Woman of Valor (74 page)

6.
W.S. to M.S., Feb. 5, 1914 and Mar. 25, 1914, MS-SS. Grant Sanger, Schlesinger Library interview, p. 15, and interview with the author, Dec. 18, 1987.

7.
W.S. to M.S., Sept. 3, 1913, MS-SS. Henrietta Sanger's death certificate is on file with the New York City Department of Health, Bureau of Records. Again, my thanks to Alex Sanger for a copy.

8.
Autobiography
, p. 105, Grant Sanger, Schlesinger interview, pp. 15-16.

9.
W.S. to M.S. Dec. 28, 1913. As Bill became more and more desperate, his prose and his handwriting began to run away from him. I am especially grateful to James Reed, who helped me decipher many of his letters.

10.
The quotes are, in order, from W.S. to M.S., Jan. 11, Jan. 5, n.d. (Spring 1914), and Mar. 12, 1914, all in MS-SS. Also see, W.S. to M.S. Mar. 3, 1914. Mention of his receiving 50 from her is in the Feb. 5 letter. An accounting of his receipt of a total of $160 is in his letter of Mar. 19, 1914. Mention of the end of the Hastings mortgage payments is in May 25, 1914.

11.
See W.S. to M.S., Mar. 19, 1914. Quotations are in order from W.S. to M.S., Mar. 12, June 1, and Apr. 2, 1914, all in MS-SS. Further impressions are also drawn from letters of Jan. 21 and 28, Feb. 14, Mar. 25, Apr. 2, June 1, 1914, and n.d. (June 1914), MS-SS. The divorce statistics are from President's Commission on Social Trends:
Recent Social Trends in the United States
(New York: 1933), p. 692.

12.
Luhan,
Movers and Shakers
, pp. 69-71. On the disillusion of the Greenwich Village crowd with sexual liberation, see Fishbein,
Rebels in Bohemia
.

13.
The undated poem is in the Walter Roberts correspondence, MS-SS. The fact that she liked the poem is mentioned in his letter to her of May 13, 1914, MS-SS.

14.
Otto Bobsein to M.S., Oct. 25, 1953, M.S. to O.B., Oct. 27, 1953, in MS-SS; Roma Brashear (a librarian) to Florence Rose (secretary to M.S.) Dec. 24, 1934, MS-LC;
Autobiography
, pp. 107-108.

15.
Autobiography
, pp. 107-109. By emphasizing that the feminists turned her down, Sanger gave the conservatives in the established birth control movement an excuse for her early radicalism--that, in effect, she had nowhere else to go--hardly the only rationale of her alliance. Kennedy,
Birth Control
and Linda Gordon,
Woman's Body, Woman's Right: A Social History of Birth Control in America
(New York: 1976), however, tend to read her literally and continually question her bona fides as a “radical.” Both argue, from different perspectives, that Sanger saw birth control as a single issue early on and isolated herself from radical labor politics, but the facts substantially dispute this interpretation. Sanger's vision of a feminist alliance for social change, moreover, had considerable effect among women radicals of the day. Her break with the left, as we shall see, came much later. See Kennedy,
idem
, p. 22; Gordon,
idem
, pp. 22122. On heterodoxy, see Judith Schwarz,
Radical Feminists of Heterodoxy, Greenwich Village, 1912-1940
(Lebanon, N.H.: 1982), and Nancy Cott,
The Grounding of Modern Feminism
(New Haven: 1987), p. 40. On women as a “united front,” Meredith Tax,
The Rising of the Women: Feminist Solidarity and Class Conflict, 1810-1917
(New York: 1980).

16.
The Woman Rebel
, 1:1, (Mar. 1914), pp. 1, 3, 8; 1:2 (Apr. 1914), pp. 10, 12; 1:3, (May 1914), pp. 20, 22, 28: 1:4 (June, 1914), pp. 25, 31, reprinted in Alex Baskin, ed.,
Woman Rebel
(Stonybrook, N.Y.: 1976). Unidentified clippings of Sanger newspaper interviews are in MS-LC scrapbooks.

17.
Max Eastman in
The Masses
, 5:8 (May 1914), p. 5. Emma Goldman to M.S., Apr. 9, 1914, and June 23, 1914, MS-LC.

18.
G. F. Murphy, asst. postmaster, to M.S., Apr. 2, Apr. 7, and Aug. 27, 1914; A. Snowden Marshall, U.S. attorney, to M.S., Oct. 7, 1914; Otto Bobsein to Postmaster E. M. Morgan, Esq., Apr. 4, 1914, and Morgan to Bobsein, Apr. 7, 1914, all in MS-LC.

19.
Tresca, “Autobiography,” unpublished manuscript in the Carlo Tresca papers, CT-NYPL, pp. 279-80; Elizabeth Gurley Flynn,
The Rebel Girl
(New York: 1973), p. 182; Camp manuscript, Chap. 3.

20.
On Tannenbaum, see Luhan,
Movers and Shakers
, pp. 265-277; Tresca, “Autobiography,” p. 264, and
The New York Times
for 1914, Mar. 3, 1:3; Mar. 4 (editorial) 10:3; Mar. 5 (lead story) 1:8 and 8:2; Mar. 6, 1:1; Mar. 12, 1:3; Mar. 17, 9:3; Mar. 24, 2:6; Mar. 25, 6:4; and Mar. 26, 5:3. Also see
The Woman Rebel,
1:6 (Aug. 1914), pp. 45, 46, 48.

21.
The Modern School archives are housed in the manuscript division of the library of Rutgers University and include the following on this period: “The Prospectus of the Francisco Ferrer Association,” 5:11 (Jan. 1911), pp. 348-59; Carl Zigrosser, “Memoir of The Ferrer Center”; Bayard Boyeson, “The Modern School,”
Everyman
10:10 (Dec. 1914), pp. 11-12; Harry Kelly, “The Ferrer Modern School, 1920”; and the Modern School of Stelton,
Twenty-Fifth Anniversary Bulletin, May 17, 1940
, which includes an article by James Dick, “Some Memories and Passing Thoughts.”
The Modern School Monthly Magazine
, Vols. 1-8 (1912-1922), is in the New York Public Library. Also see Paul Avrich,
The Modern School Movement: Anarchism and Education in the United States
(Princeton: 1980), especially pp. 9-15, 47, 80. I am indebted to Professor Avrich for his help with these references. Finally, see Will and Ariel Durant,
A Dual Autobiography
(New York: 1977), p. 41.

22.
Tresca, “Autobiography,” pp. 292-323. Avrich,
Modern School Movement
, pp. 183-326. “The Realization of a Dream,”
The Modern School Magazine
2:6 (June 1915).

23.
Herbert A. Thorpe, “A Defense of Assassination,”
The Woman Rebel
1:5 (July 1914), pp. 33-34. M.S. to Helena Huntington Smith, July 1930, MS-LC.

24.
Margaret Sanger,
Family Limitation
, copies of various editions (most of the earlier ones undated) in MS-LC and MS-SS. Also see Joan Jensen, “The Evolution of Margaret Sanger's Family Limitation Pamphlet,”
Signs
6 (Spring 1981) pp.548-67.

25.
“Woman Rebel Editor on Trial,”
The Call
Oct. 20, 1914, 4:4, Tamiment-NYU. “Margaret Sanger,”
The Masses
, Nov. 1914, 6:2 p. 20.
Autobiography
, pp. 117-18; Kennedy,
Birth Control
, p. 25.

26.
My Fight
, p. 6., Sanger Journal, Nov. 3-6, 1914, MS-SS.

6: A EUROPEAN EDUCATION

1.
Passport and photograph are in MS-SS. Also see
Autobiography
, p. 121.

2.
Journal entry, Nov. 3, 1915, MS-SS; “Opinions of American Women in Europe,” unpublished manuscript, MS-LC. This manuscript offers an interesting contrast to the portraits in Henry James's turn-of-the-century novels and stories about self-indulgent daughters of the American aristocracy, who meet with tragic consequence when they seek romance and adventure on the Continent.

3.
W.S. to M.S., Dec. 25, 1914, Dec. 27, 1914, Jan. 10, 1915, which says that “the letter excommunicating me from your life was cold and calculating,” all in MS-SS.

4.
W.S. to M.S., Dec. 1914, May 21, and Sept. 21, 1915, in MS-SS speak of Peggy and the “steampipes,” as he referred to the brace on her leg; Stuart Sanger to M.S., Apr. 29, 1915, and to W.S., May 6, 1915, and Grant Sanger to M.S. n.d. (1915) and July 31, 1915, all in MS-SS. Olive Byrne's interview with Jacqueline Van Voris, pp. 4-5, recalls visiting her mother when she was living with Bill Sanger and his children. M.S. to Nan Higgins, Feb. 22, 1915, and n.d. (“Barcelona, Spain, 1915”) in MS-LC convey her concern about Peggy and her wish that Bill do nothing about “her little foot” until she returns. Sanger Journal entries for Nov. 25 and Dec. 17, 1914, MS-SS, contain the material in quotation. For biographical information on Helen Marot, see Nancy Shrom Dye,
As Equals and as Sisters: Feminism, the Labor Movement, and the Women's Trade Union League of New York
(Columbia, Mo.: 1980); and also Sol Cohen “Helen Marot,” in
Notable American Women, 1607-1950: A Biographical Dictionary
, edited by Edward T. James and Janet Wilson James (Cambridge, Mass.: 1971). On Caroline Pratt, see her autobiography,
I Learn from Children: An Adventure in Progressive Education
(New York: 1948), especially the reference on p. 203 to her intolerance for parents “slow to mark distress signals, to see children in trouble and offer help.”

5.
Journal, Nov. 13, Nov. 18 and Dec. 16, 1914, MS-SS. The Dec. 16 entry has the quote. Also see M.S. “Notes on Nietzsche” (1915), MS-LC, in which she extracts the following teachings: “sincerity and heroism plus delicacy of sentiment and refinement”--“understand the aristocracy and acquire subtle methods of thinking.”

6.
Journal, Nov. 25, 1914, MS-SS; James Dick,
Some Memories and Passing Thoughts
, bulletin published by the Ferrer Association, refers to Portet as Ferrer's successor. Dick was a young British sympathizer who came to teach at the school in Stelton.

7.
Journal, n.d. (sometime after a previous entry on Nov. 15, 1914); additional references to Portet in London and Paris on Dec. 24, Feb. 1, 1915, Feb. 2, May 1915, etc. Biographical data is from Margaret Sanger, “Notes on Portet and Ferrer,” MS-LC. Also see William Archer,
The Life, Trial and Death of Francisco Ferrer
(London: 1911), a compilation of articles first published in
McClure's Magazine
, Nov. and Dec. 1910; Dick,
Some Memories
, p. 31; and Paul Avrich,
The Modern School Movement: Anarchism and Education in the United States
(Princeton: 1980), p. 27.

8.
Journal, Apr. 12, 20, and May 4, 1915, MS-LC.

9.
W.S. to M.S., Jan. 21, 1915, MS-SS, in typescript to ensure that she would read and understand all of it, since his handwriting was often illegible. Also see, “Sanger Held for Trial as Comstock Testifies,”
The Call
, Feb. 3, 1915, 3:5; “Is the Truth Obscene?”
The Masses
, 6:6 (Mar. 1915), pp. 5-6; and “Anthony Comstock's Latest Victim,”
The Modern School Magazine
7: 2-3 (Feb. and Mar. 1915).

10.
Margaret wrote of her financial woes and of her annoyance in M.S. to Nan Higgins, n.d. (Barcelona, Spain), MS-LC, and in M.S. to W.S., May 31, 1915, MS-SS, one of the few of her letters to him that survives. He also used the term “excommunicating me from your life” in W.S. to M.S., Jan. 5, 1915, a very bitter letter, considerably different in tone from those that followed his arrest, esp. W.S. to M.S., Jan. 17 and Jan. 21, 1915.

11.
Margaret Sanger, “Modern Schools in Spain,”
Modern School Magazine
, 8: 1&2 (May-July 1915). The Portet reference is from M.S. to Nan Higgins, n.d. (“Barcelona, Spain”), MS-LC.
Her letter to Nan from Amsterdam on Feb. 22, 1915, MS-LC, refers to “so many tongues and gossips ready to put a knife in your back” and claims that she was planning to return to Canada and claim her children. A vitriolic letter from M.S. to W.S., May 31, 1915, attacks him for turning people against her, especially Helen Marot and Caroline Pratt, who were caring for the children and whom she refers to as “splendid women.”
She wrote of Portet to Leonard Abbott in M.S. to L.A., May 1915, MS-LC (this letter is filed in unidentified cc). The recollection of Portet is from a telephone interview on Oct. 3, 1985, with Nelle Dick, then age ninty-three, living in Miami, Fla. Nelle Dick was married to James Dick and also taught at Stelton. My thanks again to Paul Avrich for putting me in touch with her.

12.
The four cablegrams from Portet in Barcelona to Margaret in New York, dated Nov. 14, Nov. 21, Dec. 8, 1915, and Jan. 3, 1916, in MS-SS, convey his hope that she would get her case dismissed and prepare to return to him. They are variously signed “lovingly” or “ever yours.” A letter from “L. Portet to Mrs. Margaret H. Sanger,” dated Feb. 10, 1916, on “Casa Editorial” letterhead formally offers her a job and must have been intended for customs purposes. The Sanger references to Portet are in yearbook entries for Feb. 13 and Feb. 15, 1919, MS-LC, and letters to Juliet Rublee from London, June 7, and Aug. 25 (1920), in MS-DC. M.S. to Hugh de Selincourt (a subsequent lover), “Chamonix,” July 14 (1928 or earlier), refers to her association of Portet and Paris, MS-LC. Noah Slee (Sanger's second husband) to M.S., Feb. 7, 1927, MS-SS, tells her he had been in Barcelona and recalled the “vivid details” of “your affair,” which she had apparently shared with him. Also see
Autobiography
, pp. 153-68.

13.
See Annie Besant,
The Law of Population
(London: 1884), and George Drysdale,
The Elements of Social Science: An Exposition of Cause and Only Cure for the Three Primary Social Evils: Poverty, Prostitution and Celibacy
(London: 1886), both in MS-SS. Also see Peter Fryer,
The Birth Controllers
(New York: 1966), esp. pp. 43-192, Rosanna Ledbetter,
A History of the Malthusian League, 1877-1927
(Columbus, Ohio: 1976), Linda Gordon,
Woman's Body, Woman's Right: A Social History of Birth Control in America
(New York: 1976), pp. 73-81, and James Reed,
The Birth Control Movement and American Society: From Private Vice to Public Virtue
(Princeton: 1984), pp. 89-90.