The author Edith Goddard Roelker was born on July 29, 1893 to William and Eleanor (Jenckes) Roelker. The family's roots in Rhode Island stretched back to the colonial era, and Edith grew up in a privileged environment on an East Greenwich homestead and a city residence in Providence. With the marriage strained by Eleanor's alcoholism, the Roelkers divorced in 1901. Edith attended school in Providence and lived for a time with an aunt in Cincinnati. She subsequently attended the elite Miss Porter's School in Farmington, Connecticut between 1909 and 1912 but left before receiving a degree. She made her society debut in 1912. Two years later, she married Charles Pelham Curtis, Jr., a Harvard Law student and member of a similarly distinguished Boston family. Charles became a partner at the Choate, Hall, and Stuart firm, and the couple lived in Boston's Back Bay neighborhood until they moved to Norfolk, Massachusetts in 1924. Their first child, Sarah (called Sally), was born in 1915, followed by Anita (1917), Charles (1919), William (1923), and Richard (1924). During the First World War, Edith volunteered for the Red Cross. She was active in Boston club life, becoming a member of the Nucleus, Chilton Club, and Boston Sewing Circle (a predecessor to the Junior League), among others. The groups functioned as hubs of high society, but they also sponsored cultural events and volunteer activities. Edith maintained an interest in literary and social clubs throughout her life.
Edith Curtis' literary ambitions were awakened after the birth of her third child, and she undertook coursework in composition and English literature at Radcliffe College. In the 1920s, she would become a steady diarist, writing daily ruminations on travels and home life, reflecting on the progress of her writing career, and exploring writing projects. Her personal papers contain an extensive run of diaries, primarily spanning from 1926 to 1977. With brief newspaper articles, Curtis entered the professional realm of publishing in the 1920s. Inspired by the celebration of the Boston tercentennial, she released a full-length book,
Moving to Dublin, New Hampshire in the mid-1950s, where she would remain until her death in 1977, Edith became an avid gardener and bird-watcher while still publishing historical sketches, book reviews, and travel essays. Her most noted book,
Curtis' histories interwove a narrative style with considerable scholarly research, providing transcriptions of primary documents and detailing the context of historical dramas. In the 1960s, Edith became an increasingly prolific writer of fiction and verse, exploring more personal and contemporary topics. A novella about Gilded Age Rhode Island,
[NOTE: This biographical note also appears in a
The Edith Roelker Curtis Papers document Curtis' literary output, family history and personal reflections. The collection of diaries, which were annotated by Curtis' granddaughter, Edith Byron, covers many years, beginning again in the mid-1920 and extending until the end of her life in 1977. There is also lesser amount of family correspondence and photographs. Curtis' introspections give a perspective on a life's journey that included a troubled marriage and complex family life; a struggle to make a career as a writer; and day-to-day observations of New England life, from Boston elite society to small town New Hampshire. The collection contains a large amount of material related to Curtis' writings, both published and unpublished. It includes research, correspondence with publishers, drafts, fan mail, reviews, and publications, which ranged from books that were well-received by scholarly audiences to pulp pieces in confessional magazines. In addition to books and articles, the collection contains unpublished poems and stories in which she took up themes of romance, interpersonal drama, and the pastoral alongside the travel narratives and historical vignettes that made up a large amount of her published work. Of interest is research and draft material from an unfinished biography of Josiah Tattnall, whose extensive naval career has not otherwise received scholarly attention.
This collection has not been fully processed and is arranged in four accessions as received from the donor between 1962 and 2011:
The Papers are open to research according to the regulations of the Sophia Smith Collection without any additional restrictions. Please note that this collection has not been fully processed and therefore may be difficult to use.
Copyright to unpublished works by Edith Roelker Curtis is owned by the Sophia Smith Collection. Permission must be obtained to publish reproductions or quotations beyond "fair use." Copyright to materials authored by others may be owned by those individuals or their heirs or assigns. It is the responsibility of the researcher to identify and satisfy the holders of all copyrights.
Please use the following format when citing materials from this collection:
"Edith Roelker Curtis Papers, Sophia Smith Collection, Smith College, Northampton, Mass."
Periodic additions to this collection are expected. The collection has not been fully processed and therefore may be difficult to use.
Edith Roelker Curtis donated her papers to the Sophia Smith Collection beginning in 1962. Additions to the papers have been given by various family members. Some materials were transferred from the Georgia Historical Society.
Finding aid written by Amanda Izzo, May 2011.
Related materials can be found in the Curtis-Iselin Family Papers.