by Wendy Teller
To their new life.
To their crusade.
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Author’s Notes
Fact and Fiction
This story is based, very loosely, on the lives of my maternal grandparents, Ede Harkányi and Ella Weiser. They were born in Nagykanizsa to wealthy families. Harkányi studied in Switzerland and Germany, earning a law degree and a PhD in sociology. When he returned to Hungary, he moved to Budapest and became active in progressive circles. Being independently wealthy, Harkányi never practiced law, devoting his time to writing and speaking about the rights of women. My grandmother translated The History of Human Marriage into Hungarian. This classic book concerned the development of marriage in society. This leads me to believe the real Ella supported her husband's work.
I have a few more crumbs of information about Ella and Ede and their families, but nothing that would answer the riddle: why would a man from a wealthy family leave his home town, go to Budapest, and delve into politics, specifically the politics of women's rights? Hungary, at that time, was a particularly male-chauvinist society, which makes my grandfather's career choices even more mysterious. This novel is my attempt to paint a possible explanation of Harkányi's actions, that he admired his future wife's intelligence and her spunk, and his interest in women's rights grew from her attitudes.
I have invented much of the story. I have made no attempt to research or understand the other members of the Harkányi and Weiser families. What I write about Ella's parents in particular, is pure fabrication, created to make a point. I have therefore changed the family names of my ancestors from Harkányi to Herczeg and from Weiser to Weisel, so there is no doubt that what I have written about them is fiction.
Much of this novel was inspired by Harkányi's book, A holnap asszonyai (Women of Tomorrow), which was published in 1905. The quotations from it and the essay, The Sorrows of Sex, are my translations of his words, with much help from translation programs. Similarly, the summary of sections of the book in the chapter titled Women of Tomorrow is my summation of the contents of his book.
Several characters in the story are historic figures, including Tante Cecile and her family, Rózsa Schwimmer, and Suska Agoston, who will become more important in the next books in this series. The journal, A huszadik század (The Twentieth Century), was published from 1900 and was the voice of the Hungarian progressive circle, led by Oszkár Jászi, among others. Harkányi and his friends often contributed to the pages of The Twentieth Century.
The pamphlet, Fruits of Philosophy, was written by Charles Knowlton, M.D., in the mid 1800s. It advocated contraception, which was considered obscene and therefore illegal in the United States and various countries in Europe in the 19th and early 20th centuries.
Acknowledgements
People think writing a book is a solitary endeavor and parts of it are. But I could not have completed this book without the help of a great number of people.
Carol Edge read and commented on the whole book, on its first revision, on the revision to the revision, on the revision to the revision to the revision, ad almost infinitum. She made me see and fill in the dramatic holes. Karen Haas sat with me, tightening up my prose and showing me how to make my language more colorful. Alisa Alering, who first said I should try writing a novel, has helped with all my writing. Comments from Vicki Williams, Judy Shoolery, Jenny Kander, Richard Durisen and Alan Balkema improved the story and the writing.
Writing a historical novel is a challenge because the author must learn the customs, technology, dress, and on and on of a previous time. For this novel I had to cover all those topics and I had to learn about a country I have only briefly visited and a people whose language I do not speak. A number of generous people helped me. Judith Szapor answered many emails and her books on Laura Polanyi Stricker and the Women's Movement pre- and post-World War 1 were immensely helpful. Péter Csunderlik answered questions, sent papers, and suggested additional reading. Janos Kirz not only translated several of my grandfather's papers for me, he read the entire manuscript looking for and finding several cultural blunders. Andrea Peto, Tibor Frank, Peter Czipott, Bill Lanouette, Tamas Bartfai, Drew Senyei, Andras Koerner, and Istvan Hargittai recommended resources to help me understand the Hungarian historical and cultural landscape. Maria M. Kovacs, Ellen Hume, and Jane Landes Foster helped me find all these people.
While writing this book, John Acros, a distant relative, connected with me. John was kind enough to share information about our family and Nagykanizsa.
I am so fortunate to have permission from Anthony Knight and Marty Knight to use their father's wonderful translations of Christian Morgenstern's poems. Howard Stern kindly provided an ingenious additional translation, Soliloquy of a Snail, part of which was fictitiously attributed to Ella.
My husband, Richard Weyand, edited the book, designed the book cover, published the book, and listened patiently to all my authorly complaints.
Thank you all!
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About the Author
Wendy Teller received her AB from Harvard University and her MA from the University of California, Berkeley. She was a systems and software engineer in the process control and telecommunications industries.
Now that she is retired she writes fiction, memoir, and history. Her stories have appeared in Chicken Soup for the Soul, The Naperville Sun, and Rivulets. Her story Dusting the Towels received the Richard Eastman Prose Award. Wendy’s debut novel, Becoming Mia, takes place in the 1960s in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Berkeley, California.
Wendy lives on a cliff in the woods near Bloomington, Indiana, with her husband, science-fiction author Richard F. Weyand.