Masters-Davis collection

1928, 1930-1977, 1928-1955 [bulk 1936-1944]

The poet Edgar Lee Masters (1869-1950) is best known for his Spoon River Anthology. His other works include a biography of Abraham Lincoln entitled Lincoln, the Man, a book that created a storm of protest because of the unfavorable light that it cast upon Lincoln. During Masters' later years, he fell upon misfortune. In 1944, he was found starving and ill in the Hotel Chelsea in New York City. He was removed to a convalescent home in Melrose Park, Pennsylvania, and was placed under the care of his second wife Ellen Coyne from whom he was separated. Masters died at the age of 81 and was buried in Petersburg, Illinois. Alice Elizabeth Davis (Mrs. Charles Tibbetts) was Master's secretary and close companion for many years.

Edgar Lee Masters (1868-1950), poet and author, was born in Garnet, Kansas, on August 23, 1868, the son of Emma Dexter Masters and Hardin Wallace Masters. Masters grew up in Petersburg and Lewistown, Illinois. He initially chose the career of his father, Hardin, who was a lawyer. Edgar Lee Masters established himself successfully in association with his law partner Clarence Darrow. During this period, he divided time between his practice and writing poetry. The work that established Masters was Spoon River Anthology. This collection of related poems was inspired by a visit from his mother to Chicago. During a conversation with her, Masters asked where his childhood friends were. She purportedly told him that they were in their graves sleeping on the hill.

The poems which would later comprise Spoon River Anthology were first published under the pseudonym Webster Ford by William Marion Reedy, editor and publisher of Reedy Mirror, a literary magazine in St. Louis. Upon publication, the work drew the public's immediate interest. When the MacMillan Company published Spoon River Anthology in 1915, Masters went from obscurity to world wide-fame. A successful lawyer at the time of the anthology's publication, Masters gradually abandoned this profession and turned exclusively to writing by 1923. He left the Midwest, his wife and three children, moved to Europe and finally settled in New York City's Hotel Chelsea. Masters divorced his wife Helen Jenkins, and many years later married Ellen Coyne.

During his long literary career, Masters published numerous poems and books. His first novel was Mitch Miller, the story of a boy, published in 1920. Two years later, Masters published a historic novel about one of his heroes, Stephen A. Douglas, entitled Children of the Market Place. Other poetry and novels followed. In 1931, his biography of Abraham Lincoln, Lincoln, the Man, stirred controversy; his unvarnished and unsympathetic portrait of Lincoln drew widespread criticism. Despite his critics, Masters continued to receive public attention throughout his career. He did not live to see Spoon River Anthology turned into a successful Broadway play in 1963 starring Betty Garrett, Robert Elston and Joyce Van Patten. Masters may not have been pleased with the continued success of Spoon River Anthology because he did not consider it to be his best work. He counted Domesday Book (1920) as one of his favorite works. Masters' other poetical works include Songs and Satires, The New Spoon River, Invisible Landscapes, and The Tide of Times. His novels and biographical works include The Tales of Chicago, Vachel Lindsay, Whitman, Mark Twain, and The Sangamon.

Masters moved into the Hotel Chelsea in 1931. A landmark hotel known as a home for writers and artists, the Hotel Chelsea, located on West 23rd Street in New York City, became Masters' residence for the next thirteen years. There is little mention in the obituaries written after Masters' death, or in contemporary biographical sketches about his personal life there, especially regarding his relationship with Alice Davis (later Mrs. Charles Tibbetts). According to Davis' recollections (see: picture scrapbook) she met Masters during The Great Depression in the lobby of the Hotel Chelsea in 1936. She became his secretary, constant companion and confidante until the early 1940s. Although it is not clear what happened to Masters' fortune in the early 1940s, a friend found him malnourished and living in poverty at the Hotel Chelsea. Masters was first removed to Bellevue Hospital. Later, the Authors League financed his removal to another hospital, and finally to a convalescent home in Melrose Park, Pennsylvania. His second wife, from whom he had been long separated, cared for him until his death.

On his 80th birthday, Masters gave an interview to the New York Herald Tribune that was to appear in its August 24, 1949 issue. Masters stated that if he could live his life over again he would have started writing sooner and would not have been a lawyer. He practiced law as a young man because of his father's wishes, while he wrote poetry on the side. The success of Spoon River Anthology gave him the financial stability to write full time. Masters died a year after that interview, and was buried in Petersburg, Illinois.

Alice Elizabeth Davis (Mrs. Charles Tibbetts [c1899-1988]) was Masters' secretary and lover for many years. She was a major influence in his life. They shared the fact that both were from the Midwest, Masters was from Illinois and Davis from Kansas. As his secretary and companion, Davis provided friendship, inspiration and moral support. Despite their long romance, the couple did not marry. In a letter written to Masters' son Hardin dated August 1, 1971, Davis revealed her feelings about her relationship to Masters. She remarked that the ten years she spent with Masters were some of the most productive of his life, and she understands that it was Masters' wife's desire to obliterate this information from the record of his life. When Masters was hospitalized in the nursing home after having been found living in poverty, Davis visited him. On her last visit she was accompanied by H. L. Mencken. Recognizing the fact that she was unable to care for him financially or legally, she did not return. (This may have also been due to the fact that Masters' wife returned to care for him.) In despair, Davis married a merchant sailor who turned out to be an alcoholic. Her second marriage to Charles Tibbetts proved to be successful. Although Davis was out of Masters' life, she saved many of the letters that he sent to her and donated them to The New York Public Library. Mrs. Tibbetts died in New York City on September 29, 1988.