This Sunday and every Sunday at 5 PM, the Write Action Radio Hour, brings ;literature to the air waves. This Sunday, I will be reading Mary Wilkins Freeman’s crime story, “The Long Arm” My mission is to give it a reading worthy of the story, and worthy of radio. If you are interested in reading this story yourself, here is a link to it.
This story was printed in numerous publications, including Brattleboro’s newspaper, the Vermont Phoenix, in 1895.
Marry Wilkins Freeman lived in Brattleboro in the late 1800’s and attended highschool here She wrote an enormous number of stories during her life time. One of her most famous stories is perhaps, ” A New England Nun” She also wrote many supernaturally themed stories, as well as detctive and action stories. Here is an excellent informational page about her life and writings.
While both Kipling and Mary Wilkins Freeman moved away from Brattleboro, our town has better claim to Mary Wilkins Freeman as a resident than it does to Rudyard Kipling. I think it can be argued that she is under-celebrated as a resident of Brattleboro, as well as under-celebrated as a writer. Listen in Sunday for a chance to become better acquainted.
The Write Action Radio hour can be heard at 107.7 lpFM or streamed on line at www.wvew.org
Mary Wilkins and Brattleboro
Mary E. Wilkins (her maiden name; the “Freeman” was added years after she moved away from Brattleboro) in fact does have a truer connection to Brattleboro than Kipling, whose residence was actually in Dummerston, not Brattleboro, though of course he would have conducted business in Brattleboro, then as now the commercial center for the region.
Wilkins, on the other hand, did live in Brattleboro proper, on, I believe, Chase St. The settings for her stories were surely somewhat influenced by her observations of the people and society she observed while living in Vermont.
I found this link to Ladies Home Journal article 1892
“Miss Wilkins has known much of sorrow. The pathos which she infuses into her stories could not be so genuine unless she herself had suffered. One after another, during the first years of her writing, her father, mother and only sister died. She lived with them in the beautiful village of Brattleboro, Vermont, but she has resided since their death in Randolph, Massachusetts, with friends, whose love and devotion could scarcely be greater if they were connected with her by ties of blood.”
http://public.wsu.edu/~campbelld/amlit/freemanhome.htm
Someone told me her home in Brattleboro was on Chase Street. It would be great if it still existed, and if it was known which one was hers.
Mary Wilkins and Brattleboro
Yes, and in an unusual twist, at what would have been considered in those day an advanced age (I believe she was approaching 50) she married an affluent doctor and moved to his town of Metuchen, N.J., where she lived until her death. He was Dr. Freeman, and she happily took the surname.
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Re: Chase Street, yes, the house is known, and still there. I’m uncertain whether the current owners wish to be public about it (not that there’s not much chance of throngs of fans rushing there to pay homage, a la Graceland, though I agree with Rolf that this author is much under-appreciated, and a glad to see he’s reading the story on the radio.
I will be featuring her stories
I will be featuring her stories for awhile, on the third Sundays of each month.
This story is by no means her best, but I did want to cover it.