A couple of generations of women eagerly awaited each month’s musings in Ladies Home Journal (late 1930s-1959) and Family Circle magazine (1959-1967), written much like the letters she had been writing to friends since finding Stillmeadow in 1931. Gladys mentions very, very little about her husband (almost nothing in her Stillmeadow books) and most of her readers assumed that he, too, had died, but in fact Gladys divorced him in 1946.Īlthough she had written successful plays and novels, Gladys’ fame grew thanks to her magazine columns. Living at Stillmeadow may have been much less expensive than in Manhattan, especially sharing the expenses with Eleanor. Where previously her writing was done for her own pleasure and to augment the family’s income, now it was all that kept the wolf from the door. Thus, Gladys became the breadwinner for the family. No longer able to teach, he became withdrawn, perhaps bitter, and focused on his hobby of tin-piercing metal. Although we don’t know whether there was some love between her and her husband in the early years, matters began to deteriorate when Frank lost his hearing. However, there is more to the story.Īccording to her own writing and recent research, Gladys had not married for love but to please her father. That’s the well-known and somewhat ‚”official” biography that most of her loyal readers believed was the entirety of Gladys Taber’s life. More importantly, Gladys was a savvy business woman, who managed her own ‚”brand” at a time when few women had their own checking accounts. She was not only a keen observer of nature, she seemed able to handle just about any domestic problem from training dogs to fixing plumbing, from canning her own vegetables to writing well-loved books about her life on the farm. Gladys wouldn’t have wanted to be Martha Stewart at any point in her life, but she had many qualities in common with the lifestyle ‚”diva” Ms. Gradually, however, Gladys and her daughter moved to Stillmeadow fulltime, and after the death of Eleanor’s husband, she brought her family to Stillmeadow for good as well. Within a few years Eleanor and her children were spending summers and weekends throughout the year at Stillmeadow (in Connecticut), while Gladys was spending as much time there as possible with her family. It even had plumbing, and how were we to know it was all cracked?” Built in 1690 or a bit earlier, it had withstood the years. “Well,” said Stillmeadow, “I’ve been waiting for you. On a very snowy weekend, Eleanor and Gladys were to meet an agent: ‚”The agent had not expected anyone so foolhardy as to look at houses in such weather… We had no key so we crawled up from the cellar. Between raising kids and dogs, teaching English to young adults, and writing as much as she possibly could, it is amazing that she found time to search with Eleanor to find the dream property – but finally it seems Stillmeadow found them. She was writing for several magazines including the Ladies Home Journal, and newspapers, as well as plays and humorous fiction. Writing had become Gladys’ consuming passion. Together they tramped around Manhattan to give the dogs and kids exercise, and eventually dreamed about a weekend escape (a not uncommon idea in the early 20th century) in Connecticut. Gladys was helped enormously by the bolstering friendship of her former college roommate and neighbor in the building, Eleanor, who also had kids and dogs. Raising a child (and a dog) in a small apartment in the city was challenging. Frank was also a college professor (of music) and the family settled in New York City. Her marriage to Frank Taber produced a daughter, Constance, in 1923. Gladys went on to teach English at Lawrence, at Randolph-Macon, and at Columbia University until 1926. She was well educated, having earned her bachelor’s degree at Wellesley College and her Masters at Lawrence College, in 1921. Gladys Bagg Taber (1899-1980) was born in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
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