Jane Goodrich, co-founder of Saturn Press, has written a novel featuring George Nixon Black, whose real-life house, Kragsyde, a shingle-style architectural masterpiece built on the North Shore of Massachusetts, was recreated in loving detail by Jane and her husband, doing all the work themselves, on an island in Maine.
George Nixon Black, a complex and romantic man,
spent a lifetime hiding in plain sight, harboring a secret of violence
and a secret of love. Using characters, letters and events from history,
and spanning the period between the Civil War and the Jazz Age, The House at Lobster Cove
is part family saga, part love story, and an engaging personal journey
set against the magnificence and mercilessness of the 19th century.
The book is a loving testament to George Nixon
Black, his house, and the secrets he held. It is an artisanal work
combining all the aspects of Ms. Goodrich's distinguished career —
building, designing, telling stories, writing, and printing.
Thank you so much for being here, Jane!
Q: What prompted your interest in the life of GEORGE NIXON
BLACK? How has learning about him changed your own life?
A: I must admit that George Nixon Black’s house caught my eye
long before he did. I was aware of Kragsyde, his house at Lobster Cove in
Manchester-by-the-Sea, Massachusetts for at least a decade before I ever knew
of Nixon, as he was known by his peers. In fact, most people only know his name
in association with his famous shingle-style house. Nixon’s personality was
naturally modest, but as a wealthy gay man he practiced a habit of secrecy for
his own safety. He left very little evidence of his life, and it is only
through Kragsyde that his name remains in history.
Nixon’s Kragsyde was torn down after his death, but has lived
in the light of architectural fame ever since. Once my husband and I had
decided to build a replica of the house, Nixon became a ghost on our building
site. Because we were doing all the work entirely ourselves, the rebuilding
progressed slowly. Questions about how the original rooms looked or were used
naturally led to questions about Nixon himself, and the members of his family
who lived with him. As I began to research him, a fascinating individual
emerged. Our replica was built in Maine, but Nixon lived in Boston so the first
surprise I discovered was that he was born and spent his childhood in a Maine
town less than 30 miles from where we had chosen to rebuild our Kragsyde.
Q: I understand you wrote THE HOUSE AT LOBSTER COVE by long
hand. How did that help the writing and plotting process? How did you manage
and keep track of the voluminous files and historical data?
A: The quick answer is that I have never been able to think
and type, whether on a computer or typewriter, but the longer answer is I would
be unable to write without the ability of long hand. I simply cannot imagine
writing without actually writing. I have used the same fountain pen for 35
years and we are old friends. I work in
a craft printing business, I hand built Kragsyde. It is natural for me to
progress slowly and carefully with simple tools. I have often heard of writing described as a
craft, and indeed it is. Building a house from the ground up by hand and writing
a novel are very similar activities.
When I began to research George Nixon Black I started with
primary source materials, particularly his will. I built out lists of his
neighbors, people who he worked with in business, his family members, friends,
employees, and descendants of people to whom he left money. I made index cards
at first, but quickly memorized all this information, and kept my eye out for
these people in other historical contexts. My best tool was a simple notebook
in which I set out a page for each year of his life divided into months.
Whenever I found the smallest detail about him I wrote it in this timeline
notebook. When the time to write and plot the novel came I filled in this
timeline with events occurring in the larger world.
Q: You did extensive genealogical and period research for THE
HOUSE AT LOBSTER COVE ( Black lived in the late 19th century). What
was the most challenging but rewarding find? What was the path that led you
there?
A: This is a funny story, at least for anyone who has ever
done hours of research in a library.
In following
through with my list of Nixon’s friends I found that he had applied for a
passport after the Civil War to travel to Europe with a friend named Frank
Crowninshield. It turned out this Civil War era Frank was the uncle of the Frank
Crowninshield who was the famous editor of Vanity Fair magazine in the
1920’s. In attempting to sort out the
many Crowninshields and make sense of them I found myself in a huge quiet room
in the Philips Library at the Peabody Essex Museum. Here I had called up a box
of letters written by the Civil War soldier Frank Crowninshield. When I opened
this box, dozens of letters mentioning Frank and George Nixon Black fell out.
It was the single largest resource I ever found mentioning Nixon. I gasped
audibly, and the heads of a half-dozen other researchers snapped up. Realizing
my faux pas I apologized. “Sorry,” I said. “but I just found something.”
“Lucky you.” one of them grumbled and went back to his
research.
There are many such moments of serendipity that happen during
research which make you feel you are hunting someone who wants to be
found. I met a descendant I had been
hoping to find, by bumping into them on a train platform in Providence. I went
into a cellar of musty deed registers in Boston and the book I was seeking was
open to the page I was looking for. A
stray dog in a graveyard led me to, and sat down on, a grave I was seeking.
That particular event made the hair on the back of my neck stick up!
Q: Would you have liked living in the same time as GEORGE
NIXON BLACK? What mis(conceptions?) do we have about that period?
A: Would I like to be a member of the Gilded Age one percent?
Yes and no. One could live unapologetically with great wealth which is a state
unknown today, but the robber barons of the 19th century were puny
compared with the tech robber barons of our time. Henry Ford would love the
mark-up on an I-Phone compared to his Model T.
Medicine was crude and death and disease were part of daily
life. Few families were not touched by the untimely death of one of their
own. Teeth were a constant problem.
Without antibiotics the smallest injury or sickness could be fatal. Crowd
scenes in period movies never show enough missing teeth or pregnant women to be
accurate to any earlier time.
A woman’s life choices were more narrow than today, which can
also be viewed as both a good and bad thing. One might, as a woman be expected
to stay home and have children, but one would not be expected to get up the day
after a birth and answer an email and be back in a full time job in a
month. People were allowed more time to
be ill and more time to grieve. Today we are impatient with that.
One big misconception people seem to have is about Victorian
prudery. People of the 19th century were just as racy as in any
other time. It was just not so often on public display, and considering the
sort of things acceptable for public display these days, perhaps they were
wiser.
Both centuries have much to recommend them and much that is
less desirable. I go back to THE HOUSE AT LOBSTER COVE and what I have Nixon
conclude in the year 1902: The world does not get better, it merely changes.
Q: THE HOUSE AT LOBSTER COVE is your first book. It is
exceeding expectations and succeeding in the marketplace. What was the most
exhilarating and frustrating part of the
experience for you?
A: The frustrating
part? During the submission process of the novel, my literary agent and my dog
died unexpectedly, and within days of one another. That was a bad week.
The most exhilarating part has been successfully introducing
George Nixon Black to the world. In reading fiction about gay men I found over
and over stories was written as cautionary tales. Their lives seemed always to
end in sickness, misery, imprisonment or death. It certainly was not always
this way, and I wanted to tell the story of this little-known man. A quiet,
happy life, which was led on his own terms without hurting anyone else, and
without being unfaithful to himself. He overcame problems but lived for 34 years
in a relationship of great love and fidelity, promoted artists of every sort,
and left his money to charities which still benefit people and animals today. I
often say his story would be that of Oscar Wilde if Oscar had a happy ending.
Q: What is obsessing you now and why?
A: The slipping away of the summer. I have always had a deep
feeling for the summer. Perhaps this is one reason Kragsyde, as the apogee of
the American summer house, appeals. I have always considered June, July and
August as summer, and the shoulder months as cheap impostors. Therefore, once
July 15th is behind me, I begin to fret, and am never completely
cured until the following June 1st.
Q: What question didn’t I ask that I should have?
A: I’m going to answer two questions I am often asked. The
first is how I feel about revealing a man to be gay after he has spent a
lifetime hiding it?
The world may not be better, but it has changed. In
1918, Nixon wrote about his long-term partner in his will. In his own words he
wrote “ I desire to recognize the steadfast and faithful friendship that
existed between us for many years...” In 1918 this statement was opaque, but
today we know exactly what this statement about two men who had lived together
for 34 years means. I think Nixon would
be pleased to have his lifestyle recognized. He will be even more pleased when
the world does not give it a second thought.
Q: Since my novel is about real people and real events why
was it written as a fiction?
George Nixon Black was
a romantic and secretive man with a love of the arts. I think he would prefer
that posterity saw him as a painting rather than a photograph. It is only
through fiction that the reader can see with his heart.
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