Heinrich Hauer Bellamann (April 28, 1882 – June 16, 1945) was an American author, whose bestselling novel ''Kings Row'' exposed the hypocrisy of small-town life in the midwest, addressing many social taboos. Research suggested that Bellamann was working off resentment of his upbringing in
Fulton, Missouri
Fulton is the largest city in and the county seat of Callaway County, Missouri, United States. Located about northeast of Jefferson City and the Missouri River and east of Columbia, the city is part of the Jefferson City, Missouri, Metropolita ...
, where he had been ostracised for his German extraction and rumoured illegitimacy. The
1942 film version gave
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan ( ; February 6, 1911June 5, 2004) was an American politician, actor, and union leader who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. He also served as the 33rd governor of California from 1967 ...
a star role, regarded as his most memorable performance.
Bellamann was also a poet and a music professor at
Vassar College
Vassar College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Poughkeepsie, New York, United States. Founded in 1861 by Matthew Vassar, it was the second degree-granting institution of higher education for women in the United States, closely follo ...
.
Early life and education
Bellamann was born in
Fulton, Missouri
Fulton is the largest city in and the county seat of Callaway County, Missouri, United States. Located about northeast of Jefferson City and the Missouri River and east of Columbia, the city is part of the Jefferson City, Missouri, Metropolita ...
, to parents George Henrik and Caroline (Krahenbuhl) Bellamann. After graduation from Fulton High School in 1899, he attended
Westminster College in Fulton for a year before moving to
Colorado
Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of t ...
in 1901 to study piano at the
University of Denver
The University of Denver (DU) is a private university, private research university in Denver, Colorado. Founded in 1864, it is the oldest independent private university in the Mountain States, Rocky Mountain Region of the United States. It is ...
.
[''Dictionary of Missouri Biography'' by Lawrence O. Christensen, University of Missouri Press, 1999] Following graduation in 1904, Bellamann began teaching music at a variety of girls' schools in the American South. Bellamann met his future wife, Katherine McKee Jones, while both were teaching at a girls' academy in
Tuscaloosa, Alabama
Tuscaloosa ( ) is a city in and the seat of Tuscaloosa County in west-central Alabama, United States, on the Black Warrior River where the Gulf Coastal and Piedmont plains meet. Alabama's fifth-largest city, it had an estimated population o ...
. The couple married on September 3, 1907.
For several years between 1908 and 1913 while on school summer breaks, the Bellamanns traveled to Europe so Henry could study organ and piano with
Charles-Marie Widor
Charles-Marie-Jean-Albert Widor (21 February 1844 – 12 March 1937) was a French organist, composer and teacher of the mid-Romantic era, most notable for his ten organ symphonies. His Toccata from the fifth organ symphony has become one of th ...
and
Isidor Philipp
Isidor Edmond Philipp (first name sometimes spelled Isidore) (2 September 1863 – 20 February 1958) was a French pianist, composer, and pedagogue of Jewish Hungarian descent. He was born in Budapest and died in Paris.
Biography
Isidor Philipp ...
. From 1907 to 1932, when he began to pursue writing full-time, Bellamann held administrative and teaching positions at several educational institutions, including acting director of the
Juilliard Musical Foundation, dean of the
Curtis Institute of Music
The Curtis Institute of Music is a private conservatory in Philadelphia. It offers a performance diploma, Bachelor of Music, Master of Music in opera, and a Professional Studies Certificate in opera. All students attend on full scholarship.
Hi ...
, and professor of music at
Vassar College
Vassar College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Poughkeepsie, New York, United States. Founded in 1861 by Matthew Vassar, it was the second degree-granting institution of higher education for women in the United States, closely follo ...
.
Writing career
With the encouragement of his wife, Bellamann increasingly turned his attention to a writing career. His first of three books of poetry, ''A Music Teacher's Notebook,'' was published in 1920. It was followed by ''Cups of Illusion'' in 1923 and ''The Upward Pass'' in 1928. Although his poetry is today little-known, Bellamann was recognized by David Perkins in his 1976 ''History of Modern Poetry'', in which he ranks Bellamann with the serious minor poets who "adopted the mode" of the
Imagists. In addition to his books, Bellamann served as editor for the music magazine ''Overtones'' and write a weekly literary column, in which he highlighted the works of
DuBose Heyward and
Pulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prize () is an award for achievements in newspaper, magazine, online journalism, literature, and musical composition within the United States. It was established in 1917 by provisions in the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made h ...
-winning author
Julia Peterkin
Julia Peterkin (October 31, 1880 – August 10, 1961) was an American author from South Carolina. In 1929 she won the Pulitzer Prize for Novel/Literature for her novel ''Scarlet Sister Mary.'' She wrote several novels about the plantation South ...
Henry Bellamann's first novel, ''Petenera's Daughter'', was published in 1926, followed by ''Crescendo'' in 1928, ''The Richest Woman in Town'' in 1932, and ''The Gray Man Walks'' in 1938. His most famous work was yet to come – and not without some controversy that remains to this day.
''Kings Row (1940)''
The story of Drake McHugh and his best friend Parris Mitchell coming of age in a sleepy midwest American town of the 1890s was by far Henry Bellamann's most recognized work. Exposing hypocrisy and small-town secrets, the novel deals with themes of mental illness, incest, homosexuality, suicide, gender equality in relationships, and sadistic vengeance.
Such themes were still somewhat taboo in early 20th-century American literature, but not unheard of.
In one location, however, the novel and its subsequent movie adaptation proved to be most controversial: Bellamann's hometown of Fulton, Missouri. It was not long before the citizenry of Fulton began to look around and realize Bellamann's fictional town was in fact a reinterpretation of their small city. "Aberdeen College" is seen as a stand-in for Bellamann's real-life time spent at Westminster College, while the best-seller's asylum coincides with Fulton State Hospital. Such prominent citizens as the real-life town doctor are portrayed in ''Kings Row'' in a less-than-flattering manner. As one local newspaper editor wrote, Bellamann ''"clearly intended to besmirch Fulton"''.
The ill feelings toward the book lingered for many years in Fulton, to the point where librarians removed ''Kings Row'' from the town library shelves.
The root of this controversy seems to have lain with Bellamann himself. While researching the introduction for a re-issue of ''Kings Row'' in 1981, Jay Miles Karr, a Westminster College English professor, found in Bellamann's private papers notes for what was referred to as "the Fulton novel." According to Karr, living in Fulton had inflicted a "psychic wound" on the young Bellamann, one he exorcised decades later with his pen. He was often made to feel alienated there because of his German heritage. Furthermore, the family reputation was assaulted by town gossip that George Bellamann might not have been Henry's true biological father.
Interviews with his few childhood friends confirmed that Bellamann was regarded as a social outcast in the town.
Having made the best-seller list, ''Kings Row'' soon had a
movie version in the works. Released in 1942, with some of the more controversial portions of the novel toned down to satisfy the
Hays Code
The Motion Picture Production Code was a set of industry guidelines for the self-censorship of content that was applied to most motion pictures released by major studios in the United States from 1934 to 1968. It is also popularly known as the ...
, the film starred
Ann Sheridan,
Robert Cummings
Charles Clarence Robert Orville Cummings (June 9, 1910 – December 2, 1990) was an American film and television actor who appeared in roles in comedy films such as '' The Devil and Miss Jones'' (1941) and ''Princess O'Rourke'' (1943), and in ...
, and
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan ( ; February 6, 1911June 5, 2004) was an American politician, actor, and union leader who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. He also served as the 33rd governor of California from 1967 ...
as Drake McHugh. Movie critics consider Reagan's performance in the film to be one of his best, and it was one of his favorite roles. In fact, he titled his 1965 autobiography ''Where's the Rest of Me?'' after one of his key lines in the movie, where McHugh comments on his amputated legs.
Later work and death
After the huge success of ''Kings Row'', Bellamann published two more novels, ''Floods of Spring'' in 1942 and ''Victoria Grandolet'' in 1943. He began a sequel to ''Kings Row'' but died of a heart attack in their New York City home in June 1945 before its completion. His wife Katherine, a novelist and poet in her own right, finished the work, ''Parris Mitchell of Kings Row'', publishing it in 1948.
Katherine Bellamann survived her husband by eleven years, dying in 1956. The Bellamanns had no children.
Honors
Henry Bellamann received the
Légion d'Honneur
The National Order of the Legion of Honour (french: Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur), formerly the Royal Order of the Legion of Honour ('), is the highest French order of merit, both military and civil. Established in 1802 by Napoleon ...
from the
Republic of France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area e ...
and an honorary musical doctorate from
DePauw University
DePauw University is a private liberal arts university in Greencastle, Indiana. It has an enrollment of 1,972 students. The school has a Methodist heritage and was originally known as Indiana Asbury University. DePauw is a member of both the G ...
in
Greencastle, Indiana
Greencastle is a city in Greencastle Township, Putnam County, Indiana, United States, and the county seat of Putnam County. It was founded in 1821 by Ephraim Dukes on a land grant. He named the settlement for his hometown of Greencastle, Pennsylv ...
.
[Bellamann, Henry. ''King's Row.'' New York: Simon and Schuster, 1942.]
Bibliography
Fiction
* ''Petenera's Daughter''. New York: Harcourt Brace, 1926.
* ''Crescendo''. New York: Harcourt Brace, 1928.
* ''The Richest Woman in Town''. New York: The Century Co., 1932.
* ''The Gray Man Walks''. Garden City: Doubleday, Doran & Co., 1936.
* ''Kings Row''. New York: The Sun Dial Press, 1940.
* ''Floods of Spring''. New York: The Sun Dial Press, 1942.
* ''Victoria Grandolet''. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1943.
Poetry
* ''A Music Teacher's Note Book''. New York: The New York Poetry Book Shop, 1920.
* ''Cups of Illusion''. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1923.
* ''The Upward Pass''. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1928.
References
External links
*
The Henry and Katherine Bellamann Collectionowned by the University of Mississippi.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bellamann, Henry
1882 births
1945 deaths
20th-century American non-fiction writers
20th-century American novelists
20th-century American male writers
American male non-fiction writers
American male novelists
American music educators
American writers about music
Curtis Institute of Music faculty
Juilliard School faculty
Novelists from Missouri
Novelists from Pennsylvania
People from Fulton, Missouri
University of Denver alumni
Westminster College (Missouri) alumni