A union like ours : the love story of F. O. Matthiessen and Russell Cheney / Scott Bane.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Bane, Scott Leslie, 1967- author.

Contributor:

Rosengarten Family Fund.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Matthiessen, F. O. (Francis Otto), 1902-1950.

Matthiessen, F. O.

Cheney, Russell, 1881-1945.

Cheney, Russell.

Critics--United States--Biography.

Critics.

Scholars--United States--Biography.

Scholars.

Painters--United States--Biography.

Painters.

Gay men--United States--History--20th century.

Gay men.

Homosexuality and literature--United States--History--20th century.

Homosexuality and literature.

United States--Intellectual life--20th century.

United States.

Intellectual life.

Genre:

Biographies.

History.

Physical Description:

xii, 299 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

Amherst : Bright Leaf, an imprint of University of Massachusetts Press, [2022]

Summary:

"After a chance meeting aboard the ocean liner Paris in 1924, Harvard University scholar and activist F. O. Matthiessen and artist Russell Cheney fell in love and remained inseparable until Cheney's death in 1945. During the intervening years, the men traveled throughout Europe and the United States, achieving great professional success while contending with serious personal challenges, including addiction, chronic disease, and severe depression. During a hospital stay, years into their relationship, Matthiessen confessed to Cheney that "never once has the freshness of your life lost any trace of its magic for me. Every day is a new discovery of your wealth." Situating the couple's private correspondence alongside other sources, Scott Bane tells the remarkable story of their relationship in the context of shifting social dynamics in the United States. From the vantage point of the present day, with marriage equality enacted into law, Bane provides a window into the realities faced by same-sex couples in the early twentieth century, as they maintained relationships in the face of overt discrimination and the absence of legal protections"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Machine generated contents note: 1. The Search for Companionship

2. "Between the Old and the New"

3. Falling in Love: The Exuberant Years

4. A Star Is Born

5. Making a Home in Kittery

6. Shining in a Dark Time: Politics and Painting in the Depression

7. In Sickness and in Health: The Hartford Retreat, McLean Hospital, and Baldpate Hospital

8. The Green Light across the Piscataqua

9. Losing Touch: Life without Cheney

10. Aftermath and Afterglow.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Rosengarten Family Fund.

Other Format:

Online version: Bane, Scott Leslie, 1967- Union like ours

ISBN:

9781625346377

1625346379

9781625346384

1625346387

OCLC:

1285122272