PART 2 - SOME THOUGHTS - FEB. 15-18, 1919

ROCKWELL KENT WILDERNESS CENTENNIAL JOURNAL

100 YEARS LATER

by Doug Capra © 2018

Part 2 Some Thoughts

February 15-18, 1919 – 2019

ABOVE – By the time Seward was named the terminus of the new Government Railroad (later called the Alaska Railroad), panoramic photography like this was popular. This photo is circa 1915 and gives us an accurate idea of the Seward that Kent experienced in 1918. The large building at upper center is the government office and railroad headquarters. It was built about 1904-5 by the Alaska Central Railway, which went bankrupt and reorganized as the Alaska Northern Railway, which the government purchased in 1914-15. The church just left of center at the bottom is St. Peter’s Episcopal Church, built 1905-6. At left is Lowell Creek, a glacial stream working its way down from the mountains to the bay. In 1939-40 the U.S. Corps of Engineers diverted the stream through a tunnel in Bear Mountain, and now it emerges as a waterfall at the beginning of the road to Lowell Point. The old stream bed is now Jefferson Street. Somewhere along that beach at right, Kent and Rockie would haul up their dory when they visited Seward, and later launch it out into the bay for their trip back to the island.

Kent covers February 15-17, 1919 in one journal entry in Wilderness. He spends most of his day on the 14^th and 15^th preparing his canvases for painting. On the 16^th he paints “out-of-doors…it was quite summer-like and the sun shone through diamond-dripping trees.” He spends Feb. 17^th writing letters and catching up with his illustrated journal from early morning until late at night. He creates two separate compartments in his mind for these activities – especially with his letters to Kathleen. The illustrated journal is specifically designed as a memorial for Rockie, and to give Kathleen (and family/friends) a running account of the wonders of Alaska and Fox Island; his and Rockie’s exploits; and the peacefulness of their “quiet adventure.” The letters to Kathleen combine his love for her; his patronizing; his criticisms; his jealousy; his fears and depression; money issues; his lists of tasks for her to perform for him; and his obsession with her need to be faithful to him and him alone. Even though he has “decided” to leave Alaska soon, he hasn’t given up trying to convince Kathleen to join him.

On Feb. 17^th he writes in Wilderness: “I have decided to go to Seward in a few days. It has become necessary to go back to New York very soon.” No specific reason for his early departure, no other explanation. Rockie is devastated to leave, as the letters show and as Kent writes in Wilderness: “He doesn’t want to go to New York not even to live in the country in the East,” he reveals. “There’ll be no ocean near nor any warm pond for bathing. And not even the thought that elsewhere he’d have playmates weighs against his love of this spot.” His son has grown so much that he’s outworn all his clothes. “They hang in tatters about him. His trousers are burst from the knee to the hip, his overalls that cover them are rags. His shirt is buttonless but for two in front. From above tattered elbows his sleeves hang in ribbons. His hair is long and shaggy; where it hung over his eyes I have cut it off short. But, his fair cheeks are as pink as roses, his eyes are beautiful and blue, his lips are red, and his face glows always with expression.”

The mild weather continues and Kent is hard at work painting. On Feb. 18^th he notes the small steamer Curacao enter Resurrection Bay. The vessel is one of the “mosquito” fleet, older and smaller vessels that transfer mail back and forth from Seward to Cook Inlet, Bristol Bay, the Alaska Peninsula, and the Aleutian Islands. “With incredible slowness she crept over the water,” Kent observes. “What old hulks they do put into this Alaska service.”

Kent is eagerly planning a trip to Seward. Rockie begins clearing off their boat today – which is high up on shore, turned over, and tied down. If they don’t secure it like that, the wind will blow it away. Kent plans to work on his engine as usual. He also needs to solder shut a hole in the gas tank. He writes how sad Rockie is to leave the island. “Rockwell loves every foot of this spot of land. He had planned to live this summer the day long on the shores of the lake, naked, playing in and out of the water or paddling some craft about. I thought of putting up a tent in some mossy dell along the shore and letting Rockwell sleep there nights alone and learn early the wonders of a hermit’s life. And none of this is to be!” In Wilderness, we never really know why he is leaving so early. That night of Feb. 18^th they built a fire on the beach. Rockie put two logs on it after his father intended it to go out so Kent removed them. “Don’t,” cried Rockie. He was offended. “You’ll hurt the fire’s feelings.”

These warm days they get up early, do a set of Dr. Sargent’s exercises “with great energy,” get naked, and go outdoors. “The period of chattering teeth is past. No matter what the weather is we go calmly out into it, lie down in the drift, look up into the sky, and then scrub ourselves with snow. It’s the finest bath in the world.”

BELOW – These articles in the August 26, 1917 San Francisco Examiner by and about Dr. Dudley A. Sargent of Harvard University – give us some background into the cultural aspects of health, fitness and masculinity during 1918-1919.

It’s warm but it still snows. “The snow lies three feet deep on the level,” Kent writes on Feb. 17^th.  At our windows it is above the sills. In Seward…it lies so deep that one can’t see across the street. The snow is the deepest, and that last cold snap the coldest, of any winter remembered or recorded…So we have experienced a true winter. We’re glad to know it.”

ABOVE – A winter scene showing Fourth Avenue (Main Street) Seward, Alaska circa 1920.

 BELOW – A railroad plow used to clear the tracks during construction of the Alaska Railroad. When construction began in 1915, two private railways had already laid 71 miles of track north which included several tunnels beginning about Mile 50 and an extensive looped trestle to help the engine climb up to the mountain pass. This photo was taken by about 1916 by Seward Mayor Charles Antonio Myers. His wife, Ida May Myers, stands before the plow.

PART 2 SOME THOUGHTS

§  Who was Rockwell Kent during his time in Alaska? Was he the same Rockwell Kent people alive today knew in the 1950’s and 1960’s? We all change -- and remain the same. How different was the Rockwell Kent of 1918-1919 from the man he became after his success; after his divorce from Kathleen in 1926; after his divorce from Frances Lee and his marriage to Shirley Johnston; and after the McCarthy hearings? We must also remember that Kent was born in 1882 and raised as a late-Victorian young man. For those of you who knew or met Kent in the 1950’s or 1960’s – imagine. The photo below is what the impressionable 15-year-old Rockwell Kent would have seen has he walked down Fifth Avenue, New York City in 1897. This was his world.

§  One of the most insightful sources I’ve found is Carl Zigrosser’s chapter on Kent in his memoir A World of Art and Museums (1975). I’ve quoted from it in this website. Zigrosser is one of the few people who knew him during this period, but not well. Zigrosser, as a student at Columbia University, first met Kent in 1910. They didn’t begin a close association until 1917, and Zigrosser admits he was a youthful and uncritical admirer. He later learned how important admiration was to Kent’s view of friendship. Kent could and would not tolerate serious criticism that undercut his confidence. He and Zigroser became much closer and remained so until Kent’s death. As time went on, Zigrosser became a more objective observer. He only felt comfortable writing his chapter about his friend after Kent’s death in 1971.

§  Zigrosser and George Chappell meet for lunch occasionally. They are working to incorporate Kent at $2000 a share. The success of that venture may depend upon how his Alaska art is received. Both men check in on Kathleen and the children. Chappell is a partner in the architectural firm, Ewing and Chappell. Kent can always find work there when he needs money. Chappell knows Kent and Kathleen intimately. His letter from January 29, 1919 to Kent is most revealing. George has agreed to look after Kent’s family if something happens to him in Alaska, and he takes that responsibility seriously. He visits Kathleen often, plays with and reads to the children. He and Kathleen become close friends. Kent uses George through letters to get Kathleen to better understand his needs. Chappell tries tactfully to warn Kent how his idealistic expectations of Kathleen are ruining his marriage and perhaps his career. Their relationship begins to irritate Kent, though he doesn’t suspect anything romantic. Kent feels George is siding with Kathleen against him, and questions their friendship. He is annoyed that Kathleen says George’s influence is keeping her faithful to her husband. If it wasn’t for him, Kathleen tells him, she might seek the affection of other men. Kent is angry that she isn’t faithful to him for his sake alone.

§  Too many have depended upon Kent’s narrative in, Wilderness and It’s Me O Lord for the whole Alaska story. As I’ve written, that story is important but it represents Kent’s framed version – which is perfectly valid on one level. That story doesn’t negate the one found in the correspondence, which adds essential biographical material. David Traxel, in An American Saga: The Life and Times of Rockwell Kent (1980) used the letters extensively and does give Kathleen a voice from the time of their marriage, through the Jenny affair and up through Alaska. He also gives us fine insight into Kent’s personality. But he had only so much time and space. The Alaska correspondence is extensive. Kent’s correspondence is voluminous, and many of Kathleen’s letters are blurred, damaged, faded and/or extremely difficult to read. I’ve been conferring with Traxel on the phone this winter. He’s been kind enough to give me feedback on my research. Jake Wien has also gone through many of the letters and used them in various articles and for his book, Rockwell Kent: The Mythic and the Modern (2005). Still, Kent’s book is called Wilderness, and his relationship with the Alaska wild is much more complex than he reveals.

§  Kent cautions Kathleen not to tell anyone the reason he’s leaving Alaska. He’s lonely and homesick for his wife. He’s jealous. Kathleen has told him many times that she needs a man in her life and if it can’t be him then, well, beware. The popular narrative is that Kent leaves Alaska to save his marriage, and there is truth in that. But it’s not the whole story. He is departing Alaska because this frontier wilderness is not what he expected. On one level it meets his romantic idealism.  But living in the midst of its indifferent whims and the isolation if forces on him is not what he anticipated. It is no excursion into the New England countryside. It’s no Monhegan Island. It’s not even Brigus, Newfoundland where he at least had Kathleen and the children with him for his second trip – and he didn’t have to cross dangerous seas in small dory to visit a town. On Fox Island he soon learns that his Northern Paradise is also his Northern Prison, his Heaven is also his Hell. He can’t just walk or ride to town. He’s up against forces he can’t control – that awesome north wind; those choppy seas with the dangerous currents; the rain, rain and more rain; and the darkness of an Alaska winter. At one point he’s on Fox Island for three months straight without venturing to Seward, and 38 of those days were while Olson was gone so it was just he and Rockie.

§  Those 1914 letters he writes from Newfoundland while waiting for Kathleen to join him show a Kent similar to the one on Fox Island – missing his wife desperately, wanting more and longer letters, in need of faithfulness, love and confidence. He’s also jealous of Kathleen’s social life in New York during his solo trip to Newfoundland, as he is while he’s on Fox Island. What may be different in the Fox Island letters -- a Kent that Kathleen has not before experienced – is his desperate despondency, his depression and severe loneliness. I contend that Kent has never experienced the kind of loneliness and isolation that he confronts on Fox Island. He desires solitude, but this sometimes feels like exile. That terrible north wind both enthralls and bullies him. He loves and hates the wild. He must tame and control wilderness like the frontiersmen and pioneers, so he fells the trees and clears the land on Fox Island to create a safe haven   His emotions are pummeled and dispersed in their ambivalence. He’s safe and comfortable on Fox Island, but he’s also stuck there by forces he can neither control nor defeat. Part of him believes the Alaska wilderness has conquered him, and he is ashamed.

§  Kent works hard on Fox Island. This is no “artist’s junket” as he says. It really is what I’ve called a last-ditch effort on his part. On Feb. 23^rd he tells Kathleen that it’s a lie that he spent lots of money on Hildegarde: “I think I may truly say that H. received not one cent in presents of any sort and had very very little spent on her when we took dinner(s) together for I was poor & knew it and she appreciated it. It was mighty cheap joints I resorted to for my needs for meals that summer for it was a desperate time – the time I nearly quit art and got another kind of job. Is he serious about either quitting art or just ending his life during 1917 in New York? Yes, I contend. Is he really serious about ending his relationship with Hildegarde and settling down in the country? Yes, I contend. In that Feb. 23 letter he writes: “I wrote to H. that between us it was ended, not because I had ceased to care for her, because I hadn’t -- and I would not have told her so, (It is not always decent to be honest) but because I had realized that I must choose definitely between you and her and I chose you. That my choice was final; that to enforce it I would leave New York and go into comparative seclusion and that it was my firm resolve to devote myself to the happiness and welfare of my family. Now for God’s sake take my word for this and end your worries. If H. won’t believe me and writes that she can’t is that to change what has now been settled.

Kent's retreat into the country is partly to "enforce" his faithfulness to Kathleen staying far away from temptation. Note that last sentence. We don’t have Hildegarde’s letters to Kent, but from his letters we do learn something of their contents. Hildegarde doesn’t want to accept the end of the relationship. She doesn’t believe that Kent really wants to end it either. She just "can't" end it. Perhaps Kathleen has gotten wind of Hildegarde’s attitude. They’re both in New York. It’s difficult, as Kent wants, for his wife to end her worries.