Rockwell Kent "Wilderness" Centennial Journal

ROCKWELL KENT WILDERNESS CENTENNIAL JOURNAL 100 YEARS LATER by Doug Capra © 2018-19 Thursday -- March 29, 1919 HE MAKES REPLY ABOVE – The front page of the Saturday edition of the Seward Gateway ( The Alaska Evening Post ) for March 29, 1919. Note Kent’s response in the center: HE MAKES REPLY. I’ll place a larger and clearer copy of the letter further down. We don’t know when Kent learns of Mary Bain Wright’s letter. Although he may have just bought a newspaper, it’s more likely one of his friends shows it to him. Sometime late in the day of March 28, 1919, Rockwell Kent reads Mary the schoolteacher’s letter to the editor of the Seward Gateway . It’s front page center with a definite challenge: WANTED – AN EXPLANATION. That’s a challenge Rockwell Kent cannot ignore. Since it’s to be their last night in town, he and Rockie are probably at a farewell dinner with the Brownell’s or the Root’s.  It is difficult enough for Kent and Rockie with their final pa

ROCKWELL KENT WILDERNESS CENTENNIAL JOURNAL 100 YEARS LATER by Doug Capra © 2018-19 Friday -- March 28, 1919 WANTED – AN EXPLANATION ABOVE -- Eight-year-old Rockie (at far right) with some children he has befriended on board the steamship to Alaska. Photo by Rockwell Kent, courtesy of the Rockwell Kent Gallery, Plattsburgh State University, Plattsburgh, N.Y. The Thursday, March 27 edition of the Seward Gateway with Kent’s Praise for Alaska letter came out late that afternoon. We can easily imagine the varied reactions it caused. That evening around dinner tables and in saloons it must have been a topic for conversation. The discourse probably continued the next morning in the cafes over coffee and donuts. People took sides. Who was this peculiar artist who had spent the winter on Fox Island? The old guard like Hawkins, Brownell, Graef, and the Roots who had socialized with him perhaps tried to explain. They could understand what he was talking about