Dan James looks at the memoirs of Titanic survivor Helen Candee.
Helen Candee, a New York divorcée, was a woman out of time: unconventional, beautiful and daring. By the time she stepped aboard the Titanic at Cherbourg on Wednesday 10 April 1912, she had already lived a life few other women of her era could dream of. Aged 53, with a handsome face and cool gaze, she boarded the waiting ship at dusk. A celebrated writer and interior designer, a leading light on the US social scene, she was a celebrity back home – her comings and goings were regularly reported in the press, and she was noted for her lively dinner parties.
She had brought up her two children single-handedly after divorcing her wealthy husband of 15 years in 1896. Having suspected him of infidelity, she had him tailed by private detectives, but their evidence wasn’t enough proof for the New York courts, so she returned to Oklahoma, where she had lived briefly, and secured a divorce there, this time citing her husband’s abusiveness and heavy drinking.
Her independent spirit led her into writing to support herself and her children. She produced a landmark of feminist literature, How Women May Earn a Living in 1900, at a time when most women were seen as needing protection by a strong, capable man. Then came her only novel – An Oklahoma Romance – alongside contributions to magazines, including Harper’s Bazaar, on subjects ranging from agriculture to social etiquette.
When she moved from New York to Washington she added a new skill to her portfolio: interior design. Her popularity and good taste meant people were clamouring for her services, among them President Theodore Roosevelt and the Oval Office architect Nathan Wyeth, who consulted her on the décor of the White House’s West Wing. Soon she was writing books about design, decoration and tapestry.
She also caught the travel bug, and fell in love with Europe. It was while on a trip to Spain and Italy that she heard news that her son Harold had been injured in a railway accident. She had no idea how serious his injuries were. ‘If Harry was gone what were life worth?’ she was to write in a memoir. She booked a passage back on the first ship she could – Titanic.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/you/article-2117733/Titanic-tale-love-loss-Memoirs-survivor-Helen-Candee.html#ixzz1qAURz743
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