Constance Fenimore Woolson: Portrait of a Lady Novelist by Anne Boyd Rioux - 2016

Website of Anne Boyd Rioux 

Constance Fenimore Woolson: Portrait of a Lady Novelist by Anne Boyd Rioux - 2016

March 5, 1840 - Claremont, New Hampshire

1869 - her father dies

1870 - Woolson begins her publishing career

1873 to 1879 - Woolson and her mother live in St. Augustine, Florida. She publishes several short stories set in that area of Florida.  (I have posted on three of the stories.  They are a valuable edition to the early literature of Florida.)

1879 - her mother dies, Woolson is left a modest income.  She moves to Europe, first living in England, then traveling in France, Germany and Switzerland. (She wrote a well received book about her trip down the Nile.) She becomes entranced by Italy, living for a time in Florence before settling in a villa in Venice.

1880 - Anne, her first novel, is published

1880 - She meets Henry James - much of her emotional life will be
 centered on her relationship to James

1881 - Portrait of a Lady by Henry James is published

January 24, 1894 - Venice, Italy -she dies in a three story fall- it is unclear if this was suicide or an accident.

Constance Fenimore Woolson: Portrait of a Lady Novelist by Anne Boyd Rioux is the first biography of Woolson.  Rioux also published a collection of Woolson's short stories, Miss Grief and other Stories. (I have posted on ten of these Stories.)

Constance Fenimore Woolson, grand niece of James Fenimore Cooper (author of Last of the Mochicans), was during her lifetime one of America's most read novelists, travel writers and short story authors.   The literary world, especially those into American literature, owe a significant debt to Anne Boyd Rioux for bring her person and her work back to life.  Without her, most of us, me for sure, would have missed out on her wonderful short stories and novels.  

Rioux structures her superb biography around two connected mysteries.  Woolson died in Venice, in a three story fall from her villa. Some thought  it was an accident, others suicide.  Woolson had acfourteen year relationship with Henry James.  Rioux expertly, using texts by James and Woolson as well as correspondence, to unravel as much as one can the nature of their relationship.  One thing it was not was sexual but it did, for sure on Woolson's side, transcend friendship and that of iterary mentoring.
Woolson did have a romantic attachment before moving to Europe but the man died young.  She never married or had children.  

There is a profound irony in linking the title of the biography to Portrait of a Lady by Henry James.  (It was written prior to them meeting.) Like the lead character in the novel, Woolson went to Europe.  Being a lady in the late 19th century was a mark of class but also a trap.  Ladies were not supposed to need to work but Woolson depended on her income from publishing. ( I was surprised by the large volume of travel writings she published in American journals.). Woolson had friends and relatives in most of her European stops.  A lady socialized only with peers.  Rioux goes into detail on this.  A lady can have friendships with appropriate men but no sex outside of a marriage.  James was an interesting case, Rioux made me feel Woolson  was in love with Henry James and felt deep emotional frustration due to the still a bit mysterious sexual orientation of James which prevented a development of their relationship. Probably the late Victorian inhibitions of Woolson prevented her from falling deeply in love with James.  My conclusion after reading the bio was that Woolson had no sexual experiences.  Rioux tells us she did develop a close relationship with a man thirty years older than her, based on cultural interests.

Rioux shows how the Woolson family moved frequently during the younger days of Woolson.  She was close to her siblings and kept in touch with them while in Europe.  Woolson started her literary career with stories about the great lakes region.  Then, with her move to Saint Augustine in N. E. Florida, set stories in that region.  Rioux shows us Woolson loved Florida and often talked of moving back there but never left Europe.  She also write short stories about the aftermath of the Cival War in the South.  Rioux connects her travels to her stories.  Once she moved to Europe she set stories in England, Switzerland and Italy.  Rioux beautifully details her living conditions as  she moved.  Woolson was taken over by the art and history of Italy.  I was happy she at least got to live in a villa in Venice.

Rioux goes into detail about the economics of her work and her relationships to American publishers.

At the center of Rioux's narrative of Woolson's life is her relationship to Henry James.  Did she commit suicide over the frustrations of this relationship?  We will never know, there was no note.  It is safe to say this relationship hurt her deeply.  There are short stories,his novel The Wing of the Dovd and a novella by James centering on a man who loved a woman but never advanced the relationship.  Some say these stories were inspaired by his  relationship to Woolson.

I like finding connections between the works I read.  Last month I read Ron Chernow's biography of Alexander Hamilton.  Hamilton married into a very wealthy New York family, headed by Philip Schuyler.  Schuyler, father of Edith Hamilton, was a general during the American Revolution and a United States Senator for New York.

I was intrigued when I came on this from Rioux,

"Unlike earlier in Florence, Woolson was the feted literary lion, with no one else’s shadow to hide in. The American consul Eugene Schuyler visited her daily.... A career diplomat, he was also the author of a series of essays on Russian history and literature for Scribner’s Magazine as well as the first English translator of Turgenev and Tolstoy. He hated Egypt, he told Woolson, but he loved spending time with her and talking about writing. Her literary views were a revelation to him. “She has quite set me up,” he wrote to a correspondent. “She cares not about plot, but only for the way things are done, and she puts my little stories way, way up, next to the French, for facture [workmanship]".

Eugene Schuyler did indeed have Phillip Schuyler as an ancestor.
(He had an interesting life. Wikipedia has a good article.) 

Rioux tells us about the many very cultured people Woolson met. Rioux does not explain how Eugene Schuyler came to meet Woolson, maybe it was through his counselor work.  He introduced her to numerous educated Americans in England and did through this enrich her life.  

This is a wonderful biography.  It is a portrait not just of a lady novelist but of her mileu. I highly recommend this book.

I am very much looking forward to this book, forthcoming February 2020.  At 750 pages I'm anticipating it will include all her stories
Constance Fenimore Woolson: Collected Stories (LOA #327) (Library of America) Kindle Edition
by Constance Fenimore Woolson (Author), Anne Boyd Rioux (Editor)

It is available for pre-order and very fairly priced at $12.95

(For bio data on Rioux, see her webpage)

Mel u

"Sister Saint Luke" by Constance Fenimore Woolson (1877, included in Miss Grief and other Stories, edited by Anne Boyd Rioux, forthcoming February, 2016)

Homepage of The Constance  Fenimore Woolson Society

Homepage of Anne Boyd Rioux

My Posts on Constance Fenimore Woolson 

One of the joys of the reading life is coming upon a new to you writer and feeling like you have been encountered a writer you wish you would have begun reading long ago.    I am beginning to feel that way about Constance Fenimore Woolson.  (1840 to 1894, USA- there is a little background information in my prior post.)  

Woolson is as a very well traveled person, especially for woman in her day.  She lived on and offin Florida, with her mother whose health took them there, from 1873 to 1878.  She lived near St. Augustine.  From Anne Boyd Rioux's very good introduction I learned that Woolson loved the untamed wilderness of the area, often cruising water ways, sometimes by herself.

"Sister Saint Luke" is set largely on Pelican Island, barrier island just at the mouth of the Matanzas Island near St. Ausustine, Florida.

                                                                   Pelican Island

There are five people in the story.  Keith and Carrington are two friends who have come together from the north to enjoy the wildness of the area and get away from the cold, tourists.  The other characters include Pedro, a descendent so of the Minorcan colonists who had come long ago in a group of 1300 or so from Greece, as indentured servants,  I Goggled the Minorcans and was fascinated to learn some very interesting Florida history.  I admit I was impressed that pre-Internet Woolson knew this aspect of local history.  To me this shows the real respect Woolson has for her subjects.  Never in this story do I feel the what could have been made backwoods Florida characters treated in a fashion that tries to reduce their full humanity.  We also meet Melvyna, she came from the north to be a private duty nurse and stay there when her patient died.  She ended up marrying Pedro.  I really liked the depiction of their marriage.  They live on Pelican Island and keep the lighthouse there.  Keith and Carrington are staying there a while and they also meet an ex-nun, Sister St Luke who also stays there.

Melvyna is a strong self reliant woman living in a place where you have to know how to take care of your self and your family.  She and Pedro have a good, it seems, relationship.  Buried in the storyline is no doubt a commentary on the differences of the attitudes toward life of Catholic Pedro, his name is no accident, and  Protestant Mevyna of tough "Yankee" stock.  Sister Saint Luke is an interesting person, it seems somehow she was left at a nunnery at an early age and put out once she became an adult.  She is a bit child like, longing to return to the security of the nunnery.  The characters of Keith and Carrington are not quite as well developed but from their actions and words we get to know them.  They are both decent men.

There are beautiful descriptions of the area.  There is a powerful storm.  The description of the flock of 100s of Pelicans makes me so wish I could time travel to see it.  

Exciting things happen toward the close of the story which I will leave for others to enjoy discovering as I very much did.

I really enjoyed reading this story.  I have a special interest in Florida history and that made the story resonate greatly with me.  

In her very well done introduction to Miss Grief and other Stories Anne Boyd Rioux mentions two other set in Florida short stories and I hope to read them both very soon.  

There is a lot of depth in this story, issues about cultural contrast buried in a passing remark.  It is also flat out a lot of fun to read.