The History of Four Women and a Volume of Poetry
In 2020, I was walking from Little Free Library to Little Free Library in my neighborhood, and an old book caught my eye: Poems by Katherine Mansfield. I recognized the running Borzoi on the logo as belonging to the publishing house of Alfred A. Knopf. Though I’m not a prolific reader of poetry, I trust Knopf because he was Willa Cather’s publisher, and I decided to pick up the book, and I have been slowly making my way through Mansfield’s poetry ever since.
Katherine Mansfield is a controversial authoress from New Zealand who wrote during the early 20th century. She hovered on the outskirts of the Bloomsbury Group, and she remains well-known for her innovation in the short story form, her humor, and her ability to pen the beauty within the mundane. Allegedly, she wore a black gown to her own wedding in 1909 and then immediately left her husband without even consummating the relationship, which I find to be hugely badass. She died of tuberculosis when she was only 34 years old.
When I picked up her book of poetry from the Little Free Library, I realized it was old, and upon inspecting the copyright page, I discovered that this was a third edition published in 1929, six years after Mansfield’s death. There were several pieces of evidence on the inside covers that I realized—after some Internet sleuthing—told the history of the volume.
In the back cover, there is a sticker that reads, “Mabel Ulrich’s Book Shop. Minneapolis St. Paul Duluth Rochester.”
I was surprised to discover that Mabel Ulrich has a Wikipedia article dedicated to her. She was born in New York in 1876 and studied medicine at Johns Hopkins University, earning her medical degree in 1901. From there, she moved to Minneapolis where she practiced medicine and served as a health advisor to female students at the U of M. She travelled around to schools with the YMCA to teach women and girls about sexual and reproductive health, writing several pamphlets on the subject. She was also in favor of the American eugenics movement of the 20th century, which encouraged genetic improvement, often through sterilization of less “desirable” genetics, such as those belonging to poor, disabled, and non-white populations. Mabel, however, denounced sterilization and instead emphasized the importance of sexual education and sexual health to improve genetics.
When she wasn’t practicing medicine, Mabel enjoyed reading and writing. She opened a bookstore in 1921, and by 1927, she owned five bookstores. The evidence suggests, then, that Mabel or someone close to her, decided to stock Katherine Mansfield’s poetry in the bookshop, which brings us to the next pieces of evidence within the volume.
On the inside cover of the book, there is a sticker that says, “This volume donated by Ruth Lusk Ramsey, June 1959.”
At first, I couldn’t find any record of Ruth, but then I found record of her husband, which helped me to find out more information about Ruth. It turns out that she died in 1959 at the age of 80. Her husband was Dr. Walter Reeve Ramsey, and he founded the Children’s Hospital of St. Paul in 1924, which is now known as Children’s Minnesota. There is still a charitable trust in Walter’s name that has continued to donate to Children’s Minnesota through 2022.
From what I can tell, the Ramseys lived in St. Paul their whole lives, and my guess is that Ruth purchased Mansfield’s Poems from the St. Paul location of Mabel Ulrich’s Book Shop in the early 1930s. This fun little audio feature I found while researching Mabel Ulrich describes how doctor’s wives in Rochester, MN asked her to open a bookshop there so they would have something to do. It seems like Mabel was well-connected within the Minnesota medical community, which makes me wonder if she and Ruth Ramsey knew each other since Ruth’s husband was a doctor.
So, who was the recipient of Poems after Ruth passed away in 1959? On the title page of Mansfield’s poetry, there is a library imprint from the St. Paul Academy Library. Accompanying this is a St. Paul Academy Library due date slip within the back cover. It is safe to assume that when Ruth died, her book collection was donated to the St. Paul Academy. St. Paul Academy was a boy’s school until 1969 when it merged with Summit School for girls. St. Paul Academy was founded in 1900, and Ruth and Walter had a son born in 1910 (Walter Reeve Ramsey, Jr., according to Ancestry.com), and I wonder if he attended St. Paul’s and that is why Ruth’s books were donated there.
There is only one name on the due date slip: S. Langford, who checked out the book in March 1974. After that, the historical trail runs dry. I’m assuming that at some point, the St. Paul Academy and Summit School decided that Katherine Mansfield no longer had a place in their library and sold the book during a book sale. After that, perhaps it stayed with its purchaser until they decided to place it in a Little Free Library. Or perhaps it passed from hand to hand several times or travelled from Little Free Library to Little Free Library until I happened upon it in 2020 during a global pandemic.
I will forever cherish this little tome in my collection, and I have added my name in the cover of the book. Perhaps someday, someone else will come across this particular tome and go on a historical adventure such as I did. I hope that if they do, they find as much joy as I have had in connecting to historical women who have made a difference:
Katherine Mansfield, Innovator.
Mabel Ulrich, Educator.
Ruth Lusk Ramsey, Mother.
What will A. Bosch contribute, I wonder? Time will tell…
