HIS   MIND   ON   FIRE:

Rockwell Kent's Amorous Letters to Hildegarde Hirsch and

Ernesta Drinker Bullitt, 1916-1925
 

Jake Milgram Wiex

"A great piece of paper ... is as stimulating as a great canvas; my thoughts
become magnificent and brave."

Rockwell Kent to F,rncsla Drinker Bullitt, 1924^
 

R
 

ockwell Kent, voyager to and
painter of remote places, con-
. quered the desire brought on
by the distance and silence of isolation through the writing of letters. Over
the course of a lifetime, Kent would put pen to countless pieces of
stationery, committing to posterity his innermost thoughts, some "magnifi¬
cent and brave," some not. Letter writing also provided Kent with a means
of temporal escape to a romantic world of his own construct. For much of
Kent's midlife (his mid-thirties to mid-forties), the letter of desire occupied a
strategic place in the arsenal of his heart.

The two primary recipients of his amorous letters during these vears
were, first, Hildegarde Hirsch ("Hildegarde"), and, several years later,
Ernesta Drinker Bullitt ("Ernesta"). Against the backdrop of his weakening
first marriage, Kent sent his inamorata^ accounts of his frequent daydreams
and nocturnal yearnings, some of which he characterized as "little inter¬
ludes for love making."" Since 1995 these letters and cards, over 180 in all,
have enriched the largely unmined materials that comprise the
Rockwell Kent Collection of Columbia's Rare Book and Manuscript
Library (the "Rockwell Kent Collection"). Together with the original
sources of his artwork—hundreds of preliminary sketches, drawings and
proofs in the Rockwell Kent Collection—the handwritten correspondence
contributes to an understanding of his larger artistic vision. The amorous