MILLAY | Edna's "Poem" after Eugen's Death

Edna and Eugen at sea, c. 1923.

My research on the Boissevain family proceeds slowly in part because of the language barrier. Much of the record is in Dutch. 

Here is a note from Engelien de Booij to her cousin Hilda van Stockum that is notable because it mentions a "poem" by Millay about Eugen after his death (she lived on after him for a little more than a year). I

t also shows that the flow of information from Engelien to me was often via HvS and in Dutch. After Engelien's death I was given documents by her cousin and executor that Engelien had left for me. As she promised in the note below, she did several translations of letters, mostly  from Willem van Stockum to his mother. She had been working on them in the months before she died.

The following is my transcription of Engelien's hand-written letter and my translation based on Google Translate and the Hippocrene Standard Dutch-English Dictionary. 

BRIEF VAN ENGELIEN

Bilthoven, October 21, 1998. 

Lieve Hilda, 
ik ontdekke dat ik Edna’s gedicht dat zij ha Eugen’s dood schreef, toch hier had – ik had het overgedreven uit moeder's gedichtenverzameling en zend het je hierbij (copie) voor John, misschien kent hij dit niet. Ik vind het nog altijd heel ontroerend, maar misschien lees jij het met anderen ogen? Over een paar maanden hoop ik de andere strikken voor John op te diepen. Heel veel lief. Engelien.

LETTER FROM ENGELIEN 

Bilthoven, October 21, 1998.

Dear Hilda [van Stockum], 
I discovered I still had here Edna's poem that she wrote after Eugen's death – I had transferred it from mother's [Hilda de Booij's] poem collection and send it to you here (copy) for John [Tepper Marlin], maybe he does not have it. I still find it very moving, but maybe you read it with others' eyes? In a few months I hope to unearth the other pieces for John. Lots of love. Engelien.

What is this "poem" that Edna wrote after Eugen's death? Three possibilities:

1. It may be the "penciled draft of a poem" – of which only the last three lines are cited in both Nancy Milford's biography (Chapter 40), Savage Beauty, and Daniel Mark Epstein's What Lips My Lips Have Kissed: 

I will control myself, or go inside. / I will not flaw perfection with my grief. / Handsome this day: no matter who has died.

These three lines were circled, says Milford, in a notebook found near a bloodstain on the Millay landing. This is the only poetry in Milford's book that might be construed as an epitaphic poem to Eugen. Neither biography includes the rest of the poem. 

2. The two lines that I have cited elsewhere, not in either biography.

The only thing I ever did for you was survive you. / But that was much. 

3. A third poem. 

I'm still looking. 

EUGEN | How Did He Meet Inez?

Guglielmo Marconi

Spartacus reports twice, in its bios of both Eugen Boissevain and Inez Milholland, that they met through Max Eastman. The statement is unsourced, questionable and highly dubious. I would be interested in finding a source or basis for the claim.

My understanding is that Inez and Eugen met at a dinner at the ritzy Holland House in June 1913, at which Eugen's brother Robert Boissevain introduced Eugen to Inez. The link among them was Guglielmo Marconi, the inventor of wireless communications and the first Italian to receive the Nobel Prize:

• Guglielmo was the second son, after Alfonso, born to Giuseppe Marconi's second wife (the first one, from the Renoli banking family in Bologna, died), an Irish woman, Annie Jameson. Annie was the daughter of Andrew Jameson of the family that made and makes Irish whiskey.
• Robert married a Jameson descendant, Rosie Phibbs. Robert left Rosie and their six children in Amsterdam because of her public remonstrations about, I recollect, infidelities. He was remarried in New York to Anne Deterling, secretary to Alma Vanderbilt Belmont, and he had two American sons, one (Alfred) still living in 2016. Robert worked for Marconi in London and New York, probably on ship-related telegraphy, since Robert had been shipping manager for United Fruit in New York.
• Inez was Guglielmo's first serious love object. He proposed to her in October 1903 (when she was 17) aboard the Lucania, sailing from London to New York. Marconi was on the ship because it was  the one that initiated the Cunard Daily Bulletin, the on-board news sheet based on shore-to-ship telegrams via Marconi. Dissuaded by his Irish mother not to marry Inez, possibly because he would naturally gravitate to New York and her American relatives, the engagement was apologetically withdrawn in 1904 on the basis that Inez was too young to be married. Instead, later that year Marconi married Beatrice (Bea) O'Brien, daughter of the 13th Baron Inchiquin, who was descended from Brian Boru. Bea was a party-lover and although they stayed married she didn't remain with Guglielmo when he went to Nova Scotia to experiment with wireless stations. Guglielmo meanwhile remained a good friend of his "old flame" Inez. (Source: Degna Marconi, My Father Marconi, pp. 129, 174.)

My mother Hilda van Stockum (Eugen and Robert's niece) told me Eugen once passed on to her something that Guglielmo said to him: "Inez is too strong for me. She needs someone like you that is a match for her."

My mother also reported to me that Inez said flippantly about her engagement: "I am very fond of Guglielmo, but who would want to be married to a radio?" Which was what happened to Bea.

Guglielmo was very close to his mother Annie and not his father, who objected strenuously to his day-dreaming about talking through the air. A gardener to his mother, seeing Guglielmo for the first time, commented about her son's big ears.  Annie replied in the affirmative: "He will be able to hear the voice of the air."

BOISSEVAIN | Reunion 1992, Manitoba-Aug. 21-22 (Updated July 9, 2016)

Al Boissevain (L), grandson of Charles Handelsblad
Boissevain, a fellow Charlestje (Orange) at the 1992
Reunion. Tice Boissevain is at right. They were among
 the few survivors of Gen8; my mother was another.
Tice died in 1998, my mother in 2006. Photo by JT Marlin.

Attendance at the reunion, by name and family group. Note that everyone at the reunion was
a descendant of 1223.

The late Tice (for Matthijs, or Thijs) Boissevain was the key organizer of the 1992 Boissevain Reunion, which was held in Boissevain, Manitoba, Canada.

Next year will be its 25th anniversary.

The town of Boissevain is named after Adolphe Boissevain, who was a railroad financier and member of the Board of Directors of a railway line that created the town by adding a spur on the trans-Canada railway line.

The 1992 attendance list is shown below.

Photos were taken of the five reunion subgroups, in front of a billboard honoring Adolphe Boissevain and his creation of the town.


To Adolphe's left is a man in a cap named Musgrave. He worked for the railway and met the first train in 1885 and the last one in 1958.

Tice used the Henry System of genealogical numbering. Everyone's number began with 122-3. Then colors were assigned as follows based on the 5th and 6th numbers:
15-Jantjes-Yellows (seven attending, including Tice). Jan was the fifth child of Gedeon Jeremie Boissevain.
16-Charlestjes-Oranges (three listed, two attending, Al Boissevain and I). Charles was the sixth child of Gedeon Jeremie.
68-Descendants of Adolphe Boissevain - Purples (two attending)
96-Blues (six attending).
99-Greens (35 attending, two-thirds of the group).

15–Jantjes (Yellow)

The 1 refers to Gedeon Jeremie and the 5 to Jan Boissevain.

Jantjes. Matthijs (Tice) is third from the left and Romelia (Rommie) his daughter is at far right.

Conference Badge and
Postcard of the Town of Boissevain.

16–Charlestjes (Orange)

The badge at right shows that I am an Orange, because numbers 5 and 6 are 16.

It also shows I am in Gen9, because there are nine numbers. I am the fifth child of Hilda van Stockum, whose number is 122-316-61, Gen8. She was the eldest child of Olga Boissevain, whose number is 122-316-6, Gen7. 

Olga was the sixth child of Charles Handelsblad Boissevain, born 1842, who was 122-316, Gen6, founder of the Oranges. Charles was the sixth child of Gideon Jeremie Boissevain, 122-31, Gen5. (Gideon Jeremie was the eldest of the children in his family, so he is a 1 in Gen4.)

A complete list of descendants for the first six generations is available here.

Al Boissevain with 1937 portrait of him by Hilda van Stockum, my
mother. Photo by JT Marlin.

The only other member of the group besides me was Al Boissevain.

He brought with him to show me a portrait of him by my mother in 1937. 

She also offered to do a portrait of Al's brother Fergus but their mother Anne Deterling (Robert's second wife) Boissevain preferred a portrait be done of their cat, as I remember the story.

Al Boissevain in 1992 was operating vineyards in California. He subsequently moved to Indiana to be near his daughter.

Purples, descendants of Adolphe
Boissevain: Tom Lesser and
Kathleen Kritta.

68–Purples


At right are the Purples (68), descendants of Adolphe Boissevain – Tom Lesser and Kathleen Kritta of St. Paul, Minn.

96–Blues.


The six Blues are all from Ridgeway, Ont.

99–Greens

The photo at left is of the Greens, who constituted 35 of the 53 registered participants in the reunion.

The Greens, who were the majority of those who
attended the 1992 Reunion. Photo by JT Marlin.

Half of the Greens (18) are from Alberta–especially Calgary and Edmonton.

The other big contingent is from Austin, Tex.

Other Boissevain Family Reunions:
1989 2006 2011 2016

BOISSEVAIN Gen7 | Catharina–Teau (1885-1922)

Catharina (Teau) Josephine
Boissevain de Beaufort
(1885-1922).

May 19, 2016–As a 50th wedding-anniversary present for my parents on June 27, 1982, I prepared a biography of her family, much of it based on stories she told me, with some illustrations specially drawn by Brigid. My mother marked up my writing afterwards to correct details and to delete stories that on reflection she decided were indiscreet, so I have double confirmation of what she believed to be true and also what she believed to be fair comment on her ancestors, aunts and uncles, and cousins.

Family Group
Charles Boissevain (1842-1927) = Emily MacDonnell (1844-1931)
     B Teau Boissevain (1885-1922) = Fik de Beaufort
           B1 Nella (b. 1908) = Carl van Boetzelaer
           B2 Willem Ferdinand Arnold (b. 1911)
           B3 Charles Denis Hercules Creagh (1913-1931)
           B4 Henri Alexander (Hans) (1915-1942)

Catharina Josephine Boissevain was the youngest of the eleven children of Charles and Emily Boissevain, born in 1885. She was called "Teau" after the French contraction of Cateau for Catherine. Several sources say she was considered the prettiest of the six daughters of Charles and Emily. My mother said that Teau

could have been a famous actress. She had a marvelous talent for it and would keep visitors spellbound at home theatricals or charades. I heard her perform and she was entrancing.

Teau gave Hilda lessons on how to recite a story in front of a class and when Hilda went back to school her recital, she said, was sensational.

Hilda also said that Teau was the first person to talk to her (when Hilda was only four years old) about religion. Hilda's mother had a nervous condition and was sent to the Privatklinik Bircher-Benner at Keltenstrasse 9 in Zürich. (I spent a few days there myself being checked up in 1963.) During that time, Hilda and her brother Willem were entrusted to the care of their aunt Teau.

She married Lieven Ferdinand (Fik) de Beaufort in 1907. Fik was from another Huguenot family that had been dukes in France before Louis XIV chased them out; the titles could not be imported into Holland, which had no equivalents. Fik was a biologist of some distinction. He and Teau lived in Dutch India (Java) for a while. Teau is featured in letters from Java when Hilda was an infant. Obviously, Hilda missed her mother and Teau was very kind, says Hilda, and to console her told her about God and Heaven and the Angels. Hilda told me she was a fan off the angels ever since. That is why she wrote The Angels' Alphabet.

Teau's eldest child and only daughter Nella was born two months after my mother, and so they spent much time together as pre-teens. The de Beauforts had a governess named Ava whom my mother considered malicious toward her employer. In the last few years of her life, Hilda wrote several versions of an experience that she had with Ava; it was clearly one of the most meaningful encounters  she had in her life.

Teau with her four children. Hans, at lower
right, was a Resistance hero.

Teau died tragically of leukemia in 1922, when she was just 37.

Children of Fik and Teau de Beaufort:

1 Nella (b. 1908) = Carl van Boetzelaer. Nella and my mother were "twin cousins". Bella married Baron van Boetzelaar. I went with my parents to Holland in 1983 and accompanied them on a chartered boat down the river from Deventer on June 26, 1983. It was Nella's 75th birthday in Holland. Queen Juliana was on the boat.

2 Willem Ferdinand Arnold (b. 1911)

3 Charles Denis Hercules Creagh (1913-1931)

4 Henri Alexander (Hans) (1915-1942). Teau's youngest child and third son, Henri Alexander (Hans) de Beaufort, born in 1915, was a hero of the Dutch Resistance. He was killed by the Nazis in 1942.

June 13 - Birthday of W. B. Yeats, 150 Years Ago

This day was born in 1865 Irish poet William Butler Yeats, in Sandymount, Dublin. He was a favorite poet of my mother and her grandfather was one of the first people to introduce Yeats to a Dutch audience.

Yeats' parents moved to London when he was two years old, but he spent time in Sligo with his grandparents. My mother, Hilda van Stockum, also visited Sligo a lot because her family vacationed there. She enjoyed bring her six children to Sligo and pointing out Benbulbin to us, noting that Yeats had written a poem about it and that it was now called "Yeats Country".

Yeats studied art in Dublin and then returned to London, where he met other writers like George Bernard Shaw and Oscar Wilde. Even though he was born Protestant, he became involved in the cause of Irish nationalism, in part because in 1889 he met Maud Gonne, the "beautiful, brilliant, and fiery revolutionary" (words of Garrison Keillor).

Meeting Gonne was, Yeats said, when "the troubling of my life began." Yeats fell in love with her,  founded the Irish Literary Theatre in Dublin and wrote plays for her to star in. They shared an interest in mysticism and the occult. They enjoyed what they referred to as a "metaphysical marriage."

In 1908, he wrote in a notebook: "She believed that this bond is to be recreated & to be the means of spiritual illumination between us. It is to be a bond of the spirit only." He wrote the poem "The Bronze Head" about Maud Gonne in 1938.

Yeats proposed a more conventional marriage to her on many occasions, but she turned him down. In 1916 he proposed to her 22-year-old daughter, Iseult, who also said no. In the end he married Georgina Hyde Lees.

For many years, Yeats' approach to Irish nationalism was through the country's mythology and folklore. He wanted to remind people of what pagan Ireland was like. His early poems, including The Wanderings of Oisin and Other Poems (1889), were heavily influenced by Celtic mythology.

He published collections of traditional Irish myths, including Fairy and Folk Tales of the Irish Peasantry (1888) and Irish Fairy Tales (1892). Yeats was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1923, the same year that Edna St. Vincent Millay won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. Millay married my mother's uncle, Eugen Boissevain.

Yeats wrote, of his medal:

It shows a young man listening to a Muse, who stands young and beautiful with a great lyre in her hand, and I think as I examine it, 'I was good-looking once like that young man, but my unpractised verse was full of infirmity, my Muse old as it were, and now I am old and rheumatic and nothing to look at, but my Muse is young.'

In time, Yeats shed his Celtic mantle and his poems gained in power. His greatest work was written after he was 50. He also became directly involved in politics and served for six years as a senator for the Irish Free State. He remained the director of his Irish Literary Theatre - now renamed the Abbey Theatre - until his death in 1939. He died in France, with his wife and "his latest mistress" (says Keillor) at his bedside.

Comment

Charles Boissevain in his newspaper Het Algemeen Handelsblat wrote of his travels to the West of Ireland and references much of Yeats' poetry.

Roselinde Supheert, in "Irish Patriot Aliens: The Irish Cause and the Early Perception of Yeats' Work in the Netherlands" (in Peter Liebregts and Peter van de Kamp, editors, Tumult of Images: Essays on W. B. Yeats and Politics, pp. 183-190) credits Boissevain (whom she curiously calls "de Boissevain") with introducing Yeats to the Dutch.

Boissevain's knowledge of Ireland and especially Sligo is easily explained. He married an Irish women, Heloise MacDonnell, and the MacDonnells vacationed every summer in Sligo.