Elizabeth Yates papers

Notes on Elizabeth Yates and Effie Douglass Putnam, from Julie Bowker - May, 2008:

"...Elizabeth Yates was my grandfather's first cousin. I met her a few times at her farm in New Hampshire. She was an interesting, intelligent woman, but aloof.

Elizabeth and my grandfather were both born in 1905; their mothers were sisters. "Betty" as she was known by her cousins, was set up by her father in an apt. in Cambridge in proximity to my grandfather and his sister who were both enrolled at Harvard (c. 1923). Consensus among her Bostonian cousins was that she was a bit of a pampered snob with no sense of humor and a bottomless bank account, and they all kept their distance from one another. Eventually, both Elizabeth and my grandfather landed in NH, but I don't think they visited ever, although she always sent a copy of her latest book with an inscription (to remind him that she'd made it as an author, he used to chuckle).

I see that Elizabeth's papers included the diary of Effie Douglass Putnam. Stories of the legendary Aunt Effie had come down to me from my grandfather and his sister. My great-aunt had an old framed photograph of a portrait of "Aunt Effie" hanging in a back bedroom. I was told that the original portrait of Effie hangs in the Louvre, although I've never verified. Up to her death in 1968, the photograph had always been a treasured keepsake of my great- grandmother's.

The Effie Putnam - Elizabeth Yates nexus is step niece - step great aunt.

Elizabeth is the niece of my great-grandmother Antoinette Duffy Riordan (1877-1968).

Effie's sister Loretto Putnam married Antoinette's widowed father (Elizabeth's grandfather) Walter Bernard Duffy of Rochester in the 1890's. Apparently, my great-grandmother and her new stepmum weren't on the warmest of terms, so my great-grandmother was sent to school in Paris, where she was taken under the wing of "wicked" stepmother's sister, Effie Putnam. Effie was living in Paris where she was, as you know, a well-known harpist and aspiring author, having published a book of poems and a romance novel, Cirillo, around 1911 or so. My great-granny adored Aunt Effie, and according to great-granny's children, the Aunt Effie annecdotes were endless.

I'm guessing that Elizabeth Yates who lived in London for a decade (1930's) may have been part of Effie's illustrious cultural orbit as well. And they had their love of books and writing in common. I'd always thought of Effie as being the exclusive property of my great-grandmother...never occurred to me that Elizabeth also would have known her.

I've recently tracked down a copy of Effie's book Cirillo...dedicated to Elizabeth's grandparents Walter and Loretto...."