Heaton Vorse

Location of Interview
Collection Name

Tales of Cape Cod

Description

The Tales of Cape Cod Oral History Collection consists      of interviews of life long residents of all the towns in  Barnstable County conducted between ca. 1972-1978. Louis Cataldo, then president of the Tales of Cape Cod board, oversaw the project, staff included Franklin S. Klausner, Roland Barabe, David J. Boudreau, Charles H. Hodgson and Renee Magriel, and interviewers included Betty W. Richards, Lee Anne Sullivan and William Pride. Interviewers asked older Cape Residents about changes    in transportation, the arrival of electricity and telephones, their memories of school, holiday celebrations, foodways, family histories and more. Residents shared stories and anecdotes about summer people, the fishing and   cranberry industries, agriculture, local businesses, the Great Depression, World Wars I and II, Prohibition, race relations, economic change, major storms and much    more.  For more information, contact the William Brewster Nickerson Archives in the Wilkens Library at Cape Cod Community College: http://www.nickersonarchives.org/ 

Interviewer
Date of Interview
05-16-1978
Transcribers

Fantastic Transcripts
Molly Graham

Audio
Transcript
Biographical Sketch

"It's expensive to live down here now and so, for that very reason, many of the artistic groups have gone to Truro and Wellfleet and further down the Cape."

Heaton Vorse was a resident of Provincetown, Massachusetts, who moved there with his family in 1906. His family consisted of his father, mother, sister, and a governess. Both his parents were writers, with his father, Albert White Vorse, being a journalist who wrote short stories and articles. His mother, Mary Heaton Vorse, initially wrote as a sideline to supplement the family income. However, after the death of her husband, she took up writing seriously to support her two children. She started writing seriously around 1912 and became a recognized labor reporter, sympathetic to the labor movement. She was particularly disturbed by the sight of women and children working for long hours. Mary Heaton Vorse was also a war correspondent during the first and second world wars.

Scope and Content Note
The interview with Heaton Vorse, conducted by Betty Richards on May 16, 1978, provides a detailed account of Vorse's family history, particularly focusing on his parents' careers as writers. Vorse recounts his family's move to Provincetown in 1906 during a two-week vacation, which led to them purchasing a house there. Vorse's father, Albert White Vorse, was a journalist who wrote short stories and articles His mother, Mary Heaton Vorse, initially wrote to supplement the family income but took up writing seriously after her husband's death to support her two children. She started writing seriously around 1912 and became a recognized labor reporter, sympathetic to the labor movement. She was particularly disturbed by the sight of women and children working for long hours, which she witnessed in Lawrence and New York City. Mary Heaton Vorse was also a war correspondent during the first and second world wars. During the second world war, she was the oldest accredited correspondent. Vorse also mentions that his mother was friends with many artists in Provincetown, including Hawthorne, Webster, and Chaffee. He also mentions that there were many writers in Provincetown, including Hapgood, Steele, and others. Vorse also discusses his mother's published works, which were mainly light novels and potboilers. He mentions a few titles by the Provincetown Players. Vorse also discusses his own experiences during the Prohibition era, including his own beer-making endeavors and the local bootlegging scene. He mentions a particular brand of homemade whiskey known as "Panther Piss," made by artists Spencer and his wife, Betty. Vorse also recalls the presence of Eugene O'Neill in Provincetown, noting that O'Neill wrote many of his plays there, including "The Great God Brown," "All God's Chillun Got Wings," "Desire Under the Elms," and "Emperor Jones." These plays were originally performed by the Provincetown Players, a group that started in Provincetown in 1914 and 1915 and later established the first off-Broadway theater on Macdougal Street, known as the Provincetown Playhouse. The interview also covers Vorse's memories of traveling from New York to Cape Cod, either by train or boat, and his childhood experiences in Provincetown. He describes Provincetown as a "nice place for a kid to be in the summertime," where he would sail, row, play in the woods, and play base games. Overall, the interview provides a rich and detailed account of Vorse's family history, his parents' careers, and his own experiences growing up in Provincetown. It offers valuable insights into the cultural and social history of Provincetown, particularly its literary and artistic communities, during the early 20th century.

Project Note
The Tales of Cape Cod Oral History Collection is housed at the William Brewster Nickerson Archives in the Wilkens Library at Cape Cod Community College in West Barnstable, Massachusetts. For more information about the collection, please contact the Nickerson Archives, http://www.nickersonarchives.org/.


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