Ida Vera Simonton

Ida Vera Simonton (September 13, 1870 – July 5, 1931) was an American writer and lecturer. She spent two years in West Africa in 1906 and 1907, and wrote and lectured about her experiences for American audiences.

Ida Vera Simonton
Ida Vera Simonton, from a 1913 publication
BornSeptember 13, 1870
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA
DiedJuly 5, 1931
New York City
OccupationWriter, traveler, lecturer

Early life

Simonton was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania,[1] the daughter of Jefferson Wilson Simonton and Lydia Ellen Hoover Simonton.[2]

Career

Simonton toured West Africa in 1906 and 1907,[3] working with American primate researcher Richard Lynch Garner in Gabon;[4][5] she timed the trip partly to escape a subpoena to testify at the murder trial of Harry Thaw.[6][7] She wrote critically, and sometimes in lurid detail, about brutality in rubber camps, about sexual exploitation in colonial households, and about western missionaries in Africa, in a 1909 series of newspaper articles for the Africa Mail,[6] and in her novel Hell's Playground (1912).[8][9] Her novel formed the basis of the controversial play and films titled White Cargo (1929, 1942), without her permission. She sued and won significant damages from the play's producers,[10][11] then sold the film rights.[12]

She wrote for popular national magazines, including Theodore Dreiser's The Delineator and McCall's.[1] Simonton also lectured on her travels,[13][14] presenting herself as an expert on Africa and race,[15][16] while reinforcing many racist stereotypes about Africans.[6] She was planning to lead a trade expedition in West Africa in 1915 for the American Tropical Trading Company, before World War I prevented such travel.[17][18] She gave a speech about the condition of women in Armenia, in Atlanta in 1920.[19]

During World War I, Simonton was involved in Liberty Loan fund drives and helped to organize the American Woman's League for Self-Defense.[6] She was president of the Women's Military Reserve of the United States.[1] In the 1920s she made further world travels, in South America, the Pacific, and Asia, saying "I am interested in the condition of women all over the world".[20]

Personal life

Simonton died in New York City in 1931, aged 60 years.[1][21] A collection of her postcards from Africa is held by the Amistad Research Center.[22]

References
  1. "IDA VERA SIMONTON, NOVELIST, IS DEAD; Author of "Hell's Playground" Succumbs to Illness That Began Abroad. TRAVELED ALONE IN AFRICA Her Observations While Among Tribes Led to Writing of Novel-- Lectured on Experiences". The New York Times. 1931-07-06. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2021-01-10.
  2. Leonard, John William (1914). Woman's Who's who of America: A Biographical Dictionary of Contemporary Women of the United States and Canada, 1914-1915. American Commonwealth Company. p. 747.
  3. "American Girl's Adventures in London and Darkest Africa". Detroit Free Press. 1913-07-13. p. 106. Retrieved 2021-01-10 – via Newspapers.com.
  4. "To Study Monkey". The South Bend Tribune. 1906-08-09. p. 4. Retrieved 2021-01-10 – via Newspapers.com.
  5. "Coming to Our Zoo to Study Ostriches". Buffalo Courier. 1909-03-29. p. 7. Retrieved 2021-01-22 – via Newspapers.com.
  6. Rich, Jeremy. "Ida Vera Simonton's Imperial Masquerades: Intersections of Gender, Race and African Expertise in Progressive-Era America." Gender & History 22.2 (2010) : 322-340.
  7. "Will Appear in Thaw Trial". Evening Star. 1907-11-13. p. 8. Retrieved 2021-01-10 – via Newspapers.com.
  8. Simonton, Ida Vera (1912). Hell's playground. New York: Moffat, Yard.
  9. "Staking a Claim". The Bookman. 36: 480–483. January 1913 – via HathiTrust.
  10. "Nothing but Trouble, Trouble, and -- Success!". The Spokesman-Review. 1925-10-04. p. 55. Retrieved 2021-01-10 – via Newspapers.com.
  11. "Real 'White Cargo' Author Now Clinks Her Share of Coin". Daily News. 1925-03-18. p. 26. Retrieved 2021-01-10 – via Newspapers.com.
  12. "Theatre Notes". Daily News. 1926-12-04. p. 55. Retrieved 2021-01-10 – via Newspapers.com.
  13. "To Lecture on African Jungle". New Castle Herald. 1912-11-21. p. 6. Retrieved 2021-01-10 – via Newspapers.com.
  14. "Miss Simonton Is at Dickinson Home". New Castle Herald. 1912-11-26. p. 12. Retrieved 2021-01-10 – via Newspapers.com.
  15. "A Woman's Adventures in Africa on the Trail Roosevelt Will Follow". St. Louis Post-Dispatch. 1909-04-18. p. 58. Retrieved 2021-01-10 – via Newspapers.com.
  16. "The World's Treasure House After the War!". San Francisco Chronicle. 1917-09-09. p. 3. Retrieved 2021-01-10 – via Newspapers.com.
  17. "Woman Bosses Schooner and Leads Party of Men to Jungles". New Berne Weekly Journal. 1914-11-03. p. 6. Retrieved 2021-01-10 – via Newspapers.com.
  18. Cooley, Winnifred Harper (1914-10-11). "Woman to Head Trading Expedition to Africa". The Sun. p. 72. Retrieved 2021-01-10 – via Newspapers.com.
  19. "Powerful Plea Made by Woman for Armenians". The Atlanta Constitution. 1920-03-03. p. 11. Retrieved 2021-01-10 – via Newspapers.com.
  20. "Woman Author and Adventure Seeker a Visitor". Honolulu Star-Bulletin. 1928-02-02. p. 19. Retrieved 2021-01-10 – via Newspapers.com.
  21. "Ida Vera Simonton, Author, Passes Away". The News and Observer. 1931-07-06. p. 5. Retrieved 2021-01-10 – via Newspapers.com.
  22. Dorsey, Chianta (2015-04-16). "The Eyes of Ida Vera Simonton and Warren Boudreaux: Viewing Africa through the Prism of Postcards". Amistad Research Center. Retrieved 2021-01-10.
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