2630a / still, still what . 4 . if we are all to blame

W. B. Trites, writings by and about

This is page is essentially an out-of-control footnote to “still, still what . 4 . if we are all to blame” — 2630.
I will continue to augment/revise it, as material by and about W. B. Trites and his wife Estelle Klauder comes into view.

longer writings
shorter writings (fiction and self-promotional criticism)
about
Estelle Klauder (Trites)

W. B. Trites, longer writings (novels; some available online)

W. B. Trites, John Cave (London, A. Treherne & Co.; 1909); [4], 287 p. ; 19 cm.
NYPL and U Minnesota copies/scans (via hathitrust) : link
John Cave (New York, 1913); 297 p
U California and Harvard copies/scans (via hathitrust) : link
W. B. Trites, Brian Banaker’s autobiography up to the age of twenty-four years (1917)
NYPL copy/scan (via hathitrust) : link
Harvard copy (1916; via hathitrust) : link
“subject : Rich people / fiction”
W. B. Trites, A Modern Girl (New York: Stokes / A L Burt, 1929)
LoC : permalink
The expression “slacker” appears here and there in this novel; I wondered, on the basis of its review in the The Saturday Review of Literature (September 7, 1929) whether it might be an elaboration of the story "The Slacker" whose passage heads this paper. It is not, and yet something like the conversation quote above does figure in the novel :
“But of course,” he ended, “this war proves that we’ve got to have universal service.”
The thin, shaggy editor laughed hysterically.
“And they told us it was a war to end war!" he [263] shrieked. "A war to end war! You might as well talk about a drunk to end drunkenness!”
“You are quite right there," the boy [West Point] general agreed. “War, like the poor, will be always —”
But the thin, shaggy editor interrupted him:
“You don’t understand me! I’m a pacifist, I am, and I’d kill of my whole generation — the generation responsible for this war — yes, sir, if I had my way I’d blow the whole damn lot of us to hell.”
“How absurd!” said Mrs. Custer Heredia, belching.
“Right you are, ma’am,” piped the thin, shaggy editor. "The whole thing’s ”
W. B. Trites, Paterfamilias (New York, Cosmopolitan book corporation, 1929)
LoC : https://lccn.loc.gov/29018159
notices / reviews

1
Paterfamilias, by W. B. Trites (Cosmopolitan Book Corporation. New York. $2.50).
A novel which contemplates the man who is brought up with a jolt by the count of his 50th birthday.
The Rocky Mountain News 70:237 (August 25, 1929)
via Colorado Historic Newspapers Collection : link
2
M. V. Mechau, “Father of Another Day Made Hero in ‘Paterfamilias’”
The Rocky Mountain News 70:286 (October 13, 1929)
via Colorado Historic Newspapers Collection : link
“PATERFAMILIAS has been hailed in England and America with high-sounding phrases such as “desolating and unforgettable,” “a powerful story, powerfully told,” and the author, W. B. Trites, who also wrote “The Gypsy,” shares the laudatory praises.
But for me the story falls a bit — the father, an admirable and lovable man, is rewarded for his sufferings in too grand a manner in a “Pollyannaish” ending. The book otherwise is good.
Dr. William R. Stanton supports a large family, fights a losing battle against the encroaching power of the Iron Works in a political campaign. Altho he is admired and respected by his patients, his practice falls till he can barely make a living [ something missing] ed and the last pitiful scene in the [ ]
His son, Jack, steals $1,200 and squanders it on a chorus girl.
The story is also of a former day, an unknown family — depending on each other collectively and on the head of the family as one.
[OCR or some other corruption, these last lines]
W. B. Trites, Ask the Young (London, 1929)
Bodleian Library : permalink
This would be a later edition (or printing) of the novel first published in 1924 (by Crown); this was reviewed by Gerald Gould in The Saturday Review (London; 27 December 1924) : 958 : link, and is transcribed entire below :
With “Ask the Young” we are out of the realm of high art [this follows a brief review of André Gide's Straight is the Gate (Dorothy Bussy, trans.)] and back in the place where the crude social lesson obtrudes itself objectionably through the narration of fact. Mr. Trites is a clever writer. He has an easy, effective narrative style, considerable knowledge, and some command of sentiment. But he goes far towards ruining his story as a story by complicating it with too obvious a parade of “views.” His hero has ambitions as a writer, his heroine as a painter. They are both mildly “brainy,” but entirely inefficient, and ludicrously corrupted by egotism. They are daring and advanced and so forth : Mr. Trites makes all their experiments futile and disgusting for the sake of demonstrating how safe and commendable by contrast are the domestic virtues. But surely he begs rather than answers his own questions. Selfishness and obtuseness are not entirely the preserve of self-deceiving artists : they may be found also in the homes of the respectable. The desire to expres oneself in language or colour, even when divorced from the capacity to do so, need not lead directly to general incompetence and indulgence. Nor is it every unsuccessful author who has at his back — and his beck — a flourishing business to which he can turn when he chooses : nor again, it may be added, is it every unsucessful author who would necessarily achieve success, money, and domestic bliss by taking to business. It is impossible to believe that business is quite so simple a matter as novelists — particularly American novelists — would have us believe. In many — I had almost written most — American novels, the hero has only to fail at everything else in order to be an immediate and overwhelming success in the world of financial and commercial affairs. It is an odd complexion for the advocates of those affairs to which to put upon the subject of their eulogy. I cannot help suspecting that the young people drawn by Mr. Trites would, in real life, have made every bit as bad a mess of commerce and domesticity as they had of aberration and Bohemianism : they were like that. But the actual telling of their adventures is vivid and brisk : Mr. Trites certainly has the supreme merit of readableness.
W. B. Trites, Miramar (London, [etc.] Cassell and company, ltd. [1931])
LoC : permalink

W. B. Trites, shorter writings (available online)
W. B. Trites, “The Test” (originally Philadelphia Record), carried/found in The Rocky Mountain News 41:358 (December 24, 1900)
via Colorado Historic Newspapers Collection : link
W. B. Trites, “The Loon Boss” in the Democratic Watchman (Bellefont, Pa., December 20, 1901)
via Pennsylvania Newspaper Archive : link
Howell’s New Literary Find Is Caustic About New York.
W. B. Trites, the novelist, here after an absence of seven years, calls the Great White Way an alley, admires our women enthusiastically but raps our men.
By William B. Trites, The New York Times (April 6, 1913)
link (paywall)
W. B. Trites, “Dostoievsky” in The North American Review (August 1915) : 264-270
U Chicago copy/scan (via hathitrust) : link
“I desire to consider Dostoievsky from one angle alone — the angle, namely, of the dish rag. The angle of the dish rag.. . Dostoievsky shows us — to speak fantastically — the souls of dish rags. He lets us hear the lamentations of the lowest, the vilest, the most shameless. From the mud the drunkard speaks...”
W. B. Trites, “The Slacker” in The Saturday Evening Post 188:24 (December 11, 1915) : 13-16, 49-50, 53-54, 57-58 (15)
U Minnesota copy/scan (via google books) : link
same (U Minnesota copy/scan, via hathitrust) : link
U Illinois at Urbana-Champaign copy/scan (via hathitrust) : link

Illustrated by Harvey Dunn (1884-1952)
wikipedia : link
see the remarkable Smithsonian survey, Picturing World War I : America’s First Official War Artists, 1918-1919
specifically the page devoted to Harvey Thomas Dunn (1884-1952) : link
W. B. Trites, “Lady Monica’s Batman” in The Saturday Evening Post 193:59 (March 26, 1921) : 30, 32, 34, 37-38, 40, 43
U Illinois at Urbana-Champaign copy/scan (via hathitrust) : link
illustrated by H. J. Mowat; a story about rich white people. The same number contains H. G. Wells, “The Salvaging of Civilization,” and Josephus Daniels, “Building the World’s Most Powerful Warships” (featuring dramatic photographs of battleships under construction, and impressive figures on destructive capabilities).

W. B. Trites, about
entry in The University of Pennsylvania, Record : 1893-98 of the Class of ’93 (1898) : link
full transcription:
William Budd Trites, Jr., / Arts
Residence, Wissahickon, Philadelphia.
Born, 20 July, 1872, Manayunk, Philadelphia. Son of William Budd Trites, M. D., and Amanda Katharine Sutton. Entered 1888. Left 1890. 1890-1, Course in Medicine, Hahnemann Medical College, Philadelphia.
1891-2, Reporter on staff of the Philadelphia Record.
author portrait (by “MARCUS”, unidentified as of yet), illustrating
Howells Discovers a New Literary Light, W.B. Trites
Author of “John Cave” tells how he knocked at the door of publishers here and abroad without result, then became his own publisher and won fame.
By Sam S. Stimson. The New York Times (February 16, 1913)
link (paywall)
fore-channeling Tom Wolfe (1930-2018) ? : white suit : link
Sébastian Cagnoli, “William Budd Trites, Jr. — de Green Lane à Rauba Capèu” (30 August 2022) : link (accessed 20240612)
in French; thorough and useful. Anchored to Trites’s residence in Nice (Cagnoli’s neighborhood) but not limited to that. Cagnoli himself is a prolific auteur-traducteur / chercheur, with particular interest in Finland / Sami culture.
Sébastian Gagnoli, author’s website : link
instagram : link
Richard E. Rex, The Literary Career of W. B. Trites (Academica Press, 2023) : link
Have not seen (costs $139.95)

Estelle Oleader Klauder (Trites) (1882-1953)
writer, aphorist
Cornell ’04
Estelle Klauder Trites, “The Magic Bowl” in Pictorial Comedy “A Magazine of Humorous Pictures, Stories, and Varied Reading,” vol 13 (May 1907) : 58-59
U Minnesota copy/scan (via google books) : link
Pictorial Comedy was one of many newspapers/magazines published by James Henderson (1823-1906)
wikipedia : link
see also Grand Comics Database (GCD), which counts 111 issues during the years 1899-1908 : link
and Mark Bryant’s essay on Henderson, “A Man of the Press” at (of all places) tumblr : link (8 December 2016, accessed 20240706)
Estelle Klauder. “Life on the Riviera.” Northland Age 6:6 (27 September 1909) : 2
I passed a winter in Nice with two friends in a furnished apartment. It was delightful, and in an apartment, unlike in a hotel, one’s expenses can run high or low, as one pleases. Ours usually came to forty francs a week per person, though when hard up we often reduced them to twenty-five francs.
The apartment was on the eastern extension of the Promenade des Anglais. It had gas and water laid on, a bath, and a gas cook-stove. The three largest of its six rooms faced to the south, and their windows stood open all day long to sun and sea. The fire of gnarled olive wood that made our sitting-room so cosy in the evening cost, by actual calculation, but three half-pence a night. The apartment itself, in every respect a charming one, cost twelve hundred francs for the season. Our stay began in November and lasted to the end of April, so this rental worked out to about fifty francs a week — sixteen francs for each person.
We were more than comfortable. Housekeeping in a small way is easy at Nice, where all the winter long fiesh peas, new potatoes, tomatoes, beans, in the way of vegetables, to say nothing of delicious fruit, are to be obtained at the low prices that only prevail at home in the summer time.
We had a good maid, who went home every night to sleep. We paid her by the hour — thirty centimes an hour — the customary rate among the Nicois. And our a verage weekly expenditure of forty francs per person itemised itself thus : —
Rent 16.67
Food 17.
Light and heat 1.26
Laundry 2.50
Servant 2.50
Total 39.92 fr.
Nice is emphatically the Riviera town in which to practice economy without discomfort. For Nice is so large that one’s economical exercises are not on parade there, as they would be in a smaller Riviera town. The amusements of Nice, again, may be enjoyed on the same cheap scale as its apartments. The three theatres, for instance, producing admirably such operas as “Thais,” “La Tosca,” “La Vie de Bohemc,” have stalls at five francs, while in the comfortable galleries numbered seats as low as one franc each may be reserved.
What could be pleasanter, too, than a visit now and then to one of the large and glittering cafes of Nice, with their good orchestras, their long lists of London and Paris newspapers and weeklies, their playing-cards, chessboards, backgammon or draught boards, so rapidly produced on demand? And all this at the price of a modest “consommation” or two — a mug of the best German beer, a glass of the finest Moka! Yes, at this price, all round you, sit the wise French folk, writing their letters, playing their games, reading the news.
Nice offers a singularly good open-air concert in the Jardin Public daily. The band is quite wonderful. It is more like a string orchestra than a band, and its repertory embraces Beethoven, Berlioz, Wagner, Massenet, Puccini. How delightful it is to sit through one of these concerts in the Jardin Public on a December afternoon.
But suppose one is a very quiet person, a lover of nature, a worshipper of sunshine and snowpeaks rather than of the busy town? Then one can retire to some beautiful old quiet town like Grasse, and there one can live well on a pension for five francs a day. I did it, so I know. I had a little table of my own by a window in the dining-room, the food was both good and plentiful, and in the evening, before the fire in the salon, I improved my German by talking to a German Graf and my Italian by singing duets with a contessa from Napoli.
And think not that to live on the Riviera at seven francs or so a day is to live meanly in discomfort. On the contrary, it is to live, if one be wise, with a certain elegance and pleasant ease.
— Estelle Klauder, in the London “Mail.”
Estelle Klauder, “The First Trip to European Countries”
Its errors and pitfalls and how to avoid them.
Every difficulty is solved.
Springfield lady gives valuable information to tourists to foreign countries.
The Bureau Country Tribune (Friday, May 13, 1910)
via The Illinois Digital Newspaper Collections : link
headings —
The Steamer Trunk.
The Chair and Rug.
The Luggage Question.
The Clothes to Take.
To Reduce Expenses.
The Automobile and the Horse.
“There are some people that the more you think of them the less you think of them.”
Estelle Klauder, in The Idaho Springs Mining Gazette 33:20 (December 25, 1913) : link (filler)
None but the brave deserve the fair, and none but the brave can live with some of them.
Estelle Klauder. The Woodend Star (Victoria, Saturday 20 June 1914) : 4
via Trove : link (filler)
“The eight hour a day man often has a sixteen hour a day wife.”
Estelle Klauder. Machinery (January 31, 1918) : 489 : link (filler)
’04 — Mrs. W. B. Trites (Estelle O. Klauder), April 24, 1953. Her home was San Antonia—Ibiza, Balvares, Spain.
Cornell Alumni News (October 1, 1953) : 104 : link (google books)

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