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Mabel Dodge Luhan Correspondence and Essays

 Collection
Identifier: MSS-348-SC

Scope and Content

This small collection contains 4 holographic letters from Mabel Dodge Luhan to Mr. Forbes-Watson, editor of The Arts, and 2 typewritten letters from Forbes-Watson to Luhan. There are also photocopies of "The Santos of New Mexico" and "The Story of Francesca," essays that were published in The Arts in 1925.

Dates

  • 1925

Creator

Language of Materials

English.

Access Restrictions

The collection is open for research.

Copy Restrictions

Limited duplication allowed for research purposes. User responsible for compliance with all copyright, privacy, and libel laws. Permission is required for publication or distribution.

Biographical Information

Mabel Ganson was born on February 20, 1879 in Buffalo, New York. The only child of a wealthy banking family, she was sent to the finest boarding schools in Buffalo and Manhattan, during which time she began filling journals with descriptions of people, places, and events.

Her first marraige was at age 20, to Karl Evans, who was killed in a hunting accident two years later. Their son, and Mabels only child, John Evans Ganson was born in 1901.

At age 25, she married Boston architect Edwin Dodge. They lived in an Italian Villa near Florence, where her reputation for socializing and people gathering blossomed with the likes of Leo and Gertrude Stein, Alice B. Toklas, and Edward Arlington Robinson. After 10 years, Mabel Dodge moved back to her 5th Ave. apartment in Greenwich Village. She began hosting "evenings or "salons which were frequented by well known journalists, poets, labor leaders, editors, and actors including John Reed, Lincoln Steffens, Max Eastman, Emma Goldman, Margaret Sanger, and others.

After Mabel and Edwin Dodge divorced, she married artist Maurice Sterne in 1916. They moved to Santa Fe, and then Taos. Mabels affairs in Taos included a mystical attraction to Indians; Antonio (Tony) Luhan, a Taos Pueblo Indian, would become her fourth husband in 1923. She developed friendships with D. H. and Frieda Lawrence, Dorothy Brett, Willa Cather, Georgia OKeeffe, John Marin, and John Collier. It was in Taos that Mabel wrote her books, including Lorenzo in Taos (1932); Intimate Memories, her 4 volume biography, (1933-1937); Winter in Taos (1935); and Taos and its Artists (1947). Mabel Dodge Luhan lived in Taos and remained married to Tony Luhan until her death on August 13, 1962.

Extent

1 Folder

Related Material

Donaldson Family Letters Center for Southwest Research, University Libraries, University of New Mexico Dorothy E. Brett Papers Center for Southwest Research, University Libraries, University of New Mexico Elizabeth Willis DeHuff Family Papers Center for Southwest Research, University Libraries, University of New Mexico Women in New Mexico Collection Center for Southwest Research. University of New Mexico. Vertical File: Luhan, Mabel Dodge, Center for Southwest Research, University Libraries, University of New Mexico
Title
Finding Aid the Mabel Dodge Luhan Correspondence and Essays, 1925
Status
Completed
Author
Processed by B. Silbergleit
Date
©1999
Description rules
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language of description
English
Script of description
Latin
Language of description note
Finding aid is in English

Revision Statements

  • June 28, 2004: PUBLIC "-//University of New Mexico::Center for Southwest Research//TEXT (US::NmU::MSS 348 SC::Mabel Dodge Luhan Correspondence and Essays)//EN" "nmu1mss348sc.sgml" converted from EAD 1.0 to 2002 by v1to02.xsl (sy2003-10-15).
  • Monday, 20210524: Attribute normal is missing or blank.

Repository Details

Part of the UNM Center for Southwest Research & Special Collections Repository

Contact:
University of New Mexico Center for Southwest Research & Special Collections
University Libraries, MSC05 3020
1 University of New Mexico
Albuquerque NM 87131
505-277-6451