Stella Gibbons's romance My American contains much writing-related material. The previous article contains extracts that describe the writing process; this article is mainly about the relationship between Amy Lee, adventure stories and Stella Gibbons herself.
There are some autobiographical elements in My American: some of what Stella Gibbons says about Amy Lee, her childhood, her inner states, her imagination and her stories applies to Stella herself.
Stella Gibbons and adventure stories
Reading about Amy Lee's early tales of danger and adventure such as The Hero of the Desert and The Mummy's Curse reminded me of something I once read about Stella Gibbons: she liked the books of Sir Henry Rider Haggard very much indeed, and more than anything else she wanted to write similar stories.
Her nephew and biographer Reggie Oliver said this:
“Amy as a writer is Stella, but without her sophistication or intellect; and to create her character, Stella projected her immature, adolescent self into Amy’s adulthood. Amy writes romantic adventure stories of the kind that Stella wrote at the age of twelve, based on Rider Haggard and Ouida.”
Amy Lee's early stories certainly sound just like the sort that Stella Gibbons wished she could write. She must eventually have come to realise that she had no talent for creating such stories; she had to settle for describing ordinary people shopping at the Archway in north London as opposed to colourful characters searching for King Solomon's mines in Africa!
It makes sense that if Stella Gibbons couldn't do in real life something she very much wanted to do, she would do it vicariously in fiction. This may be a second-best substitute and form of compensation, but it is better than nothing – for both readers and writers.
Amy Lee and living vicariously
It also makes sense that Amy Lee, who was full of fear, would live vicariously through a succession of strong and fearless young men who did in her stories what she couldn't do in real life:
“Her stories were natural flowers growing from the soil of her mind, which had been saturated with fear since her childhood. She had always been afraid of size, afraid of noise, afraid of people shattering her secret world, and she could only get rid of this fear by pouring it out on paper, and unconsciously identifying herself with the brave and honourable hero who was not afraid of anything...He took what he wanted. He knew no laws but the two which he imposed on his own nature: he never betrayed a friend, he never gave in to his enemies. He was, of course, Amy herself; the child alone in the world, defiant yet secretly desperately afraid.”
Stella Gibbons could be describing her childhood self here.
The conspicuous absence of public libraries
It seems very strange to me that there is no mention of public libraries - or even a school library - in My American.
Both Amy and her father own a small collection of books that they think of as their library, and when Amy grows up and becomes rich and famous she joins the London Library – which involves paying a subscription - but there is no mention of libraries in between. This is all the more odd as the young Amy lives close to the Islington Central Library, which was established in 1906.
Stella Gibbons herself was very interested in libraries and knew the area well; she mentions buying clothes for Amy at Jones Brothers, so why didn't she say anything about this impressive public library, another big well-known institution in the Holloway Road?
This library would have been the ideal place for Amy to get a regular supply of inspirational reading material for herself. Another function of public libraries is to provide a safe, quiet place where people from noisy, crowded homes can read, study and write; this too would have made it ideal for Amy. She is quite accustomed to spending hours by herself at the British Museum, so why not use the library too?
This to me is a glaring omission that doesn't make sense.
Amy Lee's father's library
Amy Lee often re-read the shabby but sturdy old novels in her father's library. His books were late Victorian editions that had travelled around with him throughout his life:
“Tim did not care for reading nowadays, but he had grown up with books like these, and their stories were part of that mental furniture which stays in a man’s head through the steepest ups and downs. His own taste was for the minor classic, a type of book that has perhaps given more pure pleasure to more readers than any other kind, and as soon as Amy could read he had put her on to The Cloister and the Hearth, A Gentleman of France, Tom Burke of “Ours”, King Solomon’s Mines and many others.”
This sounds autobiographical too.These books are all adventure stories; they and many other classics can now be found on Project Gutenberg.
The first edition of King Solomon's Mines was published in 1895. This copy has the author's inscription to his sister:
