Stay by Me, Roses: The Life of American Artist Alice Archer Sewall James, 1870-1955 - Softcover

SKINNER, ALICE B.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 087785338X ISBN 13: 9780877853381

Publisher: Swedenborg Foundation Publishers, 2011

Synopsis

This biographical study on internationally known artist Alice Archer Sewall James opens a window on the life and time of a unique nineteenth/twentieth-century woman. In her later years, she emerged as an artist and as a teacher, inspiring a new generation of painters at Urbana University in Ohio.

About this title

About the Author

Alice Blackmer Skinner had a lifelong interest in women's studies. She earned a PhD in psychology from Harvard University with a study on the life patterns of college-educated women. She served as chair of the Radcliffe College Alumnae Association Study Committee on the Merger, guiding the merger of Radcliffe College with Harvard University.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Archie was faced with the challenge of raising a child according to her own unique principles in the midst of a doubting and critical family. Given Archie's expectations—based on idealized memories of her parents' roles—it probably would have been difficult to arrive at a meeting of the minds with John about his paternal role even in the privacy of a home of their own. In the midst of the James family, it must have been doubly difficult for Archie to create the environment she wanted for David. A hint of the complications involved comes from a niece, Harriet Eaton Whitehead, who recalls that Archie would read Shakespeare to David in his high chair at lunchtime, oblivious to the fact that he was throwing his food on the floor. Perhaps David would have preferred more personalized attention, but Archie was intent on creating a proper sphere, doing her best to surround him with beautiful language.

The scene was set for complications for both Archie and David. David was not only rejected as a James, but he was surrounded by children who were "in" when he was "out," and the judgment continued even though the Eatons soon moved to Massachusetts. David got mixed signals, his mother often favoring a course of action criticized by the rest of the family. His father's tendency to ignore disagreements among the women or handle them with humor probably added to the complications with which Archie had to deal.

Did David know of his adoption? Perhaps not. Marian May Clarke remembers that Archie “wanted everyone to erase from their minds the fact of David's (adoption) and think of him as her own child. ..."

Edition details

• Publisher: Swedenborg Foundation Publishers
• Publication date: 2011
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 087785338X
• ISBN 13: 9780877853381
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 272