Rinehart, Mary R 1876- 1958 North Side: People: Mary Roberts Rinehart Page 1 of 3 Contact Us Site L Fast Find: Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh Select Library Area: g (1) belowing Catalog RESTRICTION North Side: Mary Roberts Rinehart Ajorary of ittsburgh Mary Roberts Rinehart BORN: 12 August 1876. (50) DIED: 22 September 1958. (51) BURIED: While her general novels were her best-selling books, she was most highly regarded by critics for her carefully plotted murder mysteries. It was one of her books that produced the phrase, "The butler did it," and in her prime, she was more famous than her chief rival, England's Agatha Christie. (52) Our Famous Woman Writer. One of Pittsburgh's most famous women is Mary Roberts Rinehart, the writer. She was born Aug. 12, 1876, in a little house in Arch St., now North Side, but then the City of Allegheny. She lives today at 630 Park Ave., New York City, in an 18-room apartment. She's still writing--about 4000 words a day on a "good day." She has written more than 50 books, eight plays, hundreds of short stories, poems, travelogues and special articles. Three of her plays were running on Broadway at one time. When she was in Allegheny High School she got $1 each for three short stories from a Pittsburgh newspaper. In her own words, "I did no further so-called literary work until 12 years later when I was http://www.clpgh.org/exhibit/neighborhoods/northside/nor_n108.html 12/11/2003 North Side: People: Mary Roberts Rinehart Page 2 of 3 27." Her first book, "The Circular Staircase," was published in 1908 when Theodore Roosevelt was President, the hobble skirt was something of a national scandal and ministers spoke of the lawn hammock as a challenge to morals. In this book, Mrs. Rinehart proved, for the first time, that mystery, crime and humor can be combined. It has generally been believed in Pittsburgh for many years that the Singer mansion in Wilkinsburg was the site of the Circular Staircase. Mrs. Rinehart tells me it was not--that, at the time, she had never known of a house with such a staircase. Last year she wrote "A Light in the Window," the story of two World War generations, with the flush and hard times in between. Her writings have encompassed two generations; outlived two Roosevelt presidents. She never has believed that life is easy, but that if a guy is down he can always get up and keep on fighting. That's been the rich history of her own life. Her parents were Thomas B. and Cornelia Roberts. She early learned about financial insecurity. Her father was handsome, dreamy, impractical--a frustrated inventor, always in pursuit of fortune, never finding it. His most practical invention was a rotary shuttle for sewing machines. He hated the sewing machine business. Mrs. Rinehart's mother took in two boarders--made Mary help with the housework, after school, and take piano lessons--both of which she hated with equal vigor. Her grandmother, partially blind, was a seamstress. It was a constant struggle for the family to "keep up appearances," Mrs. Rinehart writes in her autobiography, "My Story." Mary Roberts Rinehart's writing career blossomed in debt, found its creative equality in her retentive memory and a discipline to put it down. Her early memories were of the house next door, where a mute son talked with his hands to his patient white-haired mother; wagons clattering along cobblestone streets; the Mayor's office, where she could read good books; the high walls of the state penitentiary, when it was only a few blocks from her house; watching the debris and bodies of the Johnstown Flood roll by; the time her father, in a high silk hat, calmly and serenely rowed his flood-beleagured family past the second floor windows of Pittsburgh office buildings. The one-armed park policeman, who marched in GAR [Grand Army of the Republic] parades and once arrested his own son; tradesmen scattering for cover when drovers reported the escape of a wild bull; the jolly neighborhood butcher, always wearing a stained straw hat. She was born left-handed, in the days when this was looked upon as irrational and unladylike. To make her use her right hand, the left was tied behind her back. She now writes right-handed, with a bold sweep of a special pen and never uses the typewriter. About the pen. She once complained she had never found one which could write as fast as she could think. Kenneth Parker of the Parker Co. sent her this snub-nosed one. No servant may touch it. When she leaves her desk, the pen goes with her--to a special box by her bedside. If she leaves New York, the pen goes too. (53) Photonote N N eople. arrative. utline. eighborhoods. http://www.clpgh.org/exhibit/neighborhoods/northside/nor_n108.html 12/11/2003 Literature Resource Center -- Author Resource Pages Page 1 of 9 Shapiro Library, Southern New Hampshire University Literature Resource Center Title HOME Keyword Authors Advanced Literary-Historical MLA International Authors on Encyc Search Search by Type Search Timeline Bibliography the Highway of Lit Search for Author: mary rinehart Search Clear Form Literary Criticism, Literary MLA Print E-mail Biographies Bibliographies Additional Articles & Historical International Resources Mark this document Work Overviews Timeline Bibliography Current Results Document 1 of 1 Mary Roberts Rinehart 1876-1958 Entry Updated : 09/05/2003 Birth Place: Pittsburgh, PA Death Place: New York, NY Personal Information Career Writings Sidelights Further Readings About the Author Personal Information: Family: Born August 12, 1876, in Pittsburgh, PA; died September 22, 1958, in New York, NY; married Stanley Marshall Rinehart, April 21, 1896 (died, 1932); children: three sons, one daughter. Education: Attended public hig school in Pittsburgh, PA; Pittsburgh Training School for Nurses, graduated, 1896. Career: Novelist, short story writer, playwright, and author of nonfiction. Internship Pittsburgh Homeopathic Hospital, C. early 1890s; full-time writer, beginning 1905. Correspondent for the Saturday Evening Post during World War I; reported presidential nominating conventions. Awards: Litt.D., George Washington University, 1923; Mystery Writers of America Special award, 1953. WRITINGS BY THE AUTHOR: A Double Life (play), produced in New York City, 1906. /LitRC?vrsn=3&OP=contains&locID=nhc_main&srchtp=athr&ca=1&c=1&ste=6&tab=1&t/12/24/2003 Literature Resource Center -- Author Resource Pages Page 2 of 9 The Circular Staircase (novel), Rinehart (New York City), 1908. The Man in Lower Ten (novel), Bobbs-Merrill (Indianapolis), 1909. When a Man Marries (novel), Bobbs-Merrill (Indianapolis), 1909. The Window at the White Cat (novel), Bobbs-Merrill (Indianapolis), 1910. The Amazing Adventures of Letitia Carberry (short stories), Bobbs-Merrill (Indianapolis), 1911. Cheer Up (play), produced in New York City, 1912. Where There's a Will (novel), Bobbs-Merrill (Indianapolis), 1912. The Case of Jennie Brice (novel), Hall (Boston), 1913. (With Avery Hopwood) Seven Days (play; adapted from the novel When a Mai Marries), produced in New York City, 1914. The After House (novel), Houghton, Mifflin (Boston and New York City), 191 The Street of Seven Stars (novel), Houghton, Mifflin (Boston and New York City), 1914. "K" (novel), Houghton, Mifflin (Boston and New York City), 1915. Kings, Queens, and Pawns: An American Woman at the Front, George H. Doran (New York, NY), 1915. Through Glacier Park: Seeing America First with Howard Eaton, Houghton, Mifflin (Boston and New York City), 1916. Tish (short stories), Houghton, Mifflin (Boston and New York City), 1916. The Altar of Freedom, Houghton, Mifflin (Boston and New York City), 1917. Bab: A Sub-Deb (novel), Doran (New York, NY), 1917. Long Live the King (novel), Houghton, Mifflin (Boston and New York City), 1917. The Amazing Interlude (novel), Doran (New York City), 1918. Tenting To-night: A Chronicle of Sport and Adventure in Glacier Park and the Cascade Mountains, Houghton, Mifflin (Boston and New York City), 1918. Twenty Three and a Half Hours Leave (novel), George H. Doran (New York, LitRC?vrsn=3&OP=contains&locID=nhc_main&srchtp=athr&ca=1&c=1&ste=6&tab=1&t12/24/2003 Literature Resource Center -- Author Resource Pages Page 3 of 9 NY), 1918. Dangerous Days (novel), George H. Doran (New York City), 1919. Love Stories (short stories), George H. Doran (New York City), 1919. Affinities (short stories), George H. Doran (New York City), 1920. (With Avery Hopwood) The Bat (play), Samuel French (New York, NY), 192( "Isn't That Just like a Man!, "George H. Doran (New York City), 1920. A Poor Wise Man (novel), George H. Doran (New York City), 1920. The Truce of God, George H. Doran (New York, NY), 1920. The Breaking Point (novel), [New York City], 1921. More Tish (short stories), George H. Doran (New York City), 1921. Sight Unseen and the Confession (novels), George H. Doran (New York, NY) 1921. The Out Trail, George H. Doran (New York, NY), 1923. Temperamental People, George H. Doran (New York City), 1924. The Red Lamp (novel), George H. Doran (New York City), 1925. The Bat, George H. Doran (New York, NY), 1926. Nomad's Land, George H. Doran (New York, NY), 1926. Tish Plays the Game (novel), George H. Doran (New York City), 1926. Lost Ecstasy (novel), George H. Doran (New York City), 1927. Two Flights Up, Doubleday (Garden City, NY), 1928. The Romantics, Farrar & Rinehart (New York, NY), 1929. This Strange Adventure (novel), Doubleday (Garden City, NY), 1929. The Door (novel), Farrar & Rinehart (New York City), 1930. Mary Roberts Rinehart's Mystery Book, Farrar & Rinehart (New York, NY), 1930. My Story (autobiography), Farrar & Rinehart (New York City), 1931, publishe /LitRC?vrsn=3&OP=contains&locID=nhc_main&srchtp=athr&ca=1&c=1&ste=6&tab=1&t12/24/2003 Literature Resource Center -- Author Resource Pages Page 4 of 9 as My Story: A New Edition and Seventeen New Years, Rinehart (New York, NY), 1948. The Book of Tish, Farrar & Rinehart (New York City), 1931. Miss Pinkerton (novel), Farrar & Rinehart (New York City), 1932. The Album (novel), Farrar & Rinehart (New York City), 1933. Mary Roberts Rinehart's Crime Book, Farrar & Rinehart (New York, NY), 1933. The State vs. Elinor Norton (novel), Farrar & Rinehart (New York, NY), 1933 Mr. Cohen Takes a Walk, Farrar & Rinehart (New York City), 1934. The Doctor (novel), Farrar & Rinehart (New York City), 1936. Married People, Farrar & Rinehart (New York, NY), 1937. Tish Marches On (short stories), Farrar & Rinehart (New York, NY), 1937. The Wall (novel), Farrar & Rinehart (New York City), 1938. Writing Is Work (essay), The Writer, Incorporated (Boston), 1939. The Great Mistake (novel), Farrar & Rinehart (New York City), 1940. Familiar Faces: Stories of People You Know, Farrar & Rinehart (New York, NY), 1941. Haunted Lady (novel), Farrar & Rinehart (New York City), 1942. Alibi for Israel, (New York, NY), 1944. The Yellow Room (novel), Farrar & Rinehart (New York City), 1945. A Light in the Window, Rinehart (New York, NY), 1948. Episode of the Wandering Knife (short stories), Rinehart (New York, NY), 1950. The Swimming Pool (novel), Rinehart (New York City), 1952. The Frightened Wife and Other Murder Stories (short stories), Rinehart (New York, NY), 1953. The Best of Tish, Rinehart (New York, NY), 1955. /LitRC?vrsn=3&OP=contains&locID=nhc_main&srchtp=athr&ca=1&c=1&ste=6&tab=1&t 12/24/2003 Literature Resource Center Author Resource Pages Page 5 of 9 The Best Mysteries of Mary Robert Rinehart, Reader's Digest (Pleasantville, NY), 2002. Contributor to periodicals, including Munsey's Magazine and the Saturday Evening Post. "Sidelights" Mary Roberts Rinehart was a popular writer of mystery and romance novels during th first half of the twentieth century. Best known for her novel The Circular Staircase, she contributed significantly to the development of the mystery genre in the United States. Although her work has been criticized as unrealistic and improbable, she has also attracted praise for her exceptional abilities as a storyteller and for her distinctive combination of suspense, humor, and the macabre. Rinehart's uneventful childhood began on August 12, 1876, when she was born into a poor family in Pittsburgh. Her father made a modest living building sewing machines and tinkering with unsuccessful inventions on the side. Mary attended her local high school and trained as a nurse at the Pittsburgh Homeopathic Hospital for several year -she left without graduating, having met and fallen in love with Dr. Stanley Marshall Rinehart, whom she married in 1896. Rinehart might never have written a word, having immersed herself in the usual role C wife and mother to their three sons, had her husband not invested their savings. In 1903, the stock market crashed: the Rineharts were bankrupted, and burdened with a twelve thousand-dollar debt as well. To help make ends meet, Rinehart began writing for the magazines, selling her first story to Munsey's Magazine for thirty- four dollars She continued to write, and her writings continued to sell, steadily, for the rest of her life. Her initial interests ran toward drama, and her first play, A Double Life, was successfully produced in 1907. Serialized fiction was more reliably lucrative work, an she began writing mysteries for periodicals in the same year. Her first novel, which appeared in installments of Munsey's Magazine, was published in a single volume in 1908 as The Circular Staircase. A reviewer for the New York Times Book Review characterized the novel as "a tale of mystery with a new piquancy," and went on to sa that "it might be possible, though it would be difficult, to contrive a more involved network of circumstances and to create a more hopeless mystification. But it would n be possible to invent a more pleasantly diverting character than the lady who is at the centre of the mystery." A reviewer for Arena called it "by far the best mystery or detective story of recent years." The public received The Circular Staircase at least a warmly as did the critics, and it eventually became an all-time best-seller, topping sale of eight hundred thousand copies in the mid-1950s. This major success established bo Rinehart's enduring fame and the so-called "Rinehart formula," the pattern that almos all of her mysteries would follow. Highly influential in the development of twentieth-century detective fiction, Rinehart's narrators are generally vivacious, intuitive, middle-aged spinsters whose leaps of insig /LitRC?vrsn=3&OP=contains&locID=nhc_main&srchtp=athr&ca=1&c=1&ste=6&tab=1&t12/24/2003 Literature Resource Center -- Author Resource Pages Page 6 of 9 would complement the more systematic and thoroughgoing work of an official detective. Rinehart's style is further distinguished by the ongoing nature of the crimes whereas most mystery novels revolve around a single initial murder, Rinehart's villain: are steady killers, piling up victims and closing in on the narrator herself. In The Circular Staircase, the narrator, Rachel Innes, finds herself climactically trapped in a secret room with the murderer. Rinehart also believed in character development--in Rachel Innes's case, she transforms, over the course of the novel, from a somewhat aloof and naive socialite to a more astute observer of human nature, a person less like to be taken in by apparently untroubling facades, and she also grows closer to her niece, who is nearly a victim herself. However, Rinehart's methods did not go entirely uncriticized, especially as her formul continued to be played out in subsequent mysteries. Howard Haycraft, in a generally positive essay published in his Murder for Pleasure: The Life and Times of the Detective Story--h refers to her as "one of the great story-tellers of the age"--makes these criticisms: "Foremost in any catalogue of these flaws must be the manner in whi romantic complications are allowed to obstruct the orderly process of puzzle-and- solution. Similarly, the plots are always being prolonged by accidents and `happenstances' unmotivated interferences and lapses on the part of the characters Early critics, in describing her style, spoke of the "Had I But Known" school; in reference to her not infrequent use of such phrases as "Four lives might have been spared if I had only remembered." Nevertheless, while some of her methods struck these reviewers as obvious and straining somewhat, none failed to approve of Rinehart's brisk pacing, intricate plots, and, more unusually, her wry flair for comic relief. While she enjoyed a slow ascent with The Circular Staircase, Rinehart's The Man in Lower Ten, which had been serialized in 1907, met with a far more rapid success whe it appeared as a novel in 1909. It was the first detective novel by an American author appear on the best-seller list. At this time, she also began writing romantic short storie for magazine publication. While she is best remembered as a popular and influential writer of mysteries, eight of Rinehart's eleven best-sellers were romance novels. Of the next major phase in her career, Rinehart said in Writing is Work, "I must have been writing for eight years or SO before I dared to submit anything to the Saturday Evening Post." She sent them a story centered around Tish, a middle-aged woman an amateur detective: "The editors not only took the story; they sent an associate editor the way to my home to see me. What he wanted was more Tish stories, and the Post has had them--at intervals for twenty-five years." Tish is one of Rinehart's most enduringly popular creations, something like a more daring and active (and younger) version of Agatha Christie's Miss Marple. When World War I broke out in 1914 Rinehart went to Europe to serve as a war correspondent, and a novel set on the Western Front, The Amazing Interlude, was the result. Her own personal accounts of the war and her adventures in Europe, which included smuggling herself across the English Channel as a stowaway, and her encounters with various crowned heads, appear in a number of collections. Her nonfiction work expanded to include sentimental descriptions of her excursions in nature, at Glacier Park and elsewhere. LitRC?vrsn=3&OP=contains&locID=nhc_main&srchtp=athr&ca=1&c=1&ste=6&tab=1&t12/24/2003 Literature Resource Center -- Author Resource Pages Page 7 of 9 After the War ended, Rinehart returned to Sewickley, a suburb of Pittsburgh. By this time, she was well established and assured of a wide audience, which included an enthusiastic Herbert Hoover and Gertrude Stein. Half of her best-selling titles had already appeared. When her husband died in 1922 she left Pennsylvania and moved tc Washington, D.C. Gradually, Rinehart's romantic short stories were turning into full-length novels whos outcomes were determined by a more elaborate set of formulas, mostly dependent on whether the narrator was male or female. Journal of Popular Culture contributor Jan Cohn summarized: "Good women will be made to suffer and their reward will be hard won, tranquil contentment. Good men may have to suffer, but that suffering will win them happiness The major lesson of life is that love is the greatest gift, but that work is the only good on which one may absolutely depend." Generally, Rinehart's female narrators were already married, facing temptation and ultimately resisting it, although not without disappointment. Male narrators, more often than not, were rescuing the objects of their affections from bad engagements. In general, Rinehart's sexual ethics underwent some relaxation and adjustment as time progressed, taking th largest steps arguably in the 1920s, but still remained fairly conservative. Work remained her chief virtue--according to one reviewer, this motto hung on her office wall: "Ideas and hard work are the keys to all success." After ten years of residence in Washington, D.C. Rinehart moved to New York in 1932, to be close to her sons, who had established the Farrar & Rinehart publishing company, that published the bulk of her work from then on, beginning with The Door in 1930. Although she endeavored to participate in the events of World War II, ill health kept her in the United States. She continued, indefatigably, to write, extending the size of her catalog to over sixty titles. In 1950 Newsweek reported that her works had sold over ten million copies worldwide. Rinehart died in New York, in 1958, at tl age of eighty-two. FURTHER READINGS ABOUT THE AUTHOR: BOOKS Bachelder, Frances H., Mary Roberts Rinehart, Mistress of Mystery, Brownstone, 1993. Cohn, Jan, Improbable Fiction: The Life of Mary Roberts Rinehart, University of Pittsburgh Press, 1980. Davis, Robert H., editor, Mary Roberts Rinehart: A Sketch of the Woman and Her Work, Doran, 1924. Doran, George H., Chronicles of Barabbas, 1884-1934: Further Chronicles ai Comment, 1952, Rinehart, 1952. Downing, Sybil, and Jane Valentine Barker, Crown of Life: The Story of Mary Roberts Rinehart, Roberts Rinehart, 1992. /LitRC?vrsn=3&OP=contains&locID=nhc_main&srchtp=athr&ca=1&c=1&ste=6&tab=1&t 12/24/2003 Literature Resource Center -- Author Resource Pages Page 8 of 9 The Encyclopedia of Mystery and Detection, McGraw, 1976. Haycraft, Howard, Murder for Pleasure: The Life and Times of the Detective Story, Biblo and Tannen, 1972. Hoffman, Arnold R., New Dimensions in Popular Culture, edited by Russell B. Nye, Bowling Green University Popular Press, 1972. MacLeod, Charlotte, Had She But Known: A Biography of Mary Roberts Rinehart, Mysterious Press, 1994. Maio, Kathi L., The Female Gothic, edited by Juliann E. Fleenor, Eden Press, 1983. Overton, Grant Martin, When Winter Comes to Main Street, Doran, 1922. Overton, Grant Martin, The Woman behind the Door, Farrar & Rinehart, 1930 Overton, Grant Martin, The Women Who Make Our Novels, Dodd, Mead, 192: The Oxford Companion to American Literature, fourth edition, Oxford University Press, 1965. Rinehart, Mary Roberts, Writing Is Work, The Writer, Incorporated, 1939. Symons, Julian, Mortal Consequences: A History--From the Detective Story to the Crime Novel, Harper & Row, 1972. Twentieth Century Crime and Mystery Writers, St. Martin's Press, 1980. Twentieth Century Literary Criticism, Volume 52, Gale, 1994. Williams, Blanche Colon, Our Short Story Writers, Moffat, Yard, 1920. PERIODICALS Arena, October, 1908, pp. 394-395. Armchair Detective, winter, 1989, pp. 28-37. Journal of Popular Culture, winter, 1977, pp. 581- 590. New York Review of Books, July 6, 1919, pp. 357-358. New York Times Book Review, August 22, 1908, p. 460.* About this Essay: --Sketch by Michael Cisco /LitRC?vrsn=3&OP=contains&locID=nhc_main&srchtp=athr&ca=1&c=1&ste=6&tab=1&t12/24/2003 Harpers Ferry Center: NPS Historic Photo Collection Page 1 of 2 National Park Service U.S. Department of the Interior Harpers Ferry Center NPS Photos > Search the Collection > Photo Search Results > Photo Record Detail NPS Historic Photograph Collection Cataloging Data Image Description Catalog Number: HPC- 001875 Approximate Year: 1900s Other NPS Image Numbers: Park: Glacier National Park W.0.70, RMR-203, GF-G-99 Photographer: Cowling, Herford T. Theme: Visitors Description: (Mary Roberts Rinehart lunching after a Collection: Portrait morning's trouting on Flathead River.) Additional Comments: This title taken from a similar photograph used in "The National Parks Portfolio" by Robert Sterling Yard, 1921. Credit for photograph is U. S. Reclamation Service. Reuse of this image should Most image descriptions have been furnished by the original credit: National Park Service photographer. Place names or geographic references may Historic Photograph have changed since the original photo was taken. Text which http://data2.itc.nps.gov/hafe/hfc/npsphoto4h.cfm?CatalogI No=hpc%2D001875 10/25/2004 212 Improbable Fiction The Writer, 1933-1939 213 youth and masculinity. In fact, he is an ass, and Rinehart enjoys telling us so. Warren can't sleep with the light on; Lilian can't sleep without reading first. As for Camilla, she remains stunned for some time. Repeating an image from She ends up in the guest room, back with her apricot silk curtains, and stays a letter to Stan a few years earlier when they had quarreled, Rinchart says that there. The situation remains difficult, but amiable, until Warren brings a Camilla "could have lost a leg and missed it less. AI last, with her dog home. Matilda, defending the fortress, poisons the puppy and Warren children's urging and support, Camilla goes to Reno and gets a divorce. She leaves in a rage. Lilian fires Matilda and returns to her old ordered life-and even meets an attractive man there, who propositions her-unsuccessfully- finds it intolerable. but remains on the scene as a suitor for marriage. "The Second Marriage" moves on to a happy ending, but it also has a When Camilla returns home, hair cut, in dresses other than blue, she clear enough answer to any questions about a second marriage for Mary. finds that she is learning to lead a life of her own. Jay comes to see her one Lilian eventually agrees to move to the country with Warren, and while joy- day and the effect is disturbing, but what she learns is that while the visit ful that their marriage will continue, she knows what the move means-"that "brought an upsurge of memories she did, not love him any more." the compromise was to be hers, that she was to live his life and not own." Yet, in another familiar Rinehart image, "the chains were still there." A sec- For Lilian Barstow that compromise is well worth it: "She loved and was ond visit, made in his hope of reconciliation, follows. To a reader of Rinehart still loved. She was not alone. '27 For Mary Roberts Rinehart life held other stories, the ending is a surprise, for Camilla drives Jay out of the house and compensations. out of her life. She has come to love "her dearly-bought peace, her small comforts." She sees Jay with clarity, as "pompous and arrogant and incredi- Besides work and family some of those compensations lay in the life bly naive." thought I missed you,' she tells him. "[But] I'm very happy Mary was arranging for herself. By any standards she was making a great deal without you. Happier than I ever was with you.' of money, but at the same time she was, as Stan had always noted, a spender. Certainly, the story is vengeful: A woman learns to live without the She was also a generous woman, especially with her family. Family, in this man who has SO badly bullied and mistreated her. But at the same time it is case, included not only her sons and their wives and children, but her aunts, simply, oddly buoyant, with a resilience that comes from self-discovery and especially Tish whom she helped out for years, and her sister Olive Roberts independence. To be sure, independence is headiest for a woman freeing Barton, who wrote a syndicated column and published children's books with herself from a pompous fool like Jay Rossiter But what about independence Houghton Mifflin. altogether? What about life as a widow? With the money she earned, Mary wanted to surround herself with Mary remained a single woman. The closest she probably came to re- amenities and with luxuries. On the cruise to the North Cape, she had marrying was to try it out imaginatively, by writing "The Second Marriage": stopped in England, where she bought some fine antique furniture, notably "[Lilian] had ten years of loneliness, ten years of frantic searching by the a number of Chippendale and Sheraton chairs. Late in 1934 Mary bought people she knew for an odd man to take her in to dinner, ten years of sitting herself a second-hand Rolls Royce, a gray ("pearl essence") cabriolet. She down to lonely meals in her own house and of resisting the temptation to purchased some paintings, too, a Reynolds, a Lawrence, a Gainsborough, order a tray and cat in a comfortable dressing gown somewhere upstairs." and had a portrait of herself done by the famous illustrator, Howard Chandler Nevertheless, Lilian did not remarry in haste, insisting, "I'm SO comfortable Christie. She liked jewelry, and those who met her late in life recall a woman as I am. "25 wearing a rather astonishing amount of it. She continued to have many of Lilian's acceptance of Warren comes in large part because he agrees to her clothes made for her, and her working uniform, for those hours at her move into her house, a house she and her maid Matilda love and lovingly desk, was one of a number of tailored suits from Bergdorf-Goodman. tend: "Each chair had its place, each vase." At the heart of the house is But what Mary liked best to buy was houses, and she would buy one Lilian's bedroom and her bed with its apricot silk curtains. Each night she more. In the summer of 1935, her damaged heart no longer able to tolerate would (like Mary) read in bed till drowsy, "a soft protecting film of cream on the thin mountain air of Wyoming, she went to Bar Harbor, Maine lan ele- her face and a clean towel over her pillow.' Warren's entry into the house is gant summer resort where she had a number of friends. She rented a cottage not unlike Sherman's march to the sea, with Matilda as Atlanta. His furni- that summer and the following year leased a house. In 1937 Mary bought her ture has been moved into the bedroom; Lilian's things transferred to the own house at Bar Harbor. "Far View," in that depression year, was available guest room. And the very first night there is trouble with that bedroom. at "an absurdly low price," but, like the Sewickley house, it turned out to The Writer, 1933-1939 215 214 Improbable Fiction need a good deal of rebuilding. "My early estimates doubled, then trebled." I was considerably embarrassed, but what was I to do? The car wa: When the work was completed, Mary once more had a magnificent house of beautiful, even to a rug with my monogram on it. There was no turn her own-seven acres, a view of the ocean, a stable "to hold any number of ing back a gift so lavish. the horses I could no longer afford or even ride."29 Built around an open I still have it [in 1948], but my ribald family has always called court, the house was large, gracious, sun filled. My Sin, after-1 perfume of that name!30 The summer population of Bar Harbor combined famous artists, like conductor Walter Damrosch, and equally famous millionaires, like Atwater Mary loved the life at Bar Harbor. It combined the social distinction o Kent-whose income at that time was estimated at $20 million a year. At- Washington with the opportunity to work. And if the cost had, as usual, ex water Kent was a lavishly generous man himself. To Mary's astonishment, ceeded her expectations and her pocketbook, there was the customary solu and some discomfort, he presented her with a Cadillac for one of her birth- tion: "It had always been my policy to earn what 1 bought, and this mean days. At a dinner party one evening, he commented, "That old Rolls-Royce going to work again." But, as Rinehart added, Far View meant more to he of yours is just about through, isn't it?" Mary said that the motor was fine, than an expensive house: "It meant a new interest in life, a new home." but he persisted: "I would like to give you a Cadillac," adding: "I have given Life had taken on a pattern once again. Part of each winter was spent a several away. I like the car." Not long after, the Cadillac arrived. Useppa and the summer at Bar Harbor. For the rest of each year there wa: New York and the family and work. Mary and the boys (Stan, Ted, and Alan) at the country club in Bar Harbor. Mary's health had appeared to stabilize, although she was forced tc curtail some activities because of her heart condition. Then, suddenly, it 1936 she faced a new and more profound terror. She was a Useppa with Star and Fay when she found that she had developed a lump on her breast. Mary had long feared cancer; she had at times believed that the suffering from he gall bladder was attributable to a malignancy. Now she acted with resolution and speed, returning immediat cly to New York and entering the hospital to a biopsy. The lump was malignant and a radical mastectomy was performed Ninc years later Rinchart did a courageous thing that was. in its way. : tribute to her intimacy with her public. In those days breast cancer was not at open subject, nor were mastectomies. But Mary knew that women, from compounded fear and shame, died needlessly of cancers that, left 100 long metastasized. In just such a way had Gratia Houghton Rinchart died in 1939 a little over a year after she and lan had divorced. So, in 1946, the National Cancer Foundation learned that Rinchart would permit an interview wit Gretta Palmer on the subject of her operation for breast cancer The interview "I Had Cancer," was published in The Ladies' I lome Journal in July 1947.1 is a review of Mary's life, familiar enough material, but it includes a plea to women to face up to the possibility of cancer, to have breast examinations and to undergo a mastectomy if necessary. In the 1948 edition of My Story Rinehart noted: "No other article or piece of fiction SO enormous: public reaction. So perhaps I have done some good, as I had hoped. Rinchart maintained her role as a public person even in these quiete In 1934 she was asked 10 be a member of the Conference on Crime years. the only woman on a committee of twenty-one men. At least once, and pos hac sibly twice, she was offered an ambassadorship. Certainly one such offer IMPROBABLE This book is dedicated FICTION -encyclopedically- The Life of to Mary Roberts Rinehart Bill my parents Cathy and David and to all our good friends in Pittsburgh. JAN COHN UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURCH PRESS 1980 1 WORTHWHILE PLACES 1934 - 1943 Correspondence of JDRJr. and Horace u. Albright .J.W.Ernst. RAC, 1991. along the north end of the Candage property. I found the line be given sufficient help to drive this project through. I should extraordinarily good. The brook is in a deeper gorge than I tell you that last winter Mr. Grossman took topography on expected to find but it turns eastward along the Candage line the Camplain Mountain road and ran a line across the Potter inside the Candage property SO that there is practically no Palmer and Livingston properties. That whole road project now likelihood of Candage disturbing what must be the northeastern clear around to a connection with the ocean drive is in such corner of his property. It is only a short distance from the brook shape that it can be made ready for contract very quickly once to the Jordan Pond road, and the timber and brush is very thick the right-of-way problems are solved. along the line, SO keeping back 25 ft. will give ample protection to the new road. As a matter of fact, the engineers plan to build Mary Roberts Rinehart. about a 24 ft. road, which is ample, on the northern part of the 65 ft. strip, that is 40 ft. road right-of-way plus the 25 ft. The famous writer, Mrs. Rinehart, who lives in the late protective strip. Assuming a 24 ft. road is to be built, therefore, Dr. Abbe's house now owned by Atwater Kent, invited me there would be a protective strip of 41 ft. The connection into to luncheon with her yesterday. She has been ill and is just the Jordan Pond road is going to be quite satisfactory. now beginning to see people. She has bought the Phillip I discussed standards with Mr. Grossman, and he said he Livingston place and will move into it this fall. She is thought it would be best to use a wooden trestle over the little tremendously enthusiastic over everything that has been done gorge, first in order to avoid excavation, second in order to avoid in the way of road and trail building. a fill which might later have to be removed, and third, in order She knows the National Park System through many visits to keep the new line more frankly temporary. Finally to keep in the West. She has ridden horseback in Glacier and the cost as low as possible. I agreed with all these points. Yellowstone Parks. She and her boys are enthusiastic riders. Mr. Simpson showed me where the new Dane approach She says her sons and their families have used your horse roads project underpass would be built. It occured to me there on and think they are the finest they have ever seen. She wants the ground that you ought to push this new approach road to be helpful in carrying out your projects, and those of Mr. to the Wildwood Farm as fast as possible, making it available Dorr. I told her about the Atwater Kent Meadow, and its for Mr. Dane before he leaves in the autumn. By that time importance to the Park. She believes that she can be very helpful the new park road would not yet have reached the underpass, in working out this problem. She says Atwater Kent is having and it might be that he would see how utterly foolish it will trouble with his wife and is pretty "low" now. She seemed to be to have two entrances to the Wildwood Farm road, and think that if something could happen that would give him a would not object to the connection with the Jordan Pond road little favorable publicity it would be a good thing for him. I along the permanent line. This is simply a suggestion for you told her a gift of this property or assistance on his part in to give such consideration as it merits. I predict that Mr. Dane arranging for its transfer to the Park would get him some is going to be tremendously pleased with the approach road magnificent publicity. I told her, however, not to do anything that you are going to build for him. about this until she heard from you. Unfortunately the Bureau of Public Roads has been short I would strongly suggest that when you return, Mrs. of engineers, and has not made satisfactory progress in getting Rockefeller and you meet Mrs. Rinehart. I feel that you can ready for the extension of the motor road to the Day Mountain talk freely with her about all your hopes and plans for Acadia. pass including the underpasses. It looks now as if it will be She has the greatest admiration for you and your works. August or September before contract for this section can be She says that Potter Palmer is an uncertain person but that let. I am again writing to Washington urging that Mr. Grossman his wife is a lovely woman and thinks that if we want to get 172 173 2 WORTHWHILE PLACES anything out of Palmer we should work through her. I did not discuss the details of the Palmer problem. I merely said there was something for him to do in connection with carrying out the park plans. Mr. Dorr says that Potter Palmer is entirely under the influence of a man named Charles Pike, who has always been a trouble maker. Pike lives near Palmer. It is rumored that Pike has cancer and cannot live. Arthur Train told Mr. Dorr this a few days ago, and also said that Palmer will object to the road as long as Pike does. Mr. Dorr's final words were "Pike is a pig-headed fellow. He married a daughter of R. A. Alger, former Secretary of War, and she has not been any help". I do not know whether this gossip is of any importance or not but it may offer some leads which can be followed up. This has been a very long report, and I regret that I have had to go into so many details. There are many other things that I picked up that would be worth passing on to you but I do not feel that I should trouble you with them while you are on vacation. Perhaps when I am on the ship next week I will have an opportunity to write them out for you to peruse before you go to Acadia. Laurance was on the train with his wife and baby going down to Bar Harbor. He has a lovely family. I have a note from Secretary Ickes in which he says that he had the pleasure of meeting Mrs. Rockefeller and you in Europe. We finally got the Colonial Historical Park Bill through both Houses, and it has been signed by the President. With all good wishes, I am Faithfully yours, HORACE M. ALBRIGHT Mary Roberts Rinehart. Author. Supporter of the National Park Service. Wrote a book on her travels through Glacier National Park. Atwater Kent. Inventor. Manufacturer of radios. Charles B. Pike. Seal Harbor resident. Opposed Newport road. 174 The Rockefeller Century APPENDIX C Genealogical Chart of the Rockefeller Family J. E.Harr P.J.Johngon. William Avery Rockefeller (1810-1906) 1988. Eliza Davison (1813-1889) Lucy JOHN DAVISON Mary Ann Franklin Francis William (1838-1878) (1839-1937) (1843-1925) (1845-1917) (1845-1847) (1841-1922) Pierson Briggs Laura Celestia Spelman William C. Rudd Helen Scofield Almira Goodsell (d. 1912) (1839-1915) (1845-1915) (1848-1917) (1844-1920) Bessie Alice Alta Edith JOHN DAVISON, Jr. (1866-1906) (1869-1870) (1871-1962) (1872-1932) (1874-1960) II II II II Charles Strong E. Parmalee Prentice Harold Fowler McCormick Abby Greene Aldrich Martha Baird Allen (1862-1940) (1863-1955) (1872-1941) (1874-1948) (1895-1971) 1 child 3 children 5 children Abby JOHN DAVISON 3rd Nelson Laurance Winthrop David (1903-1976). (1906-1978) (1908-1979) (1910- ) (1912-1973) Il (1915- ) 11 II II David Milton Irving Jean Blanchette Mary T. Clark Margaretta Mary French Barbara Jeanette Margaret McGrath (1900-1976) Pardee Mauzé Ferry Hooker (1907- ) F. Murphy (1910 ) Sears Edris (1915- ) I (1892-1949) (1903-1974) (1909- ) (1926- ) (1918- ) 2 children 5 children 4 children 1 child 6 children 4 children 2 children