EARLY TO MID-DECEMBER 2018
ROCKWELL KENT WILDERNESS CENTENNIAL JOURNAL
100 YEARS LATER
by Doug Capra © 2018
Early to Mid-December 2018
BELOW -- Pioneers (or Into the Sun), 1919. Oil on canvas, 28 x 44 ¼ in. In
a Dec. 8, 1918 letter to Kathleen, Kent describes a painting that could be the one below: “A blue sunlit day with the mountains sharp and clear. A picture of our
cove with the sun setting straight in the middle and reflected in a broad glare
right at my feet. A little cabin is in this picture and there will be people
and whales.” If this is the picture described, Kent decided to take out the
whales.
SOME THOUGHTS ABOUT THE KENT ALASKA LETTERS
I’m writing this on Monday, Dec. 17, 2018. As you can see, I’m a
few days behind in my attempt to keep right on the actual date. The process of
transcribing the Kent Alaska letters is enjoyable, sometimes entertaining,
frustrating, exhausting and extremely time-consuming. My wife, Cindy, reads the
hard copies of the letters to me while I both transcribe and occasionally check
questionable words on a digital copy. Kent has nothing but time while on Fox
Island: time to paint, cook, cut firewood, listen and talk with Olson, supervise
Rockie’s education and read to him, go for hikes – and of course, write
letters. He writes and writes and writes. As an example, between Dec. 8th
and Dec. 13, Kent wrote 27 pages just to Kathleen. He’s also writing to his
friend Carl Zigrosser, Hildegarde, his mother, his children, and several
others. In addition, he’s compiling an illustrated diary that he hopes to bind
as a memory for Rockie. Here are some observations about the letters to and
from Kathleen and those to Hildegarde (Hildegarde’s letters to Kent have not
survived).
Kent’s Victorian education and romantic
nature is clear in both the content and style of his letters. He loved English
and grammar studies. “I think I liked it particularly because, as it was then
taught,” he wrote in his autobiography, “we diagrammed sentences, made pictures
of them, showing them to be somewhat like living trees having the power to grow
and, branching out, bear leaves and blossoms. And the more intricate a sentence
was, the more I delighted in the interrelationship of its parts, articulating
them, and making sure the sap could reach and nourish every last branch.”
This is an accurate description of his
letters, especially to Kathleen. The sentences are long, moving from clause to
clause with various phrases and dashes in between. Some are so complex that
when I transcribe them I’ve put in missing punctuation to make them clear to
the reader. When he feels insecure, depressed and neglected while writing
letters during the late evening and early morning hours (The Hour of the Wolf) –
he rambles. The syntax becomes confusing as the sentences go on and on. I’ve
had to take some of those sentences apart a phrase and clause at a time to
figure out what he’s trying to say.
That covers the style – now for the
content. He’s able to compartmentalize his ideas. There’s the overly,
sentimental romantic love letter section to Kathleen and Hildegarde. There’s
the section about activities on Fox Island and stories about Rockie for
Kathleen. He may then move to more practical matters – items he wants sent to
him or other chores he wants done at home. Then, with Kathleen, there are the
rants, criticisms, and pleadings for her complete faithfulness to him. He wants
long letters filled with the same kind of romantic rhetoric he’s providing her.
While on Fox Island he reads his stack of letters from Kathleen over and over
again. He studies them, analyzes them, sometimes even counts the words and
compares them to how many words he writes to her. She always loses that
competition. Kent is disappointed that Kathleen isn’t answering all the questions
he’s asking. After reading a stack of her letters, he writes a long response
with a list of very specific responses to very specific items she has covered.
He wants her to do the same for him.
In a Dec.
8, 1918 letter to her he writes: “I think
that in every letter I shall ask you to read over all my letters and answer one
by one every question I have asked you and every request. Please. And please,
darling, when you have written to the end of your last page of your day’s
doings don’t skimp on those lines that are to me the best of all. You have
often – for lack of space – had to write a short, a curt, goodbye squeezed in
somewhere in a margin. Take, please, a new page and write as follows. {He underlines each word} I love
you forever and ever with all my heart and soul. Believe me fiercely in my
devotion, for every thought I love and every dream all tenderness and beauty
that I have is yours alone and our children’s for now through all the days of
our life.”
On Dec. 9,
1918 he writes: “I ask you now again to
please read over all my letters and
answer everything that I have asked you – enter into their spirit and talk to
me of the things I have spoken of. And tell me just how many you have received,
mention the photographs, the postcards, everything. Please darling do this even
if you have to take a whole evening week for it.” Notice that he crossed
out “evening” no doubt realizing that he’s already sent perhaps 200 pages or
more to Kathleen that she'd need a least a week to analyze.
As my wife and I plow
through Kent’s letters, we can’t imagine what it must be like for Kathleen to
receive batches of letters – perhaps 30 or 40 pages at a time. When does she
have time to read them all? And having read them, where would she get the time
to give Kent the detailed responses he requires?
Most of Kathleen’s
letters are maybe four pages with large handwriting and small paper sizes, especially
when she’s on Monhegan Island with little support. She writes about their children,
about the weather, about cooking and mending and cleaning. She does taunt him by talking about the dances she attends and the men she meets. Kathleen often reveals
she’s writing late in the evening after all her work is done and the children
are asleep. Once they move to the Berkshires with her family, it’s obvious Kathleen
has help and more time. She goes on road trips to visit the fall foliage and
attends parties. From there she writes Kent a few long letters filled with the
kind of romantic language and admiration he craves. Unfortunately, most of
those letters are either damaged or have faded and are difficult to read – but my
wife and I have been able to get the gist of them. In his letters to her, Kent
says he wants more letters like that. Once Kathleen moves to New York City she
again has more support and help with the children. Her friends Bernice and
Billy take her to Broadway shows and musical entertainments and she writes
about shopping and other excursions. It’s clear she’s enjoying herself, and
also clear that Kent doesn’t like it. If she has time for those activities, she
has time to sit at home, reread all his letters, and write long detailed,
loving responses to him.
Kathleen can write a
letter and mail it that same day. Still, her letters can take weeks to arrive
in Alaska though not always in large batches. Kent will spend two or three weeks
on Fox Island writing dozens of letters. Then in Seward, after getting those on
a steamship, he writes a dozen or so more so they can get off before he returns
to the island. Kathleen and Kent are not communicating in any realistic
fashion. If only you were here and we could talk, Kent often says. That’s one
reason he wants her to join him. He’s told his wife that the affair with
Hildegarde is over yet he continues to write to her through February 1919.
Meanwhile Kent continues to paint and is anxious to share his accomplishments with Kathleen –
which he does in quite an interesting letter in which he also writes about
Rockie’s potential artistic career.
MORE RESURRECTION BAY SUNRISES
MORE RESURRECTION BAY SUNRISES
Seward Small Boat Harbor. Photo by Nichole Lawrence
Photo by Jim Pfeiffenberger
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