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Opening the Closet Door
Jan. 13th, 2022 01:04 pm7
An Open Secret: The Family Story of Robert and John Gregg Allerton by Nicholas L. Syrett
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I became aware of Robert Allerton in the mid-1980s as an undergraduate at the University of Illinois. His former mansion was and is being used as a conference center which I ended up staying at for a weekend. Then, to get my history degree I had to write a paper on an artist and an art patron. My selected patron was Robert Allerton. It was during the research of that paper that I learned that the then 80+ year-old Allerton adopted a son - a man 26 years his junior. Neither man married or had other children.
When I found out about this book, my long-dormant interest in Robert Allerton was piqued, so I ordered it and finally got around to reading it. It's a short book - 174 pages - and academic, with extensive footnotes. The author was also hindered in that Robert and his companion, John Gregg, met in 1922 and were practically inseparable. For example, during WWII, when both men were living on Hawaii, John joined the local Home Guard. Just him being away for the day with the troops was cause for sadness in Robert's letters to his accountant back in Chicago.
Nicholas Syrett, the author, performed extensive research and showed both men's place in the gay communities of the 1800s and 1900s. He also highlighted some of the obvious contradictions of their lives. For example, even into the 1980s (John died in 1986) the pair never admitted they were gay. They were also both lifelong Republicans, and exhibited a number of the bigotries of the age. For example, John was a member of the University of Illinois chapter of the Ku Klux Klan. (I should note that the Klan of the 1920s was open enough that they had a club picture with clear faces and names in the college yearbook.)
Overall, I found this an interesting read and look into history.
View all my reviews
An Open Secret: The Family Story of Robert and John Gregg Allerton by Nicholas L. SyrettMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
I became aware of Robert Allerton in the mid-1980s as an undergraduate at the University of Illinois. His former mansion was and is being used as a conference center which I ended up staying at for a weekend. Then, to get my history degree I had to write a paper on an artist and an art patron. My selected patron was Robert Allerton. It was during the research of that paper that I learned that the then 80+ year-old Allerton adopted a son - a man 26 years his junior. Neither man married or had other children.
When I found out about this book, my long-dormant interest in Robert Allerton was piqued, so I ordered it and finally got around to reading it. It's a short book - 174 pages - and academic, with extensive footnotes. The author was also hindered in that Robert and his companion, John Gregg, met in 1922 and were practically inseparable. For example, during WWII, when both men were living on Hawaii, John joined the local Home Guard. Just him being away for the day with the troops was cause for sadness in Robert's letters to his accountant back in Chicago.
Nicholas Syrett, the author, performed extensive research and showed both men's place in the gay communities of the 1800s and 1900s. He also highlighted some of the obvious contradictions of their lives. For example, even into the 1980s (John died in 1986) the pair never admitted they were gay. They were also both lifelong Republicans, and exhibited a number of the bigotries of the age. For example, John was a member of the University of Illinois chapter of the Ku Klux Klan. (I should note that the Klan of the 1920s was open enough that they had a club picture with clear faces and names in the college yearbook.)
Overall, I found this an interesting read and look into history.
View all my reviews
