----------
Here is a list of some of the clubs RWC was a member of:
Chambers was a member of the National Institute of Arts, and Letters,
and belonged to numerous clubs, including the Century, Metropolitan,
Authors, Triple Island, Broadalbin Game, Union, Saratoga Gulf [Golf?],
and Rockwood Hall.
Authors might be a connection, is there any way you can find out is Blackwood was also a member?
Maybe they have a friend in common? I have a list of some of RWCs famious friends that might help:
If I find any connections between Chambers and Blackwood I will let you
know.
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
| �������������������� | ���������� | ������������������������������������ |
| Title | DatePub | Dedication |
| The King in Yellow | 1895 | My Brother |
| �������������������� | ���������� | ������������������������������������ |
| The conspirators | 1899 | To Elsie (poem) |
| Cardigan | 1901 | My Father and Mother |
| Maids of paradise | 1902 | To E.M.C. (inside a heart) |
| �������������������� | ���������� | ������������������������������������ |
| The maid-at-arms | 1902 | Miss Katharine Husted (RWC's son's middle name is Husted) |
| The reckoning | 1905 | To my friend J. Hamblen Sears Whose Unselvish Friendship and Sound Advice I Acknowledge in this Dedication |
| �������������������� | ���������� | ������������������������������������ |
| The fighting chance | 1906 | My father |
| The tree of heaven | 1907 | To my Friend Austin Corbin |
| �������������������� | ���������� | ������������������������������������ |
| The younger set | 1907 | My Mother |
| The firing line | 1908 | Margery Chambers |
| Special messenger | 1909 | George F. D. Trask in memory of our first martial exploits in the nursery |
| Ailsa Paige | 1910 | To the Conquerors Who Won Immortal Victory |
| �������������������� | ���������� | ������������������������������������ |
| The common law | 1911 | Charles Dana Gibson a friend of many years |
| The streets of Ascalon |
1912 | Eulalie Ashmore |
| Athalie | 1915 | My Friend Messmore Kendall |
| �������������������� | ���������� | ������������������������������������ |
| Barbarians | 1917 | To Lyle and Madeleine Mahan |
| In secret | 1919 | Eleanor and Wheaton Vaughan |
| The crimson tide | 1919 | To Margarent Illington Bowes and Edward J. Bowes (3 hearts below) |
| �������������������� | ���������� | ������������������������������������ |
| The little red foot | 1921 | My Son Robert H. Chambers |
The obvious connection is Charles Dana Gibson for whom Blackwood modelled
on occasions. This was in the 1892/3 period, perhaps a little early for
Chambers. I didn't say I'd found a connection in Chambers's writings -
though i did say to Hugh it's worth looking for one. What I said was that
both of them were in New York living a rather bohemian existence at the
same time and that I'd be surprised if their paths hadn't crossed.
Blackwood was there from 1892 to Feb 1900. He was a reporter for some of
that time, tho' with next to know money, but later became Private Secretary
to James Speyer so was much more in the money and likely to be involved in
society gatherings -- not that he particularly liked that. Someone said
something to me once about the way both Blackwood and Chambers used a
certain type of sentence construction - something, I fear, I've had no time
to check out. What I'm interested in knowing is whether they met and
exchanged ideas for fiction. Blackwood must've known THE KING IN YELLOW
yet he doesn't comment upon it in any of his writings. It would certainly
have appealed to him, at least at that time in 1895, though his later
fiction veered away from this. I'd love to discover that the two shared
story ideas perhaps in some artist's salon, but that's just wishful
thinking. I have no proof or even a hint of this. Just my musings.
Thanks again. I'd be interested in swapping thoughts and ideas from time
to time over this as things develop.
>
> Thanks for such a quick response. I'm tied up at the mo' so can't give
> quite such a long response as I'd like, but I shall later.
>
> The obvious connection is Charles Dana Gibson for whom Blackwood modelled
> on occasions. This was in the 1892/3 period, perhaps a little early for
> Chambers.
=========================================================
....................................
Mr. Arthur Bartlett Maurice has pointed out, in The New York of the
Novelists, that Mr. Chambers was living at 60 Washington Square South
when he wrote The King and that not only the Square but its environs are
used in a number of the early stories. But �The Robert W. Chambers of
the later books, so far as the Borough of Manhattan is concerned, is
essentially associated with the vast expanse of city which comes under
the head of Tea, Tango, and Toper Land -- in a work, the great hotels,
clubs, and theaters; the sweep of Fifth Avenue from Murray Hill to the
Plaza, and beyond along the east side of the Park, the Park itself, and
the structures that line the Riverside Drive.�
.................................
Robert W. Chambers was born in Brooklyn, May 26, 1865. He shares with
his brother, Walter Boughton Chambers, the artistic gift: he was in
Julian�s Academy from 1886 to 1893; , his brother, after taking a degree
at Yale, studied architecture with Blondel in 1889. Before going to
Paris, Robert was at the Art Student�s League in New York, where he has
as classmate, Charles Dana Gibson. At the age of twenty-four he had
painted pictures acceptable to the Salon. There is a legend that after
returning to America in 1893 he and Gibson submitted sketches to Life
and that his were taken but Gibson�s returned. Urged by the writing
instinct and by a desire to express himself more rapidly than the medium
of the brush would allow, he produced his first novel, In the Quarter
(1893). [1894 most sources say but I have never seen a copy yet] The
King in Yellow (1895) made his reputation and determined his career.
Received: from storm.worldnet.net (root@storm.worldnet.net [194.2.128.241]) by
orion.globalink.net (8.8.5/8.6.9) with ESMTP id DAA16086 for
Received: from christophe (wn16-151.paris.worldnet.fr [195.3.16.151]) by
storm.worldnet.net (8.8.5/8.8.5) with ESMTP id MAA27446 for
Message-Id: <199803161132.MAA27446@storm.worldnet.net>
Reply-To:
I have now finished to translate your text. It is mightily interesting and,
although it's only a set of hypotheses, I found them so convincing that
they really entered my way of looking at Chambers. Actually, the 3 romance
pieces concluding "The King in Yellow" don't look so bad now, as I see more
clearly their autobiographic side. I advise you to re-read "The street of
our lady in the fields", as I just did: it seems to indicate that Chambers'
French girlfriend was a model, and that he was fascinated, not only by
herself, but also by the fact that she was so close to "the greatest
artists of the time" (double-quotes, because the names she mentions,
Bouguereau and the like, are now thought to be pretty awful, and I
certainly won't disagree).
Now I think that we can read a lot of things in the tales from "The King in
Yellow". For instance I think that it's pretty safe to assume that he took
a trip to Brittany with her, that left him lots of memories, that her name
was probably Sylvia (or Sylvie), that she possibly died (but it's very
difficult to tell, the death of the girls in the tales might just be a
dramatization of reality - on the other hand, tha false death of Genevi�ve
in "The Mask" might be a sort of wishful thinking, to avoid believing that
the loved one is gone for real...)
My own research at the moment leads me to think that it is a serious
mistake to study the influences of Chambers without delving deep into the
symbolist and decadent movements that were the "hip" thing in the 1880. The
Belgian poet Maurice Maeterlinck, in particular, wrote a few symbolist
plays that may be the inspiration for the play "The King in Yellow" (nobody
ever asked why it's a play in the first place!). Chambers had to know about
this, if he was interested in art and literature, and I think he was. Along
with Edgar Poe, I consider that the symbolists are the main influence he
received, a far greater one than Bierce's (actually limited to four names
and almost no themes).
