Thanks for this Randy, and thanks for the latest package - folks, there'll be more from the excellent Mr Bigham appearing on ET very soon!
Lady Duff Gordon's Titanic Letter
- Thread starter Randy Bryan Bigham
- Start date
Randy Bryan Bigham
Member
Thanks Inger & Phil,
Ing - I absolutely agree as to the effect of those letters from or to victims rather than survivors. I've read a few and always feel the immediacy of the disaster in a way that is impossible in another context. This is also true of some survivors' personal letters written soon after the disaster. Some are so riveting it is actually exhausting to read them, the words being so intense and the emotion so raw that the story is conveyed almost too vividly.
Phil - I am glad to be able to help. Now that the Lucile project is winding down, I'm doing some spare-time research on Titanic's other fashion gal Edith Russell and so far this is coming along well. Will share this with you in due course.
Randy
Ing - I absolutely agree as to the effect of those letters from or to victims rather than survivors. I've read a few and always feel the immediacy of the disaster in a way that is impossible in another context. This is also true of some survivors' personal letters written soon after the disaster. Some are so riveting it is actually exhausting to read them, the words being so intense and the emotion so raw that the story is conveyed almost too vividly.
Phil - I am glad to be able to help. Now that the Lucile project is winding down, I'm doing some spare-time research on Titanic's other fashion gal Edith Russell and so far this is coming along well. Will share this with you in due course.
Randy
Norman Olsen
Member
Randy, I definitely appreciate reading that letter and whole heartedly support a book on letters of those involved in the diasaster. I've been interested in ships and the sea since I was a kid, and especially RMS Titanic. My interest was mainly on the ships themselves until I looked closer a RMS Titanic and the impact it has had on society and each person involved even to this day. To learn about RMS Titanic is to also know the people and their families who were involved, including impact on relatives today in 2001. One can then get a valuable insight as to the human side of this tragedy and appreciate that much more what happened on the night of April 14-15, 1912. I would be definitely interested in your book and any other material that becomes available. Through these letters we may even get answers to many questions that we do not have now. The best in your endeavors. Norm
Randy Bryan Bigham
Member
Norm & all,
Thanks for your kind wishes.
For those of you who haven't read them already, here are a few excerpts from letters quoted in Meredith Etherington-Smith's "The 'It' Girls," the 1986 dual biography of Lucy Duff Gordon and her sister, novelist Elinor Glyn.
In a letter addressed to Lucy at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in New York, dated April 19, 1912, and headed "Our Narrative," Elinor confided her feelings of worry, concern, and hope:
"...I felt uneasy and did not like the idea of a maiden voyage for the ship...On Monday morning, I was choosing brocades (at Lucile's) when Maria (Elinor's maid)called me on the telephone and began like this - 'All the passengers are saved but there has been an accident to the Titanic.' My only thought was 'These greys don't match!" I suggested going to Blumenfeld (editor of the Daily Express) while Tivy (Lucy's son-in-law Lord Tiverton) went to read the tape at the club. Blumenfeld was ill but his sub, Mr. Wilson saw me and read the telegrams, but just those saying all was well...no mention of anyone being drowned. I felt much happier until I saw one telegram that he was trying to keep his hand over, which said the Titanic's wireless message was urgent...the end of the message was blurred and ended abruptly. I then felt the first horror, but underneath for some reason I had no depression or fear. I knew whoever else went down, you would be safe..."
Elinor, who like her sister was an ardent follower of the New Thought movement of the time, went on to relate in sometimes dotty language, that by the following morning on looking at the newspapers she
"...was staggered at the news in them saying the ship was sinking...the Express kept telephoning more and more grave news about women saved but men not ...there seemed to be an angel in the room who told us your great occult strength had pulled Cosmo through too..."
The mid-day editions of some London papers were listing the Duff Gordons as lost but Elinor kept faith that her sister and brother-in-law were alive:
"...I have never felt more calm and certain in my life, not a tremor shook me. We were certainly sustained by those beyond because every fact seemed to prove you were drowned ...then the Express rang to say your names had just arrived as saved -this was about one o'clock...the Lucile girls who had been crying and weeping and fainting all the morning were also wild with joy...we only feared for Miss Franks ... the angels were in the room all the time...Gran (Lucy's and Elinor's mother, Mrs. Kennedy) was perfectly calm. Just think of the change New Thought has wrought in her - she too had the angels' assurance you were perfectly safe..."
Lucy Duff Gordon's US attorney Bainbridge Colby (who had formed the Progressive Party with Roosevelt, served later as Secretary of State under Wilson, and is best remembered for signing into law the 19th Amendment, giving women the right to vote), was among the group of American friends meeting her and her husband at the pier in New York on Carpathia's landing April 18. In a letter to Lucy's family, Colby wrote
"...We had a period of great anxiety here until their names appeared on the list of survivors...I met the Carpathia on its arrival. It was a most solemn and tense moment when its gangplank was thrown ashore...Sir Cosmo and her Ladyship sauntered off in apparently excellent conditions of health and courage. Their baggage consisted of two lifebelts which they are preserving as momentos of their terrible experience..."
These letters are all in the possession of Lucy's descendents, namely a great-granddaughter and a great-great neice who is Elinor Glyn's literary executor. It is my hope that these letters and all the many others will find their way into a suitable archive in due course.
Randy
Thanks for your kind wishes.
For those of you who haven't read them already, here are a few excerpts from letters quoted in Meredith Etherington-Smith's "The 'It' Girls," the 1986 dual biography of Lucy Duff Gordon and her sister, novelist Elinor Glyn.
In a letter addressed to Lucy at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in New York, dated April 19, 1912, and headed "Our Narrative," Elinor confided her feelings of worry, concern, and hope:
"...I felt uneasy and did not like the idea of a maiden voyage for the ship...On Monday morning, I was choosing brocades (at Lucile's) when Maria (Elinor's maid)called me on the telephone and began like this - 'All the passengers are saved but there has been an accident to the Titanic.' My only thought was 'These greys don't match!" I suggested going to Blumenfeld (editor of the Daily Express) while Tivy (Lucy's son-in-law Lord Tiverton) went to read the tape at the club. Blumenfeld was ill but his sub, Mr. Wilson saw me and read the telegrams, but just those saying all was well...no mention of anyone being drowned. I felt much happier until I saw one telegram that he was trying to keep his hand over, which said the Titanic's wireless message was urgent...the end of the message was blurred and ended abruptly. I then felt the first horror, but underneath for some reason I had no depression or fear. I knew whoever else went down, you would be safe..."
Elinor, who like her sister was an ardent follower of the New Thought movement of the time, went on to relate in sometimes dotty language, that by the following morning on looking at the newspapers she
"...was staggered at the news in them saying the ship was sinking...the Express kept telephoning more and more grave news about women saved but men not ...there seemed to be an angel in the room who told us your great occult strength had pulled Cosmo through too..."
The mid-day editions of some London papers were listing the Duff Gordons as lost but Elinor kept faith that her sister and brother-in-law were alive:
"...I have never felt more calm and certain in my life, not a tremor shook me. We were certainly sustained by those beyond because every fact seemed to prove you were drowned ...then the Express rang to say your names had just arrived as saved -this was about one o'clock...the Lucile girls who had been crying and weeping and fainting all the morning were also wild with joy...we only feared for Miss Franks ... the angels were in the room all the time...Gran (Lucy's and Elinor's mother, Mrs. Kennedy) was perfectly calm. Just think of the change New Thought has wrought in her - she too had the angels' assurance you were perfectly safe..."
Lucy Duff Gordon's US attorney Bainbridge Colby (who had formed the Progressive Party with Roosevelt, served later as Secretary of State under Wilson, and is best remembered for signing into law the 19th Amendment, giving women the right to vote), was among the group of American friends meeting her and her husband at the pier in New York on Carpathia's landing April 18. In a letter to Lucy's family, Colby wrote
"...We had a period of great anxiety here until their names appeared on the list of survivors...I met the Carpathia on its arrival. It was a most solemn and tense moment when its gangplank was thrown ashore...Sir Cosmo and her Ladyship sauntered off in apparently excellent conditions of health and courage. Their baggage consisted of two lifebelts which they are preserving as momentos of their terrible experience..."
These letters are all in the possession of Lucy's descendents, namely a great-granddaughter and a great-great neice who is Elinor Glyn's literary executor. It is my hope that these letters and all the many others will find their way into a suitable archive in due course.
Randy
Hi Randy,
I just read the Lucile letter (catching up on earlier posts) and I found it very touching. I echo with what everybody else has posted. It goes to show how the media wrongly portrayed them. The excerpts that you posted above were also very moving.
I also agree that a book of letters should be done. That would be wonderful. Also, my condolances to you on the loss of your friend.
All the best with your book. I also hope to see it on the bookshelves soon.
Best regards,
Jason
I just read the Lucile letter (catching up on earlier posts) and I found it very touching. I echo with what everybody else has posted. It goes to show how the media wrongly portrayed them. The excerpts that you posted above were also very moving.
I also agree that a book of letters should be done. That would be wonderful. Also, my condolances to you on the loss of your friend.
All the best with your book. I also hope to see it on the bookshelves soon.
Best regards,
Jason
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