Shelby Ohio Authors

DAWN POWELL

Background composed of covers of Powell's early novels and plays.

 

 

 

Daily Globe - October 5, 1918:

MISS DAWN POWELL

"Now Assistant Manager of the Efficiency Department of the Butterick Publishing Company

"If there ever was a Shelby girl entitled to credit for the progress she has made, that girl is Miss Dawn Powell. Its (sic) a long, long way from Shelby, to assistant manager of the efficiency department of the Butterick Co., at New York. Miss Powell has traveled that distance after graduating from the Shelby public schools, she was educated at Lake Erie College. After leaving the Shelby public schools Dawn hardly knew which way to turn, but, upon the advice of friends, decided to enter Lake Erie College, where she remained until graduated. She had hardly finished her college course when a position was secured through the Intercollegiate Bureau. At present she is training in the work as manager of the efficiency department so that as soon as the manager is drafted she will be schooled to handle his work. The manager is 30, no dependents, in fine health and is sure to go if his number is called. If the manager is not Dawn has been promised plenty of opportunities with this publishing, which owns the Delineator, Woman's and Designer, Everybody's and Adventure.

 

Mrs. A. M. Steinbrueck, aunt of Miss Powell, is in receipt of a very interesting letter from Dawn and the following corncening (sic) her work is clipped from her letter:

"353 West 85th St., N. Y. Sunday evening Dear Aunt May:

"There is so much to tell you about that I don't know quite where to begin. Of course I might begin at the beginning and tell you about all the interesting friends I have made through the magic letters of introduction from Tudor Jenks - former editor of St. Nicholas, how mention of his name alone gave me entree into the private offices of the great ones, how I joked merrily with Hamilton Holt, editor of the Independent, how I talked to Claire Flynn, now editor of the McClures, while the regular editor is in Europe, with the associate editor of the Woman's Home Companion, and discovered then and there that the editorial writers on the best magazines must start in at $12 per week. And last but not least how I had a heart to heart talk, swapping life stories with the greatest man in the world - - Don Parker, a red haired man of about forty, secretary, advertising director and circulation manager of the Century, the second largest publishing house in the world. He came from a farm in Indiana and advised me to get the literary idea out of my head, which I did.

 

Magazines - 1919

 

"But the important fact is that on the Monday after arriving here I secured a position through the Inter-collegiate bureau. As I told you I know the manager and she promised once to get me something good. She has made good that promise. I am the assistant manager of the efficiency department of the Butterick Publishing Co., I work from 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. like mad and have Saturdays off. The work is very hard, seeing that every department - engraving, composing, art and editorial put out a certain amount of work every day. We make out schedules for them, so many cuts by such a date. If we don't get a ticket saying that these certain cuts have gone to the engraving department, we find out why and send in daily reports to the president of the company.

 

Butterick pattern of the period

 

"Our art department is interesting, seeing the designers making the drawings, then cutting the cloth on the models, then the pattern being made. Besides keeping all people up to their work by making reports ... we check up the percentage of advertising in all our journals for the post offices, help plan the specing (sic) of articles or make the layout for the maps. The firm knows I am anxious to get into the advertising and when there is an opening I will have an opportunity. Where I am now is an excellent way of learning how a magazine is made.

 

"Kathryn is my roommate. She is in the advertising department. Her father is dean of the engineering department at Michigan agricultural college. We went to see Head Over Heels, a musical comedy. They started raising money for the liberty loan. In ten minutes they raised $18,000. Henry Savage, the producer, sat right next to us and signed for $4,000 easy as pie. Then the chorus came down through the audience to sell bonds and it was discovered that Eliot, composer, who wrote There's A Long, Long Trail, was in the house and he got in uniform and sang it for $5,000. That is a man promised to subscribe for $5,000 if he would sing.

 

"I work in the heart of the downtown district, not far from Wall street. I leave here every morning at 8, take the subway and get there at 8:30. I work awfully hard, sometimes taking only 15 minutes for lunch. We are working on the January magazines now. I have advanse (sic) copies of all the five magazines for November and have had them for three weeks. Each magazine has of course, its own editorial offices and force. ... Some Lake Erie girls are here, friends of mine, one down in Greenwich village and two at Bellville hospital training. Three fourths of the men on the street are in uniform and all along the street you see movie actors giving liberty bond speeches. It's thrilling. I have a wonderful boarding house. It's right by the river - next to Riverside Drive and is one of the finest residence districts in town. There are thirty girls here - artists, business girls and writers. One girl left for France yesterday and Kathryn and I have a beautiful big room. Regards to everybody. DAWN"

 

In October 1918, Dawn sounds jubilant when writing to her Auntie May concerning her new position with the Butterick Publishing Company. However, "After only five weeks, Powell abruptly quit Butterick and joined the U.S. Navy, enlisting for four years. World War I had not yet ended; though women would not be permitted on active duty until 1942, the administrative post of 'yeoman female' had been open since 1916, and by the conclusion of the war, 11,275 so-called Yeomanettes would be on the government payroll. Powell was put to work as a typist at the New York Naval Headquarters, downtown at 44 Whitehall Street, where she received a substantial raise: she now made thirty-five dollars a week."1 (Her salary at Butterick had been twenty dollars a week.)

 

"This new career (Navy) was soon interrupted immediately after Powell's acceptance into the navy, a routine medical examination revealed that she was suffering from Spanish influenza, a virus that would kill some twenty million people worldwide that year, with half a million deaths in the United States alone. Powell was admitted to the hospital, where she enjoyed the servile attentions of the staff, developed crushes on the young doctors, and wrote what she termed 'sad, beautiful poetry.' In an odd twist of fate, she was released on Armistice Day - November 11, 1918. 1

 

 

1919

 

 

Daily Globe - April 16, 1919:

"MISS DAWN POWELL

"Now a Second Class Yoemanet in the United States Navy

The Cleveland Plain Dealer this morning printed a half tone of Miss Dawn Powell and the following article:

 

'Being a second class yeomanet is the most exciting war occupation a patriotic young woman could pick out,' according to Miss Dawn Powell, second class yeoman, on leave, in Cleveland yesterday.

 

"The diminutive member of the United States navy is stationed in New York in the communication service. She was graduated from Lake Erie college, Painesville, last June.

 

" 'They won't send me to sea,' she said, 'but I have plenty thrills because I handle confidential matter and I know what troops are to arrive on every ship and how much grain we sell to Sweden.'

 

"Spring styles are the order of the day for Milady Yeomanette. Effective recently the young woman assistants of Uncle Sam's naval forces have been ordered to put away the dark blue waists which they have worn for winter wear and don white. The order also calls for spring hats, but little variations from the winter variety. A cry went up from the yeomanettes when the order was issued. The dark blue waists never did find much favor among the navy girls, and it is with a sense of relief that they will fling away 'the winter garments of repentance' and go back to the colors of spring."

 

 

"With the resolution of the war, Powell's navy work lost its urgency. She stayed on until July 31, 1919 (when all 'Yeomanettes' were released from active service with a twelve dollar monthly retainer until the end of their enlistment)." 1

 

 

Daily Globe - August 4, 1919:

"Mrs. A. M. Steinbrueck is in receipt of a letter from Miss Dawn Powell stating that she is now connected with the American Red Cross publicity bureau at New York city being employed as a feature writer."

 

 

Daily Globe - November 29, 1919:

DAWN POWELL

"Writes Her Impressions of a First Voter for the New York Evening Sun and Here They Are Miss Powell for a number of years a resident of New York City, since graduating from Lake Erie college at Painesville, is now doing features for the New York Evening Sun ... Sunday papers. Here is one of Miss Powell's articles on 'Impressions of a First Voter,' which we clip from the Sun:

 

And the day came for me to cast my first vote. I arose with no unusual nervousness, dressed with my usual care and sat down to breakfast. I ate calmly and without ostentation, placed my hat on my head rind (sic) went forth to tie (sic) polls.

 

"They had told me that we women ought to oust Tammany; and I felt that I might even do it personally. At the polls I saw no signs of foul politics, nor did any one attempt to influence me. We all formed in a long line and passed before three men, one of whom wore a walrus mustache of the Louis XIV period. There were women there too. Passing before this board one was severely grilled by the solemn, intelligent looking gentleman at the end of the table.

 

"Name? said he crisply to the first man. "Myers - Harry M." "Myers?" "Yes - Mayers. M-y-e-r-s." "How do you spell that?" 'M-y-e-r-s, Myers. Harry M. Myers." "All right Myers. What's the first name?" "Harry. Harry Myers. H-a-r-r-y." "H-a-a-rr - Oh yes, Harry." "Middle initial please?" "M. Harry M. Myers." "Harry H. Myers?" "NO! My name is Harry - H-a-r-r-y M. Myers - M-y-e-r-s." "Wait a minute- was that M-y-e-r-s - just one m?" " One m, one y, one e, one r, one s. As in Myers." "All right. Sign here. Number 476."

 

"Thus was Mr. Harry Myers briefly disposed of and placed in a small booth labeled 'PULL'. A lady followed. She was 40 - so she said, and she was not exaggerating at all.

 

"Flint is my name. Marian Flint. F-l-i-n-t. "Flynn?" "Flint. F-l-i-n-t. Flint." "First letter B?' "Flint. F-l-i-n-t. Marian Flint, Forty." 'I see." 97 West Umteenth." "Address, please?" "97 West Umteenth. Marian Flint."

 

"And Marian was disposed of. Her husband came behind.

 

"Flint - Charles F. Age 50. The lady's husband." "I see. Name please?" "Flint - spelled the same way." "Oh yes. Flint. Of course,

 

There was a brief pause as the recorder wrote down - well, of course, no one could tell what he wrotedown. Probably 'Squint' ".

"I have it. Charles Flint. the lady's husband. Name spelled the same way. Address please." "97 West Umteenth ." " Oh, I see. Address the same as the lady's.

 

 

 

Another pause in which the recorder looked up at Mr. Flint as though there was something rather racy about his living with Mrs. Flint."

 

"Address the same. Humm." "Yes, I live with my wife."

 

"Mr. Flint tried to make this sound sarcastic, but it sounded rather boastful instead, and he blushed with embarrassment and rushed to one of the 'PULLS' "

 

"It was my turn now, and with a choked feeling I confided my name and age."

" 'Oh - a first time voter,' grinned the recorder.' What a first voter?' exclaimed the gentleman with the walrus hirsute effect, and the board laughed as if it was a huge joke. I smiled myself as the humor of it struck me. 'It's her first vote,' every one smilingly muttered to each other, and the vulgar shanty - is it the polls? - resounded with echoes of 'First voter' and the mirth which such a remark could not help but bring forth. I seized my ballot with a burst of laughter. "

 

 

 

" 'Yes - I am a first voter,' I burbled, and staggered into the 'PULL', where I went into paroxysms of merriment every time I thought of it. I tried to tell somebody about it today - it really was an awful good joke, don't you know - but I couldn't remember how it started. First voter - ha-ha-ha!"

 

(Women won the right to vote in New York State on November 6, 1917.)

 

 

1920

 

 

"Dissatisfied with the thirty-five dollars the Red Cross was paying her weekly for intensive and exhausting work, she switched to a publicity job for the Interchurch World Movement."1

 

 

 

Daily Globe - January 10, 1920:

MISS DAWN POWELL

"Now Connected With The New York Office of The Interchurch World Movement

Miss Dawn Powell who has been connected with the publicity department of the American Red Cross in the New York office, made a splendid record for herself while thus employed. Miss Powell's stories of the Red Cross work were sent broadcast all over the United States of America and not even many Shelby people knew that one of our own girls was doing much of the important work. Now that the publicity work of the Red Cross has been finished Miss Powell is connected with the Interchurch World Movement and will still be located in New York. Miss Powell was one of two or three whose work had attracted attention and was offered the position with the Interchurch World Movement which she accepted."

 

Joining the staff of the Interchurch World Movement was a significant point in Powell's life and career. "There she met a slim, courtly, poetic looking twenty-nine year old man named Joseph Gousha. The friendship apparently began with an invitation to take a ferry ride."1 (to Staten Island.) Joseph Gousha born August 2, 1890 in Philadelphia, attended school in Pottstown, Pennsylvania and had just recently arrived in New York and was still settling in.

 

"The walk on Staten Island was soon followed by Dawn and Joe's first formal date: a luncheon at the Claremont Inn, a stately, pillared, Mt. Vernon-like structure on Riverside Drive, just north of Grant's tomb."

 

The Claremont Inn with Grant's Tomb in the background

 

Daily Globe - October 1, 1920:

"Miss Dawn Powell of New York City, who has been visiting for several days with her aunt Mrs. O.M. Steinbrueck, left last night for Columbus where she will visit friends before returning to New York. After graduating from Lake Erie College for Women at Painesville, Miss Powell accepted a position at New York where she is rapidly forging to the front as a writer. Her articles are appearing in the New York Sun and a number of magazines. Miss Powell graduated from Shelby high and has many friends in Shelby who are pleased to hear of the success she has attained."

 

One can speculate whether Dawn and Auntie May could have discussed the rapidly growing relationship between Joe and Dawn and the next big event in Dawn's life. The November 19th letter (below) indicates the wedding came "as a surprise to her Shelby friends" but Auntie May was special and she would have had to know. Later the significance of that first ferry ride was made apparent:

 

"In the last piece she published during her lifetime - sentimental valentine called 'Staten Island, I love You,' which ran in the October 1965 issue of Esquire - Powell, by then desperately ill and still in mourning for the recently dead Gousha, wrote lyrically about that initial outing:

 

'What I love about Staten Island is that in the year 1920, fresh sprung from Ohio, conquering New York and knowing everything as I never have since, I was asked by a fair young man in the office next to mine if I would care to go walking on Staten Island.

 

'I've always wanted to,' I cried , never having heard of the place.

 

I would have agreed just as eagerly to go mushing over the moon's crust, since I had already decided to marry the man and had not even caught the young man's name which (we might as well get these happy endings over right at the start) later would be mine."1

 

 

 

Daily Globe - November 19, 1920:

MISS DAWN POWELL

"To Be Married in New York City Tomorrow and Will Make Her Home There

Mrs. Mae Steinbrueck left for New York City last night where she will attend the wedding of Miss Dawn Powell, which will occur Saturday in that city. Miss Powell is a niece of Mrs. Steinbrueck. She graduated from the Shelby Shelby high school, and Lake Erie college at Painesville after which she located in New York City where she has been engaged in writing for magazines.

 

"Miss Powell has been very successful in the literary field since leaving college. Her wedding comes as a surprise to her Shelby friends who had no intimation of her approaching wedding."

 

Daily Globe - November 29, 1920:

Powell-Gousha

"Mrs. O. M. Steinbrueck has just returned from a week's visit in New York where she attended the wedding of her niece Miss Dawn Powell, formerly of the Daily Globe staff, to Joseph Roebuck Gousha, writer and circulation manager of the Weekly Review. The marriage took place in the Church of the Transfiguration on East 29th street, commonly known as the 'Little Church Around the Corner,' at 5:30 p.m. Saturday afternoon, November 20th.

 

.................................................................... Little Church Around the Corner ............................................................................................................ Joseph Gousha (2) ....................

 

 

"The bride was in afternoon dress, her gown being of black satin and cut jet and her hat of black. She wore a corsage of sweet peas and orange blossoms. She was attended by Miss Helen Kessel of New York and the groom's best man was H.L. Lissfelt of Pittsburgh. Only the intimate friends of the bride and groom were present including Mr. and Mrs. William Carl Chapman, Mr. and Mrs. C. Morse, Major and Mrs. Robert Garrison, Captain Paxton Hibben, Miss Floy Clements, Miss Charlotte Johnson, Miss Mary Lena Wilson, of New York and Mrs. O.M. Steinbrueck, of Shelby.

 

"Mrs. Steinbrueck was the guest of her niece at her apartment 569 West End avenue during her stay in New York. Miss Powell has been in publicity work in New York for the past two years and is director of Trade Magazine Publicity for the Near East Relief."

 

 

The rest of Dawn Powell's life would be centered in New York, the city of her long held dreams and fascination. Her ensuing life was shaped by life and events in her favorite city and New York could be a tough environment. Typical ups and downs experienced in New York could be much more severe on sensitive personalities. The climb to the top, even when deserved, would be challenged by many, and sometimes in a manner that could seem harsh to one who came to the city bringing bright dreams of tolerance and fairness.

 

Many of Powell's books, magazine articles, short stories, and plays would be developed with characters derived from friends and acquaimtentances of her favorite city. Some, her "Ohio" novels, would be pulled from memories of her earlier life in Shelby and surrounding environs, imprinted on her in her younger days. Many characters in these novels are closely modeled on personalities with whom she had become intimately familiar. Many of those characters can (and were) identifiable when the books were published.

 

 

1. Dawn Powell - A Bibliography, Tim Page, Henry Holt and Company - 1998. 2. Photo from Dawn Powell - A Bibliography, Tim Page, Henry Holt and Company - 1998.

 

 

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