Alice Harriman
Adelaide
Marquand Hanscom Leeson
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In 1907 a small article in the Seattle Week-end mentioned that Adelaide was to illustrate a book of poetry by Alice Harriman, and that the book had been accepted by Dodge Publishing. No record of this book has been located.
Beyond this brief mention, the rest of their connections is speculative, but logical. Adelaide always supported "women who could and would." 1 Although Harriman was 14 years older than Adelaide, they would have had much in common and probably met because Seattle's art colony was quite small in 1907.
Harriman was, according to a 1914 book, "the only woman publisher of books in the world.". 2 The fact that Harriman formed her publishing company in the same year as the above notice about Dodge publishing makes one wonder if it was in response to an unhappy experience with established publishing companies.
They shared a love of the outdoors, of literature, and of art.
Like Adelaide Marquand, Harriman was in favor of women's suffrage.
In addition, Harriman's work indicates that she had a strong empathy for the plight of American Indians, sentiments which Adelaide shared.
They shared an interest in and love of Elizabeth Barrett Browning's poetry
Also, she was a Christian Scientist. Although Adelaide did not join the church until 1919, this friendship may have been part of the network of influences that led to Adelaide's joining.
check emails and other articles, including LA paper for obituary. xxxxxx and Seattle PI 2/22/1911, p. 4 "Mrs. Harriman Wins in the East"
Mary Alice Harriman was an author and the probably the first woman publisher in this country. She was born in Newport, Maine on March 12,1861, the daughter of James and Mary E.(Ladd) Harriman. She married a man named Browne and was widowed, dates unknown. 1
She graduated from Newport High School. From 1896 on she wrote short stories and articles for magazines. Many of these were about her early years in Montana. She traveled for Northwest Magazine, 1897-1902.
She moved to Seattle in late 1905 or early 1906. There she wrote and published a number of poetry books. In 1907 she established The Alice Harriman Co.,publishers of fine books. In April of 1910 she and her publishing company moved to New York. In 1913 she closed her company.
At some point in her writing career she used the pseudonym John Ryce. 2 One book under that name has been found: An Oath in Heaven, an Early Victorian Romance, published in London in 1903.
She was a Christian Scientist, a teacher of writing, and a translator. She belonged to at least three clubs while in Seattle, Scribes and Seattle Women's Commercial, Seattle Writers. In New York she belonged to the Browning Society, National Artist Club, American Social Dramatists and Composers, American Society of Historical Places, and Theater Goers. In Los Angeles: the Browning Society, Southern California Women's Press, Pen Women. 3
At the end of her life she lived in Hollywood, California, where she died on December 24, 1925.
A weekly newsletter from the Indian Industrial School, Carlisle, Pa. included this poem of Harriman's: 3
FOR THE INDIAN HELPER
TO A WILD ROSE FROM THE BATTLE FIELD OF WOUNDED KNEE, SOUTH DAKOTA.
Thou dainty rose, close pressed with tender bud,
Where thou wast plucked, has been the scene of blood,
In brave array thy mates deck all the land,
Wherein the long ago, roamed many an Indian band.
The wild free life that once the Red Man knew,
Was simple as thine own, 'neath sun and dew.
Careless and free, no piteous shade of doom,
Obscured their lives with fatal, fateful gloom.
E'en as the plow lays low thy stalk and stem,
Leaving thee withering, dead - so 'twas with them;
Torn from their haunts, they knew not where to fly,
Robbed of their own, they knew naught but to die.
Hast all the warm rich blood shed near thy bed.
Enriched and nourished thee, thou wild rose red?
Both Red and White men's lives in thee have share,
Changed but in form art they - and thou art fair.
Art thou the token of a higher life,
Art born to shadow forth the end of strife?
May it be so! Bloom,
sweet wild roses, by the limpid stream!
Proclaim with fragrant breath the glorious theme.
Of brotherhood of Man! The
lives that blend in thee,
Waft now this message o'er the miles to me.
MARY ALICE HARRIMAN.
The Seattle weekly paper, which covered society and the arts, put her photograph on the cover of the September 15, 1906 edition. In it they had this small article: 4
We have on our cover page today the picture of Mrs. Alice Harriman, author of Songs o’ the Sound, a volume of verse that has just been published in Seattle, a review of which will be found in another column. This volume is by no means Mrs. Harriman’s first effort, for she has written for several years. Her stories of Montana have been accepted by many of the leading magazines, and a novel dealing with Montana politics is now under consideration by a New York publishing house. Mrs. Harriman’s poems and sonnets are replete with poetic feeling gracefully expressed, that have brought forth words of praise from those eminent critics, Richard Watson Guilder, Robert Underwood Johnson and Hayden Carruth. Mrs. Harriman within the year has taken up her residence in Seattle, and is already prominently identified with its literary life.
Under headline "New Unitarian Pastor Arrives" is a photograph of Harriman. These parts of the article refer to her:
Mrs. Alice Harriman, a member of the congregation [First Unitarian church] , has composed an anthem, "O, Downcast Soul," which has been set to music by Prof. Gerard Tenning, choir director, and will be sung for the first time at the Sunday morning service...A peculiar coincidence is that the special anthem which was composed for this occasion bgy Mrs. Harriman has the theme of "God is Love," which is also the theme of Rev. Mr. Powers' initial sermon.
Seattle Author Publishes Books in New York City
Mrs. Harriman Wins in East
As Woman Publisher She Scores Success in New York City
Herself an Author
Has en and Published Two Volumes of Poems, One Novelette and New Novel
"From Canvasser for a magazine to a Fifth avenue publisher is a far cry.
Thus, when Mrs. Alice Harriman, noted author, literary critic and Campanologist, came to San Francisco from Hollywood for Jubilee Week, she discovered a unique Moscow bell hanging in the belfry of the Russian Holy Trinity Cathedral, located on the corner of Van Ness avenue and Green Street. Mrs. Harriman will revise the manuscript of her book, almost complete, in order to include complete data about her San Francisco "find." This is not the first rare bell she has discovered, either. It was Mrs. Harriman who found "The first mission bell," also Russian in origin, hanging in an orange grove near Los Angeles. According to the inscription upon it, it was cast on the Island of Kodiak, in Alaska, by the Russian arch-priest Eugene in 1796, being ninety-four years older than the one in San Francisco, but boasting of neither such beautiful workmanship nor such historical interest. 5
Hollywood CA December 24. Mrs. Alice Harriman, 64, author and publisher, died of pneumonia today. A contributor to many magazines since 1896, Mrs. Harriman also ws the author of several books of which the two most noted were "A Man of Two Countries" and a volume of poems, "Will Thou Not Sing." At the time of her death she was engaged in writing a history dealing with the early missions of California. She was born March 12, 1861 at Newport, Maine.
Alice Harriman, lovingly called "The Lady of the Bells" by her friends in California, died on December 24 in her home in Hollywood.
Mrs. Harriman was nationally known as an author, publisher, and critic. Her first volume of poems, Wilt Thou Not Sing? Appeared in Seattle when she began her career as a publisher. This volume was followed by seven others, her novel, The Man of Two Countries, being her best known work.
Since coming to California, Mrs. Harriman had been at work on a history of the mission bells, and years of research made her an authority on this subject. Her book was to have been the crowning achievement on her career, and is completed but for the last chapter.
'A Stranger in Judea', which appears in this issue, is in all probability the last poem from the pen of this interesting and lovable writer, and The Lyric West is happy to have had the privilege of printing it. 6
"Congress of American Aborigines at the Omaha Exposition", Overland Montly, June 1899. Published under the name Mary Alice Harriman.
Stories of Montana (Pacific Coast Series), 1903.
Songs o' the Sound, Seattle: The Stuff Printing Concern, 1906.
"Old Bill's Awkward Squad", (short story) published in a book titled Tillicum Tales published by the Seattle Writer's Club in 1907.
Chaperoning Adrienne: A Tale of the Yellowstone National Park, by Harriman-Browne, Alice, Illustrated by Charles M. Russell, Seattle, Wa: Metropolitan Press, 1907.
Songs o' the Olympics. Alice Harriman Co. Seattle, Washington 1909.
Lemon Juice
A Man of Two Countries; chapter headings by C.M. Dowling. New York, Seattle: The Alice Harriman Company, 1910.
Wilt Thou Not Sing? A Book Of Verses. The Alice Harriman Co. New York, 1912
Bells and Their Overtones, 1918.
Denny, Arthur Armstrong. ed. by Alice Harriman. Pioneer days on Puget Sound, Seattle: The Alice Harriman Company, 1908.
Phelps, Thomas Stowell, ed. by Alice Harriman. Reminiscences of Seattle, Washington Territory, and the U.S. Sloop-of-War "Decatur" during the Indian War of 1855-1856. Seattle: The Alice Harriman Co., 1908.
Eells, Myron. Marcus Whitman, Pathfinder and Patriot. Seattle: The Alice Harriman Company, 1909.
Flaubert, Gustave. The Temptation of Saint Anthony. Translated by Hearn. Introduction by Elizabeth Bisland. New York and Seattle: The Alice Harriman Company, 1910.
Taber, Louise E. (Louise Edgar). The Flame. New York: The Alice Harriman Company, 1911.
Gerald Leeson, Adelaide's son, quoting his mother. From an interview in 1981.
Leonard, John William, ed. Woman's Who's Who in America, 1914-1915. New York: American Commonwealth Company, c. 1914.
Much of this biographical information comes from: Who Was Who In America, Vol.I.
Robinson, Doris. Women Novelists, 1891-1920. New York: Garland Publishing, 1984.
A WEEKLY LETTER FROM THE Indian Industrial School, Carlisle, Pa. VOL. XIV. FRIDAY, August 4, 1899 NUMBER 41. Found on this website: http://nativenet.uthscsa.edu/archive/nn-dialogue/9909/0001.html, March, 2002
Week-end (Sept 15, 1906), vol 1, No 50, p 4.
San Francisco Examiner, September 27, 1925, Sunday, p. 1N as found on this website: http://www.holy-trinity.org/history/1925/09.27.SF.Examiner.html, March 2002.
The Lyric West, January 1926, V5, No 4, p. 122. Clipping in Special Collections, University of Washington Library, Seattle.