The Shadow of Alice Longworth

IT is the first week in December of 1968, an afternoon fading in a hard brassy light; no longer autumn, not quite winter, though the juncoes and the tree sparrows are back at the feeder on the dogwood tree outside my window. Now the leaves are gone 1 can see the dividing line of ocean on the horizon; Simpkin the tabby is asleep in the out-basket on my desk. The telephone rings. A woman’s voice, clearly accustomed to command. “This,” says the imperial voice, “is Alice Roosevelt Long-worth, 1 have just finished your Harding biography.”

I swivel in my chair. Two weeks after the publication of The Shadow of Blooming Grove the knives are out for me. For the Ohio Historical Society my book is “a prime example of the selfdesignated historical writers that gain fame and fortune tearing down everything in our past to the level of their own inadequacy.” Already the Harding heirs are busy suing me for a million dollars because of the shadow. Harding’s nephew, Dr. George Harding, has sworn he is going to ruin me. 1 have sketched Mrs. Longworth in my last chapters. Is this a more sophisticated rapier thrust?

FR

About the Author

Francis Russell

IT is the first week in December of 1968, an afternoon fading in a hard brassy light; no longer autumn, not quite winter, though the juncoes and the tree sparrows are back at the feeder on the dogwood tree outside my window. Now the leaves are gone 1 can see the dividing line of ocean on the horizon; Simpkin the tabby is asleep in the out-basket on my desk. The telephone rings. A woman’s voice, clearly accustomed to command. “This,” says the imperial voice, “is Alice Roosevelt Long-worth, 1 have just finished your Harding biography.”

I swivel in my chair. Two weeks after the publication of The Shadow of Blooming Grove the knives are out for me. For the Ohio Historical Society my book is “a prime example of the selfdesignated historical writers that gain fame and fortune tearing down everything in our past to the level of their own inadequacy.” Already the Harding heirs are busy suing me for a million dollars because of the shadow. Harding’s nephew, Dr. George Harding, has sworn he is going to ruin me. 1 have sketched Mrs. Longworth in my last chapters. Is this a more sophisticated rapier thrust?