The Lady and the Panda (44 page)

54
“a minor repair job”
Harkness to Perkins, 17 Aug. 1936.

54
However gently
Harkness to Perkins, 27 Sept. 1936.

54
Russell, Harkness
Russell to Reynolds, 1 Apr. 1965.

54
Too broke
Elizabeth Smith to Ruth Woodhull Tangier Smith, 8 Dec. 1936, Smith Papers. It is clear that Smith was broke in December, and likely that he was in the same or a similar state in September.

54
“Ajax is being”
Harkness to Perkins, misdated 12 July 1936, should be 12 Aug. 1936.

54
There had been seven… for another surgery
Smith to Spalding, 5 Mar. 1936, Field Museum archives. Though Smith doesn't say clearly what the operation was, he reports later that further growths appeared on Bill's neck, so they must have prompted the first hospitalization.

55
the tumors were malignant
Details of Bill's illness: Smith to Spalding, 5 Mar. 1936.

56
Apparently it was lonely
“Explorer Harkness Dies of Cancer,”
Shanghai Evening Post and Mercury,
20 Feb. 1936.

56
There was a rumor
Michael Kiefer,
Chasing the Panda: How an Unlikely Pair of Adventurers Won the Race to Capture the Mythical White Bear
(New York: Four Walls Eight Windows, 2002).

56
Smith not only rebuffed
Floyd Tangier Smith, document/letter, 12 Mar. 1937, House Papers.

56
But Smith also contended
Smith, letter/document, 12 Oct. 1937, Smith Papers.

57
Although she joked
Harkness to Perkins, 8 July 1936.

57
“My God, Perkie”
Harkness to Perkins, 30 Aug. 1936.

57
“The messed up”
Harkness to Perkins, 27 Aug. 1936.

57
But years later
Russell to Reynolds, 1 Apr. 1965.

57
Just as Harkness
Harkness,
Lady and the Panda
, p. 51.

57
He was so dashing
Jialing Young (Jack's daughter), conversation with author. All other information from Su-Lin Young, interview by author, Spruce Pines, N.C., Dec. 2001.

57
Only twenty-five years old
Jolly Young, e-mail to author, Jan. 2003, gives her father's birthdate: 13 Nov. 1910.

58
Gongga Shan, in Sichuan
Jon Krakauer,
Eiger Dreams: Ventures Among Men and Mountains
(New York: Anchor Books, 1990), p. 120.

58
Americans Richard Burdsall and Terris Moore China Journal,
Mar. 1936, p. 172.

58
With his beautiful
The prestigious
China Journal
was quite impressed with the Youngs, “who for several years have been carrying out hazardous expeditions into the wilds of the Chinese-Tibetan border lands to collect zoological specimens.”
China Journal,
Mar. 1936, p. 172.

59
Despite his urbane look
Harkness to Perkins, 25 Aug. 1936.

59
Quentin was startled
Su-Lin Young interview.

59
“If much of young China”
Harkness to Perkins, 13 Oct. 1936.

60
The notion of finally
Harkness,
Lady and the Panda,
p. 56.

60
Shortly, a plan was in place
Harkness to Perkins, 7 Sept. 1936.

61
“barbarian”
Harkness,
Lady and the Panda,
p. 69.

61
Considering the constant
“Mrs. Edward S. Harkness gives $150,000 to Conn. College,”
Wall Street Journal,
14 Dec. 1933.

61
“a poor working girl”
Harkness to Perkins, 19 Sept. 1936.

62
He was only
Jane Reib Pollock (Reib's daughter), telephone conversation with author, 2 Dec. 2003.

62
he was a “cyclone”
Harkness to Perkins, 12 Sept. 1936; and Harkness,
Lady and the Panda,
p. 69.

62
He had black
Jane Reib Pollock, telephone conversation.

62
Most of all
Harkness to Perkins, 19 Sept. 1936.

62
He had even been captured
Harkness to Perkins, 12 Sept. 1936.

62
He adored women
Jane Reib Pollock conversation; Edward Charles Reib, (Reib's grandson), e-mail correspondence with author, 30 Nov. 2003.

62
The second time he came
Harkness to Perkins, 12 and 19 Sept. 1936.

62
As an executive
Harkness to Perkins, 9 Sept. 1936.

63
It was an enormous gift
Sherman Cochran,
Encountering Chinese Networks
(Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000), p. 39.

63
In fact,
Fortune “The Shanghai Boom,”
Fortune,
Jan. 1935.

63
“everything from maps to brandy”
Harkness to Perkins, 30 Sept. 1936.

63
Reib, Harkness wrote home
Harkness to Perkins, 27 Sept. 1936.

63
“One gains sometimes”
Harkness to Perkins, 19 Sept. 1936.

63
Reib liked strong women
Jane Reib Pollock conversation; and Edward Charles Reib e-mail correspondence. Case is
Grigsby
v.
Reib,
Texas Supreme Court, 1913.

63
“a marvelous companionship”
Harkness to Perkins, 12 and 27 Sept. 1936.

64
Of course, the funny thing
Harkness to Perkins, n.d. but clearly late summer or fall 1936.

64
He was a divorced man
Harkness to Perkins, 19 Sept. 1936.

64
“The speed”
Baum,
Shanghai '37
, p. 364.

64
“Shanghai gossip”
Emily Hahn,
China to Me
(1944; E-Reads, 1999), p. 5.

64
“The most intimate”
Harkness to Perkins, n.d. but written before 24 Aug. 1936.

64
“I am becoming”
Harkness to Perkins, 19 Sept. 1936.

64
met with Reib at any hour
Ibid.

64
sukiyaki dinners
Harkness to Perkins, 30 Aug. 1936.

64
“It is rather uninteresting”
Harkness to Perkins, 17 Aug. 1936.

64
There was so much to do
Harkness to Perkins, 19 Sept. 1936.

65
In the lingering summer
According to Harkness to Perkins, 3 Sept. 1936, she started the process that morning.

65
Bill was to have enjoyed
Harkness to Perkins, 3 Sept. 1936.

65
rifles, shotguns, pistols, and bayonets
Harkness to Perkins, 30 Aug. 1936.

66
shrunk by a resourceful Chinese shoemaker North China Daily News,
28 Nov. 1936, describes clothes cut down, even “Tibetan boots.”

Their expedition was to be a leaner proposition than others, Harkness declared. She would not be including the linens, silver, and “facilities for iced champagne” that some had been known to carry. In fact, she wouldn't even pack a fork.

The majority of Bill Harkness's possessions would be sold. Almost two whole groups of items were jettisoned—the arsenal of guns and the enormous stock of sophisticated medical supplies, which contained anesthetics, surgical instruments, and suture silk. Harkness was petrified she would end up killing someone with articles from either group, so only the essentials of each were sorted and retained. Dan Reib would take over from here, arranging the auctioning off of the equipment that she couldn't use and turning it into cash, which she could.

66
recurring nightmare
Harkness,
Lady and the Panda,
p. 56.

66
“When Quentin Young consented”
Harkness as told to Adamson, “How I Caught the Rare Giant Panda,” part 3, “How Mrs. Harkness Kept the Baby Panda Alive,”
New York American,
28 Feb. 1937.

67
“much hooted-at expedition”
Charles Poore, “Books of the Times,”
New York Times,
15 Jan. 1938.

67
interest these gentlemen took
Telegram, 26 July 1934, from the files of the Wildlife Conservation Society, Bronx Zoo archives.

67
“an innate dignity”
Harkness to Perkins, 19 Sept. 1936.

67
“Quentin says”
Harkness to Perkins, 30 Aug. 1936.

67
Ha Gansi
Translation worked out by Professor Sarah Queen, Connecticut College.

67
It was Reib's version
Harkness,
Lady and the Panda,
p. 85.

68
first Chinese woman explorer China Journal,
Dec. 1936, p. 338.

68
“glamorous”
Hahn,
China to Me.

69
Once they were in the snowy
Su-Lin Young interview.

69
She could meditate
Harkness to Perkins, n.d. but from the early 1940s.

69
“I am looking for … the madness of the East”
Harkness to Perkins, 9 Sept. 1936.

69
“China has given me”
Harkness to Perkins, 6 Aug. 1936.

69
“After mature thought”
Harkness to Perkins, 25 Aug. 1936.

70
Some of the old issues
Ruth Harkness to Hazel Perkins, 27 Aug. 1936.

70
While complaining
Floyd Tangier Smith to Field Museum, 19 Dec. 1935, Field Museum archives.

70
As Russell raised
Harkness to Perkins, 27 Aug. 1936.

70
But the problems
In Harkness to Perkins, 12 Sept. 1936, she says the Russell situation had been bothering her for nearly three weeks.

70
“a day of Chinese rain”
Harkness to Perkins, 9 Sept. 1936.

71
The fact was that the more
Harkness to Perkins, 12 Sept. 1936.

71
Before she ever got to China
Ruth Harkness to Hazel Perkins and others, 17 Oct. 1936.

71
She didn't want anything
Harkness to Perkins, 9 Sept. 1936.

71
Over and over
Smith, document/letter 12 Mar. 1937.

71
Their differences had
Harkness to Perkins, 12 Sept. 1936.

71
“The VRYENGLISH GENTLEMAN”
Harkness to Perkins, 7 Sept. 1936.

72
Her dealings with Smith
Harkness to Perkins, misdated 12 July 1936, should be 12 Aug. 1936.

72
for his return ticket
Harkness to Perkins, 12 Oct. 1936.

72
She thought he loathed her
Harkness to Perkins, 19 Sept. 1936. He did retaliate in some way, for she would write home mysteriously that she was shocked that Russell did “things that no ‘crude’ American would dream of.” Elizabeth Smith would later say that in the wake of it, Harkness had “dished Gerry.” What exactly it was didn't seem to bother her for long, and went unrecorded.

72
“Jerry
[sic]
I think behaved rather badly”
Harkness to Perkins, 27 Sept. 1936.

72
Russell was about
Harkness to Perkins, 12 Oct. 1936. The Yangtze flows eastward from Tibet to Shanghai.

73
“That was sheer, unadulterated”
Harkness as told to Adamson, “How Mrs. Harkness Kept the Baby Panda Alive,” part 3 of 3-part series
New York American,
28 Feb. 1938.

73
She was a bear
Diet is 98 percent bamboo in the wild; “Improved Nutrition and Infant Survival,” “Panda 2000, Conservation Priorities for the New Millennium,” workshop at the San Diego Zoo, Oct. 2000,
http://www.sandiegozoo.org/conservation/fieldproject_panda2000.html
.

73
It looked to one zoologist
Quote from Robert Bean of Brookfield Zoo, in “Baby Panda Here, Enjoys Its Bottle,”
New York Times,
24 Dec. 1936.

74
“They had lived”
Harkness,
Lady and the Panda,
p. 268.

74
Late at night
Tess Johnston and Deke Erh,
A Last Look: Western Architecture in Old Shanghai
(Hong Kong: Old China Hand Press, 1993).

74
cool swimming pool All About Shanghai
, p. 88.

75
mountains on this hot dreamy night
Peggy McCleskey, interview by author, 29 Aug. 2002.

75
“Collapse of Revolt” North China Herald,
22 July 1936.

75
“Keeping the Reds”
Ibid., 19 Aug. 1936.

75
“Mrs. Ogden's”
Ibid., 29 July 1936.

75
Thousands of Communist
Buck,
My Several Worlds
, p. 168.

75
“roaming bandits”
Spence,
Search for Modern China,
p. 386. And, in fact, during the Long March, Mao had joined forces with two bandit chiefs. But when Chiang Kai-shek dubbed his anti-Communist efforts the “bandit suppression” campaign, it really was some good old-fashioned Chinese namecalling. Throughout history, warlords had always claimed their rivals were “bandit chiefs.”

76
But there was no getting
Buck,
My Several Worlds,
p. 42.

76
The adherents of the cause
Tuchman,
Stilwell,
p. 32. J. A. G. Roberts,
A Concise History of China
(Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1999), p. 201.

76
subjugation to the Manchus
Henrietta Harrison,
The Making of the Republican Citizen
(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000), p. 31.

76
In the eyes
Spence,
Search for Modern China,
p. 143.

77
imploded within five years
Roberts,
Concise History,
p. 213; and Spence, Search for Modern China, p. 263. But there was much confusion and separatism. Sun became the president of the provisional Republic but quickly yielded power to a military powerhouse named Yuan Shih-kai.

77
“to fill the void”
Tuchman,
Stilwell,
p. 9.

77
Without a unified government… his own government
Ibid., pp. 40–105.

77
The generalissimo
Jonathan Spence, review of Jonathan Fenby's
Chiang Kaishek, New York Times,
29 Feb. 2004.

77
Making Chiang even more attractive
Tuchman,
Stilwell,
p. 116.

78
Whatever his religious leanings
Ibid., p. 86.

78
To critics
Roberts,
Concise History,
p. 239.