Ruth Suckow: Iowa author and Storyteller of Life in

Iowa's Small Towns and Farms in the 1900s

Cherie Dargan, webmaster, www.ruthsuckow.org Summer 2013

Ruth Suckow, August 6, 1892-January 23, 1960

This presentation covers

• An overview of Ruth Suckow’s life and work

• Her marriage to Ferner Nuhn

• It includes a snippet of description and

highlights of one of her short stories

• It includes a poem about her and an overview

of several tributes to her around the state of

Iowa

Overview of Ruth Suckow’s life

• Ruth was a famous Iowa author who wrote during the 1920s-1950s

• She lived in a number of cities in Iowa

• She also traveled extensively around the country, living in New York, New Mexico, Iowa, Massachusetts, Colorado, Arizona and California

• She settled in Cedar Falls, where her husband, Ferner, worked in his father's business

Overview, cont.

• She taught at the local university (Iowa Teachers' College, which later became the University of Northern Iowa).

• Ruth and Ferner were active in the Quaker movement: they were opposed to WWII and visited conscientious objectors who had been sent to work camps in California.

Towns she lived in around the state

Ruth was born in Hawarden.

Her father had churches in LeMars, Alden, Algona, Forest City, Manchester, and Davenport.

She attended high school and college in Grinnell.

She kept bees in Earlville.

She lived in Cedar Falls after she married Ferner Nuhn.

She is buried in Greenwood Cemetary, in Cedar Falls.

Other Writers with an Iowa Connection

Ruth Suckow -- Country People, The Folks (and others)

Bess Aldrich -- A Lantern in her Hand, Miss Bishop

Phil Stong -- State Fair

Paul Frederick Corey -- the Mantz trilogy, Three Miles Square,

The Road Returns, and County Seat

J Hyatt Downing -- A Prayer for Tomorrow

John Herbert Quick -- The Invisible Woman and One Man's Life

Source: Retired Scholar/Librarian Robert A. McCown. RSMA Board Member

Wikipedia articles on the various authors

Ruth Suckow, with her cat

Brief Bio of Ruth Suckow

• Born in Hawarden, IA (up in the Northwestern corner of the state) to William and Anna Suckow.

• Her father was a pastor; the family moved around Iowa.

• She had a sister, Emma.

Pictures of Ruth & the birthplace in Hawarden, Iowa

Pictures of Ruth as a young woman

Ruth and her family

Here is the Suckow family: Emma stands, mother Anna is seated, while William holds Ruth.

Ruth as a young woman

• She attended High School in Grinnell, graduating in 1910, and then went to the college there, but did not graduate.

• Instead, she went to Boston to study at the Curry School of Expression from 1913-1915

Move to Colorado

• Her mother and sister moved to Colorado for health reasons. She joined them.

• She attended the University of Denver, graduating with a B.A. in English in 1917 and a M.A. in 1918

Early writing

• Ruth began writing short stories in the early 1920s. Her work was praised by noted editor H. L. Menken

• Her first novel was Country People, 1924.

• She wrote a number of short stories, essays, reviews, and articles in addition to the books listed in this presentation.

A Sample Story

• “A Rural Community” tells the story of Ralph, a

successful journalist who travels the world—and was

raised as a foster child on a farm in Iowa. He hasn’t been

home in many years.

• The story begins and ends with a train: he gets off the

train in the morning to visit his parents, and he gets back

on a train at midnight to continue on his journey.

• His parents have retired & moved to town, so he has to

get directions and walks to their house.

• He greets his father first, who isn’t sure this stranger is

Ralph, but then calls his wife with excitement.

Sample story, cont.

• Ralph’s parents welcome him inside. He enjoys a meal,

a visit to the family cemetery, and a reunion with his

foster brothers and sisters.

• He notices all that has changed in the town & his

family—and all that has stayed the same.

• He feels reconnected to his family and his mother’s

phrase, “You’re one of us, sure you are” makes him

reflect on his insecurity as a teenager.

• He also feels deeply connected to the land.

• When he gets back on the train, he feels changed by his

experience.

Snippet of description—”A Rural Community”

(As Ralph arrives in town, and walks to his parents’ house)

He looked beyond the houses, at the line of low hills on

the south. He stood still –almost caught his breath at

the sudden stab of emotion. With a strange impulse he

took off his cap, held it crushed in his hand. There they

were still – the old eternal hills! How well he knew

them, better than anything in the world. The “lay of the

land” – something in that to stir the deepest feeling in

a man. Low rolling hills, fold after fold, smooth brown

and autumnal, some ploughed to soft earth colour,

some set with corn stalks of pale tarnished gold.

Snippet of description, cont.

Along the farther ones, the woods lay like a colored

cloud, brown, russet, red and purple-tinged. As he

walked on, the houses grew fewer, everything dwindled

into pasture land. The feeling of autumn grew more

poignant. There was a scent of dust in the stubble. The

trees grew in scattered russet groups. One slender

young cottonwood,

yellow as a goldfinch and as lyric in its quality, stood in a

meadow, alone. Not even spring beauty was so aching

and so transient – like music fading away. Yet, under

everything, something abiding and eternal.

The closing paragraphs

(Ralph walks back to the station to catch his train)

His lips were curved in a musing smile. Tomorrow, this

little place would seem a million miles away – almost out

of existence. But he was aware that since he had

stepped off the train in the morning, the current of his

thoughts had been changed. He felt steadied, deeply

satisfied. He looked toward the dark pastures beyond the

row of dusky willow trees. They widened slowly into the

open country which lay silent, significant, motionless,

immense, under the stars, with its sense of something

abiding.

The closing paragraphs, cont.

The train came in – huge, noisy, threatening in the

silence. Ralph sprang expertly aboard. The familiar

sense of travel engulfed him immediately. He had found

his berth, arranged things swiftly, before the station of

Walnut was left behind. He was alert, modern, a traveler

again.

But all night long, as he lay half sleeping, swinging

lightly with the motion of the train, he was conscious of

that silent spreading country outside, over which

changes passed like the clouds above the pastures; and

it gave him a deep quietude.

Visit to a farm family in Iowa

Bee keeping

• Ruth learned about the bee keeping business in Colorado; later, she established a business in Earlville, Iowa, where her father served as pastor.

• She used the money to support herself in New York during the winters, where she worked on her writing.

Suckow's husband: Ferner Nuhn

• Literary critic and author

• He was younger than Ruth but they soon found they had a lot in common, and enjoyed spending time together.

• She wrote to a friend that Ferner likes cats too!

They met in Earlville

• Ruth learned about the apiary (beekeeping) business in Denver; she kept bees in Earlville for 6 years or more, spending her winters in New York city, writing.

• Ferner wrote to her and asked if he could meet her.

• After exchanging letters, he drove his Model T to Earlville to meet Ruth in 1926.

A Model T like Ferner’s car

Ferner and Ruth marry

• They married in 1929: he was in his mid 20s and she was in her mid 30s.

• They traveled extensively, going to a number of writers’ workshops and retreats, living out west in New Mexico and out East in New England.

Work in Washington, D. C.

• They lived in Washington for two years in the mid 1930s, while Ferner worked for the Dept. of Agriculture, under fellow Iowan Henry Wallace.

• He wrote and edited articles, brochures, and other material.

• He also helped Wallace write a book.

• Ruth served on the Farm Tenancy Commission for President Roosevelt.

World War II

• Ruth had not supported the first World War and it created tension between her and her father.

• She reached out to the conscientious objectors in 1943 and visited several work camps where they were gathered on the West Coast.

• http://www.powys-lannion.net/Powys/America/Suckow.htm

• A Brief description of their activities and friendships

Their life together

• When his father became ill, Ruth and Ferner returned to Cedar Falls, Iowa—his

hometown. • They made friends, got

involved in the community, and enjoyed their life together for almost a decade there.

Ferner's picture of Ruth

• This portrait shows Ruth holding a cat.

• It is part of a series of water colors done while at a retreat for writers and artists.

Ruth and Cats

• Barbara Lounsberry, noted Suckow scholar, writes:

• "Ruth Suckow loved cats. In fact, a cat graces the book plate she designed, with Ferner's help. Cats figure notably in numerous Suckow stories and novels—often symbolizing spirited independence."

Health Problems

• Ruth developed arthritis and Ferner had allergies, so in the late 1940s they moved west, hoping a milder climate would help both of them.

• They first settled in Arizona and later moved to California.

Ferner and Ruth in the later years

Moving West

• In the late 1940s Suckow and Nuhn left Cedar Falls for health reasons: she had arthritis and he had hay fever.

• First they moved to Arizona, where they lived in Tucson.

Retirement to California

• They ended up in Claremont, California.

• Ruth continued to write.

• Ferner taught at the local college.

• They both became active in the Friends (Quakers) and Ferner began writing pamphlets for the national organization

Her later writing

• She published her memoir & a collection of short stories in 1952, Some Others and Myself.

• In 1959 Viking Press brought out The John Wood Case, her last novel, which concerned an embezzlement case in a church. She died in 1960 at her home in Claremont.

Source: Wikipedia article on Ruth Suckow

Death

• Ruth died in 1960. She was at work on a new novel at the point of her death.

• She is buried in Greenwood Cemetery in Cedar Falls, Iowa.

• Ruth is buried next to her father, William Suckow.

Suckow graves in Greenwood Cemetery

Ferner remarried & worked to preserve Ruth’s legacy

• After Ruth's death in 1960, Ferner remarried a wonderful woman named Georgeanna, (or Georgia) who was also Ruth's cousin.

• Her husband had died a few years earlier.

Ruth’s papers

• They worked together to preserve Ruth's legacy, collecting and organizing her papers for the Special Collections at the University of Iowa library.

Special Collections, Iowa City

Tribute to Suckow—Iowa City

• Iowa City established a Literary Walk in 1999, honoring 49 writers with ties to Iowa.

• As the website explains, ”The "Author" section includes Literary Walk quotes as well as brief biographical information for each writer.

• http://www.icgov.org/?id=1585 – city website for the literary walk

• http://www.icgov.org/?id=1668 – Ruth Suckow’s entry

Other Memorials to Ruth Suckow

• Ferner and Georgie worked with the Ruth Suckow Memorial Association to establish several memorials to Ruth:

• The Park in Earlville, Iowa (on the grounds where Ruth’s cottage & apiary once stood)

• The Library in Earlville, Iowa

• The birthplace in Hawarden, Iowa

Georgia & Ferner die

• Georgia died in 1984; Ferner moved into a retirement home in Claremont. He died at age 85 in 1989.

• After a funeral in California, his body was returned to Iowa where he was buried beside his beloved Ruth in Greenwood cemetery in Cedar Falls.

• However, it wasn’t until 2009 that a headstone matching Ruth’s was put in place.

Suckow’s grave—between Ferner and her father

The Ruth Suckow Memorial Association

• Ferner and Georgie met with a group of people in Earlville in the 1960s: they discussed Suckow’s characters and stories and formed the Ruth Suckow Memorial Association (RSMA).

• The RSMA still gathers each June: members come from all over the midwest.

Hawarden: the Suckow birthplace

Earlville: the Ruth Suckow Park

Earlville: Ruth Suckow Memorial Library

Dedicating the Ruth Suckow Park

Ferner and Georgeanna were there for the dedication of the Suckow park in Earlville in 1982.

Here they are with Barbara, Ferner's niece.

Her place in American literature

• Suckow is often called a regional writer, but she did not like the label.

• She said that she wrote about "people, situations, and their meaning."

• Her stories take place in the small towns and farms of Iowa, but her characters and storylines make her work more universal.

Why read Ruth Suckow today?

• Today her writing has value for readers who enjoy good storytelling as well as for social historians looking for details about life in the early 20th century, particularly in the small towns and farms of Iowa.

• For those of us whose families have lived in Iowa for several generations, it is also a way to understand the daily lives of our great grandparents.

• Her descriptions of the people and the land still evoke a response from modern readers.

Poem by Suckow Board Member

• Marsha Lehs wrote a poem about Ruth Suckow that was accepted

for publication in Lyrical Iowa, 2008.

• Http://www.iowapoetry.com

With permission by the poet, here is her poem

• TO RUTH SUCKOW, IOWA AUTHOR

Your Iowa-based novels sounded dated

until I read them.

You planted images of early Iowa German families,

small town lives, strong quiet farm workers

children forced to grow up fast,

characters torn between right and wrong.

You described native flowers, seasons,

crops, rural landscapes,

period events and timeless issues.

•

Poem about Ruth Suckow, cont.

Though we were born fifty years apart

these are pages in my life, too

Your enduring images cycle

like a reseeding annual flower

from one native Iowan to another.

Thank you for sharing stories which forever

root me in this fertile Iowa loam.

Her books

Country People. New York: Knopf, 1924.

The Odyssey of a Nice Girl. New York: Knopf, 1925.

Iowa Interiors. New York: Knopf, 1926.

The Bonney Family. New York: Knopf, 1928.

Cora. New York: Knopf, 1929.

The Kramer Girls. New York: Knopf, 1930.

Children and Older People. New York: Knopf, 1931.

Her books, cont.

The Folks. New York: Farrar & Rinehart, 1934.

Carry-Over. New York: Farrar & Rinehart, 1936.

New Hope. New York: Farrar & Rinehart, 1936.

Some Others and Myself. New York: Rinehart, 1952. [short

stories and "A Memoir"]

The John Wood Case. New York: Viking, 1959.

Her Other Work

• She wrote 40 short stories and critical essays

• She also wrote Three novelettes

• She wrote numerous short articles for a variety of publications

Her themes

• Aging and the generation gap

• The health crises of aging—and emerging medical centers like Mayo clinic

• Older farmers moving to town and the oldest son taking over the family farm

• Daughters who sacrifice to take care of parents, and parents who sacrifice to take care of children

• Gender differences

Her themes, cont.

• Women’s roles in the world

• The contrasts of life on the farm and life in town

• The value of hard work

• The struggles of ordinary families during the depression

• Valuing family

• Taking care of those who have gone before (decorating, caring for family graves)

Themes

• Courtship, Marriage, and relationships

• Women entering the workplace

• The daily routines of people in the early decades of the 1900s: school, church, and life in small towns and on the farm.

• Travel and exploration (out west and out east alike)

• Cats appear frequently in her stories

The RSMA

• Ruth's husband, Ferner Nuhn, founded the Ruth Suckow Memorial Association in 1966.

• Its mission is to preserve the legacy of Ruth Suckow’s stories.

• As noted, they have worked to create several memorials to her, based on where she lived in Iowa.

Iowa Women's Hall of Fame

1978

• Day, Jacqueline Jacqueline Day

• Houghton, Dorothy Dorothy Houghton

• Pendray, Carolyn Carolyn Pendray

• Suckow, Ruth Ruth Suckow

She was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1978

• The Suckow Website, http://www.ruthsuckow.org

Sources

• “Chronology of Ruth Suckow’s Life,” RSMA website

• http://www.ruthsuckow.org/home/chronology-of-ruth-suckow-s-life

• Kissane, Leedice McAnelly, Ruth Suckow, 1969. Twayne’s United States Authors Series.

• Obituary of Ruth Suckow, The New York Times, January 24, 1960.

Sources, cont.

• “Ruth Suckow” (wikipedia entry, prepared by Michael Dargan, based on information gathered by Robert A. Mccown, University of Iowa Libraries and RSMA Board member)

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruth_Suckow

• Suckow, Ruth. “A Rural Community.” Archived on the Ruth Suckow website. Available for download.

• http://www.ruthsuckow.org/home/ruth-suckow-s-short-stories

For More information,

• See the Ruth Suckow Website

• http://www.ruthsuckow.org

• Ruth Suckow's papers are in the Special Collections, University of Iowa Libraries, Iowa City.

• http://www.lib.uiowa.edu/spec-coll/msc/tomsc750/msc706/suckowaugust2005.htm

Prepared by Cherie Dargan, webmaster, RSMA

cheriedargan@gmail.com