Morgan, Louise, 1944-

Louise Morgan (1886?-1964), an expatriate American author and journalist, lived in London, England and was married to Otto Theis.

Otto Theis (1881-1966), who was born in Germania, Pennsylvania, but spent his career in London working as an editor for Outlook and as a literary agent.

Evelyn Scott (1893-1963) was an expatriate American author and close friend of Louise Morgan and Otto Theis.

Nancy Cunard (1896-1965) was a British author and close friend of Louise Morgan and Otto Theis.

From the description of Louise Morgan and Otto Theis papers 1903-1983 (bulk 1930-1960). (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 702133031

Louise Morgan was born and educated in the United States. In 1923 she left her husband Gordon Fulcher and joined Otto Theis in London. They married and Morgan began working for The Outlook, an English political-literary magazine. By 1927 she was in charge of the Women's Section, but disagreements within the paper and the birth of her son cut short her employment. Morgan left in 1928, and the paper folded later that year. The following year she accepted a position with Everyman, becoming one of its editors in 1932. Like The Outlook, Everyman suffered from internal disputes and the paper was dissolved in 1933.

Morgan became a journalist, writing for News Chronicle and Good Housekeeping . Her articles spanned many topics, but usually focused on health and social welfare issues. These interests eventually led to her book Inside Yourself (1954), about Dr. F. M. Alexander's method of exercise. She published several other works, Writers at Work (1931), Inside Your Kitchen (1956), and Home-Made Wines (1958), but spent most of her career writing for periodicals. She also acted as a literary agent, although not as extensively or formally as Otto Theis.

Louise and her second husband had a wide circle of literary friends; two of their longest and closest relationships were with Evelyn Scott and Nancy Cunard. When Scott was living and working in Europe, they often gave her emotional and sometimes financial support, becoming her literary and personal confidants. With Nancy Cunard they also developed a close business and personal relationship. Cunard frequently sent her work to them for criticism and asked for publication advice. When health problems forced Cunard to enter a sanatorium in 1960, the Theises persuaded the hospital to turn Cunard over to them, and they cared for her until she recovered.

Louise Morgan's long career as a journalist ended sometime in the 1950s when she left the News Chronicle, but she continued writing until her death in 1964.

Otto Theis was born in Germania, Pennsylvania and educated at Lafayette College. After graduating he worked for newspapers in Philadelphia and New York City.

In December 1921 Theis accepted an offer from J. L. Balderston to become literary editor of The Outlook . But before leaving the United States he had fallen in love with Louise Morgan. She followed him to England, where they were married in 1923. Otto became assistant editor of the The Outlook and stayed with the paper until it was dissolved in 1928.

During the 1930s and 1940s Otto Theis pursued his career as a literary agent. He had already worked for the publisher Nicholas L. Brown from 1922-24, and in 1930 he became Horace Liveright's European agent. Theis reviewed many contemporary authors (especially German) and made recommendations on publication. He did review work for Jonathan Cape and translated German literature. . In the late 1920s Theis had began representing individual authors and this became his main line of work. After he left Liveright in 1934, his only salaried position was as an editor for Who's Who in the 1940s.

When Theis moved to England in the 1920s, he made it his permanent home. Both he and Morgan became British citizens just prior to World War II. He died in 1966, two years after his wife.

Evelyn Scott, expatriate American author, was born Elsie Dunn and brought up in Southern genteel society. In 1913 she eloped with Frederick Creighton Wellman and changed her name to Evelyn Scott (Frederick became Cyril Kay-Scott). During the 1920s and 1930s she wrote The Wave, A Calendar of Sins: American Melodramas, and other novels.

The Scotts spent several years in Brazil living in extreme poverty. They returned to the United States in 1920, residing in Greenwich Village and then in Brooklyn. A year later in Bermuda they met Owen Merton and his wife and relationships among the four became entangled. After a brief time in Algiers, the Scotts accepted Merton's invitation to stay with him in France in 1924.

The Scotts separated in the mid-1920s, although they kept in touch and occasionally saw each other over the next few years. In 1925 Owen and Evelyn had a brief affair. The following year Evelyn met John Metcalfe. Over the next two decades she lived in England, Canada, and the United States. Toward the end of World War II, she went to England to join Metcalfe, whom she had married some time before. The 1940s and 1950s were hard times for Evelyn Scott. She moved back to the States where she died in 1963. Although she continued to write during the last decades of her life, she published nothing more.

Sources used: Dictionary of Literary Biography: American Novelists, 1910-1945 . ed. by James J. Martine. Vol. 9, part I. Detroit, Michigan: Gale Research Company, 1981; Southern Writers: A Biographical Dictionary . ed. by Robert Bain, Joseph M. Flora, Louis D. Rubin, Jr. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1979.

Nancy Cunard, the English author and poet, was the daughter of Maud Burke, an American, and Sir Bache Cunard, the heir to the Cunard Shipping Lines. She married in 1916, but left her husband in 1917. Following World War I, Cunard moved to France, and although she visited England regularly, France became her home.

In the late 1920s she set up the Hours Press, a private press specializing in contemporary literature. During the 1930s she developed an interest in African art and Blacks in modern society. She published two anthologies, Colour and Negro, and promoted the black American writers she met. In the late 1920s, Nancy had a notorious affair with the black musician Henry Crowder. With the advent of the Spanish Civil War, she became an ardent anti-Fascist and put her press and energy to work supporting the Communists.

In 1960 Cunard was committed to Holloway Sanatorium. Her cousin Victor Cunard and Louise Morgan obtained her release and watched over her until she could return to France. She lived out her last years in her adopted country.

Sources used: Fielding, Daphne. Those Remarkable Cunards: Emerald and Nancy . New York: Atheneum Press, 1968.

From the guide to the Louise Morgan and Otto Theis papers, 1903-1983 (inclusive, 1930-1960, (Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library)