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2/25/2018

 
PictureWilliam West Durant

I was listening to a 94-year-old man give a confession of a terrible deed he committed when he was eight years-old on the National Public Radio Story Corps. And it made me revisit this blog I wrote a few years ago about my research into one of the main characters in my trilogy on the Durant family, William West Durant (1850-1934).


Over the past few years I've scoured library museum collections to discover more about William and along the way I've learned that he may have embellished, and he definitely left out, some elements of his life story to his last known biographer, Harold Hochschild.

For me, the quest to find the truth started when I read Mary Ellen Domblewski's dissertation on William's style of Great Camp Architecture (Cornell University, 1974). In it she conjectures that Durant may have visited Switzerland, specifically Bernese Oberland, during his time abroad in the 1860-70s. It would be there, she believed, he would have observed the Swiss cottage style that he emulates at his Great Camps in the Adirondacks: Pine Knot and Sagamore.

Finding no evidence of his travel to this region from his papers in the Adirondack Museum, I visited the Library of Congress to view papers that were donated by his second wife Annie in the 1960s. The first thing that struck me was a type written biography - the first page in the folder  - it was not signed or dated and it was almost word for word what I had read in Harold Hochschild’s account (1962), as if his wife Annie wanted whomever read his letters to know, this was his official biography, this is what the world should remember about him. And I suppose she may have been correct, it is what ended up in other biographies written about him, and his Wikipedia page.

Most of his documents at the Library of Congress were personal correspondence dated between 1860-1899. Many were from friends in England. I read through every letter in the folder, documenting the addresses and places William had traveled in his youth. One particular letter struck me. It was from his dear friend William Napier, later to become 11th Lord Napier of Merchistoun. It was dated 1870; William would have been twenty years old, just returning from his first trip along the Nile. In it Lord Napier asks him:
how the deuce did you end up in Dresden? I later found letters (1869) in the Durant family volumes at the New York Public Library (NYPL) from Mrs. Durant to Dr. Durant stating that she and Ella were staying in Dorf Gastein (present day Austria) to take in the healing waters and that William was traveling back from Dresden to see them. I believe William drew his inspiration for his Great Camps from Austria and from the English Royal family's chalet at Osborne House on the Isle of Wight, not Switzerland as many of his biographies conjectured.

I also found no evidence that William had any formal education although the Hochschild biography states he attended University of Bonn. None of his letters at the Library of Congress indicate he ever stayed in Bonn. It seemed to be a big missing link. In fact, his good friend, Lord Napier, wrote to William regularly from 1869-1899 and while mentioning his own exams and entrance into the foreign service, never once asks William about his own studies.

That piqued by curiosity so I contacted the University of Bonn archivist who searched and found no record of William attending from 1866-1874. If William was enrolled at the University, it must not have been an official enrollment, maybe he sat in on some classes?

Why though would William tell Hochshild he attended Bonn University? Was he trying to give the impression he attended a University that was also attended by Royalty? I wasn’t sure. It got me wondering though what other things he told his biographer Hochschild that may have been a stretch of the truth or downright exaggeration of fact. Was he purposely being misleading because he knew they were documenting his life story or was he at an age in his life where he may have believed these things himself?

Discovering this tidbit of inaccuracy made me also wonder about his claim, that he hosted royalty on his yacht the Utowana while stationed in Cowes on the Isle of Wight during the races in August 1891-92. Hochschild states in his biography (1862) that he viewed the registry and it bore the signatures of the Prince of Wales, Prince Henry of Prussia, and the Duke of Connaught. Where was this registry then? I couldn’t find it. That surprised me given that William saved a lot of personal memorabilia: menus from Egypt and Paris restaurants, notes from ladies he knew, his first hunting license acquired at age 16 on the Isle of Wight. Wouldn’t he have saved the guest registry, as it had great significance to him and especially if he’d kept it up to the point where Hochschild was able to see it? Another mystery. It was solved by his great-granddaughter - the guest registry is in family hands. 

I also found a letter from William addressed to Poultney Bigelow (1932) in the New York Public Library where he writes to Poultney: You from boyhood knew the Kaiser, but since 1892 I had his brother as an agreeable friend.


Well there you have it, maybe he did know royalty. It does lend itself to a better story. As I worked on the third book in the trilogy on the Durants, I found myself wondering what would William think of my portrayal of him? In the narrative he's in his early eighties, telling his story to Harold Hochschild, his last biographer. What elements of his life would he embellish for the sake of his legacy and what would he leave out?

If you were telling your story, what parts would you embellish? More importantly, what would you leave out?  We all have our secrets. I suppose the biggest decision would be what to leave unknown.


Dear RSS Readers:

11/16/2016

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Picture
Dear RSS Feed Readers: Thanks for following me even if I don’t know who you are. RSS  (Real Simple Syndication)  alerts subscribers when there are updates to a favorite website or blog (note the RSS Feed button to the right of this page if you want to subscribe).
 
Although I have a robust email list, the subscribers to the RSS feed on my blog page remain a mystery to me but I don't mind. I like when I post a new blog and lo and behold get thousands of hits to my webpage. But, dear RSS Feed Readers, you may be wondering why my updates are not popping into your feeds lately. So I thought I’d explain.
 
I’m busy writing my third book in the trilogy on the Durant Family, and I’m assuming that’s why you’re following me: to find out what I’ve learned in my research and how my work is progressing. Well, I can definitively tell you, slowly. I’m still researching, still discovering new material, but I’m not ready to reveal all of it, yet. As for my writing schedule, I decided to slow it all down. I cranked out the first two books in the trilogy over the course of three years. To do this I had to spend every day during the summer months and during my scheduled academic breaks writing. Although I didn’t mind the grueling schedule I never had time for friends or family. And last summer was just too gorgeous to not be outside! So instead of writing every day, I swam in the lake, read good and bad books, and traveled to the Adirondacks to speak about my work to over 100 people at various events. It was fun.
 
I have also learned that slowing down the pace of writing has allowed me to dwell more in the heads of my characters. The third book in this trilogy starts in 1931 when William and Ella are in their late 70s. They are meeting with people that want to write their biography. For William that person is Harold Hochschild, founder of the Adirondack Museum, and the last biographer to actually invite William to his Adirondack home at Eagle Nest, Blue Mountain, NY and talk to him about his life. For Ella it is Poultney Bigelow, her one-time lover and dear friend. She finds herself at his home on Malden-on-Hudson, NY and they rehash her life story.
 
Interestingly, both Harold’s home and Poultney’s home still stand. I would like to visit these places, have been meaning to visit Poultney’s house and even set up an appointment to do so but had to cancel. As for Harold’s house, well if any of you RSS readers have a connection for me, let me know. I enjoy writing about atmosphere.
 
Dwelling in the minds of my characters over the course of time has also allowed me to consider carefully their reactions to the most traumatic time period in their lives: THE LAWSUIT between brother and sister over the family Adirondack land holdings. I thought I’d let the whole thing breath.
 
As for continuing to blog on this site – well I’ve found other outlets and other things to write about that have nothing to do with the Durants, and I like that as well.
 
So if you’ve been wondering where I’ve been, or why I’m not updating the feed consistently, that is why. Don’t expect the third book to come out in spring 2017. I’ve slowed my pace down.

Thank you, RSS Readers, for following my progress. If you decide you'd like to join my email list, you can subscribe right here. As you might imagine, I don't clog up people's inbox with my updates.



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    Sheila Myers  Professor at Cayuga Community College in Upstate New York.

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