Coming Home

2020 ◽  
pp. 269-278
Author(s):  
Amy Aronson
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Scarlet Fever ◽  
Cerebral Hemorrhage ◽  
Woman Suffrage ◽  
International Woman

By 1927, Crystal Eastman had been living as the freelance journalist she never wanted to be, pitching article after article to conservative or capricious editors. She had recently covered the momentous International Woman Suffrage Alliance congress in Paris, but was generally exhausted from childcare and homemaking, frustrated by declining health, and almost always behind in her bills. She longed to return to home. Paul Kellogg advised patient planning and supplied a prescient idea for new line of work, but she returned to New York quite hastily, with only a short speaking engagement planned. Three weeks later, Walter died of a cerebral hemorrhage. Deep in mourning, Eastman began a temporary job organizing a celebration for The Nation. Her colleagues noticed she was fighting a tremendous battle. In fact, she was mortally ill. Her kidneys, damaged long ago by scarlet fever, were now giving out. Ten months later, she passed away.

A Village Apollo

Max Eastman ◽  
2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christoph Irmscher
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
John Dewey ◽  
Walt Whitman ◽  
Woman Suffrage ◽  
Columbia University

After a return of his mysterious backache, Max Eastman seeks a cure at Dr. Gehring’s sanatorium in Maine, where he falls for the beautiful Swedish maid/nurse Anna Carlson. He joins Crystal in New York, studies philosophy with John Dewey at Columbia University, and begins to teach as an associate instructor. During summers spent at Glenora he perfects his diving technique but cannot rid himself of his sexual inhibitions. In two searching essays he celebrates Walt Whitman as a sexual healer, learning to reject his mother’s insistence on spiritual purity. Moving in with Crystal, Max becomes interested in woman’s suffrage and helps found the Men’s League for Woman Suffrage in New York. Max becomes a sought-after and well-paid speaker at suffrage events, reinventing himself as a “man suffragette.” Dewey accepts one of Max’s essays on Plato in lieu of a dissertation. Plato’s struggle to reconcile his enjoyment of beauty with morality is a metaphor for Max’s own inner conflict; he never submits his dissertation. The painful death of Annis Ford Eastman in 1910 leaves Max and Crystal bereft.

Persuading the “Male Preserve”

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan Goodier ◽  
Karen Pastorello
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Crucial Role ◽  
New York State ◽  
American Woman ◽  
White Men ◽  
Woman Suffrage ◽  
York State ◽  
Unique Aspect ◽  
Anna Howard Shaw ◽  
Urban Immigrants

This chapter focuses on men, the only empowered contingent of the suffrage movement. While some men had always voiced support for woman suffrage, no sustained men's organization existed in the state until 1908. That year, Anna Howard Shaw, president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association, encouraged the founding of the Men's League for Woman Suffrage, which then served as an affiliate of the New York State Woman Suffrage Association. These elite white men, often raised or living in suffrage households, risked embarrassment and censure by publicly displaying their support for woman suffrage. As their participation became routine, the novelty of it wore off. These privileged male champions of woman suffrage inspired men of other classes—including urban immigrants and rural, upstate men—to reconsider their suffrage stance. This unique aspect of the suffrage coalition thereby played a lesser but crucial role in winning the vote for women.

Establishing New York State Anti-Suffrage Organizations, 1895–1911

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan Goodier
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
New York State ◽  
Woman Suffrage ◽  
National Government ◽  
The State ◽  
York State ◽  
National Organization ◽  
Social Events ◽  
State Organization ◽  
College Educated

This chapter illustrates the nascent attempts of anti-suffragists to prevent their enfranchisement. The most prominent and effective anti-suffrage organizations that developed in New York State between 1895 and 1911 deliberately excluded men. Certainly, anti-suffragists were married to or related to some of the most politically powerful men in state and national government. However, a significant portion of college-educated, professional, and self-supporting women opposed suffrage. Once the antis established their organizations, they became a force powerful enough to help prolong the battle for woman suffrage in the state. The New York State organization provided speakers for lectures at clubs and social events in and outside the state, spreading their influence broadly. By the end of the period, New York antis had established a national organization.

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