We just passed Florence Scovel Shinn’s birthday—September 24. In 1925, Shinn wrote The Game of Life (and How to Play It) which catapulted her to fame. The book is a blend of common sense, interpretations of the Bible, and metaphysical teachings.

Florence is a mysterious figure. Very little is known about her personal life. This is the only picture of her that circulates.

Florence was born in 1871, in New Jersey. She was the middle child, with an older sister and a younger brother. Their father practiced law.

Florence went to Philadelphia to be educated at a Quaker school. Later, she attended Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts where she met Everett Shinn, an impressionist painter.

Florence and Everett married in 1898, soon after she graduated. They moved to New York City to 112 Waverley Place, a storied home in Greenwich Village.  Everett dabbled in theatre and he wrote three plays that Florence starred in.

Florence was gaining recognition as an illustrator while Everett excelled with his painting. A 1901 self-portrait:

 

In one article, their marriage was described like this: “He and Florence Scoville Shinn (sic) told everyone that they had found a perfect marriage. Neither of them would think of marrying anyone who wasn’t congenial professionally…Shinn and his wife collaborated on clever satiric sketches that entertained their nightly guests. The rule of the household was that everyone must be amused. Boredom was unforgivable.”

In 1912, the couple divorced. It’s unclear why but the Dayton Daily News reported: “[Florence] and her husband said that they had a good time, the marriage had been nice while it lasted, but it was over.”

While we’re up, have you ever heard of divorced people describing their marriage as “nice” and “a good time”? That sounds like someone describing lunch at Chili’s.

From this point, Florence’s personal life is not mentioned. However, Everett was in the news semi-frequently. The articles about him have an undercurrent of hostility, which was unusual at the time.

Shortly after his divorce from Florence, the 40-year-old painter remarried. His second wife was 21.

“The second wife. Corrinne Baldwin, was plain, sweet, and pretty, [Shinn] explained.” Here, I began to sympathize with the reporters’ distaste for Everett.

He and Corrinne had two children but:

“Eventually there was a divorce and the children went to live with their mother, although they have remained friendly with their father.

Corinne Baldwin married again.

Everett Shinn speaks enthusiastically of her second husband.

 

Shinn’s third wife was Gertrude McManus Chase.  The third Mrs. Shinn was a playwright and an actress. Their marriage didn’t last long. The same article claimed the Shinns were divorcing because they disagreed about the friends who spent time at their home.

“I just couldn’t get along so I got out,” Gertrude Shinn quipped.

As you might imagine, there was more to the story. In court, Gertrude Shinn said her ex-husband treated her children from a previous marriage poorly—while spoiling his own kids. But the main problem concerned her husband’s work.  She said she willingly posed for nude paintings her husband made, but she drew a hard and fast line at photography. She had no intention of posing for photographs “in the altogether.”

“In the altogether” is a Victorian euphemism for nudity.

In 1933 the Dayton Daily News was writing again about “the much-wedded Mr. Shinn.”

“When the noted artist’s third wife divorced him, declaring she didn’t like to pose in the nude, he said he’d marry again–and he has–but he thinks it likely he’ll also be divorced again,” the Daily News wrote.

Everett, now 59, had just eloped with Paula Downing, age 21.

“There will probably be another,” Everett told the reporter. “I’ll follow my usual course of action and if the thing doesn’t work, I’ll move.

“People censure me because I have had three wives. But no woman can say that I ever played unfair. When I am no longer able to get along with my wife I tell her that I am moving.”

 

Everett Shinn saw himself as misunderstood and insisted he was friends with all of his ex-wives. “I could call all three of them any day and have them come to lunch with me.”

It doesn’t appear Florence Scovel Shinn ever remarried.

As far as I can tell, Everett did not marry a fifth time. His paintings are pretty good though. I have to imagine his talent (and his money) constituted most of his appeal!