Elizabeth Watts Henley, poet

Elizabeth Watts Henley’s poetry
survived life filled with personal challenges

This is a guest post by Dean Kahn

Elizabeth Artis (Watts) Henley was born into a prominent Bellingham family in 1912. Her parents, Arthur and Maud Watts, encouraged their four children to pursue higher education, and all of them left their mark.

Sister Ruth was a research chemist. Brother Arthur, Jr., became a general practitioner in Bellingham. Sister Catharine, who went by “Kitty,” took over her father’s real estate and insurance business and became a community, regional, and national civic leader.

Elizabeth, who went by “Betty,” showed literary promise when she won a children’s poetry contest judged by Ella Higginson, Bellingham’s nationally known writer. Elizabeth went on to publish numerous poems in prominent magazines, but her writing and teaching were derailed for several years by the Red Scare after World War II and by time in a mental institution.

The precise reasons she spent more than two years in a mental health facility remain opaque. John Henley, her sole surviving child, says he hasn’t explored public records about his mother’s life, and says any pertinent papers his parents might have possessed have disappeared.

Elizabeth began writing poetry professionally during the early years of the Great Depression. She also was a poetry editor at The Puget Sounder, a weekly newspaper created by June and Farrar Burn, a well-known literary couple who lived for many years in the Northwest, including time in Bellingham.

Elizabeth earned a bachelor’s and a master’s degree at the University of Washington, where she wrote a master’s thesis about 16th century English poet Edmund Spenser, and taught English from 1934 to 1940. While at UW, her friends included left-leaning activists and at least one acknowledged communist.

She also met and married Preston Henley, who attended UW to study business. She and Preston moved to New York City, where Elizabeth taught at Hunter College High School and had more poems published. After the war, the family moved to Boise, Idaho, and then to Portland, Ore.

Elizabeth taught at Portland State College and became friends with many fellow Oregon poets, notably William Stafford and Vi Gale. Her poems appeared in such publications as The New Yorker, Poetry, The Atlantic Monthly, and in McCall’s, Good Housekeeping, and Ladies Home Journal, which were more literary then.

But John Henley says his parents’ marriage became tense, in part because his mother kept her liberal views while his father was “very conservative.” In addition, investigations of alleged communists in academia arose after World War II. A legislative committee investigated the University of Washington. Among those questioned was English professor Sophus Winther, who acknowledged being a communist in the mid-1930s. Elizabeth knew Winther, and mere close association with communists posed risks for one’s job, reputation, even custody of one’s children.

Henley recalls that his mother told him that a top administrator at Portland State College asked her to resign, to protect the college from possible bad publicity. She left the college, then, to avoid bringing ruin on her family, committed herself to a mental health facility.

Elizabeth and Preston divorced in 1956. He gained custody of the children, and later remarried. Meanwhile, Elizabeth’s poet friends lobbied Oregon’s new governor, Mark Hatfield, to gain her release. Hatfield helped Elizabeth obtain a job in 1959 at Oregon State University, in Corvallis, teaching English composition to remedial students.

She disliked being paid less than male professors, and being sexually harassed by colleagues without recourse for help. On the positive side, she continued to write, she loved teaching, and her students loved her. She retired in 1975, and died Jan. 2, 1981, in Corvallis. She’s buried in Bayview Cemetery, in Bellingham.

No book of her poems was published during her lifetime, so, in 2000, her son John and a cousin, Ellen Watts Lodine, published To Hear Unspoken Things, a selection of her work. Here is one of her poems:

“Song of Wheels Turning”

Listen my child to the song I sing,
It is old, it is trite, it is true.
Never go back to the one green hill,
Let it come back to you.
Little and dark, a muffin of trees,
It fades where horizons drop.
You learn as you leave how partial a view
Of the earth you saw from the top.
Taller you travel for being there,
It is less if you return.
Let it come to you as a windy height
Captured from boulder and fern.
There would be tear, only tears, if you found
So much as a gnarled tree,
And cried, “It is here, It is just the same,
The change is in me, in me!”

. . . . .

Dean Kahn worked for The Bellingham Herald for 29 years, with stints as a reporter, editor, and columnist. He wrote more than 1,000 columns, of which about one-in-seven focused on local history.

This profile is an abridged version of one that appeared in the December 2019 issue of The Journal of the Whatcom County Historical Society. To purchase the issue, or other issues of the journal, go to https://www.whatcomhistory.net, or visit Village Books.

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Elizabeth Watts Henley photo courtesy of John Henley

poetry music

The first Poet Laureate of Washington State, as voted by the Washington State Federation of Women’s Clubs in 1931, Ella Rhoads Higginson was a prolific poet, novelist, and short story writer. She settled in Bellingham, Washington, in her 20s and remained there for the rest of her life, writing and actively promoting education, women’s rights, and the arts.

On Friday, December 2, and Saturday, December 3, 2022, Vox Pacifica and Choir of the Salish Sea will perform music set to Ella Higginson’s sonnet, “The Opal Sea” (among other works). Choral conductor and composer Duncan Tuomi composed the music for “The Opal Sea” as his “musical love letter to this gorgeous region.”

The performances will be at the First Congregational Church in Bellingham. You can find ticket information here and more on Ella Higginson here.

your turn?

Applications are now being accepted for the position of Washington State Poet Laureate.

The position serves to build awareness and appreciation of poetry through public readings, workshops, and presentations in communities throughout the state.

The new laureate will serve from April 15, 2021-April 14, 2023. The position is sponsored by the Washington State Arts Commission (ArtsWA) and Humanities Washington, with the support of Governor Jay Inslee.

To be considered, applicants must meet all eligibility requirements and submit an application online. Applications must be submitted electronically by 5:00 p.m. on December 4, 2020.

Those wishing to apply are encouraged to attend a webinar on Tuesday, October 27, 2020, at 3:00 p.m. or Wednesday, October 28 at 5:00 p.m.

The current poet laureate is the wonderful Claudia Castro Luna (a hard act to follow, as were her predecessors). A Washington State Book Award-nominated poet and creator of Washington Poetic Routes and One River, Many Voices series of readings along the Columbia River, Castro Luna has held hundreds of poetry workshops and readings across Washington State since February 2018. See more on the Washington State Poet Laureate blog.

Is it your turn?

poets, historically

Four of the 11 articles in the 2019 Journal of the Whatcom County Historical Society discuss poets with local ties.

Marielle Stockton, an English literature student at Western Washington University, wrote “To Lie There Forever, on the Silver Crest of the World.” The article details Washington Poet Laureate Ella Higginson’s memorial poems written in response to three deadly local tragedies — a shipwreck, a mining accident, and an avalanche.

Dean Kahn, a retired Bellingham Herald staff member, contributed profiles on the following three poets:

• Charles Edward Butler, a librarian at Western who wrote a memorial poem about the same 1939 avalanche, which killed six people associated with the college.
• Naomi Reimer, who published a collection of poems about her extended family’s Mennonite odyssey.
• Elizabeth Watts Henley, the daughter of a prominent Bellingham family who became well known in Oregon poetry circles despite a lifetime of personal challenges.

Copies of the annual publication are available for $10 at Village Books and online at WCHS.

. . . . .
Thanks to Dean Kahn for the update!

laureate lore

If you visit the Washington Poet Laureate website, you’ll find a profile of the current PL, Claudia Castro Luna, and a list of the state’s previous poets laureate: Samuel Green (2007 – 2009), Kathleen Flenniken (2012 – 2014), Elizabeth Austen (2014 – 2016), and Tod Marshall (2016-2018).

Western Washington University professor Laura Laffrado is, pretty much single-handedly, working to correct a very significant omission from that list: Washington’s first poet laureate, Ella Rhoads Higginson.

An article by Ron Judd in the Sunday, June 24, 2018, PacificNW magazine section of The Seattle Times details Laffrado’s monumental task and the passion she shares with her WWU students. If you missed it in print, you can still read it online.

remembering Ella

We’ve written before about Ella Rhoads Higginson, the first Poet Laureate of Washington State. Now, Laura Laffrado, WWU professor and author of Selected Writings of Ella Higginson: Inventing Pacific Northwest Literature, has initiated a campaign to celebrate this important figure in Washington State poetry with the creation of a bronze bust to be placed in the Reading Room in Wilson Library. Robert McDermott, whose sculpture of Dirty Dan Harris on Fairhaven Green will be familiar to many, has been chosen as the artist.

To learn more or to contribute to the campaign, visit the Western Washington University VikingFunder Ella Higginson project page.

poetry film in the making

We’ve mentioned the poet Ella Higginson before, and we’ve certainly mentioned poetry on film on many occasions. Here’s a place where the twain shall meet: Just Like the Men.

Just Like the Men is a screenplay written by Ella Higginson in the era of silent film. In essence, it is a romantic comedy depicting the first woman (Frances C. Axtell) elected into legislative office in Washington State, in 1913, and her clever campaign manager.

The community-focused team of filmmakers and multimedia artists known as Talking to Crows has now picked up where Ella left off and is adapting Just Like the Men in the spirit in which it was written.

Read more about the “Ella” project on Talking to Crows, like Just Like the Men on Facebook, and, most important, pitch in a couple bucks to help this piece of Washington literary and political history make its way to the big screen by supporting Just Like the Men on Seed & Spark.

finding Ella Higginson…

This is a guest post by Laura Laffrado.

Though Ella Rhoads Higginson is little known today, over a century ago she was the most influential Pacific Northwest literary writer in the United States. People across the nation and around the world were first introduced to the Pacific Northwest when they read Higginson’s award-winning poetry, fiction, and nonfiction. Higginson’s descriptions of the majestic mountains, vast forests, and scenic waters of the Puget Sound presented the then-remote, unfamiliar Pacific Northwest to eager readers. Her celebrated writings were the very first to prominently place the Pacific Northwest on the literary map of the United States.

In addition to works of fiction and nonfiction, Higginson was the author of four books of poetry (which contained over three hundred poems). Her poems appeared regularly in leading periodicals of the day alongside works by other renowned authors. Many of her poems were set to music and performed internationally by celebrated dramatic singers such as Enrico Caruso. And in 1931, Higginson was chosen to be the first Poet Laureate of Washington State.

In her day, Higginson and her writing attracted international literary attention to the Pacific Northwest. However, by the time she died, in 1940, both she and her work were almost completely forgotten. They remain virtually forgotten today. It is my project to reintroduce Higginson’s engaging writings to a new audience of appreciative readers and to begin to reestablish her once-celebrated literary reputation.

To whet your poetry appetite, I offer a sonnet by Higginson that pays homage to our corner of the world:

Semiahmoo Spit

     One long, low, narrow strip of glistening sands
     Flung out into the Georgian Gulf; one wide,
     Blue sweep of sunlit waves on every side.
     Around it reach the hills, like emerald bands,
     And farther, higher, more majestic, stands
     Mount Baker, chaste and white—the ocean’s bride.
     With noiseless feet the pearl-topped waters glide,
     Pushing each other up the black tide-lands;
     Here wild, sweet roses, like an amethyst cloud,
     Make pink the air and scent the languorous breeze
     That wantons over these far western seas;
     And when the sun drops downward, flaming, proud,
     This stretch of water, petaled fold on fold,
     Seems one great crimson poppy, fleck’d with gold.

. . . . .

To learn more, read Dean Kahn’s article, WWU professor hopes to resurrect Ella Higginson’s legacy, in the Bellingham Herald, visit The Ella Higginson Project and watch this C-SPAN Interview with Dr. Laura Laffrado about The Ella Higginson Recovery Project.

On Thursday, November 13, 2014, 10:00am-Noon, in Old City Hall (Bellingham, WA), the Whatcom Museum will present Laura Laffrado discussing Ella Higginson’s rise to international acclaim and championship of literacy in her home of Bellingham in the early 20th century. The talk is free to the public.

. . . . .

Laura Laffrado, award-winning Professor of English at Western Washington University, has published widely on American literature. Her latest book, Selected Writings of Ella Higginson, will be published in spring 2015.