Ruth’s train connected with Margaret’s in St. Louis: RB to MM, July 25, 1925, LC, S-4.
Ruth told Margaret that she knew the exact moment their trains were due to connect: RB to MM, July 25, 1925, LC. S-4.
Margaret told Ruth that she’d initiated the relationship with Edward. She also claimed that part of her attraction to Edward was his “symbolic association” with Ruth. For her full disclosure see Margaret’s letter of Sept. 3, 1928, quoted in Caffrey and Francis, 142.
“I can see your eyes are dizzied with this other love”: RB to MM, Nov. 5, 1925, LC, S-4.
Both Margaret and Ruth knew that the death of Florence had left Edward vulnerable and Margaret didn’t want to cause him any more pain: Lapsley, 125.
“Trust love to be sheer gain”: RB to MM, Nov. 5, 1925, LC, S-4.
“The warping goes deep, deep, deep”: RB to MM, Sept. 2, 1925, LC, R-7.
“He will say many things that sound plausible”: Ibid.
“There will be letters from him, words fused by his love”: RB to MM, Aug. 1, 1925, LC, S-4.
“It’s the one thing I know out of the extra years”: Ibid.
“Well, you came to Edward, too. You’ve done more for him than you imagine”: RB to MM, Nov. 5, 1925, LC, S-4.
Margaret and Ruth planned the train trip knowing they would be sharing the same berth: MM to RB, July 5, 1925, LC, S-3.
“Now you know everything I could ever say to you”: RB to MM, Aug. 1, 1925, LC, S-4.
“we might have loved each other with all our hearts and not had this, too”: Ibid.
“When I’m earthborn this year”: MM to RB, Aug. 3, 1925, LC, S-3.
“If I was less selfish”: MM to RB, July 19, 1925, LC, S-3.
Ruth told Margaret she must “develop all the expedients she could against weeping”: Howard, 80.
“I will be traveling to Europe myself”: RB to MM, July 3, 1925, LC, S-4.
Ruth planned to attend the Congress of Americanists, in Rome in September of 1926: RB to MM, July 3, 1925, LC, S-4; Howard, 99.
“It’s always been one of my dreams to see Italy with you”: MM to RB, July 7, 1925, LC, S-3.
“What have the meetings to do with it really?”: RB to MM, July 3, 1925, LC, S-4.
Margaret and Ruth worked out a code that would enable them to communicate by cable: MM to EM, Aug. 18, 1925, LC, R-6.
As part of this code, there were some secret letter combinations: Ibid.
“There must be a letter that stands for Edward”: RB to MM, Aug. 1, 1925, LC, S-4.
“And there must be one that means, ‘I’m sending this just because’”: Ibid.
“The desert has charms of its own”: MM to MRM, Aug. 3, 1925, LC, A-17.
Margaret pointed out some gray, gaunt cattle grazing in a field: Ibid.
When they passed juniper trees, Margaret said, “They smell like evergreens”: Ibid.
“The part I love the best are the endless possibilities”: Ibid.
“there’s a castle, with a great white horse of mythical stature”: Ibid.
“The river had to hide”: Ibid.
“We had everything”: MM to MRM, Aug. 3, 1925, LC, A-17.
Margaret began making her way down the aisle. In a moment she was rushing, moving from car to car: MM to RB, Aug. 3, 1925, LC, S-3.
“And then I get no further for my tears”: Ibid.
“You and I were both moving, both moving fast”: Ibid.
“I got on the train at eight o’clock and found the berth all made up”: RB to MM, Sept. 21, 1925, LC, S-4.
CHAPTER 20: QUICKSILVER LOVE
“Now the theory of polygamy that Margaret evolved”: ES to RB, Sept. 1, 1925, LC, S-15.
For Luther’s visit to Halifax: Cressman, 133.
Luther traveled steerage class to England: Ibid.
“I’ll not leave you unless I find someone I love more”: Margaret quoted in ibid., 132.
“far more a device to facilitate M’s Samoan plans”: Luther quoted in Howard, 75.
“It seemed to me sometimes that one of the options was suicide”: Ibid.
Edward was so obsessed with Margaret, he felt “useless”: ES to RB, Aug. 5, 1925, LC, S-15.
“I’m so sorry our visit together was so fleeting”: Ibid.
“I don’t understand Margaret’s point of view at all”: ES to RB, Aug. 11, 1925, LC, S-15.
“She seems to me to expect the impossible”: Ibid.
According to Margaret, a “polygamous love” was not bound up with ideas of monogamy, exclusiveness, jealousy, and undeviating fidelity: Howard, 86.
“Now the theory of polygamy that Margaret evolved”: ES to RB, Sept. 1, 1925, LC, S-15.
“She cannot give her body to another”: ES to RB, Aug. 18, 1925, LC, S-15.
Margaret told Edward that the “generation gap” between them made it difficult for him to understand her ideas: Mead in Blackberry Winter, 128.
“Your letter from Williams Arizona cut me to the heart”: ES to RB, Aug. 8, 1925, LC, S-15.
“You must stand by us both, dear Ruth”: ES to RB, Aug. 11, 1925, LC, S-15.
“My table has been fun”: MM bulletin, Aug. 10, 1925, LC, R-15.
For a description of the approach to Honolulu: Ibid.
“The principle of this country is endless folds”: MM bulletin, Aug. 14, 1925, LC, R-15.
“Edward’s long letter … still is too much to read peacefully”: MM to RB, Aug. 14, 1925, LC, S-3.
“It’s no use, dear friends, I just can’t write you a nice long”: MM bulletin, 5th day at sea, bulletin, 1925.
For Margaret’s description of her crossing between Hawaii and Pago Pago: Mead in Blackberry Winter, 146.
For a description of Margaret’s landing at Pago Pago: Mead, Letters from the Field, 25.
“The presence of the fleet today skews the whole picture badly”: Ibid., 26.
On the way to the hotel, Walters told Margaret about life in Pago Pago: MM bulletin, Aug. 14, 1925, LC, R-15.
For a description of Pago Pago as a naval base: Freeman, 78.
For a description of the Mau, a Samoan protest movement: Howard, 67.
“Do we navalize or civilize it?”: Ripley in The Nation, 393–95.
Somerset Maugham had stayed in this same hotel, and had used it as the setting for his story “Rain”: Howard, 79.
“Stitt had the Superintendent of Nurses write Miss Hodgson”: Mead, Letters from the Field, 26.
Miss Hodgson arranged for Margaret to have a language tutor: ES to RB, Aug. 25, LC, S-15 and ES to RB, Aug. 11, 1925, LC., S-15.
For a description of the first ceremony Margaret attended: MM bulletin, Sept. 2., 1925, LC, R-15.
“gorgeous in full regalia, a high grass headdress”: Ibid.
The Samoans gauged “a visitor’s importance by the rank of the naval officers with whom he or she associated”: Freeman, 80.
“This last night of waiting for mail is dreadful. I can’t read, I can’t write coherently”: MM to RB, Sept. 19, 1925, LC, S-3.
“It is difficult to exaggerate the importance of ‘Steamer Day’”: MM bulletin, Sept. 20, 1925, LC, R-15.
For a description of the distribution of mail: Ibid.
“The emotional effect of having all one’s news spread out”: Ibid.
Margaret had a system for opening her mail: Ibid.
“Today was one of the days when I took the next boat”: RB to MM, Aug. 11, 1925, LC, S-4.
“my fingers tangling in your hair”: RB to MM, Oct. 12, 1925, LC, S-4.
“I’ve been lying awake making love to you”: RB to MM, Aug. 25, 1925, LC. R-7.
“if you were here, your eyes and hands would tell me much”: ES to RB, Aug. 25, 1925, LC, S-15.
“growing up like weeds without a mother”: ES to RB, Aug. 18, 1925, LC, S-15.
Edward’s letters were full of accusations: MM to RB, Aug. 22, 1925, LC, S-3.
“water-tight system of rationalizations”: ES to RB, Sept. 1, 1925, LC, S-15.
Edwa
rd told Margaret she had a “prostitution complex”: ES to RB, Aug. 11, 1925, LC, S-15.
“cowardly and contemptible”: MM to RB, Aug. 22, 1925, LC, S-3.
“get no stronger in dealing with it”: Ibid.
Margaret described Ruth’s words as a “benediction”: Ibid.
“The gifts you bring me are too heavy for my hands”: MM to RB, Aug. 6, 1925, LC, S-3.
Margaret received an invitation to attend a dinner party at the home of Commander and Mrs. Mink: MM bulletin, Sept. 2, 1925, LC, R-15.
“Jopani, our cook boy, had to leave”: Ibid.
“Jopani, that scoundrel,” said Dr. Mink, “has got my wife wrapped around his little finger”: Ibid.
For Margaret’s attitude about the station wives: Ibid.
“This sweet little group of gossips are just seething”: Ibid.
“I’ve learned that if people lack both personality”: MM bulletin, Sept. 14, 1925, LC, R-15.
Margaret’s attitude about the ladies of the station: Ibid.
“who although mightily spoiled and childless”: Ibid.
For a description of Margaret’s journey to the Atauloma Boarding School for Girls: Freeman 11, 85; Mead, Letters from the Field, 28.
For a description of the feast and the ceremony that followed: Freeman, 85.
On the importance of physical chastity in Samoa: Ibid., 93–94.
“This is a lonely job and I do value having a decent”: MM to RB, Sept. 9, 1925, LC, S-3.
For a description of G. F. Pepe: MM bulletin, Sept. 4, 1925, LC, R-15.
“She dictates to me in Samoan and then I try to give it back to her”: MM bulletin, Sept. 4, 1925, LC, R-15.
Pago Pago had been “overrun with missionaries, stores and various intrusive influences”: Margaret quoted in Freeman, 87.
On the importance of finding a more isolated culture to study: Ibid.
Margaret needed to establish an intimacy with her informants: RB to MM, Aug. 24, 1925, LC, R-7.
“I’m in a state of despair at present”: MM to RB, Sept. 22, 1925, LC, S-3.
For the reasons why Margaret did not want to reside in a native’s house: Freeman, 88.
“At present this whole task seems utterly fantastic and impossible”: MM to RB, Oct. 22, 1925, LC, S-3.
CHAPTER 21: THE TELEGRAM
“Margaret is a far more typical woman”: ES to RB, Sept. 1, 1925, LC, S-15.
Margaret learned that Edward Holt and his family lived on Ta’u, a remote island in the Manu’a group of American Samoa: MM to RB, Oct. 4, 1925, LC, S-3.
Mrs. Holt was in Pago Pago, returning to Ta’u after the birth of her baby: MM bulletin, Oct. 13, 1925, LC, R-15.
Dr. Owen Mink, the chief medical officer on the base at Pago Pago had to give his consent in order for Margaret to reside with the Holts on Ta’u: MM to RB, Oct. 4, 1925, LC, S-3.
Margaret wasn’t sure if living with the Holts would be conducive for conducting research: Ibid.
“Oh how terribly I need your loving arms!”: MM to RB, Oct. 22, 1925, LC, S-3.
Ruth Holt agreed to let Margaret live with them at the naval compound on Ta’u: MM to RB, Oct. 4, 1925, LC, S-3; Freeman, 80.
Margaret was optimistic that Dr. Mink would agree to let her go to Ta’u: MM to RB, Oct. 4, 1925, LC, S-3.
“It’s also optimum from an ethnological”: Ibid.
For a description of Margaret’s visit to Mrs. Wilson in Leone: Mead, Letters from the Field, 29.
Margaret’s chief purpose in making the acquaintance of Mrs. Wilson was to learn more about the upbringing of teenage girls: Ibid.
For more about the importance of chastity for unmarried girls in Samoa: Freeman, 94.
For an explanation of the role of the taupou in Samoan culture: Ibid., 93.
After her interview with Mrs. Wilson Margaret understood that a Samoan girl was expected to be a virgin when she married: Ibid., 94.
Edward was packing up his Ottawa office to move to the University of Chicago: ES to RB, Aug. 25, 1925, LC, S-15.
“Ever since Margaret and I found ourselves”: Ibid.
Leaving Ottawa represented the end of a chapter in Edward’s life: Ibid.
“Cole has taken an apartment for me”: Ibid.
Chicago had advantages but Edward fretted that Margaret would not be there: ES to RB, Oct. 29, 1925, LC, T-3.
“There’s no one on God’s earth”: ES to RB, Sept. 14, LC, S-15.
Edward worried that the harsh words in his letters made Margaret feel lonely and ill: ES to RB, Sept. 19, 1925, LC, T-4.
Edward composed a telegram to send that told Margaret how much he loved her: Ibid.
Once Edward knew the cable was on its way, he felt relieved: Ibid.
“Has there been a cable”: MM to RB, Sept. 11, 1925, LC, S-3.
For a description of how agitated Edward became waiting for her response: MM to RB, Sept. 11, 1925, LC, S-3.
Based on Margaret’s complaints, Edward worried that she was undergoing a physical breakdown: ES to RB, Sept. 19, 1925, LC, T-4.
Edward remembered that Dr. Owen Mink had been asked to look after Margaret: Ibid.
Edward sent the cable he had written to Margaret care of Dr. Mink: Ibid.
Margaret went to the court to gain practice hearing Samoan translated into English: Freeman, 86.
“believes with all Americans here that the Samoans”: MM bulletin, Sept. 27, 1925, LC, R-15.
Dr. Mink assumed the cable was from Margaret’s father: MM to RB, Sept. 19, 1925, LC, S-3.
“I thought you said your father was at the University of Pennsylvania?”: MM to RB, Sept. 9, 1925, LC, S-3.
“He must be doing some work in Ottawa”: MM to RB, Sept. 19, 1925, LC, S-3.
“and then to cap the climax Edward cabled me”: Ibid.
“It’s more than generous of you to take up my letters with such beautiful interest”: ES to RB, Aug. 15, 1925, LC, T-3.
For a description of Edward’s encounter with Ruth in Chicago: ES to RB, Aug. 25, 1925, LC, S-15.
“When I get into certain moods”: ES to RB, Aug. 14, 1925, LC, T-3.
“Margaret is a girl of extraordinary power”: ES to RB, Sept. 1, 1925, LC, S-15.
“Loves? Loves us both you say?”: ES to RB, Aug. 25, 1925, LC, S-15.
“Am I to accept Margret’s philosophy of love without a wink”: ES to RB, Aug. 18, 1925, LC, S-15.
“Please, Ruth, try to see things a little my way”: Ibid.
“The image of little Margaret actually loving”: ES to RB, Aug. 14, 1925, LC, T-3.
“Now I realize the hopelessness of moving such cultivated girls”: ES to RB, Aug. 25, 1925, LC, S-15.
“You know, Ruth, there is a real element of comedy”: ES to RB, Aug. 14, 1925, LC, T-3.
“Someday I may discover that a woman can love”: ES to RB, Aug. 25, 1925, LC, S-15.
“She is so much younger”: ES to RB, Aug. 18, 1925, LC, S-15.
“Margaret is a far more typical woman”: ES to RB, Sept. 1, 1925, LC, S-15.
“There’s dynamite latent in it all”: ES to RB, Aug. 18, 1925, LC, S-15.
For Ruth’s dream after she left Edward: RB to MM, Sept. 13, 1925, LC, R-7.
“Darling, everything is a nice dark conspiracy”: Ibid.; RB to MM, Sept. 25, 1925, LC, R-7.
Ruth knew if the museum job came through Margaret would stay in New York: MM to RB, Nov. 26, 1925, LC, S-3.
Ruth decided to talk to Goddard to push him to give Margaret the job: RB to MM, Nov. 12, 1925, LC, S-4.
“But don’t think we didn’t enjoy each other too”: RB to MM, Sept. 25, 1925, LC, R-7.
“Dear love, write me that you love me”: RB to MM, Sept. 25, 1925, LC, R-7.
CHAPTER 22: A CEREMONIAL VIRGIN
“In my three months down here I don’t think I’ve made a single friend except the Samoans in Vaitogi”: MM to RB, Nov. 26, 1925, LC, S-3.
For a description of Vaitogi and Margaret’s visit there: Mead: MM bulletin, Oct. 31, 1925, LC, R-15.
&
nbsp; Margaret allowed her hosts in Vaitogi to assume that she was a virgin: MM bulletin, Oct. 31, 1925, LC, R-15: Freeman, 96–98.
“America excels in the making of machinery”: MM bulletin, Oct. 31, 1925, LC, R-15.
For a description of Ta’u and the medical dispensary: MM bulletin, Nov. 14, 1925, LC, R-15.
For a description of the different people living within the medical compound: Ibid.
“There is the most peculiar sensation one gets”: MM bulletin, Dec 11, 1925, LC, R-15.
For a description of sunset in Siufaga on the island of Ta’u: Ibid.
For a description of what happened when the curfew-angelus began to sound: Ibid.
“I am furious that I didn’t come sooner”: MM to RB, Oct. 22, 1925, LC, S-3.
“Thanksgiving was a turkey-cranberry celery-mince pie sort of a day”: RB to MM, Nov. 24, 1925, LC, S-4.
Margaret’s love for Edward was taking a toll on Ruth: Ibid.
“I do wonder what living with the Holts will be like”: Ibid.
“His present point is that I must come to Chicago—on any terms. I see no clear path”: MM to RB, Nov. 3, 1925, LC, S-3.
“The bittersweet fact remains that I love Margaret and cannot bear the thought of indefinite separation”: ES to RB, Oct. 29, 1925, LC, T-3.
Edward had begun to grudge Ruth’s knowledge of the affair: RB to MM, Nov. 12, 1925, LC, S-4.
“Sometimes I have a nightmare that I’m risking your love in this same role, and I wonder if I could take courage to go on”: RB to MM, Nov. 12, 1925, LC, S-4.
“I pray that you may draw every drop of sweet the gods will allow out of your love for each other”: RB to MM, Nov. 24, 1925, LC, S-4.
“… he was so jealous he couldn’t bear”: RB to MM, Nov. 5, 1925, LC, S-4.
“Darling, by all the rules I should not be writing”: Ibid.
Edward had no control over the “cruel warping” of his psyche: Ibid.
For a description of what happened when Ruth went to Goddard’s office: RB to MM, Nov. 12, 1925, LC, S-4.
“I hold that knowledge close”: RB to MM, Nov. 12, 1925, LC, S-4.
For a discussion of how Edward met Jean McClenaghan: Darnell, 204–5.
Jean was studying at the Chicago Institute for Juvenile Research: Ibid.
On the reaction of Edward’s students to Jean: Ibid., 206–7.
Edward was not good at managing his time: Ibid., 204.
Coming of Age Page 34