Hanna Rion: Her Life and Writings

During her relatively short life, Hanna Rion (1874-1924) achieved distinction not only as one of the most popular garden writers of the early 20th century but also as a musician, painter, and writer of fiction. Her lively and witty writing style, uniquely her own, has made The Garden in the Wilderness (1909) and Let's Make a Flower Garden (1912) classics of the "garden fever era" of the early 1900s. Less appreciated is the great variety of her literary accomplishments. Beyond her garden works, she wrote verses for children, shorts stories, novellas, and two popular novels. She also wrote two books and countless newspaper and journal articles in support of the Twilight Sleep movement on both sides of the Atlantic, but especially in England where she spearheaded the movement. In this cradle-to-grave biography the author surveys all of Hanna Rion's writings as he traces her remarkable journey through life: from her native South Carolina to New York City, to the "Wilderness" on the banks of the Hudson, to Bermuda and England (St Ives and London) where she remained during the years of World War I, and finally back to her home in Bermuda after the war. Beyond her writings, attention is also given to Rion's early years as a musician and to her lifelong pursuit of art. Her water colors and paintings of Bermudian, English, and American landscapes and seascapes remain coveted items for many in the art world of today.