Crane, Louise

Louise Crane, born on November 11, 1913, was the daughter of Josephine Boardman Crane (1873-1972) and W. Murray Crane (1853-1920). She attended Vassar where she became friends with Elizabeth Bishop and Margaret Miller among others. Crane and Bishop befriended Marianne Moore, who became a mentor and lifelong friend (Crane had power of attorney for Moore at the end of her life). Following her graduation from Vassar, Louise Crane was involved in a number of cultural institutions and programs, including the Harpsichord Music Society and the Museum of Modern Art. Josephine Boardman Crane, with help from Louise, hosted a number of literary salons at their home at 820 Fifth Avenue, New York. The Cranes' apartment was filled with decorative arts and artwork and the Cranes lent and donated a number of pieces to museums. In addition to their home in Manhattan, the Crane family owned homes in Woods Hole, Ma. ("Driftwood"), Dalton, Ma., Redding, Ct., and Fort Myers Beach, Florida. In later years Louise Crane lived with and assisted her aging mother.

Among the circle of writers whom the Cranes befriended were Djuna Barnes, Elizabeth Bishop, Bryher, Loren MacIver, Somerset Maugham, Marianne Moore, Edith and Osbert Sitwell, Virgil Thomson, Glenway Wescott, and Tennessee Williams.

Bishop and Crane traveled extensively together, including trips to Europe, Morocco, and the Atlas Mountains (1935-1936), Florida (1936-1937), and Ireland, France, and Italy (1937). In 1938 they bought a home in Key West, Florida. Crane commuted between New York, where she took care of her mother, and Key West. Crane and Bishop stopped traveling together after 1940.

Crane died in 1997 after suffering from Alzheimer's for a number of years.

Crane's mother, Josephine Boardman Crane, was a prominent philanthropist; she developed the "Dalton Plan," a progressive method of education, which led to the founding of the Dalton School, and was one of the founders of the Museum of Modern Art. A member of the family who owned the Crane Paper Company, in Dalton, Massachusetts, W. Murray Crane entered politics and served as governor of Massachusetts (1900-1902) and as state senator for Massachusetts (1904-1914). Louise Crane was one of the couple's three children; her two brothers were Bruce Crane (who became President of the Crane Paper Company) and Stephen Crane.

Victoria Kent was Louise Crane's companion in later years. Kent was a prominent lawyer and politician from Spain. She was born on March 6, 1892 in Málaga. (During her lifetime Kent maintained she was born in 1897, however, organizers of an homage to Kent in Málaga discovered in 1997 that her birth date is in fact 1892.) As a young woman Kent studied law at the University of Madrid and after graduation she became the first female lawyer in Spain. She gained notoriety as a lawyer in 1931 when she was one of the defense lawyers for politicians Fernando de los Rios, Niceto Alcalá-Zamora, Francisco Largo Cabellero, and Álvaro de Albornoz. She served as a congresswoman in the Parliament of the Second Spanish Republic (1931) and as Director General of Prisons (1931-1934) but was forced to flee Spain during the Spanish civil war. Kent lived in exile in France (recounted in her book Cuatro Años en París ) and served as the Secretary of the Spanish Embassy (1937-1939). Kent lived for a period in Mexico -- where she taught penal law at the University of Mexico -- and then moved to the United States where she worked as a member of the Secretariat for the United Nations (1950-1952). Crane and Kent published Ibérica, a Spanish language anti-Franco magazine from 1954 to 1974. Following Josephine Boardman Crane's death, Kent and Crane lived together in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, and Redding, Connecticut.

Kent died of a heart attack in September 1987.

From the guide to the Louise Crane and Victoria Kent papers, 1809-1998, (Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library)