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FPG

FPG. F R E D E R. I C K P H I L I P G R O V E. Felix Paul Greve. FPG (Greve/Grove) + SWEDEN. by Gaby Divay for the UM-UMEA Conference Mo, Feb. 16, 2009. ABOUT the F.P.G. Collections at the UM.

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FPG

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  1. FPG F R E D E R I C K P H I L I P G R O V E Felix Paul Greve

  2. FPG (Greve/Grove)+SWEDEN by Gaby Divay for theUM-UMEA ConferenceMo, Feb. 16, 2009

  3. ABOUT the F.P.G.Collections at the UM • The PAPERS of the Canadian author Frederick Philip Grove (1879-1948) were acquired from his widow in the early 1960s • In 1973, M. Stobie published her Grove book (Twayne's World Authors series) • D. O. Spettigue's seminal FPG: The European Years came out the same year • The Research Collections of both scholars were added to the UM archival holdings in 1976 & in the late 1980s respectively UMEA, 16 Feb. 2009 gd

  4. ABOUT the F.P.G.Collections at the UM • Alas, D. Pacey's papers went to the NLC in Ottawa – his 1976 ed. of FPG's LETTERS remains an authoritative reference source • Stobie's papers contain notably Grove's 1914 Nietzsche-like essay "Rousseau als Erzieher" in Der Nordwesten, his first Canadian publication • Spettigue's papers document his sensational discovery of the Greve/Grove identity (October 1971) UMEA, 16 Feb. 2009 gd

  5. ABOUT the F.P.G.Collections at the UM • My own research findings & other FPG & FrL materials have been deposited since the 1980s • Apart from a host of smaller research clusters, there are substantial BOOK collections, such as The F. P. Grove Library Collection, and The F. P. Greve Translations Collection • Both, along with quite a few e-editions, have been made available on the FPG & FrL Website since 1998 UMEA, 16 Feb. 2009 gd

  6. FPG (Greve/Grove) & FrL Website (Top)

  7. ABOUT the F.P.G.Collections at the UM • In 2008, the digitized Video-Proceedings of the International Anniversary Symposium "In Memoriam FPG: 1979-1948-1998", spear-headed by the late Carol Shields & introduced by James Dean, went online • This illustrious event included a session on the New York dada artist, Else Baroness von Freytag-Loringhoven (FrL) • Greve abandoned her in 1911, a year after she had rejoined him in Pittsburgh UMEA, 16 Feb. 2009 gd

  8. FPG (Greve/Grove) & FrL Website

  9. FrL in the F.P.G.Collections at the UM • Around 1988, Professors Spettigue & Hjartarson found that Greve's Else had left a revealing autobiography where the decade she spent with him loomed large [publ. as Baroness Elsa, 1992] • Here FINALLY was hard proof that Greve had started a new life in America in 1909, [since she had followed him in June 1910] • Her papers at the Univ. of Maryland also included "unidentified" German letters & poems [to "Tse"/Endell, E. Hardt, R. Schmitz, Behmer ; some are dedicated "To FPG"] UMEA, 16 Feb. 2009 gd

  10. “Spottgedichte”: Hardt & Endell http://www.umanitoba.ca/libraries/units/archives/collections/fpg/frl/hardt.html

  11. FrL in the F.P.G.Collections at the UM • Two hark back to the 1904/5 poetry cycle she & FPG had published under the name "Fanny Essler" [in FPG's 1993 PEd Poems/Gedichte] • One of them specifies the location of their rocky & short-lived reunion: "Sparta, Kentucky, am Eagle Creek" [found in April 1991] • For ten years, she modeled in New York, then returned to Berlin in 1923 • In 1926, she joined her American friends in Paris where she committed suicide in December 1927 UMEA, 16 Feb. 2009 gd

  12. Baron Leo, ca. 1914

  13. Else in 1917:Oil, Theresa Bernstein, NY

  14. Letter “A” (Man Ray)

  15. Portrait of Marcel Duchamp

  16. GOD (ca.1917)

  17. WHOwasF. P. GREVE? • Frederick Philip Grove was born Felix Paul Greve in 1879 • He grew up in Hamburg, Germany, where he received an excellent education: • In 1898, he graduates with honours from the humanistic Gymnasium Johanneum • He goes to Bonn to study Classical Philology with authorities like Usener, Bücheler, & Loeschke • He also studies Byron, Michelangelo, & Oceanography UMEA, 16 Feb. 2009 gd

  18. WHOwasF. P. GREVE? • In early 1901, he is in Rome at the DAI [Deutsche Archäologische Institut] • Later that year, he moves to Munich • Barely 23, & without a university degree, he registers as a "Privatgelehrter" • Soon, he courts Karl Wolfskehl & the "Meister" Poet Stefan George • He imitates Nietzsche's & George's poetry: Jahr der Wende (mss) & Wanderungen (Feb. 1902) [sensational 2008 acquisitions!] UMEA, 16 Feb. 2009 gd

  19. Dashing Dandy Greve

  20. Stefan George

  21. Karl Wolfskehl

  22. WHOwasF. P. GREVE? • He starts translating Oscar Wilde, then Dowson, Browning, Pater, et al. • He reviews Nietzsche's & Stendhal's works in the MünchenerAllgemeine Zeitung • He collaborates with archaeologist Adolf Furtwängler [on an acclaimed catalogue of Greek vases] • In view of hectic activities, Wolfskehl questions his sanity: "Ob er krank ist?" • Greve's letters to Insel Publ. rather do suggest that he WAS manic UMEA, 16 Feb. 2009 gd

  23. WHOwasF. P. GREVE? • In October 1902, he moves to Berlin • He hopes to have four Oscar Wilde's plays staged at Max Reinhardt's Kleines Theater • He befriends Jugendstil artist August Endell & his wife Else –soon, they become lovers • In early 1903 all three journey via Hamburg to Palermo • Endell is left behind in Naples with a consolation bicycle UMEA, 16 Feb. 2009 gd

  24. August Endell JU G E N D S T I L A R TI S T Endell 1871 TO 1925 August ENDELL

  25. WHOwasF. P. GREVE? • In May 1903, Greve is arrested, tried, and sentenced for defrauding his friend Kilian of M10,000, an incredible sum at the time • He spends a year in Bonn prison, furthering his translation career [with contemporary authors like Gide, Wells, & Meredith] • He visits André Gide in Paris in June 1904 • Gide publishes his impressions in 1919 as "Conversation avec un Allemand" [BAAG, 1976 with 2 confessional letters: MANIC, "je sommes 3" ; ol, 2002] • Greve & Else publish their "Fanny Essler" novel & poems (Freistatt, 1904/5) UMEA, 16 Feb. 2009 gd

  26. André Gide

  27. WHOwasF. P. GREVE? • Greve & Else visit H. G. Wells, then move to Wollerau near Zürich until mid-1905 • Until they return to Berlin in 1906, they live in Paris-Plage/Étaples on the French Channel Coast [just a hop over to Wells in Folkestone] • Greve's 1905 Fanny Essler novel about Else's life in Berlin and Munich targets the George Circle [His Maurermeister Ihles Haus (1906/7) is about her childhood in Swinemünde – both are mirror-images of FrL's autobiography of the 1920s] • In late July 1909 Greve leaves Germany with a staged suicide (Kippenberg to Else: after double-selling his Swift translation) UMEA, 16 Feb. 2009 gd

  28. Wollerau, near Zürich

  29. Paris-Plage, near Etaples

  30. H. G. Wells

  31. Fanny Elssler, 1840, in Broom 1921

  32. “Circle” in Broom, 1921/22

  33. WHOwasF. P. GREVE? • As described in the opening pages of Grove's first autobiographical novel ASA (1927), he travelled second-class on a White Star Liner [the Megantic] from Liverpool to Montreal • Following the ASA leads, Greve's PASSAGE was found in late Oct. 1998, shortly after the IN MEMORIAM symposium • His last German publication: "Reise in Schweden" in Neue Revue und Morgen – we will hear more about this essay later UMEA, 16 Feb. 2009 gd

  34. Megantic 1909

  35. FPG in the USA, 1909-1912 • Little is known about the three "lost" years • According to ASA, he peddled Travelogues in New York, took – innocently! - part in a book scam selling a History Set to rich industrialists for ten times the going price, tramped along the Ohio, worked in a furniture factory, stayed at a Bonanza Farm in "the Dakotas", then settled in Canada to teach • The Kentucky year with Else is omitted… UMEA, 16 Feb. 2009 gd

  36. ASA Lining Paper Map

  37. FPG in the USA, 1909-1912 • Apart from Else's Sparta reference, there is a NYT note reporting her arrest on Pittsburgh's 5th Ave, for cross-dressing & smoking in public [found in Dec.2004] • An entry in a 1910 Pittsburgh directory lists Greve as a downtown agent for National Alumni, publisher of a 20 v. History title [found in Apr. 1994 & 2000] • The Bonanza Farm could be identified as the Amenia & Sharon Land Co. near Fargo & Casselton, ND, in March 1996 UMEA, 16 Feb. 2009 gd

  38. Pittsburgh Arrest, Sep.1910

  39. National Alumni History Set

  40. The Bonanza Farm (near Fargo)

  41. WHOwasF. P. GROVE? • Grove emerges as an author from Rapid City, Manitoba, in 1922, with perfectly impersonal nature essays [they seamlessly align with Greve's 1909 Sweden article] • When FPG must provide biographical givens to publishers & readers, he cleverly reinvents his past: • He appropriates former friend Kilian's Anglo-German background as his own • But: he turns it into a more desirable Anglo-Swedish one UMEA, 16 Feb. 2009 gd

  42. WHOwasF. P. GROVE? • The biographical underpinning of Grove’s first novel Settlers of the Marsh (1925) were not recognized until the mid-1990s [It is a therapeutic account of the ending of his marriage] • His two autobiographies, A Search for America (ASA, 1927) & In Search of Myself (ISM, 1946) are both based on FPG’s 1907 sketch for a literary dictionary: • The text Greve submitted then reads like a blueprint of Grove's accounts UMEA, 16 Feb. 2009 gd

  43. http://www.umanitoba.ca/libraries/units/archives/collections/fpg/bio/http://www.umanitoba.ca/libraries/units/archives/collections/fpg/bio/

  44. WHOwasF. P. GROVE? • ASA blends Goethe's “Dichtung & Wahrheit” with all sorts of genres: the picaresque- & adventure novel, the Bildungsroman, & satires from Grimmelshausen’s Simplicissimus to Voltaire’s Candide… • Repeated claims to ABSOLUTE veracity hold strangely true, despite the distorted narrative frame: [Grove dates the setting back to 1892, & makes himself eleven years older -- later, he will settle for seven years UMEA, 16 Feb. 2009 gd

  45. WHOwasF. P. GROVE? • In ISM Grove recantsprecisely those truthful ASA accounts that could have led to his identification as Greve • He bends over backwards to brake out of the self-imposed time-prison by reporting five trips to Europe between 1892 & 1912 • All coincide with important episodes in Greve's life • In both books, FPG often brags about his language skills – his alleged mother-tongue Swedish is conspicuously lacking! UMEA, 16 Feb. 2009 gd

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