To the editor:
I am researching Virgil Geddes, a former resident of Atlantic. He and his wife, the painter Minna Besser Geddes, lived in a converted schoolhouse, which is now the Swan’s Island library. Geddes was born in Nebraska in 1897, served in the Navy during WWI, then worked for newspapers in Chicago and Paris until moving to Brookfield, CT in 1928. His first publications were as an expatriate American poet in Paris, which is also where he started writing plays about rural American life. In 1929, he had his first New York production with the Provincetown Players, starring Bette Davis in one of her first roles. He supported workers’ issues as director of the Brookfield Players and then of a branch of the Federal Theatre Project in 1937. His last published book was “Country Postmaster” in 1952, about his many years work in the Brookfield post office. After 1952, he and his wife lived a quiet life in Brookfield and Atlantic, Virgil writing occasionally and Minna painting until their deaths in 1989 and 1991 (respectively).
The last 37 years of his life were mostly out of the public eye, and I am trying to find as much information about these two as possible. I would especially like to hear from relatives and friends, or anyone who knows where their papers are kept.
Feel free to contact me by mail at: 5553 28th Ave NE, Seattle, WA, 98105; or email me at: weitzen@u.washington.edu.
Thank you.
Mark Weitzenkamp
University of Washington
Seattle