Free spirit of the revolution
Rebellious University of Oregon graduate Louise Bryant rediscovered
By Phil Lemman
Of the Emerald
"Louise Bryant was one of the ardent spirits of the
(Russian) revolution."
“She was naive and untutored."
“She was a girl who would use anybody and
anything to further her own ambition."
Louise Bryant is a woman long overlooked by
history
Little has been written about her, even though after
her graduation from the University in 1909 she wit
nessed and wrote about one of the most tumultuous
events of the 20th Century — the 1917 Russian revolu
tion — and through her second husband, radical jour
nalist John Reed, was associated with left wing political
leaders in this country in the early 1900 s
Yet until actor Warren Beatty released Reds, his
romanticized film version of Bryant’s marriage to Reed
and their adventures reporting the revolution, both
Reed and Bryant had been consigned to relative ob
scurity
Prior to the movie, what recognition Reed received
was based primarily on his highly successful book
about the revolution. Ten Days That Shook the World.
long regarded as the most authoritative account of the
revolution An American socialist leader. Reed was
treated as an insider and allowed access to documents
other journalists never saw He is the only American
buried in the Kremlin, a place reserved for Soviet
heroes
If known at all. Bryant's popularity is from Diane
Keaton's portrayal of her in the film
People wanting to read books by or about John
Reed are put on waiting lists at local libraries, but
Bryant’s two books on the Russian revolution. Six Red
Months in Russia and Mirrors on Moscow are easy to
get from from the University library The Eugene Public
Library doesn't have her books in its collection
But if her literary works haven’t stood the test of
time, her personality has She remains a vivid memory
to those who knew her — although those memories
create differing images
To some she was a vivacious, charming, attractive
woman — and a zealous socialist To others she was
only a shallow social climber, erratic and unprincipled,
taking advantage of Reed s stature to make contacts
She was not an academic standout, described by
University Archivist Keith Richard as a strong average
student, no Phi Beta Kappa ” The map in her senior
thesis on the Modoc Indian War in southern Oregon
mislables Oregon and California
She was active on campus in her two years at the
University, playing the female lead in her senior class
play, editing the University literary magazine. Oregon
Monthly, and serving as art editor for the 1909 annual,
then called The Beaver She also was a charter member
of the Zeta lota Phi sorority, now Chi Omega
But what made her stand out from the 303 other
students at the University in I908 — an unsophisticated,
conservative school — was her flamboyant personality
and lifestyle
“I would say that she was a night person, and that
studies came secondary." says Gladys McCready. a
Eugene historian whose sister was also a Zeta lota Phi
charter member "I think she pretty much went her own
way and did her own thing, which was very avant-garde
for those days.
‘‘She was a girl who liked excitement ."
McCready poured punch at sorority functions
when she was a girl, and met Bryant there ‘‘She was a
character who would be very interesting to someone my
age because she was one-of-a-kind," she says. "I can’t
remember any other person who dressed or looked like
she did "
Bryant looked spectacular for her day and age,
"almost like a doll," McCready says She had "quite a
lot of coloring much more than people ever wore in
those days
"She was never particularly well groomed and that
was kind of a noticeable feature I know the girls in the
(sorority) house always felt that she wasn't too careful
about her clothing But she had nice clothing
Campus life for someone like Louise, McCready
says, would be "pretty dull."
But in town there was "some drinking, and some
affairs going on, and that sort of thing, and I think that's
what she entered into," McCready says
"The story was that she was having a very ongoing
affair with a man here in town "
The man was a prominent Eugene businessman
and man about town He and Bryant were once chased
off the Foley Hot Springs resort with a shotgun after
giving Bryant rides around the grounds in a wheelbar
row
Bryant was not politically active on campus "She’s
not a wild-eyed radical or anything," Richard says
Things were not much different for her in Portland
Photo courtesy of Oregon Historical Society negative
number 13358 Artist John H Trulhnger
After graduating with a liberal arts degree. Bryant
moved to Portland and married dentist Paul Trulhnger
But her husband's friends and patients were the
well-heeled residents of Portland Heights and the West
Hills, not the bohemian writers and artists she sought
She started writing poetry, most of which was never
published, and began her political involvement speak
ing in several western states on behalf of the women's
suffrage movement
Bryant's sincerity in her personal relationships and
political associations is a lingering question One of
Reed's friends, Nina Faubion, wrote that Bryant was a
“brain picker. She picked the brains of all she contact
ed,"
Trullinger’s cousin. Linley Chrichton said "Louise
was a very erratic person She jumped into a project
with much enthusiasm but soon tired of it and dropped it
flat — just as she dropped Paul She treated her men,
her friends and her activities with equal abandon '
But. she continued. Louise could be as charming
as Cleopatra herself "
Mabel Dodge, one of Reed s former lovers and a
prominent New York socialite wrote that the girl was
clever with a certain Irish quickness, and very eager to
get on. I think Reed was a stepping stone, and through
him she met a lot of people she wouldn't have met
otherwise It had not seemed to me that she cared very
much for him ”
But Reed wrote “In my life as in most lives, I guess,
love plays a tremendous part I've had love affairs,
passionate happiness, wretched maladjustments; hurt
deeply and been hurt But at last I have found my friend
and lover, thrilling and satisfying, closer to me than
anyone has ever been And now I don't care what
comes “
Bryant followed Reed to Greenwich Village, head
quarters for the blossoming radical movements of that
time Trullinger had a nervous breakdown after she left,
and divorced her in 1916 for "cruel and inhuman
treatment, personal indignities and desertion ”
Both Reed and Bryant had affairs during their
marriage Bryant had an affair with playwright Eugene
O'Neill and another in Moscow with her future husband.
William Bullitt
O'Neill later wrote a play about his relationship with
Reed and Bryant, Strange Interlude, which won a
Pulitzer Prize in 1928
In June, 1917 Bryant left for England determined
to become a war correspondent The State Department
official who approved her passport request wrote "I
suppose I will have to issue a passport to this wild
woman She is full of socialistic and ultra-modern
ideas ”
Bryant was one of seven female corresondents in
Russia during the revolution She was hired by a
syndicate of 18 newspapers to cover the uprising from
the woman's point of view She wrote profiles of female
revolutionaries, women s regiments in the Red Army
and children caught in the war
When the revolution ended Bryant returned home
alone to write Six Red Months in Russia a book
unabashed in its support of the new government It was
not a success But when Reed returned home and wrote
Ten Days in early 1919, his book went through four
printings in five months
Bryant then began speaking throughout the
country defending the new Soviet government, soft
pedaling criticisms of the Bolsheviks and strongly
opposing the intervention of American troops in the
Russian civil war
In Portland she told a crowd of 4 000 people about
her experiences in Russia, her friendship with revolu
tionary leaders and about the popularity of the new
government The Oregonian reporter covering her
speech said she hadn't changed much from her days in
Portland, describing her as much the same little
radicalist and vigorous reformer ”
In late 1919. Reed returned to Russia to work for
the Bolsheviks But his health, never strong began to
fail She joined him in Russia in August. 1920, shortly
before he became bedridden with typhus He died Oct
17, three days sho.rt of his 33rd birthday
In 1923, she married Bullitt the U S ambassador to
France They had one daughter. Anne who now lives in
Ireland
Bryant was divorced by Bullitt in 1930, again for
personal indignities " She began drinking heavily and
using drugs and spent some time in a sanitarium But
the cure was only temporary
Louise Bryant died in 1936 in Paris, a forgotten
woman The official cause was listed as cerebral
hemorrhage
While not known for her journalistic works, a fitting
epitaph for her comes from a book on female jour
nalists Ladies of the Press
"She was well known wherever radical thought
foregathered, but little was heard of her in the few years
preceding her death Life flamed high for her, then
burned low She represented an era in journalism which
seems to have come to an end
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