DECEMBER 10, 11, 12, 2018

ROCKWELL KENT WILDERNESS CENTENNIAL JOURNAL

100 YEARS LATER

by Doug Capra © 2018

December 10, 11, 12, 2018

North Wind, 1919
Oil on canvas mounted on board
41 1/4 x 34 1/8 in.

Tuesday, December 10, 1918

Another fiercely cold day – with that ferocious north wind. He accomplishes little, but in the back of his mind is yesterday’s idea for a new painting -- an homage to the North Wind. “Surely after the past four days,” Kent writes, “I may tell with authority of that wild Prince of the North.” Today he visits Olson and is charmed by what he sees. “There he sits near the stove, a black astrakham cap on his head and the two female goats in full possession of the cabin. Nanny, the milch goat is a most affectionate creature. She lays her head on Olson’s lap and as he scratches her head her eyes close in blissful content. “See her pretty little face and her lovely lips,” Kent reports Olson’s words to him and adds “He’s certainly the kindest creature to animals – and to human ones too we have good reason to know.”

Kent took this photo of Olson in his cabin with his goats.

Wednesday, December 11, 1918

It’s milder to day with the sun and a thick fog low enough on the water to allow the snow-covered mountains to sparkle in the sunlight.

The kind of scene Kent would have viewed from Fox Island. Low fog on the waters of Resurrection Bay. Capra photo, taken from the site of Olson's cabin.

Kent’s is busy. He bakes bread, cuts firewood and helps Olson with some chores. He also roughhouses with his son. When Rockie first arrived in Seward and met some local boys, he boasted that he could count to ten in German – not a good skill to brag about in the fall of 1918. On one occasion he was pushed up against a building and bullied about his love of the Germans. “They were intent on provoking me into a fight,” Rockie wrote in a memoir (Rockwell Kent Review, Fall 2014). He refused to fight. “When I told Father about these incidents, he delivered to me a sermon on manliness, followed by boxing lessons.” Kent doesn’t embrace violence but believes in self-defense.

Kent took this photo of Rockie on Fox Island.

Rockie is tall for his age; he just turned nine in October but looks older. He’s helps his father fell trees, work the crosscut saw, and split firewood. Kent wants to show him how strong he is, that he shouldn’t be afraid to fight if it becomes necessary. “I train him for the fight he’s bound to have some day by letting him attack me with all his strength,” Kent writes, “and that has come to be not a little thing.” In a letter to his mother on Feb. 2, 1919, Rockie tells Kathleen that after a visit to Mr. Olson’s cabin, “on our way back we had a fit {fight} and Father nokd {knocked} me over lots of times.” In his memoir Rockie writes, “I never did become a respectable boxer. I learned later that my nose was very sensitive.”

Page 2 of Rockies Feb. 2, 1919 letter to his mother.

Thursday, December 12, 1918

The great north wind dies down today. Calm, clear, sunny – almost like a summer day – so bright and blue that Kent takes his painting, North Wind and stands it facing out in the doorway and “from far off it still showed as vivid, more vivid, and brilliant than nature itself. It’s the first time I‘ve taken my pictures into the broad light. There’s where they should be seen.” The calm interlude lasts until…

Friday, December 13, 1918

 …four the next morning and then the north wind, as if to celebrate Kent’s painting, “again struck in and the trees roared and the roof creaked and groaned.” But though it dies down later in day, the stinging cold remains. Kent’s morning began as if often did dealing with firewood. He and Rockie felled a spruce two feet in diameter. “Its wood should last us many weeks,” Kent writes. On days like this it’s off and on, wood cutting and painting. “If I’m out-of-doors busy with the saw or axe I jump at once to my paints when an idea comes.” Today it’s a dramatic cloud effect that interrupts him. He painted two pictures outside this day.

To the Universe, 1918-19, Oil on Canvas, 34 ¼ x 28” 

Courtesy of the American Humanist Association.

In a Dec. 8, 1918 letter to Kathleen, Kent describes this painting: "A picture called “To God!” A naked man stands straight up in the picture, at his right hand, falling the full picture height & more, a waterfall; in his left hand is a goblet of sparkling water that he holds aloft against the profound black sky. All about the figure is an aura of light. Otters play at his feet, and beyond is the dark sea and a mountainous land." The frozen waterfall is probably based upon the one both Kent and Rockie often write about. It's at the north end of their cove.

“That’s bitterly cold work,” he admits, “to crouch down in the snow; through bent knees the blood goes slowly, feet are numbed, fingers stiffen. But the warm cabin is near…”

Kent’s is exuberant as he paints or pioneers in the daylight. It’s unlike the dark, gloomy Hour of the Wolf -- those late evening and early morning times when his demonic insecurities attack. The “trivial enterprises” of the city with its “fight and play” culture seems insignificant and distant from Fox Island. He feels the difference between exile and isolation. “It’s a fine life,” he begins to see, “and more and more I realize that for me at least such isolation – not from my friends but from the unfriendly world – is the only right life for me.” The perfection the place itself is the person of Olson. “I’m not an admirer of the ‘picturesqueness’ of rustic character,” Kent writes. “Seen close to, it’s generally damnably stupid and coarse. I have seen the working class from near at hand and without illusion. But Olson! He has such tact and understanding, such kindness and courtesy as put him outside of all classes, where true men belong.”

Lars Matt Olson in Seward, 1916

The old Swede has more stories to tell this day. “If only it were possible to put down faithfully all of Olson’s stories!” Kent laments. In 1888 Olson returns to San Francisco from the Yukon with his partners and $7000 in gold – “the little band of weather-beaten crippled miners." Olson is on crutches from scurvy -- “his beard and hair were of a year’s growth," and all of them  in their working clothes, “bearded, brown, free spirited.” In my play about Kent on Fox Island – And Now the World Again – I’ve tried to capture Olson’s character, voice, and story-telling skills.The way Olson narrates his tales,” Kent reports, makes “you yourself live in that day.” Kent probably tries to quote Olson verbatim as the old man plays the various parts beginning with their hotel landlady who tells them: “You boys have some of you been in Alaska for years and I know about how you’ve lived. Now that your back you must have a hankering for some things. Tell me what you want and I’ll get it for you.” One of Olson’s partners speaks up: “I remember how may mother used to have cabbage. I want you to get me one big head and cook it and let me have it all to myself.” After dinner the miners visit the San Francisco music halls and get their share of liquor and women. The next day they get cash for their gold and buy suits of new clothes. Olson moves on to talk about when he heard about Custer’s massacre, and ends by giving them some practical advice. Kent sums up Olson’s horse sense: “When a horse swims with you across a stream guide him with your hand on his neck, but pull not ever so little on the line or he’ll rear backwards in the water and likely drown himself and you.”

Saturday, December 14, 1918

Little art work today, only all the necessary chores – but Kent has made deal with Olson. Kent probably reveals some of Kathleen’s concerns to the old Swede and says he and Rockie will have to leave Alaska sooner unless she can be convinced to join them on Fox Island. Kent knows how much Olson wants them to stay, so he urges him to write a letter to Kathleen convincing her to come to Alaska. Olson reads his letter to the Kents this evening. I’ve found that 8-page letter, and it is so charming that I’ve devoted an entire scene to it in my play about Kent on Fox Island.

I’ve printed the first page of the letter below. Notice that the date in the upper right-hand corner -- Dec. 22nd -- is in Kent's handwriting. Kent first writes about hearing the letter read to him by Olson on Dec. 14th. It's seems obvious that the letter went through a few drafts between Dec. 14th and Dec. 22, and that Kent had some influence in what the old Swede wrote. Olson’s accent is clearly reflected in the way he spells. His dialogue in the scene below doesn’t show the accent. The actor I had play Olson studied all his letters and incorporated the accent into his character . Read the letter closely and say some of the sentences aloud to get an idea of Olson's speech.

Most of Olson’s words in this scene come directly from that letter. I’ve taken the dramatic license of indicating my belief that Olson didn’t write that letter alone. I’m convinced Kent coached Olson, and the old Swede fought back, as I’ve shown in the scene below:

AND NOW THE WORLD AGAIN

by Doug Capra © 2018

DRAFT – Dec. 16, 2018

ACT II

SCENE 1

“AND IF YOU DON’T, IT’S ALL THE SAME TO ME”

CHARACTERS

Kent

Olson

Rockie

KENT (To the audience)

I’ve said little to Olson about Kathleen, but I suspect he knows more than I realize. He sees my moods, and I’ve dropped some hints lately about having to leave Alaska early. I ask the old man to write a letter to Kathleen.

OLSON (Enters)

I don’t know, Mr. Kent.

ROCKIE

Please, Mr. Olson. See if you can get Mother to come with the kiddies.

KENT

Remember what you said?

OLSON

What did I say?

ROCKIE

You said you’d give anything if Mother and the kiddies could be here with us? You said it! I heard you!

OLSON

Yes, I did say that, didn’t I.

KENT

Just a letter. I miss her and the children so much.

ROCKIE

Me, too – little Kathleen and Clara and little Hildegarde. We could all sleep on the floor by the big stove and Mother and Father could have the bed.

KENT

Convince her to join me here with the children. Or at least ask her to come alone and leave the children with my mother. She’s agreed to take them. Describe our life on the island.

ROCKIE

Tell her about the whales and the otters and the eagles and the magpies and the porcupines. I’ll draw some pictures for you to send with your letter.

OLSON

I’m not much with words. You write the letter, Mr. Kent, and I’ll just add a word or two.

KENT

She’s tired of my begging, Lars. Her replies make it clear she won’t come.

ROCKIE

Father was lucky Mother let him take me to Alaska. I heard them arguing.

KENT

When did you hear us?

ROCKIE

When Mother came to New York. You argued about Hildegarde, too.

KENT

Is that so? You shouldn’t have been listening. These are adult matters.

ROCKIE (Hauty)

I know more than you think. Mother doesn’t like the way you and…

KENT (Not wanting to get angry)

Enough now.

OLSON

(To Kent)

You don’t understand women.

KENT (Angry. Pause while he calms down. Changes tactics)

Precisely, Lars. What I need, my friend, is an older, more experienced man who really understands women.  Like you.

OLSON

Well, I suppose I could write a short letter for you.

KENT

Write just the way you speak-- the way you tell us your stories. If this doesn’t work, my friend, we’ll have to leave Alaska sooner that we planned.

(To the Audience)

I may have neither a marriage nor a family when I do return.

OLSON

Okay. I’ll go back to my cabin and work on this. I’ll really let her have it -- give her everything I’ve got.

(TRANSITION)

KENT

Another day. December 14, 1918. Olson brings over a draft of his letter to Kathleen and reads it to us. It’s just like him to be really himself -- even in his letter writing. But we did make a few changes.

OLSON

I don’t know about this. She’ll think, what kind of an old fool is this. Ah, well -- what do I care. I just said whatever I felt like saying.

KENT

(To the Audience)

And he always does. Reminds me of William Blake’s proverb, “Always speak the truth and base men will avoid you.”

OLSON

Dear Mrs. Kent: Your husband and your son are staying at this place so we are neighbors.

KENT

(Pacing)

Tell her I’m busy painting.

OLSON

I did, I did. Mr. Kent is very busy painting. You see?  Sometimes I go over to their cabin and sometimes they come to my cabin and we are talking over the old times. They are very good company to me.

KENT

Tell her about yourself, Lars.

OLSON

Just listen, and learn how an older, more experienced man who really understands women handles the situation. I think Mr. Kent told you that I am an old Alaskan. I have lived on this island, ah -- this is my 4th year -- and this is the first winter anybody stayed here with me. So I am very glad. We all get along fine.

ROCKIE

Tell her about me.

KENT

Yes, tell her about Rocky.

OLSON

It’s coming. It’s coming. Your boy is just fine, painting all the monkeyshine he can think of. And he’s growing and growing every day. If you don’t see him before he gets back, you will not know him.

KENT

Excellent. Excellent.

OLSON

You don’t understand women. Ah, let’s see...Mr. Kent and me have been talking over different subjects...

KENT

In regard to you making a trip to Alaska...

OLSON

I’ll get to that later

KENT

Oh please, Lars – just get to the point. Please?

OLSON

Okay. Okay (Writing slowly, sounding out his words) In regard to you making a trip to Alaska (Pause)

KENT

Go on.

OLSON

You have a good excuse. Your husband and your son are here now. Probably after some time you will not have so good a chance.

KENT

She needs to get away. Tell her she needs to get away.

OLSON

I already did that, you see -- You need to get away -- a trip like this would do you good. You’d be roughing it -- a good change from city life. We have plenty of goat’s milk. And, if you come before the keg gets dry, and you stay till the weather gets warm -- we’ll feed you on fried fish.

KENT

She thinks the trip would cost too much.

OLSON

No, no no -- Expenses are very small. We have no rent to pay, no coal or water bill. Electricity costs 50 cents a gallon. Locomotion costs 50 cents for 4 hours. The only trouble we have is we have to cut down a tree once in a while, saw it and split it, and pack it into the house and put it in the stove.

KENT

She didn’t like the harsh Newfoundland winter.

OLSON

The climate here is very fair. It never rains. Hah! You always can sleep under a blanket and not sweat, and you can sleep under more blankets and not freeze.

ROCKY

Tell her about your animals.

OLSON

I’ve got that here somewhere. Let’s see. (He searches through the pages) I have 2 pairs of blue foxes, 1 milk goat, 1 angora billy and 1 nanny. I have a dory and an Evenrude motor and Mr. Kent has a dory and Evenrude motor. But his motor is always breaking down in the most dangerous squalls and chops...

KENT

No, no, no.

OLSON

And in September he and your precious son were almost drowned...on their way back...

KENT

No, Lars. You’ll scare her to death. She’ll never come.

OLSON

Because he’s so damn stubborn and wouldn’t listen to my advice because he thinks a New England fisherman knows more about these waters than a real, old-time, Alaskan, last-of-his-breed, pioneer, frontiersman, prospector -- an older more experienced man who really understands women, and who once hunted down…

KENT

All right, Lars. I get the point. We’re much more careful now. You know that. I learned my lesson. If you put that in Kathleen will never come.

OLSON

Then I’ll just cross some of that out (He does that) Ah, now, okay, let’s see...

(Pause – sincere reflection)

There is something strange about this Alaska that I cannot explain. Nine tenths of people who go Outside very soon come back. So, I am thinking -- after your husband comes home, there will be no other talk except Alaska this and Alaska that.

KENT

Good, very good. Now, let’s see, what else...

OLSON

Mr. Kent wanted me to write to you, so you must not blame me for this letter. Yours truly, L.M. Olson, Box 195, Seward, Alaska Territory. So -- what do you think?

KENT

Not bad. I’m impressed. But, ah...could you also cross out that last sentence?

OLSON

I don’t touch your paintings. I write my letter. I say whatever I want.

KENT

Fair enough, Lars. But would you at least consider adding a little more. Tell her I’ve got to see more of Alaska. If we can’t get her to come here, at least see if you can convince her that I need more time to do justice to my art. (Pause) Ask her to love me always, me and me alone and to be completely faithful…no, skip that.

(Pause. A moment between Olson and Kent. Rockie notices.)

ROCKIE (To Olson)

Father doesn’t understand women.

OLSON (To Rockie)

I told him so

KENT

Oh, stop it – both of you.

OLSON (Pause )

P. S.

(Pause)

There is something else I should let you know, Mrs. Kent. I think Mr. Kent is not doing justice to himself or his profession. Mr. Kent says he may have to go back to New York sooner that he wanted to.

KENT

(To himself)

I haven’t even seen the territory.

OLSON

He had no time to really see the territory. He might as well have spent a few months back in the mountains of New York for all he’s seen of Alaska. He could get around to see our other glaciers. He has a leaky dory and a broken-down Evenrude engine that’s not worth money he didn’t pay for it – old Graef threw it in with the wreck of a dory…

KENT

Skip the engine and the dory, all right Lars? Just skip it.

OLSON

He has a patched-up dory and could row himself and Rocky around Alaska. (Sarcastically) Better?

KENT

Just skip it, Lars, please? Tell her the cost would be minimal.

OLSON

Expenses would be very small...I already said that...And Mr. Kent would get material to last him for a long, long time. Enough?

KENT

Done.

OLSON

Good. P.S. Again -- You can answer this letter if you like. And if you don’t, it’s all the same to me. Yours, L.M.

BLACKOUT