition, and therefore easier of mechanical execution, would be a preferable choice. But has it been shown that these objections are valid enough to warrant the abandonment of anything as vital and pivotal as Roger Williams’s great dramatic moment as a subject for exhibition in a pageant of American historic essentials?
The list of titles prepared by Dr. Fox is a deeply and sensitively intelligent one—one obviously prompted by a profound understanding of history and a keen perception of its vital moments. Nothing on it ought to be changed without the maturest reflection; least of all this crucial item which concerns not only an unique and paramount principle in American and worldwide thought, but one of the great colonizing geniuses who established the nation and helped to give it its solid foundation of material and spiritual life.
The writer therefore asks, with all due humbleness that the scene of Roger Williams’s great ordeal be not excised from the museum’s programme unless the really gravest objections be found to stand in the way of its inclusion.
It represents something supreme and not to be replaced, and deserves from researchers, artists and planners alike a willing, indomitable, constructive zeal reflecting something of the vision and stamina of its great subject.
S.H.G.
John Fiske “The Dutch + Quaker Colonies in America”
Isaac Sharpless “History of Quaker Government”
Johns Hopkins University Studies of “Pennsylvania History”
Vol. 10, pp. 381 – 464 “Quakers in Pennsylvania
J.F. Sachse “German Protists of Provincial Pennsylvania.”
J.F. Sachse “The Fatherland” 1450 to 1700
John T. Faris “Old Churches + Meeting Houses” Lib. Bklyn Ch. Mus.
American Architecture (A.R. 727 – 12) 3” flr. Pratt Lib.
+Early Domestic Architecture of Pennsylvania by Eleanor Raymond 3 flr. Pratt
American Architecture (724.9 – E. 15) 3 flr. Pratt.
Phila. Academy of Fine Arts (A.R. 708.1 – L857) 3” flr. ”
Phila. Historic Houses, Colonial Homes 917.48, E. 16 “ ”
*Mitting “Furniture of the Pilgrim Century” 3 flr. Pratt
Suggestion for (possible) living-room or “saal” in home of Pastorius
Two-armed bench standing against wall.
Single board seat and single board back.
Either two-board table with heavy, unfinished legs or table of trestle-board and frame.
Reference for the former
(Pl. 2) (Plate 5 + 7) (Plate 51)
“Early Domestic Architecture of Pennsylvania” E. Raymond+
Ref. for latter “Furniture of the Pilgrim” Mitting* pages 214, 343, 438
Suggested desk, page 116.
Beams exposed in ceiling (suggestion)
Floor probably sand-covered, or rugs woven by the Indians.
The excerpt from Whittier on former page might suggest a more elaborate household; if used for model, probably the “kitchen from Müller House, Millbach, Lebanon County, Pa. German 1752.” Card appended.
But if Penn called on Pastorius while he was still a bachelor, his home probably was furnished in more primitive taste.
Of his life of ‘domestic felicity’ is portrayed, then it will be required that his wife—and at least the first child—(a boy) be included, on a little bed or in a cradle; and Van Wyck clock on stone hearth. Fire.
If Penn visits Pastorius while he is a bachelor it would probably be in the house he built that was “30 ft. long + 15 ft. wide with oil-papered windows” probably gambrel-roofed+, (+ or primitive Gothic) made of the rough logs of wood, from the trees hewed down on the spot where it stood. These logs were probably exposed inside the house as well as outside.
Over the door reads the legend “Procul Este Prophani.”
See “Old Churches + Meeting Houses” by John T. Faris opposite page 176. (Library, Bklyn Children’s Museum)
“The Log College of Reverend William Tennent near Hartsville”
“Old Churches and Meeting Houses in + Around Philadelphia”
The Germans are very fond of garden-seats; and nearly all their homes have benches, stools or chairs, and tables—either directly—outside the door or removed, some feet, from it, in the centre of the garden where there is a shelter or rest.
Might not Penn have been received outside the door, if he called on him in summer? Perhaps seated at either side of table with tankards of beer?
Pastorius was seven years younger than Penn.
For design of house see “The Log College of Rev. William Tennent near Hartsville”, in “Old Churches and Meeting – Places” by John T. Faris opposite page 176. Lib. Bklyn Chld. Mus.
The Germans are very fond of garden seats. Two might be shown in front of the house on either side of the entrance.
Pastorius is seven years younger than Penn and Anna is 7 years younger than Pastorius.
The floor was probably made of huge, broad beams hewn from the same timber as the logs from which the rest of the cottage was built.
It may have been covered daily with clean sand, a utilitarian custom of that day; but it is also not unreasonable to believe that may have been adorned with rugs supplied by the friendly Indians who owed much to Pastorius’ knowledge of medicine.
Sonia was not silent about her experience as a historical researcher, and she described her impressions of the work itself and working with the Curator-in-Chief, Miss Anna Billings Gallup:
I was given a sheet of paper with subjects named, for which I was to search out all I could regarding “Roger Williams Speaks Out for Liberty Before the New England Divines.” I must have read at least 20 books on the life of R.W. I found it most interesting and enchanting. The Banker, Mr. P, told me it did not pay much, but enough to keep the wolf from the door. I accepted the job with alacrity and loved it. When I read all I could find on the subject, beside the reading matter, I drew a chart to illustrate the scene.
The Trial took place in “Newtown.” Well, I was obliged to find where “Newtown” was, once upon a time. It was on the ground where Harvard University stands. The courtroom was a wooden building with a sand floor. It had two diamond-paned windows in the eastern wall, if I remember. Between the windows, fastened to the wall was the Union Jack.”
For a lecturn [sic], before which the Judges sat, I sketched a line, in back of which were their chairs. From there I drew nine lines Thus:
on each I had placed the name of the Judge in the order in which they sat. The presiding Judge behind the table.
I had to find the page in a certain volume describing the age, and gown of each, etc. When all was finished, the Curator, Miss Gallup, said “You have too many figures.” Why don’t you have R.W. run away through the woods? That would be enough. I couldn’t change her mind. I pleaded with her. I said “This was his big moment; standing before the Divines and before his accuser, Thomas Hooker.
But she had it her way.
My second subject was intensely interesting “Francis Daniel Pastorius” meets William Penn in Germantown, Pa.”
This time the ‘personae dramatis were properly dressed and the scenery was correct except the Skulkill [sic] River was left out. The third subject was “Patrick Henry” in “Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death.
Sonia H. Davis, Autobiographical Writings, Box 9, Folder 8, John Hay Library, Providence, RI.
Sonia was adamant about her group’s research on Roger Williams, and her written plea from her research notes verifies her disagreement with Gallup in the autobiographical account. In the midst of this opportunity, Sonia felt the need to reconnect with H.P. Lovecraft. It is thus we have these excerpts from her memoir:
Upon my return to the U.S.A. I became quite ill. Upon recuperating I took a trip to beautiful Farmington, Conn. I was so enchanted with this beautiful Colonial built city that I wrote to Howard at once to join me there which he did. We explored not only the rare city of Farmington whose architecture, at that time even the newest, such as the Library and the new Bank and Chamber of Commerce, was of the early eighteenth century, but we went to Weathersfield, [sic] that ancient shrine where we paid our homage to the Church where George Washington worshipped, and to Thomas Hooker’s grave and other graves and places of historic character and interest.
[…]
Where was I? Oh, yes, back from Europe and once more in New England with Howard at my side exploring the grounds and places of cities more than three hundred years old. Yes, I believe I must have still loved Howard very much, more than I cared to admit even to myself.
[…]
When Howard and I parted for the night I said “Howard, won’t you kiss me goodnight?” His reply was “No, it is better not to.” The next morning we met again and explored Hartford.
At that time I was doing some historical research work for the Brooklyn Children’s Museum. Among the several pieces I was delegated to do was was [sic]one called “Roger Williams Speaks out for Liberty before the New England Divines.” Much of the research was done in the Fifth Ave. and Forty-Second St. Librarry [sic] in N.Y.C. But when I told HP what I had been doing along this line and would like more data he graciously led me to the Hartford Library and at once got busy inquiring for original books and hawling [sic]down tomes for me from the shelves. The sculptors at the Brooklyn Museum were then to make the figurines and the other scenery depicting the history included in my research. In parting for the night, I no longer asked for the kiss. I’d learned my lesson well. I did several pieces of research for the Museum, which is a branch of the Metropolitan; among others was one of great interest yet hardly heard of in the public High Schools, namely: “Francis Daniel Pastorius meets William Penn in Germantown, Pa. But since at that time historical research was not properly remunerative work, I returned to my own.
Sonia H. Davis, The Private Life of Howard Phillips Lovecraft, unedited manuscript, John Hay Library, Providence, RI.
As much of a blessing this job might’ve been for Sonia, especially at time when there was little work to be had, the pay wasn’t enough for long term means.
On my free time I was still seeking a millinery Buyership, found one at a much better figure than that as a historical researcher worker, and accepted it.
Both Miss Gallup and the Librarian expressed their sincere regrets at my leaving. I accepted my new job in August, in Newberg, N.Y. in 1933, worked there until one day before Christmas.
Sonia H. Davis, Autobiographical Writings, Box 9, Folder 8, John Hay Library, Providence, RI.
What followed after that Christmas of 1933 would be Sonia’s decision to visit California, leaving for that trip on January 6, 1934. (FamilySearch) While visiting, she decided to remain in California and after settling and remarrying, her life in New York would remain a distant memory. What was past, however, would inevitably become her present again. After Nathaniel Davis’s death, Sonia was financially struggling. Coincidence or not, Sonia penned the following letter to Anna Gallup during the time she began her reminiscences of Lovecraft. In fact, she wrote this very letter while visiting New York on the same day she was responding to August Derleth’s threats about not publishing her memoir The Private Life of H.P. Lovecraft.
Transcript:
Sept. 13, 1947
My Dear Miss Gallup: —
First of all I wish to apologize for using this paper, but there is none other available at this moment.
You will be utterly surprised when you will see the signature of the writer.
Fourteen years ago I did some historical research work in the Brooklyn Children’s Museum at the time you were the curator.
You gave me a list of captions that I researched. I left the museum because once more a good buyership in my own line was open to me.
However, I was able to finish the “Roger Williams speaks out for Liberty before the New England Divines”
“Patrick Henry”, and Francis Daniel Pastorius meets William Penn.
You were very kind to praise these pieces, and you asked me which I liked best. I told you I loved historical research and was glad to be privileged to work for you.
I loved all the pieces I wrote but my favorite character was Roger Williams.
I said I hoped you would find it feasible to have the scenes made as I had written them.
You read it, told me it was fine, but instead of concentrating on the court scene when he was tried before the N.E. Divines, that it would entail less work to show him as he was fleeing from his enemies.
I pleaded with you to give his memory the full meed of credit that he deserved, that the trail scene depicted the “Big Moment” in his life and was the most interesting part of his life and history. I wonder whether you recall it!
However, I came back to N.Y. after 14 years, for a visit, a very short one, only two weeks.
I had wondered whether these scenes were ever made. What was my delight and surprise upon visiting the museum two days ago to find the three scenes there, even if you did order the one of R.W. with the least number of figures.
I just love the Pastorius + Penn, it is utterly splendid.
And the Patrick Henry is almost faultless! (The pulpit was up high in the actual church, but the artist made it on a level with the floor. But all in all they are splendid.
I spent a pleasant half-hour with Miss Sheppen and asked her for photograph reproductions, but she had none.
However, she promised to try to get them. Now here is where I wish to ask you for a very great favor, would you be good enough to state on paper, i.e. in a letter to me that I was the researcher? It would probably mean a life time job for me in the cinema field, a field most difficult to enter.
If you will be good enough to make your statement on this sheet and also return the rest of this letter I would appreciate it abundantly. (This would be my credential.) I would consider it a great favor indeed.
With every good wish for your health and prosperity, and many thanks in anticipation of your favor, I am
Very Sincerely Yours
Sonia (Greene) Davis.
P.S. You will see by the added surname that I was married. My dear late husband passed away two years ago. And please write me about yourself!
Mrs. Sonia (Greene) Davis, according to her own statement was one of the research workers on a series of historical groups in American History. I cannot recall the circumstances but I believe Mrs. Davis is correct because she recalls in detail the composition of the groups much better than I can do. I sincerely hope this statement will help her because I know she had to do good work in order for us to make the groups.
I was Curator-in-Chief of The Brooklyn Children’s Museum at the time the groups were made and we had consultants who helped us with the details of accuracy.
Very truly yours,
(Miss) Anna Billings Gallup
Sonia direly needed a job, and she was lining up whatever opportunity she could that would bring the necessary funds. Not only was she corresponding with Derleth during the trip, but they met also with her hopes of selling her memoir for as much as she could.
Meanwhile, did I tell you Sonia Lovecraft Davis turned up with some laughable idea of cashing in on HPL’s “fame” and the desire to publish a “frank” book, entitled THE PRIVATE LIFE OF H. P. LOVECRAFT, and quoting generously from his letters. She read me part of the ms. in New York, and in it she has HPL posing as a Jew-baiter (she is Jewish), she says she completely supported HPL for the years 1924 to 1932, and so on, all bare-faced lies. I startled her considerably when I told her we had a detailed account of their life together in HPL’s letters to Mrs. Clark. I also forbade her to use any quotations from HPL’s letters without approval from us, acting for the estate. I told her by all means to write her book and I would read it, but it was pathetically funny; she thought she could get rich on the book. She said it would sell easily a million copies! Can you beat it! I tried to point out that a biographical book on HPL by myself, out two years, had not yet sold 1000 copies, and that book combined two well-known literary names. She thought she should have $500 advance on her book as a gift, and royalties besides! I burst into impolite laughter, I fear.
August Derleth to R.H. Barlow, October 23, 1947, Wisconsin Historical Society.
Returning to the main thread, however, Sonia’s letter to Anna Gallup perfectly correlates with what has been written in her autobiographical writings. It’s unclear what aspect of cinema Sonia was trying to break into, but if I had to speculate, it likely had to do with set designing since her job as a historical researcher was a foundation for the creation of the dioramas. What’s sad about the letter is Anna’s reply. Given the scale of the project, it’s easy to understand why Anna might’ve forgotten Sonia. The Brooklyn Children’s Museum, however, remembered Sonia and her work, for they had her research papers in their archives for some time prior to sending them back to her.
Anna was still kind of enough to respond to Sonia:
Transcript:
Dear Mrs. Davis:
Please forgive this long delay in answering your letter. I went to Boston—and did not order my mail forwarded because I knew I would be moving about. All the accumulation during my absence just had to wait and I am sorry your letter was among the others. I do hope you will get the position you are seeking.
I have been retired ten years and I am sorry I cannot remember you or your work. There were so many—but I feel pretty sure you are correct in all you say.
I went to live with my brother who had a beautiful home. He had just lost his wife and I went right in there and took charge of everything. He had two excellent Swedish maids and a good farmer. We lived in the country, had a car and a very pleasant life. I really expected to stay with him always. He was younger than I but had an exceptional flair for making the land produce bountifully and was quoted in many papers all over the land. In the Middle West and East he did much catering and had a book started for which the New York Editors were pushing him. My sister too, in Waterbury, Conn. (we lived in North Stonington Conn.) was a widow and we planned trips together. We did take some but in 1945 both dropped off very suddenly within a few months of each other. I was heartbroken and came here to Mystic to live. I didn’t wish to stay in a log house in the country and I didn’t know how to drive a car. I came to Mystic because I know some people here and I thought a small town would be fine. Now I have my own apartment and I like it very much though my brother and sister were two people too choice to lose. I have two nieces and a nephew and four grand nieces and nephews. I was much recuperated by coming to Mystic and now am all right. I very much want to go to California and shall do it when I find the right companions. There are people out there whom I know. I have been once.
Now I do hope you will have excellent success with your undertaking.
Yours very truly,
Anna Billings Gallup
Anna Billings Gallup was born on November 9, 1872, in Ledyard, Connecticut. Her parents were Christopher Milton Gallup and Hannah Eliza Lamb. (FamilySearch) Christopher was a farmer while her mother took care of the household. (FamilySearch) Anna was the middle child, with an older sister and a younger brother. Her sister, Harriet Tooker Gallup, was born on March 29, 1869. Harriet married Darragh de Lancey on October 30, 1897, having three daughters and a son. (FamilySearch) Although, that bit of information conflicts with what Anna wrote about having two nieces and a nephew. Anna’s brother, Christopher Milton Gallup III, was born on February 10, 1876. He married as well, marrying Christine Richmond Ewing on October 28, 1899, and it appears the couple didn’t have children. (FamilySearch)
Anna remained single but pursued a career as curator. In the 1905 New York Census for the Brooklyn, Kings borough, she was rooming with Florence Kilburn and was already listed as a curator for the Brooklyn Children’s Museum. (FamilySearch) Then in the 1910 census, she moved in with her mother, Hannah Gallup, residing in Brooklyn, Kings. (FamilySearch) As her letter reveals, Harriet passed away May 16, 1945, while her brother, Christopher, passed away on December 27, 1945. Yale University published an obituary for Christopher (FamilySearch):
Transcript:
CHRISTOPHER MILTON GALLUP
PH B 1897
Born February 10, 1876, in Ledyard, Conn
Died December 27, 1945, in Westerly, RI
Father, Christopher Milton Gallup, a farmer in Ledyard, son of Christopher Milton and Anna Stanton (Billings) Gallup of Ledyard Mother, Hannah Eliza (Lamb) Gallup, daughter of Samuel Stillman and Eliza (Gallup) Lamb of Groton, Conn Yale relatives include Nathan Gallup (B A 1823) (great -uncle), Herbert S Griggs, ’82, C Milton Griggs, ’83, and Everett G Griggs, ’90 S (cousins), Darragh de Lancey (B F A 1925) (brother-in-law), Darragh de Lancey, Jr (LL B 1932) (nephew)
Norwich (Conn) Free Academy
Enlisted as seaman Second Division Naval Battalion, Connecticut National Guard, April, 1897, served aboard receiving ship Minnesota, Boston harbor, discharged August 6, 1898, on staff City Engineer (in charge of pavements), Hartford, Conn, 1898–1903, free lance writer and editor Somerset Independent, Skowhegan, Maine, 1903–05, editor Maine Farmer, Augusta, 1905–10, underwriter Travelers Insurance Company, Hartford, 1913 until retirement 1928, resided in North Stonington, Conn, 1928–45, experimented with new biochemical methods of agriculture especially suited to Connecticut, promoted radio weather service for farmers, secretary New London County Farm Bureau, representative from Connecticut on forestry committee of New England Council, member board and president Connecticut Forest and Park Association 1940–45, president West Hartford Chamber of Commerce 1922 and on advisory council Proportional Representation League, West Hartford, acting secretary Norwich Chamber of Commerce 1931–33 and vice-president, chairman board of assessors North Stonington 1941–45, in World War I chairman West Hartford Savings Committee and in World War II vice-chairman Selective Service Board 20B, organized, and president Gallup Family Association for several years, trustee Denison Family Association, on forty-five year Class reunion committee, member First Church of Christ Scientist, Boston.
Married (1) October 28, 1899, in Hartford, Christine Richmond, daughter of the Honorable Henry C Ewing and Rachael Whittier (Root) Ewing No children Mrs Gallup died June 17, 1937 Married (2) February 28, 1940, in Norwich, Ruth Kinney Gaines, daughter of Charles Newcomb and Julia Huntington (Hutchinson) Kinney
Death due to coronary occlusion Buried in Gallup Cemetery, Ledyard Survived by wife and a sister, Anna Billings Gallup (B S Massachusetts Inst Technology 1901) of Mystic, Conn.
At the age of 83, Anna Billings Gallup passed away on October 21, 1956.
Ultimately, Sonia neither got the cinema job nor her hundreds of dollars for her memoir of H.P. Lovecraft. Instead, she studied to become a nurse:
With Ann’s And [sic] Sid’s frequent help I got along. I went to a nursing school and was so glad when I could write to Sid and Ann that I thanked God I could now make my own living as a nurse. I worked until I was seventy two years old.
Sonia to Sidney, Florence, and Leonore Moseson, August 25, 1964, Autobiographical Writings, Box 9, File 1, John Hay Library, Providence, RI.
Even after everything came and passed, Sonia certainly loved her job as a historical researcher because she loved learning. We can now see how much work she incorporated into the simple position, and because of it, we also get to learn about Anna Gallup and her role as curator. Moreover, this opportunity gave Sonia another chance to spend with Lovecraft, which sadly would be the last. Sonia’s time as a historical researcher was both the closing of one chapter of her life and the promise of a new chapter.
Very little has been said, or written, about Florence Carol Greene. Even her own mother, Sonia H. Davis, had imparted minuscule crumbs of information about her. In Sonia’s autobiographical writings, Florence is only specifically mentioned during the turbulent years of Sonia’s marriage to Samuel Greene, and she’s majorly referred to as the “little girl”, “baby”, or “child”. Of the twenty-two times that Florence is mentioned by Sonia, only nine times does Sonia use her actual name. In Sonia’s letters to her family, which also contain autobiographical matter, Florence is mentioned again only in passing as “child” or “baby girl”.
However, this is only one side of the coin, figuratively speaking. In two essays regarding children’s behavior and manners, Sonia gave further insight:
Transcript:
HOW I OVERCAME CHILD’S FEAR OF THE BOOGIE MAN
A detailed description how a diffficulty [sic] was met and dissipated, might be helpful to some mothers in vanquishing a young child’s bedtime fear.
At three and a half years of age my little girl suffered from fright caused by the maid, who, in seeking to get away from her quickly after putting her to bed, told her that if she didn’t go to sleep at once, the Boogie Man would get her.
On the maid’s night out, I put the child to bed and as soon as I was about to leave the room and put out the light she started to whimper, and then to cry. Upon asking the reason, she told me she was afraid of the Boogi [sic] Man; that Mary said the Boogie Man would get her if she didn’t go to sleep right away.
I realized at once what the child was suffering and forthwith tried to conquor [sic] the fear.
“What does the Boogie Man do, darling?” I asked her.
“When Mary puts out the light he knocks on the bed. I’m afraid of the dark.”
While the light was still on, I rapped on the bed with my knuckles.
“Is this the noise he makes?” “Yes.” Then I shaped her hand into a fist and had her knock on the bed.
“See, darling?” This is no Boogie Man. Its your own hand making the noise when you knock.” Then I took her in my arms and put out the light, holding her tightly to convey assurance, I knocked on the bed again. At this she clung to me very hard. Turning on the light, I requested her to put it out.
“See, dear? It was you who put out the light. Now give me your hand.” Here I brought her hand into contact with the bed.
“See? It was your hand knocking on the bed that made the noise.
There is no Boogie Man.”
“Now get into bed like a brave little girl and knock on the bed.”
This was done, while I spoke to her softly and reassuringly, and I put on the light once more. “Now I’m going to put out the light again and you knock on the bed. While she did this I kept on talking to her caressingly, constantly impressing upon ger mind that there is no Boogie Man and that there was nothing whatsoever to fear in the whole house; that everything and everybody was safe, and that Mary was only fooling.
I followed this practice several evenings for nearly a week, reassuring her each time of the true facts. I found that she both understood and appreciated the fraud that was practiced on her by Mary. Gradually she outgrew all childich [sic] fears and became a self-confident and self-reliant young woman. I need hardly state that the maid was dismissed.
Transcript:
EXAMPLE CREATES BEST OF MANNERS IN CHILDREN
The excessive effort brought to bear upon a child in order to develop politeness is often wasted, and the ostensible intention is often resented by the youngster, especially when it is coerced, shamed or bribed into being forcibly polite. This attribute the child must acquire from habitual observation of his family elders in his own home.
Unless he sees and hears the best only, in and from his parents and home environment he usually acts like the street urchin. Parents, or other members of the family, cannot be constantly quarreling, arguing, acting or speaking sarcastically without producing decidedly malevolent effects upon the children.
My little girl of three years of age came to me one afternoon and asked me to give her a piece of bread and butter. When I think of it now, I realize that this is what I should have done; but instead, I sent her to the maid in the kitchen, telling her to ask Mary for it. She soon returned, munching the morsel. “Did you say ‘Thank you’ to Mary? I asked her. Silently and not looking at me, she continued munching.
After waiting a few seconds I repeated my question. Still not looking up at me, she slowly shook her head in the negative. “What?” I asked with pretended indignation, “Didn’t you say “Thank you” to Mary?” Pouting a while, she then answered “Don’t have to say “Thank you” to Mary.”
“Why not, dear?”
“‘Cause Mary don’t know how to say “You’re welcome”, any how.”
This was said almost protestingly; Mary had lately landed and could speak no English.
If one must have a maid or a nurse, it is best to acquire one who speaks English unless another language is to be part of the child’s education. Then it is desirable that the governess or tutor be a purist in the language the child is to learn.
The last point is particularly to be observed. A European gentlewoman who speaks several Mediterranean languages, is constantly horrified in this country by the bad accent and ungrammatical French of nurses who are engaged by American mothers.
Many mothers seem to think that as long as her child speaks a desirable secondary language, that the mantle of distinction descends upon it.
A Young American, who, for three years, had studied French in one of our mid-western universities, told me, upon his return, that he was unable to understand the language when he visited France, that he remained their two years to acquire the correct pronunciation and accent.
Another great source of information about Florence was Sonia’s letter to the Special Collections Librarian, Christine D. Hathaway. Sonia openly shared anecdotes about Florence, from her cutest moment to her ultimate rebellion. The following is only an extract from the several-page letter.
When “Carol Weld” whose real name is “Florence Carol Greene,” was a child of about ten, I was engaged to an extremely handsome young Italian of excellent family, education and breeding, but I, being of Jewish heritage, and he, of Catholic, our mothers, his and mine objected to our marriage. We were both obliged to renounce the thought and action.
I’ve always sought a man of education, culture, and inquiring mind, good family and other virtues. I was 24—he was 22. I studied the Italian language and learned to read, write and speak a little. He often ate at my mother’s table and I, at his mother’s who liked and admired me very much, but she did not quite guess whether her son and I intended to marry. When both mothers found out there were the usual objections on both sides. Neither of us would do the usual—elope. We at last gave up the thought.
One day Florence met him on the street; he grabbed her up, folded her to himself and ‘boo-hood’ like a hurt animal. When she came home and told me what happened, I felt sorry for both of them. She asked me, aren’t you going to marry F.B?
I said “No, his mother and grama have great objections.” I’m getting over my part, but evidently, he is still badly hurt.
The child was very young but had sense enough to say—for she was very fond of him—Well! if he’ll wait for me I’ll marry him!” As she grew up I obtained a good music-teacher for her, but she wouldn’t practice. Her lower teeth were crooked, but she missed many sessions with her orthdontist [sic].
In both cases I scolded and we became more and more apart. I wanted her to go to college, but she didn’t want a local college. She had a girl-friend who urged her to join her at a girls’ college in Rochchester [sic]N.Y. where they were taught games and rode horses. I told her we had Columbia U, here in N.Y. and I can’t afford to pay for her pleasures. We quarrelled again over that girl. At last she left me and I hadn’t heard from her in years. She learned stenography + typewriting and made her own living.
I looked for Florence everywhere. I heard she went to Chicago. I took a job so I might find her, but I didn’t.
I had a friend who worked in the Hall of Records in N.Y.C. I asked her whether she could obtain some important information for me so I told her I was looking for my daughter; giving her the name and age. She found the name in the Hall of Records. She went to Paris where she became a newspaper writer for the Hearst newspaper, lived there for seven years. On the Boat, going there, she met a young American newspaper-man and they married; but it seems that her temper was unable to hold on to the man, so they were divorced in Paris, but she stayed on. He came back to America, married and now has a newspaper of his own, and interests in a moving picture project.
My daughter still carries his name. She no longer writes, but has formed a Woman’s Club of some sort, and lives in Florida. I’ve obtained her address and have written to her several times. The first two letters were returned to me unopened and unanswered. But I wrote several others, which she accepted but has not answered. She is now 67 years old, never married again. That’s all there is.
Sonia H. Davis to Christine D. Hathaway, October, 8, 1968, Autobiographical Writings (Box 9, Folder 1).
It is only through this letter and the personal essays that we get a real glimpse into Sonia’s relationship with Florence. It would seem their mother-daughter relationship had once been solid, but as years progressed and with that inner rage (or sheer stubbornness) of youth within Florence, their relationship began to come apart. While no one openly claimed it, except by Sonia, Florence seemed to have a temper.
Yet, how much of her temper was a result of years of unresolved trauma? As a child, Florence had not only lived under the roof of Samuel Greene, but had also been sent to live with her grandmother, Racille, aka Rachel Moseson, while Sonia tried to separate from Samuel. We can only imagine what she had witnessed living under the roof of two abusive men: first with her father, Samuel, and later with her grandfather, Solomon Moseson. The former abused her mother, and the latter, her grandmother.
Eventually, Sonia collected Florence and they lived together once again. In spite of the turbulence between Sonia and Florence through the latter’s adolescent years, Sonia wrote and dedicated a poem to her daughter in the first volume of her journal, The Rainbow:
Sonia H. Greene, “Ode to Florence”, The Rainbow, Vol. 1. No. 1, 1921, p. 3.
Transcript:
ODE TO FLORENCE
When the sun sinks in the west, dear,
Birds and babes have gone to rest, dear,
Then I know I love you best, dear
Baby mine.
When the stars break in the blue, dear,
Then with love my heart beats true, dear,
Then I sadly think of you, dear
Baby mine.
When the moon is brightly beaming,
On the night her radiance streaming,
Then, dear heart, of you I’m dreaming,
Baby mine.
When Aurora greets the morn, dear,
When sweet zephyrs cool are born, dear,
I feel lonely and forlorn, dear
Heart, for you.
There’s no denying the unspoken heartache of Sonia’s words. The poem was printed in October 1921, but one can only wonder just how long Sonia had been constructing these poetic lines to help ease the strain between her relationship with Florence. 1921 was a pivotal year for Sonia, from joining amateur journalism in January, to meeting H.P. Lovecraft in July, then publishing her own amateur journal in October. Lovecraft certainly harbored some impressions about Florence:
At dinner—about one-thirty—were Loveman, Theobald, Long, Mme. Greene, and the latter’s flapper offspring, yclept Florence—a pert, spoiled, and ultra-independent infant rather more hard-boiled of visage than her benignant mater.
H.P. Lovecraft to Maurice W. Moe, Lord of a Visible World, May 18, 1922, p. 115.
But one thing Mme. Greeneva says quite desolates me—she avers that her fair & frivolous offspring is not to be captivated by the charms of any highbrow, not even the otherwise irresistible Bolingbroke!
H.P. Lovecraft to Rheinhart Kleiner, Letters to Rheinhart Kleiner and Others, p. 187.
Whether intentional or not, once Sonia’s relationship with Lovecraft deepened, Florence had dropped out of the picture. It’s unclear when Florence moved out of her mother’s house, but once Lovecraft moved in with Sonia in March 1924, she was gone. Thereafter, Florence went by her middle name, Carol. On September 3, 1927, Carol Greene had returned to New York from Havre, France. (FamilySearch) It’s hard to say how long her stay was at Havre, but this trip would only be the beginning of her extensive travels to Europe. Only ten days after her return, on September 13, 1927, Carol married John Weld. (FamilySearch)
So, what really happened? What caused the ultimate division between Sonia and Florence? The truth is no one really knows. There’s only Sonia’s truth and speculation.
In 1983, the one and only publication that has ever fully focused on Florence was Lovecraft’s Daughter by R. Alain Everts. “Lovecraft’s Daughter” comprises of three, extremely thin, stapled pamphlets. Legally, Florence was Lovecraft’s stepdaughter when he married Sonia. However, it was an empty title, a role that Lovecraft never truly stepped into, nor one that Florence fully accepted. The journal, in my opinion, does well to inform the reader of who Florence really was, and her achievements in life. While it’s the most anyone has done for her, it still isn’t enough, but that’s no fault of the publication given that Florence worked hard to distance herself from her past and live privately.
I have only the first and second volume in my possession since these were the only two that emerged for sale on eBay.
Transcript:
LOVECRAFT’S DAUGHTER
When Carol Weld died, the newspaper reported the following facts about her long life:
MRS. CAROL WELD, COVERED ABDICATION
Carol Weld, former foreign news correspondent, who claimed to be the first American to report the Prince of Wales-Wallis Simpson romance years before the Prince’s abdication as King Edward VIII, died Saturday in Cedars of Lebanon Hospital.
Mrs. Weld, 70, reported from Paris to The Chicago Tribune on the abdication. She was the only American reporter who met the Prince’s train at a small village railroad station as some 200 other newsmen, misled by offical-released [sic] rumors, waited miles away at Chaumont.
During her career, Mrs. Weld wrote for The New York American and The New York Herald-Tribune, the Paris staff of The Chicago Tribune, Universal and International News Services, United Press International and The London Sunday Express.
She came to Miami as southeastern director of advertising and publicity for RKO Radio Pictures, setting campaigns for RKO, Samuel Goldwyn and Walt Disney Productions.
Services will be at 10 a.m. Thursday in Miami Memorial Park. Reid-Lowe Funeral Home is handling arrangements.
Not only is the notice pitifully brief and lacking in factual information, but the information that was there is for the most part toally [sic] inaccurate. The inaccuracies were not, however, the fault of the newspaper or the author of the obituary, but were carefully perpetrated by the subject of the notice—Carol Weld. For Carol Weld had a secret that she protected and hid for over 50 years.
No mention is made above the parentage ofCarol [sic] Weld, who was in fact the daughter—albeit the step-daughter—of Howard Phillips Lovecraft. She was born Florence Carol Greene in New York City on 19 March 1902, of Samuel Greene and Sonia Haft Shafirkin. Her mother, Sonia Shafirkin, was barely 20 years old, and had been married for four years to her despotic and drunken husband, who was a salesman. Some years after the birth of their only child, Greene killed himself, leaving Sonia destitute—she and her daughter went to live with Sonia’s mother, who had married a second time and had children not much older than Florence.
By 1919, when Sonia first became acquainted with the Amateur Press movement and with James Ferdinand Morton, junior, her 17 year old daughter was living with her in New York City, and was beginning to show signs of rebellion against her mother’s stern rule as puberty overtook the young woman. When Sonia met Lovecraft in 1921 and began her earnest courtship of him in 1922, Florenne [sic] was there—the 19 year old “flapper” as HPL referred to her also began to have problems of a more serious nature with her mother. Sonia recalled to me various dinners at her apartment with both Lovecraft and Samuel Loveman present, where she and Florence would host them for an evening of food and conversation. On some occasions, Sonia and Florence would disagree so strongly that they would fight in front of their guests. By the time of Sonia’s marriage to Lovecraft in March of 1924, Florence had left her mother’s apartment and her mother’s life for good—it is likely even that she left the day she turned 21 on 19 March 1923.
What was the cause of this terrible breach that was never ever healed or repaired, even after 50 years? The facts lay in the marriage of her mother to Lovecraft, and the adamant denial of permission for Florence to marry the man she loved. Some years earlier, I believe Sonia mentioned to me that Florence was about 18, she had fallen in love with a nice man with background credentials of impeccable quality—they should have been, for the man was Sonia’s half-brother, by her mother’s second marriage. Florence was practically raised with her half-brother Sydney, [sic] and it was fairly easy for her to fall in love with him. However, Sonia was furious, not only with the prospect of her own daughter marrying at a young age as did Sonia with the resultant disasters, but the fact of her daughter marrying a near full brother made Sonia so livid that she absolutely forbade the match. This argument was a topic for several years, but by the time Sydney turned 21 in middle 1919, Florence was still obeying her mother’s wishes.
Further more, [sic] as Sonia reported to me, such a marriage is not allowed under the Orthodox Jewish faith which both Sonia and her daughter were at this time. Florence though told her mother that she would elope, and Sonia told her that she would have the marriage annulled if Florence did elope before she was 21. These demands of her mother were very bitter for Florence, who was genuinely in love with her half-uncle Sydney—but the final straw was Sonia’s own marriage to Howard P. Lovecraft in early 1924. This convinced Florence that she must separate from her mother, and she did—never again did she ever communicate with Sonia. When I wrote on Sonia’s behalf in 1967 to Carol Weld (as she then styled herself), the letter was returned to me, opened, with a handwritten message that the envelope had been opened by mistake. I will never forget Sonia’s expression when I showed her this envelope, and she replied sadly that the handwriting was Florence’s.
From this period onward, Florence dropped her first name, and went under the name of Carol Greene, until she met a 22 year old newspaper man named John Weld and they wer e [sic] married in New York City in October of 1927. They separated by mutual agreement (they never had children) in Paris in 1932 and in 1933, John Weld obtained a divorce on the grounds of incompatability [sic] in Los Angeles. Carol Weld however stayed in Europe, never remarried, and never discuss her relationship with her mother, not even with John Weld. He told me that “Carol was in no wise a flighty of rebellious girl” when they met in 1927, but that her relationship with her mother seemed to be a closet that Carol preferred to leave closed.
From then on, Carol Weld made her name as a writer and reporter—she was indeed the first American reporter to cover the romance between Mrs. Simpson and the Prince of Wales, and during the War, she covered many stories, organised a Red Cross Ambulance Fund in Los Angeles (where ironically her mother was then living) and had her photo appear in the May, 1945 issue of The New York Times—a clipping that Sonia proudly showed me in 1967. An attempt to contact her daughter at this time went unanswered.
But Sonia followed the career of her daughter from afar and seemed to have some idea of what she had done during the years. For about the last 30 years of her life, Carol Weld worked for RKO in Miami—and significantly enough, her half-brother Sydney was living there when Carol moved there, although he had married and raised a family. Surely this was the reason that Carol Weld moved to Florida—for over 30 years they lived only blocks apart. But, Carol never would contact her own mother or have anything to do with her, even after nearly a half-century. And when she died, nothing at all about her parents, and nearly nothing factual appeared in the obituary.
She was 77 years old when she died on 1 April 1979—even though The New York Times gave her age as 65. For a brief while, she had been nearly a daughter to Lovecraft, and from 1924 until her marriage to John Weld, she was his step-daughter.
Transcript:
LOVECRAFT’S DAUGHTER – II
In the first part of my essay on the daughter of Sonia Greene Lovecraft, and the step-daughter of Howard Phillips Lovecraft, I discussed some of the efforts at subterfuge by Carol Weld, actually Florence Carol (Greene) Weld (1902 – 1979) to hide her parentage and to avoid any reference to her origins. Erroneously, I stated that her date of death was 1 April 1979 which would have, under the circumstances, been a very fitting date for her to have died on—April Fool’s Day— as Carol was so set on fooling everyone about her background.
Her death certificate indicates that she in fact died on 31 March 1979, less than a fortnight after her birthday, her 77 th [sic] birthday, not her 71 st [sic] birthday. March if you recall was the very month that Sonia and HPL were married in, and that was the month that HPL died in. At the time of her death, Carol trimmed 6 years from her date of birth, and after spending one week in the hsopital, [sic] she declined to provide any information for their records, although she must have known that this bout with her serious emphysema might prove fatal. After her demise, it was her lawyer who provided the information on her death certificate, and Carol’s parentage was apparently not known to her personal lawyer.
Her lawyer also indicated to me that she did not know of any surviving kin to Carol, totally unaware that Carol’s half-brother Sydney was living in Miami.
Carol’s lawyer could only give me one name of a friend of Carol—her literary agent. The lawyer did however send me two snapshots of Carol Weld, which I have reprinted. Shortly before her death, Carol did donate her papers to the University of Wyoming, where they considered her to be “Miss” Carol Weld, and conspicuously there is no biographical information about her life in the Carol Weld Collection in the Archive of Contemporary History. In the Collection however are a number of books autographed to Carol Weld, from Evan Allen Bartlett (LOVE MURDERS OF HARRY F. POWERS), Edna Lee Booker (NEWS IS MY JOB), George Seldes (CAN THESE THINGS BE!), and many paperbacks from Paris during the 1930’s and many items from the Overseas Press Club that Carol had been a member of for so many years.
There are also several booklets in the Collection written by Carol Weld, amazingly enough along the exact same topics that Carol’s mother had written about. SECRETS OF BEING WELL-DRESSED was published by Carol in 1937, and quite a few of her unpublished manuscripts also repose in the Carol Weld Collection: DEADLINE, 114 pages, THE ‘DUMB’ CELEBRITIES, 233 pages, about animals in the news, a topic that Carol was fascinated with her entire life, THE FRENCH CAFE, 279 pages, MARIGOLD, OR THE PINK ELEPHANT, 181 pages, THE WANDERERS, 31 pages, WINGS OF MERCY, co-authored with Kenneth Higgins, 36 pages, and WOMAN’S PLACE IS IN THE HOME, 27 pages. The sole published hardcover book that appeared in Carol’s life was ANIMALS ARE LIKE THAT! (New York, McBride and Co., 1939) that she wrote with the famous hunter Frank Buck.
Evidence in the Weld Collection indicates that Carol was very well known in the American Expatriate Colony that lived in Paris during the 1920’s and 1930’s. Lastly, there are 6 uncatalogued and unindexed scrapbooks of her writings and articles—these round out the last few items of Carol’s long life and career. And, nary a clew [sic] to her true origins, nor any hint of her parents or her most famous step-father.
This is the first source, and perhaps the only source, in which we get this theory of Florence being in love with her uncle, Sidney Moseson—Sonia’s half-brother. I can’t neither accept nor deny this notion to be true, only because Sonia never claimed it to be the reason why they had their fallout. However, Sonia had been interviewed by Everts, and she had spent enough time with him that just maybe this theory was a hard truth she revealed in confidence. There’s also the likelihood of a slight confusion since Sidney had fallen in love and married a young woman named Florence Stone on March 25, 1923. (FamilySearch) Could Everts have easily confused one Florence for another? Probably or probably not. One thing is true: Carol had moved down to Miami, which was not far from Sidney and his family. However, this doesn’t mean she was in love with him but could easily mean she valued him as her closest family. They were practically raised together.
Another interesting anecdote is the argument between Sonia and Florence while Lovecraft and Samuel Loveman were visiting. The only time this incident could’ve occurred with both Samuel Loveman and H.P. Lovecraft around was in April 1922. Sonia had initially invited Loveman to visit New York, and when he did, but did not find it enticing enough to stay, she invited Lovecraft to keep him company. Sonia had turned over her place to them, while she stayed over at her neighbor’s home. This could mean that Florence had also joined Sonia in staying with their neighbor or somewhere else at a friend’s house, or Florence had already moved out, but was still visiting Sonia. Sadly, we’ll never knew what drove these two women to disagree with one another to the point of argument in front of others.
After marrying, John and Carol Weld moved to Paris. In a set of three letters to R. Alain Everts, John Weld gives insight to his relationship with Carol:
Transcript:
Dear Mr. Kirsch:
You might be able to locate Carol Weld through the Overseas Press Club, 54 West 40th st., New York I8, N.Y. I believe she was a founding member and I would presume she still belongs to the organization.
I never did know Carol’s mother, though I believe she lived in Brooklyn while Carol and I were living in Manhattan. There seemed to have been some estrangement between them. I’m afraid I do not have any photograph of Carol, mainly because, when we separated in Paris, in 1932 I left all of my possessions with her. I have not seen her since.
We were married in New York in October, 1927, as I recall, though the exact date I do not remember. My birthdate is February 24, 1905, and you may find some biographical material in Who’s Who in the West. Carol and I had no children. Our separation was by mutual agreement and I was granted a divorce on the grounds of incompatibility in Los Angeles in 1933. So far as I know Carol has not remarried, but then I would not have known of it if she had probably.
It interests me that you are writing the biography of Carol’s mother. Was (is) she someone of note?
Transcript:
Dear Mr. Kirsch:
It seems that we are working up quite a correspondence about Carol Greene Weld. We met in 1927 when we were working as reporters on Hearst’s New York American. I never did understand Carol’s relationship with her mother, and indeed we never discussed it; it seemed to be a closet she preferred to leave closed. Carol in no wise was a flighty or rebellious girl and certainly in my opinion she was not promiscuous, certainly not in a sexual sense.
You say that Mrs. Davis “was one of the first to support the Amateur Press movement”. What was that? I’ve never heard of it.
Good luck with your manuscript.
Transcript:
Dear Mr. Kirsch:
Do drop in when you’re down this way. Better call me though before you come.
Knowing Carol’s attitude toward her mother, I am not surprised that she refuses to cooperate with you. No, I do not have any photographs of Carol—as I told you, when I left Paris in 1932 I left all of my personal effects with her. However, my sister may have a snapshot or so. I’ll ask her.
Carol does appear to have remained in Europe until 1936, after which she went back and forth from the U.S. to Europe throughout 1936 and into 1937. (FamilySearch, 1936, 1937) Perhaps their failed marriage was a result of incompatibility, but Sonia believed it was her bad attitude that ruined the marriage. As mentioned before, it’s quite possible Carol had a temper, and when you have snippets such as the following newspaper clipping, it’s easy to see her strong will and force at play.
The Miami News, January 13, 1959, p. 21. Source: newspapers.com
Transcript:
(Photo Caption: “The trial is through, but not Miss Carol Weld. Gives arresting officer Bob Kirby a few pointers.”)
The Lady Fights Well
This is Justice?
Justice, justice, cried Carol Weld, lifting her hands and her adverbs to the heavens. Guilty, said the judge, wiping a weary brow.
But she fought the good fight in Miami Beach’s traffic court today, did Miss Weld, a writer—oh, a prolific writer indeed, and one of vast, if futile, resource.
She weighed in with a firm “Not Guilty!” and waving a sheaf of verbiage, clenching a martyred jaw. And she departed waving an indignant finger, banners tattered but flying.
The Cause?
Cause of all this commotion, which left even Judge A.H. Saperstein somewhat awed? Of what heinous misdeed was she accused? Well, this policeman, Bob Kirby, had the temerity to say she went through a stop light…
And Miss Weld felt the light was yellow—on this firm foundation she based her cause, and she spoke of violation of civil rights and she touched on deprivation of livelihood and she waxed eloquently on matters of learned law.
“But…” said the judge. “Listen…” said the judge. “I submit…” said the judge.
Judge Gives Up
The judge then leaned back with the wisdom of resignation and some 25 minutes later managed a lecture on traffic safety, fined her the usual $10 but, in obvious admiration, knocked off the $4 court costs.
Miss Weld departed with her writing, a sheaf of it, a detailed explanation of Florida traffic law which had taken her hours to prepare, enough copy—in another medium—to provide two weeks groceries on the open market.
For Officer Kirby, a sneer.
For an idealistic questioner, a stern wise-up:
“No, it wasn’t just the principle. It was the money.”
Throughout the years, Sonia never gave up searching for Carol. In the summer or fall of 1926, Sonia got a job in Chicago. While she claimed the job paid better, Sonia also believed getting the job would help her find Carol, since she thought her daughter was living there at the time. Sadly, Sonia was not aware of the whole truth regarding that bit of information: Carol was working for the Chicago Tribune, but in Paris—not in Chicago. Apparently, though, Sonia’s nephew, Martin K. Kopp mentioned something about a possible meeting in San Francisco between the two women:
I also heard that Sonia located Florence, who, as I remember it, was living in the San Francisco area. This was after World War II. They finally met. It was a disaster, and Sonia returned to the Los Angeles area, and never discussed the matter again.
Sonia never mentioned or wrote about meeting Florence in San Francisco after World War II. She did, however, elaborate on a job she got in San Francisco where she stayed there from 1935 to 1936. Perhaps Sonia mixed the years, or she actually made a second trek to San Francisco to meet Florence.
The truth of the matter is we will never know.
The Courier-Journal, March 17, 1940, p. 22. Source: newspapers.com
Transcript:
Carol Weld, Writer, Is Avisiting
By Dot Tellitall
There is a lass in our town and she’s had wondrous fun… She’s avisiting with Jane Dixon Wells, and she has had the kind of experiences that make our mouth water. Her name is Carol Weld, and she is on leave from being a foreign newspaper correspondent.
Most of Carol’s experiences were picked up somewhere in France, where she worked for the Chicago Tribune and the United Press during all those exciting months before the war. When she was quizzed about her keen nose for news, she modestly gave all the credit to her dog, “Ric,” a smooth-haired fox terrier, now deceased, who covered all her assignments with her.
“He was really a news hound,” said Carol, “and usually beat me to most of my stories.” One of the chief methods of getting news in Paris is to make the rounds of all the swank bars where the continental American hangs out and which are hodge-podges for news. “Ric” knew the bars as well as his mistress and knew the sequence in which she took them in, so he often used to precede her to each bar. When people saw the dog they would know that Carol was coming along and she turned up usually about a half-hour behind him. “Ric,” said Carol, “interviewed all the famous people in Paris.” It is a very delicate subject, that of poor little “Rickie’s” death by an automobile.
She’s Also An Author
Carol Weld is the co-author with Frank Buck of a popular book called “Animals Are Like That.” She also is one of the twenty famous newspaper people, like H.V. Kaltenborn, who each contributed a chapter to the best seller, “The Inside Story.” Carol’s chapter is called “King Bites Dog.” She expects to be in Louisville about a week. She’s young and pretty and particularly is enjoying Kentucky food.
Don’t look now, Palmer Van Arsdale, ’cause here’s a picture of the little woman, Carolyn, having lunch with a friend in Los Angeles. She certainly looks well.
Los Angeles Evening Citizen News, September 3, 1940, p. 9. Source: newspapers.com
Transcript:
Carol Weld sends me pictures of the kinds of ambulances Americans are buying to ship to England, and a long letter which says in part: “I have been so overworked trying to raise funds for ambulances to send to Great Britain—for General De Gaulle’s Free French Forces, the British Red Cross, the Mechanized Transport Corps, the Scottish Red Cross and the free Polish, Czech and Norwegian forces in England, that I have only now been able to get around to comment on your “British Notes” column—not that you asked for any comments. It is just, of course, that you are right to the point, where occasionally even someone like myself, who is working to send ambulances, wonders why the British here are not more eager to help. Do you suppose it’s because each one wants to run his own little show more than he really wants to help Great Britain?… the money raised in America to help our less fortunate friends over there could be circulated in American industry—an idea which is not easy to sell to those various people you write about.” Carol Weld is West Coast representative of the British Ambulance Corps.
We will never know what truly broke the bond between Sonia and Florence. There was undealt trauma between them, beyond them, and maybe that’s just what caused the division. Maybe Sonia wanted humble beginnings and opportunities, while Carol wanted the whole world on a platter, and that in itself is reason for clashing. At the end of the day, though, Florence wanted to distance herself from her parents, from her past, choosing a new identity, a new self, where she could be whoever she wished. As a result of that decision, we are left with such a scarcity of biographical means that makes it impossible to get to knew her fully like we know her mother, and even her stepfather.
If you wish to learn more about Carol Weld, her papers are located in the University of Wyoming. The collection contains the correspondence and writings of Carol, but half of it is in French. You may read the overview of the collection by clicking on the link below:
For the great doesn’t happen through impulse alone, and is a succession of little things that are brought together.
Vincent van Gogh, Life According to Vincent, p. 124.
The first item I acquired, before entertaining the idea of studying Sonia’s life, was her copy of The Voice of the Prophet. This slim hardcover is a collection of Nathaniel’s religious and Jewish poetry. Sonia had scribbled several corrections on the text, and it was only after my first analysis of her handwriting that I wanted to know more about her. Who was she really? There was little (or wrong) information about her in all the scholarship of H.P. Lovecraft to give an in-depth portrait of her, and so I decided I would change that.
The second item I acquired, by this point seriously studying Sonia’s life, was Alfred Galpin’s copy of The Rainbow. This was a feat that required a community, and with the help of backers, I was not only able to get them but was able to bring them back into publication for others to acquire. It was time to take what was rare and obscure and make it accessible because it’s the possessions of the departed that brings us closer to their person, to their life.
The third item I recently acquired was something I felt would be the holy grail of all Sonia things! A year ago, I had jokingly vowed that I would save money for Sonia’s passport rather than for my future retirement. I never saved that money, and the dream still came true but not in the way I had originally planned. The truth is, what I’m about to share is not physically in my possession, not framed on my bookshelf along with the other Sonia belongings. And that’s okay because the person who owns these materials is a woman who runs her own bookshop and that makes me indescribably happy! I am glad that it did not go to some nondescript entity whose only wish is to obtain and hoard, but went to another woman, who is just as curious about Sonia as I am.
Lot #45119 was originally an online auction over at Heritage Auctions, which contained Sonia’s passport, citizenship card, her copy of Selected Letters I and Selected Letters II, and two letters. Both copies of the Selected Letters contain a few corrections and one annotation by Sonia. As for the letters, one is addressed to Philip Grill and the other to Winfield Townley Scott. The original posting may be seen here: [H.P. Lovecraft] Sonia Haft Greene Lovecraft Davis.
I would like to give a hearty thanks both to Michelle Souliere of the Green Hand Bookshop for the following scans, and to Dave Goudsward for putting us in contact.
Annotation (p.68): “H.P.L was an atheist and did not believe in God; either a living or a dead one. He hated Jesus and called him a “milk + water” person.”
Transcript:
Dear Mr. Grill:
In reply to your interested letter regarding books signatured by H.P. Lovecraft, I have five books, namely:
THE FABULOUS ‘FORTIES
LALLA ROOKH
THE TEMPTATIONS OF ST. ANTHONY
ROGET’S THESAURUS and WHITE FIRE by the late John Ravenor Bullen, diceased, [sic] not signed but has a preface by HPL which is really a review of his book.
There are also several snapshots of HPL and one each, of his aunts.
It is difficult to state on what basis to part with these. I’ve had several requests for the items but no definite offers.
Someday these small items are likely to be worth a great deal more even than anything of Edgar Allen Poe’s. And while I should like to accomodate [sic] HP’s admirers, I am very much in need of cold, hard cash, and will be willing to part with them to the highest bidder. The offers would have to come from those most interested, and most able to make the purchase.
At one time I should probably have been happy to give them away to his admirers and collectors of his works but frankly, my finances being in the “red” I am obliged to avail myself of what these items will bring.
If still interested, please let me hear from you again. Thanking you for the inquiry, I am
Sincerely Yours
Sonia H. Davis
Sonia had originally placed an ad for these books in The Phoenix:
The Phoenix, Vol. VIII, No. 6.
Transcript:
Dear Mr. Scott: —
If it is not too much trouble, could you find the cut of my photograph? If not, I shall have to have one made. I need it for publicity, as I am chairman for a benefit entertainment and tea. I’d appreciate the favor very much.
Thanking you in advance, I am
Very Sincerely
Sonia H. Davis
Sometimes dreams don’t come true in the way one expects them to, and in this case, I’m equally as grateful as if I had bought Lot #45119. However small these offerings may seem in the grand scheme of Lovecraftian study, they’re still another puzzle piece that gets pressed into the greater picture. Every little piece matters.
Box-folder 1:2-33; 2:1-11, Correspondence, 1933-1975, McHenry Library, UC Santa Cruz, CA.
Please do convey my love and aloha to Mother Davis—I always have and will have my warm regards for her.
Kilsoo K. Haan to Nathaniel A. Davis, October 4, 1942, John Hay Library, Providence, R.I.
One would think spy espionage had little (or even nothing) to do with Sonia’s life. After all, what proper and furtive means would a milliner have to fight terrorism? (Although it does sound like a great novel idea!) Believe it or not, espionage did, indeed, cross over into Sonia’s life, if only by the degrees of a friendship. Because, you know, a true friend holds bomb strike charts without asking any questions!
In Two Hearts That Beat as One, Sonia elaborated on one very unique meeting:
During the latter part of 1939, Nathaniel and Sonia attended a public lecture given by a Korean. Nathaniel was very interested that he invited the Korean to dinner one day and told him that he had an organization that was ready to help all oppressed peoples. He told him about “Planetaryan”. The Korean became a member without any cost to him!
Sonia H. Davis, Two Hearts That Beat as One, p. 178.
The Korean was Kilsoo Kenneth Haan.
In the original autobiographical manuscripts, Kilsoo Haan was simply rendered as “K.H.”. Sonia was known for changing people’s name. In this case, it was warranted why she would’ve kept his identity a mystery, given he was a literal spy and also her friend. In one passage however, she slipped and wrote his first name, making it a little easier for me to ultimately identify him.
Upon further study of Kilsoo’s papers in Santa Cruz, California (physically), and Nathaniel’s papers in Providence (virtually), I’ve learned Kilsoo was a genuine friend to Nathaniel and Sonia. While his papers do not contain any letters from Nathaniel or Sonia, in the Sonia H. Davis and Nathaniel A. Davis Papers does contain a wealth of correspondence between Kilsoo and Nathaniel, and even letters between Kilsoo and political figures.
We know who he was to Nathaniel and Sonia, but who was Kilsoo Haan really?
Kilsoo Kenneth Haan was born in Chang Dan, Korea, on May 31, 1900. He arrived in Honolulu, Hawaii, at age 5, and soon was working as a sugar cane laborer for the Oahu Sugar Company. After completing the 8th grade, he contracted to raise sugar cane for the Company, while training in the Hawaiian National Guard. After an honorable discharge, Haan moved to San Francisco. There he attended the Salvation Army Training College. Between 1922 and 1926 he served in the Salvation Army as an officer, reaching the rank of Captain, and was stationed back on the Hawaiian Islands. In 1926 he married Stella Yoon in Honolulu, with whom he had a son and a daughter. In 1932 he joined the Sino-Korean Peoples’ League, acting as its representative in Hawaii and America, and began working to assist U.S. intelligence concerning Japan. Between 1938 and 1947 he resided in Washington, D.C., as the Washington representative of the League. He is famous for having attempted to warn various American officals [sic] shortly before the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor of the impending attack. Haan became a naturalized United States citizen in 1956. He worked for the Chun King Corporation in San Jose, California, from the mid- 1950’s until 1969. Upon his retirement he moved to Capitola, a seaside village near Santa Cruz, where he died in July, 1976.
Although Sonia claimed it was the “latter part of 1939” when they attended Kilsoo’s public lecture, the earliest letter between Kilsoo and Nathaniel was March 28, 1939.
Letter Source: Sonia H. and Nathaniel A. Davis papers (MS.2021.003), Series 2. Nathaniel A. Davis, 1918 – 1964, Series 2. Subseries. Correspondence, 1931 – 1948, Box 1, Folder 38 1930 – 1939, John Hay Library, Providence, R.I.
Transcript:
March 28, 1939
My dear Mr./Dr. and Mrs. Davis:
Kindly accept my humble and sincere appreciation for all the nice things you have done for me. My stay was made so pleasant and useful due to your interest in my activities.
I shall always remember you and feel grateful for the love you have shown me.
My stay in New York was brief—due to Mr. Solomon’s busy hours I did not get to see him. However if you could kindly send me an introductory letter, I think I may have a better chance of meeting him.
It is very imperative that I know him for many reasons, I know he is doing a great work for humanity. His letter of sympathy will mean much to me and my people. After consideration if you do send me your letter of introduction, I shall make every effort to see him and get acquainted with him.
If you can possibly write him and pave the way for me, it would be much easier for me.
I know I am asking much of you and yet I feel I can call upon you for an understanding and cooperation.
I have been so drawn unto you and Mrs. Davis—I don’t know what is the chief attraction, yet it is so—which make me to have faith in your judgment and call on you when in need of such advise [sic] and favor.
Thus far I am laying a good foundation in Washington D.C. and soon hope to carry on my work effectively.
God is with us and so long I am on His side I know I will win.
Enclosed please find a photograph and a photostat. It is self-explanatory.
God bless you and Mrs. Davis.
Sincerely Yours
Kilsoo K. Haan
(Letter was sent at once S.H.D)
There aren’t any letters prior to this date between Kilsoo and Nathaniel, although it’s apparent we’re missing Nathaniel’s initial letter to Kilsoo. It’s very likely Nathaniel and Sonia attended the “public lecture given by a Korean” early 1939, or late 1938. Either way, the lecture forged a bond between the spy and the milliner and her husband. Sonia was by this point very involved in philanthropy, exceptionally outspoken about equality between ethnicities. This was an attribute that was sprung forth by Nathaniel, who was the founder of American Defense Society [Planetaryan] of the United States—a humanitarian organization.
Nathaniel and Sonia had mutual ground with Kilsoo: they sought to improve the welfare of others. When they heard Kilsoo’s message, they believed in the cause and without a second thought, did anything and everything within their power to bring awareness. As a result of his organization, Nathaniel had some pull in political circles, and so he wrote letters of recommendation to his contacts regarding Kilsoo, bringing additional awareness to Kilsoo’s cause:
Letter Source: Sonia H. and Nathaniel A. Davis papers (MS.2021.003), Series 2. Nathaniel A. Davis, 1918 – 1964, Series 2. Subseries. Correspondence, 1931 – 1948, Box 1, Folder 39 1940 – 1941, John Hay Library, Providence, R.I.
Transcript:
May
Twenty-ninth
1941.
Dr. Nathaniel A. Davis
3816 1/2 South LaSalle [sic] Avenue
Los Angeles, California
My dear Dr. Davis:
It is always a pleasure to hear from you and I am glad everything seems to be going so well for you at this time.
With regard to Mr. Kilsoo K. Haan, I should be happy to meet him as he must be a most interesting person, judging from your description of him. However, I am afraid I can offer him little encouragement at the present time with reference to his desire to become affiliated with the Federal Bureau of Investigation as an investigator.
I know several other A-1 fellows out on the coast for whom I interceded with the Honorable J. Edgar Hoover, but I have been advised that at the present time they are not enploying [sic] any investigators whatsoever, and intend to continue with their present personnel, although I had previously been of the opinion that they intended appointing several new investigators out on the coast. Therefore there is little encouragement to offer at this time.
Regretting my inability to be of more assistance to you and Mr. Haan at this time, and with kindest regards, I am
Most cordially yours,
Charles Kramer, M.C.
Years 1939 – 1940
Letter Source: Sonia H. and Nathaniel A. Davis papers (MS.2021.003), Series 2. Nathaniel A. Davis, 1918 – 1964, Series 2. Subseries. Correspondence, 1931 – 1948, Box 1, Folder 38 1930 – 1939, John Hay Library, Providence, R.I.
Transcript:
My dear Dr. Davis:
I thank you so much for your prompt answer and also for the letter of introduction to Dr. Solomon. It was very nice of you to favor me with these requests.
Please convey my best wishes to Mrs. Davis.
I shall do my best to do what I can to carry out the work as previously stated.
God bless you.
Yours truly,
Kilsoo K. Haan
Letter Source: Sonia H. and Nathaniel A. Davis papers (MS.2021.003), Series 2. Nathaniel A. Davis, 1918 – 1964, Series 2. Subseries. Correspondence, 1931 – 1948, Box 1, Folder 38 1930 – 1939, John Hay Library, Providence, R.I.
Transcript:
Aug. 7, 1939
My dear Dr. Nathaniel A. Davis:
Perhaps you may recall seeing me while I passed Los Angeles last January.
I will be in your fair city once more from Sept. 25 to Oct. 5, 1939.
If you believe I can be of any service to your organization I shall be very have [sic] (^happy) to serve.
Kindly let me know before the 25th of August.
Many thanks for your kindness
Sincerely yours
Kilsoo K. Haan
Letter Source: Sonia H. and Nathaniel A. Davis papers (MS.2021.003), Series 2. Nathaniel A. Davis, 1918 – 1964, Series 2. Subseries. Correspondence, 1931 – 1948, Box 1, Folder 38 1930 – 1939, John Hay Library, Providence, R.I.
Transcript:
August 14, 1939
Mr. Kilsoo K. Haan
101 D.St., [sic] N.E.
Washington D.C.
Dear friend Haan: —
We were more than pleased to hear again from you, and especially to note that you are likely soon to be again in Los Angeles.
Since you went East, we have, as you will see by the reply address, moved to more convenient quarters, and much nearer to the offices of the Sino-Korean league.
If in any small way, we have been of any service to you or helped you to attain your objectives in Washington, to have done that is reward enough; my only regret is that we could have not done more.
Before you leave Washington, I would very much like to have you see Mr. John Dockweiler, at the Shoreham Hotel. He was formerly one of our Los Angeles Congressmen and now has an official position in the Capital. His family ranks high in the Democratic Party. His father is one of our ranking men in the party. His brother the Hon. George Dockweiler is a Judge on the Superior Court bench. It may be well worth your while to confer with him. Make an appointment over the telephone saying that I asked to to [sic] do this.
Waiting with pleasant anticipation to see you,
Cordially yours,
Dr. Nathaniel A. Davis
Letter Source: Sonia H. and Nathaniel A. Davis papers (MS.2021.003), Series 2. Nathaniel A. Davis, 1918 – 1964, Series 2. Subseries. Correspondence, 1931 – 1948, Box 1, Folder 34 1938 – 1940, John Hay Library, Providence, R.I.
Transcript:
Aug. 9, 1940
My dear Dr. Davis:
Please forgive my neglectfulness. How are you and Mrs. Davis? I trust both of you are healthy and happy in your good work.
I will be in Los Angeles from the first of Sept. to Oct. 10—
Would it be possible for you to arrange an opportunity of meeting some National Defence minded organization during my stay there?
I shall be only too happy to do what I can to make it a happy and enlightening meeting.
My topics will be—
New Order in Asia?
National Defence and You
Young People’s Problem
Letter Source: Sonia H. and Nathaniel A. Davis papers (MS.2021.003), Series 2. Nathaniel A. Davis, 1918 – 1964, Series 2. Subseries. Correspondence, 1931 – 1948, Box 1, Folder 34 1938 – 1940, John Hay Library, Providence, R.I.
Transcript:
August 19, 1940
Mr. Kilsoo Haan
Senate Hotel
Washington, D.C.
My dear friend Haan,
Both Mrs [sic] Davis and I were glad to receive you [sic] note indicating that after so long a stay in Washington you are about to return to this city for awhile.
I immediately began to make enquiries as to the probability that we might be able to make use of your services in the presentation of your message backed up by your special experience during your stay here.
I am convinced that it is practicable to do this in an adequate way; but inorder [sic] to satisfy those with whom we must co-operate it has been suggested that you give us for publicity purposes and their satisfaction, a resume of your background, accomplishments, attitude to ward [sic] vital American ideals in absolute opposition to Communism, Fascism, Nazism, Atheism, and all subversive movements, and especially your experiences in Washington as you have pressed the cause of justice for suffering Korea and tortured China.
For my own part, this is not needed. I know your standing on these matters. But to do aqequately [sic] that which is in your heart, it will help mightily to go on record. So do not delay in sending to me as much material as you can, sending your reply by air mail. Then we can act. All the rest can be done I am sure.
As ever, looking forward to seeing you,
Very cordially yours
DR. NATHANIEL A. DAVIS
Kilsoo, being a representative of the Sino-Koreans’ People League, strove hard to bring rights to Koreans in America and also in Hawaii. The following letters show a brief example of what he sought to accomplish, and managed to do so:
Letter Source: Sonia H. and Nathaniel A. Davis papers (MS.2021.003), Series 2. Nathaniel A. Davis, 1918 – 1964, Series 2. Subseries. Correspondence, 1931 – 1948, Box 1, Folder 42 1931 – 1942, John Hay Library, Providence, R.I.
Transcript:
March 16, 1939
Mr. Kilsoo K. Haan
1281 Fort Street
Honolulu, Hawaii
Dear Mr. Haan:
I am very happy to send this message to the Sino-Korean People’s League. I have learned of the excellent work you have been doing, and feel that a group such as yours can do a great deal toward the awakening of democracies to the struggle for Korean Independence and the development of an interest in the Korean people.
I congratulate you and wish you continued success.
Very sincerely yours,
Newbold Morris
Acting Mayor
Letter Source: Sonia H. and Nathaniel A. Davis papers (MS.2021.003), Series 2. Nathaniel A. Davis, 1918 – 1964, Series 2. Subseries. Correspondence, 1931 – 1948, Box 1, Folder 42 1931 – 1942, John Hay Library, Providence, R.I.
Transcript:
April 20, 1940
Mr. Kilsoo Haan
Senate Hotel
Washington, D.C.
My dear Mr. Haan:
I know you will be as pleased as I am to learn of the action taken with reference to the Korean students for whom you have been working so unremittingly during the past few months. The Senate Committee on Immigration, in Executive session, considered our bill at length. They were very sympathetic to its purpose and in accord with our views, but they were very reluctant to establish such a precedent as this type of legislation would establish.
A conference was held with Mr. Shaughnessy, Commissioner of Immigration, and he expressed himself as entirely in accord with our views of the situation, and gave assurance that his Bureau would not take any steps toward deportation or curtailment of the time for residence of these Korean people in the United States. This, of course, is much preferable to what we would have accomplished by the passage of the bill. Had the bill been enacted, the matter would have been left discretionary with the State Department, and with the rapidly changing aspect of international affairs, an order could be issued by the Secretary of State putting an end at any time to the stay of these people in our country. With the assurance that we have secured, through the Committee, from the Commissioner of Immigration, I am confident these Koreans can view the prospect with assurance that there will not within any reasonable time be action taken which will require their return to the Orient.
I want especially to assure you of my appreciation of your ardent efforts in behalf of these people. Your interest in the matter and your intelligence and grasp of the situation have been very potent factors in bringing about the results which have been accomplished.
May I assure you of my high personal esteem,
Very sincerely,
Guy M. Gillette
Letter Source: Sonia H. and Nathaniel A. Davis papers (MS.2021.003), Series 2. Nathaniel A. Davis, 1918 – 1964, Series 2. Subseries. Correspondence, 1931 – 1948, Box 1, Folder 34 1938 – 1940, John Hay Library, Providence, R.I.
Transcript:
SINO-KOREAN PEOPLE’S LEAGUE
101 D Street, N.E.
Washington, D.C.
Press Release
August 20 (or 26), 1940
Director of Alien Registration Earl G. Harrison today informed Kilsoo K. Haan, Representative of the Sino-Korean People’s League in Washington, D.C., that the Justice Department has granted Haan’s proposal.
The proposal and request was that the Department of Alien Registration under the U.S. Justice Department grant the Koreans in America and Hawaii the right to register as Koreans and not as Japanese subject. Haan said, “Koreans in America and Hawaii will deeply appreciate America’s sympathetic understanding of Koreans’ feeling toward Japan. This will greatly cement and enhance our loyalty to democracy and to the United States of America.”
Attention of Koreans –
Fellow Koreans: May I call your attention to the generosity of the Department of Justice in granting Koreans the right to register as Koreans and not as subjects of Japan.
When you go to the local Post Office to register, write down your nationality as Korean and not as a Japanese subject.
May I suggest that you write to Mr. Harrison, Director of Alien Registration, U.S. Department of Justice, Washington, D.C., thanking him for this privilege.
Kilsoo K. Haan
Letter Source: Sonia H. and Nathaniel A. Davis papers (MS.2021.003), Series 2. Nathaniel A. Davis, 1918 – 1964, Series 2. Subseries. Correspondence, 1931 – 1948, Box 1, Folder 42 1931 – 1942, John Hay Library, Providence, R.I.
Transcript:
August 19, 1941
55988/630
Mr. Kilsoo K. Haan
Sino-Korean Peoples’ League
101 D Street, N.E.
Washington, D.C.
My dear Mr. Haan:
A copy of your letter of July 30, 1941, which was addressed to J. Edgar Hoover, Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, has been referred to this office for reply.
In your letter you request to be advised if there is any reason why your organization should not issue identification cards to each Korean alien in the United States so that he may be distinguished from Japanese.
In reply thereto, you are advised that this office sees no objection to your proposal. It is presumed that the proposed identification card will merely attempt to identify the holder as a Korean and not as a Japanese. Inasmuch as there will be no attempt to imitate or duplicate Federal documents there is, as stated, no reason in our opinion why you should not issue such documents.
Sincerely yours,
Lemuel B. Schofield
Special Assistant to the Attorney General
By (signed) Edw. J. Shaughnessy
Deputy Commissioner
…
August 20, 1941
Attention, Fellow Koreans:
This and other letters have been forwarded to Chairman Kim Ho of the United Korean Committee in Los Angeles, also letter enclosed for Chairman Won Soon Lee in Hawaii and other leaders in Hawaii and Los Angeles.
As soon as the leaders undertake to agree on this necessary program—either the United Korean Committee in Hawaii and Los Angeles or myself will issue a statement of facts and suggestions for your benefit.
Kilsoo K. Haan
Washington Representative
UNITED AMERICAN DEFENSE COMMITTEE
of L.A. Calif.
As remarkable as this achievement may be, Kilsoo’s main fame lies in his work against the Japanese and what he had acquired while undercover in a Japanese base in Hawaii.
While living in Honolulu, he dressed like a Japanese beggar, hair rumpled, face not too clean, and bare-footed. He walked into the Japanese consulate and in peasant Japanese asked for help. He said nobody wanted to give him any kind of job. He was hungry and had no place to live and he simply had to have work, any kind of work.
The two officials looked at each other, then at Kilsoo K. Haan. One asked him whether he could read or write, he said no. Could he do janitor work? He thought he could and would try. While cleaning the offices, he spied their literature, copied it, including the charts where Pearl Harbor was to be struck. When he had all the information he needed, he came to Los Angeles hired the large Embassy Auditorium, put an ad in the local papers, inviting all the Koreans and other citizens to come to the lecture.
Sonia H. Davis, Two Hearts That Beat as One, pp. 178 – 179.
At first, this passage reads a little like one great spy novel. However, this was real, and this was Kilsoo’s real mission in life. These charts were once in the possession of Nathaniel and Sonia:
Letter Source: Sonia H. and Nathaniel A. Davis papers (MS.2021.003), Series 1. Sonia H. Davis, 1922 – 1971, Series 1. Subseries. Correspondence, 1938 – 1971, Box 1, Folder 1 1944 – 1970, John Hay Library, Providence, R.I.
Transcript:
(November 2, 1952)
P.S. I have Charts showing where Pearl Harbor would be struck, and about when. These, my late husband obtained from one Kilsoo Haan, who before the war went to Washington to show these charts and tell what he knew about the then impending disaster, but Washington wouldn’t listen to him. I’ll be happy to show them to you, and also some of the literature, as well as my late husband’s pleadings to F.D. Roosevelt regarding the lack of safety and security of the United States.
S.H.D.
Letter Source: Sonia H. and Nathaniel A. Davis papers (MS.2021.003), Series 2. Nathaniel A. Davis, 1918 – 1964, Series 2. Subseries. Correspondence, 1931 – 1948, Box 1, Folder 34 1938 – 1940, John Hay Library, Providence, R.I.
Moreover, aside from these charts, Kilsoo had “acquired” How Japan Plans to Win by Kinoaki Matsuo. This, too, was something that Nathaniel and Sonia had received:
When World War II was over, Kilsoo Haan wrote the book “How Japan Plans to Win”. When ten thousand copies were sold, Franklin D. Roosevelt forbade the sale of the book. Nathaniel and Sonia had a copy inscribed to them, but it was later lifted or otherwise appropriated from them.
Sonia H. Davis, Two Hearts That Beat as One, p. 180.
Kilsoo did not write How Japan Plan to Win; he translated it and published it in 1942. There appears to be some sort of controversy surrounding how Kilsoo acquired this book. The Japanese believed he stole it from two Japanese officers’ hotel room, while Kilsoo revealed it was given to him. The following transcripts are taken from the first few pages of How Japan Plans to Win:
How Japan Plans to Win. This page is not numbered but is the first page with actual text.
Transcript:
The translator is the Washington representative of the Sino-Korean People’s [sic] League, an anti-Japanese secret society of Korean patriots, with a highly organized intelligence service. Valuable information has frequently been passed on by Mr [sic] Haan to U.S. Government Departments.
A copy of the original Japanese book was ‘acquired’ by the translator from a Los Angeles hotel room of two Japanese Army officers (of whom he had advance information), who had come to the West Coast for propaganda among the Japanese-Americans.
The book sets out in detail the Japanese strategic plan. December 1941 is laid down as a zero month. The attacks on Pearl Harbour, Guam, Wake, and Midway Islands, and the Philippines have followed according to schedule. Action between the two fleets is discussed: the Nipponese expect to defeat the U.S. Fleet utterly.
How Japan Plans to Win by Kinoaki Matsuo, trans. by Kilsoo Haan, p. 5
Transcript:
TRANSLATOR’S NOTE
How Japan Plans to Win was first published in Tokyo in October of 1940 under the title of The Three-Power Alliance and a United States-Japanese War. The author is an intelligence officer in liaison between the Japanese Foreign Office and the Admiralty; he is also, and more significantly, a high official of the Black Dragon Society, a religious-political organization of militarists which has had a behind-the-scenes influence of growing importance in the development of recent Japanese policy. The purpose of the book was twofold: to stiffen mass support for a Japanese show-down with the United States; and to bring mass pressure to bear upon those members of the Admiralty who still considered a war with the United States suicidal. The present book is an unabridged translation of that work.
The book came into my hands as Washington representative of the Sino-Korean Peoples’ League, an anti-Japanese secret society with agents all over Japan, the mandated islands, Formosa, and our own West Coast. From one of my agents in Japan I receive word some time ago that two Japanese officers, both members of the Black Dragon Society, were on their way to California to do propaganda work among the Japanese-Americans of the West Coast. I was further informed that they were bringing with them a kind of Japanese Mein Kampf, which had been used to stimulate morale at home with some effect. I went at once to the Coast, and was able to secure a copy of the book, which I thereupon undertook to translate, and which is herewith published in English for the first time.
Grateful acknowledgement is hereby made to Mr [sic] Sang Ryup Park and other friends for their help in the translation. If, in spite of the patient efforts of these friends, I have failed to do justice to the author, Kinoaki Matsuo, I hope he will forgive me.
I owe grateful thanks, also, to Senator Guy M. Gillette, who has been very sympathetic and understanding, and who has advised me on the problem of presenting this book to the American public in the interests of National Defence.
In the midst of the increasing hysteria of impending war, Nathaniel did his best to inform political figures of a possible invasion through Crescent City, California.
Letter Source: Sonia H. and Nathaniel A. Davis papers (MS.2021.003), Series 2. Nathaniel A. Davis, 1918 – 1964, Series 2. Subseries. Correspondence, 1931 – 1948, Box 1, Folder 34 1938 – 1940, John Hay Library, Providence, R.I.
Transcript:
April 20, 1939
To the Hon. Franklin D. Roosevelt
President of the United States
The White House
Washington, D.C.
My dear Mr. President: —
Refering [sic] back to a recent letter from me expressing the views of this organization relative to a proposition we have for some years contended should be considered as a matter of National Policy, you undoubtedly remember that your attention was called to certain facts in connection with the defences of the Panama canal, the liberation of the naval forces of England, France, and Holland from American waters, the great value to us of the Central American, South American, West Indian, and some other islands as essential to the full protection of our coasts, commerce, and trade, and further of the resources in those teritories [sic] as producers of tropical products which we must have, and to the fact that European debts to us are constant causes of friction; and that we suggested the appointment of a special Congressional Committee to enquire as to the accuracy of our allegations and the practicability of bringing all of these places now held insecurely and quite seriously possible of occupation by enemy European or Asiatic powers definitely under our flag.
Since that time we are glad to note that a naval station has been acquired in Trinidad. This is fine; but we think it is not enough, and we sincerely hope that the complete program may be studied certain that the facts justify our views.
As part of this protection of our shores, there are other matters scarcely less important which we have more than once stressed. All of the ground covered in our correspondence with yourself we have been over. I know all of them from personal surveys of the facts on the spot.
There is another section now in our minds which is perhaps quite as important from the viewpoint of military defense. I refer to specifically to Crescent City, its harbor, Lakes Earle [sic] and Killaw [sic] immediately north of that harbor, and the hinterland in Del Norte and adjacent counties.
A vast stretch of practically unsettled arable, forest, and mineral lands of the greatest potential value, because of engineering difficulties and lack of roads and transportation facilities makes this area almost if not quite our last great West.
The harbor at Crescent City needs to be further developed as a military project as well as for commercial purposes. It is almost exactly mid way [sic] between Portland Oregon and San Francisco, California. It is the only practical point at which a harbor of refuge for ships of any size could be made available between these two ports. The coast line between Portland and San Francisco is at present the longest stretch on this earth on any shore between two major cities without such a port.
At the St. Georges Bank not far at sea from Crescent City is one of the greatest deep sea fishing areas in the world. In the farm and orchard lands of this territory there are possibilities of producing food for a mighty population.
Any alien such as Japan, seeking a landing spot not at present adequately protected, could and we think would finding all they might want, in the area referred to, seize it and settle military colonists there whom we could never expel.
The lakes before named are close to Crescent City. They are seperated [sic] from the sea by sand banks easily dredged through. An aeroplane landing fields and as naval stations, they are ideal.
There is an abundance of stone for building materials and harbor works at hand. A considerable amount of Federal work had been done already in Crescent Bay. But the naval plans should be rushed to completion and fortification make this territory safe for us and from the assaults of aggressor nations.
This Crescent City situation has been before Congress before. But at those times, the urgency of fast moving events did not enter into the argument and perhaps the tinge of racketeering real estate speculators clouded the issue. All of that has passed.
We know by all your record and your recent public statements that these problems lie close to your heart. For this we are grateful.
Trusting that our suggestions may have value and lead to action,
I have the honor to be,
most respectfully yours
National President of the AMERICAN DEFENSE SOCIETY OF THE UNITED STATES.
This is the only available page of this letter.
Letter Source: Sonia H. and Nathaniel A. Davis papers (MS.2021.003), Series 2. Nathaniel A. Davis, 1918 – 1964, Series 2. Subseries. Correspondence, 1931 – 1948, Box 1, Folder 34 1938 – 1940, John Hay Library, Providence, R.I.
Transcript:
September 23, 1939
Hon. Franklin D. Roosevelt
President of the United States
The White House
WASHINGTON, D.C.
My dear Mr. President: —
It is once more my privilege to convey to you both for this organization and on my own account our sincere satisfaction and our congratulations in connection with your recent word over radion [sic] to the American people giving them the reasons for you [sic] stand on the problems of Neutrality. That was finely done. It should place the people of America as well as their representative in the Congress substantially on your side and ready to support you in every way in these trying days.
We note with natural approval the acceptance by various Departments of the suggestions we have made notably with regard to the protection of our aeroplane and munition plants from untrustworthy employees and sabotage; the attention being given to the menace of foreign submarines in the CaribeanSea [sic] and the Gulf of Mexico; the danger spots in Alaska and in Central America; the very real danger involved in the activities of notorious subversive movements; and the need for a new and more definite Americanism among our citizenry. We are in no little measure disturbed by the continued lack of adequate protection of the Del Norte County and Crescent City area in this State and the importance there of a fully developed harbor of refuge as a military measure. Nor are we less concerned with regard to the armed preparedness of certain revolutionary groups to incite domestic trouble and spread racial and credal disruption of American solidarity. The Panama conference relative to Pan American relations is we think, a masterly move which must be stimulated to constant enthusiasm throughout the Americas.
May I add to this that if there is any place I can fill, or
Letter Source: Sonia H. and Nathaniel A. Davis papers (MS.2021.003), Series 2. Nathaniel A. Davis, 1918 – 1964, Series 2. Subseries. Correspondence, 1931 – 1948, Box 1, Folder 38 1930 – 1939, John Hay Library, Providence, R.I.
Transcript:
October 19, 1939
Dr. Nathaniel A. Davis
3816 1/2 South La Salle Avenue
Los Angeles, California
Dear Dr. Davis:
By reference from the President, I have your letter of September 23, 1939.
I want you to know how deeply I appreciate your offer of cooperation in connection with the emergency now confronting this Nation. It is suggested that you refer any information indicating a possible violation of the neutrality laws to Mr. R.B Hood, Special Agent in Charge of this Bureau’s Los Angeles Field Division located at 810 South Spring, Room 603, Los Angeles, California.
It was thoughtful of you to forward the clipping from The Los Angeles Pan American News.
With best wishes and kind regard,
Sincerely yours,
Letter Source: Sonia H. and Nathaniel A. Davis papers (MS.2021.003), Series 2. Nathaniel A. Davis, 1918 – 1964, Series 2. Subseries. Correspondence, 1931 – 1948, Box 1, Folder 39 1940 – 1941, John Hay Library, Providence, R.I.
Transcript:
December 17, 1940.
Dr. Nathaniel A. Davis,
3816 1/2 S. La Salle Avenue,
Los Angeles, California.
Dear Sir:
I am directed by the Secretary of War to acknowledge receipt of your letter of November 14, 1940, addressed to the President, together with data relative to the facilities of Crescent City, Del Norte County, California, in connection with the national defense program.
It is not possible at this time to indicate the extent to which it may be practicable to utilize the facilities at the locality in question for defense expansion activities; however, the information furnished has been made of record for such reference as requirements may warrant.
In the War Department studies for the selection of locations for such additional establishments as may be authorized incident to the defense program, the merits of all suitable areas are carefully evaluated. You may be assured that the merits of the Crescent City, California area will receive full consideration.
With appreciation of your interest in matters relating to the National Defense, I am
Very truly yours,
Major General,
The Adjutant General.
Letter Source: Sonia H. and Nathaniel A. Davis papers (MS.2021.003), Series 2. Nathaniel A. Davis, 1918 – 1964, Series 2. Subseries. Correspondence, 1931 – 1948, Box 1, Folder 34 1938 – 1940, John Hay Library, Providence, R.I.
Transcript:
December 27,1940
REPLY TO Dr. Nathaniel A. Davis, 3816 1/2 S.La [sic] Salle Ave.Los [sic] Angeles. Calif.
Major General E.S. Adams
The Adjutant General’s Office
War Department
Washington, D.C.
Dear Sir: —
By way of calling attention to the urgency of the Crescent City conditions in connection with the present emergency, and the probable advisability of some sort of preliminary investigation being made throughout Del Norte County in California and as additional material to be placed among your records along the material already supplied by us to you, I may say that the emmisaries [sic] of Japan have over a number of years been collecting data undoubtedly for their use later.
One of our own members who is also a member of our World Affairs committee, Mr. Kilsoo Haan, a Korean by birth and for many years a resident of Hawaii who is well known to the authorities in Washington where he has appeared before various Congressional groups as the representative of the Sino-Korean League, informed me that Japan is still using that district as a sort of fairly well concealed clearing house and thinking of it in terms of military action in days to come.
I have suggested to him that he should get into touch with you on his return to Washington. Senator Gillette will bear me out in saying that you will find him decidedly useful in consideration of matters affecting the Pacific area.
Cordially yours,
Dr. Nathaniel A. Davis; President American Defense Society
Letter Source: Sonia H. and Nathaniel A. Davis papers (MS.2021.003), Series 2. Nathaniel A. Davis, 1918 – 1964, Series 2. Subseries. Correspondence, 1931 – 1948, Box 1, Folder 39 1940 – 1941, John Hay Library, Providence, R.I.
Transcript:
January 6, 1941.
Dr. Nathaniel A. Davis,
3816 1/2 South La Salle Avenue,
Los Angeles, California.
Dear Sir:
Receipt is acknowledged of your letter of December 27, 1940, with further reference to the facilities of Crescent City, Del Norte County, California, in connection with the national defense program.
Your comments have been carefully noted and the correspondence has been placed on file with previous material on the subject, for such reference as requirements may warrant.
Thanking you for your interest in the program of national preparedness, I remain
Very truly yours,
Brigadier General,
Acting The Adjutant General.
Letter Source: Sonia H. and Nathaniel A. Davis papers (MS.2021.003), Series 2. Nathaniel A. Davis, 1918 – 1964, Series 2. Subseries. Correspondence, 1931 – 1948, Box 1, Folder 39 1940 – 1941, John Hay Library, Providence, R.I.
Transcript:
May 19, 1941
My dear Mr. Davis:
The Secretary of the Navy has referred to me your two letters of May 8, 1941 in which you point out various advantages that exist at the port of Crescent City, California as opposed to Eureka, California.
Careful consideration will be given to this matter.
Your thoughtfulness in bringing this matter to the attention of the Navy Department and your interest in national defense are appreciated.
Sincerely yours,
C.C. Hartigan
Captain,U.S.Navy [sic]
By Direction
I was unable to find proof that supported this theory regarding Crescent City. With that being said, due to California’s long coast, and the state’s sprawling northern region of redwood forests, it’s easy to understand the fear of a possible invasion going unnoticed. Any coastal city that was without a military presence was an Achilles heel. Then with the attack on Pearl Harbor, an attack on California was a real possibility, given how close Japanese submarines were already prowling the state’s coast. On February 23, 1942, a Japanese submarine had in fact shelled a Santa Barbara oil refinery, further perpetuating mass hysteria on the likelihood of an invasion. Santa Barbara History Japanese Attack describes the assault in great detail.
Concerts
In 1941, still dedicated to Kilsoo’s cause, Nathaniel and Sonia hosted two concerts for Korean refugees in China. The first was scheduled on April 20, 1941:
Letter Source: Sonia H. and Nathaniel A. Davis papers (MS.2021.003), Series 2. Nathaniel A. Davis, 1918 – 1964, Series 2. Subseries. Correspondence, 1931 – 1948, Box 1, Folder 39 1940 – 1941, John Hay Library, Providence, R.I.
Transcript:
You are cordially invited to be with us
At the home of our Hostess
THE COUNTESS de ZARUBA
3115 West Adams Blvd.,
Los Angeles
Sunday afternoon, April 20, 1941, from 3 to 7 o’clock where a Korean Refugee Relief Tea and musical program will be given by the American Committee to Aid Korean Refugees in China, under the auspices of PLANETARYAN.
Princess DER LING will be our guest of honor.
Beautifully costumed Korean girls will sing, dance and play for your pleasure.
Korean dainties, unlike any other Oriental delicacies, will be served, and will be appreciated by the American palate.
Sonia Haft Davis……………Program Chairman
Janet S. Whang……………Assist. Chairman
Dr. Nathaniel A. Davis….. Master of Ceremonies
Madam Alma Wieteck….Violin Soloist…accompanied by
Mrs. Grace Bush………………..Pianiste
Korean Program assisted by Mrs. Marie Lee, Winifred Lee, Lucille Kim, Rose Lee, Gloria Kim, Lila Lee, Marian Kim, Anna Lee, Mrs. Haykyeng Chung, (^Evelyn Kim) Mr. Frank Lee and P.K. Kim.
Story of the wonderful Country, Korea, and its interesting people…………….by Dr. N.A. Davis.
“Stars and Stripes For Me”……Words by Dr. N.A. Davis
Music by Mr. Elliot Carpenter
Sung by
Phil Gatch
Admission….50 cents.
Letter Source: Sonia H. and Nathaniel A. Davis papers (MS.2021.003), Series 2. Nathaniel A. Davis, 1918 – 1964, Series 2. Subseries. Correspondence, 1931 – 1948, Box 1, Folder 39 1940 – 1941, John Hay Library, Providence, R.I.
Transcript:
April 11, 1941
My dear Dr. and Mrs. Davis:
I am happy to report that the party I am negotiating for your appointment telephoned me this morning that your name [sic] have been put on the recommended list for the Cultural Bureau in the Latin America.
Keep patient and F.T.
I thanks [sic] you for all the help you are giving—the tea-party—tag-day—sending out letters etc.
Letters of encouragement and cheers are coming to me from the Koreans in Los Angeles. Thanks to you and Mrs. Davis—Kindly convey my regards to all.
Andrews—and others—sending six boxes of tea—packed by Koreans in N.Y. distribute among American Committee friends—Aloha Haan
Letter Source: Sonia H. and Nathaniel A. Davis papers (MS.2021.003), Series 2. Nathaniel A. Davis, 1918 – 1964, Series 2. Subseries. Correspondence, 1931 – 1948, Box 1, Folder 39 1940 – 1941, John Hay Library, Providence, R.I.
Transcript:
1941 APR 19
DR NATHANIEL A DAVIS=
3816 1/2 SOUTH LASALLE ST. LOSA=
THO THOUSANDS OF MILES SEPARATE US MY HEART IS WITH YOU ALL KIND FRIENDS OF CHINA AND KOREA WHO MADE THIS TEAPARTY [sic] POSSIBLE [.] MAY I HUMBLY WISH YOU PLEASANT AND HAPPY EVENING [.] ENJOY THE LEA [sic] AND DANCING TO HELP CHINA [.] LETS HELP KOREA TOO. GOMAPSO=
KILSOO HAAN.
The Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles, CA, Wed, Apr 16, 1941, p. 10. Source: Newspapers.com
This initial benefit was no doubt significant, and a great success. The second benefit, however, was exceedingly greater, so much so that Sonia had reached out to a fellow friend from the UAPA for help.
One of the Korean women wrote a short story describing the life of the Koreans, and also a Korean wedding. Sonia was to read that story from the platform, but she decided she could not do justice to it, so she telephoned a fellow-member who was affiliated with the United Amateur Press Association of which she had been a member as well. Sonia asked Mr. Wheeler Dryden to help out in any way he could. He complied at once.
Sonia H. Davis, Two Hearts That Beat as One, p. 179.
Since the stadium did not have a curtain, Wheeler brought his electrician with him. The stage was divided into three segments to present the three acts. The spotlight was to play on each section as needed.
Sonia H. Davis, Two Hearts That Beat as One, p. 179
The stadium in question was the Hollywood American Legion Post 43, which is now simply known as Hollywood Legion Theater. The theater appears to have been and still owned by the American Legion, a wartime veterans’ organization. You can read more about it here: Hollywood Legion Theater.
With Dryden’s help, and with those contributing and participating, the show was set for December 7, 1941.
Source: Sonia H. and Nathaniel A. Davis papers (MS.2021.003), Series 2. Nathaniel A. Davis, 1918 – 1964, Series 2. Subseries. Correspondence, 1931 – 1948, Box 1, Folder 39 1940 – 1941, John Hay Library, Providence, R.I.
Nathaniel had high hopes for this benefit, and it showed in the people who were invited to this event.
Letter Source: Sonia H. and Nathaniel A. Davis papers (MS.2021.003), Series 2. Nathaniel A. Davis, 1918 – 1964, Series 2. Subseries. Correspondence, 1931 – 1948, Box 1, Folder 39 1940 – 1941, John Hay Library, Providence, R.I.
Transcript:
Dec. 3, 1941
My dear Dr. and Mrs. Davis:
Your letter concerning Crescent City is noted with interest—will take matter up once more with War Department.
A million thanks to your hard work—I too am very anxious to have you here—I do need friends like you and Dr. Lechner.
Todate, [sic] Senator Downey and Gillette promised to wire you regarding Dec. 7—Korean night—Vice President’s secretary promised to call his attention once more—Mrs. Roosevelt’s secretary was reminded again—so far that is all—I do wish you all success—will wire you Saturday if any good news—
Aloha to Mrs. Davis and you
Gratefully yours
Kilsoo K. Haan
Senator Gillette did in fact wire Nathaniel, a day before Kilsoo’s letter:
Letter Source: Sonia H. and Nathaniel A. Davis papers (MS.2021.003), Series 2. Nathaniel A. Davis, 1918 – 1964, Series 2. Subseries. Correspondence, 1931 – 1948, Box 1, Folder 39 1940 – 1941, John Hay Library, Providence, R.I.
Transcript:
1941 DEC 2
REGRET UNABLE ACCEPT INVITATION. BEST WISHES SUCCESS
KOREAN BENEFIT=
SENATOR GUY M GILLETTE.
…
1941 DEC 7
CONGRATULATIONS YOUR MEETING WISH YOU SUCCESS=
LEAGUE AID TO KOREA.
VOLUNITEER [sic] IN CHINA.
Another noteworthy invitation for the benefit was denied:
Letter Source: Sonia H. and Nathaniel A. Davis papers (MS.2021.003), Series 2. Nathaniel A. Davis, 1918 – 1964, Series 2. Subseries. Correspondence, 1931 – 1948, Box 1, Folder 39 1940 – 1941, John Hay Library, Providence, R.I.
Transcript:
DEC 6 1941
FOLLOWING MESSAGE RECEIVED FROM MRS [sic] ROOSEVELT TO BE READ SUNDAY NIGHT. WHITE HOUSE/FOR TRANSMITTAL DEAR HAAN/ I AM SENDING GREETINGS TO ALL THOSE ATTENDING THE BENEFIT AND MY GOOD WISHES TO THE SOCIETY FOR THE SUCCESS OF THEIR EFFORTS ON BEHALF OF THE KOREAN REFUGEES IN CHINA[.] I HOPE THAT THE RESULTS OF THE EVENING N [sic] KOREA WILL BE MOST GRATIFYING[.] VERY SINCERELY YOURS SIGNED ELEANOR ROOSEVELT=
KILSOV [sic] HAAN.
Even with the bomb strike charts of Pearl Harbor in their possession, Nathaniel and Sonia could never have predicted the tragedy which had transpired on December 7, 1941.
That last concert was given on December 7, 1941. The chief of police warned the population to stay home that evening, but Nathaniel telephoned and informed him that the tickets had already been sold for this benefit and that many persons would leave their homes that evening. It was very dark and difficult to get about.
Sonia H. Davis, Two Hearts That Beat as One, p. 179.
Southern California’s civil defense authorities had imposed severe dimout restrictions on the region, ordering residents to turn off all lights that could be seen from the sea at night. […] Residents pulled their shades, neon signs flickered off, and motorists learned to drive in the dark.
In another instance, the day after the bombing of the Santa Barbara oil refinery, Los Angeles had a battle of its own:
It began on the evening of February 24, 1942, when naval intelligence instructed units on the California coast to steel themselves for a potential Japanese attack.
All remained calm for the next few hours, but shortly after 2 a.m. on February 25, military radar picked up what appeared to be an enemy contact some 120 miles west of Los Angeles. Air raid sirens sounded and a citywide blackout was put into effect. Within minutes, troops had manned anti-aircraft guns and begun sweeping the skies with searchlights.
It was just after 3 a.m. when the shooting started. Following reports of an unidentified object in the skies, troops in Santa Monica unleashed a barrage of anti-aircraft and .50 caliber machine gun fire. Before long, many of the city’s other coastal defense weapons had joined in. “Powerful searchlights from countless stations stabbed the sky with brilliant probing fingers,” the Los Angeles Times wrote, “while anti-aircraft batteries dotted the heavens with beautiful, if sinister, orange bursts of shrapnel.
These were the times Nathaniel and Sonia sought to do good with their aid for Korean refugees. Even in the midst of this chaos, there was another form of chaos creeping into the production of the benefit. A political strain that Nathaniel took care to inform Kilsoo:
Letter Source: Sonia H. and Nathaniel A. Davis papers (MS.2021.003), Series 2. Nathaniel A. Davis, 1918 – 1964, Series 2. Subseries. Correspondence, 1931 – 1948, Box 1, Folder 35 1941 – 1942, John Hay Library, Providence, R.I.
Transcript:
December 10,1941
Mr. Kilsoo K. Haan
Senate Hotel
Washington, D.C.
Dear friend Haan: —
In the “TIMES” this morning appears a paragraph a copy of which I am sending you verbatim, for your information.
…
“INTERPRETER SERVICES OFFERED BY KOREANS”
“Three Koreans, Rev. Key H. Chang pastor of the Korean Methodist Church, here, and Harold Sunoo and Bong Y. Choy, yesterday as interpreters and investigators for the local Federal Bureau of Investigation office.
They have been active as members of the Los Angeles Korean Committee for American Defense, according to Dr. John R. Lechner, executive director of the committee.
The group, Dr. Lechner said, will begin organizing a Red Cross Unit from among the 700 Koreans in this city. ” [sic]
…
To me, this was news. As the foot-note on this letter-head indicates,this Committee,of [sic] which I am Chairman,is [sic] a Committee to “To Aid American Defense of Freedom”. It is therefore THE Korean Committee For American Defense. Until that moment (when I read it in the newspaper) I had not heard that Dr. Lechner was its Executive Director. Since I have accepted no remuneration whatsoever for my services from my Korean brethren, and my only interest is to serve as a labor of love, if Dr. Lechner is able to make a better job of it, I would not object. But at least I was entitled to be informed. And if it was found necessary to form a new organization, of this, too, I should have been told. All such moves should be made in the open. We never do things in an underhanded way. My action is open, and with co-operation.
Like yourself, I, too, have enemies, who slander, and who would kill if they could. Stories —because [sic] I have friends—were constantly brought to me so that I have been kept much better informed than our foes suspected.
All this is a necessary preliminary to the story of disorder in the camp.
Before you went East, you and I talked about the regrettable fact that our good friend Lechner had fought openly against the re-election of Franklin D. Roosevelt, and made Republican party affiliations so paramount that his office became a Republican headquarters in which I, as a Democrat of the Roosevelt sort, had no place. Therefore I minded my own business and kept out. With the victory of FDR, Dr. Lechner became persona non grata in the Democratic camp, without influence among the leaders in the Nation and the Legion, so that he was not a delegate to any of the National Conventions, as he had been heretofore.
So far as Dr. Lechner and myself are concerned, that meant nothing. But with Miss Sanders there is a difference. She used to be Secretary of the Central Republican Committee, and is bitter against Roosevelt and hates the very name of MRS. Roosevelt. Miss Sanders learned the art of political maneuvering when she was deputed to do press-agency stuff for the Republican party. This makes her think she is a “newspaper woman”.
Miss Sanders ingratiated herself into Mrs. Whang’s favor, fussed over her, persuaded her that she could handle everything much better—etc., etc., etc. This information, too, came to me.
(Now see what happened)
(1) Without consulting or advising with me a new Committee was formed and Dr. Lechner made“Executive Director” [sic] with the purpose(I presume) of getting publicity for the “Republican” Bill of Rights Celebration Group,and [sic] building up Joe Crail for political office. It actually began to get such publicity until I protested to the press.(2)That [sic] publicity made difficulties in getting our permit, difficulties that I had to squash with strong action threatening legal suit against certain officials whom I know to be playing with our Japanese foes—your foes and mine.
(3) Without my knowledge or direction Miss Sanders undertook to get publicity which she failed to deliver. I had been told that an arrangement had been made with a local newspaper (the TIMES) for a photographer to take a picture of the wedding scene while a dress rehearsal went on but when I checked on that,I [sic] found that no such appointment had been made, but I made a definite appointment for a definite hour which was kept. This made Miss Sanders storm at me when the photographers came at the hour I set. Had I not reached this and the other newspapers, and had I not sent Mrs. Davis to them personally,there [sic] would have been no photographs in the Los Angeles papers.
(4) Then, on the evening of the entertainment when Dr. Rockeywas [sic] unable,because [sic] of illness, to represent the Mayor, and to preside, Miss Sanders jumped in with the proposal that Dr. Lechner who was the guest speaker, also should act as Chairman. This, of course, was entirely improper [sic] It is against the rules of order that a guest speaker should be his own chairman. Furthermore, this would have been an insult to our Vice Chairmen [sic] The duty fell on me and I filled it.
(5) I wanted Mrs. Whang, who wrote the script, also to be the narrator, Mrs. Davis was requested to read the script because she is a trained elocutionist and critic but she, too, thought that Mrs. Whang ought to read it and therefore did not wish to displace her, altho’ Mrs. Davis cheerfully wanted to read it and would have read it but Miss Sanders knowing all this, without consulting me, displaced both Mrs. Whang and Mrs. Davis. Miss Sander’s undue officiousness has caused a great deal of trouble.
Now, let us turn from these unpleasant things for a moment.
We rejoiced to have been able to get our personal friend, Mr. Wheeler Dryden of the Charles Chaplin Studios to work with us. Because Mrs. Davis asked him to do so, he took a crude idea of a beautiful story, cleverly thought out by Mrs. Whang,and [sic] out of that created a great story and a great show, at infinite pains on his part and without any thought of remuneration or any other reward than to be considered a great PLANETARYAN.
The beauty of the thing he did encouraged us to secure the publicity and supply also at no cost to the program, patriotic songs, singers and musicians to stamp the performance as being genuinely American. This seemed entirely providential when yesterday, when no one else could do it because all the men to whom I had to turn, were my personal friends of many years standing, I was able to get the assistance of the U.S. Attorney and others. They all asked for evidence of the Koreans’ attachment to Americanism. That program, given December 7, 1941, was the proof.
I am so thankful for friends, and that I have no enemies except among bigots, Nazi, Fascist and Red groups, and those who, like your foes, have been corrupted by Axis money, or threats.
Now what is to be done about this“storm [sic] in a tea cup”? My good wife and Rev. Chang, too, thought I should call our Committee together and“fight” [sic] it out. I do not think so. This is no time for a row, and I will not make one, besides, I am only blaming human weakness and not any real wickedness. Of course it has to be thrashed out, for if that is not done, The American Defense Society would have to repeal the resolution under which we are operating. We cannot afford to work under cross purposes.
I hope that the Rev. Chang, you, and I are the“Three [sic] Wise Men of the East”. [sic] to straighten it out pleasantly. Here is my idea. This irregular Committee which I have accidentally discovered must be dissolved for the sake of peace. That Dr. Lechner be asked in doing anything this connection, to consult with me as the Chairman of the American Committee to aid Korean Refugees in China and the Executive Director ex Officio to Aid United States National Defence of Freedom as indicated at the bottom of the Letterhead, so that people will not ask me how does it come about that Dr. Lechner is also Executive Director of the same committee. A circumstance that is not good for either of us. It should then be clearly stated, as you have urged before, that nothing be done without consulting me. Otherwise I cannot accept responsibility as I do not know what it will lead up to. When you, Rev. Chang and I have agreed as to what course to pursue it will be my job to do it in a kindly way, and I believe I can.
Here, I must tell you that I feel like John Wesley in saying “God helping me I must do this, I can do no other.” And—so—until the next letter
ALOHA.
Letter Source: Sonia H. and Nathaniel A. Davis papers (MS.2021.003), Series 2. Nathaniel A. Davis, 1918 – 1964, Series 2. Subseries. Correspondence, 1931 – 1948, Box 1, Folder 35 1941 – 1942, John Hay Library, Providence, R.I.
Transcript:
December 11,1941
Mr. S.T. Whang
3308 East Pico Blvd.
Los Angeles
Sir: —
The letter from THE KOREAN COMMITTEE FOR AMERICAN DEFENSE which lies before me, is the worst example of duplicity and underhand treachery I have ever known.
When you were doing the things perpetrated by you and refered [sic] to in it, I was certainly entitled to the courtesy of consultation and some intimation of your intentions. Your double crossing and the crossing of wires contributed in no small degree to a defeat of your purposes and hurt our effort for last Sunday night.
I happen to know however the source from which this vile thing has sprung and was warned that it was being done but refused to believe it possible. This is not my way of life.
Your ingratitude and disloyalty are deplorable facts.
Of course there will be no clash and I will do nothing to hinder or harm a cause that I feel is mine and that as much as it is yours. But , [sic] from this moment, I and all those friends whom I have brought in with me will no longer co-operate with you ; [sic] and the resolution of the American Defense Society connecting this Committee with it will be promptly rescinded.
The slanderous statements relative to myself made by a certain public official who for the simple reason that he has resented my attitude of disapproval of him and his ways I know how to deal with and will. Exactly as and for the same reason as similar enemies of righteousness have attacked Kilsoo Haan, they have attacked me. That fact provides you with no excuse for not coming frankly to me instead of being underhanded.
At the earliest moment all your printed matter &c. will be returned. All I can add is that a very bad taste has been left in my mouth, that I want to clean out and forget.
Yours &c.
Mr. Sung Tack Whang was the chairman of Korean Committee to Aid U.S. National Defense, and it appears that he was considered an executive and treasurer of Nathaniel’s American Committee to Aid Korean Refugees in China. It would seem that during the “A Night in Korea” benefit, Whang had done some espionage, or at least a few of the members of his organization had gone undercover. If Nathaniel felt “entitled to be informed”, it was only because it would appear that his Committee, American Defense Society was associated with Whang’s Korean Committee for American Defense, therefore creating a Committee to aid both Koreans in China and in America. However, it appears that Whang was only concerned about Koreans within the U.S.
Despite the hardships that Nathaniel and Sonia and their Committee faced during the production of this benefit, it is clear that those they were seeking to uplift, and aid were deeply moved by their efforts. To Nathaniel, the appreciation of the Koreans outweighed anything the naysayers sought to do against his pursuit in doing good for others.
Letter Source: Sonia H. and Nathaniel A. Davis papers (MS.2021.003), Series 2. Nathaniel A. Davis, 1918 – 1964, Series 2. Subseries. Correspondence, 1931 – 1948, Box 1, Folder 39 1940 – 1941, John Hay Library, Providence, R.I.
Transcript:
December 10, 1941
Dr. Nathaniel Davis
3916 1/2 So. La Salle
Los Angeles, California
Dear Sir: —
I want to thank you for your spiritual cooperation you have given us Sunday December 7th at the Hollywood American Legion Auditorium, on behalf of the Koreans and American friends. The program was a success indeed.
With just a few words I am sending you my appreciation for your cooperation. Yes indeed! we need all the help from American friends and officially from your government now and in the future.
As you know our Korean people are one hundred percent loyal to your government.
I do hope I can be fit of service to your government and be of assistant [sic] to him anytime. Also every Korean shall be glad to serve him now and in the future to come.
Thanking you again I am,
Respectfully yours,
S.C. Ahn
Prejudices continued to surround Koreans. Specifically, the notion that Koreans were still to be considered Japan’s subjects, or to be one in the same in terms of ethnicity. Sadly, after the attack on Pearl Harbor, discrimination sprung against Asian ethnicities, regardless if they were Japanese or not. When finances and businesses were confiscated from Japanese citizens, thousands of which were interned in military-style camps, Koreans were also very likely thrown into this surge of confusion. (National Park Service) Nathaniel and Sonia continued to fight alongside Kilsoo to make distinctions clear:
Just before World War II was brewing, all the Japanese were treated as aliens and had to give up their markets and shops and were sent to concentration camps. The Koreans, too, began to be treated like an enemy. Their money and industries were impounded, but Nathaniel had written to Henry Morgenthau Jr. and assured him that the Koreans were not Japanese, and they were willing to fight on the side of the United States. Their money and property were restored to the Koreans.
Sonia H. Davis, Two Hearts That Beat as One, p. 180.
Nathaniel, indeed, wrote to Henry Morgenthau:
Letter Source: Sonia H. and Nathaniel A. Davis papers (MS.2021.003), Series 2. Nathaniel A. Davis, 1918 – 1964, Series 2. Subseries. Correspondence, 1931 – 1948, Box 1, Folder 35 1941 – 1942, John Hay Library, Providence, R.I.
Transcript:
December 9, 1941
Hon. Henry F. Morgenthau
United States Treasurer
Washington, D.C.
My dear Mr. Morgenthau:
I have just come from a conference with Hon. Wm. Fleet Palmer, U.S. Attorney, in this city, with regard to a certain matter which he thinks should be referred to you.
The Koreans are by no means to be considered either as Japanese or friendly to Japan. Their status is defined in an Act of Congress recently adopted which classifies them as Koreans and not Japanese so that they carry identification cards as Koreans. They are most decidedly loyal to America beyond all question. It is, therefore, deplorable that an order of the President freezing Japanese assets has been applied in this city to Koreans whose businesses have been closed and whose bank accounts have been seized.
We hope that your good offices with the President may lead to a modification of the order so that this great hardship shall not be imposed unjustly upon our good Korean friends. I am sure that you will see at once the importance of this matter and give it your heartiest and best attention.
Yours sincerely,
Kilsoo had previously written to Henry Morgenthau on this very subject as well:
Letter Source: Kilsoo Haan Papers (MS.151), 1933 – 1973, Correspondence, 1933 – 1975, Box – Folder 2:2 1941, McHenry Library, Santa Cruz, CA.
Transcript:
MAR 10 1941
Dear Sir:
Reference is made to your letter of February 27, 1941.
I regret to advise you that this Department is not in a position to answer your inquiry since it is not felt to be appropriate to anticipate courses of action to be followed in hypothetical situations.
Very truly yours,
J.W. Pehle,
Assistant to the Secretary.
Mr. Kilsoo K. Haan,
Washington Representative,
Sino-Korean Peoples’ League,
101 D Street, N.E.,
Washington, D.C.
Hon. Henry Morgenthau Jr.
Secretary, U.S. Treasury
Washington, D.C.
Honorable Sir:
In view of the precarious situation which exists in the Pacific area, and in view of the strained relations between the Imperial Government of Japan and the United States, the Sino-Korean Peoples’ League requests that your Department help us to clarify some of the apprehensions which exist among the Korean people in the Hawaiian Islands and in America. We understand if and when America freezes all the Japanese financial holdings or confiscates the Japanese financial holdings in the event of war, all such properties and financial holdings belonging to the Koreans too may be frozen or confiscated [sic]
May we humbly request that the Department of Treasury take the attitude of sympathetic understanding and refrain from freezing or confiscating the financial holdings of the Koreans in America even though internationally speaking, we are subject race to Japan?
Last August 19th, the Justice Department Director of Registration, Hon. Earl G. Harrison, ruled Koreans can register as Koreans and not as Japanese subjects when registering under the Alien Registration Act.
We humbly plead that your Department give us the same consideration and rule that the Koreans are Koreans and not to be considered as Japanese, hence the Korean properties and holdings to be exempted from freezing or confiscation.
Years 1941 – 1942
Letter Source: Sonia H. and Nathaniel A. Davis papers (MS.2021.003), Series 2. Nathaniel A. Davis, 1918 – 1964, Series 2. Subseries. Correspondence, 1931 – 1948, Box 1, Folder 39 1940 – 1941, John Hay Library, Providence, R.I.
Transcript:
May 7, 1941
My dear Dr. Davis:
Today the State Department told me to come over:
The Control Dept. in charge of all matters relating to alien-registration of raising money—propaganda and etc. After going over the papers you and Attorney sent—I was told that any money raised here in America for China or refugees in China need not need permit from the State-Department. [sic] He believe [sic] if the American Committee meet such regulation of the City of L.A. or the State law it is sufficient.
Another reason is that U.S.A—do not consider China as a “belligerent—hence this Committee need no permit nor register.
Kindly I am told that since The Defense Society has become the principle and that the American Committee is not a Foreign [sic] principle—he thinks such method of raising fund is not contrary to the law—June 1938—as amended.
He asked me to tell you to write the Social Service Dept. of L.A. that the American Committee under the situation need no permit or register in the State Department.
He further told me to have the Social Service Dept of L.A. to write to the State Dept. Control Bureau and have it verified.
Gratefully yours
Kilsoo K. Haan
Letter Source: Sonia H. and Nathaniel A. Davis papers (MS.2021.003), Series 2. Nathaniel A. Davis, 1918 – 1964, Series 2. Subseries. Correspondence, 1931 – 1948, Box 1, Folder 39 1940 – 1941, John Hay Library, Providence, R.I.
Transcript:
May 12, 1941
My dear Dr. Davis:
I am enclosing clipping of Senate Joint Resolution, No. 15
Regarding Crescent City.
Your letter to Secretary Knox also have been received.
There have been close study of all appointment, I believe you have a good chance—so don’t rush them—I shall do my best—please be assured I will do so.
Kindly convey my best regards to all my friends there.
Very Sincerely Yours
Kilsoo Haan
Letter Source: Sonia H. and Nathaniel A. Davis papers (MS.2021.003), Series 2. Nathaniel A. Davis, 1918 – 1964, Series 2. Subseries. Correspondence, 1931 – 1948, Box 1, Folder 35 1941 – 1942, John Hay Library, Providence, R.I.
Transcript:
Dear friend Haan: —
This morning I received the cutting you sent me from the Washington News of December 11. Not only is the story interesting, but it is most gratifying to see that you are getting press recognition in D.C. for the superb work you have done. More power to you.
I have an uncanny feeling of relief today as I have shaken myself free from the political schemings that have caused us so much annoyance here. I knew it was going on all the time, but could do nothing to stop it. To Mrs. Davis and myself it meant nothing because we have ready means for personal defense and many friends who have known us both for half a century and we can afford to laugh at slanderers for that reason. But these disturbances within Korean ranks are bad. They are dynamitic in their menace to our hopes for right world adjustment. It is too bad that there are so many “purse” patriots, and self seeking [sic] parasites who care for nothing but self and would not dare do the things you have done. It was fear lest the cause of Korea might be hurt that made me stand for it and keep still until the thing came to a head. I have been very fortunate in that so little of that sort has ever plagued me. And when I think of all you have gone through and the black libels that have been hurled at you, libels that made some of your friends in L.A. come to me to ask if these stories were true, my annoyances seem as chaff.
Incidentally, I am personally acquainted with the real men in control of all the Los Angeles papers, including the Republican press. That which you want to get through that way I can handle. But when that is your wish, always send me your instructions or a “release”, so that I have authority and also to prevent the crossing of wires. This also goes for officialdom in general. In regard to Korean matters you, to me, are CHIEF. Give your orders.
We will follow instructions.
As ever,
Letter Source: Sonia H. and Nathaniel A. Davis papers (MS.2021.003), Series 2. Nathaniel A. Davis, 1918 – 1964, Series 2. Subseries. Correspondence, 1931 – 1948, Box 1, Folder 35 1941 – 1942, John Hay Library, Providence, R.I.
Transcript:
Dear friend Haan: —
I do not think I have ever in my life burdened anyone with such a flood of dolorous squaks [sic] as I felt I had to forward to you in the last mail to go out. Because of my confidence in you and real interest in that which you are doing it seemed the only fair thing to be done.
And now for the next move. It was probably a mistake to have had your eggs in two baskets carried by even the best of friends who are in different political camps and therefore apt to unwittingly bring about confusion because the moves of neither was known to the other. Political factions will ruin anything. That is why PLANETARYAN refuses to recognize them, and Planetaryans while they have unrestrained rights to be of any party as individuals, do not bring their politics into Planetaryan work. Some of my best friends are ineligible among us because they will not take this stand. That keeps factional mess-ups out of our activities. Therefore from this time on we must co-operate on a different basis, and I will never again be mixed up with local groups.
As before and so forward until Korea has become FREE once more , [sic] I and our Planetaryans will persevere with our efforts. BUT in doing this our only contacts will be personal between you and myself and with our World Affairs Committee when Korean interests are involved. In other words …YOU [sic] CAN STILL ABSOLUTELY COUNT ON MY LOYAL CO-OPERATION AND CONFIDENCE. That which we do will be our affair and not pass on to others without mutual consent or instruction.
My business is done in my home for this reason. From my kitchen nothing can leak out. Thus we stir up no jealousies. When the time comes later for public functions, PLANETARYAN will give them and all others assist as we ask or instruct them. And no official nor any politician will dare to meddle with us nor busybodies cross wires nor any bad feeling be made.
And for all the days to come, Mrs. Davis will delight in having you call her “American Mother”, and I in counting you my friend and brother PLANETARYAN until all men understand all other men and are at peace.
Cordially yours,
Letter Source: Sonia H. and Nathaniel A. Davis papers (MS.2021.003), Series 2. Nathaniel A. Davis, 1918 – 1964, Series 2. Subseries. Correspondence, 1931 – 1948, Box 1, Folder 39 1940 – 1941, John Hay Library, Providence, R.I.
Transcript:
DR NATHANIEL A DAVIS=
3816 1/2 SOUTH LASALLE=
RUSH AIR MAIL YOUR LATEST CORRESPONDENCE REPLIES WITH GAR DEPT AND GILLETTE REGARD CRESCENTCITY [sic] HAVE APPEALED FOR ACTION ALOHA=
KILSOO HAAN.
Letter Source: Sonia H. and Nathaniel A. Davis papers (MS.2021.003), Series 2. Nathaniel A. Davis, 1918 – 1964, Series 2. Subseries. Correspondence, 1931 – 1948, Box 1, Folder 35 1941 – 1942, John Hay Library, Providence, R.I.
Transcript:
December 31, 1941
Dear friend Haan: —
The L.A.Times of this morning’s date is packed with disquieting as well as interesting news. Leland Stowe and Wallace Carrol tell stories that make one’s blood run cold and give one the “creeps”. And to their tales are added others of dishonesty and shabbiness among our own in America that make one wonder if the time has not come for a revival of recognition of the validity of the ten commandments and a probe into the too frequent substitution for right doing and conscience of emotional make believe. In other words we seem to need a reurn [sic] to that teaching of Jesus which says “Not everyone who saith unto me, Lord! Lord! ; [sic] but he that DOETH THE WILL of My Father who is in Heaven”.. [sic]
I am wondering what now those who have heard your expose of the Japanese “fifth column” activities in Hawaii and here(including [sic] Crescent City) will have to say about Mr. Thacker and those who have in such a slanderous and scandalous way attacked us and particularly you. And I wonder what the purse patriots and petty politicians by whom we have been meddled with and opposed will offer as an excuse for their conduct. I am too used to it to be affected. And I think you are too sane and too courageous to let them stop you.
According to Carrol, the Honolulu Pearl Harbor incident was much worse and the native Japanese misconduct more horrible than we feared it might be. And the danger still exists.
Stowe deals with another picture that is if anything even more distressing. He says that only about twenty per cent of all the lease-lend and other shipments to China over the Burma road get to Chung King, that the so-Called Southwest Transportation alleged to be a Chinese Agency but which I know to be directed by the agents of Red Russia who for many years have backed Chinese Bandits has for instance been peddling American gasoline at $1.60 per gallon and Buick Cars at from $6000 to $7000 each, stealing arms, ammunition, blankets, food and of course money taking these by force through use of uniformed Chinese soldiers, from even Americans on the Burmah Road. Stowe suggests that an American Commission should take over all of the Burma Road traffic and protect it. He makes no charges against the Chungking Government [sic] yet he says that officials in that Government’s employ are implicated in these thieveries that leave the real Chinese soldiers often naked, hungry and without arms with which to fight.
Leland Stowe alleges that much of the Chinese Relief Funds raised in America and sent by us to China has failed to reach its destination, to say nothing of waste at this end which makes of fund raising a racket… It almost seems to me that the only funds raised here which actually can be depended upon to serve our legitimate purpose are those which are contributed for such uses as you serve. I have protested against that sort of thing whenever it has come to my attention, but that is not a popular thing to do; and that is one reason why all through my life I have refused to take commissions, or any pay that might come out of funds raised from the public. You should be paid and well paid because you are giving service that has a real value. But the “hangers on” have no such just claim.
The Stowe story is the first of a series. You should follow them through and check up on them.
You can see with a better perspective why I have resented the instruction of political meddling here even if done by any one of my friends, or by officials who have axes to grind or are capable of being handled by fifth column schemers who hate those who,as [sic] you and I do, seek to protect this world from such as they are, and I think you will understand why it has become so difficult to act officially except through our own American and Planetaryan channels and directly with you.
Changing the subject to some extent…I sent as requested, to Senator Gillette a complete copy of the Planetaryan Crescent City File and am hoping that he may be able to make effective use of it. It is a fact that the Nipponese have long had in their possession and under their eyes that spot now a most seriously potential menace or a most valuable asset depending upon what the War and Navy and State Department do about it.
Indeed it has a wider importance than has been named, for its development and use is a possible fctor [sic] in mastery of the Panama Canal and in the Pan American situation; and commercially especially as regard minerals, food stuffs, lumber, and transportation it is as important as any other potential port and colonizable area in the United States.
So it goes. On this last day of the year we again wish for you all you wish for yourself with all the blessings that a beneficent Providence may shower on you and yours.
Yours as ever
Sonia H
and Nathaniel A.
DAVIS
Letter Source: Sonia H. and Nathaniel A. Davis papers (MS.2021.003), Series 2. Nathaniel A. Davis, 1918 – 1964, Series 2. Subseries. Correspondence, 1931 – 1948, Box 1, Folder 35 1941 – 1942, John Hay Library, Providence, R.I.
Transcript:
May 11…..1942
Mr. Kilsoo K. Haan
Representative of the
Sino-Korean League
Washington.. D.C. [sic]
My dear Mr. Haan: —
I have before me a copy of your official letter to the Hon. Cordell Hull, Secretary of State, bearing date May 5. 1942, and have studied that communication, its wording, implications, and plea,carefully [sic] because as you well know,PLANETARYAN [sic] has formally made the Korean cause its own. As World President of this great organization,it [sic] is my privilege to renew to you and your compatriots our pledge not to cease co-operation with you until Korea has been freed from the pagan blight of Japanese oppression.
You, as a member of our World Affairs Committee, know that we have used all the influence at our disposal on behalf of Korea. We have written many letters to the President of the United States, members of the Presidential Cabinet,members [sic] of Congress, the Prime Minister of Great Britain, and others and have given time and effort to serve your distressed and worthy people. To aid them,we, [sic] who are Americans, are bound by treaty obligations,national [sic] and political interest, in world peace and imperilled [sic] democracy. We have not lessened our participation nor will we until Korea has regained its ancient dignity as an integral member of the fraternity of free peoples.
We understand ( and [sic] because of my good fortune in having visited your fatherland and through many years studied its conditions, I think I understand) your problems and the spirit in which you are endeavoring to deal with them.
We also understand that the dangers Korea faces from subversive and selfish elements seeking to disrupt your phalanx and prevent Korea from ridding itself from feudalism on one hand and radicalism on the other, are identical with similar dangers menacing America today. These facts do not lessen but do increase the strength of your argument that our own mighty democracy must stand with and for Korean liberation, and actively help you build into the New Korea a civilization worthy of the aspirations of democracy.
Because the great majority of Koreans have in their hearts a keen sense of the brotherhood of man and the Fatherhood of God and supremacy of the Law of Righteousness over all human legislations or arbitrary dictation of any party or usurper of authority, we are certain America may safely trust Korea with arms and support without fear lest that confidence might be abused. Korea will keep the faith.
In the emergency of the Totalitarian “Blitzkreig” against freedom, the twenty five million Koreans (because of their faith, love of liberty,heredity, [sic] geographic location, and the agonies they have endured under pagan autocracy), present to America needing assistance as we proceed to obliterate Nipponese terrorisms, a military posibility [sic] we cannot afford to ignore. Planetaryan has no hesitancy in urging unsparing and unlimited use of Korean co-operation.
This is not the first time we have made such a plea. If our plea is not now listened to, we will be heard from again.
We know that the great hearts and fine souls of our AMERICAN leaders, the President, secretary [sic] of State, and every worthy man and woman, may at all times be counted upon to respond favorably to such reasons as have been presented; and expect that response to take form as we proceed to use, help, counsel, and befriend KOREA until KOREA is FREE.
Instead of writing directly to those in power, I am sending to each of them a copy of this letter, one copy being taken by the Hon. Hugh M. Macbeth, Consul for Liberia, to be personally delivered to the President of the United States.
With renewed expression of our regard for you and interest in the things you are doing as you with us endeavor to fulfill the PLANETARYAN pledge to “do what we can”,
It is my privilege to be
Cordially yours,
Dr. Nathaniel A. Davis
Letter Source: Sonia H. and Nathaniel A. Davis papers (MS.2021.003), Series 2. Nathaniel A. Davis, 1918 – 1964, Series 2. Subseries. Correspondence, 1931 – 1948, Box 1, Folder 40 1942 – 1948, John Hay Library, Providence, R.I.
Transcript:
Oct. 4, 1942
My dear Dr. and Mrs. Davis:
How have you both fared in the complex of war situation in California. My only regret is that we have not succeeded in getting you in the State Dept. Cultural Department as I had so hoped and believe it was coming very soon.
Hence the situation has been made it doubly harder for me in carrying out my work I am only prayerfully hope you will some day be recognize and receive a just position as you richly deserve.
In spite of what has taken place I am sure my respect and high regard and our fellowship has not changed nor will alter one iota—in fact as time goes on—our friendship will mellow into closer understanding.
Circumstances are such that I cannot adequately demonstrate my true feeling, but some day, I hope we can again sit down and have our chat of fellowship and love.
Please do convey my love and aloha to Mother Davis—I always have and will have my warm regards for her.
Whatever be the fate of our war in the Pacific I am sure God in His high place shall reward all men according to its merits.
Let us have greater faith in God and in the inner goodness of humanity. Justice, equality and human understanding will rule this world eventually.
Convey my aloha to Attorney Andrews, and to all the kind friends who helped us in our attempt to bring understanding and fellowship among men.
Trusting to our friendship and understanding
Very gratefully yours
Kilsoo K. Haan
It’s unclear if the letter of October 4, 1942 was the last of their correspondence. It would have been about this time that Nathaniel would’ve began his long battle with squamous cell carcinoma on his left leg and would pass away on April 6, 1945. What is also unclear is if Sonia ever informed Kilsoo of Nathaniel’s passing. It is quite possible that a correspondence solely between Kilsoo and Sonia never sprung up, especially given, that after Nathaniel’s death, she would revisit her life as the former Mrs. Lovecraft.
Even so, Sonia never stopped sharing her testimony of her friendship with Kilsoo, and his feats:
Letter Source: Sonia H. and Nathaniel A. Davis papers (MS.2021.003), Series 1. Sonia H. Davis, 1922 – 1971, Series 1. Subseries. Correspondence, 1938 – 1971, Box 1, Folder 1 1944 – 1970, John Hay Library, Providence, R.I.
Transcript:
Oct. 12, 1964
Editor, Los Angeles Reporter
Dear Mrs. Waxman:
There is a report that eight thousand (8000) Japanese have allegedly adopted Judaism; this should be accepted with a grain of salt. The fact that the group is allegedly led by two Japanese University professors, an atomic scientist and a prominent naval engineer, does not make it “kosher”. The alleged fact that they have their own Synagogue and that they bombard the Israeli Legation in Tokyo with repeated requests for emigration visas, also is likely to be the spurious device before they bomb Israel or any other Jewish community with their Scientific bombs.
You are probably not old enough to remember Kagawa who came here to Los Angeles in 1936 to assure us to assure us of his sincerity that we must not listen to propaganda regarding the alleged enmity of Japan toward the United States. At that time I tried to warn small groups to beware Kagawa’s bearing spiritual gifts to us. We were told we are “talking through our hat.” When Dr. Nathaniel A. Davis (my late husband) had in his possession written evidence by a Korean, which I still have, and which he at once communicated to the late F.D.R. at that time, that Pearl Harbor would be attacked, no heed was paid to the matter.
When a Korean spy, a Christian Salvation Army Officer, showed us copies of the blue-prints he had“lifted” [sic] from the Japanese Legation office in Honolulu—where he acted as a simple, dumb janitor—indicating the vicinity where Pearl Harbor was to be bombed, my late husband introduced the Korean to a large group of World War One Veterans, he was invited to speak to them . [sic] I was sitting in the audience when I overheard one of them say: “The old man is a war-monger.” I still feel that no Oriental can be trusted.
Do you remember the Gibeonites who came to Joshua in rags, carrying stale bread in their sacks, their sandles [sic] dusty, unkempt; when he asked their spokesman who they were and where they came from, he replied: “We are come [sic] from a far country; now therefore make ye a covenant with us. From a far country thy servants ARE come because of the name of thyLord [sic] thy God; for we have heard the fame of HIM, etc, How analogous of the Japanese desire to join the Jewish faith! Joshua, chapter 9, 3 –12.
At that time another group lent itself to a similar purpose; Stalin sent emmisaries [sic] for a similar purpose. Thousands of small groups were inveigled into starting up Peace Clubs by the American communists; all in the name of Peace, while both Japanese and Communists were arming to the teeth.
Also, you will remember—if you were old enough—that Admiral K. Nomuro, [sic] who was visiting the United States, called on the late F.D.R. a few days before the Pearl Harbor incident and pledged the sincerest friendship of his government for that of ours. No sooner had he mounted his plane than Pearl Harbor was struck. Need more be said?
S.H.
At the end of all, Kilsoo Kenneth Haan was a person who sought equality for his people and safety for those he was most loyal. It’s a real shame not much, in terms of scholarship material about Kilsoo, has been published. He had a devastating truth that no one cared to listen to, in which lives paid the price for it, and even to this day, much of his life is left to obscurity. I can only hope that through this post, a light has been shed on the incredible friendship of the milliner and the spy.
God is with us and so long I am on His side I know I will win.
Kilsoo Haan to Nathaniel and Sonia Davis, March 28, 1939, John Hay Library, R.I.
The official organ fund has received rather an impetus through the learned but eccentric human phonograph Mrs. Greene, who was at the National convention. After receiving United papers she instantly became an ardent United partisan—began to correspond with Galpin and subscribed fifty dollars to the fund!
H.P. Lovecraft to Winifred Virginia Jackson, August 7, 1921, Letters to Rheinhart Kleiner and Others, p. 331-332.
In 1959, Alfred Galpin’s memoir of H.P. Lovecraft, “Memories of a Friendship”, was published in The Shuttered Room and Other Pieces by Arkham House. The Brown Digital Repository has the original manuscript available with corrections by Galpin and August Derleth. What makes this manuscript unique is for its recollections of Sonia, at least in the original. (I can’t speak for the published text in The Shuttered Room.) In page 11 of the manuscript, Galpin describes Sonia’s visit to Madison, Wisconsin:
When she dropped in on my reserved and bookish student life at Madison, I felt like an English sparrow transfixed by a cobra. Junoesque and commanding, with superb dark eyes and hair, she was too regal to be a Dostoievski [sic] character and seemed rather a heroine from some of the most martial pages of War and Peace. Proclaiming the glory of the free and enlightened human personality, she declared herself a person unique in depth and intensity of passion and urged me to Write, to Do, to Create.
Alfred Galpin, 1916 – 1937: Memories of a Friendship, p. 11, John Hay Library.
What had originally inspired this visit was Galpin’s love for Russian literature. After having read a condensed version of Crime and Punishment, Galpin was preparing to read Dostoyevsky’s novel in all its entirety when Sonia initially wrote to him.
In her incidental correspondance [sic] with me she found that besides by fondness for Nietzsche I was even fonder of Dostoievski, [sic] and it was this discovery (the Russians were not so generally in style in those days) that urged her to meet me in person.
Alfred Galpin, 1916 – 1937: Memories of a Friendship, p. 10, John Hay Library.
It was in this meeting that Sonia described some of her hardships with Samuel Greene:
It seems that her first marriage in Russia had been most unhappy, to a man of brutal character; quarrels became bitter. “Let me tell you, Alfred, things have happened to me that never, NEVER happened before to ANY LIVING CREATURE ON EARTH!” In one of their quarrels—the last?—“I walked to the window,” which looked down x.. stories to the street, “and I said Georgi Fedorovitch, IF YOU TAKE ONE STEP FORWARD, I SHALL HURL MYSELF FROM THIS WINDOW!
Alfred Galpin, 1916 – 1937: Memories of a Friendship, p. 11, John Hay Library.
This anecdote of her threatening to jump out of the window has for many years been misconstrued. Originally when I began studying her life, this manuscript was the first I read surrounding her marriage to Samuel. While I didn’t know it at the time, the proper context behind this anecdote was missing. Without it, she sounds rather unhinged. This quarrel between Samuel and Sonia was certainly not the last, but only the beginning of their relationship. There are two manuscripts in which she elaborated on her courtship with Samuel. In the first, there’s no passage describing this window incident. However, in the second, she left the account in the narrative with a handwritten note relaying her uncertainty about leaving or deleting the scene. According to Sonia, this quarrel occurred on February 11, 1899, going into the morning of Abraham Lincoln’s birthday.
Autobiographical Writings (Box 9, Folder 6), John Hay Library. “Mrs. Hathaway” was Christine D. Hathaway, the Special Collections Librarian of Brown University. Given the autobiographical nature of Sonia’s letters to her, it would seem that Mrs. Hathaway had considered writing and/or publishing Sonia’s biography.
When writing to August Derleth, Sonia corrected Galpin’s account in The Shuttered Room:
Thanks a million for Book #2. By the way—in Book #1 Alfred Galpin made quite an error (not that it matters) he said I was married in Russia. I was married in N.Y.C. to a Russian.
Sonia H. Davis to August Derleth, March 29, 1968, Wisconsin Historical Society.
Learning this anecdote from Galpin, Frank Belknap Long apparently found the idea of her threatening to jump out of the window quite amusing.
Sonia could sometimes dramatize some particular event in her life out of all reason, in a wholly melodramatic way. I am indebted to Alfred Galpin for the following amusing story, which she related to him when they met in Madison, Wisconsin the year before.
When she was in her early twenties a young admirer succeeded in convincing himself that her virtue was not unassailable. When she invited him to her home following a theater engagement for a cup of Russian tea, he made a daring proposal, with seduction uppermost in his mind. She had just turned from the window after throwing the casement wide, and the apartment was several stories above the street.
Her immediate response was: “Ivan Ivanowich”—or whatever his name was!—“if you take one step nearer I shall hurl myself from this window!”
I have never doubted that she might well have carried out the threat, and one can readily imagine into what a state of agitation that particular suitor must have been plunged.
Frank Belknap Long, Howard Phillips Lovecraft: Dreamer on the Nightside, pp. 48-49.
Although we don’t have Galpin’s in-depth thoughts or feelings when she described the window incident to him, we can clearly see Long’s ignorance showing through the ordeal. He was downplaying, even if it was unknowingly, the abuse that Sonia endured—perhaps her personality had been a little extreme, but Long’s sympathy on “that particular suitor” just shows how Lovecraft’s friends viewed her through the lens of a man’s world.
Transcription:
536 College Ave.,
Appleton, nWis., [sic]
Monday, August 8.
My dear Mrs. Greene:
I see that my outburst of rhetoric had a better influence than might be feared. You see, I’m subject to such throes of verbology, and in such circumstances I always hasten to remove its achievements before I destroy them. I believe I went down the line of history and compared friend Friedrich to everybody from Christ toSwinburne.***Would [sic] that I could remain mad always, but my ordinary judgments are soaked with mediocrity, level-headedness, and most detestable sanity. As a matter of fact, I regard Nietzsche largely from the utilitarian point of view—he is a wonderful opener of minds and and profound, an eternal voice of antinomianism I like to call him, as you do, the Great Destroyer. He would have worshiped Kubla Khan and that mad son of his who prowled East Europe, glorying in the destruction of allthat [sic] past classic centuries had built.
I suppose it is necessary to take him with a bit of humor despite his own more than Poe-esque offenses against the spirit of mockery. His ideas were at once sublime and ridiculous. But what a pleasure it is to dig in his priceless store of epigrams and ideas, and gather them together with the hope of hurling them at some pompous old prelate!
Nietzsche probably over-estimated mere manners, the aristocratic substitute for morals. Personally, I have so recently extricated myself from Dial snobbery and Oscar Wilde aestheticism that I am still afraid of my own views, but I shouldn’t like to blame either the masses or nobility, or chance either, for great men. They are the fruit of some process hidden entirely from us, and who knows but that it may be hidden fromthe [sic] gods? They must have their own rights, but whether or not they insist upon them is not necessarily a gauge of their greatness. Greatness of soul, an entirely different thing, is of course the humility of Whitman—Chesterton in “Heretics” deals rather cleverly with types of great men but his view is rather mechanical. Genius can descend to any one, the temperament is merely its trademark. I think the particular reference is to be found in the portion of “The Wit of Whistler,” with collaterial [sic] material in “Mr. Wells and the Giants.”
I finished my “immortal thesis” in the deuce of a hurry and it is rather an amateurish piece of work—ridiculously inadequate as philosophy, and unpolished in what is more important tome, the style. I have sent my only spare copy (at present) to Lovecraft and told him to let you read it. If you want a copy of the thing let me know and I can send you one later. On the other hand, Lovecraft may be able to find some amateur willing to print the thing—as you say, most people are lamentably ignorant of Nietzsche and I’m sure they will overlook the faults of my essay. As a matter of fact, it requires a more than American stage of decency and civilization to understand the simple predication “Nietzsche lived.”
Will you pardon my impertinence if I venture the guess that you are Russian? I derive it merely from your terseness of style, your love of the masses, and the “Sonia?” If you are, do tell me how Dostoyevsky reads in the original. I am reading his “Crime and Punishment” for the second time this summer. And tellme [sic] also what is best to read of Tolstoy, Gorky, and Turgenev—I believe that Andreyev and Tchekov [sic] have sense enough to be less wordy. Judging from appearance, Tolstoy ought to be popular in the land of the free, for I have never seen anything that looked duller or more insistently moralistic.
I am reading right now Stendhal’s “Le Rouge et Le Noir,” which seems to have influence Nietzsche so profoundly. Must read his “Vie de Napoleon” if I find time. Anent Shakespeare, try Frank Harris’ “The Man Shakespeare”—I suppose you see “Pearson’s Magazine.” Farewell Alfred Galpin, Jr.
This response seems to be Galpin’s second letter to Sonia, which to us, feels more like the first. Especially given this is the first letter that gives proof to their correspondence. The majority of the letter focuses on Friedrich Nietzsche, a German philosopher. The topic must’ve naturally arisen in their correspondence because Lovecraft had revealed in the “News Notes” section of The United Amateur 21 that Sonia had originally been a fan of Nietzsche:
Coming at an early age to the United States, [Sonia] acquired a remarkable degree of erudition mainly through her own initiative; being now a master of several languages and deeply read in all the literatures and philosophies of modern Europe. Probably no more thorough student of Continental literature has ever held membership in amateurdom, whilst our many philosophical members will note with interest her position as a former Nietzschean who has at present rejected the theories of the celebrated iconoclast.
H.P. Lovecraft, Collected Essays1: Amateur Journalism, p. 299.
According to Sonia, she had first learned of Nietzsche through “Kay”, a gentleman she met at a ball.
Kay and [Sonia] had talked about all the Russian writers and poets, then he introduced her to more writers, this time to the mad Friedrich Nietzsche.
Sonia H. Davis, Two Hearts That Beat as One, p. 104.
Who exactly is “Kay”? I don’t have the slightest idea, and Sonia made it a point to leave this man in utter obscurity throughout all her letters and autobiographical writings. He is only mentioned as “Kay”. Regardless of who it may have been, he was very much like Samuel Greene, introducing her to new writers, which would later on give her the confidence to speak knowledgeably on such matters.
Galpin’s disappointment must have been apparent upon receiving her reply, or while conversing in person, that she did not read the Russian classics in their native language. When writing “Russian American’s Views on the Russian Writers” for The Brooklyn Daily Eagle in 1933, this was Sonia had to say:
To split hairs in the controversy whether Willa Cather can prove that the Russians write the truth about themselves is of minor importance, but as a Russo-American who has lived 40 years in America and only 7 in Russia I should be inclined toward Miss Cather’s side. Never having learned to read Russian in Russia, I was obliged to read what I know of them in English. In comparison with the prolific Russians, the American output is indeed meagre.
Sonia H. Greene (Lovecraft), “Russian American’s Views on the Russian Writers”, The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, May 12, 1933, p. 18.
It’s a very neat little editorial, in which she compares influences between Russian, American, and French literature, and how these groups of writers accepted one another’s work regardless of nation. “Russian American’s Views on the Russian Writers” can be found at “Newspaper.com”.
Thus, continuing on this thread, it’s very likely that after Galpin mentioned Tolstoy in his letter, Sonia described the lecture she attended regarding the Russian novelist. In the only surviving letter from Sonia to Lovecraft, she recounted her thoughts and feelings about it:
One evening a few years ago, I went to Carnegie Hall to hear the son of the great Tolstoi. [sic] I was eager to hear ofmhim [sic] from one who was at once his son, friend and exponent. You may imagine my disappointment when I found him to be a mediocre individual with nothing more striking and original to offer than the proper usage of words and phrases, with quotations interspersed; without casting one ray of light upon Tolstoi [sic] other than had already been gleaned from his books and biographies.
Sonia H. Greene to H.P. Lovecraft, August 1, 1921, John Hay Library.
“One evening a few years ago” was in fact January 19, 1917, a Friday evening. The J.B. Pond Lyceum presented Count Ilya Tolstoy, who was lecturing in America at the time. His presentation, “The Life and Ideals of My Father”, was to be a personal discourse on his father’s legacy. The synopsis of the program indeed sounded very promising, especially when considering the information was to be presented by one of Tolstoy’s many sons. However, if one was well read in the writer’s life, perhaps much of what was shared was repetitive, in which case it’s understandable why Sonia was disappointed especially if she was hoping for new biographical views of Tolstoy. The full program (12 pages) may be viewed at: Carnegie Hall.
Transcription:
Fish-trap Lake, Sunday afternoon, Sept. 4.
Dear Mrs. Greene:
My unnatural silence during the past lustrum has been caused by circumstances so sudden as to be almost beyond my volition. Friday night, way back in August, I returned from a motor jauntwith [sic] a car-owning friend and about eleven o’clock was invitedto [sic] go fishing with two younger scions of Appleton’s nobility—the tour to commence the following noon. I had never been up north nor caught any fish except three suckers and a perch in my life—but all the better reason, said I! I have had my important mail forwarded to the nearest post-offices, and got your letter as I passed through Crandon on the way up here. I haven’t caught anything yet but am having a decent enough time, getting well tanned [sic] andcoming [sic] into contactwith [sic] some excellent manifestations of the novelty of the oldest dame of all, Mater Terra.***Mother [sic] wrote me Friday that your book hadcome, [sic] and so I thank you once more. I shall do so at greater length when I get home and readit. [sic]
I believe I got rid of myself pretty well in my last letter—I have found it positively dull to be egotistic ever since, that is in an introspective sense. But since there is little else to discuss I’ll tell you a little about camp—in the first place, I read “The Red Laugh” on the way up and thought it almost perfect as an expression of “Horror and madness….” God putrescent, what a mind that man must have had! He was much like Poe in his fundamental nature, but seems to have suffered all the brooding dread of isolation and the worst sides of reality. He seems to have little idealism left in him, unless|pessimism [sic] be such. But it is interesting and give me one of them for all the Pollyannas ever spewed! I didn’t like the sudden decline in “h.a.m” in the second part, which in other hands would have become an outright oration against war. I think he could have abbreviated it and not left the effect of those utterly inimitable first portions to have been lost. I shall never forget the doctor’s description of “we merry free men” dancing over the red fires of civilization, or of the regiments on the same side fighting each other, or the red laugh. I am now reading the complete version of Dostoyevsky’s masterpiece, and I can’t remember when I have read anything better except Lear and Hamlet. Do you remember Marmeladov in the tavern?
**Besides [sic] that, I have been writing letters to Loveman and the Lomo pair rather constantly, and have read “The Importance of Being Earnest” and Thompson’s essay on Shelley, also from my ten-cent series. Both of them are masterpieces—you must look upthat [sic] Appeal to Reason popular series. I have glimpsed bear and deer, eaten trout, pickerel, and muskellunge, learned how to cast, eaten regularly instead of between meals for once in my life, and spent four hours trying to find my way back from the nearby post-office Friday.
As for the “Brass Chek”—are you sure I didn’t mention that in one of my previous letters? Popular education is rot but I wish every one [sic] in the country could read that. It is greater than anything the abolitionists ever did, and for ten thousand times a better cause—damn niggers anyhow, but damn the press thrice! I know, for I have probably had as much experience in the writing and reporting end of the ordinary-sized town as any one of my age—they are too small to be crooked, but ugh!!!! You mustn’t mind my swearing, I am too expert at it to forswear it. You should have heard me drag Jehovah around by the hair of his beard when I got lost Friday…I wish I could remember some of that line.
Would that I could, with a merry thud, strike your metropolis, and would twice it might be this winter, but nay nay. When I get any extra money it will either go into a.j. or books, until it starts coming by the thousand. Some time, however, I may come East on some magazine and I shall certainly see you if I can, then. I have rather a pull with H.L. Mencken, and was extremely flattered by his criticism of my Modern Mood. Just now I am on my masterpiece, which has rather a—er—pagan plot. An oriental sheik whose race worships the number seven so contrives the management of his harem that he has seven offspring conceived in a single night. They turn out mostly to be sons (maybe all, that depends) and in some way or other to which I have committed myself, they bring to ruination a great kingdom. The style will take weeks to perfect, and the irony shall be more subtle than Anatole France…let us hope, at least. My sheet is now used up. Hope I can get this to the post-office soon. Thank you again for Shaw.
Sincerely,
A.G.Jr.
The Red Laugh was a novella written by Leonid Andreyev and published in 1904. Since Andreyev never experienced real life frontline combat, The Red Laugh is mainly a hallucinatory portrait of warfare and its psychological impacts. The story follows a soldier whose testimony of war are laid out in nineteen fragments, and it is through his crumbling sanity that we perceive the madness and horrors of the battlefield. (Russophile Reads) Another one of Andreyev’s notable stories is “Lazarus” which was translated and reprinted in Famous Modern Ghost Stories (1921) and in Weird Tales (1927). (Deep Cuts in a Lovecraftian Vein)
There are some encounters, even with people who are complete strangers to us, in which we begin to take an interest right from the very first glance, suddenly, before we have uttered a word.
Crime and Punishment, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, trans. by David McDuff, p. 15.
Marmeladov was a retired civil servant, who was also an alcoholic, in Crime and Punishment. The tavern scene, in which the main character, Raskolnikov (Rodya), crosses paths with Marmeladov occurs in the second chapter. The interaction between the two men feels superficial at first, as though the familial drama described by Marmeladov holds no importance to the overall narrative.
However, this scene sets up the whole book and the characters that the reader will encounter. It is through this chance meeting that reveals the web of entwined lives, and ultimately speaks of Sonya, the daughter of Marmeladov, who will guide Rodya into his path of redemption. Without this vital scene, we don’t have the full depth of Crime and Punishment. From her autobiography and The Brooklyn Daily Eagle article, we know Sonia read Dostoyevsky, but not the specifics of which publications she read. If Galpin had asked her if she remembered “Marmeladov in the tavern”, it leads one to believe she had indeed read Crime and Punishment. What her thoughts were on the massive book, I wish I knew!
The book that Sonia sent to Galpin was Back to Methuselah by George Bernard Shaw. It was this very book that Sonia had also sent to Lovecraft, which he then relayed in a letter to Rheinhart Kleiner:
Bless her heart, if she hasn’t just sent Grandpa a beauteous gift, in the form of a copy of Shaw’s new play, Back to Methuselah!
H.P. Lovecraft to Rheinhart Kleiner, August 30, 1921, Selected Letters 1.149.
In the very same letter, Lovecraft sheds some light on what Sonia may have been writing about to Galpin, which also correlates with their topic of discussion:
He has told her the sad, sad story of his whole life, and his mother will be lucky if she does not kidnap him some day. Also, she hath told him that I am egotistical from reading Nietzsche—which disturbeth me not in the least.
H.P. Lovecraft to Rheinhart Kleiner, August 30, 1921, Selected Letters 1.149.
While Galpin didn’t react to her saying this about Lovecraft, it’s still a neat anecdote of what she must’ve written to Galpin that perhaps went unanswered in his letters to Sonia. In another letter, Lovecraft shares a hint of how long her letters were:
Galba, yuh’d orta hear what she says about you in her latest 12-pager! If you ma don’t watch out, she’ll kidnap yuh!
H.P. Lovecraft to the Gallomo, August 31, 1921, Miscellaneous Letters, p. 117.
Additionally, what is interesting about Galpin’s second letter is his rejection of her offer in coming to New York. Since the letter is dated September 4, which is the day that Sonia arrived in Providence, it proves that Sonia had this vision of a gathering well before she visited Lovecraft.
Transcription:
Home, James, Sunday, September 11, 1921.
My dear Mrs. Greene:
H.P.L tells me that you have had the super-modesty to believe that my assumption of the pseudonym under the Nietzsche article is due to shame at the quality of the magazine and not of the article. I am sure you were kidding Lovecraft for your Rainbow ought to be of exceptional merit. I should persist in my former decision, except that I have other plans for Consul now. So you may, if you wish, put my proper signature under the article. In any case, I thank you very much for the privilege you give me of seeing it in print, and still more in theRainbow. [sic]
I am writing this in a deuce of a hurry. Returning last evening from Squaw Lake I found oodles of mail to answer, papers and books to get in order, several things I must read at once, two or three important things to write—and to write my best on—, duties as rusher for my Lawrence fraternity, and in my spare time the ineluctable necessity of getting ready for my first year at the University within a week! So I haven’t read your lecture yet but intend to read Methuselah tonight, as far as I can get, that is. Meanwhile, more thanks and profound ones for the book—that makes my third of Shaw’s, and I am sure it is the best of the lot. I can’t understand my boundless enthusiasm for theman. [sic] It must be his entire Shavian quality—neither art, nor argument, but Shaw. And he makes his borrowed stuff so delightful! I believe you sent Lovecraft one too—it ought to give him equal delight, for he is an enthusiast on evolution yet is almost unacquainted with G.B.S. Do you remember his “Caesar and Cleopatra?” Or “Pygmalion?” They are my favorites of the two volumes I own.
Read “Crime and Punishment” through with care while I was at camp. It is as great a novel as I ever read, despite faults which would ruin any other: It doesn’t get anywhere, the conclusion fizzles terribly, the epilogue ought to be an artistic mistake, we lose sight of the main thread of the story and its principle character toward the conclusion—but I still love it and must read all of Feodor I can hold. I love it for its inconceivable detachment, its lack of the expected morbidity, its marvelously high plane of intelligence in every character and situation, and finally for a creationof [sic] character by means of dialogue which I will flatly say is the greatest in all the literature of the world. I shall read the book a dozen times yet, if gracious Yawveh [sic] permits me, also “The Brothers Karamazov” and the rest of his works. He is superb.
I also read “Othello” for the first time, “As You Like It” for about the fourth, and “Lear”for [sic] the tenth. Have you read “The Man Shakespeare” yet? It will mean a new era in your life if you like great poetry. P.S.: If you think my enthusiasm for F.D. is too great, let me explain that I am unacquainted with Thackeray, Turgenev, Hardy, and any of the Frenchmen except Stendhal and Anatole France. P.S. again: Look up all the back files of Pearson’s if you like Harris, he has been editor for about four years now and to my mind is the greatest living American. He is also a very queer duck.
I am glad to hear you like the United so well. It is hauling in some of the best recruits a.j. ever landed –Spoerri, Long, McMullen, Greene, and other more recent ones I haven’t met yet. Evidently she is going to erupt into activity again—I shall do my part this year. If you feel like broadening your acquaintance here you might try Campbell, or Cook, or young Margaret Abraham, a townswoman of Appleton who goes to Chicago U. She is very intelligent, though mediocre in her inspiration; well-bred, and rather likeable. I think you would enjoy writing her—tel [sic] her I recommended her to you. I don’t know her address but you will find it in the official organ.
Be sure and write me as usual—though I leave for Madison in a week I intend to keep up all my amateur connections, especially my correspondence with you, Loveman, and Lovecraft. How did you like your visit with H.P.L.? He will undoubtedly tell me about it at very great length—suppose you let me have both sides of the case? Thanks for this, for the Rainbow, and for Shaw—and many of them.
Sincerely,
A.G.Jr
P.S. Please don’t tell anyone a thing about Consul—
You (illegible sentence)
“Consul Hastings” was Galpin’s pseudonym. He originally wrote the Nietzsche article under this penname, and the “immortal thesis” mentioned in the first letter is very likely the same article. Sonia must’ve read the article when she visited Lovecraft in September, liking enough to accept the piece for the first volume of The Rainbow. This would explain why he corrected himself in saying his preference for the pseudonym was based solely on the merit of the article rather than shame of the journal it was set to appear. It is wonderful to follow the progression of this article through these letters, from not having a place in print and concealed behind a pseudonym, to landing in a beautiful journal and revealing its author. What’s most interesting is that at the end of this letter, Galpin asked Sonia not to give away the identity of Consul. Especially when Lovecraft was quite open about it in June 1921:
The Critic”, written by Galpin under his now familiar nom de plume of “Consul Hasting”, is a veritable gem of vers de société.
H.P. Lovecraft, Collected Essays1: Amateur Journalism, p. 289.
Transcription:
Nietzsche as a Practical Prophet
By Alfred Galpin, Jr.
The problem that Friedrich Nietzsche set himself was a double one. First, he intended to confound and overwhelm the forces of contemporary Christian morality; and then to propose a radical scheme of social organization and of individual aspiration which had as its supreme aim the creation of the superman.
To this problem he brought the genius of his own personality and its hitherto intensely conflicting elements. That is to say, he brought the hard sincerity which was derived from his personal struggle against centuries of tradition crystallized into the modern church. He had himself been a Christian, and a pious one, until his manhood; and yet there was in him that high seriousness of effort, that conscientious endeavor to solve in his own brain the problem of human ends, which refined itself gradually into a religion based on his own worldly and sensitive aristocracy.
Of the many influences which entered into his philosophy either as elements to be combated, or as elements to be absorbed, there were four which might loosely be chosen as the principle ones. H.L. Mencken* (* “The Philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche,” by H.L. Mencken.) points out the two most obvious: Greek classicism and the new biology heralded by Darwin. I should choose two others, also, which were nearer to his home, if not to his heart: The scholasticism and ponderous romanticism of his German confreres, and the rather opposite influence of his master, Schopenhauer. The first involved him as a scholar and philologist, but the second opened up the vista of his thought and made possible Nietzsche’s defiant emancipation from all the traditions about him.
His philosophy, then, was a revolt against all modern German traditions; it was a purely Nietzschean sublimation of the Schopenhauerian doctrine, a rather confused acceptance of Darwinism, and a straightforward defense of the classical spirit* (*Many of my facts are derived from the standard biography by Frederic Halevy.)
To the solution of his problem Nietzsche directed his entire mental energy during the last fifteen years of his sanity. Reasonably enough, he started out with an attack on Christianity, the first bold step without which the remainder would be impossible. He showed that Christianity was a slave religion, perpetuating the sick and botched while dragging down the strong, the healthy, and the courageous. He traced the origin of its morality and painted it, not as a divine and unquestioned edict, but as a mere perpetuation of customs, stupid customs and decadent at that: He mercilessly attacked the Oriental conception of a supernatural god, and proclaimed “on all walls—I have letters that even the blind shall see”—that since it asserts the supremacy of another world, the whole fabric of Christianity was a contradiction to life, a blasphemy to the soul of man, a stench in the nostrils of the seeing ones, a triumph of unreality, nihilistic pity, and a sickly and putrefied democracy. In the aphoristic books this was carried off with aplomb and a rather ironic analysis; by the time of “The Antichrist” this Oriental faith of Jesus and Paul became to Nietzsche the “one immortal blemish of mankind.”
From this new point of view, which was much more penetrating and effective than the old rationalism of Voltaire and his school, Nietzsche practically rewrote the history of man. It seems to me that his most valuable contributions to modern thought are to be found in his piercing analyses of moral and historical problems of the past. Socrates and Christ as the great decadents, Luther and the Reformation as the worst catastrophe of modern time—men, philosophers and states were picked to scraps by his iconoclasm.
This was the achievement of his early aphoristic writings. Before this task should monopolize him or find complete expression, Nietzsche gave the world his constructive doctrines in the poetic testament “Thus Spake Zoroaster.” The entire book is infused with the exalted spirit of a new aristocracy—an aristocracy of confident, honorable, ecstatic egoism. “This new table of values, O my brethren, I set over your heads: Become hard. **** Man is something that is to be surpassed.” With these famous lines Zoroaster seeks disciples who will labor with him for the ultimate end and flowering of mankind in the superman. Zoroaster is very careful to warn off those who have not the inborn sense of honor necessary for this discipline. He is specific in preserving slave-morality for the slaves—that is, in preserving old moral values as the best protection for, and from, those who are incapable of welcoming his innovations. His is the most limited of aristocracies.
His ethical teachings may thus be summarized. His philosophy, therefore, can be arbitrarily divided into three essentials: (1) The will to power—his debt to Schopenhauer, whose will to live he turned from an abstract motive force of life to a conflict of individual wills, and made it not resigned, but vaunting and glorified. It is probably his most emphasized nonethical idea. (2) The double morality—herren-moral and sclaven-moral. [sic] This presupposed a dual conception of society and was Nietzsche’s most terrible weapon against modern democracy. (3) The superman, the quintessence of his prophecy, his most original and daring conception. Of his other novelties, only the eternal return is important, and that chiefly as an evidence of the uncontrolled passion which some call madness.
This, in brief, is the philosophy which, commencing about 1885 and gradually enlarging its scope, has been the horror of the conservative, the Bible of the revolte, [sic] the delight of the prose artist and poet. Perhaps no man has ever been more misinterpreted. He has been blamed, more or less justly, for German militarism, the sensual licenses of “modern moral degeneration,” modern atheism, and, in general, for the failings of those cheaper souls whom he so well foresaw, playing the part of his disciple, proud of this high sanction for their sins.
But his influence was a greater and more positive thing than misconception and misrepresentation. He is one of the great prophets of this liberal age, and acquaintance with his writings has touched profoundly the lives of nearly all those leaders of men who have followed him. Today he is beginning to be understood.
In relation to his time, Nietzsche was obviously the enemy of everything most truly contemporaneous. He opposed democracy, scholasticism, romanticism, Christianity, and Christian ethics of all types. He attacked nearly every man who approached his eminence or who came into direct contact with his philosophy. He invented modern German prose and defied every rule of literary tact and coherence. From his mountainous isolation of thought he viewed the entire path of human history in a light that contradicted every current attitude. He arraigned every past philosopher, and when he borrowed an idea he infused into it the vigor and elevation of his own personality.
Back of this anachronism there is no mere perversity, still less reaction. There is rather the spirit of power, dynamic energy, of the glory in life and the striving for individual and social betterment. His time was “out of joint;” it worshipped abstractions, and Nietzsche held up vital energy as the a priori fact and the highest value. In this trait he was a true prophet and he anticipated with his quick and lively intuition much that is salt to modern minds. He saw directly into the workings of the human spirit, and made psychological advances informally which the technical and objective psychological schools were slower in reaching. For instance, in “Prejudices of Philosophers” he briefly analyzes the psychology of the philosopher, and then proposes that only psychological facts, not Greek abstractions, should be the basis of philosophy. Here and elsewhere he spoke vaguely of the “new psychology” as he did of “philosophers of the future.” And he was partly justified in the appearance of Bergson and James, both of whom embody a great deal of the Nietzschean love of life. For example, Nietzsche anticipated James’ pragmatism, his voluntarism in psychology and his temperamentalism in philosophy. Bergson’s catchword “Creative Evolution” might be the very method for the superman, and Bergson also bowed to creative, vital energy. It is therefore quite likely that when Victorianism and its contemporaneous German culture have been forgotten, Nietzsche instead will be remembered as the very incarnate spirit of his time—not of the time in which he lived, but of the time with which he was pregnant. In the accidental timbre, the spectroscope test of his genius, he was in every sense a true prophet. So much for his greatness of soul: what of the logical fabric he created?
The most apparent thing about it is that Nietzsche had no metaphysical insight or logical subtlety — he could not leave the realm of life. I had been able nowhere in his works to find any clear statement of his metaphysics. He evidently accepted the biological data of Darwin, yet he attacked Darwin personally and tried to overthrow his theories. He did the same with Schopenhauer’s will to live — altered it arbitrarily to fit into the pattern of his temperament. He spoke of will to power as a profound philosophical doctrine when it was merely the psychological fact of personal assertion, and when his own application of it rendered it futile as an explanation of the universe. Nothing is more evident that that he accepted evolution because it suited his love of the world, and the will to live because it suited his love of both will-power and life.
Even his ethical edifice will not stand the test of logic. The superman starts out by overlooking the conclusions of modern anthropo-biology, that man is incapable of development beyond his present biologic power* (* “The Direction of Human Evolution,” by Conklin, is a rather dull treatment of this point.) and that his future evolution must be selective and, more especially, social. One indication of this which everyone will recognize is illustrated by the fact of insanity, which is, in many cases, the result of mutations in the evolutionary scale. The “sport” is abnormal, and is combated by the fundamental instincts of the race. More technically the conclusion is upheld by the fact of man’s high degree of specialization, which brings about a decrease of adaptability. But even granting the possibility of a noble and select aristocracy, immune from the ordinary weaknesses of man, glowing with strength a race of creators of rulers — even this race is obviously not a surpassing of mankind, but an artificial culture separated from mankind in the mass by a long and arduous chain of sacrifice and peril, the product of which is its own negation. Nietzsche himself was the first to admit the immense labor necessary for the superman, but he had a passion for aristocratic perfection which overleapt all humanity. Going farther, Nietzsche knew too that the modern democratic freedman hated the aristocrat and would never sacrifice his own material interests for the fostering of genius. He would view the superman as a mere rhetorical tour de force, which in actual life could mean one of two things: Nobility, which he hates, and genius, which he leaves to chance.
I need go no farther on this via dolorosa to show what was already clear; yet I must admit the fascination of the idea, and the apparently powerful influence it is having on modern philosophies of evolution. The fault lay in the radical temper of its creator, not in the conception itself. This same radicality of thought makes impossible a literal application of his dual morality, yet this also is valuable in theoretical ethics and may be applied, following Nietzsche’s own example, to every factor of human progress.
Nietzsche was ,therefore, [sic] as a thinker, a great prophet of revolt, a great iconoclast, a great innovator. If I may broaden the use of the ambiguous term “practical prophet” to include his influence in general on modern time, there remains a consideration of his personality, his artistic genius — its influence on his philosophy and on present-day thinkers and artists.
Probably the most emphasized trait of his personality was that unfortunate neuroticism which later led to his total insanity. I say unfortunate when I do not really mean it, because it is better to undergo savage derogation than to have written nothing worthy of such notice. And it is certainly obvious that we owe the superb literary finish, the whole bravura and fire of his philosophy, to that internal and agonizing emotional stimulus. He was like the nightingale and the thorn, like Shakespeare and his tragic passion for Mary Fitton.* (*I have this on the word of Mr. Frank Harris in his great book, “The Man Shakespeare.”) He was in torture, but in exquisite torture. And it is a final and subtle shibboleth of one’s taste, whether or not one is repelled by that beautiful instability which would wreck the efforts of the mediocre but which intensifies the purely instinctive thinking-in-words of genius.
It is to this insanity, such as it is, that we, therefore, owe his genius; but it will prevent his literal acceptance and make him rather a source than an authority. For him to win any significant literal disciples in practical affairs would mean that he must create aristocrats; and an aristocrat needs no Nietzsche. He was a philosopher, not a sociologist, and held always to the necessity of radicalism in thought.
And the final touch to his temperament was that hardness of soul, that revulsion which Chesterton calls a philosophy of “weak nerves.” To me this shutting off of all but the emotions of personal glorification is the most vulnerable point in Nietzsche. I think Chesterton is almost justified when he says that truly great men are ordinary men. At least the really great man in my estimation is the man who accepts his own greatness without social prejudice, who has that overflowing soul which has no time for egoistic ecstasy, and who if he loves himself has love and pity to spare for those less fortunate beings whom he can by no honest interpretation avoid recognizing as his fellow men.
But this also is a fault in Nietzsche, and not in his glorious prophecy. No one with the artist soul to which he makes his strongest appeal can overlook the terrible soddenness, the weakness of will, the intrusive stupidity and filth of the modern mob autonomy. We must love mankind, but there must be discrimination. It is easier to love men from the cave of a hermit than from the window of a city apartment where the odor of democracy and the contemptible viciousness of the newspaper crying its wares offend the senses. Nietzsche teaches men the message that the soul of a strong man is precious and many not be poisoned with the conglomerate Freudian complexes of a herd. He was a poet, and will never lack hearers; his life was a tragedy, he will never lack sympathy. He possessed the essence of that noblest of all souls, the artist who can bear the brunt of truth and its pity; but he sacrificed everything in him that he thought was “soft” for the one purpose of perfecting his philosophy.
He pointed out the errors of our present democracy and opposed thereto an opposite equally fallacious. But life moves forward by opposites, and if he can gain hearers the future ought to tell how much of his proud and brave insight humanity can bear.
Viola tout.
I must admit that I haven’t read any of Nietzsche’s works to properly dissect Galpin’s paper. However, there was a passage that brings a sense of understanding in the misinterpretation of Nietzsche:
Perhaps no man has ever been more misinterpreted. He has been blamed, more or less justly, for German militarism, the sensual licenses of “modern moral degeneration,” modern atheism, and, in general, for the failings of those cheaper souls whom he so well foresaw, playing the part of his disciple, proud of this high sanction for their sins.
Alfred Galpin, “Nietzsche as a Practical Prophet”, The Rainbow, Vol. 1, No. 1, 1921, p. 5.
It’s nothing new when certain individuals, who wish to justify bad behavior, seek to find an ideology that fits their intentions. Just as those sought “sanctions for their sins” in Nietzsche, so do others seek that same sanction in Christianity, hiding behind one truth for a means of remaining immoral. An ideology should never give justification for continual wrongdoing. If it does not change our character, then what is the point in following Nietzsche’s decrees or choosing to baptize into Christianity.
This misinterpretation of Nietzsche was even apparent to Sonia. She wrote “Taking Nietzsche Literally” to The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, which has some shades of Galpin’s article:
Transcription:
Taking Nietzsche Literally
Editor Brooklyn Daily Eagle:
In last evening’s Eagle I was amazed to find that Dr. M. F. McDonald has so far misinterpreted Nietzsche’s philosophy as to state that one “should trample his neighbor down,” and that this is so typically exemplified in the subway, where we find even the most modest girls flailing their arms to get into a much crowded car. I fear Dr. McDonald is interpreting the German professor literally.
The proper interpretation to put upon his philosophy is that if Nietzsche had his way, there would never be such crowded subways and there would be no need for trampling of any kind.
It is appalling how many people read Nietzsche and how few know how to interpret him. Any one [sic] who really wishes to understand him should read H.L. Menken’s “The Philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche.” I would advise the biography by Frederic Halevy; after reading which, the reader will find Nietzsche as a practical prophet rather than a destructive one.
The average American girl or boy will answer, when asked about Nietzsche: “Oh, that’s the guy who is to blame for the war.”
Upon further inquiry, “Have you read anything by Nietzsche?” you will hear: “Aw, no, I haven’t and I don’t want to! He’s no good to read about anyway!”
As with Caesar, the good is interred with Nietzsche’s bones, and all that appears evil in the eyes of the nonunderstanding majority is flagrantly and maliciously flaunted into the universe.
Sonia H. Greene.
Brooklyn, Feb. 10.
One minor thing worth noting, however, is that in 1921 Sonia had cared very little of Nietzsche but appeared to feel the need to defend his philosophy in this 1933 editorial.
In this third letter, Galpin mentioned that “I haven’t read your lecture yet”. Without any real and concrete details about the title of this “lecture” or what it was about, it’s rather discouraging not being able to turn a mystery into fact. However, up until this point in their correspondence, Sonia had only submitted her “credential” to be accepted into the National Amateur Press Association, and there wasn’t a single poem or story in her name in the pages of the Blue Pencil Club’s journal, The Brooklynite, which she had joined in January/February 1921.
This only leaves The Rainbow to narrow down the leads. In the first volume of The Rainbow, Sonia had three written pieces that are of medium length: Amateurdom and the Editor, “Philosophia”, Idle Idylls. Of the three, “Philosophia” reads more like a rough draft of an essay. In The Rainbow Vol. 1, No. 1 & Vol. II, No.2, Bobby Derie had suspected ‘that “Philosophia” is borrowed from one of her letters to Galpin or Lovecraft, addressing a similar subject but in a very informal way’. We know she had done this with Lovecraft’s letters in “Nietscheism [sic] and Realism”, and if she would do that with his words, she could certainly do so with her own. Especially if she was in a hurry to print the first volume. Then could “Philosophia”, a work likely drafted out of letter passages, be the very “lecture” that Galpin never read, the lecture that never received the criticism it needed to make it better? The truth is, this is merely speculation, and we’ll never truly know unless new materials emerge to prove the necessary facts.
As with Nietzsche, Crime and Punishment was a reoccurring theme in the Galpin and Sonia letters. I challenged myself to read Crime and Punishment this year well before I decided to write this post. I’ve had the book in my bookshelf for months, (maybe even years!), that I thought it was time to finally face it. Having loved The Brothers Karamazov, I wasn’t quite prepared for the darker themes of Crime and Punishment. I don’t know what I was originally expecting, (the name says it all!), but yes, there’s violence and much of it is graphic. Even so, the narrative has more depth than just murder, and themes of nihilism and the concept of the “superman” are woven in. Is it a crime if you murder someone who is repulsive in societal terms? Does eradicating this person make society better? Do we, as humans, have the right to make that choice? That’s what Crime and Punishment wants the reader to answer for themselves.
Crime and Punishment follows Raskolnikov (Rodya), a student, who dropped out of university due to financial difficulties. In order to stay afloat, he pawns his father’s valuables to the local pawnbroker. This elderly woman is vexing, giving off every reason why this person should not be alive. Due to his perception of her and his belief of being above moral law, he thinks killing her is not a crime due to her low status in society. The whole book follows this thread, using literary doubles to present the complexity of this thought.
When Galpin said, “It doesn’t get anywhere, the conclusion fizzles terribly, the epilogue ought to be an artistic mistake, we lose sight of the main thread of the story and its principle character toward the conclusion”, that’s not entirely true. Crime and Punishment is a character driven story. Occasionally certain passages would follow other characters, but it never strayed from the main plot and its themes. As for the epilogue, I will say that it did feel as though Dostoyevsky included it as an afterthought, as if to please readers who were dissatisfied with the ending and needed to know what happened next for Rodya and his family and friends. Crime and Punishment is a long, cat-and-mouse novel but one I certainly recommend.
It was both kind and understandable why Galpin had suggested another person for Sonia to correspond. With him preparing to leave for college, and even if he kept a reasonable correspondence with Sonia, it would help broaden her list of acquaintances in amateurdom. Margaret Abraham had attended Appleton High School, alongside Galpin. Also, it was very likely that she was involved in the Appleton amateur club, whose paper was The Pippin.
Miss Margaret Abraham, our new Treasurer, was valedictorian last June at Appleton High School, and has now entered the University of Chicago, where she has every reason to expect a brilliant and successful career. Her present address is 49 Kelly Hall, U. of C., Chicago Ill.
H.P. Lovecraft, Collected Essays 1: Amateur Journalism, p. 258.
It is unknown if Sonia ever reached out to Margaret Abraham. If she did, those letters did not survive, or they are locked away unknowingly in someone’s basement or attic. If they corresponded, these two women would’ve had much to say to one another with both being part of amateur journalism and knowing Galpin, and even Lovecraft.
After her marriage to Lovecraft, like Samuel Loveman, Sonia’s correspondence with Galpin began to dwindle. In one unique case, Galpin brought her up in one of his letters to Lovecraft:
No—you hadn’t previously mentioned the relay’d greetings from the quondam Mme. Theobald; an incident which prompts the usual platitude concerning the microscopic dimensions of this planetary spheroid. My messages from that direction during the past two years have been confin’d to Christmas & birthday cards, but if occasion arises to exchange more verbose greetings, I shall assuredly add your respects & compliments to my own.
H.P. Lovecraft to Alfred Galpin, c. Sep 1930, Letters to Alfred Galpin and Others, p. 264.
After leaving New York and settling in Los Angeles, it’s not surprising that she would lose touch with those she left behind. As mentioned before, Sonia would not pick up the pieces of her former life as Mrs. Lovecraft until the death of Nathaniel Davis. Even so, it seems that her correspondence with Galpin took even longer to resume, especially given that Galpin was by that time living in Italy.
And another surprise by a letter from Alfred Galpin. He must have obtained my address from you or perhaps from Eddie Daas [?]. In my replay I did not ask him, after forty (40) years what made him write, and to what purpose. This was more than a month ago, but I have not yet heard from him again.
Sonia H. Davis to August Derleth, November 16, 1961, Wisconsin Historical Society.
I received a long list of the names of former presidents from Wilfred Meyers. Among them is listed that of Alfred Galpin Jr. as “dead.” If so, I am very sorry to hear this, because at one time we were very good friends. In my early travelling days, I visited him one afternoon in Madison, and spent a few hours with him. Also, I heard from him in 1962. I was surprized [sic] to have received his letter. Do you happen to know whether he passed away? He sent me a snapshot of himself and his present wife who, I thought was his first, whom I met at H.P.L.’s quarters in Brooklyn, in Clinton St. If he is still alive, he ought to be about 57 years of age.
Sonia H. Davis to August Derleth, January 15, 1967, Wisconsin Historical Society.
He must’ve responded back at some point because Sonia invited him to her 85th birthday concert held at the Diana Lynn Lodge:
I knew that you & Alfred Galpin could hardly be present at one of the most beautiful concerts that were ever given for me by my friend of-15-yrs standing, Dr. Lucia Liverette and her clerge-man husband the Reverend Jack Liveret: (this is how they each spell their name.)
Sonia H. Davis to August Derleth, March 27, 1968, Wisconsin Historical Society.
Is there more that could be said about the correspondence of Sonia and Alfred Galpin? Perhaps. Yet, since little of their correspondence has survive, this is as detailed of an account that one can get regarding the two. It is safe to say that Samuel Loveman and Alfred Galpin genuinely admired Sonia. Even when her image was torn or wrongly portrayed by the many admirers and friends of Lovecraft, these men stood by to protect her character. If she was extreme in personality and emotion, these men overlooked it and believed her worthy of their friendship. Although time separated much of their correspondences, especially after her leaving Lovecraft, it speaks volumes of the type of friendship that can resume as though it had stopped only the day before.
I have read everything that she—in her admirably dignified statement in Something about Cats—or any one else has put into print on her marriage with Howard, not to mention having been constantly in touch with Howard himself during that time; and I never had any reason to feel anything but approval mingled with admiration for her role in his life. She may have tried the impossible, but thank God that some one occasionally has the courage to try it. Howard had no need to exaggerate his peculiarities to remain a genuinely man, and he needed to mitigate them to become a genuine—hence, an original-writer; and bad health, physical or mental, is simply bad. In doing what was humanly possible to bring him health and happiness she may have tried the impossible, but she deserves the warmest praise for her courage in undertaking such a task and persisting in it until the most courageous course was to acknowledge defeat.
Alfred Galpin, 1916 – 1937: Memories of a Friendship, p. 10, John Hay Library.
I’d like to thank Dave Goudsward for helping me clarify some of the quotes in this post. It’s greatly appreciated!
Being a fan of “Her Letters to Lovecraft” by Bobby Derie over at Deep Cuts in a Lovecraftian Vein, I’ve decided to take on a similar approach for Sonia. It may come as a surprise to some that the Brown Digital Repository has letters from Samuel Loveman and Alfred Galpin independently addressed to Sonia. Due to the length of this study, (20 pages long, to be exact), it will be divided into two parts, with this month’s focus on Samuel Loveman and the next month on Alfred Galpin.
Samuel Loveman was a poet who was part of the National Amateur Press Association (NAPA). Sonia was introduced to amateur journalism by James F. Morton, Jr. in 1917. While the exact date when Sonia entered the NAPA in particular is unknown, in April 1915, Samuel was praised by “El Imparcial” (H.P. Lovecraft) as NAPA’s “shining example” in Lake Breeze No. 19. (Collected Essays 1.30) It’s doubtful that Samuel and Sonia knew each other through the ranks of the NAPA prior to the latter meeting Lovecraft in 1921. It was through Lovecraft that Samuel was reinstated in the United Amateur Press Association (UAPA) in 1917. (Letters to Rheinhart Kleiner and Others p. 93.) Sonia joined the UAPA in July/August 1921 “after receiving United papers”. (Letters to Rheinhart Kleiner and Others, p. 331)
Lovecraft thought highly of Samuel, so much so, that he encouraged Sonia “to carry on a correspondence”. (The Private Life). According to Sonia, she didn’t immediately assent to the idea of corresponding with Samuel, at least not until she would meet him in person through one of her millinery trips. (The Private Life) She elaborated on her first meeting with Samuel:
When I visited Cleveland for the first time, I indeed, found S.L. to be all the fine things H.P. said about him. In fact H.P. must have had a great regard for him since he described his character and temperament in one of his stories called “Randolph Carter”, into which there is woven a substantial amount of subtle praise, and I might say, even a sort of admiration for him.
After my day’s work S.L. surprised me by calling together at a moment’s notice, almost, many of the Cleveland amateurs who were available, to meet in one of the reception rooms of the then quite new Staler Hotel. [sic] A very pleasant evening was spent at the end of which we all signed our names to one of the view-cards of Cleveland and sent it to H.P.
Sonia H. Davis, The Private Life of Howard Phillips Lovecraft manuscript, John Hay Library.
The exact date of this meeting is unknown. I can only speculate that it occurred at some point in August or September, for in September she had stopped by in Providence through one of her many traveling ventures for Ferle Heller. If we are to take her recollection above as factual, in terms of her having to meet him first in order to begin their correspondence, then it was certainly after their meeting at the Statler Hotel.
Transcription:
Cleveland, Ohio.
Dear Mrs [sic] Greene,
I send you under separate cover the two numbers of “The Saturnian”— there were to have been more but fate prevented.
I am truly sorry to tell you that there isn’t even a ray of hope in my coming east. I have been out of work since last January and the outlook, until Spring at least, is none too good. There are times when I get a kind of nostalgia for the Met. Museum which I visited once a few years— for the Rodins [sic] and the Italian paintings and the Greek fragments— then I forget it, or try to. Life in your city is infinitely richer than here and no doubt, there are more opportunities for isolation.
I’ve a big poem in preparation, a Greek subject, which Lovecraft is to have on completion. This is the story, if you don’t object hearing it: The Hermaphrodite, a figure symbolised and beloved by the ancients, leaves the city of Anthemus three thousand years ago to see the world and travel down the ages. His intention is to seek the Bacchanal procession and to fare with it in their rites and celebrations. He goes to the neighboring cities of Phrixae and Sybaris but there, the inhabitants worship a false god, and he is haled out of the city. He passes on until he comes to the temple at Nyssa and here he finds Bacchus with his Bacchantes, his fauns and his Satyrs fast asleep on the steps of that ancient place of worship. A voice awakes the god bidding him throw aside his despair and go to the marble city of Pergamon. Garlands of vine-leaves,grapes, [sic] and ivy are replaced, wine is drunken, their ecstasy begins again and they dance their way to their new destination. Before the gates of the city Bacchus admonishes his company. Many years ago, he tells them, I found myself an outcast before this very place. They scorned me and bade me depart again into the night. But all these years have I stored the memory of their insult and this is to be my revenge. You shall enter their city in disguise and once in the city, you shall quicken them with your joy and with the Dionysiac spirit. A watchman accosts them. They tell him they are priests to the goddess Cybele. He bids them enter, reminding them that many years ago he himself witnessed the expulsion of the god Bacchus on that very spot. But the next day a marvellous thing happened. The country in all that vicinity became blighted and sere— only the vines in the vineyards were laden with heavy, purple grapes. And whosoever drank became maddened and whosoever became maddened slew, so that in all the city none were there who remained sober…. but sanity was regained in the end. Once in the city the Bacchanals threw their vestments aside. A priest warns the populace. The Hermaphrodite in a fit of fury slays the priest. The company is massacred by the inhabitants of the city. The Hermaphrodite is buried alive, to fall into a dreamless sleep of nearly two thousand years. He is taken and disinterred by an Italian to a city in Italy. This is during the Rennaisance. [sic] A curious revival of the cult of worship for this figure takes place. Again, the Hermaphrodite is hidden in a chamber of the Ducal palace where he remains until modern times… This, in the rough, is the story. The poem is another.
It would be a pleasure to hear from you often.
Faithfully,
Samuel Loveman
1537 East 93 St., Suite 2.
Aside from the description of his epic poem, The Hermaphrodite, there isn’t much to glean from his letter. Evidently, Sonia had extended the New York offer to Samuel as well. When Sonia had visited Lovecraft, arriving in Providence on September 4, 1921, she wished “to have a sort of convention of freaks and exotics in New York during the holidays; inviting for two weeks such provincial sages as Loveman, The Chee-ild, and poor Grandpa Theobald!” (Selected Letters 1.153-154). “The Chee-ild” is Alfred Galpin. Even though Samuel initially declined her offer of coming to New York, Sonia did not give up on her vision:
On April 1, in response to Mrs. Greene’s repeated inducements, Loveman had hit N.Y. in quest of a commercial situation.
H.P. Lovecraft to Maurice W. Moe, May 18, 1922, Lord of a Visible World, p. 108.
If she couldn’t have her “convention of freaks”, at least in the way she envisioned it, she was inevitably able to convince Samuel to come to New York in hopes of finding work. Sonia must’ve kept a steady correspondence with Samuel through the end of 1921 and into early 1922 to have known his continual struggle in seeking an occupation. From the perspective of Lovecraft, it didn’t appear that Sonia had originally intended to invite him to New York until Samuel requested his presence:
Finding his hostess absent, he was so depressed that he almost went home immediately; but a local friend persuaded him to wait at an hotel. April 3 Mrs. Greene reached home and found the disconsolate one on her doorstep, as it were. She succeeded in slightly cheering him up, but not in getting him a job; and by the next evening he was about to depart in tenebrous discouragement. Mrs. Greene had turned her entire flat over to him, stopping at a neighbour’s herself, but not even that super-hospitality seemed likely to hold him. Then, since the bard had done me the undeserv’d honour of wishing I were there, Mrs. Greene called me up on the long-distance as an expedient for cheering her guest.
H.P. Lovecraft to Maurice W. Moe, May 18, 1922, Lord of a Visible World, p. 108-109.
Lovecraft’s side of the event does not take away from what Sonia wrote in her memoir, of having felt prompted “to invite both H.P. and S.L. to spend some time in New York, so that if H.P. never met a Jew before, I was happy to know that for the first time he would meet two of them, both of whom were favorably cultured and enlightened; and that the favored of the race is not limited to this infinitesimal number.” (The Private Life) Sonia was certainly working some angles with obvious good intentions. Perhaps, she didn’t intend to invite Lovecraft at first, but knowing Samuel’s request in wanting him visit all while knowing Lovecraft’s racist views toward Jews, she seized the opportunity with both hands and in a roundabout way, she had her “convention of freaks”.
While we know Lovecraft valued Samuel, it’s obvious that Sonia valued him just as equally as a friend and as a poet. She included his poem “A Triumph in Eternity” in the first volume of The Rainbow.
Transcription:
A Triumph in Eternity
SAMUEL LOVEMAN
“L’ angoscia della genti,
che son quaggiu, nel viso me depinge
quell pieta, che tu per tema senti.”
—Dante.
There rose from dreaming in a hueless spring,
A wind that gathered every silken flower,
And all its breath was fire and ruining,
And all its might fulfillment of a power,
Darkness, destruction, and the void that flings,
Thunder of night and imminence of wings;
And I, the sleeper, panged with indecision,
Of clasped joy and radiated fears,
Heard nought beyond the moaning of my vision,
Beyond the present bitterness of years.
And from their riven pomp and sundered dust,
Arose imperial in their print of flame,
OEdipus, [sic] Agamemnon ever just,
And hoar Tiresias wearily the same;
Beautiful souls, unquenched dooms of men,
Crying, “Who calls us from our anarch ken?
Is it the night hath ta’en your hope immortal,
O miserablest of earth’s unwary ones?
None gaze upon this adamantine portal,
Unblinded by the sapphire-lighted suns!”
And all those human seers that burned of old,
Soft-voiced, pleading, passionately mild,
With eyes illumined and with hearts of gold,
Uprose in desolation undefiled;
But o’er the pendulous and living night,
A spark upon the haunted deep, a light
Of wonder in their interlunar prison,
With thorns for joy and enmity for love,
Came he whom men have called divine and risen,
Ensandall’d and predestined from above.
For in his eyes the light of faith was gone,
And in his heart had hope long perished,
A wind that withered ’mid the stars at dawn,
Dismantled pity and eternal dread:
No lonelier soul in chaos moaned than he,
Since from that hour of central agony,
By heaven’s implicate and unknown wonder,
Of radiant fury ’gainst all humankind,
He bared his soul alone to fire and thunder,
In the ancestral darkness of the blind.
Only about him lingered yet the ghosts
Of little children loved and sung of yore,
Pellucid phantoms aureoled in hosts,
Bewildered sprites that sought his hand once more;
But sought in vain, for in his kindred eyes,
Lay broken vows and lustered memories.
Fain to forget and fain be unbeholden,
To mutability of alien years,
The flame above his head was bright and golden,
But on his cheek the savouring of tears.
Yet still he dreamed his hope would be fulfilled,
And in the furrowed night, august and pale,
The frozen heart of him again was thrilled,
By light of stars to mankind’s piercing wail;
To waken once again now still and furl’d,
The pagan beauty of another world,
Ere eld had made it gray, ere grief could follow,
To blot the lucency and hush the dream,
The music of that god which was Apollo,
The time elysian and the joy supreme.
But even as he ponder’d in the vast
And moaning wrack of sere oblivion,
A voice cried, “O my sovran Son! at last
Our perishable splendour lies undone;
We had no pity to our aim aligned,
But built our structure in the darkness blind,
Thou with thy dreams and I my might of making,
In fealty to noble faiths and trust,
Better a ruin, rather the forsaking,
Than bitterness that burnishes in dust!”
Still plots the Son ’mid heaven’s reflecting peace,
Still chides the Master from eternity,
And truths that burn and ills that may not cease,
Are graven as in fire on all that be;
Alas! for joy that promises no less,
For hope that ends in barren hopelessness,
Yet for this comfort that finds strength assurance,
Betwixt such lampless and such mystic foes,
The souls of us are pacified in durance,
By sleep that waits with darkness and repose.
1916
Then, in the second volume of The Rainbow, she included his poem, “A Letter to G— K—”, which was accompanied with his portrait.
Transcription:
A Letter to G— K—
Here, in the night, are winds that cry and keep
Their frozen clangor on the wall of sleep;
Autumn, in pyramidal splendour pales,
But in her heart the joy it is that fails
And fades. Not all her sun, rain, wrath, her cries,
The red lustration of a soul that dies
Uncherished and regretful, still’d in bronze,
Under the year’s immortal gonfalons—
Dare keep her with us. To her clarion call,
Is whispered moaning the confessional
That precedes Winter, when by way and flood,
Steals as a doom, the whiter brotherhood,
Unshriving and unshriven with a speech,
Deeper than heartache in the depth of each,
Alone, yet muted.
O my dearest friend!
Never the day that does not reach an end.
Never yet in the wild symphonic din,
But there came subtlier [sic] the cry within:
Give up…give over!
I am he who said:
Until this disquiet heart be quieted;
Until upon these eyes, this lyric brain,
Not even a winged vestige shall remain,
Save the one prophecying [sic] voice that spells,
Rebellion for this nethermost of hells;
Protest against the blind, the dumb, the driven,
Beggar’d on earth yet still denied their heaven;
Not until thither as a torch at tryst,
There perish in my soul the mutinist,
Shall I be silence!
I have heard it told,
Of a vast tower of perfume and of gold;
About a wayfarer as in a dream,
Who saw the molten spire and windows gleam,
Heard cry a voice in the enchanted night,
From lips like music, laughter and delight;
Something that pealed: Enter! for here at feast,
Thou, that of mankind art accounted least,
Shalt as a god sit, strange, imperial, lone,
Tremulous and sublunar on thy throne…
And entered in huge silence, but at dawn,
One who beside him stood, cried:
Now, begone!
A shadow art thou henceforth, even as these
That wrought so cruelly thy destinies—
Call thyself Pity, ever after!
I
Must be that wayfarer until I die;
Shall seek, and always seeking, never find
Wisdom in hearts, beauty in eyes stone-blind,
Then pass to one who passed before me…He,
Who so loved life, who so loved liberty,
That all the darkness in eternal space,
Shone golden on us with his godlike face,
In still, saturnian largess.
We remain,
Never to know his druid self again;
Nor on the water’s perilous rise and fall,
To hear soft-brimm’d, that voice of voices call
Lines from the sonnets he so-loved to speak,
Shakspere, [sic] Stagnelius, or some purple Greek,
Who sang to lyres by the Ionian sea,
Forgotten, save by him alone. But we,
When Spring begins out Dover-way,
shall find
The butterflies again upon the wind,
And see in all the blue sky, pink and white,
The apple-blossoms in their downward flight,
Hearken the birds upon the boughs that bend,
To sing the song that only Spring shall end,
And hear his soul, the cry in flowers and leaves,
Love me—but love me not, who pines and grieves!
We may only have Samuel’s single letter to Sonia, but it certainly wasn’t the last of their correspondence. Later in life, particularly after the death of Nathaniel A. Davis, Sonia began to pick up the forgotten pieces of her former life as Mrs. Lovecraft. She visited New York in September 1947 and was introduced to August Derleth by Frank Belknap Long. It was during this visit that Sonia “read a few pages” to Derleth “from my scribbled manuscript (it was almost illegible to myself).” (Sonia to Winfield Townley Scott, September 13, 1947, John Hay Library.)
This was the scribbled manuscript that would become The Private Life of Howard Phillips Lovecraft. The trials that Sonia endured at the hand of Derleth needn’t be repeated, but it was during those instances that Sonia recommenced her correspondence with Samuel. In the Normal Lovecraft, Gerry de la Ree included in his article, “When Sonia Sizzled”, an unpublished letter and an excerpt of another letter from Sonia to Samuel. Although I dislike TheNormal Lovecraft for its errors and overall undertone of Sonia’s portrayal (I get that it had a target market, but still…), the letter(s) in the article are worth sharing, especially since they were not part of the Sonia to Samuel lot of letters that sold in 2008, which I will elaborate on further in this post.
Enclosed is a letter from (August) Derleth. Do you think he is ‘shooting in the dark’? Bluffing? I answered, telling him as long as he has H.P.’s letters to his aunts he no longer needs my version of the story.
Sonia Davis to Samuel Loveman, Nov 30, 1947, The Normal Lovecraft, p. 28.
This is the first letter I have written beginning in 1948. I’ve been wondering whether Derleth has tried to make trouble between you and me! Of course, I really do not need to wonder, because he has written me that both you and (Frank Belknap) Long had denied my allegation that I ever supported H.P. Unless he had written to you and Long after I had read part of my story to him, I cannot believe that there was any reason for either Long or you making such a statement; especially since neither of you really knew to what extent I subsidized H.P. from 1922 to 1929.
Of course, his aunts sent him a few dollars a week, but that wouldn’t have kept in him postage stamps and writing material. Derleth is “mad” because I won’t let him have the letters and the story, so he’s been pretty rough on me, making allegations and inuendoes just to hurt me as much as possible, but I believe the end has been reached.
His great climax to try to spoil my Xmas holiday came when he sent me his last letter in time to reach me day before Xmas.
However, no matter what he has told you (if anything), if it’s a half-truth, it’s a whole lie. Perhaps, too, I may be mistaken; he may not have written you, but your silence makes me think that perhaps you prefer not to continue correspondence, and that I am to understand this by your silence.
I knew that when I was in Cleveland you managed to get a couple of weeks’ work for H.P.L. addressing envelopes for Dauber & Pine catalogues. He worked just 2 weeks at $17 a week, and hated it.
When we lived at 259 Parkside, his aunts sent him five dollars ($5) a week. They expected me to support him. When he moved to Clinton St., they sent him $15 a week. His rent was $40 a month. Food, carfare, and laundry and writing materials cost more than $5 a week. It was this “more” that I supplied. And when I came into town to do the firm’s buying, every two weeks, I paid all his expenses during those trips and for his entertainment also. And when I’d leave, I always left a generous sum with him of which some of you knew, but none knew just how much. However, when he returned to Providence, his aunts allowed him $15 a week and sometimes he’d eke out a bit from Weird Tales and from a few revisions.
But when I came to Providence and lived with him there, I again carried all the expenses, even inviting the aunts to dine with us every evening.
When I left Providence because there was not a large enough job there for me, I returned to Brooklyn, and opened my own hat shop (it was when I had my apartment on 16th St) on 17th St. corner Cortelyon Road. He spent several months away from Providence, but very little of those two or three months were spent with me. He went to Philadelphia and several other places; Newburgh, Albany, and other cities along the Hudson, winding up his trip at Vrest Orton’s in Yonkers, where he spent more time. For all this I paid.
His aunts sent him a small stipend, not enough to travel. Yet Derleth all but called me a liar in actual words. I’d send you the letter but it is really too dreadful to contemplate.
Here, however, is what he said: “You told me when you met me that you were the sole support of H.P.L. from 1922 or thereabouts for ten years thereafter. That was not true and is not true. Long, Loveman and others have denied it, and Lovecraft’s letters indicate otherwise. You told me other things I tried to verify without being able to do so about yourself.”
But he does not state what I told him about myself that he tried to verify. I think he is shooting in the dark, just to try to scare me or hurt me. I don’t believe you told him anything, since you did not see him when he was in New York. Or did you? I’m not writing Long to find out what he said, for really nothing matters now. Derleth has made other accusations that I do not even understand. But now I’m out of the “Hornet’s Nest” I’ll see to it that I’ll not be inveigled again.
Perhaps I’ve made a mistake to do so; I am not sure. Others may seek to know of my life with H.P., but I think I’ve learned a good lesson. That page of the book is closed. If I ever refer to it again it may be in sheer self-defense, if Derleth intends to make unwarranted statements about me. It was an evil hour when I met him. I write all this because I have an idea he is trying to make trouble between you and me. I shall probably hear from him again although I haven’t answered his last letter. Forgive me if you can for such an effusive outpour. But I like to know whether I am right or wrong. This, too, really doesn’t matter, except that I don’t like to “hang” in mid-air. Please share the quotations with Long and whoever else you wish.
Sonia Davis to Samuel Loveman, Jan 1, 1948, The Normal Lovecraft, p. 29-30.
I forgot to state that the information I gave you regarding H.P.L’s lack of finances is not to be given to Derleth* (* i.e. I don’t want D. to know about the $15.00 a week + the 5.00 a week.) It is quite possible that Derleth is purposely irritating me to compel me to either defend myself or give him, in this way, the information he seeks. He’d probably love to have the letter I wrote you, therefore I beg of you to tell Belknap, when sharing it with him, to say nothing about this to Derleth.
In his Marginalia he is all wrong in stating how much older I am than H.P. also that our divorce was the result of HP’s inability to write for money or his lack of desire to write for money. None of this is true. I earned a handsome salary at the time and provided many things for him. I did not leave him on account of non-providence, but chiefly on account of his harping hatred of J—s.
This and this alone was the real reason. In fact, I believe he wrote to his aunts about it, but since nowhere in the “Marginalia” is this fact mentioned (unless Derleth has it in those letters of H.P.’s aunts, of which Derleth boasts) it is quite possible that the letters referring to Jews and HP’s hatred of them, may have been destroyed.
The “Marginalia” is full of mistakes and full of mis-statements, [sic] that I have rebutted in my story, which while written, will probably never see the light. The Marginalia is sadly lacking in many facts of which I alone am aware.
I do not mean to trouble you with my opinions regarding Derleth’s omissions and commissions, but facts should be right and straight; and not guessed at.
But now Derleth will never know, unless he changed his abominable tactics.
As Ever
S.H.
How Samuel responded to her allegations in these letters to him is virtually unknown. It is safe to say, however, that his silence was a not preference to discontinue his correspondence with Sonia. Life does happen, and occupations can at times sever the ability for generous fellowship. As much as Sonia claimed that nothing mattered, she was genuinely hurt by Derleth’s petty tactics and needed a friend to put her worries at ease. Samuel would defend her reputation as the former Mrs. Lovecraft in his article “On Gold and Sawdust. Although Samuel denounced Lovecraft after learning of his racism, (very likely from Sonia) it is clear that Samuel and Sonia shared a genuine friendship and a mutual trust that lasted for decades.
Sadly, none of the letters are from the period of when Sonia was married to Lovecraft. Nevertheless, the catalog of letters are worth mentioning:
Autograph Letter Signed “S”, with envelope, two pages, September 14, 1947, Hotel Chicagoan stationery, ink.
Typed Letter Signed “Sonia”, two pages, October 26, 1947, plain paper.
Autograph Letter Signed “Sonia”, eight pages, November 1, 1947, plain paper, ink.
Autograph Letter Signed “Sonia”, with envelope, two pages, March 3, 1948, plain paper, ink.
Autograph Letter Signed “Sonia”, with envelope, four pages, June 18, 1949, plain paper, pencil.
Typed Letter Signed “Sonia”, with envelope, one page, August 9, 1949, plain paper.
Autograph Letter Signed “Sonia”, with envelope, three pages, April 24, 1950, plain paper, ink.
Typed Letter Signed “Sonia”, with envelope, two pages, August 16, 1950, plain paper.
Typed Letter Signed “Sonia”, one page, August 18, 1950, plain paper.
Autograph Letter Signed “Sonia”, with envelope, two pages, October 29, 1950, plain bifolia paper, ink.
Typed Letter Signed “SHD”, one page, July 26, 1951, plain paper.
Typed Letter Signed “Sonia”, with envelope, two pages, August 21, 1951, plain paper.
Typed Letter Signed “S”, with envelope, two pages, August 29, 1951, plain paper. Includes a handwritten postscript, also signed “S”.
Autograph Letter Signed “Sonia”, with envelope one page, September 1, 1951, plain bifolia paper, ink. Accompanied by a one-page Typed Letter Signed from Spanish historian and novelist Adolph de Castro to Sonia.
Autograph Letter Signed “Sonia”, with envelope, one page, October 31, 1951, plain paper, ink.
Autograph Letter Signed “Sonia”, with envelope, two pages, September 25, 1954, plain paper, ink.
Autograph Letter Signed “Sonia”, with envelope, four pages, June 24, 1966, plain paper, ink.
Autograph Letter Signed “Sonia”, with envelope, three pages, July 19, 1968, plain paper, ink.
Autograph Letter Signed “Sonia”, with envelope, two pages, July 30, 1968, plain paper, ink.
Autograph Letter Signed “Sonia”, with envelope, one page, August 10, 1968, plain paper, ink. Accompanied by a change of address card from Sonia to Loveman.
Typed Letter Signed “Sonia”, one page, undated, plain paper. Second page of a two page letter (no first page).
Autograph Letter Signed “Sonia”, with envelope, one page, undated [envelope postmarked October 27, 1966], to Alyce Loveman, plain paper, ink.
That is 8 years of correspondence set within 22 letters, and that’s not even counting the ones that are missing from the period of 1921, or simply all the letters that are just lost between all the years of their acquaintance. That’s 8 years of information we’re missing out on to further verify accounts in Sonia’s life, and even Samuel’s own life. We can only hope that one day we shall see those 22 letters again, and continuing to hope that a generous soul will acquire them with the intention of finally revealing their contents publicly.
It is no secret that we, as fans and scholars of H.P. Lovecraft, want to know what he genuinely thought about “love”. Especially how he applied himself to the actual act of loving in an emotional and even physical sense. People love differently, for there’s love languages to prove it. There are different kinds of love, too, and The Psychic Phenomenon of Love begins with the descriptions of the various types. Like “Nietscheism [sic] and Realism”, Sonia provided an additional glimpse of her correspondence with Lovecraft. It’s obvious that only a wife (or a long-time lover) can provide intimate details of how a man loves when there isn’t a soul around to impress. In this case, Sonia was the only woman who could relay Lovecraft’s genuine thoughts on love, and his manner of loving her.
However, how much is her word really worth?
Recently, Bobby Derie sent me an eBay posting of the original handwritten draft of The Psychic Phenomenon of Love. The item was listed initially at $6,800. Imagine my great despair at the ten dollar shipping on top of the scandalous amount of dollars for the material! To think that thousands of dollars just couldn’t cover the shipping costs! Jokes aside, this was certainly the most amazing thing to have been discovered and shared with me, thanks to a friend, since its discovery has taught me (and is still teaching me) the value of Sonia.
The Psychic Phenomenon of Love is an essay that usually comes up when we seek to learn more about Lovecraft and Sonia. Especially how his perception of love would affect her, and later their marriage. Which is why discovering the original draft in Sonia’s own breezy penmanship is a very exciting moment in scholarship and easy to believe the material is extremely valuable! The first thing I wondered though, was how much did this original draft differ from what is freely provided in the Brown Digital Repository?
According to the eBay listing, “Brown University archives hold [sic] an incomplete facsimile of a typed version”. I’m not sure if this statement comes from a place of sheer ignorance or a blatant desire to overhype the scarcity of the item in order to sell high. What I do know is that Brown University owns two copies of the essay in their digital repository. The first copy is actually seven pages long, in which the sixth and seventh page mainly discusses an importance in understanding the sacredness of love. Just because one is married and has children does not mean there is actual love in the relationship. At the bottom of page seven, Sonia writes briefly about divorce, in which she believes divorce laws should be more flexible especially for the sake of children, whose parents are unable to reconcile. This conviction for flexible divorce laws clearly stems from her abusive marriage to Samuel Greene, in which she couldn’t easily divorce him and had to raise Florence in that toxic environment.
What makes this essay important from the rest, at least in my opinion, is what Sonia wrote on the back of the seventh page:
It was Lovecraft’s part of this letter that I believe made me fall in love with him; but he did not carry out his own dictum; time and place, and reversion of some of his thoughts and expression did not bode for happiness.
Sonia H. Davis, The Psychic Phenominon [sic] of Love, Brown Digital Repository.
Aside from the two additional pages, this essay is identical to the second copy in the digital repository. The second copy has two sheets of its own at the beginning of the essay which is a letter regarding Sonia from Lovecraft to an unknown recipient (later revealed to be his aunt Lillian D. Clark) taken from Selected Letters, Volume 2.
In comparison to the original draft that’s for sale, these essays are just as valuable. One might even argue they’re perhaps even more valuable for the tidbits of truth that Sonia provided additionally, which the original lacks. Clearly, there is no such thing as an “incomplete facsimile” from the Brown University archives. Even so, I took it upon myself to compare the handwritten draft to the copy from Brown, which had the Selected Letters excerpt, and I did this for two reasons. Firstly, I wanted to genuinely verify the seller’s statement of it being the complete draft. Secondly, by knowing the first reason, I would then understand the monetary value of the item. Moreover, I ultimately wanted to share my findings regarding this artifact because awareness is key.
It is understandable and easy to believe why someone might assume it’s worth thousands. But is it really?
The question, again, comes to how much is her word really worth? Is her word and name alone worth thousands? Or is her word and name only worth thousands because Lovecraft’s name is included? Where do we put the value in Sonia? In her actual handwriting or in her association?
Coming from a place where I have bought several original Sonia items, which have ranged from $53 to $2,500, I know full well where her value is placed. Her worth is (and always will be) more when associated with Lovecraft. You can probably imagine why one item of hers was $53 while the other was $2,500. Does that make it fair? Certainly not. Yet, that’s the way of the game. Regarding the original draft of the essay, however, is it worth what the seller is asking for when we now know it’s not a rarity of its kind?
In comparing the two essays, I discovered they’re identical, in that nothing is drastically different. Nothing more included or nothing else removed. While numerous, the differences are slight, such as a word and/or a sentence here and there changed, and commas included or removed. That is the only difference. Lovecraft’s passage in the original is exactly the same as that of the typed version. Occasionally I relied on the typed version to help me make out a word or two in the original. There were moments when the original and the typed conflicted with one another because of the corrections Sonia had made between the two.
After having transcribed both essays (not an easy feat transcribing from eBay photos), I printed the two and compared them side by side, line by line, highlighting the differences. The top slide show is the original handwritten draft while the bottom is the typed version. Please pardon my personal notes throughout the essays.
A quick note on my style of transcribing:
I copy the page exactly how I see it. If there’s a line in the middle of the passage to separate paragraphs, then I add a line. If words are typed together by accident and Sonia drew a line between the two words to signify spacing, then I add a “|” (or “/”) between the two words. For example: add|to. If I can’t make sense of a word because it’s either muddled in the text or crossed out beyond recognition, then I type “(illegible word)” in place of the word. Words that are italicized and in parenthesis are handwritten revisions by Sonia.
There are two things worth noting about the original essay. The first is her note: “The typed copy has been revised”. I’m led to believe the draft I used to compare alongside the original is the one she is referring to. It was certainly revised in some ways, appearing to be a second version of the draft, given by how some expressions were corrected while new errors emerged.
The second thing worth noting is Sonia’s additional note, revealing her uncertainty if Lovecraft’s part is the original quotation. His passage never changes throughout any of the copies available, and so what does that say? If this is not his original quotations, then how did she capture his written tone so well? Was it paraphrased elsewhere, and she merely copied it?
Sonia had burned Lovecraft’s letters at some point between 1947 and 1966. None of the copies of The Psychic Phenomenon of Love have dates, but it can only be speculated that at some point in the 1950s she wrote it. While she doesn’t mention the essay by name, Sonia revealed the work in a letter to August Derleth:
Before burning 400+ letters of H.P.L.’s I copied part of one, adding my own version. After many years, I came across it, and am sending you a copy for permission to try to sell it.
Sonia H. Davis to August Derleth, November 29, 1966, August William Derleth Papers, Wisconsin Historical Society.
The “copy” she sent him is likely the scanned copy included in the eBay listing, alongside the original, since the general item came from the “Barlow / Derleth Papers”. It’s interesting to read about her having copied the original quotations from his letter, and yet admitting in the original draft that she did not know if it was “his original”. It’s certainly a mystery, or a mere reminder on her part to ultimately verify the text. Whether she did or did not verify the text before burning the letters, we’ll never truly know. After sending the draft to Derleth, The Psychic Phenomenon of Love was printed as “Lovecraft on Love” in The Arkham Collector, No. 8 (Winter 1971). Everything Sonia wrote was removed in “Lovecraft on Love”, only publishing Lovecraft’s passage:
And so, how much is her word really worth? Obviously not much if someone can easily remove her part from the essay and only share Lovecraft’s part. Yet, how much is the essay worth if we can’t verify Lovecraft’s passage to be the absolute original? Is it still worth thousands? Hundreds? Or is it only worth thousands for mere bragging rights? If that’s the case, then what is this phenomenon doing in getting in the way of scholarship?
Addendum:
The post above was written a week before the item sold. The original draft of The Psychic Phenomenon of Love sold for $2,500 on March 29. Is that price reasonable? Or did someone fall into the trap of paying too much? At the end of the day, that is up to the reader to decide. As consumers, we put the value in an item, whether the price is worth it or not, because we’re emotionally driven creatures. Whether the final price was fair or not, we can at least appreciate the fact of having seen The Psychic Phenomenon of Love in its original form. Time will tell if we’ll get to see it again for sale in our lifetime.
A huge thank you to Bobby Derie for his help in providing materials for this post!
Two are one. Another bears the name of Lovecraft. A new household is founded!
H.P. Lovecraft to Lillian D. Clark, March 9, 1924, Letters to Family and Family Friends 1.106.
Anything addressed to “H.P. Lovecraft” or (miraculous and unpredictable appellation) “Mrs. H.P. Lovecraft” will henceforward reach its recipient without additional formalities.
H.P. Lovecraft to Lillian D. Clark, March 9, 1924, Letters to Family and Family Friends 1.106.
Before the altar and vast windows of St. Paul’s Chapel, Sonia H. Greene met the gaze of her soon-to-be husband. He, with the stamp of antiquarian appreciation, went through his stately assurance. Then, Reverend George Benson Cox, in traditional vestments and with a ceremonial expression, turned to Sonia. Would she take the weird writer in her midst, to be her husband, to have and to hold from that day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, from that day forward till death would they part? The world stilled—the empty and solemn mood of the chapel deepened as though an audience waited with bated breath for her momentous decision. In the iridescent glow of the cross, whose delicate light adorned her with additional grace, Sonia said, “I do”.
On March 3, 1924, Howard Phillips Lovecraft and Sonia Haft Greene became husband and wife. Two became one: Mr. and Mrs. Lovecraft. They had stepped out of St. Paul’s Chapel with the high hopes of a lasting matrimonial bond, and with her own quiet hopes of making him a better man.
I had hoped (perhaps it was wish-thinking) that my ‘embrace’ would make of him not only a great genius but also a lover and husband.
Sonia H. Davis, The Private Life of Howard Phillips Lovecraft, unedited manuscript.
A hundred years later…
We look at that special day through scholarly lens, and perhaps even wish we had been witnesses to such a ceremony—sitting in one of the many empty rows, observing when they exchanged vows and rings. Yet, I believe that if we had been, at most, passersby on that day, striding past the open chapel doors, the scene within would’ve appeared as any ordinary ceremony taking place, and we might have overlooked its significance. It is only through the perspective of our present that we look back longingly to the past.
Fortunately, Howard and Sonia’s friends did not overlook the magnitude of such a day. The Blue Pencil Club, an amateur journalism organization of which Sonia was a member, announced the big news in their column “Blue Pencil Club Elects New Officers”, in The Standard Union:
Brooklyn, New York, Thursday, April 3, 1924, p. 2. Source: Newspaper.com
Transcription:
Announcement was made of the recent marriage of one of the club’s members, Mrs. Sonia Greene, of 259 Parkside avenue, [sic] to Howard P. Lovecraft, of Providence, R.I.
In her memoir, Sonia revealed that the Blue Pencil Club had additionally elaborated on their wedding day:
An account of that marriage is to be found in the “BROOKLYNITE” April 1924 the official organ of the Blue Pencil Club of Brooklyn, N.Y.
Sonia H. Davis, The Private Life of Howard Phillips Lovecraft, unedited manuscript.
It is interesting to note that despite his kindness in having dedicated a poem to the newlyweds, Rheinhart Kleiner had reservations regarding their marriage. In “A Memoir of Lovecraft”, he recalled having felt “faintness at the pit of my stomach and became very pale” upon hearing the news from George Julian Houtain and his wife. Houtain, having laughed at the effect that the announcement had on Kleiner, “agreed that he felt as I did”. (Something About Cats, p. 221) While Kleiner does go on to praise Sonia for her outward beauty, he divulges further in his memoir that her “severe conduct” and naivety was something that gave a general feeling to others that Howard and Sonia were ill-fated as a pair.
Unfortunately, there isn’t enough accounts on Sonia from unbiased sources to give a clearer picture of Sonia’s true conduct. And I say “unbiased” only because the claims we have of Sonia are mainly from the close friends of Howard. They regarded him highly, and while outwardly beautiful, Sonia didn’t seem to measure up to the majority of them. Did her background as a Ukrainian Jewish woman have an impact on how they viewed her physically and intellectually? Most definitely.
While I can easily launch into the psychological reasoning behind Sonia’s overall behavior (which I did to some extent in the introduction to Two Hearts That Beat as One), what genuinely mattered most is what Howard saw in her. It speaks volumes of a man, who was devoutly xenophobic, to marry out of his preferred ethnic group. Why? Because we see that she was more than just an immigrant and a Jewess to him. He saw her the way she wanted to be seen: intellectually attractive. The truth is, what they shared most in common was intellectual thought and ideals—something that has not been entirely acknowledged.
In the provided account, The Brooklynite had claimed that “Mr. and Mrs. Lovecraft entertained members of the Blue Pencil Club at their home” on March 23, 1924. Howard had mentioned a possible meeting with fellow amateurs to his aunt, Lillian D. Clark:
We have now sent invitations to several amateurs to come over next Sunday…
H.P. Lovecraft to Lillian D. Clark, March 18, 1924, Letters to Family and Family Friends 1.115.
March 18th was a Tuesday, and March 23rd would have been that following Sunday, just days after Howard’s letter. In his subsequent letter to Lillian, he briefly referred to the meeting:
Yes—the assemblage of March 23 came off successfully…
H.P. Lovecraft to Lillian D. Clark, March 30, 1924, Letters to Family and Family Friends 1.130.
However, this “assemblage” was not in fact the Blue Pencil Club because only a few sentences down from that very same passage, he explained what happened:
On Saturday S.H. and I were to have gone to the Blue Pencil meeting; but on account of fatigue and a cold on her part we refrained. The next morning we rather regretted our absence, for it seems that the meeting had been something of a party in our honour, with a carefully prepared speech by Mortonius, and the presentation of a wedding gift—a magnificent set of glassware—by the club as a whole!
H.P. Lovecraft to Lillian D. Clark, March 30, 1924, Letters to Family and Family Friends 1.130.
The “magnificent set of glassware” is obviously the “cut glass punch bowl and glasses” that the Blue Pencil Club presented to them. Evidently, Mr. and Mrs. Lovecraft had not actually entertained the club, ultimately having missed a party in their honor. Nevertheless, it was obviously the thought that counted.
The fact that both Sonia and Howard were thoroughly immersed in amateur journalism, and especially because Sonia was by this point the president of the United Amateur Press Association, an identical report of their wedding was printed in the United Amateur.
On March 3, 1924, occurred the wedding of Sonia H. Greene, President of the United Amateur Press Association, and H.P. Lovecraft, Official Editor of that society.
The marriage is the culmination of nearly three years of acquaintance, beginning at the Boston convention of the National in 1921, and ripened by a marked community of tastes and parallelism of interests. It may quite justly be added to the long list of amateur journalistic romances which our social chroniclers delight to enumerate and extol.
The ceremony, performed by the Reverend George Benson Cox, took place at historic St. Paul’s Chapel, New York; a noble colonial structure built in 1766 and dignified by the worship of such elder figures as General Washington, Lord Howe, and that Prince of Wales who later became successively the Prince Regent and King George the Fourth.
Following the wedding, the bride and groom departed on a brief tour of the Philadelphia region, whose venerable and historical landmarks accorded well with the scene of the ceremony itself. On Sunday, March 23, after their return to New York, Mr. and Mrs. Lovecraft entertained members of the Blue Pencil Club at their home, 259 Parkside Avenue, Brooklyn, where, needless to say, amateurs will always be welcome.
Mr. and Mrs. Lovecraft plan a continued career of amateur activity, which will begin with a vigorous attempt to resuscitate the United. Already in harmony as to plans and policies, the union will not alter or modify their programme as previously announced; but will add the final touch of cohesiveness to their concerted efforts.
“News Notes”, United Amateur 23, No. 1, May 1924, Collected Essays, Volume 1: Amateur Journalism, 1.352-53.
Prior to Howard, Sonia had been married to Samuel Greene. After their divorce, Sonia dated Francis Bosco, a bank teller for Bank of Italy (later Bank of America). According to her autobiography, Francis and Sonia were engaged, but the engagement was called off because he was Catholic and she was Jewish. After Francis, Sonia revealed she fell hard for “Kay”, a gentleman she met at a ball. He was very much like Samuel Greene, smart and yet argumentative. All these men were book smart, but also abusive toward Sonia, except for Francis. He seemed to have treated her kindly.
By the time she met Howard, Sonia was depraved of the kind of love that went beyond “free love”. While Howard isn’t perhaps the sort of man one imagines as a “knight in shining armor”, he was just that for Sonia. She genuinely believed he was the man of her dreams:
Sonia H. Davis, Autobiographical Writings, Box 9, Folder 5, John Hay Library, Providence, R.I.
Transcription:
After having met many men , [sic] some proposing marriage, a few indigent ones seeing in me a good “meal ticket” sought me for that, but not one as far as I could see, wanted me because there was anything in common between us, because there might have been real love; with several it seemed to me, it would have been a marriage of convenience; others bluntly suggested “Free love”, while a few probably did love me but I still sought the “man of my dreams”. One day I thought I had met him.
At some point during their lengthy correspondence, Howard and Sonia talked about love, and what made love genuine in a relationship. Sadly, since their correspondence did not survive, we don’t know the entirety of what said between the two regarding this particular topic. However, Sonia managed to preserve the passage that ultimately made her fall in love with him. This excerpt was later included in what would be the essay, The Psychic Phenomenon of Love.
Aside from his perception of love, Sonia also likely fell in love with the comforting prospect that Howard would respect her more, physically and emotionally, than her previous lovers. She knew he would not abuse her, but encourage her, not only entice her body, but seduce her mind. Yes, Howard had his flaws, but in comparison, he was precisely who she needed at that time of her life.
While the marriage ultimately failed, I will not focus on that unfortunate fact today, for today was a day in which both Howard and Sonia believed their love was eternal and worth the risk. Today, an exact century ago, they declared with clear certainty to be together for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness, and in health. And when you really think about their relationship in the context of those marital assurances, their love had indeed persevered.
The Papers of Sonia H. Davis 