You may have noticed that I haven't written very much lately. That includes not writing replies to comments left on this blog. I'll do my best to catch up, beginning with a reply to a comment left by Anonymous at the bottom of my article on Edna Bell Seward (1877-1963). I last wrote about Edna Bell Seward on November 16, 2018, here. She wrote one letter to "The Eyrie" and one story in Weird Tales. It's called "The Land of Creeping Death" and it appeared in the issue of June 1927, ninety-five years ago this summer.
Edna Bell Seward was married more than once. Her last husband (I think) was George Morton Seward (1856-1926). Seward was from Bloomington, Indiana, home of Indiana University. In the 1920s, he and his wife lived in Chicago, Illinois. For those of you who don't know where Chicago is, it's slightly to the west and a little to the north of Indiana. I don't have to tell you where Indiana is because we all know that already.
In the early part of the twentieth century, a group of Hoosiers, living in exile, formed the Indiana Society of Chicago. George Ade (1866-1944), famous for his Fables in Slang, was a founding member. Ade's friend and fellow Purdue University alumnus John McCutcheon (1870-1949) was also a member. The comment left by Anonymous is actually a link to a newspaper article about the 18th Annual Dinner of the Indiana Society of Chicago, held on December 9, 1922, at the Drake Hotel. The article is called "Indiana Society Honors Mrs. Seward." It's from The Highland Park Press, December 14, 1922, page 1 (column 6) and page 14. Included in the article is a photograph of Mrs. Seward, the same one I used in 2018 when I wrote about her. Click here to see the article. According to the article, "Mrs. Seward wrote the lyrics for all of the satires and songs that were featured during the evening." This was when Americans still had fun.
Reading about that dinner in 1922 led me to a further search on the Internet. As a result I found images of the original program book for the evening's events. These are on a website called Indiana Memory. Here is the URL:
In looking through the book, I made another discovery, namely that Mr. Seward was an artist of sorts. Here is his revised map of Indiana for 1922:
It looks like the revisions are to accommodate the Hoosier State's bulging Literary Belt, which is encroaching on neighboring Illinois and Ohio. Note the "Manuscript Special for Eastern Markets." Some of the references here are probably obscure for the unfortunate non-Hoosiers among us. For example, the southwestern-most county in Indiana is named Posey. Look for the flowers. Still others are obscure even for native Indianians. I would have to do a little research to figure out what a couple of these things mean. By the way, that's Abe Martin in the middle, a creation of Kin Hubbard (1868-1930) of Indianapolis.
George Seward's map is from a century ago. Time flies. At the time, Indiana was in its Golden Age of Literature, hence the bulges. In 1922, in fact, Booth Tarkington (1869-1946) won the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction for his novel Alice Adams (1921). Katherine Hepburn played the title character in a film adaptation of Alice Adams in 1935. The movie poster puts Tarkington's name on prominent display. Unfortunately for him and his fellows, few of the Indiana writers from that Golden Age are read today. But before you dismiss Indiana and its forgotten writers, remember that Weird Tales had its editorial offices in Indianapolis from its founding in 1923 until moving to Chicago in 1926. Remember, too, that, facing ruin, "The Unique Magazine" was saved by Cornelius Printing Company of Indianapolis and that the magazine originated from the Circle City--or Naptown as jazz musicians call it--until 1938 when it was sold to Short Stories, Inc., and made its final move to Manhattan.
Thanks to Anonymous for the link.
Text copyright 2022 Terence E. Hanley
No comments:
Post a Comment