Mary Hallock Foote was an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 author and illustrator. She is best known for her illustrated short stories and novels portraying life in the mining communities of the turn-of-the-century American West

American Old West

The American Old West, or the Wild West, comprises the history, geography, people, lore, and cultural expression of life in the Western United States, most often referring to the latter half of the 19th century, between the American Civil War and the end of the century...

.

Overview

Mary Hallock was born November 9, 1847, in Milton, New York

Milton, Ulster County, New York

Milton is a hamlet in Ulster County, New York, United States. The population was 1,251 at the 2000 census.The community of Milton is located in the northeast part of the Town of Marlborough.- Geography :...

, of English

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 Quaker ancestry. A singular girl and youth, she attended the Female Collegiate Seminary in Poughkeepsie, New York, then studied art in New York City at the new Cooper Institute School of Design for Women

Cooper Union

The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, commonly referred to simply as Cooper Union, is a privately funded college in the East Village neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City, United States, located at Cooper Square and Astor Place...

. By her early twenties she had become established in New York City as an accomplished artist-illustrator for notable publishers there.

In 1876 Hallock married a young mining engineer, Arthur De Wint Foote

Arthur De Wint Foote

Arthur De Wint Foote was a mining and civil engineer who built Foote's Crossing across the Middle Yuba River and Foote's Crossing Road , and designed the hydraulic wheel for the North Star Mine Powerhouse, now a California Historical Landmark.-Early years:Foote was born...

, then moved cross-continent to live with him at the New Almaden

New Almaden

The New Almaden quicksilver mine in the Santa Teresa Hills in Santa Clara County, California, United States, is the oldest and most productive quicksilver mine in the U.S. The site was known to the Ohlone Indians for its cinnabar long before a Mexican settler discovered the ores in 1820...

 mine near San Jose, California. Subsequently, as Arthur pursued his engineering career, she followed him throughout the West; to Leadville, Colorado

Leadville, Colorado

Leadville is a Statutory City that is the county seat of, and the only municipality in, Lake County, Colorado, United States. Situated at an elevation of , Leadville is the highest incorporated city and the second highest incorporated municipality in the United States...

, to Deadwood, South Dakota

Deadwood, South Dakota

Deadwood is a city in South Dakota, United States, and the county seat of Lawrence County. It is named for the dead trees found in its gulch. The population was 1,270 according to a 2010 census...

, then to Boise, Idaho

Boise, Idaho

Boise is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Idaho, as well as the county seat of Ada County. Located on the Boise River, it anchors the Boise City-Nampa metropolitan area and is the largest city between Salt Lake City, Utah and Portland, Oregon.As of the 2010 Census Bureau,...

, where Arthur originated a major irrigation project on the Boise River; then to Morelia

Morelia

Morelia is a city and municipality in the north central part of the state of Michoacán in central Mexico. The city is in the Guayangareo Valley and is the capital of the state. The main pre-Hispanic cultures here were the P'urhépecha and the Matlatzinca, but no major cities were founded in the...

, Michoacán

Michoacán

Michoacán officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Michoacán de Ocampo is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided in 113 municipalities and its capital city is Morelia...

, Mexico, and finally to Grass Valley, California

Grass Valley, California

-2010:The 2010 United States Census reported that Grass Valley had a population of 12,860. The population density was 2,711.3 people per square mile . The racial makeup of Grass Valley was 11,493 White, 46 African American, 208 Native American, 188 Asian, 9 Pacific Islander, 419 from other...

, where Arthur advanced to managing the North Star mine, and retired there.

Arthur and Mary Foote were married nearly sixty years. In the early years of their marriage she gave birth to three children; a son, Arthur Burling Foote, and two daughters, Betty and Agnes.

Career

After departing her beloved East with great reluctance, Mary Hallock Foote found herself inspired by the "real West" country

American Old West

The American Old West, or the Wild West, comprises the history, geography, people, lore, and cultural expression of life in the Western United States, most often referring to the latter half of the 19th century, between the American Civil War and the end of the century...

 and the varying peoples she encountered there. She soon was drawing it, and writing and telling about it. Recording her travels, Foote wrote stories for 'back-East' readers as a correspondent to The Century Magazine

The Century Magazine

The Century Magazine was first published in the United States in 1881 by The Century Company of New York City as a successor to Scribner's Monthly Magazine...

and other periodicals, illustrating them with woodcut

Woodcut

Woodcut—occasionally known as xylography—is a relief printing artistic technique in printmaking in which an image is carved into the surface of a block of wood, with the printing parts remaining level with the surface while the non-printing parts are removed, typically with gouges...

s and drawings. She is best known for her stories of place, in which she portrayed the rough, picturesque life she experienced and observed in the old West

American Old West

The American Old West, or the Wild West, comprises the history, geography, people, lore, and cultural expression of life in the Western United States, most often referring to the latter half of the 19th century, between the American Civil War and the end of the century...

, especially that in the early mining towns. She wrote several novels, and illustrated stories and novels by other authors for various publishers. Her letters provide a biography of her husband as well as her autobiography; they were collected by Rodman Paul, who published them in 1972 as the memoir A Victorian Gentlewoman in the Far West.

Death and legacy

Mary Hallock Foote died June 25, 1938, at age 90. Her legacy in American history is as a stalwart of the American Old West and a teller of its stories. Her work—the numerous stories for books and periodicals, with her drawings and woodcut illustrations; the correspondence from western outposts; her novels and nonfiction—gained her notice as a skilled observer of the frontier and an accomplished writer. Her life expressed the civilizing influence of the educated eastern gentlewoman on life in the chaotic mining and 'ditch' camps of the early American West and, conversely, the stimulating effect of those (old West) environs on the prepared mind, i.e., one educated for illustrating and telling the story. (NB: 'ditch' camps are irrigation-project construction camps.)

Controversy

Wallace Stegner's

Wallace Stegner

Wallace Earle Stegner was an American historian, novelist, short story writer, and environmentalist, often called "The Dean of Western Writers"...

 novel Angle of Repose

Angle of repose

The angle of repose or, more precisely, the critical angle of repose, of a granular material is the steepest angle of descent or dip of the slope relative to the horizontal plane when material on the slope face is on the verge of sliding. This angle is in the range 0°–90°.When bulk granular...

(Pulitzer Prize

Pulitzer Prize

The Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City...

, 1971) is based directly upon Mary Hallock Foote's extensive personal correspondence. Stegner used the outline of her life with permission from members of Foote's family—on proviso that he disguise the source, which, in his judgement, he did. After publication, however, some descendants objected to "the great liberties" taken by Stegner in using Foote's story. On the opposite hand—in disguising his source—Stegner used passages taken directly from Foote's letters without providing specific credit; this resulted in controversy that still today haunts his reputation within the literary community.

Andrew Imbrie

Andrew Imbrie

Andrew Welsh Imbrie was an American composer of contemporary classical music.-Career:Imbrie was born in New York on April 6, 1921, and began his musical training as a pianist when he was 4. In 1937, he went to Paris to study briefly with Nadia Boulanger...

 wrote an opera based upon Stegner's novel, which was performed in San Francisco in 1976. A collection of prints by Foote is on permanent exhibit at the Boise Public Library.

Selected works

• Led-Horse Claim : A Romance of a Mining Camp (1883)
• In Exile and Other Stories (1894)
• Coeur d'Alene (1894)
• The Prodigal (1900)
• The Desert and the Sown (1902)
• A Touch of Sun and Other Stories (1903)
• Royal Americans (1910)
• The Valley Road (1915)
• A Victorian Gentlewoman in the Far West: The Reminiscences of Mary Hallock Foote, edited by Rodman W. Paul, ISBN 0-87328-057-1 (1972)
• The Idaho Stories and Far-West Illustrations of Mary Hallock Foote, edited by Barbara Cragg, Dennis M. Walsh, and Mary Ellen Walsh. (1988)

Footnotes

• Mary Hallock Foote, James Maguire, Boise State College Western Writers Series Number 2, 1972
• Mary Hallock Foote, Lee Ann Johnson, Twain Publishers, Boston, 1980
• "Angle of Repose and the Writings of Mary Hallock Foote: A Source Study," Mary Ellen Walsh, in Critical Essays on Wallace Stegner, edited by Anthony Arthur, G. K. Hall & Co., pp. 184–209, 1982
• Conversations with Wallace Stegner on Western History and Literature, Wallace Stegner
  Wallace Stegner
  Wallace Earle Stegner was an American historian, novelist, short story writer, and environmentalist, often called "The Dean of Western Writers"...
  
   and Richard Etulain, University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City, 1983
• Mary Hallock Foote Author-Illustrator of the American West, Darlis Miller, University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, 2002
• Cultural Clearcut: The Lost Novels of Mary Hallock Foote, Casey Bush, The Bear Deluxe
  The Bear Deluxe
  The Bear Deluxe is a Portland, Oregon-based magazine dedicated to environmental writing, literature, and visual art. It is released by Orlo, a non-profit. It has received grants from the Oregon Arts Commission, the Regional Arts & Culture Council, and the Oregon Cultural Trust.The magazine sponsors...
  
   2003

External links

• Sands Hall "A Brief Look at the Literary Life of Mary Hallock Foote", in Bulletin of the California State Library Foundation, no. 83, pp. 2–8, 2006
• "Artist-Author Mary Hallock Foote and her Angle of Repose," Casey Bush
• Mary Hallock Foote: links to works online (including illustrated stories) and secondary bibliography
• "Mary Hallock Foote" by James Maguire found in the Western Writers Series Digital Editions
• North Star Historic Conservancy The North Star House, the Julia Morgan-designed home of Mary Hallock and Arthur DeWint Foote