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A Review of Beyond the Cabbage Patch, The Literary World of Alice Hegan Rice

Reviewed by Carlton Jackson

On a cold day in the mid-1890s, a Louisville, Kentucky woman, Alice Hegan, was peering through a window in her house. She saw an old woman wearing tattered clothes searching garbage bags for food. Alice invited the woman, Mary Bass, into her kitchen. As Mary warmed up with cups of hot coffee, she told Alice her story of ramshackle houses, hungry children and drunken husbands. She was from a “seamy” part of Louisville known as The Cabbage Patch.

Alice Hegan was in such awe of this “wrong side of the tracks” in Louisville that she began regular visits to the area. She began writing descriptions of what she saw, heard, and sensed. The result was Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch, a book written in 1901. This account of the “Cabbage Patch” begat numerous plays and movies. Miss Hegan put Louisville on the literary map.

Now comes Mary Boewe with this wonderfully encompassing biography. While giving full attention to “Mrs. Wiggs,” Alice did go on to write another 17 books about various subjects. But it was always “Mrs. Wiggs” that readers remembered and treasured. It was like a movie star becoming so identified with a role and forever stamped with it. Such was, to a large extent, the rather happy fate of “Mrs. Wiggs.” Alice Hegan married a “serious-minded” poet, Cale Young Rice. Alice was light minded; Cale was serious. They made an interesting literary couple in Louisville for more than 40 years.

Boewe’s biography is valuable for its description and discussion of the turn of the 20th century literary activities. Many of the literati in Louisville were also a part of a national group of writers and editors. The Rices were in the midst of it. Among those included were S.S. McClure, Sherwood Anderson, Ray Stannard Baker, Edward Bellamy, Robert Worth Bingham, Henry Watterson, Van Wyck Brooks, Rachel Field, Mark Twain and others. One of Alice’s closest friends was Lincoln biographer, Ida Tarbell. The two corresponded with each other, sometimes on a weekly basis. Though the book is about Alice Hegan Rice, its insights into the literary scene in Louisville and the rest of the nation, add to the quality of this biography.

The Rices traveled a great deal. Each summer they sojourned in Maine. They also took worldwide voyages and were particularly intrigued by the Far East. These travels led to Alice’s The Lady of the Decoration (about missionary life) and to her husband’s poem, A Japanese Mother in Wartime. They also spent time in England and other parts of Europe. Each visit led to additional publications.

Like millions of other people, Alice and Cale suffered from the Great Depression of the 1930s. They sold their 1927 Franklin auto for a bit of revenue. They also rented out a part of their home. Nevertheless, the Depression and the onset of health problems for both of the Rices bode ill for the future. Alice had heart difficulties. She died on Feb. 10, 1942. Cale was totally lost without Alice. “The Road is so lonely I can’t go on,” he wrote in one of his poems. He ended his own life on Jan. 23, 1943. Thus, two of Louisville’s great literary figures were gone. Mary Boewe’s biography is extensive, with copious notes and a full index.

http://bgdailynews.com/articles/2011/02/13/features/feat4.txt