Alice Henson Ernst

Alice Henson was born in Washburne, Maine. She grew up as an only child in Port Angeles, Washington, where her mother ran a restaurant after her father, a shoemaker, left the family to pursue business in other parts of Washington.[1][2] She earned a bachelors of arts, magna cum laude, from the University of Washington (UW) in 1912, and then went on to receive her master's degree in 1913.[1] Further graduate work was completed at Radcliffe in 1919 and 1920,[2] and also at Yale University.[1]

Ernst met her husband, Rudolph H. Ernst, at UW.[2]

From 1920-1923 she was a professor at UW. She later became an English professor at the University of Oregon (UO)[3] from 1924-1950. She also taught drama at UO.[4] Between 1952 and 1953, she had a research grant at UO and also did freelance writing.[2] The grant allowed her to visit historic areas of Oregon.[5]

In 1936, she studied mask-making among the Native Americans in Klamath Falls.[6] She published her research on Native Americans and mask-making and rituals using the masks in a paper called "Masks of the Northwest Coast."[7] The La Grande Observer called her an authority on "northwest Indians."[8] The Wolf Ritual of the Northwest Coast (1948) was published using research from interviews of Native Americans in the northwest and on Vancouver Island.[2] She also displayed collections of masks she had obtained at UO.[9]

Ernst was also interested in "primitive theater" and wrote about early theater in the Pacific northwest in Trouping in the Oregon Country (1961).[1][2] The Eugene Register-Guard called her "a leading authority on the history of theater in the Northwest."[10]

Ernst was a member of Beta Sigma Phi,[11] and the Eugene chapter of the National League of American Pen Women (NLAPW).[12] She was also a charter member of the Eugene Very Little Theatre (VLT).[13]

Ernst's first plays were written in at Radcliffe in George Pierce Baker's "47 Workshop."[5] She later wrote more while she attended the Yale School of Drama.[5]

Her play, Spring Sluicing (1927), won a first prize in a national Drama League of America contest in 1927.[14] Spring Sluicing takes place in the northwest and Alaska.[14] The play was performed in Portland in the fall of 1927.[14] Woman's clubs, like the Fortnightly Club of Eugene did readings of Spring Sluicing.[15] Spring Sluicing was published in Goin' Home, And Other Plays of the 1927 Contest (1929).[16] Later, it was published again in the collection, High Country (1935), which also contained other plays written by Ernst.[17] The Salt Lake Tribune wrote that Ernst's plays "possess strong dramatic power."[18]

She published "Dramatic Trails of the Northwest" in Theatre Arts Magazine in 1927.[4] In 1930, Theater Arts Magazine published her one-act play, The Valley of Lost Men.[19] Also in 1930, OU's Guild Theatre debuted her play, Afternoon of a Nymph.[20] Nymph described as a fantasy set in modern times.[21] In 1932, the Portland Civic Theatre performed Welcome Stranger.[20] Stranger is a "study of manners several thousand years ago and in this modern day," according to The Salt Lake Tribune.[21]

A performance of The Wooden Wife in 1936 by the Very Little Theatre (VLT) in Eugene included piano music written and performed by George Hopkins.[22] The Wooden Wife takes place in a Native American dwelling.[23] The play won first place at the Northwest Writers' Conference.[24]

In 1938, she published another collection of plays, Backstage in Xanadu, which included illustrations by Constance Cole.[20] The book included the plays Cloistered Calm, Welcome Stranger, Nightingale and Afternoon of a Nymph.[20] Cloistered Calm is a comedy about "underpaid professors," while Nightingale is a romance set in Bagdad.[21] She was again published in Theatre Arts Magazine in 1939, with an illustrated article called "Northwest Animal Dances."[25] Ernst's poetry appeared in the anthology, Mid-Country: Writings From the Heart of America (1945).[26] Her play, Way Out There, a "comic-drama," set in the Oregon of the 1800s, was performed at VLT in 1946.[27]

Ernst's history of theater in Oregon, Trouping in the Oregon Country (1961), was considered "enjoyable" by historian, Kenneth L. Holmes, of the Eugene Guard.[28] The book won first place from the Oregon Press Women (OPW).[29] The book was a culmination of a decade's worth of research.[5]

• The Valley of Lost Men. Evanston, Illinois: Row, Peterson. 1932. OCLC 4168581.
• High Country: Four Plays From the Pacific Northwest. Portland, Oregon: Metropolitan Press. 1935. OCLC 3136109.
• Backstage in Xanadu: A Book of Plays. Portland, Oregon: Binfords & Mort. 1938. OCLC 613145257.
• The Wolf-ritual of the Northwest Coast. Eugene, Oregon: University of Oregon. 1952. OCLC 912647675.
• Trouping in the Oregon Country: A History of Frontier Theatre. Portland, Oregon: Oregon Historical Society. 1961. OCLC 647632755.

• Guide to the Alice Henson Ernst papers at the University of Oregon.
• High Country on Google Books