1 00:00:01,280 --> 00:00:04,320 Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production 2 00:00:04,400 --> 00:00:13,640 Speaker 1: of I Heart Radio. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. 3 00:00:13,680 --> 00:00:17,320 Speaker 1: I'm Tracy V. Wilson and I'm Holly Fry. I have 4 00:00:17,440 --> 00:00:20,400 Speaker 1: had Louie Wayne on my list for an episode for 5 00:00:20,440 --> 00:00:24,000 Speaker 1: a while. He was a commercial illustrator and popular artist 6 00:00:24,040 --> 00:00:28,160 Speaker 1: who's most well known for his many depictions of cats. 7 00:00:29,000 --> 00:00:31,720 Speaker 1: We've had some listener requests for an episode on him 8 00:00:31,760 --> 00:00:35,840 Speaker 1: as well, and most recently on Twitter, listener Theodor asked 9 00:00:35,880 --> 00:00:39,760 Speaker 1: if we had done one. Uh, we had not, but 10 00:00:39,880 --> 00:00:41,960 Speaker 1: that bumped him up to the top of the list. 11 00:00:43,080 --> 00:00:47,200 Speaker 1: Louie Wayne's art was extremely popular in the late nineteenth 12 00:00:47,240 --> 00:00:50,839 Speaker 1: and early twentieth centuries, especially in the UK, and some 13 00:00:51,000 --> 00:00:54,040 Speaker 1: of his later work also became an inspiration for the 14 00:00:54,040 --> 00:00:58,360 Speaker 1: psychedelic movement of the nineteen sixties. Sometimes that later work 15 00:00:58,520 --> 00:01:03,200 Speaker 1: is also interpreted as documenting the progression of his mental illness, 16 00:01:03,280 --> 00:01:06,959 Speaker 1: although there are some problems with that interpretation that we 17 00:01:07,000 --> 00:01:10,560 Speaker 1: will be talking about and the language of the time. 18 00:01:11,120 --> 00:01:14,560 Speaker 1: Louis Wayne was declared insane in ninety four, and he 19 00:01:14,640 --> 00:01:17,959 Speaker 1: spent the last fifteen years of his life living in 20 00:01:18,000 --> 00:01:22,000 Speaker 1: asylums and psychiatric hospitals. But while he was there, he 21 00:01:22,080 --> 00:01:26,640 Speaker 1: continued to create artwork that whole time. Louis William Wayne 22 00:01:26,720 --> 00:01:30,360 Speaker 1: was born on August fifth, eighteen sixty in Clarkenwell, London. 23 00:01:30,840 --> 00:01:34,240 Speaker 1: His father, William, was an embroiderer and textile trader who 24 00:01:34,240 --> 00:01:38,440 Speaker 1: had been disowned by his family after converting to Catholicism. 25 00:01:38,560 --> 00:01:42,880 Speaker 1: Louis mother, Julie Feliciebeau, was the daughter of French immigrants 26 00:01:42,920 --> 00:01:45,919 Speaker 1: to the UK, and she usually went by Felicia Marie 27 00:01:46,000 --> 00:01:50,600 Speaker 1: among English speakers. She also worked in textiles, designing things 28 00:01:50,640 --> 00:01:54,240 Speaker 1: like embroideries, carpets and altar cloths for the Catholic Church. 29 00:01:54,960 --> 00:01:58,640 Speaker 1: Louis was their oldest child, named after his maternal grandfather, 30 00:01:59,000 --> 00:02:04,240 Speaker 1: and he had five younger sisters, Caroline, Josephie, Marie Claire, 31 00:02:04,400 --> 00:02:08,200 Speaker 1: and Julie also known as Phelisi. Louis was born with 32 00:02:08,240 --> 00:02:11,080 Speaker 1: a cleft lip, and that's something that was probably treated 33 00:02:11,120 --> 00:02:14,280 Speaker 1: with surgery while he was still a baby. As an adult, 34 00:02:14,360 --> 00:02:17,720 Speaker 1: he grew a mustache to conceal it. When he was 35 00:02:17,919 --> 00:02:21,040 Speaker 1: very young, a doctor advised his parents to have him 36 00:02:21,080 --> 00:02:24,160 Speaker 1: taught at home rather than sending him to school, although 37 00:02:24,200 --> 00:02:28,160 Speaker 1: they never told him specifically why that was. He was 38 00:02:28,240 --> 00:02:32,000 Speaker 1: frequently sick though. He had a serious case of scarlet fever, 39 00:02:32,120 --> 00:02:37,080 Speaker 1: among other things, and he also described having particularly vivid 40 00:02:37,240 --> 00:02:40,679 Speaker 1: dreams and nightmares that could be really troubling to him. 41 00:02:41,480 --> 00:02:44,440 Speaker 1: When Louie was ten, his parents decided that he was 42 00:02:44,480 --> 00:02:48,000 Speaker 1: ready to go to school, but he really didn't like it. 43 00:02:48,280 --> 00:02:51,200 Speaker 1: He was bright and curious, with a particular interest in 44 00:02:51,240 --> 00:02:55,320 Speaker 1: electricity and magnetism, and he loved going to scientific lectures 45 00:02:55,320 --> 00:02:59,200 Speaker 1: at the Royal Polytechnic Institution which later became the University 46 00:02:59,200 --> 00:03:03,000 Speaker 1: of Westminster, but when it came to his actual class work, 47 00:03:03,320 --> 00:03:06,600 Speaker 1: it just didn't hold his interest. He was also shy, 48 00:03:06,639 --> 00:03:09,000 Speaker 1: and his classmates found him to be a little odd, 49 00:03:09,160 --> 00:03:11,920 Speaker 1: so he struggled to connect to his peers and he 50 00:03:12,000 --> 00:03:15,200 Speaker 1: sometimes got into fights. For most of his youth, he 51 00:03:15,280 --> 00:03:18,880 Speaker 1: regularly skipped school and went to wander the countryside around London, 52 00:03:19,040 --> 00:03:24,000 Speaker 1: immersing himself in observations of nature. When Louis was thirteen, 53 00:03:24,240 --> 00:03:27,880 Speaker 1: he was enrolled at Joseph's Academy in Kennington, which had 54 00:03:27,919 --> 00:03:30,840 Speaker 1: started out as a village south of London and is 55 00:03:30,919 --> 00:03:35,120 Speaker 1: considered part of London today. He continued to skip school, 56 00:03:35,160 --> 00:03:40,240 Speaker 1: but he also started developing some new interests, including chemistry, boxing, 57 00:03:40,360 --> 00:03:43,680 Speaker 1: art and music. For a while, he wanted to write 58 00:03:43,720 --> 00:03:45,680 Speaker 1: an opera, and he thought that he might make a 59 00:03:45,760 --> 00:03:49,440 Speaker 1: career in music. He gradually started focusing most of his 60 00:03:49,520 --> 00:03:52,760 Speaker 1: time on music and art, and eventually decided to become 61 00:03:52,800 --> 00:03:56,000 Speaker 1: an artist. He enrolled at West London School of Art 62 00:03:56,040 --> 00:04:00,440 Speaker 1: in eighteen seventy seven and studied there for four years. 63 00:04:01,080 --> 00:04:05,960 Speaker 1: On October eighty William Wayne died, leaving louis Is the 64 00:04:06,000 --> 00:04:09,760 Speaker 1: primary breadwinner for his mother and sisters. He tried his 65 00:04:09,800 --> 00:04:13,160 Speaker 1: hand at teaching, becoming an assistant master at his art school, 66 00:04:13,520 --> 00:04:16,400 Speaker 1: but that only lasted for a year. He was just 67 00:04:16,480 --> 00:04:19,440 Speaker 1: so shy that he had a hard time effectively instructing 68 00:04:19,480 --> 00:04:23,320 Speaker 1: his students. At the end of eighteen eighty one, Wayne 69 00:04:23,360 --> 00:04:26,159 Speaker 1: published his first piece of artwork, which was a picture 70 00:04:26,240 --> 00:04:30,120 Speaker 1: of bullfinches on a laurel bush that was in illustrated, 71 00:04:30,160 --> 00:04:34,680 Speaker 1: sporting and dramatic news. At this point, most newspapers and 72 00:04:34,760 --> 00:04:38,760 Speaker 1: magazines that wanted to include some kind of visual imagery 73 00:04:38,839 --> 00:04:43,840 Speaker 1: were relying mostly on illustrations. Although various types of photography 74 00:04:43,960 --> 00:04:48,280 Speaker 1: had been invented, a cost effective method to rapidly print 75 00:04:48,400 --> 00:04:53,240 Speaker 1: photos onto paper had not. There were, however, more commercially 76 00:04:53,279 --> 00:04:57,880 Speaker 1: available methods to print illustrations. Publications that printed a lot 77 00:04:57,960 --> 00:05:02,120 Speaker 1: of illustrations usually worked with multiple illustrators, some of them 78 00:05:02,120 --> 00:05:05,279 Speaker 1: on staff and some of them freelance, and Louie Wayne 79 00:05:05,360 --> 00:05:08,800 Speaker 1: was particularly suited for this kind of work. Number One, 80 00:05:09,040 --> 00:05:12,440 Speaker 1: he could draw images that were accurate and visually appealing, 81 00:05:12,600 --> 00:05:15,960 Speaker 1: and he could do that really quickly. He was also 82 00:05:16,040 --> 00:05:18,719 Speaker 1: good at some of the subjects that newspapers and readers 83 00:05:18,760 --> 00:05:21,760 Speaker 1: really wanted, like drawing all of the winning animals at 84 00:05:21,839 --> 00:05:27,000 Speaker 1: livestock and agricultural fairs, or detailed illustrations of people's country homes. 85 00:05:27,760 --> 00:05:31,080 Speaker 1: Soon Wayne had a staff position at Illustrated, Sporting, and 86 00:05:31,160 --> 00:05:34,880 Speaker 1: Dramatic news, and he supplemented his income by doing portraits 87 00:05:34,920 --> 00:05:38,880 Speaker 1: of people's dogs. When Louie was twenty three, he started 88 00:05:38,880 --> 00:05:42,479 Speaker 1: a relationship with Emily Marie Richardson, who was ten years 89 00:05:42,520 --> 00:05:45,720 Speaker 1: older than he was. She was living and working at 90 00:05:45,760 --> 00:05:48,800 Speaker 1: the Wayne family home as a governess and tutor to 91 00:05:48,920 --> 00:05:53,640 Speaker 1: Louie's youngest sisters. His family really did not approve of 92 00:05:53,680 --> 00:05:56,960 Speaker 1: this relationship at all, both because of the difference in 93 00:05:57,000 --> 00:05:59,960 Speaker 1: their ages and because of her position in their how 94 00:06:00,160 --> 00:06:03,880 Speaker 1: hold and in society. Louie and Emily got married in 95 00:06:03,960 --> 00:06:09,640 Speaker 1: spite of those objections on January four at St Mary's Chapel, Hampstead. 96 00:06:09,960 --> 00:06:12,839 Speaker 1: No one from either of their families attended the wedding. 97 00:06:13,440 --> 00:06:17,680 Speaker 1: Their witnesses were Matilda Humphreyson and louis longtime friend, artist 98 00:06:17,720 --> 00:06:21,440 Speaker 1: and illustrator Herbert Railton. We mentioned earlier that Louis had 99 00:06:21,440 --> 00:06:24,080 Speaker 1: a hard time making friends at school, but while he 100 00:06:24,160 --> 00:06:27,040 Speaker 1: was still thought of as eccentric and maybe a little odd, 101 00:06:27,080 --> 00:06:30,880 Speaker 1: he did have more friends in his adulthood. After getting 102 00:06:30,920 --> 00:06:34,359 Speaker 1: married Emily, Louie and their pet bird lived in a 103 00:06:34,360 --> 00:06:37,719 Speaker 1: little house in Hampstead, and soon they also got a 104 00:06:37,800 --> 00:06:41,760 Speaker 1: black and white kitten named Peter. It's not totally clear 105 00:06:41,880 --> 00:06:44,960 Speaker 1: where Peter came from. He eventually became part of the 106 00:06:45,040 --> 00:06:48,680 Speaker 1: sort of lore surrounding Louis Wayne and his love of cats, 107 00:06:48,800 --> 00:06:52,440 Speaker 1: and multiple people took credit for giving him to the couple. 108 00:06:53,160 --> 00:06:55,760 Speaker 1: Regardless of how Peter came into their lives, though he 109 00:06:55,880 --> 00:07:00,520 Speaker 1: was deeply beloved, it seems just as likely Peter just 110 00:07:00,560 --> 00:07:05,040 Speaker 1: wandered up Yes, one of the many Peter could claim 111 00:07:05,279 --> 00:07:10,000 Speaker 1: credit for giving Peter. Yes. Sadly, though not long after 112 00:07:10,040 --> 00:07:13,520 Speaker 1: their marriage, Emily was diagnosed with breast cancer, and soon 113 00:07:13,600 --> 00:07:15,640 Speaker 1: she was spending most of her time in bed with 114 00:07:15,680 --> 00:07:20,120 Speaker 1: Peter and Louie for company. Sometimes, Louis is characterized as 115 00:07:20,160 --> 00:07:23,080 Speaker 1: abandoning everything else so that he could spend time with 116 00:07:23,160 --> 00:07:25,960 Speaker 1: his dying wife, but he was still trying to earn 117 00:07:26,040 --> 00:07:28,840 Speaker 1: enough money to support them both, and he did much 118 00:07:28,840 --> 00:07:32,440 Speaker 1: of this by traveling to agricultural shows, fishing competitions, and 119 00:07:32,480 --> 00:07:36,080 Speaker 1: other events by train, and drawing as many illustrations as 120 00:07:36,080 --> 00:07:38,880 Speaker 1: he could as quickly as he could, some of them 121 00:07:38,920 --> 00:07:43,040 Speaker 1: while on the train traveling back home. Emily's sister also 122 00:07:43,160 --> 00:07:45,120 Speaker 1: came to help take care of her, although she and 123 00:07:45,160 --> 00:07:49,320 Speaker 1: Louie did not always get along when he wasn't working, though, 124 00:07:49,480 --> 00:07:52,320 Speaker 1: Louie really did spend as much time as he could 125 00:07:52,360 --> 00:07:57,000 Speaker 1: with Emily and Peter, including teaching Peter tricks and drawing 126 00:07:57,040 --> 00:07:59,960 Speaker 1: pictures of him, all to just try to entertain his wife, 127 00:08:00,680 --> 00:08:05,040 Speaker 1: and Emily really loved these pictures. Louie had started working 128 00:08:05,080 --> 00:08:08,760 Speaker 1: for the Illustrated London News, and Emily encouraged him to 129 00:08:08,800 --> 00:08:12,920 Speaker 1: show the pictures to his editor, Sir William Ingram. Louie 130 00:08:13,120 --> 00:08:16,320 Speaker 1: was reluctant at first. Cats didn't have the kind of 131 00:08:16,360 --> 00:08:19,600 Speaker 1: popular appeal that they do in a lot of places today. 132 00:08:19,880 --> 00:08:22,720 Speaker 1: There were certainly people in the UK who kept cats 133 00:08:22,720 --> 00:08:25,680 Speaker 1: as pets or even bred them, but as one example, 134 00:08:25,800 --> 00:08:28,240 Speaker 1: the first Crystal Palace Show, which was the first cat 135 00:08:28,280 --> 00:08:31,320 Speaker 1: show in the country, had taken place only about fifteen 136 00:08:31,400 --> 00:08:34,400 Speaker 1: years earlier, and to a lot of people, cats were 137 00:08:34,520 --> 00:08:38,160 Speaker 1: somewhere between an unwanted nuisance and a necessary but dirty 138 00:08:38,200 --> 00:08:41,600 Speaker 1: way to control rats and mice. Wayne later said of 139 00:08:41,679 --> 00:08:44,800 Speaker 1: this quote. When I first started sketching and painting cats, 140 00:08:44,880 --> 00:08:48,559 Speaker 1: they were viewed as detested creatures, looked upon as pests 141 00:08:48,600 --> 00:08:52,440 Speaker 1: by hunters. Anyone who was interested in the cat movement 142 00:08:52,760 --> 00:08:56,520 Speaker 1: was seen to be a feminine. Wayne did finally show 143 00:08:56,679 --> 00:08:59,440 Speaker 1: Ingram his pictures of Peter, though, and it turns out 144 00:08:59,679 --> 00:09:03,680 Speaker 1: Ingram really liked them. Louis Wayne published his first cat 145 00:09:03,760 --> 00:09:07,719 Speaker 1: picture in the Illustrated London News in eight four. This 146 00:09:07,840 --> 00:09:11,600 Speaker 1: was a full page spread of fourteen pictures called Our 147 00:09:11,760 --> 00:09:17,400 Speaker 1: Cats a Domestic History. These were realistically drawn cats doing 148 00:09:17,480 --> 00:09:20,720 Speaker 1: real life cat things like getting into a sewing basket, 149 00:09:21,000 --> 00:09:24,480 Speaker 1: scratching themselves under the chin with a back paw, drinking 150 00:09:24,520 --> 00:09:28,280 Speaker 1: from a saucer, and catching a mouse. The panels formed 151 00:09:28,320 --> 00:09:31,600 Speaker 1: a loose narrative with the captions at the bottom, describing 152 00:09:31,640 --> 00:09:35,160 Speaker 1: a cat who was patterned after Peter. He was forgotten 153 00:09:35,200 --> 00:09:37,680 Speaker 1: at home while the family goes to the seaside and 154 00:09:37,720 --> 00:09:40,920 Speaker 1: then gets into so much mischief that she's no longer 155 00:09:41,040 --> 00:09:43,920 Speaker 1: fit to be shown at the Crystal Palace Cat Show. 156 00:09:45,120 --> 00:09:47,959 Speaker 1: In the mid eighteen eighties, Louis Wayne's work as an 157 00:09:47,960 --> 00:09:52,760 Speaker 1: illustrator included pictures of lots of different animals, architectural drawings, 158 00:09:52,800 --> 00:09:55,880 Speaker 1: some work as a commercial artist on product packaging, and 159 00:09:56,360 --> 00:10:01,040 Speaker 1: increasingly cats. In eighty six, he was commissioned to illustrate 160 00:10:01,040 --> 00:10:05,720 Speaker 1: a children's book called Madam Tabby's Establishment. He created seven 161 00:10:05,800 --> 00:10:09,560 Speaker 1: full page illustrations featuring lots and lots of cats, as 162 00:10:09,559 --> 00:10:13,280 Speaker 1: well as the book's protagonist, a little girl named Diana. 163 00:10:13,559 --> 00:10:15,720 Speaker 1: In the book, the King of Cats had belonged to 164 00:10:15,760 --> 00:10:19,240 Speaker 1: Diana's grandmother, which meant that Diana was allowed to join 165 00:10:19,320 --> 00:10:23,520 Speaker 1: Cat Society and go to Madam Tabby's, basically a finishing 166 00:10:23,559 --> 00:10:28,200 Speaker 1: school for cats. After this, Wayne asked William Ingram if 167 00:10:28,280 --> 00:10:31,080 Speaker 1: he could do a cat illustration for Christmas for the 168 00:10:31,120 --> 00:10:35,439 Speaker 1: Illustrated London News. Ingram agreed, and the result was a 169 00:10:35,559 --> 00:10:39,160 Speaker 1: Kitten's Christmas Party, which took him eleven days to complete. 170 00:10:39,840 --> 00:10:42,720 Speaker 1: Like Our Cats and Domestic History, this was a set 171 00:10:42,760 --> 00:10:47,480 Speaker 1: of pictures that formed a narrative, this time over eleven panels, 172 00:10:47,559 --> 00:10:50,800 Speaker 1: and in those panels were about a hundred and fifty 173 00:10:50,840 --> 00:10:55,120 Speaker 1: total cats. They're not wearing human clothes, but some of 174 00:10:55,160 --> 00:10:59,680 Speaker 1: them are doing human activities, including washing the dishes, playing 175 00:10:59,760 --> 00:11:02,720 Speaker 1: in a musical ensemble, and sleeping in a bed the 176 00:11:02,760 --> 00:11:05,840 Speaker 1: way children often do in picture books, so on their backs, 177 00:11:05,840 --> 00:11:08,960 Speaker 1: with heads on pillows and front paws tucked over the 178 00:11:09,000 --> 00:11:13,560 Speaker 1: top of a folded down bedspread. Eventually, Wayne's cat illustrations 179 00:11:13,559 --> 00:11:16,400 Speaker 1: would become a Christmas time staple. In the Book of 180 00:11:16,400 --> 00:11:20,480 Speaker 1: the Cat, published in three Francis Simpson wrote, quote, a 181 00:11:20,559 --> 00:11:23,640 Speaker 1: Christmas without one of Louie's clever catty pictures would be 182 00:11:23,679 --> 00:11:28,400 Speaker 1: like Christmas pudding without currents. Sadly, Louie's wife, Emily died 183 00:11:28,520 --> 00:11:32,920 Speaker 1: on January second, seven, not long after A Kitten's Christmas 184 00:11:33,000 --> 00:11:36,000 Speaker 1: Party was published, and just a couple of days after 185 00:11:36,040 --> 00:11:40,760 Speaker 1: their third wedding anniversary. Louis, of course was heartbroken. He 186 00:11:41,080 --> 00:11:43,760 Speaker 1: and Peter moved into a new home where Louie kept 187 00:11:43,760 --> 00:11:46,640 Speaker 1: on drawing cats, and we'll talk about a shift in 188 00:11:46,720 --> 00:11:49,640 Speaker 1: Louise cat art and where it went from there after. 189 00:11:49,720 --> 00:12:02,600 Speaker 1: We pause for a sponsor break. In eighteen ninety, Louie 190 00:12:02,640 --> 00:12:07,840 Speaker 1: Wayne's Christmas illustration for the Illustrated London News included something 191 00:12:07,880 --> 00:12:11,000 Speaker 1: that people came to see as really emblematic of his work. 192 00:12:11,640 --> 00:12:15,760 Speaker 1: The cats weren't just doing human activities like washing dishes. 193 00:12:16,200 --> 00:12:20,520 Speaker 1: They were also highly anthropomorphized and dressed in human clothes. 194 00:12:21,440 --> 00:12:25,280 Speaker 1: He did keep creating more realistic depictions of cats, as 195 00:12:25,360 --> 00:12:29,520 Speaker 1: well as cats in various human like scenarios who were 196 00:12:29,559 --> 00:12:34,559 Speaker 1: not wearing clothes, but cats in Victorian and Eduardian attire 197 00:12:34,760 --> 00:12:37,880 Speaker 1: became a big part of his work. He later described 198 00:12:37,920 --> 00:12:41,400 Speaker 1: his process as sometimes involving drawing the people he saw 199 00:12:41,480 --> 00:12:45,600 Speaker 1: around him, but drawing them as cats. Louis Wayne's fame 200 00:12:45,679 --> 00:12:49,240 Speaker 1: and popularity grew over the next few years, and so 201 00:12:49,360 --> 00:12:52,400 Speaker 1: did the number of cats in his household. Most of 202 00:12:52,440 --> 00:12:54,240 Speaker 1: the time he had more than one, and by some 203 00:12:54,440 --> 00:12:58,240 Speaker 1: counts the number was sometimes as high as seventeen. Some 204 00:12:58,400 --> 00:13:01,080 Speaker 1: of these were cats that people give to him as gifts, 205 00:13:01,080 --> 00:13:03,880 Speaker 1: knowing how much he loved them, but other times it 206 00:13:03,920 --> 00:13:06,679 Speaker 1: was more like someone had found astray and just assumed 207 00:13:06,840 --> 00:13:09,880 Speaker 1: he would be okay with taking it in. But Peter 208 00:13:10,200 --> 00:13:12,040 Speaker 1: was really at the heart of a lot of his 209 00:13:12,120 --> 00:13:14,800 Speaker 1: work and was the model for a lot of his pictures. 210 00:13:15,520 --> 00:13:19,400 Speaker 1: After Emily died, Peter was Louie's closest companion until his 211 00:13:19,520 --> 00:13:24,600 Speaker 1: death in March. By then, Louis Wayne had become a 212 00:13:24,679 --> 00:13:29,120 Speaker 1: household name, and in addition to publishing so many pictures 213 00:13:29,160 --> 00:13:32,360 Speaker 1: of cats, he was also writing a lot about cats 214 00:13:32,440 --> 00:13:36,040 Speaker 1: and their care based on his own experience and intuition. 215 00:13:36,960 --> 00:13:40,640 Speaker 1: Some of this more or less holds up, Like he 216 00:13:40,760 --> 00:13:43,880 Speaker 1: said that cats hated orange peels and could be kept 217 00:13:43,920 --> 00:13:47,679 Speaker 1: away from the garden by burying orange peels near the plants. 218 00:13:48,440 --> 00:13:52,280 Speaker 1: He also recommended keeping some grass on hand for a cat, 219 00:13:52,720 --> 00:13:55,199 Speaker 1: even if it was just a little bit of grass 220 00:13:55,240 --> 00:13:59,280 Speaker 1: growing in a pot. Those are things you still here today. Sure, 221 00:13:59,320 --> 00:14:03,000 Speaker 1: my cats hate the smell of citrus and will turn 222 00:14:03,040 --> 00:14:05,920 Speaker 1: and run if I hold out appeals. Weren't that? I 223 00:14:05,960 --> 00:14:09,400 Speaker 1: think I could produce multiple behavior books that say, if 224 00:14:09,440 --> 00:14:12,959 Speaker 1: you have tomcats lingering outside your house marking your doors, 225 00:14:13,320 --> 00:14:16,959 Speaker 1: just rub a little orange peel around the doorframe. Works 226 00:14:16,960 --> 00:14:20,080 Speaker 1: like a charm. But some of his cat advice was 227 00:14:20,160 --> 00:14:24,000 Speaker 1: downright Cockamami Wayne didn't just think that having a pet 228 00:14:24,040 --> 00:14:27,400 Speaker 1: cat was good for a person's spirit. He claimed that 229 00:14:27,440 --> 00:14:32,080 Speaker 1: people who kept cats were physically immune to various minor illnesses. 230 00:14:32,920 --> 00:14:36,240 Speaker 1: At some points he described cats as having weak minds, 231 00:14:36,320 --> 00:14:40,080 Speaker 1: although he always said that Peter was extremely intelligent. When 232 00:14:40,160 --> 00:14:42,880 Speaker 1: asked how cats who wandered far from home could find 233 00:14:42,880 --> 00:14:45,520 Speaker 1: their way back if their minds were so weak, he 234 00:14:45,640 --> 00:14:49,280 Speaker 1: said it was because their bodies had an electrical polarity 235 00:14:49,720 --> 00:14:53,120 Speaker 1: that told them which way was north. Because he was 236 00:14:53,200 --> 00:14:56,080 Speaker 1: such a tireless promoter of cats, and because he at 237 00:14:56,160 --> 00:14:59,080 Speaker 1: least theoretically had a lot of expertise about them and 238 00:14:59,120 --> 00:15:02,640 Speaker 1: their care, Louis Wayne was made president of the National 239 00:15:02,680 --> 00:15:06,840 Speaker 1: Cat Club in I feel like we might get emails 240 00:15:06,880 --> 00:15:09,920 Speaker 1: from people that point out various animals that do use 241 00:15:10,000 --> 00:15:15,960 Speaker 1: some kind of electrical or polarity too. That was not 242 00:15:16,240 --> 00:15:22,320 Speaker 1: what he was describing. It was really like this cat 243 00:15:22,440 --> 00:15:26,400 Speaker 1: is a literal electrical compass. That did not really add up. However, 244 00:15:27,040 --> 00:15:30,800 Speaker 1: Louis Wayne's cat pictures and writing about cats were published 245 00:15:30,880 --> 00:15:35,040 Speaker 1: all over the place and collected into books. He illustrated 246 00:15:35,080 --> 00:15:37,680 Speaker 1: children's books, some of which he also wrote, and he 247 00:15:37,760 --> 00:15:42,640 Speaker 1: kept working for various illustrated newspapers and magazines, but he 248 00:15:42,800 --> 00:15:45,600 Speaker 1: was not able to turn all of this fame and 249 00:15:45,720 --> 00:15:51,680 Speaker 1: prolific output into a reliable income. He didn't copyright his images, 250 00:15:51,840 --> 00:15:55,200 Speaker 1: so people just reprinted them if they wanted to. That 251 00:15:55,320 --> 00:15:58,080 Speaker 1: was something that became a bigger and bigger problem as 252 00:15:58,120 --> 00:16:01,120 Speaker 1: his career went on and there more and more of 253 00:16:01,200 --> 00:16:06,800 Speaker 1: his work already out there. When he sold illustrations to publications, 254 00:16:06,880 --> 00:16:09,160 Speaker 1: a lot of the time he just sold them out right. 255 00:16:09,320 --> 00:16:12,720 Speaker 1: He didn't retain his rights to the original image or 256 00:16:12,800 --> 00:16:16,600 Speaker 1: negotiate for any kind of royalties or licensing fees for 257 00:16:16,760 --> 00:16:20,040 Speaker 1: later use of the artwork. He also just didn't charge 258 00:16:20,040 --> 00:16:22,840 Speaker 1: a lot for it. It came easily to him, and 259 00:16:22,880 --> 00:16:25,720 Speaker 1: he loved doing these pictures, so it just doesn't seem 260 00:16:25,720 --> 00:16:27,520 Speaker 1: to have occurred to him that he should ask for 261 00:16:27,560 --> 00:16:31,880 Speaker 1: more money. And there were definitely publishers who absolutely took 262 00:16:31,920 --> 00:16:35,160 Speaker 1: advantage of him for this. They recognized that they had 263 00:16:35,240 --> 00:16:39,360 Speaker 1: access to this illustrator whose output was prolific and whose 264 00:16:39,400 --> 00:16:45,800 Speaker 1: work was really cheap and really popular. Yeah, Louis seems 265 00:16:45,840 --> 00:16:48,480 Speaker 1: to have reconciled with his mother and sisters and he 266 00:16:48,520 --> 00:16:50,840 Speaker 1: moved in with them in a house owned by William 267 00:16:50,960 --> 00:16:54,920 Speaker 1: Ingrin in Westgate On c in Kent. He made ends meet, 268 00:16:55,120 --> 00:16:58,720 Speaker 1: but just barely, by selling art, often using artwork to 269 00:16:58,800 --> 00:17:02,280 Speaker 1: barter for things like the rent and even basic necessities. 270 00:17:03,000 --> 00:17:05,280 Speaker 1: Since they didn't have a lot of money, their lives 271 00:17:05,320 --> 00:17:09,160 Speaker 1: were fairly quiet, and his sisters never really had any suitors. 272 00:17:10,200 --> 00:17:13,800 Speaker 1: But Louis also tended to buy luxuries that they didn't 273 00:17:13,840 --> 00:17:18,280 Speaker 1: necessarily need and couldn't really afford, like at one point 274 00:17:18,320 --> 00:17:21,640 Speaker 1: he had a telephone installed, and he also had notepaper 275 00:17:21,680 --> 00:17:24,359 Speaker 1: printed that had their telephone number up at the top. 276 00:17:24,920 --> 00:17:28,040 Speaker 1: This might not sound all that frivolous, but for context, 277 00:17:28,680 --> 00:17:33,960 Speaker 1: in there were only nine thousand telephone subscribers in all 278 00:17:34,119 --> 00:17:37,240 Speaker 1: of London, which had a population of well over four 279 00:17:37,320 --> 00:17:40,800 Speaker 1: million people. Two years later that was up to a 280 00:17:40,840 --> 00:17:45,840 Speaker 1: whopping seventeen thousand, three hundred seventy one subscribers. They did 281 00:17:45,840 --> 00:17:48,720 Speaker 1: not really need a phone, there was almost nobody to call. 282 00:17:49,560 --> 00:17:54,760 Speaker 1: He's just handing out his phone number, magical notepads, two cats, 283 00:17:56,920 --> 00:17:59,400 Speaker 1: uh and the family did have some other struggles as well. 284 00:17:59,680 --> 00:18:04,560 Speaker 1: Louie sister Marie had been experiencing delusions, including a persistent 285 00:18:04,600 --> 00:18:08,200 Speaker 1: belief that she had Hanson's disease. Also known his leprosy, 286 00:18:08,280 --> 00:18:10,440 Speaker 1: and that meant that she refused to let people get 287 00:18:10,480 --> 00:18:14,280 Speaker 1: near her. In nineteen o one, she was declared insane 288 00:18:14,359 --> 00:18:17,000 Speaker 1: and admitted to a hospital where she was diagnosed with 289 00:18:17,080 --> 00:18:22,560 Speaker 1: primary dementia. Some sources have concluded that this was really schizophrenia. 290 00:18:22,880 --> 00:18:26,520 Speaker 1: The first Louis Wayne Annual came out in nineteen o one. 291 00:18:26,960 --> 00:18:30,399 Speaker 1: This was a book collecting written work by Louis Wayne 292 00:18:30,440 --> 00:18:32,840 Speaker 1: and by other people, some of them friends of his, 293 00:18:33,040 --> 00:18:36,880 Speaker 1: along with lots of his illustrations. A new annual came 294 00:18:36,920 --> 00:18:40,520 Speaker 1: out nearly every year until nineteen fifteen, with the last 295 00:18:40,600 --> 00:18:44,360 Speaker 1: one published a few years after that. Louie's creative output 296 00:18:44,560 --> 00:18:47,520 Speaker 1: was particularly prolific. At the start of the twentieth century, 297 00:18:48,080 --> 00:18:50,760 Speaker 1: he was producing as many as six hundred works of 298 00:18:50,880 --> 00:18:54,199 Speaker 1: art per year, some of them depicting multiple cats or 299 00:18:54,240 --> 00:18:57,400 Speaker 1: other animals. He worked with as many as seventy five 300 00:18:57,480 --> 00:18:59,760 Speaker 1: publishers over the course of his life, and he worked 301 00:18:59,760 --> 00:19:04,560 Speaker 1: in multiple media, including pen and ink, oil, watercolor, guash, 302 00:19:04,800 --> 00:19:09,760 Speaker 1: Venetian red chalk, silver point, pencil, and crayon. His biggest 303 00:19:09,760 --> 00:19:12,720 Speaker 1: publishing year for children's books was nineteen o three, and 304 00:19:12,800 --> 00:19:16,359 Speaker 1: that year he published eleven different books. Over the years. 305 00:19:16,359 --> 00:19:20,360 Speaker 1: He also did some political cartoons. His political views could 306 00:19:20,400 --> 00:19:23,119 Speaker 1: be as eccentric as some of his opinions on things 307 00:19:23,160 --> 00:19:26,680 Speaker 1: like cats and electricity, and when he wrote about political 308 00:19:26,800 --> 00:19:31,640 Speaker 1: subjects he could be kind of discursive and rambly. Had 309 00:19:31,640 --> 00:19:34,240 Speaker 1: a hard time reading these and sort of distilling down 310 00:19:34,880 --> 00:19:39,000 Speaker 1: what his general point was. Generally, though he was a 311 00:19:39,040 --> 00:19:42,080 Speaker 1: capitalist and a Royalist, he believed in the idea of 312 00:19:42,160 --> 00:19:46,399 Speaker 1: free trade. He was also generally supportive of the colonialism 313 00:19:46,400 --> 00:19:50,560 Speaker 1: of the British Empire, but also frustrated by the unjust 314 00:19:50,680 --> 00:19:55,000 Speaker 1: treatment of the poor, the sick, and immigrants. He also 315 00:19:55,160 --> 00:19:59,359 Speaker 1: published letters to the editor of various publications, often about 316 00:19:59,400 --> 00:20:02,879 Speaker 1: things that in annoyed him in some way. As one example, 317 00:20:03,480 --> 00:20:06,800 Speaker 1: children during the Christmas season caroling door to door or 318 00:20:06,840 --> 00:20:11,879 Speaker 1: soliciting subscriptions, which he described as a begging errand he 319 00:20:11,960 --> 00:20:14,240 Speaker 1: had kind of a complicated train of thought on this, 320 00:20:14,400 --> 00:20:18,680 Speaker 1: simultaneously pointing out the conditions of poverty and deprivation that 321 00:20:18,800 --> 00:20:22,000 Speaker 1: led to children needing to beg or sing for money, 322 00:20:22,040 --> 00:20:25,520 Speaker 1: but also passing judgment on the people who were experiencing 323 00:20:25,560 --> 00:20:30,719 Speaker 1: that kind of poverty. So Wayne's sometimes scornful descriptions of 324 00:20:30,760 --> 00:20:34,840 Speaker 1: people who are living in poverty are particularly jarring considering 325 00:20:35,000 --> 00:20:38,760 Speaker 1: his own life. In the first decade of the nineteen hundreds, 326 00:20:38,800 --> 00:20:42,960 Speaker 1: he faced legal action over non payment of debts, although 327 00:20:43,040 --> 00:20:45,919 Speaker 1: we don't have a lot of details on what this 328 00:20:46,000 --> 00:20:49,600 Speaker 1: case involved. In nine seven, when he was forty seven, 329 00:20:49,640 --> 00:20:51,960 Speaker 1: he went to the United States, and that may have 330 00:20:52,040 --> 00:20:55,520 Speaker 1: been at least partially motivated by wanting to get away 331 00:20:55,600 --> 00:21:00,360 Speaker 1: from both his financial situation and possible lawsuits for it. 332 00:21:00,960 --> 00:21:03,119 Speaker 1: He also might have thought that he could make more 333 00:21:03,160 --> 00:21:06,520 Speaker 1: money in the United States, where the market wasn't already 334 00:21:06,600 --> 00:21:10,520 Speaker 1: just flooded with copies of his work. Initially, this was 335 00:21:10,560 --> 00:21:13,040 Speaker 1: supposed to be a four month trip, but he wound 336 00:21:13,119 --> 00:21:16,879 Speaker 1: up staying for three years. In the US, Wayne worked 337 00:21:16,920 --> 00:21:19,760 Speaker 1: for her newspapers, and he did a lot of events 338 00:21:19,760 --> 00:21:23,760 Speaker 1: and other work with organizations dedicated to cats, including American 339 00:21:23,840 --> 00:21:27,960 Speaker 1: Cat Fancy. He reportedly decided to invest in a new 340 00:21:28,000 --> 00:21:30,719 Speaker 1: type of oil lamp, one that was supposed to be 341 00:21:30,720 --> 00:21:34,800 Speaker 1: remarkably efficient, but which did not pan out. This may 342 00:21:34,880 --> 00:21:38,600 Speaker 1: have really happened, but he also still didn't have much money, 343 00:21:38,640 --> 00:21:41,160 Speaker 1: so if he lost it all, he was going from 344 00:21:41,240 --> 00:21:44,159 Speaker 1: a little money to even less money. It wasn't as 345 00:21:44,160 --> 00:21:47,720 Speaker 1: though he was going from having a fortune to having nothing. Yeah, 346 00:21:47,760 --> 00:21:50,000 Speaker 1: sometimes sources make it sound like he had a big 347 00:21:50,040 --> 00:21:52,960 Speaker 1: break and he blew it, but it that's a little 348 00:21:53,000 --> 00:21:57,640 Speaker 1: exaggerated for what really happened. Louis Wayne left the US 349 00:21:57,640 --> 00:22:01,800 Speaker 1: and after getting word that his mother was dying, and 350 00:22:01,880 --> 00:22:05,560 Speaker 1: after he left, he faced some criticism in American newspapers. 351 00:22:06,119 --> 00:22:09,240 Speaker 1: Most of this was related to criticisms he had made 352 00:22:09,400 --> 00:22:13,160 Speaker 1: of the United States, like pointing out the contradiction of 353 00:22:13,560 --> 00:22:17,959 Speaker 1: Americans praising the effort of millionaires to fund things like 354 00:22:18,080 --> 00:22:22,400 Speaker 1: hospitals and institutes while also condemning the idea of everyone 355 00:22:22,480 --> 00:22:25,600 Speaker 1: paying their fair share in taxes to fund these kinds 356 00:22:25,600 --> 00:22:29,800 Speaker 1: of efforts more equitably for everyone, or pointing out the 357 00:22:29,800 --> 00:22:33,120 Speaker 1: way a lot of immigrants were shut out of job opportunities, 358 00:22:33,280 --> 00:22:38,080 Speaker 1: enforced into poverty, but then disparaged for being poor at 359 00:22:38,119 --> 00:22:40,160 Speaker 1: the same time. Though, some of the things that reporters 360 00:22:40,280 --> 00:22:42,879 Speaker 1: harped on when they were criticizing him were really taken 361 00:22:42,880 --> 00:22:47,480 Speaker 1: out of context or flatly untrue. Sadly, Louis Wayne's mother 362 00:22:47,600 --> 00:22:50,879 Speaker 1: died before he got back to the UK. His sister 363 00:22:51,000 --> 00:22:54,760 Speaker 1: Marie also died a few years later, on March third, nineteen. 364 00:22:55,480 --> 00:22:59,160 Speaker 1: She had never left the asylum after she had been institutionalized. 365 00:23:00,040 --> 00:23:03,760 Speaker 1: In nine fourteen, Wayne produced a set of ceramics known 366 00:23:03,840 --> 00:23:07,280 Speaker 1: as the Futurist Cats, which also included a pig and 367 00:23:07,320 --> 00:23:12,000 Speaker 1: a bulldog. These were brightly colored ceramic figures. They're kind 368 00:23:12,040 --> 00:23:15,840 Speaker 1: of abstract, so sometimes they're called the Cubist Cats. They 369 00:23:15,880 --> 00:23:20,679 Speaker 1: clearly were inspired by the Cubist movement. Wayne registered nine 370 00:23:20,720 --> 00:23:24,280 Speaker 1: designs for these, and about twenty designs were actually made. 371 00:23:24,880 --> 00:23:28,680 Speaker 1: They were produced by Maximmanuel and Company, and possibly We're 372 00:23:28,760 --> 00:23:32,560 Speaker 1: also commissioned by that firm. There is another bit of 373 00:23:32,640 --> 00:23:35,560 Speaker 1: lore about the Futurist Cats, which is that Wayne put 374 00:23:35,600 --> 00:23:38,520 Speaker 1: all his money into making them, only to lose it 375 00:23:38,520 --> 00:23:40,880 Speaker 1: all when the ship that they were being transported on 376 00:23:40,960 --> 00:23:44,520 Speaker 1: was sunk by a German torpedo. This is pretty hard 377 00:23:44,560 --> 00:23:47,720 Speaker 1: to substantiate, though. While some of the cats were made 378 00:23:47,760 --> 00:23:51,400 Speaker 1: in Austria or Czechoslovakia, others were made in the UK, 379 00:23:51,680 --> 00:23:54,400 Speaker 1: so it's unlikely that the entire stock would have been 380 00:23:54,440 --> 00:23:57,760 Speaker 1: all on one ship. There's no record of what ship 381 00:23:57,840 --> 00:24:00,200 Speaker 1: may have gone down with them aboard, whether it was 382 00:24:00,240 --> 00:24:03,280 Speaker 1: a ship from continental Europe to the UK, or perhaps 383 00:24:03,320 --> 00:24:07,200 Speaker 1: a ship headed to the United States. On October seventh 384 00:24:07,280 --> 00:24:11,200 Speaker 1: of nineteen fourteen, Louis Wayne fell while trying to board 385 00:24:11,240 --> 00:24:14,560 Speaker 1: a bus and he was knocked unconscious. He sustained a 386 00:24:14,600 --> 00:24:18,080 Speaker 1: concussion and had to be hospitalized, and after this doctors 387 00:24:18,119 --> 00:24:22,560 Speaker 1: advised him to rest for six months. Eventually, this event, 388 00:24:22,960 --> 00:24:26,240 Speaker 1: like so many other things in his life, was also mythologized. 389 00:24:26,320 --> 00:24:29,680 Speaker 1: The story became that he had fallen because the bus 390 00:24:29,720 --> 00:24:34,120 Speaker 1: driver swerves to avoid a cat. Wayne had always been 391 00:24:34,160 --> 00:24:37,760 Speaker 1: an anxious, cautious, and shy person, and during World War 392 00:24:37,760 --> 00:24:40,919 Speaker 1: One he became even more so. His work had been 393 00:24:41,000 --> 00:24:44,159 Speaker 1: enormously popular for decades, but the war made it harder 394 00:24:44,160 --> 00:24:46,480 Speaker 1: for him to find work, both because of lack of 395 00:24:46,520 --> 00:24:50,240 Speaker 1: money to pay for things like illustrators and shortages of paper. 396 00:24:50,920 --> 00:24:54,520 Speaker 1: In seventeen, the Wayne family moved from Westgate on Sea 397 00:24:54,640 --> 00:24:58,160 Speaker 1: to Kilburn, and that same year his oldest sister, Caroline 398 00:24:58,240 --> 00:25:01,800 Speaker 1: died at the age of fifty three from influenza that 399 00:25:01,880 --> 00:25:06,520 Speaker 1: had progressed into pneumonia. Louise sister Felicie, got a job 400 00:25:06,560 --> 00:25:09,200 Speaker 1: in office to try to help the family make ends meet. 401 00:25:09,720 --> 00:25:13,480 Speaker 1: Both Felicie and Claire were doing artwork of their own, 402 00:25:13,640 --> 00:25:17,720 Speaker 1: but they really focused on supporting their brother's career rather 403 00:25:17,760 --> 00:25:21,440 Speaker 1: than trying to sell their own work. In nine seventeen, 404 00:25:21,480 --> 00:25:24,760 Speaker 1: Louis was also commissioned to work on some cartoons, and 405 00:25:24,840 --> 00:25:27,840 Speaker 1: unfortunately the vast majority of those have been lost. I'm 406 00:25:27,880 --> 00:25:31,920 Speaker 1: deeply curious about what they may have been. Like The Dream, 407 00:25:31,960 --> 00:25:35,879 Speaker 1: The last Louis Wayne Annual, came out in nine. In 408 00:25:35,920 --> 00:25:39,440 Speaker 1: the nine twenties also marked a major shift in Wayne's life. 409 00:25:39,960 --> 00:25:44,439 Speaker 1: Developments in cameras, halftone printing and photographic plate making, and 410 00:25:44,760 --> 00:25:48,600 Speaker 1: methods to transmit photos over telegraph wires had made it 411 00:25:48,720 --> 00:25:52,040 Speaker 1: much easier and less expensive to print photographs in newspapers 412 00:25:52,040 --> 00:25:58,520 Speaker 1: and magazines, so publishers increasingly relied on photographers, not illustrators. 413 00:25:59,119 --> 00:26:01,919 Speaker 1: Wayne had more in more trouble finding paying work, and 414 00:26:02,000 --> 00:26:05,080 Speaker 1: since the UK market was already flooded with his illustrations, 415 00:26:05,600 --> 00:26:08,720 Speaker 1: none of them protected by copyright, it was harder for 416 00:26:08,800 --> 00:26:12,919 Speaker 1: him to sell new pictures. His behavior also started to 417 00:26:12,960 --> 00:26:17,480 Speaker 1: become more erratic. He talked about being plagued by spirits 418 00:26:17,520 --> 00:26:22,200 Speaker 1: that were somehow electrical. His colleagues at Cat Fancy became 419 00:26:22,280 --> 00:26:25,240 Speaker 1: alarmed when he started talking about a big cat show 420 00:26:25,280 --> 00:26:29,800 Speaker 1: they were organizing, but that show didn't actually exist. At home, 421 00:26:29,880 --> 00:26:34,200 Speaker 1: he started compulsively rearranging the furniture, sometimes in the middle 422 00:26:34,240 --> 00:26:38,040 Speaker 1: of the night. He also became really paranoid and started 423 00:26:38,080 --> 00:26:42,240 Speaker 1: to accuse his sisters of stealing from him. His behavior 424 00:26:42,320 --> 00:26:45,600 Speaker 1: toward them was increasingly hostile, and at different points his 425 00:26:45,680 --> 00:26:49,920 Speaker 1: sisters described him grabbing and shoving them. He also wrote 426 00:26:49,960 --> 00:26:52,800 Speaker 1: letters to his friends that described his sisters in really 427 00:26:52,840 --> 00:26:58,679 Speaker 1: belligerent and abusive terms. By n four, louise sisters didn't 428 00:26:58,720 --> 00:27:02,040 Speaker 1: feel safe with him at home, and they contacted a doctor. 429 00:27:02,800 --> 00:27:05,600 Speaker 1: Although it had really been in the previous couple of 430 00:27:05,680 --> 00:27:09,880 Speaker 1: years that Louis's behavior had become more alarming, his sisters 431 00:27:09,880 --> 00:27:12,880 Speaker 1: told the doctor he had started behaving strangely after that 432 00:27:12,920 --> 00:27:17,000 Speaker 1: fall from the bus a decade before. It is possible 433 00:27:17,040 --> 00:27:21,440 Speaker 1: that his behavior did change after that accident, but describing 434 00:27:21,520 --> 00:27:25,440 Speaker 1: a physical injury as the start of someone's mental illness 435 00:27:25,560 --> 00:27:29,120 Speaker 1: was also really really common at this point. It's sort 436 00:27:29,119 --> 00:27:32,760 Speaker 1: of alleviated a little bit of the stigma that was 437 00:27:32,800 --> 00:27:37,840 Speaker 1: associated with mental illness. Louis was declared insane and taken 438 00:27:37,880 --> 00:27:40,760 Speaker 1: to Springfield Hospital and Tuting, where he was admitted to 439 00:27:40,800 --> 00:27:44,119 Speaker 1: the pauper's ward. We're going to talk about his life 440 00:27:44,160 --> 00:27:57,040 Speaker 1: in hospitals. After we paused for a sponsor break. Various 441 00:27:57,119 --> 00:28:02,600 Speaker 1: historians and biographers contradict one another regarding Louie Wayne's diagnosis. 442 00:28:02,920 --> 00:28:06,000 Speaker 1: I read a lot of resources for this, and some 443 00:28:06,040 --> 00:28:10,520 Speaker 1: of them said directly opposite things. Some say that he 444 00:28:10,600 --> 00:28:14,640 Speaker 1: was diagnosed with schizophrenia or with an illness that would 445 00:28:14,720 --> 00:28:19,760 Speaker 1: be called schizophrenia by today's terms. Others definitively say that 446 00:28:19,800 --> 00:28:23,760 Speaker 1: he was never formally diagnosed with schizophrenia. I don't know 447 00:28:23,800 --> 00:28:27,960 Speaker 1: which of these is correct either way. Though schizophrenia was 448 00:28:28,240 --> 00:28:32,760 Speaker 1: known as an illness at this point, German psychiatrist Emil 449 00:28:32,840 --> 00:28:36,199 Speaker 1: Crapelin had first described it as dementia pray Cox in 450 00:28:36,240 --> 00:28:40,640 Speaker 1: the late nineteenth century, and Swiss psychiatrist you Can Boiler 451 00:28:40,720 --> 00:28:44,840 Speaker 1: had refined that description and coined the term schizophrenia in 452 00:28:44,960 --> 00:28:49,640 Speaker 1: nineteen o eight. After Louis was hospitalized, Claire and Felicie 453 00:28:49,800 --> 00:28:54,080 Speaker 1: started trying to support themselves by offering drawing lessons. They 454 00:28:54,080 --> 00:28:57,480 Speaker 1: also visited Louie every week along with their sister Josephine, 455 00:28:57,880 --> 00:29:00,720 Speaker 1: bringing him art, supplies and treats when they could afford it. 456 00:29:01,480 --> 00:29:03,080 Speaker 1: While they were there, they would look at what he 457 00:29:03,080 --> 00:29:05,600 Speaker 1: had drawn since their last visit and they'd take whatever 458 00:29:05,640 --> 00:29:09,200 Speaker 1: seemed likely to sell to help support them all. About 459 00:29:09,240 --> 00:29:12,920 Speaker 1: a year after Wayne was admitted to the hospital, journalist 460 00:29:13,040 --> 00:29:17,800 Speaker 1: and bookseller Dan Ryder was touring the asylum and recognized 461 00:29:17,880 --> 00:29:21,320 Speaker 1: him by his drawing and started telling other people that 462 00:29:21,400 --> 00:29:24,480 Speaker 1: Louie Wayne was in a pauper's ward, and that sparked 463 00:29:24,520 --> 00:29:27,480 Speaker 1: a huge effort to raise money so that he could 464 00:29:27,520 --> 00:29:30,440 Speaker 1: be moved to a better hospital and to try to 465 00:29:30,480 --> 00:29:35,240 Speaker 1: financially support his sisters. Initially, the goal for this effort 466 00:29:35,280 --> 00:29:38,520 Speaker 1: was to raise a thousand pounds. One of the biggest 467 00:29:38,640 --> 00:29:42,720 Speaker 1: organizers of this effort was Ada Elizabeth Chesterton, writing under 468 00:29:42,720 --> 00:29:46,400 Speaker 1: the name Mrs Cecil Chesterton, in an appeal for funds, 469 00:29:46,440 --> 00:29:50,480 Speaker 1: she wrote, quote, Louis Wayne is in a pauper lunatic asylum. 470 00:29:50,520 --> 00:29:53,040 Speaker 1: This must come as a shock to the many thousands 471 00:29:53,080 --> 00:29:56,640 Speaker 1: who have loved and admired his work for years. Louis 472 00:29:56,640 --> 00:30:00,920 Speaker 1: Wayne's cats decorated our hoardings, adorned the cover's of our magazines, 473 00:30:01,280 --> 00:30:04,880 Speaker 1: and were familiarly loved by every child and the majority 474 00:30:04,920 --> 00:30:09,360 Speaker 1: of grown ups. No Christmas calendar was complete without this artist. 475 00:30:09,600 --> 00:30:12,800 Speaker 1: No annual was issued that did not contain one of 476 00:30:12,880 --> 00:30:16,280 Speaker 1: his vivid sketches, and yet at the age of sixty five, 477 00:30:16,400 --> 00:30:19,520 Speaker 1: he is so bereft of means that in his affliction 478 00:30:19,680 --> 00:30:23,680 Speaker 1: he is compelled to accept the hospitality of a state institution. 479 00:30:24,440 --> 00:30:27,479 Speaker 1: Only about two hundred seventy five pounds had been raised 480 00:30:27,520 --> 00:30:31,000 Speaker 1: when Prime Minister Ramsay McDonald stepped in and arranged for 481 00:30:31,080 --> 00:30:36,080 Speaker 1: Wayne to be transferred to beth Lem Royal Hospital on August. 482 00:30:37,680 --> 00:30:40,400 Speaker 1: Some sources say that this was the work of Prime 483 00:30:40,440 --> 00:30:45,960 Speaker 1: Minister Stanley Baldwin. McDonald and Baldwin alternately served as Prime 484 00:30:45,960 --> 00:30:49,800 Speaker 1: Minister from nineteen twenty three to nineteen thirty seven, so 485 00:30:49,880 --> 00:30:53,240 Speaker 1: it's likely that each of them were involved in different points. 486 00:30:54,160 --> 00:30:58,320 Speaker 1: Three days after Wayne was transferred, H. G. Wells broadcast 487 00:30:58,320 --> 00:31:02,120 Speaker 1: a personal message via radio, saying of Louie Wayne quote, 488 00:31:02,160 --> 00:31:05,080 Speaker 1: he has made the cat his own. He invented a 489 00:31:05,120 --> 00:31:10,240 Speaker 1: cat's style, a cat society, a whole cat world. English 490 00:31:10,360 --> 00:31:13,280 Speaker 1: cats that do not look and live like Louie Wayne. 491 00:31:13,320 --> 00:31:17,600 Speaker 1: Cats are ashamed of themselves. The Daily Graphic hosted a 492 00:31:17,640 --> 00:31:22,040 Speaker 1: Louis Wayne drawing competition. The magazine Animals turned its September 493 00:31:23,120 --> 00:31:27,959 Speaker 1: issue into a Louis Wayne fundraiser. After raising fift hundred pounds. 494 00:31:28,080 --> 00:31:31,640 Speaker 1: The Louis Wayne Fund raised its goal to three thousand. 495 00:31:32,600 --> 00:31:36,120 Speaker 1: Louis surviving sisters, who were now in their late fifties 496 00:31:36,160 --> 00:31:39,680 Speaker 1: to late sixties, seemed to have felt conflicted about all 497 00:31:39,760 --> 00:31:42,960 Speaker 1: of this. The three of them were trying to support 498 00:31:43,080 --> 00:31:46,840 Speaker 1: themselves while also keeping their home mostly as it had 499 00:31:46,880 --> 00:31:49,400 Speaker 1: been while Louie was living there. They thought it would 500 00:31:49,440 --> 00:31:51,800 Speaker 1: really break his heart if they moved or if they 501 00:31:51,840 --> 00:31:56,080 Speaker 1: started selling off their possessions. So they were glad that 502 00:31:56,120 --> 00:31:59,400 Speaker 1: their brother was in a nicer hospital and that they 503 00:31:59,440 --> 00:32:02,680 Speaker 1: were also getting some financial help, but they were not 504 00:32:02,800 --> 00:32:06,239 Speaker 1: consulted about any of this. They felt like they were 505 00:32:06,280 --> 00:32:11,520 Speaker 1: alternately patronized and ignored by various fundraisers. It's also not 506 00:32:11,600 --> 00:32:14,560 Speaker 1: clear what happens to all of the money that was raised. 507 00:32:14,560 --> 00:32:17,000 Speaker 1: Although a lot of it did go to support Louis 508 00:32:17,040 --> 00:32:20,280 Speaker 1: and his sisters, almost four hundred pounds of it seemed 509 00:32:20,280 --> 00:32:23,600 Speaker 1: to have just apparently vanished. Yeah, I imagine this is 510 00:32:24,360 --> 00:32:27,760 Speaker 1: pre a lot of laws regarding how you can handle 511 00:32:27,920 --> 00:32:30,920 Speaker 1: charity and fundraiser events, which would now make that a 512 00:32:30,960 --> 00:32:35,280 Speaker 1: little bit more difficult to just vanish big chunks of it. 513 00:32:36,200 --> 00:32:39,960 Speaker 1: Bethlam Hospital was also known as Bedlam a term associated 514 00:32:39,960 --> 00:32:44,680 Speaker 1: with chaos and confusion, and like many psychiatric hospitals, Bethlam 515 00:32:44,720 --> 00:32:48,640 Speaker 1: had a reputation for horrific conditions for centuries. That was 516 00:32:48,720 --> 00:32:51,440 Speaker 1: something that was exacerbated by a policy of allowing the 517 00:32:51,520 --> 00:32:55,040 Speaker 1: general public to basically come in and gawk, under the 518 00:32:55,080 --> 00:32:57,840 Speaker 1: idea that seeing mentally ill people in this kind of 519 00:32:57,880 --> 00:33:01,760 Speaker 1: situation would offer some kind moral instruction and act as 520 00:33:01,800 --> 00:33:05,880 Speaker 1: a cautionary tale. But in the nineteenth century the hospital 521 00:33:05,920 --> 00:33:09,440 Speaker 1: had faced hearings and investigations and it had moved to 522 00:33:09,520 --> 00:33:13,160 Speaker 1: what was known as the moral model of care that 523 00:33:13,240 --> 00:33:18,440 Speaker 1: was focused on humane treatment of patients, moral instruction, rest routine, 524 00:33:18,680 --> 00:33:22,760 Speaker 1: and light work. Obviously, this did not solve all issues 525 00:33:22,800 --> 00:33:25,640 Speaker 1: involved with psychiatric care, but it was a big step 526 00:33:25,680 --> 00:33:30,200 Speaker 1: forward from what had been before. Louis Wayne was given 527 00:33:30,240 --> 00:33:33,160 Speaker 1: a private room and supplied with art materials, and he 528 00:33:33,200 --> 00:33:36,640 Speaker 1: continued to make new art. He seems to have become 529 00:33:36,720 --> 00:33:40,160 Speaker 1: a lot less agitated. He was no longer violent, although 530 00:33:40,200 --> 00:33:44,000 Speaker 1: people still thought he was delusional. He talked about things 531 00:33:44,080 --> 00:33:47,800 Speaker 1: like feeling like he was filled with electricity and believing 532 00:33:47,800 --> 00:33:51,160 Speaker 1: that he could use that electricity to heal people by 533 00:33:51,240 --> 00:33:54,600 Speaker 1: laying on of hands. In October and November of nine, 534 00:33:55,640 --> 00:33:58,640 Speaker 1: a fundraising exhibition of Louie's work was held at twenty 535 00:33:58,640 --> 00:34:01,840 Speaker 1: one Gallery in London, and it included new work that 536 00:34:01,920 --> 00:34:05,560 Speaker 1: he had done while living at Bethleem. The exhibition, catalog 537 00:34:05,680 --> 00:34:09,440 Speaker 1: called Souvenir of Louis Wayne's work, sold thousands of copies 538 00:34:09,520 --> 00:34:14,000 Speaker 1: and went into four printings. One Christmas, Louis and other 539 00:34:14,120 --> 00:34:17,640 Speaker 1: patients were invited to decorate the hospital and he painted 540 00:34:17,680 --> 00:34:20,839 Speaker 1: the surface of a mirror with a picture of one 541 00:34:21,000 --> 00:34:25,279 Speaker 1: cat giving another a Christmas pudding. This painted mirror became 542 00:34:25,360 --> 00:34:29,640 Speaker 1: part of the hospital's annual Christmas decor. Wayne also started 543 00:34:29,680 --> 00:34:33,799 Speaker 1: producing artwork that some sources have interpreted as being reflective 544 00:34:33,920 --> 00:34:37,400 Speaker 1: of his mental illness. In addition to drawing cats, he 545 00:34:37,480 --> 00:34:42,240 Speaker 1: drew vibrantly colored and very detailed landscapes. Sometimes their color 546 00:34:42,280 --> 00:34:45,279 Speaker 1: palette is a little bit strange, it's almost hyper real, 547 00:34:45,560 --> 00:34:47,799 Speaker 1: and it can be a little bit jarring in the 548 00:34:47,880 --> 00:34:52,840 Speaker 1: juxtaposition of colors. Sometimes this is interpreted as a decline 549 00:34:52,920 --> 00:34:56,560 Speaker 1: in his artistic ability, but Louis was also working with 550 00:34:56,680 --> 00:34:59,839 Speaker 1: whatever art materials other people gave him. It wasn't as 551 00:35:00,160 --> 00:35:03,560 Speaker 1: he had picked these things out for himself. He also 552 00:35:03,719 --> 00:35:06,920 Speaker 1: was not allowed to have a sharpener. Also, while his 553 00:35:07,000 --> 00:35:10,000 Speaker 1: sisters were still selling what could be sold, it's possible 554 00:35:10,040 --> 00:35:12,800 Speaker 1: that he no longer felt as much pressure to produce 555 00:35:12,880 --> 00:35:16,560 Speaker 1: salable work. In addition to money from the Louis Wayne Fund, 556 00:35:16,760 --> 00:35:19,280 Speaker 1: the Prime Minister had arranged for his sisters to receive 557 00:35:19,320 --> 00:35:22,000 Speaker 1: a small pension, so he just may have felt like 558 00:35:22,040 --> 00:35:25,160 Speaker 1: he had more creative room to play. This is also 559 00:35:25,239 --> 00:35:29,440 Speaker 1: when some of Wayne's cat pictures started to become more abstract. 560 00:35:30,080 --> 00:35:33,520 Speaker 1: There were cats whose faces were surrounded by layers and 561 00:35:33,640 --> 00:35:38,680 Speaker 1: layers of colorful, somewhat zig zaggy, almost electrical lines, or 562 00:35:39,080 --> 00:35:44,480 Speaker 1: pictures of highly kaleidoscopic cats whose features are embellished with detailed, 563 00:35:44,600 --> 00:35:49,160 Speaker 1: repeating geometric shapes, or cats with these spaces that are 564 00:35:49,200 --> 00:35:53,960 Speaker 1: perfectly symmetrical and just made up a very colorful, repetitive, 565 00:35:54,120 --> 00:35:58,920 Speaker 1: almost fractal like details. These are the ones that became 566 00:35:58,960 --> 00:36:02,640 Speaker 1: an influence for psychedelic art of the nineteen sixties. They 567 00:36:02,840 --> 00:36:09,000 Speaker 1: also really resemble computer generated representations of fractals, although those 568 00:36:09,040 --> 00:36:13,040 Speaker 1: did not exist until the nineteen seventies. These more abstract 569 00:36:13,080 --> 00:36:16,839 Speaker 1: pictures became associated with Louis Wayne's mental illness and with 570 00:36:16,880 --> 00:36:22,440 Speaker 1: schizophrenia specifically, not long after his death, psychologist Walter McClay 571 00:36:22,480 --> 00:36:24,759 Speaker 1: found several of his pictures at a junk shop in 572 00:36:24,880 --> 00:36:28,480 Speaker 1: nineteen thirty nine. McClay arranged them in an order that 573 00:36:28,560 --> 00:36:31,960 Speaker 1: suggested a progression from a wide eyed, fluffy cat on 574 00:36:32,000 --> 00:36:36,160 Speaker 1: a repeating geometric background, to a less realistic cat surrounded 575 00:36:36,160 --> 00:36:41,040 Speaker 1: by concentric, jagged lines, to a symmetrical, kaleidoscope like pattern 576 00:36:41,080 --> 00:36:44,640 Speaker 1: of colors that barely suggests the features of a cat. 577 00:36:45,400 --> 00:36:49,799 Speaker 1: He interpreted this as illustrating the progression of schizophrenia. It 578 00:36:49,840 --> 00:36:53,800 Speaker 1: makes sense that McLay would make this connection. The year before, 579 00:36:53,920 --> 00:36:56,880 Speaker 1: he and his colleague Eric Gutman had given a group 580 00:36:56,960 --> 00:37:01,200 Speaker 1: of artists the hallucinogenic drug mescaline, which was believed to 581 00:37:01,320 --> 00:37:04,839 Speaker 1: induce a mental state similar to schizophrenia, and then they 582 00:37:04,840 --> 00:37:09,440 Speaker 1: had told them to record their experiences on mescalin as artwork. 583 00:37:10,200 --> 00:37:12,920 Speaker 1: Some of what these artists produced had some traits in 584 00:37:13,040 --> 00:37:18,239 Speaker 1: common with Louie Wayne's kaleidoscope cats, like repeating elements and 585 00:37:18,360 --> 00:37:21,680 Speaker 1: bright colors that didn't quite go together in geometric shapes. 586 00:37:22,360 --> 00:37:25,399 Speaker 1: There are some problems with this interpretation, though. For one, 587 00:37:25,640 --> 00:37:27,960 Speaker 1: none of the pictures are dated, so we have no 588 00:37:28,080 --> 00:37:30,640 Speaker 1: idea whether Louie Wayne created them in the order that 589 00:37:30,719 --> 00:37:35,000 Speaker 1: McClay arranged them too. As he was doing these drawings, 590 00:37:35,040 --> 00:37:38,319 Speaker 1: he was also still doing illustrations that were more like 591 00:37:38,360 --> 00:37:41,879 Speaker 1: what he had done before entering the hospital. Sometimes he's 592 00:37:41,960 --> 00:37:46,400 Speaker 1: characterized as exclusively drawing progressively more abstract cats, but that 593 00:37:46,560 --> 00:37:50,480 Speaker 1: is not what happened. In May of nineteen thirty, Louis 594 00:37:50,520 --> 00:37:54,719 Speaker 1: Wayne was moved to Napsbury Hospital, near St. Alban's Bethlehem 595 00:37:54,800 --> 00:37:59,399 Speaker 1: Hospital also moved locations in nineteen thirty. Some accounts say 596 00:37:59,400 --> 00:38:02,880 Speaker 1: that wayne move was because the hospital was relocating, but 597 00:38:03,040 --> 00:38:06,359 Speaker 1: others describe it as just following an assessment of how 598 00:38:06,400 --> 00:38:10,160 Speaker 1: he was doing. It's also possible that that assessment was 599 00:38:10,239 --> 00:38:14,040 Speaker 1: part of the decision making process into where patients should 600 00:38:14,040 --> 00:38:17,760 Speaker 1: go after the hospital moved. Knapsbury was in a wooded 601 00:38:17,800 --> 00:38:20,840 Speaker 1: area with a courtyard and a garden, and lots of cats. 602 00:38:21,440 --> 00:38:23,480 Speaker 1: In that aspect, it seems like it would have been 603 00:38:23,520 --> 00:38:26,239 Speaker 1: a good fit for Louis Wayne, but he was also 604 00:38:26,280 --> 00:38:28,759 Speaker 1: getting older, which seems to have been affecting both his 605 00:38:28,840 --> 00:38:33,080 Speaker 1: physical health and his cognitive abilities. He sometimes would lose 606 00:38:33,120 --> 00:38:35,839 Speaker 1: track of who he was talking to or become so 607 00:38:35,920 --> 00:38:38,359 Speaker 1: tired in the middle of a conversation that he could 608 00:38:38,400 --> 00:38:42,240 Speaker 1: not continue. He also broke his collarbone in a fall 609 00:38:42,280 --> 00:38:46,640 Speaker 1: after being tripped by another patient. He was still creating, though. 610 00:38:46,960 --> 00:38:50,200 Speaker 1: Another exhibition of his work was held in ninety one 611 00:38:50,280 --> 00:38:54,239 Speaker 1: as a fundraiser for his sisters. By this point, Josephine 612 00:38:54,239 --> 00:38:57,760 Speaker 1: had developed severe arthritis and could no longer make the trip, 613 00:38:57,880 --> 00:39:01,279 Speaker 1: but Claire and Felice still that did him regularly, and 614 00:39:01,280 --> 00:39:04,360 Speaker 1: they still gathered up whatever art was able to be sold. 615 00:39:05,080 --> 00:39:09,520 Speaker 1: Wayne painted Christmas decorations onto mirrors at Napsbury Hospital as well, 616 00:39:09,600 --> 00:39:12,920 Speaker 1: some of which have been preserved. He published his last 617 00:39:12,960 --> 00:39:16,320 Speaker 1: book in nineteen thirty four. In nineteen thirty six, he 618 00:39:16,360 --> 00:39:19,200 Speaker 1: had a stroke that affected his speech and caused weakness 619 00:39:19,280 --> 00:39:21,799 Speaker 1: on his right side, but he was still able to 620 00:39:21,880 --> 00:39:25,680 Speaker 1: draw afterward. The last exhibition of his artwork to take 621 00:39:25,719 --> 00:39:28,720 Speaker 1: place during his lifetime was in June of nineteen thirty 622 00:39:28,800 --> 00:39:33,560 Speaker 1: seven at Clarendon House, London. Louie's sister, Josephine, died on 623 00:39:33,640 --> 00:39:38,080 Speaker 1: January fourteenth, nineteen thirty nine. Because of her own health, 624 00:39:38,160 --> 00:39:41,560 Speaker 1: he hadn't seen her in years, and his surviving sisters 625 00:39:41,600 --> 00:39:43,840 Speaker 1: decided it would be best not to tell him that 626 00:39:43,920 --> 00:39:46,719 Speaker 1: she had died, although he did ask why she had 627 00:39:46,760 --> 00:39:51,040 Speaker 1: stopped writing to him. Louis Wayne died at Napsbury Hospital 628 00:39:51,120 --> 00:39:54,799 Speaker 1: on July four, ninety nine, at the age of seventy eight, 629 00:39:55,120 --> 00:39:58,719 Speaker 1: and was buried at St. Mary's Catholic Cemetery alongside his 630 00:39:58,800 --> 00:40:02,600 Speaker 1: father and two of his sisters. During his lifetime, he 631 00:40:02,640 --> 00:40:05,640 Speaker 1: had illustrated more than two hundred books, many of which 632 00:40:05,680 --> 00:40:08,839 Speaker 1: he also wrote. There were also postcards of his work 633 00:40:08,920 --> 00:40:12,239 Speaker 1: printed all over Europe and North America, and thousands of 634 00:40:12,320 --> 00:40:16,480 Speaker 1: individual works of art. One article published just after his 635 00:40:16,600 --> 00:40:19,960 Speaker 1: death said of him, quote, Louis Wayne's cats were once 636 00:40:20,000 --> 00:40:23,799 Speaker 1: as familiar in British households, particularly as Mickey Mouse and 637 00:40:23,880 --> 00:40:28,719 Speaker 1: Donald Duck are today. Frank Bernard, editor of Punch magazine, 638 00:40:29,239 --> 00:40:32,719 Speaker 1: called Louis Wayne the ho garth of cat life, and 639 00:40:32,760 --> 00:40:36,040 Speaker 1: also said of him, quote, his reasoning is so original, 640 00:40:36,440 --> 00:40:40,080 Speaker 1: so imaginative, and so reverent, you say to yourself, here 641 00:40:40,160 --> 00:40:42,680 Speaker 1: is a man who thinks his own thoughts, a man 642 00:40:42,760 --> 00:40:45,400 Speaker 1: who is determined to live every moment of his life 643 00:40:45,440 --> 00:40:48,200 Speaker 1: so that he and others may be the wiser and 644 00:40:48,320 --> 00:40:52,279 Speaker 1: better for it. A Louis Wayne memorial exhibition was held 645 00:40:52,280 --> 00:40:55,440 Speaker 1: in September of ninety nine, in part to benefit his 646 00:40:55,520 --> 00:41:00,520 Speaker 1: two surviving sisters. Bellis died in ninety and Lair died 647 00:41:00,560 --> 00:41:05,120 Speaker 1: in An exhibition of his work was held at the 648 00:41:05,200 --> 00:41:08,680 Speaker 1: Victoria and Albert Museum in nineteen seventy two. In nineteen 649 00:41:08,719 --> 00:41:13,480 Speaker 1: seventy three, a biopic called The Electrical Life of Louis 650 00:41:13,520 --> 00:41:17,640 Speaker 1: Wayne came out in one starring Benedict Cumber Batches Louis 651 00:41:17,800 --> 00:41:21,840 Speaker 1: and Claire Foy as Emily. An exhibition of his work 652 00:41:22,000 --> 00:41:24,800 Speaker 1: was also held at the Bethlem Museum of the Mind 653 00:41:24,960 --> 00:41:28,960 Speaker 1: from December of one to April of two, and that 654 00:41:29,080 --> 00:41:33,000 Speaker 1: was called Animal Therapy The Cats of Louis Wayne. There 655 00:41:33,040 --> 00:41:36,120 Speaker 1: has been some speculation in more recent years about whether 656 00:41:36,200 --> 00:41:39,960 Speaker 1: or not Louis Wayne had schizophrenia, even if he had 657 00:41:40,000 --> 00:41:42,560 Speaker 1: been diagnosed with it, A lot has changed in the 658 00:41:42,640 --> 00:41:46,200 Speaker 1: nearly a century since that would have happened. Of course, 659 00:41:46,360 --> 00:41:49,239 Speaker 1: it is not possible to accurately diagnose a person who 660 00:41:49,320 --> 00:41:54,000 Speaker 1: is not here to examine, but various medical historians, psychiatrists, 661 00:41:54,000 --> 00:41:58,160 Speaker 1: and biographers have noted that schizophrenia cam effect a person's 662 00:41:58,200 --> 00:42:02,560 Speaker 1: motor skills, including their fine motor skills. But Wayne's later 663 00:42:02,560 --> 00:42:07,480 Speaker 1: work is still extremely detailed and precise. Also most of 664 00:42:07,480 --> 00:42:11,720 Speaker 1: the time. Schizophrenia developed by early adulthood, and while Wayne 665 00:42:11,880 --> 00:42:15,160 Speaker 1: was described as anxious and eccentric and depressed much of 666 00:42:15,160 --> 00:42:18,560 Speaker 1: his life, the symptoms that led his sisters to seek 667 00:42:18,600 --> 00:42:21,839 Speaker 1: psychiatric treatment for him seemed to have started when he 668 00:42:21,880 --> 00:42:25,640 Speaker 1: was in his late fifties or early sixties. In two 669 00:42:25,719 --> 00:42:29,879 Speaker 1: thousand two, psychiatrist Michael Fitzgerald published a letter in the 670 00:42:29,920 --> 00:42:34,680 Speaker 1: Irish Journal of Psychiatric Medicine that offered a different interpretation, 671 00:42:34,760 --> 00:42:38,200 Speaker 1: which was that Louis Wayne had Asperger's syndrome, or, to 672 00:42:38,400 --> 00:42:43,120 Speaker 1: use the more modern terminology, that he was autistic. Fitzgerald 673 00:42:43,160 --> 00:42:48,160 Speaker 1: noted traits like Wayne's social isolation, unusual tone of voice, 674 00:42:48,280 --> 00:42:53,400 Speaker 1: and preservation of sameness. The term Asperger's syndrome was coined 675 00:42:53,400 --> 00:42:57,280 Speaker 1: in nineteen eighty one, based on a ninety four treatise 676 00:42:57,360 --> 00:43:02,200 Speaker 1: by Hans Asperger. The term autism was coined in the 677 00:43:02,239 --> 00:43:06,000 Speaker 1: early twentieth century, so that was in use while Louis 678 00:43:05,960 --> 00:43:09,200 Speaker 1: Wayne was alive, but at first it was used to 679 00:43:09,239 --> 00:43:13,279 Speaker 1: describe a childhood form of schizophrenia. It's meaning did not 680 00:43:13,560 --> 00:43:16,160 Speaker 1: start to shift toward the way that it is used 681 00:43:16,200 --> 00:43:21,080 Speaker 1: today until the nineteen forties, after Louis Wayne's death, so 682 00:43:21,160 --> 00:43:24,440 Speaker 1: neither of these terms would have been around while he 683 00:43:24,480 --> 00:43:28,680 Speaker 1: was in the hospital. Other possibilities are a lot more speculative. 684 00:43:28,920 --> 00:43:32,760 Speaker 1: For example, people have pointed out similarities between Louis Wayne's 685 00:43:32,800 --> 00:43:37,280 Speaker 1: kaleidoscopic cats and the artwork of Canadian scientists and Adams, 686 00:43:37,280 --> 00:43:42,160 Speaker 1: who created brightly colored visual depictions of Ravel's Bolero after 687 00:43:42,200 --> 00:43:47,359 Speaker 1: developing a degenerative neurological disorder. Yeah, regardless of any of that, 688 00:43:48,360 --> 00:43:54,439 Speaker 1: why do I love these pictures kitties? Do you love 689 00:43:54,520 --> 00:43:57,600 Speaker 1: some listener mail too? I do? I have listener mail 690 00:43:57,680 --> 00:44:02,160 Speaker 1: from Kristen. Initially, at the beginning of email, Kristen talked 691 00:44:02,239 --> 00:44:07,800 Speaker 1: about um E. Pauline Johnson's poems featured in a series 692 00:44:07,840 --> 00:44:11,640 Speaker 1: of piano lesson books, so it was like a name 693 00:44:11,680 --> 00:44:16,960 Speaker 1: that uh that Kristen recognized immediately. This is a series 694 00:44:17,000 --> 00:44:19,200 Speaker 1: of books that's been around for many decades, and if 695 00:44:19,200 --> 00:44:23,480 Speaker 1: you find the older ones their favor and favors piano adventures, 696 00:44:24,400 --> 00:44:29,480 Speaker 1: older ones are a little dated and insensitive. U. Unsurprisingly, 697 00:44:30,160 --> 00:44:32,640 Speaker 1: Kristen went on to say, I also am a big 698 00:44:32,680 --> 00:44:35,480 Speaker 1: fan of L. M. Montgomery and although the Inn of 699 00:44:35,560 --> 00:44:38,640 Speaker 1: green Gables books are wonderful, it's the Emily series that 700 00:44:38,680 --> 00:44:42,240 Speaker 1: I adore so much that I named my oldest daughter Emily. 701 00:44:42,719 --> 00:44:45,760 Speaker 1: I finally put together that Montgomery grew up in Canada 702 00:44:45,800 --> 00:44:49,120 Speaker 1: at the same time that Johnson was publishing her poetry 703 00:44:49,160 --> 00:44:52,400 Speaker 1: and making a living through her writing. I would imagine 704 00:44:52,520 --> 00:44:55,399 Speaker 1: she was a great inspiration to the young author, as 705 00:44:55,440 --> 00:44:58,520 Speaker 1: the closing poem that you read is very similar in 706 00:44:58,600 --> 00:45:01,839 Speaker 1: style and subject. Now truell beauty too much of Montgomery's 707 00:45:01,880 --> 00:45:04,719 Speaker 1: writing The main theme of the Emily books as a 708 00:45:04,800 --> 00:45:08,239 Speaker 1: young Canadian woman striving to make her career through publishing 709 00:45:08,239 --> 00:45:11,400 Speaker 1: her writing, and then to realize that the E initial 710 00:45:11,440 --> 00:45:14,359 Speaker 1: in Johnson's name actually stands for Emily. What a fun 711 00:45:14,400 --> 00:45:18,640 Speaker 1: connection to make. Mind blown. Kristen then said no pets here, 712 00:45:18,680 --> 00:45:21,520 Speaker 1: only allergies with a little sad face emoji. Thanks for 713 00:45:21,560 --> 00:45:24,920 Speaker 1: your great work, Kristen. Thanks for this email, Kristen, I 714 00:45:25,000 --> 00:45:26,440 Speaker 1: had meant to say, and I don't think that I 715 00:45:26,480 --> 00:45:29,560 Speaker 1: did that. When I was doing research into the Pauline 716 00:45:29,600 --> 00:45:32,600 Speaker 1: Johnson episode, one of the things I found was a 717 00:45:32,640 --> 00:45:37,719 Speaker 1: controversy that had happened in schools in very recent years 718 00:45:38,239 --> 00:45:41,799 Speaker 1: when a school performed a song that was based on 719 00:45:42,440 --> 00:45:46,279 Speaker 1: Pauline Johnson poem and there were concerns about whether it 720 00:45:46,360 --> 00:45:51,520 Speaker 1: was racially or ethnically and sensitive, and that reminded me 721 00:45:51,680 --> 00:45:55,239 Speaker 1: of the start of this email that was about like 722 00:45:55,360 --> 00:46:00,760 Speaker 1: the dated, slash and sensitive piano lesson books um drawn from, 723 00:46:00,800 --> 00:46:05,080 Speaker 1: among other things, Pauline Johnson's work, And aside from that, 724 00:46:05,120 --> 00:46:06,880 Speaker 1: I just wanted to put it out there again that 725 00:46:07,440 --> 00:46:12,000 Speaker 1: that LM. Montgomery is on my list for an episode sometime, 726 00:46:12,880 --> 00:46:15,239 Speaker 1: but I super just want to have an excuse to 727 00:46:15,280 --> 00:46:19,000 Speaker 1: take a vacation to Prince Edward Island and that general 728 00:46:19,080 --> 00:46:22,400 Speaker 1: region of Canada first, because it feels very close to 729 00:46:22,400 --> 00:46:24,799 Speaker 1: me living in Boston. It's not. Actually it's kind of far, 730 00:46:25,040 --> 00:46:28,480 Speaker 1: but it's closer than it it would be from Atlanta, 731 00:46:29,160 --> 00:46:31,640 Speaker 1: much closer than if I were still living in Atlanta. 732 00:46:31,800 --> 00:46:34,960 Speaker 1: So um, so, thank you so much Christen for this email. 733 00:46:35,040 --> 00:46:37,240 Speaker 1: If you would like to send us a note about 734 00:46:37,239 --> 00:46:40,400 Speaker 1: this or any other podcast, we're at History podcast that 735 00:46:40,440 --> 00:46:43,359 Speaker 1: I Heart Radio dot com and we're also all over 736 00:46:43,800 --> 00:46:47,360 Speaker 1: social media as MR and History That's Well on our Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, 737 00:46:47,440 --> 00:46:50,960 Speaker 1: and Instagram. And you can subscribe to our show on 738 00:46:51,000 --> 00:46:52,840 Speaker 1: the I Heart Radio app or where every else you 739 00:46:52,920 --> 00:47:00,440 Speaker 1: get your podcasts stuff. You Missed in History Class is 740 00:47:00,440 --> 00:47:03,640 Speaker 1: a production of I heart Radio. For more podcasts from 741 00:47:03,640 --> 00:47:07,040 Speaker 1: I heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, 742 00:47:07,160 --> 00:47:10,080 Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. H