Amélie Rives Troubetzkoy

Portrait photo of Amélie Rives Troubetzkoy. Reproduced from WikiMedia.

Princess Amélie Rives Troubetzkoy (August 23, 1863 - June 16, 1945) was a famous American author of novels, plays, and poetry who spent a significant portion of her life in Albemarle County. Her papers are housed in the Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library.

Born in Richmond in 1863, Amelie Rives was a lineal descendant of Colonial Virginia explorer, patriot and guardian of Thomas Jefferson, Dr. Thomas Walker and other First Families of Virginia. She was the last familial owner of Castle Hill, the home Walker built that still stands on the first patent granted near Charlottesville.

Biography

Early life

Troubetzkoy was born on August 23, 1863 to a socially distinguished Southern family in Richmond, Virginia. She was the daughter of Sarah Catherine MacMurdo Rives and Alfred Landon Rives, who had served as the chief of engineers in the Confederate States Army during the latter portion of the Civil War. Troubetzkoy was originally named after her aunt, Amélie, a goddaughter of Queen Marie-Amélie of France.

Troubetzkoy grew up on her family's estate at Castle Hill, near Cobham in Albemarle County. When she was seven, her father accepted a position as head civil engineer of the Mobile and Birmingham Railroad, with the family subsequently moving to Mobile, Alabama. Troubetzkoy would return to Virginia every year in order to spend her summers at Castle Hill, which she always viewed as her true home.

As a child, Troubetzkoy was educated by private tutors in her family's home. She became skilled at horseback riding, although she refused to participate in the upper-class tradition of fox-hunting as she considered it to be cruel to the animals. She also developed a passion for literature with the encouragement of her family, especially her grandmother Judith Page Walker Rives who had herself published several books. Troubetzkoy was recorded to have been a very imaginative child throughout her youth, frequently gathering together with her neighborhood friends and describing her new ideas to them.

Career

By the time Troubetzkoy was 15, she had written numerous pieces of her own, although she always destroyed them afterwards as she had no intention of publishing them. Described as a beautiful and charming young woman, she made her social debut in Newport, Rhode Island but was always more interested in her own creative endeavors than high society. In 1886, after much prodding from the editor of the Atlantic Monthly, she published her first short story "A Brother to Dragons" anonymously in the magazine. This work heavily featured Elizabethan dialogue and eventually led to the publication of further writings.

In 1888, Troubetzkoy published her first novel, The Quick or the Dead?, which remains her most famous work to this day. Considered controversial at the time of its release due to the semi-erotic nature of its plot (which centered around the frank treatment of a young widow's passionate affair with her late husband's cousin), the book was, according to some accounts, banned by certain libraries and religious authorities. However, the novel was nonetheless popular with the public and sold around 300,000 copies, quickly launching the young writer into celebrity status.

In 1889, Troubetzkoy published Herod and Marianne, a tragedy rooted in the historical events surrounding Judea during the Roman period. Written in verse, this play featured a story centering around themes of hatred and jealousy and further propelled the young woman into the public eye as a talented author of her generation.

Throughout the next few decades, Troubetzkoy wrote dozens of poems, short stories, plays, novellas, and novels. Her 1914 novel entitled World's End was reputed to have been the best seller in New York City. Her play The Fear Market ran for 118 performances at the Booth Theatre in 1916 and was eventually adapted into a silent film in 1920. Her last major work, the novel Firedamp, was published in 1930. A play she had began composing in the 1920's entitled The Young Elizabeth was eventually produced in 1938, with Troubetzkoy continuing to write and publish poetry well into the 1940's.

Personal life

On June 14, 1888 Troubetzkoy married the socialite lawyer John Armstrong Chanler (himself a great-grandson of the millionaire John Jacob Astor) of New York. The couple briefly lived in Virginia before moving to England, where Troubetzkoy eventually became associated with "The Souls," an aristocratic group of intellectuals led by Margot Tennant Asquith, Arthur Balfour, and Lord George Curzon. By all accounts, Troubetzkoy's marriage with Chanler was tumultuous, with the couple frequently quarreling and traveling separately. Troubetzkoy, who continued to publish under her maiden name, was more sought after socially than her wealthy husband and was even rumored to have flirted with Lord Curzon. Troubetzkoy also began using drugs during this time, reportedly to cope with depression.

In 1895, Troubetzkoy divorced Chanler under the lenient laws of South Dakota. Chanler, noted for being an eccentric character in his own right, was later declared insane by his family and placed in an asylum, from which he eventually escaped and fought in Virginia and New York courts to be declared competent. He later provided alimony support to Troubetzkoy and continued to live on an estate close to hers in Albemarle County.

Soon afterwards, while at a party in London, the famous writer Oscar Wilde introduced Troubetzkoy to Prince Pierre Troubetzkoy, a Russian nobleman and noted portrait printer. The pair instantly took a liking to each other and eventually married at Castle Hill on February 18, 1896. According to most accounts, the couple had a happy marriage, with Troubetzkoy traveling extensively with her husband, interacting with new social circles of artists, and even adopting the honorific title of "Princess." She also studied art in Paris during this time.

In 1898, Troubetzkoy's reputation briefly suffered as a result of an illness she had contracted. Prescribed massive doses of morphine while suffering from a severe case of rheumatic fever, Troubetzkoy eventually became dependent on the drug, a fact that was later publicized and created a scandal. Withdrawing to Castle Hill, Troubetzkoy managed to overcome her addiction and was again in good health by 1902, drawing on her experiences in her 1915 novel Shadows of Flames (one of the first realistic presentations of drug addiction in American literature). She also overcame the stigma of divorce during this time, offering prospective brides advice on how to avoid disillusionment after marriage in her 1916 essay entitled "Why I Believe in Trial Engagements," which was published in the Richmond Times-Dispatch.

Although the Troubetzkoys had no children and were often separated as a result of the prince's artistic schedule, the couple remained married until his death on August 25, 1936. Troubetzkoy then removed to Castle Hill, where she would spend the remainder of her life. Her finances deteriorated during the Great Depression, and she was forced to support herself through offering guided tours of her residence for interested tourists. She was also distressed to learn in 1941 that her marriage with the Russian prince had stripped her of her American citizenship, and she instantly began to take steps to regain it prior to her own death a few years later.

Throughout her life, Troubetzkoy was close friends with the novelists Ellen Glasgow, Julia Magruder (a frequent guest at Castle Hill), and Louis Auchincloss, who included a chapter centering around Troubetzkoy in his memoir A Writer's Capital.

Death

On June 16, 1945 Troubetzkoy died from heart disease at a nursing home in Charlottesville at the age of 81. She and the Prince are both buried in the family plot at Grace Episcopalian Church across from Castle Hill in Cismont.

Ancestry and relatives

Troubetzkoy was a descendant of numerous prominent inhabitants of early Albemarle County, such as the Revolutionary War veterans Dr. Thomas Walker and Colonel William Cabell. Her grandfather was William Cabell Rives, a politician who had served on a diplomatic mission to France prior to the Civil War and had sat in both the United States and Confederate States Congresses, later authoring a three-volume biography of James Madison. Her cousin was the famous writer and lawyer Thomas Nelson Page. Troubetzkoy was also a goddaughter of the Confederate general Robert E. Lee.

Novels

• A Brother to Dragons and Other Old-time Tales (Harper & Brothers, New York, 1888)
• Virginia of Virginia (Harper & Brothers, New York, 1888)
• Herod and Mariamne (Harper & Brothers, New York, 1888)
• The Quick or the Dead? A Study (J. B. Lippincott Co., Philadelphia, 1888)
• Witness of the Sun (J. B. Lippincott Co., Philadelphia, 1889)
• According to St. John (John W. Lovell Co., New York, 1891)
• Barbara Dering: A Sequel to The Quick or the Dead? (J. B. Lippincott Co., Philadelphia, 1893)
• Tanis the Sang-Digger (Town Topics Publishing Co. New York, 1893)
• Athelwold (Harper & Brothers, New York, 1893)
• Meriel (Chatto & Windas, London, 1898)
• Augustine the Man (John Lane Company, New York, 1906)
• Seléné (Harper & Brothers, New York, 1905)
• A Damsel Errant (Harper & Brothers, New York, 1908)
• The Golden Rose: The Romance of A Strange Soul (Harper & Brothers, New York, 1908)
• Trix and Over-the-Moon (Harper & Brothers, New York, 1909)
• Pan's Mountain (Harper & Brothers, New York, 1910)
• Hidden House (J. B. Lippincott Co., Philadelphia, 1912)
• World's End (Frederick A. Stokes & Co., New York, 1914)
• Shadows of Flames (Hurst & Blackett, Ltd., London, 1915)
• The Elusive Lady (Hurst & Blackett, Ltd., London)
• The Ghost Garden (S. B. Gundy, Toronto, 1918)
• As The Wind Blew (Frederick A. Stokes & Co., New York, 1920)
• The Sea-Woman's Cloak and November Eve (Stewart Kidd Co., Cincinnati, 1923)
• The Queerness of Celia (Grosset & Dunlap, New York, 1926)
• Firedamp (Frederick A. Stokes & Co., New York, 1930)