I just finished Someone Always Nearby and loved it so much more than I thought I would - mostly because I normally read fiction. I have read all your hidden women books, however and enjoyed all of them. After I finished the book, I came away scratching my head as to what kind of relationship the two of them had. I wasn't clear if they were in a physical intimate relationship - I felt like they were not and that Georgia was always after young men to prove something - maybe she was hiding something from herself. What kind of childhood must she have had to be so cold, mean, and uncaring of others. I enjoyed reading about all the work that Maria did and found myself furious that she inherited nothing from Georgia - and furious about the way Hamilton took advantage of her. I actually felt that I was right there while the work was being done - a rare feel for me when reading a book. thank you for the hard work of putting this together - I feel like Maria got some vindication, even though she wasn't alive to see it.
Judy I was going to add, to your original comment, that while SOMEONE might read like a biography, it really IS fiction. When I write about real people, I try very hard to stay close to the facts. In the Reader's Guide, I point out where I have fictionalized scenes, where the dialogue comes from, what my sources are. If you're interested in the book at that level, you might glance through the Guide. It's free here: https://susanalbert.com/someone-always-nearby/
Thank you so much for this, Judy. I'm very glad the book worked for you!
About the physical relationship: I believe it wasn't intimate, that Georgia was too afraid of that closeness. One biographer (Jeffrey Hogrefe) finds some indirect evidence that suggests that as a child, she was abused by her older brother--that might account for some of her difficulty in forming close relationships.
As I was writing, I found myself wanting to vindicate Maria, or at least to give her some of the attention she deserves for her service to Georgia in those important years. I'm glad you felt that, too.
If she was abused by an older brother, this would explain it. I felt she must have had something traumatic happen in her childhood to have grown up so damaged. At least the severely damaged people I know have all had trauma - usually childhood trauma that was somewhat ongoing when they were helpless to avoid it and no one advocated for them to get them out of the situation. That leaves scars on so many levels. Thanks for explaining that.
She is said to have shared the story with a friend, and to another, she wrote that she and her brother slept together. (That letter is publicly available.) Sadly, she grew up in a family that seems to have had many secrets. And yes, that's all so scarring.
I just finished Someone Always Nearby and thoroughly enjoyed it. Susan, you wrote so beautifully of the complexities of O'Keeffe and Chabot's relationships as well as the challenges of women being successful in our culture at the turn of the last century. My opinions of both women was a roller-coaster of emotional responses but by the end, I was able to simply accept them as the complex women that we all are. The third main character in the book was the New Mexico landscape and I pulled out my tattered atlas to create a visual map in my brain. I have started the Readers Guide and look forward to learning more details. My copy of the Ladies of the Canyons arrived two days ago and I was compelled to look up some of the women you mentioned in your book. Such a fascinating time in that place. Thank you for writing this delightful book.
Thank you, Sue. You're right: the land--the landscape, the houses, the kind of traditional life they symbolize--is a third character in the novel. Maria loved it passionately and dedicated half-a-decade to the building of the Abiquiu house and 15 years to Los Luceros. Georgia painted it for 50 years--until she couldn't see any longer. It tied the two of them together.
Hey Susan, hallo again ! Nice to read something from you in a different genre, particularly as it educates me on O'Keefe's background. I enjoy the fearless challenging statements in her work. I have a number of her prints in my endless mountain, to mount and frame for my A, B + C posts next Feb. In the meantime I'll be at Fannie's Fence. Peace, Maurice
She was fortunate to have annual shows in Stieglitz's gallery, and the support of the critics who saw her work there and wrote about it. But that kind of performative pressure was also a challenge, as she says in several of her letters, pushing her to move beyond what she had previously done. It's sometimes helpful to look at the context of a work (art, literature, music) to see what influences might have shaped it. I'll look for your posts, Maurice.
I'm enjoying this discussion a great deal, and it's answering some questions I had as I read. Carolyn Gage's theories, as reported here, help make sense of the Chabot/O'Keeffe relationship on both sides, and I look forward to hearing the tape. I knew O'Keeffe was difficult but did not realize to what degree, and one thing I thought throughout the book was that she was one of those people who attract loyal followers and keep them no matter how badly they are treated. I don't think the lesbian aspect fully explains that. It was also most interesting to me to read details about Juan Hamilton--again I knew bits and pieces but Susan's work fleshed out the story. I may never again view O'Keeffe or her work in quite the same way, but I am glad to know Chabot's story--and I feel a bit of sadness for her. And I will continue to be enthralled with the New Mexico landscape.
Judy, I'm not remembering--what tape? (Maybe I promised something that I'm forgetting?) Hamilton was/is an issue for me, since I felt I could not create a story for him that went beyond what is available in print--and all that is available is Hogrefe's biography of O'Keeffe and newspaper reports of the day. But given GOK's uses of her earlier "someone," I could appreciate his dilemmas. There's much more story there. I hope someone tackles it someday.
I didn't mean tape. It was late, and I was sleepy but somewhere I got the impression that Gage's play was only available in audio. This morning I see there's a Kindle version, which suits me better. And that made me note that in the comments here and in that play the word "Butch" comes up a lot, a word you avoided in the book if my memory is correct. Changes my interpretation of the relationship.
Oh, thanks--understand! And thanks for remarking on "butch." I avoided it because I couldn't find what I needed in the relationship (or in Maria's relationship with her previous relationship with much-older and more experienced Dorothy Stewart) to justify my use--and because I write from outside the lesbian culture, especially the Santa Fe lesbian community of the 30s. I was very glad to see Gage's use of it: she earns it, from her place in that world. It's also not clear to me if that word was in use in the 1930s in Santa Fe, San Antonio (where Maria grew up). Maybe in New York?
And thank you for this: "Changes my interpretation of the relationship." A very good example of how just one word can define/redefine a whole field of interactions. I think you can see why I chose not to impose it on the narrative--and why Gage did.
I would have avoided it for the reasons you did. It's a loaded word, implying much more than sexuality to me, and if you'd used it, it would have left me less open to considering the many nuances of the GOK/Maria relationship.
I should add that Paula (my wonderful research assistant) and I couldn't spend the time it would take to work through all of Maria's papers. With Dorothy, she plays the "loving child" role but she was in her 20s then. There may be later relationships (after GOK) in which she is more butchy.
But I do respect Gage's use of the word and find it helpful. I was only sad that the play was published so late that I couldn't acknowledge it in the novel. It's mentioned twice in the Guide (free download).
Returned "Someone" to the library today. Fascinating read. Am now into the reader's guide. Must say I was pleased that you emphasized that your version is a "story" not the absolute truth perhaps but only a story. Georgia comes across as a user, in my mind. There are so many of those, helpless but so very despotic. Certainly not a loner as advertised. Thank you for your interpretation.
Thank you. I appreciate your comment, Barbara--and yes, it IS a story, as is every reconstruction of a field of fact, with details selected and organized out of a paradigm of understanding and with a purpose in mind. It's helpful to remember that this is also true of biographies, which we often take for "truth." And that any life--especially long ones--yield many different stories, often conflicting.
I've read the other books in your Hidden Women series and am looking forward to reading this one! Georgia O'Keefe has always appealed to me in her austere beauty and lone talent. Your take on Maria will be authentic and fascinating. Brackenridge High School was near our house on the Southside of San Antonio when I was in grade school, a pretty tough school back in the early 50s. Gives me the chills to imagine a few degrees of separation from such an incredible artist and her talented friend.
Interesting! Then you must have lived not far from the Chabots. Maria grew up in a house down the block on Madison from her grandfather's well-known house: https://www.sahouseregistry.com/houses/403-madison The family had had money but in hides and wool, which didn't do well in the 20s. Small world!
The Chabot House is truly magnificent, but it's in the King William district where we DID live when we first moved back to San Antonio in 1950. Daddy rented a flat in the historic Anton Wulff House (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anton_Wulff_House) close to Chabot House. But we couldn't afford the rent and moved south of Brackenridge HS to Yellowstone St. where I met, in one of my wanders, the granddaughter of Spanish Senor Ytuirri in the family's adobe home on the site of the Spanish old mill: Yturri-Edmunds House Museum. https://www.saconservation.org/what-we-do/tours/yturri-edmunds-house-museum/ These intriguing historic landmarks made it into my memoir. Such rich history in San Antonio!
When SOMEONE opens, Maria has just been painting the flats she created in her grandparents' house, to try to generate income for her parents. The Wulff house is about the same construction era--and I was interested to see (in the link you post) that it lost its place on the river when that river was rerouted. So many wonderful historic oddities!
I have SOMEONE on hold at the San Francisco Public Library; it's on order! I will truly appreciate the opening scene, since the Wulff House was divided into flats for the same reason. Now it's the headquarters for the San Antonio Conversation Society. My godmother, Bernardine Rice, lived right across S. St Mary's St. in her grandfather's Irish cottage, now a historic landmark. I'm so glad you write about the hidden women in American history, Susan, close to home.
p.s. (Bernardine was the same age as Maria from a prominent Irish pioneer family and attended Ursuline Academy, but I am positive Miss Bernardine Rice was in the closet.)
Good to hear that the SF library has it on order. Thanks for checking there! Because you know SA, you'll be able to appreciate Maria a little more than most readers. She was daring and unconventional in a very conservative Catholic town. I think her mother might simply have been buffaloed by this girl--reminds me a bit of Zelda Fitzgerald (who was 13 years younger, also in a conservative town, Montgomery AL). Also, you will appreciate her interest in all things Mexican. Before he came to SA, her Chabot grandfather had been in the British foreign service in Mexico. So sort of posh. Your godmother might even have known the Chabots.
Very posh! Now I can't wait to get to know Maria as you've brought her into a literary biography and into the spotlight for many readers. I have a hankering for a visit to SA in the coming year to tour historical homes and visit with friends before it's too late.
It's possible that Bernardine knew the Chabots; she wrote a SA historical book, out of print.
San Antonio: Its Early Beginnings and Its Development Under the Republic
Bernardine Rice
University of Texas, Austin, Texas, 1941
Tia's family immigrated from Ireland in the 1820s. There was some security/entitlement in the early Anglo families, I think, no matter their life styles
Eagerly awaiting from the library.... That photo of Maria from HS is such a classic gender nonconforming presentation! In our current era, transgender people out and proud, she would not have stood out as extreme, but in her time, I'm sure it was.
As an aside, a follow-up from a few weeks ago. I went looking for Mary Catherine Bateson's Composing a Life, only to find that the library had only Composing a Further Life. I checked it out, was partway through reading it, when my wife noticed and commented that she had a copy of Composing a Life on her bookshelves. So now I have that one in my reading pile.
I actually used a quotation from Further Life in a short talk I gave as part of a church service yesterday. The service was our Transgender Day of Remembrance (officially today). I would not have read the book if your blog had not brought it to my attention. So, THANK YOU!
Bateson's first book was hugely important to me at the time: helped to make sense of my own patchwork life. Glad you have current access to both.
Re Maria's photo. There's another, younger one in the same style. When I look at them, I can only imagine how that young woman must have stood out in her San Antonio TX (Texas!!) high school in the late 1920s--and how much courage it took to insist on being who she was. Pronouns are difficult here. Today, I believe she would have chosen they/them.
Pronouns are difficult everywhere these days. As I said yesterday, "My Catholic-school-trained grammarian brain is at war with my heart, which wants to embrace my trans friends who like "they" pronouns."
Understand and agree--it's hard! I'm always glad to see the declaration in so many email signatures. It's good to know so I can be supportive. But number agreement is like fingernails on a chalkboard.
I love that you stick close to the facts in your biographical fiction. I sometimes write biographical plays, and I also try to stick to facts. Of course, as I'm writing plays, they are all about dialogue, so I have to imagine what the people might have said in the situations I dream up. The play I'm working on now is about Louise Fitzhugh who wrote the Harriet the Spy books. She was great friends with Sandra Scoppettone (author) and M. E. Kerr (author). Also friends with Lorraine Hansberry. All are/were lesbians (Scoppettone is still with us) living and writing in the 1950s and 60s in New York City. Fitzhugh was an artist and her friends Scoppettone and Kerr influenced her to become a writer as well. I believe their lives were important and should be staged, and I'm working on that. It's great fun to try to put myself in their shoes.
My UU congregation is active in justice theater, so I'm also quite curious about your plays, Sandra. I also appreciate the queer history lesson. More new people to learn about!
I agree about Fitzhugh's importance, and it will be good to see her in that circle of friends--something that most of us don't know about her. I have to ask, though: how do you publish your work? Is it ever available in print? (I'm thinking of Gage's adaptation of the Chabot/GOK letters.) Is accessibility less of an issue now than it was before POD and the internet?
Argh. I don't have plays in print. Carolyn Gage has offered to teach me how to self-publish them though. A task for next year I think. Re my plays, I work harder (so far) to get them produced, or at least stage read. I have a table read coming up for my play Extraordinary People that I'm looking forward to. In my early days all my plays were produced, but the advent of 10-min plays morphed into play readings vs productions. My last full productions were in the early 2000s.
Play readings get the work out there! Maybe also do a podcast recording? Or even a YouTube video. And I very much hope you take up Gage's offer, Sandra. Those women's voices and stories are important--and risk being drowned out in today's clamor. Your work is original. It needs to be shared!
I’m a little more than halfway through Someone Always Nearby. I laughed out loud at “that Sarton woman”. Having read many of May Sarton’s memoirs and a few novels, I was still not aware of her time in New Mexico. That added more depth to her for me. I also laughed at the idea of starting with a small field to grow vegetables being 15-20 acres. To me that does not seem small, but I didn’t have much help in my farming days. I am enjoying the book very much. Their relationship is complex and I’m enjoying learning about Maria. Thank you for calling attention to her.
It was a complex friendship--poor Georgia had such a tough time deciding who was entitled to be a "friend" and why. So her relationships were usually somehow qualified/compromised.
I think Maria was (unjustifiably) concerned about women being drafted and wanted to be doing "war work" as a farmer, in case that happened: hence the larger acreage. But she certainly jumped into farming in a big way when she got to Los Luceros (as you will see later in the book).
And yes, I can just imagine Sarton (assertive as she was about her loves) making ripples in Santa Fe. 😊
I just couldn't put it down--your book about Georgia O'Keeffe and Maria Chabot revealed so much more new biographical information that it was compelling to read!
There's so much more to be learned about Maria. I wish someone would take her on as a PhD dissertation project. The material is there and beautifully archived, just waiting for someone to do it justice.
I am currently reading Someone Always Nearby and thoroughly enjoying it! I knew little about Georgia O'Keeffe's life but could recognize some of her artwork. Her flower paintings are gorgeous. Your book has inspired me to learn more about this independent artist who developed a intimate relationship with the SW landscape. I also enjoy learning about a place - last night, I encountered the word Genizaros and had no idea what it defined. The curious writer in me thought, well, there's a whole new history of women to discover!
I have developed a similar love of place here in the PNW but my mother moved to AZ in 1980 and I visited each year, taking time to explore the SW landscape. I love the SW landscape and for several years, I considered retiring to northern NM. (BTW- I am also reading What Wildness is This? and love the beautiful collection of SW-oriented writings.)
Maria was such a unique woman! Her skills and independance struck me as unique for women in her era. But I suspect like much of women's history and their life stories, women enjoyed far more diversity in how they lived their lives, especially in the remote "wild west."
As a woman who devoted much energy and time to raising my son and creating a stable and secure homelife (something I lacked as a child), I sometimes feel like I set aside much of my creative energy for decades. I am intrigued with women who were/are able to pursue their passions and for decades, I jokingly complained about my need for a "wife." I am only half-way through the book, so I don't know how much writing Maria accomplished but so far her work as a "hired hand" has consumed much of her time.
I have added your other hidden women books to my reading list. It's such a unique concept. Thank you for writing about women and their stories.
Genizaros was a new concept to me, too. Spanish culture may have been brutal in many ways but at least their indentured servants were eventually freed, unlike the African slaves of North America. Native American people are very active and visible here in the PNW, so any additional knowledge about historic events and treatment is valuable and useful. Thanks!
Genizaro had a sad beginning but is now a proud heritage. Mexico (which replaced Spanish rule in what is now NM) outlawed slavery after 1821. Also sadly: that was one (some say the most) important reason for Texas' declaration of independence from Mexico in 1836. The Texas cotton economy was based on slavery. The state eventually joined the US as a slave state.
My response to your comment was to wonder why settlers from northern European (other than Scandinavian) countries effected such brutal treatment on people and places, relative to Mediterranean countries. I suspect it has religious roots.
If you're thinking of settlers in Texas, the first group came from the cotton culture of the South; many brought enslaved people with them. Later groups (mid 1800s) came from northern Europe or from northern states.
I'm thinking of those groups, yes. The American South having been settled by Scots, Brits, Germans. All "protestant" enclaves. In comparison with Spanish, Portuguese, French, all of which ended slavery sooner than the USA.
Sue, I very much agree with your remark about women in the West--they enjoyed an independence that Eastern women often lacked. And they seemed to gather in NM in the early 1920s, especially in the Santa Fe and northern NM area. From that point of view, here's a book you might appreciate: https://uapress.arizona.edu/book/ladies-of-the-canyons
Currently reading Someone Always Nearby and enjoying it immensely. Your portrayal of both women is beautifully written. I have visited Ghost Ranch, Abiquiu and her museum in Santa Fe and now feel like i’m revisiting them thanks to you. And thank you for spending the time and energy to thoroughly research your hidden women and bring them to life for your readers. I met you years ago at a Womens Writing the West conference in Golden, Colorado and have followed your work ever since.
I think that WWW conference was the year A Wilder Rose came out--2013 or so. That's such a wonderful organization. Glad you're enjoying the book. I think it will mean more to readers who have visited there. The landscape--and those adobe houses--was so important to both GOK and Maria.
I ordered an ebook and have begun reading. While at my library, I found they already had the hardcover so I borrowed it too. I read ebooks on my computer as I find the small screen on my phone difficult. I am happy to have the hardbound (yay library!) to keep in the car so I can read at stoplights (I know, I know... but the lights are so long and the book is so tempting). Your Hidden Women series is a treasure, thank you.
Well, I gotta say, just be careful at those lights, Jude!
I read ebooks on a tablet (Fire), much better than my phone, more comfy than the desktop. Plus, I use Kindle text-to-speech and let the book read itself to me. Love that feature!
I just finished Someone Always Nearby and loved it so much more than I thought I would - mostly because I normally read fiction. I have read all your hidden women books, however and enjoyed all of them. After I finished the book, I came away scratching my head as to what kind of relationship the two of them had. I wasn't clear if they were in a physical intimate relationship - I felt like they were not and that Georgia was always after young men to prove something - maybe she was hiding something from herself. What kind of childhood must she have had to be so cold, mean, and uncaring of others. I enjoyed reading about all the work that Maria did and found myself furious that she inherited nothing from Georgia - and furious about the way Hamilton took advantage of her. I actually felt that I was right there while the work was being done - a rare feel for me when reading a book. thank you for the hard work of putting this together - I feel like Maria got some vindication, even though she wasn't alive to see it.
Judy I was going to add, to your original comment, that while SOMEONE might read like a biography, it really IS fiction. When I write about real people, I try very hard to stay close to the facts. In the Reader's Guide, I point out where I have fictionalized scenes, where the dialogue comes from, what my sources are. If you're interested in the book at that level, you might glance through the Guide. It's free here: https://susanalbert.com/someone-always-nearby/
Thank you so much for this, Judy. I'm very glad the book worked for you!
About the physical relationship: I believe it wasn't intimate, that Georgia was too afraid of that closeness. One biographer (Jeffrey Hogrefe) finds some indirect evidence that suggests that as a child, she was abused by her older brother--that might account for some of her difficulty in forming close relationships.
As I was writing, I found myself wanting to vindicate Maria, or at least to give her some of the attention she deserves for her service to Georgia in those important years. I'm glad you felt that, too.
If she was abused by an older brother, this would explain it. I felt she must have had something traumatic happen in her childhood to have grown up so damaged. At least the severely damaged people I know have all had trauma - usually childhood trauma that was somewhat ongoing when they were helpless to avoid it and no one advocated for them to get them out of the situation. That leaves scars on so many levels. Thanks for explaining that.
She is said to have shared the story with a friend, and to another, she wrote that she and her brother slept together. (That letter is publicly available.) Sadly, she grew up in a family that seems to have had many secrets. And yes, that's all so scarring.
I just finished Someone Always Nearby and thoroughly enjoyed it. Susan, you wrote so beautifully of the complexities of O'Keeffe and Chabot's relationships as well as the challenges of women being successful in our culture at the turn of the last century. My opinions of both women was a roller-coaster of emotional responses but by the end, I was able to simply accept them as the complex women that we all are. The third main character in the book was the New Mexico landscape and I pulled out my tattered atlas to create a visual map in my brain. I have started the Readers Guide and look forward to learning more details. My copy of the Ladies of the Canyons arrived two days ago and I was compelled to look up some of the women you mentioned in your book. Such a fascinating time in that place. Thank you for writing this delightful book.
Thank you, Sue. You're right: the land--the landscape, the houses, the kind of traditional life they symbolize--is a third character in the novel. Maria loved it passionately and dedicated half-a-decade to the building of the Abiquiu house and 15 years to Los Luceros. Georgia painted it for 50 years--until she couldn't see any longer. It tied the two of them together.
I'm glad you've enjoyed the book.
Hey Susan, hallo again ! Nice to read something from you in a different genre, particularly as it educates me on O'Keefe's background. I enjoy the fearless challenging statements in her work. I have a number of her prints in my endless mountain, to mount and frame for my A, B + C posts next Feb. In the meantime I'll be at Fannie's Fence. Peace, Maurice
She was fortunate to have annual shows in Stieglitz's gallery, and the support of the critics who saw her work there and wrote about it. But that kind of performative pressure was also a challenge, as she says in several of her letters, pushing her to move beyond what she had previously done. It's sometimes helpful to look at the context of a work (art, literature, music) to see what influences might have shaped it. I'll look for your posts, Maurice.
I'm enjoying this discussion a great deal, and it's answering some questions I had as I read. Carolyn Gage's theories, as reported here, help make sense of the Chabot/O'Keeffe relationship on both sides, and I look forward to hearing the tape. I knew O'Keeffe was difficult but did not realize to what degree, and one thing I thought throughout the book was that she was one of those people who attract loyal followers and keep them no matter how badly they are treated. I don't think the lesbian aspect fully explains that. It was also most interesting to me to read details about Juan Hamilton--again I knew bits and pieces but Susan's work fleshed out the story. I may never again view O'Keeffe or her work in quite the same way, but I am glad to know Chabot's story--and I feel a bit of sadness for her. And I will continue to be enthralled with the New Mexico landscape.
Judy, I'm not remembering--what tape? (Maybe I promised something that I'm forgetting?) Hamilton was/is an issue for me, since I felt I could not create a story for him that went beyond what is available in print--and all that is available is Hogrefe's biography of O'Keeffe and newspaper reports of the day. But given GOK's uses of her earlier "someone," I could appreciate his dilemmas. There's much more story there. I hope someone tackles it someday.
I didn't mean tape. It was late, and I was sleepy but somewhere I got the impression that Gage's play was only available in audio. This morning I see there's a Kindle version, which suits me better. And that made me note that in the comments here and in that play the word "Butch" comes up a lot, a word you avoided in the book if my memory is correct. Changes my interpretation of the relationship.
Oh, thanks--understand! And thanks for remarking on "butch." I avoided it because I couldn't find what I needed in the relationship (or in Maria's relationship with her previous relationship with much-older and more experienced Dorothy Stewart) to justify my use--and because I write from outside the lesbian culture, especially the Santa Fe lesbian community of the 30s. I was very glad to see Gage's use of it: she earns it, from her place in that world. It's also not clear to me if that word was in use in the 1930s in Santa Fe, San Antonio (where Maria grew up). Maybe in New York?
And thank you for this: "Changes my interpretation of the relationship." A very good example of how just one word can define/redefine a whole field of interactions. I think you can see why I chose not to impose it on the narrative--and why Gage did.
I would have avoided it for the reasons you did. It's a loaded word, implying much more than sexuality to me, and if you'd used it, it would have left me less open to considering the many nuances of the GOK/Maria relationship.
I should add that Paula (my wonderful research assistant) and I couldn't spend the time it would take to work through all of Maria's papers. With Dorothy, she plays the "loving child" role but she was in her 20s then. There may be later relationships (after GOK) in which she is more butchy.
But I do respect Gage's use of the word and find it helpful. I was only sad that the play was published so late that I couldn't acknowledge it in the novel. It's mentioned twice in the Guide (free download).
Returned "Someone" to the library today. Fascinating read. Am now into the reader's guide. Must say I was pleased that you emphasized that your version is a "story" not the absolute truth perhaps but only a story. Georgia comes across as a user, in my mind. There are so many of those, helpless but so very despotic. Certainly not a loner as advertised. Thank you for your interpretation.
Barbara
Thank you. I appreciate your comment, Barbara--and yes, it IS a story, as is every reconstruction of a field of fact, with details selected and organized out of a paradigm of understanding and with a purpose in mind. It's helpful to remember that this is also true of biographies, which we often take for "truth." And that any life--especially long ones--yield many different stories, often conflicting.
I've read the other books in your Hidden Women series and am looking forward to reading this one! Georgia O'Keefe has always appealed to me in her austere beauty and lone talent. Your take on Maria will be authentic and fascinating. Brackenridge High School was near our house on the Southside of San Antonio when I was in grade school, a pretty tough school back in the early 50s. Gives me the chills to imagine a few degrees of separation from such an incredible artist and her talented friend.
Interesting! Then you must have lived not far from the Chabots. Maria grew up in a house down the block on Madison from her grandfather's well-known house: https://www.sahouseregistry.com/houses/403-madison The family had had money but in hides and wool, which didn't do well in the 20s. Small world!
The Chabot House is truly magnificent, but it's in the King William district where we DID live when we first moved back to San Antonio in 1950. Daddy rented a flat in the historic Anton Wulff House (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anton_Wulff_House) close to Chabot House. But we couldn't afford the rent and moved south of Brackenridge HS to Yellowstone St. where I met, in one of my wanders, the granddaughter of Spanish Senor Ytuirri in the family's adobe home on the site of the Spanish old mill: Yturri-Edmunds House Museum. https://www.saconservation.org/what-we-do/tours/yturri-edmunds-house-museum/ These intriguing historic landmarks made it into my memoir. Such rich history in San Antonio!
When SOMEONE opens, Maria has just been painting the flats she created in her grandparents' house, to try to generate income for her parents. The Wulff house is about the same construction era--and I was interested to see (in the link you post) that it lost its place on the river when that river was rerouted. So many wonderful historic oddities!
I have SOMEONE on hold at the San Francisco Public Library; it's on order! I will truly appreciate the opening scene, since the Wulff House was divided into flats for the same reason. Now it's the headquarters for the San Antonio Conversation Society. My godmother, Bernardine Rice, lived right across S. St Mary's St. in her grandfather's Irish cottage, now a historic landmark. I'm so glad you write about the hidden women in American history, Susan, close to home.
p.s. (Bernardine was the same age as Maria from a prominent Irish pioneer family and attended Ursuline Academy, but I am positive Miss Bernardine Rice was in the closet.)
Good to hear that the SF library has it on order. Thanks for checking there! Because you know SA, you'll be able to appreciate Maria a little more than most readers. She was daring and unconventional in a very conservative Catholic town. I think her mother might simply have been buffaloed by this girl--reminds me a bit of Zelda Fitzgerald (who was 13 years younger, also in a conservative town, Montgomery AL). Also, you will appreciate her interest in all things Mexican. Before he came to SA, her Chabot grandfather had been in the British foreign service in Mexico. So sort of posh. Your godmother might even have known the Chabots.
Very posh! Now I can't wait to get to know Maria as you've brought her into a literary biography and into the spotlight for many readers. I have a hankering for a visit to SA in the coming year to tour historical homes and visit with friends before it's too late.
It's possible that Bernardine knew the Chabots; she wrote a SA historical book, out of print.
San Antonio: Its Early Beginnings and Its Development Under the Republic
Bernardine Rice
University of Texas, Austin, Texas, 1941
Tia's family immigrated from Ireland in the 1820s. There was some security/entitlement in the early Anglo families, I think, no matter their life styles
Eagerly awaiting from the library.... That photo of Maria from HS is such a classic gender nonconforming presentation! In our current era, transgender people out and proud, she would not have stood out as extreme, but in her time, I'm sure it was.
As an aside, a follow-up from a few weeks ago. I went looking for Mary Catherine Bateson's Composing a Life, only to find that the library had only Composing a Further Life. I checked it out, was partway through reading it, when my wife noticed and commented that she had a copy of Composing a Life on her bookshelves. So now I have that one in my reading pile.
I actually used a quotation from Further Life in a short talk I gave as part of a church service yesterday. The service was our Transgender Day of Remembrance (officially today). I would not have read the book if your blog had not brought it to my attention. So, THANK YOU!
Bateson's first book was hugely important to me at the time: helped to make sense of my own patchwork life. Glad you have current access to both.
Re Maria's photo. There's another, younger one in the same style. When I look at them, I can only imagine how that young woman must have stood out in her San Antonio TX (Texas!!) high school in the late 1920s--and how much courage it took to insist on being who she was. Pronouns are difficult here. Today, I believe she would have chosen they/them.
Pronouns are difficult everywhere these days. As I said yesterday, "My Catholic-school-trained grammarian brain is at war with my heart, which wants to embrace my trans friends who like "they" pronouns."
Understand and agree--it's hard! I'm always glad to see the declaration in so many email signatures. It's good to know so I can be supportive. But number agreement is like fingernails on a chalkboard.
I love that you stick close to the facts in your biographical fiction. I sometimes write biographical plays, and I also try to stick to facts. Of course, as I'm writing plays, they are all about dialogue, so I have to imagine what the people might have said in the situations I dream up. The play I'm working on now is about Louise Fitzhugh who wrote the Harriet the Spy books. She was great friends with Sandra Scoppettone (author) and M. E. Kerr (author). Also friends with Lorraine Hansberry. All are/were lesbians (Scoppettone is still with us) living and writing in the 1950s and 60s in New York City. Fitzhugh was an artist and her friends Scoppettone and Kerr influenced her to become a writer as well. I believe their lives were important and should be staged, and I'm working on that. It's great fun to try to put myself in their shoes.
My UU congregation is active in justice theater, so I'm also quite curious about your plays, Sandra. I also appreciate the queer history lesson. More new people to learn about!
That's so cool. Some of my plays are available to read here: https://newplayexchange.org/users/1313/sandra-de-helen
I agree about Fitzhugh's importance, and it will be good to see her in that circle of friends--something that most of us don't know about her. I have to ask, though: how do you publish your work? Is it ever available in print? (I'm thinking of Gage's adaptation of the Chabot/GOK letters.) Is accessibility less of an issue now than it was before POD and the internet?
Argh. I don't have plays in print. Carolyn Gage has offered to teach me how to self-publish them though. A task for next year I think. Re my plays, I work harder (so far) to get them produced, or at least stage read. I have a table read coming up for my play Extraordinary People that I'm looking forward to. In my early days all my plays were produced, but the advent of 10-min plays morphed into play readings vs productions. My last full productions were in the early 2000s.
Play readings get the work out there! Maybe also do a podcast recording? Or even a YouTube video. And I very much hope you take up Gage's offer, Sandra. Those women's voices and stories are important--and risk being drowned out in today's clamor. Your work is original. It needs to be shared!
I'll add that some of my plays are available for reading on New Play Exchange.
An important site for those who know about it. That word needs to get out there, too!
I’m a little more than halfway through Someone Always Nearby. I laughed out loud at “that Sarton woman”. Having read many of May Sarton’s memoirs and a few novels, I was still not aware of her time in New Mexico. That added more depth to her for me. I also laughed at the idea of starting with a small field to grow vegetables being 15-20 acres. To me that does not seem small, but I didn’t have much help in my farming days. I am enjoying the book very much. Their relationship is complex and I’m enjoying learning about Maria. Thank you for calling attention to her.
It was a complex friendship--poor Georgia had such a tough time deciding who was entitled to be a "friend" and why. So her relationships were usually somehow qualified/compromised.
I think Maria was (unjustifiably) concerned about women being drafted and wanted to be doing "war work" as a farmer, in case that happened: hence the larger acreage. But she certainly jumped into farming in a big way when she got to Los Luceros (as you will see later in the book).
And yes, I can just imagine Sarton (assertive as she was about her loves) making ripples in Santa Fe. 😊
So looking forward to reading this new book.
Holly Rose
Thank you! If your library doesn't have it, please ask them to order.
I just couldn't put it down--your book about Georgia O'Keeffe and Maria Chabot revealed so much more new biographical information that it was compelling to read!
There's so much more to be learned about Maria. I wish someone would take her on as a PhD dissertation project. The material is there and beautifully archived, just waiting for someone to do it justice.
I am currently reading Someone Always Nearby and thoroughly enjoying it! I knew little about Georgia O'Keeffe's life but could recognize some of her artwork. Her flower paintings are gorgeous. Your book has inspired me to learn more about this independent artist who developed a intimate relationship with the SW landscape. I also enjoy learning about a place - last night, I encountered the word Genizaros and had no idea what it defined. The curious writer in me thought, well, there's a whole new history of women to discover!
I have developed a similar love of place here in the PNW but my mother moved to AZ in 1980 and I visited each year, taking time to explore the SW landscape. I love the SW landscape and for several years, I considered retiring to northern NM. (BTW- I am also reading What Wildness is This? and love the beautiful collection of SW-oriented writings.)
Maria was such a unique woman! Her skills and independance struck me as unique for women in her era. But I suspect like much of women's history and their life stories, women enjoyed far more diversity in how they lived their lives, especially in the remote "wild west."
As a woman who devoted much energy and time to raising my son and creating a stable and secure homelife (something I lacked as a child), I sometimes feel like I set aside much of my creative energy for decades. I am intrigued with women who were/are able to pursue their passions and for decades, I jokingly complained about my need for a "wife." I am only half-way through the book, so I don't know how much writing Maria accomplished but so far her work as a "hired hand" has consumed much of her time.
I have added your other hidden women books to my reading list. It's such a unique concept. Thank you for writing about women and their stories.
Genizaros was a new concept to me, too. Spanish culture may have been brutal in many ways but at least their indentured servants were eventually freed, unlike the African slaves of North America. Native American people are very active and visible here in the PNW, so any additional knowledge about historic events and treatment is valuable and useful. Thanks!
Genizaro had a sad beginning but is now a proud heritage. Mexico (which replaced Spanish rule in what is now NM) outlawed slavery after 1821. Also sadly: that was one (some say the most) important reason for Texas' declaration of independence from Mexico in 1836. The Texas cotton economy was based on slavery. The state eventually joined the US as a slave state.
My response to your comment was to wonder why settlers from northern European (other than Scandinavian) countries effected such brutal treatment on people and places, relative to Mediterranean countries. I suspect it has religious roots.
If you're thinking of settlers in Texas, the first group came from the cotton culture of the South; many brought enslaved people with them. Later groups (mid 1800s) came from northern Europe or from northern states.
I'm thinking of those groups, yes. The American South having been settled by Scots, Brits, Germans. All "protestant" enclaves. In comparison with Spanish, Portuguese, French, all of which ended slavery sooner than the USA.
This is a pretty good short review--gives a more global perspective: https://www.history.com/news/american-slavery-before-jamestown-1619
Sue, I very much agree with your remark about women in the West--they enjoyed an independence that Eastern women often lacked. And they seemed to gather in NM in the early 1920s, especially in the Santa Fe and northern NM area. From that point of view, here's a book you might appreciate: https://uapress.arizona.edu/book/ladies-of-the-canyons
Stop! Stop! I can't read that fast!
oh, oh...another must have book! Thank you - this looks intriguing.
All her work is good, Sue. She lives just to the north of Abiquiu and has done several books about the area.
Currently reading Someone Always Nearby and enjoying it immensely. Your portrayal of both women is beautifully written. I have visited Ghost Ranch, Abiquiu and her museum in Santa Fe and now feel like i’m revisiting them thanks to you. And thank you for spending the time and energy to thoroughly research your hidden women and bring them to life for your readers. I met you years ago at a Womens Writing the West conference in Golden, Colorado and have followed your work ever since.
I think that WWW conference was the year A Wilder Rose came out--2013 or so. That's such a wonderful organization. Glad you're enjoying the book. I think it will mean more to readers who have visited there. The landscape--and those adobe houses--was so important to both GOK and Maria.
I ordered an ebook and have begun reading. While at my library, I found they already had the hardcover so I borrowed it too. I read ebooks on my computer as I find the small screen on my phone difficult. I am happy to have the hardbound (yay library!) to keep in the car so I can read at stoplights (I know, I know... but the lights are so long and the book is so tempting). Your Hidden Women series is a treasure, thank you.
Well, I gotta say, just be careful at those lights, Jude!
I read ebooks on a tablet (Fire), much better than my phone, more comfy than the desktop. Plus, I use Kindle text-to-speech and let the book read itself to me. Love that feature!