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The Strange World of Willie Seabrook
Literary Nonfiction. This is an intimate, stunning look at the torturous relationship of two Marjorie Worthington and William Seabrook. A renowned writer on the exotic and the occult, Seabrook was an extraordinary figure from the 1920s to the 1940s who traveled widely and introduced the concept of the "zombie" to Americans. In 1966, years after his death from suicide, Worthington, his second wife, cast her eye on their years together and the erosion of their relationship. Seabrook was a sadist, yet to Worthington he was also enthralling; he was an alcoholic, but she believed she could protect him. In brilliantly depicted moments of folie à deux, we watch Worthington join Seabrook in his decline, and witness the shared claustrophobic, psychological breakdown that ensues.
322 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1966
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
October 9, 2017
This book makes for such compelling reading that had it not been for the need for sleep, I would have finished it completely in one sitting.
Who is Willie Seabrook? you might ask, just as I did. I did a half-hearted search on him just to find out what he'd written, but left it at that since I decided I really didn't want to know anything about him until I'd read this book. Here we get to know Willie Seabrook the author, the traveler, and the adventurer; he was a man with many friends who loved him, a man who knew a veritable who's-who list of famous writers and other colorful characters during his lifetime. However, Marjorie Worthington probably knew him better than anyone. In a very big way, this book is her story; he was a man for whom her love was "something so intricately bound up with the breath I breathed and the blood that channeled its way in and out of my heart that only death could put an into it," one, which she says cut herself off "from wherever I belonged in order to be with him."
Standing by him with the patience of a saint, finding deep reserves within herself upon which to draw during their life together, one that was filled with enough dark days to challenge anyone in the best of relationships, Worthington documents that "strange world" she lived in with Seabrook, often at great risk to her own sanity, until a time when she just couldn't do it any more. While the story is not pretty, it is compelling enough that I couldn't stop reading it, not so much because of any voyeuristic tendencies I may have, but because in Marjorie we have a woman who wrestled with her own demons while devoting herself to trying to help Willie with his. Written in 1966, the book takes us through Marjorie's years with Willie Seabrook, beginning in 1926. Whether this may also be her own way of looking back and taking some measure of blame for his suicide in 1945, I'm not sure, although the argument could certainly be made here.
The Strange World of Willie Seabrook is one of the most haunting biographies I've read in a very long time, and in it we find not only a lot of soul searching on the author's part, but also a picture of Seabrook as she knew him, a deeply-flawed, severely-troubled human being who seemed destined for self destruction, but one who "inspired" a "deep and indestructible love" among all of his friends, and of course, Marjorie Worthington.
very highly recommended and major, major applause to Spurl for bringing this book back into print.
http://www.nonfictionrealstuff.com/20...
Who is Willie Seabrook? you might ask, just as I did. I did a half-hearted search on him just to find out what he'd written, but left it at that since I decided I really didn't want to know anything about him until I'd read this book. Here we get to know Willie Seabrook the author, the traveler, and the adventurer; he was a man with many friends who loved him, a man who knew a veritable who's-who list of famous writers and other colorful characters during his lifetime. However, Marjorie Worthington probably knew him better than anyone. In a very big way, this book is her story; he was a man for whom her love was "something so intricately bound up with the breath I breathed and the blood that channeled its way in and out of my heart that only death could put an into it," one, which she says cut herself off "from wherever I belonged in order to be with him."
Standing by him with the patience of a saint, finding deep reserves within herself upon which to draw during their life together, one that was filled with enough dark days to challenge anyone in the best of relationships, Worthington documents that "strange world" she lived in with Seabrook, often at great risk to her own sanity, until a time when she just couldn't do it any more. While the story is not pretty, it is compelling enough that I couldn't stop reading it, not so much because of any voyeuristic tendencies I may have, but because in Marjorie we have a woman who wrestled with her own demons while devoting herself to trying to help Willie with his. Written in 1966, the book takes us through Marjorie's years with Willie Seabrook, beginning in 1926. Whether this may also be her own way of looking back and taking some measure of blame for his suicide in 1945, I'm not sure, although the argument could certainly be made here.
The Strange World of Willie Seabrook is one of the most haunting biographies I've read in a very long time, and in it we find not only a lot of soul searching on the author's part, but also a picture of Seabrook as she knew him, a deeply-flawed, severely-troubled human being who seemed destined for self destruction, but one who "inspired" a "deep and indestructible love" among all of his friends, and of course, Marjorie Worthington.
very highly recommended and major, major applause to Spurl for bringing this book back into print.
http://www.nonfictionrealstuff.com/20...
July 7, 2020
William Seabrook is one of those authors who are largely forgotten today but were, in their time writers of bestsellers and something of celebrities. If he is remembered, it is probably for the photos of his S/M sessions, and the story that he ate human flesh.
Worthington was his second wife and long term partner. She was also an author in her own right but is now seen as a player in the shadow of Seabrook.
This is unfortunate because based upon this biography/ autobiography she writes very well and with honesty about her relationship with this exceedingly difficult character. That she was in love with him there is no doubt and it is quite moving to read her accounts of his infidelities and the destruction that alcohol wrecked upon them both (it would seem she had some issues as well) as both struggled to find themselves and some happiness.
However, this is not what is now termed ‘misery lit’. Seabrook was a larger than life character and lived life accordingly when funds permitted. There is roll-call of famous names, Aldous Huxley, Jeanl Cocteau, Douglas Fairbanks, Carl Van Vechten, as well as publishers and members of ‘society’; the Huxleys were particularly supportive of her. Seabrook is a name pops up in all sorts of interesting contexts because he was seemingly interested in everybody, provided they were successful or a ‘character’, he was also a staunch republican, despite his bohemian leanings. Seabrook reminds me of Aliester Crowley, they were friends. Birds of a feather etc.
Worthington reveals that he was a person who took rather a lax view of honesty in that although the core of a story might be true, the trappings might be different, he was a very successful journalist and knew how to spin a yarn. She explains for example that Seabrook did actually eat human flesh but not quite as he described it in his book. Her version is equally readable though she was horrified.
She also writes candidly (but at the end of the book) about his sadism which he practised on various hired(?) ‘Lizzies in chains’. Worthington attempted to tune it out of her mind when he was indulging in these sessions, but also hoped to ‘cure’ him of it in the same way as she hoped to stop (or at least reduce) his monstrous intake of booze. The push/pull of love/despair is the main theme of the book and I am sure some might identify with that. Seabrooks account of his time drying out (‘Asylum’) is grim reading indeed.
You do not need to have read Seabrook to enjoy this book as it stands up for itself perfectly well as Worthington's own autobiography and a snapshot of ‘the lost generation’ of the ‘20s. If you have read Seabrook (and I have) then you should definitely add this to the collection, as it fleshes out his character and reveals him to be far more interesting then merely the photographer of the flesh in ‘those’ photographs. Recommended
Worthington was his second wife and long term partner. She was also an author in her own right but is now seen as a player in the shadow of Seabrook.
This is unfortunate because based upon this biography/ autobiography she writes very well and with honesty about her relationship with this exceedingly difficult character. That she was in love with him there is no doubt and it is quite moving to read her accounts of his infidelities and the destruction that alcohol wrecked upon them both (it would seem she had some issues as well) as both struggled to find themselves and some happiness.
However, this is not what is now termed ‘misery lit’. Seabrook was a larger than life character and lived life accordingly when funds permitted. There is roll-call of famous names, Aldous Huxley, Jeanl Cocteau, Douglas Fairbanks, Carl Van Vechten, as well as publishers and members of ‘society’; the Huxleys were particularly supportive of her. Seabrook is a name pops up in all sorts of interesting contexts because he was seemingly interested in everybody, provided they were successful or a ‘character’, he was also a staunch republican, despite his bohemian leanings. Seabrook reminds me of Aliester Crowley, they were friends. Birds of a feather etc.
Worthington reveals that he was a person who took rather a lax view of honesty in that although the core of a story might be true, the trappings might be different, he was a very successful journalist and knew how to spin a yarn. She explains for example that Seabrook did actually eat human flesh but not quite as he described it in his book. Her version is equally readable though she was horrified.
She also writes candidly (but at the end of the book) about his sadism which he practised on various hired(?) ‘Lizzies in chains’. Worthington attempted to tune it out of her mind when he was indulging in these sessions, but also hoped to ‘cure’ him of it in the same way as she hoped to stop (or at least reduce) his monstrous intake of booze. The push/pull of love/despair is the main theme of the book and I am sure some might identify with that. Seabrooks account of his time drying out (‘Asylum’) is grim reading indeed.
You do not need to have read Seabrook to enjoy this book as it stands up for itself perfectly well as Worthington's own autobiography and a snapshot of ‘the lost generation’ of the ‘20s. If you have read Seabrook (and I have) then you should definitely add this to the collection, as it fleshes out his character and reveals him to be far more interesting then merely the photographer of the flesh in ‘those’ photographs. Recommended
November 28, 2017
I, too, read this cover to cover, stopping only to sleep and work. It was literary popcorn, and I was munching away at the spectacle before me.
Picking up the Spurl editions copy, it had a certain magnetism to me, as many of their books do, that appealed to my interest in seedy, disturbed characters and their expository neurosis and psychosis. The book in its presentation lets on like it's a kink filled book about a wife navigating her husband's sadism.
But in fact, the role of William Seabrook's sadism is more of a haunting thing, unnamed through most the book until the end.
The book instead is an exploration of the relationship between two major literary celebrities, who are now mostly unheard of. Though it has Seabrook's name in the title, it's Marjorie's memoir by and large. It's written about twenty years after he had committed suicide, and by the end, you get the feeling that the whole thing was type of exorcism—an attempt to expel her love and memory of William Seabrook, perhaps an attempt to proclaim her compliancy in his final state, and to pay a long awaited respect to her loved deceased through validating the merit of his work.
Willie was presented in the text as wild and seedy as I had hoped from Spurl Edition's presentation of the book—the man credited with bringing the term "zombie" to white america, the man famous for eating human flesh once, the man known for his time spent in the insane asylum dealing with his alcoholism, the man known for his sadistic experiments. BUT WHAT I LIKED THE MOST about the book, is that it's told through the lens of Marjorie, his second wife, and long term partner.
THIS LENS IS interesting because while they were lovers—the were 'sexually incompatible' which means we see Willie's tendencies through a more 'prudish' lens, one that despises the sadism of her partner but has to reconcile her love for him. Constantly. That to me is interesting in itself. Layers are good to me. I dig it.
But I suppose the most interesting thing about the lens, is that we get to see these two bohemian writers, both famous in their own rite, interact with a who's who of famous writers of the time. THE ENGENDERED DIFFERENCE IN THE WAY THEY ARE TREATED is interesting from a sociological reading. It's constant, and manifests in almost all their interactions. My favorite to paraphrase (i again don't have my book here), was when Marjorie gets introduced as Ms William Seabrook, and she, a published writer too, has an internal battle with herself of whether or not to claim her identity beyond her partnership with him—she's says, 'I go by Marjorie Worthington'. I just love that.
Lastly, with the lens of distance with time, we can see the internalized patriarchy imbedded in the text. For example, in the way she seems to respect his writing over her own (because his wild macho approach is valorized); or how she always feels like it's her job to take care of him—certainly a reflection of her deep impassioned love for him, but also at times a reflection of the patriarchy imo; the general overtones of self doubt—the patriarchy imo; or how she (might) have written the book to accept blame for his ultimate condition (he brought it on himself) patriarchy!; how he keeps begging her to be around for him to lean on like a crutch (as if she has nothing better to do) patriarchy!; how he interrupts her work to send her on errands and doesn't value her creative time creative zone or creative process as much as he values his own and everyone one was complicit in it (she hella points that out though and it's savage)obviously patriarchy!
Also, while I think Seabrook was an interesting and seedy character, and the bondage photos taken by Man Ray are really intriguing, and he might have done a couple positive things for american culture, I think I'm mostly ok that his work has gone out of print and out of favor. I think his travel books (from my research after and while reading the book) are probably really sensational, and written from a perspective of white superiority and probably in a major way, contributed to many of the negative stereotypes that still linger deep in the recesses of the american imagination (ie: the savage, or the primitive)
Sorry for ranting a little bit. I read the book before i could really process my thoughts about it!
Yeah it was a good book. It wasn't the best written thing ever but it still was something i couldn't put it down!
Picking up the Spurl editions copy, it had a certain magnetism to me, as many of their books do, that appealed to my interest in seedy, disturbed characters and their expository neurosis and psychosis. The book in its presentation lets on like it's a kink filled book about a wife navigating her husband's sadism.
But in fact, the role of William Seabrook's sadism is more of a haunting thing, unnamed through most the book until the end.
The book instead is an exploration of the relationship between two major literary celebrities, who are now mostly unheard of. Though it has Seabrook's name in the title, it's Marjorie's memoir by and large. It's written about twenty years after he had committed suicide, and by the end, you get the feeling that the whole thing was type of exorcism—an attempt to expel her love and memory of William Seabrook, perhaps an attempt to proclaim her compliancy in his final state, and to pay a long awaited respect to her loved deceased through validating the merit of his work.
Willie was presented in the text as wild and seedy as I had hoped from Spurl Edition's presentation of the book—the man credited with bringing the term "zombie" to white america, the man famous for eating human flesh once, the man known for his time spent in the insane asylum dealing with his alcoholism, the man known for his sadistic experiments. BUT WHAT I LIKED THE MOST about the book, is that it's told through the lens of Marjorie, his second wife, and long term partner.
THIS LENS IS interesting because while they were lovers—the were 'sexually incompatible' which means we see Willie's tendencies through a more 'prudish' lens, one that despises the sadism of her partner but has to reconcile her love for him. Constantly. That to me is interesting in itself. Layers are good to me. I dig it.
But I suppose the most interesting thing about the lens, is that we get to see these two bohemian writers, both famous in their own rite, interact with a who's who of famous writers of the time. THE ENGENDERED DIFFERENCE IN THE WAY THEY ARE TREATED is interesting from a sociological reading. It's constant, and manifests in almost all their interactions. My favorite to paraphrase (i again don't have my book here), was when Marjorie gets introduced as Ms William Seabrook, and she, a published writer too, has an internal battle with herself of whether or not to claim her identity beyond her partnership with him—she's says, 'I go by Marjorie Worthington'. I just love that.
Lastly, with the lens of distance with time, we can see the internalized patriarchy imbedded in the text. For example, in the way she seems to respect his writing over her own (because his wild macho approach is valorized); or how she always feels like it's her job to take care of him—certainly a reflection of her deep impassioned love for him, but also at times a reflection of the patriarchy imo; the general overtones of self doubt—the patriarchy imo; or how she (might) have written the book to accept blame for his ultimate condition (he brought it on himself) patriarchy!; how he keeps begging her to be around for him to lean on like a crutch (as if she has nothing better to do) patriarchy!; how he interrupts her work to send her on errands and doesn't value her creative time creative zone or creative process as much as he values his own and everyone one was complicit in it (she hella points that out though and it's savage)obviously patriarchy!
Also, while I think Seabrook was an interesting and seedy character, and the bondage photos taken by Man Ray are really intriguing, and he might have done a couple positive things for american culture, I think I'm mostly ok that his work has gone out of print and out of favor. I think his travel books (from my research after and while reading the book) are probably really sensational, and written from a perspective of white superiority and probably in a major way, contributed to many of the negative stereotypes that still linger deep in the recesses of the american imagination (ie: the savage, or the primitive)
Sorry for ranting a little bit. I read the book before i could really process my thoughts about it!
Yeah it was a good book. It wasn't the best written thing ever but it still was something i couldn't put it down!
December 3, 2023
Read my review here:
https://open.substack.com/pub/tosh/p/...
https://open.substack.com/pub/tosh/p/...
February 16, 2018
I adored this book and did not want to put it down. I love books that talk about New York in its hay day when you would go to a party, so opium and meet celebrities. This book tells of the wondrous life of William Seabrook from New York to France. Romantic and strange in all the right ways and telling of what we will do to keep our relationships alive.
April 2, 2018
Really compelling bio of an author I'd never heard of who travelled in the circles of many authors we've all heard of.
Very beautifully and sensitively written by his ex wife, and featuring memorable episodes from a golden yestertime.
Some surprising occult and sadistic elements as well. The subject had some secrets.
Very beautifully and sensitively written by his ex wife, and featuring memorable episodes from a golden yestertime.
Some surprising occult and sadistic elements as well. The subject had some secrets.
December 7, 2024
This is a long journal with a lot of name dropping. Reading it I only pine for a time I never saw wherein a creative writer could make a fantastic living.
John Brian King remarked “This poor woman fell in love with a weirdo!” and he’s spot on.
You want to roll your eyes at the codependency, but then you remember, as a woman yourself, what is was like to be in a relationship like this and your heart simply feels sorry.
I am not however compelled on the back of this to explore her, him, or their novels with any further interest.
John Brian King remarked “This poor woman fell in love with a weirdo!” and he’s spot on.
You want to roll your eyes at the codependency, but then you remember, as a woman yourself, what is was like to be in a relationship like this and your heart simply feels sorry.
I am not however compelled on the back of this to explore her, him, or their novels with any further interest.
November 10, 2022
Wiley Willie!
June 18, 2023
An interesting journey, but it feels like a bit of writing made way past the writer's prime. It doesn't help that she mostly talks AROUND the most important information, filling up most of the book with inessential details that never seem to reach the heart of the matter.
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May 8, 2024The Strange World of Willie Seabrook is told through the eyes of his wife and life partner, Marjorie Worthington. Seabrook was a widely renowned author who ventured into the weird and the occult in his writing. He didn’t leave that venturing to only his work, however, as he made sure that he lived a lifestyle that incorporated many elements of the exoticity that he was known for. The book shows Worthington’s perspective on the dynamics of their relationship, as well as highlighting how a love and genuine care for a person can lead to a change in a person, and how one half’s demise can act as the cinder block to a corpse being dragged to the river bed.
I came away from this book quite unsure on how I really feel. There are some elements that I found to be deeply compelling, and Worthington does not aim to fake the reader into fabrications. I was left wanting more, however, and Worthington spends a good portion of the book getting side tracked by other people and various different characters that her and Willie orbited around. That came off as the author wanting to name drop purely for the sake of name dropping. I don’t have an issue with that ordinarily; sure, namedrop all you want, but when it takes away from the overall book and feels like a wasted time that leads to nothing, then I feel quite disheartened.
Willie Seabrook’s world was strange. It was certainly even stranger to be a part of that world. But it didn’t come off as overly strange on the page. Of course, the feelings towards the scenarios being described will vary from reader to reader, but I don’t believe Worthington’s descriptions of how life was with Seabrook really convey quite enough in terms of strangeness.
It read to me like Patti Smith’s Just Kids in parts. The namedropping is there, as well as the wild and unique cast and the tense and farctured relationship, however we are let down by a flatness in this memoir that just isn’t there in Patti Smith’s writing.
I came away from this book quite unsure on how I really feel. There are some elements that I found to be deeply compelling, and Worthington does not aim to fake the reader into fabrications. I was left wanting more, however, and Worthington spends a good portion of the book getting side tracked by other people and various different characters that her and Willie orbited around. That came off as the author wanting to name drop purely for the sake of name dropping. I don’t have an issue with that ordinarily; sure, namedrop all you want, but when it takes away from the overall book and feels like a wasted time that leads to nothing, then I feel quite disheartened.
Willie Seabrook’s world was strange. It was certainly even stranger to be a part of that world. But it didn’t come off as overly strange on the page. Of course, the feelings towards the scenarios being described will vary from reader to reader, but I don’t believe Worthington’s descriptions of how life was with Seabrook really convey quite enough in terms of strangeness.
It read to me like Patti Smith’s Just Kids in parts. The namedropping is there, as well as the wild and unique cast and the tense and farctured relationship, however we are let down by a flatness in this memoir that just isn’t there in Patti Smith’s writing.
August 21, 2024
I read this book within a week I couldn’t put it down. It’s so sad the way she writes her writing to the side, always to the side, and much less important to seabrooks. But her dedication in both love and faith to seabrook is amazing. She says many times she belongs to him but only ever mentions him saying he just loves her. The dynamic is heart breaking. And you can see all she wants is for Seabrook to get what he wants and what she feels he deserves, that immortality of words granted to many of theyre literary friends but damningly not to either of them. Maybe he cursed himself by participating in cannibalism.
If anything I think she has accomplished “putting her scratch on the wall” far more successfully then Seabrook and I feel like if this book was more accessible (I’ve been wanting to read it since highschool and I’m 25 and found it randomly a week ago) it would be very popular. This book left me with the desire to know her better through her writing but little desire to read Seabrook.
Also makes me think about the dynamic of being tied to a loved one who suffers from alcoholism. something so so prevelwnt today that most people choose to ignore. And how frail the line between that person you love and the “babbling caricature” that occurs when they get too drunk. The violence against you both physical and emotional. And if it’s all worth it, and in her case if it’s okay to romanticize it even because he’s an artist.
I loved this book so much and I feel like it will be one I will always come back to. I felt her emotions as my own and could relate my feelings towards loved ones the way she writes hers.
If anything I think she has accomplished “putting her scratch on the wall” far more successfully then Seabrook and I feel like if this book was more accessible (I’ve been wanting to read it since highschool and I’m 25 and found it randomly a week ago) it would be very popular. This book left me with the desire to know her better through her writing but little desire to read Seabrook.
Also makes me think about the dynamic of being tied to a loved one who suffers from alcoholism. something so so prevelwnt today that most people choose to ignore. And how frail the line between that person you love and the “babbling caricature” that occurs when they get too drunk. The violence against you both physical and emotional. And if it’s all worth it, and in her case if it’s okay to romanticize it even because he’s an artist.
I loved this book so much and I feel like it will be one I will always come back to. I felt her emotions as my own and could relate my feelings towards loved ones the way she writes hers.
July 1, 2023
You feel so sad for this author... she was a published author in her own right, but only wrote her own work during his afternoon naps because she put in so much emotional labor as his girlfriend. He expected her to drop everything to read his work aloud marvel at his brilliance. Ew.
There's awful details, like a poor monkey this man stole from the Ivory Coast and the author feels bad for.
There's a tragicomic moment when she talks about spending time with Gertrude Stein and her partner Alice and wondering why Gertrude is single. The obliviousness of this author and contemporaries like Hemingway is facinating.
There's awful details, like a poor monkey this man stole from the Ivory Coast and the author feels bad for.
There's a tragicomic moment when she talks about spending time with Gertrude Stein and her partner Alice and wondering why Gertrude is single. The obliviousness of this author and contemporaries like Hemingway is facinating.
November 11, 2024
It's not really a story about Willie Seabrook, it's about an author who marries another author, and it's not always a pretty picture. Regardless of the many wild and hilarious antics of Willie, Marjorie shines through as the true hero. Her mental gymnastics to keep the relationship going, and her own bad behavior is more salacious because she rarely lets it out. It took a year for me to finish this as I kept putting it down, but I always came back to it and it was satisfying. In fact I can't forget it.
December 14, 2023
Absolutely loved. Worthington makes an era I never think about - the 1930s and time between the world wars - come alive and feel pressing and urgent. I loved her voice and description of life with Willie, who she adored but clearly had unhealthy codependency with. Good for her for leaving, eventually, even if it devastated them both. Her description of life in their literary milieu, which overlapped with Aldous Huxley, Jean Cocteau and many others whose names I didn't recognize, is fascinating.
November 19, 2022
Literally ok but being nonfiction you could see a lot of nuances and toxic dynamics in her relationship. Pretty interesting to see what relationship dynamics were like decades ago, between two writers.
July 28, 2023
breeze through like the mistral. the tragic prude loves the sadist. writes about writing but all she can write about is him.
July 27, 2024
this is more of a 3.5 as I rather enjoyed it, but do not feel generous right now. Would suggest to read though.
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews