putterings 477 < 478 > 479 index
perverter of truth; wanted to putter
“You’re a perverter of truth!” were his first words, as she entered.
“Look here, Timothy Pitkin,” retorted Mrs. Gray, with some asperity, “what do you mean by talking to me that way?”
“I mean,” replied Timothy, “that Phyllis and I have been in the kitchen, where Phyllis has been puttering ever since we had the pleasure of leaving your precious smallpoxed company this morning. There were two letters for Phyllis in the morning’s mail, but she wanted to putter, and did not open the letters until a few minutes ago. One of them was from Mabel Moore, who is now at Dobb’s Ferry, and has been at Dobb’s Ferry since Thursday. She left the hospital Wednesday. Now, will you please tell me how you could have spent the afternoon with her at Roosevelt Hospital yesterday?”
ex Albert Lee, “Miss Phoenix,” in Lippincott’s Monthly Magazine 91:542 (February 1913) : 129-174 (159)
U Michigan copy/scan (via google books) : link
U Chicago copy/scan (one of several view hathitrust) : link
same, opens to p 159 : link
The story is 45 pages long, full of snappy repartee and baroque complications. The assumption/presumption that (1) anyone would read this, and (2) it would find a publisher, says a lot about the genteel and elite world from which the story (and its author) emanated. That world involved pedigree and Yale; and perhaps most importantly Lee’s father — lawyer and Supreme Court Justice in Kansas, brigadier general in the Civil War (Union side), a period in New Orleans as a newspaper editor, banker in New York, wealth (however derived), and leisurely sojourns through Europe and its curiosity shops (that would affect young Albert Lee).
The length and complications of the story would make dramatization perhaps unwise? And yet. A play opened November 3, 1913 at the Harris Theatre, and closed the same week after eight performances. See IBDB : link
aside —
So so wordy. I begin to see silent films as a corrective to vaudeville and short-story logorrhea. A notice and a synopsis/review of “Miss Phoenix” (the play), and sundry other findings by and about its author, follow.
- “New Dramas and Musical Plays to be Heard”
The Sun (New York; 2 November 1913) : 7
via New York State Historic Newspapers : linkAlbert Lee is the author of “Miss Phoenix,” which is to be produced tomorrow night at the Harris Theatre. The farce deals with the adventures of a young woman who is mistaken for the wife of a young man who happens to be the husband of another. It is said that the play begins and ends in a Turkish bath. Ann Murdock, Maud Knowlton, Robert Mackay, Conway Tearie, Henry Mortimer, Ben Hendricks, Ivan Simpson, Lenore Phelps, jane Morrow, T. Tamamoto, W. L. Romaine and Paula Robs [Roba?] are in the cast.
- “Miss Phoenix.”
The Evening Post (4 November 1913)
via New York State Historic Newspapers : linkThere is a clever idea in “Miss Phoenix,” at the Harris Theatre, which might have been made both interesting and amusing by a competent dramatist. As it is, a considerable amount of good material has gone to waste through inexperience. A young married woman has been forbidden by her husband to take Turkish baths, and therefore indulges in them surreptiously. On one occasion a fire breaks out in the establishment, and the inmates are carried out by the firemen, the young woman, Gertrude, being taken over to the house of a friend of her husband, Jack Grey, who has never met her. With him at the time is an actress, Laura Leslie, who takes care of her. The husband is expected at his friend’s house, in hope that the latter will get him out of difficulties he is in through having introduced Laura as his wife to his best client. Then begins a series of lies by most of the people on the stage; but, of course, all is made smooth in the end. The chief trouble with the farce is that it has not what a farce needs most, rapid action. There is too much dialogue, and the people in the cast fail to make it interesting. Two of the company, Ann Murdock and Ivan Simpson, enter into the spirit of the piece, but the others are not equal to their tasks. It is not surprising to hear that the run of the piece will end on Saturday night.
Albert Lee (1868-1946)
- “Recent Deaths”
The Fulton Patriot (19 December 1946)
New York State Historic Newspapers : linkLee — Died at Norwalk, Conn., Dec. 10th. Albert Lee, aged 78 years. He is survived by his wife, Ada Delamater Lee; a son, Norman C. Lee and a daughter, Mrs. Robert Cudd, both of New York city.
The remains were brought to this city and funeral services held from the Case memorial chapel, with interment in Mt. Adnah.
The deceased was a son of the late Albert Lindley Lee for whom Fulton’s hospital was named. He was author and editor and managing director of Harper’s Weekly in 1898. In 1901 he went to Collier’s as associate editor and became managing editor a year later, a position he held until 1911. During 1911-12 he traveled in Europe and wrote several short stories. His play “Miss Phoenix” was produced in New York in October, 1913.
In July 1913, he became a managing editor of Vanity Fair, and in December 1914, he went to Town and County [sic] as associate editor. A year later he returned to Vanity Fair as managing editor and remained until 1919 when he became foreign editor of Vogue, which he held until 1933.
Besides stories and articles which appeared in leading periodicals, he wrote a second play, “Miss Daisy.” Books which he published included “Tommy Doddles,” 1897; “Track Athletics in Detail,” 1897; “The Knave of Hearts,” 1897; “Four for a Fortune,” 1898; “He, She and They,” 1899, and “The Pie and the Pirate,” 1909.- entry in Alberta Lawrence, ed., Who’s who Among North American Authors Volume 3 (1927)
link (google books)Lee, Albert : Publisher; b, New Orleans, La., May 11, 1868; s. Albert L. and Victorine (Lind) L.; educ. Exeter Acad., Yale Univ. Degrees: A.B.; m. Ada Delamater, Oct. 10, 1909. Author: Tommy Toddles, 1896; Four for a Fortune, 1897; He, She and They, 1898; The Pie and the Pirate, 1910; Miss Phoenix (play), produced 1913. Contr. to Scribner’s, Harper’s, Sat. Ev. Post, House and Garden, Town and Country, Womans Home Comp., Adventure, Lippincott’s. Gen. char. writ. juveniles, novels, plays, short stories. Editor Yale Literary Mag., 1891; assistant-ed., MrClures, 1896; Editor Harper’s Round Table, 1897; managing-edit, Harper’s Weekly, 189801900; managing-edit. Colliers, 1901-12; assoc.-edit, Town and Country, 1913-14; managing-edit., Vanity Fair, 1914-18. At present, manager Foreign editions, Conde Nast Publicns. Clubs: Yale...
- other particulars at John Milton Lindly, The history of the Lindley-Lindsley-Linsley families in America, 1639-1930 (vol 2; 1924) : 154
via archive.org : link[3108]. Albert Lee (Albert L., Moses L., Eunice Lindsly, Moses, Daniel, ? John, Francis). Editor, Republican, resident of New York City, he was born in New Orleans, La.; married (1) Blanche Coit, May 22, 1895, who was born in Brooklyn, N. Y., Dec. 1872; she died in New York City, Sept., 1903, daughter of Augustus B. Coit; married (2) Ada Delamater, Oct. 27, 1909, at New York City, born May 29, 1888, New York City, daughter of Dr. Charles H. Delamater.
- Albert Lee’s birth in New Orleans, and early experience in Europe, are explained by the career of his father,
Albert Lindley Lee (1834-1907), lawyer, Kansas Supreme Court judge, brigadier general (Union) in the Civil War, newspaper editor, banker, and frequenter of European curiosity shops (see Lee, Portraits in Pottery, below)
wikipedia : link- Albert Lee. Portraits in pottery, with some account of pleasant occasions incident to their quest (Boston, Mass., The Stratford company [c1931]
LoC : permalink
Chapter one of this amiable volume begins with an account of the author’s traveling about Europe with his parents, and recalling that “my father never failed to enter and rummage about in any old curiosity shop that lay in our path...”
The chapter goes on to consider at some length (and interest) the replacement of curiosity shops by antique shops.
NYPL copy/scan (via hathitrust) : link- a brief biography (and student portrait) of Albert Lee is found in this volume of what seems to have been a series “Universities and their Sons” —
Yale university; its history, influence, equipment and characteristics..., with biographical sketches and portraits of founders, benefactors, officers, and alumni.
Editor-in-chief: General Joshua L. Chamberlain; special editors: historical: Charles Henry Smith; biographical: Albert Lee; Introduction by Hon. William T. Harris
Boston, R. Herndon company, 1900.
LoC : permalink
U California copy/scan (via hathitrust) : link
Lee his own (auto) biography (and above portrait), at : link
- These and some other titles (including Track Athletics in Detail (1896)) by Albert Lee, via hathitrust : link
- “Recent Deaths”