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A 1928 Visit to 114 East King Street Yet another account of Charles Demuth’s life in Lancaster has come to light, in a letter from Emily Clark Balch to writer Carl Van Vechten, dated 6 August 1928, following her visit with the artist here. In all likelihood, she met him through their mutual friend in Philadelphia, painter George Biddle. Demuth turned up on Mrs. Balch’s guest lists for dinner parties more than once. Emily Clark Balch herself is of considerable interest. Born and reared in Richmond, Virginia, she edited The Reviewer, a remarkable literary quarterly published during the early Twenties when she was only in her own early twenties. Another Richmond native – the improbably named Hunter Stagg – served as co-editor and chief reviewer of new books. Margaret Freeman, yet another Richmond resident, and one shortly to become the second wife of Richmond novelist James Branch Cabell, served as business manager. Emily Clark offered no payment whatever to her contributors, but with charm and tenacity — and, admittedly, a good deal of encouragement from Cabell — she managed to cajole a remarkable number of established authors to contribute their work without fee. During its four-year run, 1921-1924, The Reviewer included work by Hervey Allen, Edwin Björkman, Maxwell Bodenheim, Ernest Boyd, James Branch Cabell of course, Aleister Crowley, Babette Deutsch, Ronald Firbank, John Galsworthy, Ellen Glasgow, Paul Green, Joseph Hergesheimer, Robert Hillyer, Guy Holt, Mary Johnston, Marjorie Latimer, Amy Lowell, Arthur Machen, Henry Louis Mencken, Edwin Muir, Robert Nathan, Frances Newman, Julia Peterkin, Burton Rascoe, Ben Ray Redman, Agnes Repplier, Lynn Riggs, Amélie Rives, Vincent Starrett, Gertrude Stein, George Sterling, Louis Untermeyer, Carl Van Vechten, Henrie Waste, and Elinor Wylie—none of whom received any payment or royalty for their contributions. Many of these writers are now forgotten, but during the brief lifetime of The Reviewer, they constituted a formidable literary society. When eventually Emily Clark gave up editing the journal, she married wealthy, elderly Edwin Swift Balch of Philadelphia and became one of the city’s leading patrons of the arts, giving lavish parties and supporting young painters. A dinner party on 8 April 1928, for example, included several Philadelphia socialites, like Phoebe and Hamilton Gilkyson, Sunday painter Adolph Borie and his wife, Frances Taylor, Christine Charles, and others. Also present as weekend house guests from New York were Carl Van Vechten and his wife, the Russian actress Fania Marinoff. Charles Demuth completed the guest list. In his diary entry for that day, Van Vechten noted: “We all get very drunk. Go to bed about 2.30. Emily carries an open bottle of aromatic spirits of ammonia in her pocket, ruins Marinoff’s dress, hat, and underwear. Four months later, Emily Clark Balch drove out to Lancaster to visit Charles Demuth at home and, afterward, reported to Van Vechten, on 6 August 1928: “I used to be sorry for him because his health requires him to remain in Lancaster, but I’m not anymore. His house, his garden, and his mother are divine, completely perfect. The garden is a story book place, full of all the flowers he loves to paint, and the steeple of the Moravian [sic] church, with statues of four apostles, towers over it. It is like something out of Holland or certain parts of Germany. The Charles Demuth cigar store, in the family since 1740 [sic], is next door. It caused a great row when he refused to go into it. His mother is an adorable old lady, tall, dignified, and impressive beyond words. She is quite regally gracious and refers to Charlie always as “the boy.” These two are the only family. The house is enchantingly Victorian – Demuth has developed that very cleverly, but we had mint juleps in the garden, instead of coffee, and caraway seed cakes.” (cont)
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