Reluctant Genius (62 page)

p. 100: Library of Congress USZ62 117584

p. 106: Library of Congress  USZ62 71316

p. 130: Library of Congress  USZ62 106472

p. 131: Library of Congress USZ62 57385

p. 133: Library of Congress USZ62 96109

p. 219: Library of Congress USZ62 134586

            All maps (pages 50, 116 and 316) are by Dawn Huck.

Acknowledgment

I
must begin my acknowledgments with heartfelt thanks to Dr. Mabel Grosvenor, the formidable 101-year-old former pediatrician who is the Bells’ last surviving grandchild. When I first visited “Dr. Mabel,” as she is always known, in Washington in 2003, she welcomed me and gave me the kind of information about her grandfather that only someone with personal memories would have. She told me, for example, that Alexander Graham Bell spoke English with a standard middle-class English accent, rather than a Scottish, Canadian, or American accent. She also talked to me about the crucial importance of her grandmother, Mabel Grosvenor Bell: without his wife, Dr. Mabel suggested, this brilliant man “would have been lost.” Dr. Mabel subsequently made arrangements for me to visit the Point, the Bells’ home near Baddeck, Nova Scotia, which is still in the family and has altered very little since Bell passed away there in August 1922. It was important to me to have the imprimatur of Dr. Mabel for my efforts, and I am grateful to her.

Similarly, other members of the Bell family, especially Grosvenor Blair, Joe Blair, Hugh and Jeanne Muller, and Elsie Myers Martin, were helpful and encouraging.

When I embarked on this book, I assumed that I would do most of my research at the Library of Congress in Washington. But I decided to start with a return visit to the Alexander Graham Bell National Historic Site (AGBNHS) in Baddeck, which I first saw in July 1997. It was a challenge to get there from my home in Ottawa. In December 2003, I flew to Halifax and then drove a rented car across mainland Nova Scotia to the Canso Causeway that has linked the mainland to Cape Breton Island since 1955. After a four-and-a-half-hour journey through blinding snow, I finally arrived. There I discovered that the Bell museum, as the site is colloquially known, had copies of most items that reside in the Bell archives in Washington. I realized I would be crazy to pursue my research anywhere other than Baddeck. I cannot thank enough the staff at the Alexander Graham Bell National Historic Site, including Joyce Hill, Jess Fraser, Sharon Morrow, Valerie Mason, and Rosalynd Ingraham, who welcomed me and allowed me to monopolize the photocopier. Most of all, I am deeply indebted to the manager of the AGBNHS, Aynsley MacFarlane, who made my six research trips feel more like vacations, introduced me to the magic of Cape Breton on our frequent drives together, and corrected many mistakes in my manuscript.

Many people helped with the research and writing of this book. Dr. Duncan McDowall of Carleton University suggested background reading for historical context. Dr. Christina Cameron, then director of National Historic Sites in the Department of Canadian Heritage, and Judith Tulloch in Halifax facilitated my research. John Wesley Chisholm, the Halifax filmmaker who made a superb documentary about the Bell hydrofoils, gave me useful advice. The staff at the Cambridge Historical Society and the Bostonian Society were resources on the Bells’ Boston years. Maureen Boyd shepherded me around Washington, helping me locate Bell homes and sources of information about the capital in the late nineteenth century. Ryan Shepard, collections librarian at the Kiplinger Library at the Historical Society of Washington, D.C., talked to me about the capital’s late-nineteenth-century architecture. Patricia Potts, in the United Kingdom, enlarged my understanding of the politics of deaf education. Brian Wood, curator of the Bell Homestead National Historic Site, supplied information on the Bells’ years in Brantford, Ontario, when they lived in the house now called Tutela Heights but known in their day as either Melville House or Tutelo Heights. Roddy McFall showed me copies of Bell patents in Library and Archives Canada. John Boileau generously checked my version of the development of Bell’s hydrofoils. Dr. Sandy Campbell, Sheila Williams, Ernest Hillen, and Marta Tomins read all or parts of the manuscript and gave helpful critiques. I owe Morgan Wesson a debt of gratitude for his help on picture research. Thanks to C. M. Townsend for information about the first phone call from Brantford to Paris.

I also owe thanks to Marie Wood, Alan Rayburn, Shona Cook, Mona and Leo Asaph, Monic Charlebois, and Mike Lavergne. I am very grateful to the posse of friends who have given me support, and asked the kind of questions that prompt new insights, during my journey with the Bells: Judith Moses, Maureen Boyd, Wendy Bryans, and Cathy Beehan. I owe my deepest gratitude to my husband, George Anderson, on whose sound judgment, balanced advice, and warm encouragement I depend, and to my sons, Alexander, Nicholas, and Oliver, who are smart, funny, and a reminder that there is life in the twenty-first century too.

It was a pleasure to be working again with Phyllis Bruce at HarperCollins Canada and the formidable team of professionals there, including managing editor Noelle Zitzer, copy editor and indexer Stephanie Fysh, type designer Sharon Kish, jacket designer Alan Jones, proofreader Curtis Fahey, science reader David Peebles, and publicists Lisa Zaritzky and Melanie Storoschuk. I have enjoyed working with Cal Barksdale at Arcade Publishing in New York. I would also like to thank my agents, Jackie Kaiser and John Pearce, at Westwood Creative Artists, for all their efforts on my behalf.

Finally, I am grateful to the Office of Cultural Affairs at the City of Ottawa, and to the Canada Council, for financial assistance and their continued support of Canadian writers.

Index

A

Aberdeen, Lady, 332-33

Aberdeen, Lord, 332-33

AEA Bulletin,
372

Aerial Experiment Association (AEA), 369,
371-73, 374-80, 391, 411, 430

“aerodromes,” 323, 325, 338, 339, 354, 365

aerodynamics, 322-23, 366

L’Aerophile,
366

ailerons, 373, 374, 379

airplanes

in Baddeck, 377-79

development, 323-28, 338, 339, 354

first flight, 364-66

gliders, 324, 326, 364, 371-73, 391-92

patents, 411, 434

toy, 323

albatrosses, 303

Alexander Graham Bell National Historic
Site, 431

alphabet glove, 46-47

American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 129

American Annals of the Deaf and Dumb,
36,
51

American Association for the Advancement of
Science, 258

American Association to Promote the Teaching
of Speech to the Deaf (AAPTSD), 285,
334, 394

American Bell Telephone Company, 203.
See
also
Bell Telephone Company

American Notes
(Dickens), 58, 267

American Speaking Telephone Company, 193

Amory, Harcourt, 89

Anagnos, Michael, 269, 272-73

Anchoria,
165-66

anemia, 418

Anthony, Susan B., 151-52

Arctic expedition, 209

art, 334, 350-51

Arthur, Chester A., 221

Arthur, Prince, Duke of Connaught, 181

assassination, 217-21

Associated Press, 424

Athenaeum,
158

AT&T, 399, 423

Australia, 392

automobiles, 310, 353

B

Backwoods of Canada, The
(Traill), 20, 22

Baddeck, and That Sort of Thing
(Warner),
235-36, 237, 238

Baddeck, NS, 235-36, 238-39, 294, 299-300,
308, 332-33, 377, 396, 411-12

Baddeck No.
1, 391

Baddeck No.
2, 391

Baldwin, Bobby, 423

Baldwin, Frederick (“Casey”), 361-62, 367,
372-73, 376, 380, 383, 391, 419

in AEA, 369, 379,411

hydrofoils, 392, 403-5, 406, 407, 408, 409,
 410, 418, 423, 431

world tour, 392-94

Baldwin, Kathleen, 383, 391, 403, 419

Baldwin, Neil, 256

Baldwin, Robert, 362

balloons, 311

Bartholdi, Frederic, 132

Batchelor, Charles, 256

battery, electric, 26, 122

Beatrice, Princess, 181

Beinn Bhreagh, 247, 293, 304, 314, 316-317,
406, 428

gravesite at, 421-23, 425

visitors to, 288-89, 295, 302-3, 315-18,
341-42, 378, 382-83

See also
Lodge, The; Red Head

Bell, Alexander Graham (Alec)

personal life (see below for
health; homes)

appearance and dress, 7, 20, 49, 83, 188-89,
293, 296-97, 305, 310, 320, 381, 402, 406

birth, 3, 5, 6

in Boston, 33-35, 42

in Caribbean, 418

character, 37, 85, 114, 134, 159, 212, 222,
253-54, 259, 309-10, 321-22, 347,
429-30, 431-32

and Charles Thompson, 250

childhood, 1-3, 5-6, 7-8, 10-13, 297

citizenship, 79, 227-28, 402

communication with Mabel, 128, 397-8, 402-3

correspondence, 309, 319

courtships and marriage, 17, 19, 88-90,
94-115, 118-20, 145-46, 152, 161-63

death, burial, and gravesite, 420-23, 425

and deaths of family, 18, 222-23, 224-25,
327

eating habits, 251, 414-15

education, 7, 10-11, 12-13, 15, 17

in England, 12, 15, 16, 172-73, 174-75,
186-87, 216-17

in Europe, 215-16, 223, 225-26, 320, 345,
348~50

as father, 173, 183, 184, 225, 226, 301, 302,
340-41, 351-52

finances, 155, 158, 175, 184, 190, 201-4,
258, 385, 419

gifts, 158, 162-63, 215, 279

as grandfather, 382-83, 385-86, 394, 395

handwriting, 250

headaches, strategic, 208

and Helen Keller, 266-67, 268, 269, 271-73,
274-75, 276, 277-78, 279, 288-90, 306,
355, 413-14

“Home Notes,” 389-90, 415

as host, 179

house fire, 249

at Hubbards’ 77-78, 80-81, 89, 98-99,
101-2, 105, 126

in Ireland, 184

in Japan, 335-36

as Mabels teacher, 67, 68, 69-70, 127

and Montessori education, 395-97

move to Canada, 19-23

name, 6, 159

in Newfoundland, 242-43

notebooks, 21

in Nova Scotia, 235-36, 237, 238-39, 244-47,
265, 293-99, 302-6, 307, 308, 314-15,
332-33, 387-30, 402-3, 407-8

pets, 226, 227, 245, 386

photographs and paintings of, 5-6, 12, 147, 431

as pianist, 3, 7, 12, 78, 80, 85, 89, 126,
164-65, 230, 263, 315, 383

political opinions, 151-52

in Quebec, 188-90

reading, 21, 29, 43, 85, 172, 203, 251, 309,
346, 390, 418

recitation, 126, 192

relationship with father, 8, 335, 356-57

relationship with Mabel, 114-16, 120, 151,
232, 260-65, 402-3, 431-32

religious beliefs, 98, 151

routine and rituals, 250-52, 388-91

in Scotland, 13, 167-72, 185-86, 416-17

sea travel, 165-66

sexuality, 264-65, 289

shipwreck, 240-41, 242-43

sleep habits, 43, 46, 114, 204-5, 249, 251,
259, 35o, 387, 414

smoking, 342, 389

as storyteller, 303

swimming, 296

as teacher, 13, 15
(see also under
Bell,
Alexander Graham, and the deaf)

at Tutelo Heights, 24-25, 30, 32-33, 36,
72-74, 145-50, 163-65

and Visible Speech, 13-14,31,35~37, 39, 40

war dance, 31, 36, 124, 153

in Washington, 257, 260, 331, 338, 390-91,
397

Wednesday-evening get-togethers, 258-60,
269, 277, 306, 323, 325-26, 331, 365, 395,
397, 407