My Wife and Daughter, Willard Metcalf, 1917

Henrietta (Henriette) Alice McCrea-Metcalf (August 4, 1888 – May 27, 1981) was an American born, French raised translator; she was one of the partners of

Thelma Wood Thelma Ellen Wood (July 3, 1901 – December 10, 1970) was an American artist, specialising in the traditional fine line drawing technique known as Silverpoint. She was noted for her hectic private life, and her lesbian relationship with Djuna B ...

and was immortalized by

Djuna Barnes Djuna Barnes (, June 12, 1892 – June 18, 1982) was an American artist, illustrator, journalist, and writer who is perhaps best known for her novel ''Nightwood'' (1936), a cult classic of lesbian fiction and an important work of modernist liter ...

in ''

Nightwood ''Nightwood'' is a 1936 novel by American author Djuna Barnes that was first published by publishing house Faber and Faber. It is one of the early prominent novels to portray explicit homosexuality between women, and as such can be considered ...

''.

Biography

Henrietta Alice McCrea was born on August 4, 1888 into a wealthy Chicago family at 764 West Adams Street.Souhami, Diana. Wild Girls: Paris, Sappho, and Art: The Lives and Loves of Natalie Barney and Romaine Brooks. New York: St. Martin's Griffin, 2007, p. 167 Her father was Wylie (Willis) Solon McCrea, a public utilities executive and member of the Board of Trade. Her mother was Alice E. Snell, the daughter of A.J. Snell. She had one brother, Snell McCrea. When she was few months old, her mother filed for divorce, accusing her husband of cruelty, and moved with her daughter to Paris. McCrea was at first attended a Catholic convent in Paris, and then, when she was 10 years old, at her mother's death, her father took her back to Chicago where she attended other public schools. Later she attended Mlle. Bouligny's School in Chevy Chase, Maryland. By 1906 she had returned to Europe to attend a girls' school. In Paris she became friends with actress

Jane Peyton Jane Peyton (October 26, 1870 – September 8, 1946) was an American lead and supporting actress whose career did not commence until she was nearly 30. During her time on stage, she appeared in several long-running Broadway theatre, Broadway play ...

and her husband

Guy Bates Post Guy Bates Post (September 22, 1875 – January 16, 1968) was an American character actor who appeared in at least twenty-one Broadway plays and twenty-five Hollywood films over a career that spanned more than fifty years. He was perhaps best rem ...

. By the end of 1910 she was back in Chicago, living at 720 Lincoln Park Boulevard. McCrea married and divorced twice. First, in 1911, to

Willard Metcalf Willard Leroy Metcalf (July 1, 1858March 9, 1925) was an American painter born in Lowell, Massachusetts. He studied at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and later attended Académie Julian, Paris. After early figure-painting and ill ...

, a landscape painter, with whom she had two children, Addison McCrea Metcalf and Rosalind (who married Frederick Harris). Second to Marcus Goodrich, American screenwriter and novelist.Flahardy, Jason. "Henrietta Alice Metcalf Performing Arts Photographic Collection." Explore UK. University of Kentucky Special Collections, n.d. 19 Dec. 2012, p. 1 Before marrying Metcalf, McCrea was in a sentimental relationship with Ned Sheldon, a leading Broadway's playwright. In 1952, she became the guardian of Jacobus Arnoldus . A fan of theater and actors her collection of autographed photographs and other memorabilia is at the

University of Kentucky The University of Kentucky (UK, UKY, or U of K) is a public land-grant research university in Lexington, Kentucky. Founded in 1865 by John Bryan Bowman as the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Kentucky, the university is one of the state ...

. She was the dramatic editor for '' Vanity Fair''. Metcalf was a translator from French into English, among her works: Alexandre Dumas' ''Camille'' and

Anatole France (; born , ; 16 April 1844 – 12 October 1924) was a French poet, journalist, and novelist with several best-sellers. Ironic and skeptical, he was considered in his day the ideal French man of letters. He was a member of the Académie França ...

's ''Our Lady's Juggler''. She was a friend of

Colette Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette (; 28 January 1873 – 3 August 1954), known mononymously as Colette, was a French author and woman of letters. She was also a mime, actress, and journalist. Colette is best known in the English-speaking world for her ...

and translated ''La Dame aux Camélias'' in 1931 for

Eva Le Gallienne Eva Le Gallienne (January 11, 1899 – June 3, 1991) was a British-born American stage actress, producer, director, translator, and author. A Broadway star by age 21, Le Gallienne gave up her Broadway appearances to devote herself to founding t ...

and her Civic Repertory Theater. In 1926 she was the executive secretary of the Education Committee of the Roosevelt Memorial Association for Women. McCrea met

in 1928, when the latter was still in a relationship with

. Wood left Barnes to live with McCrea. In ''

'' by Barnes, modeled the character Jenny Petherbridge on McCrea. The relationship was acknowledged by McCrea's family to the point that her son, Addison Metcalf, included references to Wood in letters to his mother. McCrea and Wood moved first to Greenwich Village and then in 1932 to Florence, where Wood studied art supported by McCrea. In 1934 they moved to

Sandy Hook, Connecticut Sandy Hook is a village in the town of Newtown, Connecticut. It was founded in 1711. It was listed as a census-designated place prior to the 2020 census. Sandy Hook borders the village of Botsford, the Newtown borough, and the towns of Monroe ...

, where Wood launched a gourmet catering service, always supported by McCrea's money. McCrea remained with Wood until 1943 and the relationship ended in a bad way, so much that McCrea rejected the death bed request of Wood to see her.Herring, Philip. "Djuna Barnes and Thelma Wood: The Vengeance of Nightwood." Journal of Modern Literature 18:1 (1992), p. 7 In the 1950s McCrea lived at 86 1/2 Main Street, Newtown. She was member of the Board of Directors for the Planned Parenthood League of Connecticut. In the 1970s McCrea let people farm four acres of her land in a project to have young people work together with their fathers in a rewarding activity. She was interested in animal welfare and was an activist of Pet Animal Welfare Service (PAWS),

Friends of Animals Friends of Animals (FoA) is a non-profit international animal advocacy organization, established in New York City in 1957, working to free animals around the world from cruelty and institutionalized exploitation. The organization's headquarters is ...

and Humane Society. With other activists she opened "Ye Kit and Kaboodle" at 7 Liberty Street, Bridgeport, CT; the proceedings from the selling of antiques, clothing and paintings, displayed in a colonial-motif, were to go to the care of stray animals in the area. McCrea-Metcalf died on May 27, 1981.

Legacy

Addison Metcalf founded ''The Henrietta Alice Metcalf Memorial Scholarship'' at

The American Academy of Dramatic Arts The American Academy of Dramatic Arts (AADA) is a private performing arts conservatory with two locations, one in Manhattan and one in Los Angeles. The academy offers an associate degree in occupational studies and teaches drama and related art ...

to honor his mother love of the theater. ''The Henrietta Alice Metcalf Performing Arts Photographic Collection'', dated from 1880 to 1955, is hosted at the

Libraries Special Collections Research Center.

References

External links

portrait with
Helen Ware and Josephine Victor (Wayback) {{DEFAULTSORT:McCrea-Metcalf, Henriette Alice 1888 births 1981 deaths American socialites 20th-century American women writers 20th-century American philanthropists People from Chicago 20th-century American translators