Dorothy Richardson: Letters to a Sister in America

Dorothy Richardson: Letters to a Sister in America George H. Thomson Ottawa, Canada OF THE NUMEROUS LETTERS Dorothy Richardson wrote to members of her family, all that survive are a few note-like communications with Alan OdIe before she married him and some late exchanges with Rose OdIe after Alan's death. However, as a direct result of the enterprise and personal engagement of Gloria Fromm (she was Gloria Glikin then), there exist photocopies made in 1961 of 22 of Richardson's letters to Jessie Hale, her younger sister who figured as Harriett Henderson in Pilgrimage. Of these letters, written between 1943 and 1949, five have already been published by Fromm in Windows on Modernism : Selected Letters of Dorothy Richardson(University of Georgia Press, 1995). The remaining 17 are published here for the first time with the generous permission of Harold Fromm, the owner of the photocopies, and of Elizabeth Howell, the executor of the Richardson Estate. I am grateful also to Harold Fromm for a copy of his wife's notebook recording her visit to San Antonio and for copies of Jessie Hale's letters to Gloria. Fromm, who was completing her doctoral thesis on Dorothy Richardson under the direction of Leon Edel at New York University, was 30 years old when she arrived in San Antonio Texas on 5 January 1961 to meet the 86-year-old Jessie Hale. In a notebook diary with entries for January 5,6, and 7, Fromm recorded some of the facts and impressions gathered from her talks. Set down in haste, these entries nonetheless create a lively image of Jessie. You can almost hear in the entry for January 5 the warm vibrant voice of the 86-year-old sister with its echoes of the youthful Harriett Henderson: "They had a beautiful home in Grove Park, Chiswick—& he wasted their money in poor investments—didn't tell her until it was all gone & they were practically penniless. Lived in Hastings for a while. Then went out to Canada for 2 winters, froze, to Cuba (Ί don't know why!') & roasted, then to San Antonio. They had a 410 THOMSON : RICHARDSON nice house here, and he went off to find work ('grass always greener')—promised to send her money, never did." Born in October 1874, Jessie Abbot Richardson had married Robert Thomas Hale, known as Jack, on 11 June 1895. She gave birth to their only child, Natalie Marian Thomas Hale, on 16 April 1896. Very little is known about Jessie and her family after that. When Jack, through extravagance and unwise investments, frittered away his modest inheritance , they moved from fashionable Grove Park Gardens to run a boarding house on the coast of Sussex. According to Gloria G. Fromm, Dorothy Richardson: A Biography (University of Georgia Press, 1994), sometime around the turn of the century they emigrated to Canada (35). And so began their roundabout journey across North America. Fromm thinks it probable that the Hales arrived in San Antonio in 1913. How and when they acquired a nice house we do not know. Nor do we know anything about Jack's comings and goings, apart from a hint or two in these letters. He was dead at the time Gloria visited San Antonio. As for Jessie, some time in the past—probably quite early—she went to work for Stower's Furniture Stores where she rose to the position of buyer before retiring at 69. That would be around 1943. After that she did volunteer sales work: "A natural saleswoman, she says. Loves it." Gloria sums up her character thus: "A fervent church-goer, Episcopalian. A woman with definite opinions, Republican to the core & narrow, yet also in some ways elastic where individuals are concerned. At bottom, however, without her charm and verve and lovability, she would be a fearful snob. Inbred gentility.... Avid for variety & movement & people & pretty things. ... A real fighter. Fought to live decently and won. Fighting now to keep her hand in life. Will not tolerate dictation. Her mouth is Dorothy's. Insatiable , too. Sat in the lobby with me 3 hours, and kept insisting I ask her more questions." Jessie, as it turned out, had never fully mastered Dorothy...