68. The Happy New Year Episode
We have so many exciting episodes lined up for 2022, but before we surge (ahem!) into the new year, we want to dish about the Once Upon a Time… at Bennington College podcast, share a roundup of other great books we’ve been reading, and give an update from a listener: Brook Ashley, Dare Wright’s godchild and author of Dare Wright and The Lonely Doll, wrote in to share some of her perspectives on Dare’s life. Happy New Year!
Letter from Brook Ashley, godchild of Dare Wright and author of Dare Wright and The Lonely Doll:
Dear Kim,
Dare was, as I believe you and Amy have discerned, an extraordinary woman with a multitude of talents and kindnesses. She was the only person I've ever known who never said an unkind word about anyone. To have been surrounded by that beautiful presence for the majority of my lifetime was an incomparable gift. She nurtured me through my childhood and I was her guardian during her long years of illness. Dare wasn't alone at the end. What I can give back to her now is a promise to see that her story is told truthfully. That is why I wrote Dare Wright and The Lonely Doll. It wasn't done for profit. With over 500 photographs--many in color--and in an over-size format, the list price barely covers the printing cost.
There are a few other points I would like to add, including these:
You mention that Dare actually ran away from men when they tried to get too close. If you look at pages 202-203 in my book you'll see that Dare was running from a violent attack (I know who the assailant was) and not, as implied in the podcast, simply a man who might have tried something akin to a harmless kiss. Dare ran from a violent situation, tripping and bloodying herself on the rough concrete sidewalk as she made her escape. That is a horrifying image that any woman can empathize with, unlike the inaccurate and off-putting statement that Dare literally ran away from men when they tried to get too close. That just makes her sound weird.
It is very simple, albeit untrue, to cast Edie as a classic smothering mother. Edie wanted to protect Dare from her father's violence during her childhood (as you can read on page 8 in my book) and set a very high bar for Dare's adult suitors. Neither goal warrants her vilification.
All the best,
Brook Ashley
11/8/2021
Discussed in this episode:
Once Upon a Time… at Bennington College
Less than Zero by Brett Easton Ellis
American Psycho by Brett Easton Ellis
The Secret History by Donna Tartt
“The Secret Oral History of Bennington” by Lili Anolik (Esquire)
Motherless Brooklyn by Jonathan Lethem
Brideshead Revisited 1981 miniseries
“Frank Sinatra Has a Cold” by Gay Talese (Esquire)
A Splendid Intelligence by Cathy Curtis
Lost Ladies of Lit Episode 54: Dare Wright and the Lonely Doll Series
Dare Wright and The Lonely Doll by Brook Ashley
Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead
The Fortnight in September by R.C. Sherriff
A Swim in the Pond in the Rain by George Saunders
Excellent Women by Barbara Pym
A Woman of No Importance by Sonia Purnell
All the Frequent Troubles of Our Days by Rebecca Donner
Gentleman Overboard by Herbert Clyde Lewis
Ethel Rosenberg: An American Tragedy by Anne Sebba
The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles
Rules of Civility by Amor Towles