Through Welsh Doorways - Preread Chat

[Robin P, Moderator]

I chose this book because my husband has some Welsh ancestry and speaks the language. I have studied it a little myself. I didn't know about the distinctive personal life of the author.

Jeannette Augustus Marks was born in Chattanooga, Tennessee on August 16, 1875. William Dennis Marks, her father, was a professor of engineering at the University of Pennsylvania and president of the Philadelphia Edison Company after meeting and marrying her mother, Jeannette Colwell.

Jeannette was educated at boarding schools in the United States and Europe and went on to attend Dana Hall and then Wellesley College where she received her B.A. in 1900.

It was here that Jeannette met Mary Emma Woolley, then a Wellesley professor, who was to remain her partner for the next fifty years. Soon after her inauguration as president of Mount Holyoke, Mary appointed Jeannette as an instructor in the English department, which she would eventually chair.

While at the College, Jeannette Marks founded the Play and Poetry Shop Talks lecture series inviting notable authors and poets to Mount Holyoke to discuss modern literature. She also started the Laboratory Theatre in 1928, which would become her primary focus at the College until her retirement in 1941.

Jeannette began writing short stories while a student at Wellesley and continued to publish throughout her career. Most notable among her writings were The Family of the Barretts, a biography of the family of Elizabeth Barrett Browning, and The Life and Letters of Mary Emma Woolley. She also conducted a great deal of research on narcotics and published several books pertaining to drug addiction.

She was a member of the National Woman’s Party, the first organization to support the Equal Rights Amendment. Her political activities also included advocacy for Sacco and Vanzetti and Eugene V. Debs. While it is unclear if Marks identified herself as a socialist, she corresponded with and donated money to local and national socialist causes throughout the 1920s.

After her retirement in 1941, she moved permanently to her childhood home, Fleur De Lys, with Mary Woolley. She was Woolley’s primary caretaker during the final years of her life. Jeannette Marks died on March 15, 1964 in Westport, New York at the age of 88.

Source for the above:
https://commons.mtholyoke.edu/marywoo...

The Jeannette Marks Cultural Center at Mount Holyoke College, named in her honor, provides support and programming for LGBTQ students and their allies.

[Brian E]

This looks interesting Robin. I just finished a Trollope Cousin Henry that takes place in Wales and am reading a Brother Cadfael mystery, a series that takes place in Shropshire just east of Wales. Brother Cadfael is Welsh.

I think it will be good to read this while I still have Wales on the brain.

I too find it fascinating that the author of this collection of pastoral Welsh stories was a Tennessee born active political leftist Mt. Holyoke College literature professor in a lifelong lesbian relationship with her department head. I would have picked any of the other answers than that in a multiple choice question on who the author was.

[Robin P, Moderator]

Brian E wrote: "This looks interesting Robin. I just finished a Trollope Cousin Henry that takes place in Wales and am reading a Brother Cadfael mystery, a series that takes place in Shropshire just ..."

I didn’t know about Cousin Henry, though I have read a fair amount of Trollope, mostly with this group. I loved Brother Cadfael on audio read by Patrick Tull.

[Trev]

Robin P wrote: "Brian E wrote: "This looks interesting Robin. I just finished a Trollope Cousin Henry that takes place in Wales and am reading a Brother Cadfael mystery, a series that takes place in ..."

The first book of the Brother Cadfael Mysteries, ‘A Morbid Taste for Bones,’ is set almost entirely in Wales.

I have read all the novels as well as having the ‘Cadfael Chronicles’ and a Cadfael book of medicinal herbs.

Something I watch again and again is my DVD collection of Brother Cadfael with Derek Jacobi starring as Cadfael. Wales and the Welsh feature heavily in the novels/film series because Shrewsbury Abbey was so close to the Welsh border.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0108717/

[Brian E]

Trev wrote: "Robin P wrote: "Brian E wrote: "This looks interesting Robin. I just finished a Trollope Cousin Henry that takes place in Wales and am reading a Brother Cadfael mystery, a series that..."

That's right, They do often meander into Wales during the series. I am finishing off volume #19 and have only the last to go, I think.

And thanks for reminding me of the TV series. I've watched about 5 or 6 episodes as I only watched episodes that I read the book on. But I haven't watched in about 2 years as, by not shelling out the money for a DVD set like you or a streaming platform like BritBox, I watched them on a free streaming service and was a little frustrated by its lengthier than the average commercial breaks.
I need to get back to it. It should be better with a little more time between reading and watching as the plots will be much less familiar to me.