THE SUICIDE OF NORA MAY FRENCH AND MORE BLAMING HER : THE FRIENDS SHE LEFT BEHIND PROMOTED THE NOTION THAT SHE WAS DESTINED FOR SUICIDE

This passage in Catherine Prendergast's book is quite dramatic. A number of men had tried to have their way with Nora, and then she became engaged to Captain Hiley, who would eventually not follow through and marry her. Jimmy refers to Jimmy Hopper who was interested in Nora shortly before she commit suicide and was married but separated from his wife at the time. Jimmy regularly borrowed money from George Sterling, who then borrowed from Jack London. After her death, George Sterling revealed to Jimmy that Nora was pregnant before she died and that his wife, Carrie, knew about it. Who was the father?

Excerpts pages 203-205:

On the evening of November 13, Jimmy had been dancing with Nora at the Arts and Crafts Club and likely went to sleep that night with thoughts of her whirling though his mind. He was awakened by a loud banging on his cabin door. Carrie Sterling stood outside, her overcoat thrown over her nightdress, shaking and crying so violently he could barely make out her words. Once he understood that Nora's life was in danger, he grabbed his shoes and ran to their bungalow as fast as his athletic legs would carry him. Flying through their living room, he made for the bedroom. Nora lay on the sheets, as still as marble statue, though not white. Her freckled cheeks, which he had been gazing at over dinner only hours before, flushed as vividly as a painting - the tell tale of cyanide in the blood. When he reached for her hand, it was cold.  Remember, Jimmy had dug mangled women out of piles of rubble during the earthquake.  As he left the bungalow and ran for the doctor, he would have already known Nora was gone. ....

.....  Jimmy seemed to develop a conscience. He next wrote George that Nora had not toyed with men as much as they had toyed with her, all the while pretending to help her. "We thought we had the lifeboat out, but we were only hitting her on the head with our oars.".... But Jimmy felt strongly that Nora's friends had failed her most, including Carrie. He blamed Carrie for scuttling his nascent relationship with Nora. Carry could accept only a single path for love, one that followed the strict line of courtship, marriage, fidelity, and death - even though she herself was trapped in a marriage to a man who humiliated her at every turn. 

Apparently Jimmy thought he could have saved Nora by also arranging a surgical abortion for her. Implied is that she was pregnant by Jimmy Lafler. The American Medical Association was cracking down on doctors who performed abortions.  If Nora was pregnant at death, this would have been yet another pregnancy. There must have been some shared guilt though, for the author found letters discussing Nora and her suicide even though George Sterling was known for burning letters. Jimmy eventually could barely hide his upset with George and Carrie Sterling and wrote that he could barely stand the thought of ever seeing Jimmy Lafler again. Nora was not forgotten in Carmel and all that blaming implied guilt.

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NORA MAY FRENCH AND HARRY LAFLER : A WINDOW INTO HIS BOHEMIAN WORLD OF SAN FRANCISCO

Excerpt page 81: Then Harry Lafler entered her life. He seemed to offer a window into another world. He was one of the writers who frequented Coppa's, the restaurant at the center of San Francisco's thriving art scene. Poets and painters gathered at a table near the back, dining on sand dabs and green salads and drinking cheap red whine while talking into to the night. Everyone in California had heard of Coppa's. Every arist or writer who visited San Francisco stopped there. And Lafler was painted onto the very wall. .... Harry was at Coppa;s almost every night, writing and then reading his sonnets. He was most often in the company of George Sterling, whom they all called "The King Of Bohemia" because he had defined Bohemianism for the world.  

There are two elements, at least, that are essential to Bohemianism,"he decreed. "The first is devotion or addition to one or more of the Seven Arts, the other is poverty."

Nora realized she had never even seen what Harry Lafler looked like and that it was ridiculous to have developed such strong feelings for him because of a correspondence. However, they had an affair and after she commit suicide it was suggested she was pregnant by him.

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