Wanda Gág, Part 1

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production
of iHeartRadio. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Holly
Frye and I'm Tracy V.

Speaker 2 (00:15):
Wilson. So artist Wanda Gog is another that has been
on my list for quite a while. If you look
at her art, it's pretty natural to want to know
who the person behind it is. Alice Gregory, writing for
The New Yorker in twenty fourteen, described Gog's work this way,
which I thought was quite beautiful quote fairy tale familiar,
but also strange and unforgettably specific. Gog's work is high contrast.

(00:40):
It's mostly black and white, and it runs the gamut
from illustrations for children's books, which she also wrote, to
intriguing still lifes that look anything but still. And her
personality in her life story is equally enthralling, from her
very unusual childhood to her quest for independence as an artist.

(01:00):
We also have the benefit with Gog of covering a
subject that was a prolific diarist, so we do know
a lot about her inner thoughts and the details of
her day to day life. And because of this wealth
of information, and because I just find her wildly intriguing.
She is a two parter, so today we're going to
talk about her early life up through art school and

(01:22):
her early professional career, and then on Wednesday's episode we
will talk about the fame and success that she had
starting in the late nineteen twenties. Wanda Hazel Gog was
born on March eleventh, eighteen ninety three. She was the
first child of Anton and Elizabeth Biebelgog. Elizabeth went by Lissi.

(01:42):
Anton had moved to the US in eighteen seventy two
from Bohemia, which at the time was part of Austria.
He was thirteen and had moved to the town of
New Ulm, Minnesota. Lissy, who was ten years younger than
he was, moved there just a year after he did
from her birthplace of Hairsburg, Pennsylvania. Her parents, like Anton's,

(02:03):
were from Bohemia.

Speaker 1 (02:05):
Anton stayed in Newulm, which had a large Austrian German population.
As an adult, he had always envisioned a life as
an artist for himself, but that wasn't an avenue that
was really going to offer him a dependable living in Newolm. Still,
he incorporated creativity into his work as best he could,
working as a photographer, a painter, and a decorator. One

(02:27):
of his most prominent works was a mural that he
painted on commission for the World's Fair the Yrwanda was
born that was showing the Dakota attacking New Elm in
eighteen sixty two. This was commissioned as the Sioux attacking
New Elm, just to point out how things have changed
and how they kind of made up their own versions
of what had happened. After that fair, the mural was
moved to the Minnesota state Capitol. Wanda later wrote of

(02:51):
this work, which was, of course somewhat controversial, quote, I
have often wondered with what mixed emotions Papa must have
made these picks. Naturally, he sympathized with the pioneers, who
threw no fault of their own, had been so brutally attacked,
and yet I know that he loved the Indians also
and felt they had been wronged. Still, it made money,

(03:13):
and Anton needed that money as he was starting a family.
Thanks to that income, he was able to build a
Queen Anne style house in New Olm at two twenty
six North Washington Street, but practicality never dampened his or
Lyssi's love of the arts, and they strongly encouraged their
children's creativity in every way. Anton and Lissie had six

(03:36):
more children after Wanda, Stella, Delhi, Howard, Asta, the Znelda
who went by Tussy and Flavia. The early years of
the Gog family sound quite beautiful and lively. Despite money
being tight, the kids always had art projects, both at
home and when visiting their nearby relatives. Apparently, when the

(03:56):
kids found out that not everyone drew as part of
their day to day life, they were taken aback and
really a little confused. Wanda mentioned in her diary how
odd it was that other families didn't think of quote,
drawing and painting as essential activities as eating and sleeping.
Wanda very clearly admired her father and deeply appreciated the

(04:19):
artistic encouragement that their household offered to everyone in the family.
She wrote, quote, in our home, artistic expression of all
kinds was taken for granted. Our father, Anton Gog, was
an artist, and in our mother's family, the creative urge
took the form of painting, modeling, and fine cabinet work.
We children, six girls and a boy, all drew, and

(04:41):
most of us wrote stories and poems. Anton Gog, though
always in delicate health, worked hard and kept his large
family in modest comfort. During the week, for his livelihood,
he decorated houses and churches, but on Sundays, for his
inner satisfaction, he painted pictures in his attic studio. We

(05:01):
children had learned early how to behave when someone was
making something, and were sometimes allowed in his studio while
he painted there. I liked this. There was a silent,
serious happiness in the air, which, although I had no
words for it, then I recognized as the ineffable joy
of creation. I had already experienced this exaltation myself at times,

(05:23):
so I knew that on Sundays my father was happy
in his soul. But unfortunately, that happy home, filled with
the joy of creativity, did not last forever. In May
nineteen oh eight, Anton died of tuberculosis, plunging the family
into a period of grief and financial uncertainty. Wanda's diaries

(05:44):
from her adolescence offer some insight into her drive to
make money and also her feelings about her own artistic integrity.
Her published diaries began on August twelfth, nineteen oh eight,
when she would have been fifteen so that was just
six months or so after her father's death. The first
entry makes her mindset pretty clear. Quote.

Speaker 2 (06:04):
I sent one of my pictures to the journal Junior
Toddy's hanged our dollies and forgot to put my address
on it, so I sent another envelope with my address
on it the same day. I send a story Lose Soap,
Bubble Party, and a picture to illustrate it to McCall's.
Some time ago, I sent these three articles to the
Youth Companion Story, Golden Brooch, picture, great Grandmother's Chest, poem,

(06:27):
great Grandmother's Chest. I wonder how the whole thing will
turn out. A few days ago, Margaret Kelly told me
that Martha Schmid didn't believe I drew freehand. She thinks
I trace trace, indeed, when I don't even care much
for copying.

Speaker 1 (06:44):
I love how indignant she is an me that she's
like how dare yes. On a more serious note, she
also notes very carefully in the early entries any money
that she makes from her writing, in any care prizes
she and her siblings win in competitions like at the

(07:04):
County Fair. She was very keenly aware of the loss
of her father as a breadwinner as well, of course,
as a beloved family member. She mentions at one point
that the money she has collected from various winnings will
pay for shoes because she has outgrown hers and she
cannot wear them any longer without pain. And this concern

(07:24):
over finances may be linked to something that she took
directly from her last moments with her father. His last
words were what Papa was unable to accomplish, Wanda will
have to finish. So whether he meant that in terms
of artistic expression or in taking care of the family
has been interpreted differently by different historians. But either way,

(07:47):
that's a lot to put on a fifteen year old shoulders.
And to make.

Speaker 2 (07:51):
Matters worse, her mother Lissy, was not in good health,
so Wanda truly emerged at that point as the family's
breadwinner when she was a high school age teenager. We'll
talk about Wanda's daily life and the struggles of the
Goog family after Anton's death, after we pause for a
sponsor break. When Wanda wasn't drawing or writing material that

(08:22):
she hoped to sell to bring money in, she was
taking care of her six siblings. In one diary entry,
she writes about a rumor that a classmate shared with her, quote,
fern Fisher was here yesterday and she said that somebody
told her that I don't do anything but read and draw.

Speaker 1 (08:38):
I guess so. I wonder if washing dishes, sweeping about
six times a day, picking up things the baby and
Howard throw around are reading and I've never heard of
taking care of babies, combing little sisters, cleaning bedrooms and
attics as being classed as drawing. I wonder what else
people will say about me.

Speaker 2 (08:56):
She also talks about making dinner when her mother, who
had recently given birth to the last child of the family,
needed to sleep. These entries about mealmaking are really saddening.
She describes not having much food to cook with and
having to figure out how to stretch what ingredients they
could afford, and how to divide the food among all

(09:16):
the kids so everyone got some. But there are also
delighted mentions of books she read, art her siblings, made
gifts from relatives, etc. But always always the careful accounting
of the money she makes through her magazine submissions and
odd jobs like making party place cards on commission, and

(09:38):
how much she is able to give her mother to
keep the family afloat. In nineteen oh nine, sixteen year
old Wanda had a professional break. The Minneapolis Journal published
a ten part series titled Robbie, Bobby and Mother Gooseland
and paid her fifty dollars for it. As Wanda neared
the end of high school and plotted a potential make

(10:00):
do job as a teacher, she also dreamed, as anyone would,
of a life where she might not have to take
such employment, noting in her diary quote, if I ever married,
next to marrying for love, I shall marry so that
I won't have to bother myself with financial matters, at
least I think so now. She did get a teaching
job in nineteen twelve after graduating from high school, but

(10:22):
her eye was still on an art career, and there
were some fortuitous events that made that dream possible. She
had never stopped entering her artwork in competitions, and she
won a fair number of them, enough to be mentioned
in the papers on several occasions, and those mentions got
in front of the right eyes. Tyler McWhorter, the head

(10:43):
of the Saint Paul's School of Art, had told Wanda
that she could attend on a scholarship and that she
only had to pay for living expenses, but that was
way out of the realm of possibility financially. As Wanda
put it, quote, which is certainly dandy, but the school
experiment goes first. So mister mcwarter, great deal of thanks

(11:04):
and a pile of regrets to you. But then in
nineteen thirteen, a businessman from Saint Paul named Charles Wesky
visited the family home. Wanda knew he was coming to
talk to her about art school and wrote in her
diary quote, the martyr like act for me to play
would be to teach school and deny myself everything until

(11:24):
I had the family properly settled. Then I could begin
my career in life, however small it might be. But oh,
I'm only human, and I do want to go to
the university or to art school. Weshkey, who knew mcwarter
and had been in touch with him about Wanda's situation,
told Wanda that he had been a fan of her

(11:45):
father Anton's work, and he had seen her art in
the paper and wanted to help her family. He pledged
his own financial support to cover her room and board
and whatever art supplies she needed. So she was off
to art school.

Speaker 1 (12:00):
Wanda's diary entry about this whole thing happening is very charming. Quote,
well it's over, mister Weshke's visit, I mean, and I'm
to go to art school and such charming arrangements. I
don't even have to work for my board. I shall
probably stay at the YWCA and be independent, have a
definite amount of money to put in the bank by

(12:21):
someone or a number of someone's, and not do anything
but do the things I was meant to do. As
he expresses it, he impressed it fully upon us that
his was no charity work, but that he was predestined,
so to speak, to do what he was doing. He
is doing it for art's sake and for humanity's sake,
he thinks, Oh, how can he that I will repay

(12:43):
humanity a thousandfold for what is being done for me.
He knows just how I feel about things, simply taking
words out of my mouth.

Speaker 2 (12:51):
We should mention, though, that while this was obviously a
piece of good fortune for Wanda, it meant that another
member of her family would have to take on the
burden of bringing in money for the family. That person
was her sister, Stella, who like Wanda, got a teaching
job after high school. While money was in short supply,

(13:11):
education was prioritized enough that none of the God children
left school to work before graduating, so it was good
timing that Stella was joining the workforce as this opportunity
came to Wanda. After a year at art school, Wanda
started working at a commercial art studio called BUCKB. Mears,
which was something that the school had arranged, like a

(13:32):
little internship. But it seems like there was a miscommunication
here because Wanda had not realized that this was an
unpaid internship. This wasn't really tenable, and she didn't tell
her family initially because she didn't want.

Speaker 1 (13:46):
To worry them. But then before long she was informed
that she would be collecting a salary, and she didn't
know it at the time, but her benefactor, Charles Weshkey,
had stepped in again. The firm was not paying her sealery.
He was because he believed the experience she was gaining
was valuable enough that she needed to stay. She didn't

(14:07):
find out about this arrangement until years later.

Speaker 2 (14:10):
God clearly grappled with what people expected of her, as
any young person in her position might she wrote in
the autumn that she was working in her internship. Quote,
they people have been in a most terrible suspense all
the time for fear that I wouldn't get to the
point where I would earn money. Paula reminded me of

(14:31):
the time she had told me to draw magazine covers
and said that was the result of hearing some remarks.
They expect me to make a great deal of money
and sort of along the side to become famous. And
when I want neither fame nor money, ding it, ding it,
ding it, I wish I had iron to bite, or

(14:51):
would to gnaw, or logs to chop. I know I
need the money, but I can't sit here serenely listening
while they lose the sight of the thing. I am
afraid I shall have to disappoint them. If I were
to become a popular magazine illustrator, they would undoubtedly say
Wanda has made good, Whereas if I turned my art
over to life and win no fame, they will say

(15:12):
she had talent, but she didn't use it in the
right way. I like that she envisions herself like a
perpetual starving artist. In a moment, we're going to talk
about another patron who saw Wanda Dog's potential and encouraged
her career. But first we will hear from the sponsors
who contribute to our careers by supporting the show. After

(15:42):
a few months of her internship, Wanda actually managed to
get another patron.

Speaker 1 (15:47):
That was Hershel V. Jones, who was the managing editor
at the Minneapolis Journal. Jones took Wanda under his wing
and he paid for her to enroll at the Minneapolis
School of Art. She commented on the main difference that
she noticed at the new school as compared to her
prior art school, and also manages to be very self
confident in doing so. Quote, in the Minneapolis School they

(16:10):
go at things more methodically than in Saint Paul. Especially
our teacher, mister Phoenix. I don't know but that he
is a trifle too methodical. However, I don't think I
am in danger. I believe too sincerely in what I
am fighting for, and I fight no less sincerely for
that which I believe to be drawn dangerously far from
the myself track. For half artists, his method may be good.

(16:34):
I mean for people who can never hope to go
beyond a certain limit in art, and people who have
not enough good, sound originality to lead them into the
right paths.

Speaker 2 (16:43):
During this time, she also ruminated on what it meant
to her to have ambition. In the winter of a
first year in Minneapolis, she wrote, quote, it's cowardly to
be overly modest. In fact, I think many artists are
modest for just that reason. For instance, a mine would
be afraid to say, if I want, I can make
people sit up and notice my work. He's afraid he

(17:05):
can't live up to it. He's afraid of facing ignominious defeat.
Ding What if you don't succeed, you at least don't
have to be ashamed of your aim. My aim is limitless.
That I will never reach it, I know, but I'm
going to get as near there as I can. That
will keep me running all the rest of my life,
believe me. Throughout all of these ups and downs, gog

(17:29):
had a close friend that she had met when he
was a medical student who visited her high school during
what was called University Week. So that was a week
that was sponsored by the University of Minnesota, and it
offered lectures for anyone to attend. And his name was
Edgar Herman. Though when her diary was published. Later in
her life, she changed his name to armand Mrod. She

(17:52):
always insisted that their relationship was entirely innocent and platonic,
but there are entries in her diary that suggest that
she initially had a crush on him and then eventually
developed more serious feelings. The two of them met when
Edgar saw her drawing during one of the university week
events and he managed to sit near her to watch

(18:13):
her work. Edgar opened Wanda's world up to a great
deal of culture that she had not had access to
in her life in New Ulm. He introduced her to
things like opera and to literature, and their relationship was
quite long, although it seemed as though they often were
in different places in terms of what each of them
wanted out of it. So she, like I said, obviously

(18:36):
at some points had feelings for him. But after one
of their early outings, which kind of seems like a
date but it was unclear, I think to both of them,
and Wanda recorded in her diary quote just before I
went into the door at the YW I warned him
not to get too romantic love.

Speaker 1 (18:53):
For some reason, still, Edgar became a cornerstone in her
life for a while, and when she left New Olm
for Sane Paul, and particularly after she went to Minneapolis
School of Art, where he was not at the school
but in the city. He introduced her also to his
circle of friends, and this kind of gave her a
whole new cosmopolitan life, and Wanda really did seem to

(19:16):
fall in love with Edgar, genuinely in love, but by
the time she realized it, he had come to see
her exclusively as a friend, and then by nineteen fifteen
they had largely stopped socializing. After her friendship with Edgar
had essentially ended, Wanda found a new, similarly intense friendship
in another art student, Adolf Den. Den also expanded her worldview,

(19:39):
but in a very different way from Edgar. The two
of them had met in a group called the John
Ruskin Society, which met for weekly salon style discussions where
group members hashed out a lot of social issues. Wanda
did not back down from arguments in the group, and
Adolf was a ready debate partner who would challenge her
and help her work through her own ideas. He was

(20:03):
also much more politically active and anti establishment than Wanda,
and over the course of their relationship, she became more
involved in that world, eventually embracing socialism and feminism. This
was harder than it may sound. We might think of
artists as inherently liberal, and Wanda had certainly grown up
in a home where artistic expression was valued. But it

(20:25):
was also a very small town, and Gog's positions on
various social issues were sometimes described as Victorian. She didn't
believe in sex before marriage, for example, although that would change,
and she was not interested in intoxicants. That's actually something
I want to talk about on Friday. But it was
really her thoughts on art and specifically artistic talent that

(20:48):
she and Adolf debated early on. Gog thought that talent
was something that you were simply born with and that
it would carry true artists through to recognition, regardless of
where they came from or what trends shifted the tastes
of the art world. She also thought that artists didn't
have a responsibility to anything or any one but their
gift in terms of how they used that natural skill.

(21:12):
There is also some conceit at play in her position.
She felt very clearly that she was better than other artists,
and she also thought people who were not artistically gifted
should just defer to people who were Adolf introduced the
argument that some people get better opportunities than others, and
some of that was due to social standing, and that

(21:33):
artists that did get a platform had a responsibility to
use it in ways that educated viewers and help them
understand new ideas. And these differences of opinion, which seemed
to be conversations and debates that went on for months
and years with the two of them, did not sour
Wandagog on Adolph Ben. Their ongoing debates really formed the

(21:53):
backbone of their relationship.

Speaker 2 (21:55):
During art school, Gog also managed to make money with
design Commision, and she sent money home to supplement Stella's
income and help the family. The third Gog daughter, Tussy,
had also graduated and took a teaching job to help
out as well. In nineteen seventeen, another huge blow came
to the Gog family, which is that Elizabeth died. This

(22:17):
is not entirely unexpected. During the Christmas of nineteen sixteen,
it was apparent to Wanda that Lissie was not well.
She returned to school in January, but almost immediately turned
around and went home again after receiving a message from
her sisters that Lissie was rapidly declining. While Wanda was
a young adult of twenty four at the time, a

(22:39):
lot of the kids were not. Flavia was only nine
years old. It fell to Wanda, and also to Stella
and Tussy to just figure out what the future would
be for the family. And while that was being figured out,
Wanda returned to art school so she could finish her
program in Minneapolis. Once school was finished, she her sister,

(23:00):
and her friend Adolph Den worked on the Gog House
in New Olm to get it ready for sale. Stella
and Tessie didn't want to stay. They wanted to move
to Minneapolis, and the younger four kids spent another autumn
and winter in Newolm because the house had not sold.
At that point, the oldest among those four was kind
of at an age where they could take care of

(23:21):
the other kids. And also, when you have grown up
in a house where a fifteen year old is the
head of the family financially, I think some of those
concepts of aging are a little skewed. But Tussy and
Stella did move to Minneapolis and they got jobs there
with Wanda's help. Wanda didn't stay in Minneapolis, though she
had been accepted into the Art Students League of New

(23:42):
York for the nineteen seventeen to nineteen eighteen school year,
as had Adolph, and she was able to go thanks
to the generosity of herschel v Jones and financially supporting her.
She really loved being in New York. She learned a
lot of new art techniques and enjoyed the city's many museums.
Back in New Olm were troubling for her. The four

(24:03):
younger Gogs were really struggling, so Wanda took side jobs
to get money to send to them for food and
clothes and heat. When her school year in New York ended,
she had her two oldest sisters worked out a plan.
The new almhouse finally sold, and all the god Kids
moved to Minneapolis. Wanda's scholarship at the Art Students League

(24:25):
was renewed for another year, and she was excited about
it and felt more at peace going into the second year,
knowing that her siblings were all together and that the
younger ones had the oldest ones there to look after them.
But New York wasn't as enjoyable as she had hoped
this time around. Money was tight and the need to
constantly grind to find commercial jobs dragging a big portfolio

(24:47):
around left her feeling, as she wrote in a journal quote,
there is not much time to appreciate what we came
to appreciate. She got a job lampshading, literally designing lampshades,
and she found that that job completely zapped her creative energy.
This second year in New York was also pivotal for
Wanda in terms of her relationship with Adolph Den. The

(25:12):
two of them had many times professed their love for
one another, but they also agreed that their art should
always come first. At twenty six, Wanda had never had
a sexual experience with anyone, and she made a decision
that she and Adolf should finally have sex.

Speaker 1 (25:28):
The two of.

Speaker 2 (25:28):
Them were really communicative and methodical about planning this step,
talking through what it would mean for their relationship. She
also went to a doctor for birth control, and then
they finally had sex, and after all of that planning
and thinking about it, Wanda found the whole experience ultimately
a letdown.

Speaker 1 (25:47):
In nineteen twenty one, Adolph went on a trip to Europe,
and during that time, Wanda started seeing his roommate Earl Humphries,
so initially it sounds like this was intended to be
a strictly friends with benefits situation while Adolf Dan was away,
but then he met someone else in Europe and he
ended up staying there for years. Wanda and Earle continued

(26:10):
to see one another, and she was adamant that a
regular sex life had become crucial for her art. Wanda
didn't really believe in monogamy, and though her relationship with
Earle did evolve into something more like a serious monogamous
relationship and she was committed to him, she sometimes wrote
in her journal about how she really always wished for

(26:32):
the thrill of a new relationship. In the early nineteen twenties,
Wanda had some of her illustrations published in art magazines
in the US and Europe. Much of Gog's work during
this time was in printmaking, and a lot of the
imagery feels quite lonely. It reveals in New York that
isn't necessarily the vibrant, bustling place many saw it to be,

(26:53):
but instead shows the quiet interiors of people's lives, often
depicting the life of a person who lives alone, such
as supper laid for one, which was printed in the
Marxist magazine New Masses in nineteen twenty six. This illustration
features a corner of a solo apartment. Despite the title,

(27:13):
it's not really focused on a table, although one is
partially in the scene on the right side of the frame.
It's a high contrast black and white image that conveys
a stark, simple abode. It does not feel in any
way joyous. It shows the strong influences of German Expressionism
and the work of Vincent Van go Go, combining with Gog's

(27:34):
own vision to create what would become her trademark style.
She was a huge Vincent vanng Go fam borderline fangirl.
Several years before that art supper Laid for One pub
was printed, Wanda had already shown a good deal of
disillusionment with New York and with the commercial art world

(27:57):
that she felt compelled to participate in to continue to
support the Gog family. She wrote in her journal quote,
I do not want to live in the restless, hectic, busy,
busy life for which Americans are noted. I want to
sort of ramble through life, not lazily, for I must
be active to be happy. I want to read and

(28:17):
study and work hard and live, but I do not
want to always feel myself rushing along in pursuit of money.

Speaker 2 (28:24):
In nineteen twenty three, Wanda had a solo show, her
first at the New York Public Libraries branch on ninety
sixth Street. It ran from February fifteenth to April first,
and featured a mix of drawings for adults and children,
totaling forty pieces. It got really positive attention. One of
the attendees was well known theatrical and industrial designer Norman Belgetti's,

(28:48):
who liked that Gog's work was original and not derivative.

Speaker 1 (28:53):
Yeah, he apparently gave her some words of encouragement at
the show. After the New York show, Wanda reassessed her situation.
She was worn out with living in New York and
she really wanted a solace. And fortunately she had kept
the family afloat long enough that her siblings had aged
up to the point where they could all work and
take care of themselves. So she took advantage of the

(29:15):
breathing room that shift afforded her, and she moved to
Connecticut for a reset, living out in the country for
almost a year, except for going back to New York
for the winter. Throughout her art career up to this point,
she had been frustrated any time she had to draw
what someone else directed, whether that was in school or
for her commercial work. And in Connecticut she drew and

(29:38):
painted for herself, producing a large volume of work in
a relatively short time. One of the innovative things she
tried during this time was drawing on sandpaper using a
lithographic crayon. The resulting drawing could be used to make prints,
sort of the way you'd make prints from a lithography stone.
She experimented with this technique throughout her career, after this,

(30:01):
moving on from the lithography crayon to a brush and ink,
noting that she had to be careful when using the
brush because quote, it is easy to get a mussy drawing.
She had a second show at the ninety six Street
New York Public Library branch in the spring of nineteen
twenty four, which showed work she had done with this technique.

(30:21):
Then she went back to the Connecticut countryside. The following year.
She had nineteen pieces selected to be shown at the
Way A Gallery. I'm not sure if that's how you
pronounce it. I can't seem to find a good pronunciation,
and it is a defunct gallery, so we'll never know
unless somebody in the audience knows and you can tell me,
but it'll be too late too for this show that

(30:43):
was curated by gallery director Carl Zigrosser. Ziggrosser was able
to very quickly sell several of the pieces, and Wanda,
elated to have sold art that she had created strictly
through her own inspiration, wrote of the sales quote, it
made me happy to think that I had been able
to get money for the things I really like to
do that doesn't happen often enough. In nineteen twenty six,

(31:06):
Zigrosser gave her a solo show at the gallery. The
reviews of that nineteen twenty six show were largely very positive,
with The New York Post calling it quote an alluring
exhibition that is hard to leave.

Speaker 2 (31:19):
In nineteen twenty seven, Wanda published an essay titled a
Hotbed of Feminists. Possibly because of that essay, Wanda had
put into motions something that would really shift her life
in a significant way. We will talk about that shift
in part two. In Listener Mail today, we have an
email about the box car Children. We have a few

(31:41):
I'm going to get through them.

Speaker 1 (31:41):
I swear. This is from our listener, an who writes
Dear Holly and Tracy. I just had to write in
about The box Car Children. I appreciated learning about the
author on the Friday Behind the Scenes episode. You were
wondering about whether they might not have been popular in
the South. I can confirm that in the mid eighties,
by elementary school in a metro Atlanta suburb had quite
a few of The Box Car Children books. My second

(32:04):
grade teacher read The box Car Children aloud to our class,
and I loved it. As a kid who always enjoyed
playing house, the idea of kids playing house in a
box car in the woods, but for real, with no
adults or anything, was captivating to me. I later checked
one or two of the other books out of the
school library, but since they didn't live on their own
in the box car anymore, it just wasn't the same,

(32:26):
so I didn't continue the series, despite the fact that
I loved mystery stories and it would have been around
the same time I was making my way through the
entire Nancy Drew series. Thanks as always for the excellent podcast,
and this reminded me to talk about two things. One
I didn't mention it's a spoiler if nobody's if somebody

(32:48):
hasn't read The box Car Children. But at the end
of the first book, so if you haven't read it,
you know, want to be spoiled, jump out. Now it's fine.
But at the end of the first book, they get
the box car back, like they get to keep it
in the backyard and use it as a playhouse, so
it stays part of their lives, but it's not where
they live anymore. The other thing that is funny is that,

(33:09):
like Anne, I feel like there's some magical window that
some people hit where you're simultaneously reading like The box
Car Children, Nancy Drew, The Hardy Boys, and Trixie Buildin
and I was blazing through all of those at the
same time.

Speaker 2 (33:23):
So when she mentioned she was also reading Nancy Drew,
it was a lovely memory of youth.

Speaker 1 (33:27):
So thank you, Anne. If you would like to write
to us, you can do so at History Podcast at
iHeartRadio dot com. You can also subscribe to the show
on the iHeartRadio app or anywhere you listen to your
favorite shows.

Speaker 2 (33:44):
Stuff You Missed in History Class is a production of
iHeartRadio for more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app,
Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.

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Holly Frey

Tracy Wilson

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Wanda Gág, Part 1