[PW] Author query

[Dennis Lien]

At 04:32 PM 10/2/2007, you wrote:
>Hi,
>
>I have a patron who is looking for the book written by the Countess
>d'Autier, aka Marquise de la Rochebriant.  She is quoted in a New York Times
>story from May 30, 1909.  It was a book written on Americans and America.
>Her maiden name was Martha Fredika and she was of the ducal house of
>Mecklenberg-Schwerin, was born in Stockholm and in 1899 married Roger Comte
>d'Autier, Marquis de la Rochebriant.  From the Times article, "The Marquise
>then turned the conversation to the subject of her book, one which will
>portray in a kindly spirit, she said, the American man and woman, as she
>found them."  Unfortunately, the name of the book is not in the article.  I
>checked WorldCat, but couldn't find anything by author.  I also Googled her
>name, but only came up with the article that I already have.  Apparently,
>the patron is this woman's nephew and he would like to find out more about
>the book.  Any clues??
>
>Jocelyn


The New York TIMES article indicates she claims to have written the book,
but as you note doesn't give a title -- and doesn't indicate it has
actually been published or accepted for publication.  She says "it *will*
portray" and so on and that she "may add another chapter."

In the Chicago TRIBUNE, she shows up a few weeks later in a story

  MARQUISE DE FONTENOY.
Chicago Daily Tribune (1872-1963). Chicago, Ill.: Jul 18, 1909. p. B4

complaining that she is advertising willingness to sell some of her
husband's 29 titles of nobility to the highest bidder, and claiming
that as this would not be legal she is either a fraud or a "silly
woman."  Nothing said about her book however.  She is said to "live
in a rear second-floor flat in West Forty-Fifth Street, New York."

Forty years later her daughter, Wilhelma Wallace (31) and her
daughter's husband (William Wallace, 42) are questionned in
Detroit in a possible murder case "about the slaying of a blonde
last August 11 in a tourist cabin near Calgary, Alberta."

QUIZ DAUGHTER OF MARCHIONESS TODAY IN KILLING
Chicago Daily Tribune (1872-1963). Chicago, Ill.: Nov 9, 1949. p. 29
(including a large photo of her daughter and herself)

where she is described as a "self-styled Marchioness" and "as a
dignified, elderly woman with a temper and a French accent" who
"cited her noble lineage as a reason her daughter should be
released immediately."  Additionally "the mother said she has
been living in the United States since the death of her husband,
the marquis, in 1906.  She has resided in Detroit for the last
several years.  She said Wilhelma was born in Bellingham, Wash.
as a result of her second marriage to a man now dead."

And later:
HUSBAND HELD, WIFE FREED IN CABIN SLAYING
Chicago Daily Tribune (1872-1963). Chicago, Ill.: Nov 11, 1949. p. 20

but only mention of the mother in this one is that she "claims to
be a French noblewoman."  The dead woman was one Yvonne Levesque.
William Wallace supposedly confessed that "he struck the girl
after she objected when he tried to take money from the pocket
of her fiance.  The fiance, Donald Henderson, fled after the
killing and has not been located."

Followup story:

DROP MURDER BILL IN SLAYING OF NAKED GIRL
Chicago Daily Tribune (1872-1963). Chicago, Ill.: Dec 9, 1949. p. A6

makes no mention of the Marchioness (or Wilhelma).  William Wallace,
described as an electrician, denied his earlier confession and was
released for lack of evidence.

Nothing to do with the Marchioness' hypothetical book, but with all
respect from a century's perspective she sounds rather a flake,
and I doubt the book was ever published and perhaps was not in
fact even written.

Dennis Lien / U of Minnesota Libraries // d-lien at umn.edu