Portland Public Library

Bohemians west, free love, family, and radicals in twentieth-century America, Sherry L. Smith

eng

Includes bibliographical references and index

collective biography

illustrationsplates

index present

non fiction

Bohemians west

bibliography

1155483577

Sherry L. Smith

free love, family, and radicals in twentieth-century America

"The opening years of the twentieth century saw a grand cast of radicals and reformers fighting for a new America, seeking change not only in labor picket lines and at women's suffrage rallies but also in homes and bedrooms. In the thick of this heady milieu were Sara Bard Field and Charles Erskine Scott Wood, two aspiring poets whose love story uncovers a potent emotional world underneath this transformative time. Self-declared pioneers in free love, Sara and Erskine exchanged hundreds of letters that charted a new kind of romantic relationship, and their personal pursuits frequently came into contact with their deeply engaged political lives. As Sara's star rose in the suffrage movement, culminating in her making a cross-country car trip in 1915 and gathering hundreds of thousands of signatures for a petition to Congress, she began to ask questions about her own power in her relationship with Erskine. Charting a passionate and tumultuous relationship that spanned decades, Bohemians West offers a deeply personal look at a dynamic period in American history"--, Provided by publisher

Erskine's road to radicalism -- Sara's road to Portland -- The affair begins -- Trials -- Tribulations -- Suffrage -- Separation -- Crossroads -- Divorce -- Shifts -- Salvation in suffrage -- Free love -- Politics -- Family affairs -- War -- Into the Abyss -- On and off Russian hill -- On to the cats -- After Erskine -- Endings

Free love, family, and radicals in twentieth-century America