Woman of Valor (80 page)

3.
M.S., appointment calendar, May-August 1920, passim, MS-LC. H.E. to M.S., Aug. 13, n.d. (1920), Aug. 17, Aug. 19, 1920, “8 Cliff Terrace, Plymouth,” n.d. (1920), and “Wednesday,” n.d. (1920), MS-LC.
Autobiography
, p. 277.

4.
The first quote is in M.S. to F. Cyon, n.d. (from the Stafford Hotel, London) which was among the correspondence given to the author by François Lafitte, Cyon's son by her first marriage--now deposited in MS-SS. Another of these letters, dated only “Saturday,” has the housecleaning reference. Also see M.S. to F.C., May 5, 1929, Jan. 8, 1930, Dec. 9, 1931, Jan. 11, 1931, Nov. 10, n.d. (1936), Aug. 31, n.d. (1930s), in which she encourages Cyon to keep up her fortitude and courage in the face of Ellis's declining health and also sends money to make their lives easier, MS-SS.

5.
The Sanger-de Selincourt correspondence is in MS-LC. See especially de Selincourt to M.S., “17th August, Wantley,” n.d. (1920), where he speaks of “a lovely foundation on which to build our mutual love of Havelock.” Ellis's “sexual athlete” reference is in
My Life
. Also see H.E. to M.S., Nov. 2, 1920, MS-LC, and M.S. to Françoise Cyon, Aug. 31, 1931, MS-SS.

6.
Hugh de Selincourt to M.S., June 2, 1920; and M.S. to H. de S., “Saturday” n.d. (1922), MS-LC. My impressions of the Wantley circle are drawn from the large number of references to what went on there in Sanger's correspondence with Juliet Rublee, Hugh and Janet de Selincourt, Havelock Ellis, Françoise Cyon, and Harold Child. See especially Harold Child to M.S., Oct. 24, 1924, included in the Sanger-Rublee letters, MS-DC. On Ellis's only visit, see M.S. to Hugh de Selincourt, Oct. 28, 1927, MS-LC. The final quote is from M.S. to Françoise Cyon, Oct. 1, 1946, now at MS-SS. On the reputation and lure of the Byron-Shelley circle in Edwardian England, see the biographical sketch in George Edward Woodberry, ed.,
The Complete Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley
, Cambridge, Ed. (New York: 1901), pp.xv-xviii.

7.
M.S., appointment calendar, Sept. 1920, MS-LC. The quoted material in order of presentation is from M.S. to H.de S., n.d. (1920 or 21); M.S. “Introducing Hugh de Selincourt,”
One Little Boy
(New York: 1924), MSLC; M.S. to H.de S., Aug. 12, n.d. (1930), MS-LC; H.de S. to M.S., “Wantley,” n.d. (1920); “Nov. 20,” n.d. (1921); Aug. 5, 1921; Jan. 20, 1923, and Feb. 14, 1927, all in MS-LC; H.E. to M.S., Sept. 13, 1921, and Jan. 18, 1921, MS-LC: M.S. to H.de S., “Aug. 1, Zermatt, Switzerland,” n.d. (1928); Jan. 7, 1927; “Feb. 18 en route to Bermuda,” n.d.; “Hey there Poet,” n.d. (1931 or '32, after her first biography was published); and Oct. 5, 1932 (“Willowlake”). The letter telling him to meet Rublee is M.S. to H.de S., “Saturday,” from the Hotel Russell in London, n.d. (1921). The final Rublee references are in letters dated Sept. 20, 1932, and “October Willowlake,” n.d. (1932), all in MS-LC. For the attempted lecture tour, see M.S. to James Pond, Oct. 1, 1930, MS-LC.
I emphasize the lighthearted nature of the Sanger-de Selincourt relationship, in part, because Madeline Gray, in her often inaccurate portrait in
Margaret Sanger: A Biography of the Champion of Birth Control
(New York: 1978), makes a great deal more of it. See esp., pp. 131-36, 141-42 and 219. In the absence of other biographical work on Sanger, however, more substantial books, such as Phyllis Grosskurth,
Havelock Ellis: A Biography
(New York: 1980), p. 307, make reference to Gray.

8.
The Sanger quote is from M.S. to Juliet Rublee, “Stafford Hotel,” n.d. (probably 1925), MS-DC. The Child quote is from a collection of essays first published as
Love and Unlove
in 1921 and referenced posthumously in the introduction to Harold Child,
Essays and Reflections
(Cambridge and New York: 1938), p. vii.

9.
The quote is from the introduction to W. Warren Wager, ed.,
H. G. Wells: Journalism and Prophecy 1893-1946
(Boston: 1964), p. xvi, as is some of the biographical data. I have also made use of the two principal biographies of Wells: Norman and Jeanne Mackenzie,
H. G. Wells, A Biography
(New York: 1973), especially pp. 299-351, and the recently published, David C. Smith,
H. G. Wells, Desperately Mortal, A Biography
(New Haven: 1986), esp. pp. 361-427, both of which document the relationship with Sanger. On Wells and Rebecca West also see Gordon N. Ray,
H. G. Wells and Rebecca West
(New Haven: 1974), though much of the view of their relationship it presents is disputed by the highly controversial portrait of Wells in Anthony West,
H. G. Wells: Aspects of a Life
(New York: 1984), an affectionate and eloquent memoir written by the son born of Wells's liaison with West. The late Anthony West spoke to me by telephone about his father's deep and sustained affection for Margaret Sanger on Oct. 10, 1986.

10.
H. G. Wells,
Ann Veronica
(London: 1909). Also see H. G. Wells, “War and the Status of Women,” and “Socialism and the New World Order,” in Wager,
Journalism and Prophecy
, pp. 103-109 and pp. 392-403, and H. G. Wells,
Socialism and the Family
(London: 1908), pp. 29-31, 35-37. On Wells's influence on his generation in America, see Henry F. May,
The End of American Innocence: A Study of the First Years of Our Own Time
, (New York: 1959), esp. p. 238.

11.
H. G. Wells,
The Secret Places of the Heart
(London, New York, Toronto, and Melbourne: 1922). The material in quotation is from p. 183, other references from pp. 144, 162-63, 167, 169-71, and 178, respectively.

12.
Ibid
. The material quoted is from pp. 189, 214, and 276, respectively. Anthony West discusses the novel and its meaning in
Aspects of a Life
, pp. 87-88. In a conclusion that suggests he didn't quite know how to resolve the story, Wells kills off Sir Richmond in an accident and then brings his permanent lover, Martin Leeds (Rebecca West), back on stage to mourn for him. Wells's own autobiography admits that the novel was written to provoke Rebecca. See Smith,
Desperately Mortal
, p. 382.

13.
Author's telephone conversation with Anthony West, Oct. 10, 1986. Smith,
Desperately Mortal
, pp. 270-71, 403-405. M.S. to Juliet Rublee, Aug. 27, 1921, says, “H.G. wired me to come for a weekend,” MS-DC. The direct Wells quotes are, in order, from H.G.W. to M.S., Sept. 14, 1921, in unidentified cc, MS-LC, and from H.G.W. to M.S., Dec. 7, 1921, and Oct. 8, 1924, in MS-SS. Also see the more chatty later correspondence, esp. H.G.W. to M.S., Jan. 3, 1943, on how amusing he found her letters. The “way out” message is undated, presumably from the early 1920s, in MS-LC. The Mackenzies,
H. G. Wells, A Biography
, disparage his love life on p. 345. Sanger's description of him is in
Autobiography
, pp. 268-69.

14.
The Wells quote about Sanger is from his introduction to Margaret Sanger,
The Pivot of Civilization
(New York: 1922), p. xvi. Lenin's characterization of Wells is in Smith,
Desperately Mortal
, p. 271.

15.
Margaret Sanger,
Woman and the New Race
(New York: 1920), p. 94. The Macmillan Co. to M.S., Jan. 9, 1920, MS-LC, and author's conversations with Grant Sanger.

16.
Ellis to Sanger, “Saturday AM,” n.d. (1915), MS-LC;
Woman and the New Race
, pp. 9-29, 167-85.

17.
Woman and the New Race
, quote is on p. 7; pp. 138-50 comprise a chapter called “Will Labor Benefit?”

18.
Woman and the New Race
, pp. 167-85 and introduction, passim. The Library of Congress papers contain publishing data in a file of
Woman and the New Race
correspondence. Also, for examples of the misleading advertising, see Francis McLennon Vreeland, “The Process of Reform with Especial Reference to Reform Groups in the Field of Population,” doctoral dissertation, University of Michigan, 1929, p. 100. Finally, H.E. to M.S., Aug. 19, Sept. 21, and Nov. 16, 1919, all in MS-LC.

19.
The Wells quote is from Sanger,
Pivot of Civilization
, p. xvi. My discussion of the text thus far essentially summarizes the arguments in the book on pp. 1, 9-13, 23-26, and 148-49. (The “too flattering a doctrine” quote is on p. 9, “entering wedge,” on p. 24.)

20.
Ibid
., “cradle-competition” on p. 25; “self-directed…” on pp. 22-23; also see pp. 170-71, 180-81, 186-189. Sanger took the passage about eugenics almost directly from a statement she had delivered in October of 1921 to the Second International Congress of Eugenics in New York. See Margaret Sanger, “The Eugenic Value of Birth Control Propaganda,”
Birth Control Review
5:10 (Oct. 1921), p. 5. Also see H.E. to M.S., Nov. 18, 1930, where he worries over a Eugenics Society scheme for legalizing sterilization, which he called “ridiculous and harmful and quite contrary to all my ideas.” Important new insights into the popularity of eugenicism are in Carl N. Degler,
In Search of Human Nature: The Decline and Revival of Darwinism in American Social Thought
(New York: 1990); my thanks to Meris Powell for my copy of this book. For doctrinaire criticism of Sanger's eugenic sympathies, see Donald K. Pickens,
Eugenics and the Progressives
(Tennessee; 1968), pp. 75-76; David Kennedy,
Birth Control in America: The Career of Margaret Sanger
(New Haven: 1970), p. 115, and Linda Gordon,
Woman's Body, Woman's Right: A Social History of Birth Control in America
(New York: 1976), esp. p. 332, which quotes Sanger extensively out of context. A corrective is offered in Charles Valenza, “Was Margaret Sanger a Racist?”
Family Planning Perspectives
17:1 (Jan.-Feb. 1985) pp. 44-46. However, Valenza, a public relations officer for Planned Parenthood of New York City, although he clarifies Sanger's ideas, is too quick to excuse her for the company she kept.

21.
Sanger,
The Pivot of Civilization
, p. 13, pp. 210-11.

22.
The Wells quote is from
ibid
. introduction, p. ix. Also see Ellis to Sanger, “New Year's Eve,” n.d. (apparently 1922--when he would have been reading a draft), MS-LC. On Robert Allerton Parker, see Dorothy Brush to Margaret Grierson (the former chief archivist at Smith College), Dec. 12, 1959, DB-SS, and Olive Byrne Richard's interview with Jacqueline Van Voris, MS-SS. For reviews, see Leta S. Hollingworth, “For and Against Birth Control,” undated clipping from
The New Republic
, in MS-LC, and E. M. East, “Margaret Sanger's Pivot of Civilization,”
Birth Control Review
, 6:12 (Dec. 1922), p. 253. Hollingworth reviewed
Pivot of Civilization
along with a book titled
Birth Control
by Halliday G. Sutherland, M.D. (New York: 1922). The “yesterday's criminal” quote is from “Birth Control as a Conquering Movement,”
Current Opinion
72 (Feb. 1922), p. 212. Book sales data is from a report prepared by Anne Kennedy, executive director of the American Birth Control League, Oct. 5, 1926, Planned Parenthood Federation of America Papers, Sophia Smith Collection, Smith College, hereinafter PPFA-SS.

23.
M.S. to Juliet Rublee, n.d. (on
Birth Control Review
letterhead, 1920 or 1921, in New York), MS-DC; M.S. to H.E., Jan. 1, 1921, MS-LC; M.S. to Juliet Rublee, n.d. (“Juliet Dearest,” 1921 in New York); Aug. 25, 1921 (from Lucerne); and Aug. 27, 1921 (from Amsterdam), all in MS-DC.

10: THE CONDITIONS OF REFORM

1.
Margaret Sanger to “Dear Friend,” Sept. 28, 1921; M.S. to Dr. E. W. Ritter, Scripps Institute of Biological Research, La Jolla, Cal., Aug. 12, 1921;
The First American Birth Control Conference: Why
? promotional pamphlet, n.d., all in MS-SS.

2.
Mary Ware Dennett, “The Voluntary Parenthood League,” statement presented for the American Birth Control League Conference, Nov. 11-13, 1921, in MS-LC; Dennett,
Birth Control Laws: Shall We Keep Them, Change Them, or Abolish Them
? (New York: 1926), p. 100 and p. 180; and “Outline of Birth Control Legislation,” draft prepared for the
Congressional Digest
, Mar., 1931, MS-LC. Also, “Woman's Federation Endorses Birth Control,”
Birth Control Review
4:11 (Nov. 1920), p. 5, and the clipping of an article on the General Federation of Women's Clubs resolution that appeared in
The Call
, Oct. 15, 1920, MS-LC. Arthur Gleason, “Birth Control,”
Survey
47:22 (Oct. 1921), pp. 113-14, summarizes developments. Also see
Autobiography
, p. 415.

3.
Clippings on the welcoming luncheon from
New York Herald
and
The Call
, Dec. 9, 1920, in MS-LC. Responses to Rublee's appeals of 1920 and 1921 are also in MS-LC. See, for example, Mrs. Robert Perkins Bass to J.R., Oct. 12, 1920; Herbert Croly to J.R., Sept. 12, 1921; Lillian Wald to J.R., Sept. 13, 1921; Florence Lamont to J.R. (n.d.), where she says that she was glad to give her name, but her husband, Thomas Lamont, was not. Rublee was also turned down by such physicians she contacted as the then prominent New York gynecologist Howard Kelly. On legislative work, “Outline of Legislative Work at Albany,”
Birth Control Review
, 5:5 (May 1921) p. 11. Reference to Rublee's earlier visit to Belle Moskowitz is in M.S. (from London) to J.R., June 7, 1920, in MS-DC.
A breakdown of the responses to the 1921 mailing and questionnaire is in MS-LC. It shows that condom and pessary use were split about evenly among 900 of the women, while the remainder indicated preference for suppositories or sponges. The high incidence of pessary use may have reflected the influence of Margaret's own propaganda on women who supported her. I found no breakdown of how much money the mailing raised. Margaret referred to the survey in her Town Hall speech at the First American Birth Control Conference in 1921. See the stenographic record of the speech, Proceedings of the First American Birth Control Conference, pp. 21-22, MS-SS, and
Autobiography
, pp. 292-94.