by Amanda Vaill
[>] “so harmful”: SWM to GCM, 10 Feb. 1918, HMD. trip started out badly: Details from SWM travel diary (1904), HMD.
[>] In 1895 Frank Wiborg . . . exponential increase in value: Description of house, HMD interview and Pease &Elliman real estate advertisement
[1940]. Other details, 1902, 1916, and 1930 surveyors’ maps of East Hampton, courtesy of David Goddard.
[>] sound of the surf: HMD interview.
“based on a community . . . New York society”: Sd’G, p. 122.
“the women all had tiny waists”: Mrs. Paul Mellon interview.
[>] “a wise old Aunt”: SWM to GCM, [Sept. 1908], HMD.
2. “Gerald’s besetting sin is inattention”
[>] graduated in 1875 . . . fashionable shopping venue: All information about PFM and Mark Cross comes from GCM’s unpublished memoirs, written in response to Douglas MacAgy’s questions and collected as the Murphy/MacAgy papers in the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
GCM birth date: Registry Department of the City of Boston; ARM’s alteration: HMD interview and S&G, p. 11.
“a stagnant community . . . educated mispronunciation” : GCM to SSW, 7 Jun. 1915, HMD.
[>] He rented premises . . . Clarence Mackay: GCM, Murphy/MacAgy papers. But Anna Murphy refused . . . packed and followed: S&G, p. 124.
“close relationships”: GCM to Esther Murphy, 1957, HMD.
He seemed to think . . . standing guard: GCM’s recollection, MacAgy/Murphy papers.
“some other gray-haired . . . Sweet Adeline”: Wilson, The Twenties, p. 192. Whether this was meant as a melodic tribute to Mrs. Wiborg is an unanswered question.
[>] He also possessed . . . arms of a chair: GCM/CT interview notes; Hester Pickman/HMD interview, HMD.
At Mark Cross . . . United States: GCM, To Be Continued . . . : The Mark Cross Story (company history of the Mark Cross Company), Mark Cross archives.
“A woman with a Cross bag . . . woman she likes least”: PFM, advertising copy in Mark Cross Company files.
“Give a woman . . . harvest of regrets”: Excerpts from PFM’s speeches, collected as “Wit and Humor of New York’s Famous After-Dinner Speaker,” commemorative pamphlet (unpublished), HMD.
“Impromptu speeches”: “Mr. Patrick F. Murphy Talks on Speechmaking,” Paris Herald, undated, HMD.
He evolved . . . laughter and applause: GCM, Murphy/MacAgy papers, “didn’t believe in being sick”: HMD interview.
He disdained overcoats . . . year round: GCM to JDP, 12 Sept. 1963, UVA.
[>] one winter afternoon . . . finished their walk: LW, p.13.
“devoted, possessive, ambitious”: GCM to Esther Murphy, 1957, HMD. When he took Fred . . . “her glove”: Noel Murphy/HMD interview, HMD.
Gerald had been attending . . . Dorothy Parker: Meade, Dorothy Parker, pp. 14–15; Sister Rita King, Order of the Sisters of Charity, interview.
[>] took him to the woodshed: LW, p. 13.
Gerald now began to spell: 1907 Mischianza (Hotchkiss yearbook). join the adults in the library . . . “interest in painting”: GCM, MacAgy/Murphy papers.
“rebelled and chose”: GCM to AMacL, 4 Sept. 1964, LOC.
“I will not put up . . . bilious temperament”: All quotations are from letters from ARM to Huber Buehler, Hotchkiss School archives.
[>] “a defect over which . . . incapable of a full one”: GCM to AMacL, 22 Jan. 1931, LOC.
On Friday evening . . . down to coincidence: Program from Mrs. Clymer’s Regrets, HMD.
[>] squire about with some frequency: HMD interviews, Richard Preston interview.
Yale Glee Club’s concert: Cincinnati Enquirer [Dec. 1905]. he told her how much: SWM to GCM, Sept. 1908, HMD.
[>] “helped a lot . . . Here I am!!!—H”: Postcard from Sara, Mary Hoyt, and Olga Wiborg to GCM, Feb. 1907, HMD.
“the likeness of popularity and success”: GCM to AMacL, 22 Jan. 1931, LOC.
“social light”: 1907 Mischianza (Hotchkiss yearbook).
3. “New clothes, new friends, and lots of parties”
[>] “what a job . . . lots of parties”: SWM untitled, unpublished memoir, HMD. On December 30, 1905 . . . some green liquid: Cincinnati Enquirer.
[>] “dressed to the teeth”: SWM untitled, unpublished memoir, HMD.
After a ritual unmasking . . . to her guests: Cincinnati Enquirer, 31 Dec. 1905.
[>] “the 1st real grief . . . weeping for 2 days”: SWM untitled, unpublished memoir, HMD.
“very feminine”: ESB interview.
“they told her not to wear”: HMD interview.
[>] “Palatial domicile . . . Little H. &Sara W”: SWM to GCM, 18 May 1907, HMD.
So it was a momentous . . . foreign secretary: “Court Circular,” The Times (London), 7 Jun. 1907.
Frank even thought . . . reelection in 1910: Cincinnati Enquirer, 5 and 7 Dec. 1909.
[>] Olga in her turn: “Young American Women Presented at Court of St. James’s,” New York Tribune, Jun. 1909. The Tribune was betraying its ignorance: the Court of St. James’s is where ambassadors present their credentials, while ladies are presented to the king or queen at the royal residence, traditionally Buckingham Palace.
“Miss Sara’s chic . . . delicate fairness”: “Is She A Lord’s Most Beautiful?” New York World, May 1911.
A favorite showstopper . . . suggestively: LW, p. 10.
Their act was so polished : “Shock for Misses Wiborg,” New York Tribune, 1 Jul. 1913.
“Our girls are so thoughtless”: FBW diaries, 1913, HMD.
Sara’s behavior . . . digestive upsets: Details from SWM diary, 1910–1915, HMD.
[>] “This is a word . . . miss out again”: SWM to GCM, Sept. 1908, HMD. Andover was a notion . . . instead of Yale: This is the version of events presented in S&G, p. 126.
[>] The 407 members . . . Connecticut: Yale Daily News, 16 Oct. 1909.
On his first evening . . . sauve qui peut: Details come from Yale University, History of the Class of 1912, pp. 8–9.
“a general tacit Philistinism”: LW, p. 14.
crossing the campus in riding clothes: GCM to CT, undated, HMD. finished up his freshman year . . . failure: Yale College—Scholarship Record, Gerald C. Murphy, Class of 1912, courtesy of the Registrar’s Office, Yale University.
[>] “go free of care”: ARM to GCM, [Jul. 1909], HMD.
“mak[ing] Fred look after”: Ibid., 20 Jun. 1909, HMD.
“They always appeared”: Edwin M. Woolley to CT, 26 Dec. 1961, HMD. Patrick and Anna took . . . European specialist: ARM to GCM, 1 Aug. 1909, HMD.
“the belle of the ship . . . persecutor”: Ibid., [Jun. 1909], HMD.
“Tess is a wonder . . . ‘genius’”: PFM to GCM, 26 Jul. 1909, HMD.
[>] “Your environment”: Ibid., 21 May 1909, HMD.
“the aesthetic side”: Yale College, History of the Class of 1912. reputation for wit . . . go more smoothly: Class rankings, Yale College, History of the Class of 1912.
Robert Gardner . . . make it correct: Robert Gardner told Sara this story in a letter after her engagement to Gerald in 1915; the undated note was enclosed in a letter from SWM to GCM, 18 Oct. 1915, HMD. in late November . . . “to his studies”: Report from the Office of the Dean, Yale College, HMD.
[>] “Come, brace up . . . office for me?”: PFM to GCM, 20 Nov. 1909, HMD.
“I can still see” . . . brought down the house: GCM, quoted in LW, pp. 15–16.
[>] Glee Club appeared at the Waldorf-Astoria: Yale Daily News, 5 Feb. 1911. Wiborg girls didn’t come . . . in the evenings: SWM diary, 1910–1915: 21 Feb., 22 Jun., 26–28 Jun., 28 Jul., 1–3 Aug., 23 Aug., and 31 Aug., 1911, HMD.
Gerald was one of the eight organizers: Yale College, History of the Class of 1912, p. 27.
“Galahad the Pure”: Robert Gardner to SWM, enclosed in SWM to GCM, 18 Oct. 1915, HMD.
[>] She shared . . . amusement: SWM to GCM, 26 Oct. 1909, HMD.
“I have no idea”: LW, p. 11.
4. “Thinking how nice you are”
[>] “The saddest people”: SWM to GCM, 16 Mar. 1918, HMD.
“Spent day in bed . . . depressed”: SWM diary 1910–1915: 8 Aug. 1915, HMD. taking classes . . . afternoons and evenings: Ibid.: 17, 18, 25, and 30 Jan. 1910. “Went to H. Mann’s” . . . louche manner: Ibid.: 3 Feb.1911.
[>] “never even to glance”: Mrs. Paul Mellon interview.
little Esther Murphy . . . luncheon table: SWM to GCM, [1915], HMD.
de rigueur . . . Whitneys’: Ibid.: 8 and 10 Feb. 1910, HMD.
tableaux at the Clarence Mackays’: Vogue, 15 Nov. 1914.
[>] Strauss’s Elektra . . . second time: SWM diary 1910–1915: Feb.-Mar. 1910, HMD.
“awful pains”: Ibid.: 13 Jun. 1910.
“much depressed . . . fearfully depressed”: Ibid.: 13, 17, 19 Feb. 1910. family trip . . . empty and sad: Ibid.: 2 and 3 May 1910.
Sara Sherman . . . groom in sight for her: Ibid.: 18 Jul. 1910.
[>] “people just fell in love”: Mrs. Paul Mellon interview. she didn’t accompany . . . recorded in her diary: SWM diary 1910–1915: April 1910, HMD.
[>] “She had a sense”: ESB interview; see also S&G, p. 168.
Hailey’s comet . . . directly afterward: SWM diary 1910–1915: 26 May 1910, 11 Sept. 1912, 17 Nov. 1910, HMD.
“Will you ever forget”: Yale College, History of the Class of 1912, p. 30.
The next day . . . “rheumatism in knees”: Ibid., p. 31, S&G, p. 128; and SWM diary 1910–1915:17 Jan. 1911, HMD.
[>] “in bed” . . . for Adeline: SWM diary 1910–1915:22 and 28 Jan. 1911, HMD. “unspeakable”: SWM to GCM, 18 Jun. 1911, HMD.
“in society as a lady”: Stella Campbell, quoted in Peters, Mrs. Pat, p. 226.
[>] “Sara, darling”: LW, p. 11.
“We sang afterwards”: SWM diary 1910–1915:12 Mar. 1911, HMD. duchess was a notable . . . drop earrings: Cooper, The Rainbow Comes and Goes, p. 44.
“a rather self-conscious”: Havighurst, Twentieth Century Britain, p. 34.
“I love Sara . . . goes her own way”: LW, p. 11.
“I think I shall”: SWM to GCM, 18 Jun. 1911, HMD.
“dressed for tea” . . . Sara craved: Cooper, The Rainbow Comes and Goes, pp. 63–64; SWM diary 1910–1915:26 Mar. 1911, HMD.
[>] April 5 . . . Belvoir in March: SWM diary 1910–1915: 5 Apr. and 31 Mar. 1911, HMD.
secured a letter . . . Steichen had also studied: Ibid.: 14 and 18 Apr. 1911.
live nude model: Morton, Americans in Paris, pp. 68–69.
“one of the most fearful”: SWM 1919–1915 diary: 14 May 1911, HMD.
“nice day but bored”: Ibid.: 15 Jun. 1911.
Albert Hall was transformed . . . blue silk: “The Shakespeare Ball: Brilliant Scenes at Albert Hall,” Morning Leader (London), 21 Jun. 1911.
[>] nearly four thousand . . . midnight: “Shakespeare Ball: Visit by the King and Queen,” unattributed, 19 Jun. 1911, clipping, FBW papers, HMD.
customary twenty-one-gun . . . morning’s proceedings: SWM diary 1910–1915: 22 Jun. 1911, HMD.
“We have been having . . . enjoyed myself more”: SWM to GCM, 18 Jun. 1911, HMD.
“Would you mind . . . ‘out of it’”: Ibid.
[>] Elizabethan Club . . . Stuart writers: Yale Daily News, 31 Oct., 21 and 27 Nov., 8 Dec. 1911, and 10 Jan. 1912.
“cussing and drinking lemonade”: Yale College, History of the Class of 1912, p.27.
February . . . Most Brilliant: Ibid.
“I am not disappointed . . . value it so lightly”: PFM to GCM, 18 Aug. 1911, HMD.
“I cannot accept . . . at the dock”: Ibid., Mar. 1911.
[>] “I’m proud of you”: Ibid., Feb. 1911.
“Only in my senior year”: GCM to CT, undated, HMD.
“distortion of myself’: GCM to AMacL, 22 Jan. 1931, LOC.
Gerald, for his part, spent . . . planned European trip: SWM diary 1910–1915: 3 Jan., Feb., 18 Apr., 1912, HMD.
“Gerard’s birthday”: Ibid.: 15 May 1912.
East Hampton summer . . . broke out: Ibid.: 28 May, 1 Jul., 14 Aug., 9 Oct. 1912.
[>] “terrific crowds” . . . love a Scene: Ibid.: 19, 20, and 22 Jun. 1912.
returned to East Hampton . . . September 17: Ibid.: 30 Jun., 2 and 6 Jul., 17 Sept. 1912.
fun to camp . . . from the beach: SWM to GCM, 8 Feb. 1918, HMD. Sara couldn’t remember the year (she says it was “years ago, long before we were engaged); the chronology of the Wiborgs’ comings and goings, and the development of Sara’s and Gerald’s relationship, makes summer 1912 the likeliest time.
5. “I must ask you endless questions”
[>] During the previous winter . . . 25th Street: SWM diary 1910–1915: Dec. 1911, HMD. Sara’s December entries refer only to “Mr. Chase’s” studio, but Ronald Pisano, author of William Merritt Chase’s catalogue raisonne, confirms that Chase’s studio at this time was located at 333 Fourth Avenue, evening of tableaux vivants . . . Mrs. J. Pierpont Morgan: “Beautiful Women Pose in Tableaux Vivants,” New York Herald, 29 Jan. 1913; program from the tableaux, HMD.
[>] quarreling with her family . . . one occasion: SWM diary 1910–1915: 30 Sept., 9 Oct., 11 Oct., and 17 Nov. 1912, HMD.
[>] Esther worried so . . . take care of her: Esther Murphy to GCM, 18 Nov. 1916, HMD.
“I shall see your saddened . . . pretty Sal”: SWM to GCM, 9 Mar. and 16 Mar. 1913, HMD.
Having dispatched Frank . . . Poiret: SWM diary 1910–1915: 20 Mar., 26 Mar., and 9–23 Apr. 1913, HMD.
“Dreadful day . . . not going back”: Ibid., 23 Mar. 1913.
“preliminary scrimmage” . . . red, green, and yellow brocade: Cincinnati Enquirer, 24 Jul. 1913.
[>] much more impressed . . . Le Sacre du printemps: SWM diary 1910–1915: 22 and 23 Jul. 1913, HMD.
Smartly dressed . . . “shut up”: Buckle, Diaghilev, pp. 299–301.
“continuous thudding”: Beaumont, Bookseller at the Ballet, pp. 137–38. “musically and choreographically”: Garafola, Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes, p. 64.
“It must be wonderful . . . in detail”: GCM to SWM, 29 Jul. 1913, HMD.
[>] “I only wish”: ARM to GCM, 13 Aug. 1913, HMD.
Esther, who was now . . . “is it so?”: GCM to SWM, 28 Jul. 1913, HMD.
[>] Frank was in a foul . . . “no end of bustle”: FBW diary 1913: 5 Sept. 1913, HMD.
To make matters worse . . . penny more: “Wiborg Case Settled,” New York Press, 24 Oct. 1913.
Curiously . . . Stanchfield: FBW diary 1913:12 Sept. 1913, HMD.
“MRS. F. WIBORG . . . FINED AS SMUGGLER”: United Press dispatch, 27 Sept. 1913; New York Journal, 23 Oct. 1913; New York Evening Mail, 23 Oct. 1913; New York Press, 24 Oct. 1913.
[>] “Most horrible day . . . [G]erard and us”: SWM diary 1910–1915: 29 Sept. 1913, HMD.
On October 23 . . . letting her go: Details from newspaper stories previously cited.
It was proposed . . . “years of business”: SWM to GCM, 12 Jan. 1914, HMD. “I sleep in trains”: Ibid., 27 Dec. 1913, HMD.
Christmas at Belvoir . . . “dead with it”: Ibid.
[>] “Arriving at Port Said . . . subtle mixed in”: Ibid., 12 Jan. 1914, HMD. display of pukka-sahib festivity . . . retired early: FBW diary 1914:12 Feb. 1914, HMD. so many waltzes . . . “Miss Ragtime?”: Dance card labeled “Viceregal Lodge, Delhi. Feb. 12, 1914,” HMD.
following evening . . . “coon song snatches”: Program labeled “Imperial Delhi Gymkhana Club, Indian Cavalry Polo Week, 1914,” HMD; “Theatricals at the Gymkhana Club,” clipping, Saturday, 14 Feb. 1914, source unknown, HMD.
“they looked beautifully . . . poor selection”: FBW diary 1914: 13 Feb. 1914, HMD.
“hot unkempt and tawdry”: Ibid., 7 Jan. 1914.
But Gerald . . . that autumn: GCM to SWM, [7 Sept. 1913], HMD.
“the most marvelous”: SWM to GCM, 18 Jan. 1914, HMD.
[>] ‘“transported me beyond delight’”: GCM t
o SWM, 9 Apr. 1914, HMD. “Lately I have been made . . . of the pavement”: Ibid.
“Gerald Murphy showed up”: FBW diary 1914: 27 Mar. 1914, HMD.
“[H]e was playing . . . no one at all”: GCM to SWM, 9 Apr. 1914, HMD.
[>] two of them went . . . “G”: Ibid., 10 Jun. 1914, HMD.
6. “A relationship that so lets loose the imagination!”
[>] “Damp day . . . Halifax”: SWM diary 1910–1915: 5 Aug. 1914, HMD.
For his part, Gerald . . . New York: GCM to SWM, 9 Sept. and 9 Nov. 1914, HMD.
[>] “cold-cuts and mustard” . . . Keats: Ibid., undated, 1915.
“How differently I feel . . . enjoys them”: SWM to GCM, 2 Jun. 1915, HMD. They decided to shun . . . “holes stick up?”: GCM to SWM, undated, 1914, HMD.
“Aristocrats!! bah!!”: Ibid., undated card.
To Sara, and only . . . position afforded him: Ibid., 12 Jan. and 29 Jun. 1915. “My heart is full . . . beauty you feel”: Ibid., 19 May 1915.
“we’ve both lived”: Ibid., 26 Feb. 1915.
“What a gloomy thing . . . don’t you think?”: SWM to GCM, 19 May 1915, HMD.
[>] ‘You asked the other . . . I thought of you!”: GCM to SWM, 18 Feb. 1915, HMD.
[>] “It is generally remarked”: Ibid., 14 Oct. 1914.
“Can you see me”: Ibid., 12 Jan. 1915.
“Who is there . . . Am I clear?”: Ibid., 15 Jan. 1915.
“Are we peculiar”: Ibid., 26 Jan. 1915.
“Sal mine”: Ibid., 4 Feb. 1915 (postmarked 7:30 P.M.).
“My Sal”: Ibid., 9 Feb. 1915.
[>] “I never dreamed . . . We are each other”: SWM to GCM, [1915], HMD. This letter is dated in S&G as Aug. 1914, but it’s out of keeping with the tone of Sara’s correspondence at that point. The year 1915 is much more likely.
“I am beginning to believe”: GCM to SWM, 11 Feb. 1915, HMD. Sara’s letter itself is lost, but quoted in Gerald’s to her.
“I put [the seal] . . . remove it”: Ibid.
stone wall . . . picnicked: Honoria Donnelly believes this bottle was buried and unearthed in Sara’s East Hampton garden. But in a letter of Feb. 12 Gerald refers to “our little corner by the wall” at St. Andrew’s, where he was when he wrote the buried missive. And in another letter from St. Andrew’s dated May 24, 1915, he speaks of being able to see, from his window, “our little corner by the wall where we lunched on that day when we sort of realized we were engaged.”