Ruth Hale

Ruth Hale, around 1921

Ruth Hale (* 1887 in Rogersville , Tennessee ; † September 18, 1934 in Manhattan , New York ) was an American journalist and suffragette . Along with Ernest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald, she is one of the main representatives of American modernism and is counted as part of the Lost Generation .

Life

Ruth Hale came from a wealthy family. At the age of thirteen, she attended the Hollins Institute girls' college prep school in Roanoke , Virginia . Three years later, Hale studied painting and sculpture at the Drexel Academy of Fine Art in Philadelphia . It was during this time that she realized her talent and true calling for writing.

In 1905 Ruth Hale went to Washington, DC and found a job as a journalist with the Hearst Syndicate newspaper . She was a sought-after society reporter and attended frequently in White House events under President Woodrow Wilson . Hale worked for the Washington Post for a while before returning to Philadelphia to work as a theater critic for the Philadelphia Public Ledger . In 1915 she moved to New York City to work as a columnist for various magazines, including The New York Times , Vogue and Vanity Fair . During this time she met Heywood Broun (1888–1939), a popular columnist and sports journalist. They married on June 6, 1917. The mutual relationship resulted in a son, Heywood Jr. (* 1918). When the First World War broke out , her husband went to France as a war correspondent , and she wrote for the Paris edition of the Chicago Tribune .

Neysa McMein as the flag bearer on a parade of the Lucy Stone League in New York, around 1921

In early 1921, Ruth Hale applied to the State Department for a passport with her maiden name; This was denied to her because she was married, the name used in the passport must therefore be Mrs. Heywood Broun instead of Ruth Hale . She then canceled her trip to France. At the time, Hale was the only woman who bought and maintained an apartment on Manhattan's Upper West Side under her maiden name . In May 1921 Ruth Hale founded the women's rights organization Lucy Stone League , whose aim was, among other things, that women could keep their maiden name after marriage. Among the co-founders were Jane Grant , wife of Harold Ross and Beatrice Kaufman , wife of the playwright George Simon Kaufman . Other members were Neysa McMein , Janet Flanner , Franklin Pierce Adams , Solita Solano , Anita Loos , Fannie Hurst and Blanche Oelrichs . In August 1927, Ruth Hale played a leading role in the protests against the execution of the Italian anarchist émigrés Sacco and Vanzetti , charged with involvement in a double robbery. Together with Dorothy Parker and John Dos Passos , she traveled to Boston to demonstrate against the death penalty. They accused the US judiciary that it was a politically motivated judicial murder based on questionable evidence.

In the 1920s and 1930s, Ruth Hale worked as a columnist as well as a theater press agent and was a leading figure in the New York writing community. Together with her husband, she was a member of the literary circle at the Algonquin Hotel , called the Algonquin Round Table , a loose group of journalists, writers and actors. In November 1933, the Hale / Broun couple secretly divorced in Mexico ; however, they continued to live together in their homes in Stamford and New York.

Ten months later, Ruth Hale died at the age of 47 and was buried in Stamford Cemetery.

literature

• Dale Kramer: Heywood Broun, a Biographical Portrait. Current Books, New York 1949
• Heywood Hale Broun: Whose Little Boy Are You? St. Martin's Press, New York 1983