A Trip to the Indiana State Library

[osprey_archer]

Because I had an extra personal business day that is set to expire soon, I spent it in the further pursuit of the Newbery Honor project on a trip to the Indiana State Library, where I read Marjorie Hill Allee's Jane's Island.

Jane's Island is set at Wood's Hole, which was (is?) a marine biology research center near Nantucket. Jane is the daughter of one of the researchers, Dr. Thomas; the narrator is Ellen, Jane's babysitter who has been hired for the summer to make sure Jane doesn't attempt to canoe out to sea and drown, and also perhaps convince Jane to show an interest in slightly more mature and ladylike behavior.

I have been contemplating a longer post about Tomboys in the Newberys (possible two posts, one focused on the 1930s and the other more generally). If I ever get around to it, this book will feature prominently, as it features not only Jane (tomboy), Jane's mother (who at first seems like the classic uptight mother trying to tame her wayward daughter but turns out to be protective of her new house but perfectly willing to relax and enjoy a little mess elsewhere, such as seaside picnics), Miss Dubois (a young researcher at the station), and Miss Wareham (a seventy-year-old professor emerita at the station, who comments, "I was a professor of biology right enough...but I practiced domestic science at the same time. It was good for me and I liked it, and I couldn't afford not to!")

However, I must confess that on this read, I was most taken with the visiting German scientist, who was Dr. Thomas's friend when they were both students in Germany before the Great War. During the war, Dr. von Whosit was badly wounded, which left him with a limp, a vivid facial scar, possible shellshock, and a definite chip on his shoulder. He is convinced that nature is red in tooth and claw and he has come to Wood's Hole to prove it, in the face of Dr. Thomas's sentimental insistence that in fact many animals benefit from cooperation. Bah! Humbug! Dr. Thomas repeatedly extends the hand of friendship and Dr. von Whatever limps away, raving bitterly about the fact that he has been FORCED to attend a BEACH PICNIC when he could be doing SCIENCE.

"Von Stalhein, is that you?" I cackled delightedly.

Unfortunately I was so taken with this somewhat vague resemblance that I've forgotten Professor von Whatsit's actual name, so I'm afraid he's going to be Dr. von Stalhein for the rest of this review.

Dr. von Stalhein NEARLY DROWNS. Ellen dives in to save him, and nearly gets drowned herself, but fortunately the others manage to rescue them both. Then Dr. Thompson comes down with appendicitis, and has to be rushed to the hospital, and when the family returns, Jane catches Dr. von Stalhein IN DAD'S LABORATORY, fussing with the equipment, clearly trying to spoil Dad's experiments!!!!

"I'll ruin all of your experiments!" Jane threatens, desperate to do anything to get him out of Dad's lab.

"Go ahead!" says Dr. von Stalhein, which response puzzles Jane so much that she doesn't ruin his experiments after all. This is good, because Miss Wareham shows up soon afterward and explains that Dr. von Stalhein is in fact saving Dr. Thomas's experiments. Because cooperation is valuable! As Dr. von Stalhein's own experiments this summer have shown, which proves Dr. Thomas completely right, much to Dr. von Stalhein's chagrin. But he's a good enough scientist to accept the highly unwelcome news that getting along with others does in fact have a survival benefit.

Then he goes back to Germany. As this is 1931, the reader of the future feels rather concerned about this decision. Perhaps Dr. von Stalhein will return to Wood's Hole a few years later when it becomes clear how the wind is blowing, however.

***

I also read Ethel Cook Eliot's Roses for Mexico, which is a retelling of the story of the Virgin of Guadalupe. Eliot's earlier book Green Doors features a subplot about the mysterious fascination of Catholicism - I mean, that's not exactly the point of the subplot, which is about two Catholics who fall in love but can never marry because the man has an estranged wife whom he cannot possibly divorce because Catholic, and also his new beloved is dying of consumption, but Eliot clearly finds the Catholicism of it all romantic and attractive. I have the strong feeling that at some point between these two books Eliot gave in to that attraction and converted, because Roses for Mexico is EXTREMELY Catholic.

Comments

[sovay]

Wood's Hole, which was (is?) a marine biology research center near Nantucket.

Still is. I have a friend whose father worked there for decades. The book sounds great.

[osprey_archer]

It's a lot of fun! It made me want to have a picnic on the beach, notwithstanding the lack of convenient beaches nearby.

[ethelmay]

Dr. von Bergen. I enjoyed that book and should reread it (it's on Faded Page, for those who like that format).

[osprey_archer]

It's a very enjoyable book. She has some others that I'm thinking about reading now, especially The Great Tradition, which is about women studying in a biology lab at the University of Chicago.

[sovay]

(it's on Faded Page, for those who like that format)

I do not like the format, but as my local library system does not have a copy of Jane's Island, I appreciate the heads-up!

[philomytha]

That sounds like great fun, plus a bonus visit from EvS in disguise, let's hope he did decide to spend the next decade conducting research in the USA...

[osprey_archer]

Maybe now that he's realized the importance of friendship and cooperation he will ultimately settle down to do research at Wood's Hole. He says he's thinking about studying ants instead, but once marine biology is in your blood, can you truly just switch over to ants?

[philomytha]

Being totally predictable and seeing upthread that this was available on Faded Page, I settled down last night to read it and I completely agree with all your comments. The whole themes of brutal competition vs teamwork, and how do you grow up as a woman in the 1930s and also be a biologist, were both really nicely done. I really liked both Miss Dubois and Miss Wareham as role models for Jane.

Poor old Dr von Stalhein was certainly hit with the plot anvil pretty hard. 'We don't need others to survive,' he cries while all the others work together to drag him barely alive out of the sea, 'I don't need friends,' he continues as he works day and night to save Dr Thomas's experiment... the scene where he's kind of sitting stiffly on the edge of the beach party until Dr Thomas invites him to come and sing the songs of their carefree youth together when everything was hopeful and he wasn't lonely and miserable and in pain, and so he rants at everyone and then bolts! He's clearly a completely nightmare but also I love him anyway, and he gets a kitten <3

[osprey_archer]

Ahaha HOORAY someone to share my Dr. von Stalhein feelings. The self-sabotage is strong with this one! "I am going to be alone forever so I might as well prove that is SCIENTIFICALLY PREFERABLE," he decides, as Dr. Thomas repeatedly extends the hand of friendship and all but begs him to take it. Nightmare man. Perhaps the kitten will help.

[philomytha]

There was zero chance of me not picking up the book! And he really is so very much my type of fictional character, having decided he is Fated to Misery he sets out to make it happen by determinedly stopping anyone who tries to give him nice things. But the author clearly shares my opinion of him, since she rewards him with a kitten anyway - though as you say, going home to Germany to reunite with friends and family may look like a nice idea in 1931, but I really hope that kitten turns out to only be happy on the American seaboard so he has to go back, he can bring his elderly aunt too...

[osprey_archer]

If you are writing a book about the value of cooperation, it is helpful to have a character who is so obnoxious that no one really wants to cooperate with him, who is nonetheless helped by cooperation ANYWAY. Against his will! "I'll do it alone!" he yells at the heavens, shaking his fist, probably after being rescued from drowning by a group of other people.

Perhaps when he is in Germany he will find that both he and the kitten miss Wood's Hole, and back they go.

[sholio]

This is delightful. I find myself strangely invested in Dr. Von Stalhein having a good life afterwards.

[osprey_archer]

He is one of those characters where I absolutely get why the other characters don't like him, because he sounds like a complete nightmare to deal with (he literally demands to be driven home in the middle of the beach picnic because it's so frivolous!), but also I love him and I want him to be happy.

[landofnowhere]

Jane's Island sounds super charming!

[osprey_archer]

It was a lot of fun! I really enjoyed it.

[landofnowhere]

I had to go look up Marjorie Hill Alee on Wikipedia to see who she was, and I see she was married to a biologist who worked at Woods Hole, and helped him with his research, so she knew what she was writing about! (And that they were both Quakers, which influenced his research on the evolution of cooperation!) I too am intrigued by The Great Tradition (and find it hilarious that this Amazon listing comes with the synopsis for an entirely different book!)

[osprey_archer]

Yes, I really want to read The Great Tradition sometime. It sounds like a fascinating take on a college novel.

Oh God, Amazon can be so bad about old books sometimes. I once got into a very polite email argument with an interlibrary loan librarian where I patiently explained, with links, that Mary Bard had indeed written a book called Best Friends in School, even though Amazon apparently believed this was an alternate title for her earlier book Best Friends.

[asakiyume]

Then he goes back to Germany. As this is 1931, the reader of the future feels rather concerned about this decision. Perhaps Dr. von Stalhein will return to Wood's Hole a few years later when it becomes clear how the wind is blowing, however.
--Definitely the way to think of it: head canon? Or JUST CANON.

I'm assuming the story comes down on the side of letting girls be tomboys?

Re: Ethel Cook Eliot, I found this mini bio, which is fascinating for its connection to places near me:

"Ever since early childhood, Ethel Cook Eliot had the desire to write. The daughter of a Congregationalist minister in North Gage, New York, she was raised in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, and when, in her senior high school year, Harper's Monthly published a poem by her, she knew she had found her career in life. She engaged in editorial work on several New York magazines, wrote special magazine articles, and began freelance writing. She married Samuel Atkins Eliot, Jr., the grandson of the famous Harvard president, and became a resident of Northampton, Massachusetts, where she still lives,** when he became a professor of drama at Smith College in 1918. She has written more than a dozen books, fairy tales, juveniles and novels, and Roses for Mexico, of which Joseph Henry Jackson, the distinguished critic of the San Francisco Monitor said: 'It is likely, I think, that her re-telling of the ancient legend will become a classic one in English.'"

**This bio is from a book available in Google Books called Eight Great Apparitions of Our Lady, edited by John J. Delany and published originally in 1961--so I guess at that time she was still alive. THAT book got an imprimatur from Cardinal Spelman, at that time Archbishop of New York, so definitely Catholic-approved. Ethel Cook Eliot had written the entry on, you guessed it, Our Lady of Guadalupe. Most of the other contributors appear to be clerics, which supports your theory...

[osprey_archer]

The story comes down on the side of "Cooking and cleaning are good skills to have actually, but also you can definitely be a biologist if you want to," so I'd say mostly yes.

Fascinating that Ethel Cook Eliot lived so close to where you are now! Perhaps someday I'll dig a bit more into her life story. Thank you for digging this mini-biography up.

[asakiyume]

I'm kind of fascinated, now, myself, and Wakanomori is too and suggested that we could probably find out more through Smith College, so conversely, if I find out more, I'll share!

[osprey_archer]

Oh, wonderful!

[lokifan]

Cooperation is valuable <3 That's so lovely.

Yeah, hopefully he's back in a year or two...

The tomboys thing sounds v interesting, esp the idea of older tomboy characters (given how usually they have to leave it behind when puberty hits).

[osprey_archer]

Dr. von Stalhein holds out as long as he can, but eventually the scientific evidence overwhelms him! Also possibly the experience of being cooperatively saved from drowning.

I want to finish reading the 1930s books before I do the tomboys post; it was clearly a hot topic that decade! Lots of books that deal with it one way or another.