CAROLINE GORDON

by Mona Powell

Caroline Gordon was born into an agrarian family in Todd County, Kentucky on October 6, 1895. She grew up in the ease of the plantations of the South where women were gracious servants to their husbands and fathers. The slow southern style influenced Gordon's life and her life's work. She played the amiable hostess to some of the world's great writers: Ford Madox Ford,whom some believe to be her greatest mentor, Robert Penn Warren, Andrew Lytle, T.S. Eliot, Flannery O'Connor, William Faulkner, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Ernest Hemingway. It is one of her great accomplishments to offer these writers a haven from the sometimes cruel world in which they lived, a place where they could create their masterpieces. She is often considered by researchers in a class of feminists of the day because of her bohemian lifestyle and also the fact that her work was most often published under her maiden name. Upon investigation, Gordon appears to be a feminist enigma.

Gordon was educated at her father's Classical School for boys in Clarksville, Tennessee. James Morris Gordon gave his daughter an excellent education which enabled Gordon to go on to Bethany College. She was a member of the graduating class of 1916. After graduation, Gordon went to Chattanooga and became a reporter for the Chattanooga Reporter. Her work on the paper consisted of mainly working on the Society news. (Waldron, p.36) She left the newspaper in 1924. Upon her arrival home, she met Allen Tate, the love her life and her future husband.

Gordon and Tate were married on May 15, 1925, at the City Hall in New York City. Gordon, at the time of the wedding, was five months pregnant with the couple's first child. She would later tell her friends and family that the marriage had taken place secretly several months earlier in order to avoid being ostracized by the people that she loved. She also adopted the fashion which was becoming popular in New York that married women should retain their maiden name; this is why all of her work is published under her maiden name. It was not a feminist statement, but rather a means to save face with the relatives back home. (Waldron, 41)

The marriage of Tate and Gordon was destined to be a rocky road that would cause Gordon much turmoil and eventually a nervous breakdown. (Waldron, 236) During the early years of their marriage however, they provided considerable hospitality for some of the best writers of their time. Gordon and Tate moved back to Clarksville, Tennessee, where they lived in a rambling house which was christened Benfolly. This was because Tate's brother, Ben, had given Tate the property. Tate considered his brother's generosity a "folly." (Makowsky, 93)

At Benfolly, writers came to hone their craft. Gordon was always the gracious hostess. Often she would let her own writing fall by the wayside in order to enhance the atmosphere in which the other writers worked. Ford Madox Ford took an interest in Gordon's work, and it is reported by several sources, including letters written by Gordon, that he coerced her into finishing her first novel, Penhally, published in 1931. He would not let her do anything until she had dictated at least 5000 words per day to him. (Core, 34)

Gordon went on to publish ten novels including Aleck Maury, Sportsman, a novel which is said to be about Gordon's father, in 1934, None Shall Look Back, a Civil War novel in 1937, and The Women on the Porch in 1944. She also published three collections of short stories and three other books, such as How to Read a Novel in 1957. Even though she had a tremendous talent , she always maintained that it was much easier for a man to write than for a woman. Gordon is quoted as saying, " It is certainly much harder for a woman to write than it is for a man. It is so much harder that I am in a panic half the time fearing that something will happen to prevent me from writing." (Waldron, 94) This does not sound as if Gordon was a staunch feminist, but a woman comfortable with clinging to the world in which she grew up. An example of this belief is a quote from Gordon's story "The Petrified Woman." Young Susie is growing up in the traditional family atmosphere of the south when she is faced with her uncle's drinking problem. Susie is speaking of her Aunt Hilda's displeasure with her husband's drinking, "'She better get used to it,' Susie said. 'All the Fayerlee men drink.'" This is typical of Gordon's own reluctance to change her own world and her co-dependence on Tate.

In 1947, she would under go a conversion that would lead her down a road of great distress and also give her solace at the end. On November 24, 1947, Gordon converted to Catholicism. Her marriage to Tate was crumbling. His infidelities eventually led to divorce. Gordon could not forgive his indiscretions, nor could she live without some contact with him in her life. It is said they had the classic "can't live with him, can't live without him" relationship. Tate and Gordon divorced once in 1945, remarried, and divorced again in 1959. Tate eventually married a total of three times, but continued to correspond to Gordon throuighout his life.

Even though Gordon won the Guggenheim Award in 1932, and the O Henry Award in 1934, she was never comfortable with her own writing talent. She was always depending on the men to draw the words from her so that they could be written down. Ford Madox Ford should have been given credit on Gordon's Penhally. This is not the picture often conceived of the dedicated feminist writer, but a woman steadfastly unsure of her own talent.

Another point which illustrates Gordon's lack of feminist fire can be found in a letter to Ward Dorrance, "While I am a woman I am also a freak. The work I do is not suitable for a woman. It is unsexing. I speak with real conviction here." On March 1, 1981, Gordon suffered a stroke from which she would not recover. She died on April 11, 1981. Perhaps one of the strongest arguments that Gordon was not a staunch feminist appears on her tombstone. It is a quotation from Jacques Maritain, "It is for Adam to interpret the voices which Eve hears." (Waldron, 369)

Core, Deborah. "Caroline Gordon, Ford Madox Ford: A Shared Passion for the Novel" The Southern Quarterly. v. 28, n. 3. Spring 1990, p.33-42.

Makowsky, Veronica A. Caroline Gordon: A Biography. NY: Oxford University Press, 1989.

Makowsky, Veronica A. "Caroline Gordon on Women Writing: A Contradiction inTerms?" The Southern Quarterly. v. 28, n. 3. Spring 1990, p.43-52.

Waldron, Ann. Close Connections: Caroline Gordon and the Southern Renaissance. NY: G.P. Putnam's Sons. 1987.

by Mona Powell

Penally - 1931 - The story of a farm traced through four generations in Tennessee.

Aleck Maury, Sportsman - 1934 - influenced by her father, an expert fly fisherman.

None Shall Look Back - 1937- A Civil War novel.

The Garden of Adonis - 1937

Green Centuries - 1941- about the American frontier.

The Women on the Porch - 1944- story of four different women in a small Tennessee town.

The Forest of the South - 1945 - a collection of short stories.

The House of Fiction: An Anthology of the Short Story - 1950 - written with Allen Tate.

The Strange Children - 1951 - story of a child named Lucy and people involved with her.

The Malefactors - 1956 - conglomeration of living and dead characters.

A Good Soldier: A Key to the Novels of Ford Madox Ford - 1957 - tribute to her mentor.

How to Read a Novel - 1957

Old Red and Other Stories - 1963 - second collection of short stories.

The Glory of Hera - 1972 -story of Hercules' loves and labors.

The Collected Stories of Caroline Gorgon - 1981 - third collection of short stories.