“He had a feeling that somewhere in the course of her life something had happened to her, something terrible which in the end had given her a great understanding and clarity of mind…”
Louis Bromfield was a fascinating man. He was an Ohioan by birth who lived as an expatriate in France for many years, rubbing shoulders with the likes of Edith Wharton and Gertrude Stein, before returning to the United States around 1939 to escape the outbreak of World War II. He studied agriculture at Columbia University before embarking on a literary career. With the financial success of his many books, including his Pulitzer-Prize winning Early Autumn (1926), Bromfield purchased nearly 600 acres in North-Central Ohio called “Malabar Farm.” On this farm, Bromfield employed many of his organic agricultural interests and techniques, many of which have become more widespread today, such as the avoidance of using pesticides. Bromfield was an agricultural innovator and conservationist, as well as an early proponent of the idea of organic food. Many of his high-profile friends came to visit his farm Ohio. In fact, Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall were married at Malabar Farm in 1945.
(Pictured Right: Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall’s wedding at Bromfield’s farm).
Early Autumn (sometimes subtitled “A Story of A Lady”) presents a simple, concise, conservative mystery novel with a slightly dark undertone in an effort to echo the classic 19th century Gothic works of literature (a la the Brontë sisters). In essence, Early Autumn is about the decline and decay of a once prominent Massachusetts family, the Pentland family. They reside near the fictional town of Durham on a vast coastal estate while the familial matriarch, Olivia, bears the troubled weight of her family on her shoulders. She married years ago into the Pentland family and her husband, Anson, now pays little attention to her while he is focused on writing a book called the ‘History of the Pentland Family and the Massachusetts Bay Colony’ (Olivia and Anson have not shared a bedroom in 15 years). Olivia bore two children, one daughter, Sybil, who is married toward the end of the novel, and the other a sickly son, Jack, who tragically dies in the novel, leaving the future of the Pentland family in question. Throughout the book we are slowly introduced to a web of lies and infidelities within the family.
The old patriarch of the Pentland family is John Pentland who spends his time drinking and pretending to care for his ill wife who has apparently gone mad. However, we discover that he has actually been having an affair with his wife’s care-taker. Mr. Pentland’s nosy sister also lives on the property and she keeps a watchful eye over the family. Meanwhile, as part of the changing demography of the Massachusetts region, Irish Roman Catholics have increasingly migrated to the area, replacing the old Congregational Church of the Pentlands. One such person is Michael O’Hara who is in love with Olivia but she cannot pursue his love out of duty to her husband and the Pentland family. One night, the mad old Mrs. Pentland escapes and starts ranting about a hidden secret buried in the attic. Olivia pursues Mrs. Pentland and discovers a bundle of letters that detail the origins of the Pentland family. Apparently, the family is not as noble as everyone once believed. The name of the family was merely stolen amidst an infidelity scandal long ago. In the end, John Pentland kills himself by riding his horse off a ravine and he bequeathes his whole estate to Olivia who is left to manage the future of the Pentland family.
The whole plot of Early Autumn takes place over one summer –the title of the book is in reference to the next season of life: the “early autumn” for the Pentland family. What will become of the Pentland family as they move into this next season? Their old way of life is dying and they need to grow and adapt to an uncertain future, a future that luckily rests on the capable shoulders of Olivia. With Early Autumn, the Pulitzer Prize once again chose to select a moralistic novel, rather than embracing the American literary revolution taking place among the likes of Ernest Hemingway, William Faulkner, Sherwood Anderson and others. The year 1927 was unfortunately another missed opportunity for the Pulitzer Prize.
In The New York Times Book Review‘s generally unfavorable review of Early Autumn in 1926 entitled “Louis Bromfield Pummels the Poor Puritan” the unnamed author wrote: “Puritanism is his [Bromfield’s] enemy. He can never forgive New England for setting its stamp on his own Ohio… In that light, “Early Autumn” is a satire and not a straightforward novel… “Early Autumn” reveals again Louis Bromfield’s unfailing fertility in apprehending and expounding human character and motives. It is a most distinguished gift and one which should lead him far. But this book shows signs of haste and carelessness… Mr. Bromfield’s latest novel shows, in fact, a distinct falling off from his earlier work. Despite a degree of intrinsic interest and competent workmanship, the book’s essence is only a sterile working over of stale material which will discourage many of those who saw in Louis Bromfield the promise of a fresh and original interpreter of American life.”
Notable Quotations:
“There was a ball in the old Pentland house because for the first time in nearly forty years there was a young girl in the family to be introduced to the polite world of Boston and to the elect who had been asked to come from New York and Philadelphia” (opening lines of the novel).
“Rather, it might have been said that the nation had run away from New England and the Pentland family, leaving it stranded and almost forgotten by the side of the path which marked an unruly almost barbaric progress away from all that the Pentland family and the old house represented” (pg. 2).
“‘…I am the same as I always have been, only to-night I have come to the end of say ‘yes, yes’ to everything, of always pretending, so that all of us here may go on living undisturbed in our dream…believing always that we are superior to every one else on the earth, that because we are rich we are powerful and righteous, that because… oh, there is no use in talking…I am just the same as I always have been, only to-night I have spoken out. We all live in a dream here…a dream that some day will turn sharply into a nightmare. And then what will we do?” (pgs 31-32).
“There were no more Pentlands. Sybil and her husband would be rich, enormously so, with the Pentland money and Olivia’s money…but there would never be any more Pentlands. It had all come to an end in this…futility and oblivion. In another hundred years the name would exist, if it existed at all, only as a memory, embalmed within the pages of Anson’s book” (pg 159).
“It was a superb morning – cool for Durham in mid-August – and on the lazy river the nympheas spread their waxy white blossoms in starlike clusters against a carpet of green pads. It was a morning made for delights, with the long rays of the rising sun striking to silver the dew-hung spider-webs that bound together the tangled masses of wild grape vines…” (pgs 175-176 -Olivia and Michael O’Hara bump into each other out in the countryside one summer morning).
On The 1927 Pulitzer Prize Decision
In contrast to other early Pulitzer Prize winners, the nomination of Early Autumn did not set off any kind of critical firestorm. It was a relatively quiet year for the award. The 1927 Novel Jury was composed of returning members: Dr. Richard Burton (Chair), Jefferson B. Fletcher, and Robert M. Lovett.
- Richard Burton (1861-1940) studied at Trinity College and Johns Hopkins. He was a professor at Rollins College for many years. In addition to serving on several Pulitzer Prize Juries in the Novel and Biography categories, he also served on the Book and Drama Leagues of America.
- Jefferson Butler Fletcher (1865-1946) was born in Chicago, served in the American Field Ambulance Services during World War I, and was educated at Harvard and Bowdoin College. He was a long-serving professor of Comparative Literature at Columbia University (from 1904-1939) and was considered a foremost expert on the Italian Renaissance and Dante. In his obituary in The New York Times, it was noted that he served on the Pulitzer Novel Jury for “several years.” Sadly, his son died in an automobile accident in 1926, Fletcher also had a daughter.
- Robert Morss Lovett (1870-1956) was a Bostonian who studied at Harvard. He taught literature at the University of Chicago for many years, he was associate editor of The New Republic, served as governor secretary of the Virgin Islands, and was a political activist –he was accused of being a communist by the Dies Committee which forced him out of his secretary position. He was often on the frontlines of left-leaning picket lines, and helped launch the careers of several young writers, including John Dos Passos. In later years, his wife became a close friend and associate of Jane Addams and the couple lived at Hull House for a spell.
According to John Hohenberg, “this dour tale of the downfall of a New England dynasty did not set off any critical skyrockets when the prize was announced.” However, following the then-recent scandals with Sinclair Lewis, the Pulitzer Advisory Board quietly removed Nicholas Murray Butler’s surreptitious award criteria language, so that instead of evaluating novels based on whether or not they were “wholesome,” the Board re-inserted Joseph Pulitzer’s original language, in consideration of the “whole atmosphere” of American life.
Apparently, celebrated literary critic Edmund Wilson once unflatteringly remarked on the 1927 Pulitzer Prize decision: “By unremitting industry and a kind of stubborn integrity that seems to make it impossible for him to turn out his rubbish without thoroughly believing in it, [Louis Bromfield] has gradually made his way into the fourth rank, where his place is now secure.”
Who is Louis Bromfield?
Lewis Brumfield (1896-1956) was born in Mansfield, Ohio, in 1896 to Charles Brumfield, a bank cashier and real estate speculator, and Annette Marie Coulter Brumfield, the daughter of an Ohio farmer. He later changed his name to “Louis Bromfield” which he thought appeared more distinguished. Bromfield grew up working on his grandfather’s farm, which he loved, and studied Agriculture at Cornell University, but his family’s deteriorating financial situation forced him to drop out after only a single semester. He then struggled between 1915-1916 to revive his family’s unproductive farm, an experience he later wrote about bitterly in his autobiographical novel The Farm (1933). Bromfield then enrolled in Columbia University to Journalism but once again dropped out to volunteer in the American Field Service during World War I.
Bormfield was discharged in 1919 and he settled in New York City working as a critic, journalist, publicity manager, and in 1921, he married the socialite Mary Appleton Wood during a small ceremony near her family home in Ipswich, Massachusetts. They had three daughters together, Ann Bromfield (1925-2001), Hope Bromfield (1927-2016), and Ellen Bromfield (1932-2019).
Bromfield’s first book was published in 1924, The Green Bay Tree, which was followed by a second novel, Possession, which was published in 1925. In November 1925, he moved to Paris and spent time with the voices of the Lost Generation, particularly Gertrude Stein and Ernest Hemingway. He then published his third novel, Early Autumn, which won the Pulitzer Prize in 1927 and was inspired by his wife’s Puritan New England background. He continued writing bestsellers novels in the late 1920s and early 1930s (such as A Good Woman, The Strange Case of Miss Annie Spraag) as well as his autobiographical agrarian novel The Farm. He also worked briefly in Hollywood as a contract screenwriter for Samuel Goldwyn, Jr.
In 1930, Bromfield moved into a renovated 16th-century rectory, the Presbytère St-Etienne, in Senlis, north of Paris. There he built an elaborate garden on the banks of the River Nonette, where he was known to host many parties –attendees included the likes of Gertrude Stein, Alice B. Toklas, Elsa Schiaparelli, Dolly Wilde, Leslie Howard, Noël Haskins Murphy, Douglas Fairbanks, Sir Francis Cyril Rose, F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald. He also supported wounded American escaping the Spanish Civil War in France which earned him the French Legion of Honor. He made two lengthy trips to India, which informed one of his most critically acclaimed bestsellers, The Rains Came (1937), which was later adapted into a popular 1939 film starring Myrna Loy and Tyrone Power. He used the proceeds from this book to purchase his beloved 600-acre Malabar Farm where he intended to raise his children. Here, he employed a variety of environmentally friendly farming techniques, like soil conservation, no-till agriculture, and composting.
Malabar’s national reputation was cemented in 1945 when Bromfield hosted the wedding of his good friend Humphrey Bogart to Lauren Bacall. Bromfield served as best man at the wedding. Malabar was regularly visited by many celebrities, including Kay Francis, Joan Fontaine, Ina Claire, Mayo Methot and James Cagney; and Bromfield popularized his farming practices with other great writers like E. B. White, John Dos Passos, Henry A. Wallace, Aldo Leopold, and Rachel Carson. Bromfield’s later literary career faltered among critics like Malcolm Cowley, Orville Prescott, and Edmund Wilson (Orville Prescott previously served as a Pulitzer fiction jury member), while other critics like Stuart Sherman and John Farrar praised Bromfield’s early career (Stuart Sherman also served as a Pulitzer fiction jury).
Tragedy befell Bromfield in his later years as his financial difficulties began to mount (spurred on by the maintenance of Malabar Farm and keep up his lavish lifestyle), his literary success declined, and his wife Mary died in 1952. He then began a romance with billionaire heiress Doris Duke –they even discussed getting married– but Bromfield’s health deteriorated and he died of multiple myeloma on March 18, 1956 in Ohio. After his death, Malabar was turned into a state park, the influence of his writing has extended to many other farmers and environmentalists like Wendell Berry and Joel Salatin, and his youngest daughter Ellen Bromfield Geld continued his farming practices in Brazil. She died in 2019.
Film Adaptation:
- None.
Further Reading:
- Escape Series:
- The Green Bay Tree (1924)
- Possession (1925)
- Early Autumn (1926)
- A Good Woman (1927)
- The Farm (1933)
- Traces several generations of a particular family on its land in nineteenth-century Ohio.
- The Rains Came (1937)
- About the moral redemption of a woman named Lady Edwina Esketh in India. It was made into a film entitled The Rains of Ranchipur (1955).
- Malabar Farm (1948)
- A series of essays on Bromfield’s agrarian way of living, sometimes referred to as a sequel to an earlier work he wrote entitled Pleasant Valley (1945).
Literary Context 1926-1927:
- Nobel Prize for Literature (1926): awarded to Italian writer Grazia Deledda “for her idealistically inspired writings, which with plastic clarity picture the life on her native island and with depth and sympathy deal with human problems in general.”
- The future English novelist Graham Greene was received into the Catholic Church.
- C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien first met in Oxford.
- The children’s book Winnie-the-Pooh by A. A. Milne was first published.
- On December 3, 1926 Agatha Christie disappeared from her home in Surrey. By December 14 she was found at a Harrogate hotel by the journalist Ritchie Calder, staying under her husband’s mistress’s surname. This was the same year she published The Murder of Roger Ackroyd.
- Margaret Mitchell began writing Gone with the Wind, which was not published until 1936 (it won the Pulitzer Prize).
- Ford Madox Ford published A Man Could Stand Up (third book of the four-volume Parade’s End).
- F. Scott Fitzgerald published the short story collection All the Sad Young Men.
- Ernest Hemingway published The Sun Also Rises and The Torrents of Spring.
- Franz Kafka published The Castle.
Did The Right Book Win?
Early Autumn is a fairly mediocre Pulitzer Prize-winner in my view, and the Pulitzer jury made what is perhaps one of its most egregious acts of oversight in 1927 in snubbing Ernest Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises (on par with the prior year’s snub of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby). I am thankful for the chance to learn more about Louis Bromfield –a fascinating cultural figure– but the Pulitzer Prize overlooking both The Great Gatsby in 1926 and The Sun Also Rises in 1927 betrays an extraordinarily bungled track record for the Pulitzer Prize in the 1920s.
Bromfield, Louis. Early Autumn: A Story of A Lady. New York, Frederick A. Stokes Company, 1926.