Monroe Wheeler

Monroe Wheeler
Portrait by George Platt Lynes (1937)
Born13 February 1899
Evanston, Illinois, US
Died14 August 1988 (aged 89)
New York City, US
Occupation(s)Museum curator and publisher
PartnerGlenway Wescott

Monroe Wheeler (13 February 1899 – 14 August 1988) was an American publisher and museum coordinator whose relationship with the novelist and poet Glenway Wescott lasted from 1919 until Wescott's death in 1987.[1]

Biography

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Wheeler was born in Evanston, Illinois in 1899. He met Glenway Wescott, who was his partner for the rest of their lives, in 1919. During the 1920s, Wescott and Wheeler lived and worked in Germany and France.[2]

With an inheritance from his family, Wheeler bought a small printing press, and with Barbara Harrison, established Harrison of Paris, specializing in limited-edition books; they published in total thirteen books, including two works by Wheeler's partner, Wescott. In 1934 they moved the press to New York City. The last book published by Harrison of Paris was Hacienda by Katherine Anne Porter.[3]

In 1935, Wheeler was employed by New York's Museum of Modern Art. He was initially on the Library Committee and three years later he was made Director of Membership, before becoming Director of Publications in the following year. In 1940, MOMA created the role of Director of Exhibitions and Wheeler was the first person to hold the post. In 1944, he became one of MOMA's Trustees and he later sat on the Executive Committee, the Exhibitions Program Committee, and also the Coordination Committee. By 1948, Wheeler was leading the Exhibitions and Publications, the outreach programs and the library.[2][4]

Wheeler photographed by George Platt Lynes (1940)

For over a decade, the photographer George Platt Lynes had a relationship with Wheeler and Wescott.[5] Both Paul Cadmus' Conversation Piece (1940),[6] and Jared French's Glenway Wescott, George Platt Lynes and Monroe Wheeler[7] made triptych portraits of Wheeler, Wescott and Lynes. When We Were Three: The Travel Albums of George Platt Lynes, Monroe Wheeler, and Glenway Wescott, 1925–1935 was published in 1998.[8] Lynes ended his relationship with Wheeler and Wescott in 1943 to be with his studio assistant, George Tichenor.[1] Another of Wheeler's lovers was the artist and model Christian William Miller.[9]

When Lloyd Wescott, Glenway's brother, moved to a farm in Union Township in 1936, Wescott, Wheeler and Lynes took over one of Lloyd's farm's houses and named it Stone-Blossom.[10] In 1959, when Lloyd Wescott acquired a farm near Rosemont in Delaware Township, Hunterdon County, New Jersey, Glen Wescott moved into a stone house named "Haymeadows" on his brother's land.[10]

In 1987, Glenway Wescott died of a stroke at home.[11] Wheeler died in New York City in 1988, but his ashes were buried with Wescott and this latter family at Haymeadows.[12][10]

References

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  1. ^ a b "THE RELEVANT QUEER: Glenway Wescott, Novelist, Poet, Provocative Gay Marriage Pioneer". Image Amplified. Retrieved 2022-08-19.
  2. ^ a b "Monroe Wheeler Papers in The Museum of Modern Art Archives". The Museum of Modern Art Museum Archives. Retrieved 12 January 2018.
  3. ^ "Harrison of Paris Records" (PDF). Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library. hdl:10079/fa/beinecke.hop. Text copied from Barbara Harrison Wescott, see that page for attribution
  4. ^ Robertson, Nan (December 5, 1961). "Modern Museum Is Startled by Matisse Picture". The New York Times.
  5. ^ Limnander, Armand (5 March 2009). "Landed Gent". The New York Times. Retrieved 23 August 2016.
  6. ^ Saltz, Jerry (April 8, 2019). "A Radical New History of Queer Modernism, 1933–1950". Vulture.
  7. ^ Rolle, Elisa (December 17, 2014). "Jared French & Paul Cadmus".
  8. ^ When We Were Three: The Travel Albums of George Platt Lynes, Monroe Wheeler, and Glenway Wescott, 1925-1935. Arena Editions. 1998. ISBN 9780965728041. Retrieved 15 March 2018.
  9. ^ Leddick, David (2015). Intimate Companions: A Triography of George Platt Lynes, Paul Cadmus, Lincoln Kirstein, and Their Circle. Macmillan. ISBN 9781250104786. Retrieved 30 July 2017.
  10. ^ a b c Rosco, Jerry (2002). Glenway Wescott Personally. University of Wisconsin Press. ISBN 9780299177300.
  11. ^ "Glenway Wescott, 85, Novelist and Essayist". The New York Times. February 24, 1987. Retrieved April 4, 2008.
  12. ^ "Monroe Wheeler, Board Member Of Modern Museum, Is Dead at 89". The New York Times. August 16, 1988. Retrieved March 11, 2018.
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