Nora May French (1881 – November 13, 1907) was an American journalist,

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator (thought, thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral t ...

, and member of the

bohemian Bohemian or Bohemians may refer to: *Anything of or relating to Bohemia Culture and arts * Bohemianism, an unconventional lifestyle, originally practised by 19th–20th century European and American artists and writers. * Bohemian style, a ...

literary circles of the Carmel Arts and Crafts Club which flourished after the Great San Francisco Earthquake and Fire of 1906.

Early life

French was born in 1881 in Aurora, New York to Edward French, a professor at

Wells College Wells College was a private liberal arts college in Aurora, New York, a village in the Finger Lakes region of the state. From its founding in 1868 until it became coeducational in 2005, Wells was a women's college. The college maintained acad ...

and Mary Wells French, the sister of the founder of

Wells Fargo Wells Fargo & Company is an American multinational financial services company with a significant global presence. The company operates in 35 countries and serves over 70 million customers worldwide. It is a systemically important fi ...

Henry Wells Henry Wells (December 12, 1805 – December 10, 1878) was an American businessman important in the history of both the American Express Company and Wells Fargo & Company. Wells worked as a freight agent before joining the express business. Hi ...

. When she was seven years old, her wealthy family moved to a ranch outside of

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

, but within a few years they lost that property as a result of a devastating house fire and a failed fruit crop.

Career

Her writing career began in her teens, when she was published in local newspapers and magazines. In her early twenties, she became engaged, off and on again, to Alan Hiley, a prosperous timber farmer. Her ambivalence about conventional marriage poured into ''The Spanish Girl'', her best known lyrics, a twenty-two poem chronicle of doomed love. After their final break-up, French joined Charles Lummis's Arroyo Seco, a group of Los Angeles writers and poets who encouraged her to publish in Lummis' ''Out West'' magazine. Although her work won praise, notably from the feminist and environmentalist poet Mary Austin, recognition did not translate to financial security. French became involved with married Henry Anderson Lafler, an assistant editor on ''

The Argonaut ''The Argonaut'' was a newspaper based in San Francisco, California from 1878 to 1956. It was founded by Frank Somers, and soon taken over by Frank M. Pixley, who built it into a highly regarded publication. Under Pixley's stewardship it was ...

'', and moved to

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

after the 1906 earthquake. She quickly made her place within

intellectual circles. Pregnant by Lafler (who himself had had numerous affairs with married and unmarried women), unable to secure a hospital abortion, she self-administered an abortion with store-bought pills, writing Lafler a letter about her decision as she did so. Even as her personal life was in turmoil, her national profile as a writer was rising with publications in ''The Saturday Evening Post'', and ''Sunset'' magazine.

Death

In 1907, she joined

George Sterling George Sterling (December 1, 1869 – November 17, 1926) was an American writer based in the San Francisco, California Bay Area and Carmel-by-the-Sea. He was considered a prominent poet and playwright and proponent of Bohemianism during the fir ...

and his wife at their home in

Carmel Carmel may refer to: * Carmel (biblical settlement), an ancient Israelite town in Judea * Mount Carmel, a coastal mountain range in Israel overlooking the Mediterranean Sea * Carmelites, a Roman Catholic mendicant religious order Carmel may also ...

. On Monday November 11, she allegedly tried to kill herself with a gunshot to the head. The incident was reported by Carrie Sterling. Two days later, during the night of November 13–14, aged 26, she died at the Sterling home (with only Mrs. Sterling present as George was in San Francisco) from ingesting

cyanide In chemistry, cyanide () is an inorganic chemical compound that contains a functional group. This group, known as the cyano group, consists of a carbon atom triple-bonded to a nitrogen atom. Ionic cyanides contain the cyanide anion . This a ...

.Girl Writer Tires of Life
, Chicago Daily Tribune, November 16, 1907, pg 1. Newspapers in the

San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a List of regions of California, region of California surrounding and including San Francisco Bay, and anchored by the cities of Oakland, San Francisco, and San Jose, California, S ...

sensationalized the tragedy with glaring headlines and reports of Bohemian dissipations as well as recent and frequent visits by prominent ''married'' men, including the artists Charles Dickman,

Xavier Martinez Xavier or Xabier may refer to: Place * Xavier, Spain People * Xavier (surname) * Xavier (given name) * Francis Xavier (1506–1552), Catholic saint ** St. Francis Xavier (disambiguation) * St. Xavier (disambiguation) * Xavier (footballer, born ...

, and Charles Rollo Peters. An online facsimile of the entire text of Vol. 1 is posted on the Traditional Fine Arts Organization website (). Writers Ambrose Bierce and Herman Scheffauer speculated that she had had an affair with George Sterling. Funeral services were at

Point Lobos Point Lobos and the Point Lobos State Natural Reserve is a state park in California. Adjoining Point Lobos is "one of the richest marine habitats in California". The ocean habitat is protected by two marine protected areas, the Point Lobos Sta ...

with, among others, the Sterlings, James Hopper, Alan Hiley, and Henry Lafler attending. Her ashes were scattered into the Pacific Ocean.

Legacy

Over the objections of her family, George Sterling and Harry Lafler published French's ''

Poems Poetry (from the Greek language, Greek word ''poiesis'', "making") is a form of literature, literary art that uses aesthetics, aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language to evoke meaning (linguistics), meanings in addition to, or in ...

'' in 1910, the only compilation of her work ever widely distributed until the recent (2009) release of Hippocampus Press's ''The Outer Gate: The Collected Poems Of Nora May French''. Although many of her poems celebrate the serenity of coastal landscape, others are less sanguine: they offer glimpses into the mind of a young woman torn between pressure to submit to social roles and longing to live creatively.Williams, Michael. "A Book of Beauty." ''The New Age: A Weekly Review Of Politics, Literature And Art''. VII.2 (July 14, 1910).

References

External links

Poems by Nora May French
* * *
"The Diary of a Telephone Girl"
anonymously published article by Nora May French in ''The Saturday Evening Post'' (Volume 180, Issue 2, October 19, 1907), at

HathiTrust HathiTrust Digital Library is a large-scale collaborative repository of digital content from research libraries. Its holdings include content digitized via Google Books and the Internet Archive digitization initiatives, as well as content digit ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:French, Nora May 1881 births 1907 deaths People from Aurora, Cayuga County, New York American women poets 20th-century American poets 20th-century American women writers 19th-century American poets 19th-century American women writers Writers from Carmel-by-the-Sea, California 1907 suicides