Rose, Heloise Durant (1873-1945)

Title

Rose, Heloise Durant

Author

Rose, Heloise Durant (1873-1945)

Date

1873-1945

Place of origin

New York

St. Petersburg, Florida, U.S.

Language

English

Profession

Playwright

Periodical contributor

The New York Times

Member of learned society

Dante League of America

Founder

Member of the Dante Society of America

Poet

Biographical details

Early Life
Héloïse Hannah ""Ella"" Durant was born in New York City, the daughter of Thomas C. Durant and Héloïse Hannah Timbrell Durant. Her father was a Union Pacific Railroad executive. Her mother was born in England and immigrated to the United States as a child.

Information about Ella’s early life is sparse. She was schooled in private institutions in the U.S. and Europe and was considered a bright student. She was fluent in French, German, Italian, and Arabic. At age 20 she was living the lavish life of an American heiress in London, attending parties and cultivating friendships with some of the greatest literary minds of the era. Letters indicate that Ella’s mind was recognized as readily as her beauty; however, her aspirations were interrupted in 1875 by her father’s newest financial trouble.

National womens historical society

Life in London and New York
She trained as a nurse while she was living in London, and worked caring for poor patients in the city. In 1898 she headed a theatrical fundraiser for the First New York Ambulance Red Cross Equipment Society, which included her own play 'By the King's Command' along with other tableaux and performances.

Around this time she also began to, once again, pursue her literary endeavors. Her first published work in 1884 was a collection of poems titled “Pine Needles, or Sonnets and Songs.”

Ella’s catalogue of personal acquaintances also flourished during this time in New York and London. Her circle of friends included Henry James, Oscar Wilde, Bram Stoker, and Anne Ritchie Thackeray.

She married twice. Her first husband was Arthur Frethey who was a medical student when they met in London. They were married in 1891. He died only six months later, leaving Ella with his medical bills. In 1895, she married again, this time to a Danish man named Charles Heinrich Marcus Rose. The couple had one son, Timbrell Durant Rose, and the couple remained together until Charles’s death in 1937.

Activism
Durant was involved in work to give women students more access to classes and examinations at Columbia University in the 1880s. In 1883, Ella added her name to the “Memorial to the Columbia College Board of Trustees,” a petition to allow female students to attend lectures and take exams at Columbia College. Her signature was accompanied by the likes of Susan B. Anthony, Chauncey Depew, and Theodore Roosevelt.
She was founder and chair of the International Association for Housing Students and Travelers from 1912 to 1914.

Literary work
She wrote short stories for newspapers including the New York Times, and more than a dozen plays, among them a ""comedietta"" called Our Family Motto, or Noblesse Oblige that was produced in London in 1889 at a hospital fundraiser.
She acted in French in her own play, Un Héros de la Vendée, in London in 1889.

Dante: a dramatic poem
In 1908, Durant Rose published her "Dante: a dramatic poem" dedicating it to Henry W. Longfellow.
Her play about the life of Dante was translated into Italian by Alfonso Costa and produced in Verona in 1908. The main protagonist was interpreted by Ermete Novelli.

The Rassegna Contemporanea wrote 'si tratta di uno dei soliti polpettoni irriverenti. Ermete Novelli vi ebbe un trionfo personale. Si diche che il dramma sia di un italiano che si nasconde sotto lo pseudonimo femminile. Tanto peggio".

'DANTE' PLAY WELL RECEIVED.: Work of an American, Mrs. Durant Rose, Produced in Verona by Novelli. New York Times. 22 Nov. 1908. p. 7

The Dante League of America
Rose founded the Dante League in 1917 "for popular propaganda for the study of Dante", which was based at National Arts Club.

The society organised cycles of lectures
In 1924, Benito Mussolini wrote a letter to Rose to thank her 'for the effective work he feels is being done by Heloise Durant Rose, founder of the Dante League of America, in creating better cordiality between Italy and the United States' (New York Times, 24 Nov. 1924, 19)

POET DANTE TOPIC OF ARTS CLUB TALK: Mrs. Heloise Durant Rose Recites Dramatic Poem. Drive for Members, The Washington Post, 09 Sept. 1921, p. 3

Dante League of America

According to John H. Mariano, 'it includes in its membership perhaps more American than Italians. It is an instance of almost purely Anglo-Saxon effort to effect a wider appreciation of Italian art and culture, and in this it centres its attention for the most part upon the work and literature of Dante. The purpose of the league is to promote the knowledge and the study of Dante, his works, language, literature and country, by popular lectrures, and to prepare for a celebration in 1921 of the sixth hundreth aniversary of his death. The league has alreadty established at Buffalo.

Annual dues
Regular members .... $ 2.00
College and University students.... $ 1.00
Patrons....$ 50.00
Sustaining members ....$ 10.00
Benefactors.... $ 25.00
Life Members... $ 100.00

Plans have already begun for the Dantian celebration to be held in 1921 which will be an event of national importance and will enlist the talent and interest of many individuals and organisations interested in Italy

RELATION AN EFFECT OF DANTE LEAGUE TO ITALIAN-SPEAKING COMMUNITIES - It is a question whether this essentially literary effort will reach down far enough to waken any deep and sustained interest on the part of the more numerous classes of Americans of Italian extraction in the literature and philosophy of Dante. As a matter of fact, such is not the intention of the league. Their aim is first of all to disseminate among all a wider and deeper appreciation fo Dante, his works and language. This organisation has a sociological value and so is listed here [...] the unfortunate thing tho, is that a more extended support to the Dante League of America does not come from Italians themselves.

The Italian contribution to American democracy, by John Horace Mariano (1921, 190-1)

Much of the correspondence relating to the Dante League is held at Syracuse University. Correspondents include authors (Poultney Bigelow, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Joyce Kilmer, Edwin Markham, James Whitcomb Riley, Corinne Roosevelt Robinson, William Roscoe Thayer, Post Wheeler); publishers (Arthur Brisbane, G. H. Putnam); diplomats (Paul Claudel, Whitelaw Reid); and educators (Virginia Gildersleeve, Andrew D. White).

Regarding the production of her dramatic poem, Dante, Mrs. Rose received correspondence from several theatrical people including Maude Adams, Normal Bel Geddes, Adeline Genee, F. F. McKay, Otis Skinner, and Helen Westley. The play was said to be the first American drama produced for the Italian stage.

In the promotion of the arts and an appreciation of Dante in the United States, Rose cultivated the support of political figures (Chauncey M. Depew, John A. Dix, Abram S. Hewitt, Charles Evans Hughes, Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson) and philanthropists (Andrew Carnegie, George Foster Peabody, Spencer Trask).

Heloise Durant Rose Letters - Syracuse University

She was one of the five female members of the Dante Society of America

Dante Society of America correspondence and records, 1883-1904

Correspondence with Charles Eliot Norton

Dante Society of America

The District of Columbia League of American Penwomen honored Durant Rose in 1921 for her work promoting Dante

Clipping from Evening Star, Washington, District of Columbia 04 Sep 1921, 1925.

Selected publications

(1884) Pine Needles, or Sonnets and Songs. G. P. Putnam's sons. New York

Relation

Anglophone women writers