My Library

It is actually the story of the very many wonderful and fascinating people who made it possible. Ultimately, it is also the story of those who decomposed it -- or at least of those who fell into those circumstances which eventually undermined it. I met the first of the fascinating people in 1967 in the form of two totally wonderful ladies. When judged against any standards, both were fabulous. The first of these was Mrs. Buell Mullen, the second Mrs. Zelda Suplee. Both are dead now and few in the world will ever note their having existed. But both breathed renewing life into my soul when it faltered, and mere words hardly suffice to reveal my many debts to them. Buell had been born in 1901 to a wealthy Chicago family, part of the influential Chicago 400 families' network within the worlds of politics and finance. She grew up under the best auspices. Which means not only that she had advantages, but was extremely well-connected among the high and mighty -- but behind the scenes. For she was a female and in her time and social circles females were behind the scenes where they were expected to remain if they were properly brought up. The whole of this was a bane in Buell's life, and she complained of it many times. She properly married, of course, but then scandalized her family first by obtaining a divorce, second by becoming an artist in order to, third, earn her own living. Back then, women of her social class did not work to earn their own living.