Thomas Dresser - Women of Marthas Vineyard

Published by The History Press

Charleston, SC 29403

www.historypress.net

Copyright 2013 by Thomas Dresser

All rights reserved

Front cover, top left: Dorothy West. Courtesy of Alison Shaw. Top right: The Adams sisters. Courtesy of the Marthas Vineyard Museum. Middle: Emily Post. Courtesy of the Emily Post Institute. Bottom left: Doris Jackson. Courtesy of her daughter, Lee Van Allen. Bottom middle: Polly Hill. Courtesy of Alison Shaw. Bottom right: Dionis Riggs. Courtesy of her daughter, Cynthia Riggs.

First published 2013

e-book edition 2013

Manufactured in the United States

ISBN 978.1.61423.930.7

Library of Congress CIP data applied for.

print edition ISBN 978.1.60949.903.7

Notice: The information in this book is true and complete to the best of our knowledge. It is offered without guarantee on the part of the author or The History Press. The author and The History Press disclaim all liability in connection with the use of this book.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form whatsoever without prior written permission from the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

To the memory of my mother, Louise Thomas Bender Dresser.

I recall grasping the concept of writing at my mothers knee.

My mother preferred writing letters to talking on the telephone. As a youngster, I used to watch her continuous script as she wrote, and I tried to imitate her scroll, but all that came out was a series of looping es. Thats when she explained the power of writing.

One dreadfully long summer when I was in junior high, she dragged me, my brother and a friend inside each morning to teach us how to type. I thought it was excruciating to sacrifice those few precious hours of summer, inside, struggling over a complicated keyboard. But of course, those hours of torture evolved into a lifetime of learning and writing.

My mother always wrote but never had a novel published. She never won an election or made the front page, but she did encourage, urge and inspire us. She was always there for the family, on the back pages, offering support, advice and encouragement.

She died thirty-five years ago. Her legacy lives on.

For that, and much more, I dedicate this book to her.

Contents

Foreword

I asked poet and human rights activist Rose Styron for a few words as a foreword to this book. Ive never done an introduction this way before, she demurred as we met in her sunny living room on a cold, wintry day. Her schedule was tight. Im in the middle of my book tour. Bunch of Grapes was the first stop. It was fun. In many cities across the country, Rose was promoting her new book: Selected Letters of William Styron.

I wanted to talk about her view of the Vineyard, the import and contributions of women.

Rose shared memories of her first Vineyard visit:

My first glimpse of the Vineyard was in the late 50s, when Bill and I and our small daughter, Susanna, took the ferry from Nantucket, stopping on the way back home to Roxbury, Connecticut. Wed been invited by Hiram Haydn, Bills editor, who had a place here. Arriving at the steamship dock, we didnt see Hiram, but we did spot Lillian Hellman, whom wed met serendipitously in Rome at our wedding. She stopped shouting at her huge poodle (Gregory Zilboorg! Come back here!) and spotted us. Chortling, and welcoming, she invited us to her harbor house, promising we could phone the Haydns from there. Dashiell Hammett was sitting on the porch. Susanna climbed into his lap. They seemed mutually enchanted. By the time wed left, having gazed at the lovely boating scene and heard about the wonders of the Vineyard (as opposed to That Nantucket), Lillian had convinced us to rent a neighboring house for a few weeks the following summer. By then, our second daughter, Polly, was a few months old.

Bill and I and our growing family soon became summer people. Anticipating the birth of a third child sometime in September 1959, we rented the big yellow clapboard Victorian house owned by Theo Jay, between Lillians house and the Vineyard Haven Yacht Club, for the first weeks of August.

Our pals Lewis Allen (he and Mike Nichols produced the original Annie) and his wife, Jay Presson (she adapted The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie for Broadway), came to visit. Lewie and Bill took a boat off-island. Jay and I bundled our three little girls into the Jeep and drove to Gay Head to watch the sunrise over the high, more pristine, brightly colored clay cliffs. Standing at the top, alone, we heard an anguished cry from far below. Jay said, I can see a woman who seems to be stuck or lost in the gorse. You wait here; Ill scramble down and lead her out. Bye, Jay. Five minutes later, my water broke, and I went into labor. Further adventures are another funny story (what could we do but laugh?). We have a native son, Thomas Styron, born in the tiny Marthas Vineyard hospital between a five-year-old having his stomach pumped out (hed swallowed a jar of brown paint, assuming it was chocolate milk) and an elderly gent whod fallen off a ladder, his broken leg in the process of being set.

Hope you didnt want anesthesia, the delivery nurse greeted me. The guy who gives it is in Falmouth. No time. And Dr. Nevin isnt here yet

Soon, Bill and Lew and Jay and the little girls, and Lillian with a big basket of lobster and champagne, were peering in at me from an outside window.

Rose stopped and then said, But this book is not about me. Its about a series of strong women in Vineyard historynurses, writers, visual artists, political candidates, dedicated community leadersand their history. Should I go on, Tom?

Yes, of course, I replied.

Pretty much a summer and holiday resident for years, I was pleased to become friends with other women on similar schedules, many quite exceptional: Kay Graham, Jackie Kennedy, Virginia Durr, thenclose now for forty yearstennis and beach buddies Lucy Hackney and Tess Bramhall, whove led our islands community services and environmental endeavors (e.g. Mental Health Initiative and Conservation Partnership), plus Charlayne Hunter-Gault, star journalist and civil rights activist who welcomes Vineyarders of every age, stripe and persuasion to her home and who are also year-round citizens now and, also, Carly Simon, terrific Carly who lends her presence and talent to our annual auction and other public and private events. And Pulitzer Prizewinning Geraldine Brooks, who chronicles Wampanoag history in fiction; and Mary Wallace, Diane Sawyer, Connie Ellis, Cathy Ashmun and Kate Taylor, among others, who are ready with island support of every kind; and, of course, Jorie Graham and Fanny Howe, who lift our spirits through poetry. We hope Hillary Clinton will return soon, and often, and resume our beach walks. Im proud to count as friends, too, I believe, many other women, most much younger, who give time to encourage current island projects in a big way, from the schools and playing fields to housing and health and the theater.

I wish Id got to know Dorothy West. She invited me into her cozy Oak Bluffs house one Illumination Night. I wish Id met Emily Post. I didnt know she lived in Edgartown. My mother and then our youngest daughter, Alexandra, were her fansAls adopting Emily Posts rules helped produce a glorious wedding on Caroline Kennedys hillside. Caroline, as we all know, is a very accomplished womanher poetry anthologies are by my bed, her speeches in my head. Ive known her since she was a little girl. She and her mother and brother, John John, came to stay with us for a few days the summer after her fathers death