by Amanda Vaill
“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.”
he buried . . . “tears of this night”: GCM, 11 Feb. 1915, HMD. The little bottle, with the rolled-up note still inside it, secured with the (now faded) green ribbon, is in the file.
‘“gas much”: GCM to SWM, 13 Feb. 1915, HMD.
“Were you here . . . meager words!”: Ibid.
[>] “‘loaded and fragrant’”: Ibid., 10 Feb. 1915.
“Can’t you see . . . finish it”: Ibid., 10 Mar. 1915.
“I am disappointed . . . their ignorance?”: Ibid., 24 Feb. 1915.
But Sara was apprehensive . . . at least once: Ibid.
“last night left me . . . all day”: Ibid., 2 Mar. 1915.
“I tell you frankly . . . much longer”: Ibid., 3 Mar. 1915.
“ply my suit . . . is at stake”: Ibid., 5 Mar. 1915.
[>] “I’m marrying Gerald”: HMD interview.
Adeline wept . . . inestimable loss: Although there is no actual record of Adeline Wiborg’s reaction to this news, a letter from Sara to Gerald, 7 Jun. 1915, describes such a response to Olga’s engagement, and says she “behaved much the same as before.”
“life and the living”: GCM to SWM, 25 Aug. 1915, HMD. refused to receive: Ibid., 8 Mar. 1915.
“an autopsy”: Ibid., 10 Mar. 1915.
“Sara Wiborg . . . I don’t like it”: FBW diary 1914:11 Nov. 1914, HMD.
“very fond of”: GCM to SWM, 8 Mar. 1915, HMD.
“great disappointment . . . to be married”: Ibid., 26 Aug. 1915.
[>] “I can’t see that age . . . Affectionately, Sara”: Sara Sherman Mitchell to SWM, 8 Mar. 1915, HMD.
Adeline Wiborg hoped . . . engagement officially: S&G, p. 142.
“You have no adequate idea”: Frederic T. Murphy to SWM, [Mar. 1915], HMD.
“I’ve never seen you” . . . quiz Gerald mercilessly: GCM to SWM, 22 May 1915, HMD.
[>] “Everyone is agog”: Ibid., 30 Mar, 1915.
“nooks in the library”: Ibid., 3 May 1915.
“on public fire-escapes, etc.”: Ibid., [1915].
“I think the tension . . . for you in return”: Ibid., 22 Apr. 1915.
“I come wailing”: SWM to GCM, 15 Jun. 1915, HMD.
she blushed uncontrollably: Ibid., 2 Jun. 1915.
“Thank Eliz. . . . leaving the room, too!”: GCM to SWM, 4 Jun. 1915, HMD.
“I miss you so”: SWM to GCM, 4 Jun. 1915, HMD.
[>] “stalking up and down . . . sort of left”: Ibid., 7 Jun. 1915.
“What do I know . . . seemed long to me”: Ibid.
“What an agonizing . . . in the least”: Ibid., [Jun. 1915].
“I wonder if I shall ever . . . accounts for a lot”: GCM to SWM, 21 Jun. 1915, HMD.
But once among them . . . “Stone Henge”: Ibid., 25 Jun. 1915.
[>] “the men I admire most . . . smudged years of mine”: Ibid., 29 Jun. 1915.
Frank agreed: Ibid., 28 Jul. 1915. This letter maintains that Sara should contribute only as much to the couple’s income as Gerald did, a contention that Frank Wiborg clearly ignored, because another letter (GCM to SWM, 8 Aug. 1915, HMD) speaks of their plans to “run #50 on $18, a year.”
Patrick Murphy: This information is extrapolated from letters from GCM to SWM, 13 Jul., 8 Aug., and 4 Oct. 1915.
“in a different place”: GCM to SWM, 26 Feb. 1915, HMD.
[>] Venetian glass . . . pink lusterware: Ibid., [undated, 1915], 3 May, 27 Jul., and 24 Aug., 1915.
“Such wantable things . . . among trash”: SWM to GCM, 30 Sept. 1915, HMD.
“Better men than I”: GCM to SWM, 29 Jun. 1915, HMD.
[>] “I hope your father”: SWM to GCM, [July 1915], HMD.
“court martial . . . can confuse them”: GCM to SWM, 20 Aug. 1915, HMD.
“I think I am right . . . with your work”: SWM to GCM, 15 Sept. 1915, HMD.
In late July . . . in Europe: GCM to SWM, 29 Jul. 1915, HMD.
“Her tenderness . . . their avoidance—!!”: Ibid., 7 Aug. 1915.
[>] “mange-cures” . . . full evening dress: Ibid., 8 Aug. 1915.
“long, hard journey . . . never seen it fail”: SWM to GCM, 3 Aug. 1915, HMD. he now reneged . . . price of $25,: GCM to SWM, 3 Aug. 1915, HMD.
[>] “The youngest newsboy”: SWM to GCM, 29 Oct. 1915, HMD.
A friend living in Panama . . . for the jungle: Ibid., 20 Sept. 1915.
“Won’t it seem . . . Home to 11th Street!”: Ibid., 19 Oct. 1915.
“I am delighted . . . pulverize them yet!”: Ibid., 15 Nov. 1915.
[>] “Here are some blossoms”: GCM to SWM, [30 Dec. 1915], HMD.
That afternoon . . . man and wife: “Miss Wiborg Weds Gerald C. Murphy,” New York Times, 31 Dec. 1915.
“Think of a relationship . . . thank heaven!”: GCM to SWM, 4 Feb. 1915, HMD.
7. “Don’t let’s ever separate again”
[>] “communicated affection”: GCM to SWM, 18 Apr. 1936, HMD.
At the end of the block . . . brick walk behind: White and Willensky, A1A Guide to New York City (Revised Edition), p. 75.
[>] Around the corner . . . artists and illustrators: Kouwenhovem, The Columbia Historical Portrait of New York, p. 373.
Number 50 . . . rather than wealthy: Lockwood, Bricks and Brownstone, p. 85. Other details about the house’s and street’s appearance come from personal observation.
four stories high . . . Mollie, the maid: GCM to SWM, 14 Aug. 1915, HMD. single sitting room . . . rooms had fireplaces: Floor plan of 50 West 11th Street, in SWM to GCM, Aug. 1915, HMD.
brick facade freshly . . . hung in the hall: GCM to SSW, 8 Aug. 1915, HMD. wide-plank floors . . . Dunes: SWM to GCM, 15 Nov. 1915, HMD.
Gerald and Sara filled . . . opalescent glass jugs: Ibid., 10 Feb. 1918, HMD.
[>] “a black and white”: GCM to SWM, 27 Jul. 1915, HMD.
“It’s very old”: Ibid., 5 Apr. 1915.
“how much and how dearly I love you”: SWM to GCM, 17 Mar. 1916, HMD.
[>] “2 blue vases . . . out into the street”: GCM to SWM, 15 Aug. 1916, HMD. “this A.M. . . . bottom of your mattress”: SWM to GCM, 23 Aug. 1916, HMD. “the real rock” . . . in the autumn: GCM to SWM, 12 Aug. 1916, HMD.
“The work you are doing . . . infection”: ASW to SWM, 18 Oct. 1916, HMD. “I’m so glad . . . Do it for me”: GCM to SWM, 12 Nov. 1916, HMD.
[>] Adeline Wiborg’s tersely: New York Times, 4 Jan. 1917.
“Your little hands”: SWM scrapbook, HMD.
“Honoria Adeline”: SWM diary 1917–18:19 Dec. 1917, HMD.
Gerald always claimed . . . either family: LW, p. 19.
she carried the name . . . in 1832: SC9G, p. 124.
Among the papers . . . Honoria Adeline Murphy: These papers are undated; the loose sheet is on paper (and in handwriting) consistent with the years 1916–17; the pigskin notebook also contains addresses for Murphy friends and suppliers of the late 1920s and early 1930s, HMD.
[>] “my friend, Gerald Murphy”: Ida Tarbell to W. S. Gifford, 9 Aug. 1917, HMD.
he was discouraged . . . commissioned: GCM to SWM, 10 Nov. 1917, HMD.
On November 22 . . . as a private: GCM, World War I service cards, New York State Archives, Albany, New York.
Sara was confined . . . difficult delivery: GCM to SWM, 2 Feb. 1918, HMD. small Christmas tree . . . little tree: SWM diary 1917–18, HMD.
“royal and overpowering”: Ibid., 16 Dec. 1917.
“courting mirror” . . . the baby nurse: Ibid., 30 Dec. 1917.
Frank Wiborg bought . . . son-in-law: GCM to SWM, 7 Jan. 1918, HMD.
“the greatest anguish of our lives”: Ibid., 1 Jan. 1918.
[>] bitterly cold . . . “candle-light and flowers”: Ibid., 2 Jan. 1918.
Rows of dark khaki . . . four layers of blankets: Ibid., 15 Jan. 1918.
Sara, distressed . . . bran muffins: SWM to GCM, [winter 1918], HMD.
[>] squares of washed cheesecloth: Ibid., 31 Jan. 1918.
[>] “that I must get a lot . . . anything with ourselves”: GCM to SWM, 18 Jan. and 2 Feb. 1918, HMD.
The train trip . . . fine adventure: Ibid., 25 Jan. 1918.
“It has made me” . . . Honoria had kissed: SWM to GCM, 24 Jan. 1918, HMD.
“brilliant dark gray” . . . mother’s face: Ibid., 22 Jan. 1918, HMD.
She was keeping up . . . along the Marne: Ibid.
[>] “What a triumph . . . shouldn’t we?”: Ibid., 2 Feb. 1918, HMD.
her old friend Rue Carpenter . . . New York: Ibid., 27 Jan. 1918.
Monty Woolley . . . military service: Ibid., 22 Jan. 1918.
He was charmed . . . surprise: Ibid., 2 Feb. 1918.
“the most fearful”: Ibid., 15 Feb. 1918.
“miserable” . . . any attention: Ibid., 3 Feb, 1918.
“exactly as though”: Ibid., 9 Feb. 1918.
“surrounded by the beautiful”: Ibid., 10 Feb. 1918.
[>] “our little farm”: GCM to SWM, 15 Jan. 1918, HMD.
“our beautiful house”: Ibid., 14 Mar. 1918.
Empire chest . . . eccentric list: Ibid. (postcards), 3 Jan., 14 Jan., and 17 Jan. 1918.
Now Sara was . . . between the windows: SWM to GCM, 7 Feb. 1918, HMD. “our house . . . half of myself”: Ibid., 9 Feb. 1918.
“I was thinking . . . very soon”: Ibid., 30 Jan. 1918.
“in rusty black”: Ibid., 8 Feb. 1918, HMD.
Gerald’s own temper . . . arranged for himself: Ibid., 19 Feb. 1918.
[>] they could share meals . . . night together: Ibid., 20 Mar. 1918.
Sara was desolate . . . entourage home: Ibid., 4 Mar. 1918.
“You see . . . where you are”: Ibid., 20 Mar. 1918.
woke at 3:30 . . . until 6:00: GCM to SWM, 17 Feb. 1918, HMD.
By the end of March . . . New York: Item no. 33, Special Orders no. 73, War Department, 28 Mar. 1918.
“casual” . . . blow to his pride: GCM to SWM, 27 Aug. 1918, HMD.
“while the British . . . given a dance”: Ibid., 25 Sept. 1918.
[>] approached a former Yale . . . Henry T. Allen in France: Ibid., 23 Sept. 1918.
“everything I properly can”: J. M. Tumulty to PFM, 14 Sept. 1918, HMD.
“What fun we had” . . . in the train afterward: SWM to GCM, 1 Sept. 1918, HMD.
Gerald found her unfinished . . . saved the holder: GCM to SWM, [Aug./Sept. 1918], HMD.
By the end of September . . . health or the baby’s: Ibid., [Sept. 1918], 23 Sept. and 25 Sept. 1918.
Soon there was more . . . Long Island: P. C. Harris to J. M. Tumulty, 24 Sept. 1918; PFM to GCM, 25 Sept. 1918; HMD.
“You ought to be proud”: J. M. Tumulty to PFM, 8 Oct. 1918, HMD.
“Jerry my Berry . . . Your wife, Sal”: SWM to GCM, [Nov. 1918], HMD.
[>] “completely knocked out”: GCM to SWM, 11 Dec. 1918, HMD.
8. “The idea is thrilling to me”
[>] Sara was already planning . . . baby arrived: SWM to GCM, 7 Feb. 1918, HMD.
When Honoria was separated . . . mark on it: SWM scrapbooks, HMD.
“get a grip on our future”: GCM to SWM, 9 Jun. 1919, HMD.
In 1915 . . . his own version: LW, p. 134.
[>] as he did Fred . . . Cross in England: Noel Murphy/HMD interview, HMD.
“I had to say . . . what came out”: LW, p. 20.
Mexican market . . . street fair: GCM to SWM, 19 Jan. 1919, HMD.
“enormously fat Percherons . . . down the back”: Ibid., 29 Jan. 1919.
That winter . . . Liberal Arts: GCM’s application to the Harvard University School of Landscape Architecture lists “freehand drawing” at the School of Design and Liberal Arts under the heading “Special Preparation”; letters between GCM and SWM in 1919 supply Miss Weir’s name.
“I do think . . . amazing”: SWM to GCM, 8 Jun. 1919, HMD.
“My parents” . . . shoulder to shoulder: HMD interview.
“When we wake up”: GCM to SWM, 9 Jun. 1919, HMD.
he swallowed it . . . son’s decision: SWM to GCM, [May 1919], HMD.
[>] “male Murphy . . . son himself”: SWM scrapbook, and Ibid., 2 Jun. 1919.
“Dubbedy” . . . done of Honoria: SWM scrapbooks, HMD.
He was immediately enthralled . . . New York society: GCM to SWM, 9 Jun., 10 Jun., 15 Jun., and 18 Jun. 1919, HMD.
“one manor” . . . that very evening: Ibid., 9 Jul. 1919.
[>] in addition to her passion . . . coaching: Catalogue of the manuscript and rare book collections of Amy Lowell, Amy Lowell papers, HU.
[>] After dinner . . . “cordial and human”: GCM to SWM, 9 Jul. and 11 Jul. 1919, HMD.
[>] “to anticipate the need . . . evidence of it up here”: Ibid., 11 Jul. 1919.
“Who can we get . . . Columbia Trust Co.?”: SWM to GCM, 12 Jul. 1919, HMD.
“Nothing, I think”: Ibid., 15 Sept. 1919.
“exasperated . . . still in me”: Ibid.
“running the legs off his guests”: Ibid., 14 Jul. 1919.
Hoytie and Olga . . . “nothing but things”: Ibid., 16 Jul. 1919.
[>] “I believe in you . . . forbade you to?!”: GCM to SWM, 21 Jul. 1919, HMD.
And when her train . . . “glad that she wasn’t”: SWM to GCM, 24 Jul. 1919, HMD.
[>] “We need a new . . . outlook it gives one?”: Ibid., 15 Sept. 1919.
he had done unusually . . . courses in landscaping: GCM transcripts, Harvard Graduate School of Design.
Her scrapbooks tell . . . properly: SWM scrapbooks, HMD.
John Singer Sargent . . . Boston Museum of Fine Arts: GCM, Murphy/MacAgy papers, p.3.
[>] “He isn’t the real thing”: AMacL, Reflections, p. 42.
“I would like . . . well-laundered”: S&G, p. 9.
“the next-best Raphael I ever saw”: Crosby, Shadows of the Sun, 27 Jul. 1926. Gerald had been collecting . . . late nineteenth century: AMacL, Reflections, p. 93
Boston Public Library: In Living Well Is the Best Revenge, Calvin Tomkins reports that the source was old magazines; in a letter of May 29, 1964, to Douglas MacAgy, GCM insists he got the material from “original manuscripts” of “the drummer boy Higginson” in the Music Room of the Boston Public Library—an assertion also made by Honoria Donnelly in Sara & Gerald. There are, however, no such manuscripts in the Boston Public Library (and Higginson was no drummer boy, but the commander of a unit). Mrs. Gardner he mingled . . . “Motherless Child”: HMD interview; also S&G, p. 39.
The next day . . . bread-and-butter present: Isabella Stewart Gardner, guest book for May 12, 1921; copy of Afro-American Folk Songs: A Study, by Henry Edward Krehbiel, with card from Mr. and Mrs. Gerald Murphy, signed and inscribed by GCM; collection of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum.
[>] “Make a poet black”: Cullen, “Yet Do I Marvel,” Color, p. 3.
Fats Waller: FMB interview.
“dissuaded by reactionaries”: GCM to FMB, 11 Nov. 1949.
“A little of Roerich’s virus”: GCM, MacAgy/Murphy papers.
[>] In Connecticut . . . wisps in her scrapbook: SWM scrapbooks, HMD.
“veering away from . . . Unsatisfactory": GCM, MacAgy/Murphy papers.
Gerald’s work . . . course assignments: GCM transcripts, Harvard Graduate School of Design.
“Cambridge in the early 1900s . . . ceased to be civilized”: Cowley, A Second Flowering, pp. 90–91.
essays by Harold Stearns: Harold Stearns, America and the Young Intellectual; discussed in Hoffman, The 20s, p. 27.
[>] Waldo Fr
ank: GCM, MacAgy/Murphy papers.
“Whole departments”: Waldo Frank, Our America, quoted in Hoffman, The 20s, p. 31.
“a government that could pass”: LW, p. 21.
He and Sara . . . “old sandstone houses: GCM to Nancy Milford, quoted in Milford, Zelda, p. 105.
“feeling like aliens . . . steamer tickets”: Cowley, Exile’s Return, p. 6.
In Europe . . . $7, a year: LW, p. 21.
he hadn’t completed . . . his degree: GCM transcripts, Harvard Graduate School of Design.
[>] “Foreign Residents”: S&G, p. 8.
June 11, 1921 . . . SS Cedric: SWM scrapbooks, HMD.
9. “An entirely new orbit”
[>] The summer of 1921 . . . parched and brown: Hester Pickman/HMD interview, Jul. 1981, HMD.
“didn’t seem to fill the bill”: SWM/CT interview, HMD.
September 3 . . . Étoile: SWM scrapbooks, HMD.
But then they discovered . . . material for a book: Hester Pickman/HMD interview, HMD.
“overdressed”: Ibid.
So Gerald and Sara . . . rue Greuze: SWM scrapbooks, HMD.
[>] “The thing I used . . . slaughtered”: AMacL, Reflections, p. 23.
[>] this first manifestation . . . delighted dadaists: Daix, Picasso, p. 172; and Wiser, The Crazy Years, pp. 40–41.
[>] walls were covered . . . wee hours: Wiser, The Crazy Years, p. 134.
program note . . . popular lexicon: Cronin, Paris, p. 63.
Now he celebrated . . . drop curtain by Picasso: The first two of these were revivals of productions that premiered at the Alhambra Theatre, London, in 1919; Le Chant du Rossignol had opened at the Opéra in February, so, strictly speaking, only Pulcinella was new.
[>] “The ground floor”: Hugo, Le Regard de la mémoire, p. 158 (my translation), conceived a hopeless crush . . . José Maria Sert: Gold and Fizdale, Misia, p. 233.
[>] l’emmerdeuse: Ibid.
“subjugation and domination”: GCM, quoted in S&G, p. 11.
“she knew everybody”: Noel Murphy/HMD interview, HMD.
A tall, long-faced . . . blue eyes: de Faucigny-Lucinge, Un gentilhomme cosmopolite, p. 105.
By the time . . . ill from anxiety: Ibid., p. 106.