Nora May French (1881 – November 13, 1907) was an American
poet
A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems ( oral or wri ...
and member of the bohemian literary circles of the
Carmel Arts and Crafts Club which flourished after the
Great San Francisco Earthquake and Fire of 1906.
Biography
French was born in 1881 in
Aurora, New York to Edward French, a professor at
Wells College
Wells College is a private liberal arts college in Aurora, New York. The college has cross-enrollment with Cornell University and Ithaca College. For much of its history it was a women's college.
Wells College is located in the Finger Lakes ...
and Mary Wells French, the sister of the founder of
Wells Fargo
Wells Fargo & Company is an American multinational financial services company with corporate headquarters in San Francisco, California; operational headquarters in Manhattan; and managerial offices throughout the United States and intern ...
,
Henry Wells
Henry Wells (December 12, 1805 – December 10, 1878) was an American businessman important in the history of both the American Express Company and Wells Fargo & Company. Wells worked as a freight agent before joining the express business. Hi ...
.
When she was seven years old, her wealthy family moved to a ranch outside of
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...
, but within a few years they lost that property as a result of a devastating house fire and a failed fruit crop.
Her writing career began in her teens, when she was published in local newspapers and magazines.
In her early twenties, she became engaged, off and on again, to Alan Hiley, a prosperous timber farmer. Her ambivalence about conventional marriage poured into ''The Spanish Girl'', her best known lyrics, a twenty-two poem chronicle of doomed love.
After their final break-up, French joined the
Charles Lummis Arroyo Seco, a group of Los Angeles writers and poets who encouraged her to publish in Lummis' ''Out West'' magazine.
Although her work won praise, notably from the feminist and environmentalist poet
Mary Austin, recognition did not translate to financial security.
French became involved with Henry Anderson Lafler, an assistant editor on ''
The Argonaut
''The Argonaut'' was a newspaper based in San Francisco, California from 1878 to 1956. It was founded by Frank Somers, and soon taken over by Frank M. Pixley, who built it into a highly regarded publication. Under Pixley's stewardship it was c ...
'', and moved to
San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...
after the
1906 earthquake. She quickly made her place within
bohemian
Bohemian or Bohemians may refer to:
*Anything of or relating to Bohemia
Beer
* National Bohemian, a brand brewed by Pabst
* Bohemian, a brand of beer brewed by Molson Coors
Culture and arts
* Bohemianism, an unconventional lifestyle, origin ...
intellectual circles and endured several unhappy affairs. In 1907 she joined
George Sterling
George Sterling (December 1, 1869 – November 17, 1926) was an American writer based in the San Francisco, California Bay Area and Carmel-by-the-Sea. He was considered a prominent poet and playwright and proponent of Bohemianism during the fi ...
and his wife at their home in
Carmel, but was unable to overcome her problems. French grew more depressed and on Monday November 11, tried to kill herself unsuccessfully with a gunshot to the head. The bullet took off a lock of her hair, but Nora missed her mark due to her shaky hand. Two days later, during the night of November 13–14, she died in Sterling's home (he was absent in San Francisco) from ingesting
cyanide
Cyanide is a naturally occurring, rapidly acting, toxic chemical that can exist in many different forms.
In chemistry, a cyanide () is a chemical compound that contains a functional group. This group, known as the cyano group, consists of ...
while Mrs. Sterling slept beside her.
Girl Writer Tires of Life
, Chicago Daily Tribune, Nov 16th, 1907, pg 1. Nora was twenty-six years old. Newspapers in the San Francisco Bay Area
The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area Go ...
sensationalized the tragedy with glaring headlines and reports of Bohemian dissipations as well as recent and frequent visits by prominent ''married'' men, including the artists Charles Dickman, Xavier Martinez
Xavier or Xabier may refer to:
Place
* Xavier, Spain
People
* Xavier (surname)
* Xavier (given name)
* Francis Xavier (1506–1552), Catholic saint
** St. Francis Xavier (disambiguation)
* St. Xavier (disambiguation)
* Xavier (footballer, born ...
, and Charles Rollo Peters.[ An online facsimile of the entire text of Vol. 1 is posted on the Traditional Fine Arts Organization website ().]
Three of her friends posthumously published French’s ''Poems'' in 1910, the only compilation of her work ever widely distributed until the recent (2009) release of Hippocampus Press's ''The Outer Gate: The Collected Poems Of Nora May French''.[Williams, Michael. "A Book of Beauty." ''The New Age: A Weekly Review Of Politics, Literature And Art''. VII.2 (July 14, 1910).] “All sensible people will ultimately be damned,” she said, but lack of stability also plagued her.
Footnotes
External links
Poems by Nora May French
* 2 shor
of Nora May French's "Poems" from California Legacy Project
California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...
.
*
*
*
"The Diary of a Telephone Girl"
anonymously published article by Nora May French in The Saturday Evening Post (Volume 180, Issue 2, October 19, 1907), at HathiTrust
{{DEFAULTSORT:French, Nora May
1881 births
1907 deaths
People from Aurora, Cayuga County, New York
American women poets
20th-century American poets
20th-century American women writers
19th-century American poets
19th-century American women writers
People from Carmel-by-the-Sea, California
1907 suicides